The Big Assetto Corsa Competizione Interview (Part 2)

[Paul Jeffrey]

Catch part two of our exclusive Assetto Corsa Competizione interview with Marco Massarutto and Ste'fano Casillo of Kunos Simulazioni...

Causing a mass panic of excitement from the sim racing community following the announcement back on February 21st, it is probably fair to say plenty of people are excited for the upcoming Assetto Corsa Competizione racing simulation, and with a potential Early Access release coming to Steam this summer, we answered the community call and sat down with two of the men behind the simulation - Marco Massarutto and Stefano Casillo, founding members of Italian development studio Kunos Simulazioni.

If you are interested in learning more of about the official racing simulation of the Blancpain GT Series, check out part 2 of our exclusive interview at the head of this article.

If you missed it earlier, part one can be viewed HERE. Oh and please consider doing us a favour by subscribing to our YouTube channel if you enjoyed this coverage and are looking forward to more of the same in the years ahead...


Assetto Corsa Competizione should be available on Steam Early Access Summer 2018.

Check out the Assetto Corsa Competizione here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussions regarding this exciting upcoming sim. We intend to host some quality League and Club Racing events as well as hosting some great community created mods (we hope!). Join in the discussion today.

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Enjoy the interview? Looking forward to ACC? Learn anything new? Leave a comment below (and subscribe to our YouTube page too!)

 

[racer68]

Completely random failures would suck, but something like water/oil temps rising cause the cooler intake is blocked (i.e. after going through gravel trap or after contact with body damage) and you ignore this then loss of power and/or engine damage would be a nice touch so you would need to either drive more carefully to cool the engine or have it repaired/cleaned at a pit stop.
I like the idea of possible punctures or suspension damage for cutting curbs and similar things.

I totaly agree w/ Schnipp's comments. Taking care of your car is part of racing. It's a task all racing drivers have got to learn in all kinds of racing category. For example, in GTR2, race car X could have a RPM range of let say 8,200 to 8,800 - so high revs for qualif., lower revs for the race cause your car had to last the distance. Go play GTR2 and run a 40 laps race at 8,800 RPM and see what hapens! GTR2 is more than a decade old and people still talk about it and still play it. I like Kunos way of thinking, I like what they did w/ AC1 (over the 7 year span), I believe ACC w/ rain / day-night / tire model / AI / improved multi-player, etc, ect, can become a "GTR2 on steriod" - ....man, bring it on ............

 

[Peter Kerényi]

To give my 2 cents about modding. I think modding shouldn't make the game but enable us to fill the content what might be missing, e.g. like in AC you have many categories, disciplines but not a full package of anything, therefore anything is a good addition. However with ACC we get a full package, therefore I see no real point of modding it. You have a full licensed grid of GT3s and you mod in a AE86. What's the point? Keep in mind with the release of ACC AC will not disappear. I will certainly keep it if only for the F1 cars.

On an other topic, if you want at least close to Kunos quality mod content, you really don't have a lot to choose from.

I will personally not be missing modding support from ACC. I hope it will be successful and we get GT Asia and GT4 with the tracks.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Oh yes! GT4 please!! They'll need to expand that AI limit

 

[ermo]

Sorry, but I must say: I hate when people bring up the AI subject!! Gzus Christ, in the internet era, where multiplayer is the key point of particularly every single new game that comes out, and specially in a simulation environment, AI is totally dispensable!!!

I pressed the 'Disagree' button, but I think you deserve a proper response to this (I've never seen that many 'Disagree' ratings to one post BTW):

I prefer to not have to deal with other people I don't know on the track, particularly not other people who are either 14 or just there for the LULZ. Respect is a natural part of real racing and track days, but the "danger -> pain -> fear" teaching-factor simply isn't present in a simulated environment, which means that those lessons have to have already been incorporated via general life experience if you want to be able to have a realistic race with real people.

I drive racing games because I can't afford/don't want to spend the amount needed to go racing and because I really don't care for the physical and economical risk associated with braking for a turn at 200+ km/h and then having the brake pedal bottom out, resulting in a nasty crash (or worse yet, being rear-ended by the guy behind you).

I respect that you might not agree, but the above is why I rate semi-competent AI highly in a racing title.

 

[cubadoo1]

It will never be a true simulation unless when a car spins off and hits the barriers at silverstone it takes 2 hours for the repair , come on folks somethings a sim racing game can improve upon real life.
p.s can someone start a vote for whos gonna buy acc im very interested how many gt3's are boring easy to drive even tho im 3 secs off the pace people wont buy it

 

[mantasisg]

@cubadoo1 Ok thats true, it is sometimes sick how people wants to REPLACE realism with simulation. But I think 2minutes instead of two hours would do

Not in sprint races though, but endurance races would really improve because of that.

But actually I don't care, because RAIN, and dynamic racing lines, and night, and rankings, and so on !

