Dogs Of War Vu
Sim/Strategy/War => Games Discussion => Topic started by: JudgeDredd on September 03, 2016, 06:23:21 PM
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In case anyone is interested in a good F1 game...this is one imo - I have 20 hours in it.
I've bought every one of these since Codemasters started the series. Whilst I am not one of those that thinks they've done a bad job, I'm also not one of those who thinks they've been outstanding. I've always viewed the series as a cross of sim and arcade but generally leaning to sim. Sure they've not got all the features of a sim - but I'm talking really about the driving aspect.
In general each of their games have been a hit in some aspects and a miss in others. I really can't think of any one particular one that stood out as head and shoulders above the rest. Probably their last game (or was it the one before) where they shamelessly stripped everything out and left a bare bones game was a slap in the face to anyone interested in the series.
However - I am please to say that I think they have released an absolute belter here.
I choose Manor Marussia and a full career mode meaning 2x90 and 1x60 minute practice sessions, full qualifying and full race. I was dubious about the full race, but actually it turned out great. You have unlimited flashbacks. Considered cheating by some, I love them. They help for those moments when you have to pause to go to the toilet or you pause to catch something on TV or are just interrupted through no fault of your own. Sitting back down and "getting in the swing of the drive" can be difficult and often leads to a lapse in concentration and a crash...hence my love for Flashbacks. You can also save the game or save and exit, allowing you to continue next sitting
Good Points
Immersion
The feeling of actually being in an F1 team is very much here - at last! Meeting your PA (manager?), the practice options, car upgrades, sitting on the grid, slowing for pit entry, safety car, manual starts, formation lap - everything is here to make you believe you are driving in the F1 world.
Practice
It now has a purpose. No longer is it about how the car feels, how the tyres hold out, what it feels like in full fuel. You are doing those things, but with a view to garnering points to assign to upgrades on the car. The more points you get the more upgrades you can get. I'm also pleased to inform you that not only are they difficult to do - so a challenge - but they seem to differ from team to team. I was in a Manor and finding the tyre management OK. I went to Renault, and found it much more difficult to gain any points.
Once you've had your fun on practice you get to choose the upgrade(s) you want to focus on. Each upgrade you highlight will show your cars improvement over the rest of the field.
Qualifying
Doing Full Qualifying is the full format. 3 sessions with the slowest being knocked out in each session. It's very immersive, setting a time and watching to see how you do. Of course in a Manor, I was never getting out of session 3.
Weather
Weather and lighting are fantastic. I was racing Melbourne which started off dry. Some rain started and it came to the point where I knew I needed intermediates on. So in the pits and inters were put on. Further on, the rain was getting heavier. This wasn't just noticeable on the track - it was noticeable on the screen and in the spray being kicked up. It really was seamless dry, light rain, heavy rain, light rain, dry again....very, very well done.
There was also a dry line being made as the heavy turned to light and then to dry.
Race
The race was great and the AI wasn't too shabby. It is of course, an AI - but it was quite aggressive (I have it on Expert). Not to the point of running you off the road, but it won't give like it used to - so you better make sure you keep on track - because contact will likely be made.
Yellow flags are implemented and also Virtual Safety Car. In my full race I didn't come across the VSC but the Safety Car was out once so it's not like the safety car is over used (anyone remember Nascar 2003?)
Blue flags are implemented and they seemed to be well implemented, though perhaps a bit early at times. I was jumped twice by a car I was racing by having to let a faster car through...so you'll have to be on your game with blue flags. And if you don't let them by, a stop go penalty will be awarded.
Communication
Quite good. Engineer was letting me know when a faster car was behind me and to let it through "We are not racing the car behind...". You can select from a variety of options and the engineer responds with meaningful information. You can also tell him to reduce or increase his input and to shut up altogether - that's handy.
I highly recommend using a microphone - the options on the comms menu are many and the comms menu only stays up for 5 seconds - so driving, bringing up the menu, looking through the first page and the second page to get the option you want can be very trying and very hit and miss!
Rival
Early doors for rivals at the moment, but your team mate is your first rival. Points are awarded to you for when you better him (position, sector 1, sector 2 etc) and awarded to him when he beats you. It seems to be done pretty well. These points determine your position within the team and your position in the team will eventually influence any contracts that might be forthcoming.
Tyre Wear
It does seem to be very well modelled. You can certainly feel when the tyres are going off and getting past their best. Also, blistering is modelled visually which was a nice touch. I'd liked to have seen flat spots worked in also though.
Update - the marks on the tyres appear to be marbles from when going offline
Not So Good Points
I'm not calling them bad points, 'cos I don't think they are that bad.
