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).

 

[UglyPsycho]

Bonuses are okay being at 2: the thing is there aren't that many bonuses to gain knowledge on anyway. There used to be more 'trim' settings in the preview build but those were removed.

I beg to differ, but hey, it's your mod after all...

In any case, if you happen to encounter/have already encountered the way to easily do that, I'd be interested to know.

BTW, I believe the new marketability formula might prove to be pretty harsh on GT teams. Even the best one on top tier has 2.5* rating.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Changing the staff numbers in buildings.txt actually does have an direct effect on the improvement speeds.

I have not tried to change the number of slots, that is not possible from the txt alone as far as I know. Adding more levels to the buildings is trivial.

In other words, making factory a bit less on an nobrainer wouldn't be that tough, even if the slot numbers cannot be changed. Simply changing the number of staff to scale up slower (10-16-24-36 or something) would probably be enough.

Ah, so we can change the factory value, but the Designer/Staff Housing area isn't contributing to the factory.... I wonder if I can change that in the dll. Thanks.

I beg to differ, but hey, it's your mod after all...

In any case, if you happen to encounter/have already encountered the way to easily do that, I'd be interested to know.

BTW, I believe the new marketability formula might prove to be pretty harsh on GT teams. Even the best one on top tier has 2.5* rating.

I've not seen an easy way to do it. I'll have a quick look. Mabye the old knowledge things are still in the game and just disabled.

Hmmm, you might be right about those poor GT teams. But they can grow their star power over time and 2.5 offers upto 4 stars without too many problems I believe

 

[UglyPsycho]

Other than factory, I think the staff numbers only affect the salary costs. I have not tried if the staff number in design center directly speeds up the part development or something, though?

I'll continue my GT game to see how tough it is with the marketability. So far after 2 seasons I'm still at 1 star sponsors, with 1.5 star team rating I think. Then again, the marketability of my pilots sucks atm.

Random weirdness to report: My pilot was out for 24 weeks (I think) with an injury, and used the reserve pilot during this time. When I dropped the pilot to reserves, he had 2.5 star overall (not taking the injury into account), and when the sick leave was done, he had jumped to his full potential at 4 stars! To make things even weirder, I happened to renew his contract while he was injured, and he was happy to accept ridiculously low salary, probably because of the reduction in his skills due to the injury... now I have a 4 star pilot with under 120.000€ salary, and he also happens to be pay driver, so actually he is paying me ~130.000€ per race.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Other than factory, I think the staff numbers only affect the salary costs. I have not tried if the staff number in design center directly speeds up the part development or something, though?

I'll continue my GT game to see how tough it is with the marketability. So far after 2 seasons I'm still at 1 star sponsors, with 1.5 star team rating I think. Then again, the marketability of my pilots sucks atm.

Random weirdness to report: My pilot was out for 24 weeks (I think) with an injury, and used the reserve pilot during this time. When I dropped the pilot to reserves, he had 2.5 star overall (not taking the injury into account), and when the sick leave was done, he had jumped to his full potential at 4 stars! To make things even weirder, I happened to renew his contract while he was injured, and he was happy to accept ridiculously low salary, probably because of the reduction in his skills due to the injury... now I have a 4 star pilot with under 120.000€ salary, and he also happens to be pay driver, so actually he is paying me ~130.000€ per race.

Yeah, stars dropping due to traits happens in vanila too (but not by as much) as such, you can get some real steals in terms of low paid contracts - and I cannot see a way around that.

For best balance, it's normally best to wait until after the last race of the season before doing any contract work - so that you and the AI are in the same boat (as far as I know, the AI doesn't hire anyone outside of Final Race - First Race). But of course, the player can hire at any time.

 

[UglyPsycho]

Hmm, I was mostly wondering the training speed while the dude was injured. He did gain 1.5 stars in those 24 weeks, while he was supposed to just get his neck better...

 

[Beynasuh]

Hmm, I was mostly wondering the training speed while the dude was injured. He did gain 1.5 stars in those 24 weeks, while he was supposed to just get his neck better...

If I am not wrong a driver in reserve driver slot gets a big multiplier in skill stats in FlamingReds mod.

 

[BrianUK]

Maybe I should set injury traits to have a large negative improvement rate and potential debuff to stop injured drivers growing...

 

[UglyPsycho]

I checked how the staff numbers in design center work, and unfortunately they seem to have no effect on the design times, it's related to the level of the center instead.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

If I am not wrong a driver in reserve driver slot gets a big multiplier in skill stats in FlamingReds mod.

