_______________________________________________________________________________ [ SEGA GT 2002 (XBOX) ] [ Beginners Guide ] [ created by bwdemon ] _______________________________________________________________________________ Legal: 1) This Beginners Guide may be freely used and/or distributed by any person or website provided that the author is appropriately credited and that the Beginners Guide is not altered in any way. Any party found to be violating the terms of this document is open to legal action under the terms of U.S. Federal Copyright law. 2) This Beginners Guide may not be linked to except in accordance with the procedures of the hosting website. If you wish to host a copy of the document on your website, you may, but please do not steal bandwidth from other sites by linking directly to this document on another site. 3) The information contained herein is for entertainment purposes only and may contain inconsistencies or errors that the creator did not catch or foresee. 4) The use of the information contained herein is at the sole discretion of the reader. Any problems arising from the use of this information by anyone are the sole responsibility of the person(s) acting upon it. 5) Much of the information found herein is taken from the Sega GT 2002 game for the Microsoft XBOX game console and is the property of the creators of that game. All trademarks and copyrights found herein are owned by their respective holders. No attempt is made here to challenge their rights to the game and/or any peripheral products related to the game that the game's creators may have planned. _______________________________________________________________________________ Introduction: This guide is meant to help out new players to the "Sega GT 2002" game for the XBox game console, specifically with the "Sega GT 2002 Mode". Information regarding "Chronicle Mode" or other modes may eventually follow, but as of this version, only "Sega GT 2002 Mode" will be discussed. "Section One" of this guide will list the available cars, with applicable data on each taken directly from the game and explained; and will include a personal opinion of each car. "Section Two" of this guide will list the parts available at the beginning of the game and comment on the benefits/value of each. "Section Three" of this guide will list methods for tuning your cars and the results of those tunes. "Section Four" of this guide will list some thoughts on how to go about the early stages of the game, including which races to avoid and which to exploit. "Section Five" of this guide will list some of the questions I've gotten in the past few months. I hope this information is of help to you, as the manual really doesn't provide a lot of information and I've yet to see a FAQ/Guide that covers this important information. If you have any comments, questions, or corrections please email me at bwdemon@hotmail.com and I will look into them as soon as I get a chance. Enjoy the game! _______________________________________________________________________________ Section One: First Car There are a lot of thoughts as to which car should be your first and it can even be said that there is no right answer, but what I plan to do here is give you the information you need to get the right answer for you. All things willing, you'll go into the game with a lot more information than I had when I started. You begin Sega GT 2002 mode with $13,000 and no option but to buy a car. Your garage is empty so you will *have* to buy a car to race. There are no used cars or rentals available. The "Car Shop" is the only place to go, so hit the button and let's get moving. In there you'll find a wide variety of car manufacturers. Accessing any manufacturer will bring up a list of models that are available through the Car Shop for purchase. Unfortunately, you'll also notice that very few cars are available for $13,000. To save you the time of hunting, I've compiled a list of them that you'll find at the end of this section. Each car has different qualities to it - whether in weight, drivetrain, horsepower, torque, or just looks - and you need to decide which of those is most important to you. [Weight] makes a car more difficult to handle and slower to accelerate. By dividing weight by horsepower or torque, you can arrive at a number that will give you a good idea as to how fast the car will go. The lower the number, the better. [Drivetrain] can be any of the following: FF (front engine, front-wheel drive), FR (front engine, rear-wheel drive), MR (mid engine, rear-wheel drive), RR (rear engine, rear-wheel drive), or 4WD (?, four-wheel drive). In most 4WD cars, the engine is located in the front, but in some it may be mounted in the middle or even rear. As a general rule of thumb, front-wheel drive cars will understeer (car slides off the road), rear-wheel drive cars will oversteer (car spins), and four-wheel drive cars will do neither. This is *not* absolute, but will serve more often than not. [Horsepower] is the sheer power of the engine and it will determine how fast a car is. The more, the better; but the higher the horsepower, the more pronounced the bad effects of a drivetrain will be. [Torque] is similar to horsepower, though it deals more with acceleration. Cars with higher torque will accelerate faster than those with lower, but will face pronounced drivetrain effects, as well. [Looks] is pretty much self-explanatory and entirely subjective. If you can't decide what you want from comparing the above