RD Formula Manager - Season 8

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Omer Said

Weresloth
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RaceDepartment Formula Manager is a forum game in which you own a F1 team and manage it in seasons consisting of practice, qualifying and race sessions. In order to play the game, a daily 5-10 minutes is enough to commit. The game uses a complicated set of formulae made with MS Excel 2007. You give your orders, and I update the races 2/4 laps per day.

How game progresses:
-When you start your team, you make your purchases/testings with your budget. You post your purchases/testings in the thread.
-Race Weekend begins.
-You give me practice and qualifying session orders via PM or in the thread.
-Practice and Qualifying are simulated, then the results are posted in the thread.
-Race begins.
-You give me orders for the first two laps.
-At the end of each day, I simulate four laps and then you give me the order of the next four laps.

PLEASE DO NOT BE INTIMIDATED BY THE HUGE WALL OF TEXT IN THIS POST. JUST START A TEAM BY SIMPLY FILLING THE TEMPLATE BELOW. AND DONT HESITATE TO ASK QUESTIONS. THIS GAME is GRADUALLY LEARNED AS YOU PLAY. YOU CAN ALWAYS
QUIT IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT.

YOU CAN JOIN ANYTIME. YOU DON'T NEED TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT SEASON IF THE CURRENT SEASON IS UNDERWAY.

Sign Up Template:
(You start the game with 3500 credits)
Manager Name:
Team Name:
Team Colors: (One primary, one secondary)
Favorite Track: The first track of the calendar can't be picked
Sponsors: Check the sponsors list below. Two sponsors are picked and they can be changed between the races.

GETTING STARTED

If you are a newcomer, you start with 3500 credits. Name your team, pick two colors, buy engines for at least 1 race, buy tyres for at least 1 race, pick two types of sponsors, pick a favorite track and hire at least 1 driver. (Careful that drivers are not free, check out the Drivers List) (You can name your drivers unless you buy a specific driver from the drivers list. BUT you have to use realistic names, no names like "speed devil" or "boogey man" etc...)

You should make setups for both of your drivers and send them to me via PM. Details on setups are below in this post.

GAME PROGRESSION

When your team is ready, wait for the marketplace period's end. It usually lasts for 3 days. Race weekends start with practice/qualifying sessions.

You send your practice/qualifying orders together.

FREE PRACTICE (You can send practice/qualifying orders via PM to hide them from other managers)

You should give me three pace/rev combinations and I will tell you their tyre wear/fuel burn values. Then you pick options from below:

There are a number of options you can pick for the practice sessions. You should pick one (you can pick different options for each of your cars) of the options below: (Effects of practice session options last until the end of that grand prix !minus the random research option!)
-Tune your car for the track. (gives a small speed boost for the race)
-Try a new fuel mode. (gives plenty of speed, but increases fuel consumption)
-Use an aggressive suspension setup. (more tyre wear, but also more speed)
-Use a safer car setup. (less tyre wear, and decrease in speed)
-Make an extreme wet setup. (car performs worse on track with wetness below 50, and performs much better when above 50)
-Adjust brake bias for overtaking. (makes your cars overtake and defend easier)
-Spend the day with general testing. (You randomly get one of these: chassis upgrade, durability upgrade, qualifying upgrade, 2x driver skill, an engine upgrade, a tyre upgrade)
-Let a rich person drive your car and gain 800 credits added to your post-race earnings.

QUALIFYING (You can send practice/qualifying orders via PM to hide them from other managers)
Drivers set a single lap time to determine the grid position. Your tyre compound/wear, fuel load and car hp carry over to the race. Tyre heat and engine temperature do not carry over to the race. You need to pick a tyre compound, decide fuel load, pick pace/rev for the qualifying lap. And that is all you need to do for the qualifying session.

RACE (Race orders should be posted in the thread, PMing is not allowed)
You give orders for 2 laps for the first day, then for 4 laps per day. Possible orders are:
-Pace choice:
(From Safe to Give all, the speed increases, wear increases, mistake chances increase.)
Give all
Push
Aggressive
Steady
Easy
Safe (Very slow and driver refrains from fighting for position on track)
Focus (Not available by default, the driver should have focus training, limited usage, it is the best pace)

-Rev choice
High - Faster, but heats up the engine
Medium - Normal, heats up the engine, but not as much as high
Low - Cools down the engine, but slower compared to higher ones. You should go low when there is an "overheating" warning. Otherwise you will burn your engine and retire.

