Soo they ruined Assetto Corsa for me.

[shambles1980]

Ok so i was told today there was a update to AC, "we race every monday" so i decided better update and check the server and so on.
Well it would not start after an update so i spent the longest time fixing the cfg file.
"still wouldn't start"
Then it was pointed out to me that you can no longer have track rotation..
tried it with 1 track. and sure enough it works..

Basically me and a bunch of others play every monday night i set up a private server, we jump on team speak get to the game and then decide which car we want to use on the track that pops up..
We cant do that any more,
i went to find out why on the official forum. And it turns out they decided booking mode was not needed any more.

i will just post what i said in reply to some one else who was as equally baffled as i was here now.

from reading another thread it seems that they have decided that all the empty servers that use pickup mode out weight the few ones with players in booking mode.
"obviously the booking mode servers are private servers with people using team speak like we do"
So they basically removed booking mode.

They then said that we should "as a community" work on plugins to do things like track rotation. BUT obviously we have to now work along with pick up mode limitations of x amount of cars set with an entry list.

Not saying They are trying to make Project cars look better than it is. but they sure as the sun is going to come up in the morning, managing to do just that..
Really annoyed. AC is the best sim out there. We enjoy our races, I bought a server just for it "not rented bought" And they then decided because there are a 100 and 1 empty pickup servers all at spa then that is what we all want.
There is a decent "not huge" group of us that do race, and we do use booking mode. Some one wants to use a p1 at Silverstone international? well if its their choice of car when that track come up then they pick it and thats what we all use.
I want to use the 98t at imola? Well if its my choice when that comes up then thats what we all use.. If its some one elses turn then maybe they want to drive an M3 around imola..
Booking mode works well for us. we have tracks that rotate and we get to chose ANY car we want..

But now it looks like we cant do that any more.
We can either have any car we want at 1 track. OR wait for the community to make a plug in that will let us have a track rotation but with a limited choice of cars.. and possibly not even enough of the same car so we can all be in the same one..

Im not saying i will go play project cars, because i honestly dont like how it drives or feels. But at this rate i dont see what other choice we will have the server mode of that game is a million times better than AC.
and the ONLY way we were able to make this game a viable game for us to play has been taken away from us.
This is just not on.
You cant release a game as a final release as done and then take away an integral part of it because by looking at the empty servers you decided there were more empty pick up ones..

Kunos seem to expect the end users to make a lobby mode for them self. Something that has been beyond them. And they also expect them to do it whilst at the same time depreciating core functionality in favour of a mode that gives MUCH less configuration options.
Well whoopdy doo if some one arrives 20 seconds late now we dont have to wait for the next track they can just join in.
then we can do that same track for then next 4 hours. Yeah great, that is so much better, Thanx kunos.

basically this has now killed this game for us.

 

[Dicehunter]

I was actually looking at getting the game next pay day as Wraith has been making some cool cars for it.

 

[Wraith]

I've been slowly loosing my patients with Kunos for a while now, when they released the dream pack add on, we all thought we'd get it free given the lack of cars and tracks in the vanilla game.... but no! £14.99 please.. WHAT!! Fair enough we thought, they are a small dev and we get such detailed content, I mean they are the only team who actively laser scan cars and tracks to 0.002mm perfection, they they gave us the modding tools to create our own content which is awesome! The problem is the pipeline guide which is a rough translation to English so lots of guess work is required, a lot of the successful modders are reluctant to share information and settings meaning more guess work, Kunos then start making dumb changes, mods stop working, settings fail, CTD happen lots, it's a PITA but I have to keep reminding myself that the game is still in development. We should see much improvement over the next 6 months especially with the console release coming up.

 

[shambles1980]

they released it as finished though. So they cant throw that early access bull at me any more.
Right now we are actually contemplating making bat files "yes bat files" and set them up to kill the server load up a new cfg and then start the server after a time limit. but i would have to do this for every track. (that would not really be that bad with the old booking mode though. as i could make 12-20 cfg's and bat files and simply edit the time between start and kill to match the avarage time spent on that track obviously if some one chose a particularly slow car we would be kicked out because the server did kill task, or if we chose an excessively fast car then we would end up wating for the server to change for ages.)

but to make matters worse, i can only have 12 cars in my cfg list now. it will simply cut the end off the car list.
so it will end up that if i want to do it properly with cars grouped in the same classes (cant even have a nice random selection to chose from)
i will end up with 150+ bat file and cfg files "that is just not acceptable"

So i do have to make sacrifices in our server choices now.
And i am thinking the only viable way we have to do this is to give access to the server to others and allow them to manually edit the server cfg file to chose a track and car they want and manually restart the server..

We race tomorrow so i don't have the time to write a python script to allow admins to select a track and car from the chat menu and auto restart the server.
I only have VERY limited knowledge of python scripts so its not as easy as it is for me to make the bat files.

