Worried about the future of rF2

[Richard Eriksson]

As the topic suggests...

As a long time ISI supporter and follower, i am now feeling a bit worried for the future.The number of new users coming in to rFactor2 seems to be dwindling.

Also there is a long time between the new official content. And even when there is official content released, it seems to fail to gather an interest (Civics in December) amongst the yet unitiated.

Also, the mod community seems a lot more reluctant than for rF1, with very few members adding content.This is even more worrying as it was the foundation of rF1 and a big selling point for bringing more people to the franchise (race anything you like).

ISI now also faces a stiff competition as the "sim" genre has become "hot" again with more titles in the works, that seem to gather a LOT more interest: AC, pCars etc.

The old veterans like myself are finding ourselves drawn to the likes of GSC, and newcomers are moving towards AC and probably DTM Experience.


I start this topic to see if someone shares my worries, and also to discuss if something can be done to once again bring more interest to rF2?


My personal idea is to go for Steam greenlighting (i actually REALLY like Steam as a platform), to gain exposure and also simplify the purchasing as well as updating.
Connecting it to Workshop makes modding interesting again, like what AC proposes.


I want rF2 to succeed, it is by far the most comprehensive take on simulating the actual race mechanics and based on that it should be the goto title for the serious sim-user, but right now i fear it is not.


Discussions on graphics i will however discard personally, as a) rF2 is pretty enough and b) the prettiest of settings in something like pCars is inaccesible to 95% of users.


So, what is your view of the status of the product?



Points of improvement needed going forward as identified in this thread so far:

* Better GUI (incoming)
* Steam integration and release
* Possible new distribution method that would automate updates and sync, if not steam
* New official content
* More transparent development
* Shorter build intervals
* More efficient code and optimization of codebase
* A possibility to "lock down" the core functionality, to deliver something considered stable and final
* New updater that allows automatic updating of content as well, including adding NEW
content

 

[SunBro]

Well this is certainly one of those times where one mans meat is another mans poison.
So sorry but I have to disagree on this one.
IMO the URD products do not meet the standards of the ISI cars. They are very accessible but lack the depth of the ISI cars.
GT wise
370Z
Camaro GT3
Corvette GT2
Megane
are all sensational cars that feel alive under you and require real skill.
They all took a step forward with their latest (car) update.
I would also rank the BES 1.0 suite of GT3 cars very highly and other noteables include (IMO of course) the stunning Ferrari 458Challenge which meets or exceeds ISI level. The Spec Miata. The ASR 91/92 Open Wheel cars.

With all these cars I now don't have time to drive them all. I'm in Leagues with the FR 3.5 and the ASR 1992 cars. Got Club events with a diversity of cars. I want to get into the Formula ISI as soon as the FR 3.5 season is over.
Personally I like to get into a car by properly preparing for a race.That takes 2-3 days of setup and testing and practice. Then the race. So a half week is gone.
I guess it depends what you want to do.

Yes. It really depends on what we want to do.

And i want to race gt/touring/lmp cars. Not road cars or open wheel or racing cars from before 1980. Thanks for the friendly post though

 

[David O'Reilly]

Yes. It really depends on what we want to do.

And i want to race gt/touring/lmp cars. Not road cars or open wheel or racing cars from before 1980. Thanks for the friendly post though

Which LMP cars have you driven?

 

[SunBro]

Which LMP cars have you driven?

In real life? lol

In game: mak-corp mazda 787b and lola b12/60 from Woudenberg. The cockpit of saulnier racing 2008 lms made me want to gauge my eyes out.

 

[David O'Reilly]

In real life? lol

In game: mak-corp mazda 787b and lola b12/60 from Woudenberg. The cockpit of saulnier racing 2008 lms made me want to gauge my eyes out.

I was interested as I just finished a league in the Lola B12/60 LMP1. It was 4 races each of 6 hours duration. It was a challenging car to set up but our team (including Stefan Woudenberg BTW) got that car working quite nicely by the end. The videos are on Youtube of that season. The Audi R18 seemed ok too but I didnt spend nearly as much time setting it up.
Do you not like this car? (Lola)

 

[SunBro]

I was interested as I just finished a league in the Lola B12/60 LMP1. It was 4 races each of 6 hours duration. It was a challenging car to set up but our team (including Stefan Woudenberg BTW) got that car working quite nicely by the end. The videos are on Youtube of that season. The Audi R18 seemed ok too but I didnt spend nearly as much time setting it up.
Do you not like this car? (Lola)

I never keep a mod i don't like. So, yeah, i loved it. My problem though is that, i don't know if people like me have a name but you can say that i'm "content-philiac"... I want suber c9, audi r18, toyota ts series or bently speed 8(which is on the way by the lovely isi) or some other lmp cars from 1980 and onward. You can settle down with one "perfect" car but i can't. I don't want gt6 levels of content. Hell, i don't even want forza levels of content. Just some "modern(1980 and onward) non-open wheel" racing cars.

