Alright boyz, here we go!!! Football Manager 05 First impressions

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

is there a difference between different leagues?

if so what kind of things beside just different teams?



i hope sega does a better job in selling this game to the US to alot of different stores like Bestbuy, Fry's, compusa, circuit city, EB, etc

EHM i never saw in any store here in California as of today so far...

MLS has a completely different structure than the rest of world football, which has a pretty standard system based on promotion/relegation and cash for players. If you're asking from a global perspective, the main difference between various leagues is quality of talent. The top European leagues have the best overall talent levels with Brazil and Argentina not too far behind. The top leagues in Europe are in England, Spain, and Italy with Germany, Holland, and France considered quality also.

[scooter]

Even from league to league though there are significant changes. It just takes playing in a different league to find out just what I mean. I started a career with Heerenveen in Holland. It's the first time I've played in Holland. Their promotion/relegation structure is like nothing I've seen before. It's very complicated, but I'm looking forward to seeing what it's like.

Some leauges have lower divisions that are regionalized. Some have strange cup competitions. And then there's South America! I don't even try to manage in South America.

There was a document that someone put together for an older version of CM called the Ultimate League Guide. It went through all the leagues (I think it was only the top division of each league) that could be played and their cup and promotion schemes. You can probably still find it out there on the web somewhere. It's a very interesting document (and someone put a LOT of work into it).

[Galaril]

As for the MLS problems here is some more info.

quote:Aljarov-

Having done several drafts now using the full game there appears to be a variety of issues arising.

*First season is almost entirely made up of minor league players. This wouldn't likely happen. The majority will come from either college or direct into the draft (like Adu).

*College players will generally enter at the end of their 4 years, though some will come early. This has laready been covered.

*Therefore, the average age of players in the draft will likely be around 20/21. (15 youngest so far, but 22 is typical for college graduate).

*Too many Canadian players - these are currently still classed as foreigners in the MLS.

*Too many players coming back year after year if they're not picked, usually Canadian and usually playing for one of the minor league teams.

*Combine - when notified of the combine your scout can't get there quickly enough to assess any players making it worthless.

*Combine - stats from combine games are appearing against the players current team history (if they have a team). This is obviously wrong.

*Draft - It would be useful if the draft allowed SOMETHING in the way of stats for the regebns previous season (I know they're regens, but there would IRL be college stats or something to go off). Even with minor leaguers because this happens in the new season it is not possible to see last season's stats without going to each person's history page - way too inconvenient.

*Not enough players - barely enough to satisfy the 60 picks.

*Foreign players - only even US and Canadians in the draft. This isn't accurate.

*Second nationality - even with some of the Americans coming through the draft there will be a second nationality of American. Or, conversely, have second nationalities of something else (Adu is the obvious example).

*Players reentering the draft after being cut by the MLS teams. I don't think this would happen IRL. I'll double check it.

Will any of the MLS problems mentioned be addressed anytime soon,apparently not!
Another Quote from the SI message board:
There's none presently on the fix list....but hopefully some of the basic ones will apear on either EP1 or EP2.

Fingers crossed anyways.

There's clearly a lot of work to do on the MLS, in no small part because of the complexity of the league.

Hopefully it will be sorted eventually...and the sooner the better.

[Desnudo]

How's the rest of the game going for people? That was a pretty long list of bugs outside of MLS.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

How's the rest of the game going for people? That was a pretty long list of bugs outside of MLS.

Pretty solid - I'm waiting to start my "real" career until the patch comes out, but in the meantime have been playing as the US manager. The int'l management has been a little boring, but at the same time it's getting more interesting as I get into the more meaningful qualifying games.

All in all, no major match engine problems, and from what I hear the movement of players from team to team and league to league is very realistic.

All in all, not too bad - a noticeable improvement from CM 03/04 from what I can tell (though others are most certainly more qualified to comment on that comparison than I am...).

