My suggestions after a week.

Apologies for the long post, but I thought more information is more helpful than less! First of all, I’m enjoying the game and I’m really happy that this has come out at all, as I was starting to suspect that it was going to be cancelled. I’m really enjoying the driving so far, and I appreciate that there was probably contractual deadlines for release etc due to the licencing so bugs and rough edges are understandable. Sorry for any repeated things here, but I guess that just highlights that others feel the same!

Things I love so far:

• Dry gravel physics. The driving on gravel is so much fun, very intuitive and predictable, especially in 4WD cars. Blasting the long stage in Italy in a Rally2 car was one of the finest virtual rallying experiences I’ve ever had to be honest.
• Content. Goes without saying, the stage mileage and car list are impeccable, bravo.
• Stage length. Again, obvious but I love the endurance factor in the longer stages, brings a consistency element in that I really like.
• Stage design. Generally speaking (with some caveats), the stage design is amazing and they’re super fun to drive.
• Leaderboards. The indication of platform and controller type is a really cool addition.
• Seasons. While it seems it could use some work on the implementation, just having this option is amazing, especially for a completely dry Monte.
• Sound design. Codies are just unbeatable with this.

Some things that need work:

• Tarmac physics. The physics on tarmac, mainly for RWD and 4WD cars, are very strange. In most cases we are unable to powerslide around corners, which should be very possible from experience in real life and watching footage of the cars depicted in the game. When a slide is initiated, the car will usually slide so far, then one of two things happens: either the car seems to magically gain 100% grip and immediately stops sliding, creating a jerky awkward motion around a corner. Or, it will just snap oversteer and completely spin out with no chance to save it. If I’m able to powerslide my little MX5 around tarmac hairpins, I should be able to easily in an E30 M3 or a Fiesta Rally2! Oddly, the FWD cars feel pretty good on the tarmac.
• Handbrake physics. Similarly, the handbrake either seems to do nothing or send you into a spin. I understand that there’s now a setup option for this, which has helped a bit, and that it may be down to the previously mentioned tarmac physics, but it still doesn’t seem right.
• Co-driver calls. The “earliest” setting is far far far too late, especially on tarmac stages. I’ve also noticed a lot of erroneous calls, mostly on the Croatia stages, where hairpins will be incorrectly called as “square”.
• Exposure/brightness. Some stages are blindingly bright, notably Sweden and Italy off the top of my head. I actually find myself looking forward to dust buildup on the windscreen to dull the effect a bit.
• AI. I know this has been brought up a lot, but I’ve not bothered with championships beyond a couple of events due to AI being too easy to beat.
• Event feel. While I don’t share the opinion of some that WRC feels it was “made in a boardroom”, the passion that no doubt went into this game isn’t quite shining through in the gameplay yet. None of the modes give much of a feeling that I’m on an actual event with other competitors, they all just feel like a time trial run. The addition of other cars in the queue to start, other cars being on stage to be caught and passed, broken down cars etc would give the game so much more life and a bit more of the feeling of being immersed in rally culture.
• Classes. There’s a few things here. Firstly, as I understand it the WRC “pyramid structure” is; Rally1, Rally2, Rally3 and Rally4. However, in the game the top class is simply called ‘WRC’, with WRC2 being separate from Rally2 which is essentially different evolutions of the same ruleset as far as I’m aware, but WRC2 is the higher category in the game?? Very confusing. Also, the McRae Motorsport Escort Mk2 needs it’s own class for two reasons. Firstly, it’s far too OP as it weighs less and has more power than any of the others in the class. Secondly, it’s not a historic vehicle as per the rules of any governing body that these cars compete under. It has a 2.5 litre Millington engine, full flatshift 6-speed sequential gearbox, WRC-level suspension etc. The only historic-spec element is pretty much just the body shell in these cars!
• Career events. These seem to follow a very rigid template that repeats without variation in each season. Very little replay value here!
• Leaderboard percentage. Show us what percentage our time is in on the time trial leaderboard, or at least how many players have set a time.
• Seasons. The seasons don’t seem to have much effect on events outside of Monte, other than the visual aspect. 

