Automobilista 2 V1.5 Officially RELEASED - Now updated to V1.5.0.5

Absoloutely agree!

 

Definately agree with that mate, its gotta be the best example of the sim so folks trying it get a good wow!

 

I have two answers, from just doing hot laps without testing how the AI races, definitely the Caterham Superlight (haven't tried the Supersport and the 650R while better is still a bit of a handful.

However for AI racing the top honors goes to the Sprint Race class. Easy to drive but not too easy to the point that you can't spin out with AI that'll properly challenge you if you let off or leave the door open.

But I should note, I still think it's gonna be a hot second before we get an RC/official release. There are still a decent chunk of cars and tracks that haven't got the initial revisions (not a large amount mind you, but still a decent chunk), and that's on top of some of the "nuggets" that's been found which Reiza wants to implement to make the physics as good as possible heading into the next major update.

 

I won't give you the usual "don't worry, things on the beta are really good so it will be worth it" response that people on the paddock club like to respond with. There really should have been a big, pinned message somewhere on here to explain why there has been a lack of communication. having to search for dev post history to see if they have communicated anything related to a delay or a reason for it is super frustrating if you're not on here religiously like myself.

it's also super alienating that we were told to expect a part 2 to the June dev update. and its now a week out for October... excuses only go so far.

 

Okay, well how about I just give you a update on wants going on in the beta...

For the past few weeks, every 2-5 days, Reiza has been coming out with patches to the beta that effect 3 key things.

1 Fine tuning tire tread behavior per class and per car

2 Eliminating the "Sideforce" issue that made high downforce cars overly forgiving to save in a high speed slide.

3 Fine tuning the AI to now match the player in regards to lap time, drafting, passing, and pit strategy with these new tire behaviors.

There has also been a lot of smaller bugs and things fixed, and some small new features added like the new safety car models. You can see in that video that was posted.

However, that's pretty much it at this point. Beta testers are being asked to race X, Y and Z car on Track 1 or 2. Report back any AI inconsistences, and what pit strategy they use if applicable along with any bugs.

Along the way, various things have been discovered, those I'm sure are being fixed. But generally things are moving right along in the beta.

Just please understand, this is not like Project Car's WMD. The beta version of the game is identical to the main game except sometimes you'll have a patch while you're at work or school or whatever and the game will crash to desktop with your favorite car and track, or your car will feel like its been filled with Bees for no reason.

As someone who complained about the state of previous releases, especially the **** show last Christmas, I can promise you what is going on in the beta is not wasted time. There are so many small things, so many systems that HAVE to work togeather flawlessly for AMS2 to work, that taking the time now to nail them down and fix the issues that have arisen in the game over the course of the last year or so is going to pay dividends in the long run for all of us. Please be patient, I know its hard as someone who probably complained the loudest. But as I've understood now I've joined the PC, the reason the devs aren't that active here is because they are responding to, diagnosing, and fixing dozens of issues a day on the beta forum.

 

No I'm not.

 

I mean they could be like all the other developers and give you zero information. Which do you prefer? I prefer they dont waste their time on the forums when they are busy, and get to fixing the game. Happy with the inconsistent updates, because at least we get them.

 

As has been the case for many years, long prior to the introduction of AMS 2.

Reiza is not a typical developer that has to deliver a product to a publisher. We all know how that goes--you get the product on an established date and the quality is whatever can be conjured by the deadline--sometimes good, often not so good. Ongoing support, if there is any of significance, may or may not be limited to the product as it is at the released date. If certain features were not ready, or, kludged to make them tolerable for the release, that's what your stuck with. These publishers have teams of communications and marketing people, though, who write lovely promotions and missives on a timely basis.

Reiza is a team of perfectionists led by a pathological perfectionist. This is their baby and they work to make it the best that they can possibly achieve...even if it takes longer, involves side-steps, additional updates, modifying release schedules and DLC plans, etc. In the end, you will own a passion project with elements and qualities you won't find in other comparable products. If you can exercise some patience, it can be fun in a somewhat perverse way to travel along the development path and participate as things evolve and improve. If you value formal communications and corporate-style/slick marketing over substance, then you will not likely be happy watching "how the sausage is made" here in the forums.

 

i know whats going on with the beta as I'm part of it. my issue is not the lack of progress being made on it, it's the lack of clear communication to those who are not on it.

 

Replied to the wrong person, sorry...

 

Not you

 

Renato and his colleagues give us many more updates than most other sims. Doesn't make sense for him to talk us much more than he already does. AMS2 is moving up the charts for good reason. The Reiza crew keep busting their butts and constant improvement demonstrates that their efforts are paying off. No other racing sim gets you racing with minimal hassle at a great price. It's the king of historic F1. Let Reiza be Reiza.

 

Well you could have communicated what was happening then?

Let's not become malignant narcissists. Thinking that buying a game entitles us to an audience with the developer anytime we demand it. There's already one thread on the boards like that and it served no purpose at all. Stefano had the same problem when he was still working at Kunos too people who had driven a lap of a track demanding they pay attention to his input etc.

I've somehow managed to play 118 hours of v1.5. From what I can tell (I didn't own the game before v1.5) the game is better than it's ever been. Would I like an update to make it better still? Sure, but in the meantime there's a decent game to play or plenty of other things to do. Do I want someone to write a post telling me how great the next update is going to be? No, if I wanted that I would buy games from Ian Bell. Doing is more important than talking. And they're doing. It'll be released when it's released.