 

[Marko-13000]

But I think 2minutes instead of two hours would do

I think a damage repair parameter in % would be a nice thing to have now that I think about it, since everybody has some different preferences on that lol
Even though it'd be just fine with three different options like: realistic, a bit more relaxed and fast.

But actually I don't care, because RAIN, and dynamic racing lines, and night, and rankings, and so on !

Yes yes yesss

 

[delpinsky]

there's no point crying about modding ! and yes, in a way it's actually good that it won't offer it, so that modders can get bit of a break
as long as it's back in AC2, which imo would be a mistake if it wasn't , then i'm good with that

mods are by far the biggest reason why I have so many hours in AC , and why I enjoy it a lot. If AC didn't support it, I would still have bought it, but maybe not every DLC though .. and wouldn't have played more then 40-50 hours imo, ... but? Kunos would still get the money, so it won't really matter to them

as many people have said, for closed series game , especially one that offers career mode ( which hopefully will be done well ) there's definitely less of a need for mods,
sure they would be great but it's not a deal breaker

I would love to be able to do mods for F1 from codemasters, to enjoy my stuff in nicely done career mode, but it's not a deal breaker to not enjoy the game

now on the other hand, something like rFactor or AC1, where lot of the content is from all over the place ( old road and race cars, modern road and race cars, old and modern open-wheelers) , no proper career mode, .. well without mods, these games have really not that much to offer - at least to people like me
major advantage of mods is LONGEVITY of the game, it extends it by far! ( look at GTR2 or GTlegends for example) , BUT longevity doesn't bring more money, so it's not really priority for game devs

one of my favorite type of racing is either touring cars or GT4 cars, and AC has like 2 or 3 cars in each of these groups, which isn't really enough for variety

now, if they released a GT4 or TCR specific game, then I wouldn't need any mods what so ever !! so yeah, ... as much as I would love modding to be available, I don't think it's necessary

if not including it will give them more time to focus on getting most out of the UE4, so that they can apply it to AC2 with full mods support, then I'm behind this idea and can't wait

Given the AC quality, what we can expect from ACC, with the new graphic engine and the improved physics, is raising the bar of racing sims.
Base game: Blancpain sprint + endurance races. It's something cool and if the Career mode is well implemented, it can be a lot of fun.

Hopefully once the V1.0 is delivered, with a good user base playing the game, would be interesting to have DLCs extending the Career mode.
SRO Motorsports Group:

http://ultracar-gt1.com

https://european.gt4series.com/gb_en/

I'd love to see these two Series in ACC...

 

[Terry Rock]

Christ!...Some of you guys whine a lot.
It's a driving simulator...not a crashing simulator.
They're limitations in software and hardware...even on the commercial side.
I work everyday on a $10m. full 6 degrees of motion, Level-D flight sim and even that, has some limitations.
How much stuff do you expect to have in a consumer model running on a simple PC?
If you truly want a two hour repair window...I suggest when you hit the wall, get up from your computer, go outside and do something else for that time.
I'm sure It'll be fixed when you get back.
Jesus!

 

[Marko-13000]

Christ!...Some of you guys whine a lot.
It's a driving simulator...not a crashing simulator.
They're limitations in software and hardware...even on the commercial side.

We were just discussing a variable parameter for the repair times lol

But completely agree that we don't need something like a complex visible damage system with crazy chassis deformations and all that which doesn't really do much other than looking good on replays - just make the influence on the handling believable enough and it's perfectly fine for me

 

[Peter Kerényi]

Given the AC quality, what we can expect from ACC, with the new graphic engine and the improved physics, is raising the bar of racing sims.
Base game: Blancpain sprint + endurance races. It's something cool and if the Career mode is well implemented, it can be a lot of fun.

Hopefully once the V1.0 is delivered, with a good user base playing the game, would be interesting to have DLCs extending the Career mode.
SRO Motorsports Group:

http://ultracar-gt1.com

https://european.gt4series.com/gb_en/

I'd love to see these two Series in ACC...

GT Asia, Intercontinental GT Challenge and British GT for the tracks, GT4 for another category, Ultracar for some fun diversity. I hope they will be successful so we can get some extra content. But let's be real, it would take a lot of time and resources to make the new tracks and cars. One can dream though

 

[NtsParadize]

About things they mentioned

- Customizable player livery, with preset elements like sponsor stickers? IMO good solution, because it allows quick data transfer online. Maybe you can make some simple shapes/gradient colors as background. And then put liveries on it. Or just 1 color, still great system imo

- Mechanical damage/Punctures. I've often said I want them. But 100% agree with Stefano, now that I think about it. If they happen suddenly, without player doing anything stupid... I don't want that (and don't think anyone does after it happens to them in a long MP race), just that abusing the curbs increases the risk of puncture etc... Engine dying completely randomly is too hardcore.

