So I decided to train my AI on BLGP Reversed, one of the worst tracks in the game for overtaking IMO, since most braking zones are on curves. Once the AI got to a decent time (~1:00), the game was on! I start last on the grid and try to overtake all 11 of them in a 10-lap race.

The AI of course don't care one whit about you, so you have to overtake in tricky braking zones without disturbing the AI's line. Brake too early and they ram your rear; brake too late and you slide wide and they bump you into the dirt. Makes great practice IMO for racing on servers with aggressive and/or inexperienced drivers.

Maybe you disagree, but hey I found a use for the AI, so .

One minute laptime? Which car were you using?

It sounds like a fun (if potentially aggrivating) challenge: "Who can cleanly take a field of AIs in the least amount of time/laps at BL1R?"

If the AI is well trained it evades you at all costs. I can make the AI drive into the dirt and leave the track just by driving beside it... It just moves away and away from me and suddenly it's gone into a cloud of dust. I feel rather sorry then, but I just didn't know it was running out of track...

A nice method for training them to drive cleanly is giving them some rather wide car (your choice, what should they learn to drive?) and put one AI with a horribly short final drive next to them on a short circuit. The quick AIs will lap the slow car rather often in the session and each time they'll learn 'eek, driving head on into someone is bad' and one day they'll know 'driving one car width beside someone is fine!'

And on topic:
Anyone who can pass untrained AIs cleanly is a good driver. He has patience, spacial awareness and the ability to control his car.

Vain

I tried running ten AI LX6s around KY3 with me in the LX4 the other day. Even after 15 laps I was over a second a lap quicker than the fastest one, without cutting corners. There are some corners the AI just never seem to learn the limit on.

I sometimes give myself an FXR, the AI's an MRT and do a shortish race ... but I make a pointless pitstop.

That brings us to a challenge - FXR vs MRT challenge!

what car?................and does the AI get trained??.............
how many laps??

Quote from chanoman315 :

what car?................and does the AI get trained??.............
how many laps??

The more you let them drive, the more they train themselves, the faster they get. Although in it's current state the AI doe hit a limit. I mean, they'll never get a WR or anything.

Quote from joen :

The more you let them drive, the more they train themselves, the faster they get. Although in it's current state the AI doe have limitations. I mean, they'll never get a WR or anything.

to 2secs off the WR??

some tracks for me the AI get slower, like the oval, westhill,aston gt, with lots of long sweeping corners, the AI get more scared each time.. it sucks

Quote from chanoman315 :

to 2secs off the WR??

Nah, maybe more like 4 or 5 seconds of the WR. And even that may be way too optimistic. The AI has been unchanged since S1 AFAIK, so it needs a lot of work, you can clearly see they have much more trouble handling the fastest cars. Take a look at how they drive the BF1 for instance, they're twisting the steering wheel like they have Parkinson's disease and they lift off the throttle at sections where you can easily floor it.

Quote from joen :

Nah, maybe more like 4 or 5 seconds of the WR. And even that may be way too optimistic. The AI has been unchanged since S1 AFAIK, so it needs a lot of work, you can clearly see they have much more trouble handling the fastest cars. Take a look at how they drive the BF1 for instance, they're twisting the steering wheel like they have Parkinson's disease and they lift off the throttle at sections where you can easily floor it.

depends on the track of course
my FOX AI does on the oval (AI's PB) 45.65, WR is 45.46

Quote from [RCG]Boosted :

depends on the track of course
my FOX AI does on the oval (AI's PB) 45.65, WR is 45.46

Really? Me and my AI mates stay very far from the oval, so I wouldn't know
But yes, ofcourse it will depend on the track a lot as well. I don't use the AI often but I had them running a marathon training session at Blackwood a long time ago and they were about 4 seconds of I believe (pre-patch).

btw probably the best way to train the ai how to overtake is with a mixed field and then manually copying/renaming the kwn files

Quote from [RCG]Boosted :

depends on the track of course
my FOX AI does on the oval (AI's PB) 45.65, WR is 45.46

I thought the AI couldn't deal with banked turns ... Or is the FOX not fast enough for this deficit to come into effect?

