F1 2010 My F1 First impression ( Discussions )

[Luis Mendonça]

( Hope I am posting on the right place )

First of all, I would like to say hi to everyone!

Second, I would like to share my impressions, and
like to know from you all, your point of view.
( Just got the game )

I started a new career, as a driver from Virgin, on Legend difficulty,
and most driving aids on ( Hard to be played, as I only have an xbox controller on PC )
The game is great, I play it on maximum settings, really beautiful graphics,
but the bugs, bugs me...
Like, as an example, on Hockemhein ( Is it right? ), I made 14th on the grid,
and I ran very well, I got to 7th on first lap, in front of me Vettel, and
behind me Liuzi.
I know I can't keep up with Vettel's car, but I was getting 0.1 or 0.2 ( + and - ) difference
from my times with Liuzi and he was far enough for me to know it wasn't
me blocking him.
The problem is, when I pit, I always go from 7 to last! ( I already ran more than 7 times the same race )
And there I stay... because, all the drivers in front of me won't pit!
AND the ones that pit ( Felipe and Sebastian for example ) pitted 3-4 times
and were still far from me! In a 20 % race, we should pit only once...
Unbeliavably enough Felipe ended on 3rd and Sebastian on 9th.
Maybe it's because on Pit we need at least 2 hours of difference from
the car behind, so that our engeineer lets us go...
To sum up, I really liked the game, but I hope next release from Codemasters
( if there will ever be another one ) will be better on these mechanical problems.

So, I would like to know if anyone else has had experiences like this,
their impressions and so on, it's nice to discuss this =)

Cheers

 

[Steve Stoop]

About manual gears...when I buy a new wheel I will try it again but the wheel I have now just makes me slower with manual (and I'm slow already ) The paddles are to short and to inprecise for me and it somtimes jumps two gears down with one click, very irritating, so I'm staying with auto for now.

Oh, and my stearing wheel is a Logitech DF GT)

ha, I had the same problem with the DFGT, two downshifts for 1 click...seems something might be messed up with that wheel after a while of intense usage lol

but srsly, manual gears will make you much faster, and more importantly, much more consistent. It helps with braking, and once you know a track you KNOW at what gear, how high revs you take each corner. That's something you can never have with auto gears.

 

[Scott Webber]

ha, I had the same problem with the DFGT, two downshifts for 1 click...seems something might be messed up with that wheel after a while of intense usage lol

but srsly, manual gears will make you much faster, and more importantly, much more consistent. It helps with braking, and once you know a track you KNOW at what gear, how high revs you take each corner. That's something you can never have with auto gears.

see i just don't get it, i use manual gears 100%

but people say you need to know what gear to be in to go around the corner.... well i don't need to, i use my EARS... yes my EARS, if the engine sounds good then im in the right gear going around the corner.

Iv'e beat all my personal bests today, Montreal WET, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, so i must be doing something right.

 

[My993C2]

but people say you need to know what gear to be in to go around the corner.... well i don't need to, i use my EARS... yes my EARS, if the engine sounds good then im in the right gear going around the corner.

I also use my ears, but one thing I noticed while practicing and racing at Suzuka last night. While in the S-turns near the start of the lap, my lap times just were not as fast whenever I tried to gear down to give myself more torque coming out of each turn. My lap times were always slower when I geared down, accelerated and geared up, geared down, accelerated, geared up, etc, etc, etc versus just staying in 4th gear and feathered the gas in the turns. My ears told me I did not have enough torque when I stayed in 4th gear, but my laps times told me momentum was better than torque in these turns. I am sure a lot has to do with the lack of physical sensations we get in these games. I get zero feel for what my brakes are doing in these game and we also lack the physical sensations for what sort of grip our rear tires have while we accelerate.

But I do agree our ears are still valuable tools that we should use.

 

[Jan-Olov Johansson]

Well I hear what you are saying, so to speak...lol. I too belive that it's by hearing the engine one decides which gear is right, but at the moment I am slower with manual, not much but, I can't quite keep up with my own ghost car on the two tracks I have try on so far.

