Talk: Potential Features [Tyre Temperatures, KERS and Engine, Push Settings and League Options]

But I wanted your opinion and your okay. Cause I know some things others don't and sometimes those are things I can't talk about.

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Greeting guys.
For the past few weeks after returning, some of the forum posts made by others have taken my attention and I have found my way to come up with spin-off ideas.

I'd like to discuss them with you and what they could do for the game.

Tyre Temperature changes.
It's no secret that the tyres are bone cold, as if they were filled with Liquid Nitrogen upon leaving the pitbox or the starting grid. Suffice to say, we lose about 12-20% (40% in Monaco in colder months) of our races, trying to warm up our tyres instead of rejoining the battle and fighting for position.

Talking with Jack, we discussed two possibilities of improvement for the gameplay. One short and one Longterm change.
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[*]The short term is to reduce the Temperature difference between Cold and Optimum, reducing the Warm Up period. This would help drivers quickly get back into the race without losing 2-5 seconds a stint warming up the tyres.
[*]The long term idea is to introduce Tyre Blankets that would pre-heat the tyres of the Manager's Choice, colder or warmer or just right, so that the tyres are available just as the person wants. This would greatly help those who are unable to attend their races and also help formulate new strategies, rather than waiting for the Hard Tyres to warm up in Cold conditions, making both compounds more viable each race.
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Improving Controls with Engines, Kers, Driver and Tyres
Another discussion with Jack I had was to also add some more variables and management to the game while on track. Some of the things spoken about between myself and other drivers also included a complete overhaul of the Push System, breaking it down into different variables, as it's possible to save fuel but use tyres more and vice versa. The different settings would change how each manager would operate their team, and also formulate different strategies.
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[*]Revamping the KERS system to operate how it is suppose to with similarities to how it is now. The KERS system would have three modes: Cruise Mode, Overtake Mode and Harvest Mode. While in Cruise and Overtake Mode, the car can use it's KERS on track, but at this time, it cannot recharge in this state. The differences between Cruise Mode and Overtake mode, would instruct the driver how to use KERS. To use it to take a position, or to improve his/her laptimes.. However when set to Harvest Mode, the car will not be able to deploy it's KERS but would be recharging the KERS like it does now at the start of the race. There is a huge catch to prevent, rapid use. The KERS Mode cannot be switched until the car has began a new lap. So if you are starting or mid lap, you can switch the system, however the mode switch will not occur until the car has completed it's current lap. This would encourage more use of KERS and again change how people operate their race strategy. Also KERS would drain faster than it would charge, so careful and decisive use would be key to using them correctly.
[*]Engines are the core part of the car, aside from the input of the driver. More control during the race, to save fuel or run in higher settings to go faster, or to save the engine and fuel to prolong a stint or keep a good engine for the next race. Being able to turn up the engine and increase the fuel flow would lead to a mixture of strategies and sometimes different to each driver. This can also revalue the Technical Stats which are deemed to slow the driver down in current builds. Further more, a change in the allocation of Engines would make things alot exciting, to better manage one's engine. This would be different depending on each tier of a league. Rookies would have 10 Engines available to them per race, 8 for Pro and 5 for Elite.
[*]Then you have your driver who will change his style depending on the current circumstances on the track. You have alot of tyre left, but not enough fuel. Turn down the fuel but use up more rubber and so on. Also an option for your driver to Fight or Not fight for position could really benefit strategy, tied into the Push System. Rebalancing how much Pushing effects tyre Temperature should help improve more fighting but less destruction to the race.
[*]Tyres. There is alot of talk about adding Super Soft and Medium Compounds to each race to better suit the weather and season of each circuit. In doing so could help improve some races which are prolonged or just simply, AFKable without much consequence (MONACO).
