Automobilista 2 June 2021 Development Update

The over all tone of the AMS2 forum is changing imho towards one of disgruntlement, or at the very least that element is growing larger. That should be a concern to anyone involved in moving this project forward.
How to address head on the doubts around the PC2 legacy issues, the often strange physics, the split between ai and player performance.. otherwise this is just history repeating itself. I would even go as far as say ing that this thread is starting to sound awfully similar to the PC2 threads- a mixture of resignation and hope. Could this whole mess (and to some it is clearly perceived that way) undermine Reizas reputation and possibly even destroy it? That is where the real threat of negative YouTube feedback lies and is a situation that would have me worried if I was on the project.

 

Let's have some perspective here. In the last six months we've gotten:

• the long-awaited custom championships -feature
• a massive improvement in driving feel due to low-speed tyre damping in 1.2
• quality of life -features like TC/ABS adjustment and multiplayer lobby editing
• constant track performance optimisations
• a massive improvement in AI behaviour
• some improvements in netcode and stability

No other sim has advanced as much in that time. I don't care how polished some other sim might be, if it provides me no enjoyment when driving I'm not going to touch it. Others may prefer something else but right now only AMS2 and AC, with some R3E on the side for multiplayer, really do it for me. The dynamic tyre and track conditions, the weather effects and wet driving, the wide range of different cars and tracks, the fantastic open-wheelers, the pliable tyres that let you dance on the edge of grip, and the vivid graphics and lighting effects are all something I can't find elsewhere. If that means doing mostly single-player for the time being, I'm fine with it.

The multiplayer numbers will improve once a ranking system is in place. In the mean time, I suggest exploring services like JustRace.net that help corral people into one place and avoid empty public lobbies.

 

If someone wants to find traces of PC2 in AMS2 they'll always be able to, no matter what Reiza does (other than replatforming which obviously won't happen) and probably even then people would spot some similarities.

It hurts though when half-arsed "influencers" are broadcasting their views that's echoed across the less knowledgeable community. They care about their audience, reach and themselves, not games/developers. It's like giving newspaper editorial to primary school kids who know little about the consequences of their words.

ACC also had a poor start (anyone remembers Nicki Thiim's rants about how terrible it was?) and perception changed quickly after the praise from many "influencers" (I have a real dislike to that term). So there's a win if AMS2 goodness gets more widely broadcasted.

Given the amount of niche content it's not the title for everyone, so expecting it'll be treated on ACC level is unrealistic. We know it's a long term project and let's treat it as such. And haters (or hater wannabies) gonna hate.

 

Another thing as well is that finding traces of PC2 can't be seen as purely negative. Traces of PC2 are often good. Traces such as live track, physical tires and the weather system. It already simulated the edge of grip and weight transfer really well like Nik Romano points out. That's the great foundation that was inherited.

It's what they left unfinished in PC2 that bugs me at least. Those are the traces that Reiza has been eliminating. In essence AMS2 is PC2 with loads of improvements. And better decisions such as not using modern tires for vintage formulas. What the heck was that about?

If you hate PC2 with a passion and think its physics engine is rotten then sure this is a dead end. We can all play what we like however. At the end of the day we choose the platform that gels with us.

 

Absolutely. Its all about trying to determine what actually is, as opposed to things the way we would like them to be. Once we have done that then we can determine the issues and from there the solutions. In respect to AMS2 there are plenty of good, and of course some bad, and the individual will determine to what extent that mixture is acceptable, and its a benchmark that will vary from person to person based on their standards but also perceptions of correctness.
Im actually coming around to the viewpoint about the updates that was the central feature of this thread before it meandered slightly, and Im minded to mention the following. I started playing a city building game called Ostriv (run with me for a second on this) which at the time was being developed by one guy. People were complaining about the long wait between updates and so he put out the following in his blog. As an exercise in expectation management it worked wonders- the complaints dried up and havent ever resurfaced. Possibly worth putting out there as an idea for consideration..
Link below if you want to see the flavour of the blog for yourself. It was interesting and illuminating, and made me as a user really appreciate the game that I was playing.
What is taking so long – Ostriv (ostrivgame.com)

 

Looks like some healthy debate going on, many fair points raised.
I too would like to see things like TT reset and absolutely want online ranking or leveling system to be a priority.
Most other things don’t concern me much for my use as don’t have time for playing through championships vs ai etc, so don’t really have much opinion on that, but the few times I’ve raced ai, it’s been good.

