PS4 CareerPS4

[LeMansAid]

My advice is forget about The "career", AC is not about meaningless trophies.

While I do agree with your sentiments Cote Dazur I do choose to differ. The career modes in a lot of games force me to drive cars that I probably wouldn't otherwise drive through choice. I would tend to gravitate towards cars I love and tracks I like where as career forces me to try other stuff. And forces me to get good at tracks I don't otherwise like.

I agree that Kunos should try to fix everything not working in their game. I disagree with the part about careers forcing players to try things they otherwise would not. Career events almost never overpower the things I'd rather do in a racing game, but I do appreciate they are there.

My mind goes to how most people used to interact with music vs how most people currently do. To a large extent, people listen to songs rather than albums these days, and it kills the potential to have a song once merely endured, open up and reveal itself - "filler" becomes "killer". I know that I've had many experiences with the dynamic of an album morphing to where what were my least and most favourite tracks reverse in preference.

In sims/games, it can be seen as a game-centric thing, or a perception broadening thing. Yes "new horizons" can be found both deliberately and accidentally, but the receptive and open mind that touches all, will always receive it's due, and it's true inner pig and mud to wallow in. Basically.... non-receptive minds will remain un-progressed regardless, non-career partaking receptive minds will have a great chance at "enlightenment", and career-partaking receptive minds will be all but guaranteed nirvana.

 

[TT92]

My mind goes to how most people used to interact with music vs how most people currently do. To a large extent, people listen to songs rather than albums these days, and it kills the potential to have a song once merely endured, open up and reveal itself - "filler" becomes "killer". I know that I've had many experiences with the dynamic of an album morphing to where what were my least and most favourite tracks reverse in preference.

In sims/games, it can be seen as a game-centric thing, or a perception broadening thing. Yes "new horizons" can be found both deliberately and accidentally, but the receptive and open mind that touches all, will always receive it's due, and it's true inner pig and mud to wallow in. Basically.... non-receptive minds will remain un-progressed regardless, non-career partaking receptive minds will have a great chance at "enlightenment", and career-partaking receptive minds will be all but guaranteed nirvana.

Deja Vu. When I was writing my thoughts about career mode I was actually thinking of how I interact with music. I discounted talking about it because of how most people wouldn't understand the analogy of listening to a vinyl LP as opposed to a favourites compilation on a mobile device. Both are listening to the same music but in different ways. Just like a vinyl LP "forces" you to listen to other tracks (excuse the pun) so does career mode. Of course you can elect to "skip tracks" you don't like but then you just may miss something that you thought you wouldn't like.

LeMansAid I am very pleased you brought this up an actually get what I am on about :-)

I should add it is difficult to skip tracks on an LP as opposed to any digital medium that has a fast forward or next chapter button. Exceptions being analogue tape players that have a FF button anyway and Laser record players just in case the pedants out there want to start an argument ;-) If anyone is interested here they are http://elpj.com/ Adds a whole new meaning to "laser scanned tracks" eh?

 

[Emmcee]

What's the difference between novice and advance championship containing the same cars and circuits as each other. Is it more laps or something? I just won the first open wheeler championship in what formula Abarth or something and now I have to do it again same car same circuits but in advanced. Can some one explain what's the difference and what's the point? Also it bites there's now lap slider to do what laps YOU feel like. Someone like me who has spinal issues struggles to sit there for long races dealing with ffb from a wheel. I struggle big time to do long races and from a marketing point it's bad because for me and Iam sure some people out there would be the same that do I endure the pain afterwards just to do the required laps or not play it at all. Well depends on how my back is acting up depends weather I play or not, there's been plenty times I wanted to play but have to miss out because the pain is to bad after for just wanting to play. Sorry for tha rant but it's pees me of.

 

[FPV MIC]

Hmmm... The events in career mode are all over the place when it comes to difficulty. This one was way too easy considering I had never used this car or track on AC before.

Career>N2>Time Attack (BMW Z4 GT3 @ Nurburgring GP)


But I'm still loving the driving experience

 

[LotusTeam]

Hmmm... The events in career mode are all over the place when it comes to difficulty. This one was way too easy considering I had never used this car or track on AC before.

Career>N2>Time Attack (BMW Z4 GT3 @ Nurburgring GP)
View attachment 581011

But I'm still loving the driving experience

The ridiculous balances of the difficulty are in race events only, can't beat on hard/alien level, I only can win at medium level...

 

[Emmcee]

Yeah same, especially when your handed and underpowered car on a circuit with a lot of straights. I've been thinking fiddling around more with gear ratios if I can but that can only do so much before it becomes a disadvantage.

