F1 Manager - 2006 Season - Season Finale! - Results PG38

Re: F1 Manager - 2006 Season - Mugello - Mid-Season Test Online - Pg 11
Date: June 04, 2013 10:16PM
Posted by: F1_Manager

Registered: 11 years ago

Apologies for the multiple post, but I felt a fresh page was needed for this announcement.

Seeing as it appears no one is able to run a next race before I get chance to after the 17th, in order to keep things ticking along in the meantime I think that this is a good time to share with you some possible improvements that I have been developing so I can judge you guy's thoughts and opinions. So without further adieu...

Possible Changes for 2007:

General Changes

- Governing Body

- Pretty self explanatory, a panel of members who could propose new ideas that could be implemented as well as giving people a place to voice their concerns. Hopefully this could be used to produce new cool ideas to keep the series moving and evolving. Could consist solely of team managers but, I think it would be nice to open it up to those on the waiting list or even those that just have a passing interest in the series. If there is enough interest in this idea, I think it might be neat to have an FIA governing body AND a teams association - aka, FOTA - but that aim is probably a bit ambitious.

- Activity Checks

- The activity of certain managers in the thread is becoming a growing concern for myself, espcially with so many people waiting for a place in the series. Therefore, the propsoal is that from next season the activity of all managers will be checked every two races. If a manager hasn't posted in the thread in this period they will a receive a warning. A second warning will result in either a fine or points deduction and a third warning will result in expulsion.

Performance Changes

- Soft + Hard Compound Tyres

- Based off an idea from the old RGFR series before the site died. Prior to a race weekend each manager chooses whether they want to use soft tyres, which slightly increases the qualifying perf of their drivers in return for a slight reduction in their race perf, or hard tyres which do the opposite. Whilst it may not be that realistic, I thought it might be a nice little addition to series and add another strategy element.

- Driver Bias/ Number One Drivers

- This idea came to mind after the latest Red Bull spat at the Malaysian GP a couple if weeks back and I thought it might be a nice little feature to add. Essentially, prior to a race weekend each team manager can nominate one of their two race drivers to be their 'Number 1 Driver' for that race weekend. This would be done by sending a pm to the F1_Manager stating your preferred driver, as well as how much you would like to boost his perf by, similar to the system used in the GPGNC. The drawback is however, whatever value you choose to boost your number 1 driver's perf by, is also the value detracted from your second drivers perf.

For example, a teams perf is as follows:

[Team #XX]
Name=N/A,
Performance=800,800,1000
First Driver=11,Driver A,15000,100,15000,100
Second Driver=12,Driver B,15000,100,15000,100

If the manager of Team XX were to nominate Driver A as his number 1 driver, and boost his perf by 50 points, the perf would look like this:

[Team #XX]
Name=N/A,
Performance=800,800,1000
First Driver=11,Driver A,15050,100,15050,100
Second Driver=12,Driver B,14950,100,14950,100

I've not yet come up with a limit by which you can boost a drivers perf by so, as always, this is open for discussion.

- Engine Wear

- At the start of the season each team is given eight engines per car to use over the entire season, each providing the baseline performance for the team. Before each event, each team will select one of their eight engines to use for the entirty of the weekend, however, after the race is finished, the engine used will lose a slight amount of BHP and reliabilty. Of course, needless to say if you are forced to retire a car because of engine failure, then you will not be able to use that engine again. Not only does add another layer of strategy to the series, but it could also be used as a method of keeping the field closer together, by having the rate wear increase the higher you finish in the race. Also if you manage to run out of engines, there could be further implications...

Budget Changes

- Applying for Engines

- For a while now I thought that the current system of buying engines is slightly unfair as the outcome of a teams season may well depend on whether or not they are online when the engines first come on for sale. Instead, I personally would like to move away from this system and use one similar to the driver negotiations. Of course this rule wouldn't apply to teams like Ferrari or McLaren who make their own engines or are a traditional customer.

- Main Budgets

1) Whilst I am happy with the way the budgets are organised at the moment, I know from experience that they are quite difficult to get right and can be quite controversial. In addition, I also feel that the current system does not really reward the teams who spend their budget the wisely, or punish those who splash out the cash Man City style. As a result, I would propose moving to a system where each team is reward 'X' amount of money based on their WCC position the previous year, which is added to whatever you had left over at the end of the year. The benefits of this would be that the team budgets at least would be a damn sight easier to calculate and, if you find yourself short on cash, there can be no complaining. However, this could well lead to a situation where one or two teams have money coming out of their ears, whilst others are forced to busk on the street to pay their bills, but then again, I suppose that's just part of the game.

2)Get rid of testing budget. By this I don't remove the cost of attending mid-season test sessions, but have teams pay for them directly from their main budgets. I feel that this again will add an element of strategy to series as well as allowing teams to 'shift' development of there current car, to focus instead on next seasons'.

- New Testing Format

- To be honest I am not a huge fan of the current testing format as I feel that whilst on the face of it their is an element of strategy to making your testing choices between focusing on pace or reliabilty, in reality for most teams the choice is a no brainer. Therefore I am considering dropping the current format either for a system in which instead of charging teams for actually attending the tests, they instead get charged based on what they focus on i.e. Let's say it cost £500k to attend and focus on pace. If a team was to pay £1m then they have the option of doubling their focus on pace, or focusing on both pace and reliabilty.

Race Changes

- Grid Penalties

- If a driver exceeds their engine allocation, then they will be subjected to a ten place grid penalty for the next grand prix and any further engine changes will also incur the same penalty. Grid penalties could also be handed out for incidents such as causing collisions or blocking in quali, however given the nature of the game this may be controversial and may also require video evidence, as well as a stewards panel, to reach a decision which may prove problematic.

- Increase Damage Values

- Not a huge change, but I still feel that it's worth mentioning nonetheless. One thing that has always bugged me about vanilla GP4 is the way in which you can ram the car in front, clip a wall, or even roll your own car and come away completely unscathed, so personally I think it would be nice to use a more realistic damage.ini in order to achieve this. Also, this may actually add to the strategy as well, as the better drivers will be less likely to stick their car in a wall, whilst those who have a tendency of doing so are much more likely to get bit.

Of course, it goes without saying that none of the rules proposed above are guaranteed to be implemented for 2007. All I'm looking for here is all your thoughts about these proposals, possible amendments and own completely different suggestions.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2013 05:00PM by F1_Manager.