As the title suggests, this is some feedback based upon my experience with the game so far. I play on Playstation 5, and have played 5 races into my second season with a created team. Firstly, I am enjoying the game, despite some of the bugs already acknowledged hindering things somewhat. The creativity is very strong, and the base game is solid. I hope with a few patches this game will be a truly excellent edition of the series.
I've tried to group my observations into roughly similar areas for readability, but apologies if this is a bit rambly.
Accessability / Usability suggestions:
I've tried to group my observations into roughly similar areas for readability, but apologies if this is a bit rambly.
Accessability / Usability suggestions:
- On the Race Preparation screen, when moving your cursor highlight (console) between the two drivers, the cursor resets to either the top of the column, or the last row on that driver's column you previously had the cursor on, rather than passing directly across the column. (e.g. If you press right direction from Car Setup on Driver 1, the cursor will highlight Driver 2's name, rather than move directly to Car Setup for Driver 2.) Maybe this is by design, but it feels bad from a usability perspective if so.
- Pressing and holding a direction on the Car Setup modifiers does not repeat the command to move in that direction, and only adjusts the setup by one tick. Again, this could be by design, but is a little frustrating from an accessability perspective having to press the direction multiple times, rather than hold it for similar effect.
- Also on the Race Preparation page, there is currently no visual warning when your Car Parts are below optimal %s. There is a visual indication when they have faults, which is nice, but if my ERS dips below 40% during practice, there is no indication on the main page without mousing over the section. This was something that was present in the previous version, it would be nice if you could bring it back and change the Fault display to something distinct.
- All staff members carry a big negative Mentality penalty for "Car performance" without any indication what expectations I need to meet to correct this. When my team was finishing 21st/22nd, I can understand. But when by mid-season I was meeting my objectives and finishing 12-15th regularly, there was no change. Is this a bug or just something that is poorly explained? Some feedback on the staff members page about what they expect from the team would be very useful regardless. (e.g. Driver 1 expects to be challenging for points, but Driver 2 is just happy not finishing 22nd).
- Similar to above, but with the large negative Mentality hit for "Unhappy with Other Staff". What does this mean? Do I have a staff member who everyone particularly hates? Do I need to improve the overall rating of my staff members? (All my staff had this negative at max, despite my staff being mostly 80+ rated). More detailed feedback on what the problem is, so I can try to fix it, would be very useful.
- On the Team Branding page, it would be nice if there was a confirmation button before I accidentally randomise my entire branding with no way of reverting just as easily. Alternatively, just make the keybind a little less easy to accidentally press, or even remove the bind and have it as a button you highlight and activate with X instead?
- It seems a little strange that we cannot edit the colour of the driver numbers on the Car Livery. Being able to change the font as well would be very nice, but just colour alone would be a very nice improvement. If my car is white, the numbers just disappear.
- I saw this as a feedback pre-release, but would still like to echo it myself; being able to design both driver helmets would be a big improvement to the creative and immersion side. Helmet decals, would also be very nice.
- Being able to edit the design of the pit crew / staff uniforms would also be a huge immersion improver. Even if just being able to set colours, but ideally a full creator like the driver suit would be perfect, with decals and designs being selectable.
- Being able to use multiple logos simultaneously would also be a great improvement, I feel. If we could select our Race UI logo (the one that appears at the side of our drivers on the leaderboard), and also a separate logo for the non-Race UI, that'd be a really nice bit of immersion and creativity added in. Currently, creating an elaborate logo that would look great as part of a car livery, or on the main team page, doesn't necessarily translate to looking good during a race on the leaderboard.
- Related to above, but not necessarily required to be linked; being able to use logos saved in the editor as car decals, even if they're not set as your team logo, would add further depth to the livery and suit designers. (e.g. how Red Bull have both the Bull picture logo and the more simple text RedBull logo on their car.)
- More shapes, specifically the animal shapes, would be great in the logo editor too. I like a Dragon or a Lion as much as the next guy, but I'd love things like bears, cats, dogs, various birds etc. The logo designer is a really powerful tool, and I love playing with it, more options will enhance that further.