an ending fitting for the start, you twist and tore our love apart..
So I decided to delete my big ME rant last night because I thought it was perhaps a little too harsh, but on reflection I don't think it was actually harsh enough. I've been thinking all morning how to put into words how awful it is, but I just can't do it.... everything is wrong with it and nothing is right, I just don't know where to start.
It's completely pointless giving any feedback as no one is interested and blatant exploits are considered to be perfectly acceptable. This leads me to believe that everything which is wrong with it is actually deliberate to make the game purposely random and luck based.
Decided to play a match this morning to restore the faith, 6 knocks in first half, 2 shot wondered, super keepered then I score a last minute winner.... business as usual then.
There's not much else I can say which I haven't said before... i've tried.... It's ruined the game completely, I can't stand watching matches any more, every single one is just a steaming pile of horse shit waiting to be kicked in your face. I think this might be it for me, everything else which has annoyed me previously has been fixable, this clearly isn't.
I'm going to holiday for a week, i'll no doubt either come back to winning a league title, being relegated or finding my entire squad trapped in a wardrobe for 25 games after injuring themselves getting dressed. Only the dice can decide..
In the meantime I suggest that everyone sets up the undefendable outside the box corner seen as it's not going to be fixed, so it at least gets more attention.
Sunday 28 February 2010
Friday 26 February 2010
oooooohhh what a rush
It was a sell out crowd for my recent cup game as my fans poured in hoping to sing my fans on to cup glory.
It was a fairly dull first half but the fans who disappeared to the bar at half time missed a treat as some special entertainment had been laid on. Having dominated the match before being one shot wondered you could hardly blame the fans for heading off to drown their sorrows with a swift pint.
But as the half time whistle blew, fucking Stone Cold Steve Austin turned up in the stadium on a god damn quad bike !!! Next thing he is driving round the pitch, drinking a beer at every corner flag. The fans are loving it !
But things started to go sour quite quickly as the Ultimate Warrior took offence to such blatant showboating. Next thing is he has run onto the pitch and he's shaking the corner flag, it appears to be giving him unimaginable strength and energy. The away fans try throwing some coins at him but nothing can hurt him now he has shaken the flag!
He's after Stone Cold now but he quickly escapes on his quad bike as everyone knows, Pace > All. But he is still after blood and he's heading to the dressing room. He's dragged Pato out into the penalty area and for some reason Shaun Michaels has turned up and put a fucking ladder up in the penalty area ! With only a few moments left to kick off, Pato decides he best retrieve the ball which has now been located at the top of the ladder, but Shaun Michaels has other ideas and body slams him through the goalpost slightly injuring him.
Meanwhile, the Ultimate Warrior has returned to my dressing room and Gorilla pressed my entire defence into a conveniently located nearby trash can.
Shaun Michaels has taken a special offence to club captain and general legend Franco Brienza and is trying to get him in the suplex, but with a quick turn of pace, Franco quickly escapes because everyone knows...... Pace > All.
The referee signals the start of the second half but it's all too much, Pato has broken the goalpost and his back, he's out for the rest of the season. My defence is trapped in a trash can for the next 5 games an Franco is busy dismantling my stadium to find some steel chairs to deali with Shaun Michaels. (Franco won)
It was a fairly dull first half but the fans who disappeared to the bar at half time missed a treat as some special entertainment had been laid on. Having dominated the match before being one shot wondered you could hardly blame the fans for heading off to drown their sorrows with a swift pint.
But as the half time whistle blew, fucking Stone Cold Steve Austin turned up in the stadium on a god damn quad bike !!! Next thing he is driving round the pitch, drinking a beer at every corner flag. The fans are loving it !
But things started to go sour quite quickly as the Ultimate Warrior took offence to such blatant showboating. Next thing is he has run onto the pitch and he's shaking the corner flag, it appears to be giving him unimaginable strength and energy. The away fans try throwing some coins at him but nothing can hurt him now he has shaken the flag!
He's after Stone Cold now but he quickly escapes on his quad bike as everyone knows, Pace > All. But he is still after blood and he's heading to the dressing room. He's dragged Pato out into the penalty area and for some reason Shaun Michaels has turned up and put a fucking ladder up in the penalty area ! With only a few moments left to kick off, Pato decides he best retrieve the ball which has now been located at the top of the ladder, but Shaun Michaels has other ideas and body slams him through the goalpost slightly injuring him.
Meanwhile, the Ultimate Warrior has returned to my dressing room and Gorilla pressed my entire defence into a conveniently located nearby trash can.
Shaun Michaels has taken a special offence to club captain and general legend Franco Brienza and is trying to get him in the suplex, but with a quick turn of pace, Franco quickly escapes because everyone knows...... Pace > All.
The referee signals the start of the second half but it's all too much, Pato has broken the goalpost and his back, he's out for the rest of the season. My defence is trapped in a trash can for the next 5 games an Franco is busy dismantling my stadium to find some steel chairs to deali with Shaun Michaels. (Franco won)
Thursday 25 February 2010
Brutal Deluxe
Icecreeeeeaaam
Apparently it is completely normal for a player to go off injured in every single football match played. Perfectly normal.
More injuries that stick and require some kind of squad management = good
Constant injuries every single game = bad
I struggle to remember the last game where I didn't see at least one player go off injured. I don't play hard tackling nor do I play high closing down yet it seems that every player is actually made of glass.
In a match I played recently there were 7 knocks and 1 green injury within the first 40 minutes of the game. Perfectly normal. Remind me which sport we are playing again ?
