50 Days... Anyone else on the fence and have questions?

[RodgerDavies 933]

So this isn’t one for the #noVRnobuy or #noBDGnobuy crowd and it’s not one for the ‘already ordered’ people, but for anyone else on the fence about pre-ordering, I’m wondering if there’s certain information that you’re looking for with 50 days before 'early access' commences?

To be honest, I’m hoping that at some point @ChristinaMc can sort out a Q&A thread or stream for answering some of the more specific details, but understand everyone is probably rushing to meet the deadlines so that’s probably not feasible at this point, so I thought I’d list some of the key info I’m looking for to make up my mind about whether to order before or after launch and, if before, which version.

So here's my list, I'd be very interested to hear yours.

• Stages - how many ‘long stages’ per location, approximately how many kilometres of rally stage are there in total and the location of the Australian and American stages.

• Car list - will come during Jan. Hoping to see the Stratos restored to the correct class ;)

• DLC structure - will come during Jan.

• Career mode - ideally a walkthrough or proper Q&A on this. It sounds more like DR’s than D4’s, which would be great (I thought it was much better) but I’d like to know how it will work.

• Rally structure - how itineraries and stages will be showcased. How will multi class work (if there are 150 settings in road degradation, I assume we must have some events with at least 5 categories)? Can we see the list of stages before the event, along with times of day? Will they be split into more realistic 'loops' of repeated stages rather than seemingly drawn at random?

• ‘Hardcore’ mode - curious to see how this damage model works and what size knock we’re talking about. Are we finally past the days of a 13 second penalty for rolling into a tree? In DR1, a mistake on the last stage at Monte Carlo could cost you and points from the event, whereas a mistake at Wales would cost you 30 seconds and potentially a place or two.

• AI - I know this one is unlikely, but I’d like to know how AI are generated per level for custom events or in championships. Will it be easy to win at lower levels, as per D4 or a fight, like DR?

• Physics - I’m sated re: RWD physics and sold on the Poland R5 stream (less so about tarmac, but that’s not much content at launch), but I’m intrigued to see some more about the difference between hard and soft, new and worn out tyres and back to back comparison of the stages in different levels of ‘wear’.

'Wrong' answers (ones I don't like) won't necessarily stop me from ordering, but I would like to know the answers to above before making an informed decision. Things like multiplayer, FFB and wheel support won't really affect me (I'm assuming the G29 will be covered), but I expect plenty will justifiably be waiting for more information on those before committing, so I'm wondering if you have any personal things you're looking out for or information you 'need' to know before taking the next step?

No ire towards Codemasters or people who have different opinions to you please, I'm just interested in the info that is important to some users here.

[Madhun1967 51]

IMHO, you "have " to order if your any kind of rally fan.I mean even though Dirt Rally and Dirt 4 left a lot to be desired ,the options for a "real " looking and sounding rally title are not limitless , per say.
  I'm real curious about the "pulled " apart physics engine ,especially for tarmac.We have no specifics yet,and I'm afraid we will NOT.Will just have to buy and experience it ourselves.
  The title sold itself to me , just by the shear essence of rally content,that , again isn't available any other way.V-Rally,WRC 7 are pathetic in their representations /physics and are no contenders for me at all.Firing up AC in rally mode mod is the next best thing.Ialso get my fix in PC2 WRX mode.So again, we are sooooooo limited in choices ,that for me not to consider Dirt 2.0 even if it has faults ,is not realistic.

 

[DreamyGhostZ 4]

Thing I'm most concerned about right now is how much and how long stages it'll be per location. If CM really wants to pay homage to CMR2.0, they oughta insert at least 8 unique stages with fair length and that would be more than enough for me to spend at least 200 hours in-game.

Other than that, your questions pretty much cover everything most people want to know.

[warpengage 177]

RodgerDavies said:

So this isn’t one for the #noVRnobuy or #noBDGnobuy crowd and it’s not one for the ‘already ordered’ people, but for anyone else on the fence about pre-ordering, I’m wondering if there’s certain information that you’re looking for with 50 days before 'early access' commences?

To be honest, I’m hoping that at some point @ChristinaMc can sort out a Q&A thread or stream for answering some of the more specific details, but understand everyone is probably rushing to meet the deadlines so that’s probably not feasible at this point, so I thought I’d list some of the key info I’m looking for to make up my mind about whether to order before or after launch and, if before, which version.

