I have seen the future, quite literally. As I had chance to play on the copy of my GW running 1.3 I have seen what happens. A dirty prostitute is sent into my dressing room who then sleeps with my players, gives them aids and they die - true story.
So I decided to try and do something about it before 1.3 was released. I moved on several of my older players for a pittance and made some big money regen signings. Top of the list was a 22 year old MC/AMC by the name of Aslan Ferhat, or as I like to call him - Asshat. I smashed my club transfer record and paid £4.75m for this player who had all the right attributes to replace the departed Ryan Babel.
I spent 7 seasons or so training up my youth GK who has just peaked (I presume he's peaked since everyone single one of his attributes just plummeted yesterday... sigh)I signed a young DC who had good key attributes, a solid looking DM and a pacey winger. Transfer spending this off season came to somewhere in the region of £8.5m !!
So all is good ? I'm now ready for 1.3 with my young team from the new generation ? WRONG !!! ABORT MISSION!!! My team turned into complete chumps, making constant mistakes, creating no chances, giving away penalties, missing penalties, missing clear cut chance after clear cut chance. I pushed on through pre-season regardless hoping it was just a dip in form. Someone tried to point out I had only lost 1 in 14 games but it was the performances, it was a failure of epic proportions.
But it wasn't just a dip in form... I played 1 official game of the season and decided they had to go... all of them. Asshat set my club record transfer fee out as I recouped the £4.75m paid and I made a loss on the DC. I'll likely be moving more on over weekend and replacing them with some database players instead.
So even though I know 1.3 is coming and will kill older players I decided it would be a good idea to spend £2m on a 32 year old DC - because i'm a bit CRAZY like that, ya know ? I bid £1.5m on another 31 year old MC too but the guy went offline and I withdrew it in the end when I had a moment of sanity.
It's just shows how bad regens are when an £80k AF database MC plays better than a regen MC who costs £4.75m. Anyway as usual i'm 'screwed' again now and made more financial loss in my dealings due to taxes. But I can't see any long term future for the game so screw it, screw 1.3, I should be able to get another season of fun before i'm forced into buying regens again.
Anyway in other news I know how to fix FML. It's genius, it's simple and it requires no programming. The answer is the letter 'o'
MMO - Massively Multiplayer Online. Are we massive ? No ? Are we multiplayer ? Not really, mainly AI but are we online ? check!
So we need to rename the game to FMLO - Football Manager Lite Online. Market the game not as an MMO but as a Fantasy Football type game. The game is already being aimed towards people who don't play it very much so why not go the whole hog ? If you see the game in a different light it could actually seem quite good. Instead of logging on for 6 hours a day and sitting there for 6 hours with nothing to do you instead just log on for a few minutes each day then come back to check your results a few days later. Just remove the ME from the game so you don't play any live games and it's job done!
Friday 2 October 2009
Monday 28 September 2009
Say you want a revolution ?
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
I think everyone knows I dislike the current FA structures. I don't like the pace, I don't like the anti climax every season - due to the way the league result is usually determined by waiting for AI against an inactive team or some such. I don't like how I have nothing to do most of the time unless I want to play some friendlies ? So what to do ?
The Super FA is the answer.
Step 1 - Delete the Weekly Cup. It doesn't work. The AI dates mean that you often tend to get double AI awarded so one team plays without the other having chance to play. I have nothing against AI whatsoever, but you have to at least have chance to play the game.
Step 2 - Actually just delete everything except the reputation cups because these run over the entire season so the AI dates land better and give the lower rep teams chance to win something.
Step 3 - New competitions!
FML is not an MMO - Why not ? It's Fantasty Football because there is nothing to do most of the time. You pick your team, tactics, then play a few games. This is not the way. I want to have a situation whereby I always have the opportunity to do something, have the chance to win something and play for something. 1.3 AI teams are step forward but are not currently enough. So what can we do within the current structure ? The FAs are governed by fairly strict rules so lets trial things in the Super FA.
I want the following:
The Weekly league - (possibly the 10 day league, so it just runs twice, unsure at the moment) This would first of all be tiered according to reputation. The number of tiers would depend on interest. So lets say we run 2-3 tiers - This means that every 7-10 days a season would complete and restart thus giving you chance to go for a title 2-3 times in a season against a comparable level of opposition. Even if you end up waiting for AI, it's a quick hit!
The Weekend League - Runs from Friday evening until Sunday night. Again tiering would depend entirely on numbers. This would be a quick hit for the weekend managers. This would probably run with smaller numbers - maybe 12 or so per division to give you chance to get the games in.
Quickplays! The most fun I have on FML these days is when I run my weekend quickplays. I tend to run 5-6 teams who play twice and they last around 2-3 hours. I sometimes run a couple of these each day and it's a quick hit but I really enjoy playing them and it's live games. It would be much cooler if there was a Super FA title at steak. Maybe a nightly quickplay ? One on Saturday and Sunday afternoon and or evening ?
Cups Ok So I don't like the weekly cups because they don't really work. While i'm all for tiering I think occasionally the big boys should pay a visit to the little guy. So we have a season long competition. The first stage would be some kind of qualifying competition - perhaps a big league, teams play once, neutral venue. Then it's time to mix things up - Top 10 get split off into their own competition, next 10 their own comp and bottom 10 their own competition - then they play to decide the winner of each cup, gold league, silver league, bronze league etc. Again this means that they got chance to mix it up with the big boys, but then in the same competition they now have chance to still win a title against similar level opposition. (it would be totally pointless to throw games in this instance)
.
Ok I need to go to bed now, i'll finish this tomorrow!
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
I think everyone knows I dislike the current FA structures. I don't like the pace, I don't like the anti climax every season - due to the way the league result is usually determined by waiting for AI against an inactive team or some such. I don't like how I have nothing to do most of the time unless I want to play some friendlies ? So what to do ?
The Super FA is the answer.
Step 1 - Delete the Weekly Cup. It doesn't work. The AI dates mean that you often tend to get double AI awarded so one team plays without the other having chance to play. I have nothing against AI whatsoever, but you have to at least have chance to play the game.
Step 2 - Actually just delete everything except the reputation cups because these run over the entire season so the AI dates land better and give the lower rep teams chance to win something.
Step 3 - New competitions!
FML is not an MMO - Why not ? It's Fantasty Football because there is nothing to do most of the time. You pick your team, tactics, then play a few games. This is not the way. I want to have a situation whereby I always have the opportunity to do something, have the chance to win something and play for something. 1.3 AI teams are step forward but are not currently enough. So what can we do within the current structure ? The FAs are governed by fairly strict rules so lets trial things in the Super FA.
I want the following:
The Weekly league - (possibly the 10 day league, so it just runs twice, unsure at the moment) This would first of all be tiered according to reputation. The number of tiers would depend on interest. So lets say we run 2-3 tiers - This means that every 7-10 days a season would complete and restart thus giving you chance to go for a title 2-3 times in a season against a comparable level of opposition. Even if you end up waiting for AI, it's a quick hit!
The Weekend League - Runs from Friday evening until Sunday night. Again tiering would depend entirely on numbers. This would be a quick hit for the weekend managers. This would probably run with smaller numbers - maybe 12 or so per division to give you chance to get the games in.
Quickplays! The most fun I have on FML these days is when I run my weekend quickplays. I tend to run 5-6 teams who play twice and they last around 2-3 hours. I sometimes run a couple of these each day and it's a quick hit but I really enjoy playing them and it's live games. It would be much cooler if there was a Super FA title at steak. Maybe a nightly quickplay ? One on Saturday and Sunday afternoon and or evening ?
Cups Ok So I don't like the weekly cups because they don't really work. While i'm all for tiering I think occasionally the big boys should pay a visit to the little guy. So we have a season long competition. The first stage would be some kind of qualifying competition - perhaps a big league, teams play once, neutral venue. Then it's time to mix things up - Top 10 get split off into their own competition, next 10 their own comp and bottom 10 their own competition - then they play to decide the winner of each cup, gold league, silver league, bronze league etc. Again this means that they got chance to mix it up with the big boys, but then in the same competition they now have chance to still win a title against similar level opposition. (it would be totally pointless to throw games in this instance)
.
Ok I need to go to bed now, i'll finish this tomorrow!
Saturday 26 September 2009
What does a Scott Sinclair buy you ?
I've been going on about how difficult it is to sign any decent youths due to a poor number of good quality players, so here's an example of the normal goings ons.
Decent enough youth with good potential, but was he worth this:
So it cost him around £4.7m for this particular player. Deals like this are far from the unusual! Fortunately he incurred a £1.4m idiot tax.
In other news St John is now open for new users. Come and join the fun, you can sign a great team of old men for nothing who will be useless in a few weeks when 1.3 is released, you could sign some awful youths or you could just save up 5 seasons to buy one decent youth player. Sounds like it's going to mucho fun for the new users going forward!
Wage auctions are on and all of the talent in the GW is locked down except the odd few players with deactivated teams who have now been snapped up. I've found the formula to win wage auctions if anyone's interested (Base demand*Idiot)+1
Decent enough youth with good potential, but was he worth this:
So it cost him around £4.7m for this particular player. Deals like this are far from the unusual! Fortunately he incurred a £1.4m idiot tax.
In other news St John is now open for new users. Come and join the fun, you can sign a great team of old men for nothing who will be useless in a few weeks when 1.3 is released, you could sign some awful youths or you could just save up 5 seasons to buy one decent youth player. Sounds like it's going to mucho fun for the new users going forward!
Wage auctions are on and all of the talent in the GW is locked down except the odd few players with deactivated teams who have now been snapped up. I've found the formula to win wage auctions if anyone's interested (Base demand*Idiot)+1
Thursday 24 September 2009
The parting of the red sea.
First off, some people may have noticed I deleted my preview of 1.3. While everything posted was accurate and true I decided it was a little unfair once the announcement to delay 1.3 had been made and I had a dev emailing me about my issues with it!
In summary though as it stands today, the new ME is very poor (the new build apparently fixes some of the problems, which I wont go in to - but unless you want to see your GK throwing the ball into his own net every other game, you don't want to play it as it !)
Wage demands for older players are NOT going down at all. You probably wont really have to pay much more than you do now but your not suddenly going to get old players cheap - none of my old men want a lower wage at all. Despite this they have had huge declines in most areas with some losing 1+ in various attributes in less than 7 days - this is with coaching 5 offsetting the decline.
One of the reasons for the 1.3 delay has been cited as "player progression" so i'm not sure if this refers to player regression or the fact most regens are complete arse or not.
Either way it's lose lose for me now. From what I saw on the beta server of my world, it was clear that much of my team had to go. So I have had to sell them for virtually nothing and replace them with shite regens. So if they suddenly decide to do something about regression then i've sold my ace team for no reason at all and no profit. It's not even worth me TRYING to sell some of them... it's like, what's worth more to me? £1 or their 4* rep ?
My favourite memory of FML is of club legend of Franco Brienza being my best player until the age of 36 and him generally destroying most teams single handed. He was my team, he was my captain, penalty taker, free kick taker, corner taker, top scorer, top assists, top appearances, top average, top MOTM, from MC, for about 7 seasons running... why take things like this away! A true legend who finally hung up his boots, after some serious regression I might add, at the age of 36 - I don't find this too unrealistic. Franco now lives on in a WOW char I created ;)
Now I have to put up with players like Bobby Badshot who are shite until they age of 26, average for 3 season, then need to claim disability living allowance by the time they celebrate their 30th birthday. I wouldn't mind the regression issue if there was more than a handful of good regens that were available for less than £5m.
I'm still being punished by my 'rage sale' about 4 seasons ago when I sold my entire team for about a 10th of their true MV. FML really does punish your mistakes - I really should have had the highest financial clout in the GW by now (or top 3) but i'm still living on the bread line. I got by with some nous signing older players that no one wanted, but now even I don't want them! I just can't see any point in signing anyone over the age of 28 any more. FML has been seriously ageist in the past but I was always one of the people willing to sign the old men but now i've joined them! Wasn't 1.3 supposed to stimulate the signing of older players..? Were people really complaining about older players being too good ?
