AI Deception in Server List

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Ef123

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there is only one reason when I am looking for servers: to compete against REAL people.

but for kind of a casual racer like me, (cant make time for leagues) I keep getting tricked into thinking servers are popular, downloading 2 gb of a mod only to find out actually they are not. server owner just runs 15 AI's to make the server look popular.

If i wanted to race AI, I wouldnt even check the server list. I'd straight away go into single player. so why is there no distinction between AI and human in server list? can studio 397 fix this mess, and at least give us an indicator as to how many are actually human in the server. one solution could be to show ai in paranthesis. instead of 15/40 lets say, it shows 0(15)/40 indicating the number of people who race in the server are actually zero.
 
THis is a known issue. I suspect it has not been addressed because they have a fix in the new UI. They dont want to have to patch the current multiplayer software only to have it superseded in a few weeks to a few months... Just a guess though.,
 
Common complaint for months and months , S397 are well aware a better filter system is need . I've created a favourites list of good servers that don't run AI . Not ideal but a work around and done ingame
 
I guess they could have easily disabled the option to include AI online. The harm done would have been much less than actual situation.

I wonder why some people keep including AI in online races. As OP says, whoever that wants to race AI has single player mode.

The UI excuse considering how old this problem is sounds a bad excuse. Bugs like this cannot remain unsolved for years.
 
SPASKIS said:
I guess they could have easily disabled the option to include AI online. The harm done would have been much less than actual situation.

I wonder why some people keep including AI in online races. As OP says, whoever that wants to race AI has single player mode.

The UI excuse considering how old this problem is sounds a bad excuse. Bugs like this cannot remain unsolved for years.
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Some server admins include AI to bump the numbers up and seeing as the AI is good then it's a nice thing to have, so instead of running against 4 of your mates you throw a few AI in and it can enhance the field a bit.

As for your last paragraph, it's not a bug and quite clearly a low priority item, hence it hasn't been made an option yet and as above it may well come with the new UI.
 
MarcG said:
Some server admins include AI to bump the numbers up and seeing as the AI is good then it's a nice thing to have, so instead of running against 4 of your mates you throw a few AI in and it can enhance the field a bit.

As for your last paragraph, it's not a bug and quite clearly a low priority item, hence it hasn't been made an option yet and as above it may well come with the new UI.
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Call it bug or call it whatever you like. This was reported a long time ago and I disagree about priority considering the status of multiplayer and the time it was arised.

I guess some of us don't think racing AI is nice. I've owned rF2 since day 1 and I don't like racing AI at all.
 
SPASKIS said:
Call it bug or call it whatever you like. This was reported a long time ago and I disagree about priority considering the status of multiplayer and the time it was arised.

I guess some of us don't think racing AI is nice. I've owned rF2 since day 1 and I don't like racing AI at all.
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It's not a Bug if it was an intentional addition, regarding "a long time ago" that was in the ISI days, as has been said S397 have logged the "issue" and will more than likely offer an alternative way of dealing with AI in the Players List with the new UI :)
 
I sometimes load up AI on our servers while I am driving by myself as a way to add extra rubber over and above the already established RealRoad setting. Also it is nice to have an idea how well the AI get around the track. We typically try not to leave AI on the server when we are not present. I hate getting fooled by an AI only populated server as much as the next guy.
 
Having AI`s 24/7 in a 24/7 server is not wise and it is also ruining pick up racing in rFactor 2. I am not allowing any AI`s at all in server`s I am hosting just to be sure that nobody gets fooled to waste their time to download content and enter in a server with bunch of AI`s.
Just imagine if you are new in rF2 and enter in the multiplayer lobby and see all those servers with AI`s. I bet Wow is your first impression but after you have downloaded huge amount of GB`s and when it is only AI you find in every single server I am sure you get second thoughts.o_O
I doubt that having AI`s visible as player benefits rFactor 2 at all and this intentional addition done by ISI should be removed ASP.:eek:

:)
 
bwana said:
. I've created a favourites list of good servers that don't run AI . Not ideal but a work around and done ingame
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i do this too and ari's servers are on my list ....but i still consider it disgraceful this was not fixed in all this time - and in the meantime destroyed any good online pick up racing and lost potential customers so not good business either
 
Big +1

We have sometimes added max 5 AIs when there are max 1-3 human players on the server back when we didn't have rubber files for the server. Now we pre-load rubber so AIs aren't needed for rubber. In no point has our intention been to trick anyone. We have set it so that AI's will be removed automatically at some point.

Our races have had 10-20 drivers per race in recent series (average of 15 I think), so it would be harsh of putting it to the ignore list just because some might add few AIs once in awhile during the week while practicing. Just making a point in case there was zero tolerance against AI and we are not only speaking of cases where there are 10+ AIs occupying a server, sure that is annoying.

You might ask why drive online when you are alone on the server. Well it's because we want to get content sooner than later for our next event, it's also nice to set time to the server (we are using Liveracers, not showing AI times btw) and some other members or new guys might pop in while you are there driving around. Also it's easier to test the upcoming track with everything set as in the race day.

If servers will continue to show AI drivers then we need to block adding AI in the future, but tbh I didn't even know such option exists.
 
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@TIG_green The server admin can set the max number of AI that can be added to the server. If I wanted I could set it to 0. But there is a legitimate reason to have AI available on the server, as has been discussed already in this thread.
 
Everyone i know who race seriously hate AI in MP. Im not too picky since i casually drive atm and i understand the idea to fill out the grid when you just have a few buddies to race against. However being able to see if its AI or human players would be a great feature. Maybe the new UI will have all the goodies. I have a sneaky suspicion they try to do the UI as good as they can.

BTW +1 :)
 
Looking for information on the Server API I found https://github.com/PredatH0r/SteamServerBrowser. It's designed for Quake Live but it can work for rF2 and shows the AI and human players:
ETA: It doesn't identify bots correctly.
SteamServerBrowser.JPG
 
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Excellent, grabbed it to check out, got it to show rF2 servers, however when I joined our league server it said I was a bot, so dunno if I'm doing something wrong my end or not

35840985323_7326baa780_o.jpg
 
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