[bamcgee]

I'm thoroughly enjoying the game so far. The match engine seems more realistic to me, and manipulating the more varied tactics definitely seems to impact the match in the way I would expect it to. I'm still disappointed that training basically got ignored again, but I doubt I would spend a lot of time on that anyway.

Just to follow up on my first post, it only took Antonio Cassano 2 weeks to miss his first practice, so Barcelona fined him two weeks wages. Now he's unhappy and wants to leave the club. Classic.

Additionally, two of my recent signings, Mexes and Tevez, are having trouble adjusting to Roma, even though the team is performing very well. It appears that adaptability has a bigger impact in this version so you can't just import talent from all over.

[GoldenEagle]

Are there anymore quickstarts besides England and Scotland?

[scooter]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

Are there anymore quickstarts besides England and Scotland?

From SI Games web site:

http://www.sigames.com/downloads.php?type=view&id=232

Page down to the bottom and pick the Quickstart Pack. It contains the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Belgian, Swedish, Danish, Norweigan, Finnish and Greek leagues. Enjoy!

[jbmagic]

what does quick start do?

[cartman]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

what does quick start do?

A quickstart is basically a game that's pre-configured with certain leagues and dates/times.

It's the same as if someone creates a game using only leagues of a certain country, then makes a save game before actually start of play.

It's a way to quickly jump into a game, because it can take a bit of time to initialize a new game in the beginning.

[scooter]

The quickstarts accompany the demo. The demo is fully featured, but you can't just start it up with whatever leagues you want. SI have created a number of quickstarts that only have a specific league loaded. This way you can choose to play in England for instance (with only the English leagues running in full detail) or another one. I believe the demo comes with England and Scotland. SI also put out a quickstart pack (see post above) that includes a number of other leagues. This would allow someone from say Greece to play their national league on the demo. (Once again, the demo only plays for the first six months of game time) I believe the quickstarts can be used with the full game as well (they also start much quicker than manually picking which leagues you want in the game - hence the name "quickstart").

Edit: cartman beat me to it!

[GoldenEagle]

I gave in and bought it from GoGamer. Now if Monday would just get here.

[Desnudo]

If mine isn't here tomorrow, I'm flying to Leeds.

[RPI-Fan]

How do I know if DEBUG_MODE is working???

Thxs,
~rpi-fan

[Eaglesfan27]

You should be able to click on your chairman's profile and see some sort of information. I can't get that to work

[Chief Rum]

Grrr...I still can't get this to wrok either. Started another new game tonight with another file I tried (this one worked with CM03/04 and moved it over to FM2005 and made the Sugar Daddy Chelsea add, and it still doesn't work ).

Please, someone, I ask again. If you have done this with your game and it is working and you have web space, could you please, please upload your init.cfg file for us to download? Thanks.

CR

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Grrr...I still can't get this to wrok either. Started another new game tonight with another file I tried (this one worked with CM03/04 and moved it over to FM2005 and made the Sugar Daddy Chelsea add, and it still doesn't work ).

Please, someone, I ask again. If you have done this with your game and it is working and you have web space, could you please, please upload your init.cfg file for us to download? Thanks.

CR

I'm working on it.

[Eaglesfan27]

I tried RPI-Fan's init.cfg file that he sent to me. It still didn't work I wonder CR, are you missing the Inc folder and all folder in the data/db area? I am. I wonder if that is having any effect on the init.cfg working?

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I tried RPI-Fan's init.cfg file that he sent to me. It still didn't work I wonder CR, are you missing the Inc folder and all folder in the data/db area? I am. I wonder if that is having any effect on the init.cfg working?

That may or may not have an effect, but it isn't the reason it ain't working on mine. I have all that stuff.

Maybe it will work on mine anyway. Feel free and send it my way. If you can't send it via PM here, you can send it to my email at [email protected]

CR

[Eaglesfan27]

RPI-fan has those folders and it isn't working for him either, but I'll be glad to send it to your email and see if it works for you. I don't think he will mind (correct me if I'm wrong.)

[Eaglesfan27]

RPI-fan has those folders and it isn't working for him either, but I'll be glad to send it to your email and see if it works for you. I don't think he will mind (correct me if I'm wrong.)

