Seasonal events - now officially ruined.

[ucwepn]

LOL I still can't get that nascar around the ring even with all that assist crap turned on and full mods, I just keep having accidents while trying to push hard, the ring is tricky enough for me without having to skipper a land yacht around there. The second lot of races were hair pullingly frustrating for me only had 1 gold 3 silvers and a 6th, having extra help now to try and win them has finally made me re-attempt them. i thought of myself as a not too bad a driver but the guys who golded them last week must be exceptional racers.

 

[Menown]

"officially ruined"?

If they are ruined, then they were ruined for you, by you. They're not ruined for me.

I shall continue to try and use a car that'll give me a good, close race.

This. GT has always let you make things as hard and easy as you want.

Being able to fully tune is good, for every CR spent on overtuning is CRs lost in prize money. It rewards you more for tuning less.

 

[the Interceptor]

Money however is no object in this game, because I can always have my B-Spec Bob run another race series to make up for the losses I had elsewhere.

 

[JetJaguar2000]

The funny thing is: I often don't understand PD. I don't understand the decisions they make. I was getting bored with GT5, and they introduced the seasonal races. This actually was the first opportunity since I started playing GT5 where I felt challenged and had good fun at the same time. With these events, they sprayed some new life into the already aging lady (from my point of view).

But every time I see this silver lining on the horizon, every time I think PD has finally found the right way and did something good, they come along, change something about it and completely devalue the original idea in the process. At times I think they have no real idea what people want.

Last time I felt like this was when they released the Academy Demo. Loads of people played this, loads of people had fun, and this could have been a great demo for GT5 at a time it was clear there won't be any freely available demo of the game. But when the time tables for the Academy were closed, they disabled the demo remotely - why? Why not just decouple it from the time tables and let it run as a demo? People were happy with it, this was a finished demo which wouldn't have needed any more work, and it was a great teaser for what was to come in GT5.

I just can't wrap my head around that, just like I can not grasp the thought behind the idea to remove tuning restrictions for the seasonal races. If they find them to difficult, why not just loosen the restrictions? Or, as proposed in this thread, scale the rewards for winning the events by the grade of applied tuning and used aides. This is an excellent idea, and if a bunch of gamers (no offense meant) can come up with it just like that, why can't a game designer?

It's true that PD makes some utterly nonsensical decisions with respect to game design, but this isn't one of them. Is it really that hard to imagine why they did this? This forum is FILLED --absolutely FILLED --with complaints about the supposed "grind" of GT5, and how terrible it is, and how PD screwed up the XP and reward allocation for all the events.

Well, now we have some almost free XP and cash worth a few levels of aspec... And we're still unhappy?

 

[the Interceptor]

It's true that PD makes some utterly nonsensical decisions with respect to game design, but this isn't one of them. Is it really that hard to imagine why they did this? This forum is FILLED --absolutely FILLED --with complaints about the supposed "grind" of GT5, and how terrible it is, and how PD screwed up the XP and reward allocation for all the events.

The complaints may have played a role in the introductions of the seasonal events as such, and probably also in their latest design change. But if so, why not simply introduce two sets of events: one with very loose restrictions and slower opponents for the beginners, and a few hardcore stock vehicle events for the pros?

 

[strtgng]

Same here!

I understand the argument that you can restrict yourself at all times and use a bone stock car to beat the challenges, but it's just not the same. It's like walking into a room with a table full of chocolate and sweets, and someone says to you "You don't have to eat anything of that." ... let's face it - you will!

Here's my scenario for an unrestricted seasonal event: I buy the car, leave it in stock form and run the race at least once, maybe twice, to see where I stand and how I stack up against the car(s) to beat. If I see any chance to win the race with this configuration, I will try until I do it. If I notice that tuning will be inevitable, I will slap on some better tires, take a little weight out, put a bit more power in and try again. And here's the problem: there is nothing that prevents me from tuning the car that little bit more. Of course I can detune the car again when I notice it has become too fast, but which level do I apply? Do I make my life that slight bit easier, or should I remove that part and make it that bit harder? Say I do the latter and lose three times in a row, what stops me from putting it in again when I become frustrated with the race?