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Expanding League Options
So Leagues are the backbone of this game, however they are all the same, excluding the times and how many people can compete and how many cars per team. Perhaps further customization and rules unique to each League could spice it up and offer different styles of racing. Lets look at some possible options.
[list]
[*]Fueling Rules. Perhaps a limit to the fuel capacity of each car? Say 40L maximum per stint, or simply no refueling in pitstops, making the cars operate. Rebalancing the gameplay to not prolong races would be idea, for that change, different engine configuration for non-refueling leagues.
[*]Multiple Races. Each event could host multiple races like GP2 does. Run once at 50%, take a 10min break and run another race distance, like 25%.
[*]Tyre Rules. Just like in F1, each car must use two different types of the Slick Dry Tyres, or have a One Dry Tyre Rule.
[*]Tyre Allocation. Along with adding new compounds (Super Soft and Medium), perhaps the League owner could decide which tyre is used at which event?
[*]Drag Reduction System. Configure how effective DRS works, or if it's even allowed?
[*]Kinetic Energy Recovery. Configure how effective KERS works, or if it's even allowed?
[*]Race Calendar. Some people arn't big fans of certain tracks, or want to run different orders. It seems like a popular suggestion.
[*]League Funding. Here's a fun one for the League owner and it's participants. Perhaps each race requires a cost of a sum to use, and you must contract Sponsors. You also then set the entry fees of each race and team, aswell as choose Per Race/Season prize money.
[*]Supplier Rules.  Choose which suppliers or limit to one supplier for the whole grid, (Pirelli for F1, Renault for GP2).
[*]Contract Lengths. Choose how long supplier, driver, sponsor and race contracts last for. Per Race or Per Season!
[*]Session Options. Choose whether or not your league hosts multiple Qualification Sessions, One shot or Time Limit Sessions and how many practice runs each car gets.
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Race and Qualifying Goals - Added 15th April
With the race goal system currently in place, it is currently very unrewarding to not win or score points in each race. Each grid has several tiers of teams where they have their own set of goals. Perhaps tying that with contracts with Drivers, Suppliers and Sponsors could help mediate who gets what and not everyone having the same items[/b]
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[*]Judging where you started in last season standings, your cars are given a set goals for the season and race. Demoted and Promoted Teams are treated to go to the top 5 for demoted and bottom 4 for promoted in that regard.
[*]After the first Eight races, the season goals are reconsidered due to current season performance in the standings.
[*]Teams scoring reaching or exceeding a goal of finishing a race of 15th of higher should be rewarded with potential better supplier, sponsor, staff and driver interest.
[*]The interests in contracts do not differ from the top end to bottom end. If you are continuously fail to meet goals at the bottom of the grid, you will receive the same reputation loss as a 'top' team failing to meet their end.
[*]This rewards people for participating more, not just in attending races but through strategic thinking.
[*]This can go towards Design or Economical goals, like reaching a certain % of the car or in 2.0 a certain value of Downforce or Handling.
[*]End of season rewards from suppliers and sponsors would vary depending on how much of the goals you were able to obtain.
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Suppliers costs and availability - Added 15th April
Suppliers are widely available, yet usually not always used. Some suppliers would prefer just getting their name into the sport?
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[*]Suppliers offer cheaper costs if the less teams using their hardware in a league and tier.
[*]If a supplier is only supplying 1 team in that league and tier and that team has very high reputation with them, then that team will get those supplies and have a reduced cost to their Driver Contracts.
[*]The supplier with the lowest teams in each league tier would gain a Loyalty bonus faster than other than suppliers with more teams contracted with them.
[*]These effects require at least sixteen cars on the grid.
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Liking the ideas, especially the Tyre Compounds as In my mind would have probably a more significant impact on races than the Supplier Update that we had a couple of months ago. 

