Some thoughts from Marco Massarutto

Thanks Michael for sharing this.

After reading through the whole thread I thought Kunos deserves this:

http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/donations-for-kunos.4445/

 

No need to quote the huge post of him

Send from my HTC One

 

A large part of Kunos staff comes out of the sim modding community, it's not really a surprise that one of the goals of AC right from the start has been a good opportunity for modding.

For online driving, I hope for some reasonable options when joining a race. Like
(a) Download all new content - get a full copy of skins, cars, track, whatever is not present in your AC install.
(b) New skins and physics only. I'm thinking things like league-specific tires and set-ups, don't know what's gonna be moddable for online play. I suppose things like the Stage 1/2/3 versions of cars could be quick downloads too if they're based on an existing vehicle.
(c) Low-res versions of skins only (4k skins @ 20MB each might look nice but they do slow down joining)
(d) Assign existing skins to missing ones, no downloads

If you're entering prescheduled races with qual sessions etc. then you have lots of time to download stuff, but some days I just want to push a couple buttons and be on the track and racing.

I hope it doesn't require exiting out of the game to add new content; peer to peer sharing of skins and stuff would make racing much more convenient.

Then again, if core AC doesn't support it, some of this stuff is definitely within range of the apps, so maybe it can happen that way.

 

There are a few things at play here that quite a few people seem to be missing. I will admit that I was somewhat disappointed to hear the 'big news' was nothing more than a DLC announcement. Not because it will cost money, but rather because of the timing of the announcement. It has, unfortunately, become too common that game manufacturers big and small will take time out of developing of the main product to devote time and resources to a paid DLC before the release of the original product. This isn't saying that Kunos was wrong in perusing new content, but the timing was off. With as much time and attention that has been given to the community from these guys I was not expecting such a AAA developer move out of them.

Now I have to agree with nasanu over a few points that he brings up. I have recently switched over from consoles to PC and am planning on never looking back. So this 100% real sim experience is something quite daunting to me. Having to browse through mods or servers to find exactly what I'm looking for is a problem that should be solved through a nice compact and user friendly UI. The reason for this is two-fold. First and foremost is from a business standpoint. The racing community for PC is rather small. There isn't a lot of market share to be spread around a large number of games, and I would haphazard a guess that there really isn't enough market share to support the amount of growth needed to compete with the likes of Forza and Grand Turismo in the coming years(Amount of track and car licenses prove this). Implementing a user friendly UI is the first step to opening the doors to a new flock of enthusiasts. And as much as some with complain that the "under 23 generation" is lazy and doesn't want to adapt, I have to say that lowering the learning curve will only help this entire genre of games in the future. By sticking to the old outdated ways there will be nothing but failure due to a "Who Moved My Cheese" scenario.

I would also like to chime in on the user created mods being monitored in some fashion. I once again need to side with nasnu for a few simple reasons. First up falls back in line with what I was saying earlier; a lower learning curve will allow greater access to people who have otherwise been too overwhelmed for sim racing and will help the community grow. Another point is with as much time and effort as Kunos has put into developing such a quality product, I would like to see what mods the developers recommend as holding up to their high standards that we have seen demonstrated so far. This isn't to say that other mods couldn't be used on private servers, but on official servers, or through official matchmaking, I would like to see a list of approved/recommended mods from the developers.

Some may view all of these statements as being ungrateful or lazy, but there is no doubt that this community needs to grow in order to prevent loss and steps to reduce the learning curve will increase the number of users which will lead to more innovation and a better experience for everyone involved.

 

Gentlemens, i think most of the "Bad Posters" are the same they crahses in every Public Race at the First Corner!
They cant change there mind and wait for few moments to realize what happens.
Sorry, i also read any news before Christmas and there was absolutly clear to me that the Timer is not for any kind of releas.

Now i want Thanks to Kunso for the Great Assetto Corsa, its so awsome, i like every minute i spend for it.
Watching the Replays, reading the Forums to see whats new and whats other find out.
I have tested all other Sims and Beta Sims to, but nothing bring me realy back to Sim Racing,
only Assetto Corsa will do and it was a long Time from rF1 to AC i think

Thank You Kunos

...and sorry for the Trolls.

Happy New Year

 

Initially, when I heard that Kunos had announced DLC before they were even done with the final product I was a bit conflicted. But, after reading Marco's explanation it makes complete sense to me. The 'Ring is a huge endeavor and will take a lot of time and money to put together. I don't know about you, but I'm in this for the long haul. This game (sim) is a blast. Whatever it takes to keep the ball rolling. I remember dreaming about something like this back when there were two brothers with the last name West. Seems like forever since we've had any hope of something as amazing as Assetto Corsa. This is gonna be good

 

snip...

