Talk:Research & Development/BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage/@comment-34600274-20180206043435

I generally do not take R&Ds seriously because they're time consuming, inconvenient and challenging when compared to the low-hanging fruit of Championships. However, I finally felt compelled to get through an R&D from start-to-finish as a sort of rite-of-passage as a long-standing, above-average (IMHO) Asphalt driver. Typically I approach R&Ds as a way to farm parts for my garage; but in this case, the rarity of the BMW Hommage gave me that extra impetus to fight through this seemingly impossible task.

Test 50. For me this whole R&D could've just been Test 50. I'm not sure why that one test got into my head, but it did. An entire psychology paper probably could've been written up about how we unnecessarily psych ourselves out trying to complete a routine task during times of pressure. In retrospect, my initial set of runs for Test 50 really wasn't that bad at all. They were about 500ths-to-800ths of a second behind the AI. Had I just continued doing what I normally do for a typical race, then I would've found my way through this test much quicker than the approach that I actually took. :/

Usually it doesn't hurt to be over-prepared for something. However, in this case, it might actually. When I failed to beat the AI on my first 3 runs, I began to doubt my skills as a driver. Instead of looking for areas of improvement in those three races, I quickly cast aside my 2-years of experience with Asphalt thinking that there was something fundamentally flawed with my driving.

So I watched a countless number of YouTube videos of people breezing through this challenge with extremely under-tuned cars. While my car wasn't MAX/PRO'd, it definitely wasn't as low as those other players. Yet I kept finding this test to be an impossible hurdle at 3-5-5-5 MAX / 5-3-5-3 PRO tunings, and that attitude had me believe that I was lacking some "super-secret" driving skill that others were using. That thought led me to a comment where someone suggested practicing on the Azure Coast track while waiting for key deliveries. Wow, and the hours I wasted there!

My weapon of choice was a TVR Sagaris (because of its horrible drift radius) on the Season 6 Azure Coast track. The countless number of practice runs I made with that car really impacted my overall confidence for Test 50 in a very negative way. For one thing, the Sagaris is a much slower car than the Hommmage. That alone means the traffic configuration is slightly different than the Hommage for the same given track. The Sagaris is also a much more stable car than the Hommage at top speed, which is the single thing that will linger in the back of your head as you navigate through traffic with the BMW. The glaring difference in stability makes the Hommage feel like you're trying to simultaneously balance and drive a car on a tightrope at top speed. So instead of understanding how the Hommage is supposed to feel, you end up feeling that everything about it is wrong from the very beginning because it's NOT the TVR Sagaris!

The seemingly endless practice runs that I made with the Sagaris ultimately made me question my driving technique when I attempted to apply what I gleaned from the Sagaris to Test 50. Instead of relying on my 2-years of driving experience in Asphalt, I decided to clean the slate and start back at the beginning with "Driving 101". So I watched even more YouTube videos; analyzing how others were driving their cars. As I attempted even more practice runs, thinking that I learned some advanced driving technique that eluded me before, I failed to recognize that I was really losing the basic fundamentals that I learned during the past couple of years. So when keys were available for Test 50, I started each race with a lot more questions than answers. Each race felt less-and-less familiar to me, and Azure Coast seemed like a completely different track each time I raced the AI. Instead of finishing within 500ths of a second of the AI, I was finishing 5 to 7 seconds behind it! After all that practice and the "ingenious", new-fangled driving techniques that I thought would be of great help, I was actually becoming a worse driver than before! In fact, this horrendous driving carried on to other areas of the game like TLEs and MPs! My confidence was shook!

The pressure of each key delivery being even more-and-more important as the R&D ticked closer and closer to finishing had me in a real panic (despite knowing that I still had enough tokens in my back pocket to auto-pass the test completely.) And paying for key deliveries exacerbated that feeling of "importance" of each race opportunity. At the time I just didn't realize that the needlessly self-imposed pressure that I put on myself was what was wrecking my races against the AI. And the best advice that I read from others here is exactly what I glossed over as being unimportant! "Be patient." That's what a handful of people said about this R&D. It seemed like a cop-out answer, and almost antithetical to an event where you're constantly fighting a "doomsday clock" or going home "empty-handed" -- but that's exactly what this R&D is hoping that you don't figure out!

