New Penalty System killed the "racing" in GTS

  • Thread starter bmxmitch
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It just has...
But I'm not talking about unfair penalties, or too many of them for whatever reasons. I'm talking about the loss of race fights!
They're just gone now.

Every time theres a good fight, or a fight is about to start, it gets destroyed by the system. Resulting in one of them (or both) to back out and slow down somewhere. (Please dont do that in corners anymore guys...)

I just gained 10 positions in one race (4laps) just because I passed people who waited out their penalties. This just wasn't exciting at all...
And most races are like this now. You either play save and don't try to get in any action, or you accept a penalty, because that is what will happen if you go head to head with someone now.

Its really disappointing, as all of my races today were filled with fair guys and lots of good racing. The system just killed them in the end :indiff:

If you still dont know what I'm talking about, just watch this video ;)
 
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To be honest I don't want to let this new SR system stop me from having fun, and fun for me in this game is testing yourself wheel-to-wheel against whoever you happen to be matched up against in any given race. I dropped to SR B (and eventually A) and had some really hard and clean racing. The problem though, as you say, is the penalty system which, at SR S, penalises the slightest of mistakes that inevitably come from taking any sort of risk in overtaking. So it is a shame that penalties are fundamentally flawed, and I guess you just need to see if you can have fun regardless.
 
To be honest I don't want to let this new SR system stop me from having fun, and fun for me in this game is testing yourself wheel-to-wheel against whoever you happen to be matched up against in any given race. I dropped to SR B (and eventually A) and had some really hard and clean racing. The problem though, as you say, is the penalty system which, at SR S, penalises the slightest of mistakes that inevitably come from taking any sort of risk in overtaking. So it is a shame that penalties are fundamentally flawed, and I guess you just need to see if you can have fun regardless.

The problem is (at least for DR S/A drivers) if you have a good fight with someone, at some point he has backs out it because the penalty system forces him to. If you dont slow down instantly, the SR rating will punish you in the end.
So fights are mostly ruined by that now...


As an example, I had a race today where I got a 4sec penalty because someone cut me of slightly. I didn't want to serve it right away, because I wanted to race against a fellow GTP member (@sems4arsenal ).
The rest of the race was completely clean and without mistakes. But I had to get rid of the 4secs on the finish line. So I receive a red rating in the end, because I kept the penalty until the end. Very questionable...
 
Have to agree. It's way too harsh now. The upside is -- people who deserve the penalties now actually get punished. They need to give us a bit more slack.
 
In iRacing people are afraid to race because want to protect their precious iRating, so when I asked my friend to race lower class like Mazda CUP or GT3 fixed series, they will pass, because afraid of losing the rating.

Same thing happening here, when everyone caring too much DR, the spirit of racing will be gone.

At the end it will be a hotlap racing without touching each other
 
I just gained 10 positions in one race (4laps) just because I passed people who waited out their penalties. This just wasn't exciting at all...
And most races are like this now. You either play save and don't try to get in any action, or you accept a penalty, because that is what will happen if you go head to head with someone now.

This is exactly why so many are loving it. Results are being handed to them. I agree that it's taken all the "racing" out of it. You can't risk racing anymore.

In iRacing people are afraid to race because want to protect their precious iRating, so when I asked my friend to race lower class like Mazda CUP or GT3 fixed series, they will pass, because afraid of losing the rating.

Same thing happening here, when everyone caring too much DR, the spirit of racing will be gone.

At the end it will be a hotlap racing without touching each other

That's exactly what it is. I long on to set laps and compare against my friends. Whenever I get lured into a race, thinking "maybe this won't be so bad" it's always a disappoint where, as mentioned above, passes come from people pulling over, or you get a silly penalty that should not be penalized, or you get a penalty for being rear ended.

You try to crank up your DR so you get more points in the FIA races and one little mistake and the whole FIA season is out the window.

According to Kudosprime, there were 50,000 more players active in GTS in the first week of March, compared to the previous week, but Sport Mode participation was still the lowest it's ever been (except for when no one could play it).
 
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Yeah GTS is turning into a time trial/livery maker game for me now. This whole penalty system for slight bumps and people stopping in the middle of the track to server penalty time is just making the races feel so disjointed anymore. It's just not a lot of fun. :indiff:
 
Sorry guys but I beg to differ! It is still about the racers, not so much about the penalty system. I had awesome gr4 races in monza and gr3 in bathurst this week. My SR suffered a fair bit but the only penalty I received was a 2.something for cutting a chicane and a 4sec penalty for hitting a spinning car that wouldnt ghost. There was definetely some slight contact here an there but neither me nor my opponents had to serve penalties.
 
Bathurst was a joke yesterday. Matchmaking was all over the place and kept putting S/S to D/S together. I'm A/S and every time a lower DR bumps me I got a penalty. Finally when I was bashed down to A/B I had a great clean battle with a B/B driver (smurf account). Still since I am DR.A it basically ended with a penalty for a slight contact when he got the entry wrong to the twisty section and I couldn't brake fast enough. The bump was harmless and only helped him, we raced on, dueling cleanly, yet as DR.A I carried the 2 sec penalty with me so lost by default.

I am not going to qualify for Brand's Hatch today. I'll still drive clean as always yet will let my DR slide to get out of DR.A so I can race again without worrying about penalties every time a car gets near. Big Willow was the final straw, getting bumped off the road by lower DR players and ending with a red rating and sometimes a penalty while they get nothing, screw that.
 
I find myself avoiding battles only passing when it is easy to do so. I got 3rd today to a decent extent out of luck because I had no cars around me for the rest of the race. Came from 9th, 15 seconds of penalties at the start and then ended 3rd. This is in a lobby with some of the best drivers too. I also find myself praying no one comes out of the pits in front of me or behind me whereas I was like "eeeeeeee let the battle commence". In the other race the guy in front I was fighting with for the win went off allowing me past but he was still right behind. Normally the battle would continue and it would be great fun. Now he has to stop and the battle is over. I also cannot join daily races anymore out of fear of being dropped DR/SR. I let people past if they are faster than me. I pass people in a stupidly safe manner out of fear which means they stay ahead quite a lot. And even with this ultra timid driving style I still have only had 2 or 3 penalty-free races since the update. It's faux racing. That said, if they just tone down the corner cut penalties, and fine tune the type/amount of contact required for a penalty then it could be good.
 
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I just had my first race online since last week, 3rd since the update.
FIA FT1500T-A Race at Interlagos.

What I found very interesting for this race is I was clearly the number 1 driver in the group and there was a clear 2nd guy.
I was A/S. One guy was B/S, then the rest of the field was a mixture of Speed C and D, Sportsmanship S, A, B, C, and D.
I found this unusual as I am used to just being with Speed S, A, B, Sportsmanship S.
I did not see a single name I recognised. Normally I recognise at least 1/4 of the field for these FIA races and sometimes the whole field.
I qualified in 1st by almost 1 second, and the B/S guy was 2nd, with another 0.5s to the next guy and so on. A grid of 18 all up separated by over 5 seconds which I have never seen in a FIA race before.
I was scared for the start of the ace at the tight first corner, but pulled away very quickly.
So the final race result was the same as the above qualification. I finished 7.5s ahead cleanly and did a lot of cruising in the race. 3rd was 22s behind. I lapped the 12th to 18th place cars and would have lapped a lot more if I actually raced hard. Only 1st, 2nd and 4th had no penalties.

What a boring race!!! I hope this is not what it is always like now and it was just car related.
Otherwise now the matching system is rubbish as well. It used to be so competitive beforehand.
The biggest disappointment was the measly 388 points I got for winning as the field was so weak. Normally I would get those sort of points for finishing mid pack + when I was up against S, A and B speed guys only.

As others are saying, they have ruined the racing. Change it back.
 
I've actually just had two really good races in the Brands daily today, Gr.4. Not starting at the front and driving away either, I'll leave that for CuberTom who won the first of the two, but with some close racing and overtaking, and fewer penalties - seems to be heading in the right direction.
 
I don‘t really care about my DR as you won‘t get any reward for reacing S or topping out at 75k. However I really do care for my SR staying at 99 as much as possible and with the new system that‘s impossible. I had one race with @bmxmitch and due to other drivers clipping me or rearending me I ended up with SR -8 which is just bonkers. Why is it my fault when somebody doesn‘t know how long his car is or that you have to adjust your braking point when racing mid pack or a speed boost through drafting 🤬
 
due to other drivers clipping me or rearending me I ended up with SR -8 which is just bonkers. Why is it my fault when somebody doesn‘t know how long his car is or that you have to adjust your braking point when racing mid pack or a speed boost through drafting 🤬

I thought people were being a bit better behaved lately :boggled: I can only imagine the chaos of the F1500 at Interlagos though...
 
To be honest if they get rid of the penalty for being rear ended that would be a start. And the ghosting needs fixing. People with penalty’s should be ghosted. It’s become a joke, I’ve never seen any racing like this in my life.
 
I find most of the time if I hit someone due to lag I wont get a penalty, so it cant be that harsh, whats harsh is how much you have to slow down to scurb off any penalty time, mostly because you dont ghost and others end up hitting you even when you are off line and on a straight.
 
I am not going to qualify for Brand's Hatch today. I'll still drive clean as always yet will let my DR slide to get out of DR.A so I can race again without worrying about penalties every time a car gets near. Big Willow was the final straw, getting bumped off the road by lower DR players and ending with a red rating and sometimes a penalty while they get nothing, screw that.

I've actually just had two really good races in the Brands daily today, Gr.4. Not starting at the front and driving away either, I'll leave that for CuberTom who won the first of the two, but with some close racing and overtaking, and fewer penalties - seems to be heading in the right direction.

