With the Tour de France route being officially presented tomorrow, we definitely have something to look forward to. Especially if the leaked details are correct: What do you think about a penultimate stage to Mont Ventoux? I like that idea ;)
Yet another 2003 DB One 2003 DB has already been released, another one is in the making - but that didn't stop JanUllrich06, a German guy, from making his own 2003 DB. As with the other released 2003 DB, it's not suited for career play since it doesn't have enough teams for that, but it's perfect for single race mode. With the package, you get all the team shirts (although some, according to PCM.daily members, are from 2004) and rider pictures. You can get it here.
Stuff for stage makers Thanks to SnelleJus, I've uploaded a pack of Isolated Buildings includings lots of signs and other stuff which can be used when creating a stage. It contains quite a lot, and it's also required when downloading some of SnelleJus' stages (not all, though). It also contains the contents of a previously released package from CyM-Portugal. So, if you're stage maker, you might find this download interesting.
PCM.daily's Fantasy Betting Once again, PCM.daily's coding guy, AaB-ern, has introduced a new initiative here at PCM.daily: Fantasy Betting. It's been a part of his own site, PCMScandinavia, for a while, and now it's available here at PCM.daily.
The 'game' makes it possible for you to bet with PCM-money (fantasy money called PCM$) on different bets that Dankan, who's 'in charge' of this, sets up. For example, we already opened for four bets: The winner of Japan Cup, the winners of the 6 Days of Grenoble at the French velodrome, the UCI Cyclocross World Cup U23 in Tabor and the same race for the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Elite. These are available through the right-hand-menu (below the Screenshots menu). Click on the bet you want to place fantasy money on, and you're off!
Each week, you will get 10 PCM$ to bet for, but only if you have been online in that week. So even though that you're out of money, you will be given new money to play for. As we're in the off-season now, most bets for the rest of 2008 will be out cyclocross and track cycling, and when the 2009 season starts, we'll reset the rankings and start over. That said, we will make an all-time hi-score to keep track of the best betters on this site.
Once we have a stable economy on the site, we'll also start bringing prizes into the game. E.g. there's a prize, Pro Cycling Manager 2009, on stake for the gambler who's topping the list in June. Dankan is 'looking' for comments in this thread, and you can use that forum in the future to discuss current bets.
Let's make it clear: We don't have much news for you this week. In fact, we have pretty much nothing. But on the other hand, there's no reason to save the news that we have for next week - so here you go! ;)
PCM.daily with new initiative Inspired by other communities, PCM.daily is now starting a new initiative: A Monthly Story Award. Some may remember the awards organized by Smoothie, but these differ since we only have one award for each month: An award which is given to the best story of the month. The nominees will be picked out by the crew each month on the 1st, and the winner will be found after a voting which all members can partipate in. The winner will be given a diploma designed by Smoothie which can be used as an avatar or in the signature.
DB Viewer to make a comback For some months, the DB Viewer made by AaB-ern, which made it possible to view a DB's stats and riders before downloading it, has been gone from PCM.daily due to some incompatibility issues. However, those problems have now been fixed, and we're working on implenting some of the newer databases to program. Unfortunately, this task requires Office 2008, and since only 1 in the crew has that program, we'd like to get some outside help. So, if any of you has Office 2008, can work a little with the Advanced Editor, and is willing to help, please contact me - thank you! :)
PCM Giga Pack to be released soon? In September, Portuguese Jan_Ullrich11, who's also known for his stage making, announced that he'd make a so-called PCM Giga Pack. According to the first posts, he was planning to add several new teams, several new races, a new interface -- and much, much more, making the package reach the size of 1.3 GB. We haven't heard much since then, but supposedly, it's ready now. On the official forum, he said that he had problems with the upload of the DB, so maybe we'll see it online very, very soon. Either way, you can read more about it here.
Michael Rasmussen to make a comeback in 2009 With the announcement of both Vinokourov and Armstrong's comeback, we decided to start a new poll asking you which rider you thought would be most likely to make a comeback. And according to you, we'll definitely see Michael Rasmussen back in the pro peloton in 2009 - he received 30 % of the votes. Technically, it was wrong to put him in the poll since he didn't retire - but oh well, he's an old guy ;) In fact, the same technical problem also exists for runner up Andrei Kashechkin who received 24 % of the votes. More surprisingly, only 6 % of you think that Mario Cipollini will try his luck again in 2009.
New poll? Sure, it's been going on for a while now, but with Kohl's positive test I'm sure that some of you would like to change your vote ... which is impossible. If you haven't voted, make sure to do it now ;)
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.
