One thing to watch for is over-improving. I know, I know. That sounds stupid. How can you improve too much? I am referring more to the fact that you shouldn't upgrade at too many positions at once, even if you are financially capable of doing so. Earlier in the thread, someone mentioned that they don't understand how their team can so underachieve when they've brought in multiple 4- and 5-stars quality players with their new Premiership money. It has to do with the fact that the new players require time to integrate (or settle, as it were). If I recall correctly, this situation was confirmed by Marc Vaughan a few posts after as well.

As Butter said, improve at a position or maybe two and see which of your old players can hold up for now. Just be careful about trying to integrate too many new players all at once, the key is to stay up over multiple years to keep improving. ("Thanks for putting me in the position to replace you with better players, guys. Have fun back in the Coke.")

Will future version have players developing preferred moves or will they still be starting out with them?

I'm afraid you'll have to wait and see I'm afraid - waaaay too early to be revealing things about the next version I'm afraid ... sorry.

Just to confirm this sort of thing in brief - simply put a team is that a 'team' - if you get into the Premiership and bench your existing squad bringing in eleven new players then expect those players while undoubtably talented to take time to get to know each other and 'gel' before they start playing towards their potential ... obviously the more players you bring in at once the more likely it is to upset the teams dynamic and thus impinge upon their performances.

This combined with the morale issues which repeated losses can cause can often be enough to dissuade most managers from doing wholesale changes unless they're in the lower reaches (where tactics and suchlike are generally 'simpler' and so its not quite as important).

Obviously you 'can' sometimes get away with changing all 11 starting players and having your newcomers gel instantly and get results - but its a large risk and as a manager (as with most things ;) ) .... its your call entirely ...

(another thing to note is the influence of players - sometimes its worth keeping your captain in the team even if he's now a 38 year old geriatric who doesn't cut it anymore - simply because of the confidence he inspires in the team around him, obviously there's a cut-out point where he has to go, but the effect of an inspirational leader shouldn't be ignored)

next version or next patch?

No more patches planned for FM2006 at present (we have to start on the next version at some point ;) ).

Its cool, once i find a properly priced EHM im sure it will tide me over...i just cant pay $90 for it, and dont see other options(for a CD version)

Blade: gogamer has it for 49.90

Question:

What real life competitions do the Champions Cup, EURO Cup, EURO Vase, and Euro. Super Cup correspond to and what place in the Premiership do you have to finish to qualify for them?

TIA.

Champions Cup = European Cup/Champions League - top 2 automatic, 3 and 4 must go through one qualifing round

EURO Cup = UEFA Cup - 5th, FA Cup winner and League Cup winner. If FA Cup and/or League Cup winner is already in UEFA or CL via league position then the runner up qualifies. If the runner up has already qualified via league position, then go down a place/2 places further on the league table to make up the three spots.

EURO Vase = Intertoto Cup - Must already not be in Europe and decide to apply, highest league position to apply gets in. Serves as a possible backdoor entry to UEFA Cup, but does add around 3 weeks to the start of your season.

European Super Cup = same name - Champions League winner verses UEFA Cup winner of previous season.

get one of the unfake files at various FM websites (like sortitoutsi) and they will give you the real cup names.

Anyway, here are a few
Champions Cup = Champions League (4 teams)
top 4 in EPL qualify with the top two going straight to group play and the other two having to go through a couple rounds of qualification

Euro Cup = UEFA Cup (3 teams)
-5th from EPL
-winner of FA Cup or finalist if winner is already qualified for UEFA or Champions league, next unqualified team in EPL if both are already in
-winner of Carling Cup (called League Cup in game) or next unqualified in EPL if they're already qualified

Note, the finalist of the Carling Cup is not auto qualified to the UEFA Cup

EURO Vase = Intertoto Cup (2 or 3 teams I think)
next two or three teams in the EPL

No idea about the supercup...

FM

boooo, I'm so slow :(

:)

FM

remember, this will change based on how teams from that nation do in the various competitions

you know if you sent that early beta over this way you could get 2x the amount of early testing on it ;)

Thanks for the quick responses!

Marc,
one thing that's always bugged me a little - why is the AI not aggresive in the transfer market ? The big teams never seem to exert the pressure to sign the big boys, ala the Scott Parker's of the world and they rarely last with the same teams.

This seems to applies to managers as well, where teams always seem to hire out of work guys rather than a top manager from another team. For example, Sir Alex retired at Man U in my game, the assistant manager (Quiroz) is World Class - and instead of hiring a top foreign coach or a top English coach - they hire Brian Robson, who's been fired twice, and has a reputation of "National" - and not surprisingly, was unemployed. It just seems as if the manager AI looks amongst those available domestically, rather than the top talent out there.

Edit: I looked at the available unemployed coaches: you had 1 world class guy (the only manager in the game who's apparently World Class - Bianchi), 5 continental guys. I guess I'm just trying to understand the manager process, especially for the big boys.

Dumb question alert...

Is there a real transfer list maintained by the FA or various leagues or is this just a mechanism implemented by SI? Doing a google search, I see various transfer rumours (trade rumours?) but no mention of an actual list. So how is it done in real life? Just a press release?

You would think it would be valuable to professional teams to maintain a database of players from all the league around the world, their contract status, their transfer status, etc, kind of what FM does.

In real-life the FA provides managers with laptops (probably at a charge, not sure) which facilitate such things via. custom software.

In the 'old days' paper based lists were indeed mailed around the place by the FA.

(some managers also irl subscribe to one of the various professional scouting bodies which exist and give out information, SI have been contacted a few times by clubs (and indeed scouting agencies) about our db which is quite cool :D)

PS> With regards to transfer AI - its pretty good in the game imho, but its something which we're continually trying to improve.

