GW7 lost a few great guys to this week. SI have created 4 new beta GW's and of course needed some mods to help run them. Si Evans a fellow mod in GW7 and a guy I have been playing against since GW4(he became a mod at the same time as me) has gone across as an experienced Mod and with him he took Nick, Hamish and Monkey with him. All 3 of these guys where F.A. Organisers here in GW7 and have been rewarded for all their hard work and help with running the XFA & AFF F.A.s with a promotion to mods. I for one will miss them all and the lobby will be a much quieter place with out them!!!
Cya guys, take care and good luck
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Saturday, 17 May 2008
New look to Blog
I was never happy with how my blog looked before if I was totally honest, it just never looked polished. So I went away and had a little play still not sure if I like it but is it better or worse let me know!
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Buy to Sell
There has been a lot of discussion regarding teams buying players in wage auctions just to sell on in a transfer 7 days later in the forums at the moment. For those of you that have been so far not been lucky enough to partake in the beta test let me explain
A wage auction is one where you state how much you are willing to pay a players wages in a blind auction, if you win you sign that player on either a 1 or 2 season contract and pay his acquisition fee which is in his profile either to the GW if he is a free agent or to his existing club. How ever after 7 days of signing a player in a wage auction you are then free to sell him either in a private transfer of a transfer auction. A private transfer being one where you and another manager negotiate how much he or she is willing to pay you for that player, and a wage auction being very similar to how an ebay auction works(i.e. you state how much you are willing to bid for said player, but only ever pay 2nd highest bid+£1 if you are the highest bidder). The prices that players sell for in this auction can far exceed the players acquisition fee so some (in my opinion) unscrupulous managers are signing a lot of players in wage auctions and then selling them on 7 days later for a large profit.
Well there is 2 ways of looking the first being if some one is willing to pay you x amount of money more then they could have picked him up for 7 days earlier then who am I or anyone else for that matter to argue. On the other hand buying players with the sole intention of selling them 7 days later is an exploit which needs closing. It is one thing to buy a player, play him a few matches, decide he doesn't fit into your side, then stick him in an auction and let the market dictate his value, and if you make a profit out of him lucky you!! BUT if you are solely buying players with no intention of playing them, and then heavily marketing them 7 days later and selling for a massive profit then this is another thing.
Me I am sat on the fence, torn between two very different view points that I agree with equally
The debate continues
A wage auction is one where you state how much you are willing to pay a players wages in a blind auction, if you win you sign that player on either a 1 or 2 season contract and pay his acquisition fee which is in his profile either to the GW if he is a free agent or to his existing club. How ever after 7 days of signing a player in a wage auction you are then free to sell him either in a private transfer of a transfer auction. A private transfer being one where you and another manager negotiate how much he or she is willing to pay you for that player, and a wage auction being very similar to how an ebay auction works(i.e. you state how much you are willing to bid for said player, but only ever pay 2nd highest bid+£1 if you are the highest bidder). The prices that players sell for in this auction can far exceed the players acquisition fee so some (in my opinion) unscrupulous managers are signing a lot of players in wage auctions and then selling them on 7 days later for a large profit.
Well there is 2 ways of looking the first being if some one is willing to pay you x amount of money more then they could have picked him up for 7 days earlier then who am I or anyone else for that matter to argue. On the other hand buying players with the sole intention of selling them 7 days later is an exploit which needs closing. It is one thing to buy a player, play him a few matches, decide he doesn't fit into your side, then stick him in an auction and let the market dictate his value, and if you make a profit out of him lucky you!! BUT if you are solely buying players with no intention of playing them, and then heavily marketing them 7 days later and selling for a massive profit then this is another thing.
