F1 2016 discussion

[sdenbroeder 29]

Disclaimer: English is not my first language, so grammar mistakes will happen, please don't kill me if and when they do occur ;)

Hello guys.
I think it's quite clear that F1 2015 is not and will not become the game that all of us hoped for. I would like to share some of my game ideas for F1 2016, and please feel free to add your own ideas in a comment. 

Career mode:
-  I would like to be able to have an own identity on F1 2016.
 - I would love the game if Codemasters would add a "live the F1 life" feel to the next game, like we got on F1 2010. The press conferences were great back then, and having your own agent also was a nice feature.
- Storyline. the prime example is NBA 2k. I'm not a big fan of basketball, but the storylines and the living the life-feel you get from that game, make me play it.
- David Croft and Anthony Davidson can't read off of a script to save their lives. I think this is one of the worst decisions ever made, getting these two to commentate over the season. It's something that might be nice when it is new, but 4 races in, it gets very old, and for me, very boring indeed.
- Pro season is a good idea, but it needs something special, right now it's just championship season mode in cockpit camera without the HUD. 
- Along the same lines of living the life, formation laps and cool-down laps are essential. the formation lap especially should be able to determine your race start. If you didn't warm up your tyres enough during the formation lap, your tyres are too cold when starting the race which will lead to a bad start. If you put your car in the wrong grid slot, *cough* Maldonado *cough* you should get a penalty, the start should be aborted and the race should be one lap less than usual.

Multiplayer:
- A lag-free experience is the least we can ask for. 
- We want to create our own lobbies with friends & randomers that do not have to be invited in order to race, just like we could in F1 2014 for example.

General:
- The AI are very well-made in F1 2015, the only problem is that the cars that are getting lapped, do not get out of the way. This can be very annoying, especially at tracks like Monaco, Hungary.
- The damage model must be more realistic. I can touch an opponent's tyre without 1) losing parts of my front wing and 2) giving the other person a puncture. It's not only the small crashes that must be fixed. Take a look at this video by Tiametmarduk aka Benjamin Daly, F1 gamings biggest YouTuber to date. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJFKFn7zFzc Please watch the video from 2:18 until 4:15, and then tell me how he was able to continue that race after such a massive crash. Clearly, something is wrong here. In real F1 his car would've been more wrecked than Carlos Sainz's car was in Sochi.
- Safety Car. We need it back. There is no way a "realistic" Formula 1 game doesn't have a Safety Car. 
- Reliability issues. The player should get mechanical failures, brake problems and sudden shutdowns like real drivers do.
These are just some of my ideas, and I know you have plenty more. Please tell them, so we can show Codemasters we are unhappy with the game(s) they have given us, because I want a voice. 

Sebastiaan

[HelmetSquad 0]

I have to say, the commentary is appalling - some off the cuff / unscripted discussion/commentary would be welcome. Even some completely off-topic stuff like;

"I saw X down in the paddock after Quali, Anthony and he didn't look happy" - stuff like that - something to add a bit of atmosphere but not "beep bop boop i'm a robot, beep"

[Britpoint 4]

HelmetSquad said:

I have to say, the commentary is appalling - some off the cuff / unscripted discussion/commentary would be welcome. Even some completely off-topic stuff like;

"I saw X down in the paddock after Quali, Anthony and he didn't look happy" - stuff like that - something to add a bit of atmosphere but not "beep bop boop i'm a robot, beep"

I am working on some new script stuff as we speak! There have been some updates to our audio tech which will hopefully make it possible to have a more lifelike presentation in a number of ways. In '15 we had too much breadth and not enough depth, so we could say "X is in pole position" "Y could win the championship today" but not really tell you anything interesting about the situation.

The main goal for the next game (in terms of VO) will be to address that balance I think.

[sdenbroeder 29]

Britpoint said:

HelmetSquad said:

I have to say, the commentary is appalling - some off the cuff / unscripted discussion/commentary would be welcome. Even some completely off-topic stuff like;

"I saw X down in the paddock after Quali, Anthony and he didn't look happy" - stuff like that - something to add a bit of atmosphere but not "beep bop boop i'm a robot, beep"

I am working on some new script stuff as we speak! There have been some updates to our audio tech which will hopefully make it possible to have a more lifelike presentation in a number of ways. In '15 we had too much breadth and not enough depth, so we could say "X is in pole position" "Y could win the championship today" but not really tell you anything interesting about the situation.

The main goal for the next game (in terms of VO) will be to address that balance I think.

That is fantastic to hear! Any news about the damage model by any chance?

[Britpoint 4]

Damage stuff will depend very much on what the art and physics teams are able/are allowed/have time to do. Certainly, if we're able to make improvements on that front then I'd like us to, but we have a long list of important things we're trying to get done so it's hard to say.

