It's Contador vs. Leipheimer, two Astana riders, in the Vuelta. Next year, it will be Armstrong vs. Contador vs. Leipheimer vs. Klöden in the Tour? Looking forward to that? Not really, right? Well, here's some Weekly News for you to enjoy instead :P
Confirmed: 1.0.2.3 is the last patch Since no one was sure that 1.0.2.3 really was the last patch for PCM08, I felt the need to ask Cyanide abouti t. And they confirmed it. No more patches will be released for PCM08. Instead, the entire staff is sent on vacation and are currently enjoying the sun in Panama. Or, maybe not, but I'm sure that that's what they would like us to think.
Friday: Qualification time As I mentioned last week, PCM-Portugal and PCM.daily have arranged an online match in Scratch (30 laps, one sprint). Our team is picked by qualification which will be held on Friday. Most spots have already been taken, but if you're around and up you might want to join GameCenter even if you didn't sign up for a spot - one or two might become available on the day. You can read more about it in this thread. For date and time, read this, and if you're a participant, you can discuss the tactics here. Good luck!
New databases A few people have complained to me and asked why Eeyor is the only active DB maker. Well, he isn't, far from, and this was proved this week when both OlegTinkov (the guy making the A.S.O.DB) and Altehacke (the guy making the P&A DB) released their databases. The A.S.O.DB is an update of a previously released DB, fixing a number of bugs and updating the teams and rosters. P&A DB hasn't been released previously, but instead, you get three new teams (Milram Continental, Rabobank Continental and SouthAustralia). Other than that, the two databases have pretty much the same feature list, so I guess it all comes down to stats and stability ;) If you decide to go for the P&A DB, please remember to download the patch too.
Hannes releases new editor Hannes68, who's known for his many database editors, e.g. Hannes Converter for both PCM07 and PCM08, has released yet another editor. This time, it's Hannes Editor, which was also released for PCM07, which has now finally been updated to work with PCM08. It's a simple editor, like the one which comes with the game, making it possible to easily edit rider names, stats, etc. There's also a mass edit function. Unfortunately, some people have mentioned that it doesn't work at all. I don't know if that's the case, but I'll try it later today. In any case, you can go ahead and try it yourself through this link.
Management Game has reached Tour de France PCM.daily's famous Management Game has reached mid-season which also means that Tour de France, the race of the season for many teams, has started. Like in real life, Cadel Evans is pre-race favourite (if we look aside from the fact that he crashed on the 2nd stage and lost two minutes) along with Frank Schleck, 2008-winner, who won the warm-up race Tour de Suisse. You can read the preview of the race here and follow the results here.
Poll: How many riders will return positive tests during the Vuelta? Last week, we asked you how many riders you think will return positive doping tests during the Vuelta. 27 % of you think that there'll be none at all despite the fact that the Vuelta organizers have decided to use the blood passport. So, either you're very positive, thinking the sport is clean, or you're 'negative', thinking that the system doesn't work. 14 % of you think that more than 5 riders will be caught...
Next, you can help us with pointing out what we, the crew, should focus more on in the future. Currently, "more downloads" is the option with most votes, and that's a little odd when considering the fact that PCM.daily already has the largest PCM08 download section ;) Anyway, hurry up and cast your vote - thank you!
Submit your screenshots I'd just like to remind you all again that our "Submit screenshot"-function is fully working again, and we'd be very happy to receive your funny or beautiful screenshots. We've already received plenty since it started working again, and we'd love to get more. However, please remember to name your screenshot something "normal". Don't use spaces or weird characters. The page will say that the screenshot has been submitted no matter what, but in some cases, the screenshot isn't attached, and we will have to delete the submission. So, if you decide to submit a screenshot, name it something like "screenshot1" instead of e.g. "screen shot_1". Thanks.
Downloads are down While writing this, the download server has been down for a couple of hours. This is due to an upgrade of the server which have been pllanned by our host for quite some time, but has been delayed. We can't say for how long it's down, but it shouldn't take very much longer than it already has. Sorry for the inconvenience caused by this.
After having had problems with this for months, I can now finally tell you that the problem with the screenshot section has been fixed. The problem made it impossible to submit screenshots, but after some fiddling today it should once and for all be possible again. So, if you've any funny, beautiful or just some screenshots which you want to share with the rest of us, you can submit them following this link. It's also available from the User Info menu in the right top. You need to keep the file name simple, though. No weird characters, just use letters only (e.g. pcmdaily.jpg - not pcm_daily.jpg).
