Suggestions for the 2013 season

drheaton · 2012-09-03T11:01:37+01:00

It's early, I know, but with the revival of the old suggestion thread it seems people are full of ideas on how they'd like the game to be "improved" next year! Obviously, this is all stuff that we'd like to see, wishful thinking really, but road.cc and Dave have always listened to what people think and have implemented good suggestions in the past (regional leagues, premium membership, the removal of the varying player values etc) so if you've got an idea post it below. Think of this as the place to make your request/suggestion so that Dave can see it easily. Also, tell everyone what you think works too rather than just complaining! Firstly off, I'd like to thank Dave for the game and strides they've made over the last few years to improve it into what is an excellent competition. I think that this years game is the best yet, the 4/5 split is a massive improvement over the old 1 GC, 1 AR ,1 KM, 1 PC and 5 DS split and allows for much more interesting team selections, likewise I think the constant rider values is something that should be kept next year as I haven't missed the old system at all. My suggestions? Nothing major... 1) Remove the 4/5 split altogether - I'd be happy if the current system was kept but would like to see complete flexibility, the limited budgets will restrict players from having a particularly unbalanced team and it will allow for even more creative team selections, especially where there are lots of cheap stars in a race (like this years classics). For example, pretty much all the top Vuelta teams will still have 3 of Contador, Rodriguez, Froome and Valverde so the 150 credit cap will restrict the makeup of the rest of their team. However, I guess the 4/5 split does give structure and makes the game easier to get your head around when starting out (my dad really struggled when he joined for the TdF but the 4/5 split made things easier). 2) Expand on the premium membership with extra features such as combined purist team on the same account and stuff like that. I will probably pay for premium membership next year but I'd like to see some extra features being included for my money, not just extra races (which have been a bit shambolic this year and are very hard to follow). 3) Teams of teams - another possible premium feature, 9 players band together into one team of players, their scores are combined in some way (straight sum of scores, average of all 9 or maybe lose the highest and lowest and sum/average what's left) and they compete against other teams for a prize (Grand tours only maybe?). Should be fun and unpredictable, also, good for getting people to get involved on the forum. 4) Fantasy jersey competitions - another thing to aim for when playing the grand tours, a selection of jerseys awarded to winners of particular comps: - a GC jersey awarded for whoever finishes 1st overall along with the bike, a black jersey possibly something road.cc themed. - a points jersey based on sprint stages or combined sprint points, either whichever teams gets the most intermediate sprint and flat finish line points over a race or maybe whoever scores highest just on flat stages, based on intermediate sprints would keep it interesting throughout though as you have to keep up with breaks in the mountains. - a mountains jersey like the points but for KoM points/mountain stages ideally these would be biased to make it very difficult to win them whilst still playing for overall placing, ie base it heavily on breakaway points (the KoM in particular) so that you need to pick the breaks and possibly suffer in the overall as a result, that'd make it something entirely separate to aim for like the riders aim for the KoM comp sacrificing their overall standings. Moreover, these aren't big cost prizes and are just for fun/pride. 5) Reduce the penalty for making additional transfers. I like the fact that there is a penalty but 20 points is very heavy, you basically need to place in the top 4 to overcome that. 10 points might bring in more tactical use of this facility and not be so penal if someone cocks up their team and needs to sort it out. That's mine, just to be going on with. Also, a booby prize for whoever first mentions the 'reset button'.

This topic has 198 replies, 29 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 6 months ago by Ghedebrav.

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September 3, 2012 at 11:01 am #16723

drheaton

It’s early, I know, but with the revival of the old suggestion thread it seems people are full of ideas on how they’d like the game to be “improved” next year!

Obviously, this is all stuff that we’d like to see, wishful thinking really, but road.cc and Dave have always listened to what people think and have implemented good suggestions in the past (regional leagues, premium membership, the removal of the varying player values etc) so if you’ve got an idea post it below. Think of this as the place to make your request/suggestion so that Dave can see it easily. Also, tell everyone what you think works too rather than just complaining!

Firstly off, I’d like to thank Dave for the game and strides they’ve made over the last few years to improve it into what is an excellent competition. I think that this years game is the best yet, the 4/5 split is a massive improvement over the old 1 GC, 1 AR ,1 KM, 1 PC and 5 DS split and allows for much more interesting team selections, likewise I think the constant rider values is something that should be kept next year as I haven’t missed the old system at all.

