CM 4 Questions

[SunDancer]

I am looking at purhcasing CM4 soon.
What is the best online site to buy it?

Also, when is EP4 coming out for the game, and if I buy it now, will it include the updated patches?

[McSweeny]

i bought mine from www.gogamer.com and it was pretty cheap and i got it within two days.

I'm think that EP4 will be out in the next few weeks and it will include all of the previous fixes (EP1, EP2, and EP3).

[Eaglesfan27]

No one knows for sure when EP4 will be out, but I've heard the developers hope to have it out by the end of June, but nothing is guaranteed.

[SunDancer]

How is the game? I love CM3. How many nations are in the game?

[McSweeny]

currently there are 41 nations in the game and something like 91 leagues... they are adding two more nations with EP4

and i'm enjoying it as of now. sure there are some quirks so i haven't really gotten into a 'serious' game yet, but i've been enjoying my time with it, and i have been since i bought it

[ice4277]

I am having a blast; I was having trouble getting into it at first as well, put it aside for a while, tried it again with EP3, and am loving it now. I am now very immersed in my current campaign and have not really run into any problems, aside from a few graphical glitches and some VERY strange results in the end-of-season awards. Other than that, the only thing that bothers me is that I still think transfers are too hard to get through (buying and selling) but I know that should be updated somewhat in EP4. I would definitely suggest picking it up. And I would suggest getting it from www.specialreserve.co.uk. Best place on the web to order IMO.

[Critch]

I've been having fun with it, but I've avoided playing any long-term games so far. Just been playing a season or two in leagues or teams that I wouldn't normally try out, Sparta Prague in the Czech League, Linfield in Northern Ireland, Toluca in Mexico, things like that.

Still some problems (avoid the Spanish league, some seasons the game doesn't create any fixtures for the teams) and maybe not long-playable yet as the finances seem a bit unbalanced in certain leagues, but defintely playable before EP4.

Well, if you don't mind the fact your forwards will score 80%+ of your goals, but apparently that's not being fixed in EP4 either..

[Marc Vaughan]

Well, if you don't mind the fact your forwards will score 80%+ of your goals, but apparently that's not being fixed in EP4 either..
The ratio of goals scored by strikers was rectified considerably in EP#3 and there is a further small amount of tweaking of this in EP#4 ... however it (as irl) is somewhat dependant upon your tactic - if the strikers have little support then it isn't really surprising they will score the majority of goals for a team, if the midfielders come forward and support them then the goals will be shared more equally.

This is also the case for team irl, check out the statistics upon any team which played either with a striker who is much more talented than the majority of the rest of his team or a team where they played with little support from midfield.

Real-life example of this from last season:

Southampton (2002/3)

James Beattie - 24
Brett Omerod - 9
Michael Svensson - 4
Anders Svensson - 4
Jo Tessem - 4
Fabrice Fernandes - 4
Chris Marsden - 3
Matt Oakley - 2
Agustin Delgado - 2
Wayne Bridge - 1
Marian Pahars - 1

[Marc Vaughan]

PS. With regards to the other items: league dropouts have been fixed in EP#4 and finances for all leagues have been further tweaked since EP#3.

[SunDancer]

How is the "international" version, something that was needing rehauling after CM3, and something Marc said they were looking at rehauling for CM4.

Will Print to text compabilities be added? Also, can you use a fictional database, with players being more random in last version (not just another player being Beckham with a new name) or more randomization in talent spread. With fictional players, do they have no history.

Marc,
I love to be able to have a "delete" history function, where when u start a new career from the beginning, u can play it as a whole new soccer world.

[GoldenEagle]

What about the search for free transfers bug?

[Marc Vaughan]

PS. on the bright side I believe one of the unofficial save game editors supports printing and possibly dumping to a text file (I think its Mind Compressions one).

[Karim]

Scouts will scout for free transfers in EP4. This will be a lifesafer for LLMs like myself.

In the meantime, however, I've found if you look every day under the "Transfers" list, you'll see who has recently been realeased. This is particularly good from January to May. I'm in the Conference and was able to pick up, much to my surprise, a top-notch (but injury prone) right defender who had been released from the Premiership.

He's had five consecutive long-term (2 weeks to 2 months) groin pulls in less than a year - I figure his balls are about to fall off.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally posted by Karim
Scouts will scout for free transfers in EP4. This will be a lifesafer for LLMs like myself.

In the meantime, however, I've found if you look every day under the "Transfers" list, you'll see who has recently been realeased. This is particularly good from January to May. I'm in the Conference and was able to pick up, much to my surprise, a top-notch (but injury prone) right defender who had been released from the Premiership.

He's had five consecutive long-term (2 weeks to 2 months) groin pulls in less than a year - I figure his balls are about to fall off.

You can also find promising free transfers by looking in the 'Transfer Out' section of large clubs, thats how I find the decent reject Premiership players myself ...

[Chief Rum]

Hey, Karim, I assume you mean the All Transfers page? I have seen that under the manager's options (my options, I mean).

I fooled around with that list for a bit, but I only saw players being grabbed from Free Transfer. None being sent to it. If a player is sent to Free Transfer, it does say "Free Transfer" under the To category, right?

Of course, this might have something to do with where I am at in the season--in September, in the Conference, and not at the beginning of the month (September 10 to be exact).

Anyway, if I am looking at this wrong, and that's why I'm not seeing anyone released (only signed), can you tell me what I'm doing wrong? :) As an LLM myself, I would like to get a look at these players being released.

Thanks.

CR

[condors]

i don't have it in front of me but if i remember right it says released

[Easy Mac]

CR,

I think in the transfer section, it says "Released" under the TO section if they are on a free. Some guys it says 0 I think if they were free transferred to another team.

Mind Compression does a screen dump for printing.

And if you use an editor, stay away from Nygreen's latest version (0.8). I have been working the past 5 days to update all of America, and did the MLS and first 10 A-League teams. I decided to upgrade the editor (was using .7) and it crashed while saving (something others are now reporting). Screwed up my files, so I had to reinstall everything, so I lost all the work I did.

Now waiting until EP4, sinceit will probably have a data update.

[BreizhManu]

EP4 should only have a small data update (minor changes, at least in France we made very few changes)

[SunDancer]

Originally posted by SunDancer
How is the "international" version, something that was needing rehauling after CM3, and something Marc said they were looking at rehauling for CM4.

Will Print to text compabilities be added? Also, can you use a fictional database, with players being more random in last version (not just another player being Beckham with a new name) or more randomization in talent spread. With fictional players, do they have no history.

Marc,
I love to be able to have a "delete" history function, where when u start a new career from the beginning, u can play it as a whole new soccer world.

Anyone know about the fictional database and history I mentioned above.

[Karim]

condors and Easy Mac are right. The "All Transfers" screen will say "released".

September is an awful time. I remember looking from September to December during my first season and thinking I was doing something wrong.

Come January though people are there for the taking...

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally posted by SunDancer
Anyone know about the fictional database and history I mentioned above.
There is a random database option in the game which randomises all the players in the game if that is suitable for you.

[SunDancer]

Thanks Marc. Is it like CM3 though, where players resemble real counterparts, or is it completely random. Also, do the players have a "history?