GPM2 2008 - The Manufacture Era

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 18 Jan 2016, 18:25

90/10 to car development for Prodrive. Start researching Semi-Auto box.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 18 Jan 2016, 18:39

Seeing everyone is doing it, Honda also would like to start work on semi-auto transmission, with development bias going to 75% to new car and 25% to R&D.

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 18 Jan 2016, 18:58

We'll set our plan to 85/15 and develop a semi-automatic gearbox.

Peteroli34 · Post by **Peteroli34** » 18 Jan 2016, 22:15

BMW planes for the 2009 car will be set at 80/20

Collieafc · Post by **Collieafc** » 18 Jan 2016, 22:41

Mclaren will keep development at the default value (80/20 I think?)

We will also focus R&D into traction control

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 19 Jan 2016, 18:44

FMecha wrote:We'll break in to Toyota and Force India.

All attempts Fail.

Ataxia wrote:We're just whoring out our EMS, aren't we?

Super Aguri will begin to develop a semi-auto gearbox, and would like to break into Williams and Red Bull to steal any parts with a higher rating.

You break into Williams and find their Floor, Front Wing, and electrical system are all better. You attempt to steal the wing but a Williams crewman spots you, you trade the secrets of your Vanes to keep them quiet and get the Front Wing.

Unfortunately Super Aguri are too understaffed to fit the front wing in time for the opening race, but you have it.

peteroli34 wrote:BMW will start to develop a Semi Auto gear box

Done.

Normal32 wrote:STR will start developing 50/50 of the following driver aids:

Advanced Steering
Semi-Auto Gears

Done

East Londoner wrote:Red Bull will set their development rate to 85/15 in favour of next season's car.

We'll also begin to develop our Semi Auto gearbox.

Done, Also confirmed your 2009 car plans.

Miguel98 wrote:Force India will change it's plans: we'll set it to 80/20 and develop an semi-automatic gearbox

Done

Biscione wrote:90/10 to car development for Prodrive. Start researching Semi-Auto box.

Done

FMecha wrote:Seeing everyone is doing it, Honda also would like to start work on semi-auto transmission, with development bias going to 75% to new car and 25% to R&D.

No problem.

novitopoli wrote:We'll set our plan to 85/15 and develop a semi-automatic gearbox.

Done

Collieafc wrote: Mclaren will keep development at the default value (80/20 I think?)

We will also focus R&D into traction contro l

Going for an interesting route.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 19 Jan 2016, 19:37

The Final important part I will cover before the first race is Sponsorship and Commercial (Manufacturing will be dealt with after the first race now.)

To attract a sponsor, you need to focus your Commercial department on target sponsors, deciding how to split your time is essential. Here are the sponsors listed in order of how much money they will pay.

As far as I am aware, the country of the sponsor (even if it's wildly inaccurate in the game!) does not matter, though I have no concrete proof.

The difference between a 1 star and a 5 star sponsor is enormous. You are talking multiple 0's difference in value!

Once you have a sponsor interested (I will report all interested sponsors between races) you can sign them and place them on your car.

As the picture demonstrates some areas are more premium then others. So you want the better sponsors in the expensive zones to maximise profit.

Now the Important part, It's a Hyper competitive world! Sponsors are only willing to offer 5 spots on a car/overalls total. So a team may share a sponsor but that sponsor will only cover 5 spots across both (so it could be 2/3 split or something.) There are 26 Sponsors willing to cover 5 spots meaning 130 sponsor positions possible. If you add up the 12 teams each with 23 possible sponsor slots, there are 264 spots! Meaning that even if all sponsors are signed, over half of possible sponsor space will be left blank, this is huge and probably the most important part of the game.

So commercial departments are very important. Here are the numbers and heads of staff:

Here are the costs for each member of staff.
Excellent 48,000. Very Good 44,000. Good 40,000 Average 36,000 Trainee 32,000

Ferrari
E10, VG10, G1 (Department Cost 1.100 Million)

McLaren
E10 VG 1 (Dep Cost. 0.674 Million)

Renault
E10 VG5 (Dep. Cost 0.850 Million)

BMW
E3 (Dep. Cost 0.276 Million)

Red Bull
E4 (Dep Cost 0.324 Million)

Toro Rosso
E4 (Dep. Cost 0.312 Million)

Williams
E10, VG7 (Dep. Cost 0.932 Million)

Force India
E3 (Dep. Cost 0.270 Million)

Honda (Frankly the only department they have that has a good leader, which is quite ironic given the Earth Dreams they actually went for!)

