Reliability, Customization and Open World features.

[Dr. Death]

Seriously, im tired of only seeing those 2 features directly related to arcade games. At least open big wide maps can be modded in, but im shocked to see that some light customization to cars cant be added considering that if reliability or things like cars overheating gets added tuning the AFR, Spark timing, valve tuning, and cooling systems could impact the car a lot and how much one can run it without losing power.

Say, why not allow for transmission swaps or engine swaps if the volume of the engine size gets accounted for? why not modify the exhaust to get some for better torque at low or high RPM? why not be able to change a car's tires to all that would fit, change rims, brakes (and i hope brake fading gets introduced in AC2) or modify parts of the body for lighter weight/more aerodynamic parts? why not be able to directly customize a stock car to give it a tuneable stronger suspension? Gran Turismo does right a lot of these things, however i've always opposed the idea that customization should never be related to sim racing. I think those ideas should marry and buy a big house together and have vacations in italy.

All these features would make each car in AC2 feel a lot more unique. And adding reliability and overheating issues would make, say, an AC2 shutoko (if it ever gets added) a lot more than just picking the fastest car and keeping the pedal down for 10 minutes straight.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

A Test Drive Unlimited with real physics would become my go-to-game for sure.

 

[flykas]

A Test Drive Unlimited with real physics would become my go-to-game for sure.

Yes. And this would be something that has never been done before (strangely). I mean, main thing I am after in simulators ir realistic driving, but for some reasons many people relates simulation to track racing and professional sport. Why can't we simulate dangerous driving on public roads instead of trying out in real life? Apart from open world, which requires a lot of resources I was always thinking that it would be so awesome and something unique to have like old Need for Speed 4 just with sim physics.

 

[NeoGrotesk]

A Test Drive Unlimited with real physics would become my go-to-game for sure.

This, 100%. I'm praying that TDU Solar Crown will be a simulator with triple screen support, full wheel support, great physics and handling, etc. Sadly I assume it will be more like a grown-up Forza Horizon, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not quite what I'd want.

I was pretty excited when I saw the initial marketing for Project Cars 3, it looked like they were going to take the gameplay from Gran Turismo/Need For Speed and combine it with the physics of Project Cars. Whilst it wouldn't have been the most realistic simulator, if they'd made that game I think I would've spent hundreds of hours in it. Sadly they didn't.

An open world game/sim with Assetto Corsa physics, features and car roster would be incredible. And it would definitely make it unique in the market.

One important caveat though. They need to make it a good game too.

I've said this before in a few different threads, but sim racing developers really need to look at what other (non-racing) game developers are creating. Sim developers have got really good at simulating cars and tracks, but seem to completely disregard any gameplay features, you know, the stuff we actually do with the cars and tracks. There's so little to keep you motivated to keep playing, to keep progressing, other than racing the same cars round the same tracks and hoping to shave a tenth off your laptime.

The reason that the Codemasters' F1 series and GT/Forza are so much more popular than the 'proper' sims isn't because people love arcade physics, it's because they love gameplay, that's what draws them in and keeps them playing.

Ironically the best sim for a sense of progression and gameplay is iRacing, which people consider to be the most 'hardcore' of sims. It also happens to be by far the most expensive, has pretty terrible tyre physics (imho) and graphics that are only okay at best... but despite all that, its gameplay means it's probably the most popular sim there is.

 

[Moorea]

4 of the top 6 most download AC1 tracks on RD are 15+km, there's a huge demand for this kind of tracks(and that's not counting Shutoku and newer ones like High Force or Union Island)

Obviously this kind of maps take a huge amount of work to make so I don't know if they'd be a worthwile venture from the dev's side but I hope there will be good mod support for them from launch

 

[Dr. Death]

A Test Drive Unlimited with real physics would become my go-to-game for sure.

TDU is still better by many compared to what the dev team would later release. Its almost ironic how close Forza Horizon was to exactly what i was talking about but they decided that people were gonna have too little of an IQ to understand realistic physics and had to dial it down to glorified need for speed handling.

There's BeamNG but its too small scale.

 

[ArkanHell]

Big open world maps gonna be great and im sure it gonna gets a lot of new players to AC2.

Just take a look into https://www.racedepartment.com/news/how-popular-are-our-favourite-pc-racing-sims.307/ as example.
Beam NG have more concurrent players than AC and is not even a finished game, and Euro Truck Simulator 2 its on the top of the list by a HUGE distance. what have both in common? Big maps, the bigger the better.

Then take a look into AC servers, plenty or Nords trackday servers almost full 24/7. This probably means people like long tracks and drive, no need to race.

As a petrolhead i enjoy drive fast as hell but sometimes i like to grab a open roof car, crank my speakers and drive for the pure pleasure of drive, no need to think in setups or be the fastest on the track or whatever, i just wanna drive and looks like more people want the same.

I often envy people on flying sims, when i see "Microsofr Fligth Simulator" i wish "Microsoft Drive Simulator" become reality some day, in the meantime.... I understand this is out of Kunos capabilities, but maybe they can put big maps to drive and even some missions to do into it .

Regards.

 

[Icky427]

A Test Drive Unlimited with real physics would become my go-to-game for sure.

big agree on this. even if its just simple like "upgrade package 1, 2, 3" for most cars, have a couple garages available to buy, and winning money for races. easy, done, take my money.

 

[Dr. Death]

big agree on this. even if its just simple like "upgrade package 1, 2, 3" for most cars, have a couple garages available to buy, and winning money for races. easy, done, take my money.

Haha, that's exactly where i would disagree, i think that being able to customize a car your own way should be essential to the experience of an online free roam open world game.