I am completely new at this game, and while not a novice at cycling, I doubt I am any where near as knowledgable as most of you guys.
Anyway I just got the game yesterday and I played around with it to get a feel, and while I did learn somethings, I am still a bit overwhelmed.
I grabbed the PCM spain pack and I was planning to play a career as the manager of Disccovery, because that is the team I know more than the others.
When I started I noticed that none of my riders were signed past this year, why is this? because the team was in its last year in 2007? I imagine that I can keep the team going if I would like, correct?
The other problem I have is that i am over the salary cap, consequently I have minimal money to sign anyone, what is the deal with this? And how should I remedy it?
I have read the fitness for dummies guide a little and I need to read it again, but it seems too in depth for what i am looking to do here, is there a cliff's notes version? What is the most important info to gather from the guide?
If I try and muddle my way through, how bad will it be?
Is there anything in particular that I should be concerned with my first time through? I've read the career guide and I have hired some mythical scouts, but I am unsure what else I need to do to get things started, can anyone give me any general guidelines? What I am really looking for is almost a step-by step guide to get me starrted
Thanks in advance.
Stupid new guy question: How many riders are used for a race?
The PCM Spain pack is a great place to start to play as it has a great deal more in it than the original ever did.
Yes you are correct in your assumption that the contracts end at the end of the year. You can attempt to resign them/extend their contracts at any time during the riders career if they are already on your team. If you select the rider to bring up their rider profile, you will see one of the buttons on the bottom says "contact". This will bring up another little window in which you can see what the rider wants for a new contract, and so you can offer the contract. However, it costs more money to renew a contract the further away from the end of the contract you are.
You don't actually have minimal money to sign anyone, but the game has a salary cap at a certain value. If you go over this then the team doesn't want you to offer salaries to anyone else really, but you still can. The only way to remedy as such is to resign riders on a lower salary, resign less riders, sign worse riders with lower salaries, or ignore it as many do.
On the fitness aspect, i didn't find this website for a month or so from when i began playing, and so i just left the rider training to the computer and you slowly pick it up. I started taking control of just one or two major riders to get them to peak at certain times, but left the control of my domestiques on the computer as they don't need super fitness.
To be honest, other than playing the career/game yourself and finding out little things, and picking up tips off the forum or wherever, there is no better way to learn than to muddle your way through the game.
Riders for a race depend on the race. Usually you can expect 8. A grand tour has 9, and some smaller tours for the continental calender have 6, 7 or 8. Some races, like the Herbiers de Chrono or sumink like that allow only 2 (or 3) riders to race in.
Thank you, yes, you definitely helped me out.
I am still very confused about my salary cap with Discovery though. Because I am over the cap, the max that I am allowed to offer any rider is like 1500/month, so obviously I am not able to resign any of my better riders. Does this mean after the season I am going to have to completely restock my team? This just doesnt seem to make sense to me.
You can offer a rider any amount you like if you are trying to sign a rider for next season, which is what re-signing does. So, despite what it says, offer the riders as much as you see fit it keep them (I would follow their requested amount)
Deadpool wrote:
You can offer a rider any amount you like if you are trying to sign a rider for next season, which is what re-signing does. So, despite what it says, offer the riders as much as you see fit it keep them (I would follow their requested amount)
Thanks, I dont think I would have ever thought of trying that.
CrueTrue wrote:
Welcome to the forum, by the way. If you've any other questions, feel free to ask
Thanks for ther welcome, and yes, I have a few more questions.
How many races should I be targetting to race a year for the entire team?
I think i can have 30 riders on my team, what is a good number/renge?
How many sepearate "fit" teams can I field a year? By "fit" I mean having the team pretty close to peak fitness.
If I want my team to just sit back and keep up with the pelleton, but not really drive the pace, just take a rest day, how would I set the team up? I seem to be using a whole hell of a lot of infinite relay, is this normal?
When is protect a rider used? Can I set it up so all my other riders do the pace making for one rider for most of the day, so he is freah for the finish, such as one might do for a sprinter.
How do I use my mythical trainers? I see where to assign them, but I am unclear as to my goals.
I think I have read that equipment matters very little, if at all, correct?
reggaelover wrote:
How many races should I be targetting to race a year for the entire team?
I think i can have 30 riders on my team, what is a good number/renge?
