I'm Majestico a long time player of Pcm and a former World Champion on PCM in the track discipline.
In this post I want to highlight specifically the track disciplinein PCM.
The track discipline which started in 2008 had built up a great community and player basis, which led to various online events.
Unfortunately as there have not been any improvements since the release of track, the community started to loose interest and the multiplayer events got canceled.
I really believe that with some improvements on this discipline we can get the multiplayer mode much livelier.
Idea:
1. Add new Game Modes: Madison, Team Pursuit, 1km Time Trial, Team sprint
2. Gameplay Improvments: 2 separate bars like in road race: Stamina bar and the bar for accleration
Explanation of Idea and Why
1. Since the release of track there has not been any single changes. A new discipline would draw a lot of attention and is really demanded
2. Changes here will demand much more skill of players and will contribute to spending more time on this game and will definitely make it more exciting
How about wishing there will be a pro cycling manager 2018?
I doubt there will be (at least a proper one).
Development of little new content always didn't get finished,hardly made any new stages.
Marketing budget was presumably around 2 €.
Response is negative or worse: lacking.
Not much activity on boards.No stages in stage database at all,no new editor versions or any other downloads.
I understand your disappointment, but PCM 17 has been more successful than its past edition, which wasn't happening since PCM 11 or 12 - even though I struggle to understand why.
There's actually been a lot more marketing around it. Prudhomme was endorsing it as part of the official TDF license, they managed to mostly explain new features well with new blog posts on Facebook.
I'll wait a bit more for this to be confirmed, but on pcmdaily at least there's been more activity compared to last year, and there's more people praising the game compared to PCM 16, which basically only had negative responses - deservedly so.
There needn't be new editions of editors since they're 100% compatible. PCM Fast Editor was last updated in 2011, Excel Editor last updated in 2012, Full Editor in 2008 and Lachis Editor in 2015. Downloads on the forum and on the workshop are definitely there.
Basically, unfortunately for us if we wanted a change of direction, it will take quite a sales hit to PCM for it to be improved radically.
Explanation of idea: Aside from giving your riders a race to work to (an aim), it doesn't specify what a 'good' result is. Should he be winning the race or is a top 10 finish good enough for his target? Or should he simply guide his leader to the front?
Why: Because it would be nice to see a rider with a goal of, say, Paris Roubaix getting annoyed because he has 83 COB while finishing 10th. Whereas the rider with a free role finishing 11th might be completely over the moon with the result of his own while having a 'meager' 74 COB and expecting a top 25. If you can specify the goal ('finish top 5' or even 'watercarrier' then riders have a personal goal as well. Right now you have no idea what a rider needs to keep them satisfied. You only have those 4 specifications for 'Satisfaction', 'Quantity', 'Prestige' and 'Route' which seem to change randomly after a while. By giving them targets and expectations this might be a lot better to determine.
It's frustrating when you have a 22 year old stage racer with 74 MON rider in the Tour de France, knowing you can't possibly get into the top 5, but it would be a nice goal for him to see if he can keep his ranking within the top 30. He's young, hasn't reached his peak, so he should focus on trying to keep up uphill. You can't expect him to win the race, but he should be gaining experience how it works to be a stage racer in a grand tour. I would like to see some reflection of that in the game.
Same goes for contracts. What does a rider expect? The only thing we had for years was how much money they could get. At some point we also had options like 'Leader', 'Luxury teammate' and such. It would give riders some expectations what kind of role they should fulfill in the team, which could also impact satisfaction, especially if they are expecting to be the leader and ride the TdF in a free role. You could even specify a race category (2HC, WT Hill races) where someone is allowed to be a leader while being a simple teammate in bigger races.
This also means that riders should be capable of wanting to be a leader after having a couple of years as a teammate. Which would reflect situations like Landa in the previous TdF, or Landa/Aru or Aru/Nibali situations where one wants to leave to be a leader in another team.
And honestly, we used to have the contract expectations in previous PCM versions. It only adds to the management aspect of the game, so having it removed was a bad idea in the first place ... so it probably is still in the game, just not visible/activated.
Idea: Experience results in stat progression.
