Alright Boyz, here we go!! Motorsport Manager

[kingfc22]

I'm so happy our vote to extend practice to 15 minutes passed. Was able to get knowledge to High for the first time and a 10% bonus for trim and tires.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Some of these politics things throw a real wrench in your plans. Just had the league pass a thing where there's no refueling. Obviously, you have to figure out when to conserve and when to push. Feels like I had more options to work through the pack to get a good finish with the gas option with Predator in season 1. Now, in season 2, I'm struggling to figure out how to improve our finishes.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

I'm so happy our vote to extend practice to 15 minutes passed. Was able to get knowledge to High for the first time and a 10% bonus for trim and tires.

Screw that, I love my short 12 min cycles. I feel like I can set the car up better than my opponents. I can get to 90%+ set ups in that time frame.

[weegeebored]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Practice is super critical. Managing tire and engine wear is great in the race. There are so many variables and they all seem executed very well in the game. It's really impressive. This is the racing game I've always wanted. Damn it's that good.

Couldn't agree more. Plus the game seems to have a really good balance between finances, construction (both car and HQ), race management, and planning for the next season. Throw in the rules voting, contracts, and random dilemmas and personality traits and it feels like I'm really running a racing team.

[Bobble]

[brag] Just got my first 1st place finish in season 1 with Predator. The race started out with heavy rain, track soaked. My driver rammed someone, trashed the front wing, and got a drive-through penalty. Fine, I'll two-for-one and fix the wing at the same time as the drive-thru. It doesn't work that way. Pit for wing repair. Still have to do the drive-thru next lap. Dead last. Anywho, I see the rain is going to abate. So I switch my other driver from wets to inters and am about to bring in this guy. Someone crashes. I milk it a little and then bring him in for fuel and inters which brings him up to the back of the pack rather than half a lap down. Perfect timing. He rides those fresh inters to the front while everyone else takes an extra pit to switch to inters in a few laps. It times out just fine for my last pit for fuel and softs as the sun comes out. He wins by a mile. [/brag]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

I'm so happy our vote to extend practice to 15 minutes passed. Was able to get knowledge to High for the first time and a 10% bonus for trim and tires.

This only helps to narrow the range in order to get a better setup, true? If I have a good setup, "setup knowledge" doesn't help me in the race, correct?

[weegeebored]

Public Beta update available through Steam.

What's changed?

- Refined blue flag car behaviour
- Cars drive off the racing line in qualifying if on an in/out lap
- Re-enabled 4:3 aspect ratio support
- Intro video now skippable after 2 seconds
- Scrutineering screen crash fix

[Balldog]

Wrapped up season 2 last night, started off pretty rough but my #1 driver was able to win the championship and the team finished 7th. I had to fire one of my mechanics mid-season and my #1 driver's contract is expired and he isn't interested in resigning.

Season 3 should be interesting!


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[Ajaxab]

I am really loving the game too, but feel like I might have to start my career over. I made some bad decisions while learning at Octane Racing in the European series that may have sent my team into a death spiral. Now I'm behind and feel like catching up could be very difficult.

But I'm in 2023 and am going to keep on playing. The game really is a breath of fresh air in the sports management genre. Simple enough to learn and play, but enough complexity and difficult decisions to keep it fun.

[Balldog]

Is there a way to have the names of people randomized? I feel like starting over we would have an advantage of previous save scouting.


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[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by Balldog

Is there a way to have the names of people randomized? I feel like starting over we would have an advantage of previous save scouting.


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I would like that feature as well. I have to force myself to scout drivers the same way I did the first time I played, since I already know who I want to hire to start with.

I finally finished season 1, since I did about 10 restarts. Finished 9th with Predator my first season. I'm trying to build slowly. At least at the start of season 2, I only have the 9th best car. Baby steps.

[SirFozzie]

BTW, if you hate the setup grind (IE, tweaking settings yourself and writing down what works, etcetera), there's guides on Steam with excellent setups for each track (although they will slightly change for each driver's skillset).

If you love that part of the game, definitely avoid it

[Balldog]

To me the setup grind is one of the best steps to get through the race. I've had times were I nailed it and it showed on Sunday and other times where we didn't get it dialed in and we struggled mightily.

