Automobilista 2 May 2024 Development Update - The Road to V1.6 Pt1

They only use the softs at the moment, it's in the pipeline for them to use the others,I dunno when, but it's coming.

 

The menu is really not intuitive and not set well at all, some things are named in a confusing way too or are placed in completely different places when racing online compared to offline. When racing single race against AI and you want to change the damage model, tire and fuel usage you need to open Options - Gameplay and there under "Authenticity" you scroll down to find all these settings and more. For multiplayer it is under "Realism" . Why isn't the same "Realism" tab in the Single Race menu ?

Other examples:
Car class select screen is only 2 columns, why not 4 so we have to scroll less ? There are already a lot of car classes to choose from and this would make it faster to find what you are looking for. As is there's a lot of blank, unused space here.

Track selection menu should have pictures from the track while selecting it because surprise surprise, people that are new to motorsport have no idea how a Jacarepaguá or Goiana even look like. There also are track pictures once you exit the select screen but not within the track select screen menu, why ?

Force Manual Pitstops should be renamed to "Manual pitlane car control" because people making open lobbies often set it to NO not realizing what it's about, most likely thinking it is a pitstop requirement. Or the fact Practice / Qualifying default start time is midnight instead of 12:00 mid-day.


You cannot change max driver number for a server once it starts and if a track does not support more than 26 drivers and you set 32, then you can no longer select the track and the game does not tell you why.

There is no option to save race presets for multiplayer to easily set up a new server and if you join any server, those settings are auto-applied to your next server and you have to re-set everything again.

A good and proper UI that is easy to navigate, understandable and quick makes the overal experience always better.

 

I think it was the May dev blog where Renato said that a content manager would be coming in V.16 so that people can hide the cars and tracks they don't want to see.

Edit. It was the March update.

 

Current it is not possible to navigate the menus with the wheel buttons is it? You can do that with ACC and it is one of those things that I really miss in AMS2

 

I hope so, till then it kind of makes the other tyres irrelevant because using them puts you at a disadvantage.

 

T300RS GT i can navigate majority of the menus with the D-pad + paddles, for other functions i use the "gaize control" when in VR, or the mouse when on monitor.

 

It is the target too

 

It actually does not help you stop quicker unless you have deficiencies in your braking system. What engine braking does for you is alter the balance of the car during the phase of turn in and trail braking. But in a straight line it will not "increase" your stopping power unless something is amiss in your braking system (like insufficient cooling or other kind of faults/misbehaviors)

 

I'm watching for the white smoke to indicate that 1.6 is ready.

 

Yes the UI is quite horrible information wise.

I just want to see all the car types/brands in one big screen so I don't have to scroll up and down to find a car.

Also like you say, there should be some image of the track. Remembering names and layouts is very hardcore and not something the casual player will have easy remembering.

But they are working on something, so hopefully its an improvement!

 

Another oversight is that when you do a driver swap with the AI co-driver you can only watch the race from inside your own car. At this point you are effectively standing in the garage so you should have access to the monitor view so you can watch the race from the TV cameras and follow any of the cars.

 

I don't really mind the ui that much but a more comfortable way to adjust the hud and the ability to navigate ALL the parts of menu with a simple gamepad+confirm+exit buttons would be great. As it is now it's very inconsistent what you can and cannot navigate to and it's a real pain in vr, even with the head-cursor. But I realize this alone probably means ui overhaul.

Edit: also putting sharpness value in vr and the depth distance of the hud in vr into menu options would be great.

