this is a single experience i had with AMS2 (using 1.1.3.5 and 1.1.4.0) I would like to share. It is a rollercoaster ride and to be honest release some steam. 3 weeks ago I want to try out the Championship mode. Doing a race weekend on the weekend. I selected Brasilian F3 championship because it is based on a real championship and never have raced alot of those tracks or the car before. First quali: Already played Curbita in AMS2 befrore so quali was very short. Placed 2nd, was 1st but skip rest of session somebody burned a time into the asphalt 10(!) seconds faster than any other competitor. (Imho Bug) Race 1 was a great, AI still need some work. I was faster on the straight and in corners, accl and braking is the AI better. But over all I increased the difficulty for the second race by 2. Race 2 I'm last. Oh does the F3 have reverse grid? Crazy... started was wondering why back of the grid was still F301... so no reverse grid... just me starting from last position (imho Bug 2, or was it because changed settings?). The race itself was challenging but luckily managed to win - mainly because the AI is also crap in the first 2 laps. So i went from last to 5th in two laps and than could overtake the last opponents. Second Weekend interlagos, low knowledge never raced on AMS2 before. But finished 3rd on Quali. The AI was a lot stronger on this track - or me being more crap. Don't know. Race 1 the AI has really some issue on the straight but is for me unbeatable in breaking, sometimes I think they can break easily a car length later. I could win with 20ms or so with a finishline overtake. Exciting as **** but, noticed the AI setup was again back down to the original value. (is this a design decision? - odd). Race 2 again hard fight and alot of fun, but really think the AI is lot stronger than in round 1 or I'm crap on this track. Also noticed some rubber band effect which already annoyed me in PC2 - I hoped this would have been changed with all the rework :-( 3rd Weekend - now with 1.1.4.0 - never heard of this track. So quali was horrible, needed to learn the track with base setup and ended on P11. Race 1 was fun, ended on 7. Still lot to learn and I should have a better setup and can't say something about the AI. Race 2 started on 7 and went to 1. The Ai was horrible slow - looks like they never leave the "slow start lap"-mode. (Bug 3?) The laptimes where down by 5 seconds. After the race I cooked up in the cooldown lap, so I used "Skip Cooldown lap". Suddenly I'm dead last granted no points and considered "On Track" in the points screen for the last race (imho another Bug or follow up of Bug3?). I'm really sorry, but the game needs more polishing. While the driving is great all those bugs are not. For me the experience is a example why I don't play the game more often and to be honest would not suggest - in this state - to others. Will properly get angry comments here but want to give a honest opinion to the devs. Best Regards
Absolutely, no question about both those statements. I never noticed something like that. Are you sure you didn't just mess up a corner exit? If you're slow out of a corner onto a long straight the field will catch up and it can seem rubber-bandy.
thanks Gvatter. No I'm pretty sure. I did not analyze this for AMS2 (yet). At least for PC2 tried to reverse engineered the logic. Lets say you are half a second faster than the AI field, but starts last. The AI will pick up speed after you pass them. The backmarker will be a on your tail. They will follow you as a pack and even close the gap with you to the leader. This stops if you have enough distance between yourself and the following cars. I think 2 to 3 seconds. I even checked the laptimes in the replay. The AI is picking up speed - but only for the player and if in the 2-3sec window - if they fight each other everything stays round about the same. They slow down if they pass you. You could of course exploit this. If the AI is in the pursuit mode you could try a bad move, so the following group losses some seconds - e.g. bad block @ odd position - you could shake them and they fall back into the normal mode.
Yes, this AI behaviour when 2/3 secs behind the player is what some users described as "AI rage turbo mode", and it doesn't dissapear if you set aggression to 0. It's in the game since the very beggining.
I think the "rage turbo mode" emerges out of tendency for the AI to be in several clumps for the whole race. When you get yourself into the middle of a group of 5 or 6 cars, it's hard to get them to separate from each other. The OP was a good one--it also shows how all aspects of the game interact with each other. I'm personally looking forward the new custom championship tool when it's ready (but not before). But I'd happily take another delay on that if it meant we could get more AI improvements. 1.1.3.5 was a big improvement over what we had in March in this regard. The content set in AMS2 is such that single-player racing will be a big part of player base. For me keeping accurate track of points and having AI drivers with consistent "personalities" is the gravy on top after being able to race any car against AI on any track without glaring problems. (Exceptions being that some car/track combos will never work like F1 at Velopark. Second exception is that there will always be quirks to AI. Third exception is that some AI "problems" originate with the player--including me). I personally love AMS2, which is what makes some of the problems with AI racing more frustrating--I just haven't been able to adopt a "take or leave it" approach to the sim. Hopefully they will continue to work on this, which will make the new championship tool whenever it's released all the more awesome. (Obviously anticipating good things to come here, LOL).
