Unbeatable AI times?

[Squishy]

I'm playing on sim handling/tough difficulty with all assists off with a wheel since I played plenty of Dirt Rally.
I'm finding the AI in career mode, especially on gravel stages, are setting simply unattainable times. I don't just mean it's too difficult for me, I mean they're setting time 5+ sec faster than the fastest human time on the leaderboard. For example I just did a group A stage on michigan where the AI leader did a 2:07.800, but the number one time on the human leaderboards is only around 2:13.

EDIT:

Here are some screenshots showing what I'm talking about (also posted below)
This was a career stage in Group A cars, this was the top of the human leaderboard:
Leaderboard link

And these were the AI stage times I was competing against:
AI times link

(If those links don't seem to work trying right clicking and opening in new tab)

Anyone else having this? I don't want the AI times to be too easy of course, but when they're a good chunk faster than the fastest a human has done it yet I'm questioning whether they're actually possible to beat. Like whether however the game calculates AI stage times is slightly broken and it making them too fast.

[Aden Forst]

I'm having the exact opposite problem. On max difficulty and no assists I can usually beat the AI by almost 15s, even on the initial shorter stages.

[Squishy]

Well I had some rallies like that on the Spanish tarmac stages. I drove alright, conservative but not crazy good and could still open a 10+ sec gap.

Then onto the Fitzroy and Michigan stages in the same car class, suddenly I'm 10+ sec down even if I use a couple of restarts to go max attack the whole stage, and the AI are massively faster than anything on the human leaderboard.

[Squishy]

Giving this a bump with some more details.

I've noticed this seems to happen most on stages with big elevation changes. On the turns like 3's and 4's over sharp crests where I have to slow up to make the turn with reduced grip, the AI marker on the time strip suddenly jumps ahead of me, like they took the turn on flat ground.

Also it seems to happen in the rain. I've tried the same stage on dry ground and in heavy rain and sometimes the AI times in the rain are actually faster than the time in the dry. I know there is a bit of randomness in the AI times in this game to give it a more human feel, but I'm sure on the hardest difficulty the AI should be consistently faster in the dry than they are in the wet.

[Squishy]

Here are some screenshots showing what I'm talking about.
This was a career stage in Group A cars, this was the top of the human leaderboard:
Leaderboard link

And these were the AI stage times I was competing against:
AI times link

(If those links don't seem to work trying right clicking and opening in new tab)

[Xena]

Originally posted by Aden Forst:

I'm having the exact opposite problem. On max difficulty and no assists I can usually beat the AI by almost 15s, even on the initial shorter stages.

Same for me. Though I heard you could unlock a fearless difficulty, I don't know how to do that though. [I'm using no assists, and Xbox One controller].

[533D]

Originally posted by Squishy:

Giving this a bump with some more details.

I've noticed this seems to happen most on stages with big elevation changes. On the turns like 3's and 4's over sharp crests where I have to slow up to make the turn with reduced grip, the AI marker on the time strip suddenly jumps ahead of me, like they took the turn on flat ground.

same here. I thought the gap uphill was because I was driving basically a D-Rate car and the Leader might be driving an A-Rate car (tuning). If thats still the case with a maxed out car, its kinda ♥♥♥♥♥♥, indeed.

[Xena]

Originally posted by Squishy:

I've noticed this seems to happen most on stages with big elevation changes. On the turns like 3's and 4's over sharp crests where I have to slow up to make the turn with reduced grip, the AI marker on the time strip suddenly jumps ahead of me, like they took the turn on flat ground.

As far as I'm aware, if you look in-game, the parts, unless it's hidden somewhere, don't improve the cars speed. There's three stats displayed. Repair time, Repair Cost and Strength. Lower tier parts, your Ds and Es etc, typically have shorter repair time and costs, at the trade off of worse strength. Where as the higher tier parts are stronger, but cost more and take longer to repair. I'm sure there is probably some performance benefit, but I'm using D class cars against As on the highest difficulty, no assists and with a xbox controller, and winning by anywhere from 5-25 seconds. So I don't think the parts are at fault here.

[EthicalPixel]

so that means you hold these records, by 15 whole seconds, which he speaks of?

