It’s been a good run, Except for……….

In my post yesterday about the connection issues I stated “I’m done!”  This was posted in the heat of another problem with the game, so I decided to sleep on it and make up my mind this morning whether to continue or not.  Well after 72 Races (70 as a paying member), a driver’s and team championship, fulfilling all achievements, reached level 166 in the world ranking.  And while leading my current league in the Elite division, I’ve decided to follow through and stop playing.  It is just too frustrating in its present form. 
As a small business owner myself, I would want to know what I could do to prevent this from happening to me.  So I will try to explain the reasons for me leaving, in the hopes that it may help to make the game better for others.  Besides, I think it has great potential, and hope to be back some day when it has been improved.
My concerns, in order of frustration level:
-Disconnections!  I’ve made a few posts about these in the past as have many many others.  It is a major problem that affects the enjoyment of the game. I am very competitive and will spend a lot of time trying to set up my strategy.  Sometimes for a win, other times to set a record.  But when the strategy gets thrown out the window by disconnections, it removes me from the game and I become a spectator.  Not what I’m paying for.   I’ve had several people respond to previous posts about this problem saying that it could be my connection.  Well I can tell you 100% that’s not the problem.  I can make a post on the forum while my 2D player is disconnected.  Besides, there are dozens of people complaining about this problem.  What bothers me most about this, is that a lot of effort was spent giving free players more features while paying players concerns were not addressed, and still haven’t been.  Too me, this was a big mistake.  Without money coming in, no one will be playing!  And I know I’m not alone in leaving.
-Hiccups!  For lack of a better word, I’m referring to strange things that happen while using the 2D player.  For instance, while trying to control KERS for a driver, the driver info box (where the KERS control button is) will sometimes go blank while pressing KERS.  When this happens, I am unable to shut off KERS.  I am left scrambling trying to highlight the driver to activate the control buttons again.  Then clicking the button on and off until I am finally able to shut off the KERS.  This usually results in wasting 25-50% of the KERS when I don’t want to.  This happens in about half the races.  It may be related to the problem above, but I don’t think so.
-Weather! Again, I’ve posted about this in the past.  But there are several issues and a lot of confusion.  First of all, the days of the forecast don’t always match the forecast.  For instance a recent race in Brazil that was scheduled for a Monday morning my time, only showed a forecast for Tuesday on.  When clicking Tuesdays forecast, it was actually for Monday.  And this is not a time zone issue.  They are only 2 hours ahead of me.  But speaking of time zones,  I am of the understanding that for the race, the actual live weather is used.  So how that work for my next race scheduled for Wed morning 11:20 my time.  That race is China where it would be 12:20 am Thursday.  So do I look at the forecast for Wed night or Wed morning?  And why would we use live weather when it would sometimes end up being in the middle of the night at some tracks?  Besides, the forecast and actual race conditions seldom are the same anyways.  A game generated weather system and forecast would make much more sense.  And eliminate a lot of confusion and problems.
-Component Design!  I focused last season on reaching 100% performance on several components for this season.  However, now that I’ve achieved that, I find that I can only achieve a 1% gain on performance for next season.  That is with design emphasis set fully at next season.  I also have purchased the test rig and wind tunnel and have them set at testing time of very high.  All for nothing!  The way it is set up, I can only achieve 16-17 performance for next season.  That’s a pretty high price to pay for reaching 100% this season!  For that reason alone, I wouldn’t have continued past this season.
 
I know it’s a game still in development.  However I think I’ve done my part by paying and gave it a pretty good chance with over 70 races in more than 3 months.  I also hope some of my feedback will help the developers make the game more enjoyable.  And I can honestly say, I hope the game does improve and succeed!
Jeff

yes I am with you on the stabilisation issue Jack.
I know a lot of people want this that and the other feature added, but i do think spending the time sorting out the known problems first is important.

Sorry to lose you Jeff as you seem the type of person who would be a good manager and add value to the game for other players.
Hopefully see you back again in the future.

