rFactor 2 Ranked Multiplayer: Week 2 Schedule & Changelog

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rFactor 2’s new online ranking system has revitalised a game that many had given up on. With week 2 of the ranked multiplayer deploying, what does the future hold for the title?

Image credit (3): Studio 397

From Radicals at Zandvoort, to IndyCars at Donington Park, week 1’s daily races and special events were the most anticipated update to rFactor 2. A fresh week of content has launched for October 17th to 23rd.

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The player base numbers show interest in the game is at an all time high for 2023. The peak number of players this year, including the virtual Le Mans, is just 400 players above the current average. rFactor 2 hasn’t seen this level of player interest since December 2020.

Consistency on Studio 397’s part is essential to the survival of their ranked system. Last week’s events where a hit, but one poor week of car and track combinations could spell disaster. An example of this would be the wasteland that iRacing created in some of their championships.

Studio 397 have released their new release notes as of the 17/10/2023. These release notes show the free and paid content that will be used over the course of the season, allowing players to plan their content purchases.

5 rFactor 2 Special Events That Need to Happen
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rFactor 2 Special Events Week 2 2023​

Both the Touring Car Cup and M2 Cup special events were well populated with multiple splits across both events. Two special events per week is the perfect balance at this stage, especially with the healthy player base currently on the sim.

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Week 2 special events will include:

  • Tuesday, 9:15pm CEST: Weekly BTCC Open at Donington Park GP
  • Thursday, 9:10pm CEST: Weekly GT3 Open at Spa Francorchamps
  • Saturday, 9:30pm CEST: Back to School with the BMW M2 CS Cup at Sebring Club

rFactor 2 Daily Races Week 2 2023​

Beginner Races – Every Hour​

  • Radical Rookies
    • Car: Radical SR3-RSX
    • Track: Botniaring Short
  • BMW M2 Cup
    • Car: BMW M2 Cup
    • Track: Portland Full
  • Open Wheel Sprint
    • Car: Tatuus FT-50
    • Track: Toban Short Reverse

Intermediate Races – Every Two Hours​

  • Prototype Challenge
    • Car: LMP3 Norma or LMP3 Ligier
    • Track: Bahrain International Circuit (GP)
  • Touring Car Championship
    • Car: BTCC 2021
    • Track: Brands GP

Advanced Races – Every 3 Hours​

  • Road Course Rivals
    • Car: Oreca LMP2
    • Track: Daytona Road Course
NB: Races run from 11am CEST to 3am CEST

https://twitter.com/x/status/1714240207447314496

rFactor 2 Online Update Changelog​

Along with the new schedule and special events, an update to rFactor 2 Online was deployed. Not only should it ensure that the servers run more consistently in week 2, but also features quality of life improvements for racers. Find the full changelog below!
  • Usernames no longer support symbols.
  • Changing usernames will preserve previous race results.
  • Protest submissions have been improved:
    • Mandatory text box for providing reasons.
    • Mandatory timestamp.
    • Clarity on what types of incidents can be protested.
  • Updating email via Profile page is now possible.
  • Leaderboard improvements:
    • Track layout consideration added.
    • Gap calculation bug fixed.
    • Added row to showcase your time (if set).
  • New designs for rank badges are now displayed.
  • Error/warning messages added for practice server join failures.
  • Registration process updated for clearer instructions and validations.
  • Community server list bug fixed.
  • Notification panels have improved buttons and interactions.
  • Post-race results for Bronze Ranks are more accurate.
  • Unique server mod names for each server to address “unable to install mod” errors.
  • Players selecting the Cupra BTCC will not face disconnections.
  • Increased DR exchange in higher level races
  • Decreased SR gain potential in higher level races (this does not affect potential loss)
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Will you be trying out the new rFactor 2 multiplayer content? Let us know on our Twitter Overtake_gg or in the comments down below!
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Connor Minniss
Connor Minniss
Website Content Editor & Motorsport Photographer aiming to bring you the best of the best within the world of sim racing.

