You Asked SI Answered

Before I start, I must stress that the answers are pretty brief due to the limited time Paul had available with him busy working on FML and FM09. But he has offered to do a more detailed Q&A once FM09 is out of the way.

Also remember these are the question you asked, not me, Rash or wwfan

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1) Is the "gets crowd going" a useful preferred move ? I have never seen anything on the pitch.

Not used yet.

"Wind up opponents" is this the same as low sportsmanship ?

Not used yet.

Please explain what the free role option is good for. I cant see a difference on player movement when this option is on(if he got 1 or 20 it doesn't matter).

Its simply a tendency to look for space.

What is the difference between hard, mixed and easy tackling, is it linked to player aggression ? I mean when a player is set to tackle easy but he got 20 aggression - will he then back up and just follow the opponent ?

More likely to make a tackle or foul.

2) I'd love to know how to get strikers to sit on the shoulder of the oppos def.

Do you have them set to manmark tight or not, and does closing down have anything to do with how tight they get to their man or where the ball is on the pitch before the closing down comes into play.

It wont affect them marking people, just how close they mark them.

3) A question regarding the weather and the effect it has on match results.

I set up my tactic's passing,tempo and to some extent closing down based on the weather conditions on match day could you tell me how much positive/negative impact this has on the result if you get it correct or incorrect i.e. +5%/10% when getting it correct or -5%/10% when getting it wrong e.g. high tempo/closing down in very hot conditions.

Its just impossible to quantify. But does have an effect.

4) One thing I'd like to know is regarding determination and training.

Does the 'Determination' attribute in any way affect a players development.

So lets say, for example, I had 2 players both with a CA of 100 and a PA of 150. Player A has a determination attribute of 20 and Player B has a determination attribute of 10 but all other attributes and hidden attributes are the same (not likely, I know).

So my question is, given the same training, coaches etc. would Player A with the higher determination develop faster than Player B?

I'm wondering this partly to clarify determination in my own mind. I can see how this attribute would affect a player in a match, but I can't help think of this attribute as being different than all the other 'visible' attributes in that it could affect a players performance off the pitch. In my mind a very determined player would apply themselves more in training and strive more to be the best they can be (or is this covered by the hidden attribute 'Professionalism'?).

Am I reading too much into the determination attribute? Is it in fact only used when processing matches? Or should I continue to do what I do currently and take particular interest in youngsters who have high determination?

It’s a good attribute to have and will give them the edge in terms of progression.

5) What would be really great to know (if possible) is what scale the engine uses to do its calculations. Does it use the 1-20 scale we see in the game or the 1-100 scale? Or something else?

The reason I ask is that I am trying to work out optimum training schedules (you've seen the other thread) and I need to know if I should stop training as soon as a player gets a point increase (which means he is sitting on a milestone) or if I can get a few more points on the 1-100 scale. I would only allow him to put more points on the 1-100 scale if they were used in the engine.

Hope I've made that clear enough.

All increments are useful, a player with 98 vs a player with 97 should perform ever so slightly better over time. But its micro improvements obviously.

6) What exactly does mentality affect? Is it purely the positioning of the player, or also how much he looks to attack/defend as the case may be, or both, or something else?

It’s the ambition to attack, in terms of getting forward and trying to make chances as opposed to playing safe.

7) You say you've tweaked things so that players progress in their physical attributes much less than before. does this therefore mean that strength and aerobic training is less important and so it would be better to notch up the other categories?

There are some attributes we consider “natural” and so less receptive to training. I prefer to let people draw their own conclusions as its fairly much based on common knowledge/opinion.

8) If you want to play attacking football and score lots of goals is it more advantageous to use direct passing/quick tempo or short passing/slow tempo?

Assume you have a forward with good jumping and heading and all you players can pass the ball very well - assume a Man City quality side.

So yeah if you want to have a high scoring team what is the most ideal passing to use?

Its never black and white. You need to experiment patiently and see what works best.

9) Why cant we see more details of what tactics/strategies the AI is using? And is there any plans afoot to allow us to see and understand the AI systems?