In other news the youth venture has started off fairly well with comfortable wins in all games so far. Then I thought i'd give #1 in the youth a game to see where they are at. Alas I had 3 players off injured and one in red condition before the first half finished. Needless to say the end result wasn't too pretty.
While I am moaning about injuries I am especially annoyed by how long it takes condition to go up once a player returns from injury. It usually takes more games than the actual injury lasted to get them close to 100% fitness. I reckon I have played 30+ CPU games over the last week just trying to get players back to fitness. It seems to take about 7-10 games per player... fun times.
The random result generator isn't treating the seniors too badly so far. Although my main striker going off injured the last game was a bit of a blow, then the guy I brought on for him also going off injured then my other striker... wait for it.... going off injured... and all sticking has presented a problem. Turns out having 7 strikers wasn't too many after all.
Apparently it is completely normal for a player to go off injured in every single football match played. Perfectly normal.
More injuries that stick and require some kind of squad management = good
Constant injuries every single game = bad
I struggle to remember the last game where I didn't see at least one player go off injured. I don't play hard tackling nor do I play high closing down yet it seems that every player is actually made of glass.
In a match I played recently there were 7 knocks and 1 green injury within the first 40 minutes of the game. Perfectly normal. Remind me which sport we are playing again ?
In other news the youth venture has started off fairly well with comfortable wins in all games so far. Then I thought i'd give #1 in the youth a game to see where they are at. Alas I had 3 players off injured and one in red condition before the first half finished. Needless to say the end result wasn't too pretty.
While I am moaning about injuries I am especially annoyed by how long it takes condition to go up once a player returns from injury. It usually takes more games than the actual injury lasted to get them close to 100% fitness. I reckon I have played 30+ CPU games over the last week just trying to get players back to fitness. It seems to take about 7-10 games per player... fun times.
The random result generator isn't treating the seniors too badly so far. Although my main striker going off injured the last game was a bit of a blow, then the guy I brought on for him also going off injured then my other striker... wait for it.... going off injured... and all sticking has presented a problem. Turns out having 7 strikers wasn't too many after all.
Tuesday 23 February 2010
A conumdrum
You have 85% possession and several CCCS in the first 20 minutes of a match and the opposition has had 1 shot, what has happened?
1)you have scored a goal and in control
2)you are losing 3-0 after the opposition DC with long shots 3 has scored 3x40 yard drives (despite the team only having 1 shot)
3)your GK has thrown the ball into his own net
4)you've been done over by an undefendable corner
Things to consider before answering this question:
It's Tuesday. The sky is cloudy. I painted my garage door white today. The price of bread in my local shop went up 1p. My aunt moved to Spain.
1)you have scored a goal and in control
2)you are losing 3-0 after the opposition DC with long shots 3 has scored 3x40 yard drives (despite the team only having 1 shot)
3)your GK has thrown the ball into his own net
4)you've been done over by an undefendable corner
Things to consider before answering this question:
It's Tuesday. The sky is cloudy. I painted my garage door white today. The price of bread in my local shop went up 1p. My aunt moved to Spain.
Monday 22 February 2010
Where did all the love go ?
I've come to the conclusion that the ME has been designed to be purposely random. It's literally every single game, with lose or draw, which is just a random mess.
But FM10 works fine, the old ME worked fine (despite being seriously fucking irritating) and with 15 years of experience i'm sure SI are capable of making a ME which isn't totally random. Their other games work, the old ME worked, results made sense and you had power to influence things.
But now nothing at all makes any sense whatsoever so I must conclude this has been done on purpose. We have seen a lot of sensible, clever and good changes to make the game more competitive for all teams and to stop the big clubs breaking away. I'm certain a covert change to add to this whereby every result essentially has a massive element to it to try and keep people interested.
Poor teams can win games at will while the better teams generally win most games but keep on playing to try and work out the ingredient to make their team unbeatable - except they wont ever find it, because it's not possible any more. Check your GW records and see when the record for most games without losing was set, assume some of them are BS results in reserve tournaments and some such and look at the extended records. Odds on the vast majority are on the old ME. I remember going 90 games unbeaten (only ended by a broken 2 legged cup game) but it's pretty much implausible to go more than a few games now without the random-o-result generator kicking in every other match.
Add into that the ridiculous amount of knocks and injuries occurring every single game - again something which doesn't happen on FM10 with the 'same ME' meaning you can't make any tactical subs is something else adding to the lottery factor. Sticky injuries being increased is fine, but players going off injured every single match is just plain stupid.
Coming soon, "Snakes & Ladders Live"
But FM10 works fine, the old ME worked fine (despite being seriously fucking irritating) and with 15 years of experience i'm sure SI are capable of making a ME which isn't totally random. Their other games work, the old ME worked, results made sense and you had power to influence things.
But now nothing at all makes any sense whatsoever so I must conclude this has been done on purpose. We have seen a lot of sensible, clever and good changes to make the game more competitive for all teams and to stop the big clubs breaking away. I'm certain a covert change to add to this whereby every result essentially has a massive element to it to try and keep people interested.
Poor teams can win games at will while the better teams generally win most games but keep on playing to try and work out the ingredient to make their team unbeatable - except they wont ever find it, because it's not possible any more. Check your GW records and see when the record for most games without losing was set, assume some of them are BS results in reserve tournaments and some such and look at the extended records. Odds on the vast majority are on the old ME. I remember going 90 games unbeaten (only ended by a broken 2 legged cup game) but it's pretty much implausible to go more than a few games now without the random-o-result generator kicking in every other match.
