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Pirate
2024 Apr, 20th 00:28:34 CET
Game rules
Last updated: Jan 1st 2024, 12:13:16
1. OverviewGrand Prix Racing Online is a motor sport management game, where you get to control and influence a racing team of your own. Sign drivers, technical directors, and staff. Negotiate with sponsors, and other managers to form teams. Set up your car for qualifying and the race, and set your strategy in order to become the best manager and win the Elite group title. 1.1 FormatThe highest level of the game is Elite, below this are 5 Master groups, followed by 25 Pro groups, 125 Amateur groups and 625 Rookie groups. All the groups form a 5 level pyramid where each level corresponds to the respective class with Elite on top, followed by Master, Pro, Amateur and Rookie. When a manager enters the game, they enter in the lowest Rookie class and their task is to make their way to Elite to achieve the ultimate goal of becoming the World Champion. 1.2 RacesEvery week, on Tuesday and Friday evening at 20:00 CET (Central European Time = GMT+1) we simulate a race, which you can watch unfold live on the internet whilst you can chat to rival managers in our forum or chat room. 1.3 Becoming a ManagerYour first task is to register your account. During the registration process you need to provide your real name, a valid e-mail address and choose a password for your account. Once you have completed the registration, you will be placed in a Rookie group and you will be ready to start your manager career. If you happen to register when there's a race in progress or during the short break between seasons, your account will be placed on the "Waiting List" until the race or season update is completed. Please note that your registration can be subject to verification at a later stage. 1.4 The beginning stagesYou will start in one of the Rookie groups, the lowest level in the game. You will receive $30,000,000, a standard (and pretty bad) driver, and a level 1 car if you join before the first race of the season, otherwise your money will be reduced depending on the number of races left in the season. Spend this money carefully, the only money you’ll receive from now on will be what you earn with your performance as a manager. 1.5 Points systemWe use the old Formula 1 point scoring system where managers in positions 1-8 get 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points respectively. 2. Preparing to raceBefore you can participate in a race, there are a number of things you must do to make sure you are prepared and to give yourself the best chance of doing well. 2.1 Update car Here you can spend money to improve your car. How you improve your car is up to you. The screen shows your current car characteristics, and the part levels and wear of your current car configuration. You can perform one of the following actions on each part:
2.2 Practice and QualifyWhen you are satisfied with your car preparation for the next race, you can proceed to the track. At the top of the screen is a run down of all the laps you have completed, with the settings you used, the lap time, and the amount of time the driver lost due to errors. The left hand side of the screen shows the circuit this race will take place on and its characteristics. It also shows the best qualifying lap, and the best race lap. The bottom left of the screen shows the weather forecast for the entire weekend, this may be useful when choosing your tyres and planning your pit strategy later. In practice you have 8 laps to try and achieve the best set up you can get. You must enter a setup for you car, and select a type of tyre to do a lap on. The risk setting only affects the qualifying lap. Only select "Qualify" lap type if you are satisfied with your setup as once you have done your qualifying lap you cannot do more practice laps. With each practice lap your driver will give feedback about how close to the setup they want you are with your settings. Some drivers are better than others at finding their perfect setup, you’ll need to experiment a little to find out how to find the best setup. Once you have used all your practice laps or are satisfied with your setup, select a qualifying lap. Choose your tyres carefully, as this is the dry tyre compound you will use for the rest of the Grand Prix weekend including the race. The risk setting will affect this qualifying lap, experiment to find out the best setting. Now you must complete your Qualify 2 lap, but this one is different, you do this lap with the fuel you will start the race with in the car (so naturally your time will be slower). This lap is combined with your first lap to produce your final qualifying time. There are no more opportunities for you to practice or get feedback from your driver. You can use your settings from the previous qualifying lap by clicking the “Get settings from Qualify 1” button, or you can alter your settings if you think you have better settings. Choose your fuel for the first stint of the race and select your risk and drive the lap. You can check your current grid position on the “Starting Grid” page. Note: Every practice lap will cost you $50.000 and every qualifying lap $100.000. 2.3 Driver race risks and driver energyEvery driver has a special attribute called driver energy. It defines the condition of the driver and is directly related to how hard the driver can afford to push the car in the next race. The higher risks you take in the race, the faster the driver energy will drop during the race. If your driver energy drops to 0%, your driver will complete the remaining laps of the race with no risks at a slower pace. Depending on their skills, some drivers may be better at preserving their energy during a race. On the other hand some tracks may be more demanding than others for the drivers. It is important to note that very few drivers can drive a whole race with maximum risks! In between races, your driver will slowly recover energy. It is very important for you to estimate how fast his energy will recover between races and what risks he will be capable of taking in the next race without running out of energy. The energy level will not affect the driver pace in practice, qualifying and testing, however your driver will lose some energy during his qualifying laps. 2.4 Race setup & strategyThis is where you confirm your car setup and strategy for the race. You can take your setup from either Qualify 1 or Qualify 2 or you can put a new one in. You must also specify the amount of fuel you wish to leave each pit stop with and the tyres you put on the car in the pits. You also need to decide how hard your driver is going to try to overtake, defend his position and set fast laps as well as how hard he pushes when there is a problem and how aggressive he will be at the start of the race.