Explanation: If you ride more cobble races, you generally tend to improve in cobbles faster than when you ride flat races or hilly climbs. If you don't ride them, you might stagnate at some point, not reaching your potential (say 70%). If you do ride them, you can get a spurt in stat improvement, therefore eventually reaching your potential.
Why: If you have a talented cobbles rider, you should develop him by letting him ride cobble races to give him an impression of how those races feel and therefore develop him better. If you don't, his progression will go slower, perhaps even stagnate because training on cobbles just doesn't work the same as actual experience. A rider with a cobble limit of 76 might get stuck on 73 because he doesn't know well enough how a race in a cobble section actually feels. He might do well in training, but in a race he won't be able to perform above 73 due to the toughness of the race and the unpredictability of its competitors.
Of course, same goes for climbers, TT and such. Baroudeurs should ride more often in a breakaway as well for maximum progression. It would give the idea of training a more realistic/complicated aspect.
Of course, this also means an overhaul of the code behind how stat progression works, rather than the pretty static version we have now.
For more realism and a more diverse strategy and racing, the fitness stat has to be alot more important. Alot of great riders use some races as a training ( like froome with catalunya, or alot of gc riders with abu dhabi ). Where they are in bad form. Then you see that these gc riders are not always able to keep up with weaker riders in shape.
In PCM this is something that is almost impossible. A froome, quintana, nibali ... in bad shape have -2,-3 mount max. That still gives them mountain stat of 80ish, what is till world class, and gives them victories.
A bad form should really give them -8 stats what makes it possible for weaker riders to excell and give some competition.
Would make season planning more realist as well, because really, the difference between good, very good and excellent form are minimal and are usually overclassed by the daily form. Where difference between excellent and good form gives +2 difference max, a +2 daily form gives the same.
mbtail wrote:
For more realism and a more diverse strategy and racing, the fitness stat has to be alot more important. Alot of great riders use some races as a training ( like froome with catalunya, or alot of gc riders with abu dhabi ). Where they are in bad form. Then you see that these gc riders are not always able to keep up with weaker riders in shape.
In PCM this is something that is almost impossible. A froome, quintana, nibali ... in bad shape have -2,-3 mount max. That still gives them mountain stat of 80ish, what is till world class, and gives them victories.
A bad form should really give them -8 stats what makes it possible for weaker riders to excell and give some competition.
Would make season planning more realist as well, because really, the difference between good, very good and excellent form are minimal and are usually overclassed by the daily form. Where difference between excellent and good form gives +2 difference max, a +2 daily form gives the same.
true, but i found pcm17 much better than previous ones about this topic
cio93 wrote: Idea: In Pro Cyclist mode, the game should treat your team mates as opponents in regards to the difficulty level
Explanation of idea:
I play on extreme ever since the Pro Cyclist mode was introduced, and it's very annoying that the higher difficulty level applies to your team mates too, even though they race on automatic and therefore on the same AI as the opponents.
I propose treating them similar to all the other riders and thus not have their stats affected by the difficulty to allow for more realism and less frustration.
A potential issue might arise when you control your team mates, as you can then exploit the game again with potentially better riders than your pro.
Either we speculate on the player always trying to give himself the best results, or a potential solution would be to have a trigger to reinstate the difficulty effects whenever you remove someone from the automatic control.
Why:
My team mates constantly underperform because they can't exploit the game mechanics in the way the player has to to overcome the stats deficit, leaving them unable to get realistic results in 90% of the races.
Especially when riding as a helper for them as a young rider, it's very frustrating to do your best to protect them or set them up for a result, just to see their bars disappear too quickly.
The same goes for when you are a leader and you don't have anybody left to protect you or set you up for the final because even pre-race favorites from your team are completely spent rather early.
Similarly, if a team mate joins a break, he's nearly always the first to get dropped from it because of the stats drop from the difficulty.
Can anyone tell me if this is still a problem in PCM17? I'm thinking about getting it but this was one of the major problems I had with PCM 15. Trying to mimic Alberto Contador's career, trying to help out Quintana an Valverde in the Tour but they get dropped before I do, even though my MO stat is only 76...
