Make it so: Pickard's SCGT Guide - a discussion

You know how I tell apart a fantastic sim from a ***'game'? Usually I hate the game for the first few weeks and then its intrinsic qualities come out and I wonder why I didn't like it from day one. I hated GPL, Viper Racing, GP2 and SCGT for the first two weeks. Now they are permanently on my HD. I really liked NFS3/4, F1RS, any other F1 racer *at first*... In fact I think I play SCGT more than I play GPL now. Here's how I play: I use a Celeron 566Mhz running v2/sli at 1,024 everything on. Quickrace only with the GT3 or better class cars all hopped up on the go-fast equipment. On the big sweeper tracks like Laguna Seca, Hock and Donington Long and Sebring. Thrustmaster T2. I would love to get the Update 3.0 but ~125Mb is too much. Just the ADVOpt patch, 1.551 update and the VisDam patch. I play full screen so I don't need dashboards. Just some notes about Pickard's guide: The tracks guides are spot on. No problems there. I find the 'Pure Sim' mode to be absolutely fine on all the cars. I don't feel that the GT1's are riding on '4 1/2 inch rims'. I feel that they have awesome grip - when I stuff up a corner it's because I've done something stupid at too high an entry speed. But then again GPL has beaten me around the head WRT to cornering speed. Exit speed stability is fine too, jump on the gass too much on exit and the car goes sideways. The big problem I have with the sounds is that the original sounds are Dolby Pro Logic - you get road and engine noise in the rear speakers. None of the addon packs have that so I use the original sounds. I use a digital ac3/dts/pro-logic decoder so I like those Pro-Logic sounds. The car guide needs some additional information for car upgrades. I like the 6-speed box as minimum. Also a fully hopped up GT car will be almost equivalent to the standard or almost standard next grade car. eg. a GT2 BMW M3 has 797hp which is well in excess of the standard GT1 car. In fact I can consistently keep ahead of the GT1 cars in that 797hp M3! Funny seeing an M3 blow away McLaren F1's! I would like some r.a.s feedback to your cars of choice. Here's mine: GTQ - Porsche 911 with the 5 spoke alloys. I don't like this class anyway but the 400hp 911 is great for those tight little tracks where ~900hp GT1 cars usually end up in the wall. Dig that soft suspension/massive weight transfers in corners! GT3 - Saleen Mustang - love this class. Fast enough but not stratispheric like the GT2/1. Still the big V8 and stable Mustang RWD chassis does it for me. Above this class tracks become corners strung togther with short bits of straight; here in GT3 land you have time to think and enjoy the race. GT2 - The BMW M3. How does BMW squeeze so much power from a little 3.2lt inline 6? The chassis is stable too which is probably something from its passenger car background. A close favourite is the Saleen Mustang. GT1 - I like the Panoz GTR-1 or the Q9. Both are just different to the others because of the front engine. Cornering stability is excellent. And the engine seems to just power ahead from the Europeans. The big problem I have with these cars is that everything happens *so damn fast*. Except on Hockenheim and Sebring and Seca where these cars can really strech their long legs - it's a battle keeping ~900hp on a leash. Try Chatham with the 990hp Panoz Q9 - how busy are you now? I'm like a monkey with two***s - *very* busy***pit... I need an extra arm! T.

If you do get the 3.0 service pak. and I heartily recomend it. try not to upgrade your cars beyond the suspension, aero, and abs brakes of you use them I would think a 6 speed gearbox would be ok too. the reason? The car builders are putting a lot of effort in getting the cars hp, handling etc done right. So if you dload a car it probably has accurate hp #'s. Buffing them up with the super parts available in the career mode makes for uneven races. A gtq with full mods can almost handle the upper echelons. above all, have fun. dave henrie

