Joining The Club!

[Tomahawk]

Hey Task! Welcome to the club. I'm glad you got yourself this beautiful piece of software called WipEout Pure. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Looking forward to race you on X-Link Kai...

Whats this I hear about WipEout Pure downloadable content not working properly with updated PSP firmware?


You're scaring me people!

There you go, read all about the problems sony's firmware 3.11 or higher causes to Pure's download packs...

[Task]

8 ) Hiya Tom! So our rivalry is going to meet head-to-head one day?
Excellent! It'll take me a while to get this show online, but I know it'll happen eventually.

So I've finished with Vector and moved on to Venom!

Venom: Ah, finally I'm seeing the difficulty! Vector was too easy, Venom is challenging, I can see where this is headed! Okay, that's not bad at all, I was worried that Venom was going to be as much of a cakewalk as Vector. So far, I'm not getting that SR gold on my first attempt every time anymore. At least, not on the tough tracks. They take another try or two.
Citta Nuova: Okay, I officially hate this track even more than Stanza Inter. I didn't think it was possible! There's a period of time where you're at a dead stop unless you do that 180 perfectly onto the boost pad (not quite there yet) and it feels like it's about a year and a half long. On the up side, there's no track that gives as much of a feeling of accomplishment when you really nail it like this one.
Weapons: I hardly noticed them in Vector, but they're a lot more important now. Disruption Bolt might as well be called "Player Killer" since it's totally useless against AI opponents and will likely slaughter a player, I'm glad it's gone in the next version. The weapons are hard to aim, I like that. It'll really take some skill and experience to become a killer on the track, I don't think I've even heard the Contender Eliminated! yet. For a racing game, that's likely exactly the way it should be.
Physics: Sliding downslope is awesome. The incredible inertia of the craft is also fantastic. Really takes me back to WO1. I'm still getting used to how early you have to turn and airbrake to really nail the corners. Definitely liking it.
Weapon Physics: Why does any weapon hit lead to sliding off the track? Is it just me, or do you always slide off the right side? What on earth is up with that? For a while this was incredibly annoying and I didn't know why, now it's annoying and I know why. Every single offensive weapon in the game is also somehow a Grav Stinger (yup, one of the many awful features of Fusion), kills your speed and your engine for a moment. Good god, why? So far, I think that's the only significant flaw to the game.
Progression: Zone mode unlocked nicely, Beta and Asension unlock nicely, but after I got them the unlocks started going real slowly. I've got all the Vector TTs and I think that gave me Karbonis VR, and all the Vector and Venom SRs and that gave me Sagarmatha VR, I haven't got many golds left to get and there's still a lot to unlock by the looks of it. I get the impression I'll have to unlock Flash (or whatever it's called) before I can unlock the rest of the VR tracks. I would prefer to have that whole Classic Tournament fully unlocked before moving on to Flash. A minor nitpicky point, but I think the feel of the game would be improved if things continued to unlock smoothly instead of petering out like this.

So my next challenge is to finish off Venom, and the main obstacle in my way there is getting gold medals on Citta Nuova...

[Mad-Ice]

You will get there! Nice breakdown of likes and dislikes!!

[q_dmc12]

Weapon Physics: Why does any weapon hit lead to sliding off the track? Is it just me, or do you always slide off the right side? What on earth is up with that?

Use a heavier ship - piranha or triakis or auricom

[Rapier Racer]

AURICOM!? No do not use Auricom it is not a good ship

Shame on you for recommending that to poor Task Dmc lol

[Task]

As if I would ever even _consider_ getting in one of those awful contraptions!
8 )
I've been using Triakis today and yesterday, a heavy ship indeed, but I still notice that I get hit with a weapon and I slide off to the right side, thunk the wall, dead stop. It's not as bad though, I'll definitely admit that.

Must be just me, then. Weird!

Hey, here's something else I've noticed, there's no piloting tips in the Pure piloting guide! I kind of want to go in and add things I've learned, but being at the bottom of the tables I don't trust that I'm flying as best I can at the moment.

[q_dmc12]

Okay, ok - my punishment is next time on kai I use only Auricom...and still beat you rra.

The slamming into the wall will diminish in the faster leagues (i.e. rapier and Phantom), you'll just have to live with it in vector, venom and flash. You need alot of momentum to keep going and you know what that means, more speed - P(momentum) = Mass x Velocity.

[The Uncreated]

Hey, here's something else I've noticed, there's no piloting tips in the Pure piloting guide!

The absense of tips makes the thread perfect, IMO.

Uncreated

[Asayyeah]

but I still notice that I get hit with a weapon and I slide off to the right side, thunk the wall, dead stop.

There's worst than a dead stop : the fall back. When you are using a light ship and been hit by a bomb or 5 mines on a row you will see your ship going backwards ! that is not happening with Tigron or Triakis.

there's no piloting tips in the Pure piloting guide! I kind of want to go in and add things I've learned, but being at the bottom of the tables I don't trust that I'm flying as best I can at the moment.

Feel free to put your tips you found. We all know you ve got the eyes of the pro, you are, by those years spent on various Wipeouts.
Other pilots may complete that guide.

