They made Sophy better! BOOST WEAK

[pabloprp69]

You have to have a cornering speed high enough to pass them immediately at the corner exit, otherwise you won't. In the video I at best pull alongside the AI because it's rubber banding to match my speed. Despite me having a higher cornering speed and getting on full throttle earlier.

I watched your video. Your lines are not optimal, and even though you carry more speed overall, you are working harder with your trajectory. Also, you could have stayed longer behind the car, as you'd have gotten more momentum - you moved way too early.

Even with all these factors, you still carried enough speed to pass the car, and your video shows that - however, Sophy has the inside, granting it a shorter travel distance.

 

[ShiftingGears]

I watched your video. Your lines are not optimal, and even though you carry more speed overall, you are working harder with your trajectory.

Its negligible.

Also, you could have stayed longer behind the car, as you'd have gotten more momentum - you moved way too early.

That's not losing momentum, that's avoiding slipstream.

Even with all these factors, you still carried enough speed to pass the car, and your video shows that - however, Sophy has the inside, granting it a shorter travel distance.

Under braking. Because it's rubber banded so that you draw alongside it.

 

[TurismoTalker]

some of the people in this community deserve less effort from PD

What I really don’t understand is the goal behind pushing players away from a different and fun gameplay experience. I’ve read complete nonsense being passed off with arrogance as if they were brilliant insights. Like the guy bragging about finishing a race one minute ahead of everyone else, only to later admit he had fuel consumption set to 20x. Feels like we’re just messing with each other.

Another one says he doesn’t want to create custom races because it takes too long, and then in the thread about sharing custom races he calls the idea pointless. I’m open to hearing everyone's ideas, but this is exactly why PD doesn’t listen to us.. we’re all too divided, and no one wants to meet the others halfway. Every idea is 'bad,' every feature is 'useless,' every car is 'trash,' SOPHY is 'slow'... So seriously, what tf are they even supposed to do?

If every constructive discussion ends up with someone blindly dismissing everything just to be right, we’ll never move forward. And PD will be totally justified in ignoring us, because voices of dissent become unreliable, and the few good ideas that come up now and then get buried under all the negativity.

SOPHY, despite its flaws, is competitive - I repeat, despite its flaws. If someone can’t manage to build a competitive custom race with SOPHY, I think that’s more about their ability to set up the race properly. I take 10 minutes to build one and I’ve got 15 saved, where I almost never win or even finish in the top 5, and that’s a fact, because I’m an A-S player. If Valerio Gallo comes to me to say that Sophy is slow, MAYBE, I can trust him, but not from everyone.

If someone really wants to test SOPHY, this thread explains exactly how to do it: what settings to use, with which car, on which track. But if you’re more focused on trying to break SOPHY than seeing how to create a genuinely competitive driving experience, then that’s your problem.. or you simply point out that, at the moment, SOPHY has poor fuel management (that’s actually a thing).
But then saying it still has 'a lot to learn', when without fuel consumption it beats you by a minute, just turns a great observation into something that sounds like ****.

 

[Mumster]

If someone really wants to test SOPHY, this thread explains exactly how to do it: what settings to use, with which car, on which track. But if you’re more focused on trying to break SOPHY than seeing how to create a genuinely competitive driving experience, then that’s your problem.. or you simply point out that, at the moment, SOPHY has poor fuel management (that’s actually a thing).
But then saying it still has 'a lot to learn', when without fuel consumption it beats you by a minute, just turns a great observation into something that sounds like ****.

Well said.

 

[jonoholland29]

What I really don’t understand is the goal behind pushing players away from a different and fun gameplay experience. I’ve read complete nonsense being passed off with arrogance as if they were brilliant insights. Like the guy bragging about finishing a race one minute ahead of everyone else, only to later admit he had fuel consumption set to 20x. Feels like we’re just messing with each other.

Another one says he doesn’t want to create custom races because it takes too long, and then in the thread about sharing custom races he calls the idea pointless. I’m open to hearing everyone's ideas, but this is exactly why PD doesn’t listen to us.. we’re all too divided, and no one wants to meet the others halfway. Every idea is 'bad,' every feature is 'useless,' every car is 'trash,' SOPHY is 'slow'... So seriously, what tf are they even supposed to do?