I think the 'hiccups' he's referring to is when the game gets a little laggy, and jumps from place to place, meaning that the player cannot use their kers as they normally would.

It's sad to see anyone leave, but it's your decision in the end. I do think, however, that the more people that stick with it, then the more the game can improve with constructive feedback :)

I have to back Jeff's points up. It got to the point where I stopped playing. Where's the replayability? I get to Elite, and then thats it...you pretty much stay there as you've got great funds, a great driver and a great designer. All you're doing is logging on once a day to race, do your setup and then leave. I gave up bothering to sit and watch the race as there was no point, it had zero benefit other than hitting a manual kers button every now and then.

I'll probably be back one day, but for me, my subscription was a disapointment. I hope that the game can be made more enjoyable some time in the future, however with Codemasters own version due out soon, I'm not holding out much hope.

Oh, and the reason for the funny username is that there is no option to close your account.

What i would say to this is join a competitive league, if you get pole, fastest lap and win 50% of your races it must be pretty boring. Racing with/against people who are better would give you a lot more of a challenge & actual enjoyment [and no chance of getting any points without watching the race]

Also if you put in a helpdesk request to close your account they will be able to do that

I completely agree with Brady. Even during the time when I thought I was at my most competitive, I enjoyed the game, but now I've realised that I still have things to learn thanks to the rise in competition season on season. Luckily for me, I never had to change leagues, and have found myself in possibly one of the most competitive leagues, with one of the, if not the highest reputation, possibly because of that very reason.

It's a joy to play everyday, and to try and grow and find new ways to get ahead of the rest. And the best part is that the game has only been officially released for about six months or so, which means it has heaps of potential, if it is already beyond that of any F1 management game I've played previously.

I had all the problems that Jeff MacKay, describes  (including the KERS button thing) + others that had been already reported.
Didn't take notice of his thread, when it was written - maybe I was not on this time.

I play for half a year and to me it feels that the game is getting more buggy than in the beginning. It seems, that the developers lost survey on the source code.
See the save setup bug, that they seem not be able to fix, i.e.
Also It's a shame how things change like the changes that had been made on promotion, etc. One day it was as you knew it the other day it al has changed...: i.e. One day I could develop a component to the next day - the other day it didn't work anymore...

I never read the 100% thing before, than in the last days threads. Means If you do not know before doing, that if you have a 100% car the next season is for the trash, you can not prevent doing it.
I read the thing: "Focusing a lot on one season has the downside that the design team won’t be able to improve much on the other season parts anymore".
But never understood, that it means, that there will be almost no improvement on next seasons car! That's absolutely not realistic.
It's also not realistic, that you can not train drivers and staff between two seasons, but thats another thing.

So my subscription ends tomorrow, an I will not renew it now.
I will stay as a non paying member for some time, but if I feel the things do not really change maybe I will give a try to the codemasters product, that seems promising to me...

P.S.
Forum needs a search option!

What I really don't like it's the odd/even season's managers, meaning if you want to be competitive, you have to sacrifice each every 2 seasons to be competitive in the next. So, I already know. In my league, I am competitive in even seasons, Jamie and David in odd seasons. :D It's quite predictable.

Just a quick point to add to this, this is true, and again in other leagues there are people who go from 100% to 10% each season [i'm opposite seasons from you because i messed up design this year and started too late on this season, assuming that i would still be competitive and then start winning around mid-season]

They are looking at a complete overhaul of the design system [i'll find the thread and link it here in a minute] although obviously its not a 5minute job but continued idea's and discussion are always helpful

alin your right its annonying we've had 2 managers doing this for a few seasons now and well we have all laughed at them cause they start off great then drop off after 7 races. being a good league means you'll enjoy yourself. i can tell you this david dont try doing that he spend a few season in my league and he has seen you dont get the ling term gain out of it.

I know people being competitive every season. They might not win every year, but they are in top-5 every year.
Is it possible? Well...yes.

BUT: It depends on several other things.

What I still do not understand: Where is the problem with that? I like that! :-)