Racecraft online?

[LMP Basher]

Bumping this a bit here.
Somehow, it looks like RCO is still not getting the traction/audience it deserves.
Does someone have a clue on why this could be?

 

[Kurupt CDN]

Bumping this a bit here.
Somehow, it looks like RCO is still not getting the traction/audience it deserves.
Does someone have a clue on why this could be?

Might be because the game isn't as popular as some think it is?
Looking at steam charts of late, shows the game is peaking at just over 600+ players, which really isn't much, especially if the majority are not MP racers.

Long story short......you need a few thousand players to make mp lobbies good.

Combine that with slow development, a poor MP platform, constant physics changes and a ton of bugs...it's hard to maintain and grow a good base number of players outside of the regular beta testers.

I am a fan of the title and believe, eventually it will get to a good development point which it will hopefully draw more players.
but the past (nearly) 4 yrs of development haven't polished any parts of the title for me to wanna spend any sufficient time with the title other than to test after updates to see what's new or improved.

Just my .02c

 

[mcroshaw]

Quite a few factors I believe...
1.Time trials have been off for a while. Next release is imminent and those will come back. I think their absence has been missed more keenly than people realised.
2.People know there is another physics update coming and maybe want to wait a bit until its out to redo all their setups etc.
3.Lots, and lots, and lots, of distractions. RF2 online came out and has been very popular. Most of the people I know who play AMS2 also play RF2. WSS also came out of beta for their online system for AC ( and ACC ) and that also has been pulling people away.
4.Forza has had an impact, probably on all of the sims that are not iRacing. With iRacing, I don't think it's such an impact because of the sub. If I'm paying a sub for a game I'll keep playing it no matter what.
5.Tons of other big games came out like BG3/Starfield etc, I know I've been distracted and put a few hundred hours into those. That's a few hundred hours I would probably have been playing my main sims ( AMS2/AC/RF2 ).

Reasons to be hopeful...
1.Multiplayer testing has ramped up along with improved multiplayer logging. I know this because I've been taking part in some of them.
2.I believe time trials will be back within the week.
3.RCO isn't going anywhere, it's pretty well self sustained by its core userbase and the developers have really improved it over the past 6 months. Improvements in the upcoming patch will directly benefit it ( can't say more ).
4.SimRacing.GP has picked up ASM2 so more online players might be pulled in. JustRace seems to have more on it as well. All these systems feed into each other.

 

[Lloyd Johnston]

I had a look at it: https://www.racecraft.online/

But didn't see anyone signed up to the races, which is a damn shame.

Is there anything to be gained from racing the AI?

 

[LMP Basher]

I had a look at it: https://www.racecraft.online/

But didn't see anyone signed up to the races, which is a damn shame.

Is there anything to be gained from racing the AI?

Hi,
S. ELO not so much with only AI. But you can gain Safety and Consistency rating.

 

[mcroshaw]

I had a look at it: https://www.racecraft.online/

But didn't see anyone signed up to the races, which is a damn shame.

Is there anything to be gained from racing the AI?

It depends on the time zone tbh. In EU evenings you will find people signed up. Not big grids by any means, but enough for some good races ( sometimes with AI, depends how many ). You still gain safety and consistency from racing the AI. I've had some really good races against them as well. It's a bit quiet atm...everybody is playing the latest and greatest. Once the patch eventually hits and time trials are back I expect it will pick up a bit.

 

[Lord Razz]

One of the best times to race against other is 5:00 pm EST. It's after work on the east coast and evening in the EU. I have the most people in grids at that time. Most of the bumping etc comes from lack of practice and being new. Most people are quite respectful

 

[jappygamer]

that service is great and very intuitive.
It only needs more people to discover it while we wait for reiza launching their online competition some decade!

 

[aredM]

For those interested, Racecraft Online is doing another Grid Size test tonight. The dev thinks that the instability issue with larger grids has been solved. Last Monday we got up to 17 players per split, today we're aiming for 20-25.
For those who liked RCO in the past but left because disconnect issues, that might be good news. Player numbers have been up a bit since the release of Le Mans/Endurance pack 1, and we're hoping bigger and more stable grids will keep it that way. Maybe even allow some multiclass Endurance racing in the future, who knows?

Anyway, if you're not doing the LMDH/GT3 on RaceDepartment tonight and like to help with the test, feel free to join.

 

[akephoe]

I like racecraft online so far.
Had some nice races there, good choice of classes and tracks.

 

[mcroshaw]

I like racecraft online so far.
Had some nice races there, good choice of classes and tracks.

its been a good few weeks for racecraft, now is a good time to get in. Grids are getting bigger and AMS2 is getting more popular.

 

[Michael Krone]

Just signed up!

 

[CreamyCornCob]

Saw this last night, and saw this thread.
It so convoluted in comparison to just finding a class/lobby and go.