Completely Seperate Queston but how many seasons are you into a 1.3 game are you?

 

[Beynasuh]

Maybe I should set injury traits to have a large negative improvement rate and potential debuff to stop injured drivers growing...

Good idea. But in consideration of all the debuff in skill stats and the possible negative improvement rate the drivers shouldn't get morale decrease when changed with reserve drivers in such situation. Is that possible?

Completely Seperate Queston but how many seasons are you into a 1.3 game are you?

Right now 2nd season and before 3th race.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Good idea. But in consideration of all the debuff in skill stats and the possible negative improvement rate the drivers shouldn't get morale decrease when changed with reserve drivers in such situation. Is that possible?

I have considered giving the drivers who are injured a +40 Morale Buff to counter the -40 to being moved to reserve... (though the reserve driver will get that once he's put back in his place, having had a race or two =- but then i guess he's had the taste to drive so it kinda fits).

The only thing is though.... a +40 morale boost looks weird though perfectly balanced.
Driver - "I have a broken neck - but I've never been happier"

 

[Beynasuh]

Driver - "I have a broken neck"

Team Manager - "Don't worry, we all are here for you" (Booom +40 Morale )

 

[UglyPsycho]

Well, it is a holiday with full salary...

 

[Beynasuh]

Well, it is a holiday with full salary...

Whaaaaaaat..... (Booooooooooooommmmmmm +100 Morale )

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Well, it is a holiday with full salary...

Whaaaaaaat..... (Booooooooooooommmmmmm +100 Morale )

Nope! Your feedback score is still better! You're working Practice! It doesn't matter that you cant move your neck!

Also: Let me know once you hit the end of season 3: I need to know all 50 teams Fanbase to see the movement amounts (as I can change marketability off of it - but I somehow have to balance it).

 

[UglyPsycho]

I don't care if your spine is split in two! Get to the car, slave, and tune the damn setup! And tell your sponsors to wire me the money!

 

[Beynasuh]

End of Season 3 (not 2). All 50 teams Fan Base ( and I add the team stars too). Okey

I don't care if your spine is split in two! Get to the car, slave, and tune the damn setup! And tell your sponsors to wire me the money!

Yes Master.

 

[UglyPsycho]

Another random question in general: is there any possibility of scaling the dilemma costs? For instance the 3.5M prices to chassis improvements in relation to series you are racing in? In GT challengers I usually spend 7-8M to chassis in total, so the dilemma price is pretty badly out of proportion and usually simply too high to pay.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Another random question in general: is there any possibility of scaling the dilemma costs? For instance the 3.5M prices to chassis improvements in relation to series you are racing in? In GT challengers I usually spend 7-8M to chassis in total, so the dilemma price is pretty badly out of proportion and usually simply too high to pay.

Not seen a way to do this: and because there's no scaling I have found it makes balancing a right pain.

Not only that, I can't 'make conditions' for dilemmas to spawn (or not to) either (at least paces on tier.... there's a couple of NoMaxPerformanceParts, and Non Spec parts tags naturally in dilemmas). So Dilemmas seem to be picked out at mostly random - and so a Tier 2 GT team is given the same choice as a WMC team. (which is why the new dilemmas are so imbalanced as I had the WMC hat on when I made them, not the tier 3 hat).

Interviews have a lot more Condition Tabs though - and maybe there is more crossover then there appears to be. Interviews and Dilemmas are something I want to expand more on though - its just a long job and could do with some question/answer writers.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

I'm an idiot sometimes. I just found a very useful and very obvious opcode command to make possible a couple of (really) minor features I've wanted for a while. In short, I can now add a lot of random variables (integers) to things.

1.3c List of things to do:

- Random Total Part Failure.
- Increase the Short/Medium weather Curves.
- Change rear wing damange to suspension damange.
- Increase initial reliability (currently 20-60 based on chassis - but if someone can have 12 retirements in a race, I need to change that slightly)
- Work on Dilemma and Interview system
- Randomise the number of rules to vote on per season (can go 3 - 8 + Players choice dilemma)
- Randomise the number of condition ticks per race between 8-12 (vanilla = 10) so that some races are (randomly) kinder to condition loss then others - keeping the player on their toes about repairing parts. (it may mean the magic 80% reliability number may not be enough if there are 12 tics).
- See if I can base Marketability based on Teams Position Standings after-all (originally this wasn't possible).