Automobilista 2 March 2023 Development Update

I have hope for 2 things...

1... That this feature will appear well before the adrenaline pack because it's just as important in regular tarmac racing as it is rallycross... And if it's made part of the package before rallycross emerges it'll make for a better rallycross experience when it emerges...

2... That Reiza takes the same approach to that pack as they have with the Nordschleife... It'll be released when it's closer to being ready than we have seen with other releases like the ovals for example...

 

it would be nice to have content that's already paid for to play somewhat close to when it's should be out, not 6 months to a year late which is how i suspect this will be

 

But if it's not ready, it's not ready... Would you rather have some unfinished, nearly unplayable content on time or very good and refined content that's a year late?

 

Once again, you communicate the delay late... it is clear that days before the end of the month you knew that you would not arrive on time for the launch. Wouldn't it have been better to communicate it before and not play with people's expectations? We still don't know nothing about the offroad dlc, no mention, no teaser, no image, no clue... which is quite worrying

 

Quite worrying for who?

I mean...it's a game...an hobby...

And to be fair the lack of news and releases doesn't mean you can't enjoy what you already have....

We will know when things are ready...that's it...

 

Well, it should be worrying for all of us who want this sim to be successful, but above all, because since the content of the dlcs was announced, we have been seeing images or receiving information about others but not this one in particular. I respect your patient and sympathetic stance with the developer, but not everyone has the same point of view. let's be honest, outside this forum, ams2 has quite a bad reputation both for the madness engine problems, and for how little serious they are in reiza When it comes to respecting the deadlines. You may or may not agree with what I say, but it is the harsh reality. And this type of thing (lack of information about dlcs sold) does not help to improve the bad opinion outside of this forum. We all understand that there are delays, but not all of us understand Reiza's way of dealing with them or handling the situation and the lack of prior communication about said delays. In the end, all of us who enjoy this sim want it to succeed and the community to grow

 

There is a sentence that Renato once said that I always remember when it comes to this topic: AMS2 is a long-term project. We're just in year three of this project now. Go figure.

I can understand that people want everything all at once but things sometimes take time (especially for a small dev team). Things don't always go as intended.

 

Seems like every update there's people on either side of this fence...

I'm firmly on the side that's happy to wait for these developments knowing that I'm still going to get what I paid for... Plus I take into account all of the other delays knowing that pushes back certain other projects as well...

Someone who really loves rally cross and the super trucks is going to be on the other side of that fence... Possibly even wondering why so many people are happy that Reiza have taken so long with the Nordschleife and why they've included the Sudschleife in that project... When it in itself is as long or longer than all of the rally cross tracks that would be made for the DLC...

I'm far more keen to find out what this low downforce track is, or which track is the 6th DLC track... Once released it'll be hard to tear me away from the historic Nordschleife and Sudschleife...

 

I don't think you can argue that AMS2 is fully refiend even 3 years after release in many places
- no way to exit from a server into the lobby as you can only completely exit mutliplayer
- no option to rejoin a server that is already running or even when it is still minutes before the qualifying ends
- can't jump between laps in replays which makes checking a late section in a 1 hour race absolutely awful
- forget AI aggression or anything regarding their skill - the biggest problem is that they are a moving blockade, drive on rails and if you hit them it is only you who gets smacked, meanwhile PC2 has realistic collisions between the player and AI, and also between AI drivers themselves.
- carried over from PC2 is the night shadow bug that breaks immersion and also blocks car headlights on the track itself
- also carried over is "pit strategy" where if you select "change tires" to "recommended" (not starding tires), the pitstop will NOT change tires unless their status is at 10% or less even when you properly select what tires you want changed in the pitstop.

These are just a few problems that are in the game since early access. Should people be patient for 3 more years and hope that maybe at some point this stuff will be fixed ? Or is it any wonder that a lot of people left the game and that iRacing and ACC have always healthy numbers of people playing when those don't have these problems.

It also may sound harsh, but paying customers don't have to care whether a dev team is big or small. The full game costs 137 euros (base game + season pass) which is a triple-A game asking price so people should have expectations of a certain degree of quality.

Which don't get me wrong, there already is a high degree of quality otherwise AMS2 would not be my most played game, but at the same time the long-standing problems are numerous and what hope is there that any of them will be fixed ? Only hope and nothing else.

 

They might not care, but they should have an awareness and understanding that Reiza are a small team, and what that can lead to in terms of risks and timelines.

"Caveat Emptor" is a very important consumer principle.

 

That i agree with too as that's what Steam reviews, tons of videos and discussion boards are for, so people can check if something is worth the money or not.

 

Yes!

