F1 2012 Realistic ? or stupidly hard?

[Rob Every]

OK this game is starting to bug me a little.

I was in my first year in career on intermediate, was able to win races in a HRT so was in a good position, then the stupid rule comes in that you have pick a series rival and hey presto the field speeds up by about a second a lap, how boring.

ANyway, after huffingly skipping every session for about 6 races to get to next year I joined Caterham (only three teams offered me) and upped the skill to the next level.

Melbourne, qualied 18th, got up to 10th in the race after the usual 3 or 4 restarts due to pathetic penalties and then was comfy.

Had stop, half the field went past and then you are sitting there infront of about 6 cars, all about a second a lap faster then you being a sitting duck at every DRS zone. You get passed by most of them and then try a few moves and get penalized as you can only pas these guys on the brakes as they are so mucg faster everywhere else, power, cornering etc.

How on earth are you supposed to progess to a better car? You cant possibly get better results in a Caterham, I am not an alien freak, but I am certanly not hopeless, I do well online, but this is crazy, the difficulty on career is insane surely?

I realise you can get car upgrades, but do they really make much difference?

 

[Rob Every]

So then, racing a Caterham on Pro I should be getting around top ten then eh? Seems fair enough but for christs sake you can only mkae places at the start, after that you are a roadblock for the rest.

I was only offered three teams, Marussia, HRT and Caterham in the second and that after fnishing 5th in the world the year before on intermediate in an HRT? I think I turned down an offer from Toro Rosso about Spa time, but was not envisaging the really rather steep learning curve needed to just go up one skill level.

Dont give a damn about aliens, they are just weird odd little people who seem to think everyone hates them, which is true obviously, just a shame you cant ram them off the track lol!

But, moving on, I guess its realistic to be able to not win in a naff car, but my issue really is how on earth are you supposed to improve? I am going pretty quick I think, but to keep up here you simply will make mistakes coz you are right on the limit even to stay 10th.

On inter you can maybe outbrake guys, have that up your sleeve, but on pro you have nothing to offer, you cant outbrake them, you have no speed, you can never use DRS as they are always mile ahead by the time it comes round again?

Just seems a really very rushed game with a lot of errors, and I feel a little let down that a game can be released so damned quickly, obviously to a penalty clause in the release date, and then be patched a tiny bit befre being just left.

Its no wonder that sim gaming falls flat onit bum really whern this sort of thing happens, I mean at least with CARS, RF2 etc you know that this sort of stuff is likely, but this is a RELEASE piece of software, bought by thousands, bit off really.

 

[Kristian Nenov]

So then, racing a Caterham on Pro I should be getting around top ten then eh? Seems fair enough but for christs sake you can only mkae places at the start, after that you are a roadblock for the rest.

I was only offered three teams, Marussia, HRT and Caterham in the second and that after fnishing 5th in the world the year before on intermediate in an HRT? I think I turned down an offer from Toro Rosso about Spa time, but was not envisaging the really rather steep learning curve needed to just go up one skill level.

Dont give a damn about aliens, they are just weird odd little people who seem to think everyone hates them, which is true obviously, just a shame you cant ram them off the track lol!

But, moving on, I guess its realistic to be able to not win in a naff car, but my issue really is how on earth are you supposed to improve? I am going pretty quick I think, but to keep up here you simply will make mistakes coz you are right on the limit even to stay 10th.

On inter you can maybe outbrake guys, have that up your sleeve, but on pro you have nothing to offer, you cant outbrake them, you have no speed, you can never use DRS as they are always mile ahead by the time it comes round again?

Just seems a really very rushed game with a lot of errors, and I feel a little let down that a game can be released so damned quickly, obviously to a penalty clause in the release date, and then be patched a tiny bit befre being just left.

Its no wonder that sim gaming falls flat onit bum really whern this sort of thing happens, I mean at least with CARS, RF2 etc you know that this sort of stuff is likely, but this is a RELEASE piece of software, bought by thousands, bit off really.

Well uhm.. Caterham. You shouldn't be able to outbrake anyone but Marussias and HRTs. Caterham should be miles behind mid field. It's normal.

Other thing you can do is lower difficulty and make 25% career races to get into a top team. But I'd say stick with the hard drive. When you get pushed - you learn a lot faster. My cousin took off a few seconds per lap from his start of F1 games. He's been doing career races and he's been doing them on 50%. Season 2 - around the middle. That's a prove that if you do play a lot - you'll improve in no time. I'd suggest go for 100% races. If you make at least 1 100% race a day, the difference will be there within a week. At least this is how it was for me.