Practice
The Practice element docked me a chance at some points because it said my pace was relative to position 22 in qualifying when my actual target was 21. However, my pace in practice was around 18th or something...so I found that odd (and as it happens, I did qualify 18th!).
Qualifying
It finished rather abruptly. What I mean by that is I was sitting in 14th and there were several cars on track - a lot of whom were going to beat me. But when the session ended, it simply ended...I didn't see each of the cars beating me...which they did and I ended up 18th. I would liked to have watched as one by one their times tumbled and they pushed me down.
Pits
Your car is still automated once you enter the pits. Why? I would like to drive into my pit box - though I do understand that without a pit limiter button it would be very hard to drive at a constant 37mph down the pits.
Formation Lap
Once you get round to the form up stage, your car is automated...again, why? It's great that the formation lap is here - but it would've been nice to take the car to the startup grid.
Comms
Very hard to go through the menus with the controls. Fast keys would've been handy, though they have implemented voice comms. This seemed to work pretty well, even with my Scottish accent.
Weather Forecast
I think this could be better implemented. I knew rain was coming, but it was a bit of guess work when it was going to hit. This made selecting the pit strategy a bit of a guess also.
So in summary, this is imo the best one by far - for giving you that F1 feeling, that sense of belonging, the feeling of having purpose in the team, the AI, - this really is gripping. I've deducted a couple of points for the auto take over of your car and the other "not so good" points.
Score : 8/10
If I find anything else during my season, I'll post here - especially if anything pops up that changes my mind.
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Hi JD
Thanks for that review.
What do you use to control your car? What about on-line mp?
Some screenshots would also be great :)
thanks for taking the time to post this.
Regards
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I use a Steering wheel and pedals. IMO, it's not worth playing a racing game unless you have those. Not if you want any real enjoyment out of it anyway.
Online, I have no idea I'm afraid. I think I heard Codies saying 22 players would be supported, but I'd be amazed if that was actually the case as I don't believe it's been a stellar part of their game in the past. Racing games are inherently bad experiences online. There's too many people want to ruin things when things go wrong and the "warping" effect seen in many MP gaming experiences make driving a nightmare.
I do not play online, so I really have no idea.
I'll post a video of circuit familiarisation and tyre management when I get the chance, though there are many, many videos out there on Youtube showing these as well as actual racing experience, weather etc...and they're explained, where my videos would just be a video of driving - no commentary
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So at the request of Asid on DoW forums, here's a little video of track familiarisation and tyre management tests
Bear in mind I literally woke up this morning, fired this up and jumped on track...so familiarisation of the track is rusty at first. Also for tyre management, I am on very used soft tyres - so not optimum at all. I had already maxed my points for both of these tests yesterday (as you can see from the opening few seconds) - so this was a run through to show how it works.
Track Familiarisation
So you have some "gates" to go through. You have to go through them at an optimum speed. Going through them slower than the optimum, and you will simply get a "green" light. Miss a gate, and you get a red light. Go through at optimum speed and go through "a set" of gates at optimum speed, and you get purple. It seems Perfect has some tolerance of green lights...I'm not sure how many, but as you can see, I had 3 green sectors and I got Perfect.
I believe you can run the test any number of times...though when you get 50/50, then that's good enough.
Tyre Management
This test involves 10 laps. The team chooses the tyre they want to test. You have to stay under a Target Lap Time (shown in the top right) in order for the lap to register. You get Red for heavy tyre wear and that gives you 5 points, Green for medium tyre wear and you get 10 points and for light use you get Purple and 15 points. Invalid laps times (going over the Target Lap Time) gets you a red lap but no points).
I don't know how the (optimum/expected) lap time is calculated - but it has nothing to do with anything going on in practice as far as I'm aware. That lap time does differ depending on the team you choose.
It makes absolute sense to do your track familiarisation before doing tyre management. The better you know the track, the less you'll be locking up and the better your entry and exit on corners, maximising your tyre endurance. So do track familiarisation first. I'd even say leave tyre management until near the end of the first practice or even until the next practice session...I don't believe you have to do them all in the one practice session.
As you can see from my tyre management section, tyre wear really does show in the game. I had set perfect scores on tyre management the previous practice session on fresh soft tyres. Using used, I was hardly able to grab a green never mind a purple lap!!
I've found both the above things really help with my lap times and familiarisation of the track. They also give the practice a meaning.
