Things are moving at Codemasters
GRID Autosport GRID Autosport
- Thread starter Bram Hengeveld
- Start date
Thanks Robert, I read over it and it sounds pretty in depth and looks like you've got it all covered pretty well.
Right now I'm available for the most part in the evenings or later at night during the week or almost whenever on the weekends but I'm a family man first so that can certainly hinder my availability at times. I'm in Kansas, United States so I'm Central time.
I will likely be on this evening around 6 Central.
Right now I'm available for the most part in the evenings or later at night during the week or almost whenever on the weekends but I'm a family man first so that can certainly hinder my availability at times. I'm in Kansas, United States so I'm Central time.
I will likely be on this evening around 6 Central.
I think you are correct there Robert and I was probably being a bit too optimistic in what I was hoping for when I first heard about it lol. I need to look at it again but am I right in remembering that you a have a choice of 10, 25 and 1 minute clips to upload? Having uploaded that one minute clip I can also in hindsight understand why they have limited it as that took quite some time to process and upload and I can imagine the outcry from people if they were stuck sitting at their consoles for ages unable to race while that was happening.
I still can’t seem to locate my uploaded replay though. My YouTube account was already linked to my Racenet account (did that ages ago when I first joined Racenet when it first came out) but still have no idea where my video is. I see that yours are all sitting on your YouTube channel along with all your other videos so no idea what has happened to mine.
The issue of non-saving of replays is something that has bugged me ever since the first game (F1 2010). With so many people having Xbox’s with HDD it seemed simple to me to allow the option to save the race replay to that. It’s something that has never had a response. I guess we’ll have to carry on as we do with F1 if we want races recorded.
The disc error didn’t happen last night when I had half an hour to spare for the game but I will be installing to my HDD tonight and hopefully that will prevent it rearing it’s head again. Watch this space!!
I know what you mean about all the tracks Robert, I am loving the fact that there are so many that I have not had the chance to drive on before but agree that perhaps the best way into this game is to drive all the cars on tracks known to you initially to get a feel for them all and work out the wheel settings required. But it’s so tempting to just jump into these new tracks lol Abu Dhabi last night in the Racenet Challenge was fantastic fun, such a difference from the GP circuit with all it’s looooong straight lines lol If you haven’t tried the Autosport Circuit yet then you really have to as that was just sensational.
I will be interested to hear what you think of the Formula B cars. As I said previously I had a 20 minute practice session the 2 lap qualifying session and then two 5 lap races at Isatanbul the other night. I loved it but there was a bit of an odd feel to the car at times, kind of like it was swivelling on it’s centre axis at certain points, a bit like it had a scalectrix pin stuck underneath the car. Mainly noticed it around the downhill part at turn 4 where the car does get very light. Not sure whether that’s down to a non-optimised wheel as I still have to play around with that but have just been having too much fun with it as it is to spend too much time tinkering in that area. Let me know what you think anyway.
If you want sliding then these cars are the place to go.. realistic.. I don’t know.. fun.. ABSOLUTELY!!
Although having pit stops would have been nice for realism I think the fact that they are missing is not going to be too much of a problem in all honesty. The races will be relatively short when compared to what we are used to in F1 but not too short that they feel like sprint races. Not having to worry about pit stops leaves us able to concentrate on nothing but the racing which I feel is going to be really something once we get ourselves up and running properly.
I assume that the money you have racked up at Indy is in online races? It is definitely the case that offline and online money are separate isn’t it? Apparently CM are looking into the high cost of cars and repairs so hopefully this will alleviate some of the problems envisaged with that side of the online game. The loan car system obviously allows everyone to compete regardless of money earned but it does make for a bit of an uneven playing field doesn’t it? Am correct in thinking that loan cars are never going to be as optimised as owned cars as my impression is that the loaned car you get for any given race will never be at 100%. Let me know if that’s not the case as you are in a better position to know that having run a fair bit online so far.
There isn’t the facility to set up an online race of your own where you can race just against AI if no one else is around is there? I always felt this should have been something that was possible in the F1 series so that people such as myself who don’t get the chance for online racing much can still test out the online cars in their own online sessions even if others are not available.
Got some time to sit down and play last night. Advanced a little further in the career mode. This game is really fun to play. Its not as realistic as Assetto Corsa but its certainly every bit as fun as the original GRID. I have begun all of disciplines except endurance so far and each of them are fun in their own way. I was amazed at how good drifting felt. It still takes practice but this is the best drifting of the GIRD series. The FFB is outstanding for drifting.
I just wonder if there is any solution to change advanced settings e.g.steering saturation, deadzone and especially LINEARITY if you have no supported wheel?
give it a few weeks n the grid2 players will get fed up not being able to drift the corners n bugger off back to the crappy game,i just race with my friends mainly in my own lobby so if any1 comes in who dirty kicked out
Thanks for this Robert, very useful information for everyone 
Can you clarify some of things for me.
There are two types of XP it seems, one for the overall game and then another for each individual car.. is that correct?
Why do you say to not upgrade your car if you want to use it in the league? Is that so we can all run an equal car or some other reason?
