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).

 

[raja1234]

I had one other question: How do I use this with Enzoli mod? Both the mods require me to overwrite resources.assets file. Any help here is much appreciated, thanks!!!

 

[TheFlamingRed]

I get the error after I answer the question in the screenshot, chose option 2. I have to quit the game once i get the error. I'm kinda stuck

@raja
Does the same happen if you choose option 1?
What version of the mod have you got installed

@Everyone else
Has anyone else seen this question and it worked correctly.

This is hard to determine if this is a "My Mod Issue" or if it's just my interview system not playing nice with that particular mod.

I have found a few questions where I've got an extra ";" inserted (and this is one of these questions). I thought I fixed it in the last version but maybe I did not - so this could be the issue (and if it is, it will be fixed for the next version). Otherwise I am not sure.

Valid thoughts! But to make the game interesting/playable, I think if you reveal the next 1 or 2 laps, and graudually reveal the upcoming laps (instead of going block by block) that wud be great...

Between, Does this apply to AI as well? or just for us?

I believe the AI react to weather using a script. They don't have to look at the UI at all, they all just 'know'.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Note: I am not going to update the mod to fit the beta. Instead, I'm going to keep working on the mod (mainly the PT, Dilemmas and Interviews).

When the Beta Branch is pushed into the main branch, then I will update. - I think this will be my common strategy from here on. (So in short, you can opt-out of the beta if you wish to play the mod).

I am now looking for "flavor text" writers for dilemmas and interviews to simply increase the variety of these three areas, I'll do all the programming. Let me know if you're interesting.

 

[Beynasuh]

flavor text?

 

[TheFlamingRed]

1. Yeah, just the messages in the emails or the interview questions/answers.

Got lots of scenarios to add
E.g., pre-season testing. Any combination of

• Money spent
• Chassis star increased/decreased
• Reliablty of any part increased / decreased
• Performance of any part increased / decreased
• Any driver morale, mechanic relationship, marketability changes
• Any driver trait change
• Nothing hapening

If we had people just writing the email, and responses, I could program them in very very quickly - as it's just one question and upto three buttons.

 

[BrianUK]

I have a dozen I've been needing to write up. I'll get them to you when I can.

 

[Beynasuh]

Got lots of scenarios to add
E.g., pre-season testing. Any combination of

• Money spent
• Chassis star increased/decreased
• Reliablty of any part increased / decreased
• Performance of any part increased / decreased
• Any driver morale, mechanic relationship, marketability changes
• Any driver trait change
• Nothing happening

And can you make the appear whenever you want or will they be appear randomly?

Like an interview right after preseason testing, or an interview when your balance goes in the red, or a dilemma when one of your drivers get a big injury trait.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Dilemmas are completely random, with very little control (there's a tiny bit of control to prevent some spawning multiple times a season - but it's weak and for the suppose of adding to the dilemma list, we should consider those completely random events.)

Meanwhile, interviews allow a lot more specific things to happen before they trigger - so you can be more precise with those.

 

[Beynasuh]

Could you make a list of those triggers?

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Could you make a list of those triggers?

Um... kinda. It's why I asked you which interviews worked, so I know which triggers work.

Driver 1/2 race position, Driver 1/2 race expectation and team expectation seem to be okay... I think... currently, there's about 6 interviews per driver (in question set 1/2) but that could easily be increased.

Low performance part I think works (a driver complained about rear wing for example).

Basically, any interview you had that made sense. Has a working trigger in some way.

And we also need 'any' questions - which can be asked no matter what Happens in the race. Currently, Question set 4 has the 'Final question, which one of your drivers performed better'... each set of questions needs that 'default' in case none of the race conditions apply.

 

[Beynasuh]

In my game they always complain about the breaks.

For now I have 26 different interview question screenshots. I continue to take a screenshot whenever a new interview comes up.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

In my game they always complain about the breaks.

For now I have 26 different interview question screenshots. I continue to take a screenshot whenever a new interview comes up.

well if you want, zip them up and I'll have a look and tell you exactly what's working.

26 is a lot more then I thought would work... though I think there's 40ish available interviews in vanilla (but there are some I assume you won't have seen due to their rarity that they might spawn and your current teams standings).