Quote from Bob Smith :

One minute laptime? Which car were you using?

It sounds like a fun (if potentially aggrivating) challenge: "Who can cleanly take a field of AIs in the least amount of time/laps at BL1R?"

Sorry, forgot to say I was using the BF1. I gave my AI probably 50 laps to train.

My AI never avoid me. Maybe I'm just an easy target.

Sounds like good excerice

I find that last chicane to best place to overtake at BL1R, on my last race there I had one passenger as success penalty weight and we raced 15 laps with one pitstop with XFG+XRG, I did won even guy that did come to 2nd did lap 1 second faster best lap time. There I made few overtakings at that place, was only place where was possible as I suffered somewhat from that extra weight, also I could not keep my place when I did overtook that long straight uphill at finish line was just too long to keep my lead. But keeping head cool and making solid laps I won and I think this kind of excerice might be very well helping to get that stability and nerves on shape too

I also think it's a great training tool and really wish more people would take advantage of it. The AI is slower, yes, but they also don't care much for your car at all, so any overtaking takes some actual planning. Several years ago I used to practice by seeing how quickly I could overtake the AI after giving them a 10-15 second head-start and doing my best not to make contact. If you can manage that then you're more likely to be a cleaner and smoother driver online.

I'm just getting so tired of joining a server to race and being smacked around by other cars who try to fit in the smallest of gaps, without any foresight whatsoever. Being a good racer means making smart decisions about where you should be in relation to other cars for the conditions. Too many racers are reactionary and just go for it without considering any upcoming corners or the lines that other cars will need to be taking. Yes, that only comes with experience, but if you aren't a good racer then you shouldn't be making bold moves that often end up ruining your race and the race of others.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just seldom impressed with the quality of racing on the STCC Silver & Gold servers, especially considering it's supposed to be a step up from the poor/learning drivers (and that's not a swipe at Becky, I still feel she's done a marvellous thing for LFS!).

I "trained" the AI a while ago when my friend stayed with me. He wanted to have a go at my desk-wheel so I set up AS Cadet with a few UF1s (after I'd first fired up GPL, which just made him feel inadequate ). After a while bashing the UFs about he was hooked (muaahahaha, got him) and beating the UFs maybe once out of every three runs, so we took a break and I had them run laps with my setup for a while. It worked quite well! They improved noticeably and he was soon back to swearing and cussing as the AI outclassed him. He vowed revenge and I said "well, you'll just have to buy it now, won't you?"

So I agree, the AI aren't utterly useless after all, especially if you're a rookie driver who's never simmed before :up: I race against them at the RallyX tracks sometimes as well - they make handy brakes

Quote from Linsen :

I thought the AI couldn't deal with banked turns ... Or is the FOX not fast enough for this deficit to come into effect?

Well, I checked it last night and found out that the AI does in fact come fairly close to the KY1 WR after 80 laps, or so. They actually don't lift the throttle any more and are really good on tires (left front dropped to about 50°, which is 30° below the default temperature ).

Quote from Linsen :

I thought the AI couldn't deal with banked turns ... Or is the FOX not fast enough for this deficit to come into effect?

It can, but it takes a lot of laps for it to master them.

And what would you know about banked turns, Otaku?

Quote from Vain :

It just moves away and away from me and suddenly it's gone into a cloud of dust. I feel rather sorry then, but I just didn't know it was running out of track...

Sure, Vain, that's what they all say. Wrecker!

Wether AI can handle the Oval depends on the car. In a FZR or BF1 they will oscilate their steering input and crash after they figure out they can do it all full speed. In a FOX or XRT they do just fine.

On a normal track, when they have enough experience to not hit you, they will run off the track in a turn when you outbrake them and take the inside line. They want to take that turn the way they know is the fastest, but they can't anticipate that the turn has become sharper because you occupy the inside line. They enter way too fast and there is little they can do about that half way through.