rec.autos.simulators

    Because ------ if you have followed the entire process -----
these were big, cacho, wanna-be's who felt that if you needed to
participate in this earthshattering experience, you had to practice
for endless hours and all that other crap.

   They dropped the ball ----------- pure and simple.  I personally
think they didn't want to go to the hassle of having to ENGINEER such
an option for the simulation, so they conjured up this lame excuse to
begin with,

   Believe me, they want you to think that JIM CLARK himself somehow
exists in this sim and it is the greatest thing to ever happen to the
sim world.

   SORRY ------ it is a great sim ------------ but they sim on their
butts and refuse to release the BUG FIX -- PATCH for this item of the
sim gods.  Some perfection.  Some day they will wake up and realize
that the general public likes to have the ability to tailor their sims
to their specific liking and that we DO like to adjust the AI for a
fighting chance to finish in some sort of reasonable area.

    AND LASTLY -------- I really don't want to hear any whining and
flaming from the babies either.  I had to put up with THAT six months
ago when this very same subject came up in this newsgroup.

    Just look at how fast Papyrus has addressed these and the other
issues that needed it ----------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------- so far they have not
waisted their time.  

     They seem to have taken the mindset that they already HAVE our
money, so why to make us happier?  

     I along with countless others have spent endless hours attempting
to make various aspects of the sim better and more accomodating for
all, and that includes AI adjustment BECAUSE IT IS NEEDED, and for
online racing BECAUSE THAT IS NEEDED AS WELL

    So far, not a peep ------------------- believe me -------- I will
remember this lack of integrity on their part when future sims come
out by their company, and I sincerely hop others do as well.

Haven't you heard about GPal yet? It will address & fix 90+% of
this message. It is not a "Papy" effort but another sim programer.
Should be out in just a few days. It has been discussed in detail
at GSB.. Cheers

Well, since they already had just such an AI-adjustment setup in their
previous efforts, I rather doubt the engineering aspect was much of an
issue.  What they did with the global hype system is a LOT more
complicated anyway.  Clearly, they were trying to go further in GPL.
Just as clearly, they missed the mark for some people.<g>

Clark, as he "exists" in GPL, is simply the quickest driver in the
quickest car, as he indeed was in '67.  The aim of the global hype
system is not to glorify him, but to surround the player with
competition as he/she advances.  The back of the field gets lots
quicker as the player does, while the front only gets a bit quicker,
showing at least some respect for the sanctity of 10/10th's and the
laws of (vitual) physics.  But then maybe that rumor's true about Dave
Kaemmer having plastic surgery so he'll look just like Jim Clark, and
all Papy programmers being required to wear kilts while coding ......

It would certainly have saved Papyrus a lot of charring on their Nomex
if they had made the AI/Physics more adjustable, but I doubt you'd see
much of the ecstatic posting like you do when someone finally beats
the dreaded Scot, or gets into the 8's at the 'Ring.  Winning, like
all else, is much sweeter when it's hard to come by.  I was taken
aback too, at first, going from easy wins at Ace level in GP2 to off
the back at Novice level in GPL.  But I just dug in and tried to learn
to read the feedback better.  Having done so, and gotten the
satisfaction of finally showing the AI my tailpipes, no other sim can
hold my interest now. And the untweaked AI's really quite beatable
once you learn to drive with only sight and sound.  I'm far from the
quickest guy around, but these days I like to run Pro-Short races from
the back of the grid.  I usually win if I'm careful enough, so it IS
do-able.  No; it's not easy, but then I wouldn't want it to be.

OK.  I'd say you've got those covered anyway.......

The fact that they haven't released a patch yet doesn't mean they
haven't been working on it.  Lack of Integrity?  Try thinking about
the hype that preceeded EA's Nascar Revolution versus what was
delivered, or UBI's bug-ridden F1RS.  You might reasonably fault
Papyrus for making GPL too hard, but their integrity isn't at issue.
Unless of course they were just trying to be mean to YOU.  That would
be wrong, of course..........

