Can we please get a development roadmap?

Like Reiza/AMS2, RF2, and some other sims, it would very be valuable and appreciated to get a high-level overview and investment areas that are planned for the future. With the mess surrounding GTR3 never been formally managed, the sudden change to KW studios, rumors can only grow. It's always best to control the narrative even if it's not always rosy and positive, life happens... We want KW/RR to succeed, we just want to be part of that journey and help promote this evolving gem.

It is understood that...

1. ...plan changes, no need to provide a delivery date but ranges like Q1,Q3 or H1, H2 ranges would be enough.
2. ...a roadmap is not a promise but an intent.
3. ...a roadmap doesn't have to be so detailed to worry about competitors or intellectual property issues.
4. ...any roadmap would get the user base excited and potentially prevent it from further shrinking.

Thanks for considering this request...

 

@J-F Chardon, any thoughts on this request?
Happy Holidays!

 

Being renamed kw studios is just a logical progression

Andi

 

I'll give you unofficial roadmap:
-add some cashable yearly paint packs for DTM & WTCC
-add few cashable tracks and cars
-ignore ancient graphics engine and performance limitations
-ignore deteriorating server performance
-ignore missing day/night transition
-ignore all the bugs
-keep quiet and carry on

 

- ignore stupid posts by *** people not have to run the company and pay the bills and salaries

 

Chill out man.
I also enjoy the sim but as for the new development, I wouldn't keep my hopes up looking at past progress [or lack of]

 

It might be expressed in a sarcastic way but is it not close to our reality here?

I mean the openness of Reiza and S397 on what they intend is there so why KW keeps silent?

liking the Sim itself should not stop us for asking the devs to share future plans to us valuable users and payers of content no?

 

3 different companies, 3 different strategies maybe? Sometimes I really think some people here don't know who they are? We are paying costumers no more. KW offers new tracks and cars, we can pay for that or go elsewhere. If someone is not ok with that, fine, go to AMS2 or rFactor or iRacing and spend your money there. I think KW allready knows they have an "outdated" grafics engine (not my opinion) and no day/night transition and no weather system. I am absolutly sure they are not ignoring bugs or bad server performance. Yes, they had problems with the servers in the past, but it was fixed within 1 or 2 days. Some other wishes don't come true so quickly, it takes time, money and other resources to get it done.
I'm just done with people who complain all the time, for example because they have to pay for a carset and don't get the updates they want and completely forget that RRRE is used completely free of charge by MANY (free cars, free tracks, free onlineracing).

So, thank you KW for all your hard work the last years! Happy holidays and all the best for 2023!

 

That is perhaps a little too short-sighted.
Apart from the flippant comment, I haven't read anything that justifies such a harsh response. And it has been defused.
I have been using RR for 9 years and have spent almost €400 on vehicles and tracks.
So it is understandable that there is interest in the further development goals and that people ask about them.
Other racing simulations use features that are not available in RR. What's so bad about asking whether they might also be included in RR?
Unfortunately, there is no answer from the developers (our contact persons).
All this out of interest and without any bad intentions.
There also was a time, when we gathered around the screen and devs shared their thoughts and ideas in dev streams.

 

It´s probably not the best time of the year to expect a reply, seeing as many are on holiday and a game update was delivered 2 weeks ago. Other games which offer dev updates also see drawbacks such as excessive hype, speculation and complaints when said updates are late or incomplete.

Imagine someone were to come out and say there would be a major game engine update - you would get people worried about their vrp and paid content, others that it won´t run on their machine and othes spamming endless wishlists for features.

On the other hand, when there is no interaction, apart from hawking the latest DLCs, it does give the (false?) impression that there is no interest or passion for the game or they have run out of ideas, and that apathy can also be contagious as people feel they are playing an abandoned game. Having said that, AC is doing just fine despite official support and comms being stopped years ago.

 

This is true, absolutely, but it's the lack of information generally,
OP was from two weeks ago.
People show interest for the game, KW should be glad about this.

That's true, too. But, at least, there is communication and users know about the direction of march.

Happens too without dev updates.

Again, devs are seen here very rarely.
We had this discussion about sense and nonsense of the forum not long ago.
The only measurable feedback is incoming cash anyway.
This all is no criticism rather empathy for the sim.

