Alright Boyz, Here We Go! The FM2008/WWSM2008 First Impressions Thread

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

FWIW, I'm working through the second shot at a PLA in Sweden, and I'm saving after every couple of steps, firing up the game, and verifying that Sweden loads. So far so good.

Cool. I messed around with some stuff earlier. I noticed in your earlier league, that the original Canadian leagues were still in Canada. But other than that, I couldn't get my league swaps to work either, though I didn't try very hard...because last year, the whole process made my head hurt and I just wasn't up for that today.

But I'm glad you're all over it.

[dacman]

OK, something is screwy with starting off unemployed in this version. My holiday finally stopped again when Recretivo offered (another La Liga team). I then saw that 2 jobs in Blue Square N/S were open, and had been for several days, and the "apply for job" button was still available. The holiday mode did not put in for these jobs for some reason -- jobs that are much more realistic for a "sunday league footballer," unless that doesn't mean what I think it does. Maybe I'll try automatic experience next time.

[cougarfreak]

When you guys say PLA, I'm assuming you mean a way to organize a countries soccer like the English Football leagues I'm assuming, with promotions, correct? Sorry, I'm out of the loop, I haven't played since '05 edition. And if you do find a way, will it be made downloadable?

[cubboyroy1826]

Hey guys can anyone send me to a site that kinda explains the whole UEFA football setup?

[highfiveoh]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uefa

Check the links at the bottom for more info on the Champions League and UEFA cup.

[Izulde]

Icy,

Have you seen FM 2K8 at kiosks yet?

I asked the one guy at one of the larger kiosks in Granada and he had no idea what I was talking about.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Icy,

Have you seen FM 2K8 at kiosks yet?

I asked the one guy at one of the larger kiosks in Granada and he had no idea what I was talking about.

With my recent paternity i had no time to check it, but i see it for sale in the www.game.es website so for sure it is in their chain of games shops, i see there is one in Granada and it has FM in stock, here is the map to go there, as you can see it's pretty close to your residence:

http://www.game.es/tiendas/Tienda.aspx?l=041&sku=051443

[Toddzilla]

I'm gonna make the goddamned PLA work before the end of the week. Put it in the book.

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by highfiveoh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uefa

Check the links at the bottom for more info on the Champions League and UEFA cup.

Sports sims are screwing with my head too much. I clicked that link, then went to CONCACAF from there, and then clicked on the link talking about qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. I then started looking for who was qualified, and how could I have missed it, the World Cup is this year for crying out loud.

After several minutes of looking I realized it's not 2010, that is the season we just finished in the Imperial League (FOF MP league).

[Crapshoot]

Hey guys,
quick question - I'm jonesing for some FM, and I'm way too lazy to wait (and download the FM 2008 when it goes) - I'm just to buy WWSM 2008 (digital) right now. As it stands, just wanted to confirm the 3 things people have mentioned:

1) There's an editor included with the game
2) Other game content (skins, save game editors) should be able to work, as long as we change the .exe name from "wwsm" to "fm"
3) There's an option (as discussed earlier) for "English", as opposed to "American".

If anyone could confirm these, I'd be grateful.

[Big Fo]

I can confirm 1) and 3), people a few pages back posted that 2) was true as well for prior versions, but I don't know if any FM08 utilities are out yet to test.

[Crapshoot]

Thanks Big Fo.

Other fun now - I downloaded the Boonty installer, and it told me to turn off my firewall. I did so (Zone Alarm - I have the XP firewall off by default), and when I click "Buy it Now", it tells me that the "Connection Failed". I've tried restarting, nothing - I wonder if this is Comcrap (like with BitTorrent), but otherwise, its a hell of a bummer.

[highfiveoh]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Thanks Big Fo.

Other fun now - I downloaded the Boonty installer, and it told me to turn off my firewall. I did so (Zone Alarm - I have the XP firewall off by default), and when I click "Buy it Now", it tells me that the "Connection Failed". I've tried restarting, nothing - I wonder if this is Comcrap (like with BitTorrent), but otherwise, its a hell of a bummer.

There's another distributor you can use - Direct2Drive.

