General AI Discussion

[cip]

wow, this is funny, how the bus arrived in that position ??? I have never seen this and I never had the feeling that Ai is trying to hit my truck. the thing is the following, the Ai calculates their next move taking into account that you respect the speed rules. if you drive 100 MPH in city, of course you change position 3 times faster so Ai cannot follow you anymore and will act like you aren't there.
Ai can also read you speed (most probably until a certain point), you can check this by making a test, approach an intersection very slow and you will see that yielding Ai will move, but you drive normal speed Ai will keep yielding

[Bedavd]

That’s interesting. I’ve noticed I’m cut off a lot more when I’m speeding. I assume the AI judges if they can pull out or not based on the speed on the road rather than the speed of the approaching cars (because if it’s not the player, it’s going to be going the speed limit anyways).

[joschac2]

@cip It was some type of Honda

[Reignman]

I have never seen this and I never had the feeling that Ai is trying to hit my truck.

I've noticed it a lot, where it seems like they're trying to cause accidents. If I obey the speed limit and traffic laws, they mostly behave normal, but when I'm speeding and running red lights, that's when they seem to drive more reckless too. I tried to duplicate a vehicle running that same stop sign, but there was never a vehicle there for any of my passes. I would get some video of what I see, but my FRAPS hasn't been working lately, and my PC is a pile of junk lol. I'm working on getting a new one so I'll try to get some video then.

the thing is the following, the Ai calculates their next move taking into account that you respect the speed rules. if you drive 100 MPH in city, of course you change position 3 times faster so Ai cannot follow you anymore and will act like you aren't there. Ai can also read you speed (most probably until a certain point)

Do you know this for sure from working on your mods? Speaking of your traffic mods, what sort of things can you control with them as far as AI goes? Can you get them to behave better? Like making them go the speed limit, accelerating better, and merging onto highways? Or are those things not possible with mods?

you can check this by making a test, approach an intersection very slow and you will see that yielding Ai will move, but you drive normal speed Ai will keep yielding

For the most part you're right. The AI seem to judge your movements just fine most of the time, but there are those instances where they do pull out in front of you when they're making a right hand turn on red. In fact I don't even see them stop sometimes. And it's not always when I'm speeding lol.

I probably make it seem like I'm driving like a mad man in this game but I don't. I drive normal and obey the laws most of the time even though I have traffic violations disabled. I only disabled them to help me deal with the frustrating AI traffic better. And I know drivers in real life can be frustrating too, but not like this lol.

That’s interesting. I’ve noticed I’m cut off a lot more when I’m speeding. I assume the AI judges if they can pull out or not based on the speed on the road rather than the speed of the approaching cars (because if it’s not the player, it’s going to be going the speed limit anyways).

Yeah I'm definitely cut off more when I'm speeding too, or whatever, and that's expected. And maybe it has something to do with how the AI is programmed, but like with the bus example, it's clearly intentional sometimes lol. I like to think of it as SCS hidden way of dealing with speeders. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but it feels like it has a sinister element to it haha.

All of this has made me realize the game needs an instant replay option. Have it always record the last 10-20 seconds of game play in the background so when something happens you can go back and look. And I don't mean just record your FOV like a regular screen recording program, I mean record the entire environment so you can load it up, move the camera around and review from any angle.

[cip]

what sort of things can you control with them as far as AI goes? Can you get them to behave better? Like making them go the speed limit, accelerating better, and merging onto highways? Or are those things not possible with mods?

as behavior modding options are limited, we have a safety and patience factor but I do not recommend extreme values. merging is strictly a prefab thing, accelerating sits in Ai code, but for speed limits we have a certain degree of flexibility, for example my mod allow Ai going up to 35% faster than the speed limit, but I also limited the trucks speed limits in my Ai engine sound mods so trucks don't actually drive 35% more than speed limit (Ai cannot break their maximum speed set in their files)
there are also plenty of other rules that can be set in traffic_data (we don't even know which are still valid and which are obsolete) but generally adding one such rule, could break 2 other rules so better not

