Jack, when will wet races come back ?

Hi Jack,
Can you give us an estimate of when will the weather behaves normally again ? i.e. the comeback of potential wet races and damp tracks ?
Because right now and for a while, races are getting somehow boring and monotonous due to the only weather slight change being the temp. (when it occurs....)
In almost all races there is no real challenge for car setup. Race strategy is limited too, under the penalty of finish last if you try to surprise in strategy.
Any prediction of when the wet 5th stint problem is solved and we have again some diversity in races ?
Thanks

Hey, no... I'm loving no changable conditions.. because I'm rubbish at strategy on the fly.  Darth, you are right, the game is better with rain.  Jack is a busy man right now and is aware of this feature being missed.  I'm sure it'll be back when he gets to it.  I'd rather have stable game than a crashy one.

Would this not be the best time to finally call it time with the outside weather system?

It's working as it stands.. I know it's some of the fun gone with no weather.. but as it's down now.. The time spent putting it back could be the start of iGP "In House" System.. As it stands, we have a Dry - Hot and Cold system that works.. You know the data, so could you not use that as a base?

Just a though.

Check PM Jack.

The weather system is not the problem as Jack said, it is simply disabled at the moment. Without wet weather the extra stint - wet tyre bug is cicrumvented.

I really miss wet weather races. And being a weather geek I really like that the weather is tied to Weather Underground. I can't comprehend how "in house" could be better. Maybe cheaper, and that is a valid consideration, but not better.

Ehhh.. I am going to stop poing on the forums I think. -_-

So you think a system where you can build NO in house date around it, is a good idea??? ok.

Yeah because an in house system where you make your own varibles, bring in actual data and link staff members to the weather system is a bad idea.

Just why???


I take it that you don't race sim games then... rFactor 2... Using outside weather systems.. I give up.

Even EA can make it rain in FIFA.. Need I say more? They can't fix there engine after 4 years.. but they can make it rain..

Personally? I would prefer an in-house weather system. If for no other reason than the fact that Jack could control the weather variables at critical junctures (i.e. pre-race SCUMBAG WEATHER situations where you train for a dry race and then it rains).

With that said, an in-house weather system should precede a general rethink of how players can attack setups. For instance, the Facilities area would be well-augmented by a "Third Car Testing" option that you can buy and maintain with budget money, in lieu of the "Simulator," to generate both basic dry setups and rain setups for each track (the strength of which will vary based on personnel level, race team level, and budget % allocated to testing). Then, for each race day setup page, you should be able to specify which setups to use for dry conditions and which to use for wet. You'd still have to make a choice - which setup do you expend your 5 test runs on? All 5 on the dry? Or 3 on the dry and 2 on wet, depending on chance of rain on race day?

Then Jack could change the "Simulator" facility to affect which skill ratings a driver focuses on when a driver is being trained in the YDA. You can choose from attack, defend, or physical (mental/technical, obviously, are useless at this point... sometime down the road when that changes, then we can add those in too).

This is funny. There are quite a few at GT Planet and on the GT forums that want exactly what IGP has. That is, the same weather that they would get if they were racing at a specific real location on the day of their race.

GT6 has an excellent weather generating system. That being said, about 90 percent of online races with regularly scheduled dates and times run with no weather. Most people don't want to run with weather. I spoils their setup. Of the 10 percent that do run weather most have the settings so low that rain is only a rare possibility. Sim racers like the idea of weather more than the reality.

This is a management game and as Jack points out the weather is a genuine way to interject variability into the races. The difficulty is that some leagues run 17 races in 17 days and others run 17 races in 17 weeks. The ones that run every day undoubtedly get a lot less variation in their weather than the ones that run weekly. I understand that the daily racers would benefit from an in house system.

 "WEATHER situations where you train for a dry race and then it rains)"   I seems to me that this happens to real F1 race teams. Or the opposite. Qualifying is going to be wet but the weather forcast for the race is dry. As managers it should be part of our job to make decisions in these situations. That adds a great deal to the fun.

"system where you can build NO in house date around it, is a good idea???"  Most systems come off as extremely artificial. This can cause even more complaints than the current system.

How about an in house weather system that takes into account the actual real life, recorded weather data of the tracks when they hosted previous f1 races? And if the tracks were discontinued from the calendar after certain years, data can still be recorded for days they would have hosted an f1 race in the past. The data would be averaged and with variables thrown in for how often the weather should change in terms of rain, cloudy-ness, etc.

Thoughts?

