Mike Dee

Pretty sure PJ already explained once that they have the ability to essentially "freeze" the game in a snapshot. From there they can fully pan/zoom/move the camera around the engine and adjust all lighting/weather values on the fly while the game is in that "snapshot" frame. So they just have to find a decent setup for car positions, then spent most of their time getting the camera angle and photography aspects correct.

So is it official that we won't ever have more than 12 stages per event? As well as we will not be able to have multi-class options? If so this kind of sucks, but I can plan around it I guess. 3 "mini" events to make up one real Event and having to add up the times is kind of lame tho...

When @PJTierney asks you to send it like you have a Monster™ decal slapped on the side of your car. Welcome to Spain - Hoonigan edition in the Mustang R-GT (this was way more fun than I expected, 10/10 would recommend)

And you're correct there, they did fault the physics a bit but they weren't 100% sure if it was that or if they had put assists on for everyone. They also were forced to run the cars in semi-auto or automatic (assumed for quick accessibility for the 150+ players that weekend) so that definitely threw a few of them off. But one thing was very clear and that was that a lot of time was put into the FFB at least and that it was vastly improved from before. With one of the biggest gripes in DR2 at launch being FFB, it honestly doesn't surprise me at all if they put some extra resources in there to try and use that angle to "authenticate" their experience. The other word was that WRC8 is finally leaning more towards sim than arcade. Not full sim yet, but they are leaning into their licensing deal a lot harder and focusing on the sim crowd more this time around.

And I'll just reiterate what I said on the other discord too - this is not a bad thing! This is fantastic, it means we have more competition in the rally game world, which will make all future games better for everyone.

They had the WRC8 truck at Rally Estonia and they held a little tournament on a demo build with the fans + drivers. A few of them are in clubs and Discords I hang around in, and one of them made it to the finals to race with 3 RX/Rally pros. I'll trust their judgement when they tell me the FFB blew them away and completely did a 180° on what you'd expect from a WRC game. With how much they talked it up, with as many hours as they have in DR1/2, I'll take them at their word when they say they are seriously excited for WRC8 and will be buying it day one.

Current word on the street from Rally Estonia was that the FFB in WRC8 absolutely destroys DR2.0 right now on TM wheels. That and they brought their surface physics up a ton and you can feel the differences when sliding from gravel -> sand and it feels amazing.

Yeah that could definitely be an issue. How is it hooked up? The xbox usb controller might just not be able to handle it on certain sections of the game with really high memory usage. Audio could be the thing it drops to free up room and doesn't get a chance to reset itself until next stage.

@UnderclassGDfan hmm yeah that is a pretty simple and straight forward setup - nothing really fancy about it that I would suspect immediately. @MrSpanky are you on Xbox too? Does this seem to be more related to a specific console or are both of you on different platforms?

You seem to be having this bug more than most, so it really makes me curious about your setup. @F2CMaDMaXX I'm sure could dig into it better than I could, but what audio setup are you using? Headphones, speakers, tv/monitor, surround? What are your ingame settings for audio? What about your windows settings? Any special software running that mixes/enhances the audio? Have you tried switching audio channels to a different output when this happens? Do you have music or anything playing in the background that continues to play even when the game cuts out? The rate at which I've seen this bug happen to you makes me wonder if your system is somehow dropping the audio-out and setting it to something else. What would be weird about that though is that I have 3 or 4 different audio devices connected to my PC at any given time, more if I enable the audio drivers on my monitors but I haven't had a audio drop since the first few weeks. Seems like something is hijacking your audio though.

Seriously... I did a club event in Monte Carlo the other week with hardcore damage. I popped a tyre on stage 4 of 12 and busted up the radiator a bit. The first service stop wasn't until Stage 9. I was able to drive on a front rim, with a radiator in yellow, and the engine knocking by stage 5 all the way until the very end. I made it to the service stop. I drove 5 stages, 3 of which were LONGS, in Monte with a car I was expecting to DNF by the end of the next stage. It survived like a champ the entire time. I messed up a ton hitting stuff because of how bad the handling was and how bent the wheel geometry was. The radiator was literally at less than 10% and the engine was at like 35% when I made it to the service stop. Wheel geometry was in the 30% range too. How the hell am I allowed to finish 2 sprints and 3 longs, on a rim with a knocking engine that won't go above 65mph and a radiator that won't even hold fluid?!?!? Seriously, if you are giving us hardcore damage make it hurt. I shouldn't be able to casually screw around on a 9 stage event without service stops and still comfortably finish with only a beat up car. The basic damage model back in DR1 would have had me DNF'd by the 3rd stage. When we used to do Finland events with a service every 5 stages you were forced to brake check the jumps if you wanted any chance to finish. Now though? Smash into a wall, lose a tire, have a knock in your engine and you'll be just fine. You might be slow, but if you can deal with a 45 minute slow drive to the next service stop you won't DNF. Everything about that is wrong. Everything.

