Supplier attributes launched

I think the changes on the wear of tires year ruined the game that does not exist on the soft tires lose 15% to around 10% and the harsh ride with the temperature at 10 degrees XD when there will be 30 degrees on the track wear on hard tires could also to rise to 15% to around XD I suggest you return to vechia version on tire wear and to improve the game to add a compound in a more middle ground between hard and soft 

This is a ONLINE game, not a OFFLINE game, so it's very normal that people who attend races will have advantage over the others. I think that someone who can't be online at the hour of the race, should move to another league where he can be attending races (different days/hours), or join a 1/2 race per week, if he wants to have good results.

I liked the changes. Why? Because (i'm in a 50% race league) now there's more strategies to choose from, and they can work too. Last race i had my 2 drivers with 2 different strategies (one on hards with 2 pit-stops, and the other with 3 pit-stops with 3 stints on softs and the last stint on hards, and they come up just almost equal at the end of the race - note: in this race i couldn't attend and 1 driver finished 2nd, and the other retired without fuel in the last lap, but was on 2nd place at the time, so you can still be competitive without being there, just have to choose a good tyre/stint/fuel/push strategy).
Last season, almost all within our league used the same old strategies, very conservative, and the race results were basically the same race after race, with few changes.

Now, i feel that almost anyone can enhance his results if chooses a good strategy, even if it's way different from the "normal and secure" one.
Although i agree this update needs some minor "tweaks" (think others tyre compounds would be great).

Regarding the removal of "supplier familiarity", well done. You've gone and completely wrecked this reset (lets be honest its not an update). Besides from costing a bit of $$$ there is absolutely no balance which im quite sure was the point in changing around all the supplier starts.

So instead of finding a good balance all you do now find the best supplier combination for each track and sign/fire them on a daily basis. What is the fun in that? I thought the whole idea of this was that you had to try and find a balance that would suit you best over the course of a season, meaning some races you'll be strong, some races you'll be a bit off the pace. Now all you have to do is jot down what looks the most impressive combination at each track and by season 2/3 everything is about as predictable as before.

I'm sure the way you've done it may float some peoples boats but IMO this is rubbish.

To be honest, I don't think we should be so worked up over this until everyone has a few seasons under their belt to trial the supplier combinations.

I've been gradually training up my rookie drivers in a Pro league that was, and perhaps still is, far too quick for me. After a few seasons I was only gaining ground from a slow backmarker to mid-field results team. Only a few races in a season would I just barely get a 10th place / 1-point finish... and on those instances I just got lucky because some of the other players were not active and/or did not do their strategies.

Jump forward to this supplier reset and now I am qualifying at the front and winning races (dominating really). I first tried a combination of Rednote, Seashells, and Michigan but it was quickly apparent that I was not up to pace. I now am stuck with a different combo that is very risky with strategy but has played out very well for my results. Poles (with Hards!), doubles, etc. I will NOT change this combination because I am happy with it.

My point with all this is that I think you can do just fine sticking with a combination once you find the results you're expecting. If you were to switch around the suppliers per track, that would not generate good results in my opinion. But I get your point that this update still feels very 'expiremental' and the intent for the original suggestion was to create more challenges with Finances, Fuel Strategy, etc.

So why not institute an immediate car development penalty of, say, 15% subtracted from all current and next season parts if you change any supplier anytime during the season?

That way you don't have the nebulous and frankly questionable hidden "supplier familiarity" variable, but you have a recognized and IMMEDIATE penalty that makes some real world sense.

Now that you bring that up it begs the question why it was never put on in the first place given any car would need changes with a different engine supplier etc.

I think it should maybe re-introduced after period of time maybe 4-6 weeks time so everone gets to play around find what they like then put the 3 race rule back to stop peoples switching the best combo for each of the 17 races, changing supplier combinations every other race would get a little silly.