I just can't see where this game is going any more and I just cannot comprehend any of the decisions behind 1.3. I seriously can't see the benefit to ANY of these decisions ? Forget realism for gods sake! think fun, think retention! Why try and compress the database into a situation where most players will only have a few good seasons ?? I'm already bored now I have had to sell my team and buy some chumps... I makes my wince thinking what I have just paid for an average 21 year old DC.
I used to enjoy watching my players strut their stuff and execute their PPMS and all that. Now it's "oh Bobby Badshot shoots over the bar" again.
Me me me - I've heard suggestions about how people only complain when something effects them, but i'm not going to moan about something which doesn't am I ! I've had a few snide comments about how the new ME will be the end of my team and all that... think again fools.
I do want to have a massive moan about how CPU teams are an ace idea but poorly implemented but I think i'll save that for another time.
In summary though as it stands today, the new ME is very poor (the new build apparently fixes some of the problems, which I wont go in to - but unless you want to see your GK throwing the ball into his own net every other game, you don't want to play it as it !)
Wage demands for older players are NOT going down at all. You probably wont really have to pay much more than you do now but your not suddenly going to get old players cheap - none of my old men want a lower wage at all. Despite this they have had huge declines in most areas with some losing 1+ in various attributes in less than 7 days - this is with coaching 5 offsetting the decline.
One of the reasons for the 1.3 delay has been cited as "player progression" so i'm not sure if this refers to player regression or the fact most regens are complete arse or not.
Either way it's lose lose for me now. From what I saw on the beta server of my world, it was clear that much of my team had to go. So I have had to sell them for virtually nothing and replace them with shite regens. So if they suddenly decide to do something about regression then i've sold my ace team for no reason at all and no profit. It's not even worth me TRYING to sell some of them... it's like, what's worth more to me? £1 or their 4* rep ?
My favourite memory of FML is of club legend of Franco Brienza being my best player until the age of 36 and him generally destroying most teams single handed. He was my team, he was my captain, penalty taker, free kick taker, corner taker, top scorer, top assists, top appearances, top average, top MOTM, from MC, for about 7 seasons running... why take things like this away! A true legend who finally hung up his boots, after some serious regression I might add, at the age of 36 - I don't find this too unrealistic. Franco now lives on in a WOW char I created ;)
Now I have to put up with players like Bobby Badshot who are shite until they age of 26, average for 3 season, then need to claim disability living allowance by the time they celebrate their 30th birthday. I wouldn't mind the regression issue if there was more than a handful of good regens that were available for less than £5m.
I'm still being punished by my 'rage sale' about 4 seasons ago when I sold my entire team for about a 10th of their true MV. FML really does punish your mistakes - I really should have had the highest financial clout in the GW by now (or top 3) but i'm still living on the bread line. I got by with some nous signing older players that no one wanted, but now even I don't want them! I just can't see any point in signing anyone over the age of 28 any more. FML has been seriously ageist in the past but I was always one of the people willing to sign the old men but now i've joined them! Wasn't 1.3 supposed to stimulate the signing of older players..? Were people really complaining about older players being too good ?
I just can't see where this game is going any more and I just cannot comprehend any of the decisions behind 1.3. I seriously can't see the benefit to ANY of these decisions ? Forget realism for gods sake! think fun, think retention! Why try and compress the database into a situation where most players will only have a few good seasons ?? I'm already bored now I have had to sell my team and buy some chumps... I makes my wince thinking what I have just paid for an average 21 year old DC.
I used to enjoy watching my players strut their stuff and execute their PPMS and all that. Now it's "oh Bobby Badshot shoots over the bar" again.
Me me me - I've heard suggestions about how people only complain when something effects them, but i'm not going to moan about something which doesn't am I ! I've had a few snide comments about how the new ME will be the end of my team and all that... think again fools.
I do want to have a massive moan about how CPU teams are an ace idea but poorly implemented but I think i'll save that for another time.
Friday 18 September 2009
Super lol
So I was moaning about the Super FA going to a knockout after the league stage. I come home today to find that AI rights were awarded today, both teams have 24 hours to play against each other. The other manager was online before me while I was at work and has now played and beat my AI.
Rendering the whole league and season in the Super FA utterly pointless and determined by a 1 off AI game I never had the chance to play. Honestly... sort it out. Anyone with eyes can see this is an idiotic structure.
Rendering the whole league and season in the Super FA utterly pointless and determined by a 1 off AI game I never had the chance to play. Honestly... sort it out. Anyone with eyes can see this is an idiotic structure.
Wednesday 16 September 2009
Well done
Over on St John this season, all new users were pretty much forced into joining the NUFA. Now I suggested this wasn't an especially great idea because it is essentially a wasted season and the lower leagues are pretty much all AI anyway.
Now mark this day in your calendar because i'll admit I was wrong. I'm declaring this strategy a success and suggesting every GW should adopt this immediately. Looking over the three NUFA divisions we have they all have a pretty damn respectable AI % which is better than some of the main FAs. Obviously they are getting to play teams of their own level and there doesn't seem to be many deactivated teams suggesting that at least some of our trials have taken out a subscription.
The number of managers online has been at a record high throughout the entire season and the transfer market has been great too. I don't know who came up with this idea, but well done, you have my seal of approval. Bearing mind I hate everything, ever, this is very high praise indeed.
Anyway I do have something to rage about. I am currently in "Tier 1" of the Super FA and have a most enjoyable season. I've been fighting hard against the random FA results and pushing on hard to win this at all costs. As 1.3 is going to destroy my club, this is the season I must win everything possible while I still have the chance! My best squad has been deployed in every game to maximise chances of winning every game and my fringe players have been left green booted on the bench. Alas the league has drawn to a close and I unfortunately missed out on first spot by a measly single point but finishing and impressive 8 points clear of 3rd position. I think it was a fair reflection of the league and was happy to concede to the better team in this instance.
Then I remembered an earlier rage post... the league section is completely pointless because the top 8 go into a knockout to decide the winner!?? What the hell ? I've been drawn against 7th position in the league, who also happens to be my current nemesis team. So i'm probably going to go out of the competition now despite playing a 29 game league campaign, it's going to be ended by a random knockout competition which has no relation to the LEAGUE we just played.
Super FA still = Super shit !
Now mark this day in your calendar because i'll admit I was wrong. I'm declaring this strategy a success and suggesting every GW should adopt this immediately. Looking over the three NUFA divisions we have they all have a pretty damn respectable AI % which is better than some of the main FAs. Obviously they are getting to play teams of their own level and there doesn't seem to be many deactivated teams suggesting that at least some of our trials have taken out a subscription.
The number of managers online has been at a record high throughout the entire season and the transfer market has been great too. I don't know who came up with this idea, but well done, you have my seal of approval. Bearing mind I hate everything, ever, this is very high praise indeed.
Anyway I do have something to rage about. I am currently in "Tier 1" of the Super FA and have a most enjoyable season. I've been fighting hard against the random FA results and pushing on hard to win this at all costs. As 1.3 is going to destroy my club, this is the season I must win everything possible while I still have the chance! My best squad has been deployed in every game to maximise chances of winning every game and my fringe players have been left green booted on the bench. Alas the league has drawn to a close and I unfortunately missed out on first spot by a measly single point but finishing and impressive 8 points clear of 3rd position. I think it was a fair reflection of the league and was happy to concede to the better team in this instance.
Then I remembered an earlier rage post... the league section is completely pointless because the top 8 go into a knockout to decide the winner!?? What the hell ? I've been drawn against 7th position in the league, who also happens to be my current nemesis team. So i'm probably going to go out of the competition now despite playing a 29 game league campaign, it's going to be ended by a random knockout competition which has no relation to the LEAGUE we just played.
Super FA still = Super shit !
Monday 14 September 2009
Pat Sharp has the rage
As the tumble weed blows through the gameworlds and the carcases of AI teams lay dead by the road I decided to attempt to create a friendly competition with some prize money to play some games. *shock horror* No one will join competitions normally because they know a few of the top teams will take their money - Sensible chaps on my gameworld. So what can I do to give something back to the little guy ?
In true Robin Hood style I decided to let the lower finishing teams take away more prize money than the winners of the competition (i.e. me) To cover all the bases mid table also won more than then top two teams and some other random finishing positions took even prize money too, all in all there was a pretty good chance that most teams would make a a bit of cash except me, but i'd get some games. I called my latest masterpiece "Whole Lotto Fun!" prizes to be won, whoaaa fun house... Where's the twins ??
But apparently this kind of competition is not allowed, because 9 seasons into the game, teams are apparently going to attempt to lose every game to win £12k ? Riiiiiight, ok! As moderators are seemingly not allowed to moderate the game, I had a visit tonight from "Support Moderator" who told me I wasn't allowed to allocate prize money to teams finishing bottom of the league.
I've deleted the competition now and created a new one instead. I've entitled my new competition "Fool on the Hill" - Winner takes all. Oddly enough, no one will join this one.
Day after day,
Alone on a hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he's just a fool,
And he never gives an answer,
(HINT - I'm not the fool)
It's a sad state of affairs when this is the most entertaining thing which has happened all week.
In another shock turn of events, tonight, I bought... A REGEN!!! It cost me £1.1m for a 2.5* potential (yes, the regen database quality is that bad) I broke my policy of database only... Results have rapidly gone down the pan.
Sunday 13 September 2009
Rage back
Seen as i've been asked by several people.... i'm back.
I didn't delete the blog out of rage, far from it. I deleted it because I decided I no longer cared and no longer wished to be part of the community. Basically on the basis that 1.3 is going to ruin the game, my main GW is boring and lacks any commitment to make it interesting, there's no benefit to playing the game as opposed to logging on for a few minutes each day, every new update seems to focus on people who don't actually play the game and is essentially going die anyway within a few months due to lack of decent quality regens.
I really hate it when people make some comment about how they are going to go play WoW but seen as i've never played it properly before i've decided to do just that!
My AI seems to win me games without causing any blood pressure issues and I can still log on to play my AI games.
Anyway it seems my GW is going to be cloned to test 1.3 for a couple of weeks before release so hopefully I should be able to confirm I am right and it in fact will be a crock of shit. Not sure how much I will be able to tell about player declines in two weeks though but there should be some indication as to wage increases at least.
I shed a tear earlier when my players put 7 goals past someone in the top 40 knowing after 1.3 my team of legends will basically become awful. My youth team was decimated and disbanded due to bugs, my stadium was constructed on misguided information about atmosphere (there's still about £5m left to pay there) and my new strategy of signing old players has now been patched out of the game. No matter what I try everything is ruined by patches and or bugs.
FML is quickly becoming glorified fantasy football with requires a degree in accountancy to work out taxes and the like.
I didn't delete the blog out of rage, far from it. I deleted it because I decided I no longer cared and no longer wished to be part of the community. Basically on the basis that 1.3 is going to ruin the game, my main GW is boring and lacks any commitment to make it interesting, there's no benefit to playing the game as opposed to logging on for a few minutes each day, every new update seems to focus on people who don't actually play the game and is essentially going die anyway within a few months due to lack of decent quality regens.
I really hate it when people make some comment about how they are going to go play WoW but seen as i've never played it properly before i've decided to do just that!
My AI seems to win me games without causing any blood pressure issues and I can still log on to play my AI games.
Anyway it seems my GW is going to be cloned to test 1.3 for a couple of weeks before release so hopefully I should be able to confirm I am right and it in fact will be a crock of shit. Not sure how much I will be able to tell about player declines in two weeks though but there should be some indication as to wage increases at least.
I shed a tear earlier when my players put 7 goals past someone in the top 40 knowing after 1.3 my team of legends will basically become awful. My youth team was decimated and disbanded due to bugs, my stadium was constructed on misguided information about atmosphere (there's still about £5m left to pay there) and my new strategy of signing old players has now been patched out of the game. No matter what I try everything is ruined by patches and or bugs.
FML is quickly becoming glorified fantasy football with requires a degree in accountancy to work out taxes and the like.
