ALRIGHT BOYZ...HERE WE GO...The Football Manager 2012 THREAD!!!

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by markprior22

How do new players become members of your youth teams in FM12? Is there any kind of draft? Do you just sign players that scouts report on? Do your lower level coaches/scouts keep the players coming? This is such a noob question but I am not sure how it works.

#2 and #3 basically.

Sign young players your scouts report on (have some out looking for young young talent if you're a big enuf club), and your club will generate a number of youth players from your youth academy every year.

Unless you're playing in MLS there's no "draft."

[Oilers9911]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Never seen that. Maybe? Is it an older card? Are your drivers updated? Does it run in 2d?

Brand new laptop. I've changed a couple settings so I'm going to try that out. I haven't tried 2D mode so I'll give that a shot as well.

Thanks.

[MrBug708]

Any hints on increasing the elite talent from your regens that are available to sign thru your youth academy?

[bhlloy]

I got my board to fund junior coaching (new this year? haven't come across it before) to average level as well as bumping up my youth facilities a notch and just got rewarded with my best ever youth class including 3 guys who are 5 star prospects. Not bad for a BSP team.

If you can't get the board to fund any new or improved facilities I'm not sure what you can do.

[Epi_862]

Thanks guys for all the input regarding taking low teams to the top.

My first season in npl2, tipped as a certain for relegation. Im currently in fifth place, 19 games into the season, 4 points behind #1. I just went to the semifinal of johnstone cup beating a league 1 side Bristol Rovers, 5 to fucking nothing.

Now, i have no idea why. My tactics are plain, since i know jack shit of soccer, and my players arent that great. I love this game.

[bulletsponge]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

I got my board to fund junior coaching (new this year? haven't come across it before) to average level as well as bumping up my youth facilities a notch and just got rewarded with my best ever youth class including 3 guys who are 5 star prospects. Not bad for a BSP team.

If you can't get the board to fund any new or improved facilities I'm not sure what you can do.

thats the best way. just improve all youth facilities, junior coaching and acadamy. they take $$ though.

heres a "cheat". save the game right before the youth regens appear (may 12 or 13th) and reload if you dont like your youths

[markprior22]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

If your player has a minimum fee release clause of $1m, any AI bid of $1m or more for your player would be automatically accepted. You wouldn't get a chance to reject the offer.

It works the same way if you bid for a player with such a clause.

Ok...not what I thought it was at all.

So how does it factor into your player's contract? Wouldn't it technically be a transfer if another club bid $1m for the player?

Guess I'm trying to understand the advantages and disadvantages from club and player points of view when it comes to this. I've seen some pretty high amounts (over $50m) that I've changed to zero and the contract was still acceptable.

[dacman]

Originally Posted by markprior22

Ok...not what I thought it was at all.

So how does it factor into your player's contract?

It doesn't really.

Originally Posted by markprior22

Wouldn't it technically be a transfer if another club bid $1m for the player?

Yes.

Originally Posted by markprior22

Guess I'm trying to understand the advantages and disadvantages from club and player points of view when it comes to this.

Club advantage -- you may get the player to agree to a longer term contract or slightly lesser wages, or to agree to a contract at all.

Club disadvantage -- you lose control of the rights to your player if another team meets the miniumum fee. The player may stay if he can't agree to a contract with the new team, but you cannot say no to the transfer.

Player advantage -- If a big/rich team comes for you and meets the price, your team can't deny you the move.

Player disadvantage -- A team may not want to give you a MFRC, or a very high number may scare away other teams.

Originally Posted by markprior22

I've seen some pretty high amounts (over $50m) that I've changed to zero and the contract was still acceptable.

Because that's to the player's advantage -- as long as the MFRC is in the contract for 0, you're allowing your player to move to any other team who makes an offer and you can't say no.

If by change to 0, you mean remove the MFRC altogether, well the player must not have really wanted the MFRC that much.

[jbergey22]

Anyone heard when the first big patch is coming out? Kind of waiting on that before I start something serious.

Been reading a lot of comments that this version is too easy right now.

