Driver Traits | The Undercut Wiki

Status: planned, not yet implemented. This page documents the design intent so the wiki and the codebase stay in sync as the system lands.

Stats (INT, PAC, CON, ADA, STA, AGG) tell you how good a driver is. Traits tell you how that goodness expresses itself. Two PAC-18 drivers can both be fast, but one is a metronomic clinical fast, the other is a feast-or-famine fast that crashes occasionally and wins occasionally.

Traits sit on top of stats. They never replace a stat; they bias the way the stat plays out in race situations.

What a driver trait is

Permanent for the driver — locked at the time the driver is generated (or signed)
Visible in the driver profile — listed alongside the 6 stats
Limited count — 2–3 traits per driver, drawn from a pool of ~30
Mechanical — modifies decision thresholds, mistake probabilities, physical limits
Some hidden — “shadow” traits only revealed after enough race data (e.g. “rain master” only shows after a wet race)

The point of traits is flavour + repeatable AI behaviour: a driver named “Vetri” with the Hothead trait will always punch above his weight in opening-lap chaos and underperform in the close cooler late-race phase. Predictable, characterful, plannable.

Planned trait pool

Mental

Trait	Effect
`Hothead`	+20% mistake risk under pressure, +15% overtake attempt rate, ignores team orders 30% of the time
`Iceman`	Pressure builds 2× slower; never spins under pressure ≥ 0.85; team-orders compliance 100%
`Stalwart`	Mid-race fatigue penalty halved (high stamina utility)
`Choker`	First-lap mistake risk +30%, otherwise normal
`Big Race Driver`	+1 effective stat across the board on lap 1 of championship deciders

Skill expression

Trait	Effect
`Late Braker`	+5% braking-zone overtake success; +10% lockup risk
`Smooth Operator`	Tire wear scaled −15%; PAC-1 effective penalty in qualifying (no edge-of-the-knife laps)
`Hard Charger`	+10% pace in last 5 laps of any race regardless of tire age
`Out-Lap Magician`	Fresh-tire grip ramps 2× faster after pit (small undercut bonus)
`Wet Master`	Hidden — appears as +20% all-stats on wet races (when weather lands)

Trait	Effect
`Team Player`	+5 happiness for both drivers when team orders honoured
`Diva`	Refuses Stay Behind / Let Pass orders against same-team driver below own stats
`Rookie Mentor`	Reserve driver in the same team gets +1 effective INT
`Veteran`	Slower stamina drain; slower learning of new car traits

Physical

Trait	Effect
`Iron Man`	STA effective +2 across the race
`Glass Bones`	If crashed (BIG mistake), DNF probability +20% even on Tier-3 incidents
`Sweat Box`	Cockpit heat sensitivity → mistake probability +5% in dry climates

How traits will be assigned

Random drivers (career generation)

At career start, every generated driver rolls 2–3 traits from the pool, weighted by age + nationality. Older drivers more likely to roll Veteran or Team Player; younger drivers more likely to roll Hothead or Late Braker.

Hand-edited drivers (`grid.txt`)

You’ll be able to specify traits inline:

NAME 18 16 14 15 12 16 [Hothead, Late Braker]

(Syntax tentative.)

Trait reveal

Visible at signing: 1–2 traits surfaced in the recruitment UI — depends on your scouting / Marketing dept level
Reveal after racing: the rest unlock after race-data accumulates (e.g. you’ll see Hard Charger lighting up only after 3 races showing the late-race pace)

Interactions with stats

Traits scale with stats, they don’t override them:

Iceman on a CON 5 driver still occasionally spins; just less often than the same driver without Iceman.
Late Braker on a low-INT driver lockups more frequently — the trait’s +braking-overtake bonus doesn’t compensate for the bad judgment that made him try the move.
Smooth Operator + low PAC = a slow but tire-friendly driver — perfectly viable for 1-stop strategies.

The point: stats are the foundation, traits are the spice.

Interactions with car traits

Driver traits and car traits combine multiplicatively:

Pairing	Effect
`Loose Rear` car + `Hothead` driver	Disaster on cold tires — +30% spin risk lap 1
`Late Cliff` car + `Smooth Operator` driver	Stretches stints to 1.5× normal length — strategy edge
`Cold-Sensitive` car + `Out-Lap Magician` driver	Cancels out — fresh-tire grip scales normally despite the cold engine

How the player uses traits

Recruitment: pick drivers whose traits complement your car’s traits and your strategic style
Lineup: pair a Team Player with a Diva only if you can absorb the social cost
Race strategy: a Hard Charger on a 2-stop runs longer last-stints; a Smooth Operator runs 1-stop reliably
Risk management: a Glass Bones driver in a Fragile Floor car needs more repair WU buffered each weekend
Championship game: when chasing points, a Big Race Driver is worth picking even at slightly lower nominal stats

Open questions

Trait persistence: does a driver keep their traits if you fire and re-sign them? (Probably yes — traits are part of identity)
Trait evolution: can a driver acquire new traits over a career (e.g. a rookie growing into Veteran)? (Maybe — could be an end-of-season event)
Trait UI in mid-race: should commentary call out traits as they fire (Hothead Vetri lights up the inside!) — yes, but tuned to avoid spam
AI team trait management: do AI teams pick drivers whose traits fit their archetype? (Yes, by design)