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Josh T.
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As someone brand new to both VRC Pro and RC cars in general and currently on the fence as to whether to get into the hobby I thought I'd provide some input and constructive criticism.
1. Appeal:
RC racing is a niche hobby, it is even more niche than RC planes and as such a simulator based on a hobby with not the largest following or awareness is going to suffer. The key thing here is to have your game appeal to both devoted, experienced followers of rc racing and also newcomers, or even people who just want to play a computer game. Though rc racing fans are more likely to spend money on buying DLC and expansions, without getting newcomers into the game it will stagnate and not make a profit.
Advertising is a difficult one for games, but the best medium is youtube. All it takes is one popular youtuber to play a game and sales will skyrocket for it. If you hand out free copies to youtubers, maybe ones who specialise in simulation games then it’s advertising for your game and will get new players in.
2. Pricing:
I’m aware that due to how niche the market is for RC simulation games pricing is going to be higher so a profit can be made, but in this case I feel £29.99 is too much and will put people off, I believe it should be cheaper than it currently is. The amount of DLC available for the game is also off putting, it’s better to release fewer expansions than tonnes of individual DLC packs. If you go to a games page, and see that not only is it 30 pounds, but that it has £205 of DLC people will avoid it like the plague Group the DLC together into focused packs, I understand these are released throughout the year, but presentation on steam is everything and a wall of DLC is not good. It’s fine for rc fans who will spend the money on the DLC but newcomers will be put off by it.
3. Presentation:
From my limited experience with the game, though the screenshots on steam make the game look fantastic and up to date, in game they are nothing like. The tracks look flat and dull, the lighting is seriously lacking, and it just looks very dated, not like a modern game at all. The UI is honestly awful, it looks bad, feels clunky and you why the screen is bordered by it during a race is beyond me, it’s supposed to be a simulator but racing with stuff all over the screen is unpleasant. Sound wise it’s also rather pants, the cheesy American voiceover bloke is very out of place, especially when he says ‘enjoy your race’ at the start, why on earth is that in the game? The robotic text to speech lap time readout is also out of place and not good at all.
Now this is my experience from playing the free version off the website, I’m not sure if the paid Steam version has better graphics, or whether the non -free tracks look better I’m not sure (though from what I’ve seen on youtube they didn’t even have 3D marshals on the track, they were 2D sprites), but it could really do with a facelift, especially the UI. The graphics may not matter as much to racing fans but it matters to newcomers and gamers.
So overall, get the game out there on youtube, adjust your pricing and DLC presentation and bring the game up to date graphically. I hope you’ll find the criticism helpful, I am still on the fence whether to purchase VRC Pro. I like what I have played of it, but it is £30 which for what it is seems a lot, not to mention I would need to get a controller to get full enjoyment out of it.
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Jacob L
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I truly Think allot of this has to do with the cost. $200 is allot for most people to drop, especially on a game. I personally think the game is great and helps me out when I am not able to make it to the track (health issues). I do think that the addition of more popular 1/10th scale off-road classes such as 2wd/4wd buggy would potentially bring more people in just because 4wd SC is virtually dead these days when it comes to racing and I feel more people would enjoy driving something similar to what they personally race. I personally have the paid version of this game through steam and I really enjoy it (much better than the original monthly subscription) but IMO more people are willing to spend $200 on an actual car or actual track time on their home track. Not saying the game isn't worth it but for allot of people it isn't. I try to get all of my friends to try this game out because I do enjoy it so much and have several friends that I got to play/download the game but they would much rather spend that kind of money on physical track time. This is just my 2 cents but I think this may be something to consider.
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Raul R
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im starting to promote VRC in Panama we are not that many but i want this to persist and grow
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Russell Watkins
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I come and play the free edition mainly for 2 reasons. The first being I can't pay $200 plus dollars for a lifetime membership and then worry what will happen if the site does shut down. Not saying it will but I've seen others do it. Number 2, I would buy most of the off-road tracks if you had a decent discount for buying a package deal but I haven't been able to find it. I did buy the usb adapter and I do display your stickers on my Slash at the events and on my tool bag.