Fantastic game, but agreed, looking too easy

Kind of depressing to me really. Ive always been bothered that I can know so little about soccer and get promoted my first year. Now its even easier? The ass-man taking the predicted 24th team up to 5th in the standings doesnt really give me that sense of accomplishment I am looking for.

Id be perfectly happy losing every game if it was realistic. I dont need generic wins to keep me from enjoying the game. Just let me suck like I should and if I happen to get a few breaks to get over the hump so be it.

Wonder if SI could include an AI setting difficulty down the road?

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by markprior22

I've seen some pretty high amounts (over $50m) that I've changed to zero and the contract was still acceptable.

To follow up on this, I really can't think of a single reason why the player, in FM, would ever object to a reduction in the minimum fee release clause. You're making it *easier* for him to leave if a team comes along that he really wishes to join.

About the only times you ever ought to see a 'waitaminute' response from the player is if you were to eliminate the clause entirely - as dacman mentions - or if you were to *raise* the minimum above the level which the player considers fair.

If he's asking for a $5m release clause, and you set it at $50m, he may bitch - the reason being, he might recognize that as a lip service clause. You're saying "okay, sure," but he knows, and you know, that the odds of you getting a $50m offer for his services are slim and none, and slim is packing his bags.

There are other release clauses as well - relegation, coaching opportunity, and FM12 may have some new ones I'm unaware of as an FM11 player. Those will work fundamentally the same way, but with some (hopefully obvious) additional triggers.

A relegation minimum release clause means that if your side get relegated, and Team X offer $Y or greater, the player is allowed to leave. That sort of release clause requires you to get relegated or it doesn't get triggered, however. Same deal with a clause for release if a coaching opportunity is offered (mostly only older players will be concerned with that).

But otherwise, yeah, same fundamentals apply - the player will object if the release fee is too high, but generally oughtn't to object if it's low. Just means an easier ticket out of town if and when the time comes.

[jbergey22]

Doing some chatting on the SI forums. Sounds like some tests were done with the managers and they make very little difference. Its probably why human players can do so well as they are getting advice from their ass-man that is similar to that or world class managers. I think SI needs to look into this, Marc?

[Epi_862]

Originally Posted by Epi_862

And also, im now going into my third season with newport co., and just got promoted to npower 2. This fucking game has taken every free minute i have had this week. Even skipped gym 2 times. It's seriously un-fucking-healthy good. And i hate to admit it, but im hooked. Hopefully getting my ass handed to me npower 2 tames the addiction a bit.

So, i went to npower2 - odds on favorite for relegation, mind you - and won promotion, AND the johnstone paint trophy. What the hell. WHAT. THE. HELL. I have no business in npower1. This game should have an export data function, where i could find a helpful veteran to look at my team and tell me what the hell is going on.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Anyone heard when the first big patch is coming out? Kind of waiting on that before I start something serious.

Been reading a lot of comments that this version is too easy right now.

Fantastic game, but agreed, looking too easy

Kind of depressing to me really. Ive always been bothered that I can know so little about soccer and get promoted my first year. Now its even easier? The ass-man taking the predicted 24th team up to 5th in the standings doesnt really give me that sense of accomplishment I am looking for.

Id be perfectly happy losing every game if it was realistic. I dont need generic wins to keep me from enjoying the game. Just let me suck like I should and if I happen to get a few breaks to get over the hump so be it.

Wonder if SI could include an AI setting difficulty down the road?

Ditto on waiting for a big patch before starting my serious game.

There is an AI difficulty setting - it's called starting with a crappier team.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Ditto on waiting for a big patch before starting my serious game.

There is an AI difficulty setting - it's called starting with a crappier team.

Agreed. I started in the Third Division in Brazil. It's a long, hard road.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Agreed. I started in the Third Division in Brazil. It's a long, hard road.

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Ditto on waiting for a big patch before starting my serious game.

There is an AI difficulty setting - it's called starting with a crappier team.

Well if you guys read Epis post from above that was the same situation I had with this 3rd division Spanish team. In FM10 I took a team from the 3rd division whatever it is called to the Liga1 in 3 years. I had a very limited budget compared to the teams I was competing with so I was completely outclassed. I really am not sure what else I could have done to make it any harder.

