Development overview
The development overview panel shows you your designer points, research limit and the potential limit on the left. And the research level of your parts on the right.
Designer points
Points are required to create development plans. These plans allow you then to create effective parts that can be mounted to a car. The plans can be re-developed into a better plan until there is no more potential for improvement.
Research limit
The research limit shows how high the rating of each part type can go. It will ultimately decide whether a part is ranging from terrible to superb. The higher this limit, the better parts will be that we develop. This limit will always go to the level of the potential research limit over time. If it's higher then this rating will increase over time, and the other way around for when it's lower.
Potential research limit
The potential research limit shows what the current research limit will be on the longer term. This limit can be increased by hiring and assigning more and/or better designers.
Research level per part
On the right you can see the research levels for each part. These will go down in value over time and require research to increase them again. Once you have reached your research limit, it will not increase any more per part.
Rule book
The rule book is visible at the bottom of the development page. It shows the maximum rating ranges for each part, and it shows which aids are available. Parts should not have any ratings (not potential) that exceed the given range unless your designers find an exploitable loophole.
Tip! Do not search for loopholes if your research limit is lower than the rules maximum. You can search for loopholes from [url]http://pitwall.org/my_research_loopholes.php[/url].
If a lot of parts are very restricted, the maximum ratings will be lower and the average laptime of every car will be higher. [b]Do not create a design if the rule book for the season has not been created (no maximum ratings in the Rule book box underneath the Season heading). This will result in 0% rated parts and any points spent can not be refunded.[/b]
Plans
General
A development plan has 3 phases that it can go through: research, development and testbed. The research phase will increase the research level of this part type. The development is the actual development of the part. Testbed tests the part in order to find out which rating the part has. The development phase is the only required phase, the other two are optional. Depending on the part being developed, ultimately (through the research level) the level of your staff, the skills of the designers, the quality of the part will be affected. A chassis will take the most points to develop and should be started as soon as possible on.
Designer (blue) points are required for development projects. It's possible to start development projects when you don't have a sufficient amount of points yet. They will start once there are enough points available. To prevent certain parts from going first, you can always give them priority in the queue.
Designer
Before a part can be produced to mount on the car, the part needs to be developed by a designer. It's possible to design a part without a head designer, but this is not recommended at all. Therefore, before you produce a part, it's best to make sure that you have a head designer.
Rating
The rating of each part will tell you how the performance of the part is compared to the competition in the current division that we're in. This will only be shown once the part has done a certain mileage, or when testbed was selected. The mileage needed varies from part to part. Once the rating is shown, the characteristics are shown as well. How well the part is doing versus the competition is also shown in the Competitors table.
Potential
Similar to the rating, the potential is only shown at a certain mileage. This is even higher than the rating, so in the beginning you'll be able to see what the current rating is. Later on your designers will discover what the potential of the part is.
The potential indicates until which level the part will be able to be developed. Depending on the choices that are made, this potential can decrease. Also, not every designer can see what the final potential of the part is. Many parts have many iterations they can go through, and the head designers can only see a few iterations while in reality there are more. This is based on the skill and experience of the head designer. Therefore it's possible that the potential characteristic might change with further iterations of this part.
Characteristics
Every part has the following characteristics. Different types of parts differ in characteristics as well, but those will be discussed below. The specific characteristics of each part (which start under Weight) are the current values of each part. Every part that is produced will have a rating around this value.
Designer
Every part should have a designer. It states the designer that started working on this part. It's best to keep the same designer for the entire process (even when the car is being developed the season before), but sometimes this is not possible. If the same designer is kept, then there's a small bonus. It's however also a good idea to test out other designers by letting them build parts. That way you can find out if you have other good designers who could become the head designer. Only the head designer can develop the chassis.
Based
Every part can be based on a previous part. If it's based on a previous part then it will take the potential of this part, and continue the development of that previous part. Therefore if the maximum potential has been reached, or if the maximum potential is not great, it is a good idea to start work on a brand new part.
Focus
With every part you can focus on a particular characteristic of the part. This means that have to make compromises when developing a part. When focusing on a characteristic you are getting a slight boost for that characteristic. But it also means that you will get a slight drop in the potential of the other characteristics. When developing a part, you always have to choose a characteristic to focus on. That means that you need to make a compromise in what you feel is more necessary than other characteristics.
