Alright boyz, here we go!!! Football Manager 05 First impressions

[scooter]

The patch is out. Repeat: the patch is out.

[GoldenEagle]

I amazingly got it before the rush hit.

[FrogMan]

there are quite a few mirrors from where to get the patch btw...

from the SI forums:
PC

http://www.sigames.com/downloads.php?type=view&id=236
http://www.thedugout.net/download.php?cmv=11&cat=1&id=367
http://www.fmdanmark.dk/downloadsGet.php?id=120
http://fmro.gameszone.ro/dl/dm/download.php?file=bb1XIfDHDFv9df5hyU+Kvfdj7ldzdLzQJ6Ib9BahYe2QD+s3Ai5g0NLl
http://www.manager4life.com/m4l/dload.php?action=file&file_id=293
http://fmreview.info/index.php?pliki=download&sciagaj=5295
http://downloads.soccergaming.com/complete.php?id=00009581
http://www.blazeproductionz.com/acid/369.exe

MAC

http://www.thedugout.net/download.php?cmv=11&cat=1&id=368


From the comments over there, thedugout.net seems to be flying...

FM

[GoldenEagle]

Football Manager 2005 v5.0.2
----------------------------

Please note, this patch is save game compatible. You do not need to start a new game, however for the best results it is suggested.

Match Engine v326:
===================

> Fixed Known issues
- Further improved corner taking AI
- Tweaked free kick taking AI
- Tweak on defensive clearance AI

Match Engine v325:
===================

> Fixed Known issues
- Fixed stupid long goal kicks
- Fixed keeper diving 2-3 seconds before pen taken
- Fixed possible endless loop caused by 324 restriction on choice of free kick
- Fixed 323 occasional pass away from goal when would always shoot IRL issue

Match Engine v324:
===================

> Fixed Known issues
- Lessened no of corners charged down
- Lessened no of corners going straight out of play
- Increased likelyhood of short corners
- Improved chances of dual challenges for ariel balls

Match Engine v323:
===================

> Fixed Known issues
- Goalkeepers now more likely to play short goal kicks as instructed
- Tuned down occasional excessive curve on ball
- Fixed players not staying back at set pieces when asked to by human managers

> Known Bugs
- Fixed attacking team freekicks given inside area for fouls
- Fixed occasional incidence of player not reacting to pass to him
- Fixed stuttery "roll" on low ball slowdown
- Fixed path problem with ball that crosses line for goal on apex of its curve
- Fixed "backpass" when through on goal issue that was introduced in 322

> Player
- Improved player awareness of ball when not under any player control
- Yet further tweaks to passing and crossing AI
- Tweaked effect of in match motivation of working under lesser known managers
- Tweaked effect of current form on player motivation depending on mental attributes
- Lessened amount of "simulation"
- Tuned tackle completion rate
- Improved reaction to slide tackles of players in vicinity
- Lowered amount of dissent
- Improved defence line position on goal kicks
- Reworked player AI regarding when to shoot for goal
- Lowered number of penalties awarded slightly
- Improved keeper reactions to long shots
- Improved marking at set pieces
- Tuned shot accuracy further
- Made throws down line hug line more
- Reduced no of goal kicks going out for throws before bounce
- Reduced no of precise header passes from defenders under pressure
- Improved keepers coming out for interceptions etc
- Improved closing down of opponents

> Manager
- Tweaked AI mentality used for matches
- Tweaked AI use of sitting back attribute in matches
- Tweaked AI team lineup after in match formation change
- AI managers can now utilise the close down corner taker instruction

> Referee
- Tweaked distribution of cards

Match Engine v322:
===================

> Fixed Known issues
- Attempt to cut down on unusually high scoring games involving human managers
- Lessened amount of dives by more sportsmanlike players
- Further tweaks to prevent wild and inappropriate clearances
- Stopped players turning repeatedly in different directions when at a loss for a pass or shot
- Cut down number of lobs and chips
- Improved length and variance of goal kicks
- Stopped goalies taking free kicks ( unless they are an expert in it! )

> Known Bugs
- Fixed huge amount of injury time in extra time caused by human making subs in the interval
- Fixed specific man marking bug where the wrong player may be marked after tactical changes regardless of human settings from tactics screen
- Fixed bug where corner would be given in place of goal kick and vice versa after some clearances
- Fixed match rating bug for out of position players
- Fixed bug that occurs when injured player is treated while goal is scored then from kick off the ball is belatedly put out of play
- Fixed bug where some goals would get an inappropriate "he hit that from 105 yards" message or similar
- Fixed obscure crash when trying silly tactics for set pieces
- Fixed dead ball goal kicks being passed inside own area

> Player
- Tuned effect of player mental stats on match depending on circumstances eg winning, losing etc
- Some passes were a tad too slow, increased pace of ball for them which makes for better attacks
- Further tweaks to passing AI
- Improved "letting ball run out" AI
- Tweaked running with ball AI
- Improve marking of players running with ball
- Improved AI regarding players covering for one another in the formation
- Tweaked one on one vs goalie situations

> Manager
- Slightly improved computer team selection AI
- Tweaked AI manager use of width slider
- Tweaked AI manager use of depth slider
- Tweaked AI manager use of ultra defensive tactics
- Tweaked AI manager reaction to opposition width setting

> Tactics
- Tweaked formation positions and shape in relation to depth, width and attacking mentality

> Referee
- Fixed instance of offside being called at the expense of a significant advantage
- Improved referee interpretation of professional fouls

> Misc
- Tweaked goal award judging algorithm
- A player can no longer play for both teams in a club's reserves vs youth match.

Other Items:
============

> Interface
- Fixed problem with text being cut off in the lefthand column of the club records screens.
- Fixed problem with player search nationality filter where sometimes a regional search would not filter out all players from outside that region.
- Fixed the transfer offer screen displaying a player's basic value instead of his asking price when player is transfer listed
- Fixed a crash on the startup screen when user moves the mouse scrollwheel up or down.
- Fixed problems where there would be empty rows between subs on the match screen.
- Fixed tactics names allwed to be too long, which could cause some file problems on the Mac.
- Fixed date for non-human teams in tactics section being cut off ("...")
- Fixed the sorting by squad status on the team screen.
- Fixed favoured personel not showing up on team information screen.
- Fixed the "James Milner" career history problem where the transfer fee would sometimes appear in the wrong place in the history.
- Fixed a problem when a friendly competition is edited after teams reject invitations. New teams picked using the "Choose Other.." option are now added correctly to the proposal.
- Fixed a problem when swapping players on the tactics screen. Sometimes it would not remember the swap if you browsed away and came back again.
- Hidden faulty team report option for national team assistant managers.
- Lowered the minimum bonus value in the contract offer screen.
- Hard-coded column hiding when filter panel is visible on squad list has been replaced with generic XML support for hiding columsn when there is not enough space on the screen (use minimum column width & column auto hide priority)
- Minor bugfix for user name being clipped on game status screen and wrapping onto multiple lines on titlebar
- Cosmetic fixes to correct the alignment of various popup menus
- Changed priority order of team screen status flags, to ensure retiring and leaving on bosman do not overwrite injured
- Re-ordered the transfer offer confirmation news item buttons to show same order as the dialogues for that platform
- Removed links to people that you cannot view.
- The "Co-owned by" label on the player profile screen now always shows the other club.
- The "Set all to schedule" options on the training screen now sets the correct schedule for all of the players.
- Training schedule names are now translated into language used by network client and not that of the server.
- When using overview on the squad screen, one player would always be missing.
- Added startup sounds
- "Is At Most" filter on person search screen now uses a lower or equal to operator instead of a just the lower operator.
- Added --fullscreen_height and --fullscreen_width command line options (use with caution, setting them to silly values may cause crashes!)
- Viewing other teams squad lists previous team selection on squad list (as well as tactics section)
- Pressing F12 (keyboard shortcut for Game Status Screen) on Intro Screen before starting or loading a game would crash.
- Exporting a tactic from "Edit tactics..." did not rename the actual (internal) tactic name to the new name
- Can now go to team tactics when looking at an old match.
- Pressing "Escape" in a Yes/No dialog now triggers the "No" action (instead of nothing happening and the dialog closing.)
- The game now takes up less processor time when running in the background.
- Selected nations now are retained in the "keep players from nation" menu.
- Fixed a match screen problem where the control panel was not refreshed when you go from one match to the next on a matchday.
- Fixed a crash when user cancels a friendly proposal.
- A player can no longer play for the reserves and the first team on the same day.
- Printing of league tables fixed.
- Fixed cheat/ability to view team instructions for other teams than your own.
- National team logos no longer displayed on club and competition screens.
- Fixed importing and deleting filters.
- Fixed a problem with a managers notebook that meant you couldn't scroll down if you had more than one page of notes.
- Fixed the crash when clicking on Go To Match on the match screen when you are viewing (instead of playing) a match.
- If a player is contracted to a team, but doesn't have a job it will know say "Unknown" instead of "[%string#1]" in the subtitle of the person screen.
- Swapped "Accept Invitation" and "Reject Invitation" buttons in the Friendly Proposal news item.
- Swapped "Confirm" and "Cancel" buttons on the arrange friendly screen.
- Fixed squad list view loosing its state after a match (specifically), and sections loosing their state when going to other sections (generally).
- Switched "Appeal Against Ban" and "Don't Appeal" buttons on ban news item.
- Award screen view menu now works ok on network clients.
- When multiple shortlists were deleted from the "Edit Shortlists" dialog, the game would sometimes crash.
- "Fullscreen" (i.e. no title bar/sidebar/status bar) now works correctly during a match, so the sidebar doesn't pop up again after switching sections.

> Awards
- Fixed Danish u21/u19/17 awards which now use reputation.
- Fixed incorrect year being displayed for calender year awards.
- Fixed past club award winners not being shown in history panel.
- Fixed national awards not being shown in the nation award screen.
- Fixed number of assists not being shown in award screen for assist awards.
- Fixed club award not appearing under the nation section when it has no comp set.
- Fixed international comp award news item using players club team instead of nation.
- Fixed Ukrainian player of the week award being given during winter break.
- Fixed awards that are set to specified date in the db not showing correct year for winners.
- Fixed european awards were not finding enough people in later years.
- Fixed some player weekly award using wrong sort type.
- Fixed Team of the year award not sending news to the clubs.
- Fixed Malyasian goal of the season stopping after 4 seasons.
- Fixed Hong Kong defensive awards.
- Fixed players in inactive leagues playing too many games and winning awards.

> Competitions
- Fixed Austrian cup crash when only Austrian premier is active
- Fixed some match times for various competitions.
- Fixed a scheduling problem with the Danish Under 18 leagues.
- Fixed a problem with 2 European squad registration news items being generated within a few days of each other.
- Fixed a crash which would sometimes happen around the end of 2005 when running the Irish league.
- Fixed a problem with competitions which use Period league tables (e.g. Dutch First and Belgian Second Divisions). News items which refer to a team's current position are now more accurate.
- Fixed some Czech competiton start times.
- Fixed a problem with the English Championship playoff semi final sometimes getting the wrong draw.
- Fixed some save game loading code which would sometimes cause friendlies not to be created.
- Fixed some promotion/relegation issues in Chile.
- Fixed some competition qualification issues in Peru.
- Fixed a problem where delayed bans can sometimes last for 1 game too many.
- Greek National Division B uses goal difference after results between teams on same points to decide position.
- Greek National B Division teams have a 3 Non-EU player limit on their squads.
- Some Welsh FAW Premier Cup dates changed.
- National team bans now apply to the national team that the player was sent off for.
- The English LDV Vans Trophy now uses the correct teams for 2004 and picks 6 Conference teams to play in each section.
- Danish B teams now play in the reserve leagues.
- Danish cup now uses cup runner up instead of league runner up if a team wins the double.
- Confederations Cup draw now takes place after Oceania Nations Cup final and thus picks up the winner correctly now.
- South American Recopa no longer uses extra time, just penalties.
- Sometimes matches which should have been moved for TV were not being moved due to clashes with other competitions which should have been ignored.
- Czech Under 18 leagues now have 16 teams per group.
- Removed Czech Under 18 cup.
- Correct teams get entered into each round of the Welsh FAW Premier Cup.
- Squad numbers only apply to teams in the Turkish Premier Division now.
- Tuned attendances in MLS ALL Stars Match
- Tuned Korean player wages and valuations
- Portuguese Under 19s can now be registered meaning that that they are eligible to play for A/B teams. (Registered B team players still need to be moved into the A team before they can be picked)
- Increased Romanian loan lengths.
- Italian Serie B now uses playoffs depending on the number of points gap between certain teams in the league.
- Added some tv dates to the Danish Cup.
- Danish divisions now only have a position playoff if teams have the same goal difference and goals scored.
- Added a winter Norwegian transfer window.
- German Second Division now has 7 subs instead of 5 allowed.
- Argentina reserve competitions now have fixtures during the closing stage of the season.
- Correct teams from Chile now qualify for the Libertadores.
- Norwegian teams can now have more than 2 non-EU players in their squad but can only play 2 at one time.
- Trialists cannot play in competitive matches in Belgium.
- English Vans Trophy now uses extra time.
- 1 team is relegated from the Singaporean League from 2008 onwards.
- Czech Cup semi final is now played at the stadium of the home team.
- Changed Polish foreigner rules to non-EU rules.
- Vitkovice start 2004 season with -9 points.
- Royal League matches are no longer used in club/nation Coefficient calculations.
- B teams no longer play in the Portugese Cup.
- Players can now play in the MLS before they reach 16 years old.

> Finances
- Fixed bug where a few obscure Argentinian players had negative wages
- Fixed bug where free-transfer compensation wasn't always subtracted from finances correctly
- Slight tweaking to Korean player and staff wages
- Slight tweaking to Singaporean player wages
- Slight tweaking to Malaysian player wages
- Tuned Korean semi-pro expenditure costs
- Tuned Serbian sponsorship amounts
- Tuning capping on player valuations for minor leagues to prevent "big-name" players in those leagues being over somewhat valued considering the clubs they are at.
- Reduced level of TV payments in smaller leagues somewhat where appropriate
- Tuned Czech player valuations
- Tuned Czech club sponsorship amounts
- Chinese player valutation tuning.

