I've seen that same behavior, with AI cars running a few qualifying laps, then pitting. But I've also seen AI cars head out for qualifying and keep running until they were out of fuel. I was running two different tracks when I saw the different behavior, but I'm pretty sure that qualifying was set to 15 minutes in both cases.
Not really a bug, just an ommision I guess - but AI players don't seem to react to stop and go penalties when applied to them via "/p_sg" while they do react to drive through when applied via "/p_dt".
EDIT: actually - this only applies in practice mode, just tried it in race mode and they do react
More of a small improvement suggestion than a bug that shouldn't be that much work: the AI's braking technique is somewhat lacking, especially in the downforced cars. They try to stand fully on the brakes and the come off them and back on and back off and so on. You can see it in their braking trails on a set with slightly stronger brakes. If they could estimate how much they could press the brakes without locking based on current speed (downforce) and tyre condition they would easily find another half a second I reckon. Anyway, nothing major.
AI don't seem to be aware of grip loss due to punctures. An AI tried to take the corner at the end of the straight on Blackwood at full speed with the tyre condition showed below. It just went off the track and crashed.
Could the ai be even more faster? Another thing is that the ai are a bit slow off the line, in the starts. I guess the fastest method to start is still to rev up and drop the clutch so could the ai use this method as well.
Are AI trying to over correct wheel movement when they drive over kerbs? Or do they just have very flimsy hands with great strength but no resisting muscles? Because their steering and hands shake very violently and incredibly quickly to side to side when they drive over kerbs.
AS Cadet and the chicane braking on the second sector is a good place to demonstrate it, see the replay.
The following cars(all with default hard track setup) hit the wall and get damaged at the South City Chicane Route turn 3:
- FXO, pits 5 times in a 17-lap race
- RB4, pits 3 times in a 17-lap race
- XRG, pits 3 times in a 17-lap race
- XFG, also hits the wall but it doesn't hit hard enough to need a pitstop
I think what might be causing those crashes is that corner being downhill and therefore they're not braking enough for it because the trajectory when hitting '4' is correct.
I'm not sure if this is planned to be addressed when the AI become more aware of human players, but it's an issue I saw last night so I wanted to mention it.
When returning to the pits after their cool down lap, the AI don't realize if there is a player in the stall. I raced 8 AI players and passed all but two. We all ran a cool down lap and returned to the pits. I went into the stall after the first two AI guys, and then the next car that came into the pits tried to fit into the same stall, pushing me out the back. This was on South City, but I'd imagine the behavior is the same everywhere.
That said, I really, really like that the AI run a lap then pit. It prevents a massive pile-up at the finish line and teaches good race etiquette to newbies.
oddly enough they seem to be very aware of other ais around them ... in fact so much that they step on the brakes on the bl backstraight when theyre in the tow of another ai in front of them
How are we supposed to know what garage is assigned to us if there's no qualifying enabled on the server, since you start on the grid and not in the pits.
Also, even if you DO start in the pits, the stalls all look the same and the numbering is quite difficult to see on your way out.
I'll have to run a test and check, because I'm fairly certain that the AI don't exit, pit, and return to the same stall throughout a race. It doesn't seem to be consistent.
Edit: Okay, I've done some testing on this, and here are the results I've seen. AI cars, after the race, enter the pit stall that corresponds to their number. ie: AI1 will stop in the first stall, AI2 in the second, and so forth. For some reason, the later AI cars have a hard time getting into their stalls regardless of their finishing order. For instance, on a race around SO Classic with 8 AI LX4s, cars 1-5 successfully entered a stall after the race, but cars 6, 7, and 8 all failed and did a drive through of the pits, stopping at the end of pit late. Car #7 tried to enter the stall, but hit the wall. He then backed up (hitting the wall behind him), then finally gave up and exited pit lane, plowing into the other two cars that were already sitting at the end.
