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PCM.daily Tips & Tricks Section
From Continental to Pro Tour
By: Flups | Average Rating: 3.14 | Game version: PCM12 1. Fire all coaches & scouts.
Starting with a continental team, your spnsorship will just about cover rider's bill, but not staff wages, equipment, training camps and so on. Riders progress will be slowed without trainers, but such is the terms of the battle with the economy.
2. Buy basic equipment
The first few months are the last time you will see positive numbers in your team cash balance, so get a piece of equipment that fits your team profile, and to set you above other continental teams. I.e Speedy wheels for sprinters, or Doombringer frame for climbers.
3. Sebastian Siedler & Race income
Sebastian Siedler, a 33 old german sprinter of continental pro/pro tour quality is awaiting your team in free riders. Sign him on day one. He will cost about 10k a month, which is completely screwing over your budget by the looks of it, but the race income he stacks up more than make it worth it. Using quick simulation myself, he got me 21 victories in the first season, which I am quite sure could be a lot more if you 3D race him.
4. Training camps
As the managemant system is a bit screwed, and theres no game over scenario, you can do training camps even with a negative cash balance. Make sure your riders are always in shape, as starting continental, you wont have access to all that many races, so make sure you get the best possible results and income from the ones you do attend, which cannot be done with out of shape riders.
5. U-23 Riders.
These, besides Siedler will be your way of living. Since you fired your scout, you will have to rely on these, but who needs scouts anyways when theres Peter Sagan types awaiting you for just 2k a month. You cannot sign these until the end of season 1, but once you get there, they will take you to continental Pro and then pro tour. The last U-23 race is 14/09, pick them up then, pick the three highest ranked. Since the U-23 races will be the same each season, until they make diffirent race stages, you will get three types of U-23 riders. Stages racers, Northern Classics and Sprinters. The Sprinters can be 20-22 year old versions of Peter Sagan, just with lower stats, but extremely valueable for your struggling continental team.Home | Submit a new Tip & Trick
The Siedler tip is spot on though if you are starting from Continental and you want to progress. His 76 is awesome at that level and gets you cheap points to get up to Continental Pro.
The tip on young riders is a little off. You can sign them at any stage of the season once the u23 races start and they have a result. In general any rider who wins a stage at u23 level will be at least useful and some will be very good.
I've found the best course is to not sign anybody on your starting team to an extension. Sign Siedler straight up. Then with the u23 season check after every stage race as to who won or got close and what they did. You can in general figure out if a stage racer/climber has solid TT skills and then sign a decent crop of young riders for your 2nd season. Some wont progress and will just have been a one off result at u23 level but overall people winning those races are going to be at worst solid.
Hopefully by that point you've gone up to the next level on the back of Siedler. With extra sponsors money and hopefully a crop of young riders with potential you may well be able to significantly upgrade before the start of the 2nd season by purchasing a couple of useful riders and even if you dont your likely to be better off than where you started talent wise. Letting anyone who is in your initial team go at the end of contract is normally a good thing because frankly with a few exceptions those guys are just not up to the higher levels and the young riders you replace them with are on the whole better stats wise and cost only 2000.
Of course with an Editor you can identify the talented young riders off the database and only sign those with high potential but that's kind of cheating and the advice itself seems to be on trying to play the game without that from the lowest level up.
The original tips are flawed but the general thrust of them is pretty much right. Especially Siedler.