My suggestions? Nothing major…

1) Remove the 4/5 split altogether – I’d be happy if the current system was kept but would like to see complete flexibility, the limited budgets will restrict players from having a particularly unbalanced team and it will allow for even more creative team selections, especially where there are lots of cheap stars in a race (like this years classics). For example, pretty much all the top Vuelta teams will still have 3 of Contador, Rodriguez, Froome and Valverde so the 150 credit cap will restrict the makeup of the rest of their team. However, I guess the 4/5 split does give structure and makes the game easier to get your head around when starting out (my dad really struggled when he joined for the TdF but the 4/5 split made things easier).

2) Expand on the premium membership with extra features such as combined purist team on the same account and stuff like that. I will probably pay for premium membership next year but I’d like to see some extra features being included for my money, not just extra races (which have been a bit shambolic this year and are very hard to follow).

3) Teams of teams – another possible premium feature, 9 players band together into one team of players, their scores are combined in some way (straight sum of scores, average of all 9 or maybe lose the highest and lowest and sum/average what’s left) and they compete against other teams for a prize (Grand tours only maybe?). Should be fun and unpredictable, also, good for getting people to get involved on the forum.

4) Fantasy jersey competitions – another thing to aim for when playing the grand tours, a selection of jerseys awarded to winners of particular comps:
– a GC jersey awarded for whoever finishes 1st overall along with the bike, a black jersey possibly something road.cc themed.
– a points jersey based on sprint stages or combined sprint points, either whichever teams gets the most intermediate sprint and flat finish line points over a race or maybe whoever scores highest just on flat stages, based on intermediate sprints would keep it interesting throughout though as you have to keep up with breaks in the mountains.
– a mountains jersey like the points but for KoM points/mountain stages

ideally these would be biased to make it very difficult to win them whilst still playing for overall placing, ie base it heavily on breakaway points (the KoM in particular) so that you need to pick the breaks and possibly suffer in the overall as a result, that’d make it something entirely separate to aim for like the riders aim for the KoM comp sacrificing their overall standings. Moreover, these aren’t big cost prizes and are just for fun/pride.

5) Reduce the penalty for making additional transfers. I like the fact that there is a penalty but 20 points is very heavy, you basically need to place in the top 4 to overcome that. 10 points might bring in more tactical use of this facility and not be so penal if someone cocks up their team and needs to sort it out.

That’s mine, just to be going on with. Also, a booby prize for whoever first mentions the ‘reset button’.
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October 1, 2012 at 9:55 am #698079
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noddy69

Another suggestion involves a
Another suggestion involves a roster of cyclists for a season long purist game. You pick at the start of the season your roster, could possibly be only 9, that you think will score the most points over the season and the game runs season long.
As the game would be run alongside the main game it really makes no odds if riders get injured or are out as you still have the main game to focus on and its tough luck if your team is depleted.

However if you were given say 3 transfers which could be used at any point in the season that may help, although not necessary really.
Not sure of the validity of this one but thought I would suggest it anyway.
If a wild card was implemented I would say it cannot be used in this competition.

October 1, 2012 at 9:40 am #698077
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Stumps

I play the F Footie game and
I play the F Footie game and the wildcard is used by a lot of players due to injuries etc.
If it was brought in here then i agree only once per season.
I dont see how anyone can complain about “dumbing down the game” as if you’ve already mucked up your team your already on the back foot so not gaining anything by it in terms of the overall.

However it will make your own game that much more enjoyable as you have the chance of stage wins etc without virtually waiting a full week (2 transfers per day) to change your team about.

For instance i have already stated above i missed the first week of the Vuelta and by then i was literally 300+ points behind the leader. The next week was spent trying to get my team back together and as such falling further behind. In the end the race wasn’t much fun as i had no chance of winning and virtually no chance of a stage win.

Its a thumbs up from me for the wild card.

October 1, 2012 at 9:30 am #698075
0

noddy69

I dont like the idea of a
I dont like the idea of a lesser penalty as it makes the using any penalty points a tough decision and quite tactical. It would make tactical decisions a lot easier with less of a penalty and I am not convinced.
Getting it right from the start is something that is part and parcel of the game but I am with you in that it can leave alot of players stranded in a three week competition right from the start. With only one wild card per season it gives everyone one chance only to change this, it also does not only benefit those left behind but can be an advantage to everyone if used cleverly and I believe a good option for all players which is a must to be implemented.And as it can only be used once in a season it makes it all the more reasonable ,in my mind anyway.

