Game Difficulty

There are so many threads with people showing off how they've done ridiculously well on the game, taking small clubs to the top of the world.

So I was wondering how difficult everyone finds the game? Do you almost inevitably do well at whichever club you manage? Or do you sometimes struggle and not avhieve your objectives or get relegated? Personally, I find it quite difficult.

Ideally, imo, the game should DEFINITELY be in the middle-so that 50% of gamers do well at their clubs and 50% do badly and actually make their clubs worse. Right in the middle would make for a perfect game because it would be challenging but not impossible to succeed. At the moment, based on other threads it looks like it's a bit too easy though. What do you think?

A lot of the users who do ridiculously well usually take advantage of the game in one way or another.

Much can be done to make your experience more realistic/difficult and I'll copy what I posted in another thread last week:

A) Don't use the player search, thats what scouts are for.

B) Don't use the staff search, thats what the job centre is for.

C) Don't use exploits, like the corner cheat.

D) Create your own tactics, don't download them.

E) Don't sign players you've heard will be great on other forums, find them yourself via your scouts (But don't go looking for them).

F) Use the appropriate level of starting reputation.

G) Don't use the editor to give yourself an advantage.

H) Don't use third party programmes.

I) Always use attribute masking.

I think the game is pretty 50/50 in terms of difficulty. i remember i won the league 3x in a row at Madrid then for a challenge i took over Birmingham (who at this time were a mid-table championship side) and I got them relegated.

so i don't think you inevitably do well at each club you take over

This is correct i still use player/staff search but started my career game at blyth with semi pro football experience(1st time ive stared FM like this),its been more challenging in 2021 now and just gettin crystal palace to challenge for champ.lge qualification and still not getting offered any top jobs although i am england manager.

A lot of the users who do ridiculously well usually take advantage of the game in one way or another.

Much can be done to make your experience more realistic/difficult and I'll copy what I posted in another thread last week:

Yeah, that's true, I have never done any of that(except maybe player search/staff search), so maybe that's why I find it tougher. But it's much better when you play it the difficult way!

A lot of the users who do ridiculously well usually take advantage of the game in one way or another.

Much can be done to make your experience more realistic/difficult and I'll copy what I posted in another thread last week:

Yeah, that's true, I have never done any of that(except maybe player search/staff search), so maybe that's why I find it tougher. But it's much better when you play it the difficult way!

A lot of the users who do ridiculously well usually take advantage of the game in one way or another.

Much can be done to make your experience more realistic/difficult and I'll copy what I posted in another thread last week:

A) Don't use the player search, thats what scouts are for.

B) Don't use the staff search, thats what the job centre is for.

C) Don't use exploits, like the corner cheat.

D) Create your own tactics, don't download them.

E) Don't sign players you've heard will be great on other forums, find them yourself via your scouts (But don't go looking for them).

F) Use the appropriate level of starting reputation.

G) Don't use the editor to give yourself an advantage.

H) Don't use third party programmes.

I) Always use attribute masking.

A: Never did other then in my 1st season.

B: Oh... I used this.

C: Never did.

D: still using my own crappy 4-4-2

E: I play LLM so... by the time I can sign them, they have already retired.

F: Automatic

G: Never did.

H: Never did.

I: Yep

I will say... playing LLM is kind of hard. Altho I admit to abusing the game in certain ways. I play a disgusting amount of friendlies in my 1st few season because I was in so much debt.

2ndly, I downloaded the training schedules because I can never figure out how those slider works.

I wanted to give up so many times in my 1st 2 seasons because looking at the squad can make any grown man weep. Now, I got my BSS/BSN team to the premier league and the sense of satisfaction in unmatched. I recommend everyone who has never done a LLM save to try one. It can be hugely satisfying. 3rd season in premier league and I am in 1st position, 5 pts ahead, 2 games in hand and 8 more games to go.

I really really hope I can win the league but it will be hard, my remaining fixtures are against the powerhouses, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City, Astonvilla... sigh

Sorry for being thick, but what's LLM?

LLM stands for Lower League Management. Please view the LLM forum for more details!

Lower League Management

It's the best way.

LLM stands for lower league management. Please look into the LLM forum for more details!

Lower League Management

It's the best way.

Please look into the LLM forum for more details!

Haha, I wouldn't advise it. Especially if you've ever posted in GPTG or T&TT.

Which player search are you talking about? The tiny search bar in the top right near continue or the player search that's under transfer centre/manager tabs. I don't see how the second is unrealistic or cheap. It's just the accumulation of all your scouting knowledge. Any hidden stats remain hidden. Without it, the knowledge bars for scouts would be useless.

Which player search are you talking about? The tiny search bar in the top right near continue or the player search that's under transfer centre/manager tabs. I don't see how the second is unrealistic or cheap. It's just the accumulation of all your scouting knowledge. Any hidden stats remain hidden. Without it, the knowledge bars for scouts would be useless.

I've heard its been improved from previous editions but looking at it there are still a large number of players on it that have never appeared on any scout reports previously.

I've heard its been improved from previous editions but looking at it there are still a large number of players on it that have never appeared on any scout reports previously.

