As far as I can see Rfactor File management and mod management is fundamentally floored from what I can tell nothing in RF2 fixes any of these issues and in some cases the RF2 system makes things worse than RF1 1) downloading and getting content 2) having to leave the game to get tracks and content after looking at the server list 3) installing mods and content 4) place holder cars when new users join the server and stutter when new users join 5) not being able to change car without leaving server In the end even after the changes in the mod installation and the MODid system RF2 is fundamentally the same as RF1 , in that you really need to join a league go on there web page and then chat to them about the specific content they use. A process that instantly excludes more casual racers or people with less free time on there hands, be that good or bad. Given that its essentially the same user experience why bother changing it from RF1 ? All the new methods of doing things seem like work arounds that ignore a core issues with the structure of RF and in my opinion , from a limited viewpoint , unless that aspect of the game is fundimently rewritten sticking selotape over it will not fix it. After physics the most important thing to me for RF2 would be making the content easer to acquire and install , It should simply be a case of load up RF2 see a server with people in it click and join or click and download content ( ideally whilst still in the game) and that's it. I originally thought the yearly fee was to pay for the maintaining of a file server so that I could download mods from ISI directly in the game or some well organized database. It now seems that that’s not the case ( I realise that was an assumption but I don’t think it was an unreasonable one) I would also be happy to pay more for Rf2 if it was more polished , Granted Not i-racing Type fees but I could easily justify £3 a month if Rfactor was as polished as i racing , or for example I could load the game up and download and play mods right away from the server list. Worse case why not just have it so I have a list of mods /tracks and I load the game and I can just pick a car and a track why do we have all this segmentation of everything. sure if a server wants to run a series let them configure the exact cars and tracks and maybe have some prefab settings so they can just select them. As a final point we now have what is effectively a meta mod in the sense that you have the cars , tracks , UI which are all mods but then ontop of that also specific selection / content grouping mods. This is all simply going to confuse the hell out of anyone that’s not botherd reading up on RF2 , when in reality it should be 100% intuitive or better yet totally invisible to the end user and simply just work. Finally I'm a big fan of Rf and have enjoyed using it over the years and regardless of my perceived issues with the sim I have certainly got my moneys worth and had many memorable and enjoyable moments with the game ! Sorry about spelling and grammar I'm dyslexic and wrote this in a hurry !
I really can't find anything wrong with the mod delivery system (I emphasize the "delivery system" part). Mods are delivered in standard form self-contained packages, the game handles correct installation so there's no possibility of the user messing it up, and it enables verifying that the player and server have the same content, without having to join the server. The mod/component handling system itself does need to tweaked though, the current track/car combination limitation is pretty horrible, and while VMODs are small they're a very clunky solution from what I can see, and in the end amount to little else than filter lists, which could be handled without the need to package them like the current system does. I really can't see why the car and track components cannot be verified separately from each other. How much bandwith/processing power does it take to verify say 10 tracks (I'm assuming it's a hash based system)? Cars are probably better verified with something akin to the vmod system, since there can be 100 cars in a big multiseries mod. If I were doing it I'd probably go with something like this: The rfmod system as a method of delivery could be kept intact, there's nothing wrong with it per se. In fact it's a magnificent method of distributing whole series and organizing single-player seasons. What I would do though is replace the All Cars & Tracks with just All Cars. So you could choose All Cars or any specific car pack you've got installed. In track selection the default would be that all tracks are always selectable, but there would also be a tick-box somewhere called "Series specific" or something like that that filtered only the tracks listed in the .rfmod (or vmod if you make a season yourself using existing car and track components). In my mind this sort of solution works very nicely for single player purposes. Multiplayer: Instead of choosing cars and tracks as one .rfmod or vmod package, I'd select car pack and make a track list separately (I do like the idea of having a known and reported tracklist on the server, though it could be any size and selected whenever the server is started). When a player searches for the server it verifies the car pack separately, and if it is compatible it verifies the track components from the server list. And even if the player doesn't have all of the track components on the list, it'd just notify them of the tracks that they're lacking, but still let them join if they have the track the server is currently running. And hopefully the community will start using the mod/package IDs more in the future. Searching for a specific ID would be infinitely easier than trying to find some generically named mod/component...
rF2, much like rF1 before it, is not set up to accommodate casual racers. By definition, sims are made to cater the more hardcore gamers.