[Toddzilla]

So using the .edt file to swap teams seems for the PLA to work very well - I've tried it with the top two levels and all is good to a degree. You need to make sure you load all of the players from the U.S. or you'll get a team of scrubs.

Which brings me to an issue. For the teams that I have to create - the San Jose Earthquakes for example - they do not have a roster of players in the database. I assumed that in that case, the game would take the team's reputation and fill the roster accordingly. What is actually happening is that the teams w/o a roster in the db get their regen youth team as their active roster. Is there a way around that so I don't have to fill in the roster of 130 teams of varying levels?

Also, is there a workaround so that I get American regens and not Swedish? Languages seemingly have nothing to do with it.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Icy

With my recent paternity i had no time to check it, but i see it for sale in the www.game.es website so for sure it is in their chain of games shops, i see there is one in Granada and it has FM in stock, here is the map to go there, as you can see it's pretty close to your residence:

http://www.game.es/tiendas/Tienda.aspx?l=041&sku=051443

Awesome, thanks

I'll try and pick it up tonight, if it's not open when I head back.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I made the jump. Bought WWSM from Amazon. Really impressed that it was only $30.

[bulletsponge]

i also just ordered it from amazon. got the free shipping too since the patch wont be out for several weeks. cant wait to start my Carlisle career going

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by highfiveoh

There's another distributor you can use - Direct2Drive.

No luck. I submitted my order, and it told me it would take "additional time to process my order" - and that they would send me an email. I think the world is conspiring against me.

[Izulde]

Picked it up, but haven't cracked into it yet, cuz I was playing CK.

[Bee]

One of the things that annoys me a little is when the board complains about me needing to "justify" bringing someone in when they are actually just on loan and not costing us anything plus contributing to the team. Just sounds like the board is looking for something to complain about to me.

[MikeVick7]

So I may have missed it but is SI not offering the try before you buy option this year with the download? I know last year we could play for up to 6 months before having to purchase it. When I downloaded the installer this weekend it is telling me to buy before downloading.

[Ramzavail]

Originally Posted by MikeVick7

So I may have missed it but is SI not offering the try before you buy option this year with the download? I know last year we could play for up to 6 months before having to purchase it. When I downloaded the installer this weekend it is telling me to buy before downloading.

they have a gold demo.

[Toddzilla]

PLA-3 had been uploaded to rapidshare. I've changed the name of Sweden and the competitions and awards, created the level 2 and 3 American teams, and the .edt file to swap these teams into the Swedish structure.

Sweden will show up as U.S.A. in the country list, America as U.S. You'll need to load all players from the U.S. in order to get the MLS teams to populate, but the other teams still do not have any players, and the game isn't generating teams for them. Also, the regens are all straight outta Ikea.

Play around with this and I'll keep plugging.

hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/66107904/PLA-3.zip

[Big Fo]

Gah, beta patch still not out yet (for WWSM download version I mean). I want to wait for that to start season two of my career. I might start up another one just to screw around.

[GoDukes]

The graphics are a pain in in the ass for this edition, and I can't even edit the attributes colors

[gi]

Originally Posted by GoDukes

The graphics are a pain in in the ass for this edition, and I can't even edit the attributes colors

The white background is annoying to me, hoping there are some fan based skins that will help with it.

[Neuqua]

Just got mine in the mail today, going to wait for the first patch to get going.

[Leonidas]

I'm pretty steamed with their whole distribution on this version of the game. I'm US military deployed to Eastern Europe in a place the game is currently unavailable. There's no download option for me either. I posted about this on their webpage, which was followed by a bunch of other guys in a similar situation posting. We're being ignored. For the life of me I can't understand why they don't have a European download option and have shown zero concern for people's business they are losing because of it. Just bad business.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Leonidas

I'm pretty steamed with their whole distribution on this version of the game. I'm US military deployed to Eastern Europe in a place the game is currently unavailable. There's no download option for me either. I posted about this on their webpage, which was followed by a bunch of other guys in a similar situation posting. We're being ignored. For the life of me I can't understand why they don't have a European download option and have shown zero concern for people's business they are losing because of it. Just bad business.