 

Good lord there's a blast from my past! Loved that game, particularly the drifting, to the point I was 2nd in the ESL 1V1 drift battle ladder till Codies killed the online servers without warning.
RDG had to my mind the best damage model to this day, I remember the tyre barriers you mentioned, those things would spit you across the track shedding wheels, wings and suspension bits all over the place!
Yeah I agree it'd be nice to have them in this and other games though, iirc, some car manufacturers got a bit "Sticky" about such highly deformable and explosive damage levels creating a bad image for their vehicles. Sigh.....
Then there's the problem of car parts all over the track causing further collisions, blown tyres or car damage for those approaching a devastating impact at speed.
With cars in games now mostly deforming and less likely to shed parts all over the track plus modern barriers designed to slow and catch cars rather than ping them about like a pinball machine, I suspect this is part of the reason for opting for less bouncy barriers.
I could be wrong ofc but yeah I too have fond memories of the chaos they'd cause and the damage stat screens listing the G-loading of impacts...
It does kinda feel like we've lost something as a result.
On the practicality side Grid was just 10.5GB in total, AMS2 is 115GB so some of the updates we get these days are the size of the entire Grid game..
Plus I think it comes down to priorities, getting the core of the game into a "finalised state" is more important than deforming tyre barriers plus the reduction in car deformation kinda makes them pointless, that and many circuits removing tyre barriers in favour of those "slow the cars down gently catch and hold them" kind of barriers that don't spit cars back on track again makes them a lower priority for most people.
Like I said I too loved that whole advance damage and devastation model but I think it's less of an issue these days..

Yeah I agree with you on this as well, I've found that the AI can be bullied into submission and all too easily out-braked in the base game, though as you mentioned and showed I've not had them battering me about.
I've also noticed the higher their setting and aggression the better the experience actually is, I've also been saying this pretty often in the past and used this vid to highlight it as I was able to tank up Eau Rouge side by side with a Porsche 911 RSR at 130-140mph without trouble whilst the Forza AI can't travel down a straight without brake testing you for no reason...

Regarding V1.6? I had a "Beta" hypercar class race in the XXXXXXXXXXXXX at Le Mans just the other day and whilst the AI could still be a bit tentative on the brakes and could still be bullied into submission, by GOD did they actually fight me for positions!
Leave them room or make the slightest error? And they'd be all over me, returning the favour by placing themselves up the inside and forcing me to hold my line and sacrifice the position as a result.
Through the final sectors I was seeing AI going round the outside of me mid corner clean as you like because their car was much better through the turns than mine, was a HELL of a battle I can tell you!
Much better experience than I've ever had vs just AI, often feeling like I was racing online instead of against AI racers...
It didn't feel like rubberbanding was in play either where my car outperformed theirs I'd lose them in the corners when my car suffered they'd punish me and exploit ANY deficiency.

I even retested this in a single make race and yeah. The AI now fight in a much more believable way as well as having the reactions and spatial awareness to not rear end me, sideswipe or do those strange panic twitches they have done in the past.

I think V1.6 is gonna be HUGE for people who felt the handling has been iffy or way off in the past and the AI have taken a MASSIVE leap forwards in terms of how they actually race against themselves and players...
As others have mentioned...
There's much more predictable handling yet the margin between spot on and overdoing it has narrowed dramatically.
Instead of a huge "flat spot of forgiveness" around the edges of grip, it's closer to a knife edge.
Not like a butter knife you can drop on your foot with nary a care that's utterly hopeless for cutting a medium/well done steak.
It's more like a steak knife now, it WILL slice your steak perfectly but can be rested on your finger edge on without worry but drop it on your foot it's gonna draw blood.
All without being like a cut throat razor blade with absolutely zero tolerance to ANY error before cutting you down to the bone.

 

I like the information but feel the metaphor with the knife isn't quite fleshed out enough. What technique would you say was used to sharpen the steak knife?

 

It's serrated and sharp enough to slice when used as it intended but not so terrifying as to make a parent s**t bricks if a 5 year old kid gets hold of it at the dinner table...
In other words it works just as it should but still has juuuust the right amount of forgiveness to not scare the bejesus out of you...
You can still "push the envelope" but avoid the papercuts unless you do something stupid

 

White smoke soon…

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to write down your current thoughts and experiences . I am excited to do proper in-depth AI tests once 1.6 releases .

 

I can't wait either - your AI tests have been very useful in the past! Keep them up.

 

Hide or uninstall? Hopefully uninstall.

 

"For those users who may feel they already have more legacy Stock Car seasons than they might wish, some good news - V1.6 will feature a content manager which will allow them to customize the game to feature only the classes and tracks they are interested in."