The A.I 'Aggression' Slider Should Perhaps be Renamed to...

... 'Awareness'. Turning up the aggression slider, conjours up images of the a.i cars fighting you harder into/through corners, or making more risky dive-bombs, etc. Whilst this may be the reality, I haven't noticed any significant increase or reduction in this activity from them.
It was brought to my attention in a YouTube video from Mike(aka SIngeRacer) last week or so, that the a.i become much, much more aware of other cars around them(yours or other a.i) when the aggression slider is set to 100%.
My testing seems to to confirm this to me(ymmv).
Setting the Skill slider to what you prefer is still recommended, but I basically suggest that everyone set the 'aggression' slider to 100, regardless of what you set the Skill to. At least try it first and see what you think. I don't think it suggests what it appears to suggest.

 

My Aggression slider only goes to 100%...???

 

My bad, it should 100, yeah.

 

I agree.

I saw Michael/SingleRacer talk about it and gave it a try. Ever since I’ve had much better races against the A.I. There are a number of settings that seem to be oddly described or counter intuitive....unless I’m just oddly wired - it’s a definite possibility

 

So what settings are you using that work well?

 

Prior to the most recent update I was putting the AI strength anywhere between 100-120% depending on the car/track combination and my knowledge of both (I’m fairly new to Sim Racing) with the aggression at 0%. Believing that would give me tough, for my standards, competition without overly aggressive manoeuvres from the AI.

It didn’t work very well IMO as, like some, I found the AI would just bounce me at every opportunity.

Since the last update and switching to 100% aggression I’ve had to reduce the AI to anywhere from 85-110%. Some of that is from trying more cars and tracks, some probably from an AI patch improvement...and some from my lower skill level. Either way, the racing experience has improved for me

I’m probably not a good marker for settings as my ability is still highly variable depending on car, track and whether I’ve grasped any settings tweaks properly!

 

Either 0% or 100% Aggression is a bad choice. Try 50% to 80% range (50% is the default) and AI Strength at 100%. Once you get used to how the AI behave, you can adjust the Strength up or down accordingly.

 

Why is 100% Aggression a bad choice, Marc, when SingleRacer, OMiT and GregzVR have tried it and found it better?

I have also tried it and found that instead of driving up behind the car in front and just punting them, as they have been doing at 50%, they now attempt to get around the car in front. What might be different at 80%? Is this based on findings or on how it should be when the AI are properly calibrated? They aren't properly calibrated anywhere yet, as far as I can tell, so why would that be of use to us?

After JF Gagne's recent thread I have also sat out of races and watched them practise, qualify and race. In that thread you said that the Race pace should be slightly slower than Qualifying pace, and that's what I would have thought as well, but empirically testing this it now seems that the race pace is faster in all the series I use, open wheelers, GTs, prototypes and tin tops. I thought they were matching my Potential lap from Practise or Qualifying but in fact my potential laps were matching their race pace and I was consistently qualifying on pole or close to.

(I raise the AI level 1% every time I win and reduce it 1% whenever I can't keep up with the pack. Because the game doesn't do this I have to keep a spreadsheet of the AI level for every car and track combo I use and have to make significant changes when the updates come out.)

 

Because it is very much at the WIP stage. As you pointed out, even the basic speed is not yet calibrated for most series (frustrating, yes). Reiza already told us to not play too much with the Aggression until they have a better handle on things, so using the most extreme settings is unlikely to be helpful. Even the Strength slider is apparently still somewhat unpredictable when moved too far off 100%.

So play away with settings, but as is the case with investing time into set-ups when the physics are continuously changing, it won't help you in the long-term and it may be a complete waste of time if the algorithms are being reprogrammed by Reiza (which they are and have been, but we never know how close to final they are at any point until Renato tells us so).

 

Thanks, Marc. I must have overlooked that.

OTOH, I'm aware of having to keep starting again from scratch when each update comes out.

 

I don't see how anyone is wasting their time if they know that they have a better experience with aggression set to 100. And I don't see the logic of changing to a lower setting just because it's a WIP.

Experience beats theory, opinion and generalisation every time.

Granted, there may be a time when things change, but until then do what works for you

 

Traditionally, the open wheelers have been a crash-fest if Aggression was set too high. Are they now behaving appropriately at 100%?

 

Many thanks for this tip as it has definitely improved racing against the ai for me. The ai at 100% aggression are far more likely to go for moves either against myself or the other ai drivers (which is great to see) and yet are far more aware of where opposing cars are in relation to them, rather than the usual determination to stay on the racing line no matter what.

I tried F3s at Ibarra and had no issues with contact through middle sector trying to send it up the inside on most corners. Even parking it on the apex on the final hairpin would just see the ai drive round me. V10s at Spielberg we’re just as good with the usual carnage at turns 1 and 3 a thing of the past. I had a great GT4 battles at Kyalami, Donnington National and Imola. Even tried numerous late lunges at Variante Alta in a V12 to deliberately cause contact but the ai wasn’t having any of it.

Other people’s mileage may vary but for me this has made the ai far more enjoyable to race against. They are just so much more aware and quick to react to avoid contact whether that be at the start or during the race. The only issue I had was at Spielberg where I did notice the ai V10s on the inside at the first and penultimate corners would occasionally take a bit too much kerb to defend their position.