About 8 or 9 months ago I was complaining about the lack of content in this game. (insert winey voice here) "I want more tracks and better everything else" was my general attitude. Well I guess it's time for me to "eat some crow" as we say in the western USA. I got into this sim fairly early. And purchased a lot of content on sale during the experience days of this game. Then one day as I looked at everything I owned, I realized I hadn't even begun to scratch the surface of the material available to me. The track and car combo's were endless. So I gave myself an assignment. Spend time learning/driving every car I owned. Now I didn't mean drive every car for 5 minutes and decide it sucked. But to spend time in each car. Learn how it handled. What were it's strong and weak points. And what tracks were the best to race it on. This has been my focus for at least 8 months. I'm not even 1/3rd of the way through the cars I own. I keep getting hooked on pretty much every car. Because once I get it dialed on for my skill level, somewhere between 95 and 105 percent, and learn what tracks it really smokes on, I want to keep playing with it. And I have to remind myself to stop so I don't get bored with it. Some of my all time favorites. The BMW M1 Pro car, that might be my all time fave of any of the sims I own. Any of the DTM 92s, the GTO Mustang and Opel, all the Ford GT's (blinking hard to handle, but,,,) the WTCC 2015 Citroen, the Corvette C6R GT2, the Aquilla cup, and the Radical SR9 Turbo just to name a few. Now I am pretty much a single player mode person. I get about an hour or so a few times a week to play right now. And I personally don't feel that is enough time to invest in a serious multiplayer career. So It might be easier for me than some of you who are set on multiplayer mode. Because I can pick and choose what I want to do much more easily. But that's also part of my choice in what mode to spend most to all of my racing time in. And in my defense, I rarely ever look at the multi player screen. So I don't even know what's available there. Some of the bonuses. I have developed a very good understanding of the AI. And have had some real fender and door smashers in battling for position on the track. Special thanks to S3E for creating some of the most realistic bots in any sim anywhere. I have had so many intense moments/battles on the track that I have watched on so many FIA and IMSA video's. VERY WELL DONE! Guys, very well done. The immersion and realism is unsurpassed. My over all racing skills have improved. I am finding that I have to increase the level of the AI's on a regular basis. Tracks that I used to not like, are becoming more favored. Monza is a prime example, such a challenge. So when I ask "Have you really explored this game?" I am completely serious. I have been working on this game for months. And have only scratched the surface. So when I see people Bitching and moaning about all the things that are missing. I get really annoyed. I have some experience in computer programming. Mostly business. And I get the distinct impression that the loudest complainers, have no experience in computers. So Sit the f### down and learn some of the finer points of this excellent sim before you start whining. You may find yourself asking a different set of questions in a much more civil manor. I know I did.
Great post. I can totally relate to getting hooked on a car. I play alot of multiplayer, but some of my more satisfying moments are when i get into trying to improve my time on a specific car/track combo. I should do that more. Agree on your car choices as well. DTM 92 is a favorite of mine, and procar has alot going for it...the sound especially is PHENOMENAL.
I hope you enjoyed your 'crow'... Nice write-up, and so true. Completely correct about the depth of the game. All the cars are so different, it takes a lot of skill and practice to get the best out of them, as you have found. And you are right about the computer stuff, I am sure that the people that moan have no comprehension about the complex nature of producing moving art, from pixels. Today's society just seem to want and want, and want it now.. Rather sad really. Still, nice write-up.
I did in terms of intense League Racing with DTME and GT3 - best way to learn about all angles and edges regarding the game itself, but looking at my huge carpool most of them get rusty in my virtual garage - sadly. As a consequence we're discussing about having more Funevents to get all that beauties back on track...
I bought full content some months ago and I still didn't try all cars. For example in Group 5 I love to drive the Capri, or in GT3 the RUF, and so most of the cars are still unused. I almost never tried the GTO, tried the NSU for the first time recently... It's nice, I like to discover new content in a game after months. And for the cars I often drive I still can improve. What I'm missing at the moment is more official multiplayer competitions, or the ranking system, to see how I can evolve in a competitive context.
This is something that indeed needs a lot of practice and understanding how the AI works. As it is with your own driving style and approach - always room to improve to learn and un-/re-learn as well. And from my experience with tough online opponents the AI does what they do : tough and cunning (if you can name it that way). I cannot speak for all series of course, but just recently (sorry for bringing it up again) I checked out WTCC 13 after a long time doing a little SP champ on the newly released swedish tracks and it blew me away (guess it was diff. level 112) and I had a moment where I wasn't sure if I mysteriously beamed into one of our League Competitions - simply brilliant AI behaviour - lotta fun. Maybe it's also the wrong aproach trying to control the AI rather than to observe and adapt, going with their flow. In principle it's the same like entering an experienced grid as rookie : you better should have a load of respect and you surely wouldn't ask the guys if "*cough*...uhm...we can't get a little bit slower, more easy....no ?" ....at your first appearance, wouldn't you ? No, you would do anything to come close at least...or give up, or die trying All under the premise that even the best AI can't match live opponents -eventually their racing style is mathematics (putermatics) and a certain lack of emotional response..
I'm kind of revisiting this thread rather than start a new one. Now That I've spent time with a lot of new (to me) cars. I've started to revisit some of the ones I struggled with the most. And guess what, I am much better at them than before. Which brings to mind two different bits of advice I got from different people when I first started sim racing. One was "do as many different sims and cars as you can because each has something to teach you" and the other was "focus on one car and sim at a time and master that. Which I found rather boring. And at the same time, before, I used to play consistently with only one or two cars in any of my sims. So the point I'm getting around to (in a rather blabbering way) Is that learning as many different cars as I could realistically. Has made me a much better all around driver. Case in point, the RaceRoom FRJ. I never really got a good feel for that one. It drifted too much for me. But just now I was having a blast with it learning to control the drift. And then watching my lap times drop by a couple of seconds. So as I said before, take time to explore this wonderful sim.