Piepoli and Schumacher are down, and according to several sources, those are not the only ones caught by AFLD's retesting of tests from Tour de France. Being out of cycling for the next two years, they could - like you - go to PCM.daily and read the Weekly News ;)
Updates of the editors Two of the most used editors for PCM 08, the CLE-ditor and Hannes Editor, have been updated during the past week. Most importantly, CLE-ditor has been upgraded to V3.1 and the major (and only?) new feature is that it's now multi-lingual: French, Italian and ... English! Also, there was a bug in the V3.0 version which meant that you couldn't use the search (for riders) function. This has been fixed in 3.1 - enjoy! Hannes Editor, which has pretty much the same functionality as CLE-ditor, is still only in German, though. Instead, the V2.1 fixes a problem with the dyn_cyclist table which could cause a DB crash. Have you previously used Hannes Editor to create new cyclists or teams, it's recommended to go through every team and use the new "team peparieren" function. You can get the new version here.
Several new databases While the 2008 cycling season is getting close to its end, many databaseurs are finishing their databases and releasing them. The Divinity DB team is one of them, and they released one of the largest databases (in terms of size, MB) so far yesterday - Divinity V2. It has 75 teams, several new races - and it's full of graphical add-ons. It got off to a rough start, meaning that the team has had to release a fix shortly after the release of the main package. You can get both files from PCM.daily: Main Package -- The Final Fix.
Next up, we have the French ElectroZenshu DB. It has 69 teams, and what's interesting about it is that it has an alternative set-up when it comes to stat limitations and potential limitations. For example, the max potential in this DB is ... 2! So far, the downloaders are unsure about what they should think about the DB: 1 vote for each of the options (Awesome, Very Good, Good, Average, Poor). You can download it here and try it out yourself.
Last, we have two updates of existing databases. Eeyor has released a Vuelta update for his Eeyor's Reality DB, and it adds more equipment to the DB and updates the stats, so they reflect the riders' performances at the Vuelta. You can get the update here. You also need his Main Package, though. The other new update is JustinWK, who's basing his work on Dankan's RealName Package. His DB, Good Ol' Justin's Fan DB, has been updated to V2, and as always, the only change is the stats which is updated after the Vuelta a Espana. You can get it right here.
Jape is back! For several (PCM-)years, Jape has proven to be one of the best programmers around in the PCM communities. He has previously released PCM Dashboard, an easy-to-use yet advanced save game editor for PCM07, and a StartList Tool for PCM06. And the latter, the StartList Tool, has now been updated by Jape to work with PCM08. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a tool which can easily create startlists for PCM08 based on real life startlists. It does this by connecting to internet sites and compare the startlists with the riders found in the DB - and from these datas, it creates a PCM08 startlist. So, this means we're one step closer to real life ;) Get it right here.
So, what else do we have for you? The past 7-8 days have been full of downloads (look above), but there's still a few things which haven't been mentioned. First of all, SnelleJus has made it possible to get started with the 2009 season since he has released realistic versions of the 2009 World Championship in Mendrisio, both the Road Race and the Time Trial. Everyone's favourite Japanese guy, Miya, has also been active. This time, he has released a low-graphic version of the velodrome which is used when playing track races. By using the low-graphic version, the game will run smoother, especially on 'bad' computers. So, if you haven't been able to play PCM at all, here's your chance.
Radsport Manager Evolution to be released? During the summer, before the release of Pro Cycling Manager, we had competition to Cyanide by the game called Radsport Manager Evolution. However, nothing came out of the game which was supposedly too bugged to be released. But against all odds, the game might actually hit the shelves anyway. A Spanish game shop has it listed under the name "Cycling Evolution", and it will supposedly be released on the 15th of October - 8 days from now. Rin, a member of this forum, has contacts who say that the game really will be released on that day, but only in Spain. It will be interesting to see, but from what it looks like now, it might end up like another "EuroTour"-game...
Grand Tour of the Year From the 24th of September to the 4th of October, we had a poll on this site, asking which 2008 Grand Tour you enjoyed the most. We can now reveil the result: Tour de France, not very surprisingly, took 61 % of the votes and is a clear winner ahead of Giro 'd Italia which got 28 % of the votes. A new poll is already up, and this time, we'd like to know which rider you think is most likely to make a comeback in the 2009 season. Michael Boogerd has already expressed that he might be up for it, Heras participated in the folding bike World Championship (and got silver) -- and can anyone hold back Cipollini from trying to win Milano - Sanremo? Vote now! ;)
Matti, Matti, Matti, Matti ... Breschel, Breschel, Breschel, Breschel ... and alright, Ballan did quite okay too. But who cares when a Dane wins a bronze medal? ;)
Visit Cyanide's stand at "Festival du Jeu Video" Although Cyanide didn't really care much for letting the English community know about this, it's relevant. Cyanide is attending the French event "Festival du Jeu Video" (A Video Game Exhibition). It will be possible not only to see, but also to play the long-awaited Blood Bowl for PC and TrackMania for Nintendo DS. So, if you're in Paris, France during the 26th and 28th September 2008, you might want to visit the official website of the event and have a look. Cyanide has also put up a competition to win tickets to the event. However, if you don't live in France you'll have to buy the flight tickets yourself - you can read more about that right here.