attributes, then pick whichever car looks best to you and you won't be disappointed. Before you ask, yes, there are only six cars available to you at the beginning of the game and half of them are Toyotas. That said, here's the list! Toyota Celica 1600GT ($8,750) HP: 113 Torque: 104.8 Drivetrain: FR Weight: 955kg (/HP = 8.45) (/Torque = 9.11) Notes: Good cheap car with admirable weight/hp and weight/torque numbers. This would be a great car to start with, except for the fact that the next car is better and cheaper! Toyota TE27 Levin ($8,130) HP: 113 Torque: 104.8 Drivetrain: FR Weight: 885kg (/HP = 7.83) (/Torque = 8.44) Notes: The Levin is cheaper and lighter than the 1600GT, making it a better first choice. Toyota Sports 800 ($5,950) HP: 44 Torque: 49.1 Drivetrain: FR Weight: 580kg (/HP = 13.18) (/Torque = 11.81) Notes: This little beast handles great, but that's all it has going for it. Even at an incredibly light 580kg, you have to buy some sort of horsepower mod immediately in order to compete at any level. Honda S600 ($5,540) HP: 56 Torque: 37.3 Drivetrain: FR Weight: 695kg (/HP = 12.41) (/Torque = 18.63) Notes: Though it has more horsepower than the Toyota Sports 800, the S600 is heavier and lacks enough torque to compete seriously. It isn't even powerful enough to shift itself out of 4th gear using an automatic transmission due to a very high redline. Peugeot 206 2.0 S16 ($13,000) HP: 135 Torque: 143.1 Drivetrain: FF Weight: 1050kg (/HP = 7.78) (/Torque = 7.34) Notes: Coming in at a whopping $13,000, this car will eat up your entire budget However, that isn't so bad as it has the best hp and torque numbers of all the cars in this group and has the best weight/hp and weight/torque numbers in the group. Fiat Punto HGT Abarth ($11,700) HP: 128 Torque: 120.7 Drivetrain: FF Weight: 1100kg (/HP = 8.59) (/Torque = 9.11) Notes: The poor man's version of the Peugeot 206 2.0 S16 above. It has good base stats and the saved funds can come in handy at the used parts store. So now that I've laid all this out for you, which do you choose? I say the Toyota TE27 Levin, because you can buy a semi-racing suspension, sport brakes, and a set of sport tires (all in the "Used Parts" menu) right off the bat. This gives you a huge handling edge over your competition to the tune of winning pre-license races up to thirty seconds or more, depending on the track and your driving skills. As a final note here, the game tailors the competition to whatever car you drive. So if you use a Honda S600 or a Toyota Sport 800, you'll face a mixed pack of Honda S600's and Toyota Sport 800's in most races. If you pick the Peugeot, you'll face cars like the Honda Integra Type R and the competition will be a lot stiffer. The other three cars all seem to fit into a happy medium, facing each other more often than not. What's all that mean? If you find the Levin too ugly to use (and a lot of people might) then you can pick what you want and still be fine. So don't worry too much about which is best and go with what you like. _______________________________________________________________________________ Section Two: Parts WARNING!!! Parts from the same category do not "stack" (weight reduction excluded) so buying "NA Tune Step 1" and "NA Tune Step 2" gives you two NA Tunes to choose from, but you can only have one on any car at any time. So, when you can, be sure to buy only the BEST option available to you to save yourself some money and avoid redundancies. I know that each and every person out there wants to see big horsepower numbers on their cars, it's only natural. However, I want to say this to you now: you won't need any horsepower mods at the start. The most important mods will be those to your BRAKES, SUSPENSION, and TIRES. [Brakes] may not seem like a great place to spend your money if you've got a lightweight, low-powered car, but being able to maintain speed for a fraction of a second longer into each and every turn adds up over several laps. For this reason, I consider brakes to be among the top add-ons for any car. [Suspension] mods will help your car pick up valuable seconds on every turn. High horsepower cars may be fine on the straights but they have to slow down earlier and turn slower than much slower, better handling cars. If a race has a great number of turns (anything other than the Speedway) you will either be very pleased that you upgraded your suspension or very miffed that you got beat by a much less powerful car. Go with the best suspension available rather than settling for something lesser (choose "semi-racing" over "hard"). [Tires] help your car transmit what you want to do to the road, think of them as the cellular transmitter tower between your phone (car) and someone else's (road). If the signal sucks due to a weak tower, then the person at the other end isn't going to know what is going on and cut-outs may occur. In car terms, that means you'll be sliding, spinning, and other unwanted things when you want to be turning, accelerating, braking or whatever. The point is that this is the single most important part you can possibly upgrade on any car. Now that the big three are out of the way, it's time to talk horsepower, right? Wrong. Aside from a few races and a few cars, you won't see your top gear hit redline too much, if ever. So what can you do to improve this? Two things are really good at it, TRANSMISSION (CLOSE) and WEIGHT REDUCTION. [Transmission (Close)] is a mod that will improve your acceleration by shortening the width between each