Tips Please!

[TobyLeRone]

Hi,

I am really struggling to get a competetive car in this game.

I created my own team and started in the European Racing Series. I scraped by the first season thinking I wouldnt be competetive as I was just starting out and put away the medium amount towards the next seasons car.

I am now near the end of the second season and my drivers, crew, hq etc are all equal or above the rest of the field but my car is still rock bottom, it might as well not even show on the graph its that bad. Now I constantly run improvements and design parts regularly, but I cant afford to keep doing that. I dont have the money to design any more parts yet I still dont have anything anywhere near as good as the opposition. To the point that in practice I am 5/6 seconds off mid table let alone the lead, and as I said I have pretty good drivers.

At the start of the second season the manufacturers of engine etc I was offered were appauling, all had awful fuel constumption and the other parameter I cant remember, what hope do you have!?! The first three races, with a bit of luck with weather and some goot strategy I managed 2nd, 4th and 5th, I did seem competetive, then all of a sudden in the 4th race I fell to this 5/6 defecit?!

Then any parts I design with risk get banned on the first use even though the risk is supposedly low.....

So can anyone say what I am doing wrong or what I need to do to acutally be competetive? With my strategy I can normally get the cars in the 12th - 17th area despite being so far off the pace in practice, but that still crap and frankly it isnt fun playing the game when thats all your aiming for. Before I was because I thought it would be ok, I was planning for next season, now I'm starting to think it doesnt actually make a difference....

Any help much appreciated!

[captinjoehenry]

Ok so to be clear your car is the worse car in the championship but you have decent drivers right? If that is the case I would recomend the oppisite. Get dirt cheap drivers perferably pay drivers and just lose until you have a decent car. Once you have a decent car then you want the decent drivers as otherwise you are paying for decent drivers when they can't really do much for you with a low quality car.

[tullaian]

You may not be doing anything wrong. You start with a genuine POS for a car, worst by a long way in every category both on and off track. It takes a few years to close the gap on the R&D front to get something competitive and to get even a rudimentary HQ capability. Don't make risky parts at the start you can't really afford to have the effort wasted if it gets banned as you don't have money to burn.

I also finished last first 2 seasons by quite a bit , started to get competitve towards the end of season 3 and in season 4 was winning. Some of it will be luck, if you get a high quality driver they can boost you a bit but, in the first season or two the car is so bad it is often money wasted that you can't afford.

Get the factory to level 2 as a prioirty to improve the performance gains you get each season.

[BonPadre]

I'm pretty much going the way captinjoeheny goes (or recommend)
Though, I also think, like tullaian you're not doing anything wrong....
Please try to read few things I wrote in a thread called "the game is too hard"

Also, maybe a Tl:Dnr... Starting your own team is near the HARDEST way to start (or may equal Predator) you may want to restart with your knowledge on a medium team... It will take a LOT of time to get decent results... and sometimes the stars do not align with your destiny ;-D

Few things to take into account, there may be different ways to go...
But honnestly, if after season 2 you have equal HQ etc, you may have overbuilt some buildings, really think the ones you need the most and why... Of course factory lvl2 is mandatory, and even that I indeed did build it only during season 2 (probably a mistake, but needed to see what money I would earn finishing dead last)

Currently in season 3 plan to build 3-4 gearboxes, 2-3 engines (due to bad luck with all the risky components for good...), 2-4 breaks and 2-4 suspensions (I lost so much time understanding how to pile up things in first 2 seasons...) so in my ERS it will be near $20million in new parts...

Hence why I try to save on drivers wages... my car is not good enough to win, so I pay only $348k TOTAL per race for my 3 drivers, $173k per race for my engineer and the 2 mechanics...
For now I have 2 2 stars (with 4 stars potential) signed as reserve, and one 3 star drivers....

So my salaries per races is only $521k per race... so with 11 races currently for me it's $5.7 millions for the full year.

