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Developing strategy guide

In this thread I want to give you a simple guide to reach the optimal developing strategy for your team.

First of all, you have to swap 2 Chief Designers during the season.
Use one CD for the first 7/8 races (6 are enough), then you swap to another CD for the remaining races.

This will permit you to have 2 areas at the maximum initial value for the next season (50 points), and 2 areas with 33 points instead the single worst at 21.

CDs have strenght areas and weakness: you have to choose 2 CDs with 4 different areas (2 strengths, 2 weaknesses).

Pay attention that the best strategy is to have CDs with Acceleration as strength and one between Braking or Handling, but Acceleration is the "must-have".
As weaknesses, absolutely Reliability and Cooling System, they have a really low effect on the car performances.

So, in this way you will start with:

• 2 areas at 50


• 4 areas at 43


• 2 areas at 33

But now we have to analyze the bonus/malus given by suppliers.

The best thing to do is to choice suppliers who maximize the Acceleration area.

Engines:

• Murk: +10 Acceleration, -6 Fuel


• Tifosi: +10 Braking, -6 Fuel


• Toymotor: +10 Handling, -6 Fuel


• Rednote: +10 Aerodynamics, -5 Acceleration


• Wonder: +10 Fuel, -4 Acceleration


• Cosurworthit: +5 Tyres

Oils:

• Elves: +4 Acceleration, -2 Fuel


• Seashells: +3 Fuel, -1 Fuel


• Beep: +3 Acceleration, -1 Fuel


• Chavon: +2 Fuel


• Subtotal: +5 Fuel, -3 Acceleration

Tyres:

• Komehome: +3 Tyres


• Goodweek: +5 Handling, -3 Tyres


• Bridgerock: +5 Braking, -3 Fuel


• Donelots: +5 Tyres, -1 Handling


• Michigan: +3 Acceleration, -3 Tyres

Choose with attention your suppliers, because they change the initial values of your cars.

In my experience, the best thing to do is maximize the strongest areas of the game sacrificing the 4 with lower effect on performance.

So, I start the season with:
Murk+Elves+Michigan

In this way, I will have +17 points in Acceleration, -8 in Fuel and -3 in Tyres.

It's very important to maximize the Acceleration because it's the area with the highest impact in the performance of the car.

Even if you will have less points in Fuel and Tyres, don't worry, it would be not a real problem.

Why not choosing also other areas?
By two main reasons:
1) Because you would never want to permit your opponent having higher value than you in Acceleration, and 
2) Because the gain in other areas will be too marginal compared to the gain you will have in a single area.

Obviously you could choose other suppliers, for example you could choose Goodweek instead of Michigan, so you will have +14 in Acceleration and others +5 in Handling.
This choice make you lose 3 points in Acceleration instead of Michigan, but Handling is also a nice feature.

I really discourage the other suppliers in the start of the season, because they don't let you to maximize the strongest area of the game.

Now, the spying strategy.
This is a mistery, because the game don't reveal you how much points you are late in every single area.
It's a lottery.

Obviously you have to invest only in areas under 100 and only if the icon is green (if is Red, you will not have any gain after the race).

How much areas choose?
It depends on your level and on the percentage you will have.
The best thing is never go under 11% because of the round effect.

So, choose one more area if the total is still over 10%.

In the first race, you have to choose Braking, Handling, Aerodynamics and Fuel (-8 is too much and you have to gain some points immediately).

At the end of the race, invest only in Acceleration.
This will let you having the maximum value (100) already at the 3rd race.
Remember that with +17, you have to stop at 83!
83+17 = 100

Race by race, increment Handling, Aero and Braking until the maximum value (combined with your bonus).

Maximized these 4 areas, concentrate on Tyres and Fuel.
When you are near to the max values, it's time to change suppliers!

Choose suppliers who maximize Fuel and Tyres.
You will lose the bonuses in the other areas, but you can immediately invest in them in way to reset them to 100.

This because at that point of the season you will not have to have any deficit in any area, even Fuel and Tyres.

Reliability and Cooling are not important, invest in them only in last races of the season!

Some good advice here but IMO there's also some debateable points and some things are just wrong.
Research is neither a mystery nor a lottery. You can work out the difference, you just need to be inventive.
A difference of 27 points in an attribute with 11% research power yields 3 DP. So does 8%. So the advice about never going below 11% is wrong. Again a simple spreadsheet will allow you to maximise research.
It is not necessary to max on acceleration to the detriment of everything else. In fact it can be a very bad move. If your competitors know that's your MO they can take advantage and gain big research points. In our league the most successful managers are rarely strongest in any single attribute.
No mention is made of CD strength and weakness affecting research. This needs to be factored into your research strategy.
Two CDs won't necessarily give you the best car at the beginning of the season, it's expensive and they're difficult to find, but at L19 or L20 three or even four CDs can produce a well balanced car at the beginning of the season.
All 4.5 star CDs are not equal. Some will only give you 42 DP over 17 races whereas some give you 43. At 4.5 star the CD level also has an effect.

How many Cd's do you have Kevin?

Four in this account, three in my 10k Skid Marks account.

I respect your opinion, but I think the following:


1. 
The research system is really a lottery.
You never have the exact knowledge of how many points of gap you have in each area, indipendently if you are in advantage or not.
You don't know how many points is the gap, so you gain 12% (ipothetic) over... a non-deterministic reference.
So by the round effect you will have X or X+1 points by the research, you will never know the exact gain.
Obviously, you can see the bars: major distance means major gap, but you will never know how many points is the real gap.
So you can't make an exact preview before the race.
Anyway, lower is the percentage you apply, lower will be the gain you will obtain. The important thing is to never apply a percentage of 10 (10, 20, 30, etc), because the value obtained will be always x.00, so the round will be always by defect (not per excess)

2.
In my experience, the most important area is the Acceleration.
Handling and Braking are also important, but not like Acceleration.
If you start the season with a deficit in Acceleration, it's really probable that you will retain that deficit until you will reach the max value.
And this means losing the first 4/5/6 races.
Furthermore, even if rivals can improve other areas, you can easy spy in the other areas without losing too much in any other area.

