New Circuit: Azerbaijan
It's time for the first circuit in iGP Manager to feature castle walls! The new Azerbaijan circuit will be included in all league schedules generated from this point onwards, and is available to race immediately in Quick Races.
As this is the last new circuit to launch before custom league schedules, we have opted not to remove or replace any old tracks this time. Malaysia would also have been the one to remove, and is a personal favourite of mine; I couldn't bring myself to remove it from the calendar! It's a circuit with really interesting strategic options.
Our intention was always to introduce custom league schedules after several new tracks were added, and that will come next.
Coming soon: custom league seasons
Soon, league hosts will be able to select the circuits that their league races on each season. The length of the season will also change optimal for gameplay balance. We are anticipating that it could be just 14 or 15 races per season in the final release.
Here are some reasons why 14 or 15 races are ideal:
- Roughly, it makes two seasons per month for leagues racing daily
- Design will be a challenge both at the beginning and end of the season, preventing maxed out attributes or equal cars starting the season
- It's likely race participation will increase, as it's often clear who is competitive long before a season is over, leading many uncompetitive teams to "wait for the next season" to enage more in the races. The shorter seasons will hit the reset button more often, reducing the wait time.
Advanced strategy improvements rollout
As mentioned in my blog around the start of September, we have been working on improvements to advanced strategy. They are being released in two stages, the first of which is happening now, alongside this blog.
- The first stage, released tonight, improves AI behaviours and address bugs with them not respecting adavanced strategy. They will also prevent advanced strategy from "hijacking" the strategy during a race while the manager is attending. Once you are in the race viewer, you will be solely responsible for strategy, regardless of what you have set on advanced strategy.
- The second stage, coming with the next app update, likely to take a few weeks longer, will add the ability to change tyres before the start of a race when there are sudden changes in weather conditions.
Separate announcements will be made when each of the new features mentioned in this blog are released.