I doubt anybody finds this terribly interesting, but if there's a place to show off what I managed with a copy of PCM 2009, too much time on my hands and never getting bored of winning, it's probably this forum. All 30 riders of my team made up the top 30 of the final Pro Tour (nowadays World Tour) rankings. I did this twice so far and got very close (top 28, top 29) several times over.
If anybody is asking how on earth I managed that, I'll gladly go into every detail, but to summarise, here's how I... "cheated":
1. Medium difficulty. I guess I should have changed the diffculty long ago, but I never liked the idea of other riders getting an artifcial boost, though of course it would make up for the deficits of the AI.
2. Always copy the save file and reload upon bad injuries.
3. Check the potential of riders with an external program, since there's no way to scout them. I find it odd that Cyanide removed this feature - my previous PCM version was from 2003 and back then you could scout other (professional) riders, not just young talent.
That's pretty much it. Sometimes I would restart a stage if there's a crash in the final kilometers or sometimes reload a TT if a (simulated) result was catastrophically bad (a rider losing 5 minutes on others with similar stats). What I never did was cheat on the wages. I liked the very restrictive budget, although with all my winnings my bank account reached ridiculous levels (see the screenshot from Januar 2032, 130 million in the bank).
Of course it took many seasons until the goal of placing everybody in the top 30 evolved. At first I played it "straight", protected my captains and all that but with time I realised it's unnecessary and in fact, I can do it the other way round. The captains get the water bottles, the captains pull the rest of team along, they'll still win the race/stage, unless they (=I) allow teammates to win.
With time I realised I could afford a core classics team with everybody 75+ in the important stats, flat, hills and stamina, and I paid less than 30k/month in salaries for most of them. If you put 8 of those together - less even, able to pull weaker riders along - they become an unbeatable force in every PT classic race except for Paris-Roubaix. All they need to do is attack as a group at an opportune moment and relay along at 80-ish and they'll never be caught.
It took some "balls" to discover that the further out from the finish line I did this, the better. For example the back-to-back Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallone and LBL - attack with the group with 100 km to go and I'd win by 5 or more minutes. The weakness of the AI is that it doesn't immediately counter the attack, the other pre-race favorites will only let their teammates work for them - and those just aren't good enough to keep up with my "train". And then at some point the other strong riders will simply panic, everybody for themselves, attack alone or in groups of two... and again, they'll never catch you this way. It even works in the supposedly flat classics like Milan-San Remo and Hamburg Cyclassics. There are some hills, after all, use those to get away and you'll be fine.
After I discovered that I realised I could pretty much use the same tactics for stage racing. My 17 stage racers (joined by the best climber of my classics squad for the Giro), which would ride all PT stage races except for Tour down Under, Paris-Nice, Eneco Tour and Tour of Poland, were all climbers. All other stats are secondary while in climbing every point counts. TT is nice, sure, but would only decide the rankings among my men. If I wait till the final climb on a mountaintop finish, other strong riders would beat most of my team. Which can't be helped on some stages, if a stage is all flat and only has one big final climb, for example. But when there are several climbs, attack (or "sneak attack" with a high effort on the dot) early. Get the whole group away and let the captain do most/all of the work. If others are good downhillers, let them relay downhill. But the captains usually have even decent flat stats (just above 70, while teammates only have 60-65), so they have to do all the work in the flat parts (losing some of their yellow bar, no problem) and uphill.
And that's how I ended up in this admittedly very boring situation, getting the top 8 or 9 positions in every PT race out there - except for Paris-Roubaix, can't afford the cobblestone specialists. But even the Tour de Flanders was manageable, if not every year. What also helped, I wonder if anybody played as far as I did - the game stopped generating good climbers after a while. My absolute champ was Martinez Ruiz, I actually scouted him properly and had him in my team for 15 years, 85 mountain, 84 TT and everything else great, too, won a dozen TdFs and Vueltas. So he was one of my two captains and the other one by the year 2030 or so was the only other rider with a climbing stat above 80. Nobody else has more than 78 at this point, even in potential, I look it up every year. The program generates some good riders, though I believe never more than 3 with the max potential of 8 at any one point. But climbing has deteriorated badly and that has made the last few seasons really easy for me. At first I really had to micromanage my riders so my whole team could win even the TdF, boiled down to seconds in the final tally, living on time picked up on hilly stages where the AI didn't realise I could generate time differences with late attacks.