Once you are happy with your setup for the race, confirm your settings. You can confirm your settings as many times as you like until the end of the qualifying session which is 1 hour and 30 minutes before the race start.
Remember you set your first stint fuel load in Qualifying 2, this is why you cannot change it, and your dry tyre compound was chosen in Qualifying 1, which is why you only have a choice of one dry tyre and wet tyres. 2.5 TyresEach season you can sign a tyre contract with one of nine different tyre suppliers: Pipirelli, Avonn, Yokomama, Dunnolop, Contimental, Badyear, Hancock, Michelini and Bridgerock. Managers in Rookie and Amateur groups may only use Pipirelli tyres (the cheapest supplier) and the contract will be automatically signed for them at the start of the season. Once a contract is signed, it cannot be canceled or changed until the end of the ongoing season. Each of the tyre suppliers will provide you with four different dry tyre compounds for each race: Extra Soft, Soft, Medium and Hard, as well as one wet tyre compound. The softer the compound the faster it will go but the less distance it will cover before it wears out. You need to find out for yourself how long tyres last. 2.6 FuelNot every car consumes fuel at the same rate, and not every driver uses the same amount of fuel, it depends on their driving style, you need to find out how much fuel your car and driver uses to get the best strategy available, the more fuel you have on board the slower your car will be. 2.7 Notes about strategy• If it is raining, we assume the whole circuit is wet.
2.8 Deadline for qualifying and setting up your race setup and strategyThe deadline for qualifying and setting up your race setup and strategy is 1 hour and 30 minutes before the start of the race. You can't do any changes after the deadline has passed! 2.9 Server availability and race postponement
If there is a significant server downtime or server downtime occurs within 2 hours of the qualifying deadline then the next race may be postponed at the discretion of the GPRO administrators. The administrators will evaluate the benefits of suspending the race on an individual race basis. The outcome of a race postponement may be one of the following depending on the severity and nature of the server downtime:
3. StaffBefore every race you have the opportunity to sign a new driver or Technical Director. Drivers and Technical Directors take their decisions between 19:00 and 21:00 CET on Mondays and Thursdays. It will cost you $500,000 to make a public offer to a driver, and anyone can make an offer to any staff member as long as the overall is not too high for the group they are in. Be careful because once you make the offer you will pay the $500,000 and it will not be refunded if you remove the offer. Once the deadline for making offers closes the staff will look at all the offers, and decide based on a number of factors (which again are up to you to discover) which offer is the best. If you are successful in signing a driver or technical director, you will pay the current driver or technical director a compensation equal to half their salary, for however many races are left on their current contract. 3.1 DriverYour driver has a rating called an “overall” which is based upon a combination of his skills. These skills determine a number of different factors in the game. The most obvious is how fast they can drive the car. However, the speed at which a driver can go is not the same in every situation, and some drivers may be better than others depending on the conditions. A driver is also not just about what happens on the track, some drivers have other skills which make them a better investment. It is up to you to determine what type of driver you want, and how different skills influence what happens during the course of a season. The following limits of driver overall apply for the different classes:
3.2 Technical directorThe technical director is an important part of the setup of your team. Again, they have an “overall” attribute which gives a general idea of their ability. The R&D skills affect the setup of your car, but obviously they all have different effects on different areas of the car. The Pit Coordination affects the time it takes for your pit staff to service your car when it pits. The options for signing a Technical Director are the same as those for signing a driver, the only difference is that it is not possible to renew the contract of a Technical Director. This is because they are not trainable so it would be unfair for one manager to tie up a TD for a long period of time.
