Experiencing Abnormally Hard & Extreme Rubberbanding AI: Is this normal?

[Coolsy101]

Hey all. I'm new to the forums here so I do apologise if I accidentally posted in the wrong place. I was told by a friend that I should make a post here, asking if what I'm experiencing is normal or not, so I'll do my best to explain the problem. Please note that I'm not a slow driver or a super fast one either. I'd call myself an average driver since I'm not as experienced or have a lot of dedication like a majority of the pro drivers.

Firstly, the AI in GT League's Professional and Endurance classes are for some reason exceptionally hard. I've seen posts where others have managed to beat these races with lots of room for error and don't mention anything about tuning except for Weight Reduction. So I tried to replicate the same results, but I end up struggling in these races, trying everything possible to catch the AI or just even to keep up. I'm beating the AI by just a mere couple of seconds and even have to switch TCS back on just to keep up (I race with no TCS majority of the time so I can improve my speed). In the Beginner and Amateur leagues, they're so easy to defeat and I have no idea why the difficulty all of a sudden spikes. The most notable race was the Gr.1 Prototype Endurance Series, where I couldn't even catch up to majority of the leaders until they ran out of fuel and after they went into the pits. This left me extremely confused.

Secondly, the rubberbanding does not appear normal to me at all, and I experience it at its worst when my car is Stock and even slightly tuned. First example of this was the Gr.3 Endurance Series. People recommended the Mustang so I used that with Hard Tires and pitted only a couple of times to change tires and fuel (keep in mind I only touched the Weight Reduction and left the power alone). In every single straight I was catching the leader. But on the final lap, as I'm slip streaming and catching a Huracan in 1st place, he speeds off, leaving me in second place AND sets a new best time. Checked the stats and saw the Huracan did a lot better than the Mustang so I swapped to the Renault Sport GT3 and reduced the weight. This still left me not even getting close to a BMW M6 GT3 that was in 1st, and the AI also set a new best time close to the end (the stats indicate that the M6 GT3 is slower than the Renault Sport GT3). I managed to beat the race after increasing my power, with the AI still setting fast lap times close to the end of the race. These times vary from being a couple hundreds of a second faster to more than 1 second faster.

The Midship Challenge in the Professional League is when things started to get extreme. I picked Willow Springs Big Willow, chose the McLaren F1, left it stock and used Sports Soft Tires. While I am racing on Lap 4, a yellow 458 Italia driven by the AI "H.Jalonen" that I was closing in on in 1st place (which mind you accelerates slower than the McLaren F1), gains a massive speed boost, takes off and sets a new best time, which I instantly beat. Every lap from there on, he sets a faster time than me. I couldn't even overtake him at this point so I ended up coming second. I retry the race and the same thing happens but much earlier in the race. Lap 6, the same driver with the same car does it yet again. The times this car is setting is becoming a second faster every single time, which the AI previously before couldn't even beat my times. I try the race a third time and kamikaze attack the 458 Italia sitting in 4th due to the amount of rage I was feeling, just to stop that car from "cheating" (probably not cheating but it felt like it). 1 lap later at about Lap 4 or 5, the same thing happens yet again. I manage to beat the race and thought things were fine after I managed to beat Race 2 of the Midship Challenge in 1 shot. Things were about to get extreme yet again.

Race 3, Autodromo de Interlagos with the McLaren F1, stock and Sports Soft Tires. H.Jalonen's name popped up and his yellow 458 Italia was there yet again. As I get close to first place, he gets a massive speed boost and went from 10th place all the way to 1st with a time that is 3 seconds faster than my own, so I'm stuck trailing him. He keeps getting away each lap and I am forced to enable TCS to 3 just to keep up. Despite doing that, I still can't catch him, so I'm forced to kamikaze attack him. First hit doesn't work as he must've been reset and keeps on going. I kamikaze attack him a second time, send us both flying into dirt that slows us down super quickly and he gets reset back onto the track. I'm forced to drive myself out but I somehow manage to stay in front of him this time. The AI was consistently setting faster laps every time I set a best lap.

I rebuilt my PS4's database and the same thing is still happening in other races. I have no idea why this is happening and it's making the game frustrating to play. I just want to enjoy Single Player mode without having to resort to slamming into other cars and using shortcuts just to win. Is this normal guys or not?

