Vanilla Balance Mod Beta - Testers Wanted

[TheFlamingRed]

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/motorsport-manager-balance-mod-part-1.12965/

Make sure you down load all the parts!​

This mod has now been released. All the changes are listed in the above link. If a Forum Admin is reading this, if you could remove the "Testers Wanted" and change it to "Development Discussion" thread, it would be appreciated.

UPDATED TO WORK WITH 1.3​

Note: In attempts to fix the interviews and dilemmas, I have temporarily removed all non English languages from those two files. I hope to reinsert them into a later version (but when I do, they'll still be the vanilla text as I am unable to translate in any other language).

 

[OhnoesFroz]

I know the injector already does so, but the more we find out, the more I think part riskiness is a big part of why the AI's struggles to keep up in development, because they keep getting parts confiscated. So as a balancing change, significantly reducing the chance to be discovered per point of risk would probably do a lot for the AI. If that can be done without the injector I'd be pretty pleased, because I had some problems making the injector stay attached to the game.

The red zone changes are absolutely brilliant, and actually adds some gameplay and decisionmaking to the reliability. It's my single favorite change in the mod.

As for the rest of it, I tweaked some of the numbers on my own, reduced the fuel usage for overtake mode from 2.5 to 2.0 in the hopes that that would help the AI with its fuel management.

I also reduced the wrong weather penalties for all tires by half, so inters are at 5 seconds every other compound sits at 10 now. Actually, the AI seems to understand this. In the couple of wet races I saw, there was a fair amount more variance in the strategies rather than everyone uniformly switching to X tire at Y track wetness. I can't be sure without a lot more observation.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

I know the injector already does so, but the more we find out, the more I think part riskiness is a big part of why the AI's struggles to keep up in development, because they keep getting parts confiscated. So as a balancing change, significantly reducing the chance to be discovered per point of risk would probably do a lot for the AI. If that can be done without the injector I'd be pretty pleased, because I had some problems making the injector stay attached to the game.

Now I can edit the dll's directly, I intend to move several of the injector features over to the base .dll

The main thing I will keep the injector for will be the +x days, as (1) It'll be easier to simply run the +x days you want at anytime, rather then swap the assemblies files in and out and (2) once you choose a +x days injector and get it to work once, that values stays with you for the rest of your save (may need to be reapplied to a new team if you move, but other then that, you don't have to run it again unless you want to change difficulty) and (3) I actually can't change that value in the dll directly.

But other then that, I feel the other changes will be fine in the base assembly.dll. There maybe some variables I wish to change which will be only available via the injector in future, but I think for now we can limit it to the +X days)

The red zone changes are absolutely brilliant, and actually adds some gameplay and decisionmaking to the reliability. It's my single favorite change in the mod.

thank you! I liked that one too. (I am biased though).

As for the rest of it, I tweaked some of the numbers on my own, reduced the fuel usage for overtake mode from 2.5 to 2.0 in the hopes that that would help the AI with its fuel management.

Oddly, the fuel useage doesn't work very well. I've massively changed some of those numbers, to see barely any effect. I find it odd that so many AI still run out of fuel, as I changed the AISessionsOrders data to ensure they have a larger fuel delta or pit, and that still hasnt done much to improve things. I am beginning to wonder if the AI are even listening to my changes.

I also reduced the wrong weather penalties for all tires by half, so inters are at 5 seconds every other compound sits at 10 now. Actually, the AI seems to understand this. In the couple of wet races I saw, there was a fair amount more variance in the strategies rather than everyone uniformly switching to X tire at Y track wetness. I can't be sure without a lot more observation.

Let me know how that goes, if it works really well and cannot be exploited much, I'll add that in. I enjoy anything that adds variation and randomness.

I read and will follow your career progress. I am always happy to see how other people play the game, particulay with my mod. I can only see a few % of scenarios myself, so getting a rundown on your play-through will be helpful as I fine tune the balance of the mod in the future. Did Valdes server you well if you managed to get him in the lead of the races for any length of time?

