Help - Does AMS2 drivers really want to race online?

Yes, I think the stats needs to have some more information which allows drivers to easily compare how they are performing in relation to other drivers in the same car/track.

As @Magnus said, in the P4 Cup standings page for example, I'm listed as P1 but nobody knows I only did one race, and that race was against bots only and as it was my first race in the service, tha AI for that race was not very competent at all so it was really easy to win.

Also, may be that "leaderboard" needs to have some sort of ponderation on the amount of races the user drove, AI bots, average lap times, best lap time, etc.

I'm not good to dig for information, so forgive me if that information is present and I have missed it

Another thing I'm currently seeing is that, in my stats page, the race history is showing the wrong track at which I raced. My only race was P4 Cup at Kansai West, but it's showing Cordoba NATL currently. I think the table is picking the track in the current competition instead the track I raced in.

 

I can sign in/up on my Android mobile.
Do you see any error message?

 

Concerning stats, you all have valid points.
I plan to put more info into the stats

Exactly that, it's due to the fact that I've change tracks during his weekly event, which normally shouldnt be done, but hey we're testing new ideas. Right?

 

Standard message.
Oops, there was an error. Expired. Logged out.

 

Probably wrong email and/or password. I will improve this message

 

I reset password, no change. On PC it is logged in automatically.

 

Yes dudefaceguy is me. I did 2 races in P4, but the first was at Kansai in the cold/rain before the recent changes - I finished 11th. Then I did a single race at Cordoba and finished 1st.

The AI was probably sandbagged from my prior poor showing, but the old race isn't counted toward my average because it was at a different track. As @roszman said it's an artifact of monkeying around with the series. I guess I will have to do more P4 races to get a more realistic average, too bad...

Edit: average lap time, or something like that, might be a better measure for the championship standings than finishing position, considering the adaptive AI should always put everyone in the middle.

 

My first race was P4 at Kansai and I finished very poorly, which led to a similar outcome you describe at Cordoba - AI thinking I was very very poor and basically letting me win (I lapped most of them twice.) Then curiosity took hold and I found them much much tougher when I tried again.

It’s interesting as I’ve always struggled in Solo mode to find a good AI level to race against. Each track and car combo, alongside my knowledge or lack of knowledge, requires a tweak but I never know quite where to start. This leads to lots of restarts. Whilst I looked at this as a great chance to drive against other humans the unexpected benefit is a much better AI experience than I’ve tended to have in Solo.

I may have to ask if we can have a Nordschleife series just so I can have AI races that learn my skill level on that track with different cars

 

I really hope the developer also has some ideas that RCO can also be (mis)used as a single player career mode.
In Racing Life you need to set up races and results manually. In RCO the machine does it for you.
I like that.

 

I was thinking the same, but racecraft is about finishing races, not about fast laps. While racing online vs human or AI I found out that sometimes I can be fast, but I can't finish the race with good place - due to bad decisions during the race or lack of stamina or lack of racecraft.
Also AI is just a replacement for real drivers. I hope that with time there will be need for AI in RCO, that's why I dont want to put a lot of features around it.

I plan to add time tables for track and cars combos, there we will be able to compare laps.

I know that Adaptive AI doesnt fit well in to RCO championship, since it's a moving target and everone can race against AI with different skill level, but as I said earlier, for now AI is just a replacement for human drivers.
But I will try to think about it

 

Sure, I was already considering Nords But I would need to implement multiclass racing in RCO first. I will do that

 

I will look in to that and PM you later

 

Yep, I am thinking about it but first I want to have multiplayer going on.

 

BTW, I did new thread in Fan Sites subforum:
Do you want ranked multiplayer? Here it is :)
you can always thumb it up, or put there one or two words about your experience with RCO

 

Is it possible to have the AI tuned to a group of drivers rather than tuned individually? So I would be part of a split, all racing against the same AI level - then the results would be more comparable across different races and drivers. So maybe I would typically finish 9th but I'm racing against the same AI as the leader who typically finishes first or second.

It seems to me that you are stumbling into creating a really awesome asynchronous multiplayer racing system.