Add into that the ridiculous amount of knocks and injuries occurring every single game - again something which doesn't happen on FM10 with the 'same ME' meaning you can't make any tactical subs is something else adding to the lottery factor. Sticky injuries being increased is fine, but players going off injured every single match is just plain stupid.
Coming soon, "Snakes & Ladders Live"
Saturday 20 February 2010
Youth Gone Wild
The current pre-season in Miller seems to have lasted an absolute eternity. The pre-season period has actually been reduced to five days now but this wont kick in until next season. But with all the recent changes it's like there is virtually nothing to do at all!
There's no prize money in friendly competitions any more (good change obviously), there's no title for Super FA competitions (understandable),there's very little point to looking at rankings any more with the new reputation bandings and I don't need to play any human managers to keep people fit because there's CPU teams for that.
So this pre-season I have just logged and played a few CPU teams each day and with the recent wage auction changes it means I can just lock all my players so I don't even need to worry about having to buy anyone !
It's essential that some kind of unofficial official competitions are set up with some worthwhile rewards for times like this and even to play during quieter periods of the season. Add a bit of cash into some Super FA competitions, some big RP payouts or even some unique RP store type prizes ! A small amount of cash wont be enough to create a big imbalance if done properly and will add some excitement to playing non official games again. Get some specific event orgs in too with their main role being to organise ad hoc and weekly type competitions along these lines.
Anyway you know how I really hate regens ? You know how they are all rubbish and my team is database only ? Well, this morning I was so bored due to the above I decided to sign a youth team in time for the new season! I've just gone for a load of cheap ones from the free list that look like they can perform and get me some results. I did used to have a top ranked youth team alongside my senior team back in the day before I sold them all, for being rubbish, so I think i've got a good pick.
It's harder than ever to sell older players on Miller with seemingly me being the sole person willing to buy these players so i'm hoping I might be able to make some cash from the youth scene if nothing else. Can we have the progression graph back for players we don't own please ? So we can see which older players are worth signings ? I've been stung big time by this with one player as I didn't really anticipate he would lose about 3 pace in as many days.
There's normally some kind of bizarre situation going on around my club and this season will be no different. My team will be representing my FA in the Gold Cup again this season, however my team isn't in the top division of the FA ! Due to the new FA structures and teams being assigned via reputation I have ended up in the Championship - My team is only 2 seasons old so I only have two seasons contributing to my reputation!
I did have a 3 season plan to make it to top of the GW but i've messed this up big time because I decided to change tactic and needed to make massive team changes and I randomly ended up with 7 strikers all of whom seem to range between age 30-34 and don't really fit my tactic properly. So well, that's probably off now as i'm lacking enough cash to try it again for next season. All woe as usual.
In other news I have been playing some more FM10 this week (well worth buying if you haven't got the latest version, much better than FM09) and coming from FML it is just shockingly easy! Playing as Leeds I won League 1 in the first season which is probably to be expected. Then in the second season I finished 14 points clear in the Championship scoring about 130 goals in the process ! I was robbed in the FA Cup semi Final in the same season too by a MOTM goalkeeping performance while mine got a 5 and let in every shot. First season in the Premier League and i'm probably going to end up in the Champions League with relative ease. I suspect I would have actually won the league if I didn't buy Fraizer Campbell for £14m.....
I just plugged in players from my attribute templates, hooked up the latest cheat formation, set up the corner routines and with the pick of the database at my hands bought the perfect player for my budget for every position. Result ? I have about 10+ clear cut chances every game and smash every team off the pitch. Unfortunately fucking Fraizer Campbell missing 6 one on ones per match is preventing me from kicking on - he actually missed 8 in one game !!
Still get the random games where you can't beat the poor teams though. I think I had 14 clear cut chances against some lower league team in League Cup while they had 2 shots and took me to extra time. Took a random 40 yard punt and a penalty to win it for me in the end. Same shit, different game and all that.
There's no prize money in friendly competitions any more (good change obviously), there's no title for Super FA competitions (understandable),there's very little point to looking at rankings any more with the new reputation bandings and I don't need to play any human managers to keep people fit because there's CPU teams for that.
So this pre-season I have just logged and played a few CPU teams each day and with the recent wage auction changes it means I can just lock all my players so I don't even need to worry about having to buy anyone !
It's essential that some kind of unofficial official competitions are set up with some worthwhile rewards for times like this and even to play during quieter periods of the season. Add a bit of cash into some Super FA competitions, some big RP payouts or even some unique RP store type prizes ! A small amount of cash wont be enough to create a big imbalance if done properly and will add some excitement to playing non official games again. Get some specific event orgs in too with their main role being to organise ad hoc and weekly type competitions along these lines.
Anyway you know how I really hate regens ? You know how they are all rubbish and my team is database only ? Well, this morning I was so bored due to the above I decided to sign a youth team in time for the new season! I've just gone for a load of cheap ones from the free list that look like they can perform and get me some results. I did used to have a top ranked youth team alongside my senior team back in the day before I sold them all, for being rubbish, so I think i've got a good pick.
It's harder than ever to sell older players on Miller with seemingly me being the sole person willing to buy these players so i'm hoping I might be able to make some cash from the youth scene if nothing else. Can we have the progression graph back for players we don't own please ? So we can see which older players are worth signings ? I've been stung big time by this with one player as I didn't really anticipate he would lose about 3 pace in as many days.
