Latest Roadmap Update - August 2018

Discussion in 'News & Notifications' started by Christopher Elliott, Aug 31, 2018.

  1. DrivingFast

    DrivingFast Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2018
    Messages:
    1,638
    Likes Received:
    1,083
    I think the size of the RF2 player community playing almost only OFFline is much bigger than we think.

    I do not think that these players come a lot on the forums, which creates a false representation.

    I hope S397 has accurate statistics that attest to that.

    I'm one of those players, and assuming there's a "wonderful" AI, I'll be very happy.
     
    Levelup1 likes this.
  2. marvelharvey

    marvelharvey Registered

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2013
    Messages:
    410
    Likes Received:
    283
    I've participated in 6 online races since I first purchased rF2 in 2013. It's very much me VS the AI... and they're really showing their age these days.

    It's not that I dislike online, far from it, just that I live in an awkward time zone, where it's almost impossible to find a league that suits my schedule. All of my online races to date have been from when new content drops and servers are populated.
     
    GroupC likes this.
  3. Nitrometh

    Nitrometh Registered

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2014
    Messages:
    1,080
    Likes Received:
    443
    #metoo :D
     
  4. DrivingFast

    DrivingFast Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2018
    Messages:
    1,638
    Likes Received:
    1,083
    lol!
     
  5. Stefan_L_01

    Stefan_L_01 Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2012
    Messages:
    595
    Likes Received:
    386
    When do we get a simple operating BoP handling? The GTE mod is not balanced very well, how shall we run fair multiplayer races, training offline with a bop and so on? This is a fundamental gap in the game, and easy to fill if you ask me. Also we could add other cars more easily to a session this way. Why it is missing ? Power, weight, fuelload is minimum that needs to be adjusted.
     
  6. Gasper Zupan

    Gasper Zupan Registered

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2017
    Messages:
    42
    Likes Received:
    77
    How is GTE pack not balanced?
     
    Ronnie likes this.
  7. Will Mazeo

    Will Mazeo Registered

    Joined:
    Sep 12, 2015
    Messages:
    2,220
    Likes Received:
    1,578
    If anyone thinks the majority is playing online the person is either dumb or just trolling. In any sim with AI majority is playing offline.
    Only iRacing has a chance to change this when they add AI lol
     
  8. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2010
    Messages:
    12,346
    Likes Received:
    6,572
    But when it comes to community size, an rF2 with online structure will probably attract more than we have playing offline with AI right now. Many of those are using steam and do show up, and I don't think there are hundreds of thousands.

    Anyway, I'm not saying AI shouldn't be improved in a number of areas, and it doesn't appear to have been ruled out (just a complete rewrite has been), so hopefully everyone ends up happy. I just don't think AI should be seen as a top priority right now.
     
  9. Will Mazeo

    Will Mazeo Registered

    Joined:
    Sep 12, 2015
    Messages:
    2,220
    Likes Received:
    1,578
    Doubt, the game has like 600~800 peak players per day, watch servers at the peak times... most are full of AI lol
    I doubt even when VEC is racing we get more online than offline players.
     
  10. patchedupdemon

    patchedupdemon Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 3, 2017
    Messages:
    1,602
    Likes Received:
    1,151
    The numbers for both online and offline are low,when you compare to other games, I doubt that has much of anything to do with ai, and probably more to do with the lack of online when only considering those to variables.

    But I think we all know the major reason is because rf2 as a whole has been rightly seen to be a lacklustre and frustrating experience.

    I like how s397 are working from the ground up, getting the basics correct, which I hope the new ui will do, and then they can turn their attention to the refinements of ai etc.

    But I don’t have a crystal ball, just one that hangs lower than the other, so I’m probably way off with my opinion
     
  11. burgesjl

    burgesjl Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 2, 2013
    Messages:
    344
    Likes Received:
    540
    This sort of prioritization is always difficult. I think most of us would agree that the vast majority of the userbase for rF2 is offline. And therefore, AI needs to be as good as it can be since people are either hotlapping alone or more likely most are hotlapping with AI or racing AI. And I have to say the AI leave quite a lot to be desired at the moment, especially regarding being happy with sitting in a train of cars and not trying an overtake or moving offline. But the AI is at least as good as any other title right now; the iRacing AI is going to be interesting for how good that is could well pull away a lot of players from the other sims. iRacing then has the advantage of the simplest and most consistent online racing as well. So if S397 are not going to or are not able to advance the AI significantly, then they need to fix the online and competition capabilities as a matter of urgency, which we know they are working hard on. S397 also have an advantage in some aspects of the content they offer, especially historic content. But at the end of the day, managing that content and especially mods has been an Achilles heel of rF2. Steam makes that a lot better than it used to be but it still isn't completely solved. I used to be in an F1 79 league, and we did not use the "league edition physics" which basically renders all cars the same, since why bother at that point. So the only way we had to try to balance players a bit was to give the best drivers the worst cars and also extra weight. There's a need to think about how you can structure for leagues to give people limits on cars (setups, weights, fuel flow, 'restrictor plates' etc.) to balance cars differently than they come out of the box. BoP is hard and the problem is that if you get it wrong it wrecks the experience. Even iRacing are not getting this right in their GT3 cars especially.
     
  12. patchedupdemon

    patchedupdemon Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 3, 2017
    Messages:
    1,602
    Likes Received:
    1,151
    Personally I can’t see ai attracting anyone to iracing unless they make it a one time purchase base instal type of thing.
    Ai isn’t going to make people want to pay subscription costs if they already haven’t made that move
     
    Emery and pkelly like this.
  13. Sebastien Sestacq

    Sebastien Sestacq Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2016
    Messages:
    851
    Likes Received:
    1,436
    I think the opposite more players play online than with AIs, people play with AI for lack of better!!
     
