I watched some short (7 laps) AI races in 3 slowest cars on all rallycross configurations, with X33 version. They all used default rallycross setups.
BL2:
- AI make violent turns at the entry to the pits (their path is just strange), as a result they almost lose control and crash sometimes.
- AI in XFG very easily damage their suspension on the jumps. They go into the pits to repair it even when it seems they could continue and finish the short race.
BL2R:
- Suspension damage in XFG, similar to BL2 situation.
- AI in XRG and XFG (less frequently) tend to hit the inside wall of T1.
FE5 and FE5R:
OK
FE6 and FE6R:
- Their behaviour after the race (I've seen it reported before) is probably due to lack of proper garages.
All configurations:
- They sometimes stop after the race but before reaching the pits. I'm not sure if it is caused by running out of fuel. If that's the case then maybe fuel calculations are too optimistic for gravel driving.
- AI are relatively not as quick as they are now on all-tarmac tracks. I guess it's not a bug though.
I'm getting AIs that occasionally run out of fuel and burn out their clutches, but before I report anything here, I need to know how the whole pitstop/refuelling/resetting thing works in case it's my fault!
OK
When it's me and several bots racing together (as opposed to testing with just the bots running on their own):
1. Is there a way to force the AI cars to start with a certain amount of fuel before a race?
2. Is the amount of fuel the AI starts with influenced in any way by the amount of fuel I start with, and in particular, when I select that the AI should use the same setup as me?
3. Presumably I can only force one pitstop on the AI - any others would be down to them as and when they see fit?
4. When choosing a fuel/pitstop strategy, will all the bots have the same strategy, or might they vary at all? (They all seem to pit on the same lap at the moment).
5. If I allow resets, are the bots supposed to reset themselves when, for example, they burn their clutches out?
Sorta. You can't choose how much fuel the AI cars start with, but you can make them start with less than they normally would use. Set the race length for, say, 5 laps. Start the race. Then change the race length manually using [/laps 20]. That should work. Though, you have to run a LOT of laps before the AI would have to pit more than once, so it's probably easier to just turn on the pit stop requirement.
No. The AI uses your setup, but the amount of fuel in your tank is independent from the rest of the parameters in car setup. Not just for AI, but for your car as well. No matter what setup you load, your fuel level will only change if you do it by hand.
You can "force" more than one pit stop by running a LOOOOOONG race, but that's about it. From my experience, you have to run 100 laps or more before any car would have to run more than 2 stints. Even then, the FZR is the only car I've found that uses enough. I haven't tested the two big formula cars though.
Again, I've run a lot of AI races in the past week and AI always pit at the same time, assuming they are in the same model car. But if you run two different cars (the XRR and FZR, for instance) they will pit at different times due to differing fuel uses. But ONLY if they are pitting for fuel, and not pitting to satisfy a "must pit" requirement. Also, only if the race is long enough that fuel consumption is relavent to the race (ie: 50+ laps on the long tracks)
AI cars pit 2-3 times (I have not set anything regards AI) at BL2 on 20 lap race, that is if they manage to get that far, I think once one AI has finished in my testing, 16-18 laps typically best achievement, sometimes they fail on first pitstop as they crash on pit entry and burn their clutch there.
It might work better on other tracks, but on BL2 it is not working too well, it is impossible to have 20 lap race against them, I feel.
Just a note that real rallycross races are no longer than 4 laps. It's an event with lot of heats, qualifying and eliminations of 3 laps, then finals of 4 laps (exact distance is set in FIA regulations in kms, and for BL2 it turns out to be 3 and 4 laps). Of course, there are never any pitstops there. So, even with sensitive clutch, rallyx is still fine both for humans and AIs if we keep it real.
While that may be true, it doesn't really address the underlying issue that clutch behavior is unrealistic and that some cars are massively handicapped because of it.
At SO Classic, with BF1's, the AI's have pretty severe issues on any setup / default setups, driving into walls on exit of T1, and the start is pretty bad too.
