Football Manager 2014 - Full Game Out Now!

[CraigSca]

Then during the games, your Assistant should be giving you observations that he notices such as players used to a faster tempo.. or they are missing too many easy passes (signifying a slower tempo is needed), or such that you can then slowly use to incorporate into your tactics if you see them as a repeatable thing.


I'm such an FM noob, that I have a question about this. Does anyone else have a problem that when the suggestions are made at the top of the screen that they scroll by so fast I rarely ever have an opportunity to make changes to address them? Seems you have about 3 seconds and they're gone.

[Abe Sargent]

I'm such an FM noob, that I have a question about this. Does anyone else have a problem that when the suggestions are made at the top of the screen that they scroll by so fast I rarely ever have an opportunity to make changes to address them? Seems you have about 3 seconds and they're gone.

I'll sometimes pause the game and click on the screen to look at the suggestions and see what I might be interested in changing. I don't always make the changes recommended. For example in the 12th minute, it's a bit to early to tell me that we need to retain possession better against a club that we are better than when we've each had scoring chances or somesuch.

THat also helps me to go back adn check out what was recommend earlier and see if I want to add that in too.

[Alan T]

I also will pause the game at times, or if I miss one, I'll go to the assistant report to see what is said there, usually the same advice is given there as well. (I change it from being overall game to just last 15 minutes).

Like Abe, I don't make every change they suggest, but it helps me understand better what is happening during the game as I only watch key hilights and not the entire game.

[flere-imsaho]

I don't mind needing to understand what type of tactic my coach is running, I just wish he could choose the tactic and then I could go research it. I feel like it could be handled with some kind of meeting when either I am hired or I hire a new coach. He could ask a small series of questions about what type of team I'd like to see which could then lead him to pick a tactic and assign my players to the positions and roles. Then I could read up on that specific tactic and understand what it's trying to accomplish (would be even awesomer if this could be in-game but I don't mind hitting the internet for that).

There's actually been a lot of discussion in the SI Tactics forum about this, including key moderators (including the guy involved in the creation of the current Tactic Creator), of some sort of mechanism you'd be able to "test" a tactic you made and get realistic feedback about it, in-game.

So, you'd create a tactic, then get it "analyzed" or something and the engine would spit things back at you like "Your forwards are going to be isolated, suggest you do X instead."

This would be in keeping with some of the other changes they've made to tactics such as a) going to named roles (and more and more of them) and b) getting rid of sliders.

So, keep your hopes up!

I'm pretty sure there aren't any. You can pick whichever tactic you want with no penalty.

This is 100% correct.

[JonInMiddleGA]

2) The entire 'during the games' process is exactly what I don't want to do. Even if you told me 'look you need to figure out on your own what tactic to set up' I'd probably be ok with that, but then when I need to micro-manage that tactic during each game based on what I see the little stick men doing I'm totally lost. I don't mind watching the stick-men, but I want my coach to figure out if they are doing the right things or if the tactic needs tweaking based on what's happening on the pitch.

Basically I want to be a GM, not a coach. Give me faith that if I have a good coach and I provide him with good players then things should trend positively. I don't get the impression that FM can let me be that hands off if I want any hope of succeeding.

I will say this (in anecdotal support) of your general point ... the biggest different in the wins/losses performance of my low level club this season vs previous season seems to be an incredible (to me) amount of in game micromanagement.

Tweaking something like how we're targeting crosses (low or high), watching the same player miss shots off corners but changing the targeting and scoring on the very next corner, adjusting passing styles based on performance after even 20-30 minutes, etc.

Those things very much feel like the difference between a 16 match unbeaten streak vs a middling club.

That said though, while it does feel very micromanage-y, it's probably not as much so as doing it based on what I'm seeing as opposed to trying to parse the opponent heavily beforehand and make those adjustments be where I start the match in the first place. I'm simply not that smart about it. I don't put a whole lot of time into trying to figure out why X isn't working in a given match, I simply try to react in some rational fashion to whatever isn't (or is) and change that.

[cartman]

If you have an in-game message go away before you can react to it, if you click the 'chat' icon in the upper right, you'll see those messages, and be able to react to them.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I also will pause the game at times

I'm sure glad you said that, I was starting to worry that the in-game pause option had been removed between FM12 & FM14 or something.

[vex]

If you have an in-game message go away before you can react to it, if you click the 'chat' icon in the upper right, you'll see those messages, and be able to react to them.

Also, you can change the length that they appear. I was having the same problem at first.

[flere-imsaho]

Or you can ignore your assistant, which is generally the smartest thing to do. :D

[DaddyTorgo]

There's actually been a lot of discussion in the SI Tactics forum about this, including key moderators (including the guy involved in the creation of the current Tactic Creator), of some sort of mechanism you'd be able to "test" a tactic you made and get realistic feedback about it, in-game.

So, you'd create a tactic, then get it "analyzed" or something and the engine would spit things back at you like "Your forwards are going to be isolated, suggest you do X instead."

This would be in keeping with some of the other changes they've made to tactics such as a) going to named roles (and more and more of them) and b) getting rid of sliders.

So, keep your hopes up!



This is 100% correct.

This would actually be pretty cool. Even without the "suggest" bit.

[FrogMan]

I'm sure glad you said that, I was starting to worry that the in-game pause option had been removed between FM12 & FM14 or something.

I pause the game all the time to look at stuff and take the time to make a decision on tactics or subs. I just hate missing out on something happening on the pitch.

FM

[path12]

Or you can ignore your assistant, which is generally the smartest thing to do. :D

Plus one billion.

When your assman suggests that you need to do better at keeping possession 5 minutes into the damn game it just makes me want to scream.

I had my assistant doing player instructions but stopped and sure enough it has helped. Part of that is because instead of just dabbling with tactics I really took a look at my Millwall squad and tried to design a tactic based on their particular skills (or lack thereof). It's worked well for the most part -- a 4 5 1 with support and service coming from the right side of the pitch and cutting inside forward and a good complete wingback on the left to provide targets for them.

Took FOREVER for them to get good at it though. Finally had to take control of training as well. Not as daunting as I thought it would be.

[vex]

Plus one billion.

When your assman suggests that you need to do better at keeping possession 5 minutes into the damn game it just makes me want to scream.


Or they tell you that and possession is very near 50/50.

[OldGiants]

I've been constantly getting 2 dubious messages:

1 "We are being over-run in midfield!" Really? So 65% possession isn't good enough to win?

2 "You should put men at the posts on corners." And how would that help? Since the team has not allowed ONE SINGLE goal off a corner in 25+ games, what is the issue?

This is one of the biggest gripes I have with FM -- bad advice from the staff. Just before the Xmas break, the AssMan said, "The team captain must be changed!" So I saved, changed him and watched half the team get royally pissed off. Reloaded, of course, but WTF SI?

Or the AssMan warning that I needed to pick a backup tactic just before the season started. All that did was prevent the team from getting to Fluid in the only tactic I needed to play. Gave up on that game.

[DaddyTorgo]

Yeah - I get the "you're being overrun in midfield" message too - and meanwhile I'm going 38-0-0. Just sitting there shaking my head.

[OldGiants]

I have been searching for team total stats in a simple form that will allow me to compare my team to the league. Possession %, passes taken and completed, tackles, headers, etc. The kind of numerical analysis OOTP and FOF and Fast Break display at a click?

Where is this hidden in FM?

[PilotMan]

We we finished our 4 game run against Linfield. They successfully knocked us out of both tournaments. After coming from 3 down in the first game we lost 0-1 and 1-3 then 2-2 in the home part of the All-Ireland and lost on aggregate. I hate them. It's almost not fair as they have so much more money spent on their team. It's a true David and Goliath.

[JonInMiddleGA]

What's the collective wisdom on playing MLS (unmodded) in FM 2014? Is it recognizable, stable, workable, long term career kind of thing? Or is the odd (by int'l standards) structure still problematic?

And, if it's as good as it can be gotten, is there actually much fun to be had in doing so? Is there enough "there" there for something that's engaging?

[Alan T]

I've been constantly getting 2 dubious messages:

1 "We are being over-run in midfield!" Really? So 65% possession isn't good enough to win?

2 "You should put men at the posts on corners." And how would that help? Since the team has not allowed ONE SINGLE goal off a corner in 25+ games, what is the issue?

This is one of the biggest gripes I have with FM -- bad advice from the staff. Just before the Xmas break, the AssMan said, "The team captain must be changed!" So I saved, changed him and watched half the team get royally pissed off. Reloaded, of course, but WTF SI?

Or the AssMan warning that I needed to pick a backup tactic just before the season started. All that did was prevent the team from getting to Fluid in the only tactic I needed to play. Gave up on that game.


When I was playing a 4-3-3 I would get the overrun in the midfield message alot. It didn't matter since my game was designed to handle that. I think a message like that could be important for someone that is trying to understand their tactics better especially if their current tactic can't handle being overrun in the midfield. In the end the message is a pretty generic way of simply saying that you only have x number of players in your midfield compared to your opponent though. For those experienced with tactics, they probably already know that though.

For the backup tactic warning. This might just be anecdotal, I find if I just copy my main tactic three times, it seems to help them get fluid with it faster. Plus I don't get that annoying message.

[PilotMan]

We we finished our 4 game run against Linfield. They successfully knocked us out of both tournaments. After coming from 3 down in the first game we lost 0-1 and 1-3 then 2-2 in the home part of the All-Ireland and lost on aggregate. I hate them. It's almost not fair as they have so much more money spent on their team. It's a true David and Goliath.

WE DID IT!

8 Seasons in Northern Ireland and we've finally won the Danske Premiere Championship! It only too 600 or so game hours to get there! Finally! I played a little Queen while the boys celebrated. What a relief.

[bulletsponge]

grats Pilotman. now to conquer the champions league ;)

[Abe Sargent]

WE DID IT!

8 Seasons in Northern Ireland and we've finally won the Danske Premiere Championship! It only too 600 or so game hours to get there! Finally! I played a little Queen while the boys celebrated. What a relief.

Yeah baby!

[BYU 14]

WE DID IT!

8 Seasons in Northern Ireland and we've finally won the Danske Premiere Championship! It only too 600 or so game hours to get there! Finally! I played a little Queen while the boys celebrated. What a relief.

Nice, congrats

[OldGiants]

When I was playing a 4-3-3 I would get the overrun in the midfield message alot. It didn't matter since my game was designed to handle that. I think a message like that could be important for someone that is trying to understand their tactics better especially if their current tactic can't handle being overrun in the midfield. In the end the message is a pretty generic way of simply saying that you only have x number of players in your midfield compared to your opponent though. For those experienced with tactics, they probably already know that though.

For the backup tactic warning. This might just be anecdotal, I find if I just copy my main tactic three times, it seems to help them get fluid with it faster. Plus I don't get that annoying message.

You are likely right about the message. Good tip about copying the main tactic. I'll give that a try next season.

[Arles]

I tried FMC and hated it. Loved the training and staff streamline, but I never felt like I impacted anything outside of a main tactic and adding players. I like to see how guys respond in big games and to different situations - and I felt like I had no way to know how morale changed (outside of winning and losing). I also never felt like I knew whether a new player was struggling to adapt, didn't fit the role well or just wasn't very good if their performance wasn't up to par.

So, I guess I will deal with manually handling training and some stupid press conferences if it helps me feel like I am actually running the team.

[SirFozzie]

Great "Crossing the FOFC Streams" moment at the WSOP.. no, none of us are in the last 35 or so players.. but.. between poker and FM14, we're covered.

Let's Talk Some Football Manager
Posted 1 hour and 45 minutes ago Happy_Freaked • Level 29: 50,000-100,000, 10,000 ante SHARE
Andoni Larrabe, sporting his Athletic Bilbao jersey underneath his hoodie
Andoni Larrabe, sporting his Athletic Bilbao jersey underneath his hoodie
"Is that Madrid or Bilbao?" Craig McCorkell just asked Andoni Larrabe, after he just got moved to this table.

"Athletic Bilbao," Larrabe proudly responded, as he's been supporting his Primera Division club all day.

"Are you Basque?" McCorkell continued.

"Yes, and where are you from?" Larrabe asked.

"I'm from London," McCorkell responded.

"How do you know Athletic?" Larrabe asked next.

"I played a season with them on Football Manager," McCorkell said, as Felix Stephensen's ears perked up.

"How did you do?" a very surprising Larrab responded.

"I was so s*** with them," McCorkell laughed.

"What a great topic!" Stephensen chimed in, as the Europeans at the table had a very casually chat about their favorite sport and video games.

After the remaining players made a big pay jump to $230,487 the atmosphere in the room seems to have taken a turn to the lighter side, because for now this secondary feature table is very much focused on sharing some good old Football Manager stories.

[cougarfreak]

Just an FYI, someone mentioned the book Inverting the Pyramid in this thread. It's on sale at amazon on kindle for$2.99

[vex]

Just an FYI, someone mentioned the book Inverting the Pyramid in this thread. It's on sale at amazon on kindle for$2.99

Nice, thanks.

[vex]

I've also been wanting to read Soccernomics and guess I will now as it is also $2.99.

