I am sorry to disagree, but except "more randomness and life to the AI", because I never play offline and I don`t know how AI cars behave, I know at least one game, which gives you all that .
I remember similar comments regarding game development status being bandied about when both Pcars and AC were in alpha/beta phases of dev, if memory serves Pcars was some 2+yrs in Alpha alone, in fact they had 3 shots at the tyre model which hindered all the car physics development until it the tyre model was finalised. If you look at AC it to had some set backs during it's development, and keep in mind AC was written from the ground up, sure the initial code was Netkar pro, but the team at Kunos new it was in need of much work and eventually re-wrote it to save time and to enable a more stable platform to run the game on, the point here is, all development takes time some more than others, and AC is still being improved & developed and will be for another 4 yrs, guaranteed by Kunos. Personally I think it's a bonus that S3S even exist considering SimBin went bust (correct me if Im wrong). The fact they are still here & developing RRE, DTM etc is a bonus for us sim-racers, it could of been so different. I also feel the reason RRE has such low numbers is due to the lack of modding, AC revels in this area and it's one of the reasons it rates so highly with user numbers, plus the fact it was the 1st next gen Sim to release cemented it's #1 Sim spot, and although Pcars, RF2 & RRE were in dev at that time too, it was the modding aspect of AC that appealed to the community, and still does. Even GSCE seems to have a bigger fan base due to it's modability. IMO S3S needs to embrace modding otherwise it will not do as well as it's rival race-sims, and will struggle to gain substantial numbers as it's the only sim that makes you pay for almost every car, track or livery, and, as stated above, I to am "spent" with content purchases.
It was in 1986 Robbie Francevic in a Volvo 240Turbo (same as in game) driving for the Volvo Dealer Team won the Australian Touring Car Championship, against a field of Holden V8's and Ford Sierra Cosworth Turbo's. And in 1998 Rickard Rydell and Jim Richards won Bathurst in a Volvo S40, against a similar competition.
and the car (s40) that won in 1998 is nothing like the one in game is a completely differnt era. the bmw similar to the one befor the buff patch driven by jim richards in that black and gold bmw won the atcc in 1987 and the volvo never had a chance. in 1988-90 the ford sierra cosworth swamped all competition then in 1991 the nissan skyline r32 and the new bmw m3 sport evolution were both unveiled and the r32 swamped with the bmw becoming competitive after some massive bop to the skyline. in 1992 (arguably the best year in atcc) there was a three way battle between the Sierra, the R32 and the M3 (this is the year simulated in r3e). Im just looking at atcc here but this was the trend throughout motorsport. what im saying is that the volvo we have in game in Australia last won a race in 1986 and quickly became redundant. what is it doing racing with r32's and 1992 spec m3's. and elsewhere in major motorsport the volvo 240t's last championsip win was 1988 in the Malaysian Touring Car Championship (refrences include) wikipedia people.physics.anu.edu.au and v8 supercars official site plus memory/misinformation (which will have caused some mistakes)
I know nothing about who won what or when but I will say one thing, in an ideal world dedicated servers would have the option to enable/disable BoP, everyone happy, maybe. My worry is, as an example ADAC13,14 and GT3, all similar models so already your online users of these cars are split by a factor of 3 doubling that with the BoP on/off option. Throw in DTM13,14,15, WTCC 13,14,15 etc ending up with the user base spread too thinly, making it difficult to find races, ultimately losing interest. S3 I feel are going in the right direction, getting the content we've all paid for (happily in my case) spot on and the classes juggled around and filled up with competitive cars, encouraging varied and full grids. A trickle of new tracks but of outstanding quality (almost worth wait) and what I like very much is a constant stream of assistance, information (if a tad vague) on future content, Devs that listen and respond (unless on their hols) and a feeling we are all moving forward toward the ultimate goal, TOP RACING! My only real concern is how I finance A new GPU, Wheel, Monitors etc etc etc, to take advantage of (as you may have guessed) my favourite Sim, although I did notice the other day that if one of the dogs dies in an accident it's worth £500 to me! No animals will be harmed as a result of this statement!