In the Tyre Management section (15:20) you can see Vettel squeezing up the inside of me into the hairpin at turn 1. The AI will do that. One of the "Not So Good" parts of the game is the mirror is blocked by the hud at the bottom right (of course, it wouldn't if I was a real simmer and sat down in the car properly!!). But you have to know the AI will do this a lot now.
https://youtu.be/-wn2nAZsQP4
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I forgot to mention in more detail about the race start and manual starts.
It's a fantastic feature. No more does the AI go hurtling off down the pit straight to the first corner. It seems to work incredibly well...though I have only done Australia so far.
The AI isn't super outstanding at the first corner still, but it definitely seems to be much better than previous games.
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Thanks JD
Let me know how your season progresses :)
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I had F1 2013 and played it rather frequently at some point. I heard that 2013 was the words of all the titles as they did not have their physics guy on the project. I may try it. I've been an F1 fan almost as long as I've been an aircraft enthusiast. I still remember watching live F1 events when Senna, Prost, Mansel and other great drivers were racing.
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Thanks JD!
I have been wondering about F1 2016. I play 2015 on occasion & wonder how they differ? Your video makes me believe visually they are pretty much identical. I imagine with 2016 they updated the car paints. Anything else change?
Asid you simply must have a wheel to do better then mediocre at racing sims. I use Fantec wheel & pedals & recommend them highly!
Anyone else on Iracing? We could setup private races there for just us or form a team.
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There's a world of difference.
Everything I mentioned in my first post are either significant changes or additions to the game. It's by far the best one I've played. The immersion factor itself was worth the ticket price for me. The manual starts make starts great fun instead of "Oh look...there goes the AI". Manual pit entry meaning no more cheating firing up to the line and allowing the AI to bring the car immediately down to speed. Tyre wear seems much improved. AI seems much improved (not infallible though). Weather change during a race was amazing.
This is the first F1 game where I actually don't mind doing the full race distance and that's down to the immersion the game gives you. I don't want to break that immersion by doing a 50% race anymore (though you'll notice I don't mind using the Flashback feature :P ) and I certainly don't want to cut down on practice sessions.
I loved iRacing, but I kind of got bogged down - I didn't really understand what the interface was allowing me to do and ended up going down a route I didn't really want to. Not iRacing's fault necessarily...I just didn't know where I wanted to end up and so didn't know what path I should be going down.
Also - I didn't really care for the monthly subscription AND the additional cost of cars and tracks.
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I posted this on another forum (slightly edited)
I have played rFactor and rFactor2 and a whole host of fantastic racing games. Some proper sim, like GP Legends, others a bit lighter like pCars and RRE. I love driving games and the more sim like, the better. I think my ultimate gaming overall experience in driving sims was GTR2.
I couldn't compare these to F1 2016 though. F1 2016 gives something else all the other driving games I have do not give - an F1 experience. And for the first time, it does it really well. I really do feel immersed in the F1 world. However, in this iteration there's something else...a better AI. Honestly the game is like F1 itself. You could find yourself running the race with no-one around you. And slowly but surely the AI will be catching or you will catch one. And like F1, they can't hold off the inevitable and nor can you. If you are going to be overtaken because you're on older tyres, then you will be taken.
I had a Race in Dubai last night where the car in front had jumped me in the pits. It was a front runner to me anyway (Renault perhaps?). But anyway, I wasn't making any in-roads and about 5 or so laps gone, I started to notice I was catching him. Slowly but surely, I started to reel him in...and caught him. Why? He was on super soft tyres and I was on soft. I do believe that's why I noticed the difference. The reason I think that was the reason is because of the practice sessions. Running full practice, I could see not only how long the tyres were going to last, but also what they felt like as they started to degrade.
Also, how my driving affected the wear. For accelerating out of corners with your wheels "less than straight" will cause wear. Do this with a higher degree of turn in the wheels, and you'll notice the wear even more and you'll notice this when driving the practice laps for tyre wear.
When I caught the Renault, it wasn't a straight swap of spaces either. It can be if you do charge in...the AI will try and avoid you. If it can't, you'll make contact and this will likely result in a damaged wing - and that will affect your downforce in corners. So there's as much emphasis on you avoiding contact as there is the AI...but you can both go into a corner and duke it out and there doesn't have to be contact. I haven't had the AI hit me where I've actually thought "That wasn't my fault"...it has been my fault everytime, whether that be a too tight turn in, and over shoot under braking or lack of awareness...it has honestly been my fault each time.
The AI isn't without it's faults. But it is a whole decade better than it has been in any of it's other games imo. Some aspects are repetitive - cut scenes for example - but not overly so. The engineer coming up to you to hand you a sheet telling you how the research has gone between races, your PA coming up to you to tell you various things, your Engineer. The engineer is damned annoying actually on track. Hearing your engine is absolutely essential for changing up and down and him yacking about no inclement weather is just frustrating...made more so when he says it at the wrong times - but you can tell him to shut up and then ask him things with the excellent speech in game comms.
