rFactor 2 | Rome E-Prix DLC Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

Studio 397 last night released a new circuit for rFactor 2, adding the 2021 Rome E-Prix venue to the ever expanding collection of Formula E tracks within the title.

• New DLC available for £6.84.
• Joins Berlin, Hong Kong, New York, Diriyah, Electric Docks and Monaco Formula E tracks.
• Includes Attack Mode and 2021 layout.

The Rome E-Prix is a little different to the standard street circuit layout used within Formula E, in that the course is the longest lap in the history of the series at a little over 2.860 km in length, and of the 21 corners that make up a tour of the Circuito Cittadino dell’EUR, many of the turns are approached from fairly dramatic undulations within the confines of the city venue, meaning a driver will often find themselves having to carefully apply brake and throttle pedal inputs in order to keep the car away from the ever present threat of the unforgiving walls that line the circuit.

rFactor 2 | Rome E-Prix Steam Store: Click Here.

The new DLC is the latest Formula E track release for the simulation following the recent deployment of the Diriyah E-Prix and various updates to already released Formula E venues earlier this month. Although certainly not a type of racing that appeals to every sim racer, it is nevertheless nice to see a continued collaboration between the studio and Formula E with these content releases, adding something a little different to the title alongside the more traditional fare of GT and endurance racing content.




Original Source: Studio 397

rFactor 2 is available now, exclusive to PC.

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[atomed]

Oh, no, it hurts my eyes and my soul! You were right all along, #banrF2

 

[guidofoc]

This started me thinking.. which country flags look the same if upside-down?

1. Japan
2. Switzerland
3. Somalia
4. ..

 

[tr1v1um]

I can't be the only one who hasn't tried these because there's no free Formula E car to try?

I could even afford to waste money and it would hardly bother me. What bothers me more is they continue to push Formula E without providing an onramp for the newbies or skeptics.

The marketing strategy on this is weird.

There is zero marketing strategy behind this. This weekend there are the Sebring 12 hours. What do you think what people will do after they've watched the stream? Yep, they will instantly go to the steam store and purchase Rome E-Prix, completely logical. It would have been a perfect opportunity to update Sebring with all the new shaders and stuff, so that people can get their sim racing fix over the weekend and present the sim and all it offers in it's full glory, at best with some multiclass competition system stuff going on and time scaled races. Again, a lost opportunity that get's wasted on something that again lacks attention to detail. The question is, how long will the fix take this time?

Another issue: if the community manager tells people to temper their expectations for a new track, after they started guessing with some well sounding tracks like Bathurst, Road America or Road Atlanta, then that's clearly not a good sign. First of all it shows what the community is expecting aka demanding and on top of that would I be hyping the sh*t out of my content releases if I was convinced that they are relevant content for my product and my userbase. I am usualy not the type of guy who complaints that he doesn't get what he wants like a five year old kid, but for people who have zero interest in FE the first quarter of 2021 has been a very bumpy start of the year with rF2.

I mean, I am not even expecting new tracks for my prefered cars at this point, as even just a little update for one of the historic tracks would make me happy like a little five year old in front of the candy store.

 

[Case_]

The crowd is 2D and therefore it is always facing the camera.

I can't be the only one who hasn't tried these because there's no free Formula E car to try?

I could even afford to waste money and it would hardly bother me. What bothers me more is they continue to push Formula E without providing an onramp for the newbies or skeptics.

The marketing strategy on this is weird.

Maybe they're aware of the fact that people wouldn't really get it after they tried it. (Though that sounds more conspirationalist than it should.)

(Or maybe it's just me being in denial how popular the Formula E stuff really is, because I sure could never find a way into it, despite trying to give it a fair chance. I just don't see how the cars and tracks are fun to race.)

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

Haha I live not far from there and drive around there every day, EUR is actually one of the few "modern" places in Rome, which otherwise is a big open-air museum.

I actually had a big accident while driving a Vespa right around the corner from one of the screenshots and I use to drive that very street to work all the time.

 

[2stains]

Those bloody fences and the aliasing they create! Same as Portland, even maxed AA at 4k looks bad. S397 needs to do something about the AA used. This rack looks especially bad.

 

[eg01st]

Those bloody fences and the aliasing they create! Same as Portland, even maxed AA at 4k looks bad. S397 needs to do something about the AA used. This rack looks especially bad.

I play on maximum possible settings and didn't notice. But I don't look at the fences anyway

 

[2stains]

But I don't look at the fences anyway

I don't look at the mantle piece while stoking the fire but i want a nice mantle

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

There is zero marketing strategy behind this. This weekend there are the Sebring 12 hours. What do you think what people will do after they've watched the stream? Yep, they will instantly go to the steam store and purchase Rome E-Prix, completely logical. It would have been a perfect opportunity to update Sebring with all the new shaders and stuff, so that people can get their sim racing fix over the weekend and present the sim and all it offers in it's full glory, at best with some multiclass competition system stuff going on and time scaled races. Again, a lost opportunity that get's wasted on something that again lacks attention to detail. The question is, how long will the fix take this time?

Another issue: if the community manager tells people to temper their expectations for a new track, after they started guessing with some well sounding tracks like Bathurst, Road America or Road Atlanta, then that's clearly not a good sign. First of all it shows what the community is expecting aka demanding and on top of that would I be hyping the sh*t out of my content releases if I was convinced that they are relevant content for my product and my userbase. I am usualy not the type of guy who complaints that he doesn't get what he wants like a five year old kid, but for people who have zero interest in FE the first quarter of 2021 has been a very bumpy start of the year with rF2.

I mean, I am not even expecting new tracks for my prefered cars at this point, as even just a little update for one of the historic tracks would make me happy like a little five year old in front of the candy store.

