CM4 First Impressions

[Bee]

I finally received my copy of CM4 last night. Luckily, the in-laws left yesterday as well. Sometimes things just work out...

Anyway, I figured I'd post a more detailed "first impression" for anyone interested. I'll just describe my experiences to this point. I have to say, I'm very impressed with the game and I think it's a huge improvement over an already great game.

I started with the Barnet Bees in the English Conference Division. I always select them and it usually takes me around 5 seasons to get them to the Premiership. This version might be a little different...

First thing I notice is the club is in financial ruins. I have absolutely nothing available for transfers. There is now a wage limit (for Barnet it was 12,500 ppw of which 11,300 ppw were spent). From that information I figure I can bring in 1 impact starter on a free transfer and that's about it.

Looking over the club I see a lot of familiar faces with a few new ones as well. Barnet appears to be one of the better Conference teams (probably one of the top 5, but not the best). The Board expect a respectable finish which shouldn't be a problem. A quick review of the team reveals 3 serious injuries (a broken ankle should not take a year to heal!). The only injury that I see to a potential starter was to one of my DCs. He'll be out 3 months or so. Luckily, I have a couple young guys who can fill in so it's not a major concern at this point. One of the nice little features I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else is the revisions to the players ratings. The new layout (skills are now divided into 3 "Groups" - Technical, Mental and Physical) makes it much easier to have a general "feel" for players. The goalkeepers now also have their own technical skills which is also nice IMO.

Based on my limited tactics knowledge (I use the 4-1-3-2 tactic from Marc Vaughn - my knowledge is limited to his guide), I think the biggest weakness of the team is the lack of a dominating MC. I decide that's where I want to bring in a free transfer looking to spend around 1000 ppw. There just doesn't seem to be much out there when I do a search. Out of curiousity I pull up Freddy Adu because of the talk I've seen on this board and he plays AMC! I go ahead and approach him to sign with Barnet (one American to another). After some searching, I find a guy named Guevera from Honduras(?) who definitely would be an upgrade at MC. He also speaks English and is interested in joining the club. I approach to sign him as well.

After I approached these two players, it seems everyone in England and Europe decided to do the same with Adu.
It becomes obvious I have no chance with Adu and he signs elsewhere (Inter?). Guervera though agrees to my terms of 1000 ppw. Then I get the dreaded "Guevera is waiting for a work permit" message. In previous versions, this always meant a rejection from my experience.

I go through a few friendlies without a victory. Mostly draws and a loss or two. Not a major concern because I'm trying to get a feel for the new players so I'm cycling players in and out. I'm pretty pleased with my team despite the lack of goals I'm seeing. Another nice little feature I notice is the ability to have the Asst Manager recommend the squad selection. I have him set the lineup and then I review it and make changes. Much faster than having to do everything yourself.

With only 1 friendly still left to play, I get a note concerning Guevera...He was actually granted a work permit! Incredible! He instantly becomes my most valuable player (He's worth over 100,000 pounds with then next most valuable guy being worth 50,000 pounds). Guevera doesn't make it to the club in time to play in the last friendly, but that's ok we'll get him ready early in the season.

With Guevera in place, we really dominate early in the Conference. The biggest benefactor of Guevera seems to be Ben Strevens who didn't even score in any of the friendly matches. He suddenly becomes a goal machine. I play through 5 matches and Strevens scores 9 goals (including a 4 goal game that was just amazing). I only have 1 minor injury (6 days) to one of my part time starters at ML. I know it can't last, but I've won all 5 matches. The boys are flying high. As I come out of the 5th match, I'm thinking to myself "this is great, but it's not going to last". Seems I'm not the only one thinking that...I get a report where the media says almost the exact same thing. Something along the lines that our players should enjoy our time in the limelight, because it's not going to last. LOL. That seems to be another improvement in the game. Not just the fact there is "more" interaction in the game, but the interaction also seems more intelligent.

Well, that's my experience so far. I'm thrilled with the game, it really is the best text sports sim available by far IMO. If you actually read through all my ramblings, I'd suggest you go out and buy the game if you haven't already.

[Radii]

*drools* Good post

Man, I dont' wanna go to work today.

[Marc Vaughan]

Glad you're enjoying the game, incidentally if you haven't already I suggest you download and install patch#1 for CM4 from sigames.com, this speeds the game up considerably and irons out a few bugs.

There will (as usual) be continuous support for the game for several months until I'm happy we've ironed out all problems that have been reported, let me know anything that you notice so I can ensure it gets rectified as soon as possible.

[moriarty]

Marc,

Definitely enjoying the game and looking forward to future enhancements.

