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iGP Manager 26: New League System Explained

medal 5044
4 days ago

F
Auto-assigment leagues might still be every day, but for Hosted Leagues I would like an option of ticking out a days when you don't want to race without dropping league off the cycle.
Yes, it creates bunch of problems with season being too short. (but the current format also pretty consistent at making 14 races season, which is already shorter that current ones + February 12 races) But I doesn't think it's a problem.
If it is, (tho I know that everything is done and nothing will be changed rn) maybe season full month + more no-race days would be possible? 

Yes which is why I feel setting season lengths on the basis of months is a weird choice. Most games that have a "season" feature do so in terms of weeks, which is usually 4 weeks. But since we dont have that many tracks to accommodate for a league that chooses to run everyday, it needs to be something lower.
IMO, I would have set 3 weeks per season as the default, as I view that as the sweet spot, To justify, auto generated / assigned leagues will be able to run 21 races per season (lower than the number of tracks that we have), and leagues which run reasonable schedules like avoiding races on weekends, but still intend to stay inline with the global calendar, to attract fresh faces between the season, or just in general facilitate the movement of people between leagues (in case the host does not want to pay for the boost anymore), could still run 5 x 3 = 15 races, which coincidentally happens to be the minimum number of races per season in the current version of the game.

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medal 5296
4 days ago Translate

Jack
The questions about holidays are fair. We can introduce global off days where appropriate, and Christmas is an obvious candidate.

I’ll keep this short because a full blog on the update is going up today. I want to reset the conversation a bit because it is easy for a thread like this to drift into imagined worst case scenarios before anyone has seen the full picture. That is what is happening here. The focus has shifted to looking for problems, and the loudest reactions are coming from people who have enjoyed a free service for a long time and naturally want that to continue. It can continue. Most leagues will remain free. If you want custom season lengths, which is the only perk that fully decouples a league from the wider community, you can simply join a league that someone else has boosted. It is not a requirement that you personally fund anything. That is the design. One person can cover it for everyone, or a league can split it, or you can join a group where it is already taken care of. In practice, it will either be free or very cheap for most people. The boosts that include custom race durations, speeds, league rules and other settings all sit in lower, more affordable tiers, and I will provide clear details soon. So far, we've fixated on the literal top-end most expensive form of boosting. I lead with that to break the ice and get everyone mentally prepared for the shift.

The aim is to sustain the service we provide at scale, and if this model works, we can scale back monetisation of performance and cosmetics. In line with that, team colour and logo changes will be completely free in iGP Manager 26. Players have been asking for that for years, especially when joining new leagues.

We are finding a middle ground that works for everyone. You can continue playing for free and enjoy essentially the same experience. If you prefer a league that runs outside the shared cycle, the option exists but it is optional and can be covered by a single person each month.

The reasoning behind the change is straightforward. Total freedom in league schedules scattered the community into thousands of unsynchronised pockets. That made it impossible to run proper global seasons, events or leaderboards, and it created a heavy operational cost on our side. The new structure keeps the standard league experience free and aligned to a unified season calendar. Leagues that want to step outside that environment can still do so with boosts, and the XP perks that come with them spread across the entire league. Those XP perks alone are worth more than the cost of the boost, and would be roughly £32 in equivalent value if purchased individually. The system as a whole is balanced and the perks go far beyond calendar customisation.

I hope this helps bring the discussion back to what is actually being proposed rather than the runaway imagined version.




Thank you for giving such a long answer and not answering my question.
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medal 5206
4 days ago Translate

David
This is basically a game of 'dailies' then, tasks that need to be completed every single day, or you lose out considerably. Those types of things often lead to burn out. I guess it always has been but our league has Sunday's off as a break.

I think Sunday's should be a day off at the least, if not Saturday too. Lots of games don't ask players to attend every day of the week, and weekends are traditionally family time, as well as most sporting events taking place (F1, football, etc.).

I'd also suggest that having these breaks gives you (the developers) a chance to roll-out changes or perform maintenance without disrupting the schedule in any way; if you consider that in the future, any updates you make will disrupt service for x hours on y day, the leagues effected on day y will all suddenly be a day behind and ruin synchronisation. You'd have to postpone every race for that day to accommodate the change. From the sounds of your recent posts, there may be more updates coming along too.

Side question: what about holidays, international or not? Christmas comes to mind, but bank holidays, Easter? Where I am now, these holidays don't exist... but others do.



