			Alison & Nate's AI Tweaks
			Alison and Nate Hine
			9/25/98

The enclosed files can be used to make the AI more easy to race with.  

1. What the files do
2. Using these files
3. Adjusting the speed of the AI cars

1. What the files do
--------------------

These files can be used to slow down the AI, or to give a wider spread of AI speeds in small
fields of AI cars.

These are the files:

driver-scramble.ini - In this version, the driver_N values have been scrambled to make smaller
AI fields have a spread of fast and slow drivers.  This is useful if you lack the CPU power 
to run all 19 cars.  If you use this file, you'll have someone to race with even if you choose a 
field of only five AI cars.

driver-slow.ini - In this version, the global_hype_scaling for faster drivers has been modified 
to make lead cars more sensitive to the Normalized Player Time.  This should give the inexperienced 
user a chance at winning.  It's also useful if you choose to slow down (or speed up) the AI cars 
by overriding the Normalized Player Time (see section 3, below). 

driver-orig.ini - The original driver.ini, in case you inadvertantly delete your own.

2. Using these files
--------------------

To use one of these files, simply get rid of the driver.ini file in your GPL folder, copy one of
these files into the same place and rename it to driver.ini.  

GPL is, by default, installed in a folder called C:\SIERRA\gpl.  If you are not sure you have the 
right folder, look for a file called gpl.exe.  If you see this file, you are in the GPL installation 
folder.

3. Adjusting the speed of the AI cars
-------------------------------------

GPL's Global Hype system controls the speed of the AI drivers by adjusting their performance with
relation to a value called the Normalized Player Time (NPT).  Whenever you drive a practice session 
or race (not a training session), your best lap is averaged with your previous best ten laps at 
that circuit.  The NPT contains this average.  It is maintained in a file called player.sts, 
which is in your personal players folder.

You can adjust the speed of the AI by over-riding the Global Hype system.  You do this by setting 
the value of npt_override in the [magic] stanza of the gpl_ai.ini file.  The default value for 
npt_overried is zero; by using a nonzero value, you tell GPL to ignore your own NPT and use 
whatever value you specify as the NPT.  

Appropriate values are around 1.0; higher values make the AI slower, and lower values make them 
faster.  The NPT in player.sts when you first run at a given track is 1.20, which, if you have
driver-slow.ini installed, will make the AI run fairly slowly.

I believe a value of 1.20 is roughly equivalent to asking the AI to run at 80% of their nominal
speed, so values in the range of 1.05 to 1.15 should give you nicely raceable AI, depending on
your speed at a given circuit.

With the original driver.ini, the NPT has very little effect on the drivers at the front of the
field (Clark, Gurney, etc.) but with driver-slow.ini, the NPT has a substantial effect and you
should be able to quickly find a value for npt_override which will allow you to win or at least
run at the front of a field of AI cars.

The gpl_ai.ini file is in the GPL folder.  You can edit it with a text editor such as Notepad.