Open Letter to Kunos Simulazioni and the Community

Status
Not open for further replies.

RaceDepartment

Administrator
Staff
Open Letter Kunos Simulazioni.jpg

Dear Kunos Simulazioni,

There is no doubt that what you have managed to achieve over the lifetime of Assetto Corsa, from its early access period to it's current state (v1.1), has been incredibly impressive, especially considering the relative size of your development team (approximately 15 people, we believe). From the humble beginnings of a single track, and a couple of sports cars, Assetto Corsa has become one of the highest selling racing games on steam, and deservedly so, thanks to intelligent investment, ultra-high quality (and popular) content, unparalleled driving physics, and a vast expanse of modding capability. Assetto Corsa easily has the most potential to be something truly great out of all the current simulators on the market today.

However, despite all of these fantastic things, there is still one aspect of Assetto Corsa (that we here at RaceDepartment are especially passionate about) that is detracting from the rest of the game in a significant way: Multiplayer functionality, usability and netcode solidity. In its present state, we feel that the quality of the multiplayer experience is still vastly inadequate in comparison to not only the the rest of Assetto Corsa's competition, but inferior even to that of games seen in the early-mid 2000's. From a users perspective, the way Assetto Corsa handles latency differences and especially collisions, is not exactly what you would call a pretty sight, and this must be addressed if Assetto Corsa is to be taken seriously by online racing communities such as this one.

Having a well-oiled multiplayer machine, so to speak, is essential to the long term sustainability of a simulator to not only remain relevant to the consumer, but to have them coming back for more (iRacing, rFactor 2 and Game Stock Car Extreme are all excellent examples of this, and all of them, incidentally, are your direct competitors in the sim market). Unfortunately at the present moment, we don't feel that Assetto Corsa's multiplayer currently offers the stability and function required to keep the clients coming back for more. As a result, we've seen a distinct trend in our RaceDepartment club races where we have a vast influx of drivers soon after a significant update, and then a significant drop off in participation within a period of a week or so, as the drivers quickly realise that the other competing racing sims still offer more features and enjoyment during multiplayer races.

Properly functioning multiplayer races with fully supported features including sector splits, live timing, broadcast/spectator mode, stable netcode for high ping users, reverse grid features, multiple races, far more numerous number of grid slots (what GT series races with only 24 cars?), pitstop improvements and many many more features are all necessary for a complete and sustainable sim that will not only be profitable for you in the long run, but will also maximize the users enjoyment and will vastly increase the life span of the sim.

If you look at it from a 'man and machine versus the track' perspective, then few other racing sims out there can compete with what Assetto Corsa offers in terms of physics, sound and track immersion, providing what is probably the best hot-lapping and practice simulator available to the consumer ever created. However, looking at it as a 'multiplayer racing sim', then you quickly realise just how far Assetto Corsa seems to be lagging behind the competition.

We completely understand that such things take time to develop, and we are more than willing to be patient and wait for improvements for the multiplayer side of things to progress, however, Assetto Corsa has been in development now for more than enough time to warrant an acceptable standard of multiplayer functionality and stability. Given the huge level of success that Assetto Corsa has experienced, we believe that budgetary constraints might not represent such a big hurdle anymore for the studio, especially in terms of netcode investment.

Whilst it cannot be stressed enough just how amazing the quality of the content (cars and tracks) has been, we here at RaceDepartment feel very strongly that you, Kunos Simulazioni, must shift your attention from implementing new cars and tracks to improving the functionality of the game. If it is not addressed soon, then you'll run a real risk of seeing a significant and rapid decline in the population of the Assetto Corsa user-base.

As the largest SimRacing community in the world, we sincerely hope that the issues highlighted above will be focused on more heavily in future, as we believe that Assetto Corsa has the potential to be one of the top class racing simulators on the market.

In closing, we would like to leave you with one final thought, and that's that; whilst it's a surreal and genuinely spine-tingling experience to be able to drive highly accurate replications of legendary race tracks and cars, what is the point of all of this incredible content, if the limitations of the game's functionality and usability are preventing us from realising its full potential?

Hopefully in the not too distant future, Assetto Corsa will prove to be the amazing racing simulator that we, and everyone else, know it has the potential to be.

Kind Regards,
RaceDepartment.

Cari Kunos Simulazioni,
Non c'è dubbio che quello che siete riusciti a realizzare con Assetto Corsa, dalla sua fase early access alla sua versione corrente (1.1), sia stato incredibilmente notevole, specialmente considerando le dimensioni del team di sviluppo (circa 15 persone, crediamo).
Dai suoi umili inizi con un singolo tracciato e qualche auto sportiva, Assetto Corsa è diventato uno dei racing game più venduti su Steam, meritatamente, per via degli investimenti intelligenti, contenuti di qualità altissima (e popolari), fisica di guida impareggiabile ed un vasto supporto al modding.

