The Future of Sim Racing - Mixed Bag or Single Series?

[Patrik Marek]

Focused sim on more then single series, that is moddable so that I people can also have fun with their personal projects

but not only single series, Blancpan is great, but I would see it as 'platform' which would then offer another series as expansions

and moddable, becasue modding - imo - expands the longevity of the game title, there are still people playing modded series ported into GT Legends / GTR2 etc. , but probably not many people play something like Colin McRae rally 3

 

[MetalMania]

My vote went to single series, but I'd still like there to be some open-endedness to it for additional full series DLC or mods. I like the progression of a championship, and feel like I've been more "immersed" in single series sims I've run in the past - the original Papyrus Indy Car and Nascar sims, GTR2, the old ISI F1 titles. Although I do like the diversity of RF2 and AC, the overall mix and match nature of them - not always having a "full grid" or all the tracks for a given discipline, sort of feels shallow sometimes. The mod community is great, but it's not really fair to expect or demand that they take the load of filling in all the missing pieces all the time - especially for free. I guess the difficulty is selecting a series that is popular enough to sell well enough to justify doing it. Globally I suppose F1 is king, and in the US it seems like 80% of race fans know nothing but NASCAR and the Indy 500 (but ignore the rest of the Indy Car season).

I know this isn't a "wish list" topic (or is it?), but I would insta-buy a quality full-series sim of current Indy Car or IMSA Weathertech (with bonus! Continental Sports Car Challenge included!). I don't know if either of those are even a blip on the radar of race fans outside the US, but IMO it's really good racing and the cars are super cool. RF2 now has official GTE ("GTLM" in IMSA speak), GT3 ("GT Daytona"), and P2 ("DPi" are based on them...), so they're sort of half way there already for IMSA. Add to that arguably the best current support for multi-class and day-night transitions... sorry, I'm going off on a tangent.

I like the idea of adding something more than just driving too. Remember the original "Grid" by Codemasters? Had a variety of disciplines, and I liked the component about sponsors and contingency awards, then adding a teammate, and having not just a driver ranking but a team ranking at the end of a season that actually meant something. BUT... you couldn't control the races that were part of your season, it was short, AI SUCKED, physics were "just ok" at best. I ended up so infuriated with the actual racing I quit and was glad I only spent $3 on it during a Steam sale. But, put some of that into a really good focused sim... that could be great.

 

[Isaac Chavira]

Different people have different preferences and that's how we are

20 years with this hobby of ours has shown me that for me good physics and good feedback is the most important combination for me.

Wow has it been so long? I guess it has. I started playing Gran Turismo in 1998. Then F1 2000 and then Test Drive Le Mans, TOCA, GTR ect... Wow man time flys!

 

[Jason Mullin]

Less is more.
Do one series and do it very well.

Old man rant incoming...
I have no interest in 500 cars running 100 different tracks, it's far more rewarding to master a few cars within one discipline.

 

[Tero Dahlberg]

Wow has it been so long? I guess it has. I started playing Gran Turismo in 1998. Then F1 2000 and then Test Drive Le Mans, TOCA, GTR ect... Wow man time flys!

Yeah, I'm shocked too! I know I was hooked on sim racing with Grand Prix Legends and it came out in 1998. But I don't remember if I bought it in '98 or maybe not until '99. But it's been at least nearly 20 years

 

[michelforest]

I find that most game developpers have a specialty or two. For example, Sector 3 is great at GT and Touring cars, but I feel like their open wheel cars seem to miss a little something. Project Cars tried to do everything and failed. On the other hand, Papyrus concentrated on one series, NASCAR, and Geoff Crammond only did F1. Both games were, at the time, groundbreaking.

That's why I'm excited by ACC, which will feature only one type of cars.

 

[Ryno917]

Like other have mentioned, I really don't want either of the proposed options.

I want something that has a lot of different disciplines in it across all 'tiers' within the discipline, but I want each discipline to be properly fleshed out with appropriate rules, manufacturers and event schedules.

We don't need 300 cars to make this happen, we just need developers to be more selective of the cars used.

What I'd like to see is a sim with a proper career mode with realistic career progression. The sim could launch with GT and Open Wheel disciplines covered as a base line. So that would include Formula Ford, F4, F3, F2 and F1 for the open wheelers, and then some lightly modified GT cars, GT4, GT3. This base sim would include a flexible weekend scheduling system that allows the user to create a race weekend appropriate for a variety of different series. Different types of qualifying (single car on track, single session for all cars, multiple sessions in groups, multiple sessions of 'elimination' style, top 10 shootouts, etc), different types of race weekends (one main race, handful of short heat races leading to a main race, 2-3 feature races that make up the 'round' on the schedule, etc. Sprint race formats or endurance formats and everything in between). It would include multi-class racing; with different finishing positions and championship points for different classes within a race, as well as overall classifications. It would include full dynamic weather and daylight and driver changes, and on-track racing rules appropriate for the series. Each category would be fleshed out as in real life; FF with 2-3 different chassis, F1 with ~12 and the other open wheelers would be spec. GT classes should have minimum 5 different manufacturers per tier.

Once that's launched, the first 'smaller' DLC would come with Prototype classes (LMP3, 2 and 1), and a full touring car ladder, along with a few more circuits.

The first proper expansion would add oval racing, again with a full tier; 'Thunder Cars,' Latemodels, Super Late Models, Trucks, Nationwide and Cup series along with a generous smattering of oval circuits ranging from the tiny grassroots bullrings to the super speedways and everything in between. This expansion would add in oval-specific setup features to the cars that would have them in real life. Additionally it would add Indycars (and Indy Lights) to the open wheel ladder. This expansion could exist standalone, or combined with the base game.

The second expansion would add rallying and dirt physics. A handful of rally specs for a proper rally ladder and at least 6-8 different countries with at least 10 unique stages each, plus reverse. It would add snow to the weather options for some rally stages. This expansion could exist standlone, or be combined with the base game.

The second 'smaller' DLC would release with Rallycross, and several rallycross circuits. This would require the rally expansion.


There's a lot more detail to this in my head, but basically that's what I want to see. Get a good full mix and match game and career mode, but with very focused content.

 

[Tero Dahlberg]

...

Get a good full mix and match game and career mode, but with very focused content.

Nothing wrong with the idea but I doubt many would describe that as "very focused content" The described content covers pretty much all categories of "mainstream racing" for lack of a better term.

And I'm not having a go at you, it just made me smile

Edit: Oh, and also that sounds a lot like what pCARS is already.

 

[Ryno917]

Nothing wrong with the idea but I doubt many would describe that as "very focused content" The described content covers pretty much all categories of "mainstream racing" for lack of a better term.

And I'm not having a go at you, it just made me smile

Haha, yes. But what I mean is no extraneous content; no random one-off cars/tracks that dont fit. Select the core disciplines and focus on those completely.

Edit: Oh, and also that sounds a lot like what pCARS is already.

pCARS has too many random additions that don't fit and are missing their competitors. That's exactly what I meant by focused content. Those additions siphon resources better spent fleshing out the core categories.

 

[Jugulador]

I like the mixed bag, but only few games worked with this formula (and when it works it really works).

As a simulator (not just racing) fan, my experience tells me that variety use to benefit causality... for a deep experience the game should focus on something very specific. Like FALCON 4.0 vs EA Janes series, back in the day.

 

[Serge.M]

Sim with a large mixed bag prety much never works as there’s just too much to do for it to be good. AC got away with it as it was developed out over a few years. pCars tried to do everything at the same time and just didn’t get there. I’m all for single series that get built out with other series. Probably the hardest part of simulating a car is the tyres, Blancpain uses control tyres so you only need to focus on those tyres. Then if you were to add something like formula Renault or any other open wheeler you would have control tyres again. Think how many different tyres are simulated in AC now, would be an insane undertaking to do it all at the same time

 

[2stains]

I would like to see mixed bag as in several fleshed out classes of different types of racing cars.

Not mixed bag as in random and incoherent selection of anything and everything

This gets my vote !

 

[TrumpetReich]

How about great physics, real series, and unlimited modding possibilities. So basically AMS

 

[Kurupt CDN]

I wasn't overly impressed with sms pc1 & pc2 but i must admit I thought they did an excellent job on the rally x content and loose surface physics ....so I would love to see them focus on a future rally title.

Raceroom I keep coming back to just for the touring cars

I just wish both would polish off there mp and add the proper features.

 

[Tar Heel]

A single series like the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship would be amazing. Hell an IMSA game could be made and then expansions could be like the Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge, Prototype Challenge, or even bring in some late 80s early 90s GTP/GTO IMSA GT Championship content.

I don't need street cars in my sims and I don't want one offs from car grids that featured multiple manufacturers. Focused games would be amazing to me and allow developers to properly workout career modes as well IMO.

 

[OzzyNeil]

may be a cool thing to do.would be to complement the Blancpain series with the appropriate support races. Formula fords, historics or some celebrity race car. so we keep the same tracks and just jump into each category to fill the race weekend.

 

[wombat999]

I still keep RF1 up and running.
So good when it came to mods.
It's dated to a fair degree but the variations (some outstanding, some not!) allow one to pick and choose.
I really dislike single serves although a contemporary rebuild of Grand Prix Legends would get my support 110%.

 

[Jach]

Assetto Corsa can only focus on the driving of a car, rather than the whole regulations of a racing series. It's a very good driving simulator, but not a racing simulator. For those (like me) who only want to have a taste on the driving feel it's almost perfect, but for those who want to really race online it may not satisfy them.

 

[Serge.M]

I would love to see ACC grow over the years to be a whole racing world encompassing many different complete racing series

 

[Brownninja97]

Assetto corsa has beeen the most successful therefore I want more of that, it means more sales, more cars, tracks etc etc. I just want the best for the devs at this point.