Install Steam
login
|
language
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
ไทย (Thai)
Български (Bulgarian)
Čeština (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Deutsch (German)
Español - España (Spanish - Spain)
Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
Français (French)
Italiano (Italian)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Magyar (Hungarian)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norsk (Norwegian)
Polski (Polish)
Português (Portuguese - Portugal)
Português - Brasil (Portuguese - Brazil)
Română (Romanian)
Русский (Russian)
Suomi (Finnish)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Українська (Ukrainian)
Report a translation problem
Discussions Rules and Guidelines
Report this post
I hired 1 expensive driver and kept Ana, hired a mechanic with reliabilty in mind - Push it to the limit skill is awesome. Ana's mechanic has Nurse which is also invaluable early season - help you focus on performance more throughout the season.
I'm looking to upgrade my factory as I need the extra staff and improvement slots. Then I focusing on improving my drivers abilities, Building a Test track next but that won't be until season 4.
I'm wanting to keep my staff as it is now, help them improve as the team improves.
First priority expense is a factory upgrade, you just really need that to be able to improve. Get yourself a designer with useful perks that let you design stronger parts you do not have the facilities for yet. Designer is more important than mechanics, and since patch performance mechanic is more important than reliablity (since performance carries over and thus improves you long term, whereas reliability only affects the current season).
Car design priority is first and with a margin tyre life. Then comes fuel efficency as 2nd, 3rd priority close after is improvabilty, 4th tyre warming.
Do not accept promotion until you have a helipad and tier 1 facilities for all the parts that are not standardized in APS (engine at the beginning, but that may change in your game). Then rush through APS.
this sounds like something that fits in with mistakes im making, i think this time around i hired a full set of staff too high for the stage i was at and the combined wages of them all pretty much killed my income...
and by the sounds of this advice i got the wrong type of staff, aimed to high too fast
First is I FIRE ALL 3 drivers. Evans and Katie are complete trash. This alone will really hold you back with Predator in my opinion (especially Evans being one of your race drivers).
Santa Ana while ok for a number 2 driver doesn't fit in with the financial plan (making the most money possible during the first season is what you'll usually be going for).
In their place I hire Rafael Rodridgues as my number 1 driver, which will run you around 500k a race (fairly easy to sign and well worth the money for the stats you get on him). He's a massive upgrade over Santa Ana and will perform fairly well even with your current lackluster car.
For my number 2 driver I hire Miia Lahtinen who is a pay driver, and ok at almost 2 full stars of current ability and just over 3 stars potential. Depending on what her pay driver amount is (i've seen the amount vary from game to game so far for all pay drivers) and the contract you sign her for you should be making +150k to +175k roughly after subtracting her race salary (usually is around 75k a race plus or minus a little).
For my Reserve driver I hire Bjorn Bjelland who is another pay driver. Now I only run him in practice of course and you only get half the pay driver amount if they run in practice and not the actual race. Even than you'll pull in +100k per race after his race salary (usually is 25k to 32k per race).
That right there is an extra +250k to +275k on average in income per race throughout the season. Doesn't sound like much but over the course of a season it's usually an extra 2.5mil total or more which believe me helps.
After dealing with drivers I move to my Designer, which I fire as well. For a replacment I go with either Nikhil Doublet, Ruby Smith or Karen Jones. It really comes down to how you want to design your parts. Nikhils known epic component of -1 risk is useful as well as having better stats overall.
Karen Jones is the most expensive out of the 3, but she has some really useful known components when building new parts (especially later on with lengendary components). Only real downside to her is the engine rating of a 1, but in my opinion it's not a major issue and is more than offset by her known components.
Any of the 3 will run you from roughly 115k to 210k (Smith 115k; Doublet 150k; 210k Jones). Basically low, medium and high salaries for 3 decent designers in my opinion. One last note is designer Fredrick Kelley. He's just over 3 stars current and 5 stars potential, but he's really expensive. He'll usually cost you 280k to 300k when you first sign him. Not worth it in my opinion and i'd take Jones over him first due to the in my opinion better known components.
Lastly Race Mechanics. I fire both starting ones and replace them with Kai Gosseline for Rodrigues and Gabriela Rojas for Miia. Kais level 1 is just less wear for super soft tires, but his level 2 is -1 second to all pit stop times, which is very useful. Gabrielas level 1 is Tyre changes are 50% faster, which is very useful as well, and her level 2 is super overtake mode, which if used right is also very useful. Stat wise they are ok to good.
With new sponsors you sign at the start of the season (upfront payments) you'll be able to do all these firings/signings no problem. Granted you'll be in the red, but that isn't a big deal nor a problem.
