This message has been sent to everyone in the game, however for those players who signed up after they were sent...
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As many of you who read the forum already know, F1-TM will be going through a full and total reset of the entire game on 29th December 2005 (around 9am GMT). This will mean that every aspect of your team will be reset to a similar level as when you signed up to the game.
When you log in after the reset, you will find several new screens and functions on the game, currently these are:
1) A new commercial screen and method of working. Instead of signing sponsors for the current season, you will sign sponsors for the next season - this means you will know the exact amount of sponsorship you will receive per race through your season.
2) A new research and development screen will go live, these allow you to create projects for each part of your car (the gearbox, front wing, rear wing etc.) and tell your designers what kind of design risk you want to take, using the highest risk may mean that you get the fastest progress, however you could also end up with a car part that is slower. This means you will have to manage the development of your car much more carefully.
3) New costs & sponsorship amounts. The new sponsorship amounts have been partially done already, however during the reset the sponsor amounts will be changed to match the economy of the game, with the new commercial screen it is much easier to manage your finances through a season. The new costs relate to staff, all staff will cost twice as much as they do now, except for the mechanics which remain at 250 each, per race.
These changes make for a much more exciting Formula 1 experiance and should help find out who has the best strategical approach to designing their cars.
For those who aren't sure why the reset should be done, there are a few answers here.
1) All drivers in the market will be reset to the same level, at the moment it is a little unfair as some drivers were trained using the old training system (in the first month of the game).
2) The new research and development screens mean that the entire game needs to start racing on the same day, otherwise it will be extremely unfair to anyone who is already in a season.
3) There has been lots of testing with money and sponsor amounts over the last few months, some people have made a lot of money from this, some have lost a lot.
4) The game will be leaving its BETA testing mode and will become a fully live and complete game. New changes that come through will be announced with at least 2 weeks notice, allowing all managers to be prepared for them.
It is estimated that the reset will take approximately 3-4 hours to complete fully, so the game may be down for all of the morning on the 29th, I apologise if this puts you at a disadvantage.
David Adams[BR]F1-TM Administrator