I wonder if they could add the U.S. military IP address to the list of IP's that are allowed to download the North American version of the game? You would think that could be something that would fix the problem rather easily.

[cubboyroy1826]

Hey Sunny i finally picked up a copy of WWSM. I played around with the demo and wound up getting sucked in like you said i would.

I agree that the support and distribution sure doesn't seem to have been well thought out. The support and general discussion message boards are also terrible for help. I posted 2 weeks ago trying to get a license issue worked out and have yet to get an answer.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Leonidas

I'm pretty steamed with their whole distribution on this version of the game. I'm US military deployed to Eastern Europe in a place the game is currently unavailable. There's no download option for me either. I posted about this on their webpage, which was followed by a bunch of other guys in a similar situation posting. We're being ignored. For the life of me I can't understand why they don't have a European download option and have shown zero concern for people's business they are losing because of it. Just bad business.

I believe that this is to do with getting retail distribution accepted in some countries (ie. some of the marginal brick and mortar countries would simply not take the game if they felt they'd lose some of their sales to downloads in that area) - but bear in mind I'm not a business bod and don't know the ins and outs of things.

With regards to getting the game - I'd be surprised if one of the sites which does 'world-wide' delivery wouldn't post the game to you.

[Izulde]

Going to start up a dynasty sometime tonight, or at least hoping to.

[astrosfan64]

Marc:

Can you tell us what the deal is with the WWSM patch? Or at least tell your boys to update us on the beta patches for the download versions.

Marc Duffy posted twice. Once he said we would get a beta patch the other time he said we would have to wait for release.

We just really want to know.

I can't play the game untill the pressing issue is fixed and the disallowed goals. Oh and the MLS fixes are big for me also.

Communication is the key to success in any business. Normally you guys communicate pretty well, but this release and this patch sequence hasn't been very smooth for WWSM customers. I think the FM guys are pretty happy though and they are your main customers.

[ice4277]

I wanted to wait for the patch but couldn't stand staring at the box any longer. I'm starting a game now, and hoping that the major issues will be fixable without starting a new game.

[Toddzilla]

OK, I'm pretty much done with the PLA for a while. I've created all of the American teams, put an .edt together, and renamed the Swedish comps and awards. The issues which you may or may not care about are:

- all regens are Swedish.
- all teams except the former MLS teams have an empty roster which is not filled when the game starts. You need to load all players from the US to get the MLS guys.
- the top unplayable league is full of Swedish teams, so some will be promoted to the lowest playable division after year one.
- I haven't simmed at all, so this whole thing could crash for all I know.

I cannot get any information out of the SI forums for these issues, so I may go back and fill in some rosters, but that's over 100 teams.

hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/66344729/PLA-3.zip

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Oh, dear........the game just arrived. I'm not sure I'm patient enough to wait for a patch. Think I'll bust it open and give it a whirl.

[GoDukes]

Originally Posted by GoDukes

The graphics are a pain in in the ass for this edition, and I can't even edit the attributes colors

More: I can not even get the translucent jersey template thats behind me downloaded kits to work. It's so frustrating. I might just go back to 08. I feel so frustrated.

[Toddzilla]

ARGH!

Does anyone know what needs to be set so that the game will generate a roster based on reputation for a team with no players? I'm pretty sure I'm not dreaming this up, but the game is supposed to fill a roster with guys appropriate to the team's reputation if there are no players on the roster.

[Bea-Arthurs Hip]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

ARGH!

Does anyone know what needs to be set so that the game will generate a roster based on reputation for a team with no players? I'm pretty sure I'm not dreaming this up, but the game is supposed to fill a roster with guys appropriate to the team's reputation if there are no players on the roster.

Toddzilla - My experience in the past and currently with my Canadian Swap is that any team listed under *country* Lower Division will not generate players until they are "promoted" to a *country* third divison,etc... The division they are promoted to does not have to be playable it just has to be anything but "lower division".

Also, make sure you edit the teams in all lower divisions to have youth academys (low rated) and give them a little cash so that they can also purchase some players to fill out roster.

I will upload my Canadian League this weekend, I am having a blast with it.