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> You know how I tell apart a fantastic sim from a ***'game'? > Usually I hate the game for the first few weeks and then its > intrinsic qualities come out and I wonder why I didn't like it from > day one. I hated GPL, Viper Racing, GP2 and SCGT for the first two > weeks. Now they are permanently on my HD. > I really liked NFS3/4, F1RS, any other F1 racer *at first*... > In fact I think I play SCGT more than I play GPL now. > Here's how I play: > I use a Celeron 566Mhz running v2/sli at 1,024 everything on. > Quickrace only with the GT3 or better class cars all hopped > up on the go-fast equipment. On the big sweeper tracks like > Laguna Seca, Hock and Donington Long and Sebring. > Thrustmaster T2. I would love to get the Update 3.0 but > ~125Mb is too much. Just the ADVOpt patch, 1.551 update > and the VisDam patch. > I play full screen so I don't need dashboards. > Just some notes about Pickard's guide: > The tracks guides are spot on. No problems there. > I find the 'Pure Sim' mode to be absolutely fine > on all the cars. I don't feel that the GT1's are > riding on '4 1/2 inch rims'. I feel that they have > awesome grip - when I stuff up a corner it's > because I've done something stupid at too high > an entry speed. But then again GPL has beaten > me around the head WRT to cornering speed. > Exit speed stability is fine too, jump on the gass > too much on exit and the car goes sideways. > The big problem I have with the sounds is that the > original sounds are Dolby Pro Logic - you get road > and engine noise in the rear speakers. None of the > addon packs have that so I use the original sounds. > I use a digital ac3/dts/pro-logic decoder so I like > those Pro-Logic sounds. > The car guide needs some additional information for > car upgrades. I like the 6-speed box as minimum. > Also a fully hopped up GT car will be almost equivalent > to the standard or almost standard next grade car. > eg. a GT2 BMW M3 has 797hp which is well in excess of the > standard GT1 car. In fact I can consistently keep ahead of the > GT1 cars in that 797hp M3! Funny seeing an M3 blow away McLaren > F1's! > I would like some r.a.s feedback to your cars of choice. > Here's mine: > GTQ - Porsche 911 with the 5 spoke alloys. I don't like this > class anyway but the 400hp 911 is great for those tight little > tracks where ~900hp GT1 cars usually end up in the wall. > Dig that soft suspension/massive weight transfers in corners! > GT3 - Saleen Mustang - love this class. Fast enough but not > stratispheric like the GT2/1. Still the big V8 and stable > Mustang RWD chassis does it for me. Above this class tracks > become corners strung togther with short bits of straight; > here in GT3 land you have time to think and enjoy the race. > GT2 - The BMW M3. How does BMW squeeze so much power from > a little 3.2lt inline 6? The chassis is stable too which > is probably something from its passenger car background. > A close favourite is the Saleen Mustang. > GT1 - I like the Panoz GTR-1 or the Q9. Both are > just different to the others because of the front > engine. Cornering stability is excellent. And the > engine seems to just power ahead from the Europeans. > The big problem I have with these cars is that > everything happens *so damn fast*. Except on > Hockenheim and Sebring and Seca where these cars > can really strech their long legs - it's a battle > keeping ~900hp on a leash. Try Chatham with the > 990hp Panoz Q9 - how busy are you now? I'm like > a monkey with two***s - *very* busy***pit... > I need an extra arm! > T.

Where can one get the 3.0 service pak?

Dave, As you know from my posts and your replies,I've given SCGT another go. I've installed the 1.551 patch,the Advance Options patch,and now the 3.0 service pack. It's like a whole new sim,or should I say sims. The Trans-Am cars replace the GT-Q class,and are a blast to compete in. The Touring cars are way better than the Pits patch for Nas2/99. But the GT-1 cars that come with the 3.0 service pack are something else. I also installed the universal***pit patch,that automatically changes the***pit when you change classes,but I really don't like,if for no other reason than when I'm driving a Riley & Scott you can see the Word Porche on the windsheild. Samething for the Trans-Am class. I much prefer picking my own***pit,as it only takes a few min. to make the change. Changing from pure sim to original in the AOP for the GT-1 cars,makes them much easier to drive. Whether or not this is prototypical or not. I'm much more comfortable with it set that way. As for ad ons,the only one that I use in any of the classes is tha ABS brakes. I find the regular brakes way to sensitive. SCGT has become the perfect 2nd sim I was looking for to give me a every other day break from gpl. The 3.0 service pack was very very large,and I downloaded it over 3 days. I deleted all the files after the install,but still have the zip file just in case. But since I only have a 1.6 gig hard drive (never got around to buying a bigger one as I always upgraded the cpu,motherboard,and graphics card),looks like I will have to delete that as well,since I barely have enough room for a new install of Nascar3. Hopefully,a new track pack will be released. Joel Willstein

James Wolhever's site(I'm sorry James, I think I mispell your last name differently every time I post it...) Techware motorsports. You can link to it from the big SCGT site: gtinsider have fun. If you ARE going to dload the sp3.0. Either use IE5.0 or get a dload manager like Getright or Gozilla. For some reason, those people who tried to dload with netscape get a corupt file message. Be warned tho, the patch is HUGE! dave henrie > Where can one get the 3.0 service pak?