F1 2018 F1 2018 Online Multiplayer Licence Explained

[Paul Jeffrey]

With F1 2018 from Codemasters just two days away from release, we learn more about the proposed online multiplayer licence system for the new title.

With just a couple of days left until Formula One 2018 releases on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC this August 24th, developers Codemasters have released a new interview with Senior Games Designer Luke Stephenson, digging a bit deeper into the new online multiplayer licence system.

Luke discusses how Codemasters are making an attempt with the new title to offer a more moderated and ranked online experience with F1 2018, working hard to help gamers find events where similarly skilled and experienced players are taking part and thus improving the online experience and reducing unnecessary incidents with those less serious about their approach to racing with real people.

Hi Luke! Could you tell us what you do on F1® 2018?
“I’m a Senior Games Designer on the F1® team who oversees multiplayer – although I work on many areas throughout the game – and I designed the new Ranked multiplayer and Super Licence systems for F1® 2018.”

Could you tell us what the Super Licence is?
“At its heart the Super Licence is a means to keep track of three things relating to the multiplayer game: your overall skill, the cleanliness of your racecraft, and your time invested. Improvement in each of these areas is something that players can aspire to achieve, and also serves as a point of comparison against the other drivers you encounter online.

“Your ‘skill value’ goes up and down based on the skill of the opponents that you defeat or are defeated by, and this value determines your Rank.

“Next comes your Safety Rating, which evaluates how long you are able to race between incidents. Each incident you are involved in will issue you incident points based on severity, and keeping these to a minimum will improve your Safety Rating over time.

“Finally, your Level increases as you gain ‘experience’ from completing races, finishing in strong positions, and hitting various statistic milestones. This last part of the Super Licence persists across both Ranked and Unranked so that you can continue to build your Super Licence however you play, but it won’t be factored into the Ranked matchmaking process.”

What was the intention behind the Super Licence – how did it come about?
“There were two major motivations driving this. Firstly, we have had lots of feedback from our community members who, when trying to find competitive public games, are frequently put off the experience by one or two disruptive drivers. The Super Licence is our most significant step to date in regards to stamping out that problem, as those disruptive drivers will tend to be placed in different lobbies to those who give each other racing room.

“Secondly, as many will know the inaugural F1® Esports Series last year was an incredible success powered by F1® 2017, and we want to develop that area of our game further by creating an environment that could produce the next generation of esports champions. So we want our multiplayer game to have a meaningful sense of progression, to foster a culture of clean racing, and to allow new talent to emerge, regardless of whether you are dropping in for a casual few races, or trying to reach Master Rank against the best in the world.”

How will Ranks work?
“Players will be matched into the most suitable Ranked lobbies we can find with other players of a similar Skill and Safety Rating. Your Skill value is the number that you’ll see next to your Rank, and that’s what we base all our calculations off. The system will expect a player of higher Skill to beat a player with lower Skill, so if that doesn’t happen than both players will have their skill values adjusted a small amount. Every player is judged against everyone else, so when you’re in a 20 car race you can think of it like having 19 one-on-one races. The more you play, the closer you should trend to your ‘true’ skill level, and the better the racing should become.

“The Skill value is also tied to your Rank, which is the badge that you can see throughout the game. Going from 1900 to 2000 for example may promote you from Silver to Gold, so these can serve as great targets as you climb up the ranks.”

How will the Safety Rating change games?
“Fair drivers want to race against other fair drivers, and that’s what the Safety Rating system is designed to encourage. Drivers that respect their competitors will advance their Safety Rating, get matched against other respectful drivers, and then have even cleaner races. This should encourage more players to give racing room – especially down into turn 1 – and maybe think twice about those dive-bombs from 100 metres back. You don’t have to go for every gap that exists, after all!”

I’m not a fast driver – will this affect me when playing online?
“When racing against other people online, the important thing is not outright pace, but rather your relative pace to other drivers. With Ranks, we are trying to keep drivers of similar ability racing together, which should increase the chances of close, fun races regardless of your speed.

“Of course, whatever level you compete at, it’s important to ensure everyone is competing on an even field; that’s why Ranked races use equal car performance with modern cars, and Spec races are used when racing our wide selection of classic cars.”

F1 2018 will release on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC August 24th 2018.

