What do you think is the most significant reason AMS2 userbase is so small?

Since 1.4 I haven't had this specific bug but did have it before so know what to expect... I reset to default a lot and i've got used to the tweaks I need to make with different car types to make them comfortable to drive for me...

 

I'm asking this sincerely, given that all the comments I see from you are complaints, dont you find it bad for your mental health to be on this forum all the time? I'm genuinely not trying to start an argument.

 

It occurred to me that going from one session to another for some reason the car doesn't feel the same until I reload the same setup I had in the previous session. Nothing changed, just the reloading and the car felt different. Reason why I always reload my setup at the beginning of every session now.
Not sure what causes it, but at times there are gremlins that seem to be living inside AMS2

 

I still have this bug unfortunately. I've had to delete and/or reset setups so many times since I bought the game in June 2021 that I simply gave up trying to drive a lot of different cars and creating lots of setups. I've been sticking to only a couple of cars (Stock Car 2019 & McLaren GT4, occasionally I drive Porsche Cup 4.0), I make a few adjustments to setup so it fits my driving style, and take screenshots of the setup so I have a reference whenever there's an update and things change.

 

Yeah I definitely have my go to cars as well... Screenshots was what I started doing but I just pushed myself to get the engineering brain working more... It's not for everyone, and really most people just want to drive so Reiza really needs to stamp the set up bugs out...

 

I’m anything but on here all the time. If you’re the kind that like to get on and not care about going through obstacles, that’s on you and ams2 will eventually stall out on growth . These complaints aren’t that I don’t like the shade of green or blue on a certain car, legit issues, or is this normal for arcade games

 

Thought that deleting the AMS2 folder under documents when driving feels weird is a thing of the past?

 

So...the year's just about over and its hard to say exactly since the patch and DLC just came out but I think we'll see this spike settle around a 750-ish player count! I think that's great and based on the latest news we should see things continue to progress throughout 2023.

I wasn't expecting mods to be supported in any way so that was a nice surprise. The long-awaited multiplayer improvements should arrive in time for all of the major 2023 real-life events too (assuming they arrive in Q1 since they said they are already experimenting with scheduled races in beta).

Lots to look forward to! 2023 should be Reiza's time to shine.

 

So I just got a PS5 and have spent plenty of time in GT7 lately. Overall I think the game is great and there are a few things that could make their way to AMS2 to keep people around in single player, beyond just standard racing.

I don't think license tests or a driving school would be worth it for Reiza to add but I think the "circuit experience" concept would be great. This isn't anything new, as AC and ACC have something similar already. Same with curated races to show off car/track/weather combos, as both PC2 and AC have this too. Missions are something cool that would be great in AMS2, on PC I think only BeamNG has this feature and it's great (maybe it will get added to AC eventually though, I remember something about custom scripts in the CSP notes). AMS2 has so many great race cars that all have a fantastic history.

In summary:
1. hotlap challenges (even better if tracks can be split into sectors and ran as point-to-points)
2. curated races (this was awful in PC2 due to terrible AI but AMS2 can really shine here)
3. driving missions (there are so many incredible combinations of AMDM, LiveTrack, safety cars, race restarts, tire/fuel wear, etc., just imagine the possibilities, this could blow away every other title out there)

#1 & #3 would need custom point-to-point logic implemented to be fully realized. Bonus points if they where able to somehow open that up to the community so talented individuals could create their own scripted events (e.g. lap 190 restart at Indy, etc.).

I'm probably in the minority but I felt that the PC2 career format was fine, it was just completely let down by the AI.

 

I really don't see there being a big rise in the player base until the MP code is improved... It seems like they are trying things but nothing is working so far... Hopefully Reiza can work the same magic as they have so far with the physics... But it's a different department, one they haven't had to deal with before thanks to the robust MP experience in the Gmotor2 engine in their previous titles...

So as far arriving in time for the real major 2023 real life events is concerned it's highly doubtful... Not to mention a lot of leagues plan their years out in advance... Now would of been the time to get in on the major events of at least the first half of 2023, as it stands it looks like AMS2 will be trying to push it's way into the plans of leagues in the 2nd half of 2023...

There's a lot of work to do on MP, they may even have to start from scratch with a new code not based around p2p... So I really wish I could share your optimism... But I'll say 2024 is more likely to be the year that Reiza pushes AMS2 into a place where the physics say it should be...

