Generic Questions about AI pit strategy and AI set up.

Fuel
They do have fuel usage (you can check it out if you watch an onboard of the AI) and they do pit for fuel.

But they seem to have weird set ups. Instead of starting the race with full tank, they start with half of it or so. This leads to catastrophic race strategy, as they pit several times more than other AI drivers. And what's more, when they pit for fuel, those same AI drivers dont fill up the tank (they seem to fill it to the same value as the initial set up). For example, TS040 drivers fill the tank with 40 litres or so. R18 drivers with 25 litres or so.

They clearly dont have a good strategy or a logical one. So the only question is, Why they do that?

Tyre wear
We cant know if they have tyre wear or what tyres are they using as the tyre app doesn't show anything (it's all black and always with "SM" as used tyre).

Some time ago Lord Kunos said they have the same tyre wear as the player.
When they pit, in cars in which the time of filling up the fuel tank is very different to filling it up and changing tyres (Corvette C7R), you can see that they are changing tyres as they are using that time for it (4 extra seconds for the Corvette C7R).
But they dont seem to be affected by tyre usage as they make the exact same lap times no matter how many laps they do.

Do they have tyre usage? What tyres do they use? Do they set different tyres for race and qualifying? Do they have in mind the length of the race for their strategy?

Set up
They seem to change some things between qualifying and race. If you race with a grid full of Lotus 98T you will see that they seem to have a higher turbo % on the qualifying, as they will pass by your car like they have twice your power.

And they seem to change tyres between race and qualifying. If you race with a grid full of F40, you will see they they are some seconds faster between qualifying and race.

Do they change something on the set up depending the track (gear ratios)? Depending the session (qualifying, race)?

 

i wish these would get an answer.my take on this toppics are:

fuel:
Its annoying to see them stopping mid-race and not refuelling enough to go for the end of the session.But,strangely enough,i found that in Custom Championships,when i fill it to max right before the start of the race (not during qualify on pits!when i'm at the starting line) they actually dont stop.When i fueled to max as part of my setup,the did stop.Coincidence maybe?

Tyre wear:
Im surprised to see they wear the same as us.maybe only for the initial set?I did a championship with the Lotus 98t,and in a race at Barcelona,i was struggling to keep up the pace with hard tyres,so i changed to qualify tyres.My times improved but the AI not.At the race,i went with soft tyres,and again,the AI did the same laptimes they were doing while i was with hard.Around 6 laps into the race,my softs are pretty much done and i had to stop for new ones,but the AI didnt.

Set up:
i dont think the AI have any "hard" setup,maybe tyres only.But as far as stuff like gear rations,engine limiter,not to mention aero or other things,i really doubt.Take a race at Monza 66 with the Lotus 49 and Ferrari 312 as an example.the Lotus has greater power/top speed so they pretty much own the ferrari at this track.If i drive a Ferrari and set it up for more power and speed,i can keep up with some Lotus and the other Ferraris will be down bellow.In a well divided field of 16 cars,the first 2/3 are Lotus,then me,then more Lotus and the rest of the Ferraris are packed in the last places.
At Highlands Long,you can overtake the same cars you drive on the long straight.
At RBRing,a short track where corner speed exit is everything,you can out-accelerate the AI.
But @SlimCharles, you mentioned there are differences between laptimes for qualy and race,and that is due to the tyres.But i've done a million races with vintage cars that only have vintage tyres and the same happens to them.Only after a lot of laps they seem to find again their speed.Im more incled to believe that this differences are due to fuel

 

You say they behave different depending you fill it to max before the race (qualifying) or in the race at the starting line?

I think Stefano said the AI has the same degration of tyres as the player. But Im not sure of that, as they seem perform the same lap times no matter how many laps they do without pitting.

Could be that they use softer tyres for qualy and harder tyres for race. It's probable, as with Group C cars and a grid of F4/GT40/Countach/919RSR3.0 you will see that they perform much better lap times on qualy compared to race.

Now, do they change something else? Gear ratios you have proved that they dont change them. But I know for sure they change other things, for example, Turbo% on the Lotus 98T. On qualifying they turn it to 100% for sure: they have much more speed on the straights than you and if you watch their onboard, you will see that instead of 70% (what they set for race) they have 30%... but this cant be as Im much slower than them with 60% so my guess is that 30% means 100% (70 + 30).

 

Ive found that they set 30% in the outlap to not break the engine and when they are going to start the lap they set 100%.

 

At the starting line,while stopped on the grid waiting for the race to start,change the fuel to the max.As i said,maybe its a coincidence or something,but i noticed that they AI didnt stopped after that.
The thing about vintage cars (330 p4,gt40,alfa gta,908 lh,917k...) is that they only have one set of tyres,so they cant change for anything else.Yet,they are much slower on race than on qualy.
I kinda feel that i'm cheating for using setups if the AI doesnt

 

Any claim tyre wear impacts them same as us is bull****. They just keep doing the same laptimes. They have their own sets of physics anyway so that's impossible.

 

They have the same physics as the player.

 

well, without telemetry available we can speculate forever.. Maybe some PC gamer could comment on this given the same physics as been applied to AI across platforms.

 

Has been confirmed by Stefano and Marco many times. Although they use pretty much always (except to show some random mistake so the AI it's more human) aids like TC and ABS and one PC user also found in some ini file that some cars have a grip multiplier (x2, x1.5....).

 

Anther thing with the AI is .....
AI hits human driver , human driver fly with his car to the moon and back if he is lucky .
Human driver hits AI , AI wipe the dust from his shoulders and carry on like nothing has happen matter of speaking .

 

really?mine is the other way.i hit the AI and they are spin around and around and aound like a vinyl disc.They hit me and i'm a rock.well,maybe not a rock,but stronger than them.
this brings us to another point.The AI cars are not really that resistant to hits.They get out of the race way too earlie.Its good that they suffer damage like we do,but why dont they drive to the pits to repair the car instead of just stop the race and be there for the rest of the race?

 

I noticed the same behaviour form AI. Sometimes it happens that for very little bumps they stop the race meanwhile they could be able to continue or at least go to the box for repair.