Jack Basfordmedal 5073 CEO & CTO 5 years 313 days ago
Funny that people feel fictional won't be as random. I was actually concerned it might be "too random" if we aren't careful, changing too often. I felt how static real-world weather tends to be (at least throughout seasons) worked against it in the game world, where it might be more interesting to get more variety.
I would prefer fictional weather but I'm not too bothered.
What is needed either way is to alter the forecast, it's pointless telling what the weather might do for the next 3 days it would be more useful to know the forecast for tomorrow and then the other options to be for the next hour and 2 hours.
Dry
Dry & Inter
Dry, Inter & Full Wet
Inter
Inter & Full Wet
Full Wet
Real weather changes too quickly when raining, least with the own system to can set parameters so that it doesn't skip inters when rain starts or stops
Kevin Bissellmedal 5001Super Mod 5 years 312 days ago
Real time unpredictable weather every time for me. I love the races where it changes and it also means you can look at real weather station hour by hour forecasts on race day and use the information to optimise your strategy. TBH I also like the delay between weather view and race viewer because this actually gives you a pseodo weather station.
The bits I don't like is the confusing and contradictory information that sometimes occurs shortly before lock down when one view says rain, another says dry, the drivers want a wet setup but goes faster on slicks LOL.
I also don't like the advanced strategy which at times seems to be doing everything it can to over rule your decisions.
Fix advanced strat and mismatch of information during practice and I for one will be a happy man.
Eduardo Rossimedal 5000 5 years 312 days ago (edited 5 years 312 days ago)
I'm tending to fictional weather, but with a more complete system than we have today that gives the players almost no information what are going to be.
I suggest that we should use a fictional weather close to Grand Prix 3 weather system, shown at 0:02 of this video:
The idea is to show a graph from 1 hour before the race to 1 hour after the race (a 3-hour gap) of the race time only, independently when the player opens the Next Race tab. But, like real forecast, it will get more accurate closer to the race.
For example: someone will do the strategy for a race 1-week-race league 7 days before the next race. The next race weather is already generated, but the graph will have only 10% of accuracy. If the player opens it one day before the race, it will have a 80% accuracy. 1 hour before the race, a 95% of accuracy (maximum value, just not to have a 100% certainty). I think this is very close to a real forecast.
I made some examples of weather forecast in Grand Prix 3, carried to IGP Manager, also with a temperature graph included:
Dry weather
Wet weather
Variable rain weather
(Look how just before the race start it is not raining yet)
Thus, you can calculate based on probability calculations the rain generated in game. Also, the amount of rain is not clearly stated, giving more uncertainty for which tyre to use, and we could see the weather right now for tests and just before the race to decide which tyre to start. With the increased accuracy between days, also gives the uncertainty of real forecasts. An example of it is given below (I made a mistake with the blue color):
Final weather with 95% of accuracy, seeing just before the race (1 hour, e.g.).
The weather one day before the race, with 80% of accuracy:
The weather 7 days before the race, with 10% (or less) of accuracy, like real forecast:
The current weather is the track in that moment, 7 days before the race, and has no relation with the prediction, that is predicted for the race time.
Hope you like the idea and/or gives more ideas to developers, also showing that you could do something "unpredictable" even with fictional forecasts.
PS: Grand Prix 3 also start to rain in some part of the circuit while the other parts stills dry. Feel free to comment about it, but I think this is something for the next years and not for this moment.
Real weather would be good if we didn't race during the winter and late at night. The current 10 degree limit helps but isn't ideal.
Fictional weather with a random element (within reasonable limits based around real weather) I think would be a better way to go. Maybe introduce an optional meteorologist staff member and/or bring back the weather station?
Real weather would be good if we didn't race during the winter and late at night. The current 10 degree limit helps but isn't ideal.
Fictional weather with a random element (within reasonable limits based around real weather) I think would be a better way to go. Maybe introduce an optional meteorologist staff member and/or bring back the weather station?
Frank Thomasmedal 5000Moderator 5 years 312 days ago (edited 5 years 312 days ago)
Jack
Funny that people feel fictional won't be as random. I was actually concerned it might be "too random" if we aren't careful, changing too often. I felt how static real-world weather tends to be (at least throughout seasons) worked against it in the game world, where it might be more interesting to get more variety.
I don't think it's the not random enough itself but that people feel computed randomness is almost always quite a homogeneous pattern, either it's too static or it's jumpy. It's missing the spikes and doesn't sway off the statistical medium too far and long like real random systems more often tend to do.