 

[OhnoesFroz]

I read and will follow your career progress. I am always happy to see how other people play the game, particulay with my mod. I can only see a few % of scenarios myself, so getting a rundown on your play-through will be helpful as I fine tune the balance of the mod in the future. Did Valdes server you well if you managed to get him in the lead of the races for any length of time?

Well, I decided to go with the vanilla trait values so I'm not sure how useful my feedback will be in regards to how much the traits are affecting the drivers, and that'll definitely be something to keep in mind when reading about my career.

I will say that in vanilla, if I was able to get Valdes to the lead under any circumstance and keep him there for a few laps--and this is naturally gonna be due to the increased performance gap between the drivers in vanilla--he would always improve his situation by quite a bit by the time he pitted.

I was lucky enough to get Valdes to the lead just once under the modded game, and he was still run down rather easily by the much faster Garuda and Eastwood cars. By the time I pitted him he hadn't really made that much up on the midfield. I had still managed some better finishes than the car was really capable of, but yeah, I don't think getting Valdes into clean air is as big of an impact under the stuff I'm running.

I can definitely see the argument for traits needing to make more of an impact with the smaller gap between the worst and best drivers. For now I'm gonna stick with the vanilla values as a personal preference and see how the other changes continue to unfold.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Well, I decided to go with the vanilla trait values so I'm not sure how useful my feedback will be in regards to how much the traits are affecting the drivers, and that'll definitely be something to keep in mind when reading about my career.

I will say that in vanilla, if I was able to get Valdes to the lead under any circumstance and keep him there for a few laps--and this is naturally gonna be due to the increased performance gap between the drivers in vanilla--he would always improve his situation by quite a bit by the time he pitted.

I was lucky enough to get Valdes to the lead just once under the modded game, and he was still run down rather easily by the much faster Garuda and Eastwood cars. By the time I pitted him he hadn't really made that much up on the midfield. I had still managed some better finishes than the car was really capable of, but yeah, I don't think getting Valdes into clean air is as big of an impact under the stuff I'm running.

I can definitely see the argument for traits needing to make more of an impact with the smaller gap between the worst and best drivers. For now I'm gonna stick with the vanilla values as a personal preference and see how the other changes continue to unfold.

Ah, yes. That makes sense, a vanilla +2 for leading will benefit Valdes less then my version of the traits which would have given him a +5, but if you have kept in my performance gaps, then he probably would really struggle to stay in the lead, unless he started near pole and got out in front early (which he can do if you are not playing ZRT - he'll normally be in 16th position in season 1). It also means that him being in a cult isn't really as devistating as it might have been. (I really REALLY made that a big problem for players to deal with).

Most importantly, I am glad you just about stole 7th in the constructors. That's about on par witch where I would want the team to finish up under human control. With the default game, I got them to second without too much difficulty, but haven't tried them since.

 

[iammx]

So, another steam user has taught me all about Reflexi... which allows me to edit the Dll's in a different way. So I am able to make some 'alternative' methods of variable/gameplay changes by editing the Assembly CSharp.dll directly.

I'll save these new changes for when the devs release a new patch - but I have two new features available already

I actually tried that blue-flag fix mod and was pleasantly surprised to see it was a big improvement... then during the race I did to check it out I was reminded how dumb this game is when half the field ran out of fuel on the last lap and swapped about 20 places collectively. Playsport pls.

 

[georgetimms23]

@TheFlamingRed I'm trying to add some of the individual modded texts to my resource assets folder, but the downloadable mod is in two parts, with 2 of each modded text it seems. Do I just need to add one of these texts, or both? If both, how would I do this?

 

[TheFlamingRed]

@TheFlamingRed I'm trying to add some of the individual modded texts to my resource assets folder, but the downloadable mod is in two parts, with 2 of each modded text it seems. Do I just need to add one of these texts, or both? If both, how would I do this?

didn't you extract them as one file? You shouldn't end up with two separate identical folders from parts 1 and 2.

 

[georgetimms23]

didn't you extract them as one file? You shouldn't end up with two separate identical folders from parts 1 and 2.