Like I was talking about earlier with some people on the SI Forums. I think a major problem is the worldclass managers dont have worldclass abilities therefore you are getting pretty much the same advice from your ass-man as these world class managers have. A guy did a study and found that the managers had very little impact on results.

[Shepp]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Well if you guys read Epis post from above that was the same situation I had with this 3rd division Spanish team. In FM10 I took a team from the 3rd division whatever it is called to the Liga1 in 3 years. I had a very limited budget compared to the teams I was competing with so I was completely outclassed. I really am not sure what else I could have done to make it any harder.

Like I was talking about earlier with some people on the SI Forums. I think a major problem is the worldclass managers dont have worldclass abilities therefore you are getting pretty much the same advice from your ass-man as these world class managers have. A guy did a study and found that the managers had very little impact on results.

So are you saying FM12 is too easy or the FM series in general? I have been playing FM since Championship Manager 03/04 and have never had the feeling that I was just breezing through. I don't use FMScout and I don't use any super training schedules or tactics. I think you'll find most of the people comlaining about "too easy" are actively exploiting the loopholes in the game.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Shepp

So are you saying FM12 is too easy or the FM series in general? I have been playing FM since Championship Manager 03/04 and have never had the feeling that I was just breezing through. I don't use FMScout and I don't use any super training schedules or tactics. I think you'll find most of the people comlaining about "too easy" are actively exploiting the loopholes in the game.

The series has seemed easy to me I guess. Im a person that probably knows only the 3 best soccer players in the world and very little about soccer tactics and what they are suppose to accomplish yet I can win on this. I guess that is why I think it is easy. I really dont think I should have any success. Its probably because I use the ass-man well Im not sure.

When people are telling me to not exploit loopholes I dont even really know that means because I dont even know what the normal rules of soccer are as far as transfers and contracts.

My point I guess is that with the knowledge I have at soccer I should not be winning leagues and getting promoted. When I first started playing my goal was to not get demoted and learn some things along the way which seemed like a very realistic goal. Never did I think I could actually win a league championship. I usually start out with a team in that 10-15 range.

I was slightly worried when people were talking about this version being even easier yet.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

There's another AI difficulty setting...not using the in game cheats. Don't use player search, only go after players you've scouted. Don't scout places your team clearly would not be able to afford to go to. If you're in a country like England, where team links are illegal, don't use them. And so on.

What's a team link?

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

You'll see a tab, I don't have FM12 yet so I'm not sure if it's in the same spot, that lists affiliated teams. The rules are unique to each countries football association yet the game handles them the same for every country (at least FM11 did). In England, the idea of having a team link where you can loan players between clubs is illegal if both are domestic clubs. You can have links with foreign clubs, but not the local ones. I've read several people who exploit what the game allows by using a low level "feeder" club or two as an extra location to train a bunch of their youth players. It's just one of those things that allows for the real order of things to be circumvented, but I'm sure it would be a gigantic pain for the programmers to code the link/affiliation rules for each playable country.

I've found the most rewarding way to play FM is the "Llama" approach of lower league management. It's extremely challenging to try and bring a team up from the bottom, or at least use them as a springboard to better jobs, without using loopholes like team links, the player search function, etc.

I do occasionally play a big team game while ignoring the self-imposed reality just to get a different flavor of things.

Ok, I know of the affiliated teams. Weird that every time I take over an English club, there's already a bunch of 'em in there. As a Yank, I wouldn't know that's not kosher in England.

Maybe you can detail out the "Llama" approach for lower league management. I'm interested to know what house rules you play with...just remember to couch them in terms of someone who knows FM but knows virtually nothing about the real professional game. I always liked starting off with smaller clubs anyway.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

You'll see a tab, I don't have FM12 yet so I'm not sure if it's in the same spot, that lists affiliated teams. The rules are unique to each countries football association yet the game handles them the same for every country (at least FM11 did). In England, the idea of having a team link where you can loan players between clubs is illegal if both are domestic clubs. You can have links with foreign clubs, but not the local ones. I've read several people who exploit what the game allows by using a low level "feeder" club or two as an extra location to train a bunch of their youth players. It's just one of those things that allows for the real order of things to be circumvented, but I'm sure it would be a gigantic pain for the programmers to code the link/affiliation rules for each playable country.