Things I would like to see:

• Road surface. Tarmac stages are all crazy smooth and have a pretty uniform surface throughout. There are bumpy sections here and there, but for the most part it’s almost racetrack conditions. In fact, the circuit models in ACC are way bumpier than any of the tarmac stages in WRC! One of the things I thought KT got right in their titles was the tarmac aspect: the physics, feel and stage design were spot on, and they nailed the variations in road surface on the tarmac stages. There was smooth tarmac, broken tarmac, concrete, cobbles etc. I know some of these real life roads may not have these things, but I’d be up for a bit of artistic licence in this regard! At least give us bumps and rough/broken sections please.
• Stage degradation. There doesn’t seem to be any on the tarmac stages. I’d love to see mud and dirt being pulled onto the road where the cuts are the further down the road order you are.
• Dailies/weeklies/monthlies. This was possibly the best gameplay mode in DR2, bring it back! Also, keep that format of one aggregate time for all events on the Monthly challenges, it really gave it an endurance event feel!
• DirtFish. I’d love to see the return of the DirtFish area BUT with a short rally based there. The absolute best thing about Dirt4 was the ‘Smash Attack’ events at the DirtFish compound. If a less whacky version of this with pacenotes would be implemented, including a head-to-head super special stage, I think it would make a really fun addition. You could easily make 6 fun little stage layouts around DirtFish, with 6 in reverse to make a fun and competitive little event. Single-venue events are really popular in Britain and I’m sure other places!
• Single stage option. Give us a single stage option in quick play so we can do testing in various conditions without having to create a whole championship. I understand that all conditions can’t be available in time trial due to the limitations of leaderboards, so this would be a good compromise.
• Shared setups. Downloadable and shareable setups would be great, setting up the car can be a bit daunting for those not adept at such things.
• Build, build, build. PLEASE don’t make this a standard yearly sports release! Despite all the suggestions, this is an absolutely solid base to build upon, and I’d love to see this title take the same route as Assetto Corsa Competizione (the finest current mainstream sim and update model), updating things like physics, features and content as it goes on. I would much rather pay for solid content additions and yearly WRC season updates than a whole new title each year that’s been rushed out under the gun and leaving previous fan and multiplayer bases to start from scratch every 12 months. It simply didn’t work for KT or the players, don’t make the same mistake!

I’m putting Clubs in its own section. I think Clubs needs a lot of attention, as if it’s done right it could be the thing that gives the game the longevity it deserves through engaging competitive gameplay. I’m no programmer, but I’m sure that at least some of these changes would be pretty simple and would make Club events so much better.

• Multi-class events. I can’t think of a single rally event that has ever taken place with only one class! Multi-class events and monitoring overall position and class position is as much a part of rallying as mudflaps. There’s something really satisfying about beating cars from higher classes on an event.
• Long events. Give us the option for much longer events. I’d like to be able to run events with 20+ stages, including repeated loops of stages as is the case in real rally events.
• Mix and match stages. Following on from the above, the option to create a rally using stages from various locations would be brilliant. I’d love to be able to make an endurance event using all the longest stages!
• Custom classes. Give us freedom to create, name and save our own classes using a tick box system or something similar. This would let us create classes based on engine size, performance, power, drivetrain, stage times etc.
• Exclude cars. Give us the power to choose which cars within the set classes that players can use, banning certain cars from events or even restricting events to one specific car. This will help in classes where there is one car that outperforms everything else. This will also help put some shine on beloved cars that rarely get used in online events because of their performance issues.
• Overall standings. We can’t currently see the overall standings on a club event! Just the stage times of the stage that has just been completed. Overall standings is a must, we need to know when we need to push or if we just need to get to the finish.
• Slow to marshal. Club stages end in a time trial style at present, instead of having to slow to marshal and ensure you don’t smash up the car over the line. This ruins the immersion and makes club events feel like time trials stitched together.
• Running order. The option to have running order affect the stage deg is always greyed out in clubs, I think this would be a great addition. Maybe shakedown time could determine road position?
• Blind rally. This is a fun thing that runs in RBR sometimes, and goes back to the old RAC rally rules banning pacenotes. Give us the option to turn off pacenotes, or even an option to force ‘basic’ notes!