Graphics are nice. Cars that feel and sound like the real thing are better though.
I'd rather have
Better FF
Better Sound
Better tire and suspension physics
This. And please can we have legacy wheel support by then!
In regards to the physics engine I'd add:
- Enhanced mechanical damage - Imagine changing down early too many times and losing second entirely or abusing the rev-limiter so much the pit crew implement a lower RPM limit to save the engine in an endurance race.
Beyond that there are loads of things I would want PD to at least think about before focusing attention on the pretty... and since the GT6 OT seems to be moving towards GT7 wish lists, mine is pretty fucking huge!
Presentation/User Interface/General
1) Archiving standard cars - Don't remove them and don't confuse the dealerships by adding them there (a la GT6), instead add a museum archive of these cars and allow people to buy (or perhaps just borrow) them from here.
2) Improve load times all around - Nothing further needs to be added to explain this!
3) Garage List Presentation - Keep the garage list for selecting cars pretty basic (as per GT6) but add an enhanced garage view more like GT5 where I can see decent sized thumbnails of my cars. Also add a warehouse (ever expanding like warehouse 13!) so I can wander around my stored cars (or a small sample of them at least), that would be fantastic given the vast variety of cars included.
4) Garage List Sorting - Additional sorting of your own garage list - GT6 removed sorting by miles for example. This needs to come back as well as sorting by such things as displacement or cylinders. Also add user customisable garage sets/selections so if I want a favourites tab for race cars, a favourites tab for street legal cars and a favourites tab for tuned online cars as well I can. I could use hundreds but at least half a dozen definable tabs would be great (select from a drop down if screen real estate becomes an issue).
5) Fix the incorrect details in the car blurbs - If you want to be "encyclopedia Gran Turismo" proof read your data!
6) Rationalised menu navigation - Seriously, why do I still have to leave a lobby to change oil!
7) Better tuning tips - I want to learn, so tell me how it works in more details if I want it.
8) Aero should effect PP - Why this changed in GT6 I don't know, it's tantamount to saying "our physics model doesn't take this into account".
9) Tune-share - I want to be able to share tunes with friends and have friends share their tunes with me so I can get some hints where I am going wrong or so I can learn from them and compare with my own attempts.
10) Basic livery editor and associated livery-share functionality - I'm not too bothered how deep this is as long as it is varied enough to mean when I line up in spec races with friends all of our cars don't look the same.
Single Player Structure
For this I'm going to assume that PD don't want to radically change the type of progression system/career that has existed in every full GT release. This means they'll still have the usual groupings of events and I have to dream within this structure:
Novice
National B
National A
International B
International A
Super
That in mind I'd like to see:
1) License Tests - The return of three mandatory license tests as a prologue to each step up into a new class (one before Novice, one before the National events and a third before the International events).
These would try to show the player the types of skills they would need to compete in each class, basic skills and understanding corner layouts and cornering techniques before novice, overtaking safely and reading your opponent at national level and advanced techniques such as defensive drving lines and different pit strategies before the international level events.
2) AI Race-Craft - AI that increases in race craft abilities as we move up each class and that is themed to the class that we are racing.
AI opponents in Novice will make mistakes often and these would be mistakes that a novice racer would make, for example braking too late into a turn and under-steering wide or getting on the throttle too early on exit, losing grip and speed. I'd also be keen that these racers, though far more likely to make mistakes, will also be far more wary of damaging their vehicles excessively, remember these opponents are novice racers, most likely in a car they paid for themselves. They'd give you more room on the track, rarely go for overtakes and largely just stick to their own, sub-optimal and often inconsistent, line.
AI opponents in the two National classes would be more aggressive and generally faster but would still make mistakes and would still have inconsistencies in their line choice. As these opponents are more aggressive more of these errors would relate to racing incidents that lead to bent metal such as putting it up the inside for an overtake and not being able to reign in the speed, sending the car through the apex and washing wide. As the following car you would then need to actually consider what other cars are doing on track (teaching race craft to the user) and, for example, come off the gas a little early into the corner, let the overtaking car slew wide in front of you, run a tighter line through the turn and then sneak through at the exit.
AI opponents in the International classes would be seasoned racers who unless pressured by the player will rarely make mistakes and will know and use the optimal racing, defensive and overtaking lines. They will take measured risks to get in front or keep the following car behind. Defensive driving will be a thing and the car in front will move off the time trial line in order to protect their place, for example moving to the inside approaching turn 1 at Nurburgring GP/F. Equally, the car behind will genuinely try to overtake with a little bit of guile and forethought, for example taking a slightly wider line through turn 3 at GP/F in order to get a faster exit out of turn 4 leading to a drag down the straight and a possible opportunity on the inside at turn 5.
