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This game needs to get more headlines

Discussion in 'Automobilista 2 - General Discussion' started by Jeff Scharpf, Mar 20, 2021.

  1. Jeff Scharpf

    Jeff Scharpf Active Member AMS2 Club Member

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    I understand forums are typically for complaints or issues, and that is legitimate of course, but I hope this relatively small company gets more "visibility" in the sim world.
    I see some of the big Youtube names talking about it in a very positive way, so that's great, but it is hard for a small company to compete against companies that have the licenses all locked up.
    The feel and sound of this game, to me, is beyond any other sim out there. I have no idea if it's "realistic" because I don't drive a real race car, but comparing it to some of the other brands.. going into the turns with the Brazilian stock car.. the sound of the tires, the moment of pushing the car just far enough to not lose the rear end.. I don't know.. it seems so much better.
    I was watching a popular Youtuber go through the statistics of the Steam game players and the number of players in AMS2 was dwarfed by the number of players in AC or ACC or any other sim. We're talking, for example 4000 players (AC).. during some period vs. 400 players (AMS2).. it made me sad because I really think this game is better. I understand that modding AC is phenomenal. But these are mostly cars and locations (yes I know about CM/CSP/SOL, great mods) I just hope this "little" title doesn't get forgotten. It would be a shame. It has all of the features in the game already where you would need to mod AC to get.
    I'm not really sure why I posted this lol.. thanks for reading this far. Sorry if I bored you.
     
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  2. CrimsonEminence

    CrimsonEminence Administrator Staff Member AMS2 Club Member

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    Actual player counts are not the most representative tool to make a point about anything...shouldn't make you sad. As long, as you and these playing people enjoy it, you should be happy. :)
    And AMS2 is still quite young and additionally a niche within a niche, developed independently by a small team.

    Btw. i might be biased, but i also found situations in AMS2 quite often by now, that made clear, a win in AMS2, even against AI is something, you have to deserve and it's not the usual way to go, if you use its full set of features.

    It's also not a "hotlapping consistent at +-0 delta in a race" experience and requires some dedication to learning for several cars, which is quite interesting, when including the fact, that the number of combinations, you can have in this sim, are probably the largest stock-content repertoir.
     
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  3. Maser V6

    Maser V6 Assume nothing._ Verify everything._Have fun AMS2 Club Member

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    Plus discussions
    Me 2, I ignore those stats
    It wont, on the contrary, my thoughts
    Because your enjoying AMS2?
    Not me.
    Welcome to forum from me.
    Theres lots of helpful people in forum I have found since being here.
    Have fun
    Time for a siesta
     
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  4. TekNeil

    TekNeil Take me back to the 2.4l, twin 50 weber days...

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    I've always thought the game should have a built in 'Benchmark' test, that way there's a small possibility that larger 'Techtubers' such as GamersNexus may pick up on it, and in turn advertising sim racing/AMS2 to an audience that may jump on board.
     
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  5. cpcdem

    cpcdem Active Member AMS2 Club Member

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    See here, ACC also had a slow start and took much time to really take off, after it got vastly improved Comparing 2 apps

    IMO it's been only 3 months since AMS2 is in good enough state to be played by more than its hardcore fans and it still improves fast. I think it needs another 3 to 6 months of development in the current rate and it will be ready to be adopted by many more players. The numbers are already increasing slowly, at some point they will be increasing much faster.
     
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  6. Jeff Scharpf

    Jeff Scharpf Active Member AMS2 Club Member

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    This is true, the game is still in it's infancy really.
     
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  7. Wilfred de Ruijter

    Wilfred de Ruijter Active Member AMS2 Club Member

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    I'm very curius what will happen with the stats if ranking and a skill rating will be available. Which features will be published at the anniversary of AMS2? New cars and new tracks should lead to more headlines and thus more players.
     
  8. TronLi

    TronLi Well-Known Member AMS2 Club Member

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    I think things are headed in the right direction currently. Everyone is always concerned about multiplayer but I think most people actually play offline. Otherwise I would see a lot more populated servers in pcars 2, which has around 1500 active users. Of course we need multiplayer to be great but I had a great race in SRS recently so I think its ok already.

    I think replays and broadcast improvements will be critical though. When people start posting more content from their custom championship races others will see it and hopefully want to give it a go too.

    The historic content is key. Nowhere else can you drive the same layouts as Senna at this high of a quality level. Just build on that somehow and people will migrate over. Again, I think this is mostly for offline. Multiplayer will eventually be dominated by GT3 but offline will keep people around.
     