There's normally some kind of bizarre situation going on around my club and this season will be no different. My team will be representing my FA in the Gold Cup again this season, however my team isn't in the top division of the FA ! Due to the new FA structures and teams being assigned via reputation I have ended up in the Championship - My team is only 2 seasons old so I only have two seasons contributing to my reputation!
I did have a 3 season plan to make it to top of the GW but i've messed this up big time because I decided to change tactic and needed to make massive team changes and I randomly ended up with 7 strikers all of whom seem to range between age 30-34 and don't really fit my tactic properly. So well, that's probably off now as i'm lacking enough cash to try it again for next season. All woe as usual.
In other news I have been playing some more FM10 this week (well worth buying if you haven't got the latest version, much better than FM09) and coming from FML it is just shockingly easy! Playing as Leeds I won League 1 in the first season which is probably to be expected. Then in the second season I finished 14 points clear in the Championship scoring about 130 goals in the process ! I was robbed in the FA Cup semi Final in the same season too by a MOTM goalkeeping performance while mine got a 5 and let in every shot. First season in the Premier League and i'm probably going to end up in the Champions League with relative ease. I suspect I would have actually won the league if I didn't buy Fraizer Campbell for £14m.....
I just plugged in players from my attribute templates, hooked up the latest cheat formation, set up the corner routines and with the pick of the database at my hands bought the perfect player for my budget for every position. Result ? I have about 10+ clear cut chances every game and smash every team off the pitch. Unfortunately fucking Fraizer Campbell missing 6 one on ones per match is preventing me from kicking on - he actually missed 8 in one game !!
Still get the random games where you can't beat the poor teams though. I think I had 14 clear cut chances against some lower league team in League Cup while they had 2 shots and took me to extra time. Took a random 40 yard punt and a penalty to win it for me in the end. Same shit, different game and all that.
Sunday 14 February 2010
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well you just might find
You get what you need.
Happy valentines day people, anyone want to own up to sending the card ?
A year ago today I was off work and it was in some way related to FML, I presumed it must have been for the launch of my GW but after initially posting this blog I realised the dates were completely off. But for the pretence of this story, lets pretend this was actually the reason I was off work because I actually was, twice, for two different GW launches.
After GW3 crashed we ended up in another beta GW a short time before the game was due to go retail. I spent this time well, I didn't actually play the game. I went through all of the teams that had done well at the start and made a note of all the best players you could sign cheap in your initial squad. I made a big list of how much they cost, their average rating, goals, assists and various other useful stats. I ordered the list in a way that I had my first to last choice in order for each position.
GW Lineker opens, and i'm in. Copy and paste, Copy and paste, Copy and paste, Copy and paste repeat x16, confirm squad. Five minutes later I have my team and i'm in the top 10 for the first season and I win my qualifying league in spectacular fashion. Meanwhile Dennis Daylate is stuck down the bottom of the league, for the next 3 months. (Interestingly I signed almost the exact same team again when returning stars first came into Miller, and won the league again )
Anyway, this is obviously bloody stupid. My suggestion to fix this was to give you 16 locked players and that was it, but rather generously the pool system has given us 50 whole players to choose from! Having seen this in place, it's shocking this wasn't in place from the very start of FML.
But but but... I want an all Mongolian team, I want an all youth team, I want to sign all of the best players I can at the start before anyone else has the chance! Tough luck, you have been given a football team, now go MANAGE it and do whatever it is you actually want to do !
There's not enough players to go round to ensure everyone can get exactly what they want in their pool, not everyone can have a team of all Polish players or 25 year olds. It just wont work like that.
So for the last couple of weeks while the pools have been tested on the other beta GW there has been very conflicting views on what the actual quality of the players are like. Some people seem to think they are fine while other people are spazzing out that none of the players are good enough for a team of any level.
Last night we got the chance to test the new pools for ourselves so I have now seen what they actually look like for myself. They are absolutely fine ! Obviously someone is going to get unlucky while others get lucky but it's not going to be the difference between success and failure and certainly it wont create the same gap that day #1 did over day #7 on the old system.
I had some pretty reasonable players in my pool who could certainly do a good job for a small club and i'd even consider a couple of them as bench warmers as a top team. But you wont get exactly what you want. For example, there was no decent wingers in my squad that came close to meeting what I would expect. Solution ? Play without wingers ! I also didn't appear to have a decent DM, so I just played an AMC there instead because there's not enough difference in attributes at this level for it to make a massive difference.
I logged in this morning to encounter a small error, I was a mod!? This appears to have been fixed now however. I was looking forward to trying the "disconnect from server" button when I was losing too ;) Anyway I had a browse over the players in the teams at the top of the rankings and the players at the bottom of the rankings and couldn't see a massive difference in quality.
I'm fairly certain the people complaining are simply expecting too much and are used to getting in early and having 50,000 players to choose 16 from. Out of that 50,000 there's obviously many low CA players who have awesome key attributes, mentals, hidden attributes for their position which makes them massively more valuable than other players. But when your entire team is made up of a random blend of players of the same kind of CA then most of them are going to be, kinda shit.
I'd say you are essentially looking at a starting squad equivalent to what you would see in a top 6 League 1 team on FM10. Out of all my players I would have been happy with about 9 of them for first team duties in the first season. I only had to compromise in a few areas, as mentioned above I had no DM. I also had to pick a DR who had 10 tackling but he had good pace and acceleration which is pretty much all a fullback needs at that level.
In conclusion, pools are great and a few months down the line no one will even think twice about them. I think many of the complaints probably come from those who like to use silly filters like +10 in all attributes.
