Hello! I am back once again for a new update on Gran Turismo 5 Evolution. Since my last post here, a lot of progress has been made. I have finished balancing the AI opponents on every event, now they're all much closer to the imposed PP limits for a bigger challenge, and more events have been extended, the total amount of A-Spec races has reached 200, over the original game's 127.

Now for the big stuff. I have completely revamped the progression system in the game. The infamous level system has been replaced by licences, which will be required to progress through the game. This change also extends to cars, the only thing stopping you from buying a car is money, they will no longer require a level to be bought.

Each licence will unlock a new series of events:

Beginner Series - No Licence required
Amateur Series - B Licence
Professional Series - A Licence
Expert Series - IC Licence
Extreme Series - IB Licence
Endurance Series - IA Licence

The Super licence in Gran Turismo 5 is just a series of overtaking challenges, winning them will unlock the Red Bull X Challenge event.

I have also made the decision to disable Skid Recovery Force globally in every A-Spec race, Licence Test and Special Event. It makes the player faster by unrealistically increasing grip, and the game becomes significantly easier as a result. Licence tests' times and some Special Events were made with SRF in mind, so they have been rebalanced to account for this change.

Still on the subject of driving aids, Traction Control now comes disabled by default. For some reason, the TCS setting doesn't apply globally on every car like other assists, you'd have to turn it off manually on each car, since the default setting was 5.

5 new tracks have had variable time of day added: Spa-Francorchamps, High Speed Ring, Monza, Suzuka and Eiger Nordwand Short. Unfortunately, a full 24h cycle is not possible because headlights don't work, so they'll go from sunrise to sunset.

There have been changes to Special Events, with more track variety in the Kart and Rally events (the latter using restored rally Course Maker templates by the Master Mod), as well as rebalancing the Grand Tour to accomodate the lack of Skid Recovery Force.

On the subject of Course Maker tracks, they will also be featured in A-Spec events. There are 6 different tarmac tracks (one being restored by the Master Mod) that serve as a base for completely unique layouts every time you load into a race.

Two unique events will be featured in this mod, Super GT300 and 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, and many other events have had their opponent list, restrictions and general theme changed, with a few examples below:

As always, there have been too many changes to detail here, with only the biggest ones being showcased, and while it is closer to being finished and released every day, there's still no ETA. Some of the remaining work includes, but is not limited to:

• More testing to make sure the progression changes work well and to find any possible bugs, as well as verifying the AI balancing;
• Designing new event flyers for the Super GT300 and 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps events as close to the game's art style as possible;
• Adjusting weather settings in races with dynamic weather;
• Updating the text in pop ups, event descriptions and everywhere else to match my mod's changes in both English and Portuguese (can't do other languages myself as I only speak these two);
• Porting the mod to all regions of the game;
• Recording more showcase videos to upload on YouTube;
• Writing a read-me, a more complete changelog and a tutorial video for how to install and set the mod up.

I appreciate the interest shown in Gran Turismo 5 Evolution and hope the mod can deliver a fresh and improved GT5 experience.