Automobilista 2 has been out on Early Access for a little over 2 weeks now, and it seems like a good time to share a bit more about our plans for the remainder of the Early Access period.
We have opted to go all the way in our initial proposal of 8 weeks of Early Access period, and may actually add a couple weeks more before official release in order to try make sure Automobilista 2 reaches v1.0 as well rounded and complete as we possibly can make it in this timeframe.
As ever, we stress that AMS2 is a long term project and development will continue way beyond the official release - v1.0 is all but a development milestone marking the game as "ready for normal consumption", or a reliable base for more serious racing both on and offline that allows users to make the best of the premium content to be added thereafter. That doesn´t mean it will be as complete or as good as it will ever be - we see plenty of room for improvement in every area of the game and remain commited to exploring that for years to come.
At this point in Early Access we are still managing to take substantial leaps on a weekly basis and we want to make sure these are rolled out to users in the shortest timeframe possible - to this end, excepting some unforeseen issue we will be deploying game updates every week from now to the end of Early Access, first in AMS2 Beta on Wednesday or Thursday evenings, and then (provided the new build doesn´t present any major issues) to AMS2 Release on Friday or Saturday morning at the latest.
Naturally this speedy pace of development may see the odd rough edge occasionally slipping through into releases, but we believe that at least for this Early Access stage it will be more value for users to have these updates rolled out at this faster rate - after Early Access you may expect the gaps between Beta and Release deployment to increase so we can better ensure releases are kept reliable, and new content rolls out already polished by a proper beta testing period.
Here´s an overview of what you may expect to see during AMS2 Early Access:
GAME MODES
The two currently disabled game modes will become available over the course of Early Access. TIME TRIAL will be the first to come, hopefully before the end of the month.
CHAMPIONSHIP mode will be limited to official series featuring in the game, such as Stock Car Brasil, Copa Truck, Formula Vee and Sprint Race.
While it is unlikely we will also manage to complete the Custom Championship System over the course of Early Access, this remains an important feature which should hopefully follow not too far beyond v1.0.
A career mode is also planned but as a longer term project.
MULTIPLAYER FEATURES
Two common requested features for multiplayer should be integrated during Early Access:
- Multiplayer Rating System
- Dedicated Server Tool
SIMULATION FEATURES
These are the features that have a substantial role in the simulated series currently in the game which we plan to add support for over the course of Early Access:
- DRS
- KERS
- Push-to-Pass
- Copa Truck Speed Trap
CONTENT
The following SERIES are already confirmed to be added over the course Early Access:
Opala Stock Cars 1979 & 1986 (Classic Stock Car Brazil series)
Omega Stock Car 1999 (Classic Stock Car Brazil series)
Copa Montana
Besides these, there are at least 4 MORE UNIQUE CLASSES adding a minimal of 10 NEW CAR MODELS in the works to be added to the Game over Early Access or shortly after - these are mostly content that have not yet been officially announced yet so can´t expand on the details just yet, but you may look forward to a fairly packed Dev Update later this month :)
The following brand new RACE TRACKS will be added over the course of Early Access:
- Kyalami 2020
- Estoril 2020
The following KART TRACKS from AMS1 are being revamped and are also expected to be added to AMS2 over the course of Early Access:
- Interlagos 2020
- Granja Viana 2020
A few more of the remaining AMS1 favorites will be upgraded & added to AMS2 over its shelf-life, but these will have to wait for after v1.0 release.
UI & HUD
Both UI & HUD will be actively developed over the course of EA, with new resources & options being added as well as fine tuning and expanding what is already there.
For the UI, the main additions planned for EA are:
- Saved Replay page
- Driver Profile page
- FFB multiplier per car in Setup page
On the HUD front you may expect the following developments to hit the game soon:
- Customizable HUD
- Telemetry HUD page
- Input & FFB meters
GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS & FIXES
Every front of the game will remain under active development and receive substantial upgrades over the course of Early Acccess. Below is a breakdown with a few highlights you may reliably expect to see in this period:
- General art standards are still under constant development and you may expect UPDATED SHADERS & TEXTURES for cars and tracks to gradually make its way in over the weekly builds, adding that little bit extra to the visual experience;
- 3D ANIMATIONS are obviously still very limited in AMS2 as we have continued to struggle with the exporting process for these assets in the new engine, and as consequence driver animations are still adapted SMS assets used as placeholders, and cars generally miss their animated wipers, suspension, animated damaged parts as well as vibrating parts, while trackside environment generally are still missing life - all of these will be addressed over the course of Early Acess;
- CAMERA CINEMATICS, specially for trackside cameras are mostly baseline conversions from the original AMS1 sets, and will be gradually revised to make best of use of the extra resources of the new engine;
- The Reiza / Automobilista 2 logos that populate the TRACKSIDE ADS are placeholders which will be replaced by both actual & accurate advertising;
- The generic DRIVER NAMES / SUITS / HELMETS will be fully customized per series, including series with real drivers;
- The fictional CAR LIVERIES, many of which are still basic 4k upscales of their AMS1 counterparts are in process of being revised & upgraded to be more life-like - all fictional series that haven´t already received this upgrade will be revised in time for v1.0, and we will also be adding Community Liveries selected from applications of Early Backers over this period.
- On a similar topic, ability to fully CUSTOMIZE CAR LIVERIES AND CREATE CUSTOM CARSETS is high on our priority list - no definitive timeline for this yet but we hope to manage it while still in Early Access.
- On the AUDIO front, there will be refinements and updates to engine sounds, and further developments to the audio engine, aiming mainly to maximise the racing environment outside the cockpit.
- PHYSICS & FFB are in constant process of evolution, and FFB in particular will receive some further developments and customization options in upcoming builds.
- AI DEVELOPMENT is one of our core priorities for AMS2 - besides the ongoing work to improve their behavior and consistency, we will also be working on their performance issues over the 1st lap and improve their strategical decision making.
- The various COLLISION ISSUES with open wheelers and with Trucks spawning on pit garages they don´t fit in are in process of being resolved; we are also investigating reports of car-to-car collisions in Multiplayer and ways to mitigate the excessive friction riding along walls and armco;
- Finally User Interface LOCALIZATION for FRENCH, GERMAN, SPANISH & PORTUGUESE languages will be added in time for v1.0 release, with Italian and Chinese to follow next.
There are of course other game & simulation features we hope to add or develop further, and areas such as weather system, livetrack presets, replay system, multiplayer resources that are also worth and will receive attention - the more substantial updates in these and other areas not covered above however are more likely to arrive beyond v1.0.
In any case we hope this provides a clearer picture for the short term development goals we have mapped out for AMS2 over this Early Access period - we will keep you posted if and when these plans are amended as we roll out the weekly updates, and also with our Development Update round-ups at the end of each month.