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LuckyNico92's avatar
LuckyNico92
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
Solved

Codemasters F1 games vs. EA F1 games

Hi guys,

I need to touch on something here, and it once again is clear proof that Codemasters did a far better job regarding F1 games than EA did.

Here's a little backstory: Since I already reached max level in F1 22's current series, I decided to go back in time and play F1 2019, probably the only F1 game I haven't played this much compared to say F1 2020.

I decided to start my F1 career with Renault, joining forces with Nico Hulkenberg. I also went for Expert difficulty (80), because I don't want to beat everyone so easily. For the first two race weekends in Melbourne and Bahrain, I used custom setups par usual, but since I couldn't find more for races after China, I went with presets instead.

What happened in these three races was probably a shocker to every single F1 fan if it was real life. Not only did I perform really well in a midfield car, but I also managed to score podiums in the first three races of my career. And yesterday, I secured my first pole position in Baku.

And no, the difficulty stayed on 80 the entire time. And even though the 2019 cars were a bit twitchy on the rear end, I was still able to keep up really well. This shows that Codemasters analyze the pace of the cars with a fine tooth comb and scale the AI difficulty based on the data they got.

I'm just gonna say this, if I would play say F1 2021 on Expert with just preset setups, I would get completely obliterated and not even score one point, even if I drive a Red Bull. It's so insane what big of a jump in difficulty this is compared to F1 2020, and it gets worse with every follow-up game.

Nowadays in F1 22, I play on 74, and this honestly feels like I play on 83-86 on F1 2020. Which means that the AI are still way too fast, which once again underlines the insane jump in difficulty.

When it comes to comparing 2019 to 2020 regarding AI, this is what people in the CM Forum call "creeping up the difficulty", but with 2021, the difficulty spiked up a whole lot.

Am I the only one who thinks like that? Let me know what you guys think in the replies.

- Nico

PS: No, this post is not just referring against Verstappen's AI, it refers to AI in general.

f1 22
  • Ultrasonic_77's avatar
    Ultrasonic_77
    3 years ago

    My understanding is that AI performance is to some degree deliberately made better year-on-year, so 80 one year is not intended to be the same as 80 the next. The logic being that players generally get better too. For me it doesn't really matter either way so long as there is still an AI level that a player can use to race competitively.

    AI inconsistency between tracks and driving in ways that a player can't are MUCH more important issues worth talking about.

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  • mariohomoh's avatar
    mariohomoh
    Hero (Retired)
    3 years ago

    Funny to call it an "admission" when it was never, ever a secret.

    It's basically the definition of "it's not a bug, it's a feature". The community catches up, they raise the difficulty ceiling. 

    Ceiling. As long as there's a proper floor for any one's skill level though, it's work as intended: the game shifts up to accommodate both poles of the player base, the ones pushing and beating the AI on high level and the ones still building their skill set. Exactly as Ultra said.

    Every year we've got guides on how to properly adjust the AI, from the official Codemasters channels to acclaimed Youtubers. They all reasonably converge on method and approach. That's another oddity of this post: if you're admittedly following your own protocol to set the AI level and consistently post write about your off mark results, how can you consider yourself qualified to complain about a "difficulty spike" in the franchise?

    What I mean is you should adhere to the devs' guidelines, properly set the game difficulty, and raise your issue if you cannot find an AI range that suits your skill level.

    You say you're not an eSports player. We believe that. The game still needs to challenge those players though. If you can find a suitable difficulty range, and they can find one too, we're all the better for it. There's no "AI is too fast" if the 0-110 blanket still warms your feet.

    The game is still made by Codemasters. As it has always been. The good chap answering all our questions about physics and handling here on this forum? The very same David Greco that made all the "Codemasters F1" games you love.

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