goop et al.: wow, I didn't realise there were so many people of the opposite opinion! Now I feel all minority-ish. Hehe. I guess there's not many people like me who just enjoy driving a circuit over and over, solo, to learn all the kinks. For me driving at the back of a race I have no chance of ever really being involved in is really no different to driving the track on my own offline, but I guess it's different for others. Out of interest, what do you like about learning a track online over doing it offline? Watching others drive? The chat?

I guess the thing that scares me is it's possible to mess up even if you're trying very hard not to. For instance, in that session yesterday, we were doing a long qualifying stint before the race, and I messed up a lap about 20 seconds in front of the other guy on the server at the time. I pulled off to the side of the track (so I thought) to let him get past without messing up his hot lap, only to find out that he drives the other side of that particular corner from me, so he smacked straight into my stationary rear end! Luckily he wasn't on a great lap so no harm done, but still, that could never happen offline I guess it's not a problem on a course where you can actually pull right off the track, but there's only a couple of places you can do that on South City...

the virtual view, with the tyres. I'm playing on a 27" standard-def TV - resolution stinks too much to see the instruments properly in the cockpit view.

well, I found LFS via the GTPlanet GT forums after I started playing GT4 a few months ago, and guess what? I don't own any Skylines at all! Oh wait, I have one I won for golding some license tests. But that's all. :P Mostly I drive a ridiculously souped-up RX-8, in that game. Good fun. The whole Skyline thing is a bit unfair - sure, it's got like 80 Skylines or something ridiculous like that, but it *also* has 600 other cars, so it's not like you're screwed even if you hate Skylines.

anyways, john, I can certainly see your point, I agree - to each his own . But my way works for me - for instance, up to this afternoon I'd only played Blackwood GP track, so I thought I'd expand my knowledge, so I went out to the next track in the list (South City Classic) with the GTi, and lapped until I could get within the LFSWorld 'benchmark' time (103% of the world record, 59.10 or so). Then I went online and noticed a server running those exact settings (SO Classic, GTi only) and was able to do some nice running with two other people who could drive down to those times. If I'd just jumped online straight away I'd never have been able to keep up with them. So, yeah, worked out for me today

Well I WAS gonna say this post was useless, but then the monkey made it all worthwhile.

john: I don't understand why you'd learn a track in an online race, though. I'm a noob and I certainly wouldn't. What's the point? You're not going to win and you're not going to do any good racing until you know the track (you can hardly make a clean pass if you haven't got a clue about the correct speed for the corner...), so the _only_ thing you could possibly do to affect the race is to stuff up someone else's, and that's not a good idea. To me it only makes sense to learn the track / car combo in hotlapping before racing it online.

sdether: the 'ring in GT4 has all the graffiti too. It's handy, I use a given bit of graffiti as a braking point for a lot of corners.

j.b.: I don't think fear comes in to play at high levels (well, maybe in overtaking) - just about anyone good enough to be a professional driver must be in the 'crazy no fear bastard' group anyway . It's more at the low levels, and is the most obvious reason why 'normal' people are usually several seconds (not tenths) better in sims than real life in all the 'real / sim' comparisons I've seen - fear of dying and fear of wrecking someone else's extremely expensive car...

well, I had my second race now: 5 laps, still blackwood gp, I came second in the XFR behind some dude in an FZR, total time 6:42.9, lapping 1:18s except the final lap where some late joiners had an entertaining pile-up on the corner after the back straight and I had to dodge it. So I guess I'm getting the hang of it now . Thanks everyone for the tips etc, I hope this thread will be useful to other newbies

ah, cool, don't know how I missed that one! Thanks.

Actually, the roof thing leads to another question - is there any way to recover if you end up upside down, or should you just do what I did and shift-s back to the pits quick before someone runs into you?

Well, I took everyone's advice and found a nice simple starter - was playing the first track with the GTI in a three car race. I kept second place for five laps, lapping between 1:36 and 1:39, then got a bit too far over the rumble strip in the last corner and ended up on my roof! Was fun, though. Time for lunch then I'll give it another shot. I didn't smash anyone else to bits or get called a noob, though, so must have been a success.

peejay: but I'm starting *out* as a shuddering traumatized emotional wreck...:P

Thanks everyone for the advice, since the consensus seems to be to give it a bash, I guess I will. Android, thanks for the advice on starting from the pits, I will use it. Becky, I can certainly manage five laps of a track I know without getting off the black stuff. Well, until they get the 'Ring into this game, anyway!

Thanks again, everyone.

Bah, Fangio was a hack!

Thanks for the input. Maybe I'll run through a few more tests tomorrow then give it a shot.

edit: btw, I recognise that sig from GTPlanet - are you over there too?

Last edited by AdamW, Fri, 12 May 2006 07:39.

Hi, everyone - I'm a new LFS driver. I've been playing GT4 for the last few months and read about this game on the GTPlanet forums, so I installed Windows (shudder) on my HTPC to give it a shot. I liked the demo enough to buy a license.

So, my question is as in the topic: when would it be sensible to start driving online without being in danger of stuffing up anyone else's game or drawing cries of 'noob'? I've read all the 'etiquette' guides I can find, and I've passed the first 20 or so practice tests at 'quick' or 'pro' level: is this enough, or should I do more practicing before taking it out to the real world? Thanks for any thoughts.