This has taken an entire week of preparation and work - plus weeks more prior to that getting everything set up - but here we are, at last, on our new server. To go with it we have our new layout - not only a radical departure to what we've had before, but also of Pokemon sites in general - and a new version of the Trainer Card Maker.
The new version can be found at the same address as usual, but to be more specific is now located exactly at www.pokecharms.com/trainercards/tcm2. So if you're a bit OCD about these sorts of things, as I am, you may want to update your bookmarks. If not, don't worry, the same url as before will take you there automatically anyway.
The new system has undergone some pretty thorough testing but that doesn't mean that bugs are impossible - if you come across any, let us know on the forums.
New features in the Trainer Card Maker 2 include:
- A live preview of your card as it's being built.
- The ability to change any factor of your card at any time - even after you've finished and saved it.
- You can select font colours for your trainer's name and Friend Code
- Much improved visual selections for the backgrounds, trainers and Pokemon.
- You can now include eggs in your trainer card - including the Manaphy egg.
- Shiny Pokemon have finally arrived
- Pokemon with multiple forms have all of their forms selectable - this includes all 17 forms of Arceus, plus the mysterious '???' form.
- As a bonus, the beta version of Origin Forme Giratina and a Shaymin Sky Forme sprite have both been added in the Pokemon with Multiple Forms section.
- Cards can only be saved on the server for 30 days. After this point, they're automatically deleted. We recommend that you save all cards you make on the TC Maker to your Hard Drive for safe keeping. We are happy, though, to provide a short hosting service for all cards and, if you wish, you can simply make a new card every thirty days if you don't want to re-upload your cards.
There is one more possible option I've got up my sleeve, but we'll have to see whether or not that comes to fruition.
One thing you may be wondering is "where are the banner length cards?" Well, they're just not feasible on the setup on the TCM2 as it stands - so I'm going to give them their own separate version soon. Look out for that over the next few weeks or so.
As with any server transfer - especially one accompanied by such a radical relaunch of the site in general - there are going to be some slight hiccups right now. I'll be working hard to get these all fixed up as soon as possible and get everything back into regular order - so just bear with us. If you do notice any issues though, please let us know on the forums so we can get right on to it.
My next big project before taking off in September is a rewrite of the Pokedex - preparing it for Platinum's release as well as cleaning up what's there. So, hopefully, we can see some positive results from that very soon.
Oh, and one more thing - I've reinstalled Xnews and given it all a freshening up - so HOPEFULLY the comments are now working correctly. We'll have to wait and see whether or not they suddenly start eating eachother again for no apparent reason, but I think this will nail it.
So all in all, things are good and looking up and up for Pokecharms. I hope you enjoy our renewed efforts as much as I do. 
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the new cards and trainers for the TCM are listed in Full Story - this update brings us to a total of 320 custom trainers in our system - so major thanks to everyone that's contributed.
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