For me, this is cart infront of horse & distracting.

There are many things which need to be fixed. I would prefer to see those being addressed before any changes or new features are considered

Love the new ideas but it would be much better if many of the old annoying bugs are fixed before anything new is added, otherwise the game would be over-flowing with irritaiting bugs.

Seems like we've talking about getting the old bugs sorted for ages , The game needs freshening up loads of people have left because nothing has changed. 

I have to say this one is my favorite, I think it could be easily implementable. It will greatly improve engine allocation, 75 engines per season in Elite, can we also have the option to sell the one we don't use?

League options you've detailed arn't as important as far as i'm concerned as getting the right balance with promotion options for tiers in a league.
The Kers option seems a little odd, setting 3 different modes for the driver to use? At the moment drivers seem to want to use it in corners and breaking zones, so without a complete overhaul on the ai controlling that any change seems redundant. The change also sounds more complicated than it should be. Keep it simple.
Other than that the changes i'd find would add to the game.
Especially promissing would be tire warmers and the engine changes. (it currently takes a ridiculous amount of time to warm hard tires)
It has to be said though i'm going to echo what's already been said, old bugs needs fixing. And given in the last year the only change to the service i've noticed is that it doesn't crash every race now i'm not entirly sure how much of a change is likely to happen.
As Tyler says, little changes.

I like some of those ideas.

I would reduce the size of the leagues from 36 to 24 cars maximun (in all tiers). Why? First, because it's more similar to real F1 having "only" 24 cars. Also, i'ts pretty annoying being in a league where 26 of 36 cars (72% of total) always stay out of points (not my case, i'm always on top). I think the way it is makes more managers become inactive because they get tired of being at the bottom and out of points places. That would also make leagues more active because nowadays you have 36 cars but many times half or more are from inactive managers, so with 24 cars leagues would be more and best filled.

The other idea is to be able to set push level by stint. Sometimes you just can't be live racing, and you only have the option to leave a push level for the whole race, which is very bad for any strategy. With the option to set push level for every stint, you could better prepare the strategy for the race and be more competitive, even without being there.
Or having the possibility of choosing how many laps we want to do with some push level, for example: 3 first laps Push Level 4/5, 5 next laps PL 3/5, next 5 laps PL 2/5, and so on. We choose the nº of laps and select a push level for them.

Promotion options wouldn't be changed, possibly to prevent exploitation. It's a ranking requirement system that you unlock should you do sufficient.

Actually the grid size of F1 is 26 cars and the current grid size is set to 32 not 36.

+1000

I agree with most of the ideas, with the exception of the tyre temperature changes, I like the way it is now and I say it not because what happen in the begining, but what you have to do to keep a temperature which give you the best performance in the race, it's kind of complicated now to reduce the times in a future. In the development, right now, the difference on how many designers you give to a part, is the time, if it is possible, I would like that it could also affect the amount of %, i dont know if I'm clear.. for example, if I put 20 designers to the internals, it say to me that tomorrow its going to be ready, and if I put 30, it shows me the same time, which it's going to reach the same amount of %, what I'm telling you is that with 30 (designers) it could achieve some more % reached. Finally, the practice sessions it would be awesome if you can see the lap time, and in future, to have the opportunity to prove the differents tyre compounds, pushing levels and fuel (amounts). The others tyre compounds are too far to be implemented?

*Sorry for my English..

Well that's as far as i'm concerned is the biggest problem. And likely to see many more that have made elite leave.

KERS needs to be eliminated in favor of an IndyCar-style Push-to-Pass system. KERS hoarding has been one of the biggest killers of my enthusiasm for this game since I started.

My subscription runs until August and if I don't see a sizeable update for this game then I'm afraid I'll be leaving , I've had a totally enjoyable time playing this game but for me I've backed it by subscribing to it but had not much back  for the last 18 months. I appreciate all the time and effort put in by the devs but my patience is running out. Sorry guy's :(

Tyre Blankets (i.e. tyres are pre-warmed to a degree) -> great idea & easily implementable i would think. No need to allow manager control over the heat level. Just not stone cold!

Pre-Race push strats lap by lap-> great idea for non-attenders, although less of a need for this is the above is implemented.

Some of the league settings ideas are good, but are fringe issues and would take significant time to develop where as there are higher priority dev issues I would think (bugs, new tracks etc).

The main thing I'm concerned about with most of the other ideas is that they will significantly add to the complexity of both the user experience, and of the simulator. They will also increase the opaquety of the game. By that I mean you will have no idea why the guy at the head of the league is so much faster, and you have little chance of finding out unless he decides to share his tips. It make the game even more time consuming in terms of research and forum lurking required to find fast strategies which will turn a lot of people off. Stick to the basics to keep more people. Provide more incentives for them to subscribe, without making non-subscribers uncompetitve. In the end, more subscribers buy more development (I hope) so that should be the ultimate goal.

