“Assetto Corsa Needs More Tracks” (does it?)

[Davide Nativo]

Looking into one of the most debated arguments about the Italian sim.

One of the usual complaints regarding Assetto Corsa was that it does not feature many tracks. Criticism usually revolved around the quite heavily presence of Italian circuits, even minor ones, but almost no tracks from the Asian or American continent. European selection is also limited to a handful of renowned locations.

Personally, I see the reasons behind the discontent, as the total number of tracks is of about 15, 16 whether you consider or not Trento Bondone and the historical ones. Adding to that figure are some fantasy venues like Black Cat County or places like the Drag Strip or the Drift pad, which are limited to very specific use. At the same time though, I stand with those who value quality over quantity, and having a decent collection of laser-scanned tracks is preferable to me than having more but with lower grade consistency.

I am also convinced that this issue is mostly limited to the console players. Why I say that is pretty obvious, I believe: Modding. Xbox One and PlayStation 4 users have no possibilities to extend the AC track roster in any way. PC players instead have a fine selection of circuits available at their disposal, and 90% of these are gratis to download for anyone.

Quality is also very high, with many of these recreations being very faithful to the original, result of many hours of work spent on every fine little detail and sometimes started with even LiDAR data at hand. I think that no one can really argue that at the moment of writing of this article, we have many beautiful tracks free for AC, expanding further the possibilities of the sim.

It really is a matter of being able to make the most of the resources available, searching in the download section, looking for what could suit your needs and enjoy it while thanking the author for his/her work. A suggestion I dare give also is - take your time. Unfortunately, we as simracers have become rather spoiled. When we had just a half dozen cars to be run on a handful of tracks in just a couple of sims, almost nobody used to complain that there wasn’t enough to have fun with. Now that we have a half dozen different sims, each featuring quite a selection of different vehicles and circuits, we always pretend more.

I believe the problem lies within the fact that we do not commit to a car or a track for more than a few hours, after which we feel bored and in need of a change. That is not constructive, and makes us unable to fully appreciate what we are given. Practicing, doing some time attacks, developing consistency, should take days. All that should then converge into racing the AI, looking for or hosting multiplayer competitions on that specific venue. Jumping from place to place, vehicle to vehicle, does not help. I maybe take this a stretch further, but isn’t this kind of behaviour also making us unhappy most of the times in our real lives? Commitment is the answer. As I said in another article of mine, having many choices means that you actually have to make a choice.

Allow me to tell that once again I think that simracing can teach us to be a better person, if we use it as a proper tool of personal growth. If used improperly, it can favour bad habits that we already exhibit in our daily lives, and maybe worsen them. If put to proper use, it can become a way to weed out those bad ways and help us find a better balance.

Therefore, look back now at the circuits you have in AC, both official and 3rd party ones, thinking what would happen if you’d decide to spend even just a week on each, perhaps with different cars and in different conditions but always on the same location. With the clear intention of knowing it by heart and learn it in every detail, appreciating all that went behind it, whoever built it. Now tell me you still believe there are not enough tracks for you to have fun with, if you do.

Oh boy do we like mods! If you do too then we have you covered with our fantastic Assetto Corsa modding archive. From downloads to a place for mod discussion, we have it all for you to enjoy, check it out today! If you don't fancy trying out some of the awesome community created tracks and cars then drop in on our Assetto Corsa sub forum to chat about the game with your fellow fans. Interaction and threads make forums fun, so start one today!

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[Patrik Marek]

My answer the original question: No, AC does not needs more tracks.

But it would be great to have some more epic race tracks in high quality from Kunos. I think of tracks like Hockenheim, Lausitzring, Oschersleben, Misano, Fuji, Motegi, Suzuka, Le Mans, Montreal, Kyalami, Targa florio.


Cheers

lol,

No, it doesn't need more tracks, and here is my list of additional 11 tracks it should have

aren't you contradicting yourself here a bit ?

