rec.autos.simulators

Just curious how this works.  It was defaulted at 70%.  I ran a 20 lap
race at Daytona and won by like 35 seconds and lapped half of the
field.  When I was done, the AI strength had adjusted from 70 % to
77%.  So I ran another race and won that one by 16 seconds and when I
was done, the AI strength had gone DOWN to 75%.  If it was working as
intended, shouldn't it continue to go up until it catches up with my
ability?  Doesn't seem right to me.

Keith

On Fri, 07 Feb 2003 14:32:40 GMT, B. Keith Barbour

Same thing happened to me at Talladega in the demo. Seems strange,
true.

/Martin

With the auto adjusting AI it takes a lot longer to get it built up if you
don't use the adaptive AI.  My first Daytona race I won by a few seconds
with the adaptive AI on and it jumped me to 88%.  In the demo it took me
about 4 races to get it there without using the adaptive AI.  I think it
uses a lot more than just your finishing position. I ran a race at the Rock
and lead every lap up to the white flag. coming to the white flag the AI
came like a train and ran me over. I ended up finishing 19% after limping
back around and still ended with a 91%. I also noticed skipping qualifying
and starting at the back hurts the percentage as well.  I think the auto AI
will be nice once its built up but until then its gonna be kinda boring. It
also means well will have to back up the playerec.ini file so we don't loose
our built up ratings.

MadDAWG

Well I was under the impression that the adaptive AI was not a good
thing.  People were speculating that if it adapted to you that it
would make for boring races.  Someone suggested that if you fell off
the pace that that the AI might even slow down at wait for you to
catch up.  That part sounds bad.  I know I'm going to run better on
the big tracks than I do on the short tracks or road courses, so I can
imagine that my AI might adjust to 90% at Daytona, but because I stink
at Watkins Glen it might be 70% there.  That's fine, but I want it to
adjust and then stick with my true abilities.

For example, if I get it to adjust to 90% at Daytona and I'm in an
accident and have front end damage and can only turn laps of say 54, I
don't want the AI waiting for me so I can catch up.  If I am supposed
to finish 35th, then let me finish 35th.  So, I guess it would be nice
if someone would explain the Adaptive AI versus the Auto Adjusting AI.
Should we turn both on or leave one off or what?

Keith

My guess would be your speed way out on your own is not as fast as the draft
speed shoulda been so it got funky on you.

What I did was I went into the playerrec.ini and changed every track to
90.000 from the blank they started with (so instead of your first race out
of the box being at 70% and horrible it is mildly entertaining at 90%).  You
can add Nresults if you want changes to be a bit more incremental if you
think you have it close.
I'm still having tons of problems getting them just right, but it helped a
lot, I know with auto ai on it would help more...it's just when I mess up
and the whole field slows down I hate weaving like mad when I catch the
draft again.

Turns out I was slow and I have been hovering between 89 and 92 for CocaCola
(hey it's fun) anyway so it was a nice guess to start with.

Jonathan

I think sometimes if you run two races back to back without exiting that
race's setup screen it puts you at 70 again or whatever it was at before the
first of the two races.  It's almost like you have to go out of the set up
screen to save it or something.

--
Rick Miller
Driver of the #8 US Army Ford Mustang
at Trail-way Speedway, Hanover, PA
(4cyl Lightning class)

It did lead to boring races _for me_.  I couldn't pass them, and the
couldn't pass me.

You bring up a good point about damage.  I wonder if there is a 'check' in
the system for this?  How about if you pit, and they don't.  Does that make
them still slow down?

Points to ponder...

Larry

I would say it's pretty easy to create a statistical math calculation where
only the "standard variation" are used for the laptimes.  That standard
variation would technically never change, because only your   So if you
wreck or do a lap while being towed in the pits, of course they shouldn't
count ;)

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- http://ymenard.cjb.net/
-- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimago-Dominguez
Corporation - helping America into the New World...

Sadly this doesn't seem to happen...it would be nice if it monitored your
best 3 lap times and adjusted a lil beyond that (so something like the draft
may not.  There have been times I was running near the front, got some
damage scraping a wall a bit hard, fought for control saved it but lost my
momentum and the draft and all the sudden I finish 43rd and it thinks well
lets slow it down a bit cuz he can't compete at that level.

This is where the asc is handy since they'll slow down the ai for your
crippled car making it at least somewhat interesting (so your not lapping
like dw in that crappy kmart/route 66 car half a lap behind the draft).  But
even the asc system has it's flaws since if u were racing at a level you
shouldn't have me thinks it may be a bit slow in assessing your drop to a
proper ai rating.

It'll never be a perfect system, it certainly coulda been a tad better in
calibration, but honestly if u own and race this sim for years offline you
will log enough data that it will know you very well (and my guess is ai
settings for similar tracks can be carried over with only a slight need to
fine-tune...or in 5 years I may be at 100%).

blah.

Jonathan

Keith.

I think you can go into your player records file and put in a value for each
track where you think you are at so you don't have to start at 70%.  Lets
say you put in 93% for all tracks for starters.  The first line for each
track is blank, unless you have run races so it might have a number like
76.943328.  Change it to 93.000000 or whatever you want.

This might save you from running a bunch of meaningless races to get the AI
where you are at.

--
Brian Tate
DSTP Motorsports Public Relations
http://www.dstpmotorsports.com  http://www.toyotaatlantic.com