New Games/General Gaming

[Dreams of 1995]

2 minutes ago, DE. said:

I always make an effort to bring former players in on coaching/scouting staff if possible. I've got a number of former players in various staff roles but most of them are regens so no names that anybody other than me would recognise! It's pretty weird when you get to the stage where former regen players are now your staff (and every so often managing teams you face) but just another facet of the game that makes it feel so deep and complex. 

Signing wonderkids from South America and various European leagues is definitely the way to go. I've signed a ton of players for under £1m and they've either become first team regulars or been sold for £20m+ after a few years out on loan or on the subs bench. My transfer budget at this point is a billion every season so I pretty much sign up any highly rated youngster recommended by my scouts. Leaves me with about 30 players out on loan, Chelsea style, but you get huge gains from those you sell on (usually for major profit) and those who end up in the first team haven't cost much at all as their wages are paid for whilst they're out on loan and they've usually been brought in for a pittance. 

Of my current first team none cost more than £9.5m, with most being in the £3-6m range. My highest valued player is a Welsh lad at £78m and he cost £135k from Newport County. 

Following up on former players when they leave the club is always interesting too. At the end of most seasons I go back through players sold to see how they're getting on. Another layer that keeps the game so weirdly fascinating. Every so often a former player will be out of contract and if they still have decent stats and I have a backup spot I'll sign them back for a swansong. I've usually got so many good younger players coming through that even selling a first teamer isn't a big deal as there are plenty of other players ready to take their place. Typically I'll look to sell a player when they hit 30 as that's when their stats and value typically begins to decline. There are some occasions when a player is so good that I keep them on, though. One of my current DC's is 32 but will leave when his contract expires at the end of the season. Stats are still good but time to let a younger player have a shot. 

Some players physical stats totally fall off around the 30/31 mark though, Charlie Mulgrew style. Suddenly almost all their physical stats are below 10 and their value plummets!

Definitely the way to go regarding loaning players out- some 2 / 3 star players can up their ability quickly if given a first team status for a season or two. In FM19 the market goes insane very quickly. I recently signed a promising 17 year old Midfielder from Leeds for 10.75m and thought I got a good deal. There's a striker I want called Bosma who plays for Valencia but he has a release clause of 316m and will want upwards of 300k a week. Mbappe for example is on 700k a week. I'm still only getting budgets of around £80m a year with an additional 100k-200k a week wage budget. It sounds a lot but it really isn't. Players go for upwards of a £100m every season. City recently bought a centre half for 163m in the first week of the transfer window.

A good side story is I managed to get Neymar for his final 6 months in 2028. He'd been out of contract for 6 months so got him for 50-odd k a week. He got 4 goals and a handful of assists and played well against the big boys.

Sometimes I think the fall of attributes is unrealistic, especially in goalkeepers. Pickford was the England goalie and Heckingbottom signed him for Rovers. When I went back he was 32/33 ish, can't quite remember. You'd expect to get at least another 2 years out of him but he was awful, would let almost any long shot go in and his agility had plummeted to 7. Even though all of his technical attributes were still amazing that lack of agility and balance meant he was always prone to a mistake. Dropping him for Rovers and replacing him with our youth keeper worked for a season; dropping him for England and replacing him with Freddie Woodman didn't and I lost my job on the back of it. There's also added importance to the squad morale and dynamics of the team. As Pickford was a Team Leader my broken relationship with him meant the rest of the team suffered to. It was a disappointing season that year and I had beef with two of Heckingbottom's senior players as I looked to overhaul the team back to the way I wanted it. 

There is also much more of a relationship with agents now. I have a terrible relationship with this French agent who has basically scuppered my chances of signing the best RB in the world atm, French fullback Madani Fofani. Every time I try and offer a contract he immediately returns with an almost-non negotiable offer back. I've had contract talks break down with him for a few players in the past and now I pretty much can't sign a player he represents unless I pay fortunes. I also asked my left back to sack him when he was trying to pressure me into giving him a new mega contract on the back of a couple of good performances. He also represents the best players in the world (Mbappe being one) who all play for PSG. Incidentally he has a "good relationship" and considered friends with the Director of Football for PSG....

