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Quick Finance and other newbie questions!
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 13-12-2025 13:52
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| Martin_TB |
Posted on 11-01-2011 14:11
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Stagiare
Posts: 216
Joined: 06-01-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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As some of you may know, I am a new player.
I've got the guide that CrueTrue linked for me yesterday, printed it off (13 A4 pages), and read through it twice. A lot of it seems to be for an earlier version of PCM as it mentions food and making sure you have some left for mountains etc. I assume that was removed from the game. There are one or two other minor changes too that I've noticed, but overall it was a good read.
Thanks for the link.
Finances.
(I have used the search to look for Salary, Finances and Wages (3 searches), but couldn't find and answer).
I am playing on Normal Difficulty with Easy Finances. The game says that should give me more sponsor income than wages, but it's not clear to me if that is just for the Squad wages or if it includes staff wages too. The Finance page only shows the Squad wages.
The reason I am asking is that the game gave me 3(!) Legendary and one International staff; their total monthly wage bill is £75,653, more than 20K higher than my Squad wage bill (£54,600).
Am I going to Bankrupt the team?
All I have apart from the default sponsors is an extra £15K (approx) from the 3 sponsors that I've signed up.
Deciding on your Groups:
I have a small team of 16 (8 for each trainer). The game auto promoted 3 of them to Absolute Leader (is it always 3 whatever?), 6 Protected and 7 Luxury.
I have 6 young riders, but all the team is relatively young to be honest, with the oldest being 29.
Obviously, I built my team around Edvald B H, got a sprinter to help him out (Cody O'Reilly, USA) and another rider with fast flat speed, then I got a decent climber (Simone Stortoni, ITA) and a stage specialist (Mitchell Docker, AUS). I added Cameron Meyer (AUS) for his flat speed and TT, and his brother Travis to keep him company!
I took 6 youngsters as I was seriously lucky!, there were only 4 GBR riders listed so I checked all of them, 1 was FG (William Pollack) and one had Promise (Sam le Tissier), I then check out the 2 ITA and 2 ESP riders, both ITA had promise and they seem to have more climbers than most countries so I took them. 1 ESP was a No Hoper and the other was WW. That left me 2 more picks so I checked out 2 of the 3 UKR and bingo! One was FG (Nazar Rakitskiy) and the other (Yevgeny Lutsenko) had promise. So I took both Future Greats and all 4 with Promise.
That left a few open spots and I took a couple more GBR riders as I am supposed to be a GBR team (Luke Rowe and Alex Coutts) and took a similar costing IRL rider (Sean Downey). Total cost was about £250K (of my £273K Budget).
I stopped at 16 riders as I didn't want one to lack a trainer, and I read that trainers are most efficient with 8 or less riders to look after.
How should I go about setting up groups with the Season Planner?
I don't want to know exactly what to do, but I'd like advice. Please advise what I should think about. I seems to me that I have a potential early season group to go for the northern classics, but apart from Paris-Roubaix I have no idea which races those are!
If someone could perhaps suggest a number of races that I should aim for, bearing in mind that I have Sponsor expectations too!
These are:
Top 10 GP Industria & Artigianato (7/5) ITA
Top 10 Amgen Tour of Calif (16/5 - 23/5) USA
Stage Win(s) Brixa Tour (21/7 - 25/7) ITA
Stage Win(s) Tour of Britain (15/9 - 22/9) GBR
Top 10 Sparkassen Munsterland Giro (1/10) GER
Win the Nationale Sluitingprijs-Putte-Kapellen (??/10) BEL
I'm thinking that it might be an idea to have the early race riders take a break in June July start to ramp up in August for the Tour of Britain and the last 2 Oct races.
Anyway. Any advice on which are good races to look at for prep etc. would be appreciated.
If anyone wants to look at my .cdb, it's attached.
Edited by Martin_TB on 11-01-2011 17:04
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| titleist82 |
Posted on 11-01-2011 14:26
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 752
Joined: 03-04-2007
PCM$: 1660.00
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With regard to finances, career difficulty level affects the team sponsor amount of money you receive every month. With medium you receive 100% of your riders' total salary. with hard and easy something less or more respectively.
Staff wages are not included in the calculation, as a rule of thumb you should cover their wages (and wages of any extra rider you may want to sign in january) with the 3 extra sponsor money you may sign in january. Initial staff is assigned randomly, if you think any staff member is too expansive for your team (or too lousy) you may fire him for free on 1st of january (keep in mind that signing a new staff member will cost you extra money for the signing bonus, though). |
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| Martin_TB |
Posted on 11-01-2011 14:34
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Stagiare
Posts: 216
Joined: 06-01-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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Thanks titleist82.
