I wonder if it's currently capped lower than we expect because Frank has not yet implemented Junior designers into the equation (I think he said that he would give people a chance to hire them before he implements their impact).
Perhaps the higher levels are only achievable with those staff?
Thats some interesting suggestions James. It may be true the the higher you go the more effort it takes to break into the next research level, nice idea, hadnt really thought of that and it does make some logic.
@Tim & James: Research levels do not effect the current potential of a part so if it was Superb but currently at unsure you can develop new parts based off that design to get them to superb.
Remember every design is random in how much it increases and most stop their designs too early since it states 95-100% complete but if it just changed to this I can bet that it's 95%. I usually leave it once it hits this for another 8 hrs as I had the same problem you both are having and I started getting increase every time I developed a new part.
Basically make sure that it's 100% or greater if you want to see increases otherwise you might be stopping development early and seeing only small increase that don't show!!
i stopped at 80% and got a better part that the one i went all the way with - does it ever say 100%? i dont think it matters just finish at 95-100 designers are just tinkering at that stage
Dan is right, at the 95-100% stage it is complete. Leaving development running will just see the part become more tuned to the relevant chassis it was designed for and reduce the need for finetuning the part later on. It slows down massively after 95% anyway so an extra 8 hours would probably get you up to 95.3%...
I still put it down to natural deterioration of parts meaning they drop with time at different rates per level even with constant researching. Might have to do with the designer level, or maybe deterioration is the same for all.
Perhaps its like the old speed/resistance philosophy. You need to break that boundary to beat it. You've seen increases, but that final hurdle is high, you peak, then start dropping again and your investment isn't enough to break it, so maybe upping numbers a bit more will reach higher levels. Going from awful to bad is easier than good to very good etc. Maybe its exponential and SUPERB is not truly achievable.
Think of it like kicking a ball in the air and trying to hit a spot on the ceiling. This spot is SUPERB. The ball will go up, but only the amount you swing and kick. It WILL go down on it own, unless you play keepy uppy with it and keep researchers 'kicking' it in the air constantly.
5 might keep it going and going, 10 might kick it a bit higher, 50 might make it hit superb, but its still coming back down.
If you want to reach SUPERB every time you need a massive kick constantly, ie 50 researchers at once.
But you cant do this on all parts, thus an all superb research team is gonna be near on impossible with the deterioration at play.
Now we really do need Frank to tell us we're wrong!
Excatly the same drop for me guys. I think Frank has been playing with the numbers in the background as he did say it could be adjusted although i would have thought he would do that at the start of the new season...