Hi all
I know that recently driver health has been changed and I hinted in the Announcement/Changes to Driver Health thread about a further change to experience gained, and I wanted to expand on it. It does relate to tiredness but in a roundabout way, so I thought I'd bring it out of there and into a new suggestion.
I think it would be good if Talent affected a drivers stats more....and this may seem radical but please think about it.
First of all - as I said in the other thread, I think it would be good to allow driver stats to increase when they compete in races. The figures I said before were advisory only, it would probably need tweaking, but I think a driver should be allowed to gain more stats in races than training, but at greater cost through tiredness. I like the new tiredness; I think it's good because it means drivers actually lose a lot of health after a race. And this is why I think it's important that they are also allowed to gain experience from them.
Second - re-introduce stat loss at a rate determined by the drivers talent [and possibly by age?]. For example, Talent 20 stat loss is minimal compared to 1 which would require the driver to train/race more frequently.
Third - give a 'cap' to training. Ideally, give a points total 'cap' that can be shared across all of the stats, determined by the drivers talent and by the type of training they do. These points can be split over; Fast Corners, Slow Corners, Attacking, Defending, Composure, Focus, Knowledge, and Stamina. That's 8 stats that can be affected; Morale would be independant, and Weight can be trained at all times.
E.g.
Talent = 1: 40 points spread over all stats
Talent = 2: 46 points (40+6)
Talent = 3: 52 points (46+6)
etc.
Talent = 19: 154 (160-6)
Talent = 20: 160 points (max)
Note that this is only for training a driver, NOT from participating in races which would allow the driver to surpass his 'Talent Cap'
This leads to several outcomes; a manager can focus the drivers training in a particular area, and whilst that area improves, others will not and cannot until the driver is allowed to race. It also means that the drivers Talent becomes more important, and whilst drivers with less talent would be disadvanted, with race experience they could still become winners.
But to persuade the naysayers thinking this gap would be too great - think that Talent 19 would only be 6 points behind 20, and that could be picked up by actual races.
Notice that I left out Experience.... so my last point is ...
Fourth - remove or revamp Experience. If this is merely a 'doubling up' affect of the drivers stats, then it's only benefit is to widen the gaps between different level drivers. Why? If the gap between stats needs widening, then do this in the background.
Plus, if drivers are losing stats & having to drive/train to maintain them, then this negates the need for Experience (experience would be shown through the stats themselves.)
I do not think this would be a massive change to the race engine if at all, but it would take some tweaking on the way drivers stats are calculated and training is done. If all the above was applied, the rate at which drivers regain stamina would also need reviewing (which I believe Jack is looking at?) but I think for Everyday leagues it should go back to +5%/2 Hours because then drivers who race will have very limited time to do any training at all (if any, depending on their stamina.) So it becomes important to train drivers as much as they can before they are fit enough to be able to race regularly.
Anyway, I hope you can see what I'm getting at with this. Drivers suddenly become more like real life, with drivers of lesser talent needing actual race experience to reach all 20's.
I offer the floor to discussion :)