I guess I qualify for being the most improved driver of the week. I've
always been a huge fan of GPL even though I can't really play it.
Sound strange? Well, I don't have a wheel and currently can't afford
one, but that's another story.
I submitted my F3 player.ini to GPL a long time and never bothered to
update it. Having gotten the bug again, I decided to hook up my
joypad and attempt to play again. This time with a F1 engine. Brave
& stupid, I know.
Anyway, obviously I smashed my records at all tracks and updated my
player.ini. Whoopee a massive >200 points improvement to 316. Can
you imagine what my previous one was? Don't ask.
Anyway, embarrasment aside, I knew that the 316 gplrank was based on
some pretty pisspoor laps, even by my standards and decided to sit
down last night and take it a bit more seriously.
After about 2 hours of lapping, I managed to whack another 100 points
off my ranking leaving me at 216. Most of the time was gained at Spa
and the Ring, and I still haven't broken 10 min at the ring, so I know
I have a lot more time I can chop off.
Remember all of this is with a analog joypad so my thumbs are pretty
much messed up write now. i'mevenhaving the odd spasm
hittingmyspacebar!
I figure at the rate of progress I'm making, I should be +116 tonight,
+16 by Friday and -84 by Saturday night.
Wish me luck :)
Seriously, though, I can't wait to play GPL with a FF wheel, but
that's months away if I'm lucky. I will soldier on with the joypad.
I figure that realistically, I should be aiming for something like a
+150 to +120 rank. If I make the former, I'll be happy. Hopefully
the knowledge gained now will enable a swift transition to playing
with a wheel.
Is there anybody else out there suffering with an inferior controller,
but doing well, nonetheless?
regards,
ian
Come see how you rank, at the GPLRank site
http://gplrank.ringlord.com/
I don't understand it. I shoulda had a rank of 116 by tonight. Yet
after 2 hours of solid play, I can only manage an improvement of 16
points to +199.54 (according to the replay analyser tool).
Darn. I was beginning to this game was easy, but now tonight i can't
go faster... :(
anyway, improved my ring time from 10:09 to 9:56 in a nice session and
my monaco & mexico times had much smaller improvements.
its hard playing with the joypad, but if I make fewer mistakes around
the ring I have a lot of time to make up.
oh well. more practise required then.
regards
ian
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i am at +191 now. Still haven't made a clean ring or monaco lap yet.
My ring time is down to 9.49 and if you look around, that's pretty
poor. It's hard with the joypad as the throttle & brakes are digital
and can't be applied simultaneosly as I use my thumb for both. I am
using a playstation dual shock so maybe I should move the brake to one
of the shoulder buttons. i'm still playing with an auto gearbox but i
feel ready to change to manual once my fingers get used to changing
gears on the pad. as for monaco & the ring, 2 questions.
do people lift off the throttle through the chicane or is it flat out
from the tunnel all the way?
and as for the final straight on the ring...i have to lift off the
throttle as I go under the last bridge or else i plant it in the hedge
on the right on the way downhill. must watch greger's lap again.
i have done about 15 ring laps to date and by now I should go back and
watch some replays to see how it should be done. the track is slowly
becoming familiar now and I am even beginning to anticipate corners
now. watch out 9 minute make, here I come. i figure in my current
state, if i have no spins on a lap, I should be able to save about
30-40 seconds. by then, with improving track awareness, i should be
able to gain another 10 seconds or so and then I'm at the 9 min mark.
if i factor taking an average of 2secs per lap off the other tracks
where I am an average of 120% off the pace, I should be pushing your
+130 :) Which tells me that you probably could do better as well,
given time. Don't sell yourself short.
I will play around with the controller settings some more. My main
problem is that the analog stick on the psx pad is way too sensitive.
I set the ratio in GPL to 20:1 and its still too sensitive. very easy
to over-correct and lose control. if you watch any replays of mine,
you see me sawing at the wheel much more than other people's replays.
its just the stick that does that. If I use minute movements, I get
the smoothness, but it is incredibly demanding do play that way, and
certainly not practical for more than 10 or 20 seconds at a time.
it makes driving smoothly impossible and i lose a lot of time
correcting the car, even in a straight line :(
oh well. making plans now to free up cash for a wheel. mmmm what
can i sell......
regards,
ian
> >Isn't it the law of diminishing returns - a logarithmic scale?
> >Like, if you improve 5 secs laps1-2 you can expect to improve 2.5
secs
> >laps 2-3 1.25 secs laps 3-4 and pretty soon you're chasing
hundredths
> >(and not getting them).
> I had my tongue firmly in cheek when I was making those claims :)
It
> was just so much fun being at the point where I *can* actually shave
> off seconds at a time. Most GPL'ers are at the point where you are
> and are only able to improve in 10ths of a second now. I'm glad I
\am
> at this point now without a wheel as it gives me something to look
> forward to as I improve my track knowledge.
> >I'm stuck at about 130 GPL rank and I reckon I've just about
reached
> >my limit of excellence - until something dramatic happens, like I
> >learn the Ring or get a split axis wheel (or get around Monaco
> >cleanly!)
> i am at +191 now. Still haven't made a clean ring or monaco lap
yet.
