F1 manager 22

[Ducard]

Didn't see a topic for this and the game is close to release date so I thought why not. Also I don't really have any other forum to discuss this game with. There's the F1manager subreddit but I find it to be way too negative and reactionary. (Like most of reddit I guess)

 

Anyway I think for a first attempt the game looks really good. There are a few flaws, most notably the driver ratings being way too OP in 10 years time (as seen in the recent stream). But overall it looks fantastic. As a matter of fact I picked up Motorsport manager on Steam and installed the F1 22 mod just to have something to do in the meantime and I've had an absolute blast with it, despite it being unlicensed and outdated in parts. I fully expect to put in atleast 100 hours in F1 manager 22, even with it's flaws.

 

As for my first team, I'm not really amazing at management games so I figured I'd go with Ferrari. Because 1) I support them and 2) they're a joke right now so if I can do a better job than Binotto they should consider hiring me. And of course 3) Charles deserves so much more.

 

I'm also excited at the possibility of different driver combinations. I've already thought of bringing back Seb to Ferrari or maybe even a Seb/Mick partnership down the line. Definitely a lot of possibilities here!

 

So, what do you guys think?

Edited August 11 by Ducard

[smokeless6]

I've been looking forward to it since it was announced.  Two of my favorite things -- Formula 1 and strat games -- so I'll pick it up.

 

Motorsport Manager is a great little game. I had a lot of fun with it after picking it up on sale at a very low price and ended up getting over 300 hours out of it taking my team from the bottom to double world titles.  It does suffer from lack of licenses, but otherwise is a nifty little game.

 

F1 Manager should take the concept to a new level. We will see.

[Algonquin Assassin]

I remember seeing this on the PlayStation store a few months ago and thought it was the new F1 game with a new name lol. Didn’t realise it was an entirely different game from the usual Code

Masters outing.

 

It looks great though. I have Motorsport Mananger on my Switch and I’m a fan of these type of management games especially when it’s Motorsport.

[Jason]

This game will live or die by how easy it is to learn, I think. F1's a massive sport right now with loads of fans but if you asked the vast, vast majority of fans to do even a gameified version of the technical and tactical aspects of it they'd reply with "???". Compare this to the most popular sport management sim, Football Manager, which has spent several years now trying to improve the new player experience cause it was a big learning curve, but was always helped by the ability of a random football fan being able to pick a formation and some basic tactics.

 

I'm interesting in it cause it sounds good but I'm iffy on it for that very reason above, the learning curve. Very curious to see how it plays out though.

[Ducard]

On 8/12/2022 at 6:36 AM, Jason said:

This game will live or die by how easy it is to learn, I think. F1's a massive sport right now with loads of fans but if you asked the vast, vast majority of fans to do even a gameified version of the technical and tactical aspects of it they'd reply with "???". Compare this to the most popular sport management sim, Football Manager, which has spent several years now trying to improve the new player experience cause it was a big learning curve, but was always helped by the ability of a random football fan being able to pick a formation and some basic tactics.

 

I'm interesting in it cause it sounds good but I'm iffy on it for that very reason above, the learning curve. Very curious to see how it plays out though.

 

Funny enough, I've seen a few people saying they think it looks "too easy". Personally, I hope it's not super complex either as I'm a relatively newer F1 fan. But Frontier will have to find a way to appeal to either the niche F1 technical enthusiast audience or the casual player.

Personally, I think they will go for the latter. That's the one that guarantees the most sales and the fact they are releasing it on consoles might be proof of it. I do hope it isn't too shallow either tho.

[Jason]

Yea depth will be the big thing here. For FM I have lost almost all interest in the series over the last few years cause I think the series has focused on features that ultimately add nothing to the game over improving the depth of the tactical aspect of the game.

 

It's a tough one to balance for sure but hopefully this is a good start cause more good sport management sims is never a bad thing.

[smokeless6]

I'm a very long-time Football Manager player, all the way back to before it was called Football Manager haha. That game has become far more than it used to be and I can understand where Jason is coming from. So much so that over the past few editions I've purchased (I usually skip every other year) I've gravitated toward the Touch version which streamlines the whole affair and eliminates much of the off-the-pitch stuff like team chemistry and media responsibilities. It's essentially boiled down to tactics, formations and player recruitment, which is the core that interests me. I really don't care to deal with the new player who is demanding a new deal when he is three months in to the five-year contract he just signed.

 

For F1 Manager my sense is this balance will be finely struck. We will see. But the features reported show acceptable depth across the spectrum of what it means to run a Formula 1 operation. My take is the features will be good, the depth will be acceptable. What remains a question for me is the on-track stuff and how things progress season over season.

 

F1 22 (Codemasters sim) has the My Team mode which is wonderful. When I played Motorsport Manager it just drove home how great it would be to have this side of the team to run in a racing sim. Until then, racing sims were just driving, liveries and setup. But in F1 2020 Codemasters introduced My Team. You start the 11th team on the grid and choose engine suppliers, sponsors, second driver, improve the factory and facilities, and essentially run the operation. It's the finest career mode in any racing sim, bar none.

