What's still missing in AC?

[Bram Hengeveld]

Think we can all agree that we adore this sim but despite the fact the game has reached version 1.x it's far from completed.

Personally I don't understand why AC was labeled 1.0, with some very basic sim racing features missing compared to competing titles on the PC sim racing market, and not just kept early access until all work was done.

To just have an overview of what's still missing I'd like to hear your opinion in this discussion thread.

What's absolutely needed to call AC complete?

 

[Roni]

There is so lot of really good ideas.
I would also hope fixed setup online races.

 

[JeanYves Samson]

Just the minimum..... like a real week end race in a real race car.....Simulation or Arcade lets me choose. Start with cluch or automatic + penality , flag, real pit board, in car pit with activities, pit sound....Real damage not just a paint job.... ESC button if you used you out of the race and you are a spectactor.. Minimum Please. Anyway! Just do like GTR2 do in 2005 ..10 years before.... + Full screen adjustement Thanks! JeanYves

 

[Nigel Morrison]

Caterhams!

 

[Andy_J]

I have a decent Laptop and everything, but I have to run on reduced resolution and with all the post-processing and FSAA turned off to get any kind of decent AI. Less CPU heavy would be good.

There are no decent laptops. Thats the trouble you face. Laptops are for work, for spreadsheets and surfing the interweb. They are not ideal for gaming or siming.

 

[Melv]

I agree with @R48

AI needs massive improvement.
Better lines, better AI pacing
Ability to adjust AI speed from track to track (the generic AI strength is all over the place from track to track)
Single player pitstops

I remember reading a AC devs interview where they said only a small fraction of total game owners play online. This gave me the impression they would make a game with reasonable focus on Single Player with excellent AI and Single player features (like GTR2 and GP4) but that's not the case and its a bit difficult to digest, considering those two games are like a decade old.

The game is great, great sound, great graphics, great feel, great line up of cars and tracks. But for a offline gamer like myself it leaves a lot to be desired. Honestly I am a bit disappointed. I wish they release one or two less cars and focus a bit more on the AI.

Thats why currently I stick to GSCe (with great AI and modding ease) it suits my needs best.

 

[Joao Alves]

There are no decent laptops. Thats the trouble you face. Laptops are for work, for spreadsheets and surfing the interweb. They are not ideal for gaming or siming.

That used to be the hard truth, but recently laptops have come a long way. With some modern gaming laptops you can do 1080p60 all day long.

Anyways, back on topic.

I'd love to see some more league oriented features like a spectator mode, for example. Weather would also be an absolute dream.

 

[Stereo]

Mostly just better options for multiplayer servers. Server-side scripting of some sort for welcome messages, automatic blacklists, whatever. All the things that go on in a good LFS server.

 

[Serj]

Optimization!

 

[Frank]

For me it simply is unbelievable we still can't host a proper league with all these tools missing. We got a great booking mode, which is perfect for organizing leagues but at the same time we miss essential league tools for example:

1. No spectating slots
2. No full replay on long races (I know it is being worked on, but we are past 1.0. this should have been there already)
3. No adjustable pit boxes, we really could use something that allows us to change pit box locations only on Kunos tracks, 22 - 24 slots simply doesn't cut it for leagues
4. Netcode still doesn't allow for close racing on a bit higher pings, even tho they got a good internet connection
5. People that struggle with their PC on big fields start warping back and forth, usually at the sime time as the CPU warning (I know this is netcode too)

I can sum up more, but these are most important to get leagues going properly!

 

[Chris]

For me it simply is unbelievable we still can't host a proper league with all these tools missing.

+1
Yep, agree completely.
I really really really want them to focus more heavily on the MP aspect of the game. Most of my frustration is born out the fact that Assetto Corsa has so much potential, and because I want it to be a complete package so badly, and yet the MP quality and functionality is, by modern standards, very very poor.

It's great that we've got all this amazing content, but it's no use having it if we can't organize proper races with them.

 

[Stephen Armstrong]

Main menu music, loading screen for the track , animated marshals with flags, working pit & start lights, pitstops in single player, have the car start in the garage with a live timing monitor like gtr2 , ability to select 1st gear before lights out , jump starts, smarter more aggesive A.I stalls.

 

[mmkay]

No hope for MP improvements.
At least this is my impression after reading this thread on Stefano Cassillo's twitter.

This movie started this thread.

https://twitter.com/KunosStefano/status/557892374089961473

 

[Tuomas Saarinen]

There's a big thread about the MP collision issues in the AC forums, saw this in there posted by paulieGTR(from TAM).

" @kevin the support guy @ rackservice.org servers suggested setting the/Our "CLIENT_SEND_INTERVAL_HZ=" to 20Hz. "

Now, I haven't raced on the TAM servers but I believe at least ALOOG are doing something right with their server settings. Raced there the other day and had someone purposedly bumping me repeatedly door on door, and to my shock I didn't lose control until he finally got in a fishtail real good after trying to get 5-6 times with those door on door bangs. It was totally different from what I've experienced so far in any server, and there is a similar comment from another user about that.

Maybe worth a try?

@Ricardo Umans
@Si
@Chris Stacey
@Bram

 

[Chris]

There's a big thread about the MP collision issues in the AC forums, saw this in there posted by paulieGTR(from TAM).

" @kevin the support guy @ rackservice.org servers suggested setting the/Our "CLIENT_SEND_INTERVAL_HZ=" to 20Hz. "

Now, I haven't raced on the TAM servers but I believe at least ALOOG are doing something right with their server settings. Raced there the other day and had someone purposedly bumping me repeatedly door on door, and to my shock I didn't lose control until he finally got in a fishtail real good after trying to get 5-6 times with those door on door bangs. It was totally different from what I've experienced so far in any server, and there is a similar comment from another user about that.

Maybe worth a try?

@Ricardo Umans
@Si
@Chris Stacey
@Bram

We typically race at 25Hz and it's beautiful. There's really only lag incidents when the clients are having connection issues,

 

[Ho3n3r]

Fully manual pit limiter

 

[Michael Young]

1. More server side functionality.
2. Flags*
3. Proper penalty system*
4. More stable netcode.
5. Brake temperature and brake fade.
6. Live timing
7. Spectator / Broadcaster mode
8. GPCOS support
9. Dynamic Time of day in MP*
10. Greater number of pit boxes for official tracks (24 ain't enough for Spa! Come on!)

* Confirmed as under development.

Yeap brake fade and temperature needs to happen. This would definitely increase the number of strategies that you'd need to think of when coming into a race.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

There is a difference in having bad configured server hardware and limitations on the game.

We have recently given all our dedicated machines a full overhaul with top of the bill new spec hardware so the server side is definitely not the problem

 

[Robert vd Heide]

i would love to see the Nemesis system of shadow of mordor middle earth implemented in the AI of all leading racesims
so competition is aware of when and where they where passed or bumped off.and react to that next time around .
actually that nemesis system seems custom made for racesims
and looks like the future for 1 player gaming

for the ones who havent heard of the nemesis system ,,its worth to have a look on youtube or google to figure out what its about

 

[Dragos Haba]

Basically, I'd like to see all that rF1 offered 7 years ago when it comes to MP and League support. It covers anything from GPCOS, to brake temps, collisions, FULL Driver Control, flags, penalties... and so on. That is a good start, then we can work on some "next gen" stuff.

 

[Bernd Graf]

Night driving
Projecting headlamps
Rear tail lamps low beams need homologation
Some kind of flag system
Suspension fixes to garage viewed cars
Deeper AI race behavior tuning menu/aggressive driving slider
Mod tools