Project C.A.R.S

[Akrapovic]

Oh, I'm also finding that AI setting 80 is too easy and 90 is too hard. The PC version, you can set it to any number between using the mouse. I'm not sure you can with the console version. I'll play with it more at the weekend and see.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Great news - thanks for that.

I gave it a whirl a couple of times, hated the handling (it feels good at times, then i'd end up really unfairly chucked off the road), so felt it was best to wait for a patch.

I'll give it another go over the weekend. Thanks for the feedback.

Selby

[ECW Dan Selby]

Stupid question alert:

I'm doing karting in career mode. I've started receiving offers from other catagories.

How on earth do I get out of doing karting?! I've done 2 championship's worth, and i'm sick of it!

Selby

[ECW Dan Selby]

Ah, ok, i've now properly finished the championship and had an offer for Superkarts.

I was under the impression that I could move to any catagory I pleased lol

Selby

[Akrapovic]

I skipped the karts as they weren't interesting to me and begun my pCARs with the Clios. I've now done one season so can give a bit more of a proper review.

My first impressions were that the AI were all over the place. Sometimes they're too fast at 80%, sometimes they're too slow at 80%. Now I've settled in, either I've become more consistent and faster or the AI has adapted to my speed as I tend to be around the front of the pack, either side of 1 second of the lead AI car. They do seem a little rough and tumbly but then again, I'm driving the Clios so this fits fine with that. It might be an issue when I get to LMP1s however.

The AI do seem to have an issue with the weather, and I'm not sure exactly what it is. I had a BMW M1 Procar invitational race at Zolder. I qualified on pole and within 5 laps I'd built a 5 second lead. It then began to rain. With 3 laps to go I decided to just ride it out, figuring that the rain would effect all cars equally and I wouldn't make up a pit stop in 3 laps. But whilst I started losing a LOT of grip and time, to the point of being unable to drive. But the AI didn't lose time - or if it did, it wasn't like me. So I went from 5 second lead, to 10th in a couple of laps, which didn't seem very fair.

But then I did another race at Imola, in the other Historic BMW (Group 5 car). It begun to spit with rain and I lost about 3-4 seconds a lap, and so did the AI. So it seemed to work in that regard, which doesn't make sense.

Driving physics are great. It's accessible without being too easy. It is NOT a full on simulation (I can do things in that Clio that nobody could do in real life!) but it's certainly not an arcade game. It's a lovely in between.

The game however is quite buggy. The pit stops, results, penalties and pit stop strategies are all rather broken. Pit stops you can just accelerate hard into the pit lane and it'll slow your car faster than any brakes could, and you gain 3 or 4 seconds per stop. Then you get into the pits and your car is under AI control and it pulls you into your pit box in an impossible way. It'll morph your car through other cars to achieve this too.

The pit strategies don't work correctly either. No matter what car you have, the strategies give the options for Soft, Medium, Hard, Intermediate and Wet tyres. But many cars don't have these options. The M1 only has Wet and Slick, so creating pit strategies isn't exactly obvious as the tyres don't match what you're driving.

The pits will call you into the pits at odd times too. A race with has mandatory pit stops will always call you in as soon as the window opens. It doesn't say Window Open, it says pit now. A race with no mandatory pit stops, it has every so often called me in. I think when my fuel is low in the last couple of laps. I'm unsure if there's a control map I can setup to disable this action, but it's rather annoying.

Penalties - if you cut the corner at the end of a lap it will discount not only the lap time of the lap you're on, but the next lap as well. This is a good feature as it stops you cutting the previous lap to gain on the next. But I was once given this notification and decided to return to the pit box. I did so, and then pitted out and the penalty still applied. The outlap AND my first flying lap were not counted due to the penalty from before I pitted.

I also had an incorrect race result in the Ginettas. I crashed on the last lap from the head and had a bit of a huff and quit the race. It then rolled back the results a lap and gave me the win.

And like all ISI engined games (this is a modification of the gMotor engine), if you "Skip to the end of the session", the laptimes which the AI post will be purely fictional. If you are on pole with, lets say, 1:30 lap time and the AI has 1:30, and then you skip to the end of the session, don't be surprised to find an AI car has done a 1:15. Always use accelerated time option, not the Skip to end of session.

Whilst these bugs are not game breaking, they are effecting my career mode. And I've only done one season so far! I am REALLY enjoying this game, but it needs more fixes, especially regarding pit stops and strategies.

[Akrapovic]

http://forum.projectcarsgame.com/sho...632#post959632

There's the problem with AI in the rain, and the exact race I had it in. It is a known issue.

[Aysedasi]

So has the PC version been improved (patched) too? No interest from me with consoles....