-Driver ability usage
(Driver abilities can be used only for ONCE in each race. They affect only a single lap. They can't be used in Qualifying laps.)
Play Safe - Driver drives more carefully in that lap.
Pace Up - Driver gets faster in that lap.
Hunt Them - Driver becomes better in overtaking/defending in that lap.
Care Tyres - Driver wears their tyres less in that lap.
Cool Down - Driver's engine is cooled a bit in that lap.
Intimidate - Driver in front of the driver gets a bit nervous in that lap. (You have to be at least 0.25 close to the car in front to be able to use it.)
Save Fuel - Sort of an emergency move that limits the fuel usage in that lap to avoid running out of fuel. In order words, your fuel can't drop below 1 in that lap. Useful when you have to pit and you don't have enough fuel left for that lap.

-ERS on/off
Each lap your cars charge up their ERS. More charged up, more speed they provide when used. So it is better to charge them up high and use, instead of keep using frequently.

-Order a driver to stop fighting for track position against their team-mate

-Call to pits
Your driver pit at the END of the lap you called them. It means if they don't have any fuel lap to complete that lap, they will retire by running out of fuel. When pitting you should specify the items below:
- Which tyre compound to take
- How many fuel? (You need to give an exact value, or say "add XX")
- Regular repairs, or complete repairs?
(Regular restores a certain amount of car HP, while complete makes it %100, but it lasts longer as much as car HP you are missing)

RACE ORDER TEMPLATE
1st Lap
Schumacher easy/medium use driver ability "save fuel"
Barrichello steady/low dont fight your team-mate

2nd Lap
Schumacher steady/high use ERS
Barrichello safe/low pit for hard tyres and refuel to 120 lt, regular repairs

3rd Lap
Schumacher safe/high
Barrichello steady/low use driver ability "pace up"

4th Lap
Schumacher safe/high
Barrichello push/medium pit for soft tyres, refuel to 100, complete repairs

Sometimes you might miss some updates, or simply miscalculate and go into a lap with not enough fuel. In such situations, your engineer acts to save you.

FOR ONCE, for each of your drivers, they will be called to pit before running out of fuel or retiring with chassis failure due to %0 car HP. That safety pitstop will put hard tyres and refuel your car to maximum liters. Will also repair you car to max. If the track wetness is not suitable for hards, the engineer will pick inters or wet depending on the wetness level.

Remember! The engineer can save you for ONCE for each of your drivers at each race.

HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR TEAM?
After a race ends, you will get prize money from your finishing position and sponsors. With this money, you can buy items from the marketplace and this way develop your team. Marketplace and Supplier lists below give details on what things you can buy.

It is a good idea to develop your car "durability" first as it increases your car HP which is vital in surviving the race-distance. For driver trainings, "tyre mastery" and "concentration" are the fundamental ones for it keeps things more reliable for you.
 
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SETUP SYSTEM
Please look at the calendar list in the end of this post and notice the five parameters: Downforce, Top Speed, Braking, Cornering, Shifting. The numbers below those parameters signify how effective those setups are for the track they are shown. At the beginning of the season, you make your setup for both of your drivers. They can be different from each other. You have 100 points and you distribute them between Downforce, Top Speed, Braking, Cornering, Shifting and Wet Track. Wet Track setting is not related to track characteristics, but gets effective the more wet a track gets. Each setting becomes effective as much as the track parameters' number. High number means that setting effects the speed more than other parameters for that track.

If your test driver replaces one of your racing drivers, they get the setup of the replaced driver.

Here is a setup example:
Downforce - 10
Top Speed - 20
Braking - 10
Cornering - 10
Shifting - 40
Wet Track - 10
(Sum should be equal to 100)

You can't change the setup unless you conduct setup testing (at the marketplace list). Or Risky Research can give you setup adjustment points too.