Real weather kinda first randomize the draw pool, randomize the timeframe, randomize whatever, runs it's randomization, decides to screw it and change the weather almost exactly 10 minutes before the race for almost every race with changing weather in months and goes to have a cup of tea, but if it turns out to be coffee it comes back to have a real go at throwing some weather swings at you.
So I'm rather in favour of real weather, besides that the real weather thing is just a cool thing. Admittedly the summer/winter, while somewhat changing the base factors between seasons is a nice thing, is quite a bit too slow.
The biggest issue with weather I have is advanced strategy and its tendency to try to sabotage your live managing and that has to be fixed with fictional weather as well anyway or even more so if it'll decided that weather factors are to happen more often than real.
The other thing with the training laps would either need some better syncing of the weather data, or syncing last hour before race training, qualify and race to run on the same instance, shouldn't need actual magic either and that's also a thing with fictional weather, even more so because that's not necessarily based on the same source as every race service instance could technically generate its own weather.
If the 'fictional' weather wins the poll, can we at least make sure that the weather is relative in terms of the region where the circuit is situated? We don't want to see rain at say Bahrain with low temps, or scorching temps at circuits that are renowned for low temps. Prime example of how I experienced this was with F1 2013 (bad example, but see my view), the entire race weekend at Bahrain was wet, and that was very frustrating.
What plays a big role is the time the leagues are scheduled Racing at midday European time you were bound to have hotter temps, whilst evening races would bring cooler temps.
While we on this subject, can we ensure the practice laps fix whereby the weather icon would show 'sunny', but the drivers on track want a wet setup because the track is wet? Often practice laps get wasted like this. We need a 'current conditions' icon whilst doing practice laps. Also, perhaps a 'forecast' icon as well, with a % icon, to keep things interesting. I'm sure someone here has played Motorsport Manager, perhaps we can implement their weather system? Have a weather centre building as an HQ upgrade, which can either increase the timeline of the forecast, or, increase the accuracy of the forecast? Just an idea...
Weather isn’t a big problem for me, although currently the coldest races are at 10 degrees C and that’s temperature which allow to be competitive on hard compound.
If I have to choose I’d prefer fictional weather provided with seasonal changes. For example in Europe in November there is a greater chances of rain than in June, so if Germany race is in November rain chances could be 40% and if the race is in June the chances could be 10%. Also it should include wider range of temperature to allow racing in conditions below 10 degrees C.
But if we must move to in house fictional weather then I suggest the following.
Implement a working and accurate weather environment. Seasonal etc
It shouldn't be crazy in extremes or predictability.
Accurate and working weather stations
But really, I hope you don't go this route. One of the many draws of this game was the use of real weather, it gave it an feel of authenticity. It really must be possible to fix the current system?
First of all, thank you and your team for providing such an entertainment platform to us. Seeing iGP successes is great for us, racing fans, and we value your work greatly.
As far as the weather is concerned, I believe that the real-world weather, although being a great idea, is cursed by a number of issues which range from playability (our experience) to development (I am thinking of helping you in your work of always improving the game here).
In terms of playability, I will mostly let the others comment on this as they might already have. Some points which are hindering the real-world weather at the moment are:
-lack of predictability in changing weather conditions (this might be intentional, but I feels that there is a lack of control over the qualifications weather and tyre choice and efficiency before and on the grid)
-lack of consistency between leagues (the weather does not agree in two different leagues despite them being racing at the same time and at the same place)
-seasonal changes are too slow: if summer lasts 3 months, then we have about 5 straight seasons in summer conditions.
-depending on the chosen time for the races, some might always be racing in night conditions on certain circuits
In certain very active leagues, people think that the best way to improve the game as it currently is would be to have more flexibility in terms of race strategies. So far, we are always pretty much racing with the same strategy and same race tyre. I am told you are working on introducing more competitive tyres already and I believe that the decision made on the weather will impact this work for the following reason: the way tyres work depends on the temperature and it doesn't impact all tyres equally. Because of this, I believe it would be better to have more control over the weather so that the development team can produce more reliable competitive tyre laws.
Hope this helps,
F.
PS: by "more control", I don't mean a predictable weather, but rather a randomized, fictional weather that remains mostly bounded within a range that can be thoroughly tested by developers.
Nightraven Shademedal 5000 5 years 310 days ago (edited 5 years 310 days ago)
Fictional weather seems the best option however within this you can add percentages based on real weather for example its going to be hot in UAE so say 5% rain 10% under 20c 35% under 30c 50% over 30c and we all know UK has temperamental weather so 50% chance of rain at any time during race with 30% chance of it starting as rain it randomizes weather each season without it being predictable for each circuit. Have the weather then fixed 3 hours before start of race with mock forcasts every hour before then so you choose when to do you setups but changable during the race using this percentage method.
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