Me I am sat on the fence, torn between two very different view points that I agree with equally
The debate continues
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Ask a mod question 1
Stewart Downing asks:
Is it possible to set a official feeder or parent club without it being classed as cheating? If not will it be introduced into the game by release. Can you please discuss what would be the benefits or negatives if this was introduced. eg// does the parent have to pay the feeder a weekly fee, or any loaned players have to be in the starting 16 of the feeder unless it's official comp or they are injured or suspended. Thanks
Answer:
Whilst I am not sure what SI long term plans with regards to "official" parent/feeder clubs. I do know that in beta at least that some teams (including at least 3 mod teams) DO have an agreement with other teams and it is perfectly allowed. The exact terms of these agreements are not always made public but generally it involves the parent club loaning youth players or fringe squad players to the feeder club for little or no wage contribution in return for first refusal on the feeder clubs players, sometimes scouting of players would also be shared between the teams. The only rules that MUST be kept to is NO match fixing and NO selling at ridiculously low or high prices. It is unfortunately impossible at this stage to include a weekly fee, and is impossible for either teams to bind the other to the terms of the agreement, it is all mearly based on trust and a gentleman's agreement. So if you are to do this choose the other team carefully!!! The benefits to both teams are clear, the smaller (normally poorer) club gets to have a constant supply of player which they may not otherwise be able to afford otherwise, and the larger club gets to give fringe players and youth players competitive matches which will increase the players stats and also first pickings on up & coming players
Hope this answers your question.
If you have a question you would like answering all you have to do is leave a comment below!!
Is it possible to set a official feeder or parent club without it being classed as cheating? If not will it be introduced into the game by release. Can you please discuss what would be the benefits or negatives if this was introduced. eg// does the parent have to pay the feeder a weekly fee, or any loaned players have to be in the starting 16 of the feeder unless it's official comp or they are injured or suspended. Thanks
Answer:
Whilst I am not sure what SI long term plans with regards to "official" parent/feeder clubs. I do know that in beta at least that some teams (including at least 3 mod teams) DO have an agreement with other teams and it is perfectly allowed. The exact terms of these agreements are not always made public but generally it involves the parent club loaning youth players or fringe squad players to the feeder club for little or no wage contribution in return for first refusal on the feeder clubs players, sometimes scouting of players would also be shared between the teams. The only rules that MUST be kept to is NO match fixing and NO selling at ridiculously low or high prices. It is unfortunately impossible at this stage to include a weekly fee, and is impossible for either teams to bind the other to the terms of the agreement, it is all mearly based on trust and a gentleman's agreement. So if you are to do this choose the other team carefully!!! The benefits to both teams are clear, the smaller (normally poorer) club gets to have a constant supply of player which they may not otherwise be able to afford otherwise, and the larger club gets to give fringe players and youth players competitive matches which will increase the players stats and also first pickings on up & coming players
Hope this answers your question.
If you have a question you would like answering all you have to do is leave a comment below!!
Monday, 12 May 2008
Big well done to the Tigers
For those of you who don't know me I am a big Hull City fan, and although off topic from FML I would just like to say a big well done to the team for the result against Watford on Sunday, and good luck for Wednesday night and hope we get to Wembley and dare I even breath it the golden land of the EPL.
But even if we don't we have had a fantastic season and it is all down to the board, the players, the fans and especially big Phil Brown!!! The way he has turned us from relegation favourites to promotion chasers has been great, and proves what a great manager he is!!
Back in FML my team Area 51 FC created their own mile stone on Sunday night, in the fact that we moved into the top 50 in terms of rankings. Considering just over a month ago I was ranked at my lowest 409th it has reaffirmed my beliefs in the game, in so much that anyone can turn their performances around and become a force to be reckoned with.
So what was my secret?? Two things really firstly I created a team that I was happy with, throw in a couple of big signings(well big for me) and then ran with it. Indeed I think it is now a good two weeks ago since I made any 1st team signings, with the exception of a couple of cheap back up players when I was forced to by injuries or suspensions, and I think this stability has really paid dividends for me. The second thing was thrown on me and I had no choice in it , namely the 2nd tactic skills update, out went my long worked on and over complicated tactics and in came the default tactic settings, as I have progressed with the skills I have seen less and less need to tweak them, and for my team and probably other smaller teams the simple instructions have worked.
