Alright boyz, here we go!!! FM 2006 First Impressions
 

It needed to be done.

I actually had the willpower to stop playing fairly early last night, mainly because I had a bunch of stuff to do at work today. But, here's the early impressions. I started up my boys at Notts County again, and I'm hoping to start a dynasty on them after I finish the first season.

There's just SO much more 'fluff' to this game. There's blurbs about your players every freaking where. There are fun news articles about your team after every match (akin to FM2005's writeups for international and major cup games). You get just a freaking ton more information about your team. Yay for immersion!

The streamlining of training is quite nice, though I haven't gotten far enough into the season to let you know how it's working. I do love the fact that every player has a 'current opinion of his training schedule' blurb, however.

I have yet to use the team talks, instead leaving that to my assistant for the time being. I'll try it tonight, we'll see. While I haven't really attempted to use the 'quick tactics' thing mid match, early impressions are it's a little clunky. But as I said, haven't look at it enough to make a full opinion.

I still suck at this game.

The game announcers are much improved, with extra handy details. "So and So should take the blame for this goal" and so forth. Nice to know.

Can't comment on the speed in comparison to 05, because I played 05 on a pissant computer, but my new machine (3000+, 2gb ram) pretty much flies. There's VERY little 'greytime', and I'm running a Large DB, with 7 countries and about 20 leagues.

I'm liking it. I'm liking it a *lot*.

Btw, either my guys just flat out *suck*, I'm playing them wrong (I'd like to think I know enough to where this isn't true), or there's been a change in player's match ratings. I'm getting a ton more 5's and 6's for my guys than in 05, instead of the usual 7's down the board, with 1 or 2 higher/lower.

I hope this stays fresh as the game goes on... in most games where this sort of thing has been used, the narrative got stale prety quickly. I harken back to the scouting reports in OOTP (and the Mogul games) where there were a dozen or so packaged comments about the game that the text would include. On a first review, it seemed like an interesting and immersive idea -- which pretty quickly turned into a drone that I completely tuned out.

I hope the execution in FM is broader and better... and am fairly optimistic that it will be.


This would be a great boon to me... I never enjoyed the level of detail that proper training seemed to require in previous versions, and usually resigned myself to just settle for whatever I got by putting my staff in charge. Getting individual feedback sounds promising... though I'm a bit wary about this becoming like TCY with the time allocations that were (at least initially) just dreadfully boring to me.

Again, I'm hopeful that this is a better balance (for my tastes) and pretty optimistic.


I am really looking forward to this game. My last couple of CM/FM experiences weren't all that rewarding, but I have been in the "deep immersion" stat with it before... and it might be the best sports sim in existence for that purpose.

CW,

Next time I'm in Chi-town, I'm coming over and watching you play. I still have trouble understanding certain things within the game. :) loans, transfers, which teams are bad, how many leagues to run, tatics, etc.. lol

Like I have any idea. :)

there's been a change in player's match ratings. I'm getting a ton more 5's and 6's for my guys than in 05, instead of the usual 7's down the board

Yes there has been a slight change, I think the 7 "average" was used too often last year so you know exactly who's performing below par.


I still have trouble understanding certain things within the game

Let us know which bits you are having trouble with, and in what leagues and ill try and explain if you would like


Cheers
Fran
Sports Interactive

As someone who has never played FM but is very interersted why is it that you need to have certain leagues open and some leagues closed?

As someone who has never played FM but is very interersted why is it that you need to have certain leagues open and some leagues closed?

Basically: The leagues you select when you start a new game are the leagues you can manage in. There is nothing to stop you selecting all the leagues, but of course the more leagues you have running the more players/fixtures/etc etc the game has to then process and so the slower the game will be moving from one day to the next.

Going further into detail there are also options when you can have a league running, but not enabled for you to manage a club in. This "basic" detail is faster then having the league running in "normal" detail, still allows you to see the fixtures/results/stats etc for that league. But you can't manage any club in it.