If every constructive discussion ends up with someone blindly dismissing everything just to be right, we’ll never move forward. And PD will be totally justified in ignoring us, because voices of dissent become unreliable, and the few good ideas that come up now and then get buried under all the negativity.

SOPHY, despite its flaws, is competitive - I repeat, despite its flaws. If someone can’t manage to build a competitive custom race with SOPHY, I think that’s more about their ability to set up the race properly. I take 10 minutes to build one and I’ve got 15 saved, where I almost never win or even finish in the top 5, and that’s a fact, because I’m an A-S player. If Valerio Gallo comes to me to say that Sophy is slow, MAYBE, I can trust him, but not from everyone.

If someone really wants to test SOPHY, this thread explains exactly how to do it: what settings to use, with which car, on which track. But if you’re more focused on trying to break SOPHY than seeing how to create a genuinely competitive driving experience, then that’s your problem.. or you simply point out that, at the moment, SOPHY has poor fuel management (that’s actually a thing).
But then saying it still has 'a lot to learn', when without fuel consumption it beats you by a minute, just turns a great observation into something that sounds like ****.

Great post. Sums up exactly why PD ignore the community. And they should.

It’s all noise. It could be better, but it won’t be better listening to some angry keyboard warriors.

Sophy is great - and this thread lets you get the best out of it, if you want it to.

 

[Voodoovaj]

Great post. Sums up exactly why PD ignore the community. And they should.

It’s all noise. It could be better, but it won’t be better listening to some angry keyboard warriors.

Sophy is great - and this thread lets you get the best out of it, if you want it to.

You know my feelings.

Set up the same race, with the same settings, with the Base Ai and Sophy, and the difference is stark. Anyone who claims otherwise simply hasn't done it. The jaded commentary is frustrating and I KNOW that the devs get this feedback.


I feel like I should share a story - Back in the early days of Battlefield (ya, I was with DICE back in the day) the main dev team messed up a bunch of things with BF2 and my teams were tasked with fixing them. We were in damage control mode and we were trying to get the community back on our side, so I offered to take over community communication. It helped with prioritizing fixes. I spoke to the community directly and I engaged with their feedback. That said, some peeps were simply haters, usually minor clans, and we found it extremely frustrating. Given that we played the game all the time, we were pretty decent at it, and the folks complaining were often the least effective players ...I think you know where this is going. We'd jump on their servers and DECIMATE them. It felt SO good.

PD doesn't have that kind of release valve. Appreciation for a job well done is all they can get, and I believe they deserve praise for what they've done with Sophy. No, it isn't perfect, but it's very well executed, very entertaining, and seemingly improving with each update.

 

[ArronWestley]

I've tried the Boost Weak option and it made the grid much harder but apparently there's no rubberbanding... which is what I'd expect from Boost Off.

It makes for good racing but I can't win as easily from 20th to 1st, so I'm not sure I'll keep the setting.

 

[k12power]

So, I realized today that they have made a tweak to Sophy making it even more human like. I want to encourage anyone who has not yet tried Sophy custom races to take the time and give them a try.

Here's an example of one of mine. These Clio's are all tuned exactly the same.



I've posted similar things in the custom race thread, but I feel like too many people are still ignoring Sophy customs races. To be clear, the Sophy Quick Race is poor indication of what the current iteration of Sophy can do, so do yourself a favor and give the custom race a try.

Warning: It is work. Like making a livery, or tuning a car, there is a time investment in making a good race. But, it is likely the most rewarding part of this game.

Here's some guidance for the uninitiated. Have balanced cars as much as possible. Sophy will use the default tires OR racing hard tires, and I highly recommend going with RH for best results. I also HIGHLY recommend the racing brakes and racing brake pads, because Sophy likes to pass you under braking. Try to avoid the dedicated race cars (Gr1, GR2, etc) unless you plan on limiting the field to only a handful of examples. Fewer variations works better than more variations. Set the cars to the same PP. I avoid BoP, I find it doesn't work as well as balancing the cars manually, but it's an ok shortcut.

