By that I mean this; Other Race Sims (without mentioning names!) are very good at the Pick Up & Play aspect, there's little faffing around with settings to get into a Race and there's no hidden settings to improve the experience, they are either blocked entirely or just made difficult to adjust. Whilst that may be good for the casual racer, for the more hardcore "I want to tweak" crowd like myself this is becoming increasingly frustrating and you're restricted in what you can and can't adjust. Example is one of those titles locks all the AI settings away, so all the cars (no matter open wheel or tin top) are the same, when in reality they're driven differently (this is where RF2 shines with its edit ability ). Now RF2 can be a Pick Up & Play title even in its current state (shock horror but it's true to some degree!), what it does allow us to do is to tweak to our hearts content to get that extra bit of goodness from the game, for example with the AI we can adjust virtually every aspect to make the Very Good AI become Very Very Good depending on the Mod & Track in question. Essentially RF2 is a Tweakers Delight, many aspects of the game can be faffed around with for hours to get what we want and it's that identity of the title that I hope Studio397 retain. But what about the new crowd? It's fair to say not everyone likes to tweak for hours to make the graphics performance 1% better, people do want to jump in for a quick race and jump out without having to worry about settings so much. With that in mind I'm all for creating a better User Experience for that type of gaming, I'm sometimes in the same boat that I just want to get on and Race so I fully understand that this title needs to be more user friendly, by the looks of it the new UI will go some way to improving that. But what I fear is a total shift in that direction like the other games that will ultimately restrict this game that we've come to love, the freedom that RF2 gives us is of great importance just the same as creating a better overall experience.
My 2 eurocents... I hope rF2 will be a Pick Up & Play title because, sorry for that, it isn't right now. We need more content (cars and tracks), the sim should be less related to mod development (still mantaining an high modding value) and offer some complete packages to ride. After that, rF2 should work the best possible out of the box, without no need to tweak it, leaving this pleasure to the ones like me and you. So will be great to have an advanced option tab with a tweaks section on main launcher where you can read and change parameters from game files for people like us plus a clean and simple option page in game because we need also a ready to go experience from casual users...
I don't want to be controversial (He lies! HAHAHA), but I don't think RF2 has an identity. The other games that Marc avoids mentioning, all have an identity, and a slogan that identifies them (even if it not an official slogan). RF2, to me, IS a modding platform. To be slightly demeaning, I see it more as an app. I expect to put a little effort in to get the race I want. Sure there is base content, and the move to Steam makes adding even more content even easier, but it only barely allows pick up and play. And most days I am just too lazy. Until the time it plans to market itself towards the more casual gamer/racer then catering towards the more casual gamer/racer seems unlikely. I like the tweaking aspect of the game, but if another game can give me a great racing experience without the need for tweaking, then I am much happier being spoon-fed. Conclusion? I have no idea.
rF2 without strong mods is really just one less reason for people to pick it up over the competition. Others are already doing a good (if not better) job at producing quality DLC content, no reason why S397 should compete with Reiza in making it an exactly similar sim. Modding support IMO needs to be improved, or mod makers will go away. gJED was a promising start, but then, like lots of other promised features under ISI, it was abandoned half-way. 3ds Max GMT exporters only work with ancient versions of Max (2012 the last one I think), which regularly keep crashing under Windows 10. Mod makers have got around these issues with all sort of hax, but at some point the modding tools needs to be brought into 2017 standards.
I'd dare say the tweaker aspect of this title is one of the main reasons why more people do not play it for long,it could be the best of both worlds,but If there isn't a pick up and play scheduled online career aspect,then I can't see this title growing much more than it's current user base. Just my opinion
Never enough is there? Have you seen the official list of cars and tracks?! We are damn spoiled! rFactor 1 never had this many official cars and tracks. True is always a car or track that someone wants.... glass is always half empty?
No!Where is It?I missed It! ( I am talking about ISI, S397 content) Btw, I am for the half full glass but I was talking about rF2 vs other sims...
Steam Workshop - just I don't know how you get to the workshop if you are at work and limited to a web browser....... But the cars and tracks are there - a lot of them! Now if we could just have......
Now I remember why RF2 is not my go-to racing game! So much quality content that I would just be jumping from one car to another, one track to another, constantly worrying that I am missing out on something else. 1st world problems, eh? Except I load up the Skip Barbers, and never want to be in anything else........the handling is just sublime. It is exactly as I think the car should handle. (Realistic? I have no idea, and couldn't care either way!) I, like the OP, hope RF2 stays true to its roots.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/ImageSpaceIncorporated/myworkshopfiles/?appid=365960 So little official content eh?
For me it isn't so much the AMOUNT of content... it's the randomness of it that is disappointing. 1 GT3 car, 1 GT2 car, 1 Gt1 car... etc.
I think one of the strengths of rf2 is its identity. Full on uncompromised realism, most complete list of simulation features and moddability. What rf2 struggles with is actually fulfilling that approach with modern day usability and efficiency. It will be interesting to see how deeply 397 is willing to change some things to make rf2 improve. But when it comes to defining what rf2 is I think it has the strongest and easiest to explain core identity of all the sims.
The randomness of one car per series doesn't bother me nearly as much as the randomness of the quality, which varies far too much from one "official" car to another.
