Hitting a plateu

[Electromancer]

Has anyone ever experienced like as if you are hitting a plateau and cannot get any faster or better in races no matter how hard you practice? I practice many times and am a decently experienced player but I cannot get any more speed or break any more records, although, there are many players better than I (respect). I could try shortcuts but I feel as if the mistakes far outweigh the rewards in doing shortcuts, so, I race cleanly. So are most of the players that can run laps around me doing shortcuts? I mean I guess it takes a better player to successfully make shortcuts but they are not my cup of tea.

[D_1998_BR]

What you should try is to leave Icaras and try the AG-Sys or the mirage,which are fairly balanced ships.
Now,do some Speed Laps / Time Trials on the track you're worst at.If you have no problems and do a better time than your old records? Good! Keep with the ship.
If you have problems with one thing (like turning) try an ship with better stats to focus on fixing your problem,but still a balanced ship (I'd recommend Assegai in this case)
Experience boosting in other places and side-shifting when leaving corners.Those can sometimes give you a new opportunity for one or two barrel rolls...
Well,I don't have time to keep on saying stuff.If you did that and nothing worked,message me and I will tell you the rest of the stuff.Bye!

[Archon]

How close are your speed lap and time trial times to the world leader? If you are behind by a large margin (say 10 seconds on a Venom speed lap), it's safe to say your line can be improved. My biggest mistake when I began racing was airbraking far too hard. I held the brake through the whole turn so I could drift around each corner; this felt cool but was sacrificing speed. The basic nuance of cornering in automobiles is braking before the turn, holding a steady speed through the turn, finally exiting with maximum speed. Are there particular turns where you can feel you're losing speed?

Another mistake I made was adjusting my angle on straightaways. Each major press on the D-pad or analog stick makes your turn, and any turning will cost you speed. Try to enter straightaways and align yourself as early as possible so you are not turning to adjust your ship as you're racing. The Anulpha Pass bridge is a perfect example. A lot of new players and even the AI seem to turn their craft toward the center of the bridge after each speed pad. There's no need to finely adjust your direction unless you're about to fall off the bridge, and at that point your direction on the bridge was incorrect.

Tapping the D-pad through broad corners is another technique I learned to save time. Take the first section of Sol 2 Reverse, Venom. After the immediate U-turn, you do not need to hold right to turn through the bend before the first speed pad. Tapping right is more efficient. Less is more in racing; braking and turning only as necessary.

Do not be ashamed to watch time trials or videos, either. Download ghost laps from the database (you can find it on this forum) and race other pilots' ghosts. See what they do that you do not. If you can already race on Phantom and pull top times, I'm betting all you need to do is clean up your racing habit a bit. This is what worked for me and I find I race more consistently and have gotten slightly faster on every track.

Regarding shortcuts, this is more a matter of consistency. If you feel you can't make a shortcut (there most obvious being the Moa Therma boost shortcut), don't attempt it. However, there are pilots who have built the consistency (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0e3btm3ank) running those shortcuts and that has become their default racing line. Shortcuts aren't cheating. If a pilot has a boost and can navigate the shortcut, kudos. Also, finding every spot to barrel roll is part of racing, especially how it is balanced against health and pick-up management. There's something to be said for racing cleanly regarding not using weapons or not ramming other players, but rolling and cutting corners where the track allows is the final tier for pilots to reach. If rolling is most difficult for you, this is what you should practice. Ignore racing online for awhile and spend time in Speed Lap. Note which sections of a track give you trouble and take note of what you change when you navigate them successfully. Watch videos and practice where you should roll, then practice until you can pull it off consistently in a time trial. You will notice these consistent rolls and consistent cornering shaving large chunks off your time.

EDIT: Not to discount your advice, D_1998, but when practicing or experimenting in any field, adding variables can greatly alter results. Electromancer, do not play around with ships for this one. Stick to one ship for a week while you're practicing. This ensures any problems in your racing technique are fixed. Unless you're super new to the game (like less than a month) and haven't found a comfortable ship, I would not recommend switching. This is just to cut variables and give you a definite answer of, "Yes, on turn 3 of Sebenco, my technique was poor and I fixed it." rather than worrying, "This turn seems easier, but I've tried it with 4 different ships and it was easy for some but not others." You're then left wondering what was really the problem and what was the solution. Ship selection is important, but if you're worried about improving your technique on all tracks, practice only with one ship for that consistency and assurance. I promise, improving technique in a broad sense will improve your racing with every ship on every track.

[D_1998_BR]

I did much stuff on my whole WipEout carrer,but by far,trying to get the Gold trophies was the thing that mostly improved my skills.Beat Zico and Zone Zeus we're a pain,of course.But I couldn't believe I had did them on the first time.