So addicting


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[Bobble]

Can anyone confirm that tyre pressure and camber do really effect tire heating? I'd like to think that on sunny, hot days I can get an edge if I change tyre pressure 'cause my drivers are always crying about tyre heat.

[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by Bobble

Can anyone confirm that tyre pressure and camber do really effect tire heating? I'd like to think that on sunny, hot days I can get an edge if I change tyre pressure 'cause my drivers are always crying about tyre heat.

It does not. There was a AMA which verified this.

[Bobble]

Thanks.

[weegeebored]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

...there's guides on Steam with excellent setups for each track (although they will slightly change for each driver's skillset).

And I'm assuming for the car build-out as well? Or driver skills only?

[SirFozzie]

for the car build out too, I would assume. I don't get 99%, but I do get 90-95%..

[hollmt]

I got 99% once. But it was for Evans' car, so that amounted to jack and shit.

[PilotMan]

Very rough first two races to start season #2. Both cars got clipped in each race, rain here and there, plus in the offseason I had decided to updgrade both of our buildings so our car improvements were extra slow, along with generally unreliable parts. Too many pit stops, all strategy out the window, then to top it off, I had to pimp one of the drivers out just to keep the sponsors happy. The car is way better than the previous year, so at some point we have so show some improvement.

[Brian Swartz]

Well I've officially joined the ranks of the addicted here. Finished second race in my first season, Santa Ana stretches out the last almost-half of the race on medium tires, picks up a few spots ... and gets passed by Marchetta on fresher softs midway through the last lap and finishes 17th, one spot out of the sponsor bonus money. She actually led the first 11 quarter-plus of the race, but then I didn't notice a caution in time, pitted a lap after everyone else and got stuck at the back of the pack. As has been mentioned, the choices around tire wear, how aggressively to drive, etc. are far more interesting than I thought they would be.

A week later, there's a vote on adding another race the following year. I was floored by that, had no idea that kind of thing could happen. I voted for it and it was defeated ... by a single vote. So I have a new reason to hate half of the circuit. Evans hates me because I tell the media the truth about how much he sucks too often. Chairman's not a fan of that either.

But yeah, the end of that second race and the political vote on the schedule were more than enough to sell me. I'm not at all sure I'm making any progress -- parts are taking damage faster than the mechanics can repair it, and one of the new parts I designed is worse than the original crap I think, but I'm having one whale of a lot of fun.

[AnalBumCover]

After my nth restart, I've decided to run my own little challenge. Taking ZRT Autosport in the ERS and creating an All-American team of drivers, mechanics, and designer and see how far it takes me. I've had to build a new scouting building in order to expand my scout's reach, since the only three visible Americans were already racing in the Asia-Pacific Super Cup, so I ran the first few races with the team's existing drivers.

So after five races, I've finally found, scouted, and hired two new American drivers. We'll see how well this new team meld together over the rest of the season.

And going forward, any team member leaving will be replaced with another American.

[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Well I've officially joined the ranks of the addicted here. Finished second race in my first season, Santa Ana stretches out the last almost-half of the race on medium tires, picks up a few spots ... and gets passed by Marchetta on fresher softs midway through the last lap and finishes 17th, one spot out of the sponsor bonus money. She actually led the first 11 quarter-plus of the race, but then I didn't notice a caution in time, pitted a lap after everyone else and got stuck at the back of the pack. As has been mentioned, the choices around tire wear, how aggressively to drive, etc. are far more interesting than I thought they would be.

A week later, there's a vote on adding another race the following year. I was floored by that, had no idea that kind of thing could happen. I voted for it and it was defeated ... by a single vote. So I have a new reason to hate half of the circuit. Evans hates me because I tell the media the truth about how much he sucks too often. Chairman's not a fan of that either.

But yeah, the end of that second race and the political vote on the schedule were more than enough to sell me. I'm not at all sure I'm making any progress -- parts are taking damage faster than the mechanics can repair it, and one of the new parts I designed is worse than the original crap I think, but I'm having one whale of a lot of fun.

