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New: Dynamic level XP

To improve balancing under the new levelling system, I’ve introduced dynamic XP in races. As many of you know, the old system was a flat 40XP per race but this needed to change to reflect the new level system. For each participant it will be based on their current level vs the highest level manager in the race. The initial levels for new teams will unlock more quickly under this new system if you are racing higher level teams. All levels from 10 onwards remain difficult to obtain regardless. The amount of XP required to unlock each level has not changed, only the gain calculation.

More information like a display of how much XP was gained after each race is something we will be adding in the near future.

This is not intended to be the final solution to balancing everything in the new system, but another step in the right direction. I believe a new spies system, which I will be outlining a plan for soon, will fill in the final pieces of the puzzle, allowing teams with fundamentally lower levels to close the gap on track.

Now, I'm going to go in to details, for the nerds! This is not exactly publicity info, so don't worry if you find the rest of the post hard to follow. The example I'll give below is the most extreme scenario possible for a new team, encountering a level 8 team in Rookie, to give it some context. A more balanced league will have a much slower progression.

Here is the new formula used to calculate level XP:
xp = 40 + ((topLevel - managerLevel) * 20);

Note: The levels respect the level cap of the tier, which is 8 for Rookie, 12 for Pro and 20 for Elite.

Here is the new rate of level progression for a level 1 team racing against a level 8 team:
L3 = 1 race
L4 = 3 races
L5 = 6 races
L6 = 11 races
L7 = 19 races
L8 = 34 races

That's correct. It's not easy to work out all the permutations on paper, I only published the exact numbers for those who really want to sink their teeth in to it. I will update this post with the XP needed to reach each level as well, so people can do some more calculations if they want.

As an example of how complicated it can be, you might glance at this and think Level 1 vs Level 8 = 180XP, so it will take 2 races to reach level 4 (given the figures below). It actually takes 3 races because in the second race you are Level 3 vs Level 8, having levelled up from the first race, and so on. Because of this gradual reduction in the bonus, what starts out as a significant difference in XP gains gradually levels out and the time it takes to reach level 8 in the scenario from my first post is only roughly halved over what it used to be, from 64 races to 34 races. But the initial 7 level gap between the teams is evened out much faster. It used to take 27 races to reach level 6 for example, and it would take just 11 now. This means within a season things would already be levelling out significantly compared to before, but there is still an amount of dedication and commitment involved beyond that which is fair and respects those who have put much more time in to the game.

I'm sure some whiz could create a spreadsheet that can give more direct figures, but for now I'm just publishing the numbers.

Here are the amounts of XP required to unlock each level.

Level 2: 40xp
Level 3: 135xp
Level 4: 320xp
Level 5: 625xp
Level 6: 1080xp
Level 7: 1715xp
Level 8: 2560xp
Level 9: 3645xp
Level 10: 5000xp
Level 11: 6655xp
Level 12: 8640xp
Level 13: 10985xp
Level 14: 13720xp
Level 15: 16875xp
Level 16: 20480xp
Level 17: 24565xp
Level 18: 29160xp
Level 19: 34295xp
Level 20: 40000xp

I think it's fine if it skips over level 2 (this is the only level that can be skipped), because even though you start out as a level 1 manager, the minimum level cap is 3, so levels 1-2 are almost irrelevant. Getting to level 4 quickly to begin unlocking higher level drivers and staff is the priority for our level 1 manager in Rookie.