Q&A with Slightly Mad Studios: Ian Bell [Read OP]

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warp9engage
@IanBell @The_American Will it still be possible to simulate sessions (including races) with AI takeover like in PCARS 1?

EDIT: Will there also be AI mistakes, like spin-outs and crashes? I assume so. But feel like asking to make sure.
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Yes, we retained the simulate functionality.

Well right now the AI crash/spin a little too much so our AI coders are re-training them. I'll request the dont make them too good however ;) (one of the AI factors is fatigue so not only do they get faster as you increase the AI setting, they also make less mistakes)
 
I've got some questions, at least one hasn't been answered yet, and they're involving grid sizes:
  1. (Unanswered) I've seen tracks such as Nurburgring, Spa and Dubai (and Bathurst as well) where the field size of the race are more than the available pit boxes on pCARS 1. Are we going to allow multiple cars occupying one pit box and, subsequently, larger field sizes? Surely these tracks can support more than the pit boxes available on pCARS 1!
  2. Will the Le Mans grid size on pCARS 2 increase from 56 in pCARS 1 to 60 that ACO started to employ for the real-life 24h Le Mans races since last year (2016)?
 
2) I think you got confused there, PCARS 1 limit is 45 cars. So you mean increasing to 55 maybe? Anyway, IanBell already said they want full Le Mans grid sizes this time, which might also apply to Nurburgring and some others circuits, idk.
 
GenPattonX
2) I think you got confused there, PCARS 1 limit is 45 cars. So you mean increasing to 55 maybe? Anyway, IanBell already said they want full Le Mans grid sizes this time, which might also apply to Nurburgring and some others circuits, idk.
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On PC it was 56. That's why he said 56.
 
@IanBell @The_American

Would it be possible the introduction of engineer's setup feedback similar to MotoGP/SBK games?

You can check this video to see the functionality:



Obviously it would be transferred to the car... There's a lot of people who don't know/want to setup the cars because of the amount of available variables, and I honestly think this method is very quick and helpful for the racers...

Thx
 
^yes, forgot to mention this previously in my "for you guys that dont like to work on setup tuning" post. More details on this later, we have it too.

Ian (and also many at SMS) have the opinion the first game was a little too academic/cold/lonely/intimidating for some players. So we have tried to address this in different ways for pC2. We feel that generally people who enjoy casual driving games should also enjoy simracing. But the simracing makers have failed to reach some of the audience. Just like my calc teacher failed to reach me!
 
The_American
^yes, forgot to mention this previously in my "for you guys that dont like to work on setup tuning" post. More details on this later, we have it too.

Ian (and also many at SMS) have the opinion the first game was a little too academic/cold/lonely/intimidating for some players. So we have tried to address this in different ways for pC2. We feel that generally people who enjoy casual driving games should also enjoy simracing. But the simracing makers have failed to reach some of the audience. Just like my calc teacher failed to reach me!
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Does this apply to the multiplayer aspect of the game?

EDIT: Also another question to do with the engineer, will there be voice commands like the F1 series?
 
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The_American
^yes, forgot to mention this previously in my "for you guys that dont like to work on setup tuning" post. More details on this later, we have it too.

Ian (and also many at SMS) have the opinion the first game was a little too academic/cold/lonely/intimidating for some players. So we have tried to address this in different ways for pC2. We feel that generally people who enjoy casual driving games should also enjoy simracing. But the simracing makers have failed to reach some of the audience. Just like my calc teacher failed to reach me!
Click to expand...

Oh, I thought that this "academic" approach was perfectly addressed in PC1 to weed out the slower drivers/turn 1 destroyers and send them back to forza. Please don't go to far down "satisfying the casual driver" rabbit hole.
 
Unrldisciple2
Oh, I thought that this "academic" approach was perfectly addressed in PC1 to weed out the slower drivers/turn 1 destroyers and send them back to forza. Please don't go to far down "satisfying the casual driver" rabbit hole.
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Tbh, it doesn't prevent anyone from crashing into you if setup-making is complicated. And slower drivers also have every right to race - as long as they don't race unfairly.
I, for one, simply didn't know what some things in the setup would do with the car and therefore never touched them.
 
LGee19
Does this apply to the multiplayer aspect of the game?

EDIT: Also another question to do with the engineer, will there be voice commands like the F1 series?
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Yes, he's there whenever you go to your garage in any race mode.

Voice would be awesome, but i think something we will take more seriously for pC3. Forget all these menus etc., lets just use natural language in our games.

Voice and VR and wheel/pedals...that's the future.
 
On the topic of communication, will we have voice chat with drivers during races, with maybe options to make it global or a team-only thing?
 