Oh and another thing. I've seen on the videos that many, many, many, many people try to brake as late as possible. You can try to not concentrate on the braking point that much, but on the corner exit and mid corner speed. They are really, really important. To be honest, till now I've been doing that... And I just started improving braking points.. When you master the other 2 - it's a lot easier because you already have a really good pace and by adjusting braking points you improve .2 .3 more. Try it.

 

[Andy_J]

 

[Jamie Fluke]

The braking points part of what Kristian said I feel is very important. I was always of the mentality that braking as late as possible was always best. However I watched a video of some guy on YouTube, his name escapes me, and he seemed to be braking quite early into corners yet was pulling out insanely consistent and fast lap times. I looked at what I was doing myself and decided to brake a tiny bit earlier into each corner. I immediately gained about half a second a lap just from braking earlier and getting on the power earlier. Subtle changes make all of the difference.

 

[Rob Every]

OK get this absolute pile of cheap, untested crud now.

Tried Melbourne again, pro diff. Caterham still.

Started 17th, got up to about 12th early on, then the AI cars are about 4 second a lap faster all lap so you let a few past. I then have de la sodding Rosa battering my laptimes by 3 secs a lap in a sodding HRT?? WTF

I pit, Raikkonen I can see is catching me about 1.,5 a sector, so he comes past, and who is that with him lapping the same speed, effing Karthikeyan, the bugger rods past me on the straight, is flat just about throug the first turn and I cant get anywhere near him and he has no Kers, then it comes up "race fastest lap Karthikeyan" That means faster than the Mecedes, Vettel, Hamilton etc.

I am sorry but this game is a total pile of garbage.

 

[Tom]

OK get this absolute pile of cheap, untested crud now.

Tried Melbourne again, pro diff. Caterham still.

Started 17th, got up to about 12th early on, then the AI cars are about 4 second a lap faster all lap so you let a few past. I then have de la sodding Rosa battering my laptimes by 3 secs a lap in a sodding HRT?? WTF

I pit, Raikkonen I can see is catching me about 1.,5 a sector, so he comes past, and who is that with him lapping the same speed, effing Karthikeyan, the bugger rods past me on the straight, is flat just about throug the first turn and I cant get anywhere near him and he has no Kers, then it comes up "race fastest lap Karthikeyan" That means faster than the Mecedes, Vettel, Hamilton etc.

I am sorry but this game is a total pile of garbage.

I've never seen something like that, better check installed mods etc. - preferrably the database ones.

 

[Rob Every]

Wahaaay

I finally managed to finish the Melbourne race after numerous efforts!

Actually very difficult, I finished 13th I think, with a queue of about 6 cars behind me who all could have gone miles quicker but just couldnt make a move even with DRS!

I ahve found the reason for what I thought was the glitch, it would be because the season before I drove for HRT and obviously won races, so they finished up higher in the constructors, therefore their car was quicker in season 2, and my Caterham was still slow, along with Marussia and now Toro Rosso as they are all 2-3 seconds a lap slower than the field.

Still a bit weird to think that staying with HRT would have meant I was quicker probably, and also that simple programming automatically confines your team to be slow, regardless of setups etc.

 

[Kristian Nenov]

Wahaaay

I finally managed to finish the Melbourne race after numerous efforts!

Actually very difficult, I finished 13th I think, with a queue of about 6 cars behind me who all could have gone miles quicker but just couldnt make a move even with DRS!

I ahve found the reason for what I thought was the glitch, it would be because the season before I drove for HRT and obviously won races, so they finished up higher in the constructors, therefore their car was quicker in season 2, and my Caterham was still slow, along with Marussia and now Toro Rosso as they are all 2-3 seconds a lap slower than the field.

Still a bit weird to think that staying with HRT would have meant I was quicker probably, and also that simple programming automatically confines your team to be slow, regardless of setups etc.

You wouldn't be quicker. Your team mate would. All the AI drivers drive the same car. You drive a different one. It's just that the game controls how fast the AI goes.

 

[Roy Sutton]

Practise makes perfect, the most important thing is to have a setup your confidence can grow with. Try using some of the setups from the car setup forum here on the RD forum, lower each of the gears 2 or 3 clicks to the left because they are most likely set for TT mode.