At the top of the screen, there is a tab that I think says GMT. That tab will show all the votes for the season. It's pretty important, so you can plan your strategy. For example, in my season, towards the end, there was a vote about having spec suspensions. The other votes I didn't really care about, so I saved my votes to make sure it would pass. Therefore, I hired a lead designer who didn't know diddly about suspensions or wings, but was awesome in everything else. And I didn't bother building any suspensions, since they would be useless next season.

Related, make sure you check out your lead designer's strengths when building new parts. If you are with Predator, she pretty much sucks, but can make a couple parts better than what you start with. I also ended building a part which wasn't any better than the original, so I was annoyed that I wasted the money, which is pretty scarce.

Finally, early on, get your mechanics working on reliability ASAP. As you've probably noticed, that is a big factor early in the season. Nothing sucks worse than being up near the front for the whole race, but having to pit to replace a failing engine, and dropping 10-15 spots. I like hiring a new mechanic with a high reliability stat for this purpose.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

Finally, early on, get your mechanics working on reliability ASAP. As you've probably noticed, that is a big factor early in the season. Nothing sucks worse than being up near the front for the whole race, but having to pit to replace a failing engine, and dropping 10-15 spots. I like hiring a new mechanic with a high reliability stat for this purpose.

This. You can waste an entire season(s) if you don't have good reliability. Also allows you to push your engine a bit without worrying about having to pit two laps later.

The other thing I did was I upgraded the factory in the first year. Doubles the amount of space for performance/reliability improvements, allowing you to improve your newer parts MUCH faster and early in the season.

[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

This. You can waste an entire season(s) if you don't have good reliability. Also allows you to push your engine a bit without worrying about having to pit two laps later.

The other thing I did was I upgraded the factory in the first year. Doubles the amount of space for performance/reliability improvements, allowing you to improve your newer parts MUCH faster and early in the season.

I could never get the money for that the first season. But with the end of season cash, that was the first thing I've done. I'm still waiting for the upgrade to complete though.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

I could never get the money for that the first season. But with the end of season cash, that was the first thing I've done. I'm still waiting for the upgrade to complete though.

If you keep the suck drivers for the first season, you get over $1M per race for doing absolutely nothing (which is all that the chairman expects of you). It's painful for that first season, but allows you to have a good jump start on that 2nd season.

[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

If you keep the suck drivers for the first season, you get over $1M per race for doing absolutely nothing (which is all that the chairman expects of you). It's painful for that first season, but allows you to have a good jump start on that 2nd season.

Interesting. My problem is that I just cannot stand Evans, and I want him out as quick as possible. I like that they give the drivers some personality, so I can have grudges against my digital drivers.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

Interesting. My problem is that I just cannot stand Evans, and I want him out as quick as possible. I like that they give the drivers some personality, so I can have grudges against my digital drivers.

I bumped Evans to reserve and brought up the reserve to run races.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

This. You can waste an entire season(s) if you don't have good reliability. Also allows you to push your engine a bit without worrying about having to pit two laps later.

Yes. Definitely so much THIS. I spend the first few weeks bumping all resources into reliability. I've found that if I can get it to 70, that is usually good enough and will gradually raise it later in the season once I cap out performance of new parts that were built early in the year.

I'm about to finish season 2 tonight and am looking forward to an upgraded Factory to make this process quicker to start year 3.

In both year 1 and year 2, I stopped investing in new equipment after week 6 knowing I had no chance at the title which will allow me to max spend on design and hopefully another building with an upgraded staff as well.

Whether that all plays out like I'd want it to is another story.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

Finally, early on, get your mechanics working on reliability ASAP. As you've probably noticed, that is a big factor early in the season. Nothing sucks worse than being up near the front for the whole race, but having to pit to replace a failing engine, and dropping 10-15 spots. I like hiring a new mechanic with a high reliability stat for this purpose.

Yeah I had a week, week and a half at the start where nobody was working on anything cause I forgot to do it, but I've had them going nonstop since. I use the ability Ines has to push the engines more without condition dropping faster, allowing me to race her more aggressively more often. Hasn't been enough so far, but I'm gradually getting modest upgrades from more parts and I think I might start to see non-terrible results at the end of the year(still working on doing better with setups and race strats as well to aid that).

