[single player] 1.3 a good step forward for single players

[Sparviero]

I was very critic to 1.2 update, this thread https://community.lemansultimate.co...t-to-kill-the-single-player-experience.14681/ have a lot of attention too. 1.3.2 is not free of bugs that affect single player too (eg. error in saving game at Imola, Portimao and Silverston, thanks to ndslpsp work), but the progress are:
- Working save/loading (except for the 3 tracks mentioned), fixing bug in car damage after loading
- AI seems to change tires correctly, applying double stint when needed.
- AI choose the right tire, no more wet when useless.
For me, a come back to LMU.

 

[ndslpsp]

I was very critic to 1.2 update, this thread https://community.lemansultimate.co...t-to-kill-the-single-player-experience.14681/ have a lot of attention too. 1.3.2 is not free of bugs that affect single player too (eg. error in saving game at Imola, Portimao and Silverston, thanks to ndslpsp work), but the progress are:
- Working save/loading (except for the 3 tracks mentioned), fixing bug in car damage after loading
- AI seems to change tires correctly, applying double stint when needed.
- AI choose the right tire, no more wet when useless.
For me, a come back to LMU.

In the latest version, AI tire wear is still 2.5 times that of the player. I ran a race at Spa and checked the data: after 10 laps, my tire wear was about 7%, while the AI's was 15–18%. By the time I pitted at lap 21, I had 82% remaining, while most AI had just over 60%. And in the second half of the race, their lap times became extremely slow, with early braking and heavy corner deceleration, causing me to rear‑end them frequently. For now, the best way to get a decent race experience is still to disable tire wear entirely.

 

[Sparviero]

In the latest version, AI tire wear is still 2.5 times that of the player. I ran a race at Spa and checked the data: after 10 laps, my tire wear was about 7%, while the AI's was 15–18%. By the time I pitted at lap 21, I had 82% remaining, while most AI had just over 60%. And in the second half of the race, their lap times became extremely slow, with early braking and heavy corner deceleration, causing me to rear‑end them frequently. For now, the best way to get a decent race experience is still to disable tire wear entirely.

My experience is a bit different. Today I play a 3h at Spa too (!) in Hypercar and I was quite happy for the AI behavior, considering 9 tires limit: they start with hard tires for 2 longer stint (about 1h40), than switch to soft. In both cases, the faster cars seems to loss about 1-1.5 second from first laps to last ones. So, quite the same for me. AI was a bit faster than me in heating the tires, so the race was quite challenging. They were a bit slower than me in lapping cars and they had to repair the car at least once, so in the last 40' I was comfortably first.

Probably is a matter of player too, maybe you are better than me in tires management.

IMHO the bigger problem in challenging AI is their tendecy to loss time in repairing even small damages, while the player can ignore that, gaining about 25'' here and there.

Please, can you tell me how to check the wear of AI tires?

 

[ndslpsp]

My experience is a bit different. Today I play a 3h at Spa too (!) in Hypercar and I was quite happy for the AI behavior, considering 9 tires limit: they start with hard tires for 2 longer stint (about 1h40), than switch to soft. In both cases, the faster cars seems to loss about 1-1.5 second from first laps to last ones. So, quite the same for me. AI was a bit faster than me in heating the tires, so the race was quite challenging. They were a bit slower than me in lapping cars and they had to repair the car at least once, so in the last 40' I was comfortably first.

Probably is a matter of player too, maybe you are better than me in tires management.

IMHO the bigger problem in challenging AI is their tendecy to loss time in repairing even small damages, while the player can ignore that, gaining about 25'' here and there.

Please, can you tell me how to check the wear of AI tires?

My experience is a bit different. Today I play a 3h at Spa too (!) in Hypercar and I was quite happy for the AI behavior, considering 9 tires limit: they start with hard tires for 2 longer stint (about 1h40), than switch to soft. In both cases, the faster cars seems to loss about 1-1.5 second from first laps to last ones. So, quite the same for me. AI was a bit faster than me in heating the tires, so the race was quite challenging. They were a bit slower than me in lapping cars and they had to repair the car at least once, so in the last 40' I was comfortably first.

