Drift Pain

[GT3x24x7]

Anyone at all feel that they're good with drifting in Shift? Care to share any tips/car choices/setups?

Me, I just find it frustrating. I know the principles of drifting and generally do ok behind the wheel, but I still spend most of my time smacking into things in this mode. Clearly with the right level of control and the right car setup, it's possible to do really well with the mode. Any help or thoughts appreciated.

[Hydro_PT]

Depending on the type of car, I usually drift in 3rd or 4th gear, if that helps.

I find the mode frustrating too, but it's possible to "drift" if you carefully use the accelerator. I have a wheel and I must be really gentle when putting the foot on the pedal. A bit too much of power and you spin out of control. If you manage to control the gas perfectly, it's easy to drift, just let the car go, it will drift by itself if you keep turning.

As for the car setup, I already tried a bunch of them, and one of the best IMO is the BMW 135i. The RX-7 isn't bad either if you tune it to the maximum without the Works Conversion. The same for the BMW.

[BuzZBladE]

I have been practicing. Here are a few things i think helped me win the drift events i the AE86.
No downforce. Use tall gears to find 3rd gear tach out at 65.
Jack the car up high. Default suspension. Small Steering lock at around 18 degrees.
Steering Sensitivy 5% or as low as you can tolerate for maximum center area smoothness with a wheel/joystick/whatever.
Deadzones at 0% since i often use toe-out and i am never right on center, i always want a reading on where my controller (a saitek joystick hehe) is located.

Acceleration Sensitivity 20% / Brake Sensitivity 30% These move how much of the pedal is applied at 50%!
Less sensitive equals smoother foot, below ten is featherfoot and pedals will kinda lag.

Turbo is not your friend sell it if you can! The turbo engages once you hit the powerband and the effect of rapidly increased horsepower can create accelerations during the drift that will cause a spin condition. I really want the ECU programmer NFS:U had for my RX7 for fine tweaking in the powerband =)

[GT3x24x7]

Awesome, this is just the kind of detail I was after, from both of you guys. Only one thing bothers me - you can only adjust control sensitivity globally, for the whole game. 0% dead zones aren't gonna work too well for racing I suspect.. might have to make a new profile just for drift?

Anyway yeah I'll try all this out - hopefully I'll be a better drifter soon!

[BuzZBladE]

In GTR Evolution, if you have it, you can see all these advanced controller options with slider effects and real time test. Then use the same settings in shift I believe they translate over. Those couple lines on the advanced controller screen would be nice feature in our controller setup.

And yeah, I use 0% deadzones, cornering is the art of shifting side forces with the center of gravity. If my controller has a deadzone of just 1% that equals about 10 clicks of the input its not recieving in the very middle and that will cause an instability while going straight when i go toe-out in something ridiculously fast. i need every steer angle ready. espcially those little decimals just by the center.

[GT3x24x7]

You're right of course. I'll try things out and see how it goes.

[ElvenAvenger]

meh, im using Mazda RX-7(works), BMW M3 E46(Works too) and having no problems. though the Mazda feels weird. feels like it wants to accelerate but can't. i end up driving 180 on 6th gear(default settings) so cars handling on drift is NOT realistic. or rather performance, because i can't believe im doing 300 km/h in the BMW and then on drift i can barely pass 210
the BMW M3 E36 i got for drifting once was pretty cool but it was stock, i had not tried it with any tuning.

[zedex]

one tip to easily master drifting: TURN ON STEERING ASSIST! it helps tenfolds! and mine was on low *Normal difficulty*

[Carcrazy]

After a crap load worth of hours of tuning and practicing, I'm finally not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Just won my last drift with 1,149, second place only having 635. (Hard AI, All assists but ABS off.)

My 200sx S14 is tuned as follows:

All Stage I Parts
All Stage II Parts, Except Drivetrain
All Stage III Parts, Except Drivetrain + Turbo

Aerodynamics:
Body 1, Stage III Weight Reduction

Race Parts:
Nitrous Kit I

TUNING
Front Tire Pressure: 32.61PSI
Rear Tire Pressure: 32.75PSI
Brake Balance: 48 (2 towards rear - I really just threw this one setting on there.)

Steering Lock: 52
Caster Angle: 3.50
Front Toe Angle: 0.30
Rear Toe Angle: 0.10
Front Camber: -1.30
Rear Camber: -1.20
Front Ride Height: 75.00
Rear Ride Height: 85.00

Front Sway Bar: 114.21
Rear Sway Bar: 142.76
Front Spring Rate: 299.79
Rear Spring Rate: 233.17
Front Bump Stop Length: 0.00
Rear Bump Stop Length: 0.00
Front Damper Slow Bump: 2,500.00
Rear Damper Slow Bump: 2,500.00
Front Damper Fast Bump: 1,200.00
Rear Damper Fast Bump: 1,200.00
Front Damper Slow Rebound: 4,700.00
Rear Damper Slow Rebound: 5,200.00
Front Damper Fast Rebound: 1,500.00
Rear Damper Fast Rebound: 2,000.00

Final Drive Ratio: 5.74

Front Downforce: 5
Rear Downforce: 5

...I'd hate to give a frickin' biography on my car, but I'm hoping it will help at least some people, if not more. I put a lot of time into this setup, but it is by no means the best, and probably not even "awesome." I'm just posting it to give some a basis of what to start with. Granted, it's based on my likings and how I like my car to react to my inputs, but you should be more than able to tweak it to your likings.