I'm normally not a big fan of FWDs but in DR2.0 I've really found myself at least having more fun than I expect in the R2s so I assume the F2s and their insane rev limits would be the same. That and more diversity in classes is never a bad thing. Plenty of older cars we'd all love to get into the game as well, but most of those classes are reasonably well rounded with options so adding another class (especially an under represented class like FWD) is the smart play. I also have a feeling F2's are easier to license than some of the more famous Group A beasts.

No promises about anything, but definitely a lot of hinting towards at least more content to at least some degree. The obvious content would be more remasters from DR1 like the F2 cars and Greece + Finland.

Yeah the lack of any ui/ux indication to wear rates more than essentially a "good/ok/bad" system is really terrible. Sadly we have to go on feel and experience to get close which leaves a lot of room for error. No idea on the tyre temps, that was one thing we forgot to ask and never got a second chance to get clarification on.

Everything you do impacts tyre wear and for each individual tyre differently too. Cutting corners, sliding, even your tune putting more pressure on the outside wheels than stock - all of it impacts the wear.

Both. Only time I would ever consider a spare is for custom club events. We've tested it and you can comfortably go 3 Longs on tarmac with softs, 4 if you are really smart about wear. You will never get an endurance event like that in the normal game, so as long as you always drive to finish and don't do stupid stuff you can get away without any spares.

haha there he is. And I thought you 100% the game, does that include Group B @ Masters for an achievement right? Or was it in historic for that achievement?

@MrSpanky well our resident community manager actually went out of his way to beat masters on a pad for xbox, so we know it is totally doable. Not sure if @PJ did any witchcraft but it is totally doable. Mostly just pick cars you are very comfortable in and always go with soft tyres, no spare.

I've got a G27 slapped onto a $1,000 rig with a handbrake that costs more than the wheel right now 😆 I plan on upgrading but I've kind of dove off the deep end so my next purchases went from highend to boutique gear lol. I put more miles on my sim rig in a week than I do my real car, so if I'm going to spend money I might as well get what I want right? But you don't have to spend money to be good. I had the G27 strapped to a desk with an office chair originally on dr1. Loved the game and the experience so much tho that I looked into buying the "real" stuff - and I regret nothing.

Fair enough, I think it all comes down to anecdotal evidence on all sides and just your personal experience. I know a good amount of people who had Fanatec gear, one who used to do service work on them for Fanatec, - their servo died on year 3ish right before DR2.0 release and they are still waiting for it to finish the RMA process which only happened because they called in a favor from a buddy who still worked there. TM I've seen mixed reviews on, but for the most part the people I know with a T300 or the better stuff from TM haven't had any issues. As for pricing, eh I don't think it'd be that much more for AF than a CSW 2.5. $699.00 - https://simxperience.com/products/accessories/accuforcesteering/accuforcesteeringsystem.aspx $549.99 - https://www.fanatec.com/us-en/wheel-bases/clubsport-wheel-base-v2-5.html So $150 more for a MUCH MUCH better wheelbase, and once you slap on a wheel + paddles you're probably looking at the same price for each of around $999 yes, this is much more than a TM bundle, but unless you are going up the chain for better gear there isn't any real reason to not get the TM bundles. The similar priced gear from Fanatec or any other manufacturer just isn't really worth it because none of it is DD or much "better" than the other.

@bobradar do you want to do it or should I? Never buy Fanatec wheels. The gear is good - while it works. But they are know for their horrendous customer service that takes asinine amounts of time and their servo motors tend to constantly break right after the warranty period ends. Besides, at the price of Fanatec gear you should just skip the BS toys and go buy an Accuforce DD wheel. It will be the last wheel base you ever buy (unless you have D-Box money), then couple it with the DriveHub adapter and a decent set of pedals you will be golden. Last bit of gear you will ever buy until you start splurging on accessories like a Handbrake/Hbox/Buttkickers.

Honestly, if they just removed the giant "+" sign on them, they'd immediately start looking better. Not fixed, but better. the D2 is corny, but some of the liveries aren't terrible until you see the giant promo branding.

Only time assists can really "help" is for keyboard & gamepad users, since most will use ABS which helps because they don't have the finer controls of wheel+pedals. Other than that though, it is 100% personal preference. Find someone who can post a WR with assists and 3rd person camera, and I'll find you an alien who can do it without assists in cockpit; and another with only ABS on bonnet cam. Assists + camera aren't going to make you better or give you a win just because the other driver didn't use them - they can only help you feel more comfortable for the race.

The great @urgaffel strikes again! Seriously getting so hyped to go home and play this tho after work 😁

Can we get that Latvia grass enhancement in Poland now? 😏