Rain makes the ball slick and harder to control amongst other things.

The exact style of play I take depends at least partially on the condition of the pitch to a certain extent.

If the pitch is muddy then the ball will bog down at times when passed along the floor, also running will take more out of players. In these conditions I'd tend to opt towards lumping it long and keeping the ball in the air more than usual.

If you've fit wingers then give them runs and lump it ahead of them, this will force the defenders to run to collect the ball and tire them out - rotating fresh wingers onto the pitch in the second half might then pay dividends as they out-pace the tired defenders (or if you've very very fit wingers you might find they do this anyway).

If the pitch is just slick and wet then if I think my team is extremely skillful then I'll rely on them to be accurate enough to leave passing as it is normally (presumably short if they're 'that' good) - however I'd probably drop the tempo down a notch or two to ensure they've got it under control fully before passing.

I'd also encourage tricky players to dribble with the ball more as defending is harder on a slick surface and defenders might find themselves slipping or their sliding tackles harder to time than usual in these conditions (hence more chance of getting them carded ... especially if you've a player prone to play acting and aren't feeling particularly sporting ;) ).

Is it better to loan promising players out, or to let them play reserve matches? I had 2 players go out on loans recently, both for 5 months. They both came back and had played in less than 7 matches each... and it obviously didn't benefit the striker at all. Is there something I should be looking for on the requesting team to see if I should allow the loan, like a glut of strikers when they're requesting a striker? Or is it just sort of chance? I know better than that... there's very little in this well-crafted game that is based on "chance". But I thought I'd ask.

My first version of FM also. In my case I have found the opposite of you to be true. I've had very good success with my backline but getting my strikers to score was my problem. Took over Cambridge City late season after their manager was fired. Had no trouble getting the ball into good shooting positions buy my strikers just couldn't seem to finish. Brought in two new guys to start my first full season and have the largest goal difference in the Conf South 32 games in.

Moving the guy, a DC, for me was a good thing because no matter how well he played I couldn't make up for it when he got sent off leaving me shorthanded. Thing is before I put him on transfer I had warned and fined him and despite his promises his behavior did not change. I also had some depth at the position that made the decision easier and a potential star playing the other DC position. Moving two at once might not have been as easy.

There are probably a lot of factors that you can take into effect, but the main things I look at is the division I'm sending the player to, (EPL, Championship, League 1...etc) the other team's training facilities, (I hardly ever send someone to a team with adequate or lower) and I also save notes from past loaned players letting me know if their experience with a certain team was a waste of time or not.

Something that you mentioned, that I don't do a good job with, is checking out the other players at that position to see if he'll be back-up or not. This probably plays a big role as well.

I've seen Marc V state that it's always best to loan out players than to have them play reserve games. I mainly use the reserve games to make sure my back-ups stay at least match fit.

So, back to my MLS question, has anyone done a recent MLS dynasty? To be honest I have very little interested in playing a career with some fourth level league team in Scotland for example. So, I am starting to think probably this game is not for someopne like me. Since there is little attention paid to the MLS demographic of North American soccer fan. I would welcome Marc V from SI to prove me wrong if I am off base.

I did one for a while, but got fed up with making the conference final and losing :D

I keep telling myself that one day I'll try MLS, but there's so many other leagues that I know nothing of that I've never gotten around to it.....

Just started a new game as an Italian manager in the Polish league with a relegation candidate, with Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Spain and Romania active. Named Parma randomly as my Italian favorite team. Goal is to do well enough to work my way over to Parma and then take them to either a league or Champ League final. Last game I started in Austria second division and ended up taking Schalke to a Champ League win.

Man, I love this game.

We try our best to ensure that all the leagues in the game are realistically modelled and fun to play within. The MLS is somewhat different to most leagues in the game and interesting for people (even if not MLS fans normally) to play because of this, however most people tend to play other leagues for long-term games simply because there is more scope for growth of teams in leagues with a pyramid structure.

Obviously as usual any feedback regarding suggestions for improvements and suchlike would be appreciated.

(although please bear in mind we do have a fairly small dev team and spending 12 man-months on MLS dedicated improvements isn't a practical suggestion so please bear in mind that some things take time to implement and might have to be phased in over several versions)

MLS is actually excellent in the game, EXCEPT:

1) Players in the draft aren't nearly good enough
2) Signing players post-draft doesn't work right.

Thanks guys. And Marc thank you for responding. I might take a shot at this.

Thought I'd bump this.

I bought it retail, but have no experience with the on-line thing... but that'd definitely be quicker.