 

I could care less for the adrenaline pack - that’s my opinion. I really like the sim - it has matured a lot with a lot more to fix.
The only frustration I have is the pics of Aston Martins, Lambos etc that never arrive as promised future content more than 12 months ago, the self imposed deadlines that are never met and the content that promised never arrives on time. Once or twice - no problem but it is every month. All the promised Q1 content has not arrived and we are in Q2, 2022 content still has not arrived.
Like everyone else I have just gotten used to it - but should we? ACC 1.9 with new cars etc is scheduled for April 19. I don’t think it will be late. The Americas pack was delivered on July 4 last year as promised by ACC. I think we would all like things to arrive when they are said to arrive then there would be no argument or let down. Yes I wait until the end of each month and watch but don’t expect new content unless promised.

I do agree with Tom - the multiplayer experience still needs a lot of work and it is crucial as this sim would benefit more from a cutting edge online experience. I am sure the player base would go through the roof because let’s face it racing AI all the time has a use by date.

That being said most sims need more work on their multiplayer experience. There is not one that I have not been disconnected from or glitched out. F1 2022 is now one of the worst multiplayer experiences I have had with lots of waiting drop outs etc for a game that costs so much to have so many problems - it shows just how much AMS2 has matured in comparison.

At the end of the day if promised could be met and the online stuff fixed - I would be happy but I am happy with what we have now. It would be nice to have full multiplayer lobbies all of the time though.

 

Well, I believe even Renato himself admitted that he maybe didn’t had the best approach when they envisioned the additional contents as packs, as this leads to frustration for people who bought them and now are waiting much more than they expected. Also from my personal work experience when you have small team with high workload, the best way to operate is normally to underpromise to be able to then over deliver. I believe Renato changed his approach a bit on his last communication when he didn’t set a deadline last week for old Nords after the late hiccups on development. I believe this is the right approach on communication. Most of us all know it’s a long term project, but we can’t deny that all the past promised content communication Reiza issued can have a side effect if assumptions on deadlines are not met over and over again; and in that point I believe the criticism from community is a valid one too. As for myself, I still couldn’t explore in depth all current track / car combos, so not having new content is not something that annoys me. I’m still learning and discovering hidden gems on AMS2. My mindset is more of quality over quantity, so I tend to prefer this approach as tweaking new content to the best standard possible prior releasing, but this is only mine opinion and I’m fine with the ones who disagree. All good balanced and valid points I saw here.

 

Okay my question to those who are upset about the delay is what can Reiza realistically do to make you happy? Reiza already made the mistake that caused the delay, they can't go back on it. They have two choices, either release incredibly unfinished content that breaks other aspects of the game every time a DLC comes out or delay them until its actually quality and playable content.

Rushed content will always cause chaos, it's no coincidence that the update that broke the game the most came out on the last day of 2022 when they rushed to meet a deadline. I will keep bringing this up because it is one of the biggest mistakes the dev team has recently made. It hurt the sim tremendously and even 4 months later still haven't been fixed all because they rushed to meet a deadline. Rushed work is sloppy work, no matter how good talented you are.

Extended delays are better for the sim than the Formula Classic cars not having drivers and two tracks completely disappearing. There isn't a third option, bug fixing takes time. From what I understand, it's bug fixes that eats up the most time in game development. So if you're upset about deadlines, you shouldn't complain about things being broken.

 

Since I did not purchase the season pass, I tend to have a bit more patience. However, if I had already purchased he season pass I would be much more annoyed. I get that AMS2 is a longer term project but Reiza also has to remember that some pretty big sims are on the way including AC2 and Rennsport. IMO Reiza needs to get the DLC packs out sooner than later or the competition for our money may not go in their favor.

 

I have the season pass and I can wait. AMS2 has amazing content and I can wait on new content without issues. I try to be grateful of what the sim has and see that everything added as mini Christmas presents

 

I don't even really care that much since I'm used to it by now, but the very simple answer is to stop telling people things will be done by a certain date. At this point they would be better off just saying nothing unless they 100% have a concrete time they can guarantee it'll be done. I genuinely like the idea of getting people excited about new content, and I would hate to see no communication at all, but don't set expectations other than "We're working on this". Missing estimated release dates is fine, but when it's this consistent and the communication about delays happens after the fact, people reasonably get pretty annoyed.

I do sympathize though, I assume working hard on things you're passionate about, while simultaneously being your own PR is tough. I don't want to come off as rude to the devs, because I get it, but if I had to give them any advice, it would be to either say nothing unless things are very nearly ready for release, or let people know before self-imposed expectations are missed, because from the outside, it looks pretty bad to the average person.

 

I have a season pass and I'm actually quite happy that this expense still continues to provide me with new content, even in 2023. It's a long term project and I have a feeling there's a lot more "give me all now" attitude globally anyway (anyone remembers CP2077?) which just doesn't make sense with current digital games development, especially when a small studio is involved.

BeamNG or ETS2 (or even pre Motorsport Games Kartkraft) are on the similar page where both are being developed by small teams and continually improved for years. And a lot of people are fine with that (I don't want to use words such as majority or everyone, since I don't have stats to back it up, but the general feeling is that people are generally happy with slower pace development. Why this isn't the case with AMS2 I have no idea...