These ideas could be nice additions towards the end of AMS2's development cycle... Much like a fully fleshed out career mode, the rest of the title needs to be working for it to be worth Reiza's time and effort... Any fixes they make to these new modes could be like the "fix" used on the Life F1 W12 engines that actually caused it to explode rather than lubricate it better... Keeping these extra modes out of AMS2 until the base is working is a smart move by Reiza, no matter how much fun we could have in them in a buggy state...

Even though it could give a boost now, the AI issues and the weird physics bug that requires a reset to default set ups would cause it to be treated similarly to the pCARS 2 career mode...

For me it's about time well spent... And right now we need some bugs squashed and a decent MP experience to encourage a larger player base... And as much as I'd be wanting to try a career mode in AMS2, the AI and set up bug would have me sitting exactly where I am with the Racing life app... Interested, but not enough to spend time in it...

Thinking on the first one more, I think there's already time trial of the week... A few more of these could be easily set up by Reiza... The point to point ones will probably take a lot more work, but are an interesting idea...

 

1. The AI is just a complete mess.
2. MP is, as of now, very unpolished
3. The HUD
4. Setting issues

Most cars i have tried feel great and believable, but there are cars like the Caterham 620R that feels so completely off and unrealistic, we race those IRL, that i start to worry about how unreal the other cars are probably too.

When you are doing Time Trial you often end Up Bering in the top 5 on the Leader Board while only doing mediocre times, telling me how empty this game really must be.
In AI races this sim feels completely off, appliance of rules is a Joke, KI aswell. Just doesnt feel real at all. Compare that to even iracing AI raaces, they are much more fun cause they feel way more realistic.
The graphics are great but the racing itself destroys all Immersion for me.

If you enjoy hotlapping without a real leaderboard just for yourself, and hopping in without the need to invest a lot of time and money, i guess it can be a decent sim for you.
For anyone taking Sim racing more serious its a resounding no.

 

Firstly I agree with the rest of your post... Although I'd lean more on the MP issues than the AI issues as with certain car and track combos they are pretty good...

With the time trials there are 2 reasons why the lists aren't populated despite the games age...

1. The physics changed substantially this year, causing the leaderboards to be wiped clean...

2. The fact that this still could happen again has kept many from one of the only modes that makes complete sense in AMS2 atm... The hot lap mode...

 

The only reason I have abandoned TT is because I don't want to share my setups.

But, yeah, these two factors have a little weight too... but if there were at least the "propriety" of my own setups, I would ignore these other facts

 

^This! Same reason I don't bother with TT. If there was an option not to share/hide your setup when doing TT, I would probably try doing more TT.

 

Set ups don't work for everyone... Anyone who pays for a set up that isn't designed for them is a chump...

Plus it's not that hard to set up a car... If those that can't do it need a hand I'd rather help them by sharing set ups...

 

Isnt there a option already to do that? A lot of times set on the leaderboard are showing without the setup icon.

 

If shows up without a setup icon, it usually means the person used the default setup of the car.

 

I'm more and more inclined to believe that the most significant reason is just lack of promotion, related to Reiza not paying YouTubers to advertise their sim. As such, you end up having the most popular YT channel related to simracing, labelling this sim as simcade with farcical criticisms that don't even make sense. And that, in 2022, matters more than what the actual product does.

As good as AMS2 is, it still has enough flaws, mainly in the multiplayer side of things, for the product to not be able to do the talking on its own; it needs marketing support, no matter how niche simracing may or may not be. At the moment when you load Race Department, there is a AMS2 promotion video getting displayed at all times. That is perhaps the first bit of serious advertisement that I have seen from Reiza in +10 years.

And whenever you want to point out that physics, FFB, lack of content, multiplayer, whatever, is the main reason, remember how good AMS1 was/is in all those departments, and how succesful it actually was in terms of concurrent players (spoiler: even smaller userbase than AMS2).

 

Don't know about it. Schumi used to play with Barrichello's setups and worked very fine for him lol

For the majority of players, it's easier to adapt to other folks settings than make your own , specially when you can also chase the setup owner's ghost and see how he is using it. It don't happen only with AMS2.

I don't think that setup a car is any hard at all, but demand time. It's pure math: You waste your time driving to find the best setup and the other contender just download the faster lap setup and them waste the same time just trying to be fast. It's a no brainer who got the advantage.