Idea: Bring back the system for setting up a Custom Team from PCM 2013
Explanation: In 2013 when setting up a Custom Team you could choose how to spend your Budget- on scout reports of young riders or riders. By selecting scout reports you were sacrificing a big budget for future talents.
Explanation In an one-stage race, cyclists 15(?) minutes behind the peloton should withdraw automatically.
Why a. That's what happens in real races: the "End-of-the-race" car overtakes the riders, who are de facto out of the games.
b. In short final circuits (e.g. 5 km), there shouldn't be riders crossing each others penetrating in a dummy way. In fact, in the reality dubbed riders do usually withdraw.
Generally speaking: Work on the Pro Cyclist Mode, it's the best mode since I've started playing this series 12 years ago and I switched to actually only play it by now.
I think a ton of players love the game mode, make it your big selling point
Suggestion You should be able to decide which the favourite races / favourite weathers of your Pro Cyclist are ingame rather than in an editor to make him feel more personal
Explanation It's easy to implement. You could be able to decide 3 races your rider loves to ride as before.
As for the weather, you could choose a favourite weather by using a skill point. You'll have to equalize that use of a point by choosing a weather he doesn't like. Maybe start with a free point to get one favourite weather for free.
Suggestion Your rider in Pro Cyclist should have a secondary strength PLEASE ADD THIS
Explanation Look at riders in real life: Sagan and Boonen are sprinters also capable of riding strong on cobbled sections. Van Avermaet is a puncheur strong on cobbled sections. Michael Matthews is a sprinter with the capability of riding hills. Valverde or Dan Martin are puncheurs, but they also have great results in mountain stages at big tours. Riders are usually not 100% one type of rider, they certainly have different strong skills. Pro Cyclist Mode so far has just randomly generated secondary strengths, sometimes your Puncheur has a good skill cap at climbing, sometimes at cobbles... But I'm the player, I wanna decide his second strength! And it's even realistic! It's fairly easy to implement but I'd love not having to go to an editor everytime I start Pro Cyclist Mode, it just feels so dirty!
Suggestion In Pro Cyclist Mode when signing a new contract, request particular teammates also be signed as a package deal if you are of superstar status.
Explanation Just like in the real world, if you are a super star, you could request that certain riders get resigned (perhaps 3), or if their contract is up, they come with you to the new team. This would allow you to shape the team. As an example, I signed with Quickstep for three years. When I came in they had a lot of highly rated climbing youth on the team. Went on to win the Giro and the Vuelta. After that first season though, none of those riders were resigned and instead the team shifted back towards cobbled classics and sprinters. This made the next two season less fun as I had less quality climbers to work with and in fact, they were working against me now on other teams.
Merging teams
I always found merging interesting. So lets say my team Lotto Jumbo and Cannondale decides to merge but Cannondale as a sponsor want to bring Vanmarcke to the team, i will have to bring him in while i do get option for signing every other available rider to the team.
Fitness drop in season planner
Okay i will admit i'm not the best to control fitness but i do try to keep the season planner as close to reality as possible. But it's hard to control when example putting Aru's top form to be both at the Giro and Vuelta (NOTE: I do not put his form anywhere near max) but after two weeks of the Giro his fitness expected to drop 60% for the Vuelta. Why not include a fitness drop to the season planner to make it easier to plan the season.
Way more realistic transfers.
Only Sky makes insane transfers as you see in game. Only in game everyone is Sky.
Make riders stats only drop at the end of seasons or due to injury
Makes stat making way easier when you don't have too see your riders drop from 78 climbing to 75 by the end of march due to age. Also fairly realistic that the riders abilities in march continues in October. Stat making usually reflect riders from after the classics or first grand tour (mid season) and those stats dropping even before the classics started in game disrupts everything.
And a couple other wishes that should have been added 10 years ago.
Intelligent AI relayExample: a Lotto Jumpo rider is doing relay until Froome decides to attack, then the guys in my group brilliantly decides to stop relaying and Froome gain a minute in the matter of seconds. I often do not get time to react before it's game over. And if i then decide to attack from the group the rest of the peloton starts working like their life's on the line.
Blocked in groupExample: You position your rider in front of the group and decides to attack but meets an invisible wall and get stuck for 4-5km.