3.3 Making staff offers and staff decisions (markets)When you need a new driver or you want to replace your old one you will have to make an offer to one of the available drivers on the market. The same applies to technical directors. You can make up to 4 offers before each staff decision but keep in mind every offer costs at least $500.000 (depending on the type and timing of the offer) and to change an offer you will need to remove the old one and make a new one costing you additional money. It doesn't matter to what staff the offers are directed, you could make 3 offers to drivers and one to a technical director, or 2 offers to drivers and 2 to technical directors. The maximum bonuses that you can offer to drivers and technical directors depend on your current money balance. If your balance is negative you will not be able to offer any bonuses at all. When making an offer the signing fee may not exceed 300% of the salary in your offer. If you are successful in your offers with for example 2 drivers, you will get the driver with the offer with higher priority and the other one will be canceled automatically. The drivers and technical directors will take a decision on Monday and Thursday (1 day before every race) between 19:00 and 21:00 CET and no offers can be made during that time. For more details on when the next staff decision will happen please check "Your offers" page. 3.4 General staff and facilitiesNext to a driver and possibly a technical director you need general staff and facilities. Staff is not characterized in number of staff, but in the level of skills. Some staff skills are variable with certain events, things you do (or don’t). Other staff skills are trainable. The better your staff, the more salary you pay. You can train staff only once per race, but training is limited by the level of your facilities. The average level of your facilities determines the limit of how much you can train your staff. This also means that if you have trained staff to the current maximum level, but downgrade a facility (decrease its level below a certain value) your staff skills will start to drop as well. Staff is important for the various steps in the process of converting test points into new car character points, but also for pit stops and sponsor deals. 4. Research, development, facilities & testing4.1 Car characterYour car is characterized by 3 values: power (P), handling (H) and acceleration (A). Circuits are also characterized in the same way. A car with a certain character will perform better on a circuit of the same type. Individual car parts make up the car character. E.g., the better the engine, the more points you get for power. The 11 different parts all add differently to the car character points. If all parts are equal level, then you car is balanced (B) in character. Through testing and R&D you can get additional points per character. 4.2 TestingIn between races you can do testing. Testing can be done for 2 reasons. The first reason is to learn a few things about the game. The other reason is that you can develop your car. Testing gives you test points. These test points are converted through a series of steps to additional car character points. These car character points are added to the points you have through car parts and they will make your car faster. Testing also affects certain driver attributes as well as technical director’s attributes and staff. Testing can be done several times in between races. E.g. you could go testing, then update car, then test again. Testing costs $1.000.000 per test session and it will put wear on your car parts! You cannot test with a car having any car part over 90% wear or when your balance is negative. 4.3 The testing sessionWhen testing you can setup the car in similar way to practice. You also can set a priority, which will set the focus of the knowledge you gain about the car. The focus ‘test car limits’ will not give you much knowledge, but is most likely to result in a very good lap time. The focus on ‘setup tuning’ will give you detailed feedback on car setup. You can run 100 laps at maximum and do a maximum of 10 stints. You need to choose how long (number of laps) your stint is, minimum is 5 laps and maximum is 50 laps. Out lap and in lap are not taken in account. If you run out of fuel or if your tyres don't hold the complete stint or if you otherwise fail to run all laps you had preset, the laps you did not drive will still be subtracted from the remaining total of test laps. 4.4 Research & developmentWhile driving test laps, you get knowledge about the car on three areas: power, handling and acceleration. This knowledge is shown in test points. The number of test points you gain depends on the focus of testing, the number of laps done, your driver, your technical director and staff. What follows is a fully automatic process which turns the test points into car character points. In more detail it works like this. You test and get test points. Next, you race and after the race the knowledge is (automatically) converted to new ideas (R&D points). This conversion depends on your technical director, staff and facilities. You do not have to have a TD or facilities to be able to do Research & Development. After each race, your new ideas (R&D points) are turned into production (engineering points). The success of this (automatic) conversion depends again on your technical director, staff and facilities. Again, you do not have to have a technical director or facilities to be able to do engineering. After each race, the engineering points are (automatically) converted into new part details ready to be fitted on the car (car character points). The success of this conversion depends on how many additional car character points through testing you already had per car character. The more points you already have, the harder it will be to gain new points.
