S liscense: difficult for the avg. player?

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evoboy

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Is the S liscense difficult to get for the average GT4 player? For instance, how long would it take the average GT4 player to beat all of the tests? I'm wondering because it was fairly difficult for me (like it took a good 15-25 minutes per test) to get it, except for the last one which took longer because it's insane.

Thx in advance...

-Mike
 
I had absolutely no problem getting the s-liscence. But I was like 60% through when i got it. I swear, 1-2 tries per test, 4 for seattle (I think), and first try for s-8 and I had it. Took me bout an hour. I can get my s-8 down to 1'33 after 2 laps.
 
Of course it should be difficult for the average player, because thats what they are meant to be. My first time through the game it took me about 30 min on each and a lot more on seattle and S8. Once you learn the cars and begin using manual, however, it is much easier. Now I can do them in 2 or 3 tries. Took me 2 tries to get gold on S8 with manual.
 
It's not too hard to fail on the non-S license tests, because you make one mistake and that can lose you a lot of time relative to the total time taken to complete the test.

But by the time I had done B, A, I-B, I-A, getting mostly golds I passed every single S test at the first try driving it, except Trial Mountain where I had a half-spin at the penultimate corner. You just have to drive smoothly, consistently, and importantly, watch the demo car first. Just copy the demo car and be smooth, and if you don't make any mistakes you will get a silver or a high bronze. I can't emphasise more, *copy the demo car* and you cannot really go wrong.

Some are harder than others. At the Midfield Raceway test I was 3-tenths off gold on my first go. At Monaco I was only a second inside bronze at the first try.
 
OK, I think I have the hang of how difficult it should be now. And yes, I did mean GT3 lol. BTW I do use manual and I adamently refuse to play any racing game that doesn't have the option of manual transmission. I dirve a manual car in real life. I hate everyone that thinks auto tranny is better bcuz it isn't. Anyway, thx guys!
 
some of them are easy, the first 4 or 5 are easy, the monaco one is crazy, one slip up and ur gone, its a challenge though
 
man, you guys did them tests quick. it took me about 2-3 hours per test on the S license. but then again, i only have done the sunday cup a couple times in my vitz when i did it. i generally like to get my required stuff done first so it is out of the way.
 
The first time through with the GT40 @ Seattle must have taken me a few days to get a bronze. This was years ago using an auto trans before I had a clue. Now it takes me one or two tries to get a bronze or silver. Only recently, like the past few weeks, have I even tried to get golds in all the test. The GT40 took me maybe 20 minutes to get gold. The one I had the most problems with was A-7. That one took me about 8 hour combined with 1000+ tries with my DS2 and my DFP wheel. Finally I got a 14.173 with my DS2 with a strange button assignment, to replicate left foot braking on the DS2.

All together it was fun to go through all the tests trying to get golds. For both GT3 and GT4P. I feel like I am accomplishing something.
 
F310B
The hardest S-license test to get gold IMO is the Trial Mountain test, and the easiest is the first test.
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That is the one with the Miata right? I always found that the easiest one. In fact when I first played GT3 it was the only one I got a gold on. You just gotta keep the revs up and stay smooth.
 
evoboy
OK, I think I have the hang of how difficult it should be now. And yes, I did mean GT3 lol. BTW I do use manual and I adamently refuse to play any racing game that doesn't have the option of manual transmission. I dirve a manual car in real life. I hate everyone that thinks auto tranny is better bcuz it isn't. Anyway, thx guys!
Click to expand...
Drive manual while trying to negotiate through 2 feet of snow? No thanks! Manual is only necessary if you're a race-car driver. It may save a little gas, but the aggravation that an AT saves is worth the extra $$. I think one of the nine circles of hell is sitting in a never-ending traffic jam while trying to operate the world's worst clutch. :banghead:
 
I'm still not finished with the S-class license yet. :indiff:
I hate doing things over and over to get something and just don't have that much patience to just sit there and keep going at it. :grumpy:
What I'll usually do is some racing before I go the S license as this seems to help me when following certain lines and have gotten used to driving on the game.
It's tough to get all golds and must be pretty much perfect in your driving and lines.
Me, I'm not perfect at it and takes a bit to do. That's why I'm still not finished with it. :lol:
Misnblu
 
evoboy
Is the S liscense difficult to get for the average GT4 player? For instance, how long would it take the average GT4 player to beat all of the tests? I'm wondering because it was fairly difficult for me (like it took a good 15-25 minutes per test) to get it, except for the last one which took longer because it's insane.

Thx in advance...

-Mike
Click to expand...
Do you mean to get the bronse or the gold ?
 
Anderton
Drive manual while trying to negotiate through 2 feet of snow? No thanks! Manual is only necessary if you're a race-car driver. It may save a little gas, but the aggravation that an AT saves is worth the extra $$. I think one of the nine circles of hell is sitting in a never-ending traffic jam while trying to operate the world's worst clutch. :banghead:
Click to expand...


I like the added control it gives me over my car, and it isn't that hard and aggravating after you're used to it-for me it's second nature now. And BTW it doesn't snow where very much where I live and when it does it is like an inch.
 