 

[DE.]

2 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

Definitely the way to go regarding loaning players out- some 2 / 3 star players can up their ability quickly if given a first team status for a season or two. In FM19 the market goes insane very quickly. I recently signed a promising 17 year old Midfielder from Leeds for 10.75m and thought I got a good deal. There's a striker I want called Bosma who plays for Valencia but he has a release clause of 316m and will want upwards of 300k a week. Mbappe for example is on 700k a week. I'm still only getting budgets of around £80m a year with an additional 100k-200k a week wage budget. It sounds a lot but it really isn't. Players go for upwards of a £100m every season. City recently bought a centre half for 163m in the first week of the transfer window.

A good side story is I managed to get Neymar for his final 6 months in 2028. He'd been out of contract for 6 months so got him for 50-odd k a week. He got 4 goals and a handful of assists and played well against the big boys.

Sometimes I think the fall of attributes is unrealistic, especially in goalkeepers. Pickford was the England goalie and Heckingbottom signed him for Rovers. When I went back he was 32/33 ish, can't quite remember. You'd expect to get at least another 2 years out of him but he was awful, would let almost any long shot go in and his agility had plummeted to 7. Even though all of his technical attributes were still amazing that lack of agility and balance meant he was always prone to a mistake. Dropping him for Rovers and replacing him with our youth keeper worked for a season; dropping him for England and replacing him with Freddie Woodman didn't and I lost my job on the back of it. There's also added importance to the squad morale and dynamics of the team. As Pickford was a Team Leader my broken relationship with him meant the rest of the team suffered to. It was a disappointing season that year and I had beef with two of Heckingbottom's senior players as I looked to overhaul the team back to the way I wanted it. 

There is also much more of a relationship with agents now. I have a terrible relationship with this French agent who has basically scuppered my chances of signing the best RB in the world atm, French fullback Madani Fofani. Every time I try and offer a contract he immediately returns with an almost-non negotiable offer back. I've had contract talks break down with him for a few players in the past and now I pretty much can't sign a player he represents unless I pay fortunes. I also asked my left back to sack him when he was trying to pressure me into giving him a new mega contract on the back of a couple of good performances. He also represents the best players in the world (Mbappe being one) who all play for PSG. Incidentally he has a "good relationship" and considered friends with the Director of Football for PSG....

I'm always a bit reluctant to give a player any more than £175k a week. For some of my best players I'll go up to £275-300k but that's my limit and usually only a handful of first teamers get that. If a player is being unreasonable with wage demands (or asking for a stupid loyalty/agent fee) I'll just sell them and promote a replacement. Part of the problem with giving a player a huge wage (particularly if the contract extends to when they are 29 or older) is that it becomes hard to sell him at the end of their contract as nobody wants to pay the wage. I think FM18 must be the edition before transfer fees and wages really exploded as you generally don't see anyone on more than £350-400k a week max, even top players. Similarly transfer fees for the best players rarely exceed more than £100m. My highest fee in terms of selling is £135m and that was way back in 2029. He was a great player and a first teamer but I couldn't turn down that money! My wage budget is 5.5m a week but I'm only using 3.7m of it at the moment. 

I do like picking up older legends on frees, especially if their stats are still decent. I can remember years ago I was managing Watford and brought in Messi on a free when his contract expired at Barca. I think he was 33 at the time but still an absolute beast, racked up a ton of goals and assists. I had to pay a crazy wage but it was worth it for a couple of years for the novelty if nothing else. 

Yeah I'd agree that the dropping of stats can sometimes be very unrealistic. I can understand it if a player isn't playing regularly, but sometimes despite being a first teamer with no injury issues a player's attributes will suddenly drop hugely over the summer and they'll be near useless afterwards. Now granted I am sure there are a few cases in real life where that does happen, but it's usually with players who have injury or general fitness problems. Part of the reason I move players on around the 30 year old mark is because I don't trust the game to not suddenly wreck them! 

