Rubber Banding

[Goose276]

Ok, so there is an 'feature' that has been bothering me for quite some time that frankly makes the racing in this game a lot less enjoyable and that is the rubber banding. I believe that CodeMasters have got rubber banding in this game completely wrong. Usually if a game lacks items and has no way for competitors to make up lost ground, there is a speed boost principle, where drivers at the back of the pack gain a subtle speed boost that helps in the long run just to 'catch up'. In a game for example, Mario Kart there are items and the lower you are in the race the better your items are to help you back to the front, no speed boost required as they can be provided in item form. Micro machines on the other hand uses the boost and items and it JUST DOES'NT WORK. The racers at the back of the pack get the ungodly boost and collect the powerful weapons, taking them right from the back to the front and also completely ruining the people who were actually racing well. Here is an example: I was leading every lap only just though because luckily the CPU hadn't been able to catch up because they weren't driving very well, but on the last lap on the final stretch there were about 6 AI coming up behind me with the special boost, 3 NERF guns and 3 Hammers and completely obliterated everyone, I finished 9th.
See how this affects the ACTUAL BALANCING of the race. You can fix this a number of ways: 1. add more items, including defensive items for higher ranked people to defend their position during races, and balance weapons like the hammer (yes the hammer in V3 was one hit kill and had like 5 swings but...). 2. Remove items from races, or have the option of racing online with weapons disabled (You could add a menu option to the player and AI match called CUSTOM and have parameters you could set to find relevant matches). 3. Keeps items exactly as they are but remove the 'catchup' speed boost. I hope you mend this issue in future revisions.

[AJC2424]

Couldn't agree more about this issue. This makes or breaks your race - all of the time. I've won races where I've been in 11th (due to horrific luck) after 3 laps yet still ended up 1st. Almost unfairly in truth. I've won races that I never deserved to get near 1st in.

I've also been in 1st from the very first corner to the last - only to be met with a back marker who has a hammer. They make a beeline for you, hammer you, and by the time you respawn you might be 3rd or 4th and lose the race.

The weapon balancing is also definitely off. It really is. I've regularly picked up 6 bombs in a row when I'm trailing just behind someone with a hammer, for example. If I try to pass them out, I'm asking for certain death. So I need something like the gun or the hammer myself in order to compete with them. But 6 bombs come my way instead. SIX. So the race ends without me being able to mount a significant challenge.

Or what also happens is when you desperately need a bomb - when you have 4 or 5 racers on your tail and they've all been given hammers - you never ever get the weapon you need. Ever. You won't get that bomb then to fire behind you. Not once. You're definitely going to get gun after gun or hammer after hammer. Which are all worthless to you in that situation. Inevitably, with the catch up system in place, one or all of those hammers are going to catch up to you and from there you're easy pickings for them. You'll be killed. Guaranteed. Again a potential race ruiner.

I'm not trying to say that you should always get the weapon you need at the exact right time - that would make it completely ridiculous and always in favour of the leading driver. But the problem I've found is that unless you're in 1st place - you'll never ever get the right weapon for the circumstance when you really need it. When you're in first you'll always get the bomb. If you're good with your bomb placement you can keep 2nd (and beyond) behind you effectively. It requires good skill and timing to do so.

Doesn't always work that way for other positions, though. There really are times where everyone else gets hammers - the most powerful weapon in the game - when you'll never get a single one. And it just destroys your race. When everyone else is gifted the best weapon of the lot, what chance do you have with six consecutive bombs that fire backwards?

[Mulletino]

Totally agree, rubber banding in this is totally biased and OTT. Doesn't seem to apply the same banding to human opponents as it does AI ones.
If you're racing online and there is another human player in 2nd place, the AI leaves you alone as it just RBs to them instead.

But yeah, it sucks when you've driven your arse off to just get smacked to 11th due to the stupid feature.

[Goose276]

Here are some observations I have made over the last two months of play (correct me if I'm wrong, this is a community effort). Bombs are guaranteed for 1st place and there is about a 80% chance you'll get them in 2nd. All positions after this just balance it out with hammers and NERF guns. Rubber banding applies equally to human opponents that it does to AI, however it works differently, I'll explain. When the AI receive rubber band it is to speed them up to catch you so that the human player feels not much has changed except that they have competition again to make races 'exciting'. When human players receive rubber bands it decreases the speed of the AI so that the human player feels that their speed has not been altered and they have 'cheated' their way back into the race and all is swell. This is okay, plenty of racers do this, but if you're going to have rubber banding you can't also have weapons it is too over the top and unfair, therefore one or the other must be removed or tweaked (items). Add anything else you find to this list. :)

[Kapnobatai81]

I couldn't agree more with this statement. Perhaps not having weapons in race mode would be better... Also, there would need to be more tracks to suit this in my opinion. You always have Elimination mode for weapons, which is still a lot of fun, when not glitching out :)

[fraggi]

edit: removed. No need to rant f1 2017 here :dizzy: