How many design points do I get for the first race in the season? A question often asked by new, and sometimes not so new managers. Recently I have received a number of in-game emails asking me to explain and it's time consuming to answer these questions one at a time so...
Below is what I have found out by trial and error since this version of the game was launched in August 2016. I share this with good intentions, I welcome other managers challenging the information and if they can prove it to be wrong I will update/correct it.
Because I have been playing iGP since Jan 2015 my team was already in Elite when it was migrated from the old game in August 2016. I only have experience of the Elite tier and would therefore welcome contributions from other managers who are prepared to share information regarding the other two tiers.
First of all, let's dispel a couple of myths....
You cannot save dp in one season and carry the unused design over to the following season. When a new season is generated all car designs are reset and any unused dp are discarded. I'm not aware of a workaround but please feel free to share if there is one.
None of these have an influence on your starting design:
- Current season ending design.
- HQ levels.
- Technology levels.
- Current season championship points or position.
- Technical Director or Doctor.
The factors that do influence next season starting design are:
- CD(s) level comparative to team/manager level.
- Where multiple CDs are used, the number of races each CD is active in the current season.
- CD(s) strength and weakness.
- The number of races in the current season.
Levelling up during the season will have an effect on next season car design. It will reduce the design unless the CD is upgraded in line with the levelling up of the manager/team. For the purposes of this explanation I will assume that the manager stays at a constant level for the entire season.
The number of races in the current season is a defining factor when calculating next season start design. Until fairly recently this was always 17 races, then it slowly increased to 20 races and is currently fixed at 15 races.
For every race in the current season your CD generates a proportion of the starting design for next season. If the CD is the same level as the manager/team or one level lower but displaying as a FULL 5 star each race will generate:
3.75 dp - designer strength
2.50 dp - standard
1.25 dp - designer weakness
If the CD is lower level than the manager/team the number of dp generated per race is reduced and as a result the next season start design suffers.
The starting design cap in Elite is 50dp, any design that is generated over this cap is wasted. In a 15 race season the start design is much lower so it is not possible to hit this cap on more than one attribute. But if/when custom season lengths are introduced it becomes an important consideration. 17, 18 and 19 race seasons benefit from multiple CDs (3 or 4 if you can find them) but 20 race seasons only requires a single CD to hit the design cap in every attribute except CD weakness. Two CDs with complimentary strength and weakness will allow you to hit the cap in EVERY attribute (see below).
Using the above information it is quite easy to create a spreadsheet to calculate next season design and I would recommend you do this. Below are a number of examples using such a spreadsheet which demonstrate a few different scenarios. It shows what I refer to as "core design" which you can then modify slightly depending on the suppliers you choose.
I hope this helps
Kev.
