Ai Difficulty Settings

  • Thread starter MowTin
  • 65 comments
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Even in the same cars in the same series, the AI competitiveness varies from round to round, and track to track, and even session to session. In my first career race in a Formula Rookie at Long Beach, I set AI to 110 and qualified on pole by a small margin, like a tenth or so. But with the AI at the same level, I won the 8 lap race by over 16 seconds.
 
Im finding with GT3 cars ai is much easier at 80 than it is at 55. 55 i was struggling to keep up with them cranked it to 80 and im consistently top 3.

Another one of Slightly Mads Madness
 
Harry Freq
Im finding with GT3 cars ai is much easier at 80 than it is at 55. 55 i was struggling to keep up with them cranked it to 80 and im consistently top 3.

Another one of Slightly Mads Madness
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That sounds odd, what's you're aggression at? I had trouble keeping up with gt3 ai at 60 difficulty 50 aggression. Qualifying I was 3 seconds off their pace no matter what.

I think I'm gonna dedicate tonight to solely trying different settings, see what works
 
Am I getting much worse at racing games or is the AI at 50 in PC2 equivalent to 70+ in most other racing sims (including PC1 if I remember correctly) from the last many years?
 
In my opinion the AI is not affected by tyre temp and weather conditions, especially Extreme. It is not hard, It bugged.

I tried the same race in Deep Winter and couldn't heat up tyres while the AI was flying. Dead last 4 seconds off.

Same race full Summer. Pole by 2.5 seconds. Same difficulty same stock set-up.

The same goes with Rain when there are big puddles. Ai not affected. Try Ginetta gt5 Silvestone race in career mode.
 
paulpg87
In my opinion the AI is not affected by tyre temp and weather conditions, especially Extreme. It is not hard, It bugged.

I tried the same race in Deep Winter and couldn't heat up tyres while the AI was flying. Dead last 4 seconds off.

Same race full Summer. Pole by 2.5 seconds. Same difficulty same stock set-up.

The same goes with Rain when there are big puddles. Ai not affected. Try Ginetta gt5 Silvestone race in career mode.
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It seems to vary. I've had races where the AI seems like it's unaffected by rain. Then I have races like my last few where I'm gapping the AI in the rain by 4 seconds a lap then once the rain stops and it dries up I'm only gapping them by 1 second per lap.

The AI difficulty in this game is just plan odd. It's incredibly inconsistent and almost impossible to figure out exactly what the problem is.
 
All I can say it is rather inconsistent. I vary the AI from 85 to 105.

I use practice to set the level and usually they beat me on qualifying but the races are quite close and intense. However, changing conditions seem to favour them as they 'know' how to maximise the grip, corner from corner.

I had that race that @paulpg87 mentioned at Silverstone, and it costed me a championship. It was a 15 minutes race and was in first place when rain intensified towards the last laps. The back straight reached a point where I had aquaplanning at literally any speed. I couldn't accelerate whatsoever. AI wasn't extremely fast but had a constant pace. Ended up dead last.

Aquaplanning and rain in general is great but definitely there is room for improvement.
 
I'm curious about Le Mans in lower powered cars that hit their top speed. We know to set the final drive lower to increase top speed for the slipstream speed increase. Will the AI do the same if you move them up above 80? Something worth testing. Same with if they use KERS and DRS. I don't remember seeing them use DRS on the Formula Renault 3.5 in PCars1
 
I might be a bit late to this convo but the AI is frustrating me to no end lately. In PC1 I would fiddle between 80-90 and easily dial in a competitive race, but with PC2 the difficulty is all over the map. I just finished the Light Sportscar class where I had to dial it back to 50 just to be competitive. Now I’m racing the Cayman GT4 class where I had to crank Ai to 110 to avoid gapping the field by 3 secs a lap. Not only that but the AI is inconsistent on each track, bombing past me on entry to the first corner at Willow Springs only to have me blow by them in the exit of last corner. Add the weather and track changes to the mix and you’ll spend half your time fiddling with the AI settings at each race instead of just driving :(
 
Rubrbrnr
I might be a bit late to this convo but the AI is frustrating me to no end lately. In PC1 I would fiddle between 80-90 and easily dial in a competitive race, but with PC2 the difficulty is all over the map. I just finished the Light Sportscar class where I had to dial it back to 50 just to be competitive. Now I’m racing the Cayman GT4 class where I had to crank Ai to 110 to avoid gapping the field by 3 secs a lap. Not only that but the AI is inconsistent on each track, bombing past me on entry to the first corner at Willow Springs only to have me blow by them in the exit of last corner. Add the weather and track changes to the mix and you’ll spend half your time fiddling with the AI settings at each race instead of just driving :(
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Its a known issue and one that is being worked on.

