[ROUNDTABLE] Tyre 'Cliffs' Update

100% races: I have avoided them like the plague, they are just sooo long! 

I’m not surprised that it would create loads of 4 stop races @ 100% race length. 

I hope this can be addressed without changes across the board that would affect 75% or 50% races. 

Where strategy comes best into play the majority or races should be 2 to 3 stops max. With exceptions of 1 stop or 4 stops winning strategies possible for just two, maybe three circuits. 

I think a solution would be to rename the race lengths:

50% = 75% (or remain named 50%) 
75% = 100% (it’s the sweet spot imo, and should be the new 100%)
100% = 125% (because honestly it’s ALWAYS felt too long and a TON of pit stops) so 125% would more accurately describe it. 

this new update make tyres cool off faster than before, and the Hard tyres have been a go-to because it has longer life. overcut is an impossibility now, and strategy has been more complicated. particularly, for the no refuelling leagues.

 


Firstly, races are 50%, 75% & 100% are called such as that is what they are, give or take a few laps with Monaco being a notable exception which is below distance.  Making the name changes you suggest would be misleading.

I can’t agree that 75% is the sweep spot.  Having raced all distances, by far the best experience is 100%.  Equally saying that the majority of races at 100% should be max 2 or 3 stops is something I don’t agree with either.   You don’t like pit stops, obviously, but it is no reason for iGP to make yet another change.  More pit stops  gives more opportunity for variation in strategy.  Three races at 100% so far and all were a combination of 3,4& 5 stops.  (Third was mainly 4&5 though). If all races were 6 stops then maybe, but so far I haven’t seen any (yet to race Turkey though?).

In each race there has been various combination of tyre strategies using SS,S & M so a lot of variety.  Mediums are definitely better than they were and interested to see how Hards do in a really hot race.  

It wasn’t that long ago that managers were complaining about wet races only having 1 or no pit stops.

As Kevin said earlier managers wanted a tyre rebalance to give more variety from SS SS SS or S S and that it what they have got.

Whatever our respective opinions are it’s far too early to make definitive judgements about these changes.  I’m sure iGP are monitoring not just this thread but also the racing so they can see the impact it is having and how strategies change over time as managers become more accustomed to the new tyre performance.

With all due respect, this is what happens when the 'clever people' at the iGP Manager HQ listen to, and directly implement ideas from newer players, without giving due thought to the repercussions (in this case, every other race length apart from 50% distance)

We had the same with the Safety Car, the same with the Flags rules.


I agree with your statement here, however I personally prefer 2 stops max. This, in my opinion, allows for more on-track racing (strategic passing and overtaking), rather that races (and overtaking) being decided by the now, far too frequent, pitstops.

75% distance now (with no refuelling) appears to be always a 3 stop strategy (with possibly 4 stop strategies being competitive on some tracks), far too may in and out laps, and confusion.

Over a course of approx. 30 laps, we are doing 7-8 lap stints, before we have to pit in again, far too short race stints.


This quite frankly says it all really.

No, 50% is half an F1 race distance, and should be called as such. The same applies for 25%, 75% and 100% distances.

Many players in this game love the longer distances (75% and 100% distance), and there may even be at least 3, 4 times as many active players in these leagues compared to 50% distance.

If 100% distance is too long for you, don't play it, or join a league that utilizes 100% distance. Many players love this distance, as they enjoy the realistic simulation, and some leagues even use x1 speed with the max distance. That is 1hr 20 to 2 hours for each race, and players in these leagues play the entire duration.

Not everyone plays the same as you Hayden, but all players should be considered, hence this thread.

What was the point of updating the game? Make tires less durable. But now hard tires live less than soft ones. It is necessary to reduce then the percentage of wear of solid. You can drive on hard, less than on software.

Agree with most of what you said. I do avoid 100% leagues already as mentioned. I tried it but it’s too many pit stops. 

I LOVE pit stops but I came to IGP as an f1 fan where the vast majority of circuits are completed using 1 to 3 pit stops. At 100% even before these changes, 4 pit stops were too common. 

So yes for my personal preference only - not implying that it’s the only way to play as everyone will have varied preferences - 50% and 75% are closer to that 1 - 2 stops and 2 - 3 stops respectively. The 100% races are drawn out even more due to the extra stops. Which yes, some players like that also I’m sure. 

Do you mean stops or stints?