Instead of rushing to the next race when my keys were delivered, I decided to step back from the game for my own sanity. Well. . . to be honest, it coincidentally was Super Bowl Sunday and I really wasn't going to put three Test 50 races ahead of my enjoyment of the "big game". Ironically, not racing, and not practicing, and not watching more YouTube videos of people playing this game actually helped to clear my head of some really bad ideas that were destroying my driving fundamentals.

When the Super Bowl ended I didn't rush back to challenging the AI. Instead, I thought about the best races I had against it and realized that my best times occurred when I went into a race "cold". In particular, the very first key in the set was usually my quicker time because I understood that I had two other chances after it. So I could take a few more risks and drive more aggressively with that first key because I knew I could "play it safe" on the next two runs! It wasn't until that moment that I realized (I mean realized!!!) that I was only a half-second behind the AI with the car that I had. So it wasn't for the lack of a better car tuning or the lack of good driving skills that was in question here -- it was simply a half-second! I've been behind a half-second in many TLEs and figured out that it's really not an impossible amount of time to overcome where there's room for improvement. Like any race, whether NASCAR, Forumla One or even cycling, with all things equal, the basic fundamental of running the best line will most definitely net you the best gains.

When looking back at the "tapes", I noticed that the AI wasn't perfect at all (despite what the "engineers" were telling me!) In fact, it's far from it! I estimated about 8-or-9 miscalculations that it made for Test 50. This meant that you don't need to run a "perfect" race; but rather, a nearly-clean race would be all that was needed to take home top prize!

The two biggest errors I consistently made on the course were the same ones that people have mentioned over-and-over on this board: (1) The S-Curve; and (2) The final curve to the finish line. The S-Curve is your earliest opportunity to completely eliminate a 500ths-of-a-second advantage the AI might have over you. While I wasn't hitting the walls on the S-Curves, I realized that I could've been making much tighter turns than what I have been doing. In fact, my top piece of advice is to be extremely aggressive on the "S-Curve" of the course and to "cut the slack" on those turns as much as possible. With a mid-to-high tuned car, you should find yourself slightly ahead of the AI as you enter the third tunnel. For the final curve to the finish line, again, be very aggressive with that turn after passing the boulders. Ultimately, some quick nitro-drifts will allow you to stay close to the inside of the track while the AI skids to the outside half of the road. I shaved an additional 500ths of a second from my typical finish times there and overall was able to shed an entire second from my "better" races. The end result was that I was able to beat the AI by half-a-second, which is an eternity in auto racing!

As a few have mentioned about this race -- be patient! I will also add, "Don't panic!" If you see the AI dart past you at the starting line, don't get flustered. In fact, don't even worry about it if you miss a nitro bottle when entering the first tunnel, because I certainly did on my winning lap! Just keep an eye on the best line through traffic and be efficient with your nitro by making perfect nitros until it empties out before the second tunnel. If you can make a clean turn into that second tunnel, then you'll have gained slightly on the AI. The AI may appear far away at that point, but it's probably only about 200ths of a second ahead of you through that tunnel and to the start of the S-Curve.

When I accepted the fact that I may not win the car outright was when things actually started to happen. . . for the better! And when I felt as though all the chips were on the table was when I'd make the most critical errors. 20% of the time I'd crash at the fork-in-the-road at the start of the race. Another 20% of the time I'd crash into the busses in the tunnel, primarily because the AI would be right in front of me and I couldn't clearly see if my car was centered through the opening. (As an aside, during my winning run I actually had to do a controlled skid in order to reposition my car between those busses. I originally thought that I lost the race at that point because I had to slow my car down. Much to my surprise it wasn't a fatal flaw in that race -- and it gave me a fighting chance as opposed to a bus crash, which is most-definitely a "game over" scenario!) An additional 20% of the time my lack of familiarity with the traffic positioning (because of my practice runs with the Sagaris) cost me a number of races. And finally, 40% of the time I'd simply lose to the AI because I couldn't execute four, tight turns in a single race without crashing or slamming into something.

