GPM2 1982 Mod project

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Nuppiz
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GPM2 1982 Mod project

Post by Nuppiz »

I'm posting this topic here as well, in case someone around here has some useful knowledge.

While redoing old mods for GPM2, I started to feel the urge to do something completely new. Or really old, depending on how you put it. After giving it some thought, I decided to go with the 1982 season for a number of reasons:

  • It was both a very tragic and tightly-fought season, with a number of horrible accidents and no less than 11 different race winners.
  • Turbo engines weren't yet massively overpowered compared to naturally-aspirated ones, making their implementation in the game easier.
  • It was the year of Keke Rosberg's first win and only championship.
  • The 35th anniversary of the season is right around the corner.

Here's some data I've gathered:

Teams

TP = Team Principal
CD = Chief Designer
CE = Chief Engineer
CM = Chief Mechanic
CMAN = Commercial Manager

D1 = Driver 1
D2 = Driver 2
TD = Test Driver

I'm aware that some of the test drivers listed weren't such per se, but fit in due to being mid-season replacements for their respective teams. Some team personnel were also put in positions which best fit their job descriptions despite not holding the exact same title. I'm also splitting the Ford DFV engine supply to three different options to fill more of the engine slots (A is the best available, B is slightly worse and C will be the last-chance option).

Ferrari-Ferrari 021
TP: Enzo Ferrari
CD: Harvey Postlethwaite
CE: Mauro Forghieri
CM: Paolo Scaramelli
CMAN: Marco Piccinini

D1: Gilles Villeneuve
D2: Didier Pironi
TD: Patrick Tambay

McLaren-Ford DFV/A
TP: Ron Dennis
CD: John Barnard
CE: Alan Jenkins
CM: Dave Ryan
CMAN: John Hogan

D1: John Watson
D2: Niki Lauda
TD: Stefan Johansson

Renault-Gordini EF1
TP: Gerard Larrousse
CD: Michel Tetu
CE: Bernard Dudot
CM: Jean-Pierre Boudy
CMAN: Patrick Faure

D1: Alain Prost
D2: René Arnoux
TD: N/A

Williams-Ford DFV/A
TP: Frank Williams
CD: Frank Dernie
CE: Patrick Head
CM: Alan Challis
CMAN: Charlie Crichton-Stuart

D1: Carlos Reutemann
D2: Keke Rosberg
TD: Derek Daly

Brabham-BMW M12/13
TP: Bernie Ecclestone
CD: Gordon Murray
CE: David North
CM: Charlie Whiting
CMAN: Herbie Blash

D1: Nelson Piquet
D2: Riccardo Patrese
TD: Corrado Fabi

Lotus-Ford DFV/A
TP: Colin Chapman
CD: Martin Ogilvie
CE: John Davis
CM: Bob Dance
CMAN: Peter Warr

D1: Elio de Angelis
D2: Nigel Mansell
TD: Roberto Moreno

Tyrrell-Ford DFV/A
TP: Ken Tyrrell
CD: Maurice Philippe
CE: Brian Lisles
CM: Roger Hill
CMAN: Neil Davis

D1: Michele Alboreto
D2: Brian Henton
TD: Slim Borgudd

Ligier-Matra MS81
TP: Guy Ligier
CD: Michel Beaujon
CE: Claude Gallopin
CM: Georges Martin
CMAN: Jean-Pierre Paoli

D1: Eddie Cheever
D2: Jacques Laffite
TD: N/A

Alfa Romeo-Alfa Romeo 1260
TP: Carlo Chiti
CD: Gerard Ducarouge
CE: Mario Tolentino
CM: Luigi Marmiroli
CMAN: Giovanni Tonti

D1: Andrea de Cesaris
D2: Bruno Giacomelli
TD: Giorgio Francia

Arrows-Ford DFV/B
TP: Jackie Oliver
CD: Dave Wass
CE: Evan Chance
CM: Dave Luckett
CMAN: Alan Rees

D1: Marc Surer
D2: Mauro Baldi
TD: N/A

ATS-Ford DFV/B
TP: Gunter Schmid
CD: Gustav Brunner
CE: Herve Guilpin
CM: Don Halliday
CMAN: Alastair Caldwell

D1: Manfred Winkelhock
D2: Eliseo Salazar
TD: N/A

March-Ford DFV/B
TP: John McDonald
CD: Dave Kelly
CE: Tim Feast
CM: Andy Miller
CMAN: Guy Edwards

D1: Jochen Mass
D2: Raul Boesel
TD: Rupert Keegan

Osella-Ford DFV/B
TP: Enzo Osella
CD: Giorgio Valentini
CE: Tony Southgate
CM: John Thompson
CMAN: Gianfranco Palazzoli