The agent dynamic is there in FM18 as well but it seems a bit random. Sometimes an agent will "hate" me even though I've had no dealings with him, making buying his clients almost impossible. Then other times agents who have a good relationship with me will ask for crazy fees in the £10m+ range. I'm in a position now where if I ask a player to sack an agent they pretty much always will, but even when that happens the agent's relationship status with me doesn't change which seems unlikely. I imagine they have refined it more in subsequent releases though. 

[Dreams of 1995]

34 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

What you doing when Mowbray leaves? 
I’d be throwing my hat in the ring with a glittering CV like that!

I make the same mistakes, I could never do it.

The season I was sacked I sold Raya for 40m and cheaped out on the replacement. The has-been Hugo Lloris was the worst goalkeeper I've ever managed and definitely the reason I lost my job.

[Dreams of 1995]

26 minutes ago, DE. said:

I'm always a bit reluctant to give a player any more than £175k a week. For some of my best players I'll go up to £275-300k but that's my limit and usually only a handful of first teamers get that. If a player is being unreasonable with wage demands (or asking for a stupid loyalty/agent fee) I'll just sell them and promote a replacement. Part of the problem with giving a player a huge wage (particularly if the contract extends to when they are 29 or older) is that it becomes hard to sell him at the end of their contract as nobody wants to pay the wage. I think FM18 must be the edition before transfer fees and wages really exploded as you generally don't see anyone on more than £350-400k a week max, even top players. Similarly transfer fees for the best players rarely exceed more than £100m. My highest fee in terms of selling is £135m and that was way back in 2029. He was a great player and a first teamer but I couldn't turn down that money! My wage budget is 5.5m a week but I'm only using 3.7m of it at the moment. 

I do like picking up older legends on frees, especially if their stats are still decent. I can remember years ago I was managing Watford and brought in Messi on a free when his contract expired at Barca. I think he was 33 at the time but still an absolute beast, racked up a ton of goals and assists. I had to pay a crazy wage but it was worth it for a couple of years for the novelty if nothing else. 

Yeah I'd agree that the dropping of stats can sometimes be very unrealistic. I can understand it if a player isn't playing regularly, but sometimes despite being a first teamer with no injury issues a player's attributes will suddenly drop hugely over the summer and they'll be near useless afterwards. Now granted I am sure there are a few cases in real life where that does happen, but it's usually with players who have injury or general fitness problems. Part of the reason I move players on around the 30 year old mark is because I don't trust the game to not suddenly wreck them! 

The agent dynamic is there in FM18 as well but it seems a bit random. Sometimes an agent will "hate" me even though I've had no dealings with him, making buying his clients almost impossible. Then other times agents who have a good relationship with me will ask for crazy fees in the £10m+ range. I'm in a position now where if I ask a player to sack an agent they pretty much always will, but even when that happens the agent's relationship status with me doesn't change which seems unlikely. I imagine they have refined it more in subsequent releases though. 

I do think they have worked on the attribute system. It's definitely been brought to their attention. The weighting of the physical attributes is too heavy imo, meaning sometimes players can be brilliant simply because they are physically brilliant. Ryan Nyambe was case and point for me on this save. Also, due to his aggression being 19 he got way too many red cards for a professional player, and no amount of fining would stop him. Little tweaks here and there should solve that.

Wages really irk me. I know it's just a game but I have absolutely no time for a player that comes wanting a double increase due to good form. I have had many barneys with some of my better players, but no player is bigger than the club! But....seeing a name like Messi at the club you are managing is worth 100k+ a week of any mans money.

In truth I don't tend to stick around at clubs long. I always start with Rovers, do as much as I can with them and then move on to another club and so on. I like to pick clubs that have had a history, so this year I'm going to try and recreate the 70s/80s with Hamburg once I'm done with Rovers. I wasn't expecting to be sacked though so it's running later than usual! One of my favourite saves was Athletic Bilbao. You can only sign basque players but that led to me getting a vintage Xabi Alonso who is probably one of the only anomalies I've seen to the overpowered physical stats. According to the game he couldn't walk but he ran the midfield. Spain may be different, I don't know.