And if you're reading this, Cyanide, I'll gladly accept an invitation ;)
Dankan's back with new projects A while ago, Dankan, one of the best - if not the best - databaseurs in the PCM community, announced that he'd have to 'retire' for a while. Now, he's back and unlike other years, he's not going to work on 2008 or 2009 databases. Instead, he will use his skills on making historical databases, something which the community has been lacking the past two years. His first DB will be a 1990 DB and will be an update of a project he made for PCM06. He's also planned to make another historical DB after the 1990 one, but the year is still undecided. You can read more about his 1990 project here.
Two 2009 databases It's pretty much acknowledged as being a waste of time releasing 2009 databases now when the 2008 season hasn't even ended yet, and when the transfer season is still very active. But obviously, some people don't really mind that and release their databases anyway ;) The two released this week are pretty much alike. They are updated until the 24th and 25th of September, and Rooney's DB contains a Cervelo shirt. The other one is made by Karack33 and is available here.
... and two 2008 databases And while the 2009 databases are being spit out, so are the 2008 DBs. The newest one is made by the EuskalPCM community and contains a new race, Vuelta a Columbia. Other than that, it's pretty much the same, basic features as all other databases. You can download it here. The other one is in fact one of the older databases. It's been out for a while, but since the maker of it, Evans89, is known for making hundreds of patches I didn't get around to upload it until now when it seems like he's done releasing patches. The package which have been uploaded contains the main package, 3 patches, 1 pack of startlists, 1 shirt pack and one track DB - 423 MB. Interested? Download it here.
PCM.daily wins vs. PCM-Portugal As I have mentioned the past few weeks, we had lined up a match vs. PCM-Portugal in scratch. This took place Friday last week, and it was a great success. PCM-Portugal had some organizational problems as most of its team showed up very late, but in the end, we got to play the 3 rounds of 30 laps which ended up with PCM.daily, thanks to good tactics, leading Ruben to the victory in 2 out of 3 rounds, winning with 469 points against PCM-Portugal's 383 points. More importantly, the match also showed that scratch is very suited for online matches. Tactics have a great impact on the gameplay, and in opposition to elimination, it's not full-power all way. Conclusion: I think everyone had a fun time, also the Portuguese people, and we're looking forward to the next match, whatever that will be.
PCM.daily - now as a Facebook group Yes, it's true. You can now also support PCM.daily on Facebook by joining the group 'PCMdaily.com'. So far, there's 7 members, including Maggot, Doddy13, myself and Agger. I have no idea what we need it for, but I guess that's the consequences of being too bored at school at times ;)
The Vuelta has ended, and the World Championship started today with the U23 men's time trial which pretty much none of us care about. So, to get the time going, here's the 65th edition of the Weekly News.
Say hello to ... In Weekly News #63 I announced that we were looking for new crew members. I'm glad to say that we received a lot of applications which is also why that the reviewing process has been taken some time. However, everyone in the crew agreed on one guy to join us: the flying Dutch man, mrlol, who's also a site worker at PCMBenelux. He's been with the site for quite a while, and we believe that he's able to bring new ideas to the crew. That said, we'd like to thank everyone for their applications. There were several possible candidates between them, but since we don't want to end up with one huge crew we decided to stick with one guy for now - mrlol.
Time to edit Local.cdb Ever since the release of PCM 08, databaseurs have complained about the fact that it's been impossible to (fully) edit the local.cdb without the fear of destroying their work. So far, it's only been possible to edit the file with editors for PCM07 which could end up harming the file and thus destroy the work which the databaseurs have been doing. It was also one of the reason why the PCM Fusion DB was cancelled. However, the prayers have now been answered by Cyanide's Eyolfur, the man behind the Advanced Editor, who has now updated his editor, so it works with the Local.cdb file. One of the testers, Ruben, has said that it does it job perfectly, and it's therefore very likely that we're going to see large databases again in the future :)
Speaking of editors... ... let's not forget the Hannes Editor 1.1 which I mentioned in last week's Weekly News. In the comments part of the download, a lot of you have said that it doesn't work. I finally got around to test it out today, and it's true - it doesn't work, unless you install .NET Framework 3.5 which is available for free at Microsoft's website. Also, while testing it, I also noticed something very interesting: Like with the CLE-ditor, it's very, very easy to add new teams and riders with this editor. Although it's only available in German, it should be easy enough for everyone. You can download it from PCM.daily right here.