It's a psychological problem. If there are restrictions, I will try to get as close to the allowed limit as possible with my car. If I can do what I want, I will always be seduced to add that one more part which makes my life easier. And where's the limit? Who tells me that my car isn't absolutely overpowered already, and I just can't drive? Or that I'm desperately trying to win something I can not win with the underpowered car I am using?

Sorry, it just doesn't work that way, it is not the same thing. PD has taken the challenge out of the seasonal events with this major change.

You said it much better than I did! This is EXACTLY my problem with the lack of restrictions. I need motivation!

 

[Battman23]

This. GT has always let you make things as hard and easy as you want.

Being able to fully tune is good, for every CR spent on overtuning is CRs lost in prize money. It rewards you more for tuning less.

Exactly my thoughts here. I did the Elise and GT40 events last night and was a bit bummed when I took 1st in the 3rd lap from over tuning, but I am going to go back and at least do the gt40 event detuned (I didn't do any engine tuning or weight reduction). I think they are trying to figure out what people will like and maybe throwing people a bone so that they can afford a Formula Gran Turismo.

I really hope they keep updating these every week or 2 like they have been.

 

[prymet1me]

Some of you are so anal and honestly quite sad. Elaborate why this bothers YOU so much, what exactly is stopping YOU from racing with an underpowered car? Are you jelly everyone will be able to get some money and XP and maybe buy a car they wanted. Get over your self and stop crying a river.

Soon as I get home from work I will blow away the AI cars and get some easy money and XP just cause I know it annoys you TC.

 

[strtgng]

So you rant about not having a challenge yet you do BD glitching and duping? Dude I agree they should have kept it as hard as it was, but you are just a big fat hypocrite!

Maybe - but I'm not duping and glitching to beat others online or be in the trading scene. I just want a big collection of cars to drive when i want to (arcade mode) and not grind to get them. When driving in the game I want it to be a challenge and most importantly - have motivation and a goal to beat.

Having a few hundred extra cars in my garage doesn't help me shave the last few seconds off of my time in the GT-R race or hit consistent lap times in a 68hp Fiat. I don't see the driving side of the game and the collecting side of the game as being very connected to each other.

If every A-spec race had real restrictions like the seasonal events did, I think a lot of us would have had much more enjoyment out of the game to begin with. A lot more frustration too... but a good frustration as opposed to being frustrated that the balance of the game was tilted way to the "flavor of the week" gamer who will be back to the latest shooter game next week.

 

[tezster]

I think a decent compromise for the next events update would be to award different amounts of XP/credits clearing the events with and without restrictions

 

[RacingManiac]

I think again the experience falls to the player, like so many things in the GT. You can make it as easy or as hard as you want. I don't necessarily needs PD to tell me how to enjoy the game(and frankly losing to a monster Focus at my low skill level around one of my least favorite track was not exactly fun). For these events now I will run them at least twice, once stock, decide what to put on for the upgrade...then run again to try to win....

 

[DTS]

How old are you?

Don't lie.

 

[Jarnac]

Spent cr.900000, got 1500000 back plus enough experience to take me halfway from lvl25 to lvl26, good return on investment i'd reckon.. and another quality rally car in the garage.

 

[strtgng]

The funny thing is: I often don't understand PD. I don't understand the decisions they make. I was getting bored with GT5, and they introduced the seasonal races. This actually was the first opportunity since I started playing GT5 where I felt challenged and had good fun at the same time. With these events, they sprayed some new life into the already aging lady (from my point of view).

But every time I see this silver lining on the horizon, every time I think PD has finally found the right way and did something good, they come along, change something about it and completely devalue the original idea in the process. At times I think they have no real idea what people want.

