Distance analysis

[Cpaw]

Hello, i dont really understand this, when i sellect it and drive on the track and match the time i still get incomplete in this, is it bugged or can someone explain what i might have missed?

[KaMe]

Because you need to hold the racing line as much as possible at the same time. When you are doing the test look below the time objectiv in the left corner there is a blue line that keeps increasing and decreasing based on the racing line. You need to be atleast above the first segment when you finish the lap to succeed. 2 laps in a row.

[Cpaw]

Originally posted by KaMe:

Because you need to hold the racing line as much as possible at the same time. When you are doing the test look below the time objectiv in the left corner there is a blue line that keeps increasing and decreasing based on the racing line. You need to be atleast above the first segment when you finish the lap to succeed. 2 laps in a row.

Okey thanks, i did not know that.

[WadeOhh]

Getting a 'perfect' score for this is astronomically difficult, if not bordering on the impossible. You lose so much of the blue bar even if you're SLIGHTLY off line, and you gain very little back of the blue bar when you're millimetre perfect. If you're ever so slightly off on one corner, the whole lap (and whole run) is basically done, and you have to do it 2 laps in a row. Its pretty stupid.

[KaMe]

Originally posted by WadeOhh:

Getting a 'perfect' score for this is astronomically difficult, if not bordering on the impossible. You lose so much of the blue bar even if you're SLIGHTLY off line, and you gain very little back of the blue bar when you're millimetre perfect. If you're ever so slightly off on one corner, the whole lap (and whole run) is basically done, and you have to do it 2 laps in a row. Its pretty stupid.

Yeah I don't even bother, I just do the minimum requirement. It's doable without investing too much time. But yes it sucks.

[Cpaw]

Would be nice if they would enhance the color or something, so it would be more easy to see.

[HappyHour]

i cant get even get excellent if i do 2 laps both with the bar above the 2nd mark and under the time. not sure how to get better than good

[WadeOhh]

Originally posted by KaMe:

Yeah I don't even bother, I just do the minimum requirement. It's doable without investing too much time. But yes it sucks.

Yeah, I think I'm just going to have to accept a basic pass and move on. The best I can do is a pass mark. Excellent and Perfect seem almost impossible.

Originally posted by Cpaw:

Would be nice if they would enhance the color or something, so it would be more easy to see.

I agree, its pretty vague.

Originally posted by HappyHour:

i cant get even get excellent if i do 2 laps both with the bar above the 2nd mark and under the time. not sure how to get better than good

I did 2 laps where the bar was only a little bit off the end and beat the time pretty comfortably, and that was only a pass as well. I agree, I have no idea what you have to do to get Perfect, or even Excellent.

[HappyHour]

aha. good to know ill stop trying to do better lol.

[revillo]

Originally posted by HappyHour:

i cant get even get excellent if i do 2 laps both with the bar above the 2nd mark and under the time. not sure how to get better than good

There seems to be a bug. I am pretty certain that the 3 markers should be the 3 quality gates.
But just as you describe, you only pass with the minimum research points ("good") even if you are above the upper accuracy indicator on both laps, and of course below the time threshold as well.

[abrensons]

Yes there is a bug and "good" is as good as it gets. Anyway i hate this routine, its tedious and serves no purpose, difficult to nail that thin line too

[revillo]

I agree, I hate it too. Even in 19 there were many tracks were I could not pass this test on a given difficulty setting although I was able to get pole position and win the race on the same difficulty.

If I'm on mid table or lower end teams, I would really enjoy to set the difficulty to a level where I have to fight for a top ten result. But if I do so, I'll never pass the development tests, or at least not distance analysis. If I set difficulty to a level were I can develop my KTM or Aprilia, I reach the podium in every race and win most of them.

It seems the engineers are only able to improve an inferior bike if I'm already able to beat everybody else on the grid with said bike. ;-)

So the difficulty of the development tests compared to the race breaks the immersion for me.

[WadeOhh]

OK, I experimented with this a bit. There is a bit of a cheat/workaround to get an excellent score. If you turn the difficulty down to the absolute minimum (I usually run it at 100%), the target lap time becomes ridiculously generous so you can focus JUST on staying on the corner arrows. You still need some skill to stay on the corner arrows, and the lap time ends up being rubbish, but it is the only way I can find to get an excellent score. Still took me a couple of tries, but makes it somewhat doable.

