Drivatar difficulty is still inconsistent

[Migz - DH]

I just did the Restos Cross Country race as part of the Ford F-150 Raptor seasonal event, and the Drivatar difficulty was so inconsistent, I felt impelled to mention it. First though, I searched through the forum to see if anyone else had written similar posts. Yep! Since 2021.

So strange to get dominated by one driver in one difficulty and then another lower to then lower it again and beat the entire pack by over 8 seconds.

How do you all feel about drivatar difficulty consistency within difficulty tiers in this game?

[timothy_gammey]

The drivatars are a joke. They teleport, phase through objects, are completely unaffected by track conditions, and can accelerate & turn in mid air.

I have made tracks with no possible path for the AI, and they will still finish a few seconds behind you. I made another track where you can watch them hovering above the track following your car on replays.

The game gives the AI an artificial speed boost, and the leader usually carries that through most of the first lap, and sometimes it never slows the car to the normal pace. I have found that restarting the race will fix it sometimes, or using cars that just barely meet the minimum PI requirements can prevent the appearance of "The Chosen One" in most cases.

The AI is a problem in every Forza title, so if you'r expecting anything resembling consistency, realism, or fair- you're barking up the wrong tree.

[Migz - DH]

Great points. Thanks!

My only reason to mention it now is that it didn't seem to be quite as bad in FH4. Maybe it was and I'm just forgetting. :-)

[kireta]

Inb4 someone shows up and links that video where devs claim "drivatars learn from players", which is blatant lie, as AI don't even drive same physics, much less race like players.

inb4 another person says there's no rubberbanding
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2652491519
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2652491739

My decision to buy FH6 or not hinges on them making either MP or SP racing good. Which would require either ditching lobotimized decade old "adventure" architecture and replacing it with modern server search and lobbies, or by making AI that at leasts pretends to race by same rules as players.

[Migz - DH]

That weird ♥♥♥♥ they do at the end of races, where we get slowed down and the drivatars bounce forward sucks. I just lost a place in the Trial from that...

[kireta]

explanation:
2 races, same track, same difficulty, same driveatars, given same cars, in same configuration.
They should drive about the same, right? Now compare their times.

1st race I stayed in 3rd position. Fastest AI was 2:56, slowest was 3:07
2nd race I used trick to give myself overpowered car, and smoked them. Fastest AI was 2:46, slowest 2:51.

Because *I* was much faster then them, AI recieved enough speed bonus for slowest AI in 2nd race to be still way faster than the fastest AI in 1st race was.

[TheHuskyGT]

This has been a problem since previous games, and I feel FH5 is by far the worst of them all. The rubber-banding is not the worst part, but the fact that the AI will ignore game physics, like terrain, or car stats to gain a ridiculous advantage.

I've also noticed that no matter how spread the grid is, at the end, they will all end up in a little train formation. Sometimes, with car at the far back of the grid putting times up to 15 seconds faster that what it is possible for the car and class, just to join the formation.

It's so fake, inconsistent and unfair. The AI has absolute control, and it will win if it has decided to do so, or it will sandbag you, which I find equally insulting.

[Migz - DH]

Yes, yes..... sounds about right. :-)

[Dexaldem]

Originally posted by timothy_gammey:

The drivatars are a joke. They teleport, phase through objects, are completely unaffected by track conditions, and can accelerate & turn in mid air.

I have made tracks with no possible path for the AI, and they will still finish a few seconds behind you. I made another track where you can watch them hovering above the track following your car on replays.

The game gives the AI an artificial speed boost, and the leader usually carries that through most of the first lap, and sometimes it never slows the car to the normal pace. I have found that restarting the race will fix it sometimes, or using cars that just barely meet the minimum PI requirements can prevent the appearance of "The Chosen One" in most cases.

The AI is a problem in every Forza title, so if you'r expecting anything resembling consistency, realism, or fair- you're barking up the wrong tree.

True, but it was at its best in Motorsport 4 and Horizon 3. The latest two games in the franchise have been quite weak, to put it nicely.

[Migz - DH]

This is really too sad of a situation.

I would like to be able to increase the difficulty a step or two and learn from the encounters while also having a chance to win. As it is, if I want to win, I have to pull back the difficulty one or two notches or I risk one driver leaping several seconds ahead at the start and never letting me get closer than that. Too frustrating imo.

In FH4, usually played at Expert or Pro, now I feel like Highly skilled is risky... heh.

[the bat kite]

Originally posted by timothy_gammey:

The drivatars are a joke. They teleport, phase through objects, are completely unaffected by track conditions, and can accelerate & turn in mid air.

I have made tracks with no possible path for the AI, and they will still finish a few seconds behind you. I made another track where you can watch them hovering above the track following your car on replays.