 

[FPV MIC]

The ridiculous balances of the difficulty are in race events only, can't beat on hard/alien level, I only can win at medium level...

Not sure I understand what you mean by ''race events only, can't beat on hard/alien level''. The event in my previous post was a Time Attack that I beat the 4500 gold score with a score of 17808. I've only done three Time Attacks so far, the other two I was not much over the gold score needed. That, to me, shows it's not just the race events that are out of balance.
Regarding the race events, in Special Events I have only done two races, both in Fiats and both I've won on Alien. The first at Magione was super easy on Hard so I went up to Alien (still easy, +17 sec. over 2nd) and the other was the last one at Brands, which was a decent challenge but still only took two tries, but I also know this circuit very well and was more familiar with several different Fiat's handling traits by the time I tackled this event.
In Career Mode the balance is the worst for me, some events I can beat on ''Alien'' and others I cannot win on Medium (the last event in N1 with the Alfa).
So far the Time Trials seem to be the only fairly well balanced in difficulty events. They are a good challenge without tuning (so far) but not impossible. Again, I haven't done a great deal of them but all but one that I have tried so far I've managed gold (the other was silver).

 

[RaceFuchs]

AI difficulty kills the game for me right now. They are way too aggressive, fast and always doing clean laps even on "easy" setting. Right now i have no chance in progessing beyond the SLS events.

 

[TT92]

AI difficulty kills the game for me right now.

Yes, they are very inconsistent :-( Sometimes unbeatably fast and then slow as a wet week. In the same car I can beat them BUT when there are mixed classes I am just out gunned sometimes :-(

They are way too aggressive,

and when they lean on you in a corner your car always loses out. My car can spin off the track and theirs is trundling along like a tank.

fast and always doing clean laps even on "easy" setting.

No. I disagree. I have seen some the "also rans" spin off or in other ways mess corners up. So they do crash all on their own - sometimes.

Right now i have no chance in progessing beyond the SLS events.

The further through the career I go the harder it is getting.

My original comments still stand. The AI is very inconstant and unevenly matched.

 

[bleeder]

I'll probably not touch the career for now (took months to bother with pCARS' career) so would you say the AI is terribly unbalanced in the quick races? Not hearing a lot of feedback other than for the career mode. If I can have decent races against fields of AI cars (would most likely be attempting Hard AI) in a race weekend I'll be totally happy.

 

[TT92]

I'll probably not touch the career for now (took months to bother with pCARS' career) so would you say the AI is terribly unbalanced in the quick races? Not hearing a lot of feedback other than for the career mode. If I can have decent races against fields of AI cars (would most likely be attempting Hard AI) in a race weekend I'll be totally happy.

I have not tried any Quick Race events yet. I have not seen the point as that is what the Career Mode is mostly anyway.

With any game I like to play the whole way through career first, on easy because it it teaches me all about the game and what its strengths and weaknesses are. With a car game it lets me tune the cars and get to learn any new tracks. There are lots of new tracks in AC for me :-)

Yes, I find the AI unbalanced - in career. On easy, at tracks I know very well I can be 2-5secs a lap faster and the worse has been a Monza (that is one of my favourite tracks) I have been 10secs a lap slower. That is in one of the impossible races I have listed. Not so much the AI but the what the AI was driving. I was in a Pagani Huayra and the two front AI were in Zonda Rs in full race trim on slicks presumably >:-(

 

[RisingStar]

I don't think the career mode has been formatted properly. For the single events, you don't have to achieve medals in all of them to unlock the next series. For the championships, you don't have to complete all the races, you only need to accumulate the points required.

 

[RaceFuchs]

I'll probably not touch the career for now (took months to bother with pCARS' career) so would you say the AI is terribly unbalanced in the quick races? Not hearing a lot of feedback other than for the career mode. If I can have decent races against fields of AI cars (would most likely be attempting Hard AI) in a race weekend I'll be totally happy.

The AI in quick races and race weekends varies with your choosen car or class. I like to do GT3 races, AI is really fast and agressive even on "easy" setting. However, if you're using a car like the BMW 235i Racing, the AI will be easy to beat, they will act like amateurs. Is this a balancing issue? I guess so because "easy" should be "easy" in all cars and classes, however, it's not.