Edited by author: 17.7.2018 1:59:21 GMT
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Tony D
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I haven't read everything but I read much of it. First, I want to say I did invite my friend to try VRC and he sat on my couch running lap after lap and then ran 2 club races. He loved it. However, considering he did not have his own computer that could run VRC, did not have an extra receiver, no extra controller, no VRC adapter and no membership, I could not talking him into spending what might be a bit of money to him. Some might be redundant but these are my thoughts and I hope, even if not feasible, the principal is taken with an open mind.
1) I think Hillman mentioned how modified was difficult and I completely agree even though it could be the most fun class. (off-road) Even though many argued, VRC makes it more difficult by making it rolstrum only for official races and people in American simply do not have enough time to learn the setup and then spend hours on end learning rolstrum. There are some tracks rolstrum is faster and some its not but this is about number, income and the financial ability to grow. I told you when you did this (look at the chat) that racers would fall off and both of these are contributing factors. I know you want VRC to be a rolstrum view racing but due to reasons such as computer screen, TV screen, PC processing power, etc. its simply to difficult to see perfectly for some. (that's not my excuse. I just suck)
2)MONEY BEFORE MONEY: to do this correctly, a person needs to have an extra receiver that can hook to your controller. (many are not going to take it in and out of their buggy and do not have an extra one) All you really need is a controlled that has steering and throttle/break input. It might be wise to get with a company (AE makes cheap controller/receiver sets) and see if you can sell the controller and receiver with the USB device as a package similar to how large gaming companies sell steering wheels for their game.
3) You already said this but advertising. A simple method if feasible would be to give 1 or 2 USB transmitter adapters as door prizes at supporting events across the world such as Christmas races or charity races which could be written off for taxes anyway. (at least in the US) The supporting race track would also carry the item to sell to other costumers. Any method of getting a person the USB device is one step closer to an individual buying a membership.
Last, maybe offer the first 4 official events to all individuals for free to see if they stay around to finish the season. Some like the competition and might stay.
It comes down to drawing in the casual person. By now, RC racers have heard about it and for one of 100 reasons, decided for it or against it. IMO (and I know it won't) Rolstrum and setup has to change for VRC to remain. If you think I'm wrong, look at numbers pre-rolstrum change vs. now.
Edited by author: 14.7.2018 12:19:27 GMT
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Robert Hillman
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Posted by: Clayton Petree (US) on 18.6.2018 20:18:08 (UTC)
It also seems like some people have found a way to make their "spec car" go faster. I remember trying to drive in a spec class and some of the cars pulled out of the corners so hard with such good top speed I've decided not to even try racing those.
You are not saying which class this relates to but it might be 1:10 SC. When I joined VRC there weren't a mod and spec class. The classes that existed was something in between. When the classes was introduced the former time trials was transfered to spec classes. Which made it impossible to beat those times.
But if you are running against replays newer than 4-5 years old there are no excuses, you are simply choosing the wrong lines through corners, at least in all off road classes.
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anonymous
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Hi Pieter.
I still think Vrc is awesome. Like you said its not perfect but getting an RC fix when I cant make it to the track any time I want is priceless.
I guess by the comments vrc needs more members to make some money to keep it going.
I don't know the logistics of it all but how about a rebrand of sorts pique some interest. Simple like VRC-Pro 2018 edition. Stop offering tracks and maybe classes that are unpopular. Release just a couple of new tracks for that edition and when you add new tracks call it the 2019 edition. Maybe stop offering mod classes to everyone and they only qualify to use or race mod once they reach sport level from racing or somehow have it as a reward for a reasonable commitment to driving on the game for a bit. I have told so many people how good it is but its a very low conversion rate. Lots of excuses, If it had 1/10th buggy I would do it, my computer isn't good enough, its too hard and yeah played it for a bit but bored with the free tracks and don't want to pay. Maybe a one time 5 euro all inclusive for 3 months to try and hook people. Wish I new the answers. ps yes I would pay 3 euro s a month to keep playing. Cheers
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Pieter BFounder
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setup is complex, I am the first one to admitt that. And besides the setup itself, to use it you must ahve an all-inclusive license else there is a big chance that you can't use the setup because some components are missing...
This is part of the structure unfortunately, it would require a complete new structure to resolve these problems, something that could easily take over a year and is obviously out of the question.
It is for this reason that I have switched the focus of our licenses to the all-inclusive licenses rather than vEuro's and obtaining content on demand, as at least you have all the components always with an all-inclusive license, so you can load all setups that are made available on the website.
