Hello Team Principals! (is that catchy?) I would like to release my patch notes for the newest build - v0.99b! This patch includes various new features, optimizations, UI overhauls, and lots of bug squashing. I will break out the new features below to look forward to in this update. I hope you all enjoy, and as always, feel free to relay feedback or bugs to me so I can address them. Im going to take a different approach to these patch notes this time around, as my documentation log on bug-fixes was lost, so this will focus on features and improvements in this version.
ERS systems can now either be disabled, spec, or open in regulations. Open regulations are enabled within the default26 roster, and spec in others, and are a new development option for teams looking for extra performance. Teams each individually develop their batteries, and can upgrade recharge, battery capacity, deployment efficiency, reliability, and most importantly, deployment power. Each team will begin with unique batteries, and prove to be hidden strengths (Mercurion...) and weaknesses (Ashton) for others!
ERS systems can now also fail during races, disabling deployment for the remainder of the event. This will mean drivers will be down on power for the remainder of the race.
ERS and driver-aid staff have been replaced by unified Technical Staff, through the CFD centre, who can contribute either to chassis and aero, OR ERS and driver aids. It is up to the Team Principal to determine which department gets these important staff members. CFD Centre upgrades now increase Technical Staff capacity, while Wind Tunnel staff remain focused on chassis and aerodynamics.
Spec B chassis are a new type of in-season chassis development for teams who wish to see large swings mid-season. They are a MASSIVE investment of resources, but may provide huge in-season swings if you have a better technical team than your current car suggests. Expect AI teams with capacity to develop these as well, and expect some huge swings from certain teams.
AI teams now make SIGNIFICANTLY smarter wet-weather decisions based on weather duration, tyre suitability, pit-stop payback and changing conditions. Additional safeguards reduce unnecessary stops and prolonged use of unsuitable tyres.
Drivers can now encounter occasional paddock events involving rivalries, sponsorships, personal situations, breakthroughs and personality changes. These events can temporarily affect morale, confidence and relationships, and even add or take away certain driver or personality traits! The list of these events is available within the text file in the data folder.
Players can now assign a long queue in the factory, which will then automatically be built by engineers rather than having to manually assign. Players may still set staff manually, but unused capacity will roll into queued projects and be auto-completed.
The race event log can now be opened into a searchable, scrollable full-session archive.
The Finance, Stock Market, and Team by team budget screens have been top-to-bottom overhauled completely. I hope you enjoy it! Additionally, I have added factory builds to the dashboard UI for easy viewing. Personnel centre has also seen some minor revisions. Additionally, spectator mode has the modernized team dashboard now! (Also added a couple tooltips for new players in dev/finance, will add more)
Self explanatory. Saves can now be deleted on the load save screen. Hooray!
Teams can now be given different starting cash amounts from the teams.json file, rather than every team starting on 20m.
The complete race event log history in races can now be clickable and viewable, so that players can follow events closer. Additionally, removed the overtake spam of drivers who DNFed.
SIGNIFICANTLY decreased menu clunkiness and load-times, and have significantly sped up week to week transitions, and testing and practice simulations by over 50%. The game runs significantly quicker and smoother in this version.
I have killed off 13 bugs reported on discord, and 1 reported here on steam, and made optimizations around them. I have not had the time to draft the specifics, but if your report has been closed, your issue has been addressed by me. As always, thanks everyone! I love working on this game, and have been very happy to add some highly requested items this iteration. I will be working SOLELY on a mac build this upcoming week after this update, thanks for your patience apple users! Best,
Patrick