Of course, there were always some pretty mediocre riders in the team, earning just 2,000 Euros a month, young hopefuls at best. Having those pick up enough points to complete the top 30 always remained a challenge and that's why in most years I don't bother with my one, two or three weakest riders. But it's possible with a lot of work. For a start, again it took me years to discover this, I send my seven weakest riders to the Tour down Under and they can take positions 1 to 7. In the 2009 version the two hilly stages aren't that demanding and with careful (counter-)attacks in the final phase it's just possible to get a time difference on the peloton. More PT points can be picked up in the Canadian classics, where there usually isn't much competition. And there's also the Tour of Poland which is similar to the Tour down Under.
Finally, it's down to an even distribution of points. I worked out an easy way of planning the season. Two teams for the stage races, one races the first half of the year, the other the second half. So first half starts at Tirenno-Adriatico, then Catalunya, Basque Tour, Romandie, Giro, ending with the Dauphine and the national championships. Second group basically races Tour de Suisse, TdF and Vuelta. And basically the same team of eight riders does all the classics, a couple will feature more in the spring and others get their chances later on, GP Quest, Canada, etc. And the weakest as I explained do mostly the Tour down Under and otherwise fill in as need - usually the poor guys have to do Paris-Roubaix and never see the finish line. That "system" works out nicely as the final PT rankings show. The final winner can come from all three teams, though admittedly the core classics team will always finish very high, all of them winning at least one important race, while the weaker riders of the stage racing teams can't accumulate that many points. So in the final table 2028 the winner is Martinez Ruiz (TdF and Vuelta), second is my beloved Del Bianco (won the PT + WC several times, great classics rider who never charged more than 50,000 Euros/month) and third is the stage racing captain of the first half of the season. But 4, 5 and 6 are classics riders while in the "bottom 10" (places 20 to 30) 8 are my weakest climbers/stage racers.
Where's the fun, you ask? Well, winning decisively is fun for me. But I guess I take most pleasure in finding those 30 riders to stay in my budget. This involves some reloading, too. In the 2009 version you can extend contracts from the 1st of January and of course there are always some "nasty surprises", riders who earn 20k or less a month suddenly demanding 80k. Final season with my team then. Though let's first see if they won't accept a much lower offer. I have had riders who demanded 70k and then settled for 50k. Or demanded 50k and settled for 30k. Thankfully, some remained cheap no matter how well they did. Tony Martin with the DB I used (RSM-News Update 2010) - good climber, excellent TT - managed to win the PT in one year and was still only demanding 25k when I renewed the contract the very next year.
The crowning moment of my team's total dominance was the World Championship road race 2029, 258 km Oslo-Oslo. Obviously, I only controlled one nation - Italy. And took the top 3 positions with my three Italians, Del Bianco won like he did every year (12 years running, I believe). But look at the AI controlled rest of the top 10 and even further down the top 25 the game records. First 11 places go to Liquigas, 17 in the top 25.
A great achievement, well done to you. I'm surprised that there are so few 80+ mountain climbers there but it's always fascinating to see how the game works after 10-20 years into the season mode.
@LLS: I'm not sure if I understand the first question. I don't think the AI ever gives up, stops chasing because it thinks it doesn't have a chance. It just cannot handle the situation I provoke whenever I can. Creating a "super escape group" with my riders who are all good climbers (maybe 78 on average) and not much worse on hills and they are being pulled by the best rider in the field, my captain. The AI captains don't dare to make that jump and let their far worse teammates pull the peloton and that's the key, if they never let me get away in the first place this wouldn't work. Sure, they'll attack later and reduce the time difference, but in the final kms my whole team is still pretty fresh, having micromanaged it so everybody will have some yellow bar left, and the difference widens again. It can be up to 5 minutes and managing that, say, twice, in one GT means that even minutes lost in TTs and time lost on some stages won't help the other riders. In the TdF I certainly didn't always manage all top 9 spots, but with time and fewer really strong climbers it got easier and easier. The Vuelta especially was always a joke. Lately the best climbers in the whole field apart from my team had a stat of max 75, so I basically had the 9 best riders anyway.
Controlling the budget is tricky, that's what I like about it. You have to find the best value for money. Most Pro Tour (now World Tour) points for the buck, so to speak. That's what I concentrate on. So sprinters and cobblestone specialists are out of the question. Sprinters need to be really good to win stages consistently and demand 90k (90,000/month) for that and never collect the points like a true stage race captain will for the same amount. For example, winning the TdF nets 200 points, plus more points from stages, a sprinter would have to win 10 stages for 200 points. Cobblestone specialists are really bad value for money. On the other hand, you can find excellent classics riders with those "magic stats", 75+ in flat, hills and stamina for just 15k. And they can collect points in nearly every race except Paris-Roubaix. For the stage races, find the two best captains, of course. They will ask for up to 120k, but I think they always settle for 90k. Some are clearly better than others. "My" Martinez Ruiz had 85 climbing, I'm not sure if anybody else ever had over 82. And great TT and everything else to boot. As I wrote, I might only have seen 3, maybe 4 riders with a general potential of 8 (goes from 1-8). And the others were all CB specialists. Most of the stage racing team will be pure climbers and you can find those for just 15k as well. No TT (for example, 60), bad flat (again, 60) stamina and recuperation below 70... not ideal, but workable, as long as they can climb. Also, of course, look for potential. I had plenty of young riders, I try to give them 3 year contracts, they grow while with my team and then go off to earn a lot more elsewhere.
