Football Manager 2014 - Full Game Out Now!

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by Jon

How do I change the attribute bars back to the numerical ratings?

I don't know how I changed it in the first place, and can't change it back.

In preferences somewhere. What you're looking for is something you check regarding "graphical representation" of attributes. I believe you'd be unchecking it.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Yeah, I get the same thing. Field a small number of new players, and all of a sudden your tactical knowledge just plummets. Rather annoying.

LOL, how hard is it for them to learn "kick the ball very hard, and then run after it very hard"?

[Coffee Warlord]

Well, they apparently get confused easily when I remind them they are supposed to kick the ball towards either a teammate or the opponent's goal. Apparently that's just too much for them.

[flere-imsaho]

Well, that's what you get for valuing physical attributes so highly to the exclusion of, say, mental attributes.

Frankly, I think you should be happy that they're able to put on their kit before matches.

[Coffee Warlord]

I'll have you know at least 3 of my regular 11 can read and write at an 8th grade level!

Coach Rob don't need no nerds on his squad. He needs motherfuckers.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Jon

How do I change the attribute bars back to the numerical ratings?

I don't know how I changed it in the first place, and can't change it back.

Under the FM menu, preferences, then interface tab. Then player screen area and uncheck, display attributes as a bar chart instead of 1-20.

[vex]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Yeah, I get the same thing. Field a small number of new players, and all of a sudden your tactical knowledge just plummets. Rather annoying.

Same thing for me. Added a new Left Fullback and Left Winger during the offseason. Somehow the rest of the squad that has been playing together for 3 years suddenly doesn't understand the same tactics that we've always ran.

[MrBug708]

It's kind of understandable. The left side doesn't know where they need to be and so the knowledgable players pass the ball to where they think the players should be and they aren't there

[Coffee Warlord]

BTW, how do you guys handle training? For the first several seasons, I just let my assistant deal with it. I finally looked a little more closely, and my assistant basically was doing the same team training focus for all eternity, on 'very light' workload. Total waste.

I've cranked it up to medium workloads, but let my assistant pick the individual training setups. See how much of a difference it makes.

[vex]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

It's kind of understandable. The left side doesn't know where they need to be and so the knowledgable players pass the ball to where they think the players should be and they aren't there

Makes sense.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I've cranked it up to medium workloads, but let my assistant pick the individual training setups. See how much of a difference it makes.

In news that should make you happy I hear that they're going to add a checkbox under training called "also do 3 hours of wind sprints daily".

[Fidatelo]

There should be a training option for "Burpees" and that's just all the players do. They wouldn't necessarily be the best soccer players but shit they'd be fit.

[vex]

Can a language barrier have anything to do with a lack of tactical knowledge? For instance, my DL is from Cameroon and my LW is Ukranian. We play in Italy, but only 2/11 starters are from Italy.

[SirFozzie]

Tactic Knowledge is something that can only come from repetition, especially in certain central positions. The tactic may say "When in X position in Z Circumstances, pass it to Y on the flank"... but until you've played with a person enough to instinctively KNOW where he's going to be if you kick it at a certain strength, you'll either have semi-inaccurate passing, or delays, as they take that extra second to confirm where your teammate is.

And yes, language barriers do play a part. When you can't understand your teammate saying "Watch the Overlap!".. you're most likely about to give up a chance on the overlap.

[MrBug708]

It's nice to have your stadium named after you

[flere-imsaho]

Grats, MrBug!

What were the particulars (like how long had you managed, how successful, how big an upgrade is the stadium, etc...)?

[nilodor]

So how much different is the game length between classic and regular mode?

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

It's nice to have your stadium named after you

Love when you hit that point. I'm hoping to get there soon with my Juventus team, although the stadium isn't exactly old, so we'll see.

[Arles]

Is there a good summary anywhere of the difference between FMC and regular mode?

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Grats, MrBug!

What were the particulars (like how long had you managed, how successful, how big an upgrade is the stadium, etc...)?

I've had it happen to me once before (A new stadium) but it was named after Frank Lampard.

I'm currently at Crystal Palace and am on a run of like 7 premier league titles. They managed to accept my desire to bring in a new stadium and it's a shade below 50,000 in attendance. Our first CL game there doubled our previous amount. I'm a legend here and our value is 1.78 (just behind PSG)

Side note - Don't scan your computer registries with the game open. Goodbye history...

