Pilot Assist is an insult

[Cerium]

It is rather annoying to be getting slammed trying to get around someone with PA... especially when there's someone already in front of them who's actually worth racing.

Nothing sucks the fun out of a race for me than having someone who's going to take (close to) last keep me from competing with everyone else.

[TheFrostE]

haydn is right, you cant even get a good line with PA

[Axel]

The snake corners on Sebenco climb, open areas of SOL 2 and Anulpha Pass Bridge are the only areas I can think of where poor PA users get on my nerves. The problem is after they knock you off, they will stay on. Fustrating!

[Dark_Vincent]

Hey hey... Excuse me and nice to meet you all people of the WipEout community.

As you may have noticed I'm just a new guy in the community, but as someone with the insight of a hardcore in other game communities, when I started WipEout I asked myself what the hardcore followers of this series thought of the Pilot Assist.

Yes, it makes the game a lot easier for newcomers. Me included! I have played WipEout Pulse on the PSP but could never race properly. It just never gives you a chance to "learn" the nuances of WipEout and so I was there stuck in the first course for a few days until I moved on to something else.
I love a good challenge, yes, but I like to have the chance to learn how to overcome it. Pulse never gave me that. Coupled with the fact I have never been into racing games (being the WipEout series the only one that always caught my attention since 32-bit days), the learning curve was just too much for a starter.

When WipEout HD was released, I decided I would get it and give the series another try. Much to my rejoice, there was the Pilot Assist feature, it helped me playing the game and getting past a few races without much of a problem. The game became fun while still keeping a good deal of challenge (even after the patch, I still play on Elite difficulty in every campaign race). I knew I didn't want to become reliant on Pilot Assist forever, it was obvious to me that a good WipEout player doesn't use that and in fact races better without it. As I said, I'm a dedicated player in other games/communities, so I can understand the "inner works" of a good player's gameplay style. In fact, I came to these forums exactly because of that, I was looking for advice and alternative ways to learn better steering and other specific WipEout skills to finally drop Pilot Assist and who knows even play Pulse during lunch break at work or something.

BUT I can't deny what Pilot Assist has been doing for me while "I'm not there yet". I would hate it if Pilot Assist becomes mandatory, but as long as it's optional, I think it pleases both sides (casuals, newcomers and oldschool) without pissing off any, there's no reason to hate the feature when thanks to it you got more people willing to give the series a try (or in my case, another try) and possibly joining your ranks, increasing the competition and eventually raising the bar along with everyone else here. It's a win-win situation.

I know there are instances where Pilot Assist removes a good chunk of the challenge (the one course where they can just zig-zag and throw you away), but if it gets too bad for you (which it shouldn't, imo, since you should be away ahead of them) you can turn it on for just that specific race. And yeah, noob Phantom racers must be annoying to deal with, I myself admit that beyond Flash it gets too stupid and is basically like auto-pilot the whole race for me, at least for now. Therefore I'm taking it easy and just getting the hang of things in lower speed classes with Pilot Assist and eventually without it, before I move on to higher levels.

There you go, this is the opinion of a "Pilot Assist noob". Please don't flame me ^^' And I hope to join your ranks eventually. If anyone can help me with anything or have the patience to teach, my PSN ID is Dark_Vincent

Thanks in advance!

P.S: lol Wall 'O Text for first post!

[H3avyM3tal]

Welcome to da Zone! You should introduce yourself in the Pilot's Lounge though...

I have never played with PA, only for the trophy, but I agree with you 100%, well said. We can't all get what we want without considering other people's wishes. The PA problem can be overcome very easily by just playing with friends, and not random online sessions.

[eLhabib]

Hi Dark Vincent, welcome to the 'Zone!
Your post expresses exactly why I think PA is a good thing in the end: it gets more people to play the game.
However, as an advice for getting better, I can only tell you to turn off PA right away and bite it for the first couple of days. There is no way of getting really good at this game if you're using PA. Go to racebox and select Speed Lap on a track that you feel accustomed to, and then start doing lap after lap. Start slow, and once you're not hitting walls any more, increase the speed class. And be sure to use a craft with a high handling stat - helps for learning

[Dark_Vincent]

Hey guys, thanks for the welcomes.

Inspired by what I've been reading here I decided to try and drive without PA anymore on the first two courses of campaign mode. Guess what? I ended up improving my times by several seconds! O.O

But yeah I can only race decently on Venom and Flash for now. If I go Rapier without PA I won't finish the course most likely. I did improve my time on Rapier too, but that was on Time Trial, where Energy isn't an issue.

I'm also trying out crafts with better Handling (when I started playing the game, I was mostly a Piranha guy), so I guess that helps too =)

Sorry for the 'sort-of-off-topic' btw

[Connavar]

Hello! I agree with you, I'm glad they included the feature because it allows
more people to join, which is good for 2 reasons:

1) more people means more sales, so we'll get more support (DLC, patches)

2) some of those new players will become really good and keep the game
entertaining for the best players