AI isn’t that smart. I wish it could be smarter and prolong the challenge element in the game. They basically follow the attributes,, but I would like to improve it.

10) Regarding 'Opposition Instructions' how much do they override your 'normal' tactical settings if any? And who does it affect?

Eg

Closing Down Always on Wingers.

Who does this apply to on my team? Full Backs? Wingers, CMs, everybody?

Do these instructions have a numerical value. Relating to the above example - My FB has closing down of say 4, but OppInstr are set to CD always. Does this change my CD setting of 4 to say 12?

Tight marking - again like like above example who is determined to be doing the tight marking, and does it perform the same function as ticking the tight marking option in the regular tactics?

Opp instructions override and assume a max value when dealing with the player in question.

11) My question: what, in terms of the match engine, changes when you play home/away/neutral - is it the effectiveness of the home team, or the tactics the CPU employs?

As in, does your team automatically get a "boost" playing in front of your own fans even without tactical change, and does the CPU change their playing methods when playing home/away? And how does neutral come into affect?

Crowds affect players in different ways, as in real life. Just try to think as if it is real life!

12) How can we tell players to play closer together in width?

I am not talking about team width, I am talking about two specific players playing closer together, while the rest of the team is more or less unaffected. If this is not possible right now, are you thinking of introducing it in the near future?

Maybe later.

13) I have tried and failed to understand what is the difference between the three tutoring options. They all seem to be doing exactly the same thing, namely shifting the youngster's hidden mental attributes (Ambition, Professionalism etc. + Determination) towards the tutor's respective attributes. Also, PPMs may be passed on with all three options. Is there any difference between the three options?

One for Ed Lambert

14) Why can't I have a farrow and a barrow on the same player? One which tells the player what to do when we have the ball and one which instructs hims when we lose the ball?

Farrows and barrows are obsolete from FML/FM2009 onwards.

I've also emailed Ed Lambert to get a response to question 13

Sorry to sound stupid, but what does obsolete mean?

Extinct, nomore, the end of

Ahah

I guessed it was something like that but just wanted to make sure.

What is going to replace them, do we know yet?

All forward arrows represent on FML atm is forward runs. Backward arrows represent rarely and no arrow is mixed.

"Farrows and barrows are obsolete from FML/FM2009 onwards."

I don't like the sound of that. I hope that other ways to indicate 'runs' are added then!

I've been playing without them on FML for past 4 months or so, it sounds worse than it was.

Things are looking really good for FM09, interms of the match engine

Thanks for doing that Cleon. It might not be a lot of information, but it is 'raw data' rather than mere conjecture. KUTGW. -S

Frankly I just need to know they are overhauling the transfer system.

Would make me a happy bunny.

I'll be perfectly honest here. Even taking into consideration you said he didn't have much time, his answers were pretty pants. I mean, half the questions asked he didn't even have a definitive answer for, and just told us what we already knew. Very disappointed with the outcome of this.

14) Why can't I have a farrow and a barrow on the same player? One which tells the player what to do when we have the ball and one which instructs hims when we lose the ball?

Farrows and barrows are obsolete from FML/FM2009 onwards.

For me this doesnt bode well for future tactical decisions

I use the farrows displayed to give me an idea of what the AI might be doing on matchday

ie

Long farrows = Attacking

No farrows = Defensive

Because scout reports can be very innacurate, i rely on this visual confirmation to second guess the AI.

I suppose they are making this change to thwart people who create/download lopsided engine-breaking tactics, but not all of us do, i just hope they remember the little-guys.

For me this doesnt bode well for future tactical decisions

I use the farrows displayed to give me an idea of what the AI might be doing on matchday

ie

Long farrows = Attacking

No farrows = Defensive

Because scout reports can be very innacurate, i rely on this visual confirmation to second guess the AI.

Its still the same, if you see someone with farrows then they will still be playing attacking as it means players will be getting forward more. Infact what this as done, is make it easier to identify the actual players who are more attack minded.

