***** Official Football Manager 13 Thread *****

Well, I ended up resigning as Man Utd manager with 2 games to go. I was in 7th place in the league and had just gone out on away goals to Spurs in the Champions League semi-final.

I would have got fired anyway and Ancelotti was sniffing around the job. Villas Boas ended up getting it.

I switched to a 4231 type formation late on in the season and I seemed to be playing better. My possession went up and so did shots at goal. I had like a 41122 formation previously.

I also noticed a massive bug earlier. Van Persie scored a free kick from around 35 yards against Liverpool. It hit the bar and went in yet the text said it went wide and was a goal kick for Liverpool. To say I was ****** off would be an understatement. It ended 2-1 to Liverpool. :mad:

Not sure what to try next. Are there any lower division clubs with decent transfer budgets?
 
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I am not having a great time of it in the game either.

It would seem that it is more difficult for teams with new players, I tried to start a game as Leeds, only to realize after the first game that about 9 players made their debut, and we were playing terrible football all round.

So I quit that!

I want to find a team who may have a few new players to the squad, but not too many. It's so annoying when you play standard formations and can not get any luck against anyone just because the squad is not yet gelled.
 
I'm ahead of League 1 at the moment.
Referee's are driving me insane though.
I was 2-0 up against Gillingham, they went 2-1.

We were in extra time, for which was designated 2 minutes.
Gillingham draw 2-2 in the 93rd minute.

>.<
 
2nd season in Prem with Harrogate after a topsy turvy frist season saw us eventually finish 5th.

I was given 20m transfer budget but still found it insanely hard to sign decent players. So took a big risk and sold off some of my good players that I knew I could get over the odds for and finally managed to bring in some decent players. The team now is definitely stronger and scoring more freely. The biggest success story being a 21yr old Swedish striker I've nurtured over the last 2 years has made a blinding start, which is lucky because one the things I couldn't manage was to find a star striker.

A couple of odd things have happened though. I only had 1 right winger, so the priority was to find another which I manage to do just in time as the first ended up with a 3 month long injury. Anyway first game in the new winger picks up an injury, also 3 months long. Unlucky you might say. So I searched for a loan signing to tide me over, after 2 games he picks up an injury..... yep, you guessed it, 3 MONTHS!!! Unbelievable.

The second was with the upgrading of training facilities. I requested an upgrade in December of the previous season and which has just finished. Yet in the close season the board announce two different projects, 1 to upgrade training facilities (even thought they were already being done), the other to upgrade youth facilities. This at a joint cost of £8m, however neither of these appeared in the list of projects and therefore don't seem to be happening.... yet the money definitely disappeared! Anyone else had this?
 
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Egon said:
2nd season in Prem with Harrogate after a topsy turvy frist season saw us eventually finish 5th.

I was given 20m transfer budget but still found it insanely hard to sign decent players. So took a big risk and sold off some of my good players that I knew I could get over the odds for and finally managed to bring in some decent players. The team now is definitely stronger and scoring more freely. The biggest success story being a 21yr old Swedish striker I've nurtured over the last 2 years has made a blinding start, which is lucky because one the things I couldn't manage was to find a star striker.

A couple of odd things have happened though. I only had 1 right winger, so the priority was to find another which I manage to do just in time as the first ended up with a 3 month long injury. Anyway first game in the new winger picks up an injury, also 3 months long. Unlucky you might say. So I searched for a loan signing to tide me over, after 2 games he picks up an injury..... yep, you guessed it, 3 MONTHS!!! Unbelievable.

The second was with the upgrading of training facilities. I requested an upgrade in December of the previous season and which has just finished. Yet in the close season the board announce two different projects, 1 to upgrade training facilities (even thought they were already being done), the other to upgrade youth facilities. This at a joint cost of £8m, however neither of these appeared in the list of projects and therefore don't seem to be happening.... yet the money definitely disappeared! Anyone else had this?
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About the training facilities. They decide they want to upgrade them, then in the summer they actually buy the stuff. The waiting in the begining of the season is kinda like the evaluation.
 
Urgh! This game is starting to annoy me, I have no idea why all of my strikers have stopped scoring at once :mad:

To make it worse 6 of my key players are broke! 6!!!! I blame the World Cup but this is a joke...
 
I always put a weeks training on team cohesion at very high if I get a sudden random drop in form, seems to work. You'll always get the odd loss, no team wins 100% of games in real life who ever they are! It'd be pretty boring if that was the case anyway. Also don't forget to do private conversations as often as possible praising or moaning about individual form.

Playing as Cambridge United now, back to back promotions straight away and I'm up to League 1 :D Rotating 3 strikers depending on their form which is working brilliantly, occasionally throwing in my best 18yo now and again too.
 
You need to realise you are playing a game and that the teams aren't separate entity's, they will have better players and maybe different tactics but you are inevitably playing the game still
 
They didn't have any better players.
I've seen a few teams have 1 or two stand out players, it's a bit odd.
Even in Championship, Middlesbrough for example, their team is prettty abysmal, they have strikers with stats of finishing of say 13.
Oxford in league 2 had one of the best strikers I've seen so far in the same league as me, but they're doing abysmally in League 1.
I saw an absolute superstar 17 year old, I almost had him, but I didn't have the wage budget, I could meet his transfer budget, he was on 800 a week.
They now was 3 million for him :(

Nail biting.
Last game of the season, I'm 3rd. Top two get promoted, there's 3 points from 1-3, and 1 point from 2-3.

:p
 
The core of the game used to be teamwork and how long players had been together in a squad, buying new players lowers your teamwork and that was why a smaller team could be a newly assembled billionaire squad.
 