Last time I felt like this was when they released the Academy Demo. Loads of people played this, loads of people had fun, and this could have been a great demo for GT5 at a time it was clear there won't be any freely available demo of the game. But when the time tables for the Academy were closed, they disabled the demo remotely - why? Why not just decouple it from the time tables and let it run as a demo? People were happy with it, this was a finished demo which wouldn't have needed any more work, and it was a great teaser for what was to come in GT5.

I just can't wrap my head around that, just like I can not grasp the thought behind the idea to remove tuning restrictions for the seasonal races. If they find them to difficult, why not just loosen the restrictions? Or, as proposed in this thread, scale the rewards for winning the events by the grade of applied tuning and used aides. This is an excellent idea, and if a bunch of gamers (no offense meant) can come up with it just like that, why can't a game designer?

Agree yet again with your statements and logic. PD seems to be like the bipolar guy who frequently forgets to take his medication...

Great conversation all.

 

[regnar]

I seriously doubt that PD is going to abandon difficult challenges all together, look at this as a coffee break at the moment. I finally achieved gold on all events, GT-R the last, though frustrating at times liked the challenges, but would like to see PD mix up the challenges, for example having race events that require HP & weight restriction.

This will get old very quickly if the only race events that PD puts up are mission races that are last to first on tires with low grip chasing a rabbit that has a 12 second lead even if you finish second.
That said, I hope these current events are one time only and that future events are more challenging, but that there are different types of challenging events including what we have seen in the first two.

 

[maxpontiac]

So these were the redeeming feature in GT5 that was renewing people's faith in PD. Actual challenging races where you had to pay attention to upgrades and tuning. I loved them, as did many others based on comments in these forums.

Now all tuning restrictions have been removed from the 2nd round of events and the 3rd have none to start with.

Why is PD so out of touch with the end users? Being challenged to drive fast and consistent, and fine tune settings was an eye opener to how much detail is in the game. After struggling all week at 14 seconds behind the leader in the GT-R event to winning tonight at 9:45 pm EST (15 minutes before the 1st events closed) with a gap of 0.446 to the Ford in second place by just tuning the car right was amazing!

Now all that can easily be overlooked - it is easier to make an 800hp car and annihilate the competition than to work at improving skill. How many people new to GT5 will do just that and then wonder what all the fuss is about?

Rant over - back to birthday glitching and duping, something the seasonal events were enough to tear me away from!

Truth be told, none of the prior Seasonal Events were too challenging for me in the first place.

I have yet to play the events, but from what I hear, the player controls how difficult the race is, and to me, that sounds like all GT games.

 

[strtgng]

How old are you?

Don't lie.

Who? Me - the OP?

39

 

[chaosdd]

I really liked the first couple of Seasonal Event sets. For me all were fun, some were too easy, some were spot on, some were on the difficult side (only the RX7 for me). I guess players with different skills has found different races easy/spot on/hard so there was something for everyone - great!

I don't like unlimitting the cars, since there's no way to estimate exactly how much tuning will keep the event challanging but doable. Typical opponents list can give only a vague clue about that, since you don't know your disadvantage and estimate oponent/needed pace.
But if PD wants to push for accessibility - so be it, we should respect this.

Anyway, I don't think that's such a big issue and we shouldn't be so cruel to PD. After all, until a couple of weeks, we didn't even rely on such bonus events.

Keep it positive and enjoy the game!

 

[strtgng]

UPDATE - I added a poll!

 

[amar212]

I agree with the OP.

This is nothing less than shame from perspective of challenge.

I can't understand such bland move no matter how hard I try.

I hope it is just an oversight of some kind and that it will be fixed.

 

[prymet1me]

Maybe - but I'm not duping and glitching to beat others online or be in the trading scene. I just want a big collection of cars to drive when i want to (arcade mode) and not grind to get them. When driving in the game I want it to be a challenge and most importantly - have motivation and a goal to beat.