Monday 7 September 2009
Wage quit
I had wrote a big rant on how the changes to wage demands were idiotic. However I can't be bothered, I don't care any more. It's clear this game has no direction and no future - at least within the existing GWs. All of the current GWs are going to have to be reset in a few patches time for the game to succeed. There's no decent regens and the database players are retiring - whatever way you spin the new wage demands, a top quality squad is going to cost you a shit load more. New players have no chance to have any fun because there's no decent players left any those that are left are going to be totally unaffordable to them due to wages. With the odd decent regen selling for £5-7m I fail to see how they can ever succeed now. The strategy for my second team is now totally defunct and unmanageable so I may as well cancel that account also.
Every new update seems to further alienate those people who log on for more than 30 minutes a day so I think I may as well join them. I'll probably ride it out and i'll make sure I turn the lights off when I leave but I wont be putting so much effort in going forward.
I've tried to improve things in my GW and failed, i've tried suggesting things on the forum and failed. The only way I have managed to achieve anything of note is by ranting and raving like a fucking idiot until someone pays attention.
I've got a couple of unopened FML boxes - if anyone wants em for a few quid, drop me a mail.
Every new update seems to further alienate those people who log on for more than 30 minutes a day so I think I may as well join them. I'll probably ride it out and i'll make sure I turn the lights off when I leave but I wont be putting so much effort in going forward.
I've tried to improve things in my GW and failed, i've tried suggesting things on the forum and failed. The only way I have managed to achieve anything of note is by ranting and raving like a fucking idiot until someone pays attention.
I've got a couple of unopened FML boxes - if anyone wants em for a few quid, drop me a mail.
Saturday 5 September 2009
The new ME and life on the other side
So the new ME, I have been reading some self improvement books of late.... of course not! The 1.3 patch has finally been given a tentative release date and that of course sees the introduction of the new ME.
So I have been doing some testing on the latest build of the ME to see how my tactics work, if they work and what needs to change. I've read a few other previews of the new ME and everything sounds pretty positive but none of them really answered the questions I wanted to know.
Is it really 4-6-n0 more? Well it seems like 460 does actually still work reasonably well from my initial testing. Now I would point out here that I use a different version to the most common one that you see on the gameworlds and it still seems fairly solid. It doesn't work in quite the same way and i'm not sure if there will be any benefit to using it though. I also tried my own version of the most common version you tend to see, with the 3 central AMCs and this wasn't so effective. Well, it was a bit strange, it was either a huge win or a game where you would have about 3 shots on goal. The one certainty is it wont put an end to the 460 !
The other most common complaint is the number of corner goals we see on the current ME. I must say I was quite surprised by the number I was scoring on the new one - probably more so than I do now! Rather than a standard corner bang into the net the ball tends to drop first then someone else slots it in but I rarely saw a game which didn't have a corner goal or a goal from an indirect free kick onto a defenders head. This was with a defender who had 16 jumping and 15 heading too so i'd expect to see more with the higher attributes amongst the top DCs.
I haven't yet seen a super keeper and long range efforts seem more prevalent. I haven't seen a 3-0 up fucked it up yet either, but without team talks and the like on FML it's hard to judge how their removal effects the ME.
I've played something like 6,000 games on the old ME so it's impossible to draw any proper conclusions but I think those expecting something revolutionary and game changing will be sorely disappointed. It does seem much better of course, but it's not going to suddenly turn good teams bad and set pieces will probably still rule the day.
In other news I reactivated my second account and moved it into a different GW. I have to say it was very slim pickings on the initial squad front. Anyone even half decent and affordable who was under the age of 29 was already contracted. I think this links into a shrinking of available quality in the database. It's a bit of a problem really and makes it much more difficult for new teams to put together a decent squad. I went down the route of an old man squad who can get results with my youngest player aged 30!
I always thought those forum stories about newbies getting challenged by existing teams were untrue but seems they are not! On my first night I started getting these challenges from 3.5* and 4* teams ? I have no clue why they would do this, if they win they get no ranking points and if I win I get shit loads. I declined most of them of course but ironically the one that stuck in my mind was some guy who mailed me after I declined his challenge telling me to look at online managers to find games.. Anyway he's ranked in top 20 and I beat him in the Super FA today which amused me.
But the problem is, for a new team in an existing GW - There is nothing to do. It is so much worse than when you are an established club. I have 1* activity rating so if I play any friendlies I am just opening myself up to injuries and I can't afford a big squad. The change list claims activity rating has been changed from 3* to 5* for new teams which I find interesting seen as it's not currently 3* ! All the new teams are on 1* as far as I can see.
Then you are in a lower division league where have the teams have given up so you spend the entire season waiting for AI games which isn't exactly the best introduction to the game! The only people that seem to stay are those that get involved in chat in the lobby or their FA room because it's not like there is much else for them to do.
I was considering a big rant on ME related issues for small teams but I wont bother with that ;) The only thing I find interesting so far is how I am finding it MUCH easier to beat/draw with the 3*/4* teams but some of the other new teams are pasting me all over, even at home... I've taken apart most of the big teams I have played and had a few games they have been lucky to walk away with a point but the other small teams are doing me over pretty frequently.
So I have been doing some testing on the latest build of the ME to see how my tactics work, if they work and what needs to change. I've read a few other previews of the new ME and everything sounds pretty positive but none of them really answered the questions I wanted to know.
Is it really 4-6-n0 more? Well it seems like 460 does actually still work reasonably well from my initial testing. Now I would point out here that I use a different version to the most common one that you see on the gameworlds and it still seems fairly solid. It doesn't work in quite the same way and i'm not sure if there will be any benefit to using it though. I also tried my own version of the most common version you tend to see, with the 3 central AMCs and this wasn't so effective. Well, it was a bit strange, it was either a huge win or a game where you would have about 3 shots on goal. The one certainty is it wont put an end to the 460 !
The other most common complaint is the number of corner goals we see on the current ME. I must say I was quite surprised by the number I was scoring on the new one - probably more so than I do now! Rather than a standard corner bang into the net the ball tends to drop first then someone else slots it in but I rarely saw a game which didn't have a corner goal or a goal from an indirect free kick onto a defenders head. This was with a defender who had 16 jumping and 15 heading too so i'd expect to see more with the higher attributes amongst the top DCs.
I haven't yet seen a super keeper and long range efforts seem more prevalent. I haven't seen a 3-0 up fucked it up yet either, but without team talks and the like on FML it's hard to judge how their removal effects the ME.
I've played something like 6,000 games on the old ME so it's impossible to draw any proper conclusions but I think those expecting something revolutionary and game changing will be sorely disappointed. It does seem much better of course, but it's not going to suddenly turn good teams bad and set pieces will probably still rule the day.
In other news I reactivated my second account and moved it into a different GW. I have to say it was very slim pickings on the initial squad front. Anyone even half decent and affordable who was under the age of 29 was already contracted. I think this links into a shrinking of available quality in the database. It's a bit of a problem really and makes it much more difficult for new teams to put together a decent squad. I went down the route of an old man squad who can get results with my youngest player aged 30!
I always thought those forum stories about newbies getting challenged by existing teams were untrue but seems they are not! On my first night I started getting these challenges from 3.5* and 4* teams ? I have no clue why they would do this, if they win they get no ranking points and if I win I get shit loads. I declined most of them of course but ironically the one that stuck in my mind was some guy who mailed me after I declined his challenge telling me to look at online managers to find games.. Anyway he's ranked in top 20 and I beat him in the Super FA today which amused me.
But the problem is, for a new team in an existing GW - There is nothing to do. It is so much worse than when you are an established club. I have 1* activity rating so if I play any friendlies I am just opening myself up to injuries and I can't afford a big squad. The change list claims activity rating has been changed from 3* to 5* for new teams which I find interesting seen as it's not currently 3* ! All the new teams are on 1* as far as I can see.
Then you are in a lower division league where have the teams have given up so you spend the entire season waiting for AI games which isn't exactly the best introduction to the game! The only people that seem to stay are those that get involved in chat in the lobby or their FA room because it's not like there is much else for them to do.
I was considering a big rant on ME related issues for small teams but I wont bother with that ;) The only thing I find interesting so far is how I am finding it MUCH easier to beat/draw with the 3*/4* teams but some of the other new teams are pasting me all over, even at home... I've taken apart most of the big teams I have played and had a few games they have been lucky to walk away with a point but the other small teams are doing me over pretty frequently.
Thursday 3 September 2009
Anyone out there?
Does anyone even read my random moaning ? Who knows, but I like moaning even if no one listens.
Last season I was calm - I was determined to stay this way, not become angry or annoyed ever again and thus not need to post on here again. It's not working. My monitor received several vicious right hooks the other night. Pre season was good, I acquired all my targets within the first couple of days of the wage auction and went on an intensive pre-season. I played many games and perfected my tactics to the nth degree so everything was perfect (with the new ME coming soon I might just reveal those tactics people are trying to copy some day soon ;) )
I reckon I had about 1-2 defeats in 60 odd games so I was pretty confident about the new season. Of course this was false confidence because we all should know by now the LEAGUE IS RANDOM! So I have pretty much drawn every single game so far and my team have either not turned up, have been one shot wondered, super keepered or some such bullshit. I had an hilarious game earlier where the match engine refused to allow me to remain more than 3 goals ahead and it finished 6-4 ! Crazy times.
Anyway I actually feel weary just thinking about how bad the ME is and how pointless the FA games are.
What's annoying me now is how no one seems to actually give a shit about this game. It would be a piece of piss for the orgs to, ya know, BLOODY ORGANISE something to make the game more interesting (nb - I do actually play on more than 1 GW - if your not sure if this is aimed at you, it's probably not) but it seems people are either too retarded or lazy (maybe both, a retard with ME maybe?) to actually do something.
The Super FA seems like SI/SEGA/Whoever, gave the gameworlds the chance to create whatever the hell they like to do something interesting and innovative. During my travels have I seen anyone use this to any effect ? No. Over on St John we had 2 seasons of 2x40 team leagues which involved the top 4 spanking everyone in sight every game. I pointed out how this was an idiotic structure which doesn't help lower reputation teams and suggested changing it so it was tiered. So they decide to tier it with 2 separate leagues with 60 teams in each... ??? What ?? I obviously pointed out how this was even worse than before and I was informed this wasn't actually the final structure - then why the hell announce it ?
Anyway it gets changed after my moaning to 2x30 team leagues, or as they like to call them... "tiers" Not only this, after the initial league, half the league goes into a knockout to decide the winner. Honestly, who comes up with these ideas ? I think orgs should be required to take some kind of IQ test before being appointed. If they score a higher IQ than a glass of water they would be allowed to move onto the literacy test.
I decided to complain to who I thought was the lead mod about these issues, but apparently it's nothing to do with him either. So can someone please tell me who the hell the responsibility lies with ? Is there anyone out there capable of organising some kind of half decent competition for me to play in ?
I want daily/nightly/weekend Super FA quickplays and the like, to encourage people to PLAY matches against each other, live, on FM, like, FMLIVE! Hey... that could make a great game, oh, wait. I want competition structures where the best team wins rather than a league which then goes to a knockout... A knockout ? I'd like to knock out these idiots.
I think I've seen my point proved about how everything on FML is so reactive and nothing is proactive too. I've been moaning about the XEFA playtimes for 5 months now and we had a vote about this which was instigated by a mod. The motion was passed to make the XEFA start earlier, good times. Or not, because nothing was done about it. 5 months later I had left the FA, along with many other members due to the poor play times. Seemingly due to an another incident where I was complaining there was no early evening xtreme FA, the play times get changed! Now half the FA has left and it has loads of Canadians in and the play times are totally inappropriate for it's current members!
Honestly... Everywhere I look i'm surrounded by idiots. I've been involved in running an online gaming community (probably a damn sight bigger and more successful than FML) before so I am aware of exactly what it takes and what is required. What it doesn't require, is appointing people to organise things who have no clue about the game, what people want and who only got the position by being an arse kissing toss pot.