Now,Zone Zeus and Beat Zico are pretty much casual and I do them whenever I want to (I'm not the only one.I'm pretty sure Archon can also do this.Maybe you can too!).
Try estabilishing "New" trophies after you have done the original ones,like this:

-Beat 29.82 on Anulpha Pass Venom Speed Lap in a Piranha
-Reach zone 85 (Recently reached it,and now I'm getting perfect laps on zone 40 at Zone Battles online ^^)
-Beat the HD Campaign mode on Elite settings without using weapons (Insane,but it gets easy when you get used to it.Dropzone's 8-race tournament still gets me,tho)

Make challenges for yourself,try to make them as impossible as your skills allow you to,and you'll be surprised when you reach that.After you risk one challenge from your list,replace it with a harder one.Don't give up! You can do it! See those world records up there? Yeah,they aren't there since the launching of the game,people worked hard to get there and didn't give up until they reached the top!

Everyone can be a pro,you just need to have faith on yourself.

[Oryx Crake]

hitting a plateau is normal in anything mate. You just have to keep trying. But if you need tips you should check out the video thread here. Most of those shortcuts you speak of are tough in the beginning but when you get the hang of them they become almost second nature(except the big one on sol 2 that one is... -curse word-annoying) and shortcuts like the ones on Übermall for example just naturally become part of your racing line.

[amplificated]

As with anything when you get a little stale, a look for inspiration can't make things worse.

Have you seen many YT videos? You don't need to try and copy Booney's latest efforts or anything, maybe look for older videos from '09 and '10 first. I think a lot of players who made videos this year have been showing off a lot of extremely polished skills, so maybe if you're not quite near their level their videos won't help too much.

And you mention you prefer sticking to "the racing line"? The racing line is the fastest route through the track, shortcuts and BR's included. They're in the game to be used!

In fact, SoA_Booney is thinking of starting a speed lap challenge - should that go ahead soon, I highly recommend participating. If you're wondering where you're going wrong, people will be more than willing to help, I'm sure. The old SL challenge is what stirred me into becoming a halfway decent player (IMO, anyway :P)

[JFthebestJan]

@ Electromancer:

i can tell u what's working for me. if i really feel, i've to improve on a specific track, i start playing zone excessively on that particular track. zone can teach u VERY interesting things about the tracks.

[Slacker]

did anyone else click on this topic, thinking that someone had literally hit a plateu with their ship on one of the tracks and was posting about it?

[Colonel]

I often feel like I've hit a plateau, it can be very frustrating. I think you just have to play through it really. At some point something will click and you'll improve in one way or another. With regard to shortcuts, as others have suggested, check out some of the better players' YT videos. There's so much to learn.

[D_1998_BR]

(except the big one on sol 2 that one is... -curse word-annoying).

Are you kidding? That's the 3rd hardest shortcut in my list! (taking on how many players do them online,considering their rank)
Sometimes I fail to perform it,like the BR on moa therma reverse(Posting a video of my shortcuts soon!)

Anyways,zone mode really helps,as Jan said.The jump from zone 30 to 42 on chenghou is a BIG jump.That's one of the 3 tracks I have beaten Booney on :hyper

[leungbok]

Are you kidding? That's the 3rd hardest shortcut in my list!
The one under the wing, as in Pirahpac's video ?
So, what are the 2 harder, then ? :eek

[JFthebestJan]

imho the one under the wing (sol2) is the hardest by far, cause of 99% respawn chance ;)
only moa rev loop skip is hard as hell too

[D_1998_BR]

It can be hard to you guys,but I have practiced enough to do it without failing (on flash,at least :lol)

The 2 harder ones are:Ubermall Reverse's shortcut up on the hill (freakin' plant ruins my jumps,and the qirex thing also doesn't help)

and Chengou Project reverse's shortcut...On the forward track (managed it twice on a speed lap.Pretty risky,since you can crash on the wall,crash on the track's border and crash on those things before the big fall.
My record uses this shortcut and it's placed around pos.20

[leungbok]

It can be hard to you guys,but I have practiced enough to do it without failing (on flash,at least :lol)
I usually talk about phantom speed ! ;)
And what is your rank on TT/SL on sol2 forward phantom ?
ubermall reverse shortcut is far easier IMO !

[D_1998_BR]

And what is your rank on TT/SL on sol2 forward phantom ?
ubermall reverse shortcut is far easier IMO !

I never attempted a TT/SL on Sol2 Forward Phantom since I had a Data Corruption.I will make one and tell you as soon as possible.

Ubermall Reverse shortcut is easy if you do it right and miss those danged Qirex ad and the plant post.on a Flash TT i got pos.9 with 1.48.08,and that was one of the few times i nailed the shortcut on all of the laps.

[Constrictor]

Hi electromance808! Yes, I'd hit a/my plateau some months/years ago. Esp. on phantom I'm not able to improve. I rarely play SL/TT so this is with MP in mind. Occasionally I manage to set up a new personal record. But this is mostly due to turbo luck and - well, more practice to the shortcuts. But I do not do the hi-end ones. UM/rev is by far the one with the highest respawn ratio. No Sol2 fwd or MT fwd or rev shortcuts. I never got used to them.

Anyway, even hitting my limits I'd enjoy racing online. Besides the leaderboards are still f'ed-up.

But something wonderful is happening. I more or less retired from WOHD in the last weeks/months. Now, when I feel playing again, I start average but improve quite fast. IMO that's a good tactic on avoiding my personal limit :D

Well, if only there will be new tracks or a new WO game on PS3 I'd be looking forward to hit my plateau again ... see you.