Vanilla Balance Mod Beta - Testers Wanted

TheFlamingRed · Nov 28, 2016

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/motorsport-manager-balance-mod-part-1.12965/

Click to expand...

Make sure you down load all the parts!

This mod has now been released. All the changes are listed in the above link. If a Forum Admin is reading this, if you could remove the "Testers Wanted" and change it to "Development Discussion" thread, it would be appreciated.

UPDATED TO WORK WITH 1.3

Note: In attempts to fix the interviews and dilemmas, I have temporarily removed all non English languages from those two files. I hope to reinsert them into a later version (but when I do, they'll still be the vanilla text as I am unable to translate in any other language).

TheFlamingRed · Feb 1, 2017

nonleague said:
So if I were to concentrate on the engine and let's say redzone is 20% and I build avg, good, great (3 engines) all without any stat that adds to the red zone then the 3rd engine if fitted would be 50% red zone?

Unless one of those slots had a +/-Reliability or +/-Redzone, or was risky, or was an designer's component... then yes - you'd have 50% redzone.

Its a consequence of being more aggressive in your development. The more you push for performance, the more you're risking reliability. It's all about a users choice about optimizing their parts now. Do you just go straight out on using increasing your performances? Or do you compromise on performance and add something which increased reliability so you can use it faster?

gabrielboris · Feb 1, 2017

Bought the game not long ago, was giving a run on vanilla before using your mod and this patch came. Will do as soon as you update it, but it seems like a great mod, congrats.

Was reading your changelogs and besides the obvious fixes I didnt seem to find one to something that really bugs me, Marketability.

I just think it is totally wrong the way they do it, on the current state (vanilla at least), any driver with marketability under 70% is completely useless if you want to go for 5 star sponsors (and you want to go!). Marketability formula is pretty simple, you sum all three percentages (Driver 1, Driver 2 and Team) and divide by three. Since 5 star sponsors require at least 90%, no drivers under 70% would be able to get you to that treshold even if you have the other 2 at a 100%.

That also leads to an easy exploit, beacuse I can be the last car on the race and still have the best sponsors. All I need to do is set a lower season target and get marketable drivers. The sponsor payout increase more than makes up for the chairmans payout loss.

In real life, top teams dont go for the most charismatic drivers, they go for the most talented ones. Driver marketability shouldnt be a deciding factor, like it is right now, it should be a bonus. Also, it doesnt really matter how charismatic your drivers are, you are never going to get great sponsorship on bad teams. Sponsors care about exposure and the best exposure is finishing first.

With all that said, I have a couple suggestions if you are interested on adding this and if it is doable coding wise.

1- Increasing the teams weight on the formula 2/3/4x of the drivers. It isnt a perfect fix, its better than now, you would still be able to exploit but at least driver marketablity wouldnt be a deciding factor anymore.

2- Have the teams weight increased and make it that the teams marketability is relative to the constructors championship and not to the season goal.

Anyway, I think that the sponsorship mechanics on this game are completely broke and done the wrong way. If it was up to me I would do it completely different with season long fixed sponsors (even 2/3 years contracts) with bonuses/detracts according to race and championship performances. That way you would have your season budget beforehand, pretty much like real life.

As I said, your mod seems great and I cant wait to use it as soon as you update it, great job!

TheFlamingRed · Feb 3, 2017

For those waiting for a mod update, it seems today there has been another small patch (no patch notes).

Obviously, the mod still doesn't work with the new patches yet. I'm waiting for these quick hot patches to stop before I fully update (each mini update will haven broken my mod each time). So those waiting s please be patient further. Once the developers settle on a stable version, I'll update the mod.

Bjorn de Haas · Feb 3, 2017

how can i make your mod work with enzoli 2016 mod?? ( ofcourse when you realease a new version)

TheFlamingRed · Feb 3, 2017

Bjorn de Haas said:
how can i make your mod work with enzoli 2016 mod?? ( ofcourse when you realease a new version)

Depends.

If Enzoli is making a lite 'workshop version' of his mod, then his can be installed on top of mine.

If Enzoli is making an external release (I know he's changed files which are currently not compatible) them you're going to have to manually merge the mods. People have been doing this a while so I will let them explain how to do it.

Bjorn de Haas · Feb 3, 2017

I hope he will make a lite workshop file hahaha

Linie · Feb 7, 2017

Hi there,

i`ve haven`t had the pleasure of your mod yet, as i just started out with the game a couple of days ago. But reading through the adjustments that you made it seems like a must and i am looking forward to it once you update it (the beta patch seems to be working as intended btw.). I will suck big time probably, but a challenge is always welcome. Can you say something about marketability as mentioned by gabrielboris in post #522. Is this something you could look into or had seen in one of the files? I find it horrendous that i could have the worlds best driver with a very low marketability. Should increase with skill, success + team boost.

TheFlamingRed · Feb 7, 2017

This has been suggested and discussed with one of my testers a few days back.

Currently, the two drivers and team marketability scores (0-100 each) are taken and divided by three, giving the team average.

The plan is to take have both drivers and team be added together, and then divided by the current teams standing in the championship (1-10). And then clamp the final value between 0-100.

The result should be that lower teams will always then have a much lower marketability even if they have great marketable drivers, (e.g., all drivers and team at 100 but the team is in 10th place will result in 300 / 10 = 30). By contrast, you won't need high marketability drivers to have 100% marketability if you're a top team. (E.g., team and drivers are only at 33 each. Results in 99 / 1 = 99 marketability).

This therefore means that bad teams will struggle to get good sponsors and you can't just "bypass" the problem by simply getting high marketable drivers. Top teams don't really need to worry too much about their drivers marketability so long as they're doing well. So marketability of drivers matters most in the midfield teams.

