Hello everyone, I play this game since the beginning and I like it most out of all the sims, that I have played, for various reasons. So since about 1-2 years I have only been playing R3E and nothing else, yet I just do not have so much time to play (mainly about two 30 minute events per weekend). I like driving the more newer cars and smaller formula cars, not so much the classic cars. I mainly know each track like the back of my hand. So my current chamionship setup is: Fixed AI at around 105% About 20-30 opponents 10-12 mins Quali 15 mins race About 6 rounds for each championhip My main goal (like for most of you) is to have fun and close racing but having "always" a change to win a race (or battle at least in the end of the chaionship for the title or at least top 5) if I do a nearly perfect job (good qauli-lap and race without any unforced errors). At fixed AI I sometimes have the problem that at some tracks I'm far to fast for the AI (e.g. daytona, Bilster Berg) and at a little bit more tracks I'm far too slow (e.g. Oschersleben, Salzburgring). At most track it fits quite good with fixed AI. I also tried adaptive AI (of course) in the past but I think my AAI-file has not enough content cause I change car classes too often (even if other combos get transfered to th combo I'm running at the event) and my races are too short and even on tracks, which I use quite often (Silverstone) the results with AAI is "confusing", somtimes I'm way o fast, sometimes I'm way too slow, sometimes it fits quite good. I understand that you cannot be on the same level on any track, which is fully ok. So in the end I switched back to fixed AI, cause I also had the impression that the spread between qualy-times and race times are not that big as with AAI, which leads me to my second point I always think about. I have set all paramters like tire ware, fuel consumption, damage to "off". Why? Cause I think then AI and I fight with equal weapons. But I just think so, I do not know it. What I know is, that AI uses default setup (so do I). But what about fuel in qualifying. Do they run at 50L (default value when you switch fuel "off). So what I do not want is to cheat on them, by using softest tires (if available) and less fuel. But I also do not wnat them to cheat on me (even if I know that AI uses a simpler physics model). What I also tried in the past to get most fun with close racing (and I know that close racing with AI is possible and makes a lot fun): No qualifying. 2 race setup with reversed grid but then I am somehow limited to 7 oponents, so that everyone has same changes, cause grid is then random (it isn't eally as the same drivers always start at about the same grid poition even without qualifying) if you do not do qualifying. It was quite good fun. At tracks, where I'm little slower than AI I had to defend and vise versa. In pack-racing I'm faster than AI in most cases cause of awareness and stuff like that. nother setup was also ithout qualifying and longer races where I started mid-pack. Fun for me but due to "random" grid not really fair. These are my thoughts. Maybe it could be a little help and maybe some of you can give their feedbak. Maybe I missed some points or anybody has some hints (for me or others) to make racing a championship against the AI even more funny as it already is.
I tend to complete my championships through 'single race' rather than 'championship' for that reason. On average I set AI to 106 but Hungaroring needs 110 while Bathurst needs 103 which is a big difference. Using single race allows me to run 3 races per event with a qualifying session and race 1 before then completing another qualifying session, another race 1 and reverse top 10 race 2. I then capture results and points in a simple spreadsheet as I can use the real points system for that series. To gauge difficulty I tend to run a quick qualifying session to compare my laps with the AI and then adjust from there. Please note some series require easier AI than others. Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland AI are really tough, combined with my inability to drive them I have to set a really low difficulty level.
Thanks for the input. I'm aware that at some cars i can increase strenght of AI, cause they are easier to drive for me, e.g. at gt4 I can make it 2-3% higher than GT3 or gt2. You do a lot pretesting before you really go for the races. I have a lack of time....
I couldn't remember how many get reversed as I rarely win. That's why it takes me nearly as long as the real championship to complete the virtual one!
But I think your way can work for me quite well. In 1st 30 minutes session I can run 5 mins qual to check AI strenght. Then do a shorter qualy and a 12 mins Race. In 2nd session I can adapt AI strenght (If necessary) and also do shorter qualy and two short races. I'll give it a try. Tomorrow my wife and daughter are away and we already did the house cleaning today and public Holidays on thursday. Too much time now...
