Guide

The Mechanics of Chassis Development

This guide seeks to explain the basics of chassis development in iGP. I'm not going to try and suggest the best development strategy because:
a) there are better managers than me with superior development paths and
b) it's part of your iGP learning experience. Master this and you can build a very competitive car.

There are three main elements of chassis development:
1. Start of season design.
2. Design points generated by your Design HQ.
3. Research (spying) on other teams.

Note the design range for each tier is different:
Rookie: 1 - 50
Pro: 1 - 100
Elite: 1 - 200

The 200 limit in Elite is a hard cap. So, if for example you have 192 dp in acceleration and use Murk and Elves as suppliers (+14 Acc) you will max out at 200 so only get the benefit of 8 of the 14 Acc points available.
This is not the case for the lower tiers because they use soft caps. So it is possible using Murk and Elves to get acceleration values of 64 and 114 in Rookie and Pro respectively.

1. Start of season Design
In each race of the current season your Chief Designer (CD) will bank a number of design points towards the starting design next season. The number of points will depend on the Level/Star rating of the CD and their strength and weakness attributes.

A CD the same level as the team (or a 5 star L19 CD to a L20 Team) should produce 16 dp per race, 3 dp in the Strength attribute, 1 dp in Weakness and 2 dp in the remaining 6 design areas.

So assuming a 20 race season, a single CD for the entire season strong in Handling and weak in Fuel Economy will produce a start of season design of:

Acc: 20 x 2 = 40
Brake: 20 x 2 = 40
Cool: 20 x 2 = 40
Down Force: 20 x 2 = 40
Fuel Econ: 20 x 1 = 20
Handle: 20 x 3 = 60
Reliab: 20 x 2 = 40
Tyre Economy: 20 x 2 = 40

Note 1: This is "core" design and will be modified to an extent depending on the Engine, Fuel and Tyre suppliers you use.
Note 2: This is also the season start design you will receive if you join a 20 race per season league during the break.

If you use more than one CD the design will be different. All you have to remember is that next season design points are generated every race and accumulated throughout the season. Again, assuming a 20 race season and 2 CDs the same level as the team, CD1 Strength Handling, Weakness Fuel Economy active for 15 races & CD 2 Strength Acceleration, Weakness Fuel Economy active for 5 races produces a next season start design of:

Acc: (15 x 2 = 30) + (5 x 3 = 15) = 45
Brake: (15 x 2 = 30) + (5 x 2 = 10) = 40
Cool: (15 x 2 = 30) + (5 x 2 = 10) = 40
Down Force: (15 x 2 = 30) + (5 x 2 = 10) = 40
Fuel Econ:(15 x 1 = 15) + (5 x 1 = 5) = 20
Handle: (15 x 3 = 45) + (5 x 2 = 10) = 55
Reliab: (15 x 2 = 30) + (5 x 2 = 10) = 40
Tyre Economy: (15 x 2 = 30) + (5 x 2 = 10) = 40

In both of the above scenarios the total core design is 20 x 16 = 320, the CD strength and weakness simply changes the way in which the design points are distributed.

CDs with lower levels/star ratings can significantly reduce your next season start design. Here Is a table I created for a 15 race season showing the effect of lower level CDs on season start design.



The above examples demonstrate the number of next season dp that are banked per race for a team competing in an Elite tier. The number of DP generated for Rookie and Pro tiers are lower in keeping with the lower design range. Here are the values per race for a team competing in each tier.



Where the result is not a whole number the game will round up.
E.g. 17 race season, Rookie tier, CD weakness: 17 x 0.25 = 4.25 which rounds up to 5.

2. Design points generated by your Design HQ

This is the simplest element of development. Each race your design HQ generates the same number of design points as the level of the HQ. So a L8 HQ generates 8 dp, a L14 HQ generates 14 dp and a L20 HQ generates 20 dp.

These design points are available for you to assign as you see fit. You may also choose to save a few until later in the season to maximise research because they will remain available until the end of the season. Any unused design points that you take into the final race of the season will be lost when the design resets.

3. Research (spying) on other teams.

This is perhaps the least understood of the design elements and causes the most confusion for new players.

Your "Research Power" is expressed as a percentage, the value will depend on your team level and the level of your Chief Designer (CD) and Technical Director (TD) The highest research power will be achieved by employing both CD & TD who are the same level as the team. If you choose to employ a lower level CD and/or TD your maximum research power will be reduced accordingly.

Assuming you employ both CD & TD the same level as the team your research power will be 100 - (Team Level x 3) so:
L30 team research power = 100 - (30 x 3) = 10%
L20 team research power = 100 - (20 x 3) = 40%
L15 team research power = 100 - (15 x 3) = 55%
L10 team research power = 100 - (10 x 3) = 70% etc.

The number of research points you receive each race is determined by the difference between your design and the team with the strongest design in the area you research:
So assuming a L20 team (40% research) researching braking. You have 86 dp and the strongest team has 144, you receive (144 - 86) x 0.4 = 23.2 which is rounded up to 24.
If you tick two areas to research the power will drop to 20%, three areas drops it to 14% etc.

One final and important point to consider when researching is that the Strength and Weakness of the CD has a bearing on the number of dp you receive. If you research CD strength you receive more dp than the research power suggests and if you research CD weakness you will recieve significantly fewer points.

Examples: CD strength = Braking, weakness = Tyre Economy.
Researching Braking at 40% research power. You have 60 dp, the highest has 90 dp. (90 - 60) x 0.4 = 12.... but CD strength gives a 10% bonus so you receive 12 x 1.1 = 13.2 which rounds up to 14
Researching Tyre Economy at 40% research power. You have 60 dp, the highest has 90 dp. (90 - 60) x 0.4 = 12.... but CD weakness gives a -50% deficit so you receive 12 x 0.5 = 6

The CD star rating will only have dropped because your team levelled up.

But in answer to your question, yes the CD level / overall star rating are the important attributes. The individual stats are a throwback to a previous version of the game and are not used to determine the effectiveness of the CD.

Generally speaking a CD the same level as the team will give the same design irrespective of whether they are overall 4.5 or 5 star. It's an urban myth that you need a 5 star CD.

The exception to this rule is when you reach L20. Then you need either a L19 CD who displays as 5 star or a L20 CD to get maximum performance.

See section 2.

No, current and next season development are independent and don't influence each other. It was before my time but it used to be like resources had to be shared and caused the competitive players racing two teams, one in active competition developing fully the current car and one resting fully developing for next season. iGP Managers are very competitive indeed. ? 

Option 1 : read the answers you received in other topics (https://igpmanager.com/forum-thread/49796#266691)
"After the final race of the season all cars are reset to a design based on the previous season's active CDs and all design points are cleared."

Option 2 : read the answers already posted in the topic in which you are writing your question (https://igpmanager.com/forum-thread/45546#247532)
"Any unused design points that you take into the final race of the season will be lost when the design resets."

Bonus : read the rules (https://igpmanager.com/app/p=help&tab=rules)

The car design is just reset, whatever your tier or your previous results.
As explained by Kevin in this thread, the new design will depend mainly on CD used during last season.

Please, read guides more carefully, as we waste time re-explaining things that are already well described. Thanks.

If you are using a browser you can use "Inspect Element" to determine the position of the marker indicating the level of the strongest team.

Yes, decimal design attributes always round up to the next highest integer.