  9. Shadak

    Shadak Active Member

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    There is pretty much 0 sim racing games with AI as good as to substitute racing against people, I find it very anticlimatic and predictable, even famous rf2 AI is pretty ****ty when you start looking at details not to mention multiclass, most games use different physics for AI and so on.. Its OK to practice racing in a pack though.

    Anyway, I think the rather empty lobbies (and why many stay offline or in TT etc.) is mainly because of how online is done right now, i've posted specifics before but it just needs work, a lot of it, the replay/broadcast system as well, it is currently one of the worst in racing games. Steam charts avg. players in last 30 days shows about 170, that honestly isnt much and better online would bring a lot of people back. I dont necessarily think everyone would just do GT3.

    But all of that will take time... and there are also other "issues" that need to be worked on and Id rather get these things done than pumping out DLC so yeah...
     
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  10. NoelAllen

    NoelAllen New Member

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    Thank you for sharing, this article has helped me solve my question.
     
  11. BrunoB

    BrunoB TT mode tifosi BANNED

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    Haha good one Jeff - but dont be sorry.:D
    My own input to this discussion is that beside focusing of bug solving and cleaning out the mess of irritating issues remaining in AMS2 (for me mainly in the menus and specially the setup load/save :rolleyes:) - then Reiza should use some time to get an advanced user result statistic system up and working.
    Just look and learn from another small racing game Raceroom.;)
    Beside iRacing with their almost perfect and useable statistics Raceroom make it possible for you to follow both your own racing historics - but also all other Raceroom "members".

    ByTheWay: In AMS2 you cant even see when the different laptimes are set on the TT Leaderboards :rolleyes:
     
  12. Kevin del Campo

    Kevin del Campo Active Member

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    Niche cars, niche tracks, FFB that needs custom files, cars that need a decent custom set up to be competative, not a huge selection of popular cars, glitches in the UI and controls and Im sure I can think of more.

    I really enjoy this game for the single player experience, but I think it haunted by some of the same problems PC2 had.
    With other titles offering super smooth experiences off and online, I think Reiza have a long way to go. I hope they will focus on the right things moving forward cause imo right now theyre catering to a fairly small crowd of not casuals.
    Which is both a good and a bad thing.
     
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  13. TronLi

    TronLi Well-Known Member AMS2 Club Member

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    I don't know about niche cars and tracks. Yes, they have them, but it's not like they don't have popular content as well. Based on Project CARS 2 PC Leaderboards, 6 of the top 10 tracks are already included. I would be surprised if the other 4 don't make it into the game this year tbh.

    As for cars, it is very clear that people want more GT3 content. Those will come with time as licensing allows. For open-wheel content, nothing comes close to AMS2, especially since they seem to be true F1 fans (vintage content).

    I think custom championships will be the key to boosting Steam numbers, even though there are lots of people shouting for multiplayer changes. No point in having a ranking system if there's only a few hundred people online...it is important to add but not now.

    Bug fixes, AI, ffb and physics updates are a regular occurrence. So I can't see that issue lingering around too much longer. I hope most of this is sorted out by the end of June (1 year after the v1.0 release), I really want to see 1000+ people online (like PC2, RF2 and RaceRoom).
     
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  14. Kevin del Campo

    Kevin del Campo Active Member

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    Some niche cars are cool, I understand where thats coming from even if its not for me.
    But theres so much classic, vintage, retro etc stuff , I dont think really appeals to a larger audience.

    I also think AMS2 would benefit from having one or two competative set ups like ACC is doing.
    A “Safe” and an “Agressive” default set up so people can race more and worry less about adding FRB and stuff like camber to their set up.

    Id also love to see more people online, but I think the way to achieve that would be more along the lines of modern cars.
    GT3 Is an obvious one, but Id also love to see some new Le Mans stuff/Hypercars for example.
    I think that would excite more people than another Formula Vintage, Caterham, Golf Mk 2 or Stock car.

    Just my uninformed opinion tho, I dont have a clue about the numbers behind AMS2, but it does seem to attrackt a bit of a niche audience, which has its up and its downsides.
     
  15. TronLi

    TronLi Well-Known Member AMS2 Club Member

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    Other than GT3 and modern F1 (based on the number of people playing the F1 games), what is popular with a wide audience?

    Going by AC, it's cruising (Shutoko, etc.), Nordschleife track days, drift and touge. Of course there are lots of active leagues but they can't be considered a wide audience.

