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forum
Suggestions/requests for the 2014 season
Autumn is here, the Vuelta has started and we're beginning to think about the World Championships. That means that it's the traditional time for me to open up a 'suggestion' and 'request' thread where you can outline how you'd like the game to change for next season and what you think has worked particularly well this year.
Despite the fact that I'm now involved in a small way with running the game (namely, updating start lists and results) as in previous years this is very much unofficial and just a place for everyone to get together and bounce some ideas around. Nothing may come of them but Dave has always been great at incorporating good ideas from the community where possible.
For reference, you can find the 2012 and 2013 threads here:
"Suggestions for the 2013 season"
So, what do you think has worked well this year and what would you like to see change?
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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124 comments
I'd say 25-30 riders because that's the size of a normal WT squad. Your problem would be pricing prior to the season, picking races that count and people complaining when they realise that they didn't pick anyone for the Tour de France...
If it's a lot of effort then I wouldn't bother, there are already games out there offering something similar and I don't think road.cc needs to offer everything for everyone.
For anyone interested in squad/draft based games you can check out the game that was mentioned in the forum a little whole ago (http://road.cc/content/forum/50618-another-deeper-fantasy-idea) which is draft based with limited teams. Also I will be running a league on another site which offers something similar next year for road.cc people to join (http://www.pdcvds.com/), depending on what I end up doing this may or may not be draft based too (so each rider only exists once and can be had by one team).
pricing prior to the season would be fairly straightforward, you could just base it on current ranking in the game.
without giving it a proper look i'm not sure whether it's a lot of work or not, to be honest. assuming you can select your 30 riders there's nothing in the current interface for stage selection that really needs to change
Can I suggest that if a player is premium next year then the premium races automatically show on the dashboard when they open rather than the current std or previous race, not sure if it's just me but as a premium member it's a pain having to switch from a std comp team toa premium ccompetition ( it sounds stupid but if I've paid for premium races then I'd prefer them to take priority on my dashboard as its less likely to miss the start) other than that , as I've said before great game and appreciate everyone's efforts involved in it
Something else that occurs to me - a tiny point but do Lanterne Rouge points get factored into form/value? If so, I don't think they should...
Not an actual suggestion for the game but as I enjoy the pick three riders theme, how about a season long pick any three riders?
One request I have is for premium players to be able to enter their standard and purist teams (and possibly squad teams next year too) into leagues separately.
At the minute you enter your whole account into a league and all teams become part of it, I'd personally prefer to be able to enter my standard or purist teams into separate leagues individually.
I know Dave had mentioned there would be different budgets for different races next year, I'm just wondering how that might work, what would be like the smallest budget and how high it could go. I personally kind of liked the budget always set at 150, except, of course for the Tour, where I thought idea of raising the budget seemed reasonable given the higher rider values.
My only change would be to include women's racing next year. I also enjoyed the smaller races, but occasionally the confirmed start list came out very late and half the riders I picked did not ride. Otherwise enjoyed the game more than last year - the badges were a nice addition as was the ability to enter purist and standard teams at the same time.
Woman's races are coming....
Yes I think some of the small races may get cut, because they were a nightmare to get start lists for.
I think its better to stick to World Tour races, as "certain" website's that helped us seem to want to make money now and are not interested in linking up.
Although, they just recycle and publish publicly available information. They seem to think someone (team's) should pay for it.
I am thinking about setting up a site, either as part of roadcc game or on my own, to include historical race data
The smaller races are more of a challenge than the WT races, include the women's races but don't remove the smaller races.
Firstly, thanks for a great game and the time you all put into it. I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
When you do the 'pick 3' sub-game we are able to filter out the relevant nationality (FRA, ESP, ITA for example); I've never been able to do this for other nationalities, for example GBR, NED (or HOL) or BLG/BEL/BGM. I think this would be a useful function especially for the more obscure races which tend to attract committed riders from the host nation.
Can we have more smaller races please? I like the challenge of finding out more information on lesser riders and then having that knowledge when they step up. it adds to my enjoyment of the whole thing.
I'd go for more small races, either less prestigious classics or the European week long tours, because I enjoy them from a playing point of view.
From an organising point of view though some can be a real nightmare, little to no information ahead of time on what jerseys there are (young riders, sprints, finish line points etc), what points are awarded for what climbs, whether the sprints shown on the profile are all one competition or separate and that's before you even get to start lists.
These are fun races and add an extra challenge in that previews and odds and other things aren't freely available but they can be really hard work to run and I understand why some are possibly going to get cut next year.
I think we should concentrate on the best, the highest profile and those with TV coverage because the fantasy game adds to all that. The ones with poor organisation, poor websites and little to no information available though just become frustrating to run and frustrating to play so they should be dropped.
A Season Long Purist
would just be an extra option in the competition selection that is always open. Pick 9 riders and thats it. done and done before the TDU starts.
I love the smaller races, but I absolutely understand the issues with those that do not provide accessible information ahead of time. My only suggestion is a small one: to add a badge for 20,000 pts. Many of us reached 10,000 pretty early in the season and did not have much else to go for after that, in terms of badges. Over all the game is great and I appreciate all the work you guys do. I guess I have to start watching the ladies race now...
I'm pretty sure badges will be expanded on in some form so that there are more and so that they stay relevant all year. I'd quite like to see some competition specific ones so that there are ones you can only get in a given time period like during the Tour de France or the classics season.
See this thread for some early season discussion on the calendar and a list of competitions:
http://road.cc/content/forum/77002-fantasy-cycling-calendar
From memory, Algarve, Med, Giro del Trentino and a couple of others were problematic. We also had issues with races being cancelled during the classics and some chopping and changing of the calendar as we worked to replace the cancelled races at short notice.