Last season I was calm - I was determined to stay this way, not become angry or annoyed ever again and thus not need to post on here again. It's not working. My monitor received several vicious right hooks the other night. Pre season was good, I acquired all my targets within the first couple of days of the wage auction and went on an intensive pre-season. I played many games and perfected my tactics to the nth degree so everything was perfect (with the new ME coming soon I might just reveal those tactics people are trying to copy some day soon ;) )
I reckon I had about 1-2 defeats in 60 odd games so I was pretty confident about the new season. Of course this was false confidence because we all should know by now the LEAGUE IS RANDOM! So I have pretty much drawn every single game so far and my team have either not turned up, have been one shot wondered, super keepered or some such bullshit. I had an hilarious game earlier where the match engine refused to allow me to remain more than 3 goals ahead and it finished 6-4 ! Crazy times.
Anyway I actually feel weary just thinking about how bad the ME is and how pointless the FA games are.
What's annoying me now is how no one seems to actually give a shit about this game. It would be a piece of piss for the orgs to, ya know, BLOODY ORGANISE something to make the game more interesting (nb - I do actually play on more than 1 GW - if your not sure if this is aimed at you, it's probably not) but it seems people are either too retarded or lazy (maybe both, a retard with ME maybe?) to actually do something.
The Super FA seems like SI/SEGA/Whoever, gave the gameworlds the chance to create whatever the hell they like to do something interesting and innovative. During my travels have I seen anyone use this to any effect ? No. Over on St John we had 2 seasons of 2x40 team leagues which involved the top 4 spanking everyone in sight every game. I pointed out how this was an idiotic structure which doesn't help lower reputation teams and suggested changing it so it was tiered. So they decide to tier it with 2 separate leagues with 60 teams in each... ??? What ?? I obviously pointed out how this was even worse than before and I was informed this wasn't actually the final structure - then why the hell announce it ?
Anyway it gets changed after my moaning to 2x30 team leagues, or as they like to call them... "tiers" Not only this, after the initial league, half the league goes into a knockout to decide the winner. Honestly, who comes up with these ideas ? I think orgs should be required to take some kind of IQ test before being appointed. If they score a higher IQ than a glass of water they would be allowed to move onto the literacy test.
I decided to complain to who I thought was the lead mod about these issues, but apparently it's nothing to do with him either. So can someone please tell me who the hell the responsibility lies with ? Is there anyone out there capable of organising some kind of half decent competition for me to play in ?
I want daily/nightly/weekend Super FA quickplays and the like, to encourage people to PLAY matches against each other, live, on FM, like, FMLIVE! Hey... that could make a great game, oh, wait. I want competition structures where the best team wins rather than a league which then goes to a knockout... A knockout ? I'd like to knock out these idiots.
I think I've seen my point proved about how everything on FML is so reactive and nothing is proactive too. I've been moaning about the XEFA playtimes for 5 months now and we had a vote about this which was instigated by a mod. The motion was passed to make the XEFA start earlier, good times. Or not, because nothing was done about it. 5 months later I had left the FA, along with many other members due to the poor play times. Seemingly due to an another incident where I was complaining there was no early evening xtreme FA, the play times get changed! Now half the FA has left and it has loads of Canadians in and the play times are totally inappropriate for it's current members!
Honestly... Everywhere I look i'm surrounded by idiots. I've been involved in running an online gaming community (probably a damn sight bigger and more successful than FML) before so I am aware of exactly what it takes and what is required. What it doesn't require, is appointing people to organise things who have no clue about the game, what people want and who only got the position by being an arse kissing toss pot.
Friday 28 August 2009
You've been ME'ed!
Shit like this might be funny if Jeremy Beadle turned up wearing a disguise. Shame he's dead, just like this game will be if it's not sorted out soon.
Sunday 23 August 2009
It's just another one shot wonder
Sing along now, to the tune of Manic Mondays
'Oh it's just another shot wonder, wish it was a fun day, My I don't have to runday
It's just another one shot wonder'
Load of shit, roll on the new ME, for no doubt some more retarded hilarity.
'Oh it's just another shot wonder, wish it was a fun day, My I don't have to runday
It's just another one shot wonder'
Load of shit, roll on the new ME, for no doubt some more retarded hilarity.
Wednesday 19 August 2009
I'm the chairman of the bored
So I was in ASDA today and there was this stupid fucking women in... no wait, I was driving home today and there was this idiot who was..
Oh, FML... I think I started this blog at a bad time because I have had the calmest season on record. Last season I could have shared the story where I snapped the TV remote in half or when I threw the monitor at the PC or the incident leading to the hole in the wall. I even treated myself to a new keyboard last week and it remains fully functional!
I purposely created a situation whereby I couldn't possibly become angry this season. A team of duffers, a crap FA and removed myself from all official 2-legged cup competitions. I've only just got round to losing my first FA game tonight and i've only lost a couple in the Super FA too. So I apologise for the lack of rage.
However I am rather bored at the moment and i'm failing to see where any future excitement may come from. The FAs are just boring because the results are predictable and the random draws/defeats are simply ridiculous. I made a flippant remark in the lobby about how I should be allowed to create my own FA, because it would indeed be ace. To my surprise I was told that a new FA could be a possibility if I could come up with some good ideas and get 30-32 people to support my proposal.
So off I went to chat with my fellow ragers who understand the pointlessness of league games. We quickly came up with a structure which was most excellent, eliminating waiting for AI games, neutral grounds for games, 2-legged cups to be replace by a most awesome competition which meant even the lesser teams could get themselves a cup win title. It was an FA designed for the most active of managers while sidestepping various ME related problems. All we needed now was 32 people. To the votes list!
Within 12 hours or so we had the most active discussion our GW has ever seen on the discussion list and by the end of the day we had got 25 people to support our plan. Until we are told we are not longer allowed to use the discussion list to well, ya know, discuss things. God forbid people might be interested in discussing things related to improving the game! Then i'm in trouble again because I wasn't suppose to start a vote or something (I didn't even start it!) I'm not certain how we were supposed to get 32 people without ?
The FA was designed by the GW top 4 and thus we were unfortunately condemned as being leetest pricks who wanted to steal peoples money. People seemed to fail to understand the concept that us all playing in the same league would result in more defeats, rep drops and less media money.
We are now known as the 'renegade managers' and rumour has it I have been personally banned, by RT, from all 2-legged cup competitions Total fabrication !
So it's business as usual, back to plodding along in the shitty FAs waiting for some AI games to land. Remember FML'ers, change is bad! I basically have in the back of my mind my current FA is temporary until something good happens, but actually, what is this good thing that is going to happen ? Probably nothing.
Have I mentioned my AMR got injured for a week in a friendly competition ? *si*
Oh, FML... I think I started this blog at a bad time because I have had the calmest season on record. Last season I could have shared the story where I snapped the TV remote in half or when I threw the monitor at the PC or the incident leading to the hole in the wall. I even treated myself to a new keyboard last week and it remains fully functional!
I purposely created a situation whereby I couldn't possibly become angry this season. A team of duffers, a crap FA and removed myself from all official 2-legged cup competitions. I've only just got round to losing my first FA game tonight and i've only lost a couple in the Super FA too. So I apologise for the lack of rage.
However I am rather bored at the moment and i'm failing to see where any future excitement may come from. The FAs are just boring because the results are predictable and the random draws/defeats are simply ridiculous. I made a flippant remark in the lobby about how I should be allowed to create my own FA, because it would indeed be ace. To my surprise I was told that a new FA could be a possibility if I could come up with some good ideas and get 30-32 people to support my proposal.
So off I went to chat with my fellow ragers who understand the pointlessness of league games. We quickly came up with a structure which was most excellent, eliminating waiting for AI games, neutral grounds for games, 2-legged cups to be replace by a most awesome competition which meant even the lesser teams could get themselves a cup win title. It was an FA designed for the most active of managers while sidestepping various ME related problems. All we needed now was 32 people. To the votes list!
Within 12 hours or so we had the most active discussion our GW has ever seen on the discussion list and by the end of the day we had got 25 people to support our plan. Until we are told we are not longer allowed to use the discussion list to well, ya know, discuss things. God forbid people might be interested in discussing things related to improving the game! Then i'm in trouble again because I wasn't suppose to start a vote or something (I didn't even start it!) I'm not certain how we were supposed to get 32 people without ?
The FA was designed by the GW top 4 and thus we were unfortunately condemned as being leetest pricks who wanted to steal peoples money. People seemed to fail to understand the concept that us all playing in the same league would result in more defeats, rep drops and less media money.
We are now known as the 'renegade managers' and rumour has it I have been personally banned, by RT, from all 2-legged cup competitions Total fabrication !
So it's business as usual, back to plodding along in the shitty FAs waiting for some AI games to land. Remember FML'ers, change is bad! I basically have in the back of my mind my current FA is temporary until something good happens, but actually, what is this good thing that is going to happen ? Probably nothing.
Have I mentioned my AMR got injured for a week in a friendly competition ? *si*
Saturday 15 August 2009
To add insult to injury
I usually run some small, free quickplays over the weekend and without exception this results in me picking up some kind of injury. Seen as everyone likes to break my forward's legs and he gets regular injuries I decided to insure him. On a £40k wage the insurance cost is £4k so he only needs to get injured once every 10 days for me to break even and anything else is a £40k cash bonanza. With my finances still looking decidedly unhealthy and my striker who gets injured with alarming regularity I decided I was onto a winner.
As expected, because I had actually dared to play the game *shock* it's not long before someone hard tackles him, he goes off injured and he's out for a day. Cash back! Unfortunately one of my key MCs also picked up a day long injury in this, pointless, free, fun competition.
All went to plan really. All my league AI was finished for the day, there was nothing for the next day that couldn't wait, so what am I annoyed about ? Well as soon as these injuries come in every man women and dog on the GW suddenly wants to play me. The teams I had challenged several times over the past week, while 'online' who had previously ignored my challenges, suddenly 'decide' now is when they want to play me.
So of course I log on today to find I have lost my AI rights over these teams and they can now play me when they see fit while I have no team because they got injured in a friendly tournament.
Can people not see how fundamentally flawed this is ? To avoid the above I could have a)not played the friendly tournament or b) logged straight off when I got the injuries. But once again I am punished for attempting to retain some activity in the GW and add to the community.
Oh I nearly forgot the ultimate insult in all of this. Some chap always joins my quickplays and he has never beaten me. He's got a pretty decent team but for some reason I appear to be his nemesis and in the last 3 months he has recorded 17 defeats to me and 3 draws. The last game in the quickplay wouldn't start for some reason so after I had already lost some AI rights and as it was quite late I decided to call it a night. I log on this morning to find he has beaten me AI 3-1 !!
FML - Still the only MMO to reward you for not playing it.
As expected, because I had actually dared to play the game *shock* it's not long before someone hard tackles him, he goes off injured and he's out for a day. Cash back! Unfortunately one of my key MCs also picked up a day long injury in this, pointless, free, fun competition.
All went to plan really. All my league AI was finished for the day, there was nothing for the next day that couldn't wait, so what am I annoyed about ? Well as soon as these injuries come in every man women and dog on the GW suddenly wants to play me. The teams I had challenged several times over the past week, while 'online' who had previously ignored my challenges, suddenly 'decide' now is when they want to play me.
So of course I log on today to find I have lost my AI rights over these teams and they can now play me when they see fit while I have no team because they got injured in a friendly tournament.
Can people not see how fundamentally flawed this is ? To avoid the above I could have a)not played the friendly tournament or b) logged straight off when I got the injuries. But once again I am punished for attempting to retain some activity in the GW and add to the community.
Oh I nearly forgot the ultimate insult in all of this. Some chap always joins my quickplays and he has never beaten me. He's got a pretty decent team but for some reason I appear to be his nemesis and in the last 3 months he has recorded 17 defeats to me and 3 draws. The last game in the quickplay wouldn't start for some reason so after I had already lost some AI rights and as it was quite late I decided to call it a night. I log on this morning to find he has beaten me AI 3-1 !!
FML - Still the only MMO to reward you for not playing it.
Thursday 13 August 2009
The proof is in the puddings
One of the primary reasons I sold my entire squad of superstars last season was because it became clear to me that having an amazing team was of no benefit whatsoever. Obviously in general terms the teams with the best players will be at the top and winning all the games but my theory was if you drop things back a couple of levels there is little difference. The ME/game just seems to put some restrictions in place to stop you panning everyone in sight and then you have the absurd league results which have no relation to your team anyway.
