Jack Basford medal 5145 
CEO & CTO 2 years 304 days ago (Last edited by
Jack Basford 2 years 304 days ago)
This is probably the wrong thread to put this in, because it's quite off-topic, but the thread has already derailed. I had to respond to this.
Rhys
I agree 3D us nice... But I can never use it. New active players will use it (as it is default) but the most active (multiple accounts, racing daily, entering tournaments)... Can never use it if they want to race at their true pace. iGP is in a hard position where legendary players, people I've races with and against, feel excluded... While we get a viewer with cars going over tunnels and hoardings, new players, who I accept are 70% per cent of your playerbase, get automatic timing, the ability to see their livery as they made it (as opposed to mine, which is bleached somehow 🙄) what was mentioned before and more... While I applaud many changes made recently (especially the 4.026/4.032 update, at least on paper) it's things like this that make older players feel disvalued and move on, as the game moves from a niche management game into a commercialised race game. Just please, remember that we existed before 3D ❤️
Don't read too much in to posts from José or anyone else. He's frustrated after months of trying to appease a community that is, on the whole, being quite hostile towards him. One person determines our priorities (me!) and I've not forgotten you, at all. This is all going to come full circle and benefit you the most in the end. I expected to be able to show you what we're going to do with this new platform much sooner, and to already have some gameplay updates out by now, but 3D was a huge technical challenge that put more obstalces in front of us than we had anticipated. Only now are we able to turn our focus to gameplay.
With the benefit of hindsight, all "changes" to racing since 3D were just unintended consequences of changing the circuits. We made no changes to Boost, DRS, overtaking or physics. In other words, it was reasonable to expect that gameplay, which everyone was universally happy with prior to the update, would remain fundamentally consistent. Unfortunately, that wasn't what happened, for a few reasons:
- Racing lines - It turned out the improved racing lines required for racing in 3D kept speeds higher everywhere, increasing dirty air, reducing acceleration and the scope for boost, DRS and PL to impact speeds.
- How testing was conducted - The issues are largely isolated to to the top levels (15-20) and it has nothing to do with not caring about those people, quite the opposite in fact. We had some of the best level 15-20 managers in the game testing it, and relied on their opinions. However, most testing took place in Quick Races (for technical / logistical reasons at the time) and none of the best managers identified any issues in this format, because QR masked them. Beyond that, the races that ran in other formats weren't competitive enough for them to notice (the spread of skill hid the spread of performance).
- Changes to car animations in 3D - Some changes to how cars were animated were required to operate in 3D space, but these weren't fundamentally physics changes, more visual / front-end stuff. These changes exacerbated the problems and weren't as smooth as they could have been in the builds prior to 4.026 / 4.032.
In summary, we didn't expect as many surprises as we got with regards to racing and neither did the higher level managers we consulted on the update. Despite us relying heavily on input from exactly the people who are claiming to feel ignored now, nobody identified the problem. Sometimes it's the process to blame, not the people. So, we've completely revised our process for testing updates and developed totally new in-house tools that allow us to test more scenarios more rapidly. We want to avoid a repeat of the surprises this update brought in future.
What has to be made absolutely clear is that we never, ever intended to leave you behind with this update or for any of you to feel that way. It's really bothered me that the perception of that has gone on for as long as it has, and we haven't been able to refute it with gameplay updates. However, the good news is that work starts now.
The release of 4.026 / 4.032 is finally the solid foundation we needed in place to build gameplay updates on. Going forwards, the changes we will be making will be about restoring balance and adding depth in the areas you want it. You were never left behind, and you're ultimately the focal point of everything we're doing. The biggest improvements in the game will be at the top end over the months ahead. I really appreciate your patience, especially when negative speculation seems believable. I can imagine exactly how it looks from where you are, but reality is far more complicated.
This is how I view the current situation. I don't talk about it too much at the moment, because you need updates. I did a lot of talking just after 3D came out and felt more stupid by the week as our hands were tied by stability patches. I want to back words up with action now and I'm doing my best to get these updates to you. I have even thrown a big chunk of my own money in to the company in order to hire more developers to make this happen faster.
Edit: P.S. The next update that is already WIP will be another big improvement like 4.026/4.032, including more scale-corrected tracks, massive performance improvements and 2D improvements so the cars will go through/under tunnels again (since you mentioned that). Beyond that, it's all gameplay updates.