Check out the Formula One 2018 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and community discussion around this exciting new Formula One game. If mods are your thing then fear not, we have you covered! Check out the F1 2018 Mods Forum for the latest and greatest release from the community!.​

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Will you be taking the F1 2018 purchasing plunge on Friday? Looking forward to the title? Let us know in the comments section below!​

 

[Terry Rock]

I have VR but tbh the no VR no sim stuff is getting under my skin.... not that that's the reason this one wont classify as such!

Guess that 2 years ago ZERO people played sims

You took the words right out of my mouth.
I won't buy any CM games because they're not my cup of tea...not because they don't support VR.
Sure! Once you drive in VR it's hard to not drive VR...but there's no need to be elitist.
Three years ago we didn't have it.

 

[jimortality]

I thought this was about F1 2018? Not a discussion on VR. Let it go you non VR users.
Non VR users do seem to make it a big issue, just because one guy likes racing in VR,

Like all codies games this is a game for controllers not sim gear, once you wake up to the concept its easy. If you like arcade games buy it, I know I will.

and of course, VR users don't say anything

 

[falster]

I thought this was about F1 2018? Not a discussion on VR. Let it go you non VR users.
Non VR users do seem to make it a big issue, just because one guy likes racing in VR,

Like all codies games this is a game for controllers not sim gear, once you wake up to the concept its easy. If you like arcade games buy it, I know I will.

ok, same logic, youre right, its not a discussion about VR, so let it go VR users​

its not "non VR" users coming on and saying redundant comments like "no VR=no buy"

I seriously don't see the point of that other than trolling. no one here made the game, so the impact of that statement is minimal at best, and completely superfluous to anybody else.

 

[danraz3r]

I agree with the VR thing, but tell me If I missed it. I didn't read any "SIMULATOR" in the article. Not even in other forums. It's a racing title, just like the way I treat every other title I own. Having the "Simulator" badge, oh... many claim it, but I only have 1 or 2 titles in mind that deserve that.

May be ams and rf2? or PC2 and GTSport? or Assetto and Forza? haha For me I know which ones are "more sim" as a mousesport!

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

And like the VR crowd, those who take part in E-Sports, of any kind, especially racing games, are in a minority, and usually chasing that minority when building a game takes away from what the majority of players want.

I see some reason for optimism. Games like CSGO or Starcraft 2 or what have you aren't for me, and those are games that heavily cater towards esports, and have ruleset designed around them*.

But they don't need to redesign the entire game around esports for F1: They just need to make sure that the cheating detection and replay system works properly, and that all the cars work on the same level (Which they already do in multiplayer anyway!). In a similar vein, ranked matchmaking systems already exist in games like Gran Turismo Sport and other games, they just mean that we get similarilly-skilled and similarilly-minded people to race against. I could definitely make the argument that the majority of the multiplayer crowd wants that.

* Fun times when the Blizzard team found out that actually, a lot of people love to play their game in co-op

 

[RobJLee]

In a similar vein, ranked matchmaking systems already exist in games like Gran Turismo Sport and other games, they just mean that we get similarilly-skilled and similarilly-minded people to race against. I could definitely make the argument that the majority of the multiplayer crowd wants that.

That's fair enough and I have no problem with sorting the wheat from the chaff in a video game's community, so long as the chaff that are genuinely interested in playing don't get left behind or discarded.

The one thing I found frustrating in my short lived GTL/GTR2 online "career" was that I usually couldn't find a full grid with a mixed ability crowd that I could find someone to race with/against, especially outside of organised leagues. And in the end the leagues that I used to participate in, that used to have 20 or so racers each weekend, fizzled out to just a handful of guys, as few as 3 or 4, who were "aliens" compared to me.

I've stayed away from online racing since then (the past few years) because of that.

I can see the same thing being true of the way this "super licence" will work. You'll find servers with a handful of "aliens", and then people like myself probably won't be able to get a race because we can't get into those servers (because of the licence) and everyone else on our level is put off and leaves multiplayer because they can't race on the servers with the people they want to race with.

It's a difficult thing, Codies are admittedly trying to do something to weed out the intentional wreckers and general nuisance players, but I'm not sure they're doing it right, they're trying to emulate iRacing, and they're chasing the E-Sports cash cow.

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

I can see the same thing being true of the way this "super licence" will work. You'll find servers with a handful of "aliens", and then people like myself probably won't be able to get a race because we can't get into those servers (because of the licence) and everyone else on our level is put off and leaves multiplayer because they can't race on the servers with the people they want to race with.