> News Items
- Fixed default string appearing if no responses to player being unhappy at club trying to sign a replacement
- Fixed injured in training bug when in fact he was injured during a match
- Fixed 0 year contract extension news bug
- Fixed instances of 'young' appearing twice in staff assessments
- Fixed bug where wrong scoreline was being shown in a qualification news item
- Fixed news item not mentioning penalty shootout win during world cup in post match news item
- Fixed manager comment stating he intends to stop opponents title bid before it's even begun from, appearing in march
- Prevented post_transfer news items being generated for players who were already on loan before the transfer or co-owned.
- Stopped fans moaning about the signing of old player when he has signing in a non_playing capacity as well
- Human managers no longer linked to jobs in nations which are not enabled.
- In some injury news items, the team mentioned was the wrong team in the fixture.

> Transfers
- Adjusted down values for certain Championship level players at clubs like QPR who had slightly higher potentials than reputations but where those potentials were below top standard level.
- Ensured young lads don't get put in the first team when they can't actually play for the first team
- Tuned manager interest, stopped managers being interested in lesser stature club's than the ones they are currently at
- Reduced number of Eastern European players moving to South America
- Players work permits are no longer removed when they become coaches.

> International Management
- Fixed player being removed from squad when he has 1 or 2 day injury.
- International underage jobs now offered to human managers by computer managers.
- Removed player pre match comment for second leg of a playoff( until text can be added to determine first leg score )
- More national team managers are now retained at the start of the game.
- Fixed national team news item saying team are already out of the competition when they are not.
- Fixed news item says 'despite failing to win their last game' when it's the first game.
- Fixed high rep managers signing as human managers national team youth managers.
- Fixed national teams playing big nations in small stadiums.
- Fixed smaller non european teams not playing any friendlies.
- Fixed nations playing friendlies against teams in their quailfying groups.
- Fixed u19 national team fixtures not showing in fixture screen.
- Greece play at Giorgos Karaiskakis stadium until 12.10.2005

> Player Profile
- Fixed bizarre player reaction to media comment prior to relgation battle
- "Believes his manager may be overly about winning the title this season" added confident to the previous string (english only)
- Tuned removal of 'lost confidence' in manager
- Ensured that players don't request first team football until fairly fit
- Players stop requesting first team football while injured
- Made players winge less about their squad status

> Scouting
- Fixed problem where scout searches and also team coach reports for some small clubs would be full of 5 star players not worthy of such a rating.
- Fixed a problem where scout search conditions were not always being saved down properly.
- Fixed next opposition report indicating a player who is on loan is a 'key player'
- Stopped players being scouted while injured
- Team coach report tweaking for reporting on AM and DM players in a 352 formation better.

> Player Personality Model
- Prevented rare bug where players seesawed between unhappy/happy with their amount of first team football
- Improved AI behind removal of 'clarifacation of squad status' unhappiness
- Ensured players aren't too pleased when an unknown manager takes charge of a really big team at the start of a game
- Made player feedback from loans more frequent

> Manager
- Tuned manager movement in smaller leagues and semi-pro clubs slightly

> Training
- Fixed incorrect coach text being displayed for injured players
- Tuned player progression and regeneration player setup

> Hall Of Fame
- International continental competition wins are now rated by the continent. Before an Oceania Nations Cup win was treated equally to a European Championship win.

> Retirements
- Fixed player's retiring day after announcing that they are about to retire due to injury at end of season
- Re-tuned distribution of retirement news.
- When a player gets converted into a coach/manager, he retains his city of birth and career history.
- Fixed obscure problem where a welsh team playing in an English league would sometimes get regenerated players who were above normal entry ages

> Miscellaneous
- Fixed problem where sometimes regenerated players would get first and second names from a different nation to their nationality.
- Fixed a crash which might occur after the user views past years of certain competitions.
- Fixed a problem where stadium moves would disappear after a season if the club had been using an alternative stadium, while waiting for their new one.
- A few starting injuries were not always being set up at the start of the game.
- A managers longest and shortest time at a club wasn't getting updated correctly when changing job.
- Tweaked ask assistant maanger to rule out unrealistic targets filter rule

> Network Games
- Fixed crash when breadcrumb menu was visible and another user continued.
- The forced continue controls on the Preferences screen now store their settings properly.
- Fixed crash when a client tries to connect to a server too quickly after a game has been loaded.
- Fixed crash when a client tries to connect to a server when it is currently saving a game.

> Translation
- Fixed 'Transfer Status' on player right-click menu not being called for translation.
- Fixed some three-line manager comments not being translated
- Fixed 'Default Team Selection' not translated in Team Selection List Dialog

> Club Badges
- England: Updated Nottingham Forest badge so that it shows up on both red and white backgrounds
- Netherlands: Updated Roda JC badge
- Netherlands: Updated Dordrecht badge
- Netherlands: Updated Excelsior badge
- Netherlands: Updated FC Eindhoven badge

> Player Pictures
- Added Brighton pictures
- Added West Ham pictures
- Added Grimsby pictures
- Fixed wrong Richard Johnson picture and added a few more QPR pics

> Kit Graphics
- Eng
- Championship updated: Wigan home
- Lg 2 updated: Cheltenham away, Grimsby home, Grimsby away, Kidderminster home, Leyton Orient home, Leyton Orient away, Lincoln home, Lincoln away, Macclesfield home, Macclesfield away, Mansfield home, Mansfield away, Northampton home, Northampton away, Notts Co home, Notts Co away, Oxford home, Oxford away, Rochdale home, Rochdale away, Rushden home, Rushden away, Scunthorpe home, Scunthorpe away, Shrewsbury home, Shrewsbury away, Southend home, Southend home, Swansea home, Swansea away, Wycombe home Wycombe away
- Conf N updated: Redditch home
- Esp
- Primera updated: Ath. Bilbao home, At. Madrid away, Deportivo home, Osasuna home, Osasuna away,
- Ned
- Premier updated: ADO Den Haag away, De Graafschap home, Heerenveen away, NEC home, NEC away, RKC home,
- First updated: Cambuur home, Dordrecht home, Dordrecht away, Emmen home, Fortuna home, Go Ahead Eagle home, Haarlem home, Haarlem away, Helmond home, Heracles home, Heracles away, Sparta Rotterdam home, Top Oss home, Volendam home, Volendam away,
- Por
- Superleague updated: Benfica home, Benfica away, Braga home, Porto home, Sporting home, Sporting away, Vit. Gumaeres home,
- Superleague added: Belenenses home, Gil Vicente home, Lieria home, Nacional Da Madeira home, Nacional Da Madeira away, Nacional Da Madeira third, Penafiel home, Sporting third, Vit. Gumaeres away, Vit. Setubal home
- config.xml updated

> Mac Only
- Fixed mac bug which was trying to scan font files in formats that we don't support
- Fixed potential file error on mac; if filenames were too long, the wrong file could get returned from a routine, leading to file corruptions
- Fixed crash when right-clicking on an edit box on the mac
- Fixed double-clicking on game file to load a game
- Fixed mac preferences, about and quit menus
- Rewrote some low level file code to remove the old OS9 file name length limits

> Windows Only
- Fixed scanning files with invalid modification dates would cause game crash (If date was not between 00:00:00 01-01-1970 and 03:14:07 01-19-2038 (UTC).)