Other things that needs closer attention and rebalancing are:
-Economy: Money is too easy to come by and sponsors are are given. My suggestion is to have a system where sponsors set (seemingly) random requirements upon the team at the start of the season and the sponsor leaves or reduces their funding if requirements are not met. Requirements such as performance improvement obviously, but also tougher ones such as "Hire an X nationality driver" or "Achieve a podium/win at X track" are imposed that forces the manager to make a tough choice. Do I sack my promising driver to hire a different one to appease my sponsor, or do I risk that sponsor leaving/cut my funding in the hope my results will appease them?". It could also be a subscriber perk to have access to different sponsors.

-Java: The bugs seem to be getting worse with drop-outs and loading times, mainly in 2d. I'm not a programmer but it seems to me that another platform is required. The goal should be a multi-OS platform so that Android and iOS devices can play live. This would increase the user base (and funding if done right) significantly . Of course I'm sure it's much easier said than done and would require significant investment.

-Tiers: The disparity between leagues means when someone joins from another league they are often far out of step with the competiveness or lack thereof of the new league in their given tier. I'm not sure what the answer is however. Perhaps allowing a league manager to place a manager in different tiers, however that may be open to exploitation. Realistically that exploitation is already possible in the current system so perhaps it would be an improvement. For another idea see below.

-Development: I remember announcements about a new development system quite some time ago but nothing eventuated? Perhaps development needs to be more tree like where dev points are spent to develop the car in different areas. The rate at which you earn points depends on the number of designers you have. You can also spy in certain areas and you have a chance of free development if you spy on a car that has well progressed development in the area you choose to spy on. Each stage you develop an area opens up a number of possibilites for further development. Do you develop an all-rounder car, or do you specialise in a certain area (aero, power, drivability, electronics (KERS) etc). An example is if you highly developed aero AND power it unlocks the 'coander effect exhaust'. Focusing on drivability AND electronics might unlock 'active suspension' etc. These 'key technologies' would be unlocked after significant development in these areas at significant detriment to the other areas. This development could carry over between seasons and could be a solution for the tier system. Once a driver has developed X points they move onto the next tier.

FWIW I could go on, but thats an idea of the way I think.

do all the things, and get 10 times more paying members. All the ideas sounds fine, if done properly.

TJ, I get this but don't see PTP as the solution you think it is.  IndyCar has what, 200 seconds or so of PTP (or at least I think it did at Long Beach this past weekend) broken up into 10 pushes.  What stops me from saving it all for the last 2-3 laps (which is more than we get now, I think you can get like 1.5 laps of KERS now) and basically running all my PTP back to back for those couple laps straight, there is no delay in activation or refresh time in the Indy rules so it could be hoarded just like KERS is now. 

Putting a limit on KERS using a variation on the original suggestion (harvest, cruise, use) combined with either a per-lap usage limit (the PTP 10 second bursts) or by having a smaller KERS bank (i.e. you can't harvest more then x% of the total allowable KERS per race) would be more effective in preventing hoarding.

Heck, put the original tire changes back from when the supplier update occured, in our 50% league that caused all sorts of shakeups and wildly varying strategies that really made things more interesting. I know from reading the forums that 100% leagues were all screwed up with 9 pits stops, etc. but in our league they were perfect. Scale the wear to the race distance % so we are closer to those original wear and heat numbers so the 100% leagues aren't screwed up again.  When they reverted those changes it was a horrible for us, it basically took us back to where there is an ideal strategy for every track and pretty much everyone is on the same strategy within a lap or 2 every race and other than passing the "qualottery" winners who started way over their heads there isn't generally a lot of change in the top 5-10 from 1 race to another let alone passing on the track.

This could be solved by allowing the league admin to define the points sctructure in a given league. Could even give points down to 32nd place, meaning everyone has a challenge. If coming to the end of the season you are battling, even if it is for 10th place, at least it is a battle and not just eveyrone on zero.

As concerns the other changes: as ever, they would work very differently for leagues that are 50% or 100% and for players that are active or not. By quite how much it is hard to say. I would mainly say that choice, on the part of the league administrator, to setup the various options or not, is the ideal.

One addition:  Give managers the chance to remove and reuse engines..

Say for example elite managers are only allowed 5 engines for the season, then lets say you use engine 1 for a race, you should be able to use a brand new engine, engine 2 for the second race and reuse engine 1 for some other race

Yeah i know, i was almost asleep when i wrote those... sorry :D