Alright Boyz, Here We Go! The FM2008/WWSM2008 First Impressions Thread

[MrBug708]

Too bad you couldnt get a fee attached to the player last year. I've often found, like you seem to be finding out right now, that after one year on the team, they are done. Of course, now that you are promoted, he might be more open to it.

[Crapshoot]

Couple of things that are strange:

- penalties -is anyone converting? My 20 rated penalty taker is something like 1-in-5, and I'm just seeing many made - at all.

- Strange subs. Reading have signed a striker for 10 million pounds - he starts every game, but is always subbed-off for a midfield. Meanwhile, their star striker (kevin Doyle) starts the game at Right Wing, and moves to striker upon this sub. What the hell? In 11 games, he has been subbed before the 30th minute - that's ridiculous, and I wonder if there's some strange bug going on.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

- penalties -is anyone converting? My 20 rated penalty taker is something like 1-in-5, and I'm just seeing many made - at all.

not quite as bad as yours but i've had multiple high penalty rating people having significant issue with penalties. including eduardo (16 pen/15 fin/15 comp) completely missing the goal.

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

- Strange subs. Reading have signed a striker for 10 million pounds - he starts every game, but is always subbed-off for a midfield. Meanwhile, their star striker (kevin Doyle) starts the game at Right Wing, and moves to striker upon this sub. What the hell? In 11 games, he has been subbed before the 30th minute - that's ridiculous, and I wonder if there's some strange bug going on.

sub logic has always been a bit . . . iffy. i've seen odd subs like this for multiple versions now. although not always quite this consistent.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Couple of things that are strange:

- penalties -is anyone converting? My 20 rated penalty taker is something like 1-in-5, and I'm just seeing many made - at all.

My best guy is 5 for 5, the two that have been taken when he is not in the line up have both been missed however.

[bhlloy]

I missed all 4 in the FA Trophy final shoot-out last night, which sucked. None of the guys was rated better than a 9, but still a bit ridiculous.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

In regards to penalties, mine have seemed to be just about what one would expect. My main shooter is a 16. He's 9 for 11 on penalty kicks. I've seen roughly 85-90% success by the opponents, so it seems spot-on for me thus far.

[Coffee Warlord]

Yeah, I've been largely fine on penalties. My taker last year missed maybe 1 or 2 that I can remember, my taker this year is 2 for 3 thus far.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Wild ride of a season for me right now in my C1/B Italian team. The previous year, we came one game short of 2 promotions in 2 years as we lost in the playoff final of C1/B. That was well above our pre-season goal of avoiding relegation. At the start of the year, I stuck with their suggested goal of a mid-table finish. They offered a salary increase of 10K to 37K/week. At that time, the club had a debt of 375K with a stadium capacity of 6K (no seats).

Just before the season was to start, the board decided to add 4000 seats to the stadium (8K capacity). For the 6 months that my stadium was being renovated, we were to play in a different stadium. As a result, the team's debt skyrocketed from 375K to 1.6M. Thankfully, my team got on a great run to start the season and we were drawing crowds of 9K or more at the temporary stadium, resulting in 150K/match in revenues. That's much more than we ever could have made at the old stadium.

We're now in February and with 10 matches to go in the season, we stand in 4th place and appear to be headed to the playoffs again this year. Due to the large crowds in the first half of the year, we've cut 1.2M of the debt off of the finances and are only 450K in debt at this point. We're likely to move the team close to break-even by the time the season is finished, which should allow a much better salary number (and actual transfer funds for the first time in 3 years). We have a few bad players with large salary numbers that fall off the payroll in June. All of my superstars are signed for another year, so with a few additions, we should be in great shape to promote next year (assuming the board doesn't put us behind the 8-ball with another stadium expansion that cripples our salary number yet again).

[Cringer]

Penalties are fine for me I think.

