ALRIGHT BOYZ...HERE WE GO...The Football Manager 2012 THREAD!!!

[BYU 14]

LOL, Bastards!!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Since morale & team talks have come up in the conversation, I'm going to share something from my Dynasty thread, maybe somebody can tell me where I went wrong. This occurred following a bad loss that sent morale plummeting for virtually ever player on the first team.

I decide to hold a team meeting, let's nip this thing in the bud.
Me (calmly) - "We've been playing fantastically all season, don't let this little blip affect our promotion chances, keep your heads up"

Nice, almost neutral, reassuring even. Right?

Morale deflates across about half the team. 4 players (Armstrong, McCabe, Buchanan, Sawyer) all appear to have something to say. I offer the floor and Sawyer reluctantly says "We're trying our best out there, I don't think it's going to make anyone feel any better by making comments like that"

Umm ... WTF!!!!

I ask Armstrong to speak, maybe the captain is a voice of reason, right?
Armstrong (assertively, to Sawyer) "Exactly right Sam, absolutely correct".

DOUBLE WTF!!!

Fine assholes, (cautiously) "I have to say I'm disappointed with that reaction"

16 players reacted badly, one player (Phillips) reacted well.

That was the most head scratching thing I've seen in the game to date. It was as though the game bugged & read something other than what I said, there were certainly options where the reactions I got would have made sense, but in this case - and I carefully read the words on screen to make sure I had said what I wanted to say - the responses made no sense to me whatsover.

[BYU 14]

That's strange Jon, I had about the same situation in my dynasty, though we are still squeaking out wins, just playing poorly the last couple of matches.

I took the same approach as you and got overwhelming support from the Captain and the rest of the team.

Wonder how much influence from your leaders comes into play here or if perhaps the team felt bad already and thought you were twisting the blade.

Would love to hear Marc weigh in on this.

[whomario]

maybe you called the meeting prematurely ? I sometimes had more drop like crazy with a bad loss, but pickt itself up ok as the week went by.
Maybe your team was irritated that you even called a meeting even though you were still in 1st place in the table.
My guess would be that a meeting in that situation would only work with a super dedicated/determined team and would irritate most others.

(nopt speaking from actual in-game experience, just guess-work)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by whomario

maybe you called the meeting prematurely

Yeah, that's been my only guess that seemed to make any sense thus far. I did call the meeting on my own initiative, not based on a recommendation from the ass't mgr.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Would love to hear Marc weigh in on this.

That's kinda what I was hoping might happen myself

[Shepp]

What was your team morale like before you called the meeting? Also what is the nature of your squad: professional, ambitious, etc.? If morale was still relatively high and they viewed your tone as something toward the middle that could have been the reason fo the negative result.

Of course I could be wrong. Once compaint I've always had against FM is that sometimes the way you think your team is reacting is not always the way they actually are, and the game doesn't do a great job of conveying whats happening. I think the last couple versions have gotten better but it still has a ways to go.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Shepp

What was your team morale like before you called the meeting?

Had abruptly gone in the tank, no player on the first team was better than Fair (or whatever middling is), most were Poor with some worse, including a couple of Abysmals.

Also what is the nature of your squad: professional, ambitious, etc.?

Determined.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Jon, I'm certainly not an expert on this, so take it for what it's worth, but let me approach this in terms of "reality" instead of a game of 0's and 1's.

Perhaps your players were offended that you felt the need to call a team meeting. If they feel they've been overachieving or doing what's expected of them, they may feel patronized by your comments. Maybe their collective response is sort of like "We've been playing our asses off all year, and the manager wants to talk about promotion when we're just trying to win a damn game right now."

I dunno, just a guess on my part.

[Shepp]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Had abruptly gone in the tank, no player on the first team was better than Fair (or whatever middling is), most were Poor with some worse, including a couple of Abysmals.



Determined.

That sort of kills my idea. Maybe what Pumpy said.