So, if a user has no interest in (for example) the Australian league, then they simply don't chose that league when they start a new game and the game won't have to process all the australian league fixtures etc and thus its faster than if the user had selected that league

Sorry for the long explanation, Hope this clears it up?

Cheers
Fran
SI

Leagues that you call "open" are leagues that the game will simulate with complete player stats and in which you can go manage if you want to someday. By selecting some leagues, you creat what I call a "Football Universe" (that's my term) in which simulation will happen. The more leagues you select, the more processing will be needed and the slower the game will go from one day to the other.

For example, my current dynasty in FM2005 (though it's similar to one diffence in FM2006, I'll explain later) has the following leagues selected:
England (from League One and up)
France (top division)
Germany (top division)
Spain (top division)
Italy (top division)
Holland (top division)
Scotland (top division)

Or just about, something like 7 countries, 10 leagues. This means if I get sacked at QPR, I could apply for a job in any of these countries, or in a lower level in England. I tried starting a game with 10 countries and 15 or 17 leagues and it wasn't running fast enough for me.

As for the difference between FM2005 and FM2006, from what I understand by reading the SI forum, you can now select leagues with "basic details". These leagues are not manageable (i.e. you can't go take over a team in these leagues) but the games are still simmed with a very basic engine, thus generating a league table, helping the immersion factor even more, at a very small cost in term of processing time.

FM

drat, me and my long winded answers, Francis beat me to it :)

FM

dola, but the good things is I wasn't very much off base from the the guy who's in the know ;)

FM

Yeah, good work frogman :)

As I spend the day at work pondering tactics to use. :)

So if I was looking for a player to transfer in from a country not open at all (neither in full or baisc mode) would I be able to get stats on his performance that season?

Can you open countries in the middle of your career?

Depending on your database size, teams from all over the world the world are included in the game and you can see these teams' stats, although how they are generated is a bit grey to me.

I mean, take Freddy Guarín for me. He was playing in a league that is not selected to me (Colombia) yet I could see his stats, or something that gave me an idea if he was good or not, in addition to his skill ratings...

FM

Nope, once you create your game with the countries you have selected, you are stuck with these until you retire and that could conceivaly be more than 12 calendar months later.

IMO, this makes it on the the biggest decision you have to make and the game has not even started yet. I usually spend almsot a couple of days thinking and deciding which countries I want to see simmed...

My first career with QPR, I had started my game with England, top to bottom and no other countries. That would have limited me to playing only in England for the rest of the life of that career.

FM

So if I was looking for a player to transfer in from a country not open at all (neither in full or baisc mode) would I be able to get stats on his performance that season?

Yes, For players in leagues which arn't "selected"/"open" basic stats are generated for them. So for example if you just select the MLS, David Beckham will still be in the game at Real Madrid, he will have generated stats (like games played, assists, goals, average rating etc). However you will be unable able to see any of the fixtures real madrid have played, nor any other info like league tables etc.

Cheers
Fran
SI

Quick question:

Playing the demo and wondering during a match, if I substitude a player, why I can't I sub him back in later in the game. It shows a red arrow and won't let me put that player(s) back into the game?

Maybe i misunderstand the question, but it's basically against the rules of most (all?) soccer leagues.

Regular soccer rule. Like Major League Baseball, once you're out, you can't go back in. This isn't hockey ;)

FM

grrr, I'm very slow today :)

FM

This would be such a nice feature. It's to FM what "teams changing conferences" is in TCY and BBCF. IMHO. OG screwed me again!!!

What to do...I want Civ IV, BBCF, FM 2006, and kinda AOE 3....What to do...

Oh I don't if you're already at that stage (bought the game saturday, installed it sunday) but a great new thing is YOUR contract renegociation.

Like me I was able to make a counter offer asking for an improvement of the training facilities which the board accepted.

Very cool - you could always make ultimatums in the past, but I like the idea of having to negotiate your own contract.

This unfortunatly would be very hard to do. Imagine if in the game you are now in 2010, and suddenly want the english league.

