Worried about AMS2

[TShrimp]

I purchased AMS2 two days ago. So far I am enjoying this sim, however, I am concerned about its acceptance. I am a terrible sim racer. I enjoy it, but I am not a natural. With that said, I actually hold some of the quickest times on the leader boards. What this tells me is that there isn't very many people racing this game. At least that are being recorded in the Time Trials.

If this sim is not adopted could this put Reiza in financial trouble, and in turn cause this game to be unsupported? Or is it common for racing sims to start off slow and pick up steam?

 

[pavig]

The leaderboards were reset less than a week ago so don't worry about being at the top. Won't last long... some sim racers pounce like hyenas on a leaderboard they're not at the top of.

AMS1 (and a lot of more niche sims) have a slower build and longer tail than mainstream racing games. Codies will release an F1 game every year and sales will be frontloaded, then die off when the next nears release, and unless it's well loved will fade into obscurity soon after. But I remember when Assetto Corsa was “that funny Italian sim” before it grew to the point that many still play today despite the sequel getting more mainstream adoption.

Reiza has a long term plan to grow AMS so it will likely grow into a more rounded sim with wider adoption as the kinks get worked out and new content arrives. Many sim racers won't consider a sim until it has their old favorite tracks or cars. So when AMS gets Spa, the Nord, etc. you will likely see bumps in adoption.

Reiza seems to have a plan to make it work. World events have put some financial and management pressure on the developer, so it's not all happening as quick as they'd hoped. But the same events have promoted sim racing during motorsport lockdowns, so that may balance out long term. Retailers are selling out of sim gear, so many of those people new to the hobby will start looking for new driving experiences at some point.

 

[TShrimp]

The leaderboards were reset less than a week ago so don't worry about being at the top. Won't last long... some sim racers pounce like hyenas on a leaderboard they're not at the top of.

AMS1 (and a lot of more niche sims) have a slower build and longer tail than mainstream racing games. Codies will release an F1 game every year and sales will be frontloaded, then die off when the next nears release, and unless it's well loved will fade into obscurity soon after. But I remember when Assetto Corsa was “that funny Italian sim” before it grew to the point that many still play today despite the sequel getting more mainstream adoption.

Reiza has a long term plan to grow AMS so it will likely grow into a more rounded sim with wider adoption as the kinks get worked out and new content arrives. Many sim racers won't consider a sim until it has their old favorite tracks or cars. So when AMS gets Spa, the Nord, etc. you will likely see bumps in adoption.

Reiza seems to have a plan to make it work. World events have put some financial and management pressure on the developer, so it's not all happening as quick as they'd hoped. But the same events have promoted sim racing during motorsport lockdowns, so that may balance out long term. Retailers are selling out of sim gear, so many of those people new to the hobby will start looking for new driving experiences at some point.

Awesome info. I admit, I am shocked at the amount of fun I am having racing these different/unique cars on these great tracks. I never realized the fun one could have racing the Formula Vee's. I just spent hours learning to drive that little thing.

 

[David Peres]

I'm worried as well considering how as of the last few days AMS2 has even less daily players than AMS1 (from steamcharts).

Really hope the upcoming popular content (GT3, Spa, Nordschleife...) brings in more players. And then there's also the fact that many people, including some popular youtubers, see AMS2 as nothing but a Project Cars 2.5 with quircky content, which is a perception that Reiza will have to try and change.

Another thing that Reiza needs to work on is all the problems that some people are having to get their hardware detected. Sure, it doesn't affect everyone, but reading their forums it seems like there are a disproportionate amount of people having issues and I'm one of them... haven't been able to get my Th8r h-shifter to work at all and at this point I gave up trying until they fix it because I have no issues in any other of the many sims I own.

 

[TShrimp]

I'm worried as well considering how as of the last few days AMS2 has even less daily players than AMS1 (from steamcharts).

Really hope the upcoming popular content (GT3, Spa, Nordschleife...) brings in more players. And then there's also the fact that many people, including some popular youtubers, see AMS2 as nothing but a Project Cars 2.5 with quircky content, which is a perception that Reiza will have to try and change.