Back on Miller, the ME decided to end my massive losing streak in another random flip of form an sent me on 10 game unbeaten streak or something so I finished mid table after being stuck rock bottom for days. Meanwhile, i've decided to to change the the latest 'cheat formation' and it's gone a bit wrong and i've managed to buy 6 strikers including the likes of a 34 year old Pato. I'm sure i'll work it out... hmm.
You get what you need.
Happy valentines day people, anyone want to own up to sending the card ?
A year ago today I was off work and it was in some way related to FML, I presumed it must have been for the launch of my GW but after initially posting this blog I realised the dates were completely off. But for the pretence of this story, lets pretend this was actually the reason I was off work because I actually was, twice, for two different GW launches.
After GW3 crashed we ended up in another beta GW a short time before the game was due to go retail. I spent this time well, I didn't actually play the game. I went through all of the teams that had done well at the start and made a note of all the best players you could sign cheap in your initial squad. I made a big list of how much they cost, their average rating, goals, assists and various other useful stats. I ordered the list in a way that I had my first to last choice in order for each position.
GW Lineker opens, and i'm in. Copy and paste, Copy and paste, Copy and paste, Copy and paste repeat x16, confirm squad. Five minutes later I have my team and i'm in the top 10 for the first season and I win my qualifying league in spectacular fashion. Meanwhile Dennis Daylate is stuck down the bottom of the league, for the next 3 months. (Interestingly I signed almost the exact same team again when returning stars first came into Miller, and won the league again )
Anyway, this is obviously bloody stupid. My suggestion to fix this was to give you 16 locked players and that was it, but rather generously the pool system has given us 50 whole players to choose from! Having seen this in place, it's shocking this wasn't in place from the very start of FML.
But but but... I want an all Mongolian team, I want an all youth team, I want to sign all of the best players I can at the start before anyone else has the chance! Tough luck, you have been given a football team, now go MANAGE it and do whatever it is you actually want to do !
There's not enough players to go round to ensure everyone can get exactly what they want in their pool, not everyone can have a team of all Polish players or 25 year olds. It just wont work like that.
So for the last couple of weeks while the pools have been tested on the other beta GW there has been very conflicting views on what the actual quality of the players are like. Some people seem to think they are fine while other people are spazzing out that none of the players are good enough for a team of any level.
Last night we got the chance to test the new pools for ourselves so I have now seen what they actually look like for myself. They are absolutely fine ! Obviously someone is going to get unlucky while others get lucky but it's not going to be the difference between success and failure and certainly it wont create the same gap that day #1 did over day #7 on the old system.
I had some pretty reasonable players in my pool who could certainly do a good job for a small club and i'd even consider a couple of them as bench warmers as a top team. But you wont get exactly what you want. For example, there was no decent wingers in my squad that came close to meeting what I would expect. Solution ? Play without wingers ! I also didn't appear to have a decent DM, so I just played an AMC there instead because there's not enough difference in attributes at this level for it to make a massive difference.
I logged in this morning to encounter a small error, I was a mod!? This appears to have been fixed now however. I was looking forward to trying the "disconnect from server" button when I was losing too ;) Anyway I had a browse over the players in the teams at the top of the rankings and the players at the bottom of the rankings and couldn't see a massive difference in quality.
I'm fairly certain the people complaining are simply expecting too much and are used to getting in early and having 50,000 players to choose 16 from. Out of that 50,000 there's obviously many low CA players who have awesome key attributes, mentals, hidden attributes for their position which makes them massively more valuable than other players. But when your entire team is made up of a random blend of players of the same kind of CA then most of them are going to be, kinda shit.
I'd say you are essentially looking at a starting squad equivalent to what you would see in a top 6 League 1 team on FM10. Out of all my players I would have been happy with about 9 of them for first team duties in the first season. I only had to compromise in a few areas, as mentioned above I had no DM. I also had to pick a DR who had 10 tackling but he had good pace and acceleration which is pretty much all a fullback needs at that level.
In conclusion, pools are great and a few months down the line no one will even think twice about them. I think many of the complaints probably come from those who like to use silly filters like +10 in all attributes.
Back on Miller, the ME decided to end my massive losing streak in another random flip of form an sent me on 10 game unbeaten streak or something so I finished mid table after being stuck rock bottom for days. Meanwhile, i've decided to to change the the latest 'cheat formation' and it's gone a bit wrong and i've managed to buy 6 strikers including the likes of a 34 year old Pato. I'm sure i'll work it out... hmm.
Tuesday 9 February 2010
I can't explain
I feel hot and cold..
Name one time in world football where a team has gone from challenging for the title, taking on all comers to TOTAL INABILITY to play football at the flick of a switch. Oh wait, THAT's NEVER HAPPENED HAS IT? Unless i'm mistaken, Arsenal are not fighting relegation this season ?
Sure we all remember the famous Keegan "I'd love it" rant where Newcastle bottled it after being 10 points clear in the 95/96 season. But did they suddenly totally lose the ability to play football ? Did they never win a game again ? No, that didn't happen did it.
We all remember Leeds implosion after breaking into Champions league. But unless I have missed something, I don't *think* any of my FML team went on a bender and decided to have a rumble at some night club resulting in a court trial. Further more I don't recall, as the manager, writing a fucking book about it,(plus i'm not certain my players would be able to read it if I did) neither do I have any recollection sending my team into financial doom by signing shite players.