 

[ppnhzk]

Not having read all the responses I just throw some of my opinion in here:
It would be good to have at least 20 real world tracks with a decent variety for any potent sim. Though in this case I only miss the variety. Like it would be great to have Le Mans, Donington, Watkins Glen officially available (Only for multiplayer if nothing else. Iconic locations like Nordschleife and Spa are being played 24/7 online).
However the versions of these tracks available here are pretty great, the only problem is that they are not coming with the game. I am extremely pleased with AC modded tracks in general. My biggest technical problem is the AI behaviour, which is a problem associated with the game mostly, not necessarily the skill of the mapper.
So, in the end I am looking more into the future, whether these accurately recreated gems will be available for the next great sim (ACC or AC2 hopefully). The level of quality is so high that if the conversion process will be easy enough you would have a ton of content available for a fairly new game in a fairly short amount of time (Tracks converted from rFactor to AC need much more work). Without the ease of modding any simulator would fall flat in terms of content. Maybe not necessarily on the car front though. Project Cars 2 is a decent sim with a greater focus on content, but it is still far away from what AC can offer on the right platform.

 

[elloLeo Kinnunen]

I would love to see more tracks from other sims offered as licenced dlc in AC (and the other way around). I hope that reiza Ibarra coming to rf2 is not the first and last time this happens.

 

[Butzemann]

lol,

No, it doesn't need more tracks, and here is my list of additional 11 tracks it should have

aren't you contradicting yourself here a bit ?

Not intentionaly It was meant more in the way "No, but...". Instead of having tracks like black cat, highland, drift and drag I would appreciate one, or more than one of the eleven.

 

[Authense]

lol,

No, it doesn't need more tracks, and here is my list of additional 11 tracks it should have

aren't you contradicting yourself here a bit ?

No, that is not a contradiction. It could have 1000 tracks yet one could wish for some other tracks.

 

[BernL]

Was AC fan, but really, it's sugar coated. Sebring to the highest level .

 

[FurryestXYTDJ]

I prefer to wait until Assetto Corsa 2 Trailer is dropped in a couple of years.

Kunos Simulatione knows that there is more people that play Assetto Corsa than Competizione, and they know that some day: RF3, I-Racing 2 or NFS Shift 4 (i dont hate PC3 in fact i love it as a Sim-Arcade) or some other game will come to get the throne, and they surely dont want to lose the throne of the "Simulation Style" Racing Games.



i dont wanna say it but recently (in early march) i was on Montmello (Catalunya Circuit) with friends on a trackday, and there was some Kunos Staff & Company vehicles on the parking.

Me & my friends were hyping like fangirls, i think that they were taking pictures and laser scans of the new modification of the track, you know the turn 10

SOO SICK

 

[mantasisg]

I prefer to wait until Assetto Corsa 2 Trailer is dropped in a couple of years.

Kunos Simulatione knows that there is more people that play Assetto Corsa than Competizione, and they know that some day: RF3, I-Racing 2 or NFS Shift 4 (i dont hate PC3 in fact i love it as a Sim-Arcade) or some other game will come to get the throne, and they surely dont want to lose the throne of the "Simulation Style" Racing Games.

Everybody knows that more people play AC than ACC. However, we must admit that ACC numbers are very impressive assuming that there are so many people that prefers AC for how it is and that there is so much more content variety and because it is moddable, there is potential for its content variety keep on expanding, not to mention modders that keeps on surprising with AC core mods...

While I am sure there is certain benefit of AC huge success to ACC too, as inevitably it links many people there. I think AC devs and most importantly managers still possibly regret that they have made it too flexible with not enough obsolescence to it. Obsolescence was never their point of concern about AC because they haven't anticipated it being a hit in the first place...

