Have Your Say: Mods and Sims and the Complications of Installing

[Kenny Paton]

I remember a few years back we had news about mods pretty much on all main sim sites (RD, Bsimracing and vR) on a regular base but today there is allmost zero information and exposure

Even the bulk of the yt sim guys seem to ignore them now as well, are there too many or so diverse that it take to long to assemble and evaluate them. Strange considering the amount of top class ones there are nowadays especially on the track side of things.

 

[Matheus Machado]

Actually i disagree here. There is a lot of high quality content uploaded here and much of it is, in my opinion, to a higher standard than the Kunos content. A modding team can take over a year focussing on one car, whereas Kunos are more of a machine.

The nadir. for me. was Kunos 2013 Ferrari F1 car. It sounded awful, drove like a VW Beetle. Many, many independent single seater mods have been FAR superior to that.

That comment was related to general mods, not only to AC. And while there is indeed good content, the majority isn't up to the same standards as official content. And updating it is a part of being to the standard.

Overall it's frustrating for me that mods don't get the attention they need and deserve

Yes, and that is why I said it can be extremely successful if done right. See the big leagues in rF2 for example.

 

[Kjell81d]

[...] too many or so diverse that it take to long to assemble and evaluate them. Strange considering the amount of top class ones there are nowadays especially on the track side of things.

I've been putting together all the AC mods I've downloaded and started weeding out the subpar ones. I'm up to 60GB now. 86 cars and 123 tracks. I rarely play default content anymore. Of course I'm stuck playing the AI.

 

[Shaun Clarke]

On a last note @Paul Jeffrey: I would really appreciate it when the news on RD had more emphasize on mods. I remember a few years back we had news about mods pretty much on all main sim sites (RD, Bsimracing and vR) on a regular base but today there is allmost zero information and exposure. Instead we get news about the x-th iteration of Nascar Heat or whatever half baken console racer it is.

Actually I agree here, I remember @Paul Jeffrey did a Mods Roundup once a month, which was a great feature.

Bring it back, if it was you that did it

 

[Brandon Wright]

We've tried modded content in our racing clubs here at RD and the numbers just plummet through the floor within one or two events, despite some mods having over 100,000 downloads in our modding section.

I don't buy this. When I was hosting it was after we banned mods that attendance really dropped, every week I had people asking to use mod tracks and eventually a lot of them just stopped showing up because they were bored with the stock tracks.

I went back and looked at the EU events from the last couple months that used mod tracks and almost every one of them had full grids. The only one that had less than 10 drivers was one that used a mod track in combination with 3 cars from 3 different DLC packs and since not everyone owns all the DLC and you could only participate if you owned all the DLC, I'd point my finger at DLC and not the mod track. Check for yourself.

http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/gt3-donington-sun-19nov17.143628/
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/gt3-okayama-sun-05nov17.143075/
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/gto-road-america-mon-06nov17.143031/
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/oktoberfest-riverside-sun-29oct17.142744/
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/60s-lmp-daytona-mon-13nov17.143389/

In the US club we're lucky to get 10 drivers for an event, yet just a few weeks ago they used a mod track and had nearly double the normal attendance. Not exactly plummeting through the floor.

http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/lambo-huracan-st-okayama-int-sat-28oct17.142647/

 

[Shaun Clarke]

@Brandon Wright reading your post, you are so like minded like me, I don't see the problem with using the following:

a) Legal Mods
b) Good Quality Mods
c) Mods that only appear on RD

I think the C) option is key here, as there is loads of "Mod Police" around to rule out the counterfeit's mods, and sorry but I include the "payware" mods in this section. I know they are not counterfeits, but mods should be free for the whole community to use and enjoy as they see fit, just my opinion.

RD have a massive opportunity to really take this to town, to really give leagues that people want, so why so slow on the uptake?

As they say, strike while the iron is hot, and mods on AC ( I can only comment on AC) some mods are hot, very hot at the moment, and there is some many variations, it could fill up a whole calendar year trying to incorporate them all.

Lack of staff, lack of organisers, lack of volunteers, lack of confidence, who knows?

Shaun

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

On a last note @Paul Jeffrey: I would really appreciate it when the news on RD had more emphasize on mods.

Actually I agree here, I remember @Paul Jeffrey did a Mods Roundup once a month, which was a great feature.

Bring it back, if it was you that did it

Yup that was me Will be bringing this back, and putting more of a focus on mods for sure in future. I sort of dropped the round up articles after a while because of a number of reasons really. Firstly because they were monthly I was running out of good stuff to feature, second they take a very, very long time to put together and thirdly, they were getting very few views and comments apart from people complaining that I didn't include X mod etc Considering the time I put in and the payback / my perception of the desire of people to read it, It just became a bit too difficult. Especially when I just need to put an article up titled "PCARS 2 is crap - Discuss" and get 30000,00000 pages of comments and views

But in all seriousness yes, I will be focussing on modding again with more gusto in the future.