Probably is a matter of player too, maybe you are better than me in tires management.

IMHO the bigger problem in challenging AI is their tendecy to loss time in repairing even small damages, while the player can ignore that, gaining about 25'' here and there.

Please, can you tell me how to check the wear of AI tires?

There's a tool in the forum called "lmu-Result " that records detailed race parameters for each car. Under normal racing conditions, your speed should increase over time, especially with the first set of fresh tires. It's unbelievable to be one or two seconds slower per lap near the end of the first tank of fuel — that indicates excessive tire wear. Even with AI wear set to 70–80%, you wouldn't lose that much time. To compete fairly with the AI, you'd have to manually repair all damage. But I bet you'd still win. Only when you turn off wear and race against them again will you feel the real pressure.Additionally, hypercars have a locking variable that makes tire wear harder to balance, which may differ from GT3.I'm not very skilled at driving hypercars — sometimes after just one or two laps, the tire wear is already down to 90%. It's honestly embarrassing. At that point, I'm even worse than the AI… What bothers me most is not wanting to compete against opponents that are abnormally getting slower and slower.

 

[ndslpsp]

Whether the AI uses hard or soft tires is just an icon—it doesn't affect their actual lap times. There is indeed a difference in wear rate, but it seems to have no physical impact. I often see AI that are faster on hard tires than on soft. Also, when tire wear is enabled, their lap times in wet conditions are ridiculously slow. Their overall competitiveness is very poor

 

[F1Aussie]

AI is still a mess, I get punted from nowhere most races by faster AI coming up from behind and trying to go through me like I am not there.

 

[Aysedasi]

It's strange (maybe), but my experiences over the last few months have been a lot better in this regard. Yes, I get occasional contact, but I don't seem to have the problems that I used to have a while back.

 

[ndslpsp]

AI is still a mess, I get punted from nowhere most races by faster AI coming up from behind and trying to go through me like I am not there.

Actually, the best game for multi-class racing right now is AMS2. The AI takes good care of the player – as long as you're not too aggressive, they won't rear-end you. They also give way promptly when shown blue flags within the same class. On the other hand, look at LMU. Can you honestly say that after a few hours of racing, any car hasn't been battered and bruised by the faster classes?

 

[Aysedasi]

Actually, the best game for multi-class racing right now is AMS2. The AI takes good care of the player – as long as you're not too aggressive, they won't rear-end you. They also give way promptly when shown blue flags within the same class. On the other hand, look at LMU. Can you honestly say that after a few hours of racing, any car hasn't been battered and bruised by the faster classes?

The worst thing is when you lap a car in your class, they fight you tooth and nail and once you're past they seem to find speed that wasn't there before!

 

[ndslpsp]

The worst thing is when you lap a car in your class, they fight you tooth and nail and once you're past they seem to find speed that wasn't there before!

But that’s not just against you — when AI drivers lap cars in their own class, they get tangled up just as badly. As a result, after a few laps, a bunch of faster lapping cars end up stuck behind the slower lapped cars, forming a unique 'second-lap old train

 

[ndslpsp]

Now playing LMU single-player, I need no car damage, no tire wear, and I can't move up to a higher class. I have to play it like an arcade game just for the race to proceed properly. On the contrary, in AMS2, turning on all kinds of wear and tear for mixed races is completely normal. How ironic

 

[Sparviero]

Actually, the best game for multi-class racing right now is AMS2. The AI takes good care of the player – as long as you're not too aggressive, they won't rear-end you. They also give way promptly when shown blue flags within the same class. On the other hand, look at LMU. Can you honestly say that after a few hours of racing, any car hasn't been battered and bruised by the faster classes?

Ehm... maybe you don't play GTP at Daytona... T1 and Bus Stop make it almost unplayable for me for ramming!

 

[ndslpsp]

Ehm... maybe you don't play GTP at Daytona... T1 and Bus Stop make it almost unplayable for me for ramming!

