Before discussing Carrera Hybrid, a quick reminder about ghost cars for Carrera slot cars. Ghost cars are available for the Digital 132 and Digital 124 ranges. For Digital 132, six human players can compete on the track, plus one ghost car. For Digital 124, it’s four human players and one ghost car. The ghost car travels at a constant speed and changes lanes randomly on its own. To program a car as a ghost car, you must activate ghost mode while the car is on the track. One trick is to place several cars on the track and activate ghost mode on all of them. This isn’t recommended by Carrera because the power supply can only power a limited number of cars, officially six players, one safety car, and one ghost car. However, if you limit yourself to a maximum of eight cars on the track with several ghost cars, it’s not a problem. It’s just that they’ll all behave the same way, and the variations will depend on the engine and whether they’re on the inside or outside of a turn.
Carrera’s idea is to offer the same thing for Hybrid: you’re alone or with a few players and you want to race with lots of vehicles. Here, we’re not dealing with the same proportions. Hybrid isn’t limited to 6 players, but 16 in a race! And in free mode, up to 30 cars in your living room. I’ve personally tested up to 3, which is the number of cars I own.
And while only one car was officially configured for slot cars, that’s not the case here; it’s multi-ghost.
From the beginning of this article, I’ve been talking about ghost cars because I’m using slot car terminology, but for Hybrid, I should be talking about NPCs.
NPC is borrowed from video game terminology, where it stands for Non-Player Character (NPC). Applied to your racing cars, this refers to vehicles that are not driven by a human, but by the track’s computer system.
According to the app’s help section, there is no limit to the number of NPCs (Non-Player Characters) during a race, except for the maximum number of cars, which is 16. The limit comes from the phone managing the race, and it depends on the model. It ranges from 4 to 10 because that’s the number of simultaneous Bluetooth connections the device can handle. Be aware that if you have other Bluetooth devices active during the game, this reduces the number of potential NPCs. Furthermore, using a controller adds another piece of equipment that must be controlled by your phone, thus reducing the number of NPCs available!
Race with NPCs
NPCs can be used in races. To set up a race, choose the time or lap parameters, as well as the track. Next, configure the competitors; the “Add NPC” button at the bottom allows you to add and configure them.
Note regarding the screenshot below: after configuring two NPCs, a small white icon next to the player’s name indicates whether it’s a human player (with a human silhouette) or an NPC (a white CPU icon).
The NPC configuration window appears, displaying three main options and a Settings button.
NPC Customization:
- NPC: Character Selection: You can choose different NPC profiles, each with distinct skill levels and tuning settings.
- RACER: Vehicle Assignment: Assign a specific car to each NPC.
- DEVICE: Assign the phone or device that will control the AI.
NPC
You have a choice of several Visual Pilots with different characteristics. Depending on your progress in unlocking options, you will be able to access more pilots.
Choose a pilot for the NPC.
RACER
I would have called this section Car / Vehicle (CAR or VEHICLE in English), but oh well, because here you will choose the car that will be driven by the NPC.
DEVICE
This is an option that surprised me, and I had to do some research to confirm my initial impression. When you have multiple players, and therefore multiple phones connected to the race, you can specify which phone will control the NPC and manage the AI.
This allows you to distribute the processing load and also limit the number of cars per phone (DEVICE).
Settings
For the NPC, you can specify whether you want a Realistic or Arcade speed setting.
You can also specify the tire wear type.
You can now start the race
Results
At the end, a table displays the results of each pilot, and we find our NPCs again with the small CPU icon.
In the race
So, how was the race?
The cars lined up at the starting line. There were three of us: me and two NPCs. The lights turned green, and the race began. No false starts. While everyone found their position on the track, the cars touched a bit, but after the first corner, like in Formula 1, things calmed down. I’m a beginner, so I had a lot of driving assistance, which allowed me to stay on the track easily and pretty well in the middle. The NPCs drove well. They didn’t behave strangely on the track. Overtaking them wasn’t necessarily easy, but it wasn’t impossible either. In two or three laps, I managed to find a racing line to pass my target.
It was very enjoyable, and the handling was excellent. I didn’t see any fighting between the two NPCs. Perhaps the differences between NPCs of different difficulty levels are more noticeable.
The NPC cars don’t bump into each other; they’re gentlemen! However, I’m not so kind, and sometimes I bump into them and push them off the track. The problem is that in these cases, the NPC gets lost and stops. When this happens, you just need to put the car back on the right track, and it starts again. The car has a gyroscope that detects when it’s back on track.
Most of the time, that’s enough, but sometimes I’ve had to back the car up, as if to start it, in order for it to move again.
The chicane
On a standard track, everything works fine, but how will the NPCs behave with the chicane track element?
So, I added the chicane to the track and, after indicating its location to the application, I restarted a race.
I observed the NPCs’ behavior at the chicane, and I noticed instances where they didn’t bother with it; they went straight ahead and drove along the lines. But I also saw instances where they clearly avoided the lines to pass them properly. There are surely conditions that sometimes determine whether the AI passes them correctly or not. Furthermore, the type of driver selected for the NPC likely influences their behavior.
Conclusion
I love it, it’s fantastic! No need to find loads of friends to race with lots of cars on the track.
I only have one thing to say: I need to buy more cars so I can have more on the track, especially when we play with the kids.