F1 2016 Game Ideas

  • Safety Car
  • Red Flags
  • Better collision system (not talking about damage due to licensing issues but like when two wheels collide the car should go airborne or a flip when hit like the Massa crash at Hockenheimring)
  • Custom driver option (aka bring back career mode)
  • Manual pitstops
  • Formation Lap
  • Reconnaissance Lap (lap around the track from the pits to either the pits again or the grid before the formation lap)
  • Stalls at start of race
  • F1 TV mode like in F1 CE 2006
  • Classic tracks
 
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Course maker
Street football, for some relaxation during races
Quick time options during pitstops
A salary model, where you earn money per year with bonuses for good results
Perk system to intimidate your teammate or boost team morale for better updates
Dealerships, so you can buy cars for your driver
A goldfish that you have to take care of while traveling around the world!
 
Manual pitstops
How, exactly, would that work without being a quick-time event?

Reconnaissance Lap (lap around the track from the pits to either the pits again or the grid before the formation lap)
I assume that this would be skippable? Even dedicated fans like myself would have no time for it.

Stalls at start of race
The current generation of cars don't stall.
 
The current generation of cars don't stall.

True, but when the anti-stall kicks in you're going nowhere. It would be good to have clutch control for starts, and if you stuff it up and go into anti-stall, they could make it so just putting the clutch back in would reset the anti-stall and you could try again. (the real cars have clutch paddles, and require a reset using steering wheel controls if the anti-stall is activated).
 
And how would all of this work on a controller?

Obviously it would be a selectable option, like every racing game where you can use the clutch. Controller users can have the auto clutch for the start, and wheel users, if they want, can select manual clutch control for starts.
 
Feels too much like another request for a hardcore simulator, which isn't going to happen. The casual gamer won't respond to it, given that it will have a ridiculous learning curve. Even dedicated fans of the sport like myself won't want anything to do it - when I get home after a stressful day, I want to jump in a McLaren and lay down a few laps of Interlagos. I don't want to need an engineering degree just to get the car moving.
 
Feels too much like another request for a hardcore simulator, which isn't going to happen. The casual gamer won't respond to it, given that it will have a ridiculous learning curve. Even dedicated fans of the sport like myself won't want anything to do it - when I get home after a stressful day, I want to jump in a McLaren and lay down a few laps of Interlagos. I don't want to need an engineering degree just to get the car moving.

I don't know how a simple clutch pedal requires an engineering degree to use, nor do I see how it has a "ridiculous learning curve". It's certainly not something only hardcore simulators have. Codies' own Race Driver games on PS2 had a manual clutch option.

All I'm suggesting is the option to have control over the clutch for starts. Anyone that doesn't want to use it doesn't need to enable it, just like in any other game with that option. I hate how the start is 100% controlled by the game, it gives no possibility for variation, and doesn't reward any skill.

If I was requesting it to be a hardcore sim, I'd be requesting a third party app for the steering wheel settings screen, and the need to manually reset the clutch in the event of triggering the anti-stall. I'm not, all I'm requesting is a manual clutch option for starts, with the anti-stall system automatically resetting when you pop the clutch back in, should you mess up badly enough to trigger it on the first go. That's actually a very "simcade" way of going about it, which is exactly what these games are.
 
The system in F1CE was pretty cool. Just requires a few user inputs at exactly the right time to add a human element to it, otherwise the pit stops seem a bit scripted.
It's still a quick-time event, and therefore hirrible.
 
A quick-time event. Or "press X to not die".

Still better than nothing at all. Hell even if they varied the pit stop times a little and made it so that the top teams were consistently quicker, at least it would bring a bit of strategy and variability into it, rather than pit stops just being a formality.

By the way, when is this supposed to launch? Will it be early season like they promised for F1 2015 so that we can follow the actual season?
 
at least it would bring a bit of strategy and variability into it
No, it's horrible. Gamers hate quick-time events. There's no strategy, just button-mashing.

By the way, when is this supposed to launch? Will it be early season like they promised for F1 2015 so that we can follow the actual season?
Codemasters haven't confirmed it yet.
 
Yeah I also hated the QTE pit stops in F1:CE. To add variation to pit stops, I'd prefer the ability to have full control of the car, have to slow it down and hit the limiter before the control line, and have to stop as close to your marks in the pit box as possible. The further from your marks, the slower the pit stop.

