Soccer managment from the player's eyes

[VPI97]

New Star Soccer (http://www.newstarsoccer.com/)

I've been playing this game for a few weeks and thought I'd share. It's a simulation of the career of a single soccer player...the website can fill you in better, but the basic idea is that you start off as a 17 year old, minimally skilled player in whatever league/team you choose. You initally allocate your skill points and have to train over the course of your career to continue improving. You have to deal with your coach, teammates, sponsors, family, media, etc and you can be transfer listed and sold to one of the 40-some league in the game.

The actual in-game section is pretty unique...depending on your coach's feelings towards you, you'll either start, come off the bench, or miss the game entirely. ...and once you're in, you may not get much action if your teammates don't have much confidence in you. If a play comes your way, it may be something like tackling a ball carrier, or trying to move the ball downfield (dribble or pass?), or deciding what to do on a corner kick. It's pretty interesting.

The developer just put out a new version a few days ago and by his notes on the forum there it looks like he has many more ideas he's going to be putting in the game. Also, the best part is that registering is only $5. Can't beat that.

[condors]

its not cm or saap as far as in game engine but its a good time waster

[Axxon]

You bastard! I didn't need to spend $5 today. :D

No kidding, thanks for the game tip. This looks like it might be fun.

[klayman]

Been playing it for about a week, and it's well worth the $5 imo.

[TLK]

This game is addicting.....

[Neuqua]

This game is single player I presume?

[Karim]

This looks really good...

[RPI-Fan]

I messed around with it, decided I liked it, ordered, and...

The code they sent me isn't working, and they haven't responded to my e-mails.

Arghhh.

FWIW, I created a new game called "Kyle Smith". I played up til the 10 week period, then copy-pasted the code they sent me.

It's not working.

What am I missing?

[TLK]

I'm waiting on my code too...... kind of sucks because I was into the game....

TLK

[STK]

waiting for the code also...

[RPI-Fan]

Neuqua: Yes, it is single player.

[PilotMan]

My registratin code worked 1st time. Looking forward to the game. Thanks.

[VPI97]

Originally posted by RPI-Fan
What am I missing? Be sure you recognize the entire code....at first, I thought I had a problem, but it was just that my code started with '=' and I didn't realize it was a part of the reg code.

[tucker342]

sounds like fun... I'll have to check it out

[tucker342]

dola-

Just tried out the game, alot of fun, thanks:D

[tucker342]

I'll probably register tomorrow...

[CAsterling]

Great fun, although I want to get transfered back to a lower division or a foreign league as my player is too crap for the premiership and it shows

[RPI-Fan]

Is the "Code" the "Serial: " that comes with the e-mail?

If so, something's wrong with mine.

If not, hope it gets here soon.

[VPI97]

Originally posted by RPI-Fan
Is the "Code" the "Serial: " that comes with the e-mail?That should be it. Make sure that you are using the player name you registered with...the code won't work for another name.

[RPI-Fan]

Yea', I'm using the name that was listed in the e-mail. Very frustrated that this thing isn't working.

[Marc Vaughan]

Very cool little game - be interesting to see how it evolves in the future ...

[sony]

Gosh I'm loving the game. It's super addictive.

[andy m]

there was an old 8-bit game on the sinclair spectrum that had a similar premise, it was called 'footballer of the year'. it had a graphical section where you were shown a 'play' and you had to make the right moves to get your player in position for a chance on goal. once you played it for a few hours it was easy to memorise them all and you scored tonnes of goals. was good fun though.

[sony]

Originally posted by andy m
there was an old 8-bit game on the sinclair spectrum that had a similar premise, it was called 'footballer of the year'. it had a graphical section where you were shown a 'play' and you had to make the right moves to get your player in position for a chance on goal. once you played it for a few hours it was easy to memorise them all and you scored tonnes of goals. was good fun though. You gotta link?

[Karim]

I could see someone take this idea and apply it to the North American sports.

It's really a lot of fun.

[Critch]

Pretty addictive, just paid and waiting for my code to come through.

The Queens Park fans (both of them) will talk for years of the time 17yo forward critch scored 9 goals and set up 1 other in a 12-1 destruction of Montrose.

[andy m]

Originally posted by sony
You gotta link?

http://gremlinworld.emuunlim.com/spectrum.htm

you'll need to grab a spectrum emulator to play it though.

[ice4277]

Sounds a lot like the eternally-forthcoming "Inside the Park Baseball".

[tucker342]

That's what I was just about to say ice, when the hell is that game coming out anyways?

[VPI97]

Originally posted by ice4277
Sounds a lot like the eternally-forthcoming "Inside the Park Baseball". I have a difficult time seeing how you could have a game like this in regards to baseball. What would you do besides train? There's really no in game decisions...

Would these be options?
- "a fly ball is coming your way, push 'Catch' to try and catch it, 'Drop' to let it hit the ground"
- "the opponent's star hitter comes to the plate, push "K" to try and strike him out, "BP" to let him smack a home run"

There doesn't seem to be the same level of split-second decisions in baseball like you have in soccer.

