Daijhi
Registered: 16.03.2007
Location: Germany
Posts: 36
14.04.2015 14:56:11
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We have a PROBLEM
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Hi Maverik and everyone....
I am sure that you've seen the serious fall in membership this year.
There are 415 profiles going into race 4. In 2014 there were 566, 603 in 2013 and the same in 2012.
Members are falling away and we must ask ourselves why.
So far I have encouraged 15 people to join the game but this year 9 of them have left. Their reason lies mainly in the team BUDGET system.
The current system simply doesn't encourage them to play.
For example many teams face a budget readjustment of 20m or even more for race 4. That means it will take at least 10 races without further price inflation to buy the same team that was bought for race 3. And if one or two selected drivers crash out and if inflation takes place in the meantime it will take even longer to reach the same team selection. In short many teams will only reach the same level achieved in race 3 by about the end of the season!
This is very disheartening and exactly the same happened last year. Consequently many players are turned off the game.
Formula 1 is not a socialist concept where every team has equal chances. It is a capitalist enterprise that favors the successful players. Every player has the same chance of predicting which elements will rise in value and those who get it right will do better than those who don't.
But we have to have a system that does not load the game too highly in favor of the clever players. Indeed this was the fair reasoning behind budget readjustments introduced last year.
Unfortunately the new system has over-corrected the old problem and simply created a new one. So I have a proposal:
PROPOSED 2016 SYSTEM
Everyone knows and understands the simple system used for team managers. There is a fixed cost structure and each manager is given a value completely based upon the accumulated points scored. It is simple to understand and fair to apply.
I think this structure should be applied to all elements of the game.
There should be a fixed price for each score position in all elements of the game. For example the highest scoring driver is valued at say 50m, the second at 48, the third at 46 and so on. It should also be possible to extend the gap to 3m between components at the very top or at the very bottom if necessary.
After each race the value of any component changes up or down according to its points position but there are no reductions for crashing and no extra for winning. And there are no changes to the fixed cost of each component position. Like the manager system it is based entirely on points scored within a fixed cost structure. The cost of the top driver will always be 50m and so on.
The same concept can be applied to engines, chassis and tyres but with different costings and gaps according to the points scoring potential.
Players keep the benefits of their gains and take the consequences of their losses.
After every race all players should be given a 2m budget increase as before, an extra million if they selected the winning driver and penalty millions for engine changes, crashes etc as now. But there are no deductions beyond the 2m budget increase.
Maverik should set the values for race 1 and these should remain until after race 3.
But players should be given 5 changes PRIOR to race 3 (and not after) in order to prepare for the big value adjustment that will inevitably take place after race 3. In this way it will be fair for everyone.
By this system it will be possible to achieve by the end of the season 'the perfect team' if a player has successfully predicted the changes throughout the year. And every player will see a gradual improvement of their ability to buy better components rather than the current system in which we will be lucky to have the same teams in race 15 as we had in race 1.
I hope this makes sense and that all players will give this some thought.
Greetings from Berlin.
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Dominik
Registered: 06.03.2005
Location: Austria
Posts: 453
01.05.2015 00:01:14
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If an extraordinary adjustment is necessary, you could change all teams with negative budgets to the most expensive team selectiom possible and give every single team owner seven free changes for just that race. With this nobody would see a debth and each one would instead be happy about his increased team budget.
Furthermore or maybe instead i propose again the idea of two leagues. Rookies and unsuccessful veterans, so-called noobs, start each season in league two championship and basically play the same game with a much more simplified team budget system. Only the best x team owners, after a season has ended, are allowed to advance to league one where the pfrl championship is held and where medals are to be won. To keep league 2 large enough only champions should start with the very first season 2016 in league 1. in 2017 pfrl league 1 (or call it world championship) will consist of some fine more compeitors already.
I believe this prevents demotivation of many and maybe some of those who played pfrl for quite a long time but didnt opt out thanks to the simplified team budget system and had a lucky year in season 2 and thus get awarded regard the difficult team budget system with a completely different motivation. |
Rob Hall
Registered: 01.03.2005
Location: USA
Posts: 1
19.04.2015 20:47:57
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re: negative balances
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It would have been nice if there had been an announcement on the main page or some notification of the cost adjustment...I figured it out after looking at the negative balances and remembered what happened last year, but there was no notification that I could see..
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KatzevonSwish
Registered: 07.03.2010
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 56
18.04.2015 15:52:26
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I really think Maverick has hit on the solution with using testing times. If the components don't start so far out of order the negative budget is much less likely to arise. In fact in principle you could use something like the current cost change algorithm from Race 1 by using the 3 tests for the required prior results and allow costs to change right from the start of the season. This would tend to smooth out component jumps and avoid the current situation where the first 3 races are basically a pre-season from a cost-scoring point of view.
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GaKra Motors
Registered: 02.03.2006
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 1066
18.04.2015 14:53:27
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In my opinion nothing should be changed except the way how the results of extraordinary value-changes are presented. The system is good, but many people think they were punished, even after Maverick explained them that it's the opposite. So we need to get these negative rest budgets out of the teams. A possible way would be that after race 3 all components are automatically "sold" and everyone would have an empty team and a rest budget of whatever their team was worth. Those who chose the Sauber components would then see that they have more money than the others. Then there should be an unlimited number of free changes before race 4. If someone forgets to make a new team, the system will do it as it was til now.
Then we wouldn't have threads like this one anymore... though maybe we would have "Why was my team deleted?" threads then...
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Chris
Registered: 04.02.2014
Location: Germany
Posts: 757
18.04.2015 14:07:09
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and there would be negative budgets again :.D
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CarlisleFrost
Registered: 19.03.2009
Location: USA
Posts: 176
18.04.2015 14:04:33
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Katz, as long as the rule of having a max budget of 160 mio remains, no one would be able to select a 'perfect' team. Long as that maximum is kept, all will be good on that front. That said, if anyone reached the maximum really early, they'd have the pain of having to then 'downgrade' their team in the final races to stay within the budget limit.
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KatzevonSwish
Registered: 07.03.2010
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 56
18.04.2015 12:04:01
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One additional observation. Whatever the decision is, we actually have to be very careful to *avoid* a system that allows anyone to select a "perfect team" by the final race. The reason for this is that it's simply impossible to fine-tune the game such that optimal component selections throughout the season lead to a perfect team by the end. In other words, it's critical that budget growth is not too rapid - there has to be a ceiling between the maximum obtained budget and the perfect team, otherwise in some years we will have all the top players picking identical teams in the last races.
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Chris
Registered: 04.02.2014
Location: Germany
Posts: 757
18.04.2015 11:54:04
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yes, you are right swish. nice to read someone like you. last year bottas, this year nasr. we need the adjustment to have alternatives for our teams, to make it complex and challenging. and we also cant increase the starting budgets. all good player would have pure mercedesteams in the end of the season. trust in maverick, the idea to fix the values close to the start of the season is the best to handle this "misunderstandings" without destroying our favorite game. or we dont start this game before some races gone 
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KatzevonSwish
Registered: 07.03.2010
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 56
18.04.2015 11:46:18
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Isn't the main reason the extraordinary adjustment of costs has produced huge so-called "deficits" the last two years because of dramatic performance changes in some F1 teams from one year to the next?
I like the idea of using results from testing to determine initial costs.
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Alaska FX
Registered: 17.02.2013
Location: USA
Posts: 4
18.04.2015 01:19:39
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Good stuff
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Excellent food for thought!
Enjoy the race and have a good weekend from Alaska.
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