[tux]

Hi Akrapovic, regarding the tyres it was explained to me on the Project cars forum that tyre selection in the pit strategy doesn't correlate with the tyres you can select in the "edit tuning" page. For example although you can select soft, medium, hard tyres in pit strategy, for cars that don't have that option in the setup page it wont make any difference, you will just end up with dry tyres.

To put it slightly better, in the GT3 category you can only select Wet or Inter tyres for changeable conditions in the tuning page BUT if you pit it will give you the option of selecting extreme wets which wont do anything, it will just give you standard wet tyres.

Slightly confusing, i cant word it in a way that makes sense

There is another update coming this Friday which should improve game performance 5-7%.

[Akrapovic]

Thanks Tux. It helps me understand the logic they're using, but again it feels like it just hasn't been done right.

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

So has the PC version been improved (patched) too? No interest from me with consoles....

The PC has had at least one patch but the console and PC versions have very different bugs so I don't know what the PC version addressed.

Found another tyre bug last night, similar to the previously posted one.

I had a Ginetta Junior event (2 races, one has a pit stop) at Silverstone. Race 1 I was pulling away about half a second a lap from second place. With 4 laps to go I had around a 3 second lead and it began to rain. There was no pit stops in the race so I decided to wait it out. Now I begun to lose time but figured the AI would too. Interestingly a couple of AI pitted (in a race with no mandatory pit stops), but the ones who didn't lost the same amount of time as me initially. Then it got really wet and I was losing 5 seconds a lap, but the AI didn't slow any more. So I went from 1st to 10th in a lap thanks to the AIs magic tyres.

Second race had pit stops. I started 3rd, got to 1st by the end of lap 1 and began pulling away at around half a second a lap again. I decided to wait as late as possible for my pit stop in case it rained. I got lucky and it began to rain. I waited another couple of laps for the damp track to have a proper effect on the grip levels. I pitted, and the AI pitted the lap after, and funnily enough it worked fantastically. I ended up in second, closing on the car in front but never got to it in time.

So basically, if it rains in a race where theres no pit stops, you're screwed. The AI will stick to its magic tyres and win. If it rains in a race where there is pit stops, they'll react like expected.

Also found another silly bug. Was practising for the Silverstone Ginetta event, and one of the cars had no collision box, and because it had no collision box it wasn't reacting to other vehicles. So it hot lapped around and morphed through cars like it was a ghost car. I tested if it was happening to any others, but all the others reacted like normal.

This game is good but SERIOUSLY buggy, and the developers and "members" are being very combative with unhappy customers posting bugs on the forums.

Edit: 2 more bugs from yesterday. Blew the engine up, still showed 2000 RPM rather than 0. And pulling the handbrake on in the Ginetta caused the RPM to rocket. That doesn't seem right either.

[Akrapovic]

Serious serious game destroying bug with lap times.

http://forum.projectcarsgame.com/sho...-the-lap-times

http://forum.projectcarsgame.com/sho...just-messed-up

This effects anyone who is not on an extremely powerful PC, and both consoles.

[tux]

In a race with pit stops the AI KNOW when its going to rain so they will pit 1-2 laps early for the "correct" tyres, its really annoying.

[m355y]

It's a shame really isn't it? So much is so right about this game, but just as much wrong with it and unfortunately you really start to realise how much there is wrong as you delve deeper into it. The pitstops are like they're from a bad PSOne game, the damage model isn't good, the mechanical damage where your car just starts to pull to one side before eventually getting so twitchy and losing control, so unrealistic. The AI is stupid as well.

I'm finding myself going back to Race Pro on the 360, which does most stuff just as well as this but is generally more satisfying. All PC really offers over this or even Grid Autosport is better visuals really.

[chunder]

Sadly this is the opinion of a few people.

They missed a trick in my eyes, but on a console I think its a decent option.

On PC it seems it's a bit of a joke!

[Akrapovic]

Console isn't a particularly amazing option because the bugs are unfixable. With a PC you can often fiddle with things, and since this is an edited ISI gMotor engine, there will be someone messing with things to put in temp fixes.

However console owners are being told to buy external HDDs to help FPS and stuttering bugs, which is completely unacceptable.

[chunder]

Lol, really? Who is telling them? The amazing Mr Bell?

[tux]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Console isn't a particularly amazing option because the bugs are unfixable. With a PC you can often fiddle with things, and since this is an edited ISI gMotor engine, there will be someone messing with things to put in temp fixes.

However console owners are being told to buy external HDDs to help FPS and stuttering bugs, which is completely unacceptable.

Hi, apparently there will be another patch out tomorrow which should improve game performance by 5-7% which should solve alot of the FPS bugs, have to admit ive had no issues with FPS or stuttering.

Just to pre warn you, you may already be aware that career mode is scripted. Basically you get the same events and weather for championships every time you do them. This annoys me greatly because i have no interest in repeating a championship knowing full well what the weather is going to be before you even start. How it was allowed into the game like that i dont know, i dont see ANY positive to have the championships set up like that.