[ice4277]

Originally posted by tucker342
That's what I was just about to say ice, when the hell is that game coming out anyways? ]

I don't think that even they (.400 Studios) knows. The website/forums just say 'coming soon' or something like that.

[mrsimperless]

So let me get this straight....

I'll have to RE-register every time I start a new career??

[condors]

no you can you the same name again i have

[Bee]

Very fun little game. Well worth the $5. I played it during lunch and have already been transfered out of DC. :D

[condors]

if you end up on the bench its hard to get back into favor with the current team i usually spend 3 seasons riding the pine then transfer and become team captin at 20 :)

[RPI-Fan]

FTR - Si Read (the developer) responded to my registration problem overnite. The code I was sent wasn't quite right for one reason or another, but he took care of it in a very timely fashion.

Just wanted to make sure I put in a good word for him so nobody got the wrong impression based on my earlier posts.

[wbatl1]

How do you get to the casino. That's an option I cant find, but I love the rest.

[Bee]

The casino is an option that pops up (you can't select it unless the option pops up). I had it come up as either go to the casino with the boys or have dinner with some disabled fans.

[Bee]

Dola:

Played the game quite a bit last night. It's a very entertaining game IMO.

Bounced around the MLS for a couple years, but couldn't really stick with any team. I then was picked up by a Series B Italian team after having a couple solid matches in a row. The Italians love me! :D

[3ric]

Paid the registration fee as well, it's pretty darn addictive. Any idea how often the developer does updates?

[VPI97]

Originally posted by 3ric
Paid the registration fee as well, it's pretty darn addictive. Any idea how often the developer does updates? For reference, the version was 1.10 when I started playing in mid-June. 1.14 came out six days ago and if you check the forum on his site, you'll see that he posted a beta version of 1.15 this morning.

[Axxon]

I don't see that over there but boy is the forum messed up. :(

[Bee]

BTW, thanks for the heads up on this game VPI97.

[Karim]

This is ridiculously fun for such a "simple" game (I mean as compared to CM4).

Started out in the A-League as a 17 year old making $40k and am now captaining Cologne in the Bundesliga as a 24 year-old making $800k...

Woe to have such skill in real life... :D

[3ric]

Originally posted by Axxon
I don't see that over there but boy is the forum messed up. :(

What gives with that forum? The text is so small it isn't recognizable as words.

[Bee]

Originally posted by Karim
This is ridiculously fun for such a "simple" game (I mean as compared to CM4).

Started out in the A-League as a 17 year old making $40k and am now captaining Cologne in the Bundesliga as a 24 year-old making $800k...

Woe to have such skill in real life... :D

Sounds like someone's been juicing... ;)

[Axxon]

Originally posted by 3ric
What gives with that forum? The text is so small it isn't recognizable as words.

I know. It's smaller than my media coverage toiling for lowly Leigh RMI. :)

[klayman]

Originally posted by Axxon
I know. It's smaller than my media coverage toiling for lowly Leigh RMI. :)

Oh come on, nothing could be that small :)

[Bee]

This game would make a great dynasty write up.

[Axxon]

Originally posted by klayman
Oh come on, nothing could be that small :)

Don't be too sure. Check out the forum first. I have to magnify 200% to read the thing. :)

[RPI-Fan]

Couple things...

The forum didn't work for me in IE, but did in Netscape, so give that a shot if you want.

With regard to the updates... I don't know how to get the most up-to-date one.

Also, I didn't see _anything_ about a beta.

Could you help me out here, VPI?

Thanks!
~rpi-fan

[Axxon]

Originally posted by RPI-Fan
Couple things...

The forum didn't work for me in IE, but did in Netscape, so give that a shot if you want.

With regard to the updates... I don't know how to get the most up-to-date one.

Also, I didn't see _anything_ about a beta.

Could you help me out here, VPI?

Thanks!
~rpi-fan

Doesn't work in opera either but yesterday it worked fine in both ie and opera. Strange stuff.

And yes, VPI, hook a forum up man.

[VPI97]

Here's a link to the post I was talking about. (http://www.worldcupmanager.co.uk/newstarforum/viewtopic.php?t=19)

In case the forum isn't working for you (it's always worked for me in IE), here's the link to beta version 1.15 (http://download.worldcupmanager.co.uk/we6fe/Install_NSS.exe). He says there were no major changes...
Update v1.15
-Updated leagues
-Team ratings for all teams 1-9
-Adjusted Slider again!
-Realistic Sponsors in lower divisions
-Less Media attention for lower league players
-More relationship incidents when injured
-Sponsors may cancel contract if media attention gets too low


I haven't tried it out, but another poster on that forum says that he's seeing an increase in match opportunities...which has increased the scoring to levels like 7-3, 8-2, etc. Maybe it's best to stick with 1.14.

[tucker342]

In version 1.14, I was getting scores like that, but of course that was when I was in the lowest English League, and I would get like 5 goals per game....

[daedalus]

Hrm. You suck. I just tinkered with the demo and now I really want this game.

