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).

 

[TheFlamingRed]

So, I have two new features which will be making it into the next version of my mod. One simple yet effective, the other is going to take some explaining and balancing but is a big overhaul.

New Feature 1: Promotion Overhaul
When you promoted from ERS to APSC or from APSC to WDC, you are given car parts which are already the 8th best in the new series. This means that you’re guaranteed to never have the worst car and mean, for the player, that it’s very unlikely to be relegated outright. I have changed it so the performance of these new 8th best parts are now decreased to 80% of their value (I.e., instead of getting a 1000 performance part, you’d get an 800 performance part). This new part maybe 9th or 10th best depending on the state of the championship. This should make it that getting promoted will not guarantee you to stay in your new league as easily as vanilla.

As a side note, when you are relegated, you’re given (appoximatly) the 2nd best parts of the series. I’ve not changed this as…. I’ve never been relegated. But I think this is fair now you have more chance of being demoted.

Please let me know if this feature doesn’t work as intended, or you see something weird happening. Testing this feature takes a season, so my test to ensure this feature works has a sample size grand total of: 1.

New Feature 2: A New Form of Balance!

Firstly, let’s go over the pros and cons of my current balance component in the Injector: + X Days Part Creation Time.

The reason I needed to create this method of balance was because the Player can smartly choose his component slots – which normally means that the player develop their car approximately 100 better performance than most of the AI can develop their cars per season (with equal Performance buildings) – which is huge strides which I wanted to slow down.

• Biggest Pro[10/10]: It slows the player from creating lots of parts, outpacing the development of the AI.
• Pro[8/10]: I’ve got it so you can select a number of days to max your playstyle. Also. you can change it anytime by loading the injector.

• Con[6/10]: You can’t develop your car as much – and developing your car is fun and important part of the game.
• Con[4/10]: HQ performance buildings are not needed as much, as you cannot develop as many parts and as such, cannot progress up many performance levels.
• Biggest Con[10/10]: As you’re developing less parts, you’re also not spending money developing those parts. As such, you’re expending less and you can accumulate money quite quickly and abundantly as originally Car Development is meant to be your biggest expenditure. As such, this destabilised money balancing – allowing players to accumulate small fortunes!

So I’ve been trying to find other ways of balancing the game, in ways which help the AI and don’t help the player. And the other day I stumbled onto the first thing which fits this description:

PLAYER TECH DEGRADES and AI TECH BOOSTS!

Backstory: Every ‘Pre-Season’ Event your old car parts are binned and you’re old ‘Best Components’ become your ‘Normal Components’. Each of these components make up something called the ‘BASE STAT’ for that part. When you design new parts, this “BASE STAT” is used as a base for the part performance (which is Base Stat + Designer Stat + Component stats = Your outcome part). You are probably already aware this is how the system works.

What this feature will do, is take this BASE STAT and manipulate it depending on if you are the AI or if you are the player and go through the ‘Pre-Season’ event in the game.

PLAYER TECHNOLOGY DECAY
For the Player’s Team only, the BASE STAT for newly developed components is dropped by 5%! (Your original parts are untouched). I will call this process PLAYER DECAY from now on.

This prevents the player from outpacing the development of the AI teams during APSC and WMC. This also promotes the player to extensively develop lots and lots of parts to keep up with the AI! It’s also going to make the player prioritise Performance HQ buildings more, I have found them to be under powered as the Player makes far smarter component choices then the AI. How it works is as follows:

e.g., If your original BASE STAT was 100, it will now be 95 (not much difference, any part increase will still improve your part).
e.g., If your original BASE STAT was 1200, it will now be 1140 (A little different, an AVERAGE part will be worse still, but a GOOD/GREAT or better part will be much better still).
e.g., If your original BASE STAT was 3000, it will now be 2850 (quite a big difference. Note: You can improve a part upto 205 using only EPIC parts, and by upto 275 using LEGENDARY parts).

