Full Length Transciption
Can you hit other people in the pitlane?
Morris Hebecker: Wow!
Krzysztof Szczech: Are we still talking about sim racing?
Krzysztof Szczech: To be honest we never considered that. We should probably organise a meeting about that.
Morris Hebecker: Yeah, to be honest we can discuss this. So, uh, this in a thing which is totally open from the technical side we could develop whatever is needed or we would like to have. If there is a good reason to do it, I’m 100% open to do it. But that’s exactly how we really like to work. Not only in the beginning and up to the summit also for the next quarters and to release, after the release, really having all involved and if a majority really thinks that these kind of things are needed and that this should be possible then it is definitely no problem to implement it into the game.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yeah, from technical side of view, both options are already possible in the game so you can hit other cars in pit lane or you can disable that so it’s just more of a decision what’s better for gameplay and what’s better for the sporting and other stuff.
Will driver swaps in endurance races be supported?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, we definitely have that on the roadmap. Not for the closest releases but we plan to add it once we have some more mechanics for endurance.
Is creating an in-game team possible, e.g. one team owns a lot of cars and gives them out to drivers for series?
Morris Hebecker: Yeah, that’s exactly we wrote down in our game design document 2 and a half years we make things in this direction possible, really, that people can jump into Rennsport and not being a driver, also could be just kind of a team manager so creating a team, having different drivers over a while and really creating a history for the team. It’s definitely one of the things we had in our mind from the beginning, do it’s not only having drivers on the platform or creating history for cars it’s also really a possibility to just establish your own team and creating history for the team and selling team items as well so it’s also possible and when it then comes up to the sporting, the next level is if you create a team there is also the possibility to create your own league and manage your league from different perspectives so having own sponsors involved and so on, so this is exactly what we had in mind when we started, creating a technical base or platform which makes all this possible and then give it to the community and giving them the chance to create what they would like to have for sporting, for teams and for racing.
Any news on the ESL partnership and where it’s going to lead? And a brief description of the competition aspect you’re planning one?
Morris Hebecker: Yes, for sure. So, as all know, we worked super close with ESL for the summit and we worked with ESL super close since last year so when the idea came up for Rennsport, one of the first meeting I had was with ESL so I showed the idea to ESL to hear what they think about and if there is room for a game like Rennsport and if they would be open to create some esport with us together. The feedback was really great from ESL and so this is one of our … I would say this is our first partner and ESL is with us, really since the beginning and now, yeah, we did the next step with ESL so we really create the sport and we are just finalising the league we plan to start in February next year and the relations is closer than ever. So, ESL is our main partner definitely when it comes to Esports and establishing digital motorsports and sim racing in Esports and we will do super interesting sporting league with ESL together beginning next year and I’m more than happy to let you know more about the league, the structure within the next 6-8 weeks.
What features and content can we expect from the closed Beta?
Morris Hebecker: When it comes to the features and maybe to the content Krzysztof is also a good person who can answer it, there will be some new race tracks in the beta, definitely and some new cars and as we always said, having the community deeply involved is one of our main goals and therefore we are really planning to have the beta before we are starting with sporting. So having the community on the game and getting the feedback from the community is super important for us and it's the most important for us before we do the next step and therefore we will do a kind of, not a kind of, we will feature a tech release by the end of December preparing everything and doing some internal test and then we’ll start the beta just to give us the chance learning a lot and getting the feedback from the community as soon as possible so that means, yeah, beta will be ready very soon and then it will help us really to polish the game and do the next step with the game and we are all super excited if it comes to the beta because then it’s really the moment where we have a lot of people on the platform and where we get real feedback from the bigger community and that’s definitely a thing which will help us to develop the game next year.
Krzysztof Szczech: I think Morris said more than enough and I don’t have anything to add.
Will there be VR implementation during closed beta?
Krzysztof Szczech: To be completely honest with you guys, we have VR implementation already in the game but we are not confident enough to share it with you because our main goal is to have the best quality possible so you can experience that and definitely our VR system is not the best quality possibly yet. We plan that later on but for the beta … this is not gonna be shared with you.
What is some upcoming content?
Morris Hebecker: I’m super happy that we now already, and have finalised all the technical aspects and so on so from next week on, I think, we will have the Audi R8 in the game and it’s the first car we have in our cooperation with Audi. So, that’s the next big partner we really got from the automotive industry and definitely, there will be other partnership announcements follow within the next months so yeah, Audi is the next step and I am super happy to have the R8 in the game for the beta.