...but it's NOT fun that you cannot have a wet setup in reserve in case it rains, like the "real F1 race teams" have. Therefore, it's not "fun" if, say, you have to run your setups an hour before race time and then the weather changes, so you get beat by a guy who's camping out until a couple minutes before lockdown.

I've worked for nearly 20 years in real-world racing and I've never seen a situation where a race car goes out on the track without at least a baseline setup that accounts for the on-track weather.

Teo, off the top of my head
Spa 2014 qualified in wet but drying conditions. Race was dry. Park Ferme rules do not allow suspension changes during qualifying. All settings used in qual 2 must be used to start the race. 
Canada 2011 Dry qualifying, wet race. Same rules except qual 3 is used to start the race. In each case after the race starts only wing and tire pressures are changed.
Have you ever watched a formula one season?

Having said that, I do agree that it is a fault in IGP's set up system that you cannot DECIDE to run a dry setup at the last minute because your judgement is that the rain will stop. Or a wet setup at the last minute because you are betting it is going to rain.

I think this might be a pretty good system. Something like going back to 1980 and replicating the weather for that season. In each race that matches the country represented in IGP have the race replicate the weather for that race. For the races that are not in IGP transfer the weather of, for instance the USA race, to another race that is in IGP. Leave Abu Daubi, and Bahrain as dry races. But have each season from then until now represented as it really was. That would be 34 seasons without a repeat. With a random starting point most leagues would not be able to predict the exact weather for their race. Have the weather forcast tool reflect the type of weather that is going to be in the race. Using something like this the daily racers and the weekly racers would have similar experiences.

Sorry Jack, but I totally disagree :(

"... real weather system costs money " :
I know at least 3 absolutely  free web sites that give weather conditions and track details live, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Not only for all circuits we have in IGP,  as well as dozens of other circuits.

".... and doesn't provide enough variety in my opinion." :
Hence the real data is provided 24/7 and throughout the all year, no way variety lacks. And the real weather really changes a lot hour by hour and day by day.
As well as real track conditions.
Remenber there are races here in IGP almost any time of the day and night, everyday, all year long.

You're describing parc ferme conditions in F1, where none exist in iGP. So the comparison is moot.

My first comment,   "I seems to me that this happens to real F1 race teams. "
Your reply,               "I've worked for nearly 20 years in real-world racing and I've never seen a situation where a race car goes out on the track without at least a baseline setup that accounts for the on-track weather."

I was addressing your contention that you had never seen in the real world the conditions I described. Which were preparing for a dry race and then having to run a wet race. 

I have to agree that an in-house weather system would be better. At the moment, the vast majority of our races are being run at 10 degrees and of course dry too for now. I agree that it would be better to have it the same regardless of time of year or time of day.

Just a note though, I think it would be better to do the weather per track rather than per race. That way you can directly compare your results to other races that happened at the same time. Also, it would be good to have an option to switch the weather on/off in the league settings. There seems to be split opinion on the weather! That could also apply to wind and temperature, meaning those with less time can do their testing whenever they want.

Also, I assume the reason the weather isn't included in the 'previous race' screen is due to restrictions, which could hopefully be lifted with an in-house system?

The offer to help out still stands too Jack! :)

Since Darth Vader has chimed in supporting the current weather system, I thought I would describe how i use it to enrich game play. I only race once per week now and have never raced more than twice per week. I have always seen about the same variety in the weather as is seen in a typical Formula 1 season. I will describe this weeks Brazil race as if the in game weather were working.

Before the race I go to Weather Underground and check out the daily temperature profile graph to see when the temperature may fall enough to allow me to switch to softer tires. My hope was to run super soft tires at the end of my race with shorter stints and longer runs at the beginning because the the beginning race temperature is going to be too high for proper temperature control of the tires. My estimated switch point is 24 degrees C. If the race were to run dry (which right now it is forced to) I see the temp will fall to 24C near the end of my 90 minute race. That means that running SS tires at the end is something I can consider.

I also see that the chances of rain at my race time are about 50 to 60 percent with rain rates of 6 mm per hour expected. That is light rain so I would expect to run inters. I know I will need to tune my cars at the latest possible time to get a good wet track tune. The hourly rain projection shows thunder storms are likely during my race with higher rates so I know I will have to watch the IGP weather indicator diligently.

During the race the WU radar map is running on a page that I can switch to. I switch to the animated radar map frequently to anticipate when the rain will intensify or diminish. Using this I can plan to switch to the proper tire for the situation and how long I want the stints to be. If the thunderstorms quit it is likely that light rain will continue so I anticipate running inters to the end of my race.

This is one aspect of IGP that almost exactly imitates what would be done if you were at the track on race day. If you go to in house are you going to be able to replicate this experience?