E6 (Dep. Cost 0.420 Million)

Super Aguri
E3 (Dep.Cost 0.276 Million)

Prodrive

E4 (Dep.Cost 0.300 Million)

Jordan

E4 (Dep. Cost 0.336 Million)

----------

TL/DR? Look at the sponsor list and tell me who you want to target. If you want better odds of success hire more staff and do well in the races.

You also may have noticed that AT&T (Bottom tier sponsor) is willing to sponsor. This is true of every team, so I am offering it to everyone first come first serve. But I'm warning you, it's a season long deal at very little money per race. (It's still better than nothing but remember it could take the spot of another, better sponsor.)

Post by **Londoner** » 19 Jan 2016, 20:13

Red Bull will hire four more Excellent staff for their commercial department. We will then concentrate our efforts on the following sponsors:

FedEx: 50%
Petronas: 30%
Martini: 20%

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 19 Jan 2016, 20:20

Renault will concentrate on the following sponsors:

Bridgestone 50%
Marlboro 30%
Credit Suisse 20%

Post by **Miguel98** » 19 Jan 2016, 20:22

Force India signs 5 average staff members for their commercial department, and focus on said sponsors:
Bridgestone (70%)
Intel (20%)
02 Mobile (10%)

Post by **Ataxia** » 19 Jan 2016, 20:36

Super Aguri will hire 7 excellent staff and 10 very good staff, as well as 5 trainees.

We will pour our time into the sponsors as follows:

Denso - 60%
Santander - 30%
Mobil 1 - 10%

Normal32 · Post by **Normal32** » 19 Jan 2016, 20:42

STR will hire 3 more staff per category

Sponsorship focus:

Marlboro - 100%

Peteroli34 · Post by **Peteroli34** » 19 Jan 2016, 20:47

BMW Will hire 10 Excellent staff and will try to attract the following sponsors

Panasonic - 65%
Vodafome - 25%
Pepsi - 10%

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 19 Jan 2016, 20:48

Williams will fire all the very good staff in the commercial department, and replace them with 30 excellent staff.

We'd also like to focus on the following sponsors:
Shell: 50%
Vodafone: 25%
Ethiad: 25%

Finally, we'll sign AT&T to spots O, S, J, M and T

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 19 Jan 2016, 21:04

Wizzie wrote:Williams will fire all the very good staff in the commercial department, and replace them with 30 excellent staff.

We'd also like to focus on the following sponsors:
Shell: 50%
Vodafone: 25%
Ethiad: 25%

Finally, we'll sign AT&T to spots O, S, J, M and T

And Williams Nab AT&T. They will pay Williams 0.341 Million across 16 races (1 year)

Everything that has been posted above this post has been done in game no problem.

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 19 Jan 2016, 21:11

40 percent on FedEx and ING. 20 percent on Marlboro. I also want to produce calendars. Furthermore, I'd like to replace all very good employees with 8 trainees.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 19 Jan 2016, 21:13

Klon wrote:40 percent on FedEx and ING. 20 percent on Marlboro. I also want to produce calendars. Furthermore, I'd like to replace all very good employees with 8 trainees.

I wasn't going to mention Merchandise as I feel it bloats the game also you'd need to take some away from targeting sponsors to do it as even the game agrees merc is a waste of time with the default being 100% focus on sponsors. But if you really want calenders I can have you make calenders.

Collieafc · Post by **Collieafc** » 20 Jan 2016, 12:52

McLaren will quadriple their current commercial staffing and also hire a further 6 VG guys on top of that. 100% in FedEx for now

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 20 Jan 2016, 15:25

50/50 between Martini and Red Bull.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 20 Jan 2016, 18:28

40% on Pepsi, 30% on Dell

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 22 Jan 2016, 15:15

Kubica and Prodrive shock the world!

