Advanced Flags: Do You Like Them?

[Arrows to Athens]

When the flags were first added to GTA Online with the SASS update, most people were annoyed by the fact that the vehicles from the update performed poorly and strangely compared to all the other cars in the game. The revs and gears were all messed up, kerbs and bumps would make you go slower, and the cars overall just felt sluggish. Then came Arena War, which included flags that were quite different to the previous flags. This time, they were incredibly bouncy and actually benefited from kerbs and bumps by getting huge speed boosts. The reaction was a bit different this time, and it was mixed. Some people didn't mind them, and others despised them. However, it seems to me that more people are becoming accepting of the advanced flags, specifically the new set of flags which we got with Arena War.

 

So, what are your guys' thoughts on the advanced flags?

Edited March 1, 2019 by Arrows to Athens

[Nyamber]

Polls broken, you can't say no if you don't answer question 2.

[TheBricktop]

people accepted the fact that r* doesn't give a f*ck, they did not accept flags

 

[Arrows to Athens]

26 minutes ago, TheBricktop said:

people accepted the fact that r* doesn't give a f*ck, they did not accept flags

 

I've seen a good number of people who don't mind the flags, especially the AW ones. Some actually enjoy them, thus they've become accepting of them.

[kenmy13999]

Answered don't like them but I have no problems with them on the D8.. Also the GTO is kind of fun on R* created stunt races but still want them gone, or at least adjusted. SSASS flags should really just go..

[Willy A. Jeep]

To argue for the flags, as they are, is foolish at best and hateful at worst. With these flags, vehicles handle poorly, have problems with general performance, and overall feel like useless money sinks when compared to pre-flag cars. While the effects are not as pronounced on some cars as on others, the ones which suffer the worst are only going to drive players away from purchasing them and others burdened with the flags, not to mention being wastes of what would be fine additions to the game's roster of cars.

 

It's not to say that I particularly care about the performance of my cars - I've been happily driving the sluggish Emperor as my main car for almost 4 years now - but I do feel like it's wrong for these flagged vehicles to be marred so, since many players are going to disregard them for inferior, noncompetitive performance. And I do find irritation in the way some of these cars bounce unrealistically or slide around without warning, whereas most other cars, while unrealistic in a more grippy way, are not a hassle to drive. It's a game, after all, and not an especially niche, simulation-focused one at that. I should be able to enjoy my time casually driving a digital car around, not fight the thing I spent real hours saving money for.

 

If Rockstar would readdress the flags - make them more sensical, reserved, fun - there wouldn't be such a stigma. I believe they could simply rely on the long-standing handling system the game has always had, of course, because it wasn't broken and didn't need fixing, but if the flags are necessary for some future developments, then they still need refinement, proactively and retroactively. As of now, they seem a pointless experiment in a poor environment for said experiment.

[Anasterian]

I hate them and every vehicle including even a single of these advanced flags is automatically useless to me I don't care how good it looks, how much quality customization it has, how great the engine sound is, or if it's the fastest vehicle in a class, I'm not driving anything with those trash flags on them and I am most certainly not going to buy any such cars.

 

 

They drive like sh*t, sound like sh*t because the engine behaves like a heavily neglected dying motor and the suspension feels like someone wanted to outdo lowriders at bouncing up and down.

 

Not to mention that whole thing where bumps slow the cars down so my car just randomly has a wheezing syndrome where their engine RPMs drop sharply because I drove over a 1 milimeter deep 'pothole' and that incurs a -50 mph penalty.

 

 

Seriously this Arena Wars update has had so many good looking muscle cars and I can't drive a single one because they're just unfun and painful to drive. I don't care how fast some of them are, the Clique is near the top of the muscle class but why would I ever drive that instead of the Yosemite other than due to masochistic tendencies?

 

It's been three updates now. Three updates that I've had to ignore nearly all cars from. Three updates worth of utter sh*t driving experience because R* needs to 'test' some sh*t ideas that frankly belong in "My First Video Game: 101" than a game like GTA Online. R* had the driving experience dialed in, they began to add sh*t, downforce worked out well enough after a few updates, but this advanced flag sh*t has been a disaster from start to finish and at three updates it's been over half a year of useless cars.

 

The Entity XXR on sale right now? Yeah, you can put that sh*t on a permanent 99% discount I'm still not wasting a garage slot on something that drives like trash. Why even bother adding cars if they're going to drive like a f*cking kangaroo on coke?  

