Formula Manager: A game development

[DanielPT]

Guys, as you might know (or not) I was born to the working industry as a software developper, which I currently am not since I moved towards to Testing and Formal methods. I used to get kicks from programming and I deeply miss that part of my work. So, in order to bring back a few of those moments I have been thinking of a project and why not starting a sort of statistical game about Formula 1, just like that from the late 90's? Here, I am thinking more like the ancient Championship Manager as a model since I suck at art work, but it is not ruled out that this part might be made at a later stage by someone else. Anyway, given your experience at playing role playing games and working at rules and stuff like that, I was hoping to come up with something consistent that I could lay down as a starting point and then work from there. I am then asking for your help on this and, who knows, perhaps we could even come up with something successful! Thanks in advance!

[Salamander]

I'd like to be a part of this - I might even be able to help with the coding, if you like, since my university course involves a lot of programming. Though I probably won't be able to contribute much until April at the very earliest, since I have exams to revise for and a strategy game of my own to finish for my final year project.

[Ataxia]

I wouldn't be able to help with the programming of any kind; I wouldn't know where to begin. However, I can perhaps help with artwork and maybe gather information for the game and stuff depending on what you need.

[pycku]

There are lots of f1 management games in developing, why don't you unite with any of the projects? For example visit sionco games forum and you'll see some projects

[takagi_for_the_win]

I am hopeless at programming and coding etc. However, I could help gather information and stuff if you want

[FMecha]

I am not a programmer, but maybe Nuppiz can give some assistance for that (he isn't a programmer either IIRC, only GPM2 modder).

[Nuppiz]

I am not a programmer, but maybe Nuppiz can give some assistance for that (he isn't a programmer either IIRC, only GPM2 modder).

While I've studied some programming, I'm not even close to being skilled enough to start working on a game of my own. Besides, like Pycku said, there are loads of current F1 management game projects, most of which can be found here. You're likely to find assistance there as most of the current activity is different programmers exchanging ideas and helping each other when they run in to problems.

During the five years that I've been associated with GPM2, I've seen way too many projects like this biting the dust sooner or later, which is why I personally haven't been too excited about the current ones. They are doing a good job so far, but I prefer not to got disappointed if and when the projects suddenly die out.

Graphics don't have to be fancy - most of GPM2, for example, is just real photos edited to fit the dimensions and colorspace of the game. The people playing this kind of a game always put gameplay first and graphics are just a nice addition.

[DemocalypseNow]

I am not a programmer, but maybe Nuppiz can give some assistance for that (he isn't a programmer either IIRC, only GPM2 modder).

While I've studied some programming, I'm not even close to being skilled enough to start working on a game of my own. Besides, like Pycku said, there are loads of current F1 management game projects, most of which can be found here. You're likely to find assistance there as most of the current activity is different programmers exchanging ideas and helping each other when they run in to problems.

During the five years that I've been associated with GPM2, I've seen way too many projects like this biting the dust sooner or later, which is why I personally haven't been too excited about the current ones. They are doing a good job so far, but I prefer not to got disappointed if and when the projects suddenly die out.

Graphics don't have to be fancy - most of GPM2, for example, is just real photos edited to fit the dimensions and colorspace of the game. The people playing this kind of a game always put gameplay first and graphics are just a nice addition.

I have created a game myself but it was very basic, as part of a Uni project. Visually it looked nice but the functionality wasn't great. The problem is we used Javascript as a coding language and the whole thing was online. I don't know how to code in languages other than HTML/CSS/Javascript. But the graphics side I can help with.

[DanielPT]

Well, I have given this a further though and went to see the forum picku wrote about. Most of those ideas are one man work and pretty much either complete or dead. Nevertheless it gave me some ideas that I will share later. For now I decided to move forward on the project and make it some sort of F1Rejects game and so I appreciate all your availability to help which will be taken in given time. So, what's next? I will write a few major ideas about it in the next days or so just for you guys to commentate on. First of all, I have not yet chosen the platform where I will make it but I was hoping to make it online with some sort of web service that a later mobile/android application can access to in order to play it whenever someone is. I know I am thinking big, but this is not for now, but for a later phase when the game actually already exists. I expect it to be fully moddable except, of course, rule and engine wise. In this perhaps Nuppiz can tell me, according with his experience, what one would ideally be able to mod. At the beginning, I plan to have some simulation of the current Formula 1, but I am thinking of changing it (hopefully easily) into some sort of ladder were teams can be promoted from Karts until arrive to the pinnacle of motorsport. This is meant to help the game go MMO but I am still unsure of this. This is supposed to go like F1, then GP2 and FR3.5, then GP3, F2 and AutoGP, then several F3 and FR2.0 championships, followed by Formula Ford National championships until we arrive at Kart categories. Teams would be promoted and demoted at the end of the season. At this point I must say that, if the goal is to be online, it is obvious that real F1 will stop being mentioned in order to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Finally, to end this long boring post, I would prefer to see, in a first phase, track sessions being played much like championship manager used to play football matches. I am picturing lap-by lap with text comments on major highlights for that lap. Nail-biting battles having more attention, retirements, pit-stops, possible strategy, spins, changes on lap times and so on. For the moment, that is all.

