To kick things off, I’m Jenny, the new Social Media Manager for the F1 community. I know what you’re thinking: “Not another new community voice!” But I can assure you that I’m here for the long haul! You may well have already seen my posts on our social channels for the past couple of weeks, but rest assured that my focus is now going to be switched onto F1 moving forwards.

In terms of my role, you’ll be happy to know that I've been specifically hired to bridge the gap between Codemasters and the community. Some of you are no doubt looking for an update with regards to F1 2015 patches. So without any further ado, here are some updates:

F1 2015 - PATCHES

In the next week or so, we’ll be releasing our next PC patch. We have been working hard to try to address a number of issues that you have raised, and a special thanks goes to those of you who have provided extensive information and feedback in order to help us to track the issues down. Perhaps the most notable change is the addition of a multiplayer session list to allow you to search for all public sessions, in addition to numerous other multiplayer, AI and game fixes, as well as the first of our post launch ‘2015 season sports updates’ and a number of high end PC enhancements.

Here you can find the specifics of what will be covered in the patch:

Game

• Added a session list screen which is available via the Multiplayer menu. This screen will allow players to search for all public sessions and join the one they want to. Custom and Hopper sessions will be visible on this list.
  
  
• Multiplayer fixes and improvements:
  • Added additional information to lobbies so players can see how much progress has been made in the current session.
    
    
  • Parc ferme rules are no longer incorrectly applied so players will not get their fuel locked to 100kg in qualifying or not be able to change their tyres at the start of a race if they qualified outside the top ten.
    
    
  • Fixed an issue that would cause a players car to always be ghosted during timed qualifying sessions.
    
    
  • Fixed framerate and lag spikes causing incorrect collisions.
    
    
  • Fixed a bug that meant connections with limited upload bandwidth would appear laggy while on track and eventually disconnect.
    
    
  • Disallowing Brake Assist will no longer also block ABS.
    
    
  • Cars will no longer ghost when driving too slowly on track.
    
    
  • Fixed a bug which made the screen pulse black when spectating specific cars in specific circumstances.
    
    
  • Minor hopper improvements and changes
    • Removed the AI from all hoppers.
      
      
    • Removed the assist restrictions from the Hardcore hopper.
  
  
• Made the countdown timer longer and prevented it from starting for a short time if there are not many players in the session to try to allow more people to join.
  
  
• Changed the grid order to random from realistic. So now the players Mercedes cars will not always start on the front row.
  
  
• Updated the Feature Race to Brazil.
  
  
• Removed the incorrect second DRS detection zone from the Mexico mini map. This was not present in the actual track data.
  
  
• Corrected the number of laps for the Mexican Grand Prix.
  
  
• The player is now correctly disqualified for not using both compounds in a dry weather race.
  
  
• Improvements to AI behaviour in Qualifying:
  • AI will no longer all leave the garage at the same time.
    
    
  • AI will no longer use Prime tyres in Q2.
    
    
  • AI will always do two runs in Short Qualifying and Q3.
    
    
  • Fixed the flashing rear tyre issue present on some PC setups.
  
  
• Made the D-Pad menu more responsive to use.
  
  
• Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause OSD messages to remain on screen or to never display. This was mostly reported online but can be seen offline too.
  
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause new tyres to be too cold when they’re put on at a pit stop.
  
  
• Fixed a problem that could cause unrealistic lap times in practice and qualifying.

Sports Updates – Part 1

• Adjusted the relative performance of the teams and drivers based on the season’s results so far.
  
  
• Updated the tyres for Russia to Super Soft and Soft.
  

High End PC Enhancements

• New CPU-driven particle effects to improve visual quality on systems with high-end CPUs. Select “high” or “ultra” particle effects from the options menu.
  
  
• Increased audio voice counts for systems with high-end CPUs. Select the “high” audio quality setting from the option menu.
  
  
• Improved CPU performance for users with 6 and 8+
  
  
• Improved CPU performance for Intel CPUs with Hyper-Threading Technology.
  
  
• Optimised performance for Intel integrated graphics chips.

In addition to the above, we’re also working on the second part of our seasonal sports updates, which will include some updated visual changes to a number of the cars. Please note that we do not have free rein to include every change that has happened; we are at the mercy of working with each individual team in terms of the updates that they would like us to include. As soon as all of the updates are signed off, I’ll let you know more of the specifics.

So that’s how the patch roadmap is shaping up currently. Following that we’ll continue to closely monitor your feedback as we head into the New Year, and as our focus inevitably turns more towards next year…

GETTING IN TOUCH

After reading this you’ve, no doubt, got plenty of questions/queries (and quite rightly too). We’ll be answering as many as we can on here, but there’s plenty of ways to get in touch: leave a message here, or say hello on the community forums[forums.codemasters.com], leave a message/tweet the official Facebook[www.facebook.com] page/Twitter account!

You can read more in our blog here[blog.codemasters.com]!

In the meantime, I’ll bring you more updates as I get them. For now, thanks for your continued support, and I’ll have more for you soon!