I'm still playing 2014 only because I generally don't want to buy yearly published games every year. However:
Idea: Red star for objective
Explanation: When selecting riders for the race, there is a yellow star when rider has set that race as an objective. Include also red star there, which means rider has an objective for the different race during the timeframe. For example, when selecting riders for Vuelta a España, the riders who target Laurentian Classics would have red star there.
Why: Making it easier to select riders for the race.
Idea: in pro cyclist mode - request domestique to get water if you are team leader, best placed rider or wearing a Jersey
Explaination of idea: too many times I've been approaching the final climb and running low on water. The peloton is running at high speed so if I go myself I will waste energy I need for the climb as I work my way back to the front. So I wait, hoping the domestique will go but he doesn't until the very foot of the climb and he then cannot catch up to give me water and I'm left with none until I've dropped enough riders to call for a bottle safely. In real cycling the domestiques always make sure the key riders have enough water before the climbing starts, the easiest way to implementt his would be to add an "ask the domestique for water" button which you can use if you are the team leader, teams best placed rider or are wearing a Jersey.
- In flat stages that end up in a mass sprint, there are often unrealistic results, like 4 or 5 riders from the same team in the top 10. This never happens in real life, where the teams will put all their money on one of their sprinters. When you point one of your riders as your "sprinter", this should be the man ending up the highest in the ranking (except when he wasn't able to sprint due to a crash or something). Also, it happens quite often that one rider is able to win all the sprints in a small (or even big) tour, with even always the same rider on place 2 and 3. There should be more variety in this (e.g. a top sprinter isn't always able to 'place' himself for the mass sprint, ending up a few places lower).
- In hilly/mountain stages: The results should be more a matter of seconds. Especially when the finish is on top of a mountain. Most of the time, the riders end up in the same time, when in real life you see often that a few riders didn't manage to follow the main group due to a final sprint, losing a few seconds. Another remark is that in the Grand Tours, the victory goes almost every time to the top rider. In real life this happens quite rarely. There are 2 options here:
- Breakaway makes it till the end: Here there should also be more dispersion. Most of the time, 6 or 7 riders from the breakaway end up in the same time. This never happens, there is always one rider that's the most strongest and will drop off the other breakaway riders.
- An outsider gets a few seconds at the end: The main favourites (especially in the second and third week) are most of the time not thinking about the stage victory, but instead are focussing on their main rivals, giving the chance to some outsiders (e.g. Majka, Pinot, ... in the Tour the France) to compete for the stage win. This is not the case in the current simulations.
Last but not least: more abandons during the races. Especially in tough races like Tour of Flandres, Paris-Roubaix, Milan-Sanremo and ofcourse the Grand Tours. In real life, there are much more abandons than there are in the current simulations.
Why: More realistic simulations will result in a more realistic view of the races, with a variety of winners, like in real life.
Idea: More crashes, especially when approaching final sprints and during the final sprints
Explanation of idea: I don't know if i'm the only one who feels this way, however i'm sure we have all witnessed a mass crash during a race cycling on TV, see Tour of Poland stage 2 for example, it was hectic, spectacular and dramatic. In the game however when a crash occurs the riders merely just stop and then perform some sort of flip over their bike, giving the game a ridiculous and unrealistic feel. Secondly when a rider abandons due to a crash, he just all of a sudden stops and after the last rider has passed him you will get a message saying he has abandoned. It is about time Cyanide look into the dynamics of the game and also start making improvements on parts of cycling such as crashes. For example when a mass crash occurs i feel like the riders should be sliding accros the deck, falling sideways, bikes being thrown in different directions etc... (Pro) Cycling Manager exists almost two decades now so i don't think this is too much to ask for? I have played the game since Cycling Manager 3 and the crashes that happened in that game have been the most realistic up to date.
Why: Just because it could add more realism to the game, the game is already nearing perfection in my opinion, this is something which would add greatly to the game in my opinion.
nems wrote:
Idea: More crashes, especially when approaching final sprints and during the final sprints
Explanation of idea: I don't know if i'm the only one who feels this way, however i'm sure we have all witnessed a mass crash during a race cycling on TV, see Tour of Poland stage 2 for example, it was hectic, spectacular and dramatic. In the game however when a crash occurs the riders merely just stop and then perform some sort of flip over their bike, giving the game a ridiculous and unrealistic feel. Secondly when a rider abandons due to a crash, he just all of a sudden stops and after the last rider has passed him you will get a message saying he has abandoned. It is about time Cyanide look into the dynamics of the game and also start making improvements on parts of cycling such as crashes. For example when a mass crash occurs i feel like the riders should be sliding accros the deck, falling sideways, bikes being thrown in different directions etc... (Pro) Cycling Manager exists almost two decades now so i don't think this is too much to ask for? I have played the game since Cycling Manager 3 and the crashes that happened in that game have been the most realistic up to date.