It is important to know that the points you have gained through the process testing, R&D and engineering slowly decrease over time. If you stop testing, your additional car character points will decrease to 0. Of course, the other car character points from the car parts are not affected. There is no limit to how many additional points you can get through testing and R&D. Car points will be carried over at the end of the season, but you will lose some before the start of next season. 5. FinancesThere are various methods of making money in this game, and we recommend you to try and get hold of as much money as possible! 5.1 SponsorsSponsors will pay you a predetermined amount of money each race. It is up to you to negotiate a deal with sponsors. The way in which you negotiate and the type of sponsor you negotiate with will determine exactly how much money they are willing to pay you, so if they ask questions about your plans, think carefully before answering. Every sponsor is represented by few attributes:
5.2 Race costsEvery race, you will pay a salary to your driver, technical director and staff as well as maintenance costs for your facilities, in addition to any costs you paid from updating your car. Details of payments can be found in the race analysis page and the economy history page. 5.3 Race incomeAfter every race you will be rewarded for your starting position and for your final race position with money depending on the class you are racing in. The higher you finish the more money you are paid. The income for your starting position is given according to the following table:
112% race time rule: If your final race time is not within 112% of the winner's race time, you will not be classified and will receive only 50% of the race income according to the table above. This rule does not apply to Rookie groups. Example: If you finished in 40th position in Elite and didn't cover the 112% race time of the winner you will get only $5.500.000 for your race position. There is also an extra bonus of $1.000.000 available for fastest lap in the race. 5.4 Final standingsAt the end of the season (after the last race), the top 10 managers in the standings will be rewarded with additional money bonus (depending on the class they are racing in) according to the following table:
5.5 Negative balanceThere are a few drawbacks to going into negative balance. You will not be able to:
5.6 Cup competition and cup bonusThe cup competition is a side competition within your own group based on the 17 races in the season and consisting of 6 stages each of which can earn you a small financial bonus. The cup competition works according to the following scheme:
6. TeamsA team is a group of managers who have decided to compete together. Their points are combined depending on their group, to give a team score, which is used to compete against other teams. You can either join an existing team, create your own team or take over an inactive team. 6.1 Creating a teamOnly managers in Elite, Master, Pro and Amateur groups can create a team. Creating a team will cost you $5,000,000. You get to choose your own team name and are responsible for allowing other managers into your team. Managers will apply to join your team, and you must choose whether to allow them to join or refuse them entry. If you refuse them, they will not be able to re-apply for 2 weeks. If you accept them, they will fill up one of your roster spots; you have a maximum of 9 free roster spots. You must have a positive balance to create a team.
A team will continue to exist, as long as there is at least 1 manager in the team. When a team leader makes their decision about your application to join their team, you will be notified of their decision through the mailbox. Offensive, rude, or otherwise inappropriate team names will be removed, and the manager may be punished, if in doubt, ask an administrator before entering your name. The decision of the administrators is final. 6.2 Joining a teamJoining a team will cost you $3.000.000. You must apply to a team, where the leader will either approve or refuse you. If you are approved you will take the next available roster spot. You may only apply to a maximum of 3 teams at any one time. It is not allowed to join a team after Race 17 of the season, if your positive balance can't cover the cost for it. 6.3 Leaving a teamA team member can only leave a team if he resigns from the team, if the team leader kicks him out of the team due to a successful vote out or if the team leader kicks him out of the team due to inactivity (this is possible if the manager has missed at least 4 of the last 17 races). If a team member leaves a team, he/she will not get back the money for joining the team. If a team member leaves a team, all team members below him/her on the roster will move up a place. If a team leader resigns, the team member at roster position #2 will be promoted to team leader and the team name will remain the same. Further more when a team member leaves the team for some reason during the season, the team will lose the team points earned by the member during that season. 6.4 Team earningsAt the end of the season (after promotion/relegation is done) every team will receive $40.000 for every team point scored during the season. The total money will then be divided equally between the current members of the team.
