Codemasters presents F1 2010

[macsomjrr]

Something that's bugging me a bit, particularly in time trial mode, but whether it's a flaw in the game or my character, I'm not sure: I wish I'd grown beyond being frustrated at getting silly penalties for barely straying off course or just nudging someone. They annoyed me in ToCA Race Driver 3 too, and it seems the passing of 4 years has done nothing to fix that. Still, if I stayed on the road more often I'd have less of a problem on my hands, I suppose.

Holy crap this is killing me right. Especially the "next lap doesn't count" thing. ANNOYING.

[GB_Simo]

Does anyone know how you can ask for intermediate tires or wets after the race has begun. I had to restart a race because it started raining during a race but the race strategy only called for options and primes.

You should be given the option to select inters or full wets by bringing up the little in-race menu for changing engine, tyre and wing settings (the one you access by pushing a direction on the d-pad - the official title escapes me but I hope you know the one I mean). In every race I've done, selecting 'Tyres' has given me the choice of requesting options, primes, inters or wets at my next stop.

[GB_Simo]

Something that's bugging me a bit, particularly in time trial mode, but whether it's a flaw in the game or my character, I'm not sure: I wish I'd grown beyond being frustrated at getting silly penalties for barely straying off course or just nudging someone. They annoyed me in ToCA Race Driver 3 too, and it seems the passing of 4 years has done nothing to fix that. Still, if I stayed on the road more often I'd have less of a problem on my hands, I suppose.

Holy crap this is killing me right. Especially the "next lap doesn't count" thing. ANNOYING.

'Invalidated', 'next' and 'lap' are rapidly becoming my 3 least favourite words in the English language. If I take a short-cut or leave the track in some way that'll benefit the start of the next lap, then fine. If I've slithered into a wall and come to a dead stop, taking my next lap time off me is just silly.

To take my mind off it, I ran a race at Melbourne as Jenson Button. The game gave me heavy rain, I came through from 5th on the grid to win and every single thing, from the handling to the AI to the oh-god-where-am-I spray effect, was absolutely spot on. I watched the start of the race on a replay (one odd thing - the in-race Instant Replay has spray coming off the AI cars in the wet. The race-end replay doesn't), and I saw cars going three abreast into turn one, Massa being forced wide and smashing a polystyrene brake marker and, from about 11th place back, nothing at all through the spray my car had thrown up. When this thing's good, it's fabulous.

[jcalvert]

Does anyone know how you can ask for intermediate tires or wets after the race has begun. I had to restart a race because it started raining during a race but the race strategy only called for options and primes.

Yes you can. I had to restart my first race because I accidentally selected intermediates in the desert!

[toonarmy]

'Invalidated', 'next' and 'lap' are rapidly becoming my 3 least favourite words in the English language. If I take a short-cut or leave the track in some way that'll benefit the start of the next lap, then fine. If I've slithered into a wall and come to a dead stop, taking my next lap time off me is just silly.

I hear ya. That is driving me nuts. It seems kind of ridiculous where it invalidates my laps sometimes as well. I had a 1:35 invalidated at Kuala Lumpur for just straddling one of the kerbs on one corner. Of course, the next lap was invalidated as well for going slightly off kerb in a later corner. If anything both places slowed me down a touch, not aided me. I was driving balls-out those laps and have not been able to touch that time in subsequent laps. It's such a waste of time and effort to have the next lap invalidated early in a previous lap. Whoever thought of that decision needs to be kicked firmly in the balls several times.

[jcalvert]

It's such a waste of time and effort to have the next lap invalidated early in a previous lap. Whoever thought of that decision needs to be kicked firmly in the balls several times.

I have read that the developers are not going to offer DLC; maybe there will be enough complaints about this that the developers will offer a decent gameplay/tuning patch. Holding out hope because going a little far over the kerb and getting penalized also drives me nuts.

[macsomjrr]

I noticed when I set a new time trial time for Bahrain that I and Simo have a little nodule in the 'setup' section of the leaderboards. I guess that's because I used a slightly lower downforce 'quick setup' that I had settled on, whereas I imagine Mac and Terry just hit the track. I think I prefer the no setup option, so sorry about that confusion. I couldn't believe I had beat your guys times, so I'm guessing that has a lot to do with it!

Barely managed to pull back the top time on Sakhir from you Zep:) I ran a couple laps in the McLaren-Mercedes and that car definitely seemed to be running a bit faster than the Toro Rosso. We definitely have to put this track in the rotation seen as we've all been practicing it. Gonna make for one interesting race;)

[Jimmydeicide]

Has anyone tried turning the flag rules down a notch to see if it helps with straying of course a little ?

[JRod]

How bad are you guys cutting corners.? Outside of Qualifying, I get warnings but no penalties. Maybe this is a MP thing, I don't know.

[fletcher21]

Good news. As per the official Codemasters forum, I guess the races are NOT rigged. There was something buggy about the qualifying where times for the AI are not right, but they do apparently race you legit in the race. That's what counts. This is per one of the developers of the game, apparently.