I earn near 11 milions for finishing last in ERS championship, and the owner gives me also 15.3 millions... so without any sponsors, without any other incomes, I still manage to make 20 millions a year... just what I plan to expand in building new parts... sponsors may pay for buildings, or I refrain from building 1 or 2 parts...
At the end of year 3, I finally start to leave the bottom as far as car parts goes, but bare in mind I did SO MANY noob mistakes, I have at least 1/2 year or 1 year worth of lost opportunities to get better parts.

And even when you have then a decent car, your first goal is to bring ONE good driver up, so you don't necessarly double all your figures to have 2 equal cars, you don't pay 2 drivers high salaries, 2 mechanics high salaries etc... It's only a secondary goal to get your team to win the Team championship and get to a higer serie... this needs you to have twice the good stuff...

Also bare in mind what stats are important FOR YOU and YOUR TEAM...
I mean... so many times I see YouTubers go by stars to choose their staff...
Why the hell would you want a 4 stars engineer that has good stats all around and pay him very heavily (I will drop stats as they lay... and understand that in ERS the stats you really need for him are 1 / 2 / 3 / 5... 4 & 6 are useless as they relate to front wings and rear wings... which are all the same in ERS at least at start.)

So better have a 3 star one with
14 / 12 / 10
03 / 19 / 05
Than having a 3.5 star one with
12 / 09 / 13
14 / 15 / 16

You pay in the salary that extra 1/2 star... but paying for a 14 and 16 stats that are related to wings is useless in ERS as long as rules are the starting ones for parts (then ofc think accordingly if wing developpement has been implemented and engine is now on the same 150 for everyone)... if you can save yourself 20k or 50k per race with that... it's still a a good 200k to 500k saving that does not hurt you, nor your developpement.
Take that into account as well if you go for developping a younger engineer. Why would you take a 2 star with 4 stars potential that already excel in front wing with a 20, but sucks in all other places and furthermore in the engine...
Maybe look at Katie Pauslon in engineers, she is the perfect example of what would be a decent early one for an ERS team. She is only a 2 stars (and a bit), has no more talent to developp much, but has all you need for your team, and you will have her dirty cheap and she excels in what you need the most (engine and gearbox) and is somewhat decent in suspensions and breaks.... she totally sucks into wings...

Same thing goes for your Race Mechanic.
Why go all around stars when all you really need is one with good concentration / pitstops / Reliability and the other one concentration / pitstops / performance. That's an other way to save a bit of money.
Then I go more with what they have to offer as perks than anything else above the 2 mid column stats (repair and affinity) a first perk that halves your refulling or your tire change is so much more useful than a perk that get you an edge in intermediates...

Same things goes for drivers.... why would you pay too much a driver that really sucks in smoothness and will chew through your tires during the race but has a good feedback...
If you can sign him dirty cheap stack him in reserve... for your free qual sessions.
But better have a driver with a better smoothness for racing, etc, etc...
Geneal Stars are not the main thing, you really need to think the stats individually more to get an edge on maybe signing a cheaper driver and such.

Also, make sure your 2 drivers have a high commercial value... you will earn far more money with a decent n°1 driver with a good commercial value (60% or more) and a pretty bad n°2 driver with even a higher commercial value than having 2 equal drivers with one having low marketability value... that way you can get cheap on parts for one car, get cheap on one driver contract, cheap also on one race mechanic that may totally sucks at pitting, but may get you very usefull with a very good Reliability stat that can give a more suitable car early on the season to your n°1...

Sorry for the long reading but as you see, you may go crazy with money and not really take time to look at things, or if you really want to save on money, you have maybe a variant model than "get a pay driver"... why absolutely get a medium pay driver for 500k per race + a contract break fee if he he nets you a 220k income per race ? That's still a 300k salary driver for maybe your secondary driver on a medium car... I'd rather go with a 2 star with a 4 star potential at 78k a race signed as a reserve and promoted to driver with a 78% marketability... if that would be my secondary driver on a low car...