The best showcase of this was watching my team go to penalties in the Scottish League Cup against Hibs. He missed his first two, then I missed kicks 3 and 4. No one wanted to miss after that, which meant my crap penalties takers were not missing at all. We won 9-8.

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by NoSkillz

Alright, I caved and bought the D2D digital download version of WWSM, updated with the patch but I'm experiencing crashes all over the place when either saving or simming.

Anyone else have issues with this?

Well, I'm still experiencing semi-regular crashes but I believe they are all memory related. I'll have to look at getting some more RAM.

For now, I'm saving daily with rolling saves just in case...trust me, it's been necessary for me!

I started my career as an unemployed manager and finally got offered a contract to manage my first club eight months later in February 2008.

Interestingly enough, it is Cambridge City in the Blue Square Conference South division, which I believe is one of Marc Vaughan's favourites.

The team is in decent shape on the table, sitting in 13th position and only 7 points away from 5th, which would get me into the playoffs for promotion. With 6 or 7 of our remaining 10 fixtures at home, I feel that we're in a comfortable position and relegation shouldn't be an issue.

However, finances seem to be problematic, as we're over $120,000 in the red. I may have to sell a few players off and reduce the wage bill before the end of the season.

Any tips Marc?

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Couple of things that are strange:

- penalties -is anyone converting? My 20 rated penalty taker is something like 1-in-5, and I'm just seeing many made - at all.

By the way, dunno if this will help, but, I don't just look at penalty taking when I am assigning them. Age (I'll take an older player with less penalty taking ability over a 19 year old kid with uber ratings every time), various mental attribs, and overall offensive technical skills play a big part.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

By the way, dunno if this will help, but, I don't just look at penalty taking when I am assigning them. Age (I'll take an older player with less penalty taking ability over a 19 year old kid with uber ratings every time), various mental attribs, and overall offensive technical skills play a big part.

Yeah no doubt - this guy is a striker with a finishing of 17 and good ratings of playing under pressure (from blurbs) - 26 year old star. That's why its so surprising - he's basically the text-book penalty taker. Oh well, sample size and what not.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Yeah no doubt - this guy is a striker with a finishing of 17 and good ratings of playing under pressure (from blurbs) - 26 year old star. That's why its so surprising - he's basically the text-book penalty taker. Oh well, sample size and what not.

i had a run of missed penalties at one point. but they've evened back out.

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Yeah no doubt - this guy is a striker with a finishing of 17 and good ratings of playing under pressure (from blurbs) - 26 year old star. That's why its so surprising - he's basically the text-book penalty taker. Oh well, sample size and what not.

unfortunately, the sample size argument (and the inability to quick sim) make fm free from being able to be scrutinized and criticized as much as other games such as ootp.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

unfortunately, the sample size argument (and the inability to quick sim) make fm free from being able to be scrutinized and criticized as much as other games such as ootp.

No, you're right - its more of a gripe. The substitution thing is more like a bug though as has been pointed out, FM's had some wierd substitution issues for many iterations.

[bhlloy]

I just learned a lesson. Took Weymouth up to league 2, board and fans are loving me. The Man United job comes available at the end of the year, screw it I'll apply for a laugh and see what happens.

Anyway the media gets hold of it, I keep no commenting and then 2 days later Weymouth tells me to resign or they will fire me. It's not like I actually thought I would get the job and not like it's exactly an insult to Weymouth that I would consider going there is it?

Anyway, time to reload and not do that again

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

I just learned a lesson. Took Weymouth up to league 2, board and fans are loving me. The Man United job comes available at the end of the year, screw it I'll apply for a laugh and see what happens.

Anyway the media gets hold of it, I keep no commenting and then 2 days later Weymouth tells me to resign or they will fire me. It's not like I actually thought I would get the job and not like it's exactly an insult to Weymouth that I would consider going there is it?

