Guide

Advanced Strategy in a nutshell

1. Introduction
                                                                       
When track is dry and not likely to change, the managers need to fulfil only the main strategy.

                                                                                                   
But, once it begins to rain they have an important decision to take: use Advanced Strategy (AS) or not.

This small guide is aimed to provide information about the expected behaviours of each available option in the strategy panel. Every piece of information is given only by experience that happened prior this date, as the writer does not have access to the full iGP Manager game code.


2. AS disabled

The managers can choose to not use AS, this means that iGP will pick this tyre compound regardless dry or wet condition. Although, it is also possible to experience a scenario in which the managers did not have time to save a strategy. For those, iGP will pick a default medium tyre for dry races and intermediate tyre for wet races.


3. AS enabled

Once the AS is enabled, it is expected that the race simulator can have 2 extra options when weather conditions change. One should note that every time the manager attends to live race, the AS is automatically disabled for the rest of the race i.e. it doesn't turn back on if you log out. Thus, the managers need to fix all the following stints accordingly to the current conditions.


The screenshot above shows a generic strategy, in which the simulator is going to fit intermediate tyres when water level reaches Xmm and the same compound once rain stops for Y laps. This means that, despite raining or not, the manager is expected to stay on intermediate tyres until the track is completely dry, i.e. water level below 0mm. This can mean more than one complete stint.


The second screenshot pictures a strategy in which the simulator choose wet tyres when water level reaches Xmm and intermediate tyres if it stops raining for Y laps (the manager must complete the informed laps). In this scenario the manager is also expected to stay on intermediate as many stints as the track is completely dry.


4. Using AS only for qualifying

It was said in section 3 that AS is automatically disabled when a manager attends the live race, but it should be remarked that it can be used to have extra control during the qualifying session that happens in changeable weather conditions.

Basically, when track is wet and the AS is enabled, the simulator will choose the first AS option tyre if the water level is above Xmm, or the main tyre if the water level is below Xmm. The second AS option tyre is used when there is water in track and it is not raining.

If you want to use a dry tyre in the second option, be aware that it can pick this tyre for your qualifying lap when rain stops. This usually ends up with two different tyre compounds between the qualifying session and the live race grid because when placing cars on grid, the simulator picks the main strategy or the first AS tyre for the grid.


5. Summary

In summary the AS tell the simulator to changes the tyres in those ways:

1. Fit the picked tyre once track level is above Xmm. Also, use this tyre for qualifying if it is raining.
2. Fit the picked tyre if stops raining and you completed Y laps. Also, use this tyre for qualifying if stopped raining and there is still water on track.


6. Final note

I leave my mail box open if you want to share any experience that can help us to provide better understanding in regard to the Advanced Strategy game mechanic.

Please, I hope you can contribute to improve this guide.

Remember that bugs should be reported in this Forum

Thanks Warren.

I really hope the weather stops updating when the qualifying session is hapening, as that really does not help the understanding of the logic.

With new evidence, I'll need to do a few changes in the wording:





I'd like to acknowledge Juanito Jones for recording the race and providing all the information I needed.

Alright, if you tell me what happened, I can try to fix (or include) a better explanation.

Although my intention was to help people that would watch the races, as I don't have any experience in the Advanced Strategy behaviour for offline races.

For the problem related to Medium Tyre that is put when you didn't set a 4th or 5th stint, this can be easily explained by the fact that you must fulfil those two slots with the tyre type you want for a main strategy even though you won't use it, otherwise it'll keep changing to Mediums when more stints are needed.

About having wet compounds in main strategy, I know sometimes they are needed because there are scenarios in which race starts wet 1.0mm and go beyond 3.0mm. In my humble opinion the Advanced Strategy isn't designed to cover this situation well. The example written for a 44 laps race that is said to be 0.0mm in lap 32 can actually be still wet 0.01mm and then your cars go to pitstop at lap 33 for Intermediate and need another pitstop for dry tyre.

It is also true that the simulator will pit you when track reaches 0mm, that's exactly what I try to say in this part of the article:


@Alessandro, I reckon you can deactivate both Advanced Strategy options individually:
1- If you want to deactivate the first option of Advanced Strategy, you only have to copy same tyre as main strategy.
2- If you want to deactivate the second option of Advanced Strategy, you have to copy the same tyre as the first AS option.


I'd like to also mention: this game is designed to be played live, so you have to accept that the advanced strategy cannot accomplish every single weather change scenario.

Let me write a perfect scenario: Race starts raining 3.3mm (you set soft tyres in main strategy, wet if water level is above 3.0mm and intermediate if rain stops after 1 lap)
When it stops raining, your car wait 1 lap, then pit for intermediate tyres and wait until track reaches 0.0mm to pit for soft tyres (it can be more than 1 stint).

I call those extra stints the hidden stints, because the game is coded to have 5 stints, but when we choose to do less, they are still there.


The next picture might be useful for new/inexperienced players to know why sometimes they do a stint on mediums.



How could I get it? Simply by changing the "hidden" state of the 4th and 5th stints.




Do you think that creating an option "only pit for fuel" would fix this behaviour? I think that might be a reasonable solution for the unexpected pits.

1) Qualifies on inters, it will change to softs only when track gets 0.0mm;
2 and 3) Qualifies on wets, probably go to pit on lap 1 for inters and it will change to softs when track gets 0.0mm;
4) pit for inters on lap 2 and it will change to softs when track gets 0.0mm;
5) pit for inters on lap 30 (because of low fuel), again on lap 45 and it will change to softs on lap 50.


Speaking about the 5th scenario, if it was set "pit for intermediate after 2 laps", it might break the Advanced Strategy logic because your car will pit on lap 30 for fuel and it is neither raining (so it shouldn't refit wet) nor 2 laps were completed after it stopped raining (so it cannot fit intermediate as well). I wouldn't be surprised to see a car leaving pitstop on softs and pitting again for intermediate in the next lap.