It's as I suspected  That means certain bankruptcy probably by end of Feb, with Staff costs of 75K per month, Sponsor income of approx 15K per month I need to win 55-60K per month in races and that's not going to happen.
My problem is with the staff I have I'll have to fire at least 3 and the signing on costs even for 3 nationals will be quite high.
Looks like a restart for me |
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| titleist82 |
Posted on 11-01-2011 14:36
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 752
Joined: 03-04-2007
PCM$: 1660.00
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planning a season as a continental team it's pretty hard because you can't be sure of getting invitation to races you wish to compete in. My suggestion is to split team in 2 groups, one group racing from february to mid june, the second from mid june till the end of the season. Riders will have their traning schedule set accordingly, with a constant trainng level of 5. (riders can bear it for long periods and there's no reason to peak on level 6 as you can't have any specific goal).
EDIT: to help you through season planning, you may rely on this fantastic excel spreadsheet: https://www.multiupload.com/IUSKSBQVZA
(in this case showing that riders may mantain level 5 during 17 consecutive weeks without breaching 8000 fatigue level (over 8000 fitness drops below 75/80).
Edited by titleist82 on 11-01-2011 14:43
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| Martin_TB |
Posted on 11-01-2011 14:42
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Stagiare
Posts: 216
Joined: 06-01-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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Ok thanks.
I can use the planner to guarantee invites to all the races except the ones requiring a WC (Santos Down Under etc.), which is fine by me.
I think I'll restart and go for a more Continental team and drop EBH from my picks! If I stick to 10-12 riders around the 20-25K mark (maybe one @ 30K) and 4-6 Youngsters and hope I don't get any expensive staff.
So to be clear, I'll restart, look to my sponsorship obligations, work out two groups and have one lot do early and the other late season. I use the custom option to set their training schedules manually (max level 5) and use Lachi's planner to guarantee I get into the races I need to ramp up fitness before my obligations.
It it still true that Fatigue increases once a rider is at 60+ fitness? |
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| titleist82 |
Posted on 11-01-2011 14:46
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 752
Joined: 03-04-2007
PCM$: 1660.00
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Martin_TB wrote:
It it still true that Fatigue increases once a rider is at 60+ fitness?
look at the xls linked above (edited message).
It would be a shame to restart your career, as it seems you have been pretty lucky with the initial scouting and recruitment. if you wish i may edit the savegame by removing the expansive staff from your team. |
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| Lachi |
Posted on 11-01-2011 14:51
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8360
Joined: 29-06-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Food
Food is the same as drinks and is still in the game, so don't forget to get food/drinks before the mountains start.
Finances
You can see all wages and in the game. It also shows you a prediction for the end of the season. But never the less, you need to get secondary sponsors to finance your staff. You could fire the medical staff to save money (they don't help much anyway)
Riders
You should always use up the budget when building a custom team, unused budget only means less riders or less good riders. (The real season budget will be set in relation to the selected riders and the budget difficulty)
Yes the game always defines the contracts of the riders. Always 3 Leaders and the rest according to their stats related to other riders in your team.
I always edit the contracts so that they are more logical, for example I set all riders below 22 of age to young rider and all riders below 68 AVG (or so) to helper. In your case EBH, Stortoni and Docker would be leader, O'Reilly and the Meyers could be Luxury, but you don't have to do it as it is only cosmetics.
Season planning
With only 16 riders you are quite limited because a rider should only ride about 70 days. So you should aim for single day events or short and flat stage races to get many points.
You could build 2 groups or 8 riders and keep them together for the whole season and plan the races accoring to the abilities of either group.
The sponsor goals are not very important as they give only very little sponsor happiness. You should try to reach the goals of the secondary sponsors though, as that gives you money.
Whatever goals you set yourself, to reach these goals, you need preparation races prior to the important races to build the race fitness. It takes about one race day to build it up by one point, but it takes longer at the start of the season, so you might need more race days early in the season. If you don't case for realistic race preparation, then just pick any of the races wich are shortly before your goals. Just plan enough days (at least 1 week).
If you plan a pause, make it long enough so that you can lower the training to level 2 for some time. |
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 11-01-2011 15:40
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 27880
Joined: 20-10-2006
PCM$: 200.00
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You can't go bankrupt until at the end of the season - keep that in mind.