I mean, nothing is stopping us from having 6 sets of questions per interview

 

[Beynasuh]

There is a 27th Interview screenshot but it isn't from my game. In my game I got that same interview without problems.
MM Interview Screenshot Archieve

 

[TheFlamingRed]

There is a 27th Interview screenshot but it isn't from my game. In my game I got that same interview without problems.
MM Interview Screenshot Archieve

I'll try and get an updated list which ones are working later I assume you've picked a back marker team, which means you're not seeing many 'driver did badly' results because even when finishing down the order, that's good.

Also, there are a few non-post race interview things here... such as the GMA vote.. did they appear as post race interviews or did you include the 'vote interviews' and 'pre season' interviews too? (Not that there's anything wrong with adding criteria to eother of these, just wondering if I've messed up and hooked the Vote interviews to the post race ones)

Ps. I love the 'do you have a message for this driver who crashed into another driver, with neither driver being in the team'

 

[Beynasuh]

No, you didn't mess up. I just took screenshots from all Interviews. That includes vote interviews and pre season interviews.

Also I play my own team so I am the King of the Backmarkers .

And I hope that one day I will climb the ladder of succes.

Ps. I love the 'do you have a message for this driver who crashed into another driver, with neither driver being in the team'

I get those interview questions a couple of times in a season.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

I could reword them a little to make it look like you were just being asked about a big race event, rather then just one about your driver (no reason onlyncomment on your team).

But yes, had a crash works, as does run,out of fuel. And a coup,e of others

 

[BrianUK]

I got the run out of fuel one once, for doing the terrible thing of making a driver's fuel run out yards from the line, which had the devastating effect of.....nothing, as they crossed the line just fine

I also got a tyre one, which was caused by the driver locking up and bringing their mediums to 0%, but they blamed me...

 

[TheFlamingRed]

I got the run out of fuel one once, for doing the terrible thing of making a driver's fuel run out yards from the line, which had the devastating effect of.....nothing, as they crossed the line just fine

I also got a tyre one, which was caused by the driver locking up and bringing their mediums to 0%, but they blamed me...

Hahaha. those drivers eh! Moan moan moan! What they need is a good angry Chairman to keep the, in check!

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Every night I'm experimenting with the dll and wondering what new cool feature to add. And I'm finally slowing down and finding less and less to improve.

Currently, when the new beta moves to the main branch I plan to have

• Punctures occurring when low on tread (as opposed to 60 seconds after 0% tread left - which is pointless)
  
• When exiting the pits, the tyres will be cooler then normal.
• Change of startbof Chairman season objectives.

But I am considering quite an interesting overhaul to the "driving style". The original driving style and stars will remain the same however:

• Tyre Temperature Matters (and not just the extremes),
  • Cold tyres will wear less then normal, but will also have less grip, increasing laptime.
    
  • Hot tyres will be all warm and rubbery so have more grip available, decreasing laptime.But they will also wear at an increased rate

It will take sometime to find a really fun balance to this - but I think having to manage temperatures (more so then just keep them away from max and min) would be a cool thing, and could really assist in a strategy.

Moreover, better Tyre Heating (Vehicle Stability w/ reliability), normally one of the more useless chassis parts, will be more important then ever. It will enable you to run Attack/Push for longer (getting the speed benefit which goes with it - which is generally more then you will relatively low tyre temps) while keeping your tyres cooler (reducing the wear) and overheating too quickly. I.e., cars with low tyre temps will only be able to push for a short while before the tyres heat up and they have to begin getting higher wear.

Of course, ambient temperature now plays a more pivotal role as well - as in the more arid environments, it's important not to let those tyres cook.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Could you make a list of those triggers?

These are all the triggers (may have missed some) in the Interview file. I'm also searching for them in the dll to see if there is anything interesting about each one.