I know that at Daytona, there used to be frequent pile-ups at T1 and a lot of spins at the Bus Stop, but that's been fixed in the current version. I remember even reporting that bug on their forums back then. AMS2 has many tracks, and over time it's had a lot of accident-related bugs—cars often clipping out of bounds or bunching up in fixed spots. The difference is that the developers keep fixing them. LMU, on the other hand, is much more polished; the AI was good from the start, but they just ignore the issues and never fix them. As long as you turn off tire wear, the racing experience is still excellent. It's just a pity that the unique endurance race rules can't be fully experienced. I'm talking about the strategy formed by tire wear, fuel allocation, and the fact that you can't refuel and change tires at the same time. You see, in AMS2, refueling and tire changes happen simultaneously, and tires are unlimited—so you don't need to worry about that kind of strategy at all. LMU has built everything, set the stage perfectly, but refuses to take that final shot—it's really frustrating.

 

[Sparviero]

I know that at Daytona, there used to be frequent pile-ups at T1 and a lot of spins at the Bus Stop, but that's been fixed in the current version. I remember even reporting that bug on their forums back then. AMS2 has many tracks, and over time it's had a lot of accident-related bugs—cars often clipping out of bounds or bunching up in fixed spots. The difference is that the developers keep fixing them. LMU, on the other hand, is much more polished; the AI was good from the start, but they just ignore the issues and never fix them. As long as you turn off tire wear, the racing experience is still excellent. It's just a pity that the unique endurance race rules can't be fully experienced. I'm talking about the strategy formed by tire wear, fuel allocation, and the fact that you can't refuel and change tires at the same time. You see, in AMS2, refueling and tire changes happen simultaneously, and tires are unlimited—so you don't need to worry about that kind of strategy at all. LMU has built everything, set the stage perfectly, but refuses to take that final shot—it's really frustrating.

Thanks for the feedback about Ams2, I will try the improvements. But still not really sure that tire wear is so bad in LMU, but consider that I refer just to hypercars. In real life, laptime improve with laps during the first stint, and in LMU AI is quite constant (probably too fast in opening laps, than laptime are quite the same without lapping). In second stint there is a drop in laptime at same fuel levels, just like real life (at least in 2023-2024 and at Imola 2026, 2025 was a peculiar season) and for the player too (at least for me!). Maybe is the drop of AI too much relevant? Perhaps, but their ability to fast heating the tires in the first 2-3 laps may compensate the overall performance comparse to player. Furthermore I still think that balance of AI is strongly related to player performance and style of play. Eg. I set a combination of AI strenght and fuel consumption (different from track to track) to force AI to make the same number of pits of me and to make racing not to much stressing like qualifying laps. In particular the new tire model of hypercars require a less aggressive style of race if you run for hours because flat spot or spinning may happen more easily. Now I'm racing 12h of le Mans and I feel to out much caution in tire management to limit tire changes or to simply stay on track in certain parts. So AI performance is quite challenging for me, but may be too much inconsistent for more aggressive racers.

 

[ndslpsp]

Thanks for the feedback about Ams2, I will try the improvements. But still not really sure that tire wear is so bad in LMU, but consider that I refer just to hypercars. In real life, laptime improve with laps during the first stint, and in LMU AI is quite constant (probably too fast in opening laps, than laptime are quite the same without lapping). In second stint there is a drop in laptime at same fuel levels, just like real life (at least in 2023-2024 and at Imola 2026, 2025 was a peculiar season) and for the player too (at least for me!). Maybe is the drop of AI too much relevant? Perhaps, but their ability to fast heating the tires in the first 2-3 laps may compensate the overall performance comparse to player. Furthermore I still think that balance of AI is strongly related to player performance and style of play. Eg. I set a combination of AI strenght and fuel consumption (different from track to track) to force AI to make the same number of pits of me and to make racing not to much stressing like qualifying laps. In particular the new tire model of hypercars require a less aggressive style of race if you run for hours because flat spot or spinning may happen more easily. Now I'm racing 12h of le Mans and I feel to out much caution in tire management to limit tire changes or to simply stay on track in certain parts. So AI performance is quite challenging for me, but may be too much inconsistent for more aggressive racers.