> My ring time is down to 9.49 and if you look around, that's pretty
> poor. It's hard with the joypad as the throttle & brakes are
digital
> and can't be applied simultaneosly as I use my thumb for both. I am
> using a playstation dual shock so maybe I should move the brake to
one
> of the shoulder buttons. i'm still playing with an auto gearbox but
i
> feel ready to change to manual once my fingers get used to changing
> gears on the pad. as for monaco & the ring, 2 questions.
> do people lift off the throttle through the chicane or is it flat
out
> from the tunnel all the way?
> and as for the final straight on the ring...i have to lift off the
> throttle as I go under the last bridge or else i plant it in the
hedge
> on the right on the way downhill. must watch greger's lap again.
> i have done about 15 ring laps to date and by now I should go back
and
> watch some replays to see how it should be done. the track is
slowly
> becoming familiar now and I am even beginning to anticipate corners
> now. watch out 9 minute make, here I come. i figure in my current
> state, if i have no spins on a lap, I should be able to save about
> 30-40 seconds. by then, with improving track awareness, i should be
> able to gain another 10 seconds or so and then I'm at the 9 min
mark.
> if i factor taking an average of 2secs per lap off the other tracks
> where I am an average of 120% off the pace, I should be pushing your
> +130 :) Which tells me that you probably could do better as well,
> given time. Don't sell yourself short.
> >With a joypad, don't you need throttle and braking help? That'll
slow
> >you down no matter what you do, won't it?
> I will play around with the controller settings some more. My main
> problem is that the analog stick on the psx pad is way too
sensitive.
> I set the ratio in GPL to 20:1 and its still too sensitive. very
easy
> to over-correct and lose control. if you watch any replays of mine,
> you see me sawing at the wheel much more than other people's
replays.
> its just the stick that does that. If I use minute movements, I get
> the smoothness, but it is incredibly demanding do play that way, and
> certainly not practical for more than 10 or 20 seconds at a time.
> it makes driving smoothly impossible and i lose a lot of time
> correcting the car, even in a straight line :(
> oh well. making plans now to free up cash for a wheel. mmmm what
> can i sell......
> regards,
> ian
Yes - lift off through the tunnel, power on at exit, then lift a bit
again and run over the left kerb.
Also lift for jump at end of Ring straight.
My biggest time improvements came when I learned to dump the GP2/3
habits of blast / brake / turn and realised it is quicker not to
brake, but lift off earlier.
Assume you've found Alison's circuit Guides at
http://simracing.com/alison/gpl/ (Contents - Circuits)?
Your achievements with a joypad are quite phenomenal! I have only
achieved 9:30 Ring and 1:35 Monaco - with an elderly Thrustmaster T2
no split axis, but at least it's a wheel.
Currently working on Rouen (2:09) - can NOT be consistent on the
hairpin!
--
Laurence Wilmer
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>Hope the chap who said 8:30 was an average time for the Ring had his
>tongue in his cheek as well!!
hehe
>Yes - lift off through the tunnel, power on at exit, then lift a bit
>again and run over the left kerb.
ahh. now i don't feel like a *** anymore. i thought i was being to
conservative. i sometimes feel though that there is a time to be nice
and gentle and then there are times that you use will & brute force to
make the car do what you want to do. unfortunately, my will and force
are not always up to the task.
i'm learning that as well. especially in the downhill twisty bits.
its such a blast being able to put the power down earlier too as a
result of that technique.
er, no. meaning to print out the guides at
www.legendscentral.com/lor/ when my boss isn't looking. :)
not as phenomenal as the guy doing 1.09 at watkins glen with the
keyboard :)
my ring time is currently 9:49 with about 4 or 5 major***ups in
between. i figure 9:10 or 20 is achievable as i learn more about it.
as long as you can be smooth, i guess it helps. are you sure it isn't
split axis? isn't there a little back to back converter that you can
remove to make it 3 axis? i borrowed one once and I seem to recall
that little thing that you plugged in between the pedals and the main
unit to change the brake axis. that was a looooong way back though,
so my memory may be faulty.
yep. needing to find a good line & braking point there myself.
especially after the speedy straight before hand.
regards,
ian
Eldred
--
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. R.I.P. 1951-2001
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
F1 hcp. +28.67...F2 +151.26...
Never argue with an idiot. He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.
Eldred
--
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. R.I.P. 1951-2001
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
F1 hcp. +28.67...F2 +151.26...
Never argue with an idiot. He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.
>and as for the final straight on the ring...i have to lift off the
>throttle as I go under the last bridge or else i plant it in the hedge
>on the right on the way downhill. must watch greger's lap again.
Eldred
--
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. R.I.P. 1951-2001
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
F1 hcp. +28.67...F2 +151.26...
Never argue with an idiot. He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.
>'Normal' people lift in both spots. Aliens never even NOTICE those areas...<g>
>Eldred
regards,
ian
(no gpl tonight. watching empire strikes back for the ump***th time,
is that an acceptable excuse?)
> >>Currently working on Rouen (2:09) - can NOT be consistent on the
> >>hairpin!
> >yep. needing to find a good line & braking point there myself.
> >especially after the speedy straight before hand.
> If I stay on the power in the left-hand kink, I can't slow down in time for the
> hairpin. I end up praking for the left-hander, and coasting to/through the
> hairpin. I'm losing a bunch of time that way, but it's the only way I can get
> through it more than once in a row<g>.
> Eldred
--
Ren van Lobberegt, The Netherlands.
http://www.toptown.com/INNERCIRCLE/1846/
AMCA webmaster : http://www.amcaracing.nl/
