F1 2010 What's the deal with fuel?

[Si_Crewe]

Maybe I'm the last person playing this game to figure this out but still...

I won my first season on the intermediate skill level and I've been cranking the level up in every subsequent season but I've never bothered switching on the "realistic fuel" option before.

Today, for the first time, I set the fuel option to on and it all got a bit confusing so I did a bit of experimenting.

With fuel OFF, and the skill set to intermediate I found I can easily qualify on pole (in the RBR) on a variety of tracks.
If I increase the skill level then the margin for achieving pole decreases as the AI skill increases.
All as it should be.

If I turn fuel ON there is no difference in quali' performance at all. I still get pol but the margin depends on the skill level.
All still good.

However, in the race I find myself being absolutely trounced when the fuel option is ON.
The skill level doesn't seem to matter.
On tracks such as Sepang and Spa (ones with long straights) I can usually fend off the AIs until I reach a straight but then they stampede past me like I'm standing still!

As the race progresses I improve my lap times to the point where I'm catching the AIs by a couple of seconds a lap but by then the leaders are 20-odd seconds in front of me.

Bearing in mind that (with the fuel option ON) I am qualifying on pole quite comfortably but then being blitzed in the races I can only assume that the AI cars aren't penalised with fuel weight like the player is.

Anybody know if this IS the case or am I missing some other reason for this?

TBH, none of the other reported bugs in the game have really bothered me but if all the AIs are running with a magical empty fuel tank while the player is carrying an extra 150kg then they REALLY need to sort it out with a patch.

I've got to the point where I can win comfortably with all the other options on and the AI set to "legend" but as soon as I switch on the fuel option I simply don't seem to stand a chance, even if I dial back the AI skill to "amateur".

 

[Gonira]

yes, ai seems to not be affected by fuel load (and tire wear too, i believe).
yes, this is disgusting.
and yes, you were the last one to figure this out.

 

[wullie]

ofcourse there is no difference in qually that is because you are running with minimum fuel,dont you follow real f1

 

[Arsenal]

AI uses fuel. Something in the catchup.xml however causes them to be able to run faster then they should when they are on full tanks. With that file removed (pc version) they do more realistic times compared to qualifying, and their laps get progressively faster throughout the race. They still exhibit some odd behavior but it is NOT as simple as they don't use fuel. There are a few things working against each other which lead to the messed up results.

 

[Gonira]

looks like an easy fix to implement in the patch. hope they do it, since i play in the xbox, so i can't eat these fries without catchup. =\

 

[Si_Crewe]

ofcourse there is no difference in qually that is because you are running with minimum fuel,dont you follow real f1

Erm, that was my point.

If I can beat the AIs in quali (with a low fuel load) and they all stampede past me on the straights in the subsequent race it would suggest that the fuel is the only thing causing a difference.

Arsenal: Thanks for that. I'll give it a try. I assume I can just rename the file so it doesn't get used by the program?

 

[Arsenal]

Yeah, or just move it elsewhere. In the AI folder I just made a new folder and dragged the file there. That way if you have any issues it can be moved back and it is the same file with the same modified date. I know on rFactor even an identical file with a different date can cause a mismatch, that is why I did it that way. However my game does run fine without it.

 

[Ryan Bakken]

I've been playing with fuel simultation off and in the past few races what I'm noticing is I think the AI is affected....For instance, this last race I qualified 11th, thru the first three laps I was up to 3rd and posting lap times 1.5 seconds faster than the Webber ( also pole qualifier ) and he was posting laps that were way slower than his qualifying times....as the race progressed he got faster, close to his qualifying times.....this has happened the past three races when ive been paying attention to it....IMO, im not sure the AI isnt affected by fuel load, i may have to test this a bit, because if the AI is affected, than i want fuel simulation on

 

[Anthony Lucas]

ofcourse there is no difference in qually that is because you are running with minimum fuel,dont you follow real f1

qualys dont matter anyway as the lap times are generated and the cars are only there for show and if you fast forward time in the pits its even worse because theres no way to simulate times at x30 speed

 

[logos]

Here is what's in the catchup.xml : http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1220845#post1220845

Seems like they're just slowing down the AI cars for the different AI difficulty levels, and speeding them up to the 100% of the car power only when AIs are closing to the player's car. For the "f1_race_level_3" which should be "Legendary" difficulty level, this effect is completely disabled, and the AI cars are using 100% of their power all the time.

So there shouldn't be any difference between removing the file catchup.xml, and using the file with the "Legendary" difficulty level in game, IMO.

As for the fuel consumption of the AI cars, they are few seconds a lap faster than the player's car in the beginning of the races, on 100% distances with "Legendary" difficulty, fuel simulation turned on and catchup.xml removed. So there is definitely something wrong with the AI fuel consumption, if any at all.