I did end up playing a few more races today. Had to pay for quitting two races yesterday, although I was still S rank, I had dropped close to the bottom of S and got matched with half a field of SR.A racers for 2 races.

Alsace is at least a less troublesome track than Interlagos. Still I got penalized for passing a ghosted wreck while there wasn't even a yellow flag warning, 5sec penalty SR down. And again when another car crossed the whole track after getting back from the wall and grass and plonked his car right in front of me. I braked, avoided an accident yet a gentle touch was unavoidable, another SR Down.

This is the kind of stuff you should not be penalized for, yet pushing someone off the road doesn't get a penalty...




Next race I stayed well behind to get away from the SR.A drivers, hence my DR rating tanking even further.

Third race was with all S again, and it was the worst for clean driving... Some dude with TRUMP plastered on the back of his car drove me off the road. I dropped back, finished the race to preserve my SR rating, 2/3rd of the field in that race had red ratings at the end. I guess I have to do a few more very careful races to get my SR rating back to 99.

There was a patch today to improve matchmaking (not sure what that has to do with the local copy of the game, yet that's what it said in the patch notes). Willing to give it a try I put a good qualifying time up for Brands Hatch. 5 races later, nope no improvement, well maybe worse.


Instead of being 3rd now with 2 drivers out of my league, I'm now 6th due to the game filling it up with SR.A drivers while my SR score is fully maxed again.

I tried again later when more people should be on, out of 6 races, no chance of pole or a competitive top, always an DR.A driver at pole (usually the same one) at least 1.5 sec faster, DR.B in second. I'm still at DR.D I guess there are so few of them that the game can't match them anywhere else so just gives them easy wins. I refrain from knocking them out of first place in the first corner, then they simply run faster laps, I'm not at A level. So pretty boring race at the top until someone behind starts to dive bomb...
I had a few place 3 and place 2 starts. Some races position just stays the same, other knocked to the back by the usual crap. Last one some trading places with 4th place who liked to place his car in the way, the race stayed clean though and I lost him later. Cost enough time for 1 and 2 to escape out of reach.

Yet small miracles do happen, ghosting system finally prevented a penalty!

Too obvious buddy. I guess he got frustrated with whatever happened to him and waited a lap to harass the top 3. I was chasing nr 2 there in the distance after 4th place had delayed me. He could have just waited for the corner and used me as a bumper, game is fine with that move.

Anyway it's time for more content, or more people. This is on Saturday afternoon and matchmaking simply cannot deliver a competitive race with 11 sec gap between qualifying times. At least I had 4 clean race bonuses in a row before someone broke my streak.

Looks like my DR rating hasn't changed at all, oh was 1067 yesterday.
Sat Dec 09 2017 18:01:59 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) -> DR:1098 | SR:99/99 | Races:406 | DPUR:27

That’s not correct...there are two endurance races in the campaign. One even 30 laps against 30 cars with pit stops, fuel and tire calculation..You can also create as many endurance races as you want in the custom race mode, basically everything you want...and you’ll still make money and progress doing these because of the new progression system.

Man something crazy happened and when I'm playing with TR5200 the car is accelerating less than others even on the start (like I go from pole to 10th even before the first corner) and that was playing with all aids off.

Some starts are screwed up. Yesterday on Suzuka about 30% of starts didn't play out right. Start at pole, be in 3rd before the first corner and vice versa. I haven't seen a drop that big though. Something wrong with your gas pedal? I have seen 20 sec gaps in the field due to a pile-up during auto-drive.

I joined GT Planet to look for advice for dealing with the crappy penalty system. They say it gets better in DR.B. So yesterday I spend a full day on Suzuka with a good qualifying time. 9 wins later and more pole positions and a few fastest laps I'm now close to DR.A
Sun Dec 10 2017 23:32:55 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) -> DR:23293 | SR:99/99 | Races:434 | DPUR:66

It wasn't without bumps though. Matchmaking is much better on a sunday yet if you don't start in the top 4 chances are you still end up in the carnage. I almost dropped back to SR.A after 4 dirty races with shit like this

He was further back, didn't brake, still left the track after using me as a guide.

And the penalty system was screwing me over as well

10 sec penalty for brushing an out of control track re-entry, just before the finish.

Another race I guess someone had a penalty to get rid of, he slowed all the way down swerving in the final chicane creating a big pile-up so he could still keep his place.... Still better than the epic pinball race where I get accused for being dirty at the end after getting send flying into the pack.... Oh well, overall more clean races than dirty ones by the grace of having many pole positions or at least top 3 starts.

I did 3 more races at lunch time today, shouldn't have with crap like this

1, 2, 3 bumps forcing me into the wall ruining my race. That's DR.A behavior and is fully allowed by the game.

My score went down despite a good qualifying time starting me in the top 3 for the 3 races.
Mon Dec 11 2017 15:35:05 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) -> DR:23063 | SR:94/99 | Races:437 | DPUR:65

From what I read on GTPlanet, many people are giving up on the FIA races. Behavior is worse there and the messy qualifying doesn't help.

To many qualifying fucked up when you have like 3 or 4 laps and people use you and you get penalties.

big shout out to whoever decided to not have a

"Are you sure?"

pop up when asking to retry. tried to go to options and lost 19 laps on an endurance race. won't be returning to that shit for a while

It's been a staple of GT games for years. I did it in a 4h endurance race in GT5. Paused it after 3 hours, came back, hit the wrong button....

It also doesn't count mileage etc when you hit restart during qualifying. Why finish the current lap if you screw up in the first corner. Restart the magic eraser.

I'll be off for some days because I had to organize my room, moving out the wheel and the wheel wasn't working right.

Being online only doesn't stop hacking, GT Sport hacks are happening.
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/gt-sport-hacks.371727/

Mostly suspicious qualifying times yet here is one example caught on live stream

At 52:30 he's analyzing the incident in replay, suddenly the car is 4 seconds further ahead.

Amazing what lengths people go through to be nr 1, pushing, shoving, punting, and now hacking.