To be fair: If the AI doesen't choose to slash you off the road, which they sometimes do, you will have a lot of fun with them. In fact, i had some incredible racing yesterday in the GT3 class with some AI driver in a Ferrari, it was great fun and even fair, but i guess it was just luck ;-)

 

[RaceFuchs]

I want to add another thing, the AI acts really weird from time to time. Yesterday in said GT3 race, half of the AI drivers quit the race after 6 or 8 out of 12 laps. I'm not sure what happened. I wanted to analyze this in replay, but the replay function is broken and will only show the last couple of minutes from a race. So i couldn't see what actually happened. Maybee they ran out of fuel, but i think it is quite strange that the AI drivers didn't have enough fuel in their tanks to last 12 laps. I also have to point out that only half of the AI field retired. The other drivers finished the race (without doing a pit stop, by the way)

 

[Losco]

I'm not playing career anymore. The BMW challenge (2nd set) races are nearly impossibile.

If i set EASY, I want it to be EASY

 

[IngRobNy]

Oh god... I just started intermediate series 2 and playing on easy, but i have no chance to achieve 3th place in any of the 5 races, the AI is just too fast and i can't keep ut with them, even on Monza or Spa, i can get 4th and 5th place, but it don't count towards series goal, so i just quit the race before finish, so i guess i have to put this game on hold, until Kunos Simulazioni tweaks the AI and they will, but i don't know when .

This is from the blog 1st sep 2016

http://www.console.assettocorsa.net/community-blog-010916.php

AI DIFFICULTY

This is a tough one… We don’t want to make the game ‘easy’ by any means, but we do recognise that the AI may need tweaking, especially on Easy mode. Our team are aware of this request and are working on a solution. Again, more info on this soon!

 

[TT92]

Oh god... I just started intermediate series 2 and playing on easy, but i have no chance to achieve 3th place in any of the 5 races, the AI is just too fast and i can't keep ut with them, even on Monza or Spa, i can get 4th and 5th place, but it don't count towards series goal, so i just quit the race before finish, so i guess i have to put this game on hold, until Kunos Simulazioni tweaks the AI and they will, but i don't know when .

This is from the blog 1st sep 2016

http://www.console.assettocorsa.net/community-blog-010916.php

AI DIFFICULTY

This is a tough one… We don’t want to make the game ‘easy’ by any means, but we do recognise that the AI may need tweaking, especially on Easy mode. Our team are aware of this request and are working on a solution. Again, more info on this soon!

I am now 67% through career and there are 5 impossible events so far. 4 of those I cheated on and won as my reasoning is if it's impossible then it's alright to cheat ;-) The last one is the Lotus Exos 125 Stg1 at Mugello. I am 4 seconds off the pace (on easy!!!) and the AI continually just smashes me off the track and when they don't I can't get a clean lap anyway so I lose even more time. At this stage I found no way to apply any "creative" ideas on how to beat this :-(

I should add, that the Lotus 98T race at spa is a "give me". I was 7 secs a lap faster in practice, 5 secs a lap faster in qualifying and then at the end of the first the lap the whole field, yes the *WHOLE* field pitted and stayed there for the rest of the race. I even pitted to have a look at what they were doing and they just sat there!

This game is badly broken and I have found many instances where it just does not work.

Here is one for your as well. The SLS AMG GT3 race series at Mugello, *IF* I apply a tune to the car the race will not start, we all just sit there on the grid waiting for the lights to appear. Go back to the pits, put the car back to standard and the race will then start but you are left with driving a very bad handling car.

I love driving in this game sooooo much BUT it is just such a chore to do the career.

 

[bleeder]

I am now 67% through career and there are 5 impossible events so far. 4 of those I cheated on and won as my reasoning is if it's impossible then it's alright to cheat ;-) The last one is the Lotus Exos 125 Stg1 at Mugello. I am 4 seconds off the pace (on easy!!!) and the AI continually just smashes me off the track and when they don't I can't get a clean lap anyway so I lose even more time. At this stage I found no way to apply any "creative" ideas on how to beat this :-(

I should add, that the Lotus 98T race at spa is a "give me". I was 7 secs a lap faster in practice, 5 secs a lap faster in qualifying and then at the end of the first the lap the whole field, yes the *WHOLE* field pitted and stayed there for the rest of the race. I even pitted to have a look at what they were doing and they just sat there!

This game is badly broken and I have found many instances where it just does not work.

Here is one for your as well. The SLS AMG GT3 race series at Mugello, *IF* I apply a tune to the car the race will not start, we all just sit there on the grid waiting for the lights to appear. Go back to the pits, put the car back to standard and the race will then start but you are left with driving a very bad handling car.

I love driving in this game sooooo much BUT it is just such a chore to do the career.

Glad I'm happy just doing race weekends at the mo. That'll probably keep me busy for some time, although I might try the special events soon too. I think I'll leave the career well alone until some updates come rolling in.

