My Diaries

A Lurid Tale of Obsession, Depravity, Wits and Attempted Wit

Sun Feb 21, 1999

HiFi TimeTrials do not use up a simulation day

Hmm. I verified this weekend that simulation hifi time trials do not use up a simulation day. I guess this underlines the fact that they are really considered as just a demo. I've read some people getting very upset at the fact that a better quality of game is locked away for winners only. But the hifi, though clear, lacks the urban character of the corresponding tracks, as created by buildings and such.

I was relieved to find out that regular time trials take only 1 simulation day no matter how many times you "try again". I wish I'd known that when trying my IA license. The ghost replay is good too, for determining whether one line is actually faster than another.

Speaking of inferior tracks, is Autumn Ring II ever annoying. It's like old-fashioned inferior racing games where you cannot see stuff coming that you logically should. Very annoying, especially the part just after the staring line.

Anyway, as my observation about hifi mode implies, I won GT World Cup, with a Cerbera LM. High Speed Ring and, surprisingly, Trial Mountain were walkovers for me. I qualified first and then thought I was doing a time trial after the start. At Grand Valley, however, the AI cars announced they were out to race, but I won. SSR5 was also a bit of a fight, not only because I started second. Deep Forest was my usual nemesis, with a sixth place qualifying and a third place finish, but that was enough to clinch the series actually. There was no Rally Impreza this time, and the AI cars shared the points a bit. So then came SSR11 where I qualified and finished first.

Results:

Not a very international field, I must say.

I was mildly surprised when it began running the credits after the finish, and it did not announce "You now have hifi mode".

Interesting that the HiFi page seems to have space above its "back" button for another "next" button. Are there more races to be won?

I got wiped in the Tuned Car contest, finishing fifth in a Cerbera. The race that really surprised me was the Clubman Race. I had read your page, and verified in time trials that I could easily qualify first, which I did. But then the race began, and the cars were going much faster, and I finished way third. I almost think one of the game developers entering the parameters for the AI qualifying times typoed and the times are 5X.XXX where they should be 4X.XXX

The unfamiliar Autumn Ring II was a dismal sixth place; I couldn't even pass the turtle Civic, and SSR11 was a fifth place embarassment.

So after that I amused myself by rewinning the Lightweight Battle until I won a couple of Eunoses. I even switched from an [R]FTO to a tuned FTO. Of course, the screwy handicap algorithm means I still win by almost the same margins! Actually that's a disadvantage of their handicapping algorithm; you win by using something ridiculous, and only win by a slim margin so you think you need to use a car like that, but if you use something slower, the other cars will go slower too.

I had raced the Cerbera to wins in Clubman and GT Cup for practice. I thought I did the FR series too, but don't seem to have notes.

In practice for the GT World Cup I won UKvsJP again with the Cerbera LM, and did a time of 2:29.213 on High Speed Ring, which would have just barely been a record before Thursday. And I won yet another green Cerbera LM!!!! Grrrr!!!! That one I did sell...

Well, I took some notes about used cars every ten days, but have not cracked the algorithm yet.