Having a few hundred extra cars in my garage doesn't help me shave the last few seconds off of my time in the GT-R race or hit consistent lap times in a 68hp Fiat. I don't see the driving side of the game and the collecting side of the game as being very connected to each other.

If every A-spec race had real restrictions like the seasonal events did, I think a lot of us would have had much more enjoyment out of the game to begin with. A lot more frustration too... but a good frustration as opposed to being frustrated that the balance of the game was tilted way to the "flavor of the week" gamer who will be back to the latest shooter game next week.

There are so many issues with this post its silly. Also this has nothing to really do with Seasonal events. FYI there are many more players out there who just want to buy their favorite dream cars and race them against the A.I. also I am willing to bet the vast majority of GT players are no where near as hardcore purists (some hypocrites also) as some of you on this site. I have a feeling PD has the data from the seasonal events and saw a small amount of players completing the events so they changed it up.

If you need so much of a challenge and its so important to you go race online.

 

[ImprezaAddict]

I just think not everybody wants a challenge, and nobody is behind you with a whip ordering you to leave it stock or fully tune it. Maybe PD finally realized grinding is boring and gave everyone an easy chance to level up. Everyone can tune the car to their liking.

 

[nickg07]

But pd are not afraid of tough challenges I mean I can only silver the top and challenge races its tough love. They don't make it so I can tune up the sls a bit so I can get gold. I accept for now silver is my best effort
I don't cry about it or expect pd to dumb down. I want a challenge to aim at.

Pd schizophrenia in my opinion.

 

[maxpontiac]

I agree with the OP.

This is nothing less than shame from perspective of challenge.

I can't understand such bland move no matter how hard I try.

I hope it is just an oversight of some kind and that it will be fixed.

I just think not everybody wants a challenge, and nobody is behind you with a whip ordering you to leave it stock or fully tune it. Maybe PD finally realized grinding is boring and gave everyone an easy chance to level up. Everyone can tune the car to their liking.

These two posts go hand in hand.

 

[strtgng]

Maybe PD finally realized grinding is boring and gave everyone an easy chance to level up.

Basically lifting the restrictions allows those who think duping cars or using the b-day glitch is cheating to reap the same $$ rewards for as little effort and still sleep at night.

 

[Ritterkreuz]

Basically lifting the restrictions allows those who think duping cars or using the b-day glitch is cheating to reap the same $$ rewards for as little effort and still sleep at night.

See, I have to agree with ImprezaAddict, for once I was happy to win more in one race then I had to spend on the required car. So I say a big thanks to PD for giving me a small break for all the grinding I've had to do.

Oh, and I've never duplicated a car or used the B-day thing. I've earned my cars the old fashioned way thank you very much.

 

[djKyoto]

I don't like them as much now that they're easy (I love a challenge), so I just made it hard on myself, tried to do each one with minimum mods. Check My video thread for a couple of them done without any mods or aids (besides ABS).

 

[TurboProp]

If you want a challenge good for you, wear a blindfold or give the AI a 10 second head-start or don't mod the car! Wow, what a concept. Personally I want to blow the competition away and get my credit and XP. It's my freakin' game and I want to win, also I don't want to buy another duplicate car WITHOUT MODS!!! Like the old saying goes, never bring a knife to a gunfight, bring a Howitzer (OK, I added that last part). My 2 cents

 

[Ritterkreuz]

I don't like them as much now that they're easy (I love a challenge), so I just made it hard on myself, tried to do each one with minimum mods. Check My video thread for a couple of them done without any mods or aids (besides ABS).

We have a winner folks! Instead of whining you made it challenging for yourself! I salute you mate. (seriously I mean it, this is one of the most intelligent posts I've seen in a long time)

 

[strtgng]

There are so many issues with this post its silly.

Not sure what the issues are since you didn't detail any of them.

Also this has nothing to really do with Seasonal events.

Exactly my point. Thank you!