Paul Jeffrey
Premium
A recent clarification by Kunos confirms Assetto Corsa Competizione won't feature online organised racing as part of their matchmaking functionality.
Having taken on something of a life of its own since the online functionality of Assetto Corsa was first discussed post early access release, Kunos Simulazioni have taken to the official forums to offer some clarification on what the online aspect of the title will look like come full release this May 29th - and to clear up some misconceptions around the meaning of "matchmaking" within the game.
Now I'll be honest on this one.. I'm not sure why people clamour for organised scheduled multiplayer racing, similar to the type of events seen in such simulations as iRacing, so this clarification from Kunos isn't personally much of a big deal to me - but, I've had quite a few community members reach out to me over the last 48 hours in various states of confusion and distress, so I thought it good timing to put together a feature and give us a space to discuss this in more detail...
According to the posting from Kunos, which can be seen below, the online multiplayer aspect of the sim will be broadly similar to what it is today, but the developers fully intend to continue working on what is already a very, very solid implementation after the game comes out of early access.
So probably nobody has read any of this anyway, and moved directly to the quoted passage before, so I'll leave off here and let you read and comment away...
We see some occasional confusion and rumors around what 1.0 will change in the Multiplayer system, how to interpret the word "Matchmaking" and especially what role the Competition (CP) rating will play.
Let's go straight to the point: 1.0 will not introduce fundamental changes to the ACC Multiplayer. We used the Early Access phase to introduce, develop and tune the most sophisticated "Pickup Racing" Multiplayer system we could ever imagine, and so far we are very happy how the approach begins to work out. We could preserve most of the aspects of a quickly paced, accessible system that made Assetto Corsa "1" as popular - while improving the situation in the aspects where that way to organize Multiplayer action has issues. We managed to develop and integrate our Rating system without subscription model or a huge shift in pricing. Despite the significant rewrite (which is a confession for a long term strategy) of highly relevant game-play aspects between versions 0.5 and 0.6, especially the Safety Rating is in a very good shape, while the deep integration into the whole system is expected to be a vast improvement especially considering the possibility to find good and clean races.
Of course, Assetto Corsa Competizione is close to be released at the end of May, which is not the end of the road especially in terms of Multiplayer racing. We will listen to the feedback, we will analyze our data and of course - finally - also regularly participate in the Multiplayer races - so an ongoing process of finetuning and improvement is to be expected.
We know there are users that expected us magically switch the focus and go for a completely different way to organize Multiplayer, basically by copying the other title with high competitive ambitions (and a very different scale, focus group, the resulting price price model and so on). It appears that the word "Matchmaking" was mistaken to describe the whole system of scheduled races, instead of just being a tool in the toolbox of suggesting servers that both match your driving/safety abilities, and additionally take care of your preferences and friends. The matchmaking aspect in ACC acts in a quite subtle way, and changes the whole driver flow dynamics (in a non-intrusive way) to overcome known disadvantages of server lists, like we have seen in other titles and also in the AC1 Minorating system.
I do not say we are not looking into our own interpretation of a non-pickup, and more competitive Multiplayer addition. Still, this would have the character of distinct events and being an addition, not a complete move from the Multiplayer system we chose to go for. But for 1.0, we are happy to have both a very solid Multiplayer base, a good concept of a server selection and a well working Safety Rating system including a fairly usable integration. The biggest disadvantage may be that the mechanics are subtle, and it's not crystal clear where the system has its strong points. Also make sure you are aware of especially the SA Rating, and we expect the Multiplayer action to be at least as enjoyable as in AC1 with a Safety Rating plugin.
And of course the list of potential improvements is long, and without a doubt we will receive a lot feedback to become even better during the next days and weeks.
Let's go straight to the point: 1.0 will not introduce fundamental changes to the ACC Multiplayer. We used the Early Access phase to introduce, develop and tune the most sophisticated "Pickup Racing" Multiplayer system we could ever imagine, and so far we are very happy how the approach begins to work out. We could preserve most of the aspects of a quickly paced, accessible system that made Assetto Corsa "1" as popular - while improving the situation in the aspects where that way to organize Multiplayer action has issues. We managed to develop and integrate our Rating system without subscription model or a huge shift in pricing. Despite the significant rewrite (which is a confession for a long term strategy) of highly relevant game-play aspects between versions 0.5 and 0.6, especially the Safety Rating is in a very good shape, while the deep integration into the whole system is expected to be a vast improvement especially considering the possibility to find good and clean races.
Of course, Assetto Corsa Competizione is close to be released at the end of May, which is not the end of the road especially in terms of Multiplayer racing. We will listen to the feedback, we will analyze our data and of course - finally - also regularly participate in the Multiplayer races - so an ongoing process of finetuning and improvement is to be expected.
We know there are users that expected us magically switch the focus and go for a completely different way to organize Multiplayer, basically by copying the other title with high competitive ambitions (and a very different scale, focus group, the resulting price price model and so on). It appears that the word "Matchmaking" was mistaken to describe the whole system of scheduled races, instead of just being a tool in the toolbox of suggesting servers that both match your driving/safety abilities, and additionally take care of your preferences and friends. The matchmaking aspect in ACC acts in a quite subtle way, and changes the whole driver flow dynamics (in a non-intrusive way) to overcome known disadvantages of server lists, like we have seen in other titles and also in the AC1 Minorating system.
I do not say we are not looking into our own interpretation of a non-pickup, and more competitive Multiplayer addition. Still, this would have the character of distinct events and being an addition, not a complete move from the Multiplayer system we chose to go for. But for 1.0, we are happy to have both a very solid Multiplayer base, a good concept of a server selection and a well working Safety Rating system including a fairly usable integration. The biggest disadvantage may be that the mechanics are subtle, and it's not crystal clear where the system has its strong points. Also make sure you are aware of especially the SA Rating, and we expect the Multiplayer action to be at least as enjoyable as in AC1 with a Safety Rating plugin.
And of course the list of potential improvements is long, and without a doubt we will receive a lot feedback to become even better during the next days and weeks.
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