[RAP878 0]

Britpoint said:

Damage stuff will depend very much on what the art and physics teams are able/are allowed/have time to do. Certainly, if we're able to make improvements on that front then I'd like us to, but we have a long list of important things we're trying to get done so it's hard to say.

Is it true that it is not permitted for you to make a realistic damage in your F1 games. Because honestly , I bought this game because I thought "Weel, its a next-gen game , then surely they will improve this part of the game, but instead, becomes worst it seems ... " 
Of course it was a big step forward in many areas, but I still play gp4, because these realism in damages or mechanical failures (obviously comparing the age of the games)

Anyway, thanks for your hard work...keep it up

[Worntoathread 865]

@Britpoint I think the bad thing about the commentary is it sounds so forced and scripted, like they're trying to sound overly excited. Basically they sound like bad actors, not the professional analists/presenters they're supposed to be. I'd love to hear them talk more like themselves, like they do on the actual broadcasts: not just the subjects they're discussing, but also the intonation in their voice, make it sound more calm, spontaneous and 'live'.

Also important: The way the commentary works right now; if ( for example) Max Verstappen finishes P2, the commentators just go wild about Lewis Hamilton's fantastic drive in the Mercedes because he won the race, with no mention of Max's drive at all. Some focus on good performances from midfield drivers would be much appreciated.

[Chromatic 127]

The Geordie guy from F1 2010 always sounded ok to me  

[TyranoTigger 0]

Here is my wishlist for F1 2016

Career mode

 I would like a completely dynamic career mode. A mode to really get the player invested in. So far Codemasters haven't done anything ambitious with career mode after the initial attempt for F1 2010.

For starters I want to be able to pick my own number and display it on the car. I also want to be able to design my own helmet or at the very least change the colours on the default designs. After the customisation the career mode needs way more depth. It would be awesome to have an actual fully fledged R&D feature where you could upgrade certain aspects of the car from the career menu. Car has understeer? Then upgrade the front wing. Car is losing out on the straights? Send your R&D points towards the engine. The non player teams should be involved in this as well so we can finally get a dynamic career mode with cars improving at different rates throughout the season. My main complaint with previous career modes is that they feel completely static. It doesn't feel like an F1 season unless there is some divergence in car performance race to race.

As far as press interviews go..... Not really interested. Features like that have a tendency to be extremely limited in my experience. Games like Football Manager, Fifa and even F1 2010 all tried the press conferences and ended up having about 5 unique questions. 

Gameplay

In general I would like the game to be more unforgiving. Grass needs to have less grip, kerbs need to have actual height so you cant drive straight over them. Penalties need to be more consistent. Damage needs to be improved massively, I have no idea how it can still be so bad after all these years. The car also needs less grip in the wet and proper weight transfer which I feel is the main area in which the games falls away from being a sim. The car doesn't feel like a dynamic entity like it does in other sims like Assetto Corsa. You dont really feel the grip through the wheel on F1 2015 and adjust accordingly, you kinda just turn in and the car sticks 100% of the time with no corrections. Now these points are fine and all and would appeal to sim racers but probably not casual racers. Simple solution to that. Split the game into pro mode/normal mode. Pro mode contains all the sim like features, normal mode delivers the usual easy to pick up and play F1 experience. Gran Turismo does something similar so its doable.

AI

The ai need to be more unpredictable. This is a huge point for me because I quickly get burnt out with single player F1 because every race feels the same. It would be great to have an actual AI collision, it would be great to see a car in the wall bringing out a safety car at Monaco. It would be great to see an ai fail a race start or be pressured into making a mistake. The ai also need to be more dynamic with the racing line. They should defend properly and not just stay on the outside letting you overtake. Finally there needs to be a complete overhaul of the difficulty system. 4 or 5 settings is not enough. Legend is too easy for the best racers and the gaps between the rest of the difficulties are far to big for a lot of other gamers. rFactor has a difficulty slider between 80% and 120%. With that everyone can find their level.

Multiplayer

Completely scrap everything that was done for F1 2015. Get rid of hoppers, get rid of the netcode, get rid of the myriad of bugs and glitches and just start again. I'm not bothered about full grids, all I want is a consistent netcode and equal cars.

[joepineapples 0]

Make sure all the 'supported' wheels and their FFB are working exactly as intended, right off the bat.  This was something you could normally rely on from CM in the past, and is paramount for any first (and lasting) impression of the driving model.

[Britpoint 4]

Chromatic said:

The Geordie guy from F1 2010 always sounded ok to me  

The engineer in '15 is actually the same guy, we just didn't have him put on that accent this time :)

[unknown113 0]

regarding having your own identity/driving as yourself in F12016, why can't we simply have a selection of pre-set faces to choose from. Like maybe 15 male faces, 5 female. This can't be too hard, and it's way less work than having a custom face-editor ala Skyrim or something. Also we can type our name in and select an audio name too (or maybe just not have the commentators mention your name, instead saying 'the new [insert team name] driver has once again beaten his team mate to pole' etc etc...