DRIVER NEGOTIATIONS
At the beginning of the season, you can approach to any driver via PM to me. You should offer at least 600 credits. You can sign drivers for maximum 1 season. If the driver gets offered by another team, you should try to outbid them. When you offer a price, and it gets accepted by the driver, there is no turning back.

If the driver you offered raced for you in the previous season/for your sister team, the other bidder should bid at least 500 credits more from yours to win them.

You can directly buy only ONE of your previous drivers for 1000 credits.

If you are a mid-season joiner, you can get one of the free drivers on the drivers' list for 600 credits.

A sister team can't offer a driver more than 800 credits.

PAY DRIVERS
These drivers are free and their driver skills are unimprovable. They give extra 600 credits after each race. Their default speed is also less than the regular drivers.

SAFETY CAR
When 3 or more cars retire in a single lap (for whatever reasons), the SC comes out. It does not affect the lap it begins immediately. The next two laps are affected. After two laps, it gets green again. You can pit in the SC period. But careful that convoy is formed in the 2nd lap of SC, not in the first one. So it is better to pit in the first lap quickly before the convoy is formed. Every driver switches to SAFE/LOW automatically in the SC period. They can't use other paces or revs in those two laps. ERS is disabled.

RED FLAG
If 8 or more cars retire in a single lap (for whatever reasons), the race gets stopped. If the %75 amount of the race is not completed, a restart takes place before which managers can fit new tyres, fix the cars fully and adjust the fuel loads freely. If the %75 is completed, the race ends and drivers are awarded full points.

You can develop your own engines. Please look at the marketplace list for details/cost.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO ALL ENGINE MANUFACTURERS and CUSTOMERS
- You can supply other managers if you manufacture an engine.
- Customers should pay at least 100 credits per race. You can't supply for free.
- As a manufacturer, you can supply maximum 4 teams (including your own team).
- As a manufacturer, you have access to some extra items at the marketplace list.
- Sister teams can't manufacture engines.

SISTER TEAMS
You can found a sister team with 3500 credits. You can have maximum 1 sister team. Running them is completely same as your main team. But they have two limitations: They can't use the same engine/tyre supplier as your main team. Sister teams also can't manufacture their own engines.

The other limitation is that they can't increase their chassis level more than 10.

A sister team can't offer a driver more than 800 credits. But they can still retain one of their drivers before the bids for 1000 credits like the regular teams.


END OF SEASON
At the end of the season, tyre upgrades will be reverted back and their stats will be changed randomly. Your drivers will leave the team. Engine upgrades will remain. Chassis, qualifying, and durability upgrades will be reverted back too. That is to provide a more equal ground in the next seasons. Drivers will lose %20 of their skills randomly. If they have less than 5 skills, they won't lose any. There will be prize credits given according to your finishing positions in constructors and drivers championships. All drivers will be free after the season. You can carry over maximum 5000 credits to the next season. Remember to spend any extra credits you have before the final race as there is no marketplace period after the final race of the season.
Maximum Drivers you can have: 3 (3rd driver becomes the Test Driver.)
  • Weather forecast is not %100 reliable. Just like real-life.
  • There is a luck factor, please don't flame me if you get unlucky at some occasions.
  • Updates will usually be around 18:00, 19:00, 20:00, 21:00, 22:00 GMT.
  • New tyre and engine supplier brands might appear in the future seasons. Some new rules, regulations and tools might be introduced as well. In some seasons, refuelling might get banned, or even new systems like DRS might be introduced etc.. The game is not in it's final form.
  • Team orders are allowed. But you can't give orders regarding other teams. You can't give orders between the drivers of your sister teams.
  • You can change sponsors between the Grand Prix weekends, but not in the process of a Grand Prix weekend.
  • In qualifying, engine failure is disabled. But your drivers can make mistakes.
  • Sponsorship prizes are calculated to each of your drivers seperately.
  • Maximum grid size is 40 cars. If we get more than 40 drivers, sister teams will have a pre-qualifying session in which managers can pick any tyre compound, pace, rev and fuel load to determine the result.

