It’s Road Book time! On today’s agenda is one thing, and one thing only – and that’s DiRT 4. A few weeks back we asked you what you wanted to know about; in the last Road Book we gave you the lowdown on landrush, and this week’s specialist topic is… *drum-roll* Team Management!

Yup – this week’s update is dedicated to the inner workings of your very own race team; how you hire and fire your staff, branding your vehicles with your own livery and sponsorship deals, and improving your facilities so you can expand your team’s impact and performance.

A few of you eagle-eyed players have also noticed in the HUD that we are clocking your vehicle’s mileage too… Well, it’s all linked to your garage and how you buy and sell your collection of cars. We’ll cover off those details in this too, as it’s all connected! So sit back, relax, grab a cup of your favourite beverage, and hear all about our brand new Team Management system.

Your Team

Alongside a more fleshed out career mode, introducing Team Management was one thing that you guys were asking for when DiRT Rally dropped. And, while DiRT Rally captured the thrill of off-road racing in a way that it never had been before and introduced some elements of team management, there wasn’t much in the way of the whole motorsport experience outside of the car. Well with DiRT 4, that’s all changed.

So, once you’ve bought your first vehicle, you can head to the branding suite…

The Branding Suite

Of course – no team is complete without a name, a livery, colours, sponsors and driver numbers, and this is all customisable by you in the Branding Suite. Once you pick your team colours, these won’t just be used on your vehicles – they’ll be everywhere associated to your team. That includes being on your Service Area canopy, ground sheet, staff overalls, and even your transport lorry. Oh and for those of you that have been asking, your name and flag will appear on the car too.

Now, moving onto your livery. It’s not a fully customisable livery that you can design and upload yourselves, but we’ve given you the tools, patterns and designs to create your very own, extraordinarily smart-looking team ‘theme’, which all of your vehicles will be equipped with.

Your branding suite is also important for your team’s finances, as this is where you have the opportunity to shout out about your sponsors. At first, you’ll only have space for one sponsor – but again, work on expanding and upgrading your Sponsor Hoardings facility and more slots will open up to you. This is where you’ll also be able to view the status of your sponsors – how the relationship between you and them is, the duration of the sponsorship contract, things like that. Of course, your sponsor quality also depends on the negotiation skills of your PR Agent – so making sure you have a happy, well-skilled PR Agent is all part of the secret to your team’s success.

Staff

To start your team, you need to get some staff on board. You start off with a small yet perfectly formed set of employees, all covering the vital components of a motorsport team – including an engineer, a PR agent, a co-driver, and spotters for Rallycross and Landrush. There are some empty slots in the team locked to begin with, but these spots will unlock as you improve your facilities enough to cater for additional staff members (we’ll run you through the facilities section in a moment!)

For everyone you have employed, you also have a fact file of info on them – what their skill levels are like, what their mood is, what kind of cut they’re taking from your overall winnings, their contract duration. Once you’ve hired them you’ll find out if they have a particular trait you need to keep a look out for. These traits can be positive, but they can also be negative – and in certain scenarios, will affect the outcome of a certain situations. So keep an eye on your staff!

Facilities

Any good team needs some solid facilities to make sure they’re developing well and prepared for any eventuality – and in DiRT 4, part of the challenge with your team is ensuring this happens. Developing your facilities really opens up the potential for your team; for example, better accommodation means you can hire more engineers, expanding your garage means you can buy more cars, and even good catering makes for a happier workforce!

There’s a comprehensive suite of upgrades to your facilities available, but they’re also on the pricier sides of things – so you’re going to have to pick what to work on very strategically in order to meet your goals.

Your garage

Now onto your garage. This is your corner of the game where you can view the cars you’ve bought over your career. It’s also where you can view the vital stats about your vehicles, their spec, their mileage, how many times the car’s suffered from terminal damage, and even how many podiums you’ve managed to bag at its wheel. All of this information all contributes to your car’s resale value too – because in DiRT 4, if you’re strapped for garage space or cash, you can offload your less-used vehicles for extra cash.

And when you’ve got enough cash for your next car, you have two places available to peruse for your next off-road vehicle: the Dealership, and the Classifieds. As you’d expect, the Dealership is where you go for your brand new, nice and shiny vehicles – but the Classifieds is where you head to pick up some of the iconic cars of off-road racing.

Finally, a top tip when it comes to Classified ads: if you give the Private Collector part of your facilities a bit of love, you’ll improve your chances of seeing rare vehicles available for purchase in this bit. ;)

DiRT Rally PS VR – out now in Asia!

And finally, some news for our community over in Asia! DiRT Rally PS VR is now on your PlayStation Store – you can snap it up here: http://bit.ly/2nqMyGt

That’s all for this week’s edition! We’ll be back though, with the lowdown on some of the other topics you’ve requested. However, we’ll be back a little later than usual – the prime reason being that the week after next, some of the DiRT Team will be in Barcelona… we may or may not be filming another DiRT Show out there. ;)