Okay I've done it again, I got it, Cheers.

 

[georgetimms23]

@TheFlamingRed So what will happen with this mod after the next patch from the devs? Once you updated your mod would it apply to the current saved game or would I have to start over again to get the continued effects of the mod?

 

[TheFlamingRed]

@TheFlamingRed So what will happen with this mod after the next patch from the devs? Once you updated your mod would it apply to the current saved game or would I have to start over again to get the continued effects of the mod?

Fixed an issue where some teams would pick too many risky parts
Fixed an issue where too many cars would run out of fuel before the end of a race
Improved AI pit strategies
Fixed an issue where a significant number of cars would break down near the end of the race
Blue flags no longer slow cars down but they do move out of the way
Fix to database importing on Linux machines without en-US locale installed

Short answer - if you're on a decent save game, you should be able to keep playing. Once their patch hits, their Balances will replace mine in your game. Things I have added (such as the +10% red zone, will persist as it's in your save files). But the performances of the cars will go back to what the devs have deemed it, until I release an update.

Long answer - if it comes out on Thursday, I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday all day, so I won't get to update my mod until Monday.

And of course, they're balancing things I have already adjusted. Which is great. If it all works well, I can reduce some of the effects I made regarding car performances. If it doesn't work well, I can keep my changes going, and adjust them slightly. Bad news is, it's going to take a few days for me to work out how good their new Balance is.

What I'll need is some people to play a temporary new game when the patch hits, and reports on how the balance has changed in the Vanilla over the weekend. Then when I come back on Monday, I will have a gauge on what changes I need to make and get some initial tests done early,

I am already working on new features which will require a new game, so if anyone is thinking about starting a long term save now, then I suggest waiting. If you're already on a long term save, keep playing but know that the balance will return to default when the patch hits, and won't be introduced again until I re-release my changes,

All In all It's a grey area. Maybe the devs have aced it all, and my mod is completely not needed. But I doubt it - as they can't make things too hard, but just improve some basic AI elements. So yes, looking for testers to see how the new patch plays (without any mods) and compare it to before, so I have a rough estimate on where to rebalance my mod. All help welcome.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

It seems the AI are now better at using their Fuel and they also seem to be able to look after their tyres better with this patch. Which is great. I'll likely remove my tweaks to the Attack Strategy.

Needless to say, if you're playing a savegame starting with my mod, You'll notice the race balance isn't working anymore. I just tried an example, in my mod, Rod was 12th in a race with 5 retirements... Without my mod, he was 6th, which included a safety car and rain so we were all on the same strategies... as such, in terms of difficulty, this patch is just the same as the intial game in terms of difficulty.

I'll be testing over the weekend, and should have an updated mod come early/mid next week.

 

[madh4tt3r]

Let me start off with I haven't yet tried your mod. I have played about 5 run through's the first 3 seasons of each patch so far so have an idea of what to expect in those seasons with Predator or other tier 3 teams.

So new patch decided I would try a new predator game to see what the differences are and here is my opinion for you.

Changes:

• Rod is still overpowered, first race in predator got a 4th place.
• Barring any incidents, Rod is still very capable in a car that only develops one average and one good part and giving him all the good parts. Landed up 6th overall at the end of my first season and Rod also never started any higher than 12th as he was always in the top 8 in the championship. Santa Anna was always first, she just did not perform well at all. Saying that I had to hire Sevilla for the last race to meet my Chairman goals or be fired. Landed up getting so many double points in the last race that my team jumped from 10th to 6th in the constructors from that last race. Sevilla ran away with the race including fastest lap.
• Blue Flags seem to be fixed, didn't notice any issues with overtaking and also couldnt hope for them to help bridge gaps, so this has increased difficulty in some aspects.
• Not one team got caught with a Risk part. This made it more difficult aswell because you couldnt rely on being promoted positions which was significantly better. However I need more testing as I ran one risk engine on Santa Annas car for half the season and never got caught wheres as i would have been caught within 3 races to my previous experience.
• Still some bugs in practice sessions with drivers going VERY slow when getting caught behind a car on an in lap. Could expect some issues with Qualifying still but will need further testing.
• Cars still run out of fuel at the end. It is just ridiculous and again makes things too easy. Rod often got bumped up 5-6 places than what he should have been because 5 cars ran out of fuel or had technical issues in the last lap or 2. This is my biggest gripe and should not be happening. sometimes its better than others but at a minimum I am noticing 2 cars running out of fuel or having technicial issues on the last 2 laps.

