I have finished the Tour of Colombia, but now I am waiting for the download link and the screens, so it might not be up till tomorrow. Do I just stick it here, or should I use that Stage DB thing?
The Hobbit wrote:
I have finished the Tour of Colombia, but now I am waiting for the download link and the screens, so it might not be up till tomorrow. Do I just stick it here, or should I use that Stage DB thing?
Put it in the stage DB, that's probably the easiest place for everyone to download it from.
What a great new!! finally another version of Vuelta a Colombia, I guess its 2013 route... well... as soon as you post a link I'll give it a try and tell you how does it looks
This is my variant of the Vuelta a Colombia, a 14 day stage race across a country that has produced so many climbers. And it is no wonder with all the mountains. This race is packed with them, and a pure climber will surely win here.
The download is in two parts, please Download Both Of Them Part 1 Part 2
Stage by Stage
This stage starts in the capital, Bogota, and travels through the city before a huge descent and hilly finish
Another hilly stage, but an easier finish. Survive he climbs and you are in with a shot.
An interesting start, with a criterium like tight circuit at the end. A technical race, a technical finish, even the flat stages aren't easy here.
A slightly easier stage. As flat as you can get in Colombia, this is another circuit race, slightly longer, so a sprinter will expect a win today.
The first mountains, with an undulating route, before the final climb, regen the racers plunge down to the finish.
The race's first summit finish, the first of many, and what a one to kick things off. Some unbelievably steep climbs, then the finish just outside Tarso, the GC battle will kick off on those slopes.
The race hits another summit finish, be it slightly easier than yesterday. A finishing circuit features a fearsome climb. There is no break for the riders till the end of the race from here on in.
Manizales, a city in the shadow of a volcano. But that doesn't mean it's low down! A full day of climbing awaits the peleton as they race up to the city.
Ah, you remember that volcano. Well, now they're climbing it! The Nevado del Ruiz has brought forth destruction before, and it will do so upon the peleton here.
The race starts, again, in the shadow of the volcano, but there is still descending to be done before the flat road into Ibague. Except, there is no such thing as flat in this country! The riders climb a steady drag uphill, then down that 'hill' into the finish city.
Not all mountain stages have to be summit finishes, as this illustrates. A transition stage between mountain ranges, but you have to cross one to get there, and it's no easy!
If you thought the previous stages were tough, this takes toughness to a whole new level! Many ridiculously steep climbs, before a climb which can only be described as pure pain.
2 more stages left, but they are real monsters. The Cerro Calima. Equal to the Cerro Torra of yesterday, but with a slightly easier run in. The climbers will have already blown themselves to pieces, but they need to soldier on if they have a chance of seizing the GC.
The organisers would have packed more climbs into this race, but there was no room for more than one. What a climb it is though, the Alto de Letras. It is climbed once, then approached again from another angle, A fitting finale to a race that takes climbing to a new extreme.
Screenshots in the spoiler.
Spoiler
I hope you enjoy my variant of the Vuelta a Colombia, screenshots will come later. There are currently some narrow roads up the Nevado del Ruiz, so a download without them will be added later.
Yeah, a lot of them
In 2 bits because I don't have good enough connection/wifi/upload/broadband/computer/whateverhelpswiththissortofthing to upload it in 1 go
The Hobbit wrote:
A slightly easier stage. As flat as you can get in Colombia, this is another circuit race, slightly longer, so a sprinter will expect a win today. [...] Except, there is no such thing as flat in this country!
