Build 5 Thoughts

^ True. Wanted to say that myself in post above, but forgot it. Nice spread in car feeling.

 

new car, new track, everything else is still the same.
Oh well see you Feb 13

 

As it should be.

 

Not a favourite track for sure. And the Jaguar could use some tunning help

 

It's funny, I can't get on with the Huracan, wasn't really hyped for the Jag, but it clicks for me.

 

This car has way more gear-wobble (drive-train flex) in RL than the cars in ACC do currently.

I wonder if the Dev's have more planned for the drive-train modeling. Such effects can be heard and felt (motion) quite good in iRacing GT cars and it really adds another dimension to the mechanical aspect of the cars.

 

I can already tell that Zolder is going to be one of my favorite tracks with its quick corners and tricky chicanes; which makes for some interesting driving,

and the Jaguar is a welcomed addition and sounds like a monster, but I find it a bit too hard to control for my liking, or maybe that's because I've spent most of my time with the BMW M6.

Now I know they're rewriting a lot of their code ❤️ which I love about them and shows their dedication ❤️, but I can't see myself playing much ACC online in the current state (same ctds as with v0.4) because of the crashes.

 

I played the Zolder/Jaguar track combo yesterday and wasn't overly impressed as I mentioned elsewhere. It felt like Jaguar was constantly losing its rear and had massive oversteer in many corners. Jumped into BMW which I have done many many laps in so far and to my surprise it was also rather "rear-happy" so I put it down to the ABS/TC physics changes that were mentioned in the changelog.

Decided to give Jaguar another try today and have a go at Nurburgring and... Oh. My. God! It's soooo good! It's a completely different car to what it's like at Zolder! If until now I thought I'd probably drive BMW for most of the time in the game (as I have so far) then I now think that I've found a new favourite. It just turns so much better yet feels as planted as the beemer. Will try other tracks in the upcoming days but this car/track combination is made in heaven. I suggest you try the car on other tracks and maybe you'll have the same impressions as me.

 

Kinda makes me worried how the 911 is going to sound. Overall the sounds in ACC massively improved but... If the Bentley and Jaguar don't really have this transmission "wobble" there's a good chance the 911 won't sound anything like the real thing, where the transmission and gear whine is its unique characteristic. The one in AC didn't.

 

Yeah, I notice a lot of drive-train flex in the Porches (iRacing & RR), they just feel more alive and I feel like I need to respect the power and interaction with bumps and curbs more. It's sad that such details (Car-mechanic fundamentals) are too often glossed over but, I suspect it's one of the details that people don't even realize they enjoy about iRacing. I've always been aware of the lack of a dynamic drive-train model in Sim's but, even more so now that I use motion.

 

Zolder feels good with additional surface details and the Jag feels very dynamic, more on edge and it sounds good too.

 

I wouldn't take iRacing as a good example for how to do it, as it doesn't sound true to the original to me. But at least it's there and pronounced, even if it's not 1:1. (Same thing with R3E for example)

I know ACC does have it simulated (whereas AC didn't) but I suppose it needs a bit more work.

 

I didn't try Zolder under rain yet.
It must be tough in those nasty chicanes

 

Yeah, maybe they can amp up the flex and gear-play a bit but, iRacing's is nicely matched to the engine-load dynamics because, it syncs up perfectly and in very subtle ways as well as the big ones (rumble-strip bounce). The changes in engine tone, especially at lower rpm's or when the fuel mixture is a bit rich is really convincing. I think it goes well beyond the RR effects in terms of dynamics but, I like that RR offers the gear-box audio level setting.

 

Finally was able to try the car and track.
I had a great driving experience. I really liked Zolder. I was not expecting that as already drove it on other sims but I am quiet happy with it. I just don't like the damn chicanes but they are not that bad.
The Jaguar is great ! For me it was a very refreshing feeling. The car is totally different from the rest, has a lot of character and feels very very live, compared to the numb sensation I got from the BMW and Bentley.
I did a race weekend with 16 cars, fps game capped at 82 all the time, no stutters, no slow downs not a single quirk.
The only think, and this is in general for me, is the missing feedback when the TC and ABS takes action. I remember I can clearly feel/hear that on AC but I am not perceiving it on ACC.
So far I am happy with ACC.

 

well, after a couple of hours, some thoughts:
+ the Jag is really challenging, i took it to Paul Ricard, with agressive setup it's really agressive, but you can make it more friendly with playing with it. in practice i managed to do high 56s with full tank, not sure about the pace during the race but i'll give it a try soon.
+Zolder is really good, the 1st chicane is hard to learn but as you master it it's really challenging to find the latest braking point and best exit.
+ the tyre overheat after spin is definitely better than in Build4

...and for the moment that's all positives...

in advance, in early access i would put as many functions as i could to test them, get feedbacks from them, let me know about the bugs of each of them to develop them even better. i'm slightly disappointed that we didn't get any gameplay/options extension since build 3.
i mean for example damage model, race strategies, safety car/fcy/flag and basic racing and race weekend rules (there are many, so much possibilities for any bugs in them), penalties, more AI, i could continue...
i'm wondering how the complex rules of the Blancpain series will be implemented in the game. i know it's possible, in the Codemasters Formula1 games they are working good. i hope Kunos will make it good too.
but in my opinion the point of an early access release is test the functions, find the bugs, solve them, and this far we really don't have many functions. i mean, i still can't set opponents during a single practice...

some negatives to the current build:
- the light cone disappeared, i really liked the old one, i hope it's only temporary
- the AI around Zolder is quite weird, needs to be improved. at some points they are much slower than me, in the Villeneuve chicane they always get off track and lose time. in Lucien Bianchibocht they are also losing some time, (however the Ferrari is best there) and they are unreally hard in the hairpin. i had a lots of clean pasing opportunities, had the line in the inside line, and the AI kept his car in the outside and then simply get around with better acceleration. and while this it was like a brick wall, i couldn't push him wider or anything. it's frustrating, in real life that's a clean pass, here AI just drives me around from the outside. it happened at least 10 times, none of my passing attempts succeeded.

i'd really like more options in the last build before the final release to be honest, but still trusting in Kunos, they know what they're doing.

 

Just over 400 meg, no details as of yet

 

I just download it, but can't play the game yet. It say's "locked content file".

 

You can always find the latest change log in your game directory, while you wait for the official announcement.