Call me crazy (aka additional leagues brainstorming)

[glomser]

World Tour

Like both ideas

QF

Like the points system by round... But I haven't got Whatsapp so I will drop this game if that would be added.

CR

Isn't it possible to let all players sent in their top 5 per categorie. Also let them also make a list of these categories in points with 20 points to spent on this. fe. with 10 categories you can give 9 of them 1 point and 1 categorie 11, but you can also spread the points.

Then Managers get the first choise in the categorie where they have add the most points to. The number 2 gets then his highest pick that is free and so on... If there is a tie no one gets the pick... Not all riders will be chosen so we start with another draft. But only now we get 15 points to add and still make our top 5 lists...

I'm not sure this will work but it's only an idea to change things... And a little bit different from Garfields idea.

RC

Maybe here;s the points per round is also possible.. So 1 point for round one pick 2 points for round 2 pick...
Like the idea of one rider per real-life team. For nations I'm not sure as there aren't many good Slovenians, Russians, Polish. Letzeburgian or South African riders...  So it's only for the big countries as France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Netherlands and GB... And perhaps Germany.


New leagues:

It it an option to do something with the neo's? Like chose 3 or 4 of them for a max of 500 points or so. And the team with the biggest increasement wins...

[Teton]

UCI World Tour

• For signings €40+, immediately announce an extension at 200% salary.
• Optional 2-year contracts for 2nd-rounders.

I like both ideas, but am not sure we should make any changes to this hallmark league.



Quick Fix

• Round 2 picks score double, round 5 picks score x5 etc.
• No more clock penalties.
• Use previous season's main game score as price tags.
• Draft via WhatsApp if still too slow.

Increasing the score by the round selected makes sense.
The clock issue is a tuff one, worse with the time zones involved. As I help run the drafts, I felt real unpopular last year as I skipped people who timed out. I think it would help if EVERYONE linked their PM's to Their Email on this site.
I think we should stick with CQ scoring  whenever possible.
I have no Idea what "WhatsApp" is??

Country Roads

• Customize your draft order or a single draft in spite of 12 categories.

Perhaps eliminated a couple of the weaker categories. Geezer, Global, Rebound.

Rainbow Cup

• Use previous season's main game score as price tags.
• In a further attempt to spice up this otherwise straightforward game: additional constraints? Say one rider per nation. Or one rider per real-life team. Or both?

I think we should stick with CQ scoring  whenever possible.
No changes. Not sure how the Nations, or real-Life??, would help this league.


New leagues
We currently have a strong list of unique league options.

[Canto]

Like both  ideas for the UCI Word tour.

[oliveira]

I think we should be very cautious about new rules for UCI WT as new rules bring more complexity to the game and it is more difficult to recruit new DS if the rules are not simple enough.

I mean, I like the ideas, but I think we should preserve the relative simplicity of our main game.

[davy duck]

UCI World Tour
    For signings €40+, immediately announce an extension at 200% salary.
    Optional 2-year contracts for 2nd-rounders.
I don’t like both.
It’s needless extra complexity in my opinion. It feels like or speculating for dumb luck, or ruining partly the next season. It has nothing to do with the main goal of this game.
And I believe both will have a modest impact on the ending result.

Quick Fix
    Round 2 picks score double, round 5 picks score x5 etc.
    No more clock penalties.
    Use previous season's main game score as price tags.
    Draft via WhatsApp if still too slow.
Yes-yes-no- and no
1st no:  it’s almost inpossible to have a correct list of riders with their result of the main game. As I’m sure there are some (minor) mistakes in the score counting. CQ changes results sometimes after we copy/pasted them in our form. Mostly it’s in the back of the result: f.e. riders out of time limit. So I prefer the original CQ score.
2nd no: Instead of drafting clock, you could make fixed time frames for everybody. Then you know way in advance when it’s your turn. You could anticipate this way by sending a top 3 to a mod or a colleague you trust. As some people never heard of whatsapp, it’s a bad idea.

