I've mentioned before in my previous guide, performance spec is my favourite spec and I've driven all of them quite extensively and tuning them to their maximum potential. I'm glad that Ubisoft/IVT are listening when regarding car balance. A thread regarding how the circuit Mini is OP and it was indeed OP and this results in the car getting the nerf it needs. There was also a secret car balance patch for the Raid Z4 and RUF which have now made the Raid spec the most balanced spec among the 5. I've decided to put my hours of experience driving Perf spec cars and give some car balancing feedback. I sincerely hope developers will take note on this.
You can check my previous guide/thread and compare the times if you want:
http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php...servatory-Dash
Before I start, this thread is gonna be very long.
I recommend reading only if you are: Interested in how all the performance spec cars perform, interested in my suggestion of car balancing and my stand regarding car balance.
I dont recommend reading if: Lamborghinis are your favourite car and you use them in the game all the time, not interested in Perf spec or just not interested in car balancing. Don't worry lamborghini fans, none of the balancing suggestion involves nerfing 4WD cars. You can always skip to the tl;dr below.
I also need to mention that all my car balancing suggestion will be based on me using hardcore assists as well as my finely tuned cars which involves purposely sacrificing car levels so that the car becomes faster overall. Due to the way the physics work in The Crew, a level 1299 RWD car does not guarantee that it's performing it' best. An example will be the Koenigsegg Agera R where it's slower at 1299 lvl compared to a 1240 lvl one. You will get around a time of 3:42 in Observatory dash using a 1299 one but you can improve to the time shown below if you remove the weight reduction upgrade which slows the car down. And you can further fine tune the car by sacrificing power for handling or gain more power but sacrifice traction. I have made a video with a comparison of a lvl 800 and 1217 Agera R below.
You can see, slide to a lower level the car corners better but less straightway power, slide to a higher level the car goes faster on straight but slightly harder to control at corners. Note that the Agera R is the only car that has this special feature. The rest of the RWD cars don't have the same effect, but at the most some requires removing an engine part or weight reduction to perform at their best. Tuning can be applied to circuit spec where a lower power circuit car can use NOS more aggresively but sacrificing power, but I wont go deep into circuit spec, I'm not an expert there nor tested this fully.
Time Attack results
My performance parts for my fully upgraded cars in this test are:
Lvl 50 exhaust, lvl 49 ECU, lvl 50 fuel injection, lvl 50 gearbox, lvl 50 motorcade, lvl 50 tires, lvl 50 suspension, lvl 45 brakes, lvl 50 differential, lvl 50 weight reduction. All providing grip bonus + 4 stats perks which gives a car lvl of 1288. I'm lazy to farm a lvl 50 brake which provides grip bonus and braking stats isn't important anyways. I choose all grip bonus parts because they provide an extra grip for RWD cars. For 4WD cars on the other hand, they will just be using the same parts as the RWD cars.
The track is a faction mission called Observatory Dash which is a perfect track for performance spec cars to perform. It consists a mixture of low speed hairpins, high speed turns and uneven road surface which is a perfect representation of PvP tracks. Any car that performs a good time here will do well in PvP. No offense to those who tested their cars on circuit tracks but setting a time attack run on circuit tracks like Sebring does not translate to how well it performs in PvP tracks.
Map of the track provided by paragleiber:
And now here are the time attack results. The times set are about 95%-99% perfect with no traffic affecting the times set. (Except Miura, Impala and 458). Car levels are shown and the drivetrain are determined from the "wall test"
NOTE: User experience may differ with different input setup, assists and upgrades.
Video of Ford Focus & Agera R runs
Time to get the balancing part of the thread. I will be using the times obtained above a lot for reference. Quite a number have been pointing out how the OP the 4WD cars are and wanted some changes to balance things up. The problem is we only kept saying 4WD are OP and balance up RWD cars but never go in-depth as to why RWD just can't compete with 4WDs. Most pointed out NOS and wheelspin but lets go deeper to ensure the devs get the message.
Why are the 4WD cars are faster than RWD cars
- They can use NOS and gain acceleration from it in a very short time
Imagine this, final corner a RWD car exits faster than the 4WD car and there is a 150m dash straightway dash to the finish, both have a full tank of NOS. A 4WD will still win despite being slower at the exits. They can just simply use a full NOS tank burst but RWD can't.