 

The problem it has is progression balance. I've only just finished a My Team in F1 22. By the third season our car was clearly the class of the division through outpacing the AI teams on technical development. It's just awkwardly balanced, and if a player plays optimally, he will easily pass the top teams in the sport. This for me is where the potential for the new F1 Manager game to fall short. How is it balanced season after season? Do long term saves maintain a sense of progression while also maintaining the challenge level? This is difficult to get right, especially given the broad skill set of the player base. How do you balance a game like this for wily veterans and know-nothing noobs at the same time?

 

I'm very much looking forward to it all the same. We will know soon.

Edited August 13 by smokeless6

[Jason]

3 minutes ago, smokeless6 said:

I'm a very long-time Football Manager player, all the way back to before it was called Football Manager haha. That game has become far more than it used to be and I can understand where Jason is coming from. So much so that over the past few editions I've purchased (I usually skip every other year) I've gravitated toward the Touch version which streamlines the whole affair and eliminates much of the off-the-pitch stuff like team chemistry and media responsibilities. It's essentially boiled down to tactics, formations and player recruitment, which is the core that interests me. I really don't care to deal with the new player who is demanding a new deal when he is three months in to the five-year contract he just signed.

 

Idm the off-pitch stuff they've added but the problem is they've done nothing but dumb down the on the pitch stuff and training. I miss the slider system for training and tactics, it allowed way more control over a players training and how your team lined up. The reasons they gave for the switch to the current system are (as are a lot of Miles Jacobson's reasons for stuff in FM) complete horsesh*t as well. Tactically the game is miles behind modern football now. No dynamic formations (in and out of possession), a horrible set piece creator that's not been touched in yonks, shallow tactic creator, incredibly shallow and restrictive training, etc.

 

I am looking forward to them adding the womans game to the game and how they're doing that though. It's just gonna be part of the main game with a shared database which will open up new doors for manager journeys and staff recruitment which I'm down for.

[smokeless6]

I see, yes. I liked the slider system. But I like the current tactics page too. Some things better, some things worse. What it boils down to in each edition is the match engine itself for me.

 

My only Frontier game is Elite Dangerous which I've gotten a couple thousand hours out of over the years. They know how to make a good game, but F1 is sacred ground and I hope they nail it from release.

[Jason]

20 minutes ago, smokeless6 said:

But I like the current tactics page too. Some things better, some things worse.

 

It's all worse, is the issue. They took granular control and gave us vague instructions because according to the FM lead dev no coaches are that specific with tactics. Training in modern FM games is absolutely dogsh*t as well, you can only train what the game gives you the options to train, no tailored training regimes, training groups, etc.

 

But anywho, I do understand there's a balance between too hard to learn and too dumbed down and for these types of games it is tough to keep both sides of the playerbase happy. Do hope they find a good balance here with F1 cause there's a lot of potential with it.

[James781]

we should chip in and buy this game for Otmar Szafnauer

[Algonquin Assassin]

The game is out now or for those of us who pre-ordered.

 

I’m now up to Albert Park and been impressed so far. I went with Mercedes because I didn’t want to be stuck with a midfield/backmarker team, but also didn’t want to go with Ferrari or Red Bull as I feared being too dominant might make the game wear out too fast.

 

As with the real world Mercedes are in the position of still being competitive, but not the outright pace setters they used to be so I’m looking forward to seeing if I can return them to the top. I really want to try different driver/engineer combos.

 

One thing I love about it is there’s no difficulty sliders or anything like that so it’s pretty much the same slate for everyone with of course the differences being what team you start and decisions you make. No difficulty sliders to make it harder or easier from the start.

[Ducard]

I just finished australia as well. I'm quite impressed. It's a well made game, albeit with some issues. I signed Seb for Ferrari (let Sainz go) in the hopes of finally living out my Seb X Ferrari champion fantasy but I didn't realize how poor Seb is in the game. So far he's finished P4, P4 and P3. Not exactly on pace with charles or max at all.

 

Charles on the other hand has been extremely good. Picked up wins in both Bahrain and Jeddah. Finished P2 in Australia (after taking pole) thanks to an erroneous strategy call I made. I decided my tyre strategy would be Hard-Soft and the softs ended up degrading really quick so Max ended up taking the win. It's nice to see the game punish you for your mistakes.

 

The only 4 complaints I have are:

 

- No mid race save. I can see this being quite annoying in the event of power cuts or if you have to go somewhere. Really hope it gets patched in.

 

- DRS trains are way too common. I know they are like that in real life too but in-game I feel they are just a bit too much.

 

- Quali traffic. Every Ai team seems to send their cars out at the same time. Needs some tweaking.

 

- More DNFs. DNFs, especially ones due to reliability seem very less common. 

 

But all of these issues are patchable and not particularly game breaking. It's a solid game and a great base to build upon. It's also not as complex as football manager so I'm looking forward to see more.

[Algonquin Assassin]

After a few days of playing I finally achieved a podium with Lewis at Silverstone. Hooray.

 

I think I’m starting to get it. Occasionally I still completely screwed up qualifying, but going for the push hard from the start seems to be working.