A few questions about Australian Hyundai A-League in FM 2012

1. Is there a problem (as in FM 2011), that the league reputation is lowering season by season.

2. Is there a possibility, to improve A-league league reputation by winning continental competitions

3. What about salary cap? Rises after each season, or stays at the same level forever?

4. Is Wellington Phoenix eligible to play in Asian Champions League in FM 2012?

5. Is A-league generally better modeled than in previous version of FM? Are there annoying bugs?

6. is there a possibility to play simultaneously as Wellington Phoenix and New Zealand national team manager?

1. Is there a problem (as in FM 2011), that the league reputation is lowering season by season.

2. Is there a possibility, to improve A-league league reputation by winning continental competitions

3. What about salary cap? Rises after each season, or stays at the same level forever?

4. Is Wellington Phoenix eligible to play in Asian Champions League in FM 2012?

5. Is A-league generally better modeled than in previous version of FM? Are there annoying bugs?

6. is there a possibility to play simultaneously as Wellington Phoenix and New Zealand national team manager?

3. I believe I read it stays the same.

5. Yes but not perfect.

6. Cant see why not - never have tried though.

6. Although I have never done it with that club and nation, you can manage any club and national side jointly so it shouldn't be any different.

I think Wellington Phoenix still can't play in the Champion's League,it's stated on the league's rules as well. (wish I knew why though)

I think Wellington Phoenix still can't play in the Champion's League,it's stated on the league's rules as well. (wish I knew why though)

Because the AFC see them as an OFC nation playing in an AFC competition. As such they are not eligible for the ACL. It is an uneasy relationship and the AFC really don't like a team form another confederation playing in the A-League.

In response to point six in the OP - the new patch has not updated the ACL for our new half spot and for some reason Adelaide are in the group stages instead of Central Coast.

I'm yet to play in the A-league on FM12, but I can say the following about FM11:

1. Yes, there was a bug that meant that no matter what happened the A-league's reputation dropped like a stone.

2. Having won the ACL 5 odd times in a row and a few Club World Championships on top of that, the A-league's reputation still dropped like a stone. The reputation just seemed to drop.

3. The Salary Cap is meant to increase each season under the A-league rules, but it stayed stationary. Judging by the increase in the MLS salary cap in the game I'd guess it was because of the A-League reputation bug.

4. Wellington Phoenix are a New Zealand based club playing in the A-League. As such they are ineligible to play in any continental competition under the AFC rules.

5. See below

6. No reason why not, but you'll have to start with only one and then get hired for the other.

From what little I have played of the A-league in FM12 (before this new patch) it seems that all the players have contracts with clauses like "per appearance" and "per goal" bonuses, whilst you're not allowed to give such bonuses out to players. This alone put me off the A-league in this version as it would mean that almost all my players would refuse to resign without a massive wage hike. We'll see if the patch did anything about this.

Because the AFC see them as an OFC nation playing in an AFC competition. As such they are not eligible for the ACL. It is an uneasy relationship and the AFC really don't like a team form another confederation playing in the A-League.

In response to point six in the OP - the new patch has not updated the ACL for our new half spot and for some reason Adelaide are in the group stages instead of Central Coast.

If this is true then SI's continued contempt for the A-league and Asia at large is duly noted.

Salary cap seems to rise by a couple of grand per week at the first squad registration each season, but snaps back to the original level when the red screen compulsory registration

happens.

The 2010/2011 A-league awards don't seem to be in my game, it just skips that season. Anyone else notice this?

Adelaide are in the group stages

http://www.sportsaustralia.com/articles/news.php?id=10718

Not sure why they are though

Adelaide are in the group stages

http://www.sportsaustralia.com/articles/news.php?id=10718

Not sure why they are though

Third team involved this year, went in through a playoff a couple of weeks back.

Adelaide are in the group stages

http://www.sportsaustralia.com/articles/news.php?id=10718

Not sure why they are though

The AFC gave Australia and a few other nations an extra place in Champions League. Adelaide finishing third last season were the lucky recipient of this place. Due to a court battle Adelaide did have to play a one off playoff match against an Indonesian side (if I recall correctly). Adelaide won and are in the Champions League.

