If you are in any way shape or form a petrol head then Motorsport Manager is for you. It's super detailed in it's take on the genre. In game mechanics/systems it's waaaaaaay to detailed for me. The more I waded in, the more I both understood and had more game mechanic questions. Decisions can be impactful in the short and longterm.
This game has game mechanics like an F1 car. Each part is linked to another which is directly or indirectly linked to something else. Etc. Etc.
For my part I'm an F1 fan, not as much as I used to be but still I'm familiar with the way that world works. So the game did appeal to me. I've been(still am) looking out a long time for good sim/management games. But to see it from this game's super detailed perspective. Well it finally broke me today. Broke me because I want a more casual game than this one provides. I've fully tapped out and uninstalled it.
It's a good game that will tick a lot of boxes for a lot of people. You can feel the pressure in a race, tenths of a second do count. Those decisions made back in HQ effect the long term on track performance. Never mind the second to second decisions in a race even if you can pause. It's a game where micromanagement pays off.
Games like this are ones I know not to fully get into because it would be all consuming. On a near 24/7 level. Far beyond "one more turn".
'Financial' gives a -5% on payments. A money saver that can help more in the start. Every penny does count! 'Ex Driver' allows you a +3 on Driver feedback and also increases your drivers stat improvement value. So faster on the job training. If I could have both I'd be happier!! The other choices are more niche imho. Definitely for the more expert Motorsport Manager veterans. I ran away screaming from those choices.
Once your manager persona is created you move on to create a race team. This depends on the DLC you have. I have the standard game, no DLC so F1 single seater for me(no GT). Once that's selected you get to choose the tier you want to start in. The higher the tier the greater the difficulty. The higher the tier the more costly the people and cars(the greater the competition/challenge). Tier 3 to me sounded reasonable. Nothing like a low level team, building them up and seeing them rise through the rankings etc....
There is then some tutorial handholding or if that's been done the financial package selection. The greater the financial package the greater the expectation on your team; But also the greater the perks. This section is a bit of voodoo magic in my book. Because your decision here can have the ability to alter your games 'difficulty' for real! Stats are mentioned and generalised in ways that will matter later in the game, matter a lot. Like team marketability and sponsorship deals. Money, money, money! 'Stonewell Bank' is the medium choice here and the best to straddle the line between a rock and a hard place. Longterm thinking.
Longterm is the key. Every race at the start will lose you a lot of money. While you can take a fair few hits to the beginning bank balance, longterm losing funds could snowball out of control.
On an up note I like the games e-mail/HQ UI menu system. The game has a great UI. Massive and complex, especially in a race. Once you start to know where everything is located it's great. Not 100% intuitive but very good in a muscle memory kind of way.
As for staff (drivers, designers and mechanics) I found aiming for staffers that are on the mid/lower skill end of the currently unemployed list. Cheap but not unskilled. In a building for the future kind of mindset. Keeping the wages/bonus terms a click or two under the expected offer helps sign and keep them. Bonus's can be tricky to work out. That whole system can see you spending too much to quickly. Especially if your team starts to really perform and everyone is getting bonus's left right and centre!! I've read that some higher end staff can be 'persuaded' to join but it's not really worked out for me. Like I said bonus's can be tricky to work with. Too low and they earn them all the time, too high and they never reach them.
Upgrading your buildings at the start is also a good cash spend. Factory above all. It'll be the best thing you can do to give your team a boost(Development, Improvement, R&D(brakes), Test Track).
With all that done you can start to build some parts. You'll go through a lot of parts. Parts wear out fast and you'll see them degrade when your pushing your cars hard in a race. Having the parts is one thing but improving parts is the better behind the scenes task. Which leads on to parts performance and reliability and then onto designing and building new better parts. But that's long-term. You can start off by building some new wings (front and rear) and designing something around brakes or gearbox.
Dealing in marketability is more black voodoo that can be a massive pain to interact with. Boosting the Sponsor Appeal will give prestige (like running an F1 team wasn't enough to have prestige), which in turn will work out for better sponsor deals. Splash out on a better helipad on your HQ and they will love you.
There's a lot you can fiddle with but eventually you can click on the bottom to continue/advance time
Congratulations! You may now uncurl yourself from the fetal position and start racing in the game!
Like I said if you are in any way shape or form a petrol head then Motorsport Manager is for you. Likewise if you are into super detailed micromanagement then you'll be in your nirvana with this game. It's soooooooooooooo super detailed. I can't emphasis that enough. None of it can be done 'casual', which was my main problem with the game.
Staff management, car management, race management, parts management, sponsorship management, company management, MANAGEMENT!
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