Why: Just because it could add more realism to the game, the game is already nearing perfection in my opinion, this is something which would add greatly to the game in my opinion.
coolrex wrote:
Ideas:
Obviously Licenses, men it's so shitty to make a new database just for names of teams, kits, cyclist, coaches and other stuff.
Statistics of other riders made by the scout. why would a scout only put his potential on the line if he could also register how he is doing during races. for example you want valverde, and you are going to scout him, well statistics will give his Energy Usage, Daily Forms, and Weekly Form.
Adding to Hadscheps point, unless you are far away favorite or top 3/4 with big gap to others, it's very hard to do well in simulated sprints.
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
Dunno if you can do it already, or maybe im just a noob.
In Career mode.
When you ride a Grand Tour, make different race profiles every year. Its get abit boring to play the same Giro for 4 years in a row. Just make 10-15 profiles, and let it be a random one every year to add some diversity, should be very easy to make that feature.
Also make the contract system a bit different. Riders should have a relationship to the team or his teammates. Like you have in Football Manager, players can prefer a club etc, or to play on a team with a specific player. Also make roles, do you want to sign the rider as a helper, captain etc .. Its very supid when you have a captain on your team, you might win a big GC with him, and you want to sign a new contract, but he choose to ride as a helper on another team instead of riding as a captain on your team ..
King Kunta wrote:
Dunno if you can do it already, or maybe im just a noob.
In Career mode.
When you ride a Grand Tour, make different race profiles every year. Its get abit boring to play the same Giro for 4 years in a row. Just make 10-15 profiles, and let it be a random one every year to add some diversity, should be very easy to make that feature.
King Kunta wrote:
Dunno if you can do it already, or maybe im just a noob.
In Career mode.
When you ride a Grand Tour, make different race profiles every year. Its get abit boring to play the same Giro for 4 years in a row. Just make 10-15 profiles, and let it be a random one every year to add some diversity, should be very easy to make that feature.
Its called: Variants
Exactly, you can download the Cyanide Variant Pack emmea uploaded in the 2014 download section under stages
King Kunta wrote:
Dunno if you can do it already, or maybe im just a noob.
In Career mode.
When you ride a Grand Tour, make different race profiles every year. Its get abit boring to play the same Giro for 4 years in a row. Just make 10-15 profiles, and let it be a random one every year to add some diversity, should be very easy to make that feature.
Its called: Variants
But are there any variants in the official DB, or is it only in the Daily DB? Cause i play with patch 1.2.0.0 and the Giro have been the same stages for the past 3 years in my career ..
Possibility to change the change the speed of the clock on mountain stages to make smaller gaps. For example 1:10(normal) 1:5 and 1:2 real-timeCM-time.
Idea: Combined view of fitness chart and all races rider is participating on.
Explanation: Right now on the fitness chart you can only see races that are on rider's goal list. What I would like to see is the view of all races rider has been assigned to. It would make a season planning for indyvidual riders much much easier. Right now, if i.e I want a rider to be a domestique in certain races (which wouldnt be on his goal list) I have to go back, double check the dates of the race and how the corespond to time scale on the chart, to plan his fitness. Its quite inconvinient.
Explanation: people never lose less than 5 seconds in a sprint on a hill, for example, they either end in the same time, or they lose more than 5 seconds.
The same about those mass sprints, it often happens that there arise little gaps, while looking at the timer, there's sometimes a gap of about 15 seconds, but when you look at the final results, everyone always appears to have end in the same time.
Why: in real life, in sprints uphill, it usually happens that people lose or win just 1 second in that sprint, but 1 second is better than none, right?
The same applies to mass sprints, when gaps arise, those seconds should be counted in the final result as well, it can always be important for the GC cyclists.
Explanation: people never lose less than 5 seconds in a sprint on a hill, for example, they either end in the same time, or they lose more than 5 seconds.
The same about those mass sprints, it often happens that there arise little gaps, while looking at the timer, there's sometimes a gap of about 15 seconds, but when you look at the final results, everyone always appears to have end in the same time.
Why: in real life, in sprints uphill, it usually happens that people lose or win just 1 second in that sprint, but 1 second is better than none, right?
The same applies to mass sprints, when gaps arise, those seconds should be counted in the final result as well, it can always be important for the GC cyclists.