Use quick race mode to practise and test out the setups, once you have a setup you like use that setup only so you can get use to the braking and turn in points. Let your confidence grow with that setup, put 15+ laps of fuel in and drive as many laps as you can so you can get a feel for how the car will change over time due to tyre wear but more importantly how the car will handal with heavy fuel.

Once your ready go to career mode and do the race weekend, using as few tyres as you can. Personally i only use the 1 set of primes in practise and 1 set of primes in qualifiying , maybe a set of options in the Q3. But i normally qualifiy on primes, drive your race to your own abilities and not that of the AI as you will make mistakes and loose places and perhaps get involved in situations where you are awarded a drive through or time added after the race has finished.

Most of all don't listen to people who try to tell you how to race, if you want to use assists or not then thats up to you, what ever view you use is up to you. If you out brake yourself alot then that is again up to you. You will race how you want to race and in time you will get better and faster, but importantly you will have alot of fun.

 

[Iko Rein]

Some good comments on this thread. But wow to gain speed?
I was there with F1 2010. I think watching videos from faster drivers is a good starting point. Then in TT just download ghosts, which are .5 or 1 sec faster than you, to just see, how they do it and then try to catch those ghosts. And moving further, take either the F1 datalogger or F1Speed (http://www.f1speedguides.com/f1speed/) and use the telemetry to understand, how different braking/racing lines affect the speed and how to gain/lose time (did I really lose .8 sec in Melbourne just through T3 & T4). With these you should be able to reach level, where you can survive the pro level, provided you do practice too.

 

[Rob Every]

AI doesnt drive the same car at all, no way would an HRT be quicker than some of the mid grid cars, it was because of my championships mposition the year before, therefore one team goes up HRT, one team comes down Rosso, their speed was very low in comparison. you had three teams miles behind, the ones you are racing in reality, and the reast all a similar speed up front with a huge gap between you and them unless you get a good start as I did and hold them up!

Its simple, they have made a bracket for you to race in based on skill level, I imagine on Legend the lower teams would be a bit quicker as would the leaders, meaning you would probably finish in the same position, just lap quicker perhaps.

Its a strange way of governing the racing, I would prfer a more detailed methid were each race was a bit more realistic, ie st quicker tracks yur Force India and Sauber would be quicker, at slower tracks your Williams, MErcedes might be there.

It seems within the game there is a clear focus on MErcedes as their news is always being given to you, about team-mates etc, whereas a few teams get no mention.

 

[Rob Every]

Hilarious, just got back from Chrimbo and decided to have a go at career again after leaving it for a while as it is so utterly flawed!

So, Sepang in a Caterham, car is now a lower tier car after the year before so about a month a lap slower than even an HRT (coz I finished 5th in WC year before in HRT on Intermediate)

So, it is utterly impossible to qualify higher than 19th, fair enough.

Start the race, bomb past a few and I get up to an astonishing 4th! THe quickest cars in the game Mercedes go past me (how much did they pay Codies for that bull) and I am fending off Grosjean for 6th, he takes me in the pits and I am 6th after fending off Webber.

By this time the leaders are about 20 seconds in front and three seconds a lap quicker.

At the end of the race through just simple driving I stay 6th, mainly because the only place AI can pass is on power or DRS, and the only place I can pass is brakes, so if you make no mistakes and drive cleverly with KERS its fairly simple t hold off cars miles quicker.

Now it gets interesting. I finish 45 seconds behind the winner in a 15 lap race in 6th, I have a group of about 15 cars behind me at the end, all miles faster but incapable of passing, then in 18th and 19th both Ferrari's!!!

And behind that all the lower tier cars that I am supposed to be battling with.

Now, my point is this, if I had got away a bit worse I would have probably finished 18th, because there is NO WAY I could have ever passed any cars in front of me and kept with them for a lap, yet the Ferrari's managed to only just beat a Marussia!

If I was Codemasters, I would be a little embarassed. They get so close, they really do, but some of the stuff going on here is rather remarkable in this day and age.

Utterly flawed, enjoyable in a way, but flawed!

And btw, so far online won 80% of my races and in top 2 or 3 hundred on most track leaderboards, so ghardly pedestrian!!

 

[Andy_J]

You have a vastly different F1 2012 Pc game to me. Well done.