Going off on a tangent here but I've always thought that football manager would be a game that could be adapted to virtual reality. It is almost becoming a mind in itself, if that makes sense. In FM20 the game can track the type of manager you are, ie: attacking, possession, defensive and that can then limit the type of jobs you can get, depending on what the board of the club wants their team style to be. There's also the added caveat of if you develop youth or buy big name signings. I can't say how well it works as I have skipped 2020. As it is just based on statistical data it wouldn't be crazy to assume in years time when VR kicks off football manager will be one of the games that can easily transition into that. That could border on dangerous though if this game keeps grown men awake late at night based on just numbers and dots...?

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Dreams of 1995

[DE.]

1 minute ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

I do think they have worked on the attribute system. It's definitely been brought to their attention. The weighting of the physical attributes is too heavy imo, meaning sometimes players can be brilliant simply because they are physically brilliant. Ryan Nyambe was case and point for me on this save. Also, due to his aggression being 19 he got way too many red cards for a professional player, and no amount of fining would stop him. Little tweaks here and there should solve that.

Wages really irk me. I know it's just a game but I have absolutely no time for a player that comes wanting a double increase due to good form. I have had many barneys with some of my better players, but no player is bigger than the club! But....seeing a name like Messi at the club you are managing is worth 100k+ a week of any mans money.

In truth I don't tend to stick around at clubs long. I always start with Rovers, do as much as I can with them and then move on to another club and so on. I like to pick clubs that have had a history, so this year I'm going to try and recreate the 70s/80s with Hamburg once I'm done with Rovers. I wasn't expecting to be sacked though so it's running later than usual! One of my favourite saves was Athletic Bilbao. You can only sign basque players but that led to me getting a vintage Xabi Alonso who is probably one of the only anomalies I've seen to the overpowered physical stats. According to the game he couldn't walk but he ran the midfield. Spain may be different, I don't know.

Going off on a tangent here but I've always thought that football manager would be a game that could be adopted to virtual reality. It is almost becoming a mind in itself, if that makes sense. In FM20 the game can track the type of manager you are, ie: attacking, possession, defensive and that can then limit the type of jobs you can get, depending on what the board of the club wants their team style to be. There's also the added caveat of if you develop youth or buy big name signings. I can't say how well it works as I have skipped 2020. As it is just based on statistical data it wouldn't be crazy to assume in years time when VR kicks off football manager will be one of the games that can easily transition into that. That could border on dangerous though if this game keeps grown men awake late at night based on just numbers and dots...?

 

I had the same experience with Nyambe. I think his stats are probably a bit better in FM19 but on 18 he still has very good physical stats, which is perfect for the RWB position I utilise. He was excellent all the way to PL level, but eventually I sold him for something like £12m to a german team. He proceeded to be useless for them and ended up leaving on a free I think. I brought him back for a season as 3rd choice backup and despite being 31 or 32 he was still very solid purely because his physical attributes hadn't declined much. I then sold him to Burnley and he was a part of their relegation squad, so good times all around really.

Usually I can get around players asking for wage increases by just telling them 'the club can't afford it' (despite having literally a billion in the bank) but when contracts come due it can be really annoying. Especially if it's a player who is 28/29 who wants a 4 year deal on £200k+ a week. I know by the end of the contract he'd be worthless so end up just selling instead. I had a RWB recently who had literally just broken into the team as a first teamer asking for £350k p/w with a £6m loyalty bonus and £12m agent fee to extend his contract. He was on £59k p/w previously and still only 22! He was happy at the club and my relationship with the agent was good so no idea why he was asking for such an insane amount. Very irritating and IMV unrealistic, but nonetheless I ended up selling him and giving somebody else a shot. The wage at his new club was £130k p/w ?

In the past I've always bounced around clubs as well, I think this is one of the few games where I've just stuck at one club for the entire game. I've thought about leaving but then look at all the youth prospects I've signed and think, nope, got to stick around to see them tear it up in a few years. At around the 2045 mark I actually managed Chelsea (who had deriorated to a mid-table PL team) with a second persona just to see if I could dethrone myself. Turns out I couldn't. Finished 2nd for a few seasons then retired my second persona as it was taking too bloody long to manage two teams. 

