By the way, it’s been a while since I played the original DiRT Rally, but I don’t remember tire degradation being a thing, but maybe I’m just forgetting. But anyway, in this new game, after I finished a couple of legs on Clubman difficulty in each of these championships so far, my tires have been degraded to really poor status and I’ve had to replace them. That included the wet tires in the tarmac stages in Spain. After two stages, they were shown to be worn completely down. The next stage, which was wet again, was much easier with a fresh set of wet tires on my car.
I got 6th place overall in Argentina on H2 RWD Clubman. Getting the hang of it.
Wow. That’s really impressive. Great job!
Btw, I’ve only done Argentina in the Lancia Fulvia so far, but do you get car sick when you do that level? My view bobs up and down so hard on Argentina that I keep feeling like I should be car sick, but then my intellectual side keeps telling myself: I’m not actually in motion, there’s no reason for me to be carsick just because my view is constantly bobbing up and down.
I don’t get car sick, but I do need to defocus my eyes or ilosetrack of the road. Let’s just say I DO NOT want to try Argentina in VR
And yes, tire degradation hurts
Driving through Argentina in a Lancia Fulvia on fully degraded roads is probably the harshest that experience will ever be though. The more modern cars have better suspension which often reduces the amount of camera bob experienced, though it doesn’t eliminate it entirely since Argentina is bumpy. Additionally, if you have tuning unlocked, the bumpiness can be alleviated further by softening the suspension and raising the ride height.
Also, yes, tyre degradation was not present in the original DiRT Rally. It is a new addition in DiRT Rally 2.0 alongside the new tyre compound choices. Moving outside the optimum operational window of the tyre compound selected, due to wear and tear, can lead to some interesting situations due to the reducing grip on offer. Even more fun is when you have to make a judgement call in Spain on whether to use the soft tyres or wet tyres due to the next loop of stages before the service area being a mix of wet and dry road surfaces. Driving through Spain on wet tarmac with soft tyres on is an experience and a half…
Is it still possible to download car tunings in 2? That’s one thing I had no interest in investing time/effort into.
Someone upthread mentioned that the default tunings in 2.0 are actually very good, so there’s no need for tuning. So I took their word and haven’t even unlocked tuning on any car yet. I figure if the tuning is good, no need for me to mess with it.
In the original DiRT Rally, I used Steam Workshop versions of tunings, especially by this one Swedish guy, whose tunings were all excellent.
Oh, very cool. I don’t mind tweaking a little to suit my tastes, but I like having a solid starting point so that I don’t have to. If the game just provides that, that’s awesome (and kind of the way it should be).
Yup, I think I used the same ones.
I did find that the Lancia Fulvia benefited a bit from a stiffer rear anti-roll bar—helps get the back end moving for pendulum turns without having to tap the brakes so hard.
No idea why that Steam Workshop functionality hasn’t returned for the sequel, it was very handy to have around. That said, the default tunes are typically pretty decent out of the box. No need to fiddle around with much unless you actually want to, and basic changes like softening the suspension and\or raising the ride height aren’t very complicated to do.
For example, my current Time Trial time on the Czarny Las stage in Poland was achieved with essentially the Citroen C3’s base setup, just added a few clicks to the final gear’s length. So just sheer driving ability can carry you pretty far before you might even considering finding the optimum car setup for an event. And if any of you get to the point of needing to extract the final 5% out of the car’s performance then you’re obviously doing very well.
Hey you guys are having too much fun! This sounds pretty good.
I finally managed the full stuntman barrel roll on a straight bit of road challenge.
Not entirely sure how that happens. Maybe a really big rut.
Finished 9th in Australia, although I’m surprised I was able to finish.
Barring huge mistake, it might be possible to place in a podium given enough training, we’ll see.
How much legs does this have? Anyone expect to be playing in a month, or 2 months?
I played Dirt Rally from its release to… about a week ago.
I played DiRT Rally for hundreds of hours for many months. Only thing that got me to stop was the introduction of the snow tracks.
This time in DiRT Rally 2.0, the snow tracks won’t be added unless I buy the DLC, which means i could potentially play this game for years as long as I don’t buy the DLC.
I messed up a little bit in the last two races, but ended up in 8th place overall.
So far the championships in my Porsche:
28th place
26th place
8th place
Australia, Argentina and New Zealand still to go. I hope I keep improving, but to be honest, going back to gravel with the Porsche is going to be super tough. At least I know how to turn now (brakes to shift weight to front wheels!) so theoretically I should be able to improve upon 26th place even if people don’t disqualify out.
EDIT: I went into the garage and chose “purchase vehicles”. I found something weird. All the cars I’d noticed there last time weren’t there. There was no Alpine, or Subaru 2001, etc. There was a whole new set of used and new cars this time. Wow, that’s going to be weird. Also, I kept scrolling this time, and it looks like my Porsche 911 GT Rally Spec is from the fastest Rally category in the game. So the game initially starts you off with one RallyCross car (Opel), and the slowest car category in the game (Lancia Fulvia), and the fastest car category in the game (Porsche 911 GT Rally Spec). Hell of a way to learn to drive Rear Wheel Drive.
The Porsche is a preorder bonus. I don’t think you are supposed to follow that progression.
Also, I think there are 51 cars in the game. The store rotates!
My daily update:
Started a new H2 RWD Clubman Championship. So far 3rd in New Zealand and 2nd in Poland (first in the championship with 51 points, but it’s early). Those are the tracks that trip me off more due to the long fast sections over gravel (in Spain it tends to be either doing really well or really bad). So I have a couple of Events left where I should be able to get a podium since I tend to perform better there (Australia, Argentina and maybe Spain). I think I might be able to move up to Pro difficulty (and H3 cars) after this one.
I could pat myself in the back saying I’m improving, but I suspect the always online career mode is actually not looking at AI cars, but at laps uploaded by other drivers and matching you to them on a percentage basis (20% worst laps go to Open, 20% to clubman, etc…). This is just a suspicion, but three days ago long fast sections would lose me time, and now I can take a lot of seconds from the leaders in those. Something seems to have shifted. I am improving, but I suspect the real reason is that the average is worsening even faster.
Did Argentina in the Stratos. Thought to myself “Oh, really rough roads will use hard compounds”. Struggled to maintain any control stages 1 and 2 came in 20th and 23rd. Said to myself “Sod it, just go on softs”. Won the remaining four stages (only on Clubman) and felt like had total control of car.