[Arrows to Athens]

@Willy A. Jeep I agree wholeheartedly. It just makes no sense that all of the cars up until SSASS don't have the flags and drive completely differently to the ones we've been getting post SSASS. There's no consistency, and the addition of the flags were very random. Even Rockstar themselves don't know what they're doing with the flags. The flags in SSASS affected the revs and made the cars go slower over bumps and kerbs (the Hotring can still kerb boost, though), but the flags in the Arena War don't affect the revs, instead makinh the cars very bouncy and allowing them to get huge speed boosts from going over bumps and kerbs. Even the flags aren't consistent. It just makes no sense.

 

I made a topic on Reddit regarding the feedback page and how we can use it to get Rockstar's attention on the matter. Here:

 

 

Edited March 2, 2019 by Arrows to Athens

[Lonely-Martin]

No/I answered no.

 

Of the 2 DLC's, I least like the SASS ones more, purely because they strangle my Ellie and GTX. I can live with the oversteer on the Arena ones but the bouncing really can be a bitch.

[SUPERSAD]

at some vehicles i like it somehow like the flash, italy, gb200, but at most vehicles i do not like it

[MARINA]

Yes, I love the Arena War advanced flags. I hate the SSASSS version. 

[TheBricktop]

7 hours ago, Arrows to Athens said:

I've seen a good number of people who don't mind the flags, especially the AW ones. Some actually enjoy them, thus they've become accepting of them.

well that's just sad to hear, i somehow can't imagine anyone saying that grotii GTO is a pleasure to drive while keeping a straight face

[MARINA]

8 hours ago, Arrows to Athens said:

I've seen a good number of people who don't mind the flags, especially the AW ones. Some actually enjoy them, thus they've become accepting of them.

this

[gtmike]

The flags are just Rockstar messing around and trying some new stuff. People are reading way too much into it. They've never cared about car balancing or racing, and they probably never will.

 

p.s. The GTO is unusable in real races. It's not opinion but pure fact. If you like bouncing around in freemode go nuts I say, but the car itself is nothing but a failed experiment.

[Action_Andy]

1 hour ago, gtmike said:

 

p.s. The GTO is unusable in real races. It's not opinion but pure fact. If you like bouncing around in freemode go nuts I say, but the car itself is nothing but a failed experiment.

 

In the right hands it is the quickest car in 80%-90% of all scenarios. Deal with it.

[BOOGIEMAN219]

I never noticed a difference but I don't race in this game.

[MsBrandi]

If some people wants a realistic driving physics go out there and play Driveclub, DiRT or Project cars, i bet realism would snap them in just a second even when they're using steering wheel, it takes times to grasp the driving dynamics on those games the aquaplanning throttle response etc

 

GTA is not a sim racing game, it's an action packed open world game, don't fix something that is not broken, even broughy didn't like these flags, it's sh*t not realistic at all....

[MARINA]

10 hours ago, gtmike said:

The flags are just Rockstar messing around and trying some new stuff. People are reading way too much into it. They've never cared about car balancing or racing, and they probably never will.

 

p.s. The GTO is unusable in real races. It's not opinion but pure fact. If you like bouncing around in freemode go nuts I say, but the car itself is nothing but a failed experiment.

1

My whole racing crew would disagree with that so I guess it's not a fact? lol

[Rafae S]

Yeah I absolutely love them.

 

The f*ck kinda question lmao

[caarl00s]

I wouldn’t care of the handling flags IF every car in GTAO had them. I HATE the inconsistency. I think the unflagged cars are much more enjoyable tho. I remember that i was so f*cking angry when the XXR and Taipan were released; such a waste of money and time, despite being good looking vehicles. I literally sold both vehicles after 2 months, hoping and waiting for rockstar to make changes . I have no regrets since no change was made. I really wished for the XXR to be a good vehicle.

 

I say, apply the flags to every vehicle, or NOT APPLY THEM AT ALL.

 

I myself prefer them to be removed completely. The game’s vehicle handling physics were already fun and enjoyable, why change it?, more specifically, why change it for worse?!?!

 

IMO the arena wars flags are waaaay weirdly than those of SSASS, some vehicles like the Clique and Deveste feel OK, but others like the Itali GTO and Toros are a PAIN in the ass to drive. We could avoid all this debate if all the cars where just like the Schlagen, without flags.

[caarl00s]

On 3/1/2019 at 6:48 PM, Anasterian said:

I don't care how fast some of them are, the Clique is near the top of the muscle class but why would I ever drive that instead of the Yosemite other than due to masochistic tendencies?

THIS. 

This exactly what i think when someone praises the Itali GTO lol

[Yellow Dog with Cone]

No.