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Comments

H
The main issue I see is that there are not a lot of good free tracks that they can use entirely legally as part of this online system for beginner races. Its like 5-10 and most are not laserscanned or with a lot of graphic fidelity.

There are a decent amount of paid tracks 10-15 or so that are laserscanned. I hope enough people have/buy these so we can have decent grids on those races.
 
T
Fair play to them for doing this but going back to rf2 is jarring. I tried the radical and tatuus and they’re just awful, I was reminded of how inconsistent rf2’s content is.
It does show though how eager sim racers are for ranked multiplayer.
There needs to be a serious rival to Iracing, it’s 2023, every sims main focus should be it’s multiplayer yet despite being one of the oldest sims, Iracing is still light years ahead of everyone else.
 
M
Premium
Turn1Hero said:
Fair play to them for doing this but going back to rf2 is jarring. I tried the radical and tatuus and they’re just awful, I was reminded of how inconsistent rf2’s content is.
It does show though how eager sim racers are for ranked multiplayer.
There needs to be a serious rival to Iracing, it’s 2023, every sims main focus should be it’s multiplayer yet despite being one of the oldest sims, Iracing is still light years ahead of everyone else.
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I know it looks better on a screen but the big thing i found going back was how it looked in vr, I dont know if there is a cure for the colours and exposure but i am sure openxr toolkit gives me options there so I will have a look.
One more thing I think it could probably do is provide some basic setup for the cars that works for most people. It is something that iracing has done well for multiplayer, they do give you setups that work well and you can fine tune from there rather than being miles out.
I know some will say you have to do your own but you have to think of the wider audience you want to attract.
 
M
Premium
metalnwood said:
I know it looks better on a screen but the big thing i found going back was how it looked in vr, I dont know if there is a cure for the colours and exposure but i am sure openxr toolkit gives me options there so I will have a look.
One more thing I think it could probably do is provide some basic setup for the cars that works for most people. It is something that iracing has done well for multiplayer, they do give you setups that work well and you can fine tune from there rather than being miles out.
I know some will say you have to do your own but you have to think of the wider audience you want to attract.
Click to expand...
RF2 Settings Widget is an app I use for VR, helps a lot.
I have been mostly playing AMS2/AC recently and going back to RF2 it does look a bit crude but it has a certain look I really like and the BMW feels good after a lot of tweaking to the FFB. The radical I liked well enough but couldn’t get on with the open wheeler.
RaceControl looks like a winner, numbers are still incredibly strong and interest high. I think people are investing the time in this because they know it will carry over to LMU as well. There are now a fair few of these systems out there. WSS for AC, RCO & Just Race for AMS2, not to mention SimRacing.GP. GTR Revival will also have a similar system.
I wonder if iRacing will feel the pressure and either adjust their pricing or accelerate their development. Their latest tracks look quite good, but the FFB is still very lacking compared to their rivals ( mid corner feel especially ) and the weather system is still not in place. IMO they need to up their game…reminds me a little of when WOW finally started to crumble after looking invincible for many years ( mind you, it’s still going ).
 
Emery
mcroshaw said:
I wonder if iRacing will feel the pressure and either adjust their pricing or accelerate their development.
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Most people on rF2 (or coming to rF2 now) rejected iRacing's pricing model long ago, so until iRacing loses active players, there's not going to be any change there. I don't foresee a shift in active players at iRacing happening for at least 1.5 years; people already have paid-up memberships AND they have to be convinced that switching platforms will be beneficial enough that they let their memberships lapse.
 
