You also need to remember that most, if not all Databases are made by Europeans and in general most Europeans either hate or STRONGLY dislike Americans so you can not expect America to be highly rated as a potential scouting area.
I don't post this in a negative way, just stating the reality of the world. Europeans do not respect American cycling despite the fact that an American has won how many TDFs in the last 15-20 years compared to the Frenchys or other Euros?
Anyway I would suggest editing the scouting area to a 2 star and slightly reduce the scouting time for more accurate results.
Two TdF winners out of 280ish millions of people. While Denmark have had one and a half TdF winner with only 5.5 million people.
I think two stars is the highest the US should have. And still 50 days because it is a big big country after all.
I'm not really saying the US should have a huge star rating...
but China is a 4 star and Japan is a 3 star. Even looking at TDF champions... I'd say the US should be ahead of those.
I'm just now acutally scouting the US for the first time so I'll see what the actual results are... but I'd think the US should at least produce 2 or 3 riders who are ranked as "good or excellent" by a mythical scout each year. If you look at the actual riders in cycling today there are a fair number that you'd have to think would have been at least "good" when they came out. Hincappie, Leipheimer, Zabriskie, Danielson, Raisin, Fred Rodriguez. Heck, even without the cheating you'd think Landis would be "good" in his scouting report.
I'm not saying the US should have 5 or 6 stars... but you'd think they'd be ahead of China or Japan... or even pretty much every South American country (possibly not Columbia).
KurtinSC wrote:
but China is a 4 star and Japan is a 3 star.
in my opinion, that's the whole problem.
KurtinSC wrote:
'm just now acutally scouting the US for the first time so I'll see what the actual results are... but I'd think the US should at least produce 2 or 3 riders who are ranked as "good or excellent" by a mythical scout each year. If you look at the actual riders in cycling today there are a fair number that you'd have to think would have been at least "good" when they came out. Hincappie, Leipheimer, Zabriskie, Danielson, Raisin, Fred Rodriguez. Heck, even without the cheating you'd think Landis would be "good" in his scouting report.
those riders you mentioned aren't enough to be separated into 2-3 per year. 1 pretty good per year and quite a few average should do it I think.
The preceding post is ISSO 9001 certified
"I love him, I think he's great. He's transformed the sport in so many ways. Every person in cycling has benefitted from Lance Armstrong, perhaps not financially but in some sense" - Bradley Wiggins on Lance Armstrong
2007 UCI pro tour rankings by country: USA #9
2006 UCI pro tour rankings by country: USA #5
2005 UCI pro tour rankings by country: USA #2
1-star? 2-stars?
It just seems odd that the entire country of Italy would produce 8-12 excellent cyclists each year (if you add up all the individual scouted areas) and the US would produce none most years.
Yes, Italy is better... but the US seems like it should be one of the top 10-15 countries in talent at least.
KurtinSC wrote:
but China is a 4 star and Japan is a 3 star.
in my opinion, that's the whole problem.
KurtinSC wrote:
'm just now acutally scouting the US for the first time so I'll see what the actual results are... but I'd think the US should at least produce 2 or 3 riders who are ranked as "good or excellent" by a mythical scout each year. If you look at the actual riders in cycling today there are a fair number that you'd have to think would have been at least "good" when they came out. Hincappie, Leipheimer, Zabriskie, Danielson, Raisin, Fred Rodriguez. Heck, even without the cheating you'd think Landis would be "good" in his scouting report.
those riders you mentioned aren't enough to be separated into 2-3 per year. 1 pretty good per year and quite a few average should do it I think.
Uh Slipstream anyone?
The entire Slipstream Program is filled with huge talents. Cozza (I rode with him on sunday and was able to keep up Stoked!) Peterson, Lewis, Duggan (3rd Us Pro TT) Caldwell (11 National Titles) Taylor Phinney (World TT champ, US individual pursuit champ in his first ever track event) Frishkorn and Friedman (both top 5 Tour of Mo), Brady Kappius, Danny Summerhill (Silver medal Junior World Cross Champs and top 10 road race)
The entire Slipstream Program is filled with huge talents. Cozza (I rode with him on sunday and was able to keep up Stoked!) Peterson, Lewis, Duggan (3rd Us Pro TT) Caldwell (11 National Titles) Taylor Phinney (World TT champ, US individual pursuit champ in his first ever track event) Frishkorn and Friedman (both top 5 Tour of Mo), Brady Kappius, Danny Summerhill (Silver medal Junior World Cross Champs and top 10 road race)
Again it just goes back to the European bias. Also great screen name!
