Hints & Tips to anyone struggling.

[Don Cool]

After 300 hours of Motorsport Manager I decided to share some of my wisdom with you guys.


1. Design new parts all the time for the first 2/3 of the season thus improving old ones, engines are what give you the most but they are also the most expensive. Then you have a little room of time to decide whether to continue designing and improving depending on economy or use that time to increase performance on your parts to max.

Before the last two races I usually have 2-3 very illegal parts ready where reliability isn´t an issue, they are parts for the next season where I have gone with "max" choices in parts, these need to have their performance maxed and it can take time, so that´s what I do.


2. Before the first race of the season you should get the engines/gearbox reliability to 55-60 ... engine being priority. Then you need to focus on brakes and suspension, get those into the 50s and depending on your factory you may wish to improve the above parts to low 60s. I usually don´t bother with spoilers, something in the car will need repairs anyway.

3. The first and second race of season 2 and onwards will provide you with a solid buffer if your cars dont crash. The tricky part is to actually drink coffee, set engines and tires to medium and watch it all unfold. I usually go for medium tires if I can, give them fuel for the exact amount of laps I think they can race on a medium tire and start my repairs at about 2/3 of the race. You don´t need to repair as soon as the "wrench" shows, the can go 2-3 extra laps without problems.

The tricky part is never to get greedy and let the AI run itself against the wall, this works in the lowers tiers more than in the best leagues, the best teams have fast car repairs early on.

If one of your drivers has a mechanic with the perk "nurse" your two first races should be a cakewalk, only the engine/gearbox need a bit of fixing prior to racing the first race 55-60, the driver will be able to use second highest engine power throughout the race and win.

4. Motorsport manager is a chickenfarm when it comes to drivers, they often fight, complain about each other, want to get rid of the mechanics or the reserve driver ... it´s worse than my mother´s nitting club. Even if you have defined their roles well, my suggestion is to take the morale hit ... don´t listen to chickens. It can happen that two drivers simultaniously decide they won´t sign a new contract while each is the team, bad luck ... happened to me 3 times and I have no good advice here. You will need to sack one, this bad "perk" lasts 52 weeks.

5. Before the race it´s important to read the description of the track, especially weather and tire wear. As for fuel I always have too much, too much means 2-3 laps of after a race, not 10. PLAN!!!! .... know how many laps you are going to race, if tire wear is high your medium tires may not last the 14 laps it states, they may only last 9-10, even less if you keep pushing them. A racer with 9-10 laps of fuel, medium tires and engines on medium may be a lot faster than some one in the same situation pushing his engines with 20 laps of fuel.

6. If you don´t bother micromanaging like me in the race second highest engine with 2 extra laps of fuel for a 10 lap run is a general "okay", keep an eye on tire heat and watch it all unfold as your "plan" either gets destroyed or you make it to the podium. Push the engines/tires in the last 2-3 laps before a pitstop to even out the score and hopefully end on 25%-0 fuel as you pit. I like to have a little spare fuel for cold days though as mentioned earlier. Lots of fuel and highest engine mode is usually a bad idea, dont do that.

7. Chassis design is tricky, after 300 hours I still don´t have all the clues needed. I know "tire wear" is essential but after doing some testing "fuel efficiency" doesn´t seem to provide enough of a benifit. I would go for tire wear and save money on the other things unless you are loaded and don´t care, then just take the best.

8. As for tuning your car before the race I just write down the most successful setup on a piece of paper and use it as a guideline for the next time I am on the same track. I have no idea why the game doesn´t provide a "save preset" option, once you have raced on a track you do have a general knowledge of how to tweak your car the next time. Be careful though, you still usually need to tweak every time if you want nice and comfy purple smileys. As for the tuning itself look at the two racers green bars, overlap them and get a general idea by reading the track description on where to put your pointer.

9. Patience is a virtue in this, overtaking is easier in GTI series than in the other. Some much faster cars all of a sudden stop in front of you and decide that you are the only racer in town, they will opt to save fuel and tires just in front of you and as soon as you try to go by to catch someone you should actually be racing against they just speed up and use you as toy turtle, very annoying.

As for those that are slower than you, they too can be a pain to get by, somebody wrote in another post that you just have to do what they are doing in terms of engine/tire use, never works for me. Patience is the key here, your drivers skills surely matter and just cross your fingers, drink some coffee/tea and hope for the best. This is where you usually lose or win the race, actually much like in real life.

If you really need to pass someone, engines and tires to max, shout at the monitor and hope nobody thinks you are crazy.

[Rivers]

Great tips!