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by Arles

Is there a good summary anywhere of the difference between FMC and regular mode?

Training, media interactions and a lot of the more... time intensive parts of FM are automated done without you.. instant result button becomes an option.

[Arles]

Do you guys play FMC or regular?

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Arles

Do you guys play FMC or regular?

I play regular. I like to watch my guys not follow my radically stupid tactics.

[flere-imsaho]

I play FMC. I'd love to play FM-full-fat, but I don't have that kind of time anymore. It's still plenty immersive to me, and I still get to buy and sell players, set up tactics, watch and manage games - the important stuff (to me).

Here are some differences:

• No more player interaction, including team talks. These always amounted to "small nudges" in performance, to me, so I haven't missed them much, and they make matches (in particular) move much faster.
• No more media interaction. Not entirely true as before/after big games and after making a significant signing they'll ask you one question, but it's waaaaaaaaaaaaay less, and not a big loss to me.
• No more individual training. Yes, you can no longer min-max the development of a player, but frankly I don't care. It also appears to me that the player will get developed in the direction of the role in which you're playing him (i.e. Ball-Winning Midfielder, Central Defender, etc...), which is all I really wanted anyway.
• You can instantly sim matches if you want (and set up "match plans" for your assistant to use during that match, if you want). I only use this for friendlies, but it's a HUGE plus, as I hated scheduling 4-6 pre-season friendlies and then having to manage them all.
• Your only staff are Director of Football (who you can ask to sign / sell / release players, or not use at all), Assistant Manager (who offers some advice and apparently has some effect on training effectiveness), Head Physio (obvious), Chief Scout (obvious) and Head of Youth Development (also probably obvious). With this you get rid of all the guessing on coaches & training, and you can't min-max scouting any more (which always annoyed me), so no big loss, again, to me.

I think those are the big points. Oh, and Match Preparation no longer matters, which is kinda nice.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Okay, ineffective manager question time..

Just had a great run in my FM 2012 dynasty with Blyth -- 16 games unbeaten over two seasons -- probably my longest run ever. Now the streak is over and we look on the verge of starting on my real trademark: the prolonged winless streak.

I know that tactics seem to get stale, or you simply become too predictable & easier to handle, over time but what seems to work best to nip those bad runs in the bud? Is it a matter of tactics uber alles? Is there something else equally important*?

*Let's assume that I'm tweaking the lineup in a fairly normal manner, watching for fitness, morale, performance, etc.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Okay, ineffective manager question time..

A few ideas for you, Jon:

1. There are times when the team hits a run of form together, and there are times when they fall out of form together. Or the attack clicks but the defense doesn't (lots of high-scoring games) or vice versa (a lot of 0-1 losses). Assuming (per your post) that everyone is still playing (relatively) well, sometimes replacing a player or two for various matches can help to break up some of the monotony and kill the winless run.

2. See if you can compare current non-win games to previous win games, especially where the personnel (and even opponent) were the same. Look for things like who was producing the key passes, for instance, or just the number of passes. If teams are figuring out your tactic, exactly what are they doing to your tactic. Doing this first before actually changing your tactic is key.

3. The thing that happens to me most often is that I go from being a team everyone should rightly beat up on to a team everyone expects to struggle against. So I have a tactic (in the beginning) that's mainly based around defensive solidity. Later, some of that defensive solidity needs to be sacrificed to open up the attack. To gauge this, try to determine how much you've changed (as a threat) in the eyes of your opponents (odds are the starting point, but also look at how they line up against you, how they play, etc...).

Good luck!

[Scoobz0202]

Question. I have casually played FM many times but for one reason or another I never stuck to it. I am playing FMC. Playing as Chelsea as I read elsewhere for somebody not too familiar with the game (both video and real) it is recommended to play a good, rich club to get a feel for the game. Played one season and won the Premier by one point in the 83rd minute of the final game. Was tense. So I am now starting the off-season and I have a couple questions related to signing/releasing players.

1.) What is the best way to offload players in the game. Is Transfer Listing players all you simply have to do or is that not really effective. Do you aggressively use the Offer Player to Clubs thing, as in every day? Some players I am planning on getting rid of are decent youth guys who I should get a bite, players like Petr Cech who should draw plenty of attention, David Luiz as well, but then there are players like Ashley Cole whose wages and age may make it harder, or players like Torres and Ba who didn't play but a few appearances (or 0 for Ba) who I probably should have tried to offload from the get go. Who the fuck will buy Torres with his high wages and being 30.

