Dadthewheel posted a request for help on developing a GT3 car rating system. Since the post was at the end of a very long thread, I have created a new thread.

Read the comments on this post for Dadthewheel's original post.

Kerr

First off let me start by saying thank you Kerr. I truly appreciate your effort, now I hope to drum some support for the rating system. Speaking of support I will take this moment to do a selfless pump. It would not kill you to donate five or so to Kerr for his efforts. You will not find as good and organized a place for GT3 setups as GTVault. Furthermore Kerr could have made this sight a “view for all” but “pay/donate for membership” sight, AND HE DID NOT! So thank him by cracking open your wallet, I did.

Now on to the new rating system, it is ultimately my dream to transfer the rating system to GT4 when it rolls out next spring or so. On that note I do not feel that the “Complex String” for rating the handling category is appropriate. As such I feel that short of a working suggestion I will need to convert back to my old system of “poor, fair, and good” rating. I will assign points as such: Poor = 1 point, Fair = 2 points, Good = 3 points. I will add this to the acceleration and speed score to create a total score. Single decimal places will be rounded off and higher score is better.

The TT is a 4wd, whereas the MX5 is RWD. The TT will get better grip from a standing start and launch more effectively than the MX5, who is probably loosing time at launch.

Maybe there has been a lack of response because, like me, I'm not too clear how this rating system will be fair for the variation of cars and setups. Using one setup, namely yours, solves some degree of variation in setups, but how do we know for certain that your setup for that particular car is the best for the car. We haven't even talked about consistent driving ability. Someone else might be able to get better settings out of the car and that will compromise the rating. If you rate a car with say, 5 final score, but your setting isn't the best, it retards the actual score the car could get with a better setting.

Unless you propose to take away this variation by using stock settings. But then that raises the usefulness of a rating system. Especially when you have the power/weight ratio figure there already.

What about consistent driving ability. I can never get two similar laps out of a car with the same setup.

I think I'm rambling. I'm getting confused with the amount of variation.

What I'm trying to say is that it's quite difficult to come up with a rating system and be fair about it. But having said that, I see there is a lack of such a system right now and we could use one.

So let me finish by saying, Go FOR it !
You can always adjust your rating system on the fly, as you figure certain problems out.

That's why I finished off by saying just go for it, in my previous post.
One way of getting rid of inconsistent laps is to take an average of a number of runs and average the times out to get rid of some inconsistent laps.

At the end of the day, you'll get a pretty good indication of whether the car is crap, or average or good. It's not perfect but hey, you're not promising it as such.

Any rating system will have it's own disclaimers. Even if a rating system can rate a car as good with one person, doesn't mean another person will like it just as much.

But I believe it will be a good indication. Like I said, we don't have a rating system for the cars right now, so anything at all, will be a 100% improvement.

Go FOR it !

On the rating system -- Over the past two years gtvault has been around, I have given considerable thought to implementing a rating system. Although different in implementation, many of the issues I thought about are in fact the same issues you're running across in creating your rating system. It all boils down to this -- too many variables. I still toy around with the idea sometimes, and I may eventually set up a 'members only' rating system which will force accountability in ratings.

Chief_Mojo_Rising -- Thank you very much for the donation! Yes, my name is Kerry, and no I'm not a girl. No big deal, my name is mistaken for a female name more often than not. Your 'gold membership' idea is a good one, I may have to add that to my list of enhancements. In the meantime, I think I'm going to gather all the names of the folks who have donated and put up a 'Donors' page recognizing them.

Kerr

Drop the total score line. This was not a test of the cars abilities and as I found out during recent testing on the setups I have done so far, this could give those unfamiliar with the rating system a skewed opinion of the car. It is not needed so I will cut it out.

Well, since there has not been a call to delay, the rating system will be implemented henceforth. Although I am not happy overall with the method I will follow the advice of the vaunted Fumes and “go FOR it”. I thank both Fumes and Kerr for there respective input and efforts. Without further delay here is how it will work:

First the givens, what you have to understand or accept for it to work.
1) Any car ratings I give are based on my observations, if you disagree with the rating and can develop a generic (non-coarse specific) road or rally setup that gives better results than go for it. I have no quarrel with changing a rating if you ask me to and I can get similar results for myself. Obviously the differences in controllers, driving habits, etc will be a factor. In the case of “handling” I will accept good arguments.
2) This system is free for anyone's use. Please feel free to borrow, modify, or use as is without reservations. WARNING: If Kerr should choose to adopt this rating system, which he has every right to do, than it will become the intellectual property of GTVault. Further modification of it should be done with his permission. Until that day, I give you my blessings to do as you please. It is not as if I ever considered this to be anything less than for the whole.
3) I am not 100 percent happy with the rating system. With that said, before you post a message describing why you aren't 100 percent happy consider that Fumes, Kerr, or I have most likely thought about the same problem you are having already. I don't want to discourage further posts I just want you to have a suggestion for fixing a problem you find.
4) All tests are done with the suggested five lap tire combo.
5) No course specific tunings will have ratings posted for them by me. Feel free to do so for yourself.

The Rating System:
Acceleration: Run on the 400m points will be awarded based on the time recorded by the game for the car when it passes the finish line, rounded off to the tenths.

Handling (Suggested by Fumes): This is a completely subjective category and also the one I feel most uneasy about. This will be a rating of one to ten (1 to 10) based on observations, feel, and response of the car after tuned as best as possible, this includes the time it took to tune it. Five is an average. Ten means the car has the feel of a Jedi fighter, you think about the turn and it happens before your fingers move the controller. One means the car is so poor that you must stop at every turn, get out and with the help of your pit crew lift the front end into the direction you wish to go. Given this ones and tens will be avoided if at all possible. Take this score and record it.

Speed: This is the max speed with the posted road or rally setup run on the max speed test. This means that most cars will redline before the finishing line. If it red lines and chokes back on rpm's the test will continue until it redlines twice with no change in speed. Points will be awarded based on the max speed recorded by the game for the car after passing the finishing line or hitting redline twice (whichever comes first) decimal place counts.

Total Score (Joint suggestion Fumes and DadtheWheel): Add the “Handling” to the “Speed” and subtract “Acceleration”, higher score is better.

I have started using the rating system on my setups, but it will only be a truly effective system if more people chose to use it also. I hope that you like it enough that you will, and thanks for the compliment. I must admit that I was intimidated at first to suggest the idea because of the inherent flaws in it. As to the adjustment for the rating based on class I agree with you whole-heartedly. If you scroll up to my comment “Update 2” I touch on this very point. I think that it would behoove me and this rating system to divide the cars and assign “bonus” points to the classes that can be added to the total score. What do you think?

Don't think I dropped the subject; it is just going to take a little time for me to compile the list. I can't guarantee this will be a “dead center” hit with every car, the parameters that I came up with for the classes was never confirmed by any of the makers of the game despite repeated emails asking if I had it right. All I could confirm for sure is that the classes are divided by each cars power-to-weight ratio. Also the 1-10 rating system was not working, hence this thread to develop a better rating system.

Fumes you out there? I may need to get some info from you (or anyone else who can help) on the cars I don't own yet, let me take a look at what I have first then I can go from there.

Kerr, you want a copy of it when I am done?

I have not forgotten, been really busy with real world matters, will start soon. Have patience with me.