OK I've only ever bought versions of CM/FM off of ebay. I'm trying the demo of FM 2006 right now and am considering purchasing it. If I wanted to buy WWSM is there a download option? I'd like to download it and purchase by credit card if possible over other options. Can someone explain what the best method for me is?

There is a Try and Buy Download option from Sega America's website:

http://www.shopsega.com/servlet/Cont...31800&Env=BASE

$30. Great deal

It's downloadable

Estimated Download Speed (File Size = 301,778 KB)
• 56k = 11.9 hours
• DSL (1.5 mbps) = 28 minutes
• Cable (3.0 mbps) = 15 minutes
• T1 = 12 minutes

Perfect, thank you Foz.

No Prob.

One of these weekends, I still want to get a net game going.

Good grief I see an ad for buy one SI game, get another FREE on that site, but I can't figure out how to JUMP on that offer. Anyone done it or know how?

the free game is like Virtua Fighter 4. IE, OH MY GOD SIX YEARS LATER WE STILL HAVE THESE CD'S.. PLEASE TAKE THEM FROM US!

oh lame

SirFozzie,

Are you sure it's Try and Buy? It is asking for credit card information before I download it.

Todd

go to this page and click on PC DEMO, this should allow you to download the try and buy, which you can register later on...

FM

dola, to be clearer, clicking the PC DEMO link will allow you to download the "download starter". Save it on your pc, then run it, it will start the download of the big PC file...

FM

Thanks FrogMan, except nothing happens when I click that link. It tries to open a new page, but then nothing.

you mean the PC DEMO link? It tries to open a new window, if you have a popup blocker, this could block it. Anyway, the dowload starter is like 110k, pm me your email addy and I'll send it to you...

FM

Can anyone tell me how minimum transfer fees work? I've been playing for a while but still haven't figured them out.

Basically if a player has a minimum release clause in their contract any team can come in, bid whatever that amount is and the team that owns the player must accept the amount. Then it's just up to the player as to whether or not they want to sign a contract with the bidding team.

I forget again what the advantage of having that kind of clause in the contract is. Whenever I sign a player to a new contract I always make sure that part is taken out.

if someone has a mimimum transfer fee and you want to buy them, you submit a transfer offer for that amount (or more although there's no reason to do that) and it has to be accepted. This just means the player has to discuss terms with you, not that they have to transfer to you.

if one of your players has one then you are put in that position.

personally i try to avoid having any of my players have them (except in spain where it's required and then i just try to max them all out). right now though as a matter of fact, i'm currently freaked-out that my starting D/WB R has a 3 million dollar minimum fee release clause and is currently worth 16 million. And he keeps refusing to renegotiate!

The only direct benefit is that the player is more likely to accept a cheaper basic wage (on the contract being negotiated) in return for a inclusion of a minimum fee clause.

Thats what I thought...I was just hoping I was wrong:D

So I just lost in the UEFA Cup final on this play...



I'm playing as Everton against Lyon and as you can see #8 Juninho Pernambucano is passing the rock to #25 Nihat, who just happens to be about 3 miles offsides!! And of course he goes in and scores the go-ahead goal.

Truely depressing. The off-sides calls have to be fine-tuned for next year.

That's actually the correct call. If you are on the defensive side of midfield when it is kicked you are not offsides.

unless this has been changed, a player within his defensive zone can not be offside... Hoping I'm interpreting the pictures all right...

FM

Well damn. That's even more depressing that I got that wrong. Ha!

In case you're wondering that rule is in place to stop 'reverse goal hanging' ...

The offside rule prevents 'camping' which is strikers in the opposition half waiting for a ball hoofed from defense (meaning defenders always have to stay back and mark them).

The mid-point rule is in place to prevent the attacking team from simply pushing everyone forward to the opposition penalty box safe in the knowledge that a cleared ball would leave the opposition off-site in most cases anyway.

Learn something new every day...

Another question...

I remember reading that international management is fun only if you have the nation as an active league. Is this true? I only have England running but have been offered jobs by Venezuela, Greece and Tunisia. I've turned them all down because I don't see how I would operate in an 'unactive league'.

Thoughts?

On this side of the pond, we call that "cherry picking." :D

And can someone point me to a rule-book definition of offsides? I think I have it down, but sometimes it is still a head-scratcher. I mainly play FM in the English leagues, but is offsides standardized world-wide?

As far as I know offsides is standardized worldwide.

I was wondering about offsides on throw-ins. I've seen many instances where my team will have a throw-in deep in the opposition half, my striker will be standing near the corner flag in an offside position and then receive the throw-in anyway without being called for offside. Glitch in the match engine or legitimate play?

can't be offside on a throw in I believe

Correct as far as I can remember from when I played.

Offsides definition:

When the ball is kicked there must be 2 players between you and the goal.
You can't be offside if the ball is in front of you.
You are onside if you are on your side of the 50.
No offsides on throw-ins.

Correct. Also, just to cover almost everything:

-Intuitively, there is no offside directly off a corner kick
-There is offside on a goal kick

Is there any way to search for people eligible to Player/Coach? Best I've got is looking for young coaches and/or old players, but if there's a good way to (say...) search for GKs who would be servicable backups as well as on the coaching staff for a lower-league club, I don't know it.

You have a heck of a lot less players to work with

Just a quick moment of glory from this morning to share:

My Northampton Cobblers are playing Ipswich, who are currently running first in League One.

Tied 0-0 in the 92nd minute, my strikers haven't done squat all day - more specifically, they continually try to dribble and in a split second they are stripped of the ball - and my young, highly-sought-after forward gets a loose ball about 20 yards out, dances his way past two defenders, and drills a bullet low past the goalie for the game-winner. YaaaaHOO! Late goals like that are so frikkin' awesome. I went to work in a good mood. :D