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Football Manager has never had difficulty settings, the official line is that they are already built into the game. Want to play the game on easy? Then you should take up management with Chelsea or Manchester United. Looking for game played on difficult, well you should try and take up management with Chester City. But with many people around the community complaining about the troubles they are having in the latest game have SI games this year made the game the most difficult game yet?
Football Manager 2010 has had many experienced players, those of which who have in previous editions seemed to have nailed the Football Management game, understanding what sliders do which and how to manipulate these sliders to get the desired results. These players have been quick to complain that the games aren’t going well for them, whatever they do they can’t pick the game up and play it as they once did killing any enjoyment as it surfaces itself into frustration.
I myself have been in two camps, I have never confessed to being the most tactical knowledgeable person, I have always had enough knowledge to get me by and I also feel that I have made some improvements in the understanding of tactics within Football Manager simply from doing some reading between the two latest releases. This seemed to come through well, shooting top of the league in my first lower league challenge. But now I have hit a bad patch in my game and finding it increasingly difficult to get my tactics right I am playing good football, but not scoring enough losing late goals that have ruined my promotion hopes.
The tactic creator affect
The argument between how much Football Manager should be a simulation and a game will rage on, but it in real football it is no surprise that strategy is probably one of the single most important concepts to get right, through getting the players in, man management to getting your players motivated to play. Probably one of the most important aspect of the strategy though is the tactics. Without a good understanding of tactics you can have the best players in the world, but they won’t perform when it comes down to it, just look at Real Madrid.
Has the new tactic creator allowed football manager to become that little bit more challenging as the commands and the way tactics are created have became that much easier, does this make the actual knowledge we need more in-depth? This could be the case that SI games have over estimated the ability of some of their fans when it comes to the tactical department making the game more realistic in the match engine and the artificial intelligence of the game. Getting tactics spot on this series seems to be much more of a must and an expectation due to the brilliantly implemented tactics creator.
The touchline shouts could arguably have made the game that more of a challenge, a negative when it comes to allow those with less ability looking for a match strategy? Lets look at it, many found themselves downloading tactics, or even discovering the killer tactic that seemed to get the results. But the extra dimension and depth created by the new shouts gives the ability to tamper throughout the game, surely giving more opportunities for a manager to get it wrong? Therefor again more difficult. I have the utmost respect for those guys that worked on the match engine and the tactical elements of the game this year, but I wonder if their expertise being placed into the game has looked for as much realism as possible and therefore now we are not exploiting the artificial intelligence, but instead the match engine is exploiting our shortcomings.
When it all comes down to it though, the game has probably shown us that Football Manager shouldn’t be the game just to pop in the best players in the world into one team and then press continue while you sit there. You need to learn, you need to look at how tactics work in real football as well as Football Manager. I think in time those fans that the game is aimed at will learn that to do well will take hard work and effort and it is now time for us to put that work and effort into Football Manager.
Have you found Football Manager 2010 much harder then any of the other games in the series? Do you think that it is now time for Football Manager to include difficulty settings in an attempt to slowly break us in to the game? Finally do you have any tips for managers that are struggling with Football Manager 2010? Discuss all these questions and anything else you wish to add to the article by commenting below or on our Facebook and twitter account.
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Interesting post, and I can see why some are finding it more difficult this year. Tactics are an issue, however I think this has been improved now.
As is usual for me, I initially started a game as Everton, Europa cup place finish the expectation. I used my usual tactics from previous games and signed some cheap, but very good, players. I didn’t mess with my tactics, and all went well until mid-season when we had a massive blip and in the end we ended up finishing 9th. No European spot, board upset etc. I wondered what went wrong, so I started a new game.
This time, I started as Wolves – destined to struggle this season. Not much money available and a young, inexperienced team. I played around with the tactics creator to get the best possible out of my team. I held meetings with backroom staff for advice, and I watched each match closely during play to deliver the best instant tactical play. This has worked for me. First season finished 10th, and mid-season during my second year now lying in 6th.
For me, this now shows that you do have to put the effort in. You need to look at what you have and decide the best system to play. Look at your team and see where needs strengthening. Even if money is no object, take the advice of your staff and scout other players/amend tactics. Is your defensive line too high? Opposition attack breaking the offside trap too often? Tell them to drop back.
This is the best FM yet in my opinion. If ever SI introduced a difficulty level…well, that doesn’t bear thinking about.
I fully agree with you David that Football Manager is a strategy game and as such with any strategy there is a need for a certain amount of intelligence as I said in my last paragraph to play this game a certain amount of research, time and effort needs to be put into the game. This is something that can turn people either on or off to the game but I think that the game is so good because of the feeling you get when all things come together and you prove to beat the game.
A difficulty probably will never be warranted by Football Manager, SI games are right when they suggest that playing as Chelsea is easy and playing as Chester is hard. I think that most probably a little more help and support is what is needed to help the user, a role that the community plays in this and something SI games recognises, this is why there is an increasing effort to work with the community from SI.
I am determined to continue in my game that I am struggling at the moment in the hope that again I will learn something, even if I get sacked I am going to aim to keep the save and carry on to another team and hoping to learn something there.
Has Football Manager got harder this year? Most probably so, is it for the better, I would say yes as again it strives to be the best management simulation available.
I think that with the release of FM10 we should ask ourselves if the equation realism = fun is true or not.
Talking about a game that is clearly a simulation, and not an arcade game, it seems obvious to me that if we want the game to be rewarding, it should also be demanding.
is it too demanding?
I don’t think so, the game need time to be learned but this should assure hours and hours of fun, every little or great achievement we will reach in the game will be well deserved, of course the game is time consuming, but we already knew about that.