Originally posted by Aden Forst:

I'm having the exact opposite problem. On max difficulty and no assists I can usually beat the AI by almost 15s, even on the initial shorter stages.

[Squishy]

Originally posted by Stitch:

As far as I'm aware, if you look in-game, the parts, unless it's hidden somewhere, don't improve the cars speed. There's three stats displayed. Repair time, Repair Cost and Strength. Lower tier parts, your Ds and Es etc, typically have shorter repair time and costs, at the trade off of worse strength. Where as the higher tier parts are stronger, but cost more and take longer to repair. I'm sure there is probably some performance benefit, but I'm using D class cars against As on the highest difficulty, no assists and with a xbox controller, and winning by anywhere from 5-25 seconds. So I don't think the parts are at fault here.

That's my understanding of it as well. It doesn't actually mention a performance increase from higher rated parts anywhere and, for example, upgrading the engine and turbo from D to A doesn't increase the power spec on the car at all.

At the moment I'm finding the difficulty is see-sawing between too easy and unbeatable as described. For one set of stages I'll drive normally and open a massive gap without really pushing, then the next set suddenly the AI times are obscenely fast. I feel like the AI time generation/difficulty needs an overhaul so that it can be more consistently challenging but not impossibly fast.

[EthicalPixel]

pc only scoreboard? or all platforms combined OP

[Xena]

Originally posted by Squishy:

Originally posted by Stitch:

As far as I'm aware, if you look in-game, the parts, unless it's hidden somewhere, don't improve the cars speed. There's three stats displayed. Repair time, Repair Cost and Strength. Lower tier parts, your Ds and Es etc, typically have shorter repair time and costs, at the trade off of worse strength. Where as the higher tier parts are stronger, but cost more and take longer to repair. I'm sure there is probably some performance benefit, but I'm using D class cars against As on the highest difficulty, no assists and with a xbox controller, and winning by anywhere from 5-25 seconds. So I don't think the parts are at fault here.

That's my understanding of it as well. It doesn't actually mention a performance increase from higher rated parts anywhere and, for example, upgrading the engine and turbo from D to A doesn't increase the power spec on the car at all.

At the moment I'm finding the difficulty is see-sawing between too easy and unbeatable as described. For one set of stages I'll drive normally and open a massive gap without really pushing, then the next set suddenly the AI times are obscenely fast. I feel like the AI time generation/difficulty needs an overhaul so that it can be more consistently challenging but not impossibly fast.

But that's realistic also. The cars might have damage, or might be driving more cautiously to avoid damage, or because they're ahead on points, trying to catch up on points. There's a lot of factors, it would be weird of the AI drove the exact same pace, every single stage. We all have good and bad runs, why is it any different for the AI to do the same?

[Xena]

Originally posted by TheEthicalPixel:

so that means you hold these records, by 15 whole seconds, which he speaks of?

Originally posted by Aden Forst:

I'm having the exact opposite problem. On max difficulty and no assists I can usually beat the AI by almost 15s, even on the initial shorter stages.

Any stage, on maximum difficulty, a whole bunch of people in the community could prove they beat the AI but a huge amount. I don't know what the deal is with the AI and the leaderboards, perhaps not enough people have done that event yet, but the AI aren't difficult at all.

[Squishy]

Originally posted by Stitch:

But that's realistic also. The cars might have damage, or might be driving more cautiously to avoid damage, or because they're ahead on points, trying to catch up on points. There's a lot of factors, it would be weird of the AI drove the exact same pace, every single stage. We all have good and bad runs, why is it any different for the AI to do the same?

I certainly wouldn't expect the AI to run an identical pace all the time, but the differences I'm having are extreme. From impossibly fast to so far off my pace I don't have to push at all to open big gaps in first place. I haven't really had any rallies where there has been any contention for first place, either I have it locked down by a huge gap or I'm completely uncompetive down around 8-10th (despite not driving worse than usual).

[Squishy]

Originally posted by TheEthicalPixel:

pc only scoreboard? or all platforms combined OP

The leaderboard I posted is all platforms, sim handling.

[Dawidovich]

I'm finding it to be incoherent at times. Some sections of a race it kicks my ass, others it slows down significantly.