Thanks! :)

Originally posted by VPI97
I have a difficult time seeing how you could have a game like this in regards to baseball. What would you do besides train? There's really no in game decisions...

Would these be options?
- "a fly ball is coming your way, push 'Catch' to try and catch it, 'Drop' to let it hit the ground"
- "the opponent's star hitter comes to the plate, push "K" to try and strike him out, "BP" to let him smack a home run"

There doesn't seem to be the same level of split-second decisions in baseball like you have in soccer.
Heh. I had a fun time laughing at this even though I disagree with you.

On a normal flyball to you, you obviously would not need to make any choice. On the other hand, there will be time when you will have to decide if you think you should dive or play the ball straight up. Witness all the idiots who boo'ed Shawn Green because he didn't dive. You will at times need to decide if you want to throw to the cutoff man or 3rd/home. However, I honestly can't think of a way to make it interesting for either pitchers or hitters.

Baseball, I think, is a tough game to try to make any kind of equation with soccer. Soccer is more flowing where baseball is inherently stop-and-go. On the other hand, a game like basketball or hockey could be "translated" from soccer far easier.

[Critch]

So far it's a nice basis of a game, addictive for a while. Needs a good number of things added to make it a real gem, in my opinion. Needs cup matches, European tournaments, international matches, the World Cup, bookings and sending offs, etc. A bit more depth.

Well worth the $5 though.

[RPI-Fan]

Yea', I definitely think International Squads are the next step for this game...

I'm actually going to suggest it on the forum - I imagine with this new crew of FOFC'ers supporting the game, we could get through just about any ideas we wanted.:)

~rpi-fan

[tucker342]

relegation is also an important thing they need to add though...

[RPI-Fan]

Hmm... in my version of the game, I believe they already have that. Or I'm at least certain that they have promotion (my Bristol Rovers side got promoted), so I'd be pretty sure that relegation is in there too.

Make sure you have the latest version - when I first downloaded after reading this thread I didn't have the newest one.

Fear not about your saved game though - they're compatible from version to version.

[Karim]

Yeah, relegation and promotion is already in the game. I think many of the things we're suggesting are on the to do list...

[Karim]

Originally posted by Bee
Sounds like someone's been juicing... ;)

Only once... ;)

[Karim]

Originally posted by daedalus
However, I honestly can't think of a way to make it interesting for either pitchers or hitters.


Well, you could do the classic pitcher/batter interface we've seen in arcade games, guessing which pitch is coming, location and what type of swing to put on, etc.

It definitely would be more involved though. Football might be the toughest yet, especially if you chose to be an offensive lineman...

[daedalus]

Hrm. Curses. I may have to get this one.

I'm pretty stoked to have already gotten a shoe sponsorship, though. :)

[GrantDawg]

Great game to hold me over for NCAA 2004.

[Neuqua]

My player sucks ass. I've been on 3 different MLS teams (Chicago, NY/NJ, LA) and no one seems to want me for longer than a few weeks.

Bleh.

[Neuqua]

Ok, make that 4 teams.

Let's see how long Columbus keeps me.

[TLK]

I seem to be having the same problem as Neuqua. On top of that everybody seems to hate me and I can't even keep my own mother happy.


By the way, this game for $5.... gets two thumbs up....

TLK

[condors]

if you play and get less than a 6 match rating you will lose your place in the team eventually i usually stink for several seasons before i do well at 20-21 just keep training. Keep raising your passing skill i found this to be the best way to make plays

[Axxon]

Originally posted by Neuqua
My player sucks ass. I've been on 3 different MLS teams (Chicago, NY/NJ, LA) and no one seems to want me for longer than a few weeks.

Bleh.

I had that problem when I first got the game but then I realized I was starting with too good a teams and I wasn't ready for that. After all man, you're only 16. You need to really start at the bottom.

I started my current game at Leigh RMI and it made all the difference in the world and by new years of my first season I have all green relationship bars, my lowest being manager at 90% and teammates at 96% being my second lowest. I had them all at %100 until I just had a couple of bad game so I expect them to rise next game.

My last 5 games are 10-10-5-2-9. For the season I'm 7.2 with six MOM's, 21 goals, 3 assists in 16 games. I've turned down transfers into higher leagues and more money because I have the time and all I'm doing is getting better but I do have a shoe deal and a new Jag. :)

Also, positioning seems to be the king. Max it at the beginning and keep working on it.

Hope these hints help and if you are starting at a rock bottom club ( and the MLS isn't at that level ) and it's not working let me know.

[Axxon]

Dola,

since I had the game fired up I just played my next match, a 4-1 pasting of Burton Albion. I scored 2 goals, had a 10 rating and was not MOM.

A couple more thoughts.

Positioning seems to be the king because you can't do great things with the ball unless you get it in a good spot. I get far fewer passes 50 yards out with three defenders on me than I used to. Now, I do get more no support but that's a product of the team not me.

