Reputation in FM 2012

Hi guys!

I think that there is something of a problem with the reputation system in FM2012. The first save I start with every new FM version, is a save were I start off as an unemployed manager with the lowest "earlier experience" as possible. Only so that I will be able to work myself up from the lower divisions like the Swedish Div 2 (fourth league in Sweden) or the Blue Square South for example, and really try to become a world class manager. This time however, I immediately got offers from Swedish Div 1 clubs (third league), from spanish Div 3 clubs and from Blue Square Premier clubs. Then I looked up my reputation which was "national" from the beginning. This makes me really disappointed because one of my favorite things in the game is to start from the bottom, with the lowest reputation, and then climb to the top so that you really earn your reputation. As it is now, it feels like you are able to take over way too good clubs even at the start because of your high starting reputation. When I play, and get an offer from a higher div club, I now have to think "is this realistic?" and often the answer is no, and I decline the offer. I want to feel happy when really knowing that i've earned a possibility to start manage a better club, and I think that this really makes the RPG aspect of the game a bit weaker. Of course it's surely a great game and I love FM, but this really came as a setback for me and took some motivation away.

I brought this problem up at wwww.fmsweden.se and there are a lot of people feeling the same way.

Regards

aczel

Hi guys!

I think that there is something of a problem with the reputation system in FM2012. The first save I start with every new FM version, is a save were I start off as an unemployed manager with the lowest "earlier experience" as possible. Only so that I will be able to work myself up from the lower divisions like the Swedish Div 2 (fourth league in Sweden) or the Blue Square South for example, and really try to become a world class manager. This time however, I immediately got offers from Swedish Div 1 clubs (third league), from spanish Div 3 clubs and from Blue Square Premier clubs. Then I looked up my reputation which was "national" from the beginning. This makes me really disappointed because one of my favorite things in the game is to start from the bottom, with the lowest reputation, and then climb to the top so that you really earn your reputation. As it is now, it feels like you are able to take over way too good clubs even at the start because of your high starting reputation. When I play, and get an offer from a higher div club, I now have to think "is this realistic?" and often the answer is no, and I decline the offer. I want to feel happy when really knowing that i've earned a possibility to start manage a better club, and I think that this really makes the RPG aspect of the game a bit weaker. Of course it's surely a great game and I love FM, but this really came as a setback for me and took some motivation away.

I brought this problem up at wwww.fmsweden.se and there are a lot of people feeling the same way.

Regards

aczel

You probably have a playable league loaded that has "national" as a minimum starting reputation. I don't know which they are, but the BSN/S is Sunday League so it won't be that one

Do you set the rep as 'automatic' or 'sunday league'?

I do not choose automatic, but the worst, sunday league. And i have a lot of leagues loaded. The thing is, my rep is national even before I get my first job, right at the start, and it must be a bug or something, cause I don't see why SI would wanna take away all lower reputation possibilities. I mean, at this point, there is no use at all for reputation levels below national... I have done the exact thing for a couple of years now but it is first now with FM12 that things have changed.

I agree, mine's the same. Started with a sunday league past experience, yet my reputation is national. I started unemployed and had job offers from decent teams in Serie B and Brazil. Took a job in the South African 1st division and haven't been linked to any bigger jobs so it might have settled down, but my reputation is still listed as national.

I agree, mine's the same. Started with a sunday league past experience, yet my reputation is national. I started unemployed and had job offers from decent teams in Serie B and Brazil. Took a job in the South African 1st division and haven't been linked to any bigger jobs so it might have settled down, but my reputation is still listed as national.

I don't feel like the South African 1st Div is a realistic move when you start off as a completely new, unexperienced manager either.

True, but if we're really going to be realistic, then you won't get a job anywhere in the game. You should be able to get jobs at the lower end of the game, and that's pretty low.