I think longevity of AC is to be loved and hated at the same time. First of all, it is amazing to have such well developed and nicely balanced sim. However, it is time to move on, there is a lot to improve in terms of physics, graphics, audio and so on and on. And it is unfortunate aspect of simracers culture that we tend to stagnate on some single sim, slowly forming communities and very immobile in terms of shuffling between different sims, or anything different.... It is awful to think that many will remain "loyal" to AC forever. That is very unfortunate when talking about "Assetto Corsa 2". It would almost certainly not be the same AC just stepped up. It would have some more planned obsolescence to it...

People don't talk about it, but simracing as it was done in mind for rF2 originally and AC. Great variety of content, modability, longevity, or even prime focus on physics is over... It is done, say goodbye to it. Everything devs will do, will be focusing on most modern stuff, stuff that is hot today and that no one cares about next year. Focusing on competition in esports instead of quality of realism, not to mention single player fun stuff and just simply experience of cars. Say goodbye to modding, next generation of simracers will be too lazy and too clueless for that anyway.

R.I.P simracing future (unless Reiza does something very good, and also if I am wrong about future of rFactor)

 

[Johnr777]

All personal opinions and speculations... no one knows what the future will bring, sim racing will definitely not die.

AC1 also has a ton of life left... Pro race teams use it, tons of leagues, e-sports, companies use it to showcase new projects. Very solid platform.

Modding and content creation on the other hand... I can see more quality content behind paywalls or kept private... too many bad apples around

 

[mantasisg]

Yeah, simracing won't die, I can see thousands of folks continue playing AC for upcoming decade, S397 will probably not do anything that would feel like they really continuing what ISI could have done and which would truly impress lots of people, Reiza will still struggle catching the wave, iRacing will just keep on being like it is fundamentaly, Kunos will do lots of more ACC equivalent games as it will prove to be good business.

I don't see positive evolution of simracing as we saw it untill few years ago. It will just simply become less indy and more corporate. Less long lasting titles, and more planned obsolescence (yes I watched Veritasium lately lol). Less focus on improving actual realism simulation and more focus on competition simulation - esports, as we will further witness attempts of growing industry on it. It will continue being less about enthusiasm about cars, and more about syncing with present realities of motorsport... It won't die as it is, but in my very pessimistic opinion it is just not going to grow any better, perhaps will get less awesome and true. Additionally IMO simulation has reached such level at which people has no idea when changes makes for progress or regress, because perceptions on which people judge stuff is all over the place, sometimes it seems that people (or especially gamers) loose interest in real life in the first place, of which observations should be the foundation of any judgements. People just give up thinking, and that tendency expands way further into everyday life situations... I don't see any reason for simulation going higher up, if people themselves continuously get less in touch with reality. It is like... cancelled

To me simracing consists of two major things - experiencing realism + experiencing racing. It is possible that "sim-" part is done, cooked, fully prepared for what is required for consumption, finito. From now on it is just "-racing" and profiting. Thats just what people need want, and thats it.

AC2 ? Doubt so much... ACC new title of some different racing series - very likely.

 

[Dr. Death]

Oh thread revived? AC1 wont live "forever" in the same way rfactor 1 is dying. AC1 will live until a new game with super mod friendly capabilities and multi class racing comes along. If Kunos does **** well enough (considering Stefano left and Kunos didn't hire x4fab yet, im not sure about that) AC2 could release and just take the throne. Games live and die on modding, so Kunos has to think very carefully if they even want to make an AC2, if they could, and see how to improve on AC1.

 

[Timodor]

My view, Kunos shouldn't of abandoned AC. They should continue with track packs like Reiza is doing with AM2. There are so many good quality track's missing that is needed in AC, 1980's and 1990's F1 tracks, also GT3 tracks if your into that. Also the Ai need's to be fixed. The tyre model should be developed further. Then I will say it's complete. It's no huge task, they could get it down in 6 Months, and it will probably bring them more money then ACC in long run. 20+ more, tracks, fix the Ai, and improved tyre model. Then start working on AC2, with new better physics, rain, graphics etc. The reality is we will prorably not see AC2 in the next 3 years. Better to make AC better while people wait. Maybe Reiza should bring their tracks to AC.