With the implementation of auto-kick, some league hosts claim it has become tough to keep the higher tiers in a league populated. I had been considering doubling the size of the promotion and relegation zones for a long time, to ensure there are more cars to race against each season, and that the promotion and relegation battle is more exciting. That is one measure that might help, but I don't think it solves everything.
The way some other games address this situation is to have a pyramid structure, with progressively less leagues in each tier, reaching a single pinnacle at the top. That system would not work in iGP Manager as it stands, as unlike the other games, it has fully live racing and real-time strategy. Being able to attend the race is of critical importance and so being able to decide when you race is also critically important.
This thread is for open discussion. It's a place to throw all of the ideas in to the ring and come up with the best solution. Here are a few to begin the discussion, off the top of my head. I haven't given all of the consequences of each idea much thought, but it gets the ball rolling.
If anyone here is familiar with iRacing, I believe they use a flexible version of a pyramid structure where you can join races around the clock and score points. I'd be interested to hear more about that system and whether something similar could work in iGP Manager too.
The way some other games address this situation is to have a pyramid structure, with progressively less leagues in each tier, reaching a single pinnacle at the top. That system would not work in iGP Manager as it stands, as unlike the other games, it has fully live racing and real-time strategy. Being able to attend the race is of critical importance and so being able to decide when you race is also critically important.
This thread is for open discussion. It's a place to throw all of the ideas in to the ring and come up with the best solution. Here are a few to begin the discussion, off the top of my head. I haven't given all of the consequences of each idea much thought, but it gets the ball rolling.
- 1. Only auto-kick from the Rookie tier - Only auto-kick inactive Rookie accounts, allowing an indefinite period of inactivity in the Pro or Elite tiers to keep them populated. Combined with doubling the size of the promotion and relegation zones this might actually be quite effective, and could be implemented very quickly. The inactive players in Pro and Elite should also naturally fall back to Rookie over time through relegation, and then get removed from the system.
- 2. End the current three-tier league, and introduce a handicap system in its place - This would utilise the ballast system. Our intention for the future friendly race system is to use ballast to level performance. Why not do the same for leagues? Tiers could be removed from the picture entirely. While everything would become more casual, it would allow friends of all levels to race together. The league host could change the Handicap setting as a percentage, with 100% aiming to completely level performance from teams of all levels, and 0% not levelling the field at all, resulting in huge discrepancies in performance, but always willingly opted in to by the players and customisable at any time. One major setback to this idea is that there are plenty of active leagues in all three tiers who would probably not welcome it, or being split up. So I don't think this one will work, but it's an idea anyway.
- 3. Regional pyramid structure - This would take months to build, and isn't going to solve anything short-term, but an alternative would be to have pyramidal structures of leagues regionally based so that most people can attend the races. To prevent this being to restrictive for players and limiting when they can play, perhaps rather than replacing current leagues, this system could run parallel with them.
If anyone here is familiar with iRacing, I believe they use a flexible version of a pyramid structure where you can join races around the clock and score points. I'd be interested to hear more about that system and whether something similar could work in iGP Manager too.
For me, suggestion 1 works best. In the league I run, none of the managers can get promoted from Pro as a result of auto kick and also some managers leave my team, 5 seasons in Pro and no promotion for any of manager in my league.
As for the 2nd suggestion, it would personally not go down well with me, but for others, it might be a good idea. It doesn't go well with me as I'm in Elite and all the tiers are full in the league I race in, but for smaller leagues, like the one I manage, the idea might work.
Suggestion 3: Maybe keep our own leagues, but also have a regional pyramid structure as well? In my opinion that might work as most of us will want to stay in our own leagues, but also be competitive with others from similar regions? That's my suggestion for an alternative suggestion 3, as I think using the original suggestion 3 you suggested might not work very well in my opinion.
Out of all of them, I think auto kick only in Rookie will work best for me as it will solve multiple problems, such as Pro not losing managers so leagues (like the one I manage) can have promotion activated so they can go into the Elite tier without them losing the chance to do so.