One (short race) career I did doing the above I pushed engine design first, than gearboxes. After that I did suspension a bit. Brakes I didn't have enough money to full design before season end so I did none, but a vote came up to spec brakes for the next season which passed, thus saved me more money long-term.
By the end of season 1 I had some excess money saved planning to use it with the prize money to upgrade my factory in the off-season. I should mention that Rodrigues did manage 2 podiums and both of those were race wins during the 10 race season. Miia managed 2 podiums and no race wins.
Season 2 starts and I have my level 2 factory up just before or after the first race of the season, I don't recall exactly. Regardless both Rodrigues and Miia had DNFs in the first race. After that with reliability up high enough from the upgraded factory and with me having pushed engine design and gearboxes so much season 1 (engines much more so) and continuing to do so season 2 I not only won the team championship but also the driver championship as well (Rodrigues had 10 races, 9 podiums, 8 wins; Miia 10 races, 2 podiums, 0 wins again). I also had the test track built very early in season 2.
I then went on to win driver and team championships in season 3 and season 4 (both drivers 1st and 2nd place) easily and well on my way to season 5 right now in my current playthrough. I changed things up staying in the ERS mutiple seasons doing a total buildup this time around. The only real challenge in doing this is you will lose most of your staff during this time that have star potential above 3. Once they get past 3 current they will say they want to go to a higher championship usually.
That's another reason I stayed down as another challenge of losing good drivers and staff and replacing them with new young drivers and staff that pop up that can still perform well.
Anyway that's one of my experiences. Hope you enjoyed the read.
P.S. - I should mention too that after the test track I built the telemetry centre and added in the staff centre and the scouting centre also (very important to see other good young drivers) upgrading them along the way when able (especially scouting). Of course depending on your team managment style this can vary of course.
I kinda have been not bothering with part construction because of trying to get the HQ upgraded faster... but you guys are kinda telling me that parts and part bonus from staff is important here
Im doing something wrong im always debt ridden by season 2 lol
Rodrigues + Lahtinen + Bjelland is actually a combination which is way to powerful to be honest - at least for the first couple of seasons. About 200k per race for drivers thanks to paydriver income - and they are much better then the original drivers.
My priority was a new lead designer, because the car you start with is obviously quite rubbish. I took Bellows because he was a free agent and he has good stats except for front and rear wing which you don't need anyway in the European Series as they are spec parts. You can fire him once you reach APC which has other spec part ( engine ).
Driver line-up was Rodrigues-Lana-Bjelland but I didn't have them untill after the third race ( Milan ) , except for Bjelland who I had in my second race and became the reserve driver after that.
I was lucky to have Rodrigues on a bargain because he had a temporary "sickness"-trait the moment I signed him so he only had 2 stars instead of 3, which resulted in much lower wage demands ( only about 189.000 I guess, have to look it up ). You can sign both Rodrigues and Lara as number 2 drivers, which is much easier to keep their moral up.
Reliability is key: to finish first, first you have to finish. So it is better to let your mechanics work on reliability first instead of performance. If you have designed a new part (where you don't have to go for reliability, which I will explain later ) and it has just not enough reliability, don't fit it yet.
Make sure you have high marketability, I can't stress enough how important it is to strive for high %. This is necessary to attract the better sponsors, who bring in more money etc... Remember that in any sports the team with the most money always wins in the long run.
At first your team marketibilty will be low but your driver's can be high.
Always wait untill you have 3 sponsor offers in before you make your decision. If you don't like the deals, it might be even better to not sign anything and wait untill the current offers expire and you get new ( hopefully better ) ones.
In the first half of the season, spend your money on designing new parts. When designing, focus on performance and max stats because you can still improve the reliability later on with your staff and mechanics. So first design the best possible part and then make sure it is reliable enough to race with ( don't fit it if it's not gonna make it, as I already wrote earlier).
I didn't upgrade my factory and design center untill the second half of the season. Also designed some risky parts towards the end of the season to have a headstart in season 2 ( they are nog illegal anymore in the next season).
In season 2, focus on reliability first. And focus it in the first races on just one car, instead of spreading your efforts on both your cars. So you have at least one more or less competitive car instead of 2 below-average ones.
Prioritize gearbox, brakes and engine because they tend to break down earlier than the other parts. And it just takes much more time to fix these in-race than the other parts.
As for your budget for next season: keep it low when the season starts as you want to use your money for designing new parts. When the season goes on your cars become more or less maxed or it's just not worth it anymore to upgrade your car so you can start saving money for next season. Make sure you have some money left after you assembled next year's car because the dillema's that come up in off-season are worth their weight in gold. So you want to save some money for that. If you are pretty sure you're gonna end up winning the championship, just start saving money because you will get a new car anyway in APS. So don't spend money on a car your not gonna use anymore the next season.