Now whether this is a good thing or not depends on your point of view, myself I cant see it taking me much further up the ranks and I will possibly have to strenghten both my team and my tactics to move much more. But that is for the next few weeks, now is the time to get my youth team sorted out.
But even if we don't we have had a fantastic season and it is all down to the board, the players, the fans and especially big Phil Brown!!! The way he has turned us from relegation favourites to promotion chasers has been great, and proves what a great manager he is!!
Back in FML my team Area 51 FC created their own mile stone on Sunday night, in the fact that we moved into the top 50 in terms of rankings. Considering just over a month ago I was ranked at my lowest 409th it has reaffirmed my beliefs in the game, in so much that anyone can turn their performances around and become a force to be reckoned with.
So what was my secret?? Two things really firstly I created a team that I was happy with, throw in a couple of big signings(well big for me) and then ran with it. Indeed I think it is now a good two weeks ago since I made any 1st team signings, with the exception of a couple of cheap back up players when I was forced to by injuries or suspensions, and I think this stability has really paid dividends for me. The second thing was thrown on me and I had no choice in it , namely the 2nd tactic skills update, out went my long worked on and over complicated tactics and in came the default tactic settings, as I have progressed with the skills I have seen less and less need to tweak them, and for my team and probably other smaller teams the simple instructions have worked.
Now whether this is a good thing or not depends on your point of view, myself I cant see it taking me much further up the ranks and I will possibly have to strenghten both my team and my tactics to move much more. But that is for the next few weeks, now is the time to get my youth team sorted out.
Friday, 9 May 2008
Tactic updates
From the FML tester forum.
From the release notes...
- Reorganised the tactics skills so they should now better represent the needs of the moderate, intermediate and hardcore tacticians out there. The bad news, is that this means the existing tactics skills have been wiped. The good news, is that the time spent on these skills should be repayed in the form of an extended bonus.
To explain, we believe the first system we tried was a little over the top as it really forced everyone to learn at least a few tactics skills. Hopefully this system will be much more friendly to those who don't really care about tactics at all.
Furthermore the incoming system is designed to be of a similar length to other areas meaning the benefit gained for specialising here against the time spent learning the skills should be the same as in other categories.
Finally, the system is designed to provide a good intermediate level of tactical skill within a couple of days training which again should bring it more into line with the other area.
From the release notes...
- Reorganised the tactics skills so they should now better represent the needs of the moderate, intermediate and hardcore tacticians out there. The bad news, is that this means the existing tactics skills have been wiped. The good news, is that the time spent on these skills should be repayed in the form of an extended bonus.
To explain, we believe the first system we tried was a little over the top as it really forced everyone to learn at least a few tactics skills. Hopefully this system will be much more friendly to those who don't really care about tactics at all.
Furthermore the incoming system is designed to be of a similar length to other areas meaning the benefit gained for specialising here against the time spent learning the skills should be the same as in other categories.
Finally, the system is designed to provide a good intermediate level of tactical skill within a couple of days training which again should bring it more into line with the other area.
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
New Feature-Ask a Mod!!!!
On the FML forum some one critised blogs on FML for not being informative enough, and it is true I have neglected mine in the recent weeks due to external pressures plus the fact that I am so addicted to FML that Id rather by playing it then writing about it!!
But from now on I am going to turn my blog over to you all. Send me your questions (about FML preferbly)& at least once a week I will answer as many as I can!!!
All you have to do is send me your question as a comment. I won't actually post these comments but reply to them as a new post.
So what are you waiting for?
But from now on I am going to turn my blog over to you all. Send me your questions (about FML preferbly)& at least once a week I will answer as many as I can!!!
All you have to do is send me your question as a comment. I won't actually post these comments but reply to them as a new post.
So what are you waiting for?
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Tactic Skills
So in GW7 today was update day.
One of the biggest new features was the tactic skills addition. This has caused nothing less then an uproar, BUT as usual I am going to go against the tide here and say I LOVE THE TACTIC SKILLS.
