The future of Raceroom?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by playlessNamer, Sep 13, 2018.

  1. playlessNamer

    playlessNamer New Member

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    The time goes on and releases coming and the technic improves naturally over time. Other racingsims come with dozen of additional features, new class graphics and the fresh wind of beeing a new game.
    I still prefer Raceroom as my best sim, my most favourite but in comparsion i wonder how long it will survive. My mates switch more and more to other games and i cant make them buy RRE because the other games are way cheaper like in actual sales. Why there is never a Steam Top Page 60% sale or anything?

    To the future:
    RRE is running Dx9 as far as i know. Will there be a big engine update anytime? Any big feature update like tyre setups, mp features, weather/daytime stuff, physics enhacnement,... like that.
    or will anytime release a Raceroom 2?

    It hurts me to see my fav game die to timeprogress.
    It was never one of the big boys in playercounts, graphics and features but the overall best complete pack of cars, tracks and very good technics like force feedback and overall driving feeling.
     
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  2. sbtm

    sbtm Well-Known Member

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    dream on
     
  3. Skybird

    Skybird Well-Known Member

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    I think the attractiveness will slowly level down and new players coming in will slowly lose in numbers over time. Just e-sports alone I think - and always thought - will not do the trick. While I think the title still looks absolutely good en9gh so that it can hold its ground in that regard, it has limitations for further developments like weather, and more resource optimization for VR. If they will not find an answer to this within reasonable time (new engine...), then the show may end sooner than some people think, yes. And then there is the release of ACC yesterday which showed that the game is played now on a completely new pitch, with even the traditional benchmark signature of Raceroom - sounds - being surpassed. Just new content sooner or later will no longer do the trick, after the 5th incarnation of WTCC, 3 DTM packs and more repetition like this, and the GT3 crown slowly but mercilessly being seized by trhe new competitor in the ring. Beside sounds, Raceroom ruled the GT3 racing segment - but ACC is about to change this, too.

    They need that new engine which will hopefully free new development options and unleashing the hardware's resources. That's why I found that messy PR stunt about GTR3 ten days ago so alarming. I do not care much for tha GTR3 game, but any mess they bring themselves into may affect Raceroom's future as well.

    We do not know what is happening behind the wizard's curtain, and what numbers he has in his spell book. And who knows , since Raceroom never was sold as lease content, but bought, they cannot simply switch off servers one day without making the content playable offline, it would probably mean legal troubles. Like any title, even raceroom may have to face one day the simp0le truth that its life cycle finally has reached its end. While I see some dangers ahead, I however think that this day still is a but away in the future. And who knows how iot goes with the engine injection from GTR3. If there are problesm with SimBin London, Raceroom Entertainment certainly learn about it in time, and try to react.

    I think ACC'S introduction yesterday means thinking work is being done in every studio currently. ACC is a game changer. A fool is everybody who underestimates this. "He who is too late gets punished by life."

    But also not forget this: not everybody is a hardcore player, and not every sim racers seeks the ultimate realism experience. In fact I think hardcore realism hunters are a niche market, a minority, and players with a more relaxed view on physics and such are the dominant majority. I think graphics and visual attractiveness is the more important argument, form an economic/financial standpoint. Seen this way, I maybe paint too dark a picture of Raceroom'S future - if they get that engine injection thing done. Time is working against them. Market demands new looks. I disagree with that, personally, think RR still is pretty - but the market nevertheless demands new clothing for Raceroom.
     
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    Last edited: Sep 14, 2018
  4. Skybird

    Skybird Well-Known Member

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    No. Not at all. Quite the other way around. Compared to AC, RR for me always had the more forgiving physics, but better race-as-an-event action. Its AI is the best I know in the genre. I marked that often enough. With ACC, the difference in physics may even grow, while the gap in race-as-an-event simulation may shrink, maybe even gets neutralised. With the Raceroom sounds now even being surpassed by ACC, what remains of the former features where RR was better than AC, is the trackpool on offer.

