The reason why you can't win sprint is not in the game, is in YOU! you don't know how to win it
I resumed that my pro mode, and I have to say you're right a bit. That post was after playing some hours, now i'm after 6 seasons in my player. The recipe, that worked in 15 still works here (84 effort, starting to sprint at 1.6km). but not at all stages. There are some races, where the finish line is very narrow, and the lead of the pack is starting to sprint at 3 km, too early. They block the road, and you can't overtake them, in world tour, Omloop is a good example. And the leading train is catastrophic too, you have to do it on your own, and if you have a good sprinter, you csan do it, otherwise not. That's really realistic.
I'm stil thinking, it's not well balanced, the mountain stages/attacks are still too easy comparing to sprints. It's much easier to win a mayor tour by 10 minutes, than win 50% of the sprint stages.
There are bugs, but thats not new at cyanide.
I think 15 was more entertaining, than this edition, but you can get used to it's failures, and you can like it finally.
My last problem: I edited the national teams, I merged my country with Austria, my rider was appearing in an austrian shirt, in austrian team at results, but on the left side at the control panels there was the spanish team, so I cant control my rider. I edited DYN_national team -> sta_country. Is tehere anything else need to edit?
ruben wrote:
I must say, one thing that is the most annoying in PCM 17, is playing as a sprinter..
How is it that the breaks so often make it? Even in flat stages?
I mean, it has started to become an issue years ago, back in the edition where RES didn't work.
But I think I can attribute this to four clearly defined reasons which have been introduced or worsened in PCM 17 as far as I can tell.
1) The effect of the green bar has been "nerfed", as sobrano's testing showed.
This means breakaway riders with much lower green bars compared to the chasing riders are not at as much of a disadvantage anymore and can ride just as fast with the same effort levels.
2) The relaying train mechanics have gotten worse.
Especially in windy situations, but also in general, I have observed tired riders at the front of the peloton haven't been replaced early enough by a rider with enough bars left, meaning the entire train slows down when the first rider starts to bonk, or when riders right behind drop out of the line. The frantic search for a fresh rider further back then gives the break valuable seconds. This also seems to be the main reason why the break makes it 9 out of 10 times in heavy crosswinds.
3) Riders are progressively slowing down for corners much more throughout the last editions.
Simple math: If any corner negates the speed difference between break and peloton, that stretch of road is unavailable for time gains for the peloton.
Granted, this emulates real life very well, but with the condensed distance ratio in PCM, a single corner can mean 400 metres of equalized speed for break and peloton from breaking point to exit instead of maybe 50 irl. Put only 5 breaking-worthy corners into the last 10k, and the peloton has only 8 actual kilometres to make up the famous one minute.
4) In my opinion the by far most important reason: Cornering drops the heart rate and gives back energy to breakaway riders.
Again a rather simple concept to understand: Any corner increases the available energy pool for the breakaway by regenerating bars and allows them to sustain the same effort level for longer in the final kilometres.
Now again, it's somewhat realistic, but with the bar system in PCM, the effects become too significant. Especially on rather short circuit finishes, it's entirely possible to maintain the gap to the peloton throughout the last 10k even for a small break, and still have enough energy left to not bonk in the sprint and get overtaken there.
For a "quick" solution that doesn't involve Cyanide, I would strongly urge stage makers to reduce the amount of corners in the final 20 kilometres of a stage, and preferably completely refrain from using small finish circuits, even if that is the real life route.
That would address the two reasons we have any chance of solving. I'd rather have a fake, completely straight finale than a predictable breakaway win.
After about 30 seasons in PCM 17 in total, I can surely name a dozen or more races that are 100% certain to end in a breakaway victory just because of the stage design.
4) In my opinion the by far most important reason: Cornering drops the heart rate and gives back energy to breakaway riders.
Again a rather simple concept to understand: Any corner increases the available energy pool for the breakaway by regenerating bars and allows them to sustain the same effort level for longer in the final kilometres.
Now again, it's somewhat realistic, but with the bar system in PCM, the effects become too significant. Especially on rather short circuit finishes, it's entirely possible to maintain the gap to the peloton throughout the last 10k even for a small break, and still have enough energy left to not bonk in the sprint and get overtaken there
Actually that's not even realistic, if you go into a corner when the racing is fast, you sprint out hard - the corners are almost more tiring than a straight section of road, especially if you're far back in the bunch were you've had to slow down for a corner wrong.
Whole thing seems like a good idea in theory that translated terribly in practise.
After about 30 seasons in PCM 17 in total, I can surely name a dozen or more races that are 100% certain to end in a breakaway victory just because of the stage design.
This breakaway issue is kinda ruining my experience, or at least making it less immersive. Breakaways get the victory WAY too often -and I could live with some third week stage win here and there, but in my 12 seasons pro cyclist game I've seen breakaways winning not only many stages but several classics (Montreal and Quebec a few times each), TWO MSR and, just today... a world championship :s