I'll be perfectly honest here. Even taking into consideration you said he didn't have much time, his answers were pretty pants. I mean, half the questions asked he didn't even have a definitive answer for, and just told us what we already knew. Very disappointed with the outcome of this.

Which is what he kinda knows, and thats why he offered to do a more detailed one when he's less busy. He simply doesn't have the time at all atm to answer questions as hes trying to get FM09 up and running and finish FML off.

For me this doesnt bode well for future tactical decisions

I use the farrows displayed to give me an idea of what the AI might be doing on matchday

ie

Long farrows = Attacking

No farrows = Defensive

Because scout reports can be very innacurate, i rely on this visual confirmation to second guess the AI.

It'll probably be replaced by a slider or something like that.

lol a few replies whilst i was editing my original post ...

If the planned change is to make the forward runs setting visible on the formation overview on matchday then i do not mourn thier removal from the game

They are not visible in FML. If you think about it, it is not realistic in any way to 'see' your opposition's tactical arrows. In FML, a large percentgae of people attack all the time, so it is pretty easy to work out what to do in advance. If the arrows remain hidden in FM, then pre-match odds and expectations will be the best indicator of how the opposition might play. From the moment the match kicks off, you will need to watch the game progressing to see if you were right.

Interestingly, bar the first two questions, I think I would have answered all the others roughly as Paul did.

Pretty good riddance on Farrows and Barrows FML been more enjoyable without them imo. I also think this will narrow down exploits regarding the ME and cheat tactics will be non-existant.

Good read, though nothing really is that new to me. I think "gets crowd going" PPM simply gives your player ( or even your whole team) a slight boost when player in question is possesing the ball. "Winds up opponent"...well, I think it's pretty self-explanatory as well. Gets under your opponent's skin, probably can be causing them to underperform or getting them carded Not a bad PPM to have for a DM.

I hated and despised playing FML with the farrows/barrows. Could never see myself buying it. Love it now, although that's mainly down to my preoccupation with the engine and tactics rather than the overall playing experience, which some will love and others not.

For me, despite the recent moans of some testers, the leap between 8.0.2 and the FML engine is the biggest and most positive I have seen since the 2d first started. It still needs some work for sure, but if that manifests itself for FM09, and I'm pretty positive it will, then I think the newly farrowless 09 engine will be wonderful.

I'll be perfectly honest here. Even taking into consideration you said he didn't have much time, his answers were pretty pants. I mean, half the questions asked he didn't even have a definitive answer for, and just told us what we already knew. Very disappointed with the outcome of this.

Have to admit to agreeing with you here. As wwfan implies, the knowledgeable regulars here could have given (and do) exactly the same information and in more detail. I think we were looking for some extra insights from the creator that the player doesn't have, however briefly stated. A wasted opportunity tbh

I hated and despised playing FML with the farrows/barrows. Could never see myself buying it. Love it now, although that's mainly down to my preoccupation with the engine and tactics rather than the overall playing experience, which some will love and others not.

For me, despite the recent moans of some testers, the leap between 8.0.2 and the FML engine is the biggest and most positive I have seen since the 2d first started. It still needs some work for sure, but if that manifests itself for FM09, and I'm pretty positive it will, then I think the newly farrowless 09 engine will be wonderful.

Funnily enough on FML I don't touch tactics at all, I try and keep it different from the FM playing style I use. As I see FML as the longer term option for me:D I'm on a quest for no1 youth spot, currently 3rd

Can't wait to set about FM09 though, the engine should be great.

Oh and guess what wwfan, on FML I am a 442 convert

Pardon me for being stupid here, what does "not used yet" means?

Pardon me for being stupid here, what does "not used yet" means?

Not activated

Frankly every answer is not enough. The questions are very well thuoght out and comprehensive and the answer are basically useless.

I mean this one:

Q) What is the difference between hard, mixed and easy tackling, is it linked to player aggression ? I mean when a player is set to tackle easy but he got 20 aggression - will he then back up and just follow the opponent ?

A) More likely to make a tackle or foul.

Wheres the answer on the link to aggression?

If you are going to bother to do this might as well do it right instead of a few words for each question, can't believe I wasted my time reading it.