T
metalnwood said:
I know it looks better on a screen but the big thing i found going back was how it looked in vr, I dont know if there is a cure for the colours and exposure but i am sure openxr toolkit gives me options there so I will have a look.
One more thing I think it could probably do is provide some basic setup for the cars that works for most people. It is something that iracing has done well for multiplayer, they do give you setups that work well and you can fine tune from there rather than being miles out.
I know some will say you have to do your own but you have to think of the wider audience you want to attract.
Click to expand...
There is a cure for the colours and it's called PBR. If you take a closer look at tracks like Zandvoort, Portland, Lime Rock or Loch Drummond you will notice that the tracks look a bit more natural and that vegetation blends alot better. The materials and shaders are more up to date. Mills Metro Park, Toban and a few others haven't been updated properly in ages to take advantage of all the new tech that the studio incorporated into the new graphics pipeline. I thought about the starter content issue the other day aswell and think that it is a bit of a double edged sword. When I trialed iRacing there was Lime Rock, Okayama, Laguna, Charlotte and Summit Point, so not all that much and in rather poor quality aswell.

So in that regard rF2 has quite a bit more to offer for free. There is still a replacement for Silverstone coming, wich sadly got removed from the sim and I feel that when they update all the little tracks like Atlanta, Mills, Toban, NOLA, Matsusaka and a couple of others you have a rather big amount of starter tracks and a huge amount of configs. There is also Interlagos and Sepang, wich they might not update due to the tracks being done for LMU. So all in all the amount of content is there, it's just the quality that needs to be beefed up a bit. I guess noone had an issue with racing at Mills during last week. Then you have all the historic stuff ... but I don't see historic Monaco working on any platform right now :p
 
Durge Driven
metalnwood said:
One more thing I think it could probably do is provide some basic setup for the cars that works for most people. It is something that iracing has done well for multiplayer, they do give you setups that work well and you can fine tune from there rather than being miles out.
I know some will say you have to do your own but you have to think of the wider audience you want to attract.
Click to expand...

For me this has always been a huge sticking point.
When a racer drives a new car they don't set it up so it understeers straight off at first turn.
In fact they should go one further and have at least 3 setups per car under/neutral/over and replays and lap times to verify.
Yes I believe this approach would grab more into the fold.

On content update S397 have gone far beyond what most Studios do in this regard.
Kunos and Reiza updating tracks for 10+ years ? , yeah I would like to see that. :rolleyes:
Something the vast majority don't consider or give credit where due. :coffee:

AC sold 28 million copies ? and they update nothing. :O_o: they got your backs ! :roflmao:
 
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T
Durge Driven said:
For me this has always been a huge sticking point.
When a racer drives a new car they don't set it up so it understeers straight off at first turn.
In fact they should go one further and have at least 3 setups per car under/neutral/over and replays and lap times to verify.
Yes I believe this approach would grab more into the fold.

On content update S397 have gone far beyond what most Studios do in this regard.
Kunos and Reiza updating tracks for 10+ years ? , yeah I would like to see that. :rolleyes:
Something the vast majority don't consider or give credit where due. :coffee:

AC sold 28 million copies ? and they update nothing. :O_o: they got your backs ! :roflmao:
Click to expand...
Sorry Durge, but you are approaching this content-update issue from the wrong perspective. Kunos sold 28 million copies because they never needed to update their content all that much. They had one bigger track update and that was it. All tracks felt cohesive in terms of visual style, quality, driving and fidelity right from the start so to speak. Same goes for the cars. Every piece of content in that sim feels as if it belongs into the same product. It hurts me to say this as an rF2 fan but for rF2 that's simply not the case. For rF2 - and I think you might agree with me on this - especialy the big variance in visual quality is one of the factors that makes it feel a bit less polished. Hence less copies were sold. Just imagine how good the sim was recieved if the BT20 had the quality of the 488 and historic Spa the quality of modern Spa ...
 
Durge Driven
Each to their own, I not going to debate semantics.
You say less polished I say more liveable ;)


My main point stands, S397 have gone beyond what most Studios do in this regard with less resources.

To me the original AC tracks are almost devoid of life, surely you just have to drive some of the better 3rd party content of modders understand terrain construction to know this. I know nothing about modding but I know what I feel.
 
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