> Data Editor
- Making changes to playing histories no longer crashes the game or the editor.
- The ratings of club and nation relationships can now be updated.
- The editor can now save the datafiles to another location than the default one.
- Fixed a problem with selecting a competition for club histories, after applying a filter to the competition list.
- Switched "Confirm" and "Cancel" buttons on the preferences screen.
- Editing player histories now updates a players career stats.

[SirFozzie]

Well.. it's official. The game is very realistic.

Started a 5.0.2 game with Ajax and took on liverpool in the Semi Final of a preseason friendly cup tournament at home in the Amsterdam ArenA, in front of 16,000 (in contrast, the afternoon game between Real Zaragosa and Parma drew 1500).. and the game was a scoreless draw entering Penalty Kicks..

In PK's.. Liverpool won 2-0.

That's right. 2-0. After three and a half rounds.

The only way you can do that is if Ajax missed ALL FOUR PENALTY KICK ATTEMPTS..

Freakin Dutch

[Sharpieman]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Well.. it's official. The game is very realistic.

Started a 5.0.2 game with Ajax and took on liverpool in the Semi Final of a preseason friendly cup tournament at home in the Amsterdam ArenA, in front of 16,000 (in contrast, the afternoon game between Real Zaragosa and Parma drew 1500).. and the game was a scoreless draw entering Penalty Kicks..

In PK's.. Liverpool won 2-0.

That's right. 2-0. After three and a half rounds.

The only way you can do that is if Ajax missed ALL FOUR PENALTY KICK ATTEMPTS..

Freakin Dutch

A lot of people seem be having trouble with the unrealistic nature of the game after the patch, I however haven't seen any problems except for the total mess the MLS is.

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm happy with the game so far, post patch (except for MLS which I sincerely hope is fixed in the 2nd patch.)

[Desnudo]

I think the game matchplay is more realistic after the patch. People complaining are the ones who want to watch their side get 50 shots and are upset they didn't get 10 goals instead of five. However I am concerned that the scoring got tweaked down a little bit too hard as all my games (about 14) after the patch failed to exceed two goals aggregate. I've had three or four 0-0 ties out of that total, which seems high. I'm playing an offensive formation so this really shouldn't happen.

It was the end of the season though and in every CM starting with 4 my teams slump in scoring after January. It'll take the new season to make sure of the impact.

[Eaglesfan27]

I think the scoring might be a bit too low, but maybe not. I do know that I find the number of shots each game seem much more realistic.

[Desnudo]

I agree about shot numbers and also the quality and variety of the chances are improved. Many fewer "high and wides" from open shots. I'll update as my next season moves along to see how the scoring part goes.

[Desnudo]

One thing I can see they didn't fix is your asst. manager resigning players with expiring contracts if you go on holiday during the summer. I'd love to see them fix this. It's my most annoying bug besides the match ratings one.

[Eaglesfan27]

Ahh, thanks for pointing that out. I was just about to say that one thing I'm sure about is that the game is MUCH more fun for me post patch. I'm happily addicted as I've been playing for about 9 hours straight (and plan on playing for a few more hours til Ms. Eaglesfan gets off work.)

[Desnudo]

Oops, I might be wrong. I restarted my save and started through June normally and the guy got resigned anyway. Maybe one of those "chairman's decisions?" If it was, it'd be nice if you were told that. Restarting again and I'm just going to waive the player.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

One thing I can see they didn't fix is your asst. manager resigning players with expiring contracts if you go on holiday during the summer. I'd love to see them fix this. It's my most annoying bug besides the match ratings one.

hmm- are you sure you dont have the ass man handle contracts option turned on ?

[Desnudo]

Yes. This was sometimes a problem in 03/04 too. It's been noted on the SI boards. I'm suprised they didn't fix it.

[Sharpieman]

Question about signing internationals:

So I'm playing as Fulham's manager and wanted to sign American striker Eddie Johnson who has a unprotected contract. Unfortunately, every time I try to sign him his work permit is turned down and my appeals are turned down. Does anyone know why this is happening? And also, what time is the best time to sign internationals assuming the permits are turned down because I am offering contracts at the wrong time?

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Sharpieman

Question about signing internationals:

So I'm playing as Fulham's manager and wanted to sign American striker Eddie Johnson who has a unprotected contract. Unfortunately, every time I try to sign him his work permit is turned down and my appeals are turned down. Does anyone know why this is happening? And also, what time is the best time to sign internationals assuming the permits are turned down because I am offering contracts at the wrong time?

The work permits only apply to non-EU players (so Johnson would need one).

To get a work permit you need to have played in 75% of their international team's last ~10 matches. Once they received a work permit, to retain it they needed to appear in ~75% of the CLUB team's matches to be able to re-sign a new contract later on. After 5? years in England (or any EU country I think) that player receives a work permit.

So in short, the player needs to be a major factor on their international side (though exceptions are sometimes granted, in real life and FM - though rarely).

[Router Help]

He needs to play in a certain percentage of games for the national team to be eligible for a work permit. I don't remember the exact number though.

[Chief Rum]

In England, non-EU internationals have to earn a work permit (as you already know). To do this, they have to have appeared in a certain number of theirnational team's games the past two years. In real life, it is six games and 75% of the national team's total games (that latter usually comes into play with a new tarnsfer of such a player after he has already been granted a permit previously).

U-21 games don't count--has to be the senior squad. At the beginning of FM2005, Eddie Johnson has just 2 U21 caps and no senior squad appearances with the U.S.

So that's why you haven't been able to get him a permit. Sometimes a permit is granted for popular/well-known players or players that have played in England for a long time who no longer feature prominently in their national sides but have developed a reputation there (in England).

In any case, Johnson will eventually get on the big squad (as will Adu). So just shorltist him and check him out every nwo and then to see if he is close to qualifying.

CR

[Godzilla Blitz]

Spent some time reading the reactions to the patch over at the SI boards this evening.

One thing that I've followed closely for the past year or so is the "regens" issue. Basically, there have been complaints since the release of CM 03/04 that the game's ability to generate new players as the years progress has not worked well, and that the game world kind of disintegrates over time.

However, the initial reactions to this patch are solid, and it looks as if a lot of effort has gone into this issue for FM2005 and its patch. This is the one issue that has kept me on the bench with FM2005, and if the strong reactions hold up after some of the members on the SI boards post their test results, I think I'm going to have to order myself a Christmas present! Getting excited about this now!

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Explain what the patch will fix please.

[klayman]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

Once they received a work permit, to retain it they needed to appear in ~75% of the CLUB team's matches to be able to re-sign a new contract later on.