I've now performed 2x90 and 1x60 minute practice, full qualifying and full race at Australia and Dubai and I'm not in the least bored with any of it and am looking forward to China because it's put me in the game.
Overall, if you like driving F1 games, then I could not recommend this highly enough. YMMV - everyone's abilities are different. But imo this is the best F1 game out there if you're looking for an F1 experience with good AI, excellent tyre modelling, great driving model and a feeling of contributing to the team, then this has to be the one.
For the record, I'm driving one below the top AI level. My Marussia does seem to qualify well, but race wise it's a different story. Again, I think that's down to the tyre modelling because in Qualy, you can throw the car about and not care about the tyres. Do that in the race and your tyres won't last and you'll need an extra pit stop. Take care of your tyres and you will be caught by the cars you would imagine catching you.
In Australia, I qualified 18th and finished the race somwhere like 16th. In Dubai I qualified 8th and finished 14th. I don't really know if that side of it is porked - comparing it to real F1 - but I like the fact my car can get better.
Good
AI
Tyre modelling
Feeling of being in an F1 team
Driving model
Speech comms
Manual race starts
Safety Car
Virtual Safety Car
Not so good
AI - it's not always on the ball...but it is mostly
Safety Car - more an AI issue - the AI seems to take an age to catch up with the Safety Car sometimes and fluctuates it's speed considerably...there's no way I should get a safety car call, pit to change tyres, come out and not catch the safety car again before it's pulled in because the AI is driving too slow (or perhaps the Safety Car AI is driving too fast!)
Virtual Safety Car - this is likely AI also - they seem to fluctuate ALOT in driving style, causing you headaches trying to keep a delta
What I want to get to is not using the Flashback system - that certainly helps my position within a race. I don't mind using it if I have to get out the chair, cause it takes a bit to get back in the cockpit, but other than that (using it because I over cooked a corner), I should stop.
Crucially though, 2 races in (remember - FULL races...over 5 hours per race in total) and I've not got any points, though I have felt the experience rewarding. I've felt like progress has been made and, as such, points are a secondary issue to me. I'm beating my teammate, I'm getting resource points for development of the car, I'm finishing roundabout where I would imagine and having a hoot whilst doing it.
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Great review JD! It makes me want to get it. I have yet to find a modern F1 that I truly liked. I will definitely have to give this one a go.
I don't have the time for full races so usually run 50% on 2015 or on iRacing. Tire wear & management on them is important but nearly as much as a full race.
I truly wish someone would redo GP Legends! I love the cars of the 1960's! I race them some in R Factor & Asseto Corsa. RFactor is pretty good & Assetto Corsa is prettier but neither are what I would consider truly good.
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They are truly great games. But as I pointed out - for "being part of a team in the world of F1" - this one is it.
GP Legends was outstanding. I guess the worry is remaking it and killing it...but if you don't try...!
There is absolutely scope for a racing simulation developer to make the F1 through the years. That would be awesome. So where the current F1 has a 10 year season (which I hope can be carried over into the next season with all the changes), someone could develop a game with a real life 10 year season starting in, say, the 60s. It just takes a dedicated developer (and a heap of cash).
Plus - there is always the issue of us gamers. We're a hugely critical bunch ::)
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Thanks for the update JD
I like and play
GTR2 + Power & Glory mod
GT Legends
Race 07
They are a bit older but very nice with lots of free mods available.
Regards
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I like and play
GT Legends
Hey Asid,
I take it you're not using Win10? If so how did you install GP Legends? MY PC wont let me (no security certificate).
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Hi Longknife.
I'm using GT Legends not GP legends.
I am on Windows 8.1
Regards
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3rd race in
China
Qualified 13th
Finished 12th (just)
I have beat my team mate (though I had been using the Flashback feature whenever I made a mistake - but I'm not now).
Next race - Socchi - this will be a bad one for me because I have never raced it so I only have the 3 practice sessions to work it out, do the trials AND get the best setup for the track...all with limited tyres which will take punishment (due to not knowing the circuit).
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Nice one JD 8)
Keep us informed as to your progress.
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I found this video I must've made of qualifying in Bahrain
It's just Q1 and Q2...I didn't record Q3 where I think I qualified 8th or something. I've noticed though that my qualifying pace isn't like my race pace. When you get to select your pit strategy, you get an "aggressive" and "conservative" choice.
