Jaguar @ Zolder: the farewell combo

[Eckhart von Glan]

If you want to say "bye" to the 2018 season in style before the 2019 DLC arrives, choose the combo that has not been around in 2019 anymore: Jaguar at Zolder. And for good measure, pick at least medium rain to get that authentic Belgian feel. I've just finished my first of two 30 mins stints and the Jag is very tricky in the wet, at least at my mediocre level of competency.
Two observations: a) Even at 97% aggro (and 87% skill) the AI is just super brilliant, I did several clean passes and was passed back just as cleanly twice even in wet conditions, twice also we went two wide through the chicanes with not a scratch. Which leads to b) It seems to be very difficult to get SR back, I dropped from 80sth. to 61 over the last few weeks playing against the AI and now 20 mins of following the Trulli train at around 0.5 secs or a little more to the AI in front yielded only 1 meagre SR point? In the bloody rain? Once I figured this, I started to do overtakes again, lol, so far without a scratch (s.a.).

 

[PickABetterUsername01]

Well, if SA wasn't so broken I would give AI a chance. I had 2 races with like 14 trust points and 0 contacts and got absolutely no SA, but any contact and it will drop. I had like 90 SA when last patch arrived and I'm at 77 right now I think.

This broken system just pushes me away from any sort of offline racing, since it affects a rating used for multiplayer...

 

[DrRob]

During the last two 30 min races on Paul Ricard I gained 2 SA points (I lost one, too). I wasn't particularly good at overtaking, but battled with a 95% AI and traded places numerous times. Needless to say I was battling for not being last in the whole field of cars. I did 1:59-ish times while battling at the rear of the field, while the front was doing 1:56s I believe.

Normally I do races with a 90% AI and there, I made the same observation, I did not gain any SA over the last few races despite same driving as above.
My takeaway is, that you only really gain any SA if you're battling opponents really quicker than you.
Does that sound right?

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Sounds interesting, will try out. I have now given the Jaguar and the McLaren their farewell race, tonight it's the Reiter Lamborghini. I never played the older Nissan and it looks so close to the newer version that for me it sort of stays in the game, but the brands Jaguar and McLaren and Reiter will be gone from the 2019 grid for good, so they deserve a final spin.

 

[MPortnoy]

When 1.0.10 came out my SA dropped from 80's to 61 because I spent a lot of frustrating attempts racing AI at Monza.
I dropped my AI difficulty level at all tracks by 2 points....I race most of them now at 94-96 difficulty level but I've spent time finding a specific level for each track in which I qualify mid to rear of the pack and AI in mid of the pack has similar pace as me during the course of a lap. I do 30 min races with multiple cars and tracks.
For the past two weeks and after doing that my SA has gone up from 61 to 82 (offline only).

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Pretty much what I have arrived at, dial in mid-pack speed, start slightly more at the rear and then try not to bump into anyone. Seems like SA not only rewards following closely but also moving alongside and avoiding wayward traffic. I use sprint format (2x30 mins) because I have now got to the point where my pits are pretty much on par with the AI, so that adds another level of surprise/change. I save game after coming out of pits and resume another day.