This is no longer the case in the game, as it has not been the case in real life for a couple of years.

[klayman]

Originally Posted by CHEMICAL SOLDIER

Explain what the patch will fix please.

Football Manager 2005 v5.0.2
----------------------------
Please note, this patch is save game compatible. You do not need to start a new game, however for the best results it is suggested.
Match Engine v326:
===================
> Fixed Known issues
- Further improved corner taking AI
- Tweaked free kick taking AI
- Tweak on defensive clearance AI
Match Engine v325:
===================
> Fixed Known issues
- Fixed stupid long goal kicks
- Fixed keeper diving 2-3 seconds before pen taken
- Fixed possible endless loop caused by 324 restriction on choice of free kick
- Fixed 323 occasional pass away from goal when would always shoot IRL issue
Match Engine v324:
===================
> Fixed Known issues
- Lessened no of corners charged down
- Lessened no of corners going straight out of play
- Increased likelyhood of short corners
- Improved chances of dual challenges for ariel balls
Match Engine v323:
===================
> Fixed Known issues
- Goalkeepers now more likely to play short goal kicks as instructed
- Tuned down occasional excessive curve on ball
- Fixed players not staying back at set pieces when asked to by human managers
> Known Bugs
- Fixed attacking team freekicks given inside area for fouls
- Fixed occasional incidence of player not reacting to pass to him
- Fixed stuttery "roll" on low ball slowdown
- Fixed path problem with ball that crosses line for goal on apex of its curve
- Fixed "backpass" when through on goal issue that was introduced in 322
> Player
- Improved player awareness of ball when not under any player control
- Yet further tweaks to passing and crossing AI
- Tweaked effect of in match motivation of working under lesser known managers
- Tweaked effect of current form on player motivation depending on mental attributes
- Lessened amount of "simulation"
- Tuned tackle completion rate
- Improved reaction to slide tackles of players in vicinity
- Lowered amount of dissent
- Improved defence line position on goal kicks
- Reworked player AI regarding when to shoot for goal
- Lowered number of penalties awarded slightly
- Improved keeper reactions to long shots
- Improved marking at set pieces
- Tuned shot accuracy further
- Made throws down line hug line more
- Reduced no of goal kicks going out for throws before bounce
- Reduced no of precise header passes from defenders under pressure
- Improved keepers coming out for interceptions etc
- Improved closing down of opponents
> Manager
- Tweaked AI mentality used for matches
- Tweaked AI use of sitting back attribute in matches
- Tweaked AI team lineup after in match formation change
- AI managers can now utilise the close down corner taker instruction
> Referee
- Tweaked distribution of cards
Match Engine v322:
===================
> Fixed Known issues
- Attempt to cut down on unusually high scoring games involving human managers
- Lessened amount of dives by more sportsmanlike players
- Further tweaks to prevent wild and inappropriate clearances
- Stopped players turning repeatedly in different directions when at a loss for a pass or shot
- Cut down number of lobs and chips
- Improved length and variance of goal kicks
- Stopped goalies taking free kicks ( unless they are an expert in it! )
> Known Bugs
- Fixed huge amount of injury time in extra time caused by human making subs in the interval
- Fixed specific man marking bug where the wrong player may be marked after tactical changes regardless of human settings from tactics screen
- Fixed bug where corner would be given in place of goal kick and vice versa after some clearances
- Fixed match rating bug for out of position players
- Fixed bug that occurs when injured player is treated while goal is scored then from kick off the ball is belatedly put out of play
- Fixed bug where some goals would get an inappropriate "he hit that from 105 yards" message or similar
- Fixed obscure crash when trying silly tactics for set pieces
- Fixed dead ball goal kicks being passed inside own area
> Player
- Tuned effect of player mental stats on match depending on circumstances eg winning, losing etc
- Some passes were a tad too slow, increased pace of ball for them which makes for better attacks
- Further tweaks to passing AI
- Improved "letting ball run out" AI
- Tweaked running with ball AI
- Improve marking of players running with ball
- Improved AI regarding players covering for one another in the formation
- Tweaked one on one vs goalie situations
> Manager
- Slightly improved computer team selection AI
- Tweaked AI manager use of width slider
- Tweaked AI manager use of depth slider
- Tweaked AI manager use of ultra defensive tactics
- Tweaked AI manager reaction to opposition width setting
> Tactics
- Tweaked formation positions and shape in relation to depth, width and attacking mentality
> Referee
- Fixed instance of offside being called at the expense of a significant advantage
- Improved referee interpretation of professional fouls
> Misc
- Tweaked goal award judging algorithm
- A player can no longer play for both teams in a club's reserves vs youth match.
Other Items:
============
> Interface
- Fixed problem with text being cut off in the lefthand column of the club records screens.
- Fixed problem with player search nationality filter where sometimes a regional search would not filter out all players from outside that region.
- Fixed the transfer offer screen displaying a player's basic value instead of his asking price when player is transfer listed
- Fixed a crash on the startup screen when user moves the mouse scrollwheel up or down.
- Fixed problems where there would be empty rows between subs on the match screen.
- Fixed tactics names allwed to be too long, which could cause some file problems on the Mac.
- Fixed date for non-human teams in tactics section being cut off ("...")
- Fixed the sorting by squad status on the team screen.
- Fixed favoured personel not showing up on team information screen.
- Fixed the "James Milner" career history problem where the transfer fee would sometimes appear in the wrong place in the history.
- Fixed a problem when a friendly competition is edited after teams reject invitations. New teams picked using the "Choose Other.." option are now added correctly to the proposal.
- Fixed a problem when swapping players on the tactics screen. Sometimes it would not remember the swap if you browsed away and came back again.
- Hidden faulty team report option for national team assistant managers.
- Lowered the minimum bonus value in the contract offer screen.
- Hard-coded column hiding when filter panel is visible on squad list has been replaced with generic XML support for hiding columsn when there is not enough space on the screen (use minimum column width & column auto hide priority)
- Minor bugfix for user name being clipped on game status screen and wrapping onto multiple lines on titlebar
- Cosmetic fixes to correct the alignment of various popup menus
- Changed priority order of team screen status flags, to ensure retiring and leaving on bosman do not overwrite injured
- Re-ordered the transfer offer confirmation news item buttons to show same order as the dialogues for that platform
- Removed links to people that you cannot view.
- The "Co-owned by" label on the player profile screen now always shows the other club.
- The "Set all to schedule" options on the training screen now sets the correct schedule for all of the players.
- Training schedule names are now translated into language used by network client and not that of the server.
- When using overview on the squad screen, one player would always be missing.
- Added startup sounds