AT is fine, for passing the tests, or even getting gold. MT is faster for sure, and easier to drive once you get used to it. But don't bother changing from AT to MT if all you want to do is get bronze.
 
evoboy
bronze
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I could tell you that I got the gold in Seattle2 and the GT40 at the 2nd trial but ... I would be a liar .
I'm proud to announce that I just got my S license ( bronzes ) last saturday.

If I remember it took me between 1 and 2 hours for each test, except for Seattle2 - GT40 ( 8 hours ) and Monaco-GTone ( 4 hours ).
I could maybe have reduced the time if i had realised sooner that traction and stability aids were on. my times improved a lot ( by at leas 1 second ) after I turned them off.
I used automatic transmission and the gamepad.
3 weeks ago I was able to get all gold in the b licenses using the gamepad for some and the driving force for others.
I'm not your average GT3 player either,I'm 55 years old . I feel like the Mario Andretti of GT3 :)
I decided to finish my S license and try to get all gold in b licenses after visiting the GT Planet GT3 forums.

Biased "oldtimer" turkey
 
Well, go for it.

If you plan to go for golds on the S-license, make sure you get golds on B, A, I-B, I-A first. Once you have those four the S-license will be relatively easy. Just a case of stringing together a clean, tidy lap, after a little practice.

As for what you said about driver aids, I don't know about traction control but for sure ASM will slow you down, unless you are freakishly smooth (in which case it does nothing). On the complex string slalom license test, where they have one test without driver aids and one with them, it took me 3 tries to do without and with the ASM/TC, it took me over an hour, to get gold.
 
Biased turkey
I could tell you that I got the gold in Seattle2 and the GT40 at the 2nd trial but ... I would be a liar .
I'm proud to announce that I just got my S license ( bronzes ) last saturday.

If I remember it took me between 1 and 2 hours for each test, except for Seattle2 - GT40 ( 8 hours ) and Monaco-GTone ( 4 hours ).
I could maybe have reduced the time if i had realised sooner that traction and stability aids were on. my times improved a lot ( by at leas 1 second ) after I turned them off.
I used automatic transmission and the gamepad.
3 weeks ago I was able to get all gold in the b licenses using the gamepad for some and the driving force for others.
I'm not your average GT3 player either,I'm 55 years old . I feel like the Mario Andretti of GT3 :)
I decided to finish my S license and try to get all gold in b licenses after visiting the GT Planet GT3 forums.

Biased "oldtimer" turkey
Click to expand...

Well my story is kinda simular to the one Biased Turkey wrote, I am little younger though ;) . I did not even know I could switch off ASM and TCS and only used automatic (AT) and an old PS1 controller without the pressure sensitive buttons. And I did not know about GT Planet :dunce:

I also was new to the game of GT, so after failing the bronze time in the wet circle tests after trying for hours I cursed the game and left it in the box for a month at least. Later I took it up again and it was such a good feeling to pass this test I picked it up again up to the S Licenses.

It took me more time than I care to remember to pass S2 and S6. When I reached S8 I literally gave up on the game, I cursed the developers who put (in my opinion at the time) an undrivable car in a required lesson without any option to change the setup. After that I stopped playing GT3 for at least 6 months. My problem was that using AT and a PS1 controller I could not keep the car from spinning and ruining every run.

It was not untill I saw a review of GT Concept (or a tip somewhere) that GT Concept awards you the bronze licenses, which I went out to buy and did get the bonus licences in bronze (I had only S8 left, this was how bad I wanted the super license to race the remaining races).

Just 2 days after that I discovered GT Planet and I read the tip to use manual in S8. Within three succesfull runs I had silver (PAL version) :crazy:

Now I could finally go for 100% completion, which I have done twice now and also hunted for the gold medals for a while. I am at 42 gold and 6 silver (S2/S3/S5/S6/S7/S8) at the moment. There is a thread by Daan in this forum with the best S-License replays so I probably will get inspired to try for the remaining golds.

Now I am playing GT4 Prologue a lot and guess what I love the licenses (all gold by a large margin). There are some reasons for that:
a. the gold times required are a lot easier to achieve
b. improving your time netts you points (crazy but for me this is an incentive)
c. the tests actually make sense, you do learn the basics of driving different cars and the specific racing lines in a course. Also the racing lessons where you have to overtake other cars are great, much better than any of the GT3 license tests.

So if you ask me, are the bronze license requirements in GT3 too hard? My personal answer is yes, they did take the fun out of the game for me a newby to the game at the time, for at least 7 months. I am not saying that the required bronze times are set too high but without the knowledge and proper equipement they aint fun at all.

My 2 cents
 
I only had a problem on the first test, but that was the hardest for me. The others I beat on the first or second try :)
 
I could see how an old PS1 controller might hinder you, you would have to be blip-blipping the throttle the whole time. Not as fast as simply being smooth on the throttle.
 
In my defense, I was a newby at the time. I hadn't played any of the other GT games or any other racing game for that matter. I probably could manage the bronze using the PS1 controller and AT right now, but it still would be highly annoying. Besides why torture yourself when you can use MT and succeed more easily? And there are nicer things to do, like playing GT4P :)
 

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