Anyway, time to reload and not do that again

Fyi, I did the same thing at Man City (applied at Liverpool) - they offered me the chance to resign, but I just continued, and didn't get fired. I don't know if you saved it, but there's a chance that you can keep the job, albeit on knife's edge. I do know I'm too afraid to apply for any other jobs now!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

I just learned a lesson. Took Weymouth up to league 2, board and fans are loving me. The Man United job comes available at the end of the year, screw it I'll apply for a laugh and see what happens.

Anyway the media gets hold of it, I keep no commenting and then 2 days later Weymouth tells me to resign or they will fire me. It's not like I actually thought I would get the job and not like it's exactly an insult to Weymouth that I would consider going there is it?

Anyway, time to reload and not do that again

I did that and ended up resigning. I had posted a great record with that club and figured if they were that ungrateful, they didn't deserve to have a coach of my caliber! I'm now taking another club up the ranks quickly while the club that pushed me out wades in obscurity. Serves them right.

[FrogMan]

hey guys, thought some of you might be interested...

/start shameless plug

WWSM2008: Long live The Hatters and their FrogManager!

/end shameless plug



FM

[DaddyTorgo]

12/23/2015

Games Played - 23
Goals Scord - 59 (2.6 g/g)
Goals Conceeded - 5 (0.2 g/g)

[Izulde]

Time to fire up another new game. I'm sick of the English leagues, though, and I hate Northern Ireland on principle.

So I presume that means Scotland, eh?

[JetsIn06]

I just gave in to my temptations and got this game. I know nothing about soccer so I'm trying to take it slow and learn the game.

First question of many...

The quick start gives you 3 countries to choose from, but advanced let's you choose all of them. How many countries do most of you play with? I have no idea what is "normal". Also, I'm assuming that if I choose United States, Sweden, and England, then teams from all of those other countries won't exist in the game? Or will I just not be able to play/see them?

Thanks in advance.

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

I just gave in to my temptations and got this game. I know nothing about soccer so I'm trying to take it slow and learn the game.

First question of many...

The quick start gives you 3 countries to choose from, but advanced let's you choose all of them. How many countries do most of you play with? I have no idea what is "normal". Also, I'm assuming that if I choose United States, Sweden, and England, then teams from all of those other countries won't exist in the game? Or will I just not be able to play/see them?

Thanks in advance.

team from other countries will be viewable, but not playable. top teams from other nations will play in international events like the EURO stuff.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

I just gave in to my temptations and got this game. I know nothing about soccer so I'm trying to take it slow and learn the game.

First question of many...

The quick start gives you 3 countries to choose from, but advanced let's you choose all of them. How many countries do most of you play with? I have no idea what is "normal". Also, I'm assuming that if I choose United States, Sweden, and England, then teams from all of those other countries won't exist in the game? Or will I just not be able to play/see them?

Thanks in advance.

how many leagues you can comfortably run depends on your machine. IIRC there's still a "recommend" button down there that again IIRC will analyze system-speed to give you a recommended # and then you can tweak that among the different countries/leagues.

if you don't select a league it will still "exist" you just won't be able to play in it, or see detail in it.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

I just gave in to my temptations and got this game. I know nothing about soccer so I'm trying to take it slow and learn the game.

First question of many...

The quick start gives you 3 countries to choose from, but advanced let's you choose all of them. How many countries do most of you play with? I have no idea what is "normal". Also, I'm assuming that if I choose United States, Sweden, and England, then teams from all of those other countries won't exist in the game? Or will I just not be able to play/see them?

Thanks in advance.

teams in countries other than your three will be there and viewable, with their better known players still available to be signed but you won't be able to manage them, never, at any time in your career.

I like having more than a few leagues available as "view only". This means they will play their schedules on a sort of fast sim engine, and you will be able to see their league tables, but again, I will never be able to manage in those leagues. For example, here's the setup I used when I started the career used in my dynasty:


in that setup, I'd be allowed to manage in England, France, Scotland, and the MLS and the other are only there to give me flavor if I ever make it to European competition.

FM

[JetsIn06]

Thanks guys. I also assume that I won't be able to "buy" any of those players from those leagues?