The pits that the cars use for refueling do not seem to correspond to the car number, the position in the race, or anything else that I can determine. In the race I tried, AI#1 who was running in first place pitted in the 9th pit box (out of 16 boxes total). AI#2, running in second place, pitted in the 12th pit box. AI#7, running in 6th place, pitted in box #5. This is made even more complex by the fact that two stalls share one pit spot. For instance, South City has 16 places to pit, but 32 stalls/garages. Because all of the AI pit at the same time, there are not enough pit spaces for them all. I haven't tried running with >16 cars yet, but I'm going to give that a try. I'm sure it's going to cause havoc.
In essence, it seems like the AI need to be made aware of which pit box is "theirs", and whether or not the car they share it with is already there. This is quite complex, because the car they share it with is likely to be a human player, not another AI car. I'm actually surprised that this hasn't caused more problems in the past, given that we can have more people on a server than there are available pit stalls. On short races with forced pit stops, I can easily see people coming into the pits only to find that there are no open stalls. Something that makes this even more complex is that at least some of the tracks do not have numbered stalls or pit areas. How someone would be expected to know which pit box was theirs, with no number, no markings, no pit crew, etc. is beyond me.
I really, really would love to see LFS make pitting more realistic, but there are obviously several issues that will have to be addressed before that can happen.
Firstly, thank you to give us the amazing fast AI.
However, I found 2 problems.
I only race with them in BL1. Against 5 PRO AI
1. When they scrach the other on the side, one of them who are not in the racing line will brake.
This is strange, what we usually do for that is ... nothing.
Maybe in the corner, when two cars collide each other on the side. We may brake to create the line for two racers in the corner. But it is ridiculous. Maybe you can set this to some less throttle.
2.I met a strange crash at me. I can't understand that in anyway. He just use his tail crashing my front end and ... he's out...
And... The AI in X31 is not as fast as X30 anymore, is that programmed to make the race more competitive? Slowing the car in front of you down?
I was doing some AI testing in chicane route with the FBM. My intention was to check how many laps the tires would last after totally wearing off. This is what happened:
- The AI got a flat tire at the beginning of the second sector of lap 59 (out of 88, which the AI decided to do on only one stint with 100% fuel tank). He perfectly had the opportunity to pit in that lap, but after the hairpin he decided not to and went on to do a whole lap with the flat tire.
- Then on lap 60 he came in to change tires and got a drive-through penalty because he didn't calculate well how the flat tire would affect the braking. At the pitstop he changed all 4 tires while just changing the front ones maybe would have been enough to end the race (I guess they don't know about tire wear percentage yet).
- On lap 61 he came in again to complete the drive-through and he did it correctly. This is why I guess that the problem with the earlier penalty he received was the flat tire, because on normal conditions he did brake enough not to surpass the limit.
I have the replay but it's 1.7 MB compressed and don't think it will be of any help as the post describes pretty much everything.
My poor English,Below are the Google translation
LFS X31
I and 3 AI race three laps and save replay,after i look replay, restart race by SHIFT + R, one AI can't move.When i see this replay again, replay is mistakes.
I can't control the AI's fuel quantity anymore in patch X31.With patch X30 I started a 100 laps race with 5% fuel and 5% refuel so the AI' have to pit every 4 - 5 laps, but now with patch X31 I started the same race 100 laps, 5% fuel and 5% refuel, but the AI's started with full fueltank (100%).
Hi,
HeerBommel: The AI in patch 31 seem to determine a pitting startegy based on fuel consumption, as it is different for each car but not affected by setup.
However they are not (well, do not seem to) readjust the strategy when they have to pit for damage (and they do pit and repair whatever your choice is).
I just ran a 20 lap race with XFGs and XRGs full grid on SO6, various setups including 2 roadgoing XRGs.
These to had to pit for damage (5 pitstops) and finished the race with 45% fuel in tank...
However the XFGs with proper race sets finished with approx 5% in tank, 1 pitstop as specified (mustpit on).
The .knw is no longer AI based nor updated after a race, so I assume they do not learn any more. That is unfortunate for XRG AIs as they do not seem to cope well with the highspeed downhill braking (hit wall each lap ). Hard life ahead!
AIs keep tyres green and good when given a proper set, and take tyre temp in account is seems! Excellent!