Post by Admin on Sept 28, 2020 3:48:50 GMT
Right you are in rookie, right after a reset or part way through a season. What do I do? Well to know that you need to know what your goals are.
Everything here is my opinion based on my own experiences so take it with a pinch of salt.
Goal 1: Promote
Goal 2: Be in a position to retain in Amateur the following season.
For Goal 1 all we need is points and a positive balance. For goal 2 we need to do this with decent staff and facilities, a good car, a good balance and a good driver. Obviously not all of these are needed but we may as well aim for the whole package.
Goal 1 can be achieved with smart strategies, putting in the right fuel load and a well statted driver.
First off what makes a good driver is discussed in the driver section. The main points for here are to ensure that his contract will extend for a few races in Amateur so you don't lose him at the start of the season. If at all possible always avoid signing new drivers at the start of a season and to help with this contracts should be signed so that they don't run out at the beginning of a season. The increased OA limit of Amateur will also help you resign him as his OA should be over 85 by the end of a promotion season in Amateur.
Staff and Facilities. Neither is required to succeed in rookie in my experience nor do they particularly help. However staff skills will decrease if your training level is low so you need facilities to stop this. I would entirely ignore staff training in rookie. Only buy facilities to help keep your staff skills from decaying. These can all be built up once in Amateur. Remember to keep staff skills at 10 you need to keep the total level of your facilities at 70+, as in the sum of the levels of all your facilities. As it is cheaper to buy 20 levels in one go I recommend starting with 4 and adding a 5th when the total decays to around 70. Start of with the commercial center, alloy and chemical lab, pit stop training center and any of the others.
Car. I recommend finishing in or around level 4. It is close enough to build up in the first few races of Amateur to level 5 while not being very expensive to run in rookie. That said it isn't needed in rookie so the first time parts get replaced you might think about using level 1 parts. Use Neil's sheet to plan how you will replace parts, if you know you will only replace your level 2 engine twice this season then you know the next time you have to replace with level 3 if you want the last replacement to be level 4. Remember your part wear goes to 0 at the start of a new season so don't downgrade parts for the end of the season. If it isn't worth it to buy new parts just smoke the last few races.
Money: this is the tough one. You need to be able to get points on 0 ct (or very low ct), have a cheap driver, save as much as you can on parts by smoking tactically when and if required. The cost of your driver can have a massive effect, the driver is the easiest way you can have an advantage over all your oppoenents without paying more. Staff and facilities aren't that important to winning in rookie and costs can be kept low by only doing enough to ensure that staff skills don't decrease.
You can also start a sponsor rotation in rookie, you probably won't get many sponsors in the space of a single season but the plan can start to go ahead.
I can't get points in rookie on 0ct-> Well maybe it is best to run another season in rookie, go to -$15,000,000 to help keep your driver and don't go above 50 points to avoid a fine next season. Then build up your driver, when promoting it isn't hard to have your driver well over 85 OA and this will go a long way to ensure you aren't at too much of a disadvantage in Amateur.
Everything here is my opinion based on my own experiences so take it with a pinch of salt.
Goal 1: Promote
Goal 2: Be in a position to retain in Amateur the following season.
For Goal 1 all we need is points and a positive balance. For goal 2 we need to do this with decent staff and facilities, a good car, a good balance and a good driver. Obviously not all of these are needed but we may as well aim for the whole package.
Goal 1 can be achieved with smart strategies, putting in the right fuel load and a well statted driver.
First off what makes a good driver is discussed in the driver section. The main points for here are to ensure that his contract will extend for a few races in Amateur so you don't lose him at the start of the season. If at all possible always avoid signing new drivers at the start of a season and to help with this contracts should be signed so that they don't run out at the beginning of a season. The increased OA limit of Amateur will also help you resign him as his OA should be over 85 by the end of a promotion season in Amateur.
Staff and Facilities. Neither is required to succeed in rookie in my experience nor do they particularly help. However staff skills will decrease if your training level is low so you need facilities to stop this. I would entirely ignore staff training in rookie. Only buy facilities to help keep your staff skills from decaying. These can all be built up once in Amateur. Remember to keep staff skills at 10 you need to keep the total level of your facilities at 70+, as in the sum of the levels of all your facilities. As it is cheaper to buy 20 levels in one go I recommend starting with 4 and adding a 5th when the total decays to around 70. Start of with the commercial center, alloy and chemical lab, pit stop training center and any of the others.
Car. I recommend finishing in or around level 4. It is close enough to build up in the first few races of Amateur to level 5 while not being very expensive to run in rookie. That said it isn't needed in rookie so the first time parts get replaced you might think about using level 1 parts. Use Neil's sheet to plan how you will replace parts, if you know you will only replace your level 2 engine twice this season then you know the next time you have to replace with level 3 if you want the last replacement to be level 4. Remember your part wear goes to 0 at the start of a new season so don't downgrade parts for the end of the season. If it isn't worth it to buy new parts just smoke the last few races.
Money: this is the tough one. You need to be able to get points on 0 ct (or very low ct), have a cheap driver, save as much as you can on parts by smoking tactically when and if required. The cost of your driver can have a massive effect, the driver is the easiest way you can have an advantage over all your oppoenents without paying more. Staff and facilities aren't that important to winning in rookie and costs can be kept low by only doing enough to ensure that staff skills don't decrease.
You can also start a sponsor rotation in rookie, you probably won't get many sponsors in the space of a single season but the plan can start to go ahead.
I can't get points in rookie on 0ct-> Well maybe it is best to run another season in rookie, go to -$15,000,000 to help keep your driver and don't go above 50 points to avoid a fine next season. Then build up your driver, when promoting it isn't hard to have your driver well over 85 OA and this will go a long way to ensure you aren't at too much of a disadvantage in Amateur.