gear. So instead of having a max speed of, say, 130mph and never reaching 110mph in any given race; you'd have a top speed of 115mph and hit it often. It'll give you valuable seconds (well, parts of seconds) out of every corner, every time. Still, it isn't quite as good as the next mod. [Weight Reduction] strips down your car to the essentials, lowering the weight of the car. So what? So, your weight/hp and weight/torque numbers drop like mad! This improves acceleration and also has the side benefit of better handling as less stress is put on your suspension and tires with each turn. There are three degrees of weight reduction available, so you can drop quite a bit from any car. Good stuff! Now we get to horsepower and I can hear the cheers already. I'm only going to cover the ones that you can get at the very beginning of the game, but know that there are plenty more horsepower mods available as the game progresses. Before you ask, yes, NITROUS OXIDE is available later in the game. Anyway, here's what you've got access to at the beginning: [Muffler] mods give you an increase in horsepower relatively cheaply, so they're a good way to go. As with most things in the game, if you're going to spend the money to install a part, spend it on the best part available to you at the time. [Port Polish] mods are expensive and don't help a whole lot. However, there may well come a time when you need/want more power and there's nothing left to buy. At that time, buy this. [Tuned ROM] mods give you a decent boost to power for an acceptable price, equivalent to other mods (Muffler & NA Tune) of the same price. Not a bad buy. [NA Tune] mods are for good old-fashioned non-turbocharged horsepower. Cost- to-benefit ratio is nice, so this is a good mod to get. As with the muffler, though, I recommend waiting until you can afford the best mod available to you before buying any. If you add this mod, you cannot ever add the Bolt-On Turbo mod or the Intercooler/Turbine mods that further benefit turbocharged cars. [Bolt-On Turbo] is a mod you can add for the same price and benefit of the "NA Tune Step 2" mod. As there are later parts in the game that can increase the power of turbocharged cars, this is the best horsepower mod available. Some cars that you buy are already turbocharged, so this part won't be available, but the next two mods will... [Intercooler] becomes available after purchasing the "Bolt-On Turbo" mod for any given car. This is a nice cheap way to add more horsepower. [Turbine] also becomes available after purchasing the "Bolt-On Turbo" mod for any given car. This is also a nice cheap way to add more horsepower. Which leaves us with the last part: TRANSMISSION (HIGH GEAR KIT). [Transmission (High Gear Kit)] is a mod that will increase your top speed. This is most useful in *very* powerful cars and will be of little use in low-powered cars (not to mention debilitating to cars with very low weight/hp and weight/torque numbers). You accelerate slower, but have a higher top end. If you've got the horsepower to take advantage of it, though, it has its place. But wait, there's more! Included in the "Used Parts" menu are VIDEOS and GOODS, which don't really do anything but spruce up the old garage and allow you to race against ghost cars from past runs. At this point in the game, there are just too many better things to drop money on. As a final note, I would like to repeat that these are not *all* of the available parts. You will earn access to better parts as you progress through the game. But, for now, you've got the parts you want, so you need to learn how to tune them. On to the next section! [Well, because I keep getting emails on this... To get Nitrous Oxide, you need to lose at the "Sega Drag Race" Event Race on a day ending in "5", then go into the Used Parts menu and look for a "???" Menu. Inside that Menu, you'll be able to buy a one-shot supply of Nitrous Oxide that is only usable at the "Sega Drag Race" and is activated by hitting the "Y" button on your controller] _______________________________________________________________________________ Section Three: Tuning There are three areas that you can adjust in the "My Garage" menu: SUSPENSION, TIRE CAMBER, and BOOST PRESSURE. Increasing or decreasing any of these settings will have both good and bad effects, so it's all a matter of deciding which good effects you need and which bad effects you can live with. [Suspension] Suspension settings are among the most important settings you may find yourself changing in the game. Changing these settings can help to correct for the bad effects of any given drivetrain as well as improve your car's handling in general. By setting the rating higher, your car will handle more sharply, but will be prone to instability. By setting the rating lower, your car will handle more sluggishly, but will be more stable throughout turns. If your car is prone to oversteering (spins) then reducing the rear setting and increasing the front setting can help correct this. If your car is prone to understeering (wheels turn, but car goes straight), then reducing your front setting and increasing your rear setting can help correct this. Increasing the suspension settings on your car will result in better handling, but will also result in more frequent overhauls. [Tire Camber] This setting adjusts how much angle there is to your tires. Looking at a car with low camber from the front, the tires may look like this | |. With a high camber setting, your car's tires will look like this