Forum topic: Reduction In Development Plans Does Not Work

I still think this might cause issues when you have the same thing applied to both Div 1 and Div 3 teams.

A drop from Very Good to Unsure is a lot harder for a Div 3 team with less income/worse staff/less design capability to return a part to that original rating... (if they were lucky to even have it that high!).

That's the only bad part.

Why was it changed from the old Pitwall when parts were relative to those in your Division?

I guess what this system does do well is level everyone out in part value, essentially aimed to the better teams to stop them getting too advanced, so we all have mediocre parts and only one or two Superb bits.

And its those choices that separate us all.

With that, I guess it won't take long before we all know certain parts NEED to be really good more than others, so we will all have the same focuses on superb areas.

Would it not be an idea then to have, say, a mystery rolling system where one year the diffuser is the most vital part; the next year the Airbox; then the wings etc?

That way you get a natural hierarchy of teams evolving; but at the same time an element of surprise here and there.

Technological breakthroughs; double/rear blown diffusers, ground effect cars etc should happen, pushing the potential for that part up and creating a race for team to catch up...

My interpretation of the restrictions will deal with this Dan. Each year the rule book changes for chassis weights, power steering, ABS, fuel tank size etc, which effectively randomises which will be the best part for that season.

For example, the airbox this season has no restrictions and next season has many. It would make sense to build new this season and develop the hell out of that part while there are no restrictions on it.

#7 by Dan 'Ross Brawn... Mills
Basically what this system does is only lets you have superb parts for x amount of weeks before being reduced. I do see the logic, but think an end of season drop would be better than mid season constant dropping, it's hard enough as it is to develop good parts and keep up with a fixed end result, let alone a goal that moves!

It's easier for the top teams to get the stats to the top after a few weeks and then they don't need to do anything to keep it there until they plan for next season. This system restricts the top teams a lot more than the lower teams.

#9 by Tom Bagley
@ Adam. interestingly I have had some very low value parts drop from Unsure to Bad, given how bad it is im surprised there has been a drop...

That's 1 stat drop for a part that was rated 5/10. Frank said you could drop 2 stats so that isn't too much of a surprise. Besides, your unsure rating could be at the lower end and now you are at the upper end of bad.

#10 by Dan 'Ross Brawn... Mills
Why was it changed from the old Pitwall when parts were relative to those in your Division?

It was always relative to the best in the game. The division one was just to show where you were in comparison but the full calculations were always taken from the overall rating. Plus with this system, those at the top never saw improvements and you just sat at about the same level as it was always hard for teams to close up and overtake towards the end. Plus this system is more detailed in what you want your parts to do. In PW1, you just hit evo or revo.

#10 by Dan 'Ross Brawn... Mills
Would it not be an idea then to have, say, a mystery rolling system where one year the diffuser is the most vital part; the next year the Airbox; then the wings etc?

That is sort of covered in the rule changes each season.

@Dan: Most of us already know the most important parts that make our cars go fast and they are not a secret as far as I know. Simple less information currently here from Pitwall 1.0 to Pitwall 2.0 in this aspect.

1. Engine (Not Designed)
2. Gearbox (Designed)
3. Chassis (designed) * could also be slightly lower
4. Difuser (Designed)
5. Rear Wing (Designed)
6. Front Wing (Designed)
7. Tires (Not designed)
8. Sidepods (designed)
9. Airbox (Designed)
10. Suspension (designed)
11. Brakes (Not designed)
12. Exhaust
13. Fuel
14. Fuel Tank
15. Electrical
16. Steering System

All subject to everyone ones own opinion from about #4 down where they actually place them in order!!

It pretty basic as it follows any racing series an Superb Engine is only as good as it's Gearbox to transfer that power and speed into the cars tires to drive the car forward.

Chassis is the basics of your mechanical & Aero grip levels followed by wings, sidepods, difuser and suspension helping get the power units best into the tires more effectively!!

I am losing in Division 1 not based on my cars design but due to the fact that I have a mid-class engine so I simple lose speed to the others that are all running better engines.

So is that confirmed that part importance is rankes and that changes, not just basic development rules and restrictions?

Yep - this is shit - it was a shit idea in pitwall 1 and it is similarly implemented now. My exhaust has just dropped from excellent to very good and (unless i am mistaken) no one else has developed a superb exhaust in my division. So with no changes I have just dropped a division standing. - if someone else has recently improved theirs to a higher standard then fine - but i don't get the drop just for the sake of it.

Implement it for evolution season changes that makes sense to me.

I preferred the old relative system as well - i know it is unrealistic to know how good your car is compared to others but at least you could see progress and know where you needed to focus your efforts.

Development rules and restrictions as far as I am aware have NOT been implemented fully yet. Only ones that are really in place is Fuel Tank size changes, Chassis weight minimums, & traction controls.

In the future we should see more restrictions on different parts to force us to redesign or try to use banned parts.

@Daniel: I also agree that the new system isn't as nice as the old system in Pitwall 1.0 but the basic of the system are very much the same but just more behind the scenes.

We had 5 stars of revolutionary designs that maxed out our potential and sped up the design process. This is simply has been replaced with 10 levels of research now!!

We also have a very good idea of who has what in each part due to the car ranking system on the side of the R&D page as if you have a Good Gearbox and are ranked 4th with 3 other teams ahead of you then you know that #1 has an superb gearbox, #2 has an Excellent & #3 has Very good gearbox and you need to develop this higher if you can.

Relative drops I have not seen or haven't really been paying attention too with my team (something called work and 10.5 hrs days) but if in fact teams are losing stats already then I am not sure that it's correct as it should be based on the life time of your part or set in game time frame. I would prefer part based.

Example: New Gearbox is built based on time factors and difficulty of building such a good gearbox one would hope that this part would see season drops or every 2 season drops.

Lesser parts like exhaust should see drops closer to every 4 weeks since they are less complex and easier to redesign.

But the best and easiest way of fixing the whole system would to move to a percentage based system or points based system.

Everyone starts at zero points when they first start the game so based off designing your part you get X amount of points assigned to your part giving it a ranking based on all other parts in the game. So say Timmy designs his gearbox over 4 season and it has gained 100pts (hidden), Paul has developed his for 2 season and it has 80pts (hidden) and I just started then but managed 20 pts then the stats of the Gearbox would read as such:

Timmys' Gearbox is Superb, Pauls' Gearbox is Very Good and mine would be Very Bad. This doesn't give us an understanding of who has the best part or the most points but simple a better understanding where each part stands in the overall game.

Head designers would simple allow more points to be given per development based off their skill levels say 1-10 to keep it simple. So a head designer with All Superb skills would give the max 10 (but not all the time) While a Superb & Excellent head would give max 9.5.

Very basis system and allows a clear understanding where we stand and we wouldn't need stat drops since it would be based off how other develop compared to us.

To allow new teams ability to catch up points would need to be scaled back at the end of every season but making sure that no points are scaled back into negative numbers.

The cool aspect of the points system is the development war aspect as it would become a race every season to out develop your other teams in your division but also the whole game.

If you don't develop then you lose ground!!

Hypothetically, what happens if we all objected and nobody develops. Do all cars essentially drop to the same base level?

#18 by Dan 'Ross Brawn... Mills
Hypothetically, what happens if we all objected and nobody develops. Do all cars essentially drop to the same base level?

Nobody has a car to use as you have to develop at least once a season to build one to race.