I've found the most rewarding way to play FM is the "Llama" approach of lower league management. It's extremely challenging to try and bring a team up from the bottom, or at least use them as a springboard to better jobs, without using loopholes like team links, the player search function, etc.

I do occasionally play a big team game while ignoring the self-imposed reality just to get a different flavor of things.

I don't know that I would call that exploiting a loophole when I doubt that a majority of the casual fans/FM players even know that rule. Especially since it sounds like it's perfectly legal in other locations. Every game that I have played so far (spanning a few versions of the game) my team is linked to a higher level club and it's not even something that I setup. I get a message in my inbox one day prior to the season that my team is now linked to team x.

[bhlloy]

Considering I ended up winning the BSP with 130 points and only losing one game (second game of the season) using nothing other than a stock 4-4-2 I definitely think this game is way too easy.

Interested to see how I do in league 2 with a team that isnt by far and away the most talented. But for now definitely doesn't feel like too much of a challenge

[markprior22]

Can you get recommendations from your staff concerning what tactics would be best for the players you have?

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by markprior22

Can you get recommendations from your staff concerning what tactics would be best for the players you have?

Yep - they do so annually, before the new season begins.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Considering I ended up winning the BSP with 130 points and only losing one game (second game of the season) using nothing other than a stock 4-4-2 I definitely think this game is way too easy.

Interested to see how I do in league 2 with a team that isnt by far and away the most talented. But for now definitely doesn't feel like too much of a challenge

Considering the romp I had with Juventus in Serie A using essentially their current RL tactic and just tweaking a few player roles, I'm starting to come around to this POV.

[Shepp]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

The series has seemed easy to me I guess. Im a person that probably knows only the 3 best soccer players in the world and very little about soccer tactics and what they are suppose to accomplish yet I can win on this. I guess that is why I think it is easy. I really dont think I should have any success. Its probably because I use the ass-man well Im not sure.

When people are telling me to not exploit loopholes I dont even really know that means because I dont even know what the normal rules of soccer are as far as transfers and contracts.

My point I guess is that with the knowledge I have at soccer I should not be winning leagues and getting promoted. When I first started playing my goal was to not get demoted and learn some things along the way which seemed like a very realistic goal. Never did I think I could actually win a league championship. I usually start out with a team in that 10-15 range.

I was slightly worried when people were talking about this version being even easier yet.

If I were to point to one thing as the reason FM could be called "to easy"; It would be that it's easier to bring in money than in the real world and you can usually get more quility players for cheaper than in the real world. The result of this is that its easier to be successful than in the real world. I have always accepted it because I realized that if I didn't see any sort of progress I wouldn't stick with the game for very long. If your looking for more challege do like HiFiRevival said and play with a tiny club with no money. You will also see more of a challegne if you don't bring in any, or maybe just a couple, loan players.

[Sweed]

Not far enough in my game to say if its to easy or not. I do wonder though if v12 simply has so much more "help" in getting your team playing "right" with the ass-man spoon-feeding you when you ask for advice.

IE v11 and before I had to decide what roles and duties I thought may players would best perform with. Now my assman tells me that my DM Joe Football is best as a "ball winning midfielder" in a "support role" or my MC is best as and advanced playmaker and my young striker is best suited to be a target man in a support role. In previous versions(unless I totally missed it) the assman only picked a starting 11 and while he had Joe Football as the DM it was up to me to pick a role and duty based on my reading of his attributes.

Just a thought.

[bhlloy]

I haven't used that though Sweed. I've taken the 4-4-2 that comes with the game, I've set up the set pieces and I've won the title with 130 points and something like 120 goals for and 35 against.

I did have a ridiculously good team (I had a somewhat recent Dutch international play half a season on RW for me at the age of 29 and average close to 8) for the league, but still, I've put together those types of teams and not had nearly that insane level of success in previous years.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

I haven't used that though Sweed. I've taken the 4-4-2 that comes with the game, I've set up the set pieces and I've won the title with 130 points and something like 120 goals for and 35 against.

I did have a ridiculously good team (I had a somewhat recent Dutch international play half a season on RW for me at the age of 29 and average close to 8) for the league, but still, I've put together those types of teams and not had nearly that insane level of success in previous years.

