@petro1319 wrote:The "best" part of all this is in Race 2 and 3 in your example I bet if you restarted the session in both of those races you'd have the exact same DNF on the exact same lap. So would any AI failures that weren't accident/crash related. It's all pre-programmed.
Well, from a pure programming/development standpoint this isn't as strange as it may seem, as it is perfectly plausible that the algorithms behind chances for failure etc. would be calculated before the race (or scenery) is started. In fact many devs do this purposedly in games to prevent cheating (as for example save scumming in RPGs and the like) or even just to have results that are more predictable contextually.
The fact that the algorithm for engine failures and similar is placed before race start (and hence it repeats in the same exact way if you restart) has no bearing whatsoever on the latter being meant to "fix" certain results or not. It's just a matter of approach from a development standpoint.
This is not to mean that the results aren't in fact fixed, because it is much probable that they are (at least in certain amount; almost all modern AI in games do this one way or another to retain the player interest, and sadly many times with pure malicious intents behind - see for example 2K), but the chances being calculated prior or during make absolutely no difference on the matter.
The approach has the downside to give the impression of the events being less tied to what actually happens, but in reality every other simulation does the same one way or another even if the result may seem (in appearance) less tied to a prior calculation.
2 more races done and wanted to share an update on this.
A reminder that I have fault frequency on LOW.
Race weekend 2, Saudi. Qualify 14th, and manage to finish 8th. Experience some ERS issues, although not race ending and no SC and a fairly uneventful race. Hmm interesting 🤔
Race weekend 3, Australia. Car is 5th in Durability dept, 9th in overall dev ranking. Qualify 11th, S-H strat. Go fairly well, up into 6th before I pit. After everyone else puts I’m 10th. Have some kind of mechanical issue, you guessed it DNF… Check Vehicle parts, gearbox is not Red but yellow, 80% worn. Never had this happen to me before, mechanical issues which forced me to retire, the part is always worn 99%. Strange. 0 resource points given.
After race weekend 2, I was thinking maybe “race ending” mechanical issues etc are scripted as some have mentioned, i.e. set out in advance at the start of the season. But “race hampering” mechanical issues are dished out if you’re doing better than you should given your equipment. But then that DNF in race weekend 3 has made me doubt this.
As I’ve said at the start, I’ve set faults to low, and that is 5 straight races over two seasons where I’ve had some kind of mechanical issue. That’s far too many given faults are set to low and my car is 1st in durability rankings for 2 of those. Far too many to be coincidence.
There are other examples I’ve had, as I’ve restarted a large number of seasons where I’ve done around 4-5 races. Always start as a new comer team. Every time I do well in the early races I get loads of DNF’s, mechanical issues (which do get resolved but hamper me), rubber banding etc etc, in later races. Faults are always set to low. I set my AI to 90, over the season this provides the best balance. First 3 races I do well then the tracks become a challenge and I finish about where I should do given the car. I’m not for fiddling around with AI levels every race.
Tbh, I actually don’t mind the race hampering faults, it adds some unpredictability but the DNF’s are really getting me annoyed.
I will report back as the season goes on 🖖🏽
