F1 2018 - What is the best R&D Strategy?

[Walker89 0]

Last year this post really helped me: https://www.reddit.com/r/F1Game/comments/71acs5/solution_the_optimal_strategy_to_spending/
It showed that the most cost-effective strategy for a fully developed car was to buy all 5 cost reduction upgrades and 2 quality control upgrades for each department (engine, aero and chassis).
Of course in the 2017 game it would take too long, so I would buy 3 or 4 cost upgrades and 2 quality control upgrades for a given department and start developing it so the career wouldn't be so boring.
Taking into consideration this "Cost Effectiveness" versus a "faster and more fun/realistic development" balance, and also the new resource points system that pay us more and charge less for the upgrades (discounts are less effective as they're applied to a lower upgrade cost), what do you guys think would be the best development strategy?

[moogleslam 47]

Think I'm on Baku and I haven't paid attention to R&D at all.  I've done all that's been asked of me in the Practice sessions, but haven't looked at development trees.  Do I need to?  

[Stune 0]

One tip I will give is the Efficiency improvements are useful when a department gets hit by a regs change ...

[urmaw999111 0]

Stune said:

One tip I will give is the Efficiency improvements are useful when a department gets hit by a regs change ...

Meaning that even if you invest in protecting upgrades they can still fail? 

[Stune 0]

Adapting upgrades for a regulation change cant fail. The efficiency improvements make the adaptations a good deal cheaper which is great when you only have a few weekends to adapt several upgrades. 
The efficiency upgrades will stay with the player through a regs change. They don't get removed as they are part of the department infrastructure, not the car itself.

[Nesjamag 3]

The efficiency upgrades will definitely be the smartest route. And the quality upgrades will be worth it more as well.
Reasons are that you'll need to invest extra during reg changes and this will be a thing every season. And upgrades can now fail during the season change.

So in F1 2017, if you saved ultimate upgrades for season changes (so they wouldn't fail) the optimal was full efficiency and 1 quality upgrade.
Now it's probably full efficiency and 2 quality. Maybe 3 quality, though upgrades have become much cheaper.

[Walker89 0]

Stune said:

Adapting upgrades for a regulation change cant fail. The efficiency improvements make the adaptations a good deal cheaper which is great when you only have a few weekends to adapt several upgrades. 
The efficiency upgrades will stay with the player through a regs change. They don't get removed as they are part of the department infrastructure, not the car itself.

That's a very good tip! Thanks

[Gregmom 0]

Efficiency definitely for the long run unless you don't like to be in 1 team for too long. In that case don't bother with quality or efficiency, just upgrade. 

[Walker89 0]

moogleslam said:

Think I'm on Baku and I haven't paid attention to R&D at all.  I've done all that's been asked of me in the Practice sessions, but haven't looked at development trees.  Do I need to?  

Of course not. Each player is free to have their own approach to the game. What I mean is most people use the career mode to develop the car through the seasons, so for these people (including me) R&D plays a big role in career mode. I don't think you could bring a backmarker to the top without using the R&D system, for example. Actually, if you don't upgrade your car at all, over time you will probably start to fall behind. So I'd like to know what people think is the best way to spend the resource points considering cost effectiveness and development speed.

[Walker89 0]

Gregmom said:

Efficiency definitely for the long run unless you don't like to be in 1 team for too long. In that case don't bother with quality or efficiency, just upgrade. 

i get it, but with the new resource points system that pay us more and charge less for the upgrades (discounts are less effective as they're applied to a lower upgrade cost), would you agree that the Cost Reduction upgrades may be slightly less crucial this year?

[Gregmom 0]

Walker89 said:

Gregmom said:

Efficiency definitely for the long run unless you don't like to be in 1 team for too long. In that case don't bother with quality or efficiency, just upgrade. 

i get it, but with the new resource points system that pay us more and charge less for the upgrades (discounts are less effective as they're applied to a lower upgrade cost), would you agree that the Cost Reduction upgrades may be slightly less crucial this year?

I think it's equal because of regulation changes. After couple of seasons there will be a lot of upgrades "under threat" so you will have to re-buy them. Even at half price, Major and Ultimate upgrades are 500 and 1000 RP respectively, maybe less if you get the right answers in interviews. All efficiency upgrades reduce those by another 50% which is a lot when you have to buy them and rebuy them. 

It's hard to say because I have no idea how will career mode play out through the seasons but I believe it's worth buying some efficiency if you plan to stay with the team for a long time.

[Gregmom 0]

I wish one youtuber(Tiametmarduk already did 1 season) would simulate through 5-6 seasons so we can see what can happen.

[AlexTT 489]

Well compared to last year, upgrades tend to fail a lot more which cost you more resource points

[moogleslam 47]

Walker89 said:

moogleslam said:

Think I'm on Baku and I haven't paid attention to R&D at all.  I've done all that's been asked of me in the Practice sessions, but haven't looked at development trees.  Do I need to?  

Of course not. Each player is free to have their own approach to the game. What I mean is most people use the career mode to develop the car through the seasons, so for these people (including me) R&D plays a big role in career mode. I don't think you could bring a backmarker to the top without using the R&D system, for example. Actually, if you don't upgrade your car at all, over time you will probably start to fall behind. So I'd like to know what people think is the best way to spend the resource points considering cost effectiveness and development speed.

Okay, so the answer is if I want to improve my car, I need to use it!  The interface seems very confusing, but I'll spend some more time looking it over.  Codemasters should provide a tutorial for it.

[BelgiumDude 461]

moogleslam said:

Walker89 said:

moogleslam said:

Think I'm on Baku and I haven't paid attention to R&D at all.  I've done all that's been asked of me in the Practice sessions, but haven't looked at development trees.  Do I need to?  

Of course not. Each player is free to have their own approach to the game. What I mean is most people use the career mode to develop the car through the seasons, so for these people (including me) R&D plays a big role in career mode. I don't think you could bring a backmarker to the top without using the R&D system, for example. Actually, if you don't upgrade your car at all, over time you will probably start to fall behind. So I'd like to know what people think is the best way to spend the resource points considering cost effectiveness and development speed.

Okay, so the answer is if I want to improve my car, I need to use it!  The interface seems very confusing, but I'll spend some more time looking it over.  Codemasters should provide a tutorial for it.

You can always use the "recommend upgrade" option iff you don't want to go too in depth into R&D. 

[Walker89 0]

Gregmom said:

I wish one youtuber(Tiametmarduk already did 1 season) would simulate through 5-6 seasons so we can see what can happen.

Tiametmarduk already made a video where he tries simulating a whole season, and it didn't go very well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zZVJPVwnho&t=753s

He usually would finish the race in a worse position than if he had actually played and you get less RP when you simulate. He ended up getting fired... and at some point the game wouldn't allow him to simulate anymore. It's a shame cause it would be very cool to play it like a "manager" thing.
But it seems the game really tries do "punish" you, maybe trying to "force" people to actually play every event.

[Walker89 0]

Gregmom said:

I wish one youtuber(Tiametmarduk already did 1 season) would simulate through 5-6 seasons so we can see what can happen.

I now realized you may already know about the video, but still... looks like at some point the game just won't let you. some 5-6 season is just impossible.