[Task]

Arnaud: Indeed, going backwards bites the big one. It happened to me a lot on Manortop recently (Over 40 golds! Yay!), just from hitting walls head-on. 8 P

The absense of tips makes the thread perfect, IMO.

8 D That one had me laughing for at least a minute.

Anyway, the continuing saga of my Pure Enjoyment...

I got past Venom recently, and it was quite the hump for me. I had to realize two important things:

1) Lift to turn. Not lift the nose, but "lift" as in the 4-wheeled racing term, take your foot off the gas, that'll slow the vehicle down a bit, shift the weight forward, and with the extra weight on the front tires you can turn. I was playing Vector in the usual foot-to-the-floor-all-the-time way, and managing with a disturbing amount of airbrake, but that wasn't as easy to time in Venom and to really do the corner right (as in, have any traction at all for sharp turning) I had to learn to come off the X for a moment at the apex. This blew me away. This ain't your daddys wipeout! Like, "woah". Blows... My... Mind. Suddenly Citta Nuova wasn't wallbang-wallbang-wallbang, it was thrust, let off, turn, thrust, let off, turn, it was like figure skating it was so smooth and choreographed. I haven't heard this specifically from anyone else, but I'm finally appreciating what everyone meant about how it's a totally different WO from anything there's ever been before. Still... it bothers me a bit. Along the lines of "You got your Gran Turismo in my Wipeout!". I don't use airbrakes in wheeled racing, I didn't expect to have to lift to turn in AG racing. Yeah, my mind is _still_ blown by this. This was two days ago. I think I've adequately communicated just how huge a revelation this was.

2) Triakis is really important. I took Zone into Citta Nuova since I wanted the high thrust and handling to take that track on. I got some really nice scores, but I also earned my first elimination in there. As in "I got eliminated", not as in "I destroyed someone". Not really what I was looking for! So I try out this "Big T" that I hadn't liked in Vineta K/Vector/TT so long ago that it might as well have been last year, and I taste the difference that whole eggs make! I've got the shields to survive any kind of enemy fire, do some barrel rolls, and scrape half the walls on the track. Nice. ALSO, I don't spend that half moment dead in the water while doing a seriously tight turn! Despite the low thrust, that beast can just slide through normal turns with no appreciable loss in speed! So the Big T is now my SR vehicle of choice. Still liking the Zone for most TT work, but oddly enough the Big T does fairly well in that venue as well. I guess Al got his supership. 8 )

This leads me into the next important thing I've learned. Now that I've got Flash open, I expected to have some difficulty with it at start. After all, it's faster than I've gone in Pure so far. In actual fact, I'm finding the game gets EASIER when you go faster. Yeah, really. Here, let me spin you a tale... In the grand old days of WO3, you'd earn the mythical Icaras and take it to Porto Kora for a spin. Start with some Vector TT, just to get a feel for it. After burning it around the track a couple times, you figure you've got the hang of it, a bit of nose control here, a bit more there, the track is fully navigable at pretty fearsome speeds (for Vector). So you crank it up to Venom. Now you need to tap the airbrakes in a couple turns, and the other turns likely need some good nose control to navigate without scraping. The low handling of the craft wasn't such an issue at Vector, but it becomes more of a challenge as the speeds increase. Now you go for the real challenge, try this beast on Rapier! Eventually you've got the hard airbraking timed correctly in the few places you really need it, and you've got smooth brake-tapping most other places. If you're really hardcore, you go up to Phantom level and try to finish the race without blowing up. Wow that's fast. Still, you're sure that with some hard airbraking _combined_ with timely nose control, you can do that track.
Okay, so story time is over, now we look at Pure. While your Speed and Thrust increase as you progress from Vector to Venom to Flash and up and up, not only are you going faster and recovering sooner, but also your Handling is increasing! If you needed a slight tap of airbrakes in Vector, you'll need... a slight tap of airbrakes in Venom and Flash as well! I imagine this carries on up the rest of the way. This explains why Hellfire only gives track guides for Phantom, they're all the same! So the different speed classes are really just about less reaction time because of the greater speeds involved, what you're doing on the track is the same all the time. I still have no idea what I think of this. It's just really different. I certainly like how the game gets better as you go faster, it's really becoming more and more like the WO that I know as I progress further in it, but I'm kind of wishing that I didn't have to sacrifice quality in the lower speed classes (where racing is a bit clunky) in order to get the high quality (the racing gets really smooth!) high-speed races.

So with all that out of the way, here's some other random points:

Barrel Rolls: There's a whole lot I could say here, but I think it all sums up to "I prefer hyperthrust".
Bomb: Definitely wins the award for Bestest New Weapon. Go boom!
VR Tracks: I love the look of them, Tronnic == Awesome to me. Unfortunately though, they've taught me a hard lesson: I pilot tracks based on visual cues from the scenery. When you take away all that scenery and replace it with featureless VR-land, suddenly I can't fly a track worth a damn. I know it's time for the jump and going left so I can cut hard right when I see the fat cat come into view. I know how close i can get to the curved railing with the large gaps in it. When the track is all green and surrounded by vague blue lights, I have no idea where I'm at on it. Damn. So there won't be any more of them, and that's definitely a good thing, but I really wanted them to work. Damn.