The game gives the AI an artificial speed boost, and the leader usually carries that through most of the first lap, and sometimes it never slows the car to the normal pace. I have found that restarting the race will fix it sometimes, or using cars that just barely meet the minimum PI requirements can prevent the appearance of "The Chosen One" in most cases.

The AI is a problem in every Forza title, so if you'r expecting anything resembling consistency, realism, or fair- you're barking up the wrong tree.

I won't call this claim I see repeated AGAIN just total nonsense. I won't call it obviously false, an absurd claim that is a SILLY whopper - a dopey lie that everyone who has played the game for even 10 hours could tell, to the rest of the participants in this thread, is plainly wacky.

The AI work normally for a AAA car racing game. *That is the truth.* How many racing games do you own and play, timothy?

Why won't I call you again on lying for only personal wild dramatic effect? I mean, now you have said it twice, so you'd deserve it for sure. I won't because the first time you did it and I said "lie" you told Steam Moderation I was breaking their you can't "insult" fellow Steam users rule, and I got banned.

People who lie are lying in the moment. People lie on a daily basis. It's so common. I called out bad behavior; I did not judge timothy_gammey's overall moral character.

So report me again Timothy and try to get your revenge, because how dare I call this reposted fanciful tale a second helping of cold b.s.

This game is 'dead' to players like me, by now having exhausted all new playing possibilities. I got my money's worth out of this game when I surpassed several hundred hours of play, so a second ban from your hand using Steam moderation's knee-jerk rules enforcement won't matter.

Will you click "report this post" and people very likely soon see my post be censored and "banned" go up under my gamer name again...and would they see how thick-skinned timothy_gammey is under a little pressure of disapproval of one of [his] posts?

Maybe this thread is dead and you won't revisit it, so my post will not be censored this time.

[timothy_gammey]

share code: 772-441-922 Has no possible way for the AI to progress under the overpass and the on ramp indicated in the route is completely blocked off (the player takes first exit ramp onto the highway), Yet when you get to the turnaround (player drives to the left of the "penalty box", the AI will be a few seconds behind you.

Try it for yourself.

[the bat kite]

You say the AI are inconsistent unfair and are unrealistic in their movements. You were the first to respond to the OP and look at how you spoke of the way the AI behave race after race. A big serious problem for players and you are breaking the bad news here and now. You've done it before though.

There are a few people who jump on this every time it is brought up. It isn't often, but when it is the passions almost spontaneously rise with the same few players. Oddly, they put in alot of hours in the game anyway (and apparently the trash AI), as hard as it allegedly is to abide these unique troubles found in Forza Horizon.

Maybe the way out - the way to realistic fun, and to avoid being troubled by the glaring faults *ahem* Playground Games has made and stubbornly sustained for a couple of years here with the awful AI is to play only real people.

What I did try for myself, and this is what actually matters here, is drive races on both dirt and concrete tracks, randomly this very afternoon. I put the camera in reverse during three replays and saw normal driving being played out before my eyes - played out of the competent programming built into this Playground Games game.

Readers, try it yourself. Watch your replays.

[Migz - DH]

There's no reason to get personal among ourselves here. :-)

[XaeRo]

First of all, you need to know the difference between a challenging/competitive AI and a cheating AI! The AI ​​in this game is a pure cheating AI! I won't rewrite the reasons because they've already been written in the posts above. When people say that the AI ​​in this game is difficult, I get really mad! It's not difficult, it's cheating, that's all. I played this game for 2,200 hours and most of that time was spent in single-player races that I prepared. The reason, as I said, is because of the cheating AI. The online competitive side of this game is also very problematic. Look, let alone playing online competitively, I haven't even played the mandatory online races in the weekly challenges for the last 6 months. Because they play so aggressively, so toxicly that I've been eliminated from the races many times even by my own teammates! However, if they had made the players in ghost mode in the weekly mandatory online challenges, this problem wouldn't have happened at all! These problems could have been fixed with very small touches, but they haven't been dealing with these problems for years. If they had made those small touches, this game would have been a master piece!

[the bat kite]

I've never been cheated out of even a 'stolen' turn by the AI, but unlike you I don't have 2,300 hours on the game. Maybe some turned on you at some point, exhausted. Could they have preferred that you be racing real people during more of those couple thousand hours? AI have to fill alot of slots in Forza Horizon and maybe people can wear out their welcome with some of them in being too demanding of their limited time. People who get screwed around with in live competition naturally turn away...to the AI. And so the AI might be tempted to resent the burden and cheat you out of what's rightfully your's. When I pass the 1,000 hour mark I'll try to see this difference between competitive/challenging AI and the purely cheating ones. And I might need to raise hell with the company if you turn out to be right.