This means that you’ll be in a position where you have to decide between “I need to upgrade aggressively to improve” or “I won’t develop this part at all as I won’t be able to develop it enough” or “I won’t develop parts at all as I NEED to build a new HQ building to make my parts better overall!”

This also makes the PLAYER DECAY far less after a Series has been ‘Reset’ and at a lower performance limit rather than when the Series is getting towards ‘The End’ of its performance limit. This means it’s easy to outpace the AI early on (though still harder then vanilla), but much harder to do this later. Infact, as the season progresses, even if you try your hardest and become the team with the Best Car, you may still find some AI slowly overtake you in performance – meaning you’re really having to fight to stay the best! (Something the original game lacks, as once you hit the best, you can always stay ahead). This means long term planning and multi-season strategies are now at play!

The PLAYER DECAY is however, far less effective in ERS where performance totals are far less. This is evened out by:

AI TECHNOLOGY BONUS
For the AI Team’s only The BASE STAT for newly developed parts as a +25 Performance Bonus (Hereafter referred to as TECH BONUS).

This helps the AI in both ERS and ASPC to have more chance to stay ahead of the player when developing their car, because the PLAYER DECAY is far less in these leagues). The AI will still have this bonus in WMC, but 25 points is nearly negligible in that league which features Legendary parts – but PLAYER DECAY will have more of a factor here.

AI in financial difficulty and choosing not to develop parts will obviously not be able to take advantage of this feature. They are the player’s Pray!

How this changes the Balance

• The AI is in a stronger position when it comes to developing their car, the player is now in a weaker position when it comes to developing their car.
• The Player must now develop lots of new parts to (1) Overcome the PLAYER DECAY and make performance progress. (2) Overcome the TECH BONUS for the AI. (3) Overcome the original increase in performance the AI develops.
• Progression will now be slower (even without the injector’s +X Days).
• Progression will be much slower the further away from the ‘reset’ you get.
• The AI may now actually be able to outpace you in development!!! Being the top team in a league will be very difficult over time – giving you more challenge as you hope to defend your championships while no longer having the best car!
• ERS/ASPC/WDC are basically ‘Difficulty levels’ because the Decay amount increases with each league. WDC now being an actual CUT-THROAT CHALLENGING league, (as it should be!)
• HQ Performance buildings now actually mean something in lower tiers – and are essential for the player in WMC!

As such, I'll recommend ditching the “Injector’s +X Day Penalty” as it’s not needed anymore… Unless you’re in search of even a harder challenge! In fact, I’ll be releasing a “+ 0 Days” and back to the “-1 Days” injector to return people to default settings. And maybe even a "-2 Days" version if you want a little easier a time, as I intend for the game to be challenging.

NOTE: The Player also has this bonus during Season 1 (because it doesn’t have a pre-season and the script won’t realise you’re the player team until then) or when you move team (until you go through the pre-season event at the end of your current season).

NOTE: Actual figures I’ve used above are subject to change. I am going to spend a few days testing before releasing it.

NOTE: Yes, it will be compatible with existing saves. But you will not notice the PLAYER DECAY until the following season.

I’ll end with some Pros and Cons of this new system.

• Biggest Pro[10/10]: Performance Gains are balanced. To stay competitive / progress you really have to develop lots, maximising your parts. This is the gameplay mechanic as it was intended to be – because it’s fun and we like to see numbers go up!
• Biggest Pro[10/10]: Because you are developing as much as possible, you will be spending lots of money! This actually fixes a lot of the money balance problems in the game!
• Major Pro[9/10]: Dynamic and long term gains and losses. As the game progresses, your performance parts go from 0-600ish (ERS), 200-1500ish (APSC) and 600-3000ish (WDC) which means your 5% Decay amount increases the further your championship is towards is towards the upper bound. You’ll have the most advantage at the lower bounds, after resets. If you can get yourself to be a top team at that point, you need to fight tooth and nail, season after season to keep your advantage. Eventually, no matter what, you’re going to struggle again as the best teams will overtake you – meaning you have to try and take on better teams again – rather than always being ahead.
• Pro[7/10]: The points above promote long term playing, as it’s going to take longer to progress and stay on top. It makes playing as the top team a struggle to stay at the top. It also makes ‘moving to better teams’ a better option (particularly as you are starting from 2,2,2 initial stats) as progressing lower teams to upper tiers is going to be a very long process (but a challenge you will still enjoy if you are loyal to your team).
• Pro[7/10]: It promotes improving your HQ Lots! It’s going to be a necessity to keep pace with the bonuses the AI gets and the Decay you feel. ERS is far less effected by these changes then WDC, but it will still be a very viable option to make some part improvement buildings.