I clicked Recommend and it gave me six leagues. (Eng., Ger., Ita., Mex., Spa., U.S.)

Should I go with that? Or do you recommend I use something different?

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

Thanks guys. I also assume that I won't be able to "buy" any of those players from those leagues?

I clicked Recommend and it gave me six leagues. (Eng., Ger., Ita., Mex., Spa., U.S.)

Should I go with that? Or do you recommend I use something different?

As I said, depending on the database size you pick, some players from the nonplayable leagues will be available to sign (or transfer). The bigger the database, the less greyed out players you will see.

That setup seems like a decent one for a first timer... Not too sure about Mexico, but it becomes a matter of choice then. Personally, I'd rather have Scotland available so I can send my scouts there when managing in England.

FM

[JetsIn06]

dola

just saw FrogMan said that I could still sign top players from those countries. But FrogMan, I see that yours say "View-Only".

So now, I'm going to assume that countries that aren't listed at all won't be available for play, but will exist when it comes to International competitions like the World Cup. If I have a league listed as View-Only, I'll be able to see the standings and stats but will never be allowed to manage a team from that league.

[JetsIn06]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

As I said, depending on the database size you pick, some players from the nonplayable leagues will be available to sign (or transfer). The bigger the database, the less greyed out players you will see.

That setup seems like a decent one for a first timer... Not too sure about Mexico, but it becomes a matter of choice then. Personally, I'd rather have Scotland available so I can send my scouts there when managing in England.

FM

Yea, I thought about taking six countries that were close to each other and using those as my "playable" leagues, and then making a couple of these big ones "view-only"

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

dola

just saw FrogMan said that I could still sign top players from those countries. But FrogMan, I see that yours say "View-Only".

So now, I'm going to assume that countries that aren't listed at all won't be available for play, but will exist when it comes to International competitions like the World Cup. If I have a league listed as View-Only, I'll be able to see the standings and stats but will never be allowed to manage a team from that league.

"view-only" means nothing as far as players being available. I signed a player from a team in Ireland and the Ireland league definitely is not part of my setup. The "view-only" refers to the fast simming of their league games, that's all...

FM

[FrogMan]

going to bed, good luck with whatever you try.

FM

[JetsIn06]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

"view-only" means nothing as far as players being available. I signed a player from a team in Ireland and the Ireland league definitely is not part of my setup. The "view-only" refers to the fast simming of their league games, that's all...

FM

Ahh okay. Thanks a lot for your help!

[JetsIn06]

GRRRR

I started out unemployed and took the job at Lindome in Sweden. After losing 3-2 in my first match, in my next one I went up 3-0 against Oskarshamn. 84 minutes into the game, the score remained the same, until they scored in the 84th minute, the 89th minute, and the 93rd minute, just before extra time ended.

This could become an addiction...

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

GRRRR

I started out unemployed and took the job at Lindome in Sweden. After losing 3-2 in my first match, in my next one I went up 3-0 against Oskarshamn. 84 minutes into the game, the score remained the same, until they scored in the 84th minute, the 89th minute, and the 93rd minute, just before extra time ended.

This could become an addiction...

welcome to the dark side *evil cackle*

[JetsIn06]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

welcome to the dark side *evil cackle*

I definitely need to learn A LOT about this game though. While I'm sure the tactics can get very complicated, my biggest problem is learning about building a team. Transfers? Loans? Huh?

[Blade6119]

I dont have the links relevant, but froggy and some of the others have referenced some excellent sites for newer players in the past that give a rundown of everything you need to know. Marc Vaughn's guide is a good start, but im sure the numerous addicts here can direct you to some great reading material.

[3ric]

Originally Posted by Blade6119

I dont have the links relevant, but froggy and some of the others have referenced some excellent sites for newer players in the past that give a rundown of everything you need to know. Marc Vaughn's guide is a good start, but im sure the numerous addicts here can direct you to some great reading material.

