For RowingAce and anyone else interested…
I had extensively modded car performance in F1 2012 a few months back, and then I lost it all in a hard drive reformat. I’m starting again, but this time I’m taking more notes of what I’m doing.
Here is a graph I’ve compiled of the average top-ten cars' speeds through the trap at each circuit:
From this I’ve found there are three major “classes” of top speed. First, the slowest (high aero) are found at Monaco, Silverstone, Hungary, and Singapore; 300 km/h or less. Second, the highest (low aero) is clearly Monza at over 340 km/h. And third, the group that comprises the fifteen other circuits that average around 310-315 km/h (medium aero).
First I reduced the overdone slipstream effect (
aero_slipstream_air_density_scale up from 0.8 to 0.9) and the DRS effect (
aero_wing_rear_drag up from 0.6 to 0.8) for each car. Then I standardized the coefficient of drag (
aero_cd_min; individually for each team) to either the value found in *monaco.ctf (for “high” above), *melbourne.ctf (for “medium”) or *monza.ctf (for “low”, usually left alone). Finally, adjust
final_drive to suit the new aero.
The other thing I’m experimenting with is the car balance with the default setup. With default values, I think we all know there is
massive understeer. So I’ve changed
grip_front from 1.0 to 1.05 (for comparison,
grip_rear is 1.1). I get a much better balance without having to “distort” the car setup; it simply enables you to dial in oversteer or understeer equally when starting with a default setup (makes sense, when starting from 6 on a 1-to-11 scale).
I have not, to date, looked at any track or AI performance files. I also have not had too much luck reducing KERS power without also (unintentionally) increasing KERS capacity. I’ve only tried to get car performance more in line with actual 2012 numbers. I have not paid attention to final lap times because they may be more dominated by the values in the track and AI performance files.
RowingAce, I am gladly willing to aid in your efforts if you need. I think I have the car performance very accurate for what we saw during the 2012 season.