1. If you will get promoted (or relegated), stop developing parts. They'll go to waste as you get new ones in the following league.

5. A car on overtake with 14 laps of fuel is faster than a car pushing with 12 laps of fuel, which in turn is faster than a car running normal with 10 laps of fuel (if pitting in 10 laps).

7. In WMC, when you just promoted, take improvability. It'll help playing catch-up. Don't let fuel efficiency too low, or you'll drop in the penalty tier, which makes things difficult.

May I add:

10. If qualifying sessions are long enough to allow you some quick laps (in order to perfect the car setup), run in practice in order to obtain race/qualifying and tyre perks.

[B✪✪tsy]

"if your cars don't crash"

Just save the game before the race starts and reload till they don't crash. Cheesy, but it works :P

[Don Cool]

Originally posted by B00tsy:

"if your cars don't crash"

Just save the game before the race starts and reload till they don't crash. Cheesy, but it works :P

I have a weird compulsive disorder, if I cheat in a game I totally lose interest, I can´t, in all honesty sometimes I wish it didn´t bother me.

[Coffer]

In general I've also found that, outside of the ERS (and maybe even there), there's no reason not to have a clear #1-#2 system with your drivers.

[B✪✪tsy]

Originally posted by Don:

Originally posted by B00tsy:

"if your cars don't crash"

Just save the game before the race starts and reload till they don't crash. Cheesy, but it works :P

I have a weird compulsive disorder, if I cheat in a game I totally lose interest, I can´t, in all honesty sometimes I wish it didn´t bother me.

I have done it in the first 2 seasons a couple of times. My team was already the bottom of pile and then also having your drivers crash in several races was a bit to much for me, that realod gave me at least a fair chance to finish 9th in the season.

[Xautos]

right now i am adapting around two cars with reliability 50%-60% parts and it's a real struggle on the cape town race in IGTC in 2017. i figured out how to get the cars to the finish with just one pitstop to repair the damage and keep them running in the top 5 positions, but it's just about adjusting when to stop to get the repairs out the way without losing too much time to the one or two cars that can make the race and remain competitive.

[AoD_lexandro]

Originally posted by B00tsy:

Originally posted by Don:

I have a weird compulsive disorder, if I cheat in a game I totally lose interest, I can´t, in all honesty sometimes I wish it didn´t bother me.

I have done it in the first 2 seasons a couple of times. My team was already the bottom of pile and then also having your drivers crash in several races was a bit to much for me, that realod gave me at least a fair chance to finish 9th in the season.

Its your game mate, do as you please. Im with Don though, I like to take the rough with the smooth as it gives me a proper challenge.

Some tips of my own;

A chassis thats 2 star all around can win the ERS, so dont go nuts on the parts as its just a waste. You could invest the extra cash in the HQ or save for promotion.

Do not offer bonuses on contracts, at all, ever. Even if someone you want makes a demand for bonuses, don't do it. It will suck up almost all of your cash, leaving you with nothing for your efforts. Just take someone else instead.

Dont get too hung up on stats and traits, as in many cases an "average" driver will do well in a given series or track. As for staff, apart from Reliability and Performance stats you can honestly forgoe the rest and hire really REALLY cheap staff and still have great results. (I won the APC with 2star engineers for instance).

Pay drivers help, but are not required. If you go for a pay driver though, offer them "proper" wages and use the payment to off-set the cost per race. You can have 3-4+ star drivers who only cost 1-300k per race in wages this way.

If your strapped for cash and desperately need a good sponsor, consider having a reserve with high marketability. Then when sponsor contracts run out, promote them to a main seat until you sign your sponsors. Then demote them again. You lose morale, but gain much more cash. Cash is more important than morale, so its a fair trade off.

And lastly since I mentioned trade-offs; Completely ignore the pre-season dilemas that ask you to switch stats around (ie +1 tyre heating -1 tyre wear). They are a waste of time. Instead look for the "old" dilema that add a stat point for X amount of cash. These are the best options.

[Danius Greumach]

Originally posted by Don:

After 300 hours of Motorsport Manager I decided to share some of my wisdom with you guys.


1. Design new parts all the time for the first 2/3 of the season thus improving old ones, engines are what give you the most but they are also the most expensive. Then you have a little room of time to decide whether to continue designing and improving depending on economy or use that time to increase performance on your parts to max.

Before the last two races I usually have 2-3 very illegal parts ready where reliability isn´t an issue, they are parts for the next season where I have gone with "max" choices in parts, these need to have their performance maxed and it can take time, so that´s what I do.