The requirement for maximum XP to enable the full tuning options for each car sounds like it is going to be pretty prohibitive. Do you know how long it takes to earn that maximum XP for a single car? With the amount of time you have had to play online and accrue money and XP do you now have full tuning for those two cars that you now own?
I do like the idea of what they are trying here as it does add another layer to the game but in terms of something like league play it would seem to create a bit of an uneven playing field if some are able to have fully tuned and upgraded cars while others are having to use what I assume are un-upgraded loaned cars. Also are the loaned cars at 100% when you get them? I noticed from the challenges I have so far tried that loaned cars are always less than optimal (around 85%) so is that always the case do you know?
One of the things I read was that loan cars have a far lower repair cost than owned cars (by around 90% if what I read was correct) so if in a league with some drivers in loan cars and some owning their cars the loanee drivers would obviously keep a far bigger portion of their winnings building up a pot of money far easier than those who owned the cars. Not sure what benefit that would be but do you know if that’s correct? Do you know what sort of costs are involved in car repairs? There is a view that these are set too high at the moment and that even running clean races leaves you with too big a bill and pretty much negates what you earn from the races. What’s your take on that?
It is a bit disappointing that the duration of an event does not have any impact on the money you can earn. I was hoping that maybe taking part in for example a 15 lap race would multiply your earnings by a significant amount. That way at least they allow you the chance to enjoy some real racing with a suitable reward at the end of it. The whole notion of needing to run such an amount of time online in quickfire events purely to earn money is a bit off putting for me. As you know I have limited time available at the moment and I want to be able to spend my time in decent racing when I do manage to get on rather than having to spend time on repetitive sessions simply with the aim of building up a bank balance to enable the purchase \ upgrading \ tuning of cars. With regard to XP do the one lappers also have the same effect on that as the money or is that impacted by the race distance at all?
I guess it’s difficult for them to get that balance right but hopefully one of the early patches will include a revision of the money aspect to ease the necessity to run these sprint type races.
Anyway. I’ll await your (and anyone else’s) responses with interest and thanks again for the info on the best way to boost the bank balance.
Can you clarify some of things for me.
There are two types of XP it seems, one for the overall game and then another for each individual car.. is that correct?
Why do you say to not upgrade your car if you want to use it in the league? Is that so we can all run an equal car or some other reason?
The requirement for maximum XP to enable the full tuning options for each car sounds like it is going to be pretty prohibitive. Do you know how long it takes to earn that maximum XP for a single car? With the amount of time you have had to play online and accrue money and XP do you now have full tuning for those two cars that you now own?
I do like the idea of what they are trying here as it does add another layer to the game but in terms of something like league play it would seem to create a bit of an uneven playing field if some are able to have fully tuned and upgraded cars while others are having to use what I assume are un-upgraded loaned cars. Also are the loaned cars at 100% when you get them? I noticed from the challenges I have so far tried that loaned cars are always less than optimal (around 85%) so is that always the case do you know?
One of the things I read was that loan cars have a far lower repair cost than owned cars (by around 90% if what I read was correct) so if in a league with some drivers in loan cars and some owning their cars the loanee drivers would obviously keep a far bigger portion of their winnings building up a pot of money far easier than those who owned the cars. Not sure what benefit that would be but do you know if that’s correct? Do you know what sort of costs are involved in car repairs? There is a view that these are set too high at the moment and that even running clean races leaves you with too big a bill and pretty much negates what you earn from the races. What’s your take on that?
It is a bit disappointing that the duration of an event does not have any impact on the money you can earn. I was hoping that maybe taking part in for example a 15 lap race would multiply your earnings by a significant amount. That way at least they allow you the chance to enjoy some real racing with a suitable reward at the end of it. The whole notion of needing to run such an amount of time online in quickfire events purely to earn money is a bit off putting for me. As you know I have limited time available at the moment and I want to be able to spend my time in decent racing when I do manage to get on rather than having to spend time on repetitive sessions simply with the aim of building up a bank balance to enable the purchase \ upgrading \ tuning of cars. With regard to XP do the one lappers also have the same effect on that as the money or is that impacted by the race distance at all?
I guess it’s difficult for them to get that balance right but hopefully one of the early patches will include a revision of the money aspect to ease the necessity to run these sprint type races.
Anyway. I’ll await your (and anyone else’s) responses with interest and thanks again for the info on the best way to boost the bank balance.
Peter:
Morning. I was intending to be on when you got up but got too tired and fell asleep. I hope your disk error irons itself out during the coming days and you never see it again. I too have loaded games on my xbox and have loads of HDD space left, but you always need the disk don't you? I always found that strange. I man, if you buy a copy of Windows and load it into a PC, you don't have to always have the disk do you? Why not the same with games. At least it would ensure that your games don't get scratched or broken. Or...maybe that's what they want.