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by Bea-Arthurs Hip

Toddzilla - My experience in the past and currently with my Canadian Swap is that any team listed under *country* Lower Division will not generate players until they are "promoted" to a *country* third divison,etc... The division they are promoted to does not have to be playable it just has to be anything but "lower division".

Also, make sure you edit the teams in all lower divisions to have youth academys (low rated) and give them a little cash so that they can also purchase some players to fill out roster.

I will upload my Canadian League this weekend, I am having a blast with it.

Thanks -- but what about higher level teams? For example, If I wanted to make the "Colossal Squids" in the MLS with a rep of 7000, I thought I could just leave the roster blank, and the game would generate a roster for them appropriate to the reputation. In practice for me it isn't working that way (the main roster gets filled with the youth team regens) so I don't know if thats just the way it is, or if I've missed something in creating the team to allow for a generated roster.)

[Bea-Arthurs Hip]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

Thanks -- but what about higher level teams? For example, If I wanted to make the "Colossal Squids" in the MLS with a rep of 7000, I thought I could just leave the roster blank, and the game would generate a roster for them appropriate to the reputation. In practice for me it isn't working that way (the main roster gets filled with the youth team regens) so I don't know if thats just the way it is, or if I've missed something in creating the team to allow for a generated roster.)

Okay, my Canadian league did not "generate" anyone either. They should have a few "youth" players but the game will not fill out any rosters. However, make sure you "load all players" from respective country. This will help with created clubs filling out their rosters with free transfers. When all is said and done the higher division teams should have 12-20 players before begining of league matches. The rest of the lower division teams will fill out over time.

Again, give all teams a decent amount of cash (I gave all premiere teams between 1mill & 200k based on reps) and make sure they have "youth academys" and they should fill out their rosters rather quickly.

For my league, I simmed ahead 3 years and everything looks great roster wise.

Hope this helps.

[Bea-Arthurs Hip]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

OK, I'm pretty much done with the PLA for a while. I've created all of the American teams, put an .edt together, and renamed the Swedish comps and awards. The issues which you may or may not care about are:

- all regens are Swedish.
- all teams except the former MLS teams have an empty roster which is not filled when the game starts. You need to load all players from the US to get the MLS guys.
- the top unplayable league is full of Swedish teams, so some will be promoted to the lowest playable division after year one.
- I haven't simmed at all, so this whole thing could crash for all I know.

I cannot get any information out of the SI forums for these issues, so I may go back and fill in some rosters, but that's over 100 teams.

hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/66344729/PLA-3.zip

I just caught this ..."all regens are Swedish" - This should not be happening. I will download yours tonight and look at. I will also upload my Canadian League for you to look at, as mine is working properly.

I know you are following Daves guide but basically all you have to do for the Swap to Work is , for example:

1. Change South African Leagues to Canadian and vice versa.
2. Move all South African Teams to Canadian unplayable league(s).
3. Move Canadain Teams to appropriate South African league(s).
4. Change all South African cup competitions to Canadian and vice versa.
5. Change TLA from South Africa (RSA) to CAN & vice versa.

I state "move" teams because there have been problems in the past with the "swap" feature which included the editor changing the TLA of the country with out you knowing.

The above will work with out flaw as long as the leagues both playable and unplayable have same # of teams prior to swap. This is where you may or may not have to create teams.

[Marc Duffy]

Originally Posted by Leonidas

I'm pretty steamed with their whole distribution on this version of the game. I'm US military deployed to Eastern Europe in a place the game is currently unavailable. There's no download option for me either. I posted about this on their webpage, which was followed by a bunch of other guys in a similar situation posting. We're being ignored. For the life of me I can't understand why they don't have a European download option and have shown zero concern for people's business they are losing because of it. Just bad business.

Firstly I can try to help you and I can also explain.

The situation you describe is not necessarily unique (in that you are from country X but based in country Y) but the basic digital operation is to restrict purchases to people whose IP matches one in the available country list ... which yours currently doesn't.

I've not seen your posting on your forums but I wouldn't want you to think you are being ignored - I hope you can see the issue.

That said, please email me directly and I'll see what I can do for you.