And its not a matter of "its ok i can write a script for this" because we did have this functionality when i bought the game. and it should not have been removed because.
"track rotation was not working, because some tracks need a config track file, because we did not want to make 2-3 different tracks when it was easier to just make a track config instead"

Its all good and well to welcome the modding community with open arms,
It is a different thing to let core functionality slip away and expect the modding community to do your work for you.
Any way im just having a look through the forums quickly As i do have quite a lot to do if we hope to have an even manageable server by tomorrow.

 

[Dark NighT]

I was slightly interested in this game, now im not.

I used to play Race07 and GTR evolution quite a bit, but that game didnt age to well even though it still is really good, i was looking for something new.

 

[shambles1980]

well working on some scripting now some one on the ac forums kindly gave the code too..
it seems a bit more code than it needs to be, but i dont have the knowlage of scripting to tidy it up. so i just have to work with it.

It should allow me to have track rotation back.

Although i do think it is pretty underhanded to get the end users to develop your game for you.

 

[Dicehunter]

I've been slowly loosing my patients with Kunos for a while now

You've been losing your patients ? Are they escaping from the practice ?

 

[Wraith]

You've been losing your patients ? Are they escaping from the practice ?

Excellent, I see what you did there. But nah, every time they update the game, it breaks something else, one update completely killed audio and some physics on all modded cars, latest update seems to have had effects on the online side of things.

 

[Dicehunter]

Excellent, I see what you did there. But nah, every time they update the game, it breaks something else, one update completely killed audio and some physics on all modded cars, latest update seems to have had effects on the online side of things.

I know how you feel bud, In the early days of Star Wars Galaxies, Now shut down and replaced by garbage thanks to EA's real money market place star wars old republic game, It was the very same.

You would make a build of a character and at this time the character customization and class options were DEEP, You'd gain ranks etc... and BOOM server reset to a point it was at a few days earlier.

There are people in the games industry that simply shouldn't be there, They genuinely ruin what could be great experiences, We see it happening all the time and it's a shame as it kills gaming for me personally.

 

[shambles1980]

the worst thing is, tecnically they didnt break booking mode...
they deliberatly "depriciated" it..
As they said Track rotation never worked in pick up mode "because they use a stupid entry list" and the only way to make it work was to script it and restart the server after every race..
Well thats fine. its also the reason i used booking mode.
I could have my track rotation. and any car i wanted and did not have to have an entry list which meant i did not hit a pit limit early due to listed cars..

It was not the best solution. but it did work..
For some unfathonable "to me" reason they decided track rotation wont ever work in pick up mode.
And because vallelunga and the green hell need a track config definded for them. they could not be used in a booking mode track rotation..
That they should just remove track rotation from booking mode..
so you say its broken they mark the thread "as designed"

Its really annoying ,
silverstone has 3 or 4 different track layouts, and does not need a track config. because they are 3-4 different track files.
vallelunga and norshlifer Have a couple of track layouts, But instead of saying "oh if we use a config track instead of making 2 versions of these maps, people cant rotate the tracks. so lets make 2 versions"
they said
"well it was to much work any way, just remove track rotation"

I dont know maybe we are in the minority..
but we like to do 4-5 lap races at diffenent tracks over a period of about 4 hours once a week..
I find it almost impossible to believe that EVERY one else wants to just belt round spa all day and never see a different track..
But according to kunos that is what people want.
With 2-3 cars to chose from..

I wouldnt be siprized if almost every public server will now be

GT2 cars @ Spa
or
Formula arbarth @ voldermort "or whatever that new track is called"

Any way have to go now. had my rant I have a VM to set up. remote access to arrange for admins. and some scripting to comprehend.

 

[Wraith]

Very true, the team that are responsible for Assetto Corsa is small only 15 at last count, Kunos themselves are quite a large company though.

As far as content goes I know of 3 cars now that are community made which have made the final game, goes to show how bad and slow they are, this console announcement IMHO is a bad idea.. when you have games like GT, Forza, PCars already firm console favorites AC is going to be laughed at, a few tracks and a fist full of cars compared to Gran Tourismos huge offerings.. it's a joke.

 

[shambles1980]

Funny thing is.. A friend of mine asked on the forum. "because of the track rotation thing"
What will consoles users do with this new set up? do they expect them to turn off the console after every race?

the reply was basically

"We have no thoughts on the console servers"

So i have no idea what they are actually thinking. if a dev comes and tells you they havent even thought about what the consoles will do when they are messing with core features..


edit

Actually went like this..

So the public have to write the software for track rotation?
how will the console versions work? will they need to reboot their consoles each time they want to race a different track?
the lack of track rotation will kill the game online, it is a real shame as AC was the best race sim out there.

