2023: A Year of Rejuvenation

Dick Dastardly
1 year 163 days ago

In Sept there was a blog post updating on plans for end of 2022 & 2023. We are now almost halfway through 2023 and while we have seen some updates to the game it still feels as though we are waiting something major to happen to rejuvenate the game in the way the blog suggested.

Is this transformation still on the cards and can we expect to see something in 2023 or it is more likely that this will be pushed into 2024? The game seems to be losing a lot of managers atm so an update on this is urgently needed.

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Astro Rider
1 year 163 days ago

In my opinion, what the game really needs right now is a reworking of the league system. It is by no means friendly to new players.

The updates and new features probably only help to retain old managers, but finding active leagues is becoming more and more difficult.

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Jared Haines
1 year 162 days ago

I think that's an easy fix. Just recommend leagues with a higher number of strategies set per race or active league chat. I think introducing a level requirement for promotion should be on the cards. We have 2 poor pros that had there best result in their debut season be only a lap down. I don't think new players are fond of winning championships then being a lap down at best. I don't blame them for quitting

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John Doe
1 year 162 days ago

Jared

I think that's an easy fix. Just recommend leagues with a higher number of strategies set per race or active league chat. I think introducing a level requirement for promotion should be on the cards. We have 2 poor pros that had there best result in their debut season be only a lap down. I don't think new players are fond of winning championships then being a lap down at best. I don't blame them for quitting

An active league chat is actually a very strange indicator. I understand why you suggested it, but in some leagues the main communication takes place in other chats (discord, telegram), which leads to a decrease in activity in the game chat.

The category of rookies in itself is generally very strange, there are always very few players there, so even in leagues with a strong elite there may be very weak rookies. In leagues where the elite is inactive, active rookies can magically appear, who, if you sort the search by the activity of rookies, can continue to be filled with them, but they will not launch a strong league, they have no one to learn from, and this league is still doomed, like the newcomers who came. It turns out that we need newcomers to go to active leagues, where there is a strong elite... But since there may be few newcomers there, they will get bored and they will leave... Conclusion: we need to reduce the number of leagues, leaving the strongest ones, but how to do this is not entirely clear...

The problem with the game is that there are still too few rookies and too many leagues.

Level requirement is a good idea, yes :)

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Dick Dastardly
1 year 162 days ago

Orange

Jared

I think that's an easy fix. Just recommend leagues with a higher number of strategies set per race or active league chat. I think introducing a level requirement for promotion should be on the cards. We have 2 poor pros that had there best result in their debut season be only a lap down. I don't think new players are fond of winning championships then being a lap down at best. I don't blame them for quitting

An active league chat is actually a very strange indicator. I understand why you suggested it, but in some leagues the main communication takes place in other chats (discord, telegram), which leads to a decrease in activity in the game chat.

The category of rookies in itself is generally very strange, there are always very few players there, so even in leagues with a strong elite there may be very weak rookies. In leagues where the elite is inactive, active rookies can magically appear, who, if you sort the search by the activity of rookies, can continue to be filled with them, but they will not launch a strong league, they have no one to learn from, and this league is still doomed, like the newcomers who came. It turns out that we need newcomers to go to active leagues, where there is a strong elite... But since there may be few newcomers there, they will get bored and they will leave... Conclusion: we need to reduce the number of leagues, leaving the strongest ones, but how to do this is not entirely clear...

The problem with the game is that there are still too few rookies and too many leagues.

Level requirement is a good idea, yes :)

I believe the biggest problem is the structure of the leagues and lack of marketing. Marketing spend/activity is down to the game’s owners and they may not currently be in a position to do this. However, the league structure is flawed. Most active players are in Elite, very few in Pro and at Rookie you have some, but they are in divisions full of inactives.

Even reducing the amount of leagues (not sure exactly how you can do this while anyone is able to set one up in 2 mins?) won’t help because you will then up with more Rookies gaining promotion quicker to Pro and then gaining promotion to Elite far too early. Something needs to be done about the league structure. Many people have made good suggestions in the forum over the past couple of years, but there has never been any interest from the Devs to make changes and slowly the game dies. The fact that hosts are told to create dummy accounts to enable new players to be promoted speaks volumes about the issues with the current structure.

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John Doe
1 year 162 days ago

Dick

Orange

Jared

I think that's an easy fix. Just recommend leagues with a higher number of strategies set per race or active league chat. I think introducing a level requirement for promotion should be on the cards. We have 2 poor pros that had there best result in their debut season be only a lap down. I don't think new players are fond of winning championships then being a lap down at best. I don't blame them for quitting

An active league chat is actually a very strange indicator. I understand why you suggested it, but in some leagues the main communication takes place in other chats (discord, telegram), which leads to a decrease in activity in the game chat.

