F1 2010 Spain Catalunya : Hard AI

[Ryan Vickery]

Just drove this circuit at my 2nd season, driving for force india with expert settings/legend ai. I qualified with a 1.22.6 which gave me 4th place.

Started the race and managed to sneak my way into 3rd by some luck as button spun off the track, was only a 20 lap race and i was pitting at lap 6, held my 3rd place until i went into the pits, came out in 20th with the prime tyres on, my pit stop was under 4seconds, and i was not held up.

With pitstops adjusted i had gone from 3rd place to 11th and despite me beating my fastest lap on almost every lap (in the low 1.23's) i was still not even able to come close to the top 10 again. Petrov was the 10th place driver and he was pulling times in the low 1.21's this is faster than the lap record, and over a second faster than the fastest car in qualifying.

I won the previous 4 races quite comfortably, qualifying in 4th, 1st, 1st, 2nd and then 4th again at Spain. Despite a decent qualifying, decent pit strategy and racing my heart out harder than i had at other races i was not able to compete with the raw speed of the other cars.




The point of the thread is, this is 1 track out of 19 where the AI are extremely fast, as there arent any areas of the track where the AI goes slow. If this trend was displayed throughout all the tracks and the qualifying adjusted accordingly i honestly cant see how anyone will be winning championships on expert/legend before driving for a top 3 team.

 

[OGHomie]

I always thought I just really sucked on the track but it is not me thankfully.

I am having the same issue, practice qualifying my times are within the top 3, I even managed to put on a pole lap in the Force India, in the race I lost first place at the start(goddamn AI without its fuel) everything was going fine until my pitstop, after that I could only claim 13th place which was already a pain in the ass. On the other hand, Canada, Spa and Monza are just plain easy, I managed to do laps 2 second faster then others on these tracks. I even made an mistake at Monza on purpose so i could came in last, my whole race was full of mistakes and I managed to overtake the leader twice in the last lap.

@Imacken; optimised right? Then explain to me why 200mph wasnt any problem for me and even have an decent setup for the infield? Wait 2 seasons when you can run the mclaren and you will still see the same.

 

[imacken]

@Imacken; optimised right? Then explain to me why 200mph wasnt any problem for me and even have an decent setup for the infield? Wait 2 seasons when you can run the mclaren and you will still see the same.

I said the gears were optimised (for top speed) for my setup.
I can't explain it, although it is clear that stuff that happens to one person doesn't necessarily happen to others.
Try using Bram's setup here http://www.racedepartment.com/f1-2010-setups/38819-catalunya-spain-dry.html and tell me what top speed you get on the main straight. I guess you can't do that because I'm on a Sauber in career mode and it would be difficult to compare. Maybe worth a try anyway.

 

[Rob Stone]

I've just seen this old thread and wondering how people are getting on now on this track in career mode? I'm interested mainly in the ones with no assists and tyre/fuel sim enabled.

I finished 12th in Q with a 1.24.5, purple in sector 1 and 3, but sector 2 I am losing 2 seconds. Then the race after pitting I was 16th (from 8th) and finished last after a spin and a DSQ cutting the last corner in anger to end my misery. Like others mentioned, my car is a Mercedes with no R&D.

I've been looking for a decent video to look so I can compare my driving with people doing low 1.20's but I only find TT examples

 

[Justin Lindsay]

I'm glad to see that so many people have the same issue. I am racing on Expert mode and after the 1st lap I'm behind - no matter what. It's insane. After a few seasons of this retardation, I have decided to crash out as many AI cars as possible before I get black flagged. It's worked well so far.

 

[John Forester]

Im so pleased that ive come here and seen this evidence that the game has such flawed consistancy. Im in my 3rd career season now with redbull (after beating champ rival vettle in m second season with williams) i have thus far cleaned up. i won in bahrain by a country mile, then again in Oz, i finished second to Alonso in Malaysia after making a mistake, but i won again comfortably in China. Now im at Spain, and im no where f**king near! I have all aids off (keeping auto gearbox and auto pitstops on) in im down in the mid/low 1.24's and im way down the field. Im This isnt my favorite track by a long stretch, so i wouldn't expect to be sitting on pole even if i nailed a lap, but to be slogging the absolute guts out of the car, and then looking at the times to see your stuggling to make the top 10, is hugely frustrating. We all know that AI times a scripted, but during qualy all AI cars, even lotus and virgin, come flying past me when im on a hot lap (and tend to wipe me out alot at the hairpin turn 5 too :/), even though im doin 1.24's, and they qualify behind me! Its a good thing times are scripted at spain or you would have times way faster than you even by the slow cars. I thought it was just me that struggled on this track, so im glad that ive come here and seen you guys noticing the same faults.

