RaceRoom is a sim that’s been punching well above its weight in recent times, with high-quality DLC packs capturing the imagination of thousands of sim racers.
However, one of its criticisms, sparsely-populated online servers, will soon be addressed by the construction of a new ranked multiplayer system.
“Our player base isn’t enormous, and we often hear complaints like, ‘Oh but the servers are empty’ even when we can clearly see the stats show hundreds of players sitting in the server list,” acknowledges KW Studios Sweden’s Head of Studio, Jean-François Chardon.
“As you know, with the [development] team being as small as it is, ranked multiplayer has been a long-term project for RaceRoom,” he explains.
“The goal has always been to create a system with registration, splits creation, and automated results processing. We started by developing a formula derived from ELO, adapted for more than two players. Once we had the basic system, I involved our Discord community to help refine it,” continued Chardon.
However, due to budgetary limitations ahead of its acquisition by KW Studios, the team at Sector3 Studios left its grand multiplayer plans on the back burner. But no more.
The future
“Chris Horeweg developed a bot that automated server setup and signups, even running a full ranked championship season with it,” stated Chardon.
“The natural next step was to adapt Chris’s Discord bot project into a proper backend system usable by the game itself. Thanks to his efforts, this is now in a beta testing phase,” he proffered, highlighting Horweg’s positive impact.
“Since becoming KW Studios Sweden and turning the page on past setbacks, we’ve [also] been approved to hire a dedicated backend developer, Michal, who’s building our future backend infrastructure. While that project is ongoing, it will take time to fully implement, so this new ranked multiplayer system bridges the gap and allows us to deliver progress sooner,” concluded Chardon.
So, expect the new ranked multiplayer system to improve RaceRoom’s online experience 2025, giving players a better chance of enjoying the free-to-play sim’s excellent new content, including the DTM 2024 Car Pack, classic DTM content and tracks and the most recent Super Touring Car Pack.
The recently announced tie-in with sim racing platform Low Fuel Motorsport will also go some way in helping boost the sim’s player numbers.
Are you looking forward to RaceRoom’s new ranked multiplayer system? Let us know in the comments below.
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