As long as you're in surplus in End September, you will be fine. |
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| Martin_TB |
Posted on 11-01-2011 16:29
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Stagiare
Posts: 216
Joined: 06-01-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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Thanks for all the feedback:
@CrueTrue: That's good to know, but staff costs will be approx 750K and there is no way I am going to win ¾ of a million quid this season!
@Lachi, I got my 2ndry Sponsors, but @ 5K each per month and a futher 20K if I succeed in their tasks it's still a struggle.
Thanks for the info about the initial budget and how it is calculated after you picked a team - good to know that.
I picked 16 because that seemed ideal for the trainer to rider ratio. Is there a big hit to training effectiveness if a trainer has say 10 riders to look after?
@titleist82 Thanks for the offer to edit and link for the .xls I'll take a look at the spreadsheet later (I already Dled it).
I realise I can edit the save, and I am tempted to do so.
Here are my thoughts and questions.
It seems pretty unrealistic to me for the game to assign a new Continental Team 3 Legendary Staff (1 Trainer, Scout and Doc) and one international. Even if he were to create a team Richard Branson would not go quite so overboard. Maybe one, but not 3 legends 
Is it possible to edit the pay that the staff get, together with their skills?
ie The Mountain Trainer with 10/10 + pther stats @ 24K per month, could be be edited to a lower rank, be paid less, but edit mountain down to 5/10 maybe? Or would that screw up the game for future careers?
Edit BTW I restarted and got 2 legends, an international and a regional.... Fired the Legend Doc and Legend Scout, Fired the Intern'l trainer, (all on Jan 1 with no cost) rehired a Regional one and had 10K left in the budget....
The sign on fee is pretty big for the beginning of the season.
Edited by Martin_TB on 11-01-2011 16:31
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 11-01-2011 16:36
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 27880
Joined: 20-10-2006
PCM$: 200.00
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You can edit both stats and staff wages in DYN_coach, DYN_physician and DYN_scout. |
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| Martin_TB |
Posted on 11-01-2011 16:38
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Stagiare
Posts: 216
Joined: 06-01-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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Sorry to be a complete noob!
That won't affect a new career? |
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 11-01-2011 16:40
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 27880
Joined: 20-10-2006
PCM$: 200.00
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It won't affect anything other than the changes that you make  |
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| Martin_TB |
Posted on 11-01-2011 17:01
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Stagiare
Posts: 216
Joined: 06-01-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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Fantastic - Many many many thanks for that. I DLed Lachi's editor, opened up my cdb and edited the doctor to regional, the scout to regional and the trainer to International.
Also tweaked their stats (lower) and now have a cost of about 22K which I should be able to manage.
Edited by Martin_TB on 11-01-2011 17:03
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| mb2612 |
Posted on 11-01-2011 17:35
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Team Leader
Posts: 5535
Joined: 18-05-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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There is a useful feature in the finances section which shows your predicted budget in July and October, so you can see quite clearly how much money you need to make.
As far as fitness goes, I would set EBH on the sprinters Giro-Vuelta schedule and then he should be in pretty good form for all you sponsor races, which will probably give you the best chance of getting the goals.
Splitting the others into two group would probably work quite well.
 [url=www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=33182] Team Santander Media Thread[/url]
Please assume I am joking unless otherwise stated |
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| shin0da_13 |
Posted on 12-01-2011 06:49
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Free Agent
Posts: 141
Joined: 21-05-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Season planning
The sponsor goals are not very important as they give only very little sponsor happiness. You should try to reach the goals of the secondary sponsors though, as that gives you money.
[/quote]
Really? That's strange because the main sponsors are giving a lot more money than the secondary ones. |
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| Lachi |
Posted on 12-01-2011 08:37
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8360
Joined: 29-06-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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shin0da_13: It is not strange if you think it trough. The secondary sponsors give you additional money if you reach the goal. The budget of the main sponsor will be calculated at the end of the season, and it is based on the sponsor happiness. The happiness is based on the superprestige points your team won. Reaching goals gives you a very small bonus to these points and nothing else. |
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| roturn |
Posted on 12-01-2011 08:46
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Team Manager
Posts: 22049
Joined: 24-11-2007
PCM$: 3900.00
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Money is the only thing you get. There is absolutely no influence for the sponsor happiness.
This is defined as a specific percentage amount of all CQ Ranking points.
Most bigger ProTour teams need ~5% of all points there to have the happiness in the middle. Smaller Contiteams need 0,8% for example.
So it`s just important in the end of the season where you get the new budget. |
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