My league has now races on 24 and 25 december (the last two of the season, probably crucial).


It really smells as a first way to want my money in order to change these dates.

Well, it will defo not happen. I prefer quitting the game rather than follow this bad path the game is following.
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medal 4984
4 days ago

Stefano

David
This is basically a game of 'dailies' then, tasks that need to be completed every single day, or you lose out considerably. Those types of things often lead to burn out. I guess it always has been but our league has Sunday's off as a break.

I think Sunday's should be a day off at the least, if not Saturday too. Lots of games don't ask players to attend every day of the week, and weekends are traditionally family time, as well as most sporting events taking place (F1, football, etc.).

I'd also suggest that having these breaks gives you (the developers) a chance to roll-out changes or perform maintenance without disrupting the schedule in any way; if you consider that in the future, any updates you make will disrupt service for x hours on y day, the leagues effected on day y will all suddenly be a day behind and ruin synchronisation. You'd have to postpone every race for that day to accommodate the change. From the sounds of your recent posts, there may be more updates coming along too.

Side question: what about holidays, international or not? Christmas comes to mind, but bank holidays, Easter? Where I am now, these holidays don't exist... but others do.



My league has now races on 24 and 25 december (the last two of the season, probably crucial).


It really smells as a first way to want my money in order to change these dates.

Well, it will defo not happen. I prefer quitting the game rather than follow this bad path the game is following.

It was already said that leagues are only converted into the new system after the current (at time of update) season finishes. So no pay required here, also if there are doubts why not just setting up the schedule already before the update?


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medal 5000
4 days ago
Fried

IMO, I would have set 3 weeks per season as the default, as I view that as the sweet spot, To justify, auto generated / assigned leagues will be able to run 21 races per season (lower than the number of tracks that we have), and leagues which run reasonable schedules like avoiding races on weekends, but still intend to stay inline with the global calendar, to attract fresh faces between the season, or just in general facilitate the movement of people between leagues (in case the host does not want to pay for the boost anymore), could still run 5 x 3 = 15 races, which coincidentally happens to be the minimum number of races per season in the current version of the game.



Oh, forgot about that one. Yea, could be a solution too.

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medal 5779
4 days ago (Last edited by Simone Villa 4 days ago) Translate
if I understand correctly, the new leagues will always start on days 1 and 16th, and the last championships already scheduled will not be affected,
all championships that end after the 16th will not start again before January 1st...
if this were the case, the problem of racing at Christmas is solved.

in any case I'll come back to propose my idea again; instead of 2 seasons of 15 races, a single season of 19 races per 4weeks with races from Monday to Friday,
and an extra day at the end of the season for championship changes.
on the weekend, EVENT races with perhaps BOOST as prizes up for grabs....
months ago we talked about "community at the center", reading the comments, it seems to me that the community is closer to my idea than to the one you are offering. isn't it?

I have also doubt about 2 season in a month.... February is too short....
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medal 5170 CEO & CTO
4 days ago
Abdülkadir
Thank you for giving such a long answer and not answering my question.

I missed it. Here you go:

Abdülkadir
I have a question about our league. In our league, we race 2 days in a week and this season will end on February 19. To keep the league running with these settings, do we need to purchase 20 Boosts on Sunday, December 14, or will it continue like this until February 19, and then on February 19 will we need to purchase the 20 Boosts?

It will remain as-is until February 19, no boosts needed.

I see it was answered above too, but just to give total confirmation. :)

Simone
perhaps BOOST as prizes up for grabs....

Actually, I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me until now. I'll get league boosts added as a reward around the game too. That will be a great way to earn them free of charge, and should help alleviate some concerns. This may not be ready for launch, but most leagues won't need them at launch anyway, we've got other stuff that is taking priority right now.
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medal 5332
4 days ago (Last edited by Gavin Ryan 4 days ago)

So as you probably don't know... I’m a broke college student running a good sized casual league. 
Most of my members only have about 30 minutes a day to race, and our current race distance/speed settings are the only way they can participate consistently (2x, 50%).
 If we get pushed into longer race formats through voting like 100% distance at 1× speed, the league would basically collapse. People simply don’t have the time. And I can't afford splitting the bill. Nobody would back me.

With the new system requiring boosts to keep custom settings, I’m genuinely concerned with losing friends I have made here. I don’t have the money to maintain boosts myself, and I can’t expect to force my league to pay to keep the league functioning the way it does now. 