If you select the aggressive option, it means your going to be pushing a lot and therefore it's MORE pit stops. Conservative means you're looking after your tyres and therefore you'll have less pit stops.
Because I know I'm aggressive, I choose the aggressive strategy and hence have another pit stop. Determining how you use the tyres and which pit stop to go for by the way is all due to the tyre management test - you can see where you're pulling too much in the corners, stretching that rubber or where you accelerate before your wheels are at the optimum angle - so these tutorials help massively
https://youtu.be/T0w0kf-wGfY
I did say I would post some negatives if I came across them - and here's two gripes I have with the game thus far...
- Safety Car - AI!
More an AI issue than the safety car probably - either the AI is waaaaay too conservative when trying to catch up with the safety car or the safety car is way too fast. But sometimes the result is you not catching up with the safety car at all before it goes back in the pits.
I had a race where the safety car was out and I was heading on the final part of the lap - so I changed strategy and boxed for fresh tyres. When I came out, I had to stay behind the car in front of me and we were trying to get attached to the safety car line - but the AI was driving so slow (or the safety car was so fast) that in the end it was called in (after 3 or 4 laps I think) which meant we didn't get attached to the queue.
Another time, we did catch the safety car (I didn't pit this time because I had done so the lap before) and were instructed to overtake it as it was waiting to pick up the leaders - it took us 3 laps to catch it which I thought was hugely excessive.
So that's a pain in the arse - The Engineer! >:(
The engineer is a dick. He says things at the wrong time (coming into a corner etc, etc) or is just rubbish. For example, I had picked my pit strategy. My first stop was going to be between lap 10 and lap 13. I got the call from the engineer at the start (towards the end?) of lap 10 that the pit lane was open. I checked my tyres and thought I would extend a bit - knowing I could pit up to lap 13 where the window would close (presumably for my team mate).
Anyway, I carried on, ignoring the pit lane open message...all good. I also got a call from the engineer telling me the pit window would close - again, a great point. However, I selected to pit on lap 12 and told the garage I was pitting. During my in lap, which is crucial, I then get this long bloody speech as I'm twisting round corners, that "We have a viable change of strategy...let us know whether you want to change or not"...what comes up is "Pitting lap 12 for soft tyres or pitting on lap 10 for soft tyres"
Well lap 10 IS GONE and I've already let you know I'm pitting this lap!!! This is really annoying because of two things - first it's a long old speech he's giving you and you're trying to go through corners and navigate traffic whilst he's blabbering on so you aren't concentrating on engine revs and secondly, it's bloody pointless. I've told you I'm coming in!
He also seems to give an "alternate strategy" soon after the race starts - which again is annoying.
So the engineer needs ALOT of work.
However - more positives
Another great point however is the excessive fuel and how it's portrayed to you (and fuel use in general). First, how much fuel you have left is displayed great - not at all confusing like in previous titles and second, the amount you have "in excess" is very easy to understand - AND it doesn't magically "disappear" like in previous titles.
For example, in 2015, you could be shown you have +1 lap of fuel. Put the mix to rich, and that extra lap of fuel would be gone by the time you've done a lap. In this version, if you have say, +2.50 laps of fuel in excess, switching to rich could give you about 5 or 6 laps of running rich. This allows you to hugely change how you overtake and defend. Also the amount is relayed to you perfectly.
It also seems like you can build up excess fuel by driving conservatively on Standard fuel mix. So if you "change up" prior to max revs (called short shifting) then you can slowly build some extra fuel for those in and out laps.
Another great feature is the "beep" for changing gear.
Absolutely loving this title. Best F1 game by far in an absolute age - both from a driving experience and from an immersion perspective
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And here's me at Sochi - part of 1st Practice
What you're seeing here is an absolute n00b on the track. I've never raced this, so buckle in and watch how I try and learn a track, overshooting, breaking too early, scrubbing the tyres and generally not doing too well.
I'll do a few laps like this (using the hardiest tyres available for durability - because they will take punishment) and then move onto the Track Familiarisation task. You could argue I could be doing that right away...that does make sense, particularly as you can run the tasks multiple times. But I just like to have a recce before hand.
https://youtu.be/n4dYDLHgU_Y
Again, when exiting the pits, I had to go into the menu and setup my controls because for some reason if I don't do so, the brakes and accelerator seem to be "on" or "off"...resulting in too much torque and very, very easily locking brakes.
I don't know why this is - but it's been the same for EVERY Codemasters F1 game (maybe for Dirt too...I can't recall). I only have to do this when booting the game up (and should try and remember to do it in the menu system before jumping in). I don't have to do it each time I leave the pits.
