Reaching Ranking Position 1

200
Higgiracer
I´ve been reading some threads about frustrated Gamers that got stuck at Ranking Positions in the Top-Ten without being able to reach Rank Number 1.

I´m playing EPR only since 3 weeks and was wondering about getting the same problem.

Last weekend I reached position 3 with my favourite "fully-tuned" Mitsub. Lancer Evo VII. Then the "reachable" Points got lower and lower and after a few races my ranking position got down to 29.

So I had to change my strategy/my car. I changed to a non-tuned Impreza, lost 3 races but developed the car/tuning-status and suddenly won some 2000-Points-Races. Then suddenly, without expecting it, i went up to Ranking Position 1 (!!!).

Maybe this could be a hint for the players mentioned above !

But actually they should not care about reaching Position Number One, because it does not pay off !

I´ve been playing racing games for the last 24 years (startet with the Commodore C 64) but never got that disappointed by "finishing" a game.

Absolutely nothing happens !

No "Congratulation", not even a little message. No "Victory-Hymns", no secret Bonus Car ! Really nothing happens.

I didn´t expext that !!!

Yet i own only 82 Cars of the game, so my aim is now to get all other cars, especially the "European Classics" like Fiat Abarth 131, BMW 2002, Lancia Stratos oder Lancia 037 Rally.
 
Oh, such a spoilsport, huh? :P Very well.

When you're at P1 in the end of the year, you get to enter the special RS "King of the Year" race. Nurburgring, 2 laps, no mercy. It's very intense - I won mine by less than a second over 15 minutes of racing! But maybe I'm a bad driver.
 
CardcaptorYoshi is correct. Only upon maintaining a #1 rank until the end of a year and completing the KotY race will you get to see the credits roll and truly "finish" Enthusia Life.

Then it's a matter of seeing how long you can maintain that #1. :sly:
 
I may be wrong, but "winning" this game isn't about reaching #1 in the ranking. It's about winning the Koty race.

Now, to be able to enter that race you must be at least in rank #6, otherwise the game won't let you enter it.

This means you can end that game-year in #1, but if you don't win the Koty race, nothing happens.

And this also means that you can end the year in #1 to #6 (or even lower, if the points you gain in the Koty race are less than the ones you lose in the race you raced 12 weeks ago), but anyway, you "win the game" if you win the koty race.

In short: regard the Koty race as a cup-final. You win it, you win the cup. You lose it, you lose the cup.


The tricky part about it is that you must:

a) make sure you are in the top 6 by the last week of December;

b) to do that, you are probably using a good-but-not-fantastic car, to get nice odds and loads of points;

c) But you'll need to be driving a very good car to win the KotY :sly:


Hope this helps ...
 
My personal recommendation for reaching and winning the KotY race is to use a good Class C car or a "bad" Class B car. Somewhere around that area.
 
I made it to rank #12 with my Nissan Skyline GT-R Nür at the last race before KoTY.
It was 1450 pts race at Lowensering and there was a Caterham Superlight R500 and man was I scarred. 4 laps with that car about to touch your bumper and my hands were shaking. If it wasn't for the straights, I was dead second.
Amazed, my rank increased to #5 and I was able to enter KoTY on my 3rd year.
The race not so easy even with a Skyline, the Tommy Kaira ZZ II was fast as hell on the curves. It gave a good battle for the first quarter of the race but still...
At least, I won the race.
I can now have fun with leveling my cars.
Great game:tup:
 
To get position 1, you just need to have above 11000 points. Then the Cheesy triumph music comes on. I managed to do this way back in a EK Civic Type R. Since, I've managed to maintain and keep it with a Ae86, 180sx etc. But maintaining your level is harder with FR, but more rewarding.
 
OK, I've been at No.1 for a few weeks now. If I understand rightly the Koty race only comes around at the end of the calender year - which in my case means another 2 months.

I have been racing a Level 10 Celica almost exclusively - it seems to give the odds required to get the high rankings. However, some races with really tough opposition seem to be unwinable with this car (and rightly so). Wolfe seems to be suggesting that a C or B car is best for reaching & winning the KotY race. But if the Koty race is really competitive (i.e with high performance cars) then surely it shouldn't be possible to win with such a low performance car?

The other question is: if this is, in fact, the structure of EL, then what is the point of having the high performance cars, in particular the race cars? Wouldn't it be more logical to use the lower performance cars as a stepping stone to achieve the ranking to race the race cars in the final RS phase of the game? (This is what I had assumed was going to be the case) :confused:
 
There are some RS races that you can only enter with a race car.

