Vanilla Balance Mod Beta - Testers Wanted

TheFlamingRed · Nov 28, 2016

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/motorsport-manager-balance-mod-part-1.12965/

Click to expand...

Make sure you down load all the parts!

This mod has now been released. All the changes are listed in the above link. If a Forum Admin is reading this, if you could remove the "Testers Wanted" and change it to "Development Discussion" thread, it would be appreciated.

UPDATED TO WORK WITH 1.3

Note: In attempts to fix the interviews and dilemmas, I have temporarily removed all non English languages from those two files. I hope to reinsert them into a later version (but when I do, they'll still be the vanilla text as I am unable to translate in any other language).

georgetimms23 · Dec 17, 2016

@TheFlamingRed When do you think you will finalise the balance?

TheFlamingRed · Dec 17, 2016

georgetimms23 said:
@TheFlamingRed When do you think you will finalise the balance?

Never.

Perfect balance is unattainable. I'd say it's currently at 8.2/10 for my taste. I think my 1.1 mod was a 9/10 - but I did 3 times as much testing and had two other people privately test it for me. I'll slowly improve it, but it's perfectably playable now - and any improvements I make will work with any game you have started already.

There's no need to wait for later versions, otherwise you're waiting till probably June 2017.

Moreover, I may make a couple of balances available once the devs stop patching each month... making alternative difficulties for players to choose from and switch between.

I'm currently only developing this mod and a long term F1 2016 (code master game) mod. So I plan to keep the mod going a long time.

OhnoesFroz · Dec 17, 2016

Just thought I'd report back on some of the other changes I'd made to the tires.

I'm 80% sure that I'm right about the AI taking the wrong weather penalties into account when it makes its strategy. Lowering the penalties from 20/10/20 (dry/inter/wet) to 10/5/5 resulted in the field using a wide array of different strategies rather than always uniformly switching to the correct tire as soon as the weather was appropriate.

Unfortunately, the AI can miss pretty badly on the strategy, and a few times I saw cars staying on inters despite the fact that they were now in the wrong weather for them. The worst of it was on a drying track, a few cars stayed on inters for the last ten laps of the race, but some cars pitted in completely dry conditions (0% wet) with 4-5 laps to go to change to fresh inters.

I've decided to move the penalties up to 12/8/12 to see what that does. After a season of that I'm also thinking about increasing the overlap from dry to inter (currently .10 to .12) and inter to wet (currently .60 to .65), but I think the player would gain a greater advantage from that than the AI would. Still, I think it might be worth trying and observing the results.

It seems like the vanilla settings concerning the weather might be best for the AI, even if the arbitrary 20 second penalty is weird for immersion.

georgetimms23 · Dec 17, 2016

TheFlamingRed said:
Never.

Perfect balance is unattainable. I'd say it's currently at 8.2/10 for my taste. I think my 1.1 mod was a 9/10 - but I did 3 times as much testing and had two other people privately test it for me. I'll slowly improve it, but it's perfectably playable now - and any improvements I make will work with any game you have started already.

There's no need to wait for later versions, otherwise you're waiting till probably June 2017.

Moreover, I may make a couple of balances available once the devs stop patching each month... making alternative difficulties for players to choose from and switch between.

I'm currently only developing this mod and a long term F1 2016 (code master game) mod. So I plan to keep the mod going a long time.

So any further changes you make will take affect on a save game that I start now? If the devs release another patch, will the balance mod still work on my save game once you have updated it?

TheFlamingRed · Dec 17, 2016

georgetimms23 said:
So any further changes you make will take affect on a save game that I start now? If the devs release another patch, will the balance mod still work on my save game once you have updated it?

Yep.

Any changes to balance are save game compatible (Unless the devs completely redsign how they race engine runs - which I think is unlikely) and will adjust to any updates I make to the mod. People who are using the 1.1 Patcher version of my mod can now use my 1.2 mod and they would work seemlessly. When they release 1.3, wait a few days for me to posts an update and you can continue your save games still.

There are only a few changes I make which require a new save. (E.g., reduced mechanic relationship rates) but these are hardly reasons to have to restart - its a relative minor feature. Most features I want to add (such as the Weather Visibility) will work with any existing save file.

georgetimms23 · Dec 17, 2016

TheFlamingRed said:
Yep.

Any changes to balance are save game compatible (Unless the devs completely redsign how they race engine runs - which I think is unlikely) and will adjust to any updates I make to the mod. People who are using the 1.1 Patcher version of my mod can now use my 1.2 mod and they would work seemlessly. When they release 1.3, wait a few days for me to posts an update and you can continue your save games still.

There are only a few changes I make which require a new save. (E.g., reduced mechanic relationship rates) but these are hardly reasons to have to restart - its a relative minor feature. Most features I want to add (such as the Weather Visibility) will work with any existing save file.

Great. Just tried the balance, blue flags work really well on this which is great. Just wondering why Ferrari have a faster car than Mercedes? Apart from that great job.

TheFlamingRed · Dec 17, 2016

georgetimms23 said:
Great. Just tried the balance, blue flags work really well on this which is great. Just wondering why Ferrari have a faster car than Mercedes? Apart from that great job.

Did the track suit the Farrari rather then Mercedes? Critical part is very important. More important to the overall car performance,

Also, the two merc drivers are very unhappy. Their moral is very low now, so their speed is also effected (is that a mechanic or is moral only. for their desire to resign with you? I don't know).

georgetimms23 · Dec 17, 2016

TheFlamingRed said:
Did the track suit the Farrari rather then Mercedes? Critical part is very important. More important to the overall car performance,

Also, the two merc drivers are very unhappy. Their moral is very low now, so their speed is also effected (is that a mechanic or is moral only. for their desire to resign with you? I don't know).

