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| When the magic returns to the road |
| Type |
Article |
| Game |
Cyclingforfun |
| Submitted by |
pantani28 |
| Created |
2011-12-14 18:18:45 |
Cycling, one of the most practiced sports around the world is paradoxically as well one of the most repudiated lately. Doping scandals and the losing of sponsors has caused a lot of problems and have demoted our beloved sport. Cycling fans and organizations have been fighting together since years ago to solve this problem.
Now that the cycling is recovering gradually, new talents are emerging, the events have got back the prestige and the showings have a large audience, the cycling fans have another reason to be happy, a new cycling game have been developed to enjoyment of thousand of users from around the world. This game is Cyclingforfun.
Now we manage to get inside the game and discover the hidden secrets about it. To achieve our objectives we will analyze different aspects about the game.
Game Interface:
Probably the weak point of the game. You surf in a blue interface very serious that in my opinion it isn't a very intricate design. You can find a user panel divided in two different places.
First of all you have a panel in the left side where you can see very quickly some important information like the next stage in the game, his picture and his schedule, your last achievement (there is an achievement system where you can get new achievements when you obtain or do different things) and a tool called Notebook which helps you to manage your team.
In the top of the page, you can find another user panel where you can manage your status, the team, the finances, the races and the supporter sections.
Like the interface, all pages are quite serious and we miss some pictures about real cycling. It probably would not contribute to the game but it could be a good way to make it friendlier.
Tactics
The game has an interesting tactic system. Every stage have been distributed in 5 different sections. Each section can belong to a different kind of terrain.
So you can find 6 different possibilities showed in different colours as cobblestone (red), plain (green), downhill (yellow), mountains (brown), hills (blue) or Time trial (stopwatch logo)
For example, you can find a real stage of the Dauphine Liberé with two plain sections and 3 hills section. This colours will guide you to the perfect riders and tactic. The riders have 12 different abilities which determine which disciplines are specialist.
You have 5 different kinds of efforts for every section. As a result you can use 3125 different combinations. The experience and the different kind of riders will help you to choose the best tactic in every stage.
To sum up you have a large range of possibilities which can make the difference with your opponents.
Strategy
There are different kinds of events. Races ranging from the great classics, races from the old World Championship, to the epic cobblestone races from the North.
The calendar has 118 different races and you can compete in the most important tours like the Giro of Italia, the Tour of France or the Vuelta of Spain and some small ones like the Tour of Benelux or Paris-Nice.
You have to plan your team to compete in different races and promote or draft new talents to reinforce the team and get your objectives. Probably this is one of the most delicate parts, you should think carefully the best strategy to carry on.
Match Engine
As I explained before it is probably the crown jewel of the game. The match engine bears in mind different aspects like the skills, the weather abilities, the staff, the equipment, the form and health, the training camps, the stage properties and his weather conditions and mix it all.
As a result you obtain the times and the groups. The groups depend on the roughness of the stage, the wind conditions etc.
Economy
This is probably one of the most important sections of the management games.
You are the specialist and they contract you to modify all the characteristics, guide and lead the team section and solve all the economic problems.
In this game you can control a lot of sections. For example you can buy or sell riders participating in an original bid system, you can open new stores to sell your jerseys in your same country or you can try to expand your brand abroad; you can hire new staff with different skills depending on your aims, buy new equipment or negotiate with the sponsors which offers are more interesting for your team, in other words, you manage different possibilities to get your objectives.
The negative part is that you can't change the riders' salaries, so you can't encourage or punish them depending on the results.
Reality
Well, this is the most difficult aspect to the management games. It is complicated to find a game where you can feel you are practicing the sport.
This game is not an exception. Despite his efforts to entertain and amuse you it is far from the wind beating your face in a sunny excursion day...
Joking apart it simulates accurately the great races and it allows you to feel the cycling passion even in the winter when the season is finished and there are not good races at all
Community
In my personal situation, I love the forums and the great communities. It seems that there are posts about real cycling and they write about subjects that are in on everyone's lips in the cycling world.
Besides you can find opinions, recommendations and helpful stuff about the game in different communities. It is notable the English, Dutch, Danish, Spanish and Hungarian forums.
Conclusion
To summing up I want to encourage people to try the game. We are living in extremely difficult times but you have a chance to be delighted, now that the magic has returned to the road, and join this great cycling game.
To the people who think that cycling is not his sport but he can be a good manager and he can beat specializing users, you can find a good challenge here. There's no harm in trying.
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