I bought the digidownload version of WSM2006 from sega.com and it's working without a problem. There used to be some issues with the hyperthreading that I don't know if they were resolved or not. I have never experienced any crash with it and while it was frustrating to see the files being delayed and delayed, for patches for example, since the development cycle for the 2006 version is over, I'd say it's safe to go with the digidownload version at this point.

I know I will be ordering next year's version from the UK though, but for you at this point, I'd say it's okay to get it online. Otherwise, your best bet to get it would probably www.sendit.com. They had it at a very reasonable price with shipping being also very reasonable, despite it coming from the UK. I don't think many american stores, online or offline, carry it anymore...

FM

Thanks FM! :)

If you can buy it retail, great ... although it's hard to find and you'll have to download any patches (fairly large) since the retail version was released.

Best bet if you can't find it in a retail store is to download it from Sega (if you can live w/out the CD). If not, you'll probably have to buy it from an online overseas retailer and you will pay a penalty for conversion rates and overseas shipping. Not sure what the price is anymore, but when new it would run about $60 to buy international.

When searching gogamer and gameplay etc... look for both World Wide Soccer Manager (US version -may be cheaper if stocked in the US) and Football Manager 2006 (European version). It's the same game, just different titles and different initial setup which you can change.

This has been resolved.

...and the Forest Green Rovers in 2017 make it into the Championship Division!! I love this game.

I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU ALL!!! YEAH, YOU, YOU, AND YOU MISTER MARC VAUGHAN!!!

I was fine, having cured my addiction to FM/WSM. I had not played in maybe, oh almost two months. Yeah, I kept getting notified about this thread here, I even sometimes read it. I should not have. A couple days ago, I decided to load my good old save game. I almost didn't recognize half of the players on my Luton Town roster but I fooled around with it, now damnit, I'M HOOKED AGAIN!!! ALL BECAUSE OF YOU, FM ADDICTS!!!

*sigh*, now, what am I gonna do? oh well, I'll play :D

Seriously, what a damn fine game. The date is August 2010 and my Hatters are just about to start their second season in the EPL after finishing 11th or so in their first season up from the Championship. We'll see if we can do better this season :)

Even better, Frank Yallop has resigned as the manager of the Canadian National Team and I offered my service to take over. The Canadian FA promptly accepted the offer, cool no? :cool:

I had booked 9 friendlies for this offseason 8 of them were televised. Games against Barcelona, Juventus, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Betis, Ajax. I may not be in the Champions League but hosting all these great clubs was my mini Champions League :)

FM
PS: again, I don't really hate you all, you know that :p

Can somebody give me a tutorial on co-ownership? If I sign a deal co-owning one of my players, I get an infusion of cash ... and then what happens at the end of the season?

Marc, can you explain a "rolling contract" to me? I find it a bit puzzling.

A rolling contract is basically, well, a month to month or year to year contract.

An example of it is in college basketball, where a coach (I forget whom, thinking of the ex-Cincy coach Huggins), had a three year rolling contract. At the end of each year, the contract was automatically extended a year UNLESS the coach or the team decided not to, (then it would just have two years left).

So a Rolling contract is either a month to month contract or a year to year contract that can be extended at the end of the contract if both parties agree, at the same terms

A question for those of you who are playing FM2006 regarding your settings (database size, active countries, etc). I'm thinking of playing a MLS dynasty and then later a Premiership dynasty. I'll be using a notebook PC with 1.6 Ghz and 1 Gig of RAM. What are some suggested settings (MLS and then Premiership) for being able to field an entertaining game with a good selection of staff and players without bogging the system down too much. Thanks in advance.

Good question. I can never figure the damn thing out so just avoid it (and players who are co-owned) at all costs.

Ok Co ownership is only an italy thing, but here goes.

Team A pays for 50% of a player, it's kinda like an option of first refusal with a twist. At the end of a season, the two teams file secret bids against each other, whoever bids higher gets the player (if the two bids match he stays with his current team). you can put off the decision by 1 year.

So Team A buys 50% of Victor Italiano (who plays for Team B) for 2,000,000.. and therefore other teams have to buy Italiano from Team A AND Team B (usually for half his value to each team) to buy the player.

And at the end of the season, Team A and Team B can attempt to buy out each other's 50%.. let's say they don't put off the decision, Team A bids $1.5 million and Team B bids 900,000. Team A would pay Team B the $1.5 Million more (Making the total $3.5 million), and Italiano would then be transferred to Team A

Thanks, that's helpful. Especially since I'm pointing myself towards the Italian league for the first time in my current game.

