Can someone explain how the ai handles pitstops and make decisions about tyres? I just did a race against the ai - 20 laps in GT3 at Red Bull Ring. I was third when I entered the pits but after the pit window closed I was 16:th. So I thought the ai somehow made their pit stops faster. Just to test I then made two short races to time the pit stops. If I changed all tyres and it took about 31 seconds but if I only changed 2 tyres the pit stop took 16 seconds. Then I stood in the pits and watched the ai make their pit stops and it took about 15 seconds so I guess they only change 2 tyres. On what basis does the ai decide whether to change 2 or 4 tyres? Is it based just on the percentage of tyre wear or are there other factors that influence this like tyre wear in relation to laps remaining etc
I think they change only 2 tires if they need to do a mandatory pit stop and their tires won't be completely worn at the end of the race considering the tire wear up to the pit stop.
That sounds reasonable but if lets say I do a longer race with for instance 50 laps and set pitstop to mandatory there should be some degree of tyre degradation where the ai have to change all four tyres. I wonder what percentage of tyre degradation that decision is based upon. There must be some algoritm used for the ai to make that decision. And if I don't use mandatory pit stops - what level of degradation makes the ai go in and pit for tyre change and then decide whether to change two or four tyres?
AI decisions to go for a pitstop are sometimes unreasonable. I remember running a 20 minutes WTCC race with multiplied tyre degradation. I was driving badly enough to be on the last position at the end of this race. But suddenly, on the last lap, all of the AI's decided to go for a pit stop making me able to finish in the 1st place. Little satisfaction out of such a win
Just tested a 20 lap race with GT3 cars at Imola. Drove into the pits and stayed there to watch the ai doing their pit stops. It's not the case that ai only changing 2 tyres when forcing mandatory pit stops. Some cars were making their stop around 15 secons and others stopped for 30 seconds. Still would like an explanation how this works so I can setup races with right amount of laps and tyre wear so all ai stops for the same amount of time and I can adjust my strategy to that. I want as close and fair racing as possible against the ai. Something I miss in this game is some kind of manual that explains these things and also other things like what setup changes do etc. Hoping this will be a part of future iterations of the game. It's a bit annoying to do this trial and error by oneself when the developers could save everyone's time by having some kind of manual.
In case of mandatory pitstops the AI maybe just should scan the player'S pit stop strategy that he has dialed in before the race (2 or 4 tyres change, if any at all), and just copy that for all AI cars. Simple solution. Works. Longer stays only when carf is damaged and needs repair, or the tyres not planned to change, fall apart already.
Well the problem with that is that you don't have to make a preset before the race. I always do my desired changes a couple of laps before the pit stop in the race and some of the ai cars pit before me so that wouldn't work then. I guess the ai decides based on tyre wear as both races I did had the Bentley stopping for 30 seconds (which I guess was down to more tyre wear) and most oher cars were making a 15 second stop.If we knew the deciding factor for changing 2 or 4 tyres I could then adjust tyre wear multiplier or number of laps so that every car make the same changes and yourself could adopt to that. Still hoping some developer could shed some light on this.
Thanks. Here's what I think might be happening: The AI checks whether their tyres will last for the remaining duration and in that setup with 20 laps and 2x tyre wear they might just hit that critical point where they calculate that their tyres might wear out completely. This puts them at the risk of blowing a tyre and they have to make a choice of either running that risk and only change the required two tyres, or play it safe and change all 4 tyres. There is some variety built into the AI in how they chose their strategy in such situations. A simple solution in this scenario would be using 1x tyre wear, then they all should only change 2 tyres (rears) cause they'll have no problem finishing the race with the used set of fronts. Or increase the race length or the tyre wear, in which case you should end up with them all changing all 4 tyres.
I guess you're probably right Christian but I'm still interested to know what percentage is a safe margin for the ai. Even if I change the tyre wear I (or to be specific the ai) could be in the same situation if I set tyre wear to 1X but increase lap distance. Then again it could mean that some ai cars feel safe but others don't. As I said before - hope some developer could shed some light on this as I just want to understand the algoritm behind the ai:s decision to setup my races properly. I understand that this is very complex but as it is so much fun to race the ai in RRRE I want to setup my races to have the most tightest and immersive races as possible.
And for your information - I had about 20% wear during my first 10 laps so if the wear stayed the same it would mean about 40% wear in a 20 lap race. Is that wear enough to make the ai change tyres not to risk a blown tyre or to decide that the wear is harming their lap times.At what percentage is the tyre at risk of blowing or getting so bad that the car will be to difficult to handle.
@Hygge Tyre wear doesn't work like that, the more wear you have, the more the tyres slip, the more wear you get, so it just keeps increasing. That information is from @Alex Hodgkinson
I wouldn't expect the AI to change all four tyres in lap 10 of a 20 lap race when you got approximately 20% wear. that does sound a bit strange indeed, will have to look into that. Another option @Andy Blade made me aware I missed would be to set the minimum pitstop duration to 30 or 31 seconds, then everyone would lose the same amount of time in the pits, regardless of the number of tyres they change.
For some reason I misinterpreted this setting. I didn't check the values well enough and just saw the first few numbers and thought it was minutes (If I had checked the last value which is 90 I probably would have understood this ). As I now realize it's seconds I could as you say put that to about 30 seconds. Thanx for enlighten me!
Just a quick note on that setting. It starts ticking from the pit entry line to pit exit line. So you will need to account for the time spent in the pit lane as well as how long the tire change would be to make effective use of the setting. For instance, you might spend 30 seconds driving through the pit lane at Spa. Add to that 15 seconds or so to change 2 tires in the GT3 cars and that is about 45s for a total pit stop time. If you only set 30s as your min pitstop duration, it wont do anything because it takes that long to drive through the pits. If you set it to 60 for instance, this will be long enough for you to change your tires, and still need to wait a few seconds until you can pit out. It'll make more sense after you try it once or twice
Ok, as the 15 or 30 seconds I mentioned earlier was the actual pit stop when the car was stationary I should probably set this to about 60 seconds as you say. I will do some tests to calibrate this. I'll just have to find the track with the longest pit straight and use that as a reference whatever track that would be. Thanks nate for the clarification on this!
I of course really appreciate the time people spend on answering my question but as it can be a bit cumbersome when you're in the game and wondering about something specific and have to start a web browser and search a forum to try and find an answer I would prefer some kind of in-game manual or some kind of tool-tip system for each setting.