Racebots are bots that look and act like humans – they go for training rides, do workouts, enter races, etc.
When in the open world, you’ll see them out on the road, doing the sorts of things that you might do. For example, they might be following a route, or doing a free ride, and might be doing a steady effort, or some interval training as part of a workout.
When in an event, they love to race. For example, they will attack and counterattack, chase down breaks, push you on climbs, sprint at points or elimination locations, and start ramping up the pace towards the end of an event before trying to beat you in the sprint finish!
These bots ensure the world feels full and active as indieVelo grows. Note that the number of active Racebots is automatically reduced as more and more humans join, but will always be present if you need them. For example, if you want to create your own Custom Event at 3 a.m. then the Racebots will always mean that you get a full and competitive field to race against, even if relatively few humans want to join you.
Phenotypes
Racebots are modeled to behave like classic cycling phenotypes. For example, there are climbers, time trialists, sprinters etc etc.
Each phenotype rides differently – Sprinters will aim to beat you to the line, time trialists will try to break you before you get to the finish, climbers will push harder when the road goes uphill, and so on.
Within each phenotype, every Racebot is unique, with its own AI and individual physical attributes, including a full CP / W’ model. This means that the bots fatigue – for example, in a points race, it’s possible that an overly-keen sprinter bot will win the first few sprints and then tire and fade towards the end of the event.
Ratings
Racebots use the same rating and ranking system as human riders do. If they do well in events their ratings go up, and if they don’t their ratings go down. In this way, the Racebot’s ratings accurately reflect their abilities in events, and if you line up alongside one in an event as part of the matchmaking process, then they will be of a similar ability to you, ensuring that you’ll always get a high-quality ride against them no matter what your ability is.