This Game

[list]
[*]The Server
[*]Pit Lane bug at Monaco
[*]Pit Lane bug at Silverstone
[*]Having to re-disable the automatic KERS
[*]Losing seconds behind blue tyre cars at the start of the race
[*]Being mugged in the pitlane by other cars
[*]Obscene amount of switching positions in the middle/lower part of the grid on lap 1
[*]Inconsistent qualifying
[*]Keeping your car %/being able to switch leagues with a good car/a high next season car as well as current
[*]Turn 1 bug a Valencia
[*]DRS bug at Spain
[*]Cars not letting you past easily when theyre being lapped
[*]Drivers being "overtrained"
[/list]
Some of these bugs have been apparent for a VERY long time. I keep hearing that you're hell-bent on getting some sort of stability to the server (good job btw) but the "bugs" above are affecting the results of races. I may be wrong but some of these don't strike me as bugs that will take very long to fix. I've played this game for over 18 months now and besides the improvement of drivers, we've played the same game for the entire time.
[list]
[*]Suck up to a sponsor so they give you more money.
[*]Suck up to the same suppliers so you get their equipment for less money
[*]Same tracks
[*]Replace the engine every two races
[*]Replace parts every race (supposing you can afford it, which we've been able to do since season.. errr, 4.
[*]Train staff design for next season/physical because engineers training level will NEVER go down.
[*]Do the same strategies for the winter, do the same strategies when its summer.
[/list]
This game is about two years old and has barely changed since I first started playing. It took us all a while to learn the best strategies but that sort of stuff has been established for well over a year now. Surely at this point you would have liked to have perhaps introduced an updated carset, by that I mean racing on a 2012 calendar for e.g instead of 2009. I'm at a loss to understand where mine and everybody elses money is going. I swear there was a BETA game out last year which has came to absolutely nothing. The server can't run for a week without breaking, call me picky but I can't go one race without something happening which shouldn't.

I appreciate you may have high ambitions and big ideas for this game but I am fast losing patience. It seems that you're trying to achieve too much too soon instead of taking it one step at a time. Right now there are other racing games out there that represent better value for money and a more stable service than iGP. If funding happens to be your problem then allowing your suscribers to be continually dissatisfied with the lousy service isn't going to help your cause. However if funding isn't the problem then perhaps very soon it will be.

Very nice write up.
We hear about these design update for more than a year now and in the latest Dev post we should be happy to get it somewhere in 2014.
Yes there were done some improvements like it’s easier to lap a car now, and servers are a bit more stable. I guess that’s it that was changed in a year time, ohh we have more sponsors to choose,.. .
But all the other bug’s are still there and not even the lap timing on the trainings runs are fixed.
 
I also don’t see where all the subscriber money is going,..  And I see this Beta Game soon hit the edge. People are not that stupid and when they start to realize the truth,.. things go fast.   

As a relative newbie to this game, I was over the moon when I found it as it sounded fantastic. I was ready to pay the subscription fee but after nearly a month's playing, Im worried that the money I pay wont go anywhere and disappear in to a black hole.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The development of the game does seem strange, in that as mentioned the small bug fixes surely wouldnt take much to roll out and fix (small update a month?), this would keep the game ticking over and the paying subscribers happy as they can see that updates are happening and the game is still being worked on. As it is, Im worried that I'll pay the subsciption fee and nothing to little will change and I'll get bored after another couple of months and not log in again. It's a shame as it has so much promise but just doesn't appear to be keeping up with its members.

If we had small updates every month or so just to keep us interested it would be nice. Last year i played a beta with updated supplier stats. Why was they not implomented? it would be nice to have to choose between a better tyre or engine like in the beta. One tyre had better grip, one had better endurance and the other met in the middle. This would change strategies and mix up the racing quite abit. Even small updates like when car pictures was added and sounds. They help us keep faith and show us that the game is trying to move forward. Small things can go a long way to keeping paying customers playing the game. They dont have to come out with a huge update to keep all of us here. If anything most people have stopped playing because we have been promised the same update for over a year and now its not coming until 2014.

Actually half of the things you've listed are part of the gameplay, and you could be easily accused of nitpicking.

However some points are still not fixed, which is indeed a sad thing.
I just think above all it's a money issue. I work in advertising and just know it's hard to find sponsors and backers, and consumers often don't want to pay anything.

Cars losing positions in the pitlane is realistic enough, but a car going from 1st to 21st i've never seen before. Also i've never seen a team work on two cars sat on top of each other. You can't have it both ways.