I think this is due to the 10:1 scale of PCM, and iirc the minimum gaps are:
Flat finish: 20 seconds
Hill finish: 8 secs (maybe 10?)
Mountain Finish: 5 seconds (maybe 8?)
Not to sure on the last two.
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
Explanation: people never lose less than 5 seconds in a sprint on a hill, for example, they either end in the same time, or they lose more than 5 seconds.
The same about those mass sprints, it often happens that there arise little gaps, while looking at the timer, there's sometimes a gap of about 15 seconds, but when you look at the final results, everyone always appears to have end in the same time.
Why: in real life, in sprints uphill, it usually happens that people lose or win just 1 second in that sprint, but 1 second is better than none, right?
The same applies to mass sprints, when gaps arise, those seconds should be counted in the final result as well, it can always be important for the GC cyclists.
I think this is due to the 10:1 scale of PCM, and iirc the minimum gaps are:
Flat finish: 20 seconds
Hill finish: 8 secs (maybe 10?)
Mountain Finish: 5 seconds (maybe 8?)
Not to sure on the last two.
I totally forgot about that, thanks!
That'd perhaps be an idea for future games: 1:1 scale in the last 3km.
Explanation: I just remembered this idea thinking about the unpredictability of the game. It could be an optional feature set at the start of a career (like in FM).
In reality you can only see the riders results so to make the game a bit more realistic and unpredictable, one could hide some attributes. How many of them are hidden or how accurate are the attributes shown could depend on riders' reputation. The more the rider is known the more attributes are uncovered or the more accurate are the attributes shown. The inaccuracy could be implemented by showing just a range of values like the potential of scouted cyclists is now. One could also increase the accuracy/gain more attributes by scouting these riders (thus giving more relevance to the position of a scout).
Why: This way you could get some unexpected breakthroughs by unknown riders like in reality. For example, in current PCM, Benoot would be already one of the favourites for RVV and Julian Alaphilippe for ardennes this year because to get such results they would need to have accordingly high attributes and because of these they would be rated as favourites (both by the game and the player). However in reality their performances were surprising. Of course, we knew they were talented, but who could have guessed they will cope with the distance and WT pace that well? This kind of unpredictability is missing in PCM a bit. Another case is Domoulin's Vuelta, few would have guessed he will last so long, and certainly not the DS's of the other teams.
Another reason is the increased unpredictability when making transfers. With the less known riders one would either have to rely on their results or the opinion of the scout when buying them and only really uncover whether they have bought a world class rider in the making or cyclist who was lucky to have a great season that will never be repeated when they actually come to the team (I think the riders from player's team should have uncovered all attributes, as they can test them to see what they are capable of)
florian96 wrote:
Here are some of my wishes and hopes for PCM 2016.
I put them into spoilers so it won't get overloaded.
Idea: rework on freshness
Spoiler
Explanation of idea:
Someone wrote about the fatigue and the number of races and he's right. Bring back the race limit were a rider begins to decrease in performance. Also get some rework on the freshness. Yes the training is hard, but if you train yourself to dead you must be silly. It would be nice to see the freshness working after races so a rider needs to recover after a race or a Tour.
When a GT is over it takes long to recover of it so the freshness is very bad. After one or two weeks the freshness is good again.
This could also be taken in combination with the race days ridden and the more race days you have, the longer a rider needs to recover. Like in the old system after around 80 racedays.
Why:
What's worse than your rider starting in a race with bad freshness. This rider is for nothing. If your Team is not big enough or you set the goals for other races why you get, who I would call it, penalized by the system. And don't tell me something like go with another rider or organize it better.
Idea: New hill, flat, mountain ratio on the stages.
Spoiler
Explanation of idea:
Why only 3 different classifications. Why not putting in flat (Arabic races), lightly hilly (Mailand-San Remo), hilly (Amstel Gold), lightly mountain (with 2 and 1 categories) and mountain (with HC and 1 categories).
Also with the stats going more on that ratios.
Flat Stage 100% flat stat,
lightly hilly: 60% flat 40% hill,
hilly: 100% hill,
lightly mountain: 40% hill 60% mountain,
mountain: 100% mountain stat.
This is just an example. But in 3 of 5 Categories the hill stat come into count so I would give it a little disadvantage on the lightly classified stages.
Why: Form year to year I see Stage races with a lot of hilly classified stages. Now I really don't know the best rider for those profiles when I sometimes see mountain characteristic long slopes after another. I really ask myself is the hill stat the most important or should I go for mountain.
