@Rob: You will see, your team will improve a lot next season, with good suppliers. I had no experience with this game and I dont think I have very good staff either. And this is only my 2nd full season, and still I am close to winning a div 2 race, even though I stopped developing the current car a few weeks ago. So I dont think its that hard to be competitive. Or I just had extreme luck with my staff.
Yes, I will be very competitive next season with all my new suppliers and new driver line-up that should be 2-3 seconds faster then my current group so this is what I was holding out hope for but without being able to overdevelop like was planned this season with stronger Designers; I have lost a season of development in theory that I needed to catch up. Yes, I have even stronger designers next season but won't see the effects until season 10 unless the instant design take in effect my new designers.
With the greatest respect to Frank, I don't think his latest ideas on chat are the way forward. PW won't every be a mass-market game, but it could have a solid and loyal userbase in the hundreds at least.
IMO, PW needs to do two things:
1. Keep the depth which appeals to existing long-term players; and
2. Address the issues which are putting off/driving away new players.
Under (1) I would include, for example, retaining the 7 day cycle, and the depth of development/production;
The second set of issues (for me at least) which would affect new players in their early weeks include:
- the staff system: far too many potential staff, most of whom are hopeless, with no real way of finding out who is any good (or has potential) other than the crazy scouting system (scouting your own staff to find their ability?!);
- reliability of poor-quality (ie beginner) parts... it's no fun for new players to trail round at Save the Car/70% just to try and get to the finish, and even then suffer random failures; and
- lack of opposition. The proposed AI teams to fill divisions is a brilliant idea, and would make races interesting for new players in div 3. Is it also worth investigating reducing the number of 3rd divisions to 8, so that there are more human opponents?
Looking at other online games, there doesn't seem to be a big market for in-depth, detailed games which reward patience and thinking. On the other hand, PW can't compete with existing "quick fix" racing games which have a head start on graphics, users etc.
I really hope Frank keeps the "soul" of PW, makes it more accessible for new players, and tweaks some of the bugs/balancing issues (e.g. difficulty of overtaking in races, stalling youth races) so that it will keep a loyal (and hopefully growing) userbase.
I hate to trash the new development system whilst stillborn; but personally think it needs postponing another 2-3+ seasons until the other issues are totally solved and smoothed out
1) for the system to establish
2) for the game to survive beyond its introduction.
Not because I don't like it; but because I think this is going to be what pushes people away for good. New and old players. The death of Pitwall.
For new guys, its already too complicated. We struggle to keep rookie players now; how is this extra stuff going to prevent that; it will surely make this a lot worse.
For long term players; again this extra stuff is too much. People are leaving now as it is 'too much' to even be a part time desktop login game. Stats and facts tell you the big ballers who have quit this and last season for those very reasons. You can't wash that away.
100% focus on the small bugs. If you only fix 2 minor bugs a year; it has to be better for the game player base than gambling on a massive shake up and losing the loyal ones. Small bugs should also need less time to address in theory; giving you more time to let the game grow itself with players not having to keep learning a totally new system.
Many have spoken out of leaving if the game heads the way it is. Time consumption being the number 1 reason; boredom being the other.
The new system is time consuming to setup, but likely to be easy when established. The current one (allegedly boring) is simply due to the same old bugs sitting there not getting fixed.
The new system will still have the old bugs for a while. The same complaints as before will exist. So all the new dev system looks set to do is make players quit.
I can keep saying it again and again but I am bloody right. The game is beautiful in its current state. It just needs a few small amendments. It's a solid base.
Sort the youth race freezing. Fix the youth tyre bugs. Fix the staff morale and sort the absurd contract renewals 3 days after signing them.
And you are left with a fabulous little game that thrives.
The new dev system is going to cause way more problems that I fear will not get the attention they need.
I agree that Pitwall has a very strong base system and needs to have everything running smoothly before adding anything new since I feel the bugs are pushing more people away then the complex nature of the game since it not that complex.
I feel maybe that we got away from Pitwall being a game and I think this should be brought back more in line with a game feel.
Commercial aspect of any racing game is boring and not interest; here in pitwall it can be very time consuming and lets say frustrating to say the least. So maybe a simple commercial package would be better?
Development is why to complex when you first look at the game but easy to understand since it follows the same principles of pitwall 1.0 but simple looks different with a whole bunch of blue prints that sadly are not needed. Random factors while interesting I think put off more managers then not. Most simple want to know if I spend X amount of money then I will get X amount of gains in development. Bring in a simplified system for x amounts of gains in X,Y,Z then have minus results in A or A & B. Make people have to think about development rather then actually develop!!
Production is fine just need to have the automated system back so that I don't have to think about the parts I need every week ie. Gearboxes.
Races need to be made more realistic and closer throughout the fields since currently the top team can be more then 10 seconds faster then a new team; not including weight difference between the cars. This should be limited to make the racing closer to about 2 - 3 seconds max since this over a course of a race is still significant.
Drivers only make up 5- 10% of overall cars pace yet here they can make up to 50% of the team pace (about 5 seconds) so drivers from Terrible to Superb should also be reduced to a maximum of second.
If you have closer drivers in pace and closer cars in pace then you have closer overall racing and more excitement/frustration but better racing as a whole. Also forces managers to decide if it's worth spending money on a great driver that only gives a few tenth advantage or spend more on the car that might give a second or more advantage.
Great base to the game that simple needs tightened up and made simplified to keep managers around. Give me a chance is what most are asking for!!
Development is why to complex when you first look at the game but easy to understand since it follows the same principles of pitwall 1.0 but simple looks different with a whole bunch of blue prints that sadly are not needed. Random factors while interesting I think put off more managers then not. Most simple want to know if I spend X amount of money then I will get X amount of gains in development. Bring in a simplified system for x amounts of gains in X,Y,Z then have minus results in A or A & B. Make people have to think about development rather then actually develop!!
If you know how much your gains in development would be, it wouldnt be realistic. No team in F1 knows if their dev pays off or not. Usually the better teams bring a lot of specs to testing and try what works best. So I think thats the best way for PW as well.
If you know how much your gains in development would be, it wouldnt be realistic. No team in F1 knows if their dev pays off or not. Usually the better teams bring a lot of specs to testing and try what works best. So I think thats the best way for PW as well.
Sadly in any game you can figure out your development gains before you are given them since this is limited by how complex or uncomplex the script is; so no matter how hard you try to match real life you cannot. So Ask yourself do the majority of managers want to build multiple specs to see which works and doesn't?
I know I don't want to be building multiple specs unless it was a simplified process. I think Frank has hit it on the head with the +3/-3 aspect in development but I think it can be simplified more to make it clear.
Right now I have my development mapped so that I know when to try to get the +3 advantage and simple scrap the part if I don't get the +3 advantage. This aspect I feel is wrong in some ways.