 

/thread

 

lol jk

 

Talking seriously, I do like the principle of the handling flags, that is curbing (pun intended) curb boosting (which is honestly pretty annoying), what I'm not a fan of is their current inconsistent and outright random implementation.

 

How many variants we have, like four? One set of flags f*cks the revs of the car, other turn it extra bouncy, others  make it understeer as hell and some vehicles don't even have them at all. It's the downforce value all over again, except this time it's way worse.

 

IMO, R* should remove them from all vehicles that have them and reapply them to all vehicles in the game way later when they can guarantee that they fix the curb boosting problem without making cars undrivable.

 

Same with the downforce value (all cars should have a different value or none at all), offroad loss value (sports cars should have a higher value than actual offroad vehicles) and bonus traction on spoilers (not all cars can equip an spoiler (or a spare wheel lmao), putting them at a disadvantage against those cars that can).

 

I'm all for having cars with unique handling, but this ain't it chief.

[Atomic_DoNkEy]

On 3/3/2019 at 3:00 AM, Voodoo-Hendrix said:

No.

 

/thread

 

lol jk

 

Talking seriously, I do like the principle of the handling flags, that is curbing (pun intended) curb boosting (which is honestly pretty annoying), what I'm not a fan of is their current inconsistent and outright random implementation.

 

How many variants we have, like four? One set of flags f*cks the revs of the car, other turn it extra bouncy, others  make it understeer as hell and some vehicles don't even have them at all. It's the downforce value all over again, except this time it's way worse.

 

IMO, R* should remove them from all vehicles that have them and reapply them to all vehicles in the game way later when they can guarantee that they fix the curb boosting problem without making cars undrivable.

 

Same with the downforce value (all cars should have a different value or none at all), offroad loss value (sports cars should have a higher value than actual offroad vehicles) and bonus traction on spoilers (not all cars can equip an spoiler (or a spare wheel lmao), putting them at a disadvantage against those cars that can).

 

I'm all for having cars with unique handling, but this ain't it chief.

This makes sense to me. I’d agree. 

 

Do them all or nothing. 

 

I think there should be more of a difference between driving a muscle class car and a super car or an off roader. 

 

As an example, I enjoy the handling of the vamos as it’s based on an old car with lots of power. However it doesn’t make sense to me on the Itali gto as that car is supposed to have downforce that would help keep it planted on the road. 

[Foxwolfe]

5 hours ago, Atomic_DoNkEy said:

As an example, I enjoy the handling of the vamos as it’s based on an old car with lots of power. However it doesn’t make sense to me on the Itali gto as that car is supposed to have downforce that would help keep it planted on the road. 

 

Bingo, the Vamos and Tulip, while at times a bit much, feels much more enjoyable driving with these effects as it somewhat emulates what a car like that would have driven like given it's design (and the time period it was from), the suspension, chassis/frame, the amount of power cars like these were putting out in packages that were for the most part just made for day to day driving. 

 

Not like a modern sports car that should be hugging the road with little body roll compared to a muscle car, the Shlaggen (spelling?) is a great recent car example of how I would expect the GTO to handle/drive. Not every little bump sending some portion of the car airborn.

[Pedinhuh]

I don't like lazy "solutions" to a single problem that only ends up creating more problems in general, so no, I don't like the flags at all.

 

Be it AW, AH or SSASSS...They all gotta go and R* should hire some more competent devs who wouldn't retort to cheap solutions to patch problems with specific vehicles.

Edited March 5, 2019 by Pedinhuh

[Arrows to Athens]

On 3/5/2019 at 4:13 AM, Pedinhuh said:

I don't like lazy "solutions" to a single problem that only ends up creating more problems in general, so no, I don't like the flags at all.

 

Be it AW, AH or SSASSS...They all gotta go and R* should hire some more competent devs who wouldn't retort to cheap solutions to patch problems with specific vehicles.

Wait, AH had its own set of unique flags? Or am I missing something here? 

[Pedinhuh]

48 minutes ago, Arrows to Athens said:

Wait, AH had its own set of unique flags? Or am I missing something here? 

They're not exactly unique, but the flags aren't exactly the same for all cars introduced in SSASSS and AH, some of them have the flags but can still benefit a little from curb boosting(like the Hotring Sabre).

 

Also if I'm not mistaken, the cars on AH don't have the "engine resistance" flags that limits power output of the engine past a certain speed, the flags for early gear shifting and late gear shifting combined can reach the same result in patching curb boosting. 

 

To be fair, I just have a general idea of what these flags do because I see the YTs talking about it and see them in action with my own cars(they don't stop me from buying the cars I like, I just won't race with them).