Sounds close to what I'm running. I'm on a 2.0 GHz laptop with 2 Gigs of RAM. I'm running only England at full-detail with the maximum setting for the database (whatever it is called). On large match days (e.g. FA Cup games + league games) it can take a few minutes to process. It also takes a few minutes to load/save a game now that I'm in 2014. You should be find with one additional league provided you're patient.

Anyone know what the downfall of sending a player to a specialist is? When a player gets a serious injury, the game gives you the option of sending the player to a specialist for 2-3 for example or be treated by the team doctors for 3-4 months. Well the obvious choice is the specialist, but is there a downside to that? It doesn't make much sense to send them to the doctor if there no downside to sending them to the specialist.

It comes down to how much money it costs....

Where do these costs show up in your financials?

I think in misc? Not sure really...

Thanks Karim. My goal is to have a good selection of English speaking coaches and players without dragging my system. I realize playing it on a notebook isn't the best option with regards to my choices, but I like the mobility of playing FM when I'm away from home.

So let me see if I understand how the details work. I have a player, valued at 400k. A team comes in and makes an offer of 1.25 Mil to co-own. For them, this is in effect a speculation that the players value at some point in the future will be 2.5 mil or more?

So, let's say I accept - I get 1.25 mil in cash. At the end of the year, I can put up that 1.25 mil (or whatever my board lets me) in a blind bid - and if I win, that money goes away, and I own 100% of the player? Or, if the other team puts up 1.26 mil, then I have recieved 1.51 mil over 2 years, and the player is gone?

A)Yup, they probably think the players value will go way up in the future.

B) It'd be 2.51 Million but yup. Basically it's a good way to make sure that up and coming player doesn't go to your worst rivals :)

Thanks!

This is some BS if I ever saw it. It's 2008 and the draws were made for the Euro Football Champ. I'm the coach of England and have played quite well thus far. But here is how I'm placed
Group A
Holland
Ireland
Slovakia
Sweden

Group B
Denmark
England
France
Spain

Group C
Portugal
Russia
Slovenia
Switzerland

Group D
Austria
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Italy

I mean, Group A and C is a joke...And I get put in Group B?

The game hates you. Enjoy. :)

Knowing how things seem to work out sometimes, I expect the Danes will stun the sporting world and win Bug's Group of Death. :)

Excuse me, Chief . . . I am STILL waiting for my FM 2006 'Boro Dynasty. Please return to work. Thank you.

Or, if you would prefer: dynasty plz, k, thx.

Hehe, heh I wish I had more time to do one. :) Since I got my current job last year, my ability to find time for dynasties has dropped dramatically. :/

I'm currently in the middle of a Sheffield Wednesday game that is going well. I started in Denmark, exceeded expectations but still didn't make Europe (with Silkeborg), then got hired by the Owls in the middle of the 2006-07 season. I got them promoted in 2007-08, and kept myself up in the EPL (just outside of an InterToto spot) in 2008-09. Now I'm at the start of the 2009-10 season, the and the oddsmakers put my title chances at 50-1, which sounds awful, but in a league with Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd, that's not bad. Looked like I was picked 7th or 8th or so.

So when does the next verson come out? I find myself wanting to play as the Houston Dynamo, since I have ecome a big fan of them now. I just can't start a game right now because of that for some reason.

Unless I missed a patch or a way to change San Jose into Houston?

Next version = November '06 +/-

This game.
I can't stop playing.

I can make it. PureSim and hopefully a new FOF before then will keep me occupied. Along with some XBox 360 probably.

Hardest game was against Denmark, only beat them 2-0. Struggled in the next round vs the Dutch, but managed a win...

So when resigning your players to contract extensions, when do you do it? If it's a player that I definitely want to retain, I will attempt to resign him in December as to avoid him signing with another team after the new year. Is this too early, or about the right time to do it?

I usually try to sign them right after the season before their contract expires. This gives me plenty of time to put them on the transfer list and get something for them if they decide not to resign. Waiting until the following December means they can sign with someone else as soon as January hits without my team getting any compensation. So late May/early June is when I try to resign guys. Another benefit is that morale is usually relatively good at that time as well.

...and Wales qualifies for the 2018 World Cup!!! Awesome. blew out Scotland ina 2 leg playoff to qualify!!

Oddly enough, that did that in 2010 for me (same way in). And them made it out of the group stage, talk about upsets.

What type of player should I look to use in a "free role"? I have a right wing with high creativity and decisions, so instinctively he seems like a good candidate.

Off the top of my head, I believe Off the Ball and Positioning are also quite important to someone you would want to give a free role to. I don't know that I really would agree with giving someone on the flank that much freedom, however. You could be leaving that wing exposed to some serious counter-attacks.