Help - Does AMS2 drivers really want to race online?

@Marius H don't you want to beta test www.racecraft.online?

@Coldsalmon thank you for pushing me in to FAQ direction, I am liking the FAQ already

@racezilla I will implement personal data protection features, thx

@Gabriel "Pai" Legnini getting rid of login page "wall" was the awesome idea, thx

 

Yeah, with RCOin

 

This seems like something I’d be very interested in. I’d love to join a league but can’t due to other commitments on my time, so offering many of the benefits with a more ‘jump-in and go’ approach whilst still ensuring some level of discipline sounds fantastic.

One question I have after looking at your sites FAQ. Signing up to a server location/region I’m assuming is to help funnel users together better? Or is it to enhance performance/ping over site traffic? I ask as despite being UK based my AMS2 multiplayer time is often spent driving with Australian/New Zealand based players (them in the evening and me first thing in the morning) as they’re often some of the few people around during my play time. I wonder if, at least initially whilst numbers build, having that freedom would mean more races for more people at more (convenient) times.

Please don’t give up. I think a lot of people would be interested in this - you’ve just got to get the idea in front of enough people.

 

@Magnus

The idea behind the regions was that, in order to get good pings, driver will race on servers which are near by. Maybe it wasn't the best idea since I've received few request to mix drivers from multiple regions in one race, so currently RCO is doing just that - drivers from different regions are racing together.

There is no sophisticated algorythm in place to choose server placement in "multiregion" race, region is choosed based on drivers region majority. I will improve this basic algorythm in the future.

On the other hand, in case of practice sessions, drivers are connected to servers hosted in their region only. I like your idea and I will alow drivers from multiple regions to practice together - it should be a quick fix.

Hopefuly I've explained regions better now, I will try to improve faq

I will add more race series with "multi time zone" schedule, so drivers from around the world could find the race in convinient time.

At which hour in the morning you're racing? Do you have an idea for race series you and your friends would be interested in?

Yeah, but I don't think I can do this alone. If you're interested in RCO then spread the word, that's the only way

Thanks for your input, I need fresh ideas

 

Today I do the practice session for the race at the evening.
Unfortunately, I cannot race at the evening because I need to work.

My first impression of the practice session was very good.
The waiting time for the practice session was about 2 minutes (for me it’s okay)
It wasn´t easy to find the right server because there are many in the list.
Nice to see the conversation at the in-game chat.
Also, the website is clear and not overloaded.

It would be great if there is an option to implement it into AMS2.
I don’t know if it’s possible. (I am not a programmer)
Maybe Reiza is interested on your platform?

They already implement the Radar from masterlooser, why not racecraft?

 

Thanks for feedback

In AMS2, in the server browser you can filter list by server name, just type "RCO" or the server name displayed on RCO website - something like "RCO.R.345"for race or "RCO.P.345" for practice and you're good to go

In software world almost everthing is possible

It would be awesome to integrate RCO with AMS2, on my side it would be easy to prepare API for Reiza to use in AMS2, since almost everything is already in place. Let see what future will bring us

 

Justrace is already a great platform, biggest issue with having multiple places that organise/schedule races is that all are fishing in a fairly low populated pond of people, which means it gets difficult to get full grids.

I believe Reiza are already running tests with scheduled races, but tbh first they need to fix the floating/invisible car issue when using a dedi server to be able to have proper online racing with a proper rating system in place

 

Interesting, I had never heard of Justrace. I'm a bit confused - everyone seems to think LFM is some revolutionary thing, but it looks like there are other tools that do the same thing. What does LFM do that makes it so popular versus Justrace or RCO? They all seem to have automated safety rating, which I thought was the main thing.

 

well, lfm runs their own servers, as on JustRace communities can run their own servers for almost every sim, on their own server, they have a server manager software, and using their website you can schedule races/championships as well as hotlap competitions, Reiza is running beta tests on there as well.

 

There are also:
Simracing.gp, worldsimseries.com, raceu.net, splitrace.com, and granddaddy of them all simracingsystem.com

IMO they are all lacking and I can do better, at least from technical point of view.

I suspect that LFM was built for the league and it started from there, so they already had drivers from the beginning - I can be wrong of course.
LFM have a lot of drivers now, thats their strength imo.

As you can see there are other ranked multiplayer services, so why I don't race with them?

• LFM - i am too slow, GT3 drives like a boat, rf2 is old, I want AMS2.
• Simracing.gp - tried that but they have limited free slots - I wasnt able to join race ad hoc in the last minute
• RaceU - ac only, i want ams2
• Splitrace - ac only, i want ams2
• Worldsimseries - they have nice system in place, ui is little confusing, but again i want ams2
• JustRace - i would need to run my own league
• Reiza scheduled races - I hope they will make RCO obsolete

Besides I like to build stuff, so even if no other drivers will race on RCO I will probably continue to work on it, I have so many ideas for new features

P.S and dont forget about Rennsport

 

There is no progress without competition. Do you believe that existing ranked multiplayer systems are the pinnacle of users needs? Personally, as someone from software industry, I would like to see something better

I am not sure if multiple ranked multiplayer systems are the couse of empty grids, they can be, but imo there are more valid suspects:

• Lack of accessibility - I am no motorhead, it was difficult for me to grasp sim racing, today sims dont offer much in documentation department, we're lucky that we had GTR2.
• Anexiety - people are afraid to race online to not break other people races, they dont feel safe online
• Aggression - youtubers are calling other drivers idiots and such, what kind of behaviour is that? I can do my share of swearing and i am yelling at other drivers, or the world during the race, but not in the public and to strangers.