The category of rookies in itself is generally very strange, there are always very few players there, so even in leagues with a strong elite there may be very weak rookies. In leagues where the elite is inactive, active rookies can magically appear, who, if you sort the search by the activity of rookies, can continue to be filled with them, but they will not launch a strong league, they have no one to learn from, and this league is still doomed, like the newcomers who came. It turns out that we need newcomers to go to active leagues, where there is a strong elite... But since there may be few newcomers there, they will get bored and they will leave... Conclusion: we need to reduce the number of leagues, leaving the strongest ones, but how to do this is not entirely clear...

The problem with the game is that there are still too few rookies and too many leagues.

Level requirement is a good idea, yes :)

I believe the biggest problem is the structure of the leagues and lack of marketing. Marketing spend/activity is down to the game’s owners and they may not currently be in a position to do this. However, the league structure is flawed. Most active players are in Elite, very few in Pro and at Rookie you have some, but they are in divisions full of inactives.

Even reducing the amount of leagues (not sure exactly how you can do this while anyone is able to set one up in 2 mins?) won’t help because you will then up with more Rookies gaining promotion quicker to Pro and then gaining promotion to Elite far too early. Something needs to be done about the league structure. Many people have made good suggestions in the forum over the past couple of years, but there has never been any interest from the Devs to make changes and slowly the game dies. The fact that hosts are told to create dummy accounts to enable new players to be promoted speaks volumes about the issues with the current structure.

If we reduce the number of leagues, there will be fewer passing places, so newcomers will be slower to pass the categories, facing more competition. As for how to reduce them: yes, it's not quite that simple.

I agree with you that the league system needs some revision, because in the current format, it obviously does not work well...

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Jack Basford

CEO & CTO
1 year 162 days ago (Last edited by Jack Basford 1 year 162 days ago)

Dick

Is this transformation still on the cards and can we expect to see something in 2023 or it is more likely that this will be pushed into 2024? The game seems to be losing a lot of managers atm so an update on this is urgently needed.

We're still working hard on the updates, it just takes time, often a lot more time than it's possible to appreciate from the outside. The 2023 car model was finished yesterday and texturing has just begun. The new driver will be driving the new car, so the two will be combined. Give us some time to texture it all, though. Once the UVs are done, all liveries need to be created from scratch to fit the new car.

In the meantime, we have an update almost ready that is going to spice things up quite a bit with racing and introduce a new gameplay feature. I know, I can hear the grumbling about bugs whenever I talk about new features, but as we've had to explain repeatedly, fixing some bugs (most that are still in the game) is only possible once we hire a new full-time developer to work on them. I'm on it, I was reviewing CVs yesterday actually.

We also have a new build for the app stores almost ready, I'd estimate it needs another 1-2 months. Though that app update in itself is not a very exciting upgrade from the front-end, it's vital for the back-end to restore our ability to do frequent updates. Essentially, all the back-end tools and SDKs have been upgraded from 2019-spec to 2022-spec. These are most of the things I mentioned in the blog.

FYI the number of managers is stable, no concerns there on our end. Of course, people do move on over time, and when groups of friends leave an individual league it can create a dramatic impression to anyone around that league. That's another issue of the league system and the small bubble of the community most people experience, but we are not concerned about any trends at present, things are stable.

Orange

I agree with you that the league system needs some revision, because in the current format, it obviously does not work well...

I have wanted to revise the league system for a long time, and have a clear idea of how to do it. It's just not the top priority right now, but we'll get there.

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Skid Solo
1 year 162 days ago (Last edited by Skid Solo 1 year 162 days ago)

Jack

Dick

Is this transformation still on the cards and can we expect to see something in 2023 or it is more likely that this will be pushed into 2024? The game seems to be losing a lot of managers atm so an update on this is urgently needed.

We're still working hard on the updates, it just takes time, often a lot more time than it's possible to appreciate from the outside. The 2023 car model was finished yesterday and texturing has just begun. The new driver will be driving the new car, so the two will be combined. Give us some time to texture it all, though. Once the UVs are done, all liveries need to be created from scratch to fit the new car.

In the meantime, we have an update almost ready that is going to spice things up quite a bit with racing and introduce a new gameplay feature. I know, I can hear the grumbling about bugs whenever I talk about new features, but as we've had to explain repeatedly, fixing some bugs (most that are still in the game) is only possible once we hire a new full-time developer to work on them. I'm on it, I was reviewing CVs yesterday actually.

We also have a new build for the app stores almost ready, I'd estimate it needs another 1-2 months. Though that app update in itself is not a very exciting upgrade from the front-end, it's vital for the back-end to restore our ability to do frequent updates. Essentially, all the back-end tools and SDKs have been upgraded from 2019-spec to 2022-spec. These are most of the things I mentioned in the blog.

FYI the number of managers is stable, no concerns there on our end. Of course, people do move on over time, and when groups of friends leave an individual league it can create a dramatic impression to anyone around that league. That's another issue of the league system and the small bubble of the community most people experience, but we are not concerned about any trends at present, things are stable.

Orange

I agree with you that the league system needs some revision, because in the current format, it obviously does not work well...

I have wanted to revise the league system for a long time, and have a clear idea of how to do it. It's just not the top priority right now, but we'll get there.

Appreciate you responding Jack (posted from other account)

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