Drivatars dont seem to loose much momentum despite poor line through corners

Has anyone else noticed that Drivatars seem to be able to take the worst line possible through a corner and loose practically zero momentum or exit speed

I love the game but the drivatars are an abject shambles at the moment, if turn 10 could replicate the AI in Game Stock Car 2013 I would be in racing heaven.

You are not alone, I’ve seen it plenty of times, drivatars really sucks.

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Drivatars are magic.

Not only do they take terrible lines in corners but they commit the cardinal racing sin of not holding a line. I am not talking about intentionally blocking as a race tactic, I am talking about jeopardizing the lives of anyone behind them by suddenly turning inside or outside the given line during a corner. The longer and slower the corner the worse they commit this crime.

Even worse than that, if you are lapping a drivatar they fight you for the line. EVIL!!!

There would be fist fights in every pit post race if this was real life.

And tapping their brakes in the middle of a bend when there’s no need at all.

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Or slamming on their brakes in the middle of a straight and parking in front of you.

Totally agree. Sometimes the drivatar seems to be better than the cars ability!

I always seem to get the Drivatars that like to play demolition car derby. I try to pass them like normally, and I usually get pit maneuvered when trying to go around…

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This is precisely the reason why I can’t play single player. I realize that there are people with aggressive behaviors online but, at least I can anticipate and predict the movement of their cars since they tend to obey the laws of physics.

I’ve been near the outside of a turn; accelerating, and a drivatar has come up from behind and beside me in the gravel to spin my car. It’s amusing and frustrating at the same time. It is a serious challenge to get a clean lap in career mode.

And it seems as though the cars drivatars drive are all off road beasts as they don’t slow down a bit when they get off the track. This is what irritates me probably the most. However, most of the time when they go off track, they lose control and come flying across the track in the other direction.

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It seems when they come back on track they make sure no one passes them…
Things that annoy me is the drivatar getting passed on a straight and then they attempt a late brake from h*ll and t-bone you in the corner. Or the stare ahead like they don’t know you are next to them…even thought youre 3/4 car length ahead of them and they turn right into you…on a straight. I have had the AI come from one side of the track to the other, just to ram my car. Very frustrating. Especially when you try to race clean and get clean laps. For timing and to try to keep a clean drivatar yourself

If only there were a way to make a Drivatar blooper reel … hmmm.

I’m working on one at the moment actually. Gonna play the replays then use Game DVR and edit them with the Upload thing. Had a funny one last night. Back straight on Road America. One of them decided to go off the side of the track onto the grass and plough through the white signs before the corner. Then the rest of them drove through them whilst they bounced around on the road.

I play on the last 3 difficulty levels (Depending on how I feel and if I want to take the risk to restart a series) and I didn’t notice anything like that.

I’ve noticed they come down straights like they have jet engines and zoom right past you. They have some serious game killing flaws.

I don’t like it when people respond to these kinds of threads just to say something like “Well I don’t have these problems…” (yes - that’s very helpful - and good for you, buddy).

However… I don’t have these problems.

Mainly because I expect drivatars to drive like… drivatars. It sucks to have to adapt to their style when their style is utterly without grace, but being aware of the flaws can save a lot of frustration.

For example, I take drivatars’ brake-checking as a given, so, if I’m drafting, I’ll get out from behind the car ahead before the offending move (is there a turn coming up - are you halfway through a straight?).

Or, when on a medium to long straight (Spa), I’ve noticed it’s not so much that the drivatars are trying to slam into me from the side - they’re usually just carelessly meandering over so they’ll be on the line. It seems like an offensive move because they’ll make it regardless of where you are. They’re like real life drivers on the freeway - you can just tell when some moron is going to drift over into your lane for no reason. Apparently this curse is inescapable.

I race on Unbeatable most of the time, and there’s absolutely nothing unbeatable about it.

It’s really frustrating to know what the drivatars do, but when you start pondering the why, it gets a little better. And easier. And fun.

It shouldn’t be this way, but it is. That’s reality, and reality is the only thing we have to work with.

So… if we stay on topic… Do you think the dravatar drive the car above its performance ?

Yes. The picture below was taken after a P-Class race against 15 drivatars on Road America Full Alternate. Last I saw, the best time by a real person on the leaderboards was 1:50.xxx with the best R18 doing a 1:55 (I think, may have been 1:56).

So, with a few 1:46’s in there, if the drivatars aren’t driving the car above its performance, the rest of the world must be exceedingly slow.

Those are not actual lap-times. Back in FM4, you could finish the race and then watch the results screen “fill in the times” as the trailing AI cars continued running their final laps.

In FM5, once you cross the finish line, the game stops playing. The Drivatar times you are seeing are for partially completed laps.

You can easily confirm this: At the end of a race, note the lap-times (or snap a photo with your phone, as you likely did for this pic) and then watch the replay. Get out your stopwatch (you should have one on the same phone you’re taking the photo with grin) and follow one of the drivatars that show an unrealistic time. You’ll see that the displayed best-lap-times do NOT match the actual race.

So, do the drivatars drive the car above its performance? I haven’t seen actual evidence of it. Lots of folks post about how it seems like the drivatars are doing something abnormal, or about how they are certain it’s happening, or about how “there’s no way the drivatar could have caught me unless…”

So when the topic comes up, I ask to see replays. On the rare occasions that people have actually posted a replay, it becomes clear from watching it that the Drivatars are simply out-driving the players. They are not getting magic super-speed boosts… They are not on magic rails in the turns… They just run a better lap.

As one specific example - A player said “Drivatar X” must have had super-speed, since I was out in front and he caught and passed me on the straight in the middle of the 3rd lap. Well, I timed track sections on someone’s replay from lap to lap to lap (this was a whole lot easier when replays had telemetry, but that’s another topic)… On lap 3, the player didn’t realize it while he was running the race, but he scrubbed a lot of speed in the chicane leading to the straight, whereas Drivatar X took the chicane better than the previous lap. After double- and triple-checking the timing, the player was more than 2-seconds slower in that section on Lap 3 than he was on Lap 2, and Drivatar X was about 1/4 second quicker on Lap 3 vs Lap 2. Little surprise that X was able to catch-and-pass, and little surprise that during the race it seemed like something goofy was going on. Analyzing the replay made it obvious that was not the case.

  • Don Ente
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