So 3 weeks ago I had no players left except some youths and not a great deal of money to spend. A quick calculation shows my current squad cost a measly £2.6m less 2 existing average quality youth players and a GK. The Aguero deal is difficult to value because it involved 3 decent youth players leaving. So lets call the team value £2.6m + Aguero.
My team is generally quite poor - To give an example, my AML is a chap by the name of Johan Absalonsen who's AF is £60k while my AMR has an AF of £200k. So how's it going with my team of duffers ? Exactly the bloody same as it did before! I'm still sitting a #3 in the world rankings, I still generally win most games, I still get super keepered every other game, I still get 1sw'ed with annoying frequency and I still get exactly the same results against the top teams and in fact of late have beaten them more so than before! It's pretty much back to the days of hit submit team and watch the result roll in within no tactical changes even required. There is no way my team should be a top team, it's just crazy.
I look at last season's squad and it was perfect in every possible way other than perhaps a stronger forward being needed, but then the one I had did have a 1 in 1 goal ratio in friendlies. I look at this season's squad and it's full of duffers with red arrows, youth players and a couple of decent players. Yet my results are exactly the same! It just proves to me that you don't even need a team of world class players for the result-o-generator to work it's magic.
I've been looking at some stats from my most recent matches. In my last 50 games or so I have not won (be it a draw or defeat) 10 games. Three of these games were fair defeats and one of those was against GW rank #1 while one of the others I had 10 men. In the other SEVEN I was either super keepered, 1-shot-wondered or both. It is literally nearly every game you don't win and it is most infuriating.
The usual FA bullshit is under way with random draws starting to crop up in FA games and the super league. I'm not even sure why I bother playing these, after 5,000 games played I can pretty much tell the other player what the score is going to be before kick off or if not within the first 15 minutes of the match.
I'd quite like to create my own FA, I had the idea some time ago but someone else gave me the name - the Non Bullshit Association or NBA. Basically it involves all games being played a neutral venue and no two-legged cups. Clearly i'd never be allowed but I think i'd be onto a winner if I could do it.
So 3 weeks ago I had no players left except some youths and not a great deal of money to spend. A quick calculation shows my current squad cost a measly £2.6m less 2 existing average quality youth players and a GK. The Aguero deal is difficult to value because it involved 3 decent youth players leaving. So lets call the team value £2.6m + Aguero.
My team is generally quite poor - To give an example, my AML is a chap by the name of Johan Absalonsen who's AF is £60k while my AMR has an AF of £200k. So how's it going with my team of duffers ? Exactly the bloody same as it did before! I'm still sitting a #3 in the world rankings, I still generally win most games, I still get super keepered every other game, I still get 1sw'ed with annoying frequency and I still get exactly the same results against the top teams and in fact of late have beaten them more so than before! It's pretty much back to the days of hit submit team and watch the result roll in within no tactical changes even required. There is no way my team should be a top team, it's just crazy.
I look at last season's squad and it was perfect in every possible way other than perhaps a stronger forward being needed, but then the one I had did have a 1 in 1 goal ratio in friendlies. I look at this season's squad and it's full of duffers with red arrows, youth players and a couple of decent players. Yet my results are exactly the same! It just proves to me that you don't even need a team of world class players for the result-o-generator to work it's magic.
I've been looking at some stats from my most recent matches. In my last 50 games or so I have not won (be it a draw or defeat) 10 games. Three of these games were fair defeats and one of those was against GW rank #1 while one of the others I had 10 men. In the other SEVEN I was either super keepered, 1-shot-wondered or both. It is literally nearly every game you don't win and it is most infuriating.
The usual FA bullshit is under way with random draws starting to crop up in FA games and the super league. I'm not even sure why I bother playing these, after 5,000 games played I can pretty much tell the other player what the score is going to be before kick off or if not within the first 15 minutes of the match.
I'd quite like to create my own FA, I had the idea some time ago but someone else gave me the name - the Non Bullshit Association or NBA. Basically it involves all games being played a neutral venue and no two-legged cups. Clearly i'd never be allowed but I think i'd be onto a winner if I could do it.
Sunday 9 August 2009
Black Magic
The 1.2 update saw the introduction of the new tactics wizard, or tactical interface as I understand the preferred term to be. I'm going to refer to it as the Wizard because this thing is more magical than Harry Potter.
I have noticed a huge increase in the number of super keeper-ings, one shot wonders (1sw) or games where you simply can't create anything at all. It's getting to the point where it's literally every single game I don't win except against 4 teams who have good teams. I believe I have found the cause of this and it is this bloody wizard!
I've been speaking to my opponents and every single one where this is happening appears to be using a magical wizard created tactic. The problem usually starts by you being unable to create _anything_ at all in the match because of the defensive set up of the tactics. With a little bit of time you can counter this but it just seems you have already passed the point where it's possible for you to score and the opposition GK is already on 'playing with confidence'
Full respect to anyone who creates a hard working team of poor players and an effective tactic but it is slightly frustrating when they are simply pressing a button to get the same result. It's possible that the defensive nature of the tactics mean that the ME has calculated the result as a draw but sees you have awesome players and decides they should have 40 shots on goal, I don't know but it's most annoying.
It's not just me experiencing this either, it seems most of the top teams on our GW are getting repeatedly done over by super keepers. I know this has always happened in the past but it is most certainly on the rise since the last patch and the introduction of the new tactical interface.
They certainly seem to be more George Graham inspired rather than Arsene Wenger!
I have noticed a huge increase in the number of super keeper-ings, one shot wonders (1sw) or games where you simply can't create anything at all. It's getting to the point where it's literally every single game I don't win except against 4 teams who have good teams. I believe I have found the cause of this and it is this bloody wizard!
I've been speaking to my opponents and every single one where this is happening appears to be using a magical wizard created tactic. The problem usually starts by you being unable to create _anything_ at all in the match because of the defensive set up of the tactics. With a little bit of time you can counter this but it just seems you have already passed the point where it's possible for you to score and the opposition GK is already on 'playing with confidence'
Full respect to anyone who creates a hard working team of poor players and an effective tactic but it is slightly frustrating when they are simply pressing a button to get the same result. It's possible that the defensive nature of the tactics mean that the ME has calculated the result as a draw but sees you have awesome players and decides they should have 40 shots on goal, I don't know but it's most annoying.
It's not just me experiencing this either, it seems most of the top teams on our GW are getting repeatedly done over by super keepers. I know this has always happened in the past but it is most certainly on the rise since the last patch and the introduction of the new tactical interface.
They certainly seem to be more George Graham inspired rather than Arsene Wenger!
Saturday 8 August 2009
Saturday
All is good today. No, really.
Well, there was that game I drew 2-2 and the opposition GK got a 9.4..
Well, there was that game I drew 2-2 and the opposition GK got a 9.4..
Thursday 6 August 2009
Records breakers
Here's my hour on FM so far today:
I sold the remainder of my youth team last night. The main reason behind this was because most of my potential stars had left the club in other transfer deals and I decided there was no point keeping the rest as they were unlikely to make the grade. The second reason was most of them being unhappy with competition - my 21 year old DM is STILL unhappy with competition despite having a squad of 19 players and no one else who plays in his position *sigh* or maybe that should just be *si*
Anyway this isn't what has annoyed me. My youth team was in a Senior-Unranked reserve competition which had about 30 or so games left to go. I figured that these matches would just get abandoned now I had no squad left. I figured wrong, the AI decided to play my senior team in these games and we all know how bad auto resolves are for injuries!! Also I had previously sent round an email to the entrants asking them to stop playing their first team. To avoid being a bit of a hypocrite and to try and prevent injuries I decided to abandon all of these games.
But hey what's this ? I have a new club record for defeats in a row now standing at an impressive 11, formerly 4. Now I posted about this in the bugs forum several months ago about how abandoned games counted towards achievements and records! *si*
Moments after this, a challenge comes in for the Weekly Cup. Some moments later I get 2-shot-wondered out of the Weekly Cup.
Time for a league away game. 1-0 up with 83 minutes on the clock, pretty much in control and nothing happening. The other side have had 1 shot in the match so far and then the following happens:
(Lee Jones says:) (19:57:36)got a feeling this will be a draw
Gili Vermut scored 84'
(Other Manager says:)YEEEESSS (19:58:32)
Aguero is also injured until tomorrow.
I'll finish up with a screen shot of the other game I played:
Welcome to FML and enjoy the game you hate to love.
UPDATE:
So a challenge comes in for the GWC from some dire looking team and off we go. What happens ? WHAT FUCKING HAPPENS A-FUCKING-GAIN. YES I GET FUCKING ONE SHOT WONDERED... I call it a shot, but it was a 40 yard punt where the ball rolled along the floor at about 3mph and my GK dived out of the way of it. Meanwhile I proceed to play the twat off the pitch only for his GK to get MOTM and him not to have another sodding shot in the whole match. IT IF HAPPENS JUST OCCASIONALLY, JUST ONCE OR TWICE I COULD TAKE IT BUT EVERY FUCKING TWATTING CUNTING TIME AGAINST SOME SHIT RETARD... JESUS CHRIST SORT THIS FUCKING GAME OUT YOU MORONS. Seriously, it's just an utterly pointless, meaningless result generator is this game.
I don't know, maybe my team are bottlers and can't take the pressure? I just beat some other guy 8-0 in the Super FA ? What the hell??
Anyone for a game of dice ??
The season is well and truly under way. Why oh why did I expect this season to be any different? Another night wasted.
I sold the remainder of my youth team last night. The main reason behind this was because most of my potential stars had left the club in other transfer deals and I decided there was no point keeping the rest as they were unlikely to make the grade. The second reason was most of them being unhappy with competition - my 21 year old DM is STILL unhappy with competition despite having a squad of 19 players and no one else who plays in his position *sigh* or maybe that should just be *si*
Anyway this isn't what has annoyed me. My youth team was in a Senior-Unranked reserve competition which had about 30 or so games left to go. I figured that these matches would just get abandoned now I had no squad left. I figured wrong, the AI decided to play my senior team in these games and we all know how bad auto resolves are for injuries!! Also I had previously sent round an email to the entrants asking them to stop playing their first team. To avoid being a bit of a hypocrite and to try and prevent injuries I decided to abandon all of these games.
But hey what's this ? I have a new club record for defeats in a row now standing at an impressive 11, formerly 4. Now I posted about this in the bugs forum several months ago about how abandoned games counted towards achievements and records! *si*
Moments after this, a challenge comes in for the Weekly Cup. Some moments later I get 2-shot-wondered out of the Weekly Cup.
Time for a league away game. 1-0 up with 83 minutes on the clock, pretty much in control and nothing happening. The other side have had 1 shot in the match so far and then the following happens:
(Lee Jones says:) (19:57:36)got a feeling this will be a draw
Gili Vermut scored 84'
(Other Manager says:)YEEEESSS (19:58:32)
Aguero is also injured until tomorrow.
I'll finish up with a screen shot of the other game I played:
Welcome to FML and enjoy the game you hate to love.
UPDATE:
So a challenge comes in for the GWC from some dire looking team and off we go. What happens ? WHAT FUCKING HAPPENS A-FUCKING-GAIN. YES I GET FUCKING ONE SHOT WONDERED... I call it a shot, but it was a 40 yard punt where the ball rolled along the floor at about 3mph and my GK dived out of the way of it. Meanwhile I proceed to play the twat off the pitch only for his GK to get MOTM and him not to have another sodding shot in the whole match. IT IF HAPPENS JUST OCCASIONALLY, JUST ONCE OR TWICE I COULD TAKE IT BUT EVERY FUCKING TWATTING CUNTING TIME AGAINST SOME SHIT RETARD... JESUS CHRIST SORT THIS FUCKING GAME OUT YOU MORONS. Seriously, it's just an utterly pointless, meaningless result generator is this game.
I don't know, maybe my team are bottlers and can't take the pressure? I just beat some other guy 8-0 in the Super FA ? What the hell??
Anyone for a game of dice ??
The season is well and truly under way. Why oh why did I expect this season to be any different? Another night wasted.