[fletcher21]

Has anyone tried turning the flag rules down a notch to see if it helps with straying of course a little ?

I had to turn the flag rules down a bit, since it was just ridiculous how they would penalize you when it wasn't your fault. I cut corners a TAD (on accident, just like anyone racing hard, even in real F1) and it will at most give me a warning. I went off the track on that fast left to right at Australia and ended up passing 2 cars. I was given a 10 second penalty. It seems like with flags turned down you don't get a time penalty unless you gain a position due to your move. Just cutting a corner so far has never given me a penalty except for the one time I passed 2 cars doing it.


I have a new workaround. I turned tire and fuel settings OFF. Unless you do 100% races, having fuel set to ON will screw you over, since the AI cars don't suffer from a heavy car like you do, unless you do 100%. I do 30% races. I know it's cheesy, but I have been racing the first 2 laps on my black tires, then pitting and putting on the green ones. The way I see it is, I don't want to run 1/2 the race then end up pitting with 10 other cars and get held back waiting for all of them. This way I get my pit stop out of the way early. I am not positive, but I believe SOME cars do not pit at all. I was leading a race by maybe 3-4 seconds and went in to pit. I came out and was never able to even get close to the top 4 cars. If they had pitted, I would have closed the gap. I never even got close to the eventual podium finishers.

As for turning tire wear OFF, I hate to do it but I have no choice. The high number of punctures is a known bug, and I refuse to race for 30 minutes only to get a phantom flat tire and lose everything. With fuel use and tire wear OFF, I feel like I am on an even level with the AI.

I also turned weather to OFF, so it is always dry. The AI cars run 8-10 seconds slower than you in the rain according to the forum. Something about the rain really affecting them, but not to you hardly at all. I'd rather finish 7th fairly then run away with it due to rain and slow AI cars.


I hope none of this is spoilers.

[DChaps]

Hi Fletch,
Was gone most of the weekend, so I missed all the AI uproar. I appreciate you posting about it. Just read a pretty fair review of the game over at BoomtownX that mentions the potential fake AI issues. It will be interesting if the F1 2010 developers actually respond officially today about this.

http://www.boomtownx.net/f1-2010-review

While not a bug - the faking of qualification times compared to what you can see happening on the track has lead many players to feel the whole game is one big fake, a mere time trial game with AI cars really just existing as mobile hit-boxes. Codemasters has admitted that there is fakery in the qualification times but denies that there is fakery going on in the race. Time will tell if this is true.

What is clear though is that lap times being reported for AI cars don’t seem to match what is happening on the track in races. There seems to be some sort of error working out laptimes in relation to the player. More importantly though the player is not given enough information about the distance to AI rivals on the track, you’ve no idea if the car in front is five seconds ahead rather than fifty. Such information is fundamental to the way F1 races are conducted, when drivers no when to push or take it easy, how to plan pitstops. The lack of split time information is a fundamental failure in the game. The absence adds fuel to the fire that the races are faked, with AI cars being pretty visual diversions to entertain the player rather than actually taking part...........

.........The result is that - whether AI race times are fixed or not - one feels like the races are just a big illusion. Everything reacts to the player rather than F1 2010 being a world the player enters on an equal footing. Perhaps some of these things can be patched - for another publisher I would hold out high hopes of this being so, but Codemasters doesn’t have a good record of post-release support.

This is such a shame. F1 2010 is a visual treat and from a driving perspective a huge amount of fun. If you plan on just enjoying the driving in time trials, playing races online or just enjoying it as an arcade experience on lower difficulty settings then you’ll get a lot out of it. For those of you who want to take part in an F1 seasons pitting your skills against a simulation of the best drivers in the sport you are likely to be hugely disappointed. If you don’t spot it - the slight of hand trick that is F1 2010 - is a convincing and fun ride. However far too many of us has seen the cards hidden up the games’s sleeve.

Codemasters you've potentially got a really good game here - please fix it.

[GB_Simo]

Fletch, does it depend on the kind of rain? I don't have any great advantage over the AI in the heavy rain, but I've not really raced them in lighter rain and I'm not a particularly good wet racer so it might well be me. I've also found that the time trial penalties are much, much more harsh than the course-cutting ones in normal races, and while I understand it should keep the leaderboards fair and balanced, they still seem way too strong.

Mac, is there a time trial competition rolling there? Add my GT from my signature - for some reason I don't have you on my friends list - if you fancy trading ghosts, and I'll see if I can catch you for some races at some point. Race Pro all over again, eh?

[DChaps]

Some Potential Helpful Links from the Codemasters F1 2010 Support Forum

F1 2010 Codemasters Official Forum

Unofficial F1 2010 Bugs & Errors List

Corrupted Saved Game Issues

Pit-Stop Issue

F1 2010 - Technical Help

[fletcher21]

Fletch, does it depend on the kind of rain? I don't have any great advantage over the AI in the heavy rain, but I've not really raced them in lighter rain and I'm not a particularly good wet racer so it might well be me.

