Career mode - uneven (impossible?) ai difficulty in intermediate

I'm enjoying Assetto Corsa so far, however the challenge level in the Intermediate Career Mode races seems quite 'unfinished'.

I finished all the Novice series no problem, and carried on through I-1 with the McLaren MP4-12C. All was fine until the last race at Monza, when a Ferrari 458 Stage 3 shows up, which laps 10+ seconds quicker than me. It's a similar story in I2 with the Merc SLS, the first three races are fine, then at Spa and again at Monza a super-powered 458 comes and disappears into the distance.

1) It seems to me that these races are impossible to win fairly. Has anyone done so? I'm not saying I'm the best driver in the world, but I'm fairly experienced with Gran Turismo and Grand Prix Legends among others, as well as driving my real-life RX-7 on the odd trackday. While I'm sure I could improve, the sort of improvements I can find seem to be an order of magnitude less than required to win. To put it into perspective, if I completely cheat at Monza and straightline the first chicane, which saves about 10secs even after the resulting penalty, then this race is still a real challenge in the SLS, trail-braking into corners to get the nose in, cutting curbs where permitted.

2) Granted that it's possible I just suck, and other people can win these three races - they still represent a massive, massive spike in difficulty level, compared to the preceding races in the same series, which I won pretty easily. Normally it's considered good practice to build up the difficulty level gradually as a game progresses, rather than hitting the player with a brick wall where they have to vault from amateur to Senna levels of skill straight away.

3) There are forums for reporting other issues, why isn't there one to discuss the AI and career mode? Is this considered unimportant?

 

Why do you expect to win every race?
Do you think you'd win every race in real life?

 

Exactly the same here. I dont play Carrer anymore because of this "issue's". Dont want to be offensive but to but a 458 stage 3 and a SLS or Mclaren in the same Race is stupid. You have to fight with truncated Weapons. In both case's you have Semi-Slick's where the 458 has Tropheo Slick's. And the 458 is some 100 kg's lighter then the streetversion. It's just made to be done. Rushed in like MP and some more stuff.

edit by mod Did you ever tryed this Race's? Dont you except in a Race a balanced Performance? Hmm? Nooooo there isnt categorie's (IRL) like up to 2000 ccm then to 2500 ccm and 2500+ ccm? Never heard about that? Why is this Car in the Race? Completly usless! That's not competitive or either motivating to try to win this Race.

 

IF you finish the Career it tells you that it's just a placeholder to show what's possible.
But whine on, don't let me stop you.

 

Ai skill @ 50%?

They coud inform you that the hole Game is a Placeholder then. Each Lotus wich turns into the wrong direction Graphical is a Placeholder then.

 

You mean by calling it something like "Early Access" you mean?

 

Don't you get a gold star for coming in 2nd place anyway? It's not like you need to win everything to complete the career.

 

The career is literally a preview. But is also very moddable, so people can create their version of the career. And thanks to that, we've got out ourselves one of the best mods out there, the career generator: https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/i...-6-accg-assetto-corsa-career-generator.17666/

 

the career mode we have now is half-assed. also its not fun when you create it. its like creating a riddle and answering it yourself. i really had expected some career mode like grid autosport has.

 

https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/career-mode.15911/page-2#post-279450

 

edit by mod

Here's a few solutions, off the top of my head:
1) Ignore the fast car and only race the ones similar to yours. You do NOT need 1st place to progress.
2) Treat it as some rich kid that brought his daddy's car and paid off the officials to race
3) Treat it as an MP race that a cheater got in
4) Treat it as an Alien that is much faster than you
5) Just ignore the whole race, you do NOT need it to progress
6) Edit the files to remove that particular car
7) Make your own career and race it
8) Download careers that others made and uploaded

But no I'm sure you prefer option 69) Whine about it until KS fixes it, and then find something else of minor importance to whine about....

