Okay, I have now 4 full 1994 seasons under my belt. I wanted to test this throughly before releasing. I have examined every single track intimately and collected the tracks that have absolute the fastest and most competitive ai's available. Wanted to offer the best possible F1 experience I can.
Feel free to share this anywhere. I don't need any credit. I haven't done the cars or the amazing tracks. Just want people to get this and see what AC F1 is at its best.
I played this last testing season with Alesi/Ferrari. I wanted to drive a non-winning car and fight for the last points positions. Ended up 4th in the championship way behind Schumacher, Hill and Hakkinen.
These default cars are slow at Spa and Hockenheimring qualifying because they choose S tires because when you unpack the data you'll see ai_tyres.ini has the Q tyre value max 17 km. Changing that to 25 will fix that as these are longer tracks and without adjusting it AI will choose "S" tires and is slooooow. As this is a pay mod I can't share my own modifications which fixes it. You have to do it yourself. Go to developer mode in CM, unpack the data, change the value and repack.
The championship is set for Alesi and my races were 10 laps but of course you can change these values to whatever you want from the json files. I also kept the grid at 19 cars. This is because more cars make the qualifying a complete pain as the cars in their warm-up lap aren't giving space as they are in real F1. That is one main thing which should be improved on AC2. That's also why I have them on low aggression.
I wanted to make as good championship experience as I possibly can. I have played a lot of rFactor2 and AMS2 vintage F1 mods during the years and those are great games... but absolutely NOTHING beats AC F1 experience when you build up a good package. Actually the AC ai is pretty good too, when things are set up correctly.
I hope you enjoy it. I will explain each and every track selection in detail. Of course there are sim racers that are much faster/slower than me. Just adjust the driver skill values accordingly.
Top driver rankings:
1. Michael Schumacher 99 (won the WDC by 1 pt margin to Hill)
2. Damon Hill 98
3. Gerhard Berger 95
4. Mika Hakkinen 94 (McLaren-Peugeot wasn't even close of being a winning package that year but Hakkinen still took that pig of a car to podium 6 times)
5. David Coulthard 93 (Williams 2nd driver)
Rest of the grid is 89-90.
IMPORTANT: DO NOT TOUCH BALLAST / RESTRICTOR ON CM. Those settings will screw things up in the season. Trust me. All have been set up properly.
I use max. aggression 36 for Schumacher and Hill. Very high aggression ratings make ai to bump you out off the track way too much when you try a fair overtake. It also increases ai mistakes too much and actually makes the ai slower. Lower tier drivers have the aggression low, otherwise they become very hard to overtake and again bump you off the circuit when they are in their slow qualifying lap. It's both annoying and unrealistic. The downside is that they're stupid enough to not to overtake sometimes and get stuck behind eachother. It's a compromise. Again set to match your preferences.
There is a skin for Senna but I didn't want to include him to the season as it'd be unrealistic as he only did those 3 races and died at Imola. D.Coulthard is the Williams 2nd driver.
The QF tyres are quite slippery and increasing the rear wing obviously gives better traction and lap times on curvy tracks like Barcelona, Estoril, Hungaroring, etc. The car requires quite active driving compared to say Kunos Lotus 98T based mods. But overall the car drives amazingly well and have excellent sounds.
Race 1: Interlagos (ASR 1992 version)
Extremely competitive ai. Amazingly done track. A masterpiece. Managed to get the 8th position in qualifying and crashed in the race as I hit the bump from wrong angle (video).
Race 2: Okayama
Very fast ai. Well done, quality execution. Great track. Managed 4th position in QF, spun in the race and ruined it myself.
Race 3: Imola 1988
I tried the ASR 1992 version but the ai is slow on the variante Villeneuve. 1988 track version is absolutely superior. One of the top tracks ever made. The layout is similar so no biggie. It's possible to get a pole with perfect lap but I managed 4th pos. I got 3rd in the race and had an amazing battle with teammate Berger (video). You can see on the video how well the ai drives. Overtaking is hard.
Race 4: Monaco (ASR 1992 version)
This track version is pretty much identical with the 1988 version. Just lights on the tunnel. AI is just as competitive and drives well. The QF leading cars collide sometimes in the 1st corner after start which is just cool. With these cars you need something like 1:19 for the pole which is challenging. A bit slower than in real life. I get to 1:20-1:21.5 range if I manage to get a clear lap. Getting a clear one is always difficult on Monaco. Couldn't beat Schumacher in the race but finished 2nd.
Race 5: Barcelona (ASR 1992 version)
Excellent, competitive ai. I had a hard time qualifying as I couldn't find a good setup and I was 10th. Did okay in the race and was 4th behind Hill, Schumacher and Hakkinen.
Race 6: Montreal (ASR 1992 version)
Ai is probably among the slowest here. I got the pole with less than perfect lap of high 1:17. Race pace 1:19-1:20 was enough for an easy win. You can substitute this track with the 1988 version if you think it's faster. It might be marginally faster but not by much. Droit du Casino is a bit different on that and I believe the 1992 version is more accurate. Looks fantastic so I kept it.
