I suck. That is all.

So, I refuse to move the slider lower than 85% difficulty (heck, 88% is supposed to be EASY).
I can't do squat. I can't even catch anyone, let alone overtake. I know the tracks reasonably well, and Silverstone is my best track.
I suck at this game.
I want to be good, but I'm not even half-way good.
I understand apexes and all that but I'm just not a good racer. I've never raced before and am not that good with a stick shift. Blipping and rev matching are things I'm not grasping. And damage modelling isn't even on yet!! I'll be lucky to do one lap when 1.0 comes out.

Anyone else stink at this!? Is there anyone who finishes a race and then thinks, "aw ****, now I gotta disassemble the wheel and shifter to use my desk for something. Why did I even... "

 

Turn on auto clutch and auto blip until you get more comfortable making laps....Once MP is out you will be able to follow people and figure out where you are losing the most time...My suggestion to somebody new is to grab a street car with semi-auto transmission (The BMW Z4 or E92 M3 are excellent choices) and make hundreds of laps at the one track you know best. (I suggest Magione because it is short and easy to learn, hard as hell to master). For the first couple days turn off anything that shows your laptimes and just concentrate on making laps without getting penalties.

 

This information is good for everybody, even the experienced sim racers. I hope this helps a great deal.

 

Lots of practice man. Its easy to drive around a track in a fast car. Its hard to drive proper and fast in said fast car. Most important thing is between your ears though. Make it fun to get better and above all, don't get frustrated. We all do but it makes it that much harder. Im sure you know all these things, but sometimes you need to hear it (or read in this case)

Skip Barber is a great tool for sure. As ov said, its good for everyone.

 

"Anyone can drive a fast car; few can drive a car fast."

 

The skip barber vid is great stuff.
Watch , learn, & apply (or try to ) - you'll get better.

 

Don't worry about the AI right now, just keep hotlapping and get the Live Timing app, see how you stack up and keep practicing. The AI isn't very competitive yet, so I wouldn't gauge your skill level against them just yet.

 

The first post that is 100% honest, I admire your straight forward approach. Do not get disconcerted or disheartened, you are not alone, well you are until there is multiplayer. The truth of the matter is most of us are in the same boat (dependant on car and track), it is a difficult task to get a good time, even more problematic to get a great time and you will need practice, practice and more practice.

Stick at it, relax, and go drive slower. One of the best options is to use the time attack mode, stay in second/third gear in a low rev range for a few laps, then up the rev's to say 4-5000RPM but stick to either second or third. Keep going around at a nice steady pace DO NOT ACCELERATE! just keep going around the track try not to brake but lower the rev's when entering sharp corners and build the rev's back up to 4-5000 RPM. Then as you need to speed up to make it to the marker build up rev's, NOT GEARS! then change to the next gear same 4-5000 RPM etc etc over several laps per gear change.


It's all about learning the track and being patient. Good luck Digital Aura, your times will tumble within a very little time.

 

If you are unnerved by the game, the last thing to do is to get a live timing app on. It gives extra pressure without any advantage.

My advice would be to use an easy and fun car (like the standard E30 M3), turn off any app, start a session with full tank and make laps until you ran out of gas like you would do in real life (ie starting carefully and then very slowly change your braking points to feel the limits of the car). You can always check the lap times at the end of the session, and in the meantime you watch the road rather than the clock.

 

Well, difference of opinions here - I think you should keep some time app running, otherwise you might end up feeling good driving like a grandma - and that's not what you want.

There is some good information out there to help you get better - the barber vid is a very good start.
I found some really good information there too: http://www.drivingfast.net

In the end, it's not how good other people are, it's how better you get .

 

I found the Skip Barber video to be a great aid too. It was very handy in rFactor 2 because they had the same car and track they use in the video. I didn't know about things like lift oversteer and was jumping up and down in a haze of anger confusions. Now that I know about lift oversteer I can actually use it to my advantage. Lift oversteer seemed obvious after I learned what it was but it goes to show that obvious things can be overlooked and that's why it's good to get advice from people that know what they're doing.

Practice does make perfect and will be what makes you fast in the end but you need to know what you're doing too or you'll just keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

 

Videos are great when you are getting up and running with the midfield. Do not get me wrong the Skip videos are something you do not want to 'Skip'. The real times are gained from time on track getting to know the track and car, the best way to do that is not to 'run before you can walk' - well crawl with what I am saying. The funny thing is I have raced for maybe two decades and I have used the exact method I wrote about in the previous post. Now I am not saying that is the only way, but it helped me and it felt great to find a smooth and a rhythm with the car.

As they say 'many ways to skin a Dog' (I like Cats too much to skin them)

 

What you should be aware of when following the AI is that the 'easier' settings are slower almost entirely in the corners. You're not going to catch up to them on the straights, but you can run around the outside of the corner next to an AI and pass them that way relatively easily. You probably also won't be able to match their braking points - start braking earlier, and brake less than they do, sticking to that outside line. If you're more confident about the speed you can carry through a corner, you can start passing on the inside (more risky cause if you misjudge you'll pretty much hit the AI or understeer off the track)

Good shifting technique (rev matching, blip, etc.) might be necessary to keep pace with the hard/alien in the cars that have stick shifts, but on the easier levels it's not, and the Supercar race is paddle shifting anyway. I wouldn't worry about that until you can keep up with the AI in terms of corner speeds and accelerating out of the corner.

