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Fantasy Cycling

Suggestions/requests for the 2014 season

by drheaton
Mon, Aug 26, 2013 18:30
124

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"

"Suggestions for 2012 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

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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I dont think there needs to be any major changes for next season in my eyes, apart from getting some woman's races in there.

The calendar needs shuffled around a bit, I think only World Tour races should be in there.

That's my 2p worth and I fully expect this thread to be taken over by "someone" shortly and I won't be back to read it 3

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drheaton | 11 years ago
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Last post from me, one thing I'd like to see more of is badges!

They were a great addition and added a great amount of fun at the start of year as we all tried to complete the set as quickly as possible. Unfortunately that's eased off in the last few months as most of us have managed to get them all so I'd like to see this idea expanded on.

Whether it's race specific badges (feeding into a 'race badge' that shows on your main dashboard, a TdF badge for example that you only get if you collect all the TdF specific badges) or just more variety or harder to get badges (a 20k points badge anyone?) I think it'd be nice if players were collecting these all year around.

Another thing along the same lines is something I suggested last year

drheaton wrote:

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.

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drheaton | 11 years ago
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On the other hand there have been some issues this year, around the time of the classics the calendar was changed a few times to try and incorporate extra races.

http://road.cc/content/forum/76995-not-impressed

The short notice and changeable race calendar did annoy people understandably and I think one thing people want for next year is consistency of calendar.

With the way that the game has expanded so quickly races have been added at a steady rate but I think that'll slow soon as there aren't many major races left to add. I think that a calendar should be fixed fairly far in advance and changes should be avoided. You can't fault us for wanting to give you more racing though 4

Some discussion on the calendar was had here:

http://road.cc/content/forum/77002-fantasy-cycling-calendar

Another issue that cropped up is rider pricing, the strong field for the TdF threw up an issue where everyone was expensive to the point of making picking teams very difficult. This in itself is no bad thing, difficulty is a good thing but not at the expense of fun. Dave has made some changes for the Vuelta and I'll be reserving judgement until after the race but it certainly seems that there are more options at more price ranges so that's good.

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drheaton | 11 years ago
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I'll go first 4

One of the big things that changed this year were the complete removal of limitations on your team based on rider type, where previously you had to pick a fixed number of stars and domestiques this year we've had total freedom and I think it's worked great. The credit limit naturally stops teams for being too strong and having more freedom has meant greater choice and more varied tactics.

Another things is that 2013 was the first full season where we've had the premium game running. I think it's worked well and hasn't impacted too heavily on the free game. I know there have been complaints about the transfers carrying forward and other things but I think the way in which the game has been set up is pretty fair to everyone. I also like having the extra races available to me if I want to take part in them.

All in all I think that the game has continued to improve year on year to such an extent that I definitely think it's one of the best around.

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