CO-OP, safety car also. :neutral:
@Lozzy @Britpoint 

[Worntoathread 865]

Britpoint said:

Chromatic said:

The Geordie guy from F1 2010 always sounded ok to me  

The engineer in '15 is actually the same guy, we just didn't have him put on that accent this time :)

Really? Haha wouldn't have guessed. Did you read my comment above about the commentators not mentioning good midfield performances?

[sdenbroeder 29]

@TyranoTigger  I really agree with your view on this, especially the R&D part. We must be able to help the teams make their cars faster, and IRL they don't just drive 3 laps and get 10% extra mechanical grip. Maybe we could get an email from the team you drive for to go to the test-track and test new parts. 

Maybe we could get an actual calendar in our "career mode" section like FIFA career mode or Project CARS, so we get to see our appointments and upcoming races. I remember '10 had a calendar, or something like that? @Britpoint 

[speeddemon8021 0]

Agree with everything tyrano tigger said I've always wanted a helmet creator it can't be that hard to do.For me I'd like dedicated servers doubt that will happen though.

[Britpoint 4]

Worntoathread said:

Britpoint said:

Chromatic said:

The Geordie guy from F1 2010 always sounded ok to me  

The engineer in '15 is actually the same guy, we just didn't have him put on that accent this time :)

Really? Haha wouldn't have guessed. Did you read my comment above about the commentators not mentioning good midfield performances?

Mm, I did! And it gave me a good idea actually, so thanks for that ^^

[Dnote 0]

If we add fluff commentary, then there needs to be a triggered event where the commentators start talking about non-F1 topics because the race they're watching has become dull as Player One is out in the lead being all boring!

[Worntoathread 865]

Good to hear! Curious what the idea is, I hope next years game will be able to recognize stand out performances better :)

[sdenbroeder 29]

By the way, @Britpoint , it would be very useful if we could get 360 degree cameras for some corners on the tracks which we can use ourselves (without the TV-replay to use it) this would be extremely handy for YouTubers especially ;)

[Torquez 0]

Why anyone would even consider discussing, let alone purchasing, the next game from Codemasters just proves a business model where a company can screw over it's customers and they will STILL purchase products from them.  Codecopiers has shown incompetence year over year, yet they are still here, making this game.  Wake up consumers!!!

[hobbsy777 0]

Leave a skeleton team on F1 2016 working on skins and known F1 2016 rule changes etc, throw everything else at F1 2015 and get it as close to perfect as possible. At F1 2016 release time (shouldn't be before OCT.2016), you should have a near perfect base game engine to add your 2016 changes to and a nice bonus feature. Two birds with one stone: A working game worth buying and redemption for this years c*ck-up.

[joepineapples 0]

hobbsy777 said:

Leave a skeleton team on F1 2016 working on skins and known F1 2016 rule changes etc, throw everything else at F1 2015 and get it as close to perfect as possible. At F1 2016 release time (shouldn't be before OCT.2016), you should have a near perfect base game engine to add your 2016 changes to and a nice bonus feature. Two birds with one stone: A working game worth buying and redemption for this years c*ck-up.

How do you extract a skeleton from an existing skeleton.  Just my gut feeling as to what went wrong with 2015..

[hobbsy777 0]

joepineapples said:

hobbsy777 said:

Leave a skeleton team on F1 2016 working on skins and known F1 2016 rule changes etc, throw everything else at F1 2015 and get it as close to perfect as possible. At F1 2016 release time (shouldn't be before OCT.2016), you should have a near perfect base game engine to add your 2016 changes to and a nice bonus feature. Two birds with one stone: A working game worth buying and redemption for this years c*ck-up.

How do you extract a skeleton from an existing skeleton.  Just my gut feeling as to what went wrong with 2015..

I hear you, but surely to an extent they are answerable to FOM as to the size of their F1 team.

[joepineapples 0]

hobbsy777 said:

joepineapples said:

hobbsy777 said:

Leave a skeleton team on F1 2016 working on skins and known F1 2016 rule changes etc, throw everything else at F1 2015 and get it as close to perfect as possible. At F1 2016 release time (shouldn't be before OCT.2016), you should have a near perfect base game engine to add your 2016 changes to and a nice bonus feature. Two birds with one stone: A working game worth buying and redemption for this years c*ck-up.

How do you extract a skeleton from an existing skeleton.  Just my gut feeling as to what went wrong with 2015..

I hear you, but surely to an extent they are answerable to FOM as to the size of their F1 team.

Agreed.  I put it forward as a possible reason. but not as an excuse.

[Lozzy 0]

Please can we get back on topic and discuss ideas for 2016 rather than speculating about things which are unrelated?