Err I think you've hit the nail on the head with regards to the 'bug' - theres no way a Dutch International should be playing in the Blue Square Premiership ... would you mind mentioning who he is and whom you are playing as (PM me please rather than 'tipping') and I'll make sure that the devs know and tighten up to ensure that sort of player isn't interested in playing semi-professional football.

(tbh if you've a player of that calibre playing at semi-pro level then I'm not particularly surprised you've found it easy)

PS - Outside of this, transfers especially once you've played a couple of games and 'know' the kids with good potential are always one of the easy ways to exploit the game. If you want to play a 'realistic' game then consider playing only purchasing players recommended to you by your scouts as sensible targets - thats how I play to offset my knowledge of the game database ...

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

Interesting. If the assman is always right about that, then there's nowhere near enough challenge to the game even with the lower league house rules in use.

To be fair I have only my limited play with a npower champ team, Burnley, to base it on so I do have a decent assman. I usually start with a lower team and have never had an assman that was even capable of suggestions before, other than starting 11. As for my assman I have been following most of his advice on duty and role, and probably would have come up with the same decisions for all but one of the players, but haven't always agreed with him on the starting 11.

It is a time saver for sure. I do hope, and expect, that there is some form of inaccuracy on the assman's part.

Like I said though with limited play it was just something that came into my head.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

Err I think you've hit the nail on the head with regards to the 'bug' - theres no way a Dutch International should be playing in the Blue Square Premiership ... would you mind mentioning who he is and whom you are playing as (PM me please rather than 'tipping') and I'll make sure that the devs know and tighten up to ensure that sort of player isn't interested in playing semi-professional football.

(tbh if you've a player of that calibre playing at semi-pro level then I'm not particularly surprised you've found it easy)

PS - Outside of this, transfers especially once you've played a couple of games and 'know' the kids with good potential are always one of the easy ways to exploit the game. If you want to play a 'realistic' game then consider playing only purchasing players recommended to you by your scouts as sensible targets - thats how I play to offset my knowledge of the game database ...

Sent... ironically Marc all those high level guys were on the list of players my scouts "knew" at the beginning of the year, so that might go on the list of exploits. Hiring even a crappy scout from a couple of different countries gives you knowledge of a lot of very good players, most of whom are on a free and are willing to go to a lower league club. I think I picked up 5 or 6 players right off the bat who were 5 star league one/low championship material and who were willing to drop to the BSP.

So like you say, maybe a tweak there. But I don't think any team should be getting 130 points and only losing 1 game in a season, unless they are Man U playing in the Blue Square North.

[bhlloy]

BTW Marc, I recognize this is a completely thankless task, and you will never make everybody completely happy and you'll hear complaints either way. Just seems a little too weighted in one direction this year. Very much appreciate the support and the great games you guys put out year after year.

[bhlloy]

Yeah the more I think about it, the more I think I just had a perfect storm of factors

1) I hired scouts from different countries, because in previous games that would lead to finding a few gems that I would otherwise miss but now in FM12, they come with a huge knowledge database of great players which seems like an obvious exploit
2) These players would normally be snapped up by teams with a much higher stature than me or wouldn't be interested in dropping down to BSP, but for whatever reason they did. I think the passive AI somebody was talking about above has a lot to do with this... there should have been tons of teams in Europe who could have used these guys but for whatever reason (bad manager, holes in scouting network, passive AI, not recognizing a need) I was the only team interested
3) Whereas in prior versions, all these signings might not have meshed and would have led to poor morale and a lot of negative consequences on the field, I am now able to use the team meeting function and the improved team talks far too effectively to keep morale sky high. I seriously don't think I had anybody in my first team squad below very good after week 2 of the season (my only loss)

Like I said, very interested to see if I can keep this run up in league 2 where I won't have an insanely talented team (although they will still be pretty damn good) but that's my unscientific season one theory

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

Interesting. If the assman is always right about that, then there's nowhere near enough challenge to the game even with the lower league house rules in use.