When the game was in pre-release, CM always said that track detail was going to be very important, and boy were they right. If this makes any sense -- the Forza tracks seem like they are the best looking, from a purely clinical perspective (e.g. the tarmac looks real and the cones stay where the cars move them, etc.). But the GRID A/S tracks seem *alive" if that makes any sense. This is where the detail comes in. Like the small bugs flying around your windshield (or are they distant birds?) before a race start at Indy. Or the fans leaning over the railing in Paris during a street race (I had forgotten how good this was in GRID because I was so miffed about the cars I just stopped enjoying it), or the bird flying over your car, or the leaves of fall swirling around you as you drive, or the announcers actually talking before the race and afterwards like you hear at some tracks on a loudspeaker, or (so I've heard) the wildlife that appears near or on the tracks at certain remote locations, or the fact that you just "feel" like you are in the Austrian Alps at Red Bull. I know they have remapped these things, and have done a better job at that too. I get more of an elevation sensation at Spa and certainly at Red Bull Ring. I can tell the rumble strips are different in certain corners at Spa. Some of the "crispness" isn't there, but the detail is, like the chunks of dirt flying when yo go off track or the water that comes out of the tires when you hit them! So it's a great feeling of atmosphere and feeling like you are at a race, especially with what is very familiar to me (that some don't like) in the restricted cockpit view. F1 2013 seems to be a mix of the two but some of those track seem too flat and one dimensional.
And speaking of loose, I got on F1 last night to practice the classics, and THAT car felt more loose than the GRID open wheel cars. Maybe it was my setup or the fact that I was in a very fast car at a tricky track (Japan) but it really didn't feel like I had much connection with the corners at all. And I had WAY too much Force Feedback or Wheel Weight on, but could not really get this as I haven't had a really goof handling game to compare with since Race Pro -- and that is a very small and cliquish crowd anyway, I have not played it in a while. The more I drive these cars in GRID, the more I think CM *did* nail it. Two point here. First among out crowd, they tend to be too used to F1. Not all for sure, but many. So they have gotten the sense that this is what a real race car should feel like in a game. But this is where a little of the Marcin in me comes out...this is not reality folks. I have been in a 300ZX and a Mazda spec racer at Road Atlanta and even those cars power-slide around certain turns, let loose or tight (in NASCAR terms) and *not* have it either result in a twitch or off track experience, and drift around certain corners. I watched one race (some small car stock series) where at the "hairpin" section, almost every car would get up on two wheels due to the G-Forces around the turn and the lack of serious suspension.
And by the way, have you driven the Paris challenge this week?!?! I never thought I'd say this, but I absolutely loved it. I never liked street racing in F1 because the cars are just too fast for that sort of circuit and I never liked other games (except maybe Race Pro, but their street circuits were nowhere NEAR the level of realism in GRID). But the Paris was stunning. Maybe because it was new, but the trackside detail, the cobblestones, the people,and the iconic scenery just took my breath away. And when you combined that with a great handling car that actually stuck (mostly) to the road, it was magic. That's when I realized that this is a game that may become my all time favorite. From a purely racing perspective. I still think you can't have a definitive racing game without pits. But if you just want to drive, this is quickly becoming #1.
More reasons? Well you asked about Formula B open wheel and Istanbul. I have not even set foot on that track yet! lol. There are so many cars and so much to do, I have meant to, but I have driven the AutoGP (Cat B open wheel) and they are a great balance between the hurricane force blender if the IndyCar (have you ever watched an in car camera on at an IndyCar street race...even formula cars are nowhere near as "clinical" to drive as F1 2013 makes it look). I bet the GP3 cars are the most fun since the power is not going to be as uncontrollable but the cars are going to be fast, stuck, and the view fantastic. Isn't it great all these options?
Ultimately, I think you are right about the pitstops. Codemasters seems to have allowed just enough bumping and grinding (except in open wheel, where we may need flashbacks) in the non-open wheel classes
And I swear the A.I. have personalities. I was a little rough with a couple of them getting through the pack on more than one occasion and I swear they came back and started beating on me! lol. it was like I was getting mad at an actual person. Codemasters said this would happen, in fact, and it seems to be true. Otherwise, they are fairly predictable, but do protect their lines, and will take advantage of a space you leave open. Just like real life. They knock you around a bit too much in the lower classes, but I'm not sure how much that's me wanting to be, um, "playful" or driving erratically vs.them just being poorly programmed. Probably a lot of the former, although I hate to admit it.
You raise a good question about loaner cars. I'm not sure if the percentage you see accurately reflects what they will do on the track or if it just is sort of an incentive to spend more cash and play the game more. I really need to test a few things on line, but have had nobody around to do it. Railer is MIA and Karl is on vacation. If you come home for lunch, I'd love to just run a quick session at Indy with the Cat C Touring Cars (the times in the Custom Cup in SP are about 1:00 flat consistently). I have bought one and it's at 100%, so if I run it, and then a loaner, I'll have a good idea of whether or not loaners see that much of a decrease in performance. Frankly though, there is really no excuse not to get your own car, at least for the first four races, since we are all skilled enough to do the on line challenges and we can always level up at Indy. I can't emphasize enough that tuning in this game makes all the difference in the world. Not in terms of lap times necessarily, but in terms of feel. And I think the it will be 1000% more enjoyable if we are able to tune our own cars (even a little) in league races. This is true across all tiers and disciplines. And the only way you can do that on line is to own your own car and then race THAT CAR in on line races. That's why we need to get into these Indy mini session more often.