So I would look more in to those directions. Currently its hard to become sim racer but this barier is artificial and can be removed with good products.

Correct me if I am wrong, but that's how I see it.

 

Each sim racing multiplayer system belongs to specific category:

• MMOs:
  • main
    • Racing - paid
    • LFM - free
  • wannabes
    • WorldSimSeries - free
    • RaceU - free
    • SplitRace - free
    • racecraft.online - free
• League tools:
  • centralized
    • iRacing - paid
    • simracing.gp - paid for league owners (?)
    • (in the future) racecraft.online - free
  • decentralized (you need your own server)
    • JustRace - free
    • RaceResults - free

As you can see I am trying to create free sim racing MMO with centralized league management tools - free answer to iRacing

And going back to empty grids. Last year I've talked with many league owners and almost none of them has exposed their community to RCO. After multiple talks i was left with the feeling that some league owners are like warlords who keep their tribes (users) behind the walls, they keep them tight because users are "theirs" .
I think that this also adds up to the "empty grids" problem, we have splitted community, multiple small and big tribes, with warlords who don't want to unite. But IMO being united is the only way, look what happen with LFM when they opened themselfs to the public - full grids.

Disclaimer: I don't know nothing about the leagues, never ran one or been a member of one, I can be totally wrong - just tell me that I am

EDIT
Don't get me wrong, I suspect that at the beginning the leagues were the main driving factor behind online sim racing, and sim racing owes a lot of success to the leagues.
What I'm trying to say is that it's better to race together than in small packs. I get it - to each his own, but in effect we have small community splitted in to smaller ones.

EDIT 2.
RCO is the only MMO wannabe for AMS2 - how it can cause empty grids in other systems? (Additionally no one race on RCO, so I literally don't steal any users from anywhere )

 

Well, you could always start your own league to get a baseline of players. You could further differentiate yourself from these other services by offering uncommon series - instead of GT3 and F1, have a Copa Classics B or Formula Vee series. I also don't like GT3, and that's one of the main reasons I don't race online, since it's almost all GT3 nonsense, or the fastest possible F1 cars which I can't drive at all. Since AMS2 concentrates on "obscure but fun to drive" cars, these types of cars would be perfect for a service focused on AMS2. Rather than trying to compete with LFM for the GT3 drivers, make a service for simracers of culture

P4 is probably the best place to start with this, since it's somewhat familiar and the cars are easy to drive. I don't really know what I'm talking about though, I'm just telling you what I would prefer.

 

I am trying to build such "different" service, but I am no community builder, I barely have time to do some RCO coding on daily basis, I would need help in community building. Any volunteers?
On the other hand maybe tools for leagues will make leagues to come to RCO, who knows?

Also I am not a motorhead, I don't know much about cars, tracks, race series, I just like the sensation of racing fast with good car. That's why this post A Low-Skill Driver's Guide to the Cars of AMS2 is pure gold for me, thank you , I will use it as inspiration for future RCO race series.

As much as I love F-Vee, I think that rookie race with it will be a disaster , but I will add F-Vee series anyway, since this series is already in RCO but hidden (the same with P4 ), I will check Copa Classic B and if it's fun, then why not

 

I tend to be online anywhere from 6am UTC to around 12.30 UTC depending on my schedule. This is why I rarely get to race with many Euro users as the majority will be working during this time. I’m based in the UK but end up joining servers with Australians and a few New Zealanders who are playing during their evenings and into the night. As such I’m not racing with ‘friends’ as such because AMS2 doesn’t have a big enough regular mp community around the world to have a huge amount of choice in servers/lobbies.

This is the reason your proposal of regular, around the clock, drop-in scheduled races is so appealing. Realistically at the time I’m playing a lobby with 5-7 people is a ‘good’ lobby. Often there’s ‘Arj Defaults’ lobby running which can get 8-10 people in but most lobbies are 1-3 people maximum and many of those are locked.

I’ve looked at Just Race (or Just Racing, I forget the name) and quite understandably see most events scheduled for weekday evenings UTC and weekends. I imagine this is the case for most leagues and similar sites/groups, but I can’t help wondering what our Aussie mates do for league/race fun other than stay up extremely late drinking energy drinks or have their own, secret, leagues

In terms of what I like to race; GT3 is so well served in other games and AMS2 has so many great cars that I like to mix it up as much as possible. The MCR2000 is just pure joy, the Ginettas are excellent and of course Group A are a great deal of fun but there’s so much on offer, much of which can be raced in multi class races to offer something fresh and different. If you’re looking to concentrate on AMS2 using the scope of the cars on offer is a USP in itself in my eyes.

 

Thx for info, I will cook something for you. AI or not? RCO have adaptive AI so it will adjust to your skill level after few races.

My English sucks, what USP stands for?

 

Hehe, finally someone has joined RCO race, thx @DazzyD70
See you tomorrow?

 

USP is Unique Selling Point. It’s just a business term for what sets your business or service apart from all of the others.

I’ll sign up tomorrow when I’m free to - I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works as I’ve no experience of this kind of thing.

thanks