MXS races great; rides poor

[Garasaki]

An excellent series of posts JETZ. Very well spoken (written?) for someone your age (no offense to anyone).

I myself went thru the same learning curve you are experiencing. I'm still not particularly good at this game but I would say my lap times have dropped 25 to 40% over the last few weeks and my enjoyment has gone up at least 100% if not more as I've learned better how to control the bike in this game. Allow me to drop some knowledge - it may help you:

-Buy the game - the additional tracks are great, as are the user created tracks, and the leaning rider model is awesome. I was hesitant at first on this but am very glad I did. Many of the new tracks are great for learning different things.

-When crashing, use the "backup" key to get yourself in a good position before you decide to take off. Offtrack excursions are very frustrating in this game - I think your points about potential buyers getting scared off by this are very valid. It nearly pushed me away. After you get better though, you will find yourself rarely crashing off the track. I'd say 75% of my crashes now are front end washouts which result in me laying in the middle of the track, much easier to get going again.

-The idea of stability in this game is a bit counterintuitive - stability is an artificial force that keeps you up. So it applies forces, often unexpectedly, that you cant control. I found the game less frustrating as I dialed the stability down. As a n00b, I really liked it way better below 50 stability. Now I use 26 stability and really like it.

-The slow factor variable makes a huge difference in my mind - I'm sort of the one who brought the subject up initially and JLV helped me out by revealing those settings. I do change that variable before every race - it keeps that flippy floppy feeling away at low speed.

-The in the air steering becomes natural with time. Once you start landing the big whips and scrubs, you'll love it.

-Turning in this game, like real life, is about body positioning. Come into a corner with your weight on the back of the bike (obviously you have to have rider lean), hard on the front brake, shift your weight forward at the corner apex to initiate a pivot, get on the gas to bring the rear tire around, and spray dirt everywhere as you blast out of the corner with your front end pointed in the right direction and your rear tire fishtailing behind. It feels REALLY natural once you get it down. Sweepers are tougher because of the front tire's tendency to wash out - I find that you have to get the corner right the first time, once you paddle the gas (let it off then get back on), you're a goner! Braking is key to all corners - you have to start the corner at the appropriate speed to get er done.

EDIT also you may want to set up dead zones on your controller, that helps a lot with the little whibble whoobles that turn into uglllllllllly crashes

[DJD]

EDIT also you may want to set up dead zones on your controller, that helps a lot with the little whibble whoobles that turn into uglllllllllly crashes

How?

[Garasaki]

You have to edit your config file. Each of the controls in the config will be followed by (0,1) which is the control range for that control. So find the ones that are turning, and change them to something like (0.1,1) which means that any input less then 0.1 will be ignored. Might have to tweak the values you use.

Search the forums to more info on that - I just recalled that off the top of my head.

[jlv]

-The idea of stability in this game is a bit counterintuitive - stability is an artificial force that keeps you up. So it applies forces, often unexpectedly, that you cant control. I found the game less frustrating as I dialed the stability down. As a n00b, I really liked it way better below 50 stability. Now I use 26 stability and really like it.

Just a small correction on this. It doesn't apply an external force (i.e. it doesn't violate conservation of momentum). What it does is change the steering force to hopefully stabilize the bike. It's sort of like an intelligent active steering damper. With a servo and some sensors it should be possible to build the same stabilizer in real life.

[JETZcorp]

I'm surprised to hear that you have an easier time on low stability. I usually ride at 70, but kicked it down to 25 when trying (and failing really REALLY miserably, even after 50 tries) to do the smallest of whips. Thanks to the low speed thing, turning around became the easy part! Then I thought, "Hey, before I tried the whips *sob* I won a 20-lap race by a good two laps over the runner-up. I must be good at racing, maybe I can handle this lower stability!" First corner, into the berm, and out again in record time, "Cool!" Second corner, sweeper, brakes on, into the turn, smack, "Son of a..." Up again, next sweeper, whammo, "That's it!" Low stability kills me, I just can't keep that front end from washing out all the time. My typical strategy is to brake like hell, bank it over (37 degrees, max at 70) and watch the front flutter about, then straighted up and goose it hard.

For reference, my best lap ever at Ekswanbee (the only decent track in the demo (Rabbit Hill is just Daytona on dirt (Dirtona?))) was 1:15:10 on a YZ125. I recently put up a video on YouTube, which can be found at my channel (http://www.youtube.com/JETZcorp). If you see something I'm doing wrong or could improve on, please don't spare my feelings (they're shattered enough by the whip fiasco, anyway!)

[motox161]

There is no way that you can go from 70 stabability to 30 and expect to not fall over haha. When I first started I was using around 80 stabability. Now I use 30. If you want to ride a lower stabability, then just try lowering it by 5 or 10 a day and eventually you will find a good number that will suit you.

[PATCHY]

i agree with most of that exept the whole bars turning the wrong way in the air deal. i used to think the same when i was learning but now im used to it i like it.

its the same in real life really .. have a look at this (sorry not a very good example) ..

[JETZcorp]

Yeah, I'm kinda getting it, but I still need to hit a jump exactly dead-on or I'm going down, every time, guaranteed. I don't know why I'm so bad at that, I just can't seem to get it right, and the more I practice, the more often I tend to land on my neck! It's very ironic, considering that this is the only non-flight sim I have.

[yomo]

Yeah, I'm kinda getting it, but I still need to hit a jump exactly dead-on or I'm going down, every time, guaranteed. I don't know why I'm so bad at that, I just can't seem to get it right, and the more I practice, the more often I tend to land on my neck! It's very ironic, considering that this is the only non-flight sim I have.

If you think about it...

In real life to be-able to jump a 50 foot table top you would normally ride for months just doing tiny jumps and getting used to how the bike works and feels. This is kinda the same thing in that this is a simulator that like real life takes time, practice and patience and you cant just jump straight in a get it right.

[Garasaki]

Wow a 1:15 - your way faster then I am.

On the other hand I throw down huge scrubs and whips consistantly, so neennnnerrrrr neennnnnerrrr *sticks out tongue*

Do you lean forward (sit) in the corners? Or more accurate, as you exit a corner?

PS - as you get better, you'll be pretty amazed at some of the jumps you can land - sideways landings with the front brake full on...but work on getting that stability down.

[JETZcorp]

My turning strategy is a little strange. I don't have the rider lean thing, but what I do is just keep him seated the whole time except when I'm doing a jump or going over whoops. I don't know if it's good or bad when accelerating out of a turn, but it's a miracle on sweepers and berms.

[Garasaki]

I ran a 1:18 on Eswabane or whatever park last night. That included at least 1 crash. I generally crash about 3 times a lap on that track which means I run consistant 1:30's...

It's funny how much you play that track when you have the demo, then you get the full version and play other stuff - then when you come back to play it after a while, it seems so easy since your skills have progressed so much.

I worked up a fun little video last night from a redbud session (trying to learn my video editting software) and hopefully will upload it tomorrow - includes a gigantic whip that I can't believe I landed (overjumped the thing by at least 50 ft, stuck a totally sideways landing...). It may or may not be edumacational for you.