I have just read through this whole thread again and everything thats in place right now seems perfectly logical.
Robert highlights how the game should be played perfectly, this is not a quick fix thing where you can get to and win division 1 in 4 seasons, this is about building a team from the ground up and getting better as you go along. There is no need trying to focus on getting Superb research levels in div.3, just aim for medium (Okay/Unsure) and get the car round the track picking up points and money. As your team grows over a few seasons you can move up to div.2 and focus on getting your parts up to very good levels and then finally as your team potential maxes out with great facilities and loads of staff (all affordable with minimal finances) you can aim for superb parts and zoom into division 1 where you know that nobody else is better than Superb so at least you should be able to compete (unlike the old Pitwall Div.1)
So why is it players are not content to follow this route to the top? Why do they think new managers would believe they should be able to develop cars comparative with those from div.1 from the off? I have no idea...
As with the best things in life it takes time to reach perfection, Red Bull and Mercedes certainly didnt do it over 1 season did they.
My point is that it costs the same to maintain and okay car as a superb one - so by dropping the levels is just an expense that is restrictive of those with less money. - making it harder for them to improve to a higher level. - those already with this level (achieved before the changes) need only to maintain rather than improve. So these changes hurt the lower teams more than the top on a financial level. I thought the purpose of this change was to stop those at the top from maintaining this easily? Solution - only have the drop implemented on superb rated parts not all levels. This is all I'm worried about - for other teams as I feel I'm doing alright with the budget I have
My understanding is that the higher the level of the car, the greater the drop off as it is % based. That means that you have to research harder to maintain the higher levels.
I'm aware that the current dropping system is not perfect, but then I have a few points that I would like to make.
First of all, this is not a problem more of a statement. But if your part dropped a level, then it didn't just lose value this time, it loses value all the time. It just lost an amount of value then that caused it to drop below another level. Will it have a great impact on the speed? Not so more than it would when the level wouldn't have had dropped and when it just reduced by the same amount (but it wouldn't end up on a lower level). If that makes sense? Imagine you have 100, and you drop from 93 to 92 the difference is the same then when you drop from 90 to 89.
Now, I had intended earlier this week to create a system that drops all parts that are rated below the newly created part. But there are issues with that: * First of: how much do you drop it? The difference between the new better part and the older better part? * Do you keep the steady drop as we have it today? Or do you allow the teams who have a superb part to just keep sitting on it until someone develops something new? * What do you do with average parts? This will lead to top parts getting almost no drop, and average parts to get a whole lot of drops. Hence the average parts will drop a lot faster than the top parts, leading to cost savings for top teams.
Not sure if everyone has spotted it in the changelog, but for now parts have a different drop rate (whereas the rate has not increased, only decreased for parts like chassis etc.).
Regarding keeping plans per season, the problem with that is that I want to make it realistic as well. Mercedes has had a huge advantage, they shouldn't be relegated to a bottom team the next year. The advantage should carry over a bit. I need to check the code, but a way of making sure that teams don't keep this advantage too much is by allowing more freedom the next year via the rules. If teams base on a successful plan that is using the previous more strict rules, then the potential will never be as high as when they just created a new plan. That was the plan (pun intended), not sure if it's working all that correctly if people haven't noticed it so far. Perhaps I should just disallow it to base on a plan that had "looser" restrictions than the new season you're creating it for allows.
I created both brand new and based on designs for the parts where the rules were becoming less strict, but I found that the based on parts were superior - probably due to the fact that my research levels were lower than my current part ratings.
Also, I'd kicked off Season 5 designs early in Season 4 to avoid the impact of the rating drops (as Frank had stated that drops wouldn't apply to next season's parts).
Fully agree with stricter rules forcing teams to come up with a new design. Also, the research should be pushed back somehow as the designers shouldn't have the knowledge on how to produce a Superb part straight away under the new rules...
First of all, this is not a problem more of a statement. But if your part dropped a level, then it didn't just lose value this time, it loses value all the time. It just lost an amount of value then that caused it to drop below another level. Will it have a great impact on the speed? Not so more than it would when the level wouldn't have had dropped and when it just reduced by the same amount (but it wouldn't end up on a lower level). If that makes sense? Imagine you have 100, and you drop from 93 to 92 the difference is the same then when you drop from 90 to 89.
Why not just have that accurate numerical value visible?
Pros - Gives teams a very clear indicator of how far off parts are to the next level up / down. You'd know more or less when it would drop and allow better planning of production and design schedules. You would not necessarily be surprised when you can wake up and find 5 parts all drop at the same time.
Cons - Takes the element of surprise / random factor away slightly.
But Dan, as per Frank's post above, the parts drop all the time. It's just only visible when they cross the threshold between one level or another. But in reality your part is deteriorates from one hour to the next (assuming it happens in the hour update and not the day update!).
