Blue Flag code needs tweaking

[Telfram]

Blue Flag : Slower car being lapped, slow down, pull over and let faster car past.
Problem here, is lapped car (both mine and AI), have fresher tyres, no issues and more aggressive setting and are coming up to unlap themselves. But as soon as they go past, out come the blue flags and on come the brakes! Surly the code needs some fine tuning, that if the unlapping car is FASTER and CAN pass, then they can pull away under the blue flag and clear the zone under which it applies. My car has lost time, by cars unlapping by the sudden slow and messing about on the corner, and unlapping where, the place you were clear of is lost by the slow down to let leader past even though slower.

[Ugly Psycho]

Yep, on the oval this really is a problem.

I'd rather see no blue flags at all than this, TBH (which might actually be pretty interesting option in the rules?). Not game breaking, but definitely very annoying.

[maulet]

yes, it's a stupid thing, mostly in phoenix where is an authentic chaos without any type of sense. Please fix it asap!

[B✪✪tsy]

Originalmente postado por Danius Greumach:

I disagree - It is unplayable. It seemed to be fixed for the most part a couple of months ago, but this recent update set it right back to being a major issue. The biggest reason is that it doesn't seem to effect AI drivers, but it does effect yours. For instance, last race in Beijing, both my drivers come into the pits, one comes out in 5th, the other in 8th. Both are on the softest compound, and are definitely close enough to the drivers ahead to finish in 3rd and 4th, because they are on fresher, softer compounds. However, as my driver in 5th comes out, the leader of the race has lapped him while he was in the pits, and he's on the hardest compound. By the third turn, my driver passes him, but the blue flag comes out, and my driver slows down again...and the rubberbanding continues. My driver who was in 8th prompty sets a new fastest lap, and moves up to 6th inside of two laps out of the pits, but then she catches up to my other driver, and the race leader, who both just finished their second straight laps of 1:14+. My other driver just ran a 1:08.3. The rest of the race (9 laps), my drivers do not eclipse the 1:13 mark, due to the fact they can't get past the blue flag issue (they should easily be lapping at 1:11 or better). They also both lose 3 spots, since the AI cars just ignore the blue flag, as they speed by while my drivers can do nothing about the blue flag issue. So they finish in 8th and 9th, when they should have easily finished in 3rd and 4th. By my estimation, they lose at least 30 seconds due to the bug. 3rd place finishes just 18 seconds ahead.

Yep this.

It completely ruins the tyre strategy you use.... forget about it trying to a last sprint on the softest tyres in the race cos any potential time you gain with it gets ruined by the blue flag yoyo. But the rain situations are even more annoying where the top cars just keep driving ond dry tyres and you keep getting blue flags from them even though you are +10 seconds a lap faster on intermediates.

[Xautos]

Originalmente postado por Telfram:

Blue Flag : Slower car being lapped, slow down, pull over and let faster car past.
Problem here, is lapped car (both mine and AI), have fresher tyres, no issues and more aggressive setting and are coming up to unlap themselves. But as soon as they go past, out come the blue flags and on come the brakes! Surly the code needs some fine tuning, that if the unlapping car is FASTER and CAN pass, then they can pull away under the blue flag and clear the zone under which it applies. My car has lost time, by cars unlapping by the sudden slow and messing about on the corner, and unlapping where, the place you were clear of is lost by the slow down to let leader past even though slower.

i mentioned this months ago when the blue flags were a bigger issue when the game first came out. it's still a problem.

i mentioned at the time that faster cars that want to unlap themselves, the game rules have to recognise this and let them get away so long as their pace is fast enough. as it currently stands a faster car comes through or even a bunch of them and your leaking time like mad as the lot of them trip up over your slower car. it's not fun watching that.

[B✪✪tsy]

Originalmente postado por Fritz:

@Danius
Can't say for sure since idk the exact circumstances of your race but for the most part, I've seen the ai suffer from blue flag far more than the player. I don't know what would cause the events to play out for you the way they did but it's been said numerous times that the ai works under the same rules and mechanics that the player does. This is why I don't think it's unplayable since strictly speaking it's not exactly a bug, it affects (or should AFAIK) all cars ai/player equally and is more of a design flaw/poorly implemented system. It was more of a bug a couple iterations ago when it killed both the frontrunner and the backmarker's paces, defeating the purpose of a blue flag mechanic.