Assetto Corsa ha indubbiamente il maggior potenziale per diventare qualcosa di davvero grandioso tra tutti i simulatori al momento sul mercato.

Ma, nonostante tutte queste fantastiche qualità, c'è ancora un aspetto di Assetto Corsa (a cui noi di RaceDepartment siamo particolarmente appassionati) che detrae dal resto del gioco in maniera significativa: la funzionalità, usabilità e stabilità del netcode in Multiplayer.
Crediamo che la qualità dell'esperienza multiplayer, nel suo stato attuale, sia ancora in gran parte inadeguata se confrontata non solo con i suoi rivali, ma anche con simulatori dei primi anni 2000.

Dal punto di vista dell'utente, il modo in cui Assetto Corsa gestisce le differenze di latenza e specialmente le collisioni non è esattamente ideale, e questo deve essere migliorato se il titolo vuole essere preso sul serio dalle comunità di racing online come la nostra.
Avere un sistema multiplayer ben oliato, per così dire, è essenziale alla sostenibilità a lungo termine di un simulatore - non solo per rimanere rilevante per il consumatore, ma anche per fare in modo che questo ritorni (iRacing, rFactor 2 e Game Stock Car Extreme sono tutti ottimi esempi, e che tra l'altro sono tutti vostri diretti competitori nel mercato dei simulatori).

Sfortunatamente al momento non ci sembra che il multiplayer di Assetto Corsa offra la stabilità e le funzionalità richieste per fare in modo che i clienti ritornino.

Come diretto risultato, abbiamo notato una marcata tendenza nelle corse del nostro RaceDepartment club in cui abbiamo un grande influsso di giocatori immediatamente dopo un aggiornamento importante, per poi vedere una significativa diminuzione nel giro di una settimana circa, man mano che i piloti si rendono conto che gli altri competitori nel mercato dei racing sim offrono più funzionalità per le corse in multiplayer.

Corse in multiplayer propriamente funzionanti con caratteristiche come split per i settori, cronometraggio in tempo reale, modalità spettatore\di trasmissione, netcode stabile per gli utenti con un ping alto, modalità a griglia invertita, corse multiple, un numero molto maggiore di posti sulla griglia (quale corsa GT ha solo 24 auto?), miglioramenti ai pitstop ed altre ancora sono necessarie per un simulatore completo e sostenibile che non solo sarà redditizio per voi, ma massimizzerà anche il divertimento degli utenti e aumenterà sostanzialmente l'arco di vita del vostro titolo.

Guardandolo dalla prospettiva di “uomo e macchina contro il tracciato”, pochi altri simulatori sul mercato possono competere con quello che offre Assetto Corsa in termini di fisica, sonoro ed immersione su pista, creando quella che è probabilmente il miglior simulatore di hot-lapping e pratica mai creato e venduto al consumatore.
Tuttavia, guardandolo come un “simulatore di corse in multiplayer”, ci si rende conto che Assetto Corsa è piuttosto indietro rispetto ai suoi rivali.

Noi capiamo completamente che cose del genere richiedono tempo per essere sviluppate, e siamo più che volenterosi di essere pazienti ed aspettare dei miglioramenti al multiplayer, ma Assetto Corsa è ormai in fase di sviluppo da abbastanza tempo per garantire uno standard accettabile di funzionalità e stabilità nelle modalità online.
Visto l'enorme successo che Assetto Corsa ha avuto, crediamo che i limiti di budget forse non siano più un grande ostacolo per lo studio, particolarmente in termini di investimento sul netcode.

Sebbene la qualità dei contenuti (sia auto che tracciati) sia davvero incredibile, noi di RaceDepartment crediamo fortemente che voi, Kunos Simulazioni, dobbiate spostare la vostra attenzione dall'implementare nuovi contenuti al migliorare la funzionalità del gioco. Se questi problemi non saranno risolti a breve, allora correrete il rischio di vedere un declino rapido e significativo del bacino d'utenza di Assetto Corsa.
Come la più grande community di SimRacing nel mondo, noi crediamo sinceramente che i problemi di cui abbiamo scritto sopra riceveranno più attenzione in futuro, perché crediamo che Assetto Corsa abbia il potenziale per diventare IL simulatore di corse sul mercato.

