Update 1.6.4: Endurance Championship, Custom Avatars, Driver Injuries & Spanish Tracks

Race Manager Update 1.6.4

We are thrilled to present Race Manager Update 1.6.4! This update introduces a brand new discipline of endurance motorsport with weekly 100-lap marathon stages in the Endurance Championship, a fully custom SVG avatar personalization suite for drivers and staff, a massive expansion of Spanish circuits alongside the Korean GP, and comprehensive gameplay mechanics for driver injuries, staff mental profiles, and weight training.

[NEW] New Features & Content

• Endurance Championship — Weekly 100-Lap Marathon Races:
  • Compete in grueling weekly 100-lap endurance stages requiring careful pit-stop strategy, driver stint rotation, and fuel conservation.
  • Bespoke sporting regulations, dedicated factory car preparation (Endurance Factory), and a separate team championship ladder with high-stakes prize pools.
• Custom Modular Avatar Suite for Drivers & Staff:
  • Fully in-house SVG avatar engine: customize facial structures, realistic modern hairstyles, eye colors, beards, and eyewear.
  • Authentic motorsport attire: official FIA overalls, engineering team polos with intercom headsets, sharp managerial suits, racing caps, beanies, and Formula 1 helmets built to FIA 8860-2018 ABP specifications featuring rear diffusers and customizable visors (iridescent rainbow, dark tint, and clear optics).
  • Dynamic team identity: team livery colors and logos appear directly on your personnel's uniforms, caps, and helmets.
  • Interactive avatar and livery editor accessible right from driver and team cards.
• Track Roster Expansion:
  • Spanish Circuits Suite: Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo, Circuit del Jarama — San Sebastián, Circuit de Pedralbes, Circuito De Almeria — Almeria, Circuito Monteblanco — Huelva, Motorland Aragón — Alcaniz, Montjuïc circuit, Circuito de Jerez — Jerez de la Frontera, and the Valencia Street Circuit — Valencia.
  • Korea International Circuit: Technical Asian circuit known for its massive back straight and rapid technical sector sequences.
• Driver Health & Injury System:
  • Motorsport carries real risks — drivers can now encounter physical ailments and injuries between league stages, requiring careful roster management or reserve driver call-ups:
    • Minor Illnesses (Fitness penalty, cleared to race): Seasonal flu, food poisoning, neck muscle strain. Drivers can still compete, but face a 30–45% penalty to effective fitness and suffer accelerated fatigue over race distance.
    • Acute Illnesses (Miss 1–2 races): Appendicitis, viral infection, wrist sprain. The driver is placed on medical leave while your test/reserve driver takes over the cockpit.
    • Severe Injuries (Miss 3–4 races): Displaced fracture from a cycling accident, fractured clavicle. Requires extensive recovery guided by your team Physiotherapist.
    • Injured drivers display medical bandages on their profile avatars until they make a full recovery.

[UPDATE] Gameplay & Balance

• Sprint Races Update:
  • Added new balancing conditions and revised multipliers for the weekly sprint standings and rating system.
• Age-Related Skill Decline (Age 33+):
  • Drivers aged 33 and older now experience natural physical decline: upon Level Up, skill points can no longer be invested into physical attributes (Speed, Consistency, Reaction). Veteran drivers may only develop tactical and mental skills (Tire Management, Overtaking, Defending, Adaptability).
• Expanded Driver Skill Training:
  • Skill points can now be directly allocated to improve Reaction (grid launches, safety car restarts, and pit box departures) and Adaptability (pace in wet weather and speed on unfamiliar circuits).
• Staff Mental Profiles (Engineers & Managers):
  • Staff specialists now possess three core mental attributes:
    • Talent (Potential): Innate capability determining attribute points awarded per Level Up (+1 point for 0–49%, +2 points for 50–84%, +3 points for 85–100%).
    • Learning Rate: Scales race experience (XP) gain with a dynamic multiplier between 0.85x and 1.15x.
    • Loyalty: Measures commitment to your team and heavily impacts contract extensions:
      1. Contract Salary Discounts:
         • High Loyalty (85%+): Specialist signs with a 15% discount to requested salary (-15%).
         • Stable Loyalty (70–84%): 8% discount to requested salary (-8%).
         • Low Loyalty (below 45%): Demands a +10% premium due to skepticism about the team's future.
      2. Negotiation Flexibility: Highly loyal staff are substantially more accommodating on signing bonuses and salary compromises.
      3. Breakdown Protection ("Offended" status): Staff with 80+ loyalty grant your team 4 negotiation attempts instead of the standard 3 before walking away. Rejected offers decrease loyalty slightly (-4, or -15 on negotiation breakdown), while signing an extension awards +5 loyalty (up to 100).
• Driver Weight Physiology & Fitness Training:
  • Driver weight can now be trimmed through focused training sessions in Headquarters.
  • Weight loss chance scales with training progress, driver age, and the skill of your Physiotherapist.
  • Every driver has a natural physiological minimum weight limit below which weight loss is impossible. The closer a driver is to their limit, the harder it is to shed additional kilograms.
  • Off-Season Realities: During the winter break, drivers relax — entering each new season they gain +1 to +2 kg and temporarily lose 3–5 points of fitness.

[FIX] Fixes & Optimization

• Race Visualizer Animation Optimization: Extensively optimized the 2D race visualizer and live position tracker. Reduced client-side CPU/GPU overhead, smoothed out high-speed overtakes, and eliminated frame stutter during dense pack racing.