By pitstopboss on July 27, 2010
Latest update
After a long week of feeling the heat of FOM (F1′s legal team) breathing down my neck, I’m now in a position to give news on the various small updates (some have been noticed and some are yet to be added).
This latest update fixes a long-standing bug with tyre performance in different dry weather conditions.
The stranglehold on soft compounds in all conditions is not as great now the bug has been fixed.
This should take effect from the next competition round.
There also has been a well spotted bug in the current Equipment Level calculation that was wrongly taking the Hydraulics Reliability stat into consideration.
This may see a few teams with slightly adjusted Equipment Rating today, now that it is fixed.
I’ve had to make a minor update to the colour of the charts for people that are slightly visually impaired and also I’ve removed the current day from the charts,
as the data changes throughout the day and can seem misleading.
I will try and add some more data to the charts page soon, so you can get a better idea of what driver got you the points in what competition.
Sponsors have had a slight adjustment and are now slightly easier to complete in many cases, after looking at months of success/failure rates.
I’ve added a button so you can see more information about how you are progressing with the sponsor and also fixed a few bugs with some of sponsors.
Updated the track info page slightly so that it gives information for each driver separately, rather than giving a rougher average.
Fixed a bug that incorrectly shows Pyramid League start date.
Slight updates to the starting setup capping code.
Several minor bugfixes.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged update, updates
By pitstopboss on July 10, 2010
Welcome to another update!
More updates recently than most Formula One teams put together!
Let’s hope they work as well as the Red Bull exhaust system!
- Added a ‘previous’ and ‘next’ as well as a simpler delete button for when viewing messages.
- Added a better system for keeping in touch with your mentors (status is now below shoutbox).
- Added color to the Academy helpers inside their chatrooms.
- Pitstopbot has had a minor service upgrade and now also helps out in Academies.
- Policy is now back stopping you from buying tyres that you cannot race in.
- Fixed some minor livery display issues
- Fixed an issue with drivers in the league getting removed midseason with 0 days on contract.
- Added chart to the wiki about improvements (what does what) and made some minor adjustments in that area.
- Fixed a problem with Alliance history overflowing into the street.
- Equipment Rating is now computed as soon as you purchase anything, rather than at login / nightly.
- Now competitions display how many drivers are allowed per team.
- Fixed an RSS link problem.
- Messages from sponsors when objectives are completed or failed.
- Added a rebate system, so that you can get some credits back for some items (only for 1 extension+ items).
There’s now no excuse not to trade in that old tub and get into a sleek new chassis!
- Added some more competitions for the top level managers.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged update, updates
By pitstopboss on July 7, 2010
Small update to the update today.
- Altered the text so that when a sponsor ends you get a message and you can also see clearly to get a new sponsor rather than a cancel button.
- Added back the button to cancel a dealership.
- Due to some exploits, the ability to use the Expert Analysis for some hints is reduced until after the session.
- Made a slight scaling adjustment to the Racing Form formula to take into account managing many drivers.
- Added a fix for some sponsors that didn’t update at correct thresholds.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged update, updates
By pitstopboss on July 6, 2010
Welcome to another update.
Today we are unveiling some new Formula Renault chassis manufacturers for the market.
These items come pre-sprayed with a random livery from the factory and are available from levels 2,3 and 4.
Also, we have some veteran drivers available that have a bit of track knowledge on some tracks.
The track knowledge calculation has been smoothed out so more people will have a chance of getting 100% for many tracks in their driver’s lifetime (which makes it slightly fairer).
The top manager calculation has been replaced and is now using the average of the “racing form” calculation which measures how well you performed against your opposition in your last races.
The calculation takes into account the position you finish in, the amount of other drivers and the average equipment levels.
Some managers will only shuffle around a little, but some who have not been consistent will drop down the order somewhat.
It will take many more days before the chart stabilizes and gives a true picture of who the top managers are in Pitstopboss.
I will soon be adding an Elite skill level so that we can separate some of the Amateurs who just graduate by buying level 3 tyres from the seasoned veterans.
I’ll wait until the manager tables settle down over the next few weeks before this is worked on.
Other adjustments:
- Fixed some
- Reduced the length of login names.
- Contract renewal prices have been adjusted and are now approximately 15% cheaper.
- Ever so slightly increased the chance of items available with more than 4 extensions.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged updates
By pitstopboss on July 1, 2010
Welcome to another update.
Some updates today include:
A significant update to the Charts that track team progress. This now uses a formula that will give a more accurate depiction of your form. (which is based on where you end up on the grid and the number and quality of your competitors).
Due to the nature of this new code, it means the charts are all now reset. This data will also soon form part of the computation of skill level.
Which means we will most likely soon see the reintroduction of an Elite skill level to help balance things out at the top.
This will open up some new gameplay options, tracks and features. Some of which will be talked about later in the month.