  14. stonec

    stonec Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 19, 2012
    Messages:
    3,399
    Likes Received:
    1,488
    Not the case simply by looking at stats. Steamcharts.com show around 800 concurrent peak players per day. When you look at rF2 server browser, it's mostly AI cars online. I'd say 10% at most are online.
     
    Emery likes this.
  15. Will Mazeo

    Will Mazeo Registered

    Joined:
    Sep 12, 2015
    Messages:
    2,220
    Likes Received:
    1,578
    Just go to Steamdb.... then check the players online right now, see servers like the most populated one at this moment only has 3 human players. Offline outnumbers online by a huge margin.
     
    Emery likes this.
  16. elbo

    elbo Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 19, 2012
    Messages:
    625
    Likes Received:
    182
    Pick-up racing on open online servers in Rfactor is simply not a thing...once you filter out the AI populated ones, come to grips with having the proper track and vehicle and then manage to find one with more than a handful of players, odds are you will sit there in a never ending practise as someone will call a vote to restart weekend before you ever make it to the actual race. There are a few people running open races at set times which are amazing fun to race in. Rfactor online is all about league racing and these are great fun. Don't know what needs to be done to make Rfactor a viable pick-up racing title like AC seems to be. For sure at its base nothing is simple for a newbie, from cryptic setup adjustments to player.json tweaks to crytic messages explaining why you can't jump into so and so server...Rfactor is a hobbyist's passion and it is great for it but I we are a long way from it being a load and play type sim which would attract the masses.
    Off line it is amazing to play...on line with the proper league it is also hard to beat...if you are wanting to jump in to servers and race I would suggest you look else where.
     
  17. mesfigas

    mesfigas Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2015
    Messages:
    1,722
    Likes Received:
    830
    i was thinking to make a new topic but maybe doesnt worth to try so i ll speak here ..............!!!!!!!!!!!!

    STREAMER WANTED !!!!
    TO ORGANISE ONLINE RACES FOR RF2 WITH THEIR SUBS :)

    GamerMuscle do that for assetto corsa pcars2 and reaceroom

    it would be cool if someone do that for RF2 and Automobilista
    well it sounds like a job and takes time.

    RF2 is just not there when speaking for online races like assetto corsa and project cars 2 does and even Raceroom exp.

    i m sure someday Studio 397 will make RF2 online racing onpar with Assetto corsa and Pcars2.
    no pain no gain
     
  18. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2010
    Messages:
    12,346
    Likes Received:
    6,572
    I imagine I would show as a player when I have the launcher open, checking which servers I might want to join, maybe playing around with plugins, checking settings in response to a thread on here, or between McLaren Shadow sessions. Often I'll just leave the launcher sitting there all day after jumping in the game for 2 mins. I have nearly 2000 hours of 'game time' showing and I doubt I've hit 200 actually in the game, and that includes league practice and races.

    I've never done a race against AI in rF2. I've used AI while checking out track changes (again, for league purposes) but I've never actually sat down to race them. Years ago after playing online for a several years I thought I'd give GTR another crack, because I felt like I had a better idea of how to drive and I wanted GTR's proper package of a race series instead of the half-hearted rF1 single player structure - and I lasted 20 mins. Everything was smooth, polished, attractive to look at, I was doing ok with driving the car and felt like I could probably work to progress up the field - but seeing cars going around the track and knowing they were just AI, it had no impact at all. From the first time I played rF1 and had 2 other people at Bathurst in the V8s in a 1.5 hour practice session, and I trundled out of the pits and had someone - a real person - drive past on their practice stint, I was hooked on online.

    I realise not everyone is able to race online, whether it's timing or technical, but like every other genre most players are going to end up there.

    I reckon a fair chunk of those offline players you're seeing are like me, not actually playing offline, just not currently on a server. What that means, unfortunately, is hardly anyone is playing rF2. Better AI would help, but better online will help more.
     
    Sebastien Sestacq and ADSTA like this.
  19. burgesjl

    burgesjl Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 2, 2013
    Messages:
    344
    Likes Received:
    540
    As things currently stand, you are absolutely right. Not many are going to pay $90/year just to use AI. So I would expect them to come up with some "not online" package for these people when they see that not working. If the AI is utterly groundbreaking and way better than anything else, they still are not going to get lots of net-new subscribers. But what may happen, is that people already on iRacing who like to practice or get in a quick AI race will now be able to do so within the same title, rather than using rF2 (like I do). I think there are enough people frustrated with the iRacing tire model (like I am) that would be happy to look elsewhere if there were decent online capability, and especially arrive-and-drive type "official" racing series like iRacing have. I still use iR for my online competition, but I'd be interested in making a move away; decent AI might be more likely to keep me there since I could see the effects of things like the draft without having to people doing random/crazy stuff in online practice sessions. That's what I meant by "pull away", rather than "net new subscribers". My personal preference is for S397 to work on online/competition, but that isn't true of most I think and offline is probably more important as things stand, and certainly there is a lot of scope for improving that as well.
     
  20. Will Mazeo

    Will Mazeo Registered

    Joined:
    Sep 12, 2015
    Messages:
    2,220
    Likes Received:
    1,578
    sometimes I can only shake my head at how far some people go in this forum lol
     

Share This Page