As team members participate in races during the season their team points are added to the team total. Unlike the individual championship system, the team championship system awards points to all team members that finish races between position 1 and 30 inclusive. The formula for gained team points in a race for a team member is: TeamPoints = (31-RacePosition)/3 * GroupWeight, where GroupWeight is 1 for Elite group, 0.8 for Master groups, 0.6 for Pro groups, 0.4 for Amateur groups and 0.2 for Rookie groups. All this brings to team points gains as in the following table:
6.5 Inactivity in teamsIf at any time during the season you miss 4 consecutive races then for every next race you miss you will be moved one spot down in your team. This applies both to team leaders and normal members of the team and does not depend on the group you are racing in. For example if you are at spot #4 in the team and you miss 6 races in a row you will be automatically moved to spot #6, as a result the manager who previously had spot #5 will now have spot #4 and the manager that was in spot #6 will now be in spot #5. 6.6 Team vote outIn cases when the team leader decides that a team member does not fulfill the requirements of the team for some reason, he or she may start a team "vote out" against the team member. A vote out will cost the team leader $3.000.000 to initiate, and an additional $1.000.000 will be paid by each team member who participates in the vote out (including the team leader). When at least 8 team members have participated in the vote out it is considered successful and the team leader will be given the right to kick out the voted out manager from the team. A team vote out spans over two weeks time from the day it was initiated and only one team member can be voted out at any time. Note that team members who joined the team less than 17 races ago cannot participate in vote outs. 7. End of SeasonAfter the last race of the season the top 10 bonus is being rewarded to the top 10 managers in every group (look at point 5.4 above) after which we enter a small break, usually a couple of days, but sometimes maybe more or less. During this time, all race setup pages close and no further team decisions can be made, however you can still view the standings, car level and financial data. At some point following this, the end of season script will be run, which will perform the following tasks. 7.1 Promotion/RelegationThe top 3 managers in each group (excluding Elite) will be promoted to a randomly assigned group, one level above the level they are currently at. The bottom 15 managers from each group (excluding Rookie) will be relegated to the level below. Any manager, who finishes in the top 3, but with a negative balance, will not be promoted, and instead the next highest manager with a positive balance will be promoted in his/her place (this is limited to the top 8 in Rookie). Any manager who finishes with a negative balance shall be relegated to the division below. The highest placed manager in the relegation zone will remain in their group as a result. In the lower levels (Pro, Amateur and Rookie) extra promotion spots may occur if managers get retired, reset to Rookie, or deleted due to inactivity in the levels above. To make sure you are not in an additional promotion spot you can check the "All promotions" page at any time during the season. Note that in case when the groups structure of the game is under ongoing expansion or reduction, a different number of managers may be promoted or relegated in the different classes of the game.To avoid any confusion, make sure you check the span of the promotion/relegation zone in the standings of your own group. 7.2 Other mattersWhen the End of Season script runs, the wear on all parts is reset to zero, and all your parts remain at the level they were the previous season (except in the Rookie groups). Any manager with a negative balance will automatically sell their parts and facilities at half price, starting with the highest levels, until they reach a positive balance. In case the manager's balance is still negative after this, then the manager will get a donation from GPRO FIA which will cover his remaining debt and he/she will start the new season with $0. In the next step managers will get taxed according to point 7.3 below.
For managers in the Rookie groups money balance, car parts, staff and facilities, sponsors negotiations, car character points etc. will be reset at the start of every season. The only thing that rookie managers get to keep between the seasons is the driver if his overall does not exceed 85.
Points money and team money earned in the previous season will be paid to all managers.
The accounts for all managers in Rookie will be reset.
