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

[SirFozzie]

Wow. Big news from SI today:

http://community.sigames.com/showthr...61#post7066361

Before I start talking about what has changed and been added in this years game scouting wise, I have an announcement to make.

(drum roll please). Football Manager 2012 now has a provisional release date!
No longer just “before Xmas 2012” as we’d previously announced, but we’re working around the clock to be able to release the game on Friday, October 21st.

Just five and a half weeks away! Nice..

Let's see, this week's blog has to do with scouting and how it's been revamped:

Can get a team report (including your own) for any team in the game by asking a scout to look them over:

Shows:

Top three players at each position (and star rating for each) in a general screen

You can break this down by individual position, you select the position and it will show you all the players who can play that position and their rating.

When looking at your own team, you can ask for a breakdown on how the position ranks amongst the teams in your division

A break down of what tactics you've played, how often, and how well you've done with each tactic.

A break down of what kind of goals you're scoring or being scored on, when in the match the goals came from and from where)

Now you don't have to send specific people to scout players, you can just request a report on a player from a member of your scouting pool, and it will assign someone to it.

So you've scanned that 16 year old Brazillian Wonderkid, and you get the notice he's turned 18 and you want to go purchase him? Well, under the new options, if you haven't scouted an obscure person for a while, their stats slowly become hidden again as you lose knowledge..

[SirFozzie]

Another blog coming tomorrow apparently.. no word on what it's on..

[SirFozzie]

Also from the first week of FM Preview podcasts (nicked this from the FM thread on SA)


Entertainment factor is now calculated by the match engine - match feedback now contains feedback about the entertainment levels of the game
Supported types are modelled, with Loyalty, Passion, Affluence, Temperment and Patience influencing their behaviour
Improved animation for contact points for kicking a medium-height ball
Multi-box class has been re-factored
Calender time-bar now shows previous results rather than just fixtures
When asking for a new contract, trophies and allowing time to see through youth movement can be discussed
When a new stadium is built, there is an 'expected attendence' field which can increase attendences more realistically

[RPI-Fan]

Thanks for compiling this; keep the updates coming please! Do you know when the demo would be released for a 10/21 release? Last bought FM 10, so will look forward to picking up FM 12 for sure.

What were the biggest improvements from FM 10 to FM 11?

[DaddyTorgo]

Fuck you Foz - I already made a FM 2012 thread like...two/three weeks ago. Use the search button

[sovereignstar v2]

Didn't really mind the pre-Xmas release date. Now I know the game will be in a sad state on release date as usual.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Didn't really mind the pre-Xmas release date. Now I know the game will be in a sad state on release date as usual.

Well that's overstating things IMO. Usually comes out in a good, playable state. Very few (if any) "gamebreaking" bugs - especially when compared to say Madden or NCAA or anything. And the bugs there might be are usually taken care of quite quickly.

[thesloppy]

Last year's game was pretty much solid on release, wasn't it? I'm still playing the release day version, 'cause I didn't want to start a new career, and that's certainly never happened before.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Fuck you Foz - I already made a FM 2012 thread like...two/three weeks ago. Use the search button

And I started one before you. I think there was one other as well. Must be a pretty good game to have four threads over a month before it even comes out.

[SirFozzie]

Today's thread deals with Tactics revamp.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Just saw that FM 2012 is up for pre-purchase on Steam. Any chance of a pre-purchase package that I should wait on or just go ahead and buy the thing?

Marc, I'm looking at you..........

[SirFozzie]

This one is aimed more at newer players, with video tutorials for new features and new players in FM2012:

[AlexB]

Marc - next year just get Miles to spend the money for Angelos Epithemiou to do the videos

[DaddyTorgo]

Seriously...my thread was much better Foz.

