Automobilista 2 April 2021 Development Update

Was there supposed to be another image here?

 

Oh, wow. Great update that directly addresses concerns regarding the direction the Sim is going in, and previews a lot of cool content. For the record, I'm 100% on board with reiza's plan.

Regarding the new content, please let there be Watkins Glen and Bridgehampton on part two of the pack. Maybe Sebring as well?

 

I agree with this ... dont remember anyone complaining about features that werent "promised" or layed out as part of the plan. Some people were maybe a bit disappointed that certain features didnt come out as planned (ie. put in the roadmap for specific dates), yes.

Some other people (me included if I had to take sides) were maybe a bit disappointed that certain aspects of the game arent as good as they were in AMS1, namely certain cars handling, physics etc. , because ... well , why not? Its a sequel, its called AMS2 and it should improve upon AMS1 in many if not all aspects, otherwise whats the point. And Id take those features/aspects over new DLC any day.

Personally I dont mind waiting, I got the game for about 20 quid so that was already worth it. But I dont think its correct saying that "many criticism comes out of people over-expecting".

 

Amazing info and great news! This will the best sim around.

Do we have any info on gamepads? Because I very like current functionality and I am afraid of bad changes a bit.

That's true. I almost forget I play PCs and AMS2 without any vibrations because it's clearly broken.

 

I agree. We have enough content in AMS2 already to make clean but competitive multiplayer racing happen, which I see as a major growth opportunity for the AMS2 user base. Obviously multiplayer is not perfect yet, but it has come a long way and is pretty fun, when people know how to behave properly, which is not always the case. Also often times the skill difference between players is sometimes quite big, which is not ideal for an amazing MP race experience. Therefore, a rating system in MP needs to be the next step in my opinion and is far more important than for example custom championships or customizing helmets/suits, live weather, additional content and so on. Don't get me wrong these upcoming changes are very welcome and well appreciated, I guess I just have to be a little (a lot more) patient. And from a business perspective I also understand that Reiza needs to prioritize additional paid content to keep cash flowing in to continue developing the game...

Love the work you're doing Reiza - keep it up!

 

Thanks for the update news.

One question: am I remembering incorrectly, or was there a plan to make DLC tracks free online as long as they are owned by the host? My friends and I have run into issues with this, and I didn't know if it hasn't gone into effect yet or if is supposed to work but is glitching.

I think fixing/implementing this would substantially boost online participation and reduce annoyances when people are kicked from enjoyable lobbies because they don't own some of the content. (And of course if they can try the content they will be more likely to purchase it outright.)

 

To have a better multiplayer experience you need more players. To get more players, you need to have a good experience for the players you have. I dont think we need speed ratings and safety ratings. That's too much for too small of a user base.

All we need is for people to complete races they join. That will dramatically improve the user experience for everyone else in those races. I propose, for now, simply a system that rates people based on percentage of race laps complete , maybe with more than a certain number of entries (3 or 4 is my suggestion) present on the grid.

I think there would be an added benefit of this being simpler and easier to implement and more immediately useful without any of the harmful side effects of an iRacing style system, but would obviously set the groundwork for a more detailed system later on, which may never be needed even if online participation is huge. I really think this alone will massively improve things for everyone.

Edit: This thread is moving quickly, and I wanted to organize my thoughts better.

 

Nice update, posts and answers

Damned good idea, enjoy and thanks

..

.From @InfernalVortex
I propose, for now, simply a system that rates people based on percentage of race laps complete ,

This sounds like a good idea also.

 

I would also add that I am driving ACC now because of lack of multiplayer. Knowing that their are servers that are always populated, races that stay full until the end of the race and a sense of progression. I can’t count the amount of times I have been taken out by somebody on the start of the race even before the first breaking point for corner 1. The problem is see with multiplayer is their is too many tracks and cars. Where with IRacing and ACC you have a schedule of tracks you race at with a car you know how to use. With AMS2 having such variety of tracks makes it impossible to spend enough time to practicing the tracks causing a problem of people having little knowledge or practice on the track causing bad racing and lots of crashes. By having something in place like a set track list for competitive racing people can practice those tracks making a better multiplayer scene and races.