The game would have to work out what has happened in the whole of england for the last 5 years. Also now load in all the english players in from the db (as when england was not selected only famous/good players would have been loaded). Then work out what those players have done during the 5 years. etc etc. A lot more difficult to achieve than it first seems :)

But if I wanted to transfer in an English player in 2010 the game would let me go in there though. Does that mean that teams in closed leagues do not transfer players, amoung themselves? And how does the game decide who makes the Champions League if they don't track the closed leagues?

it's here. i am actually installing it in my car as i go to bring Fozzie his copy

I think it's supposed to be played on a computer -- but I don't have the latest version. Good luck with that, though.

But if I wanted to transfer in an English player in 2010 the game would let me go in there though. Does that mean that teams in closed leagues do not transfer players, amoung themselves? And how does the game decide who makes the Champions League if they don't track the closed leagues

Clubs from inactive leagues would still transfer players. Though the amount of players which are loaded from inactive leagues, and the level of transfers/detail from these inactive divisions would be less than if you selected them.
If you selected just an league from outside europe then then the champions league wouldn't be selected or simulated.

If you have never played FM2006 before I suggest you get the free demo and give it a try :)

Got it yesterday.

So much to do, so much to see! :)

Very impressive. Cannot wait to play more.

Can't run it at work and my internet has been down at home. I will probably wait for the US release and then still think about it.

I love asking a ton of questions though :D

Mmm... Maybe this is the year I start playing FM again... From what I've seen, the game looks very good.

See how much I know. On Sunday's when I coach my girls soccer team, they come out and later they go in. :)

Sheesh... do you take your players out when they get tired? ..or leave the good ones in all game long?

hehehe, it's the same with most youth leagues :)

about subbing out your players, you'll get a feel for it. My take is condition is most important on the wings in my type of tactics, so I tend to sub out my wingers when they get to under 75% in the second half, then I sub whoever gets the lowest in the last 25 minutes of the game or so. Barring any tactical move though, like subbing out a striker to put in an extra defensive middie to protect a lead, I may take out the lowest condition striker, but I could also keep him in if he's having a very good game...

Hope this helps...

FM

Yes, it does.

Ok, now a team wants one of my players who was a scrub, but is now doing quite well for me since I brought him up from the reserve squad.

My question? I want to reject the proposal right? I mean, I really don't want to lose this guy right now. What are the benefits to letting him leave, other than making some cash?

Thanks!

For some reason, this version is much more user friendly than 05 was. I'm getting a bit more into this demo than 05.

I've been a fan of CM/FM since CM2, and was distinctly unimpressed by FM2005. But I am glad to say SI are back on form - FM2006 is just simply put excellent so far - about three months in to my game and I am hooked once again.

I felt FM2005 was very non-responsive to your changes, but so far FM2006 feels like the things you change (or don't change) actually have an effect this time, not always what you had intended (which is a good thing!) but there is an effect of some sort.

It's easier to use, navigate, and to repeat what's above, like all previous versions to 2005, you quickly become immersed in the game. Even though the straw that broke the camel's back for me in 2005 is still there (I won't mention it in case other people haven;t noticed :)), this is the only thing I have so far found to be a problem, and I seem to be able to quite happily ignore it this time!

Fingers crossed that it continues this way - good work fellas!

Depending on how much your team board is allowing you to keep from player sale, it's not only cash, but it's also transfer budget you can use to buy another player.

See it this way. Your team board gives you a budget to buy players at the start of the season, say $100k. Once you've spent that $100k, they won't allow you to spend anymore until next season. Sometimes, you can start with no budget at all.

The other thing they set is how much, as a percentage, of each sale you can use again to buy new player. If your team finances are not that good, they could tell you you will keep only 50% of what you sell, in that case, if the player is useful for you and the offer isn't too high, it may not be worth it to accept it. But at other times, the team board will tell you that you can retain 95% or 100% of sales and then it could make sense to let go of the player.



Don't know about the friendlyness of FM06, but I think it might simply be because it's your second go at it. Did the same thing to me with FM2005 after trying CM4 at first...

