Setup Build Rules:
Whenever you want to create your own car setup, we get overwhelmed by its complexity. Even if we only take 10% of the parameters, we can get lost pretty easily.
I wanted to provide a few guidelines you should stick to when building your car setup.
At least, I'm using these ideas to not overwhelm myself.
I will make examples applying to ACC, but you could apply this to a lot of sims out there.
Rule #1:
Some cars are broken or strange by nature. No matter what kind of changes you make, you still get that oversteer on exit or sensitive steering on entry. We don’t want to sacrifice pace trying to avoid certain car behavior. For instance, putting max traction control on an Audi will make it super safe on exit but also mega slow.
Rule #2:
Some changes will have a great effect on one car, while on other cars you won't even feel any change.
Rule #3:
Don't mistake a slider for its percentage. For instance, if some slider can go from 20 to 290, maybe 20 is a bad value for a differential setting, maybe 40 is better or 200. Don't think about them linearly. Maybe 20 to 200 does nothing and 240 may do the trick.
Rule #4:
Stick to a steering ratio, FF settings, fuel levels, track, and conditions to get rid of different situations that influence our car behavior.
Rule #5:
Build a preset of your car and start tuning from there, instead of just fixing a preset from the game. This is why you want to drive your car for a long time. You'll know presets from your own design and you'll be able to save time adjusting them for different tracks. For ACC, I built an all-in-one preset in the Patreon store.
Rule #6:
Don't spend a million laps or hours on one setup for one track. Give yourself a time limit and make the setup work for 75%, then do races with it. This will teach you about the setup, where it lacks or gains, like being super slow on straights, fast in slow corners, etc. You can't know this in your private practice session.
Rule #7:
Build a high and low downforce setup on your benchmark track. Copy these and put them as a preset on every track. These are presets and let you know what kind of wing settings a particular track needs.
Rule #8:
There is an argument that the car can only be tuned when the tires are in the perfect window of pressures and temps, but know that a car also needs to behave when the pressures are off. So if you can't control your car in an outlap, then you might get into trouble when the track cools off or a race start becomes extra challenging.
Rule #9:
Test your setup on worn tires. When practicing, keep those old tires on and see how your ride behaves. There is nothing more frustrating than a setup that is weird in a long stint, think 992 or Audi.
Rule #10:
Don't mistake understeer for too much steering input or missing your braking point. You might be tuning out understeer but actually over the limit all the time. Use brakes to rotate the car on entry; when on throttle, you always get understeer.
Rule #11:
Setup change order: 1. Ride heights, 2. Bumpstop ranges, 3. Spring rates, and 4. Anti-roll bar settings make 75% of your car setup, if not more. If you need to rely on absurd toe values or diff settings, your car setup isn’t optimal. Keep in mind there are some exceptions.
Rule #12:
When tuning, do one metric at a time so you know what adjustment has an impact.
Rule #13:
Don't get into setups if you don’t care. You need a healthy amount of obsession for setups and racing together. Adjust your driving style instead to setups you buy or use the defaults.
Rule #14:
Gaining lap time with your own created setups gives you confidence and allows you to grow as a sim racer faster. It is also the most satisfying feeling in sim racing and gives durable fulfillment.
Rule #15:
The most important rule: Save your setups and changes and name them accordingly. This is something I still struggle with. There is nothing more frustrating than not knowing which setup worked so well or just losing them in general.
Let me know if I missed one.