Some ideas

Hi all,

Being new to the game I just want to put my initial thoughts and suggestions forward to make it more realistic/challenging.
It's a scramble of ideas in no particular order, but maybe some will be a hit.

• Driver feedback: it would be good to get feedback after a race. Atm, you get it during practice runs but after the race you don't get anything; they'd have an idea on how the car ran after the race (maybe a better idea than after practice depending on their technical skill.)
  
• Finance overhaul: Already I can see money isn't going to be too much of an issue; the facilities are expensive for a newbie at the start, but these are one-off payments and by the time I level up I probably won't be worried anyway. I think three easy solutions could be done;
  

1. increase outgoings slightly (travel is way too cheap; add maintenance on facilities as an ongoing cost; add training costs for driver/staff.)
   
2. lower sponsorship income by about 50%, and add a CAP on how much sponsors will pay (I don't know if there is one?) Instead of me getting about 4mill per race, i expect to get 2mill max. It's too easy to get money; if i dont build anything then im spending about 1.6mill at the moment, therefore saving 2.4mill.... that's way too much. Outgoing should be about 1.8-19.mill, income about 2mill. saving should be hard (see below)
   
3. lower facilities and research costs. Why?; because they are too high. The financial model is very wrong, the outgoings should come more from the wages/maintenance and facilities/research should be something you have to save up money for.
   

             Having said all the above, I think merchandising should be easier to get to, make it cheaper but affected by popularity (league ranking, reputation, etc.) Merchandising (and prizes) should be the way that you get your spending money. Should pay tax on sales too ;)

• Sponsor limits: inside one league limit the number of times a sponsor can be used. For example, only 4 teams can get Obutto, 4 for iRacing, H2O2, etc. etc. This means that you have to fight for sponsors, and makes it a little more realistic since cars don't have the same sponsors IRL.
  
• Engine/Fuel Management: I think I've seen this mentioned but certainly worth repeating. Allow drivers to manage their engine better; I've played Codemasters F1 games and you can set your fuel mixture to Rich, Standard, or Low to save or use fuel. This would also coincide with the next point.
  
• No fuel stops: give the option atleast of not having to make fuel stops, as in real life. Make fuel strategy a case of using it more efficiently (maybe even a new driver skill?) rather than how much to put in. NOTE: it's not that I don't like doing it, I just prefer some realism; HOWEVER, if you want to keep fuel stops, there's nothing wrong with adding the above point as well (so you can refuel and then still have to tell the driver to use fuel-saving techniques.
  
• KERS: update it to be like the current system in real life. TBH, I haven't even researched KERS but I hear bad stories about it on the forum??
  
• In race options: could it be possible to save our default options? I always have to switch extra details on in the 2D game, it would be better if this was turned on by default or if I could save my options?
  

I think that will do for now, taken a while to gather those.

I've been playing this game for about two years and I can respond to your suggestions:

• Driver feedback post-race: Would be neat, but would likely take a long time to develop for it to mean anything.
  
• Finance overhaul: This one is tricky, because I think at the lower levels it's just about right. There are a couple of points early on when you really have to watch your money if you're trying to be competitive (fight for wins and championships). At the higher levels money does become a non-issue; I have over $1 billion in my savings and I can't spend it on anything. To that point, the commercial facility (selling shirts/hats/etc.) isn't developed at all and basically does nothing. Maybe when it gets done the finances can be revisited.
  
• Sponsor limits: There's no way to actually do this, because there's nothing to actually prevent teams from changing leagues. I could sign the top 4 sponsors and then join a different league and still keep those contracts. It's been brought up before but I don't think it's something that can be realistically achieved.
  
• Engine/Fuel Management: This sort of exists already, via the in-race driver push levels. Engine tune (how many revs/how much fuel to use) is tied to how hard you have your driver push.
  
• No fuel stops: For this to even begin to be viable, the tires would need a complete and massive overhaul. None of the tire compounds last long enough on track to run a full race distance unless you do 25% racing, and the weight of the fuel is so much that even stopping regularly for tires without taking on fuel you'd be dog slow.
  
• KERS: Initially, it was as it is in real life (this was before I joined), but it was found that people were always using it in the same places on the track, and so it didn't really change anything. By making it something you have to manage over a race distance you have to decide the situations in which to use it.
  
• In race options: I absolutely support this in its entirety.
  

Thanks for the response James.

• Driver feedback post-race: I didn't mean for a massive statement, just something like what is already in place during testing (increase wing+4, decrease suspension etc. etc. but with a little more accuracy.
  
• Sponsor limits: In my mind, you would lose all sponsors and partners when you joined the league. But having thought on this further I can see a number of flaws (like, how does the sponsor decide, if it's FCFS then unfair on less active players, etc. etc.) Can scrap this idea ;)
  
• Engine/Fuel Management: I think, due to my inexperience, I wasn't noticing the difference too much. Now I'm starting to do that.
  
• No fuel stops: New tyre update soon ;) Maybe some of this will work better then!
  
• KERS: Understood... can see the problem.
  

Just a couple other things to add; this may take a moment to understand as I'm not entirely sure I can phrase it right.

We had a wet race today, not my first, and found that the gap between drivers was two-fold, due to what I believe is a flaw in the training system.

At the moment, drivers that train in speed increase their Slow/Fast corners AND wet weather racing. This means that, in all cases, a faster driver is faster in the rain, and a slower driver is slower by comparison.
In reality, it's possible for slower drivers to be 'faster' in the rain, and vice versa. The game doesn't allow for that at all, meaning that during wet races any 'gaps' between drivers are simply widened. The only people praying for rain are the fastest ones, whereas in reality rain should add another element (aside from strategies) - the skill of the driver. If wet race training was separated it would make more sense; and those that do train their drivers would see benefits in the wet races.

My second point, quite simple... is whether or not people think it would be a good idea for the Tech Dir. to be able to predict fuel loads for different push levels. E.g. Push Hard, 4.2L per lap. Take it Easy, 3.8L per lap. Or whether this should be down to the manager?

Indeed, way too much money. It is not a challenge at all!
Also, wearing of the components is too low.

Part wear isn't so much the problem as finances tho. You can repair/refit a entire car with less than 1 sponsor's worth of income, so even if wear were 100% it wouldn't change much. Now if engines wore faster that could make season strategies interesting...

Having less Engines per season would be a more viable option, instead of pretty much making them last 2 races and then still not going below 80% before you change to new, and being able to swap in a previous engine you have used before, instead of a 100%