F.A.Q
-About driver abilities: Can we use each ability once in the race, or we select one only?
You select only one. You can't use all of them.
-Another question regarding driver abilities, do we have to decide for one per driver each season, or can we change the one we use from race to race?
You can choose any one of them each race. You don't have to decide which one you will use before the race.
-Question about supplying engines to other teams: In case of an upgrade to the engine, do I get to race it first for one race before supplying others or will each team get the upgrades at the same time?
They get the same upgrades
-Can i sell my drivers?
You can if another manager is willing to buy them. Otherwise, you have to release them. If you sell your driver to another manager, you will get the half-price as credits. You can do this between sister teams, but the selling team does not get any money. The buyer has to pay at least 600 credits.
-What if i fail to give my orders for the qualifying or in the race?
Your drivers go on default levels. Default pace is steady, rev is low. The default tyre is hard compound. Car is %100 fueled.
-Do i have to give orders each turn?
Your pace and rev choices are carried over from the turn before. Others are not. So it is up to you.
-Can i use ERS in qualifying?
ERS is not available in the qualifying.
-Can my drivers pit in the same lap?
Drivers can pit at the same lap. But if there is not an enough gap between them (around 5.00), the latter one has to wait and loses plenty of time.
-Can we take fuel out of the car in pitstops. Let's say can we decrease a 30 lt fueled car to 10 with a pitstop?
No, it is not possible. If you tell me to refuel to an amount lower than the current fuel, it is an invalid command and your fuel level will remain the same.
-Can i found more than one sister team?
No.
-What if I go AWOL a bit?
In the course of a race, going awol has no penalties other than the fact that your cars will retire with either fuel or chassis problems. If you do not get engines or tyres by missing marketplace periods, Pirelli and Cosworth will be given to you by default.
-Can I pull my drivers out of a race?
You can't. They have to retire naturally. Only if the managers wants to quit the game for good, their drivers can be pulled out mid-race.
-Can I give the ownership of my own-manufactured engine to another player?
If a manager wishes to take-over a player-manufactured engine, they have to win a bidding war against the other interested parties. Winner becomes the new owner of the engine. The old owner gets the half-price as credits. If a manufactured engine's player goes AWOL, a bidding war takes place to pick a new owner. (1000 cr is the minimum price)
-Can I edit my marketplace purchases?
As long as there is not a technical mistake, you can't refund/remove purchases after you make your post. But if you have money left, you can buy more things before the marketplace gets closed.
-Can my budget go negative?
You can't.
-Driver Testing skills give bonus at which tests?
Only in tyre/engine supplier tests conducted by the team itself, not by sponsors or partnership. It does not affect risky tests either. Your 3rd driver should have testing skills for bonus to be applied.
-Can I swap the positions of my drivers behind the safety car?
You can't.


Each race, randomly picked drivers suffer "unexpected issue problem" at the last lap of one of the updates. Their car HP drop down massively when they suffer this. Managers are advised to make a complete repair pitstop after such a problem, but they can risk it if there is little time left until the finish.

A driver can't suffer this issue more than once in a season.

CALENDAR
upload_2018-1-6_5-27-0.png


MARKETPLACE
upload_2018-1-6_5-27-25.png


SPONSORS
upload_2018-1-6_12-41-38.png


PRIZES and POINT ALLOCATIONS
upload_2018-1-6_5-26-37.png
 
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Changelog for the Season 8
- Driver Relationship system is binned. Please see the updated driver negotiations above.
- Soft and hard compounds have a bigger margin in terms of durability
- Concentration and testing driver skills are nerfed a bit.
- Manufacturer development bonus is no more. (They used to get double development from testings)

@kedy89 @TTupsi @Aidan Keranen @Azabadaza @rubaru @Slyfrequency @Jimlaad43 @Audi

And let's get the season underway! Please send me your driver bids before anything else. You can see your relationship points at the drivers' list above. Good luck!

Edit: Please be aware that the driver negotiations system for the next season has not been finalised. It will be edited before the end of this season. Don't get surprised if your long-term plans are destroyed by these changes.
 
