Might as well have the full text here of CM's Blog and Forum post :-
So, to kick things off, I’m Jenny, the new Social Media Manager for the F1 community. I know what you’re thinking: “Not another new community voice!” But I can assure you that I’m here for the long haul! As both a massive F1 fan (I spent my honeymoon at Spa - not the relaxing kind either – for the Belgian Grand Prix) and massive gamer, I'm really excited about getting to know you all, especially (but, of course, certainly not restricted to) on Grand Prix weekends! You may well have already seen my posts on our social channels for the past couple of weeks, but rest assured that my focus is now going to be switched onto F1 moving forwards.
In terms of my role, you’ll be happy to know that I've been specifically hired to bridge the gap between Codemasters and the community. As a company, we've had some great success over the past six months in working more closely with the community on DiRT Rally, and that is something that we are keen to also develop with Formula 1, albeit in a slightly different way. In the past on F1 I know that we have held various focus group tests, and ran community days etc., however the aim is to take this a step further, particularly as we turn our attention to F1 2016 and beyond!
Before I get to that though, some of you are no doubt looking for an update with regards to F1 2015 patches. So without any further ado, here are some updates:
F1 2015 - PATCHES
In the next week or so, we’ll be releasing our next PC patch. We have been working hard to try to address a number of issues that you have raised, and a special thanks goes to those of you who have provided extensive information and feedback in order to help us to track the issues down. Perhaps the most notable change is the addition of a multiplayer session list to allow you to search for all public sessions, in addition to numerous other multiplayer, AI and game fixes, as well as the first of our post launch ‘2015 season sports updates’ and a number of high end PC enhancements.
Here you can find the specifics of what will be covered in the patch:
Game
- Added a session list screen which is available via the Multiplayer menu. This screen will allow players to search for all public sessions and join the one they want to. Custom and Hopper sessions will be visible on this list.
Multiplayer fixes and improvements:
- Added additional information to lobbies so players can see how much progress has been made in the current session.
- Parc ferme rules are no longer incorrectly applied so players will not get their fuel locked to 100kg in qualifying or not be able to change their tyres at the start of a race if they qualified outside the top ten.
- Fixed an issue that would cause a players car to always be ghosted during timed qualifying sessions.
- Fixed framerate and lag spikes causing incorrect collisions.
- Fixed a bug that meant connections with limited upload bandwidth would appear laggy while on track and eventually disconnect.
- Disallowing Brake Assist will no longer also block ABS.
- Cars will no longer ghost when driving too slowly on track.
- Fixed a bug which made the screen pulse black when spectating specific cars in specific circumstances.
- Minor hopper improvements and changes
- Removed the AI from all hoppers.
- Removed the assist restrictions from the Hardcore hopper.
- Made the countdown timer longer and prevented it from starting for a short time if there are not many players in the session to try to allow more people to join.
- Changed the grid order to random from realistic. So now the players Mercedes cars will not always start on the front row.
- Updated the Feature Race to Brazil.
- Removed the incorrect second DRS detection zone from the Mexico mini map. This was not present in the actual track data.
- Corrected the number of laps for the Mexican Grand Prix.
- The player is now correctly disqualified for not using both compounds in a dry weather race.
- Improvements to AI behaviour in Qualifying:
- AI will no longer all leave the garage at the same time.
- AI will no longer use Prime tyres in Q2.
- AI will always do two runs in Short Qualifying and Q3.
- Fixed the flashing rear tyre issue present on some PC setups.
- Made the D-Pad menu more responsive to use.
- Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause OSD messages to remain on screen or to never display. This was mostly reported online but can be seen offline too.
- Fixed an issue that would cause new tyres to be too cold when they’re put on at a pit stop.
- Fixed a problem that could cause unrealistic lap times in practice and qualifying.
Sports Updates – Part 1
- Adjusted the relative performance of the teams and drivers based on the season’s results so far.
- Updated the tyres for Russia to Super Soft and Soft.
High End PC Enhancements
- New CPU-driven particle effects to improve visual quality on systems with high-end CPUs. Select “high” or “ultra” particle effects from the options menu.
- Increased audio voice counts for systems with high-end CPUs. Select the “high” audio quality setting from the option menu.
- Improved CPU performance for users with 6 and 8+ cores.
- Improved CPU performance for Intel CPUs with Hyper-Threading Technology.
- Optimised performance for Intel integrated graphics chips.
In addition to the above, we’re also working on the second part of our seasonal sports updates, which will include some updated visual changes to a number of the cars. Please note that we do not have free rein to include every change that has happened; we are at the mercy of working with each individual team in terms of the updates that they would like us to include. As soon as all of the updates are signed off, I’ll let you know more of the specifics.
“What about consoles..?” I hear you cry! The plan will be to ensure that the above fixes make it over to console as soon as possible. The only exception to the above is that the additional multiplayer session list isn’t available on all platforms, so we’ll be looking into ways of improving the existing hopper system for the Xbox One. As you no doubt know, each platform patch needs to be extensively tested, and console patches also need to be submitted and verified by the platform holders prior to release, so we cannot confirm dates as yet, but I’ll do my best to keep you all up-to-date on progress.
So that’s how the patch roadmap is shaping up currently. Following that we’ll continue to closely monitor your feedback as we head into the New Year, and as our focus inevitably turns more towards next year…
Which brings me onto the other exciting thing that is currently underway…
F1 2016
Most of the team have now moved onto F1 2016 and are working on some new and exciting features, including a couple of must-haves which we know are important to you.
We are also looking to do something we’ve never done before, or, certainly not to this extent... We’re looking to get you guys really engaged and involved in helping to shape the game, and it’ll be really exciting to see how many of you would be interested in getting involved and offering your feedback. I can’t wait to get all of this in motion very soon, and you’ll be hearing more shortly. For now, to give you a high level idea of what to expect, we’re looking to perhaps run some internal game testing early in the New Year, get you to meet some of the team, discuss various aspects of game development and get your hands on the latest code for some early impressions & feedback. Quite when and for how long this process is going to run for has yet to be determined, but I hope that you are as excited about this as we are.
Beyond F1 2016, we’re also looking at ways in which we can get you more involved in the shaping of the series’ future from the very beginnings of the design phase too, before the features have to be locked down, so hopefully much more on this a bit further down the line... for now I just wanted to whet your appetite!
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