Jason Prudhoe medal 5000 8 years 117 days ago
i just joined elite group in my league, straight out the box i got the grand slam and this is against a team and driver that has been dominating their championship for most of that season, i totally took em apart in that group. yeah, something would need to be done. personally i would of wiped all the old data except account informations and had everyone start at zero. it would be a hell of a job trying to balance that out as it is right now.
Danny Williams medal 4888 8 years 116 days ago
Jason
i just joined elite group in my league, straight out the box i got the grand slam and this is against a team and driver that has been dominating their championship for most of that season, i totally took em apart in that group. yeah, something would need to be done. personally i would of wiped all the old data except account informations and had everyone start at zero. it would be a hell of a job trying to balance that out as it is right now.
Yeah but do you think that would be fair to the loyal people that subscribed to the old game to loose all that time money to start at zero. That is not fair either. And no i am not one of them i just like looking at things from both sides.
Jason Prudhoe medal 5000 8 years 116 days ago
well what it comes down to is that we are just customers playing on a web based service, frankly it is not something that should be considered a right, but more along the lines of it being a privilege, i do not know how jack or the rest of his team feel about player base loyalty, but this game is also a business and a business can't just run off the good will of the players, some actions may have to be taken to preserve the game even if no one likes it.
Why i consider a full wipe is to restore the balance rather than tinker around with a system in the past that may not be fit for purpose any more and just tinkering with it won't really solve anything.
Jack Basford medal 5549 
CEO & CTO 8 years 116 days ago
It will be fine, it will take a couple of weeks to get started on the proper solutions but I'm not concerned. From my perspective, we had never built a game before, then we built an MMO. When we started on the new iGP we had never built a mobile game, and had no clue where to start, but we've done it (at least privately, you'll see the results soon).
I have to laugh at the idea that Bob's level being 2 points higher than Jeff's is where we'll be stuck. That's a piece of cake to solve compared to the challenges we've overcome re-engineering the game. I could figure it out in an evening with a pen and paper. I just can't get around to it for a couple of weeks because we've got so much to work on to complete the migration and patch up the data.
It's best for me to just focus on getting this work done and not spend too much time debating it with people who think it's impossible. In my opinion, it's going to be easy, and it will be done within a month. They are just some numbers, and we need to make them even out across the teams. That's something I'm looking forward to compared to everything else I've been doing!
Alex Snead medal 5000 8 years 116 days ago (edited 8 years 116 days ago)
Maybe a way forwards would be to have far fewer leagues but with maybe 8 tiers, so you quickly became more level matched?
Jason Prudhoe medal 5000 8 years 116 days ago
Never said it was impossible but rather possibly troublesome. but as you mentioned you got a lot to do most of the reason behind the thought why it could be a concern. But thank you for sorting it out.
Jack Basford medal 5549 CEO & CTO 8 years 116 days ago
There are good ideas in this thread that will definitely help when I start drawing up a plan. Keep them coming.
More tiers won't be possible though, due to how the game is built. Working out some kind of "average" per league is an interesting idea that I probably wouldn't have come up with.
My first idea was a spies system that could give you X design points (whatever you need to catch the team you're spying on overall). Then it's down to how you assign them. I even wondered if maybe the designer finds a new "innovation" based off the spying that allows you to raise your level even higher than the opposition team you spied on. The simplicity of this idea is probably due to how little time I've spent thinking about it though, during the migration.
There are so many angles we can take on this, but it has to be an idea people are onboard with and feel is balanced itself. Happy to brainstorm solutions with everyone. My first post was just to calm anyone who thinks this is fundamentally difficult or impossible. It wasn't aimed at anyone, but I know there are a few out there who feel that way.
Alex Snead medal 5000 8 years 116 days ago
Capped leagues? Not just 'Under level 10', but 'Only level 1-8', 'only level 9-12', etc.
I'm not quite sure why we have so many different leagues, most of which are daily, most of which are similar times of day... OK, it's because anyone can start a league so they can play with their friends, and closed leagues should still be possible, but maybe for individuals who have not come in in a group there could be capped iGP leagues, sort of standard leagues, rather than run by a user?
Spies... I've never used them in the past, preferred to focus on actually building my car, but it's possible - only one question. I'm level 9, racing mostly against level 12, so even if I spy, I can't get as good? Equally, however much effort I put into training my driver, they can't be as good - do I understand this correctly? I think you should be able to train your staff above your own level.
And last thought (though it would affect your income) maybe the number of tokens you can use at once should be capped. There would be a logic to only being able to complete a certain number of tasks in the time between races? Real life time is limited, you can't build 20 levels of something in ten minutes, just because you have tokens, which can buy money, and make things take no time at all.
Tokens would ensure you could complete the full allocation, but maybe you could only carry out ten actions (repair car, upgrade infrastructure, train driver, bid on staff, etc) between each race?
Jack Basford medal 5549 CEO & CTO 8 years 116 days ago
Alex
maybe for individuals who have not come in in a group there could be capped iGP leagues, sort of standard leagues, rather than run by a user?