Just like assetto corsa. At first, i wasn't really interested in it. I don't even drive it that much right now. But with the upcoming content... oh lord, i'm jizzing everywhere. Sauber, toyota, mercedes dtm cars(2000s AND 90s) and many other upcoming gt/touring cars. WITH laser scanned nord. The upcoming content literally entered my dreams. Last week i think, i forgot.

 

[Juergen]

snip...
But there is some truth in the video. A lot of public server host make a Vmod with a lot of tracks and cars you need to have to drive just 1 car on 1 track online and sometimes with no "get missing component" link.

Sadly...this is very true. There are so many server with "all cars/all tracks" configured, wich takes hours to join in. Sometimes there are Tracks or Mods included, where the download url isn`t working and so on. One Part of the MP failure and empty server of rF2 is leading to Admins, who support rF2 as an unwanted child ;-)

 

[Miroslav Davidovic]

Yeah, I am worried aswell. Much much worried.
So much worried that I have to play it almost everyday because the fear it will dissappear is just to big.

 

[Dan Allen]

You mean like FIFA?

But seriously, rFactor 2 has a pretty amazing core. The biggest disappointment is ISI that don't seem to be arsed about expanding and improving it at the rate that they should/could.

In some respects you're right - but the determining factor here will be whether ISI does the game justice by developing it to its full potential, rather than their "15 minutes being up". It will only be up if they allow it to pass by.

But what you said in the last line is exactly what the OP was initially trying to suggest

I'll be the first to admit rF2 is an !!**amazing**!! sim, but you have to admit, there aren't as many players

As for developing it to it's full potential, I would also love to see more from rFactor. Maybe an rFactor 3?!

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

For rF2 you have to join leauges. In autumn I ran three leauges all with grids larger than 20 cars. That was around 15 hours of competetive racing plus preperation. I havent done a lot of pickup races lately, because of that.
The only problem is, that these leauges are all located in diffrent communities and it is a bit of work to stay on top of everything. But believe the intensity is just so much higher. I even was nervous the evening before a VSC2 event here at RD, because I didnt have much time for practice and we were aiming for the championship.

The feeling when you are sitting 5min on the grid in P1 with 30 cars behind you and then start the engine for the formation lap is priceless.
I wasnt driving in leauges for a long time, but it is just so much more fun, because if you screw up it counts and you cannot just vote restart weekend,

 

[Msportdan]

ive just put this back on after playing the GSc and the Racerooms, and its like OMG... this is something else.. just wish it was polished and rounded up.

 

[jimortality]

ive just put this back on after playing the GSc and the Racerooms, and its like OMG... this is something else.. just wish it was polished and rounded up.

We've just spent 5 hours of polished and rounded driving

 

[Gijs van Elderen]

@Richard Eriksson

It seems you were spot on a year ago.

Points of improvement needed going forward as identified in this thread so far:

* Better GUI (incoming)
==> Done
* Steam integration and release
==> rFactor 1 first...
* Possible new distribution method that would automate updates and sync,
==> Done
* New official content
==> , and more coming... and all previous content will be updated.
* More transparent development
==> (@Timothy Wheatley )
* Shorter build intervals
==> +/- every month. Good enough ?
* More efficient code and optimization of codebase
==> (still a lot of cleaning up to do)
* A possibility to "lock down" the core functionality, to deliver something considered stable and final
==> Never! But all "old content" is unaffected: the first "mod" is still playable.
* New updater that allows automatic updating of content as well, including adding NEW content.
==> Done

After 25.000 page views and + 400 posts discussing our worries about the future of rF2, we stopped worrying? or not...

 

[William Néron]

After 25.000 page views and + 400 posts discussing our worries about the future of rF2, we stopped worrying?

Never

 

[JeffL]

Where's the Cobra?

 

[vee10]

Its another great update. It's my go to drive more so than ever. For me I just want 2 things.

1) More single seater cars, I think these show off rf2 at its best the FR3.5 is the best car in sim land.
2) Please, please, please some little championship creator just anything basic will do!

Did I say please @Timothy Wheatley

Please

 

[Rui Santos]

My experience tells me the opposite, after long months stucked to AC i finally returned to rF2 and since that i didn't touch AC anymore...

 

[Dennis]

Where's the Cobra?

and the Bentley Speed 8

 

[SunBro]

Honestly... I've learned to stop worrying and accept rf2 for what it really is. A perfect open wheel simulator. As long as people don't have high hopes for non-open wheel content, they should be happy with rf2.

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

Honestly... I've learned to stop worrying and accept rf2 for what it really is. A perfect open wheel simulator. As long as people don't have high hopes for non-open wheel content, they should be happy with rf2.

Why only open wheelers. The GTs and Touring cars we have are very good in my opinion.

 

[Ben Goymer]

Why only open wheelers. The GTs and Touring cars we have are very good in my opinion.

I disagree, I can't get the GT cars around a lap so they must suck [/sarcasm]