I normally treat the AI like they're real drivers as well, contact free is the way to go. However it gets harder and harder to respect a bunch of cheats lol. Then the Tokyo grind is a good 'break room' to share my feelings with Kokubun and his cronies
I always start slow as well and never have problem overtaking. It's when the AI gets angsty and wants to overtake, either because they pit before me, already are a lap or more behind and suddenly don't want to drop back further, or when they change their mind after you pass them an they suddenly find the gas pedal again.
Today I did the Autopolis 1H race, another relaxed drive into the sunset. (Seems only Tsukaba and RBR have rain?) I had picked a car before 1.13 came out, had it all set up, 399pp, I enter the race, and now the car is 414pp lol. I do some quick adjustments, HP down to 80. I start the race and the AI behind me barges through, drives off leaving me in the dust. At the end of lap 1 I'm down to 20th watching the race disappear in the distance. FL was 2:25 by the AI, I quit seeing it go nowhere.
I tuned the car differently, close ratio transmission reduces PP while that's all you need, and I went with the stanard brakes to be able to get HP up to 87. Still slower acceleration and top speed as the AI but better able to keep up. I set the difficulty to easy this time, which seemed to help. AI FL was 2:26 this race.
The AI was actually the best it has been so far. I normally don't drive slower cars and maybe it's true they get worse the faster the cars are they need to handle. Most of my experience is PP 800 and higher. Anyway, I had a decent duel with Yamanaka which actually resembled something like racing. I passed him in the corners, he drove by again on the straights with higher top speed. Fine, all contact free, side by side was no issue. I guess the AI was in its spot so didn't need to do crazy stuff.
After a while Yamanaka dropped back and out of range then I closed in on Fraga for a bit of a duel. Fraga did resort to a dive bomb to get ahead again, instead of simply driving by me on the next straight. Anyway I saw it coming, let him through and simply undercut him to take the position again. Fraga then just drove past me with faster acceleration and top speed. No clue why the dive bomb.
Fraga gave up as well after a while, actually they all did. The AI was lapping 2:26 at the start until holding steady at 24 sec ahead of me. One by one the grid started slowing down during the race letting me pass. I was lapping 2:29, 2:28 all race long like clockwork. Managed a high 2:27 once while drafting but generally around 2:29. The AI kept slowing down, letting me get close, then speeding up again going out ahead a bit (Fraga toying with me) and eventually dropping back.
The front maintained a 23/24 sec lead for 2/3rd of the race, then they slowed down. With 6 minutes left, me still going the same pace like clockwork, the AI gave me the lead and dropped a further 12 seconds back before the finish. Yay I guess?
It was a relaxing drive in the sunset, but I can't call it a race. It's either marginally interactive pylons to pass during the race, or ravenous beasts when they're behind their race schedule and need to boost ahead. As for difficulty and GT, I have no idea anymore. It's all over the place.
1.2 mil collected, 10.5 mil spend on the McLaren F1 BMW, wasn't that 450K in GT Sport? Big refresh in the UCD but only one car I didn't have yet. The all bronze car reward for human comedy was also a pre 2000 car, so 15 left to collect. Slow going.