Thanx for sharing Marco's post Michael.
Very much appreciated mafrien' and you're right, people had to know here also.

What Marco posted was not a well thought out post folks, this is the truth, just plain and simple.
And yes i totally agree, an LS nords is the mother of all news and Licenses.

@Marco/Kunos... thankyou for putting the ingrates right in their place, it was about time.
If you need a donation.??
You've got it from me and nothing will ever be asked for in return.

 

First car I thought about when I read the Nordschleife announcement.

 

Its funny that at the same time that it is a steep learning curve, you have lots of opinions to change it all. First talk to a guy who´s into pc online racing, try to understand how it works.

Its all about flexibility, you can mod the GUI to make the search for races easier, you can build a (profitable) service to organize races/championships/leagues, you can have quality control with mods. All of this already exists, take your time to look for them.

 

I think my idea has been miss understood Rodrigo. I fully understood what I was getting into when I purchased a wheel and started diving into the sim racing world. I understood that there was a lot to this genre and this is one of the main attractions that it held for me. I wanted an in depth racing game to take up my time on the weekends and the piss off the Mrs. with. What I am trying to get at is being stuck with how things were done in the past isn't the best business move. I'm not saying that the developers need to form a service like iRacing provides but rather an intuitive and user friendly experience (which their current UI does provide) to capitalize on the significant amount of people that are coming over to sim racing. With the UI being the first thing that people interact with in the game, a bad UI can leave a sour taste in the mouth of a new player right off the bat. I understand that there will be mods developed, but the lack of a good first experience with a product will cause most people not to return. Additionally, adding a 'developer's favorite' mod list either in game, on steam, or even just on the site would help with the newly attracted crowd that is migrating over to the PC sim world. Even a small production like Trials has a developer's picks section to show what they feel is quality user created content.

What I do fear is that the community will shun new players and prevent growth and innovation of the industry. The differing options in this forum are a prime example of that. The people who have been doing this for years seem to scoff at the newb questions that are asked and feel above the people dipping their toes in the water at this point. It is very disappointing to say the least. Although it can be frustrating to constantly tell people to purchase at a min a DFGT and that a G27 is a solid racing wheel when looking to get into this hobby, this community needs to open its arms to the new players in hopes that their contributions, whether it be strictly for the selfishness of their monetary gains or not, will help to support the future of this genre.

In short, I wasn't looking to 'change everything' about the game, but was rather trying to add some ideas that would help this game, and perhaps the genre, grow. I had intended for my previous post to be more of a wish-list, and to explain a different view of disappointment with the announcement other than 'it'll cost money,' rather than what some took to be a complaint.

 

I agree with Anaconda and get equally frustrated with the lack of vision of some of the sim racing community as to the ongoing growth and development of the genre. Having seen the decline of PC sim racing when the publishers pulled the plug a decade or so ago, developers have had to come up with innovative ways of being able to develop their passion of sim racing. Efforts to expand iRacing to a wider audience are frequently met with the Neanderthal grunts from the hardcore who seem to wish to keep sim racing a nice regardless of being a self destructive strategy.

Inevitably the early adopters in AC are the current sim enthusiasts, yet there is a clear strategy to expand into a simcade market in addition to the professional market. The sim community needs to get its head around that breadth of audience. I think there is a vision within KS to bridge the gap between PC & Console but it probably needs to convince the current PC sim racing community that it can deliver a true sim before making too many concessions and the inevitable accusations of being "arcade".

Current announcements are more for the early adopter than the potential new audience which will more likely be targeted post 1.0 release IMHO.

 

Looking forward to spring 2014 at the Nordschleife. I hope to see you on track while scanning and at the party.

 

Cool stuff.

Marco...

Beyond the 1.0...

2014 - No 24hs transition.

2014 - No drivers swap

 

Ha, rF2... what about R3E for me. I believed in Sinbin and have dished out over $150US buying all tracks and almost all cars thinking they would have advanced the game with AI and at least multiplayer maybe a career. Then they drop out a spin-off DTM game and odder it at 55US. For basically the same game.

 

I like the way Kuno's is going to give us a great sim and how the devs are in contact with the community. I'm not going to complain about their efforts on this game. If they ask for the community to help or want to charge for content. I will pay to help them for giving us a quality sim.

 

For me it's only important that will be on Friday released the multiplayer. So they promised, but I'm not sure that this year.

 

Please show me this "promise" that they made about MP Friday.

 

What are you upset? When adjustments are? Does not every other Friday? Massaruto said it will likely MP released in March.How many weeks should have been in March??

 

So he said it was "likely" and you take that as a "promise". There is quite a difference. Fail.

 

This is almost promise