What do you think is the most significant reason AMS2 userbase is so small?

Totally agree. And I bet if you do a review you do your homework before: you set-up your hardware correctly, you spend time with a sim to understand how it works, what needs to be checked to ensure that the sim is being tested as it is meant to work.
There have been cases of reviewer saying the car (one only) they tested was slippery while not even noticing that his rear tires were overheating or even knowing where you would check that when they were told by other users that baseline on that car/track combo would overheat rear tires.
That sort of reviews are just clickbaiting exercises that make no good for the community at large.

 

Assetto Corsa has sold 12 million copies.

 

AC has also a far wider base of users that include huge communities of roamers and drifters that have nothing to do with AMS2 or a motorsports simulator.
IMHO AMS2 has to build its own reputation together with Reiza. It is not realistic to expect the same numbers of a twice as big developer supported by a huge producer like S505 and the relevant marketing and console add-ons.
Reiza has none of those.

 

Not expecting the same myself either, due to several reasons. Just pointing a fact to show that not only Turn10, Polyphony, Codemasters, and other AAA studios can sell millions with a racing game.

 

I agree that the season pass is expensive if you buy it at regular price, but there's the option to do what I did: I already had AMS1 + season pass so I bought AMS Ultimate Edition + AMS2 bundle (cheapest way to get AMS2 base game), after that I bought AMS2 + season pass bundle (cheapest way to get season pass), I bought both bundles during Steam Summer sale 2021 so that saved me a good deal of money. If I had waited for this year's Summer sale I'd had saved even more. There's also the option to try out DLC tracks in multiplayer.
Imo it would be interesting if Reiza put AMS2 in a free weekend at some point down the line (after multiplayer is improved, maybe after the street supercars DLC?), that combined with the fact that people can try out DLC tracks in multiplayer could attract more people.

 

Those other channels could add up quickly! When GPLaps started his Richard Burns video series there were so many people downloading the mod afterward that it the servers slowed to a crawl. His style is different though, it's about enjoyment of the experience and immersion. The upcoming historic content will shine on his channel and that will for sure result in DLC sales, we vintage guys take whatever we can get, it's the ultimate niche in racing games lol.

Same for a lot of the others in that range, as the game matures they will cover it more if they like it (to an extent, if they get more clicks from other titles that will be reflected on their channel). So for me, I see them less like a review and more of a "hey, this is fun, check it out" thing.

Also, there are a lot of people that probably bought the game and just don't play it. Maybe those are the ones that come back slowly on the big updates? Or maybe they'll fuel a huge boost soon...

The DLC seems expensive only because so few have been released currently. There are still 4 packs left (supercars, historic, adrenaline and Brazilian champions). The rest of 2022 is about to be flooded with content (I hope).

 

GPLaps is different though. Really honest, thorough, entertaining, informative chap, probably my favourite sim racing YouTuber.

 

his remarks and review really did sway a lot of people off AMS2 at the time. I don't particularly like the guy but most of his followers will only race on sim titles he enjoys and reviews positively. his opinion carries a lot of weight

 

I have to admit Youtube influencers can introduce people to a bunch of games/mods/updates that normal people just don't have the time to investigate and find on their own. I've found several interesting mods that I would've never found if it weren't for folks the "Chris Hayes", "Gamer Muscle Video", etc. Some Youtubers are definitely more entertaining that others.

As someone who races IRL, I have to admit prior to V1.3.8.1 update, the physics in AMS2 felt very broken, it was like iRacing in a lot of respects. Some cars drove Ok with a bunch of flaws and others were just flat out wrong (all FWD cars) IMHO. Others might disagree and that's fine. I find iRacing to be a game that has a bunch of gimmicks which are cool, while the core physics/tire model is horribly flawed. It's gotten better but it's not there yet. And its only been out for like over 15 years. People who drink the coolaid but lack real world driving experience often brag about how iRacing is very realistic. I tend to disagree with them.

AMS2 until the recent update felt like that to me. And I can see why it would turn a lot of people OFF. I do sim racing to better hone my real world performance, so physics and tire realism is the top proirity for me. Its why PCars2 and ACC are some of my favorite sims. I still don't understand why people call PCars2 simcade, the physics, tire model and feel of the cars to this day is top notch. Does the game have it own share of flaws? Yes, but it's a great sim to this day.

iRacing is really popular due to multiplayer. I think AC and ACC are really popular as well due to a well designed multiplayer system. There are so many AC and ACC leagues and I think that's what creates the larger player base online. The excitement of racing other actual human opponents is what keeps bringing people back to a sim.

 

Strongly agree wirh this!

 

Let's be fair. Here we all love Reiza and are very protective with them, but AMS2 did a lot of things wrong.