2.) At which point do you just offer somebody on a free transfer instead of hoping you get paid.

e: Oh and something kinda of related but not really. I play with wages being annual instead of weekly. Probably because as an American sports follower it just seemed weird to see weekly wages and I couldn't really put in context what was high and low. That doesn't change anything, right? As it is just a different way of viewing the same information.

[Marmel]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

Question. I have casually played FM many times but for one reason or another I never stuck to it. I am playing FMC. Playing as Chelsea as I read elsewhere for somebody not too familiar with the game (both video and real) it is recommended to play a good, rich club to get a feel for the game. Played one season and won the Premier by one point in the 83rd minute of the final game. Was tense. So I am now starting the off-season and I have a couple questions related to signing/releasing players.

1.) What is the best way to offload players in the game. Is Transfer Listing players all you simply have to do or is that not really effective. Do you aggressively use the Offer Player to Clubs thing, as in every day? Some players I am planning on getting rid of are decent youth guys who I should get a bite, players like Petr Cech who should draw plenty of attention, David Luiz as well, but then there are players like Ashley Cole whose wages and age may make it harder, or players like Torres and Ba who didn't play but a few appearances (or 0 for Ba) who I probably should have tried to offload from the get go. Who the fuck will buy Torres with his high wages and being 30.

2.) At which point do you just offer somebody on a free transfer instead of hoping you get paid.

e: Oh and something kinda of related but not really. I play with wages being annual instead of weekly. Probably because as an American sports follower it just seemed weird to see weekly wages and I couldn't really put in context what was high and low. That doesn't change anything, right? As it is just a different way of viewing the same information.

I am playing FMC and I am far from an expert, but I have had great success playing in the top flight of various countries.

1) I make extensive use of offer to clubs. I'll start with a price I would like to get and if no offers come in, I'll keep lowering it maybe every week or so until I either reach a point where I would just as well keep them or go all the way down to $0.

Older players with high wages are tough to unload. Often times you are either stuck with that player until the contract runs out or once in a while somebody will take them but you have to pick up a portion of their wages until their contract runs out. If I'm stuck with them and they are totally useless I just put them in the reserves.

Also, I use annual wages and I don't see a diff.

[DaddyTorgo]

Annual vs. weekly wages - I'm the same way. I can't conceptualize them on a weekly basis.

[PilotMan]

Lol, weekly is the only way to go.

[Mota]

I'd like an option to NOT do the tactics, but keep all the other details. I liked the media interaction and player interaction, but I don't know anything about football so I always get smoked trying to figure out counter attacks and all that stuff. Let my assistant do that, I play more as the "GM" type role and I would play the game a hell of a lot more.

[PilotMan]

I play full-fat and love it. The pace is perfect for immersion and the amount of details keeps me locked in. I find when I play FM handheld that while fun, it's just not all there for me.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Using dollar (regardless of location) and weekly has clicked with me pretty well. When a big contract is $600/wk and your entire wage budget is $8k then it seem to be pretty understandable for me. Not sure how well I'd handle 8 figure budget and 6 figure weekly salaries though.

[JonInMiddleGA]

While I'm in this thread ... what's the big differences I should prepare for between FM12 (where I'm enjoying a revived dynasty) and FM14 (which is bought but not even d'loaded yet)?

I think I've gathered the mods expand some leagues with more depth, obviously rosters are updated, I know there are a few new player roles added. But what else should I prepare for when the time comes?

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Mota

I'd like an option to NOT do the tactics, but keep all the other details. I liked the media interaction and player interaction, but I don't know anything about football so I always get smoked trying to figure out counter attacks and all that stuff. Let my assistant do that, I play more as the "GM" type role and I would play the game a hell of a lot more.

This. Totally this.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

And surprise! We will play Linfield in the Northern Irish Cup Semi-Final. I think it'll be the 34th time we've played them now. A good 10 times more than any other team.

And surprise again! In addition to the above, now we will play them in a home and away in the All-Ireland Cup Semi-Final. This means we will play 3 times in an 8 day span. Yippee. fuck me.

[Abe Sargent]

I loved the tactical aspects of FM14, btw.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

And surprise again! In addition to the above, now we will play them in a home and away in the All-Ireland Cup Semi-Final. This means we will play 3 times in an 8 day span. Yippee. fuck me.