Edit: I forgot to say, you only need to turn the difficulty down for ONE session. Because you can change the difficulty between sessions (when you return to the career main menu between sessions), you can put it back to a more 'fun' difficulty for the rest of the race weekend. So what I do is turn it all the way down for one of the practice sessions, then turn it back up for the rest of the race weekend sessions. Its a shame this is the only way to perfect this stupid challenge, but it seems to be the only way.

[revillo]

Originally posted by WadeOhh:

So what I do is turn it all the way down for one of the practice sessions, then turn it back up for the rest of the race weekend sessions. Its a shame this is the only way to perfect this stupid challenge, but it seems to be the only way.

Good advice. This is currently the best workaround and also what I did in the past. It's cumbersome though and I would love if there was a more elegant solution. Either better calibrated difficulty from Milestone, or as a cheap workaround the option to set development test and opponent difficulty separately.

Btw. Milestone is not the only racing game where I experience this problem in career mode. I also play F1 2019 from time to time (much less than all the Milestone titles though) and I experience the same thing. Where the race itself should be the most difficult challenge, it's actually the tests (ERS and tyre wear for me in that game). And since Milestone seem to occasionally take some sort of inspiration from Codemasters career mode, it only makes sense that we face this issue in this game too. ;-)

[WadeOhh]

Originally posted by revillo:

Btw. Milestone is not the only racing game where I experience this problem in career mode. I also play F1 2019 from time to time (much less than all the Milestone titles though) and I experience the same thing. Where the race itself should be the most difficult challenge, it's actually the tests (ERS and tyre wear for me in that game). And since Milestone seem to occasionally take some sort of inspiration from Codemasters career mode, it only makes sense that we face this issue in this game too. ;-)

Funny you mention this... I just commented on another thread about how in my first career race in MotoGP 20, I got absolutely destroyed and mentioned how I think I'm going to have to experiment with different difficulties between all the session and specifically mentioned how, like you, I used to do this in the F1 games! Haha. But yes, in the F1 games, I used to do the same thing, different difficulties across practice, quali, and the race, and after being 2 tenths off pole in quali in MotoGP 20 (which I thought I had the difficulty set perfect), but getting absolutely destroyed in the race, it looks like I'm going to have to go down this route again for this game like I did with F1.

[revillo]

Originally posted by WadeOhh:

Originally posted by revillo:

Btw. Milestone is not the only racing game where I experience this problem in career mode. I also play F1 2019 from time to time (much less than all the Milestone titles though) and I experience the same thing. Where the race itself should be the most difficult challenge, it's actually the tests (ERS and tyre wear for me in that game). And since Milestone seem to occasionally take some sort of inspiration from Codemasters career mode, it only makes sense that we face this issue in this game too. ;-)

Funny you mention this... I just commented on another thread about how in my first career race in MotoGP 20, I got absolutely destroyed and mentioned how I think I'm going to have to experiment with different difficulties between all the session and specifically mentioned how, like you, I used to do this in the F1 games! Haha. But yes, in the F1 games, I used to do the same thing, different difficulties across practice, quali, and the race, and after being 2 tenths off pole in quali in MotoGP 20 (which I thought I had the difficulty set perfect), but getting absolutely destroyed in the race, it looks like I'm going to have to go down this route again for this game like I did with F1.

At least we found a workaround for now. I wonder however if this is a lack of testing and fine tuning for career mode, or if it is by design. The latter meaning the product manager wants the development to be the hardest part, which I personally do not enjoy.

I doubt that players are performing so differently between sessions, so this problem has to impact many. On the F1 game, reddit was full of people with the same problem you and I have, indicating that we are not outliers.

What's different in the F1 game for me is exactly what you describe too: one had to find the right difficulty for each track. Here I feel that MotoGP does a better job, at least for me. The difference in difficulty across tracks in MotoGP stays within reason for me, except Valencia. This problem is easier explained though. While I doubt the performance across the player base is so different between sessions (essentially R&D tasks, qualifying and race) on one single track, the problem between tracks could be explained by player preferences and strenghts, i.e. performing better on fast and flowing, narrow and technical or stop and go circuits.