Wednesday 5 August 2009
Season predictions
Season 8 starts tonight so I thought I best get my prediction down before it begins.
My FA results will end like this:
P68, W50, D11, L7
The games may be random but the the overall standings are fairly predictable. Good news is I have been allowed to withdraw from all FA 2-legged cups this season so don't expect any 2-legged cup rage this time round!
Not much else FML related to moan about really, but I think today I have found something as random as the FML FA results - Women! I think they are bugged, can SI fix this for me please?
My FA results will end like this:
P68, W50, D11, L7
The games may be random but the the overall standings are fairly predictable. Good news is I have been allowed to withdraw from all FA 2-legged cups this season so don't expect any 2-legged cup rage this time round!
Not much else FML related to moan about really, but I think today I have found something as random as the FML FA results - Women! I think they are bugged, can SI fix this for me please?
Monday 3 August 2009
'Cause I'm the taxman
Let me tell you how it will be;
There's one for you, nineteen for me.
'Cause I'm the taxman,
Yeah, I'm the taxman.
So I signed Sergio Aguero yesterday. After creating a squad with balance, a strong work ethic and determination I threw it all to one side for a cheat player. The deal took around 45 minutes to conclude due to battles with the tax man.
The deal was.
Theo Walcott - purchased for £4m, MV £2.1m - 100% profit tax
Blaise Dao (regen) - purchased for 300k, MV £1m - 100% profit Tax
Guilimere Romero (regen) MV £1.4m - 0% tax
Total wages - £38.5k
In exchange for Sergio Aguero with a MV of £3.5m and wage of £40k
= Bank veto ?? I'm sure there is some kind of logical explanation for this but i'm not quite sure where my 'profit' in this deal is coming from to explain the tax.
In the end I had to remove Blaise Dao and add in Stefan Damm(regen) (MV 160k - 80% or so profit tax) instead which prevented the veto. This is fine except it leaves me with no AML to speak of! I also paid £150k sell on for Romero from a 30% sell on??
T-Bag Town 0 v Baffling tax system 1
There's one for you, nineteen for me.
'Cause I'm the taxman,
Yeah, I'm the taxman.
So I signed Sergio Aguero yesterday. After creating a squad with balance, a strong work ethic and determination I threw it all to one side for a cheat player. The deal took around 45 minutes to conclude due to battles with the tax man.
The deal was.
Theo Walcott - purchased for £4m, MV £2.1m - 100% profit tax
Blaise Dao (regen) - purchased for 300k, MV £1m - 100% profit Tax
Guilimere Romero (regen) MV £1.4m - 0% tax
Total wages - £38.5k
In exchange for Sergio Aguero with a MV of £3.5m and wage of £40k
= Bank veto ?? I'm sure there is some kind of logical explanation for this but i'm not quite sure where my 'profit' in this deal is coming from to explain the tax.
In the end I had to remove Blaise Dao and add in Stefan Damm(regen) (MV 160k - 80% or so profit tax) instead which prevented the veto. This is fine except it leaves me with no AML to speak of! I also paid £150k sell on for Romero from a 30% sell on??
T-Bag Town 0 v Baffling tax system 1
Sunday 2 August 2009
No rage
I have had a reasonable FML related week or so of calm. After selling my team and buying in a few duffers I still managed to somehow finish 4th in the league and only dropped to 9th in the World Rankings. I think I also only missed out on the Super FA league finale by 1 point - which i'm blaming on a 3-0 up fucked it up, 3-3 draw.
Only 2 outfield players remain from last season and they are both youth players. A new squad has been brought in with spending right up to the overdraft limit. A few old men discarded as dead by everyone else combined with some youth and quality forms my new squad. Played around 30 or so friendlies over the last day or so with zero defeats and just a couple of draws.
Pre-season optimism is high, the lows of last season are long forgotten. This will be the season..... Actually I know it wont because i'll be angry about the random league results in a week so I decided to move FA to play some AI games all season.
So all is good ? New team, new tactic, new FA, back to being unbeatable. Well actually no it's bloody not, i've got many things to moan about.
"Spazmo feels there is too much competition for a first team place" - WHAT? You are 20 years old, you have played EVERY single FA game you were eligible for last season (over 150) and there is no other player at the club who can play in your posistion ???
I have a squad of 27 players and only 9 senior outfield players yet my youths who PLAY in the bloody first team want to leave ? I've had 3 reject auto extends already but managed to resign them. This morning I lost my ever first player in WA in 8 seasons on St John. Of course I didn't get outbid or something simple like that. I bid 5k and the other guy bid 5k - he got him for bidding first!! He's my player!
I started getting these messages just before my 'rage sale' so even after selling my entire first team they didn't become happy. I can't even replace what I have lost because any signing is going to piss off the rest of the squad and i'm still in the middle of auto extends. I have one more key first team youth player, the aforementioned Spazmo, who I need to resign yet.
Moving on to something else, injuries are annoying me again. I have had the audacity to PLAY the game this weekend setting up some Quickplays and getting some friendlies in. The result ? Yep, players injured and one set to miss the start of the season. Of course I have cover but he got injured too so I now can't play the game today unless I want to risk losing. FML is the only game which seems to reward you for NOT playing the damn thing - is it telling me something ?
In other rage related news I decided it was time to punt up a new stand. I spent around an hour or so with the calculator out doing my sums and looking at the preview reputation tab and the atmosphere tab. In the end I decided it would be best to knock up the most expensive stand on the basis of the huge corporate provisions which could have brought my stadium income to around £265k just from 2 boxes. I wasn't so worried about the empty seats because my atmosphere was still 4.5*. Shortly after confirming this I discover, not through any kind of official communication, that empty seats will have an effect on stadium atmosphere and atmosphere will have an effect on the new ME. **bangs head against wall repeatedly** So now I will need to fill an entire 3 tier monster with seats - I'd estimate this will cost around £10m not including corporate boxes and will take well over a year to pay back. I'm scared to actually work it out properly as I know it will just annoy me.
I despair at this game I really do. I think it would actually be cheaper to knock the stand down while it's building, losing the £2m it has cost me and building a 2-tier instead! I think it would work out cheaper on the basis of not cost as much to fill the stadium with seats. My aim for this season is to stop pissing money away though as I reckon I have lost somewhere in the region of £7m through my own stupidity and rage in the last 3 weeks. So if anyone wants to suggest how I can sort this out then please let me know.
Only 2 outfield players remain from last season and they are both youth players. A new squad has been brought in with spending right up to the overdraft limit. A few old men discarded as dead by everyone else combined with some youth and quality forms my new squad. Played around 30 or so friendlies over the last day or so with zero defeats and just a couple of draws.
Pre-season optimism is high, the lows of last season are long forgotten. This will be the season..... Actually I know it wont because i'll be angry about the random league results in a week so I decided to move FA to play some AI games all season.
So all is good ? New team, new tactic, new FA, back to being unbeatable. Well actually no it's bloody not, i've got many things to moan about.
"Spazmo feels there is too much competition for a first team place" - WHAT? You are 20 years old, you have played EVERY single FA game you were eligible for last season (over 150) and there is no other player at the club who can play in your posistion ???
I have a squad of 27 players and only 9 senior outfield players yet my youths who PLAY in the bloody first team want to leave ? I've had 3 reject auto extends already but managed to resign them. This morning I lost my ever first player in WA in 8 seasons on St John. Of course I didn't get outbid or something simple like that. I bid 5k and the other guy bid 5k - he got him for bidding first!! He's my player!
I started getting these messages just before my 'rage sale' so even after selling my entire first team they didn't become happy. I can't even replace what I have lost because any signing is going to piss off the rest of the squad and i'm still in the middle of auto extends. I have one more key first team youth player, the aforementioned Spazmo, who I need to resign yet.
Moving on to something else, injuries are annoying me again. I have had the audacity to PLAY the game this weekend setting up some Quickplays and getting some friendlies in. The result ? Yep, players injured and one set to miss the start of the season. Of course I have cover but he got injured too so I now can't play the game today unless I want to risk losing. FML is the only game which seems to reward you for NOT playing the damn thing - is it telling me something ?
In other rage related news I decided it was time to punt up a new stand. I spent around an hour or so with the calculator out doing my sums and looking at the preview reputation tab and the atmosphere tab. In the end I decided it would be best to knock up the most expensive stand on the basis of the huge corporate provisions which could have brought my stadium income to around £265k just from 2 boxes. I wasn't so worried about the empty seats because my atmosphere was still 4.5*. Shortly after confirming this I discover, not through any kind of official communication, that empty seats will have an effect on stadium atmosphere and atmosphere will have an effect on the new ME. **bangs head against wall repeatedly** So now I will need to fill an entire 3 tier monster with seats - I'd estimate this will cost around £10m not including corporate boxes and will take well over a year to pay back. I'm scared to actually work it out properly as I know it will just annoy me.
I despair at this game I really do. I think it would actually be cheaper to knock the stand down while it's building, losing the £2m it has cost me and building a 2-tier instead! I think it would work out cheaper on the basis of not cost as much to fill the stadium with seats. My aim for this season is to stop pissing money away though as I reckon I have lost somewhere in the region of £7m through my own stupidity and rage in the last 3 weeks. So if anyone wants to suggest how I can sort this out then please let me know.
Thursday 23 July 2009
Calm like a bomb
I lost a game this morning. There was no rage. Order has been restored. So I sold my entire first team save a few players so now when I lose games it is because my team is poor and this does not anger me.
I decided to clear my FA ai before the auctions ended which would give me 48 hours before any auto resolves to construct a new team. After spanking most teams I was starting to think I might have been a bit hasty. Then I got round to an away game against a deactivated team which soon made me realise I had not made a mistake by auctioning my team. So i've had 7 clear cut chances and he's scored with a penalty which has been his only 'attack' of the game. Fun times commenence until I finally equalise in 90+6 with a corner goal.
Anyway i'm still annoyed by various things at the moment. First off is how low half of my players sold which I attribute to two things. 1) people are idiots and wont bid on anyone over the age of 12 and 2)No one has any money from not investing in stadium, paying 100m to sign some 16 year old then paying them 50k a week.
Naldo sold for 200k. He is 33 and on £24,000 wages. His Natural Fitness is 19 and he has had almost zero attribute degredation over his career and infact has some yellows and greens still. So to own a player who is almost guaranteed a goal every other game as well one of the best defenders in the game would cost £670k in wages for the season. How many games would those goals win ? How many cups, leagues and competitions would he win you ? Seriously, why would you rather pay 30k wages on some 16 year old ? You will have pay him 4m+ in wages before he's likely to be first team ready. Even with zero resale value this is still a mega bargain. Do the maths people.......
In other annoying news I found a regen who had my name and spent the best part of 3 seasons trying to wrestle him away from idiots who didn't play him. The first one gave up on the game the day he signed him yet set a daft auto renew amount on the day and the other one seemed to value him at about £1m despite the fact he's rubbish. So today i'm greeted with this:
Lee Jones has disappointed supporte rs of your club by publicly announcing that he is considering leaving at the end of his contract. Jones is believed to feel unsettled at the number of players competing for the same place in the team as him and it is believed this is the reason why he is considering bringing his time at Strawberryfield to a close.
Are you shitting me ? I've got 1 senior midfielder who is retiring!
So what am I doing now ? Well i'm trying to construct a team that wont get hammered to get me through until end of season and then spend some cash in the wage auctions. My aim is to retain a top 10 ranking until the end of the season. New tactics have been prepared and new, cheap, signings should be arriving shortly.
Nice little screenshot before I drop down. Rank 1-5 all joined the GW as friends from outside the FML world and for the first time we occupy the top 5 spots :)
I decided to clear my FA ai before the auctions ended which would give me 48 hours before any auto resolves to construct a new team. After spanking most teams I was starting to think I might have been a bit hasty. Then I got round to an away game against a deactivated team which soon made me realise I had not made a mistake by auctioning my team. So i've had 7 clear cut chances and he's scored with a penalty which has been his only 'attack' of the game. Fun times commenence until I finally equalise in 90+6 with a corner goal.
