Suggestions/requests for the 2014 season

bobmilligan wrote:I played

bobmilligan wrote:

I played the premium game this year and would like to see more space between races. There were times this year when it was a bit of chore to play because of a stack up in races. Picking fewer riders in the smaller races might help this.

Having said that, don’t tinker with the game too much. This year’s format was very good, nice interface and I liked the medals and rider info boxes.

An Android app would be great.

I think it’s a common complaint that the calendar can get a little crowded but unfortunately that’s a reflection of the actual race calendar. With major races like the Dauphine and Tour de Suisse happening at the same time it’s hard for the fantasy game to be spread out without missing genuinely big races.

What has been discussed by a few of us is ways of trying to stop people feeling like they have to play every race. The overall table is something that everyone looks at and it means that you feel you need to be competing at your strongest in every race to maintain your position. With all the extra races I don’t think that’s something which is actually beneficial for the game.

Each race is it’s own competition and if I could I’d remove the overall table entirely. Either that or replace it with a system that means you can miss a few races and not necessarily suffer. Perhaps a ‘world tour’ style points system where an overall placing in the top 200 (or whatever) earns you some points and those go towards your ‘ranking’ as well as some stage points/badge points or something similar. That would mean that there would be no difference between finishing in 201st and 5001st and you’d be able to just pick and choose your races.

For anyone who’s in the ‘Forum Scorum’ league where ray silvester posts winners of each race within the league in a single thread I think that is more fun than an overall table. Having a record of winners is great.

serge78 wrote:

Need to get rid of the 10 points for last rider to finish. It is an improvement on points for last on GC, but is now just mainly down to luck.

Increase points from 5 to 10 for team mates of the stage winner.

No points for young jersey.

Maybe unlimited transfers for purist teams between all races. It was impossible to pick a team for some of the early season Italian races when the teams weren’t the same never mind the riders.

I agree that points for lanterne rouge can just come down to luck but in some cases there are patterns and having those points there gives those you can spot the patterns a chance to earn some points. It’s also a risk keeping a sprinter in your team in the mountains in case they get lanterne rouge so while it’s luck it’s also something to think about when picking your team.

Probably wouldn’t agree on increasing team mate points or abolishing young rider points (what’s your reasoning for wanting to get rid of those points by the way?) because I like the points as they are. The points basis is fairly simple but because there are little amounts of points available for different things these add layers of complexity to the game and this all feeds into the tactics of picking a team. If you have the choice between two people and one might earn young rider points it adds another consideration and I like that.

Regarding the classics and transfers, I agree that every year it gets messy with people not understanding how transfers work and what purists can/can’t do between races. Something needs to be done but I’m not sure giving unlimited transfers is that. Unlimited transfers has it’s benefits, namely simplicity and consistency but it takes away alot of the challenge of the main game by allowing you to pick a whole new team for each race. I like that you need to weigh up the choice between picking a specialist for one race or picking someone likely to race three in a row etc. That being said, I think unlimited transfers may be the way to go.

Another option may be to change the way the races are grouped. Smaller groupings of more similar races might make it easier to pick a team across races whilst keeping the feeling that the classics are one long story rather than lots of little races. For me, watching the classics this year, for the first time I’ve started to see how the classics are not so much half a dozen separate races but more similar to a short stage race with three for four rest days between stages.

I suspect that it’d take some
I suspect that it’d take some serious programming because everything has been set up around 9 riders however budget wise I’d think just reducing the budget by 10 or 15 credits for each rider lost might work?

So, for 8 guys you may have a budget of 135 or 140 credits, for 6 guys you’d have something between 105 and 120 credits.

I believe that the 150 credits cap is relatively flexible and could in theory vary by race but Dave’d have to confirm that.

I have a question. It
I have a question. It appears that some races are reducing team sizes to 5,6 or 8 riders and it’s clearly something that the UCI are keen to experiment with.

What does everyone think about changing the number of riders in a team depending on the race? If the TdF or Giro drops to 8 riders per team should we?

Just thought I’d put that out there 🙂