What all sims can learn from GT7

My idea of a single player mode that carries me from race to race still is defined by Geoff Crammond's Gran Prix (1) on Amiga. Season. Races. Points. Tables. Voila.

And essentially that is what you can set up in Raceroom, too, even with your own choices for characterising the "season".

I never cared for story telling in racing games. Saw it once in some not good Codemaster title, and was bored from beginning on, and soon got rid of it. I do niot care for stories in racing games. Not now. Not 10 years ago. Not 20 years ago. Not before that. If I want a narration, I read a book or watch a movie. In a sports game, I found it: boring. Always.

Some years ago, people screamed and wanted a season editor. They got it. And it allows what can be wished for and desired in the options to form your own season and series and features and details defining it. Whats not sufficient in that option anymore? I said and still say: it works good. It leaves no wish open, imo. Just that it does not tell a tale. Play an RPG.

Some things I never understood what makes them so interestngn for people. Steam achievements are another good example. Whats the story with those cards and batches to collect?

I think the GT Sports package was and is very elegant and round and beautiful and the way the presentation is done aims at the single player to make him playing on despite the really not impressive rubber band AI. It helps to gloss over this one really big disadvantage of GTS. And you know what? It worked. I really like GTS' unique style, although I rarely switch it on. The presentation in GTS compensates for the one big weakness of that title: the AI. Well. What weakness should a story telling feature compensate for in RR? I could not imagine any.

 

Nobody said anything about storytelling. Gran Turismo doesn't have any real storytelling either.

The "presentation" you are talking about is actually a well designed progression of challenges, which is very beneficial for maintaining player's engagement. If a game doesn't provide you with a ready challenge, you are the one left with the task of crafting one for yourself. That's like training without a coach, learning without a teacher or visiting a museum without a guide. There's a reason many people use services of coaches, teachers and guides and that's the same reason many people would like a well crafted single player experience.

 

I never followed the "challenges" in GTS. Not interested.

By presentation I mean the visual design, the smooth style of the itnerface, the elegance.Not the challenges. Challenges like presneted here, NEVER interest me, no matter whether GTS or ACC.

I mentioned "story-telling" becasue some titles do that, Codemaster titles ionm mind as an exmaple. It adds narration and RPG elements, or is menat to do that, to a season/career. What I was focussed on in past years when these thigns sitll inetrested me, were never narrated seaosnsn and careers, but simply running a season and competing in the tables. This is what Season/career is about, imho.

And this is what Raceroom allows you to do. The editor for a customized season works remarkably well. I did two such seasons in Raceroom, and two other customized seasons in AC as well.

Nowadays I mostly drive simple Practice sessions and fight the AI on track as I meet it randomly. Works great, is simple. Get in, start engine, drive.

 

Did you really say that looking good and stylish compensates for a bad AI? Even though racing against AI is what you mostly do? This looks like a quite unusual set of preferences and I doubt a lot of people share it too. If a championship editor is enough for you, that doesn't necessarily mean it also should be enough for others.

 

In that case the thing you mean is not what makes those players stick with the imperfect AI. It's the progression system with its well-crafted challenges.

No, a proper career mode doesn't require of you to set up each season yourself - it does that for you in an organic matter based on your previous season. It's what's called a gameplay loop. Setting up a season each time means there's no gameplay loop to speak of, because your gameplay breaks down after each cycle and you have to set it up again.

Even on that I disagree. The ruleset customization is very limited. You cannot even change the pointing system. The AI is set in stone for the entire championship as well, and there's only one parameter for the entire grid to begin with. It's serviceable, sure, but nothing more.

 

I said this:
I think the GT Sports package was and is very elegant and round and beautiful and the way the presentation is done aims at the single player to make him playing on despite the really not impressive rubber band AI. It helps to gloss over this one really big disadvantage of GTS. And you know what? It worked. I really like GTS' unique style, although I rarely switch it on. The presentation in GTS compensates for the one big weakness of that title: the AI. Well. What weakness should a story telling feature compensate for in RR? I could not imagine any.
And obviously I was not alone with that. Many GTS players played single player only.

There are not few players, I would even say: the majority still, that prefer SP to MP. Some due to prefernce and taste, others due to pragmatism and real life getting in the way.

 

Okay, I got you. Although I still disagree that a championship editor should be enough for everyone or that a career mode should only be there to compensate game weaknesses.

 

the only story in a circuit racer that i remember was race driver 1, where its implied that you actually might kill someone
or what f1 was just trying,
best modern career was PC1 not even getting to chose where you go or even what team or car youd be driving, pc2 should have been racing genesis instead of...... crap tbh. even if it was really just rng it had impact, i guess all we have in anything now id a season mode with role play stories, f1 is great at that.oooooo screw that there george russel for taking my wing out in japan

 

Never said nor implied so.

 

i don't see how gt7 sp is compelling? it's just a list of races with chase the rabbit style an collecting cars, hardly compelling unless you dream about collecting cars

the F1 games are what a singleplayer should be like

 

Well, it's more aimed towards car fans in general, not necessarily racing fans in particular. The basic principles of a compelling gameplay are upheld though - you have goals, challenges and resources arranged into a simple, but engaging gameplay loop.

That's basically what ranked systems in R3E and iRacing provide. The issue is that racing sims lack any equivalent of such system for single player.

 

I’m kinda wondering if the whole point of asking for a career mode was to get more free stuff? In gt7 you buy the whole game for X amount of money, then work your way through the game to unlock all the stuff. While in raceroom you get some stuff for free, and then pay as you go.
So a career mode to earn more free stuff wouldn’t serve s3e at all. And in fact you would most likely get a whole bunch of kids who got all there content for free on the easiest setting with no real race craft trashing the mp servers. At least that was my experience when I was playing real racing on my phone.
Anyway I don’t see the devs adding it to the game. At least I hope not

 

I think it's a good question, how do you organize a career mode in a game where most content is obtained via microtransactions.

However, I'm pretty sure getting paid content for free is not what those guys mean.

 

Also can we invent a term other than "microtransaction" for sim racing content? Paying 3.99 EUR for a car really isn't a "micro" transaction, it's just selling content piece by piece.

 

I disagree but I think that would be too lengthy off-topic...

 

No, it wasn't.

I'm kinda wondering if the whole point of raising such a suspision was to justify saying

 

No, I feel no need to justify my opinions.

 

Doesn't seem that way when you're assuming bad faith on people you disagree with.