Football Manager 2010 SG talk

[Mist]

To be absolutely honest, training facilities level doesn't matter all that much. Top class infrastructure accounts maybe for 25% of what's needed for successful player development. So if any of the stars stay with us for longer than a season, they'll get gimped anyhow.

If you want to make club that's a long term potential success story what it needs is a huge potential fan base ( not current, just a lot of capacity to grow into ) and a chairman with business skills, some ambition and a lot of patience. You'd also want a good ( not necessarily world class, but good ) and loyal backroom staff and budget in the top third of current league.

Completely aside from that, I'm not convinced that starting with a team of stars at bottom level is a great idea. The transition after first season, when all the talent gets sold and you find yourself promoted to next tier with no playing squad, no set tactics and no gelled core of players that can fight off relegation will be horrendous. Yes, you can just buy 22 new players, but the net effect will be a potential rehash of your QPR save - inconsistency, frustration and burnout.

[Twinkletoes89]

To be absolutely honest, training facilities level doesn't matter all that much. Top class infrastructure accounts maybe for 25% of what's needed for successful player development. So if any of the stars stay with us for longer than a season, they'll get gimped anyhow.

If you want to make club that's a long term potential success story what it needs is a huge potential fan base ( not current, just a lot of capacity to grow into ) and a chairman with business skills, some ambition and a lot of patience. You'd also want a good ( not necessarily world class, but good ) and loyal backroom staff and budget in the top third of current league.

I agree on pretty much all that you say here.

In terms of setting up the club like you suggest, the chairman and potential fan base will be set up like that so that the club has the potential to be a powerhouse if we do well.

My initial idea was to have a superclub - top stadium & fanbase, top facilities and plenty of cash, but a really low reputation (like the Bandits experiment for FM07 & 09 on the SI forums) so that the club has everything to get through the levels but must earn it through reputation. However that would probably be too easy though it may keep interest better as it wouldn't then be a huge switch from easy fun in the lower leagues to a huge taxing challenge once the Championship hits.

If people would prefer that, or perhaps a slightly nerfed version of it, then we could do it that way.

Completely aside from that, I'm not convinced that starting with a team of stars at bottom level is a great idea. The transition after first season, when all the talent gets sold and you find yourself promoted to next tier with no playing squad, no set tactics and no gelled core of players that can fight off relegation will be horrendous. Yes, you can just buy 22 new players, but the net effect will be a potential rehash of your QPR save - inconsistency, frustration and burnout.

I see your point, but there are two main reasons why I'm not as fussed.

1) I think tracing the careers of the RB superstars would gain more interest in the game and would be fun to observe. Even if the game did die in terms of wanting to manage in it, it could still be run as a holiday game so that people can see the end of their player's careers.

2) We know that the stars will be leaving long in advance, so we will likely be preparing through the first season. We will still be picking up useful players to fit into the squad as the stars will still be 17 years old and will need resting/rotation from time to time.

Also, I'd wager that we may well have lost at least half of our superstars by January as they will be top notch players playing well above their level. We will be constantly replenishing the squad so it should hopefully not be as bad as the situation you predict. Plus, it would only be at BSP level with a patient chairman and likely low expectations - we could easily consolidate for a season if needs be without imperilling our job and develop a longer-term squad nucleus.

I also think that burnout may not be as bad an issue in this game as we will have one club and will keep our attachment to it and will not have as much 'stress' of constantly looking for a better job and having to do all the hard work of establishing ourselves again at another club. I think the attraction of building a legacy may keep us going longer.

[Mist]

My initial idea was to have a superclub - top stadium & fanbase, top facilities and plenty of cash, but a really low reputation (like the Bandits experiment for FM07 & 09 on the SI forums) so that the club has everything to get through the levels but must earn it through reputation.

Yeah, the call for team players from the forums did remind me of the Bandits experiment a lot, especially with the 20s in attributes.

1) I think tracing the careers of the RB superstars would gain more interest in the game and would be fun to observe. Even if the game did die in terms of wanting to manage in it, it could still be run as a holiday game so that people can see the end of their player's careers.

You can do that by seeding these players throughout the database outside the team you want to play. You'd still be able to track their progress while having much more stable situation at home. Starting with a team of players about to go, makes it obvious the squad is about to get disjointed and forced to go through at least a season of transition period in which new guys learn to play together. Starting with a squad you expect to keep makes for a much less frustrating initial gameplay.

In the end it still all depends how fast do you want to move up the leagues. Fast upward progress demands intensive player turnover, so having all your stars go at the beginning won't be that much out of ordinary. Planing for a slow, methodical and very patient climb up would call for a much more normal game setup.

Feel free to disregard what I'm saying, as I probably won't be playing this one ( Ichabod knows how I approach my saves, he seems to be pretty overwhelmed so far ), I'll be watching with interest though and if you need any advice ( training or whatever ) you can always poke me here or on gmail.

[Brian Shanahan]

You and Ichabod playing a paired game Mist?

[Mist]

You and Ichabod playing a paired game Mist?

We started a private save with Gremio about a month ago. We're about 3 weeks into the game at the moment One of us might eventually write up some sort of report, but there was a lot of words exchanged by emails and chat thus far and neither of us really has time to get to grips with editing it into a clear and concise form.

[Twinkletoes89]

Righteo - I've done all the database editing and here are the things I did to the club. If there are any issues, let me know asap.
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Club Reputation - 2000/10000 (top range BSP)

Training Facilities - 10/20
Youth - 10/20

Balance - £2,000,000
Chairman = Underwriter with max patience and good stats

Stadium - 15,000 capacity with Undersoil heating
Expansion Room - +90,000

Ave. Attendance - 8,000
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[Brian Shanahan]

Looks good, though we'll have thousands booing us when we lose.