Automobilista October Development Update

[Paul Jeffrey]

Reiza Studios have revealed their 'development roadmap' for the month of October, showcasing the first images of the various Imola layouts due to be added to the game, and the Formula Truck 2013 refugee due to be included as part of upcoming DLC due in the coming weeks and months.

Interestingly the studio have confirmed they are very close to renewing a licencing agreement with the official Brazilian truck racing series, which could well see official teams, drivers and liveries joining the sim rather than the originally proposed fantasy schemes painted over the truck models. This could, according to Reiza, lead to further season expansions of the popular series in future updates.

Also confirmed in the October update is the inclusion of the first 'legendary tracks' release, bringing the Imola circuit to the game in versions specific to four different decades. Of course with the ever necessary requirement to adhere to the latest safety standards Imola has undergone several transformations over the years, most notably the re-profiling of the Tamburello corner following the loss of Ayrton Senna in during the 1994 Grand Prix, and many of these variations have been captured by Reiza in the upcoming DLC. With versions from 1972, 1988, 2001 and 2016, the Imola track will make an interesting addition and should provide a very comfortable fit for much of the content found in Automobilista.

The full development roadmap for October can be seen below:

To begin with a little retrospective of the past 18 months from the car & track guys - this will probably sound like we´re tooting our own horn a bit but mainly it´s a small tribute to a team who have been working exceptionally hard and really shifted up a gear in this last year and a half.

The image below shows all new cars and tracks released since may 2015, from the end of Stock Car Extreme into the release of AMS, and finally moving into AMS DLCs:

A total of 13 new venues along with 20 car models for 14 series have been released over a period of 18 months. That in itself is notable, even more so if you consider that in the same timespan all old content was updated to keep up with newer standards and include all latest features - a total of 27 series and 38 tracks which currently features in AMS.

It´s easy to underestimate the workload involved in delivering all this - if you´re on the other end waiting for stuff to materialise, it probably doesn´t feel very fast at all make no mistake though, this would be substantial output even for a bigger team with bigger budget than ourselves, so there´s a feeling of mission accomplished in delivering on what has been a very aggressive plan. Beyond the sheer volume, there´s also satisfaction from the fact that quality standards have not only been retained but upgraded, and older content has not been left to become too outdated relative to the newer stuff, so the sim remains as consistent as possible no matter what and where you´re racing.

What's Coming Next
We´re not going on vacation just yet though - in fact we´re still pushing hard not only with new content but also towards several significant new features and general improvements all across the sim - there are some exciting things already in the works with others being evaluated, but with development being what it is and known to throw some curve balls on occasion we´ll refrain from jumping the gun and push to cover a bit more ground before we confirm stuff. If you´re a Reiza Member though you may not only have a glance of what we´re aiming for, but help influence the development path in this Reiza 51 poll.

We´ve got one, possibly two updates to be delivered over the course of this month, with v1.15 scheduled for November 15th.

One important note regarding this update: @gongo has been working on integration with the latest Logitech drivers to better support G29 and G920. This however will require all users on Logitech wheels to upgrade to their latest software - even those running older models like G25 or G27, so those running Logitech gear please be advised to upgrade in time for v1.15 release.

Upcoming DLC
Part 1 of Legendary Tracks is next up - Imola is coming, oozing history with 4 distinct versions from 4 different decades - 1972, 1988, 2001 and 2016:

The 1972 & 1988 versions are hitting AMS Beta within a couple of hours from this post. 2001 & 2016 should follow next friday.

Legendary Tracks Part 1 - Imola will sell for US$ 5.99 on release, scheduled to come along with v1.15 on November 15th.

Before the end of November or at the latest early on December, we´re pushing to wrap another pack:

For those of you keeping track of AMS development, it will come as no surprise that the trucks from Formula Truck are bound to come to Automobilista - fully revamped and featuring new custom rules and functionalities.

The good news is that we´re very close to finalizing a new deal with Formula Truck series, which would allow us to officially release the complete, fully branded series (not just the trucks) for AMS. That would in turn open up the possibility of expanding this pack to include the latest season in a future update.

One way or another, to begin with we´ll be releasing the Trucks from 2013 after Imola - the pack will also sell for US$ 5.99. As previously announced, this DLC will be free to those that already own Formula Truck on Steam (if you own the non-Steam copy make sure to retrieve your Steam key for it here).

Always worth reminding also that those who took part in last year´s crowdfunding campaign on any level, acquired our Membership pack or bought the Season Pass on Steam have already secured these and all the other DLC packs to come to AMS.

And what´s next after the Trucks I hear you ask? That´s subject for our next update

To wrap up I´d like to remind that as more stuff is confirmed, prices for both the Season Pass on Steam & Membership pack here are due to receive another upgrade - by the time next Dev Update rolls out with some more DLC confirmations, the Season Pass will be upgraded from the current US$ 29.99 to US$ 39.99, so don´t wait up too long

Automobilista is available on Steam for Windows PC right now.

