Suggested

Please remove ballast

While it may be what’s keeping the game “fair” ballast sucks.  What it will do is keep you from going up from to rookie to pro if it takes you too long.  The game is fun without, but I think it should be based on results, not level.  Once the ballast starts getting heavy, your performance will suffer and there is no remedy for it.  It doesn’t make the game fair, it just ruins it for those who are imprisoned by its effects. 

Yes pls

If you want to comment, you can post on this or the other post.

As League host I know it's not easy to keep competitive PRO and ROOKIE tiers, low level players still cannot compete against high level players when they are relegated.

In my opinion ballast is still too weak and it should be applied also in Design Point generation, because if you have good talented drivers and your team gets 10, 15 more design points every race, you will easily win races in lower tiers.

I once made a suggestion about this (ignored as always).

Any level above 8 who's in Rookie should have its facilities and staff limited to level 8 (all of facilities - but the two most important ones in terms of speed are Design and Technology so that team only gets 8 points from design after races and only gets a level 8 DRS and KERS during races. And even if it has higher level CD and DT they would behave as level 8 so that team would also have the same research power of a level 8 team with level 8 staff).
And exactly same for Pro: any level above 14 who's in Pro should have its facilities and staff limited to level 14.

Completely remove ballast from the game.

IMO, this would be way better and fairer than the current system. 

I am also against ballast. The league host should decide whether with or without ballast. Remove it!

But a manager with level 20 has no chance against a manager with level 13... When both manager  have level 20, the manager with level 13 have no chance.

Simon, you are saying that bad managers can only beat high level teams when they are low level.

This is probably not an issue related to ballast itself, it is an issue related to not upgrading correctly teams as they level up.


I support Lolita's idea. If you cap Design points to 50 and 100, you should cap any facility in order to make game fairer for both high and low level players. Ballast would be obsolete using this balancing system.

I agree to that if it's in Elite, it's nearly impossible to beat level 20s with a level 13 team... But in Pro or Rookie, I can tell you that it's easier to beat higher level teams thanks to the ballast. ROOKIE and PRO are like F3 and F2... The cars are technically identical and the point where you, as a manager, can make a difference is in the race with your management and your drivers.

I stick to the opinion that there is no need for ballast in the pro and the beginner tier. I have a league that has no pro, but rather two elite (reputation pro 8473 with and elite 9624) and one beginner tier. Pro+elite all manager are level 20. Beginner tier have level 10-18.  So I really recognize that the ballast is distributed very unrealistic and unfair. The races would definitly better, without ballast. The best should win and not  the one, who have less ballast.

Fully agree with that, the game should completely remove ballast & make limitation to any level above 14 in pro & above 8 in rookies. Current ballast system is not effective, for example, if you maxed your facilities in Lv.18, develop the car & do the tyre temp & push management rightly, although you got 5kg ballast, you still can win the race in a normal standard pro race easily by beating other managers who are in Lv.10 to Lv.14 with a huge gap of 20 to 30 secs++. Ballast doesn't really slow down the pace of top teams. I don't know why some of the teams above Lv.14 are complaining about the ballast because ballast doesn't really slow down the pace unless your facilities are low level. So we need a more effective system to shorter the gap between higher level teams & lower level teams and LOLITA suggestion is pretty good.

That would be perfect, but I can't even imagine how many new bugs would bring an update like this.

The problem with balast is more psychological one: if you are high level manager in lower tier and you get balast and your performance is poor, you blame balast. Maybe that's right. Maybe not and you just suck at this game. You don't know. Noone knows for sure. Blaming balast is easy.
If there is no balast but maybe a cap of driver/personell/facility level, then poor performance clearly the manager is to blame. At least that would end this discussion (and open more discussions like the well known "why am I that slow?").

The devs have already proven they can cap a team to lvl10 in quick races, really don't see why they can't do it for league races. It would take time to adapt the current system but most certainly not impossible. I think Lolita's idea is the best option: Talented high level players who need to move up through a league aren't stupidly handicapped but talented players who also don't have a high level can still move up too.


Current ballast is a mess and it very rarely balances the field: it is way too large at the beginning of seasons, irrelevant in the middle and then comes back to being way to high at the end when cars are equal or close!

what happens to your exp points earned if you break the needed points to level up over 10, does exp then count for nothing, this just means that every manager who goes to elite will be further behind.

Ballast should be scrapped, if you struggle against higher opponents its how its meant to be, you should automatically be the same as them in your first season up.

if you want a fairer system then you need more divisions, this would allow you to level higher before you reach elite

"if you want a fairer system then you need more divisions, this would allow you to level higher before you reach elite" - Dan

With how impossible it is to fill leagues as it is, more divisions sounds pretty insane. Also sounds like a brilliant way for high leveled managers to go many seasons winning consecutive championships before they are finally in the tier they should be in. The current balance is fine if higher leveled teams are actually given a fair chance to move up, lower leveled teams would then spend more time in rookie and in pro leveling up and getting to elite.

"what happens to your exp points earned if you break the needed points to level up over 10, does exp then count for nothing, this just means that every manager who goes to elite will be further behind" - Dan

I don't know what you mean by this?? Managers will still gain XP and all of that, the game just won't take the manager's level into account in the behind the scenes simulator. It's just like quick races Dan.

Agreed.  That’s what racing was founded on.  

Heh this "I suggested this and it got ignored" thing is getting old... Personally don't see the point of capping nor the point of ballast. If your team is lv20 and still in rookie you are likely doing something wrong anyway. Adding ballast or capping your infrastructure won't change much other than let you blame something else instead of the real issue.

But hey maybe you are fine with that and the occasional promotion to pro due to your lv20 tech building would make you happy instead of quitting. I'd definitely take more player in Rookie/Pro no matter what lv they were.

"A young talented manager" will eventually reach Elite anyway. It doesn't matter if he gets there at lv12 to get clobbered in Elite after edging a 7kg ballast lv 20 or a capped at lv14 lv20 "less talented manager".  Adding ballast or a cap just make for an unrealistic and artificial competition until you actually get to Elite. Which is unfortunate in highly competitive leagues where Pro can be just as close as Elite. 

I say this as a player who possibly got to Elite on the back of an artificial handicap to lv20 players. I know my CD was better, I know my car development was better but it's hard to say if I still get in or not without a cap/ ballast.