A simple mathematical adjustment due to the new F1 points system is pretty much the only change to the game from last year.
The new for 2010 F1 points system
The new F1 points system gives proportionally less points to the top five finishing positions:
% of all Cumula- % of all Cumula-
Pos Pts points tive % Pts points tive %
1 10 25.64 25.64 25 24.75 24.75
2 8 20.51 46.15 18 17.82 42.57
3 6 15.38 61.54 15 14.85 57.43
4 5 12.82 74.36 12 11.88 69.31
5 4 10.26 84.62 10 9.90 79.21
6 3 7.69 92.31 8 7.92 87.13
7 2 5.13 97.44 6 5.94 93.07
8 1 2.56 100.00 4 3.96 97.03
9 2 1.98 99.01
10 1 0.99 100.00
The conclusion is that a larger portion of the shares are now worth placing elsewhere than on the frontrunners.
With the current uncertainties about the participation of certain teams, ie USF1, Campos and Stefan GP, extreme caution is advised regarding investment in these teams.
The text below is largely the same unintelligible bollocks as last year, except that the previous much loved factor of 25.7 has been changed to a very professional looking 9.92 due to the new points system.
Concept of the game
The players will be owning "shares" of the drivers participating in the F1 WDC!
A player will score points when a driver he/she holds an interest in scores points in a race.
Drivers are valued according to how much shares are invested in them:
-Frontrunning drivers get many shares and are expected to score often and highly, providing a steady points source but with little potential for real jackpots.
-Backmarkers get proportionally fewer shares and give a return less frequently, but when they do it they may be very rewarding as the dividends are shared by fewer shares.
Good "value for money" is investing in drivers that are undervalued, ie have disproportionally few shares invested in them compared to their actual points scoring potential.
Some pros for the game:
+ Easy entry format.
+ Editing entry for each round is optional, as the old entry carries over as it is otherwise.
+ Exciting scoring system making even backmarkers interesting for the game.
+ It is run by Makarias.
Some cons for the game:
- You initially won't know what value a driver will provide; I will however continually provide updates before the start of the season with the values for the drivers as entries (hopefully) roll in.
- As the entry rolls over from one round to the next, players need to keep track of their own share portfolios. Writing down for yourself what your current portfolio looks like is recommended, so you know what you've got.
I will provide data after each round that will help you analyze which drivers are worth investing in.
Submitting an initial entry
The first time you play this game, you shall submit an entry where you place 100 shares among the drivers, fulfilling these conditions:
* You may only hold 100 shares (or less, which doesn't help you) in total at a time.
* You can not own fractions of a share, just integer shares.
* You can place no more than 50 shares on any one driver.
* You must own shares in at least three drivers.
* You may not own shares in more than ten drivers.
* You may edit your first entry as much as you like until the edit deadline (first free practice) for the coming race.
Note that there is no limit to the number of shares available for each driver.
Also note that your initial entry is the basis for the following rounds too! You'll be allowed to change no more than 20 shares before each race, so make sure your initial entry looks at least 80% respectable...
Since nobody initially knows what the playing field looks like before the first race, I will give several updates on what the total share distribution looks like among the entries submitted so far.
Entry Example A:
Massa 37
Hamilton 22
Kovalainen 16
Webber 12
Vettel 10
Button 3
Editing your entry after the first round it takes part in
* After the first race your entry took part in, you may only change 20 of your shares at a time (for the next race).
* You do not have to edit your entry at all! If you so wish, you can leave your entry as it is from race one and not make a single change throughout the season. This is however a lazy option that won't make you ultimately competitive.
* If a driver is replaced -temporarily or permanently- during the season, the shares placed on him will automatically be transferred to the replacing driver. So you could say that the shares actually are attached to the car number.
* You may edit your changes as much as you like until the edit deadline for the coming race.
* Edit deadline for changes is the beginning of first free practice for each race.
Example B:
After the first race, the shareholder who submitted the entry in Example A realizes that Red Bull stink infinitely, and submits an edit to her entry as follows:
She decides to Sell:
Webber -10
Vettel -10
She decides to Buy:
Alonso +10
Hamilton +5
Kovalainen +5
Her new "portfolio" will after the entry look like this:
Massa 37
Hamilton 27
Kovalainen 21
Alonso 10
Button 3
Webber 2
The above change of shares can perhaps best be written like this:
Massa 37
Hamilton 27 (+5)
Kovalainen 21 (+5)
Alonso 10 (+10)
Button 3
Webber 2 (-10)
Vettel 0 (-10)
An edit doesn't have to look just like above, any way is fine as long as it's easy to understand which driver shares are to be sold and which to be bought.
NOTE: I won't automatically be posting updates on what each player's portfolio looks like, so remember to keep track of what you own!
The reason you're only allowed to change just 20 shares each round is that it adds some stability to the whole system: I hopefully won't get a nervous breakdown before every round, and the values for each driver won't move around all over the place from one round to the other. It will also force the players to think more long term with their investments.
Keep in mind that when there are shares removed from a driver, the potential return from the shares that remain will increase and vice versa. Holding many shares in a backmarker is an inefficient investment, as for each extra share you get your ownership percentage won't increase by much.
Points Scoring
*The score a player receives from a driver is calculated like this:
[DScore] = 9.92*[TShares]*[DRace]*[PDShares]/[DShares]
where
[TShares] = The total number of shares in the entire game at the moment
[DRace] = The number of points the driver in question scored in the race
[PDShares] = The number of shares the player owns in the driver
[DShares] = The total number of shares owned in the driver in question by ALL players.
In order to only mess around with integer scores, the 9.92*[TShares]/[DShares] factor will be rounded off DOWN to the nearest integer. This factor equals the amount of game points one share will give per WDC point scored by the driver in question.
*The player's total score of the round is simply the sum of the [DScore] values from all drivers.
Thanks to the 9.92 factor, and the [TShares] factor scaling scores up with the amount of players, an average total score for a round will always be around 100,000 points or 1000 points per share, regardless of the number of players. At least if there are shares owned in all points scoring drivers.
Example C:
Felipe Massa finishes 2nd in a race; there are 30 players in the game all with 100 shares each; 400 of all shares are placed on Massa. The entry in example B will then score approxrimately
9.92*3000*18*37/400 points, which with the rounding off will amount to exactly 49284 points. A good result from 37 shares. 400/3000 shares would mean a driver is valued at 13.4666... points per race, and second place obviously is better than that.
Edited by Makarias, 23 February 2010 - 12:10.