The Automobilista sub forum here at RaceDepartment is the place to go for all the very latest news and discussions regarding the Reiza simulation. We host a number of top quality mods, and run a selection of epic League and Club Racing events to participate in. Head over to the forum today and check out what's on offer...



Do you like the new development update for October? Looking forward to trucks? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Arconian]

After AMS the FFB in any other sim feels dull and unnatural. I just can't believe that it is possible to make so awesome game on the rFactor engine. Really looking forward to drive at Imola in AMS. Just look at these trees! I hope the inflow of iconic and popular tracks like Imola and Brands will raise the popularity of this highly underrated sim.
Thank you guys!

 

[xnorb]

Just spent a few minutes on Imola '88, but i'm already a happy automobilista.

It's insane how much this small studio is able to achieve.
Tracks and cars alone would already be stunning, but beside that they also update physics and graphics and as that's not already enough they also add new features while still staying in touch with the community.

 

[BernL]

Both Ac and Auto suffer one common problem....Tarmacs are bland as compared to RF2. Track surface, lack of skid marks or skid marks that disappear after one lap . Would love to see more attention to this.

 

[F_B]

Automobilista suffers just one problem: lack of online players.
As long as that won’t change they should improve AI, although you already can have decent races from time to time.

 

[kamackeris]

Automobilista suffers just one problem: lack of online players.
As long as that won’t change they should improve AI, although you already can have decent races from time to time.

it's annoying ... i can jump online and race pretty much any time of the day with AC and whilst i enjoy it all the time i'm wishing this was in AMS. i can only really race online in the organised races with RD as most times its a ghost town online . if they could get the AI to draft overtake then AMS would be perfect !!

 

[Rivvern]

Agree to previous replies.
AC got full servers and AMS is mostly empty.

But... in reality. A typical public race in AC is like this:
Practice/Qualify for 10 minutes. Feeling good.
Race starts. Crash first corner. Cars all over the place. Ending up being back in the field. Keeps on going. Passing some crashed cars during first lap and now is now in 5th. After first lap 50% of the cars have either crashed or disconnected. At this point i seriously consider disconnecting reminding myself never racing public again.

But I do think that the AMS community are more mature.

This went little of topic and i dont want to start a discussion between the sims.

 

[renan_ma]

If I could only start the game without it crashing to the desktop..never managed to actually play it since it came out

http://forum.reizastudios.com/threads/i-cant-run-automobilista-official-troubleshooting-topic.40/

 

[Marcos Santi]

I would like to see servers without Practice\Qualify only short races 3\5 laps.

It´s boring join in a server and wait 30 min or more to start a race.

 

[Marc Collins]

This is what I wrote on the Reiza forum in response to the official October update thread quoting this passage:

It´s easy to underestimate the workload involved in delivering all this - if you´re on the other end waiting for stuff to materialise, it probably doesn´t feel very fast at all make no mistake though, this would be substantial output even for a bigger team with bigger budget than ourselves, so there´s a feeling of mission accomplished in delivering on what has been a very aggressive plan. Beyond the sheer volume, there´s also satisfaction from the fact that quality standards have not only been retained but upgraded, and older content has not been left to become too outdated relative to the newer stuff, so the sim remains as consistent as possible no matter what and where you´re racing.

As someone who has been observing and participating in racing sims since the day they first emerged, this is truly a major accomplishment. The joy of using AMS is that it is so polished and consistent. It's isn't the absolute latest, greatest tech in every area, but in every way that counts most it is rock solid. The sum of those parts are greater than the whole in terms of the fiddle-free user experience. The other most important aspect for me is that the FFB, again not the absolute latest, greatest out there, always feels natural, plausible and has useful feedback, of which there are zero other sims out there that can boast that. There are a couple of cars in rF2 and iRacing that beat it, but neither of those sims has a entire collection of cars that all feel natural, plausible, with terrific feedback ACROSS THE WHOLE RANGE OF CARS IN THE SIM. And those cars feel appropriate relative to each other as well. ...As if they were all paid attention to and lovingly crafted as part of the exercise (as Renato described). Not only rare, but one of a kind in any sim products we can choose from.

THANK YOU for this and for providing it all at a very reasonable price and with excellent customer service, transparent communication and for being open to input from your customers via this site. If staying this course does not soon pay off in a big way for you, then there is no justice in the sim racing world, because it is deserved.

 

[M D Gourley]

But... in reality. A typical public race in AC is like this:
Practice/Qualify for 10 minutes. Feeling good.
Race starts. Crash first corner. Cars all over the place. Ending up being back in the field. Keeps on going. Passing some crashed cars during first lap and now is now in 5th. After first lap 50% of the cars have either crashed or disconnected. At this point i seriously consider disconnecting reminding myself never racing public again.