3) Event Classification - A rationalisation and better categorisation of the events within each class.
In GT6 [ignoring coffee break stuff] there are really only a couple of race types. There are those with a defined field of roughly equal cars and there are those with various cars with as much as 100-200pp in performance differences which really feel like an auto-cross type event but one where multiple cars are sharing the same track.
I understand the desire from PD to keep the chase the rabbit like events in order to use more cars from the substantial and varied car list but I think these events can be better thought out or better dressed at least.
I'd like to see 7 types of events:
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Race weekend events - These would be proper race events with cars that are closely matched and all meet stringent regulations with regards to weight, power, PP, aero and drivetrain requirements. They would include practise (skippable), qualification (skippable) and race elements. They would also include incident flags (and the associated rules) and penalties. They would all include tyre wear, the length of the races could be selected from a number of options and tyre wear could be accelerated to mean even in some short race events players would be required to have a pit strategy.
Some race events could be setup as multi-weekend championships and some advanced versions of these championships could even include some kind of weight/power ballasting to keep the player vaguely competitive even if they were super fast/super slow in the previous race(s).
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Chase the rabbit events - These would have a points based scoring system with the possibility of hugely varied fields of opponents. They would be structured largely like the new Sierra challenges with the aim being to score the highest points total through a combination of extending your time left, overtaking cars and possibly hitting apexes correctly or controlled drifting. Points received for overtakes could even be weighted by the equivalent speed of the car so you'll get a point for overtaking the lower half of the field and maybe two points for overtaking each of the faster cars in the field. The combo element of the Sierra events is cool but I think one collision removes all of your combo and restarts it totally. Instead I think the combo score should at the point where you have a collision (or any other combo breaking event) be calculated and added to your total score and then start again with a new combo. This means a perfect lap would still get you a higher score but having a ding in the last corner won't completely ruin your points total. Alternatively, forget the combo aspect and just add and remove points for overtakes/collisions/drifts/apex hitting. Grid 2 does these types of events pretty well for reference (you only get points for overtakes however) though in this there is one type of car (lots of the same) to be overtaken so visually it is less exciting.
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Autocross time trial events - Simply set a time on a crowded or empty track. Three hot laps with the fastest counting. These times could be weighted by PP to ensure a wide variety of cars are competitive.
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Head to head challenges - One on one events where you only have one opponent and car choice and tuning is heavily regulated by weight/power/PP/drivetrain. You set a lap time in your car of choice first of all, this time is then added to a global leaderboard and your opponent in the head to head element is based on someone n places above you on that list.
This system could of course be cheesed but so what, "you're only cheating yourself".
Each time you try the event again your previous result is taken into account and an opponent is selected further up the leader board. Lap times could be reset by the user if they wish to do the event again from scratch.
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Regularity rally events - These events would not be based on outright speed but on the players ability to remain consistent (an undervalued skill in race craft). Give players a target time or average speed and they have to complete three to five laps and get as close to this target time/average speed as possible. The worst lap would be removed and then the players score is derived from working down from a "perfect" score of 100.
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Drift events - standard drift events with no real change from what we already have except that angle of drift as well as speed and line would be taken into account properly.
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Crowd pleasers - Events that are just for fun. These could include knocking over cones, smashing through conveniently placed piles of boxes, accurate donuts and j-turns, obstacle courses (don't knock over the cones/priceless ming vases!), demolition derby and that kind of silly fun.
4) Event Car Selection - Race weekend event car selection revisions including a difficulty slider.
With better AI car selection and restrictions should be tighter.
I'd like to see around three difficulty levels for these events in the form of regulations essentially related to the PP of the field you face and the car and upgrades you can can choose. These might be something like
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New racer - The race has a PP limit of 500PP and a tyre limit of sports soft. Opponents have cars between 450 - 480pp and the same tyres.
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Experienced racer - The race has a PP limit of 500PP and a tyre limit of sports soft. Opponents have cars between 480 - 520pp and the same tyres.
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I am Ayrton Senna - The race has a PP limit of 500PP and a tyre limit of sports hard. Opponents have cars between 480 - 520pp and sports medium/soft tyres.
5) Enhanced visual and mechanical damage alongside an increased feel of ownership - Damage is retained post race and has a cost to fix, full and partial (botch) fixes are available and have consequences on your future performance. For example you can choose to replace a front wing or get a panel beater to put it roughly back into shape.
Mileage and wear continue to effect body rigidity and engine wear but in a more transparent way.
