Learning curve

[popojan]

Hi,

I have been playing AC for some time with RSR Live Timing and I am wondering how much practice is required with a track/car combo. Without a significant practice I have got an All Round PRO-rank today (just few valid laps with default setup and 30 litres fuel) but no wonder I am 29th out of 31 players who completed all the combos, my lap times, all below median, are usually about 110% of respective World Records, and there is a huge gap to the 28th player.

May I ask you, how much did you practise with a combo before getting competitive? Do only decent players use Live Timing or do I really suck as a novice driver? Shall I delete those mediocre laps not to pollute Live Timing stats?

Even if I suck I enjoy driving in AC very much, so you can be totally honest to me.
Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[Nico Major]

Jan, be careful with ever changing tyre model and physics in AC.

That's true (nothing wrong with that but be aware of it).
I suggest you join a server with your choosen car/track combo and see the lap times of the podium drivers to get a rough estimate of what is fast (also consider track conditions, but on public servers it's 100% most of the time). You can also see where you are in the field of all drivers. Maybe it's not as bad as you think ...
Good luck, have fun!

 

[Ben Lee]

I can typically get between 2-3 seconds of the best RSR time. If I can be within that, then I'm happy. There are track / car combos when I'm in the top 5, however I put that down to simply not enough people have tried that combination.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Should note that RSR reset all their times recently.

Quite a lot of the time I see people wondering why they're slow, and they just aren't using all the track. Going fast is basically turning as little as possible ( or going as straight as possible if you like ). Hairpins & tight bends/chicanes need actual technique and a lot of practice to judge stopping distance properly, so worry less about time difference on tracks with those at first.

 

[Stiggus Maximus]

Biggest thing to be aware of is what version of AC people are running when comparing your times. Even in as little as 3 months I cannot match some of the times I did back in September with the same car/setup.

I have around 30 WR's in RSR, mostly using road cars. I suggest anyone who wants to get a good understanding of how they "rank" as a driver would be to use a road cars due to the lack of tuning options thus comparing driving ability vs tuning ability. I've taken over 3 seconds off my GT3 lap times from just using someone's setup. Then you also have to account for some of the irregularities in the physics model. I don't know if this is still true but at one point setting camber to 0 yielded the most grip, which made no sense. I don't have time to exploit every little loophole when setting up a car which is why I mostly use road cars.

 

[budlix]

Agree with sticking one car/track combo. For me the fastest method was when I started racing in Leaderboards in RaceRoom against much faster "ghosts". There you can improve driving line a lot, u can easily see how much faster is possible get, where are you biggest gaps. And then as guys above said - practice, practice, practice. Try to feel the car and track-places. And try to master your mind - be one sec before "reality", know about next turn, when u are in turn before it.

 

[Mr Deap]

I am not involved in rsrlive timing or anything, but from experience it's faster to learn the track by using the fastest car in the game, because the car is faster to go around the track. If you're more into emotional method-> specific track & car combo like mentioned.

To perfect the line in my opinion, you need to look at the map or switch between overhead & onboard cam to see where the car can rotate & pinpoint the right position of the radius at the apex. Some elevation can make some difference in the line to take & also change how the car can enter or be pushed at the exit.

The ghost method is good at intermediate level, but don't really recommend it when you reach a certain point.

As all sport, recording youself watch replay & compare side by side also help a lot to differentiate between different line & perfect little thing thus lead into mastering everything.

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

The real-time delta tool can be very powerful because it can tell you instantly and precisely the impact of a change in how you take a turn.

Consider learning with a historic car because everything the car does will be more pronounced and you have to learn how to balance the car and modulate the throttle.

 

[William Levesque]

I suggest anyone who wants to get a good understanding of how they "rank" as a driver would be to use a road car

This, and browse the most popular hotlaps list and pick one at the top. No point in choosing a combo only 10 people did.

With that said, tyre pressures seem to affect laptimes a lot even in road cars with the broken V5 model. Raising them like 4 clicks (32 vs 28 on semiclicks) yielded like a second at Spa, something like that (don't remember exactly, but it was very noticeable). It was with the Exige S Cup, which shouldn't have anything over 30psi cold on semislicks IRL...

 

[Kristaps Dzelzgalvis]

Brands Hatch GP + Escort is a good one, more then 600 people has posted a lap there
I just started hotlapping it

 

[William Levesque]

Brands Hatch GP + Escort is a good one, more then 600 people has posted a lap there
I just started hotlapping it

Very setup dependant, just like the GTA.

 

[Kristaps Dzelzgalvis]

yeah, but Escort has a very basic setup adjustments, not much you can do
edit:
ended up in #14 place, maybe I can shave ~0.5sec, but not much more, I am starting to hit my talent wall. maybe I need a better setup, I am using that one from RD setup page, (original maker did 1:43:5x)

 

[William Levesque]

The difference in setup between default and what you can do to it is basically the difference between an old school 70's setup and a modern day coilover one, lol... Hugely different extremes.

 

[xnorb]

My "be awesome in 5 steps" guide:

1) Learn to control the car
There's no point in attempting a track record if you can't even control the car.

2) Learn the track
Get to know the corners, brake areas, apexes. Should be manageable in a car you're familiar with.

3) Join multiplayer sessions
Nothing is more valuable in learning than seeing where other people brake, how they take corners and all that while you're on track with them and can follow their lines seeing where they start driving off

4) Take care of the setup
Once you know how to drive the car, know the track and have learned how to drive the car on that track you're ready for setting up your car.

5) Finetuning and practice.

 

[Ryan Ogurek]

The only thing I'd like to add to all the great comments here is this: for me the best tool I've had in terms of improvement is other drivers. Faster or slower, driving around other real people will help you. You will learn better lines, better braking, better avoidance, and just all around better racecraft. For me, the improvements I see after an hour of club racing are easily ten fold what I see driving solo or with AI.

 

[Zzyzx]

Here are two web sites well worth reading through. You won't get it all at once so just take your time.

http://www.drivingfast.net/

http://www.turnfast.com/tech_driving/driving

I've read through these myself many time.

 

[bigbawmcgraw]

...how much practice is required with a track/car combo.

Everyone is different.
Most aliens can master any particular combo within 10-20 laps. Personally I need about 100-200 laps and I will still be a second or 2 (or more) off alien times.
Some people need less practice than others