Point is, there are generally reasons why teams have a downturn in form. What doesn't happen is... one day, for REASONS UNKNOWN, your team suddenly can't play football any more, a 15 year old doesn't suddenly gain the magical ability to destroy your team, the opposition GK doesn't turn into Spiderman, the opposition players don't gain +10 boots of longshot and the ability to score from 65 yards just by punting the ball somewhere in the general direction of your goal.
Now I try and look back and try to deduce what happened, what has caused this ? Well I did sign a new striker for £1.2m, a 4* reputation 32 year old. But he didn't even play any games, he was signed as cover and to replace someone who I was going to sell a week later ? So does signing one player, who you don't even play in the team, mean your team is suddenly likely to lose every single game ? Who knows... Lets ask Mystic Meg, she can probably give a better indication of what is likely to happen in FML.
This isn't the first time I have encountered this "form switch", it's actually the third time in as many seasons. The first time was the most ridiculous series of events I have ever seen. After storming away and having an awesome first season with returning stars I had about 4 defeats in 50 games. Then suddenly, I think there may have been a full moon that night, my team lost all ability to play football and I literally went 50 odd games with one fucking win... and I was lucky to win that.
I actually put out a challenge in the lobby - first team to lose to me can have one of my players at any price. So the challenges come in, people WANT to lose to me, they are playing their youth teams, stupid tactics and the lot. So now i'm going to win some games... No i'm not... I continue to lose every single bloody game. My previously invincible team can no longer do anything which resembles football. I ended up having to restart and pick a new team because my form was so broken, so then off I go again winning every game in sight.
So here we go again.... I'd actually restart again at the end of this season so I could win some games but alas that would mean losing Franco, so no can do. I'm not even sure the genius of Franco will be able to sort this out.
I'd just set up the outside of the box corner hack but sods law is my only player who can hit a reasonable long shot is my bloody corner taker! I guess I could sign some 16 year old with 1 long shots though, he will probably score 1 in 1.
I'd also suggest everyone starts using this bloody corner routine so it gets more attention and hopefully fixed. Basically you have your best long shot man outside of the area and setting corner man to pass to penalty area (I've not actually tried this properly so this might end up being wrong) will pass to the free man who you can't get anyone to mark without using mark specific (and that doesn't work properly) He scores a 30 yard drive every single game, or takes ball into box and scores from there. With the default tactics no one will mark that outside of the area guy from what I can tell, and even with spending a day trying to sort it manually I STILL can't get ANYONE To mark this guy even with my entire team back for corners. Go on. Try it.
Oh look, i've lost to another youth team while typing this, and my GK has been injured. Seriously... Bring back the old ME. I know I slagged that off, but it was only annoying because the only games you lost you got super keepered and one shot wondered, but at least it made sense. At least the results at some basis in reality...
Oh and #2, despite all this I panned some team 4-1 in the cup, who beat me 6-0 in league the other day. 1-1 to the random-o-result generator.
Name one time in world football where a team has gone from challenging for the title, taking on all comers to TOTAL INABILITY to play football at the flick of a switch. Oh wait, THAT's NEVER HAPPENED HAS IT? Unless i'm mistaken, Arsenal are not fighting relegation this season ?
Sure we all remember the famous Keegan "I'd love it" rant where Newcastle bottled it after being 10 points clear in the 95/96 season. But did they suddenly totally lose the ability to play football ? Did they never win a game again ? No, that didn't happen did it.
We all remember Leeds implosion after breaking into Champions league. But unless I have missed something, I don't *think* any of my FML team went on a bender and decided to have a rumble at some night club resulting in a court trial. Further more I don't recall, as the manager, writing a fucking book about it,(plus i'm not certain my players would be able to read it if I did) neither do I have any recollection sending my team into financial doom by signing shite players.
Point is, there are generally reasons why teams have a downturn in form. What doesn't happen is... one day, for REASONS UNKNOWN, your team suddenly can't play football any more, a 15 year old doesn't suddenly gain the magical ability to destroy your team, the opposition GK doesn't turn into Spiderman, the opposition players don't gain +10 boots of longshot and the ability to score from 65 yards just by punting the ball somewhere in the general direction of your goal.
Now I try and look back and try to deduce what happened, what has caused this ? Well I did sign a new striker for £1.2m, a 4* reputation 32 year old. But he didn't even play any games, he was signed as cover and to replace someone who I was going to sell a week later ? So does signing one player, who you don't even play in the team, mean your team is suddenly likely to lose every single game ? Who knows... Lets ask Mystic Meg, she can probably give a better indication of what is likely to happen in FML.
This isn't the first time I have encountered this "form switch", it's actually the third time in as many seasons. The first time was the most ridiculous series of events I have ever seen. After storming away and having an awesome first season with returning stars I had about 4 defeats in 50 games. Then suddenly, I think there may have been a full moon that night, my team lost all ability to play football and I literally went 50 odd games with one fucking win... and I was lucky to win that.
I actually put out a challenge in the lobby - first team to lose to me can have one of my players at any price. So the challenges come in, people WANT to lose to me, they are playing their youth teams, stupid tactics and the lot. So now i'm going to win some games... No i'm not... I continue to lose every single bloody game. My previously invincible team can no longer do anything which resembles football. I ended up having to restart and pick a new team because my form was so broken, so then off I go again winning every game in sight.
So here we go again.... I'd actually restart again at the end of this season so I could win some games but alas that would mean losing Franco, so no can do. I'm not even sure the genius of Franco will be able to sort this out.
I'd just set up the outside of the box corner hack but sods law is my only player who can hit a reasonable long shot is my bloody corner taker! I guess I could sign some 16 year old with 1 long shots though, he will probably score 1 in 1.