*KEELS YOU DEAD*

[SirFozzie]

It's a free market, DT. People preferred my thread to yours

[SirFozzie]

Today's thread: Youth team revamps:

You'll now get a "youth candidates" squad near the end of the season. These players are considered trialists, and play with the youth team in some end of season games. They also will play a game against the youth team. The assistant and your coaches will give you scouting reports on all the players, so you can decide who to sign. Players who are not signed get released after a few weeks. (you can set the assistant to automatically offer suitable candidates youth contracts if you don't desire that much control

If you need to save money, you can even ask the board to scrap your youth system entirely. They may or may not go along with it (if the club is deep in the red, you have a better chance)

Newgens have been tweaked, to make it better and more flavorful (Brazillian wingers are more likely to have high flair for example, and spanish players are more likely to be comfortable playing a short passing game, those are the two examples in the blog)

They've also made tweaks in not just tweaking pulls from your local area, but from your club's recruitment area (for example, if you're heavily invested in overseas recruiting, some of your newgens will be from that area, and have that region's "flavor")

[Barkeep49]

What's recruitment area refer to? The area where you can scout? So if as an EPL team I've made a heavy commitment to South American scouting (which I have) I'm more likely to get pulls from there?

[SirFozzie]

It refers to your youth recruitment rating (which is seperate from youth facilities as of FM11). Basically, the better the youth recruitment network is built up, the better your newgens will be when they first appear. (the youth facilities affects how they improve once they get there)

[TroyF]

Steam now has the game for preorder (39.99)

[riz]

Probably worth mentioning that your scouting knowledge also has an effect on where your foreign newgens come from, if your recruitment is good enough to get them. The chances for a foreign newgen to come into your youths from one of nations you have full knowledge of is naturally greater than nations you don't know so well.

[DaddyTorgo]

*keels you dead Foz*

[Glengoyne]

All right I'm just now building a new computer, and figure that an FM upgrade is in order. I've been playing 2009, and am wondering if I should bite the bullet and snap up 2012 on pre-order or if I should just grab the $19 bargain that is FM2011 right now?

Any big changes or killer features that will sway me?

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

All right I'm just now building a new computer, and figure that an FM upgrade is in order. I've been playing 2009, and am wondering if I should bite the bullet and snap up 2012 on pre-order or if I should just grab the $19 bargain that is FM2011 right now?

Any big changes or killer features that will sway me?

2012 all the way.

2012 will add the ability to add/remove leagues to your playable universe on-the-fly, rather than having to do it all at once. Just for starters. There's more of course, but that alone might sway a lot of folks.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

2012 all the way.

2012 will add the ability to add/remove leagues to your playable universe on-the-fly, rather than having to do it all at once. Just for starters. There's more of course, but that alone might sway a lot of folks.

Ooh that is cool, and I see up above the bit about the revamped team report. That is pretty cool stuff, but being able to add a league on the fly is great. Earlier in an FM09 game I walked away from a job and took over a team that was languishing at the bottom of the table. I had elevated them to just above relegation when I realized that I didn't have any lower leagues activated. I was really worried about the outcome of the last game with only a one point lead.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

*keels you dead Foz*

A mod should just merge the threads.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

A mod should just merge the threads.

This would be the sensible solution. Especially since mine has the "Alright boyz" tag on it and I was intending for it to be the "one stop FM thread" for the year, both pre and post release.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

Ooh that is cool, and I see up above the bit about the revamped team report. That is pretty cool stuff, but being able to add a league on the fly is great. Earlier in an FM09 game I walked away from a job and took over a team that was languishing at the bottom of the table. I had elevated them to just above relegation when I realized that I didn't have any lower leagues activated. I was really worried about the outcome of the last game with only a one point lead.

Yeah - the team report bit is awesome too, and I'm really looking forward to that.

[I. J. Reilly]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

A mod should just merge the threads.

But this thread is so much better; we don't want that other one contaminating this one.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by I. J. Reilly

But this thread is so much better; we don't want that other one contaminating this one.

Lies.

