Suggestions for 2012 season

Top Hat to ya Dave & yer crew - Don't change a thing (although January start is cool)

Congrats to dave and the team for running such a successful fantasy game.....Ive read all the comments above about changes,and I agree with some and disagree with others......I think its important though that the game is tweaked a little but equally important that wholesale changes are not made...."basically,if its not broke,then dont fix it"......
Its impossible to please everybody all of the time,but personally I think that Dave and the team do an excellent job of keeping most people happy for most of the time.....a time consuming,thankless task at times...
So `chapeau` guys and your efforts are appreciated....Even if I still havn`t received my TdF goodies...

First like to comment on the excellent game.

I have played the SBS fantasy comp (same as Halfords) for the last 3 years. This game (Evans road.cc) is far superior in communication (bit of a human face) and technical execution (interface, scoring accuracy and timeliness). Having said that I quite like both of the games and glad that they have their differences.

New ideas (so far as I can tell)
• Country flags nest to each contestant on the scoreboards
• Most recent stage score next to total score on scoreboard for each contestant, with rollover rider points
• Points listing is hidden away under stage listing, whereas should be incorporated as part of the rules. This could be achieved by creating standard types of stages of which I’m guessing there might be 5 or 10. The stage listing could simply refer to one of these standards
• Replace the consistency league with highest score on any individual stage – this could help maintain interest to the end for those who joined late
• Could there be a clarification of the number of teams that one person can have (in the rules)

Some of my more general thoughts/thought on what has already been discussed
• Need to look at purpose? Is it for as many as possible, or just for a limited number of suckers who devote hour(s) per day/week? Dare I suggest the sponsorship dollar is somewhat a consideration and therefore maximum site traffic.
• I had just got to thinking I could do the world tour next year (based on this years calendar) but then I saw it’s starting in January – that’ll go on for a long time. Not sure I’ll be able to maintain the enthusiasm and time for the whole season
• Not so sure about the rider values changing at all – who gains – those who do well get rewarded with points for the game and a bigger budget. Those who get behind don’t get the option to catch up. Having said that, consensus seems to be that points should change.
• If point change retained I think reset at start of grand tours is good. I’m guessing that there is a spike in interest for each grand tour (esp tdf) – you don’t want to be making it stacked against the newbies.
• Have to be careful of level of complexity. Already quite difficult for someone not used to fantasy cycling games.
• With this in mind need to consider changes as a whole – does this new combination of rules work?
• Flexibility in choice of when to use transfers (as opposed to set 2 every time) leaves the result a lot more open, and requires a lot more planning (also complexity)
• I like the idea of being able to have a purist team and a regular team from the 1 logon. The purist team to run on a setup that only allows transfers at the right time.
• Completely agree about being put off by not being able to see anything about the game before signing up. After seeing nikobec’s comments elsewhere I decided to give it a go
• I don’t see any problems with some of the data inconsistencies that are thrown up (eg Radioshack 3 on GC, only 5 sprinters available, set classification across year when their purpose in individual races might be different). It is all part of the game to exploit these things.

In the end the rules are the rules and you just have to use them to your best advantage
Cameron

Expand the regional tables so that you can see where you rank in your region (eg Aberdeen, Highlands and Islands), home country (eg Scotland), country (eg UK), continent (eg Europe).

Gameplay is currently good although I made a few points ages ago, I'll go back and try to dig them up.

It would be quite good to have a flag next to each rider's name, so you get some idea of who's going to attack when a big race goes through a rider's hometown...

I think that it would be fun to have more races crossing over, but with the ability to have two teams at the same time.

Maybe a 'subs bench,' for changing riders midway through a stage, but with a limited budget, like what's left over from your team, would introduce another level to the game, weighted towards those who don't go to work/school and spend all day streaming Eurosport...

Age related prizes could be good, like u16, 16-25, 25-40, 41-65, 65+.

WRT stage races overlapping, I think it's best to have a system similar to how Dauphine/TDS was done this year, BUT;

Instead of having 4-transfer days while we switch over, why not have two overnight unlimited windows; one at the start of the crossover and one at the end. That way you can bias your mixed team however you like, and it makes things better for the purists.

Just a small comment - I think at the start there should be an element of the choice where you pick a nationality from the UCI rankings and you CANNOT CHANGE at any point in the game.

Pick up points for nationalities of riders who win as well as the riders you have picked in the team... Drop points for any drop outs/disqualifiers...

Obviously some nationalities are going to be favourable for picking, but it would add an element of further variations in claiming points and open up the game a bit.

Quite enjoyed this years fantasy league, missed a few stages due to absent mindness but felt the element of trying to get a good team together on limited points certainly made me do plenty of research!

Next year, Tour of Britain and maybe one or two smaller races with more prizes.

Well done Team Road.cc

I think the purist league is a great idea but how about opening it up to include everyone.If you are only allowed one team and the prize for this league is minimal compared to with transfers it takes out any real incentive for me anyway.What about taking your first picks for tours etc on day one and using this for the purist league rankings whilst still allowing transfers and entry into the main competition.It would certainly add to the conundrum of picking your squad at the start instead of only for the first stages and for those who miss alot of transfer windows but do get a few mean they are in with a shout from the start at least in the purist league.

Ok, when do we get to see the new rules and any changes? December? How about letting us vote on them bewteen now and the end of the yaer? I got a lot of planning to do!

Just to be devil's advocate what if we didn't change the game itself but maybe changed the way we awarded prizes? So bigger daily prizes to keep the interest going until the end of a stage race, but maybe at the cost of a slightly lesser main prize - though depending on the sponsors maybe not at the cost of a lesser prize.

I'm quite keen that we keep the element of needing to do some research because I think that for many people that's the most enjoyable part.

Quote:

Just to be devil's advocate what if we didn't change the game itself but maybe changed the way we awarded prizes?

I wouldn't have a problem with that - it would be nice if we could have a few more (and/or later season) races. I assume that wouldn't need changes to the rules.
More prizes would be nice but, having realised very early on that I had no chance of any of the main prizes, the game itself was really the point and kept me hooked throughout the season.

Agree with Simon F on this... the prizes are secondary for 95% of the field. If we were doing it for prizes then most people would drop out after a short time.

And also agree that it doesn't need wholesale change - just some tweaks to make the classics work a bit better and be slightly more flexible in category selection.

I'm not bothered about rules or prizes neither as it seems to be working OK at the moment & I just enjoy the crack.
The simpler the rules the better, but if the changes give more flexibility in selection, that's fine

Ok, is there a timeline for the changes to be announced or discussed? Any polls going to be set uo somewhere? January? Before the Tour Down Under? I'm ready!

Big thanks for the game - really enlivened the pro season, and helped me and the mrs focus on certain riders through different races and the whole season. I won the TdF but she won the season!

I don't mind some of the tweaking as per somew of the comments above, but really just want it up and running again. Any proposed dates when it will be ready to go?

The 2 per team really came home to roost in the USA Pro Challenge

A hardcore purist competition where you select a pool of 30 riders at the start of the season from which to chose your team for each race.

we should probably have a 2013 season thread rather than tacking the new stuff onto this one...

Great idea about tbe 2013 thread...suggest it to dave

How about being able to nominate a team leader for double points?