Forum topic: New Staff Member - Chief Technician / Race Engineer

What about a new staff member - Chief Technician / Race Engineer.

They wouldn't have many stats as such, but would be a sort of lottery ticket member. Maybe they could have a base rate wage (or none) for everyone; and would only stay with your team a max set number of seasons (ie, 2 or 3) before they were forcibly released to another team.

There could be several, but an example two types of Chief Technician / Race Engineer speciality...

RACE THEORY - They could give you better estimates of how many laps to reach a level of setup; could force a car to pull in and change tyres automatically if you sent them out wrong in qualifying or testing or if a known part was due to blow up or brake. Could give you three 'guideline race strategies each weekend. Different staff could give you more info. ie, pit in lap windows, best tyres for the lap stint you want, but not all at once. In changeable races, this staff member could be the one that makes a difference by making good strategy options.

DESIGN THEORY - Could give advice to abort a design early if it looks crap (ie, cancel at 60% if its potential is likely to be two values worse than current design stage). Doesn't save you millions, but might save you a day or two design time. Could highlight the weakest areas for you and suggest the next two parts that should be worked on. A lazy thing, but a handy thing to have.

You could even refine and simplify them so the above could be several types of speciality. ie, if the race script produced a safety car period; if the weather went from wet to dry; dry to wet etc that team would somehow get a % speed bonus in pit times or something simpler. So you could get a slow team that turned golden in the wet just like Jordan.

There is no 'jack of all' member. They'd only have one or two things they master, so whilst you'd be able to abort designs early as your only skill; you'd have no pit speed bonus in the wet or strategy support choices like another team.

Just an idea...

Im not sure Dan, just sounds like it would reduce the need for manager/player skill somewhat. I like th fact that im up against real people making excellent decisions or crazy mistakes. Everything mentioned is kinda what defines a great Pitwall manager from an Ok one is it not?

Maybe. I think the ratio for this game at present is about 10% skill; 40% automatic standard copy paste procedure and the remaining 50% is pure chance.

Not much is down to chance

massively dissagree with you dan

Suppliers / Sponsors are purely down to time. Apply staff to negociate, sit back, job done. That's autopilot work, and down to chance if they all get signed up or not before others. This is also largely influenced by getting there first.

Drivers / Staff / Scouting is down to chance - you can't predict if you get a good or bad driver, and you can't predict when reports come is as they are too unpredictable still. This was always a first to sign the best guys around wins scenario, but will take a few more seasons for the youths to pull through and the early benefit to fade.

Design - besides staff, this too is largely time and luck.

Races - the only proper variable where your input can win / mess up the game other than wasting money on high contracts is a race. But when 90% of the outcome is prep in form the staff / suppliers, its still heavily weighted to luck.

The idea, I feel, is not very good. All of that is what the manager should be doing as you are effectively being the engineers. The design, you don't necessarily know how good it is going to be until you finish designing/testing it so a bit stupid to have the option of seeing early how good it is. In the end, you have all the data you need for all of that info and most people who want to do well at a game will use their own info rather than allow the AI to do it.

#6 by Dan 'Ross Brawn... Mills
Suppliers / Sponsors are purely down to time. Apply staff to negociate, sit back, job done. That's autopilot work, and down to chance if they all get signed up or not before others. This is also largely influenced by getting there first.

Nope. You can influence how quick it goes as well as choose the right sponsor/supplier and it's not always a question of getting there first. There is some luck involved but not much.

#6 by Dan 'Ross Brawn... Mills
Drivers / Staff / Scouting is down to chance - you can't predict if you get a good or bad driver, and you can't predict when reports come is as they are too unpredictable still. This was always a first to sign the best guys around wins scenario, but will take a few more seasons for the youths to pull through and the early benefit to fade.

Nope. You can have a rough guess at whether a driver could be good or not using the information available. Reports I somewhat agree with you but my scouts give me reports on a regular basis. At the start of the game, it was a case of offering a good contract to the top persons to sign them as it was a free-for-all. Nowadays, it is no longer the case as you have time to find the right ones and keep an eye on them.

#6 by Dan 'Ross Brawn... Mills
Design - besides staff, this too is largely time and luck.

Nope. You seem to downplay the emphasis on staff on this one. Plus there are other things you can do to improve your designs.

#6 by Dan 'Ross Brawn... Mills
Races - the only proper variable where your input can win / mess up the game other than wasting money on high contracts is a race. But when 90% of the outcome is prep in form the staff / suppliers, its still heavily weighted to luck.

Nope. There is some luck involved but that is the same in every race ever. You have got to do the hard yards to work out what is best strategy for your team.