[Eaglesfan27]

Delayed Double Dola -

I'm still annoyed that the init.cfg changes aren't seeming to work. So, I decided to uninstall the game and do a re-install. After doing that, I noticed that my init.cfg file that was in my data folder is gone, but the copy I put in the config folder is not. So, I ask those who have gotten the init.cfg changes to work, where should the file go? In the general data folder or in the config subfolder?

[GoldenEagle]

I did not get my copy today

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm doing an uninstall and reinstall (for the 2nd time today) as I seem to be missing some subfolders, and that seems odd to me. Has anyone who has been having trouble with Debug mode tried using Arse instead? I'm considering it since I've already tried everything else I can think of.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Delayed Double Dola -

I'm still annoyed that the init.cfg changes aren't seeming to work. So, I decided to uninstall the game and do a re-install. After doing that, I noticed that my init.cfg file that was in my data folder is gone, but the copy I put in the config folder is not. So, I ask those who have gotten the init.cfg changes to work, where should the file go? In the general data folder or in the config subfolder?

In the general data folder.

[GoldenEagle]

I have never done anything with these commands. I just play the game right out of the box.

[Eaglesfan27]

I enjoyed my very first career with CM03/04 just fine without the command, but now that I know it is there, I really want to use it. It bothers me even more that it is working for some people but not others.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

I have never done anything with these commands. I just play the game right out of the box.

Then you can put your init.cfg file in either directory.

[Eaglesfan27]

I may have solved my problem... I uninstalled FM2005. I also deleted my hockey demo (I never got into it long enough to purchase the full version) and I deleted the SEGA folder. Then, I rebooted. Then, I reinstalled the game. I have many different files that I didn't have before and several directories that I didn't have before (including the INC subdirectory with all of the files.) I also didn't have the editor before, but I do now. Hopefully, everything now works better including the "DEBUG_MODE" command. I'm creating a small test league now.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

The game didn't even install itself in the same directory.. this time it installed in a directory titled sports interactive instead of a sega folder. Very interesting.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I may have solved my problem... I uninstalled FM2005. I also deleted my hockey demo (I never got into it long enough to purchase the full version) and I deleted the SEGA folder. Then, I rebooted. Then, I reinstalled the game. I have many different files that I didn't have before and several directories that I didn't have before (including the INC subdirectory with all of the files.) I also didn't have the editor before, but I do now. Hopefully, everything now works better including the "DEBUG_MODE" command. I'm creating a small test league now.

Hope it works for you.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Dola -

The game didn't even install itself in the same directory.. this time it installed in a directory titled sports interactive instead of a sega folder. Very interesting.

Very interesting, this time it installed to a directory, last time a folder. Hmm, interesting, but what does it MEAN?

[Axxon]

Dola,

forgot to add dola to my last post.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Axxon

Very interesting, this time it installed to a directory, last time a folder. Hmm, interesting, but what does it MEAN?

[Eaglesfan27]

YES!!! The "DEBUG_MODE" worked! Perhaps this information will help some of the other people who were having trouble with it. Make sure the editor was installed when you installed the game. It makes sense the editor would be needed to make the init.cfg file work properly. As far as why my game didn't install it the first time, I can only speculate that maybe the hockey game somehow interfered with the installation. Only after I deleted it, did FM install everything it was supposed to.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

YES!!! The "DEBUG_MODE" worked! Perhaps this information will help some of the other people who were having trouble with it. Make sure the editor was installed when you installed the game. It makes sense the editor would be needed to make the init.cfg file work properly. As far as why my game didn't install it the first time, I can only speculate that maybe the hockey game somehow interfered with the installation. Only after I deleted it, did FM install everything it was supposed to.

Sounds like the Hockey Game needs to be sent to the penalty box.

Strange, I have the demo installed for the hockey game and still, my install went fine. Maybe the cd wasn't burned perfectly or possibly your cd drive needs cleaning?