The Central Coast Mariners and Brisbane Roar are also in the Champions League and are the two Australian sides who qualified originally, and both are in the competition. If what was mentioned earlier is right and Adelaide replaced the CCM, then there really is something wrong here.

I havent received an information about A-league reputation in FM 2012, so i'm trying to ask once again:

Is there a problem (as in FM 2011), that the A-league reputation is lowering season by season? Or not?

I think you'll find that there is pretty much no one who would have played that far into an A-league career because, simply put, its just not that enjoyable with how SI have dealt with Australia. A know a few people played quite far into Australian careers in the last version (I played about a decade in before the situation got to me), but I guess having "Dynamic League Reputation" that didn't exist in any way shape or form in Asia really is just a joke. As far as I can tell the AFC Asian Champions League hasn't been improved upon, and no efforts for any kind of fluidity in how Asia works were made obvious or announced, so I wouldn't hold my breath that its any better. Hopefully they fixed the reputation bug, but that might just be a bit hopeful. The only experience I have is that in the early 2020s in one of my FM12 saves, the A-league was rated very poorly in Asia, worse than at the start, but then again, they may have just been terrible.

If you really are keen on the A-league, give it a go and monitor the A-league reputation and the other club's Asian performances and report back, it would be interesting to know.

Too long? I personally have not played enough with the A-league this version to see if the reputation bug is gone.

I asked a few months ago, so I'm trying once again (about the newest patch).

Is Hyundai A-league sufficiently improved in FM 2012 (in comparison with FM 2011), that the newest version of FM will be worth to buy for a person who is playing only in Australian League?

My advise would simply be don't play as an A-League team in any version of FM unless you only want to play a very short term game. It is just littered with bugs.

I posted this in a bug thread and should probably follow up on it now that I have the chance:

I've tried to play in the A-league for the first time on this version. After my attempt at the A-league last year I avoided it, but I figured I may as well see if its finally been fixed. No such luck, it actually seems that the introduction of new systems has made things worse. Ignoring for the most part the database issues such as half the Brisbane squad having incorrect contract lengths, the contracts have been messed with in a very odd way this version. I can see that this was a design choice and I can see how it could have been an improvement, but it seems that this was poorly implemented in this case and has led to repeated issues within a few months with clubs failing to sign marquee players. I've noticed a couple of players left out of the main squads as well, but this is hardly new.

The biggest issue I've seen yet though is when I tried to resign Thomas Broich. He has incorrectly been given marquee status and this seems to have put him squarely in the firing line for the marquee contract system. I can offer him his marquee contract, but when he accepts I'm told I can't renew his contract as I can only have one international marquee player. He is incidentally, that one international marquee player (and the only marquee player in the squad). This then makes it impossible to resign him, something that would not have been an issue should the length of his contract been correct in the database. So, two database issues and a quite serious contract bug have effectively made it impossible to resign a key player.

Beyond this the way the contracts are handled is quite... odd. I can understand removing match bonuses, but all clauses? Release clauses, year extensions and so forth? Really? A quick check reveals several cases of where release fee clauses have been in players contracts, these including but are not limited to Matt McKay and Alex Brosque. I also don't see the logic in the removal of automatic extra years for games played in the final season. Although, I'm even more confused as to why there isn't the option for a years (or more) extension at the clubs digression.

Moving on from this though, I guess the A-league is playable, if having buggy contracts and opposition with some of their best players ineligible is the kind of thing you like. Now, something that is still bothering me from last year is the A-league reputation bug. This is essentially where the A-leagues reputation was in free fall every season despite any success on the continental stage by one or more clubs. Furthermore, the the whole AFC was quite buggy with West Asia hugely overvalued for reasons that I truly do not understand as 5 of the last 6 winners of the Champions League have been from East Asia. The long term game prospects could be summed up as: "Football in Australia, Japan, Korea and East Asia in general fails as Qatar, KSA and Iran rise uncontrollably and independent of continental competitions and anything else that can actually be viewed on the game". West Asia rising wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the way that it would happened regardless of what happened in the Champions League or otherwise. But hey, I'm not going to test it this time around, as I can't stomach the way the A-league is.

