rec.autos.simulators

One thing I think you may have missed out is the fact that it is not
possible to contract an existing driver to be your driver for next
season. The other teams are able to do this, but the player is not.
There is, therefore, no way of*** on to a good driver other than
giving him a ridiculously long contract. This to me is a major failing,
as it is vital to be able to keep a driver on a rolling contract.

Please let us know of any response you get from SH-MPS.

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*               Paul L. Finnemore, Apprentice Veterinarian                *

*     "Five tablets and a ten minute consultation. That's 50 please."     *
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: One thing I think you may have missed out is the fact that it is not
: possible to contract an existing driver to be your driver for next
: season. The other teams are able to do this, but the player is not.
: There is, therefore, no way of*** on to a good driver other than
: giving him a ridiculously long contract. This to me is a major failing,
: as it is vital to be able to keep a driver on a rolling contract.

: Please let us know of any response you get from SH-MPS.

I agree. How about options on your contracted drivers. That would at least
give you a choice about keeping them before the computer swipes them off
you.

Ben. (Trying in vain to stop Damon going to Pacific !!!!!)

: --

So i decided to wait one race so that he would only be subject to the one
contract. However to my horror, he was still under a one another one race
contract. and so  on and so on. Basically what the computer was doing was
signing him one race a time thus no other team can sign him.

As a result of this i started to investigate the computers use of this
tactic, and i found it widespread with top drivers.

Basically it is just one of those human/computer rule differences.
        Type "finger waj2" at the UNIX prompt for the full sig.
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There are lots of other problems with contracts. For example, you
can't sack a designer or mechanic on a long term contract even if
you see his abilities becoming poor.

Contrary to popular opinion here, the game does not suck. It is
very poorly tested (like, not at all) but there's enough depth
there to have kept me playing for over 25 seaons...
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That's not what I meant. I am aware that you can s***a current contract to replace it with a
longer one, but that's not what the other teams get to do. They are allowed to have another
contract with the same driver they have now, set up to start when the current contract expires.
The player has to create a whole new contract (which obviously means paying the driver more now,
not next season) of longer duration to keep a driver. Ideally, it should be possible to have a
driver under contract for 16 races at one salary, and have him signed for the next season for 16
races at another salary as a SEPARATE contract. If you have to start signing drivers for 48 or
more races just to keep them, what happens if they become ***after 16? If there is to be a
patch for GPM, I sincerely hope that the contract rules are sorted out - if the AI teams can do
it, why can't I?

regards,

Paul.

--
**********************************************************************
*             Paul L. Finnemore, Apprentice Veterinarian             *

*  "Five tablets and a ten minute consultation. That's 50 please."   *
**********************************************************************

I completely agree. You should be able to negociate with that other
team yourselves if they want to buy your driver.

Yep.

Agree again. Finally found someone positive. I haven't reached 25
seasons yet but I enjoy playing it and that its all about isn't it.

Olaf.

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Olaf Leenders
Brussels, Belgium

I started a game at winner difficulty level with Tyrrell, and let the computer
do the races. I qualified near the end of the grid (best position was 19th),
and racing results were similar. But, when reaching Silverstone, I decided
to do one race myself. I was a little surprised to see Katayama take pole
and Salo to be second fastest! And Salo won the race with Katayama third (he
got a speeding penalty). I then loaded the game I had saved just before the
performance was similar to the earlier part of the season.

So, this is one more thing that annoys me. Also, the lap times should corres-
pond to cars actual speed on the track. I've seen many situations, where my
drivers are driving similar lap times (within .5 of a second), and their
difference on the track has changed by 5 of more seconds. Also, once I was
leading and Suzuki was second, and Suzuki broke the lap record (my driver
was much slower), but still my driver could increase his lead by many seconds.
Microprose should really fix that racing part.

Samppa
--
Samuli Takala, Pajamaentie 14 C 38, 00360 Helsinki   | "Ron Dennis smiled like

URL: http://www.hut.fi/~tax/ (soon)                  |  -- Matti Kyllonen

[...]

Yeah, I've seen that too. I decided to let the computer race to make things
harder for me (I was only playing at Rookie level). I still won virtually
every race (but I'm still searching for that elusive perfect season, to
give a driver a perfect 160/170 point score).

Hey, SH-MPS, hurry up with the patch disk! Ya listening, Quentin? :-)
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