[Crapshoot]

My frustration with set pieces is absurd; it just seems like the opposition scores at will when they have set pieces, especially free kicks where the last man gets a free header. It seems like scoring from set pieces is still an issue in FM,.

[whomario]

Hmm, as long as i don´t set any sort of "aim" for my corner (but have it on mixed) it seems okay, haven´t noticed the cpu scoring abnormally much against me either.
On a related notion it is pretty much impossible to find any real life stats here, i´m continued to be amazed by the lack of even basic stats in soccer (that is available to the general public).

[Grover]

Originally Posted by whomario

Hmm, as long as i don´t set any sort of "aim" for my corner (but have it on mixed) it seems okay, haven´t noticed the cpu scoring abnormally much against me.
On a related notion it is pretty much impossible to find any real life stats here, i´m continued to be amazed by the lack of even basic stats in soccer (that is available to the general public).

Player stats are located under attributes, or you can find them under Stats > Form

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Grover

Player stats are located under attributes, or you can find them under Stats > Form

real life stats

[Grover]

Originally Posted by whomario

real life stats

http://optasports.com/sports/football.html

?

Ah, they charge. Ridiculous.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

My frustration with set pieces is absurd; it just seems like the opposition scores at will when they have set pieces, especially free kicks where the last man gets a free header. It seems like scoring from set pieces is still an issue in FM,.

Have you tried using your Additional Focus Area (under tactics) on Defending Set Pieces? I was getting killed by corners until I spent several weeks with that, seems to have calmed things down considerably ... FWIW of course.

[Big Fo]

I don't have anything wise to say about actually reducing the number of decent scoring chances the opposition gets on set pieces.

But I find that leaving no players forward makes it easier to counterattack since the AI will only leave one guy back if you have none forward, two if you leave one, three if you leave two, etc. My teams probably score at least a half dozen goals per season after the other team's corner kicks.

On my own corners, I have three guys stay back no matter what so this doesn't happen.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Grover

http://optasports.com/sports/football.html

?

Ah, they charge. Ridiculous.

Its BIG business in soccer these days - managers analyse stats a lot and there aren't many places sourcing them because of the complexity in sampling them ....

(we've paid for Opta stats in the past to verify accuracy of our game engines etc. ... before Opta came around we had one chap sit watching matches on TV counting passes/tackles/etc. and pausing the match manually as he did it - took bloody ages to do)

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

My frustration with set pieces is absurd; it just seems like the opposition scores at will when they have set pieces, especially free kicks where the last man gets a free header. It seems like scoring from set pieces is still an issue in FM,.

Some teams irl struggle against set-pieces - the reason is simply, you need effective abeit relatively basic organisation to stop opponents with set-pieces.

In general to give basic stuff - don't have short-arses in the box, leave em lurking outside or up the pitch .. or if they must go into the box (ie. you're a short-team) ensure they don't mark tall people and then only leave the strong/agressive short-asses in the box (generally its rare that a penalty will be called for tussling from a set-piece).

Personally I rarely sign short players unless they're an out and out winger or a poacher and I always have a set-piece special play person on my side - presently its an Argentinian named Ortega (don't search for him I'm in 2048) ... he's a central defender and 6'8'' ... for attacking set-pieces he does flick ons for me, for defensive set-pieces him all all my other effective players (good heading, strength, 6'0+) in the air are told to cover the tall opposition and anyone else is let marking generally as needed.

Personally I'm a big believer in men on posts myself also - but thats more a personal preference, if you do put someone on the post again make sure he's not overly short - the idea is that he's got to block shots and if he's 5'2'' and it goes over his head and into the net then that basically sucks.

PS - Its vital to keep half an eye on the tactical setup for such things, especially during a season when your original setup might go for a burton if someone is injured and replaced with a player who is less effective in the air, its inattention to that side of things which often costs me matches ...