None said it had to accommodate casual racers .. ( not sure why that's bad as long as the simulation of the cars is correct ?) Surely any system that makes the game easer to use is better than a system that makes the game harder to use ? " By definition, sims are made to cater the more hardcore gamers" This is not true in fact by definition sims are actually made to simulate something , the fact something is called or is trying to be a sim should not mean that the interface or the aquasition of content is complicated and annoying for new or existing users. The worse the design of the software surrounding the simulation the more of a choir it becomes to access the simulator making the overall exsperance less enjoyable. Lets face it 95% of the people using RF2 are using it for fun not as a training tool. The fact is RF originates from being a tool (probably to simulate one car at a time) and so the accesablity for end users might not have being in the original design speck when the engine and structure was first made. As a result when its then packaged as a game we end up with what is quite a messy system. Non of that is to undermine the hard work and talent that ISI have put into it but that just seems to me where it stands at the moment.
I think in general I agree with what you have said. I think the biggest issue with the current system is the acquisition of the content , why can ISI not simply have a slick website or file server that has all the content on it allowing people to grab any mod easy and quickly , As good as RFC was it was a choir having to go to it to grab mods and then sometimes you would still have compatablity issues. I guess some of the most popular mods are obviously going to infringe on copyright and trade marks and so ISI cannot in anyway be seen to endorse host or distribute them maybe that's the core issue ? I understand the ID system is going to mitigate the issues to some extent but unless you can click a DOWNLOAD CONTENT button on the server list a good % of people are going to get stuck and its still going to be a choir doing a treasure hunt for the content.
Well I have seen a "Get Mod" button come up for some mods in the server list, and it is talked about in the Vmod vs Rfmod video.
1] and 2] and 3] is not such an issue? this go's for any game or sim. but they are improving this arent they? servers will be able to point to direct or manual downloads as far as i understand. no more mismatches and still we can lead people towards the correct content. for any league this is simply great! 4] placeholder cars-lag, that is easily avoided with the right settings. 5] this i would like to see change as well. i doubt it will though, perphaps too complicated to implement because then you are changing important valueables in a live invironment but yeah. change cars on-server, and also change settings like upgrades on-server. that would be realy helpfull.
While I would like to see this happening (usually race street cars and it's fun to change them around occasionally, especially if someone has picked a noticeably slower car by accident), but in all honesty there are very few people who go to a track weekend with a multiple different cars at their disposal. Would wish that upgrades could be changed in the garage though.
By place holder car lag, I just mean whenever sum one joins a server there is a stutter even when I'm running at 120FPS average the game stutters when people join , and I assume that's the whole point of a place holder car as it reduces that stutter.
The get mod button will confuse the hell out of new users , sure its a general step in right direction but you are not really getting the "mod" you are getting the META mod you still have to download the track and the cars separate.
Did this change since rf1? I did not come accros any join-lag in rf2 tbh but i must admit i dont play regurarly enough yet to be 100% sure. The best setting is not allow the server to load anything when someone joins, only when you return to the garage the server will load the new cars for you. this takes away the lag you mention in rf1 and i would asume this is the same for rf2. Now that i think of it, the temp-car is there exactly for that reason to avoid join-lag, so if you get join-lag and those people drive arround in temp-cars then i'm not sure whats going on. what exactly is loading and causing lag? The line is still in the MP.ini Delay Vehicle Graphics="1" // if true, delay loading vehicle graphics when clients join in order to reduce the pause But since drivers can now also pre-join servers there might be other things going on as well. (was the first thing i removed btw on our server)