Er..... You guys do realize that by running with fixed AI, you've already supplied the appropriate lap-times to the Adaptive AI, right? Or in other words, unless you're using a completely new combo, the information is already there so you can simply run the championship with AAI without the need to switch back and forth between AI levels. Nope. Fixed AI and AAI are exactly the same. All the AAI does is pick an appropriate AI level for you. The AI as such doesn't change at all. I mean, if you get good racing with fixed AI, by all means keep at it. To me it just seems like a round-about way to do it, considering that the AAI is there for exactly this purpose.
I had the impression, that aai also takes my last race in a Championship into Account and when I raced a (for me) easy track and then a not so good one, then aai was way too fast, even if I have been driven that track before. Hard to explain. Example. Suzuka. I'm not good at compared to AI. I had suzuka as 1st Event in my Championship. All was fine. Close racing. Others Championship. Suzuka was not 1st event. I came from a good track and won the Race. In suzuka then I was Last in Qual. So how can I explain that for myself? Basically aai File should have the fitting strenght. My aai File dies not have Tons of Data but I think more than enough. So I cannot really explain that. Same happened at Silverstone both times with GT3 Car as far as I can remember. But thx for the Thing with spread in qualy. I read your Posts Always when it comes to aai or AI. So thanks and i hoped you Join in. Appreciate it. Maybe you also know Something about my 2nd Part with fuel using of AI. So they "empty" their Tanks for qualy or Short races?
Maybe have a look on my app (totally shameless plug, I know ) https://forum.sector3studios.com/index.php?threads/secondmonitor-timing-status-app.9587/ It has two features that I've created to improve my SP experience. The first is Rating - The app tracks your progress in each class in form of a rating (think something like iRating in iRacing, or ELO in chess and other games). Based on the rating it suggests the AI difficulty (which can be overriden). Your rating is updated each time you finish a race, based on your finishing position. The goal of rating is in the end the same as AAI, but it is more transparent to you (you always see what difficulty it suggests, and can in the end override it), and you can set in the options where in the field would you expect to race (leading pack, mid-back)... https://gitlab.com/winzarten/SecondMonitor/-/wikis/Rating-Tutorial The second is custom championships - You can specify your own custom championships, which can then be run as a series of single sessions. I prefer running championships this way, because I can change things between races. Not only diffiulty, but i.e. I can also change the session length based on how much time I got available, or I can throw in another class on longer racetracks. You can also change cars between races, as long as, they are in the same class. It also includes calendar templates for quite a few IRL series. https://gitlab.com/winzarten/SecondMonitor/-/wikis/Championship-Creation
I have finished my ktm x-bow Championship with fixed AI at 104%. At Laguna seca I qualified 20th at 27 opponents. Did not get a really good lap in. So Top10 would have been possible. In Race I could get to 11th with 2 laps to Go. I also was at pace with leaders. Then I had a Spin and finished Last. But Till the Spin I had good fun. Last Race at Chang. I qualified 1st with 0.3 sec faster than 2nd. In Race I was about 0.7 sec faster than 2nd AI. Little Bit boring race. So I thought to give AAI a try for a new Championship. WTCC 16 starting at Zandvoort gp. I'm Not good at that track in comparance to AI but I Like the track. I qualified dead Last with 4.7 sec behind Last AI. My lap time: 1:46.9. I did a new single Event at 104% fixed AI. My lap time: 1:46.7, which was only 1.3 sec slower than Last AI Driver. So at AAI their strenght must have been at 107-110 I think, so 3.5 sec faster than at fixed 104%. How on earth did AAI come to such a high strenght. AAI File should have enough Data for Zandvoort, as I Drive it quite often but never with WTCC 16. I'm basically quite slow at Zandvoort as you can See from above. My last races at previous ktm Championship were. 6th at gelerasen (qualified mid Pack, so was good fun), dead Last at Oschersleben. And then Laguna seca and Chang. So I cannot Unserstand, Not even slightly, why AAI was so fast at Zandvoort. So Something ist wrong with AAI. Maybe they adapt to my races, where I'm much faster than AI. E.g. Chang where I was 0.7 sec faster than AI at 104% fixed AI. So somehow I think that AAI never adapts downwards. So I'm confused.
And why is AI about 0.4 sec slower in Race than in Qual at Chang. I had tire ware and fuel consumption turned Off and my fastest qualy lap time and fastest Race lap time was equal.
That's what I use now, I'm glad I did so, can't do without, improved my single player experience, smart piece of software