[Eaglesfan27]

Perhaps the CD wasn't burned perfectly, or perhaps the drive wasn't cleaned. I know that all of my other installs recently (2 games in the last month [1 in the last 4 days] went smoothly.) In any case, I'm just glad that it finally works. Now, I just need to prevent myself from becoming too attached to my team/career before the patch arrives

[GoldenEagle]

When is the next patch due out?

[Eaglesfan27]

No set date, but it was reported on the 17th that it would be weeks and not months. I'm hoping (with no indication from the developers) that it will be out by Thanksgiving.

[GoldenEagle]

There is already one out though right?

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

There is already one out though right?

Nope.

[GoldenEagle]

Oh, that sucks.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

Oh, that sucks.

I'm curious why you'd say this. Is there a specific bug that you thought was already fixed or is it simply a bias against unpatched games?

Some games surprisingly really don't need patches and while this game isn't one of those games, it's really more of a nitpicky grab bag of issues that most are complaining about ( MLS aside ) and the game is quite enjoyable despite them.

Am I looking forward to the issues being addressed? Sure.

Will the game be better when they're addressed? Yep.

Does it suck that they haven't put out an interim patch to cover some of the stuff while they're working on the rest? Not really, unless they would be fixing the MLS and I really don't expect that until the USA release. It wouldn't be worth the multiple career restarts for the value of the possible fixes at this point IMHO. Do it all at one time and do it right.

It is worth noting that this is the first time in a long time that SIGames hasn't had a patch on the first day of release which shouldn't be taken as a sign of failure. This game was more ready out of the box than CM3 or CM4.

[GoldenEagle]

No, just tohught it was already out. That why I said sucks. I do not have the game yet, should have it by tommorow.

[jbmagic]

what is the "DEBUG_MODE"? what does it do?

[Eaglesfan27]

"DEBUG_MODE" allows you to see your chairman's profile (mainly to see if it is working) and it will allow players to do negative things (such as flip off the fans or leave the team without absence more often.) It will also allow your scouts to give honest assessments of players including negative comments.

[Chief Rum]

Well, at least it worked for one of us.

I did everything listed above, and cleared out all signs of the EHM demo and any past FM demos. I uninstalled and reinstalled the game, and the editor is up and working. Then I used the init.cfg file that Eaglesfan sent me. No dice.

I think, though, one of the problems is that I needed to save the file from my Hotmail account, because of the way that email browser does attachments. Meaning, my stupid computer OS was involved again in what this file is (since I had to save it to download it).

I need someone who has a init file that has a working "DEBUG_MODE" and can upload it to a link from which I can directly download it. I can't use Hotmail as a go-between. I need to get the file completely unchanged or affected by my computer whatsoever, simply downloaded and added to the folder.

So if anyone has a "DEBUG_MODE" file they know works and has space to upload it, please post here (or post a link here).

Thanks again. I really want to get this going (and this is absolutely beyond frustrating).

CR

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

How's the rest of the game going for people? That was a pretty long list of bugs outside of MLS.

There is a very long changelist for the patch - however the majority of tweaks are fairly 'minor' and the majority of people would never notice them if they weren't fixed, however we're perfectionists and want to get things as close to 100% perfect as possible.

There are also a number of items present in the changelist which aren't 'fixes', such as the additional pictures etc. - these simply weren't supplied by the club in question in time for release and we've obtained these since the Gold master date.

Hope this helps,

Marc

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by Axxon

It is worth noting that this is the first time in a long time that SIGames hasn't had a patch on the first day of release which shouldn't be taken as a sign of failure. This game was more ready out of the box than CM3 or CM4.

This is probably why SI was rather peeved at having to move their release date up.

As an aside, agreed with the stuff you said.

[andy m]

Marc, i was wondering why you can view leagues lower than the Northern & Southern conference in the editor (e.g. the Isthsmian league) yet these are not available in the game? is it just so that the game can promote teams to the Northen & Southern conferences?

a hope of mine is to see these leagues in the full game some day, so that it would be possible to start even lower in the english pyramid