Marc

[Marc Duffy]

Originally Posted by cubboyroy1826

Hey Sunny i finally picked up a copy of WWSM. I played around with the demo and wound up getting sucked in like you said i would.

I agree that the support and distribution sure doesn't seem to have been well thought out. The support and general discussion message boards are also terrible for help. I posted 2 weeks ago trying to get a license issue worked out and have yet to get an answer.

Posted where? Can you email me a link please. I can sort these kind of things out for you (and if I can't I can push you to someone who can)

[Marc Duffy]

Originally Posted by astrosfan64

Marc:

Can you tell us what the deal is with the WWSM patch? Or at least tell your boys to update us on the beta patches for the download versions.

Marc Duffy posted twice. Once he said we would get a beta patch the other time he said we would have to wait for release.

We just really want to know.

I can't play the game untill the pressing issue is fixed and the disallowed goals. Oh and the MLS fixes are big for me also.

Communication is the key to success in any business. Normally you guys communicate pretty well, but this release and this patch sequence hasn't been very smooth for WWSM customers. I think the FM guys are pretty happy though and they are your main customers.

I communicated this on our forums already but there wont be a beta patch for WWSM you guys will get the final version though at the same time as the FM guys get it.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Marc Duffy

I communicated this on our forums already but there wont be a beta patch for WWSM you guys will get the final version though at the same time as the FM guys get it.

I'm sure it's nothing you haven't heard before, but I have to reiterate: there is absolutely zero incentive to ever buy WWSM over FM, aside from saving a few bucks. I understand the limitations you're under, but under no circumstances should ya'll be urging people on this side of the pond to order a version of your product that is less supported. If you want to expand the North American version of the game, you absolutely have to commit to supporting both versions equally, otherwise you have no business asking consumers to support it.

I've seen the level of support differ between versions for a couple releases now, and in my book, it's unacceptable, especially if you're trying to expand your market over here.

I apologize for bitching, and I honestly am not all that concerned with waiting for the real patch. But the impression of WWSM being a second-class citizen is there, and it's not a Good Thing.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I'm sure it's nothing you haven't heard before, but I have to reiterate: there is absolutely zero incentive to ever buy WWSM over FM, aside from saving a few bucks. I understand the limitations you're under, but under no circumstances should ya'll be urging people on this side of the pond to order a version of your product that is less supported. If you want to expand the North American version of the game, you absolutely have to commit to supporting both versions equally, otherwise you have no business asking consumers to support it.

I've seen the level of support differ between versions for a couple releases now, and in my book, it's unacceptable, especially if you're trying to expand your market over here.

I apologize for bitching, and I honestly am not all that concerned with waiting for the real patch. But the impression of WWSM being a second-class citizen is there, and it's not a Good Thing.

+1

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

So using the .edt file to swap teams seems for the PLA to work very well - I've tried it with the top two levels and all is good to a degree. You need to make sure you load all of the players from the U.S. or you'll get a team of scrubs.

Which brings me to an issue. For the teams that I have to create - the San Jose Earthquakes for example - they do not have a roster of players in the database. I assumed that in that case, the game would take the team's reputation and fill the roster accordingly. What is actually happening is that the teams w/o a roster in the db get their regen youth team as their active roster. Is there a way around that so I don't have to fill in the roster of 130 teams of varying levels?

Also, is there a workaround so that I get American regens and not Swedish? Languages seemingly have nothing to do with it.

Seems they've changed everything about how the editor worked last year. How frustrating.

[Young Drachma]

Or at least, what the end results are.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I'm sure it's nothing you haven't heard before, but I have to reiterate: there is absolutely zero incentive to ever buy WWSM over FM, aside from saving a few bucks. I understand the limitations you're under, but under no circumstances should ya'll be urging people on this side of the pond to order a version of your product that is less supported. If you want to expand the North American version of the game, you absolutely have to commit to supporting both versions equally, otherwise you have no business asking consumers to support it.

I've seen the level of support differ between versions for a couple releases now, and in my book, it's unacceptable, especially if you're trying to expand your market over here.

I apologize for bitching, and I honestly am not all that concerned with waiting for the real patch. But the impression of WWSM being a second-class citizen is there, and it's not a Good Thing.

+2