AND LASTLY MORE ACTIVE PCMDAILY DB TEAM.Edited by Naxela on 17-10-2017 04:20
New York Knicks - Bardiani CFS - AG2R - Millwall FC - Le Havre AC
Idea: Invisible dropped riders
Explanation: Make dropped/lapped riders invisible unless you deliberately select them/their group/surrounding groups.
Why: Because it's confusing in general and bloody annoying for screenshots for stories/reports.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Abstract: Add sub-classes choice on rider creation such as Sprinter + Puncher, or Sprinter + Stage Races, affecting/nudging both the starting values and maximum values of the created rider.
Explanation of idea:
Here is the video I made to quickly explain it: https://youtu.be/...
Why: This allows to tailor the created rider to player preferences, makes better use of the existing training focus system, and fills the gaps in the rider spectrum when compared to real world variety.
How: The main categories of rider focus remain as they are now, but added on top are secondary focus choices. The secondary focus might have to be hand crafted and only allow reasonable choices (for example not a northern classics + climber). Selecting "None" for the secondary focus would result in the currently available options.
Example: As an example take a major focus Puncher plus a minor focus Northern Classics rider. The result would be a Puncher with more flat skill, less hills skill, less mountain skill, but maybe a mid-to-high 70s maximum in cobble riding, creating a really interesting mix for some of the classics. There would be a lot of interesting, fun, and viable options!
Feature Scope: The feature naturally is limited to the player character and the generation of maximum stats, i.e. easy to test, with minimum impact on other existing game mechanics. The character generation UI has plenty of space for this feature, too. While this definitely would benefit the automatic young rider generation as well, this is not a requirement.
I would advocate for making the character generation less of a black box, showing the resulting maximum stat averages (I know they are slightly randomized), via a toggle in the stat list, similar to how the fitness dependent stat modifiers can be toggled on or off.
IMO this would be a feature that adds significant gameplay value for little effort in the implementation.
Cheers!
jandal7 wrote:
Idea: Invisible dropped riders
Explanation: Make dropped/lapped riders invisible unless you deliberately select them/their group/surrounding groups.
Why: Because it's confusing in general and bloody annoying for screenshots for stories/reports.
Idea: Removing lapped riders in one-day races Explanation: Take lapped riders out of the race in one-day races, as soon as they are off the back for one round or more. Why: Realism & Because it's confusing in general and bloody annoying for screenshots for stories/reports. It is done in real life, and they'd have no chance of coming back anyway.
10 things I hope Cyanide will improve
1. Real faces for star riders
I really love the idea of starheads (like any other sports game). Would be great when they're on the podium or winning a stage..
I used to make my own faces/tattoos in PCM 15 - and I really miss this feature..
2. Rider personalities
To improve the AI Cyanide should consider rider personalities. For example some riders attack a lot, on a certain way, on a certain point also. Some riders are aggressive, some are defensive. I like the fact Team Sky make the train BUT Froome is still attacking even though he has 3-4 riders left - which is unrealistic unless you attack him BUT even here SKY would just pull the pace a bit IRL.
3. Rider signatures
Sort of like FIFA personalities for riders should be considered near future. For example celebrations. What about the Gilbert celebration where he lifts his bike? Would be cool if he could do that in game? Hell yeah!
Or Sagan doing the Forrest Gump?
Furthermore I've love to see signatures on the bike for example Froome looking at the computer in lower gear or Contador dancing uphill. Would be awesome.
4. Form planning for riders
In a lot of ways I love PCM 2017, but what I think is getting worse is the pre planner for riders. In 17 you cannot give a rider the aim to win all 3 grand tours. Why not? If I want to have that as an objective for my captain it should be possible. Please change that back to old standards
5. THE FINAL GC PODIUM IS ALWAYS TOP 3
Still it seems like Cyanide is ignoring that fact. Every time I complete a stage race or classic in the game I only see one rider/winner on the podium. IRL it is number 1, 2 and 3 who’s up there. In cycling being on the podium is a huge achievement. We always see riders aiming/defended the podium in the great grand tours but it is nearly 2018 and it has never been in the game… Why is that?
