GRID Autosport // Online Racing & Vehicle Progression

Multiplayer, as ever, is a huge focus for us and today we’re going to take a look at what we’re confident is our deepest and most rewarding multiplayer game yet.  

To deliver the depth and longevity that we want you to enjoy from the online multiplayer side of the game, we’ve created a separate progression system that is distinct from the Career. However, the structure is similar to what you will find throughout the rest of the game – five Disciplines of racing, each providing a distinct experience, but now with the added challenge of going wheel-to-wheel with other players from around the world.

There are a lot of features that we are excited to tell you about, like Playlists, Custom Cups, RaceNet Challenge and many more, but for the moment we’d like to focus on two important cornerstones that set the scene for the whole of GRID Autosport’s Multiplayer experience – the cars, and the racing.

The Cars

One of the important things we set out to achieve with the multiplayer side of GRID Autosport was to articulate a sense of bond between a driver and their vehicle. Cars are not simply unlockable items to collect in GRID Autosport; each car is a true individual with its own mileage, win/loss rate, and XP level. The more time you spend driving a particular car, the more its XP level increases, and the more Upgrades and Tuning Packs you’ll unlock for it. Not only that, but higher-level cars earn XP and Cash faster than lower-level ones.

Careless drivers will find that their car doesn’t quite perform as well as it did in previous races if they keep smashing it up

There are caveats, however. Careless drivers will find that their car doesn’t quite perform as well as it did in previous races if they keep smashing it up. Small fractions of damage will get carried over as Wear & Tear, which you’ll need to repair in order to keep your cars performing at peak condition. Higher mileage cars will accumulate Wear & Tear faster than factory-fresh ones, so players will need to make tactful decisions when it’s time to replace a car that is becoming too expensive to maintain.

When buying a vehicle, you can choose to buy new or used. A used car may be cheaper, but it will already have some miles on the clock, and the previous owner might not have taken good care of it. That being said, you may find that saving up for a brand new car takes too long, and buying a used car gets you quicker access to the Vehicle XP bonuses, upgrades and tuning.

You’ll be able to store the vehicles you buy in your Garage. There’s only limited space in your garage, but you’ll be able to store more vehicles by increasing your player XP level. Until your car collection is big enough, you’ll have to rely on Loan Cars to enter races where you don’t own an eligible vehicle. Cars are not XP-locked in GRID Autosport, all you need is the in-game Cash to buy them, (you can earn in-game Cash by winning events, completing Sponsor objectives etc.). In the mean time, you can loan any car you want. This means that if your friend has bought a very expensive Hypercar, you’ll still be able to race with them by borrowing a car from the same class.

“So why would I ever want to buy a car?” I hear you ask; well, remember that only vehicles that you’ve bought can level-up and unlock Tuning Packs, Upgrades, repairs, cosmetic customisations and bonus rewards. You’ll be able to compete with a loaned car, but if you really want to stand out and have an edge over your opponents, you’ll need to buy one of your own.

The Racing

GRID Autosport provides a smorgasbord of options to the player when setting up a race, allowing you to tailor the exact kind of racing experience you want. Most options will reward players appropriately based on how difficult they make things for themselves. Turning Flashbacks off, for example, is one of many ways you can ramp up your bonus XP and Cash, so the players who push themselves the hardest will also progress the fastest.

Players who are new to racing will find the same range of Assists available in Multiplayer as in the rest of the game. You can enable Traction Control, Anti-Lock Braking, Stability Control, Steering Assists, and a Racing Line indicator. Again, each of these settings will affect your difficulty bonuses, and veteran players can crank it up even further by disabling their HUD, restricting their view to cockpit only, or using manual transmission.

At the start of every Multiplayer race, you’ll have a brief period of time in the Service Area where you can tune, repair or upgrade your car, or review the Event Rules and Standings Tables. You’ll also see the “One to Watch”, a returning feature from past Codemasters’ titles. You might be chosen as the One to Watch if you’ve completed more clean races, achieved more podiums, or driven faster than all of your opponents, for example.

If you win the race as the One to Watch, you can bag yourself a bonus reward. There are many other rewards up for grabs as well, such as completing the fastest lap, completing a clean race, improving your personal best, beating higher level players, and achieving certain milestones like winning a certain number of races. Stat-hungry players will find that there are many things to achieve besides simply finishing on the top of the podium.

To encourage clean racing, we’ve made improvements to the Impact Rating and Off Track Penalty systems based on feedback we gathered from GRID 2.

To encourage clean racing, we’ve made improvements to the Impact Rating and Off Track Penalty systems based on feedback we gathered from GRID 2. Players that gain an advantage by running off-track (which includes both cutting the apex and deliberately running wide to exploit run-off areas) will be slowed down and turned into a ghost so that they can’t block the track. As ever, players will also have the ability to vote-kick trouble makers out of their session.

During the races themselves, each of the five Disciplines has its own distinctive race modes included in Multiplayer. With up to 11 other players, you’ll be able to battle it out in the Touring Cars, manage your tyres during long-distance races at night in the Endurance Discipline, slipstream to victory in an Open-Wheeled car, out-drift your opponents in the Tuner Discipline, and blaze around city tracks in the Street Discipline.

Do you have what it takes to be the best of them all?

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