FM in VR would be very interesting. I always play the games with commentary only, but if they added an option for you to be on the touchline watching the game in VR I'd definitely make use of that feature! I doubt SEGA have the resources or expertise necessary to implement that in all honesty, but it would be awesome nonetheless. Maybe one day. 

[booth]

On 19/04/2020 at 18:41, DE. said:

Yeah I've got an 8bitdo wireless six button for the Mega Drive Mini and it works perfectly. Really good quality controllers.

I'll definitely be grabbing one of those Saturn flash cards when they're available! It's pretty expensive to get ahold of the better Saturn games and I'm not really up for paying upwards of £70 for them. It's cheaper to buy the Japanese versions of most of these games and with a RAM cart you can bypass the region lock on the console - a bit of a faff to play a game though!

£250+ for Radiant Silvergun!

[DE.]

9 minutes ago, booth said:

£250+ for Radiant Silvergun!

Yeah, that, Dragon Force, Shining Wisdom, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Mega Man X3, Magic Knight Rayearth, Guardian Force, Burning Rangers... all crazy expensive (and half of them not even that good!). 

Would be cool to play them using a flash drive though. Saturn emulation is still pretty shit so the original console is still really the only way to go to get a proper experience. 

[booth]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

Yeah, that, Dragon Force, Shining Wisdom, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Mega Man X3, Magic Knight Rayearth, Guardian Force, Burning Rangers... all crazy expensive (and half of them not even that good!). 

Would be cool to play them using a flash drive though. Saturn emulation is still pretty shit so the original console is still really the only way to go to get a proper experience. 

I find that for most systems. Some of the earlier stuff is fine but even the 16 bit stuff doesn't seem quite right sometimes.

That said I saw an amazing pi4 build on YouTube recently, never been interested in pi emulation before but that looked great.

[DE.]

On 21/04/2020 at 23:26, booth said:

I find that for most systems. Some of the earlier stuff is fine but even the 16 bit stuff doesn't seem quite right sometimes.

That said I saw an amazing pi4 build on YouTube recently, never been interested in pi emulation before but that looked great.

I've always been able to emulate Master System, Mega Drive and NES games without a problem, but SNES could be flaky at times. Once you get into 32-bit it becomes very difficult. PS1 emulation is actually pretty good but the PS1 has very simple architecture which helps with that. N64 emulation is much better now than it used to be, but can still be hit and miss. Saturn emulation is still shit but the Saturn's architecture was ridiculously complicated and most developers couldn't get to grips with it, let alone hobbyists. 

I haven't even attempted emulation past the 32-bit era, but I know it does exist. I've got a Hard Drive/Free McBoot setup on my PS2 so don't require emulation for that, I have Dolphin installed on one of my Wiis to run Gamecube stuff and an original softmodded XBOX to run those games. Past the 16-bit generation it's probably best to just go with the original hardware (although as aforementioned PS1 emulation is actually very good). 

[booth]

12 hours ago, DE. said:

I've always been able to emulate Master System, Mega Drive and NES games without a problem, but SNES could be flaky at times. Once you get into 32-bit it becomes very difficult. PS1 emulation is actually pretty good but the PS1 has very simple architecture which helps with that. N64 emulation is much better now than it used to be, but can still be hit and miss. Saturn emulation is still shit but the Saturn's architecture was ridiculously complicated and most developers couldn't get to grips with it, let alone hobbyists. 

I haven't even attempted emulation past the 32-bit era, but I know it does exist. I've got a Hard Drive/Free McBoot setup on my PS2 so don't require emulation for that, I have Dolphin installed on one of my Wiis to run Gamecube stuff and an original softmodded XBOX to run those games. Past the 16-bit generation it's probably best to just go with the original hardware (although as aforementioned PS1 emulation is actually very good). 

On a decent spec PC PS2 and Gamecube emulation can look amazing but I've got to that age where I can't be bothered to fix glitches and configure individual games to run better, I just want them to work.

[Mike E]

Right...

If I want a laptop/netbook SOLELY to play FM (no other function necessary), what can I get for as little as possible?

[DE.]

