Asking for quick keyboard driving advice.

My settings -
Difficulty - Ace
Assists - Suggested Gear and Throttle Help.

So I'm having an issue with having the pace throughout all the tracks. Before starting a Grand Prix 3 "imaginary" F1 driver career I wish to practice and get to know all the tracks (using the original 16). So far I've got as far as Austria, and so far I've been really struggling for pace in 3 following tracks -
Imola, Great Britain and Austria. I know there will be a few more where my pace will be inferior to the AI further on.

I've noticed it's the mid-speed corners (mostly 4th gear ones) are the ones REALLY screwing me over, as I'm forced to drive through with a gear below AI cars regardless of how I set up my car just to not end up on grass while keeping the acceleration up. Overall I'm pretty familiar with all 3 of these tracks right now, but am struggling for pace regardless, being 1.3 seconds away from the slowest AI car (while driving the slowest car myself). Tried driving through with a strong driver in a strong car, defeated only few drivers in pace but just can't seem to even get close to the AI version of that same driver.

Any suggestions?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2018 07:02PM by Thrashmands.

I think it's less the speed of the corner that counts here (between medium-speed and high-speed) and more the length of the corner.

Just to confirm this, say, I'm pretty sure your best tracks and Melbourne and Monaco from the ones you've learnt so far... And that you're struggling in Barcelona as well. If so, then pay special attention to what is coming up next.

Keyboard players are at a natural disadvantage the longer a corner goes on in any kind of racing game - because they can only apply power on/off, 0% or 100%, switched, instead of the gradual analog way of a joystick or, better yet, a wheel. This is less of a problem in short corners, where there is very little mid-corner phase - you brake, you turn, you hit the throttle at the (usually short) apex and keep it floored all the way to the exit. A good example is Turn 9 at Melbourne, or Ste Devote in Monaco. In a long corner, however, e.g. in Turns 3, 4, 9, 12 and 13 in Barcelona, Copse and Stowe in Silverstone, Turns 5, 6 and 8 on the A1-Ring, there is a sort of no-man's-land between getting off the brakes and going back to full throttle. (Notice that all of these are medium- and high-speed.) On this no-man's-land mid-corner phase, you're usually hugging the inside line or increasing your radius very gradually and, with a wheel, you would apply what they call "steady throttle" to keep the balance... well... steady. Steady throttle is 40-60% throttle - which you cannot do with a switched on/off keyboard.

So what most of us do here is blip the throttle every so often and blip it quite aggressively, i.e. rather keep it pressed for like 1-1.5 secs at a time and actually "blip off" momentarily instead of the other way around (rolling with no throttle for 1-1.5 secs and only blip on it occasionally). Also, be aggressive with going full throttle as well, be very precise with those points, almost as much as with your braking points.

I'm pretty sure you're already doing this, just try to do it more aggressively, especially at your weakest tracks.

(In a long corner, you're losing more on the entry compared to a wheel player as well, because of the latter's ability to trailbrake, which is more of a requirement here than in short corners, but explaining that would make this post very long. In a nutshell, instead of braking in a straight line and then turning for long corners, try putting in a shallow angle first and then brake, thereby decreasing the angle of the corner.)

---

My workthread - [www.grandprixgames.org]
Full of classic F1/non-F1 track layouts

My blog about F1 performance analysis - [thef1formbook.wordpress.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2018 10:45PM by Atticus..

Well, I'm actually doing quite well in Barcelona, though. And you've indeed guessed it, Melbourne and Monaco are the best tracks for me.

Already am trying to brake as late as possible in every corner and am already trying to throttle it during the corner, but I'm instead throttling for 0.1seconds and then releasing it for 0.1 seconds to not lose too much pace while not ending up out of the track and spinning off before it's eventually time to go full throttle due to exiting the corner (unfortunately as a result I end up being much slower than the AI cars during that corner, ending up with a lap which is 1.3 seconds from the slowest AI car, although THAT AI car actually loses only between 0.1 - 0.5 seconds to at least 6 cars in front of it, since I've tweaked the performance data for more interesting championship season).