from the front / \. Camber is used to get more traction to your wheels through turns, as the weight of your car transfers to the outside of the turn, the tires on that side get more grip with higher camber ratings than they do with lower camber ratings. As with suspension tuning, you can correct for bad drivetrain effects by increasing camber to your rear tires if you are oversteering (spinning) or by increasing your front camber if you are understeering (wheels turn, but car goes straight). Increasing your camber settings will result in better handling through turns, but will also result in more frequent tire purchases as they will wear out quickly. [Boost Pressure] This setting will allow you to increase or decrease the power of a turbocharged car. Increasing pressure results in a faster car, but it will also result in more frequent engine overhauls. Decreasing pressure results in a slower car, but you won't have to overhaul your engine as often. Having played the game a little more now, I tend toward middle settings on suspension and camber, adjusting to correct for understeer or oversteer as needed. I may go a little higher on suspension than I do on camber, overall. I tend to keep boost pressure at the lowest point unless I find myself needing the extra power in a given race. That said, I encourage all players to find their own settings with their cars as there are as many different driving styles as there are drivers, so don't feel like you have to take my personal settings as the best. The adjustments you can make in Sega GT 2002 aren't as in-depth as the mind-numbing array in games like Gran Turismo 3, so reworking them to your tastes won't take long. _______________________________________________________________________________ Section Four: Racing There are two basic types of races you can enter: the OFFICIAL RACES and the EVENT RACES. The Official Races make less money than the Event Races, while the Official Races reward the player with the ability to get LICENSES, which drive up the rewards for Event Races and allow access to new, more profitable, Official Races. That looked like a lot of information to throw out there at once, so I'll break each part down. [Official Races] offer low pay, but allow you to get better licenses. [Event Races] offer high pay and the occasional bonus car. [Licenses] increase payouts for ALL races and increase the amount of mods that your opponents' cars will have (and, in the case of some events, the number of opponents you will have to face in succession), making them much harder. Each Event Race has a PRIZE and a SPECIAL PRIZE that you can win. You win the Prize whenever you come in first place. In order to win the Special Prize, there are two possible methods. The first, which is used for any race that has "???" as the credit award amount (e.g. Sega Drag Race), requires you to finish that event in first place three times in a row. The second, which is used for any race that has a number as the credit amount (e.g. 70's Battle), requires you to move up at least three places from your position at the end of your first lap to the end of the second and final lap. What this means is that you need to be in 4th, 5th, or 6th place at the very beginning of your 2nd lap and move from 4th to 1st, 5th to 2nd or 1st, or 6th to 3rd, 2nd, or 1st in order to get the Special Prize. If you are in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd at the beginning of your second lap, it is impossible to win the Special Prize in that race in that particular run of the Event Race. Now, before you go off to win every Event Race's Special Prize, you should know that if you get the Special Prize in the "HOT HATCH", "GROUP B MONSTERS", or "TOURING CAR" Event Races during the First Season, you will deprive yourself of the opportunity to EVER get the SUPER RACING MUFFLER, STAGE 3 TURBINE, and STAGE 3 NA TUNE modifications. I cannot state this highly enough, DO NOT RACE those 3 events until you have completed the First Season of Official Races or you will NEVER get a chance to get those parts. N-E-V-E-R! You would have to start over completely in order to get them and, depending on what sort of free time you have, that may not be a very pleasing situation. So, now that you know what you *can* do, what *should* you do? That's a difficult question and one that can be answered in a variety of ways. If you want more of a challenge and want to ensure that you get all modifications possible for your cars, then don't do the event races until later. If you want to blow through the game as quickly as possible, then do event races as needed to keep your cash up and get prize cars quickly. _______________________________________________________________________________ Section Five: Common Questions Q: What are the cheat codes for this game? A: There are no cheat codes for this game. Q: Is MT or AT better? A: MT is better by a long shot. MT allows for you to use gear braking (downshifting) to slow your car faster, downshifting to accelerate past other cars when openings present themselves, and allows you to stay in higher gears through turns so you can accelerate at will without fear of tire slippage on your way out of a turn. That said, I use AT because I'm lazy. You're better off learning MT, though, so do as I say and not as I do. Heh. Q: How do I get Nitrous Oxide? A: See the "Parts" Section above. Q: How do I win the Special Prizes? A: See the "Racing" Section above. Q: When do I win (car/part)? A: Please check Ayanami's