At Aston Grand Prix, the AI's (XRT, FXO and RB4 I tested) have seemingly huge issues with keeping the optimum line, swerving all over, especially in traffic
At Aston GP, RB4's when getting passed, slow down considerably (as if approaching yellow flag situation), causing easy pass + incident behind, particularly in traffic.
At Aston GP, AI's with punctured tyres overshoot a pitstall (and gain DT penalty on entrance), then pull out of pits as if it was repaired. (Tested on TBO AI's, but have witnessed it in isolated cases with other GTR cars)
XRT AI's seem very bad with threshold braking, and lock their tyres up very often, they are the only RWD car that I've seen exhibit this behaviour.
The main issue with the AI's with punctures though, is that they continue to have standard braking points, maybe those AI's should go to a "50% line", where they are super cautious, where all braking points and stuff are overdone, just to ensure they get there safe, because the AI enduros I've ran, it's been the FXO and RB4 which finish, where as the XRT absolutely kills its tyres, then can't change them, because when it comes in, it gets a DT, then pulling into stall, overshoots then leaves, and rinse and repeat. Maybe another alternative is that if it overshoots, it uses a bit of logic and either reverses if it's clear, or pulls forward into another stall?
Just reporting what I've seen here watching an AI race, which I've done nearly every night since the initial X30 series of patches.
Edit: Most cars (watch a full field of AI's from the rear of the grid) at SO1, have issues off of the start also, one of the cars is forced to back off, which then creates a nice little accident, same with slow starting FXO's on all tracks, they create accidents because of the inability for them to get off the line..
OK, for all you hard at work AI testers, here is a little break for you. Just a quick minute out of your lives, have a bit of a laugh. Just a quick vid on the shortlived draglane bug.
It's not high speed swerving though, it's them changing what line they wish to take (pass or normal), but they do it very very quickly, and causes them to spin out, or get into situations where they end up braking because there's a car within 2 lightyears of the nose of their car.
This has triggered me to post here. Been trying some practise races with AI XF GTR's on South City Classic and Blackwood Grand Prix reversed. On both tracks the AI's - set to Pro level - were about 3 seconds slower than me, and not improving much over the length of a couple of 15 lap races.
Now I know I'm seriously, insanely, superduper fast (:tilt.. but 3 seconds over 1 minute-ish laps on pro level makes me think their speed really needs some work? Or is this very setup-related? Is it possible a setup makes three seconds difference for AI's?
Edit: On a side-note, why is it the AI never use the full length of qualifying to set a time?
It's setup and car related. IMO they also lack some racing techniques, for example they don't seem to know that applying a little throttle in the XFR can help cornering.
I dont know if this has been reported or not but,if you set 5 laps on a track like blackwood and switched to drag stripe,they will keep going until they would hit the wall.
Yes they need work. It's very difficult for me to write computer programs that can drive as fast as you. What you see now is the result of a couple of months of making them drive as fast as I could achieve in that time. I can often work a day on AI and they will gain a tenth of a second. Some days I could work all day and gain a hundredth. There is loads more I can do but it will take months. The next thing I think I should focus on is improving their ability to understand bumpy road surfaces. But this will not be before Patch Y.
OK, I reproduced this but only by loading a saved grid which had 5 laps when I saved it. Is there another way to reproduce this? If not then I propose the best and safest solution will be for the "load single player start grid" function, to not load Laps, Qualifying, Wind.
Just to make this clear: I don't even want to think about how difficult it is to program AI's and I have big respect for you - for how they behave already (having a hard time keeping up with the pro FBMW's!).
I posted this to avoid the possibility that you didn't know about this big difference in speed with this particular car and tracks (at least the gap seems bigger than with other cars). Maybe there was something obvious / easy to be changed to fix it for these particular combo's. But I see you're well aware of this "problem", and am looking forward to see the improvements in the future.
I don't know if the AI raceline is hardcoded or not, but from what I saw, I think the major part slowing the AI down is that they are not using the full width of the track for their driving... When I teach people to drive fast, I always tell them that each cm (inch) of unused track costs them a lot of time...
MMMMM AI STRANGE.spr