[DaddyTorgo]

Just an FYI, someone mentioned the book Inverting the Pyramid in this thread. It's on sale at amazon on kindle for$2.99

Nice - thanks!

[cougarfreak]

I picked up soccernomics as well. Thanks.

[DaddyTorgo]

I picked up both as well - had been wanting to read them for a while. Thanks for the heads up cougarfreak & vex!

[Alan T]

It might be time to fire all of my physios.

Rosicky, Wilshere, Ozil, Arteta, Walcott and Gibbs all out with injury and Flamini suspended another game thanks to a red card. That is going to make my midfield pretty thin for the next game against West Ham...

Maybe it is time to work out a 5 - 1 - 4 formation :)

[AnalBumCover]

Anyone know of a good robust alternate universe US league out there for FM14?

I found what I was looking for. People at the sigames forum had been waiting for someone to adapt an old FM12 file to FM14 and finally was released today. It's a pyramid style US league to 9 levels. It's an alternate universe, so traditional American rules (i.e. draft) do not apply.

Sports Interactive Community (http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/301080-MikeMagnum-s-Alternate-MLS-North-America-2.0-Level-8?p=9745721&viewfull=1#post9745721)

[JonInMiddleGA]

FM 14 vs FM 12 questions ...

1) Is the media interaction waaaay more intense in the latest edition or is that just a quirk of coaching in South Korea? (It seems like I'm basically being actively trolled by them at this point)

2) The ball seems to be played in the air almost constantly in my first FM14 go, in SK. Is that a play style in the nation thing or is it a more aerial game (in terms of highlights shown) everywhere? I've never seen this much passing via the air in my entire FM life.

[chesapeake]

FM 14 vs FM 12 questions ...

1) Is the media interaction waaaay more intense in the latest edition or is that just a quirk of coaching in South Korea? (It seems like I'm basically being actively trolled by them at this point)

2) The ball seems to be played in the air almost constantly in my first FM14 go, in SK. Is that a play style in the nation thing or is it a more aerial game (in terms of highlights shown) everywhere? I've never seen this much passing via the air in my entire FM life.

I made the same transition you did last year. There is more media interaction in 14, and I have noticed that when a reporter doesn't like you, they will take liberties with your statements. I don't recall that happening to me in 12.

I also noticed that when you put in an order for more balls in the air, it looks different than it did in 12. I don't know that the outcome is any different, but I think they added a visual cue so that you can see that your players are putting the ball up higher.

[Fidatelo]

Just an FYI, someone mentioned the book Inverting the Pyramid in this thread. It's on sale at amazon on kindle for$2.99

I ended up picking this up and have read the first 2 chapters. I have absolutely zero knowledge of soccer outside of the world cups I've watched (98 to now), yet so far the book is pretty interesting. I love the way British people craft their words, they are so much more eloquent :)

[JonInMiddleGA]

I also noticed that when you put in an order for more balls in the air, it looks different than it did in 12. I don't know that the outcome is any different, but I think they added a visual cue so that you can see that your players are putting the ball up higher.

Ah, okay, that actually makes sense. This group does often have "float crosses" set, so visually perhaps they're showing me more balls in the air (just in normal midfield play) to help illustrate that.

Cool I suppose ... but weird looking.

[OldGiants]

I had a great time raising Foggia from D to C in Italy. Found a tactic that made solid defensive sense (Crissy P&C, if I remember) lots of close 1-0 and 2-1 wins. For the first time I felt FM was close to realistic.

So I get promoted, don't renew the contracts of 14 bad players and look to strengthen with free signings for the next season. Except agent fees, small as they are, need to come out transfer funds and the Board has given me nothing and won't talk about an adjustment. I'm at 32k per week out off 55k weekly budget. So I can't even sign players on a free. They blocking me signing a Goalie and my old one won't come back on loan again.

BS to that, this is my last shot at FM. What a waste. I had no idea this agent fee silliness --as in annoying detail-- would stop me cold.

[DaddyTorgo]

I had a great time raising Foggia from D to C in Italy. Found a tactic that made solid defensive sense (Crissy P&C, if I remember) lots of close 1-0 and 2-1 wins. For the first time I felt FM was close to realistic.

So I get promoted, don't renew the contracts of 14 bad players and look to strengthen with free signings for the next season. Except agent fees, small as they are, need to come out transfer funds and the Board has given me nothing and won't talk about an adjustment. I'm at 32k per week out off 55k weekly budget. So I can't even sign players on a free. They blocking me signing a Goalie and my old one won't come back on loan again.

BS to that, this is my last shot at FM. What a waste. I had no idea this agent fee silliness --as in annoying detail-- would stop me cold.

Just reload an old save?

[DaddyTorgo]

Well - in my Bilbao save I've moved on.

Accepted the job at Arsenal before the 2015/2016 season. They've finished 3rd (by 2 pts) and 2nd (by 9pts) in the last 2 seasons, so my goal will be to get them "over the hump" to the crown.

Sold
Hector Moreno to Shakhtar - $35m
Theo Walcott to Monaco - $34.5m
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Man U - $40m

Brought In
Didier Drogba from Sevilla (yes even at 37 he can still play) - $2.7m
Paulo Dybala from Palermo (thanks FIFA) - $7.25m
Sokratis Papastathopolous from Dortmund - $11.25m
Jorge Enriquez from Liverpool- $9m
Nemanja Matic from Bayern- Loan
Edinson Cavani from PSG- Loan (option to buy for $20m)
Bernard from Shakhtar - 30m

[britrock88]

Can you not allocate a portion of your wage budget into your transfer kitty?

[Radii]

I found what I was looking for. People at the sigames forum had been waiting for someone to adapt an old FM12 file to FM14 and finally was released today. It's a pyramid style US league to 9 levels. It's an alternate universe, so traditional American rules (i.e. draft) do not apply.

Sports Interactive Community (http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/301080-MikeMagnum-s-Alternate-MLS-North-America-2.0-Level-8?p=9745721&viewfull=1#post9745721)


Thanks for posting this. I'd been messing around with FM14 setups trying to get something to stick, and I think this is going to do it finally. I edited one of the tiny North Carolina teams in the worst "Appalachian" league to be from my home town and took them over and have gotten through a few months and am enjoying it.

[DaddyTorgo]

I had a great time raising Foggia from D to C in Italy. Found a tactic that made solid defensive sense (Crissy P&C, if I remember) lots of close 1-0 and 2-1 wins. For the first time I felt FM was close to realistic.

So I get promoted, don't renew the contracts of 14 bad players and look to strengthen with free signings for the next season. Except agent fees, small as they are, need to come out transfer funds and the Board has given me nothing and won't talk about an adjustment. I'm at 32k per week out off 55k weekly budget. So I can't even sign players on a free. They blocking me signing a Goalie and my old one won't come back on loan again.

BS to that, this is my last shot at FM. What a waste. I had no idea this agent fee silliness --as in annoying detail-- would stop me cold.

You realize it says it right there on the righthand side of the contract screen when you're picking the terms, right?

It's not FM's fault you didn't read that.

[AnalBumCover]

Thanks for posting this. I'd been messing around with FM14 setups trying to get something to stick, and I think this is going to do it finally. I edited one of the tiny North Carolina teams in the worst "Appalachian" league to be from my home town and took them over and have gotten through a few months and am enjoying it.

I applied for and got a job at my hometown's football club. It was a late-season hire and they brought me in to avoid regulation. One month later, I was sacked. Turns out they were only an amateur team in a higher level league. They didn't stand a chance against the semi-pro and pro teams in the league.

[booradley]

Noob here. Is there a way I can just observe matches play out for a while (graphically) until such time as I am ready to take over a club?

[EagleFan]

Noob here. Is there a way I can just observe matches play out for a while (graphically) until such time as I am ready to take over a club?

Not that I am aware of but I would love for that to be possible.

[DaddyTorgo]

Woot - cut rate Frank Ribery added to my (new) Arsenal team. Even at the age of 32 in 2016 he's a hell of a player - and for $8mil it was a no-brainer.

[Critch]

Noob here. Is there a way I can just observe matches play out for a while (graphically) until such time as I am ready to take over a club?

Yeah, when you see a fixture list and it says "Bayern v Man Utd" (for example) if you click on the "v" it'll change to "attend" and you'll see the game play out when it happens. I think it'll only let you attend one game per day.

[AnalBumCover]

I found what I was looking for. People at the sigames forum had been waiting for someone to adapt an old FM12 file to FM14 and finally was released today. It's a pyramid style US league to 9 levels. It's an alternate universe, so traditional American rules (i.e. draft) do not apply.

Sports Interactive Community (http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/301080-MikeMagnum-s-Alternate-MLS-North-America-2.0-Level-8?p=9745721&viewfull=1#post9745721)


The big issue I have with this file is that the author who adapted this from FM12 added a level 9 division filled completely with Kentucky clubs (he's from Kentucky). This adaption was originally intended for his own personal use, but because there seemed to be a demand for a league like this, he released it as is.

[Radii]

The big issue I have with this file is that the author who adapted this from FM12 added a level 9 division filled completely with Kentucky clubs (he's from Kentucky). This adaption was originally intended for his own personal use, but because there seemed to be a demand for a league like this, he released it as is.


yeah I just put myself in the 8th level and hope that I don't relegate to kentucky.

[EagleFan]

Yeah, when you see a fixture list and it says "Bayern v Man Utd" (for example) if you click on the "v" it'll change to "attend" and you'll see the game play out when it happens. I think it'll only let you attend one game per day.

Sweet. Didn't know that.

[Abe Sargent]

The big issue I have with this file is that the author who adapted this from FM12 added a level 9 division filled completely with Kentucky clubs (he's from Kentucky). This adaption was originally intended for his own personal use, but because there seemed to be a demand for a league like this, he released it as is.

is the West Virginia Chaos in it? From the USL PDL?

[fortheglory]

What's the collective wisdom on playing MLS (unmodded) in FM 2014? Is it recognizable, stable, workable, long term career kind of thing? Or is the odd (by int'l standards) structure still problematic?

And, if it's as good as it can be gotten, is there actually much fun to be had in doing so? Is there enough "there" there for something that's engaging?

good question..I'd like to know this also.

[Radii]

is the West Virginia Chaos in it? From the USL PDL?

They are in it, they're in here as a semi pro team in the "Colonial Preimer League" in what looks like the 4th tier (MLS #1, NASL #2, three USL leagues #3, then a few regional "Premier Leagues" #4

[JonInMiddleGA]

Okay, I downloaded the 9 level US mod from the link ... and have exactly zero clue what to do with it now.

I've got FM14 via Steam (if that matters).

Somebody wanna tell me like I'm stupid?

[Radii]

Okay, I downloaded the 9 level US mod from the link ... and have exactly zero clue what to do with it now.

I've got FM14 via Steam (if that matters).

Somebody wanna tell me like I'm stupid?

The file goes in:

C:\Users\.your user.\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\editor data


Start a new game. You should get something like this in your new game window:

http://i.imgur.com/2fwhJ5M.png

Select custom and click edit.

You should see a screen allowing you to select the USA Pyramid release, select it and confirm.

Then when you start your game the USA should have a ridiculously large number of players and then when you get to the section where you chose how many playable leagues there should be a large number of those too, plus I think a few new competitions.

[SirFozzie]

If you want an adjusted American League but not one that goes 9 levels, try this one...

Steam Workshop :: American Premier League 0.1 (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=192516075)

It's made by yours truly :)

[AnalBumCover]

If you want an adjusted American League but not one that goes 9 levels, try this one...

Steam Workshop :: American Premier League 0.1 (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=192516075)

It's made by yours truly :)

Nice. I know you've been working on this this in previous FM versions. I'm going to give this a try.

[JonInMiddleGA]

The file goes in:

C:\Users\.your user.\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\editor data ...

Thanks, seems to have worked.

I've taken over the Georgia Revolution (based in Conyers, GA)

As many teams as this mod adds I was almost surprised that Athens United didn't show up

[aran]

I've gotten into FM14 after not spending more than 10 hours in an FM game since 2010 I think. It's been a lot of fun so far, and a little frustrating at times.

I started an experimental Saarbrucken career to try to custom-forge some tactics based on a team. It didn't work very well. I don't know how to deal with having a bad defense. I tend to like to play a countering game, which kind of requires your defenders be at least passable...

Is there any place I can get tactical feedback from my coaches? I hired much better coaches in that game than I have in my primary save (playing as Oxford United and won League 2 first season with crappy coaches and a countering 4-4-2 whose key player for its best run was a DL converted to ML who I picked up on a free and is at 5 star potential and 4 1/2 actual at the age of 18), but I can't find a way to get tactical analysis. I thought I saw something that gave me feedback in my Oxford game--feedback like "Ward seems uncomfortable with the low tempo of our play". I go back to the match screen that I thought showed this and I don't see ANY tactical feedback, even though I know my tactic does have some weaknesses and my coaches should be good enough to pick them up.

I'm also not sure what is "safe" in terms of trying to dump players. I had some expensive players who were way overpaid when I started in Saarbrucken but I lived in fear of releasing them because I was under the impression that non-mutual termination would hurt just as bad as paying their wages for the year. Unfortunately this straitjacketed me to pretty poor team composition and it was pretty frustrating.