Downtime on GameCenter As most of you have noticed, Cyanide's server has been down for several days. This has meant that their website, including the official forums, have been down, but way more importantly, it's been impossible to use Cyanide's GameCenter which makes it possible to play Cyanide's games online. Bdufourd, the community manager of Cyanide, has explained it on several fansites websites, including PCM.daily in this thread. The server should now be up and running again, but they will be taken down at some point to solve some of the problems which have been caused by the downtime.
PCM.daily getting ready for match vs. PCM-Portugal And hopefully, the server will be up at 20:00 GMT on Friday when PCM.daily meets PCM-Portugal in a scratch race match on GameCenter. PCM.daily will be represented by doddy, Ruben, Smoothie, Crommy, Schleck1993, Mrlol, JustinWK and Waghlon, and they will play 3 rounds of scratch (30 laps, 1 sprint) to decide who's best at scratch race: the international people here at PCM.daily or the crying Portuguese from PCM-Portugal ;) You can read more about the race in this thread. Also, mrlol has made a "clanwar DB" for the purpose. Read more about it here.
It's Contador vs. Leipheimer, two Astana riders, in the Vuelta. Next year, it will be Armstrong vs. Contador vs. Leipheimer vs. Klöden in the Tour? Looking forward to that? Not really, right? Well, here's some Weekly News for you to enjoy instead :P
Confirmed: 1.0.2.3 is the last patch Since no one was sure that 1.0.2.3 really was the last patch for PCM08, I felt the need to ask Cyanide abouti t. And they confirmed it. No more patches will be released for PCM08. Instead, the entire staff is sent on vacation and are currently enjoying the sun in Panama. Or, maybe not, but I'm sure that that's what they would like us to think.
Friday: Qualification time As I mentioned last week, PCM-Portugal and PCM.daily have arranged an online match in Scratch (30 laps, one sprint). Our team is picked by qualification which will be held on Friday. Most spots have already been taken, but if you're around and up you might want to join GameCenter even if you didn't sign up for a spot - one or two might become available on the day. You can read more about it in this thread. For date and time, read this, and if you're a participant, you can discuss the tactics here. Good luck!
New databases A few people have complained to me and asked why Eeyor is the only active DB maker. Well, he isn't, far from, and this was proved this week when both OlegTinkov (the guy making the A.S.O.DB) and Altehacke (the guy making the P&A DB) released their databases. The A.S.O.DB is an update of a previously released DB, fixing a number of bugs and updating the teams and rosters. P&A DB hasn't been released previously, but instead, you get three new teams (Milram Continental, Rabobank Continental and SouthAustralia). Other than that, the two databases have pretty much the same feature list, so I guess it all comes down to stats and stability ;) If you decide to go for the P&A DB, please remember to download the patch too.
Hannes releases new editor Hannes68, who's known for his many database editors, e.g. Hannes Converter for both PCM07 and PCM08, has released yet another editor. This time, it's Hannes Editor, which was also released for PCM07, which has now finally been updated to work with PCM08. It's a simple editor, like the one which comes with the game, making it possible to easily edit rider names, stats, etc. There's also a mass edit function. Unfortunately, some people have mentioned that it doesn't work at all. I don't know if that's the case, but I'll try it later today. In any case, you can go ahead and try it yourself through this link.
Management Game has reached Tour de France PCM.daily's famous Management Game has reached mid-season which also means that Tour de France, the race of the season for many teams, has started. Like in real life, Cadel Evans is pre-race favourite (if we look aside from the fact that he crashed on the 2nd stage and lost two minutes) along with Frank Schleck, 2008-winner, who won the warm-up race Tour de Suisse. You can read the preview of the race here and follow the results here.
Poll: How many riders will return positive tests during the Vuelta? Last week, we asked you how many riders you think will return positive doping tests during the Vuelta. 27 % of you think that there'll be none at all despite the fact that the Vuelta organizers have decided to use the blood passport. So, either you're very positive, thinking the sport is clean, or you're 'negative', thinking that the system doesn't work. 14 % of you think that more than 5 riders will be caught...
Next, you can help us with pointing out what we, the crew, should focus more on in the future. Currently, "more downloads" is the option with most votes, and that's a little odd when considering the fact that PCM.daily already has the largest PCM08 download section ;) Anyway, hurry up and cast your vote - thank you!
Submit your screenshots I'd just like to remind you all again that our "Submit screenshot"-function is fully working again, and we'd be very happy to receive your funny or beautiful screenshots. We've already received plenty since it started working again, and we'd love to get more. However, please remember to name your screenshot something "normal". Don't use spaces or weird characters. The page will say that the screenshot has been submitted no matter what, but in some cases, the screenshot isn't attached, and we will have to delete the submission. So, if you decide to submit a screenshot, name it something like "screenshot1" instead of e.g. "screen shot_1". Thanks.