 

[killerjimbag]

I am now 67% through career and there are 5 impossible events so far. 4 of those I cheated on and won as my reasoning is if it's impossible then it's alright to cheat ;-) The last one is the Lotus Exos 125 Stg1 at Mugello. I am 4 seconds off the pace (on easy!!!) and the AI continually just smashes me off the track and when they don't I can't get a clean lap anyway so I lose even more time. At this stage I found no way to apply any "creative" ideas on how to beat this :-(

I should add, that the Lotus 98T race at spa is a "give me". I was 7 secs a lap faster in practice, 5 secs a lap faster in qualifying and then at the end of the first the lap the whole field, yes the *WHOLE* field pitted and stayed there for the rest of the race. I even pitted to have a look at what they were doing and they just sat there!

This game is badly broken and I have found many instances where it just does not work.

Here is one for your as well. The SLS AMG GT3 race series at Mugello, *IF* I apply a tune to the car the race will not start, we all just sit there on the grid waiting for the lights to appear. Go back to the pits, put the car back to standard and the race will then start but you are left with driving a very bad handling car.

I love driving in this game sooooo much BUT it is just such a chore to do the career.

Did you not recently post how bad PCARS AI was, but you state the AI just continously smashed me off the track in AC? Then you cheat to win? Wow.

 

[bleeder]

It's funny, a complaint with pCARS is when you touch a car from behind you magically stick to them, often causing you to go off track; however in AC a touch to the back of a car doesn't cause sticking but instead a bump, and you still often end up off track.

Moral of the story: something about not touching rear ends.

 

[Ridox2JZGTE]

I have not tried any Quick Race events yet. I have not seen the point as that is what the Career Mode is mostly anyway.

With any game I like to play the whole way through career first, on easy because it it teaches me all about the game and what its strengths and weaknesses are. With a car game it lets me tune the cars and get to learn any new tracks. There are lots of new tracks in AC for me :-)

Yes, I find the AI unbalanced - in career. On easy, at tracks I know very well I can be 2-5secs a lap faster and the worse has been a Monza (that is one of my favourite tracks) I have been 10secs a lap slower. That is in one of the impossible races I have listed. Not so much the AI but the what the AI was driving. I was in a Pagani Huayra and the two front AI were in Zonda Rs in full race trim on slicks presumably >:-(

So, in career, AI can drive cars with better performance and better tire too ? Is this behavior tied to the difficulty level ? Do you see this on easy ? I would imagine a good balance would be AI car make mistakes on easy, and progressing to more clean and consistent as it gets harder, the cars would be as close as possible to the players car in performance/tire. If AI can use more powerful cars and better tire, would not that be cheating on the AI side ? or cheap way to make it hard, for the sake of being hard to beat.

This is what's in AI ini file on PC, console should be similar, this was older version on PC, someone here gave me complete car data long time ago for customizing a car.

[GEARS]
UP=8100 ; Upchange gear at value RPM (also used for automatic gearbox assist)
DOWN=4500 ; Downshift gear at value RPM (also used for automatic gearbox assist)
SLIP_THRESHOLD=1.1 ; Slipratio permitted for AI driving
GAS_CUTOFF_TIME=0.28 ; Gearchange time needed for AI control

[PEDALS]
GASGAIN=2.0
BRAKE_HINT=0.91
TRAIL_HINT=0.72

[STEER]
STEER_GAIN=2.21

[LOOKAHEAD]
BASE=21.2

GAS_BRAKE_LOOKAHEAD=3

Those bolded part may have contributing factor on how the AI can be like a tank when hit or can drive so fast, by tweaking the value to certain range. They are also have been said to use assist like SC and TC.

 

[TT92]

Did you not recently post how bad PCARS AI was, but you state the AI just continously smashed me off the track in AC? Then you cheat to win? Wow.

The AI in a particular open wheel event is particularly bad, yes. I have cheated in 4 of the impossible events, yes. PCars AI I have found to be continually bad, in every event, all the time, yes.

Your point is?

 

[TT92]

So, in career, AI can drive cars with better performance and better tire too ? Is this behavior tied to the difficulty level ? Do you see this on easy ? I would imagine a good balance would be AI car make mistakes on easy, and progressing to more clean and consistent as it gets harder, the cars would be as close as possible to the players car in performance/tire. If AI can use more powerful cars and better tire, would not that be cheating on the AI side ? or cheap way to make it hard, for the sake of being hard to beat.

This is what's in AI ini file on PC, console should be similar, this was older version on PC, someone here gave me complete car data long time ago for customizing a car.