Country Roads
    Customize your draft order or a single draft in spite of 12 categories.
The categorizing is just the thing that makes this game other than all the other games. Perhaps there is need for more thinking about the categories, and which riders to put in those categories. You could go crazy in those categories. It doesn’t have to so with cycling. Ideas: categorizing per country, only riders with “bal” in their name, a rider may be in multiple categories that way there is no limit on the number of categories, a category with riders who have the name of a cartoon figure, etc etc etc …

Rainbow Cup
Keep as is in my opinion. Absolute freedom who to pick.

FYC
Keep as is in my opinion. Let it go in this format for 2 more season, and see how things go with the extensions.
I really love the format. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact I crushed you all 

[TERatcliffe26]

WT

Not fussed about the first one
Big problem with the current way Neo is done which is why i made the 2 year for 2nd pick suggestion. If anything your 2nd pick should be 2 years and first pick 1 year. Basically people at the top of the draft can get a Gaviria for 2 years, yet my pick low down in the 2nd round goes after 1 year whilst still maturing. I cant see the sense/fairness in this way of doing it. Yes I get that those that have struggled get the early picks but 2 years of Gaviria compared to a 1 year 2nd round pick far outways the difference in scores generally from top to bottom come the end of the season over 2 years.

Quick fix

Not a throwing dummies out of the pram, but it needs a massive shake up for me to continue with it, and for me the biggest problem is the use of CQ scoring as it is. This is used the same for all the games, and in this game you effectively have to use a score when drafting that is non reflective of there ability in the races we use for this game aside from the big boys of which you cannot afford more than 1 or 2. Dupont for an example had a score of around 1000, none of which came from any races we use (except maybe the odd points in some of the early classic races), same with Dumoulin, 800 odd CQ with very little from WT races

Country roads

Kinda gave my opinion already, keep the categories but use a snake draft whereby people pick form whichever category as you go through the draft until they have a rider from each, so they make there own importance on category

The rest of the games seem fine

[Joelsim]

I agree with you TER. My neos’ scores added up across all 3 years I’ve played the game don’t add up to a single year of Gaviria, Ewan or similar riders. The draft being the same both times also doesn’t help when you’re near the bottom. Very unfair.

[Garfield]

Many thanks for everybody's feedback

UCI World Tour

Decision - mixed reviews, thus no changes in 2018.

(The game itself wouldn't improve much, thus doesn't need to become more complex.)

However, Tom's newest idea of 1-year contracts for 1st-rounders sounds VERY interesting because it would remove a toxic situation where you start the auctions already 1000+ points behind somebody (vide Gaviria's 2017), and thus would improve the game considerably. It was first raised mere hours ago, but I'd like to listen to more feedback here, and then announce the decision for 2019 WITHIN A WEEK, so that nobody tanks in vain.


Quick Fix

Most likely decision - three changes:

• Round 2 picks score double, round 5 picks score x5 etc.
• No more clock penalties.
• Use previous season's main game score as price tags.

The latter opposed by Davy, but I disagree: we don't care how reliable the number is. It is just an arbitrary number, everybody knows this number, and is still obliged to explicitly include this number when posting a pick. Fewer untouchable riders + more sneaky picks = even better chances with a late pick. Details still to be discussed in order to make sure we're not opening a Pandora's box. There would be a wide array of free riders. A single year of feedback is a fresh twist to the usual "higher of the last two" we use, but also creates some injury-riddled bargains like König in any GT. All riders would become cheaper, thus the budget would probably need to go down to 2700.


Country Roads

Most likely decision - a single draft in spite of 12 categories.
Of course the relative scoring remains.
Almost 200 picks, thus a clock of 12 hours and an earlier start, just after the WorldTour insanity slows down.


Rainbow Cup

Most likely decision - no changes.

[Joelsim]

Yep, I prefer all neos on 1 year contracts. Very very unfair to get 2 bonus years.

[GTF]

I'm not sure there's any problem with the neo-pro draft as it is now - there is very little correlation between the draft order and final standings. I think it's important to remember that for every Gaviria, there are other big talents who do nothing for 2 years (e.g. Dombrowski). An early draft pick does not guarantee future success.

Having said that, I'm not opposed to Tom's idea but for a different reason. I think 1st-rounders would almost certainly command lower salaries/shorter contracts if they were on the open market a year earlier, which wouldn't be a bad thing IMO.