What would be cool is having randomized starting stats/abilities on drivers/staff. So for example. If a driver is capable of 4.5 stars and usually they start on 4 stars, randomize their stats to within 3 or 4 of what it usually is. So maybe this game they start on 3.7 stars and next game they are 4.2. This will still keep the best drivers the best but some other OP drivers might not be OP and essentially keep the player having to scout properly each game to find the real gems. It would need further thought but was just an idea.

 

[georgetimms23]

In the race I did, blue flags were definitely not fixed, the blue flagged cars to not slow down and often battle the car trying to overtake, which is incredibly annoying. Only 1 car ran out of fuel, but no cars should imo.

 

[BenRHJ]

Been using this mod for a while now and all aspects are great.

I'm trying to use your mod with Enzoli's mod and Williams are just too fast which I know has nothing to do with either mod, just wondering if you have stumbled upon a text file which allows us to decrease/increase the performance of individual teams?

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Let me start off with I haven't yet tried your mod. I have played about 5 run through's the first 3 seasons of each patch so far so have an idea of what to expect in those seasons with Predator or other tier 3 teams.

So new patch decided I would try a new predator game to see what the differences are and here is my opinion for you.

Changes:

• Rod is still overpowered, first race in predator got a 4th place.
• Barring any incidents, Rod is still very capable in a car that only develops one average and one good part and giving him all the good parts. Landed up 6th overall at the end of my first season and Rod also never started any higher than 12th as he was always in the top 8 in the championship. Santa Anna was always first, she just did not perform well at all. Saying that I had to hire Sevilla for the last race to meet my Chairman goals or be fired. Landed up getting so many double points in the last race that my team jumped from 10th to 6th in the constructors from that last race. Sevilla ran away with the race including fastest lap.
• Blue Flags seem to be fixed, didn't notice any issues with overtaking and also couldnt hope for them to help bridge gaps, so this has increased difficulty in some aspects.
• Not one team got caught with a Risk part. This made it more difficult aswell because you couldnt rely on being promoted positions which was significantly better. However I need more testing as I ran one risk engine on Santa Annas car for half the season and never got caught wheres as i would have been caught within 3 races to my previous experience.
• Still some bugs in practice sessions with drivers going VERY slow when getting caught behind a car on an in lap. Could expect some issues with Qualifying still but will need further testing.
• Cars still run out of fuel at the end. It is just ridiculous and again makes things too easy. Rod often got bumped up 5-6 places than what he should have been because 5 cars ran out of fuel or had technical issues in the last lap or 2. This is my biggest gripe and should not be happening. sometimes its better than others but at a minimum I am noticing 2 cars running out of fuel or having technicial issues on the last 2 laps.

What would be cool is having randomized starting stats/abilities on drivers/staff. So for example. If a driver is capable of 4.5 stars and usually they start on 4 stars, randomize their stats to within 3 or 4 of what it usually is. So maybe this game they start on 3.7 stars and next game they are 4.2. This will still keep the best drivers the best but some other OP drivers might not be OP and essentially keep the player having to scout properly each game to find the real gems. It would need further thought but was just an idea.

Thanks for the info. I noticed in the weightings that the AI are now less prioritising the risky parts, so you should hardly see them at all now. It kinda makes me wonder if I've done the right thing by lowering the chance of detection rating.

I am surprised about the fuel situation, is it on certain races as I have hardly noticed it.