I'll be perfectly honest here. Even taking into consideration you said he didn't have much time, his answers were pretty pants. I mean, half the questions asked he didn't even have a definitive answer for, and just told us what we already knew. Very disappointed with the outcome of this.

Sorry Nepenthez I didn't see your post but totally agree, why do this and get FM gamers worked up and give utterly useless answers?

I would prefer SI to shut up and get on with making FML/FM09.

Sorry to add another question about removing the arrows.

I like to use curved farrows and also sarrows on occasions.

How will I go about doing that on FM09???

as a normal 4-4-2 player i love to se no arrows.

the kimz tactic is a joke and disgrace to all us that played cm/fm for 10 years. it has nothing with skill to do when u attack with 9 players and defend with 10 against computers 5/6.

whut shall all 14-17 yearold kids playing with arsenal and Man U do in fm2009? it will be so many moans and whine thread and i look forward already to read them.

Sorry to add another question about removing the arrows.

I like to use curved farrows and also sarrows on occasions.

How will I go about doing that on FM09???

No-one knows yet

If won´t exist farrows, don´t appear to me that will exist curved farrows...

Sarrows are not so important...

Side arrows are important to me. I play with a Box Midfield and so in some situations I use side arrows. If there is some way to get my players to wider than that's fine, but I would be very disappointed if my preferred style becomes useless in FM 09.

I guess really only time & the fm09 demo will tell

i'll make my decisions after ive had chance to tinker with the demo

Side arrows are important to me. I play with a Box Midfield and so in some situations I use side arrows. If there is some way to get my players to wider than that's fine, but I would be very disappointed if my preferred style becomes useless in FM 09.

Same here with the side arrows in the 4231.

Very poor answers, is that really the best he can do for the fans of the game?

Side arrows are important to me. I play with a Box Midfield and so in some situations I use side arrows. If there is some way to get my players to wider than that's fine, but I would be very disappointed if my preferred style becomes useless in FM 09.

maybe we'll be a getting a "width" instruction on the individuals to compensate ...

or maybe not..

I hated and despised playing FML with the farrows/barrows. Could never see myself buying it. Love it now, although that's mainly down to my preoccupation with the engine and tactics rather than the overall playing experience, which some will love and others not.

For me, despite the recent moans of some testers, the leap between 8.0.2 and the FML engine is the biggest and most positive I have seen since the 2d first started. It still needs some work for sure, but if that manifests itself for FM09, and I'm pretty positive it will, then I think the newly farrowless 09 engine will be wonderful.

I think the match engine for FML is actually lot better than FM08 and that is saying something. Pity I can't get any formations to work with my poor team. Any tips for a fellow mod struggling with FML wwfan?

Very poor answers, is that really the best he can do for the fans of the game?

I wouldn't say they are poor, they are direct and to the point.

I think the match engine for FML is actually lot better than FM08 and that is saying something. Pity I can't get any formations to work with my poor team. Any tips for a fellow mod struggling with FML wwfan?

As much as it pains me to say, 442 standard:D or 451 attacking, both really effective

I've only used a 4-4-2 so I can't comment on other formations. I do struggle against the 4-5-1 with AML/Rs though and think that theoretically it would be extremely effective against most other formations.

My biggest tip would be to alter width depending on pitch size and d-line/tempo depending on how much DC the opposition is using.

2) I'd love to know how to get strikers to sit on the shoulder of the oppos def.

Do you have them set to manmark tight or not, and does closing down have anything to do with how tight they get to their man or where the ball is on the pitch before the closing down comes into play.

It wont affect them marking people, just how close they mark them.

Sorry, I don't understand this answer. Can someone please explain? Is he saying that setting a striker to tight mark the opposition defender will not help the striker to sit on his shoulder?

Just a quick question... when will FM09 come out?

And on topic... i think removing the arrows will not be a good move! Many tactics use arrows be it backward, forward, side or curved. They give the sense of structure to the tactic and a player knows where he has to play and maybe plays more effectively with arrows instead of without them.

Just a quick question... when will FM09 come out?

