Well, I've given it several hours of my time now and I've decided to give up on AMS2 for the time being. Why? A number of reasons:
FFB with my T300 - At best, I'd say it was OK but nothing special. I've followed plenty of setup guides specifically for AMS2 and tried a lot of different recommended settings but still don't think it's great. I'm sure plenty of people will disagree, but it just doesn't seem to give me enough information through the wheel. The other problem I have is the inconsistency. Some cars feel better than others and I don't want to have to change the settings on a per-car basis. If the FFB was really good, I might be convinced that the time spent adjusting and testing it for each car was worth it. However, in my opinion at the moment it isn't. Whilst not technically FFB, I'm one of those users still struggling with over-sensitive brakes, even after the recent update. I've tried carefully calibrating the pedals several times in a single session and still have to set the brake sensitivity to 30% or less and the car brake pressure in some cars to a maximum of 80%. Frustrating for close racing.
Handling - again, inconsistent. Some cars feel much better than others (it's EA, I can hear you say!). That said, all of them seem to have moments of unpredictability. Sometimes they understeer, sometimes they oversteer (same track, same car setup, same conditions, sometimes even on the same lap). At times, even applying throttle really gently coming out of a corner makes the rear break away. Some cars feel as though they're gently fishtailing down the straights where others feel much more stable.
Visuals - Try as I might, I just don't seem to be able to get rid of the constant, annoying bouncing/camera shake. I've tried adjusting the world view (max and min) and reduced the g-forces to zero but it's still there. It may be trying to give more of an impression of speed but real tracks are just not that bumpy everywhere.
AI - Clearly still a work-in-progress. Some conditions which affect the player's car (standing water on the track, for example) seem to have little effect on the AI. Also, on several occasions I've rounded a corner to find a mass pileup of AI blocking the road. I’ve noticed a number of instances of the AI taking odd lines into a corner after I’ve passed them comfortably and taking me out in the process, almost as if they weren’t aware that I was there (this may somehow also be related to the previously mentioned pileups). There also seem to be extra large collision boxes around some cars which cause crashes without any apparent contact (confirmed by replays) and almost all contact, no matter how gentle, seems to often result in exaggerated effects on each car.
I've seen plenty of instances of warnings for putting just 2 wheels off track (confirmed by replay) - all wheels I could understand. If you do go completely off track, the grass is like very bumpy ice! And why should an off early in the final sector cancel your time for the next lap?
I know it’s in EA and I know (hope?) that many of my personal gripes will eventually be resolved. However, I like sim racing because it’s fun and at the moment I seem to be spending more time trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to get things working how I want them at the expense of actually racing. I may have been lucky with ACC, but I found that I was up and running quite quickly, even in EA, and the default car setups are actually quite good and need minimal tweaking for some enjoyable racing - I’m not an alien so getting the last fraction of a second out of each car isn’t a priority for me. It may be that AMS2 just doesn’t suit my style of driving and I’ll certainly revisit it after the full release version hits the streets but I just have a nagging doubt that it will always need extensive tweaking to get the best out of it and, for me at least, life’s too short for that. There’s a lot of potential in AMS2 but I’m not enjoying it enough at the moment to persist with it.
FFB with my T300 - At best, I'd say it was OK but nothing special. I've followed plenty of setup guides specifically for AMS2 and tried a lot of different recommended settings but still don't think it's great. I'm sure plenty of people will disagree, but it just doesn't seem to give me enough information through the wheel. The other problem I have is the inconsistency. Some cars feel better than others and I don't want to have to change the settings on a per-car basis. If the FFB was really good, I might be convinced that the time spent adjusting and testing it for each car was worth it. However, in my opinion at the moment it isn't. Whilst not technically FFB, I'm one of those users still struggling with over-sensitive brakes, even after the recent update. I've tried carefully calibrating the pedals several times in a single session and still have to set the brake sensitivity to 30% or less and the car brake pressure in some cars to a maximum of 80%. Frustrating for close racing.
Handling - again, inconsistent. Some cars feel much better than others (it's EA, I can hear you say!). That said, all of them seem to have moments of unpredictability. Sometimes they understeer, sometimes they oversteer (same track, same car setup, same conditions, sometimes even on the same lap). At times, even applying throttle really gently coming out of a corner makes the rear break away. Some cars feel as though they're gently fishtailing down the straights where others feel much more stable.
Visuals - Try as I might, I just don't seem to be able to get rid of the constant, annoying bouncing/camera shake. I've tried adjusting the world view (max and min) and reduced the g-forces to zero but it's still there. It may be trying to give more of an impression of speed but real tracks are just not that bumpy everywhere.
AI - Clearly still a work-in-progress. Some conditions which affect the player's car (standing water on the track, for example) seem to have little effect on the AI. Also, on several occasions I've rounded a corner to find a mass pileup of AI blocking the road. I’ve noticed a number of instances of the AI taking odd lines into a corner after I’ve passed them comfortably and taking me out in the process, almost as if they weren’t aware that I was there (this may somehow also be related to the previously mentioned pileups). There also seem to be extra large collision boxes around some cars which cause crashes without any apparent contact (confirmed by replays) and almost all contact, no matter how gentle, seems to often result in exaggerated effects on each car.
I've seen plenty of instances of warnings for putting just 2 wheels off track (confirmed by replay) - all wheels I could understand. If you do go completely off track, the grass is like very bumpy ice! And why should an off early in the final sector cancel your time for the next lap?
I know it’s in EA and I know (hope?) that many of my personal gripes will eventually be resolved. However, I like sim racing because it’s fun and at the moment I seem to be spending more time trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to get things working how I want them at the expense of actually racing. I may have been lucky with ACC, but I found that I was up and running quite quickly, even in EA, and the default car setups are actually quite good and need minimal tweaking for some enjoyable racing - I’m not an alien so getting the last fraction of a second out of each car isn’t a priority for me. It may be that AMS2 just doesn’t suit my style of driving and I’ll certainly revisit it after the full release version hits the streets but I just have a nagging doubt that it will always need extensive tweaking to get the best out of it and, for me at least, life’s too short for that. There’s a lot of potential in AMS2 but I’m not enjoying it enough at the moment to persist with it.
More than likely they log the bugs in their system then get busy with reproducing/fixing/whatever, so if they're not responding directly in the thread don't take it personally.