 

Slow it down, stop overdriving the car, work on consistency instead, and don't get to hung about lap times. Yes, that's easier said than done ('cos it's a racing sim, says so on the loading screen), but IMHO it pays dividends fairly quickly by highlighting some of the areas where you're going wrong (braking to late and missing apexes, getting impatient with the power, trying to rush shifts, etc). Going from first to last against the very unhumanlike AI in five laps with no damage model is a pretty bonkers challenge regardless of how rapid* or otherwise you are, so I wouldn't get disheartened at all if it's a struggle at this stage.

This, with big flashing neon lights around it, and a firework display in the background featuring a massive sparkler spelling out the quote "To finish first, you must first finish".

* That's not to say it's going to be a problem against the AI for the really quick types, but I can count the number of times I've seen that set as a challenge for anyone online on the fingers on my kettle. Half an hour to go from last to first of 25 or so cars I've seen done a few times (Richard Towler on iRacing at England club nights... good lord he was quick!) despite some pretty rapid opposition, but that's with a very a sensitive damage model, everyone being all nice n' careful, plenty of time, and even then it was a close run thing.

 

infact this is a good strategy.....which i also used when i started with sim racing some month ago......i choosed the 500 abarth, a track and made laps laps and more laps
but actually i installed rivali apps,so i can see how many seconds i Need to the next Driver and motivates me to reach him....
for me it's all about knowing the track and the car.....lap by lap i know more of the track and more of the car and know where is te Limit of it....
i would still say i also suck,but i have so much fun and for me it do not matter if i fight for the first position or for the last,with the right People it's allways fun....

 

I would give a good solid recommendation to drive the Lotus Elise at Imola (I absolutely despise the heavy *** BMW boats and can't understand the complete ignorance the Elise gets) for lots and lots and lots of laps without any HUD more than the gears.
Drive it slow and steady at first and try different solutions in the corners and up the speed slowly and gradually. Smooth is the key.

So many I know that try to use AC or rF2 go for the fastest or craziest cars immediately and then get frustrated when the zoom off the track.

 

Just one question I have is what controls do you have?I ask this because a racing pedal set with no feel is the worst thing to have to learn in the gaming world.This was done yrs back with tons of patience and eventually you learned how little to move you foot for a set amount of braking.Nowadays you have superb pedal sets that can remove this huge obstacle.Another area is in your steering wheels turning ratio.If its an old wheel with the standard 220deg of rotation then you are gonna have to adapt to that artificial obstacle also.

 

Practice makes perfect m8. Heck, just did a few runs with the M3 E30 at mugello on Medium.
Cant get near to the top 3 cars. Even when i nail the fastest laps of all the AI.
And the M3 E30 is just about my favorite car at this time.

Just dont give up, if needed go to practice mode and go slower. Learn every corner, go off, try again, rinse repeat.
When you get to grips with the car in question you will notice a progress.

Then, when you know the track and car, go back to a race with AI and do indeed put that slider down, learn to drive in traffic.
After then when comfortable, crack the difficulty up. etc etc.

Even if you finish last, try to be a safe driver, No crashes etc.
Have a fun race, even when last.

Had lots of races on other sims as on AC where you finish last but still had immense fun

 

I don't use a hotlap app, and I typically run around like an old man at first just aiming for every apex while getting the entry and exit just right as well. I run laps until I have a pretty consistent time, then I watch a YouTube video of someone fast to learn where I can make up time. I'm running the AI at Hard and having a blast dicing it up with them. Good luck. You're not alone.

 

I got 200+ hrs on this game, and if I practice long and hard.... I am still about 5 secs off "alien" time on RSR. I can keep up with "Easy" AI in the FAbarth, but that's it. I did probably close to a 1,000 laps with the Z4 on Magione, but can't get better than 1:28. I am definitely not a good racer.

Not only that, I have hit a wall as far as progress goes. I have more car control (200 hrs should at least do that) but that itself is not enough.

So, I've been reading lots of things, am now buried in "Ultimate Speed Secrets" by Ross Bentley, and what I sort-a knew has been confirmed: I have trained myself to go fast into a corner, not how to get fast out of a corner. In fact, my corner exit is all over the place. Only yesterday I did a personal best 1:12 flat in the FAbarth on Magione, where I saw on replay that I am midway on the track onto the long straight out of turns 4-5, miles from the curbs on the left... I knew before intellectually that you should go "slow in/fast out", but it's something else actually doing that on track. I am now trying to relearn tracks from scratch by focusing first on apex and corner exit (especially those leading onto a longer straight), and only when I am happy with that, should I focus on corner entry speed.

It really seems like with everything hard: 10,000 hrs of practice.... Thankfully, in AC, that's not too much of a problem: too much fun