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For F1 2017, Adaptive Difficulty?

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I know it's early to talk about F1 2017, but this is just an idea I want to throw out there to gauge public opinion, especially with regards to complaints about the tiers of AI difficulty as pointed out here (http://forums.codemasters.com/discussion/45448/it-s-just-not-enjoyable-ai-pacet) and in many other places.

As I mentioned in that form, AI difficulty (at least used to) work by scaling various driving attributes like corner speed in, speed out, control, etc. against the highest tier of difficulty which was just 1. I.e., Legend was 1, Expert was .9, Hard was .75, etc. The way it is set up, it is theoretically possible, at least on older games where files were decoded, to adjust the difficulty manually to suit the driver. I propose that an adaptive difficulty system tailors this difficulty system to the player by automatically calculating and adjusting AI performance, by using the selected teammate as a reference point.

Basically, at the beginning of the career mode, the player does a "Young Driver's Test" and sets the best lap time he can on a track like Spain. Then, using the scaling factor mentioned above, the AI's time is set to a tenth or so (depending on who it is. Alonso or Hamilton would have close to 2 tenths, while maybe Haryanto would be like .5 tenths) higher than the player's time. Then, every interval (5 races, half season, season) the system can be rescaled based on the average qualifying performance vs. the teammate through that interval (so that weak tracks don't completely throw off the scale). This way there is always a competition with the teammate, and the results will be more realistic since you won't be dramatically under or over performing with your car unless you are just really good at a certain track. This could also be set to "re-evaluate" less and less often (like start with performance over 5 races, then after maybe two re-evals, after every 10 races, and eventually only change once a season maybe after 5 seasons, since it is natural that there is a performance ceiling for a player.

I would prefer that this be an option or setting though. Personally, I enjoy having to push like mad to out-qualify my teammate on Legend (though the quali sims in practice are a bit too difficult at times). I think I improve faster when just thrown in and told, be quick enough or get fired (which is now possible in this game!). While adaptive difficulty will provide a realistic result in terms of team scoring and performance against a teammate, it is a bit of an artificial means since the AI is improved or slowed based on the player's performance. But to people who can't find a happy medium in terms of AI pace, or find their performance ceiling perfectly sat between two tiers, it would be quite nice to be competitive, but not too competitive.

I do propose this for 2017, as it is far to large a change in AI to introduce in a patch, but I think it's a good train of thought to follow when thinking about potential changes for next year. I have previously expressed that this game is the best and most enjoyable F1 game I've played yet, so I am in no way complaining, but things like these might make everyone enjoy it as much as I do.

But yeah, let me know what you guys think! :smile:

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I'd love to see the option to either allow thegame to adjust the AI as you play through a career/season OR be able to have a few sliders based around the AI including at least Pace and Aggressiveness, but if they could break it down more into how good they are on brakes, acceleration from corners that'd be awesome.

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Unless you have real drivers tapping each other on the shoulder and saying "would you mind easing up old chap? I'm afraid I'm just not that fast here and I'm trying to put on a show for the folks back home." It shouldn't be in the game. No. 

Its fine as it is. Adaptive AI is hardly realistic. 
If I'm racing Lewis in his Merc I want his times to be representative of real life. I want him to race like he does in real life and be as tough to beat as he is in real life. I don't want him to be hamstrung because I expect everything to fall perfectly in my lap. 

I want to put the work in and get better by learning from my mistakes and improving  over time. 
I bought F1 2016 as it simulates the real sport and I want to get better at the game not expect the game to make my life easy. 





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I'm wondering what will be new for F1 2017 in terms of tracks - will there be a new circuit, even if it's the return of an old one? And if the track venues remain the same for 2017 (except for the Nurburgring GP ), will there be enhanced features to justify shelling out gelt for a game that's almost the same as F1 2016. I know we have team car changes for 2017, based on the FIA's latest formula, but I'm curious to what the justification will be for purchasing the same game next year? 