Edit: It may be wise to wait a little while to promote RCO - you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. We are a bunch of dedicated pals who are willing to deal with changes and quirks, but that won't be true of random new players.

 

Cool idea but how to group drivers per AI level? 1 group with AI 81-90? other with 91-100? It would still be little unfair. For sure something to put more tought in to.
EDIT
I think I am starting to get it , but with 4 active drivers there is a chance that each of us would end up in it's own separate split
Maybe points from race should be adjusted by AI skill? So for a given postion in race the driver who raced against higher AI skill would get little more points and vice versa?
Similar adjustment is made already in RCO but for races against human drivers.

We have this thread going, few drivers are racing on RCO each day, so I am trying to use momentum. Besides it's still the same forum.
Let's see what will happen

 

It's also just intuitively more satisfying to see yourself finish in higher positions over time, and eventually "graduate," rather than always finishing 7th and seeing an abstract number increase. This is how I run AI in my own single-player races: rather than tuning it so I podium and then increasing the AI skill as I get better, I tune it so that I typically finish second-to-last on a new track or car, and as I get better I will see my position improve.

Ah, I didn't realize that other thread was on the Reiza forum, that makes more sense.

 

How to balance AI for a single driver against an all AI grid, how to balance AI when you have three, four or five different human drivers and how to balance AI across all future license groups. AI balance is an interesting topic that’s going to run throughout RCO’s progress and future I’d imagine.

The idea of points awarded in correlation with skill level seems elegant and, in my opinion, importantly sits well with the adjustments for races you’ve made mention of against other human drivers. As the main thrust of your initial idea was to provide easy to find competitive multiplayer racing it seems a solution sympathetic to the initial premise and its mechanics would give much needed cohesion and avoid too much confusion.

Although, as someone who is likely to be racing the AI more than other humans until RCO can get some more regular users around the world, I can see a more random element to AI level across the pack may help retain early adopters. Finding themselves mid-pack for every race may lead to disillusionment. Of course, it may not - because just like Coldsalmon I’ve found starting at the back of Solo races and racing tougher AI has taught me more than just how to get round a new track but how to overtake, when not to even attempt it and where on that track the viable opportunities may arise and it won’t just be the two of use that think that way.

Perhaps some concessions/tweaks may need to be made to avoid losing early adopters coping with more AI than humans in the short term, but it’s important the vision that moved you to start this isn’t irretrievably lost along the way.

A final note in relation to my last point, as I’m concerned I’m starting to ramble.

Previously in the thread you had DaVeX from JustRace post on page four of this thread. He mentioned collaborating and whilst I can understand that you may not wish to, the premise itself only goes to highlight the unique selling point of your idea. What JustRace and RCO offer are two sides of the same coin. One side specialises in organised and scheduled league races focusing on evenings and weekends for members; the other side of the coin offering scheduled, non league but skill ranked races throughout the day and night for people of various time zones/locations on a drop in basis for members. Both have their USPs and show that there’s a space for both. From the point of view of a selfish user, I could argue that having JustRace and RCO coming together would cover pretty much all needs with both potentially benefitting from users of each platform also using the other. However, that is just a greedy and lazy user speaking, the point is that there’s room and need for both with their clear vision.

 

Personally I would prefer to concentrate on human vs human features first, but I see there is a need for AI racing. If it will move single players closer to multiplayer,then I will improve AI features

What do you mean by that? Should we randomize AI a little just to add element of suprise? It's cool idea I will think about it.
Currently, in one player race, Adaptive Ai is putting you in the front row instead of middle of the grid, at least that's what I am experiencing atm

Me agree but again multiplayer first

We're already talking, DaVeX and me I would like to join forces with JR.

Thanks again for great feedback
I've read a lot of great ideas during last week, Now I need to analyze, prioritize and implement them. It will take some time, but I will get back to you

 

I know RCO is meant as iRacing light, but please take into account that AMS2's Player base is and will be so small, that RCO will be played mostly with ai.
So hopefully RCO will also be a Kind of single player career mode thing.

For syncronous online racing experience hundreds of RCO users would be necessary. And we all know that this is never going to happen.