Another thing that Reiza needs to work on is all the problems that some people are having to get their hardware detected. Sure, it doesn't affect everyone, but reading their forums it seems like there are a disproportionate amount of people having issues and I'm one of them... haven't been able to get my Th8r h-shifter to work at all and at this point I gave up trying until they fix it because I have no issues in any other of the many sims I own.

Not sure if this helps (or if you already tried this), but I thought my TH8A shifter was having issues as well. However, I figured out you have to assign like they were buttons. Go to Options>Edit Assignments>Motion (defaults there)>Select Gear 1-6,R assigning each throw. Under Control Scheme also set to gearing to manual and "off" to auto clutch.

Also, if you have USB pedals you have to do the same thing. If connected through the wheel I think they are just recognized.

 

[David Peres]

Not sure if this helps (or if you already tried this), but I thought my TH8A shifter was having issues as well. However, I figured out you have to assign like they were buttons. Go to Options>Edit Assignments>Motion (defaults there)>Select Gear 1-6,R assigning each throw. Under Control Scheme also set to gearing to manual and "off" to auto clutch.

Also, if you have USB pedals you have to do the same thing. If connected through the wheel I think they are just recognized.

That is how I assign the gears in any other sim, but in AMS2 it doesn't work for me (with gears set to "manual" and auto clutch set to "off"). Also tried using different USB ports and reeinstalling the Th8r drivers but the game simply doesn't recognize any input whatsoever from the shifter on the "Edit Assigments" menu.

But it works fine for all other sims I have, so for the moment I just gave up... not really able to enjoy AMS2 like this since most of my favourite cars in AMS1 are H-Shifter cars

 

[BrightCandle]

For my TH8A I have been having issues since EA. What seems to work is to set up everything else then restart the game and then I can sometimes assign it. I don't understand what is going on but usually a restart of the game and it gets detected.

I don't think the game is going to do very well. Its not really about the handling physics, although I think that is part of the problem, I think its mostly that it brings nothing all that new other than Brazilian content that very few people care about. Nowadays I think you really need to focus on the competition/multiplayer or a wicked single player (F1 Myteam career, ACC and iRacing multiplayer) or you are dead in the water in terms of actual gameplay.

 

[BillGuy]

My largest current worry about the game is pretty specific. I’m worried that for reasons beyond their control Reiza will never be able to improve the replay system. To be blunt, it’s terrible compared to AMS 1. The “visual fidelity” of what you see on the screen is fine but nearly everything else about replays should probably have its PC2 roots pulled out and replaced.

That is, of course, not a trivial undertaking so the amount of time it would take doesn’t worry me. Again, what worries me is the potential that Reiza literally won’t have the capability of doing this no matter how much they want to or how many resources they’re willing to throw at it.

 

[maelstrom]

I'm worried as well considering how as of the last few days AMS2 has even less daily players than AMS1 (from steamcharts).

Sadly, it's only got worse since your post last week. There seems to have been a steady decline in players since the beginning of July with the numbers peaking at less than 250 in the past few days. Really disappointing! It's difficult to know what the future holds for the title if numbers don't improve significantly.

Comparison - Steam Charts

An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.

steamcharts.com

 

[TShrimp]

Sadly, it's only got worse since your post last week. There seems to have been a steady decline in players since the beginning of July with the numbers peaking at less than 250 in the past few days. Really disappointing! It's difficult to know what the future holds for the title if numbers don't improve significantly.

Comparison - Steam Charts

An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.

steamcharts.com

I wonder if the release of ACC GT4 pack has hurt AMS2 a little. I admit that is what is pulling me in right now.

 

[lawgicau]

I'd say definitely. There's a lot of buzz about it.
People have little patience as indication by how many quit mid race. Dodgy netcode and penalties probably encourage many to quit and play something else.

 

[David Peres]

I don't think ACC GT4 DLC is to blame since AMS2 small userbase was already on a decline before that. I think the buggy and very unfinished release state of v1.0 is to blame, together with the lack of popular recognizable content.

When it comes to content, it is what it is. Some stuff in AMS2 is very appealing to me, like V8, Stock Cars and F-Vee, but a lot of it is also not something I'm interested in spending time with. That's just the issue about being a sim mostly composed out of smaller obscure racing cars/series... it might be unique and attract some players becouse of that, but at the end of the day most of us will spend most of our time driving more popular stuff, specially if you play online.