And on topic... i think removing the arrows will not be a good move! Many tactics use arrows be it backward, forward, side or curved. They give the sense of structure to the tactic and a player knows where he has to play and maybe plays more effectively with arrows instead of without them.

Nobody knows and anyone who says he does will be lying.

As for the removal of arrows, there was a massive debate pre and post removal in the FML Betas and internally within SI. IF the removal hadn't been a complete success they would have stayed. An experiment on a few GWs turned into major engine advance in terms of the ability of the 2d to properly represent a football match.

A very nice approach to get information from SI and some really smart questions but unfortunatelly answers are disappointing and fair to say answers are not really answering anything. Ok at least we learnt from Q1 and Q2 two of the prefenreces are obselete and arrows will be removed but besides these rest of the answers are worthless.

It is hard to believe someone can be so busy to reply 10 questions. For me options are they do not want to give clear information about how engine works and attributes affect the game or some of the things are not as smart/logical as we thought in the game or the game code is a mess after years of development and they dont even know the weightings of different factors in the game anymore.

Perfect logic!! Because he is busy = engine is an irreversible mess. How many assumptive jumps does that take. At least 12 by my reckoning. It's no wonder SI appear less and less on these boards if people feel they can post blatant slurs related to their competence.

Sorry, I don't understand this answer. Can someone please explain? Is he saying that setting a striker to tight mark the opposition defender will not help the striker to sit on his shoulder?

Can anyone help with this???

wwfan: Why don't you delete the posts that offer nothing other than bile, instead of saying "this is why SI don't visit the forums as much any more"? We don't need the users who post nonsensical replies, so why waste your time? Just delete the post and suspend the user for a week or two...

This also goes against what SI themselves say about forum activity. I certainly get the impression that forum-activity is encouraged at SI. Is this not true anymore?

Perfect logic!! Because he is busy = engine is an irreversible mess. How many assumptive jumps does that take. At least 12 by my reckoning. It's no wonder SI appear less and less on these boards if people feel they can post blatant slurs related to their competence.

Paul was kind to even participate in first place I dont deny that; but he did not use more than 100 words for the entire conversation and this can not be accepted simply as he is so busy. Most of us with full-time jobs are busy and I dont think any of you can claim that you can not answer 10 questions properly because you dont have time. For me it is sad because obviously the people who prepared those questions spend much more time than the Paul himself did during that conversation. He could better answer just one properly and then say that he does not have time answer others, his current asnwers do not really tell anything new to people(us) who have been playing FM for years already.

My guess with "the code being not very easy to formulate" is a very common case with programming. There are lots of parameters thrown into operations and in fact one can know the purpose and affect of each individual input, still it may be hard to measure the final outcome due to complexity. It also sometimes leads to situations where some parameters weights more than others without intention just because of their execution order or priority and that may cause problems during the game play experience. This is also more valid in case Paul is not a programmer himself so he can not recongnize these issues in detail.

This being said; another option is that they simply do not want to tell more about the insights of game since it is part of the game, up to some extend it is fun to explore and experiment different things. And if they reveal the exaxt ways of parameter evaluation there will be lots of counter ideas towards them.

Finally, I have not accused anyone nor insult. I just said Paul could tell much more and make us more happy. I dont think anyone who participated in this conversation was satisfied with his answers although we are still pleased that Paul showed up in first place. If you as a moderator will just poke people for complaining, then go ahead. I cant remember there was a rule for this forum saying "all the forum members must worship every single action SI and its member do"

Excellent thread, very interesting.

Without needlessly slating SI, I do think that the answers could've been answered more fully. If not now, then previously. I'm not against SI in anyway but so much of the match engine (which is without doubt fundamental to being successful in the game) is based upon unconfirmed theories rather than hard information.

I don't understand why various members of the SI staff could from time to time clear a few things up for us, without giving away any inner workings of the game.

Anyway, a good thread and I also enjoy reading wwfan and Cleon's views on the game.

what the hell is FML?

Football Manager Live, a new version of the game.

what the hell is FML?

Seriously, where have you been?