Carreer Mode


• You told PCM Daily that the scoutsystem would be revised. Will there now be more difference between the scouts? In PCM '07 there wasnt a clear difference between legendary and regional scouts.
I Don’t agree, as there was a difference between a legendary and regional scout. (This was not seen by us, NCL). Anyway, in'08 PCM scouts will have different characteristics and the talents will now be very important, for finding unknown young riders. Some will pop up immediately, even by a regional scout or even without a scout at all when you look at the results of the U23-races(this would be very stupid, because this information is not always relevant), but some very talented riders will be difficult to find and the supertalented riders will only be found by highly experienced personnel.

• Will all the U23 riders actually exist or will Cyanide make a couple of 'own' riders , as the total non-existent R. Watson? Is there btw raced in teams or will all the riders ride individually?
In Pro Cycling Manager 2008 it will now be possible to add realistic U23 riders, but that is a huge work for the databasemakers and therefore we will just add a few U23 riders. Anyway… players themselves will be able to add riders to make the scoutable. Riders will all be riding individually in the fictional peloton, but some important U23 races will be raced with national selections.

• Will there be more variation in the magazine-/mediapart this time, because last year all big riders said more or less the same. So this new feature was not immediately interesting.
To be honest, it is very difficult to make a magazinepart which is pleasant to read after many hours of playing. After the first few hours of playing it is quite funny. We will try to get more variation in it, but that follows later in our project, so we can not provide more details at this time.


• PCM'07 was announced as big update for the transfersystem. Will it remain the same as last year or will there be some changes? There was also an error with the budget, is this solved?
At this moment we are working on getting everything perfect here and we have made great progress. Especially realism in relation to the nationality (eg so that Dutch riders go to a Benelux team) has increased. Normally the budget error should have been fixed in the latest patch, but if that is not the case, it will have to be reported during the bètatesting.

• One question which everybody wants to know: it will now finally be possible to select your own team for the World Champs?
Yes, it will now be possible to select your own team for the World Championships. Yet a few riders or other teams may refuse the selection if they are not interested in the race.



Team Cyclists and Races

• Does Cyanide has more licenses than last year?
We have licenses for all of the Pro Tourteams (for what it still may be worth). Now Astana will also have an official licence, which last year still wasnt the case. In connection with the continental teams I can still not tell you.

• Are there more races available on the calendar? Are there new races in the database, such as those on other continents as America, Asia and Africa?
There will be some U23 races, but not from exotic countries.

• Will Cyanide - just like last year - ensure proper jerseys, frameworks and accessories after the release?
Not officially. This year we are working with a completely new texture and it will probably take a lot longer to have all stuff of the official teams. Therefore, we have decided to give the texture and tools to the community asap, which will possibly take care of this.

• Will we see a difference between the length of the riders or will they have a different weight, which affects their performance?
Not this year, but why not in the future?

• I saw - in the database that was available in the PCM Viewer - a new table with the names of some ex-riders like Merckx, Fignon, Van Impe, etc. Is this a new part of the game? Will it be like the PSP version that you can get those riders? So is it possible in the PC version?
Unfortunately, this will not be available in the PC version.

• Will the dopers be completely removed from the game or are they still to be found amongst the free agents? PPDB made in their database a new 'injury', which said that the cyclist was "caught in a dope control". Is this also be found in Pro Cycling Manager 2008?
The dopers will be fully removed from the game, but we will be forced to incorporate them again in Pro Cycling Manager 2009 or 2010. Unfortunately.


Database

• Why doesnt Cyanide or one of the beta testers make an editor for the databasemakers, as promised? Pro Cycling Manager is a game that needs to be updatet constantly. So, why are these DBmakers not respected? The editor for PCM'06 for instance was fantastic!
This is probably a matter of budget, dont forget that Pro Cycling Manager isnt a major production. But it is nice to find out you enjoyed the'06 PCM editor. I think that it would be possible for a programmer to update this with our help. If such a programmer read this, he may always contact us.

• Is the possibility there that Cyanide will contact one of these databasemakers, because they make the game definitely better than the original was in the release. If you contact PPDB or other members, the database will undoubtedly be bigger.
It is always the same: between February and April it is very difficult to make the stats for all riders, when the game isnt finished at all yet, because it is 100 times easier to adjust these things if they exist. PHG helps us a lot and we are very happy about it.

• What does the name 'dialbox’ mean in the database?
Hehe, who knows? No, honestly, this is not important for the player itself. It has especially something to do with the low programming of this game.

• Is it possible to place the cache folder back into the PCM main folder ? When you wanted to play with a different database, you had to delete everything connected to PCM'07 from your computer.
We have been working on something called 'Mod', but we cant give you additional information at this points.

