I mean, I know you bang on and on about this, chief, but as someone who's worked for dozens of hours in the background with the AC AI, I can assure you that this is absolutely not true at all.
The AI is far more limited than you realize, in way too many ways. And is extremely fragile - as in, it can change behavior or break completely with one CSP preview update.
Take, for a very simple example, one of my half-dozen projects I'm currently working on: Belo Horizonte by Authentic Simulation. It is looking like it is quite literally impossible to get these cars through the chicanes - they are too stupid to understand there are death barriers on the left side of both of the chicanes. They cannot do it. No alternative line will help, no DANGER hint will help, nothing. They are too dumb to comprehend the absolute basics of a racing circuit.
This extends to all street circuits, really - I know you say you're not quick, but near-universally, if you do want the AI to be fast on thin lines with hazards (hills, walls, etc.) it's a huge challenge and some times damn near impossible.
(For posterity's sake, I quite like Thockard's work, but generally I find them in the "safe" range a la Rainmaker. I am thankful for Rainmaker's stuff, but I'm generally almost 2 seconds a lap quicker than his fastest, with more time to find - and while I would say I'm fast, I'm by no means an alien).
There are at least 10 more problems in my standard workflow that are 100% attributable to the AI being unbelievably stupid. And that's just building the AIs themselves - as AC drivers, everyone is familiar with their limitations - they love to ignore your presence on an overtaking line, fall into a train-like robotic rhythm after a few laps, cannot understand fuel loads, cannot qualify properly, cannot set pit strategies for endurance races, and on and on and on.
If offline AI racing is going to improve - and it needs to, desperately - it will come from CSP. The "dynamic" AI introduced in 0.2.11 is an interesting one - I have noticed slightly more mid-stint "human" mistakes from cars. Kind of like the hilarious spin-outs from NFS Shift, but at a lesser, believable degree. It's a start - and that's a good thing.
More importantly, though, it signifies to me that the AI might finally become a priority for CSP in 0.3 and beyond. Better awareness, new parameters for AI creation (like understanding hazards), more human behavior, pit stops (i.e. folding Nuzzi's app into CSP officially) are all on my wishlist.
Here's hoping something comes of it.
Street circuits are tough. Rainmaker's Detroit, however, works quite well until AI faces the backmarkers. Phoenix pay track AI was trash but that was fixed. I have the fixed ai. Phoenix has its limitations and AI still creates drama there sometimes. But you can have a decent race unless you crash yourself (happens to me often).
I haven't had time to play Shin's new Long Beach 1983 but it seems ok. Dallas 1984 has issues but even that is raceable (although half of the cars retire) but then again so did half of the cars in the real 1984 Dallas race hehe. Monaco 2017 started to have issues with new CM that it never had before. Cars' racing lines changed suddenly even without updating the CSP. But sure... Monaco is always questionable. It doesn't work perfectly on the longer race... ever. Sometimes you get a flawless one but it's not guaranteed... backmarkers might ruin it badly.
Valencia and Singapore run pretty much problem free in 2008. Adelaide (both 1988 and 1992) work flawlessly, etc.
These factors may be the reason why ai in my F1 seasons work well:
1. F1 cars' much better traction that are pretty easily adjustable by trial and error. If I had an issue on certain track (like I had with Kunos F2004) I simply adjusted suspension and tyres.
2. Besides the mentioned street circuits most F1 tracks don't have many challenging things for the AC ai... you know like tight walls like Monaco
3. Every driver aggression in my system is very limited
4. Excellent cars like VRC that don't really cause drama
5. Laps limited to 20
6. I've set the user to play the top car or the second best car and the lower end cars/drivers have way smaller AI rating and almost zero aggression (easy to overtake) and my starting position is usually in top 3-4.
Sure... any Lotus98T based F1 car has the dreaded issue that they might start "crawling" on the track after they get hit and don't retire. That is a major issue but it happens only on Rainmaker Detroit and Oesterreichring (80s seasons).
But I have played full years of 1998, 2005, 2007, 2002 and now 2004... etc... and never had one single issue that you mention. Sure overtaking must be very carefully planned and same with the backmarkers that don't act like backmarkers... but they actually race you. That is unforgivable. And of course you're not overtaking them on the Spa bus stop. The risk of crash is way too high. As you said they don't care you lead the race... or are even there. You're right. But you can overtake them after Eau Rouge straight for sure. I'm not denying there aren't issues but you can adapt to them.
But sure... I see your point... some street circuits are tough for the ai. And I can see there might be many more issues if you drive standard cars with less traction and more slide on the corners. And especially if you like longer races. I pretty much race against AI only the F1 cars (and only hotlap the street cars) so my view is limited.
And if you feel the player controlled car is too fast (or you are too fast against ai) simply go to car data and add some CD gain in aero and reduce tyre traction from DX REF for your team. I guarantee it's very easy to make your car slower... or AI faster. Of course this doesn't work on skin based seasons (when you have only one or two base cars). But in what other sim you can do that? NONE.
However my seasons work very well for me and I don't have any major AI issues that would ruin any races. And yes, it might be a blessing to be just an average sim racer. The main idea is to have a challenging and enjoyable difficulty FOR YOU... not to win every race. At least I wouldn't want to drive a superior car and win every race. Where's the fun and challenge in that? That's why I like to drive the challenger (like Montoya in 2002 or Alesi in 1994).
About the other sims... I haven't played full seasons that much... I did iRacing Indycar offline season back in the day and it was OK and AMS2 might have more developed AI... I played full 1988 season... and they have done so much great classic F1 stuff... but for me the driving is uhh... not so good. I played RF1 back in the day a lot... also EA 2002 F1 and GP4. Trust me, they all had their issues, way worse than AC.
F1 2020 Codemasters actually had pretty decent AI and it was the only Codemasters F1 game worth playing. Way better than its successors. FFB was crap though... too bad you can't purchase it for PC anymore. I had it on PS4 then. If anyone knows where I can still get it for PC let me know. I'd like to revisit it only to compare... and if my memory even serves me correctly. Or maybe I have to drag my PS4 from the attic.
Cheers.
I was thinking about making a spreadsheet similar to
@Breathe's
track listing, cataloguing every single racing series as archived on
racing years.
Each entry will document the cars, tracks and skins available, as well as highlighting any missing cars/tracks/skins. This will improve mod visibility and highlight any missing content.
I don't know if it's necessary as there really aren't many. And you have to have paid version of the CM to even play Championships.Not sure how many people have even purchased the full CM version for that.
F1 is pretty much covered. Of course not all tracks have the banners at 100% correct place... I use 1988 track pack for all 80's years... but it's in pretty good shape. One major missing thing from 1980s-today is the 80's Zandvoort. It's crazy that no one has done that circuit. 1989/1990 Phoenix layout is only available as a pay track. 1982 Long Beach is missing, proper 80's Brands Hatch not done, either. But I use 90's Brands with 80's ads (made them mysef). It's ok as beggars can't be choosers.
There are some missing tracks from the 70's seasons though.
