Penalty timer incrementally going up...?

[Tentafool]

So, I participated in the last Monza event in the FIA Manufacturers events, and...admittedly, I was racing pretty goddamn awfully.

At the end of the 9th lap, I had gained ten seconds in penalties for a variety of reasons, which I own up to; I was not racing as well as I normally do. However, on the penultimate lap, I noticed something strange happen.
After I went around Variante della Roggio (the second chicane), I looked in the mirror, and noticed a car or two behind me, but then glanced down a little bit to see I was getting penalties again. However, I don't recall cutting the corner on entry or exit. Instead, what was going on was the penalty timer was incrementing one second for every two that passed, and even after letting the cars behind me go by, it continued until I ended up with so much time in arrears that I was eventually disqualified on the final lap after exiting Variante del Rettifilo (the first chicane).

Has anyone had this happen to them? Is this working as intended, or is it a bug? I'm aware that I messed up a lot in the race and really wrecked it for myself, but quite why my penalty timer increased every two seconds, I don't know.
I do have a video of this in action, but I don't know what the forum's policy is about posting videos from Facebook. I'm gonna look them up now, but if need be, I can upload it to YouTube as an unlisted video if you want to see this weirdness.

Man, I'm disappointed in myself...when you're at B/B, you should be driving better than I was. But still, one second for every two? That's just weird.

 

[Famine]

Has anyone had this happen to them? Is this working as intended, or is it a bug?

Since the 1.13 update on February 28th, any penalties above five seconds will increase if not promptly served.

 

[toby1002]

The timer is now set to go up over time if the penalty is not served. This is to stop players from stretching the penalty out over the whole race otherwise the penalty could be worn down without any loss of time to the driver

 

[Tentafool]

Huh...so it is working as intended. Fair enough, then.

It does seem weird, however, that penalties increase like that without warning, though. Watching over my Capture Gallery save, I'd gone a lap and a half with more than five seconds of penaltes before the timer went up. I understand that it's there to avoid drivers from keeping up that penalty count to the end of the race, but a part of me thinks that if it wanted to do that, it should have done it in a shorter space of time than three minutes.

 

[Gedi69]

Do you have to come to a complete standstill for the penalty tonne served because I got one but slowed down and it didn't go down at all.

 

[Tentafool]

Do you have to come to a complete standstill for the penalty tonne served because I got one but slowed down and it didn't go down at all.

You don't have to come to a complete standstill, but when you're on straights, I noticed it doesn't go down until you hit around 150kph (93mph). Not entirely certain what the rules are exactly, though.

 

[Famine]

Do you have to come to a complete standstill for the penalty tonne served because I got one but slowed down and it didn't go down at all.

I've not had an over-5 penalty yet, but as far as I can tell they still work as before; the more you slow, the quicker it reduces, and it will only reduce in locations where you're expected to normally be at full throttle.

 

[Tentafool]

I've not had an over-5 penalty yet, but as far as I can tell they still work as before; the more you slow, the quicker it reduces, and it will only reduce in locations where you're expected to normally be at full throttle.

Makes sense.

 

[Gedi69]

Cheers guys 👍

 

[Crazy Taylor]

I think on dr b it seems to be 10 seconds as i am not getting rising penalties under 10 sec.

 

[Lebowski]

I can totally accept this new penalty system, it should on the whole encourage a cleaner drive as people start to realise. What I can't be doing with is let's say you finish with a penalty of 1.248 seconds it then rounds it up to 2! Why bother with fractions if they are going to round it up anyway? Double punishment!

 

[Tentafool]

I can totally accept this new penalty system, it should on the whole encourage a cleaner drive as people start to realise. What I can't be doing with is let's say you finish with a penalty of 1.248 seconds it then rounds it up to 2! Why bother with fractions if they are going to round it up anyway? Double punishment!

I don't have an issue with it at all. The idea is you're supposed to get rid of the penalty during the race, not maintain it to the end. By rounding up to the next integer, it makes that point of "you got it in the race, you'll get rid of it in the race."

 

[Lebowski]

Encouraging people to get rid of it in the race is pure stupidity, it just makes idiots stop in silly places. No, the penalties should not be able to be spent during the race.

 

[Tentafool]

Encouraging people to get rid of it in the race is pure stupidity, it just makes idiots stop in silly places.

You do realise tracks are almost always wide enough that you can slow down off the racing line on pretty much any straight and not get in the way? Just because idiots might slow down in corners or whatever, it doesn't make it the fault of the rules for facilitating that.

Again, I don't see what the problem is. You got a penalty; get rid of it, or you're gonna get a higher penalty for not clearing it. Yes, it's a bit arbitrary, but arbitrary rules are everywhere, not just in motorsport.