I think Reiza get a hard time for having ambitions, and a trend for what seems like accelerated development when you compare to other titles.
For example Raceroom took years to actually implement a decent online ranking system and decent enough FFB, and how amazing is that new ui , that’s the result of a big upgrade lol, but at least it’s more functional now, but ground breaking 2021 design it is not, then just look at the still bland and flat graphics that look like some historical old game you used to play…
Why do they get away with that lacklustre progress with the about of revenue the game must have made over the years.

And then you get the AC fans saying how great it is and how good kunos are…. Um really… I’ve got it, but have yet to get on with it, Mainly because it’s a whole lot of fafing about with a dozen third party programs and then countless individual downloads to get third party content that’s always being updated , so it’s hard to know what’s what and what setting to run etc.
Hell it’s barely even passable as a kunos title by now, seems about 90% community development on a so so original base. I want to like it and enjoy it, but god it’s a lot of work.
All these talented solo developers should really be forming a team to head a new title, rather than working for more or less free…… makes you wonder really…

So yeah, Reiza has that new kid on the block attitude given to it by others it seems. They have to be twice as good as the rest to get a tiny bit of acknowledgement.

It’s all rather school yard to be honest. How lucky are driving game (sim) fans to have such choices and variety.
Variety is good, you can’t eat kfc every day.

 

Some 'direction' is here for those that may have missed it, or a reminder.
https://forum.reizastudios.com/thre...yer-feedback-reports.9127/page-30#post-145702



Sidenote ref car drivability.
There appears to be a power output rpm 'progression jump' as I would call it, with default throttle sensitivity at 50. from idle to 2000-4500 car dependant (all cars tested so far have it to a greater or lesser degree)
If you find any vehicle has odd driving character inc on/off throttle corners pls try again with setting of 20 or as low as 15
eg C9 Sauber from standstill and gentle throttle will give massive increase in output for little throttle @50 set to 18 the car will respond with better throttle control /progressive rpm/power output. Feed back is required for this sensitivity setting and its effects
feed back could go here.
Physic discussion thread

 

Dont have permission to view that page?

 

Ok sry about that. lets just say there on the case for many mentioned things in many pages here.
ref cars. more info is in this thread but feedback is req

any reports could go here as mentioned
Physic discussion thread

 

up until today I’ve alway thought I was a bit odd having my throttle sensitivity low , but I naturally found that the best way to overcome lack of finess with low tech equipment (t3pa pros) , but seems it was perhaps unconsciously adjusting to a software issue.
But interestingly today I put a heavier spring in throttle, and now find that with the extra effort required to actuate throttle, I needed to bump up sensitivity to get natural response, so now instead of super low I’m now running about 35.

 

Nope.It's just the brasilian way,not he european,get used to it.Other countries other cultures.

 

Sorry, fixed for you

 

That's still half the time it has taken rf2 to get to the half baked stage then, lol.

 

If you watch Brasilian Stock Car Series,it's a different world of racing,a little rougher,that's what i like.

 

Perhaps, but that's not a good approach if many of your potential or current users are European or North American.

 

I think there is no doubt, you could enter the name of every beloved/hated gamesudio here.
If you're on a conspiracy trip, you'll find 1000 ways to do so

Sounds like my mother in law. You can tell her whatever you want, her first answer will be " i don't think so"

 

so soon? I still haven't tried all the combo combinations and learned all the tracks. if you do it well it's a job of years, especially because each type of car drives differently. If we then consider the weather variable, the series of combinations is multiplied to n.

 

In my case to be perfectly honest the community I was playing with stopped using AMS2 for other reasons not related to people leaving and more related to the tools available to run a league and the current state of MP.
I then moved on to race somewhere else where there were races going on.
I think MP is much more hampered by the low priority assigned in the past development periods (probably overlooking certain issues and matters as Renato quite honestly admitted in a recent post) leading to limited tools for leagues to operate, no competition servers, some issues with players being dropped, more rarely some events/weather sync'ing issues and initially (quite some time ago) some netcode issues.
Reiza monthly updates frankly have very little to do: most of the people barely reads a portion of the monthly update changelog anyway.. It's enough to read the posts on FB and other similar social and forums to realize that.
I think I've seen in FB, RD and Discord about 100 posts (excluding those who really had technical issues with the update) and queries on why "AMS2 does not recognize my wheel anymore" when the answer was in the first paragraph of the changelog for last month and they didn't read it.

 

It would be interesting how many % of playerbase prefer singleplayer and multiplayer.
Do we need a poll or do we have those figures from somewhere else already?
Can Steam gather those infos automatically or is it impossible to get a real answer?
Would be interesting also for other sims and games.
I‘m a singleplayer guy but I‘m old gen…