It has been suggested so many times, because it's the only thing that will save this dying game. I am also making an ultimatum, I will absolutely not spend one more penny on this game, or it's developers, until AI is added to multiplayer ranked. I already have a negative review for this game on Steam, due to it's lack of players online, and now I will not support this company anymore, until they make this change. I don't care what the other players have to say about this, whether they agree or not. This problem has gotten out of hand, and this is the closest competition to iRacing in my opinion, for me to allow this game to just die. I will make my point known, so I can at least say I tried to help save this game, but the developers were too hard-headed to take in community suggestions. I cannot make it any more clear how annoying it is to always have to do the same races all the time. So many other servers exist that offer other driving styles, or cars to drive, AND NO ONE IS PLAYING THEM. AI will solve this issue IMMEDIATELY. Either make them the minimum amount of extra drivers to make a ranked server count for your rating and reputation, or fill in the server with AI, and have one drop out as players join. In addition, 20 minutes of practice is too long. I don't want my session to have almost half of the time necessary to be in a race, dedicated to practice, when I can practice any time I damn well choose, in singleplayer. I don't have a problem switching full time to Assetto Corsa Competizione, but if I wanted that, I'd be doing it already. I just want to play RaceRoom. Please give me a reason to keep playing this game, Sector3.
How about AI in non-ranked multiplayers...? People will take issue with having AI in ranked servers...
That is really petty of him. Let's destroy this brilliant simulator because I doesn't have one feature that I want, instead of celebrating years of development that makes this simulator on the best out there... best sounds, best FFB/Physics, best choice of tracks, huge selection of great cars, most clever Setup management UI, etc... For a first post, it's rather childish. If he would have taken the time to research this forum, and read, he would have noticed the more recent development efforts towards multiplayer. There are nice ways to encourage people to support one's idea and continue to invest in multiplayer, but his comical approach of "Do as I say or die" is not good. People or companies don't respond to such bad critique... Perhaps, he's only using the free-to-play content. If you want to support this tile, then do like I do, buy of all its content, that's how you can make your voice heard. Vote with your money and brain not with your attitude.
So you think I should encourage a game that may not have what people want? I should tell them multiplayer is lively, so we can trick people into buying the game? I specifically mention in the review the reason why I am giving it a negative, and it's because of ranked multiplayer being nearly empty for Americans, and only busy when Europeans care to play. I also mention the ideal line being terrible compared to other games that do an ideal line, so it's difficult to learn compared to those other games. Fact is, people pay lots of money for iRacing, which has a similar setup to Ranked Multiplayer in this game. It's specifically the reason why I play Raceroom. I don't do it for singleplayer, and I don't do it for unranked multiplayer. The most important thing to me are good multiplayer matches, and this game only delivers it at certain times, in certain time zones. The AI being added would improve the multiplayer experience by actually allowing me to have a RANKED multiplayer match. When it's just you driving, you don't get points. VFX Pro, you could at least attempt to understand my point of view, rather than being a fanboy that only provides an echo chamber to Sector3, which won't help them at all. Also I love that Maskerader can only point out one bit about my post, like it's his gotcha point. If you played the game for my reasons, you'd give it a negative review too. I won't encourage a game that has lacking multiplayer. Same reason I wouldn't encourage Automobilista 2 or rFactor for online play. Meanwhile, with it's rated driver score, on both singleplayer and multiplayer, I WOULD recommend Assetto Corsa Competizione. Finally, iRacing would not get my approval, because it's lacking the ability to use a clutch, even with an automatic transmission. Because of that, it is impossible for automatic transmission users to get a jump start on the green lights at the start of a standing start race. Raceroom DOES provide that.
I mean, your stance was off-putting and you also made sure it draws some attention, which it did for me and VFX Pro. As for your suggestion, this idea was discussed some time ago, devs said they are looking into bringing AI to multiplayer, but: 1) they said it two years ago and I don't remember if there was any update on that; 2) quite a few people were against AI in multiplayer, especially on ranked servers; 3) AI is buggy sometimes and not all combination of class and track work well for AI; so it either limits which combos can appear on ranked servers, or requires additional work from devs to fix the issues before a combo goes on ranked.
I have read somewhere that someone else quoted a dev (from a Discord chat maybe, not an official announcement) that this won't come - reason: too much CPU load with graphics and AI calculations (apparently in addition to online functionality calculations?). I always liked the idea to have AI in online races, but I don't think that ranked races should ever have AI. I generally like the AI, but as written there are problems: the AI sometimes do not seem to have eyes in their heads; on some tracks/cars they are too fast (or too slow). Both can be very frustrating. The question would be "Better no race than a bad one?"
While AI may be added to multiplayer I can quite confidently say it wil never be added to ranked racing. Ranked racing is for racing against other humans, by definition. If you add AI to a ranked race to "make up the numbers" then you're just playing single player in another form.
That's too vague to be considered a reason, unfortunately. An easy counter-argument: single player races work fine (unless we're talking about edge cases), and multiplayer races require less CPU power than single player races.
