Building a Reputation

I've got a few ideas for what I'd like to see in the next installment. Let me know what you think...

I am now in the year 2015 with Rangers and have a team ranked 8th in Europe. My team's reputation is still "National" however, as opposed to continental or worldwide. Also, the SPL now has 3 champions league and 3 uefa cup slots, but players still dont "like" to move to Scotland...

What I'd like to see firstly is the ability for your league reputation to improve. Therefore regenerated Scottish players could potentially become wonderkids if you do as I've done and end up with a higher quality of league (with more european slots and therefore more money). Similarly, maybe TV money and sponsorships should increase depending on said reputation.

Also, I'd like to see you being able to boost your team's commercial reputation in each continent. One thing Celtic have very astutely done in real-life is as follows: they have played friendly tournaments in america, have signed a japanese hero (Nakamura) and .. well thats it really. In FM it would be great if you could build your team as a global brand by playing friendlies, entering unofficial tournaments, buying great players from foreign countries. For a simple example if you signed Shevchenko, you'd increase your reputation in Ukraine, sell more jerseys, get reputation points and maybe be paid more to play a friendly tour in said country. Similarly, if your reputation in said country is high, you could have youth players coming through from there. This way even when your team is the best, you can still get better.

It'd also be great if you could change the catchment area and the prize money of a competition in the editor (though this could be abused I suppose:(). I personally would love to see the English and Scottish league cups done away with in real life. They suffer from poor attendances, low prestige and general all-round second bestness to the FA cups. So how about firing into your data editor and making something you really want to see? A british league cup in my eyes would be great. Whenever Rangers or Celtic play an English team in Europe its a terrific occasion and the home nations rivalry is one to be savoured in football. In FM, it'd be fantastic. The only possible drawback I can see is a fixture congestion as the competition would be somewhat longer with more teams to draw upon.

All in all, I love the FM world. But there are so many things in it that are still unflexible and you notice that some 7 or 8 years into a game. The Scottish league's reputation is as good as it will ever get, the national side will never have any world class players and your team has reached a reputation which it can't surpass. Where to now, FM? I have started another game with a lower league team, maybe these things won't matter to me as much in league one... But if I ever get Hereford to the Champions League Final, I'll no doubt be back making the same points!

Cheers

This has been a problem for years. I once won the CL four times with a lower league Russian club, but I was still losing players to the likes of Wigan because they wanted to move to a "bigger club."

yer this is why i dont manage other than england now.

I used to be celtic a few times but i found the same porblem as you do with the huns

What a fantastic first post

I agree with this post. It would suite the longer term gamers much better. I'm in to 2049 with a club in Sweden and the reputation of my league has not increased significantly, depite the Swedish national team winning the world cup at least once. Trying to keep hold of a good player for more than one season is nigh on impossible, despite playing in the champions league proper every season...and being 31st best club in Europe. I still lose players to Beilfield in Germany and various other mediocre European clubs (no disrespect).

Prize money should also fluctuate dependant on the money coming into the league, which should also result from the point above about the league's reputation improving. I get £3K for winning the Swedish cup, which never changes.

At one point my league was ranked 4th in the coefficients just below Spain, England, and Italy...still, my players want to leave!

What a fantastic first post

Why thank you kind sir. I registered exclusively to make this argument.

I actually have another point I'd like to make... Similar to in Medieval 2 : Total War, I think you should have a "reputation" for how you handle players. For example, if you treat them with respect and courtesy, you should have less trouble signing them. This would further discourage the whole signing of players on a free on expiry of contract and selling them for £3-4m fiasco. (I regard that as cheating faintly) I realise it's been made difficult to do this year but its still possible!

Why thank you kind sir. I registered exclusively to make this argument.

I actually have another point I'd like to make... Similar to in Medieval 2 : Total War, I think you should have a "reputation" for how you handle players. For example, if you treat them with respect and courtesy, you should have less trouble signing them. This would further discourage the whole signing of players on a free on expiry of contract and selling them for £3-4m fiasco. (I regard that as cheating faintly) I realise it's been made difficult to do this year but its still possible!