I made it to ranking 1 in, if i remember correctly, 18 races in a Suzuki Cappuccino. Like you i spent most of the game racing one car (at least 3/4 racing only the Cappuccino). I switched to a Lotus Elise and chased races with Caterhams for ages until i finally won one. I noticed that i was only a few races from the KOTY race so in the spirit of efficiency i switched to the Caterham to get the year finished as quick as possible and finshed up those RS races with it (it was COMPLETE overkill for the KOTY race). My ranking dropped to 3rd because it's probably the fastest production car in the game so racing with it serves up small potatoes as far as race points go. The life mode really never hit it off with me when i play now it's only for time trials.
 
There are some RS races that you can only enter with a race car.

Yeah, I finally logged into the Calender listings under Records & saw the list of upcoming RS races, some of which require specific cars. I assumed that there would be big points available in the race car RS races, but this does not neccessarily seem to be the case. This has left me more confused than ever!

My assumption about how Life mode worked was this:

you start out with a modest car, which you use to win races against other modest AI cars, which drive in a relatively unskilled way. As you progress you have to upgrade to better cars, in order to be competitive against the more skilled AI driving better cars that appear in the higher R levels. Eventually, you need to be driving a race level car, in order to stand any chance of finishing on the podium at the end of any given race, culminating in the KotY race at the end of the year.

Completing this process requires not just good driving, but the right, strategic car choices & takes a long time.

In fact, Life mode works like this (please correct me if I'm wrong!):


you start out with a modest car, which you use to win races against other modest AI cars, which drive in a relatively unskilled way. As you progress you are able to upgrade the performance of your modest car, so that you can kick the butt of the AI cars which don't neccessarily seem to increase their skill level as you progress through the R levels. Often, even though the AI cars are way higher performance than your car, they drive so slowly & /or badly, that they finish way behind you, as well as other less powerful AI cars.

This process can be completed using a Cappuchino in as little as 18 races!
 
I have been racing a Level 10 Celica almost exclusively - it seems to give the odds required to get the high rankings. However, some races with really tough opposition seem to be unwinable with this car (and rightly so). Wolfe seems to be suggesting that a C or B car is best for reaching & winning the KotY race. But if the Koty race is really competitive (i.e with high performance cars) then surely it shouldn't be possible to win with such a low performance car?
The reason why I recommend a "slow" B-class car or fast C-class car is because that range of performance offers a solid competitor that will still earn a decent amount of ranking points. And at Level 10, some C-class cars can compete with A-class cars.

Like most people here (it seems), I completed most of Enthusia Life using the same car -- the E30 M3 that I earned within the first few races I did. It's one of the better C-class cars, and in the King of The Year race my primary opposition was an R32 Skyline GT-R and a Subaru 22B, both B-class cars. To me this says that the KoTY will usually put you up against cars of the class above yours -- and it would be better to go up against B-class cars or low A-class cars than it would be to go up against high A-class cars, no? ;)
 
Wolfe, I asked this question before but didn't get a clear answer from anyone: do you think tuning your car lowers the odds for that car reflecting its increased performance, or do the odds stay the same as for the untuned car?
 
Wolfe, I asked this question before but didn't get a clear answer from anyone: do you think tuning your car lowers the odds for that car reflecting its increased performance, or do the odds stay the same as for the untuned car?
If I recall correctly the odds change based on your tuning.
 
I don't think that the odds change with the tuning firstly because i seemed to be able to race my Cappuccino (and win) with worse odds as my car was improved. Secondly, while writing this, i lined up a race with the same car as mine (the whole grid actually) and they have the same odds of winning despite my car being at level 9 tuning.
 
I suspect you're right Mick. It's why, once you've tuned your car to Level 10, you're able to beat the crap out of any AI car isn't at least 2 categories better than yours. Also, when you tune your car it doesn't change its category - unlike Forza for instance, where upgrading your car will push it into another category - a "C" car will remain a "C" car even with Level 10 tuning.
 
OK, this game gets weirder the more you play it!

I've been stomping all over the AI cars in EL (& Freeracing), easily beating cars with way lower odds on a variety of tracks. My suspicion is that it is partly because Level 10 tuning gives you the performance of 2 car categories higher without changing your odds.

However, having got to the KotY race, I have had my butt soundly kicked repeatedly by the AI. I have rerun the race (by not saving) a number of times, driving different cars & with widely different AI opponents. On a couple of occasions, I have had the highest rated car on the grid & still been beaten. It's like the KotY race is run on a way higher difficulty setting than all the other races: not only do they drive better, but their acceleration & straight-line speed seem to be way better. Has nobody else noticed this?!
 
It is relatively easy to obtain a #1 ranking in 4 or 5 races using the Audi A4 FWD on the Lowenseering, Marco Strada, and/or Tsukuba circuits in R1 events. I usually have it set for high acceleration, and high traction front & rear.
 
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