Forum topic: Reduction In Development Plans Does Not Work

Should it be that reaching those research levels is a hard thing though, something that will take time in order to establish what is required to achieve it?

I have developed excellent facilities and have no problem keeping the research level at its max, i would be like Mercedes if you like. I would expect a new team in Div.3 would be a bit like Manor in that they can get the levels up once and have one shot at designing a part. It maybe needs tweaking but having a new team should be all about getting a car going, the real problem is teams that will promote after one season and are then hopelessly out gunned in Division 2

Manor is in cooparation with Mercedes and Willliams - they do not develop ALL parts themself

edit: I do not want to "buy" part/designs from other teams - but it would be handy to reconsider the dev spots for hq0. 5 spots have not been much in season 1 when there was no research - 5 is frustrating for development AND research - that is all

in the meanwhile I read the older posts and have seen that Frank is aware of that problem

That's very true Philip, the number of dev spots is not enough for the new system, good point that's easy for me to forget!

Adding to this a bit. I cannot develop and research at the same time atm!!

My cars suck and will suck for a long time since I don't have the cash to spend on increase research levels and developing next season car.

So earliest I can start working on research would be week 1 of next season until about week 8 before I have to try to make a few gains; how will this work I am not sure yet but from the money side I am sure I am going Bankrupt before that at this rate.

As I have falling bank balance as it is since I started and all I have done is sign sponsors, basic suppliers and cheap staff so that I could start racing. Now that could all change if I could get a level 5 sponsor to sign with my team for a few million but 3 week and no progress with at least 2 sponsors.

I won't lie the game is frustrating from bottom looking up since I know what I had and I don't see how I am going to get back to that level ever!! As cash has been limited by research & develop new aspect; not adding in good staff.

And I am not concerned about the dropping parts levels since they cannot not drop much worse then I already have!! LOL!!

Maybe next season I will care more when I spend half a season researching and developing season 7 chassis to watch it drop even before I race the car!! Not to mention the millions spent that I don't have!!

What is 16 week before I hope to see any progress on a car if anyone cared; not including a thrown together car this season. That is a long time to have no hope of improving a chassis or surviving races.

It really comes down to as Philip mentioned not enough staff and development space to start making any progress in your R&D department. I know I can adjust my staff levels after I sign long term sponsorship deals but I have not been successful in this area so cannot adjust my commercial staff levels yet.

Just my 2p but when i first started playing the game the main focus was my finances and not winning races. I set about making sure i could turn a profit or at least break even over a season before looking into improving the car.

I think all focus on new teams should be signing up sponsors and attending races in the hope they will finish them. Once the income is set teams can figure out how much they have to play with and then work on improving the team either by hiring better staff or boosting research and the car.

Its going to be a slow process to rise up to the top Robert but as long as you don't overspend you can do it

@Robert: I guess you need a better commercial chief - I had no issues signing level 5 sponsors and my chief commercial "only" gets 150k/week - the bonus would be kind of expensive in case I win races or the championship, but with the money I generate from fans this expenses are covered.
I do not expect any progress on the car until I have a level 2 hq with extensions.

on the bright side, less staff is needed for research/development on every part in div 3 - the potential research level is not very high since there is just a handful of staff and I run a junior program - so only one designer work for my team. with 5 or more designers the potential is there to make progress but the expenses rise to "catastrophic"

so besides the potential level of research only the amount of spots prevents any progress - once you have done research on one part and switch to another part the "good" one gets worse very quickly- therefor it is kind of waste of resources.

however, more spots for research/development also would increase the expenses and will increase the speed to go bankrupt...

tricky situation there, the only reasonable outcome for me is to push income, keep my team on a low level until the circumstances turn to my favor (and I have at least a 9 digit number on my bank account, starting with a 5 or higher)

edit: Starting a team now is a complete different experience than starting a team in season 1 - it is much more challenging now, and potentially much more frustrating

I think mine only gets 100k and it's simple due to the fact that I am tying to sign a 4 star sponsor with low relations at about 4 million versus signing a 2 start sponsor at 2 million range!!

@Tom: I am also playing from a financial side of the game atm, which is why I cannot research and develop as it would be too expensive atm and also a waste of cash atm as I wouldn't be able to maintain my small gains in research & development.

Don't get me wrong I actually like to change and the challenge but it will take a very long time for the financial side to reach a playable level and start actually researching & developing.

I haven't figured out my plan yet as I think research for a season or two will be better long term then research and developing at the same time.