Let me explain,
1) Any(Ok some) newcomer to the football manager series will play a few games using the default tactics. Any one who tries telling me they haven't is clearly some one who reads a game manual(and they aint many of them!!!!) So in a new GW this creates a level playing field for all no matter what their experience of FM is!
2) By unlocking features of the tactics singley it forces any manager to learn EXACTLY what each section relates to how their team responds thus making everyone slightly better.
3) If Tactics are the most singular most important then you will choose Blackboard management skills as your starting skills giving you an immediate advantage in this area to others who may choose another area to specialise in first off(more on this latter)
Right its late and I am at work early tomorrow so will finish this off later........TBC
One of the biggest new features was the tactic skills addition. This has caused nothing less then an uproar, BUT as usual I am going to go against the tide here and say I LOVE THE TACTIC SKILLS.
Let me explain,
1) Any(Ok some) newcomer to the football manager series will play a few games using the default tactics. Any one who tries telling me they haven't is clearly some one who reads a game manual(and they aint many of them!!!!) So in a new GW this creates a level playing field for all no matter what their experience of FM is!
2) By unlocking features of the tactics singley it forces any manager to learn EXACTLY what each section relates to how their team responds thus making everyone slightly better.
3) If Tactics are the most singular most important then you will choose Blackboard management skills as your starting skills giving you an immediate advantage in this area to others who may choose another area to specialise in first off(more on this latter)
Right its late and I am at work early tomorrow so will finish this off later........TBC
Monday, 21 April 2008
Its been a while
Okay, I am sorry its been a while since my last post, so lets have a brief catch up with Area 51 FC.
After making some big money signing including Jesus Navas towards the end of last season to ensure a Premiership place diaster struck.....Due to a bug I was stuck in a game for no less then 9 days!!!! What this did to my team un did 6 weeks of work and I slipped down to the lower rankings and was forced to sell off many players including all the top name guys. Many people have asked me why I never just restarted and the answer is simple- I had a large number of assests which I could and did sell which gave me a very nice bank balance!!
Another problem caused by the bug was a back log of games (over 50 games) and because I came unlocked while online many of these where played and lost by the AI which caused me 2 more head aches.
The first one being the moral issue & secondly what this did to my rankings.
Any how that is all in the past and thus why we are doing beta, as it happens I am not bothered about the problems caused I can now challenge myself to one day return to the top 100 club. HOWEVER had I been paying for this I would naturally not be happy, but thanks to SI and the 1000's of testers like me come retail issues such as this WONT be happening.
After making some big money signing including Jesus Navas towards the end of last season to ensure a Premiership place diaster struck.....Due to a bug I was stuck in a game for no less then 9 days!!!! What this did to my team un did 6 weeks of work and I slipped down to the lower rankings and was forced to sell off many players including all the top name guys. Many people have asked me why I never just restarted and the answer is simple- I had a large number of assests which I could and did sell which gave me a very nice bank balance!!
Another problem caused by the bug was a back log of games (over 50 games) and because I came unlocked while online many of these where played and lost by the AI which caused me 2 more head aches.
The first one being the moral issue & secondly what this did to my rankings.
Any how that is all in the past and thus why we are doing beta, as it happens I am not bothered about the problems caused I can now challenge myself to one day return to the top 100 club. HOWEVER had I been paying for this I would naturally not be happy, but thanks to SI and the 1000's of testers like me come retail issues such as this WONT be happening.
Monday, 3 March 2008
The come back kids
Many guys who start FML make the mistake (IMO) of just importing their old tactics from FM07/08 etc and then wonder why they get thrashed. Well the reason is quite simple where as on FM08 you are always playing the same computer which is preprogrammed to react in certain ways, on FML you are playing up to 1,000 different human brains, so every game you are gonna need to play slightly differently. Also most users are not gonna sit back and watch there side get thrashed 3-0 so they are gonna come at you and a grab a comeback. All to often I have heard the same guys moaning I was winning 3 or 4 nil then lost 5-4. Asked what they did to protect their lead all to often the reply is nothing I was hammering them.
