New Rubber banding?

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Daco

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DacoBirdman
I have been experiencing a new kind of rubber band AI. I will call it the bull dozer. There may be a name for it, but I've never seen something like this. I'll explain.

My B-Spec driver, in a much superior car to everyone else, pulls out from 5th, and gets into 2nd right off the start. But then, for some reason, can't get in front of the 1st place car. I sit and watch while my car, and the one in front of me, pull so far ahead of all the other cars. I find this very odd, because when my car pulls ahead on the first lap in other races, I dominate all cars, but if I don't get past one, it manages to keep pace.

Its like my car is forcing the other one to go faster. And I know how drafting and such works, where both cars go faster, but that is not the case here.
 
I noticed racing a championship with my 700+ hp mclaren that my car was clearly much faster than everyone elses, then all of a sudden lap 4 this random car gets on my tail and eventually passes me up after a little screw up. After that it was impossible for me to pass him up. He just kept gaining more and more distance by every turn. This is the ONE game I would expect to neever have rubber banding. I hate this AI
 
Do you tell him to overtake or quicken up the pace?

I've found in most races that there is one or 2 a.i. cars that are vastly superior to the rest of the field, in one of the level 18 Japan cup races the NSX was like 18 seconds quicker than the rest of the field. So you might just need to quicken up the car even more to deal with that fellow.
 
if you do not give commands on a regular basis your b-spec driver will gradulally slow down until other cars catch him. watch the lap times. he loses pace each lap unless reminded to keep the pace up. and there is no "competitiveness' built into his character - if he gets caught or passed his pace remains as it was he won't try to protect the lead or get it back without you giving frequent commands.

Once you get the lead, give pace up commands on every straight and pace down commands before technical sections. this will keep him fast each lap but safe on the tough corners and so should win with ease.

it is a risky plan to just give the b-spec driver a fast car and think he can run the entire race unmonitored and come home with the win.
 
Pacing up just makes him drive like a jackass and skid out. I keep him in the middle, like you're supposed to. But the car never gives way, even when I do overtake on the straight aways, in a car that is MUCH faster.
 
Not4you
it is a risky plan to just give the b-spec driver a fast car and think he can run the entire race unmonitored and come home with the win.
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This, unless you're using something ridiculous like an 88C-V in the Turbo Challenge. In fact even with a Veyron on HSR, can and will get caught by Imprezas and GT-Rs, I have before now.

I try to keep my driver hot for the first few laps so he fights his way to the front, and when there's a bit of a gap I make him calm down, but not into the cool section, so that he can catch up (as he's usually in a more powerful car) until he tucks up right behind the lead car or 2nd place. Then I keep him there until a passing opportunity raises itself, like just after the final S on Grand Valley, if the opposition is hot and has worn tyres he'll slide all over the place, while my driver will get good exit speed from the corners and pass them coming up to the final straight, and can usually out-drag them and be in the lead by the end of that lap. Then it's just a case of watching the sector times and gap (in the live timing) and making sure they don't catch up to you. On ovals that can be difficult as they will leapfrog each other, i.e. draft to gain speed, overtake, then the guy behind will do the same, while you're out in front with all the aerodynamic drag that goes with it.

Basically, you do actually have to manage your driver even after you gain the lead, it might be ok to leave him early on when you've got a 787B Stealth and they have 90's Japanese cars, but later on it's crucial.
 
It's not a matter of rubberbanding. The AI is simply programmed to behave in a rather realistic way. IE: they will raise their racing pace towards the final laps of a race, and they will become more aggressive.
So yeah, you mayb pull away at the beginning because they're still racing conservatively, but unless you're quite a lot faster then them they will catch up towards then end when their pace changes.

It's actually some very clever AI programming (that would be even better if they were more apt at collision avoidance), and I like it a lot.
 
When someone was trying that historic race with an old lambo he noticed he could only win if he got in first immediately and stayed there. Otherwise the lead car would drive ridiculously fast.
 
Daco
Pacing up just makes him drive like a jackass and skid out. I keep him in the middle, like you're supposed to. But the car never gives way, even when I do overtake on the straight aways, in a car that is MUCH faster.
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I use to think that blue/red bar showed how calm the driver is or how hot headed. I don't look at it that way anymore. I am positive it indicates how much risk he will take. If he is in the blue, he completely backs off and no longer pushes the car to it and his potential.

You can watch how he drives when he is blue. He'll almost never push so hard that the car slides a little in hard turns. He'll probably never run the car slightly off the track taking a corner.

When he is red, he is sliding the car alot coming out of corners. You'll see a lot more dirt being kicked up because he'll use all the track and then some that he can.

Unless he is in a rediculously overpowered car, he will not pass when he is blue on the bar. I notice when there are cars all around him, like in the start of a race, he'll automatically go towards being a red bar. When he gets all out in front on his own, he'll soon become a blue bar. And unless the car he has is far overpowered, when the pack/competition eventually catches up to him, his bar will slowly go from blue toward red, but usually by that time the pack will pull far enough ahead, that he slowly goes back towards blue and once again slacks off on pushing the car. So..yeah, I don't think that bar moves automatically based on his position in the race, but simply based on other cars being near him.

My B-pec driver "B. Lee" is pretty good. In the beginning if I had him full red, he spun out now and then, but pushed hard and could usually win. Now at lvl21, he can be full red and rarely screw up. In some race....like Nascar on the Indy track, I have to keep him full red through the whole race or he will not win. In fact, he will lap people if I keep him full red...but if I just keep him red till he gets the lead and then left him be, he'd come in dead last.

Also, all I use is the increase pace command. The overtake command doesn't seem to effect the red/blue bar at all and as far as I can tell has no effect. Overtake command almost immeditely starts the bar going towards red though.
 
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I have not saw any rubber banding in the game. I have saw the lead car slow up and relax a bit and then speed up when someone gets close or passes. Bob does the same thing all the time if you do not tell him to pace up or maintain the pace. I have had him up to 1/2 lap ahead and if I leave him alone he will slow down and often the AI will catch up. This is not a rubber band effect it is just the driver taking it easy.

For example I looked at the time monitor in the race the AI car in 2nd was running pretty steady at about 2:20 -2:22. Bob on the other hand if I stayed after him was running 2:18s when a little in the red and 2:20 when in the middle. If however I left him alone the bar went all the way to blue and he was running 2:25s needless to say the AI will catch up in this case.

Also I have had a time or 2 when I forgot to change the tires and entered into a race with a vastly superior car but runnign Hard Sport tires rather than Hard Race and had a very hard time holding a lead.
 
i have seen the term "rubber banding" thrown around a lot, but have no idea what it means, Sorry to be so dumb but could some one elaborate?
 
Rubber Banding is a term used to express the way an AI in a racing game will never fall more than a certain distance behind in a race. They are tethered to you with an invisible "rubber band" so that you can't just devastate them and they will always be close by incase you mess up. It is a way to add artificial difficulty to a game to hide the programmers inability to actually program a good AI.
 
If there is rubber banding it's not very consistent. I've lapped the entire field of AI cars before yet in the American Muscle Car series at intermediate (I think) I was leading the field for ages and suddenly the Corvette Stingray is up my ass on the last lap by some miracle of NOS technology
 
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