A slightly complicated possibility to engineer. We have plans to add friendly races before the mobile launch (log in and race any time for fun) so a more structured league system to accompany that might help. Other games which have a similar levelling system to iGP counter it with a very rigid league structure which you can't escape. I never liked this kind of thing, though, and I don't think our managers will either. So I can't see that being the solution.
Alex
I think you should be able to train your staff above your own level.
Technically you can, it's just made near impossible to keep the racing fair.
Alex
Real life time is limited, you can't build 20 levels of something in ten minutes
You can't do this in iGP either, under the new system. A new player can only upgrade to level 3, and must race to unlock level 4, then race more to unlock level 5 and so on.
What occurred during the migration was totally abnormal, level 20 players (with access to unlock level 20) coming in with level 1 stuff in some areas like HQ. This will never happen again, it was a one-off event and we took some sweeping measures to steady things.
Alex Snead medal 5000 8 years 116 days ago
Thank you for your answers Jack, reading here I'm beginning to understand more how this is going, and the more I understand, the more I like. I think you and your team are doing a great job, despite the teething troubles. it's great to see you in here answering all of the questions and worries.
Lucas Ratajczyk medal 5000 8 years 115 days ago
Guys what's going on now :) could anyone explain me this please? what I'm doing wrong ? My driver is +13s after perfect setup (according to him). They're both 5 red stars drivers, so perfect for my 9 lvl. Now I've noticed that my car compatibility is only one star! and couldn't be better because I received only 6 design points for it on after the first race which is because my design lvl in headquarters is 6. Looks like my car is really below the standard. Question is why everyone's car is so much better at this point already? Did they received more points than me at the beginning of the new season or there is something I did wrong? At the moment there is no even a point to race. My first race I finished 5 and 6 and now +13 on one lap! Thank you. Btw If you need any print screens just tell me how to attach them to my post:)
Christian Meister medal 5000 8 years 115 days ago
Could it be that it was raining during your practice laps ?
Lucas Ratajczyk medal 5000 8 years 115 days ago
Christian
Could it be that it was raining during your practice laps ?
unfortunately not 29 degrees and no sign of rain :(
Yunus Unia Blunion medal 5411 8 years 115 days ago
Lucas, your car compatibility is a comparison of how well suited it is to the race track, not to other teams' cars.
Christian Meister medal 5000 8 years 115 days ago
Well, you are faster now, with wets, aren't you ? ;)
Joey McLane medal 5000 8 years 114 days ago
I'm pretty sure it was raining in your previous race because it is currently raining in Australia, as for Malaysia it is often raining so don't forget to check weather before doing test runs.
James Greer medal 5000 8 years 114 days ago
Jack
There are good ideas in this thread that will definitely help when I start drawing up a plan. Keep them coming.
More tiers won't be possible though, due to how the game is built. Working out some kind of "average" per league is an interesting idea that I probably wouldn't have come up with.
My first idea was a spies system that could give you X design points (whatever you need to catch the team you're spying on overall). Then it's down to how you assign them. I even wondered if maybe the designer finds a new "innovation" based off the spying that allows you to raise your level even higher than the opposition team you spied on. The simplicity of this idea is probably due to how little time I've spent thinking about it though, during the migration.
There are so many angles we can take on this, but it has to be an idea people are onboard with and feel is balanced itself. Happy to brainstorm solutions with everyone. My first post was just to calm anyone who thinks this is fundamentally difficult or impossible. It wasn't aimed at anyone, but I know there are a few out there who feel that way.
The problem I see with the spy returning home with a handful of extra points for you to spend is the design cap, if you are already maxed out the points are useless to you. Much better if can have an average capping level set for everyone in the tier. Higher level players will cap sooner but the lower levels can spy on them and catch up faster.
That way it doesn't matter if you are new to the game or been here for years, the racing will always be tight.
Joey McLane medal 5000 8 years 114 days ago
@James : As I stated 2 weeks ago I don't think the cap (for car design) will be a problem just because of this :
20 design points max earned per race
16 races with an upgrade * 20 design points = 320 pts to spend
100 - 1 = 99 design pts to allocate * 8 stats = 792 pts where to spend
So 320/792 = 40% design cap is enough to place all of our design points. One of my spare team (level 10) has 70 in cap.
James Greer medal 5000 8 years 114 days ago (edited 8 years 114 days ago)
Then why are my two drivers racing against themselves if the design cap isn't the problem?
If I leave the league and rejoin does that reset my car and points? asking because if it does it will be more interesting
Other thing is you are talking about 20points per race some of the people in my tier are only getting 6 a race
Joey McLane medal 5000 8 years 114 days ago
The transition season is not balanced and we have to wait the new season to start on equal basis, this is especially true as the level cap from CD was bugged and some teams spent their points in all areas because they had 27 in cap when other teams had 80 or more in that cap. We have to add the fact you're facing low level teams with a really high level team and you started with a very high design.
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