[GEARS]
UP=8100 ; Upchange gear at value RPM (also used for automatic gearbox assist)
DOWN=4500 ; Downshift gear at value RPM (also used for automatic gearbox assist)
SLIP_THRESHOLD=1.1 ; Slipratio permitted for AI driving
GAS_CUTOFF_TIME=0.28 ; Gearchange time needed for AI control

[PEDALS]
GASGAIN=2.0
BRAKE_HINT=0.91
TRAIL_HINT=0.72

[STEER]
STEER_GAIN=2.21

[LOOKAHEAD]
BASE=21.2

GAS_BRAKE_LOOKAHEAD=3

Those bolded part may have contributing factor on how the AI can be like a tank when hit or can drive so fast, by tweaking the value to certain range. They are also have been said to use assist like SC and TC.

Thanks for that.

From what I have read there seems to be a belief that the AI and career in the console version is different than PC and we have ended up with a earlier version too. It would be appreciated if someone could verify this.

All I can say is that the current PS4 version is quite mess.

 

[bleeder]

Thanks for that.

From what I have read there seems to be a belief that the AI and career in the console version is different than PC and we have ended up with a earlier version too. It would be appreciated if someone could verify this.

All I can say is that the current PS4 version is quite mess.

Yes I believe we are a few patches behind the PC version in terms of, well, everything. New AI behaviours were patched into the PC version a short while ago and the changes sound great.

The biggest issues I have now with the AI, even on Easy in some cars, is their corner exit speed which results in better straight line speed and increased drag. They come up fast behind you and overtake very easily whereas I'm finding trying to use tow to overtake them much harder. Kunos have stated they're looking into it, especially the Easy setting.

 

[LotusTeam]

Not sure I understand what you mean by ''race events only, can't beat on hard/alien level''. The event in my previous post was a Time Attack that I beat the 4500 gold score with a score of 17808. I've only done three Time Attacks so far, the other two I was not much over the gold score needed. That, to me, shows it's not just the race events that are out of balance.
Regarding the race events, in Special Events I have only done two races, both in Fiats and both I've won on Alien. The first at Magione was super easy on Hard so I went up to Alien (still easy, +17 sec. over 2nd) and the other was the last one at Brands, which was a decent challenge but still only took two tries, but I also know this circuit very well and was more familiar with several different Fiat's handling traits by the time I tackled this event.
In Career Mode the balance is the worst for me, some events I can beat on ''Alien'' and others I cannot win on Medium (the last event in N1 with the Alfa).
So far the Time Trials seem to be the only fairly well balanced in difficulty events. They are a good challenge without tuning (so far) but not impossible. Again, I haven't done a great deal of them but all but one that I have tried so far I've managed gold (the other was silver).

I mean quick race in career mode, for example, you are not supposed to have any chance to win in Novice2 (3/6) at hard and medium difficulty, I finally beat this event on easy...

For T.A, they are just piece of cake to me....

 

[FPV MIC]

I mean quick race in career mode, for example, you are not supposed to have any chance to win in Novice2 (3/6) at hard and medium difficulty, I finally beat this event on easy...

For T.A, they are just piece of cake to me....

So you are agreeing? Because you are saying the same as what I was meaning in my earlier posts about difficulty being all over the place. Time Attacks are mostly way to easy. Some Quick Race's on anything anything other than easy = impossible.. Hot Laps seem about right in difficulty, challenging but not impossible. There doesn't seem to be a gradual increase from easy to alien in any events. I think the next patch is addressing this.

 

[Spitfire77]

I pop in and out of the career and it has been pretty fun.

In the description it often tells you if you are expected to even place in the top three of the race. Since you often only need like 1 silver and 3 bronze or w/e to progress you are not really ever stuck. I rerun races if I know I should be able to do much better but I stepped on my wiener. I think the intention was not for you to even have a chance to win some of them if not on easy..

It is serving its purpose, giving me set cars and tracks to run.

 

[Emmcee]

I've put it down and gone back to PC tbh.

 

[Mike_grpA]

Reading the complaints a lot of people have has made me glad I didn't buy this on day one, or pre-order it. I only allowed myself one new racing game (budget constraints), and chose F1 2016, which is brilliant. Looking here and on other forums, it's obvious I would be depressed if I had chose AC over F1. I'll follow my original plan and pick it up out of the pre-owned bargain bin once the major problems have been patched out.

 

[gt_fan]

In spite of all the complaints, the driving experience on a wheel feels about right - imo better than pcars and gt6. Maybe after a few updates, it'll get better - remember pcars when it was first released...