Project CARS Online Multiplayer Features (Update: Response from Ian Bell)

[Maddens Raiders]

Bjorn Lucas said

come play with us (Crap Group) if you want a clean lobby,... lots of guys from the uk, holland an america and some other countries 2
we never have public lobbies because of the morons over there....

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/thre...e-17-nov-9pm-gmt.327783/page-81#post-11095975

(because of the ammount of new players lately, some guys have private chat lobbies)

and please keep it clean

Thank you Mr. Lucas. Yeah I've avoided most leagues to my own ultimate dismay I suppose, because I just don't have the time to commit to league events, competitions, etc on any type of regular basis - and I am a very purposeful class based pilot. I'm not fond of vintage racing, street cars, etc. I used to run lobbies on GT5 and GT6 incessantly and used to run w/ many on this site, until the lobby format on GT6 was ruined imho with the idiotic "quick match" option, and then of course, PC's came along - but I digress.

I stopped saying "keep it clean" a long time ago because in my rooms it's a forgone conclusion. i.e. - you get one warning then it's banhammer time. There should be some type of deep filtering system in online lobbies that filters pilots by:

• amount of time pilot has spent in online lobbies
• the amount of XP or the average W/L history a pilot has
• the amount of times they've been kicked
• the amount of times they've pulled or "disconnected" from a race
• the amount of times they've been penalized at any given track.
• A host's room should have a "quality banner" or "badge" that can be displayed next to it for consistency, races entered vs. completed, average number of pilots in room, and the amount of time the host has raced at a particular track. This could be honed with some type of feedback system for high and low marks from others with restrictions on how many times you can vote on these items per week/month/quarter, etc.

I am a busy professional in a family of four. In my free time, I like to train (race) at all or (as many) of the WEC/IMSA tracks available in any one game as possible in a LMP/GT-LM setup. Short little sprint/heat tracks and races aren't really my thing. I am taking a look at your club now. Honestly, I'm simply prepared to wait for Sport or see what becomes of this next effort by SMS. Hopefully it's a more fully fleshed out version... . Who knows???

 

[Maddens Raiders]

dbl post. apologies.

 

[Bjorn Lucas]

we race every night mostly between 8 and 15 laps,... we race everything.
Because we have a lott of good organizers we have some saturday and sunday leagues and championships but nothing serious.

sometimes with points just for fun.
(we have some serious people in our group but they also do their serious stuff with other people)

Endurance racing is awesome, but this group does not do that a lott (at least once a month)
but when somebody of our group organizes something it is often a almost full lobby with clean drivers!!!!

Check out our topics in the online racing section.



If you are a competitive and fast driver i suggest that you also visit www.racestars.nl
really fast guys and organize also longer sessions.

For me when it gets too serious people are moaning about all kinds of different subjects, thats no fun for me.
also the idiots that give you a push when you accidently push them are not the type of people that we want in our group


welcome to check us out

 

[Maddens Raiders]

Great OP, I agree with pretty much everything on the list. It's nice to see some of the items being ticket off as well. Even if it's a little slow, it's nice to see results and changes.


In many ways, this list makes me kind of sad, with how glaringly obvious many of the features we're talking about are. To me, it's another classic case of the developer being out of touch with their main audience. The design decisions made indicate that no one at SMS spends any real amount of time in public lobbies. And honestly why would they? If they're at the point where they're so involved with online racing that they're programming a game, they probably don't need to surf public lobbies to find people to race with. It's the classic case of "do you actually play the game you developed"? And by "play", I mean sit at home gaming for a few hours, not fire up the dev rig at the office to run a few laps and make sure things are working.

It's a sad list. I think the sim driving community of consoles were so enamored and ready for a new shiny racing toy in the absence of a new GT or T10 project in the name of "next-gen", that when PC's raised it's head with beautiful new lighting, some smashing sounds, and the ability to achieve 4K and 12K racing visuals, the review and journos community just lavished as much praise on it as they could and you know what? - they should have.

PC's was a breakthrough in sound and sight on ANY console to date, but damn if the devil isn't in the details... -- and no one paid attention to that. Well at least not straight away, and that "devil" is laughing all the way to the bank now with our money. I will be much more stingy and discerning with my console race sim dollars next time and not get caught up in the hype. Yes there is no one to blame here, but myself.

 

[VBR]

@Maddens Raiders - I spent most of my time in Gran Turismo racing online, & like you am extremely disappointed with SMS's multiplayer implementation in Project CARS. I haven't even bothered going online because I'm gonna have to buy a PS Plus subscription which I cannot justify sending money on as the multiplayer is so threadbare.