 

[FerrellJ]

That's pretty much the norm. I think it's actually worse than past GT games- there was usually one car that was several seconds faster per lap than other cars but now they've added in dynamic BoP adjustments depending on your proximity to the leader. It's incredibly blatant and patronizing.

If you really want to have fun with it, put way softer tires on than the AI uses and watch them try to keep pace.

 

[RCKakashi14]

You know what I do to those rubberbanding 458 Italias in MR Challenge?

I RAM THEM.


But seriously, the McLaren F1 can shake off even the rubberbanding 458s in MR Challenge. Some tuning needs to be done, though.


But I don’t feel the rubberbanding at all in the GR.3 Monza race.

 

[Coolsy101]

That's pretty much the norm. I think it's actually worse than past GT games- there was usually one car that was several seconds faster per lap than other cars but now they've added in dynamic BoP adjustments depending on your proximity to the leader. It's incredibly blatant and patronizing.

If you really want to have fun with it, put way softer tires on than the AI uses and watch them try to keep pace.

I always use the softest tires possible, they still do this. It's incredibly annoying

But seriously, the McLaren F1 can shake off even the rubberbanding 458s in MR Challenge. Some tuning needs to be done, though

But I don’t feel the rubberbanding at all in the GR.3 Monza race.

I suck at tuning so that's not an option for me
I had the AI rubberband on Monza. Must be my game bugged out or something

 

[Sven Jurgens]

The AI always rubber bands. It lets you catch up and then speeds up. They can suddenly go 5 sec per lap faster after you catch them. You can literally herd the back closer to the front driving close behind them, it's more like a game of tag than racing.

No need to re-install etc, yet reloading the race can help as the grid will be different. Which cars speed up when is also different each time. Keep trying and either you'll beat them on skill or get lucky.

If they get an aggressive boost, let em pass again and draft behind until their boost runs out, pass them in the last lap. Pit early in endurance races to make the rubber banding work in your favor.

The AI also rubber banded in GR3. Monza for me. First I was herding the back closer to the front as I tried to get the clean bonus and passing a block of cars is not the best way to do that. So I was just pushing them to the front, still closing 3 sec per lap on the leader, waiting for them to pit. I drove the Maclaren for fuel efficiency so first pit stop late to pass the AI, second pit stop early, 12 laps before the end. I was first for the last 8 laps, and the AI kept the difference at exactly 10 sec for the longest time. Then they pitted in lap 28, only lost 8 sec in the pit, went to 20 ahead in lap 29, then suddenly down to 14 sec lead in the last lap. While I was doing laps like clock work. The AI just throws the dice each lap for what kind of speed they're going to use

 

[RCKakashi14]

I suck at tuning so that's not an option for me
I had the AI rubberband on Monza. Must be my game bugged out or something

The McLaren F1 I use has stock power but minimum weight.

On the Gr.3 endurance, it’s best to keep the car’s stock power (or BoP horsepower for powerful cars) and minimize the weight. Since the race has 4x tire wear, using RS tires is comepletely fine. With that setup, the AI would normally be one minute behind me when the race ends.

 

[Coolsy101]

The AI always rubber bands. It lets you catch up and then speeds up. They can suddenly go 5 sec per lap faster after you catch them. You can literally herd the back closer to the front driving close behind them, it's more like a game of tag than racing.

If they get an aggressive boost, let em pass again and draft behind until their boost runs out, pass them in the last lap. Pit early in endurance races to make the rubber banding work in your favor.

The AI also rubber banded in GR3. Monza for me. First I was herding the back closer to the front as I tried to get the clean bonus and passing a block of cars is not the best way to do that. So I was just pushing them to the front, still closing 3 sec per lap on the leader, waiting for them to pit. I drove the Maclaren for fuel efficiency so first pit stop late to pass the AI, second pit stop early, 12 laps before the end. I was first for the last 8 laps, and the AI kept the difference at exactly 10 sec for the longest time. Then they pitted in lap 28, only lost 8 sec in the pit, went to 20 ahead in lap 29, then suddenly down to 14 sec lead in the last lap. While I was doing laps like clock work. The AI just throws the dice each lap for what kind of speed they're going to use

If it's normal behaviour, then I guess it's normal. It's just that, would you consider it normal if the rubber banding forces you to enable TCS to keep up or brings the race to the point where winning is nearly impossible without cheating? In a lot of racing games, I've never experienced it that badly. It's gotten worse for me lately in GT Sport.