In chiusura, vorremmo lasciarvi con un ultimo pensiero: mentre essere in grado di guidare repliche incredibilmente accurate di auto e tracciati leggendari è un'esperienza surreale e davvero eccitante, a cosa servono tutti questi contenuti eccezionali se le limitazioni della funzionalità ed usabilità del gioco ci impediscono di realizzare tutto il loro potenziale?

Speriamo che in un futuro non troppo lontano Assetto Corsa dimostrerà di essere l'incredibile simulatore di corse che noi, così come chiunque altro, sappiamo che può diventare.

Cordiali saluti,
RaceDepartment.
 
I dont agree with the sentiment if you want it to get better you need to keep supporting them by buying dlc. That then starts to sound like a poncy scheme.
Is not that poncy.. we have fine examples in sim racing that without constant revenue you don't build such a game easily. For example live for speed, simraceway, raceroom (but they're back on the good path with sector3). Those games stagnated (again, except raceroom which is back on track). Iracing also massively needs funds to keep doing what they're doing.. would gran turismo and forza build such games with ordinary funds.
 
I dont agree with the sentiment if you want it to get better you need to keep supporting them by buying dlc.
It's not a sentiment, it's a financial fact. If AC isn't a profitable venture Kunos simply won't be able to make new content for it for free.

Gaming has changed, the old days of buying a finished game that never changes are gone. AC is a platform. There's going to be hundreds of free mods over the years and every so often we'll get content from Kunos that is of a higher quality than any mod could be just because of the resources they have.

It is going to be interesting to see where they go from here. The nords is an especially popular track, it was bound to sell. It might be hard finding another track with the same appeal.
 
That was a well composed, clear, and most of all - respectful - letter to Kunos. (If anything it was too flattering - ;))

If I was a part of the Kunos Team, this is the type of constructive feedback from customers I would love to receive.

The state of the MP functionality of AC compared to other sims plainly shows its deficiencies.

The only item I would have like to have seen added to the RD letter would have been to ask Kunos to give their refinement of the AI high priority which I place in importance above MP.

A tip of the hat to the composers of this missive. It is a textbook example of a proper and professional feedback letter. :thumbsup:
 
AC could be so much more but now it's just an hotlap simulator.If Kunos would do these following change,the game would step into major league and become my gotc.

-fix ai
-add pit stop in SP
-add dynamic weather and temperature
-add multiple light sources
-add day/night transition
-improve penalty system
-improve flag system
-rework system for multiple track layout and cars.(see the following)

Right now,Kunos duplicate tracks and cars to have multiple layout and class.

Say a track/car is 200mb big and has 3 layouts/class,well there you go 600mb big while a config file telling which object to show/hide ,which AI line to use,which car part to show/hide, which powercurve to use... could have done the job saving you 400 mb by using a 2kb .ini file.

That might not be much but do this for cars and tracks and you get to save gigabytes of data.
 
AC could be so much more but now it's just an hotlap simulator.If Kunos would do these following change,the game would step into major league and become my gotc.

-fix ai
-add pit stop in SP
-add dynamic weather and temperature
-add multiple light sources
-add day/night transition
-improve penalty system
-improve flag system
-rework system for multiple track layout and cars.(see the following)

Right now,Kunos duplicate tracks and cars to have multiple layout and class.

Say a track/car is 200mb big and has 3 layouts/class,well there you go 600mb big while a config file telling which object to show/hide ,which AI line to use,which car part to show/hide, which powercurve to use... could have done the job saving you 400 mb by using a 2kb .ini file.

That might not be much but do this for cars and tracks and you get to save gigabytes of data.

FYI, AC now supports multiple layouts of a track without having to download it 2 or 3 times. Its in the patch notes somewhere...concerning the issues you mention about multiple light sources, day night and weather.... i would start looking for another sim if i were you :)
 
AC could be so much more but now it's just an hotlap simulator.If Kunos would do these following change,the game would step into major league and become my gotc.

-fix ai
-add pit stop in SP
-add dynamic weather and temperature
-add multiple light sources
-add day/night transition
-improve penalty system
-improve flag system
-rework system for multiple track layout and cars.(see the following)

Right now,Kunos duplicate tracks and cars to have multiple layout and class.

Say a track/car is 200mb big and has 3 layouts/class,well there you go 600mb big while a config file telling which object to show/hide ,which AI line to use,which car part to show/hide, which powercurve to use... could have done the job saving you 400 mb by using a 2kb .ini file.

That might not be much but do this for cars and tracks and you get to save gigabytes of data.
You basically summed up all the features that rFactor 2 had for years.
 
AC could be so much more but now it's just an hotlap simulator.If Kunos would do these following change,the game would step into major league and become my gotc.