Qualifying came regardless if the teams were ready or not as the first round comes smack in the face and to the surprise of everyone it is Robert Kubica who finds himself on pole a tenth and a half ahead of BMW's Alonso. The preseason favourites were McLaren and Ferrari. With Button 3rd and Villeneuve 5th decent but not the front results expected. Ralf Schumacher confirms Prodrive's pace with 4th but with Four teams in the top 5 it is sure to be a good race and hopefully good season.

Less than 1 second covered the entire top 12. With rookie Allmendinger a very strong 8th and Coulthard leading the relaunched Jordan team to a strong 9th on the grid showing his career isn't over yet!

Renault are going to be disappointed to be in the 2nd half of the time sheet, especially with such quality drivers but this is the first race, don't panic yet. Whilst perhaps as expected, the Honda powered cars prop up the back, with Super Aguri besting former partners Honda, now with Toyota power! Yamamoto lines up last, but easily qualifies for the race.

Of bizzare note is the pace of Nico Rosberg, who is a long ways behind his lesser experienced team mate, certainly question marks there, possibly car trouble. Whilst Mika Hakkinen is also some ways from his team mate on his return.

The race is 58 laps long and predicted to be dry all race. You can give me instructions on race strategy. Either specific laps to stop or you can just tell me to do a 1-2-3 stop ect. You have 10 hours from this post to come up with a strategy or you get the ai chosen default (Which varies from toxic to pretty good!). Have fun!

Post by **Miguel98** » 22 Jan 2016, 17:51

Force India will run a 2 stop strategy for both drivers, with Sato pitting on lap 22 and 43 and Bourdais on lap 24 and 38

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 22 Jan 2016, 17:55

Ferrari will run conservatively in the first race:

Jacques Villeneuve stops on laps 20 and 39.
Karun Chandhok stops on laps 19 and 40.

Post by **Ataxia** » 22 Jan 2016, 17:58

Two stops for Super Aguri, laps 21 and 41 for Nakajima, with 20 and 40 for Glock.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 22 Jan 2016, 18:33

Two stops at 20 and 38 (Nick) and 19 and 39 (Sakon), please.

Peteroli34 · Post by **Peteroli34** » 22 Jan 2016, 21:31

Alonso - 2 Stops - Lap 19 & 42
Klien - 3 Stops - Laps 10, 29, 45

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 22 Jan 2016, 21:40

Vettel: 2 stops (22, 43)
Kovalainen: 2 stops (23, 44)

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 23 Jan 2016, 01:39

Vettel takes surprise win as Button runs out of Fuel! Injury for Allmendinger!

Button had the race all but won, but his tactic of an early 2nd stop didn't work as the fuel tank, though technically big enough did not have any margin for error, and they errm errored.

This was a good race of strategy with quite a bit of passing when cars were on cold tires. Kubica, Alonso, Villeneuve, Button and Vettel all led at various stages. Vettel's late stop strategy and pace in the early race is what allowed him to win. His team mate Kovalainen was on a similar strategy but because he could not stay within pitstop time behind the leaders, they would emerge ahead and slow him down.

Kubica tried a 3 stop strategy and it just didn't work, infact none of the 3 stop strategy drivers ended up with good results. Alonso's bid for victory was ruined by a drive through penalty for pitlane speeding Whilst Villeneuve couldn't pass Vettel and later went out with engine trouble.

Massa had the fastest lap of the race but was otherwise struggling to overtake. Still he comes home a nice 3rd, he certainnly looked happier on the podium than Button did, the Brit managing to limp the car home, but in doing so bled the car dry so a new car has to be built!

Prodrive came home 5th and 6th, before the season that would be a dream result, though Kubica could possibly have come home with more points!

Coulthard had a quiet run in the Jordan, the car seeming not to have the race pace it had in qualifying, though the Scott had a much better go of it than Montoya.

The Renaults were both lapped, surprisingly not fast in the race either. Rosberg had better race pace than qualifying but relative low attrition meant no points were avaliable. Allmendinger would have been a threat for a top 8 finish, but the rookie was the only driver to spin out of the race and unfortunately seems to have inured his foot. He will be out for 2 races and looks set to be replaced by rookie Dutchman Giedo van der Garde.

