What can GT learn from GTS' player stats?

  • Thread starter MIE1992
  • 2 comments
  • 816 views
4,295
United States
Connecticut
Ridley-X4
I think for better or for worse, GT Sport is a niche within GT. I think it's many things: a testing ground for features like the social media system and livery editor, a game that has too much potential for interesting rulesets and regulations in its spotlighted Sport Mode, as well as its relatively new Sport Mode Time Trial mode. (I strongly believe that all races within Sport Mode, including FIAGTCs, have their rules and regulations procedurally-generated by an AI; not that I'd blame PD, since they likely have their hands full with the next game.) Another thing I'm seeing is an unusual lack of lobby features, especially compared to those offered in GT6 lobbies.

At any rate, I think more people enjoy the semi-creative aspect of GT, where you build up and tune your own car, versus the competitive modes - not that I support removing either or these. I'd prefer both to be expanded upon. For example, there could be a merging of the customization aspect and the competitive aspect, by potentially featuring races that limit how many modifications you could add to your car, or perhaps the list of eligible cars themselves could be limited, not unlike a campaign event.

One thing I don't recall being in a prior GT game was how, when you go under the settings for a car, the specific type of transmission is listed, such as a manual, or a sequential manual, CVT, or automatic. I am hoping this acknowledgment will spread to being part of the actual controls. In other words, instead of a "one-size fits all" approach to MT/AT, BB, TCS, etc. the options and controls would reflect those available in the actual model, and some features absent in a stock model could be added via a part. For example, the Supra A90 would be AT, the Gr.3 cars would be sequential manuals, and regular manuals would have a button assigned on the controller for the clutch. Perhaps there could be a "general controls" option, where you set basic stuff like steering, braking, and acceleration, but you could also overwrite some of these with controls that you can set for an individual car. That would also prevent situations where you have buttons that do nothing, like driving an F1 car while having buttons assigned for windshield wipers and headlights.

But I digress. I could go on for quite some time about what I think GTS/GT7 could or should include or change, but I don't think it'd be productive to do that here. Rather, I believe that, for all the genuinely good things GT Sport does (and continues to do), I think a lot of its sales are due to the fact that it's the first (and potentially last) Gran Turismo game on the PS4. It reminds me a bit of Pokemon, where when you look at the sales figures, the first games in each generation correspond to a notable spike in sales, with the recent Sword/Shield continuing this trend.

On KudosPrime's player stats, an incredibly tiny fraction of players are playing Sport Mode in any capacity. I'm not sure what that says, but I don't think it says GT/PD should dial back on the competitive aspects. Even though I admit I don't think I'll dabble much with any competitive stuff in the next GT game, I still like the idea. I would especially watch more live-streamed FIAGTC events if more unusual car selections came into play. Imagine, for example, a way that another manufacturer could join that series, or if more than just Gr.3 and Gr.4 cars were part of the Manufacturer Series. Or if the Nations Cup could have more than just one-makes, or if both series could offer something more to give them identities beyond the Red Bull cars being used in the Nations Cup.

I feel like the Pokemon VGC could be good inspiration for the FIAGTCs - the VGC seasons for both last year and this year have this interesting setup where the regulations get less restrictive as the season goes on. So for the Manufacturers Series, the races could begin with Gr.4 cars, or even N-Series cars, especially if more part options in the next game allow for more balanced fields, such as aero kits and rear wings. Eventually, the Manufacturers Series would have their last races use Gr.1 cars. (This could be very entertaining, considering what cars would be needed to provide most manufacturers in the series with Gr.1 cars, between older and newer prototypes from Group C to the WEC Hypercars, and VGTs. Some automakers may need to be sacrificed, like Citroen. Perhaps PD could approach those automakers and request a Gr.1 VGT?) Meanwhile, the Nations Cup could go through various N-Series classes, and have some Gr.X one-makes sprinkled throughout, like with the Red Bull Cars, or the Zonda R like we saw once. But the key here is a sense of progression, whether its with increasing power for the cars being used, or less regulations, like for the eligible cars.

I think I've gone a bit off-track, but at any rate, I'm looking forward to both the future of GT Sport, and whatever happens with the next game after it. I'm hoping that between these two titles (albeit one is hypothetical at this point) we'll see some further evolution and refinement of various features that've been both part of the series, and new to the series within GTS, like the livery editor. I'm seeing just a lot of potential for virtually every aspect, here, from the idea of the controls adding more to the character of each car and avoiding wasted button mappings, to more interesting FIAGTC rulesets to make things more entertaining. Nothing much I can actually do, though, other than speculate and wait.