So here's my list, I'd be very interested to hear yours.

• Stages - how many ‘long stages’ per location, approximately how many kilometres of rally stage are there in total and the location of the Australian and American stages.

• Car list - will come during Jan. Hoping to see the Stratos restored to the correct class ;)

• DLC structure - will come during Jan.

• Career mode - ideally a walkthrough or proper Q&A on this. It sounds more like DR’s than D4’s, which would be great (I thought it was much better) but I’d like to know how it will work.

• Rally structure - how itineraries and stages will be showcased. How will multi class work (if there are 150 settings in road degradation, I assume we must have some events with at least 5 categories)? Can we see the list of stages before the event, along with times of day? Will they be split into more realistic 'loops' of repeated stages rather than seemingly drawn at random?

• ‘Hardcore’ mode - curious to see how this damage model works and what size knock we’re talking about. Are we finally past the days of a 13 second penalty for rolling into a tree? In DR1, a mistake on the last stage at Monte Carlo could cost you and points from the event, whereas a mistake at Wales would cost you 30 seconds and potentially a place or two.

• AI - I know this one is unlikely, but I’d like to know how AI are generated per level for custom events or in championships. Will it be easy to win at lower levels, as per D4 or a fight, like DR?

• Physics - I’m sated re: RWD physics and sold on the Poland R5 stream (less so about tarmac, but that’s not much content at launch), but I’m intrigued to see some more about the difference between hard and soft, new and worn out tyres and back to back comparison of the stages in different levels of ‘wear’.

'Wrong' answers (ones I don't like) won't necessarily stop me from ordering, but I would like to know the answers to above before making an informed decision. Things like multiplayer, FFB and wheel support won't really affect me (I'm assuming the G29 will be covered), but I expect plenty will justifiably be waiting for more information on those before committing, so I'm wondering if you have any personal things you're looking out for or information you 'need' to know before taking the next step?

No ire towards Codemasters or people who have different opinions to you please, I'm just interested in the info that is important to some users here.

DLC structure, but only season 1, right?

[RodgerDavies 933]

DreamyGhostZ said:

Thing I'm most concerned about right now is how much and how long stages it'll be per location. If CM really wants to pay homage to CMR2.0, they oughta insert at least 8 unique stages with fair length and that would be more than enough for me to spend at least 200 hours in-game.

Other than that, your questions pretty much cover everything most people want to know.

I agree that's the main thing to clarify, rather than avoid. Effectively, to me DR1 had 4 'unique stages' per location (they didn't have to give us the longer versions) and if that's the case again, I've no problem with it (much as I'd prefer more of course). Please don't pretend there are 12 stages per location again if there aren't, instead be proud of the quality of the ones that have been made.

warpengage said:

DLC structure, but only season 1, right?

Content for season 1, but I'm hoping that will answer whether 'season 2' (also included in the 'Deluxe' version) will follow the same format (RX v rally content)

[DreamyGhostZ 4]

RodgerDavies said:

I agree that's the main thing to clarify, rather than avoid. Effectively, to me DR1 had 4 'unique stages' per location (they didn't have to give us the longer versions) and if that's the case again, I've no problem with it (much as I'd prefer more of course). Please don't pretend there are 12 stages per location again if there aren't, instead be proud of the quality of the ones that have been made.

Actually DR had two long stages per location. Having four would be better, but we could think the same way CM did back in the PS1 days.

Rally events aren't composed solely by long stages. We have stages that take 1~2 minutes to finish as well as 15 minutes or above stages. To me, the perfect balance would be:

- 2 long stages (those which take at least 7 minutes to finish)

- 2 medium stages (3~5 minutes)

- 4 short stages (3 minutes or less)

[RodgerDavies 933]

DreamyGhostZ said:

RodgerDavies said: 

I agree that's the main thing to clarify, rather than avoid. Effectively, to me DR1 had 4 'unique stages' per location (they didn't have to give us the longer versions) and if that's the case again, I've no problem with it (much as I'd prefer more of course). Please don't pretend there are 12 stages per location again if there aren't, instead be proud of the quality of the ones that have been made.