[SirFozzie]

New stuff today:

"Non-Contract" Contracts (now before you say that's stupid, it's for lower level teams where you can give the player a salary, etcetera, but it's an "at-will" contract, meaning that the player can get signed away to a bigger club, but you can end it at any time as well.

signing on fees now get paid over the life of the contract, rather than all up front (and resigning a player is now a "Loyalty Bonus")

Contract Locks: Say that star player wants 15K when all you can give him is 12K, you can "lock" a part of the contract, meaning you can not/will not budge from that, and the agent will try to make the player happy to sign in different ways (for example, bigger signing on bonus, or a better bonus for first team appearances). Makes contract negotiations easier.

Able to "re-open" contract negotiations, even after a tentative offer has been accepted (let's say you're a mid range team, and you offer a free transfer X amount of money, and then the top team in your division makes an offer, and you know you'll significantly have to up the offer to get him to sign.

New clause: % increase in pay after a certain amount of international caps (yes, not only might your precious player get injured while playing for someone other than you, the person who pays his salary, then the greedy SOB wants more money for having done so!)

Players more likely to ask for mutual termination after relegation or near the end of their contracts and transfer listed.

Players can be issued ultimatums in the final year of their contract to sign or they'll be put on the transfer list (yay), and now you can tell a player in a conversation why he's being listed (Somehow I don't think "Cuz you're a whinging arsefaced rat" will be in there)

Agents are smartened up, if you suggest you need help at striker, for example, agents will ping you with more "Buy my player" messages for their strikers

and a revamp of the transfer centre screen.

[Barkeep49]

That contract stuff is really exciting to me. My plan had been to keep with 11 until summer when I could get 12 cheaply. Now as I get excited reading this thread I wonder if I'll be able to hold out.

[DaddyTorgo]

Holy crap - is this true MV?

Make no mistake, if a quarter of the people that usually pirate the game switch to purchasing Football Manager 2012, the sales of the game worldwide would more than double.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Holy crap - is this true MV?

In a word - "Yes" ... piracy sucks basically.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

In a word - "Yes" ... piracy sucks basically.

Hot damn. That's nuts.

I liked my post in that thread.

I love Steam. I have copies of FM installed on both my laptop at home and my work computer. I save my savegames to my dropbox folder (and backup to my HD). That way I can play FM from home or from the office on my lunchbreak/after hours if I'm hanging around the office. These whiners don't understand what they're missing (or IMO and probably more likely, a number of them are disgruntled pirates).

Would be best if you could link the sigames forums to people's Steam accounts - then only legitimate purchasers could participate in discussions there.

[SirFozzie]

I wonder if this is an argument to go Steam-only,. at least there you have the Steamworks DRM that works yet is relatively unobtrusive to the legitimate owner (then again, that's US centric thinking, right?)_

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

I wonder if this is an argument to go Steam-only,. at least there you have the Steamworks DRM that works yet is relatively unobtrusive to the legitimate owner (then again, that's US centric thinking, right?)_

I only play PC games on Steam for the most part. There's a few sports sims from places like Wolverine that I also play, but I'd agree that it's the least intrusive and it's nice to be able to play all your games on any computer at any time. Always seem to have great deals as long as your patient (not a problem for me with two young kids that limit my game time).

[SirFozzie]

and it looks like you will indeed have to use Steam to play FM2012 this year (or more accurately, at least activate it through Steam).

A Message On Football Manager 2012 Activation

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

and it looks like you will indeed have to use Steam to play FM2012 this year (or more accurately, at least activate it through Steam).

A Message On Football Manager 2012 Activation

The bitching and moaning in that thread is fantastic (for all the wrong reasons).

1. Most all people will be able to activate the game just fine.

2. I can't imagine a situation where if someone had an issue, that SI wouldn't assist the user in getting it resolved. I've always received great customer service from both SI and Steam.

[SirFozzie]

Yeah, the "U RUINED IT FOREVAR IM LEAVIN" is just way too funny.

