HoF and Discussion (Propose Game Ideas Here)

[TTupsi]

Will we know the driver stats? I personally like the idea that exact abilites are hidden and players would need to figure out themselves which drivers arw best.
How about driver development from season to season? Is there a touch of randomness involves so that someone like Riccardo Patrese could end up being the fastest driver on Earth?

 

[Aidan Keranen]

Or Ayrton Senna is a pay driver

 

[Tim.E]

I'd also like to know how fast a season progresses. If you start in 1971 it will take a **** ton of time until you get to the, imo, exciting seasons around the 90's. As mentioned before we already started around the 70's with Tapio's game. Maybe therefore it should be wiser for the interest that you start around 1985 or somewhere along there.

 

[Aidan Keranen]

if it goes 4-5 races at a time, then realistically a season in the 70s should take a week and a half or something? max. Might be misunderstanding it, but it seems a lot faster than anything we've had before. Not to mention that we can't specifically see anything so does it really make a difference if we start in 1970 or 1990?

 

[Meff28s]

Well i was thinking of the fact that i give players only "infos" but not real numbers for the level of their teams and drivers but i think it'll be unplayable. If there is a Strategy in this game it is the choice of the men in line or not with your car. For example, you have a car with a very low "Mechanics" level, which means that it is hard for your cars to reach the end of a race. If you choose a Very Aggressive driver, with a high Aggression level, you will certainly end with 12 DNF in 16 races. Then you'll have to developp your Mechanics stats but nothing will never change the aggression of your pilot. And i think Team Managers shouldn't be able to developp their drivers stats.

Especially because i'm thinking of a way to get more players involved and the idea of being "Driver Agent" could be a good one.
You could manage the interest and the stats of a group of drivers (real ones or created ones). How does this sounds ?

Also i'm not a F1 priest with a perfect knowledge so I think you should tell me if a driver seems over or under rated for the game interest.

By the way Drivers stats should evolve through years. I'm not sure it is a good idea that their level could be way different than what they should be. I didn't mention it but this is what i've written on excel :
Each driver will have his Driving Skills stat increased by 3 points each year before he'll be 25 years old
Each driver will have his Aggression stat decreased by 10% of its value each year after he'll be 34 years old.
So a driver will get faster through his early years, and will be slower towards the end of his career but will retire less (experience maybe ^^)

 

[Meff28s]

I think a whole season would last a week. Between seasons it should take some days to sign drivers and choose sponsors etc.. So you're right the whole thing should last a week and a half.
It will go very fast to reach the 80's !

I also think that the more early we start, the more early the system will be perfectly balanced and fair. So in my opinion the early seasons are more here to "test" the game and everything will be perfectly fine for the 80's

 

[Tim.E]

Will starting perfs be based on real life perfs for the first season? Else it'll be another example of first comes first serves and people managing backmarkerteams could lose their mojo really quickly.

Also you shouldn't exactly give away by how many points a driver increases or decreases in rating. You should let that be decided by how they've done throughout the season.

 

[oorjit07]

I would really be interested in doing this, I really miss Tapio's game.

 

[Milos]

Will starting perfs be based on real life perfs for the first season? Else it'll be another example of first comes first serves and people managing backmarkerteams could lose their mojo really quickly.

I have to agree here, but isn't this how Tapio's game worked? Bedides, it's not impossible to turn a backmarker team into something capable of winning championships - check out Arrows in Tapio's game

 

[Meff28s]

Also you shouldn't exactly give away by how many points a driver increases or decreases in rating. You should let that be decided by how they've done throughout the season.

I agree. But my idea with points changes that i mentioned before is to be able for bad teams to get good drivers. It is to prevent top teams managers to get Senna with 90 Overall at 21 years old and to keep him until he'll be 38yo ^^ A 21 yo Senna will be definitely less good than a 25yo one. So bad team could sign him because he'll be cheaper (because slower). And if a good team wants to sign him, he'll make the team go down.

Same thing for old drivers. Top teams can take them forever but bad teams should be interested in signing "no DNF" driver with decent level to make the team progress.

But results should definitely have an influence on drivers ratings. I think a good way to do this is to increase stats if a driver beats his team partner at the end of the season. And decrease if he loose. Then a Driver Agent will have a role to play to make their drivers be better !