3.
Obviously I was talking about staff with at least 4.5 stars, both CDs and DT.
A staff with lower level will not permit you to maximize the research power race by race.

4.
You are wrong.
All 4.5 staff are equivalent in the initial designing points.
If you have 42 (or minus) instead of 43 it depends by the maximum total value of RP of your car that you reached in the season before: if you have lower value it means that your total wasn't enough high before the reset of the design points.

4.5 stars staff will easy let you to maximize the initial value of each area of your car, which depends in your last total that you reached after last race of the season before.

Trust me, I made a championship in where I finished with a low total Design Points (sum of DP of each 8 areas).
I started the next season with 36 instead of 43 for non-strenght areas.

@Alessandro.
The fact that you're trying to help less experienced managers is well intentioned but as I said some of what you say is opinion (not fact) and some is actually wrong.

Previous season car design has absolutely no effect on the design you will see when the cars are revealed for the following season. A L17 manager with a L17 4.5 star CD will yield 43 points over 17 races in all attributes except strength and weakness. If the manager levels up to 18 and retains the same staff, the CD remains at 4.5 stars but will yield 1 less point in every attribute, a shortfall of 7 DP. Only 7? Yes, because if you only have a single CD he/she will still achieve the 50 DP cap for their strength.

The Manager who has won a number of Elite championships in The MJL has a CD whose weakness is..... Acceleration! He is never the strongest team in this attribute yet has won multiple team and drivers championships. So whereas you may feel that acceleration needs to be developed at the expense of everything else, it isn't actually necessary and it's wrong to put this opinion across as an indisputable fact to less experienced managers. It's not a bad design strategy but I don't believe it's the best.

Despite what you say, I can assure you I know EXACTLY the difference in DP between my cars and the strongest in any particular attribute. I use this information to optimise research (spying).

You still don't mention how the CD strength and weakness affects research. If you're researching CD strength you will get more than the indicated research power, if you're researching weakness you will get less than expected. You need to factor this into your research strategy, especially if you change CDs within the season as they will have different strengths and weaknesses.

Although I don't know this for a fact, I believe that each circuit has a different ideal design balance, and it doesn't necessarily  rely on maximising acceleration. If you can find this sweet spot your car will be very competitive. Then it's down to how well you manage the race, because a good car managed badly isn't going to beat a bad car managed well.

Finally, anyone wanting to better understand the game would do well to read both of Joey McLane's guides which are pinned to the top of the Help & Support section of this forum.

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, most of what you put in the original post is good advice that will help anyone new to the game but there are a few factual errors.

Thanks
Kev. 

BTW. I won the last two MJL elite Australian races with this account, one at L17 the other at L18. In fact last season I finished 1-2 at both Australia and Malaysia. I was not the most developed car in Acceleration for any of these races, nor did I use suppliers to give me maximum acceleration design boost. I was competing against L19 and L20 managers so as I said above, whilst acceleration is an important attribute it isn't the silver bullet that some people would have you believe.

Edited later when I wasn't sitting in a car park LOL.

I totally agree with the "sweet spot" per circuit...admittedly I used to max acceleration first etc. ....but recently have had to up my game as had a couple seasons where I jyst didn't feel on my elite winning form and looked at what others were doing and I'm starting to feel like what I'm doing now is better and has reduced the gap I had.....its amazing how this game looks simple but there are many things the elites are doing that can make a big difference. 

Having said that the strategy of development that Allesandro suggests worked for rookie pro and kept me in elite so its ok until your trying to win the elite title

Alessandro, thanks for the tips. 
I have been playing the game for 3 weeks, finished my first season today and got promoted to Pro.
I will definitely try your guideline since my car looks a bit underdeveloped compared to others.

I chose the options on engine, oils and tyres. Just waiting on a bid to get a CD with acceleration as an attribute.

Thanks
BC 

I agree with kevin not always wins the best car I bring you my example .... I run in a very competitive league usually three CDs per season with acceleration and braking as a strength are strengthened at the GP of Japan with the car all at 100 I always follow the live and I have a good experience and yet I not only did not win the championship but I did not win even one race. I'm not scarce but my rivals are too strong. ... Alessandroe comumque excellent advice ....

I don't know how much strong are your opponents in the leagues you are playing, but in my League this strategy is letting me battle for the championship at level 18 against a strong manager of level 20.

I have won 3 of the first 5 races, and I couldn't follow the live in Bahrain because I was doing other thing in that moment...

But I managed to win further 3 races despite the variabile of the new tyres (wear and performance). 

Hi Frank :)
Would you please tell me how you get exact values it would help me understand and plan alot better?
I did try to find out myself on google and used ctrl+u to open to view source like it said but i was seriously confused with what i saw, lol

I couldnt find something close to the kinda values i estimated...i simply dont know what it looks like :s

i am getting pretty close using the ruler tho :D

Regarding ruler... consider using windows snipping tool or similar app to snag an area of the research page. Copy / Paste image into any application which allows you to overlay a grid. IMO easier than holding a ruler up to the screen.
Then all you need is a spreadsheet to determine your best research strategy.

aw thats really smart bro thanks for being awesum and teachin me this i really do appreciate it. I'll use your recommended method in the second post. 
thanks again Kevin :)

some great advice.