Tips for a newcommer?

[bpmotard]

Hey guys, 

 

So I finally got to buy a F1 game, after years of considering if the game was worth my money, and since the reviews for this one were good I got around to buy it.

Despite years of experience with a LOT of racing games, Arcade, Simulation and Simcade, I was quite confident when I chose my settings and adjusted the game to my liking, I even set the AI difficulty to 65. But then, the game started, I chose the 25% races with one qualifying session and, 3 practices sessions, but I'm not able at all to compete.. The DRS system is quite confusing at the beginning but inderstandable and I'm so overwhelmed with all the settings and options and tyres and everything.. both on pit and on track.... I don't know at all what I'm doing.

 

So, I'm going to start a new career later today, do you have any kind of tips on how to adapt to this game? With the AI difficulty on 65 I was slower than the 19th place by 5 seconds driving for team Honda, is it supposed to be like this since I'm driving for a "slower" team? Thank you for your time.

Edited August 26, 2017 by bpmotard

[ElBolovo]

McLaren-Honda is along with Sauber the worst team in the game, but not bad to the point of being 5 seconds off.

 

All in all, Codemaster's F1 games are a simcades, so you need to learn to toss the car in the corners because a F1 car demands it and the physics allows it, but not so much that you will spin or crash, so it takes time to adjust your mindset to this game. 

 

I don't play a F1 game since F1 2011, but I remember when I booted F1 2010 for the first time, coming from the first Grid and multiple NFS games, I would spin more than a Beyblade the first time I took my car to the track. I only got better doing several laps in Hungaroring, because of the many corners, but having space for mistakes unlike Monaco and Singapore, against my past ghosts until I nailed down the handling physics. After that, it was a breeze.

 

In the early stages with McLaren, I would became satisfied taking about 1.5 to 2.5 seconds from the pole, don't fret to much about doing well on the qualy, just pay attention to the tires you choose. The softer it is, the faster the car goes and it makes a great difference in your overall lap time. 

[bpmotard]

4 hours ago, ElBolovo said:

McLaren-Honda is along with Sauber the worst team in the game, but not bad to the point of being 5 seconds off.

 

All in all, Codemaster's F1 games are a simcades, so you need to learn to toss the car in the corners because a F1 car demands it and the physics allows it, but not so much that you will spin or crash, so it takes time to adjust your mindset to this game. 

 

I don't play a F1 game since F1 2011, but I remember when I booted F1 2010 for the first time, coming from the first Grid and multiple NFS games, I would spin more than a Beyblade the first time I took my car to the track. I only got better doing several laps in Hungaroring, because of the many corners, but having space for mistakes unlike Monaco and Singapore, against my past ghosts until I nailed down the handling physics. After that, it was a breeze.

 

In the early stages with McLaren, I would became satisfied taking about 1.5 to 2.5 seconds from the pole, don't fret to much about doing well on the qualy, just pay attention to the tires you choose. The softer it is, the faster the car goes and it makes a great difference in your overall lap time. 

 

I chose that team since it didn't require higher positions for a new player. I guess I'm not attacking the corners as hard as I could...

But using softer tires means they will wear off faster right?

How about car setup? I never quite understood how to properly setup a vehicle in any game, I stick normally to the default setups but I'm positive I'm not using the vehicles to their full potencial.. any tips on how to approach this? Since this game is all about car setup?

[ElBolovo]

2 hours ago, bpmotard said:

 

I chose that team since it didn't require higher positions for a new player. I guess I'm not attacking the corners as hard as I could...

But using softer tires means they will wear off faster right?

How about car setup? I never quite understood how to properly setup a vehicle in any game, I stick normally to the default setups but I'm positive I'm not using the vehicles to their full potencial.. any tips on how to approach this? Since this game is all about car setup?

 

It's a good approach to choose a weaker team at the beginning, even more so because you need to drive for one to get the plat. 

It's true that if you drive agressively the tire will wear faster, but qualifying is not the time to be conservative. Two things that occurred to me is your fuel load and the fuel mix. Don't go out with more laps of fuel than you need to, and use the in-car options to put your fuel mixture to full or rich. You will use more fuel, but will go faster.

About setup, I can't help you because I don't know how the game presents it to you and what options it gives, so I recommend that you go by this forum http://f1carsetup.com and experiment with your driving style. If you are slipping, put more aero, dragging on the straight, remove it, things like that. The game should explain the basic effect of each change, so you can experiment a little using these setups for a basis.

Edited August 26, 2017 by ElBolovo

[SheriffTupper]

Hi bpmotard - Don't be stressed about being off the pace initially in the game.  You can only go upwards right?

I love my F1, watch it constantly but I actually don't drive myself so they whole R&D aspect I find confusing in previous F1 games.  This one is ridiculously massive now! 

In free practice - I never do the tyre management as it's constantly in the red but I do ok in the others to build up resource points.

I've started off as Force India - I know I won't get into the top 6 but I can push for it.  First two races I've finished 13th/15th so much improvement to be done.

You are correct about the tires, the softer the quicker they lose the tread.  US (ultrasoft) have the best optimum pace but don't last very long.

When the safety car comes out, make sure that you press circle and change your fuel mix to lean.  When the safety car goes back in, put it back up to standard or rich.  If you aren't sure what I mean at all, just come back on here and post.

Good luck!

[bpmotard]

6 hours ago, ElBolovo said:

 

It's a good approach to choose a weaker team at the beginning, even more so because you need to drive for one to get the plat. 

It's true that if you drive agressively the tire will wear faster, but qualifying is not the time to be conservative. Two things that occurred to me is your fuel load and the fuel mix. Don't go out with more laps of fuel than you need to, and use the in-car options to put your fuel mixture to full or rich. You will use more fuel, but will go faster.

About setup, I can't help you because I don't know how the game presents it to you and what options it gives, so I recommend that you go by this forum http://f1carsetup.com and experiment with your driving style. If you are slipping, put more aero, dragging on the straight, remove it, things like that. The game should explain the basic effect of each change, so you can experiment a little using these setups for a basis.

 

I've been messing around with my own setups, and it's quite fun testing with each one, despite each event taking up to TWO HOURS... damn... f1 is hard work ^-^

 

5 hours ago, SheriffTupper said:

Hi bpmotard - Don't be stressed about being off the pace initially in the game.  You can only go upwards right?

I love my F1, watch it constantly but I actually don't drive myself so they whole R&D aspect I find confusing in previous F1 games.  This one is ridiculously massive now! 

In free practice - I never do the tyre management as it's constantly in the red but I do ok in the others to build up resource points.

I've started off as Force India - I know I won't get into the top 6 but I can push for it.  First two races I've finished 13th/15th so much improvement to be done.

You are correct about the tires, the softer the quicker they lose the tread.  US (ultrasoft) have the best optimum pace but don't last very long.

When the safety car comes out, make sure that you press circle and change your fuel mix to lean.  When the safety car goes back in, put it back up to standard or rich.  If you aren't sure what I mean at all, just come back on here and post.

Good luck!

 

Even though I lowered the AI difficulty to 50 I still only got to 17th position, but it's more fun this way, sense of testing and failing until we reach our goals

I figured out eventually what Lean, Standard and Rich meant when the engineer told me I was spending a lot of fuel ahah. It's so much fun changing this little things mid-race

 

Thank you both for the help  

[SheriffTupper]

No problem - let us know when you improve!  Be nice to have a bit more traffic on this forum!