I don't consider that cheating to be honest but even if it was I wouldn't really care. As far as I'm concerned if someone wants to cheat their socks off it is fine as this is a primarily single player game.

I don't consider that cheating to be honest but even if it was I wouldn't really care. As far as I'm concerned if someone wants to cheat their socks off it is fine as this is a primarily single player game.

I mean signing someone and immediately offloading them after never having intended to play them. If you did that in real life players would be quite wary of signing a contract with your club! I'm more than happy for people to cheat, I just personally prefer playing it in the spirit for which it was made..!

i agree... this is why i dont manage in scotland..

really needs to be looked at (y)

I play as city, we have robiniho, Giusseppe rossi, Gareth barry, Joao moutinho and most significently andray arshavin(All world class players). However I signed all of them from mediocre teams e.g, Aston villa or zenit. 2nd in the prem, I have put a £10 mil bid for Metzelder and £28 million for hargreaves plus wages up to 120,000 per week. However they reject saying they have no intention even though we are higher ranked........!!

I mean signing someone and immediately offloading them after never having intended to play them. If you did that in real life players would be quite wary of signing a contract with your club! I'm more than happy for people to cheat, I just personally prefer playing it in the spirit for which it was made..!

Yeah, I know what you're referring to, I just don't consider it cheating. Football is a business - that's a way to make money - I'm sure it's crossed a few people's minds to do that before in real life even if it is far from a regular occurance.

My point is though nobody is forced to do that. It is something people choose to do and because it isn't "part" of the game but rather something that occurs because of the way the system works then I don't think there is any need to introduce something restrictive to the game because a few people may choose to "cheat" in their own game. Introducing some sort of rep thing like in TW may sound like a good idea - but the TW one was completely broken at times and it became ridiculously difficult to change "untrustworthy" reps simply because of how the game was viewing things that the player was doing - even if the player had completely legitimate reasons for doing them.

We apply this to FM and a player gets an "untrustworthy" style rep because of how the AI is viewing the players actions and all of a sudden that player is having enormous difficulty signing players and this forum gets swamped...and it all seems unnecessary to stop some cheaters in a game where the way people choose to play has no effect, positive or negative, on my enjoyment of the game.

However, your first idea was a good idea - one this game has been lacking for far too long.

Yeah, I know what you're referring to, I just don't consider it cheating. Football is a business - that's a way to make money - I'm sure it's crossed a few people's minds to do that before in real life even if it is far from a regular occurance.

My point is though nobody is forced to do that. It is something people choose to do and because it isn't "part" of the game but rather something that occurs because of the way the system works then I don't think there is any need to introduce something restrictive to the game because a few people may choose to "cheat" in their own game. Introducing some sort of rep thing like in TW may sound like a good idea - but the TW one was completely broken at times and it became ridiculously difficult to change "untrustworthy" reps simply because of how the game was viewing things that the player was doing - even if the player had completely legitimate reasons for doing them.

We apply this to FM and a player gets an "untrustworthy" style rep because of how the AI is viewing the players actions and all of a sudden that player is having enormous difficulty signing players and this forum gets swamped...and it all seems unnecessary to stop some cheaters in a game where the way people choose to play has no effect, positive or negative, on my enjoyment of the game.

However, your first idea was a good idea - one this game has been lacking for far too long.

A fair point, it may end up getting a bit messy. And I do agree the TW thing was somewhat messed up (entirely useless) but the I'll leave the suggestion as thus: it'd be good if somehow your manager "personality" influenced some things in the game. Instead, it really just changes your profile to 'media friendly manager' for example. Maybe a "light-hearted" manager would find it easier to sign a "light hearted" player, or a "determined" manager more likely to sign a "determined" player. It'd make press conferences more important I suppose! Or a "balanced" personality if you can't really be bothered getting involved with it.

Just looking for more ways to make the game interactive really.