Maybe for that MT/AT thing I mentioned, there could be a general option that applies to all cars, and it could allow you to either use AT/MT, but also a "real" option, which would do what I described earlier, and in ranked races, you'd be forced to the "real" option for most, if not all the time. You could also set it as part of a lobby setting. Or maybe instead of AT vs. MT, it could be "Basic" vs. "Advanced," where the former is a "one-size fits all" setting that has AT apply to all cars, and is intended for beginners, and the latter includes the car-by-car controller mapping, as well as having the AT vs. MT (and CVT and sequential MT) factor depend on the model itself.
 
Last edited:
That introducing the best and most easy accessible online racing mode in any racing game has made the game worth playing for every day of the 847 days it has been available.

The stats shows a game that is still active in it's 3 year, it is still generating interest, sales and most importantly, PSN subscribers. The 200.000 players that were actively playing online in January makes everything worthwhile for PD and Sony.

The game is a success and i will bet that the next GT game will follow in it's footsteps with even better online support. Sure, there is a big chance that offline stuff will be added, but it will be window dressing, the real meat is in the Sports mode, that is what generates money and constant activity.

What was considered a thin strange vague release turned out to be a fat cow with lots of content and a steady stream of content.

I would not be surprised it GT-Sport is going to be a big part of the PS5 launch. It's easy pickings with customers willing to pay..
 
I don't think becoming less lenient on regulations will help GTS' racing; in fact, I think currently they need MORE regulating and balancing for a truly equal playing field.

Gr. 3 I think is the most balanced car class, as everything is RWD and has a 6 speed. Even then there are always some odd outliers, most notably the Viper, which has a hulking 8.4L V10 and the fuel consumption of one, but doesn't corner nearly awful enough to be the powerhouse of the category, so it's forced to play the role of a slowly accelerating, well cornering car... with the fuel consumption of a powerhouse.

In Gr. 4, you have a mix of drivetrains and forward gear count. You'd think that, with power and mass regulated by BoP, the AWD cars would be OP, but no, tyre wear kills any chance they have at being competitively viable. What about FF cars? They are like fish out of the water. In a fuel saving race, anything with 7 gears (or the Megane Trophy, which seriously doesn't look or feel like a Gr. 4 machine to me) is your go-to. In Gr. 1, if fuel is a factor in the race, you essentially only have the LMP1 Toyota and Porsche to choose from - everything else is literally not even worth looking at, with the Group C cars being a joke; imagine cars with 5 speed manual gearboxes in the same category as hybrid, 8 speed VGTs. Gr. 2 is not a group in my mind and I don't even want to talk about it. Same goes for N class.

The problem I feel is that Gran Turismo takes a lot of real life cars that conform to differing regulations and races IRL and dumps them into one category. I don't believe that adjusting power and mass alone can truly balance a playing field. I honestly think that the only way to get true balance is via the fictional cars. As a shafted driver for Mazda I really do hope tyre wear rates apply differently for AWD and FF cars than they do for RWD; like 0.8x for AWD and 0.5x for FF for 1x normal wear rate.

When I read the thread's title, I had expected to see PD actually analysing the DR and SR graphs over time for each player, because as a garbage driver in garbage lobbies, I've seen SRS drivers deliberately punt others, sometimes just as an act of spite or rage, and not just at one person, but towards the entire field. Studying the SR of these drivers on Kudos, you can see that they often have massive SR drops, only to slowly climb back up to 99 to drop again. I feel that the SR system is too exploitable in the sense that you can build up goodwill to later "spend" it in FIA races, and people like these should never ever be allowed up to SRS again.

That said, I don't really know of a solution to implement this, other than for PD to hire drivers to play their game from DRB and up. These drivers would not have any indication that they're hired eyes, but through each race they can study and blacklist players who beyond doubt abuse the rather daft penalty system, or otherwise intentionally ruin the race for others. It's a rather resource intensive measure, but I truly believe that no AI can ever perfectly judge racing.

On a side note: screw Pokemon and Game Freak. I can't believe how greedy and lazy they've become. If other game devs learn from them: cutting features from a rushed and incomplete base game only to charge a premium to have some of it back, I will boycott games forever as I have Pokemon.
 
Back