LIVE CHAT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
Rennsports sounds like everything for everyone. What is the primary goal of Rennsport? Which Epics have the highest priority in your Jira?
Morris Hebecker: If someone says, it would be nice for all, that also means that in the end they couldn’t really be focussed on one product and there is maybe some truth in it and therefore, for us it was and it is totally clear what is our main goal and our main goal is really preparing a State-of-the-Art new technology. That means, creating a new game with a graphic engine which allows us to do all the important things over the next 10 years. So, on this side I think we made the right decision. Then, it was always our goal to have community first ideas really creating a technology which allows the partners, the stakeholder, the community to be deeply involved, creating their own environments, creating own shops or whatever, creating own content, creating their own leagues and so on and this is our main goal. So, I would say, if we do our job right and if our technology works fine as we have it in mind with our platform and the game then we, from our side, are super focussed to make this happen from technical side and this technic and this platform and then we’ll enable all our partners in the community to create the content they would like to have and at the end that means there will be a lot of content in a lot of different ways so that’s the goal we work and that’s the goal we have so we prepare and create the right technical base that all the others then can make their dreams come true, can build what they really would like to have. So that’s the idea behind it.
Can we trust a guy to make a game if he is struggling to connect to discord on his laptop? (referring to CEO Morris Hebecker having troubles connecting to the call)
Morris Hebecker: No, you shouldn’t do, you shouldn’t do. To be honest, that’s the right question. I could be super open to you, all of you, I wasn’t really familiar with discord since I would say end of last year and I’m still not using it that often, but in this case it wasn’t a discord thing it was really the super secure environment of our f****** office because it wasn’t able to connect from technical side and that’s a thing where we have to talk with the security IT guys here tomorrow and, yeah, but it’s definitely right, if a CEO is not possible to connect to discord and being in time in this kind of sessions, you shouldn’t trust. Yep, definitely.
Will drift competitions be possible in Rennsport? Like GamerMuscle did…
Morris Hebecker: *Laughs* He tried it on the summit, and I really loved how he made it. He tried to hide it and test it a bit and I was really surprised how it works. So, to be totally open, for drifting and drifting sessions and yesterday or last week I saw the Hoonigan thing with Audi together and was impressive to see. To be honest, we have to optimise the physics for that and we are far away to create these kind of pictures at the moment, but I would really like to have these drift possibilities in the game as well.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yeah, I don’t think we have it on our roadmap for the near future but technically, nothing is impossible, so we can add that at some point.
Morris Hebecker: You can drift, definitely, now I had these extreme drifting things in mind and this is, I would say, not possible at the moment. Say it’s wrong Krzysztof, but I think it’s not possible at the moment.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yup, for now, no.
What about Hillclimb tracks? Will it be possible?
Morris Hebecker: Yes and we are, we have 2 Hillclimb, and I’m not talking about Goodwood, we have 2 hillclimb tracks on our list and we will have them for the release in the game.
How will pitstops be done? Automatic or Manual, as in the game takes over?
Krzysztof Szczech: How it’s done right now, and I don’t think we are planning to change that anytime, is you do everything manually. You have to brake before the pit limiter, you have to stop in the pit box and this is everything you have to do yourself.
Will off-road stuff also be on the cards?
Morris Hebecker: So, long-term or short-term perspective? Krzysztof gets nervous on this one.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yeah! *nervous laughing*
Morris Hebecker: And from my side, to be honest, before I set up my own company I worked for Codemasters for a long time and there were 2 titles I loved most and these were DTM Race Driver and on the other side it was Colin McRae Rally and DiRT Rally. So rally is definitely a thing I love to have in the game, it’s also a bit of a physics thing and environment definitely also, but it’s more a physics thing and it’s not on the list at the moment and will not be in the game at the release, but I would love to add rally aspects and content later on.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yeah, but for the near future, we are focussed on doing, like, normal racing not on off-road, just on race tracks.
Could you enlighten us with a broad roadmap (now or via site) from closed beta going forward? Maybe even a voting process?
Morris Hebecker: So you mean, what are the next steps in the closed beta to release? Or, sorry.
Morris Hebecker: Then we will take our time to take the feedback from the community and Krzysztof and the team will work day and night to fix things and implement all the idea which will definitely come up at this moment and yeah, what is on the timeline for the beta? So there, will be more and more content in the game, more and more cars, race tracks and really the goal is to make more and more features of the platform usable by Q2 or Q3 next year.