Today I have played quite a few games where I was winning by an odd goal with a couple of mins left on the clock, and I to made this mistake... result was I either lost (5-4)or at best draw 1-1. What should I have done??
Player tiredness comes in to affect here, take that super star MC who has scored 3 goals and got 4 assists and a rating of 9 but his condition is 73, well I should had dragged him off shouldn't I
Also is dropping back and letting the other team come on to always the best thing to do? I would have to say no!! some times the best form of defence is offensive, but just deeper offensive then before!!
But every game and every team is different so the same approach will never work all times, it is just a case of experimenting and learning what will work best for your bunch of players and when you do suffer from a come back the best advice I have ever been given is rewatch the match again, and try to work out what did your opponent do and how did you combat it...if at all!!!!
Today I have played quite a few games where I was winning by an odd goal with a couple of mins left on the clock, and I to made this mistake... result was I either lost (5-4)or at best draw 1-1. What should I have done??
Player tiredness comes in to affect here, take that super star MC who has scored 3 goals and got 4 assists and a rating of 9 but his condition is 73, well I should had dragged him off shouldn't I
Also is dropping back and letting the other team come on to always the best thing to do? I would have to say no!! some times the best form of defence is offensive, but just deeper offensive then before!!
But every game and every team is different so the same approach will never work all times, it is just a case of experimenting and learning what will work best for your bunch of players and when you do suffer from a come back the best advice I have ever been given is rewatch the match again, and try to work out what did your opponent do and how did you combat it...if at all!!!!
Sunday, 2 March 2008
Blogs & Fansites
There are many Fan sites & blogs dedicated to FML springing up throughout cyberspace at the moment and I quite often have a gander at a few of them(see the link section to the left )especially when the server is down as I like reading about different perspectives on the game. I do not see these sites in competition with my own blog. How ever comments from a moderator of one such Fan site to my publicising this page in his thread on the official FML forum has made me think why do people such as myself start fan sites & blogs?
I do this for myself really, if people want to read it or not is their choice, I have put a few links on the forum just to let people know of my blogs existence. I don't actually care if they read it or not to be honest,
None beta testers will read blogs such as mine and http://fmlmod.blogspot.com/ (to name just two) to see what they are missing out on and whether it is the sort of thing they will want to buy come retail, if I help just person decide then its a bonus.
SI have stated that they are quite happy for blogs and fansites to spring up on the back of beta and hopefully these sites will generate even more interest in the game.
How ever when you have some sites trying to convince people not to look at other people work I begin to wonder what their motives are??? Clearly it is not just the love of the game that drives them to publish things about FML in cyber space!!!
BTW if you know of any other websites dedicated to FML please let me know with a link attached and I will add the link to this site.
I do this for myself really, if people want to read it or not is their choice, I have put a few links on the forum just to let people know of my blogs existence. I don't actually care if they read it or not to be honest,
None beta testers will read blogs such as mine and http://fmlmod.blogspot.com/ (to name just two) to see what they are missing out on and whether it is the sort of thing they will want to buy come retail, if I help just person decide then its a bonus.
SI have stated that they are quite happy for blogs and fansites to spring up on the back of beta and hopefully these sites will generate even more interest in the game.
How ever when you have some sites trying to convince people not to look at other people work I begin to wonder what their motives are??? Clearly it is not just the love of the game that drives them to publish things about FML in cyber space!!!
BTW if you know of any other websites dedicated to FML please let me know with a link attached and I will add the link to this site.
My new team
Friday 29/2/07 2030hrs GMT
After a short but sweet farewell to all the guys in GW4 I signed out for the last time and joined GW7. Upon arrival I was greeted by the familiar faces of Si & Rich with their blue bands at the top, I on the other hand was still down as just another user having joined up a bit later everyone from SI who could change my status wasn't about which gave me chance to set up my team in relative peace.
