Manager Mode in 09?

[calcutta]

I simmed to the end of the 2009/10 season and won the treble!

Odd semi matchups in the ECC (Champions League), i played Aston Villa in my semi, the other was between Werder Bremen and Man City...hmm. I played the final against Man City and won 3-0 (i guess their Arab owners couldn't make their 3-year plan work out in 2 years ). I can confirm the ECC final was played at a neutral stadium - the "Stadio Generico" lol, it had a running track around it - but the game was played during the day (as was the match against Gala earlier)...ALL European games are played during night in real life

This season though, Arsenal and Liverpool finished in the top three with Spurs coming fourth...Chelsea finished low again at 8th. The three that were promoted - Derby, Soton and Reading - went straight back down, but at least totally new teams came up: QPR, Crystal Palace and Wolves. Although for some reason, QPR's Dexter Blackstock was named Player of the Season, despite not playing in the EPL this particular season

Starting my 2010/11 season, guess who's back on the transfer market - Cristiano Ronaldo, @ $81million. He ended up signing with Werder Bremen...

Anyway, in conclusion, if you want realism, its probably better to play in an isolated league. I'm doing so in the A-League where there is no promotion/relegation nor any inter-league competitions, totally ignoring what transfers are going on because i'll never play those teams anyway. If you play in a top European league and expect something realistic in terms of CPU transfers and getting to face exciting new lineups after each year, you'll be disappointed.

It might be better to play in Tournament mode and make up your own transfers for each successive season (maybe base them on feasible real life rumours or failed sales, for example) making sure to edit the teams' starting lineup before each new season so that they'll use them in that mode, then play the next season in Custom leagues (so you can add new teams to simulate promotion/relegation). The only issue there is there is no player development in Tournament/Custom mode, so you'd have to either ignore it or take the time and effort to simulate that too my manually editing players.

[thegoons21]

Didn't the devs say that the loans and transfers issue would be fixed. If you loaned a youth player out that the team that got him would, in fact, play him if he was an upgrade at that position?

If the transfer/loan issue isn't fixed I'm going to be highly pissed. At the very LEAST the CPU should be programmed to play the highest rated player at that position for that team. How hard is that?

[poster]

Cal, thanks very much for all of your impressions! So there is no way to edit rosters once in MM, not even after a season? I also take it that you can in no way change the CPU side before a match? I saw it asked, but never heard a response.

How does Be A Pro work as far as transfer moves go? Do the teams stay exactly the same during the 4 year period, or will they change based on transfers? Any chance that you can play in Euros (if you pick one of those countries) as well as the WC during the 4 year run?

[calcutta]

Quote: Originally Posted by poster

So there is no way to edit rosters once in MM, not even after a season?

Nope. If you edit rosters in the main menu , it won't affect squads in already saved game modes like Manager Mode...not even Tournament mode. I tested it out in the latter by starting an EPL with the same Chelsea lineup as before (Mancienne, Fabio Ferreira and Taylor). Then when i simmed up to my match against Chelsea, i saved and quit, edited Chelsea's lineup in the main menu to reinstate Terry, Joe Cole and Cech respectively and saved, but when i reloaded my Tournament mode and entered the Chelsea game, it was still the lineup with the scrubs.

Quote: Originally Posted by poster

I also take it that you can in no way change the CPU side before a match?

Nope. You can only control 1 team in MM, and up to only 4 teams in Tournament mode.

There's actually a few things i prefer about about Tournament mode over MM, presentation-wise. It shows results/fixtures on a round-by-round category, not month-by-month like in MM. And in Tournament mode there is a suspensions and injury list for the entire league, unlike MM (where you have to access player profiles to see if they are fit...99% of players in the league in either mode are always match fit). But in Tournament mode, there is no assist tracking at all - not even your own team - and of course no other management stuff like transfers, scouting or staff upgrades.

Quote: Originally Posted by poster

How does Be A Pro work as far as transfer moves go? Do the teams stay exactly the same during the 4 year period, or will they change based on transfers? Any chance that you can play in Euros (if you pick one of those countries) as well as the WC during the 4 year run?

I haven't simmed in my BAP mode yet, i've just played four games. But i've noticed there is no "Transfer Central" section like in MM, so i don't think any teams make transfers, but i have read that your player can change teams at the end of each season (not in mid-season though).

And the intro screen specifically states "...International Cup in four years time..." and nothing about other cups so i think its safe to assume the World Cup only. I did pick an Aussie player though, but that screen came up before I chose my player.

Also i noticed in the Fixtures section, it only shows CC Championship games (46 total) and international friendlies (5 total) for my player...i don't recall seeing Carling Cup or FA Cup games.

[Murkurial]

I'm sure it's been mentioned somewhere here, but you guys are aware of the fact that the ability to edit kit numbers in MM has been removed right? Also, I remember when the FIFA 09 site went live that they mentioned adding Pre-season friendlies to the current-gen version. How can you not add it to the next-gen as well?

Anyway, this is the response that David Rutter gave when someone asked him about why the ability to edit kit numbers was removed from the game:

"The changing numbers in MM was removed this year. I've been told it's because a tiny fraction of users used this fairly expensive to maintain feature. It seems from the voices on here that was a mistake, but we'll not be able to fix this in a patch for 09 by the sounds of things."

[calcutta]

^ Yup its a minor gripe tbh, but it does detract from the realism when you see Ronaldinho wearing #2 for his new club, while a newly scouted 17-year-old player is wearing #10. The famous #7 shirt for my Man Utd was auto-assigned to my scouted Iranian player (remember i had sold Ronaldo earlier so it was available). As for Rutter's comments, "...fairly expensive to maintain feature..." Surely all the money from Live Season downloads will cover it

BTW, Live Season downloads are 560 Microsoft points per league, or 1600 for all leagues. You get ONE league free as a trial though.

And there are definitely no pre-season matches in MM on 360. Why, i don't know.

[Murkurial]

Quote: Originally Posted by calcutta

^ Yup its a minor gripe tbh, but it does detract from the realism when you see Ronaldinho wearing #2 for his new club, while a newly scouted 17-year-old player is wearing #10. The famous #7 shirt for my Man Utd was auto-assigned to my scouted Iranian player (remember i had sold Ronaldo earlier so it was available). As for Rutter's comments, "...fairly expensive to maintain feature..." Surely all the money from Live Season downloads will cover it BTW, Live Season downloads are 560 Microsoft points per league, or 1600 for all leagues. You get ONE league free as a trial though. And there are definitely no pre-season matches in MM on 360. Why, i don't know.

The Live Season updates also don't appear to be working very well for some people either as I've heard the players are actually disappearing from teams. Someone posted a screenshot of the Tottenham lineup after and update and at least 6 starters were missing, replaced by some weird series of numbers and letters. I've heard that Berbatov, and Rooney, among others, have disappeared as well.

I thought Madden was all about the ridiculous glitches...

[poster]

Thanks Cal, I appreciate you taking the time.