This game is really strange sometimes.....can we talk about difficulty please?

[Sir Crashalot]

So after finishing Menu Book 39 I turned the difficulty down to "easy" for the purpose of grinding. I usually grind on Dragon Trail (either the Ferrari Challenge or the World Turbo Car race) and on the Highspeed Ring in the American Clubman 700.
Although I'm not a very skilled driver, all of those races are really easy to win on easy difficulty. This was ok for some time but now those races really start to get boring, so today I decided to spice things up a bit by switching to hard difficulty.
So I start my first race on Dragon Trail (the Turbo one) and guess what? There's no difference! Still the same easy win as always.
So I went to Highspeed Ring and it's the same. Still P1 in lap 1.

I admit that there may be a small difference since I overlapped the first car at the end of lap 4 instead of the middle of lap 4 on the Highspeed Ring and I took P1 on lap 4 instead of lap 3 on Dragon Trail but that could also just be the variation of the races (not every single race is exactly the same) and is definitely not what you expect when switching from the easiest to the hardest difficulty.

So, what's going on here? Is the difficulty setting just placebo?

 

[Nebuc72]

No, it's not placebo. The AI are just bad, so Easy is "Really really bad" and Hard is "Bad".

 

[smoothbore12]

So after finishing Menu Book 39 I turned the difficulty down to "easy" for the purpose of grinding. I usually grind on Dragon Trail (either the Ferrari Challenge or the World Turbo Car race) and on the Highspeed Ring in the American Clubman 700.
Although I'm not a very skilled driver, all of those races are really easy to win on easy difficulty. This was ok for some time but now those races really start to get boring, so today I decided to spice things up a bit by switching to hard difficulty.
So I start my first race on Dragon Trail (the Turbo one) and guess what? There's no difference! Still the same easy win as always.
So I went to Highspeed Ring and it's the same. Still P1 in lap 1.

I admit that there may be a small difference since I overlapped the first car at the end of lap 4 instead of the middle of lap 4 on the Highspeed Ring and I took P1 on lap 4 instead of lap 3 on Dragon Trail but that could also just be the variation of the races (not every single race is exactly the same) and is definitely not what you expect when switching from the easiest to the hardest difficulty.

So, what's going on here? Is the difficulty setting just placebo?

I think that @Nebuc72 answer your question but i want to ask something.

Are you manage to receive the CRB every time you run these races or sometimes yes and some not ?
If not is more that yes , other than spice things up you loose credits choosing low payment races as main menu .

Of course you can do as you please , but ......

 

[Sir Crashalot]

@Nebuc72 : I know AI is bad but one would think they are at least just faster on higher difficulty.

@smoothbore12 : I do get CRB on almost any of those races now. I learned to keep my distance from AI and I learned where it's safe to overtake.
I know you do LeMans and I know it pays much better but I just don't have the patience for those 30 minute races.

Guess I have to use slower cars then to get a bit of a challenge....but still, I can't remember ever playing a game with no noticable difference between lowest/highest difficulty.

 

[Nebuc72]

@Nebuc72 : I know AI is bad but one would think they are at least just faster on higher difficulty.

@smoothbore12 : I do get CRB on almost any of those races now. I learned to keep my distance from AI and I learned where it's safe to overtake.
I know you do LeMans and I know it pays much better but I just don't have the patience for those 30 minute races.

Guess I have to use slower cars then to get a bit of a challenge....but still, I can't remember ever playing a game with no noticable difference between lowest/highest difficulty.

They are faster on a higher difficulty. Much faster, really. But when they are so slow at a base level, it's negligible to anyone competent at driving a car.

 

[smoothbore12]

@Nebuc72 : I know AI is bad but one would think they are at least just faster on higher difficulty.

@smoothbore12 : I do get CRB on almost any of those races now. I learned to keep my distance from AI and I learned where it's safe to overtake.
I know you do LeMans and I know it pays much better but I just don't have the patience for those 30 minute races.

Guess I have to use slower cars then to get a bit of a challenge....but still, I can't remember ever playing a game with no noticable difference between lowest/highest difficulty.

The " good " thing in such a case is that you learn clean and wise driving since smallest mistake cost you the CRB .
I run some small and profitable races ( including CRB) but sometimes i wonder how did i miss CRB and for what .
It's very " sterilise " conditions in some races and i don't like it at all.
I feel like am sailing in a sea of compromise 😂 and since i have the habit to chase faster laps,i end up without CRB for a few inches of one wrong braking for example.

I use to run lemans but since i got all the cars of the game , am trying with various cars and try to find best settings for each car and .......and the weather spoils everything sometimes.
I " hate " Tokyo but i run Sartegna from time to time .
Spa is out of my preferences due to 1 hour limit but its a lovely track.

Anyway , i don't know what cars you use but always can make your runs more challenging if you choose difficult cars to drive or with lower power etc.etc.

 

[Sir Crashalot]

OK guys, guess you're right:

Hard

Easy


But it doesn't feel like this. Got P1 on both races at lap 3. It wasn't harder to win, seems like AI just pushes more once they have been overtaken. I usually never check how far they're behind.


