Matchmaker Subscription?

Exactly. League racers will be forced to pay just to host races. And on top of that we will still pay for high bandwidth servers. Disappointing (to me anyway). And because of payment requirement it will be harder to maintain high numbers of participants in a league.

 

Funny, isnt it? People are spending hundreds/thousands on new PC's for RF2 then complain it will cost them $12/year.

I like the idea, as long as there isnt some sort of smokescreen for ISI to control or approve mods...

 

been lurking here for ages and really looking forward to this game for the superb physics!

now if ive got this right, theres...

1. no LAN play?

2. if you dont renew subscription after 12 months, internet including IP play is blocked?

if these both answer 'yes' then sadly ill probably not buy this game.

before you all start shouting 'stingy tight arse...piss off' the annual sub isnt a problem, and would benefit me as i like minimum hassle with joining/updating mods etc but locking the door on ALL internet play leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

it would be an online tax.

jim.

 

Exactly sg333....it amonts to just over $1 per month......what the @%&$ else do you spend $1 a month on...beer?.....smokes?.... coffee??? This is all just mindless bitching. I may have preffered to have to pay the $13 dolars a year for the updates...but if that is the way ISI is going to do it then you just have to deal with it....or NOT!!!

 

No Maxym, I can't agree with you. Tim has set out the pricing structure, and it is clear what is on offer. There is always a chance for ambiguity to affect understanding where the language being used is not someones native language, but it is clear, at this point no money has changed hands and there is no question of illegality. When rF2 becomes available there will be no question of illegality either since the terms will be written out and doubtless include the usual legal boilerplate. Thirteen bucks a year compares to about 4 good beers in my local pub..... for which you get to race online + patching automation + new content. It isn't being sprung on anyone, nothing is currently on sale and you've been told before it is on sale.

As an aside Maxym, I've only registered today, but have lurked on this forum since buying a boxed rF DVD a few years ago. Don't assume I'm ignorant.

@Tim - nice fish. One of yours ?

 

You can buy 4 beers for $12 dollars....%$#@...in a pub...dang...I might be able to 2 pints for that.... ..... lol

 

raise, I'm not sure which my post you are referring to.
But in overall I'm not talking about costs but about information inconsistency. 2 days ago we have other information than today. It may be called "incomplete info" "mistake" or "playing words". Doesn't matter.

For me I will buy rF2 for sure. I'm league admin and modder for part. I'm author of most used league system (software) over the world I believe.. I must be up to date with things. I will organize leagues and finally I'm sure I will get a lot of fun and simracing experience with rFactor2. Only one thing I don't like is kind of communication Tim is performing. But I can live with it.

I have only one additional question. If online racing will tightly depend on Matchmaker, and MM will be paid, will there be given some quality guarantees? It may look funny what I'm asking for, but I recall problems with rF1 stability due to MM issues. Especially league racing may be affected. To understand what does it mean, please try to imagine a portal organizing a lot of leagues, arranged into some schedule. If MM will be offline for some reason, there will be no possibility to execute scheduled race. Such race often cannot be repeated due to schedule. Worse if MM will be heading issues during racing. May it affect connection stability? Will it disconnect drivers from (own) server?

 

oops..... if we were talking about 12 UK pounds...... More like two pints for 12 dollars for us. And if i'm drinking good Belgian beers (which I do) more like 1 and a bit....

 

My thoughts?

BARGAIN!

Initial cost of the game then a few measly pounds 12 or 18months later. Even a kid with a paper round (route to the Americans!) can afford the Sub fee. I have no problems with this whatsoever, bring on the Beta!

 

Ahh..there we go...you had me going for a moment..hehe. I am old...but I do remember when one could get pizzed as a brewery rat for $2....ahh the good old days...lol

 

Indeed Maxym, I'm aware of your software. It's excellent. I know of many leagues that use it and rightly so.
I agree that if payment is being taken, then there has to be a quality of service guarantee of some description too, since MM falling over in this scenario could effectively mean nobody gets to race online at all and after 12 months are up it'll be a paid for service. There's always going to be scheduled maintenance, and there's always room for unforeseen circumstances, hell, look what happened to Sony this year.... But at least this model gives ISI some revenue to budget for any code maintenance and happily for developing new content.

 

I found matchmaker often being unable to find the exact league server I need, because of the sheer number of them online at any given time. Frankly I can't imagine how can this system be made bulletproof. I remember having to update the server list for 30 minutes to make a bloody driver change on a Sunday morning of a 24h race, it's not fun, believe me.

So here's a question that has been asked only about gazillion times now, but with a slightly different twist, just as I put it in post #4 of this enormous confusing monster of thread...

Even with Online account active will it be possible to join servers via IP?
- Yes
- No
- Unknown as of yet

Thank you.

PS: Tim, I hope you understand that we, the people who are expected to pay for the sim, and then invest lots of our own time and money (well organized leagues and modding) to make it as successful as rF1, expect a bit more direct and frank approach when it comes to such sensitive topics as introducing exclusively subscription-based online service, having been claiming for years that there was no plan to do so. I appreciate your efforts here, but in the last two days the situation in the community has been handled rather poorly, hence the snafu.

 

Quoting "Dave Hodsoll" on virtualr.net.

 

What are you talking about?

 

I thought about it too. That is a big concern for well organized leauges.

 

B.S!!!!! As has already been mentioned just look at iracing and there goes that theory that sim racers aren't "generous with money".

 

people paying for iRacing has nothing to do with generosity, the choice there is either pay up or don't play. Whenever anybody has asked for money for tracks or cars where rFactor has been concerned there has been a backlash, Hudson was first, Raceking another, and the amount of posts whining about iRacings rent to play structure is there for all to see.
Maybe that should have said "the rFactor community" instead, so how would you define generous? And how would you explain all the fuss over less than 1 dollar a month or less than the cost of 1 iracing track

 

Understood. The rF2 matchmaker isn't the rF1 matchmaker. There's a number of selection options in there if the server list is too long. More being added which will allow you to select for different things eventually.

It's not planned for there to be any IP or LAN options.

Actually, as it has been thrown back and forth the whole time I have been with ISI, I've watched closely for any mentions of subscriptions because I didn't know where we would end up. I believe the only answer I have given even wildly related is that we wouldn't charge for individual cars and tracks, which we have no plans to still. If you believe you have had an answer saying no subscription whatsoever, please show me?

 

I don't think it's anything to do with that (for most people. Some, sure). It's more likely fear of change.

 

I dont do online racing (basically because of time constraints) but this matchmaking thing looks alright to me.
Seems like rFactor2 is giving you an option that's similar to iracing in some respects if thats what you want and for a lot less money than what iracing costs and they are also giving the single player experience as well, unlike iracing.

Thumbs up to ISI from me!