• Con[7/10]: Difficulty is no longer configurable unless I made a half dozen or so Assembly files… which is possible and something I will do when the very final version of the mod is complete. But isn’t something I can do while the devs actively develop the game.
• Con[5/10]: Fine tuning balance – Because difficulty is no longer configurable, getting perfect balance is going to take time. It maybe too easy, maybe too hard (and this is also going to be subjective to players tastes). Getting it just right will take time, so please bear with me. However, as a mini-Pro: Any changes (Decay or Bonus) I make though should apply to existing games (though you will have to wait until the end of the season for the new numbers to take effect).
• Minor Con[1/10]: This applies only from Season 2 (because in Season 1 there’s no pre-season where this mod takes effect). This however is balanced because of the starting money of your team is out of your hands, and normally means you cannot aggressively develop too much anyway – particularly with smaller teams). This biggest thing is, you’re also going to get the same +25 bonus the AI gets too. No way around that – but at least the AI gets the same bonus so you’re on a level playing field.
• Minor Con[1/10]: When you swap teams, you’ll get the AI bonuses and no Decay on your new team until you go through the Pre-season phase. I don’t consider this a big problem though as I call this “Bringing your expert knowledge to a new team +25 bonus”, and then it’s replaced by the normal Decay penalty as you develop brand new tech.

Feel free to ask some questions of this new feature before it goes live.

 

[Trainer]

Sounds good.

If u like i Can Test something in Tier 1?

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Sounds good.

If u like i Can Test something in Tier 1?

I'll be uploading this tonight. This is going to be such a big/long term balance change that I need lots of people to play and feedback how they're progressing so I can fine tune the amounts.

 

[Trainer]

Ok i will Test it in Tier 1 with Short races taking a average Team

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Updated to 1.2e working with the latest build.
Please read post 141 for information on the main new mechanic.
Change log is on the first page of this thread as normal

Just to reiterate, using the injector is no longer recommended for best balance. Those already using it would be wise to restore the game to a +0 days at the end of your current season for the best experience.

 

[Trainer]

It is working with the Christmas Beta Patch too?

 

[TheFlamingRed]

I don't think there's any real difference between the beta and normal patch anymore. We all got an update recently.

 

[Trainer]

every part with +20 Looks like so!

+120 komponents + 80 Red Zone!

ok i look into ur part components i think u know it.

Is this for the ai?

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Oops.... I was testing component records... thought I reset it to normal... I'll have to reupload the assets again

 

[Trainer]

I think this is a nice boost for the ai!

What i saw is the ai is going for every part to 100% the reliability.

Maybe its better to reduce the max reliability if u developed.

Because the player is going for 70-80%reliability and the ai is losing Time to improve the Parts.

1 question. Which file Must i changed for the Price Money. I think 100.000.000 is enough.

I did Not found it in the ressource (Championship)

 

[TheFlamingRed]

I think this is a nice boost for the ai!

What i saw is the ai is going for every part to 100% the reliability.

Maybe its better to reduce the max reliability if u developed.

Because the player is going for 70-80%reliability and the ai is losing Time to improve the Parts.

1 question. Which file Must i changed for the Price Money. I think 100.000.000 is enough.

I did Not found it in the ressource (Championship)

But the problem is the player gets the +120 as well I really was convinced I took it out, but obviously I didn't. I am now uploading a fixed version. It appears the fix will be save game comparable, though it's only loaded once per season. So avoid it for your current season and it'll be gone the next season once you put in the new file.