Really? More than 60% of the country is about as flat as it gets. Alright, less than 3% of the population lives there, but still, there isn't only mountains in Colombia (and pan-flat stages definitely appear one or another time)
Anyway, really like the route. Some of the mountain stages' designs look very Colombian-ish, like 5 and 11. And the final stage looks very nice, not overkill but very hard. I think the only things I think I'd change is stage 2 and 10 could be classified as flat imo and also add one TT. Also I'm not sure how hard the "monster" climbs are, but if they are Scanuppia-like (i.e. 15% average or something), I must admit I'm not a big fan of these sort of climbs. Anyway, I'll probably give it a full go in game and perhaps review my opinion Btw, judging by the screens, one of the climbs seems to be needing a bit more terrain work: https://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t...975e01.jpg
Summing up, great job, looks like a fun route to play
Well this should be a good effort, I'll try it inmediatly, also agree with lluuiiggii maybe a TT at the end could've been better.
Did you make up this route or you took it from some web page? maybe altimetriasdecolombia? I ask because its a little bit familiar to me this route... in that web they have some fantasy "vueltas"
Anyway good work, that Nevado del Ruiz stage looks epic...
The Hobbit wrote:
A slightly easier stage. As flat as you can get in Colombia, this is another circuit race, slightly longer, so a sprinter will expect a win today. [...] Except, there is no such thing as flat in this country!
Really? More than 60% of the country is about as flat as it gets. Alright, less than 3% of the population lives there, but still, there isn't only mountains in Colombia (and pan-flat stages definitely appear one or another time)
Anyway, really like the route. Some of the mountain stages' designs look very Colombian-ish, like 5 and 11. And the final stage looks very nice, not overkill but very hard. I think the only things I think I'd change is stage 2 and 10 could be classified as flat imo and also add one TT. Also I'm not sure how hard the "monster" climbs are, but if they are Scanuppia-like (i.e. 15% average or something), I must admit I'm not a big fan of these sort of climbs. Anyway, I'll probably give it a full go in game and perhaps review my opinion Btw, judging by the screens, one of the climbs seems to be needing a bit more terrain work: https://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t...975e01.jpg
Summing up, great job, looks like a fun route to play
What I meant was, there is no flat in that part of Colombia, as it is nestled in the mountains, and Ibague, is right below the mountains, as you can see in Ibague-Armenia stage. In my opinion, I would give this, and stage 2, the flat label. However, I prefer not to change the game's design, odd as it may seem. Having play tested the Torro-Ibague stage a lot of times, generally it is the break, or Cancellara type riders who win it anyway, so I think it's a worthy label.
Onto the issue of a Time Trial. In the end, I decided against it for this variant. It's a mountains heavy route, and a TT is an option. However, it wouldn't do much to change things, the race is definitely won in the mountains. Even so, I sort of regret that decision.
The mountains were the real trouble with this tour. A lot of them, particularly the Cerro Torra, are way above 15%, but it was almost impossible to get them below that. Before I did the standard editing of the route, they were at 45%! As you can see in the dodgy switchback photo you posted, they are tightly closed up (perhaps too tightly), so I couldn't get them any less steep! So yes, it repeatedly goes 'into the black' when you look at the profile in pcm. I don't like it like this either, but it seemed unavoidable for these stages.
What did you mean with the texture work. I understand the climbs look a bit dodgy in game, which really annoyed me, but how do I stop this, as for the switchbacks it is unavoidable for me. The same goes for the 'climb profiles' as Kadtagenero said
With the profiles of the climbs, Kadtagenero's point. It has sprint points on almost every stage, sometimes 2. The KOMs are more difficult. I couldn't find anything which told you what all the individual climbs were. The only reason I got eg. Alto de Letras, or the Cerro Torra, is from internet searches, whereas most of them are much harder to find. As such, all the finishing climbs have names, but the KOM points, are, like in most of my work, called KOM1, KOM2 etc etc. sorry about that.
In summary, I am quite pleased with this race, and it is entirely playable. However, there are some things which were harder to fix or I don't understand. The race is good (especially for something made by me ) but it isn't perfect, not even close.
Well as I thought nevado del Ruiz stage was great, the final climb was brutal but beautifull to play, maybe you should've asked me for the "altos" name but that's a minor issue.
Congratulactions for your hard work, hope you keep doing races from my country, surely next one will be better
I gonna download it! What is your next project?