October 1, 2012 at 9:23 am #698073
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drheaton

noddy69 wrote:I was thinking
noddy69 wrote:
I was thinking of where I have made a complete muck up of a team in a grand tour which left me with no chance from the off. One solution which could be taken from F Football is one complete reshuffle of a team in any one competition per season.
This would obviously come into play in the grand tours, but only one of them. It gives everyone a fair shot if they have screwed up and also if they need a tactical reshuffle, but only once in the season.(if it has already been suggested apologies but alot of posts to go through)

So in essence its a one off wild card to be used at one point whenever you so choose.

Yeah, wildcards, double transfers for stage one, cheaper penalty transfers or any number of other things to help you if you made a mess of your team for stage one have all been raised but sadly they seem to be shouted down by those who don’t want the game “dumbing down”.

I can see both sides and as I’ve said previously I’d quite like some system where you can retrieve a complete cock up because picking 2 or 3 wrong DSs at the start of a race can keep coming back to bite you throughout the whole race.

On the other hand it makes your first team even more important to get right and makes the game harder, it also means that those players who get it right have an advantage.

I’d like something implemented but I don’t expect anything to change in this regard.

October 1, 2012 at 9:10 am #698071
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noddy69

I was thinking of where I
I was thinking of where I have made a complete muck up of a team in a grand tour which left me with no chance from the off. One solution which could be taken from F Football is one complete reshuffle of a team in any one competition per season.
This would obviously come into play in the grand tours, but only one of them. It gives everyone a fair shot if they have screwed up and also if they need a tactical reshuffle, but only once in the season.(if it has already been suggested apologies but alot of posts to go through)

So in essence its a one off wild card to be used at one point whenever you so choose.

October 1, 2012 at 9:04 am #698069
0

drheaton

Stumps:
dave_atkinson
Stumps:

dave_atkinson wrote:
next year the rider values will work on a different basis and a rider’s value will change between competitions, rather than being set at the start of the year. also, there’ll be a more consistent base value for DSs

from above.

I agree, if the values are wildly different it might get confusing and messy but if it’s broadly consistent with a limited amount of change (either limited by %age or by a few credits) then it might be ok.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

October 1, 2012 at 8:51 am #698067
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giff77

Pretty happy with the game as
Pretty happy with the game as a whole. How about including a couple of the womens’ races as well. Or could run parrallel to the mens season?

October 1, 2012 at 8:10 am #698065
0

Stumps

It would be to complicated
It would be to complicated for us if the values kept changing for every race. Keep it as it is with values set at the start of the year. At least you know where you are.

October 1, 2012 at 7:40 am #698063
0

drheaton

stumps wrote:The value of
stumps wrote:
The value of stars has been gone over a few times. Some are way over valued IMHO but its the same for all of us.

I can see Henao being into the late 20’s possibly early 30’s after the year he has had and the emergence of some of the younger sprinters.

It would be interesting to see how the team work out the rider points system. :?

Yeah, I’m curious to see how next year’s prices work. This year, with the prices being fixed at the start of the year, there have been a few prices that have looked odd once we’ve gotten to the back end of the season. Henao, Bouhanni, Talansky are a few but who would have expected them to come through so well at the start of the year? Not me. So I completely see why everyone was priced as they were and it made sense, it also increased the enjoyment for me having to monitor which cheap riders were coming into form and trying to use them to get the edge over others. Also, don’t forget for every rider increasing in value (Henao, Hesjedal, Sagan, Bouhanni, Froome, Valverde) there will be a corresponding drop in value for others (Cobo, Renshaw, Rojas, Siutsou, Taaramae, Rujano… etc) and there will always be riders coming into form who were cheap, it just means that the great deals from this year will be replaced by different ones next year.

I’m not sure that setting prices per event (which I think is what Dave was suggesting) will be as much fun. At the moment prices are set for the year as a whole with riders like Terpstra being relatively cheap because across the year they’re not going to score loads of points. Next year though he might be really expensive for the classics and dirt cheap for the grand tours. In theory that better reflects where he’s going to be scoring points but I can see it ending up in a situation where you have to pick 4 or 5 riders that you think will do well then just fill the rest of the slots with whoever’s cheap because anyone with half a chance of scoring well has been priced too high.