All managers who qualified for all 17 races in the previous season will get a bonus of $5.000.000 (including managers in Rookie). Any manager who starts a season in Rookie will do so with a financial penalty worth $200,000 for every point they scored above 50 points in the previous season. This penalty does not apply to managers who finished the previous season in Rookie with a positive balance. 7.3 Taxes7.3.1 Relegation taxesManagers who relegate to a lower class will get taxed as follows:
For a relegation from Elite to Master 70% of the money above $50.000.000 will be paid as tax. For a relegation from Master to Pro 70% of the money above $40.000.000 will be paid as tax. For a relegation from Pro to Amateur 70% of the money above $30.000.000 will be paid as tax.
Example: if you relegate with $100.000.000 from Elite to Master, you will have to pay 70% of $50.000.000 which is $35.000.000 in relegation taxes.
The 70% taxes for relegating managers will be applied before the casual 25% taxes (explained below) which apply for all managers who have more than $50.000.000 after the season reset. 7.3.2 Casual taxesManagers will get taxed on money over $50.000.000 at a rate of 25%. For example a manager with $65.000.000 will get taxed as follows:
$65.000.000 - $50.000.000 = $15.000.000
25% of $15.000.000 is $3.750.000. So the manager would pay $3.750.000 in tax at the end of the season. 8. Miscellaneous8.1 Inactivity and retiring from the gameManagers in Rookie who miss 3 consecutive races and who have done in total 0 GPRO races since they joined will be removed from the game immediately, otherwise they will be removed if they miss 5 consecutive races and if there are managers on the waiting list waiting for a free spot. At the end of the season managers in Amateur who didn't race in any of the last 6 races of the season, managers in Pro who didn't race in any of the last 9 races of the season, managers in Master who didn't race in any of the last 12 races of the season and managers in Elite who didn't race in any of the last 15 races of the season will be removed from the game before the next season starts. In case the need arises more players from Pro, Amateur and Rookie groups may be promoted in order to fill any free places in the higher groups. It is also possible to request to be retired at the end of the season. This is possible only if you send a request to one of the administrators before the end of Race 15 of the ongoing season. 8.2 Resetting your accountIf you are in Rookie and have done less than 17 races you can reset your account by using the "Account Reset" option in the "Account settings" page. In case you have done 17 or more races you have to wait for the next season to start and since all accounts in Rookie are reset at the season start this is your only chance to have your account reset. Use the remainder of the season to experiment and to learn! If you are in Amateur, Pro, Master or Elite and want to have your account reset you can use the "Account Reset" option in the "Account settings" page before the end of Race 15 of the ongoing season. You will be moved to one of the Rookie groups and your account will get reset when the new season starts. You will also lose your current driver (if you have one) irrespective of his overall. 8.3 Letting another manager take care of your accountIt is possible to let another manager to take care of your account (while for example being on a holiday), only if you set up the holiday period and the responsible manager in advance according to the instructions on the holiday page. Once this is done there is no need to provide your login details to the manager taking care of your account. The manager taking care of your account will be able to login into your account from the holiday page until the holiday period is over or canceled by you. Any violation of the guidelines established on the holiday page may be punished with cancellation of all the accounts involved. 8.4 Multiple accountsThere may be only one account per player, and one player per computer. Multiple accounts are not allowed! If we notice at any time that a person has more than one account, or more than one account is being used on the same computer (except in the case described in 8.3) then we reserve our right to restrict one or both accounts from further racing without prior warning and apply further punishments including but not limited to a ban from racing, forced Rookie reset, in-game financial penalty, or in extreme cases account closure. 9. CommunityThe community is an important part of GPRO, we want to have an exciting and vibrant community and we have provided three ways of communicating with your fellow managers. 9.1 ForumsAny user, who is registered and approved by the administrators, is entitled to use the forums. The official language of the forums is English. Other languages may be spoken in the foreign language forums only. The rules for the forum are:
9.2 Chat roomThe official language of the chat room is English. No other languages should be spoken whilst in the public chat room. It is strictly forbidden to impersonate a member of GPRO staff in the chat room. The rules for the chat room are the same as those for the forums. 9.3 Private messages (Mailbox)
You can send private messages to all managers, moderators and administrators through the internal mailbox. The rules you should abide by when using the mailbox are the following:
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