GPLM - Part I : The Rebirth (1946-49)

[Meff28s]

1945. The war is over. At last, the war is finally over. So can we race again ? Like before ?
A year later, the A.I.A.C.R. changed its name to become the famous F.I.A., and started to work on an open-wheeler championship to be launched in 1950. Formula One was born. But what if history was slightly different ?

This is what I propose you in taking part in this game…

Welcome to the Grand Prix Legacy Manager forum game. In this game you’re playing your own Grand Prix team which will try to leave his mark on the World Grand Prix history. You build and develop your car, you sign your drivers and you try to win races and championships during several decades.


PART I : The Rebirth (1946-49)

"Grand Prix Teams will have to build their own racing car by scrupulously following the regulation designed each year by the F.I.A. [...] Only two drivers can be registered by a Team each season. A driver cannot race for two different teams during one season on pain of being suspended for a year."

It's the beginning of FLM-3 ! I've decided to rename it GPLM because of the original core difference from the classic FLM game. We will not follow Formula One history. We will follow our own history.. with the Formula One drivers. I believe that even if Formula One was something else, with different rules, and a different system, Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Juan Manuel Fangio etc.. would still exist. So why can't they take part in our history ?

GPLM History will start in 1950. You've already created your own Grand Prix teams. Now you should sign your drivers to enter the very first World Grand Prix Championship !


Based on FLM-2 managers' Hall of Fame, here is the signing order of our very first "off-season" :

And here is the list of all the available drivers we have for 1950, ranked from the best to the worst in 1950. This is also how you'll always see the available drivers' list every off season. You will never know their ratings, not even a letter, but only how they are ranked one another.

First you'll all sign your n°1 driver. Every one will send me a wish-list in PM with also the amount of years you want to sign each guy (1, 2, 3 or 4 years are allowed).
Then when one seat will be filled in each team, you'll sign your second driver with a second wish-list. But this time, the signing order will be reversed ! Notice also that you won't be able to sign both your drivers for the same amount of years.

You have a week to send me your first wish-list !

 

[Meff28s]

@The_Laskinator
@Omer Said
@Jimlaad43
@oorjit07
@Millsy24
@Sasha Jednak
@rubaru
@Benutzername
@pierre815

 

[Benutzername]

Heart says Ascari, mind says Fangio...

 

[Jimlaad43]

Etancelin for 4 years seems like a great investment @Benutzername

 

[rubaru]

 

[Meff28s]

!!! WARNING !!!

I realized I forgot something that can be important during the drivers' signing process !
I don't want to just put all the rules at once and let you deal with it. I think it's better to go one rule or one change at the time so you can adapt.

Anyway, I've decided to introduce in GPLM an "Adaptability" value that will modify your drivers' ratings. How it works ?

I quote myself from the rules I've written : "Drivers need also to adapt to their teams. A driver who just signed with a new team will get his rating lowered by 1PP. After one year, it will only be lowered by 0.5PP. Then the year after he’ll just get back his regular rating. However, the nationality of the driver can help him to adapt quicker to his new team. If an Italian team signs an Italian driver, his rating will only be lowered by 0.5PP as if he was already engaged with this team for a season."

 

[Meff28s]

Signing Drivers - Second Round

Now you all have signed your n°1 driver, let's make a new wish-list for your second driver. Remember that the original signing order is reversed ! So Ostwest becomes #9 and BMR #1 !

You have a week to send me your second wish-list ! Remember to also tell me for how many seasons you'd like to sign each driver and don't forget that you can't have both drivers signed for the same amount of years !

 

[Meff28s]

!!!! GPLM - Announcement !!!!

The very first signing process is already almost over. You've all signed both your drivers for the very first season of GPLM. Good !

There's still one thing you'll have to know about the "drivers' signing" in this version of this game :

Spoiler: Drivers' Signings

"Every 4 seasons, there will be a « contract reset » and all the drivers will be free at the same time. So it means that if, for example, the « contract reset » is in 2 seasons, you will only be able to sign someone for 1 or 2 years.
[...]
During this « contract reset », every team will have both their seats free. For 48h, the drivers’ market will be open so that all the teams can sign their first driver. Then the drivers’ market will remain open for another 48h to let the teams send me a new wishlist with the drivers that are still available to get their second drivers."

The next "contract reset" is in 1954. This is why you were all allowed to sign one of your driver for 4 years (so until 1954). It is made to make sure that every 4 seasons, every team gets a good 1st driver and a Prost/Senna team becomes impossible.

Now you may ask, ok but what about the car upgrade system ?
Here are the rules I've written :

Spoiler: Setup Window

The main goal of the game is to get the best car possible to win races and championships. The pace of each car is determined by its Pace Points (PP). The more PP you have, the faster your car will be. During every Setup Window, you will have to make a choice : set-up your car, make it faster, or build a new one.

The way to set-up your car is to find your « target number ». You will have to guess. It is a random number from 100 to 999 which is set once and which is different for each car. The closer you are to this number, the faster your car will be.

To help you find this number, I will give you 2 infos every round :
• A symbol made that way, + means that your target number is above the one you’ve given me, - means below and = means of course that you’ve found your number
• Your rank from the closest to the farthest, which determines in fact your PP bonus. It means that if you are very far from your target number, as long as you’re the closest, you’ll get the same PP bonus as if you were the only one who found it. It’s all based on ranks and not on value (which would be to easy to beat)
The team which is the farthest will get only 1PP and every rank represents a 2PP gain.

