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

As its turning into a wishlist thread, how about Zolder and/or Oschersleben? Both good fun and feature in various series..
Back on point, I think once people can jump in and get a consistent experience, Im sure the numbers will bump up, especially once future intended features make an appearance. I quote -

" Honestly what I am most happy about in regards to this update, is that none of the cars I love that weren't listed in the changelog got borked in any way. I always worry when the bigger updates come out, but so far, sunshine and roses for me."
That kind of sums up the challenge and consequence of post release development quite well I thought.

In the meantime for those who want a single player immersive experience beyond hotlapping or single races its suffering a bit from the same issues rf2 had. Fundamentally it takes too much faffing to dial in the experience/difficulty moving from race to race, weather difficulty with ai is all over the place, tyres can show unusual characteristics like slicks being faster than wets in rain etc etc, and there is little or no reward in gameplay terms for actually setting all this stuff up in a way that works, so why bother. Multiplayer has its own issues but Im not familiar with those. Its fair to say that although the initial impressions are really good, easy to jump in and get going, good visuals etc etc, past a few hours of gameplay its really a case of rinse and repeat at the moment. I have my cockpit here next to me, wheel light on, and although I want to jump in and race Im really not feeling any real sense of excitement about it. I know there will be 3 cars at the front, a gaggle in the middle, and a few at the back. It will feel like Im hotlapping and there just happens to be a race going on around me but Im not really a part of it as such. I know therell be ai who are just not there yet. In short, I wont feel like Ive done anything that I havent done before, and if I do then it wont matter in any gameplay sense anyway.
So in the meantime I play KSP RP1 and a few other games. It doesnt mean Ive written AMS2 off or anything. I just dont think its finished yet in terms of meeting my expectations. If it never reaches that point, no big deal. There's other stuff out there and it will still be in my library, but I think it will reach that point in the future and so I maintain a presence here and follow the updates with interest.

 

Targa Florio

 

Pikes Peak, tarmac, gravel and mixed surface versions: 1994, 2001, 2011.

1994 is interesting because the gravel was quite solidified in that year, almost tarmac like,
2001 was 50/50 gravel/tarmac
2011 full tarmac

 

Be honest with yourselves, the track you really want is the Salzburgring.

 

Wow. Just beautiful

 

I was laughing because of the 2 you listed I was surprised he disliked Hungaroring over Zandvoort. I know a few who like Hungaroring but no one that likes Zandvoort.

 

The historic Zandvoort layouts aren't bad, I like the elevation changes but I wasn't super excited to race the modern layout in the F1 games. Same for Hungaroring, it's popular for some reason amongst F1 fans on forums but if we look into the F1 game stats it is probably in the bottom half...

Going off the PC2 leaderboards, AMS2 should add Catalunya, Algarve and some Japanese tracks (Fuji and Sugo). Red Bull ring is really high on the list but I assume that's totally tied to an old e-sport competition. So that list isn't perfect but is pretty good.

I'd like to see the same from the F1 series.

 

For me, Hungaroring is a great track to drive, it's very technical and you can gain or lose a lot of time on some spots only by slightly adjusting your driving there, or trying several different approaches.

It's boring as hell to watch a race on though :-(

Zaandvoort is somewhat tricky, but I don't put it on the essential tracks list tbh.

 

Afaik Hungaroring & Paul Ricard are used in a number of different racing championships but they don't seem to be very popular among sim racers.

 

I play Hungaroring in ACC. Good fun

 

Lack of vitamins and fresh veg when they were young.

 

Would love to se this track in AMS2 as well.

 

I try to steer clear of it if I can

 

I think many have touched on this in this thread but the game suffers from a lack of polish. Given how negative some early reviews were, it's importan that when someone tries the game now they have a good first impression. Finding bugs or things that don't make sense is not good for building popularity.

Case in point: I just did a short multiplayer session. Multiplayer is my priority (not everyone's, but a percentage will be like me). Second race in, random engine blow up when in the lead. No crash damage or over revving.
Retire to the pits and wait for the end of the race. As I'm sitting patiently I notice the perfectAMS2 spotter overlay is informing me my safety rating is slowly losing points. Despite me doing the best possible thing given the circumstances. At the end of the race I get docked 25 points from my race rating too.

Imagine this was someone's first online race. Out through no fault of their own and then doubly punished by the game's multiplayer ranking system. Bitter taste in my mouth but I'll get over and be back for more. A new player might not.

 

I decided to do my own surveying in some of the circles I race in and got feedback from about 20 guys that own the game but don't play it.

2 of them said it was the multiplayer experience and the lack of ability to confidently and consistently race door-to-door without issue. I can totally understand that. There are times the same replay looks different on each guys PC.

Pretty much everyone else cited the driving experience as being disappointing. These guys all favored different sims. 2 or 3 connected this to the madness engine but many never even played Pcars 2. Some were of the belief Reiza were struggling to understand the engine and some honestly believed that Reiza intended to make a pseudo-sim. Some said it was the type of game they would boot up if they had a friend that was new to simracing. They ranged from average racers to aliens. The feedback on what they thought felt wrong or off did vary some.

 

Of the points raised from your socalled "guys" my oppinion is that its only the MP issue with the different replays that can be considered serious.
Because as you does mention this will get (new) MP users to write AMS2 off as a useable or serious sim.
The other points raised is only different oppinions raised from your "guys".
Raised because these people are more accustomed to other racing games.

 

Algarve is an underrated gem. Several unique corners and elevation changes that you don't find on other tracks. I was hoping it might get included in the game given it's had a bit of a Rennaissance with the recent F1 races there.

 

I really got into iRacing Street Stock for a while, and I 100% agree. It seems like it would be boring, but it requires a whole different skill set. The "Super-Speedways" (anywhere you don't have to lift) are all about working traffic and using the draft. You have to trust the drivers around you, just as they trust you to not move off of your line.

 

I realised a few days ago that I hadn't actually fired up ams2 since the last update, largely because of the protracted process of setting difficulty for each car and track, ai issues and lack of a purpose to even engaging. It just feels like I'm hot lapping while some unrelated ai have a scripted race around me. If they maybe made occasional mistakes, locked up, spun etc, this would break the thoroughly depressing predictability of it all. It saddens me but for the moment it's once again not even on my machine.