For those interested in trying to play a Lower League Manager career, LLM or Llama for short, here's everything from the "official" rules as listed in the LLM forum on sigames.com:

The ideology behind playing LLM is to play a game as realistic as FM allows.

·This means doing it yourself, using your own mettle, succeeding or failing, but using no outside help.

·Outside help means anything not included in the game. This specifically includes "real life" knowledge. Just because "Wullie Hackum" is good in real life doesn't mean he'll be good in FM.

For this reason we rely heavily on the Scouts.

·We trust them. They may be rubbish, but they're all we've got for "first hand" experience.

·Players may be identified from media reports...and scouted, from games played against us...and scouted.

·No-one will be banned for scouring the transfer list, but it's generally frowned upon by LLM players. Players found that way would be scouted or trialled by the club, no manager in their right mind would sign a player based on a name on a list.

LLM doesn't mean leaving a team just because it's been promoted.

·A career should be followed like a real life one. Would a manager leave a club just because he's got it promoted? Maybe because another club comes in for him, but not because he's reached the Football League.

Start in the lowest possible division in any given nation

·Default leagues only. As the use of editors is not allowed in LLM, you can not start in a competition that has to be added via the editor
·This can mean the only division in the game (e.g. Wales)
·This does not mean The Championship, League 1 or League 2 in England - you should start in the Conference North or South, Conference Premier at a push.

There's an adage in LLM, "If you have to ask if you're cheating, then you very probably are"

·This is a good way to judge yourself whether what you're doing is LLM, just ask that question (regarding "cheating", signing players, scouting, looking at other teams) and think about what a real-life manager would or could do.


Parent/Feeder Clubs

·Please note, although they seem to be allowed in the game, that in the Home Nations and Germany Parent/Feeder Clubs are specifically banned by the FAs (within and between UK Home Nations), all Clubs must be independent to compete in the Leagues and Cups. This isn't an LLM Rule this is real life.

LLM and the Tactical Tipping and Good Players Guide

·The LLM style of play is mutually exclusive to the use of Tactical Tipping and Good Players Guide fora. The ethos is completely different and is incompatible with those styles of playing. If you want to post in those fora, good luck to you but it's incompatible with posting in here.


Keep it real, keep it LLM, and you won't go far wrong.

Good luck.

There's even a random crap team generator that is up to date through the 09 game at least:

dud LLM picker for FM2009


Personally, I tend to set my starting reputation as Automatic and start unemployed. I usually fast sim the entire first season and around the start of June set the game to vacation with the instruction to apply for all lower league jobs and return from vacation if I'm offered a job. That pretty much ensures I get a horrendous team that just got promoted to a bottom league with almost nothing of value and have to build completely from scratch.

Thanks for these rules - I'm still playing FM2011 but I like to play with lower league teams anyway and am still pretty much a novice to this game so I doubt I need the house rules too much anyway! One thing I wondered though about the LLM is with all the house rules, wouldn't it make sense for people to use fictional players? This would make it harder for people to "cheat" and sign players based on previous saves, etc. I don't really know much about RL football players except for teams in the EPL, and not all of them even then - but fictional players would assure that you were playing "in the blind" and not able to use RL knowledge as much.

[tyketime]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

...One thing I wondered though about the LLM is with all the house rules, wouldn't it make sense for people to use fictional players? This would make it harder for people to "cheat" and sign players based on previous saves, etc.

Yes! This was one of the reasons I asked about fictional players earlier. Unless the teams really get screwed up, I think this makes sense to me. Of course, that's from a purely managerial challenge perspective. Not as much fun coaching Johnny Buttercup than it is Wayne Rooney. But I do think this would pose a stronger challenge. Do the rest of you agree?

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by tyketime

Yes! This was one of the reasons I asked about fictional players earlier. Unless the teams really get screwed up, I think this makes sense to me. Of course, that's from a purely managerial challenge perspective. Not as much fun coaching Johnny Buttercup than it is Wayne Rooney. But I do think this would pose a stronger challenge. Do the rest of you agree?

Absolutely, if you want to fully follow the LLM tenets. House rules or not, there's no way you can fully divorce yourself from guys you recognize.