And that's definitely enough typing for me!

[lunar]

Great observations, particularly about handling. Pure is a little like flying one of the heavy ships in WipEout: the handling changes (gets sharper) on the faster classes, and releasing thrust is a useful technique, not just what you do when it`s all going too fast and you`re scared. On many tracks you will probably end up using thrust-off and sideshift to get round, and rarely, if ever, use standard airbrake at all. What can really catch you out is when you`re used to Phantom, then go back to Flash, and you find you can`t get round any corners because the ship won`t turn! You seem to be driving in some strange combination of ice and treacle.

Millesecond thrust-off is also a great way of not climbing too high on some bumps, and works better than pitch control sometimes.

Thrust-off is very handy as well when aiming for the high road route on Anulpha Pass. It`s probably quicker not to use it here, but you only lose a fraction and it makes getting on that route and not falling off a lot easier. When battling online, the main thing is not to fall off.

[Asayyeah]

'When battling online, the main thing is not to fall off'
oh yes but sometimes that's funny to get the turbo on this big left turn just before high road route, i remember a nice kamikaze turbo in which RR was totally surprised by this and went out on the right , i fall off myself on the left side which was less annoying ( no respawn).

Back on topic : congrats for opening flash quickly Jay, it's obvious you have learnt well the basis of pure and noticed many different sights of how handling of the ships are.
You spot also it right about Big T which is really the supership of Pure : no loss of speed while turning, best shield to do Barrel Rolls and hard to stop even by being hit by weapons.

[il_NIK]

Welcome into the Pure's gathering.

It's an honour for us

[The Uncreated]

About letting off on the gas for corners, that's one of the cardinal rules of roadracing (I'm one of the fastest racers in PS2's Tourist Trophy). The saying is "go slow to go fast." A tighter but slower line is equivalent (sometimes superior) to a wider but faster one. The key is to ensure your velocity is moving as forward as possible when exiting turns rather than sideways. You can make up a lot of time that way. It's tough to believe but it's very true.

Uncreated

[Mad-Ice]

MMMmmm, I always just press so hard on thrust (X-button) and never letting it go!! My thumb is hurting and I am thinking of a way to stick the button down forever!!! I use side shift if I lose the perfect racingline. I don't know if it is the best thing to do but it feels so good!

[q_dmc12]

"go slow to go fast."

I like that, think I'll put that on my facebook

[Asayyeah]

I don't know if it is the best thing to do but it feels so good!

i must reckon you right , if someone doubts on this , i enjoy him to check Pure's TT records table

[infoxicated]

heh! I always wish that the PSP had pressure sensitive buttons so that I could justify pressing so hard.

Then again, with racing games on the PS2 you just get a numb thumb trying to make sure you're pressing it at 100% all the time.

[Task]

About letting off on the gas for corners, that's one of the cardinal rules of roadracing ... The saying is "go slow to go fast." A tighter but slower line is equivalent (sometimes superior) to a wider but faster one.

Yes, I've bolded the section of your text where you make my point for me. For 4 wheel racing, it's generally best to drive the shortest distance necessary at the best speed you can manage. What it has to do with no wheel racing, I have no idea.
Hence my general shock and amazement.
Still, I have much further to go before I can put in record times, so I'm sure my piloting techniques will change as I go.

Recently, I've had to take advantage of the music options. I needed to turn off Naks Acid, that track is horrendous. I turned off Grand Theft while I was in there too, not my style.

Downloads: So I decided this week that this weekend I would get those download packs. I've experienced enough of the "base game", I now feel I can expand my experience with the bonus content. So I found a wireless hotspot (a lot more involved than you'd think) and went for the download. Got to the site (yay!), noticed it defaulted to UK (why does a US copy of the game default to UK?!?), went to change that, and crashed my PSP! It froze during downloading and turned itself off! After I recoved from that shock, I tried again, and crashed it again. So it wasn't just a one-off thing. Changed my hotspot, tried again, crashed again. Tried to register, or log on, or whatever the top two options were, same result. So I quit that, and tried to register from my PC, found out I needed some ID code that didn't come with my PSP, and finally gave it all up and downloaded the packs onto my PC and then sent them over the USB cable. Finally, I'd found a process that worked smoothly! So now I have twice the tracks, twice the number of ships, and I can see the bug in the skin selection screen! I guess they didn't have more than 6 skins when they did the testing of that particular menu. 8 )
The happy ending to the story is that now although it takes half a minute to start Pure, I've got a Qirex skin and twice the game I bought! And there was MUCH rejoicing.

So I guess I have to go back to Vector and play through all these new tracks now... With all these new ships to try out... The real shocker is that I'm here typing instead of off doing exactly that. Uh... gotta go, bye!

[xEik]

Recently, I've had to take advantage of the music options. I needed to turn off Naks Acid, that track is horrendous. I turned off Grand Theft while I was in there too, not my style.

Exactly as I did.