No345
-Tom, who is just bad enough that he wouldn’t notice an AI that isn’t super competitive
Yeah, but you’re at the top level AI, I think, from what I recall from the stream, while LedShok was talking about how the ones lower than the top AI were not as competitive as in previous games.
Ah, right. I forget that some people play the baby game version of these games. So, yeah, if you’re playing the official grown-up version of Dirt 4 for adults, you might find the AI more competitive!
-Tom
Challenge accepted! :)
Do not want.
-Tom
I immediately set the game to “champion” level and I have definitely not been complaining that the AI is too easy there.
In other news, I’m pretty sure I killed a drone.
I got back to the point in the career where I was instantly crashing before a race.
Yep, still happens. But thanks to my new technique, I Alt-Tab out of it, and send Codemasters the bug report. So hopefully they’ll fix it. I guess I’ll put this on hold until the next patch and look enviously towards you guys.
Changed the AI level to maximum (‘Tough’ I think it’s called) and ran a three stage event in Wales (the next one in my career progression).
Won the first stage by 6 seconds despite spinning once. Dropped back to 5th (by about 30s) in the next after a massive off which I valiantly (foolishly?) tried to drive out of rather than taking a vehicle recovery. Won the final stage by about 14 seconds to finish 3rd overall.
I don’t think I was driving super aggressively (particularly as the random stages spring plenty of surprises) yet I achieved comfortable wins in two stages. That’s not reflective of my driving - in DR even little mistakes like these would have been punished by the AI drivers.
I did keep an eye on the relative progress indicator and it looks as though the AI lacks some pace during the more open sections and then makes up some time during the more technical bits. Maybe the early career stages (less complex?) aren’t doing the AI any favours…
Uh, I’d say that’s exactly what it’s reflective of. :)
If you want to see how the AI is performing, there are synchronous events where you can actually watch it in action. Furthermore, how much simulation actually goes into the AI times in a rally? I had just assumed they were slapping times up there, jiggered by difficulty level. Is that not the case? They’re actually running AI drivers along the course?
-Tom
Set to “champion” I cantered my first career event, but I can’t beat that same AI on a “your stage” event, so I’m thinking the career might be set to break people in gently. Or I’m really inconsistent.
Actually you may be on to something. The fact the AI appears to be slow on the fast sections but quicker on the tighter sections may be a result of the game generating a stage time and then running the progress meter at a constant speed that matches. I might need to look at this more closely next time I play.
Yeah, I haven’t done a non-career event as yet so there may be some time-fudging going on to make me feel better about myself. ☺️
I finally got to try it out last night. It’s good, but I’m not sure it’s $43 good for me since I had only gotten Dirt Rally a couple months ago. I need to play it more and open stuff up, though. It was late Sunday night but the online looked like a ghost town.
I’ve had fun so far through an event or two. The handling doesn’t strike me as all that different from DiRT Rally. Lack of TrackIR support is a huge disappointment for me.
Are you guys enjoying the game? If any of you see your game updated with a patch, post that here, just in case that patch fixes my issue. It’s killing me that I can’t play this yet.
I’ve played through three R2 events now, and despite the sad lack of TrackIR, I’m still having a good time with it.
Graphics: not tremendously prettier than DiRT Rally, I don’t think, but DiRT Rally was a good-looking game already.
Stage generation: mostly good, but in one auto-generated Australia stage, I had the same downhill left five into right three section three times. Beyond the occasional unfortunate repetition, I don’t have the same ‘no character’ complaint about the stage generation, although I feel like a DiRT Rally-style Germany, with its heavily looped-back-upon-itself nature, would be next to impossible given what I’ve seen from the stage creation so far.
Driving model: feels good to me. Gravel is still slippery, if a little less slippery than DiRT Rally, but that matches my experience driving irresponsibly fast on the gravel road which goes to my shooting range. It’s easy enough to tune the understeer out of even the FWD starter cars, and the RWD stadium buggies and trucks are as tricky as one might expect.
The DiRT Academy is super-cool, and having little circuits to practice technique on has already made me a better rally driver.
As I play more I think that might be the biggest difference for me. In DR it was all “here’s your car, try not to die!” while D4 has almost every car set up to be understeery-to-neutral at best. You have to get into the setup screens and put the oversteer back in.
I’m still enjoying Your Stage. I had it generate a stage for me in Michigan that had about 12 cattle grids on it. Almost rattled the teeth out of my head.
The buggies and trucks really tripped me up. I do think their dirt physics are being a little bit wonky with those vehicles. I see a lot of racing on dirt (Central PA is sprint car and modified central) and getting ahold of the dirt is not nearly as difficult as it seems in the buggies and trucks in this game. On a dry and slick dirt track? Yeah. They need to look at that IMO. It’s like it’s the driest and slickest of dirt tracks.
Yeah, I have never driven a buggy on a dirt track, but it’s hard for me to believe it’s as skating rink-y as that.