Other than that, in large bold capital letters on the 1.5 update it said "IMPORTANT!" and explained the time trial boards would be cleared and the physics were still a WIP - and this message isn't "hidden" on this board, it was posted to the store page, the community pages of steam and featured in the news section of pretty much every sim related site on the internet. If you think there's someone who doesn't know and you can't tell them, grab their address and I'll pay for an aeroplane to fly over their house writing the release notes in smoke.

Really though it's people who stand at a pedestrian crossing thinking if they keep pressing the button that the lights will change to let them cross faster. It won't.
"I've already pressed the button"
"Well why isn't it changing...why won't it tell me when it's going to change?"

 

I imagine they'll already have data from steam saying how many people are downloading the demo and sales data. The idea that no one would buy the game the way the physics were before 1.5 makes no sense - you all did.

As I said already in another "update the demo" thread, I bought the game after playing the demo - and this was because I heard the hoohar and posts about the v1.5 update first. So my interest in the demo was mostly about checking how good it was in VR, how well it ran.

And then the thing that got me to buy before the next steam sale was the humble bundle. It didn't really need any gimmick or development effort on anyone's part other than a temporary price reduction - that, alongside the normal hoohar surrounding an update - youtube videos, reddit posts yadda yadda yadda.

I don't get the impression they're desperately trying to increase sales anyway - I mean, the fact they had paddock club only available for a short period of time? That's like a way of getting money for something you haven't even had to do any work or effort for, it's more like a promise. There's no logic to not selling that if you were desperate for new sales. Unless, perhaps, they think that too many beta users is a PITA. Otherwise clearly they think they have enough money and sales because they don't want to sell paddock club entry.

I think humble's page for the bundle said 80k humble bundle sales at the last sim racing bundle - so that's potentially 80000 people who could have tried the full game and play it or not - and if they did (I guess I was one) they'll either stop playing it or they'll probably buy some or all of the DLC at some point. And that's the same for everything else that's in that bundle. So far I've done AM2 : 118 hours, ACC - a couple of hours - everything else : I didn't even install, although I already owned AC. So AM2 won there albeit only when I buy something else - but that is reasonably likely because I'm enjoying playing the game.

But that suggests their effort is better placed in the current and future game than in the demo. Note too that creating steam accounts is easy, and TT is notorious for having people cheating - so it becomes a big effort and you end up giving a game to an account that's probably been created just to enter it and that may well have been cheating - for what? The vain hope that a bunch of the other disappointed losers buy the game? What you can tell from the leaderboards of AC and (before the clear) AM2 is that sim racers aren't that interested in hotlapping anyway. They're not competitive. I was getting in the top 5 pretty trivially - there often weren't even 10 times on the boards. When I played Forza motorsport on the xbox years ago being half a second off the pace meant you weren't in the top 1000. The top 10 or even 100 were all on the same time. Hotlapping was something tens of thousands of people were doing and a significant number of them were good at it. In sim racing? A handful of people do it and my gran could beat most of them. I'm not saying if you enjoy it and you can get a good time that you shouldn't, but my point here is, if you're doing something on the idea of attracting the kind of people who spend thousands on a sim rig well they are clearly not interested in hotlapping - and I really don't see that anyone who spends £3000 on hardware is not going to buy the game - I mean the price of sim racing hardware is silly, they're being vastly overcharged but since covid and beyond it price doesn't seem like a factor (and if it is, moza are taking up the slack there) - so why would anyone who would pay £450+ for a steering wheel with a few buttons on it not buy a £35 game - or especially if it's in a steam sale at 50% off.

It'd be like saying "How can we get Porsche owners to buy petrol?" - you don't need a gimmick to sell them petrol or a demo of how it works. They spend £100k on a car.

As I said at the top, they have the data. If they have more than 80000 people downloading the demo and never buying it maybe it's not a great advert, but otherwise I'd suggest people looking to buy sim racing games aren't as in the dark as a few here seem to think.

 

Still, if you decide to offer a demo it should represent the game in it's best way IMHO. Otherwise better remove it. There is still the possibility to try the full up-to-date version for free for 2 hours on Steam...

 

Well, while I do not necessarily disagree, some people been beating on that drum for a long time now, I doubt Reiza missed the sentiment -it would be hard to do so- hence, I guess they have their reasons for not doing so until now, whatever those reasons might be. Anyway keep on drumming

 

With more people involved in the beta testing process, more bugs and issues are being revealed and addressed, and public release users being spared the frustration of dealing with those.

I look forward to game / beta releases as much as anyone but, a little mystery can pique our curiosity and be rewarded in the end. I'd much rather Reiza focus on actual development than the "blah blah blah" aspect anyway. When Reiza are quiet, it generally means they are really busy and pushing extra hard to deliver us the goods.

 

Sausage confirmed!

 

I've not been able to load up any times on leaderboards for the past few days, and the live weather also doesn't seem to be working either, is this a bug or is there something I'm not doing correctly? I've often had the live/historic weather issue but the leaderboards not loading is a new one.

 

Just throwing this out here, if anyone is interested in some MP tests with the current public release check this thread AMS2 MP Test Runs