Morning. I was intending to be on when you got up but got too tired and fell asleep. I hope your disk error irons itself out during the coming days and you never see it again. I too have loaded games on my xbox and have loads of HDD space left, but you always need the disk don't you? I always found that strange. I man, if you buy a copy of Windows and load it into a PC, you don't have to always have the disk do you? Why not the same with games. At least it would ensure that your games don't get scratched or broken. Or...maybe that's what they want.
When the game was in pre-release, CM always said that track detail was going to be very important, and boy were they right. If this makes any sense -- the Forza tracks seem like they are the best looking, from a purely clinical perspective (e.g. the tarmac looks real and the cones stay where the cars move them, etc.). But the GRID A/S tracks seem *alive" if that makes any sense. This is where the detail comes in. Like the small bugs flying around your windshield (or are they distant birds?) before a race start at Indy. Or the fans leaning over the railing in Paris during a street race (I had forgotten how good this was in GRID because I was so miffed about the cars I just stopped enjoying it), or the bird flying over your car, or the leaves of fall swirling around you as you drive, or the announcers actually talking before the race and afterwards like you hear at some tracks on a loudspeaker, or (so I've heard) the wildlife that appears near or on the tracks at certain remote locations, or the fact that you just "feel" like you are in the Austrian Alps at Red Bull. I know they have remapped these things, and have done a better job at that too. I get more of an elevation sensation at Spa and certainly at Red Bull Ring. I can tell the rumble strips are different in certain corners at Spa. Some of the "crispness" isn't there, but the detail is, like the chunks of dirt flying when yo go off track or the water that comes out of the tires when you hit them! So it's a great feeling of atmosphere and feeling like you are at a race, especially with what is very familiar to me (that some don't like) in the restricted cockpit view. F1 2013 seems to be a mix of the two but some of those track seem too flat and one dimensional.
And speaking of loose, I got on F1 last night to practice the classics, and THAT car felt more loose than the GRID open wheel cars. Maybe it was my setup or the fact that I was in a very fast car at a tricky track (Japan) but it really didn't feel like I had much connection with the corners at all. And I had WAY too much Force Feedback or Wheel Weight on, but could not really get this as I haven't had a really goof handling game to compare with since Race Pro -- and that is a very small and cliquish crowd anyway, I have not played it in a while. The more I drive these cars in GRID, the more I think CM *did* nail it. Two point here. First among out crowd, they tend to be too used to F1. Not all for sure, but many. So they have gotten the sense that this is what a real race car should feel like in a game. But this is where a little of the Marcin in me comes out...this is not reality folks. I have been in a 300ZX and a Mazda spec racer at Road Atlanta and even those cars power-slide around certain turns, let loose or tight (in NASCAR terms) and *not* have it either result in a twitch or off track experience, and drift around certain corners. I watched one race (some small car stock series) where at the "hairpin" section, almost every car would get up on two wheels due to the G-Forces around the turn and the lack of serious suspension.
And by the way, have you driven the Paris challenge this week?!?! I never thought I'd say this, but I absolutely loved it. I never liked street racing in F1 because the cars are just too fast for that sort of circuit and I never liked other games (except maybe Race Pro, but their street circuits were nowhere NEAR the level of realism in GRID). But the Paris was stunning. Maybe because it was new, but the trackside detail, the cobblestones, the people,and the iconic scenery just took my breath away. And when you combined that with a great handling car that actually stuck (mostly) to the road, it was magic. That's when I realized that this is a game that may become my all time favorite. From a purely racing perspective. I still think you can't have a definitive racing game without pits. But if you just want to drive, this is quickly becoming #1.
More reasons? Well you asked about Formula B open wheel and Istanbul. I have not even set foot on that track yet! lol. There are so many cars and so much to do, I have meant to, but I have driven the AutoGP (Cat B open wheel) and they are a great balance between the hurricane force blender if the IndyCar (have you ever watched an in car camera on at an IndyCar street race...even formula cars are nowhere near as "clinical" to drive as F1 2013 makes it look). I bet the GP3 cars are the most fun since the power is not going to be as uncontrollable but the cars are going to be fast, stuck, and the view fantastic. Isn't it great all these options?
Ultimately, I think you are right about the pitstops. Codemasters seems to have allowed just enough bumping and grinding (except in open wheel, where we may need flashbacks) in the non-open wheel classes
And I swear the A.I. have personalities. I was a little rough with a couple of them getting through the pack on more than one occasion and I swear they came back and started beating on me! lol. it was like I was getting mad at an actual person. Codemasters said this would happen, in fact, and it seems to be true. Otherwise, they are fairly predictable, but do protect their lines, and will take advantage of a space you leave open. Just like real life. They knock you around a bit too much in the lower classes, but I'm not sure how much that's me wanting to be, um, "playful" or driving erratically vs.them just being poorly programmed. Probably a lot of the former, although I hate to admit it.