I don't know how many track updates we should really be expecting. How often does iRacing update its circuits? It seems they revisit the tracks once every ten years or so and barely add anything new. Not many new tracks seem to be released to other sims either.

The problem with the DLC concept is that eventually you are going to run out of new "exciting" tracks to create. The DLCs add temporary hype, but once they are released, things are kind of done. If the only way to get excitement and increase player base is to constantly release new content, then it suggests the product doesn't stand on very strong legs.

Regarding the FE track, it seems Rome GP is held 10th April so I assume the strategy was to have the track released and ready for that.

 

[GuitarTech]

I don't know how many track updates we should really be expecting. How often does iRacing update its circuits? It seems they revisit the tracks once every ten years or so and barely add anything new. Not many new tracks seem to be released to other sims either.

The problem with the DLC concept is that eventually you are going to run out of new "exciting" tracks to create. The DLCs add temporary hype, but once they are released, things are kind of done. If the only way to get excitement and increase player base is to constantly release new content, then it suggests the product doesn't stand on very strong legs.

Regarding the FE track, it seems Rome GP is held 10th April so I assume the strategy was to have the track released and ready for that.

I'd be happy if what is already there in rF2 at least worked properly

 

[gianlucaP]

ì

 

[Evi]

I mean, these tracks could be even cool with small, light and fast vehicles. But no update to Clio and Civic, no Catherams, no track day cars like Ariel and such, no update to karts, no other small cars classes.

Radical SR3-RSX - free and from S397. My guess - should be quite good for this track.

 

[Zuffenhausen Weiss]

No colosseum no buy!

No gladitorial combat, no buy

 

[GuitarTech]

No gladitorial combat, no buy

No woman, no cry!

 

[atomed]

The Miatas also produce excellent races around here, especially Mantasisg´s last mod.

 

[gianlucaP]

ì

 

[Leynad777]

The free Radical from S397 doesn't sound like the real car. And for me for this makes it no good nowhere, unfortunally.

The Radical-DLC isn't any better unfortunately and the FFB is just weird. It's very light even the car has no power-steering and it vanish the more you turn the car, which doesn't make sense in my book.

I wanted to give FE another shot, but this center column of the halo with the only option to reduce opacity by 10% is just too annoying without VR. In VR and real life you can basically look through the column, but not on a 2D-screen. Even the real drivers were using the camera on the top of the car for that reason, but when it comes to fix issues like that, which seems minimal afford like adjusting FFB-gain during driving, rF2 feels more like abandon-ware.

 

[tr1v1um]

I don't know how many track updates we should really be expecting. How often does iRacing update its circuits? It seems they revisit the tracks once every ten years or so and barely add anything new. Not many new tracks seem to be released to other sims either.

The problem with the DLC concept is that eventually you are going to run out of new "exciting" tracks to create. The DLCs add temporary hype, but once they are released, things are kind of done. If the only way to get excitement and increase player base is to constantly release new content, then it suggests the product doesn't stand on very strong legs.

Regarding the FE track, it seems Rome GP is held 10th April so I assume the strategy was to have the track released and ready for that.

I am not sure we are on the same track here, but have you seen the last couple of changelogs from iRacing? Paul has to split them up in two posts to fit everything in and there are alot of little track and car updates included. I will admit, I am not expecting those huge changelogs as iRacing is playing in a completely different league right now, but nothing for stuff that should be fixed in a short time frame after it's been reported is just not good. I will call it as it is. Next to that you have people in the rF2 community providing continously support for their content and for official content for free. Have you seen the recent update of the Enduracers mod? A complete update for more than 10 different car models, with hundreds of different skins while working on the skinpack for the Porsche Cup car with three different seasons and the Alpine mod at the same time. Or the cars that Chieff is producing or the track updates for Targa Florio and the Mountain course by one single guy? It just presents this product and studio in a very bad shade right now, I am sorry to say this.

Besides that, I am not sure if iRacing is the right benchmark here, as their strategy of putting their low quality content behind a paywall to rent it is something that prevents me from spending more money on it and I suspect I am not alone. I tried it for three months for a tenner and it was enough for me to open up my mind. The difference to iRacing is that rF2 isn't standing on strong legs right now as you've pefectly described it, thatswhy iRacing can get away with it.

At the end it doesn't matter what other studios are doing anyway for me as a rF2 fan. Making the core experience stronger should have top priority right now for S397, but all I've seen the last couple of months is bad QA and questionable priorities and the stuff that keeps me playing is the stuff that was provided by the community. When I read that those FE tracks get new advertisement banners, so that the ABB and Allianz guys can get rekt, while the core content that should work as a teaser to fill the competition system, hasn't been brought up to spec since over two years now, it really makes me wonder what's going on. There is just no excuse for this, simple as that. And that the FE race is three weeks time and Sebring today should tell you that priorities are wrong. They need to understand that they can't fill a competition system with celebrities. Since release of this track there have been like three YT videos, none of it with FE cars and something like 200 clicks for those videos. Do you need any other proof that this is nonesense? I don't. So now they have 9 months left to keep the big content updates coming that they teasered at the beginning of this year.

My tea is ready.

 

[Peter Kerényi]

The problem with the DLC concept is that eventually you are going to run out of new "exciting" tracks to create. The DLCs add temporary hype, but once they are released, things are kind of done. If the only way to get excitement and increase player base is to constantly release new content, then it suggests the product doesn't stand on very strong legs.

I do not agree. This might be true for "conventional" video games, where you have a base story and expansions released later. From this logic rFactor 2 stands on really weak legs after almost 10 years on the market. Base content is... mostly outdated, let's stay at that. (And I am the last guy to defend their DLC strategy BTW).

 

[147852369]

All these Formula E tracks look awful for simracing, I wonder how many are sold. It looks like the kind of track that you drive once but never touch again.