D1: Jean-Pierre Jarier
D2: Riccardo Paletti
TD: N/A

Other drivers
Experienced
Mario Andretti (1978 champion, drove a couple of races for Williams and Ferrari during the season)
Alan Jones (1980 champion, comeback attempts in 1983 and 1985-86)
Geoff Lees (drove a couple of races for Theodore and Lotus during the season)
Emilio de Villota (drove a privateer March during the season)
Chico Serra (drove for Fittipaldi during the season)
Jan Lammers (drove some races for Theodore during the season)
Derek Warwick (drove for Toleman during the season)
Hans-Joachim Stuck (last race in 1979, tested a Brabham in 1982)
Miguel Ángel Guerra (last race in 1981)
Kevin Cogan (last race in 1981, 6th in CART 1982)
Piercarlo Ghinzani (drove in 1981 and again from 1983 onwards)
Jacques Villeneuve Sr. (attempts in 1981 and again in 1983)
Mike Thackwell (drove in 1980 and again in 1984)
Héctor Rebaque (last race in 1981)
Siegfried Stohr (last race in 1981)
Beppe Gabbiani (last race in 1981)
Ricardo Zunino (last race in 1981)
Ricardo Londoño (one attempt in 1981)
Tiff Needell (last race in 1980)
Desiré Wilson (one attempt in 1980, most recent female driver until Giovanna Amati)
David Kennedy (seven attempts in 1980)

Rookies
Roberto Guerrero (drove for Ensign during the season)
Teo Fabi (drove for Toleman during the season)
Tommy Byrne (drove for Theodore late in the season)
Johnny Cecotto (debuted in 1983)
Jonathan Palmer (debuted in 1983)
Danny Sullivan (debuted in 1983)
Kenny Acheson (debuted in 1983)
Thierry Boutsen (debuted in 1983)
Jean-Louis Schlesser (one attempt in 1983)
Martin Brundle (debuted in 1984)
Stefan Bellof (debuted in 1984)
Philippe Alliot (debuted in 1984)
Gerhard Berger (debuted in 1984)
Philippe Streiff (debuted in 1984)
Ayrton Senna (debuted in 1984)
Pierluigi Martini (debuted in 1984)
Huub Rothengatter (debuted in 1984)
Jo Gartner (debuted in 1984)
François Hesnault (debuted in 1984)

Even after covering every driver who drove in F1 in the 1980-84 period, there's still four driver slots left. Some reasonable suggestions for these would be:
Satoru Nakajima (1981-1982 & 1984-1986 Japanese F2 champion, F1 debut in 1987)
Bobby Rahal (2nd in 1982 CART, two F1 races in 1978)
Rick Mears (1979 & 1981-1982 CART champion)
Henri Toivonen (tested a March and McLaren in 1982, was 1.4 seconds faster than March driver Raul Boesel)
Eje Elgh (3rd in 1981 European F2)

Tracks
Kyalami (made by Sean)
Jacarepagua (Backmarker's version has wrong layout, but could be used for now)
Long Beach (Sean's version has a different layout, but could be used for now)
Imola (GPM2 original has wrong layout, but could be used for now)
Zolder (needs to be done)
Monaco (GPM2 original is good enough)
Detroit (Backmarker's version has a slightly different layout, but could be used for now)
Montreal (GPM2 original is good enough)
Zandvoort (needs to be done)
Brands Hatch (made by Backmarker)
Paul Ricard (made by Backmarker)
Hockenheim (GPM2 original is good enough)
Österreichring (made by Giovani Sàntana)
Dijon (needs to be done)
Monza (GPM2 original is good enough)
Caesars Palace (needs to be done)

Extra circuits:
Silverstone (Giovani Sàntana's version has slightly different layout, but could be used for now)
Adelaide (GPM2 original is good enough)
Spa-Francorchamps (GPM2 original is good enough)
Nürburgring (GPM2 original is good enough)
Other possibilities include Estoril (GPM2 original, although slightly wrong layout), Dallas (needs to be done), Buenos Aires (needs to be done) Jarama (made by Sean) or Mexico City (either version will do).

Nationalities
I calculated 25 nationalities in total for all possible driver/track choices, so one has to be dropped in case of conflicts. I've specified the least-important nations in the list below.