I'm sorry if anyone finds any of the above harsh in any way, but I'm tired of wasting my time actually playing the A-league on this game year after year to only be hugely disappointed. Surely it can't be that hard to actually pay some attention to the league and Australia in general and not only get the league somewhere close to realistic, but also getting the database somewhat accurate. It wouldn't be as insulting to Australian players if there was only huge issues with the database, or only a few minor bugs in the league, but as it stands the database is riddled with errors, some of which are game breaking and easily researched, whilst the bugs ruin what could be at least a playable league, if inaccurate. I know its a long way down the list of what's important to the game designers, but surely for FM13 the A-league could get a bit of attention.

This all being said, as a design choice, the marquee contracts are important and the idea is right, if poorly done this time around. There is definitely an extremely strong base to work from and make a great gaming experience for the A-league as you have for many leagues around the world. I can also understand that database issues will occur in a database of the epic scale that is the FM database, however I do feel that Australia does seem to get more than its fair share of avoidable errors, although maybe I'm just being harsh. As for Asia as a whole I think the whole AFC needs a bit of a revamp somewhere down the line in order to create a more fluid AFC Champions League and AFC Cup in the future, however I can understand the extreme difficulties that may accompany this due to both the complex nature of seeding and places in the Champions League and AFC Cup, as well as licencing issues. In an even grander sense, dynamic Champions League reputations, or dynamic continental reputations is certainly something that should be looked at, although I again understand the difficulties here. Adding to this wishlist is of course dynamic youth generation in the future for countries rather than the static value that we see now, but again, this is a very complicated issue in the game and could lead to massive imbalance in the gameworld.

Anyhow, thank you for reading, and I'm sorry if any of this is overly harsh.

Long story short, if you're buying FM for the A-league, you may as well just throw your money away and imagine managing in the A-league. Hopefully it'll work better next year though.

I've been playing a game as Melbourne Heart manager, building a little dynasty. Eight championship/premiership doubles, five Asian Champions League wins and a Club World Cup over ten years. No, I'm not attempting to brag, just validating my observations.

Currently in my career, the A-League and A-League Finals sit comfortably as the strongest competitions in Asia. Korea and Japan have weakened a little, but the Indian and Hong Kong leagues have strengthened significantly. So yes, it is definitely possible to maintain and improve the reputation of the league.

I'm afraid I can't pass comment on whether the salary cap changes. I've kept my squad well under that limit, so I'm afraid I haven't been paying attention.

There are definitely bugs, but nothing has arisen so far that would make me say that the league is unplayable. the vast majority are factual inaccuracies rather than actual bugs. If you're willing to accept and work within the inaccuracies (like the ACL seeding system, for example) rather than get upset about them, then it's perfectly possible to enjoy a good career... as challenging as it is.

As mentioned, Wellington are unable to play in the ACL, as in real life. If you're asking about whether you're able to manage both Phoenix and the All-Whites at the same time (you should), then I'm guessing you're a Nix fan who is keen to build a little dynasy like mine, so I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

If you're asking about whether you're able to manage both Phoenix and the All-Whites at the same time (you should), then I'm guessing you're a Nix fan who is keen to build a little dynasy like mine, so I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Of course I'm a Nix fan.

So is it impossible to manage both Phoenix and the All-Whites at the same time? Even if I remove Ricki Herbert in the editor?

I've been playing a game as Melbourne Heart manager, building a little dynasty. Eight championship/premiership doubles, five Asian Champions League wins and a Club World Cup over ten years. No, I'm not attempting to brag, just validating my observations.

Currently in my career, the A-League and A-League Finals sit comfortably as the strongest competitions in Asia. Korea and Japan have weakened a little, but the Indian and Hong Kong leagues have strengthened significantly. So yes, it is definitely possible to maintain and improve the reputation of the league.

I'm afraid I can't pass comment on whether the salary cap changes. I've kept my squad well under that limit, so I'm afraid I haven't been paying attention.

There are definitely bugs, but nothing has arisen so far that would make me say that the league is unplayable. the vast majority are factual inaccuracies rather than actual bugs. If you're willing to accept and work within the inaccuracies (like the ACL seeding system, for example) rather than get upset about them, then it's perfectly possible to enjoy a good career... as challenging as it is.