Losing seconds because the car infront has blue tyres. No, thats just stupid. This was even meant to be fixed and it hasn't, or if it has been worked on then it needs to be looked at again. I've watched my (overtrained) drivers fail to overtake one of them just to be outbraked into the next turn, then again at the next turn and so on. I'm not even exaggerating. I watch the races zoomed all the way in so you can see the cars and some of the bollocks you can see coming a mile off. If you're closing on the guy ahead and don't overtake him into the turn, the chances are you will be overtaken by the guy behind on the next corner. Yesterday I literally braked in the middle of a straight just so a driver could get the run on me, at which point we were both on 5/5. Watch a race zoomed all the way in and concentrate on the midfield and take a look for yourself.

A lapped car re-overtaking a car. Be honest that is very rare, I was leading at Monaco with 5l of fuel left and the guy on blue tyres (who was blocking me to the point that I had to use the very tiny bit of kers I had left to get past) outbraked me into one of the hairpins. Don't even bother defending that. This kinda stuff has been happening alot since i've had, statistically, the best drivers i've ever had. A few very good players on this game who know more than I do tell me that the higher trained they are the worst they get. What's that all about?

Perhaps you're right. Half of the things i've listed have been around so long that maybe you could be fooled into thinking they're part of the gameplay.

This is a timely post.

The 'Council' met last week for the first time.

There was a unanimous view that we can work with the users & the development team to facilitate & where better to start than with some of the issues above.

These issues & some others were part of our discussion & we are in the process of creating a list. This in itself is not an earth shattering development I agree, but then we propose to meet with the team to discuss the issues & see what can be done to address them. We might even be able to prioritise some.

In due course your 'local' council member will be able to discuss such issues with you & where possible help to see them resolved.

I know this is a bit jam tomorrow, but there is a real will to improve things for everyone.

Agreed with Chris about Monaco traffic. Not long ago in Aussie F1 I lost 18 seconds in 5 laps due to lapped traffic. One guy in particular  on blue tyres who my driver just would not pass, even with DRS. It was pathetic lol. That definitely isn't nitpicking, it's just flawed. The pit lane is also completely broken. Why do guys in P32 fly through the pits at full speed and gain 3+ seconds every single stop over P1? Surely that isn't nitpicking Jaap haha.

I've also had a driver go from P7 to P29 in one single stop (Belgium) due to being pit raped. That definitely is flawed too and shouldn't be a part of the gameplay.

The silverstone pits are also bugged as Chris said. P1/2 pit stall is on average a little over a second slower every stop than every other pit stall for no reason. If you enter the pits at the same time as P3/4 and they are literally right on your tail, there's a very good chance they are going to leave the pits well ahead of you. It isn't right. 

The mid field traffic passing is complete bollocks too. P1 can be afk on blue tyres and P2->32 can all be pushing hard on perfect temp tyres, and while no one can pass the guy out front, the guy in P2 can often fall back to P6/7/8/9/10 even. No one passes the blue tyres guys but yet they all seem to pass each other many times for no reason.

I can pull up a post over a year ago with these and many other issues and I said that it was the "core" part of the game that needs addressing.... with Chris Louth, Ryan Ware, Lewis Goodway and a couple of others from the same league, attacking me over it.. and now look. :)


My main issue is still the weather.. We are around the corner from Autum in the EU, the temps will drop and we will be in a worse situation than we are now... Monaco with stone cold tyres on full pushing... The only track that is good in the winter times is Monza. :)

but I am with you guys on this... no matter how many "Improvement" posts are being made... It is pointless without the main part of the game being fixed..

I hope Jason Lee is on the council, as I know he makes teams to use them as tests. He will have a lot of the issues written down.. If you have them written down Jason. Please send the list to Edwin for him to log.

I probably disagreed with you because you always came across as a bit of a cock

lol.. The funny thing is.. It was actually you who was more than anybody else on the forums. You have grown up a lot with your posts tbh and you've made a very good post with superb points.

Yeah me and Elcio made a list, it's pretty huge lol. I'll get it to Edwin asap.

Yes do please send me your list, thank you.

No-one can possibly be across everything on the forum & I would rather have something twice than not have it at all.

Not sure if its been mentioned yet but if you enter the pits behind someone with a punture it can cost you up to 7 or 8 seconds just driving down the pitlane. Ive never seen it happen in real life. Not sure if its a bug or not.

Not come across that one before Lewis. I have added it to my list thank you

I have about 20 things on my list now. Please send me your thoughts or post them here. I would rather have something 2 or 3 times than not at all.

ps. your site is very slow recently.