Actually DR had two long stages per location. Having four would be better, but we could think the same way CM did back in the PS1 days.

When I say "four per location", I mean they didn't have to give you the longer versions - they could have just given the four shorter versions. It's great they made the longer ones too, but I prefer to think of it as ~20-25km of unique stage per location.

More would be nice, but expecting 100km of stages per location just isn't realistic.

But either way, that's what I'd like to know. So far we've seen around 8.5km of Argentina and around 15km in Poland - are those both 'long' versions of stages (which I expect they are)? And, if so, is that 50% of the unique km in each location or more/less?

[JorritVD 1,236]

Good points there @RodgerDavies

I already pre-ordered the Deluxe, but anyway got enough questions.

Stages
- I am interested if they go for the long stages (more likely), though I'm also interested why they never considered a 'map' idea. I remember WRC4 on PS2 had this and here is an example: youtu.be/RQAs0vIu9Wk?t=219
- Will there be different seasons for a rally?
- Will there be (or plans) a winter rally?
- Will dirtfish be back, or an other testing area?

Car list
- To make clear about the +40 or +50 cars at launch.
- To make clear about pre-order DLC (and will that be available after launch, not that it matters for me), early unlocks (for my team, or for the whole game) and that kind of words.

RX
- More details about RX. Which cars/liveries/drivers/classes. All official? Or also fictional entries?
- Will the 4 remaining 2018 World RX tracks come with DLC?

Career
- Interested in a clear, but simple walkthrough
- Will the career (mostly the money/credits in this case) be seperate from the rest? 
- Currently have the feeling the career progress will be more same as DR1, but with the integration of My Team from D4. Therefore interested how sponsorhip works. Are there f.e. specific liveries for the sponsor we choose?

AI
- What improvements have been made on the AI?
- Specific for RX. In D4, the AI not gave full throttle on the straights, is this fixed? Will the AI defend better, choose better lines (instead of T-Boning other cars at Hell), fight better, drift better?

Physics
- Would like to know more in detail what things have been improved (similar to that video of F1 2018) on physics side. 
- Has there been added functionality to change settings during the racing (similar to how that work in the F1 games) to change f.e. the Anti-Lag, Turbo, brake balance.

Online
- What things are planned for online content?
- What improvements have been made on the online part?
- What is planned for esports?

Other
- Will there be some mini games? Little bit like in D3. Or a caravan behind a RX Supercar.
- Will there be a rally school or something?
- Important for the YouTubers (and promotion of DR2.0), will there be a good photomode?

[Rallystu2 715]

Many nails being hit on the head here. Stage miles and whether or not additional stages may feature as DLC down the line is important for me. 

Career mode being thought through is also important. I want to feel it necessary to keep my team and car operational. This hasn't been done in either of the previous two titles. Can't be rewarded too much for winning events. I want to feel a challenge if I want to buy new parts and vehicles. Should perhaps have to pay to enter events too. Participating in only part of a full calendar in order to focus on car development etc. Or if car is damaged too much and expensive to repair you may not be able to afford to participate in the next event.

[bogani 756]

As they haven't mentioned anything about how many stages or kilometers of road there is I think it's safe to say that we will get no more than two 6-9 minute unique stages per location with reverse options as well as cut up shorter ones. 

Making stages like these is resource heavy and bare in mind that it's not that long we got Dirt 4. 

Oh, remember that video from the office during D4 marketing where we saw a map with a road highlighted that the environmental team was working on? I assume that was actually the Argentina stage right there. 

[carpa 303]

Rallystu2 said:

 Or if car is damaged too much and expensive to repair you may not be able to afford to participate in the next event.

I think they mentioned in a live stream that damage to your vehicle carries between rallies, so that could be a thing

[RodgerDavies 933]

@bogani I remember that and was trying to find it recently to see, but I think you're right. About Argentina and the stage mileage. My point about stage mileage is more wanting Codemasters to state that, rather than never state it then advertise the game as having 72 stages. There's nothing wrong with that approach.

[Guest]

The online rally mode. Just want to know whether we are having proper rally online mode this time, with either staggered starts or ghosted cars at the very least, but with everyone there.., visible.

Or will be again the same shit challeneges stuff like on dirt rally1?