If anyone finds any ways to possibly improve this setup, go for it. Anyway, hope it helps. =P

--EDIT--
Oh yeah, not a finished product. It doesn't have the drivetrain and turbo installed simply because I ran out of funds, and actually, it would've been really nice to have a differential to work on the torque a bit, but oh well. Installing these will also probably help you, so don't think I left them out for any certain reasons. If I were you, I'd install the drivetrain before the turbo, and work on tuning that first, as when you can't control your car to begin with, power becomes the enemy. (Well, kinda'.) =P

[GT3x24x7]

Wow, great post! Obviously there's a lot of work gone into this car.

Funnily enough I've been working on an S14 for drift myself, but I haven't got to the point of tuning it yet, only parts selection, which I'm pretty happy with now. On that, I found (as mentioned earlier by buzzblade) that it's better to leave the turbo off and avoid the problems associated with lag etc. As you said yourself, power becomes the enemy - and doubly so when that power comes in all of a sudden midway through a drift.

So yeah, parts-wise if you were to swap your turbos for drivetrain upgrades, you've built my car, more or less. Maybe throw on a bit more from the Race category like exhaust, final drive, chassis, tyres.

Thanks heaps for sharing your settings in such detail. It'll be interesting to try 'em out.

@buzzblade - I dialed back my deadzones to near zero (2% - at zero i was constantly correcting in a straight line) and yes, much better, both in drfit and race.

[Carcrazy]

Np GT, just glad I can help. I'm really into Shift, it's fast, and very similar to what I've been racing. In fact, I find myself coming withing seconds of world records in many races without trying, (although obviously not drift...) so it's been irking me that I couldn't get this. Figured that since it took me so long to find something that actually remotely worked, I could save someone else some time, too.

Get back to me on what you think about the settings. Finally got the drivetrain and turbo's on, and it's sooo much better. Haven't got the differential fully tuned yet, though, so I won't post that until I do, but it really helps with getting the car to turn mid-drift when you let off the gas.

Expect updates!
lol

...oh yeah, and you better believe there's a NFSUnlimited decal on the car.

[ElvenAvenger]

i just tune the car to the max(including works) and just drift... >_>

[Carcrazy]

Yep, that should really help those that are having trouble with it... v.v

[vellu]

I do wonder why EA made the drift mode so super sensitive/twitchy. Just for the fun of it, try drifting around a corner (with a car tuned for drifting) in normal race mode. Works like a charm, and is far more predictable than in the actual drift mode.

[Carcrazy]

Who knows why EA does half of what they do?

I don't get how random people will come in like, "omg drifting is so easy on this game!!!"
I'm just guessing they have all the assists on. The other thing is that I've been using an automatic, when the engine running at about 4000rpm doesn't really help you when you're trying to maintain a powerslide around a 300ft corner. =/

(Of course the car has no electronic synchronization, so I'm not even sure me switching it will help. Guess we'll just have to find out.) =P

[GT3x24x7]

I don't get how random people will come in like, "omg drifting is so easy on this game!!!"

I think I do actually. It's not that the actual drifting itself is easy, but that the drift events are easy to beat. I'm guessing that the target scores are deliberately set low to ensure people can brush through them quickly and move on.

[vellu]

True indeed. One can go all over the place just sliding uncontrollably and still win the event.

(Maybe the AI drifts like crap too )

[ElvenAvenger]

seriously, all assists are off while on drifting mode ANYWAY, so theres no way u would play with assists on...unless you cheat or hack /whatever. seriously, i tried about 5 times before getting it and i finally got it, how hard can it be?

[vellu]

That's just it. Winning isn't hard. Getting good looking, clean drift runs is.

Agree about the assists; drifiting is the defintion of no-assist driving. Infact, having tried with stability control on, my force fb wheel kept fighting me all the time (you wan't to steer into the drift, wheel force want's to go the other way...)

[baumaxx1]

Yeah... it's possible to win the events on keyboard, but it's completely and utterly retarded.

Basically... line up to hit a clipping point at speed, as you approach , full throttle, then full opposite lock and your car should slide at a massive angle until it slows. Then aim for the next point and try to set your car up for each clipping point. Looks like crap, cheating in a way... but it's what you have to do if you're a PC player without a wheel or analogue gamepad. The massive angle will get you big points, and the quicker you go, the better.

The drifting in this game seems so unnatural though. You can't drive straight for some reason. You accelerate straight, get to a certain speed and the back steps out... it's retarded. Actual drift cars are set up so that they have a lot of traction and control, and make quite good time attack cars. I'm sure they don't drive like they're on ice like in Shift.