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I wouldn't call it "noob". I would call it aggressive driving style 8)
Thanks for posting
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np
I suppose that's one way of putting it.
Videos for Sochi to follow will be the test sessions, race start and first few laps
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Sochi Track Acclimatisation
I have not raced this track before. Only recently I've had about 10 laps practice, so my track acclimatisation test shows my n00bness
https://youtu.be/wqputaatLu8
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I thought you were going to run out of fuel while on the track.
I think your driving in this car is getting better. I kept leaning into the gates...Even harder towards the ones you missed lol
Quite immersive.
Thanks
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For the "trials" I don't think you don't get to select fuel or tyres...they're selected for you (at least I haven't bothered to try and change them) so there was never a chance of running out of fuel...enough is put in.
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A wee taste of Monaco (I am historically terrible at Monaco)
https://youtu.be/5yLJuvPPIvw
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Monaco is a tough track & historically my worst one as well. Turns 5 & 6 plus the chicane at 11 I always have to baby it through.
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A wee taste of Monaco (I am historically terrible at Monaco)
@3:10 hitting the barrier..Ouch.
Looks really good. I find it a trick circuit to race on.
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omg - this is going to be a painful race. As expected, having never raced or practiced to any degree at Sochi, I am going to be beaten by my teammate. I didn't manage a single point for my Tyre Wear test and will not likely grab any from the Qualifying Pace test
This could be where my team mate grabs ground back (currently I am leading significantly in the rival battle).
Also - seems to be a bug here where the text wouldn't disappear.
https://youtu.be/0bluS_zc0fY
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Looks like your line was good. I dont know that I would do any better.
What kind of wheel & pedals are you using?
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Logitech Formula Force...not the best, but not the worst either
It's not that my lines were wrong (well, not all the time), I think I was breaking too early and too late, resulting in hitting the apex too slow and losing 10ths hand over fist, or overshooting - again losing time.
Either way - compromise your line through the corner (either by braking too early, too late or turning in at the wrong angle) and you can't put as much power down - resulting in lost time. I think I'm about 4.5 seconds off pole position and a good 1.5-2 seconds off where "I should be"...
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Not pretty, but points earned. I certainly can't drive like this in the race...unless I want to do 5 pit stops
https://youtu.be/PtCJcH05fqA
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Wow you were beating those tires! I could almost see the marbles coming off them LOL Thats what qual is for though.
Congrats on 9th. You worked to earn it!
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That wasn't qualifying proper...it was the test to get and idea for the team of qualifying pace
Still, it's an indication of pace
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Not pretty, but points earned. I certainly can't drive like this in the race...unless I want to do 5 pit stops
Nice. You will get a podium finish at the end of the season 8)
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I don't think so. I was looking at the circuits and about half of those that are left, I have never really spent any time on. So I think I'll struggle a lot through the year.
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I don't think so. I was looking at the circuits and about half of those that are left, I have never really spent any time on. So I think I'll struggle a lot through the year.
Maybe you need better sponsors? ;D
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Maybe you need better sponsors? ;D
Thats like giving up your football team! ??? Petrona is a good pick if you want to be tops in standings. As for me, you will find me in my Lotus mid pack.
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A bit of Practice 2 - just a few laps. I think things are coming together...definitely locking up less and finding the right braking, entry and exit points.
Roll on Practice 3
https://youtu.be/tPakZovLKEg
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Sochi Qualifying
I changed my tyres at the start from Super Soft to Soft - being cocky. Actually just not wanting to waste a set of Super Soft tyres if I could help it. Turned out, I slipped down quite quickly and had to go out again in Q1 to get a better time on Super Soft tyres.
Q2 I went out in scrubbed Super Soft tyres and quickly realised I should've used my new set - so again, I had to go out a second time in the session
https://youtu.be/sLJDYSsVF3U
There's a couple of "chinks" noticeable in the AI.
First, there's really no way a Marussia - even with the developments being made - should be qualifying so high (I won't spoil the surprise...watch the vid). I've had some development done on the car, but the car is still bottom of the pile in terms of overall performance (when you go to the development screen, you can see other team performances in relation to your team).
I'm playing on 1 below the top level of AI (I think I'm on Expert and the top level is Legend) and given that level, I'd expect a Marussia to be stuck in the first part of qualifying, regardless how good the driver is.
I know I won't do so well in racing - which highlights a separate issue which is where in previous F1 games, you used to qualify fairly low and in the race you could be first by the first corner...it seems to be reversed here where you qualify high and run the race lower down...which is actually a better representation of how it is in the real F1 world.