[Marciliojunior01]

Yes i really like the flags from arena war, but the ones from SSASSS are pure garbage. 

Arena war flags makes the car faster and harder to drive. I drive the itali GTO in races as well and i can say is pretty much possible to win races in it. Is just that people dont want to learn to drive it. I have beaten every single pariah record in the GTO, all the scoreboards are getting changed and the GTO is appearing on top. 

The deveste is just nuts, is by far the fastest supercar thanks to the handling flags, and is not an easy car to handle as well. The clique is also faster than every single muscle car if the road is not flat. 

People saying that the performance of these cars are bad couldnt be more wrong, they are faster than your beloved pariah or dominator, accept it or keep eating dust to someone who tried to learn driving them. 

The argument of enjoyable to drive is pure individual perspective so i can't say anything about it. 

And finally the guy who said about GTA is not a sim game and everyone who plays with these cars gonna be slapped is not right, i played a lot and i mean A LOT of gran turismo back in 2016-17 and i know how cars behave in realistic games, and these cars are more similar to that gran turismo than the ones we had since day one. "Uhhh but gran turismo is not a sim you have to play asseto corsa" i heard this before so please dont bring it, i know GT is not a full on sim game but is the closest someone can get without having to buy an entire driving setup. And i prefer buying a real car with the money needed to build a driving setup. 

Edited April 3, 2019 by Marciliojunior01

[Imponte Deluxo MK2]

3 hours ago, Marciliojunior01 said:

Yes i really like the flags from arena war, but the ones from SSASSS are pure garbage. 

Arena war flags makes the car faster and harder to drive. I drive the itali GTO in races as well and i can say is pretty much possible to win races in it. Is just that people dont want to learn to drive it. I have beaten every single pariah record in the GTO, all the scoreboards are getting changed and the GTO is appearing on top. 

The deveste is just nuts, is by far the fastest supercar thanks to the handling flags, and is not an easy car to handle as well. The clique is also faster than every single muscle car if the road is not flat. 

People saying that the performance of these cars are bad couldnt be more wrong, they are faster than your beloved pariah or dominator, accept it or keep eating dust to someone who tried to learn driving them. 

The argument of enjoyable to drive is pure individual perspective so i can't say anything about it. 

And finally the guy who said about GTA is not a sim game and everyone who plays with these cars gonna be slapped is not right, i played a lot and i mean A LOT of gran turismo back in 2016-17 and i know how cars behave in realistic games, and these cars are more similar to that gran turismo than the ones we had since day one. "Uhhh but gran turismo is not a sim you have to play asseto corsa" i heard this before so please dont bring it, i know GT is not a full on sim game but is the closest someone can get without having to buy an entire driving setup. And i prefer buying a real car with the money needed to build a driving setup. 

huh , so you can beat a time of 0:00:01 in the gto? now i want to buy it!

[kenmy13999]

6 hours ago, Marciliojunior01 said:

Yes i really like the flags from arena war, but the ones from SSASSS are pure garbage. 

Arena war flags makes the car faster and harder to drive. I drive the itali GTO in races as well and i can say is pretty much possible to win races in it. Is just that people dont want to learn to drive it. I have beaten every single pariah record in the GTO, all the scoreboards are getting changed and the GTO is appearing on top. 

The deveste is just nuts, is by far the fastest supercar thanks to the handling flags, and is not an easy car to handle as well. The clique is also faster than every single muscle car if the road is not flat. 

People saying that the performance of these cars are bad couldnt be more wrong, they are faster than your beloved pariah or dominator, accept it or keep eating dust to someone who tried to learn driving them. 

The argument of enjoyable to drive is pure individual perspective so i can't say anything about it. 

And finally the guy who said about GTA is not a sim game and everyone who plays with these cars gonna be slapped is not right, i played a lot and i mean A LOT of gran turismo back in 2016-17 and i know how cars behave in realistic games, and these cars are more similar to that gran turismo than the ones we had since day one. "Uhhh but gran turismo is not a sim you have to play asseto corsa" i heard this before so please dont bring it, i know GT is not a full on sim game but is the closest someone can get without having to buy an entire driving setup. And i prefer buying a real car with the money needed to build a driving setup. 

You're talking about stunt races I assume? 

You hardly notice the flags on the clique compared to the GTO and I almost wouldn't notice them on the D8 if I didn't know they was there. Both the D8 and Clique are so much easier to handle than the GTO but as long as it's R* created stunt races, they’re not much problem to handle anyway. 

 

And which Gran Turismo are you talking about? I know it isn't GT Sport, if so, I want some of what you've had..