Ai Difficulty Settings

[MowTin]

I noticed that in this game you can't setup the same level of AI for all cars and all races. To tell you the truth I am a little disappointed about PC2, the previous version was much better, of course is just my opinion, but project cars 2 it does not convince me too much.

I think PC1 had the same problem. Probably what was initially confusing was that you 70 rating in PC1 wasn't maybe a 50 rating in PC2. That makes you psychologically feel like a worse driver.

I can't agree with you about PC1 being better. It seems that PC2 is better in almost every conceivable way. I especially enjoy the manufacturers and invitational events.

Also, the Ai difficulty level problem has a lot to do with realism. In a real race, drivers have lap times that are pretty close to one another. If like me, you start out 7 or 8 seconds off the competitive lap time then it will be hard to set Ai that matches your speed.

What I do is practice in time trials until I'm competitive with the Ai. It takes a lot of work but it's very rewarding. I've had the best racing experienced in PC2. Races where I had to practice over the course of a few days before I was good enough to win. But winning was so rewarding.

 

[Sloppy Shades]

I just finished all the Formula Rookie series and found with serious time spent on tuning I could set fastest laps consistently and win races by several seconds at AI 78/Aggression78.
Started Clio cup same difficulty and after some 30 or so consistent laps I could not get faster than 51.839 , still putting me 11th in qualifying with leader on 51.458

Wondering if I was doing something wrong I checked out the human leaderboards

http://cars-stats-steam.wmdportal.com/

World record time is 50.337 my time 233 in rankings. So I didn't feel quite so bad knowing the lead car was putting in a time approx 1 second off the human WR!

I'm going to raise the AI for research and see what level would equal WR human times. I reckon that's the most accurate way of judging the level they are at. Would be interesting and challenging to race the AI at WR levels knowing human could go faster, although I'm never going to win.

My conclusion at this point is that the best way to set the AI level for a new class/car and have a challenging but fair race would be to go to time trial and find out your fastest clean time with no cars in the way. Then just go to a qualifying session with different ai settings and sit in the pit box until the fastest ai car is equal to
your fastest TT time. So if you compete at your best level you know you can win, but any mistakes would fairly take you down the order.

 

[DesertPenguin]

That's what I use the practice session for. I will set AI to a level and then set a hot lap. I will skip to end and see what the AI did and adjust to where I'm in the top 3. Then I do a qualifying session and wherever I end up is where I end up.

 

[Sloppy Shades]

For the record after my testing with the Clio cup at the highest level AI 120/100 the lead car managed 47.403. 4 seconds faster than the human WR. I had to watch him race in cockpit cam to see where I could make up some time and learn tips.
It was an education for sure! He cheats, albeit not intentionally but the car has some god-like traction/grip assistance. He took Clerk Curve in 4th, changing up into 5th where he stayed all the way until Druids which he took in 3rd. he just lifted off the gas and may
have braked (it didn't look like it from cockpit way too smooth) but the car glided around that corner without losing much speed. I'd like to see a human go full throttle down the straight in 5th then take Paddock still in 5th plus carry speed to Druids!

For anyone wanting a human WR pace AI race the setting 94/94 gave a best time of 50.441, just shy of the human WR (50.334). Interestingly enough this dude STILL used 5th all the way around Paddock! Something fishy going on here? I figured over 100 maybe they cheat but they still do at 94..
Their tires are of course already warm when they exit pits but we already knew that, was also interested in why the telemetry of all 4 tires on all the cars showed as 0.07PSI. Presume the telemetry not connected? (the green tires were though).
I've lost a little excitement racing the AI now, having previously believed they were cars the same as we have controlled by the computer. Knowing now they have abilities we do not have access to (insane grip) presumably means the only difference in AI levels is the speed they are allowed to go at
using that insane grip?

My personal final competitive AI level turned out at Brands to be 74. Later races in series back up to 79. Now Ginetta GT5 I just won Oulton 10 min race by 30 seconds. I think I'm just going to start every series on 80 as that's when they can tune their gears, so it will always a challenge.
(After writing that started Snetterton 200 next race in calendar with AI 80/80 and first qualifying lap I'm 3 seconds clear of the field. I'm glad that the AI tuning is not a huge hurdle. Mind you there's is only one chance you can make to gears on the G5 which is lower/raise final gear one notch.)
For the race I put the AI up to 90/90. 11 min race won by 11 seconds. They always in mirror but no challenge but at least I knew one mistake and I would be last. That Ginetta GT5 is SOOO easy to drive it's like GT Sport. So anyone struggling please choose this car and this track to beat AI 80 and over easily.

if only you could adjust the AI during a race....or some kind of auto tune option where if the car behind you laps more than a second slower than your current best race lap they could be adjusted up an increment at a time until they lap 1 sec/.5 sec/.25 sec slower. Wishful thinking!

 

[Wolfe]

@Sloppy Shades -- The AI are said to run on a tire model that is similar to what's used in other sims, but there's no getting around the fact they're on different physics. I wouldn't mind that so much if the AI were affected by cold tires or standing water, and if they were more consistent. I'm willing to accept the disparity for more complex physics on the player's car.

It's just something to bear in mind, like the first time I was racing VGTAs on a cool, cloudy day, and I realized I was having an extra difficult time because I was the only car in the race that experiences tire cooling.

 

[raven214]

@Sloppy Shades -- The AI are said to run on a tire model that is similar to what's used in other sims, but there's no getting around the fact they're on different physics. I wouldn't mind that so much if the AI were affected by cold tires or standing water, and if they were more consistent. I'm willing to accept the disparity for more complex physics on the player's car.

It's just something to bear in mind, like the first time I was racing VGTAs on a cool, cloudy day, and I realized I was having an extra difficult time because I was the only car in the race that experiences tire cooling.

I like to use the late 80's F1 car as an Indy Car stand-in, and last night watched them race at Road America with rain in the middle of the race. The AI were noticeably slowing down going through a couple big puddles on the back stretch, and I could see them push wide in several turns when hitting puddles. It certainly seemed like they were affected.

I do wish the AI were affected by tire heat. At least at a simplistic level. It seemed their rain tires stayed nice and cool even as the track dried with a surface temp well over 100*.