It can be quite easy to take the driver.txt and turn it into a csv, and randomise all the statistics if everyone in an 'alternate start' kind of way. The issue would be that all drivers who are signed for teams may be horribly unbalanced, e.g., Chapman may have 1 star. The AI doesn't seem to alter drivers until the preseason, so they'd run a whole season with him.

This is either a bad thing, or a good thing - depending on the level of randomisation you may want.

It's doable though, and I like the idea of randomised starts. Could also change all the cars starting stats too. Of course, the 'starting text' on the 'choose a team' screen will be meaningless but that's the only downfall.

If enough people are interested in this, I'll make one,

In the race I did, blue flags were definitely not fixed, the blue flagged cars to not slow down and often battle the car trying to overtake, which is incredibly annoying. Only 1 car ran out of fuel, but no cars should imo.

The blue flag behaviour now appears to be quite random. It's really good in some tracks and bad on others. I'll include one of hudsons fixes in my release, see if that helps a little - though I don't expect it to be 100% perfect - better will do though.

Could we begin listing tracks where the AI is bad at blue flags and fuel (and which ones it good at). May be able to get an idea what's going on based on the track type.

Been using this mod for a while now and all aspects are great.

I'm trying to use your mod with Enzoli's mod and Williams are just too fast which I know has nothing to do with either mod, just wondering if you have stumbled upon a text file which allows us to decrease/increase the performance of individual teams?

Thanks.

With my mod adjusting the importance of critical parts, and addding higher buffs and debuffs to the drivers, the team with the best 'driver/car' combo could well be different to the intended one, e,g, Garuda from Tier 3 used to always be the best, but with the drivers 'Old' trait being a -5 overall instead of -2, their drivers are not normally good enough to win that championship.

So it's likely my mod that is positively effecting Williams to be better then they should be.

,Default Parts, has all the starting 'numbers' for each part of each teams cars. You'll need the team ID from 'Teams' to match the team to the Parts. You can buff / reduce numbers there to make the car as powerful/not as powerful as you like.

 

[georgetimms23]

The blue flag behaviour now appears to be quite random. It's really good in some tracks and bad on others. I'll include one of hudsons fixes in my release, see if that helps a little - though I don't expect it to be 100% perfect - better will do though.

Could we begin listing tracks where the AI is bad at blue flags and fuel (and which ones it good at). May be able to get an idea what's going on based on the track type.

The track I did that race on was Doha. I expect it didn't help because it's pretty much a street circuit.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

The track I did that race on was Doha. I expect it didn't help because it's pretty much a street circuit.

Thanks. I'll be starting a new season myself now that I've updated the mod.

I am currently uploading my mod to v1.2a... Balance isn't perfect yet, but I can update it again when I have tweeked it perfectly (balance changes are compatable on existing save files) . Expect it to be out within a few hours.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Mod has been updated to V1.2a, and is compatable with the new Motorsport Manager 1.2 Patch,

Feel free to keep playing your old save files from V1.1. They should work seemlessly. Alternatively, feel free to start a new game to include a few additional features (mostly mechanic relationships and player starting stats).

I've changed the way the 'race balance' works. Existing Players, please let me know what you think. Is it a little too easy or hard compared to the previous version. At first glance, it seems about right, but I will address any imbalances once I have tested it further and/or if I have gotten some feedback from you guys.

I am still open to new ideas and suggestions for changes if anyone has some good ideas for some interesting mechanics. Lots of new avenues are possible, though some still seem out of reach (or need finding just how they work, i.e., how much weather you can see by default).

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Okay.... 1.2a now has FOUR parts... Ignore the "Assembly file" bundled with Part 1 & 2. ​

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Use the one in Part 4​

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The Assembly file in Part 4 now also has a new feature (comparable with existing save games). It reduces the weather visibility by one building level. I.e., if you don't have a forecast centre, you're not going to be able to see any future weather!

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When you have the forecast centre, you now get the first 1/4 forecast. The maximum is now is 3/4 (instead of all) so the final few laps are still a surprise.

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[Jerr]

@TheFlamingRed thank you for your hard work on this!