Automobilista 2 May 2020 Development Update

the joy of reading spa, eclipsed the sadness of not reading Buenos Aires(Galvez) track

 

Yes, some good content from AMS is missing (Copa Petrobras, Mini, Boxer cup, Floripa, Buenos Aires, Brasilia,Riberao Preto,...), but in my opinion the official content of AMS2 seems to be better with maybe the best content from AMS plus all the content that will come.
But there is something that is better in AMS: the music from the UI

 

I wish we had Monza (historic as well with and without oval), Anderstorp, Fuji (old and new), Watkins Glen, Nurburgring GP Strecke and Tyrrell 3-wheeler.

 

First off, thanks for the amazing and informative update. I also have to admit I swooned when reading the part about 80's Group C cars - even more so than over everything else, and that's saying a lot!


However, I feel the need to be completely honest here; after all, I want AMS2 to succeed.

To put it bluntly, I think that going for a 1.0 release in June is a bad idea. Even in Early Access many people do not understand what "work in progress" means and expect a fully-fleshed out and polished game. This undoubtedly shows in reviews to some degree.

Now imagine you put an "1.0 full release" tag on it, while there's still lots of bits obviously missing here and there, not to mention a lack of polish compared to the high standards Reiza is known for. My prediction is that this is not going to end well with regards to Steam reviews. Like I said, there are more than enough people expecting a complete sim despite the Early Access status - with the version number at 1.0+ this is only going to get much worse.


Don't get me wrong, I have faith in what you are doing, and I could hardly be happier with the prospect of all that juicy content that has been announced or hinted at so far. But considering that even now, less than a month before full release, something as integral as the AI isn't there yet - not by a long shot - there is definitely going to be bad blood in Steam's review section. And for a racing sim - which is a niche product - bad reviews can easily break your neck, especially when your product isn't as well known as, say, Need for Speed or Codemasters' F1 franchise.


Of course, chances are you are now committed to releasing according to schedule and won't change it, and I understand that; in which case I seriously hope to be proven wrong.

 

@XTRMNTR2K

I'm do not think it is going to be as bad as you describe in term of Steam reception. It may have been, had Reiza released the first EA as 1.0. I think most buyers of 1.0 will mostly understand what they are getting. And it's not like the NFS and Forza crowds are going to suddenly purchase AMS2! As for AI, I think this going to be work in progress for a while still since there are so many combinations to handle. If Reiza waited for AI to be absolutely perfect in all scenarios, 1.0 is not out before 2021. That and at some point, as a developer, you need to take the plunge and make the first official (non-EA) release and work the way up from there based on feedback and more

 

I must admit I feel a mid June v1.0 is a bit premature.

Lots of very interesting news though. It was hard to imagine AMS2 without Spa but its confirmation is very welcome as indeed are the historic versions.

I'm pleased Renato has specified what the dlc will be now rather than the previous "at least" description which was something of a hostage to fortune. I'm not as confident all the dlc will be released by the end of 2021, so now its itemized, no one should feel short changed.

The list of cars is amazing and their inclusion in the basic game is great. As a season pass holder though I am just a little disappointed that my favourites - the 90s British touring cars and the 60s/70s touring cars are likely to be packs of 2 or 3 cars rather than a full dlc pack/game in itself. I would gladly trade the modern supercar dlc pack for a larger pack of 60s/70s touring cars or a larger BTCC pack. But who knows. Maybe for the next season pass?

 

I’d love to hear about the anticipated state of other aspects of AMS2 at 1.0. We know the content and many core systems are pretty solid and constantly being refined, but the are others that need serious work, particularly sound. Total lack of trackside audio ambience, and almost no discernible external sound shaders, cockpit engine noises misplaced in many classes, overly loud turbo hiss in several classes, crackling audio, poorly looped samples etc etc. I’m not trying to dump on the audio devs, but great audio immersion was one of the ways AMS1 compensated for its austere graphics and was a talking point along with great AI and FFB. It’d be nice to hear about developments on this front in AMS2 with its superior sound engine.

 

Yeah. I’m curious to see how this goes. If you’re going to charge $10 for a single track (well multiple versions) and it’s aerial scanned (not ground lidar) and the AI, ffb and car list is a bit rough at the moment. I’m not so sure this goes well. For $10 people are going to expect iRacing level quality and content.

 

$10 is a bargain for Kyalami quality and the two (or maybe even three) versions we have/will get. Just an example. Same with Hockenheim when it includes modern and historic versions.

 

Engine sounds coming from the correct end of the car shouldn't be too much to ask for either, last gen sims like AC had it. Talking of looped samples IIRC one of the Caterhams has a bit of a duck quack thing going on that is noticeable in high gears, I think it is the Supersport

 

I too have audio issues but it could be because of the "unique" way in which I am running surround sound. I swapped to a soundbar (Sonos) with wireless surround speakers from proper wired full surround (my Pioneer Amp blew up!) and as a result, in order to drive the soundbar for full surround, I am running the Realtek driver live surround conversion to DTS signal and pass it to the soundbar via optical. So having said that, I quite often have sound dropouts from the front whilst the rear continues to play. It could be the driver wanting too much CPU cycles for the Live DTS conversion I guess (although I believe this happens on the Realtek chip itself).

So, I am timidly putting my hand up to say I think there are some surround sound support issues at the moment. I play in VR, but whilst sitting at the wheel, it sounds miles better to have my Vive-Pro headphones lifted (and disabled) and listen to proper speaker setup in full surround. (forgive me for calling a soundbar a proper speaker setup)

 

My god... all this content coming, yet the steam announcement comments are hilariously outrageous. I don't know what they want... Do they want the game for free or what?! This list of content is far more than what most racing games provide in their entire life cycles, with the Reiza quality touch on top, let alone the gigantic roster of cars and tracks that's already in the game.

 

Whilst I love what I have experienced with the game so far I too am a bit concerned / perplexed how they can jump into v1.0 in only a couple of weeks time while there are still a lot of rough edges. The bug reporting thread is quite large and we have not heard if any of those have been squashed and I have seen some bugs in game still that have been there since the very first EA build. I just can't see how there can be such big changes in the next two weeks in order to get it to v1.0 level.
As we all know steam reviewers can be quite brutal so I would expect that there will be some acidic comments on there when released.

 

Yeah... that infuriating monster. I miss being angry at his creators.

 

best way to handle: ignore them

 

Holy moly, i knew why I backed AMS2!

 

The upcoming content sounds fantastic and I might pick up the season pass soon.

However, I felt that moving on to 1.0 is a bit too early. I think the game needs a bit more polish before 1.0 greenlight.

Personally, I think the addition of GT3 and GT4 would be a nice 1.0 milestone after the licensing hurdles are sorted out. It is something that most general audience would expect where it can be a good way to close off the early access label. Since it is delayed a bit, perhaps it might be good to delay 1.0 till then.

 

Difficult times we're living, but it will worth the wait. This is really a hyping dev update.
Go Reiza!

 

Going to be a bit scummy here! How much of the Group C's and GT1's and Spa Classic and Modern are from PCars2? because there group C's are awsome