1) They choose another sim's engine... and it's a sim that have a huge repulse within it's genre more dedicated fanbase (that is the target of AMS2). Technically I (now) believe that it was a perfect choice... still, as a marketing choice, it was a huge mistake and the "poor man PCARS2" infame is real

2) The game was released as 1.0 when it still fells like a pre-beta build

3) After an year from it's full release, there still were a lot of stuff badly working... and still has a good size of a list to check it out

4) Unfinished paid DLC (that stills incomplete)

5) Focuses on a not popular content (that I love, but most of players don't even know nor want to)

6) The game don't focuses on online racing but, yet, don't have any sign of an offline career mode

7) The content quality is all over the place (today is much better, but until a few mounts ago it was baaaaad)

8) Reiza never really knew how to market this game. Most gaming channels (specially in Brazil) simply don't even know that the game exists

I know what AMS2 is, will become and simple love it... but we are the folk that post in a developer's forum... we are the most loyal fanbase that Reiza ever got... but we are not the market rule that AMS2 is judged and can't expect others to see the game as we do.

 

I think Reiza does a fantastic job. Let the disciplines accumulate (TCR, Copa Petrobas, RX...) and it will be great. I read the comments and I must be a bit special because for me, it was the fact that it was the Madness engine that made me interested in AMS2. I really like PC2 which offers a multitude of cars and tracks. I love their camera system, dynamic weather. Of course, there are flaws: playability on the pad is not exceptional, no custom championship... And Reiza did better than SMS on these 2 points. I'm not a simracer but I like to simulate racing. It is the fact that AMS2 has an affiliation with PC2 which was the trigger. And certainly not the demo which I think drives potential customers away more. Put 2 or 3 different cars (F1, Brazilian Stockcar and a Lancer for example) but not this VW which does not honor the work done IMO.

 

I agree, I think Reiza made the right choice going with the Madness Engine. It's one of the best sim engines out there, IMHO. When done correctly (which has taken Reiza a while), it simulates accurate physics, tire model, rubbering of track, wet and dynamic weather physics. All the while, looking beautiful and running smoothly in VR on most systems (this is where ACC struggles). The only reason I gave AMS2 a chance was because of the Madness Engine.

The Brazilian content has been a very pleasant surprise and I've fallen in love with a few of the tracks.

 

Reiza included custom championship in AMS2 but the controller issues from PCars2 are still present in AMS2 (built-in controller filters that cannot be turned off and cause input lag, vibration is almost non-existent).
I've been trying really hard to like AMS2 but the controller issues are a huge turn off to me especially taking into account how good controller support is in AMS1.

 

We have already discussed the subject of gameplay with a controller on AMS2 in another thread. Personally, I find the gameplay better than on PC2. We must accept that we are not of the same opinion. My opinion may change with the arrival of ovals (I hope not). I like driving the Ford Fusion on PC2 on road circuits, but on the oval it was for me very difficult to control and no pleasant.

 

Did anyone try PC3 with a pad? I remember reading somewhere (or maybe it was a podcast with Ian Bell) that they considered the new pad handling and the multiplayer enhancements to be their only successes from PC3, the rest was a disappointment.

I only tried it with a wheel and it was awful lol. However, once I found out AMS2 was using the same engine I was intrigued (I received AMS1 for free and never really played it) and am very happy that I was able to refund my Deluxe Edition PC3 and bought AMS2 and the season pass immediately

 

I've never played PCars3 but everyone I know that played it with controller said it has the same issues the previous games have with built-in controller filters that cannot be turned off and mess up the controls. Ian Bell said in a PCars forum post that PCars games controller support is aimed at tap steer players, and that whenever he plays with controller he uses tap steer and it feels good. However for those of us that use precision steering and no assists the controls in the PCars games aren't good.

 

Essentially pad filters make pad driving "feel good" as long as you fundamentally are not actually able to drive a car with a pad, because they take that challenge away by eliminating any necessity to be precise (at the price of feeling extremely mushy). Nothing is more guilty of that than the F1 games and that is where SMS got their "pad consultant" from for pCARS3.

The AMS2 default settings are pretty horrible when it comes to that as well, but they can be adjusted quite well.

I personally think that the filters AMS2 has can be an excellent compromise between what is physically possible for me and an actual driving experience (as opposed to just point the car the direction it should go and let the game do the rest, which is what the F1 games make you do, rendering everything imprecise), but not everyone will feel that way, so there should be an option to remove the filters entirely and make you able to give exact wheel style inputs with the pad (and not just approach that state closely, which is what is possible currently).

 

Pcars 3 was extremely good fun with a pad. (Although some of the challenges like the 1960’s indy 500 you needed a wheel) I used to work for Fema, and Pcars 3 ran like a Swiss watch on my laptop, so I could still get my racing fix while away from home.

 

Interesting, that makes more sense and now I can understand why the pad filtering topic keeps coming up.

Which games don't have these filters (other than the already mentioned AMS1)?