Goals are king so as long as you are getting these you can try to be creative in other ways. Until you've gotten a goal or two though the fail penalty can be pretty harsh ( see my 2 ). It's better to try simple stuff, simple passes, short headers etc. They won't give you big rating points but the percentages are higher so you won't lose them as fast either and lets face it, if you're 50 yards out even a brilliant pass isn't likely to do anything major. It's unneccesary to even try it. Be patient. Once you get that goal and your rating jumps to 7 or 8 go wide open and take it to the other team.

Read the commentary. If you have open space ahead of you and are given the option, dribble, it's free. I've NEVER failed in this situation and while it doesn't gain you ratings it gets you closer to paydirt and gives the team a chance to catch up. Use what the game gives you.

Learn to love corners. Don't worry about taking them, if your positioning is high you'll want to be receiving them trust me. That's where careers are made in this game.

These are my observations so far.

Forgot to mention, the game put all my relationships at 100% except manager which jumped to 99%. In this game it is literally feast or famine it seems. I think it's a little too much so for my tastes, I mean come on, a 16yr old conference guy playing with a bunch of railroad employees gets a 171k shoe deal in 3rd month of professional play?

My last three guys had to have their parents pay for their own shoes and they bought them Keds.

[Axxon]

Another note to put things in perspective. My next match and at 7 minutes in we win a corner and I score the goal. It's my first touch of the match and my rating jumps to 8! Again, it's feast time and there's still a hell of a lot more game to go. I can take chances and likely will score again...which I did. We win 2-0.

I only get an 8 rating though because I literally wore out my passing foot and my teammates kept giving me the bal in bad situations. Still, it maxed out my relationships and added to more goals to my tally.

Now all I need is a hot girlfriend but who says art doesn't imitate life. :D

[Katon]

Another hint: drop Set Pieces completely. You shouldn't be taking corners and free kicks; you should be receiving them and scoring. This leaves more points for other (more useful) skills.

[RPI-Fan]

Also - Axxon, that 7.2 rating is for the season. I'm almost sure it's just for the 5 games the form lists.

A couple random times I've checked, and had it just be the average of the 5 list ratings, and your's is too.

~rpi-fan

[Axxon]

Originally posted by RPI-Fan
Also - Axxon, that 7.2 rating is for the season. I'm almost sure it's just for the 5 games the form lists.

A couple random times I've checked, and had it just be the average of the 5 list ratings, and your's is too.

~rpi-fan

That makes a lot of sense as I've had a hell of a lot of tens and those two bad games were my two worse.

Yep, just checked. I've now played 20 games ( 4 more than the above ) and my rating is listed as 9.2 ( 9-10-8-9-10 ). I now have 32 goals so that's a blistering 11 goals in this stretch.

It's fun and all but getting boring. Nothing much to do here in the conference but I'm committing myself for the rest of the season. I want Young Player of the Year. :)

They need to change the ratings thing though as that's annoying.

[Bee]

Something I just discovered, maybe everyone else already knows, but...If you hit the play button without selecting anything, you hold up the ball. I've found this useful when I receive a high pass and am too far away from the goal to shoot and there's no one to pass it to. (In my version, if you receive a high pass the only options are to shoot or header a pass - dribble isn't an option on high passes). In this case, I usually hold up the ball which adds defenders but lets your teammates catch up and you can then either dribble or pass.

[Axxon]

Originally posted by Bee
Something I just discovered, maybe everyone else already knows, but...If you hit the play button without selecting anything, you hold up the ball. I've found this useful when I receive a high pass and am too far away from the goal to shoot and there's no one to pass it to. (In my version, if you receive a high pass the only options are to shoot or header a pass - dribble isn't an option on high passes). In this case, I usually hold up the ball which adds defenders but lets your teammates catch up and you can then either dribble or pass.

If you're going to go that route then let me suggest building up your strength. I didn't and it doesn't work for me as I keep getting muscled off the ball. I guess you're going to take the rating hit either way so the choice to combat this seems to be either high strength to hold ball or good vision to find somebody to head too anyway. Unfortunately I can't do either very well. :) I've got years to correct that though.

[RPI-Fan]

An alternative would be to build up your vision. If you have higher vision you'll see teammates and be able to head the ball to them...

~rpi-fan

[Bee]

yep, that works if you have good vision and good heading (which I have neither). My strength is decent (I built it up after not being able to tackle anyone) so I can usually hold the ball against 1 or 2 defenders. I guess it all depends on the makeup of your player. I just hadn't realized this was even an option for the first couple years I was playing. Everytime this happened, I just tried to head it even though I knew there wasn't any chance of success.

[Axxon]

Originally posted by RPI-Fan
An alternative would be to build up your vision. If you have higher vision you'll see teammates and be able to head the ball to them...

~rpi-fan

I'd have never thought of that. ;)

I guess you're going to take the rating hit either way so the choice to combat this seems to be either high strength to hold ball or good vision to find somebody to head too anyway.