I'm not sure how a "proper" blue flag system would've changed the outcome in the race you describe. The work around I'm advocating might've allowed you to unlap your car in 5th, but since the ai cars you described overtook you then, it may have also done the same without the blue flag rubberbanding.

@Stravy
I'm not sure if this is still the case but it's also been repeated many times that playsport is still looking for a community manager or something of the sort. In order to be more involved here would currently require someone to devote less time in whatever other area they should be working on.

If also the AI craps out by the blue flags... then that does not make it acceptable. You are right though, also the AI gets hindered by blue flags. The real underlying issue with the AI is I think that they don't know the difference between blue flags and fighting a car for positions. When you lap a car they start to fight your own car as if it were fighting directly for positions. I litteraly see lapped AI cars go into 'red' mode to fight and unlap while it is pointless cos their direct rival is like 30 seconds away from that AI car.

[B✪✪tsy]

PS, as there is never a dev here on the forum I am going to mail them about the blue flag issue. If more players do that then that might incite those devs to fix it.

https://support.sega.co.uk/hc/en-us/requests/new

[76561198361858033]

Hey everyone, It’s fair to say we’re more than slightly overdue to wade in on the discussion of blue flags. We know it’s been one of the hot topics since launch and we want to share our thoughts on the system with you.

When a car receives a blue flag it should be the one to move off of the racing line and allow the leading car to pass. The lap time of the leading driver should not be impeded (or only be impeded a minimal amount). This does mean that the car receiving the blue flag will go even slower as they are off the racing line for a short while to be overtaken, but this is exactly how blue flags work in real life. We are happy that game is following this behaviour.

One aspect of the system we are investigating further in an effort to improve is when lapped cars are attempting to un-lap themselves. As you are highlighting to us, it can be quite difficult to un-lap yourself at times.

We hope to have more information on this for you soon aiming to please everyone (if that’s even possible).

[B✪✪tsy]

Wow I send an email just 1 hour ago and already a response!

You are right that the biggest thing of the blue flag situation is the unlapping mechanic for the 'player' cars. However the AI that gets lapped by the player cars treats the lapping 'player' car as a direct rival and starts to push to unlap himself.... and then you get the endless yoyo effect where the AI starts to fight and push to unlap... while that AI car is on worn tyres and your player car is on fresh tyres. Result is that you can never take advantage of the fresh tyres and do faster laps because the lapped AI cars start fighting you under the blue flag situations.

An other thing that needs to improved is the position on the track where they let other cars go past them. Often my player cars move aside on the fast straight instead of the corners. In real life blue flag overtaking almost always happens in the corners, because with that you lose the least amount of time. In this game they move to the side on the fast straights and thus making you lose much more time than in slow corners.

And of course there is the situation where your car is holding of their rivals below them on the grid for the whole race and then at the end of the race you get the blue flags of the top cars. And while your cars are letting the lapping cars past the rivals below you on the grid take advantage of the blue flag and go past you too... and your own driver just let it happens while driving slower for at least a second. And if you are in bad luck you get an other blue flag.... and by then it is not possible anymore to get back to your rival... the blue flag screwed the race position beyond repair.

I am glad you are aware of the issue and that you responded. At least we know now thet you guys are still tinkering on the blue flag mechanic!

[H3lium]

In real racing blue flags cost the lapped car time. That's fine. But what almost never happens is that lapping cars are highly interfering with the lapped cars races. Except in multi class racing where strategic positioning during lapping to box your opponent in or to force him to use a bad line is common. But that's a different story.

And that is what's happening in the game all the time. It adds frustrating randomness that is extremely demotivating.

[Xautos]

Originalmente postado por Motorsport Manager:

Hey everyone, It’s fair to say we’re more than slightly overdue to wade in on the discussion of blue flags. We know it’s been one of the hot topics since launch and we want to share our thoughts on the system with you.

When a car receives a blue flag it should be the one to move off of the racing line and allow the leading car to pass. The lap time of the leading driver should not be impeded (or only be impeded a minimal amount). This does mean that the car receiving the blue flag will go even slower as they are off the racing line for a short while to be overtaken, but this is exactly how blue flags work in real life. We are happy that game is following this behaviour.

One aspect of the system we are investigating further in an effort to improve is when lapped cars are attempting to un-lap themselves. As you are highlighting to us, it can be quite difficult to un-lap yourself at times.

