@Tom: Sometimes your designer can hit upon something brilliant whilst designing, it's unlikely to happen but still could. Just because you have 1 anomaly, it doesn't mean it's broken.
As for your other point, I know I read somewhere that old designs will get worse (due to new technology and ideas being found) so the top teams will still need to design new parts.
Tom, I was also surprised due to the fact that my designers was Good / Very Good but just fell to Good / Good so I was suspect based on my results that since development could only go as high as your designers stats that I should have been able to reach Very Good research levels but I have been unable to do such but this might still be able to give me my very good development since it's his top level. So it may not be a one off or a true +1 design just a maxed out design based on my designer stats rather then my research level but this confuses things a bit more since that means research level is more a generic level meaning Good under standing (research) can produce at least Good to Excellent parts depending on the style of development.
Which would make sense since it still keeps the old style of the new development script with up to +3 / -3 in development.
In my cases I went with a normal approach so +2 is a one off that I could of managed but I ended up with a +1 above my research level so it came out only slightly better.
This means that teams that don't have a great designer can still catch the top teams if they understand this concept since they would need to do more aggressive approach designs and hope to get +3 designs more often then not. This also means you don't need a Superb designer to reach a Superb car but means spending more in research and development rather then on a all superb designer.
Thus giving us more options on how to play the game.
It also means that development hasn't changed with the addition to research but rather research needs to be maintained so that we can see the results we previously seen instantly meaning a new team will take longer to see our current chassis as they need to build up research levels to develop their best cars where we simple developed over and over in the first 3 years until we go our best parts and cars.
This add more thought into research & development and still makes me think Frank made a mistake not resetting all of us but at the same time I am one of the teams if not majority of us still benefiting from not being reset!!
If there were to be a future reset, I'd like to think that teams would face a random script system whereby they get allocated full basic barebone staff and drivers; with a least a single superstar on a minimum 3 year contract who is unsackable in that span.
Maybe teams can choose where their key member is from when joining and creating a new team ie, commercial/driver/designer/mechanic.
Infact this might be a better idea for new teams - when you start, you get given a set of staff on pre-determined wages. Then it be up to the manager to sack and replace in due course as you learn the game.
Same with sponsors, give them a few to start, enough to roll by with.
Would stop instant high wage contract mistakes and give starters something good already to run with.
Can someone clarify - does research level affect next year's chassis? Should I wait before starting it until my research level is higher? And does it both entirely new and "based on" parts for next season?