 

What are we expecting in this "roadmap" though? Do we want -
Coming in Q1 -2023 - The Brit Pack - 3 Tracks (Oulton Park, Croft and Snetterton) and 2 cars (Ginetta GT3 and Ginetta GT4)
Or Coming in Q1 - 2023 - The Brit Pack.

Im guessing thats about all we can get - we cant have a listing of track graphical tweaks (which by the Way KW do all the time in hotfix patches) or a shiny new menu system. Rain/day/night etc from what I've heard is near impossible to implement with the current engine - so cant "seriously" mention that (maybe on April 1 though? )

Going by past experiences it seems that once something is mentioned as "coming" everyone gets on the case..when?...when?...when? almost in a pestering type way....KW Studios' "intent" to release something is taken as "its a given" (and I WANT it now!!!) - the way that current licensing of Cars/Tracks/Series seems to be so whimsical - nothing is a given! KW could give us info on future content only to have that stripped away....(as we have seen happen with a couple of other sims lately).....and being the bunch we are - we would moan about that too!

Lets also take a different approach on this....."The Drivers Pack" was recently released to a fair amount of wow's and didnt see that coming! In a way I kinda like that - like getting a gift....

Personally I'm kinda on the fence with this "roadmap" idea - I like the idea of knowing something good is coming (and I'm willing to wait for it) and tbh there has been a few times where i've been playing Raceroom and thought to myself "Whats next - it's like Raceroom is losing it's way" - but it is what it is.....Maybe KW just needs to drop a few hints here and there (screenshots/ dev vids) to let us Raceroom fans become Sherlocks.....Like DDFracers youtube vid that had a glimpse of the trucks in the background.........

Chris

 

I heard that the engine doesn't support multiple light sources, so no night driving. But rain was actually mentioned as possible, although that's from an article from like 2013, things could have changed since then.

 

It sure would have been nice to have some insight on what's coming. However:

1) Some things that were apparently in development a couple of years ago (I'm not talking about UE4) are still not there, so maybe there are no concrete long-term plans and the studio simply does what they can do, first for the parent company and then what they would want to see in the game. If they put it out like that instead of a roadmap, imagine the reaction...

2) How people aren't tired to talk about night, rain, or even updating the engine. This is a small studio that hasn't yet fully updated the game interface, so their development resources look really, really limited. What happened the last time a small studio moved to a new engine? We got Automobilista 2 which is still kinda questionable in terms of simulation accuracy and quality of content. I think it's safe to say the new engine is not going to happen, at least at this point there's nothing that tells us it's realistically possible. Although The Drivers Pack was a very interesting twist. If more things like that are released next year, then maybe we can hope for more drastic changes.

 

When I read the "About KW-Studios" section on kw-studios.com, this cannot be their claim for themself and their future.
Unless what is written there is just lip service, which I don't believe.

The Drivers Pack indeed was absolutely surprising and well done.

Imo meanwhile Reiza has done a great job with AMS2. Great input also came from the userbase.
I think it would be no different with KW Studios.

 

Maybe they did a great job (as in, it's a good and unique product now), but as a fan of Raceroom I absolutely wouldn't want to see Raceroom2 come out like AMS2 did, with priorities switched upside down from good simulation to good looks, weird physics that saw several major rehauls over two years, and the cars are still all over the place in terms of behavior. Sure, none of that means Raceroom2 should follow the same route, but that's the only relevant example I could come up with. Are there better ones?

 

If I remember correctly, RR physics also had some iterations and it took quite a while from hovercraft to racecar. But AMS2 is not the subject of this discussion.
RF2 also had a graphic engine update.
Yes also this sim has it's downs but not because of this.

 

But it's an example of what moving to a new engine can look like and why it's not necessarily a bright prospect. At least for a game that still more or less alive.

I wonder how many people work at Studio 397. Looks like it's similar in size to Sector 3...

 

Reiza didn't choose the easiest way with this engine, indeed. When they released the rf2 dlcs, everyone thought they'd move into this direction. But they got full access to the code and learn every day.

I honestly think, a new engine would pay out for KW-Studios in the long run as well.

With Rennsport and AC2 competition will become even more tense.

 

They would need to do something in that direction, that's for sure. It just doesn't look like happening any time soon.