Tips for the beginner

  • Thread starter Lappari990
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dabz343
Although I endorse acquiring fundamental knowledge as a means to success, sometimes theory can be a limiting factor through overthinking.

It's a fine balance. Check out these toddlers showcasing a wonderful balance of theory and instinct.

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Fantastic race!!! It always amazes me that kids that young can have such good racecraft. Those are the shorter wheelbase "kid karts" as they are called at our local track. I think kids as young as 5 can start racing. My kids started in full size karts at 9 & 12 years old. My youngest took it far more seriously, he became quite fast, almost everywhere we went we were competitive. His last weekend out he set the track lap record in his class. Then he turned 15 and got a girlfriend, end of racing. He is in his mid 20's now, I offered to build him a car and help him race if he chose to do so, but I told him he had to spend 1 year in karts again so I could make sure he was serious. Until that time I will proceed with my car I guess.
 
dabz343
Although I endorse acquiring fundamental knowledge as a means to success, sometimes theory can be a limiting factor through overthinking.
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Too true. I'm a martial arts nut and I have all kinds of MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu books in my collection. Despite my huge lexicon and knowledge of ways to strangle people, I'm still only neck to neck with my peers. Ultimately mat time, repetition, and practice will determine how good you are but it definitely didn't hurt me to have a better understanding of what I was doing. Ironically, knowing too many techniques can sometimes create decision paralysis which in a fight, pretty much means you're dead.
 
BallPtPenTheif
Too true. I'm a martial arts nut and I have all kinds of MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu books in my collection. Despite my huge lexicon and knowledge of ways to strangle people, I'm still only neck to neck with my peers. Ultimately mat time, repetition, and practice will determine how good you are but it definitely didn't hurt me to have a better understanding of what I was doing. Ironically, knowing too many techniques can sometimes create decision paralysis which in a fight, pretty much means you're dead.
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dabz343
In the creative industry, we call this "analysis paralysis".
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I love it, you're overthinking about overthinking. Point taken. :lol:

Seriously though, this is racing. You drive the best you can and if something isn't working, it's good to have other tools to try. Why it has to be more complicated than that is beyond me.
 
fastone371
On the other hand you dont know what you dont know.
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Yeah, and in truth I was being a bit melodramatic with the whole "dead" thing. In reality, the decision paralysis typically pops up when you're in a control position with multiple options, so as long as you're mindful of your body placement and pressure you're actually not in real danger. You are just sitting there stalling like a starfish but you're not going to die.
 
I feel that the Circuit Experience could/should be expanded, since it would be a great tool for improvement. Things I would absolutely love:

  1. The ability to pick any of the available tracks in game
  2. The ability to set your own start/end points so you can target specific sections/corners
  3. The ability to pick any car you own for each track
  4. The ability to change the setting on the car to reflect actual driving behaviour of races

The circuit experience right now is a nice tool, but I believe that quite a considerable amount of people are capable of golding all missions first try and get nothing out of them. There's certain cars I don't like driving because they don't suit my driving style, so there's no reason to go back to them. I spend a lot of time in custom races set to be like upcoming races with tyre wear and fuel consumption. Its a great way to nail a strategy, but hard to practice specific parts of tracks where you know you're dropping several tenths in a single corner to people who are better when it takes up to 2 minutes before getting another shot at it.
 
Ferr3t
I feel that the Circuit Experience could/should be expanded, since it would be a great tool for improvement. Things I would absolutely love:

  1. The ability to pick any of the available tracks in game
  2. The ability to set your own start/end points so you can target specific sections/corners
  3. The ability to pick any car you own for each track
  4. The ability to change the setting on the car to reflect actual driving behaviour of races

The circuit experience right now is a nice tool, but I believe that quite a considerable amount of people are capable of golding all missions first try and get nothing out of them. There's certain cars I don't like driving because they don't suit my driving style, so there's no reason to go back to them. I spend a lot of time in custom races set to be like upcoming races with tyre wear and fuel consumption. Its a great way to nail a strategy, but hard to practice specific parts of tracks where you know you're dropping several tenths in a single corner to people who are better when it takes up to 2 minutes before getting another shot at it.
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I like the suggestions.

Right now the Circuit Experience mode is probably the biggest tool I use to really learn a course. I essentially just keep hammering away on a segment until I approach Stotty's times or 1st place among my friends. After a long session on one track I'm fairly dialed in on how the course wants to be driven.

VBR
I am utterly convinced that most people will never be alien fast, no matter how much they learn. Yes, aliens can learn & get a little faster, but they have the natural talent there in the first place.
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Any prodigy I've ever met actually worked insanely hard at whatever ability anybody thought they were gifted at. In extreme cases they either had addiction tendencies or were on the autism spectrum, which caused them to get abnormally fixated on things. If supported or pursued properly that fixation can be productive and yield amazing results.

There's a famous fighter, BJ Penn. He's often regarded as a jiu-jitsu prodigy because he earned his black belt in three years and then proceeded to beat everyone at the highest level of jiu-jitsu and then eventually MMA. Usually it takes 10 + years to get a black belt and back then getting it in three was just unheard of. But when you looked at his training schedule and realized that he lived at the gym where he trained because his rich parents covered his living expenses then you can see that he was training 3 times more than a normal student. So his 3 years was actually the equivalent of a normal person's 10 years.

Most of us just get too bored too easily to realize our peak potential.
 
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BallPtPenTheif
Any prodigy I've ever met actually worked insanely hard at whatever ability anybody thought they were gifted at
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Someone finally said it :)
Not really attacking on anyone, but I loathe the mindset that there are talents and geniuses. It's as if one is disregarding all the hard worm and struggles a so-called "prodigy" to get to that level. I could ramble on and on (my unedited first post here had 3 paragraphs to say about this topic), but let's just call those who are great at something, simply "great". Not a prodigy, nor a natural, nor talented. Let's acknowledge the hard work behind the wings in which they use to fly high :)
 
BallPtPenTheif
Most of us just get too bored too easily to realize our peak potential.
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This is true. I've seen this quality undermine the exceptionally talented. Sometimes, you can be your own worst enemy and you have to learn how to get out of your own way.

Be aware of too much repetition, and be intentional about creative stimulation to keep your mind from stalling.
 
Not sure if this is an absolute beginner tip. But save your replays - fastest lap and race! Being able to load a ghost from it helps when coming back to a track after some time away making it a little easier to remember and also chip away at your best time.
 
^this

In GT5 I was kinda quick but when I came across actual competition I got smoked. I finally started saving and watching the replays to see what the top guys were doing and trying to mimic those whose styles seemed similar to mine. I improved vastly and eventually was just as fast as my mentors. I’m still no alien but I can hold my own in most races.
 

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