You raise a good question about loaner cars. I'm not sure if the percentage you see accurately reflects what they will do on the track or if it just is sort of an incentive to spend more cash and play the game more. I really need to test a few things on line, but have had nobody around to do it. Railer is MIA and Karl is on vacation. If you come home for lunch, I'd love to just run a quick session at Indy with the Cat C Touring Cars (the times in the Custom Cup in SP are about 1:00 flat consistently). I have bought one and it's at 100%, so if I run it, and then a loaner, I'll have a good idea of whether or not loaners see that much of a decrease in performance. Frankly though, there is really no excuse not to get your own car, at least for the first four races, since we are all skilled enough to do the on line challenges and we can always level up at Indy. I can't emphasize enough that tuning in this game makes all the difference in the world. Not in terms of lap times necessarily, but in terms of feel. And I think the it will be 1000% more enjoyable if we are able to tune our own cars (even a little) in league races. This is true across all tiers and disciplines. And the only way you can do that on line is to own your own car and then race THAT CAR in on line races. That's why we need to get into these Indy mini session more often.
To address you qiestions:
Q: "There are two types of XP it seems, one for the overall game and then another for each individual car.. is that correct?
Why do you say to not upgrade your car if you want to use it in the league? Is that so we can all run an equal car or some other reason?"
A: In short, yes, about the two types of XP. Perhaps I should have worded the upgrading more precisely. There are two types of "increasing opportunity to get faster" on the online side. True, the XP and cash systems are entirely distinct, so, I think we should refer to it this way from now on:
Leveling up -- Racing a car you own in online races to increase the XP level of that car and to gain cash (even though you will have to "maintain" that car because of wear and tear to keep it at 100%).
Upgrading -- Installing specific parts and components to your car with online cash to increase the speed and handling of your owned vehicle.
By leveling up, you get the opportunity to purchase "tuning packs" which give you first the ability to tune specific things, then to tune them in varying degrees. These are pretty expensive and you have to be at a high level to even have an opportunity to buy them. Leveling up also gives you the opportunity to "upgrade" your car if you choose. You have to be at an even higher level (in your own car...as explained in my first post) to get the opportunity to buy these engine parts and components to "upgrade" your car.
Q: "With the amount of time you have had to play online and accrue money and XP do you now have full tuning for those two cars that you now own?"
A: Yes. For one car. But in reality, I could have, and will have it for all of the cars (basic tuning) by the time we get to them). People simply have to stop having fun...lol. Seriously, even getting the basic tuning packs (e.g. level 16 or so) doesn't take all that long if you take your owned car and run it as described above at Indy. I get the sense many people are not doing this. And I can't emphasize this enough -- the Multiplayer ability to race a 100% car and tune it is so much more enjoyable (not sure how much actual advantage it adds) than racing a 83% loaner online that you cannot tune. That's why I highly recommend people work on owning their own cars (it will be much more fun even outside league play should you just want to race with a few friends sometimes...and you can customize them).
Q: "Also are the loaned cars at 100% when you get them? I noticed from the challenges I have so far tried that loaned cars are always less than optimal (around 85%) so is that always the case do you know?"
A: I think this is right. Loaned cars are not at 100%. But I'm not sure what impact this has on performance. My guess is that it's virtually zero. But I need to get with some willing partners and test some cars. I own several of the classes we will race, so we can do this easily at Indy, where the speeds are constant, and to a lesser extent at a circuit I can actually drive, like Brands. Regarding money won by people who run loaner cars, it would not matter, because they could not use the money in any beneficial way anyway, unless it was towards a purchase of an owned car.
Q: "Do you know what sort of costs are involved in car repairs? There is a view that these are set too high at the moment and that even running clean races leaves you with too big a bill and pretty much negates what you earn from the races. What’s your take on that?"
A: It is high. That's the unfortunate "cost" of owning your own car, so I don't think people who own their cars will get much of an advantage through parts upgrades and the "Condition" percentage advantage (if any) is TBD. Codemasters has said that they are aware of the prohibitive cost to repair, and are addressing it. And I hate to keep harping on this, but if you run the Indy sessions as described above, all this will not be a problem, as you can turn damage off or win enough money to make repairs anyway if you stick with the cars we are going to run, which are less expensive to repair).
Q: "The whole notion of needing to run such an amount of time online in quickfire events purely to earn money is a bit off putting for me. As you know I have limited time available at the moment and I want to be able to spend my time in decent racing when I do manage to get on rather than having to spend time on repetitive sessions simply with the aim of building up a bank balance to enable the purchase \ upgrading \ tuning of cars."
A: I know where you are coming from here and I agree with you. But think of it this way...it's kind of like delayed gratification or having to go to work to buy something. If you can get a car or cars much quicker (and I don't think it will take as much time as you thing it will if you do it right) by rigging their own system against them, then your league races will be so much more enjoyable. Even though the loaner cars are not at 100% in SP, you can tune them, and this makes a HUGE difference in how they feel on the track, at least to me. It may not get me more time, but the enjoyment factor goes up 1000%. That is why I think we should stick with the owned car system:
1) There is a path to get cars easily and then level them up if you choose to do it.
2) The performance advantage, without parts upgrades, is not significant, with loaner vs. owned cars.
3) The enjoyment factor of being able to tune your own car is very high. (If you had to run the default settings on F1 2013, how much less would you enjoy it?).
Q: "There are two types of XP it seems, one for the overall game and then another for each individual car.. is that correct?