Although the PCM Fusion DB has been stopped, we do still have a Fusion DB-related surprise for you. Today, we decided to release a side-project, the PCM Fusion Track DB, which is basically like the other track packs which have been released: lots and lots of riders, rider photos for all riders, jerseys for all countries (also the new ones!), a new track and lots of other small improvements. You can download it right here.
Edit: Just so it is clear - this is a non-equal stats Track DB. The first of its kind.
With the Vuelta a Espana well under-way, it's time for yet another edition of the Weekly News.
Contador to win the Vuelta Not very surprisingly, 66 % of you think that Alberto Contador is going to win the Vuelta. He hasn't been destroying everyone else just yet, but we'll see what's going to happen today in the big mountains. Runner-up is Alejandro Valverde with 10 % of the votes followed by Robert Gesink with 7 % and TdF 2008 winner Carlos Sastre with 6 %. Our current poll is about how many riders you think will return a positive doping test during the Vuelta. The majority of you are rather positive (or pessimistic, depending on how you see it) since 25 % you think that 0 riders will be tested positive. The poll is still open.
Any large databases in sight? With PCM Fusion being stopped, there's an empty room in the PCM World: A large database with more teams than the original database. Currently, it seems like there's only one other database in the making which adds more teams to the game: The PCM Giga Pack 2008. We don't know much about it so far, but it's made by the the Portuguese guy named Jan_Ullrich11, and the pack will have a size of approximately 1.30 GB -- meaning something like the largest ever (in terms of MB/GB) pack released to PCM. You can read more about it in this thread.
PCM.daily meets PCM-Portugal in a scratch race A few weeks ago, PCM.daily met PCMBenelux in a elimination match - and lost. Since then, some guys found out that you can change the number of rounds and eliminations in the game and thereby create new "modes", e.g. scratch race which is way more suited for online matches than elimination which was .. well, not very good ;) Therefore, we are going to try out this "new" mode in a match against PCM-Portugal, and as last time, we first have to go through a qualification to find the best 8 players. There's two spots open for the qualification, and if you are interested, you need to sign up right away in this thread. Good luck.
Ladder Reminder Speaking of online playing, we'd like to remind you that we launched a Keirin Ladder a while ago. Unfortunately, it hasn't been used since the 18th of August 2008, so it can't really be called a huge success ;) If you've any suggestions to how we can improve it, and what would make you use it, feel free to write it in the comments section of this article. If you'd like to know more about it, you can read more about it in this news article.
Management Game continuing - with help Earlier this week, Crommy announced that we could use some help running the Management Game, and several people quickly showed up. We're very happy to know that people are so willing to help, and you can already see the result of their efforts in the Results forum where the Tour of Columbia, Dauphine Libere and Tour de Suisse is currently being run. If you're interested in running the races, you can read more in this thread. Also, we might also "out-source" some of the Continental races - more about this later.
Yes, the site still doesn't fully work Unfortunately, we still have problems with the site due to our move to the V7 version of the CMS that we use. First of all, the site doesn't render perfectly in Internet Explorer in small resolutions. To help this, I'd suggest using Firefox instead. Not just for the sake of PCM.daily, but also for you personally since it's simply safer and faster ;) Unfortunately, the next problem can't be solved by using another browser. The "submit screenshot"-function still doesn't work. I have no idea how to solve the problem, and the technical admin, AaB-ern, has no idea either. We're trying to get help from outside sources, but still no luck.
Want to become a crew member? We haven't really added anyone to the crew for a while, and it's about time to bring in some fresh people with new ideas to continue the site's progress. Therefore, if you're interested in helping out running PCM.daily, you can apply to become a crew member by sending me a private message. We're basically looking for 'creative' people who can come up with new ideas and initiatives for the site (like Crommy and SportingNonsense). Also, we're also interested in people with good writing skills to write articles (cycling and PCM-related). When writing the application, please specify what you're good at, and what you think you can bring to the site. Thanks a lot!
I'm sorry to say, but PCM.daily's and PCM-Spain's database project, the PCM Fusion DB, has been stopped for now. We're of course very sorry to announce this, but we haven't been able to find other solutions. It's a decision which we have thought about for a while, and it's directly linked to the fact that we simply haven't received the help we were hoping to receive. You can read more about the reasons for the decision in this thread, made by project leader Roger.
It's a huge disappointment, not only to me, but to everyone. However, with that said, there's no reason to completely rule out a database from PCM.daily. We'll see in the future what's possible.