- "Is At Most" filter on person search screen now uses a lower or equal to operator instead of a just the lower operator.
- Added --fullscreen_height and --fullscreen_width command line options (use with caution, setting them to silly values may cause crashes!)
- Viewing other teams squad lists previous team selection on squad list (as well as tactics section)
- Pressing F12 (keyboard shortcut for Game Status Screen) on Intro Screen before starting or loading a game would crash.
- Exporting a tactic from "Edit tactics..." did not rename the actual (internal) tactic name to the new name
- Can now go to team tactics when looking at an old match.
- Pressing "Escape" in a Yes/No dialog now triggers the "No" action (instead of nothing happening and the dialog closing.)
- The game now takes up less processor time when running in the background.
- Selected nations now are retained in the "keep players from nation" menu.
- Fixed a match screen problem where the control panel was not refreshed when you go from one match to the next on a matchday.
- Fixed a crash when user cancels a friendly proposal.
- A player can no longer play for the reserves and the first team on the same day.
- Printing of league tables fixed.
- Fixed cheat/ability to view team instructions for other teams than your own.
- National team logos no longer displayed on club and competition screens.
- Fixed importing and deleting filters.
- Fixed a problem with a managers notebook that meant you couldn't scroll down if you had more than one page of notes.
- Fixed the crash when clicking on Go To Match on the match screen when you are viewing (instead of playing) a match.
- If a player is contracted to a team, but doesn't have a job it will know say "Unknown" instead of "[%string#1]" in the subtitle of the person screen.
- Swapped "Accept Invitation" and "Reject Invitation" buttons in the Friendly Proposal news item.
- Swapped "Confirm" and "Cancel" buttons on the arrange friendly screen.
- Fixed squad list view loosing its state after a match (specifically), and sections loosing their state when going to other sections (generally).
- Switched "Appeal Against Ban" and "Don't Appeal" buttons on ban news item.
- Award screen view menu now works ok on network clients.
- When multiple shortlists were deleted from the "Edit Shortlists" dialog, the game would sometimes crash.
- "Fullscreen" (i.e. no title bar/sidebar/status bar) now works correctly during a match, so the sidebar doesn't pop up again after switching sections.
> Awards
- Fixed Danish u21/u19/17 awards which now use reputation.
- Fixed incorrect year being displayed for calender year awards.
- Fixed past club award winners not being shown in history panel.
- Fixed national awards not being shown in the nation award screen.
- Fixed number of assists not being shown in award screen for assist awards.
- Fixed club award not appearing under the nation section when it has no comp set.
- Fixed international comp award news item using players club team instead of nation.
- Fixed Ukrainian player of the week award being given during winter break.
- Fixed awards that are set to specified date in the db not showing correct year for winners.
- Fixed european awards were not finding enough people in later years.
- Fixed some player weekly award using wrong sort type.
- Fixed Team of the year award not sending news to the clubs.
- Fixed Malyasian goal of the season stopping after 4 seasons.
- Fixed Hong Kong defensive awards.
- Fixed players in inactive leagues playing too many games and winning awards.
> Competitions
- Fixed Austrian cup crash when only Austrian premier is active
- Fixed some match times for various competitions.
- Fixed a scheduling problem with the Danish Under 18 leagues.
- Fixed a problem with 2 European squad registration news items being generated within a few days of each other.
- Fixed a crash which would sometimes happen around the end of 2005 when running the Irish league.
- Fixed a problem with competitions which use Period league tables (e.g. Dutch First and Belgian Second Divisions). News items which refer to a team's current position are now more accurate.
- Fixed some Czech competiton start times.
- Fixed a problem with the English Championship playoff semi final sometimes getting the wrong draw.
- Fixed some save game loading code which would sometimes cause friendlies not to be created.
- Fixed some promotion/relegation issues in Chile.
- Fixed some competition qualification issues in Peru.
- Fixed a problem where delayed bans can sometimes last for 1 game too many.
- Greek National Division B uses goal difference after results between teams on same points to decide position.
- Greek National B Division teams have a 3 Non-EU player limit on their squads.
- Some Welsh FAW Premier Cup dates changed.
- National team bans now apply to the national team that the player was sent off for.
- The English LDV Vans Trophy now uses the correct teams for 2004 and picks 6 Conference teams to play in each section.
- Danish B teams now play in the reserve leagues.
- Danish cup now uses cup runner up instead of league runner up if a team wins the double.
- Confederations Cup draw now takes place after Oceania Nations Cup final and thus picks up the winner correctly now.
- South American Recopa no longer uses extra time, just penalties.
- Sometimes matches which should have been moved for TV were not being moved due to clashes with other competitions which should have been ignored.
- Czech Under 18 leagues now have 16 teams per group.
- Removed Czech Under 18 cup.
- Correct teams get entered into each round of the Welsh FAW Premier Cup.
- Squad numbers only apply to teams in the Turkish Premier Division now.
- Tuned attendances in MLS ALL Stars Match
- Tuned Korean player wages and valuations
- Portuguese Under 19s can now be registered meaning that that they are eligible to play for A/B teams. (Registered B team players still need to be moved into the A team before they can be picked)
- Increased Romanian loan lengths.
- Italian Serie B now uses playoffs depending on the number of points gap between certain teams in the league.
- Added some tv dates to the Danish Cup.
- Danish divisions now only have a position playoff if teams have the same goal difference and goals scored.
- Added a winter Norwegian transfer window.
- German Second Division now has 7 subs instead of 5 allowed.
- Argentina reserve competitions now have fixtures during the closing stage of the season.
- Correct teams from Chile now qualify for the Libertadores.
- Norwegian teams can now have more than 2 non-EU players in their squad but can only play 2 at one time.
- Trialists cannot play in competitive matches in Belgium.
- English Vans Trophy now uses extra time.
- 1 team is relegated from the Singaporean League from 2008 onwards.
- Czech Cup semi final is now played at the stadium of the home team.
- Changed Polish foreigner rules to non-EU rules.
- Vitkovice start 2004 season with -9 points.
- Royal League matches are no longer used in club/nation Coefficient calculations.
- B teams no longer play in the Portugese Cup.
- Players can now play in the MLS before they reach 16 years old.
> Finances
- Fixed bug where a few obscure Argentinian players had negative wages
- Fixed bug where free-transfer compensation wasn't always subtracted from finances correctly
- Slight tweaking to Korean player and staff wages
- Slight tweaking to Singaporean player wages
- Slight tweaking to Malaysian player wages
- Tuned Korean semi-pro expenditure costs
- Tuned Serbian sponsorship amounts
- Tuning capping on player valuations for minor leagues to prevent "big-name" players in those leagues being over somewhat valued considering the clubs they are at.
- Reduced level of TV payments in smaller leagues somewhat where appropriate
- Tuned Czech player valuations
