rec.autos.simulators

There are racing simulations that let you simulate the proper techniques of
racing without the requirement of spending a hundred hours perfecting your
steering and braking techniques, but still strive for a realistic experience
in all other departments.  GP2 falls into this category.

Then there is the other kind of simulation that requires you to spend a
hundred hours just perfecting your steering and braking inputs so you don't
meander all over the track as you negotiate a kink in the straight or enter
a curving braking zone without spinning off.  And, unfortunately you may
still not master it.  Papyrus sims fall into this category.

It thus follows that there are two types of simulation players -- those who
don't want to spend a hundred hours just learning how not to spin-out in a
curving braking zone or a kink in a straight and those who relish the
thought of spending at least a hundred hours perfecting their braking and
steering inputs before mastering the other aspects of a simulation.

So, there you have it -- two schools of thought on how to approach a racing
simulation experience.    It would be nice to incorporate the two approaches
in Grand Prix Legends.   This would satisfy both the *** simmer and the
not so *** simmer.

As it stands now in demo form, GPL is geared to the extremely *** sim
player -- ie, the type of player who's hands and feet have built in
calculators to determine the exceedingly precise input requirements of the
steering wheel and brake.  This will be sad for those who relish the thought
of driving this sim but will not be able to meet Papyrus's excessively tough
minimum requirements.

I repeat that suggestion.

--
Bruce.
(At home)

Seriously, Charles,
I have been wondering if you have written all your posts just to provoce
and irritate. Some of them come close to real spam, but suddenly you
have some valid points.
The thing is, you are *very* subjective and you seldom answer comments.

Cheers,
Matt
(drove Gp2 for ages!, took me as much/more time to learn than GPL!)

--

Matthew Birger Knutsen
Cheek Racing Cars (http://www.racesimcentral.net/~kareknut)

"Racing cars is like dancing with a chainsaw"
       -Cale Yarborough

--

Sure you can configure GP2 with all the driver aids on, and step
straight into a *quick race* on rookie level, and probably win
straight away at that level without even looking at set-ups.

But, try to jump into a race at Ace level, with all the driver aids
turned off, and that is another story?

To win at this level you must have detailed knowledge of the car
set-ups, car handling characteristics & the circuits, and be a very
good driver. And to achieve that, requires *lots* and *lots* of
practice. As it does, in most other serious sims.

*Peter*  8-)

I applaud Papyrus' decision to incorporate a realistic, demanding
driving model into GPL. If I could learn to be fast in an hour or two,
where would the replay value be? As it is, I expect to still be learning
things and picking up tenths of seconds here and there well into next
year.

Trips

I installed GPL, set it to the highest difficulty levels and set-out for my
first lap.  After spending a hundred hours getting CART:PR set-up so that
the steering would not be twitchy, I revelled in the fact that GPL was
perfect from the beginning.  I drove my first lap at moderately high speeds
and did not crash or leave the track once.  That is what a driving model is
supposed to be like.  Realistic and the car responds as you would expect it
to.  Subsequently, in an attempt to drive faster, I have crashed and
spun-out dozens of times.  That is because of my incompetence and I think,
partly, due to the "unfinished" graphics which do not exhibit a sense of
speed as well as I hope the final does.

There is nothing wrong with the steering or braking or accelerating in GPL.
F1RS steers fine too after you apply the appropriate patches to fix the
controller recognition problems.  ICR2 and N2 both steer perfectly out of
the box.  I am not a master of any of these sims., but in none of them do I
believe that my poor showing is a result of flawed gameplay.  Only CART:PR
exhibited that problem and I have fixed it so that it too is fine.

GPL, quite simply, is a far cry above earlier Papyrus sims. and blows away
most of the competition (for a driving/control model) even though it is in a
pre-alpha state.  I am very impressed with it and not very impressed with
your whining.

Marc.

Joe

Anyone who frequents this NG is a *** sim player and IMHO GPL doesn't
require any extra effort to master than any other half decent sim out
there.
A few days ago I was spinning around the track turn "fast" laps of 1:18 and
now I'm down to 1:11.20 and I only practice (it's not playing it
practicing) for an hour or so a day.

Even if the GP hard is too tough for you to tame you can still get much
enjoyment from the GP2 and GP3 cars, and with a little practice and
patience you too can lap in under 1:12 before you know it.

Alan

Maybe if they called it GP3 and put someone else's name on it you would like
it... Or better yet why don't YOU write a sim (you seem to know everything
there is to know about them) so we can bash it like you seem to like to do
with this demo.  Bottom line... if you don't like it.. don't buy it.

Lurch