Noticed something interesting when racing against amatuer AI (hey, I've only
been at it for a couple of days) at Monza. I was on pole with about a 1:30,
the rest of the field being comfortably behind. I garaged for a while to try
some different things. When I came out, lo and behold, I was 8th behind a
bunch of 1:27's and 1:28's. I've since replicated this. Basically, at least
on amateur level, the AI cars get fast when you are in the garage. Maybe the
stewards should be notified...
So I did a little experimenting as I remember that the AI did different things
in different modes in F1RS. So far, I've just looked at Amateur level. I
find that the "proper" AI pre-race lap times should be in the 1:31's for the
top teams, sometimes dipping below into 1:30+. Times for the first practice
and warmup will be in the 1:34's. Best race lap will be about 1:35.
But if you end the race (not accelerated mode), Nakano will turn a magical
1:28-1:29 lap every time! Other drivers will turn 1:32's. If you run the
race in accelerated mode, or race it, the times are in the 1:35's.
If you skip all pre-race sessions and go immediately to the race, F1 Mag will
report pre-race times in the 1:23 range, I assume it forgets about the amateur
status?
If you do the first warmup, but then skip to the race, it ties all pre-race
times to that first warmup, so all the best session times are in the 1:34
range.
If you skip straight to the quals, the practice times are synched to it. That
is, it generates warmup times akin to the qual time (1:31's if not garaged,
1:27's if garaged).
Basically, it looks like Ubisoft uses some weird linkage to generate lap times
if you aren't in the actual race (3D) session. Careful if you plan to make an
*** on the best time.
The AI timimgs are screwed up in MGPRS - although it appears to be worst in
'single GP' mode. Everyone is hoping that this will be resolved in the
patch - which has apparently been delayed.
Iain
