fishbreath doesn’t know it but we had quite the back and forth battle in the mid casual. I think I started off building a lead after the first 2 stages. That disappeared with some crashes on stage 3, where he pulled ahead. Until the end it was back and forth, multiple times we were within a second of each other (I think). I crumbled on the last stage and he bettered me by quite a bit.
In today’s Delta Daily, I punctured my rear left tire on my Lancia Delta S4 right away at the start of the long Greek course with lots of hairpin turns coming down the mountain. So I just wanted to delay losing that tire as much as I could, because I know how impossible the car becomes to drive if I lose that rear left. So on that punctured tire, I babied the car down the mountain slowly. No sliding around corners, no fast speed high friction acceleration, just gentle babying of the accelerator all the way down the mountain.
And I made it! I FUCKING MADE it down 8 checkpoints on a punctured tire without it popping! I couldn’t believe it. And I beat the delta time by 3 seconds. I feel like a boss right now.
I noticed that it was still not all that far off at the end, so I flipped back through the stages in the scoreboard, and close battle indeed! Maybe this week I’ll let you go first, so I have some times to aspire to.
In Casual League news, Finland is a wrap and we’re on to Sweden. See you all on the icy roads.
Now that we’re past the halfway point of the Casual League Group A Cup, a report: ledShok is of course in the lead, followed by Rock8man, both of whom are increasingly out of reach from the rest of us. robc and I are separated by 7 points in third and fourth, and TundraToad and Octavious are both within striking distance of me. Now taking suggestions for course/car combos for next season.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “Man, I wish I had time for this sort of thing,” the Casual League is for you! Not only do we graciously let you try as many times as you like, the six-stage events take two weeks, so you’re only on the hook for fifteen or twenty minutes every seven days.
The second block of six stages is open in the monthly event and I found the Swedish snow much more to my liking in the little FWDs than Finland.
Much to the delight of my crew I had barely any offs and over the course of three service areas I think I got most of my car up to the mid-80s in terms of damage/repair levels. Not counting my exhaust - that’s still at zero and makes for a delightful rattle as I rev at the starting line!
Felt I made good progress on the leaderboard, though I was fairly well down after the initial half dozen stages so had plenty to make up.
rock8man - I await an update on your progress! :)
The Mid-Casual league is a challenge this week. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Monte Carlo (what a death trap!) and I couldn’t settle on a stable setup for the little Fiat. Ended up with a decent run overall apart from a crazy moment in Sweden where I ended up facing the wrong way and couldn’t turn around (narrow with large snow banks). Had to drive back around twenty metres to a wider area so I could handbrake into a 180, all the while watching the “driving the wrong way” disqualification timer ticking away. Pretty certain I would have saved more time taking a reset but it felt very authentic to actual rallying where you often see drivers searching for a suitable spot to resume their run.
In our last episode…
This week we started off in low 400s in placement. After the first track, I thought I did okay, but I was 6 seconds behind LedShok, so now I was only 15 seconds ahead. The next track was in heavy fog. I could hardly see anything, so I had to concentrate completely on my codriver’s calls. And I ended up doing that one 3 seconds faster than LedShok. My lead was growing!
The third track is a snow-fillled white out. I couldn’t see a damn thing. It was worse than the fog. I ended up sideways onto the snow, sliding into the forest where the game reset back on the track. 15 second penalty right near the start! Nooooo! I had to concentrate so hard, and my brain had stopped interpreting the co-driver’s calls fast enough. I ended the stage 38 seconds behind LedShok. Which means he was ahead now. On the way back on the same track, I was in a bright sunny day, so it was almost as bad as the snow, since most sections of the track in the open were just completely white and it was hard to see the road. But I stayed on it, and only lost another 3 seconds on LedShok.
The last two tracks were at night, and I would say were the easiest for me so far, since I didn’t have to battle so hard to see the road. I even lost one of my headlights, but the snow lit up the night pretty well. In the end, I ended up 28 seconds behind LedShok instead of 21 seconds ahead, so Sweden was a big loss for me overall. LedShok was in 289th position, and I was at 319. 30 people between us, about the same as at the end of Finland, but the other way around this time.
Mate, it’s neck and neck! Most of our times are pretty close other than the stages where one of us clearly had a blunder.
Despite wanting to do the whole monthly event in one sitting last weekend, I’m actually quite enjoying how it’s been broken up into six stage blocks each week. Means you can take stock, see how others are progressing, etc. And the event sits with you a bit longer and produces an ongoing saga (a bit like a proper rally).
