On Line racing for dummies

I'm one of the dummies.
Can somebody give me the basics about racing on line with GT5?
I'm a decent driver off line - or I'm learning to be one - I'm at lvl 23 right now. I'd like to try some friendly pick up races on line just to get the feel of it. So what's the best way for me to do it? Can I damage my cars or wear out my tires? Is that dependent on the race/track/event? Do you get credits you can use in the off line game? And do you lvl up in experience points? These are some of my questions.

 

You get some credits and XP when you finish a race. Not a great deal but some - I think each race moves the used car lot along a day - so If you are waiting for a certain car, be aware you could miss it by racing several races at a time.

I've only done a few onine races in GT5- sometimes you get a godo bunch sometimes you get a cluster of drivers that belong on the bumper cars. Also pick up races seem to have lot of driver aids in play.

When you do join a race... move your cursorover the driver list... I think this will giveyou what that driver is running - Try to use the same tyres as it will prevent avoidable accidents in brake zones. (If Guy on Race Softs is behind a driver on Sports Hards then you always get a dent or two into a corner.

it can take a while to join a race.
the race list has s star system anda volume setting on the right... no idea what this means... signal strength... recommendations perhaps... I tend to go for races with 4 stars/bars

 

Added my .02 in as well

 

To answer your questions:

- Racing online isn't much different to racing offline but if you have a slow connection to the Internet, then be aware of lag crashes.

- Being able to damage your cars and wear out your tyres is dependant on what the host of the online lobby has set the settings to. It is possible to turn off tyre/fuel depletion, visual damage and mechanical damage. Light mechanical damage will mean that your car will 'repair' itself after a while if you damage it, while with heavy mechanical damage, the damages done to your car will stay there until you perform a pitstop.

- Yes, you can earn credits and experience points while racing online which also can be used offline but the credits and experience points you earn tend to be a little less than what you would get in an offline race.

In addition:

- The host may set the Grip Reduction loss under "Event Settings" to Low or Real. Low will mean you lose hardly any grip when one of your tyres go off the track or you are driving in wet conditions. Real grip will mean that you will have a fairly realistic grip loss on the track edge and in wet conditions.

- The host may also set the Slipstream Strength, also found under "Event Settings". In offline mode, the Slipstream Strength is set to Strong, which is how the slipstream strength was at the release of GT5. However, setting it to Weak will mean that the slipstream effect will be reduced, and much more closer to real life.

I hope that these will answer your questions and if you have any other questions relating to racing online, then feel free to ask.

 

As they said, public lobbies are sometimes good, sometimes not so good, sometimes terrible. If you have the friends, lounge racing is generally the best, but of course that means more people who aren't making the pubbies better(it's a lost cause, I know).

Racing online does advance the UCD, but it goes by each room(public or private) that you join, not per race.

You should make it a habit to always check the rules and settings for each room you enter to avoid being surprised. Unfortunately there is no way to check all of the important settings until you actually join a room.

 

Forgot to mention, if you want to make the most out of the online racing experience, then you can look here for arranged one-off events by other GTP'ers out there . If a racing series is what you're after, then look in the Racing Series sub-forum.

 

I also host clean shuffle races nightly, around 10p CST US.

 

Can I buy your shuffle races for 10p?

 

Thanks everyone for your wisdom.
I'll continue racing off-line mostly for now I guess.
I did try a race by joining a room. I got a car (not my car) and did some free driving, waiting for the one other person on the board to start the race, but it never happened - I just listened to some chatter in the background as I ran around the deep forest course alone - which is okay - but if I'm going to drive around a track, I'd rather get the XP so I can eventually afford to buy one of those fantastic 800 pp fararris.

 

Shuffle races is something I'd recommend, same tyres, different cars, if boost is on you will have some bumping etc but that comes with the territory as you're all usually so close. Have had some good hard racing using the Shuffle format. Sometimes clowns come into the room and crash into everybody, but that's with every lobby, go for rooms that have a few cars, not just one as that'll leave you driving around by yourself for a while. Hope that helps

 

You could also go to school. GTP members are working on it.

 

I see that you haven't responded to my 10p joke yet.