If each rider has a ‘base value’ worked out in the same way as this year but with a ‘race adjustment’ of maybe 10-20% of their value (so a 10 credit DS who is ace at classics and crap at week long tours may cost up to 12 or down to 8) then that might work but if you’re completely changing rider values per race that could get confusing and annoying.

Anyway, fingers crossed whatever changes that are made work and improve the game, I’m looking forward to next year already.

September 30, 2012 at 10:41 pm #698061
0

enrique

TERatcliffe26 wrote:… Some
TERatcliffe26 wrote:
… Some of these premium races we have struggled with a good enough choice of star riders as it is, so that rule would make it almost impossible for some races

I see what you mean… What I was thinking was that we do away with the GC, AR, DS, KM and PC designations completely. The riders themselves would not be classified as such, as they are now.

You would have a GC slot, a PC slot, and a KM slot, which you could fill with ANY rider (assuming we do away with all the designations) and ONLY those riders that you slot into the GC, KM, and PC slots, and maybe YR slot, would get points for those competitions. The rest would only get Finish Line points and breakaway points. I know it’s complicated.

For example, for the second day of a tour, assuming the first day was a prologue, my ideal team might be:

GC Fabian Cancellara
PC Mark Cavendish
KM Michael Morkov
YR Taylor Phinney

and 5 other riders…

ONLY Cancellara, Sagan, Morkov and Talansky could get points for their standing in the different competitions…

Cancellara would get 10 points for GC, if he had the yellow jersey at the end of Day 2, Mark Cavendish would get 35 Finish Line Points and 5 PC points, assuming he won the 2nd stage, Morkov will get breakaway points and 5 points for the KM jersey, if he nabbed the most KM points that day and Phinney would get 5 points for the YR jersey and having finsished in the bunch.

Your other riders would get just Finish Line Points and Intermediate KM and PC points, not anything else for the classifications .

I know it sounds complicated but I like the requirement that you have to have a designated sprinter, a designated KM guy and a GC guy, and when it exists, a YR rider on your team… It makes me feel like it mirrors a real team… Though I’m aware someone could argue that RadioShack will bring no sprinters to the Tour or Vacansoleil may not have a real GC guy, etc… I just liked having designated sprinters, KM guys and GC riders on last year’s teams… I didn’t care much for the AR designation, though…

I can’t think of any other way to require a sprinter, a GC guy and a KM guy… but I like the idea of requiring one of each…

September 30, 2012 at 10:03 pm #698059
0

enrique

stumps wrote:What happens…
stumps wrote:
What happens… when you have to have a sprinter but know that it wont be a sprint finish so you’ve wasted a slot?

Yeah, I know what you mean… I guess I’d like to see this only for the Grand Tours… Just ’cause I think it mirrors real teams… It’s probably too complicated to roll it out just for the Grand Tours, but there’s something about the concept that I really like…

September 30, 2012 at 7:46 pm #698057
0

Stumps

The value of stars has been
The value of stars has been gone over a few times. Some are way over valued IMHO but its the same for all of us.

I can see Henao being into the late 20’s possibly early 30’s after the year he has had and the emergence of some of the younger sprinters.

It would be interesting to see how the team work out the rider points system. 😕

September 30, 2012 at 7:33 pm #698055
0

Gkam84

Yeah, i’d like to see more
Yeah, i’d like to see more like the ToB, even for the big tours. ANY 9 riders within budget. I think Beijing might be the same.

But there is really NO need to change much for next season.

I know the riders value’s with be different and changeable. So thats going to be interesting.

September 30, 2012 at 7:11 pm #698053
0

Stumps

What happens though when you
What happens though when you get, for instance, Il Lombardia when you have to have a sprinter but know that it wont be a sprint finish so you’ve wasted a slot ?

Or like Tour Down Under / Tour of Beijing where every stage is a sprint and you need a KM rider in ?

I like where your coming from but not every race is the same.

Personally i would like to see, like the ToB, just pick 9 riders regardless of stars for the classics because anyone on their day can win one of the classics but when it comes to the stage races and GT’s we have team leaders who the teams work for and unless something miraculous happens a domestique isnt going to win a GT.

September 30, 2012 at 5:37 pm #698051
0

TERatcliffe26

Not sure we will see that
Not sure we will see that rule come back, especially with the extra races. Some of these premium races we have struggled with a good enough choice of star riders as it is, so that rule would make it almost impossible for some races
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