Well i have some questions i hope you guys can help me solve or providing your knowledge and expertise.
I've been playing the game quite a bit, and not only the '15 edition. But where i struggle the most, is when i have to set the goals and form for all my riders. I really lose the overview so quickly. And even when i use hours in setting the goals for each rider along with what I and the sponsors want to archieve in the season, i end up doing it wrong somehow.
And by doing it wrong, i mean i end up not having enough riders with great enough form to do any good deeds in the current race, or they are tired out due to too many races in to short time.
Basicly im having a hard time doing this.
I then was thinking if you guys might had some good tips or tricks when it comes to setting the goals/form for your riders in the start of the season ?
And Is it important to have all 8/9 riders in BEST form when attending the races you wanna win - or is it mostlly important to have a good form on the rider you wanna win with + 1-3 helpers/lieutnants, and then rest can be in medium form.
Also the later you get into the season, the more tired the rider gets - how much "tiredness" can you allow before it complicates the riders chances to archieve certain goals? Or does it have an iinstant effect when tiredness shows?
Hope it make sense
NOTE: And yeah i did read "Planning a season" - from cymarel.
Best regards
Edited by katulen on 11-06-2016 19:40
Yeah, it's a lot of trouble. I long for the old days when you didn't have specific goals and could create and save training schedules and select them from a drop-down menu, which took maybe 3 minutes per season.
The simplest way of going about it with the current system should be: Go to the season schedule and delete all goals for each rider, don't bother with any. The riders will complain but afaik that has no negative effects. And now manually up the training level across the whole season, keeping a look on the tiredness. Obviously, if you choose a constant level for the whole season it can't be very high, forget the top training levels, just medium across the board. That should be enough for your less important riders.
For your captains you should have some idea about which races you want them to compete in, Giro or TdF (maybe both) or the cobblestone monuments or the Ardennes races and so on. Add a bit more training leading up to and during these races (during for GTs) and shave off the intensity elsewhere. That's it.
If you don't like the idea of your riders having no goals you can still do it, set the goals first and then manually adjust the training intensity. Here's an example I made (for a puncher with the goals Paris-Nice, Ardennes classics and San Sebastian):
Note that the rider has good fitness to compete in many more races than the goals I selected, Basque Tour, Canadian GPs, World Champs, etc.
Made it a bit easier for me to come around i think. So i can just focus my best riders goals/form and then do an overall on the helpers.
And yes i agree, i miss the old drop-down feature
And something i totally had gotten wrong, was that i thought the green bar was the form - i then realised that the blue line(green line/bg in your case) is the form. That also helped me alot
Another thing i've been thinking about. I''ve read somewhere that the more a rider is at TOP FORM, the more fatique(tiredness) he willl get. So at how many goalls do you guys usually set your rider to have topform ?
It's not so much the goals, it's the training intensity. You have six levels (in PCM 14 at least, I don't think that's changed) and the highest level causes fatigue quickly, even quicker than the red area suggests at the start of a season. Even level 5 causes a lot of "damage", which is why I avoided it in the example. Level 4 isn't bad, should still give you good, though not the best, fitness.
Anyway, three reasons why I suggested to not set any goals:
1. Just deciding on the races each rider should aim for is a hassle, you'll probably want to use pen and paper for that (I do). Other players even use a spreadsheet, like cunego59:
2. Selecting all the goals on the schedule page in-game for every rider is a hassle in itself.
3. Freshness. About 4 weeks leading up to each goal the rider's freshness will be bad, reducing his three bars in-race. By not setting any goals you avoid that problem.
So, whether you bother with goals or not, adjust the training intensity manually (after selecting the goals). A few weeks of level 5 are ok if you follow them by a longer period of level 1. Not just two weeks like in my example, but 4 or more weeks.
I started using paper + pen, however i really like the easy overview in that spreadsheet.
But a question - I assume the rider highlighted in yellow is the captain and the riders listed to his right is the lieutnants, following him to the listed races throughout the year. Is that correct?
And if so, what about the rest of the riders for the team - is that just domestique/helpers or ?
3. Freshness. About 4 weeks leading up to each goal the rider's freshness will be bad, reducing his three bars in-race. By not setting any goals you avoid that problem.
Ahh that make sense why sometimes my riders has crap freshness ..
But, you say if I don't choose any goals for my riders, but just manually set the training fitness/form as i want it, i avoid that low freshness - but whats the downside then? I mean, i guess there is a point the rider has lower freshness leading up to a goal ?
Edited by katulen on 13-06-2016 17:34
that's the spreadsheet i used to plan my season on pcm11.
the fitness tool is no longer valid but the season planning page is still good (race date need to be adjusted to 2015 calendar, though).
Hehe, that was not the message I intended to convey, the spreadsheet was meant to put you off! Certainly, a proper, detailed season planning is possible, but if you play long careers like I do it gets repetitive fast. Just for the record then, here is a link to the way I have learned to plan my season, keeping it as simple as possible, always a group of 8 riders racing together (WT only, but good form for every WT race):
As for the freshness system, I believe it is an attempt at realism, riders aren't in top form in preparation races. Though the game also has the rhythm system for that. By setting goals "correctly" you won't have problems with bad freshness (either). I "discovered" that after the last goal has passed freshness always remains excellent, hence you avoid the problem altogether by never setting goals. If Cyanide changed this to "freshness is always bad except for goals" you'd be forced to reconsider.
Well the thing is, when i played with Landa, i made him go to TdF as best helper, and he would peak in Vuelta. He woulld end up with around 60-70 racedays, however, he is still complaining about to few races or he want more prestige races.
His schedule was Dauphine/TdS, TdF, Burgos & Vuelta + late season classics.
So how can you have a squad of 8 riders which is always going to the same WT's ?
Well as you say, that is what "rhythm" is for..
So what i wanna do in the future - NOT set any goals, and just set fitness/form manually ?
Ty for your link.
Edited by katulen on 14-06-2016 11:10
I set my riders in five groups - Cobbles, Ardennes, Giro, Tour and Vuelta - depending on what the riders are good in, and what my tactics are for the Grand Tours. Then I take pictures of this and then I go to objectives, where I pick the rider's goals.
Cobbles-group members get P-R, RVV and so on as objectives and other cobble races until they're satisfied. I give them Dubai, Qatar, Oman and T-A/P-N as training along with cobble races. This makes a perfect form.
For the Ardennes-riders I give them Catalunya and Pais Vasco as training. Maybe T-A/P-N or a stage race at this point. Then the riders are good in the three Ardennes. If some cobble-riders is attending here, I only give the a one day race between P-R and AGR.
Concerning the Giro-riders, they get a stage race in late March (Settimana) and early April (Sarthe), then Trentino and Romandie. They will be in perfect form in the Giro. If cobble-riders is here, I only give them Romandie.
Vuelta-riders will get a lot of stage races in July an August - try give them 2 stage races, maybe 3 if they didn't ride Giro or Tour.
My riders will almost always get in 2 of these groups - the best of them, at least. If they are in 2 groups, if set their most important races (as you can see below, Mads Pedersen has Giro and Tour as objectives, I set Tour as primary goal and Giro as secondary).
WorldTour stage races in the spring, Milano-Sanremo and Il Lombardia, for example, I choose some riders to have it as a secondary goal. Often my captains if the different races will ride these races anyway, so I will get good results in P-N, Catalunya, Sanremo etc.
Hope this makes sense. If not, please ask any questions you have.
