A Balancing Act
By Jack Basford
Last updated: Mon, 26 Sep 2016 13:40
Based on all of your feedback and the data we’ve gathered since launch, I’ve applied several meaningful changes to the way design works to better balance leagues. There have been several small incremental changes since launch, but this is intended to essentially be the solution to imbalances in leagues.
League and Design balancing
- The level cap is now a fixed number for each tier (Rookie = 50, Pro = 80, Elite =100), equalising leagues and neutralising the level advantage of top teams
- After each race, the Technical Director will research and report on the best rival teams and discover bonus Design Points to help catch up. The number of Design Points that can be unlocked will be based on a combination of the Technical Director and Chief Designer star ratings, granting all teams the same opportunity to make design progress and become competitive, regardless of level.
- The calculation for next season designs also now operates based on the star rating of the Chief Designer, again enabling the same opportunity for all teams to create a competitive design regardless of level, putting more emphasis on skilful team management.
Even leagues which are presently unbalanced will be neutralised in the next few races, courtesy of the new Technical Director’s report which will close the gap between teams. In any league, you can expect to see things levelled within the next 5 races regardless of current circumstances.
In all future scenarios of changing leagues, the same rule applies. Within five races anybody should be able to become competitive within a league, regardless of what circumstances they join under.
I had planned to show next season design progress somewhere with this update, but concluded it was not necessary. Why? Because many scenarios like promotion, relegation and moving leagues change these values completely as they are re-balanced. I believe it would cause confusion to display consistent values all season that then change during promotion/relegation or moving leagues, and so have opted not to add this.
Finance balancing
For those who missed it, earlier in the week we also increased sponsor income to increase the chances of turning a profit. Read more on the forum: http://igpmanager.com/?url=forum-thread/5827
Print Article
And that leagues season is done, went on a run of 3 victories include 2 1-2 results as a direct result of the changes. Cool.
Okay i almost pulled off a complete shock 1-2 in the league i am in, taking it to the dominant team there. However my second driver was half a lap short of fuel and could of made a fight of it for 2nd. those changed really helped me catching up, must of gained about 200+ design points over the last number of races and now i am competitive with them which is what i was hoping for, to break that strangle hold.
Even though it was done by some strategy, however i did keep up with them all race.
Hey! Good news. Perhaps, I would adjust a little more. I don't know why a team with level 9 (+drivers level 8) can front team level 12 with drivers level 16 and 12. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Maybe it needs some fine tuning but it's working ;)
@jack basford yes, in one race i passed from fight for win, to fight to put 1car in top10. amazing balancing act
@dan - We will see how this goes first. Let's give it at least a month before making any more big changes. There are lots of tweaks and refinements that I'm sure we can make even to this new improved system. :)
@N Llens - You have most points overall, is what it means. This means that others will be closing in on you race by race with their total number of Design Points.
Thanks Jack, this is great news!
about next season: maybe show design for next season is not necessary if we can't work on it.
i'd like to improve it by adding some points on it. if i can't fight for the champ or anything in the actual season, i want to start designing for the next one. this way i can be sure accel will have some design points i manually use there.
to avoid thinking on Win/lose/Win strategies, for every dp you add to next season design, you have to use 2 available dps.
@N Llens: if you have the best car, i think you won't get extra design points. ;)
Report: We have the best car. Our strongest rivel is: "other rival team"
it means that i've the best total points? or best points in every parts? o how?, and no, nothing more only 17points from my level headquarter desing.