There are two major AI settings the player can easily select: AI Speed and AI Aggression. By now, we should understand that players should pick an AI Speed that meets their lap time expectations (e.g. maybe slightly faster than the player, maybe match the player, maybe slight slower, but it all depends on your own goals), but selecting a value for AI Aggression isn't discussed as much, so I'd like to see how y'all choose your settings. The default AI Aggression (25%) is definitely for those who aren't used to the AI or have a basic mistrust of it. The AI yield corners a little too readily and are slow to attempt passing. I pretty quickly upped mine to 35%, yet that was a mild difference and the overall traits of yielding corners too easily and being slow to attempt passing are evident. Got around to spending a little more time studying the AI today on Portugual v2.0 using the historic F3s and ended up increasing AI Aggression to 50%. That made them a little more lively and provides the sane racing pressure I was looking for. 50% provides some unpredictability as to whether the AI will defend/yield a corner and they yield later, more akin to an online pickup racing session. Generally speaking, I'm running into them more often they run into me <ahem> and they'll sometimes mildly bump each other in the braking zones. If you divebomb them, they'll often turn in on you, but I don't think that's related to AI Aggression and seems more likely a general AI trait (or is related to the collision detection/avoidance); on the other hand, divebomb somebody online and you'll likely get hit, too! Going from 25% to 35% to 50%, I haven't noticed the AI cutting closer when passing. That seems solely handled by the individual AI's courtesy value (or whatever it's called these days). I know a few of you use 100% AI Aggression? Are there any particular benefits you've seen?
Yeah, good thread! Since a few days I played around with it too, as I noticed that with some cars my setting was too heavy. I have had it on 62% for ages, what was good and without flaws for the multi-car races I did a long time (5 different mods in one race). A few days back I jumped on FR 3.5 and with that car 62% seems too much. They are taking a very aggressive line (what can cause problems on some tracks) and are no more that gentleman-like to the player. So I turned it down to 52%, what is still a little harsh (regarding bumping/touching player). I will stay at that for a while and observe how other cars deal with this.......
My suspicion is that for open wheel cars a lower level of aggression makes sense as otherwise you'll win races simply because the ai all crashed into each other. Remember that in open wheel racing you can't really get physical where in closed wheel you can have some proper door banging fun. Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
With the URD AI i use 65% and then set individual AI aggression ( virtual drives) between 50 for slowest drivers and 70% for fastest drivers. This seems to work well for me. I struggle with the meaning of courtesy and what to do with this setting for the induvidual AI. For now i set them to high for the slowest AI so they let faster cars pass more easily and low settings for the faster drivers, so they won't let you pass easy. I don't know if that's the rigt way to go, but again, seems to work. I'm hoping some more people will give their opinions on this.
Surprisingly, at 50% AI Aggression, I'm not seeing any AI cars take out each other on Portugual. If an AI spins in a tight pack, then the other AI do a very skillful job of avoidance, braking hard. Far better than most online sessions. It's really only when the human player sticks their nose in someplace they shouldn't that contact becomes more inevitable. I've tried Historic F3, BT20, Formula Two, & FR3.5. Yeah, so overall with my current skills, I like 50% AI Aggression... need to check a few other tracks now. Edit: Without any talent files, a pack of 20 AI with these open wheel cars is VERY good practice for racing close in traffic. If you open the door, they're through. Assuming you have the AI Speed set right, if you pass one, there will be solid attempts to repass unless you're just plain outdistancing them. If I get hit by an AI, it's usually because I've slid the car into their path and there is no way to avoid; occasionally it's because I've overbraked.
Still liking 50% AI Aggression. Carnage only happens on car & track combinations where the AIW is known to have problems (e.g. historic cars on AMP, BT20 on Monaco) and lowering the aggression doesn't help. After watching the AI for far too long, it's obvious that they try very hard not to ram things. However, the AI are oblivious to what seems like an obvious avoidance for humans (e.g. car re-entering track, so give extra room because you don't know what will happen or taking their standard line when a hay bale is knocked slightly into the road). Their other blind spot is jumping to the block line, totally ignoring anything beside them, so it's up to the human to anticipate such actions.