Also it maybe better to have the 3 race rule if changing in mid season, and if u change during season Break then there is no reduced performance for 3 races?

Tony's idea is interesting but i bet be bit of a longer job to introduce, at least the 3 race thing has a slot to go straight in with no work except if they change it so only during season etc.

or some form of restriction of supplier changes, maybe only 3 supplier changes per season in total or something, at somepoint in future you will have to do something about large amouns of supplier changes, its ok at moment cus its new and nobody knows anything yet.

Tony's idea is best tho.

I'd like to apologise to the crew, I may have jumped to conclusions a little to quickly, I shall keep monitoring my progress and keep making subtle but trackable changes. My rivals didn't appear for the race last night, and the results went back to normal. I think perhaps the changes are still way to heavily biased towards those who can make the race, and still very much a disadvantage to those offline. There needs to be a way for the tyres to be maintained for offline people, that is no where close to the optimum but still better than being offline and static, so those at the race can still benefit from being there but those that can't arent relegated to finishing a lap behind with a better package just because they race in a different time zone.

To those who say its an 'online' game not 'offline', that's not entirely true, there would be a vast number of people who enjoy this game just as much as everyone else and that don't attend the races. Yes you should have 'some' advantage from being online, but there should be no 'disadvantage' from being offline. There is a big difference between gaining better results by being online, and having no chance of any results by being offline.

The idea of changing suppliers in-season is in itself a wholly unrealistic one. Try and think of any racing team that has done that in the modern era. I can only think of a couple - like when Lotus-powered IndyCar teams abandoned ship and moved to Chevy.

But ANY major equipment change is going to set a real-life racing program back - not just for the current season, but for the next season. You essentially lose your "book" on the tweaks and idiosyncrasies of your original suppliers and have to relearn them all with the new kit.

The "supplier familiarity" variable was a simple way to try and emulate that but it was flawed, IMO, because it wasn't large enough in scope and it was a hidden attribute.

The in-season development percentage penalty, on the other hand, is a known quantity and a better deterrent to the "one-and-done" supplier combo strategy. You might be able to withstand a "supplier familiarity" penalty if your development is high enough, but knocking off 15% or 20% not only for your current season but for the next makes the decision far harder.

I also think that if you switch FROM a provider in-season, the one you ditch ought to have its relationship with you set to zero, not just knocked down one or two points. That way if you decided to jump ship, you'll have to spend a couple of seasons of rebuilding the relationship in order to consider that supplier again.

Now, BETWEEN seasons is a different story. Then you should be able to switch the way things stand now, with a lighter relationship penalty and either no development loss or a very light one (say, 5%). That too is a good reflection of reality since real-life off-season testing would help make up for the otherwise devastating cost of switching tech.

I don't think these tweaks would be incredibly hard to implement, either, considering that the basic framework for this is already somewhere in the code.

Has the fuel estimate been changes? I swear it has gone up by from like 4.7 per lap to 5.8 at Spa if not....

my fun in this game were the strategies now with the tires that do not last long strategies type 6 and 18 laps with soft with hard and soft with 6 turns are impossible now strategies are the same for all those who put soft make up to 8 rounds and those who put max 12 hard rounds who exceeds this limit may lose three seconds per lap and ruined the game for me, if you continue with these tires

il mio divertimento in questo gioco erano le strategie ora con le gomme che durano poco strategie tipo 6 giri con morbide e 18 con dure e 6 giri con morbide sono impossibili ormai le strategie sono uguali per tutti chi mette morbide fare max 8 giri e chi mette dure max 12 giri chi oltrepassa questo limite rischia di perdere 3 secondi al giro secondo me il gioco e rovinato se si continua con queste gomme

Think its been mentioned before but why not set a supplier change limit at 5 races? Same as the limit to comment on each supplier. Would mean if you wanted a certain combo for 1 race then you would also have to do 4 other races with that combo which might be terrible at those races.

Have a good break Jack - you deserve it.