I think the part that makes it annoying is the fact that it can be really complex. Most of the times I don't bother planning out which riders will ride which races with what teammates. I choose races for the schedule and focus on training a bit, for team selection in races I just pick whoever is fit.
The annoying part is not being able to choose who are the team leaders for Objectives. I understand you decide who is going to lead a race, but it would be so much easier to select your own 5 guys, just to make it easier for fitness plans for the people supporting them.
Seems something to simple to be able to select the 5 team leaders.
ChrisHallUK wrote:
The annoying part is not being able to choose who are the team leaders for Objectives. I understand you decide who is going to lead a race, but it would be so much easier to select your own 5 guys, just to make it easier for fitness plans for the people supporting them.
Seems something to simple to be able to select the 5 team leaders.
haha, I was also looking how I could change this the first time I started PCM 2018. Didnt understand why durbridge was a leader and s.yates wasnt... Restarted the career serveral times to get logical leaders. Only a.yates is not a leader now...
fragnot wrote:
Am i the only one who dislikes the planning section in this game?
I feel its confusing, not fun, and it makes me not want to make a career
That was one reason why I started with the Pro Cycling mode, but even there this is frustrating. In the third season I wanted three peaks, one at Paris Niece, one at the Giro and one at the Vuelta. Optimally the one at Paris Niece would be lower, but I was not really able to create a good plan. My last PCM version was the one from 2015 and there it was really easy to plan the season, but here it is hard even planning for one rider, let alone a whole team. In the end I ditched all and just started to adjust the fatigue with an Editor. This way I have more fun.
I think I will do the same if I start a career. Just take realistic objective for all riders and don't bother with any further planning while managing the fatigue in other ways.
This is the first edition that I've really played since PCM 2010. I'm really liking it so far.
I always enjoyed the planning in the earlier versions even if it was a bit simpler then. But after playing through one season I now figured out how it works and I find it quite fun. I'll try to list a few tips, not sure if these were all around in the recent versions because I didn't play them.
1) If you want to have minimal fatigue, it's important to manage the training schedules yourself. From what I saw the schedules you get automatically based on the objectives are not that great. For example I could want a rider to race at Milan-San Remo at around 95% and then be 100% at the Giro, but if the schedule tries to have the condition at 100% in March it won't be possible without significant fatigue. Now in my second season I managed to get into a situation where riders only may have some fatigue after a GT if they also race a classic like San Sebastian soon after it. Not sure if I have any riders with 3 100% peaks in a season, and rather they most have 2 100% peaks and one smaller goal with around 95-97%.
2) It's extremely important to have weeks off for all riders. But you often don't want to have multiple weeks off consecutively. If you take multiple lighter weeks, the condition drops like a rock and it takes a long time to get it back up. Instead you can rest 1 week, train hard again, and then take 1 week off when the condition is on the rise a few weeks later. This way the condition never drops really low and the fatigue never sets in badly.
Note that having a rest week means not having a race either. If you have even a 1 day race, the fatigue won't come down nearly as much. This is where I think it helps to even do some of the race planning for riders because you can see where they have to race and where exactly a rest week is appropriate. You also don't have to do the planning completely in the beginning of the season, but instead you can do just some of the more important things and then adjust things a few months at a time. Sometimes this is even necessary due to injuries, a rider suddenly improving and warranting a grand tour spot, or whatever.
3) To take advantage of the fitness peaks it's important to race enough. I think each race day gives you 3 fitness points, whereas training only gives maximum 1.5 points and lower if the training intensity is not the highest. I forget exactly how far out the fitness bar appears for the objectives but from what I recall you need 2-3 weeks worth of racing to hit the fitness peak before the objective. Though for grand tours you maybe don't want to start the fitness peak before the tour because it will end before the finish, and often some of the most important stages are towards the end.
. Took me 2 days though.