This is critical to me this time. I could overlook suuuuuch lack of proper online mode on dirt rally1 for rallies. Not this time.

ok..., yes, no?, codemasters?, will you ever answer to this question before release?, so afraid?, does silence give consent then?, no proper rally online once more?

yes?

no?

[ledid 2]

With regard to the questions about the amount of stages and/or the track length, I am interested also to hear besides how many weather modes there will be for each stage/country, as I read somewhere that developping a new weather mode for a track costs almost as much energy/time to develop as an original one (is this true ?).  So far I only saw beautiful but dry tracks, half those with a low sun...

The question adresses also the RallyCross tracks...

Thank you for any clue in that regard !

[Rallystu2 715]

carpa said:

Rallystu2 said:

 Or if car is damaged too much and expensive to repair you may not be able to afford to participate in the next event.

I think they mentioned in a live stream that damage to your vehicle carries between rallies, so that could be a thing

Yea I saw that and, whilst that is encouraging, too high a reward for finishing events will negate any real penalty for repairing cars etc. Say if it will cost 500 to repair your car post event but you earn 30,000 for a rally win, the carried damage feature becomes a meaningless gimmick.

[CodingRacer 115]

No question, blind trust on this great team. Brum, brum! We want rally!

[sqdstr 107]

CodingRacer said:

No question, blind trust on this great team. Brum, brum! We want rally!

Brum, brum! We want WRC8!

[tbtstt 2,387]

At this stage I am really only on the fence about where I preorder from (just waiting for Amazon to confirm that shiny steelbook).

That said, given that that the final game is less than two months away, I was hoping to have seen a bit more of the game in action and seen/read a bit more about the structure of the career mode. 

[Gerbie 2]

I sure hope the game is along the lines of what Dirt Rally 1 is and stays away from what Dirt 4 is.

I'm in need of a good rally game again...

V-Rally 4 is fun but doesnt cut it. :)

[Guest]

When are they going to talk about the multiplyer. Are they even doing it to begin with?

[RodgerDavies 933]

eii said:

When are they going to talk about the multiplyer. Are they even doing it to begin with?

Because you asked so nicely:



From the last stream.

[LittleApple 47]

Questions.

Will there be a car upgrade system where we can upgrade things like engine power, reduce body weight, upgrade suspension cars etc.

Will weather be changeable mid stage?

Are we getting dual surface events?
Will there be interruptions or distractions in events?(like in dirt 4 with helicopters hovering over the stage, co driver cutouts, accidents on stage?)

Can we change the location of the cockpit camera between left and right seats for those of us used to right hand sided driving?

Will AI opponents maintain the same names across multiple classes? or are we going to see different driver names in each category?

Will weather forecasts be 100% accurate?

Will there a team management structure like in Dirt 4, Dirt rally, F12018?
Will there be a telemetry tool for indepth analysis of car setups?

[Kiwiazbro 42]

Yeah I’m on the fence a bit actually. Dirt Rally was awesome but I found the career bland and team aspect while a good idea I didn’t feel it made any difference who I selected. Was the same in Dirt 4. 

Bit concerned 2.0 maybe the same. So far career seems vague and maybe the same as DR. 

Hoping to see more soon. 

[ShodanCat 231]

I'm very much on the fence as of right now. What advancements are really there over Dirt Rally or even Dirt 4? We have new rallies, a handful of new cars and running order/surface degradation. The physics "improvements" remain to be seen, but so far it looks mostly like Dirt Rally.

We're just a few weeks away and community engagement has been lackluster as well (no offense to Christina, I'm sure she's only allowed to show or talk about only what the big cheeses will allow.) It all smacks of Dirt 4 at this point.

[Kiwiazbro 42]

ShodanCat said:

I'm very much on the fence as of right now. What advancements are really there over Dirt Rally or even Dirt 4? We have new rallies, a handful of new cars and running order/surface degradation. The physics "improvements" remain to be seen, but so far it looks mostly like Dirt Rally.

We're just a few weeks away and community engagement has been lackluster as well (no offense to Christina, I'm sure she's only allowed to show or talk about only what the big cheeses will allow.) It all smacks of Dirt 4 at this point.

How exactly has the community engagement been lacklustre? It’s a new game and they drip feed game info to keep you wanting more. They’ve had a few streams where you can ask questions? What more is needed?