Why do you say to not upgrade your car if you want to use it in the league? Is that so we can all run an equal car or some other reason?"
A: In short, yes, about the two types of XP. Perhaps I should have worded the upgrading more precisely. There are two types of "increasing opportunity to get faster" on the online side. True, the XP and cash systems are entirely distinct, so, I think we should refer to it this way from now on:
Leveling up -- Racing a car you own in online races to increase the XP level of that car and to gain cash (even though you will have to "maintain" that car because of wear and tear to keep it at 100%).
Upgrading -- Installing specific parts and components to your car with online cash to increase the speed and handling of your owned vehicle.
By leveling up, you get the opportunity to purchase "tuning packs" which give you first the ability to tune specific things, then to tune them in varying degrees. These are pretty expensive and you have to be at a high level to even have an opportunity to buy them. Leveling up also gives you the opportunity to "upgrade" your car if you choose. You have to be at an even higher level (in your own car...as explained in my first post) to get the opportunity to buy these engine parts and components to "upgrade" your car.
Q: "With the amount of time you have had to play online and accrue money and XP do you now have full tuning for those two cars that you now own?"
A: Yes. For one car. But in reality, I could have, and will have it for all of the cars (basic tuning) by the time we get to them). People simply have to stop having fun...lol. Seriously, even getting the basic tuning packs (e.g. level 16 or so) doesn't take all that long if you take your owned car and run it as described above at Indy. I get the sense many people are not doing this. And I can't emphasize this enough -- the Multiplayer ability to race a 100% car and tune it is so much more enjoyable (not sure how much actual advantage it adds) than racing a 83% loaner online that you cannot tune. That's why I highly recommend people work on owning their own cars (it will be much more fun even outside league play should you just want to race with a few friends sometimes...and you can customize them).
Q: "Also are the loaned cars at 100% when you get them? I noticed from the challenges I have so far tried that loaned cars are always less than optimal (around 85%) so is that always the case do you know?"
A: I think this is right. Loaned cars are not at 100%. But I'm not sure what impact this has on performance. My guess is that it's virtually zero. But I need to get with some willing partners and test some cars. I own several of the classes we will race, so we can do this easily at Indy, where the speeds are constant, and to a lesser extent at a circuit I can actually drive, like Brands. Regarding money won by people who run loaner cars, it would not matter, because they could not use the money in any beneficial way anyway, unless it was towards a purchase of an owned car.
Q: "Do you know what sort of costs are involved in car repairs? There is a view that these are set too high at the moment and that even running clean races leaves you with too big a bill and pretty much negates what you earn from the races. What’s your take on that?"
A: It is high. That's the unfortunate "cost" of owning your own car, so I don't think people who own their cars will get much of an advantage through parts upgrades and the "Condition" percentage advantage (if any) is TBD. Codemasters has said that they are aware of the prohibitive cost to repair, and are addressing it. And I hate to keep harping on this, but if you run the Indy sessions as described above, all this will not be a problem, as you can turn damage off or win enough money to make repairs anyway if you stick with the cars we are going to run, which are less expensive to repair).
Q: "The whole notion of needing to run such an amount of time online in quickfire events purely to earn money is a bit off putting for me. As you know I have limited time available at the moment and I want to be able to spend my time in decent racing when I do manage to get on rather than having to spend time on repetitive sessions simply with the aim of building up a bank balance to enable the purchase \ upgrading \ tuning of cars."
A: I know where you are coming from here and I agree with you. But think of it this way...it's kind of like delayed gratification or having to go to work to buy something. If you can get a car or cars much quicker (and I don't think it will take as much time as you thing it will if you do it right) by rigging their own system against them, then your league races will be so much more enjoyable. Even though the loaner cars are not at 100% in SP, you can tune them, and this makes a HUGE difference in how they feel on the track, at least to me. It may not get me more time, but the enjoyment factor goes up 1000%. That is why I think we should stick with the owned car system:
1) There is a path to get cars easily and then level them up if you choose to do it.
2) The performance advantage, without parts upgrades, is not significant, with loaner vs. owned cars.
3) The enjoyment factor of being able to tune your own car is very high. (If you had to run the default settings on F1 2013, how much less would you enjoy it?).
Pretty much agree with both points of view here.. although can't comment on the orignal Grid having never played it. I love the handling of the cars in this game, despite some slight reservartions about the open wheelers that I have yet to work out whether they are due to wheel setup or just how the game does them.
Are you saying Race Pro has a better multiplayer side to it? I take it you are referring to the fact that in race Pro you cna set it up with practice and qualifying sessions which are missing from GA.
I don't suppose thats something that it is possible to patch into the game because it is a shame it's been left out imo.
I haven't even scratched the surface of the whole game yet but my expoectations are high that this will prove to be one of the best racers we have had on the Xbox.
Are you saying Race Pro has a better multiplayer side to it? I take it you are referring to the fact that in race Pro you cna set it up with practice and qualifying sessions which are missing from GA.
I don't suppose thats something that it is possible to patch into the game because it is a shame it's been left out imo.
