May we have more publicity and clarity, please?

The idea that AMS2 is less a simulation, more a "simcade", is too prevalent online. It doesn't represent the facts and does Reiza a disservice.

(Before boring you all and irritating the esteemed Reiza staff, a disclaimer: I have no connection to Reiza or any other games company. I loved Game Stock Car Extreme and was an early backer of both AMS1 & AMS2. Although a supporter of Reiza's efforts, I am not an uncritical "fanboy". In my opinion, AMS2 was released a full year too early - quite understandably, this may have been a decision forced on Reiza by economic imperatives - and the sim still has areas where it falls short of ideal.)

Public perception, influenced by people who have in turn been influenced by other influencers, is broadly against AMS2. That must surely have damaged sales. I regret to say that Reiza's lack of publicity has hampered its own efforts. After many years reading simracing forums and Discords, I see the same charges cropping up: the Brazilian (and other) cars are "weird", "fake", "knock-offs"; the Brazilian tracks are "fantasy", "obscure" and (again) "weird". Now, with AMS2, the Madness engine is commonly held to be incapable of producing a realistic simulator. Project Cars 2 queered the pitch for many in this regard.

Reiza, while aware of all these criticisms, has not countered them and has trusted in the quality of its work to speak for itself. While an admirable response, this has allowed too much misinformation to cloud the public's opinion of AMS2.

I urge Reiza to update, if possible, the AMS2 website and list therein the many aspects of motorsport physics that AMS2 simulates; summarise the engine, suspension, tyre and aero calculations and then the emulations of general car, track and weather behaviour. Publish easily retweetable explanations. Make a video: "Under the bonnet of AMS2". Explain what the SETA tyre model does and why it might feel less "peaky" and behave differently to other simulations. Talk about LiveTrack. Clear the fog of confusion and misinformation.

It has been suggested to me that the AMS2 website should be a reference for explanations and information since there is, as yet, no game manual. I agree. The website should be a hub for anyone interested in AMS2; at the moment, it is gathering dust. Reiza should be sending release notes and/or short publicity videos to RaceDepartment, OverTake.gg and Traxion as well as the major gaming review websites. It goes without saying that Reiza's own YT channel should be more active. Make it easy to dispel the myths that have grown around AMS2's content, its simulation qualities, and the Madness engine.

In the past five years, there has been barely any celebration from Reiza of Brazil's lovely club and international circuits, no revelling in the variety of Brazilian motorsport, and hardly any showcasing of the superb historical tracks. Many people think the combination of LiveTrack and weather is merely graphical rather than a sophisticated and evolving recreation of track conditions. It's not enough to mention in a hotfix update that historical tracks will drain more slowly than modern Grade 1 circuits - please, shout it from the rooftops.

iRacing's announcement that Brazilian Stock Cars are coming to that venerable sim revealed that many iRacing members had never heard of the vehicles, five years and three games after Reiza had first begun simulating them. I've even come across avid Brazilian simracers who haven't heard of Automobilista! Reiza's profile, even in the small world of simracing, is too low. Let's have some fun - where are the 30-second videos extolling the Fusca Hot Car, the P category cars, the GEN 2 F1 cars at Imola, the amazing T1 of Cascavel? AMS2 is fun and fresh - you should remind people of this. The monthly notes from Renato, while always fascinating to read, aren't enough on their own to raise AMS2's profile.

I know the hard-pressed Reiza team have their hands full with work and planning. But more publicity and clarity will help future sales as much as, if not more than, another new car. If nothing else, it would give the public accurate information about AMS2 instead of the collection of half-truths and misunderstandings that currently define the sim's reputation.

 

I'd rather have the game updates, guess that's me being selfish.

But shows how subjective the topic of priorities is too.

 

I hope we can have both. I'm not asking Reiza to stop developing the sim.

 

No publicity is not good either as, like mentioned, it allows misinformation to spread. Dedicating/Sacrificing some time to advertise the game is needed, especially as we approach the release of the MPRS. The game needs press. Not just the occasional article/interview and the dozens of misinformation posts on forums and private chats. There needs to be a perception shift but that won’t come on its own.

 

I agree with you Scraper. I lost faith in AMS2 a few months ago before giving it another go recently and now enjoy it a lot. The only reason I decided to give it another go was because I came across a video by @Tarmac Terrorist that was extolling the recent updates. Should it really be so down to a chance youtube encounter? I would agree that more explanation would be helpful, and a manual definitely useful for those new to setting up a car and the variation possible in AMS2.

 

I'm sure Reiza could ask the community here if anyone is interested in making some nice 30 second cinematic videos showcasing the sim, maybe run a competition and if the winner is good enough maybe they could have a monthly roll in making said promotional videos, Reiza could publish them, tweet then and not have to down tools to make the vids.

I totally agree more advertising and marketing needs to be done. AMS2 is qualified enough to be a much more popular sim.

 

Ther eare allready a couple of users making really great stuff but without the "official touch" this isn't really attracting attention.
And permanent updates of the official AMS2 website would be great too.
REIZA is awesome in developing but awful in marketing. But without the right marketing further developement could be a bit difficult....
I do hope, REIZA will do the right to stay independent and won't go the way of many ohter small studios!

 

This thread is a nice example of what I discuss above re. the publicity and clarity surrounding AMS2. Once the player (who wrote a thoughtful post) got an explanation of what was happening, he liked AMS2 even more.

https://forum.reizastudios.com/threads/gt3-bop-is-a-long-way-out-especially-the-poor-merc.21307

 

Well put, and lots of good points. Scraper OP
inc.

