Done! Here's my Mission [Impossible] 34 report:
Version: NTSC
Control: Dual Shock 2
Technique: lawn-mowing in some places, but no wall riding/sliding into T13 barrier
Split Times:
+1'49.247
+1'40.499
+1'30.678
+1'18.862
+1'06.276
+0'55.145
+0'40.458
+0'32.312
+0'26.125
+0'14.504
+0'06.228
-0'0.062
Lap Time: 9'12.972
Full-Lap Video:
http://web.mit.edu/scolton/www/M34_NTSC_stream.wmv
This lap was far from perfect. I messed up the exit of "Miss-Hit-Miss" (I Hit-Miss-Missed
) and as a result, almost lost it coming into Wehrseifen, but somehow I saved it and actually wound up lined up to exit Wehrseifen. I also left the track unintentionally at the end of Wipperman, but again managed to get back on safely. Both scary mistakes, but damage to lap time was minimal. Being able to make amazing saves is crucial to this mission, since hitting a perfect lap is very hard.
Everyone develops their own line through this track, so I won't do a turn-by-turn run through. (You can watch the video, if you want.) But here are a few things I learned:
-While this mission can be done without lawn-mowing, I don't even want to think about how many more attempts it would have taken me. I tried to keep things reasonable, i.e. no wall-riding or flying through the final turns and hand-braking into the T13 barrier. The places where I found that "alternative lines" (through the grass) helped the most were:
-The first series of turns from Hatzenback to Hocheichen.
-Adenauer-Forst
-Hohe Act
-Pflanzgarten II, kind of (I like to hit it full-throttle and hang on for dear life.)
-T13, I brake for the Schikane but go across the hill straight toward the final turn.
Other than that, staying on the track seemed to be fastest.
-I seemed to be having trouble matching other people's second split time, even though my first was on-pace. I am positive that Flugplatz had a lot to do with this. Originally, I took the jump at full throttle and hit the brakes as soon as I landed, sometimes sliding the back out a bit and then gassing it through Flugplatz. After watching the video posted by Alavilla, I tried braking before the jump and then holding light acceleration into Flugplatz until I had enough room to exit at full-throttle. This seemed to be a bit faster. In general, if you have a choice to brake before or after a low-traction point, before is safer and often faster. Another place where this came up was at the turn between Pflanzgarten I and II with the sand run-off. Braking before the dip and then coasting around seemed to work better. When you have been racing for four hours straight, the last thing you want to do is lose it in a sand run-off 3/4 the way through your lap.
-As has been mentioned already, the most important turns are the ones leading into long straights. Focus on nailing these exits, even if it means sacrificing the turn before. Particularly:
-Flugplatz
-Aremburg
-Exmuhle, maybe, but...
-Bergwerk, definitely
-Galgenkopf
The rest is REPETITION! I was shocked at the times I was putting up my first few tries...15-20 seconds over and I thought I was using pretty good lines. I got it down to 7-ish seconds pretty easily, but after that it was a real grind. At some points, I just had to quit for the day because I wasn't getting any faster and couldn't stay focused on it. Once I started hitting under 5 seconds consistently, I knew it was just a matter of time before I nailed a perfect lap. THERE WILL BE TEASERS! I hit 1.055 once, but then couldn't even hit 4 seconds for the rest of the day. My last few races were in the 0.2-0.8 range. By far the worst was a 0.034 seconds loss...but at the same time I knew I was going to hit it soon, and I did two tries later. ALSO, YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES. Try not to break anything. Unless I was having a miserable lap and wanted to just forget about it, I would finish off the lap even with no chance of winning. It's good practice and you can experiment with new lines once the pressure of winning is off your shoulders. If you keep resetting every time you don't hit a split, you will eventually get the first 11 splits down, but then you may not know how you are going to handle the Shikane or T13. Better to practice them on your crappy laps so that you are ready when you see that bridge split of under 15 seconds.
So, get comfortable and accept the fact that you are probably going to be there for a while. Don't try to win at first. Instead, try to hit a time consistently. Then when you can, push a little harder or try a different line and see what happens. If you get a better time, try to hit that one consistently instead of immediately trying to go down another few seconds. Focus on racing as smoothly as possible instead of pushing your traction. Your times will drop naturally that way. Eventually, you will work it down under two seconds. At that point, it's mostly luck and not letting your nerves get you at the Schikane. (One of my misses was a 14.3 split at the bridge, my fastest ever, when I hit the wall before Shikane, did a 180, slid backwards into T13 as my 5-second penalty expired and gassed it, losing by only 0.238 seconds.)
MISSION 34 IS BY FAR the hardest thing I have ever done in any version of Gran Turismo. It caught me by surprise, and I could have just given up and come back to it later, but when you can steadily improve your lap times after saying, "There's no way I can go any faster," it feels good and you have to keep trying. So for anyone who is looking for a quick trick for Mission Impossible, I don't believe it exists. Just keep doing it and try not to get frustrated...it can be done and even an imperfect lap can be salvaged for a win.
Thanks again to everyone who posted notes before me. They were incredibly helpful!
And for everyone still trying, GOOD LUCK!
Whyyyyyyyyyyy!?!? After much pain and frustration, I am so close I can smell it. Playing on-and-off during the weekend, I've worked it down to being consistently under five seconds back and as close as 1.055 seconds. I wanted to finish it off today, but I thought I was going to have a brain aneurism. So hopefully tomorrow will be the day.
