With a new sim racing title on the horizon and plenty of hype around it, here are some of the things we want to see in Rennsport.
Image credit: RENNSPORT
It has been a while since the sim racing market has recieved a true shake-up, with players still continuing to play games released over a decade ago. iRacing released in 2008, rFactor 2 and RaceRoom were both released in 2013 and even Live for Speed is still in service despite launching 20 years ago!
Assetto Corsa Competizione is the most recent mainstream sim racing title, and that launched in 2018. New instalments in the world of simulated racing are very few and far between, so when they do come along, it’s always a time of immense intrigue. It’s also a time for sim racers to draw up lists of requests to overwhelm the developers with.
We are no different. So here are a few things we hope to see in Rennsport.
Balanced Car Performance
Rennsport is being marketed as the ultimate esports racing game and it has been developed in partnership with many automotive brands. The great thing about esports and sim racing is that drivers can go from a powerful open wheel car to a touring car, then to a GT car, Le Mans Prototype, rallycross etc. with the click of a button.
Whilst ACC is a great racing sim with incredible driving physics, its laser focus on cars from series that fall under the SRO Motorsports Group umbrella does limit its prospects. If Rennsport and their esports partners ESL want to create an ultimate example of a sim racing championship, they need to have every type of car involved. However, they also need to make it as level a playing field as possible. With that though, there are issues.
Within esports racing, there are many manufacturers that are partnered up with teams. BS+COMPETITION is connected with BMW, Unicorns of Love has a formal affiliation with Mercedes and finally, Coanda Esports is aligned with Porsche. However, while BS+ and UOL can race other brands, the relationship Coanda has with Porsche means they can’t race cars from rival manufacturers.
In certain championships that are single-make, it’s sometimes unavoidable that teams will be required to race brands with which they aren’t affiliated. For instance, Coanda are not in the VCO Esports Racing League, as they can’t race cars from brands that are in direct rivalry with Porsche. It’s okay on the likes of iRacing and rFactor 2 with neutral cars, but on ACC it’s unavoidable.
GT3 cars all behave differently so if they wanted as level a playing field as possible, they could have an ‘Equal Performance’ mode. This is already a feature of the F1 games. In Rennsport, a baseline model for all types of GT3 or other multi-brand classes could be created. That way, the cars can perform similarly whilst retaining their visuals.
What Rennsport devs are faced with is a dilemma. To create as level a playing field as possible, would they be willing to part with some aspects of the ‘simulation’ of the real world?
In-Game Livery Editor
One part of the experience with competitive online racing is the creation of custom liveries. Plenty of teams have their skins done by professional graphics designers. We even interviewed Juan Diego Sánchez aka iLiveries about the process that goes into it.
On PC sims, liveries are created through third-party software which can be tricky for people who aren’t savvy with Photoshop. To bring the world of custom livery creation to new players through Rennsport, perhaps they could adopt a similar livery creator to that of the Gran Turismo games.
Rennsport have referenced their intention to potentially develop the game for console, so it would make sense to have the livery builder be integrated into the game itself. We see from the Gran Turismo games that creating liveries for cars, helmets and driver suits is as popular with the community as the driving itself.
With the talk of Rennsport creating a market to trade cars, there’s plenty of potential to create a rich community of players posting their liveries and decals for anyone to use. The same can be said for the circuits in-game, where for events, the barriers, sponsorship boards and flags can be given designs to reflect the brands that the organisers want represented around the track.
Monetisation Model
With the likes of iRacing and rFactor 2, gaining access to the cars and tracks means having to pay for them. Of course, we do not live in an idealised world where everything is available for free. But, perhaps Rennsport can take on another monetisation model, where as well as being able to buy the cars and tracks, players could also earn points for their time playing the game.
Of course, there is a risk that Rennsport could make the cost for cars too high through the in-game credits and make it very difficult to earn them in-game. Therefore incentivising people to just buy the content instead of working for it, a tactic that is all-too-common currently.
Assetto Corsa Competizione offers a large percentage of its content as standard, and its DLC add-ons all come in packs. Although since there isn’t a huge variety of content there, could a more diverse sim like Rennsport adopt that same model?
What would you like to be in Rennsport? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