• ExpectedPlayerTeamPosition (any range or value 1-10)
• PlayerBackstory (any of the 5)
• UpcomingVote (there are lots of these - but these can be offered in a post race interview if desired. as said, we can create a set 5 or 6).
• PlayerRacesInChargeOfTeam (any range or exact value).
• #1 or #2PlayerDriverRacePositionVsExpectation (-20 to 20) - nb #1 is best placed driver in race #2 is the worst driver in race.
• #1 or #2PlayerDriverRacePosition (1-20)
• ISPosition
  • (1-20)- IS normally stands for interview subject, and this seems to be "for one of the player drivers".... Its often used when "A special event has happened to one of the players - so use that player's driver name"
• PlayerLetISFuelRunOut (True)
• PlayerLetISTyresRunOut (True)
• ISCausedCrash (True)
• ISCrashedInto Seen with a big before
• ISPenalisedCausedCollision (True)
• ISCarHadLowQualityPart (True)
• AIDriverHadAwfulRace
• ISPlayerCrashes ( > 0) - crashed out of race.
• ISErrorCostWin (True) -Crashed when in first place.

These ones we don't know about
I am in the dll but I don't know if they work.
I am in the Interview.txt but not in the dll

• PlayerQualifyingPosition
• PlayerQualifyingPositionvsExpectation
• PlayerPracticePositionVsExpectatio
  • I believe these top three may work....
• TeamOrdersUsed
• ISBadPracticeSessionAndRace
  • (There is however just a BadPracticeSessionAndRace... so removed the IS out of the interview.txt file to see if that will start spawning).
• ISFixedLowReliabilityPart
• ISLowReliabilityPartBroke
• ISScrutineeringPenalty; ISRacePositionPreScrutineering
• PlayerDriverPerformingBadly
• RumouredDriverMove
• TeamFinances
• PlayerDriverTopOfDC
  
• TCPositionVsChairmanExpectation
  
• PlayerAcceptedBribe = True; GMAVoteRecently = True;
• InterviewSubjectRacePosition
  • (explains why one of the questions 4 don't work - Changed this particular question to #1racedriverposition to see if it now works. )
• TimeGap1stTo2nd
• ISRacePosition
  • (Used four times in the question 4 set of interviews..... (so its not surprising why the last question was always the same). This doesn't exist in the dlls. There is an unused PlayerDriver1RacePosition and PlayerDriver2RacePosition that do exist however...[not to be confused with #1PlayerDriverRacePosition and #2PlayerDriverRacePosition which work]. Honestly, with so many other ways to define position, why would this one need to exist. )
• ISRacePositionvsExpectation
  • Guess what.... Another broken trigger for question set 4.
• StandingsGapBetweenPlayerDriver
  
• RacesToEndOfSeason
  
• TCPosition
  
• PlayerOneTwo
• RiskyPitStopFailed (This one isn't in the DLL but ISRiskyPitStopFailed is.... so another point for the devs. Put an IS in this interview).
• ISRiskyPitStopFailed
• RivalsWonTC
  
• PlayerDriverWonDC
  
• IsLastRaceOfSeason
• PlayerRacePosition
  • (best drivers position - Don't know why this exists, you can just use #1DriverRacePosition - they are soooooo confused as to what statement means what position for which driver)
• PlayerOnPole (True of False).
• LegenaryTeam (true or false.... no idea which ones are... assume Not Ferrari - but oddly the teams aren't stated in the dll. Is there something in the team.txt that define them as legendary?

Note: It's not just the Interviews you can set to have specific triggers. You can make ONLY certain answers appear. E,g., you could ask a question and have the answe

1. "Yes"
2. "No"
3. (If PlayerBackstory = ExEngineer then) "It's a bit more complicated then that... etc etc" #

The only difference is, if you're not an ex engineer, then you'll only have two options available. If you are the ex engineer, then you'll have all three.

Edit: Come back here periodically over the next few hours as I look in the DLL about some of these criteria.

Edit #2 Interesting note that Half of these statements are in the "DiologQueryCreator" part of the dll, and others are in the "InterviewData" part of the dll... so when I said that the interviews seemed to be all over the place, I was right.

So much potential here for whoeever wants to write stuff. We could probably create an entire question set for practice and qualifying if we wanted. Or discuss any random drivers in the race. The potential is really quite massive. For the answers to interviews we can have many effects

• player driver, or other driver morale changes,
• chairman happiness changes
• mechanic relationship changes
• any trait for any driver
• team marketability
• Reaction to performance (happy, angry.... don't really know how this works

The most powerful of these, is the driver traits.... to which, I've found an easy method to now create more of these quickly too.
Also, thanks to Bey for his interview screenshots showing me all the unique working ones so I could make this list. keep it going and let me know if any more turn up.