 

[TTupsi]

Well i was thinking of the fact that i give players only "infos" but not real numbers for the level of their teams and drivers but i think it'll be unplayable. If there is a Strategy in this game it is the choice of the men in line or not with your car. For example, you have a car with a very low "Mechanics" level, which means that it is hard for your cars to reach the end of a race. If you choose a Very Aggressive driver, with a high Aggression level, you will certainly end with 12 DNF in 16 races. Then you'll have to developp your Mechanics stats but nothing will never change the aggression of your pilot. And i think Team Managers shouldn't be able to developp their drivers stats.

Especially because i'm thinking of a way to get more players involved and the idea of being "Driver Agent" could be a good one.
You could manage the interest and the stats of a group of drivers (real ones or created ones). How does this sounds ?

Also i'm not a F1 priest with a perfect knowledge so I think you should tell me if a driver seems over or under rated for the game interest.

By the way Drivers stats should evolve through years. I'm not sure it is a good idea that their level could be way different than what they should be. I didn't mention it but this is what i've written on excel :
Each driver will have his Driving Skills stat increased by 3 points each year before he'll be 25 years old
Each driver will have his Aggression stat decreased by 10% of its value each year after he'll be 34 years old.
So a driver will get faster through his early years, and will be slower towards the end of his career but will retire less (experience maybe ^^)

All looks good and it's up to you how you want to present the drivers' skills. If you feel you're not familiar enough to rate every driver, perhaps it's good if we all could know them and discuss them before each season? I don't know, I'm just brainstorming

To be honest, the game doesn't have to be strictly historical or accurate. I personally love alternative histories and claim to know a thing or two of F1 history (which was evident especially in the game I ran for a couple of seasons) but I'd like you to run it like you see fit. If it has worked somewhere else in the past I don't see any reason it couldn't work here too.

And I certainly wouldn't mind running a backmarker. It's much more rewarding to get a single point with a dead pony than win with a prancing horse.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Split the grid up into 3 sections, Front-runners, Midfield and Back-Markers. Allow people to join whichever one they want and assign teams randomly from there.

 

[Meff28s]

All your ideas guys are great !

I wanted, before each season, to present you the drivers ratings and hear your feedback. For the first two seasons it would be a lot of drivers to discuss ^^

My idea as I'd like to start in 1971 is obviously to re-write history. Most of World Champions will certainly become World Champions but not on the right car, not the right year. I think this is the most fun part of the game ! So it has to be as accurate as possible to get the best fantasy game (it is very clear in my home language but not necessarily in English ^^)

About the level of the teams and the possible evolution you can have through seasons i'll give you a explained example of a season break for three teams with different levels you'll see that you can progress quickly with a good management !

 

[Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham]

This sounds really exciting!

What happens once we get to 2018 in game? (as by the sounds of it, this game advances very quickly, which would be brilliant). Will it be just continuing on, writing future F1 history?

 

[kedy89]

also note that Racing Manager was C#, not Excel

It was indeed, apologies, was half asleep already when I wrote that


@Meff28s
Have yet to read through all your post with the info (had a long day at work). If you go with real drivers, they should start with a perf level similar to their real one at that point. How they develop from then on a bit up to RNG, like it was with Tapio's game I think. That would allow to keep their actual values hidden, and leave it up to the players to figure out who's good and who not so much.
If you go with real F1 teams and drivers, you should also follow the calendar in my opinion. Maybe a slight bit of RNG here as well, e.g. Fuji staying on the calendar after '77, no move to Melbourne in '96 etc.
Manager games generally seem to be a bit less popular than the "driver" games, so I'd guess you won't have to worry about not having enough team spots at the start. Imo Tapio's idea here was quite decent, to keep teams running longer than they did in reallife (as long as they have the funds), and still have the new teams as choice to enter in the years they did.

 

[Meff28s]

This sounds really exciting!

What happens once we get to 2018 in game? (as by the sounds of it, this game advances very quickly, which would be brilliant). Will it be just continuing on, writing future F1 history?

Of course ! With created drivers but let's start the game first before going this far XD

Here is my example with 3 Teams :
- Top Level Team with Only Victory Sponsor. Two great drivers with high wages.
- Midfield Team with Reach Top 10 Sponsor. One bad driver, and an Old glory guy with still very good ratings Balances Wages.
- Back-Marker Team with Reach Top 16 Sponsor. One bad Driver and one promising Rookie. Low Wages.

