Forum topic: ~New division structure

as teams are so sparse in div 3 would it not be a good idea to merge them all into 4 divisions - directly going into the div 2 above them? - this way only 1 div 2 team gets relegated as well so its not too much of a 'punishment' if a team gets promoted to div 2 before they are ready.

I think this makes sense at lease until the division 3's are all rammed full of active teams

I already thought about that too!

I think its a good idea to fill up the divisions, and after a div is full, start the next division.

Regarding the promotion/relegation spots we can discuss. What if you are a team which is capable of being fast, but you missed a few races and having a bad car due to bad luck. Then it could be too hard to get up again. So I dont think there should only be one promotion/relegation spot, two (f.e.) would be better in my opinion.

I think it would be interesting and refreshing to drop 8 from Div 1 each year and promote 2 from each Div 2 league.

This would certainly mix things a lot more and stop the problem of some seriously good Div 2 teams from outgrowing the pool whereby you get 2 or 3 super quick cars going in circles year on year. People get bored.

You get to a point, like Div 2.2 where it got really really hard to promote and the same old teams would win or go down and up again.

It also makes Div 1 less static. ie, I am now likely to sit back having got the points I feel I needed in order to stay up, which is the wrong mentality. I should be pushing all the time, but I am not any more.

If we also increased the point system to all finishers, it would reward teams that always turn up but are sadly too slow.

It means if a team could bank 4 or 5 points every week; it would negate the affect a team (like myself) that often forgets to race and misses points one week yet still stays ahead because of one race where I scored big.

This sort of bottom end point squabbling and varying degree of finishing order would boost the slower teams where a 14th finish and an 11th are currently unrewarded; but points for consistency could actually help them move up the order in the overall championship.

we do not need another division structure - we need more players (humans, not bots)
... we should make some advertise - regardless the problems and bugs we are facing... kind of strange that 1736 managers (including 19 Uriels) registered and we have far less than 252 active teams (max. of teams in the current structure)

Yes, promotion is one of the biggest things we need to build the members. I try to do it across the sim racing arena; even a sticker on my classic mini cooper.

But there isn't any point pushing for new users when the loyal long term players wont even stick by it.

That in itself is the heart of the problem, if you struggle to keep the most faithful, then forget trying new people who are less forgiving and less interested. It just won't work.

But we end up in the same cycle of issues.

The game wasn't broken before, it just needed tidying. But all we do is go through complete room renovations every time the laundry needs taking out or the floor hoovered.

Small steps.

yes/no

yes, cause bringing in new blood is kind of pointless when it drains faster then it is "refilled" - caused by issues within the game - no matter if new or expirience manager disapear
yes to small steps, but maintanence of a product is not the most thrilling part of development, but unfortunatley one of the most important one in sense of keeping a user base... (and I have seen enough games quiting cause of to less users left)

no, cause the game itself has to renew from time to time - not many of the late changes fit my flavor, but I am a simple user of this game - not the architect, nor the executive programmer - what I do best is nag and if kind of motivated do some blind monkey tests... w/o significant documentation...

from what we can do is bring in more manpower on nagging, and maybe some supporter to raise the motivation to invest in this game, it might work, maybe it does not, but we can try...

edit: if I had more time I would write more structured

#3 by Dan Mills
I think it would be interesting and refreshing to drop 8 from Div 1 each year and promote 2 from each Div 2 league.

This would certainly mix things a lot more and stop the problem of some seriously good Div 2 teams from outgrowing the pool whereby you get 2 or 3 super quick cars going in circles year on year. People get bored.

You get to a point, like Div 2.2 where it got really really hard to promote and the same old teams would win or go down and up again.

It also makes Div 1 less static. ie, I am now likely to sit back having got the points I feel I needed in order to stay up, which is the wrong mentality. I should be pushing all the time, but I am not any more.

All you would get is the same 2 teams promoting and relegating again and therefore you would end up with a bigger group of teams just yoyo-ing between the divisions, lack of stability, and the top teams in Division 1 able to stretch the gap. Certainly don't see why a team that finishes 5th should be relegated. Over the last 8 seasons in Div 1, the team finishing 5th has scored over 80 points 6 times including once when they got 105 points. The other 2 seasons they got over 50 points. Quite a few times they have won races and pretty much every season has seen the team finishing 5th get a podium. When teams have that much success it's unfair that they get relegated.

It also won't make Div 1 less static. I have finished in the top 4 in 7 out of the 8 completed seasons in Div 1, Lotus have been in the top 4 for each of their 6 seasons in Div 1. Both of us look like extending that number this season. If you look at the top 8 this season, 3 teams are those who haven't been in Div 1 or haven't been there for a while. All the top 8 teams are competitive and able to score decent points. Only one of the bottom 4 I feel has a chance of getting points but it's not always been like that in previous seasons.

If Division 2 teams can't promote, it's because they are not good enough to do so. If the same teams are going up and coming back down, it means they weren't good enough for Division 1 so why would the team in second place to them in their promotion season be better?

As for your mentality, it's not the games fault if you don't want to push on and challenge for the title.

Regarding the above post, I think dropping 8 out of 12 teams is too much. I think either 6 spots demoting from Div 1 and re-arranging Div 2 teams so that there are 3 groups. Another solution is adopting the 8 dropping out of Div 1 but expand to 16 teams and keep Div 2 with 4 groups with 2 promoting.

I am just basing these ideas from other sports management games and the suggestions above!

I would let the structure as it is. Its a good one. But I'd fill up the div 3, starting with 3.1 and so on. Let the best cars all promote, but at least there is competition and you make sure the best teams of div 3 promote, not teams that are in an empty division with just finishing one race.