Britpoint

The primary reason we generally refrain from posting in the 'idea' threads is that we don't want to make promises on things. Game development is a tricky thing; you often can't get in everything you want. So if we came in to a suggestion thread and say: "Oh, this is a great idea! We'll definitely evaluate this for the next game!" In the event that the idea doesn't make it in for whatever reason then that would be a bit of a let down. We do look at this stuff though. And we go through most of the threads so it is appreciated when the ideas are kept in one ;) A lot of it gets dismissed quickly; can't do X because of technical reason, won't do Y because it would be dull to actually play. But sometimes there are some interesting ideas that are worth investigating further. I've put together concepts from things you guys have said. That doesn't mean it gets in a game, but it does mean there's a chance it gets in a game. Also if there's something that gets constantly brought up by everyone, that gets discussed. A lot of the time that's as far as it goes (which is why we never go into specifics until features are officially announced), for dozens of different reasons depending on the system. But as long as you're asking for it, we're considering it. When I was working on Autosport I really enjoyed talking to people on these forums about the process of making the game and answering questions when I could. Hopefully I'll be able to do the same here after the official announcement.

I'm certainly hoping to! A 2 race weekend means I need to think about staying in London overnight though

Obviously I'm not going to comment on any specific speculation here. I won't say so don't ask. But I would like to explain a bit about the general development process when it comes to 'moving focus' between projects. Let's try an F1 analogy. Seems appropriate. Imagine Mercedes and Red Bull are neck and neck in the constructors championship. It's 3 races from the end, and someone from Mercedes says "We've started work on next year's car." Now, does that mean they've given up on the championship? Not at all, they're still giving absolutely everything they can to win. But they also need to prepare for the future, and they have some people in a position who are able to do that. Games are much the same. As a designer, when you get towards the later stages of a project you end up in a position where all your systems are designed and you're just fine tuning stuff and fixing bugs. Thing is, there's only so much of that that you can do in a day; after a while you find that you can't do anything else until another fix comes in from someone else, or until you get a new build to see the effects of your changes. And so on and so forth - there's a bunch of stuff that can affect your workflow. At that point, you end up having the time to look at something else. This is what 'moving some focus' means. It's not that huge numbers of people are being taken off project A and being put onto project B, it's not that project A is being abandoned or rushed or forgotten about. It just means that certain people on project A have some inevitable time between tasks, and they've now started to look at project B in that time in order to get the most out of it.

@Britpoint am i right in assuming you work with the GRID team? Do you happen to know anyone in the DiRT team who would be willing to pitch something similar there? Of course, if they refuse we can always rely on modders to get some sort of livery out there, but said mods probably won't be available on console. Aha, not a chance ^_^ Even when I bring it up it's only as a joke, don't expect us to be putting Hatsune Miku in any time soon! The parody MadokaxAutosport trailer @scarl3td3vil did is as good as you're gonna get.

I keep pitching this but they're having none of it! XD

I'm not sure where in their proposal the 'saving' really comes into it though. I mean, even if we ignore the fact that they'd be running an illegal car that doesn't comply with the current safety regulations, is letting them run going to save the team? Even if they get their commercial money from 2014, they sold their factory to Haas and they have huge debts to pay off! They have no means to develop upgrades for their car. I'm not sure they'd even be able to build a new tub if whatever they've got left is damaged. I'm all for saving teams and saving jobs, but there has to be some substance behind it rather than just trying to turn a wheel in Melbourne to collect their £30 million. 

Wait till Lewis gets in the car, it'll break down on lap 5 ;) Maybe not lap 5, but you just had to say it, didn't you? ;) I told you! ;) Poor guy just can't catch a break! Bet he's wishing he stayed with McLaren

"Make sure you get my good side." "It's 3D, Max, we have to get all sides".

Wait till Lewis gets in the car, it'll break down on lap 5 ;)

McLaren is the biggest improvement by a country mile IMO.