Fingers crossed it will be in the next update.
 
What I do is skip the practice and qualification, I use the race to practice, when the race begins I wait 30-40 secs to run alone, when I think that my lap time is good I compare it with the first place, I always adjust the AI making the first place have one or two seconds more than my best lap, it always takes me two or three tries, once this is done I run the race starting from one of the last four positions, the first places are vere easy to pass them, but it is hard from ten to down and it is very weird when I finish in first place in races of 20 minutes. Try this way, besides, it is more fun to start from the last position.
 
My challenge with the AI is that after adjusting their pace to my pace i usually end up somewhere in the middle of the pack unable to catch the guy in front which is like a constant 5 to 10 second in front of me and the guy behind is also far behind, not catching me, so I end up racing on my own most of the time. I have agresivity at 80 and strength all over the place depending on cars and track combo.
It is very different from what was happening with PCars when I would have good fights most every race without much to any efforts to adjust anything.
It is too bad because now I enjoy the driving in PCars2, the VR is very nice, but getting a good race with AI is eluding me at this point in time.
 
MowTin
One frustration I have is adjusting he Ai difficulty to enjoy a competitive race. If it's too low, you're in front of the pack racing by yourself. If it's too high, it's frustrating because you're way behind by yourself again.

It seems like ideally in any race there should be a wide distribution of fast and slow cars so you can keep the difficulty at the same level and challenge yourself to place higher and higher.

Of course in real life the difference between the fastest and slowest times is tiny but for a game wouldn't it be best to be able to not only choose the difficulty but also the standard deviation or spread of opponent times?

Am I missing something? I don't know jack about this.
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So up till now the difficulty has not been a problem. Now that Im on the LMP3 class races. Im all the way down to 30 for competitive racing not lights years ahead or behind. Also I am no slouch when it comes to sim racing either. So I am really confused by how this system was set up.
 
I haven't been playing PC2 long, but I've been playing on 100 difficulty and 65 aggression, and the AI cars are extremely inconsistent at that level. In one race I'll have a decent fight with the AI, even if I know the circuit and don't feel like I'm making many mistakes, and then the next race I'll belt them by 3 or 4 seconds per lap. I honestly don't think it's because of my own inconsistency (not saying I'm perfectly consistent or anything), because I've had a close race on a circuit I know well, followed by a circuit I don't know, where I've dominated the AI in the same cars and on the same difficulty. Surely this should be the opposite way around if anything.

I've also found the AI are not affected by puddles, seemingly at all, yet my car will aquaplane through even the smallest puddles, even when I'm going about 40kph, which is stupidly unrealistic. Edit: BTW, I usually seem to be faster in the wet than the AI, but as soon as there's puddles I have to tip toe around, especially on straights, while the AI plows through the middle of huge puddles at top speed with no problems.

Edit2: Of course, none of this is helped by the confusing tyre selection. Every car seems to have different tyres available, and the naming can be very confusing. One race I had to do in extreme wet conditions, and was struggling with the puddles, so I tried starting on different tyres, only to find that "winter" tyres are as useless in the wet as slicks for whatever reason, and the best tyres for that particular car for extreme wet conditions was actually either "track" or "summer", neither of which sounded like wet weather tyres at all...
 
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LR-MR-Cole
So up till now the difficulty has not been a problem. Now that Im on the LMP3 class races. Im all the way down to 30 for competitive racing not lights years ahead or behind. Also I am no slouch when it comes to sim racing either. So I am really confused by how this system was set up.
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What I do is find a leaderboard ghost to race against until I'm competitive with the Ai laptimes. If I can't get competitive I lower the difficulty. If you're struggling at 30 on LMP3 then just practice LMP3's against ghosts. Do LMP3's use KERS? (I've never used KERS)


The algorithm they use to setup the difficulty sucks.

Here is what they should do.

The AI difficulty numbers should correspond to lap times.

Ai 100 should be lap times that are the same as top leaderboard lap times.

Ai 90 should be a top 10% lap time

Ai 80 should be a top 20% lap time

...

Ai 30 should be a bottom 20% lap time

During Beta gather lap time data from players of various skill. Measure the Ai lap times. Then map the Ai difficulty level per track based on your data.

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Anyone after the patch I'm finding the Ai difficulty much more reasonable. But it's still a hard game that requires real work and practice to win races for those of us who aren't at the top of leaderboards.
 
Is it just me or most of the time is it just a parade (no passing) with the ai? Is there a setting that should make them pass more?
 