Personally, I don't care. I like building up from a lower club myself, but I don't completely adhere to the LLM rules, and I like having real players.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

... One thing I wondered though about the LLM is with all the house rules, wouldn't it make sense for people to use fictional players? This would make it harder for people to "cheat" and sign players based on previous saves, etc. I don't really know much about RL football players except for teams in the EPL, and not all of them even then - but fictional players would assure that you were playing "in the blind" and not able to use RL knowledge as much.

I don't think it matters. There's no way Rooney signs for the Dinkletown Casuals. By the time you've gotten yourself promoted high enough to garner the interest of anyone noteworthy, most noteworthy players in the game are CPU generated and any real-life knowledge isn't useful.

[Icy]

The problem i have always found in FM is that sometimes it's too easy to rebuild a low league team signing free agents after the first season or two.

Imho it's due both to the teams letting good players contracts to expire and to the CPU teams not being agressive enough signing those free players.

For example in my second season at Nuneaton, that ended 17th in the Blue Square North league past season (i took over the team midseason starting unemployed) i have signed a 19 years old GK that i find hard to believe would join a BSS team, in fact he is right now the best GK at this level by a huge difference.

In real life he is part of the Germany u19 national team and under contract by Manchester City, on loan at German 1st division team FSV Mainz.

In my game, his contract was not renewed by Man City and he became an FA. In real life, he would have been kept at City and probably loaned again but never released, and even if he did, he would have joined at least a Championship team, not a team 6 divisions lower.

And it's not that i offered him a contract out of my league, in fact he is cheap at 13.75k per year for 2 years.

This is the player:

Loris Karius - Player profile - transfermarkt.co.uk

I usually play with strict LLM rules and enjoy starting unemployed with no reputatation, building form the bottom the first team offered to me, to avoid those issues, but still think that players should not join a low reputation team this easily.

Another thing i found this year is that with the extra options in team talks, it's so easy to have them all always higly motivated, as you have several chances if you screw up. First you issue the general team talk, then you can issue one per position and/or individual, so if the first one demotivates a player or a group, you can issue a second talk to that player or group. Same with team meets.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Considering the romp I had with Juventus in Serie A using essentially their current RL tactic and just tweaking a few player roles, I'm starting to come around to this POV.

I'm at Christmas 1st season with Droylsden in BSN, using near-enough LLM rules as below, although I do search transfer listed /loan listed players (having said that haven't signed anyone like that)

So far I've won all bar two games: one away from home to what was the 2nd place team in the league; the other 2-0 away from home against L1 Stevenage, when I was reduced to 10 men after benig comfortably 0-0 for the first half.

Signed 17 players on free transfers (some as youth players so only £5-6 per week), all as part time.

One of the player was Damien Casalinuovo, who plied his trade in the SPL for Hamilton last year, which would be the most eyebrow raising

Three players signed who played in the Scottish 1st Division the previous year (one on loan), but all just about pass the sniff test bar Casalinuovo.

It strikes me a bit too easy too, tbh.

[Peregrine]

I hope you guys don't mind a newbie question about this game - how exactly do players develop into their potential? It it mostly training that drives that, or is it game play, or both? I am playing a team that has tons of young high potential players and I'm not sure what I need to do - can I start putting them onto my first team and they will just naturally get more stars?

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

I hope you guys don't mind a newbie question about this game - how exactly do players develop into their potential? It it mostly training that drives that, or is it game play, or both? I am playing a team that has tons of young high potential players and I'm not sure what I need to do - can I start putting them onto my first team and they will just naturally get more stars?

Players will develop 'naturally' to some extent, however challenging first team football helps IF they're not too far in over their heads (ie. putting a 16 year old kid into a Premiership side and having him chase around never kicking the ball will just mean he'll get depressed rather than help him develop).

Loaning players out is a good way to get them this match experience if they aren't quite cutting it with your first team.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Icy

I usually play with strict LLM rules and enjoy starting unemployed with no reputatation, building form the bottom the first team offered to me

I can never seem to get hired going this route. I scour for available jobs, apply to them all, and continually strike out. Is there something I'm missing that would help me actually latch on somewhere?

EDIT: I make myself English, 32, no second nationality, and a Sunday league player. Hoping to latch on somewhere in the Blue Square. (and this is on FM11)