[SackAttack]

Since this thread is top of mind and the FM11 one isn't, can anybody tell me what the 'X' means when the game is displaying recent form while it simulates?

I'm thinking D = draw where you come from behind, and X = draw where the other side does so. How far off am I?

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Since this thread is top of mind and the FM11 one isn't, can anybody tell me what the 'X' means when the game is displaying recent form while it simulates?

I'm thinking D = draw where you come from behind, and X = draw where the other side does so. How far off am I?

"D"is a nil-nil draw.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

"D"is a nil-nil draw.

Thanks.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Just took the plunge. Pre-purchased on Steam. No option to load yet. I guess it's not quite done.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Since this thread is top of mind and the FM11 one isn't, can anybody tell me what the 'X' means when the game is displaying recent form while it simulates?

I'm thinking D = draw where you come from behind, and X = draw where the other side does so. How far off am I?

D is a 0-0 draw, X = score draw.

The reason for the difference in designation is that these originate from the 'Football Pools' which is a form of predictive gambling in the UK where you try and predict soccer results.

(most common is trying to spot so many home wins out of 'x' selected or so many score draws)

[Qrusher14242]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

and it looks like you will indeed have to use Steam to play FM2012 this year (or more accurately, at least activate it through Steam).

A Message On Football Manager 2012 Activation

i dont mind using steam as an option, but forcing people to install and use steam is not cool. All this will do is force people who don't want to use steam to piracy.

Also, using steam will make piracy easier, since its the easiest form of DRM to crack. Deus EX HR was cracked very quickly and you don't have to use Steam at all if you get the pirated version(You also don't get the ingame ads that you get with the bought version).

Again, i use steam and like it, but i see this as first step toward worse DRM(like with Settlers 7 where you have to stay connected to the internet at all times).

They make some good points against steam too:

No more picking and choosing what patch you want(like if i wanted to stay with patch 11.2 cause of some bug in 11.3, i couldn't do that with the steam version)

No more selling the game on ebay when i'm done with it.

Offline mode does not work good at all. If my internet connection goes out(which it does a lot), it's very hard to get it into offline mode. I have to basically plan to stay in offline mode before hand. If its in the middle of an update and my internet goes out, i'm out of luck.


I would of liked them to go with something like Impulse. Much better than Steam

[klayman]

Originally Posted by Qrusher14242

No more picking and choosing what patch you want(like if i wanted to stay with patch 11.2 cause of some bug in 11.3, i couldn't do that with the steam version)

This is not correct. Every game has an option to not apply automatic updates. FM is no different.

[Qrusher14242]

well you once you update to the newest patch, you can't go back to the previous patch. If i have patch 2 installed and install patch 3, but find out its riddled with bugs, i can't reinstall and go back to patch 2 like i could before.

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by Qrusher14242

i dont mind using steam as an option, but forcing people to install and use steam is not cool. All this will do is force people who don't want to use steam to piracy.

Also, using steam will make piracy easier, since its the easiest form of DRM to crack. Deus EX HR was cracked very quickly and you don't have to use Steam at all if you get the pirated version(You also don't get the ingame ads that you get with the bought version).

Again, i use steam and like it, but i see this as first step toward worse DRM(like with Settlers 7 where you have to stay connected to the internet at all times).

They make some good points against steam too:

No more picking and choosing what patch you want(like if i wanted to stay with patch 11.2 cause of some bug in 11.3, i couldn't do that with the steam version)

No more selling the game on ebay when i'm done with it.

Offline mode does not work good at all. If my internet connection goes out(which it does a lot), it's very hard to get it into offline mode. I have to basically plan to stay in offline mode before hand. If its in the middle of an update and my internet goes out, i'm out of luck.


I would of liked them to go with something like Impulse. Much better than Steam

remember past years when you had to play with the disc in? Or SecuROM, or (shudder) Starforce), Steam is the lightest DRM there is.

[Blade6119]

I love steam, I simply dont understand people who dont...