The Future of 22RS Multiplayer

As an esport racing series, multiplayer is a focal point of development for 22RS with a lot of thought going into the design. In this interview Garth explains how the new multiplayer game mechanics will provide players and teams with even more flexibility to define their race strategy and gives some insights into what we can expect from 22RS’s multiplayer in the future.

Compete as a single player against others with tournaments and challenges that can run over days, weeks or months
With loadouts, players will have the ability set roles suited to their driving style and team strategy
Soon-to-be unveiled, all new, never seen before, racing modes and racing features
New and unique team racing modes for in-depth racing strategies and esports competitions

Watch the PAX 2020 AMA interview below for the full discussion.

Synchronous vs Asynchronous multiplayer

Up until now, 22RS players on Pavillion have had access to asynchronous multiplayer and local multiplayer. Asynchronous multiplayer is where online players can compete against each-other, but rather than doing it in real-time, they’re playing locally against each-other’s lap times that are saved to the global online leaderboards. Local multiplayer allows people to compete against other players in real-time, but they’ve got to be on the same network/in the same location.

“We’re excited to be nearing the release of our online (synchronous) multiplayer. This will take our already very competitive competition to the next level, not only because you’ll have players from different locations competing against one-another in real-time, but it’ll really ratify our new team game modes and allow us to launch our ‘royale’ race modes, with numbers of con-current players never seen before in racing games. It’s going to Epic.”

Players will be pleased to know that development of real-time multiplayer is nearing completion, with release expected in the coming months.

Multiplayer game mechanics

One of the unique twists to 22RS is the loadout mechanics, which give a player a choice of different ‘Upgrades’ and ‘Abilities’ which they can take into a race. This really opens up the racing genre, because now you have whole new ways to think about race strategy, both in your setup going into a race (eg. what’s the best loadout and play-style for the track and your opponent?) and also during a race.

These new mechanics apply to free-for-all races, where it’s every racer for themselves, but also to the team modes, where you’re able to work out the best mix of loadouts amongst you and your team mates.

This is really uncharted territory when it comes to racing games, so we’re excited to see where it goes, and what racers can do with it!

1. Loadouts

A loadout is a set of four ‘actions’ that a player can take into a race. These actions are separated into two categories, Vehicle Upgrades and Track Abilities, or simply ‘Upgrades’ and ‘Abilities’.

Upgrades: These allow players to upgrade features fitted to their vehicle. They include Engine HP, boost turbine thrust, capacitor energy storage and ERS collection speed / efficiency.
Abilities: These are areas of effect that you can paint onto the track that can either be used by you and your team, or can affect opponents only, depending on the Ability. Abilities include things like extra Boost, extra Energy, stealing Energy (from opponents) and adding extra friction to the track, to slow opponents down. All of the Abilities have different areas of effect on the track, as well as strength of ability and cost to use it, so there are lots of different combos of Abilities that are available.

Players can adjust their vehicle’s loadout to suit their individual driving character and preferred race strategy before heading into a race, taking full advantage of their unique strengths. For the team modes, different loadout combinations can be categorised intro ‘roles’, ranging from support and engineering to defence and offense. We’ll cover each of these in detail in another article.

2. New Game Modes

Free-for-All Events

‘Free-for-All’ is a race where each player is racing individually against any number of opponents, on any track, where victory is determined by the first player to complete any number of laps. This mode is designed for players who just want to jump in and start playing without too much fuss, as keeping it simple and making it easy to find and join a race is one of our priorities. We also offer lots of combinations of different game modes and styles, so that players can find race modes that suit their own style of play.

New Team Modes

22’s Team Mode involve two or more teams competing against each other in a number of event types:

Team Tournaments: A race or series of races of any duration (day long to season long grand prix’s) on any combination of tracks and in any combination of game modes)
Team Race: A lap based race. First player to cross the finish line wins for the team
Team Capture: First team to capture all sectors in a race and hold them for 30 secs wins

Team Mode and the corresponding team event types are pivotal features for the series as they also pave the way for additional gameplay opportunities that are characteristic of traditional motorsports and esports, such as brand sponsorships and technical career pathways that will be facilitated via blockchain smart-contracts. Together these will create the most comprehensive and streamlined esports ecosystem in the games industry today.

New Race Mode!

So what’s the exciting new race mode!? You’re going to have to be a little more patient 🙂

We’ll be announcing it in the coming months. If you want to hear about it as soon as it happens, then feel free to sign up to our 22 Racing Series Newsletter.