The list of things to improve in F1 Manager

[93ismola]

Hello, after few weeks of playing I'm ready to create a list of things to improve or I wish to have in the long-awaited official F1 Manager.
I've been playing or possible motorsports managers which were released since 1998 and I must say that this is the best game in terms of visual aspects of racing but the worst in terms of managing... I have this feeling that the producers decided that they target player is regular-Joe instead of real F1 fans.

here's the list of issues (at the bottom I'm adding things which are really cool):

MAJOR ISSUES:

1) Car development is too easy! You can win the Constructor Championship in the third season tops with every team (of course with Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes in the first, Alpine, Mclaren in the second etc.). You always have to do the same thing and you know what will be the outcome.
First of all, AI develops their car much slower, and the second thing is we're never wrong about the new parts! I really want the challenge. In real F1 new parts aren't always better than old ones. Sometimes engineers are wrong and change their conceptions.
I can imagine that we have to develop our car in the similar way as we set the car during the practices (ofc something different but to be the part of this process and to have an influence on that)
Pre-season testing should be n important part of car development before the season start.
And sometimes it should be possible to be wrong about your conception (something like Mercedes this year in real F1)

2) Lack of negotiations with sponsors and engine/gearbox producers. GP World is amazing when you have to gain recognition and have to allocate your assets there.

3) F2 and F3 is an official parts of F1, so it would be great if we could start our career there and then be promoted or accept offers from better teams and have relationships with drivers with whom we work with in the past (positive and negative relationships).

4) Stats of other teams shouldn't be that transparent. I can imagine some ranges instead of accurate numbers of team performance (maybe connected with your facilities development.)

MINOR ISSUES (but important for me):
1) Historical stats of previous races (not only the last one). The database should be similar as it is in Football Manager where you can always check everything.

2) Option to promote your reserve driver to the main driver during the season, and possible replacement for an injured or ill driver.

3) Option to sign driver during the season for the next season not only to replace at the very moment.

What is great:
1) Setting up the car is really cool.
2) In the new patch (1.8) strategies of AI are much better
3) Tires usage improved as well. Fresh tires finally give you an advantage and you can play with the strategy

What about you guys? Would you add something important for you to this list? Or maybe for you these points are irrelevant?
If I think about more things, I'll let you know.

[Blahde]

It's Management lite, management in name only.
It's a fancy gfx engine (for a management game) and that is how it will stay, at least in my very old school, jaded view.
That setup thing you think is "great" is kinda weird, I kinda am used to it but it's more a case of line up the lines as opposed to (for example) ensure high down force for Monaco. Slippery car for Monza etc.

Very arcade like and in a racing simulation (lets say Asseto Corsa) the community would be chomping at the bit, telling the world and the Devs about how stupid that way is to set up a car. I would agree with them.
I do accept it's made this way, likely aimed at the Kids more than adults though.

[Petunio57]

I would add :
1- Need to be able to sign drivers way before the season ends, so that we dont do an immediate swap.
2- Other teams should be able to show interest in our drivers and negotiate buying out their contract with us.
3- Helmets designs should be respected when they change teams and not use the generic one. After 3 seasons everyone has the same helmet (!!)
4- We as managers should have the opportunity to switch teams, line in F1 Manager and negotiate our TCs.
5- Change of car liveries/ and team colors.
6- Negotiate with sponsors, and transfer them from a team to another.

[Furkan]

I want to add two major issues.

1. No big gaps in the front rows in the race. DRS effect is very strong compared to real life. Especially on tracks with 3 DRS zones like Bahrain, drivers can't make a gap and this isn't realistic. If the gap somehow exceeds 1 second (ex. 5 seconds or 10 seconds doesn't matter), the back group closes the gap with DRS effect.

2. No team orders in AI. For example, the second driver takes very important points from his teammate in the final race of the season. Another example, they always race with themselves and maybe lose time (irl: they sometimes don't race with themselves).

