PC2 Ai balancing in P Cars 2?

[Pär Öqvist]

Decided to give P Cars 2 a second chance. I struggle a lot with the AI balancing though. I am utterly destroyed by the F3s and now Radical with AI at 50 %. Makes me wonder what I do wrong.I removed fuel and try to optimize gearing so dunno if I am missing some qualifying modes on engine. I get zero feel for the brakes on P Cars 2 but on ABS on high I believe I get the car stopped alright.

Feel I get good feedback from my OSW outside braking but even when putting down decent laps I can be 3 second off pace in qualifying but in race if I get free air I can be 3 seconds faster all of a sudden. If they got lost in setup and put on rain tires or whatever happens.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

Missed you need to calibrate pedals in game. Had 20 % brake apparently. Still similar issue at 100 % AI and 100 % aggression with AI being a lot slower in race then qualifying

 

[Kenny Paton]

From my limited knowledge like most games there's an element of trial and error with different combos. I normally run a couple of short races to get an idea of pace then adjust for my main race.
So far in pCars2 that's worked fine for me.

 

[Slowdive]

I was just screwing around with PC2 tonight driving the Formula Renault 3.5 and Formula A and noticed that the AI has pretty unrealistic grip if you go above say 40%. Now maybe I could do something to the tuning to reach that level of grip (I like to just use the defaults with a few tweaks and drive), but I even doubt with tuning that I could take corners the way they do. The last two corners at Red Bull are pretty funny to watch them accelerate around without braking. The rest of the track I can match them, but I lose a little over a second to them on the last 2 corners.

So what you're left with is having seriously reduced AI and then as a result you have superior straight line speed, but at least you're comparable in the corners. It's such a shame, because PC2 is beautiful in VR, but what's the point if the AI is so unrealistic?

It's a real shock watching that AI after coming from RF2 and AC. Hope they address this in the next patch, oh and custom championships would be nice too.

 

[RacingManiacGT1]

I have also recently started playing this more. Running the US/World Sports Car series thing with LMP2/LMP3/GT3 cars. I am driving a Ligier P2 car and had AI set at 108%(aggression 65%) and actually I am having the opposite problem. In practice/qualifying I can probably have the fastest laps pretty easily by some margin, but in the race I can't shake the AI as I am running time maybe 5-8 tenth off my quali time and they are running times FASTER than their qualifying time and they are keeping up. I am running no aids also.

I also notice that in the wet they are either REALLY slow, or REALLY fast. The last round was at Dubai and 60% into the race it starts raining(in Dubai...) When I had to change to wets AI did too. For some reason AI can run times 1.5-2 sec slower than their dry time in the wet through first sector but running much slower in the last 2 sectors. I just watch them draw a 5 sec lead in the 1st sector and reel them back in by the end of the lap and process repeats. For some reason they slowed down a lot at the last lap and I was able to win it.

I am not sure what to set the AI to since its actually taking a lot to keep in front during the race but I am winning poles by like a second.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

Racingmaniac how odd wonder how that works? If the AI can actually get borked by running over 100 %?

I am also doing p2 now. An oreca 03. Similar p2 I run almost exclusively for some seasons now but I am so horrible with it for some reason the car I struggle the absolute most with to be competitive. Prior to this I felt comfortable at 100 % with all the cars coming up to this last season in the endurance tree. Do you have any setup ideas? I recon it´s only the driving on my part but you never know. The setups I found seem outdated I can´t even put in the same settings as they list.

These stay competitive in race as well in term of lap times so these cars seem to work a bit better. They are horrible on the outlap so I took over some half the p1 field with ease on a 100 %/100 % Fuji race for example then thinking I stroll around nicely to then to my surprise being overtaken by the two p2s that qualified faster then me. Was hoping for traffic would help me fight them but no they kept their slight pace advantage.

Attempting a lemans race now. If I can´t be competitive at 100 % I don´t know. Maybe going with 1:1 in wing. 0:0 maybe was a bit to little but nice gain in top speed.

 

[Slowdive]

Do you have any setup ideas? I recon it´s only the driving on my part but you never know. The setups I found seem outdated I can´t even put in the same settings as they list.

Here's the thing, I often don't want to bother with setups especially if it's a new car and I just want to race. If you set the AI to 79 or below they should be using the default setup. Fine. But they are able to do stuff with that setup that I cannot do. Is it because I'm a bad driver? I'm not so sure as I don't have this issue with AC or RF2. In those games I don't notice the AI having unrealistic grip while we're following the same line at the same speed with the same car. Something is fishy in PC2. I suspect the AI is "cheating" as this is a standard tactic for game developers.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

I usually dont dig deep either. Gearing, tires, wings and brake pressure.

AI often have super brakes as that mean less arseramming and maybe just morse grip overall. But in most series I been competitive at 100 % in tracks I know well and very limited practise.

Did the 2h lemans global endurance race . Absolutely amazing visual and audial experience but all I mustered was a 3:44 with the oreca 03 which is way off pace.

Wr is some 36 and AI did 38 att least if I recall att 100 %. More like the times i would expect for a p2 on soft slicks so must be me

 

[Slowdive]

Right, but I think they balance the AI for lap times only, which you seemed to prove in your post. My point is that they are getting those times in an unrealistic manner. This results in a very odd experience as a driver. I also agree with you on the brakes.

 

[RacingManiacGT1]

Setup wise I usually try to get a comfortable car that's not too hard to get laptimes out of, the most important thing in this game I feel like(much like pCars1 when I used to play it ages ago) is tire temp and how the pressure influence it. I pay a lot of attention to track/ambient temp and set the pressure accordingly as it seems if it falls out of the window you are going to be struggling a lot. In some races I'd like to run hard slicks to get more laps out of them but you can't run the setup to get enough temp in them and you can't run competitive lap times. pCars1 the window can be just a few degrees, this one seems broader but I still need to keep an eye on it...

 

[Pär Öqvist]

What tire pressures are you aiming for? Was up about 2.10 on lemans

 

[Kyle Pearson]

Just FYI, the AI in PC2 will start to adjust their setup (aero, gearing and a few other areas) when going above 80 for the AI Strength. Below 80, as eluded a few posts above, the AI will not adjust their setup (so the gearing will be not work well for tracks with long full speed sections like LeMans, Daytona Road Course or Monza).

Above 100, they will cheat a bit as far as what they normally can do.