[VPI97]

Originally posted by Katon
Another hint: drop Set Pieces completely. You shouldn't be taking corners and free kicks; you should be receiving them and scoring. This leaves more points for other (more useful) skills. That's another thing that depends on your player's makeup. Over my career, I built up Passing, Dribbling, Positioning and Set Pieces and have tried to make a good career without scoring goals. Although I may try to head one in off a corner kick, I almost always take the free kick...If I'm 25 yards or closer I may try to sneak one in goal, but usually I make an 'excellent' kick and one of my teammates gets the goal. My teammates tend to like me better when I assist rather than score. Currently, my player is 26 and playing the role of midfielder for QPR...I've played close to 250 games (my career is at home so I don't have exact numbers) and have scored less than a dozen goals, but have had around 150 assists.

[Axxon]

I wonder if you can realistically play a defender. The first guy I made I tried it and failed miserably but I was new to the game. I don't think it would work too well though even knowing what I know now. There just arent enough tackling opps in the game to raise your ratings enough.

[Bee]

I would guess that might be a potential upgrade in the game. Allowing a person to pick his position (forward, midfield, defender). Would be up to the team coach as to where they actually played you (left, centre, right, etc).

There's definitely a lot of small add-ons that could be put in that would make this game even better.

[RPI-Fan]

I think playing defender is only practical if you're really focused on being a 'defensive midfielder'. You'd need tackling (obviously), passing, strength, pace and position. You could pretty much disregard dribbling, heading, set pieces (though this would be nice to have), flair, both feet, vision, and shooting.

Still, the guy I am right now is pretty much a pure central middie, maybe with a bit of offensive flavor. My first season, with Bristol Rovers in D3, I had ~20 goals and ~15 assists, so I was able to both score and distribute. It's pretty clear to me that the way to score is off headers - I'd say 75-80% of my goals came that way. One thought though would be to completely ignore heading, and instead train up flair and shooting. You could probably just volley shots in that way.

Last season, I won YPotY. I was a wünderkind of the 3rd Division, and my stats were really gaudy. This season I'm off to a good start with Gillingham in Division 1 (5 goals and 2 assists in 8 games), but would like to distribute the ball a little better.

FWIW, here are a couple screenshots of my guy...

http://home.nycap.rr.com/wyomingwildfire/skills.jpg

http://home.nycap.rr.com/wyomingwildfire/stats.jpg

[Bee]

You need to start juicing to get that strength and pace up...err...not that I know anything about that....

[Critch]

That's one of the good things about this game, it's possible to play in different ways. I've been using a speedy little forward(good shooting/passing/dribbling/pace at the expense of heading/tackling/strength) and it's working pretty well, but I've seen others on their forum and here talk about using completely different ideas.

The guy seems to have got the game well balanced and interesting for the $5. Better effort towards playability than some full price games.

[Easy Mac]

Geez, you've got those ratings and you're scoring that much? I've got these ratings and can't do anything:

http://fc.furman.edu/~christopher.mason/Capture_07102003_102818.jpg

http://fc.furman.edu/~christopher.mason/Capture_07102003_102930.jpg

[Bee]

What Division are you playing in Easy Mac? That makes a huge difference.

[Easy Mac]

The A-League.

Of course, in my other game I'm around 25 years old, and am sitting on $5 million in the bank, almost all ratings above 15, and am averaging 20 goals a year in the Scottish 1st division (Premier league, whatever).

[GrantDawg]

I think they have vastly overrated the A League. I'm having a hard time succeeding there too. I'm going to jump across the pond and give it a go.

[3ric]

I've got to brag a little about my guy, he's the captain of Athletico Bilbao in the Spanish league at 24 years of age, with 3 seasons in the Premiership for Charlton and Newcastle before that.

The Spanish league is a lot more fun than the English, seems like a more free-flowing game with higher scoring.

[VPI97]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
I think they have vastly overrated the A League. I'm having a hard time succeeding there too. I'm going to jump across the pond and give it a go. You're right...I started off in the A-League and really didn't have any years where I was consistantly good....Once I crossed the pond to a German 2nd divison team, I started to play better and better until I received a huge offer from QPR (Scottish 1st div). Now I'm living in an old Scottish castle paid for by my $5 mil/year in sponsorships :)

[Bee]

Does anyone know what the difficulty level does? It probably says someplace, but I didn't see any explanation of it.

[FrogMan]

you guys are baaaad people. Now that I've read a few of your posts I want to try it out and I know that if I try it out, I'll want to pay and play it for long and often....

Bad, bad people :D

FM

[sony]

Take a look at my guy. I've won the Young PLayer of the Year award and now the Captain of the Beira - Mar. 22 yrs old with $4.5 Mill in the bank, 2 Ferraris in the Garage, a happy girlfriend and a $2.3 Mill Sponsorship contract with Pepsi -- I would humbly say that my guy is living the good life.

[sony]

Dola

Here are his ratings and stats as of right now. I will be playing a couple more games before I knock out.

[sony]

And the Ratings

[RPI-Fan]

Wow - that's some player. 3 assists in your whole career - how do your teammates stay happy with you?!

