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Automatic mode - tips, tricks & sharing experience
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| TiemenD |
Posted on 07-03-2016 08:01
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Stagiare
Posts: 239
Joined: 06-01-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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Some people, like me, like to do the management part of the game, and use the pre-race strategy to setup tactics and then in the 3D mode lean back and see how your cyclists are doing.
But the thing is, that out of the box your cyclists can do strange things, things that you don't see the AI do, and that makes you wanna give up on the automatic mode.
I'm now 3 seasons in and I wanted to share what i've learned, and what made me enjoy this mode some more. And maybe other people can share their experiences witht his mode
Helpers can work against your leader in classics
If you play on fully automatic, you'll certainly experienced this, you have your leader protected in a classic race (paris roubaix, vlaanderen, liège, ...) and at some point in the final, the favorites attack and your leader is the one and only that does not react altough you have him set on "attack" or "follow attacks" but he just drops back to the end of the group and places himself in the wheel of one of his helpers.
To avoid this, you have to tell your captain to not rely on his teammates in the final of a stage, but he needs do ride for himself. with around 40km to go, click on the helper icon of all his helpers so they change to "Free Riders". This is not enough however, when you change a status during the race, the game does not update the tactic, it only updates when you change one of the checkboxes, so after you changed roles, just randomly tick on of the checkboxes and untick it again. Your leader will now act as the other AI leaders and counter attack other favorites or try to attack himself to go for the win.
--> you can have the same "dropping back" issue in sprints, that suddenly, with 6k to go your sprinter drops down alot behind a helper. If you see that no sprint train is setup you can do the same tactic, remove all the helpers, so your captain/sprinter will not drop back to put himself in the wheel of a helper.
Sprint trains
I've tested this alot and so far I have found nothing that can improve or decline the chances that your team will setup a sprint train. What I have experienced so far is, if you want a sprint train, give your sprinter the sprinter role (green icon) and assign as many as helpers as possible. Your team will setup a sprint train automatic when the game decides that your sprinter stats + stats of your leadout are among the top 2 of all sprinters+leadouts. So having Kittel+degenkolb+mezgec will give you a higher opportunity of a sprint train then having Cav+Boonen+Maes for example. However I'd like to hear from other people if they have found a trick to get the automatic leadout some more, because even if you are the best sprinter + sprint train, you don't always have a sprint train as much as if the AI would ride with that team.
Set captain on attack during mountain stages
Add the "Attack" instructions to your leader in mountain stages instead of the "follow attack". With "follow attack" they are sometimes to passive, and with "Attack" they will always try to "follow attack" but they will only attack themself when they have a good day or alot of energy left. So you don't need to be afraid that when you give your captain the attack role he will attack when he has almost no energy left or when he's not one of the strongest. Attack is just a smart version "follow attack". With follow attack your cyclist can end up waiting to long to react and having to close gaps constantly
Early breakaways
If you want cyclists in the early breakaway, set them as helper but give them the "attack" or "follow attack" instruction
Free cyclists
Free cyclists with the attack role will attack from further than the real captains. If you want your free rider to act as a captain, put him on "follow attack" until your closer to the finish, and then switch his instruction to "attack"
So that's it for me, I'd love to hear if anyone has anything to add to this.
Edited by TiemenD on 07-03-2016 08:38
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| Fresh D |
Posted on 07-03-2016 11:07
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Free Agent
Posts: 104
Joined: 08-12-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Good Guide 
A few additions and questions:
I noticed that the guy with the lowest flat stat takes duty of the water bottles even if it is the team captain.
Does it make any difference if I make the captain or sprinter ride for the stage or only for GC or for nothing?
It seems those options only affect the teammates, not the leader. But I could be wrong.
The issue with the follow attack button and attack button was new for me, thank you.
My riders often try to form a sprint train, it works for a few km's but once the field reaches the last 8km or so the train dissolves and the sprinter tries to catch a wheel by himself.
The sprint stat seems to be the crucial stat for the AI in determing the leadout guys, not the flat stat.
I handle the protection issue by manually setting one guy as protector otherwise it doesn't quite work but your idea is also good. I will try it.
I don't know why the AI of your own team is so screwed in parts but I blame it on being the first year with this new feature.
Hopefully, PCM 2016 will solve these issues but I'm not very optimistic  |
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| niini |
Posted on 27-03-2016 15:30
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Under 23
Posts: 76
Joined: 28-07-2013
PCM$: 200.00
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Seems like you are expert for automatic mode can you help me ??
