Pro Cycling Manager - anyone played it

[Caruut]

the problem is for every stat you have to program many variables in AI behaviour inrace. So introducing a new one isn't easy and every year they only have less than a full year to make the game. I can tell you it's extremely difficult for them.

The exception being when they introduced the new graphics engine they had 2 years to work on it while another team did PCM 2009. But they don't get that chance each time.

Cyanide itself sets their standard real high and I can tell you they are real cycling fans. Their lead programmer now came from the community. The game project leader came from the community as well. They are trying real hard but they are simply not a giant company who can spent unlimited resources and complete everything perfectly.

Surely a consistency stat would just be an edit to the algorithm for generating the daily form. Take 85 as "never has a bad day", down to 50 as "rarely rides to his full potential". Then lower your consistency, the further away from 0 the mean daily form goes. It would summarise quite a few riders perfectly to be able to keep with the best on the right day and lose bucketloads of time on other days.

Bike handling is already sort of included in downhill, I suppose.

In the Tour on my game, Nibali won an amazing stage by getting 5 minutes on the descent of the 2nd last climb. Rode himself up into the top 10 of GC too.

 

[Tuarts]

Interesting discussion(s).

Using the well worn example of FM and Sports Interactive (SI), they may be big fish compared to Cyanide but I can assure you from being around that community for a long time too, the series does suffer under the demanding cycle of yearly production. I think even more so since SEGA came on board, so its a problem not restricted to lower budget developers.

I think Cyanide do a great job overall, whoever the original game designers were that made the base game crafted a uniquely enjoyable game and based on a sport I like. As a sports fan I've played a lot of sports games and I always like the managerial games especially and PCM holds it own against many of the bigger ones (*coughEAcough*).

As for introducing a new stat, didn't they do that with the Prologue stat in PCM 10? Even if its just a clone of TT its still a new stat. I can see the pros for a Consistency stat or even a proper Morale stat that influences how likely it is a rider will perform well, or get that '+5'. I know they have programmed in favourite races and weather but it may just be me but I haven't really noticed it making that much a difference to the random assigning of current day morale.

 

[hrotha]

They introduced a Prologue stat? Sounds redundant to me, when you could just factor ITT, Acceleration and maybe Downhilling (after renaming it to Bike Handling), and with Endurance/Resistance (I never knew the difference between these two) not playing much of a factor.

I would really like to see Consistency and Base Form values. Plus what I said about dynamic stat progress depending on a rider's career.

 

[Caruut]

The prologue stat is good, I think. The more you try and make a stat out of other stats, the more likely you are to end up with unintended results.

Endurance is how fast (or slow, for a high value) the green bar goes down, and resistance is how fast the red bar goes back up

 

[Havetts]

Recovery/Recuperation is how fast the red & yellow bar recover.

Endurance is green bar and Resistance is how long your yellow bar lasts

 

[Climeon]

Recovery/Recuperation is how fast the red & yellow bar recover.

Endurance is green bar and Resistance is how long your yellow bar lasts

Wrong. Recovery is how much green someone recovers after each stage

 

[The Hitch]

I know i sound like a total dunce, but once and for all, what do the green yellow and red bars mean respectively?

very understandable, i guess i am too used to a childhood of playing football manager

You mean Championship manager right

or did you only start in 04?

 

[The Hitch]

very understandable, i guess i am too used to a childhood of playing football manager

You mean Championship manager right

or did you only start in 04?

 

[Caruut]

Green is your energy. So far as I understand it, the lower green gets, the worse you get. Green never recovers in-race, you have to wait between stages.

Yellow is burned up by efforts above ~170 bpm, moderately high efforts like riding on the front, solo attacks, being in the break and tough climbs. More "fighter" means more yellow bar.

Red is burned up by efforts above ~190 bpm, very high efforts like attacking, sprinting, and really tough climbs. More "acceleration" means more red bar, and has nothing to do with how quickly you gain velocity.

Run out of green and you turn into swaying autobus filler. Run out of red or yellow, and you can't put in efforts needing either red or yellow any more.

 

[will10]

They introduced a Prologue stat? Sounds redundant to me, when you could just factor ITT, Acceleration and maybe Downhilling (after renaming it to Bike Handling), and with Endurance/Resistance (I never knew the difference between these two) not playing much of a factor.

I would really like to see Consistency and Base Form values. Plus what I said about dynamic stat progress depending on a rider's career.

DB makers could make prologue specialists through manipulation of other stats but it's a lot easier now.

 

[The Hitch]

I've had problems.with this before. how do i activate online for my profile on pcm 11?

