Career Mode Requests, Suggestions & Ideas Thread

A place for us to share our own visions for upcoming Career in AMS2. I thought this might be better to have its own thread rather than being more generally lumped into the Feature Request Thread, which is often trying to be three things at once? I fully trust Reiza to deliver the best possible experience and I love how close the team keeps its ear to the ground so thought some community input may be a good idea...plus I'm sure we've all thought about it! If admins or mods disagree please just delete!

Inspiration
I think I've alluded to my ideas elsewhere previously but at its core I would prefer a career focusing on the driver rather than involving too much team management as in many other racing career modes (F1 and the DiRT series and also PMR from what I understand). I like the format used in PC2 and the TOCA Race Driver series where you progress by winning championships for example GT5-GT4-GT3-LMP2-LMP1 etc. however they are a bit one-dimensional. The Gran Turismo car collection style is fun and you build a connection with particular cars over time which is great but I think AC Evo will inevitably flip flop again in future and build something like that with their free roam. I think AMS2 should look to do something quite different.

I would like a driver-focused, calendar-and-contract based career mode. Presuming a career starts from zero (I'd also like options to begin otherwise) I'd like the higher-budget series to be locked behind a progression system of licenses like the FIA has with players moving up and down through these via consistency and safety as well as results much like online ratings. The breadth of content in AMS2 makes this possible to do in a way which has never been done before besides the Evoluzione career mod for Assetto Corsa 1.

Contracts
You begin with an empty calendar and some contract offers. Most of these offers would be for seats in different championships with payments and rewards contingent on results. Maybe some would be for specific manufacturers tying you to them for a period of time across different categories. Maybe in order to take a GT4 drive your contract also needs you to do be a test driver for a GT3 team, Maybe contract conditions tie you into other classes you may have avoided otherwise like a Trophy Truck event or something. Some Porsche Cup championships are support series for F1 so you race on the big versions of the track.

I would like a budget system where early on you need to buy your first seats, not to mention the cars, before you get sponsored. I'd actually like having to pay for repairs, tyres and such (maybe even travel?) - the team management stuff I don't like is stuff like spending earned points to improve your team which then magically makes your tyres last longer or whatever.

Calendar
The main thing is that once you've signed a contract the relevant dates on your calendar are filled, and you can't double book yourself. However you would be free (contract permitting) to drive in between. I'd like some contracts to be for individual races when constructors need somebody to fill in for a single event - and then of course on occasions you'd be able to miss races yourself (like Alonso racing at Le Mans for example).

Time Progression
The thing is that time simply keeps rolling on. If your form goes south and you lose your race seat or your B license you'll just have to eat humble pie and work your way back up - or maybe not if you're happy sticking to races at a certain level. It wouldn't get too repetitive because I envision that each category championship, though the cars would stay the same, could feature different tracks, rules and other curveballs. If you choose to stay with GT3 you may find your options moving between single-class and multiclass championships each with their own challenges. The world around the player continues to move, develop and change. It has its own life separate to the player, and will look different depending on where the player is in their career. It doesn't feel like it starts and ends with you, it feels like you're just one driver out of thousands all competing not just with you but with each other.

It may be too ambitious but I would be interested in age being a feature- young AI drivers being "generated" at the lower levels and progress alongside you as they get older. From time to time you recognise a name and can check how they have

Something never seen before
This non-linear, player-dependent style of progression will mean endless replayability and crucially will generate great and unique stories for the player which I think is the key to successful career modes in sport games. In racing games this is often either missing altogether (PC2) or is way too forced and scripted (NFS). I'm thinking it could be like Become a Legend or Master League in the old Pro Evolution Soccer games or even Football Manager. All of these build connections between the player and the game as it continues to develop which is what made them so successful. Gran Turismo builds this connection between the player and their cars which is great and works but I'd like AMS2 to do so between the player, their choices and their racecraft which is of course the only part of the sim which is 100% real.

Those are my thoughts and some of my ideas! I'd love to hear anybody else's!

 

What you describe is pretty much what I hope for too. All games just go for this "Choose one class and you're in for a season of this" structure which is just not how a usual career of a racing driver works. If you look at Endurance classes alone most drivers are doing multiple leagues between IMSA, WEC, DTM, ELMS, ALMS, GTWC etc at the same time. I would love to see a real racing calendar with different leagues for classes happening at the same time so you can get contracts to fill up your calendar and bring up your driver rating to access more leagues.

Licensing surely would be an issue so there has to be fake names for leagues (overwrite xmls for that would be huge), but it would be a shame if there would be just one league for each class so once you've driven that the class is done for you.

 

Agree I think simulating a world of motorsport which feels like it happens whether you're there or not and which gives you more and different ways to use the same cars and tracks is the key. At its core many of us basically want to run championships but not have to set them up for ourselves lol.

It was when I started watching classes besides F1 that I realised how versatile most drivers need to be and how varied their careers are. AMS2 is perfectly positioned to simulate that

 

Here are two similar threads from back in 2022 and 2023 which can be used for inspiration:
Career Mode - Ideas and Suggestions
Career Mode Idea Collection