FM

In soccer you can do only 2 or 3 changes in the whole match so you really need to know what are you doing as if you use all your changes and one of your players is injured, you won't be able to replace him and if he needs to leave the field, you will play with one player less than the opposite team.

Usually all pro players can handle a full game, and in fact they usually get angry when benched, specially top stars. The changes are done after an injury or for strategic purposes mainly, like if you're winning and you pull a forward to bring in an extra defender or the other way if you're loosing, or if one of your players is being overplayed by the rival. Of course if one of your players is really tired, you can change him close to the end of the game for a fresh one with the hope of being able to outrun the already tired opposing team. This is done specially for attacking wingers/forwards, bringing in a fast one towards the end of the game to use his speed vs tired defenses. Also sometimes when a team is not doing good in a match, the coach can choose to bring in a fresh player trying to make the team react. Of course the benched player won't feel so good as it's like saying that he was the cause if the bad playing.

Also some star players are replaced towards the end of the game to give them a rest if they play in some competitions, like International, European leagues and domestic, that means he plays up to 2 or 3 games per week.

Sometimes, when a team is clearly winning and playing at home and one of the home players had an awesome performance, he is benched a few minutes before the game ends, so the public can offer him a big applause for his effort as he leaves the field.

Thanks to the both of you!! Great stuff in there!!

given how player lose condition in FM, I also often pull out a player when we play two games in three days and I want him to start both games. If we only play one game, then our next is seven days later, I'll tend to go with who's playing well or not and more tactical changes.

I've never heard of a player getting pissed at me for pulling him out of the game in FM though, as Icy was stating, although I can understand he may be referring more to real life...

FM

no problem, keep asking questions, we'll get you to love this game and you'll hate us for it ;)

/start shameless plug
If you got some time, come over to my dynasty, this could give you an idea as to why and how I do things... Not that I know everything, but I try to explain why I picked this or that player and such things...
/end shameless plug

:D

FM

Yeah, I need and will do that tonight at home. I'm 2-0 so far with Stafford, but navigation has been easier for me this time around. I'll keep plugging.

:)

It's happened to me in FM, if only during the match. I've seen commentary that says that a player is furious for being taken out.

Yeah i was talking about real life, never happened to me in FM either. It would be nice to see it added, of course the more professional a player is, the less chances of he being pissed when benched.

cool, was the player's morale altered because of that? I mean I could see a player going from "Superb" to "Very poor" because of that even though the team won its game.

Thanks for the info, as I said, I don't remember it happening to me before...

FM

Dola, nice to see it happends in the game too as Pumpy Tudors posted, awesome stuff!

And Mizzou, you can ask whatever you want to know about soccer. As every Spanish guy, i grew up with soccer being the only sport around me and even played it as keeper when i was young (regional under 18 league). Even my wife complains that in the TV news, at the sports time, it's only talked about soccer, like 25 minutes for it and 5 for all the other sports :)

Icy, I'd expect no less from than to know your football/soccer inside out :)

Me, I'll try to help anyway I can. Was a referee for 8 years in my younger days so I've seen some soccer, although I'm learning tactics with the likes of Marc Vaughan as my master :D

FM

I don't remember if or how the player's morale was affected. I didn't even play the game that much compared to a lot of you guys, so now I'm starting to wonder if I just imagined it. How could I see it and you guys not? Maybe it didn't really happen. :eek:

I rarely pull out a player that is doing well among a bunch of players having a bad game, and when I do, it's because his condition is around 65%. I'm thinking he doesn't really mind to be pulled out when he's unable to run after opponents.

It really wouldn't surprise that it is possible to happen and I've never seen it. The depth of this game never cease to amaze me...

FM

Wasn't your imagination...I've seen the same commentary. If it affected their morale, it was pretty minor (like from Superb to Very Good).

Yep, under those circumstances you probably wouldn't get it. The times I remember it happening I was up by 4 or 5 goals at half time and was looking to get some experience for a youngster, so I'd pull someone who was still relatively fresh and had put up very good numbers in the first half. I only saw it a few times over the last few versions (and I don't know if it's still in the game or not).