Toyota were slow, Michael Schumacher ghastly slow. Heidfeld actually was on pace with cars around him. He managed to outpace Super Aguri before they went, was running ahead of Chandhok even.

Toro Rosso, Force India and Super Aguri had the misfortune of double DNFS. It is unlikely they would have been challenging for points today but Davidson at least looked quick and Force India were both ahead of Renaults. Super Aguri were both out very early. Yamamoto never even got going, his sponsor money managed to buy him a good seat to watch the start from, if not actually take part!

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 23 Jan 2016, 11:15

Shame I missed the boat on strategy. My instinct would have been to 2 stop Kubica, maybe a podium could have happened had I intervened!

Right, sooo.....things that need done at Prodrive.

Hire 4E and 4VG extra staff to Commercial, and chase the following sponsors;
70% Lenovo
20% Intel
10% RBS

Change staffing levels in design to; E12, VG10, G6,
Change staffing levels in mechanics to; E12, VG10, G6

Change staffing levels in engineering to E15, VG10, G5, and do the following;
Shift engineering balance to 75/25 in favour of in-house parts
Put their manufacturing effort to 100% in Vanes

Try and break into Super Aguri, then Honda, then Toro Rosso, all for their EMS again (after all, STR should now have Level 5 having nicked it off Aguri to start with, eh?)

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 23 Jan 2016, 11:44

Biscione wrote:Shame I missed the boat on strategy. My instinct would have been to 2 stop Kubica, maybe a podium could have happened had I intervened!

Right, sooo.....things that need done at Prodrive.

Hire 4E and 4VG extra staff to Commercial, and chase the following sponsors;
70% Lenovo
20% Intel
10% RBS

Change staffing levels in design to; E12, VG10, G6,
Change staffing levels in mechanics to; E12, VG10, G6

Change staffing levels in engineering to E15, VG10, G5, and do the following;
Shift engineering balance to 75/25 in favour of in-house parts
Put their manufacturing effort to 100% in Vanes

Try and break into Super Aguri, then Honda, then Toro Rosso, all for their EMS again (after all, STR should now have Level 5 having nicked it off Aguri to start with, eh?)

Okay, soon I will post a summary of very team with news of what has happened after the race. But all this is now done. You break into Super Aguri and find their Gearbox, EMS, Airbox, Vanes and Frontwing are all better. You can't steal EMS, so you trade it for your electical system.

You can now run level 5 driver aids.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 23 Jan 2016, 11:48

Williams will join Prodrive in breaking into Super Aguri, Honda and Toro Rosso. We will also start development on an in-house gearbox

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 23 Jan 2016, 12:38

Ferrari - 28,411,962 (-1.433 Million) - Klon
Drivers: Jacques Villeneuve, Karun Chandhok, Jarno Trulli

Car Weight: 664 KG
EMS: Level 3
Fuel Tank 40%

Car Stats:

Engine Power A+,EMS needs upgrading and engine runs too hot (need better Airbox)
Engine Acceleration A: Upgrade EMS
Chassis Aerodynamics: E, possibly worst in the game, improve everything!
Chassis Internals: B+. pretty good, improve steering system.
2009 car progress: 8%

McLaren 22,871,169 (-2,128.831) Collieafc

Fellipe Massa - Jenson Button - Sebastien Buemi

Car Weight: 663kg
EMS Level 3
Fuel Tank 40%

Engine Power: A, can improve transmission and EMS
Engine Acceleration: B+, improve EMS
Aerodynamics: D, bad, improve rear wing, front wing and sidepods.
Internals: B, Need better brakes.

Traction Control is now Level 1!