It's a better system overall. It's going to rebalance how sponsorship will be provided - meaning you need to to get the results to get those top sponsors.

As a consequence, I may reduce all the sponsor reroll lengths (where if you don't select a sponsor then they refresh their deals) down from 2-3 races to just 1 race - allowing a user to say, have a bad 1st race and hopes to improve their position in race two, thus increasing their marketability and quality of sponsor deals.

While I am talking about altering lengths... I am considering slightly increasing the time that an 'accepted' contract offer stands. Currently it's 7 days - and often means I've not completed other contracts negotiations yet (as I limit myself to changing the team only at the end of the season with the AI). But then maybe this short acceptance window adds to the challenge? I'm still deciding.

I'm expecting the beta patch to be rolled out into the main branch very soon. I'm waiting a few more days for that to happen before I release the mod.

Linie · Feb 7, 2017

Thanks for your fast reply. The marketability aspect sound much more reasonable this way! I don´t think the refresh rate has to be adjusted significantly, maybe down to 2. A, because many deals run through season after the first and B, if you have open sponsor slots the emphasis on the first race(s) is much higher, which makes the season start more exciting.

I have no opinion yet as to the "accepted" contract length, wasn`t an issue yet. However i feel sometimes the time between renegotiation seems a tad long. Especially if they aren`t satisfied, it wouldn`t take that long to "decide" that the offer isn`t good enough.

gabrielboris · Feb 8, 2017

Flaming, major props for you man, your solution is great, cant wait to test out your mod.

whip · Feb 9, 2017

will this be going on the workshop?, i'd really like to gives this a whirl, or is it already compatible with enzolis mod?

TheFlamingRed · Feb 9, 2017

whip said:
will this be going on the workshop?, i'd really like to gives this a whirl, or is it already compatible with enzolis mod?

It can't be in the workshop. I mod databases which the workshop doesn't recognise. I also mod a file Which, I assume, they'll never allow in to be added via the workshop.

It's compatable with Enzoli's mod, once I update to 1.23. Though you'll like haveto merge the mods yourself. Unless Enzoli is making a lite version of his mod to go into the workshop, in which case it can be installed atop mine, as my mod will act as a base for any workshop mod

whip · Feb 9, 2017

i wouldn't know how to merge them to be honest, never used unity

is it possible to mod out the promotion and relegation in this game?

TheFlamingRed · Feb 9, 2017

whip said:
i wouldn't know how to merge them to be honest, never used unity

is it possible to mod out the promotion and relegation in this game?

Maybe someone who has already done it can help with the merge.

It seems possible to stop promotions. On the easy level, you could turn the 85% chance of a team accepting promotion down to 0. Then as a player, you could just refuse promotion. Otherwise it's ripping up lots of code.

I am sure someone will do it eventually - but it's not something I'm interested in making.

SomeGuy2013 · Feb 10, 2017

TheFlamingRed said:
It seems possible to stop promotions. On the easy level, you could turn the 85% chance of a team accepting promotion down to 0. Then as a player, you could just refuse promotion. Otherwise it's ripping up lots of code.

I am sure someone will do it eventually - but it's not something I'm interested in making.

This is actually really interesting. Is it something in a database I have to change? I'm not a coder or have any knowledge for it of any kind, but if it's simple, this would be nice to add in to my game.

Also, I just finished a playthrough of this without your mod, and I'm waiting for your release of your new balance before I start a new one. Sounds like it's going to add a lot to the game, and I'm really excited to get started! Keep up the great work!

Dusty Monk · Feb 11, 2017

I started my first season recently, having just bought the game. I started with Archer BMR and hired Lord Rod after a couple of races (took that long to scout+negotiate). I wasn't aware of how game-breakingly OP he is at the time.

I won the first season, but decided not to accept promotion so I could earn some £'s for the APS. During the 2017 season I considered that lowest podium spot to be a sign of a disastrous race. I didn't bother with developing parts for the car much because I'd read that you get stock standard parts when you join a new series but still managed to steamroll everyone in nearly every race. Just started 2018 in APS, with the cheapest chasis. My non-deity driver had a fever so I gave him all the crappier parts and the mechanic with "push the limits". Was dubious about selecting a bonus sponsor that required 3rd place but figured YOLO, Lord Rod proceeds to go 2 seconds faster than anyone else in his 1 flying lap quali then lap the entire field at Singapore.

I'm starting to get quite impatient for the stable update so I can apply your polish to this

edit: fixed typo

TheFlamingRed · Feb 12, 2017

Has anyone see if there is ever a tooltip on what the Chassis Stats (tyre wear, etc) actually do (within the game)? Of all the information we;re given, I can't find where these 4 areas of the car are specifically explained to the player (I am trying to add more of my 'changes' into the tooltips of the game).

Coops · Feb 12, 2017

Those 4 are only explained in the Tutorial, then there is the "i" tooltip for each of Engine supplier, Fuel Supplier, Material supplier and Brake Supplier. Pretty sure there isn't a tooltip for those particular stats though.

Those descriptions are located in the Tutorials txt from the assets, line 8036 onwards

TheFlamingRed · Feb 12, 2017

Coops said:
Those 4 are only explained in the Tutorial, then there is the "i" tooltip for each of Engine supplier, Fuel Supplier, Material supplier and Brake Supplier. Pretty sure there isn't a tooltip for those particular stats though.

Those descriptions are located in the Tutorials txt from the assets, line 8036 onwards

Shame.

I'm not going to modify the tutorial I think. Anyone who plays this mod should already know the Vanilla game and thus, be skipping the tutorial.