This is so important imo. People here know about the game but many/most users are not members, A glossary is even needed here imo pinned to main forum page and indexed . ie Just on the subject of AI 'skill 10 clicks = 2 secs. Aggression 10 clicks? what to expect?
(Skill relates in game to overall speed yet high skill with low 'aggression" = poor corner entry/exit/rear ending etc high speed on straights & poor ai experience. levels like 100/50 and lower agg, as often seen in posts and reports) higher aggression I have seen result in many better races. Aggression in this respect seem not the best description/ and can lead to misleading use of level. (I think and displayed in test)

.
Imperative imo In and Outside of forum. Pls

 

I’ve had AMS2 since it’s public launch in spring 2020. I’ll be completely honest until two weekends ago I did not enjoy this sim. I would play for a day or two after each update and feel underwhelmed, then go back to RF2, R3E and AC. The September and October updates I didn’t install and play until ten days ago, that’s how underwhelmed I had become and I will be one of many AMS2 owners, that had become that way.
I’m a Reiza fan, I’ve bought every dlc on release date, to show support and like many of you, I want this sim to be a mainstream sim and I believe that it will be.
Two weekends ago was the point where I finally clicked with it, the cars rotate and drive smoothly, I have confidence in braking and turning, AI car contacts don’t feel like they have super glued themselves to my car anymore and feel like genuine believable contacts. The set up / tune screens have gone from being a mess of big numbers, to a less daunting simplified experience and far more user and newbie friendly.
I agree this sim has a lot going on and the only explanations as to WHY it does things, is from you guys on this forum, thank you for that!
A lot of people who own the sim, don’t have the time or inclination to come to a forum, they just want to press play and have all explanations on screen.
For me personally if I worked at Reiza I wouldn’t spend any money currently on marketing the game. Once they sort out the AI and the online ranking / safety system then I would go full on marketing and also organise you tuber events etc.
I’ve seen GM and boosted media starting to turn and hype the game now, so the tide is turning, but until AI and MP is properly in place, it could lead to people who haven’t played it for six months being turned away again because of AI and MP and then it’s even harder to get them to re try AMS2 again.
Since ten days ago, I have only played AMS2, it feels like a brand new game has been added to my library, I absolutely love it now and I’m hooked! I’m spending time learning it, finely tuning set ups and feel like I’m making the most of my sim rig time in doing so!
That being said the AI does hinder me getting full enjoyment and anytime I look at lobbies there’s like 20 people spread over 8 servers and 2 or 3 of them will have passwords. I can go to R3E and get a guaranteed large grid in any server from 4pm GMT onwards. Today I’m going back to R3E because I like the car and track combos and need to have some fun races. If AMS2 offered that, I would probably stay in AMS2.
I do still believe that 2022 will be the year for AMS2!

 

We realise Renato won't be able to drop everything else and start generating a bunch of outreach materials to try and convince the nay-sayers. But nothing is stopping Reiza from showcasing videos from Steelcast27, who performs a rather similar function as Yorkie065 once did for Project CARS 2. If this is not being done because they're too busy doing the n'th iteration of "minor tweaks to tyre treads" then that is a problem indeed. You're a business, hire a part-time social media person to work with content creators. Your competitors do it all the time and they will eat you alive if you don't.

 

Bringing back Yorkie065 would be great, he knows about PC2 and can be able to highlight the differences on AMS2, also he knows how to cover some topics properly.
Steelcast27 is a good way to know more about car handling and fine tuning it so would be a great addiction for setup lovers which would like to know what you can simulate and what not on this topic...

 

His old PC2 videos are still somewhat relevant even for AMS2. Sadly he's fallen in the hole of producing cookie-cutter ACC content on YouTube.

 

Whatever happened to the monthly RoadMap (or did I miss something?). This at the very least was a way of having some form of publicity that would inform of changes, tease what was upcoming and was also shared around the socials.

 

Often people just want to see cool cars & tracks. Particularly if they aren’t officially available in other games/sims outside of mods.

AMS2 has so much amazing, unique, content like the 80’s/90’s sportscars & F1 cars. Alongside great historic tracks.

Everytime I post an AMS 2 video or screenshot on Twitter there’s plenty of interest. Unfortunately very few know what AMS 2 is.

I really do urge Reiza’s social media team to post multiple screenshots & videos per day on Twitter etc. It costs nothing other than time. You could even highlight community content.

it does annoy me how this free promotion isn’t made use of. The community will help promote the title and spread the word if content is posted.

 

I have a feeling that MP rating system update will change things on multiple fronts. Renato on some blog post couple months back did say that we will get weekly race/track combos in some form, to incentivize people to participate. IMO this looks like an low effort/high effect option to market a racing game.

For example, "This week's track/car combo is (whatever)". Free publicity, incentive to learn particular track and car while giving less clueless drivers on mp lobbies as a result.

There are wonderful combinations, but damn, you need to be experienced to know which works with what. I have 300hours played but I feel like I have experienced only a third of what AMS2 can give.

 

I am so happy you got something positive outta my little videos, best I could hope for! Yes all the sims have their quirks and problems but when you find an element, track/car combo, senario that really works, or just an element that you can really enjoy, all you wanna do is shout about it and say, hey folks, you gotta try this, its awsome! Equally as important as making folks aware of problems in the hope they can be fixed so we can enjoy the sim to the fullest! Cheers!