I was about to make a thread concerning these two exact issues listed in the title of this thread, but I figured I’d post here, instead of starting a new, similar topic.
This post ended up being lengthier than intended:
“About AI racers and practice bonus lap times…,”
I race on difficulty level 7, and in some cases the bonus lap time is quite quick, but achievable after some practice and tuning, which is admittedly addicting for me to attempt to hit the bonus time, learn, and tune the car accordingly. I’ll end up putting far more laps in during practice than the designated race lap count.
However, in most cases there has been some bonus lap times that are hugely quicker than what I can achieve with my tuned car and driving ability. Lowering the difficulty doesn’t really seem to make the bonus lap time easier to achieve. What’s more is that some times, the AI can hit the time about a second, if not two or three seconds faster. So not only can I not hit the bonus time, but if I do, I’m far off the pace from the AI, when they shouldn’t be as quick as their car or PI indicates. I’ll often times be in a C500 (top of PI rating) car, and the AI blowing away the bonus time is…maybe in a C483 (for example).
What’s more is that before a race, I set my fuel level to be not that much more than the race lap count, to of course aid in drivability, and speed. However, the AI will have fuel for say, 71 laps for a 5 lap race, and still pull away! During the race, there is always the first place car that will pull an abnormal gap on me. During one series, I finished a race second, with the first place AI TEN seconds ahead of me. I was driving all out with a decently tuned, but not perfect car, while the AI seemed to be on rocket rails.
And yet sometimes, the bonus time is more than achievable, and you can walk away from the AI during a race.
I’ve also noticed that the AI tend to suffer the same classic Forza AI issue: they give up once I’m in first. However, with this new Motorsport game, I’ll pull…maybe a three second lead on them, only for them to rubber band out of nowhere to be 0.5 seconds behind me! In the next lap, they might be down by three seconds. There’s very much an unbalanced rubber banding issue with the AI.
While on the AI subject, they also seem to have zero awareness to me. They dedicate to a line, and will bulldoze me out of their way. There’s been several times where I entered a turn ahead of the AI; it’s my corner, and yet, the AI bulldoze into me, pass me, and rip off into the distance.
Something just doesn’t feel…right, or balanced, or natural with the AI, or practice lap bonus times in this game. It’s unpredictable. I don’t really get much feedback in “learning” to tune my car when bonus lap times and AI difficulty will randomly spike from one race to the next to an unreasonable level.