[Blackadar]

I've gotten into FM14 after not spending more than 10 hours in an FM game since 2010 I think. It's been a lot of fun so far, and a little frustrating at times.

I started an experimental Saarbrucken career to try to custom-forge some tactics based on a team. It didn't work very well. I don't know how to deal with having a bad defense. I tend to like to play a countering game, which kind of requires your defenders be at least passable...

Is there any place I can get tactical feedback from my coaches? I hired much better coaches in that game than I have in my primary save (playing as Oxford United and won League 2 first season with crappy coaches and a countering 4-4-2 whose key player for its best run was a DL converted to ML who I picked up on a free and is at 5 star potential and 4 1/2 actual at the age of 18), but I can't find a way to get tactical analysis. I thought I saw something that gave me feedback in my Oxford game--feedback like "Ward seems uncomfortable with the low tempo of our play". I go back to the match screen that I thought showed this and I don't see ANY tactical feedback, even though I know my tactic does have some weaknesses and my coaches should be good enough to pick them up.

I'm also not sure what is "safe" in terms of trying to dump players. I had some expensive players who were way overpaid when I started in Saarbrucken but I lived in fear of releasing them because I was under the impression that non-mutual termination would hurt just as bad as paying their wages for the year. Unfortunately this straitjacketed me to pretty poor team composition and it was pretty frustrating.

This has always been one of my biggest frustrations in the FM series. There's data there, but I don't know if it's valuable (much of it doesn't seem to be) and I truthfully don't know how to analyze it to make the appropriate adjustments. I've always thought it's a failure of the game in that it doesn't help / teach you how to analyze the information presented in the match screen in order to make the correct changes. I can't really do it well even after reading some of the 100+ page independent guides out there. I don't know what it means that my left fullback made 20 passes with an 80% success rate while my right fullback made only 4 passes. Is that because the opponents are bringing the ball down the left side? Or are we swinging it that way once we gain possession and attacking up the left side? I've never gotten that part of the game down.

Hence I tend to buy last years' version, download a good tactic and then find players who I believe can execute that tactic. From there on, I don't deviate much. Yes, if the wind is in our fact I'll pass to foot more and things like that, but as far as digesting the stats to determine what changes to make, I'm usually very lost and therefore tend to go by gut feelings.

[QuikSand]

I'm sure this mini-rant is as old as the hills. Alas.

I'm playing the handheld version of FM14, like many for the first time in a while.

I am indeed feeling the usual pull of the game. I like roster-building, and I like taking a small club and developing them upwards. I'm five seasons in with Havant & Waterlooville and we have promoted once and are a major player in the Skrill Premier league now. Okay, that's the usual path.

Okay, the rant.

I am not doing a damned thing. I installed a basic tactic (I am not knowledgeable enough to do anything custom myself) and in short order my "bravely battling" side started scoring like hot monkeys. I signed a few free transfers in and several quickly became league stars, I regularly have 3-5 of the top ten "average ratings" guys in my league now. All for...what? Playing a guy with ratings of 8-14 instead of a guy with ratings of 5-10, it seems.

Another thing... some of the in-game metrics are just frustrating. My starting striker has pretty decent scouted ratings, and for two straight seasons he's a runaway leader in scoring and two time Player of the Year in the Skrill Premier League. So, when his contract comes due, he wants a bump from E300/wk to... E400? Really? I have guys who can barely hold a rotation spot who insist on E800 or more, others who won't even consider my max contract offers... but my runaway best player is universally seen as a humble loser? Shouldn't the results on the pitch factor in at least a little bit at some point?

And... of course there are the massive and seemingly uncontrollable swings of great and terrible luck, with effectively the same roster. I try to follow morale, but it's just weird to see a side that is near the top of the table go through a 0-3-7 stretch with nearly every match being out of hand against us.

And the tipsters are intriguing too... kinds fun to see my side indicated as longshots when we are in great form, sitting at 4th on the league table late in the season, and playing against another side who is sitting in 15th place. They come to visit us and they are the heavy favorites? Really?

If I were to don my tinfoil hat a minute, I'd think all this was consistent with a bunch of under-the-hood hooey designed to keep the game interesting. My human-controlled team starts playing well so I don't get depressed, the game just randomly starts assigning some sort of sine-wave pattern of outcomes, and the games played under the hood bear no connection to those played out on my screen. But I'm not going to go there, really.

Anyway... it's a fun game, totally worth the investment of money and time. I just had my top tier of players wiped out by big club raids (including the aforementioned striker, someone finally decided he was worth something, wow), so I don't know whether I will continue or just walk away. But five seasons of mobile and airplane-friendly entertainment is definitely more than I have a right to expect for 5 bucks or whatever it cost.

[aran]

A lot of weird team chemistry stuff seems to happen. Also, small things like changing someone's role in the tactic can make a huge difference. You have eleven guys on the pitch, and if one of them can't pass and finds himself with the ball a little too often, you've got a possession problem. There are so many variables to take into account with club performance, it's incredibly daunting. That's why I think so many FM players eliminate variables by, for instance, downloading tactics or wonderkid guides.

It's amazing what a little bit more attention in certain parts of the game can do, though. I added crossing and finishing to my "opponent instructions" pre-game screen and made marking and closing down decisions based no who are the most threatening. Seems to have improved my oxford side's defense a bit and swung us back to winning regularly.

I also changed my Deep Lying Forward's role from support over to attacking and that seems to have improved his performance quite a bit. I stopped "exploiting the left flank" after my star ML stopped producing ridiculously good results and things seemed to get better.

I also wasn't rotating my squad enough, which led to two of my best players slowly becoming tired and jaded, which would explain why team performance slumped. Putting those two players on 3 week leave actually seemed to improve team performance. Then when they came back at the end of the season those two quality players started performing better, and the team seemed to as a whole be operating more efficiently.

It's hard to say with any certainty what causes what, but as I integrate more aspects of the game into my strategizing, I'm finding my results are improving. There's still a lot of chaos, but I feel like I have some kind of handle on it, whereas before I felt lost when I was in a period of poor form.

[digamma]

So I have gotten back into the full version of FM14. I have not gotten into the Handheld version, despite, I think buying three versions.

In the full version, I'm finding 14 considerably more difficult than earlier versions, at least at the outset. I started unemployed and was hired by Eastleigh 10 games into their season. I took them from 3rd in the league to 12th in the next 10-15 games and was sacked before the end of the season. Now I'm back on the unemployment line and getting laughed at when I submit my resume. In spite of that, it is actually good times.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

So I have gotten back into the full version of FM14. I have not gotten into the Handheld version, despite, I think buying three versions.

In the full version, I'm finding 14 considerably more difficult than earlier versions, at least at the outset. I started unemployed and was hired by Eastleigh 10 games into their season. I took them from 3rd in the league to 12th in the next 10-15 games and was sacked before the end of the season. Now I'm back on the unemployment line and getting laughed at when I submit my resume. In spite of that, it is actually good times.

I found that the previous experience that you set up when you create a coach has a profound effect on how easy/difficult it is to get a job early on. If you select no experience or Sunday player, you don't have much of a chance if you lose a job early. Select one with more experience and you can start at a higher level and have much more leeway. It took me three careers to figure this out. It's a great way to provide a challenge if you are someone who likes to start unemployed.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

dola

Just upgraded to a laptop with 1080p display. AMAZING difference in how much information is displayed and in the 3D game display. Glad I picked up a new computer.

[aran]

Found tactical feedback for players! You can find it through the recent form part of the player page:

http://i.imgur.com/WK3oVLq.jpg

[DaddyTorgo]

Holy crapballs.

Still plugging away in my first Arsenal season. Make it through to the semis of the Champions League, along with: PSG, Real Madrid, and Udinese.

Obviously I hope to draw Udinese for a path to the finals.
No dice. I get Ronaldo.

First leg - AWAY at the Bernabeau.

No Ribery (cup tied to Bayern). No Ozil or Jack Wilshire (they vitally needed a rest, match fitness in the low 80s because I had needed to keep playing them due to an injury to Bernard in order to try to catch Chelsea in the league). Fortunately Bernard was back to being healthy (just barely).

Arsenal 2 (Cazorla '23, Mitrovic '30 (p) - Real Madrid ZERO!!
They had 2 shots on target, one by Ronaldo and one by Benzema.

Holy fuck does that ratchet up the tension about 1000 degrees.

2nd Leg, at the Emirates.

Bookings aplenty - 3 yellows for each side. Gareth Bale goes down with an injury in the 45th minute. We play our usual match for the first half and don't start playing more defense until around an hour in. Madrid muster 17 shots, only 3 of which are on target. 2 by Benzema, 1 by Isco. NONE by Ronaldo.

Game finishes 0-0.

We're moving on to the Champions League final at the Millennium Stadium to face...(drumroll please)...PSG.

[Alan T]

I had a pretty fun way to win the Champions League as Arsenal in my past season. Somehow Galatasaray made it to the finals vs me, they beat Manchester City in the semi finals while I had to get past Bayern.

I ended up winning the finals 4-0 in perhaps my easiest title yet. Galatasaray didn't even make it to the group rounds this season, getting eliminated in the best placed playoffs.

[vex]

Found tactical feedback for players! You can find it through the recent form part of the player page:

Thanks, I stumbled upon that once and hadn't been able to find it since.

[DaddyTorgo]

I had a pretty fun way to win the Champions League as Arsenal in my past season. Somehow Galatasaray made it to the finals vs me, they beat Manchester City in the semi finals while I had to get past Bayern.

I ended up winning the finals 4-0 in perhaps my easiest title yet. Galatasaray didn't even make it to the group rounds this season, getting eliminated in the best placed playoffs.

Haha - nice!!! :D

[Coffee Warlord]

Playing the last match of the season tonight.

Win, we promote to the Premier League. Go Port Vale!

[Arles]

I made the mistake of having no coaches with over a "7" for tactical knowledge (most in the 1-3 area) on my Skrill Premier Lincoln team. It means most area greyed out for opposition advice and the ones I can ask advise only to tight mark the opposing striker. So, essentially, I am forced to scout and setup instructions each game (bleh). I will be replacing my assistant with a 10+ for tactical knowledge in the offseason :D

[Scoobz0202]

10 games to go in my Chelsea save. 5 point lead in the premier, just beat Juventus 5-1 in the first leg of the first knockout in the Champions Cup @ Juventus. In that match, though, lost Eden Hazard for 5-6 months with a broken leg on a harsh tackle by Lichtsteiner where he received a red card.

2013/14 English Player of the Year, Supporters Player of the Year, and 3rd in Best Player in Europe.

13/14 - 35 apps, 13 gls, 15 assists, 7 PoM, 7.48 Rating
14/15 (So Far) - 25 apps, 13 gls, 15 assists, 9 PoM, 7.68 Rating

The end of the year just got a little bit more interesting.

Side note - In FM can a injury that serious have serious changes to a players ratings?

[bhlloy]

Yeah, from my experience that will hurt a bunch of his ratings because he obviously won't be training during that time. I don't think it should be permanent enough that it hits his PA (although somebody might correct me on that) but it's certainly enough that he will have to work to get back to the level he was at before

[flere-imsaho]

A serious injury will affect ratings temporarily simply because he's not training. He'll also need recovery time to get back to match fitness (more than, say, pre-season training), so plan for that.

A serious injury also can affect ratings permanently, in the sense that either his "ceiling" may come down (mainly for a younger player) or those ratings simply won't go back to where they were, pre-injury (mainly for an older player). But that's can, not will.

Thus, it's good to keep an eye on his recovery, especially if he's going to want a new contract in 1-2 years.

[Coffee Warlord]

Just get your players hooked on painkillers. They'll never get injured.

[Coffee Warlord]

Ha! First friendly of the season, Sparta Prague comes to visit us.

And they set off a flare in my stadium.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Playing with the 9-level U.S. mod (8 levels active, I didn't want to coach in the Kentucky HS ranks). A glitch or two here and there but this is really a different experience than I've had with FM before.

I'm not entirely sure how realistic an experience it is -- I mean, are the 5th/6th tier clubs really rolling with 15/16 year olds as regular starters against players sometimes ten years older than that? -- but it's definitely interesting.

First time I've ever been told that 2 hours away was too expensive to travel for a friendly.

First time I've ever had Reserves that basically existed in name only. Stamina and fitness are so bad that we have to be more than two deep at every position to come close to handling multi-week stretches of 2 matches per week.

First time I've ever had half the roster be on p/a deals instead of an actual contract ... which brings me to a question:

Board gives you a salary budget and staying under that has some value in terms of your job performance. It's comically easy to stay under it when at least half your top 22 players will only agree to non-contract terms as per appearance guys. Obviously those costs affect the final bottom line but it feels like this is sort of easy to abuse. Shouldn't those dollars come out of your transfer budget or something? I mean, if it can do the math to adjust your salary limits when you raise/lower your transfer budget then it seems like it could do some math to adjust the salary limit as you spend money on those p.a. guys.

[flere-imsaho]

Jon - I've definitely had those limitations when I've managed very small teams in the lower leagues of European nations like Wales, N.I., Norway, etc.... So it's not unique to the customized database.

