Alright Boys, Here we go! The Football Manager 2012 thread (Game OUT!)

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by illinifan999

Wait...what? I realize I'm missing something glaringly obvious, but can you elaborate on this?

When I play FM11, I can alt-tab out of it while a match is running to do other things - have Firefox or AIM or whatever in the foreground. I can alt-tab back to check on progress throughout the match, and it will have progressed. How far depends on system resources and the amount of time elapsed, but progressed nonetheless.

FM12, at least so far, if I alt-tab out, I can be doing other things for 15 minutes, and when I flip back, the match is at the precise point I left it.

[fortheglory]

The demo seems very deep...I want to learn what's going on though. Where how can I learn about football details? I want to jump in with both feet. Is there a manual?...will it help if there is? What are the best online resources to get myself deep into the game?

[Critch]

I've got it running windowed stretched to the full screen and I can alt-tab and the game keeps running. In fact I'm doing it right now!

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by fortheglory

The demo seems very deep...I want to learn what's going on though. Where how can I learn about football details? I want to jump in with both feet. Is there a manual?...will it help if there is? What are the best online resources to get myself deep into the game?

There is a tutorial. I would start a game with Man United (or similar) on the demo, using the tutorial, and come back here once you have questions!

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Critch

I've got it running windowed stretched to the full screen and I can alt-tab and the game keeps running. In fact I'm doing it right now!

Yep - not sure what the big deal is, or why anyone would play full screen when windowed is available.

[fortheglory]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

There is a tutorial. I would start a game with Man United (or similar) on the demo, using the tutorial, and come back here once you have questions!

I looked through the tutorials...my problem is I don't really know much about the sport itself.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by fortheglory

I looked through the tutorials...my problem is I don't really know much about the sport itself.

I'd just play thru the tutorials, and the soccer stuff will sort itself out as you go. There's not much you really need to know; the attributes are equally intuitive (or un-intuitive) whether or not you actually know about soccer. Keep your tactic to 4-4-2 +/- 1 at each row.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by fortheglory

I looked through the tutorials...my problem is I don't really know much about the sport itself.

If in doubt initially - just leave it at a bog standard 4-4-2 with tactics and use the assistant to pick your team before each match ...

Treat the game as a 'trading/business' sim to some extent initially while you find your feet - look for players who are better than the ones you have (coach/scout reports will help in this regard a lot).

Turn on the 'assistant' manager handling the pre-match interviews, team talks and suchlike.

As you play through watch the talks your coach gives and the players your coaches select and remember them, also watch when a coach drops a player and think 'why' - normally it'll be either because they're injured, on bad form, unhappy or tired (or somethings a combination of these) ... this will help you make your own decisions when you're a bit more familiar with things.

[Big Fo]

As a test, I told the team I was pleased (in a calm manner) when 2-0 up at halftime. We didn't implode in the second half like my teams would have on the past few versions.

[fortheglory]

this game actually seems easy...my team has scored multiple goals in friendly games.

[Blade6119]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

A tip for any people new to the game and looking to sign some players/play around with negotiations during the six months of the demo: If you negotiate monthly payments on a transfer fee and don't just pay a lump sum up front, only the first 12 months of payments count against that year's transfer budget. And since the demo only lasts 12 months, you don't have to worry about next year's budget being affected.

Ive always felt like this was cheating, but maybe thats just me

[henry296]

Originally Posted by fortheglory

this game actually seems easy...my team has scored multiple goals in friendly games.

Since friendlies are exhibitions often your team plays against teams that are much worse. Check the pre-match odds and see if your team is favored and the post-match comments about how well you did vs. expectations.

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by Blade6119

Ive always felt like this was cheating, but maybe thats just me

In the demo, I guess so. But in a multiyear career doing transfers like this will affect future budgets.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by fortheglory

this game actually seems easy...my team has scored multiple goals in friendly games.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Critch

I've got it running windowed stretched to the full screen and I can alt-tab and the game keeps running. In fact I'm doing it right now!