Chances are those players are either considered to be well enough known in the football world or they will have their attributes masked. The player search list is supposed to be a list of players that your club is 'aware of' through its scouting knowledge, it is not supposed to be a list of scouted players only.

I've heard its been improved from previous editions but looking at it there are still a large number of players on it that have never appeared on any scout reports previously.

Well that would represent players that your scouts already know about. The best players in the world and players that scouts know through their contacts or whatever. If a scout has 100% knowledge of Romania, he already knows the best players in the Romanian league even though you never asked him to do a report on them. If a manager needs a left back he would probably ask his staff if they know some good ones, right? That is what the player search represents.

EDIT: Dafuge said it better and with less words

to be honest, most people quit games if they don't go well and won't post on here. I for one have had more bad than good

There's also a snow-ball effect - once you start to do well, it gets easier to do better, until you can just steam-roller your opponents.

If you move around a lot, this won't happen.

There's also a snow-ball effect - once you start to do well, it gets easier to do better, until you can just steam-roller your opponents.

If you move around a lot, this won't happen.

I do think people who contiunally dominate FM most likely are cheats, obviously some people geniunally are very good at the game and will know themselves they did it through their greatness rather than downloading tactics, corner cheat or whatever.

I use Player and staff search. Everything else on Cougar's list, I do the right way. I am currently in a successful game but most of my FM10 time, I've been unsuccessful. The game difficulty is about right.

There's also a snow-ball effect - once you start to do well, it gets easier to do better, until you can just steam-roller your opponents.

If you move around a lot, this won't happen.

I've definitely found this. Starting from the bottom and working my way up I've always found the game to be pretty easy in the long term but I've had some shockers when moving around clubs.

Cougar's list pretty much describes what my personal rules are.

Chances are those players are either considered to be well enough known in the football world or they will have their attributes masked. The player search list is supposed to be a list of players that your club is 'aware of' through its scouting knowledge, it is not supposed to be a list of scouted players only.

Ok I could understand that but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Taking my current save that I'm playing as an example:

I am managing Toronto in the MLS in 2012 with a good spread of countries/leagues loaded (USA, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Scotland & Spain).

Approx 40% of the players on the list are 18yo at most and therefore not yet established even at their own club never mind anywhere else.

Of those U18 players four nationalities stand out - 35% are Italian, 34% are English, 15% of them are Portugese & 11% Uruguayan.

Even though my team is Canadian & I play in the MLS less than 1% of those U18s are Canadian whilst just over 2% are American - Surely I would have better knowledge of those countries rather than ones thousands of miles away.

So what about other loaded countries? well they all show a much smaller % similar to USA & Canada, even nations such as Argentina, Brazil & Spain.

Why do those countries stand out then? A quick look at the scouting knowledge screen suggests its directly linked to staff knowledge.

Portugal - Full knowledge from a English coach who played in Portugal before he retired in 2003 since then he has coached in England & Canada.

Uruguay - I have a Uruguayan GK coach but he hasn't played or coached in Uruguay since 1993!

Italy - I have an English Assistant with second nationalities of Canadian & Italian but again he hasn't been in Italy since 1997.

England - This one I can understand a little as I have English second nationality, my assistant is English as are two of my coaches but their knowledge should decline the longer they spend in other countries.

On a sidenote I also have 100% knowledge of USA, Canada & Ireland and yet a much smaller number of players from these nations appear on the list.

Whilst I understand how the search has included these players I would still consider it unrealistic to have knowledge of them given I don't even have scouts in those countries.

Whilst I understand how the search has included these players I would still consider it unrealistic to have knowledge of them given I don't even have scouts in those countries.

Are the attributes not masked for a lot of these young players though?

Are the attributes not masked for a lot of these young players though?

Yes, to be fair they are for the most part.

Portugal/Uruguay - I can only see a few attributes for a handful of players (less than 5 each).

Italy - I can see part attributes for a few more (maybe around 30).

England - I have some attributes for most of the players.

I still consider it unrealistic though to even know the name of a random 15/16yo player at a non-league club in Italy.

To be improved further though it probably needs linked to player & club reputation as well as area/zone/country/continent your team in in.

I would also like to see the scouting knowledge of staff degrade/decline the longer they spend in other countries alongside their knowledge of their new country improving.

I still consider it unrealistic though to even know the name of a random 15/16yo player at a non-league club in Italy.

I don't really see a problem with being given access to factual information like player names and ages, as a follower of Englsih football I could probably find you a load of names of young English players without watching them play. The whole attribute masking and scouting system doesn't really make sense if you bypass this layer of players who you know a little bit about but not enough to go out and buy them.

I manage a lowly team from the Turkish super league and my name is in the rumours for top club teams such as Juventus, Real Madrid in my first season.. I really find it very unrealistic.

I don't really see a problem with being given access to factual information like player names and ages, as a follower of Englsih football I could probably find you a load of names of young English players without watching them play. The whole attribute masking and scouting system doesn't really make sense if you bypass this layer of players who you know a little bit about but not enough to go out and buy them.

