IGP Logevity (Long)

I really enjoy IGP manager but I am concerned about its longevity. I have seen counterclaims that the new design system will fix it. The design system is the least of the longevity issues with the game. The problem is that all too easy to develop your team. There’s very few compromises. 

***Drivers 
1.      There are way too many drivers. Like 1000’s too many. It costs 250k to employ a poor driver and 350k for a very good driver. I t should be more like $500 for a poor driver and $2million for the best. Perhaps a starting negotiation of Driver level squared * $1000.
2.      Drivers are trained way too easily. Currently you can find a very young talent 19 level 3 driver very easily. In 7 seasons he could get close to perfect and you would be paying him about 40% of his starting price. Assuming you buy him for 300k per race (You could probably get him cheaper) his wage would be 425k per race.
3.      At the end of a contract a driver should attempt to negotiate a contract somewhere between his market value and his current salary. (There does have to be a loyalty factor.)
4.      Driver development should be one skill per race with small bonuses for training facilities. Extra training could be applied at the end of a season. Where less than 17 races are completed the Extra training could be applied proportionally.
5.      It should also be costly to break a contract – Half of the remaining contract value – (e.g. 10 races left with a salary of 300k would cost you 1.5 million)  


***Other staff
6.   Same as drivers.
7.   The Commercial manager is a waste of space and should be used to improve sponsorship and salary outcomes. Facilities.
8.   There is no development of facilities except for staff offices.
a.       The commercial centre to sell merchandise should be a small kiosk to start with and could be slowly developed over time to a franchise of shops.
b.      A training facility could be developed slowly to handle and improve different skills. The training facility could kick in at level 3 and be improved with money from there.
c.       The weather station could produce precise predictions up 24 hours before a race.
d.      The track simulator could produce the desired conditions to for setup. 

***Design
9.   At in the initial stages there should only be 2 to 3 components to develop. Over time a team improves facilities. As team gradings improve other components could be added.
10. KERS and DRS should have base systems which can be improved by the design team.
11. Currently a team can develop a car where all components are at 100%. This should not be possible especially with a lower skilled design manager and team.  

****Money / Sponsorship

12 .These sponsors would have to be the most generous people in the world. You don’t have to be good to get a million dollar plus sponsorship. The best sponsors should only go to the best teams. Have 5 classes of sponsors who will only negotiate with teams at a certain level or higher. And teams should not be able to start a new sponsorship till the current one is complete. However they may negotiate one within a week of the old one ending.

13.Prizemoney should be allocated based on:
-Number of wins in a season
-Number of podiums
-Number of finishes
-Final standings

14. Generally money is too easily got.

*** Summary

I think I have gone on long enough here. In summary, once you have worked out how things work the management is actually boring. You should have to build up your team not wait till you have finished x number of races (regardless of your results).
You shouldn’t be able to have the perfect team/driver/car. It should be full of compromises like life.

I generally agree. There needs to be more risk and compromise to develop a high level team or driver. Perhaps your team and driver will need to specialise in certain aspects. i.e.  reliability or aero or power for the team. I think many of these things will be addressed by the new development system that is on the way. I'm sure the devs are well aware of the need to 'balance' the game to stop it just being a level grind.

That all makes for very interesting reading Ken.

I don't want to presume to 'know it all' but quite a lot of what you have highlighted is the way the game will develop, or is actually developing.  So your ideas are well in sync with the devs.  The update will hopefully address some of these issues.  A few other comments you made are going to take a bit longer to develop.

It's reading posts like these that makes me wish that this game had a dev team the size of (add name of huge development company here - lol) as it would be awsome!

Will be looking forward to it - the race component is exceptional.

I agree with some of the stuff you've said.

But nearly every point you have made someone else has raised on more than one occasion.