The McLaren's engine sounding suitably rough at the moment, although they're doing better today than Renault managed on day one last year. If we get a single run at full power from them in this first test I'll be pleasantly surprised.

I'm very excited to see the Sauber. If the blue/yellow rumours are true, it could be one of the highlights, livery wise. I'm imagining something like the 555 half of the old BAR Hondas.

I think we should all just agree that everything is inferior to the 1996 Williams FW-18 and be done with it. ^_^

I was expecting something without any colour at all, so I'm reasonably pleased with this. From the top down view it's rather handsome. Other angles... not so much. But at least it's much better than last year! Maybe some new sponsors will liven it up.

As it says in that blog post above: yes we have a shiny new engine making its debut with the next game :) I don't know when we're going to start showing stuff off and talking about it, but we're all working hard to get to that point as soon as we can.

The rules have changed but it only reduces the effect. The protrusions will be smaller than they were last year as there the nose must be a certain width by the time it reaches a certain position back from the tip (this point is closer to the tip than it was in last year) and you can't have a tusk structure like the 2014 Lotus had. But it's been speculated for a while that we'd still get noses like this, the rules did not completely outlaw them. They just shrunk 'em down a bit.

A big improvement on last year's cars! With the ironic exception of the Williams... I'm getting used to the little thumb bit pretty quickly. I quite like the U shaped struts where the nose meets the wing, the Merc managed to turn those into quite a cool looking design in 2014 I thought. And the livery is lovely again.

Yeah this is just depressing. These designs are all getting my hopes up waaay too high

I'm not thinking so. The online car seems much looser than a Mercedes in Time Trial. I was thinking more around the Lotus but wasn't sure. I suppose I would do some laps in an online lobby, note them and then go back to time trial to look for comparible times. Just though this may have been solved already. Cars are at their absolute optimal in Time Trial. No tyre wear, no fuel simulation, perfect track conditions (assuming, you know, you're running in the dry ^_^). So you're always getting the maximum possible grip that a given setup can give you. In online, all those elements of the simulation are enabled which is why it feels different. But yeah, as others have said, if you want the 'parent' car, I believe you should be in the Mercedes.

Haha. You had to say it, didn't you ;) That's two races he should have won! What a mad final few laps!!!

...Is first place cursed? The suspension needs a bit of toughening up

Formula E have been really good so far at fixing the issues that pop up race to race. I think for next time we can add Safety Car restart procedure to that list!

I see Senna is continuing his record of breaking at least one of his cars every race!

I think I can shed a bit of light on this one. I don't do the handling on F1 myself, but I did on GRID: Autosport so I know more or less how these systems work. So there are a few reasons why handling changes game to game. Firstly, maybe we're just not quite happy with it. That's the simplest reason; you make the game, then you come back and play it a few months later and start to think that maybe the turn-in could feel more responsive, or perhaps you'd like the loss of grip beyond the limit of the tyres to be a bit more controllable. So when it's time to make the next game, you try and make those improvements. Secondly, the F1 games try to emulate real life. So if the characteristics of the real cars change, we want to reflect that in game. The most obvious example here is 2013 to 2014, where we lost blown diffusers and V8s and gained these really torquey V6 turbos. They have a really different effect on the car. And because the cars have changed physically (different weight, different downforce levels, different wheelbases etc.), and those physical changed are simulated in the engine, we can't just have an option for 'apply 2013 settings' as that would apply settings designed for vehicles with completely different characteristics. I did that a few times while working on Autosport - accidentally applying the file for one car onto another one. The results are... well, let's just say it's not nice to drive with! :) Finally, there are often improvements to the technology from game to game. So the physics that one game's handling was built on might be changed or more detailed for the next game. So again, the physics and older settings may not be compatible, so you have to rework them.

The white Sauber and HRT were both utterly beautiful cars. And you had plenty of time to admire them as well.