• Will there be Dutch Commentary be in the game?
Not as far as I know, sorry.


Graphics

• There was a completely new interface for PCM'07. Has something changed again?
We are at the moment still work hard and we will probably have a nice surprise, but again we cant give you additional information about yet. There will also be innovations in the career mode with the interface and navigation. We also have added a history, like in FM.

•We saw that all the riders will appear in the game updated, but has something changed to the frameworks or the landscape? Are there new IsolatedBuildings?
Yes, we are still working on this as well. There will be a lot of new IsolatedBuildings (city buildings, villagebuildings, etc.) present and we have also made key changes to the Stage Editor. We have solved the crash, when you wanted to render the stage several times without quitting the application. Now you can allso easily handle the IsolatedBuildings (rotate, move, delete, duplicate, etc.). This is now possible through key combinations, so its 100 times easier than in the past.

• Will the game be more playable now for those, who do not have an excellent graphics card. Pro Cycling Manager is at the moment a more difficult game to run then Fifa for instance for these people.
Fifa is absolutely no good reference in this area… it's really much simpler to get 22 footballers appeared in a small stadium than a very large country with 180 riders. This year, the minimum configuration will be even higer, compared to Pro Cycling Manager 2007. The official requirements are currently still unknown.

• Does Cyanide has a graphic artists who’s as talented as Miya? If you saw what he could do with this game, without him being an official employee, then you know that there is much more possible with Pro Cycling Manager.
Miya seems very talented indeed (at least for cycling-related objects). Do not worry, as we have already seen what he has done and we were impressed. Please do not think that these things are as simple… working with what already exists is much easier than developing a new engine with new technology, which you need to make things. There are always problems during the whole process, you need to make some things from the non-existent with many obstacles (time and technology), and that is certainly not easy, believe me. Our mani artist has a lot of experience and is good enough to do that.

• Are there new graphics elements in the game such as realistic faces and the position of the rider on the bike? For example, T. Dekker move less in a time trial then Boogerd.
There will be new animations created, but we dont go that far.

• Is the "one texture per rider" function available again? This was in PCM'06, but not in'07.
Sorry, we dont know yet.


Stage Editor

• Are there major changes to the stage editor compared to last year? As a better scaling of the roads, the distances and the environment?
There will be nice changes (see previous answer), but there will be no changes to the scale of the roads, the distance or the landscape.

• Is the width of the road variable, when you have a national or local road?
Just the same as in PCM'07, so yes.

• Does the scale of the stages remain the same? So a gap of about one minute is just a few centimeters?
Yes!


AI

• Has the AI changed? Because in PCM'07 the favorites attacked long before the end allready in the mountain stages .
We have worked very hard on the renewal of the AI for PCM'08, especially the attacks in the mountains. It is a lot better now!

• There is a new attacksystemm with an additional bar. Is there a difference between the riders at which speed the bar fills? Because Contador as example can attack more times then Evans.
I am not convinced that something like that would deliver more fun.

• Will there be less' trains' created then in previous versions? In real races you see only one or two "trains" with a lot of riders, but in PCM there are certainly more than four with only like three riders.
If you talk about the sprints, then the answer is that this remains the same as last year.

• In (Grand) Tours attacks never have much chance of succeeding. Did this improve?
This will indeed be improved a lot

• Is it now easier to win time trials? In Pro Cycling Manager 2007 it was almost impossible to win these races.
I can not answer this yet because we have not worked on it yet.


Track racing / Cyclo-cross

• How many trackriders will there be in the database and will they ride in a team or individually? What about the stats? How are they made? Are there new stats for the trackriders only?
It is still not certain, but there will probably be sixteen riders in the database. There are three stats and those are: acceleration, resistance and stamina.

• Is there is only one track in the game or are there more? Are there any known tracks such as Mallorca or Gent?
There will be only one track that was invented by ourselves.

• Cyclo-cross is immensely popular in the Benelux countries, but will they in Denmark for example buy more Pro Cycling Manager because of this new feature which will be available in the future perhaps?
Unfortunately cyclo cross is not present in our project. I am also convinced that this would be an excellent new feature.

• Isnt it a dream to have a calendar with roadraces, cyclocross races, trackraces, etc. In career mode? Is this possible on the long run perhaps?
There are still so many things that we want to achieve, but do not forget that the development of Pro Cycling Manager happends with a low budget.



Multiplayer

• Will there be an opportunity to create your own competition? So, a laddermode, but for a limited group?
No.

• Will anything change to the laddersystem?
No.

• What are the results of the committee, which was established to look at the functions of the multiplayerpart?
We had an excellent feedback from this committee, but at this point we do not have the opportunities to realise all their ideas in our game.

• Can you now play more races in the laddermode, such as time trials?
Again, no.