What i really don’t understand actually is people still looking for diablo-like tactics to download, they miss a key part of the game: developing a tactic for their own team, to suit their players and having fun watching their men playing as they were instructed to do.
.-= paine´s last blog ..A thrilling finale!! =-.
That is right Paine, the demand put upon us do make the game what it is, recently I have discovered the art of losing, but instead of throwing the disk out of the window in discuss I clawed back some form and started winning games again. I took the season down to the wire and everything was dependant on results going my way on the last game of the season as well as doing my job of winning.
Unfortantely I didn’t manage to get my side into the play offs missing out by a point in the end, but by the end of the season it was probably my most enjoyable season I have ever had. Why? Well all the tactics were my own, I didn’t have any tips on what players to buy and the only help I did have was what I read through guides and advice from a few people around the community. I actually felt I was learning something that I can take further into the game and hopefully have a better second season.
I can understand that downloading tactics can be good way to learn how different tactics will play if you use them to analyse different styles of play, but now I can’t understand the use in buying a game for £30 and then using it as a fantasy football that you can play for free online. It should be about exploiting your own knowledge and not the holes in the match engine surely?
FM O9 Was the hardest of all, In fact I lost confidence I would ever win a game. I’ve played them all not as a expert ,but good enough to enjoy them.
FM 10 Took Bristol City to championship winner using 4 1 3 2 no wingers. Now playing Norwich
4 4 2 (with good wingers) in L1 and struggling! obviously I have’nt got it right yet ‘OR’ they just aint good enough ‘OR’ I aint good enough (yet). Bottom line find tactic to suit your players and persevere.
Arapho
But why do you think it was hard? Was it difficult because you didn’t understand the sliders in FM09, but with FM 2010 having such a better system to making tactics, means that a working tactics can be alot easier to make. My argument basically is that the game is more user friendly, but the AI is now harder to beat.
But I think that downloading FM tactics is become more redundant as things go on because that tip you have at about finding a tactic to suit you players is crucial!
Personally I have found FM2010 to be the best edition yet due to the tactics revamp. Not to say that it is easier, but that it has forced me to rethink my approach.
On 2009 I tended to take a fairly gung-ho approach to changing tactics during matches, and struggled for consistency away from home as a result. The fact that the tactical shouts are not precise slider-based affairs means that I use them more sparingly and with more thought. There’s far more intuition required with “get ball forward” than “increase 3 notches”. I also give more thought to my tactics against different opposition, especially away from home, with more success. The result: playoff promotion and Johnstone Paint winners in S1 with Brighton, and a respectable mid-table position so far in S2. In order to achieve that I’ve had to change my tactical approach again, and still haven’t found the players to fit my preferred tactic, an asynchronous 4-5-1.
The point is, 2010 has encouraged me to be more flexible and measured in my approach. The increased interaction with coaches also helps, because you have to learn when to trust their advice and when not. Which is as it should be.
I totally agree with you.
This therefore adds to the enjoyment of the game as you are now able to not only understand what the shout is going to do, you are able to read the match engine much better because you know what affect you are looking out for and in turn that does help in making you a better able to learn and deal with different situations.
Alot of the time with the sliders I sort of knew what I was doing, but mainly I was just moving the sliders and hoping for the best not really knowing what was going to happen in the combination of changing the different sliders.
i love the fm series i have been playing since the original championship manager games where first released..i consider myself tactically sound and have always even on the latest game had alot of success…but in all honesty your comments about having to work hard and learn are rediculous….bare in mind its supposed to be a game about enjoyment, if i wanted to take months learning something i would have gone to university….life is busy and stressful enough these days without having to play the game 24/7 using up all your free time just to be able to get it right and get that enjoyment….inspite of the success i have had on the latest game, i too find it alot harder than usual…almost at times the realism goes too far, and constantly having to re-arrange your tactics makes this game harder more fiddly and takes alot longer to play, not my idea of fun if u ask me, why fix something that isn’t broke in my opinion some of the add on are great but tactically si has taken a step too far and have made it unessecarily complicated it…it is by far now the most frustrating game on the market….and as loyal as i am to the game will think twice about buying the next one simply because i don’t have the time to mess about learning and re-learning something that is supposed to be a game and fun, for me the fun factor has dropped massively compared to the other games…..where as i’m sure u’d like to say ‘well your not good enough then you have to learn’ that is my point exactly….hours playing the game is now being taken up with hours of having to research tactics to make it fun again, something it already was in the first place…..if i wanted the stress of a real manager i would have become one but i bought the game to live the fantasy and enjoy….sadly at the mo that doesn’t seem to be happening….again its not a lack of success that bothers me more the time i now have to waste on it….i can understand gamers who play this 24 hours a day will love it, but some of us have real lives and only so much free time, i believe we are suffering now for the changes si have made not that all are bad, i agree better interaction with coaches makes for something more real but stingy clubs who won’t sell players period, increased ai intelligence to an almost unreal standard and constant phaffing with tactics add alot more time to the gaming experiance, time most don’t have
It would be hard for SI games to cater for everyone, if they did that I think they would end up catering for no one.
Football Manager hasn’t developed into something that you need a degree to play at all but something that just needs a little time and learning, not out of the game, but if you have patience you can learn within the game.
FM2010 has been released to the highest acclaim and record sales once again so it would be difficult to say the direction they are going into is the wrong direction because people are obviously voting with their money.
If you want a pick up and play Football Manager simulation you will be looking in the direction of SI Games competitors as FM develops into a game where if you know what you are doing in terms of strategy and tactics you will more likely to succeed, which is true for many of the games on the market today.
The key to success is the same as it has always been, sell any older players that you can get good money for and snap up as many younger stars with good potential as possible. Give it a cople of seasons and your team will be winning most games.
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