Help, please

[theo]

As you know, I've been a TCM (or should I say FIFA Manager) since it came up but mainly because I was hot-headed and didn't get, more exactly didn't want to try the alternatives just because FIFA and EA Sports was popular, and still is, around here in Romania

I reached year 2014 in FIFA Manager and all that I can say is that I'm playing it just because I'm bored mostly, the game is just too easy and after you get to play like 14 days of it (total time of my save-game) you realised that you played it without any purpose, it's just too easy and you end up winning the league, the Champions League, the Cup (and sometimes the League Cup) each season just like that.

And when I see you guys in this forum (anyone can notice it) being so excited about FM2006, talking about the new prospects that you get, about your tactics each game, about your career, about the big derbies and about SG United you just realise how loved this game is. Well EA Sports will never reach that, it doesn't matter how good the graphical engine is, how accurate are the sounds or the chants, or what company rights did they recently bought. Eye-candy. Everything is eye-candy, that's just for kids that pay $70 just after they've just seen some screenshots from the back of the game cover. Well EA will never get it that infact, it's about quality and the tought that the game is made for the users world-wide, not for money. Let's say that a central defender from our championship that should have the "Simple Passer" character is a CF (and that's not all) who has PLAYMAKER as his character and is a specialist at free kicks, I think that's enough.

So I made up my mind, I'm not letting FIFA Manager go but I want to try something new. I will get my Football Manager 2006 copy in a couple of days and I've already asked Tom about this but I'll ask you to (you never know everything): Can you guys tell me every aspect about the game? I mean clearify everything about it because it's pretty hard after you got used to a game of the same kind, that's radically different, to settle up easily with another one.

 

[Tom]

its hard to tell you EVERYTHING about a game, what i would suggest is simply having a go for 45mins and seeing what happens, what you dont understand, what you do understand.

We've all been there, i remember as a 12yr old picking up CM9798 for the first time, to me that was amazingly complicated, and that didnt even have training!

All im saying is, FM is a damn good game if you're patient and are prepared to learn your own way of playing it, some people play a season in a day, some (like me) in 2 months.

Really is up to you, and its a terribly hard game to explain

 

[Filipower]

well...the first phase is easy...creating a game, selecting the leagues you want, creating a manager etc....what i can say is, when you start the game, before pressing continue even once, explore every single menu in the game...watch dozens of players, the stats and stuff, go to the teams pages and see the tactics, everything.

spend like 15 minutes or more doing that, i know it may sound boring...but after a while you'll begin to think like "oh, and in this menu should be X, in this one should be Y"..

as far as tactics go, you have a whole thread now for that..so anytime you need help we'll gladly offer you

congratulations on realizing SI>EA when it comes to this...and good luck

 

[Tom]

elabourating on Fili:

Ok first things first, once you have the game download the 6.0.2 patch.

get it here: http://files.filefront.com/422rar/;4492065;;/fileinfo.html (70mb)

I personally reckon the filefront mirror tends to be the fastest, but other mirrors can be found at www.sigames.com

After it downloads its really rather simple, once you have installed FM totally, double click the file (called 422 i think), hit "setup" and it will start to extract, once its done that, hit "update" and it will spend about 15minutes updating the game.

Then you're ready to roll.

-

Start FM, if you want windowed mode right click on the shortcut that has been created on the desktop, click properties and in the target box; change the following from this:

to this (dont bother about the highlighing ):

(then once the game is started, go to prefs and deselect "full screen")

ok now start FM and you're good to go.

Go to preferences (you'll see the option). Here you have lots of different things you can change, for example you might want to change the currency to Euros or the height to Feet, whatever you want. If you arent interested in listening to the games then turn off the "sounds", which are essentially crowd noises.

Here you can also choose what skin you want, but it isnt essential, so dont bother with it until you know you like the game.

First thing to do is to decide what team you wanna be, for the sake of arguing lets say Juventus. Go to New Game, it will start to load the database and then take you to a screen with league options. Basically decide your setup here but be careful, too many leagues and the game will be SLOW, too little and you wont have many players to buy from other countries. For the league you want to manage in, i recommend having "full" detail on and also make sure the start date is designed for THAT country (at the bottom).