On the non-contract, per-appearance guys. While it can be easy to abuse, you also have 0 protection if someone else wants to poach them, which is the real drawback. It can be a serious limiting factor to progression unless you can find a way to increase the team's revenues enough. It ends up being a tightrope between being able to keep your good players long enough to advance before they get poached, and not over-reaching on salary for those you get on "real" contracts should your revenue shrink again.

[Radii]

I promoted out of level 8 of the NA league system in my first season, I finished 5th (top team promotes, 2nd-5th playoff for a 2nd promotion spot) and got hot at the right time. I think the amateur aspect of it has let me get into it a bit easier, I felt a little less obligated to spend tons of hours scouring transfer markets to try to upgrade the team. Instead my options were pretty limited and I got into playing easily.


I'm moving up the "Atlantic Coast Amateur League". Looking at the previous season, there were 19 amateur teams and 1 semi-pro team... the semi-pro team went 28-0-0 with a +68 goal differential. I assume that's an error in the league file, but whatever, they're gone now.

For now I'm poaching a couple of the best players from the league I just left. Seems like its still a very very long road to becoming even semi-pro.

[JonInMiddleGA]

'm moving up the "Atlantic Coast Amateur League". Looking at the previous season, there were 19 amateur teams and 1 semi-pro team... the semi-pro team went 28-0-0 with a +68 goal differential.

There are actually several clubs in the lower that are undefeated in mine through August 1st (give or take approaching 20 games without a loss). Every single one is some sort of "Academy', such as IMG Academy, Bradenton Academy, Match Fit, etc. Their players are about 2 levels higher than what they ought to be, presumably in real life / real structure they'd be damned good like this but would have players age out of the program AND not be promoting anywhere.Among the things I'm curious to see is how long they remain dominant as they move up the ladder.

[PilotMan]

On the non-contract, per-appearance guys. While it can be easy to abuse, you also have 0 protection if someone else wants to poach them, which is the real drawback. It can be a serious limiting factor to progression unless you can find a way to increase the team's revenues enough. It ends up being a tightrope between being able to keep your good players long enough to advance before they get poached, and not over-reaching on salary for those you get on "real" contracts should your revenue shrink again.

This is exactly the experience that I've had coaching in NI. Virtually no money to improve the team unless you can grab a top 3 spot or win the All-Ireland Cup to get the Euro or Champions Cup spots. Top teams stay on top, pool is very small.

[AnalBumCover]

I'm editing the 9 level USA league to remove the bottom Kentucky level. I just don't like the fact that it's so heavy in one state. It's quite an task because they guy who created this file added all those KY clubs in a few major cup events. I'll also edit some other clubs to make their statuses make sense with the level of play they are in.

The biggest obstacle I'm running into right now is that the top division, MLS, is the hard coded league and I want to replace that with a fictional, more customizable league. But when I move the teams from MLS to the created competition, the teams revert back to MLS every time I test the file. Any suggestions?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Down to the home stretch of my first season with the 9L USA mod, trying to make the playoffs in the Atl Coast Premier League. We're playing well, I've found a trio of young strikers that are clicking well, feels like they're getting better every match with just 4 left to play. Sitting in 4th place, just 1 point out of 2nd (first is 21 points ahead of the field). I just beat the previous 4th place team to jump past them in the standings and then this 48 hour sequence

ST #1 - my leading scorer ... out 4 weeks twisted knee in the win

ST #3 - my hottest new find 3rd in goals in less than half season ... broke down in training, sports hernia out 6-7 weeks

AMC/MC #1 - leads my midfield, the ONLY true MC on the entire roster ... yellow card limit, one match suspension

Ass't Manager - considering an offer from another club (one of those unbeaten superpowers down below) ... I only have 2 coaches on the senior squad

Our next match?
Against the league leaders who are 19-4-1 so far this season.

#FML

[JonInMiddleGA]

I just beat the previous 4th place team to jump past them in the standings and then this 48 hour sequence

ST #1 - my leading scorer ... out 4 weeks twisted knee in the win

ST #3 - my hottest new find 3rd in goals in less than half season ... broke down in training, sports hernia out 6-7 weeks

AMC/MC #1 - leads my midfield, the ONLY true MC on the entire roster ... yellow card limit, one match suspension

Ass't Manager - considering an offer from another club (one of those unbeaten superpowers down below) ... I only have 2 coaches on the senior squad

Our next match?
Against the league leaders who are 19-4-1 so far this season.

#FML


Naturally we won the match 3-0 :popcorn: :) :popcorn: :D

Played a 5-3-2 for the first time all season, I guess they weren't ready for that.

Watching that play out was a LOT of fun.

[Easy Mac]

I'm editing the 9 level USA league to remove the bottom Kentucky level. I just don't like the fact that it's so heavy in one state. It's quite an task because they guy who created this file added all those KY clubs in a few major cup events. I'll also edit some other clubs to make their statuses make sense with the level of play they are in.

The biggest obstacle I'm running into right now is that the top division, MLS, is the hard coded league and I want to replace that with a fictional, more customizable league. But when I move the teams from MLS to the created competition, the teams revert back to MLS every time I test the file. Any suggestions?

You just need to create a new top level in the u.s. and tell it what teams go in the league.

[AnalBumCover]

You just need to create a new top level in the u.s. and tell it what teams go in the league.

That's what I had been doing. It's just that when I ran the "Test Competition" it reverted the teams back to MLS.

Anyways, it turns out I just had to save the file, close out of the program and reload it. This morning everything worked out.

[fortheglory]

How is the regular MLS in this version?

[Radii]

So my USA level 7 Amateur team(the one just promoted from level 8) got some youth players in on trial at the start of my new season. I liked some of them and signed them as Youth prospects. Since we're an amateur team I didn't even pay attention to anything, just did it.

Now I'm listed as a semi-pro team, I never saw a notice about the change from amateur to semi-pro, and all of those youth contracts are worth $70/week. All my starters are still amateurs though.

The finances screen now tells me I have a budget of $2,090/week, and I'm spending $837/week. But at the Feb 1 update (offseason starts Jan 1 here) the board tells me that my management of finances is horrible and we're leaking money and that's going to become a problem.

WTF happened? Did I force the team to go semi-pro by accident? I'm not even certain the youth thing is when the amateur-semipro shift happened.

[AnalBumCover]

I've edited the level 9 fantasy usa database and removed the Kentucky clubs. So the new database is 8 levels deep.

I've also cleaned up database so that the clubs at the higher levels are all professional, bottom clubs are amateur, and those in the middle are semi-pro.

This should be a workable database. I've only tested it one season. Please let me know if you run in to any problems or have any other suggestions to enhance the database.

Here's the link to the file.

USA Pyramid Level 8 ver 1.0 (https://www.mediafire.com/?ywhde6t3bkawg1u)

[britrock88]

Damn, I just finished doing the same yesterday, ABC. But thanks on behalf of everyone else! :)

On this topic, are you guys filling the rosters if you're playing 8 levels deep? I'm in the Appalachian Premier League (hey, Radii :) ) with greyed-out players, my scout can't find any recommendations, and it appears that this is the case all the way up to the USL levels (3-4).

[JonInMiddleGA]

On this topic, are you guys filling the rosters if you're playing 8 levels deep? I'm in the Appalachian Premier League (hey, Radii :) ) with greyed-out players, my scout can't find any recommendations, and it appears that this is the case all the way up to the USL levels (3-4).

Hey, we're in the same league :)

If you mean that setting about filling rosters that you choose during new game set-up then yeah, i'm pretty sure I chose that.

Finding players hasn't been nearly as challenging as finding any that were willing to move to Conyers, GA and play for the Revolution.

[PilotMan]

It's too bad we really can't get a mp league going using this mod. How interesting would a bunch of LL managers in podunk towns, all going after the same kids make it?

[vex]

I would sign up for that.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Question, based on the U.S. 9 level mod & based on the fact that I haven't played with a modded FM universe in years (if at all, honestly I don't remember)

I've completed one season at like level, umm, 6. Players were predictably bad, but I managed to scrap my way to a third place finish. Several, heck, most of my productive players were teenagers. Basically 3.5 to 5.0 yellows for this level per my really bad Scout (He was like a 7 current / 9 potential).

Off season I luck into a great new 16/16 scout.

I assume that means he'll give me a much more accurate view of my existing players, so I'm not surprised when I see lower ratings for a lot of players.

What surprises me - and what I'm asking about it - is the enormous amount of talent that came from my youth pull and even from "grey" players that the game generated to fill out my Reserves roster for the first friendly of the season.

Based on Mr. 16/16 assessment, I believe my starting eleven would have 4-5 players that aren't just young, they're like 14-15 years old. They're rated even more strongly than last year's kids were by the old scout but meanwhile several of my very productive kids last year are now rated about half what they were. More importantly they're playing in the preseason friendlies like their new ratings, guys who couldn't miss suddenly can't get without 10 yards of the goal with a shot.

It's almost as though the scout view is dictating the ability & performance instead of simply being a more/less accurate view of what they really are ... but that's not possible, right?

[EagleFan]

Are these new players? Could make sense if assuming that a better scout would see and bring in better players.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Are these new players? Could make sense if assuming that a better scout would see and bring in better players.

Youth pull occurred before that scout was hired (I literally found him days later, my guess is that he's a regen of an uberscout or something). He was Obscure, so I snatched him up for three years at $25/wk. Prior to him the highest rated scout even willing to discuss terms with my minnow had a current ability of 9.

What's making this hard for me to get my head around is a lack of experience with mods & such, I don't know if that has anything to do with things or not (afaik the mod only touched league structure, players are generated the same way as always ... right?)

From that group, according to my scout at least, I got
4.5/5.0 players at DR, AMC and ST, a 4.0/5 DL and MC. All 14 y/o.

That's with poor youth facilities, basic junior coaching and basic youth recruitment.

And yes, I'm looking at them in the context of the senior squad, not the U18s.

Meanwhile, several young players (15-17 y/o) who were rated 3.5 to 5.0 for Ability last year by the previous scout are now 1.5 to 2.5, or in a case or two have dropped from 2.5 yellow to 3.0 blue. And they've played like ass in friendlies after being solid starters to outright stars last season.

Similar trends, not as extreme as far as I can tell, exist with other clubs in the league that I've looked at.

It just feels ... broken.

[Radii]

I've edited the level 9 fantasy usa database and removed the Kentucky clubs. So the new database is 8 levels deep.


Awesome! Thanks. Since I seem to have fucked up my team in my first run, I'm downloading this and starting over. I edited the High Point team in the Appalachain league to once again reside in Wake Forest and edited their stadium, but no changes past that.

On this topic, are you guys filling the rosters if you're playing 8 levels deep?

Yep, I did.

[Radii]

Has anyone successfully connected FM14 to their youtube account? It seems like the Youtube/Google integration makes this problematic?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Has anyone successfully connected FM14 to their youtube account? It seems like the Youtube/Google integration makes this problematic?

I have not. IIRC I tried once, had no luck.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'll make this observation about the L9 mod -- I'm sure the same could happen in other leagues too -- it's a very different experience than any I've had with other career in any version of the game.

Even as someone who often controls all three squads personally, this is by far the most interaction I've had with extremely young players. The budget I've been given is adequate but not outrageous, meaning I have to be selective in who is under contract vs who is left on a p.a. basis. And after the board insisted on participating in the U18 league (and were willing to fund a full-time Reserves head coach I opted to field a squad there as well), I find myself trying to field three matches a week with only about 50 players (last time I did that I believe I had 92 players to work with). Throw in poor stamina, subpart physios, lackluster coaching ... it's a very different feel.

That's a credit to the game IMO, after this many years to feel like you're doing things you've never done before & to have it be an engaging experience that makes you look at things differently, make different decisions, etc.

[Coffee Warlord]

Welcome to the Premier League, Port Vale. Your first 3 league matches?

Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City.

Ow.

[PilotMan]

Made a very slight tweak to our rambling 443 by unticking the retain possession rule. The result has been over 20 shots on goal now in 3 straight games. Possession hasn't been great, neither has the finishing but we are constantly pressuring the keeper now. Just crushed Linfield 4-1 on the road with 29 shots.

We were NOT favored in this game still despite being the defending champs and in first.

[Radii]

I have not. IIRC I tried once, had no luck.

Yeah, this is frustrating.

https://support.sega.co.uk/entries/25446062-FM14-Troubleshooting-In-Game-Issues

The last issue there mentions youtube login problems, I followed those directions exactly, I have a "plusgoogle.com" login and password now, I log out of gmail and I can login successfully with that plusgoogle.com account, which it tells me is also set up specifically for 3rd party tools. Still doesn't work within FM.

Ugh, annoying.

[Brian Swartz]

I haven't had any problems doing it, I just choose not to since the quality is so low(quality of the exported video, that is).

[Radii]

I haven't had any problems doing it, I just choose not to since the quality is so low(quality of the exported video, that is).

Well that makes me feel better, maybe I'll be better off using my slow but 720p process that can do easily now.