[Balldog]

After taking a little break from playing this masterpiece I've gotten back into and had a bad 1st night back. In my 2nd season with Indios in the Mexican 2nd Division, my GK who has 8 shutouts in the first 16 matches goes down with torn knee ligaments and will miss 9-10 months. His backup was solid but I let him go in favor of a younger prospect that was cheaper thinking I've never had a GK injured before!!

[whomario]

i advice anybody not to add leagues once started, bloats up the Database beyond your wildest fears. Mine went from 50k players to nearly 200k after adding 4 leagues of 3 nations.

Game was unresponsive like hell in menus by then and i´ve pulled the plug and restarted with more leagues to start with now ...

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Balldog

After taking a little break from playing this masterpiece I've gotten back into and had a bad 1st night back. In my 2nd season with Indios in the Mexican 2nd Division, my GK who has 8 shutouts in the first 16 matches goes down with torn knee ligaments and will miss 9-10 months. His backup was solid but I let him go in favor of a younger prospect that was cheaper thinking I've never had a GK injured before!!

In FM 10 i once had both my keepers injured for the stretch run of the season, my young (18) and overwhelmed (6.1 rating through 5 games with 12 conceded goals) youth prospect then saved a penalty in the 93rd minute of the last game to secure my first CL qualification in that save. And no, it wasn´t the start of a promising career, i don´t think he ever played another game for me.

[Bobble]

I happened to look at my "Game Time" under the Game Status menu. 10 DAYS, 3 hours, 49 minutes. Yikes. And I'm sure that's not even in the top 10 of people in this thread. So let's hear 'em folks. Impress me with your FM dedication. Or maybe it's best not to know...

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by Bobble

I happened to look at my "Game Time" under the Game Status menu. 10 DAYS, 3 hours, 49 minutes. Yikes. And I'm sure that's not even in the top 10 of people in this thread. So let's hear 'em folks. Impress me with your FM dedication. Or maybe it's best not to know...

470 hours with all my careers combined. Unlocked 41 of 91 Steam Achievements.

[bulletsponge]

i cant tell you the "time" cause im also away from computer a lot. but i am in the summer of 2028 and i just won my 1st EPL title with Carlisle in this career.

also the many leagues i have running causes the game to run slower than a low leagues DB

[rowech]

With the season getting close to ending, does anyone see the IPAD version of it going to a lower price?

[Grover]

I'm somewhere north of 800 hours on all of my games combined.

[Marc Vaughan]

If anyone is feeling a bit 'sad' because of the time they've spent playing - err I'm in 2048 on my current game

(Eastbourne Boro are now near dominant as a English and indeed European force ... but I can't bring myself to leave them ... although if the Brighton job opens in the near future up I might have to )

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Would love to hear Marc weigh in on this.

I think the team interaction works best when you're in truly a dire position and performing below expectations, the problem with player reactions occurs when someone uses it because they're hit a bad run of form BUT are actually ranked far above their expected position.

In this circumstance the players feel hard-done by as they've been playing their little cotton socks off and not the manager has hauled them into the office for a meeting about their performances, when they feel they've actually been doing pretty damn good.

Think of it along these lines - you're given what you feel are fair sales targets at the start of the year for the year as a whole. January you're doing great and double sales, February the same, March and things drop down a bit but you're still above target .... come April and you struggle but meet the targets, now in sum total you're hugely above the expectation and reality could probably take a month off and still meet the yearly quota.

In those circumstances if your manager called you in for a meeting because he was concerned about performance ... how would you feel?

PS - That being said I've done exactly the same thing and called em in for a meeting in near identical circumstances, I think some of the wording could definitely be improved - but I think there is a sane explanation to the reasoning in the cases I've seen.

There also really needs to be some option for 'you're doing far better than expected - just keep your nerve is all I ask and keep striving' ... or similar as thats what people mainly want to say in those circumstances, its more reassurance than asking for bigger performances from them that a manager should be looking to give in those circumstances.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by rowech

With the season getting close to ending, does anyone see the IPAD version of it going to a lower price?