I agree about SMS not understanding online play, especially regarding the tools that hosts need in order to run their lobbies the way they want to & enforce clean racing.

I most certainly will not be pre-ordering Project CARS 2, & probably won't ever buy it either if it has similar online fails.

 

[diesel97]

@Maddens Raiders - I spent most of my time in Gran Turismo racing online, & like you am extremely disappointed with SMS's multiplayer implementation in Project CARS. I haven't even bothered going online because I'm gonna have to buy a PS Plus subscription which I cannot justify sending money on as the multiplayer is so threadbare.

I agree about SMS not understanding online play, especially regarding the tools that hosts need in order to run their lobbies the way they want to & enforce clean racing.

I most certainly will not be pre-ordering Project CARS 2, & probably won't ever buy it either if it has similar online fails.

Thanks for your indepth ONLINE REVIEW it means alot coming from someone that has never played ONLINE

 

[Bjorn Lucas]

Thanks for your indepth ONLINE REVIEW it means alot coming from someone that has never played ONLINE

he could play when visiting a friend
(but i had that same thought )

 

[Spitfire77]

I have been hosting forced default setup online rooms some mornings and have kept notes. Below are the complications I have run into. I know there are issues with fuel levels, pitting, etc so I take those factors out by running only clear weather, no tire wear, no fuel simulation, and no damage. (Don't get me wrong I am enjoying it for the most part)

Wed (nov 11th)..
3 races run - issue = 2nd race with low numbers total - 2 people forced the race to repeat same track as soon as the previous race session ends and the the lobby screen appears. As Host can't stop this and was not even given time to pick a new track.

Thursday (Nov 12th)
3 races run - issues -
1st race qualifying was fine then had FFB grinding issue when the race started.
2nd race track (Mojave Coyote Noose) does not allow qualifying because there is no pits
3rd race - was close racing behind someone, I accidentally bumped them from behind - lag spike turned it into their car flying off track like I rear ended them at a huge speed difference.


Friday (Nov 13th)
3 races run - no real online issues just a note that the AI I added to the room where very very slow for 70% with the Caterham sp300 @ bruno basically the AI have trouble with an easy track/car combo. When with harder to drive cars on more difficult tracks they seem to do better at the same 70% skill.


Wed - (Nov 18th) -
2 races run - then I tried to join a room after.
1st race - no issues
2nd race - Oschersleben C circuit cant qualify because no pits, changed track to Oschersleben National - hit invisible objects on the track twice, other 2 players hard already left so since I was frustrated with hitting invisible objects I quit the session.
3rd race - joined a random GT3 room (cause there are so many) Engine sound on throttle was bugged so left the session.


Thursday - (Nov 19th) - this morning
2 races run
1st race no issues
2nd race - Top Qualifier left the race (or his connection dropped) during the rolling start - his car was left sitting blocking 2 of us. Our cars hit his before we got control on the green, so we had to reverse and go around leaving us way behind at the start. His car remained there the first lap or 2 and had to be avoided. After it appeared to be gone it was still physically there but invisible, the AI swerve around it and I crashed into it.

 

[VBR]

Thanks for your indepth ONLINE REVIEW it means alot coming from someone that has never played ONLINE

You don't have to play online to know that there is no text chat, room naming, PSN Blocked list filtering, etc, or the other basic no-brainer tools for hosts to ensure clean racing in open lobbies. My post wasn't a review, just constructive criticism & how the lack of features has affected me peronally. But hey, if you wanna exaggerate & resort to sarcasm...

 

[Maddens Raiders]

Does anyone else have the replay issues I'm experiencing? If you're like me, part of the sheer fun involved with racing online sims is watching and/or recording the replays - am I right!?

Out of 5 races with at least 5 to 6 real life pilots in each race last night [19/11/15], only one [1] of my race replays had the other drivers driving along side me in the replay. And not all of the drivers were active in the race during the replay either. Three [3] of the pilots in the race were at the grid, engines revving loudly the entire time and one of those was a good friend that should have been next to my car the entire replay. I wish I could say this was a strange, fluke occurrence but I expect it now as in a default manner. What the hell gives SMS? What gives? End of rope, reached. 🤬

 

[VBR]

If you're like me, part of the sheer fun involved with racing online sims is watching and/or recording the replays - am I right!?

You're a man after my own heart! I have several hundered replays saved on GT5 & GT6, & the vast majority of them are from clean online races. I used to love racing online, saving the replays, then sitting down with a nice cup of tea afterwards & watching them. No point even trying that with Project CARS after all the reports I've been hearing regarding online.

And yet, they physics & audio in Project CARS has spoilt me to the point that I can't go back to GT6. I'm caught in a sim racing no mans land, twixt & between!