Couple of things @Omer Said
  • Sponsors still say "can be changed between races", seem to recall you wanted to change that to "during market periods"
  • Coincidence that the tyre suppliers have the same characteristics again, or are you no longer changing it? Just curious :whistling:
  • Has the manufacturer development bonus been mentioned anywhere? That's the first I hear of it to be honest :confused:
  • Any restrictions for prices of manufactured engines? Can see things turning out just as before if we still can sell them for dumping prices.
  • I can't seem to find the new engine restrictions for sister teams mentioned anywhere
 
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A couple more things
  • Drivers were supposed to be reset for this year. Every driver needs the same skills (ie none) so for once we can have different drivers winning. Although he may be one of the best, It's getting boring seeing the same driver names winning everything.
  • Same thing with engines. I rejoined the series on the promise that this season would be a complete reset, because that is what it needs. The engines still seem to have some that are already clearly better than others. This is not what we signed up for.
  • When can we change the setups?
 
A couple more things
  • Drivers were supposed to be reset for this year. Every driver needs the same skills (ie none) so for once we can have different drivers winning. Although he may be one of the best, It's getting boring seeing the same driver names winning everything.
  • Same thing with engines. I rejoined the series on the promise that this season would be a complete reset, because that is what it needs. The engines still seem to have some that are already clearly better than others. This is not what we signed up for.
  • When can we change the setups?
Think it was said in the S6 thread already that it's going to be a 50% reset for driver skills. Similar for the engines, it was always clear that reliability and tank size will be put on equal level, speed ranking will remain with gaps between engines heavily reduced, and durability will be unchanged.

New setup at season start, change during market periods with the setup testing item I guess.
 
Think it was said in the S6 thread already that it's going to be a 50% reset for driver skills. Similar for the engines, it was always clear that reliability and tank size will be put on equal level, speed ranking will remain with gaps between engines heavily reduced, and durability will be unchanged.
Cool, well then I'm not going to bother with this season then.
 
Couple of things @Omer Said
  • Sponsors still say "can be changed between races", seem to recall you wanted to change that to "during market periods"
  • Coincidence that the tyre suppliers have the same characteristics again, or are you no longer changing it? Just curious :whistling:
  • Has the manufacturer development bonus been mentioned anywhere? That's the first I hear of it to be honest :confused:
  • Any restrictions for prices of manufactured engines? Can see things turning out just as before if we still can sell them for dumping prices.
  • I can't seem to find the new engine restrictions for sister teams mentioned anywhere

Yesterday when opening the thread, I was keep getting that "post is too long bla bla" error. Cropping, copying/pasting made me miss 4 more spoiler blocks. Added them to the 2nd post of the thread now. :thumbsup: (Sister Team and Manufacturer Engine infos were there)

Yeah manufacturers used to get double amount of speed with each test compared to regular custom tests. It seems I failed to write it down anywhere. :sleep:

I kept the strength/weaknesses of each tyre supplier, but their stat numbers are definitely changed.

Will change that sponsor info now, thanks for reminding.

Cool, well then I'm not going to bother with this season then.

But I never said a complete reset. "A big reset" and I believe will level the field greatly. For example; you can use your own Delacroix engines and be competitive immediately.
 
I will be trying this again.
ART/black-grey
I'll read through the rules sometime in the future. :D

Do I carry anything at all from S6 or do I start from scratch?

Welcome back! Great to have you back. You have 3500 credits. But you also have a sister team! :thumbsup:
upload_2018-1-6_15-22-5.png
 
Yesterday when opening the thread, I was keep getting that "post is too long bla bla" error. Cropping, copying/pasting made me miss 4 more spoiler blocks. Added them to the 2nd post of the thread now. :thumbsup: (Sister Team and Manufacturer Engine infos were there)

Yeah manufacturers used to get double amount of speed with each test compared to regular custom tests. It seems I failed to write it down anywhere. :sleep:

I kept the strength/weaknesses of each tyre supplier, but their stat numbers are definitely changed.

Will change that sponsor info now, thanks for reminding.



But I never said a complete reset. "A big reset" and I believe will level the field greatly. For example; you can use your own Delacroix engines and be competitive immediately.
Wouldn't have thought you'd get any restrictions on posts as staff member :confused:

So I take it dumping prices for player manufactured engines are still possible?
 
Wouldn't have thought you'd get any restrictions on posts as staff member :confused:

So I take it dumping prices for player manufactured engines are still possible?

The minimum price is 100 credits per race. That is the only rule with pricing. You can't pay on behalf of the customers. They have to pay it.
 
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