 

An added benefit to this is people may be more motivated to participate in online races as well.

For a sim to be successful in terms of user experience (not necessarily monetarily, but I imagine that will be highly correlated over a long enough timeline) you need at least one of two things:

1. Thriving, strong multiplayer community.
2. An excellently implemented custom championship/career mode with highly refined AI to go with it.

AMS2 has the potential to do both, but neither of those are possible in the current iteration. I think it's laying the foundation for these things, but I'm just surprised at how low of a priority it is over pumping out content. Content is great, but there are less people racing online now than there were last summer. So content isn't driving more people to the game unless they're all playing single player, and in that case, number 2 above isnt implemented comprehensively either, so they're all going to get bored and leave, which then impacts number 1 again.

 

Thanks Reiza, this update is far exceeding my expectations that were already high. The best and most complete content by far. The variation of the season and the customization of the driver are a great addition!!! Pls keep adding more tracks and cars always as possible !! S2
For me, multiplayer is not a priority!!

 

Ferrari one day?

 

Exactly, I was glad ACC only had 10 tracks and a handful of cars...since I was new to sim racing when that came out. (even though the fight over BOP still goes on ) The level of stuff one needs to master to safely complete a multiplayer race is staggering. And I feel like developers completely neglect on education in that department. Let alone knowledge of 'rules of clean racing' like LFS has once laid out would be refreshing Rules of Clean Racing - LFS Manual

 

i don't think a big track list is the problem.
When you enter the online browser, you'll see more or less always the same 5 to 10 tracks.
And mostly GT3, Stock car, and some open whelers
So online people do the sort out by them self.

In iRacing you'll have to pay 12$ per month to be a ridiculous idiot and pay much more for cars and track to be elegible to participate. A good border line for a big idiots crowd .
Nevertheless you meet many day by day also in higher licenses.

 

E
p
I
C

 

Honestly I think the problem right now with MP is that the quality of racers in casual race is very low. Not as a driver but as a competing human being. Very casual racer just driving a few laps around with no serious intention to finish it unless they are ahead. I'm not sure such a population of drivers would be concerned about their ranking right now.
While I am a strong advocate of MP development including endurance features and although I see on FB and forums some racers saying they won't touch AMS2 or its online racing until MRS is on I also think that such features are not necessarily going to entice better quality and more motivated drivers, because they are solidly linked to other products and won't even discuss trying AMS2 in the first place.
I really think that rotating servers, community races and good sim advertising are the tools that will call more quality racers much more than MRS.

 

In order to have populated multiplayer, you need to have a lot of people playing the game in general. The multiplayer system in AMS2 indeed needs more work and features to get on par with other games, but on the other hand it has a very simple system for creating custom lobbies, which others do not have.

But IMO the main problem for multiplayer is that AMS2 still does not have enough players in general, it's user count is still much lower than all other sims and that needs to change, it must grow to the numbers it really deserves to have. This will change with more content, more fixes, more features, more improvements, more talk and hype about AMS2 in general, and for this reason I am extremely excited about the announcements for the end of May release.

I'll bet there will be a new influx of players next month because of this, which will also mean more people in multiplayer. And in the next months there will be another one etc etc. I just think we need to be more patient, for AMS2 to realize its potential in the coming months.

 

With all of its flaws, it's a really good system for when you just want to race cars like the MX-5. It serves a lot of people.

I'm not that much into regular MP racing to be honest. I really like how AMS2 is not afraid to explore the SP side of racing even though online racing is so popular these days. I like variety and trying out different things. I mean don't get me wrong: if new content took more time to drop I'd be fine with that as well. But I drive many different cars and tracks, often even alone while the AI is getting better in some of the cars (it is definitely already between good and great in multiple classes).