Because I mainly drive GT3 cars, the AI's tire wear is too fast for me. No matter how hard I push the car—for example, at Imola—with a full tank lasting 27 laps, tire wear rarely drops below 90%. My lap times are usually between 1:47 and 1:46; I wonder if that's because I'm driving too slowly. I almost never drive prototype cars, but due to their tendency to lock up easily, sudden tire wear becomes quite severe. Maybe it's because I'm not skilled at driving them. Additionally, prototype and GTE cars do allow you to choose between soft and hard tires based on your tire allocation, whereas in GT3, you essentially change tires at every pit stop on every track

 

[ndslpsp]

When tire wear is turned on, they start off a bit faster, but after about ten laps they begin to slow down. When tire wear is turned off, they start off slower, then become faster in a linear way

 

[F1Aussie]

Actually, the best game for multi-class racing right now is AMS2. The AI takes good care of the player – as long as you're not too aggressive, they won't rear-end you. They also give way promptly when shown blue flags within the same class. On the other hand, look at LMU. Can you honestly say that after a few hours of racing, any car hasn't been battered and bruised by the faster classes?

Agreed, AMS2 is my main Sim and a lot of work has gone into improving the AI, the pit manouvering and sticky car seem to be a thing of the past there now. AC Evo AI are as bad as LMUs.

 

[ndslpsp]

Agreed, AMS2 is my main Sim and a lot of work has gone into improving the AI, the pit manouvering and sticky car seem to be a thing of the past there now. AC Evo AI are as bad as LMUs.

The wheel-to-wheel racing in AMS2 is so thrilling. Even if the AI is slower than your lap time, it won't just let you by easily. In LMU, the AI either can't catch up or suddenly brakes, then falls way behind after you overtake. In side-by-side fights, they always brake earlier than you. In short, they're like cowards—no fighting spirit at all.

Also, AMS2's AI is very human-like: they don't crash into you, and they respect blue flags. You can throw Formula cars, GT cars, Le Mans prototypes, and even trucks all together in a race, and there are hardly any incidents. I've been deeply hooked on it for a long time

 

[F1Aussie]

The wheel-to-wheel racing in AMS2 is so thrilling. Even if the AI is slower than your lap time, it won't just let you by easily. In LMU, the AI either can't catch up or suddenly brakes, then falls way behind after you overtake. In side-by-side fights, they always brake earlier than you. In short, they're like cowards—no fighting spirit at all.

Also, AMS2's AI is very human-like: they don't crash into you, and they respect blue flags. You can throw Formula cars, GT cars, Le Mans prototypes, and even trucks all together in a race, and there are hardly any incidents. I've been deeply hooked on it for a long time

Very true, it has certainly had its issues but Reiza keep polishing it and ironing ou the bugs and is turning into something very polished

 

[Sparviero]

The wheel-to-wheel racing in AMS2 is so thrilling. Even if the AI is slower than your lap time, it won't just let you by easily. In LMU, the AI either can't catch up or suddenly brakes, then falls way behind after you overtake. In side-by-side fights, they always brake earlier than you. In short, they're like cowards—no fighting spirit at all.

Also, AMS2's AI is very human-like: they don't crash into you, and they respect blue flags. You can throw Formula cars, GT cars, Le Mans prototypes, and even trucks all together in a race, and there are hardly any incidents. I've been deeply hooked on it for a long time

I didn't play last release but my experience is quite different. AMS2 AI is very good in one-class races, but quite bad in multiclass. Since 2020, when you lap a slow car in the middle of the curve, you have to be sure to be in front of it before the apex, otherwise AI start to turn like you are not there. Then the AI don't stop to turn after collision, so the cars are glued together. The player can't do anything to break away and is forced off the track. It is a very peculiar problem of AMS2 that doesn't happen in others sims.

If you play long races (a couple of hours) with tens of lapping, it may happen quite easly 2-3 times, ruin the race. In LMU never happen that.