5 stops = 6 stints has never been a winning strategy.

Thanks, yes. I mean 5 set of tires. (4 stops) will correct. Tracks like Turkey. Europe, Hungry, Monaco, Belgium. 

Was going to answer this but Kevin already did ?.

Thanks for posting that!! haha That’s crazy. I was questioning my memory for a second. 5 stops in one race would be like punishment for me. Usually if you stop 5 times in F1 there’s something terribly wrong, penalties or the weather is bipolar. But 5 stops to win. Wow. More reason why 75% seems like the sweet spot. I Just don’t like the 100% length, feels drawn out and… win or lose, delaying the inevitable result gets boring. I guess to each their own. 

Ps. I know the game isn’t an F1 clone but we have DRS zone, race the same circuits, and a TON of other similarities. So 4 and 5 stops is a bit much. 

The idea is good, but without a tire wear/pace rebalance, it's terrible for races with refuelling. Medium tires are too unbalanced, S dies so fast. The strategies differ only the first segment and the number of pit stops.

It looks like the tire wear changes are more to address some of the issues caused by no refuelling rather than solely to enhance gameplay. Another solution would be to reduce the rate of tire wear across all compounds by about 10% to 20%. This, however, may lead to no-stop and 1-stop in 50% races. So it's a challenge unless wear can be changed JUST for the 100% length taces. 


Response to The Stig's post below this one:
Yes, see post above: "Tracks like Turkey. Europe, Hungry, Monaco, Belgium"

... So the issue isn't really because of the recent changes to how/when the percentage wear makes a difference. But rather maybe tire wear rate overall has always been too fast for the 100% races. 

5 stops has been a winning strategy in Turkey 100%  for while (before this update).  p.s.  I have another team in same league Kevin posted above.

The update is great , it really does make different strategies work but only when you are all using same tire compounds ( especially when youre all on wets).Now the big problem is the cooling issue.Tyres losing temperatures when they are still in good condition really breaks the game as now if you were planning a long stint youre now forced to push using up your fuel and still sometimes its no use as the temparatures still continues to fall. Now this really makes ss useless as they fall off way to fast and they are not much faster to be an option.Soft is a little better as its fast and last longer now to the medium tyres are really broken.They nearly as fast as the softs but waay more durable making them king.Now hards are way too slow and last a little longer than mediums making them useless.Now we can either change the cliff of each tyre compound so they cool of at different rates eg. for ss at 25% , softs at 30% , meds 35% hards 40% if possible. Tl;dr Meds op , tyres losing temps way too fast causing too much fuel usage.

SS are not really a race tire. They are used mainly to ensure (try for) a top 10 starting position, or, sometimes at the very end of a race to close a gap. With the current changes I thnk the temperature falling before 50% is fine, you ARE supposed to push tires even more after wearing them in for a few laps. So I find this a welcomed change. 


Now, if any reduction of wear rate happens, it should be applied to all compounds and not just SS. IMO of course. 

Initial Solution: increase the hardness level of the compound and continue with the usual strategy,
, and look for undercut instead of overcut

Overcuts are impossible now, it's all about the undercut. Long stints are impossible really because after 50% tyres are gone and you are prone to an undercut by someone using a strategy with more stops.

 Softs pretty much useless so more time on the medium and hard tyre. Can't really see how a strategy with SS could work out after the update, eg in Hungary. 

Overall dissatisfied.

Clearly I was talking about races before this update.

In Turkey I have always had 4 stints on softs using low push levels. I cannot say what would be my strategy in Malaysia because my last dry race was in pro category. Now it will be different after the update...

Before the update 5 stops on SS was faster than 4 stops on S at Turkey unless it was unusually hot weather


Not really.  It was possible to run tyres down to below 20% wear and still not lose performance. However, shorter stints using softer compounds has been optimal at some tracks mainly as a result of Meds and Hards being underpowered compared to softer compounds.  Most of us who race at 100% don’t have the issue with pit stops.   Part of the reason was that lighter fuel load countered the effect of high tyre wear.  

As I said before more pit stops increases the opportunity for variation in strategies.  Remove this and the game becomes bland.  Now managers have a choice of different tyre and stop strategies.  From what I have experienced the overcut still works with right tyre strategy and we have new opportunities with undercutting.  I don’t see any evidence of softs being unusable and there is still a place for SS at the right tracks as has always been the case.