No plans about how servers will work on console.

personally.
I do think they are hoping the community will develop all the things needed to make it a workable game.
then they will integrate that to the consoles.
i do think this is why they have removed track rotation just to see how the community would deal with it..

they want to push for more plugins to do what they want.
There is no way they could not write a simple plugin that does track rotation in less than a day. But they just did not do it.
There are people out there that would write a plugin for them for as little as £10. so its not like they could not out source it either.
but they are depending on the end users to do the developing for them.

I have asked them how much of this is simply using end users as free developers then take all the best ideas and abandon assetto corsa and start on Asstto corsa 2.
I received no reply to that question though.

 

[shambles1980]

Ok if any one cares i kind of fixed it "well worked arround the issue"
loop mode=0 in the servercfg.ini will stop the server at the end of the race, this is great news as i was then able to make a bat file that just finds the process in task manager and makes error lvl comment about it.
Then i could just use a bunch of if error lvl # goto # commands.

Added a bunch of folders in the presets folder "well any folder would do but seemd like the best place to put them" then in hose folders put CFG files for all the tracks.

So what happens now is.
I start the bat file i made that opens the server it then has a slight delay "achived by running a ping"
the bat file then loops over the 1st command forever aslong as the server exe is running. When the race finishes thebat file detects that the server stoped running.
This then makes it to go to the second run which deletes the cfg from the server cfg folder and copies the cfgs form one of the preset folders. Then it starts Acserver.exe again.
It basically does that over and over..

i will add the bat file code i wrote here for any one that wants it.

edit it how you want so its pointing at the right files.
obviosly from the structure of the bat file you should be able to tell that the bat fiile is located in the Asettocorsa rout directory otherwize the path names would be loner..

This method means you only need 1 bat file. and you can have it in booking mode. "this means you can have a choice of 16 cars for any track, and you can also set which 16 cars per track, as well as other track variables. it also allows that same 1 track to loop constantly. so you can have a short booking time set. and you can use team speak or similar to arrange the car choice "that is at least how we play"
(pick up mode should also work fine like this too, but you hugely limit the amount of cars you can use due to having to use an entry ini file. but you do then get the ability to join at any point unlike booking mode)

i made an inviz.vbs file which i attribute in a second bat file.
So That bat file opens up the bat file i am adding the code too.
The only reason i did that is so you never see the bat file running and dont have to see the console pop up every time a map loads.
(this is usefull if you are running the server on a computer that may also be in use by some one at the time)
I wont add the code to that unless some one actually wants it, but it is easily done and i dont think any one would need me to share that code.

Any way if you need any help with it let me know. But it really is a pretty basic bat file.

@echo off
:start
start /min acserver.exe
Ping loopback 


:run1
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq acserver.exe" | find /I "acserver.exe"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO spa1 
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO run1 

:spa1
del /f /q cfg\*.*
copy presets\spa\*.* cfg\
start /min acserver.exe
GOTO run2

:run2
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq acserver.exe" | find /I "acserver.exe"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO green1 
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO run2 

:green1
del /f /q cfg\*.*
copy presets\Nordschleife\*.* cfg\
start /min acserver.exe
GOTO run3

:run3
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq acserver.exe" | find /I "acserver.exe"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO nur1 
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO run3

:nur1
del /f /q cfg\*.*
copy presets\nurburg\*.* cfg\
start /min acserver.exe
GOTO run4

:run4
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq acserver.exe" | find /I "acserver.exe"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO mug1 
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO run4

:mug1
del /f /q cfg\*.*
copy presets\Mugello\*.* cfg\
start /min acserver.exe
GOTO run5

:run5
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq acserver.exe" | find /I "acserver.exe"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO sil1 
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO run5

:sil1
del /f /q cfg\*.*
copy presets\Silverstone\*.* cfg\
start /min acserver.exe
GOTO run6

:run6
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq acserver.exe" | find /I "acserver.exe"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO imo1
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO run6
 
:imo1
del /f /q cfg\*.*
copy presets\Imola\*.* cfg\
start /min acserver.exe
GOTO run7

:run7
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq acserver.exe" | find /I "acserver.exe"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO vold1 
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO run7

:vold1
del /f /q cfg\*.*
copy presets\voldermort\*.* cfg\
start /min acserver.exe
GOTO run8

:run8
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq acserver.exe" | find /I "acserver.exe"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO mag1
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO run8

:mag1
del /f /q cfg\*.*
copy presets\Magione\*.* cfg\
start /min acserver.exe
GOTO run9

:run9
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq acserver.exe" | find /I "acserver.exe"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO vall1
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO run9

:vall1
del /f /q cfg\*.*
copy presets\Vallelunga\*.* cfg\
start /min acserver.exe
GOTO rung

:rung
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq acserver.exe" | find /I "acserver.exe"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO spa1
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO rung

There are 2 reasons why i used a bat file..
the 1st one being the main one..
(1) Bat files i have used for over a decade so i like working with them
(2) if i learned python and did all of kunos's work for them i would be really angry about it when they used it because they really should have done it them self.