After some hectic 24 hours, PCM.daily is now back online on a new server. 40+ GB of files have been moved, meaning that everything should be as before. We're still testing, though, and if this server isn't capable of hosting PCM.daily at a good speed, we'll have to move again.
On paper, this should be good enough, but there's no other way to find out than by opening the site and see what happens :)
Edit: Thanks a lot to those who have donated money. It really means a lot.
A few minutes ago, I received a message saying that PCM.daily will be removed from the current server tonight which of course means that the website will be unavailable.
Unfortunately, this is a rather serious issue. We're currently being hosted by a very nice guy called Michael who's hosting the site on his own internet connection and on his own servers. But due to complaints, he can no longer host websites, meaning that PCM.daily will - once again - have to find a new home.
It won't be easy to find a new hosting service. The solution we have now is very cheap (c. 600 € per year) compared to what we got, and it's pretty much impossible to find anything like the current hosting for the same amount of money. It'll probably end up being more expensive which is a difficult situation for me since I already pay 100 % of the expenses.
Anyway, in short: The site will probably go offline during the night. We'll keep you updated on the situation through our Twitter account. For the time being, we don't have any solutions. If you have any good ideas for hosting plans or know someone who might be helpful, feel free to send me an e-mail to CrueTrue@gmail.com . Thanks.
This morning, Cyanide's new season-based online game (and best of all, free!), Cycling Manager Online, was launched.
A lot of you participated in Tour de France: Online and therefore know the basics of the game, but as we've described previously, a lot have changed. First of all, you now get to control your team throughout an entire season (well, not ALL races, but the most important ones are there). More importantly, the training system has been changed, meaning that the skill tree is gone and replaced by a more 'realistic' rider progression system. Secondly, a PCM-like rider fitness feature has also been implented.
In general, the game has been tuned from being a quick and fun solution to one where your long-term planning and tactical skills are in focus, meaning that it's more "manager like" this time.
The "official" racing starts on the 17th of December. By registering now, you will have a chance to play a few tutorial races, thus getting an idea of how to play the game before it gets serious. It's also worth mentioning that a division system will be implented in January / February. The higher you are on the ranking by then, the better division you'll be in.
The 2009 cycling season is over, and while we're waiting for the 2010 season, some people are searching the net for pictures of the 2010 shirts - which is pretty much the highlight of the off-season.
Luckily, the first ones have already been presented and made for PCM10. The new German team Team NetApp was done a month ago, and the past two days, Ceramica Flaminia and Team Katusha have also been shown to the public. The shirt makers have been quick, and their work is now accessible from PCM.daily's Shirt Database's 2010 Shirt Section.
Although PCM10 is still c. 8 months away, the news are starting to tick in slowly. We've previously posted screenshots of the game and told you about the new stage editor, and here's a small, yet informative update:
Jaap from the PCMBenelux website managed to get a little piece of news out of Clément Pinget, programmer at Cyanide: "This year we're introducing palmarès until 2004 so in the game you'll be able to view all the old teams of a rider and his palmarès. We also re-write all the palmarès engine and change the ergonomy for a better view of them," Clément says to the site.
It's also mentioned that you'll be able to see who've won major races - e.g. Contador won both the Giro and the Vuelta in 2008, and so did Eddy Merckx in 1960, etc. I'm not quite sure how it's going to work, but we'll see.
Clément also states that Cyanide is fully aware of the fact that the players do not only want a good-looking race mode, but also want a feature-rich career part.
