Exciting races with Ai. Also really frustrating

@ScarDuck14 nice to hear there is some life left, but as you point out this sadly seems the direction of the EA sports games - just strap a sport to a variation of the same clickbait engine. They probably have loads of analysis that shows how today’s mass of gamers like to engage with the grind and need immediate reward feedback, so all EA PMs see is the need for a fresh coat of scenario paint and a bit of seasonal hype to make it work and claim their bonuses.

Rinse, repeat and send down to the basement where much of the coders with little or no actual appreciation for the sport bang it out with minimal enthusiasm and few proper tools for insuring quality.

How that prevails longer term in any particular franchise seems a bit of a mystery to me when the games become so divorced from the actual sporting dynamics and enthusiasm IRL but I guess they feel succesful enough to keep the zombie games driving, putting, and kicking into the next season.

Not very psychicly rewarding for the passionate few, both players and devs, who eventually go elsewhere ( @DavidGG53   and @mariohomoh  for two). Those here trying to point out the flaws and bugs and make suggestions - a big thanks - I want to hope it helps but this year I think its not going much further than a few fixes and a sporting update. Stick a fork in it - done.

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@ScarDuck14 wrote:

To be honest I didn’t expect to be winning any races in my first season as a MyTeam mid team.   But as I’ve been playing about with controller settings and trying to find a better workaround for Full TC glitch.

So  I’ve dropped Ai down to more manageable 90 so I can stay with them accelerating out off slow corners.  Due to TC restricting power.

Anyhow concentrating upgrades to Chassis I’ve reduced a ton of weight and all but ultra tyre wear.   Car handles well and tyres don’t drop off as much now. So now my pace is consistent throughout races.   Got Red Bill power and it’s on par with Red bull and Ferrari with a couple of ERS upgrades And a couple of drag reduction for good measure.   

So now  car is third in rankings behind Red bull and Ferrari.  But also level with Mercedes and McLaren.

To the point. 

I won at Imola with Lando 2nd

Then Spain with  Sainz 2nd

Then Canada with Russell 2nd

and lastly Austria with Max 2nd

All Ai drivers that finished second were within a few seconds off me the entire race. Some time’s leading.  But mostly chasing.   All finished within 2 seconds of me.  

So throughout the races it was exciting and nerve racking hoping not to make the slightest mistake.  But just so annoyingly frustrating as every Ai car that finished 3rd was atleast 15 seconds further back. 

As every Ai driver that finished 2nd was from a different team.  Makes victory off every race feel empty and a waste of time.  

As the game seems to send one Ai to match you lap for lap,  regardless of the Ai driver or car.    Wouldn’t be so bad but no attempt seems to have been made to disguise it.    

Break all good modes so we are funnelled towards F1 World.  Where we drive cars with random liveries against other Ai or Humans with random names and liveries,  Not even in a team.   I play F1,games cause I like F1. F1 world is closer to your average looter shooter than it is to  F1.

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Yes sad to say it is quite ridiculous I have played F1 2023 1st season 5 times i do not play 2nd season because it is to easy and I hate the driver transfers of any sort I want to determine where all drivers go, actually i want total control over my Team Career. So the point is the game has scripts. I do not want to play scripted games in any way. Hamilton has a blown engine in the fist 2 (1st seasons) Bahrain so being a smart arse I put all mecedes wear to 0 and guess what Hamilton has a blown engine in the 3rd (1st season) Bahrain. I know for a fact that they can  make a algorithm to work out based soley on the Performance files so no one is going to have a blown engine until 50% plus so why dont they do it to blinking lazy thats why.

I can't wait till AC2 comes out and we can all go to town and EA can ruin this game to their hearts content, but I hate the way this game is heading.

I hate Breaking point with a vengeance and F1 world is in the same boat. they do not listen to any of our suggestions to make the game better they have already made up their mind which way to go with the game so they can keep it, so sad I love F1.

Well, from my side all positives so far with AI in F1 23, much better than F1 22. I play GP mode 100% race length, this year I'm Perez against Super Max (AI 110), one race done only (Spa-Franchorchamps) but wow, so exciting by pushing to the limits with AI all around during my stints and with similar strategies.

Qualified in P4 with a good lap (but far from Max), it was Sprint weekend, in the Sprint Race I confirmed P4, very close race where only the last couple of laps (we know...) were not the best, with AI overpowered.

The race: good start (we know it's a bit easy this year) and P3 but I'm with (M) after studying a possible M-H strategy, the first 4-5 cars are with (S) and I lose position but I keep DRS range while Alonso (M) is on my back. First stint is coming to an end, we are fighting close to each other (Sainz, Norris, Hamilton, Alonso, Piastri and me), the ones with (S) pit and I decide to switch my strategy on-the-fly as well to a M-S-S (I saved 2 new sets of S in Q).

Russell and Leclerc tried 1 pit stop only, I had to overtake them, while always in fight with the others (I overtook Piastri after being undercut), with Max flying away. Very very exciting, full concentration needed, in general I noticed:

- I was slightly slower in the straight, wings 19-18 (preset is the 5th so 8-11, even if I'm not sure AI are running exactly these wings) but when close to the car in front with DRS and a bit of ERS I was able to attack and overtake (did a couple so good in braking);

- in the stint I was slightly slower with brand new tyres, then slightly faster in the central part of the stint, then again a bit in trouble with big wear.

But close close close fight.

Ended the race in P5 (Alonso took my P4), lot of fun 😎

@ScarDuck14 an overhaul of career modes is sorely needed. 

From my POV, initially the game was a pretty entertaining when it first came out, because of the new handling model -  it kept me busy while I figured it out. The AI is OK for me as well - could be a touch more aggressive in corners/ defending etc.

I know it’s detracting from the original point of your thread, but the general underdevelopment of the career modes took over, and apart from new tracks, it just felt tired. Added to that a number of quirks I’ve noticed haven’t been addressed, like how you’ll lock up/ car won’t turn despite the telemetry saying nothing was different to previous laps - the game still throws “banana skins” at you… Or the fact you have to actively manage the AI level to keep it interesting - now between qualy and the race in addition to each race weekend. The decent AI and handling isn’t enough to keep me coming back.

The game is effectively dead for me atm. The only thing I now log in for is the pro challenges. I used to look forward to doing a full race weekend in real life. Practice on Friday, qualy on Sat, race on Sun etc, and carve out time for it, but no more - I haven’t even gotten midway through 1 season.

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@Neil_RS60 wrote:

They probably have loads of analysis that shows how today’s mass of gamers like to engage with the grind and need immediate reward feedback, so all EA PMs see is the need for a fresh coat of scenario paint and a bit of seasonal hype to make it work and claim their bonuses.

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I'm still here 🫡

But, yeah, haven't been playing F1 23 much.

Regarding the actual quote, you can scratch off that "probably". Even back in the day when the acquisition was announced, on their filing for M&A approval in the US - or on one of those shareholder's brochures - it was expressly mentioned that EA's capabilities on player data collection and analysis were big reasons for Codemasters to go with their offer.

Also QA 🙃