[britrock88]

Made a very slight tweak to our rambling 443 by unticking the retain possession rule. The result has been over 20 shots on goal now in 3 straight games. Possession hasn't been great, neither has the finishing but we are constantly pressuring the keeper now. Just crushed Linfield 4-1 on the road with 29 shots.

We were NOT favored in this game still despite being the defending champs and in first.

I'd bet on you any time you roll with 12 men. :D

[vex]

I'd bet on you any time you roll with 12 men. :D

Who said he needs a stinkin keeper? ;)

[PilotMan]

I'd bet on you any time you roll with 12 men. :D

The last time ANYONE rolled with 12 men they needed a whole slew of shots after. :D

[digamma]

I've edited the level 9 fantasy usa database and removed the Kentucky clubs. So the new database is 8 levels deep.

I've also cleaned up database so that the clubs at the higher levels are all professional, bottom clubs are amateur, and those in the middle are semi-pro.

This should be a workable database. I've only tested it one season. Please let me know if you run in to any problems or have any other suggestions to enhance the database.

Here's the link to the file.

USA Pyramid Level 8 ver 1.0 (https://www.mediafire.com/?ywhde6t3bkawg1u)

Any idea on Mac compatibility? The files shouldn't be different, right?

<------N00B

[Barkeep49]

Playing as Blackburn. Get us promoted the first year, I figure we'll just barely stave off relegation in our first EPL year. We end up finishing 7th and qualifying for Europa. This year we do even better so I break the bank and spend 11 million for 2 midfielders in January. I've only had them for 3 games but they are every bit as good as I had scouted and I think we might qualify for the Champions League. We better considering our precarious cash position now. Having the kinds of players that I like is just so rewarding. Seeing them do well is even better.

And in a first for me I came up with my own successful tactic (vs using/adapting one I read about online). It is a 5-3-2 which I based off the World Cup playing style of the Dutch from this year. It works well when we're not outclassed (or underdogs on the road).

[MrBug708]

I really wish, as a National Team Manager, that you could speak with dual nationality guys and try to convince them to play for you. Or at least get feedback

[Barkeep49]

I really wish, as a National Team Manager, that you could speak with dual nationality guys and try to convince them to play for you. Or at least get feedback
Given what Klinsmann has done I agree that this would be a useful feature to have.

[Easy Mac]

Had a Brazil semi-final type of game in my Charleston Battery career. Lost 10-0 at home. I didn't even have time to change my tactics. By the time my changes went through, it was already 4-0. I blame international call ups, injuries, and bad timing. I had my top 3 defenders called up on international duty, my starting GK called up, my next top defender and a winger out on yellow cards, my starting DM and CM injured. Once things turned bad, they just spiraled and there was nothing that could be done.

[Barkeep49]

Had a Brazil semi-final type of game in my Charleston Battery career. Lost 10-0 at home. I didn't even have time to change my tactics. By the time my changes went through, it was already 4-0. I blame international call ups, injuries, and bad timing. I had my top 3 defenders called up on international duty, my starting GK called up, my next top defender and a winger out on yellow cards, my starting DM and CM injured. Once things turned bad, they just spiraled and there was nothing that could be done.
That's rough. My tactic changes always take effect after a goal. Wonder why yours didn't.

[bhlloy]

Yep, if there's a feature request list anywhere that should be added, I would love to see that. Should be able to promise a player a role in a squad or discuss their feelings about playing for your national team. Also another needed enhancement is that friendly caps shouldn't lock a player in to a nation, as in real life

[Easy Mac]

That's rough. My tactic changes always take effect after a goal. Wonder why yours didn't.

I'm playing on my Dell win 8 tablet. It just seems to take a few extra beats for my changes to get through for some reason.

Strangely, my team then went on the road and won our next game 4-1 once everyone came back from international duty/suspension/injury.

I think the main problem was I was playing 5 players out of position. I had 1 healthy/available DC (my worst one). I had to slot my right winger into the backline and a central midfielder into the center of defense. Then I had to move two wingers into the center of the midfield while trying to play another center midfield as a d-mid. There was just no organization in the back, and every change I tried to make to just control the ball just didn't work. I'm lucky I'm mid table with as strict a budget I have and with the contracts I got when I took over the team (most of my worst players are the highest paid, I'm trying to survive with loan players).

I'm also a little perplexed why the game didn't move my fixture, even though I requested it. I thought it generally moved things around with 4 players or more on international duty.

[AnalBumCover]

If anyone cares, I'm updating my USA fantasy mod to set region borders for the mid to lower levels. In my most recent save I noticed my local Irvine CA team was relegated to an eastern division. I'm hoping the regional borders will help minimize this effect. I'm also doing a little more clean up with the minor cups and their scheduling.

In a couple of days I'll have finished a ver 1.1

[Scoobz0202]

If I need to make a change I always pause the game before I go into the tactics screen.

[Coffee Warlord]

On a rather odd tangent, has anyone else played much with the free FM Editor from FM Scout? Or tried to edit uniform colors at all?

Long story short, I was mucking with...or trying to muck with my kit colors, particularly for my goalkeepers (I've long despised the all-green keeper outfit). Doesn't seem like the changes stick at all. I'm wondering if my color choices aren't different enough from the outfield players for it to be used, since it seems to default always to this uniform grey now.

[AnalBumCover]

Wondering why, in simming my mod, was a club reassigned to a different region/division (same level) in the new season without having been relegated or promoted?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Wondering why, in simming my mod, was a club reassigned to a different region/division (same level) in the new season without having been relegated or promoted?

I've never messed around with the editor so I don't know what's possible/impossible but ... could someone have been bumped to make room for a rising/falling team that was more geographically tied to that region/division?

(Just because I haven't attempted any edits doesn't mean I haven't considered what it might entail to get "right")

[DaddyTorgo]

I started an MLS game today for the first time in...a long time.

[AnalBumCover]

I've never messed around with the editor so I don't know what's possible/impossible but ... could someone have been bumped to make room for a rising/falling team that was more geographically tied to that region/division?

(Just because I haven't attempted any edits doesn't mean I haven't considered what it might entail to get "right")
You might be right, its just that the club that was bumped happened to be Hilo Tsunami and moved to the Southland Soccer Division.

[JonInMiddleGA]

You might be right, its just that the club that was bumped happened to be Hilo Tsunami and moved to the Southland Soccer Division.

Oof.

My first game in the second season of the Atlantic Coast Premier League was on the road ... at Hollywood United

[AnalBumCover]

So here's the updated fantasy USA file.

What's new in ver 1.1
- Set geographic borders to minimize movement across regions.
- Changed start dates on some minor cup events to fall within the competition dates.

USA Pyramid Level 8 ver 1.1 (http://www.mediafire.com/view/wvc1uxh0u7iiqoo/USA_Pyramid_Level_8_ver_1.1.xml)

I've run a fast sim for two seasons on this mod, and still found movement within divisions.

[Oilers9911]

Oof.

My first game in the second season of the Atlantic Coast Premier League was on the road ... at Hollywood United

Hollywood, Florida perhaps?

[AnalBumCover]

Hollywood, Florida perhaps?

According to the editor, it's based in Los Angeles, CA.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Hollywood, Florida perhaps?

Yeah, I thought that too but ABC is correct, they're listed as Hollywood, CA and they relegated down from USL-Pro West

[Toddzilla]

So here's the updated fantasy USA file.

What's new in ver 1.1
- Set geographic borders to minimize movement across regions.
- Changed start dates on some minor cup events to fall within the competition dates.

USA Pyramid Level 8 ver 1.1 (http://www.mediafire.com/view/wvc1uxh0u7iiqoo/USA_Pyramid_Level_8_ver_1.1.xml)

I've run a fast sim for two seasons on this mod, and still found movement within divisions.

ACCESS DENIED

[AnalBumCover]

ACCESS DENIED

Access to the mediafire file denied? I've never really used mediafire before. Is there a setting there that I need to toggle to allow public access?

[whomario]

nah, you just provided a link for the "page view", this is the direct link for the file download : USA Pyramid Level 8 ver 1.1 (http://www.mediafire.com/download/wvc1uxh0u7iiqoo/USA+Pyramid+Level+8+ver+1.1.xml)

[AnalBumCover]

Ahh. OK thanks.

[Flasch186]

How do I get to use it in game? Where do I put the xml?

[AnalBumCover]

How do I get to use it in game? Where do I put the xml?

The file goes in:

C:\Users\.your user.\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\editor data


Start a new game. You should get something like this in your new game window:

http://i.imgur.com/2fwhJ5M.png

Select custom and click edit.

You should see a screen allowing you to select the USA Pyramid release, select it and confirm.

Then when you start your game the USA should have a ridiculously large number of players and then when you get to the section where you chose how many playable leagues there should be a large number of those too, plus I think a few new competitions..

[whomario]

going to try my own wacky experiment. Gonna relegate Liverpool into the League 2, make them fan owned (no elections) and lowering finances all around (lower kit sponsorships and so on), although still on premiership level. Also going to transfer or release basically all senior players via the editor, with only Gerrard and a few 2nd rate players staying.

Just going to see if that will keep me invested. Got the idea from some dude with a youtube channel who did the same thing in a way, putting Celtic into the english league system at league 2 level.

[Toddzilla]

ABC - you got a README for your USA setup that describes the levels, teams, divisions, etc?

[AnalBumCover]

ABC - you got a README for your USA setup that describes the levels, teams, divisions, etc?

Let me put something together.

[digamma]

OK, I'm up and running with the Valdosta Victory, an amateur team. How do I promote guys to the senior squad? Offer contract? Does that blow my amateur team (does that matter)?

My reserves and U18 teams both look decidedly more athletic than my 17 year old varsity.

[Radii]

How do I promote guys to the senior squad?

right click any player on your team->squad, then you can select U18/Reserve/Senior team

Offer contract

Also right click, or, if you're looking at the player page of a free agent that you're trying to sign there will be an offer contract button.

Does that blow my amateur team (does that matter)?

The contracts you'll be offering will be amateur contracts. They're not binding at all and any of your players can leave/be released at any time.

[DaddyTorgo]

Look at the media comparison on this guy.

Think he should be worried?

[Easy Mac]

Odd news item in my game. Got an item from the mirror stating a 31 year old Canadian playing for the Nottingham Forest U21 team is surprised he wasn't called up to the US National team. Since when is a guy with 6 senior Canadian caps in the last calendar year expected to play for the US?

[korme]

I've been running a strikerless formation (3 AMCs interweaving) and it's been a whole lot of fun to play with, after a period of unfamiliarity, my guys have been getting tons of shots.

Be in mind it's not a game 1 score or anything, this is halfway through the year but it's the third game in a row I've seen a result like this. Finally, pretty fun to be winning!

http://i.imgur.com/jKFjDep.png

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-yaiW7DgI48" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sorry, that's the best video quality I could come up with.

[DaddyTorgo]

I've been running a strikerless formation (3 AMCs interweaving) and it's been a whole lot of fun to play with, after a period of unfamiliarity, my guys have been getting tons of shots.

Be in mind it's not a game 1 score or anything, this is halfway through the year but it's the third game in a row I've seen a result like this. Finally, pretty fun to be winning!



I've got a strikerless formation (3 AM's) that I used at Bilbao that was a hell of a lot of fun. I put it up on the Steam workshop under my username there (same as my name here) or I can send it to you if you're interested in looking at a slightly different version of one for whatever reason.

[whomario]

@ DT: That´s kinda creepy :eek:

I ran a 3 AMC formation for a while as well, very fun potentially. Definitely ran into some barca-syndrome problems until i found an Ibrahimovic clone to put in center of that formation (a 6´6 brazilian with playmaking ability and devastating physichal force).

In a twist, at Marseille i also once ran a 3 striker formation with what was basically 3 AMCs (retrained to play striker), often even without much finishing ability. Would alternate it between the center "striker" being a playmaker for the other 2 or the other way round.


My Liverpool experiment has worked, managed to set it up without any Database problems :) Breezed through league 2 but ran into some serious financial problems, will have to sell Raheem Sterling after all it seems ... Basically doing it house-rule style in that i play largely players from my own youth ranks and restrict myself to 4 transfers per season (2 U20, 2 older) and only buy from teams from my own division or below. And once i reach the PL, i won´t buy players from any of the big first divisions (Spain, Italy, Germany, France, England). Right now am still not allowed to scout outside the UK.

edit: I also plan on deducting half the TV money i get every season.

My first potential star from the youth ranks should be attached

[Barkeep49]

Wow 18 finishing at age 16? No wonders he's 5 star.

[whomario]

yeah, don´t think i had a striker with that yet. The greatest thing about it is that it should enable me to train him in a way to really make him an all around player, not having to worry about a core rating like that (which takes a lot of potential points to improve)

A little bit on the small side for a lone striker, but other than that i´m hyped.

[DaddyTorgo]

Nice finishing - even better he's got great off the ball already too.

Going to need help on his first touch.

[korme]

Guys, I have seemed to run into a problem here.

I was in the second half of extra time, and hit 'make substitutions' right as the half was ending. It took me to the PK screen, to pick my kickers. But I couldn't seem to find a Done button, and now I can't go back to my tactics screen or find any way to get this shootout started. What am I missing, or did I somehow end up in no man's land here?

http://i.imgur.com/SvNM1YJ.jpg

[flere-imsaho]

Wow....