I'm taking the 'long view' when it comes to personnel. Namely, I'm not buying out anybody's contract so that I can put some money into parts and the HQ. They are all(except Linares I think) going to improve some anyway(mechanics, designer, the other two drivers aren't maxed out) so my goal is to let them grow at least until it's contract time and invest elsewhere. Dunno how successful it'll be, we shall see.

[Bisbo]

I know nothing about racing. Not a fan, never watched it on TV. I can barely change my own oil. But I love this game.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by Bisbo

I know nothing about racing. Not a fan, never watched it on TV. I can barely change my own oil. But I love this game.

+1

[AnalBumCover]

Not sure if there is any realism in this, but in the last few laps I found myself toggling between engine modes in an effort to conserve gas while at the same time tightly defending the third place position (and the podium!) from a very hungry chaser. Conserve on the tight curves, and push on the straightaways.

Also, it's a great feeling when you pit, change tires, refuel, AND fix a part during a yellow flag and NOT lose your position! I gave my pit crew a virtual high five for that!

[Icy]

Any of you experiencing crashes in Windows 10?

I just had a random one just when I was 4th and about to finish the 2nd race with Predator, wanted to cry.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Icy

Any of you experiencing crashes in Windows 10?

I just had a random one just when I was 4th and about to finish the 2nd race with Predator, wanted to cry.

Been just fine through the first 60 hours on Windows 10.

[Brian Swartz]

I haven't had any program crashes. I am beginning to hate rain though. End of season 1, beginning of season 2, both downpours, both disasters for my team. Rain + early season + crappy entry-level budgets equals mechanical failures all over the place, smoking cars in various places on the track ... I was literally laughing at it by the end of the race.

[Balldog]

I have had a few crashes but never in a race. Each one was during the travel to the race stage.

Looks like something is coming today as they posted on Facebook a message about an early Christmas present coming today. Maybe a big patch or modding?


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[nilodor]

Originally Posted by Balldog

Looks like something is coming today as they posted on Facebook a message about an early Christmas present coming today. Maybe a big patch or modding?


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Looks like new liveries

[Balldog]

Blah


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[GrantDawg]

I love this game, but there are somethings that do need work to me. I played the crap out of this game when it came out. It has all the elements I love in manager game (depth, challenge, fun play during actual game/races). Yet, after playing all last weekend, spending hours on a play-through I was enjoying, I haven't been able to get myself to continue.

The main reason is tedium. There elements that I would like to see that once you get to a certain point become more automated. Car set-ups for one. At first that was ok, having to tweak and tweak to get it right for every track. Now, I have just gotten bored with it. It takes too much time away from the more fun elements, and really slows the game down. I'd like to see it become quicker and easier once you have run all the tracks. Maybe push a button that car resets to the last run, or on the second run through the track, your car automatically goes to the best guess setup based on your mechanics skill and experience.

As it is, I have a link to a great setup guide (Excellent Smiley setups :: Motorsport Manager General Discussions). It does help time wise. It won't usually give you the perfect setup, but it does give you a quick launching point. Still, it is this one element that has gotten old pretty quickly.

[PilotMan]

My driver, Valdez just joined a cult. lmfao.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

My driver, Valdez just joined a cult. lmfao.

There are some really cool little random things like that. I had a mechanic that I had hired a couple weeks before get caught trying to steal plans. I ended having to fire her or take a big hit on my relationship to my boss.

[Brian Swartz]

I've come to the conclusion that I suck at this game, though I think I am getting somewhat better. Second season with Predator is thankfully almost over, but has actually been worse than the first. It's rained almost every race and one driver who went on a hot streak to end last year hasn't been able to repeat that; new driver I brought in hasn't performed up to expectations.

[bhlloy]

Just had a pit stop mistake cost me 6+ seconds on a tyre and a top 10 finish. Nice touch, as I had only seen fractions of a second before which makes the decision to go fast a no brainer

Feels like the number of demotions for banned parts is way too high in the latter stages of the season, I move up 4 or 5 spots almost every race. I stay away from anything questionable because getting a million part fine banned and a demotion seems like a massive risk to take for a part with a small extra perk, ?but doesn't look like the CPU does the same

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

I've come to the conclusion that I suck at this game, though I think I am getting somewhat better. Second season with Predator is thankfully almost over, but has actually been worse than the first. It's rained almost every race and one driver who went on a hot streak to end last year hasn't been able to repeat that; new driver I brought in hasn't performed up to expectations.