DaddyTorgo dropped it off, and I am now impatiently waiting for the patch to finish, then off I go! Wonder how my section of the data worked out.. (I was one of the MLS mini-researchers, so if you think the Revs are too powerful, you can always blame me :D)

game loading now, I am officially a league whore in FM2006, 35 nations, 54 leagues, with all the USA players loaded :D

dear God :eek: 35 nations!!! All on normal or is that including those on basic?

If all on normal, may I ask what kind of beast you're running this thing on? I mean I know you'll only be coming for air in what, 7 weeks, but still, an answer would be cool :D

FM

You plan on running like...a game a week? :)

All on Normal:

AMD Athlon64 Processor
3000+
2.0 Ghz, 1.50 GB of Ram
PAE

More like a game every 15-20 minutes, but that's cool.

I accidentally started with USA time frame (Feb05, but that's ok, I'll manage till July 05 with New England, then add a big name Foreign team)

that's pretty fast, although you got a better processor than I do and three times as much RAM as I do, heh

When you say a game every 15-20 minutes, that's a game of your team?

FM

wooohooo

Yup, I'll play 3-4 weeks an hour once I get going (right now, I'm posting to the Dynasties forum, so that's slowing me down. :D)

Very basic rule of thumb for soccer sims - players won't be 'tired' until around 60-65 minutes unless they get a knock in a match, obviously if someones playing dreadfully then don't worry about subbing them before that.

Also word of warning - subbing goalies is a good way to destroy their confidence ... this happens very very rarely irl unless they're injured for just this reason.

PS> My hints and tips file (kicking around on sigames.com and some other sites) covers some basic tactics etc.
(end blatant plug ;) )

Out of curiosity, does this apply in friendlies? I've often swapped keepers at halftime or thereabouts in the preseason to get them both into form.

No, Friendlies are exhibition games so the goalie expects it.

BTW, anyone see the picture of the PSP version of FM2006?

Guh. I might have to buy a PSP just for that, looks so sweet.

What does running a league on "Basic" mean?

On top of what Frogman has already said, it's important to consider the player's relationship to you and the team. If the player is unhappy with you, you might have difficulty signing him when his contract is expiring, and then risk the prospect of losing him for free to another team. You also have to judge the proposal to his value to you. If he is a scrub that you called up, it's likely he is replacing an injuried player, or you are looking actively for someone better to play his position. In that case his playing time might considerably drop soon and with it his value.

On the other hand, if he keeps playing and playing well, then his value might double or triple to the offer you all ready have, so if you sell now you miss out. Of course, if you don't sell now and if he is ambitious, then he might want to leave anyway, cause now he's too good for the club. Or he might demand wages out of your budget, and you'll have to try to sell him for cheap before his contract expires.

A billion things could happen. So what should you do? You're the manager, that's up to you :)

From Marc:

Also bear in mind that FM2006 introduces the concept of a 'basic' modelling level for a league, this is much faster than a normal or full detail league - however it doesn't actively retain players from that league so only the bigger clubs will be fully populated ...

You do however in this mode get to see league tables etc. for the league in question.

Can you later manager team(s) in "Basic" leagues? Can you switch them to normal or full detail at a later point?

Basic just simulates the league with games and stats, but you are not allowed to manage in it. The amount of players loaded in the database is higher than when the league is not selected, but lower for the normal league selection.

doh

no

had problems so far getting the game to start more than once (bad sectors on the HD maybe?). I think I've finally got that licked now though and am looking forward to firing this puppy up!

wow there so many different tactics you can do.

anybody have a great guide on tactics and what kind of personal you need to run each type of tactics?

thanks

I haven't finished catching up with this thread yet, but I've seen players in either CM 03/04 or FM 05 get pissed off for being taken out, particularly if they were close to their hattrick. I remember when I had one mercurial player (can't remember which one) he would routinely become quite angry at me for taking him out in the 2nd half.