I can make a screenshot of the current wages if you like. As a list: 2x90k, 52 (Del Bianco), 39 (next best stage racer), 34 (next best classics rider), 3x30, 24, 22.5, 19.5, 19, 4x15, 3x13.5, 2x13, 2x12.5, 12, 10, 9, 4.5, 3, 2x2.8.
Some of them will make more points for their wage than others, but those others are needed. I need those 90k earners as captains to pull all the "cheap" climbers. Some TT in the others is also good for those TTTs. I might not need Del Bianco and his 52k for the classics team (anymore), but I've had him such a long time and he always wins the WC road race for me because he can handle every terrain, I think 79 hills, 79 flat, 79 stamina, 76 climbing.
To add just a little more: In most years half the contracts are running out and half of those I can't renew because the riders are asking for too much. If somebody goes who earns 30k so far, I can up the wage to 30k for another rider who goes up from 15k, but it leaves less wriggling room for new riders and I'll need 7 or 8. And of course, many riders renew their contracts before I can contact them on the 1st of July. I didn't cheat, I had to pick from what's available. So not every year was great. I often enough had to pick at least one old rider, already past his prime, give him a one year contract, have him race only in the first half of the season. And when the budget limit is nearly reached, add talents, there's always a few interesting young riders around. Usually useless in their first year, train classics even if stage racing material, hills especially, should be good enough for some results and the PT top 30 in the second year and join the stage racing team in the third year.
Edited by Ripley on 29-11-2014 20:16
Yeah, well... I dunno, I like to optimise. I will go above and beyond what's necessary, push the game to a limit, try and break it. Back in the days of Transport Tycoon, for example, I would delete all my tracks and stations and re-lay them optimally. In Tropico 3 or 4, get the happiness of the people as high as possible. If I play a/the Football Manager I won't settle for less than 22 equally exceptional players, rotating the whole time to keep them all happy, winning the league by huge margins - totally unnecessary. That's just me.
Having said that... I now have PCM 2014 and it looks like my dirty tricks won't work - but who knows what I'll discover with time. But I admit I like having to play like a real team, having most of my team drop back on mountain stages, concentrating just on my captain, working hard for a win. It is better. But I just can't artifically hold back. I'm not throwing races, losing just because it's unrealistic to always win. The game needs to be balanced properly. And it looks like PCM has gotten better with time. The 2003 version was way too easy, the 2009 version was better but... still not good enough.
It looks like I might be able to repeat this "feat" with PCM 2014 after all. I've just finished the 2023 season with a riders' salary bill of 609,800/month which is well below what my sponsor pays me (over 800k/month), so far I'm refusing to pay salaries over 50k. And still I've again been able to totally dominate most races, all top 9 places in TdF and Vuelta, breaking away with all 8 riders to win several one-day classics comfortably. It sounds boring, but partly it's hard work.
I love this: one of the best reads I've had in a while
You almost had me convinced that you managed to "beat" the game. But as a fellow perfectionist/optimisationist I'm acutely reminded that there is always more work to be done. It always seemed to me that success, if it exists, is best measured against the methodology and execution, rather than the result.
Unlike you, however, I think I always lacked the temperament to follow through on such impulses, pcm-related or not... I'm just so picky that I always find some abstract, even philosophical, imperfection with seemingly every personal project which I will obsess over to the point of giving up.
Anyway... bravo, and all the best for ongoing/future optimisations
@DiCyc: Go for it! Maybe start with a weak team at the bottom of the continental division and work your way up, which is quite rewarding. The budget constraints make it a nice challenge, you always have to let your best riders go and find new talents.
@pcmfan: Tis true, there's always work to be done, you cannot ever "beat" the game. You can get close, but then you have to start over in some way, for example, I had to let go 11 riders - including all my 5 cobblestone specialists - at the end of the season and couldn't find adequate replacements, so my team will be worse next year and the competition stronger. Keeps me playing, I guess.