Out of interest, how do people feel about overlapping races? Should overlapping stage races be avoided where possible or are you OK with it?
I'm just looking at the provisional UCI calendar for next year and things like the Tour of Oman and Volta ao Algarve overlap each other significantly as do races like Paris-Nice/Tirreno-Adriatico and then you've got races like the Volta a Catalunya and the Vuelta Pais Vasco which overlap some major classics.
Personally I like that there is some stage racing happening during classics season (because I suck at classics) but concurrent stage races give me a headache and I usually end up ditching one race and concentrating on the other.
The fact that we've already played the above mentioned races means that they should be easier to run next year knowing the in's and out's of the jerseys etc!!
I'm easy and will play what ever races you can chuck in. Maybe a couple more to finish of october? ie; chronos de nations?
I like the Spring classics but suck at them, maybe just stick to the Major ones!
On the otherside the Autumn classics where a nice addition which i was great at!
From my point of view I love the smaller races, as I like the element of people having to know more about the lesser teams, and also I think you can focus on them as you know they are going to be over after about 5 days, rather than continually having to be switched on for 3 weeks like a grand tour
As for overlapping, I really dont mind it, as if im playing one race then im on the site anyway and dont mind playing another. In terms of the overlapping, most are big WT races and part of the premium, and new layout was to allow both races like PN and TA to be in the game. As for you the Oman/Volta, I much prefer the Volta as a race, as I find both Qatar and Oman rather boring compared to most.
Id like San-Luis in too, and coincides with getting people into the game when the TDU is going on, but maybe too much too early in the season.
Another clash is the Giro and ToC, but I love the ToC as it is on at night after work, and also doesn't clash in terms of TV coverage, and I always find the american races pretty interesting
I was just looking at the Rankings page and wondering if it's up to date as far as including the last points from the last races. Just wanted to see the totals for all riders after the whole season. If they're not up to date, can they be updated to reflect the last points garnered from Beijing?
Thanks! 
I guess I don't understand what you're trying to say, Gkam. I have no idea what you're talking about. What was it that these "certain" websites did for you, helped you with, with respect to the smaller races? Startlists?
What do you mean that "someone (team's) should pay for it"? Pay for what? Again. start lists? Or what other information is it they want you to pay for?
And, just to make it clear, when you say you think we should stick to the World Tour races, does that mean you're proposing we get rid of anything that's not World Tour, like all the Early Classics races we had, the Giro del Trentino, the Tour de Mediterraneen, the Tour of Oman, Tour of Qatar, the Volta ao Algarve, the Tour of California, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge and the Tour of Britain?
If that's what you mean, I guess I don't get what it is that's difficult about getting info for these races.
I 'd like to see your ideas on setting up a site with historical race data. That sounds pretty cool, actually, although PCS has done such a great job with that that I would hope you can come up with an awesome design or include Roadcc FC scores in some way so it doesn't replicate PCS. If it's as slick in design and function as the Roadcc game is, I know I'd stop visiting PCS immediately! Good luck!
I wonder if a ranking system could be possible in some shape way or form - perhaps for the overall points total? Not 100% on official UCI terminology so bear with me. Could be done by putting different badges that only recognise Grand Tour and Mounment achievements, or if it was done around point scoring it'd be something like:
For all World Tour Races you get 100% of the the points
for all 2.1 you get 75% of the points
for all 2.2 you get 50%
this way it should appease those people who can't keep up with all the races as it won't affect their overall standing too much - the people who do all the races still get badges, stage wins etc. to play for, and it mirrors real cycling a bit more in that yeah it's great if you win a smaller race but it's not as good as winning a stage in a Grand Tour or a monument.
Or perhaps having a seperate ranking system that just tots up points from the monuments and world tours so people can prioritize? Maybe this exists by virtue of premium and non premium rankings actually?
That's a fair idea, weighting the points towards the major races and making the smaller races less relevant to the 'overall' would mean that performance in bigger races is more rewarded than performance in smaller races and allow people to feel like they weren't missing out by skipping a couple of races that would barely affect the competition.
That being said, people will always try and keep up with their rivals and I doubt there's much that would allow stop people from feeling like they need to compete in every race.
Personally I think a UCI points style system could work where points are awarded to the top finishers on a stage (top 20 teams?) then to the top in the overall at the end of the race (top 100?) in such a way that it means that for the overall points table finishin 101st is exactly the same as not competing. Not sure how it'd work in practice though.
picking a team of nine riders for the whole season is pretty pointless, in my opinion.
I quite like getting rid of them one by one. Makes me feel big. Like Alan Sugar in The Apprentice!
i've always avoided the whole squad/draft scenario because i thought it involved a lot of work. however, i've had a thought.
the thought is that premium members could have a third team option. so as well as 'standard' and 'purist' there'd be a 'draft' option, which would restrict your team selection to the riders you picked at the start of the season.
then all we'd need is a mechanism for picking the 30/40/howevermany riders before the TDU starts. oh, and it probably wouldn't work for women's races
anyway, one for me to think about
Not a bad idea for those of us who only remember to pick a team at the last minute and sometimes not at all.
yes, although it's not always possible as races overlap
We could do I guess but I think the two races that enrique tried to run where nobody entered showed that perhaps it's appeal is as part of the larger races, the grand tours etc (I was thinking I'd run a pick three Belgian's/Low Countries riders for the whole classics season next year).
If Dave is considering setting up the year long squad based game (and it comes to fruition) then that may cover off the 'pick three' season long competition to start with and let us see how appealing it is.
And if someone wants to run more 'pick three' type competitions next year, outside of the classics and grand tours which I will still run, I'll happily send them a copy of my spreadsheet for them to customise for their own needs.
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