Gran Turismo 5

[Wools]

i have no idea why people are grinding so much.
i'm pretty close to level 30 now, with 8million in the bank and over a 150 cars.

i cant imagine why anyone would do the same boring oval race a million times.

I brought cars that I needed or desired and tuned when nesscary. At a point I had no other choice than to grind events because that what the game was requiring me to do to progress.

I've got around 35 cars in the Garage and around 1 million in the bank.

[Fuddle]

it is weird though. up till now (with endurance events i have no intention of ever doing) there was no point where there wasnt things i could do to keep progressing.

edit, and most of it was before seasonal events, which make it super easy now.

[Wools]

I hit a brick wall at the very start of the extreme events. Up till that point, I had not performed any grinding, but had been buying cars like the Mclaren F1, Enzo and a few Super GT Cars.

After that, I had to buy a Classic, Polyphony GT and a number of expensive cars with no funds to buy them. So I'm now stuck in the hole with no way out!

[J0e Musashi]

Do some seasonal races.

[Darwock]

Indeed, one round of seasonals is basically enough to buy an FGT even if you had nothing in the bank to begin with. 5 different races done once each = 485,000,000 credits (approx). Even the biggest whinger on the thread would be hard pressed to call that grinding.

[Bassman]

I setup a new Account (Birthday) the day before yesterday (admittedly sent the cars I needed) and did the 5 races from Bonus Races 3 and the last Race (Diablo) from Bonus Races 4. That account is Lv 22 and I won 5 million credits. Should get another level or so out of the remaining 4 races, with some new Bonus |Races due in the early hours of tomorrow morning which hopefully will get my main account up to Lv 33.

Managed to even get a Suaber Mercedes C9 off the 1989 Birthday Gift Ticket (at the second attempt). At least I know it is going to have the maximum power possible after the break-in period (unlike the UCD cars with an Engine Overhaul). First attempt got me the Skyline (R32) GTS-T which I hadn't got.

I have done some grinding on that main account with some re-runs of that Indy race. The majority I would hardly call grinding with the Rome race I do (less money but more Exp than Indy). Doing that I was able to buy all the Ferraris, Lambos and McLarens and others to use in the race for more money.

[Kubrick]

I don't get how anyone could be nearing Lv30 without having done a ton of repeating races.

Up until maybe Lv20 I didn't need to grind much, but from that point on, it was simply impossible for me to participate in any of the events I still had left in the Extreme series without repeating earlier races I had already won.

I couldn't go into the Special events for XP, because they were already done and dusted, or my rank was too low for some of them. I couldn't earn XP in online races because that hadn't been patched in yet, and neither had the seasonal events. In short, there was nothing I could do to level-up apart from repeat races I had already won.

Even when I did eventually reach Lv21 and open up "Like the Wind" and the NASCAR series, they were all over almost immediately with a tiny XP reward, leaving me in exactly the same situation of having to "grind" countless races to reach Lv22, and then again for Lv23... That entire Extreme series was one big grind, and the Endurance series is even worse.

It's not like I had some XP "missing" either as I had earned a gold trophy in everything available - Out of sheer boredom I went back and done the events with tough golds like the Eiger Nordwand TT in the Grand Tour and the SLS events in the AMG Driving Academy. It still wasn't enough. Grinding was inevitable.

I can only assume those of you claiming there's no need to grind, are failing to earn gold trophies at the first attempt and are replaying the same events over and over in "legitimate" fashion to try and win a gold in them?

[Darwock]

Are some people still playing this offline without having patched it or something? The number of people who seem to have trouble acknowledging the xp/cash haul of the seasonal races is quite baffling.

This makes the third or so time I've said it, and I don't know how many times it's been said in total (Bassman has mentioned it in nearly every post he's made for the last few pages!): you can get from level 0 to the mid-level 20s by doing FIVE unique races, once each.

edit - OK I read the above post more slowly and I see you are writing it from a perspective before the seasonal races had been patched in. Fine, but er... why? They WERE patched in, therefore the game has changed, and there's no point in saying people can't level up without grinding when they can.

[ridgeracer]

Since the games launch I was only back online last night since Nov 26th when I moved house.

Im at level 21 with no grinding but I can see it happening if I can be bother to actually carry on!

spent last night on Tsukuba Circuit on a free run having a go at drifting with some Spanish guys. Was fun until I realised it was 2am.

Im hoping getting back online will relight the fire for this game as I have not played it for about 2 weeks due to being bored of the game.

Also, if I am looking at buying a GT car to do some of the cups whats the best sort to go for? Any recommendations?

[Kubrick]

I must admit I missed out on doing Bonus Races 1 and 2, so I maybe missed a couple of level's worth of XP there, but I've done all the current Bonus Races and nearly everything else (Game progress: 93%), and I've only just passed Lv28.