Wehn i hevae rider in front group , i need set my other riders in peloton on automatic mode and i want them to be in front and counterattack anyone who is trying to attack and chase my rider.
But when i set them on follow attacks and not relay, they will move to the middle of the pack and generally do nothing and other teams are attacking freely and eventually chase mi rider down.
Any advice? |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 05:02
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Bot Agent
Posts: Countless
Joined: 23.11.09
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| Ollie23 |
Posted on 29-03-2016 00:59
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Stagiare
Posts: 226
Joined: 26-07-2014
PCM$: 200.00
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Fresh D wrote:
I noticed that the guy with the lowest flat stat takes duty of the water bottles even if it is the team captain.
In my teams it seems like the captain gets the water bottles every time. Whether or not he has the lowest flat stat doesn't seem to matter. Would really like to figure this one out because it's really annoying and possibly ruining the entire race to have your captain use all his energy fetching water bottles...
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| Fresh D |
Posted on 29-03-2016 14:40
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Free Agent
Posts: 104
Joined: 08-12-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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@Ollie23
From stage to stage it's different, sometimes even the leader himself.
It's not always the guy with the lowest flat stat I noticed during the last races in automatic mode.
I simply choose some helper every 50km and 50km from the finish line to fetch waterbottles by myself.
I also noticed that the leadout men can change from stage to stage, depending on the daily form I guess, if the stats are narrow. For example, one time was Renshaw in the leadout for cavendish and the other time Farrar and they are both 76 or 75 sprint.
Some other things like the positioning of your team in the peloton and the frequency of your captain to follow attacks or let the teammates catch the other favourites are quite random in my opinion.
@TiemenD
How did you manage to get more sprint trains?
I tried your tactic and it didn't really work out, sometimes your leadout men are good positioned in the last 5 or 6km's but then they suddenly decide to fall back and let the sprinter alone, even when you have the strongest team, most times this happens already 15km before the line.
Often your main sprinter is in the middle of the peloton and burns all the energy by getting in front at the 20,5km mark, thats another buggy thing. |
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| Ollie23 |
Posted on 30-03-2016 13:56
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Stagiare
Posts: 226
Joined: 26-07-2014
PCM$: 200.00
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For those of you who have the entire team on Auto from start to finish, do you manually try to get a rider in an early breakaway? I know you could get a rider in an early breakaway by setting the rider you want to go as helper with either "Attack" or "Follow attack" as @TiemenD says, but my main issue is that usually the rider I want to attack sits in the middle or at the back of the peloton at the start and he makes no effort getting to the front before the race is halfway done and a breakaway has been established already. At that point it's already too late.
So I like to manually control 1 rider, the one I want in the breakaway, the first 10-15 kms, maneuver him to the front of the peloton and try one attack before setting him to Auto. Thing is, I play on Normal difficulty (hate the fact that a harder difficulty just gives the opponents higher stats then they actually have) and I'm afraid that it's too easy on Normal to get a man in a breakaway. I want my careers to be as realistic as possible so I'm wondering if you think using this strategy 'breaks the realism' and that I'm exploiting an easy level or something.
Alternatively I could also manually maneuver 1 rider to the front of the peloton and then set him to Auto without attacking myself. Want to start a career soon so I'm trying to figure out the last details before starting 
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| Fresh D |
Posted on 31-03-2016 00:33
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Free Agent
Posts: 104
Joined: 08-12-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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When I assign two riders for the break before the race, often atleast one tries it and makes it in the break sometimes.
The ratio is good in my opinion. It would be too easy to have a rider in the break in every race, I think.
The KI has strict rules to follow the break so the number of riders in the break is important and the stats and roles of the riders.
The only things I do manually are water bottles, untick empty helpers fo the captain that are still in the group or have no use. |
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| Ollie23 |
Posted on 01-04-2016 00:40
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Stagiare
Posts: 226
Joined: 26-07-2014
PCM$: 200.00
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Tip if you get one of your riders in a solo breakaway: uncheck "Take part in sprints" (both of them) otherwise your rider might use all his energy sprinting against... Himself I just learned that the hard way when my rider in a solo breakaway decided to sprint up a hill to get some points on the polka-dot and his closest competition was about 5 minutes behind 
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| xxeerroo |
Posted on 07-04-2016 12:02
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Under 23
Posts: 99
Joined: 13-04-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Good thread, this is how I play it too! |
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| Gentleman |
Posted on 14-04-2016 21:41
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Free Agent
Posts: 138
Joined: 12-02-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Ollie23 wrote:
Fresh D wrote:
I noticed that the guy with the lowest flat stat takes duty of the water bottles even if it is the team captain.