I haven't even scratched the surface of the whole game yet but my expoectations are high that this will prove to be one of the best racers we have had on the Xbox.
Sorry guys, I'll have to pull my name out of the ring on this. I ran several races on the difficulty settings with the cars you are going to be driving and I simply am not good enough to take this seriously or be taken seriously and I don't want to be the one out there causing others to crash and ruin your experience. Take care everyone. Later.
I am enjoying this one so much that I might just do that
Early days yet Coach. We are all on a learning curve with this game and no matter your level providing you are clean and honest there's always room.
No problem Robert about this morning. Regarding the disc issue it’s bloody frustrating that’s for sure. I am pretty sure that the reason for that is that they want to ensure you have the original game so it does an initial check for the disc and then runs the rest from the HDD. That’s my theory anyway.
Absolutely agree with your sentiments 100% there Robert. The tracks may not be as graphically correct as some other games \ sims (although not far off it either) but they have immense ‘feel’ and ‘atmosphere’ to them. Your point about the elevation changes is spot on Robert, although only having raced on 6 or 7 so far they seem to have got that side of things really nicely implemented. Bathurst and Autosport were a revelation to me and Spa and Istanbul you can just feel every little change of elevation so much better than in the F1 games for instance.
Those closed cockpits do take some getting used to that’s for sure, my recent Nascar adventures have helped there but even so that view from the SP reversed track car GT car was tough to adust to but more fun for that very reason.
As you know I just love the classics and the sliding is part of that reason but you can dial it out in the setup quite nicely. I haven’t even turned a wheel at Suzuka so no idea how that track feels in them and I’ll probably have to go into it blind but my experience with them up to now has always been that I get more feel for the car and more in tune with a track than in the modern cars. I do think when you switch between games though there is a slight sense of things not being quite right until you have got back in sync with it.. I felt that CM were going to get GA right because of what they had done with the classics.
Like you I have not delved into Race Pro for some time so it’s tough to compare at this point. Might be quite fun to drive a session on GA at say Brands and then do a similar session on Race Pro at Brands and maybe even a session in the classics at Brands just to get a true feel for the differences between them all
Most of our crowd are just into F1, some are not and Chris B, Gavin, Chris H, Boothy, Karl, etc are also keen on the other series of racing hence our nice little Race Pro series some time ago but it was always tough to get the grids up for that so it faded away unfortunately. Others are just not particularly interested in anything outside the F1 series, not even the classics which is a shame but it’s horses for courses at the end of the day. I mean I am more into the open wheelers but can appreciate the fun of driving the others and the more I play them the more it peaks my interest in them and has me eager to come back for more. Let’s not forget that F1 for some time has been very downforce \ aero dominated and the planted feel of the cars has been the norm, you haven’t very often seen them sliding around until this season and that’s what the F1 series has been based on so what the guys only into F1 have been used to and anything else would seem a bit alien.
No I haven’t tried that challenge as of yet but you can be sure that I will. I will give each of the challenges each week a good go as they are a lot of fun bot also of course money earners.
I reckon you will love Istanbul. It’s always been a favourite of mine so I was really gutted when it was removed from the calendar and hence from our virtual F1 races each season. It was always a highlight race for me. Did you not find the swivel effect that I referred to in my post in those Formula B cars?If not then it confirms that it is a wheel setup thing and not something to do with the games handling. It didn’t particularly detract from my experience with them but just curious as to the origin (game or wheel).
In the races I have had so far I have not needed to use the flashbacks to recover from any AI induced damage, I find them to be a very good mix of aggression and caution although I did get bashed around a little in the Abu Dhabi challenge last night but part of that was my unfamiliarity with the track to be honest. I do quite like the way the flashback works though. It’s better implemented than the F1 version, it feels as though they give you more margin in the amount of time you can rewind although that may be simply because it’s implemented in a much smoother and more efficient way.
The AI are definitely looking decent here. I have not progressed to the ‘Very Hard’ level yet and am comfortable with where I am as they do give a very nice feel of a decent battle so far. Like you my own limitations at the moment are causing more contact than I think will be the case as I progress through the game but I certainly feel that there is a good deal of longevity in the game with the level of the AI we have.
Sorry but I didn’t pick up this message until I got back from lunch… 5 km run in what is the hottest day of the year.. I must be barking mad.. what is it they say about made dogs and Englishmen lol. However, tomorrow I can make the effort to get back for lunch if you will be around then. It would be around 1pm my time unless anything crops up at work. It would certainly be good to compare the loaners to the owned cars so let me know if that will be in a time frame that suits you.
Do you know what sort of cash is required for the cars we need in those first four races?
I definitely can see that owning our own cars is the best way to really get the car we want and to maximize the enjoyment from the game and in an ideal world that would not be a problem . I do however envisage that it is going to be incredibly difficult for me to put in the ‘online’ time to achieve the required level of funds and XP to facilitate that. After all my total online time in a normal week is just the time for our F1 and Classic leagues the rest of my game time is in offline mode. I really am not sure how I can fit in much time for these sprint session that I have always disliked so much. My gripe with Forza was always the requirement to run those 3 lap races before you could progress and here we are talking about 1 lap races.. what would Marcin say if he found out I was tucking into those lol. Anyway, I’ll see how much the Racenet Challenges earn and work it all out from there. Those five 1 lappers earn you a maximum of £100,000 if you finish first with no damage is that correct? Aren’t there always some repair costs even when there is no contact damage?