This way, you could potentially gain or lose time from how late you leave it 'till you brake to hit the pit limiter, and also from how close you stop on your marks in the box. It would also allow the posibility to get a "speeding in the pit lane" penalty if you go over the control line over the pit speed limit, which would add a bit of tension to the stops. You could play it safe and slow down early, or you could be aggressive and try to brake as late as possible.

You could even add to that, the ability to leave your box as soon as a stop is completed, effectively controlling your own time of release. This would open up the possibility to squeeze out closer to other cars in the lane, or recieve an "unsafe release" penalty if you drive out into another car. With the current computer controlled stops, you don't get released anywhere near other cars, the AI waits for an enormous gap before releasing you, which can ruin your strategy in a close race.

Of course, I'd have all of these things as selectable options, with the default being a fully automated stop for more casual players. But, I suspect only the hardcore racers would use this kind of option for pits, so I doubt it would ever be implemented, due to the casual focus of official F1 games.
 
I doubt it would ever be implemented, due to the casual focus of official F1 games.
I think it's more likely to be omitted due to the amount of time that it would take to code.

A better way of doing it would be to imitate the setup and repair options from Colin McRae Rally 2.0 - you got one hour to set the car up and repair it. Each individual component had a time value attached to it, so if you had a lot of work to do, you had to prioritise; did you fix the gearbox, or the electronics? Fixing the gearbox would mean a smoother run, but if the final stage was run at night, you would have to contend with flickerimg headlights. Fixing the headlights would give perfect vision in night stages, but the gearbox problems would get worse and eventually cost you time.

When you enter the pits, time could slow right down, like VATS in Fallout 4. You could then choose what you wanted done, but each action would add time to your stop. You could improve your time by opting to boost the performance of your pit crew, but this would increase the error margin - the more pressure you put on your team, the more likely they are to make a serious mistake.

This could tie into an RPG-style management section, like Mother Base in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. As you meet R&D objectives and complete extra challenges (such as bettering your Q1 time in Q2 and your Q2 time in Q3), like the sponsor objectives in Dirt 3, you can hire more and better staff for your garage. They could provide better feedback, be more effective and less error-prone in pit stops, and generally improve your overall performance - but if you start failing objectives, morale will drop, dissatisfaction will set in, and eventually your staff will leave.
 
A better way of doing it would be to imitate the setup and repair options from Colin McRae Rally 2.0 - you got one hour to set the car up and repair it. Each individual component had a time value attached to it, so if you had a lot of work to do, you had to prioritise; did you fix the gearbox, or the electronics? Fixing the gearbox would mean a smoother run, but if the final stage was run at night, you would have to contend with flickerimg headlights. Fixing the headlights would give perfect vision in night stages, but the gearbox problems would get worse and eventually cost you time.

When you enter the pits, time could slow right down, like VATS in Fallout 4. You could then choose what you wanted done, but each action would add time to your stop. You could improve your time by opting to boost the performance of your pit crew, but this would increase the error margin - the more pressure you put on your team, the more likely they are to make a serious mistake.

That works great in a rally game where you usually need to do a lot of work to a car, changing out major components like struts, gearboxes, radiators etc. and a set time limit to work on the car, but in an F1 game it wouldn't work like that.

F1 teams don't do a lot in pit stops, they only change wheels, and sometimes wind up or down the front wing flaps slightly. Since they have separate crew members for each job, there's no time penalty to doing the front wing whilst getting new tyres. The only time anything more is done is when there is repairable damage, which is basically limited to a broken front wing. In that case, the front wing will take considerably longer than changing the wheels, and is done by different crew members, so you may as well get new tyres as well, as you won't lose any more time for it. Any more damage than that will require retirement. The team never has to prioritise pit work to save time.

You can't repair an engine, or anything associated with it (cooling system etc), you can't repair the suspension, you can't replace the rear wing, you can't replace the floor or any bodywork, and you can't refuel. With this in mind, I don't see what kind of things you could even have to choose from that would make a stop longer, without making it less realistic (adding things the real teams can't/don't do).

I also doubt all of this VATS-like pit management system would require any less coding than the more realistic manual pit stops I suggested.

