This is an idea that I think would greatly improve careers in PCM and I'm wondering what you guys think of it.
The idea is pretty simple and is born out of the frustration of how slowly talents progress in PCM compared to real life where sudden "stat changes" are very common.
Let's take Vervaeke as an example:
Since his stage win in l'Avenir, he has proven to be a very talented climber and it was only a matter of time before he would prove to be worthy of at least 72 in climbing, but due to bad luck the result that was needed to justify a stat raise was postponed for a year. Therefore, he has always been statted on 69/70 MO. This stat doesn't encourage players to let him race in early WT stage races like Catalunya and the Giro, even though he has been given these chances in real life. There's just no advantage to letting him race these races in game.
This is where hidden stats come into play. My idea is to give talented riders an extra stat that will get triggered when they meet certain demands.
Vervaeke could have a hidden mountain stat of 74 for example, based on his potential and specialisation. His base mountain stat would still be 69/70 though, but if he has had a good preparation, is feeling well and attacks in a mountain stage in the Giro, his mountain stat could suddenly jump to the hidden stat of 74.
This way, players are encouraged to let young and talented riders race bigger races in order to trigger their hidden stats. This doesn't mean that they will always succeed, some riders just need time to develop or can get hindered by injuries.
We could even take the idea a step further and give riders like e.g. Gaviria, whose stats are already pretty high, a hidden COB stat in order to make the game even less predictable, but that might be a bit too complicated... (Especially for Cyanide...)
Though it would be interesting if one of your riders suddenly performs well on a cobbled Tour stage and you realise after the race that he's suddenly got 75 in COB, e.g. Tony Martin... Just thinking out loud...
Discuss!
tl;dr:
Spoiler
Young talents get a hidden stat on top of their base stat. Their base stat gets replaced by the hidden stat as soon as they perform well on the terrain in question.
I noticed that sometimes a cyclist which has stats lower than you would`ve given him when you see him race. For instance, I`ve seen riders with MO 68 tagging along groups uphill all with MO 72 or higher and he didn`t seem to be doing any worse than most others.
Was it merely the case of better fitness, freshness or less tiredness? Didn`t seem to be the case. I had another cyclist with MO73 in that same group with much better stats and they seemed to be in similar states.
Now comes the interesting part: A few months later I noticed my MO 68 cyclist getting a slight boost to MO 70 and a few weeks later he progressed to 71. At the end of the season, he had ended with a MO 73. I`m not saying that there is some sort of hidden attribute, but this case seems to indicate that they already seem to do something like it.
Has anyone else noticed a similar thing in there team careers?
Great idea. Really. Hope this gets to Cyanide and it might be implemented once, would be a great addition and a great new side to working with youth talents in the game!