Voting: Public can vote-up a feature?
We are looking into a way for that to be possible. We have been in contact with some people who might be able to help us with that, with the software. But we can’t say anything about that just yet. We hope we can give you the opportunity to vote for features, because that is what it’s all about, right? But we will have to wait and see how the talks go.
Morris Hebecker: Yeah, I wanna take there also some software solutions which enables community really to be deeply involved and stay in super close contact with the dev guys and having rating systems and so on but I’m totally open here. We really decide to work with discord because this is super familiar with you of the community. Not with me, as we saw in the beginning. But jumping onto another technique or platform where you have to registrate and so on is maybe not the right moment at this moment. Really, we would like to have you and your environment and feel as most comfortable as possible and therefore we decide to stay on discord because this is the channel where the community comes together, and work with and yeah, there would be a lot of great options using another or special software for these kind of things but I’m not 100% sure if it would be the right moment at the moment to do.
How will track limits be handled?
Krzysztof Szczech: Uhm, maybe let’s not dig into technical details too much, but basically how usually it’s done in racing, so you have those lines on track and you have to keep your wheel inside of them. So, nothing invented from ourselves, I would say.
How are the settings saved? Via config file or different?
Krzysztof Szczech: So, like we mentioned earlier we are developing out platform and provide support to synchronise settings and have it like associated with your account so all the important data will be there in case you need it. Basically, that’s how we plan to make sure that you don’t lose anything important. Also all the stuff related to profile like your statistics, they also will be there and we want to make sure you have access anytime you want, from wither the game or the platform or mobile app.
How is the stability so far with multiplayer racing?
Krzysztof Szczech: I would say pretty good as you could see in May we were able to organise a LAN event with 100 people in there. And as far as you remember we didn’t have any major problems with that. Of course, we are still in development, so from time to time we also break something in the game. *chuckles* We make sure it doesn’t happen too often, but we are pretty happy with that.
Is splitscreen a considered option?
Krzysztof Szczech: As far as I’m concerned, no? But correct me if I’m wrong, Morris.
Morris Hebecker: No, it’s not a thing we have on the list at the moment.
Will the subscription be like EVE Online or iRacing? As in: Subscription gives you all content or you still have to buy DLC, even with the subscription?
Morris Hebecker: Yeah, it will the this way that the subscription is the way to open up the whole ecosystem, where you’ll be able to create leagues and managing your garage, yeah, playing online and all these things. And, there will be definitely in the subscription some content as well, race tracks, cars but definitely there will be a lot of items, cars and so on which you can buy on top of that.
So like a DLC and subscription kind of deal then?
Morris Hebecker: Yes, right!
Will there be seasons where you have to stay on the same car as to not have everyone choose the meta car for each track?
Morris Hebecker: So if it comes to, and that’s exactly what is really different on Rennsport, so that’s definitely a thing we do not want to decide. What we are doing, if you create your own season or your own tournament, you could decide if it is possible or not. But this is not a thing were we say it has to be A or B.
How will BoP be dealt with?
Morris Hebecker: Therefore we have 2 guys in the team which are super close to real motorsports and bring a lot of experience from this world, so they are working since months in preparing the right tools and the right way to make really the best BoP possible. We all know from the real world and from sim racing, this is always a topic where people could discuss hours and hours, I think we have some good ideas there to make it as fair as possible but I’m quite sure at the end there will always be some questions or things where people will not be 100% happy, but I think we have some good tools to prepare it and they are super fair and, yeah, it’s definitely a huge topic where we are working on since months.
Can people compete online against cars that they do not own?
Morris Hebecker: 100% yes. I don’t know if it is not possible in the alpha at the moment but this is super alpha, in the beta and in the final game, definitely yes.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yeah, there is no reason to block you from racing with cars you don’t own, you just can’t select it as your car but you can just let other users have it.
When will Closed Beta start?
We will randomly select some people and like we said on the website, we have a 50-50 thing. 50% is first-come-first-server. And if you manage to get into the closed beta you will receive an email from us which will then tell you about your lucky draw. Not sure if you will yet have the key but soon after you will definitely get a key for the game and you will be able to test it.
Will closed beta be under NDA?
No it will not. Once the closed beta has started, you will be able, at least as we have it right now, to show it around freely, talk about it freely, that should all be totally possible. No NDA there.
What do you think of this outlook on this new sim racing title? Let us know in the comments down below!
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