Regarding your suggestion, I am to full-throttle in the corner for the mentioned period of time, but do I then have to brake during the "blip off"? Or do I just go full throttle with a gear below AI cars?


Also started learning further tracks, and my overall pace in (original) Germany track is looking solid , I reckon I could have a decent overall pace in Hungary too once I get it together.


But Belgium though...It's the most frustrating track by far...And not doing good in Monza either.

Now am at Nurburgring (15/16).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2018 09:24AM by Thrashmands.

UPDATE

Same issue in Nurburgring, but an interesting fact -
Turning off Throttle Help has helped me improve by almost a second, and now my laptime is less than a half a second away from the midfield crew (while being last with the worst car and driver), with which I'm happy with.
The only problem with that now is due to the car dancing like a balerina throughout first 3 gears, staying on track without car spinning off from high acceleration would be a liability, I guess, but if that can help me improve my laptimes on every other track I'm struggling with (Imola, Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, Monza), whatever it takes to not fall too far away from the grid, I guess.

Yet to check out Suzuka.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2018 11:24AM by Thrashmands.

Thrashmands Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Regarding your suggestion, I am to full-throttle
> in the corner for the mentioned period of time,
> but do I then have to brake during the "blip off"?
> Or do I just go full throttle with a gear below AI
> cars?


Former. You could get up to full throttle sooner in a lower gear, but you would probably require a lot of TC not to spin the wheels.


Thrashmands Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> UPDATE
>
> Same issue in Nurburgring, but an interesting fact
> -
> Turning off Throttle Help has helped me improve by
> almost a second, and now my laptime is less than a
> half a second away from the midfield crew (while
> being last with the worst car and driver), with
> which I'm happy with.
> The only problem with that now is due to the car
> dancing like a balerina throughout first 3 gears,
> staying on track without car spinning off from
> high acceleration would be a liability, I guess,
> but if that can help me improve my laptimes on
> every other track I'm struggling with (Imola,
> Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, Monza), whatever
> it takes to not fall too far away from the grid, I
> guess.
>
> Yet to check out Suzuka.


Wow, very impressive! I've never had any success with turning off the TC myself - I simply couldn't cope with the car being so tail-happy in the lower gears. (That said, I'm actually a GP4 player, but I reckon they're much the same. I've actually played GP3 as well as a kid.)

So very well done, if you can manage that, that's definitely the quickest way around the tracks. (Check out Fernando Rees' GP4 videos, he's absolutely killing it in Imola and Interlagos, among others, without TC. He's a real-life pro as well, he's still in WEC, I believe.)

---

My workthread - [www.grandprixgames.org]
Full of classic F1/non-F1 track layouts

My blog about F1 performance analysis - [thef1formbook.wordpress.com]

Quote
Atticus.
I've never had any success with turning off the TC myself - I simply couldn't cope with the car being so tail-happy in the lower gears.

Am on my career mode of GP3 at the moment, completed 4/16 tracks so far (did well in 3/4, the 4th one was Imola, where I always struggle), and yes, there are advantages to Throttle Help being off, especially with acceleration. Has helped me set up laptimes that I've never set before with the same car. But what I instead do is turn off Throttle Help only for a brief period of time after a sharp turn (it has an impact only on 1st or 2nd gear turns). There will be some dancing indeed, but not enough to spin you and and you will go up to gear 3 very quickly. Having Throttle Help the whole time would only lead to the car dancing instead of accelerating, but on the mention method it helps me improve my laptimes by 0.1 - 0.5 seconds setting the laptimes that I would never have with Throttle Help off all the way. (Just a noob discovery, I guess.)

Unfortunately, it has not been any help for me at all in Imola in my career mode, am as inferior to CPU as always (easy last place finish with a couple of spins, which is very bad compared to my almost-point scoring performances in previous 3 tracks (Australia, Brazil and Argentina)).

Also checked out the presented channel (the Imola video in particular), and well, there's no way I could achieve the clutch gears that he has without going off the track. (Brutal pace!)