    Thats why I indicated that I think Raceroom somehow must reinvent itself. Else it gets left behind sooner or later. A new engine may free hardware resources that so far are blocked due to the DX9 limits. Changing physics is on the way. Features like weather and day-night must come. Just adding new cars or tracks will not save RR.

    I compare to another game, The Hunter. It uses an engine that was released in 2009. It still looks beautiful. They have added I think 7 new reserves to the original 5, and plenty of content items. Ever more rifles and bows and pistols, and animals. still, the playerbase now is shrinking, apparently. Its been nince years, thats all behind it. They now released a new Hunter game, a year ago, Call of the Wild,with a new engine, and udated game mechanisms, and you know what? Its better than I expected, its quite good, and attracts growing player numbers, also avoids some policy mistakes they made with the old Hunter game. They did not announce any transition from old to new, and do not comment much on that, they let it appear like an addition for the console market. But truth is we see the slow migration from an old platform to a new, better one. It happens naturally, all by themselves, at the pace players choose. Very smart move by them, I say. No revolution - but evolution, at player'S choice of time and pace.
     
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    Last edited: Sep 14, 2018
  5. Skybird

    Skybird Well-Known Member

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    Didn't I say "Seen this way, I maybe paint too dark a picture of Raceroom's future"? ;)

    And stop making me dizzy. This constant turning around really causes me nausea. :)
     
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  6. DreamsKnight

    DreamsKnight Well-Known Member

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    Acc bla bla bla...
    But It has only gt3.
    So st the end It is only another un-perfect not definitive sim
     
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  7. Skybird

    Skybird Well-Known Member

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    A Blancpein sim only has Blancpein, FIFA 2019 only has football, and a golf sim only has golf. Weired. o_O

    :)
     
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  8. OlivierMDVY

    OlivierMDVY Active Member

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    My only hope is Sector3 is already working on a new engine or huge current engine improvement otherwise all the others sims will bury it :(
     
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  9. JakkeFin

    JakkeFin Well-Known Member

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    You have serious problems with adolf, except you are ordering beer...
     
  10. David Peres

    David Peres Well-Known Member

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    I do worry about the future of Raceroom, not for "external" reasons like the release of ACC or any other sim, but for "internal" reasons. Talking about the "powers that be" who control the development of Raceroom, with their mysterious and ever changing priorities that go beyond the control of Sector 3. Not sure what to think about that.

    Also, the combination of an off-putting business model that only hardcore simracers will put-up with, together with an "eternal" lack of many basic features that a lot of hardcore simracers expect, mean that Raceroom has painted itself into a very narrow corner and even a graphics engine update will probably not acomplish much more than a very short-term boost.

    Honestly, I don't know what to expect in the future, but I'm not optimistic. I do know that for awhile now I've struggled to feel any excitment when new tracks or cars are announced... but at least I do feel excited about what Alex Hodgkison has been doing with the physics.
     
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  11. Skybird

    Skybird Well-Known Member

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    My to-go tracks are all there. New tracks are welcomed but not really waited for (by me at least). New cars and skins I really do not need. I enjoy Alex' updating of car physics. But as I see it, the title is feature- and content-complete, at leats for me. I do not hope or expect for dramatic new stuff and chnages anymore. E-sports I have zero interest in. There simply is nothing left I wish for. I could imagine that it is like this for many people. And the MP aspect really is not the big attractor of RR, it seems. MP, whenever I tried it, which was rarely, I admit, never was as smooth as in AC, as an example. Micropauses when players joined and left. Occasional micro stutters. Its technical realization is not as good, simply said, as in other games.High fluctuation of track-jumping players. Many focussed on the Raceroom house track to play for free.

    The big handicap for the future is that the title cannot be modded with new tracks, cars and skins. This is what has kept Nascar 2003 Season alive until today. Or think of Grand Prix - its community is still active. This engine, this motivational drive is not available in RR, and now that peoples' taste for new cintent slowly but surely seems to be saturated, where Nascar 2003 lived on by this alternative drive from modders, Raceroom must stall sooner or later. I see a big problem ahead there, founded in the very nature of the business model. I wonder how long they can live by the small number of enthusiast online players. Whenever I check the online lobby, the number of players was extremely limited. In no way it compares to the online activity in other such titles. As long as they had development and massive improvements to offer, what now turns into a problem (at least thats how I see it) in the past has not been one.