Trade-off, I guess. Doing it that way is allowing the game to progress for me, but the action is awfully hitchy when I do watch.

Guess I can't have it both ways.

[SackAttack]

Ah, solution. Window it, stretched to the full screen, turn the speed down from max to one notch below max. Hitch disappears.

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Less enthused about the fact that matches won't run in the background anymore. No more stepping away to make dinner and leaving FM matches running minimized in the background so I can see if IMs are popping up while I'm away.

Boo to this. I'm glad I've now read something in this thread which makes me feel better about holding off.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

Boo to this. I'm glad I've now read something in this thread which makes me feel better about holding off.

Why the insistence on not running windowed mode?

[Pumpy Tudors]

I didn't realize that people were getting up and leaving the computer while their match was running. Of course, I'm comparing it to real life. I'm just imagining a manager letting his team play while he runs off to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. "You guys keep playing! I'll be back in a bit!"

[SirFozzie]

Miles with the Judge Smalls reference on twitter:

MilesSI
There are over 10,000 people currently playing the #FM12 demo. Haven't you got jobs/school that you should be doing?

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

Why the insistence on not running windowed mode?

No real resistance. I just hadn't gotten that far in thread (was on a different page) and I'm looking for reasons to stay strong and not buy 12 yet .

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I didn't realize that people were getting up and leaving the computer while their match was running. Of course, I'm comparing it to real life. I'm just imagining a manager letting his team play while he runs off to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. "You guys keep playing! I'll be back in a bit!"

This was mostly for parts of Exhibition or Cup games I didn't care about, or when I wanted to do a quick galance of email while a corner kick was setting up.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

This was mostly for parts of Exhibition or Cup games I didn't care about, or when I wanted to do a quick galance of email while a corner kick was setting up.

Fair enough.

[sovereignstar v2]

Very nice to see the player card full of more information. Large resolution users saw nothing but acres of unused space previously. Just noticed the new loan-related search filters - 'Unrealistc fee paying loans' and 'Unrealistc regular loans'. Think that's a nice touch. I remember someone from FOFC asking for something like this previously.

[PraetorianX]

Lots of nifty little things that they didn't touch on in the blogs/podcasts, like usual.

I noticed that you can adjust the intensity of individual training, which is cool. I'm going to have to look into that eventually. Lots of other nice tweaks.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by PraetorianX

Lots of nifty little things that they didn't touch on in the blogs/podcasts, like usual.

I noticed that you can adjust the intensity of individual training, which is cool. I'm going to have to look into that eventually. Lots of other nice tweaks.

What sort of nifty things are you noticing?

[path12]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

But for the sound-byte answer, I think FM is the better game, but if OOTP had FM's depth and polish, I'd play that and never give FM a second look.

I've always thought that OOTP is the result of what it would have been like if an American had originally developed FM.

That is not a slight on Marcus in any way or his baseball knowledge, but I think there is a different way that he sees the game having followed it from afar. Much like we in America following the EPL as compared to the Brits.

As for the two games I appreciate OOTP but believe that FM is the best sports simulation ever made.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

No real resistance. I just hadn't gotten that far in thread (was on a different page) and I'm looking for reasons to stay strong and not buy 12 yet .

Give into the dork-side young padawan ... you know you want to

Besides - we have cookies

[henry296]

I know this is the FM12 thread, but I had to share my disappointment in my FM10 game. I started a new one 3 weeks ago in anticipation of FM12 as Frankfurt in the Bundesliga.

It is now the 12-13 season and I've got a good time built around a great young Argentine striker. My gols was to qualify for Europe even though I was picked in the bottom half. I go into the last game in 5th place but a 4 way tie for 5th-8th. My Argentine striker is hurt in the 19th minute, but we go up 1-0 a minute later. I'm following the league table all game and stay in 5th. Around the 80th minute, I bring on another defender and switch my formation, but before it takes place I give up a late equalizer in the 85th minute dropping me to 6th, but I'm still feeling ok about Europe. I get a PK in stoppage time that could clinch a top 6 finish, but it is stopped. When I exit the game, I'm showing in 6th on the table and feeling good. I look at the results and end up in 7th. Gladbach get a penalty in the 93rd minute to win and knock me out.