I think its about balance and I'm perhaps being a bit picky but why should I have a list of players from Uruguay, Portugal & Italy but not from Germany, France, Spain or Brazil when I target none of those countries for scouting.

Of course this would be immediately fixed as a knockon effect just by staff knowledge degrading over time.

It is complete mularkey to say that IRL a coach would never rely on anything but his own scouts or job center reports. Those that coach IRL have so much more at their disposal than you could possibly realize. To use some examples, in the United States, there is a paid service for colleges called rivals.com that college coaches of different sports can use that has already done the scouting work. As a high school coach, I belong to two coaches websites that give me all kinds of statistical information about teams and players that I otherwise would never have the chance to see play. In addition to that, I trade scouting reports with other coaches in my league against unknown competition and we have a pretty darn good idea of what we are seeing. College coaches come to our games and pro coaches go to college games. It is a system that helps us all know who is good at whatever level we are playing at. While we obviously don't place a numerical value on someone from 1 - 20 to rate their ability, we rate them comparable to players we both know. Incorporating these items into FM by using the player search or job search or staff search is perfectly realistic...

I manage a lowly team from the Turkish super league and my name is in the rumours for top club teams such as Juventus, Real Madrid in my first season.. I really find it very unrealistic.

I would guess you selected "International Footballer" as your starting reputation therefore you created the situation yourself.

I think its about balance and I'm perhaps being a bit picky but why should I have a list of players from Uruguay, Portugal & Italy but not from Germany, France, Spain or Brazil when I target none of those countries for scouting.

Of course this would be immediately fixed as a knockon effect just by staff knowledge degrading over time.

The scouting knowledge those coaches have could come from a variety of different places eg. family, friends, media, agents etc. Knowledge degrading over time is a decent idea but I would still expect a Uruguayan coach to know more about Uruguayan football than a Canadian one, even if he hasn't been there for years.

The scouting knowledge those coaches have could come from a variety of different places eg. family, friends, media, agents etc. Knowledge degrading over time is a decent idea but I would still expect a Uruguayan coach to know more about Uruguayan football than a Canadian one, even if he hasn't been there for years.

Agreed, this could perhaps be shown through a minimum level of knowledge that it doesn't drop below.

In my example above we have what is perhaps three different levels of cutoff which could lead to different levels of minimum knowledge.

Uruguay: Nationality.

Italy: Second nationality.

Portugal: Played there in the past.

In fact should just playing in a country lead to a connection for the rest of that coaches career? Maybe it should be linked to the number of seasons spent there (min five seasons? for example).

It is complete mularkey to say that IRL a coach would never rely on anything but his own scouts or job center reports. Those that coach IRL have so much more at their disposal than you could possibly realize. To use some examples, in the United States, there is a paid service for colleges called rivals.com that college coaches of different sports can use that has already done the scouting work. As a high school coach, I belong to two coaches websites that give me all kinds of statistical information about teams and players that I otherwise would never have the chance to see play. In addition to that, I trade scouting reports with other coaches in my league against unknown competition and we have a pretty darn good idea of what we are seeing. College coaches come to our games and pro coaches go to college games. It is a system that helps us all know who is good at whatever level we are playing at. While we obviously don't place a numerical value on someone from 1 - 20 to rate their ability, we rate them comparable to players we both know. Incorporating these items into FM by using the player search or job search or staff search is perfectly realistic...

I've heard that it is quite similar in the lower leagues in England. I'm led to believe that a lot of smaller clubs do not hire scouts to work exclusively for them, but rely more on a general scouting network and recommendations from other people in the football business. From what I've heard, the player search screen models lower league scouting better than the 'scouts only' method.

I've heard that it is quite similar in the lower leagues in England. I'm led to believe that a lot of smaller clubs do not hire scouts to work exclusively for them, but rely more on a general scouting network and recommendations from other people in the football business. From what I've heard, the player search screen models lower league scouting better than the 'scouts only' method.

That seems reasonable to me. There are tremendous costs (IRL) associated with hiring people to scout, etc. To have a pool of 'general scouts' or to buy access to scouting websites can cost a fraction of hiring exclusive scouts and exclusive team doctors, etc.

Ideally, imo, the game should DEFINITELY be in the middle-so that 50% of gamers do well at their clubs and 50% do badly and actually make their clubs worse. Right in the middle would make for a perfect game because it would be challenging but not impossible to succeed. At the moment, based on other threads it looks like it's a bit too easy though. What do you think?

Take it with a pinch of salt is my advise. Yeah a lot of people will win the league with whoever, but some of them are found to be cheating 1 way or another, and then the rest are just good which is fair enough. But then think of how long the game has been out, odds are its not people's 1st saves (In fairness my Coventry game is mine, so their are a few ) also take into account how many people own the game. I guarantee more people have won nothing than have won something (IE. Major titles) Also people don't post up threads (Unless they are crying bug or whatever and think about the amount of them) about their losses, but people that win scream it from the roof tops. So don't be getting upset that you aren't winning anything. I am in the year 2016 with Coventry and haven't even won the Championship, I won the Playoff's though .

I am happy enough that I have never done any of the things in the 2nd post, except the top 2 which I don't think is being unrealistic in fairness.