    Its reaching the end of its development, maybe. I am not totally certain that injecitng a new engine alone and leaving it to that, could change it. In principle they maybe must re-invent the game structure, feature list, the whole game, keeping only the trackpool and car models. Like your renovate an old house: you carve out all the inside, all wars and floors go out, you leave only the outer walls standing, and build everything new inside. Raceroom as it is now, imo has reached the end of its development cycle, if I should be honest. And that is no criticsm and no reson to be sad or angry: its just natural. Every journey sooner or later comes to an end, and if I consider the voyage since Spring 2015, it was a great and very enjoyable trip. Personally I will keep Raceroom in use for some more years to come. So: no hard feelings at my end at all.
     
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    Last edited: Sep 16, 2018
  12. Xon3

    Xon3 Well-Known Member

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    What i hope is that s3 is for some reason stacking features for a big refresh.
    What i fear is that s3 is being handicapped to make gtr3 look better ...
     
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  13. nate

    nate Well-Known Member

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    How can something be handicapped when what you are comparing it to doesnt even exist? :confused:

    These thoughts are a bit comical, because RR has been on its own path for years now. Slowly chugging along putting out new features, improvements, and lots of bugfixes... while steadily releasing new content every so often.
     
  14. Not Lifting Off

    Not Lifting Off Well-Known Member

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    Why worry about Raceroom, seriously?
    As much as you love it or loathe it for whatever reason, your not special to Raceroom, you dont mean anything more than money to them.
    Its a game, they come and go, some last longer than others, some are better than others, some are just dogshit.
    Raceroom has taken how long? And you still cant have a chat with a fellow racer on a server, the simple things that are taken for granted in other games are still missing, one of the best servers in Raceroom closed its doors recently because they have no control of the server and or the racers on it, the pricing policy, the longer youve played it the more it cost you, wtf? New guy can come in pay £65 and have everything plus change for the next track release or two, long standing players are up to £100 + or more.
    So many reasons not to care about Raceroom all valid, at the same time there many reason to care about the game and how it progresses, but lots of changes need to be made because as popular as its becoming once people start to see through it they will slowly drift away.
    ACC £20 GT3 racing a legitimate series for peanuts, im not throwing any more money RRs way, i cant have a conversation ingame, i cant read the display in Vr to see gap times grey on grey (how long to change #D3D3D3 to #000000 a minute, it is that simple!) and so many more........im waffling on.

    I love and loathe it in equal measure, worry about its future i wont, it owes me nothing i owe it nothing when were done were done, it will be a shame to see its passing but the way it is currently i think it is inevitable, hope im wrong, but you know, im always right, even when im wrong ;)
     
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  15. nate

    nate Well-Known Member

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    If anything was 'that simple' and only took 60 seconds to fix, dont you think it would have been done?

    So logically you can conclude that it isnt 'just that simple.'
     
  16. Christian G

    Christian G Topological Agitator Beta tester

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    @BrunoB You've been warned about this once and this is your second and final warning. Stop calling staff 'Adolf' or you'll get banned permanently. You have only yourself and your derogatory demeanor to blame for the measures that have been put in place.
    Alright?
     
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  17. Not Lifting Off

    Not Lifting Off Well-Known Member

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    Its a colour code, it needs changing, it is that simple!
     
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  18. Christian G

    Christian G Topological Agitator Beta tester

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    This issue has been addressed internally and the fix should be included in the next patch. I hope it's understandable that over the past months WTCR development was the highest priority, so other stuff got pushed back.
     
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  19. Not Lifting Off

    Not Lifting Off Well-Known Member

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    Glad to here it.
    And here in lies the problem ;)
     
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  20. nate

    nate Well-Known Member

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    Skimming through the last page of posts... I didnt realize what he was referring to until your post.

    Seems he already exceeded the 'three strikes and you're out' idiom judging by your quotes... So get that banhammer ready... :p
     
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