Still irritated by the extremely different experiences... may depend on time of day or something!?? I had two races in brand yesterday, one netting me around 300 points and the other one getting me rid of around the same amount. Funny thing is, I restored my SR from 89 to 99 but wasn't tiptoeing at all... @_ApexPredator Are you happening to be a DR B like me? If so, could that be a sign off a disproportional increase of penalties from DR B to DR B?
 
Having raced with the new rules for a week or so, it seems to me that most of the people complaining are losing DR due to their hangup about not losing DR

I have found the system to be fair most of the time and far more accurate than the old penalty system, I have dropped down from B/S in the old system to D/S now but it doesn`t bother me, racing is racing and the idea is to enjoy it, which I now do
 
I am feeling the frustration of it right now, as I said in a previous thread, however as much as I want good, clean, penalty free races and race to the best of my ability, a good point was made by one of the other users above and that was to just have fun because at the end of the day there are no prizes for achieving the top ranks. Don’t take this as me accepting the flaws that are there as “acceptable”, because I feel far from that, but we possibly need to be “more accepting” of the way it works right now.

I’ve been C/S for weeks now, but even with lobbies of the same ranked drivers, there are still people who confuse GTS with Destruction Derby. I guess we need to remember is it’s a game, and as such, it will never be perfect in everyone’s eyes and it will always be open to “imperfections” and “people’s opinions” whether it be connectivity, penalties or other (I’m a lead software developer so I know the challenges that can be faced).

What we should be greatful for is that games in this day and age can be “updated” and “patched”. Back in my day, when a game was released, tht was it and a line was drawn under it, so we’d have to live with what we got, so there’s still hope and we should all be optimistic that it will be improved.

Just remember, GT Sport is still a fantastic game
 
Still irritated by the extremely different experiences... may depend on time of day or something!?? I had two races in brand yesterday, one netting me around 300 points and the other one getting me rid of around the same amount. Funny thing is, I restored my SR from 89 to 99 but wasn't tiptoeing at all... @_ApexPredator Are you happening to be a DR B like me? If so, could that be a sign off a disproportional increase of penalties from DR B to DR B?

I'm DR:S SR:S buddy, just have to drive pretty cautiously.
 
It just has...
But I'm not talking about unfair penalties, or too many of them for whatever reasons. I'm talking about the loss of race fights!
They're just gone now.

Every time theres a good fight, or a fight is about to start, it gets destroyed by the system. Resulting in one of them (or both) to back out and slow down somewhere. (Please dont do that in corners anymore guys...)

I just gained 10 positions in one race (4laps) just because I passed people who waited out their penalties. This just wasn't exciting at all...
And most races are like this now. You either play save and don't try to get in any action, or you accept a penalty, because that is what will happen if you go head to head with someone now.

Its really disappointing, as all of my races today were filled with fair guys and lots of good racing. The system just killed them in the end :indiff:

I am having fun in the low ranks, as always, difference is the races are clean now so frustration has been reduced by a huge amount, clean races are more common that ever.. i love it. And close racing is there, just dont touch.
 
I think some of you missed the plot. Or what I was trying to say...

It's not about SR ranking, clean races or idiots on the track. Its about the loss of real race fights! Thats what I am missing.
I dont care too much for my SR. I just dont want races/racefights to be killed by this weird penalty system.

I just want to fight my way to the top and not get it handed to me by a broken penalty system... ;)
 
I think some of you missed the plot. Or what I was trying to say...

It's not about SR ranking, clean races or idiots on the track. Its about the loss of real race fights! Thats what I am missing.
I dont care too much for my SR. I just dont want races/racefights to be killed by this weird penalty system.

I just want to fight my way to the top and not get it handed to me by a broken penalty system... ;)

I noticed the same thing immediately after new penalties. Some drivers do tend to be aggressive to keep their driver rating and force people to slow down and avoid penalties, you know.. being aggressive behind you even if there's no chance whatsoever to overtake cleanly. So it's just better to let them past you. Other drivers just follow and don't try to do anything even if I know they're really fast. Just keeping the qualifying position and easy DR points.

I started a topic earlier and asked if people would like to remove dr rating. Over 90% said NO. I just wanted to see what's in peoples minds and to see why they're racing in the first place. Some status is a must have to some and to keep them in racing at all. As somebody said earlier people are afraid to race because of DR points and this was seen in iRacing also. The status aspect is much more valuable to majority of people no question about it.
Not really a racing mentality is it? Sadly, thay's just the way it is.
 
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Who says it is broken, and you can still fight your way up, i don't get it.

I think its pretty clear that this system is broken. I could make at least 20 examples of why i is broken.
And fighting your way through the pack against DR A/S drivers barely works without any contact. F1 is (mostly) no-contact racing, but not Gr.1 to Gr.4!

Can I ask you what Dr level you are? I'm curious, because it seems the experience for Dr B-E drivers is totally different now.
 
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