The AI do like to go to 100% reliability, but given that they often struggle with reliability I think they should keep it. I can make maximum reliability 80% but the AI would struggle too much.

Prize money is definitely in Championships text asset. I believe it's marked as 125 as opposed to 125,000,000.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

1.2e assets has been fixed.
The previous 1.2e release had an errant +120performance part in level 1. If you've got this in your current game, it should be gone in the following season nice you replace the asset.

 

[Zero260]

Will try this new update today. Does this include the 10% red zone penalty present in the previous version as well?

 

[TheFlamingRed]

Will try this new update today. Does this include the 10% red zone penalty present in the previous version as well?

Sure does.

 

[Zero260]

If I loaded a save game before the pre-season comes, will this take effect during the next season on my current save game?

 

[TheFlamingRed]

If I loaded a save game before the pre-season comes, will this take effect during the next season on my current save game?

yes

 

[Dimastiy]

Hello, which name in resources (i guess it's thhere) contains +10 redzone, want to get rid of it ?

Thanks!

 

[Trainer]

Hi Flaming

i saw a big Problem. i tested a lot and the Problem is the AI had a bad Chassis in 2017 (1-2star)

 

[BrianUK]

I can confirm there seems to be something up with their chassis choices. Every team had severely bad tyre wear. Inters on my car were lasting 21-23 laps, they were lucky to get 13.

Oddly, this is my second season with the updated mod, and I never saw any of this in the previous season. Maybe they are wasting all their cash on parts in the prior year, and have nothing to spend on the car? Might explain how ZRT went from 10th best to 1st in 2 seasons. [EDIT] - I did note poor furl economy of some cars, come to think of it.

Just checked Lucatelli, at the end of their second ERS season, and their chassis is all under 1 star.

https://gyazo.com/857b635ee7795b005100ad5fb0f58f0a

Also managed to check Ruiz, who has never moved championship, and their chassis is awful too.

 

[TheFlamingRed]

I can confirm there seems to be something up with their chassis choices. Every team had severely bad tyre wear. Inters on my car were lasting 21-23 laps, they were lucky to get 13.

Oddly, this is my second season with the updated mod, and I never saw any of this in the previous season. Maybe they are wasting all their cash on parts in the prior year, and have nothing to spend on the car? Might explain how ZRT went from 10th best to 1st in 2 seasons. [EDIT] - I did note poor furl economy of some cars, come to think of it.

Just checked Lucatelli, at the end of their second ERS season, and their chassis is all under 1 star.

Odd, I've never seen them radically change their chassis decisions. I've only added a couple of 'price reductions' of the chassis parts, in creased the max stat for engines a little. I've not touched how the AI select their chassis - so I am reluctant to see if this is actually my mod.

So questions for you both:
What where their finances like before you joined them?
Do you get the same thing in the unmodded game (using the new 1.2 version)?
What was their final position in the previous year? - and what was their Merit Payment rules?

The latter is a potential for why they can't build a decent car, but that should only worry the worst teams, the better teams should end up with far more then before. It's really the only idea I have. Why they would struggle with that.

Otherwise I am not too worried - the AI have a tendency to naturally make poor decisions. I have seen many low star chassis in Tier 2/3 during Vanilla. Even in WMC it was common to see many teams simple have a weak 2* average chassis. But do another season, let me know if the trend continues - if it's consistently bad, then I'll push further. Espionage as many teams as you can, and let me know.

Meanwhile, I'll look at the Chassis Weightings each team has, to if you're just picking teams which priorities other things. I assume your player stats are quite low still? Which means you're applications are being rejected from bigger teams who perhaps are developing thier chassis. I have a feeling this may be the reason.

As for tyre wear, chassis choices are making a much larger difference, as does driver smoothness, their heat and how the AI is using them. However. that level of difference is extreme. Interns specifically have far less change (2 laps) between the best chassis and worst chassis. Do you have much better drivers who are not locking up, while the AI have drivers that do?