Hey guys. I've been part of the PCM community for ages now, and played the games for 10 years now. However my last game was PCM 13, and while I could probably get by just playing 13', I would like the idea of playing with updated databases.
17 seems to have mixed reviews, so I need some help determining if I should buy the game.
My main concerns are the AI in races. I've read some promising things, as well as concerning things about the AI. 13 doesn't really have that great AI either, mountain stages seem pretty straight forward as once you get to the foot of the climb all the favourites attack at once and the "peloton" just gives up and rides slowly up the climb. If you miss the initial move your rider can get stuck in this slow group for a km or 2 before he can get out and by then its too late. Im hoping mountain and hilly stages are better in 17, but I've read the Hill stat is broken in 17. Ideally the attack stat wouldn't be pointless too..
valverde321 wrote:
13 doesn't really have that great AI either, mountain stages seem pretty straight forward as once you get to the foot of the climb all the favourites attack at once and the "peloton" just gives up and rides slowly up the climb. If you miss the initial move your rider can get stuck in this slow group for a km or 2 before he can get out and by then its too late.
Rejoice! In 17, everyone still attacks at once, but nobody ever gets away so it's just a Sky-esque group ride until you run out of energy and drop off. Or even better: nobody attacks, same result.
The same goes for cobbled classics and hilly classics. I never saw an actual attack win RVV, PR, LBL etc. It's always a group sprint between the 5-10 riders with energy left.
And for group sprints, just lead the group into the last k and start to sprint under the kite.
Guaranteed win if you don't have Sagan on your wheel. And you usually don't, because better sprinters don't get AI preference for positioning.
If a stage isn't rated flat, that even goes for the standard 3k sprints.
Basically, dot from start to finish and hope your stats are good enough. If they are, you'll win 40 races per season even on the new ultimate difficulty.
Also, the new slowing down in corners thing means that if there are a couple of meaningful corners or roundabouts within the last 3km, whoever starts to sprint first at the front wins the race.
Especially lower category races with finish circuits regularly go to the leadout rider. Or the breakaway, because it's impossible to take back time on everything but straight, flat roads, and even then it's still barely possible.
A summary: it's fun because I hate life even more than I hate PCM. And because I win.
PCM15 has a conversion of the 2017DB, is cheaper and probably better
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
Can the pcm2017 hold 230 teams. The earlier version had a lesser limit. I too like all those small teams in CONT. They add flavour to the races and riders can evolve more realistic (I think) before they get to ProCont and WT- teams.
I've always hated the strict limits on many things in PCM. Equipment is another. Stop you from using all the great creations done by "artists" playing the game.
I had hopes for pcm17 and have been holding out. Haven't read anything about a coming pcm18 and what it might include. Feared the last few versions have been more pointing towards "arcade" (Pro Cyclist mode) than on actual manager stuff. Manager and AI behaviour have so much to improve and it's sad Cyanide hasn't got the power to evolve the game more in that part.
clamel wrote:
Can the pcm2017 hold 230 teams. The earlier version had a lesser limit. I too like all those small teams in CONT. They add flavour to the races and riders can evolve more realistic (I think) before they get to ProCont and WT- teams.
I've always hated the strict limits on many things in PCM. Equipment is another. Stop you from using all the great creations done by "artists" playing the game.
I had hopes for pcm17 and have been holding out. Haven't read anything about a coming pcm18 and what it might include. Feared the last few versions have been more pointing towards "arcade" (Pro Cyclist mode) than on actual manager stuff. Manager and AI behaviour have so much to improve and it's sad Cyanide hasn't got the power to evolve the game more in that part.
Personally Im just going to use the Daily XP for now, since Im sure its more stable than that db and the stats and young rider evolution and stuff like that is probably better as well and. I know in the past very large dbs took ages to simulate a season etc. And yes for anyone wondering I did buy the game (mostly because I got an insane tax return )
I'll look into 2015 too then.