Mechanical and cosmetic fixes are available from the options mid-championship though if you prang your car in practise your qualification may suffer through having limited time on track (due to the mechanics working to get your car working) and if you prang your car in qualification or are otherwise unable to set a time, expect to start from the pit lane.
Online Multiplayer
1) Lobby Functionality
Good lobby racing is an absolute blast, I made so many good friends by hosting and playing in clean racing lobbies in GT5 but GT6 didn't expand on this functionality enough.
Regulations:
Hosts should be able to customise a lobby extensively in terms of entry regulations. The bare minimum expectations from me would be for the host to be able to:
- Set max limits for PP, HP, weight together.
- Specify a class and/or make and/or model and/or drivetrain.
- Specify a vehicle age.
- Specify exactly what can and can't be tuned (e.g. suspension tuning allowed, transmission and power tuning disallowed).
- Specify whether ballast and/or power limiting can be used.
- Set a specific car or selection of cars that can be used in the lobby from either the entire stock car selection or from the hosts own garage (e.g. everyone races in a car/selection of cars that I have personally tuned for ~equal lap times).
- Write at a little more length what behavior is expected from lobby members. Sometimes "Stock/SH/clean or kick" simply isn't enough!
Post Race Review:
- A lobby theatre mode should be added where everyone in the lobby can watch a replay of the race together (host controlled) after the race with chat enabled in order to highlight incidents to the host.
- Post race data should be available in the the lobby after the race is complete. This should include at least overall race time, fastest lap, tyre choice, car selection, PP/HP/weight/drivetrain, split times etc.
- Host applied player penalties - these could include ballast or power limitations, a drive through penalty in the next race, a sin bin period (I don't want to boot some people, just give them some time to calm down after a fraught race). All of these need to be transparent and allow the host to explain the reason for these sanctions.
- Race director/steward(s) role - Lobbies should be allowed to have one or more players who are not racing but are simply viewing the race, according to settings defined by the host these virtual stewards could have the ability to put out flagged cautions, call players in for a drive through penalty or simply kick a disruptive/otherwise non-conforming punter or simply highlight any issues for the host to address during the post race review. As an ex-regular host, having to leave a race in order to kick an idiot is very frustrating. These steward players should NOT count against the overall lobby size.
Finding a lobby:
The lobby list needs to be more customisable, as someone looking for a lobby I should be able to:
- See only tracks I want to see. A simple drop down allowing me to choose one track is not enough, maybe instead a number of check boxes or simply allow the use of AND/OR/NOT.
- See only lobbies that fit my tuning requirements. Tuning allowed, stock cars, limited tuning for example.
- See only lobbies that fit my PP/HP/weight/make/model requirements.
- Check a more details page which shows me the full regulations for a lobby before joining it.
- Select a car first, then click "see which lobbies allow for the car I am in" button, user sees a returned list of appropriate lobbies.
2) Club Support
Regular racers should be able to join together to form clubs. These don't need to serve any purpose beyond an organisational hub but even this has useful competitive purposes:
- Asynchronous user/club owner definable time events in order to sort clubs into competitive leagues. For example: "Run GP/F in a Lotus with the attached tune. Your best time in ten full laps will be used to add you in the appropriate position in the club league.
- Multi-stage events either run through a single play session or multiple play sessions tied directly into the above league structure so similarly quick players compete against others in the same skill bracket. These should allow club organisers to apply win/loss ballast/performance differentials.
Anything else is gravy.
3) Quick Race Functionality
- Add a slightly wider range of car types and have each "quick race" actually be a series of three short races at different tracks. Maybe five general themes where the specifics can be changed up (see below). Something like 400 - 500 pp street cars, 500 - 600pp street cars, 500 - 600pp race cars (GT3/GT5/TC), 600+ race cars (LMP, open-wheel) and a final "specials" categories for classics/muscle/beetle racing/karts.
- Add an SRF off/SRF on (beginner/expert) option for each type rather than just randomly applying this to some events.
- Rotate/change these events regularly (at least monthly).
- Fill empty spots with AI racers to ensure a full grid and that there's someone for everyone to compete with.
4) Miscellaneous Online Improvements
- BRING BACK SHUFFLE RACING!!!!
- Lag reduction - Improve net code to reduce the amount of incompatibility issues and lag encountered in lobbies even when everyone has taken appropriate preparatory steps (caches cleared, routers re-booted, ports open etc. etc.)
- Player rating - I'm not necessarily asking for an i-racing type player safety rating but some additional stat tracking might make it easier for hosts to give the benefit of the doubt (or not) to people who appear to be playing dirty in their lobbies.
I could go on forever but PD will do what PD will do so this is no more than academic (with a side serving of procrastinating about other things)....