Automobilista 2 V1.3.7.1 Officially Released!

Sounds to me like a great idea for a future DLC (cars and tracks needed, as you point out). But we need to generate a lot of excitement (aka pre-sales) if it would ever get produced. Way too much effort and up-front cost to do just out of passion.

 

I remember hearing about a Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins movie, that would be nice to build off of but the only thing I can think of currently is GPLaps' videos, as his recent RF2 video about this period inspired me to reinstall RF2 to race at various mod tracks (mostly to see if I like it better than the same in AC).

Totally agree and understand about a developer doing something like this out of passion. It's a lot different for modders since it's generally a side-project for them and not their livelihood.

However...for manufacturers (i.e. Jaguar/Mercedes-Benz/Ferrari/Maserati) something like this could be more strategic it helps to remind the public of the great things they achieved over the history of the automobile. For their marketing teams it could be thought of in the same vein as sponsoring a modern museum exhibit/booth, etc. but would last longer and be interactive.

 

To me, the 1960s are my favourite motorsports era but I would prefer AMS2 to pretty much ignore it and focus on its 1970s (and beyond, I guess) content, seeing as the existing and WIP vintage tracks (Nurburgring, Spa) are 1970s too. But 100% agree that touring cars and sportscars would be the classes I'd like to see more depth in, I think they've done a superb job with the GP cars so far (and we know there are a few more to come).

 

Isnt the problem that the further back you go in time with a track they are a) much longer in lenght, so you need to put a lot more modelling work in to make one track and b) there is very little reference material available so there is a lot of research to do and also a lot of guesswork.

Sounds like a huge amount of work and at the same time the more you go back in time the less general interest there is in the public. So your money earned vs time spent ratio gets very low. And at the same time you are alienating your core audience who bought the game and DLC for what it is now, expecting more of the same, rather than a long walk into a strange area.

 

Except in a game with such diverse content, more of the same means more new things unfamiliar to many, which provides opportunities to create new motorsport fans. We just need a way to tie the in game content to real motorsport (expand the cars of AMS2 website, maybe link up with motorsport.tv, etc).

I feel the GT series tries this but since their business model seems focused on keeping cars behind a paywall (virtual or real) they don't really achieve this since I doubt many people get the opportunity to drive them often. When they do, it's probably mixed with modern cars on modern tracks too, so the historical impact is lessened. Lots of opportunity in this area, especially if a few manufacturers help fund it...

Because let's be honest, it won't happen otherwise. No way Motorsport Games or Rennsport will do it either...

 

I sort of agree with you, but then the game is expanding to include off road racing, road cars and oval racing, to name but a few, so not sure that holds up.

At some point you have to find the balance between 'deep' and 'wide' though, at which point you definitely get those diminishing returns.

Being able to use promo screenshots of a fancy new hypercar or an RX scene is probably better for enticing new sales than adding another model of car to the Formula Retro Gen X grid, even if it would excite me far less.

Either way, Renato previously mentioned they have a 'sweet spot' of 3-5 cars per class IIRC, so that feels like that balance has definitely been considered.

Regarding '60s tracks, to me the biggest difference is the lack of 'containment', there are far fewer barriers around in 1967 compared to 1971 so it probably changes the way circuits are modelled. Anyway, all this is a long way of me saying "I love the 70s content, really looking forward to more!".

 

How can AMS2 create new motorsports fans if it can barely reach a decent % of the sim community?

Reiza could add all GT cars from the 60's to the 90's, but I strongly doubt any newcomer will buy AMS2 just to play with them on a sandbox, all alone.

I understand there are a couple of people here who seem to hate MP, but the fact is that competition is what brings popularity to this sort of game. Racing games are not like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and all the other great single player games. Nowadays motorsports games are inherently pure competition, measuring yourself against your peers, but AMS2 is currently failing on this front.

Imho that is what currently hinders AMS2 popularity. Most of the other relevant bits are very well developed already, namely: content, physics, FFB, performance. However every single update we see them developing even more what is already great, but not touching much of what is still awful.

 

I disagree. MP is definitely not in good shape. It takes only 1 guy with a very bad connection to make the session sufferable for all the other drivers. It adds massive netcode issues for everyone.