Anyway i'm still annoyed by various things at the moment. First off is how low half of my players sold which I attribute to two things. 1) people are idiots and wont bid on anyone over the age of 12 and 2)No one has any money from not investing in stadium, paying 100m to sign some 16 year old then paying them 50k a week.
Naldo sold for 200k. He is 33 and on £24,000 wages. His Natural Fitness is 19 and he has had almost zero attribute degredation over his career and infact has some yellows and greens still. So to own a player who is almost guaranteed a goal every other game as well one of the best defenders in the game would cost £670k in wages for the season. How many games would those goals win ? How many cups, leagues and competitions would he win you ? Seriously, why would you rather pay 30k wages on some 16 year old ? You will have pay him 4m+ in wages before he's likely to be first team ready. Even with zero resale value this is still a mega bargain. Do the maths people.......
In other annoying news I found a regen who had my name and spent the best part of 3 seasons trying to wrestle him away from idiots who didn't play him. The first one gave up on the game the day he signed him yet set a daft auto renew amount on the day and the other one seemed to value him at about £1m despite the fact he's rubbish. So today i'm greeted with this:
Are you shitting me ? I've got 1 senior midfielder who is retiring!
So what am I doing now ? Well i'm trying to construct a team that wont get hammered to get me through until end of season and then spend some cash in the wage auctions. My aim is to retain a top 10 ranking until the end of the season. New tactics have been prepared and new, cheap, signings should be arriving shortly.
Nice little screenshot before I drop down. Rank 1-5 all joined the GW as friends from outside the FML world and for the first time we occupy the top 5 spots :)
Tuesday 21 July 2009
Franco :(
Your long-serving Italian midfield playmaker
He told you that after carefully considering the matter he has decided that the best option is to retire now at his peak rather than play on and risk serious injury in the future.
1966 apps / 946 goals /663 assists / 318 MOTM From MC. Signed for £233k in season 1.
Legend.
It's all woe this week :(
Rage Quit
After another series of ridiculous away results in the league I have decided to call it a day.
I've even lost the will to be angry any longer. Playing bottom of the league who has won about 2 games all season and not being able to create any chances, just because I was away from home, was the final straw. After about 20 tactical changes I managed to get the team to actually do something rather than sit around like retards and the opposition GK got MOTM... again. The two games before this to poor teams the same thing happens just because it is an away game. Play them at home and you put about 5 goals past them.
This has been building for about 7 seasons now.... having consistently been one of the best teams and repeatedly done over by fucking shit at the bottom of the league. Put all my team in auction to see if I could raise any cash for next season but none of the morons on the GW will bid on them because anyone over the age of 23 is apparently too old.
This game is one big joke and the joke is on those who keep playing in the hope of creating something when at the end of the day any away league game just comes down to a random result. It's just a shame it's taken me 49 days signed in to realise this..
I've even lost the will to be angry any longer. Playing bottom of the league who has won about 2 games all season and not being able to create any chances, just because I was away from home, was the final straw. After about 20 tactical changes I managed to get the team to actually do something rather than sit around like retards and the opposition GK got MOTM... again. The two games before this to poor teams the same thing happens just because it is an away game. Play them at home and you put about 5 goals past them.
This has been building for about 7 seasons now.... having consistently been one of the best teams and repeatedly done over by fucking shit at the bottom of the league. Put all my team in auction to see if I could raise any cash for next season but none of the morons on the GW will bid on them because anyone over the age of 23 is apparently too old.
This game is one big joke and the joke is on those who keep playing in the hope of creating something when at the end of the day any away league game just comes down to a random result. It's just a shame it's taken me 49 days signed in to realise this..
Sunday 19 July 2009
Match day
As kick off approaches, T-Bag Town enter the match against Useless United as clear favourites today. Everyone in the footballing world is expecting Useless United to be relegated this season having won just a couple of games all season and holding the worst defensive record in the league. In contrast T-Bag Town have been on good form of late with only 2 defeats in the last 20 games which came against top of the league.
It's 3:05pm so let's head over to our reporter for a match update, how's it going Jimmy ?
Jimmy: Kick off has been delayed by 10 minutes i'm afraid. Someone has parked a transit van in the entrance to the car park so their 10 fans can't get in on time for kick off! Useless United are using the local pub's facilities because they don't have a ground. There's been an announcement on the club's PA system (the karaoke machine) to try and locate the driver so hopefully we can get under way soon.
The vidi printer is still showing it's 0-0 after 20 minutes, what's happening Jimmy ?
Jimmy: Incredible scenes here Bob. Useless United have unveiled a surprise today, they have a new signing out on the pitch. I'm not sure who it is Bob ? He's playing in goal and he's wearing a red mask. I think it might be... Spiderman
Spiderman eh Bob ? That doesn't sound very likely to me, what makes you think that ?
Jimmy: Well T-Bag Town are dominating the match today, the stats are showing 75% possession and I count around 5 clear cut chances already. Spiderman is averaging an 8.5 and certainly looks to be 'playing with confidence'. I'll update you at half time !
It's nearly half time in the match with T-Bag Town vs Useless United and it's still 0-0 ?
Jimmy: Yes that's right Bob, it's still 0-0 here. I've never seen anything like it, T-Bag Town have had around 9 clear cut chances now. Just before you joined me, Obinna picked up the ball from around 30 yards out, beat his man, rounded the keeper and passed the ball into the net. As he was running off the celebrate, Spiderman webbed onto the goalpost, swung in and saved the shot!
Wait a minute, here's a chance! Brienza has picked up up the ball on the half way line, he's beaten 3 men but his shot has hit the cross bar. Rossi Steps up on the rebound and slots it home with a stunning volley!! GOAL for T-Bag Town!! I'm not sure what happened to Spiderman here he seemed to be playing with his wrists, one of the locals thinks his web got jammed. I think the floodgates might open in the second half it should be about 7-0 by now.
The second half is well under way now, is it still only 1-0 ?
Jimmy: To say that T-Bag Town are playing with Useless United is the understatement of the season, poor old Useless don't know what day it is. It's Still 1-0.
Just 10 minutes to go, T-Bag Town looking comfortable I take it ?
Jimmy: That's right, everyone in the side is turning it on it's almost cruel, the other team are just not on the park. Wait a minute what's going on here... T-Bag Town's GK is looking very complacent indeed. He's been waving to the crowd for a good 30 minutes now, but he's just taken off his gloves and walked to the sidelines to sign some autographs for the fans. T-Bag Town's manager is furious and shouting at him to get back in goal but he's not concentrating. Naldo is under pressure just inside his own half, he's going to have to pass it back... GOAAAAL for Useless United !!!!! The GK was nowhere to be seen, beaten by a slow moving backpass, this is incredible!! It was the first attempt on goal all game!
T-Bag Town certainly seem to be involved their fare share of these type of games this season, I think we must be in stoppage time now, Jimmy?
Jimmy: That's right, we have played 5 of the 6 added minutes now. Spiderman has been awarded MOTM. He webbed the champagne right from box into his goal and is sipping it right now. I've been down to the bench to try and see what T-Bag Town's manager is up to. Seems he noticed Useless's DR only has 8 pace and he has set Obinna on him with 19 pace/acceleration but it's not really doing anything. Commentators curse right there Bob! He's just beat his man and won a corner. Bosko Jankovic steps up and whips it into the 6 yard box, Naldo rises above everyone else and scores his 44th goal in 94 games ! The referee blows his whistle, It's all over, it's 2-1!!
Well Bob, I think the morale of this story is not even Spiderman can save a corner.
T-Bag Town's manager is still looking stressed.
It's 3:05pm so let's head over to our reporter for a match update, how's it going Jimmy ?
Jimmy: Kick off has been delayed by 10 minutes i'm afraid. Someone has parked a transit van in the entrance to the car park so their 10 fans can't get in on time for kick off! Useless United are using the local pub's facilities because they don't have a ground. There's been an announcement on the club's PA system (the karaoke machine) to try and locate the driver so hopefully we can get under way soon.
The vidi printer is still showing it's 0-0 after 20 minutes, what's happening Jimmy ?
Jimmy: Incredible scenes here Bob. Useless United have unveiled a surprise today, they have a new signing out on the pitch. I'm not sure who it is Bob ? He's playing in goal and he's wearing a red mask. I think it might be... Spiderman
Spiderman eh Bob ? That doesn't sound very likely to me, what makes you think that ?
Jimmy: Well T-Bag Town are dominating the match today, the stats are showing 75% possession and I count around 5 clear cut chances already. Spiderman is averaging an 8.5 and certainly looks to be 'playing with confidence'. I'll update you at half time !
It's nearly half time in the match with T-Bag Town vs Useless United and it's still 0-0 ?
Jimmy: Yes that's right Bob, it's still 0-0 here. I've never seen anything like it, T-Bag Town have had around 9 clear cut chances now. Just before you joined me, Obinna picked up the ball from around 30 yards out, beat his man, rounded the keeper and passed the ball into the net. As he was running off the celebrate, Spiderman webbed onto the goalpost, swung in and saved the shot!
Wait a minute, here's a chance! Brienza has picked up up the ball on the half way line, he's beaten 3 men but his shot has hit the cross bar. Rossi Steps up on the rebound and slots it home with a stunning volley!! GOAL for T-Bag Town!! I'm not sure what happened to Spiderman here he seemed to be playing with his wrists, one of the locals thinks his web got jammed. I think the floodgates might open in the second half it should be about 7-0 by now.
The second half is well under way now, is it still only 1-0 ?
Jimmy: To say that T-Bag Town are playing with Useless United is the understatement of the season, poor old Useless don't know what day it is. It's Still 1-0.
Just 10 minutes to go, T-Bag Town looking comfortable I take it ?
Jimmy: That's right, everyone in the side is turning it on it's almost cruel, the other team are just not on the park. Wait a minute what's going on here... T-Bag Town's GK is looking very complacent indeed. He's been waving to the crowd for a good 30 minutes now, but he's just taken off his gloves and walked to the sidelines to sign some autographs for the fans. T-Bag Town's manager is furious and shouting at him to get back in goal but he's not concentrating. Naldo is under pressure just inside his own half, he's going to have to pass it back... GOAAAAL for Useless United !!!!! The GK was nowhere to be seen, beaten by a slow moving backpass, this is incredible!! It was the first attempt on goal all game!
T-Bag Town certainly seem to be involved their fare share of these type of games this season, I think we must be in stoppage time now, Jimmy?
Jimmy: That's right, we have played 5 of the 6 added minutes now. Spiderman has been awarded MOTM. He webbed the champagne right from box into his goal and is sipping it right now. I've been down to the bench to try and see what T-Bag Town's manager is up to. Seems he noticed Useless's DR only has 8 pace and he has set Obinna on him with 19 pace/acceleration but it's not really doing anything. Commentators curse right there Bob! He's just beat his man and won a corner. Bosko Jankovic steps up and whips it into the 6 yard box, Naldo rises above everyone else and scores his 44th goal in 94 games ! The referee blows his whistle, It's all over, it's 2-1!!
Well Bob, I think the morale of this story is not even Spiderman can save a corner.
T-Bag Town's manager is still looking stressed.
Saturday 18 July 2009
An expensive mistake
Ok this one is my fault but it still annoyed me!
During my previous week of anger at the way things were going I decided to address the problem with a new signing. As per my FM strategy down the years, if something is not working, buy more attacking players. I figured I needed to beef up my midfield with an older and experienced player so off I went to see what the ageists had ignored on the free list.
A 32 year old chap by the name Gastón Fernández looked like he would do the trick. Good pace, acceleration, dribbling, passing and decent finishing. His wage was £26k, so combined with his Aquistion Fee I paid a total of £660k.
Ready for his debut i'm deciding where best to place him then I realise he can't actually play in MC ! He can only play in AMC. I try him in MC anyway and he averages a 5.9 meaning I have nowhere to fit him in my team and he is completely useless to me.
Having spent £5m on players this week and racking up a wage bill of £283k in the process it was time to cut my losses and move him on.
He sold for £2ok. So including paying his wages for 3 days I made a net loss of £718k from this particular deal.
Would anyone else like me to buy a player for them..