I'd also suggest everyone starts using this bloody corner routine so it gets more attention and hopefully fixed. Basically you have your best long shot man outside of the area and setting corner man to pass to penalty area (I've not actually tried this properly so this might end up being wrong) will pass to the free man who you can't get anyone to mark without using mark specific (and that doesn't work properly) He scores a 30 yard drive every single game, or takes ball into box and scores from there. With the default tactics no one will mark that outside of the area guy from what I can tell, and even with spending a day trying to sort it manually I STILL can't get ANYONE To mark this guy even with my entire team back for corners. Go on. Try it.
Oh look, i've lost to another youth team while typing this, and my GK has been injured. Seriously... Bring back the old ME. I know I slagged that off, but it was only annoying because the only games you lost you got super keepered and one shot wondered, but at least it made sense. At least the results at some basis in reality...
Oh and #2, despite all this I panned some team 4-1 in the cup, who beat me 6-0 in league the other day. 1-1 to the random-o-result generator.
Franco!
I nearly forgot the most important news of all. All time legend and hero, Sir Franco has returned to me and is set to play next season. Signed for £500k on a Returning Star option contract and ready to play in FA games next season. Unfortunately the attribute fix doesn't seem to effect players who are on option so i'm expecting quite a big attribute drop next season.
He managed 1966 apps / 946 goals /663 assists / 318 MOTM From MC in his first outing for me in live and is my all time hero. Alas his age also appears to be wrong so i'm only expecting a season or so of Franco genius but he appears to be as good as ever from his friendly outings. Captain, Corner taker, penalty taker, top scorer, top assists, top average, top MOTM and general hero!
Anyway the league is on it's third run now and I finished 2nd in the first two runs. Unfortunately at the end of the last run the ME decided it was time for me to lose every single game and sent me on a run of 1 win in 11 games after previously losing about 2 in 25. The third run has started much the same with 1 win in 5 and I get super keepered or destroyed by youth teams every game now. So from title challenges to relegation fodder in the space of 4 days with nothing having changed at all - because that's something which happens often :rolleyes:
With the quick relegations/promotions i've noticed how many teams just keep getting successive promotions or relegations proving form is pretty much everything as there's not really much difference in the quality of the teams. My team probably deserves to be near the bottom really but somehow managed to finish so high twice. This is down to unexplainable form which I likely gained from playing about 12 home games in a row a couple of weeks ago and winning them all due to the overpowered form you get at your home ground.
So basically it's time to sell the team, sign up some returning stars on low wages and hope the ME will let me start winning some games again once the next season starts properly. But that probably depends if the moon has aligned in the correct position with the sun in time for the March Equinox or something. The good thing is if I lose all my remaining games it might push rep down enough to reduce wage demands.
I did play an interesting game the other day where a 15 year old with 1 technical attribute hitting double figures and most physical attributes in single figures totally dominated my midfield and scored a cracking goal in the process... but the less said about that game the better.
Other good news is my monitor appears to be working properly again after previous rage related incidents and no longer loses display and goes a swirly pink colour. Good times!
Thursday 4 February 2010
The ME ate my hamster
um, hello ?
So lets quick recap the last 3 months. Rage quit from St John, declare game broken, needs to be reset, FAs need deleting, database needs fixing, aids for new players, joining a new GW needs sorting blah blah, then shortly after the reset is announced and they appear SI appear to have done pretty much everything I suggested.
Found I had access to beta forum so decided to moan about stuff on there for a while, somehow ended up in the beta GW Miller shortly after. Won the NFA Premier League Ladder in my first season, made a few million then the ME sent me on a 50 match losing streak when I bought a regen. Decided my team were a bunch of twats not fit to wear the shirt, rage restarted and signed a new team. Made £3.6m prize money in the next season, won a cup and finished well in the league as well as Silver Cup quarters.
As the beta GW seems to have good mods and orgs someone (Jak mainly I think!) decided to do a proper FA which runs three times per season. We did try and get this going in my live GW 6 months ago but we suggested it on the wrong list or some such and was told it was a stupid idea, anyway it's now one of the templates for relaunch.
So it's my team's second season and I find myself as a level 15 team having finished 2nd in the first run of the league and looking good for a top 3 finish on the second run. So all is good and I have come up with an ingenious plan to make my team ace, which is currently pending failure due my inability to find a striker.
I have also discovered the golden rule for success in FML which returning stars has allowed me to achieve - Never sign a regen!!!! I am database only now. I have one non-regen in my team who I signed in error - he's actually a first season regen so I presumed he was database. I started to have my suspicions all was not right when despite his great attributes for a DR he was constantly making mistakes and costing me game after game. Upon checking, he is indeed a regen !!! I swiftly dropped him for a database player who has far worse attributes and order is restored. I did come up with 5 rules for guaranteed success in FML with the number 1 being never sign a regen - I appear to have forgotten the rest and didn't write them down, which will no doubt come back to bite me in the arse.
Anyway i'm here because i'm angry and Kriss is probably going to ban me from forum or something. Despite the game looking really good now with loads of new positive features the ME is utterly awful. I cannot remember seeing it this bad at any point ever and with every build it seems to get progressively worse. I can describe it in one word "KAMIKAZE!!!!!" Every game is end to end non stop attacking football and there is nothing you can do to lock games down. Clean sheets are barely non existent and even if you are 5-0 up the other team keep constantly attacking you and it finishes 5-3 or something. If you win a game by a large score line you can guarantee the opposition will probably have had just as many shots as you.
