AMS2: Great Potential For Multiplayer

AMS2 is very fun in multiplayer and could bring insanely fun events into simracing. Imagine 24H Nordschleife or 24H Le Mans in AMS2. The way the weather works, one part of the track could be wet and another could be dry. Stuff like this is what makes simracing feel even more real. Also the amount of classes in the game can represent the majority of races that happen IRL.

BUT:

Some crutial points are missing/lacking that are needed to ensure that events like these could actually exist:
Teams per car/multiple people in one car in multiplayer are essential to make these kinds of events possible in the first place. This feature kind of exists in singleplayer, but is not present in multiplayer afaik. If thats wrong please tell me.
Spectating/Spotting/Monitoring is pretty barebones right now. The gear always shows neutral, you can´t see the delta of the current lap, you can´t see stats about tyre wear and pressure, or damage on the car. As multiple people would be spotting in these events, it would be really nice to see what is going on.
Increase the number maximum players. Afaik the maximum number of players is 32 right now. IRL in 24h Nordschleife over 100 cars are participating. The limit might not be able to be reached by the game but double the current count would be very nice.

Some final words:
I personally am not involved in proper game development but it feels like these features can be fullfilled with limited amount of effort. I just recently joined AMS2 and i am really enjoying my time. I am currently hosting a lobby everyday and after 15 minutes of practice the lobby is full of players. And i always imagine the possibility of 24h/12h/9h/6h races. It may not be the goal of AMS2 to provide these kind of experiences but i think it could be a great success.

Please let me know what you guys think and if i missed anything that is already in the game i would love to know. Maybe the devs see this and get some inspiration.

 

Well said... There's so much potential hidden behind a crappy p2p experience in AMS2...

I will say that it may not be as easy as it seems to change the current architecture and allow us to enjoy AMS2 to it's fullest... But no matter how much time and effort it takes to make AMS2's MP experience at the very least up to date with it's competitors, it will serve AMS2 better in the long run... As it will result in the most positive word of mouth that can be achieved with fixing anything that is currently wrong with the sim...

 

"Multiplayer is still an area users have been urging for further improvements on, and we´ve been spending a lot of time over the last few months looking for the structural reforms needed for a more robust multiplayer experience - although not many fruits have come from it yet, we´re confident we have learned enough to achieve some significant progress over the course of 2023 - once we do, offering scheduled races will be the logical next step (we are already experimenting with it in Beta)."

" Modding Support - As has been stated from the beginning, AMS2 and the Madness engine were not designed as a modding platform but that does not mean modding isn´t welcome - we are aware how critical modding is for the longevity of any game, and we are pleased to see that some intrepid modders are already taking on the challenge, with some success cases beginning to pop up.

Because the game was not designed as a modding platform, both creating and installing mods for AMS2 still is a somewhat cumbersome process, and while it´s unlikely it will ever be as smooth as other platforms designed for that purpose, we are looking into some achievable measures to try at least reduce some of those difficulties, and also plan on offering some resources / information for serious modding teams looking to bring their scratch-made content to the sim. We will also soon offer an AMS2 Modding subforum for users to share info and resources for modding in AMS2."

Link: Automobilista 2 - Automobilista 2 December 2022 Development Update - Steam News (pretty far down)

I just found that and i am honestly so damn happy that the devs are already planning their development to improve the experience and possibilities of their multiplayer. Also reducing the effort of creating and using modded content can create even more variety and realistic feeling. I am really looking forward to what 2023 brings to AMS2 in terms of multiplayer. Thus i am creating a discord server where i will be trying to gather a community for racing daily races and special events. For everybody who wants to join and race some time soon: Join the AMS2 Multiplayer Community Discord Server!

Good racing everyone!

 

I'm really happy to see your enthusiasm for AMS2 as many of the leagues I've been looking at competing in have given up on AMS2 due to the poor MP experience and the effect that has on their participation... 50% of the ones I joined in December that had series running then do not have any plans for races in AMS2 other than random open lobbies...

Hopefully their work with Just Race will give Reiza what they need to improve the current mess and bring the MP experience of AMS2 up to date...

 

Thank you. I hope we get some people together so we can actually look into directions like leagues and stuff. Currently it will most likely be open lobbies and not even dedicated servers. But it works for now. When actually something like 30-40 people come together it probably makes sense to look into dedicated server. Afaik it´s even hard to get a dedicated server if you do not want to or are not able to host it yourself. Very few services are actually providing AMS2 servers. But i will look into that when the time has come.

 

From my experiences the dedicated server side of the MP is where 90% of the problems with the actual code, not the features, lay... My impression is that the server is another user which is then connected to the host who is then connected to the other racers...

p2p as long as everyone has good pings is usually less problematic... But it's limitations will be annoying as there's a few hoops to jump through, even just to get the correct results you'll have to take screenshots before the session changes...