I have yet to do a wet race yet, but from what I understand it is when it is wet but not pouring. You can stay out on slicks, while the AI will switch to intermediate tires. Some guys are claiming to be running 8 seconds per LAP faster than the AI when they are on slicks and the AI is on intermediates. When it is a downpour and everyone is on full wets, I *believe* the issue is non-existent. The problem is that the user's car is not affected at all by a slight rain, even though the AI goes for intermediate wet tires immediately. So in a light rain the user can run a lap of 1:40 on slicks, while the AI is lapping on intermediate wets at 1:48. This is just what I've read, but many people have admitted it is an issue. Some guys are saying that when the race STARTS wet, everyone is on level ground. The game seems to have an issue when it starts dry but goes to wet, where the computer does not penalize you for staying out on slicks since it still "thinks" the track is dry. Confusing stuff, innit?

[JRod]

I wonder if these people have Traction Control on or on medium. That probably makes the cars have too much control and you are able to abuse the tire conditions.

Maybe the AI does get tires too early, I haven't personally noticed, as the track gets wet but the racing line is fairly dry. Once the racing line gets wet after a few laps, if you don't have intermediates or wets, I can definitely feel my car lose traction.

[GB_Simo]

One more for Don's list of helpful links - there is a patch coming, and the status of said patch will be updated here:

F1 2010 Patch Updates

Fletch, it sounds like a very specific issue if that's the trigger, and I can see exactly how that would completely bugger up the dynamic weather system - no point trying to second-guess the weather if you know you can stay out on slicks. We're definitely on level ground when it's pouring with rain, since I have no particular lap time advantage and have been several new and exciting shades of sideways during downpours.

Another thing I'm reading about is people getting an incredible number of punctures. I haven't had a single one yet so I can't comment, but there are reports of people suffering punctures as they exit the pit lane for the first time, which seems more than a little strange.

[Jimmydeicide]

I had 3 but only one hurt me in a career race but i excepted it as it could happen it was on my final lap, but the funny thing is i found i had tie wear off when i had all them and since turning it on i havnt had one but ive only done a race a couple of practices and a couple of qualy. I dont see any tire wear with it on or off , im doing 50% races so its not time scaled or its not working.
Im on ps3 so things could be buggered differently between platforms.

[fletcher21]

Something I just read is that AUTOSAVE may cause your save to go bad and you will lose everything. I would highly suggest turning autosave OFF and just saving yourself via MYF1.

[Jimmydeicide]

Upon further racing my flat situation is hideous, not that im any good at these first few tracks but im not making my team happy. 2 in the last race , 4 if you count the 2 when i nosed into the pit barrier.

Is it known for sure that you cant copy your teamates set up? If so shut the @#$% up will you Mr laptop, Yarno can lick my sweaty balls cos i just out qualified him.

Im really good with the press though.

[FifaInspected]

any of you guys playing this with a controller, not a wheel? if so, how is it?

[TCrouch]

I'm glad I don't go out and read a bunch of crap on games anymore. I'm having an absolute blast with the game still.

I've played with both a controller and a wheel, and the controller is obviously more twitchy. It "works", but it's definitely a much better game with the wheel. Everything is just smoother with it.

[GB_Simo]

any of you guys playing this with a controller, not a wheel? if so, how is it?

I don't own an XBox-compatible wheel so it's controller all the way here, Fifa. Your first few laps will be hideous, and you'll be occupying every piece of track except for the one you're aiming at. After that, it'll start to click. It may seem a little bit twitchy at first but it takes very little practice to start running some fairly smooth lines.

I have a dim, distant memory of you joining us for an rFactor poker night with a pad and doing just fine. It'll definitely be easier to pick up than that was, mate.

[fletcher21]

I am using the PS3 controller, and it works for me. I've never owned a wheel, so I don't know what I am missing is probably what it comes down to.


I got my first "victory" of the season at the Chinese Grand Prix. The thing is, I was in 3rd place coming into the final turn. I Saw Vettel and Massa cross the line well ahead of me, yet as I crossed the line it said 1st, and my crew was congratulating me on my win. I was thinking wtf at first, but then thought maybe one of the guys who finished ahead of me got a 10 second penalty? Maybe one of them, but no way they both did. So my first victory is very hollow. I was thinking about just re-starting the race, but I don't care for the Chinese track so I'll take it I guess.

[Jimmydeicide]

I'm glad I don't go out and read a bunch of crap on games anymore. I'm having an absolute blast with the game still.

I've played with both a controller and a wheel, and the controller is obviously more twitchy. It "works", but it's definitely a much better game with the wheel. Everything is just smoother with it.

Me too Terry i'm loving the racing in this game.
Thought it was going to be to easy after the first Race but the last 3 have been far from it, only finally earning the first point of the season for Lotus in Malaysia.
Im sure ill do better as we shift to Europe for the next few, as long as the tire manufacturer can give me some decent tires.
The game is brilliant where it counts and thats on the track.