[FMecha]

Speaking of which, tommykl, are you still in the My Racing Career thingy?

[tommykl]

Speaking of which, tommykl, are you still in the My Racing Career thingy?

I gave up on that a year and a half ago

[FMecha]

Speaking of which, tommykl, are you still in the My Racing Career thingy?

I gave up on that a year and a half ago

Why you gave up on that? Then again, you might share some of development experiences with DanielPT

[tommykl]

Speaking of which, tommykl, are you still in the My Racing Career thingy?

I gave up on that a year and a half ago

Why you gave up on that? Then again, you might share some of development experiences with DanielPT

Too repetitive after a while. I just couldn't be bothered to check in regularly. All I did for that game was translating into French, anyway.

[FMecha]

Too repetitive after a while. I just couldn't be bothered to check in regularly. All I did for that game was translating into French, anyway.

I too found My Racing Career too repetitive quickly after just one-two days from signing up. I also found GPRO repetitive after some time, but it took around one year to that to happen (yes, I and resir014 played together).

[DanielPT]

Too repetitive after a while. I just couldn't be bothered to check in regularly. All I did for that game was translating into French, anyway.

I too found My Racing Career too repetitive quickly after just one-two days from signing up. I also found GPRO repetitive after some time, but it took around one year to that to happen (yes, I and resir014 played together).

What did make those games too repetitive?

[dr-baker]

Too repetitive after a while. I just couldn't be bothered to check in regularly. All I did for that game was translating into French, anyway.

I too found My Racing Career too repetitive quickly after just one-two days from signing up. I also found GPRO repetitive after some time, but it took around one year to that to happen (yes, I and resir014 played together).

I found My Racing Career alright for a few months during the Beta phase, but got bored waiting for things to properly get going, and by the time I thought to check back on it, my driver had lost a lot of the experience ratings he had built up, and I couldn't be bothered with signing up with a new driver, so just abandoned it.

[WaffleCat]

Too repetitive after a while. I just couldn't be bothered to check in regularly. All I did for that game was translating into French, anyway.

I too found My Racing Career too repetitive quickly after just one-two days from signing up. I also found GPRO repetitive after some time, but it took around one year to that to happen (yes, I and resir014 played together).

I found My Racing Career alright for a few months during the Beta phase, but got bored waiting for things to properly get going, and by the time I thought to check back on it, my driver had lost a lot of the experience ratings he had built up, and I couldn't be bothered with signing up with a new driver, so just abandoned it.

But,they now have a revamped version,and while the gameplay is still it's old,boring repetitive self,the site looks so much better.

[DanielPT]

I have been focused on how the car gets interacted with and how that gets interacted with a circuit. Then the question on how the circuit is to be represented in the game arose. My idea to represent the circuit within the game 'physics' is to basically state a starting point and then tell the game if the next piece comes is a straight or a corner. If it is straight, the length and declination are stated and if it is a corner it would be the angle and the apex ideal speed instead. Trouble is, it is very hard to find this kind of info about the circuit. Do you know were to get it? Or should I represent the circuit differently?

[Salamander]

Sorry I haven't been more active with this Daniel, I've had a ton of coursework to deal with lately. Anyway, to answer your questions, maybe it would be better if that was simulated - instead of drawing the track and the car, and have the car drive around the track, generating times that way, it could be just automatically generated sector times. Say, there's a base sector time, which is then affected by the car and the driver - the car would affect the time based on how good it is in terms of aerodynamics, engine power, and mechanical grip, and the driver would affect it based on general skill level, as well as perhaps a chance to maybe make a mistake somewhere.

With that, you have an algorithm generating the times automatically, so that could be called each time the car enters a new sector, and then the car just moves along the racing line at a speed that enables it to go through the sector in the amount of time generated. Of course, that doesn't address how it interacts with other cars, but that shouldn't be too difficult, just modify the algorithm to incorporate the extra variables. What do you think?