Re @Brandon Wright although I see where you are coming from I have to respectfully disagree. The AC club was on its arse for a long time, we scraped off all the various formats and content, threw down accessible stuff like the fiat 500 and a good and accessible format and suddenly we got not one, not two but three full servers a night on those events, bringing in tons of new blood and reinvigorating the club once again.

Don't get me wrong I love to see modded content and I am very much a supporter of said content, but the dozens of years of experience doing this behind the scenes very much proves that modded content in the clubs, as a general rule, doesn't equate to bigger grids. Breaking down barriers and making it as accessible as possible does that. Only then and once this has been achieved can mods be slowly reintroduced again to an already captive and knowledgeable audience, which in a fashion goes against our motto of inclusivity and accessibility. However we are slowly and surely bringing mods in where we can, and they do seem to be working now based on the foundation that has already been laid. Good times

 

[Rob]

People never want to believe what they currently choose is not "the best" or even "not the best for everyone," hence this thread, is a mini argument for why others choose consoles.

 

[Rob Every]

I don't know why the modding aspect has never really caught on post GP Legends, F1 challenge and Rfactor.

Perhaps because especially in RF the basic stuff was fairly tame, and it was made so openly moddable and was encouraged.

I have said many times that RF was the last bastion of modding in sim PC gaming and I was fortunate to be able to wow at things like GP79, F1 1991, Enduracers and Historix and enjoy playing them online for years.

it really doesn't seem to want to catch on. Mybe because of the recent releases of new software and pay to play stuff this has met everyones needs?

In RRE, Iracing, all you doing basically is downloading a mod for your core game. Just like installing Meganes on Rfactor!!

For the future, I recall a while ago installing a few AC mods, it's just as easy, if not easier, but there was no easy click guide on here. That could be an option. A really quick pinned post about how you drop stuff over, real basics and layman terms.

Not everyone wants or needs to know how to use file uploaders, compress tools and how to navigate their C: drive.

But as to why people don't like it, or numbers drop massively. One other reason could be quirks. Some mods are quirky to drive, have weird setup preferences and some folk might be unwilling to try them and be hopeless as their usual setup plans don't work. Great unknown stuff.

 

[Brandon Wright]

I have said many times that RF was the last bastion of modding in sim PC gaming and I was fortunate to be able to wow at things like GP79, F1 1991, Enduracers and Historix and enjoy playing them online for years.

it really doesn't seem to want to catch on. Mybe because of the recent releases of new software and pay to play stuff this has met everyones needs?

I think you kind of answered it yourself there. I'm guessing those mods you mentioned for RF were packages with multiple cars from that series/season. For AC there's really not much like that, it's a bunch of one-off cars, some are real oddballs, some are the lone car of a class or series with no playmates, etc.. I can only think of one or two legit mods that included more than one car in its respective series. Makes it difficult to recreate our favorite series when we have to mix and match stock content with various one-off mods all made by different people.

For the future, I recall a while ago installing a few AC mods, it's just as easy, if not easier, but there was no easy click guide on here. That could be an option. A really quick pinned post about how you drop stuff over, real basics and layman terms.

Already exists.

http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/mod-installing-tutorial-video.135781/

 

[Rob Every]

I would guess this is because it takes a very long time to develop a mod with multiple car types.

People forget that although there were a few mods on RF that had cars with different physics per car such as GP79, there were also far more mods that used the same physics in every car, say an F197 or something. Mainly for league racing.

I am hoping DRM if it ever comes (Why am I feeling a VirtuaLM ProtoC vibe about that) will encourage people to write spot on mods for AC with multiple cars in a class all with different physics.

It is a tough, but usually worth the wait

 

[hitm4k3r]

I would guess this is because it takes a very long time to develop a mod with multiple car types.

People forget that although there were a few mods on RF that had cars with different physics per car such as GP79, there were also far more mods that used the same physics in every car, say an F197 or something. Mainly for league racing.

I am hoping DRM if it ever comes (Why am I feeling a VirtuaLM ProtoC vibe about that) will encourage people to write spot on mods for AC with multiple cars in a class all with different physics.

It is a tough, but usually worth the wait

Reading your two comments it reads, as if you would be very surprised of what is allready avaiable for the new platforms. And it reads, as if you would greatly benefit from more modding roundups. EnduRacers for example released their mod for rF2 allready, same as you can get the cars from the GP79 mod. Carrera released his full 88 season mod for rF2 too and the Group C cars by Mak Corp are pretty nicely matched aswell. Those are just examples, but don't forget that it took games like GPL or rF1 a long time to have all the mods that we enjoy today. rF1 was released 2005, so modders had 12 years to produce that content. All the new platforms are avaialbe since pretty much 5 years and who knows what we will be driving in December 2018. Apex Modding have just previewed their 70's sportcar mod, so maybe we will throw around those beasts at a beatifully moddeled 60's Le Mans in the future. Maybe we will drive the DRM mod in AC around Nords in a few months. I would hardly say that the big modding times are over, but that the number has decreased as it simply requires more effort to produce mods these days. But at the end we get some pretty good quality content from 3rd party content producers compared to rF1 times.

 

[Rob Every]

I agree, but I really don't enjoy much of RF2 I am afraid.