Many years ago, on the former racesimcentral site, I think it was Joe Campana or MikeZ wrote a quick description of the talent file as it applied to rFactor 1. Yes, I'm a digital packrat and have saved this for LONG time, occasionally reposting as needed!
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The old racesimcentral (RSC) post:
Aggression 0 - 100 (%)
As this number increases the AI will give other cars less room, both while passing and while following. It also increases the frequency at which they try to pass and the increases the threshold they are willing to endure before giving up a pass (or crashing, as the case may be...)
The aggression slider in the UI also affects this directly. RCD Aggression * UI Aggression = final....and should always be between 0-100%.
Reputation:
Courtesy:
Recovery:
All but worthless or no longer used.
Composure:
The lower the number, the higher the frequency of "intentional" mistakes. (if AI Mistakes is > 0 in the playerfile) If AI Mistakes in the playerfile is set to 0.0, then the AI drivers never make mistakes. *cough* Well, mistakes that the programmer planned. "intentional" mistakes are things like, taking a turn too wide, or missing a breaking point.
Increasing composure also decreases the time between bad driving zones. (also affected by the playerfile variable AI Limiter, see MinRacingSkill below)
Speed: 0-100
How close to "optimal" this driver drives a track. This number directly interacts with a variable in the AIW file called "AIRange" AIRange tells us how wide the gap, from 0-100% (expressed as 0.0 to 1.0 in the AIW) The default is 0.1 meaning that the full range of Speed RCD values from 0 to 100, are directly mapped to the top 10% of the max speed = 90-100% For example a driver with 100% speed will drive at (0.9 + 0.1 * 100%) = (0.9 + 0.1 * 1.0) = 100% of what he thinks the track can handle, while a driver with speed = 0 will drive at (0.9 + 0.1 * 0%) = (0.9 + 0.1 * 0) = 90% what he thinks the track can handle. There is a random fluctuation in this value, but it's much less than in previous version where the random fluctuation was so great that it made the original value meaningless.
Crash: 0 - 100 %
CompletedLaps: 0 - 100%
Only used in auto completing laps (skipping practice/qualifying)
MinRacingSkill=0 - 100%
When the AI Limiter variable(from the playerfile) value is > 0.0, the AI drivers go through cycles of optimal driving and sub-optimal driving where their driving skill falls to MinRacingSkill * Speed. (Set the AI Limiter variable to 0.0, and the AIs will always drive to the best of their ability...every lap) So for example if you have a driver with Speed = 50, a AIRange in the AIWfile = 0.2), and MinRacingSkill = 90 This AI guy will usually drive around at (0.8 + 0.2 * 0.5) = 90% speed (really very very slow....but this is just an example), but will sometimes dip as low as (this speed * MinRacingSkill = (0.9* 0.9) = 81% while having a bad lap.....that is extremely low, but this is just an example with easy numbers.
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Is my RCD file working?
A good way to test if the Talent file is working is to deliberately make 1 or 2 drivers with Speed=0 and check in game that that they are much slower. When the file is working you can then reset Speed=.