Who knows what next week will bring! :)
Picked up Dirt 3 on sale! I’m with you in spirit…
Qt3 Dirt League. Everyone else stopped playing, so I won by default. It’s a hollow victory.
In other news today’s Daily is the Group B 4WD MG in the snow. That car is crrrrrazy. I think I hate it.
Just a reminder, we’ve a little over 9 hours left in the mid-casual league this week. You’ll drive at Monte Carlos and Sweden in an Abarth. LedShok is leading, but I came in almost 30 seconds behind. From tomorrow we’ll do these same tracks in a different car, so I do recommend checking out the Abarth first. It’s RWD, so you have to be careful, but I think if you drive safe and don’t take too many risks, you can get a nice time that might beat both of us. I know I had some accidents in my run, and I’m sure LedShok did too.
Today’s daily is a classic. Sweet Lamb in a Group A Subaru 95 Impreza. And I did surprisingly well. I can do well in the other Wales tracks, but Sweet Lamb has always been my nemesis. Today, I only messed up once, and took a 15 second penalty. But that still got me the best time I’ve ever had on Sweet Lamb in a Group A car, despite having done it a million times in a Lancia Integrale. The Subaru is so much more stable, it’s perfect for this course. I bet I could get an error-free run on Sweet Lamb if I had another try with this Subaru.
Yeah, the Impreza/Sweet Lamb combo is a goodie. I used it as warm up for the Mid-Casual league and had a largely error-free run. Think I ended up just inside the top-150.
Mid-Casual was a real mixed bag this week. Started off reasonably well, but had a couple of 'mares on the last two Monte Carlo stages - it’s simply too tempting to lay some power down through the asphalt corners and find the RWD overwhelming your ability to keep the car pointed away from the brick-laden apex.
Sweden was steady, if unspectacular. Had a few spins, including one where I landed on my roof, but I don’t think I took any penalties (just a lot of lost time in general). I’m really beginning to like some of the Swedish courses, particularly those that wind through locations other than ‘dense forest’. It’s nice to hear the co-driver saying “braking before house” simply as a marker (you are in no danger of being anywhere near it) - kinda feels like you’re in an actual place rather than just a string of 'left 2’s and 'hairpin right’s.
Yeah, I agree. I also find the lake in my peripheral vision in Sweden pretty distracting sometimes. I know I should pay attention to the course, but my eyes keep going to the side… is that a lake? Is that a frozen lake? I want to see the lake! No! Keep your eyes on the road! Focus!
I did the delta daily and the daily this morning when I woke up, both in the Subaru Impreza 2001, which is one of my favorite cars in the game. And weirdly, the fear just wasn’t there, even in the delta daily in Finland. I’m always scared in Finland, but without the fear that long track is so much more forgiving and relaxing. It’s just some hills. What’s there to be scared of?
I think maybe that early in the morning, my brain hasn’t kicked into full ADHD mode yet, getting distracted and thinking about a dozen different things. I’m still groggy, and able to fully pay attention to the co-driver and his instructions. Which is critical in Finland.
For the record, I did have a record setting run (for myself), but I didn’t crack the top 3000 players for all time because I messed and hit two trees. I made sure to hit them head on though. The Subaru can take a little beating on the engine. What it can’t take well is a blown tire.
I took my run at the casual league today, and despite another great back-and-forth with robc04, I didn’t once have a lead on him (although I did win a stage or two). I am not a fast man, nor is Sweden a very good fit for me. (Yet!)
30 hours or so to get your time in for the casual league before we head to Wales to wrap up the season.
The console versions are live, and so is the new patch for the PC version. Over a 17 Gig download though. It’s taking a while even on a fast connection. Mostly because it’s downloading a lot of small files I think. In the download page, there’s a lot more disk access on the graph than network access.
I still need to do the casual and mid-casual for this week. The mid-casual is the end of this season. I’d specifically wanted to end this week since I knew the patch would come and make changes and add cars and content.
Curious if anyone here is picking up the console version?
I was going to do it at launch, but I’m really short on money these days. Really pinching every penny I can save. So no double dipping on DiRT Rally for me, for now.
I love the new menus. They give the game a completely new feel.
I haven’t played this since March 18th. What kind of new content was added?
Do equivalent leagues need to be started separately for the console versions? I bought the PS4 and am a member of the PC qt3 leagues, but don’t see them on the console even though sign d into same race net account.
Guess that means friends and etc are separate too. bummer!
Diego
Diego,
How does the PS4 version compare to the PC version? I was thinking of picking this up on PS4 as well. I’ve kinda stopped playing the PC version mostly because I’ve got too many games to play right now.