Wow--AI much improved in 1.1.3.5!

There is the ongoing thread for specific AI issues where a bunch of folks (including me) were complaining about major AI issues last month. All I can say is that it is dramatically improved in the latest release! I did 30 minute GT3 races at Kansai and Brasilia tonight and had really had a great time once I got the AI settings dialed in.

Going up to 80 on the aggression setting really made a big difference in terms of the AI driving more sensibly and predictably (no going 3 wide in the grass) while also racing hard. In the past we've talked about the AI "giving up" after getting passed and dropping way back only to come roaring back with unlimited push-to-pass about 2 laps later. Tonight I passed them and they dropped in immediately behind and, in some cases, got back around me.

Would still like to check overall lap times to see to what extent they experience tire wear. At Brasilia I lost some relative speed as the race went along--might just be that I didn't have a great setup.

Will also have to try some open wheel cars as a further test, as those are harder to do AI-wise I think.

 

Wow, I have to strongly disagree unfortunately
I raced GT3 at Kansai as well with some friends over the weekend, overall about 2 hours of actual racing and the AI was absolutely merciless. They just terminate you by crashing into you from the side like a wrecking ball so often you're alongside them. Backmarkers put on a fight with you like it's for P1 although they should get blue flags, they generally just drive their own line as if you weren't there and force you onto grass or into the wall...it was the worst AI experience we have had since we started our little private league at the beginning of the year Maybe it was just an unlucky track/AI combo but subjectively it feels like the latest update was a big step backwards for the AI, after several improvements over the last few updates. And we did try different combinations of skill and aggressiveness after our main race to see if anything changes but no luck. It's crazy how these things differ from one player to the other!

 

I still find the AI pretty kamikaze on various tracks and in various class of vehicle. They are improved but still need more tweaks. I find AI speed a bit inconsistent as well. On some tracks I need to drop the AI up to 10 in strength to balance it out.

 

My opinion is the AI has improved very much and is in most cases really good to drive against. Sometimes I think I'm racing against myself.
But the AI is still very inconsistant through the classes, tracks, practice / quali / race. To get a balanced AI you have to try out several settings before starting a race weekend. I don't think that anybody has fun to do this, this may take 1/2 hour till 1 hour just to find the right AI settings.
And sometimes they are really heavy bullheadedly, kicking you off track or slowing you down like a safety car.
But compared to the AI in AMS1 (earlier builds, latest were quite OK) or the first AI in AMS2 they improved very much but need some polish.

 

Im not super experienced with ams2 yet. But so far I think the ai has been pretty terrible tbh.
Punting (and just keep pushing) and ramming from the side have made me quit a couple races already.
I know theres usually a bit of a learning curve to racing ai, but in these cases Im not sure how to avoid it.
I have turned down aggression but maybe I should have turned agression up if I understand correctly?

 

Turning up the aggression can help.
I've seen people describe the aggression setting as something more like an "awareness". I think i agree.
At very high aggression setting, the AI is more aggressive, but around 60-80, their awareness seems to be a lot better than at the 20-40 range, at least from my experiments with the setting.
Personally, I have my aggression set to 80% and change the skill to set the difficulty of the AI.

 

I just set the agression to 80% and youre totally right.
Instantly changed the game for me, hopefully Ill be able to enjoy some more ai races/championships now!

 

I experienced pretty much the same problems than before. Car/track combo dependant may be?

First race, Lotus 79 at Hockenheim 1977. AI hunting me like a bunch of dogs, going side by side all the race and mantaining the same speed regardless the race line they took, going over the grass, boost rage mode ON, etc. The same as before. AI 100% / 50%. Watching at the replay was funny, four AI hunting me like mad dogs going two wide all the entire lap, even on the chicane and the super fast corner. It felt like Ciri being pursued by the Wild Hunt in The Witcher.