- Weather coming from IRL online weather services. Agree with Simone on this. It's not realistic. You drive at winter, could be snow then. Which is completely stupid. Should imo be randomized, based on that months (where the actual race took place in 2018) and geographical locations probable/average temperatures/weathers. Or if customized date, only allow selecting months inside Blancpain calendar.

And then give pre-race weather forecast for players, based on that, with varying accuracy, as forecasts can be IRL. Then all drivers can be in same trouble, having to re-asses their strategy because of failed forecast. Problem with pCars 2 "Randomized weather" is that it seems to totally ignore the geographical location and local climate of the circuit. Should be randomized, inside realistic constraints. But without too accurate forecasts, so there's element of surprise.

Great interview overall, funny how there was 2 or 3 "last questions" Probably due to editing. Cleared lot of things I wanted to know.

Also great to hear that GT4, Blancpain Asia and other Blancpain stuff is not ruled out as DLC, if the title does well enough. I hope it will, and based on AC's quality I'm almost sure it will!

About weather, they can replace snow with rain.

 

[NtsParadize]

Congratulations for having the most disliked comment I have ever seen on RD.

Takes quite a lot of effort to have such a wrong opinion

No opinion is wrong. There is no Thought Police here

 

[CobraCat]

I totaly agree w/ Schnipp's comments. Taking care of your car is part of racing. It's a task all racing drivers have got to learn in all kinds of racing category. For example, in GTR2, race car X could have a RPM range of let say 8,200 to 8,800 - so high revs for qualif., lower revs for the race cause your car had to last the distance. Go play GTR2 and run a 40 laps race at 8,800 RPM and see what hapens! GTR2 is more than a decade old and people still talk about it and still play it. I like Kunos way of thinking, I like what they did w/ AC1 (over the 7 year span), I believe ACC w/ rain / day-night / tire model / AI / improved multi-player, etc, ect, can become a "GTR2 on steriod" - ....man, bring it on ............

Its possible that ACC could be fully realized with many of the features that GTR2 had years ago, although this would take years unless Kunos has a massive team and a massive budget which is not something most racing simulator game companies possess.

This response from a GTR2 dev will give you an idea of what would be involved.

http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...still-not-as-good.132555/page-18#post-2697223

Just imagine if you will what kind of racing sim we could have with a team and budget comparable to what GTA V had ? Over a 1,000 people and 265 million dollar budget.

 

[marcocale]

@cubadoo1 Ok thats true, it is sometimes sick how people wants to REPLACE realism with simulation. But I think 2minutes instead of two hours would do
.....

It's something similar at what we had in netKar Pro and its "hardcore mode" that was initially implemented and then out in the last releases....

I still remember a F1800 Race in Brno (I think it was for the RSR Championship). During the first qualification session I crashed my car on the last corner before having a valid time. I came back to the box (you was not allowed to press esc, but my car was still driveable). My car was repaired just a couple of minutes before the end of the second and final session so that I was forced to start in last position without time.
In the following races I used always a different and realistic startegy: try immediately to make a good, but "conservative", lap to be at least in a middle grid position and only then push on (or over ) the limit to attack the pole....
It was really immersive for an hardcore simmer like me, but I have also to say that very few servers and championships were run with "hardcore mode" enabled...

If you want my opinion I think quite difficult we see an "hardcore mode" in ACC (I would say 0,01%), but at least we know that Stefano had already studied and implemented something similar and in my opinion the result was very immersive and well balanced between realism and simulation. So, if they should decide to implement it, it will be for sure well done!

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

No opinion is wrong.

Wrong.

 

[mantasisg]

Thats correct ^^^

 

[ShredatorFIN]

About weather, they can replace snow with rain.

Yeah, but it's not only problem with live weather taken from IRL weather stations.

Temperatures can't drop below zero, so when at real location it's -5 or -10 degrees, it shouldn't be raining water. So then you have to change the temperature too, and then all real parts are removed. Another problem is that real Blacnpain isn't held in winter.

Better imo leave it out, it doesn't bring extra value and randomized weather based on local climate is more realistic, and no weather condition is left out.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Thats correct ^^^

^^^ incorrect

 

[Will Mazeo]

Yeah, but it's not only problem with live weather taken from IRL weather stations.

Temperatures can't drop below zero, so when at real location it's -5 or -10 degrees, it shouldn't be raining water. So then you have to change the temperature too, and then all real parts are removed. Another problem is that real Blacnpain isn't held in winter.

Better imo leave it out, it doesn't bring extra value and randomized weather based on local climate is more realistic, and no weather condition is left out.

This is easy to solve tho, just do not let the game go bellow a temperature the tires would not work or a race would not go on, unless you are adding red flags.
So real world conditions is something like The Day After Tomorrow movie? No problem, game wont go bellow xºC and x amount of rain. No excuse for lack of real time weather, IMO.