Price cuts on the iOS versions* are fairly rare - SEGA tend to do impulse one or two day sales every few months, normally coinciding with something in real-life (I think one was done for the FA Cup final last year although I can't swear that was the case) ... but tbh I think its good value at full-price, but then I would say that wouldn't I

*Bear in mind its a single universal app - one app that works across all devices, ie. buy it once and play on whatever devices you have to hand, iPad, iPhone etc.

[rowech]

I have 2011 on iPod but can't download that version to iPad as it is not in app store anymore.

[larrymcg421]

Just had the club president accept a transfer request without consulting me because the deal was too good to pass up. That's incredibly annoying, but also an awesome game feature.

It was a $7.5m offer for a player valued at $3.3m, including another $1 mill after 10 league goals and 10% of next sale.

[whomario]

More suggestions after struggling with those things and browsing the forums at si and others :

1) When starting a game, load "players from top division clubs" for Europe (and maybe South america, though i only did Brazil and Argentina) and "current international players" for Europe, South America and Asia/Africa (i only load asia as i find african regens overpowered) because that way the game will also load full batches (not just 1 or 2 regens every now and then but 8-10 every year of varying strength) for all those clubs and in the future and keeps the DB size constant and teams outside your playable leagues somewhat competitive in the long run.

Also benefits the national teams which is important since i plan on playing as NT manager at some point definitely. Plus it´s nice to scout the U20 world cup and actually have the south korean team not have 20 greyed-out players but 20 regens you can sign and scout (not that many merit being signed, but you could get lucky and your scout might discover a stud )

I now loaded the first 3 leagues in england, first 2 in spain and germany as well as italys and france top division as playable + a bunch of top divisions as view only.
That on a large DB with the above custom settings gives me about 65k players and a on a long term holiday i did it looked to be holding up nicely with basically the same number of players 5 years in.

2) Be sure to delete scouting reports you don´t need ! Many menus (especially search filters) were helluve unresponsive after just half a year, then i deleted every scouting report of less than 3 stars (don´t delete more than 150 or so at a time, at least for me that meant a freeze) and for future scouting endeavours set "at least 3 stars" as a requirement.
After i needed sometimes like 4 or 5 seconds to change a single thing in the filter (like age or position) it is back to being basically instantaneous now.

Also make sure not to have multiple scouts do the same region/nation/league, just get a 2nd opinion on guys based on the first scouting report instead of having like a thousand players with 4 or 5 scouting reports each.
It also makes it much easier to manage the scouting network screen.


3) Manage your mail subscriptions properly (f.e. even when you are interested in news from other leagues, all you really need is "transfer news" and not media crap and what not). I finally got around to doing it and it is so nice not to have 200 mails ever week.

anybody have similar things to help with things like game/menu speed ?

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by rowech

I have 2011 on iPod but can't download that version to iPad as it is not in app store anymore.

Sync your device with a computer - that should allow you to transfer the App into the computers library.

Then if you sync the iPad with that computer you'll be able to 'pick up' and install the app.

(but obviously you're more than welcome to purchase the 2012 version if you feel the urge to )

[JonInMiddleGA]

I feel like such a noob, what with my 100 hours or so played.

[cschex]

I have about 400 hours of FM 12 on my Arsenal/Bristol City game (I like to start off my first game with a big club and then after a few years take over a struggling lower tier club). Just put that aside to start a Dortmund game to see how long I could keep the young side together before all of the great talent got poached.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

400 hours in to my Ecija career. About eight years in from a game perspective.

