These are the questions and answers that 'Interview with Cyanide: A look on PCM10' is based on.
PCM.daily/CrueTrue: Last year, Patrick announced that a team had already begun working on a new graphic engine for PCM10. Seeing the scenery on the released screenshots, there's no doubt that this has improved, but what about the riders?
Cyanide/Xavier Wiart: As you may have noticed with the first pics of the game, riders have not changed so much in the PCM2010 version. The reason is that we didn't changed the landscape since PCM 2005, whereas the rider had a big evolution in PCM 2008. In terms of production, we can't change everything in one version and riders will take benefits of the new engine anyway. Moreover, we won't oblige jersey makers to learn a new model, it will stay the same and it will help a lot for the jersey production.
Also, I'd like to break an old rumor saying that riders are all identical. This is wrong ! This is not a cartoon game so you won't see riders two times bigger than others, but you can tell the difference between a 160cm and a 195cm rider.
Q. Personally, I'm a big fan of animations - I like to see the riders suffer. Will there be more rider animations?
A. Same as above, rider animations were not the priority for 2010. Except some small corrections, there will be no change in that.
Q. More importantly, is the updated graphics the main update from PCM09 to PCM10?
A. That's for sure. More than an evolution, I'd call it a revolution. The 3d engine might be one of the most important change in the PCM history. And surprisingly, it won't prevent the medium configurations to play.
The 3d engine will not be the only improvement for PCM2010, but of course it will be the main.
Q. With the new graphics engine, do you have any idea about the possible graphic requirements? Will they be higher?
A. The minimal configuration to play the game is not known yet, but it won't require a war machine to run it. This year, big configurations will take the maximum advantage of the new 3d engine, but a large panel of players will be able to play the game anyway. The minimum should be close from the PCM9 minimum requirement.
Q. Other than the graphics, what do you see as the main improvements of the game?
A. I won't communicate now the whole list of the new features, but I can already tell that a good improvement has been done in AI/Physio in race mode. Basically, the race's scenarii will be much more various. Leaders will take more risks, Early breakaways will have more chances to run for victory and sprints will be harder to anticipate. The wind will have more effect on the cyclist and the weather will change during the race.
Q. Prior to this interview, I re-read the press releases so far. You mention a new season mode where I can pick the races and teams myself. What are the benefits of that?
A. In a few words, the new season mode will be a light career mode for multiplayer. In this mode, you'll be able to create your own season and play it with your friends. For example if you want to play a season with the 3 big tours only, you'll be able to create it on the new mode. You won't need to make any modification in the database, everything is managed in the game.
This mode may be a big feature for database makers too, because you'll be able to create historic seasons quite easily. For example, every cycling fan dreams to do a UCI World Cup like in older times. It will just require a few changes in the DB (riders, teams etc..) and a quick season configuration...and let's run an historical Jalabert VS Bartoli world cup !
The mode will propose realistic teams or a draft system to make the teams. You'll only manage the race subscriptions and the fitness of your riders.
Q. To PCMBenelux, Clément Pinget mentioned that a palmares feature has been added to the game. Can you elaborate on this?
A. We added a lot of historical data in the PCM database. It means that you'll be able to see the real race results, rider palmares and rider former teams from the past years. This gives a real background to the race and to the riders, and this new feature comes with the addition of records.
You'll be able to beat historic records like the 7 Tour de France of Lance Armstrong, the 4 victories of De Vlaeminck in Paris-Roubaix or even beat the 11 Victories in a big tour of Merckx. Moreover, you'll be challenged to achieve performances like winning the 3 big tours in the same year, winning the five main classics or win the three Ardennes classics. Some performances are very hard to succeed, it should be very entertaining.
Q. And then there's the stage editor. Obviously, this lets you create more detailed stages - but is it also easier to use? Or will stage making now take longer time?
A. Except a certain time to learn how the tool works, it will be easier to use. Some tutorials with video samples are already done for the stage makers. The tool will be good enough to allow a good quality of detail.
Making a stage won't take more time than before, but you'll be able to reach a better quality at the end.
Q. I guess this means the end of using PCM08/PCM09 stages? Is there any compatibility between the PCM09 and PCM10 stages?
I'm sorry to tell it but there is absolutely no compatibility between the two stage structures..
Q. Databases, I suppose, will not be directly compatible, but I guess the Advanced Editor also works with PCM10? Did you make any interesting changes in the DB?
Even though we have kept the same cdb format, the DB will not be compatible between the two versions. The advanced editor works with any cdb file, so it will still be available. As you may know, I'm the one in Cyanide who develops the editors for PCM. I plan to decrease the loading and saving time for both editors with a new dll, which will allow to manage the DB more efficiently. However, I'm not totally happy with the advanced editor, because it allows anyone to make big mistakes on the databases. I'd like to make a more 'user friendly' editor but i don't know for the moment if i will have time to release it.
The database has been deeply cleaned. There were a lot of unused fields and tables and some DB designs were not good at all. The local db has been separated from the client database, to avoid the compatibility problems with custom dbs.
Q. And back to the existing features. There's no doubt that track racing has been a great addition to PCM. It was introduced in PCM08, expanded in PCM09 - what are the plans for track racing in PCM10?
A. Track racing was not planned to change for PCM10. I know there is a lot of demands to embed track in career mode or even make a single track career mode, but this won't be for pcm10.
Q. Another much-asked for feature is the "Be a Pro" where you only control one rider. Will this be added? And what about cyclocross?
A. The 'Be a Pro' mode is not in our plans since it is a mode asking a big investment, almost a new game. A 'Be a pro' mode makes a lot of sense in soccer games, where the gameplay is based on skill and where you can enjoy even in your first matches. In cycling, you have to be a big leader to really enjoy a race. There's absolutely no gameplay to be a water supplier during various seasons, moreover when you know how long is a season in PCM. The PCM gameplay is not adapted to the micro-management of a single rider.
Cyclo-cross would be a nice feature but one more time, the gameplay should be based on skills, more than in track mode. At least it is not planned for Pcm10.
Q. You released a a cycling game to XBOX last year. Do you have any plans for an XBOX - and perhaps a PS3 - release this year?
A. As far as I know, nothing is announced for both platforms. |