 

[Gloin22]

They introduced a Prologue stat? Sounds redundant to me, when you could just factor ITT, Acceleration and maybe Downhilling (after renaming it to Bike Handling), and with Endurance/Resistance (I never knew the difference between these two) not playing much of a factor.

I would really like to see Consistency and Base Form values. Plus what I said about dynamic stat progress depending on a rider's career.

Endurance --> Only counts for stages longer than 200km. Higher stamina means you will have more green bar and more energy.

Only counts for stages longer than 200.00km though.

Resistance ---> Yellow Bar. Important for, well, attacking, but also surviving past attacks. Higher resistance means more energy at the end, plus when you attack and stop, your rider will reocver faster with higher resistance.


And what I'd like to have in game is 2nd recovery stat. Between races. E.G.

Omloop and KBK. In PCM you can ride two races and your riders will have full green bar ( stamina ) in both.

That wouldnt be possible in real life. More examples with riders riding E3 and Gent and winning with solos of 30km by Cance etc. There has to be reocvery between stages/classics imo.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

you don't need a new recuperation stat.

They just need to make the one they have now incorporate 2 consecutive racing days properly when it's classics...

 

[The Hitch]

Why dont pcm let the transfers come first?

I mean when i play you have to wait till July which is like 100+ hours of gameplay before you can do transfers by which point i dont even know how much longer i will continue.

That was always the funnest thing about fm. You get the team, you get the budget, and you have 2 quick months to buy sell, train, that was the thrill, not when you have to choose between 30 preset unchangeable groups

 

[will10]

100hrs gameplay? Are you racing everything on the calendar, at 1x speed?

The transfer windows on PCM mirror what goes on IRL, can't see any reason to change that.

 

[Parrulo]

the transfer season is another thing that annoys me a bit.

it's a bit too active when it comes to top riders and some transfers make no sense at all, like for example boonen to euskaltel which i have seen happen before

 

[The Hitch]

100hrs gameplay? Are you racing everything on the calendar, at 1x speed?

The transfer windows on PCM mirror what goes on IRL, can't see any reason to change that.

The season could start in the pre season say November, giving you a chance to contact some riders for the coming season.

And yes i play lots of races. i play as conti team so every race where i can get some winnings is necessary to keep finances even every month.

 

[Caruut]

the transfer season is another thing that annoys me a bit.

it's a bit too active when it comes to top riders and some transfers make no sense at all, like for example boonen to euskaltel which i have seen happen before

I think part of that is to make it possible for the player to actually build the team they want to. Without the ability to whisper a word in the ear along the lines of "If you don't renew, we'll have a nice contract waiting for you.", it becomes quite hard to set up the squad you want unless contracts aren't renewed that often.

In reality, most top riders probably have a pretty clear idea of exactly when they're going before they make the decision to leave their contract unrenewed going into transfer season.

 

[Tuarts]

I know i sound like a total dunce, but once and for all, what do the green yellow and red bars mean respectively?



You mean Championship manager right

or did you only start in 04?

Well Champ Man before '04 and Football Manager are effectively the same thing.

As for the teams and signing riders, don't you have a couple of weeks in January to sign free agents?

I don't see how PCM is any different to FM in this regard either, you still have 'preset' squads. If you want a complete fantasy team(s) then you have to edit the database, same as FM.

Presuming your talking about starting in the English league system, the game starts the season during the middle of a transfer window, in cycling the season starts in January when signings between teams are not allowed. Why would you want to change this?

 

[will10]

The season could start in the pre season say November, giving you a chance to contact some riders for the coming season.

And yes i play lots of races. i play as conti team so every race where i can get some winnings is necessary to keep finances even every month.

Yeah but the bottom line is it's based on realism, so start on Jan 1 2011 with the teams and riders where they'd be IRL.

If you want a custom team, you can start one and cherry pick the riders you want.

 

[Izzy eviel]

The new PCM '12 - does anyone know the min system requirements?

(aka - will it run decently on a year old laptop?)

 

[Gloin22]

They'll be same as PCM 11 or very close to same. If you ran PCM 11 well, PCM 12 will run same.

 

[The Hitch]

I just realised ive been playing the entire season with the 1/12th sponsor bug. Survived on race revenue but now that im in october november december im just losing money every month, well into the red and am worried if i keep going forward sponsor will leave or something.

So how is it that i can edit the finances on my team?

 

[Tuarts]

Load your save .cdb into this editor. Find your finances and edit away.

 

[The Hitch]

Load your save .cdb into this editor. Find your finances and edit away.

When i click on the link i see this

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