Timestamps:
01:00 - Chapter 1 - The history of Forza’s philosophy and Drivatar tech on early Xboxes
07:28 - Chapter 2 - A.I. challenges: design challenges, complexity on track and with cloud data
11:00 - Chapter 3 - Classifying track lines with chi values, brake-checking, caching techniques
19:25 - Chapter 4 - Rubber-banding: Unbeatable setting, incorporating new analog/digital controller tech
23:35 - Chapter 5 - Player perception and expectation, AI aggression, using AI beyond Drivatars
This was an interesting video and the tech behind it is impressive, but at what point will they realize its not working. The ai is not good in forza motorsport, it hasn’t been in quite some time and if anything they seem like they’ve gotten considerably worse than they were in forza 5. There are no “water cooler” moments, at no point have i ever felt i was racing against any of my friends or any sort of competent opponent.
I find turn 10 does things like this quite often and its probably the reason why people have gotten tired of forza. If this system is that complicated and doesn’t actually do what it’s supposed to do then why keep using it. This is exactly the type of change that id like to see in future games but it seems as though they’re sticking with it.
I have to say, I agree. I know if I see my nephew’s gamertag over a car that it should ram me the first chance it gets, but the drivatar of him has all the sharp edges of the character sanded off, which makes it not much like him at all. I think I actually preferred the old days when I would hunt down M. Rossi or names from the actual development team. I really only want to see gamertags in multiplayer. This is not to say that there isn’t a great role for AI, because there is. Sure they could program 40 to 60 AI personalities with unique driving characteristics that determine how they go around a track solo, but it’s all about how they react to unpredictable you and the other cars on the track that makes it really interesting. Seeing those same names come up will build that sense of getting to know the other drivers as you progress through the career, perhaps narrowing the list down to 20 by the time you get to the end of the career.