I love running this league, but these changes might make it impossible for us to continue.
I completely understand the goal of making leagues more consistent and improving the overall experience. I would just hope there’s a way to ensure smaller or low-budget leagues aren’t pushed into race formats that don’t fit their player base.
If there’s any possibility of keeping the small basic customization free — especially race distance and race speed — it would help leagues like mine survive the transition.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I really appreciate all the work that goes into the game, and I hope casual already formed leagues can still have a place in the new system.

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medal 5170 CEO & CTO
4 days ago
Gavin

So as you probably don't know... I’m a broke college student running a good sized casual league. 
Most of my members only have about 30 minutes a day to race, and our current race distance/speed settings are the only way they can participate consistently (2x, 50%).
 If we get pushed into longer race formats through voting like 100% distance at 1× speed, the league would basically collapse. People simply don’t have the time. And I can't afford splitting the bill. Nobody would back me.

With the new system requiring boosts to keep custom settings, I’m genuinely concerned with losing friends I have made here. I don’t have the money to maintain boosts myself, and I can’t expect to force my league to pay to keep the league functioning the way it does now. 

I love running this league, but these changes might make it impossible for us to continue.
I completely understand the goal of making leagues more consistent and improving the overall experience. I would just hope there’s a way to ensure smaller or low-budget leagues aren’t pushed into race formats that don’t fit their player base.
If there’s any possibility of keeping the small basic customization free — especially race distance and race speed — it would help leagues like mine survive the transition.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I really appreciate all the work that goes into the game, and I hope casual already formed leagues can still have a place in the new system.


Hi Gavin, you should be fine. Voting won't be on the race duration, it'll be on rules like refuelling, point for fastest lap etc. The basic race format will be 50% 2x. There are no plans to expand voting into the race duration or speed, as those are perks of boosting a league.

Also, apologies to everyone who was expecting a blog tonight, I did promise one earlier but I've run out of time. There's lots of last minute prep going on for the update. I'll try to get it out tomorrow.
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medal 5624
4 days ago
Hi Jack,

Out last race is Tomorrow night [Friday 12th] we usually have a 2 day gap between seasons, with a 19 race season. I assume the system will generaty the new season schedule as normal [ie.our league technically will have started before the launch of IGP26], therefore i would assume our season will run as normal until it finishes in Janurary, then a short season to run until the 15th Jan, with us then being alligned to the new community schedule?

Confirmation of this would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Sean
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medal 5170 CEO & CTO
4 days ago

Sean
Hi Jack,

Out last race is Tomorrow night [Friday 12th] we usually have a 2 day gap between seasons, with a 19 race season. I assume the system will generaty the new season schedule as normal [ie.our league technically will have started before the launch of IGP26], therefore i would assume our season will run as normal until it finishes in Janurary, then a short season to run until the 15th Jan, with us then being alligned to the new community schedule?

Confirmation of this would be greatly appreciated.

Correct.
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medal 5113
4 days ago Translate
How will seasons work in February?
Will there be a Level 40 or Level 50 tier?
Will there be any way to earn boosts for free?

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medal 5332
4 days ago

Jack
Hi Gavin, you should be fine. Voting won't be on the race duration, it'll be on rules like refuelling, point for fastest lap etc. The basic race format will be 50% 2x. There are no plans to expand voting into the race duration or speed, as those are perks of boosting a league.

Also, apologies to everyone who was expecting a blog tonight, I did promise one earlier but I've run out of time. There's lots of last minute prep going on for the update. I'll try to get it out tomorrow.


Thank you. I hope this works out! Much appreciation for the response.

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medal 5620
3 days ago Translate
The update seems promising.

But I think the already proposed idea of switching to a 3-week format is far better than the current format of starting a league on the 1st/16th day of a month. Having a 3-week format could also allow adding the 1-day off in between seasons.

Also how much will the vip tier cost? And what will be possible to do with the monthly boost you get from it?
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medal 5006
3 days ago
Basford has done it again smh.
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medal 5120
3 days ago
I host a private, password-protected league which races once per week. We joined iGP from an external community and have been racing seven years, with fairly few problems caused by the game - all of which have been managed. With this update, am I now going to have to pay £9.99 per month for tier 4 or else be forced into some global system where we have to race every day on a calendar we cannot choose?