[Galantir]

Originally posted by 93ismola:

Hello, after few weeks of playing I'm ready to create a list of things to improve or I wish to have in the long-awaited official F1 Manager.
I've been playing or possible motorsports managers which were released since 1998 and I must say that this is the best game in terms of visual aspects of racing but the worst in terms of managing... I have this feeling that the producers decided that they target player is regular-Joe instead of real F1 fans.

here's the list of issues (at the bottom I'm adding things which are really cool):

MAJOR ISSUES:

1) Car development is too easy! You can win the Constructor Championship in the third season tops with every team (of course with Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes in the first, Alpine, Mclaren in the second etc.). You always have to do the same thing and you know what will be the outcome.
First of all, AI develops their car much slower, and the second thing is we're never wrong about the new parts! I really want the challenge. In real F1 new parts aren't always better than old ones. Sometimes engineers are wrong and change their conceptions.
I can imagine that we have to develop our car in the similar way as we set the car during the practices (ofc something different but to be the part of this process and to have an influence on that)
Pre-season testing should be n important part of car development before the season start.
And sometimes it should be possible to be wrong about your conception (something like Mercedes this year in real F1)

2) Lack of negotiations with sponsors and engine/gearbox producers. GP World is amazing when you have to gain recognition and have to allocate your assets there.

3) F2 and F3 is an official parts of F1, so it would be great if we could start our career there and then be promoted or accept offers from better teams and have relationships with drivers with whom we work with in the past (positive and negative relationships).

4) Stats of other teams shouldn't be that transparent. I can imagine some ranges instead of accurate numbers of team performance (maybe connected with your facilities development.)

MINOR ISSUES (but important for me):
1) Historical stats of previous races (not only the last one). The database should be similar as it is in Football Manager where you can always check everything.

2) Option to promote your reserve driver to the main driver during the season, and possible replacement for an injured or ill driver.

3) Option to sign driver during the season for the next season not only to replace at the very moment.

What is great:
1) Setting up the car is really cool.
2) In the new patch (1.8) strategies of AI are much better
3) Tires usage improved as well. Fresh tires finally give you an advantage and you can play with the strategy

What about you guys? Would you add something important for you to this list? Or maybe for you these points are irrelevant?
If I think about more things, I'll let you know.

Duh offcourse the target groups is the regular Joe.
The hardcore group of F1 fans is too small to create a viable product.
Thaty is lesson number 1 in doiing business.
Do not put your money where there is nothing to gain.

[Galantir]

Originally posted by 667|Galantir:

Originally posted by 93ismola:

Hello, after few weeks of playing I'm ready to create a list of things to improve or I wish to have in the long-awaited official F1 Manager.
I've been playing or possible motorsports managers which were released since 1998 and I must say that this is the best game in terms of visual aspects of racing but the worst in terms of managing... I have this feeling that the producers decided that they target player is regular-Joe instead of real F1 fans.

here's the list of issues (at the bottom I'm adding things which are really cool):

MAJOR ISSUES:

1) Car development is too easy! You can win the Constructor Championship in the third season tops with every team (of course with Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes in the first, Alpine, Mclaren in the second etc.). You always have to do the same thing and you know what will be the outcome.
First of all, AI develops their car much slower, and the second thing is we're never wrong about the new parts! I really want the challenge. In real F1 new parts aren't always better than old ones. Sometimes engineers are wrong and change their conceptions.
I can imagine that we have to develop our car in the similar way as we set the car during the practices (ofc something different but to be the part of this process and to have an influence on that)
Pre-season testing should be n important part of car development before the season start.
And sometimes it should be possible to be wrong about your conception (something like Mercedes this year in real F1)

2) Lack of negotiations with sponsors and engine/gearbox producers. GP World is amazing when you have to gain recognition and have to allocate your assets there.