The delimma is that in real life the problems are exactly the same, it is just not easy to get into r/c racing, it requires 2-3 years to develop driving and setup skills to perform well on club level, let alone on national or international level. We have not been able to make it much easier apparently.
The physics model is very complex and I am amazed myself of what we have been able to achieve with it. But it is unrealistic to expect the settings to be identical as your own car, in real life even different cars react different to the same settings. The variables are immens. We could continue forever and still not get close.
Anyway, the physics engine development was ended in 2015 after 14 years of full time work by Todd Wasson. Car perforance is quite realistic. Is it perfect? No, not by a long shot...
I rely on our member base to develop good default setups for the spec and mod cars. But before to implement them there must be consensus that the setup is really a serious improvement, easpecially in ease of driving.
Don't forget, r/c is a real niche hobby/sport with relative few people involved. What we have been able to achieve with VRC is absolutely amazing in my view. VRC has cost me a fortune to get to this point.
I am in no position to carry it any further, this is it. The members will have to carry it forward concerning organic growth, improving setups etc.
I am thinking of introducing a monthly membership fee of say 3 euro per month so I can secure the platform (servers, maintenance, software upgrades etc.) on top of the all-inclusive license which is in fact just a content license. 3 Euro's per month (just a soda...) would make all the difference to VRC's future... hope 3 euros a month is not too much for you to continue to use the platform.
There is no alterantive, nobody has been willing to spend so much money on such a delicate and uncertain project as VRC, that says enough...
Edited by author: 25.6.2018 14:16:09 GMT
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Robert Hillman
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I consider myself a descent driver, and even won the national championship before Ronnefalk came through. But VRC are really though to get good at and I nearly gave up myself. But VRC are a really good tool to get better in real life racing.
I have thought about the shortcomings of VRC a long time but haven't organized my thoughts so here they come a bit random.
I agree what other have said that the mod-setups that comes with the game are rubbish, they are really hard to drive. Spec is more or less the same for all drivers except the carburator settings which is a mystery to me even though I have driven nitro cars for more than 20 years.
The setup for the cars are a mess. I have been asked by many people around the race tracks if VRC is a good way to learn setups (1:8 IC OR), and I have to say no. For example there is only one differential setup that works F 10k, M 9k, R 9k. if you use less viscocity you loose speed and if you use higher viscocity the car get too difficult to drive. Same thing with camber, use as much as possibly otherwise you loose traction. Not good for those how will use the simulator to learn setup.
The character of the nitro engine may work in track but it is way off in buggy. The electric motor is very good though.
It is way too difficult to share setups via the web-page. You can't send a single setup private but have to post them official. And you can't share several setups in a single post. If someone ask me for a setup I ask them for an email because that is way easier than to post them on this page.
I also suggest that the winner setup for each race is posted automaticly on the forum, that way the beginners don't have to search extencive time for good setups for each track.
And why is the comment field in the setup so limited? I want to notice lap times, final length, changes from previous setups and furthermore, but are limited to 20 characters or so even though the box hints that I might be able to write about 100 characters or more.
Even thought the system requirements are quite low VRC requires a good PC to run ok if you don't back off on the graphics. When I began I had a decent gaming computer which was a couple of years old. VRC worked great and I had a FPS of 100-300. I then updated to a new PC and a monitor with 144Hz and got about 400-800 FPS and my lap times immediately dropped 0.5-1s per lap at all tracks. I couldn't feel any difference but I got way faster. I also tried VRC on a decent laptop after this and although the graphic was smooth and I got a FPS of 60-100 it was like driving with rubber bands on the controller.
I probably have more opinions but this is what comes to mind right now.
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anonymous
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I agree with Marshall The learning curve for me has been the hardest I have been playing For a while and spec is for me the hardest. It’s mostly all I drive and still like 2 to 3 seconds a lap most of the time behind the fast guys. I’m know I’m not the only one. I can drive good in real life But in Vrc not so. Lately I haven’t even been entering events because the times are way to fast for me But that’s the challenge of this game I’m guessing. I ve learned from a few guys that have helped me get to where I am Thank you guys btw Eli Warren joe Carson Andrew Marshall and more. That you have to slow you remote down to get a better feeling either steering or throttle which ever works for you. Everyone is different I enjoy the sim. And the racers
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