Marc V's guide for FM2007 is here (it's still relevant for the current version): http://www.sigames.com/downloads.php...d=379&file=471

It's a must-read for the newbie.

[3ric]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

GRRRR

I started out unemployed and took the job at Lindome in Sweden. After losing 3-2 in my first match, in my next one I went up 3-0 against Oskarshamn. 84 minutes into the game, the score remained the same, until they scored in the 84th minute, the 89th minute, and the 93rd minute, just before extra time ended.

This could become an addiction...

At Lindome? I've played their youth team on their pitch when I was 14-15.

[Cringer]

13 months from my training facility upgrade being approved to the actual completion seems too long to me. That is what it took me to get mine, to go up one rating to Average. Doesn't help that injuries seem to actually be higher for me now, but that could have something to do with SPL competition I guess.

Speaking of, I am coming to the end of my first SPL season. I sit mid-table, which has me thrilled, being well above the board's/media's/fan's or even my expectations. I guess there is no mandatory stadium upgrade though, which sucks because now I don't know if I will ever be able to get one. The cost of upgrading my team some has cost me enough in salaries that I am now slowly losing money every month. Some players will be sold soon because they want to play for a bigger team, so that should help a bit.

The best thing to happen, in the second half of the season I have finally beaten both Celtic and Rangers. My team is indeed improving. I need a goalkeeper upgrade big time though. I am mid-table because I am the highest scoring team in the SPL.

[FrogMan]

I have posted some skins in here in the past, tried them, but didn't find one I really like. Couldn't get use to Steklo's possession/commentary bar on top of the pitch in the game screen. Found the black-in 2 font too small. Found the Xenon theme too aggressive (I mean bold font everywhere) and some text didn't fit in right because of the big fonts. For some reason, even downloading a modified default skin with different attribute colors didn't work for me. But now I think I have just found my new favorite skin, the one I'll stick on for quite a while.

It's called dDs 2.1 and you can download it here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/79648588/dDs2.1.zip

click the thumbnails for some general screenies:




on this one, take a look at the tactics icons on top of the pitch, nicely done!


And on this one, in-game tactics change, my captain got injured so I go to see if it's set all right and there's a mini pitch at the bottom. Thing is, I can make changes in that one down there too, it's not only visual. That might be in the original skin and I've never seen it cause it's the first time I've had to check captains in game, but if not, very well done...


I like it. The fonts are crisps and I find that it goes well with the all-in-one logo pack I am using...

oh yeah, and for fans of the full screen pitch, it's available with the icon on the top left corner of the screen (or with alt-F11)...

FM

[FrogMan]

dola, also some of the other skins I've tried had lost the number for the how much extra time was to be played in the score bar on top. That one retained it...

FM

[Cringer]

I am pretty pissed. My board just thought it would be a brilliant idea to put in under-soil heating so we wouldn't have to cancel any matches do to weather. Too bad that has not happened in 6 seasons and it put us millions in the f'n red! They got pissed at my requests which would actually help the team, but nope, millions in the red and destroying half of what I have built is good. We have a 1200 capacity stadium thats sells out, maybe a few bleachers for a few thousand bucks could have been slapped down where that asshole chairman parks his van over by the side of the pitch would be a little better. Instead I go into my 2nd SPL season with zero for transfer funds.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I like it. The fonts are crisps and I find that it goes well with the all-in-one logo pack I am using...

Which?

[Cringer]

It has gotten even better as the Albion Rovers board destroy the team thinking they know everything. I am starting to think my chairman/the board are akin to Daniel Snyder.

After blowing all our money and then some on the under soil heating, they turn around at the begining of July and complain about our financial troubles and how I better get that under control. What?!?! I wanted to slap my laptop.