3) F2 and F3 is an official parts of F1, so it would be great if we could start our career there and then be promoted or accept offers from better teams and have relationships with drivers with whom we work with in the past (positive and negative relationships).

4) Stats of other teams shouldn't be that transparent. I can imagine some ranges instead of accurate numbers of team performance (maybe connected with your facilities development.)

MINOR ISSUES (but important for me):
1) Historical stats of previous races (not only the last one). The database should be similar as it is in Football Manager where you can always check everything.

2) Option to promote your reserve driver to the main driver during the season, and possible replacement for an injured or ill driver.

3) Option to sign driver during the season for the next season not only to replace at the very moment.

What is great:
1) Setting up the car is really cool.
2) In the new patch (1.8) strategies of AI are much better
3) Tires usage improved as well. Fresh tires finally give you an advantage and you can play with the strategy

What about you guys? Would you add something important for you to this list? Or maybe for you these points are irrelevant?
If I think about more things, I'll let you know.

Duh offcourse the target groups is the regular Joe.
The hardcore group of F1 fans is too small to create a viable product.
Thaty is lesson number 1 in doiing business.
Do not put your money where there is nothing to gain.

Next up is it is an officla game and the FIA want' to appeal to a broader audiance.

[Matt46]

An idea to improve the difficulty. Have 3 modes. 1 where everything cost as much as they do now. 2 where major upgrades cost double and minor parts are a bit cheaper but it means you’ll have to think about what you spend money on. Parts also take longer to be made. Facilities will be more expensive too. 3 will be like 2 but fast forward button is disabled.
Something that needs fixing is the amount of crashes, lock ups, cars going wide, grid penalties, VSC. These need reducing. Lock ups also need improving because they’re pretty awful. Real F1 cars don’t react like they do in this. Fuel delta definitely needs sorting because it’s ruining some races. No matter how much of i try save it makes no difference. Thankfully it’s not all the time but still frustrating. Driver moves should be better. Bottas moving back to Mercedes at 36 is just bad almost has bad as Lewis moving to haas.
Ai obviously needs major work but that’s probably gonna take several versions before it’s how we want it but even if we see little improvement it’ll be good. Create your own team I’m sure will be in eventually. I do think this game has a lot of potential despite the issues.

[93ismola]

Originally posted by 667|Galantir:

Duh offcourse the target groups is the regular Joe.
The hardcore group of F1 fans is too small to create a viable product.
Thaty is lesson number 1 in doiing business.
Do not put your money where there is nothing to gain.

I agree, but it doesn't mean that the game can't be for both groups.
You can add levels of difficulty not only in a classic way - easy-medium-hard, but for example you can choose how complex your game should be.
Football Manager did it long time ago. I know they have long history, but F1 Manager could skip many steps and learn from more experience games.

Originally posted by Matt46:

Driver moves should be better. Bottas moving back to Mercedes at 36 is just bad almost has bad as Lewis moving to haas.
Ai obviously needs major work but that’s probably gonna take several versions before it’s how we want it but even if we see little improvement it’ll be good. Create your own team I’m sure will be in eventually. I do think this game has a lot of potential despite the issues.

That's TRUE! Drivers movements are terrible! In my game after I had signed Russel and Lewis had moved to Alpha Tauri (lol), Mercedes signed Bottas and... Latifi.

[bshock]

1) Give the license to a developer that actually follows F1.

[MO938]

The weather forecasting system.

Either it needs to be a full weather radar in a corner of your screen that you can watch, or hide out the weather from onwards of 20% into the race until you update your weather centre, which will enable you a longer range forecast until later into the race.

Or to make it more of a challenge don't add the weather to the top of the strategy screen. Leave it as just the "in 5 minutes 60% chance of light rain" like we have on the main race page right now as all we have with minute by minute updates there.

[lorenzo_milan]

This is my 2 cents worth

1) Setups, critical that you can improve lap times by adjusting the setup of the car. I don't mind having just a few things to select. But wing angles, suspension softness etc etc.