During my previous week of anger at the way things were going I decided to address the problem with a new signing. As per my FM strategy down the years, if something is not working, buy more attacking players. I figured I needed to beef up my midfield with an older and experienced player so off I went to see what the ageists had ignored on the free list.
A 32 year old chap by the name Gastón Fernández looked like he would do the trick. Good pace, acceleration, dribbling, passing and decent finishing. His wage was £26k, so combined with his Aquistion Fee I paid a total of £660k.
Ready for his debut i'm deciding where best to place him then I realise he can't actually play in MC ! He can only play in AMC. I try him in MC anyway and he averages a 5.9 meaning I have nowhere to fit him in my team and he is completely useless to me.
Having spent £5m on players this week and racking up a wage bill of £283k in the process it was time to cut my losses and move him on.
He sold for £2ok. So including paying his wages for 3 days I made a net loss of £718k from this particular deal.
Would anyone else like me to buy a player for them..
Friday 17 July 2009
Is it any wonder ?
Another game, another GK MOTM and another 1-shot-wonder (1sw)...
How many times will this happen throughout the season ? Well I will tell you ! I have been recording data on this to support my annoyance. At the last count, 48% of FA based games I had either drawn or lost, the opposition GK got MOTM!!!! It would also be around 70% if I disregarded results against the only 2 good teams I've played. Also that's not including games I have won where the opposition keeper has got MOTM either! I don't even want to look at the number of 1sws but the stats are skewed as they normally get another shot in near end or something.
In-between typing this I have won two games, the opposition GK got MOTM in both... I scored 3 goals in one of those games.
So it's my tactics not creating the right chances ? The one where my striker scores 1 in 1 in friendly games ? The one which lead my team to 90 games unbeaten ? Yes I think this is clearly the reason. Various tweaks have done nothing to help. When your creating 5+ CCCS a game what more can you do ?
In another related annoyance of the day my GWC opponent got AI rights over me despite me chucking a few challenges in. Having checked the game it appears I lost. It appears I was 1sw'ed, it appears I was 1sw'ed in the 94th minute...... Good times.
How many times will this happen throughout the season ? Well I will tell you ! I have been recording data on this to support my annoyance. At the last count, 48% of FA based games I had either drawn or lost, the opposition GK got MOTM!!!! It would also be around 70% if I disregarded results against the only 2 good teams I've played. Also that's not including games I have won where the opposition keeper has got MOTM either! I don't even want to look at the number of 1sws but the stats are skewed as they normally get another shot in near end or something.
In-between typing this I have won two games, the opposition GK got MOTM in both... I scored 3 goals in one of those games.
So it's my tactics not creating the right chances ? The one where my striker scores 1 in 1 in friendly games ? The one which lead my team to 90 games unbeaten ? Yes I think this is clearly the reason. Various tweaks have done nothing to help. When your creating 5+ CCCS a game what more can you do ?
In another related annoyance of the day my GWC opponent got AI rights over me despite me chucking a few challenges in. Having checked the game it appears I lost. It appears I was 1sw'ed, it appears I was 1sw'ed in the 94th minute...... Good times.
Thursday 16 July 2009
Two legged cups
Seems this has also got me in trouble this week.
Anyone with eyes or not suffering from some kind of mental issues should be aware that, any cup tie in any competition, is horribly broken. The majority of the time the team who wins the first leg goes on to lose the second leg. The reason is simple. The players of the side which take the lead into the tie see the match score as the score from the first leg. So if you won the first leg 3-0, as soon as the match kicks off your players think "hey we are 3-0 up, lets just kick back and relax" and half the team are 'complacent' within 15 minutes. They score a couple of goals, your players have made mistakes, they have a low average rating and so confidence drops more!
If the opposition team is very weak or you only won the first leg say 1-0 then this tends not to happen so much. Even if you don't lose the tie overall your players will play like chumps and you will lose the match.
So I was thinking I need to not win the first leg so well to stop this happening. So I spent a season playing my youths team in the first leg and main team in second leg. This worked quite well and I won a few cups with this tactic. Trouble was as my youth team got better they started beating teams, drawing or only losing by the odd goal. So I decided to see what would happen if I used the abandon match button to lose the first leg 3-0. This didn't go down well and got me reported to Sega. Incidentally it didn't work, none of his players went complacent in the second leg and I drew 2-2.
I've now been told i'm not allowed to do anything which I THINK may be an exploit??
Any abandonment of official matches (or fielding deliberately weakened teams with the intention of losing) will be treated as breaking the above rules and could result in disciplinary action taken against your club or suspension/removal from the Football Assciation concerned!
Now whether there is an issue with 2-legged cup ties or not (I personally do not think there is from my 2 year's playing experience and I always play to win both legs - but I'm happy to be proved wrong) if YOU believe there is an exploit there then you should not try and exploit it. This includes both abandonning matches and making substitutions in order to conceed goals or deliberately lose matches. - RT
Does this mean i'm not allowed to wear my lucky T-shirt any more ? I'm pretty sure this helps me win most games but seen as I BELIEVE it is an exploit i'm not allowed to do it?? what??? Are corner goals not exploiting the ME ?
I get that there are no ME changes at the moment and we are waiting on the FM10 engine but why can't someone acknowledge this problem ? Why have 2-legged cup ties not been suspended from official competitions ?
Anyway i'm still totally confused about what kind of team I am allowed to play in 2-legged cups this season.... Will giving my youths a go in the GC get me in trouble ? Maybe if I just play defensive instead?
Anyone with eyes or not suffering from some kind of mental issues should be aware that, any cup tie in any competition, is horribly broken. The majority of the time the team who wins the first leg goes on to lose the second leg. The reason is simple. The players of the side which take the lead into the tie see the match score as the score from the first leg. So if you won the first leg 3-0, as soon as the match kicks off your players think "hey we are 3-0 up, lets just kick back and relax" and half the team are 'complacent' within 15 minutes. They score a couple of goals, your players have made mistakes, they have a low average rating and so confidence drops more!
If the opposition team is very weak or you only won the first leg say 1-0 then this tends not to happen so much. Even if you don't lose the tie overall your players will play like chumps and you will lose the match.
So I was thinking I need to not win the first leg so well to stop this happening. So I spent a season playing my youths team in the first leg and main team in second leg. This worked quite well and I won a few cups with this tactic. Trouble was as my youth team got better they started beating teams, drawing or only losing by the odd goal. So I decided to see what would happen if I used the abandon match button to lose the first leg 3-0. This didn't go down well and got me reported to Sega. Incidentally it didn't work, none of his players went complacent in the second leg and I drew 2-2.
I've now been told i'm not allowed to do anything which I THINK may be an exploit??
Any abandonment of official matches (or fielding deliberately weakened teams with the intention of losing) will be treated as breaking the above rules and could result in disciplinary action taken against your club or suspension/removal from the Football Assciation concerned!
Now whether there is an issue with 2-legged cup ties or not (I personally do not think there is from my 2 year's playing experience and I always play to win both legs - but I'm happy to be proved wrong) if YOU believe there is an exploit there then you should not try and exploit it. This includes both abandonning matches and making substitutions in order to conceed goals or deliberately lose matches. - RT
Does this mean i'm not allowed to wear my lucky T-shirt any more ? I'm pretty sure this helps me win most games but seen as I BELIEVE it is an exploit i'm not allowed to do it?? what??? Are corner goals not exploiting the ME ?
I get that there are no ME changes at the moment and we are waiting on the FM10 engine but why can't someone acknowledge this problem ? Why have 2-legged cup ties not been suspended from official competitions ?
Anyway i'm still totally confused about what kind of team I am allowed to play in 2-legged cups this season.... Will giving my youths a go in the GC get me in trouble ? Maybe if I just play defensive instead?
FML is pointless
I have had an eventful week or so on FML where I have come extremely close to quitting and even more angry.
I posted this on the forum at the weekend, didn't go down too well with some and got me an infraction in the process:
FML is pointless:
Reason being is that official league form is utterly random and has no relation to anything and is not based on anything whatsoever. It doesn't matter how good your team is, how long you have spent on tactics, how long you spent analysing the opposition team's weakness.... come league day and every game is just run through the RANDOM-O-LEAGUE-RESULTS-GENERATOR-MATIC @SI TM to produce some stupid result. Even the games you win are a complete utter nonsense of last minute comebacks, no possession, not creating chances and lucky wins. Why do you have to lose every game unfairly ? Why can't you just be the better team and win a game fairly ? Why can't you be the poorer team and lose?
Every season I have ever season on FML since the beta has been exactly the same. As soon as you play any away game it's time to draw or lose to some utterly dire team just to 'spice things up' or something. You play them in any kind of non FA competition and hammer them into the ground, then it's FA day and suddenly you can't even get a shot on goal.
Even in the new Super FAs with the neutral ground you STILL get these farcical games and results, opposition GK on MOTM and you getting 1 shot wondered every bloody game. Play them outside the FA and you get a result which has some basis in reality, like, you play them off the field and win. I'd prefer to play the game without taking part in any FA but I understand this is not allowed and I would get assigned to a casual FA ? Why ? I just want to play the game and have results which have some fucking bearing on something.
I've decided to moan on here rather than spend time selling my whole team and giving this game up in the hope that I feel different in the morning. If not that's it, my whole team is going in auction.
I want someone to explain to me what the hell is happening with league form. Why is it so different to normal games ? Why do crap teams become godlike ? Why do you draw so many games away from home ?
And they wonder why people are more concerned with friendly competitions rather than official league games.... it's perfectly understandable IMO. League games are just random bollocks that appear to have no basis in reality at all. I have little interest in my league these days as I can pretty much predict exactly what is going to happen before it even kicks off.
Don't even get my started on cups... I specifically requested NOT to be assigned to any FA cup this season which involved 2-legs, but apparantly i'm not allowed to do that either??? I've spent the last few seasons purposely losing the first leg by playing defenders in goal etc and won several cups doing so. I hoped to avoid having to do this ridiculous tactic this season by not playing in them, but apparently nooo
I posted this on the forum at the weekend, didn't go down too well with some and got me an infraction in the process:
FML is pointless:
Reason being is that official league form is utterly random and has no relation to anything and is not based on anything whatsoever. It doesn't matter how good your team is, how long you have spent on tactics, how long you spent analysing the opposition team's weakness.... come league day and every game is just run through the RANDOM-O-LEAGUE-RESULTS-GENERATOR-MATIC @SI TM to produce some stupid result. Even the games you win are a complete utter nonsense of last minute comebacks, no possession, not creating chances and lucky wins. Why do you have to lose every game unfairly ? Why can't you just be the better team and win a game fairly ? Why can't you be the poorer team and lose?
Every season I have ever season on FML since the beta has been exactly the same. As soon as you play any away game it's time to draw or lose to some utterly dire team just to 'spice things up' or something. You play them in any kind of non FA competition and hammer them into the ground, then it's FA day and suddenly you can't even get a shot on goal.
Even in the new Super FAs with the neutral ground you STILL get these farcical games and results, opposition GK on MOTM and you getting 1 shot wondered every bloody game. Play them outside the FA and you get a result which has some basis in reality, like, you play them off the field and win. I'd prefer to play the game without taking part in any FA but I understand this is not allowed and I would get assigned to a casual FA ? Why ? I just want to play the game and have results which have some fucking bearing on something.
I've decided to moan on here rather than spend time selling my whole team and giving this game up in the hope that I feel different in the morning. If not that's it, my whole team is going in auction.
I want someone to explain to me what the hell is happening with league form. Why is it so different to normal games ? Why do crap teams become godlike ? Why do you draw so many games away from home ?
And they wonder why people are more concerned with friendly competitions rather than official league games.... it's perfectly understandable IMO. League games are just random bollocks that appear to have no basis in reality at all. I have little interest in my league these days as I can pretty much predict exactly what is going to happen before it even kicks off.
Don't even get my started on cups... I specifically requested NOT to be assigned to any FA cup this season which involved 2-legs, but apparantly i'm not allowed to do that either??? I've spent the last few seasons purposely losing the first leg by playing defenders in goal etc and won several cups doing so. I hoped to avoid having to do this ridiculous tactic this season by not playing in them, but apparently nooo
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