It is clear that this game has every chance of becoming a simracing favourite. An idea to create a multiplayer system different from what is currently in all games/simulators would be the following: 1. Each week, reiza chooses 2 different types of races: one on one track and one on a different track. Each race with different car categories. So far, nothing new. 2. The races will consist of qualifying and race. Not too long, 15min race or 20min race. And the qualifying of 10min. And every time an event finishes, another one will be opened. 3. You have to sign up for the race beforehand. Nothing new so far. Now the novelty begins. 4. As there are currently few players in AM2, these races have to be completed with AI, which is quite good and the developers have put a lot of effort into it, so this would be a way to put it to good use. This way, even if there is no one signed up, it will be possible to participate in the race. 5. To motivate and encourage players to participate in the races even if it is only against AI, a points system with a worldwide online leaderboard would be set up. The points could be: for finishing the race, for finishing in the top 10, for finishing in the top 5 and for getting a podium finish. This way those of us who have the game would have a motivation to get involved every day, which would be to climb up the online leaderboard based on this score. On the other hand, you could set a monthly points target to get skins for the cars. But that would be secondary. I hope someone will read it and share it if they like it. What do you think about this idea?
It could be a good idea but the AI is not at that level of quality yet and have several issues. How would you determine a fair ai strength for the server? For some it could be to easy and for others too hard. Personally, if I choose to race in mp, I want to race against humans, if not I setup a single player using my personal preferences and an ai strength better suited for me. For what it's worth, iRacing is one of largest MP titles, they have slowly been adding AI to the service and it's very good in it's early stages. The community was speculating the possibility of adding them to the mp servers for races that didn't go official (low numbers under 6) and the majority opposed the possibility.
You are absolutely right. It is very difficult to determine the right AI level for the server. The idea I've put forward is really to get players into multiplayer because right now it's at a standstill and if they get into it little by little, earning points, maybe friends will get into it, and it will continue to grow. But there is no solid online community and the game needs it to catapult because, in my opinion, it has an incredible potential to be a top simracing game. But it needs active online. Don't you think?
They should just copy iRacing and make a schedule of races that people can join via an easily accessible web interface. Opening a fullscreen desktop app, especially in VR, just to look at what races are available is overkill. I think this would work and I don't understand why more racing sims don't just do this.
iRacing has a subscription system and can maintain servers always online and centralization of datas. AMS2 will never be able of that on its actual state i think. To compete with iRacing or ACC AMS2 will have to make huge modifcations. But why modify a game that works perfectly for its purpose ... simracing between friends ... You can already make your own "kind of" multiplayer league on AMS2, just do it ...
Building a web application that scheduled races and created servers to run them is a simple problem compared to the many technical challenges of building a SIM as good as AMS2. It's kinda sad that a sim as good as AMS2 which provides such an amazing experience will never be as popular as it should be because of its lacking multiplayer features. The right multiplayer strategy could make them a lot of money too. I think people would be prepared to pay for something good enough, I certainly would. I don't know what the best system for that would be. Perhaps you buy a certain number of credits that get used up as you enter scheduled races, or maybe a small monthly fee, I don't know. >> works perfectly for its purpose ... simracing between friends ... I don't know anyone who plays sim racing games. I've only used the online multiplayer features of AMS2 a few times - it's pretty bad.
I tried to make an host session and had a really fun session on brands hatch with some unknown fellows almost first try on my poor PC/Connection. Relying on players connections or resources is a bit random ... That's why serious eSport or Multiplayer will never happen on AMS2.