So - there's that. I don't think I can change the AI level - but I may have to do that because the car is out performing it's performance.
Secondly, you will notice at some point during qualifying (5 minutes in) I have just finished my fast lap and requested to box - so coming into the pits. I'm on my in lap and I see Hulkenburg behind me. I slow down to let him past, which he does, and then proceeds to slow down a couple of times because I'm close. This highlights to me that the AI is not programmed to understand that I have just requested to pit. If the AI could detect that, then it shouldn't be making such an effort to let me past.
So I said I would keep people informed of perceived issues that I cam across and so I am.
It still doesn't ruin the game - it's a fantastic racing sim. Although the Marussia qualifying so high does irk me somewhat
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Right - Sochi race start, first few laps and Virtual Safety Car
https://youtu.be/mLImlLAef-k
Unfortunately I crashed out on lap 18. As I said previously, I'm only going to use the Flashback feature if it's my fault. For AI issues, I'll use it. Unfortunately, this was my fault, so I took the hit and didn't finish.
For the next race, Catalunya in Spain, I've upped the AI to Legend
My new rival is Gutierrez in the HAAS as I've beaten my teammate and been promoted to primary driver within the team (just means more bonus points on offer I think).
I am winning the rivalry to Gutierrez by 1 point. I was winning by 5 or 6, but crashing out of Sochi put paid to that lead.
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Unfortunately I crashed out on lap 18. As I said previously, I'm only going to use the Flashback feature if it's my fault. For AI issues, I'll use it. Unfortunately, this was my fault, so I took the hit and didn't finish.
I am winning the rivalry to Gutierrez by 1 point. I was winning by 5 or 6, but crashing out of Sochi put paid to that lead.
This is what is making your season interesting :)
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Well - I'll be keeping it that way from this race in. ;D
Next up Spain and should be a good one for me as I'm well versed in it's layout
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Nice! I love Barcelona, its arguably my best track.
Short clip of one of my practice laps there driving a Lotus 49 in Asseto Corsa.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xQnZL1WWU8[/yt]
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Nice.
I'm "well versed" in the layout of Catalunya, but I don't really like it and I'm not smoking hot round there.
I just know the layout because it was always the 3rd or 4th race in F1 games and as such, one of the few I ever got to - and normally never got much further in my career because I didn't really like it and normally stopped my career there. :'(
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I think there is actually something wrong with the AI.
I have upped the AI level to Legend (from Expert) and currently going round Catalunya in Spain I'm 11 seconds off the pace. Worse than that, I'm 6 seconds behind my team mate. That is just a ridiculous jump in AI performance. It's not like this is a circuit I don't know or am particularly bad at...I've raced it a lot.
So, whilst I didn't want to be qualifying 3rd, I don't want to be driving around constantly dead last all the time...and I don't even mind that so much - it's the fact the times are so stark!
So it'll be back to Expert in the next race I'm afraid.
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I have noticed the same phenomena in Asseto Corsa. I run at 95% AI level & one track I will get thoroughly trounced & the next I am smoking them. I have no explanation for the behavior because some of the track I lose badly on are ones I am actually good at.
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25% off on STEAM
http://store.steampowered.com/app/391040/
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Daaaamn ;D
It's worth every penny I paid - but that seems awful early bearing in mind the reviews have been positive
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I definitely need to lower the AI. Not only is it kick arse on Legend, but any hopes of managing to perform anything related to times is just completely out of reach.
Here's my rather sorry attempt at the tyre test - not a single point. And this is not down to not knowing the circuit - it's down to what the game has deemed an acceptable lap time for what I set the AI to.
https://youtu.be/7hbsySjU5nI
The game needs an "in-between" here. I find it too easy on Expert and I'm out performing where I should be and yet I'm left stationary one level up.
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Started P2 at Catalunya on full wets as it was raining. The car was like a hippo on roller blades so I changed to intermediates which helped - still well down on pace
https://youtu.be/ExffNPuOpbg
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I just raced Catalunya in Spain last night.
Here's a few laps before and after my one and only pit stop.
https://youtu.be/1sA6Ldqel38
Example of tenacity...
I qualified 22nd (because I had put the difficulty up to Legendary!). I raced full race distance - 66 laps - in the rain. It was throwing it down for the whole race. On wets for the entire race with 1 pit stop on lap 35. I was lapped twice by Hamilton - and pretty much lapped twice by all the drivers up to something like 10th place and my team mate lapped me once too.
And I finished the race. It took around two hours (1:48 per lap). I wanted to give up. I don't like Catalunya anyway and the weather made it really difficult - and add on seeing your team mate lap you :'(
Driving in the rain requires a huge amount of concentration because it's just so hard to race in those conditions.