With a basic/static percentage and 2 more Icons I know what to do. Maybe this can bring some stability in the race behavior too.
Idea: Team and rider strategies + Plan B! (3D-Race)
Spoiler
Explanation of idea:
Teams and riders have got their own strategies: ride for leader, go for a jersey, stage victory,...
Now this is something I miss in PCM. You can't really see a logic strategy behind the teams.
This is a very long chapter of variations so I try to keep it short.
Sky only rides for the GC (Froome) and kept it like that. That's their goal, as simple as that.
Tinkoff got a Green Jersey Contender (Sagan) in the team who was on his own for the sprints, because all the others worked for the GC Contender (Contador).
The smaller teams try to go on breakaways for collecting price money, TV minutes (not important for game), stage victories.
There are far more possibilities, but I hope this makes it clear.
But sometimes bad things happen and there needs to be a Plan B.
Plan B is more like going for GC, but to weak so trying to go for stages or the KOM. As seen in this years Tour with the French favourites.
The KOM works good but it's also just a hunt and rush all against everyone from 1,2 km's to the top. If one rider of the break goes for the points he should go in front and control the group until someone thinks of challenging him or the others stay behind him and go for the stage victory. In previous versions it was some kind working like that.
Most important comes now. There is no Grupetto. Sprinters are always going so long as they can. Why don't they save energy during the mountain stages. Same goes for riders saving some energy to spend it on another day. Also there could be a time displayed to show how long they can take to reach the finish line without going over the time limit.
Why:
I don't see any logic behind the AI system. But maybe there is a way to more stability like in previous versions. Now it's just a rush and hunt. I always ask myself what are they trying to do now. The strategy looks more like all (AI) against me (selected Team).
Idea: Breakaway/rider Picture in Picture
Spoiler
Explanation of Idea:
A Button to show the breakaway group or a rider in a separate window.
Here I got an example:
This speaks for itself. The placement and the size are just to show how I think it could look like.
Why:
If one of my guys is in front I often switch between the groups so I don't miss any important action. With a picture in picture I got both groups in sight and don't need to switch a hundred times in a race. This could also be interesting on a specific rider to spot on.
Idea: time gaps
Spoiler
Explanation of idea:
The stages are 1/10 and so must the time, but I think it need not. So why not giving us the opportunity to set our own time wishes in the options. Or go down half the time speed at least.
Why:
I want to get what I see and I see little gaps on screen. So the time gaps can also be in that range and not the scaled 1/10 range. So a regulator in the options like 1/10, 1/5, 1/2, 1/1 scaled speed or similar to that would be fine.
In that case the gaps between the groups can also be taken into count, not seeing the riders go over the line in big gaps and they get all the same time.
Idea: more personal options
Spoiler
Explanation of idea:
The fall frequency option was the first big step for hopefully more of that kind of options.
Like austrian champ I would go further and put in an option to switch equipment contracts off. So all the teams ride with their equipment forever. But as I said it's an option to turn it off or leave it on.
Some more possible options:
- rider contracts on/off stay in teams till they retire or the normal negotiations
- same goes for sponsors
- equipment development on/off; the same equipment quality for all, or the open development on the components like we got now
- a frequency for illness
Just some options I already got in mind.
Why:
This makes the game more personal and it's your decision what you choose so I hope this won't be a bigger problem to implement. I personally like to take care of the cycling part not to look on the contracts and the development of the equipments.
Idea: more modding support for the community
Spoiler
Explanation of idea:
The Stats changing and the stages are one thing but if the gameplay is rotten there is no need for stages and db's anymore. I think if it's possible the community can be a big game changer in things of gameplay modding. If Cyanide can't do it right maybe the community can do.
Why:
When we see what the community is doing for this game I think it's time to open up things a bit and give the community more free space to get more out of the game. And not to forget this can be a win-win situation! Just think of Giants Farming simulator it's a simple game, but with community mods everything is possible.
I just want to bump this post, since it has so well thought ideas. Thanks to "florian96" for having such ideas and for even creating pictures for that.
Idea: Bike sponsors that pay an amount for have or buy a rider.
Explanation: Like in the real life, Specializez pays part of the contract of Contador and i suppose that the same happens with other riders and teams.
Idea: The kind of training will be more effective, especially in young riders
Explanation: In the same point like happens in be a pro, if a cyclist train in a kind of terrain, for example mountains or hill, this rider will grow in this habilities, always depending of his conditions.
Idea: Secondary Sponsors.
Explanation: Like in the real cycling, all teams have a three or more sponsors. It would be more realistic in my opinion.
..