prize list as it is a comprehensive account of what can be won, where it can be won, when it can be won, and how it can be won for the host of prizes available in Sega GT 2002. I consider his guide a valuable resource at the least. Q: I have "X" credits, what car should I buy? A: Whatever car you like most. If you want cars that handle very well, then I would point you toward any of the multitide of MR-drivetrain, lightweight cars that litter the Car Shop. They'll handle the best out of all of the cars in the game. If you don't want a lightweight MR car, then go with a lightweight car of any sort or a heavier MR car if you want to keep your handling at a good level. See the "First Car" Section above for more info on drivetrains and car characteristics. Q: How do I sell cars? A: You can only sell a car that you are not currently in. You can sell cars from your Garage or in the Car Shop, but I highly recommend selling from your Garage as you'll be able to command far more money for your car (10-40% higher than the retail value of brand new version of your car!). Q: I sold a car and now I can't win or buy it again, what can I do? A: Start over. I highly caution against selling any car you win as a prize as it is very likely the only time you'll EVER get a shot at owning that given car. If you do and you want that car, then the only way you can get it is to start a brand new game. Q: How do I get past (C,B,A,S,SS) License Test? A: This is perhaps the most common question and the hardest to give anyone a satisfying answer on, but here goes... Start all turns wide, clip the inside corner, and end the turn wide (so if you're making a left turn, start on the far right of the road, clip the inside corner of the turn, and end up on the far right of the road). Brake/accelerate only in a straight line, because you will lose tire grip if you do not do so. Repeat each test rapidly (restarting as needed) so you get used to the turns and are better able to gauge the fastest speed you can take them at. That's it, there is no specific turn or any way to shave time off other than by driving better. Q: When does the second season begin? A: After you get your SS License. Q: I'm in second season now, can I go back to the first season races? A: Nope. You can, however, start a new save and do them again from scratch if you wish. Q: The opposing cars are blowing me away off the line, what can I do? A: Don't worry about it. While the AI cars may pull away off the line, they can't handle turns half as well as you can and you'll make up the time in each and every turn you take. Also, the AI cars will have lower top end speeds than you if you are not using the close-ratio transmission, so you will make up time on long straights. Alternately, use the close-ratio transmission yourself. Q: What happened to the walkthrough you used to have in the guide? A: I deleted it for two reasons. The first of which is that walkthroughs are akin to cheating for me and I just felt bad by giving one. The second is that a true beginner in the game, with no prior racing simulation experience, could not follow it. It required too much skill of the player to be an adequate way for beginners to start the game. *** Please do not ask for a copy of the walkthrough as I do not keep old versions of this Beginners Guide *** _______________________________________________________________________________ Final Thoughts: This guide is really just here to get you going. Some guides like to hold your hand throughout the whole game, telling you exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Those guides ruin games for me, because they rob the reader of the chance to glimpse new parts of the game and actually be surprised and excited about it. By the time you've got through this, hopefully the game hasn't been ruined for you and hopefully you're well on your way to a great game played *your* way. Feel free to email me about this guide if you: * Find an error. * Disagree with my opinions (please provide your reasons). * Would like to see some information added to the guide (please specify). * Appreciate the information it gave. * Are currently hosting a copy of this guide on your website. Thanks for reading and enjoy the game! _______________________________________________________________________________ Revision History: [v1.00] Initial creation of the guide on 11/13/02. [v1.01] Expanded the "Parts" and "Tuning" sections on 11/20/02. [v1.02] Miscellaneous edits on 11/21/02. [v1.03] Extensive additions to the "Racing" section and detailed how to get Nitrous Oxide in the "Parts" section on 12/21/02. [v1.04] Deleted the guide portion of the "Racing" section (it was too difficult for true beginners to the game) and added a 5th Section to answer some of the more common questions I've heard regarding the game on 01/07/03. [v1.05] Added "Authorized Websites" section and updated Parts section on 01/13/03. [v1.06] Included more frequently asked questions, added that I no longer get email from Yahoo webmail accounts on 01/19/03. [FINAL] Opened the document to public distribution in accordance with the terms expressed in the "Legal" section. Permission is no longer required to host a copy of this guide on your website, but I would appreciate an email letting me know if you are hosting a copy on your website. Final version completed on 03/21/03. _______________________________________________________________________________ Created by Bob Ooton aka "bwdemon" Copyright 2002 Bob Ooton, All Rights Reserved.