Essentially, am I now going to have to fork out a lot of money each year to play a "free-to-play" game the same way I've been playing for 7 years?
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medal 5117
3 days ago Translate
widescreen mobile?
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medal 5054
3 days ago Translate
Marco. exatamente, nós que deveríamos ser beneficiados por praticamente carregar esse jogo nas costas, seremos os mais prejudicados, se a intensão é o lucro, deveriam vender pinturas para os veículos e para os capacetes, geraria uma boa renda, e não prejudicaria quem mais contribue com o jogo, gastando seu tempo para administrar uma liga repleta de gerentes tóxicos, com pouquíssimas ferramentas de contenção.
uma mudança sem dúvida, muito injusta para os anfitriões.

English Translation:
Marco. Exactly, we who should be benefiting from practically carrying this game on our backs will be the most negatively affected. If the intention is profit, they should sell liveries for the vehicles and for the helmets; that would generate good revenue and wouldn't harm those who contribute the most to the game, spending their time managing a league full of toxic managers with very few containment tools.
A change that is, without a doubt, very unfair to the hosts.
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medal 5120
3 days ago
For racing once a week on the game as it was, if we wanted xp boosts, then it was about £15 per year - and that was a choice. For thanklessly playing the game and being engaged with it for years, we now have to pay an extortionate amount to keep doing so. I don't think the "if it's 12 people in a league and everyone pays then it's only £10 a year" argument holds any water; it is nice in principle but you can't make people in your league pay to play - you're just going to lose communities, because people don't want to be forced under a new system.

The single main benefit of iGP was that you could play it on your terms and at low cost. Now it is either/or. You can either play a huge amount per year to keep the game on your terms, or play for free but you have to play every day, possibly against completely random people which just isn't as fun as an integrated community. It is gearing it towards attempting to attract new players - which I understand is a business necissity - but it is just leaving those who have been dedicated players for years out in the cold. If I want to play a racing management game, what is the incentive to pay £120 a year for this, when I can pick up F1 Manager 24 for about £20 and once I have paid a 1 time flat fee I can then play it whenever and however I want to? There is no longer an incentive to play this game if the options are to be forced into a system or pay an extortionate amount. I do not know anyone in my league who has the time to play on a daily basis - nor who would want to play the game every day on settings and a calendar they cannot choose.


I would love to have an open or private dialogue with Jack that reaches a solution which works for attracting new players and allowing those who have poured a lot of dedicated time into the game for years to continue doing so. If I were to play for another 7 years as I have done since 2018, it would cost £840 - having previously been free. £10 a month to race once a week is ridiculous; even a new video-game which costs money to play would only be around £70, and I would be happy to pay a 1-time fee of that amount for my league to retain the ability to set a custom calendar, on the days that suit us, and with the league rules retained - and then pay for any other stuff like xp boosters on top of that, should we want them. That makes far more sense and is way more in keeping with how a normal video game works. A rolling fee of that amount is simply too much and the idea that it is "too little to be of note" if everyone pays is just a poor attempt to dispel a real issue.

Let people who want to keep playing the game as before pay a one off flat fee around the price of a normal new video game to keep playing as they have. Under the proposed system, to race once a week or four times a month means £2.50 a race. Whereas if you want to race every day but with custom rules and calendar it is the same - I would consider it a fair solution to make it £10 per season for tier 4, so that if you race once per week you aren't being astronomically shafted for not wanting to bow to this new system, which we have no real choice over.

I really want to keep playing the game as we have for years, and when there have been other updates which have seemingly hindered our ability to do so, we have found a work around to keep doing so. This seems pretty much unworkable. I would love to have a serious, private dialogue with Jack to come to a solution that can allow the innumerate players who have enjoyed their leagues with their friends to keep that soul in the game rather than being forced into this soulless every day system; because there are definitely workable solutions which do not border on the level of extortion proposed. A rolling £120 per year for any video game is pretty much unheard of, and frankly absurd. There needs to be an alteration to this - I've suggested at least 2 in this post which would be fairer on those who have thanklessly kept playing for years and years, and are now being disregarded in an attempt to get new players. I understand it is necessary to get new players, but it is not fair to force people to pay so much to maintain literally any part of the game as it has existed to date.
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medal 5006
3 days ago
None of this is particularly surprising by now is it? I am simply tired of the contrived explanations and excuses, none of what we say is going to make a difference.
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