A way to have loads of free runs in a stage or circuit to set up the car at length?

[pEst410 0]

I don't think the game offers this option... Is there a way to use the game modes on offer to do a load of runs in a stage or circuit and really set up the car to perfection? I don't see how I can dive into the advanced setups otherwise, the shakedowns and practice runs are too few for this...

[thecraicbear 0]

Other than shakedowns, the only way you can do it is to keep setting up a custom event for that 1 stage you're wanting to nail, until you're satisfied. 

[pEst410 0]

Thanks, yeah that's what I thought...... :-/

[Rallycameraman 241]

10 runs of shakedown is too few?? We started off with 3 at the beginning of EA. 

[Kakkela 3]

Rallycameraman said:

10 runs of shakedown is too few?? We started off with 3 at the beginning of EA. 

It kind of isn't, when you think real rally teams that do their testing before season and know how they adjust to different kind of stages. In DiRT you are given ten chances to get that setup correct but you lack the knowledge about car setup from that testing period.
Of course this isn't as much of an issue after you know your way around car setups, but for beginner it would be more beneficial to have whole stage for testing and ability to run it infinitely with setup changes in between runs.

[pEst410 0]

10 shakedowns? I've only finished all the Open stuff and I don;t think I got 10 shakedowns in rally, what was it, 4 or 6? I got 10 practices in hillclimb which I thought were enough for the basic setup but won't be for advanced, and only 3 meagre practice sessions in Rallycross. That was my main problem, and the reason why it took me many more attempts to get promoted in RC. I needed to multiply those 3 practices by many seasons setting up the car until I finally got good enough setups to finish top 3.

Edit: I see now that I get 10 shakedowns in Clubman, but I have a feeling it was less in Open, or am I imagining it?

[thecraicbear 0]

pEst410 said:

Edit: I see now that I get 10 shakedowns in Clubman, but I have a feeling it was less in Open, or am I imagining it?

I can't say I've ever noticed, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's a thing, especially considering the cars you're likely to be using at Open level won't be fully upgraded, therefore there's less of a need for practice because there's only so much you can do to the lesser upgraded cars to make them competitive. This is especially true for cars without the the first tier for advanced setups.

[Busterbvi 4]

Just choose a short stage in Custom Event with a good mix of corners etc and keep driving it and tweaking your settings each run until your happy. 

[Kakkela 3]

Busterbvi said:

Just choose a short stage in Custom Event with a good mix of corners etc and keep driving it and tweaking your settings each run until your happy. 

But you do need to quit the event and come back every time you want to tweak setup... That's very inconvenient 

[Busterbvi 4]

Kakkela said:

Busterbvi said:

Just choose a short stage in Custom Event with a good mix of corners etc and keep driving it and tweaking your settings each run until your happy. 

But you do need to quit the event and come back every time you want to tweak setup... That's very inconvenient 

True but it doesn't take long to get the car & wheel set up as you like it, two 3 hour sessions over two evenings was enough for me, I used a couple of members set ups from the Steam workshop as a base and tweaked the best one to my liking. I practiced my driving skills on the short Welsh stages and now I am setting just under 7 mins  on Geufron long in a Mk2 Escort so I am getting there but still some way to go before I can consider myself really competitive, its just practice, practice and more practice.

[Kakkela 3]

Busterbvi said:

Kakkela said:

Busterbvi said:

Just choose a short stage in Custom Event with a good mix of corners etc and keep driving it and tweaking your settings each run until your happy. 

But you do need to quit the event and come back every time you want to tweak setup... That's very inconvenient 

True but it doesn't take long to get the car & wheel set up as you like it, two 3 hour sessions over two evenings was enough for me, I used a couple of members set ups from the Steam workshop as a base and tweaked the best one to my liking. I practiced my driving skills on the short Welsh stages and now I am setting just under 7 mins  on Geufron long in a Mk2 Escort so I am getting there but still some way to go before I can consider myself really competitive, its just practice, practice and more practice.

We are talking about car setups only now and how much of that time were spent going back to menu and restarting the run because you needed to change something in setup?

360 minutes / 8 minutes stage + menu = 45 minutes of going back to menu, reloading stage and adjusting setup. 
360 minutes / (10 shakedowns * 1 minute + 1 minute of menus) = 32 minutes of unnecessary menu and loading time,

Testing mode would be very welcome for many people.

[Habsolute 1]

"Testing mode would be very welcome for many people."

I wasn't really on board 'til you said exactly like that. That WOULD be cool...

 

[Busterbvi 4]

You need a full stage to properly test even a minor set up change as all corners are different and your adjustment may only be noticeable at high or low speeds, oversteer , understeer, braking, grip etc etc, Consider the time spent testing good driving practice ! Personally I found the time setting up the car most enjoyable, not inconvenient at all. A good way for novices to learn about how set up changes affect car behaviour.