South Africa
Brazil
USA
Italy
Belgium
Monaco
Canada
Netherlands
Great Britain
France
Germany
Austria
Switzerland
Sweden
Argentina
Ireland
Spain
Australia
Finland
Colombia (only needed for Roberto Guerrero and Ricardo Londoño)
Chile (only needed for Eliseo Salazar)
Venezuela (only needed for Johnny Cecotto)
New Zealand (only needed for Mike Thackwell)
Mexico (only needed for Héctor Rebaque)
Portugal (only needed for Estoril)

Engines
GPM2 has 16 engine slots, no more, no less. As the engines used in 1982 won't fill that amount I'll also include engines that debuted in 1983 (with worse-than-real-life stats) as well as a few other projects that were around.

Ford DFV, 3.0L naturally-aspirated (has to be split into three different slots to make it work properly for GPM2)
Renault-Gordini EF1, 1.5L turbo
Ferrari 021, 1.5L turbo
BMW M12/13, 1.5L turbo
Alfa Romeo 1260, 3.0L naturally-aspirated
Matra MS81, 3.0L naturally-aspirated
Hart 415T, 1.5L turbo
Alfa Romeo 890T, 1.5L turbo (actually tested for the first time at the 1982 Italian GP, so it fits very nicely)
Ford DFY, 3.0L naturally-aspirated
Honda RA163-E, 1.5L turbo
TAG-Porsche TTE PO1, 1.5L turbo
Matra MS82, 1.5L turbo. Developed with Ligier but never raced due to internal politics. Was also planned to be used by Williams.
Ferrari 015 3.0L naturally-aspirated from 1980. Still more powerful than the DFV.
Carma 1.4L turbo, fictionally enlarged to 1.5L. Used by Carlo Facetti in his Osella PA9.
Zakspeed BDA 1.4L turbo, fictionally enlarged to 1.5L. Used in their Ford Capri. The engine actually served as the basis for the 1500/4 used by Zakspeed when they entered F1.

As that actually pushes the amount of engines to 17, I'd like to hear your comments on what should be dropped.

Driver aids
One important thing to note about 1982 is that electronic driver aids weren't around yet - in fact, Lotus only just started developing their active suspension system in late 1982 and it wasn't until 1987 that it was introduced for races. So most of these will be banned by default, and as the in-game FIA unbans them think of it as new technology being invented instead of just being allowed to use. I'll only allow skirt (as it's basically ground effects) and probably replace the separate turbo with something more suitable. Maybe the fan they used in the Brabham BT46B...

Sponsors
As the cars look very different to their 90s equivalents, it'd be extremely hard to make sponsor logos fit on each car (especially as some cars had no proper front wings at all!). A mod-specific sponsor set might work, but because it would be a huge task especially for just one mod, another solution I've been pondering is to keep the original sponsors on each car and replace the in-game logos with blanks while still replacing the names with period-accurate brands. While this would reduce some of the immersion, it'd be far more esthetically pleasing than misplaced logos.

If you know something that could be useful for this mod (like some of the personnel who are still missing), don't hesitate to post.
Eurosport broadcast for the 1990 Mexican GP prequalifying:
"The Life, it looked very lifeless yet again... in fact Bruno did one, slow lap"
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Nuppiz
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Re: GPM2 1982 Mod project

Post by Nuppiz »

So after long periods of no progress at all, and an agonizingly long time it took me to finish a three-hour job for the last bit of graphics, all major work for the mod is done. Since I quite frankly suck at playtesting, I'm not releasing the very last, final version of the mod just yet. Instead, I've decided to postpone the full release of the mod to 22nd December, which will be the 10th anniversary of the public release of my first ever mod made from scratch - the 1993 Mod.

Until then, the game is open beta so you can freely play around with it. There's inevitably some things that still need to be corrected, whether its glitches or game balance.

Download here

Bonus points to anyone who manages to make Eliseo Salazar a world champion without cheating. :P
Eurosport broadcast for the 1990 Mexican GP prequalifying:
"The Life, it looked very lifeless yet again... in fact Bruno did one, slow lap"
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CaptainGetz12
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Re: GPM2 1982 Mod project

Post by CaptainGetz12 »

Looks like fun, I'll have to set aside time to play it. It's good to see people still use GPM2, though PSlutonrules's Let's Play of the 1996 Season probably helped in that regard. Awesome job!
Klon wrote:What did poor André do to you for him to be insulted like that?
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Nuppiz
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Re: GPM2 1982 Mod project

Post by Nuppiz »

Just pointing out that the mod is now fully released, download link is still the same as in the previous post.

Further updates will only happen if and when any of the still-missing custom tracks are made by someone.
Eurosport broadcast for the 1990 Mexican GP prequalifying:
"The Life, it looked very lifeless yet again... in fact Bruno did one, slow lap"
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