    Maybe we need to think about it differently. What could be done to promote the niche content to a wider audience? GT Sport does this well by offering themed events on regular intervals. PC2 had weekly events in time trial, if Reiza extends that to MP it might help.
     
  16. F1 Hero

    F1 Hero Active Member

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    Do you people believe AMS2 visibility and popularity would gain a big boost if it had an official licence of a british series? For example, the British GT or the British F3 - the game already has all the tracks these two series are racing in 2021. The price to licence would be a problem, I believe, especially the GT, very expensive.
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2021
  17. TronLi

    TronLi Well-Known Member AMS2 Club Member

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    I don't know if it's worth it for any series tbh. Do people really care about that for anything other than F1? Dirt Rally has done well for itself without the WRC license. ACC would probably be just as popular without the GT World Challenge license. However, if a deal can be worked out to the benefit of both parties then of course they should do it.

    Motorsports marketing needs to figure out a way to get more sim racers watching real-life racing streams (say what you will about the F1 Netflix show but it brought in new fans).

    It may sound crazy but imagine a documentary maker teaming up with a sim racing studio to create the content featured in the film. With some mutual advertising both groups would benefit. Just think...what if the Senna documentary from 2010 came out next year and AMS2 had all the popular movie content?
     
  18. ToMythTo

    ToMythTo The Hero We Need But Not Deserved

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    It is all about how dev's approach their own product. If they really want it to be the best looking stable game on the market even physics would be on the second or even in the third plan. What I mean is they will hopefully care od those stuff in near future, but for now it has some absent features for sure.

    Take PC2 as an example, when you open the game you really feel like you are in the motorsports world with all the cool style, thrilling music, ongoing event announcements, car/track showcases etc.

    If you were such an classy organization to make a serious competititon (except GT cars) would you rather PC2 or AMS2? In the simplest term the UI has not ben touched much. It sells very shrort itself. Also in game elements has some absent features. There are still lots of serious competitons going on with PC2 and no organization says "Oh its physics is arcadish forget about it." since the game itself already says "I'm here for some serious ****.".
    Maybe at some point Reiza will stop to bother physics this deep and cover the game with really elegant style along with stability, MP, rating(which is soon) etc. Otherwise it is like commiting your money to a Hancock suited man in WallStreet whether you know his power.

    AC on the other hand is an exception since modding community needs are somewhat very different. Also they somehow really manged to apply decent physics for almost every car class.

    Maybe haters gonna hate but I've no intentions to blame anyone or any action. Just pointing out some aspects of the human mind and hoping to make a constructive feedback for improvenent and enjoy even more what I'm already enjoying.
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2021
  19. Kevin del Campo

    Kevin del Campo Active Member

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    I would almost say more modern sports/racecars as opposed to 20 classes of old/retro/vintage/stock/trucks.
    Since you brought up GT Sport I think they have a pretty good selection of modern cars that see a lot of use in public lobbies.

    I think theres also room to improve on existing classes. I love the old GT1 cars for example but theres only 3 of them which feels weird in a 20+ car race. Same with group C, GT3/4 and theres only 1(?) LMP1 car. Where are the Audi r18, the 919, the Toyota? I want to drive those icons!

    I guess this discussion also depends on something that rarely comes up, and thats what the devs want with the game.
    Do they want commercial or critically acclaimed succes?
    I think a game like GTS is probably a bigger commercial succes than AMS2 but we all know which one is the best sim ;)

    One thing Im fairly sure of tho, is that more people would play it if it was a bit more accessible and if it had less bugs.
    I think a big reason for ACCs succes is the fact that you can just hop on, choose a competative setup from the game and just enjoy the ride.
    No setup to deal with other than fuel and tyre pressures, and a pretty much flawless on and offline experience even for a serious simracer.

    Another thing they have dialed is that every car has the same level of quality/detail and seems to adhere to the same laws of physics.
    Something I cant say for all the cars in AMS2.
    Which I why I say focus on quality over quantity.

    This definitly isnt meant as a rant, I really think improving these things would mean an increase in numbers and I wish this game all the best because I really like it.
     
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  20. BrunoB

    BrunoB TT mode tifosi BANNED

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    I fully agree with you on that.
    I mean "to adhere to the same laws of physics" thing.
    In AMS2 my oppinion is that some cars does actually behave like they does adhere reasonably to the car physics we know of - while others does behave like nightmare cars from a bad SF movie displaying an alternative universe with its alternative laws of physics.:whistle:
     

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