I like that there are so many variables in the game that at the lower level anyway, there doesn't seem like any one specific thing you have to do to get better. I was way to optimistic heading into my second season. My #1 driver had an injury and some personal problems that cut him down. We had some bad luck and bad strategy and finished worse than we did the first year.

Even after that though, I'm still optimistic that we'll turn it around here in season 3. We made a podium in the second race and the car is much better than it was last year at this time. The damn rain changes everything. It can be a real killer and timing tires and stops will ruin a race. My #2 driver took 14th in the last race after causing a wreck, tearing the front wing off, getting a drive through penalty, and needing 3 parts repaired. That to me was a good finish for her. Those things don't happen and she easily cracks the top 10. That's progress!

It's the little things that a so damn rewarding. The only thing I'm seeing right now that I hate is the blue flag behavior when your driver is trying to un-lap himself. He passes the car, then gets blue flagged and it looks like he gives it back too easy. It's very frustrating behavior. But that's it right now.

[weegeebored]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

There are some really cool little random things like that. I had a mechanic that I had hired a couple weeks before get caught trying to steal plans. I ended having to fire her or take a big hit on my relationship to my boss.

I chose to have the mechanic pay the fine, and took the morale hit from the boss and mechanic. Third season playing ZRT and Valdes is 2nd in the driver's championship. Not starting him with a new mechanic with four races left. Not sure if I made the right call which is why this game is so cool.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

It's the little things that a so damn rewarding. The only thing I'm seeing right now that I hate is the blue flag behavior when your driver is trying to un-lap himself. He passes the car, then gets blue flagged and it looks like he gives it back too easy. It's very frustrating behavior. But that's it right now.

I definitely agree on both points. Once you get to the point where cars are starting to lap you, you're done due to the blue flag thing. It's become painfully obvious to me that the biggest issue is that the car just isn't good enough; going to invest more in the chassis for year 3 and we'll see how that goes.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

In both year 1 and year 2, I stopped investing in new equipment after week 6 knowing I had no chance at the title which will allow me to max spend on design and hopefully another building with an upgraded staff as well.

Whether that all plays out like I'd want it to is another story.

Discovered another one of those nice touches today that I think throws a kink in this strategy. It appears that your starting parts in the new season are based on the best ones you developed the previous year. So you'll have more resources in other areas to start the next season, but your initial parts(and how good the ones are you develop, since that's based at least partly on a comparison to what you already have) won't be as good. Whether or not that's a good investment will depend on how competitive your car is right now, but I thought it was interesting and I really like the fact that you can't 'sandbag' things like this in the game without consequences.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I have a link to a great setup guide (Excellent Smiley setups :: Motorsport Manager General Discussions). It does help time wise. It won't usually give you the perfect setup, but it does give you a quick launching point. Still, it is this one element that has gotten old pretty quickly.

I'm curious about this, because it appears that the game factors in differences in the drivers and cars. So even assuming the track layouts stay the same, often what's near-perfect for one main driver will be 'meh' or worse for another ... I've learned to do them separately. It would seem this would be of minimal use.

Not gonna click on since I don't really want to know details if there's a shortcut or something, just sayin'.

[Lonnie]

Well I finished year 3 with a Driver Championship with the four star driver I picked up rather early. We were 2nd in Team Championship, so no promotion. The worst part is that his contract is up and he wants to race in a higher series, so I can't resign him. Ines Santa Anna's contract is up to and I decided to drop her as well. So I'm starting year 4 with two fresh drivers. Wish me luck.

I did get the scouting complex built as well as the weather center. I think both helped a great deal. Having a lot of fun with this one.

[Lonnie]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

I'm curious about this, because it appears that the game factors in differences in the drivers and cars. So even assuming the track layouts stay the same, often what's near-perfect for one main driver will be 'meh' or worse for another ... I've learned to do them separately. It would seem this would be of minimal use.

Not gonna click on since I don't really want to know details if there's a shortcut or something, just sayin'.

I do all my setups and keep track in a spreadsheet. They change even year over year with the same driver. I have yet to use the ex,ex,ex setup from last year and get better than a great, great, great. Must be the changes in the chassis.