The state of v1.0 however is a big problem right now. As much as we know that Reiza will work like hell to polish the game over the next few years (if they get enough revenue for that to happen... let's hope), the majority of people who buy games are not reading official forums and stuff like we are, so all they see is that they bought a supposed finished game (which is still what v1.0 should mean) and that game is full of bugs and unfinished features so they just go play something else.

 

[maelstrom]

I wonder if the release of ACC GT4 pack has hurt AMS2 a little. I admit that is what is pulling me in right now.

The ACC DLC was only released yesterday. Whilst that release may have had some affect, the numbers for AMS2 have been declining steadily since v1 was released.

Dodgy netcode and penalties probably encourage many to quit and play something else.

The netcode doesn't affect single-player races which, I suspect, is probably what many (most?) people are playing.

 

[Salvatore Sirignano]

I really hope it's a success, they seem a great bunch of guys and we know how hard they work. I hope that they can licence a high profile real world series to shoehorn in though to give it another USP. That's the beauty of AMS1 - the community filled in the gaps in content, be they tracks or full season mods like F1 1971 or 1975 which even handle better at the limit than the stock equivalents.

In the early hours of the morning looking at those charts (UK time, Brazilian evening I guess!) AMS1 has twice as many players at times.

It's great having several tracks from the 88 season for example in AMS2, but without the rest, like Detroit, Paul Ricard, Mexico, Hungary, Monza...you can't run a historic championship in full, nor can we get under the hood yet and tinker with AI names and abilities to pit ourselves against virtual Jim Clarks or Ayrton Sennas with realistic performances, unless I'm mistaken?
Hopefully those will come, I have great faith in Reiza.

 

[lawsy]

I think most people have a lot of faith, myself included. But we are already hooked and many newcomers won't feel the same way.
I really hope they nail the next update at the end of the month, fixing some of the many glaring bugs and gaps in features.
If they just shoehorn in more content instead then the game's reputation for being bug ridden will endure.

 

[Port1s]

I've not got AMS2 at the moment, but I'm weighing it up. It looks like the numbers have dropped over the last two weeks, but then if you look at Raceroom, AC, ACC, the trend is actually the same for all. Big peak in users in March, and then trailing off slowly before a big drop in the last couple of weeks - my guess is as a lot of people are trying to return to work / go on holiday.

So I'd say it's just unfortunate that AMS2 launched as player numbers are dropping across the board - not necessarily a cause for future concern. Admittedly, they are lower numbers in general compared to the above-mentioned titles, but to paraphrase one of the posts above, in gaming terms it's a 'niche' title, so it's all about the long game.

 

[Romandevison]

For me AMS2 is good in everything - FFB, physics, graphics, sound and Ginetta CUP + good tracks. But all this is at a medium level, there is nothing better than the competitors and im can't say that AMS2 has anything more interesting than its competitors. Perhaps only F1-cars.

In general, a year ago ACC was about the same level - nothing more than possible, but the game has changed almost completely in a year. I think AMS2 will be the same.

It is psychologically unpleasant to realize low popularity, but so far it has only had a negative impact on MP, which is not everyone plays.

 

[Cote Dazur]

If playing off line it does not matter how many play the game, even AMS did not do very well in that aspect. It only matters for future development, as developers need money for paying rights on interesting content, even though Reiza seem to take the changing the name road to avoid those cost. It is probably going to be alright, with a little patience.
Meanwhile we already have nice combo to have fun with.

 

[Case_]

Not surprising, really. The game was released in a bit of a rough shape for sure, there's no denying that, and half the simracers won't even touch it because they have a hate boner for anything PCars 2/SMS related, and/or have been told by others the game is obviously absolute crap and will never be a true sim.

 

[GermansInAction]

Automobilista 2 brings everything to be successful! Everyone who dares to do a test drive will want more. Word will get around. Maybe someone should address that in an international forum. ;-)

I have just looked into my crystal ball again and predict Automobilista 2 a bright future.
So there is no reason to wear mourning at all.