2009 car progress: 12%

1 New Chassis paid for, (-0.250 Million)

FedEx wish to sponsor you! (4 star interest)

Renault - 28,136,316 (-1.773.072) - Novitopoli
Drivers: Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Romain Grosjean
Car Weight: 653 KG
EMS Level 5
Fuel Tank 40%

Engine Power: A, can improve Transmission.
Engine Acceleration: S, you have the best acceleration.
Aerodynamics: C, Rear wing, Sidepods and Vanes can be improved
Internals: D, the new EMS needs testing (this will be done via racing)

2009 Car status: 8%

BMW Sauber - 28,227,854 (-1.653.046) - peteroli
Drivers: Fernando Alonso, Christian Klien, Pedro de la Rosa
Car Weight: 652 KG
EMS level 1
Fuel Tank 40%

Engine Power: A, Transmission and EMS can be improved
Engine Acceleration: B, EMS needs improving.
Aerodynamics: B, Front Wing, Rear Wing and Vanes can be improved.
Internals: A, Brakes, Suspension and Steering can be improved.

2009 car Progress 6%

Red Bull - Renault - 18,906,828 (-991.442) - East Londoner
Drivers: Nico Rosberg, AJ Allmendinger (Injured 2 races), Giedo van der Garde
Car Weight 659 KG
EMS level 5
Fuel tank 40%

Engine: A, Can improve Transmission
Acceleration: A+, Best Acceleration.
Aerodynamics: A, Rear Wing, Sidepods and Airbox can be improved
Interals: A+: Brakes, Suspension and Steering can be improved

2009 car progress8%

Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 18.703.359 (-1.238.479) - Normal32
Mika Hakkinen, Anthony Davidson, Adrian Sutil
Weight: 662 KG
EMS Level 5
Fuel Tank 50%

Engine Power: A+, can improve Transmission
Engine Acceleration: Joint Best.
Aerodynamics: C, can improve Rear Wing, Front Wing and Sidepods
Internals: Gearbox needs testing.

New chassis for Davidson (-0.250 Mil)

2009 car progress: 4%

Williams - BMW 18.677.522 (-1.165 Million) - Wizzie
Sebastien Vettel, Heikki Kovalainen, Scott Dixon
Weight 649 KG
EMS Level 3
Fuel Tank 90%

Engine Power A+: Transmissio and EMS can be improved
Engine Acceleration B: EMS can be improved
Aerodynamics: C, Rearwing, Sidepods and Vanes can be imprved.
Internals: D, Brakes, Suspension and Steering can be improved.

2009 car progress 9%

Force India -Ferrari - 19.427.777 (-0.387.953) - Miguel98
Sebastien Bourdais, Takuma Sato, Nico Hulkenberg
Weight: 665
EMS Level 3
Fuel Tank: 70%

Engine Power: A+, Need to improve Transmission and EMS
Acceleration: B, Need to improve EMS
Aerodynamics: A, Sidepods, Vanes and Airbox could all be improved
Internals: Team feel car needs testing (can only do races sorry!)

2009 car progress 3%

Honda - 29,100,035 (-0.693.585) - Fmecha

Nick Heidfeld, Sakon Yamamoto, Bruno Senna
Weight 664 KG
EMS Level 5
Fuel Tank: 60%

Engine Power: A, can improve Transmission
Acceleration: A+ Joint best
Aerodynamics: B, Rear Wing, Front Wing and Sidepods can be improved
Internals: They feel car needs testing.

Dell are interested in sponsoring the team (5 stars), you still have 30% of time not allocated.

2009 car progress: 2%

[b]Super Aguri - Toyota - 19.047.441 (-813.159) - Ataxia
Timo Glock, Kazuki Nakajima, Kamui Kobayashi
Weight 648 KG
EMS Level 5
Fuel Tank 40%

Engine Power: A, Transmission can be improved
Engine Acceleration: A+ Joint Best!
Aerodynamics: A+, Rear Wing can be improved (A lot of the best parts your crew have only just fit, they didn't have enough time before Race 1)
Internals: Car needs testing

2009 Car Progress: 7%

Prodrive - Mercedes - 20,000,000 - Biscione
Robert Kubica, Ralf Schumacher, Jos Verstappen
Weight 668 KG
EMS Level 5
Fuel Tank 80%

Engine Power: A+, Transmission could be improved
Engine Acceleration A+ Joint Best!
Aerodynamics: A, can improve front wing, vanes and Airbox
Chassis Internals: A, Team want more testing on EMS.