Now I have a dilemma. Play one more season in this game or go download the FM12 demo.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by path12

I've always thought that OOTP is the result of what it would have been like if an American had originally developed FM.

That is not a slight on Marcus in any way or his baseball knowledge, but I think there is a different way that he sees the game having followed it from afar. Much like we in America following the EPL as compared to the Brits.

As for the two games I appreciate OOTP but believe that FM is the best sports simulation ever made.

Fair criticism. Probably also true.

Though I think it's also fair to point to the resource disparity. SI have had the backing of first Eidos, then Sega. Had Markus been able to work with SI from the very beginning on OOTP, and were he approaching 10+ years with that partnership, I've no doubt OOTP would be an order of magnitude better than it is currently.

And, like you, I don't mean that as a slight to Markus in any way. He's devoted to his product. He wants it to be the best it can be, and he wants it to do well. I honestly believe that.

But he's one man. I've been on the beta team a handful of times, and every time, it's seemed like there was a delay in the process because of illness. Dude works himself incredibly hard on the product, trying to please everybody (even bastards like me), but it takes its toll, both on the developer and the product.

I wish Markus had the ability to approach things the FM way. I wish he had the kind of resources that would allow him to ship OOTP each year with complete rosters for every professional league of note on the planet. I wish he had the luxury of being able to cycle his releases the way SI used to do with CM, where every few versions you'd have the next 'major' release, but in between, there'd be all kinds of improvements just from tightening the code.

What OOTP often feels like is that in trying to top himself every time out, really cool features that never quite got tightened up like they should have been get set aside for new things in subsequent versions, so you have a bunch of awesome, but incomplete, features as time goes on. And because they weren't tightened up to begin with, you get to the point where there's literally so much to do that it gets overwhelming...but he still have the pressures of delivering on the latest drool features so that he can keep sales where they need to be to keep OOTP successful financially.

To tie all of that back in with what you said originally, I think OOTP is what FM would look like were FM developed by an American, but I don't feel like it's necessarily a given that it had to be that way.

[henry296]

Can someone explain the Sporting Play spot? Germany received a spot which got them an extra Euro League spot. I finished 7th and Levervuesen which was the runner-up in the German Cup got the spot over me.

This is FM10 and is this working correctly?

[Barkeep49]

Sporting Play is a slot given to a country because of its discipline record. Once a country gets the slot, the team in that country with the best discipline record is awarded the actual berth.

[cody8200]

I wish SI would release a demo that included the MLS. It is really the only league I play in and has had quite a few problems in the past because of its unique rules. Please consider it in future releases. Hopefully I can get some perspective on how well it plays from reading the views of some other MLS players. Otherwise I will probably wait a long while to buy.

[Icy]

Love the huge amount of info added to each screen on large resolutions.

The tactics and players screens are the best example, all the info is available at first sight, no more need to click back and forth between 2 or 3 screens to work on tactics or decide lineups.

I'm considering to start a serious career with the demo. I never did in the past as the initial selection of leagues/countries was set for the rest of your game, and i consider it too small/limited in the demo quickstarts that are based only in one country, but as this year we can add more countries/leagues on the fly later in the career, i guess we can keep playing the demo career once the full game has been released and to add more countries/leagues later, am i right?

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by cody8200

I wish SI would release a demo that included the MLS. It is really the only league I play in and has had quite a few problems in the past because of its unique rules. Please consider it in future releases. Hopefully I can get some perspective on how well it plays from reading the views of some other MLS players. Otherwise I will probably wait a long while to buy.

They haven't gotten the MLS right in any previous versions. Chances are...

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by Icy

I'm considering to start a serious career with the demo. I never did in the past as the initial selection of leagues/countries was set for the rest of your game, and i consider it too small/limited in the demo quickstarts that are based only in one country, but as this year we can add more countries/leagues on the fly later in the career, i guess we can keep playing the demo career once the full game has been released and to add more countries/leagues later, am i right?