But at least corners are fixed these days ? Well..... there's not a corner hack any more, there's actually two different ones!!! It's fairly easy to get around a 60% conversion ratio from a standard into the box corner. Apparently tweaked in a recent build but one of my guys scored 4 in one game this morning and 3 in another. Then there is the one where your players REFUSE to mark the guy standing outside the area and he punts in some random long shot from 40 yards every bloody corner.
I don't think I can come up with the words to describe how truly horrible the ME is at the moment. I'm seeing teams of 15 year olds pass like Xavi, bend it like Beckham and run through my team like they are George Weah when they barely have any attributes in double figures. Then the next game you beat them 8-0. Probably links in with the above about end to end football, but it's highly demented watching a team of 15 year olds dance through your defence like they are not even there.
None of it makes any sense, the results appear to be massively random and all over the place. You are on a nice unbeaten run of 10 games in the league then suddenly you lose 7-0 to a mid table team.
Long shots are hilariously annoying, _still_. They come out of nowhere, it's not like a player makes space or hits a sweet shot after a nice move. They will just be stood there with the ball, under pressure then suddenly hit in a pile driver at 100mph with their weaker foot, when they have long shots 5 and when they are injured, usually in the 96th minute. Long shots on the old ME were a thing of beauty and you saw some very nice goals, now every single one is a "WTF?" moment.... I actually scored an 85 yard volley the other week which was not a fluke.
So in conclusion, they have fixed the game but broke the ME.
Anyway not sure if I will be live after the reset because it seems Sega are making it impossible to get into the GW you want... bizarre.
So lets quick recap the last 3 months. Rage quit from St John, declare game broken, needs to be reset, FAs need deleting, database needs fixing, aids for new players, joining a new GW needs sorting blah blah, then shortly after the reset is announced and they appear SI appear to have done pretty much everything I suggested.
Found I had access to beta forum so decided to moan about stuff on there for a while, somehow ended up in the beta GW Miller shortly after. Won the NFA Premier League Ladder in my first season, made a few million then the ME sent me on a 50 match losing streak when I bought a regen. Decided my team were a bunch of twats not fit to wear the shirt, rage restarted and signed a new team. Made £3.6m prize money in the next season, won a cup and finished well in the league as well as Silver Cup quarters.
As the beta GW seems to have good mods and orgs someone (Jak mainly I think!) decided to do a proper FA which runs three times per season. We did try and get this going in my live GW 6 months ago but we suggested it on the wrong list or some such and was told it was a stupid idea, anyway it's now one of the templates for relaunch.
So it's my team's second season and I find myself as a level 15 team having finished 2nd in the first run of the league and looking good for a top 3 finish on the second run. So all is good and I have come up with an ingenious plan to make my team ace, which is currently pending failure due my inability to find a striker.
I have also discovered the golden rule for success in FML which returning stars has allowed me to achieve - Never sign a regen!!!! I am database only now. I have one non-regen in my team who I signed in error - he's actually a first season regen so I presumed he was database. I started to have my suspicions all was not right when despite his great attributes for a DR he was constantly making mistakes and costing me game after game. Upon checking, he is indeed a regen !!! I swiftly dropped him for a database player who has far worse attributes and order is restored. I did come up with 5 rules for guaranteed success in FML with the number 1 being never sign a regen - I appear to have forgotten the rest and didn't write them down, which will no doubt come back to bite me in the arse.
Anyway i'm here because i'm angry and Kriss is probably going to ban me from forum or something. Despite the game looking really good now with loads of new positive features the ME is utterly awful. I cannot remember seeing it this bad at any point ever and with every build it seems to get progressively worse. I can describe it in one word "KAMIKAZE!!!!!" Every game is end to end non stop attacking football and there is nothing you can do to lock games down. Clean sheets are barely non existent and even if you are 5-0 up the other team keep constantly attacking you and it finishes 5-3 or something. If you win a game by a large score line you can guarantee the opposition will probably have had just as many shots as you.
But at least corners are fixed these days ? Well..... there's not a corner hack any more, there's actually two different ones!!! It's fairly easy to get around a 60% conversion ratio from a standard into the box corner. Apparently tweaked in a recent build but one of my guys scored 4 in one game this morning and 3 in another. Then there is the one where your players REFUSE to mark the guy standing outside the area and he punts in some random long shot from 40 yards every bloody corner.
I don't think I can come up with the words to describe how truly horrible the ME is at the moment. I'm seeing teams of 15 year olds pass like Xavi, bend it like Beckham and run through my team like they are George Weah when they barely have any attributes in double figures. Then the next game you beat them 8-0. Probably links in with the above about end to end football, but it's highly demented watching a team of 15 year olds dance through your defence like they are not even there.
None of it makes any sense, the results appear to be massively random and all over the place. You are on a nice unbeaten run of 10 games in the league then suddenly you lose 7-0 to a mid table team.
Long shots are hilariously annoying, _still_. They come out of nowhere, it's not like a player makes space or hits a sweet shot after a nice move. They will just be stood there with the ball, under pressure then suddenly hit in a pile driver at 100mph with their weaker foot, when they have long shots 5 and when they are injured, usually in the 96th minute. Long shots on the old ME were a thing of beauty and you saw some very nice goals, now every single one is a "WTF?" moment.... I actually scored an 85 yard volley the other week which was not a fluke.
So in conclusion, they have fixed the game but broke the ME.
Anyway not sure if I will be live after the reset because it seems Sega are making it impossible to get into the GW you want... bizarre.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)