It would be really nice to have a Q&A session with Paul Jeffrey sometime. I have no opinion if the announcement of Le Mans Unlimited is a good thing or bad thing. Right now there just isn't enough information about what the developers goals for the title is. I for one am not at all trying to come across as negative about it. I'm just trying to get information to get an idea of what the future holds.
John Ratcliff has been doing the update posts etc. Paul, according to what he said on Discord, is doing various commentary roles.
I think that leaving customers in the dark about the future of a simulation which very objectively could be uncertain or even compromised, even though many of these customers have invested a lot in it, including in recent months, is not a good thing. Paul Jeffrey misses rFactor 2 honestly, even if he couldn't have said it all, he probably would have cleared up some of the fog.
We have bought rF2 and the content in a determined state. We have no right to have that content updated after the purchase. If S397 stops developing rF2 and the content, we will continue having rF2 and the content. To think that the content and the game will continue to be updated forever, for free, makes no sense at all. Why not to enjoy what we have? If it's good today, will be the same in a year.
Developers seems they like to move in a more focused product thats what Kunos did and now MSG i hope they dont forget rf2
I hope that when Ultimate goes live that they fix this issue. https://forum.studio-397.com/index.php?threads/car-detail-goes-down-at-night.73984/
I agree that rF2 as software wont degrade and what we have wont get taken from us. I think however that purchasing cars & tracks year after year, we are effectively investing in the ecosystem that is rF2. Right now, with all the mumblings and uncertainty, I would be very hesitant to purchase any more content unless S397 came out with a clear statement about rF2s future, because right now all I can see in the Discord is them saying 'well some things might make it back from LMU and some wont'
Ok, if anyone don't trust S397, don't buy anything new, but that has nothing to do with improving the old content and LMU doesn't affect to the state of rF2 when we bought it. For me, all the improvements to the content and rF2 are a gift, because i didn't pay for that.
Well, that's your opinion, it isn't objective. It's like that for every game you can buy, you don't know what will happen next until it happens. Even when the company has plans. My opinion is that LMU might be a reinforcement for rFactor 2, or it could fail and be negative, although negatives sometimes can turn into positives. It could also mean nothing at all. My opinions are varied like the possibilities of the future.
Well, rather obviously, as a long-time rF2 user, I want to know what is going to happen with the WEC/ACO LeMans content in the future, on this platform. Given the focus S397 had on endurance racing, we got LMP2s and GTEs (and GT3s) enough to build a series out of it. We also have most of the WEC tracks and most especially LeMans and Sebring, to laser-scan quality. That's been the foundation of rF2 continuing to exist and grow. It's funded the improvements on the graphics engine, sound engine, UI etc. etc. on which that content relies to complete the game. More recently we have been graced with the full field of BTCC cars and several of the tracks. This of course wasn't the plan: that was to build a multiplatform game engine (PC, console) for all their licenses. To a lesser extent, we got the same with IndyCar. Road and Ovals versiosn of the IR18, plus a couple of tracks like Long Beach and Gateway. You'd be hard pressed to get a full season series out of it, but its a good start. The problem now becomes: what's the future plan for these series/packs that didn't make it to console? Is the plan to finish off building out the content on rF2, or will this be taken away from us (yes, they can do that, they did it with Silverstone) in favor of building new PC-only games like they are doing with LM Ultimate? Is there any prospect of getting the new LMH/LMDh from Ultimate in rF2? If so, I'll behappy. If not, I'll be pretty sad. I understand the desire for packaging the "experience" for these licenses. Plus, in the past, we've had other companies like Simbin and Reiza take the game engine and produce packaged games like GTR2 and Game Stock Car, covering specific series/genres. But we've never really had a situation where the main developer has done this for themselves, and segment their own user base. The old ISI group did do a packaged game for the V12 open wheeler series at one time, but that probably sold like 10 copies. If they do this, it'll be new sales and revenue that eclipses that of content sales for rF2. But I'd like to see a commitment from MSG and S397 to say, yes, we'll make the content available as expansion packs/DLC for rF2 (at higher cost than buying the full new games, if necessary) and doing the new competition system/RaceControl as a common platform for both. Even though I bought GTR/GTR2, AMS1 etc. I really am not that happy paying twice for much the same content I already have on a platform I already understand and use. If iRacing, for instance, decided to hive off and package all their NASCAR content into a separate game, I likely wouldn't buy it. The power of iRacing is that you have access to all of the genres, on one platform. And you can mix and match: wanna race BTCC at Laguna Seca, go right ahead. I think MSG/S397 are missing the power of the common platform.
S397 needs access to new revenue and new users to prosper. LMU is a shot at that. They have a chance to be very polished with a focused set of content, let's hope they get it right. Then I hope they deliver excellent historic LeMans content as a follow up. RF2 does historic cars really well.
Whatever happens to rFactor 2 in the end, positive or negative, we have no control over it (of course). We all agree. I'm surprised all rFactor2 fans don't agree that a communication on what we can now expect from rFactor 2 (given the new situation), is really necessary, simply to dispel the fog. Because yes the situation has completely changed, there is almost no information for the moment, and it is normal (I think) to want to know what will become of the platform (improvements and possible developments, possible content). Curious that we can't agree on that
Everytime that S397 (or ISI in the old days) has done a comunication about the future, the forum has turn in an agressive and disgusting. I'd like to kbow what's going to happen in the future, but the behabiour of some users is terrible.
I think people need to relax a bit. I allways have the feeling that people start panicking as soon as they don't know 100 % what's going to happen next. S397 haven't taken away Silverstone, they just had to take it down from the workshop due to lisencing. I bet there is noone out there who isn't having acess to it. As allready explained earlier, the Endurance content and the Indy content are pretty sparse and not really usable to be ported 1:1 to new games. If they do that they will face obvious shitstorms. The BTCC content is the most fleshed out pack, but I have no idea if they approach it the same way as LMU as that game got delayed. No info, no knowledge. And I don't care about things that I don't know that much. I can race the heck out of the BTCC content allready in rF2, so where is the problem? And on another note, Simbin and Reiza used their assets in different products. That you will have the 488 GTE in LMU doesn't mean that they can easily strip it out of rF2, especialy as it is payware. The status quo is that there are still updates planned for rF2 that are in the works wich will appear throughout the next months. It won't stop all of a sudden. And if development really comes to a hold in the coming months, there are different scenarios possible. Modding for AC and rF1 only really took off, when development stopped, so let's see how it goes.
Well maybe they are just going to be like code masters just produce as much as you can release new games, MSG using RF2 S397, as nascar didnt seem to be very successful. What really gets me is S397 had about 30 staff MSG about 100 & they pull S397 staff off RF2 to help produce this game, and we the users are kept in the dark & fed mushrooms. What happens to RF2 who knows, communication is poor. Seems more released on discord which most tell me is a shithole and toxic worse than the forum.