@smoothbore12 : Yeah, CRB is kinda strange also. I had races with multiple bumps and wall contact and still got it and on the other hand there were races where I didn't get it although I wasn't aware anything happened. And yeah, I rely on CRB. 127k for <10 minutes is ok IMO, 85k is a bit meh.

 

[suomi1]

Happy rubber banding man!

This is also what destroys the purpose of custom race mode.

 

[TumeK5]

Who would've thought, easy is slower than hard!

 

[Sir Crashalot]

Who would've thought, easy is slower than hard!

View attachment 1298674

Who would have thought @TumeK5 makes a sarcastic comment?

 

[Meythia]

Happy rubber banding man!

The AI is so super inconsistent that you cant even 100% surely tell there is rubber banding.
Though I have never noticed the AI doing faster laps BECAUSE I was in front in my games, which leads me to believe there is no such thing (unless specifically enabled in custom races,which I dont do).

But what I think is that they waste more fuel or have worse tyrewear when being close to other cars (whithout necessarily being faster), and by that needing longer or an earlier pit stop in case fuel is enabled or tyrewear is a factor.

 

[Clinton Ducks]

So after finishing Menu Book 39 I turned the difficulty down to "easy" for the purpose of grinding. I usually grind on Dragon Trail (either the Ferrari Challenge or the World Turbo Car race) and on the Highspeed Ring in the American Clubman 700.
Although I'm not a very skilled driver, all of those races are really easy to win on easy difficulty. This was ok for some time but now those races really start to get boring, so today I decided to spice things up a bit by switching to hard difficulty.
So I start my first race on Dragon Trail (the Turbo one) and guess what? There's no difference! Still the same easy win as always.
So I went to Highspeed Ring and it's the same. Still P1 in lap 1.

I admit that there may be a small difference since I overlapped the first car at the end of lap 4 instead of the middle of lap 4 on the Highspeed Ring and I took P1 on lap 4 instead of lap 3 on Dragon Trail but that could also just be the variation of the races (not every single race is exactly the same) and is definitely not what you expect when switching from the easiest to the hardest difficulty.

So, what's going on here? Is the difficulty setting just placebo?

I think I noticed the same thing in a different way. I’ve been playing on hard since I started, but for some reason I was really struggling on the kei car event at Lake Maggiore. After a few attempts I was completely sick of it so decided to ‘cheat’ by turning it down to easy, just so i could get it out the way and move on. But it made absolutely no difference! I turned it back up to hard and eventually won it after a few more attempts. Made me wonder.

 

[Dave A]

The AI is so super inconsistent that you cant even 100% surely tell there is rubber banding.
Though I have never noticed the AI doing faster laps BECAUSE I was in front in my games, which leads me to believe there is no such thing (unless specifically enabled in custom races,which I dont do).

But what I think is that they waste more fuel or have worse tyrewear when being close to other cars (whithout necessarily being faster), and by that needing longer or an earlier pit stop in case fuel is enabled or tyrewear is a factor.

Sure you can, you check for patterns. Rubber banding isn't used in every event, but it is definitely present. Some races, the AI will lap over 20 seconds slower when they get a big lead over you. That's not inconsistent, that's rubber banding.

It is also present in custom races even when you think its turned off.

 

[KAlex122]

Besides speed, is there a benefit or problem changing difficulty? For example even more brake checking mid corner on lower difficulty levels?

I might open another account to start from scratch but this time on medium instead of hard with the intention to drive more cars with stock setting instead of much tuning and always with CRB in mind. But i don't want even more brake checking or not using full throttle on the straight by the competition.

 

[skydragon49]

Besides speed, is there a benefit or problem changing difficulty? For example even more brake checking mid corner on lower difficulty levels?

I might open another account to start from scratch but this time on medium instead of hard with the intention to drive more cars with stock setting instead of much tuning and always with CRB in mind. But i don't want even more brake checking or not using full throttle on the straight by the competition.

No benefit it all. The payout will still be the same. No problem it all too, as the guys in the thread have discussed.

 

[KAlex122]

Thanks. I am clear about the payouts. Just can't imagine that them driving slower doesn't ruin even more corners or being strange at acceleration.

 

[skydragon49]

Thanks. I am clear about the payouts. Just can't imagine that them driving slower doesn't ruin even more corners or being strange at acceleration.

Rather than starting a 2nd account I'd give it a try at some race events using different cars. Choosing a proper (maybe underpowered) car may create a nice challenge, way more than setting the difficult to hard. It really hones yout driving skills.

 

[KAlex122]

I want an empty dashboard to fill. That's why i need a new account. :-)

 

[KAlex122]

As i am starting Cafe Menu Book 38 on my new account i want to say that medium difficulty definitely felt easier/slower than racing on hard difficulty.

Before i entered most of the Menu races with, for example, 570pp at a 600pp race and won pretty easily on hard. Now, on medium i enter at about 530-540pp and still win by far. So it's not an academic study but it definitely feels like there is quite a difference.

I want to say that ai-cars use even less % of throttle on the straights and brake check even more mid corner. So it's not a very pleasant experience on that side. On the other side being able to use more underpowered/stock-tune-cars gives more freedom.

Be informed that i only did the cafe-campaign races up to now. I don't know how it affects chilli-races and such...