My observations:
The AI
can avoid you. The problem is that it often chooses
not to.
I think, guessing from what goes on in B spec, that it corresponds to the "heat" of the other drivers. When they get too far in the red (which will be either when you're carving through the field or ahead) then they don't manage to avoid you.
This would be fine
if it was implemented the same way as Forza, F1 2010, etc. - where the AI car will hit you, but panic and jam on the brakes when it does so. However it's not. The "not managing to avoid the player" situation is implemented as "completely ignore the existence of the player". That's where I think the PIT comes from as once the AI hits you it will not let up on the throttle, at all. Other games' AIs will still hit you but because they back off it takes a lot more for that to result in a spin.
This would be alright were it not also for the drafting system. The draft is stupidly overpowered - two AI cars running together can easily add 50% to the normal top speed of their vehicles. (There also seems to be either rubberbanding or a bug whereby an AI car can be stuck with the maximum drafting bonus, even if it's on its own, which results in one car zooming away form the field at ridiculous pace.)
The drafting system is a
big problem here because it ends up with AI cars that are at maximum heat (i.e. highly likely to make mistakes and cause collisions) coming up behind the player, going a lot faster than the player's car where the broken draft system is giving them an unrealistic performance boost. You get an AI car hitting the back of you with a 30mph speed difference, and then because they're in "have collisions" mode they will not back off at all, which unless you're very lucky is going to result in you having a spin.
Interestingly, at least for me it's got a bit better in the later races because I'm not able to overtake my way through the field as quickly, thus not increasing the stress level of the AI as much. Once I do get ahead though they start seeing red again, and stop avoiding me.
Fixing it would, IMO, be pretty simple:
- Tone the drafting down to realistic levels. What's there doesn't belong from a simulation perspective, and it also doesn't belong from a (modern) gameplay perspective.
- Make the AI back off when it has a collision, regardless of heat level, rather than trying to power through if it's angry enough.
The first would fix the AI coming from nowhere and ramming you, and the second would fix every crash resulting in a spin. The latter one would need some new code, but the first one in any sensible implementation ought to be nothing more than a parameter/config file change. (Although it may be a little more complicated than that if reducing the drafting bonus would also end up with some off the Jeff Gordon events becoming a lot more difficult.)
I hardly think these "standing still"-experiments are relevant though. Let alone a comparison on two different tracks.
) and the pitting maneuver are the biggest flaws of the AI and I don't think so much people will deny...