Check that, we finished the first part of the regular season 1-2 so now in the 'late season' we play again. Make that 4 times in 10 days. Home, Away, Neutral, Home. And of course we are now 0-1-2 in our last 3 games.

Never have I seen anything like this in FM or Football or whatever. The number of times we have played is insane and the number of times we have played with something on the line is in-sane.

These will be meetings 35-38 in the series in 5.5 years. That's between 6 and 8 times per season! With our record a solid 9-8-17. That's 17 losses and a -13 GD.

[bbgunn]

I've been playing FMC, tried to go back to full-fat, and it was too slow for me. So FMC it is. FMC has really forced me to learn about setting up tactics and reading match engines, instead of relying on my team talks. I've become better at making strategies. And the game runs soooo much faster! I can do three or four matches in the time it takes me to do one or two.

What I am tired of, however, is the number of times I see my goalkeeper go to the side of the goal to retrieve an off-target shot, only to step over the goal line and concede a corner kick. This happens every game! Obvious bug.

[Brian Swartz]

I'd like an option to NOT do the tactics, but keep all the other details. I liked the media interaction and player interaction, but I don't know anything about football so I always get smoked trying to figure out counter attacks and all that stuff. Let my assistant do that, I play more as the "GM" type role and I would play the game a hell of a lot more.

There's a really good guide on the FM forums for setting up a basic tactical framework. I know very little about football but have managed to become competent in setting up reasonable tactics, though I'm still far from an expert.

I also would put in my .02 that I don't think this kind of suggestion would work particularly well, since a lot of signing/releasing/transferring players pretty much has to be done with tactics in mind IMO. If you don't understand your tactical setup, then how do you know if that star striker you just signed complements what your other attacking players can do, etc. Tactics are an important enough part of the game that I don't think you can be an effective manager in any part of the job without having some sense of them.

.02

[MrBug708]

I saw an odd guy on the field running out from behind the goalkeeper. Do fans run on the field?

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Never have I seen anything like this in FM or Football or whatever. The number of times we have played is insane and the number of times we have played with something on the line is in-sane.

Barca & Real tend to play each other an unreasonable amount of times at the end of each season between CL, La Liga and Copa del Rey.

Every other year or so it happens in the EPL with two teams playing each other in the league and/or FA Cup and/or Europe in close succession.

Happened all the time to Rangers & Celtic in Scotland.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

I saw an odd guy on the field running out from behind the goalkeeper. Do fans run on the field?

Well, they simulate fans lighting flares in the stadium, so....

[Easy Mac]

For USA soccer fans, I somehow lucked into editing the American leagues to get them in the correct order. Normally, The PDL is hard coded as the second level, but I was somehow able to move the NASL and USL ahead of them through an editor glitch.

I've run the leagues for a decade and haven't noticed anything wrong, yet. Still not 100% accurately reproduced. The NASL plays a spring/fall schedule, but I'm not entirely certain how to set that up yet (I guess I need to have it do subdivisions, 1 for each season?). Also, Given the dates the PDL run, I can't figure out how to have a playoff that ends before the USA reset date. I'm thinking I need to end each subdivision early so that matches are played more often, that way the playoffs are earlier.

I've also started to dabble in an NCAA league, but I'm not sure that will happen since there's 20 some-odd conferences. I'm also not sure if it would work well with the transfer structure in FM. I'm mostly done setting up the ACC and might see how that runs before adding any more conferences.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

There's a really good guide on the FM forums for setting up a basic tactical framework. I know very little about football but have managed to become competent in setting up reasonable tactics, though I'm still far from an expert.

I also would put in my .02 that I don't think this kind of suggestion would work particularly well, since a lot of signing/releasing/transferring players pretty much has to be done with tactics in mind IMO. If you don't understand your tactical setup, then how do you know if that star striker you just signed complements what your other attacking players can do, etc. Tactics are an important enough part of the game that I don't think you can be an effective manager in any part of the job without having some sense of them.

.02

I don't mind needing to understand what type of tactic my coach is running, I just wish he could choose the tactic and then I could go research it. I feel like it could be handled with some kind of meeting when either I am hired or I hire a new coach. He could ask a small series of questions about what type of team I'd like to see which could then lead him to pick a tactic and assign my players to the positions and roles. Then I could read up on that specific tactic and understand what it's trying to accomplish (would be even awesomer if this could be in-game but I don't mind hitting the internet for that).
Once I feel I know the basics of the tactic then I can analyse my team and figure out if I need to make any acquisitions or whatnot to improve certain areas.