 

[Alex Couture]

guys,there is no such things as tyres sim and fuel sims for the AI, its so obvious...
i spent atleast 5hours trying to figure how come the AI on professional was hitting the turn #3 with such ease.
the tyre sims is in fact really realistic and does his job, but when you're facing someone who doesnt have this handicap ON SPAIN! really there is no fun.you guys have the proper time with tyres sim on don't worry, my very best was 1.23.675 but obviously the ai on professional times goes down to 1.23.100 or so. no wonder why bram time 1.18 with his setup, w/o with tyres sim i can take the turn #3 from the inside and follow the racing line with ease, really just try it and all you're questions will be answered

 

[John Forester]

guys,there is no such things as tyres sim and fuel sims for the AI, its so obvious...
i spent atleast 5hours trying to figure how come the AI on professional was hitting the turn #3 with such ease.
the tyre sims is in fact really realistic and does his job, but when you're facing someone who doesnt have this handicap ON SPAIN! really there is no fun.you guys have the proper time with tyres sim on don't worry, my very best was 1.23.675 but obviously the ai on professional times goes down to 1.23.100 or so. no wonder why bram time 1.18 with his setup, w/o with tyres sim i can take the turn #3 from the inside and follow the racing line with ease, really just try it and all you're questions will be answered

Taking turn 3 flat out depends on your setup though, with the optimum setup you have to be inch perfect turning in, or you will run wide, but if you use a setup with more downforce you will piss on turn 3, but loose time at other parts of the circuit as the car has too much drag, so its a double edged sword.

Professional is a piece of cake though, only the legend difficultly presents any challenge, but Spain is the only track where legend difficultly is just rediculous. A 1.23 at Spain wont get you very high up the pecking order with legend difficulty. The best of the AI runners will probably break low 1.21's to high 1.20's and the AI actually achive faster times in the race than they do in Qualfy. On legend, even in a redbull, i have to cream a lap in order to get into the top ten. The only way i think i could win, would be having TC and ABS "on", which i never do. This track is just ridiculous, and i dont mean a little bit, i mean its totally taking the piss how fast the AI cars are. Codemasters are having a laugh if they expect anybody to win here without assists. :S

 

[Brendon Boss]

First we get complaints of easy AI.
Hey look I'm coming 1st in a Lotus in season 1 on expert difficulty.

Then when the AI is closer to what it should be at Catalunya, the complaints are reversed.

The mind boggles, then just lols.

 

[John Forester]

Well, thing is, at cayalunya i wouldnt say the AI comes closer to what it should be, i say it surpasses all possibillities of having a human player compete with it. To be honest, i managed to finish in third on this track, but the fact it was a wet race probably worked in my favor because i got my tyre choices right. But on a dry track, without assists, its pretty much impossible to be compete with AI drivers of the same car type. Even in competent drivers in Redbulls/Ferrari's ect, are likely to find themselves down the field battling Force India's and Saubers, because the AI is simply too fast.

 

[David O'Reilly]

Perhaps the only way to keep our sanity/joy in the light of this Catalunya flaw is to see ourselves as say Barichello at Interlagos-Or Webber at Melbourne-destined never to win. In our in game persona its the jinx track where we will never do as well. Counter balanced by the few easier ones.
I think when I go there in season two I will put it down as a test of character and "be in a car for which we could not find the right setup.
Its there, our car is crap at this track.

 

[Craig Whitmore]

From what I read about the AI on catalunya, it seems to be set higher than the other tracks, probably as drivers have more practice here due to it being used for testing.

I downloaded True AI 1.4 as well as a corner fix mod, which adjusts the speed of which AI can take each of the various corners on different tracks and found that the AI cars are more balanced.

Although I need to run a mod manager to use them so that I can uninstall them easily when I want to play online, but it's a fair trade for making the AI more playable against. Be warned though, if you install a mod, you have to use a save fix too, otherwise your career will always default back to the race you previously did before using the mod, not saving progress.