Ask anything about F1 Challenge '99-'02 career mode simulator

On 30th September 2017, I released the F1 Challenge '99-'02 career mode simulator V1.01. It works for any Formula One season.
Get it here: https://wookey.forumotion.com/t848-f1-challenge-99-02-s-main-post-are-you-new-in-this-game-and-you-want-to-know-more-about-it-start-here (search for Career Mode).

I am conscious that this tool could be difficult to use and understand to many users, specially neophytes. Hardcore players might not have much problem, but I cannot say the same about newcomers to F1 Challenge '99-'02. I tried to make this Excel in such a way that no tutorial is needed, because every instruction you need to know comes within the F1C career mode simulator Excel file. Maybe the use of akoVCR is the most difficult part, or taking notes about the fastest laps, from the fastest to the slowest just after a race session, which is a cumbersome activity.

For these reasons, this topic has been opened with the aim to solve any doubts or questions.

Report here your feedback about the F1 Challenge '99-'02 career mode simulator V1.01 excel file! Maybe this topic in a future could be a sticky if there are many questions, reviews and/or suggestions.

Regards.
Cristian Luis.

Hi Cristian i've been trying to run akoVCR and I can load track.dat file but everytime i load replay file it crashes, any ideas ?

skandre7 wrote:Hi Cristian i've been trying to run akoVCR and I can load track.dat file but everytime i load replay file it crashes, any ideas ?

Please, give me some time. I am in a high-technical degree, and I entered classes two weeks late.

I hope I have some time before November for answer properly your issue.

To anyone: feel free to comment too, regardless of what I have written here.

Regards,
Cristian Luis.

I have few thoughts how to improve this.

Negotitation system. The amount of interested teams and their intrest rate is realistic, but I think the possibility to choose your next teams is too easy. If we get this much harder then it would be ideal to create some negotitation system. We could spend our salary to get manager who can negotiate our next team.

Career length. How about if DI points are also connected to your career secure to make some fear that this is probably your last season if you can't do soon any better.

Team expectations and goals. Team have goals for team/your championship position in the end of season and team have regulations for your race positions in every race. Expected race result can vary race by race. If you make better result than expected then your career secure is boosted up. Some bonus when you beat your rivals (teammate, rival team drivers).

And I know it's easier said than done. There are a lot of things to figure out how to make this work properly. I'm not a virtuoso, but if I manage to create something in excel sheet I let you know. How do you think, are these ideas worth doing?

aok wrote:I have few thoughts how to improve this.

Negotitation system. The amount of interested teams and their interest rate is realistic, but I think the possibility to choose your next teams is too easy. If we get this much harder then it would be ideal to create some negotitation system. We could spend our salary to get manager who can negotiate our next team.

Career length. How about if DI points are also connected to your career secure to make some fear that this is probably your last season if you can't do soon any better.

Team expectations and goals. Team have goals for team/your championship position in the end of season and team have regulations for your race positions in every race. Expected race result can vary race by race. If you make better result than expected then your career secure is boosted up. Some bonus when you beat your rivals (teammate, rival team drivers).

And I know it's easier said than done. There are a lot of things to figure out how to make this work properly. I'm not a virtuoso, but if I manage to create something in excel sheet I let you know. How do you think, are these ideas worth doing?

Hi, Aok!

I have readed your whole message. Interesing ideas!

Well, first and foremost, welcome. Thank you very much for your comments.

I'll give you short answers (I am quite busy!)

Negotiation system:
This tool is tedious to use at its fullest. Because of this, I needed to "soft" the negotiation system. I could make it harder, but... remember that the difficulty is also adjustable in this Excel. There are advanced F1C players that want a Challenge and play with 110% AI strenght or more. I could do the negotiation system a little bit harder, but I personally think that at this specific moment, is not convenient. This tool is not too acccesible and I wanted to compensate that making it a friendly-use tool that makes the player enjoying its user experience, without putting much difficulty in the career progress.

In my opinion, creating a negotiating system with manager involves programming. I think that is not possible to program in Excel, correct me if I am wrong. (I am not an advanced user of Excel). Your idea and intention is quite good, but sadly, I don't know how to create something like that. Regrettably, the driver salary has very little use and influence in the F1C career. This is something that needs improve.

Career length.
A "game over" comes when any team wants to contract you and you decide not to run for the team in which you are a driver. My intention with the Driving Incidents points system is to invite to F1C player to be clean; to be cautelous; to respect his/her limits rather than penalizing them severely to the point to give them pressure. After all, is the player who penalises himself if he/she decides to use this.

Taking notes of mistakes and bad driving could be annoying and involves patience and self-control. Because of that, I want to reward that will by giving the player an easy-to-use-and-undertand sanctioning system that scores your mistakes and opens you to the loss of driving points license. Scoring zero mistakes at Monaco or Long Beach at a 100% race distance could be even more worthy that winning a race. I hope that any good F1C player that enjoys this tool see the points loss as a warning for drive better without feeling a deep guilt. Giving you a good experience is the key. If you are too good, you can search for more challenges - zero mistakes, winning with very high AI strength, 100% race distance, etc. - and boost the difficulty.

Feel free to debate this point, as well as the other two.

Team expectations and goals
Remember that this tool is for any Formula One season. Not all F1 seasons have the same number of teams and not all F1 seasons have the same number of drivers ─Ferrari in 1956 had 12 drivers─. Because of this, establish objectives by criteria becomes something quite burdensome.

Regardless of what I have said before, your idea is awesome. I would love to implement something like that.

But how? That's the million dollars question.

EDIT: I have a pair of ideas (overtaking points and objectives). Is POSSIBLE to implement them. But I need some information of how Codemasters F1 2017 establish objectives for the players depending of the team chosen in order to have a little of basis.

Feel free to develop any tool you want. I am open to any new stuff, as well as to new ideas and debate.

Thank you very much for your comment. Specially because this is your first post. Maybe you have registered just to expose your impressions and ideas.

Welcome to Wookey's F1C forum. Is a pleasure to attend you.

P.D.: DeLaCrowe, skandre7, be patient, please!

Cristian, Thank you for your time and comments

I understand your point of view to keep this tool a easy access for everybody and having fun without forcing anybody to do something you don't want. Fun and challenge is my first priority when racing. Some have fun when you can do career like a real F1 driver and this is what Codemasters have offered lately and it would be nice if you could take some elements from there. I don't have much experience from Codemasters F1 games, only F1 2010 and F1 2013. Nevertheless, You can call me a hardcore player, I can't play AI in 110 level, but for me the hardcore comes when you drive in level where your skills are and race and live your career realistically as much as possible.

I have a secret, don't laugh. I started sim racing with rFactor in 2007 and before that F1C9902 was only a short visit for me. I find this F1 Challenge VB mod one month ago   and I couldn't believe my own eyes when I saw this masterpiece and it make me also sad "Do I have enough time to drive all those mods and tracks during my lifetime."

I don't want to push all my ideas on to your tool. I just want to help, because there are also hardcore players with their needs. So I took your idea to make my own tool. I have thinking that it would better to do tool which is more like a DLC for your workbook. It's a separate workbook with harcore stuff and it update all necessary data from your workbook. So data goes only one way. Basically it is easiest way to use and there is not too much stuff in one workbook, so all are nicely and cleanily seperated. If you are a non hardcore player you can use basic tool just like before and ingnore DLC. And if you want in the middle of the career some challenge then just open DLC and find right season tab and activate hardcore mode. And difficulty level of all DLC stuff elements can be adjustable, that's no problem.

But there is a one big problem. If you some day update your version, it might be that you have moved some cells and deleted others, then I'm in trouble. Though DLC works with older version. I see, Markus and you haven't used macros in this tool. They are useful and handy to use if you know what you are doing, but when a bug appears, it is a nightmare to solve it. I leave the macros alone too. This is a big and probably an impossible project, but I try to create something.

Cheers,
aok

aok wrote:Cristian, Thank you for your time and comments

You are welcome, Aok.

aok wrote:I understand your point of view to keep this tool an easy-access tool for everybody and having fun without forcing anybody to do something you don't want. Fun and challenge is my first priority when racing. Some have fun when you can do career like a real F1 driver and this is what Codemasters have offered lately and it would be nice if you could take some elements from there. I don't have much experience from Codemasters F1 games, only F1 2010 and F1 2013. Nevertheless, You can call me a hardcore player, I can't play AI in 110 level, but for me the hardcore comes when you drive in level where your skills are and race and live your career realistically as much as possible.

No problem about your lack of experience in Codemasters. I only played F1 2013 in a regional tournament, finishing 3rd out of 202 participants (and F1C was the only sim-racing game I have played in the last five years since 2013). As I said before, some of your proposals are possible to accomplish for me. The only problem is that takes a lot of work; I have to redone completely the SXX-Results spreadsheets.

I though that this tool was more than enough for hardcore players! Is impressive for me too see users demanding more.

aok wrote:I have a secret, don't laugh. I started sim racing with rFactor in 2007 and before that F1C9902 was only a short visit for me. I find this F1 Challenge VB mod one month ago   and I couldn't believe my own eyes when I saw this masterpiece and it make me also said "Do I have enough time to drive all those mods and tracks during my lifetime?"

Nothing to laugh from.

aok wrote:I don't want to push all my ideas on to your tool. I just want to help, because there are also hardcore players with their needs. So I took your idea to make my own tool. I have thinking that it would better to do tool which is more like a DLC for your workbook. It's a separate workbook with harcore stuff and it update all necessary data from your workbook. So data goes only one way. Basically it is easiest way to use and there is not too much stuff in one workbook, so all are nicely and cleanily seperated. If you are a "non hardcore" player you can use basic tool just like before and ingnore DLC. And if you want in the middle of the career some challenge then just open DLC and find right season tab and activate hardcore mode. And difficulty level of all DLC stuff elements can be adjustable, that's no problem.

Some of them are just not possible for me. I have very little experience using Excel.

Your help is welcomed. I welcome any (of your) proposals and ideas.

What I understood is that you are going to do your own Career Simulator tool. Isn't it?

You will do it from scratch, or just based on my work?

Is complementary to my (and Markus) excel file?

If your excel is complementary to mine, please, have patient, because I will update the career mode simulator in November or December of this year. The update will imply moving some cells from SXX-Results and delete others from the same spreadsheets.

One more thing:

And if you want in the middle of the career some challenge then just open DLC and find right season tab and activate hardcore mode.

Is the season tab preconceived - typed - by the player, or is it given by the creator of the tool? (As if it were programmed)

If  is by chance the second case, sorry, Aok. But that is not the right way. The functionality of the tools must be universal: any Formula One season must benefit of it, using just ONE spreadsheet. For example, S01-* works for any Formula One season. The user can enter the Formula One season he wants. Doing spreadsheets per Formula One season is a terrible error that could ruin the versatility of the tool.

aok wrote:But there is a one big problem. If you some day update your version, it might be that you have moved some cells and deleted others, then I'm in trouble. Though DLC works with older version. I see, Markus and you haven't used macros in this tool. They are useful and handy to use if you know what you are doing, but when a bug appears, it is a nightmare to solve it. I leave the macros alone too. This is a big and probably an impossible project, but I try to create something.

Cheers,
aok

I don't know even what Macros is!  

I started to use Excel (from an user-experience perspective) just 2 months ago.

Having attended all of wat you have written (and thanks for your time too!), please, could you answer me the questions?

If your work is complementary to mine, please, be patient. Once I release CMS 1.02, feel free to develop anything you want.

But remember, the first and foremost priority is to make the tools user-friendly. This is not something incompatible with hardcore playing.

Kind regards,
Cristian Luis.

skandre7 wrote:Hi Cristian i've been trying to run akoVCR and I can load track.dat file but everytime i load replay file it crashes, any ideas ?

I finally got it. You need to launch the application in Windows XP (SP2 or SP3) configuration mode, as well as an Administrator.

(Seems that this tools need also the ultimate solution I written before for F1C application...)

Regards skandre7,
Cristian

Hi, Cristian Luis

Cristian Luis wrote:As I said before, some of your proposals are possible to accomplish for me. The only problem is that takes a lot of work; I have to redone completely the SXX-Results spreadsheets.

I know. It's not just copy paste and then all works without problems. Copying cells with formulas between spreadsheets is not easy.
There is, must be somewhere a solution to do this easier way, but I haven't find that method yet.

Cristian Luis wrote:I though that this tool was more than enough for hardcore players! Is impressive for me too see users demanding more.

Your tool is enough for hardcore gaming. Perhaps I am in the last 10% who wants even more. I don't have used, but I know an excel tool called "belini gp32k team career" made for GP3 game.
You are driver and/or team owner 3-7 seasons. You have budget and possibility to develope your car, but the user non friendly part is that you need to patch game files during career with patch tool.
This excel tool is made for real hardcore players and for me it is too complicated to create or even use.

Cristian Luis wrote:What I understood is that you are going to do your own Career Simulator tool. Isn't it?
You will do it from scratch, or just based on my work?
Is complementary to my (and Markus) excel file?

- I will do my workbook from scratch named "Hardcore player_DLC.xlsx", this workbook doesn't include any chells from your workbook.
- I need your workbook CMSv1.01 or CMSv1.02 only to be in a same folder where my workbook is, so I can gathering information from LineUps and results.
- I don't need to change or edit your workbook, for me it is like a info storage. Some hyperlinks between workbooks would be useful, I have to thing how add them.  
- Your workbook do all basic things so well that it is time waisting to me do that part again. My tool is only 50% Career Sim Tool, so I need access in copy of your tool.
- I would be happy if you and Markus can give me a permission to use your work that way.
- Later, if my project will be ready, you can test it and if you like it you can include/copy my work into your work/folder.
- When I finish some part of my work, I can send you a beta version for testing if you want. After that you have much better picture how it will works and you can lead me to the right direction how to make it more user friendly.

Cristian Luis wrote: Is the season tab preconceived - typed - by the player, or is it given by the creator of the tool? (As if it were programmed)

I don't know if I understand your question right. I quess you want to know how player choose hardcore season in middle of career. It is not programmed, no macros.
Rare example: You click hyperlink from your workbook, it take you then to the same season tab in my workbook, confirm to activate hardcore season - typed by the player. But there must be also a note in your    
workbook which remind you that hardcore season is activated and end of the season you have go to check how hardcore season was developed.
At the moment I don't know how to do it properly.

Cristian Luis wrote:The functionality of the tools must be universal: any Formula One season must benefit of it, using just ONE spreadsheet.
For example, S01-* works for any Formula One season. The user can enter the Formula One season he wants.

Don't worry the functionality is same as yours. Spreadsheets from S01- to S20-.

Cristian Luis wrote:I started to use Excel (from an user-experience perspective) just 2 months ago.
Once I release CMS 1.02, feel free to develop anything you want.

I have 1 year. The possibilities are endless, you'll see!
There is no hurry take your time,

Thanks,
aok

aok wrote:Hi, Cristian Luis

Cristian Luis wrote:As I said before, some of your proposals are possible to accomplish for me. The only problem is that takes a lot of work; I have to redone completely the SXX-Results spreadsheets.

I know. It's not just copy paste and then all works without problems. Copying cells with formulas between spreadsheets is not easy.
There is, must be somewhere a solution to do this easier way, but I haven't find that method yet.

Cristian Luis wrote:I though that this tool was more than enough for hardcore players! Is impressive for me too see users demanding more.

Your tool is enough for hardcore gaming. Perhaps I am in the last 10% who wants even more. I don't have used, but I know an excel tool called "belini gp32k team career" made for GP3 game.
You are driver and/or team owner 3-7 seasons. You have budget and possibility to develope your car, but the user non friendly part is that you need to patch game files during career with patch tool.
This excel tool is made for real hardcore players and for me it is too complicated to create or even use.

Cristian Luis wrote:What I understood is that you are going to do your own Career Simulator tool. Isn't it?
You will do it from scratch, or just based on my work?
Is complementary to my (and Markus) excel file?

- I will do my workbook from scratch named "Hardcore player_DLC.xlsx", this workbook doesn't include any chells from your workbook.
- I need your workbook CMSv1.01 or CMSv1.02 only to be in a same folder where my workbook is, so I can gathering information from LineUps and results.
- I don't need to change or edit your workbook, for me it is like a info storage. Some hyperlinks between workbooks would be useful, I have to thing how add them.  
- Your workbook do all basic things so well that it is time waisting to me do that part again. My tool is only 50% Career Sim Tool, so I need access in copy of your tool.
- I would be happy if you and Markus can give me a permission to use your work that way.
- Later, if my project will be ready, you can test it and if you like it you can include/copy my work into your work/folder.
- When I finish some part of my work, I can send you a beta version for testing if you want. After that you have much better picture how it will works and you can lead me to the right direction how to make it more user friendly.

Cristian Luis wrote: Is the season tab preconceived - typed - by the player, or is it given by the creator of the tool? (As if it were programmed)

I don't know if I understand your question right. I quess you want to know how player choose hardcore season in middle of career. It is not programmed, no macros.
Rare example: You click hyperlink from your workbook, it take you then to the same season tab in my workbook, confirm to activate hardcore season - typed by the player. But there must be also a note in your    
workbook which remind you that hardcore season is activated and end of the season you have go to check how hardcore season was developed.
At the moment I don't know how to do it properly.

Cristian Luis wrote:The functionality of the tools must be universal: any Formula One season must benefit of it, using just ONE spreadsheet.
For example, S01-* works for any Formula One season. The user can enter the Formula One season he wants.

Don't worry the functionality is same as yours. Spreadsheets from S01- to S20-.

Cristian Luis wrote:I started to use Excel (from an user-experience perspective) just 2 months ago.
Once I release CMS 1.02, feel free to develop anything you want.

I have 1 year. The possibilities are endless, you'll see!
There is no hurry take your time,

Thanks,
aok

Hello again, Aok! (This message will be very short.)

I read everything you write. Thanks for answering my questions. You can use the career mode simulator 1.01. Feel free to create anything you want.

The only problem is that I can't be your beta-tester. I have very limited free time, even in Christmas. What I can do is give accesibility. Use the colors of my Excel tool (in yellow cream cells you can edit).

I'll try to release the 1.02 version in December. Don't worry, it will not have any conflict with 1.01. Race objectives for each team, as well as overtaking positions now have influence in the career mode.

Only one thing: please, do not be so severe with penalizations. Hardcore-gaming doesn't mean difficulty to use. Be inclusive with newcomers who want to use your tool. It means giving the fullest dedication. And having an easy to use tool is key for extract all the potencial. Tools with very difficult (or even impossible) accesibility and usability are ─in my opinion─ just worthless garbage.

Regards,
Cristian Luis.