Rival (Gutierrez) is beating me by about 7 points at the moment.
Next race is Monaco. I can't say the rival situation is going to get any better because it's Monaco - but I was able to turn the difficulty down from Legendary to Master (which is the new level they put in for 1.06 to bridge the huge gap I noticed between Expert and Legendary)
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You're a good man! I HATE racing F1 in the rain. Im absolutely terrible at it.
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I just remembered I had posted about this here...so no-one knows I did terrible at Monaco. That was no surprise. I'm not good around Monaco at all.
The other night, I had a great race in Canada (I love Canada anyway).
I was lucky in qualifying which put me out of position on the starting grid...I qualified 1st.
I was placed 10th in the first qualifying session, went through to second qualifying session and placed 9th. In the final qualifying session I was placed 1st out of the 10 remaining. That was because I went out and banked an early lap and whilst I was on my final sector of my fast lap, the rain started to fall. So the rest of the 10 were either doing their lap on slicks and having a hard time, or they had to go out on intermediate tyres.
Whatever the reason, I started Pole Position.
When the race started, I had a good start and started to pull away. The track was wet and the rain was falling. The entire grid was on intermediates though the rain wasn't forecast to last long. There were lots of tricky moments, but I kept it on the track and out the wall and pulled out a 6 second gap between myself and the pack. Hamilton and Rosberg were the closest behind me about 4 seconds back.
The track started to dry and the engineer was telling me it wasn't quite time to change tyre. So I stayed out and stayed out but watched as Hamilton and Rosberg were getting faster and faster and closer and closer.
On lap 15, I got an engineer call telling me Hamilton was going slow and had a problem with the car.
2 laps later there was a yellow flag situation along the back straight...it was Hamilton going slow!! I flew past him with Rosberg still on my heels. I then got a message saying Hamilton was out the race. Another lap past and Rosberg was nowhere to be seen...another message, Rosberg had a terminal car issue and they were retiring the car.
This left me 10 seconds ahead of the next car which was Verstappen.
I decided to jump in the pits and stick a nice fresh set of Ultra Soft boots on in lap 19. I was back on the pace...but Verstappen was catching, lots of them had pitted too.
Slowly but surely Verstappen was catching...but very slowly. On lap 35, I jumped in for another set of boots. As I had 35 laps left and the Ultrasoft tyres had lasted 16 laps, I decided to NOT go for another set of Ultra Soft, fearing I would have to do another pit stop and so I went for the Soft tyre.
This put the pressure on - Verstappen was catching more and more after that, faster and faster. On lap 58, he took me on the pit straight. He has the Super Soft tyres on. DAMN! Why didn't I think about the SS tyre? getting 16 laps out of the US, there was a good chance the SS would've lasted.
Next behind was Ricciardo closely followed by Raikkonen and Vettel. They were catching me - slower - but they were catching. However, as they were embroiled in their own battle, I was relatively safe. From about lap 64, I continually had to defend against one of them (as they kept swapping places between themselves).
Always down the back straight and always at Champions Wall. I always took the inside line into that chicane and they always backed out, giving me some breathing space for the rest of the lap.
I held them off - came in 2nd. :clap:
I found out that what the rest of the field had done (or most of them) was put Supersoft tyres on in both their pit stops. That's why their Supersoft tyres lasted that final stint. Where I had put Ultrasoft tyres on, I changed earlier giving me a longer second stint to complete. Two sets of Supersoft would've done and I might well have managed to keep Verstappen behind.
Super race. Very close. The weather helped stick me in a position I shouldn't have qualified in but the racing was all me. I had lowered the difficulty for this race and thinking about it, perhaps I shouldn't have as it's a race track I'm familiar with.
Next is Baku in Azerbaijan - not a circuit I know at all!! I'm not expecting a repeat. I will leave the difficulty where it is as I'm not familiar with the circuit.
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Nice write-up.
Second is better than third ;D or no finish :'(
I think you forgot the screenshots :P
Thanks for posting. I look forward to your next race.
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Sounds like a great race!
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I'll try and remember a video next time. Problem is, the races are about 2 hours long. I have no problem recording them...but editing them for "juicy" bits could take some time.
I will give it a bash next time though
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Doing Track Acclimatisation at Baku and it's fubar.
Turn 10 has you hugging the right hand wall...makes no sense as it's a terrible line to take up the hill towards the right hand corner. Apparently racing line shows there too (I don't know as I don't have it on).
Point is - you will not get ANY points for turn 10 in Track Acclimatisation