[korme]

Nevermind, figured it out. Ended up mashing keyboard buttons and the spacebar actually took me to the screen I needed to be at with the confirm changes button at the bottom. Phew, managed to scrape by in this match and didn't want to have to re load.

[korme]

Wish I would've restarted, lost 5-3 on PKs

[whomario]

I had a similar situation once, only my last saving point was 3 months back. I think i spent 2 hours until i freaking figured out how to continue ;)

My Liverpool save went very easy afterall. Turns out, the quality of players in League 2 or 1 is not all that impressive. Maybe should have gone more "empty cupboard" but was no changing it once i got attached to a few players. Anyway, in the championship i actually ran into some early problems with my ultra attacking style. Changed that up, then got Gary Medel on a loan with option to buy and since then been on a roll. Big 1st vs 2nd game coming up (in december vs reading).

Games will get tougher in the PL i think, especially since quite a few of my youngsters are stretched as far as can be and might have already plateaued.

I am also going all nutty professor tactics wise, have implemented a Libero tactic with no real striker (despite that potential all world dutch youngster. Genius, right ? ;) ) and playing Gerrard there from time to time.

Now am searching the world over for players to be the next Beckenbauer. Might have found a handfull that i´ll try to lure to me. Mind you, none of them can actually play the position as of now ;) On my radar are a 20 year old spaniard from the Athletico B team (who is an AMC but lacks speed and has decent defensive skills), a 17 year old Portuguese MC, a 20 year old Left Back from Barcas B team (who´d be awesome as a left back) and a 17 year old swiss AMC (also lacking pace)
Other than the Barca LB, neither would be more than an average (at best) PL player at their normal position i guess.

Had to create a new shortlist just so i remember why i am keeping tabs on them ;)

[CAsterling]

One thing that still annoys me with FM is this.

In some games, I take a 1-0 lead, playing well my team dominates up to this point. Then for the next 20 minutes my team plays like the Keystone Cops, can't pass, players tackle their own team mates, they stop chasing the ball and generally just suck.....then the opposition equalise and all of a sudden my team starts playing like a team again!

It is like the game has decided the opposition are going to score, and until they do my team will have their skill level drop to schoolboy level.

It is so blatant that it causes my average daily swearing quota to be exceeded every time I see it happen. I dread to think what my blood pressure is up to during those moments :)

[Abe Sargent]

One thing that still annoys me with FM is this.

In some games, I take a 1-0 lead, playing well my team dominates up to this point. Then for the next 20 minutes my team plays like the Keystone Cops, can't pass, players tackle their own team mates, they stop chasing the ball and generally just suck.....then the opposition equalise and all of a sudden my team starts playing like a team again!

It is like the game has decided the opposition are going to score, and until they do my team will have their skill level drop to schoolboy level.

It is so blatant that it causes my average daily swearing quota to be exceeded every time I see it happen. I dread to think what my blood pressure is up to during those moments :)


I can think of multiple games at the World Cup this past summer that this accurately describes...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Just saw the lowest match rating I think I've ever seen, in the boxscore of a friendly

A DR somehow managed to earn a 3.9, without an own goal and without being responsible for any PK's.

[vex]

Just saw the lowest match rating I think I've ever seen, in the boxscore of a friendly

A DR somehow managed to earn a 3.9, without an own goal and without being responsible for any PK's.

That is impressively low.

[MrBug708]

Space bar is the pause start keyboard shortcut

[korme]

Just lost in the Capital One Cup 2-1 on my keeper's OG at 120'. Doesn't get much worse than that. Beautiful save, 30 seconds from penalties, and he drops the ball and it rolls backwards..

[britrock88]

ABC, or others messing with the 8-level USA mod, any developments in keeping the geography straightened out? I would take the time to program it in the editor if I knew what to do...

[DaddyTorgo]

True story:

1) Buy a 22 year old DL from Metalist for $4.7m in 2015 (Jonathan Silva, DL - Argentina)
2) Silva plays 45 games as my starting DL in 2016-2017, clocks a 7.14 rating. 5.23 tackles per game. Didn't keep a snapshot, but I assume very few mistakes led to goals.
3) Clocks a 7.14 rating (including a monster 7.63 in the CL) over 18 games in 2017-2018 so far, with just 1 of his 65 mistakes leading to a goal. Raises his value to $24.5mil.
4) PSG comes in with a market-value offer for him. I counter with $40 million and 25% of next sale (not profit, just next sale). PSG accepts the counter.
5) Next game he goes to clear a chip off the goal line as he's running back towards the goal and hits an own goal as he ran out of room to get it over the bar.

Haha.

He'll be tough to replace, but I can't turn down that kind of ROI. Turn a $5mil guy into a $40+mil guy in a season...yikes.

6) He signs for PSG with a $9.75m/yr annual salary. 3x what I was paying him per year.
7) I plan to replace him with a combination of Dodo (true story, Brazillian dude's name is Dodo) who I had picked up for $2.5m off Roma to be his backup. Step down defensively, but can get forward and whip in crosses so much better. Having Gotoku Sakai and him as my FB's will make my overlapping runs and crosses into the box deadly from BOTH sides instead of just one.

[AnalBumCover]

ABC, or others messing with the 8-level USA mod, any developments in keeping the geography straightened out? I would take the time to program it in the editor if I knew what to do...

I've been playing around with it, including making the bottom league flexible in size (14-18, instead of a firm 16) so it doesn't bump teams off to make room for relegated teams. I haven't been able to test it yet, but I'll let you know if it works.

[AnalBumCover]

So I did a one season test on my latest tweaks. My biggest change was to make the league sizes in the bottom level flexible. It seemed to help a bit but I still saw a couple of teams moved across regions. So it's not 100% foolproof. One thing I noticed in my test was that one of the clubs that moved was not assigned a stadium. If I go back to the editor and make sure all clubs have at least a stadium and/or city (Braza is not linked to a particular city) it may help further.

A side effect to the flexible league size is that I cannot make it a mid-season split league. The editor prevents me from that. So the bottom level is straight league play from top to bottom.

[whomario]

@ DT: Quality DL/DR are literally the most sought after commodity in the game (and IRL), i have often seen absurd prices paid for them. I have had saves where i literally spent years trying to upgrade those positions (one problem is that even the good ones allways seem to have some sort of "defect" like a 7 dribling or crossing rating). One thing i found is that it is very interesting to retrain young players to play there, especially if i´m looking for an attacking minded DR/DL.

[DaddyTorgo]

@ DT: Quality DL/DR are literally the most sought after commodity in the game (and IRL), i have often seen absurd prices paid for them. I have had saves where i literally spent years trying to upgrade those positions (one problem is that even the good ones allways seem to have some sort of "defect" like a 7 dribling or crossing rating). One thing i found is that it is very interesting to retrain young players to play there, especially if i´m looking for an attacking minded DR/DL.

Yeah - that's why I was kinda torn about selling him, but bottom line is that he wasn't that great going forward (like you said, that was his defect) and I can get a more well-rounded guy (who will help me offensively) at half the cost who is roughly the same age.

Made for a nice windfall profit that I reinvested - half on a similarly aged, more well-rounded, homegrown player (which helps), and 1/4 on an 18 y/o English GK wonderkid who is "the next Peter Shilton."

[whomario]

Awww, the great myth of the English Wonderkid GK ;)

[Marc Vaughan]

Ah, the great myth of the English Wonderkid GK ;)

There was a generation where England had wonderful keepers available - Shilton and Clements were both fantastic, then Seaman took the helm for another decade ..

Today unfortuantely the influx of non-UK nationality keepers means that few English youths ever get experience at the top level, the exception presently being Joe Hart.

[DaddyTorgo]

There was a generation where England had wonderful keepers available - Shilton and Clements were both fantastic, then Seaman took the helm for another decade ..

Today unfortuantely the influx of non-UK nationality keepers means that few English youths ever get experience at the top level, the exception presently being Joe Hart.

Joe Hart :lol:

[DaddyTorgo]

Awww, the great myth of the English Wonderkid GK ;)

Right? I was like "OOH!!!"

Of course I've also got a 21 year old German GK who's a 4+ star prospect. Not sure how long Szczesny will end up sticking around...

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Got my first huge promotion of my career. Coached Southport from Skrill Premier all the way up to L1 in England. Got a huge offer from Paris Saint Germain that I couldn't pass up.

Went from a team with a 46K/week salary and no transfer $$ to a team who had won the top French league 12 of the last 15 years and finished 2nd the other three years. Coach was fired three months into the season after a slow start (16th in late October). I now have a team with a $7.8M/week salary ($2.2M/week under that mark currently) and a transfer fund of $280M. I'm honestly not sure I know how to handle all this money.

My salary went from $700/week to $43K/week.

[MrBug708]

280? Wow! I dont think I've ever seen that much being allowed

[DaddyTorgo]

280? Wow! I dont think I've ever seen that much being allowed

Yeah - it's pretty crazy when you get to those levels.

Enjoy!!

[MrBug708]

I've been on plenty of great teams, but I think about 180 is the most I've ever gotten. Then again, I usually have built me teams so it's not being used to entice me. Seems like you grab two world class players or a few great ones

[MrBug708]

How did the interview go? (what were they looking for?)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

How did the interview go? (what were they looking for?)

They wanted attacking soccer, go and grab star players, and build youth within the first team. I love to coach attacking soccer and love to build with youth, so it was an easy decision for both them and me. Once I was hired, the media guys said that I was their #1 target from the start. Not surprising given that my old team I had running an agressive 4-3-3 and I had no players on my team over the age of 26, yet I was still competing in L1 when not expected to do so and after seeing my salary amount cut by 30%. I'm not sure I could have done a better job under the circumstances.

[JonInMiddleGA]

An almost total aside perhaps but ...

It's actually kind of a nice change of pace for me to play a FM career without doing a full dynasty. It's an entirely different pace. I've starting a fourth so-so season in the Atlantic Coast Premier League (uncorrected 9 Level U.S. mod). I doubt I'd be any farther than year two if I were posting it.

Selfish perhaps, but it's a definite change of pace.

[DaddyTorgo]

So I'm thinking of continuing my path through the world.

Real Madrid beat my Arsenal side 3-2 in extra time in the CL Final. And they've just offered me an interview for a job.

Transfer kitty 3x Arsenal's (so $150m)
Wage budget $262m per year ($50m more than Arsenal)

But aside from Bale & Isco they're looking a bit thin on strong talents, and I have like 3-4 wonderkids about to pop at Arsenal.

Decisions decisions.

[MrBug708]

Trade the wonderkids to Real Madrid then switch sides :)

[DaddyTorgo]

Trade the wonderkids to Real Madrid then switch sides :)

Haha - that's not fair or realistic.

And I already saved the game at the point where I have to make the decision anyways.

Going to sleep on it, but think I may stay with Arsenal. If I keep winning with them my transfer kitty will get up to there, they're only just barely richer than me (I'm #2 in the world by like $40m), and I'm so stacked with young talent at like every position (except for AML I suppose) that I think the future is a lot brighter than at a RM where all of their best players are about to hit 30 or on the wrong side of 30.

[mrtourette]

Just saw the lowest match rating I think I've ever seen, in the boxscore of a friendly

A DR somehow managed to earn a 3.9, without an own goal and without being responsible for any PK's.

I lost a game to Real Madrid 7-0 and my keeper received a score of 3.3. He was at something like 5.6 but then was at fault for the seventh goal and dropped to 3.3, and never recovered.

[vex]

You always know the transfer proposals are about to get interesting when you have the following clubs all interested in one prospect:

Arsenal
Chelsea
Man U
AC Milan
Barca
Monaco
PSG

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

So I spent some of my new found money. I just spend 210M to transfer in a 23 year old striker and a 22 year old player who can play all four of the left positions (AM, M, WB, D). Salaries were around $300K/week combined. Both of them are among the four favorites to win World Footballer of the Year. :D

The good news is that they'll both arrive in January (one month away). The bad news is that I really think I'm going to have to overhaul this team to get them in a position to have long-term success. We've got 6 players over 32 years old and I really like to get my players under 28 years old if possible and build with youth. I can get these guys out through transfers, but I'm going to have to make sure to get more transfers in to replace those guys.

The other problem is that this team is currently in 16th place. They were in 18th when I got them, so not a huge deal after only a month, but if my transfers don't work, I could lose all of this in a heartbeat. Such is the pressures of taking on a big-time club I suppose.

[PilotMan]

Well, I've guided Larne to another Danske Bank Premier Title this year ('21-'22), we also managed to win the Northern Irish Cup and Northern Irish League Cup. Just missed winning the All-Ireland Cup with a 2-1 loss in the Final against the top team in Ireland this year Derry City.

Our team was lead by 2 incredible scoring machines: Our captain and best player; 24-year old William Maxwell. In 57 total games played this year he scored 44 goals, had 28 assists and 13 POM's. He played the central attacker in our 433 and was allowed considerable freedom to impact the game.

