How to revamp career modes properly

R&D changes:

• R&D points are no longer the currency to get upgrades! Upgrades will mainly cost money but also individual data points that will be gathered as the old R&D points were
  • Data points will be differentiated between, aero data, PU data, tyre data and chassis data and the player can decide before going for a practice program which they want to collect giving bonus data points for targets met like higher top speed than average, higher cornering speed than average, lower tyre wear than average etc.
  • These data points would be specifically needed for such upgrades so chassis data for chassis upgrade, PU data for durability upgrades etc. this requires more decision making and planning by the player!
• Upgrades should have a chance to have a negative effect, effectively making the car slower than before
• Upgrades should take longer to slow development further down:
  • Minor – 35 days (32/28/25 days depending on the facility specification level)
  • Major – 56 days (50/45/39 days depending on the facility specification level)
  • Ultimate – 70 days (63/56/49 days depending on the facility specification level)
  • Upgrades can still be rushed to reduce the development time by additional ~25% costing more money and data points but also causing additional risk of a negative upgrade
• Upgrades need to be evaluated/tested in practice with 1-2 extra “testlaps” to gauge the effect of the upgrade, giving 10% of the data points in return and preventing the player from driving a worse car.
  • If an upgrade has been found to have failed (or even have a negative effect) it will automatically be removed and the player has to redo it.
  • AI has a 75% chance to test the upgrades and otherwise keeps driving with a worse car.
• Upgrades should not be limited by a “tech tree” or require other upgrades, if the player wants to upgrade front downforce they should be able to choose the upgrade they want and not be limited by first doing a DRS upgrade!
• Additional upgrades for mechanical grip and tyre heating which will be with the tyre wear a new area of upgrades, replacing engine upgrades as those are banned IRL so the areas of development would be aerodynamics, chassis, tyres and PU-durability
  • PU-durability being secret engine upgrades allowing for higher engine modes to be used on race weekends which should be an option in the setup, up to 7.5% more engine power at the cost of 40% more wear.
• Ideally also implement the development limit depending on the WCC position, limiting how much data points can be spend?
  • Set a limit and apply the same 115%-70% multipliers depending on the WCC standings at season end + summer break
• No more gamification of facilities, meaning teams near the top in one F1 season get better facilities in the whole game. It should be the known top teams with the best facilities (Merc, RB and Ferrari) then the midfield with the next tier of facilities (McLaren, Alpine, Aston Martin, Alpha Tauri and Sauber) and the backmarker of recent past (Williams and Haas) making up a bit of the disadvantage from development limitation for the WCC
  • Staying the same even in future titles (unless the teams upgrade their facilities IRL)
• For a wider range at regulation changes and ideally for negative upgrades the AI should be trained to a lot more car performances but all to the same performances, so instead of being for each car very specific and different potentials it would be all the same potentials, the AI will be trained to all and depending on what the car will actually end up having as a performance the AI should pick the right training for this specific car.
  • Ideally the AI would be very flexible and only check what exact lines they need to use when in the game based on the actual data in the files (downforce, weight distribution etc.), making late or quick changes to car performances much easier when the AI recognizes that the car only has 0.900 front downforce and it uses the appropriate training for that characteristic and then a short patch later it has 0.930 and the AI knows immediately what training to use. Something similar should already be in use for F1 World unless the “downforce” that’s added with tech level isn’t real downforce but just less weight.
  • More specific variety in car characteristics:
    • Being front limited -> worse weight distribution
    • Fast in medium corners -> more downforce
    • Fast in slow corners/good on traction -> more mechanical grip
    • Being worse in races -> higher tyre wear/heating not always the same
    • Better performances on high downforce tracks but having good top speed -> high wing efficiency
  • The AI should be trained with quite a bit of car performance below what they will end up in at the start of a career mode and the potential ceiling should not be as high as it is now, by this cars/AI would not end up way too fast + there would be sufficient room for realistic regulation changes
• Regulation changes should reset all cars to the minimum and by investing mid season (after the announcement of the regulation change) the player and AI can make their car for the next season better while still upgrading the current car in case of a close title fight.
  • There shouldn’t be guaranteed results for investment but only tendencies, so if you invest the maximum every time you should get a car about 35-40% of the maximum potential however if you invest nothing you will end up with 0-10% of the maximum. At regulation changes a lot of investment does not always translate into results and it should be similar in the game, just not as harsh
  • Reg changes should be announced with at least half a year till the start of the next season for enough preparation time
    • There should be multiple points in this time period in which the player and AI can decide how much money and data points they want to invest – which will in turn hinder the upgrades on the running season!
  • With this career modes will have much more replayability when sometimes the cars are near maxed out and sometimes back to almost 0
  • Regulation changes should be fairly rare, only a higher chance for it in the following season when a car has maxed out downforce or such.

Facilities:

• The Power-Unit facility wouldn’t be needed anymore so remake it as the suspension/tyre facility
• Slight changes to the facility specifications:
  • Fabrication will now also reduce the cash costs of upgrades by 10/15/20% as methods will be more efficient
  • Build Time will reduce the build time by 10/20/30%
  • Quality Control will reduce in addition to normal failures also the chance for negative upgrades by 20/40/60%
  • Resource Point Generation will be changed to “Data Analysis” producing similar like before the points (data points) for upgrades but specific for the facility so the aerodynamics facility will only grant aero data points with the “data analysis”
  • Replace driver stat boosts with potential growth boosts, changing what drivers could grow into instead of instantly making the driver ratings irrelevant

In the picture below is an example for how the car performances are currently different with each cars potential and what it should rather look like (below)