As mentioned, Wellington are unable to play in the ACL, as in real life. If you're asking about whether you're able to manage both Phoenix and the All-Whites at the same time (you should), then I'm guessing you're a Nix fan who is keen to build a little dynasy like mine, so I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Wow... they actually fixed the A-league reputation bug?! I got very turned off the idea of playing a long term save in the A-league (I did one last version) by a series of bugs including key players being left unregistered and being unable to offer a key player a new contract.

Just some questions:

1. Has the A-league transfer rules changed as they have in previous versions, that is, does it allow you to sign players for a fee directly between clubs now (it did so in previous versions after a year or so)?

2. Has your salary cap changed at all with your increased reputation?

3. How many stars is the A-league's reputation now?

Thanks!

Of course I'm a Nix fan.

So is it impossible to manage both Phoenix and the All-Whites at the same time? Even if I remove Ricki Herbert in the editor?

You can, you just have to be offered the job at some point, you can't start as the manager of both I'm fairly sure.

You can, you just have to be offered the job at some point, you can't start as the manager of both I'm fairly sure.

Yes I know, that I can't start as the manager of both. If I will buy FM2012, I would like to do the same, as I done in previous version - I removed Ricki Herbert in the editor from All-Whites team (in FM 2009 and FM 2010) or removed him form Wellington Phoenix (in FM 2011) and at the beginning of the game send my offer to second team (for example in FM 2011 I started as the Phoenix manager and send offer to national team - successfully).

As mentioned, Wellington are unable to play in the ACL, as in real life.

I have another question. Is possible to make (by the editor) Wellington able to play in ACL?

I know, that probably it will be possible by creating new ACL, but I would like to know if there is a possibility to make it by editing existing ACL (in competition section) or Wellington (in club section).

No problem, Tal.

I really don't see why it wouldn't be possible to manage both NZ and the Nix at the same time.

I'm still unable to sign players from other A-League clubs. Frustrating, isn't it?

The salary cap is currently $A2.4 Million p/a. Like I said, I haven't been paying attention, but I suspect it hasn't changed.

The rep of the A-League is currently at 2.5 stars. It's sitting just below the Spanish second division and the MLS on a world scale, and just above the 2.Bundesliga. Will take a little more work to get it up to three stars. Iran is the next Asian league, which looks like it barely scrapes a 2.5 star rating.

Whether it's possible to put Wellington in the ACL, I'm unsure. It may be as simple as changing the nationality of the club to Australian in the database, or it may be hardcoded into the game. Best ask in the editor's subforum.

Hope that covers it.

Do the other teams start to sign better players as you get stronger?

You still can't sign players from other A-League clubs as that is an actually rule set by the FFA. Clubs can't do it in real life unless players are coming off contract. It is annoying but at least it's realistic.

I think the only major gripe I have with the A-League on FM12 is that I haven't yet been able to re-sign or extend the contracts of Marquee players. As mentioned above - my only marquee player cant be re-signed as the game sees this as having two marquees. It's quite strange and it seems like some very simple coding could fix that.

Just a question for you all - I've been with Brisbane Roar for three seasons and have finished in the top two every year while being premiers and champions in the first season. My contract is now up but Im not sure if I should extend it as I think I want to move on. The board want me for 3 more seasons. Should I accept that, request 1 year only or leave at the end of contract and look for another club?

No problem, Tal.

I really don't see why it wouldn't be possible to manage both NZ and the Nix at the same time.

I'm still unable to sign players from other A-League clubs. Frustrating, isn't it?

The salary cap is currently $A2.4 Million p/a. Like I said, I haven't been paying attention, but I suspect it hasn't changed.

The rep of the A-League is currently at 2.5 stars. It's sitting just below the Spanish second division and the MLS on a world scale, and just above the 2.Bundesliga. Will take a little more work to get it up to three stars. Iran is the next Asian league, which looks like it barely scrapes a 2.5 star rating.

Whether it's possible to put Wellington in the ACL, I'm unsure. It may be as simple as changing the nationality of the club to Australian in the database, or it may be hardcoded into the game. Best ask in the editor's subforum.

Hope that covers it.

I can confirm that Wellington is Australian in the database.