The other leader was Darren Carson, an 18-year old from our youth system. He won a starting job last last year with 5 goals and 3 assists in 9 games but this year took over. In 55 total games he scored 33 goals with 20 assists and 9 POM's. He played the right sided false #9 in our 433 just off Maxwell's shoulder.

I've signed on for another season as I've finally convinced the team to relay the pitch and improve our training facilities. We are finally in the black as well and it looks like money might be flowing in much faster if we can keep it up. However, I feel like I may be hitting a wall and that maybe I need to let my contract expire and see what else might be out there. I have a National rep, but I've not had a single job offer from a bigger team out there. Not sure what else I need to do to draw some bigger attention. I guess getting out of Northern Ireland would be a start. :)

[bulletsponge]

So I spent some of my new found money. I just spend 210M to transfer in a 23 year old striker and a 22 year old player

http://www.sherv.net/cm/emoticons/shocked/jaw-drop-smiley-emoticon.gif (http://www.sherv.net/)

my FM self couldnt fathom spending that kind of $$. ive maybe spent over 20 mill for a player maybe a half dozen times in all my years playing FM

[DaddyTorgo]

So I spent some of my new found money. I just spend 210M to transfer in a 23 year old striker and a 22 year old player who can play all four of the left positions (AM, M, WB, D). Salaries were around $300K/week combined. Both of them are among the four favorites to win World Footballer of the Year. :D

The good news is that they'll both arrive in January (one month away). The bad news is that I really think I'm going to have to overhaul this team to get them in a position to have long-term success. We've got 6 players over 32 years old and I really like to get my players under 28 years old if possible and build with youth. I can get these guys out through transfers, but I'm going to have to make sure to get more transfers in to replace those guys.

The other problem is that this team is currently in 16th place. They were in 18th when I got them, so not a huge deal after only a month, but if my transfers don't work, I could lose all of this in a heartbeat. Such is the pressures of taking on a big-time club I suppose.

Such was my concern with the Real Madrid job. Not the poor league position, but the age of the first team and the expectations.

[PilotMan]

I had a cool situation where I got to hire one of the former favorite and best XI players of the team back as one of our coaches. He is our new fitness coach and a nice upgrade over the last guy who was in that position.

The club apparently is ready for us to make the most of our new found money. After nearly 10 years of scraping by they have granted my a 20k transfer budget and raised our weekly salary budget by nearly 50%.

For us little minnows at Larne this is an incredible windfall that I'm not sure what to do with.

edit: Oh, and I've cracked the top 273,500 all time games too. ;)

[CAsterling]

One of those little touches that make me love this game is:

You have a player who has scored 2 goals in a game, and then you get a penalty - rather than the normal penalty taker scoring, the player who already has 2 goals takes the penalty so he can try to get his hat-trick.

It is a little thing, but it is the fact that SI added this and other realistic touches makes the whole game more enjoyable to me

[AlexB]

One of those little touches that make me love this game is:

You have a player who has scored 2 goals in a game, and then you get a penalty - rather than the normal penalty taker scoring, the player who already has 2 goals takes the penalty so he can try to get his hat-trick.

It is a little thing, but it is the fact that SI added this and other realistic touches makes the whole game more enjoyable to me

Hope you fined him a week's wages for unprofessional conduct :D

[DaddyTorgo]

BBC Sport - FA Cup: Romsey Town manager, 22, to be youngest ever boss (http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28746513)



And now, on Saturday, he is likely to become the youngest manager in the history of the FA Cup, with the Football Association confirming they were unaware of anyone younger.

Phillips first became interested in coaching through a popular computer game - and now he is playing it out in reality.

"I was one of those sad people after school who was sat there for hours playing Championship Manager," he said. "I always used to try and take a really small club up through the leagues.

[Grover]

Pfft. We're not sad people.

[DaddyTorgo]

I agree. He should be vilified for saying we're sad.

[Flasch186]

F him!

[flere-imsaho]

I'm not sad.

I'm incandescently furious that the intellectual midgets I have chosen to employ as supposed "athletes" or even "football players" in my side can't seem to resist the obvious joy of firing off shots from 30+ yards that somewhat inevitably go out for a throw in, not even a corner because your Long Shots attribute is 3, flounder-brain!

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm not sad.

I'm incandescently furious that the intellectual midgets I have chosen to employ as supposed "athletes" or even "football players" in my side can't seem to resist the obvious joy of firing off shots from 30+ yards that somewhat inevitably go out for a throw in, not even a corner because your Long Shots attribute is 3, flounder-brain!

Be happy you can convince yours to shoot. I have the opposite problem lately.

[korme]

After advancing from Sky Bet 2 to Sky Bet Championship in 2 years, I accepted the position as Zimbabwe National Team Head Coach, keeping my post at Dag and Red.

I love it because it will obviously be quite the challenge. Zimbabwe's national rank is 82.

My first problem however, is getting guys to coach there with me. I can't get a guy with local reputation to come be a national coach, let alone native Zimbabwean coaches. Any tips?

[DaddyTorgo]

After advancing from Sky Bet 2 to Sky Bet Championship in 2 years, I accepted the position as Zimbabwe National Team Head Coach, keeping my post at Dag and Red.

I love it because it will obviously be quite the challenge. Zimbabwe's national rank is 82.

My first problem however, is getting guys to coach there with me. I can't get a guy with local reputation to come be a national coach, let alone native Zimbabwean coaches. Any tips?

Congrats!

Try some of your Dag & Red coaches? Pretty sure they'll tag along...

[flounder]

http://www.drflounder.com/images/press_conference-2_3.png

[Easy Mac]

Be happy you can convince yours to shoot. I have the opposite problem lately.

Tell me about it. In 4 games my team has 8 shots. Thankfully they have 5 goals, but with that accuracy, I'd prefer they try a bit more. It would be one thing if we were getting trounced in possession, but we're at 52%. They just seem to have no idea what to do in front of goal.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Tell me about it. In 4 games my team has 8 shots. Thankfully they have 5 goals, but with that accuracy, I'd prefer they try a bit more. It would be one thing if we were getting trounced in possession, but we're at 52%. They just seem to have no idea what to do in front of goal.

We're even crazier I think. Under identical orders, one match we'll shoot 26 times and the next match we'll shoot 6 times. Some differences in TOP on those but not enough to account for that sort of difference.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

LOL......so remember that $210M transfer amount I had at Paris Saint-Germain? I used most of it and then the board came back to me. They decided to add another $220M to my transfer budget. :)

Just nuts. Thankfully, I have taken the team up to 6th in the standings in January, so I feel like I'm not going to burn all this money just to lose my job because the previous guy dug such a big hole for me in the standings.

[Barkeep49]

http://www.drflounder.com/images/press_conference-2_3.png
This is absolutely fantastic.

[vex]

http://www.drflounder.com/images/press_conference-2_3.png

Well done!

[Grover]

Brilliance.

[flounder]

:)

If one of the features of FM15 is that opposing managers will slag you off by commenting that "playing a video game is no preparation for managing a side at this level", I will give SI all the money.

[PilotMan]

Larne just managed a 1-1 draw with Fulham at home in a preseason friendly ahead of our Champions League match against Dinamo. It wasn't even close to a full squad for us. In 2 days time we welcome Rangers to our little pitch.

edit: and to add, we somehow picked up a 2-1 win over Rangers with a mixed lineup. Not a bad showing for minnows from Larne.

[whomario]

Larne just managed a 1-1 draw with Fulham at home in a preseason friendly ahead of our Champions League match against Dinamo. It wasn't even close to a full squad for us. In 2 days time we welcome Rangers to our little pitch.

those games really are fun for smaller teams :)

Have started a new save with Canvey Island (playing with a 9 level mod) in the 7th tier. Up to League 2 in 2019 with a young squad. Finances have been really tight, to the point that i have by far the lowest wage total in the league at 700k € a year (which is my full budget), 2nd lowest is at a nice round 1 mio.

Question: My board for some reason decided to built a new stadium (i suppose partly because the old one was a shitbox, surely can´t be my attendance average of barely above 1000 in a 5k stadium) and that put me in quite a bit of debt. Currently i am still at -800 even with a couple player sales. Question is: Can i take my time getting this down or do i need to do a fire sale and do everything in my power to erase that ? What happens if a don´t ?

[PilotMan]

No idea to that question, but I'll add another. We just paid over 150k to relay the pitch and it still says terrible. Why?

[whomario]

No idea to that question, but I'll add another. We just paid over 150k to relay the pitch and it still says terrible. Why?


since you currently seem to be in the (pre)season i´d bet that it will only happen next offseason, at least that was the way it worked for me before.

Also, i just drew Newcastle on the road in the FA cup which will help a shitload with finances :)

[PilotMan]

We just finished the offseason where it was supposedly completed. They are also working on our training facilities that I'm hoping is a boost as well.

[whomario]

on the "board request" status, is the pitch listed as a status ?

[Grover]

Still playing that RB Leipzig dynasty I had going on the forums earlier this year. Just finished 2018/19 season finishing 2nd in the table by one point.

Signed George Thorne on a free, an excellent DM acquisition. Have an excellent crop of young players coming in and the entire Bundesliga is trying to capitalize after Bayern finish 10th.

[PilotMan]

on the "board request" status, is the pitch listed as a status ?

In fact it is not. It says that not enough time has passed since the last request. We did get approval for it, and it was accomplished this last offseason but for some reason the pitch is listed as Terrible. Maybe we just had really shitty contractors.

[PilotMan]

Ahhh, just got the message that it was finished. I didn't realize that there would be a delay in the completion and when it was supposedly finished earlier.

[whomario]

Finances still not awesome, will downsize my squad next season and hope for internal development. Have 6 rotation-type players leave with contracts up. Also, my main playmaker is also leaving. Actually sold him last offseason to Celtic, who loaned him back to me. With his current skills, i don´t see him coming back to me on another loan.
To offset this, i gamble on a german GK on a free transfer for the highest wage i have yet paid (50k a year) with poison pill clauses thrown in. Both my GKs were so-so and contracts were up and they wanted improved contracts, so it is not all crazy.

Still, my youth players will get even more burn next season.

Finished the season 20th with no real danger of being relegated, ultimately. My savior very often was one of my the teams original (regen) players who was allready at the club in 2014 when i took over. 7 times he scored the winner or goal for a draw in the last 10 minutes of the game. Scored 20 league goals as my target man with 9 assists, that now makes 89 goals and 50 assists in 201 league games for my club.

[SackAttack]

Signed George Thorne on a free, an excellent DM acquisition.

Yeah my staff usually love him as a prospect in my West Brom games.

[PilotMan]

Well, we were 30-1 underdogs on the road in Croatia and lost, but we managed an away goal and held Dinamo 2-1. The return game was just crazy. We went from the 4132 that we played in the first leg back to our 433 and it got crazy fast. I've not seen too many games go like this one did.

We were up 3-0 inside of 15 minutes and went on to crush them 8-4. Darren Carson (18) piled on a hattrick and managed 2 assists. We were 12-1 underdogs in the home game. What an insane scoreline.

We had received a bye in the first qualification round of the CC. This is the first time that we've been beyond the second qualification round. The draw was fairly kind to us as our next opponent will be slightly easier in Zeljeznicar Sarajevo. Just playing in the next round should ensure crazy profitability for this year going forward, no matter what else we accomplish.

[bhlloy]

Heh, I also signed George Thorne for my Cardiff game. He will do a nice job for me while I wait for the 16 year old wonder kid I signed from Walsall for 10m develops.

He has an interesting skill set for a DM, one of the few guys out of the box whose best position is Regista

[whomario]

Really nice accomplishment !

I assume you are aware what kind of money you would get when actually qualifying ? But no pressure ;)

How far have you gone in the Europa League btw ?

I got a payment of 300k "as part of the league 2 solidarity payment", no idea what this is but i´ll take it. Also got some sponsorship money (150k or so) and suddenly my balance is decently close to even. Have scheduled a few profitable friendlies (a couple EPL teams at home for 65 payment with expected revenue of 100k, also a few away games for 35-50 k payment to me). Should net me about 200k and get me even. Also won´t renew a few of my staff.

Will open the new stadium (i am curious to see how much of the 7000 capacity is seats) against Arsenal :)

Wage budget stays essentially the same, which means that with a streamlined squad i´m now at about 650 out of 725k a year spent for. Will sit tight and maybe pick up a veteran late in the FA period though i´ll also have to renew a few players which will put a dent in that cushion. Maybe i get a few offers for some of my players though.

[PilotMan]

Really nice accomplishment !

I assume you are aware what kind of money you would get when actually qualifying ? But no pressure ;)

How far have you gone in the Europa League btw ?

I got a payment of 300k "as part of the league 2 solidarity payment", no idea what this is but i´ll take it. Also got some sponsorship money (150k or so) and suddenly my balance is decently close to even. Have scheduled a few profitable friendlies (a couple EPL teams at home for 65 payment with expected revenue of 100k, also a few away games for 35-50 k payment to me). Should net me about 200k and get me even. Also won´t renew a few of my staff.

Will open the new stadium (i am curious to see how much of the 7000 capacity is seats) against Arsenal :)

Wage budget stays essentially the same, which means that with a streamlined squad i´m now at about 650 out of 725k a year spent for. Will sit tight and maybe pick up a veteran late in the FA period though i´ll also have to renew a few players which will put a dent in that cushion. Maybe i get a few offers for some of my players though.