Gripe less....Drive more....Go faster.  Easy as 1,2,3!

Steve B.
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Given the fact that you can tweak the AI in a text file to get the
desired  behavior clearly indicates that all the engineering is already in
place.  Papyrus made a UI / gameplay decision not to include it (or
perhaps ran out of time).  It would be very trivial to add this feature
and I agree that they should have included it in the first place and
should add it in the upcoming patch.

Whatever.

I sim on my butt, too.  I is really hard to drive a racing sim standing
up.

Not a peep?  Randy Cassidy posts about the upcoming 1.1 patch to this
newsgroup quite often.  Lighten up.  "Lack of integrity" is just plain
silly.  They put out a fantastic product at a great price.  Sure, it could
have been a little better with some additional playability tweaks, but at
$35.00 I have gotten my money back in entertainment twenty-fold.  Probably
the best $35.00 I have ever spent.  If they had put out a completely buggy
product and never patched it, I might agree with you.  But GPL has very
few bugs, certainly no show-stoppers, and if they never put out a patch, I
will still enjoy this sim immensely.

Dave Ewing

You can adjust everything you like about AI behaviour by editing the .ini
files
Everyone who has taken more than a quick look at this sim has found a
solution to make it suit his/her taste. The fact that the AI slider was
missing in the retail version of GPL motivated me to control these beasts,
to try out every car,  to really learn the circuits, to read books on GP
Racing, to read about race car physics, to watch movies on racing, to
develop own driving techniques, to improve laptimes. If there had been an
AI-Slider in GPL, i maybe hadn't done all this, i'd just sat in the car,
won my first championship and then put it on the shelf to collect dust. I
want to congratulate papy for the design decision NOT to implement an
AI-Slider. Don't get me wrong, but everyone was shocked at first how
difficult it was to drive, but  it is part of GPL's realism. And of it's
success.
The ability to control AI speeds only makes sense when you yourself have
enough experience to control the car. And when you have, you got deep
enough into the sim to find out how to edit the ini-files - simple as
that. GPaL is developed at just about the right time now because it makes
the process of changing the settings easier.
I may be wrong but IMHO someone who isn't talented or doesn't want to
invest many hours of learning the sim won't get instant enjoyment out of
it just by moving an ai-slider to the left.

why to > > make us happier?

Don't agree : Tell me another company who reads this newsgroup and
supports their products by listening to the wishes of enthusiastic players
AND incorporating them in a patch even 8 months after the release.

Sorry 'bout the lengthy post, but I just imagined if papy had released an
arcade-ish GPL where we would've had to apply  countless "unofficial
patches" and "editors" to set the cars to a "60's GP-car" behaviour and
change the AI to the "impossible"-setting to get the GPL-experience, would
we still be talking about GPL now?

Well, SOME of us :::raises hand::: are NEVER going to be able experience EITHER
of those...at least not in THIS lifetime.  :(
I'd have to drop about 4 seconds at Monza, and about 7 MINUTES at the 'Ring.

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Not complaining or whining(I *hope*), just stating an opinion.

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Don't be so sure!  I never thought I would either at first, but
somewhere along the line it just started to click, to the point that I
now wonder why it ever seemed hard.  There seems to be some mystical
point on the learning curve that once passed, makes GPL seem so much
easier.  Don't get me wrong; Ian Lake & co. have nothing to fear from
me, but I can get around well enough now to beat the AI without much
sweat. And I don't drive every day, or for hours on end; just
regularly enough that the lessons have imprinted over time.  So hang
in there.  The satisfaction's worth the wait!

Steve B.

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Of course not!  By all means tweak the AI to a lower level if you need
to be competitive, but don't just make it easy and leave it there.
Make it tough to win, and when you do, go back and make the AI
tougher.  Then try to beat it at that level.  Keep repeating the cycle
till you're able to beat the AI at full strength.  Not everyone will
get there, of course, but that's OK.  The real guys had a tough time
dealing with Clark too!  That's why there's only ONE world champion
each season....... :-)

Steve B.

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