Or not. Seriously, we do have an annoucement to make. Some of you have already guessed it, so it won't come to any surprise. However, here we go: With very skilled database programmers in the crew it's rather natural that we're going to use the their abilities. PCM.daily have developed into one of the largest PCM websites, and we are now going to release a 2008 database for Pro Cycling Manager 2008. We have been working on it for a while, and we don't have any release date for it. However, we can already say now that we're not going to release it until it's done.
So, what will be special about it? With Dankan in the crew, it's natural that we base our database on the PCM Spain project. However, there will be a few important modifications. Since our userbase is British and Americans we will include a lot of teams and races from these countries. The full list of teams is not done yet, but these are the teams which will most likely be put in: Plowman Craven, Recycling.co.uk-Rapha Condo, 100% Me, Pinarello (GB); Rock Racing, Jelly Belly(?) (USA); Letua (MAS); Pezula, Murphy and Gunn (Ire)
This list will of course be changed since some teams have changed / merged. More information about the database will be published soon (= in the upcoming weeks).
Do you guys remember our previous quiz? The very, very tough one which ended up with issoisso surprisingly winning (a copy of PCM07)? Well, here we are again with another quiz. It's not supposed to be as hard as the previous one, but it might not be as easy as I think ;) Most of the questions are findable somehow, so if you're good Googler, you might have an advantage.
The prize? A short-sleeved cycling jersey of your choice, sponsored by PCM.daily! :) The questions? Click "Read more" ;) How? The answers can be sent by private messaging (to CrueTrue) or through the contact form Deadline? Your answers need to be sent before 24:00 GMT today!
On this date one year ago I was in New York. It was late afternoon New York-time, late evening European time when PCM.daily opened the doors to a new Pro Cycling Manager-website -- the first of its kind in English-only. I didn't have any high expectations, after all people prefer to speak their own language instead of their 2nd or 3rd language, but here, 1 year later, it seems like we have filled a vacuum which I didn't know existed. I'm proud of that, and today we are going to celebrate PCM.daily's birthday, PCM.daily's anniversary! As said in the Weekly News, we have prepared a few things for you which will be presented throughout the day. I hope you are all going to be here since we do actually have one big announcement to make -- at some point today ;)
Due to the inactivity in the community, I decided to skip one week. Therefore, we have a special Two Week News Update :) Nice surprise, isn't it? ;)
Site updates Let's take the latest news first. The last couple of days I've worked on implenting some new features to the site. Both new "features" are small, but could become handy at some point. First of all, I've made it possible to include a poll in a forum thread. It's possible for all members. Guests (non-registered users) can see the poll, but not start one nor vote. You can watch it in action here. Looks nice, doesn't it? ;) Just keep in mind that you shouldn't use just to use it. Use it when it's needed and there's actually a point of using it. Otherwise, it will be restricted, meaning that only adminstrators will be able to make a poll.
2nd "feature" isn't a feature, but is more of a "making life easier"-thing ;) It's a new Member List-design. Before, you could only see the very basics in the member list, this meaning the username, status and date of joining. In the new "design" you can see whether or not the member is online / offline, the e-mail address, the location, posts and website. Check it out here.
PCM.daily's Management Game -- now at Le Tour Although we've been slower this year, the Management Game is still very enjoyable. We have now reached Tour de France 2008, and there are many great riders represented. For the overall classement, riders such as Di Luca, Valverde, M. Rasmussen, C. Evans, Contador, Sastre, Leipheimer, Dessel and many more, are represented, making the fight for the win really tough. The Green Jersey is no walkover either. Here we have McEwen, Boonen and Petacchi, the world's three best sprinters, battling for the jersey. Head over here and follow the results as they come in!
GCT releases their last pack The German CyM Team has released their very last package. They have now splitted up, although many of the members now are in the team of ECDB. GCT's package is a 2007 database, based on the V1 they released earlier this year. The new version includes 36 new teams, race logos for all the new races they have added, and lots of other graphical stuff. If this DB is as good as their 2007 project for PCM06, then it's definitely worth a shot ;)
2008 DB - now in V3 Silence and Lampert's 2008 DB was released a few weeks ago. This week, the V3-version was released, eliminating some of the many bugs which were present in the first databases. It also includes many more of the transfers which they had initially missed. So, all-in-all, it's definitely more playable now, although there's still a long way to go before we have a real 2008 package. This is a good start, though. Download the V3 here.
4 new backgrounds Some French guy named Vic3 has released 4 new very good-looking backgrounds. First of all, there's a Barloworld background with pictures mainly from all their triumphes during this year's Tour de France. For the British, who tend to like Barloworld, this might be worth taking a look at -- do so here! Next up we have a CSC background for all our Danish (and American?) visitors. It basically shows many of CSC's victories from the past years. Check it out here. Then we have a Caisse d'Epargne background. Here we see a lot of maillot jaunes, mostly being worn by Oscar Pereiro. I guess, this is something primarily for Smoothie ;) Take a look at it here. Last, but not least, there's a Quick Step background. I have to say that I dislike the team, but that doesn't make the background look any worse -- especially not when we have not one, but two world championships in it ;) Quick Step-fan? Download it here.
