 We're just a little less than five months away from the release of Pro Cycling Manager 2012, and all we have about the upcoming game is a screenshot from December which may or may not show PCM12 - well, it's time to change that.
PCM.daily have interviewed the developers of the game and can now reveal the main new features of Pro Cycling Manager 2012. The game is still very much work in progress, though, so the info is not as detailed as it will hopefully be later in the process.
That being said, let's go straight to the what you are all here for: There's not one single feature or focus that stands out in PCM12. Instead, it's rather a whole bunch of different improvements, small as well as large, spread across the many different section of the game - so let's start with the career mode. As Cyanide put it:
"PCM10 was clearly about graphics due to the new engine and the stage editor which have been a big change in the PCM series. The focus on PCM11 was more about the new gameplay with collisions and AI. On PCM12, there is no particular focus - the new features will be balanced between graphics, career and 3D races."
Career
Let's start with the new features: A 3rd division has been added, so the game is now split into three divisions, just like in real life. To make this work properly, more teams (around 80) and more races will be present in the game.
And with more teams and races, Cyanide also felt the need to rebuild the way participation works. As they say:
"With this DB update we had to set rules of participation based on what exists in the real cycling: limitations of invitations for certain teams, depending of their country and their division vs. the race’s category. We also added rules to set the number of invitations for races and reworked all the AI calendar process to make it more realistic."
To be fairly honest, such an update was needed, and it is also one of the issues that is being dealt with by the community (especially TankNL) - however, that may no longer be needed, at least not for future versions.
The same goes for another new addition of the game: a built-in season planner. Cyanide acknowledge the need of tools to plan the season and has therefore added a "season calendar and cyclist planner with dedicated in-game user interface," as they express it. We don't know how exactly it's going to work, but I'm sure it's one of the features we're going to see more of before the final release.
Another interesting new feature of the career mode is the possibility to go on route reconnaissance before the grand tours, or plan for example team time trial training camps to improve the team building before a race.
That's basically it of career mode. Cyanide does say, however, that more features are in the works.
AI / Gameplay
While many will say that improvements to the career mode is of utmost importance, the 3D racing and gameplay is not to be forgotten. It is difficult, though, to explain changes to the AI, but Cyanide ensured that lots have been done.
First of all, they said that a new interface (you know - rider control panels etc.) has been added It's been done several times before, so while it's a bit surprising to me, it's not like it's the first time.
More importantly, Cyanide stated that work has been put into especially the mountain AI and tactics.
"We added a lots of reasons to collaborate/not to collaborate during breakaways, to launch a new attack or to focus on a defensive tactic depending on the teammates' situation.
An example: Before, the leaders were always collaborating after an attack on the last climb. This is not always the case now, and if a leader feels weak compared another leader he could decide to let the other(s) doing the relays, saving his energy to hang on as long as he can, or for an attack if he feels better after that," Cyanide say.
Another mountain change is the fact riders who don't have ambitions on a certain stage will decide to drop off earlier rather than fighting to hang on.
"In real life, a lots of riders could hang for longer in the mountains than they actually do, however this is the first thing you learn when you're a non-climber neo-pro: do not waste your energy to make a top-40, save it for later when your sprinter or your leader needs you."
Graphics
As said initially, there's been plenty of focus on the graphics side of PCM for a few years. For the same reason, it doesn't seem like there's going to be a huge change this year.
Basically, you will notice a more varied landscape than before: there are more isolated buildings, e.g. British houses, German houses, new churches, manors, crosses and ski resort buildings.
Cyanide also mention some technical improvements to make things look more realistic, and lastly, there's improvements to the rider model which is "a major upgrade for average and high configurations," Cyanide say.
Stages / Stage Editor
And since most of the graphical changes are in the stages department, let's go on with the stage editor: There are no plans to add new .dem-files, and there's no new unique landscapes either.
However, users of the stage editor will be happy to hear that the stage editor will now auto-save continously. And for the advanced stage makers - well, I'll leave the word:
"For the 'hardcore', there will be the possibility to edit the altitude in the profile, and you’ll be able to edit/delete some road borders. More brushes have been added for those who 'sculpt' the landscape," Cyanide say.
Lastly, there's also a new possibility to add and design fences in lots of possible ways.
The facts
The game is expected to be released Mid-June, but there's still no exact release date. 15th or 16th of June is PCM.daily's guess, though.
In terms of hardware requirements, Cyanide's goal is to keep the requirements from PCM11. They do mention, though, that they have managed to optimize the game in order to save RAM. This effectively means that the gamers should experience random crashes during stages less often than now.
In terms of platforms, there won't be any Mac version. Cyanide do confirm, though, that we're going to see another edition of Tour de France for Playstation 3 and XBOX360. And apparently, it's going to be a major change.
"I think that the project deserve to be known because it’s going to be an amazing simulation game where you really feel riding Le Tour in the peloton. This is so different from the 2011 version - we made huge efforts on race AI/gameplay/atmosphere, and players who love cycling should love it," Cyanide say.
"We’re sure that players who were not convinced by the first version could change their opinion. Of course, it’ll not suit players who want to play a manager game, but there is an impressive realism on the AI/scenarios. In other words if you want to play a realistic race with a high action and you don’t have hundred hours free to invest in a cycling manager game, TDF is for you!"
And on that note, we will go hunting for an interview about Tour de France (don't worry, we already asked once, but got a no - we're gladly asking again ;)). |