The entire Slipstream Program is filled with huge talents. Cozza (I rode with him on sunday and was able to keep up Stoked!) Peterson, Lewis, Duggan (3rd Us Pro TT) Caldwell (11 National Titles) Taylor Phinney (World TT champ, US individual pursuit champ in his first ever track event) Frishkorn and Friedman (both top 5 Tour of Mo), Brady Kappius, Danny Summerhill (Silver medal Junior World Cross Champs and top 10 road race)
check any forum on any sport for opinions on prospects. no matter who the prospects are or what sport we're talking about, about 1 out of 20 prospects turns out not to have been over-hyped.
I can name quite a few guys who were "can't miss" prospects and are now years later riding for continental teams and relatively unknown to most cycling fans, or are in bigger teams playing bit-part roles. and yet at 20 or 21 they looked amazing.
Edited by issoisso on 01-11-2007 14:51
The preceding post is ISSO 9001 certified
"I love him, I think he's great. He's transformed the sport in so many ways. Every person in cycling has benefitted from Lance Armstrong, perhaps not financially but in some sense" - Bradley Wiggins on Lance Armstrong
Well at what point is a prospect a "success" or not overhyped?
I don't know how you'd view the success of prospects, but if you take an average of the last 3 years pro tour results, US cyclists come out about 5th or 6th amongst all other countries.
The US had 4 riders in the top 25 finishers in this year's tour de france (more than any country but Spain).
Now I don't think the US should be equal to Italy or Spain or Germany or even France when it comes to scouting. Italy Spain and France are divided into 4-6 sections, each one of which produces more talent then the whole of the US.
I WOULD argue the US should be on par with Australia, South Africa and Columbia... where one scouting area covers the whole country and it has a 4 star ratings.
KurtinSC wrote:
Well at what point is a prospect a "success" or not overhyped?
that's extremely subjective, let's not go there.
KurtinSC wrote:
I don't know how you'd view the success of prospects, but if you take an average of the last 3 years pro tour results, US cyclists come out about 5th or 6th amongst all other countries.
and how old are those riders?
KurtinSC wrote:
The US had 4 riders in the top 25 finishers in this year's tour de france (more than any country but Spain).
all of whom are over 30. 3 of them are over 34.
KurtinSC wrote:
Now I don't think the US should be equal to Italy or Spain or Germany or even France when it comes to scouting. Italy Spain and France are divided into 4-6 sections, each one of which produces more talent then the whole of the US.
I WOULD argue the US should be on par with Australia, South Africa and Columbia... where one scouting area covers the whole country and it has a 4 star ratings.
I would argue on par with australia, ahead of colombia and far far ahead of south africa.
The preceding post is ISSO 9001 certified
"I love him, I think he's great. He's transformed the sport in so many ways. Every person in cycling has benefitted from Lance Armstrong, perhaps not financially but in some sense" - Bradley Wiggins on Lance Armstrong
I won't quibble with most of the post, but I'll point out on the last one:
"I would argue on par with australia, ahead of colombia and far far ahead of south africa."
All three of those are 4-star recruiting countries in PCM Spain. (I'm not sure if Columbia is in the official release, but I believe South Africa and Australia are).
In my current career I've finished scouting SA and AUS. One excellent and 2 goods in SA, 2 goods in australia. I'd say if that's what a 4 star does it might be reasonable for the US... or at least a 3 star.
Regardless, it's not that important... but I'm guessing as time passes in a career you'd see less and less riders of a Zabriskie/Hincappie/Danielson level out of the US. Your top guys would be a lot more like Danny Pate.
Hi All,
Didnt want to start a new thread, so an existing general one seems appropriate. Hoping someone can answer this question. I wanted to expand the range of equipment available in the game. Especially Rims/Roues. I understand the STA_Equipment file is pivotal, also STA_Equipment Marque for Logos, but I'd like to know the steps to adding equipment to the game. Is there a bright DB genius out there that can give me some pointers. I know this is PCM06 screen shot. 06 and 07 can be modified the same way as I understand it.
Just a follow up, but the rider rankings seem about right for the US when it's all said and done.
What seems to happen is that since the US is so big (and takes so long to scout) you get a lot of riders back when scouting is complete. Most of them aren't ver good... but because of the numbers there will by 3-4 ranked as "good" or "excellent" (I've done it twice... once was 1 excellent and 2 good, the other was 4 good).
So despite the low star ranking, the actual results are probably accurate to what I'd expect when comparing the US to other countries.