Back to 1994? Here's your chance Lots of historical projects are about to be released at the moment, and here's one of them -- a 1994 DB from the Italian community by a guy named Clecorda. He's relatively unknown, but it seems like this DB does what it's supposed to. It got the riders (Bugno, Rominger, Indurain, Armstrong, etc.), it got the teams, it got the jersey and it got the photos. Not any special extras, but who cares -- this is enough to take us back to the great year of 1994 ;) Go here and download your time machine.
What's coming up? Well, let's have a look at the date -- it's the 25th of November (okay, it's still the 24th in GMT time zone, but whatever). Let's count .. 25, 26, 27, 28. 28th? Oh, right, PCM.daily's anniversary! I'm not going to say anything detailed abouti t, but I would advice people to meet up that day. We do have a few things lined up - not much, but still a few. Looking forward to see you all celebrate the day with us ;)
1 day late, here's the Weekly News in its 45th edition.
First 2008 database The two Danes, Silence and Lampert, have made what seems like is the very first 2008 database for Pro Cycling Manager 2007. In the "release announcement", it was said that all transfers up to 4th of November had been included, but several members have already reported that some transfers have not been included - also including some of the more serious ones. Discovery and Unibet.com have been removed, but instead you get Rabobank CT, Toyota and Maxbo Bianchi are in. Barloworld and Slipstream have taken Discovery's and Unibet's spots in the Pro Tour. If you want to give it a try, download it here. I would, however, advice to wait for a better project ;)
A new historical project Out of nowhere, a new historical project has been released. It's made by a French guy who calls himself "Orbea". It's based on the 80s, going from 79 to 81, and includes teams from 13 different countries, totalling 61 teams. Next to that, you also get all the jerseys and accessories you need. You also get a new realistic calendar. So, basically, a very interesting project if you're into the historical years. Go get it here.
A patch for the Evans DB As always, Evans has released a patch for his database. It doesn't include any fixes to critical bugs, probably because no critical bugs have been found, Instead, it fixes some problems with about 200 photos which were missing, Miya's new Mavic car has been added, and more minor things. If you downloaded the previous 658 mb file, download this patch.
Old news, but still interesting -- the acceleration skill doesn't work Actually, this is pretty old news, but since we forgot to report it here last week (and the week before that), I thought it would be right to report it this week: A member of the Cyanide forum has made some tests of different stats to see if they work. Only one of his tests have been confirmed and acknowledged by Cyanide -- the acceleration stat test. It proves that the acceleration stat has no effect in PCM07. Cyanide simply disabled the stat in order to fix the bug known as "bug d'elan", a bug which prevented attacks just before a hill / mountain from being succesful. However, it does seem like the acceleration stat has one effect: attacks. A rider with a high acceleration stat will attack more than one with a low acceleration stat. This, of course, only applies to computer riders ;)
The tests also indicate that the FTR-skill doesn't work. A higher FTR-skills should reult in more "green moments", but it doesn't seem like that's working correctly either. A rider with 80 FTR had just as many green moments as a rider with 50 in FTR -- sad, but true. This has, however, not been confirmed by Cyanide.
Stage Creation Contest is going on Cyanide's Stage Creation Contest has been extended until the 1st of December 2007. The last day for sending your stage was to start of with the 5th of November, but since only 5 people had sent in their stages the organizers decided to give more time. Basically, the competition is about creating a mountain stage which looks really good. If you win you can become a part of the Official Stage Creation team of PCM08. And you will probably also get a Cyanide game,
PCM07 is the best Our latest poll received 393 votes. The poll was about which of the Pro Cycling Manager-games are the best. Almost 50 % of the voters voted for the latest edition, PCM07, followed by PCM06 which received 33 % of the votes. What surprises me are the crazy 11 people who voted Cycling Manager 1 -- how can CyM1 be the best, I wonder? There was no real transfer system, you could win Tour de France with Erik Zabel, and there was no "turns" - all routes were straight. But oh well, everyone are entitled to their opinion ;)
.. and the new poll 1 year ago (or, well, almost) our site opened with a poll asking "How many percent of the professional cyclists do you think are doped?". Back then, 33 % voted "between 6 and 20 %". I thoughti t would be a good idea to have this poll every year, so now it's back to see if you think the mentality has changed in the professional peleton. As it is now, it doesn't seem like much has changed now. It's still the option "between 6 and 20 %" which is the most popular with 26 %, but I will let it run for a while. I'm looking forward to your answers :)