The AI seem to judge your movements just fine most of the time, but there are those instances where they do pull out in front of you when they're making a right hand turn on red. In fact I don't even see them stop sometimes. And it's not always when I'm speeding lol.

this is a prefab issue, yielding rule has been forgotten for Ai turning right. I saw it also therefore I am always precautious at crossroads

[joschac2]

[ external image ]

[cip]

@joschac2 SCS would have a simple reply to you : [MOD]
unfortunately this bug has never been solved although it was reported many months ago when SCS introduced the first doubles in traffic so just don't hit doubles! luckily this happens very rare while driving and when it happens I take is as a normal accident

[The Old Fart]

Hello everyone, I have a couple of observations and related questions about AI traffic. I'm stil on v 1.36 and turn random events off - who needs them with the AI generated carnage on the roads.

1) The AI - all vehicle types - stopping part-way through a right hand turn at an intersection is highly annoying. No one has mentioned a fix that I've seen.

2) AI vehicles, both cars and trucks, seem to be asleep while waiting at a red light. When it turns green they barely get two or three vehicles through before it turns red again. If you're the second truck in line you are screwed. This is the one I find most annoying of all as it is persistent / universal. Cars from 100 years ago would have gotten through the intersection more speedily.

3) AI stopping immediately when the light is yellow, hard braking. Yeah, great fun. I don't want a bull-bar, I want the cattle catcher from the front of a train!

So, are there any traffic rules / settings we as users can modify which will see the AI 'get a move on' or at least not be such overly cautious menaces? I can adapt to most of the AI behaviour but this slow clearing of intersections is infuriating and utterly unreal.

The AI stopping hard for a yellow reminded me of something I saw IRL. I was first in line at a left hand turn lane. Behind me was a lady also turning left. I made my turn when safe and she started to. Then she stopped dead a car length ahead of the stop line. I guess she panicked as the light turned yellow. So, instead of clearing the intersection she decided to back up behind the stop line... right into a brand new police cruiser! The Ottawa police are decent folks and have a sense of humour, but...

[jarryed]

A yellow light means prepare to stop so I have no qualms with the AI stopping when the light turns yellow. Yellow light does not mean speed up and go through the light.

The cars and trucks getting halfway through a turn and stopping is annoying. It has been mentioned before but not sure where I saw it.

The timing of the lights in the base states(California, Arizona, Nevada) is a little quick. Traffic light timing is better in the newer map expansions in my opinion.

[The Old Fart]

jarryed, Yes, you are entirely correct on what yellow light behaviour should be. But, the AI is entirely wrong in its behaviour. A yellow light does not mean "slam on the brakes and stop dead if you're within a car's length of the stop line; even if you're doing thirty miles an hour". This is the AI behaviour I'm talking about.

IRL, if you did this and were rear ended, I suspect you would end up with a ticket for dangerous driving. In some parts of the US I suspect there might be gunplay

I agree with you on the traffic light timing, it's a bit quick. The red cycle seems longer than the green cycle, even for the directions with the higher traffic volume (main road vs the T junction side road). What I'm looking for is some value / string to mod which would hopefully get them moving and through the intersection more quickly. Right now they're barely up to 15 mph by the time they clear the intersection. Someone on horseback could do better.

This behaviour is utterly unreal and particularly bothersome when there is heavy traffic (by which I mean traffic as far as the eye can see in every direction - yet there is more than ample clear road ahead of the intersection).

Another example of such over-cautious behaviour might be vehicles hitting the brakes to slow down for an intersection... 2 football fields away from the lights. This is not a reaction to speed limit changes - they were already within the 30 mph limit zone and at that speed. I'm wondering if this is some sort of AI caution behaviour we can mod to change - and what else it might affect if we do.

Argh! gotta stop now - my Westie is attacking me and want to play!