I have a question on a couple of things that were either removed (or I can't find) from previous versions. Were these intentionally left out, or might they be added in future enhancements:

- Ability to print team/stats to file (maybe there's an alternative, but I can't find it)
- News from my players who played in international matches (did they score, get injured, etc.)
- Ability to view by filtered attributes when looking at players in the player search screen

None of them are big ticket items, I just find myself missing the little conveniences.

Thanks.

[Bee]

I did download the patch before I started playing. At this point, I haven't really seen any problems at all. I was even able to transfer a player out for 35,000 (+ 10% of future transfer fee) not bad for a guy valued at 20,000 . So, my concerns that the transfer market might be too hard have been somewhat eased. I'm really looking forward to getting home and resuming the career!

[moriarty]

Bee,

I played all last night and now your post is making me want to cut out of work early to play some more (grrr....).

Good to hear you've had some success on the transfer market as well. It might need some tweaking, but I like the fact that it isn't as easy to move players. It makes the management side more difficult/interesting.

[Bee]

Yep. I'm only working until 4pm today instead of my usual 6 or 7pm.

The transfer market was my biggest concern from reading early reviews. With my limited exposure, it seems more difficult but not vastly so. I'm sure it will be tweaked, but even in the current state it is very playable IMO.

[andy m]

bee army! i signed guevara in my first CM career too, but he did in his cruciate ligaments and was out for 10 months

[Marc Vaughan]

"- Ability to print team/stats to file (maybe there's an alternative, but I can't find it)"
This was left out from the relase I'm afraid simply because of time restrictions, I'll try and add it back in when I've got time (can't guarentee this will be before next seasons update however I'm afraid).

"- News from my players who played in international matches (did they score, get injured, etc.)"
We've improved the international match reports a fair bit, but they don't emphasise your players so much now ... might attempt to merge the two styles together a bit more for CM4e.

""- Ability to view by filtered attributes when looking at players in the player search screen""
This is still present, hit the 'Filter' button and then pop-up the section at the bottom of the dialog and you'll find the usual filter by attribute options.

[moriarty]

Sweet, thanks Marc.

As I said these are kinda minor things but I've played so much of previous versions I've become attached to them.

CM4 is already starting to eat into my social life.

Tell Phillip we're looking forward to any MLS updates. Maybe he can stop by here and give us his thoughts when he gets a chance.

[TroyF]

Here are some of my first impressions:

2D view. Excellant!!!!

Depth, as usual amazing.

Set aside an ootp5 career to play CM. I think I need to get a laptop quickly. I can play OOTP5 on the laptop between during the breaks on CM. (I use the large database with 5 or 6 leagues in the foreground, there are some lulls)

Downsides:

I REALLY, REALLY miss the previous meetings screen. I loved knowing how I fared against my rivals. I now have to create a spreadsheet to tally my head to head vs. each team records, dissapointing.

Tougher to transfer guys. I know, this is like real life, but I've always loved the entire transfer process, from the media rumors to fighting to keep players on my team. 4 months into the season, I've had only one guy bid on, and no media interaction at all. (that I haven't started anyway)

Still, what a game. What an incredible game.

TroyF

[daedalus]

Marc . . .

Since you are reading and is in the process of tinkering with the game still, I'd like to add something I'd like to see.

In CM3 (I have 01/02), I get news about an award IF a player I've shortlisted one of the top 3 finishers or if it is relevant to me (player of the month/year in my division). What I'd love to see is the ability mark various awards somehow so that it would notify me regardless of whether or not I have players shortlisted there.

I'm not sure what kind of work would be involve in implementing something like this so I would understand if it cannot be put in until next update or next version. Just wanted to get the idea to you so you can think about the possibilities if it's something you guys might be willing to put in.

[Marc Vaughan]

"I REALLY, REALLY miss the previous meetings screen. I loved knowing how I fared against my rivals. I now have to create a spreadsheet to tally my head to head vs. each team records, dissapointing. "
This will returnn in a future version, I'd have like to get it back into this version to be honest, but there's only so much time in the day

[Katon]

I've been having a bit of trouble with the form standings. Losses are getting recorded as wins. For instance, a team whose actual last five were WLDWL would be in the form standings as WWDWW.

[Bee]

I had one interesting thing happen to me. I won the Conference my first season, but the Runner Up and Third Place team were shown as the same team. I've noticed a few other minor things, but overall the game has been very enjoyable.

[Marc Vaughan]

"form standardings"
This will be fixed in a future patch (No. 3 I believe as #2 is rolling through our testing now).