Don't worry I've fixed this problem, thanks though

georgetimms23 · Dec 17, 2016

@TheFlamingRed Some of the AI are really running their tyres down, meaning on their in-lap they are going too slow and they get overtaken by numerous cars, have you experienced this?

TheFlamingRed · Dec 17, 2016

georgetimms23 said:
@TheFlamingRed Some of the AI are really running their tyres down, meaning on their in-lap they are going too slow and they get overtaken by numerous cars, have you experienced this?

Sometimes. Othertimes I have seen them pit with only 50% tyre wear.

I've set it so chassis 'tyre wear' and smoothness 'tyre wear' matters more now. Those with poor chassis/driver combos will struggle with tire wear the worst. some will do extra stops, some will go into the low performance section of their tyres. This is much like how some AI will sometimes run out of fuel and some would not. It's an RNG and how the AI is programmed to react for things.

Regardless of that, this is one way of many the Player has advantages over the AI. As such, I increased the performance gaps between better and worst cars, to alleviate these gaps when it comes to an average season. My goal was for the final constructors standing to be similar to the car performance standings, plus or minus a couple of positions for random variation and better drivers lineup. My goal is that if you begin with the 8th best car... at best you should finish 6th (5th at a push), instead of first (I am looking at you Rodrigues and El Sedat in an Archer).

georgetimms23 · Dec 17, 2016

@TheFlamingRed I have played about 4 races in world motorsport championship, and magnussen has retired right at the start on each occassion. I did a race as Renault to see what was up and Magnussen started the race with his engine on 5%, how do I fix this?

TheFlamingRed · Dec 17, 2016

georgetimms23 said:
@TheFlamingRed I have played about 4 races in world motorsport championship, and magnussen has retired right at the start on each occassion. I did a race as Renault to see what was up and Magnussen started the race with his engine on 5%, how do I fix this?

You don't.

Without seeing which engine it was leads me to believe one of three things happened:

1. Enzoli has changed the starting reliability for Magnussens starting engine and reduced it to 5%. I haven't played his mod, as I am not a big current F1 fan (I prefered the 90s more and looking forward to a historical mod one day) so I don't know if this is the case or not. I haven't changed the default parts so that's not one of my issues.

2. This was a default part engine (or is using a good developed part), which in season one would normally be somewhere between 40-70% unless Enzoli change it. The AI could have then had a dilemma; "Found a problem with Magnussen's Engine, choose -50 reliability or -£500,000". The AI chose the former, so Mag must start this race with a terrible engine. And the AI hasn't improved the reliability yet.

3. This is a newly developed part which was assigned to Mag. This has a default 40% reliability + a modifer. I assume to get it down to 5% meant that they had to choose parts which have a total of -35 reliability (in exchange for better performance). But as in point 2, the AI haven't improved reliability yet.

Both 2 and 3 could easily happen in the base game. Nothing to do with either mod, more an issue with the AI. I've not found the code which helps them derive their "What parts do we improve performance / reliability and in what ratios" so can't explain why they are choosing to ignore it for 4 races.

I've not included anything that reduces reliability (raw) further. All I did was allow the AI to choose the Designer Parts (if applicable) as they were not programmed to use them previously, and add a 10% additional redzone on components which didn't modify redzone already.

With 5% engine, I assume Mag would pit every lap the reliability dropped as that what the AI script would do. However, redzone tics are large (though random) so he can easily lose all 5% at a time, hense his consistent retirements.

I've never seen it happen before. But I actually love the idea of it happening. I don't know who Mag is driving for, but they have a really big issue with one of their engines. It's interesting to hear about how it will resolve over the course of the season

Ditk1973 · Dec 17, 2016

so the assembley file is all what needed? not the asset file?
is it possible to include the injector file into the assembley.file? (maybe in some different variations)
because the injector file is always unloading what is not much fun
but great work

TheFlamingRed · Dec 18, 2016

You need all the files

Part 1 & 2: Has an Asset file in it (and an old assembly file). You need that Asset file.
Part 3: Has the injectors in it. You only need to make this run ONCE, for your selected difficulty. Once you save, your difficulty is saved with it. It doesn't matter if it unloads later.
Part 4: You need the Assembly file from this for all the features (the one included in part 1 & 2 is old. You should use this one in Part 4)

Ditk1973 · Dec 18, 2016

ok i understand now thx
one more question: the asset.file also works with savegames?

TheFlamingRed · Dec 18, 2016

Ditk1973 said:
ok i understand now thx
one more question: the asset.file also works with savegames?

In short, Yes. My balance changes will take effect. You'll find racing against better cars harder.

Long answer. Yes and No. While you will benefit from most of my changes, some of the features require a new game.

schweini · Dec 18, 2016

As far as i know only the graphical things in it work with savegames. Flaming work not on graphical things.

schweini · Dec 18, 2016

Ok dont misunderstand, after you start a savegame NEW changes only in asset file will have no effect.
Except graphical things. As far as i know.

TheFlamingRed · Dec 18, 2016

schweini said:
Ok dont misunderstand, after you start a savegame NEW changes only in asset file will have no effect.
Except graphical things. As far as i know.

Its not as simple as that

As far as text assets go, changes to these files will be loaded onto existing saves::