- 271
- United States
- The__Ghost__Z
I completely understand instituting a "no draft" rule for longer (1 mile+) drag races if you want to test two tunes against eachother, or drivers reaction times. However, in a game where almost any car's 'optimal' (to within a few thousands of a second) tune is available online, lag plays a decent part in determining start times, and very few (if any) cars are contests as to what their times would be, I do not understand why drafting is so vehemently hated among drag racers for SSR7 drag races.
It would be one thing if no two cars, despite similar, had exact tunes, or if tuning a car to close to its peak performance was difficult, but most tunes are freely available and those that are not are easy to figure out through helpful tutorials. It's completely different from squeezing a hundredth of a second out of a perfect tune, because if both racers are in different cars, very little will determine who will win except for which car the game allows to be faster at peak tune.
On the off-chance that the other driver is a bad tuner or driving a high mileage car, it may skew results, but after enough races you can bet on which of two cars would win if they are different.
In the event that the cars are identical, some tuning might impact the race, and that is fine, but more often than not it comes down to just reaction time or lag differences between the drivers.
I'm not saying that all drag racing should have drafting, that is absurd. But I am saying that drafting in a race with a predetermined winner to begin with (especially between cars of wildly different performance measures) means that instead of just tuning for top performance, there is a level of skill in handling the car that is important. However, this type of race, a high speed game of strategy, is completely lost online because of strong no-draft policies by most SSR7 rooms.
I've seen some rooms that try to have legitimate races, but they tend to devolve into these drag races soon enough. This, coupled with a refusal to accept drafting as a legitimate strategy for victory in races (and I do think it is considerably more fun if you have to actually think, not just slam the gas and shift a few times) means that high speed drag racing on GT5 is both a solved game and a boring one. In addition, many unusable cars for drag racing, that are simply out-performed by anything close to their level of cost, HP, or PP, are viable to use.
I am of the opinion that, without using any strategy, the driver of the faster car usually loses in a drafting race against someone with a strategy. This suggests that drag racers are more prone to deny the game altogether in favor of basing races entirely on reaction time or if someone makes a mistake in tuning, rather than the skill of actually driving, or the effort to make purpose-built tunes to counteract strategy. It's trading a possibly great metagame for something a lot less exciting, but perhaps more 'fair'.
I know this is a bit off-topic for the forum, especially since this deals primarily with 1/4 mile and this thread is more about high speed racing, but what are your opinions on the matter? Am I completely crazy or is this a valid complaint?
It would be one thing if no two cars, despite similar, had exact tunes, or if tuning a car to close to its peak performance was difficult, but most tunes are freely available and those that are not are easy to figure out through helpful tutorials. It's completely different from squeezing a hundredth of a second out of a perfect tune, because if both racers are in different cars, very little will determine who will win except for which car the game allows to be faster at peak tune.
On the off-chance that the other driver is a bad tuner or driving a high mileage car, it may skew results, but after enough races you can bet on which of two cars would win if they are different.
In the event that the cars are identical, some tuning might impact the race, and that is fine, but more often than not it comes down to just reaction time or lag differences between the drivers.
I'm not saying that all drag racing should have drafting, that is absurd. But I am saying that drafting in a race with a predetermined winner to begin with (especially between cars of wildly different performance measures) means that instead of just tuning for top performance, there is a level of skill in handling the car that is important. However, this type of race, a high speed game of strategy, is completely lost online because of strong no-draft policies by most SSR7 rooms.
I've seen some rooms that try to have legitimate races, but they tend to devolve into these drag races soon enough. This, coupled with a refusal to accept drafting as a legitimate strategy for victory in races (and I do think it is considerably more fun if you have to actually think, not just slam the gas and shift a few times) means that high speed drag racing on GT5 is both a solved game and a boring one. In addition, many unusable cars for drag racing, that are simply out-performed by anything close to their level of cost, HP, or PP, are viable to use.
I am of the opinion that, without using any strategy, the driver of the faster car usually loses in a drafting race against someone with a strategy. This suggests that drag racers are more prone to deny the game altogether in favor of basing races entirely on reaction time or if someone makes a mistake in tuning, rather than the skill of actually driving, or the effort to make purpose-built tunes to counteract strategy. It's trading a possibly great metagame for something a lot less exciting, but perhaps more 'fair'.
I know this is a bit off-topic for the forum, especially since this deals primarily with 1/4 mile and this thread is more about high speed racing, but what are your opinions on the matter? Am I completely crazy or is this a valid complaint?
Last edited:
