Blogg - The Driver Sponsor System Redesign

The Driver Sponsor System Redesign

The sponsor system in our game is quite basic and some managers are calling for a more advanced version for a long time already. We decided to start working on the system and now with the new GUI finished, it is time for a driver sponsor system redesign.

The Current System

The current system, as was already said, is quite basic. The driver receives a new sponsor offer every 3 days, the sponsor is always random, and the contract value is calculated from employees' PR manager skills and driver rating attributes. Sometimes the new sponsor offer conflicts with the current contracts and so it is not possible to sign it. Therefore, the driver loses money and the manager cannot do anything about it.

Starting Requirements of the New System

The goal of this change is to bring more management options and various sponsor management, but it is not necessary for managers to actively handle it. Managers can either have more fun with the game, or ignore the topic and focus on other things in the game.

The current game economy is well-balanced currently, and the goal is to keep it like that. To achieve this goal, the following requirements need to be fulfilled:

Every driver can have no more than 3 sponsor deals signed at the same time
The value of the best sponsor offers will be similar and potentially slightly better to what we have now
Keep parts of the current system for managers who do not want to spend additional time managing sponsors instead of focusing on racing.

Key Features

List of many sponsors in many industries and a manager will decide which sponsors to work with
Sponsor prestige to determine financial strength of sponsors (stars)
Driver reputation to describe how each sponsor values the driver
PR managers will build the reputation of driver

List of Sponsors

A huge database of sponsors will be added to the game, each of them belongs to one of the supported industries.

Sponsor names and logos

Sponsors will have default neutral names and logos, but managers will be able to redefine them in settings. There will be community package available similar to car names or car logos.

Sponsor prestige

Each sponsor will have its own value in form of starts from 1 to 5. More stars mean better prestige, which means these sponsors are capable of paying stronger contracts. On the other side, it is more difficult to build a good driver’s reputation with those sponsors. Lower prestigious sponsors will pay less money, but it will be easier to build a reputation with them.

Tobacco and Alcohol Industry

By default, these sponsors will not be available for the driver. It will be possible to turn on these sponsors in game settings, but users will have to read and confirm their understanding of a disclaimer which would explain the danger of smoking and drinking alcohol. It will also explain that having these sponsors in the game is not a promotion but only a copy of potential sponsors from the real life.

Driver’s Reputation

Driver's reputation will be a key influence in the calculation of sponsor offer value. It will grow faster for lower tier sponsors and slower for top-tier sponsors. The strength of assigned PR managers will also determine how fast a driver's reputation grows.

In addition to that:

driver's reputation to all sponsors not being interacted with will slightly randomly change
driver’s reputation to all sponsors in the same industry as a sponsor, which driver’s reputation is being improved, will decrease

PR Managers Interactions

PR managers employed by the driver will perform interactions with sponsors every day. There will be 3 modes available for the manager.

Mode 1 - fully automated PR managers behavior

based on number of PR managers (skill above 10) random sponsors are selected (3-10)
interaction with these sponsors will be performed during night calculation as if all PR managers are working on all sponsors together
sponsors will be selected randomly, but from every industry the one where the driver has the highest reputation will be selected. it will also be more probable that sponsors with already high reputation are selected above others so you keep good relations with .
sponsors with the adequate driver reputation will always have active sponsor offers to sign immediately - but the action to sign offer must be performed by the manager
no season long sponsors are possible

Mode 2 - semi automatics PR managers behavior

manager will select sponsors for PR interaction manually
interaction with these sponsors will be performed during night calculation as if all PR managers are working on all sponsors together
sponsors with the adequate driver reputation will always have active sponsor offers to sign immediately - but the action to sign offer must be performed by the manager

Mode 3 - manual PR managers behavior

manager will select sponsors for PR interaction manually
manager will select employees to interact with each selected sponsor
sponsors with the adequate driver reputation will always have active sponsor offers to sign immediately - but the action to sign offer must be performed by the manager

Sponsor Offers

Every sponsor offer will consist of 3 parts:

weekly payment
signing bonus
performance clauses

How sponsor offers will be calculated

The base value will be based on the driver's rating (similar to current calculation)
Reputation of sponsors will decrease that base value (for example 1-star sponsor will be 88% of the base value, 2-star = 91%, 3-star = 94%, 4-star = 97%, 5 star = 100%)
Driver's reputation will decrease that base value (0% reputation = 50% of value from previous point, 100% reputation = 100% from previous point)
Little random will be applied, so manager can decide to wait a day for a better offer

The total value of the contract is lower if money is paid in advance in form of a signing bonus. On the other side, a lower signing bonus means higher weekly payments and more total money on the contract.

Contract length

There will be 2 types of contract based on their length.

Variable length contracts

Those are similar to what drivers have now, but managers will be able to discuss with sponsors and get adjusted offers.

Contract length: 3-10 weeks

Season long contracts

Every driver can have signed 1 season long sponsor at a time. Such contract will be agreed for specific series, which has to be selected in advance.

Every driver can deal with up to 3 sponsors about a potential season long contracts. Once a contract is signed, driver's reputation to all unsigned season long sponsors will decrease significantly.

Contracts will be signed at the time of series finalization IF the driver is accepted to the agreed series. Only one driver in the same season series can have the same season long sponsor.

Contracts will have specified performance clause bonuses.

For each series, there will be a public list of season long sponsor discussions with data which would determine which driver will get the deal.

The priority for accepting a driver will be:

current driver in the series who passed conditions to trigger a performance bonus.
driver with the highest driver reputation
driver with the highest driver rating

Performance clauses

This intriguing concept will add some dynamics to the sponsor system. It will basically decrease the total guaranteed value of the contract in exchange for potentially better incentives if conditions are met.

The list of possible conditions will be specified later. The new system would work without that. The expected effect will be a 5 to 10% decrease in guaranteed money, and 2-5% extra money in case conditions are met.

Performance clauses will be only available for season long sponsor contracts. The following goals are options:

series championship
series top 3 in standings
series top 5 in standings
series top 10 in standings
win a race during the season
score a podium finish in season

Sponsor offer interactions

After seeing the received offer, the manager can interact with a sponsor and request changes in the contract.

request a higher contract value - this interaction can result in an improved sponsor offer the next day, but if the contract was already good, it can decrease the driver's reputation and so a weaker offer
request more signing bonus - this interaction can result in a higher signing bonus but lowers the weekly payments. If the already offered signing bonus is too high already (around 20% of contract value) this interaction will lead to the driver’s reputation decrease.
request higher weekly payments - this interaction lowers signing bonus, and increases weekly payments. If signing bonus is already at 0% and cannot be lowered, this interaction will decrease driver’s reputation.
request shorter contract length - this interaction shortens contract length. If contract length is already at 3 weeks and cannot be lowered, this interaction will decrease driver’s reputation. This works also for changing season long offer to shorter type.
request longer contract length - this interaction increases contract length. If contract length is already at 10 weeks and cannot be prolonged, this interaction will decrease driver’s reputation.
request season long contract - this interaction increases contract length. If contract length was shorter than 7 weeks, then sponsor is not happy with such request and reputation is decreased.
Add/remove/change performance clause - this interaction modifies performance clause on the contract, and it is without risk of driver’s reputation loss.
do nothing - sponsor offer with the same parameters will also be available next day, but for no more than 7 consecutive days

Note: those interactions which do not make any sense downgrade the driver's reputation

Dive Bomb Sponsor Offers

Every 3 days, the driver will receive an offer from a random sponsor. The conditions will be very similar to the current sponsor system. The driver's reputation is not relevant in this case, the sponsor might try to lure the driver from his current contract with a sponsor in the same industry. This option will also help young drivers to get reasonable sponsor offers at the beginning of their careers.

You can discuss this proposal at the following forum post:

https://www.myracingcareer.com/forum/5705/

by nicorz
#debik #sponsors