Blackadar - I typically will set myself up as a retired professional player (as I recall) and then go on vacation, set it up to apply for all open jobs in the UK when I am on vacation, and wait. It is often the next season before I get some openings, but sometimes I’ll get LL offers (where I want to start) during the season.
I think the level you select for yourself, in terms of past experience, has a large impact on offers you get to start.
I’ve been playing the shit out of FM 2010 lately. It may be the best in the entire series. I can’t believe that it doesn’t even have its own thread. :)
It’s definitely the best in the series. The match engine is head and shoulders above the previous one.
The press conferences do annoy me though, I basically end up answering the questions exactly the same way, but I don’t trust my assistant enough to send him!
The football manager games never gathered much interest here i think.
I actually still haven’t played the last release besides the demo but i’ve played with it’s match engine and the new tactical advisor on Football Manager Live and loved that (pretty much the only good thing about FML, unfortunately).
FM 2010 is one of the best strategy/simulation games in existence, hehe. Now that you can purchase it via Steam, Americans have no more excuses for not getting and admiring the sheer complexity of this product. I haven’t played CM (the post-SI version), but FM is pretty sweet.
By the way, demo can be downloaded http://www.footballmanager.com/index.php?p=demo and you get to see what everyone is talking about.
In fact it’s so good, the creators were in the New Year honour’s list.
Incidentally, if you’re looking for a “lighter” CM experience, CM 01/02 is made available freely by Eidos. I’d been wanting to play some CM/FM, as I’m as a big fan of text sims and have heard this one was great, but never having even watched a full game of soccer I wanted something to ease me into it without the over-the-top complexity of recent iterations of the series.
CM 01/02 has done just that, and I’ve been having a blast playing it recently. There’s a full community dedicated to keeping it alive and releasing contemporary patches and updates, which helps modernize the experience just a little. They have a useful collection of links to editors and other tools, too.
(Although there seems to be just as much drama in that little community is there is in any little gaming clique, but you can ignore it and just absorb the useful information.)
I miss the days of CM 01/02, when I was a student and had more time and… I mean when a season didn’t take so bloody long. I never downloaded the free version, tough, maybe I’m happy with my rose-tinted glasses. How does it run on Vista ?
Don’t know about Vista, but under Windows 7 on my year old Macbook, with the latest patched-and-updated database, all leagues on, and database size in game set to maximum… it’s fast enough that the only time I think about it not being fast is when I’m waiting for it to do something like churn through a week mid-season.
Performance is completely tolerable even running Windows 7 under VMWare, although in that configuration loading/saving games takes a painfully long time.
Steam has Football Manager 2010 50% off ($20) for the next week.
Great price if you were on the fence.
Thought I’d revive this one rather than continue to fill the excellent AAR thread with general FM chit chat :)
KNow it took me a while to sort out actually getting FM2010, steam on the Mac and the sale price during the world cup certainly helped.
Do have to admit that I “cheated” and downloaded a premade tactic and set of training routines. The tactic because I’m still after several seasons trying to figure it all out and the training routines because I just don’t care about them.
I know that kind of puts me on Easy Mode at the moment, but I was wondering what people do to counter complacency? into my third season, if I’m not playing against Barcelona and even selecting players with high determination and professionalism I seem to end up with half my squad expecting to turn up and win just by being on the pitch. It’s not helped by the team talk options never seeming to offer the choices you want/need at half time so telling players who’re doing ok but just don’t seem to care that you’re disappointed or worse rather than “guard against complacency” has seen me end up with players not liking my team talks.
I don’t blame you for the premade training routines, but making your own tactics is a huge part of the game and you are a bad person!
Did you see the PDFs I linked to in the other thread? IIRC it has sections on team talks.
Sure, but to start with I like to just get a feel for the game while I see what happens. I did make my own 4-4-2 that worked OK, but it takes several days to two weeks to tweak a new tactic properly and I just wanted to hit the ground running for a bit.
Dude, of all threads to revive you chose one about the mess that is CM2k10 :s
Anyway … NEVER ‘guard against complacency’. 9 times out of 10 it won’t work. I read that as giving extra pressure to your players and making them playing ‘defensively’ despite whatever your tactics are.
Team talks are quite important , more than some people realize, and can make or break games. They however also depend a bit on your players mental stats.
They usually depend on the strength of your team but i always try to encourage my players when possible.
This is what i usually do:
General
Before matches, if we’re the stronger team(self judgment, not the match odds rating), i always say that i ‘expect to win’. Otherwise i use ‘we can win this’ or ‘for the fans’(usually better against rival teams).
At half-time, it depends on the performance and result. Usually, if the option is available, i always go for ‘encourage team’.
If that isn’t available and we’re winning comfortably i just don’t say anything, which in my head means : “continue playing just like you are now”.
If we’re losing and playing badly, i use the option about putting the team reputation to shame or whatever it is. Only when we’re losing for more than 3 goals and playing had that i use the last option.
At the end of the match, i usually always say ‘good game’ or whatever it the option or ‘sympathize with the team’ if we play well but still draw or lose.
I never use the ‘why can’t you play like this all the time’ option … it usually gives bad results/morale.
Individual talks
Before the match, i rarely use this … actually, I’m not even sure now if it’s possible(haven’t played FM in a while) but when i do it is to ‘cheer’ up players that might have poor morale.