- Tuned Czech club sponsorship amounts
- Chinese player valutation tuning.
> News Items
- Fixed default string appearing if no responses to player being unhappy at club trying to sign a replacement
- Fixed injured in training bug when in fact he was injured during a match
- Fixed 0 year contract extension news bug
- Fixed instances of 'young' appearing twice in staff assessments
- Fixed bug where wrong scoreline was being shown in a qualification news item
- Fixed news item not mentioning penalty shootout win during world cup in post match news item
- Fixed manager comment stating he intends to stop opponents title bid before it's even begun from, appearing in march
- Prevented post_transfer news items being generated for players who were already on loan before the transfer or co-owned.
- Stopped fans moaning about the signing of old player when he has signing in a non_playing capacity as well
- Human managers no longer linked to jobs in nations which are not enabled.
- In some injury news items, the team mentioned was the wrong team in the fixture.
> Transfers
- Adjusted down values for certain Championship level players at clubs like QPR who had slightly higher potentials than reputations but where those potentials were below top standard level.
- Ensured young lads don't get put in the first team when they can't actually play for the first team
- Tuned manager interest, stopped managers being interested in lesser stature club's than the ones they are currently at
- Reduced number of Eastern European players moving to South America
- Players work permits are no longer removed when they become coaches.
> International Management
- Fixed player being removed from squad when he has 1 or 2 day injury.
- International underage jobs now offered to human managers by computer managers.
- Removed player pre match comment for second leg of a playoff( until text can be added to determine first leg score )
- More national team managers are now retained at the start of the game.
- Fixed national team news item saying team are already out of the competition when they are not.
- Fixed news item says 'despite failing to win their last game' when it's the first game.
- Fixed high rep managers signing as human managers national team youth managers.
- Fixed national teams playing big nations in small stadiums.
- Fixed smaller non european teams not playing any friendlies.
- Fixed nations playing friendlies against teams in their quailfying groups.
- Fixed u19 national team fixtures not showing in fixture screen.
- Greece play at Giorgos Karaiskakis stadium until 12.10.2005
> Player Profile
- Fixed bizarre player reaction to media comment prior to relgation battle
- "Believes his manager may be overly about winning the title this season" added confident to the previous string (english only)
- Tuned removal of 'lost confidence' in manager
- Ensured that players don't request first team football until fairly fit
- Players stop requesting first team football while injured
- Made players winge less about their squad status
> Scouting
- Fixed problem where scout searches and also team coach reports for some small clubs would be full of 5 star players not worthy of such a rating.
- Fixed a problem where scout search conditions were not always being saved down properly.
- Fixed next opposition report indicating a player who is on loan is a 'key player'
- Stopped players being scouted while injured
- Team coach report tweaking for reporting on AM and DM players in a 352 formation better.
> Player Personality Model
- Prevented rare bug where players seesawed between unhappy/happy with their amount of first team football
- Improved AI behind removal of 'clarifacation of squad status' unhappiness
- Ensured players aren't too pleased when an unknown manager takes charge of a really big team at the start of a game
- Made player feedback from loans more frequent
> Manager
- Tuned manager movement in smaller leagues and semi-pro clubs slightly
> Training
- Fixed incorrect coach text being displayed for injured players
- Tuned player progression and regeneration player setup
> Hall Of Fame
- International continental competition wins are now rated by the continent. Before an Oceania Nations Cup win was treated equally to a European Championship win.
> Retirements
- Fixed player's retiring day after announcing that they are about to retire due to injury at end of season
- Re-tuned distribution of retirement news.
- When a player gets converted into a coach/manager, he retains his city of birth and career history.
- Fixed obscure problem where a welsh team playing in an English league would sometimes get regenerated players who were above normal entry ages
> Miscellaneous
- Fixed problem where sometimes regenerated players would get first and second names from a different nation to their nationality.
- Fixed a crash which might occur after the user views past years of certain competitions.
- Fixed a problem where stadium moves would disappear after a season if the club had been using an alternative stadium, while waiting for their new one.
- A few starting injuries were not always being set up at the start of the game.
- A managers longest and shortest time at a club wasn't getting updated correctly when changing job.
- Tweaked ask assistant maanger to rule out unrealistic targets filter rule
> Network Games
- Fixed crash when breadcrumb menu was visible and another user continued.
- The forced continue controls on the Preferences screen now store their settings properly.
- Fixed crash when a client tries to connect to a server too quickly after a game has been loaded.
- Fixed crash when a client tries to connect to a server when it is currently saving a game.
> Translation
- Fixed 'Transfer Status' on player right-click menu not being called for translation.
- Fixed some three-line manager comments not being translated
- Fixed 'Default Team Selection' not translated in Team Selection List Dialog
> Club Badges
- England: Updated Nottingham Forest badge so that it shows up on both red and white backgrounds
- Netherlands: Updated Roda JC badge
- Netherlands: Updated Dordrecht badge
- Netherlands: Updated Excelsior badge
- Netherlands: Updated FC Eindhoven badge
> Player Pictures
- Added Brighton pictures
- Added West Ham pictures
- Added Grimsby pictures
- Fixed wrong Richard Johnson picture and added a few more QPR pics
> Kit Graphics
- Eng
- Championship updated: Wigan home
- Lg 2 updated: Cheltenham away, Grimsby home, Grimsby away, Kidderminster home, Leyton Orient home, Leyton Orient away, Lincoln home, Lincoln away, Macclesfield home, Macclesfield away, Mansfield home, Mansfield away, Northampton home, Northampton away, Notts Co home, Notts Co away, Oxford home, Oxford away, Rochdale home, Rochdale away, Rushden home, Rushden away, Scunthorpe home, Scunthorpe away, Shrewsbury home, Shrewsbury away, Southend home, Southend home, Swansea home, Swansea away, Wycombe home Wycombe away
- Conf N updated: Redditch home
- Esp
- Primera updated: Ath. Bilbao home, At. Madrid away, Deportivo home, Osasuna home, Osasuna away,
- Ned
- Premier updated: ADO Den Haag away, De Graafschap home, Heerenveen away, NEC home, NEC away, RKC home,
- First updated: Cambuur home, Dordrecht home, Dordrecht away, Emmen home, Fortuna home, Go Ahead Eagle home, Haarlem home, Haarlem away, Helmond home, Heracles home, Heracles away, Sparta Rotterdam home, Top Oss home, Volendam home, Volendam away,
- Por
- Superleague updated: Benfica home, Benfica away, Braga home, Porto home, Sporting home, Sporting away, Vit. Gumaeres home,
- Superleague added: Belenenses home, Gil Vicente home, Lieria home, Nacional Da Madeira home, Nacional Da Madeira away, Nacional Da Madeira third, Penafiel home, Sporting third, Vit. Gumaeres away, Vit. Setubal home
- config.xml updated