[m355y]

Originally Posted by tux

Hi, apparently there will be another patch out tomorrow which should improve game performance by 5-7% which should solve alot of the FPS bugs, have to admit ive had no issues with FPS or stuttering.

Just to pre warn you, you may already be aware that career mode is scripted. Basically you get the same events and weather for championships every time you do them. This annoys me greatly because i have no interest in repeating a championship knowing full well what the weather is going to be before you even start. How it was allowed into the game like that i dont know, i dont see ANY positive to have the championships set up like that.

To be fair that bothers me far less than the scripting seen in stuff like FIFA15 which ruins the game. It's been like that for years, TOCA and TOCA2 were fully scripted in that you knew you'd get rain at the first Silverstone rounds every time etc, lots of the F1 games....random rain seen in some of the more modern games annoys me much more. At least in the solo single race modes (where this game is at its best imo) you can select four weather slots etc, quite like that. Yeah you know that it's going to rain beforehand etc but then if it was a real race you could log onto BBC weather and find out beforehand too.

What annoys me about this game (and Race Pro was even worse for this) is that you get a randomly generated set of opponents for every session rather than the same grid. Race Pro did my head in with that. You'd get Ladas and ancient Russian BMWs at the front and the Championship 'big names' often completely absent.

[Akrapovic]

I don't mind the scripted stuff tbh, but I can see why it'd annoy others.

I am however suffering FPS drops at Brands Hatch with AI cars, and I have noticed the laptimes suffer drastically with no difference in driving. I can run consistently on my own and then AI appear and it suddenly drops a couple of seconds a lap without any difference in driving.

The AI during qualifying also set completely fictional times. You can all be within a tenth of each other (on 90% difficult), and then you fast forward time and the AI magically find 10-15 seconds. Wtf is that?

[David A Scott]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

The AI during qualifying also set completely fictional times. You can all be within a tenth of each other (on 90% difficult), and then you fast forward time and the AI magically find 10-15 seconds. Wtf is that?

I find the same thing happens in rFactor and GTL/GTR2.

I've been seriously thinking on giving pcars a try as there is nothing else really out there other than Assetto Corse. rFactor 2 seems to be perpetually in beta. It is $59 CDN through Steam.

Is it worth it?

[gregc]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

You can all be within a tenth of each other (on 90% difficult), and then you fast forward time and the AI magically find 10-15 seconds. Wtf is that?

That's a known bug apparently, if you use the "Skip to end of session" option in practice or qualifying some of the AI sometimes get insanely quick laptimes (sometimes 20-30 seconds faster!). Should be fixed in the next patch, once it arrives, as should the one where the AI just carries on unbothered when it rains while you slither about helplessly trying to get back to the pits....

Have to say though, in spite of the bugs I'm still really enjoying myself with it, in particular the BMW M1 Procar is a hoot to drive and the Lotus 98T is a monster

[David A Scott]

I caved and bought it. It's actually very good. The only beef that I have with it is that the FF isn't so great compared to rF and GTL. It may just be that I need to tweak it a little more.

The only other thing that rF has it beat on is the modding community add ons. If anyone from Project C.A.R.S reads this, please do Mosport! Lime Rock, Mont Tremblant and VIR would be great as well..

I really enjoy lapping Cadwell and Oulton in the FF.

[m355y]

The FF isn't a patch on the other open wheelers to drive. I remember TOCA2 where the FF was easily the most fun to drive with so little grip, opposite locking all the way round a lap of Silverstone - in PC it just feels glued to the ground.

The prototype, GT and open wheelers are great in PC, some of the others less so (the Focus ST is a pig), they just need to sort out all the bugs. The weather one where it just doesn't affect the AI is criminal. What's the point of having such a brilliant dynamic weather system if you simply can't use it in races?

[Akrapovic]

The more you play this, the more broken it seems. I couldn't work out why my car handled like crap after pit stops every time. Turns out it defaults back to the default setup after every pit stop.

Also, the pit strategy stuff is broken. It corrupts the file name and then after that it doesn't load properly. Usually it just replaces the file name with "****************", but now it's replacing them with random lines of text that my race engineer has been saying during the races. wtf?

Edit: And the DLC, whilst nice and cheap, says it fully integrates with the Career mode. This is false - none of the DLC cars currently appear in the careers.

[Sodemo]

I haven't given up on pCARS yet. It has its problems and I don't personally think its the game we were promised. Online is a lot of fun (when it works), and the laser scanned Brands Hatch and Oulton Park are superb.

I personally am having a better experience playing Assetto Corsa. The driving physics are miles ahead of pCARS and the feedback through my G27 is spot on. AC isn't perfect either by any means, but for me its a more rewarding driving experience.

[m355y]

I hadn't really noticed bugs till they patched it. Now it's pretty much broken.