[DanielPT]

Sorry I haven't been more active with this Daniel, I've had a ton of coursework to deal with lately. Anyway, to answer your questions, maybe it would be better if that was simulated - instead of drawing the track and the car, and have the car drive around the track, generating times that way, it could be just automatically generated sector times. Say, there's a base sector time, which is then affected by the car and the driver - the car would affect the time based on how good it is in terms of aerodynamics, engine power, and mechanical grip, and the driver would affect it based on general skill level, as well as perhaps a chance to maybe make a mistake somewhere.

With that, you have an algorithm generating the times automatically, so that could be called each time the car enters a new sector, and then the car just moves along the racing line at a speed that enables it to go through the sector in the amount of time generated. Of course, that doesn't address how it interacts with other cars, but that shouldn't be too difficult, just modify the algorithm to incorporate the extra variables. What do you think?

Well, this is being a bit of a stumbling block for me.

I already thought of doing such a thing (I never intended to draw car and track), except I really don't know what a good base sector time is (pole position from last year or calculations derived from the speed from which the track charts are presented?). Now, as for the influence for these times, I really wanted something more or less realistic, meaning several sub points of influence like brakes, suspension, front wing, rear wing and so on. In this case perhaps some rough numbers could be made (possibly with the help of Mario) and then polish these generators. Driver skill would also depend on several characteristics a driver has. Interaction with cars can be made depending on the car ahead, dirt air handling ability, chance to overtake and stuff like that. Perhaps we have this blocking point unblocked now since I have a clearer idea from which point to start. Trying to make some testing simulation that works and then I will show it to you (I will have a non hangover weekend shortly so...). Meanwhile, if you come up with more ideas I would be quite happy to give them a try...

By the way, should I give a try to some basic variations of the ln function in order to roughly simulate the acceleration between corners?

[Salamander]

Sorry I haven't been more active with this Daniel, I've had a ton of coursework to deal with lately. Anyway, to answer your questions, maybe it would be better if that was simulated - instead of drawing the track and the car, and have the car drive around the track, generating times that way, it could be just automatically generated sector times. Say, there's a base sector time, which is then affected by the car and the driver - the car would affect the time based on how good it is in terms of aerodynamics, engine power, and mechanical grip, and the driver would affect it based on general skill level, as well as perhaps a chance to maybe make a mistake somewhere.

With that, you have an algorithm generating the times automatically, so that could be called each time the car enters a new sector, and then the car just moves along the racing line at a speed that enables it to go through the sector in the amount of time generated. Of course, that doesn't address how it interacts with other cars, but that shouldn't be too difficult, just modify the algorithm to incorporate the extra variables. What do you think?

Well, this is being a bit of a stumbling block for me.

I already thought of doing such a thing (I never intended to draw car and track), except I really don't know what a good base sector time is (pole position from last year or calculations derived from the speed from which the track charts are presented?).

Pole position from last year sounds good enough to me, for now at least. It doesn't have to be hugely accurate in this regard, just enough so there's a starting point; if later on it turns out it's not the best choice, then it should be pretty trivial just to go in and change it. And really, you don't have to draw the car and the track, but it probably would be a more user-friendly interface than having a leaderboard with all the distances between cars displayed numerically as opposed to graphically.

Now, as for the influence for these times, I really wanted something more or less realistic, meaning several sub points of influence like brakes, suspension, front wing, rear wing and so on. In this case perhaps some rough numbers could be made (possibly with the help of Mario) and then polish these generators. Driver skill would also depend on several characteristics a driver has. Interaction with cars can be made depending on the car ahead, dirt air handling ability, chance to overtake and stuff like that. Perhaps we have this blocking point unblocked now since I have a clearer idea from which point to start. Trying to make some testing simulation that works and then I will show it to you (I will have a non hangover weekend shortly so...). Meanwhile, if you come up with more ideas I would be quite happy to give them a try...

That sounds great, I'm looking forward to seeing that. As for more ideas, I don't really have much besides more variables to add to the base sector time, like driver style, marble build-up, team orders (push, back off, let teammate through, etc).

One idea is that perhaps you could specify the length of the sector in meters, and have the offsets amplified by that.

By the way, should I give a try to some basic variations of the ln function in order to roughly simulate the acceleration between corners?

Sorry, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this, do you mean changing the speed of the car as it goes around the track, so it's faster on the straights and slower in corners? If so, yeah, that sounds like a good idea to me.