However, this:
This could tie into an RPG-style management section, like Mother Base in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. As you meet R&D objectives and complete extra challenges (such as bettering your Q1 time in Q2 and your Q2 time in Q3), like the sponsor objectives in Dirt 3, you can hire more and better staff for your garage. They could provide better feedback, be more effective and less error-prone in pit stops, and generally improve your overall performance - but if you start failing objectives, morale will drop, dissatisfaction will set in, and eventually your staff will leave.

sounds really interesting. It'd be cool if each team had a list of staff, each with their own specialties (like the stats in MGS), with the bigger teams having staff with the best stats (Newey would have epic stats lol). The more testing objectives you hit, the better your team morale, and the better they perform both in development and in the pits. Then, hitting race weekend objectives, and winning races, getting pole, and winning titles, would all build the interest other teams' staff had in your team.

If you did poorly, your better staff would leave for teams that did better than you, and if you did well, the better staff of teams you beat would be interested in joining you.

This kind of thing would require a multi-year career mode, where drivers and staff could change teams between years. I think that would be amazing.
 
It'd be cool if each team had a list of staff, each with their own specialties (like the stats in MGS), with the bigger teams having staff with the best stats
That's exactly what I'm thinking of. I imagine that they would fall into five categories: pit crew (who work on the car in stops), mechanics (who work on the car in the garage), engineers (who provide feedback and help with setup), designers (who improve your R&D), and management (who sit on pit wall and improve the overall effectiveness of the team).

(Newey would have epic stats lol)
I imagine that you could only unlock him after winning the World Championship, and then complete a season where you achieve every single objective. It would also come with an achievement.

But for the most part, I think that you would get random names.
 
That's exactly what I'm thinking of. I imagine that they would fall into five categories: pit crew (who work on the car in stops), mechanics (who work on the car in the garage), engineers (who provide feedback and help with setup), designers (who improve your R&D), and management (who sit on pit wall and improve the overall effectiveness of the team).

That sounds about right to me, except I think the mechanics shouldn't be separate from the pit crew, as in real F1, the mechanics that are best at pit procedures are used as pit crew, and are still used as mechanics. Maybe the mechanics stats could include pit procedures and other things like how quickly they can strip and rebuild parts, or diagnose problems, then you could choose which ones to keep in the garage all the time, and which ones to use as pit crew.


I imagine that you could only unlock him after winning the World Championship, and then complete a season where you achieve every single objective. It would also come with an achievement.

But for the most part, I think that you would get random names.

Exactly what I was thinking. Big names, like Newey, Allison, Key, Clear, etc. would be there, but the majority could just be made up names. You could even have a "legends" section, with staff you could unlock by reaching major achievements like back to back titles and such. Legends would include the likes of Brawn and Byrne.
 
That sounds about right to me, except I think the mechanics shouldn't be separate from the pit crew
Five categories works for me, because teams are limited to eighty personnel on a weekend, and so you would have to manage finite resources. So I know that separating pit crew and mechanics is taking a liberty with it, but you have to balance out your pit crew's ability with preparation time - you can have faster, error-free stops, but it means taking longer to prepare cars.
 
Fair enough. I think this whole staff management idea is really good, it'd add a whole new dimension to the career. :cheers:
 
The only real downside is that 99% or players will just stick it on auto-sort like in The Phantom Pain. There needs to be some incentive for managing the team, but it can't take the focus off the actual racing. Unlike The Phantom Pain, staff management would have to offer tangible, rather than passive benefits.
 
I think that in reality it would only appeal to the hardcore F1 fans. Kind of like how football management games only appeal to a niche of hardcore fans. I'm ok with that, but just like other ideas that appeal to hardcore fans and not casuals, it would never be done by Codies, because they'd see little benefit in spending so long coding such things for such a tiny percentage of their audience.

It'd be a great addition to a more sim oriented F1 title. Say, a title that covered a number of years, like F1 2010 - 2020, and have all the big rule changes covered in the ten year career, with the management part, and more realistic sim aspects.

On a yearly release official F1 game, it'd be too much work to be worth it, and it wouldn't tie in with the casual pick up and play style of official F1 games. But we can still dream. After all, this thread is titled "F1 2016 game ideas" not "realistic F1 2016 game ideas" haha :gtpflag:
 
I love formula one, and what I would like to see is a new commentary system. I mean, remember the early f1 games where murry walker was screaming through your speakers? I also love the communication with your pit-crew, but I would love to hear some decent commentary on the things you do in screen. "Look at that! He passes Vettel on the outside! What a great pass."
 
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