I think the key to what I'm trying to get at above is that currently I feel like I might have a perfectly well constructed team but for whatever reason the tactic I've chosen just doesn't work, or needs specific marking instructions to work, or needs half-time adjustments that I don't know to make, etc. I'd like to feel like that stuff is all being handled and that if I do my job of providing quality players then things will work out. Or if they don't and I strongly feel like I've provided good quality players then I can fire that coach and bring in someone else.

[Alan T]

I'm not sure if what you are looking for is 100% in the game, but there are pieces of it available already.

At the start of each season, if you have a coach meeting, they will give you a list of 1 to 3 formations that are suggested for your current players. You can then choose one of those base package formations that are already defined in FM to start with.

Those formations generally won't have any specialized roles or instructions in them though. To be honest though, when you start with tactics, you are better off having too few special instructions than too many though so it probably would be a good start. Then during the games, your Assistant should be giving you observations that he notices such as players used to a faster tempo.. or they are missing too many easy passes (signifying a slower tempo is needed), or such that you can then slowly use to incorporate into your tactics if you see them as a repeatable thing.


Like I said not 100% what you are asking for, but maybe comes to 40-50% at least

[Arles]

Quick question on FMC. I've only played normal, but decided to start a new FMC league. I like the streamlined staff and training a lot (hated going micro on both areas), but it seems like I can only choose one tactic. I always liked to train up on 3 tactics (one normal, one underdog and one wild card). But, it seems like we can only put in one tactic (unless I am missing something). So, how does the game handle familiarity with tactics in FMC?

[PilotMan]

I'm pretty sure there aren't any. You can pick whichever tactic you want with no penalty.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I'm not sure if what you are looking for is 100% in the game, but there are pieces of it available already.

At the start of each season, if you have a coach meeting, they will give you a list of 1 to 3 formations that are suggested for your current players. You can then choose one of those base package formations that are already defined in FM to start with.

Those formations generally won't have any specialized roles or instructions in them though. To be honest though, when you start with tactics, you are better off having too few special instructions than too many though so it probably would be a good start. Then during the games, your Assistant should be giving you observations that he notices such as players used to a faster tempo.. or they are missing too many easy passes (signifying a slower tempo is needed), or such that you can then slowly use to incorporate into your tactics if you see them as a repeatable thing.


Like I said not 100% what you are asking for, but maybe comes to 40-50% at least

I've noticed those things, but there are two issues I have with them:

1) From what I've read, the assistants can't really be trusted. Maybe I'm wrong and I should just be trusting them, but I got the distinct impression that I should use them more as a heads up then as a guide. That's fine, so long as I know how to validate their assertions. Which I don't.

2) The entire 'during the games' process is exactly what I don't want to do. Even if you told me 'look you need to figure out on your own what tactic to set up' I'd probably be ok with that, but then when I need to micro-manage that tactic during each game based on what I see the little stick men doing I'm totally lost. I don't mind watching the stick-men, but I want my coach to figure out if they are doing the right things or if the tactic needs tweaking based on what's happening on the pitch.

Basically I want to be a GM, not a coach. Give me faith that if I have a good coach and I provide him with good players then things should trend positively. I don't get the impression that FM can let me be that hands off if I want any hope of succeeding.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Check that, we finished the first part of the regular season 1-2 so now in the 'late season' we play again. Make that 4 times in 10 days. Home, Away, Neutral, Home. And of course we are now 0-1-2 in our last 3 games.

Never have I seen anything like this in FM or Football or whatever. The number of times we have played is insane and the number of times we have played with something on the line is in-sane.

These will be meetings 35-38 in the series in 5.5 years. That's between 6 and 8 times per season! With our record a solid 9-8-17. That's 17 losses and a -13 GD.

Well game 1 didn't go according to plan. We went down 0-3 at home by halftime. A good halftime talk lifted the team though and we came back with a goal in the 48th and another in the 58th to go down by 1.

We made a couple of subs and went for broke and managed to get the tie in the 89th min and then struck for the winner at 90+1, about a minute before the game ended.

That puts us back in first with 4 games to play with a trip to the Champions League on the line. Next are the Cup games with Linfield.