URS1 0.9.7: a new race car, scenery at every circuit, deeper telemetry, a mod ed

URS1 0.9.7: a new race car, scenery at every circuit, deeper telemetry, a mod editor and the Commission's agenda

This is the biggest update of Early Access so far.

• Every car on track is now built from your team's own design, and all 41 circuits have full trackside scenery.
• The pit wall gains eight new telemetry views, including a review of every pit stop.
• A Mod editor lets you change the drivers and teams before you start a career.
• The WMRC Commission now runs its own agenda: formulas, points, the fastest-lap rule and the calendar.
• A full review of every screen means any action that cannot be undone now asks first.

Your existing careers load and continue.

A new race car, built from your design

• Every car in the race, the showroom and the R&D Architecture preview is now built from the team's fitted design. The nose, sidepods, engine cover, wings and the other areas follow the design choices, so teams' cars look different from each other.
• Moving parts: the steering, suspension, spinning wheels and the driver's hands are animated. DRS opens the rear flap. Lost wings and punctures show on the car.
• Wear and damage: wear shows where it happened. A worn front wing marks the nose, and suspension wear marks its own corner.
• Cockpit view: the race camera cycle includes a cockpit view.
• If the new car gives you trouble, the Steam launch option -URS1LegacyCar brings back the 0.9.6 car.

Scenery at every circuit

• All 41 circuits now have full trackside scenery.
• If the scenery is too heavy for your PC, the Steam launch option -URS1LegacyTrackEnvironment brings back the 0.9.6 look.

Pit wall telemetry

• Compare laps: see where the time goes in 30 mini-sectors, broken down by type of corner. Compare against your teammate, any other car, or the fastest lap in the session.
• Tyre stints: lap time against tyre age with the fuel effect removed, a trend line for each stint, and a projection of when the tyres will drop off. Your teammate and the rest of the field are shown alongside.
• Ideal lap: your best lap, your ideal lap from the three sectors and from the 30 mini-sectors, and where the missing time is.
• Field pace: speed trap rankings, each team's best sectors, and an estimate of what the sectors say about your car.
• Practice runs: your practice runs are split into long runs, qualifying simulations and setup runs. Every run is compared at the same fuel load. You get a reading for the race tyre and the point where one compound becomes faster than another.
• Pit stop review: every stop is listed with time stationary, time in the pit lane, places before and after, and a verdict (undercut, overcut, slow stop, safety-car stop and so on). Your crew's average time is ranked against the other teams. You can see it during the race, in Results and in History.
• Pace trend (History, tab 7): your gap to pole across the season, a trend line over the dry rounds, and a marker for every upgrade.
• The practice reading is carried over to the weekend's STRATEGY tab, so you can see what practice says about the race tyres when you plan the race.
• The header's TRACK tile now shows the surface sector by sector (S1 DRY, S2 DAMP, S3 WET).

Mod editor

• Main menu > Mod editor: change drivers (name, nationality, age, pace, skills and more) and teams (name, principal, home circuit, budget, car rating, colours, seats and numbers).
• The editor checks your changes as you go and takes you straight to anything that needs fixing. A mod with errors is saved as a draft.
• Preview on the 3D car (P): see the team's car in the mod's colours.
• New career > MOD: start a career with a mod. A career remembers its mod.
• Mods are saved in Documents\My Games\URS1\Mods.

The WMRC Commission's agenda

• The WMRC page has a new AGENDA section, showing the formula roadmap, the Commission's decisions with their reasons, and what it is watching.
• At each season's end the Commission can: change the formula, with two seasons' notice; change the points system, with one season's notice; switch the fastest-lap point on or off, with one season's notice.
• What it decides depends on its philosophy and on how the championship has gone.
• Three new formulas can be chosen: a 3.5 L V12, a 1.5 L turbo four-cylinder and hydrogen combustion. Each has its own rules, testing allowance and reliability. Hydrogen is less reliable in its first seasons. The power, weight and fuel differences between formulas arrive in a later update.
• Venue contracts: the calendar is no longer redrawn at random each season. Each circuit holds a contract with an end date and a hosting fee. When a contract ends, the Commission renews it or gives the round to another circuit, based on: the racing there; safety cars; the hosting fee; local interest. The Calendar page shows each contract, its chance of renewal, and the circuits applying for a place.

On track

• Your career now changes your pace on track. The condition of your parts, the car's weight, illegal parts, and the driver's condition and relationship with the team now affect lap times, as they always should have. The formula's balance between car and driver applies too.
• Engine mileage slows a car a little, about a 1% loss of lap time on a well-used engine. Engine health still decides the risk of failure.
• AI drivers handle blue flags and making room better.
• The help pages have all been checked against the current screens, and many were rewritten. A new help page covers the Mod editor.

Asks before acting

These actions can't be undone, so they now ask for confirmation first:

• simulating a session, race or weekend;
• paddock promises;
• press-conference answers;
• hearing decisions;
• retiring a car;
• test days and track days;
• fitting a package or an R&D upgrade;
• changing an illegal part's area;
• exiting the game.

Fixes

• Going back into a race weekend already under way kept nothing. Your tyre, qualifying, weather and pit-wall calls and parc fermé were reset. They are now kept, including after a reload.
• A Sim weekend raced with the previous round's edited stop laps.
• − / ↓ now steps the race speed down; it used to cycle up.
• The stint planner could put a stop on or past the flag.
• Timed sessions showed "LAP 99999" and "lap 99999" in several places.
• Enter on the driver market, or on an academy junior who was not ready, could advance the week or start talks.
• Talks that had collapsed could be reopened by changing a term.
• Pre-season tests were all recorded as "Test Circuit".
• Settings and the main menu now take keyboard focus without a click.
• Many smaller layout and wording fixes.

Saves

• Careers from 0.9.6 and earlier load and continue.
• Pit stop records, qualifying conditions and upgrade dates start with this update. Races from before 0.9.7 have no stop review.