Actually, I have no idea how much it might be. I've never been beyond the second game in Europa. This is completely new ground. Our 3 sponsorships bring a total of just under 50k per year. Last year our total expenditures were 1.18 M. The income alone from Champions League and gate receipts was 1.03M. We posted a profit of 231k last year. This year just between our home exhibition and CL games we've already posted nearly half of our gate receipts from last year. We are at the point where if we miss Europe though our expenses would sink us. I've convinced the board to go all in on the youth setup and we've expanded our coaching staff. Either way, a miss and it would be a 5-year setback.

[korme]

Really excited about this guy we just acquired, but I honestly cannot take him seriously.

http://i.imgur.com/Gz50APd.png?1

[Coffee Warlord]

Holy mullet.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Really excited about this guy we just acquired, but I honestly cannot take him seriously.

I'm just glad he's an AMC. He'll be all business up front.


:D

[Barkeep49]

The party is in the black. He's business in the front.

[Barkeep49]

I'm just glad he's an AMC. He'll be all business up front.


:D
This is a much better play than mine. Well done.

[DaddyTorgo]

I'm just glad he's an AMC. He'll be all business up front.


:D

Well played sir!

[Grover]

First mullet I've seen in the game. Hilarious Canadian stereotyping there.

[bhlloy]

To be fair, he does look pretty Canadian. He's just in the wrong sport and about 20-30 years too late.

(I really hope there's some sort of mullet co-efficient in FM. Tell me it's so, Marc V)

[korme]

First mullet I've seen in the game. Hilarious Canadian stereotyping there.

I downloaded a hair and beard expanded add-on. Adds a shit ton of new cuts. This is the first mullet I've encountered.

[DaddyTorgo]

I downloaded a hair and beard expanded add-on. Adds a shit ton of new cuts. This is the first mullet I've encountered.

WHERE FROM!?!?!?!

[korme]

WHERE FROM!?!?!?!

OLT Expanded Hair Pack v4.0 (http://www.fmscout.com/a-olt-expanded-hair-pack-fm14.html) - 947 new

LARGEST UPDATE EVER:
This time I added more than 900 new hairs to the pack! 947 new ones, to be exact! Also, in addition to this - those are all truly unique. In the past I used to recolor a lot of hairs to add the same style in different colors. I don't do that any more. So a dark brown hair style will not have an identical match in light brown (of the new ones). That means that I actually cut 947 unique styles of hair this time. It's been a lot of work - but add so much more variety. It's worth it in the end!

ALL COLORS AND LENGTHS REPRESENTED:
As I already said above - I've made sure that each ethnic group (afro, asian, euro and so forth) have hair images for all lengths (long, short, medium) and all colors within each of these lengths. It's kinda hard to find an Afro with long red hair, for example... but I've managed them all in the end! Reason I did this was that I was hoping the problem with "false balds" would go away. It didn't - not entirely. But the problem is MUCH smaller than it used to be, so you'll rarely see shirtless balds if using the shirts version, and the Default Replacements.

BALD PLAYERS:
And, speaking of bald players. Let's talk about the "real balds". I've ensured these now appear with the shirt as well. They also come in a variety of styles, so that bald players can now have full beards, goatees, moustaches or earrings. There are even a couple of styles of spectacles and a small neck tattoo variety. I continue to try out new things to add to the variety, and I feel these things have really put some character to the players. These are very rare, also, so you won't be seeing them often. That's what makes it all the sweeter when you come across them.

NEW SHIRTS:
Last year I introduced shirts on the players. I was never really happy with that dull grey t-shirt I put them in, and I always wanted to get a proper football jersey on them. I've been trying to figure out a way to add these with color coding to represent the current team they're playing for, but I've come to the conclusion that this is not going to be possible the way things are set up right now. So, I went with one that I feel is neutral enough, and doesn't catch your attention too much. White with a blue trim. I feel it works tremendously well. Let me know how you guys feel about it, so I can keep that in mind for the future. Hopefully, colors won't be an issue, if ever there is a way of using color coding... let's hope SI ;)

In addition to my Hair Pack, I also decided to offer an additional download to add shirts to the default hairs as well. It looks kind of weird if only players with my hairs get realistic shoulders, while the defaults still appear as heads on a stick. So make sure you get the default replacements as well!

[DaddyTorgo]

THANKS KORME!!!

[flere-imsaho]

Woah.

[Grover]

Uh, yes. I want this.

[whomario]

This is very cool, thanks a lot :)

Have added a ton of graphics stuff lately, but was totally unaware that sth like this was around.

As for my game, i´ve had an incredibly hot start to the 2019/2020 season, 3rd in the table at the start of November. However, i have had a few key injuries lately and my squad is not all that deep due to the low wage budget. I have however finally found an identity for my team, being able to mix my youth/physical attributes with the fact that my 2 best strikers are target-man type players. Am now playing a 4-4-2 diamond with control mentality, results in quite a few lovely triangles up front. Also finally getting my 2 MCs to contribute as Box to Box midfielders/playmakers.

Am loosing money like nobodies business, part of it is my pretty good youth setup i built up (but which is obviously expensive to maintain). Will likely have to sell another player or 2 if teams get interested. Amslightly in the black, but that is largely because i sold one of my academy youngsters for 800k. Attendance has seen only a slight hike (from about 1500 to 1750 right now), however in the friendlies numbers were way up (compared to last season against same clubs). Have an FA cup homegame against a league 1 team cominng up, hope to advance and draw a big team on the road.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Another cool FM reference in the media today.

Adu looks to restart in Serbia - ESPN FC (http://www.espnfc.com/blog/name/68/post/1986642/headline)

[DaddyTorgo]

Another cool FM reference in the media today.

Adu looks to restart in Serbia - ESPN FC (http://www.espnfc.com/blog/name/68/post/1986642/headline)

Cool story. Hoping Freddy can rebuild himself there - would be a nice story.

[AnalBumCover]

ABC - you got a README for your USA setup that describes the levels, teams, divisions, etc?

Sorry, I haven't made the time to create a write-up for this mod. So I'll just briefly put something together right now.

First of all, I make no claims that I created this file. It was created by a user in the SI forums called Mike Magnum for the 2012 version of Football Manager. Someone else adapted it for 2014, and then I brought it to FOFC with a few modifications of my own.

You can find the original file and subsequent discussion in the SI Forums here (http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/301080-MikeMagnum-s-Alternate-MLS-North-America-2.0-Level-8).

Without further ado:

Here's the structure of the file.

Level 1: Major League Soccer (20 teams)
features all current teams, plus NY Cosmos

Level 2: North American Soccer League (20 teams)

Level 3: USL-PRO (20 teams)

Level 4: USL-PRO 2: USL-PRO East (20), USL-PRO West (20)

Level 5: US Supplement Division: All American Premier League (20), Gold Coast Premier League (20), Colonial Premier League (20), Atlantic Coast Premier League (20)

Level 6: US Supplement Division 2: AA2 (20), GC2 (20), Co2 (20), AC2 (20)

Level 7: AA Amateur (20), GC Amateur (20), Co Amateur (20), AC Amateur (20)

Level 8: Southland (16), Gateway (16), Northwest (16), South Pacific Coast (16), New England (16), Appalachian (16), Florida Coast (16), St. Lawrence (16)

Total of 468 clubs

Levels 1-4 consist of Professional Teams, 5-6 Semi-Pro teams, 7-8 Amateur teams.

There are numerous Cup events:
North American Open Cup, containing all 468 clubs.
State/Province cups,
Lower league and amateur cups
Rivalry cups

I'm constantly modifying this file, such as changing the structure of the bottom level to minimize cross-division movement in the off season. I'm close to releasing version 1.2, but Ver 1.1 is fine to play as-is.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know so I can include it in the next release.

[Marc Vaughan]

I got a payment of 300k "as part of the league 2 solidarity payment", no idea what this is but i´ll take it.

Just in case you're interested - Football economics (http://pearsonblog.campaignserver.co.uk/?tag=solidarity-payments)

[JonInMiddleGA]

I've seen some strange things but ...

In my 9LevelMod career I have both a Reserves Head Coach and a U18 Head Coach, so contrary to what I usually do with my careers I'm largely hands off on them. (The board actually allows me more coaches for those two squads than they'll allow me to have with the senior squad). I bother with the Reserves HC largely because he gives me an extra set of hands allowed to work in training.

Tonight I see a midweek Reserves group match, look at the box score and discover that the head coach (who has decent or better ratings in nearly all areas) started a DC in goal, replaced him at various times with two of the starting midfielders before subbing ANOTHER defender in to play in goal for the second half. I not only have 1 young GK that's specifically set for the Reserves (and had specifically ticked having all reserve team members available just prior to the match) but I also have 4 more GK on the U18s.

W.T.F. ?

[whomario]

Just in case you're interested - Football economics (http://pearsonblog.campaignserver.co.uk/?tag=solidarity-payments)

Thanks a lot :) Was aware of the workings regarding the premier league, figured that the TV money would show up as TV money in League 2 and not as solidarity payment.

Would be a really nice thing to have things like this in the "rules" section of the league or in an email at the start of the season that gives you a summary of what to expect in terms of finances (price money, tv money and stuff like this solidarity payment)

I am finding a weird issue btw: I am now in my 2nd season in the league 2 and still play in the FA trophy (reserved for teams tier 5 and below)
Am now purposely tanking the competition.

[Marc Vaughan]

Thanks a lot :) Was aware of the workings regarding the premier league, figured that the TV money would show up as TV money in League 2 and not as solidarity payment.
Its because its not 'TV Money' being paid to the club for televising their matches - its a solidarity payment from the Premiership TV deal to help support the clubs in the lower leagues beneath the Premiership (hence it would be inaccurate to show it as TV Money to the clubs in the lower leagues).

Would be a really nice thing to have things like this in the "rules" section of the league or in an email at the start of the season that gives you a summary of what to expect in terms of finances (price money, tv money and stuff like this solidarity payment)
Thats not a bad idea - however there is a LOT of information and detail in the game and we don't want to swamp people with feeling they have to understand everything or they'll never actually start playing the game ;)

I am finding a weird issue btw: I am now in my 2nd season in the league 2 and still play in the FA trophy (reserved for teams tier 5 and below) Am now purposely tanking the competition.
That sounds very odd - have you edited anything in the game manually or similar? ... also can you check if your team is correctly setup as professional?

[whomario]

I realize that, but knowing beforehand that you get guaranteed money is pretty up there on the "important stuff you need to know" list ;)




That sounds very odd - have you edited anything in the game manually or similar? ... also can you check if your team is correctly setup as professional?

Yeah, i turned professional after promotion. I am playing with a mod, a new 9 tier english update. So i am actually fairly sure it is a problem with that and not the game.
However, other teams promoted into the league 2 (even former amateur clubs) stopped participating. I´d bet that i´m the only team to go from below the skrill conference up to league 2 though, so there might be an issue with that. I am now disabling all leagues below the skrill conference, maybe that will fix the issue. If not, i´ll just continue tanking the games ;)

[PilotMan]

Really nice accomplishment !

I assume you are aware what kind of money you would get when actually qualifying ? But no pressure ;)




So we won! 8-3 on aggregate. Next is a team that on paper looks like they should kill us, but are only marginally worse in the coefficients.

2.75M!!!!!!!!!!

Holy Crap! That's 2+ years of expenses for our team! That's if we lose the next series. If we win it's the group stage!

[JonInMiddleGA]

It took four seasons ... and several critical draws down the stretch ... but I managed to get Georgia Revolution promoted to USL-Pro East from Atlantic Coast Premier.

[JonInMiddleGA]

And in true "you gotta be kidding me" fashion ... the President wants to step down & is hoping to sell the club to a local businessman.

This has been, without a doubt, the easiest going boss I've ever had in any version of the game. A wage budget I couldn't come close to busting, zero philosophical demands, an incredibly generous transfer budget for our level.

So what's my reward for promoting? Yeah.

[vex]

Have transfer bids set to "Reject All" on my 22 yo captain. Thankfully my board isn't money hunger because we just rejected a $72 million bid for him from Man City and $59 million bid from PSG.

I'm really impressed by the AI transfer spending in '14. In past versions, no way would teams go after players like this.

[DaddyTorgo]

Just had a Sunderland-based Chairman take over Arsenal. It's believed he wants to install Pep Guardiola over me. Fuck him if he does - I'll move to one of the oil-rich clubs and destroy him.

But hey - if they keep me...I've got $52m extra transfer bucks. That's enough to splash on one super-duper star at year-end.

[DaddyTorgo]

So ummm

The guy who took over Arsenal gave me an extra $50m in my transfer kitty (boosting it to $60m), and I just noticed he DOUBLED my wage budget to $428m/year.

So yeah...I have...$300m to spend I guess?

And he wasn't even news-articled as a tycoon...

Wrinkle is - I just won the League and I'm 3-0 up on Real Madrid after the first leg of the CL Semifinal.

So I'm not sure what positions on my team I can blow $300m on.

#firstworldproblems