[klayman]

Originally posted by Bee
Does anyone know what the difficulty level does? It probably says someplace, but I didn't see any explanation of it.

I think the only difference is the amount of points you start out with. You get considerably less points on harder. I don't think the game is any tougher.

Since everybody is posting their stats, I'll share mine. Captain of Hereford United, now in the English 2nd Division. I have a pretty nice goals to game ratio :)

[sony]

Originally posted by RPI-Fan
Wow - that's some player. 3 assists in your whole career - how do your teammates stay happy with you?! Personally, I don't think Assist really matters to the fact of keeping my teammates happy. Early on in my career, it was hard to keep just about everyone happy. When I was 17-19 I was always on the Underachievers list. I couldn't satisfy the supporters, media, teammates, and the boss. So I jumped from team to team alot to renew my relationships to 50%. By the time my player was 21, it was over. As long as my player received ratings 7 or above, my teammates would be happy. Whether I get any assists or not. I'm guessing I am a scorer, and that's what I do. No reason to be upset.

[korme]

Could this game be more addicting? Good god, I don't even like soccer but just paid $5 on a whim.

[korme]

By the way, I am playing for Dag & Red in Conference (I know, nothing special but I wanted to work my way to the top), and I am having so much fun just working the competition that I have turned down offers from Germany and Spain to play in their best leagues. I think I'll play one full season with Dag & Red before heading to bigger and better things. After all, I'm only 17.

Really, I am.

[korme]

dola dola

How long does it take to get the code?

[korme]

Originally posted by RPI-Fan
Wow - that's some player. 3 assists in your whole career - how do your teammates stay happy with you?!

In my 10 games with Dag & Red, I have 1 assist, and my teammates are 100% liking me. Maybe that's because I've scored 28 goals (on only 38 shots!), and our team is 9-0-1. :p

Neuqua, I suggest going to the English Conference to start your career off. You can move past anyone if you have decent pace.

[Bee]

Originally posted by Shorty3281
dola dola

How long does it take to get the code?

I got mine immediately.

[korme]

Just got mine about a half hour after buying via paypal.

YAY!

[Axxon]

You know we've got to be that guys favorite board right about now. :)

[Bee]

Ahh...the paypal probably slowed it down a little since I used a credit card. Enjoy the 10 bonus points for registration. ;)

[Bee]

The guy should contact Marc and see if he can get a demo put on the CD of next year's version of CM and split the profits with him. :D

[tucker342]

Now theres a good idea:D

[3ric]

OK, an update. My guy just won Spanish League Player of the Year award at the age of 25.

[tucker342]

I'm so tempted to buy it today....

[Bee]

It's only $5, not like a huge commitment

[korme]

Worst decision ever: I took an transfer offer to go from conference (where I scored 92 goals in one season.. :))... to the Premiere league with Arsenal. Terrible, terrible idea. My guy was not ready and I have spent the last 3 years transferring and riding pine whereever, now at 20 I'm just trying to play out my 2 year deal in Portugal to be a free agent and hopefully sign on maybe D3 in England.

[tucker342]

Well, I just bought it, I hope I get my code quickly.:)

[Katon]

Originally posted by Shorty3281
Worst decision ever: I took an transfer offer to go from conference (where I scored 92 goals in one season.. :))... to the Premiere league with Arsenal. Terrible, terrible idea. My guy was not ready and I have spent the last 3 years transferring and riding pine whereever, now at 20 I'm just trying to play out my 2 year deal in Portugal to be a free agent and hopefully sign on maybe D3 in England.

Agreed. DO NOT jump four divisions in one go. Ever. I went from single-handedly promoting Leigh in my first season to the Charlton bench. Cost them £4,000,000. I then bounced onto Stoke (£2,000,000) before finally starting to turn things round as an 18-year-old with just-relegated Tottenham (£700,000). I still won the First Division Young Player of the Year award for the two games I played with Stoke that first year, though.

[klayman]

well, I stuck with Hereford all the way from the conference to the 1st division. 204 goals over 5 years, and the ungrateful bastards won't resign me?!? Now I gotta get this stupid Hereford Bull tattoo removed off my butt.

[thesloppy]

This game is great in that it seems to balance the importance of stats very well. I've seen different people say that you have to have positioning or passing to make plays, but I have neither and have maxed out my dribbling and shooting and am content to run 60 yards up the pitch to score. The balance is still maintained though, as even though I've maxed out dribbling and shooting, I'm still close to useless on free and corner kicks, as I have neither the positioning and control to pass the ball, or the requisite flai to make a goal off the volley.

As an aside, I appear to have come accross a sponsorship bug, as Diadora has been my cl;othing sponsor for 4 years past the expiration date, without renewal, and they're paying me a measley 250K compared to the 3MIL I pull in from my other sponsors.

I recently made the mistake of transferring from Arsenal, where I was captaining the squad at 21, to Siena in the Italian series A. I got a couple extra grand, but the reset of my team and coach relationship bars pushed my performance down into the crapper, and it took me about a year to claw back into the Captain's role.