Games with matchmaking systems do all the server assigning for you: Lots of people sign up for a race, the system then divides them into groups and then sends those groups to respective servers. In that sense it is a lot like iRacing, except that there's only one car class so there's a lot more people to put into "splits".

Custom (aka Unranked) lobbies then allow people who want to race together to race together regardless of skill levels, as was the case with, say, the Dirt Series which had ranked and unranked lobbies, and which is par of the course for most games with matchmaking systems.

 

[NDG]

May be ams and rf2? or PC2 and GTSport? or Assetto and Forza? haha For me I know which ones are "more sim" as a mousesport!

Not even close mate! how bout u try a truck as a clue.... at least they don't have big expectations to fulfill, and they do have VR! And another one that flies... that's another clue for yah!

Who said all SIM titles needs to race? Cheers!

 

[RichardHessels]

Do the simulators F1 teams use in the factory use VR? Or do they use a screen?

I am not saying they should not support it but this dismissing of games/simulators because of no VR is getting beyond the joke. People think just because of having VR that they are some sort of elite sim racer while they sit their in their slippers on their fake wheels and pedals thinking they are Ayrton Senna. Do me a favour.

5 projectors or more, for a almost 360 view.

 

[NDG]

4.5 hours to download... Oh my...

 

[bgil66]

I have 16' on ps4 and hardly touched it. You guys getting the PC or console version?

 

[Durge Driven]

unpacking says 8 minutes

Hurry up will ya I got to learn a whole sim before first practice lol

Frankly I find this "it is not a sim" funny
It simulates better then anything
I be surprised if Raceroom or ACC or any others reach same refinement in their given genres

Oh you mean physics ? Well if that mattered rFactor2 would be best selling sim

"Ready to play" off do do a benchtest

 

[Durge Driven]

Could people do default Belgium bench test please
60fps 1080 can't be right
Had tearing in lightposts but 40" TV
Suppose won't matter with series20 + Gsync




P.S.

Got to say the overall atmosphere as in sky and lighting and haze in trees looks dated as rF2 DX9 Build60 lol

 

[Alex Townsend]

Sorry but you can give me all the anecdotes you want. As far as I'm concerned, and based on what I've seen of E-Sports, they are for and aimed at the reasonably wealthy minority, especially the high profile competitive one's like the recent F1 E-sports series.

Only got one so no more.
How many live esports events have you attended? How many people have you met to be able to say who they are aimed at and who takes part?
How much did people have to pay to enter the F1 esports? I wasn't even actually aware it was on...

Also people on the breadline wouldn't even be racing anything be it virtual or real. Your argument there doesn't make sense.
People who live in council flats? Come on...

 

[Durge Driven]

Hey ! I live in Council flats ! >>>>>

Give up smokes, grog, gambling and drugs and you yes you will be able to afford your hobby !

 

[Patrik Marek]

if this helps MP racing, it should make many people happy

 

[NDG]

oh my... I think Im gonna spend the weekend tweaking this to my liking. Cant even set the wheels to 1 to 1 rotation. I felt embarrased to comment on Paul Jeffrey's gameplay coz I think its shaky and not smooth at all. But now I have first hand tried it, yes its laggy. Damn I am running 140FPS on a 75hz monitor and I still feel the game is stuttering.

 

[Durge Driven]

Could you print Belgium bench test please just so to get a idea of each, mines above
I have stock 8700 like to see how much I lose to 4.8-5GHz anyone

 

[Alex Townsend]

Hey ! I live in Council flats ! >>>>>

Give up smokes, grog, gambling and drugs and you yes you will be able to afford your hobby !

You live in council flats but are you on the breadline?
A lot of people in the UK ended up buying their council dwellings as they managed to get themselves straight and got pretty good deals from the local councils iirc

Still... you live in a council flat yet don't appear to be struggling at all... You have a CPU far newer than mine...

Sorry I have to ask... what is Grog?

 

[Flip-Flop Driver]

oh my... I think Im gonna spend the weekend tweaking this to my liking. Cant even set the wheels to 1 to 1 rotation. I felt embarrased to comment on Paul Jeffrey's gameplay coz I think its shaky and not smooth at all. But now I have first hand tried it, yes its laggy. Damn I am running 140FPS on a 75hz monitor and I still feel the game is stuttering.

Have you tried low lag vsync?
It didn't eliminate the lag and frame pacing issues in the 2017 for me but who knows.
It works in many other games.