Absolutely agree with your sentiments 100% there Robert. The tracks may not be as graphically correct as some other games \ sims (although not far off it either) but they have immense ‘feel’ and ‘atmosphere’ to them. Your point about the elevation changes is spot on Robert, although only having raced on 6 or 7 so far they seem to have got that side of things really nicely implemented. Bathurst and Autosport were a revelation to me and Spa and Istanbul you can just feel every little change of elevation so much better than in the F1 games for instance.
Those closed cockpits do take some getting used to that’s for sure, my recent Nascar adventures have helped there but even so that view from the SP reversed track car GT car was tough to adust to but more fun for that very reason.
As you know I just love the classics and the sliding is part of that reason but you can dial it out in the setup quite nicely. I haven’t even turned a wheel at Suzuka so no idea how that track feels in them and I’ll probably have to go into it blind but my experience with them up to now has always been that I get more feel for the car and more in tune with a track than in the modern cars. I do think when you switch between games though there is a slight sense of things not being quite right until you have got back in sync with it.. I felt that CM were going to get GA right because of what they had done with the classics.
Like you I have not delved into Race Pro for some time so it’s tough to compare at this point. Might be quite fun to drive a session on GA at say Brands and then do a similar session on Race Pro at Brands and maybe even a session in the classics at Brands just to get a true feel for the differences between them all
Most of our crowd are just into F1, some are not and Chris B, Gavin, Chris H, Boothy, Karl, etc are also keen on the other series of racing hence our nice little Race Pro series some time ago but it was always tough to get the grids up for that so it faded away unfortunately. Others are just not particularly interested in anything outside the F1 series, not even the classics which is a shame but it’s horses for courses at the end of the day. I mean I am more into the open wheelers but can appreciate the fun of driving the others and the more I play them the more it peaks my interest in them and has me eager to come back for more. Let’s not forget that F1 for some time has been very downforce \ aero dominated and the planted feel of the cars has been the norm, you haven’t very often seen them sliding around until this season and that’s what the F1 series has been based on so what the guys only into F1 have been used to and anything else would seem a bit alien.
No I haven’t tried that challenge as of yet but you can be sure that I will. I will give each of the challenges each week a good go as they are a lot of fun bot also of course money earners.
I reckon you will love Istanbul. It’s always been a favourite of mine so I was really gutted when it was removed from the calendar and hence from our virtual F1 races each season. It was always a highlight race for me. Did you not find the swivel effect that I referred to in my post in those Formula B cars?If not then it confirms that it is a wheel setup thing and not something to do with the games handling. It didn’t particularly detract from my experience with them but just curious as to the origin (game or wheel).
In the races I have had so far I have not needed to use the flashbacks to recover from any AI induced damage, I find them to be a very good mix of aggression and caution although I did get bashed around a little in the Abu Dhabi challenge last night but part of that was my unfamiliarity with the track to be honest. I do quite like the way the flashback works though. It’s better implemented than the F1 version, it feels as though they give you more margin in the amount of time you can rewind although that may be simply because it’s implemented in a much smoother and more efficient way.
The AI are definitely looking decent here. I have not progressed to the ‘Very Hard’ level yet and am comfortable with where I am as they do give a very nice feel of a decent battle so far. Like you my own limitations at the moment are causing more contact than I think will be the case as I progress through the game but I certainly feel that there is a good deal of longevity in the game with the level of the AI we have.
Sorry but I didn’t pick up this message until I got back from lunch… 5 km run in what is the hottest day of the year.. I must be barking mad.. what is it they say about made dogs and Englishmen lol. However, tomorrow I can make the effort to get back for lunch if you will be around then. It would be around 1pm my time unless anything crops up at work. It would certainly be good to compare the loaners to the owned cars so let me know if that will be in a time frame that suits you.
Do you know what sort of cash is required for the cars we need in those first four races?
I definitely can see that owning our own cars is the best way to really get the car we want and to maximize the enjoyment from the game and in an ideal world that would not be a problem . I do however envisage that it is going to be incredibly difficult for me to put in the ‘online’ time to achieve the required level of funds and XP to facilitate that. After all my total online time in a normal week is just the time for our F1 and Classic leagues the rest of my game time is in offline mode. I really am not sure how I can fit in much time for these sprint session that I have always disliked so much. My gripe with Forza was always the requirement to run those 3 lap races before you could progress and here we are talking about 1 lap races.. what would Marcin say if he found out I was tucking into those lol. Anyway, I’ll see how much the Racenet Challenges earn and work it all out from there. Those five 1 lappers earn you a maximum of £100,000 if you finish first with no damage is that correct? Aren’t there always some repair costs even when there is no contact damage?
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Me too!I am enjoying this one so much that I might just do that
P.S. - Yes, about Race Pro, and the fact that you have pit strategy. But the sheer volume of cars, the accessibility of them, the tracks, and the visuals I think top Race Pro all tolled.
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