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Driver, Staff level cap increased. Driver atrophy removed.

Note: This is not the final change in balancing the game, it is just one further incremental step-change. The biggest change is still to come, and is currently being discussed in this thread.

Driver & Staff level cap increase
The ideas from my thread 'Proposed adjustment to level cap' have now been implemented. Without changing anybody's levels, everyone has access to drivers and staff a level higher than previously (except those already at the maximum: level 20). Drivers can also be trained a level higher overall before reaching the level cap restrictions on progress.

How? On the back-end we store levels with decimal values, so previously being level 12 would have meant access to drivers "up to level 12.00", in other words level 11.99 would've been the highest level driver/staff available. Now it goes up to 12.99, in that example. There is no change for a level 20 manager, since 20.00 is the limit, which is why all teams are now brought 1 level closer to them effectively, with drivers and staff.

This change is designed to close up the field in the Elite tier by bringing all teams, including those promoting from Pro to Elite a level closer to the top Elite teams. It is also designed to address the confusion some people expressed about not being able to hire drivers and staff of the same level as their level cap. Since we were rounding down before, you couldn't see level 12 drivers and staff on the market if you were level 12, you'd see a level 11.99 as a level 11, which was confusing. Now you'll see level 12 drivers and staff if you are level 12, level 5 if you are level 5 and so on.

If, as a result of this change, your drivers and staff have lost any stars on their rating, do not worry. They have not lost any ability. The star decrease only means your access level has gone up relative to their actual level, giving them a slightly lower star rating in comparison to your personal limit.

Driver atrophy disabled
If you ever saw a level drop off of any skill on a driver, this was the effect of atrophy. It was only applied to reserve drivers in the new iGP, but it was not clear enough what impact this was having or why it was happening to most people. So, even if it increased realism to some degree to atrophy inactive drivers skills, it has been removed for the sake of clarity.

Okay Cory, I could have cut you off on the first sentence and reassured you I think. In the big picture, this was just a small incremental change to help. It was mailed to everyone because it had to be announced to avoid confusion (when everyone saw their star ratings drop), not because we were patting ourselves on the back thinking "everything is balanced now". :P We've made several incremental changes now, and they all help a little, but the biggest change of all is still to come.

I've edited the OP to make this clear, and linked to the threads where we're discussing real substantial changes that will balance all tiers. See this thread proposing a major shift in the design system: http://igpmanager.com/?url=forum-thread/5765. I would like your feedback on this.

Lauri, bear in mind that the game is still less than a month old and the old one was 5 years old. Due to that, what you remember had a huge headstart in terms of balancing and economics.

What would be helpful is if people read the proposals and give constructive feedback and ideas too. We develop the game in a very collaborative way with you guys, and listen to all your feedback.