[daedalus]

RE: Set Piece . . . The times I've played it (I haven't had a chance to register yet), my player has always been a passing/dribbling guy as I consider him an attacking'ish midfielder so having set piece seems natural fit to me and I've definitely liked it. I haven't tried to play a goal scorer yet so I don't know how that works out for them.

I definitely like the fact that you can play so many different ways, although I agree that defender would be rather difficult to pull off with the game in its current state.

[tucker342]

I agree with that.

I still havn't gotten my password.....

[tucker342]

dola-

I thought I would get it in an email, little did I know that the password was on the order info page...

[tucker342]

oh ya! I just got picked up by Birmingham City:D

I hope I have better luck than you guys had....

[BreizhManu]

the new world player of the year (2010) :

http://martin.manuel.free.fr/nsst.jpg

http://martin.manuel.free.fr/nsss.jpg

[tucker342]

Wow that didn't go well.... I had about 2 goals in 7 games, I'm now in Division 1 with Leicester and I'm doing much better now:D

[Coffee Warlord]

Year 1 of the mighty left footed striker Rob Nielsen...

Started in England's Northwich (Conference team), utterly dominated for 3/4ths of the season. Division 1 Grimsly signed me for something like 12,000 a week (2 million dollar deal), I agreed.

Struggled there, but didn't do too bad. Ended the season with 49 goals, 20 assists, and won D1 youth player of the year.

I'm still hoping I get an offer from a D2 or D3 team so I can hone my skills a little longer. Shouldn't have left the comforts of Conference play. :)

[korme]

Originally posted by Katon
Agreed. DO NOT jump four divisions in one go. Ever. I went from single-handedly promoting Leigh in my first season to the Charlton bench. Cost them £4,000,000. I then bounced onto Stoke (£2,000,000) before finally starting to turn things round as an 18-year-old with just-relegated Tottenham (£700,000). I still won the First Division Young Player of the Year award for the two games I played with Stoke that first year, though.

Katon, for me it wasn't that easy. I just blossomed as a premiere player at 21. I could never get back to a lower level, although I wish I could have.

--My journey--
17-18: Dag & Red / Conference -- Young Player of the year, 92 goals in one season, promoted team to D3
18: Arsenal / Premiere -- Average match rating was nearly a 4, rode pine
18: Southamption / Premiere -- Same story here, ended up riding pine
19: Gil Vicente / Campeonato Nacional (Portugal) -- Did terrible here, only played a few days before taking a bigger offer
19-21: Boavista / Campeonato Nacional (Portugal) -- Decided on a new plan: Realize that I wouldn't get back to lower leagues and would have to ride out a few bench seasons, play out of a contract and hope to make it back to somewhere I liked. Instead, after a year and a half here, I started scoring a few goals off the bench and earned a starting job. Did decent, with about a 7.5 rating in my last contract season.

Feeling I was turning into a good player, I wanted to go back to England. It sucks as a free agent like I was because I couldn't tell anyone I was interested, I basically just got offers like I normally did, but this time under free transfers.

I'm now starting for Ipswich which is in the premiere league now.

[tucker342]

I know, me neither, that was a really big mistake. I signed a one year deal with Leads so that when the season is over I will have more options to work with(I hope). Hoping I end up with a D2, D3 team. Damn this game is fun:D

[korme]

Unfortunately you probably won't tucker.

Seems all of our new mistakes was going big early.

Hell, atleast I'm rich as shit.

[tucker342]

I decided to start over, now that I know where to put my skill points...

[tucker342]

that was a very big mistake that I went big so early

[FrogMan]

Damnit youg guys. I KNEW IT!!! I downloaded it, started playing it, pumping my fist in the air when I scored my first goal, now I'm hooked and I just paid for the thing :D

Shorty you too paid by Paypal, did you get you code by email?

FM

[McSweeny]

agggg! game over if you go into massive debt buying a new car?? damn!

[korme]

yep frogman, as long as your paypal lists your current email! I got it in a half hour-45.

PS, I paid with my mom's credit card. It was only 5 bucks, so she prob wont notice. dont tell her, anyone. :)

[tucker342]

okay I won't:D

[tucker342]

FUCK!!! I got caught using performance enchancing drugs(they really helped:D):(


Every single thing except media went down to the lowest possible:(

[VPI97]

Originally posted by tucker342
FUCK!!!A result of 'roid rage?

[tucker342]

lol:D

maybe.......

[illinifan999]

Damn all of you. Now I have to get a money order and wait for it to be processed. I told myself I wasnt going to download it, but I did, now I'm 8.50 poorer. :mad:

[sony]

My younger cousin started a career 2 days ago, and he showed me his players stats at the age of 19 -- They were all maxed out. I was like WTF? What a lucky SOB. I still don't know how he did it.

[sony]

Dola- Here are his awesome stats

[sony]

Stats

[sony]

Originally posted by Ronnie Dobbs2
How is that possible? I am vastly deeper into my career than him (My player is 24) and my skills are half of what he has.

[tucker342]

That pisses me off so much.... I wish my guy was that good....

