Posted: 15 Nov 2007, 10:12
If you take my recent Nissan Silvia S15 posted at RVZT and multiply the inertia values by about 5, you get a very interesting ride, which in my opinion feels a little more "realistic" for a real life car. (Of course, if you imagine that all of my cars are about a foot and a half long with little dolls inside, then its pretty irrelevant). Trouble is, whenever I come up with a car setup that I really like (and I liked this one), that automatically means the AI can't drive it. Why?
Because the AI only knows how to drive cars that go where they're pointed. If the car can't follow a straight line exactly, the AI freaks out and crashes into things. And on top of that, the AI really, really sucks at recovery for some reason. It'll run into something, turn around, drive backwards, turn around again, look for the AI line, try to reach it, and then keep going, assuming it managed to get back on the AI line.
Now, cars that drive where they're pointed really aren't that much fun. The fun comes from trying to manage cars that don't like to go where they're told, and you have to constantly correct their course to avoid crashing into things. The better you do at keeping the unmanageable car on course, the faster you'll go and if you go fast enough you win the race.
So I'm stuck with a choice: Fun cars and crappy AI, or boring cars and good AI?
Unless of course, someone manages to work wonders with the AI parameters and finds a cure for this problem.
Because the AI only knows how to drive cars that go where they're pointed. If the car can't follow a straight line exactly, the AI freaks out and crashes into things. And on top of that, the AI really, really sucks at recovery for some reason. It'll run into something, turn around, drive backwards, turn around again, look for the AI line, try to reach it, and then keep going, assuming it managed to get back on the AI line.
Now, cars that drive where they're pointed really aren't that much fun. The fun comes from trying to manage cars that don't like to go where they're told, and you have to constantly correct their course to avoid crashing into things. The better you do at keeping the unmanageable car on course, the faster you'll go and if you go fast enough you win the race.
So I'm stuck with a choice: Fun cars and crappy AI, or boring cars and good AI?
Unless of course, someone manages to work wonders with the AI parameters and finds a cure for this problem.