1Lambofan
Is it just me or most of the time is it just a parade (no passing) with the ai? Is there a setting that should make them pass more?
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I'm seeing it depends on the track. AI set up for passes at Zhuhai, Hockenheim, all the Nurb road courses, Leguna Seca, Long Beach, Monza, Oulton Park, Donington, Bathurst, Road America, Texas and Daytona Road Course. Mind you, this using TCR cars AI @100/100.

Tracks where I've seen processions are: Snetterton, Oschesleben, Algarve, Sugo(there were very few passes made AI-on-AI, but I did fight with 3 AI back and forth for last place), Monaco, Ruan...Ruin..Rune de Estate or whatever its called, Fuji is hit or miss.

Trust, I've been hitting this game hard since the patch. Having the week off and playing as much as possible(it's 12:42am). Ai have been tough. I've only won a handful of races(clean racing) and scored a few podiums after all this play(also due to some multi-class races and different disciplines).
 
05XR8
I'm seeing it depends on the track. AI set up for passes at Zhuhai, Hockenheim, all the Nurb road courses, Leguna Seca, Long Beach, Monza, Oulton Park, Donington, Bathurst, Road America, Texas and Daytona Road Course. Mind you, this using TCR cars AI @100/100.

Tracks where I've seen processions are: Snetterton, Oschesleben, Algarve, Sugo(there were very few passes made AI-on-AI, but I did fight with 3 AI back and forth for last place), Monaco, Ruan...Ruin..Rune de Estate or whatever its called, Fuji is hit or miss.

Trust, I've been hitting this game hard since the patch. Having the week off and playing as much as possible(it's 12:42am). Ai have been tough. I've only won a handful of races(clean racing) and scored a few podiums after all this play(also due to some multi-class races and different disciplines).
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Cool, ill give it a try at those tracks when I get home.

Thanks.
 
This is AI 100/100 @spa. You'll see AI setting up passes on other AI(a couple times with the hip & shoulder) and also setting me up. Trust, I'm an average, clean player and I'm pushing 100% on a controller. SMS AI are really good. Some tracks they have a handicap at certain corners, but overall, competitive.
 
MowTin
One frustration I have is adjusting he Ai difficulty to enjoy a competitive race. If it's too low, you're in front of the pack racing by yourself. If it's too high, it's frustrating because you're way behind by yourself again.

It seems like ideally in any race there should be a wide distribution of fast and slow cars so you can keep the difficulty at the same level and challenge yourself to place higher and higher.

Of course in real life the difference between the fastest and slowest times is tiny but for a game wouldn't it be best to be able to not only choose the difficulty but also the standard deviation or spread of opponent times?

Am I missing something? I don't know jack about this.
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I noticed that in this game you can't setup the same level of AI for all cars and all races. To tell you the truth I am a little disappointed about PC2, the previous version was much better, of course is just my opinion, but project cars 2 it does not convince me too much.
 
I am a total noob at this game however after finding a good configuration for the controller and setting AI to 40% every race so far has been really good. Winning by very small margins and any error means disaster.
Way better than PC1 may even venture online.
 
Hi all, wanted to put up these controller strings I found which I think are really newb friendly.
Please Note I use KontrolFreek SpeedFreek Apex thumbstick extenders.
Also thanks to @Monz as the settings are from an old post of his, just tweaked a little.

Steering Deadzone 2
Steering Sensitivity 70
Throttle Deadzone 0
Throttle Sensitivity 85
Brake Deadzone 0
Brake Sensitivity 65
Clutch Deadzone 10
Clutch Sensitivity 25
Speed Sensitivity 95
Damper Saturation 100
Controller Damping 80
Vibration Set how you like
Min Shift Time 0
RPM\GD Yes
 
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Also this game has ruined Forza for me, I had an Xbox One S just for Forza 7.
I have sold it and the game.
Don’t think I can ever go back from here.
I now know the import of a Driving Line lol and I can’t drift open wheelers now (makes sense hey).
I have loved Forza for years but it is actually more arcade than I realised.
My favourite game was Toca Touring Cars which was quite difficult at the time, but had all those great British tracks.
Project Cars 2 has all the usual great tracks but so much more.
Hope Slightly Mad keep improving this game and future games. I can’t put it down.
 
WayneHoonigan
Also this game has ruined Forza for me, I had an Xbox One S just for Forza 7.
I have sold it and the game.
Don’t think I can ever go back from here.
I now know the import of a Driving Line lol and I can’t drift open wheelers now (makes sense hey).
I have loved Forza for years but it is actually more arcade than I realised.
My favourite game was Toca Touring Cars which was quite difficult at the time, but had all those great British tracks.
Project Cars 2 has all the usual great tracks but so much more.
Hope Slightly Mad keep improving this game and future games. I can’t put it down.
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Don't know if it's in your budget, or if you have the space for it, but a good wheel will really make the game come alive for you. It's life changing!
 

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