[1641302615]

Good driver is the most important.

[BonPadre]

Also I see your risky parts have been banned... I mean... YES you need to build GOOD (or higher) risky parts... but save them for the next year... they loose their risky tag... but max their performance (not the Reliability as it will not carry over for the next year)
So next year you have that good stats part as a base one...
So safer building logic is
Medium (no risky, even if you do not up stats) -> medium + good (no risky if possible) -> medium + good + good (no risky) to use this year that will be your highest possible without any more perks or buildings.

And then last one of the year is medium (with max possible stats with risky) + good (even with risky as long as it adds stats) + good (again risky and max stats possible and even with +5 days to build)
So for the next year, you have that part that may contain +3 risk, but will be a MAJOR upgrade from the current year...

Any risky part that is banned is litterally you loosing all the money you invested in them (if it's an engine, it's near $2m to $3m), and you loosing developpement time and the stats for the next year... Parts that are risky but not used will never get banned... So basically you may have simply lost quite a few millions on using those parts and get cought for what advantage ?

I have seen a good comment.... Use risky parts on last race IF that's what may get you in the upper tier, or save your season... you may get lucky, or not... but at least the risk/rewards worth it.

[SBGaming]

How many seasons have you played in this particular career? If you're only on or wrapped up your second season, I don't see any problems with where you're placing. The other teams with a lot more resources and car development Garuda, Eastwood, etc have better cars. You will need to develop your cars over time to bring them up to the competitions level. If you're anywhere at 9th or above with regards to each of the parts that can be developed in the ERS, you're doing well for the second season.

Consider, both Garuda drivers in the first season Beauchamp and Jha are attrocious regarding their skills, but they consistently perform very well, and came 1st and 2nd in my game. While those two drivers tend to retire at the end of the season, their car's performance carries over to next season. I'll echo what has been said, you don't necessarily want/need top quality drivers, costing you a fortune each race if you do not have the cars at a competitive level.

Over the course of the first season I've been fighting Predator for 9th in car rankings. My first season I went heavy on the car development, probably more than you did. I built 3 engines (two Good quality engines (78 and 103 Performance)), 3 Gearboxes (two Good quality engines (94 and 74 Performance)), built 2 Suspensions (one Good, one average quality (103 and 63 Performance)), and kept the original brakes (12 and 13 Performance), but built two sets of risky brakes to carry over to next season (107 and 77 Performance).

I've not gone through the Season 2 Preseason developing the car, but I'm expecting to still be 9th-10th in car ranking in the coming season. If I'm lucky, next season if I heavily invest in parts, I may push into 7th or 8th, depending on how much better the other teams are performance wise. If I'm lucky, I may place reasonably well in races (6th-10th with atleast one driver), but I'm not expecting podiums.

With my drivers, I kept Andre Gomes, who pulled out a Podium (3rd Place) in the final race of Season 1, which put him into 6th in the drivers standings, and propelled us into 4th place in the Team Standings (1 point ahead of Octane Racing). My other driver Falko Engelhart had some trouble during the season with 2 crashes, and made 13th place in the Driver Standings, but did put in some decent Top 10 finishes when he actually did complete a race.

Although Engines and Gearboxes tend to be the more crucial components, if you want performance bang for your buck, focus on developing brakes and suspensions. You can iterate them relatively cheaply compared to Engines and Gearboxes, and get an advantage in that area. It's not quite clear if all the parts play a role regarding relative performance of cars, or if only those parts that are considered Crucial or useful play a role or are calculated regarding the relative performance of the cars on the track. I'll be testing this out in my season 2, as I focus development on these areas, and my first HQ expansion may be the Brakes R&D facility.