After the 3 first Races of the season :
- Top Team Results : 1st/DNF - 2nd/4th - 3rd/DNF
- Midfield Team Results : 9th/DNF - 10th/14th - 8th/16th
- BackMarker Team Results : 15th/19th - 16th/17th - 13th/18th

Top Team money spend : Wages (450 x3) DNF (50 x2)
Top Team money earned : Sponsor (500 x1) Pos/Team (550Total) Pos/Driver (800Total)
Top Team money after 3 races : 400

Midfield Team money spend : Wages (300 x3) DNF (50 x1)
Midfield Team money earned : Sponsor (350 x3) Pos/Team (50Total) Pos/Driver (350Total)
Midfield Team money after 3 races : 500

BackMarker Team money spend : Wages (250 x3)
BackMarker Team money earned : Sponsor (300 x3) Pos/Team (0Total) Pos/Driver (100Total)
BackMarker Team money after 3 races : 250

 

[Milos]

Here is my example with 3 Teams :
- Top Level Team with Only Victory Sponsor. Two great drivers with high wages.
- Midfield Team with Reach Top 10 Sponsor. One bad driver, and an Old glory guy with still very good ratings Balances Wages.
- Back-Marker Team with Reach Top 16 Sponsor. One bad Driver and one promising Rookie. Low Wages.

Take into account the other scenarios, so if people don't follow this format with their drivers

 

[TTupsi]

I also hope attrition rate is high in the until late-90's. Very rarely were there even 15 finishers in a race back then

I'd also like to make myself clear that in my opinion hidden driver skills would make for the most interesting gameplay coupled with slightly randomised development.

 

[Meff28s]

Well the only problem i see with hidden skills is the salary for each driver. Actually, wages are calculated with the overall speed setting. If you know the salary of a Driver, then you'll know his overall speed and his ranking compared to other drivers. BUT Overall Speed is a result of a formula which involves the only two real ratings drivers have :
Driving Skills
Aggression

Overall Speed his mostly the Driving Skills plus a bonus for Agression if it is high or a penalty if is is low. So it should be fine to only know wages don't you think ?

Sorry @Milos but i did not understand what you said about "other scenarios". What were you meaning ?

@kedy89
My ideas for teams is that we pick real ones. But we're only "Team Directors or managers", we are NOT the owners. If someone pick Williams, he will never be Frank Williams. He'll stay only the director of racing for some years, maybe decades, but he can be fired and he can trade his seat with someone else one the grid.
Through the seasons some teams will never disappear (Ferrari McLaren Williams) but some of them can. So what i'd like to do when the time will come is to propose to the Team Managers several possibilities :

- If the results are bad, let the team die and be the new manager of a fresh new team. Picked from the ones that should have come to F1 in those years. For example Renault around mid 70's, Toleman early 80's etc.. He can also decide to create his own team, with the name he wants, in a way like Ross Brawn did in 2009.
Another Manager can interfere in the procedure and say No, i'd like to keep this big name in F1. So he could leave his seat and buy the "name of the team" to be its new owner (new owner means that he couldn't be fired). With a new logo, a new name etc... Then the original manager of the finally not-dying team could decide to get his seat. Another player can also signup into the game and we'll add a team to the grid. We'll find an agreement

- But if the results are good, just continue to manage his team with a possible new name. For example, March Engineering died a first time in 1982. The team manager decides to keep March in F1 with a new alternative name : March Racing Team MRT and maybe a new logo etc.. I think it should be great to keep all the historical british teams to make them stay but this is only my opinion. You'll choose ! The other possibility is that you, manager, buy the team to create your own new brand like Mercedes did with Brawn for 2010 : a winning team that disappears to create a new winning team (means that you won't loose your upgrades and stats).

And for calendar, in my opinion it should be 12 races in 1971 and 1972 then 16 races from 1973. Then it won't change. Why ? Because it is a way to compare stats through years. How much podiums, how much victories etc.. it depends on how much races we have each year. Here we have a fixed amount of races. So we could compare late 00's driver with early 80's ones. It is because i'd like to introduce a Hall Of Fame for Formula 1 based on drivers statistics.

I'd also like that we all elect each season the "Rookie of the Year Trophy" which will give a Bonus stat for the young driver who won it. So with a bonus of 3 points more or less, Riccardo Patrese could someday fight for the title You see the idea ?

I've also said earlier that driver stats should change and evolve in line with the results. At the end of each season, for each team, the driver who got the more points will have a driving skills bonus until the age of 30. And the driver that were below his partner will have a driving skills penalty, regardless his age.

 

[Milos]

In a world where the top team doesn't have two top drivers, a midfield team doesn't have one bad driver and one old gun, and a back marker doesn't take one promising rookie. I can see combinations that make much more sense in each of the situations, but I don't want to spoil it to other managers just yet just keep in mind, not all teams will stick to the format you mentioned in the quote.