I only just started My Team yesterday and also noticed that the qualifying program is obviously broken (which also means that the devs haven't beta-tested this, because oh boy is this obvious). I did a really decent lap and was 3 seconds off target. So I've basically experienced what you guys have experienced as well. Luckily, we can always finish the programm in quick practice, but that's only a workaround for something that is broken.
Honestly speaking is not a solution, but I feel my team progression is lightspeed fast I can get from the worst car (no comment on all interviews starting as the worst team 460 performance) to the best car overall 750-800 in 1 year (23 races, slightly more than one year if I play 16)
That made me invent the rule of completing only one practice program per race week (to get less bonus). I could then easily skip the qualification program (that is bugged and impossible). My goal was to get the best car after 4-5 years, as I like to fight for the middle position quite a lot. To achieve it, after a few tests, I found out I had to use all player stuff (RD - money - team xp - player xp) to reduce.
My rule so far is to enjoy MY TEAM.
- Interview - No comment to all
(starting performance between +/-460 as reference RedBull 1st performance 615-620)
- Difficult level 75
- Only complete one program per practice weekend
(you can select it strategically; I usually tend to do the one with the most Aerodynamic or Chassis, obviously not Qualif. practice)
- RD player - Reduced
- Money player - Reduced
- Xp player - Reduced
- XP Team - Reduced
Completed 1st season - performance level lower half (slightly better than the start. Actually, the first year is the hardest as you get less money because you have fewer adv., and with lower XP you don't get team lvl 15 that quickly)
Completed 2nd season - performance level top half (things start speeding up)
I am playing 3rd season and in the top 4 performance. By the end, I think I will be 2nd or maybe already 1st but by the end of the year, probably.
In the fourth season, I suspect I will get leadership, maybe not win them all because I sux at some tracks.
The fifth season is the last one. I think there is no really any reason to keep going. You practically dominate for me usually, it is the last season end of the game.
Then I will start again, this time with an entire realistic weekend (the first time I use 5 day race), and maybe bump one the difficulty to 79. This will take me busy for probably 1-2 months, but I will go down to 16 races per calendar. I feel 23 is a bit much. There are some circuits that I don't like at all, and it feels a little draggy.
Yeah, it is too difficult and has been for some time. I just started a season in MyTeam, AI 105, car ranked 10 in development for Bahrain. Qualy practice programme wants a 1:28.2 for 17th place. In Q1, a 1:28.2 is good enough for P1. P1 time is 1:30.something… Go figure…
@Apophis-STR, yes, I agree on 16 races being the sweet spot! And as much as it's intriguing a 10-season play, I find the range (that ultimately consists of fractions of seconds) that you gain or lose with performance scores of the team wouldn't scale sensibly over ten years. Probably, you would barely notice the difference, and my inconsistent skill would make it hard to feel it.
I would love a 9-12 year play if, every 3/4 years, we get to fully re-design the car with some hard reset of upgrades.
You would put some money away every year for future car projects, hire some mechanics with different characteristics, and direct the focus of the future car team in some interviews (similar to the first one at the end of the year).
So practically, you reset cars every 3/4 years, and the new car is a result of the current car performance plus the money invested during the year in this project, the eng that you hired specifically for this task, and the interview you made each end of the year, plus some random factor (similar to success/fail of parts) - it would be nice to have different skins of the car to pick between
That would keep everything fresh for a lil longer. It would be like restarting a career every 3/4 years. That is what I already do practically.
But I will try to start a new career with 16 races (full simulation) in parallel with the 23 races (5 laps race) I am halfway through, or maybe I should wait for the first couple of patch-updated ones so maybe they fix some stuff in the meanwhile.
The time gap (delta) shown during the qualifying programme might be a display error. I finished the program in purple even thought I was more than 2 seconds behind the displayed delta time. So the actual time target might be lower than displayed. I'll see if I can get a green or purple finish to the qualifying programme again despite the delta being displayed in red...
There is a bug that if you play with reduced money, you start with more money because it doesn't make you pay for the engine (I think because the "reduced-money" is not enough to pay the pilot and motor, it only makes you pay for the pilot)
So my walkaround starts with "normal" money and then switches day one to "reduced" money in the setup.
The bug is:
Start money 4.05M (I usually pick the 3rd one, Selene) - Engine (3.3M) - Pilot (500K) = 250K - NORMAL MONEY
Start money 3.03M (4.05-25%) - Engine (3.3M) - Pilot (500K) = 2.53M REDUCED MONEY (I didn't pay engine!)
After the initial bug, all was well; all money rewards and stuff were 25% less, but starting with more money (playing reduced money) is weird, so in the first setup, I used the NORMAL MONEY, so I got to pay full engine/pilot and then switched to reduced.
NORMAL PLAY START
REDUCED PLAY START
The car is called "golden lady." It's metallic pink gold with glossy black finishes
It's crazy easy. I usually do five team-mode ten races, five laps to weight difficulty (as in now I am between 75-79) in the first week for one year each
and the first 2 I did with all default and winning all practice programs (or 99% of them, I may have skipped a few qualify.)
and I went from the worst car to the best-ever car/team crazy high level for my pilot and my team in just one year, better than the best
this is why I had to come out with a personal rule to slow everything down
now I am happy with speed is on the slow side, and it takes me 4-5 years to get the best (once I get the best, there is not much point in keeping going as the AI will never catch up)
so I am making a 16-race career all FULL; it will probably take 1-2 months of fun to get to the top. I love full-length races; nothing compares, honestly
I am a person that does five-laps races or full racers