I could add all the leagues I want but there would still be far too few players in the database to play in them.

[henry296]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

Sporting Play is a slot given to a country because of its discipline record. Once a country gets the slot, the team in that country with the best discipline record is awarded the actual berth.

Thanks. I didn't realize how the team from that country was selected. I thought it was just the next best team.

[kingfc22]

Finally have time today to try this out and the DL link is down

Any workarounds?

[Qrusher14242]

so far, pretty awesome. Only thing i'm not liking is the tactic screen. Takes more clicks to do what i did before. Like i wanted to view players attributes, all i had to was click on the name, but now i have to go up to 'Player Instructions' and then go and select the guy. Liked it the way it was before. Hopefully a skin can fix it.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Finally have time today to try this out and the DL link is down

Any workarounds?

The link? Aren't you using Steam?

[samifan24]

Is this a Steam only release this year? I haven't seen anything about a physical boxed version anywhere.

[SirFozzie]

There are boxed releases, but to play the game you will need to activate through steam anyway.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Qrusher14242

so far, pretty awesome. Only thing i'm not liking is the tactic screen. Takes more clicks to do what i did before. Like i wanted to view players attributes, all i had to was click on the name, but now i have to go up to 'Player Instructions' and then go and select the guy. Liked it the way it was before. Hopefully a skin can fix it.

In the tactics screen there's a little i in front of the players name, hover over that and the players attributes are shown in a pop-up box. Pretty nifty.

Overall it doesnt seem like there's that much new from the last version, it's all just better presented and laid out, and some existing features have been polished. I like the player chats a whole lot better now. The new 3d is better, the stadiums and fans look a whole lot better and I'm glad the over-the-top goal celebrations for each and every goal are gone.

I was half thinking of skipping this version, or at least waiting for a sale, but I've pressed the pre-order button after playing the demo. So much for self control.

[SunDevil]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

There are boxed releases, but to play the game you will need to activate through steam anyway.

Yep. Count me in the minority of NEVER wanting to use Steam for anything. I will stick to playing FM11 unless they come up with a way to play FM12 without steam.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

Yep. Count me in the minority of NEVER wanting to use Steam for anything. I will stick to playing FM11 unless they come up with a way to play FM12 without steam.

Announcement has already been made they won't go that route.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by Critch

In the tactics screen there's a little i in front of the players name, hover over that and the players attributes are shown in a pop-up box. Pretty nifty.

I think Qrusher wants the attributes that pertain to each role to be highlighted (like what you see in the player instructions screen). At least that's the only way his complaint makes any sense to me.

[Qrusher14242]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

I think Qrusher wants the attributes that pertain to each role to be highlighted (like what you see in the player instructions screen). At least that's the only way his complaint makes any sense to me.

yeah, before on the tactics screen you could just click on the player on the pitch and and it would bring up his attributes and show if he will be good in a certain role. Now all of that is on the Player Instructions screen. Not too bad i guess, but just takes longer to get it done.

the team talks seem more complicated now the different tones i have to use. It seems like im just rolling the dice on which will work or not. Although telling them i have faith in them seems to work most time. Thats the safest one i have found.

[DaddyTorgo]

I like the "motivation" bit on the halftime talk that lets you know how well a player is playing. Just saw that one of my guys is "in danger of being booked."

Thought that was cool.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

I like the "motivation" bit on the halftime talk that lets you know how well a player is playing. Just saw that one of my guys is "in danger of being booked."

Thought that was cool.

And, as it turns out, that's sort of in FM11 already.

If you look at the live feedback during the game - I got that exact notification in the 2nd half of a game earlier.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

Yep. Count me in the minority of NEVER wanting to use Steam for anything. I will stick to playing FM11 unless they come up with a way to play FM12 without steam.

I bought FM11 on steam, so no difference for me.

I happen to like steam and own a lot of games on that format, but for the new version of FM, I'd likely do just about anything short of starforce protection.