Dang! I have a monster computer that FM 06 is going on, but I was only planning on doing about 15 nations and 30-35 leagues (with me managing in the MLS.) :)

Eaglefan27 cool

i cant wait to hear your impression son how the MLS league is done in fm 2006

Thanks to all your guys!! Your help is greatly appreciated. I am determined to get into FM one way or another. More questions will follow I'm sure. :)

Marc,

I was pulling goalies like I would a hockey goalie... whoops! I am undefeated though, so hey.. :D Allow two easy goals and your getting replaced!

I pulled this striker from my reserve squad and the guy has been unreal so far for me.. now, a team wants him.. so I think I'll hold on to him for now.

Here's a picture (click to get the full version) of the Aurora Blue Flow Skin in FM2006. It rocks.

Yeah, I love the Aurora skins; before I got them I didn't really think a skin could add that much to a gaming experience, but these days I find playing FM without Aurora pretty much unthinkable.

I like my silverstone skin for FM2005, but I think Aurora will be the one for FM2006, at least at first...

FM

I still replace goalies when I don't like their performance.

Fortunately for them, in Belgium, you can only dress 4 subs so I usually don't have a goalie on the bench. But I definitely have a very tight string when it comes to not starting a goalie if he has an average game or worse (doesn't hurt that I have two legit #1's, a young guy who's playing well in limited chances, and a teenager who is tearing up the reserves -- <0.50 GAA).

What do you mean by "add a big name Foreign team" ?

BTW, does anyone start the game unemployed? I did this for the FM2006 demo and picked up a team pretty quickly. We kicked some butt during the 6 months even though all the game previews said we had no chance. I didn't understand why they said we suck, and then preceded to slaughter everyone.

Either the press was way off, or the game let me win to get me to buy it.

I am dying to get my hands on this game. One thing I enjoyed was the home page, ton of team info there. I hope the next version of EHM has that.

add a manager, managing a big name team, that is.. (Since from February to july, they literally have nothing to do, if you start the game in Feb05)

FM2006 is a LOT faster then 05.

Are you saying you can roleplay as 2 different managers in the same universe?

Maybe I am misunderstanding.

yes, you can have multiple managers (The demo only allows 1).. but you can play games with multiple managers either over the net, or just on one computer.

For example, DaddyTorgo and I are going to be doing a net game as the Old Firm in the next few weeks. :D

Wow, very cool. I would be interested in hearing how the net game goes. I'm not even sure how you can manage it.

Old Firm loving scum! My Hearts team is about to break their hold on the SPL (Celtic just fired O'Neill and are in 5th - Hearts havent lost a game in 30 and are in Champions League QF, but still goddamn second to Rangers) :D

Can't speak for any of the earlier version but I was able to do that even back in 01/02.

Heh - thats exactly what I've done ... we'll be getting some test UMD's in the near(ish) future for the game (prior to that we have to play on 'test-kits' and PC based emulation versions) and I've made a point of purchasing a PSP so I can play on the train on a PSP once we've got them in (if you're interested I picked up a Japanese PSP from Ebay for £120 which wasn't bad (around 60% of retail price in UK).

All versions of CM/FM since CM2 have been able to have multiple managers.

All versions of CM/FM since CM3 have had network games.

(if you didn't realise you can mix and match the two, for instance have a network game on 2 PC's in different locations and have 3 managers on each PC's for a total of six managers in the game etc.)

JB - try the hint guide in this thread:

http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~fof/foru...han+hints+tips

BTW, does anyone start the game unemployed?

Some would say thats the only way to go :)!

I don't have FM 2006, but my typical start is unemployed, then wait for the first vacancy in conference north/south.

You better be Celtic!

And you better win.

Fugging Huns.

I plan on being Celtic.

And I plan on running Rangers ragged.

"Glasgow is green and white.. GREEEENNN AND WHITE!"

Hey Marc.. where did the Print To Text button go? I do miss it so... :D

you mean, it's not under "options, print screen" like in FM2005?

FM