Race strategy:
-if you bring in your new drivers AFTER the first race, they will start on pole position so it might be worth waiting a few races to bring in your new drivers. In Milan it's all about engine power so wait untill after that race to bring in your new drivers. By the way, both your drivers should actually be able to lap pretty much the whole field in the second Milan race of the second season, if they don't I guess something has gone wrong with the development of your car/engine.
-In pit stops, always choose the fastest, most risky stop. In European Series, al pitlans are pretty standard except for Ardennes mayby, but in APS you have pitlanes who can give you a shortcut ( Dubai ) or are very long ( Phoenix ) so you want to take that in consideration too when planning your number of pit stops before the race.
-To set up your car, use the set-up guide provided by TheFluxRobot.
-Try to calculate that your tyres are about 25% when your fuel runs out. When your tyres are below 25%, performance ( lap times ) will drop significantly.
-When the weather changes, it is ALLWAYS better to come in for intermediates when the track becomes soaked or dries up. This is actually not really realistic because your tyres should just wear out faster when you stay on wet tyres when the track is drying up ( Trackday Manager game did a better job of this ) but it is the way it is.
-It ain't over till the fat lady sings: you can climb up a lot of places in the last few laps, especially when other cars start running out of fuel. Just make sure you're not one of them.
Q. first year car budget (=season2 car) what size budget do you apply i have been going top budget myself, but is it better to stay on the middle budget ?
wheres the benefit not using it ?
the damn car cost a bloody fortune anyways haha
i figured it, i can start factory upgrade quicker, coz i earn money faster
As I look back from season 3 (9th -> 5th, expected to finish 4th on season 3), I'd suggest doing things in the following order.
1. The team lineup obviously needs polishing. Santa Ana and her mechanic seems decent (and once you got a staff center up she can up some ratings and kick some butt as well), but Evans and his guy would be high on my list to get dropped. Some time at season two I had replaced Claire Williams (the designer) for Ian Brown.
2. The car would be next to polish up. If you got extra budget to spend on parts, good. If not, work on the reliability first, especially the engine, gearbox and brakes. Preferably the parts should hit 70% reliablity so that you don't run into red zones during the race. Once you can finish a race without pitting for repairs, start working on performance / new parts.
3. Save for next year's car if you got money to spare.
4. HQ upgrade. I took a factory lv 2 -> staff center -> design facility lv 2 order. Best if this is done during the off season or so. Ultimately the tier 1 series has no spec parts, so you'd probably need everything together.
Note: read the regulations on the series you're competing in. For example:
- at ERS both aero elements are frozen. If your designer suck at those two parts it's fine--replace him when you get promoted into the next series.
- Rules may be changed at politics. For example, during my game refueling is banned for season 3, placing premium at fuel efficiency and less at pit stops.
I ran the numbers for my season 1 car development, there was still 14% potential in the car that i couldnt improve, an element of performance is carried over to your next years car.... and it does.
Season 2 car was 18% better than my season 1 ending car, but -3% in potiental. I like to think that a smarter part build-to-performance improvement ratio wpuld help decided when to build and when to improve. Chosing not to build an extra couple parts could save you 2/3 million. Whereas maxing the performance of what you already have should make next years car start off better.
You should throw everything you have in to anything that improves your cars Improvability stat during preseason in order to catch up quickest.
See my guide for more tips
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=800653340
Kept the drivers all through the first year, kept all staff in the first year too. Finished well back in 10th in constructors and in drivers was 19th and 20th. Lots of savings for second season car after every race.
Second year now, 2 races left, and many things changed. Extra GP in China was voted, also short qualifying and points for top 5 only. I kept Woodbridge and signed a new mechanic, can't remember his name, but it is Toby someone, I forgot his surname. Also demoted Evans to reserve, got rid of Linares, and signed a young 18 year old Chinese prodigy called Hong Liao from Dragon Racing Team, made him equal status driver with Santa Ana. He is a marketers dream!
Been developing parts like crazy in year 2, because points for top 5 only is a great leveller in this sport :) Stole the brakes blueprints from Eastwood Motorsport as well. Got a podium 2nd place finish in Ardennes with Liao in a race that went through 4 seasons in a day, did it by gambling on slicks for longer than the AI, plus a lucky safety car. Currently 7th in constructors with two races to go, and 11th with Liao in the drivers standings. Stopped developing the car after the last race, now pooling my money towards developing next year's car. Only just started upgrading the factory now, all money previously this season thrown into developing the car. I have not upgraded hq in any way, only just started building level 2 factory.