6. Team Cars
I know many cycling fans have been missing this in the game for years. This is a HUGE part of the sport, still it has never been in the game. EVER. I don’t believe it is that hard to animate or integrate in the game and therefore don’t understand why it has never been included. Would love to see riders going back to their team cars to collect water (and yes even seeing the sticky bottle )
7. 1:1 scale stages (especially on mountains)
Simply for the excitement and gameply. PLEASE give us 1:1 scale stages. 1 KM in the game seems so… short. Don’t know the current scale but it’s too short and gives us sprints already at the 3 km line.. Not a fan of it.
8. 1-1 rider equipment and clothes
As of many years ago team shirts are individual. If you notice almost every pro tour team rider have their own name on their bikes, shirts etc. The only way to do that in PCM currently is to hire 30 riders from different nations and win the national championships – I don’t think that is possible without cheating
9. If your Team changes sponsor – your Palmares for previous years shouldn’t
Unfortunately still it does..
10. Stats
So many improvements to make here.. BUT one thing which is really annoying me.. Stats falling drastically just because of age? Really? After 1 completed season, Valverde is almost under 75 MO?
BARTOLOMEO wrote:
10 things I hope Cyanide will improve
1. Real faces for star riders
I really love the idea of starheads (like any other sports game). Would be great when they're on the podium or winning a stage..
I used to make my own faces/tattoos in PCM 15 - and I really miss this feature..
2. Rider personalities
To improve the AI Cyanide should consider rider personalities. For example some riders attack a lot, on a certain way, on a certain point also. Some riders are aggressive, some are defensive. I like the fact Team Sky make the train BUT Froome is still attacking even though he has 3-4 riders left - which is unrealistic unless you attack him BUT even here SKY would just pull the pace a bit IRL.
3. Rider signatures
Sort of like FIFA personalities for riders should be considered near future. For example celebrations. What about the Gilbert celebration where he lifts his bike? Would be cool if he could do that in game? Hell yeah!
Or Sagan doing the Forrest Gump?
Furthermore I've love to see signatures on the bike for example Froome looking at the computer in lower gear or Contador dancing uphill. Would be awesome.
4. Form planning for riders
In a lot of ways I love PCM 2017, but what I think is getting worse is the pre planner for riders. In 17 you cannot give a rider the aim to win all 3 grand tours. Why not? If I want to have that as an objective for my captain it should be possible. Please change that back to old standards
5. THE FINAL GC PODIUM IS ALWAYS TOP 3
Still it seems like Cyanide is ignoring that fact. Every time I complete a stage race or classic in the game I only see one rider/winner on the podium. IRL it is number 1, 2 and 3 who’s up there. In cycling being on the podium is a huge achievement. We always see riders aiming/defended the podium in the great grand tours but it is nearly 2018 and it has never been in the game… Why is that?
6. Team Cars
I know many cycling fans have been missing this in the game for years. This is a HUGE part of the sport, still it has never been in the game. EVER. I don’t believe it is that hard to animate or integrate in the game and therefore don’t understand why it has never been included. Would love to see riders going back to their team cars to collect water (and yes even seeing the sticky bottle )
7. 1:1 scale stages (especially on mountains)
Simply for the excitement and gameply. PLEASE give us 1:1 scale stages. 1 KM in the game seems so… short. Don’t know the current scale but it’s too short and gives us sprints already at the 3 km line.. Not a fan of it.
8. 1-1 rider equipment and clothes
As of many years ago team shirts are individual. If you notice almost every pro tour team rider have their own name on their bikes, shirts etc. The only way to do that in PCM currently is to hire 30 riders from different nations and win the national championships – I don’t think that is possible without cheating
9. If your Team changes sponsor – your Palmares for previous years shouldn’t
Unfortunately still it does..
10. Stats
So many improvements to make here.. BUT one thing which is really annoying me.. Stats falling drastically just because of age? Really? After 1 completed season, Valverde is almost under 75 MO?
then riders have a personal goal as well. Right now you have no idea what a rider needs to keep them satisfied. You only have those 4 specifications for 'Satisfaction', 'Quantity', 'Prestige' and 'Route' which seem to change randomly after a while. By giving them targets and expectations this might be a lot better to determine.
