You SHOULD do that. Same for visual rating. Also, no need to discover shops.

EDIT: There's another thing. You can start stage 2 from any position (since you can end stage 1 with any of the 5 races IIRC). I think that all other stages end with a specific URL, but I'm not sure.

Basically, you can start stage 2 in any state you ended stage 1. Same for other stages.

Did some car testing and so far the fastest one for stage 0+1 is Peugeot 206.

Btw, there are 2 versions of U2 - EU and US. US has RSX, Civic and MX-5, while EU has Peugeot 106 and Vauxhall Corsa.

You should not work that hard. Enjoy your youth while it lasts :)

Yeah, why don't you try segmented or IL runs?

Lol :D Even though most speedrunners have pretty much no life, it doesn't mean you have to be the same. You can still work on IL runs or even RTA and have a normal life with wife and kids... :)

As for the crashing, CPU core affinity. It's very strange that U1 has no issues, U2 crashes, MW has no issues and Carbon has cutscene and startup issues, despite all of these games using the same engine, just slightly improved each time.

So, I've tested UK version today and it seems like you don't get the tutorial cutscenes in stage 1, which should save some time.

By tutorial cutscenes, do you mean race modes cutscenes, or scenario cutscene, like the one when you go to the garage?

But as you can skip them immediately in a "normal" version, it shouldn't save more than 5 seconds, I suppose. Maybe it works for every stage, did you try it yet?

Yeah, that's exactly what I mean - tutorials for street-x, drag and drifts. Maybe there is some issue with my game as I used some sort of US-UK converter found via google. It needs to be tested further for sure.

Seven: 5 seconds is a lot of time in IL :) It doesn't matter for any other stage as you only get these tutorial cutscenes in stage 1.

I think I might have original UK copy somewhere as well. I'll try it again on weekend.

I wasn't offended by your point since it was a valid one.

"About super-mods. If Ewil feels like making me one, I'm more that fine with it: I would greatly accept it and try to make NFS community even bigger."

I thought about it yesterday, but are you sure you're up to it since you don't have much free time?

I'll delete all the off-topic posts in a couple days.

Done.

Saw the drama yesterday, but didn't want to interrupt, wasn't concerned by that.

I'm learning U2 atm, done up to stage 3. I have a small problem tho, on my XOne pad I assigned the upshift on "B" and the downshift on "A", but for some reason when I skip a cutscene (like when I go out of a shop) or when I close my messages menu, I upshift or downshift, depending on what I pressed. So in this situation, I start in Neutral or in 2nd gear, which makes me lose some time.... Does it happens to someone else?

Also, I wanted to assign upshift and downshift on my right stick, but for some reason I can't, it's like the game doesn't even recognizes it...

Atm I can't stream with my bad connection so I won't be able to make some ad to promote NFS runs, sadly. I hope that I'll be able to make it around September, although I'm not really sure it will happen on this time.

Never had any issues with inputs, even on steering wheel or gamepad.

Btw, did you guys notice U2 has some kind of built-in deadzone? It's really annoying and makes using gamepad or steering wheel almost impossible. At least when compared to MW, which doesn't seem to have this issue.

You should be able to set the degrees in logitech profiler.

I had some difficulties during the first minutes with the pad, because the gameplay is different. But now I don't have too much problems, although I can feel there is some sort of latency when I steer and change my direction then.

I won't use the triggers to up/downshift, because I use them for accel/brake, which is by far more convenient. Also, that don't ruin my habits of Forza 6 tryhards. Moreover, I use B as upshift, so that I can use Nitro (on Y) and shift at the same time. Same for downshift, assigned on A, so that I can handbrake if needed at the same time.

So the only problem is the up/downshift when I go out of a shop or close my messages. Not a big deal, but still a few tenths lost here and there.

@Ewil, I'm learning your route atm, and I've noticed a possible change. During stage 4, you go race in Jackson, and then go back to shops, to go back again uphill for the DVD. Is there any way of tuning the car before coming in the Heights, to avoid this? Or is it impossible?

You need to do all 30 events in order to unlock window tints that will allow you to have 6 star visual rating. I think it's impossible to have that rating sooner, or I haven't found a way.

What car(s) are you gonna use and what difficulty? We have recently found that P206 is significantly faster in stage 0+1, so it might be worth to compare it with Corolla in other stages. Easy difficulty saves roughly 10 minutes over Hard, at least with my strats.

I'm just driving in Hard difficulty, don't know yet what my runs are gonna be about. I haven't tested, but maybe if you add every sponsor stickers on your car, you can gain enough to get to 6 star rating.

I'm probably gonna use Corolla, but maybe 206 will be a choice. As I haven't played this game as much as MW, I don't know many things. Is there a car that has got enough power to feel a difference compared to any other car? It might work too if we use walls as much as possible.

I dunno if I'm gotta do it someday, but I feel like preparing a marathon category, with a bunch of NFS (U1, U2, MW, Carbon, PS maybe), should be like a 25 to 30h run, could be fun :D

Windows tints give you around 0.2 rating and you'll still have to use couple stickers to get 6 stars. It's really very tight in this stage.

I'm pretty sure that Corolla is the fastest car in later stages. Did a lot of testing and nothing comes even close. Also people use it online, although they don't use stage 2 and 3 upgrades for transmission. I know this trick increases top speed, but from what I've tested, it was always about a second slower in every event, so I'm not sure what it's about.

Strange, because it's clear that gear change is so much faster..... Also, when I'll have the route on my head, I'll try to see if a quick setup can avoid a bit that underev on each start, because it's really fuckin annoying, and the time wasted is kinda huge.

Maybe make a really short 1st gear, and grant more power for 3-4k RPM with the chip or turbo.

As far as I know, dyno tuning doesn't work in Career. Or maybe I tested it wrong, but I really don't recall having it any effect. If it does, it should be worth to tune the car for URLs, sprints and street x.

You can do quick starts using hydraulics. Microwav does that in his drag ILs.