Eyolfur wrote:
In the two last PCM, some suggestions were made during the betatests and we included some on the release game.
If there's one thing we know how to do, it's how to be annoying and persistent about something Edited by issoisso on 09-10-2009 11:27
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
Cool, if it is not to late, then I have some suggestions.
1. Make the Simulation AI recognize the profile. At least include the traveled height.
2. Either change the 3D AI so that it can ride all kind of stages or only build stages which do not interfere with the 3D AI. For example hilly stages in the Tour: No matter if there is a hill or not, the riders will attack all the time like there is no tomorrow. The peloton will be torn apart and a rider can gain or lose minutes.
I have another suggestion.
It should be possible to add races without an XML file.
I guess it is pretty simple to modify the game to allow playing with races without XML file. Only the preview of the profile has to be blocked for these races. And of course the race can not be played in 3D, so that button has to be deactivated as well.
Suggestions manager mode:
+ Recovery efforts were possible in the PCM2007:
Ability to accept offers from other teams at the end of the season.
Profiling runners season finale.
Withdrawal volunatia of corrdores ... (Which in 2009 I have a game PCM where Inigo Cuesta is running in Andorra with 44 years!)
+ Other forms cyclists cyclo-cross, cycling female (there is a databse women in PC07 very good). Possibility of creating a team with multiple disciplines.
+ Ability to create an Under-23 dependent primary calendar with a broader (some stages could "recycle" career women), including global and sub-23 tests as the Bira, Paris-Tours Espoire ...
+ Longevity cyclists (long, medium, short); attribute similar to potential, but in reverse.
+ Possibility controversy: runners suspended for doping, which are proclibes those with very low morale or suffering from a very sharp decline.
+ Slimming bike during the winter (to lose weight to progress in the mountain points at the expense of CLM and SPR)
+ Detection of talent in other countries. Japan, China, South Africa, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Eastern European countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary ,...) ex-Soviet republics in Asia (eg, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan), Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina,
+ Negotiations with cyclists as there was in the PCM 2006 (time trial sessions)
+ More staff, with a masseur, psychologist, mechanical,
+ Stages to improve sprint
+ Possibility to go to the "Wind Tunnel" (in winter, very expensive)
+ Senior Year teams.
+ Of course, not miss podúia, more teams and split into 3 categories. And more races.
Suggestions at the races:
+ Increased number of punctures, crashes and retirements in the traps pavé
+ Fall and needles also time trials.
+ cilistas voluntary withdrawal. In classic does not make sense for someone that wants to hook 30 minutes to reach goal.
+ Increase the speed of the runners. It is unrealistic that TTI of 20 kms winner made an average of 41 km / h and I remember one mountain stage of the Tour of 180 kms, the winner (Pellizotti) reached goal with an average of 30 km / h
+ alhunas presence of snow in early season tests (Het Volk, Kuurne, Paris-Nice, or the Alpine stages of the Giro)
+5 Difficulty levels on sections of pavement (not the same the Foret d'Arenberg, 5stars, the paving of the entrance to Roubaix, 1 star)
+ more realistic distances, ie, commensurate between the rider and the road. They are unrealistic these sprints thrown at 3 kms from the finish. A good example was the late lamented Eurotour Dynamic Cycling.
+ Variety of national championships in each country (as with the World Championships)
+ Olympic Games
New way: Being legend:
Commented by another user, I think a form of very interesting game with many possibilities.
New mode: grand gestures:
Star stages recreating historic moments while we can offer the possibility to change history in terms of our actions. Each challenge has 3 objectives, the stages can be similar to the tutorial mode (and say the race is launched) or from scratch, or even 2 or 3 stages (the least). Different databases, with brokers and historical teams (Peugeot, St. Raphael, Kas, Molteni, Bic, Bianchi, Renault, Reynolds, La Vie Claire, Teka, Gatorade, Gewiss, ONCE ,...)
An example of objectives can be:
Duitama 1995. You start with the Spanish team from the start of the test (Indurain, Olano, Jimémz, Blanco, Gonzalez Arrieta, Mauleon Escartin, Garcia Markina, Garmendia, Marino Alonso, Marcos Serrano, Fdez Gines)
1) winning the championship
2) to double
3) to triplet
Examples of achievements:
CLASSICAL (15)
Coppi (Lombardia, 1949)
Coppi (Roubaix, 1950)
Magni (Flanders, 1951)
Poblet (Sanremo 1959)
Merckx (Sanremo 1967)
De Vlaeminck (Flanders and Roubaix, 1977)
Moser (Roubaix, 1980)
Argentin (Flanders, 1990)
Bugno (San Sebastian 1991)
Kelly (Sanremo 1992)
Jalabert (Fleche Wallon, 1995)
Museeuw/Tafi/peeters (Roubaix, 1996)
Vandenbroucke (Liège, 1999)
Knaven (Roubaix, 2001)
Rebellin (Liege, 2004)
TOUR DE FRANCE (15)
Coppi (1949)
Bobet (1954)
Bahamontes (1959)
Anquetil (Puy de Dome, 1964)
Poulidor (Puy de Dome, 1964)
Gimondi (1965)
Ocaña (1972)
Merckx (1975)
Hinault (1979)
Fignon (1982)
LeMond (1989)
Indurain (1991)
Pantani (1998)
Ullrich (Alpe D'Huez, 2001)
Armstrong (Alpe D'Huez, 2001)
SMALL LAPS (5)
Koblet (Romandie, 1953)
Saronni (Tirreno-Adriatico, 1973)
Kelly (Paris-Nice, 1988)
Mottet (Dauphiné, 1992)
May (Back-Basque Country, 2003)
Lachi wrote:
I have another suggestion.