10%

Jordan - Chevrolet 18.849 Million (-1.035.174) - Wallio
Juan Montoya, David Coulthard, Antonio Pizzonia
Weight 675 KG
EMS level 5
Fuel Tank 40%

Engine Power: A+ish, Can improve Transmission
Acceleration: Joint best (It's just the EMS guys)
Aerodynamics: D, Not great, Rear Wing, Front Wing and Sidepods need updating
Internals: C, Brakes, Suspension and Steering could be improved
Car is generally pretty heavy.

2009 car progress: 0% (You must hire more designers!)

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 23 Jan 2016, 12:48

Wizzie wrote:Williams will join Prodrive in breaking into Super Aguri, Honda and Toro Rosso. We will also start development on an in-house gearbox

Okay, you break into Honda, and find their Cooling System, Gearbox, EMS, and Sidepods are all better.

What I did is I stole the Gearbox, before work started on your new one. so you don't lose out.

Post by **Ataxia** » 23 Jan 2016, 13:27

Super Aguri will break into Prodrive and Force India, and see if their rear wings are better than ours. If not, we'd like to plunder their bases for anything of value.

novitopoli · Post by **novitopoli** » 23 Jan 2016, 14:05

Abysmal.

We'll break into Prodrive, Honda and Force India, to see if something like rear wings, sidepods or vanes can be improved.

We'll then start development of those things we cannot steal from anyone.

Normal32 · Post by **Normal32** » 23 Jan 2016, 14:29

10 more excellent designers in all departements.

Also, we will break into Prodrive to steal anything suspiciously better than us.

The fuel tank will be put to the lowest level possible in order to max out performance.

Lastly, Hakkinen gets placed-swapped by Sutil.

Post by **Miguel98** » 23 Jan 2016, 15:45

Ataxia wrote:Super Aguri will break into Prodrive and Force India, and see if their rear wings are better than ours. If not, we'd like to plunder their bases for anything of value.

In responde, we break into Super Aguri to try to steal their EMS.

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 23 Jan 2016, 16:23

Let's see whether Honda or Super Aguri have a dank airbox or anything else of value.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 24 Jan 2016, 01:55

Ataxia wrote:Super Aguri will break into Prodrive and Force India, and see if their rear wings are better than ours. If not, we'd like to plunder their bases for anything of value.

Both attempts Fail.

novitopoli wrote:Abysmal.

We'll break into Prodrive, Honda and Force India, to see if something like rear wings, sidepods or vanes can be improved.

We'll then start development of those things we cannot steal from anyone.

You break into Honda and find their cooling system, Gearbox, Sidepods and Vanes are better.
As Vanes are higher valued than Sidepods, you steal the Vanes.

Not really sure what you intend to manufacture, so I had you building the cheapest item, the stepped floor.

Normal32 wrote:10 more excellent designers in all departements.

Also, we will break into Prodrive to steal anything suspiciously better than us.

The fuel tank will be put to the lowest level possible in order to max out performance.

Lastly, Hakkinen gets placed-swapped by Sutil.

You didn't specify team, so I'm just going to break in in Championship order working down. Amazing you fail yo break into any team!

10 Staff added, Fuel Tank set to 40% and Sutil in the lead car.

Miguel98 wrote:
Ataxia wrote:Super Aguri will break into Prodrive and Force India, and see if their rear wings are better than ours. If not, we'd like to plunder their bases for anything of value.

In responde, we break into Super Aguri to try to steal their EMS.

You break into Super Aguri and find their Gearbox, EMS, Electrical System, Sidepods, Airbox and Vanes are all better. You steal their EMS.

Klon wrote:Let's see whether Honda or Super Aguri have a dank airbox or anything else of value.

You break into Honda, unfortunatly they don't have a better airbox, but they do have better vanes, sidepods, Gearbox, EMS and Cooling System. Due to your cars problem I've nabbed the Cooling System...that didn't work, had to trade Honda your suspension layout to get the cooling system.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 24 Jan 2016, 02:25

We'll go to Toro Rosso, Force India, or Williams for Sidepods. Also, now that the sponsor have shown interest, what to do next?