 

[Lebowski]

This game claims to be the real driving simulator. If a real world penalty was handed out you would have to wait until you have completed the race to serve it. If you was dumb enough to stop on the circuit regardless of it's width, you would receive a severe punishment. This game supposedly strives for reality in partnership with the FIA. The only option with a penalty should be to serve upon completion. If I got a penalty there's no way on earth I would slow down to serve it, it takes longer for one thing but its just as dumb as dumb gets.

 

[Tentafool]

Allow me to address this piece by piece.

This game claims to be the real driving simulator.

It can say what it wants. Doesn't make it so. Claiming it is the "Real Driving Simulator" is nothing short of marketing bumf. It's a slogan that's stuck witht he series since 1997 when the first game released, and the first game was hardly the most realistic thing in the world. Hell, Papyrus's efforts for PC back in the 90s were much more "real".
Also, considering the number of fantasy Vision GT cars in the game, as well as the fact that cars ghost when they are a lap down or when they spin out...this sentiment is a bit misplaced.

If a real world penalty was handed out you would have to wait until you have completed the race to serve it.

Unless you were, say, flagged into the pits for a stop/go or a drive-through. Or just to stop altogether because disqualification. I can understand that much, though. The thing is, however, this is the real world. What works in real life doesn't necessarily work ludologically. This is still a game, after all.

If you was dumb enough to stop on the circuit regardless of it's width, you would receive a severe punishment.

Then don't stop on the circuit? You don't have to actually stop to serve the penalty. Being a bit slower on the straights is usually enough to reduce the penalty if not completely serve it. On some tracks, you can reduce the penalty by just exiting a corner a little slower. You don't need to do a lot to reduce a penalty. Just go a bit slower. That is all.

This game supposedly strives for reality in partnership with the FIA.

No, this game strives for a focus on competition. That is why the FIA partnership is a big deal because it's the governing body of many of motorsport's biggest series. They're not in partnetship with Gran Turismo for the sake of realism any more than the guys who partnered with GT for their Vision GT program.

The only option with a penalty should be to serve upon completion.

Or to serve it in the pits.
I feel like if there were pit penalties, this probably wouldn't even be discussed further considering it's the best middleground - you don't have to serve the penalty on track, and you don't have to go to the end of the race to incur an even bigger penalty for not responding. Because in many racing series, not responding to a penalty can result in the penalty increasing, or potentially being disqualified from the event.

If I got a penalty there's no way on earth I would slow down to serve it, it takes longer for one thing but its just as dumb as dumb gets.

Not really. A few seconds longer, probably, but it's not so long usually that it can necessarily ruin your race if you get a penalty of a couple seconds.
And if you don't wanna serve it by slowing down, then that's fine. The rules do facilitate that. But you do have to understand that by not slowing down to clear the penalty, you can be deemed as having not acknowledged the penalty. That's just how these rules work. Again, it's about what works and what doesn't in a game like this.

Again. I don't see an issue here. It's not a perfect system; no system ever is, and the focus on just a time penalty is something of a detriment to the system (stop/go and drive-through penalties when), but considering the system works reasonably well in spite of a couple degrees of error too many, I don't have an issue slowing down off the driving line to reduce my penalty. In fact, you can reduce the penalty bit by bit over the course of the race and not lose too much of your pace to begin with.

Basically, don't actually stop. That IS dumb. Slowing down off the racing line is hardly anywhere near as dumb.

 

[Sven Jurgens]

I can totally accept this new penalty system, it should on the whole encourage a cleaner drive as people start to realise. What I can't be doing with is let's say you finish with a penalty of 1.248 seconds it then rounds it up to 2! Why bother with fractions if they are going to round it up anyway? Double punishment!

Indeed, it's another encouragement to serve it before the finish.

You do realise tracks are almost always wide enough that you can slow down off the racing line on pretty much any straight and not get in the way? Just because idiots might slow down in corners or whatever, it doesn't make it the fault of the rules for facilitating that.

Again, I don't see what the problem is. You got a penalty; get rid of it, or you're gonna get a higher penalty for not clearing it. Yes, it's a bit arbitrary, but arbitrary rules are everywhere, not just in motorsport.

Good luck serving a penalty on Mount Panorama or Nurb 24h, or in the middle of traffic in lap 1 on any circuit. The secondary fallout from people serving penalties in lap 1 is usually worse than the initial pile up in T1. Even when people slow down off the racing line, then they need to merge again with many opportunities for more mess.

Serve it in the pit, or since we're going full arcade anyway, paint penalty boxes on the road where you can slow down to serve penalties so everyone knows to avoid those! The problem is that it's most efficient to serve it right before a corner braking early, or linger after corner exit accelerating late, both are recipes for disaster. On the straight doesn't work either with people attempting draft passes.

I carry the penalties along as long as it's 5 sec or less, otherwise find a straight out of traffic to slow down losing much more ground than the penalty amount. I do slow down for the finish as 0.1 gets rounded up and I'm not gonna lose a place when I have 1.1 sec of undeserved penalty left and next place is 1.8 sec behind.