Well, one thing Codemasters can do above all else is work on improving the haptics on wheels and controllers, similar to what T10 Studios did with Forza 6: constantly challenge user skill with a more difficult handling model. I believe Codemasters did this and more in this version, hence the complaints about car maneuverability. While I've adjusted almost 90% to the new handling model, I have to say that his game is harder than its predecessor, and in the final analysis, that's what it's all about, yeah?

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A good idea could be to have a slider that would determine the AI speed, using a percentage of the fastest lap ever recorded around that circuit, this would allow the player to fine tune the pace to exactly suit them, to make that game more of a challenge.

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Codemasters have done this before with other games and it was terrible. You are asking for rubber band AI!

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Trux74 said:
Unless you have real drivers tapping each other on the shoulder and saying "would you mind easing up old chap? I'm afraid I'm just not that fast here and I'm trying to put on a show for the folks back home." It shouldn't be in the game. No. 

Its fine as it is. Adaptive AI is hardly realistic. 
If I'm racing Lewis in his Merc I want his times to be representative of real life. I want him to race like he does in real life and be as tough to beat as he is in real life. I don't want him to be hamstrung because I expect everything to fall perfectly in my lap. 

I want to put the work in and get better by learning from my mistakes and improving  over time. 
I bought F1 2016 as it simulates the real sport and I want to get better at the game not expect the game to make my life easy. 

If you read the whole post, you'd know I definitely agree with you. I love just setting it at legend and then pushing like mad to try getting better to hit the mark. Unfortunately, not everyone else agrees with this, as you've likely seen with the numerous posts complaining about the AI being too easy on Expert but too hard on Legend, etc. This way, a player who's hit their "ceiling" won't be forced to by uncompetitive or straight up OP because of the levels. They'll always be as competitive as their team ought to be. I wouldn't use this, but I'm sure many on this forum would.

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FarukhAbd said:
A good idea could be to have a slider that would determine the AI speed, using a percentage of the fastest lap ever recorded around that circuit, this would allow the player to fine tune the pace to exactly suit them, to make that game more of a challenge.
This is essentially the idea, but rather than manually setting the slider, the game will gauge your pace and modify the slider to be a little faster than you, and then you push to try and keep up. But not drastically like the Expert-Legend gap.

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Dunky1980 said:
Codemasters have done this before with other games and it was terrible. You are asking for rubber band AI!
Woah there, rubber band AI is a completely different, and extremely garbage, animal. I'm suggesting a gradual adjustment of AI pace throughout a CAREER. Rubber-band AI implies that the AI pace changes multiple times during a race. That is absolutely not what I am asking for. No offense, I get the feeling that you just replied after reading the header, but not the post. I don't want the AI to speed up if they are too far behind in a race or slow down if they are too far ahead. I want a more elegant solution than a zero-100 slider, in which average qualifying pace delta over 5 or 10 races are used to automatically adjust the slider such that it's challenging but not impossible like it is to go form Expert-Legend. Instead of having to find like 1.5 seconds to move up  a tier, it will just bump the AI up by like .1 to .5 seconds depending on how your qualifying against your teammate.

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I'm wondering what will be new for F1 2017 in terms of tracks - will there be a new circuit, even if it's the return of an old one? And if the track venues remain the same for 2017 (except for the Nurburgring GP , will there be enhanced features to justify shelling out gelt for a game that's almost the same as F1 2016. I know we have team car changes for 2017, based on the FIA's latest formula, but I'm curious to what the justification will be for purchasing the same game next year? 
I know you mention tracks specifically, but the massively different cars is probably enough a reason to upgrade. Maybe if they can add ERS simulation into the new in-race menu, that could add some more depth. As for tracks, I don't think it'll be any different. Seems like Hockenheim might be taking the German GP again anyway. Maybe Imola instead of Monza since the Bernster doesn't care for tradition or continuity. Though I would love to drive Imola in this game, I don't want to lose Monza for it.

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