Lastly, and you may have seen this across the forum, set the Boost feature to WEAK. It doesn't boost YOU, it boosts Sophy. It's a bug in the game, but it works great. The payout falls but the degree of difficulty increases, which is how we know it's a bug. Also, Boost Strong is easier than Boost Weak, which again is an indicator that something has been set incorrectly. None the less, it's the best mistake ever made in the history of this game.

As you can see by the Clio Cup video I posted, racing Sophy is akin to a Sport Mode race now. Expect to stay more or less where you started.

I haven't tested this iteration of Sophy over the long haul yet (aka 30minutes, 60 minutes, etc). The most I have done is 15 laps, and I have yet to do better than a 0.5 second lead to the win, after starting myself 5th. I did a few 15 lap races from last and I managed to get to mid pack ONCE.

Given that we are likely entering the final days of content updates, this will be a way to keep the game fresh until the release of GT8. There's a few Sophy threads, like the custom race thread, or the "test your tune" thread. Legit, if you see Sophy is having issues with a car, that you're sign that the tune is messed up. You may also want Sophy specific tunes, since getting Sophy to be fun is not the same as making a car fast for you (although it's usually the same thing).

Good luck!!! Have fun! Post your vids and questions...But PLEASE try it if you haven't yet.

The standard AI, uses the same "rule" in tyres? I mean, if I put in a car that has SH tyres as a stock, RH, will stay as such?

 

[PletdeKoe]

I still get mixed results. Sometimes Sophy races really well and I struggle to get to first place, starting last. Other races it takes two laps, but as soon as I lead the race Sophy increases tempo and I can’t shake them. Sometimes resulting in them racing laptimes two seconds faster than in the beginning of the race….

I really hope the development of Sophy will result in a way that races are more consistent and pointed at racing instead of the erratic increase in laptimes.

 

[Dena RACING]

Well, for about a year now, I've been using the Boost Weak mode with Sophy. I hadn’t played GT7 since the latest June update (I was abroad and on holiday), but today I loaded one of my custom race settings with a Porsche Cup. As usual: Weak mode, same cars, BOP on, and all on Racing Hard tyres.

I tried it at Monza that I had never tested Sophy there before. Something pleasant I noticed: Sophy no longer dives into every corners. It still tries to challenge you, but it’s stopped the constant stupid divebombing (which usually caused collisions or pushed me off track). So yeah, if there’s one improvement I’ve noticed, it’s that.

But is it just at Monza that Sophy behaves smarter and stops divebombing like an idiot? I’ll check my custom settings tomorrow on other tracks (like Interlagos, for example), where races used to be very frustrating.

 

[Theufcveteran]

The standard AI, uses the same "rule" in tyres? I mean, if I put in a car that has SH tyres as a stock, RH, will stay as such?

Yes, the same rule. AI cars will only use their default/stock tyres or Racing: Hard if equipped to a car you assign to the AI via the Select from Garage option in custom race.

No need to buy intermediate or wet tyres for racing cars that you are assigning to the AI, either. They will equip them when needed even if you haven't bought them.

I'm not sure if I've tested AI road cars that have Racing: Hard, and what happens in wet conditions. I'll test that and reply to you.

 

[ShiftingGears]

If they want to improve sophy they need to program it so they race each other. It never goes side by side through a corner with another AI, it always drops in.

Most people can live with rubber banding but behaviour like this makes it look uncanny and not particularly fun when it's the player vs 19 cars rather than 20 cars vs every other car.

 

[Mumster]

Been running some races with slower cars and stock tires all stock setups one make using garage. Ran the VW Bug at Alsace and it was more fun in the Bug than I’ve ever had in that car. Sophy is quite good with slower cars. When I start 20 I’m lucky if I get into the top ten.

 

[pabloprp69]

I've been having a great time with my 89 Miata Cup - especially enjoying the AI battling each other.

All cars have weight reduction 1, full racing suspension, and RH tires. There's still room for more improvements in their tuning, but so far everything is looking promising. They have random ballast distribution, but all AI cars share the same suspension settings. One or two cars have a few extra HP.

My car has sports suspension, and I added significantly more weight to it, resulting in roughly 20 PP less.

Here's a couple of laps of Brands Hatch. I tried to focus on the AI racing each other. Sorry for the crappy video
Nearly went off after the long straight, after the car behind bumped me!