The thing is, my team generally performs excellently.
I mean, with Havant and W I never had this success.
First season in League 1 and I've been promoted.

Portsmouth were first in the league, I hammered them 5-2 :p

But then I'll get one of the worst teams in the league, with horrendous morale killing me.

Oh well, I can live with second place, promotion is promotion.
 
Diplexbullet19 said:
Doesn't matter really, they change tactic and then there is nothing you can do, doesn't matter what you change to counter there changes it wont work. If the AI wants to equalise it will.
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I don't find that at all. Of course, I've had runs of form I can't get out of, and additional runs (for entire seasons) where confidence is sky high and they're over-performing, but I tend to change tactics depending on what the AI are doing or what my team are doing poorly.

If they've a 4-3-3 (single striker, 2 wingers) then my standard 4-4-2 tends to work well. If they've gone for a narrow diamond midfield, I will play either a 3-5-2 (single defensive midfielder, 2 wingers) or keep the 4-4-2 and ask them to exploit the flanks. I've got 3 formations (2 of which are different styles of 4-4-2) that I make sure the team are trained proficient at.

I've had games where the AI have got back into the game, of course, but it's usually when there have been signs earlier and I've not adapted to counter them. Equally, I've scored loads of last minute and injury time winners and levellers.
 
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this_is_gav said:
I've had games where the AI have got back into the game
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I had a good game the other day.
Liverpool (me 6th or so) v Man City (AI, top of the league)

Half my team were crocked so I played this team and formation:
Sturridge Saurez Borini

Suso

Allen

Robinson Agger Coates Carragher Johnson

Ended up winning 3-1, pretty unrealistic. :)
 
I took little ol' Bala to the Welsh league title last season. Hurrah - Champions League qualifying beckons!

At the start of the new season, the draw is made, and I'm drawn against Maribor - a professional side with players in the £700k value range. Tough opponents compared to my part-time minnows.

Hmm, I've put thousands of hours into this bloody game, I think I can probably have a more favourable draw than that. So I do something I never do - reload my save game -to see if I can get slightly easier opponents.

GNK Dinamo
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Okay... that's worse - they're Croatian First League champions; a professional side with multi-million pound players.

Well, I've already gone down the slippery path of reloading, so let's have another reload and see who I get...

GNK Dinamo
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Jeez. Okay, let's try again...

GNK Dinamo
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This is getting a bit silly now. I mean, it's a random draw, not a pre-set "Champions of Wales will play Champions of Croatia" arrangement.

Thinking it may be something to do with a random seed that is created by the game when it starts up, I quit the game completely, restart it and reload my save. Alright, draw time again...

GNK Dinamo
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No way. But apparently way. One more reload, let's have another go...

GNK Dinamo
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W.T.F.

Honestly, it's things like this that make you wonder whether there is an underlying "narrative engine" in the game, and that moans of "I would have lost this game no matter what I did" seem more justified.

EDIT: I just had another attempt. Guess who I got? Something is definitely rotten in the state of FM randomisation.

EDIT 2: One final attempt... and good news! Just kidding - Dinamo AGAIN. Maybe it's not just paranoia, and the game really DOES punish you for reloads.

EDIT 3: I should point out that when my game loads, the draw hasn't already been made/scheduled - from save game start date to draw announcement is 3 in-game days. So it's not me being a div and constantly reloading a game where the draw's already been made behind the scenes :p I've even checked with actual UEFA draw schedules!
 
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simisker said:
I took little ol' Bala to the Welsh league title last season. Hurrah - Champions League qualifying beckons!

At the start of the new season, the draw is made, and I'm drawn against Maribor - a professional side with players in the £700k value range. Tough opponents compared to my part-time minnows.

Hmm, I've put thousands of hours into this bloody game, I think I can probably have a more favourable draw than that. So I do something I never do - reload my save game -to see if I can get slightly easier opponents.



Okay... that's worse - they're Croatian First League champions; a professional side with multi-million pound players.

Well, I've already gone down the slippery path of reloading, so let's have another reload and see who I get...



Jeez. Okay, let's try again...



This is getting a bit silly now. I mean, it's a random draw, not a pre-set "Champions of Wales will play Champions of Croatia" arrangement.

Thinking it may be something to do with a random seed that is created by the game when it starts up, I quit the game completely, restart it and reload my save. Alright, draw time again...



No way. But apparently way. One more reload, let's have another go...



W.T.F.

Honestly, it's things like this that make you wonder whether there is an underlying "narrative engine" in the game, and that moans of "I would have lost this game no matter what I did" seem more justified.

EDIT: I just had another attempt. Guess who I got? Something is definitely rotten in the state of FM randomisation.

EDIT 2: One final attempt... and good news! Just kidding - Dinamo AGAIN. Maybe it's not just paranoia, and the game really DOES punish you for reloads.

EDIT 3: I should point out that when my game loads, the draw hasn't already been made/scheduled - from save game start date to draw announcement is 3 in-game days. So it's not me being a div and constantly reloading a game where the draw's already been made behind the scenes :p I've even checked with actual UEFA draw schedules!
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I hear if you reload your game 8 times, you're guaranteed a different result. Now from what I can tell, you only did 7... :p
 
I'm in Championship now.
Think I'll struggle.

Match engine irregularities wind me up.
Players will randomly stop running for the ball when they can make it.
They'll run into each other far too much.
They'll randomly kick the ball out.
They'll thrown the ball straight to an opponent.

I'm addicted, and it's killing me.
Now I know what meth heads feel like.
 
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