You can focus on all characteristics that will be described below, but there's also a special characteristic - finetune. Every part is designed for a specific chassis (as can be chosen when it's being developed). This doesn't mean that it won't be able to be mounted on other chassis, but it means that it will be made specifically for that chassis. Unlike the other characteristics this characteristics will always improve, but if you focus on it it will improve even more. The fine tuning characteristic looks at how well the parts work together. The chassis that it was built for has a certain way of how it is on track, and when parts are developed they have a way of how they work as well. With every iteration the parts will get closer to the chassis. That way the more iterations there are for each part, the more the car will work together as a whole.
Design approach
Every part always has the chance to be a flop or very top (or just normal of course). This depends on many factors such as your head designer his experience, skill, ... but also on the design approach that is taken when the part is developed:
- Aggressive: The designer will take more risk, but this gives a higher chance of getting a good design, but equally so a higher chance of a very bad design.
- Normal: The normal design chances.
- Conservative: The designer takes almost no risk, and will most likely produce a normal part as is expected of him.
Distance
The total distance that a part has done is shown here.
Weight
Weight plays an important factor in the performance of the car. It's very important to keep this as low as possible. The weight of the part is shown here.
Parts
Chassis
The chassis is the single most important part of the car. Everything is built around the chassis, so it's vital to have a good chassis. Because of this the chassis also takes the longest to be developed. The wheelbase of the chassis is a unique characteristic of all parts to the chassis. A short wheel base will result in better cornering, but will affect the top speed of the car. A long wheel base will be the other way around; better top speed, but a negative effect on cornering. The medium length will be somewhere in the middle.
The other two characteristics of the chassis are aerodynamics and grip. Both play a very big role in the efficiency of both parameters, so it's very important to have them as high as possible. The aerodynamics play a big role in the speed and fast cornering of the car, while the grip parameter plays a big role in both slow and fast corners.
Gearbox
The gearbox is another very important aspect of the car. It is the part that takes the second longest to develop. There are two characteristics for the gearbox: shift time and reliable. Shift time explains itself, the higher this is rated the faster the gearbox will switch to another gear which is good for the speed of the car. The reliable characteristic determines how long the part will last and how correct the lifespan of the part is. A low reliability means that the gearbox won't last very long, and that you can't really trust the lifespan that is given when the part is produced.
Fuel tank
The fuel tank is used to feed fuel to the engine. The most important aspect of the fuel tank is weight. The fewer the tank weighs, the better the car will handle due to the lower weight. You can choose the capacity of the fuel tank when developing. The lower the capacity the fewer the tank will weigh, but the less options you have in choosing a race strategy.
Suspension
The suspensions prime functionality is to make sure the car sticks to the track by delivering good grip. This will improve the handling and cornering of the car a lot. The supsension influences the tire usage of the car as well.
Electrical system
The electrical system is what turns the car on and controls everything electronically. But its main purpose is to offer driving aids to the driver. It's not always allowed to use these aids, as the rules sometimes prohibit their usage. Traction control is a driving aid that improves the speed of the car. While ABS improves the cornering of the car by making sure the corners can be taken more quickly.
Steering system
The steering system delivers the input from the driver to the wheels. Its only special characteristic is the power steering aid that can be prohibited in the rules. This aid helps in the cornering of the car.
Front wing
The front wing is the piece of the car that touches the air as the very first part. Therefore it has a significant influence on the cars aerodynamics and grip deliverance. The better the aerodynamics of the front wing, the better the speed and handling of the car will be. While the grip plays an influence on the handling and the cornering of the car.
Rear wing
The rear wing is a big part of the car, and therefore also has a significant influence on both the aerodynamics and the grip of the car. The aerodynamics improve the speed and the handling of the car, while the grip improves the handling and the cornering of the car.
Sidepods
The sidepods lead the airflow to the back of the car. Therefore the aerodynamics of the part should be quite good as it improves the handling of the car.
Airbox
The airbox is a relatively small part of the car, but it also has a slight influence on the aerodynamics of the car, that improves the handling of the car.
Diffuser
The diffuser is at the very back of the car and plays an influence in the grip of the car. It can offer really good grip at the back of the car, or no grip at all. It plays an influence in the handling and cornering of the car. Being a complex part, this part takes a while to develop as well.
Exhaust
The exhaust delivers the exhaust gasses from the engine to the back of the car. Due to the positioning of this part it can deliver extra grip to the car. This leads to an extra boost of the handling and cornering of the car.