> Mac Only
- Fixed mac bug which was trying to scan font files in formats that we don't support
- Fixed potential file error on mac; if filenames were too long, the wrong file could get returned from a routine, leading to file corruptions
- Fixed crash when right-clicking on an edit box on the mac
- Fixed double-clicking on game file to load a game
- Fixed mac preferences, about and quit menus
- Rewrote some low level file code to remove the old OS9 file name length limits
> Windows Only
- Fixed scanning files with invalid modification dates would cause game crash (If date was not between 00:00:00 01-01-1970 and 03:14:07 01-19-2038 (UTC).)
> Data Editor
- Making changes to playing histories no longer crashes the game or the editor.
- The ratings of club and nation relationships can now be updated.
- The editor can now save the datafiles to another location than the default one.
- Fixed a problem with selecting a competition for club histories, after applying a filter to the competition list.
- Switched "Confirm" and "Cancel" buttons on the preferences screen.
- Editing player histories now updates a players career stats.

[Sharpieman]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

In England, non-EU internationals have to earn a work permit (as you already know). To do this, they have to have appeared in a certain number of theirnational team's games the past two years. In real life, it is six games and 75% of the national team's total games (that latter usually comes into play with a new tarnsfer of such a player after he has already been granted a permit previously).

U-21 games don't count--has to be the senior squad. At the beginning of FM2005, Eddie Johnson has just 2 U21 caps and no senior squad appearances with the U.S.

So that's why you haven't been able to get him a permit. Sometimes a permit is granted for popular/well-known players or players that have played in England for a long time who no longer feature prominently in their national sides but have developed a reputation there (in England).

In any case, Johnson will eventually get on the big squad (as will Adu). So just shorltist him and check him out every nwo and then to see if he is close to qualifying.

CR

Ah thanks...I guess Collins John and McBride will have to do for now.

[Godzilla Blitz]

I just caved in and ordered the game.

Someplace called Sendit.com in England has the game for 18.59 pounds, shipped to the US. Should be about $35, give or take a couple.

Now let's see how long it takes for the game to get here. They are on the clock. My vacation starts the 18th. They get bonus points if they get it to me by then.

[jbmagic]

i have not seen this game yet in the united states...

i hope they do a better job in shipping the games to alot of different stores here in the US..

they did a bad job with EHM , because not one store i been too has it. Best buy, circuit city, compusa, EB, Walmart, Fry's

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

i have not seen this game yet in the united states...

Someone posted above that the US release has been delayed for a second time, now until the 13th.

I was thinking to wait to try and find the game on Monday/Tuesday, but none of the US online sites has the game listed as "upcoming", and I won't be able to dig into the game until the 18th in any case. $35 is probably cheaper than what I'll be able to find the game for in the US, and it sure beats GoGamers $50 (before shipping).

...Unless of course Sendit.com is a front for Nigerian Scam Artists, and my credit card is currently funding the purchase of their new swimming pool.

[Sharpieman]

Even though the MLS is all screwed up...I'm loving the fact that I get to be the USA national manager.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

i have not seen this game yet in the united states...

i hope they do a better job in shipping the games to alot of different stores here in the US..

they did a bad job with EHM , because not one store i been too has it. Best buy, circuit city, compusa, EB, Walmart, Fry's

We've been less than impressed with American distribution this year and its something we're planning to ensure improves for next years games ... this is the first time we've managed to secure American releases for our games so I'm afraid its a learning curve for us, but we'll get there.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Well.. it's official. The game is very realistic.
Started a 5.0.2 game with Ajax and took on liverpool in the Semi Final of a preseason friendly cup tournament at home in the Amsterdam ArenA, in front of 16,000 (in contrast, the afternoon game between Real Zaragosa and Parma drew 1500)..

Ok - the semi-final match between a dutch side in Holland against a large foriegn side drew in more fans than a friendly between two foreign sides in the same sort of competition irl? - this to my mind is realistic and would be the case surely?

and the game was a scoreless draw entering Penalty Kicks..
In PK's.. Liverpool won 2-0.
That's right. 2-0. After three and a half rounds.

This can happen - its fairly rare that penalty taking is this poor, but it can happen .... both irl and in the game, if we were to code to prevent this then it'd be 'cheating' and make the game less realistic imho ..

[SirFozzie]

Um...

I was being facetious about Dutch penalty kicks, eh?

I guess my joke is just like their PK's too.. either off the bar or over the top :P

(smacks forehead)

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Um...

I was being facetious about Dutch penalty kicks, eh?

I guess my joke is just like their PK's too.. either off the bar or over the top :P

(smacks forehead)

Mayhap your muppet humor is too subtle for the English...

[SirFozzie]

That's the first time I've ever been accused of being subtle, H_B

Seriously Marc, I love the game..

[Desnudo]

When did Fozzie put on so much weight?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

That's the first time I've ever been accused of being subtle, H_B

Hrmm... Shocking.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Um...
I was being facetious about Dutch penalty kicks, eh?
I guess my joke is just like their PK's too.. either off the bar or over the top :P
(smacks forehead)

Sorry - I tend to take things as being 'serious' until proven otherwise .... you'd be amazed at some of the things considered 'bugs' on our forums at times ....

[SirFozzie]

wakka-wakka-wakka!

[Sharpieman]

Hey anybody know how to play in windowed mode?

[SirFozzie]

options menu, preferences, and click off the button that says full screen

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Sharpieman

Hey anybody know how to play in windowed mode?

Either tick the windowed box in the 'preferences' panel or press CTRL-F while playing ...

Hope this helps,

Marc
PS. Will only work on a system setup in over 1024x768 resolution ..

[Sharpieman]

Yea I got it...I'm more addicted to this game than any other game I have ever played. I don't know whether to praise you or hunt you down for making this mind dazzling drug that takes so much up my time up.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Sharpieman

Yea I got it...I'm more addicted to this game than any other game I have ever played. I don't know whether to praise you or hunt you down for making this mind dazzling drug that takes so much up my time up.

Heh - if it makes you feel better, I'm also addicted

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Sharpieman

Yea I got it...I'm more addicted to this game than any other game I have ever played. I don't know whether to praise you or hunt you down for making this mind dazzling drug that takes so much up my time up.

You're making me really want to get this game before Christmas.

One question, when your star player scores a goal, does he take out his Sharpie, sign the soccer ball, and throw it into the crowd?


Todd

[MizzouRah]

Dola,

I was browsing ebay and found FM 2005 for $15.99 + $8 shipping. Does this sound right? Isn't it like $48 on gogamer?

MR

[Sharpieman]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

You're making me really want to get this game before Christmas.

One question, when your star player scores a goal, does he take out his Sharpie, sign the soccer ball, and throw it into the crowd?


Todd

Every time

[scooter]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Dola,

I was browsing ebay and found FM 2005 for $15.99 + $8 shipping. Does this sound right? Isn't it like $48 on gogamer?

MR

Where is it being sold from: Thailand? If that's the case, you can probably bet that it's pirated. Also look to see if the seller has a whole bunch for sale at the same time. If that's the case, it's probably pirated.

[MizzouRah]

It's from Canada: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...153276797&rd=1

There are/were 10 available. How can you tell if it's pirated, I surely don't want to buy a pirated copy, but if it's legit, consider it bought.

Todd

[Router Help]

I vote pirated. The seller is from Thailand, and look at some of his feedback. 3

From Thailand, No CD key, but...Game works great...B or Good product. WORKING CD-KEY A++++ and Quick shipping, although it came from thailand rather than canada.

[Eaglesfan27]

Looks pirated to me as well.

I'm also officially addicted. I'm dreaming up a possible tweak to my tactic at work (since a patient didn't show.)

Can't wait for another long session of playing today when I get home.

[scooter]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I'm also officially addicted. I'm dreaming up a possible tweak to my tactic at work (since a patient didn't show.)

Can't wait for another long session of playing today when I get home.

Do you find yourself doodling tactics on scraps of paper? Filling arrows for runs and initials for players you think could play well it a given position? I've done it. I guess I'm addicted too.