In my teams it seems like the captain gets the water bottles every time. Whether or not he has the lowest flat stat doesn't seem to matter. Would really like to figure this one out because it's really annoying and possibly ruining the entire race to have your captain use all his energy fetching water bottles...
I noticed that the guy with the least water gets thirsty eventually and goes to fetch water. If you time it well, pick a water carrier and let him get stuck in the peloton for a while -say, 30 seconds on single speed- , so that when he finally reaches your other cyclists, his bottle will be empty earlier than the others. Which means he`ll be the one to fetch water the next time again. Of course, that means that your other cyclists should be further up in the pack and not hanging at the very end of it.
I haven`t tested this thoroughly, but if it`s a flat race it`s quite possible the one with the least flat skills will empty the water faster than the others. |
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| diabolicpanda |
Posted on 20-04-2016 09:36
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Junior Rider
Posts: 44
Joined: 25-07-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Two things I've found from playing a bit more on automatic:
Flat stages are far too often won by a breakaway rider on the line.
The peloton chases the breakaway - as they should - but seems to slow down a bit come the last 20 kilometers. The result is, that a breakaway rider wins the stage with no time difference to the sprinters - the peloton basically just catches the breakaway 100 meters too late.
This is even i the Grand Tours with very good sprinter teams present.
I just won three stages in the Giro this way - 2*Maes and 1*Trentin.
The second thing is, that it's very, very hard to control a race. Your helpers will usually sit too far back in the peloton to react when favourite'ish riders attack.
I have far more succes having my captain on attack-mode than follow attacks. |
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| Ollie23 |
Posted on 23-04-2016 20:01
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Stagiare
Posts: 226
Joined: 26-07-2014
PCM$: 200.00
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So, it seems like the "Take part in sprints for climber's/points jersey" buttons don't work properly in automatic mode either.. I'm in a race now where I have two guys, a sprinter and a climber, in a breakaway on a hilly stage with both intermediate sprints and climbs. I wanted the climber to take points on the mountain jersey and the sprinter to take points on the points jersey, obviously, so that's what I set in the tactics screen. But, to my frustration and anger, the climber just out-sprinted my sprinter and took points on the green points jersey (of course, having a climber out-sprint your sprinter is also a problem!). Very annoying as my sprinter had been collecting points all day until my climber got up into the breakaway...
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| Ollie23 |
Posted on 23-04-2016 20:01
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Stagiare
Posts: 226
Joined: 26-07-2014
PCM$: 200.00
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double post
Edited by Ollie23 on 30-03-2017 20:15
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| coolrex |
Posted on 06-05-2016 08:05
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Protected Rider
Posts: 1168
Joined: 01-01-2015
PCM$: 300.00
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I liked reading this sort of guide, and it really seem to work. i used the strategy on a newly made stage by me, where i set gillou as an helper with attack, the only sad thing was that he got countered 24/7, so i set him as free rider until the 50km, bcs cancellara started to attack, and he immediatly counterattacked him and even got first place on a hilly cobbled race. gonna do this more often for now |
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| Ollie23 |
Posted on 07-07-2016 22:31
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Stagiare
Posts: 226
Joined: 26-07-2014
PCM$: 200.00
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Don't know if anyone is still following this thread, but I'm having huge issues with the automatic mode in PCM15 right now and I'm wondering if it was this bad on PCM14. I'm still very early in the first season of my career and I'm wondering if I should just switch over to PCM14 before continuing because right now it's ridiculous. I (IAM) just had a stage where both my Captain (Frank) and main sprinter (Enger) both went to get water bottles in the last 15 kms even though I had sent Tanner to fetch bottles at the 40 km left mark and they all had full water bottles! Completely ruined the race for us.
Was PCM14 THIS bad?? I can't remember but I'm more than willing to start over if it's slightly better. Any insight is appreciated!
Edit: Also, I have PCM12 and 13, so if those are better I could switch to those as well
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| Ripley |
Posted on 12-07-2016 09:00
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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I have seen the very same thing in PCM 14, just once or twice with no idea what triggered it. The automatic mode was introduced with PCM 14, so older versions won't help. |
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