It should be possible to add races without an XML file.
I guess it is pretty simple to modify the game to allow playing with races without XML file. Only the preview of the profile has to be blocked for these races. And of course the race can not be played in 3D, so that button has to be deactivated as well.
When riders retire, they shouldnt disappear entirely. Instead they could turn staff (scout or trainer) or make a come back a couple of years down the road.
Also, it should be possible to create teams that are "yet to debut". That is, if you start in 2010, it should be possible to set teams to open in 2011.
That and another division like ProTour and Continental: National.
Edited by Waghlon on 20-12-2009 20:21
Waghlon wrote:Also, it should be possible to create teams that are "yet to debut". That is, if you start in 2010, it should be possible to set teams to open in 2011.
Yes - I second that. Would be great if you could retire teams / create new ones at the end of each season.
Probably a bit late to suggest changes, but what about some mental stats, or some hidden. A stat like consistensy could be hidden, and determine how often a rider delivers. A mental stat could be composure. Does the rider keep his cool and stay in the pack for the right breakaway, or does he become afraid and attack to soon.
In general : (probably not doable, but main setbacks)
1. The AI sucks.
Now I play a lot of war games (strategic turn based), and so I know it’s very hard to develop good AI, but still any improvement would be welcome
2. Extend the road !
Some kind of scaling of the race is inevitable, ie Milan SR in real distance even constantly at X8 would take 1 hr to complete. But as it stands now the scale is too small, generating a) unrealistic sprints and b) huge time gaps if you’re dropped out of the leading group on the last km of the last slope : 10 m behind a group of 20 riders, you’re charged 1 m + as compared to the 20 eth member of the group.
3. Less and more crashes
I want my riders to crash more but my game to crash less.
(yes all game do crash, but this one is on the verge of “frustratingly unplayable”)
4. More …
More races, teams, riders, etc.
Yes PPDM, PCM daily and many others are doing a fine job putting together DB’s as comprehensive as I want, but should I pay them instead of Cyanide ?
5. Better graphics :
Now I would play this game even if my riders where depicted as little cardboard chips with symbols on them, but still better graphics would be nice (ie compare the landscape of the 2 Paris race tracks from Gran Turismo 4 to the last stage of the TDF, even in PCM’09)
In practice, a few things which shouldn’t be too difficult to implement:
1. Save button: yes moving the game 1 day forward does the trick, but I tend to end my day by having a look at the huge db and feeding my shortlist, and no can do if the next event is a race you want to play … + at the start of each year, you have to chose carefully when (real life and/or in the calendar) you’re going to assign the training schedules and the trainers, because you don’t want to do it twice.
2. Why can’t I see what’s the number of riders allowed or needed in a given race well in advance ? (yes I can, trough the editor, but this info should be more readily available)
3. Are we commanding men or robots ?
(this is also a key feature of war games) It would be nice if riders would disregards orders from time to time, ie attacking even if you tell them to stay put (remember Contador in the 1 st mountain stage of TDF?) or not wanting to protect a teammate, or continuing to relay in an escape group, even if you tell them not to.
This could be linked to earlier mentioned “mental characteristic” by creating ie an “obedience” value : Very obedient teammates might be more useful than more talented but individualistic riders.
4. Tomorrow is another day, but it’s however linked to today
In the stage races, the efforts made each day are not (to my knowledge) taken into account the next day. Hence, you have a strong incentive to always send the same rider in the early break (mountain points, for one, rider best suited for an escape, for two)
I remember sending D. Zabriskie (who’se characteristics made him suited for any type of terrain except heavy mountains) into a grand total of 13 breakaway’s in one TDF, not counting the 3 ITT’s which he tried also to win. That’s a lot for one man….
(for those interested : I was chasing a stage win, sponsor’s objective, which I never got)
On the other hand it’s not really cheating ie F. Pelizotti was in quite a few escapes in this year’s tour, but then again he isn’t just anybody.
So some kind of feature where you can save your strength for days to come would be welcome.
5. Even if it’s unrealistic, I would like to start negotiating for my next season later than July 1 st. Being busy with next year kind of makes the ongoing season less relevant. And the Vuelta is too often fully simmed (which is a shame)
6. Difficulty level should also influence simulated races. The game is too easy (mainly because the AI sucks), but when you play on extreme, you’ll almost always get better results when you sim then when you actually play. Making you feel like simming the most important races and playing the lesser, where it should be the other way around. (On hard, the balance is OK between simulating and playing , but the whole game is a bit too easy, making me inventing all kinds of added constraints to raise the challenge)
Evolutions I did like from PCM 06->07->08->09
1. Fetching bottles : really makes good teammates useful teammates
2. Training schedules : a pain in the ass at the start of the season, but you can stop worrying afterwards.
3. And I’m a great fan of 3 PCM ’09 features :
- Secondary sponsors setting secondary objectives, but with room to negotiate
- The whole finance section : money actually mattes again ! (PCM ’07 and ’08 had salary mass cap, meaning that whatever money you made was basically useless)
- Specialised trainers : finally makes the question “who traines who” relevant
Thing I miss:
- The feared “explosion” sectioned red bar (pcm ’06 ?) : Made for interesting tactical decisions : should I voluntarily drop off the group now, or should I try to make it to the top with the best (and risk losing more time by hitting the “collapse” threshold)
It would be nice if riders would disregards orders from time to time, ie attacking even if you tell them to stay put (remember Contador in the 1 st mountain stage of TDF?) or not wanting to protect a teammate, or continuing to relay in an escape group, even if you tell them not to.
I think that this should only happen if they implement a new be a pro sort of mode like ea sports has introduced. or have a setting were you could choose for this to happen or not. For realism.