So parts that were illegal one season are not illegal the next? That sounds like a huge exploit to me. Maybe it was intended, but if so, it makes no sense. I do realize that in the real world, changes to the rules may allow a part that was illegal the previous season to be legal in the next one, but there's no way to know what will and will not be legal going forward, and it's definitely not going to be several parts across several different components of the car.

[Fritz]

Just think of it as a learning experience for your designer. Last season he had to cut corners to make a part that good, but when designing the new chassis in the off season he can properly build the part to similar specifications within the rules.

[Xautos]

turns out they were not 50%-60% parts, they were 45% parts and i made them last to a 1-2 result in that cape town race, the rio race, race 2 is even more of a problem. the ai cars are almost as fast but half the grid has reliability problems and half the grid retires from it. whats worse is that i am limited in strategy choice due to weather that lasts from lap 2 to lap 13, where it goes from rain to dry. now i can short fill by a few laps and cut down the time and use the hybrid to help but i need to cut through the traffic faster than i have in previous attempts.

it's not going to be easy as any type of pushing burns out the components faster making it harder to make the end of the race. i am certain i can make cassino race the end without needing repairs, i just need to get it right and lehane is likely to pit for a new gearbox or engine.

[Twelvefield]

Originally posted by Don:

I have a weird compulsive disorder, if I cheat in a game I totally lose interest, I can´t, in all honesty sometimes I wish it didn´t bother me.

Your last name wouldn't happen to be "Trump"?

[morpheus]

pushing with hot tires is a waste anyway; then again sometimes its a struggle to get the tires warm without pushing => wrecking parts

[morpheus]

Originally posted by Twelvefield:

Originally posted by Don:

I have a weird compulsive disorder, if I cheat in a game I totally lose interest, I can´t, in all honesty sometimes I wish it didn´t bother me.

Your last name wouldn't happen to be "Trump"?

eh, wouldnt it be "if i DONT cheat..." then *cough*alternative facts*cough*

[Danius Greumach]

Originally posted by Don:

Originally posted by B00tsy:

"if your cars don't crash"

Just save the game before the race starts and reload till they don't crash. Cheesy, but it works :P

I have a weird compulsive disorder, if I cheat in a game I totally lose interest, I can´t, in all honesty sometimes I wish it didn´t bother me.

I have the same issue. I have plenty of friends who like to "cheat" in games, and they don't understand why I won't, but it honestly has no value for me if I do.

A couple of things I could add to the discussion:

1.) Don't be in a hurry to get promoted if you want to start from the bottom tier and work your way up. You might be able to win ERS in your second season, but going up to Asia-Pacific is going to be a real pain if you don't have your HQ at a decent level already. It would be more advisable to save up some cash and build up your HQ while you go for another title or two in ERS than it would be to promote yourself and struggle for a few seasons at the bottom of Asia-Pacific because you don't have the right foundation in place.

2.) Marketability can be HUGE. Before Season 4 in my current save, I ditched my #1 driver (who had 100% marketability) and replaced her with "ugly" driver Amy McCloud (with 0 marketability). All my sponsors ran for the hills when offers came due, as my overall marketability dropped from 56% to 23%, or 3 stars to 1 star. I went from making money each race in the previous season to losing almost 1.5m a race (if I even met my sponsor goal) 6 months later, mostly because of the marketability (or lack thereof) of my one new driver. Amy drove well for me, but the crippling effect it had on my monetary situation caused me to cut my losses and fire her, and add someone with some marketability. I'm in Season 6 now, and still haven't fully recovered. Getting someone with high marketability isn't a necessity, but make sure you know what you are doing in terms of marketability when you are cutting one driver loose for another.

[morpheus]

I)
i had that issue in a less drastic way (4=>3 stars) but without a money reserve cause of building in the HQ and parts (and me being a noob at the time and not noticing the reason) i had trouble not losing money, and had to stop developement => fell back in the stats => a couple of years "lost".


II) and is fixing artificial dumbness cheating? (i mean really, taking an extra 15 secs with a single tire?!?!?!?!? was that one in HQ still, or what?)

III) a)
team marketability is easy to get high, just outperform the season goal you set with the chairman. (so taking the middle or right option may mean less money from him, but over time better sponsors, im @ 25% for the team after a single season in GT-C with the other save)


b)
it was said a couple of times here in the forums, but TOTAL marketability, which is the one the sponsors care about has 3 equal components: the team and the 2 race drivers.

For 5 stars you need a helipad and >90% total; which means your 3 components together need to be >270

=> 100(team) + 100(driver1) +71(driver2) works, as does 100+86+86 (100+86+85 idk, what with rounding^^)


So drivers below 71 (without temp.bonus) will never land on my faves list.