On the Gr.3 endurance, it’s best to keep the car’s stock power (or BoP horsepower for powerful cars) and minimize the weight. Since the race has 4x tire wear, using RS tires is completely fine. With that setup, the AI would normally be one minute behind me when the race ends.

Yeah, that didn't work for me. Racing Soft Tires were degrading very quickly so I had to switch to Racing Hard. I was losing a lot of grip, especially without TCS. I don't know if using TCS wears out tires more than not using TCS

 

[Sven Jurgens]

If it's normal behaviour, then I guess it's normal. It's just that, would you consider it normal if the rubber banding forces you to enable TCS to keep up or brings the race to the point where winning is nearly impossible without cheating? In a lot of racing games, I've never experienced it that badly. It's gotten worse for me lately in GT Sport.

It's normal for GT Sport :/ However winning is not nearly impossible without cheating. In GT League you can win with cars several classes under the recommended class. The endurance challenges have also been made easier, they took a lot more attempts at release. On mission 8-6 I got the 500 mile king of the ovals trophy just from retrying that mission over and over. Keep trying and you'll get it eventually.

Anyway it all seems easy once you start driving with the A/S crowd online!

 

[J_Cornelius]

The Midship Challenge in the Professional League is when things started to get extreme. I picked Willow Springs Big Willow, chose the McLaren F1, left it stock and used Sports Soft Tires. While I am racing on Lap 4, a yellow 458 Italia driven by the AI "H.Jalonen" that I was closing in on in 1st place (which mind you accelerates slower than the McLaren F1), gains a massive speed boost, takes off and sets a new best time, which I instantly beat.

I had the same issue here. I raced this one with a detuned 458 (N500) with a bit of weight reduction, so I've got nothing to say about straight line speed.

But here's the point : I was on race hard tyres, and that famous yellow 458 was on sport hard.
I don't mind if AI changes pace and runs faster than its previous lap. I mean who knows, maybe the car is set to 800hp, with a fuel map set to 5 for the first couple of laps (I know, this doesn't make any sense, but it's could be a possible explenation).

What I can't accept is the fact that a car on sport hard take the curves faster than the same car on race hard. That is pure nonsense, dynamic BoP or not.

 

[Coolsy101]

I had the same issue here. I raced this one with a detuned 458 (N500) with a bit of weight reduction, so I've got nothing to say about straight line speed.

But here's the point : I was on race hard tyres, and that famous yellow 458 was on sport hard.
I don't mind if AI changes pace and runs faster than its previous lap. I mean who knows, maybe the car is set to 800hp, with a fuel map set to 5 for the first couple of laps (I know, this doesn't make any sense, but it's could be a possible explanation).

What I can't accept is the fact that a car on sport hard take the curves faster than the same car on race hard. That is pure nonsense, dynamic BoP or not.

This. This is exactly what I was trying to explain. I had my tires on Sports Soft, more grip than the AI and that 458 wasn't phased at all. The 458 even had much later braking points and was still faster. Every time I tried those braking points, I'd go flying into the dirt, which is absolutely ridiculous.
This issue actually managed to creep into the Ferrari One-Make race on the Nurburgring GP track. I had a 458 just like first place, stock car and Sports Soft tires and he somehow kept getting away from me. I had TCS enabled and was so desperately cutting corners and accelerating at much earlier points while at the same time risking spinning out (I don't trust the tire grip in this game at all when I'm in the first 3 gears of any N300+ car). I lost that race 3 times before I managed to grab a win, with each race being faster than the previous, but still being unable to catch him or even keep up with him.

 

[J_Cornelius]

The 458 even had much later braking points

Yes, forgot to mention this one. Those irrationnal braking points. I remember this yellow 458 not braking at all on turn 8 of the las lap of Big Willow. He rammed my back bumper and he was like "close up in the wing mirror" till the finish line.

For the Nurb GP, I wanted to go clever like "let's cleanly stick his back until he makes a mistake". It was the last lap, I was sticking him since one lap and a half. We approached the biggest braking zone of the track (just after the long straight) and... victory !! He braked too late (way too late for the tricky braking zone system) and went straight on the hairpin, hit the wall, reversed gear, ... At this time i was already on turn 2 or 3. I was like 3 or 4 seconds ahead, running a very decent pace (didn't want him to catch me but didn't want to make any mistake). Trust me or not, right after the chicane, he was right behind. He even hit me on the last turn, right before the straight. He passed the finish line 0.1 sec after me, that was hot !!