Just wanted to give some information, I don't understand given reason, too. I have found the message I was referring to This content request again: AI for multiplayer races.
Well then I guess I'll just have to enjoy the remaining server population until I move on. I don't know how Sector3 would take away from the playerbase of iRacing and Assetto Corsa Competizione, which once again has a player rating system that counts single player results. I think part of what could help would be updating the store page on Steam, with some DLC packages that are like the online store packages. Let people see from that page what the game actually has to offer, and what it would cost to get to whatever point they'd like to be at. Starter package, Car package, Track package, and Ultimate Package could be 4 possibilities. Instead they have this weird mixture of DLC, that if bought doesn't get you nearly enough for the money expediture. I put off the game for a long time, until it was the last racing simulator I had to try. The pricing scheme was part of the issue, and I actually had to read a guide to find out how much it would actually cost to get all the cars and tracks. With the guide you went to a 3rd party site and spent like $50 for enough VRP to buy everything in a complete pack. That's reasonable. If that was advertised I think it'd help people join the game. It also needs to advertise it's ranked multiplayer, and how it's similar to iRacing's, but doesn't have the cost of iRacing. That would get more people. But I doubt this'll be read, so it's a moot point.
There's one issue with that counterargument. The reason people request AI in online races is that ranked racing, that is supposed to be against other humans, often lacks other humans. And racing on an empty server is, quite literally, playing single player. Except it's worse than against AI. So if KW Studios struggles for years to fill up the servers, they may as well try something out-of-the-box. Sticking with strict principles when you lack the ability to make them work probably won't improve anything. Being openminded and utilizing one of Raceroom's biggest strentgh - good AI - just might.
The AI as good as it can be, sometimes, is still not good enough for ranked racing. What happens when the AI bug out, cause a pile up, and take with it a players rating and rep? Now you could easily say that a player could also cause that, but the players aren't programmed by the Devs. That's user error not a game error. It's not a the case that all servers are empty either. While it may be difficult to get a race in other time zones and at off peak times, during the European evenings you can race all night of you want to. Grid numbers need increasing, definitely, but the way to do that isn't to just add some AI. There are fundamental changes that need to happen to the game. Servers need to be more stable and fully automated, drivers need to be able to sign up to normal ranked races in advance through that same system. It's much easier to get a race to happen if you already know there are 20 others interested rather than wait on the off chance. It allows players to plan their time in game. Then you have other things, driver swaps, endurance racing is nigh on impossible without them. Night time would be nice but it's not essential, very few real life races happen in darkness anyway. But many do last several hours, something that can't be done with one driver. Hopefully some of these things will come, but to say just throw some AI in is to be totally ignorant to the actual issues which are preventing the game from expanding its playerbase.
@demontrace I do think your core complaint is legit (ie I'm in the US just like you and the servers have low attendance for us). The focus should be on better marketing and proving better ideas to address the concern. The multiplayer aspect and ranked racing does work. By creating a bad review, you are not helping the participation. Instead, turn your frustration into positive action and provide suggestions, host an American based server/league etc...
You're making good points. But it's not ignorance that forces those requests. It's frustration with the game not addressing those issues for years, despite people asking for that regularily. It creates an impression that the studio is simply unable to do that. And if that's the case, it's better to pick an inferior solution, that's doable, than a superior one that will eternally remain on the wishlist. Right now, those better solutions don't seem to be coming, and are only used as excuses to not implement those not as good solutions either. And we're left with no solutions at all. So until some plan to address those issues is announced, any request makes sense. Though maybe not in the manner OP wrote it.
Adding AI to MP isn't an easy solution either, since there exists no mechanism to do it. It's therefore no easier than any of the other things I mentioned.
Yeah, that would be good. Recently they removed all remaining DLC from Steam so there's nothing there. This would probably soften the problem you're talking about here since it becomes obvious where to get content for this free-to-play game, and you see packs right on the front page of the store.
Since I stepped back from Community/League Racing (got a bit tired of constant engagement that is required to remain competitive) I really wanted to enjoy Ranked Racing or even Ranked Championships just for the fun of it and for the opportunity to have decent races on a more relaxed basis - but - yeah, I'm also disappointed by the lack of attendance in general, especially when it comes to a more exotic or classical line up. It mostly feels like there is a bunch of usual suspects (around a hundred players maybe) that on top always plays the same shit so to say - which is GT3. Well one reason is, despite RRE has become an excellent Sim over the years, that due to the sales/FTP concept and not being a state-of-the-art title with all that fancy stuff and shiny things that nowadays consumer "takes for granted" has left a mark on RRE. And a s the contempory consumer s drilled to follow his (artificial) urge of always getting the latest, hottest, most shiny stuff on the market (even if it's crap btw.)I fear RRE will always be considered underrated as an inferior product. And it's always nearly impossible to get that bias out of the consumers head. The more shallow they are the harder it becomes . So @demontrace With that said I can only hand out the advice to go look for a nice RRE community (there are plenty and many are well-organized - ESR for North America for example) if you look for regular racing with filled grids.