However, your « target number » will not change or reset. It is set forever. Which means that once you’ve found your number, you can’t make your car faster. So this is it ? The game ends ? Of course not, because of the Technology value…

Spoiler: Technology Value

The Technology value is a number which represents a PP bonus that slowly increases through time by 1PP every round. This number is also displayed in purple on the top right corner of every setup window picture.

Every team can get this PP bonus if they decide to build a new car. Once a team launches a new car during a Setup Window, its base PP will be increased by the amount of Technology PP that was currently set. Then the Technology value (top right corner) will keep increasing but the Technology PP bonus for the team that decided to build a new car won’t.

And building a new car means also getting a new « target number ». The whole tactics of the game is based on this system. Is it time to build a new car but start from scratch with my number ? Can I stay at the top with my current car while my opponents are creating new ones with a better Technology Bonus ?

Example :

You can see that every team are at the same technology level (0). But the Team A has already found his target number (=). Team B then decides to create a new car.

So for the next round, and with a new number to find, Team B becomes the worst team in terms of setup (#4) but their Technology advantage makes them already better than the Team D... who also decides to launch a new car !

Team D becomes the worst team in terms of setup (#4) which helps Team B to get faster. In the meantime, Team C also found its target number (=).

The round after, Team B found his target number (=) which gives him the best car as he has a better Technology Value (3) than Team A and Team C who still race with their first car.


A team can launch the creation of a new car at anytime. But you’re not allowed to race with 3 different cars during a single season (which would mean to build a new car almost every Setup Window).

So you can now send me your first "guess", your very first number from 100 to 999

You may also give me how your racing car should be called. I mean a "code name". Like F2002, RB13, W09, MP4/4 etc... It should have letters that represents your team and numbers to identify the car.
For example, a team called Ferrari could have a code name for their car designed this way : F50-01
F for Ferrari, 50 because the car was designed in 1950 and 01 because it's their very first car.

 

[oorjit07]

Two questions:
So if someone signed a 1 year contract this year, their new driver next year can be a max of 3 years only?
And we can only build 2 or 3 cars in the season?

 

[Meff28s]

So if someone signed a 1 year contract this year, their new driver next year can be a max of 3 years only?

Yes exactly !

And we can only build 2 or 3 cars in the season?

hmmm, yes and no. If you mean that you have to create several cars to compete in a season the answer is no. A "car" or a "chassis" should last several seasons if it's fast. For example, in real life, the McLaren M23 lasted almost 5 years !

 

[rubaru]

Crap. I'm going to have to think now.

 

[Omer Said]

Technology system sounds very nice! Allows for various tactics.

 

[Meff28s]

Technology system sounds very nice! Allows for various tactics.

The idea was to create a "cycle". Some teams will be very good several seasons, then new ones with better Technology value will replace them, and so on. I've tested this system with "AI" during 25 seasons and the same driver for eveyone. All 9 teams won at least one championship.
The idea is also : everything is up to you. You can go from top team to backmarker in just one decision, or build a machine that will hold for a decade

 

[oorjit07]

Ahh so the technology value is random? So I could theoretically produce a new car which is like a Mercedes that lasts for 4 years, or I could make a 2018 Williams which I have to replace immediately?

 

[rubaru]

The tech value for your car matches the tech value for the round in which you built the car. Then you get bonuses based on the Number you guess. If your guess is poor then building a new car might get your tech value higher.

 

[oorjit07]

The tech value for your car matches the tech value for the round in which you built the car. Then you get bonuses based on the Number you guess. If your guess is poor then building a new car might get your tech value higher.

Ah, thanks for explaining that, I completely glossed over that bit of the explanation.

 

[Sasha Jednak]

So, now at start of game we all have tech 0. And number in top right *tech number) will be 1. So if I decide to build new car now (after first race, I guess it is not allowed to do it before first race???), I will have tech 1 and number in top right will change to 2. Did I get this right?

What if 2 teams decide to build car at the same time, do we both get current tech number? And does tech number (top right) increase by 1 or by number of teams?

 

[Meff28s]

So, now at start of game we all have tech 0. And number in top right *tech number) will be 1. So if I decide to build new car now (after first race, I guess it is not allowed to do it before first race???), I will have tech 1 and number in top right will change to 2. Did I get this right?

What if 2 teams decide to build car at the same time, do we both get current tech number? And does tech number (top right) increase by 1 or by number of teams?

It's an interesting question. Tech value ALWAYS increases. Even if no one build a new car. And I think no one will build a new car until 1951. At this specific moment, tech value should be 4.
But to answer your first question, before the first race starts, tech value is 0. Nothing has happened yet, every team will need at least one race to "learn something" about this sport. +1 Tech value is added every round. When you decide to build a new car you get the bonus that was currently written in the top right corner of the current setup window. Look at the example pics I've produced
When two teams decide to build a new car, they get the same Technology value which was written in the top right corner of the setup window pic.

 

[Meff28s]

Now you officially have 48h to guess and send me in PM your very first number if you haven't do it yet

You also have to know that during the first 2 or 3 seasons, you will all have the same technology value (or very similar ones) which will make the game very "random" (because almost only based on guess). When we'll reach 1955, strategy and timing to build a new car will become very powerful
I just wanted to warn you that the beginning will be fun to watch but almost only based on luck.

 

[Omer Said]

ORM = Old Racing Men