Race 7: Magny Cours (ASR 1992 version)
The ai is good. However, I got the pole 1:15:9 which beat Schumacher by 0.4 seconds. Not a perfect lap but decent. More rear wing works on this track as it has a lot of slow curves. The track is challenging but enjoyable to drive. Schumacher got better start and I trailed him all through the race. My bigger rear wing gave the advantage on slow corners but he ran away on the straights. Finally cars collided a bit and Schumacher retired and I won the race.
Race 8: Silverstone (ASR 1992 version)
Very good ai. However I got the 2nd place in QF. Looks amazing and the sparks are wild on this track (video). I collided with Damon Hill and my steering broke. Zero points and retired from the 2nd place.
Race 9: Hockenheim (ASR 1992 version)
Ai is quite competitive, especially in the race. Nice track and pretty much equal to the 1988 version. Of course this is more accurate as the two slow chicanes (Bremskurve 1 and 2) are placed correctly. Managed to get 3rd.
Race 10: Hungaroring (ASR 1992 version)
Sadly this is a very slow ai track. Same issue with the 1988 version. You can easily clock times like high 1:20 and low 1:21 with bigger wing in the qualifying while AI can only make around high 1:24. But the track itself is fine. Just no challenge and always easy to cruise to win here without major mistakes. There are no better alternatives.
Race 11: Spa (1988 version)
The 1988 version ai is faster so I chose it. The layouts are identical. I can lap it around 1:52 and the best ai cars can do 1:53. It's not fast enough but much faster than the ASR track where the difference is 1:49 - 1:55.
Race 12: Monza (1988 version)
The ai is again better in the 1988 version. The ASR 1992 is not bad but there is a difference. You will need 1:24 for a pole and that requires very good lap. I can do low 1:25 or high 1:24. Excellent track, great races.
Race 13: Estoril (ASR 1992 version)
You need low 1:15 for the pole which is very challenging. It's very hard but you can get close with bigger rear wing and perfect lap. But excellent track and ai, competitive races and qualifying.
Race 14: Jerez 1988
There are no alternatives to this track. It's very decent and you can have good, competitive races.
Race 15: Suzuka (ASR 1992 version)
Superb track. Pretty much identical with the 1988 version. You need high 1:40 for the pole which is challenging. Again bigger rear wing helps.
Race 16: Adelaide (ASR 1992 version)
Ditto. Brilliant track, more polished than the already very good 1988 version. Super fast ai. I have always sucked on Adelaide and I'm happy to get to top-10 in qualifying. One mistake and you're on the concrete wall. Never got into podium on this (neither in the 1988 version) but always a thrill to race (or find yourself crashing out hehe).
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
1. Get SOL (I guess everyone already has that)
2. Get Custom Shaders Patch (Ditto. You absolutely need this for the sparks)
3. Download the championship files (you need full the full version of Content Manager, costs $1. I gladly paid more but it's up to you)
LINK:
MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.
www.mediafire.com
Unpack the files to /Documents/Assetto Corsa/champs
4. Get the 1994 cars
www.acfligue.org
Unpack the files to Steamlibrary/Steamapps/Common/Assettocorsa/content/cars
or install with Content Manager
5. Download the ASR tracks
www.asrformula.com
Download Imola 1988
This 3D-track was made by carrera4 for the F1 1988 rFactor mod. It was converted and enhanced to Assetto Corsa by Rainmaker and members of schwarzbierbude.de. The conversion of the 1988s tracks is a project of schwarzbierbude.de your friendly...
www.racedepartment.com
Download Monza 1988
This 3D-track was made by carrera4 for the F1 1988 rFactor mod. It was converted and enhanced to Assetto Corsa by Rainmaker and members of schwarzbierbude.de. The conversion of the 1988s tracks is a project of schwarzbierbude.de your friendly...
www.racedepartment.com
Download Spa 1988
This 3D-track was made by carrera4 for the F1 1988 rFactor mod. It was converted and enhanced to Assetto Corsa by Rainmaker and members of schwarzbierbude.de. The conversion of the 1988s tracks is a project of schwarzbierbude.de your friendly...
www.racedepartment.com
Download Jerez 1988
This 3D-track was made by carrera4 for the F1 1988 rFactor mod. It was converted and enhanced to Assetto Corsa by Rainmaker and members of schwarzbierbude.de. The conversion of the 1988s tracks is a project of schwarzbierbude.de your friendly...
www.racedepartment.com
Download Okayama International Circuit
PAY ATTENTION: DO NOT COPY THIS TRACK TO ANY OTHER WEBSITE, BEFORE ASKING ME FOR APPROVAL. ALSO IS NOT ALLOWED TO CHANGE THE CONTENT OF THE TRACK IN ANY KIND OF WAYS AND REPRODUCING IT FOR OTHER PURPOSES AND GAMES PRIOR MY APPROVAL. THANKS FOR...
www.racedepartment.com
Unpack the files to Steamlibrary/Steamapps/Common/Assettocorsa/content/tracks
or install with Content Manager
6. Download the sparks mod (installation instructions in the txt file inside)
MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.
www.mediafire.com
I hope you enjoy it. Worked hard on this one. If people like it I will release as polished other years too (1982 (WIP), 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1998, 2007).
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