Maybe you don't notice it because you are one of the quickest drivers out there, so you race less often closer to the pack.

Also, I'm not expecting AMS2 MP to be on iRacing's level by any means. Expecting that would be completely unfair to Reiza for obvious reasons.

Alongside with the basic hosting features AMS2 still lacks, I wish that the whole session wouldn't be butchered by 1 guy with bad connection. I would like to be able to race closely to everyone else, what currently doesn't happen.

 

Agree totally. Even the simplest things are problematic.
Example: Server is set up, but the admin with access to the dedi has something hold them up and they have to miss the race. If the practice session for whatever reason is set to run over by say an hour, how do we proceed? Everyone has to exit the dedi, then one driver has to set up a new server via P2P. It shouldn't have to be that difficult. It bothers me because I see a lot of people who were Reiza supporters now abandon this game in frustration.
I have had some good MP experiences don't get me wrong, but in high speed openwheel cars, being in close proximity seems to very frequently result in phantom contact ending in rage quit

 

I started a CART championship with a selection of the North American tracks and was surprised to find that a CART championship scoring system of the era was not represented in championship mode. I get that led most laps, led a lap etc might require extra coding, but I really wish we would get the basic era correct points systems for final race positions.

Here is a pretty good overview of the US scoring systems for open wheel series:
List of American Championship car racing points scoring systems - Wikipedia

I think there should be the "CART 1984–2003", "ICS 2013–present" at the minimum, plus "F1 9-6-4-3-2-1"; "F1 10-6-4-3-2-1"; "F1 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1" systems in place. Never mind the droped scores or other stuff. Lets get the basics in. I think that should be rather easy to implement? Perhaps we can have that when Racin' USA part 3 arrives to make the experience more complete?

 

Why wouldn't my idea hold up if the game expands to include off road racing, road cars and oval racing? I was explaining why including very old tracks from the past might not be a success for AMS2. I am not trying to interpret what Reiza are doing.

If you ask me, I am not entirely sure why "offroad racing" would come to AMS2. I can see the connection between Stadium Super Trucks and North American tracks - add some ramps and funky cars and you are almost good. Why anything else offroad would come - you got me beat, I can't imagine the reason to be honest. Its not what AMS2 is known for and I can't imagine Reiza is best served to put the effort into it - its not like they are going to make a better offroad sim than Dirt Rally 2.0 as a side step.

Oval racing I can see - its a major part of the asphalt racing scene in the US and many iRacing customers are used to having it as well. Though, I suspect, it will be challenging to get right.

Supercars - I also get, though I won't be giving them much love.

Historic track pack I definitely get if it complements the already existing cars. I'm gonna be all over it.

 

For sure Reiza will keep adding things to the custom championships and points/qualifying format are probably on their roadmap. That would be an interesting roadmap to see, things like points, qualifying, teams, per-car BoP, etc. would allow the creative folks to build some incredible scenarios for the community to experience.

I don't think Reiza gets enough credit for this type of thing. We were asking SMS for it back in 2011. There is no way Gran Turismo or Forza would add anything like that either, as they would need it to be in the GUI which would probably result in something very limited or become a huge undertaking that could be better spent elsewhere (from their perspective, which should be based on historical user activity in their titles).

It's gonna be a long two weeks...

 

...until the release of ACC track pack? Its only 10 days away

 

I'm a vintage car nut...so I'm mostly looking forward to some (hopefully) updated Formula Vintage and Formula Retro cars...maybe some AI updates too.

 

Oh I'm definitely looking forward to the Vintage and Retro physics updates.

 

1992 car's are officially vintage by now. Very soon, even the GT3 cars from the first GT3 season in 2006, will be considered classics. Dodge Viper anyone?



Tempus fugit!

 

I know a few people are a bit sour about the delayed historical tracks, but I am still excited for them. No other sim is doing that as far as I know.

 

You make a good point, basically, please give us more of this:

Actually, we need someone to approach these guys as they have great events and their members would probably appreciate AMS2 more than the standard GT3 grid.

 

I'd KILL for some 2000s GT representation, almost everything about this sim mirrors GTR2 except for the inclusion of those cars (shame we don't really have any of the licenses already in-game yet save for Porsche maybe offering a 996 RSR or something)