Now, after getting the SPL T.V. money, and selling off several players I was just about to get out of the red within a friggin month from their screw over. My starting MR for the last couple of seasons wanted out anyways and I had to go ahead and let him go to another SPL team. The $400k for him would put us back into the black. The same day he agrees to the contract from Kilmarnock to complete the sale, the same team offers $900k for Shaun Doherty, one of my MCs. This is a guy who I have had since he was 16. I have groomed him and he was finally going to be my fulltime guy at an MC spot. He was starting for the Irish national team from the age of 20. I didn't really want to see him go but when someone asked I would say I want over a million. My Chairman just took the Kilmarnock offer on his own. Fucking whore!

I just turned down the Dortmund job thinking I would give the Rovers another season to see if I could get them going again. Now I kind of wish I hadn't. I was lucky enough to finish my 1st SPL season in 8th, and got a spot in the EURO Vase. My first match is two weeks away and my team is almost all new kids because of this crap.

[ice4277]

Originally Posted by Cringer

I am pretty pissed. My board just thought it would be a brilliant idea to put in under-soil heating so we wouldn't have to cancel any matches do to weather. Too bad that has not happened in 6 seasons and it put us millions in the f'n red! They got pissed at my requests which would actually help the team, but nope, millions in the red and destroying half of what I have built is good. We have a 1200 capacity stadium thats sells out, maybe a few bleachers for a few thousand bucks could have been slapped down where that asshole chairman parks his van over by the side of the pitch would be a little better. Instead I go into my 2nd SPL season with zero for transfer funds.

Are you allowed to play SPL games at your home stadium? I think IRL they would make you play at a stadium w/ higher capacity, like Gretna this season.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Which?

Was gonna say it was the one I mentionned a couple pages back, then tried to find it and it was 6 pages back... the one in that post:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

It's not always there. I went through all of my senior squad and couldn't find one player who had that option but the first four I checked on my U18 squad all that the option to learn from someone else, check the following screenie:


In that case, Brill is a keeper on my senior squad and it's offering me the option of linking Faulds with him for tutoring. In the dropdown, I also have the option of linking him to Julian Speroni, my new keeper.

Regarding that screenie, see the team logo on the top left, well it's part of a superpack from FMEurope. The pack is 155mb but includes about all the important leagues. Here's an example of how the logos look:


the superpack can be found at this link:
http://www.fmeurope.net/index.php?op...ileinfo&id=313

Yeah, it's all in French, but click the grey down arrow next to the pack's name and it'll initiate the download...

FM

I like the round square button and the uniformity between all the leagues. They even have competition logos and nations too, although I decided to delete the small nation logos as I liked it better with the little round flags as opposed the national soccer association logos...

FM

[Coffee Warlord]

Nice. Missed that entirely on this thread.

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by ice4277

Are you allowed to play SPL games at your home stadium? I think IRL they would make you play at a stadium w/ higher capacity, like Gretna this season.

Yes, I am playing at my home stadium. I was surprised when nothing happened my first season because I am pretty sure 2-3 versions ago that it forced you to increase stadium capacity when I first moved up from SD1 to SPL.

[path12]

Nice looking skin, FM. I'm going to download that tonight. One thing on the Steklo, I went and got the latest version (1.3 I think) and even though the commentary is still on top, it does much better on some of the color contrast problems in the earlier version.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Cringer

I am pretty pissed. My board just thought it would be a brilliant idea to put in under-soil heating so we wouldn't have to cancel any matches do to weather. Too bad that has not happened in 6 seasons and it put us millions in the f'n red! They got pissed at my requests which would actually help the team, but nope, millions in the red and destroying half of what I have built is good. We have a 1200 capacity stadium thats sells out, maybe a few bleachers for a few thousand bucks could have been slapped down where that asshole chairman parks his van over by the side of the pitch would be a little better. Instead I go into my 2nd SPL season with zero for transfer funds.

Wow, it sounds like the board really plays a much larger role in FM '08 than it ever did before. I don't ever recall hearing about something like this in previous versions. I can't wait to fire up '08 when I get my new Macbook.