I would have to agree with this and while I personally have occasionally raced online I do much prefer Single player setting up Automobilistas' AI 'Strength' and 'Aggression' sliders to suit. Having the 'Aggression' slider set at 'Max' and depending on the cars I am racing with the 'Strength' at over 110% and find the AI very good to race against....and in most cases I never win a race, which does not worry me as there is a lot of room for improvement and for me personally it is 'All About the Driving Experience'....and Automobilista definitely has this for sure.

 

[bsmooth]

I think to make a very fair comparison, Automobilista is the Battle of Britain 2 of auto racing sims. Its not the latest and greatest, but what it does do it does very well. As far as the AI goes both are very similar.
Where Automobilista truly shines though is in the sum of its parts and its variety.
The part I like the most though is how smooth and polished it is. Its like going to a great movie, after a few minutes everything else just disappears, and your mind is only on one thing, and thats having a blast !

 

[Emery]

I would like to see servers without Practice\Qualify only short races 3\5 laps.

It´s boring join in a server and wait 30 min or more to start a race.

It's boring to join a server which has only 3-5 lap races. Might as well go drag racing and get the thing over with so you can go race again a few seconds later! Seriously, even lowly club racing (SCCA) usually has 20 minute races with feature races being an hour long.

 

[Marcos Santi]

It's boring to join a server which has only 3-5 lap races. Might as well go drag racing and get the thing over with so you can go race again a few seconds later! Seriously, even lowly club racing (SCCA) usually has 20 minute races with feature races being an hour long.

I belive that many people dont have much time to spend in a ''full race'' and this can be a reason to dont have many people online.
Short races would be more dynamic, if someone hit you in the first corner, you dont need exit the game, just wait the next race.

I belive that exist two different publics.

 

[xnorb]

iRacing has shown what gets people going: RPG elements.
There's a reason why we see rankings, statistics and even levels in all other genres by now - it keeps people playing and spending more time than they otherwise would.

Have online races giving points, introduce classes, licenses, championships, have us feel like Automobilistas, developing our career. Not offline - give us the "real world" experience by having us earn those points in online races.

I'm 100% sure that once a sim steps up to replicate the iRacing formula of fixed championships people can participate in and compete against with licenses + points + rankings but without the insane paywall behind it, this sim will turn online king in no time - and oh boy how i wish AMS would be that one sim!

 

[fortyfivekev]

I'm 100% sure that once a sim steps up to replicate the iRacing formula of fixed championships people can participate in and compete against with licenses + points + rankings but without the insane paywall behind it, this sim will turn online king in no time - and oh boy how i wish AMS would be that one sim!

I'm sure the iRacing guys make a decent profit but the main problem is that type of service is going to be very expensive to run. Infrastructure and the staff to run it don't come cheap. You also need to deal with protests, so more expense. Even if the true cost is $50 a year rather than the $100+ that iRacing charges that is probably more than most people owning AMS want to pay just for online.

I think I agree more with @Marcos Santi that more casual shorter races would help to get more people online. The quality of the racing can be low but if you only have to wait 10-15 minutes for the next race and can ban troublemakers then that's less of a big deal. A lot of the current servers have maybe one longish race a day with practice and qualifying. If you don't want to join a league and race at 7-8pm CET then there isn't much choice.

Something like a server running the Caterham 270/360 and similar cars on short circuits like Brands Indy, Oulton Fosters, etc. for 10 laps at a time on repeat would be fun and maybe encourage more people to have a go. A rallycross server would be great as well but we really need more rallycross content for that.

 

[F_B]

I think something like SRS officially implemented would also work quite well. Iracings system is something different and more complex, I think.

 

[alexSchmurtz]

Something like a server running the Caterham 270/360 and similar cars on short circuits like Brands Indy, Oulton Fosters, etc. for 10 laps at a time on repeat would be fun and maybe encourage more people to have a go.

Are you guys aware that they are already officials servers doing just that? Cycling through practice/qual/race sessions all day long, people can join whenever they want (practice or quali, not during races). That is just a start, I guess Reiza wants to do more with this; but then again human power is needed, they are a small team… It should maybe be a bit more advertised to start with (not sure if you can find them directly in game unless you filter the lobby?).
I must admit I'm having great fun in the club races here in RD and never tried those Reiza servers…

 

[F_B]

Online participation seems to be a problem except for Iracing (which does not really count, because it’s their core business), Assetto Corsa and PCars (and also there you'll find 80-90% GT3 servers). Sadly rfactor 2 and Automobilista servers are either empty or when they’re populated they’re locked or populated with AI.

 

[xnorb]

You don't need all the fancy iRacing stuff to start with and i think once the league feature is implemented and people actually use it, we're already halfway there.

In the beginning it would help a lot if official Reiza servers were populated with 10 AI cars ranging from 95 to 105% strength and if we were able to collect championship points racing there.
Even without direct PvP we could get the feeling of competition that way.

I just don't join official servers because i don't like hotlapping alone.
Idling long enough there might get you 2 others on track, but that's far from a racing grid, especially if speed of drivers is spread out.

 

[MiSeRy81]

Is the season pass only for one season or for all coming dlcs?