[whomario]

All i know is that there will be a lot more hours coming this coming weekend do you guys have friday and monday off as holidays, too ?with 4 days of no work, absolutely crazy weather coming in (below freezing and snow is being forecast at night and gusts of wind and heavy rain for the daytime), my GF being away on a trip with her dad for the weekend and my own parents on a trip as well (so no need to visit there either), the game time will likely be pretty high. *makes mental note to buy supplies thursday evening*
I do have the first season GOT on blu ray to consider that a friend loaned me, but whose to say you can´t watch it and still go along in your FM career

[bhlloy]

Something that will only interest me, but in my Wrexham game the Welsh teams in the English pyramid are killing it. I got Wrexham up to Championship level, Newport County are in league 1 and Colwyn Bay have come from nowhere to be the favorites this season in BSP. If only that was real life.

Now a gripe... I have no money. It's annoying as hell when teams repeatedly offer me their players for 500k plus. There needs to be a "don't contact me again, I'm not interested in this player option". It would be even nicer if the AI recognized that I'm millions in debt and have a budget of 0 but I'd settle for the first.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Now a gripe... I have no money. It's annoying as hell when teams repeatedly offer me their players for 500k plus. There needs to be a "don't contact me again, I'm not interested in this player option". It would be even nicer if the AI recognized that I'm millions in debt and have a budget of 0 but I'd settle for the first.

I would imagine that if teams are trying to get rid of players, they don't really care who the offers are going to. I know if I'm trying to offer a player out, I'll send offers to everybody, their mother, and even my own mother. Doesn't matter to me if some people can't afford the player. I'm just trying to get him off my books.

[DaddyTorgo]

I'll check my gametime when I get home tonight.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Now a gripe... I have no money. It's annoying as hell when teams repeatedly offer me their players for 500k plus. There needs to be a "don't contact me again, I'm not interested in this player option". It would be even nicer if the AI recognized that I'm millions in debt and have a budget of 0 but I'd settle for the first.

Out of interest - have you tried loaning these players at all? - the club might be happy just to raise their profile and get them playing time with a view to shifting them long term ....

(just wondering - although I will readily admit that if this is what they're after we need to improve the explanation in the email given etc.)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I would imagine that if teams are trying to get rid of players, they don't really care who the offers are going to. I know if I'm trying to offer a player out, I'll send offers to everybody, their mother, and even my own mother. Doesn't matter to me if some people can't afford the player. I'm just trying to get him off my books.

Yep, that's exactly why you receive it. It's the marketing equivalent of a 'CC All'. Just blast it out there and see if anyone bites.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Yep, that's exactly why you receive it. It's the marketing equivalent of a 'CC All'. Just blast it out there and see if anyone bites.

That's my take on it. I certainly don't mean this as a shot at anybody, but a lot of the complaints I see about the game come up when people expect the game to treat their team differently from the AI teams. Call me optimistic or just plain naive, but this is one of the few sports games where I feel like the game is really treating everybody equally. I never feel like the AI is doing something I can't do or vice-versa. At the very least, I play the game with that mentality, and it helps me sleep a little better at night, I suppose.

[whomario]

Just had the news come up that a player issued a "come and get me" plea for me to buy him. I might just do so because i´m frankly quite touched

[Balldog]

does anyone have or know of a template that can be used to keep track of your depth chart and a forecasted depth chart? one of my biggest struggles is keep track my squad's needs.

[whomario]

you are aware of the "team report" feature ? click on your team name, then halfway down just where "background advice" is (or right click on the top bar and then you can choose it as a bookmark, then it stays on the top bar as a symbol)

There you have all positions listed (not just your tactic but all available in game) and the best 3 (or 4 ?) options from your team according to your assistant manager along with a star rating for each option (say 4 stars for the starter, 2 for the backup and just 1 for the 3rd guy, meaning if you were to loose your starter you know that your backup won´t step in with the same ability)
You can also exclude players from positions. Like say you don´t want a guy who is a AMC/ST to show up in the striker depth chart you can exclude him from there.
Agreed upon transfer players are also on the depth chart.
If you click on any 1 position it will shot you the top10 current options at that position even.