 

1 -> I agree, the races where you have to fight the 458 S3 are (for me at least) impossible to win. My aim was to get the first place available after them, and could do that against AI 100% without big problems.
Another - to me - super difficult race is the Magione with Formula Abarth: AIs can lap in 1:07 - low 1:08, and I can't just keep the pace. With some luck I seldomly managed to get a p3, but usually I find myself pushing too much to keep their speed, and ruining my race. That is challenging and entertaining, IMHO: the step isn't wide like fighting 458 S3. It gives the impression that afer some progress you can almost catch them. Impossible for me up to now though, I need some more experience
2 -> Yes, it is a steep change. IMHO I think the most difficult part is accepting that races exist in which you have to fight for a podium, not for a victory
3 -> A thread like Single player issues or something could be added, I think it wouldn't hurt. I was almost sure to have seen something like that, but can't find it anymore.

 

Two of the AI Lotus 2-Elevens in the 2-Eleven series are extremely fast. I would have to beat my PB on almost every lap to come in first and my PB is quite respectable on RSR for all combos in the career series. At first I felt stupid and inadequate about this. Then I felt angry at how a racing game that is supposed to flatter my ego by making me feel like hot sh*t at the wheel of a fast car instead makes me feel foolish. Finally, I decided that it's perfectly legitimate not to win every race, or even one single race in a series, if I am on the pace and good enough for a podium finish that will perform all the necessary unlocks. It's a bit like real life, I suppose...and not just real life racing.

 

I think this is a known bug samoht, it even happens when you try to run a race with the stock Ferrari 458 in Single Race - when you try to add opponents, the game defaults to the 358 S3 instead of stock.
Basically just need to wait for it to get fixed.....
I apologise for the condescending attitude of certain other individuals on this thread, I must not have got the memo but apparently bringing up obvious AC issues is now a crime against humanity.

 

Pretty sure that including the s3 version of the 458 was a mistake, but at the same time you don't have to win the race to move forward in the career.

And yes, it is comical seeing people get mad over not being able to win a meaningless race. I'm sure Kunos will cave like every other game dev nowadays and will dumb it down for final release so little Johnny can win every race by a lap and feel oh so good about himself.

 

Im doing fine at 95% in the career, on to the GT3 and GT3X. They're tough but definitely not unbeatable. Got 1st and then 2nd on the first two events for the MP4-12C GT3.

There is also a heavy reliance on your setup winning the day at higher difficulties.....kind of like real life.

Perhaps the S3 458 is there to tell drivers "Hey......your NOT going to get 1st every race....get used to it." That's how I took it.

 

I completely agree with you! One can´t expect to win every race even the best lose now and then.. I think it would be boring if the challenge would be taken away. But anyways sometimes it really is unbalanced..

 

After continuing the series I mentioned earlier.....you MUST win 2 races, and place atleast second in all others....not exactly a reasonable goal to win the series....especially with terrible t1 AI. So terrible in fact that I have had 2 races "ruined", I still won but the AI behind me fell very far back because of a damage vehicle sitting in the racing line moving very slowly. Eventually they moved around it, but I won two separate races by over ONE MINUTE, which is ABSURD.

I'm very happy they are working on the AI, because it REALLY NEEDS IT. This is 2015, racing AI has been around for over 30 years, AC AI is far too concerned with the racing line, so much so that it dive bombs other cars just to try and get there resulting in the damaged vehicles I mentioned earlier, limping around the track, sitting DIRECTLY in the racing line, blocking other AI who's sole concern is to stay on the line......Come on KUNOS you can do better than that.

While no one has ever fully defined what AI is, it is an attempt to mimic human behavior at the very least. What I talk about above is not human behavior on a normal race track. The damaged car should pit, or at the very least the other cars should be aware of it and go around it before they get within 5ft. This may be v1.0, but the AI is laughable and the game should NOT have been shipped as "feature complete" when the AI behaves like this. This is literally the worst driving AI I have encountered in any racing game, it may be challenging but it is also pretty unintelligent at times (turns in traffic).

2 Races left in the series 46 points so far....wish me luck(need atleast second in both)