F1 2010 Almost ready to sell this game please help, xbox360

[tragik]

Hello, my first posting here.

xbox360
all assists off
fuel/tire sim on
AI- bouncing between pro and normal
view- just above the drivers head

I ran my first race on Medium difficulty and found myself after 49 laps 30 seconds ahead of the pack and sleeping, so I wanted to increase the difficulty.

So I am sure you guys are not here to hear complaints about this game but to enjoy it.. Well so do I, so let me tell you my situation and maybe someone has some suggestions. I love racing games and I play them with assists off (xbox360) with the AI depending on medium to hard (forza 3 had a huge AI jump from medium to hard). But this game is just killing me.

I put on AI to pro and traction control full, I couldn't get out of 24th place to save my life. I ran a full weekend practice (Lotus team) and still sat in the back. Tried the tunes from this site and could not get any farther forward in the pack.

Following the posts here I found that turning off the traction control will help with better lap times, done.. I have a microsoft wheel and pedals (the one for the 360) but due to the speed you can downshift in these cars my paddles can't keep up. Say I know I am in 7th and need to get to 3rd, I hit the downshift paddle 4 times (letting off of course). Now more times than not I am short of my gear target, will end up in 4th or even 5th gear. Has anyone else had this issue with the game and microsoft wheel?

Now, to eliminate that maybe i have a cheap tranny (not the kind you see in a dark alley) I switched to the controller and now I am able to flow through my gears more fluid.

Well now I have to use the controller (pad) with traction control off, whew a complete nightmare. See I have a hard time to get my finger to ease into the throttle without breaking free.. I blame this on the many hours of COD FPS kill, kill, kill mentality. Tell my trigger finger to pull and it does as fast as it can . When I do adjust my finger to not slam on the gas it cramps up.. Anyone find a solution to this problem or am I just crazy?

The only solution I found was to take those toe nail foam things women use, (see: here ) and cut off one of the ends. Hot glued that to the controller (between the trigger and the battery), so my index finger rests on the foam piece and my first joint controls the throttle. The foam piece is the exact length extended from the controller as the trigger is. So, by bending my finger I can be 0% throttle and straightening it to the controller can gradually increase to 100%. The foam piece takes the brunt of the 'trigger happy'. With this method I tend to have less spin outs

The setups here are amazing and thank you for that guys.

Anyways, thanks for your time and suggestions.

 

[Chris Rees]

Perhaps you have the typical downshift problem that a lot of ppl have had on the MS wheel, i think its the wheels weak point and prone to break. Mine is quite new and dont find downshifting a prob whatsoever.

 

[tragik]

Thanks, will tear it apart and see how it works inside I guess. Can't break it more than it is now huh..

 

[Peter Hooper]

Great solution for the trigger problem, never been able to get used to the pad for driving but that may help if I ever have to go back to it in the future

 

[tragik]

Perhaps you have the typical downshift problem that a lot of ppl have had on the MS wheel, i think its the wheels weak point and prone to break. Mine is quite new and dont find downshifting a prob whatsoever.

So Chris your comment sparked an idea, why not take it apart. So I took apart the steering whee (not the main base) and found out how the paddles work. Now I know why i heard grinding when i shifted and why I was missing shifts.

Here is how it works, the paddles are attached to the center of the steering wheel by two pivot points, like two legs. The resistance you feel is a coiled spring with two legs extending out. One leg rests against the body of the steering wheel and the other leg (here's the design flaw/failure) is resting on a plastic nub with a metal plat on it on the paddle. You pull the paddle the spring will 'slide' on this metal nub. This is where you will feel a 'grinding' after some use of the wheel. This is where I think my paddle started to fail because the spring would 'jam' on the metal.

How did I fix it? well after some messing the spring finally broke at the weakest point. The coil spring is on a nipple with a cheap mount and this mount breaks for many user (so i have read). I removed the spring on both paddles and the nub that holds the spring in place. I then hot glued two foam pieces in place of where the spring was. Now the key was to not get to soft of a foam or to hard, so I used ear plugs ( you know the kind you want to use so you don't have to listen to your wife/parents nag at you). Now I can shift and feel a smoother paddle than the grinding of the spring. I am thinking that when they come new they have a grease on the spring to help with the slide, as long as it gets past the 90 day warranty mark..