While I did say earlier that practice for this test will probably do more harm than good, do take every opportunity to practice on Test 50 after a fatal racing error. There was a point where I became so frustrated with this test that I'd immediately quit the race as soon as I crashed. The problem with that lack of patience is that I didn't gain any experience with the latter portion of the Azure Coast track when driving the Hommage. The only practice you really need to be doing for Test 50 is to finish the race!!! You'll be doing yourself a disservice if you quit the race early because you won't have as much familiarity with the back-end of the course than you will have with the front-end of it. So when the time comes that you make perfect turns on the S-Curves, there's the possibility that you'll lack the basic understanding of how the Hommage should handle on the critical turn to the finish line. Again, be patient and just accept a crash as a "practice run".

Also, one thing to keep in mind is that the AI will probably be in front of you for about the first half the race. That's okay. Even if you miss a nitro bottle before the S-Curves, don't think that you're out of the race. When I got to the entry of the final tunnel I actually missed a nitro bottle there. By the time I exited the tunnel I was still ahead of the AI even though I ran out of nitro mid-way through it, because the AI was skidding around to get the very first nitro bottle. So you really don't need to have "the" "perfect" "race" to beat the AI with a less-than MAX/PRO'd car!

I'm not sure how low a tuning will beat the AI on Test 50 for an average player, but it is comforting to know that an elite player like Ruben M can beat it with a very, low ranked car! However, to race in Test 50 with such a low ranking requires a lot of risky and difficult moves to cut the difference with the AI. I consider myself an above average driver in Asphalt, so if your tuning is somewhere around 3-5-5-5 MAX / 5-3-5-3 PRO, then you should be able to beat the AI without having to be too far outside of your comfort zone! However, if your car is severely under-powered, then consider some upgrades or even auto-pass Test 50 if you want to keep the tuning low (but only auto-pass after having exhausted every possible opportunity to race the AI, because you never know what will happen until your next try!)

And if you're wondering why I have a 3-5-5-5 MAX / 5-3-5-3 PRO car, it wasn't by design. I accidentally clicked on two, token upgrades for "Handling" early on in the R&D. At first I was going to see how far I'd get through the R&D with just the credit upgrades and the free Class-A upgrades. But when I was out about 1700 tokens near the very beginning of the R&D, I felt as though I had to go "all-in". In fact, that was partially the reason why I put so much pressure on myself to win the car outright in Test 50. I originally anticipated that I'd be spending 2350 tokens to auto-pass it, but after accidentally spending 1700 tokens on handling upgrades, I just couldn't fathom having to spend an additional 2350 tokens on top of that! I probably spent around 2000 tokens overall on this R&D, so in essence, I basically auto-passed Test 50. :/ Perhaps I could've gotten through Test 50 much easier with a completely MAX/PRO'd car, but this being my first crack at the Hommage R&D meant that I didn't have enough resources to make that happen.

I don't think that I would've cared to put much effort into an R&D had it not been for the BMW Hommage. Having played this game for a while now, the Hommage feels like a "badge of honor" to have in the garage despite it being over-tuned for MP. The rare nature of the car and its infrequent R&D makes it feel extremely special (even if I had to "buy" it with an auto-pass). I would hope that this car stays the way it is and doesn't lose its luster by becoming a blueprint or a permanent, token-purchasable car; primarily for the overwhelming achievement it represents in the game for long-time Asphalt fans. It's a rare pig indeed, and nothing could dirty it up than it becoming a commonplace item!

Good luck to the final wave of Asphalters still fighting the good fight to capture this elusive pig! I also hope that you find some useful inspiration or perspective with what I wrote if you're still finding yourself as stuck in the mud with Test 50 as I once was! :)