At half-time, i usually use ‘have faith’ in the people with more than 7-7.5 avg rating. Players before 6.0 usually get ‘prove them wrong’ or whatever is the option. If ‘Can make the difference here’ is available, i usually go with that above any other option.
Apart from team talks, to fight complacency, i usually also try to rotate quite a bit of my players. I like having BIG squads filled with promising youngsters because ,imo, they are usually more ambitious than the rest(also depends on player personality). This also helps with match fitness for each player.
For training, the most important aren’t the schedules you use but the coaches you have. I can’t stress this enough … it doesn’t matter if you have all people on a general schedule or some tweaked one if your coaches just suck. There are always loads of cheap coaches around. Just make sure they have at least one good training stat and at least 10 in determination, level of discipline and motivating.
For schedules, i usually only have 4-6 depending on the tactics but each one always have High or even Intensive Tactics training. Also try to have a lot of physical training as long as it doesn’t make my schedules too heavy. Remember to give Set Piece training to fullbacks and wingers too since it increases Crossing.
The last piece of training is Tutoring but this is something that i still haven’t quite figured out. Sometimes i get good results, other times … not so much. Sometimes it blows on my face and players get angry at each other and i need to transfer one of them because of team morale :(
There’s tons of info about this on the Tactics & Training forum in the official boards. Or also on the forums of www.fm-britain.co.uk
Hope this helps you a bit.
It works great via Steam on the Mac.
I agree with the comments about bloat, and like another poster up-thread, the last of these I really loved was CM 00-01, which I was addicted to for a few years. There’s just too much stuff now: too many menus, too many data fields, too many unexplained quirks with the engine. Oddly, the scaled-down version on the PSP has been keeping my attention.
For team talks I tend to take the following approach…
A better AM will give you better feedback both during the match and as general back room advice. for determining how you give your team talks.
Pre match I generally alternate between “Wish luck” and “For the fans”. If I judge the team is lazy and they’re up against inferior opposition at home then I’ll use “I expect a win” but this can really knock the motivation of young players, new signings and those low on confidence or prone to panic under pressure.
At this point I don’t generally use individual talks.
During the match I tend to use the top down 2d view as it’s easiest to see exactly what they’re up to, the shape of the team and so on. I also use a combination of Player ratings and Motiviation to determine my half time team talks.
Players on or around 6.9+ match rating and “Playing with confidence” I don’t give any half time team talk to at all. They might not be making Messi look rubbish, but they’re playing well enough generally speaking.
Players less than 6.9 and not “playing with confidence” are the ones I give a half time talk to. Generally speaking these guys tend to get “I have faith in your ability” although with some of them I do try “Dissapointed” especially if they’re big players coasting. I’m looking for these guys to go out in the second half and play with motivation or look fired up. At that point I find them far more likely not to miss passes, to get their shots on target and so on. If a player comes in with a motivation of “looking complacent” then I’m still at a bit of a loss what to do except sub them. I’ve tried “disappointed” and every other team talk in between but I’ve never found a consistent way to give a complacent player a kick up the arse. If they do this over a couple of games then I bench them and unless they’re something special then they’ll also probably end up being sold in the next transfer window.
Sometimes However I do give a full team talk, this is normally when we’re a goal down to a team we should be thumping or just not playing especially well. These are the time I hope to see “I want to see more from you” or “question the team’s passion” in the options.
When I’m bringing on a sub I also have a look at what options are available, “pick up where you left off” and “prove a point” can be really handy at times but again you need to give the right talk to the right player personality.
I never lay into a player with motivation of “Mistake led to a goal” unless it was something obviously stupid and they were complacent, mistakes happen to every player and an arm round the shoulder at half time can work wonders, I’ve had players come in demotivated with a half time rating of 5.0 or lower go out and storm the second half.
Full time team talks tend to be “Well done” on a win with any player rating 8.0 or higher earning “Delighted” . I’ll adapt the talk to a losing team depending on circumstances. Losing 1-0 to barcelona when we had all the posession and their goalie had a stormer will probably see me use “sympathise” and again, any player rating 7 or higher gets “well done”. If we lose 2-0 to the team in 20th at Anfield then I’ll lay into the team something rotten sparing only those rating 7+
With regards to tutoring I still haven’t figured it out, I know that you want the tutors to be players with high non playing stats like Determination but I’m not really sure how to judge which kiddies should be paired with which player so I just tend to go with whichever are a good fit (ie left backs tutor left backs, strikers to strikers etc) and work through them all until there’s no other options.
Agree about the Steam version, no problems here. I’m starting to lean the other way with regards to 2010, the Iphone version is like stepping back to CM01 again, find the tactic that suits your players and off you go but I am starting to appreciate the depth you can now go into on the full version although it does make me a little despondent at the level you have to go to in order to develop a tactic that actually works reliably
Oh yeah, I also use the opposition motivation to determine my opposition instructions. If their central midfielder (or any position for that matter) is playing nervously then I instruct Closing down and hard tackling on him immediately to try and keep him out of the game as much as possible. If you’re not playing the well then I imagine the sight of Javier Mascherano thundering down on you as soon as you get the ball is probably likely to increase your chances of just giving the ball away before he reaches you.
Wait, you can see the opposition motivation?
There can be hints in the commentary and from your assistant’s view, IIRC.