Mid race saves

I can live without livetrack working properly if mid-save will be available. For me, as endurance lover, is a key factor that make me play more with other sim. AMS2 should be a perfect endurance sim with this feature.

 

i know I might be over simplifying things, but surly all the game data is held in memory and saving it and then putting it back when wanted should work?

 

Surely not, because if it was that simple, it would be done that way.

 

At the moment, if I'm doing a long race and need to stop, I just pause the game and leave the computer on. What I might try is to hibernate the system and see if it will come back alive later.

 

A mid-race Save function would be welcomed by endurance enthusiasts if the limitations were explained in the UI. Emphasise to the players that the post-save track and weather conditions would be an approximation not a continuation. Any reasonable person would consider that an acceptable compromise. Reiza should ignore the more febrile simracers and continue to improve AMS2 step by step.

 

For me this feature would be less of a compromise than the current aero damage model for the player (reduces top speed, no downforce loss for front wing and top speed reduction and approximate downforce loss for rear (no diffuser/floor model). Let alone the damage modelling for player vs AI, the AI don't get an equal amount at higher settings!

Just needs to be made clear what the compromises are, (damage included), informed choices are always better choices!

 

To me this feature would be worth it nevertheless. For players who don't follow every patchnotes it would be useful to add a text to the midrace-save option explaining limitations. But since I usally don't even play much with random weather cycles, I would really benefit from this feature.

As others mention the only really must-have constant is the car data need to be unchanged (tire wear, fuel, car setup, etc)

On top - even if not officially supported - you could drive driver swap races with a friend with this by sharing the midrace savefile.

 

@Renato Simioni definitely not a dealbreaker for me at all! I agree with others that have suggested a tooltip/note should appear in the GUI to clearly say that there are limitations, but I think most people could work around that. I think once people understand the nuances of the system they'll know how to avoid saving during transitional weather phases too.

 

I feel like mid-race save should be the stepping stone for driver swap, maybe build the foundation to share track conditions to be able to join mid race. I have no clue how livetrack is handled internally, but it should be able to sync to the server/ interpolate between live weather or weather slots to track the correct weather. Maybe storing grossly where debris/dust/rubber was on the track to recreate a little bit the grip conditions for continuity

 

This definitely wouldn't be a deal breaker for me, and I don't think it would be for most. The only thing that would be is AI fuel/tyre/damage states being too different, because that completely changes the race in possibly frustrating ways - but if those remain similar, even if not identical, it's fine. As long as, like everyone here mentioned, there's a clear warning about the feature's limitations.

 

As a relatively more casual simracer - This wouldn't be a deal breaker. Annoying in very unique, transitional circumstances? Sure. But here's the thing:

I value immersion a lot, and want to do races at least vaguely similar to the real thing. Something that keeps me from doing championships, is sprint formats - It's fun to have sprint races, but IRL many of these come down to hour or multi hour battles that I very infrequently have the free time for. This is where mid race saving would be particularly valuable. It would allow me to put longer races into my championships without dreading the time investment.

This also has an extra use if it's a save-select style implementation: The ability to reload parts of a race. A lot of people dog on Codemasters style rewinds with some good reasons for it, but for me: It's no fun to invest so much time into a race only to get screwed on the final stretch. Sometimes I'll eat it (mostly if it's part of a championship - Since the consequences can be mitigated over the next few races), but if Mid-Race Saves were able to be selected and/or layered, it'd give the option to reload from a set point in the race.

Overall, limitations aside, AND assuming the latter part is a non-starter and it's just, "One save and you can only start from here again" sorta implementation, I still think it would be an easy net positive.

You are going to have people who don't like the limitations and say unfair things - I think that should be resisted, and mid-race saving should be brought in regardless of it not being perfect.

 

If that’s the only way to do it I’m totally fine with that.

 

For endurance race since save is too difficult, maybe a system like there is in the 3rd app Championship Manager for GTR2. The ability to create a championship which combine races. The next race start with a grid based upon the previous race ranking with the laps count kept. It's like a FCY with all repairs done. Not perfect but since we can't have a save game feature.

 

Would be interesting to know about any other limitations but as far as this goes, possibly the furthest thing from a deal breaker I can imagine!

 

That sounds very good
I'm excited

 

We should view imperfections with discernment. If you find that loading a save game involves incorrect loading of critical data—such as fuel levels, rankings, wear and tear, and lap times for all vehicles (including the player and AI)—and the issue cannot be resolved, then it's better to stay away from this feature early on and focus your efforts elsewhere.

Just like the infinite energy bug in LMU after loading a save, I would never play such an endurance race, because no one wants to compete against a bunch of cheaters who never need to pit for fuel. I'd rather leave my computer running without shutting it down...

However, if such critical information affecting race outcomes remains unaffected when loading a save, and inaccuracies are limited to track conditions, weather, or even accident damage, then this feature is absolutely worth striving to implement. I can accept endurance races with car damage disabled or without dynamic weather changes, but I cannot accept a race that loses its fundamental fairness. The most essential elements of the competition must be correctly preserved in the save file—some compromises can be made on the rest.

 

I am a "glass half-full even when there's 25% of water in it" kind of person. Bring it on

 

Yeah I'm all for it - we'll most likely get the usual number of "critics" on Reddit and Steam but at the end of the day, they still bought the game >_> I think as long as the feature is clearly labelled as imperfect, nobody can really complain. Of course, I wouldn't expect it to be released until it could at least reliably load a saved race, you can live with other shortcomings as long as you're guaranteed that when you Save and Exit the race, you know it's not corrupted or gone forever (especially when you're 7 3-hour stints into a 24-hour race)

 

I wholeheartedly agree!

There will always be some users complaining but the big majority of users (don't forget those outside of this forum) are happy with all the different ways you guys keep constantly evolving AMS2. The glasses you are delivering are always very full and tasty and we are always thirsty