We hope to have more information on this for you soon aiming to please everyone (if that’s even possible).

is one possible way of doing this by using the engine to compare laptimes of previous laps over an average? so a faster car is doing a 1:21.x but it looking to unlap this slower car who has an average time of 1.23.x. an exception happens where this faster car does unlap itself and no blue flags are given in order to allow it to escape because it's average lap time suggests it can get away.

as it stands, both the faster and slower car are losing out alot of time over this blue flag situation. no one wins from a situation like that.

[Brian]

Originalmente postado por Motorsport Manager:

Hey everyone, It’s fair to say we’re more than slightly overdue to wade in on the discussion of blue flags. We know it’s been one of the hot topics since launch and we want to share our thoughts on the system with you.

When a car receives a blue flag it should be the one to move off of the racing line and allow the leading car to pass. The lap time of the leading driver should not be impeded (or only be impeded a minimal amount). This does mean that the car receiving the blue flag will go even slower as they are off the racing line for a short while to be overtaken, but this is exactly how blue flags work in real life. We are happy that game is following this behaviour.

One aspect of the system we are investigating further in an effort to improve is when lapped cars are attempting to un-lap themselves. As you are highlighting to us, it can be quite difficult to un-lap yourself at times.

We hope to have more information on this for you soon aiming to please everyone (if that’s even possible).

Just set the bloody range to something like 0.7s. It's about what the fix we have been using for ages uses and it works perfectly, no other adjustments needed.

This is entirely a range issue, as cars are getting sniped by others way behind because it seems to be set at 3s. As this is the case, a car 4 seconds faster than my car PER LAP was stuck yo-yo'ing with me for an entire stint, slowing us both down.

[Cadieux101]

Since i started a new Career mode, I've only been in 12 total races. I've noticed a new issue with blue flags since the 1.3 patch that i never noticed in my 7 seasons played as predator.

Faster Blue flag cars unlap themselves, pass my drivers, then get a blue flag which means my drivers over take them... This is annoying enough but i can live with it, what is absolutely infuriating is that in 4 of the 12 races, for a total of 5 times in 4 races... a blue flag car makes contact and knocks off a wing from my car on the lead lap. In turn ruining my race.

If this had only happened once in 12 races, i could live with it.... It is happening an absurd amount of times, its so frustrating to have my race ruined, by a car a lap down.

in the second race of season 2, i was in 3rd position when a blue flag car ( a much faster garuda car) made contact and ripped off my rear wing on the first corner of the last lap. losing a substantial amount of time (25 seconds), thankfully still finished 4th.

Im just annoyed of the system, I've had way more incidents involving blue flag cars, than cars for position on the lead lap.

[Tig_green]

Originalmente postado por Brian:

Originalmente postado por Motorsport Manager:

Hey everyone, It’s fair to say we’re more than slightly overdue to wade in on the discussion of blue flags. We know it’s been one of the hot topics since launch and we want to share our thoughts on the system with you.

When a car receives a blue flag it should be the one to move off of the racing line and allow the leading car to pass. The lap time of the leading driver should not be impeded (or only be impeded a minimal amount). This does mean that the car receiving the blue flag will go even slower as they are off the racing line for a short while to be overtaken, but this is exactly how blue flags work in real life. We are happy that game is following this behaviour.

One aspect of the system we are investigating further in an effort to improve is when lapped cars are attempting to un-lap themselves. As you are highlighting to us, it can be quite difficult to un-lap yourself at times.

We hope to have more information on this for you soon aiming to please everyone (if that’s even possible).

Just set the bloody range to something like 0.7s. It's about what the fix we have been using for ages uses and it works perfectly, no other adjustments needed.

This is entirely a range issue, as cars are getting sniped by others way behind because it seems to be set at 3s. As this is the case, a car 4 seconds faster than my car PER LAP was stuck yo-yo'ing with me for an entire stint, slowing us both down.

Hi Brian,

I sent you a friend request. Would you be so kind and make me a modified version of the file which has blue flag activation zone in it and set the value to whatever you think is best overall? :) btw, do you think 0,7 is better than 1,0? ps. Brian from the Family Guy is hilarious.

[Brian]

Blue flag stuff is in the dll, which is way outside of my skill range. I'm just a humble txt jockey.

[Tig_green]

Originalmente postado por Brian:

Blue flag stuff is in the dll, which is way outside of my skill range. I'm just a humble txt jockey.

So what do you use?