Short of me somehow earning the trophies in the Red Bull X event, or subjecting myself to the 2 or 3 Endurance races I have open, I'm going to have to wait for new Seasonal events to appear to rank up again (without grinding).

there's no point in saying people can't level up without grinding when they can.

Indeed they can, to a point. Then they'd have to grind. There simply isn't enough XP available in the game at any one time for anyone to reach Lv40. There will be eventually if you wait for a new event to appear every week, but if someone wanted to have the game 100% complete in say 2 weeks? I'd say that'd be impossible without grinding.

[Bassman]

Lv 32 and some serious repetition.

For me Indy - Grinding and Rome - Repetition. I do find the latter that much more bearable.

I got up to 10 million (before the prize increase) with that Rome race and in the process got a couple of levels in the mid 20's. My current repetition for money (down! to 18.x million at the moment but would like to try for another 100/1000 Ticket) was mostly that race. At least with the 4.7K Exp it makes a very small dent in the total (only a few hundred thousand or so to go now, to reach Lv 33... Maybe I should do an Indy 500!).

From where I am sitting (so to speak) the Seasonals only have a serious effect on my cash balance!

Played Split Screen with a friend last night. Had to use DFPro. I hate Force Feedback... better described as counter steering! Couldn't disable it (wheel was on a small light table!). I think I may know where to look now (thanks GTP). 900 degree rotation seemed to require excessive wheel movement for some corners compared to real life. Need to find my DFGT

[saturn-gamer]

As I said, within the 30's or perhaps even end 20's the EXP from Seasonals won't really level you up anymore. They are just a one affair too so by going that road you still have to wait a week or is it 2 weeks? for a new event to pop up.

You get some 200k exp in total, yet leveling up from 29 to 30 takes some 700k already. To get from 39 to 40 takes about 7.5 million. Level 40 is what unlocks the 24h. This game is a huge grind.

[Darwock]

but if someone wanted to have the game 100% complete in say 2 weeks? I'd say that'd be impossible without grinding.

I guess this is the clincher, I personally can't see any reason why someone would need to have the game 100% done in two weeks. Don't we usually complain when games lack longevity? Is there some benefit to doing this other than bragging rights?

My guess is that level 40 honours are intended to be reserved for the people who are actually dedicated to the game and will be playing it for a long time anyway, not for the "2 weeks and move on to the next big thing" brigade.

It's comparable to Warhawk - the top ranks in that pretty much require full dedication to the game for a year, or perhaps regular play for a span of several years. Only the guys who never played anything else have got the platinum there.

edit - you could say the 24hr is the reward for the people who invested enough time in the game to get there. It doesn't have to be done now, and I'm sure you can get an idea of what it's like from the other endurance events.

[Wools]

My guess is that level 40 honours are intended to be reserved for the people who are actually dedicated to the game and will be playing it for a long time anyway, not for the "2 weeks and move on to the next big thing" brigade.

Is dedicated a term that can be used in the normal way to describe someone who can Level 40 + Gran Turismo 5? I've been playing Gran Turismo since the PlayStation original and don't think of myself who'll stop playing after 2 weeks time.

The closest comparison I can think of is Modern Warfare 2. I hit the highest level of that game simply by playing and enjoying the online experience. I did not farm XP, go after Nukes or any number of exploits that people used to prestige and hit every call sign and badge. I simply played the game, became fairly proficient with various weapons and equipment and through sheer enjoyable playtime, I hit the maximum the game had set out.

With GT5, they've given you a set amount of races with XP & Credits and you have no other option but to grind to get the content Polyphony have created. It was only with a patch, that they've allowed XP and money to be gained online and with the Seasonal Events, which was no consolation to me at the time when I had hit Level 20 and was slowly running out of things to do pre patch.

I guess we'll see how it goes, GT5 is a brilliant driving simulator but all these issues have weakened me to the single player progression. Polyphony have stated they want to support this game up to the eventual release of Gran Turismo 6, so we'll see how it evolves.

[Darwock]

If you're playing it long term, and we're getting new seasonal races to do every week and so on, then level 40 is not going to be a grind at all. Even if it takes a year. If you are enjoying playing the game anyway then it's just a bonus. If you're not enjoying it... well.. too bad! Obviously level 40 is not for you. Same as you said about MW2 basically, but I assume the timescales were a lot lower in that case. I still reckon this attitude is only prevalent amongst "videogame fans". My friend back in the UK got this game, he is not a gamer, but he is obsessed with cars, and I have no doubt in my mind that he will hit level 40 one day. Probably before I do. He plays it cos he loves it, not cos it's a game he has to complete.

My guess is that was not the last update to the game anyhow. There will surely be some kind of seasonal championship at some point.

Is dedicated a term that can be used in the normal way to describe someone who can Level 40 + Gran Turismo 5?

Well yes, because I am not saying dedication means someone who can reach level 40+ in GT5 already.