Sunday, 7 September 2025

Par For Car

A post about MSR's 'Par For Car' times on Hotlap and Timed Run events (Street Racing mode).   These are supposedly the best lap/overall time that can be achieved with your selected vehicle .  However most of those par times were calculated with 'maths' as opposed to extensive play testing.  As a result, the game thinks vehicles with the same CPF can achieve the exact same par times (they can't), high CPF cars can have unrealistic par times (particularly the 5.0 Nissan Skyline and 4.7 TVR Chimaera) and on a couple of occasions, show faster/equal par times for wet weather compared to clear conditions on the same course. 

At the bottom is a video demonstrating the Par For Car error on the first event in the game (Chapter 1, Event 1: Hotlap/Buchanan South).  It shows the Skyline par lap time as 29.4 seconds.  I could only manage just under 30 seconds with said car (29.929).  However the lower CPF cars Jensen SV-8 (4.3), Celica GT-Four (4.2) , Fairlady Z Convertible (4.0) & Toyota Supra (3.8) were all capable of going under 29.4.  Best clean lap was with the Supra (just over 29 seconds).  Best lap with wall bashes was 28.910 in the Celica GT-Four.  The Evo 6 & RX-7 only managed around 29.6.  The TVR Chimaera with a CPF of 4.7 was the slowest of the lot with a 30 second time.

CPF            GAME'S PAR TIMES

5.0              29.4 secs (Skyline)
4.7              30.1 secs (Chimaera)
4.6              30.4 secs (Evo 6/ RX-7)
4.3              31.1 secs (Jensen SV-8)
4.2              31.3 secs (Celica GT-Four/Vauxhall VX220)
4.0              31.8 secs (Fairlady Z Convertible & many others)
3.8              32.3 secs (Toyota Supra)
3.6              32.8 secs
3.5              33.0 secs
3.4              33.2 secs
3.3              33.5 secs
3.2              33.7 secs
3.1              34.0 secs
3.0              34.2 secs
2.8              34.7 secs
2.7              34.9 secs
2.5              35.4 secs
2.4              35.6 secs
2.2              36.1 secs
2.1              36.3 secs
1.9              36.8 secs
1.2              38.5 secs
1.0              39.0 secs

MY BEST

Celica GT-Four                         28.910 (side bash) / 29.346 (clean)   
Toyota Supra                            29.046 (clean)
Jensen SV-8                             29.391 (side bash)
Mazda RX-7                             29.602 (clean)
Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6          29.694 (clean)
Nissan Skyline GTR                 29.929 (side bash)
TVR Chimaera                         30.291 (side bash)
Fairlady Z Convertible              29.384 (clean)


Please note, I am not saying the Skyline isn't capable of 29.4; it's just that I wasn't able to do it. My point is that high CPF does not automatically equal the fastest vehicle.


All Overtake Events


Videos showing all my best overtake runs from MSR.  All runs were done between June - August 2025 except the final event on Chapter 24 which was done way back in August 2011.

• On some events, it is possible to overtake more than the maximum number of selectable cars.  However you do not get any additional Skill kudos for doing so.

• The lower the CPF, the higher the Skill Kudos awarded.
 
• The lower the CPF, the lower the Style Kudos and No Penalty bonus.
  
• The No Penalty bonus is very low when compared to Skill & Style points, and does not make a big difference to your overall score. 

• Style Kudos 'exploits' are still possible on some overtake events.


Thanks for the support VR! :)

Friday, 13 June 2025

Kudos Records Video (Total and Individual Event)

 



A stats video showing Kudos records from the various MSR saves I downloaded online.  I used the 'Merge Records' function within the game to combine their records with my own.  It shows records for total Kudos (held by NoName) and individual Event records.  All 250 event records are displayed.

As you can see, the best scores are obtained by exploiting Style Kudos.  While the developers always intended the game to be about "how you drive fast", the problem is that MSR's Style Kudos rewarded reckless power sliding/bad driving or driving up and down while powersliding ad infinitum.  Any penalties you may receive from hitting the walls/other cars are more than made up by the excess Style Kudos awarded. See my previous post https://msrdreamcast.blogspot.com/2023/07/bad-driving-more-kudos.html for more information.  

I believe these issues was fixed in PGR1 and PGR2 with their more intricate and redesigned Kudos systems.  While exploits still existed (spinning your car in a circle/skidding side to side), you still had to practice and be skillful to obtain the best results.  You do not need to be a skillful driver to get the highest Kudos scores on MSR.  However if I was able to 'patch' MSR's kudos system, I would cap the number of Style Kudos awarded unless you obtain a high Skill Kudos score and little/no penalties.  I would also have severe penalties if you drove backwards or hit the walls.   

When you view the individual Street Race event scores, you will notice that my records generally have a higher Skill Kudos award.  The only notable exception is the final Championship race on Chapter 25 (where no Skill Kudos get awarded at all).

I totalled up all the individual Kudos records for each event and came up with a potential Kudos total of around 541,600.  If you added Jokers to all the records that were obtained without one, the potential then becomes around 934,200.  So I can see how the 1 million+ Dreamarena record was obtained.  However I would never recommend trying to achieve this as you would have to play MSR in such a repetative and boring way that you'll end up hating the game very quicky.  It best to forget the excess Style Kudos records and just concentrate on Skill, minimal penalties and Style in that order.  You will enjoy the game much more!   

These player saves originate from the early 00s and I downloaded them from various sites including Blueswirl/Dream Explorer, GameFAQS and archive.org back in the early 2010s.  The other players shown are NoName, Shambl3r, Larry Lar, BabyGangsta, '2' & Cichy.  I have no info on these players other than one of the saves belonged to a 'John Peat' who posted an early MSR car guide on GameFAQS.  He also commented on the old Usenet group archived here: https://groups.google.com/g/uk.games.video.dreamcast and hosted his save on his now defunct website that can be accessed at: https://web.archive.org/web/20020607060911/http://www.fury161.com:80/msr/