Yes of course you need to be able to get a job, but to make it as most realistic as possible I think that you should only be getting offers from the clubs in the lowest divs, and start with the absolute lowest rep. Before you could not get a job in Blue Square Premier for example, which i think was the most realistic. I mean, for those who want to be able to start as unemployed and still wants to be able to manage a descent team, you can just increase the "earlier experience", but the option to set the lowest "earlier experience" and only being able to start from the bottom should also be there, as it were before. Right now there is no possibility at all to do that.

you're missing the point aczel...

if the lowest possible reputation that the game allows in any one of your playable leagues is "national" then that's what your reputation will be when you start the game (therefore allowing you to get a job in every lowest playable league). As a test, start a new game with just England to BSN/S as playable and Sunday League reputation - you will have Sunday League reputation, if you then start a new game with only the EPL as playable then you'll likely start with "national" rep...

Tried, still national rep with only England as nation and with Blue Square South/North loaded.

Tried, still national rep with only England as nation and with Blue Square South/North loaded.

then it's broken

Hi, noticed this issue too. English manager with Sunday League reputation getting offered jobs in League 1. Never happened in previous versions that I recall. Another aspect being possibly linked is the wage offered by BSR clubs compared to those already in place. Most of the starting managers are on about £300, I get offered twice that. Perhaps the game regards Sunday League rep as being much greater than we're used to? (Still a great game though)

Does this affect your games if you go [FM] -> [Add Manager] as well (rather than using the Add Manager process at the start of the game)? If so, and he's a Sunday League experienced manager being given national rep - could you create a thread in the bugs forum and upload a save game to our FTP please?

The situation you describe does sound like a bug which we'll want to investigate, but I've been unable to reproduce it my game at home as yet (my Sunday League managers are being added with Local reputation).

In my save my manager is still "Unproven". However the level of offered job is much greater. Just started a new holiday save after adding manager in the other way, i.e. not from the start screen, to see what happens

Okey, I'll test some and send save files if needed. Another thing, this problem only happens when you start of as unemployed. If you pick a team in the lowest league, you will get the rep "unproven". Just so there will be no misunderstandings.

I'd imagine that this might have something to do with the game compensating for loaded leagues and unemployed status - i.e. if you started with only the EPL loaded and an unemployed sunday league manager then you would never, ever be considered for a job and thus could be cause to complain. With this in mind, perhaps your combination of leagues has raised your reputation to give you a decent chance of successfully applying for a job?

The OP has indicated full leagues from Sweden, Spain and England, but what other leagues are loaded? If you perhaps added the top leagues from a few other countries it might have 'averaged out' your reputation?

I didn't check my starting reputation after starting a Sunday League Unemployed game, but I now have Regional reputation 13 games into my first job - obviously not really enough time to "earn" that. I can't find out where to check the league reputation of all the leagues I have loaded, but I can see that the 3rd Division in Germany is 2/5 stars which probably has caused my reputation to be boosted to help me land a job.

Bah! Disregard everything in the previous post. Just started a test game with only the Swedish leagues loaded (all 4 levels) with an Unemployed, Sunday League Manager and my starting reputation is National

I think I found the bug. It depends of which country you come from. The first manager I created was Swedish, and the rep national. Then I added two managers in-game, one from Finland and one from England. The one from Finland got a national rep and the one from England got unproven rep, and the second time I tried the manager from England got local rep. This is clearly a bug since the manager origin shouldn't play a roll at all in this case.

I have now posted my savefile in a thread in at the FM12 Bugs forum.

I have the same problem with the reputation. Made a norwegian manager and I got national reputation (sunday player, start unemployed), I then I made an english manager and i then get unproven. In my save I have loaded every division in England, Italy, Spain, Norway, Germany, France and Russia. I then went on holiday mode with the unproven english manager aged 25 to get a job. He first get rejected by a a bunch of lower league clubs before Norwich offers him a job! A Premier League club offering an unproven 25 year old a job gotta be a bug?

Yep I've got the same problem as a New Zealand manager. No matter which option I choose I always start with National reputation. Are you guys still after a save to look at with the bug?

I have now posted my savefile in a thread in at the FM12 Bugs forum.

Would you mind to share a link to that thread. In case SI responds there, as I am very interested about this subject.

And greetings from the other side of border, Finland.

BR

yugular