Bugs & fixes:
- Fixed a bug with Competition ending messages say things like “Competition 3 has ended.”
- Made some changes to the shoutbox to help eliminate lag. This will be introduced over the next few days so that the shoutbox stops using the database.
- Removed unnecessary alert pages when you delete messages. (More may follow over time).
- Fixed a few minor bugs with academies.
- Updates for contracts & sponsorship now only happen at 4am GMT. (there was a way to possibly update some items by just viewing the sponsor page – which may have cause some problems)
- Fixed many minor bugs and reduced some more server load.
- Fixed game blog and changed the news tab to include feed from the game blog. complete with RSS link.
- Fixed some issues with Boacompra payment mode
To clarify some of the questions about Birthday bonuses and Supporter bonuses:
- You get 10% bonus credits per year you since you have registered for the game (up to 4 years).
- Supporters get 15% bonus credits, which is independent (eg. cumulative).
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged update, updates
By supportboss on June 28, 2010
Today we discuss your Team page.
Halfway down this page you will find your objectives to reach the next level in the game. These may range from voting for PSB a certain amount of times, to negotiating a new contract, to improving a car part’s stats by a certain percentage.
When all objectives are complete you go up a level and new objectives will appear on this page.
My Latest Races shows you all of the competitions that you have recently been involved in and those that are still active. If the competition is active you will also see the countdown to when the next round starts/current round ends. There are also links to view the competitions.
By clicking on the flag next to your ‘country’ you will be taken to a league table of managers from the same country.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged updates
By supportboss on June 22, 2010
You need a CTO in order to manufacture very high level upgrades.
The level to which you can upgrade a part depends on your CTO. Look at his Basic Stats to see up to what level he can upgrade each part.
Don’t forget to choose your upgrades related to the cup you will join. Because some cups have restrictions, and some cups have level limits at some upgrades.
By purchasing a contract for an upgraded part, you won’t automatically improve your stats. Once production time has finished you can then enable the upgrades in the races, using the Configuration tab on your racing page.
Upgrades use the ‘slots’ on your chassis, you also get extra slots when you get a CTO, how many depends on your CTO.
The cost of upgrades may go up with depending on the amount of drivers you have.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged updates
By pitstopboss on June 17, 2010
Welcome to the latest update for Pitstopboss!
After some analysis of the recent server overload and lag issues (mainly due to around 5,000 new players all banging on the server door at once), we’ve had to do some optimising of game pages and the backend
as well as make some server configuration changes.
Our server was operating somewhat how Giancarlo Fisichella was like driving a Ferrari.
We’ve replaced the Fisichella bits with some Alonso-grade code and it’s working at a good pace now.
Earlier than the planned Ferrari Valencia update, we’re already updating some of the game to ensure a fast response time for the game pages and less load on the server.
Some of the visible changes are noted in the update list below, whereas most of the work has been behind the scenes in the engine department.
Update List:
- Added a new panel to show info about your team and moved credits and other details into the panel
- Made adjustments to team page which sees the race schedule move to it’s own page
(you do also get a nice flag icon, so you can jump to it in one click)
- Made it a bit clearer who your mentor is and easier to jump into an academy.
- Updated some pages with more caching for speed.
- Added a bonus of 15% bonus credits when supporters make a credit purchase.
- Added some new awards for long-term members, giving credit bonuses based on time playing
(from 1 to 3 years at 10% – 30%.)
We have plans to get the race test ramped up as soon as these current updates are up and running well.
We will also be releasing some brand new tracks in the near future as well.
Happy racing!
Pitstopboss
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged update, updates
By supportboss on June 1, 2010
Improve the value and stats of your team by making improvements. Simply select what areas you want to improve and the work happens automatically overnight.
The more improvement slots dedicated to one improvement, the faster the stat will rise. For example if all four slots are being used for Engine, this will improve twice as quickly as when two slots are dedicated to this improvement.
The effect of improvements will not be immediate so do not expect stats to rise daily. You can see how many development points are needed for the next stat increase by hovering your cursor over the stat in question.
Buying a CTO can help speed up improvements. When buying a CTO, look at the “improvements time” stat to see how much.
Improvements do not only work on your car, some also work for the people in your team. For example, choosing ‘engine’ will improve both your car engine stats and your AND driver’s speed stats. Another example is: Choosing ‘pit
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged updates
By supportboss on May 24, 2010
Saving your setups is a good way to get a head start the next time you race at that track.
When you have a setup you’d like to reuse, on the monitor page of the competition, scroll down to ‘setup management’.
Give the setup a name and save it.
When you want to reuse it go to the same page, select it and load it.
Bear in mind that it won’t give you the same setup as you had last time, there are many variables, but it’s a good starting point.
You can save 40 setups if you’re not a Supporter and 400 if you are.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged updates