2) Fuel, this has annoyed me, you have to be able to save fuel easier. I once ran 20 laps on conserve(tyres and fuel) and it didn't move one bit(i was only on -0.5!!). note-patch 1.08 as well

3) Drivers, after playing 10 seasons into a game, no young driver under 24 was above 80. You have to have a better development and ageing system(bottas and perez improving at their age?).(Same with staff)

4)Contracts, you have to be able to sign someone for next year, and can 5 year contracts be 5 years and not 4.

5) Weather, you can't have 100% forecastability, lets just have heavy rain to light rain, and use feedback from drivers and lap times as to what tyre we should be on. Also weather to a time not to a lap. If you are on slicks in the wrong weather, there should be a heavy sliding penalty as well.

6) Ability to set the rules pre game. I might want to set the cap at 50m for everyone, or 300m. Work on as many parts as i want, and more engineers, more durable tyres, , re-fuelling etc etc

7) DRS doesn't have a huge impact on my game, but its clear its too powerful when you don't take charge of the top 2.


8) Engines each year! Randomise the stats, or let us develop them, if you are in a team that can do so. SO annoying to have the same one over and over. Make customer teams choose the year before so there is an element of chance as to which engine is best!


9)Development. Its too easy, either even out the spread of improvements across the parts, rather than making underfloor so important, (+ get the ai teams to improve faster as well), or redesign the system so no expertise and sliders, but we just ask the engineers to improve a part, and then see what we get. Would be good to get parts that didn't help just like in real life.(that is obviously a huge change)

Ideal world you could have easy mode(sliders so you can see what the car does), or hard mode for development(more like real life), that way casual fan and hardcore fan both have something they want


I don't mind if the take two years to get this right, the game is good, not excellent. But i'd rather have proper patches, the fuel fix for example was pointless.

[SailMan]

I'll give this a go too:

Contracts
1. Drivers and staff salaries should be different for different teams. I mean, if your team is the "go to" team for winning championships, there are drivers (eg: Jenson Button) who'd be willing to take a huge pay cut to get into your team so that they can win the championship.
2. If driver/staff doesn't get picked up for a year, maybe their salary expectations should go down? If they didn't perform as well in the year, they should go down?
3. Opposite of 2, where if your driver won the championship or out performed the team member or expectations, then they should go up.

Staff and Drivers
1. Why can we not see the growth potential for staff members before signing them up? Every week, the staff and drivers earn base XP. This value seems to be different for different people. Insights into what that might be is helpful during contract negotiations.
2. There is no nationality/flag provided (or i can't remember it anyway). It would be pretty good to include that.

Engines/Sponsors
1. Driver rating to help bring in additional sponsorship. I should be able to bring in more money for having Lewis Hamilton than a new F3 driver.
2. Engine manufacturers should be able to say NO to my team. I beat Ferrari to win championship with their own engine. Ferrari should be pissed off, and say NO to giving me engines next year.

Random stuff
1. Have an achievement awards for random things like -- employing all women team; winning with all women team; employing all people of one nation only; winning with all people of one nation only.
2. Change location of pitstop every season based on team ranking.
3. Change number of races on calendar, and also which ones to be added/dropped. Put it as an option in the "sporting" rules.

[93ismola]

It's a pitty that we don't have any comment from Frontier about it we all shares the same concerns

[Mighty]

sorry man, they are too busy tripping over their own shoe laces which are tied together.,

[Andy]

DRS too OP
Contracts
Sponsors
Design and development should be far more in depth.
Mabee take on different design philosophys meaning different cars will have different characteristics based on that. Rather than just better designer, better infrastructure = better.

[Dr. Venkman]

It should be able to make contracts with your sponsors and costumize your Equimpent with the Logos of your Sponsors.

This was able in F1 Manager 1996!

I would like to have legendary drivers like Senna, Hill an Schumacher in my team.