The second one depends on the first one and vice-versa
reggaelover wrote:
How many sepearate "fit" teams can I field a year? By "fit" I mean having the team pretty close to peak fitness.
No idea. usually people in game just follow the real life stuff, so cobble guys in form in april, etc.
reggaelover wrote:
If I want my team to just sit back and keep up with the pelleton, but not really drive the pace, just take a rest day, how would I set the team up? I seem to be using a whole hell of a lot of infinite relay, is this normal?
not do anything? just use the leftmost icon, which is exactly to keep pace with the group the rider is in.
reggaelover wrote:
When is protect a rider used?
You can set any number of riders to protect another rider (a rider can't protect and be protected at the same time), which will make it so that the protected rider will spend less energy (he's being kept out of the wind) and the one(s) protecting him will spend more energy
reggaelover wrote:
Can I set it up so all my other riders do the pace making for one rider for most of the day, so he is freah for the finish, such as one might do for a sprinter.
sure. Just remember more than 2 riders protecting one if mostly useless and more than 3 IS fully useless as it has no extra effect.
reggaelover wrote:
How do I use my mythical trainers? I see where to assign them, but I am unclear as to my goals.
simple, riders will improve or decline according to their particular potential, age at which each particular rider starts to decline in skill, their "natural" specialization, the specialization you're training them in, and morale. Assigning a trainer to them means they improve faster. the better the trainer (mythical being the best), the bigger the bonus.
reggaelover wrote:
I think I have read that equipment matters very little, if at all, correct?
Some people say that. I experimented with that once, only in sprints. it made a major difference.
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
Forgive me, but Im about to sleep so will be short answers
reggaelover wrote:
CrueTrue wrote:
Welcome to the forum, by the way. If you've any other questions, feel free to ask
Thanks for ther welcome, and yes, I have a few more questions.
How many races should I be targetting to race a year for the entire team?
If you are not sure just follow the scheduele the team already have, the races they are signed up for
I think i can have 30 riders on my team, what is a good number/renge?
28-30 riders is the best I think, the most realistic as well
How many sepearate "fit" teams can I field a year? By "fit" I mean having the team pretty close to peak fitness.
Having a rider in good form, 70-80 points you can have for a quite long time, but if you get over that they will gain fatigue quite quickly
If I want my team to just sit back and keep up with the pelleton, but not really drive the pace, just take a rest day, how would I set the team up? I seem to be using a whole hell of a lot of infinite relay, is this normal?
50-60% and front group command usually makes them keep up without problems
When is protect a rider used? Can I set it up so all my other riders do the pace making for one rider for most of the day, so he is freah for the finish, such as one might do for a sprinter.
You use it to protect your sprinter/leader to have him as good as possible for the finish, just like you said
How do I use my mythical trainers? I see where to assign them, but I am unclear as to my goals.
Not sure about the question?
I think I have read that equipment matters very little, if at all, correct?
Indeed, equipment have very little affect.... something else you may want to consider though is that a rider racing in their home country gets a decent stats boost, can be useful
thanks all, you have been very helpful.
i have a couple more.
is there any way to check the fitness of opposing riders?
in general what is the fitness level of your riders when they are actively racing? does it vary based on the time of the season? for exapmple, the tour down under is early in the season, is it normal for the riders in that race to be less fit than the riders in a race that is later in the season?
reggaelover wrote:
is there any way to check the fitness of opposing riders?
no.
reggaelover wrote:
in general what is the fitness level of your riders when they are actively racing? does it vary based on the time of the season? for exapmple, the tour down under is early in the season, is it normal for the riders in that race to be less fit than the riders in a race that is later in the season?
varies wildly is the only true answer I can give you
In the early season it's also normal for fitness to vary wildly. So expect strange results (as in real life), where in-form riders beat much better out-of-form riders.
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
reggaelover wrote:
thanks all, you have been very helpful.
i have a couple more.
is there any way to check the fitness of opposing riders?
in general what is the fitness level of your riders when they are actively racing? does it vary based on the time of the season? for exapmple, the tour down under is early in the season, is it normal for the riders in that race to be less fit than the riders in a race that is later in the season?
Yes! Just use hannes convertor and scroll over to the right table, i forget what it's called but somebody should be able to tell you
Macquet wrote:
"We all know that wasn't the real footage of the Worlds anyway. That was just the staged footage to perpetuate the coverup that it was actually Vinokourov that won the race."