Second race, M1 Procar at Spa 2001, 100% / 50% too. Practice and Qualy AI pace was a lot better than in the race (12 laps mid clear race at 13 PM). With a lot better I mean race pace was 6 secs a lap slower than P/Q lap times, while my own pace only suffered 2, max 3 secs a lap without pushing.

Didn´t have the opportunity to test for AI behaviour because I was in front of the pack with a +3 secs a lap difference, so a boring race but practicing heel & toe at least. AI performance between P/Q and Race sessions was very unbalanced, AI lap time spread in the race was less than a second between first and last. On practice and qualy, they hunt you and try to aggresively past also, gaining speed on corners which they naturally go slower when the player is not in sight.

On that race, AI was a lot slower than me accelerating out of La Source and the Bus Stop, they are slower at Eau Rouge/Radillion and carry noticeable less top speed at Kemmel straight and before Blanchimont.

 

Try 100/80?

Im racing Spa in the McLaren MP4/12 at the moment and Im experiencing the same stuff as you btw.
Seems like the ai is super fast in corners but I just breeze past them on the straights...

 

Yes, I will try GT3 at Kansai 100/80 tonight, as per the good reports here. I remember doing that combo last month was a mess, so if there are any improvements I surely will see them.

 

Thanks for posting, everyone. This is an important topic because I find it really interesting that there is such a variation of experiences. My experience was that the GT3 series was great before one update, then they got overly aggressive, now they are a bit better (latest update)... I am not a fast driver, so my AI skill is usually set to about 90%. My aggression setting is usually around 90 to 95 because they really come back to fight for positions.. but they have not really pushed me unless I drop into their line at the wrong time.. Now with F1 (1970s era) I'm just too slow with AI at 90%.. but they are very patient with me.. I was purposely blocking just trying to see what they do and they will back down most of the time..
Anyway, I am reading all of your posts because of course we all want to find that "sweet spot". I wonder if the AI skill level and aggression somehow work together.. I mean, for a given AI strength, would the aggression level have the same effects as with a different strength? Is aggression "awareness" as some have suggested? Maybe the experience for faster drivers is different than for us slower drivers lol..

 

Okay, so I did a few 12-lap races at Jerez tonight. The two GT3 races were great--hard racing and minimal contact (I think the damage display had 2 points in one race and 5 in another).

F3 was different story. They really wanted a piece of me. I suppose part of it is that with tin tops a little door handle scrape is not big deal whereas that type of thing in open wheel is bad news.

And they couldn't really get separated from each other. In the GT3 race, things spaced out as the race progressed and cars ran side by side where it made sense and there were passing opportunities. In the F3 race there were a couple of groups (that I could see, of course) going 2 and 3 abreast through multiple turns and never getting separated. In one case I had two cars pass me on the inside and one on the outside in one turn (one of the cars on the inside was completely in the grass). Four-wide through a turn is just not how open-wheel racing works.

Almost feels like there aren't really different AI "modes" between different types of cars.

So, I'll stand by my comment that they are much improved in this month's release--hopefully more is to come!

 

I agree.
I did a race with the P4 radicals, and the raving was good. Distinct groups formed, very little contact and overall good racing.
Tried the formula trainer advanced after that, and it was.... Let's call it different.
I often do 10 lap races, but I had to restart around 7-8 times, before I could finish the first lap without being sent off track. It was frustrating to say the least. It gave the impression that the AI thinks the cars are smaller than they actually are, and consequently go for move for which just not enough space exists.
What I also noticed is that it isnt just the player who is treated like that. They also spin eachother.
The before mentioned P4 race, had all cars finish, whereas the FTA rave had three retirement. Again, after just ten laps.
This is also somewhat annoying for the player, because after fighting your self to to front, you just drive of. The AI prevents itself from countering you, because it's to busy fighting itself.
During both races, only ten cars were on track and the difficulty was set to 100/80.

 

In the Feb update, Renato made the statement about the AI development:
"an increased breakdown of previously global parameters allowing for car-specific tuning of various aspects which compose their overall performance - this allows for more detailed fine tuning of AI in any given series, which is crucial in a sim featuring everything from rental karts to racing trucks".