Also the DB size should depend on how fast your PC is, mine is a tad old nowadays so i only have normal, you may be ok with Large though.

This is what mine looks like:



After this press Start Game in the bottom left hand and wait for ages until the game actually starts . FM will teach you how to be patient, so get ready

After it finishes, put which team you want to be and what your name/DOB is, and press "add", after that click your name at the top of the screen and a drop down box will appear, click on your team, and go from there

 

[Filipower]

couldn't have done it better


once you start enjoying your game, and you will, search in www.sortitoutsi.net , www.fmunderground.net or others for patches with larger pictures, bigger kits, nicer skins, etc..

 

[Tom]

simply ask here Theo if you dont know how to install kits etc.

By the way best way to start with is probably to get to know the players, e.g. attributes, positions and the tactics screen. Dont bother with training just yet.

 

[Daz]

one big piece of advice would be not to try and copy how other people play the game, just play it at your own pace, as Tom said, some people can play a season in a day, others longer. Some people do everything themselves and tweak tactics before every game, others (like me) tend to get a tactic that works and stick to it.

There is no right or wrong... just different.

 

[Tom]

also, FM is hillariously daunting the first time you play it, even as an experienced player i was a bit confused with the new training regime, until i realised its the best SI have ever created.

Like i say, maybe try the tactics screen, working out how to set a basic 442 and then looking at team instructions, more than anything it'll show you how much more complicatingly beautiful FM is than EA's piece of wank

 

[theo]

Thanks a lot guys, reallly appreciate it!
I won't be really needing kits or skins any soon until I get used to it, but when I will need them I will ask. Oh and Daz, I'll probably have a normal system of play (442 like Tom said) and then I'll try experimenting until I find one that could suit me better. And of course, there's the rotation policy . Currently browsing through the other threads (FAQ, tactics, etc.).

Again, thanks for helping me getting started with this.

 

[Tom]

not a prob Theo, we tend to be slightly more friendly in the FM forum than in others

 

[champdave]

I would really advise starting out with a big team when you first play FM. (although I guess you'll play as Juventus anyway) Lower-league management is very difficult and you need to know the tricks of the game to make any headway - tactical tricks, training tricks and just general experience on the transfer market and dealing with players.

I'm going to start playing FM again this week too (sod revision) - not played a while. It is definately better than TCM/Fifa Manager - although having said that I've always felt that TCM2005/Fifa06 were awful compared to '03/'04, which were still not a patch on good old CM03/04

 

[Tom]

totally agree Dave, im still wank at Lower League Management

 

[Filipower]

haha i do a lot better with small teams than i do do with bigger ones

which doesn't mean i don't do good with big ones

 

[Tom]

Anyhoo lets keep this on topic, any questions so far Theo?

 

[rpvankasteren]

I've been doing pretty well at LLM, but not as good as I did in previous versions. That said, I keep away from 4-4-2s, and SI seem to have made them more reliable over the past years.

 

[Tom]

I disagree, in this incarnation they've made it harder to win with one in my opinion, we're back with the more "unsual" forms of formations that CM0102 was so hillariously famous for.

 

[Filipower]

yeah..cm0102 had a couple of 3-1-3-2-1's this year i have to agree with ruud though..4-4-2 is smokin

 

[Tom]

Ok, i'll agree to disagree since ive not had the game too long. the 2-2-1-2-1-2 formation rocked for me on CM0102.

 

[Daz]

2-2-1-2-1-2

Am i the only one that tries to say that out loud and miserably fails? (:/)

 

[theo]

No questions yet, still waiting for the game.
Are there any other major things I need to know about it?

Edit: 1. Do you have records like in real-life? I mean get an 18-year old kid from the youth team and make him, at 34-ish, the player with the most appearances for the club ever?
2. Are club facilities included in the game, and can you upgrade them?
3. Can you/do you have a reserve team too?

That's about it .