@Ian Bell, @The_American,

I have several questions about project cars 2 :
- will there be a custom championship mode for the offline mode? It would be great to let the player choose 8 or 10 races with AI level, rules, date, weather ... And is the mandatory pit stop option present in the offline mode? (In PC1, this option was present only in online mode)
- The choice of cars and classes looks impressive in PC2. I'm a little worried, I do not hear about modern touring car like the BTCC (there are many circuits present), the WTCC or the TCR. Will there be modern touring car in PC2, I personally find that it was a real lack in the first opus.
-Finally, I am very happy to see ovals in PC2. Will there be at least 1 short track like Bristol, Martinsville ...?
Thank you for taking the time to read me.
 
Seb02
will there be a custom championship mode for the offline mode? It would be great to let the player choose 8 or 10 races with AI level, rules, date, weather
Click to expand...

Yes for offline championships, and based on the answer I think we can expect tons of bells and whistles:
IanBell
Seb02
@Ian Bell

Hello Ian,

I have a question for players who do not play online. I must say that you have done a very great job on the Esport and this is greatly appreciated by the players, the teams online. But what about solo mode? Will we have an offline custom championship? It's boring to make an excel table to postpone the results especially as we never have the same starting grid from one race to another. The game offers a lot of plossibility to set the races and I think the offline custom championship would exploit them fully. Thanks
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Yes, much more detailed and varied than we had in pCARS1.
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Seb02
is the mandatory pit stop option present in the offline mode?
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Since it's in for AI, at least in Quick Races, it should be in for players and in Championships as well I imagine, since they are consecutive Quick Races essentially:
The_American
Allek
Can we have mandatory pit stops for AI cars in Quick Race Weekends?

I used to play a modded version of Geoff Crammond's GP where it was possible set the number of pit stops (1, 2 or 3) for AI cars, even for races as short as 6 laps!
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It's there, works good.
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I hope you guys don't mind, I'm just trying to help out a bit with questions that were already partly answered, as I recently read through the answers, so they are fairly fresh in my mind.
 
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xMetalHead515
@IanBell, @The_American,
I don't know if already asked,will all the cars be unlocked at the start as in the first game, or we will have to unlock them in the career or something?
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It has been answered before mate, everything is unlocked as soon as you put on the game, if you want that "unlock system" I guess starting in karts in career is the way to go. I personally love not having to earn credits/money to buy cars unlike other games, means you can get started straight away!
 
Will be see production spec race cars with roll cages?


Similar to how cars were customised in Shift. We could leave the body stock, use a semi custom suspension, race interior and full/custom livery.
images
 
Jason Wilko
It has been answered before mate, everything is unlocked as soon as you put on the game, if you want that "unlock system" I guess starting in karts in career is the way to go. I personally love not having to earn credits/money to buy cars unlike other games, means you can get started straight away!
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That's what i was hoping for, i hate money system too, i'm just too lazy to earn credits to unlock cars...
Many thanks for the reply :)
 
Seb02
@Ian Bell, @The_American,

I have several questions about project cars 2 :
- will there be a custom championship mode for the offline mode? It would be great to let the player choose 8 or 10 races with AI level, rules, date, weather ... And is the mandatory pit stop option present in the offline mode? (In PC1, this option was present only in online mode)
Click to expand...
No offline championships at this time guys. I brought up the idea to "fill w/AI" the online championships but it is something we/SMS only briefly discussed. Mandatory pitstop is available offline.
 
The_American
No offline championships at this time guys. I brought up the idea to "fill w/AI" the online championships but it is something we/SMS only briefly discussed. Mandatory pitstop is available offline.
Click to expand...

Thank you for answering. There are many possibilities in the game and the career mode can not all offer them especially with a scripted weather, date and time. To make an excel table to follow a championship is not an easy thing since from one race to the next, there is never the same grid. The idea of using online championship mode is interesting but only limited to 16 cars. Also, can you reconsider your position regarding offline championship mode.
Thanks again for the interaction with players, it is very appreciated.
 
The_American
No offline championships at this time guys. I brought up the idea to "fill w/AI" the online championships but it is something we/SMS only briefly discussed. Mandatory pitstop is available offline.
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I must say i find this quite surprising, especially since a custom (offline) championship was one of the big feature that was regarded as "missing" by the community as soon as the first game was released (on the official pcars forum).
The team even said they were looking at it, but to no avail because of the amount of work (hence money) needed to implement it.

But with online championship in place, I honestly though it was sure the offline version would be included this time.
Not a real game breaker for me as I plan to only play the career in single player mode (if it is more fulfilling that the first one), but I know a lot of people will be disappointed by this decision (not everyone is happy anyway whatever the decision >__<)
 

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