If you aren't bothered about doing any other type of gaming on the laptop and aren't worried about watching matches on higher graphics settings then focus on a laptop with a good processor and decent amount of RAM (at least 16GB) and you'll be fine. FM is extremely processor-intensive so the better processor you can get the better. Most laptops these days come with 16GB RAM as standard so that shouldn't be a problem. 

[Mike E]

Yes, I'd be using it for FM and literally nothing else.

Just realised an alternative. I have this netbook:

https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c04999120

I was given it as a teacher for OpenOffice and browsing. If I uninstall all non-important files/programmes, and install Steam (can store the files on an ext hard drive to relieve some burden), reckon that would be good enough?

Not bothered if it runs a touch slow, or about quality match graphics (I still admire the 3d engine in fm14 ffs).

Edited April 24, 2020 by Mike E

[DE.]

These are the minimum specs for FM20:

MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 7 (SP1), 8/8.1, 10 (Update 1803/April 2018 or later) – 64-bit
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 (64-bit), Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 – 2.2 GHz +
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics:  Intel GMA X4500, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT or AMD/ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 – 256MB VRAM
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 7 GB available space
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system

Obviously minimum meaning the game will actually load and theoretically run. I have no idea what performance would be like on those kind of specs.

[DE.]

https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

If you load this website up on that laptop and select FM20 it should be able to say whether it will run or not.

[Mike E]

Up and running! A bit slow but I'm not after super fast playing, just casual. Aiming to take Chester to the Champions League.

[Dreams of 1995]

1 hour ago, Mike E said:

Up and running! A bit slow but I'm not after super fast playing, just casual. Aiming to take Chester to the Champions League.

Good luck. You are in for a lot of frustrating moments with that one ? 

The lack of money when you get to the Championship is chronic

[DE.]

I managed to get Accy up to the PL in one game but the Championship was initially a struggle, as @Dreams of 1995 says you really notice it when you get promoted from League 1. Usually takes a season or two to adjust and even then you aren't exactly rolling in money. I ended up departing Accy after getting them into the PL as I was given a transfer budget of £1.5m and barely any improvement in wage budget either. Ended up going to Brighton I think. 

[Mike E]

After figuring a few bits out, think I'll just do a Rovers save. When I can afford a better machine to run other leagues, that's when I'll go all out and try the Pentagon. But this will be my FM for a few years unless they do a console one.

Edited April 24, 2020 by Mike E

[JacknOry]

I have gone old skool and am playing Championship Manager 01/02. Legally free to download and is updated by these guys - https://champman0102.co.uk/. I am playing it with our current squad - but 20-years ago. 

Brings back tons of memories and is quicker to play as it is not bloated with all the additional stuff you have to do on FM these days. Can even play it on Android.

[DE.]

01/02 was a great game for sure. I really liked 97/98 and 03/04 as well. I probably wouldn't go back to them now as I'm too used to the newer versions and features but they are timeless nonetheless!

[DE.]

[DE.]

No gaming update to share, only Powerglove who I forgot about, just rediscovered and remembered how amazing they are.

My favourite version of the FF7 battle theme, period. They should have used this in the remake.

For any FF6 fans they also did an incredible version of that game's boss theme.

 

[DE.]

Come to think of it, whilst I'm talking about Final Fantasy music I'd be remiss in failing to mention The Black Mages. Basically a rock/metal group formed by the guy who created the music for all of the classic FF games, Nobou Uematsu. I guess it's basically how the music would have sounded if not for the hardware limitations of the NES/SNES/PS1. Some of the tracks are absolutely incredible. Well worth checking out their first album from 2003.

Force Your Way and The Decisive Battle are the pinnacle of music, and I won't hear any arguments otherwise. All the FFVII tracks sound great too.

[Bigdoggsteel]

12 hours ago, DE. said:

No gaming update to share, only Powerglove who I forgot about, just rediscovered and remembered how amazing they are.

My favourite version of the FF7 battle theme, period. They should have used this in the remake.

For any FF6 fans they also did an incredible version of that game's boss theme.

 

Sound effects and music are key aspects of a game in my book. Bloodborne is so creepy. Red dead is perfectly pitched, but special mention of my recently played games goes to Persona 5. I have definitely hummed some of them the following day at work. I'm a shapeshifter....