Downloads are down While writing this, the download server has been down for a couple of hours. This is due to an upgrade of the server which have been pllanned by our host for quite some time, but has been delayed. We can't say for how long it's down, but it shouldn't take very much longer than it already has. Sorry for the inconvenience caused by this.
After having had problems with this for months, I can now finally tell you that the problem with the screenshot section has been fixed. The problem made it impossible to submit screenshots, but after some fiddling today it should once and for all be possible again. So, if you've any funny, beautiful or just some screenshots which you want to share with the rest of us, you can submit them following this link. It's also available from the User Info menu in the right top. You need to keep the file name simple, though. No weird characters, just use letters only (e.g. pcmdaily.jpg - not pcm_daily.jpg).
Although the PCM Fusion DB has been stopped, we do still have a Fusion DB-related surprise for you. Today, we decided to release a side-project, the PCM Fusion Track DB, which is basically like the other track packs which have been released: lots and lots of riders, rider photos for all riders, jerseys for all countries (also the new ones!), a new track and lots of other small improvements. You can download it right here.
Edit: Just so it is clear - this is a non-equal stats Track DB. The first of its kind.
With the Vuelta a Espana well under-way, it's time for yet another edition of the Weekly News.
Contador to win the Vuelta Not very surprisingly, 66 % of you think that Alberto Contador is going to win the Vuelta. He hasn't been destroying everyone else just yet, but we'll see what's going to happen today in the big mountains. Runner-up is Alejandro Valverde with 10 % of the votes followed by Robert Gesink with 7 % and TdF 2008 winner Carlos Sastre with 6 %. Our current poll is about how many riders you think will return a positive doping test during the Vuelta. The majority of you are rather positive (or pessimistic, depending on how you see it) since 25 % you think that 0 riders will be tested positive. The poll is still open.
Any large databases in sight? With PCM Fusion being stopped, there's an empty room in the PCM World: A large database with more teams than the original database. Currently, it seems like there's only one other database in the making which adds more teams to the game: The PCM Giga Pack 2008. We don't know much about it so far, but it's made by the the Portuguese guy named Jan_Ullrich11, and the pack will have a size of approximately 1.30 GB -- meaning something like the largest ever (in terms of MB/GB) pack released to PCM. You can read more about it in this thread.
PCM.daily meets PCM-Portugal in a scratch race A few weeks ago, PCM.daily met PCMBenelux in a elimination match - and lost. Since then, some guys found out that you can change the number of rounds and eliminations in the game and thereby create new "modes", e.g. scratch race which is way more suited for online matches than elimination which was .. well, not very good ;) Therefore, we are going to try out this "new" mode in a match against PCM-Portugal, and as last time, we first have to go through a qualification to find the best 8 players. There's two spots open for the qualification, and if you are interested, you need to sign up right away in this thread. Good luck.
Ladder Reminder Speaking of online playing, we'd like to remind you that we launched a Keirin Ladder a while ago. Unfortunately, it hasn't been used since the 18th of August 2008, so it can't really be called a huge success ;) If you've any suggestions to how we can improve it, and what would make you use it, feel free to write it in the comments section of this article. If you'd like to know more about it, you can read more about it in this news article.
Management Game continuing - with help Earlier this week, Crommy announced that we could use some help running the Management Game, and several people quickly showed up. We're very happy to know that people are so willing to help, and you can already see the result of their efforts in the Results forum where the Tour of Columbia, Dauphine Libere and Tour de Suisse is currently being run. If you're interested in running the races, you can read more in this thread. Also, we might also "out-source" some of the Continental races - more about this later.
Yes, the site still doesn't fully work Unfortunately, we still have problems with the site due to our move to the V7 version of the CMS that we use. First of all, the site doesn't render perfectly in Internet Explorer in small resolutions. To help this, I'd suggest using Firefox instead. Not just for the sake of PCM.daily, but also for you personally since it's simply safer and faster ;) Unfortunately, the next problem can't be solved by using another browser. The "submit screenshot"-function still doesn't work. I have no idea how to solve the problem, and the technical admin, AaB-ern, has no idea either. We're trying to get help from outside sources, but still no luck.
Want to become a crew member? We haven't really added anyone to the crew for a while, and it's about time to bring in some fresh people with new ideas to continue the site's progress. Therefore, if you're interested in helping out running PCM.daily, you can apply to become a crew member by sending me a private message. We're basically looking for 'creative' people who can come up with new ideas and initiatives for the site (like Crommy and SportingNonsense). Also, we're also interested in people with good writing skills to write articles (cycling and PCM-related). When writing the application, please specify what you're good at, and what you think you can bring to the site. Thanks a lot!