- 4WD can use NOS without any wheelspin
4WD cars can use NOS at any gear without any negative consequences whether it's 1st gear or 6th gear. RWD cars on the other hand can't use NOS in low gears as it will result in negative acceleration instead. This results in RWD restricted to use NOS at high gears. Also in most cars, using a full burst NOS will result in the car accelerating slower than without NOS usage. RWD cars are forced to use short NOS burst to get the most acceleration. And I'm pretty sure casual players don't do short bursts.
The ability to cut through the sidewalk without any traction loss
This is a huge advantage in city tracks in PvP. Certain RWD can't even cut the sidewalk as they may result in spinning out or just began to lose control. There are a few RWD cars that can cut the sidewalk easily but they will lose traction at exits while 4WD can just cut at full throttle. A perfect example is the Hummer H1 which can cut the sidewalk easily at full throttle which makes it very strong in a PvP track "Daytona Beach".
4WD have better overall handling and cornering capabilities
The top 4WD times are not only achieved with the advantages mentioned above, but also because they just turn better than most RWD cars. There are RWD cars that turn worst than the Hummer H1.
Very easy to drive
Top tier handling, top tier acceleration and perhaps the main reason why 4WDs are so common in PvP is this. It's just so easy to drive any of these 4WD even in hardcore assists. You just require minimum effort to be fast in a 4WD compared to a RWD car which you have to worry a ton of things that can go wrong. A casual player would just pick a 4WD car, after all why would the player spend extra effort in a RWD to be fast then you can be even faster in a 4WD one by using less effort in controlling the car. I strongly believe this motto, "high risk, high reward", and the current state of RWD cars it doesn't fit that motto.
My stand on car balancing
I have read several arguments regarding this, ranging how fastest Perf cars already have a variety, to how each car handling is unique and making all of them as good as 4WD will ruins the car's unique handling. Here is my stand.
Firstly, I strongly believe that all cars should be able to use the features given in the game equally. If a 4WD can use a full NOS burst to gain a lot of acceleration, why can't RWD cars? Because right now 4WD are currently so fast it's simply because they can use NOS better than RWD. Some RWD cars can even cause negative acceleration using NOS.
Secondly, the time gap between 4WD and RWD is just huge. Compare the 4WD and most RWD times, the gap is quite big. And most of the gap difference is simply because 4WD can use NOS better. Why not just reduce the gap difference?
Third, I strongly believe this motto "high risk high reward" but right now is "high risk low reward" for most RWD car except one car.
I would rather have the game remove NOS feature completely. That way, all cars are now equal, we have a new top 3 OP cars which are quite tricky to drive and fits the motto of high risk high reward. Which brings the suggestion of a lobby that removes the NOS feature which will totally re-work the overall balance and make things more interesting.
Car Balance
Time for the balancing part. Our goal is to try to reduce the gap between 4WD and RWD cars. I will be referencing the time obtained above a lot. Another balance is to make RWD easier to drive by removing some odd handling physics certain RWD have.
First there were suggestions of nerfing 4WD cars, example their NOS power. I highly object this because if 4WD is nerfed, then it will be impossible to beat someone that have successfully mastered the Koenigsegg Agera R on certain tracks.
Apply the same January 7th wheelspin patch on:
SLS AMG, Maserati Gran Turismo, Ford GT, Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, Mclaren MP4-12c, Viper SRT10, BMW Z4, RUF 3400K, V12 Zagato, BMW M5, Alfa Romeo 8C, Chevrolet Camaro RS, Chevrolet Camaro SS, Ford Mustang GT, SL63 AMG, Shelby GT500, Dodge Challenger SRT8, Dodge Charger SRT8
The January 7th patch reduces the wheelspin on certain cars. However the patch updated the Ford Shelby GT500, a car that did not have wheelspin problem back then. But it had a wheelspin update anyways which resulted in being the 2nd fastest RWD car shown above. It's handling is still the same, only the wheelspin is reduced. It's what these car needs to decrease the gap between 4WDs. Theoretically if the wheelspin patch applied on these cars, they can shave off 2-5 secs off. The ZR1 and 12C also had the 7th patch update but definitely need slightly more wheelspin reduction.
Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series
Although the wheelspin is great on this car, it will definitely benefit a wheelspin reduction like the cars above. However at low speeds, the car has an unrealistic handling where the inner tires lift when you turn. It's a similar effect like the Ford Raptor Perf and Street spec during turning where the Raptor wants to flip. Reduce this effect.
Alfa Romeo 4C
The overall car's handling is almost perfect. It's just that the 4C has really bad turn rate/understeer. Just increase the car's turn rate by a notch and it's perfect.
Ferrari LaFerrari
Increase it's downforce at high speeds. The car doesn't turn well and has crap cornering. To at least balance this car a little, make it a little more stable at high speeds because the car right is a little floaty at high speeds.
Pagani Huayra
This car did receive a January 7th Patch wheelspin update, but despite removing the weight reduction upgrade, wheelspin is still a little excessive. This also doesn't help that the car has horrible turn rate/understeer. To balance the Huayra, further reduce the car's wheelspin and increase it's overall acceleration. The increase in acceleration will at least make it comparable to the Saleen S7 and RUF CTR.
Hotrod HuP One
The Hotrod seems to have problems when it comes to landing after a jump. There is a high chance you will spin out after taking a jump. To balance the Hotrod, make the car stable during landing and further decrease it's wheelspin.
Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
Decrease it's tendency to flip or it's tendency to lift it's inner tires during cornering. Also decrease it's wheelspin as well.
Dodge Charger R/T
Like the Raptor, decrease it's tendency of flipping while cornering. And increase it's acceleration and top speed. It's a hard to drive muscle car with high wheelspin, so go crazy and make it's acceleration and top speed high.
Lamborghini Miura SV
Seriously, this lambo turns worst than pickup trucks. The turn rate is just unbearable. The wheelspin is alright in this car. To balance the Miura, decrease it's turn rate, at least make sure it doesn't turn like a heavy truck.
Ferrari 458 Speciale
Even with the 7th January wheelspin update, there are a lot of things wrong with this ferrari. It understeers really badly, it's not stable at low speeds and the wheelspin is still excessive. We can do 2 ways with the balancing, either significantly increase it's acceleration and decrease it's wheelspin or completely overhaul the handling so that it handles what a Ferrari should be. Great stability, low wheelspin, and great turn rate. The 7th January patch completely overhauled the Agera R's handling, so why not this?
Dodge SRT Viper GTS
This newer viper is such a polar opposite to the old viper in the game. High wheelspin, low acceleration and bad turn rate. For balancing, I suggest decreasing the wheelspin and significantly increase the overall acceleration while keeping the car's bad understeer. The old viper in-game has one of the best handling, then make this newer viper all about straightway speed and power on the straights but terrible at cornering.
Ford Mustang GT Fastback
Again a totally polar opposite with the Ford Mustang GT500. High wheelspin and very low acceleration. To balance, increase the car's acceleration and decrease it's wheelspin.
Nissan 370z Z34
Possibly the worst wheelspin in Performance spec, combined with one of the slowest acceleration. It's handling is good,but not the best. To balance this car, decrease it's wheelspin significantly and increase the car's turning rate. At least make this car one of the best handling cars, after all it also have one of the weakest acceleration.
Chevrolet Impala Sports Sedan
One of the hardest car to drive. This car has a very high tendency to flip during cornering, just like the Ford Raptor. To balance the Impala, decrease it's tendency to flip. And like the charger R/t being a hard to drive muscle car, go crazy on the acceleration and top speed.
Cars that I did not mention
There are several cars which are fine with the way it is. The Agera R can be unbeatable on certain tracks if you can control it. The RUF CTR-3 is just weak in observatory dash but it's overall a very good car in any PvP tracks. And the Ford Mustang GT500 is what the Perf spec RWD cars should be.
Conclusion
I do apologies for the very long post, I hope everyone can show your support regarding car balancing. If you have any questions on my tests, the cars, the setup or everything is general, feel free to ask. If you disagree with this car balancing thread, I would like to hear your constructive criticism as to why. And another reminder that if you win in "x" against "y" cars that does not mean "x" is a better car.
TL;DR Don't nerf 4WD, buff RWD cars so they become more competitive with 4WD cars and become more easier to drive.