And someone har pointed out in a thread somewhere, that it is more difficult to go from auto to manual then it is dropping TC and ABS, which I have had turned off since day one on the game.

 

[Steve Stoop]

the gear I know from counting down-upshifts (well not actually counting but with practice I kinda feel which gear i'm on from the amount of clicks i did)...my ears come into play mostly when it comes to the revving on the runup to a particular corner/exit of that corner. I know how the engine should sound going through each corner, ex: if it's revving too high, I know I'll overshoot so downshift one more to compensate,...

 

[Paul Lock]

I also use my ears, but one thing I noticed while practicing and racing at Suzuka last night. While in the S-turns near the start of the lap, my lap times just were not as fast whenever I tried to gear down to give myself more torque coming out of each turn. My lap times were always slower when I geared down, accelerated and geared up, geared down, accelerated, geared up, etc, etc, etc versus just staying in 4th gear and feathered the gas in the turns. My ears told me I did not have enough torque when I stayed in 4th gear, but my laps times told me momentum was better than torque in these turns. I am sure a lot has to do with the lack of physical sensations we get in these games. I get zero feel for what my brakes are doing in these game and we also lack the physical sensations for what sort of grip our rear tires have while we accelerate.

But I do agree our ears are still valuable tools that we should use.

Very true. There was a time trial, i cant remember which track now (damn my short term memory!) which near the beginning (obviously) i could not stick with bortz's ghost, which i normally can for a few turns.
I couldnt work it out, but in the end i took the turn a gear higher, even though the engine really didnt sound like it was gonna pull well on the exit, reving way too low, but bugger me - i went faster! After that i could manage to stay an equal distance away from him. The same tactic didnt work on the next turn and he left me for dust.

Just underlines the fact you need to not only practice, but experiment while you do it.
Engine note is important, but sometimes you just need the momentum, and the down shift, and inevitable up shift just end up costing you time. You would be able to sense these factors in real life, which is something any game lacks. The only way to compensate for this is simply being able to invest the time to learn everything, and to have the skils to repeat lap after lap. Learn the grip rather than feeling it and adapting to it.

 

[Deane Cockerill]

In RL on my motorbike I never know what gear I'm in unless its 1st (cuz you have to go through nuetral as well), just judge by sound (& other feedback).

I cant say I noticed any difference when I turned ABS off, but I notice I keep locking up my wheels.
In career mode I decided to turn off TCS after I did Spain, & to my surprise it was already off, so fortunately I didnt have to learn that as such, but it probably explains why I span off every time at the last chicaine before the pit straight.

I've been practising Silverstone all week ready for the RD race there Sunday, I've managed to knock 5 seconds off my time, but I'm still slow, 1 min 40 now . 1 thing that made me chuckle, Steve Stoop commented on his vid (see below) about the last corner being tricky there, I find that to be 1 of the easier ones... it's all the others I have trouble with...

Steve Stoops vid of Silverstone

Im going to have a bash at manual gears for Silverstone now... wish me luck!

Edit.
OK very bad driving, my usual time in GP mode is 1 min 40 using autogears (& all other assists off)
Just did 4 laps on manual gears (10 mins), my 1st attempt at manual gears, lap 4 I got 1 min 46, I'm happy with that. Lots more practise to do ofc. Vid coming soon (uploading now)

Edit. My very bad driving at Silverstone, 4 laps, 1st attempt at manual gears.

& as result of uploading that ^^ I got this from youtube...

Congratulations! Your account is now enabled for uploads of longer than 15 minutes. Click the Upload button below to select a video.

Very pleased about that ^^ as I have a bike vid that up until now has been too long to upload

 

[Steve Stoop]

1 thing that made me chuckle, Steve Stoop commented on his vid (see below) about the last corner being tricky there, I find that to be 1 of the easier ones... it's all the others I have trouble with...

Steve Stoops vid of Silverstone

Im going to have a bash at manual gears for Silverstone now... wish me luck!

tbh I find this one of the trickiest tracks on the calendar, there's not a single corner where you can just ease through on 'autopilot', need top focus all the way through. It's a toss up between this one and suzuka for the most challenging tracks on the calendar imo. I think every single corner there is tricky lol