Now i have known guys who have spent hours if not a couple of days getting there initial squad together scouting around and sniffing around the players and moulding an almost perfect team(well as good as you can with just 500K to spend and 100K wage total) not me I go for the quick and easy way and just let the AI randomly select players based on a few easy questions, if I recall these were the filters I used 1 GK, 1 DR 1 DL 4 DC 2MR 2 ML 4 MC and 3 S aged between 18 and 27 with a total wage bill of 75K
Less then a second later I had my initial squad, immediately I released my DR & DL as these wouldn't be required (unfortunately you cant select 0 for any position) then a quick glance at my GK reveled he to would be ditched (eccentricity 19 lol) and as I wanted a S with a good long shot ability the weaker of the three was also ditched this left me with just the simple task of having to scout a decent GK and a forward with high composure and high long shots attributes and a fair bit of pace and natural fitness. As the more experience managers will all ready see I had a fairly good idea of my tactics and I now had a squad of 16 players, a wage bill of 82K which would give me plenty of cover for my 3-5-2 tactics I am so very fond of!! Sure I could have refined it a lot more but for me one of the joys of FML is taking a poor team and improving on them, many will disagree and prefer the lets start good and keep there approach which is all well and fine but not my cup of tea.
Confirmed button hit and I was ready for my 1st game, tactics would come later for me as I go down the road of start with a default 3-5-2 and tweak it over a number of games as I find weaknesses in my team!! two games later it was 2 wins notched up and I was chuffed, the next game things went pear shaped 0-5 the beginners luck had ran out.........
After a short but sweet farewell to all the guys in GW4 I signed out for the last time and joined GW7. Upon arrival I was greeted by the familiar faces of Si & Rich with their blue bands at the top, I on the other hand was still down as just another user having joined up a bit later everyone from SI who could change my status wasn't about which gave me chance to set up my team in relative peace.
Now i have known guys who have spent hours if not a couple of days getting there initial squad together scouting around and sniffing around the players and moulding an almost perfect team(well as good as you can with just 500K to spend and 100K wage total) not me I go for the quick and easy way and just let the AI randomly select players based on a few easy questions, if I recall these were the filters I used 1 GK, 1 DR 1 DL 4 DC 2MR 2 ML 4 MC and 3 S aged between 18 and 27 with a total wage bill of 75K
Less then a second later I had my initial squad, immediately I released my DR & DL as these wouldn't be required (unfortunately you cant select 0 for any position) then a quick glance at my GK reveled he to would be ditched (eccentricity 19 lol) and as I wanted a S with a good long shot ability the weaker of the three was also ditched this left me with just the simple task of having to scout a decent GK and a forward with high composure and high long shots attributes and a fair bit of pace and natural fitness. As the more experience managers will all ready see I had a fairly good idea of my tactics and I now had a squad of 16 players, a wage bill of 82K which would give me plenty of cover for my 3-5-2 tactics I am so very fond of!! Sure I could have refined it a lot more but for me one of the joys of FML is taking a poor team and improving on them, many will disagree and prefer the lets start good and keep there approach which is all well and fine but not my cup of tea.
Confirmed button hit and I was ready for my 1st game, tactics would come later for me as I go down the road of start with a default 3-5-2 and tweak it over a number of games as I find weaknesses in my team!! two games later it was 2 wins notched up and I was chuffed, the next game things went pear shaped 0-5 the beginners luck had ran out.........
About me & this Blog
I started as a FML beta tester back in December 07 in game world four after 3 seasons with my team (REAL TIGERS ALBION, Area 51 FC & Philadelphia experiment)in the DFA I was nominated by the mods(thanks Guys) to become a moderator for a new Game World (GW7) SI had set up, after careful consideration and weighing up the pros and cons 30 seconds later my mind was made up and the email accepting was sent off, and I said my good byes(sorry if I didn't catch anyone) released all my players and off I went along with 3 other guys.
Instead of talking more about the game in general ( i will leave that to Nik and his superb blog http://fmlmod.blogspot.com/) this will be more about me and the birth of a new team in a new world.
Instead of talking more about the game in general ( i will leave that to Nik and his superb blog http://fmlmod.blogspot.com/) this will be more about me and the birth of a new team in a new world.
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