That sounds like Reiza have now increased the scope to make the AI behave differently depending upon which cars they're driving, so hopefully more appropriate and distinct driving styles for each series are going to be possible.

 

That's good to know with future in mind, because I long for the day when AI drifts vintage cars into corners. Think a fast chicane and Fiat Uno. That deserves the fullest of sends. It would be amazing to look at.

 

As advised here, I tested GT3 class at Kansai, 100/80, 21 AI cars, full weekend P/Q/R, 15 laps race.

In comparison with my last experience on this track, AI was much better. They don't spin battling each other at first turn, and are generally more aware of the player.

I noticed several problems tough, and peraphs some bugs.

AI is still overly aggresive on some parts of the track, trying to overtake where there are no room, even with wheels on the grass, without loosing speed. They still carry the same speed regardless the race line they choose to take, but in general they now don't race two or three sided all the time.

On the bugs front, practice started dry and ended wet. AI lap times at the begining were around 2:04 on slicks, I don't know if they used hards or softs (more on that later)

Qualifying was in dry condition, but AI lap times were around 2:11 all the session, so I think they forgot to replace the wets for the slicks. Then, race started dry but their lap times were as in Q, so still wets fitted???

Another thing I noticed is AI performance at 100% strenght is highly reduced than my previous experience with this car/track combo. I needed to use hard slicks to have a competitive weekend against them, if I fit softs I'm 2.5 secs a lap faster. I wonder if the AI don't use softs at all (even in Qualy), or if AI at 100% were slowed down in the recent patch. Previously, I couldn't compete at that strenght level.

Regarding AI pace through the entire lap, they brake a lot at the hairpin and the final chicane, accelerating faster than the player on exit. They are still faster than the player out of first corner, the Esses, and slower at the hill after the Esses. I can match their lap times, but using hard compound. During the 15 laps race, AI lap times were always the same from start to finish, so no affected by fuel load and/or tyre degradation still, or at least it's what it seems to be.

Because those bugs, I needed to start several times the weekend. The last attempt I configured the entire weekend to be clear skies due the problems AI seems to have to fit the right tyre between sessions.

 

OK, so I tried a bunch of times to do a GT3 race at Bathurst tonight and the outstanding AI issues definitely became very clear.

At the bottom the big downhill straightaway they can brake about 50m later than human and slow down to a much slower rate of speed for the corner. When I inevitably got into the back of them, they stay glued to track and I go spinning off onto the ice, I mean grass. If I brake early to avoid that contact, then cars behind get up alongside me (since they can brake so much later) and possibly pass in the grass.

Up top, they try to pass in impossible locations, which is partially a byproduct of them sticking in groups the entire race.

Ultimately was never actually able to complete a 10 lap race, no matter how conservative I tried to drive (aside from just pulling over and giving them a 20 second lead, of course).

So, I guess Bathurst is a good AI stress test. Look forward to more improvements in coming releases!

 

I recently posted a video (gameplay) with the Super V8s in Bathurst. Overall the AI performed very well, in some points it was faster than me as in the insertions and exits of corners, in the straights it was quite slow but they always had perfect braking, the only thing that made me turned up the nose is that throughout the race the AI ran side by side even in the mountain sections, without trying to overtake each other.

I always use these values: 100/115% opponents and 90% aggression, I think they are the most truthful values to have a beautiful warrior AI

@alink Last night I tried Azura with the old Minis and it was fun, the AI performed well compared to the other categories, usually in turns 6 (Grand Hotel Hairpin) and 8 (Portier) they try to overtake you causing accidents, with the Minis strangely it does not happen

 

Yeah, maybe it's because the cars aren't so fast the AI has more time to think about. And yes, it was fun to fight with them. But with 98% AI, as Iused, they were very slow, think with 100%/110% it would had fitted better to me.