[Inardesco]

Go for factory lvl 2
Focus on reliability in first 3-4 races
Start building parts right away
Calculate your race loss through your entire season, then calculate how much money you'll have for development
Keep your driver/mechanic/designer costs low, don't overspend. I still pay max 400k for 5star drivers so anymore than 200k for 3 star is waste of money.
Get your scouting facility up; If you can spot a 1 star driver with 4,5 star potential, get that driver and nurture him/her
If you have money to spend at the 2nd half of the season; develop risky parts but NOT use them during races

[TobyLeRone]

Thanks for the pointers, lots of useful tips in there. I get the impression I'm not doing as badly as I thought then. I didn't want to moan saying it was a rubbish game or it was too hard, I'm sure it was misunderstanding and I was right. I know I jumped in at the deep end!

I've done a few more races this morning, finished between 10th and last with my two drivers, mainly due to strategy again though. For example there was a 13 lap race and the fuel tank is 6 laps so I made them drive on low and the last little bit of the lap on no fuel and that was faster than two pit stops.

So I have one more race in the second season, and I did see some tips regarding the off season/winter. What should I do across that time as a priority? Just constantly develop new parts?

Thanks again.

[Inardesco]

You can develop some parts after the end of the season but that's a window of maybe 10-15 days. So you can't exactly develop an entirely new car. I mainly use the off-season to develop new HQ buildings so that when the new season starts, I can utilise them.

When you build your car you do need to keep an eye on cost vs waht you get.

[brawnybalboa]

Bring in the highest marketability drivers you can find as soon as possible, if you are starting at the bottom of the ERS, you should not see a reduction in performance.

High marketability will bring in better sponsors. Better sponsors = more money, more money = better HQ, staff & drivers = much more competitive.

It is better to suck for a season or so and to build up your infrastructure than to try and cobble it together quickly at the start.


I waited until I had a fully upgraded HQ before doing anything else. This is an extreme example, but going part way wouldn't be a bad shout!

[hottomo]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Go for factory lvl 2
Get your scouting facility up; If you can spot a 1 star driver with 4,5 star potential, get that driver and nurture him/her

I found potentials are very slow to realize, is it really a good choice at the beginning when you have no HQ boosts ?

[SBGaming]

Originally posted by TobyLeRone:

So I have one more race in the second season, and I did see some tips regarding the off season/winter. What should I do across that time as a priority? Just constantly develop new parts?

Thanks again.

I'd wait until the next season's car is built, when your best parts from the previous season carries over before developing new parts, although I think the ability to develop parts during that time was closed anyway. When that was a possibility the problem was that those parts were based on last year's baseline performance, rather than the next year's baseline performance. You'd be spending money on parts that weren't much better than you could have developed in the previous season.

With that said, it would have given you the jump on producing parts with higher level components earlier in the season, so that might be an advantage, but it's otherwise money thrown away. Ultimately think long term. Plan in advance the number of parts you want to develop, and if you have the headquarters buildings that unlock higher level components, to focus on those until you're at or near the top of the rankings in that category, then switch your focus elsewhere.

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by hottomo:

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Go for factory lvl 2
Get your scouting facility up; If you can spot a 1 star driver with 4,5 star potential, get that driver and nurture him/her

I found potentials are very slow to realize, is it really a good choice at the beginning when you have no HQ boosts ?

Some are, some aren't. I got myself a 5star potential driver 2 seasons back since he improved like 4-6% per week, without any extra improvements from HQ. I've seen other drivers, only improve like half a % per week, so it really differs per driver.

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by SBGaming:

I'd wait until the next season's car is built, when your best parts from the previous season carries over before developing new parts, although I think the ability to develop parts during that time was closed anyway.

You can develop parts till about 10 days after the season finishes. When you get the off-season/new-season development screen, that is when you can't develop anymore.

[Franco]

Try to get drivers with good marketability, so you can get money from sponsors. If you are in green every race, you'll be constantly earning money, and you'll have money for new parts.
Although, it takes so much time to get your car to a competitive level.