[Eilim]

The stats are all stored in plain text. Very easy to edit and boost.. Also, atleast with my copy, everytime I reboot to play my character.. I have to re-enter my reg code.. and get another 10 points to add to his skills. Either of these could explain it. ;)

[tucker342]

still, unless he edited the player somehow, even with the additional 10 points, I really don't think he could have it by the age of 19....

[tucker342]

Okay, I was in division 3 and I was doing terrible, I hadn't played in probably 10 games. So I transferred to division 1, and in just 8 week(30-38) I have 3 times as many goals as I had the rest of the season:D

[VPI97]

Originally posted by Ronnie Dobbs2
How is that possible?It's fairly easy to edit saved games...

http://www.kingsnet.net/bendit.jpg

[RPI-Fan]

One problem I have - there's no middle ground in terms of starting or failing. Either you're an all-star, or you've lost your starting spot...

Hope that might get changed a bit for next version...

~rpi-fan

[VPI97]

Originally posted by RPI-Fan
One problem I have - there's no middle ground in terms of starting or failing. Either you're an all-star, or you've lost your starting spot...I think it all depends on where you're playing. I just started a career playing for Forest Green in Conference and in 37 games, scored 40 goals and posted 39 assists at age 17, even though my rating allocations were below average...Conference is just an extremely easy leaguie to compete in. Conversely, starting at Man Utd gets me no playing time at all, and is just a wasted year (stat wise).

BUT...in my longest career, I was just an average player the entire time. I spent my first 5-6 years in A-League, played for about 10 teams and my starts vs. coming off the bench were almost exactly even. I never won MOM and my game ratings were usually in the 6 range. I finally received an offer to get out of A-League and headed to Germany (2nd div), where I improved somewhat, but nothing special. I finished off in Scotland and received big money from sponsorship, but my gameplay was, once again, average.

What Si needs to reduce is the large discrepancies between leagues. But in the meantime, you can find places where your player is just going to be average...after all, there's like 40 leagues in the game.

[Eilim]

Originally posted by tucker342
still, unless he edited the player somehow, even with the additional 10 points, I really don't think he could have it by the age of 19....

Atleast when I play, I'm talking *every* time I restart the game I get another 10 points. If I had wanted to, I could have maxed every "Ability" skill the first day of my players life without even editing the file. Just save, quit, reload, use points, repeat. Its actually the reason I started a new "career". It was annoying because I couldn't even skip using the points until all the abilities were maxed.


-Eilim

[tucker342]

Ohhhhh I get what you mean now.... now I see how he did it.

[atatange1]

You guy's just cost me 5 bucks! It's ok though I'm ripping it up for Farnborough. And now I know not to jump straight to the Premier League.

[Coffee Warlord]

Yep, I started over and stayed way the hell down in the depths, leading Halifax to promotion in year 1, and winning Young Player of the Year again.

Now in the midst of season 2, and I'm leading Halifax again, as we are in 1st place in Division 3. I have all sorts of sponsorship deals, including a 2 million dollar contract with Mars, as I endorse their candy bars.

In 61 matches played, I've netted 123 goals and 36 assists. Needless to say I'm beating the hell out of the competition down here in wuss ball. The competition DOES get noticably tougher from Conference to Division 3, and I imagine it'll keep going up.

Which, by the by, I think is the best way to develop a starting character. Start in lowest possible league, don't transfer, work your team up to the top, beat up on weak competition, and use the time to train up your stats. By the time you get to top tiers and can go wherever you want, you'll be ready for it.

[FrogMan]

weird stuff happened to me. I was playnig with Venezia in the Italian A league in my 3rd or 4th season. The season ends and while we made a run for the top stop, we still finish 4th or 5th. I go through offseason and when I play my 1st game of the following season, I can't figure out who I'm playing for as what I see on the screen is Spezia vs Lucchese!!! I'm now playing for Spezia in Italian C1!!!

Anybody encountered that before?

Second week of the season, we win 7-0 and I scored all of the 7 goals... :D

FM

[tucker342]

No, that has never happened to me.


I would just like to say that the Hard difficulty level is much harder than the easy difficulty level.

[FrogMan]

tucker, what's the difference? Do you simply start with less points, or is it tougher to get improve your skills?

FM

[digamma]

How do you download 1.15? I downloaded 1.01, but now can't figure out how to upgrade.
Any help?

[Bee]

Just download the full game and install it. It transfers the registration (at least for mine it did).

[digamma]

Thanks. Worked like a charm. Don't know why it didn't download as 1.15 the first time.

[illinifan999]

How do you buy a a car? Is it like the casino where when it pops up you can select it, or is there a way to buy one?

[Bee]

It pops up like the casino. You also don't get to chose, it just asks if you want to buy a XXX car or not.

[aquavit]

Sweet find guys. I love little games like this and $5 is a perfect price.

[sony]

If you guys haven't noticed about the site; it seems as if there was no payment for the site domain. Someone help this guy ???

[Karim]

Seems to be ok...