-fix ai
-add pit stop in SP
-add dynamic weather and temperature
-add multiple light sources
-add day/night transition
-improve penalty system
-improve flag system
-rework system for multiple track layout and cars.(see the following)

Right now,Kunos duplicate tracks and cars to have multiple layout and class.

Say a track/car is 200mb big and has 3 layouts/class,well there you go 600mb big while a config file telling which object to show/hide ,which AI line to use,which car part to show/hide, which powercurve to use... could have done the job saving you 400 mb by using a 2kb .ini file.

That might not be much but do this for cars and tracks and you get to save gigabytes of data.
You wrote exactly the opposite from what this open letter from RD suggests. Because adding night, multiple source lights, rain etc.. will still keep it as hotlap simulator (except the fix ai). So please read again the letter from RD :)
 
You are money-grabbers. If AC wasn't viable to profit off of, you wouldn't have made this post. You'd be pleading to ISI or someone else to make it better "for the community", when in reality it's to make your own finances work on the back of other people's hard work.
I think it's completely the case that Bram and others love the game and want to compete in a multiplayer setting but feel,rightfully so,it still falls shorter than it should given the length of time the game has been in development.

As far as making money,it takes money to keep things going.Hobbies are not free and most of the time can be quite expensive so you need to have a pay to play attitude or you might as well take up watching sunsets for your hobby.I think if it comes down to it there are enough people that love racing at this community raising funds won't ever be a problem because i know most guys will gladly pay more for there membership since its already a good bargain imo.It's a fraction of what some other communities extract from there members and yet the dedication of staff who are mostly volunteers in organizing club racing and leagues are second to none imo.:)
 
I am not sure how this thread turned into a looking for a reason as to why RD staff wrote a letter on their own site! The sad truth is - AC is the BEST hotlap simulator and nothing more! I love the sim and will support Kunos regardless but at this point, the Netcode, Collisions, AI and lack of some basic features is a fact and yes there are people who will say "but Kunos are a small team"....fair enough, this probably is the reason for the current state of AC but this doesn't change the fact that all of the above is currently NOT good enough.

Hopefully the letter will fulfill it's main purpose - to show Kunos that there are plenty of people who want a proper online experience in AC.
 
FYI, AC now supports multiple layouts of a track without having to download it 2 or 3 times. Its in the patch notes somewhere...concerning the issues you mention about multiple light sources, day night and weather.... i would start looking for another sim if i were you :)

I still don't believe they uses this system,i've been looking/playing in config files since the alpha stages.If it they were actually doing this then id know it.Feel free to prove me wrong thought. ;)

I've been looking for other sims and tried a bunch,i'll have to make up my mind eventually but each of them have their good and bad.I doubt i'll ever get the sim i dream of anytime soon. :(

You wrote exactly the opposite from what this open letter from RD suggests. Because adding night, multiple source lights, rain etc.. will still keep it as hotlap simulator (except the fix ai). So please read again the letter from RD :)

I wasn't really responding to the letter directly but just putting my personal opinion about AC.

You basically summed up all the features that rFactor 2 had for years.

Yes but it's too bad,the game uses dx9 while their engine could greatly benefit from dx11.The modding scene is pretty dead too.That make me sad for ISI.
 
here is no doubt that what you have managed to achieve over the lifetime of Assetto Corsa, from its early access period to it's current state (v1.1), has been incredibly impressive, especially considering the relative size of your development team (approximately 15 people, we believe). From the humble beginnings of a single track, and a couple of sports cars, Assetto Corsa has become one of the highest selling racing games on steam, and deservedly so, thanks to intelligent investment, ultra-high quality (and popular) content, unparalleled driving physics, and a vast expanse of modding capability. Assetto Corsa easily has the most potential to be something truly great out of all the current simulators on the market today.

I agree with that part of the letter and since I am part of the players not really interested in MP, the AI and I are wishing you good luck getting a better MP experience, hoping there will be more ultra high quality content with unparalleled driving physics in another DLC sooner than latter for me to purchase.
 
The thing is, especially nowadays... Without a good online, the game will die quickly. Right now it's not an attractive option for competitive simracers, it's fun to just do a "track day" and cruise around, but the actual racing is very average. No features at all.

There's a reason why GPL, GTL, GTR, rFactor, etc... have survived for so long, and it's thanks to simracers who wanted to race others online.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest News

Online or Offline racing?

  • 100% online racing

    Votes: 90 7.6%
  • 75% online 25% offline

    Votes: 124 10.4%
  • 50% online 50% offline

    Votes: 171 14.4%
  • 25% online 75% offline

    Votes: 335 28.2%
  • 100% offline racing

    Votes: 464 39.1%
  • Something else, explain in comment

    Votes: 4 0.3%
Back
Top