I was listening more than watching but it sounds like you have to practice offline on one of theirs to unlock qualifying to race on their service? By then the race is over aint it? Makes no sense just to get a quality race. I understand all that - public servers/nazi corner bombers etc compared to.
A few days old> Convoluted -

 

[BenJay84]

I was listening more than watching but it sounds like you have to practice offline on one of theirs to unlock qualifying to race on their service? By then the race is over aint it?

To clarify:
You practice in a multiplayer session with others on a dedicated practice server. You only got to do 3 consecutive clean laps on the car/track combo before you can register for the race. This is to ensure that people know the track layout and can handle the specific car.

The races then take place every hour on every day of a given week ('hourlies') or every 3 hours on a specific day of the week ('weeklies'). Only those who registered can join the race server.

Once you have completed the 3 clean laps on the car/track combo, you do not need to do this again and can participate in the respective race as often as you like (e.g. you do your 3 clean practice laps at 6pm, then join the races at 6:30pm, 7:30pm, 8:30pm and so on). Every race session begins with qualifying btw.

Honestly, I just joined RCO recently myself, and once I got the hang of it, it really provides a great and challenging racing experience! Also, it provides a sense of progression as within RCO there are several tiers (Rookie, Bronze, Silver, Gold...) that you can unlock by completing clean races, giving you access to more interesting races and championships. In the higher tiers, the competition is great and for the most part you only race with people who take it serious enough to not bomb you out of turn 1.

Please note: When it says that a race starts at lets say 3pm, it usually takes 2-3 mins before the race server becomes available, ie. it is rarely ready on the minute.

 

[GeekyDeaks]

it sounds like you have to practice offline on one of theirs to unlock qualifying to race on their service? By then the race is over aint it?

To add on what BenJay said, you only have to practice the track layout once and then it's unlocked for any event on that layout. It's really just there to ensure everyone joining at least knows how to get around the track, even if they have never driven the vehicle for the event on it

Racecraft online

Free ranked multiplayer service for sim racers

www.racecraft.online

EDIT: Personally, I think that is a very low bar to entry and I actually quite like it. It's a lot more of a bind for the likes of the Nord, but realistically, if you cannot do three clean laps on that track you are likely to have a very lonely race anyway which kind of negates the whole point of racing on-line

 

[mcroshaw]

Saw this last night, and saw this thread.
It so convoluted in comparison to just finding a class/lobby and go.

I was listening more than watching but it sounds like you have to practice offline on one of theirs to unlock qualifying to race on their service? By then the race is over aint it? Makes no sense just to get a quality race. I understand all that - public servers/nazi corner bombers etc compared to.
A few days old> Convoluted -

Its not convoluted compared to getting an LFM license. You need to do the clean lap challenge once per track layout. You then have a week to race it. That's a very low bar. But if you think its convoluted, stick to open lobbies by all means. Personally, I'd rather spend that 20 mins to get the lap challenge done and have better races for the rest of the week.

 

[roszman]

Saw this last night, and saw this thread.
It so convoluted in comparison to just finding a class/lobby and go.

I was listening more than watching but it sounds like you have to practice offline on one of theirs to unlock qualifying to race on their service? By then the race is over aint it? Makes no sense just to get a quality race. I understand all that - public servers/nazi corner bombers etc compared to.
A few days old> Convoluted -

Hey,

while I am super grateful to Older Gamer for putting racecraft.online on the spotlight, I must say that his description of how to use racecraft is not very spot on.

Check out this video, the whole process is much more starightforward than you think.

 

[manu68]

I am guilty.
Race craft online is a fantastic platform, and it works very well. but I don't use it enough
I have used it for some races, and never had any problem.
The idea to fill the grid with AI is very nice.

Unfortunately, I almost only raced against AI . It is not a problem for me, but for sure a problem in general. (evident comparison with LFM and iracing for example, or even Rfactor 2).

I think it is partially wrong to say that AMS2 is not popular among simracers.
It is just that, like me, a lot of people use it for leisure offline more than hardcore online simracing paltform.

Try racecraft online, you won't lose your time.

 

[aredM]

I'm not gonna blame any user, because everyone is free to spend their sparse time any way they want, but if everyone who said "I don't do racecraft online because there are not enough other humans" would do one or two races per week there, we'd have a very thriving community with full grids

But even though I do 2-3 races per week, I'm guilty of it myself that I'm more likely to join a grid where there are already some humans than one where I'm the first. And that's even though I know that if I register as the first guy, during peak hours usually a couple of people will join me if there's enough time left before the race.

 

[aredM]

By the way, this whole week GT3 Cup is racing on Bathurst, and Saturday evening (EU time) there's an Endurance event for those with Gold license where the whole 12H is simulated in a 72-minute race.