Community ManagerSo, my first post was more at a high level, but after doing some more thinking, here are some ideas for actual gameplay changes:
1. Get rid of F1 World and use that extra development bandwidth to add F1 Academy. By doing that, you create a game with three different classes of Formula racing. Which leads to my next point:
2. The F1 games need to get back to focusing on racing rather than progression. You can start this by getting rid of F1 World and the "Battle Pass". A Battle Pass system works for games with high amounts of online players. I'd wager the majority of F1 players are mainly playing offline at this point. What the Battle Pass has become is a way for us to try to grind for cosmetics rather than any meaningful progression. Do you want the money you'd get from Podium Pass? Then put out more (and better) cosmetics in the store. People will spend their money regardless if the cosmetics are good enough.
3. Core racing gameplay. If you add a 3rd racing class with F1 Academy, gut F1 World and the Battle Pass, then you can use that bandwidth to dedicate more time to making the core racing gameplay unique and exciting. F1 24 was a step in the direction of arcade racing, and that was not a good decision. You can still get back to having a good simcade feel without alienating the player base. And I'd actually argue that going more arcade ended up alienating more of the player base than anything. Make the core racing experience fun, and people will pay money. Make the racing fun, and people will overlook laziness. Make the racing fun, and you'll get back the online community that you lost.
4. Custom driver commentary names. How are we still using the same small list of spoken driver names, where half of them are complete nonsense? For example, we have "Mx Monaco" but we don't have any Japanese names. Even other EA Sports franchises like NHL have way more names to choose from. Grab Alex Jacques for two hours during the off-season and have him record another couple dozen REAL names. Continuing on with that thought train...
5. Driver country selection. How hard is it in 2024 to just add every flag and country to the game? There's no spoken commentary about country names; just the engineers mentioning pre-race if it's your driver's home GP. It would require no extra dialogue, and maybe a few hours of dev work with minimal testing. There's no good reason to not have done this years ago.
6. Echoing what others have said (and have been saying for years), the AI is good, but also awful at the same time. It isn't afraid to scrap with players, which is great. But it lacks unpredictability. More variance is needed in the lines it takes, the lap times it puts in, and the amount of REAL mistakes it makes (not just locking brakes). This could maybe be tied to the AI difficulty level. Adjacent to this...
7. Add a slider for AI aggression. This is becoming commonplace in the sim racing world, and as with other things, this franchise has been falling behind on this.
8. I realize it would take too much processing power to have a full field of AI cars be held to all of the same physics data points that the player's car is, but at LEAST have the AI be affected by tire temps.
9. Rain rendering is outdated and nowhere close to being what it should be in F1 24. There was spray from other cars in 23, and now it's gone in 24. Why? Additionally, rain drops on the car and visor/cameras just sit like the car is standing still, even when you're going 180mph. Again, another piece where this franchise is falling behind other competitors, because the rain has existed like this for years with no thought given to actually updating it.
10. Features and miscellaneous things that inexplicably get removed from the games. Why were dynamic race strategy changes in 23 but not in 24? Why are dry-to-wet tire changes still broken? Why are there so many good things that existed (and worked) in previous games that got removed the following year? These are internal conversations that need to be had. At best, it's human oversight and poor testing. At worst, it's to re-add things into future games and sell them like they're new features, which is a deceptive practice.
11. Scenarios and Pro Challenges don't need to be in the game anymore. I'm curious to see what the actual numbers are of people who actually complete these and use the rewards, because I feel like it's not a high amount of players.
12. Force Feedback. It took a step in the right direction with F1 24, but the changes to the handling model made any kind of "sim" feeling go out the window for wheel users. The tracks feel more lively now, but overall the FFB still feels numb. I understand that the entire point of these games is to make the player FEEL like it's as easy as the pros make it look. But there's just not any character or personality in the cars' FFB. Again, the handling model in 24 contributes to this, as any time the cars start feeling jittery and lively, the game feels as though it's enacting a stability control assist or something, which feels very unnatural for wheel users.
13. Online penalties, bans, and player reporting. I, and a lot of people, don't like racing online. It's not because the online game experience is bad. It's because most people who play online aren't held accountable for being idiots. Add a reporting function, or instant DQ for someone who crashes into someone else at a certain speed differential. After someone gets 3 DQs, have the game lock them out of online for a day or two. After that, lock them out for a week. Dedicate time and resources to holding dirty/clueless players accountable and keeping online racing fair, and more people will want to play it. And the more people you have playing online, the more cosmetics you'll sell.
14. Decide what you want the game's identity to be. Do you want it to be a career simulator? Do you want it to be an iRacing competitor with multiplayer? If you want the focus to be on career, then you need to TEST, TEST, TEST. Pay attention to detail. Let the devs put some passion into it. Give it the time it deserves before you shove it out the door. If you want the focus to be on multiplayer, then create a better penalty/reporting system for online, create a better skill-based matchmaking algorithm, and invest in the servers. Consider adding private servers (yet another thing that your competitors are doing better online).
I think if nothing else, having three classes of Formula cars by adding F1 Academy could help breathe some fresh air into the game by removing game modes that have gone stale. It will give players three different scales of speed and handling to play with, and having another slower class could help with online numbers, especially for people who want to ease their way into it. Add a better matchmaking system and penalty system for online, and I think you've got a good 1-2 punch to at least try something new to get players back.
This series has an identity crisis that it needs to resolve. The last three games have been so frustrating because they have been stuck in a pattern of "better in some ways, and way worse in others". It doesn't feel like anyone knows WHAT they want these games to be anymore. Are they live service? Are they multiplayer? Are they offline career sims? The series right now is trying to be all three things, and it keeps missing the mark in some way on all of those aspects.
Either way, this is likely the last post I will make giving feedback or reporting anything with this game or any future F1 game. I say this as someone who has a lot of love for this series: I have zero expectation that anything posted in this thread will actually be addressed, and we'll be continuing to see the games become more lifeless and phoned in until EA gives up the license, or the player counts drop to unsustainable levels. I truly hope that's not the case.