What i do miss is the same chart for youth players and in general the look of the feature in 11.

Other than that and for a more detailed (but maybe slightly in a grey area morally), you could use a tool called squad analyzer :

An invaluable tool for FM11, it also works for FM12 as jim morrow already mentioned..you can download FMsquadV2.1 here: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?sl19bvc1fl5dvi9
A quick guide for totally beginners..extract the .rar file..create a folder with your team's name at FMsquadV2.1/DATA/TEXT/..then open your game save, go to the players overview-attributes, click FM Options and print screen as text file and save at your team's folder (FMsquadV2.1/DATA/TEXT/your team's folder)..you must print screen as text file for all your players, changing "special" letters (so when the game wants to save Götze, you save as Goetze), for example "ä", "á", "ë" etc. with "normal" letters "a", "e" etc. cause fmsquad doesn't "read" "special" letters..then execute fmsquad2.exe and click Program, Import Player Data, choose FM Text File's Folder and browse your team's folder..then Preview and Save..then click Player, Player Rating, Show Filter and type your Club's name...now you could also check your players Skills, Strength & Weakness and Squad Wizard and make all the alterations you wish...Enjoy!!!

very cool tool, takes a little bit of work to set up but worth it and very easy to use afterwards.


I just drew Borussia Dortmund in the CL qualification, not only are they my favourite team but i also just lost a friendly to them 1:4 ...

[MacroGuru]

I will be making the purchase and move over to FM12...I Will continue my FM11 Dynasty though...I want to get used to FM12 and install everything I need before I move over to it.

[whomario]

I can´t stress enough how much fast the game goes with scout reports deleted. Everything over 200-250 reports and the menus will slow a lot, i even thought that the sim slowed ... Hope SI is aware of that and looks into it.

Struggling a bit in my 2nd season with Arsenal, was actually on the verge of being sacked before having a successfull team meeting where Van Persie actually backed me and then beat Chelsea and won a do-or-die game against Olimpiakos in the last group game of the champions league, moving past them to 2nd place with a 2:1 win.

My team is positively schizophrenic, loosing to Birmingham twice (league and carling cup), loosing 1:5 to Everton, 1:5 to Sevilla and 0:4 to West Ham but also beating Liverpool, Chelsea and drawing ManU at Old Trafford.
Allready had a 4 game loosing streak and a 6 game unbeaten streak. Sitting 7th in the premier league, thankfully the other big teams are struggling as well which means i´m only 5 points out of first place after 16 games and just 2 out of 4th.
West Brom is in 3rd place currently while Tottenham is 12th, weird season.

I seem to go behind a lot as well, might need to rething my tactics to start the game.

I´ve thrown my house rules out the window as well, life´s too short to overthink this

Also found a 17 year old Czech kid that i´m buying for 1 mio. He´s a totally unique player, being 1,94 tall AMC with pretty good promise on the technical side but also coming with the expected great heading. Sort of like the young Michael Ballack.
Going to post a screen tonight, would love some input on how to train him.

My scouts also recommended me a 19 year old guy from slovenia who he claims to have super potential and who is scoring for fun in his domestic league (13 goals in just 8 starts and 10 sub apearances). Will keep an eye on him.

[Easy Mac]

Maybe Marc can answer the following, though it's not specifically about his product:

I use Splashtop on my Touchpad to play FM 12 off my main computer. It runs fantastic, with an occasional annoyance with shifting formations around (i.e. they don't shift).

Anyway, If I try to launch it after opening splashtop on the table, I'm told there's a direct screen error and it want open. However, if I open it on the computer, then start splashtop once it loads, it runs fine. Would you be able to explain why that is to a non-overly computer person? It's just annoying to have to run upstairs, start the game, then go back downstairs to play. Yes, it's only like 20 seconds out of my day, but that's 20 seconds I could use getting my team relegated.