AI Skill Inconsistency

[underd0g]

This keeps bugging me with this game. I set up a custom Ginetta G40 championship with custom AI (xml-files). At the first track (Barcelona GP), which was the AI:s are as slow as turtles and I am almost lapping the number two in a 30 minute race as they are losing about five seconds per lap on me. Second track (Silverstone GP) they are almost competitive, only losing one second per lap to me. Third track (Imola) they are six (6!) seconds faster than me per lap and I am pushing as hard as I possibly can. The AI is set at 100 in the championship menu and the custom AI profiles are between 0.5 (50) and 1.0 (100) in skill.

I think their acceleration is vastly superior at Imola as I can keep up with them until the straight bits.

Anyone else notice this?

[Johnny Magoo]

yes, i am doing a championship with the sprint cars....
first race was at londrina and qualified 3rd and was competitive in the race finishing 4th. very enjoyable.....
second race was at interlagos and qualified 14th, fell back to 16th and was just hanging on to the pack in front, i would gain slightly through the turns, get right on their slipstream out of the last turn but they would just pull away on the home straight...they are too quick on the straights...annoying.....100% as well

guess you just have to take note of the ai levels per individual race and write it down somewhere for next time...
Raceroom has the adaptive ai which adjusts to your lap times over time and always gives a good race when set up, would love to see that here....

[madman.1982]

lol i was just about to write about this,done a championship race with formula cars and after a 10 lap race i had lapped everybody apart from 2nd place who somehow was on my tail all race.... increased the AI scale by 8 ( i go by roughly 1 ai up is equal to 2 seconds a lap, might be wrong but it usually works) this time AI are way way to fast, AI strength does seem to vary alot by track, also when you do a few races of a track its easy to see where you can catch cars up easily. It does make it hard to get competitive races against AI but its better than playing online and getting rammed all day long lol

[lewiswood20585]

Also the AI speed between practice, Qualifying & Race is different.

I did a DTM 90s race, I was 8th in Qualifying or something (30 cars). But in the race I lapped them and was 30 seconds ahead of 2nd place.

Also too much lap time difference between the back markers and leaders. Its like the difficulty has a range, which would be ok but needs to be an option so its user controlled.

[Vlad Tepes]

I've experienced that the AI in the GT3 / GT series are very good and consistent from race to race and track to track. I set them to around 98-100 with high aggression and it "feels" about right for me. Very consistent.. some overtaking.. etc..

I am not very fast so that seems to be my "sweet spot" for this series.
With that said, I did notice that in some of the other series (older F1 for example) it is very hard to get right. The old F1 are all over the place.

I think the best and most consistent AI are when playing the Brazilian Stock car championships. I guess this makes sense as that was the origin of the game.

[Vlad Tepes]

Originally posted by lewiswood20585:

Also the AI speed between practice, Qualifying & Race is different.

I did a DTM 90s race, I was 8th in Qualifying or something (30 cars). But in the race I lapped them and was 30 seconds ahead of 2nd place.

Also too much lap time difference between the back markers and leaders. Its like the difficulty has a range, which would be ok but needs to be an option so its user controlled.

Good point. I did notice this too. Seems to be this was always a problem in most racing simulators as the AI or the sim logic seems to assume that qualifying will have the fastest times (which may be true due to lower fuel loads, etc.) but it is always exaggerated.

[lewiswood20585]

It is frustrating. I wish personally they created AI matchmaking. So when you drive the sim collects data on your lap times & is able to deliver competitive lap times. Say .5 sec less than and more than. Heck maybee record the user lines and speeds around circuit and AI copy it, and apply alogrithm for things like moving out the way if they get too close etc.

Also AI is too fast on straights and slow on corners. I think this represents the AI dont drive properlly. I tried 100 percent, I am a backmarker but why are the corners getting in my way on corners yet lap times are so much faster.

I do think more AI focus needs to be put into sim racing. AMS2 is really good simulator for me as it has historic content I like, just the racing experience due to the AI is holding it back.

[[Yamete!>_<] Mr Tom]

Agree - I've found the AI to be inconsistent from track to track. Barcelona, they are slow, but others such as Monza or Imola (the worst, IMO) they are way too quick!

As I got fed up of trying to guess what level AI to put it at, I decided to build a tool to use as calculator to tell me what AI level to use. Ie if I'm 105 at track A and that is competitive, but at track B, the AI are slower, what should I raise the AI level to to get similar competitiveness. I'm still testing it (so far, it's working and I've found it helps me quickly identify the best level to use) but if anyone is keen I can release online once it's done.

[Oggmeista]

yep, i have noticed this, and other issues......but i guess it does have the best damage modelling and the best simulation of pitstops, with for once EVERY team having pitstop animations. shame actual replays don't have static cams as these convey the the visual immersion of speed far better than panning cameras, hopefully they will be added if and when devs get round to fixing the entire replay system which at the moment imho is totally broke

[Oggmeista]

Originally posted by Yamete!>_< Mr Tom:

Agree - I've found the AI to be inconsistent from track to track. Barcelona, they are slow, but others such as Monza or Imola (the worst, IMO) they are way too quick!

As I got fed up of trying to guess what level AI to put it at, I decided to build a tool to use as calculator to tell me what AI level to use. Ie if I'm 105 at track A and that is competitive, but at track B, the AI are slower, what should I raise the AI level to to get similar competitiveness. I'm still testing it (so far, it's working and I've found it helps me quickly identify the best level to use) but if anyone is keen I can release online once it's done.

Great idea and a i appreciate the contribution, but i can't see Reiza leaving the levels as they are they are simply broken in which case it won't be needed for too long but there's no doubt about the terrible AI balance in this sim comparing them track to track

[underd0g]

Glad it's not just me. I was almost losing my mind, as normally I can keep up with the AI in most sims at max level. I'm not fast, but I'm not that slow either.

Got the tips to add a custom (lower) skill for each driver on the tracks they are too fast at. But what do one do if they are too slow, is it only the main skill slider that can give the AI a boost or can one say as an example give driver A 1.10 (110) skill at track Y in the XML files?

[Johnny Magoo]

Originally posted by Vlad Tepes:

I think the best and most consistent AI are when playing the Brazilian Stock car championships. I guess this makes sense as that was the origin of the game.

The problem i have with the Stock cars is the boost. There are far too many of them per race so there is no real tactical use of it as the ai just use it every time they can in the same place and it just makes it pointless, you end up using it just to stay with them. If you could limit it to a fewer amount per race it would be more interesting.

[JJH]

At least for now, it would be great for custom championship to be able to customize a preset AI level modifier for each race, so then don't have to have it noted somewhere and plug it in for each race.
Its a pain to have to find the right numbers still for each race, but at least this way, and if we are able to export and import championships, it would be an improvement.

[Oddslane]

There is such a problem in the game.