Challenges / Sign-Ups / Holiday Games ideas thread.

[PaulHartman71]

I have an idea for a sign up/challenge.

It's like this:

20 people sign up for the challenge/sign up. The challenge last 20 weeks (could be changed), each week the 20 people complete the 2007-08 season with a randomly decided club, decided by a random number generator. And score points depending on there finish E.G: 1st = 20 20th= 1. And this continues until all 20 clubs have been done.

Rules

1. Each signer upper MUST play long term
2. Each signer upper MUST complete each season within the chosen deadline

Oh and each season would be the 2007-08 with a different in-game manager.

If anyone was interested I couldn't run it due to my commitments with the South American Striker Sign Up, and was thinking about doing it after, but tbh that would be ages away, so I felt like being unselfish and letting someone else lead it, if they are interested

[dafuge]

Originally posted by ridleys:
Has anyone ever thought of doing a seasonly Sign-up/Challenge/Experiment awards.

Not sure what Dafuge will think, and obviously if it was going to be carried out I would need his permission.

I think that with all the sign-ups and challenges being created nowadays it would be nice for people to be rewarded for all the hard work they put into creating them and carrying them out.

If we made an award system of some kind then it may inspire some users of these forums to create sign-ups which don't just after everyone hs signed up. Maybe if there is a hall of fame thread or something we can have awards like:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI> Sign-up of the Year

<LI> Challenge of the Year

<LI> Best Updates (person)

<LI> Most popular Sign-up

<LI> Most popular Challenge

<LI> Best idea.[/list]
These are just a few I could think of off the top of my head and obviously there could be more.

All comments and suggestions of how to improve are welcome.

I definitely think the annual awards will continue. Birdy ran it last year, I'm assuming he would want to do it again but I could if he doesn't want to. I think the end of the summer would be a good time to have it, so the awards are done before the FM09 demo is released (assuming there is one). Perhaps in a few months we could put an awards discussion thread up and get everyone's opinions on exactly what is wanted this year.

[PaulHartman71]

Another idea I think is the possibility of a 'Are You Better at FM then a ? year old', which could challenge older members of the forum against the younger ones to see who is better at FM, i'd certainly be up for challenging the younger members

[dafuge]

Originally posted by PaulHartman71:
I have an idea for a sign up/challenge.

It's like this:

20 people sign up for the challenge/sign up. The challenge last 20 weeks (could be changed), each week the 20 people complete the 2007-08 season with a randomly decided club, decided by a random number generator. And score points depending on there finish E.G: 1st = 20 20th= 1. And this continues until all 20 clubs have been done.

Rules

1. Each signer upper MUST play long term
2. Each signer upper MUST complete each season within the chosen deadline

Oh and each season would be the 2007-08 with a different in-game manager.

If anyone was interested I couldn't run it due to my commitments with the South American Striker Sign Up, and was thinking about doing it after, but tbh that would be ages away, so I felt like being unselfish and letting someone else lead it, if they are interested

I think it would be hard to find 20 people to regularly play a season a week. The monthly challenges and Wallace vs Roberts threads have been fairly short on people willing to take part and that just involves doing a season a month or so.

[PaulHartman71]

Originally posted by dafuge:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by PaulHartman71:
I have an idea for a sign up/challenge.

It's like this:

20 people sign up for the challenge/sign up. The challenge last 20 weeks (could be changed), each week the 20 people complete the 2007-08 season with a randomly decided club, decided by a random number generator. And score points depending on there finish E.G: 1st = 20 20th= 1. And this continues until all 20 clubs have been done.

Rules

1. Each signer upper MUST play long term
2. Each signer upper MUST complete each season within the chosen deadline

Oh and each season would be the 2007-08 with a different in-game manager.

If anyone was interested I couldn't run it due to my commitments with the South American Striker Sign Up, and was thinking about doing it after, but tbh that would be ages away, so I felt like being unselfish and letting someone else lead it, if they are interested

I think it would be hard to find 20 people to regularly play a season a week. The monthly challenges and Wallace vs Roberts threads have been fairly short on people willing to take part and that just involves doing a season a month or so. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, true.

[PoopyPants]

Was just thinking that I was bored of only seeing challenges you could do in the lower leagues and this idea came to me.

Do you think there would be intrest in a 'mega-club' challenge where you can go any club in any league and you get points depending on where you finish.

You'd obviously get more points for winning the Prem with Derby or Wigan than Man Utd or Arsenal. There would also be little bonus point type things, say for example you won the Prem with Wigan you are looking at 200 points but if you win it consecutavly* then you'd get 300 points.

The points system for the Prem (And al other top leagues) would be based on where your expected to finish and then scaled down dependingly eg. England would be like this 1st season if you win the Prem;

Man Utd - 10 points
Chelsea - 20 points...
...
Bolton - 70 points
Blackburn - 80 points...
...
Reading - 130 points
Man City - 140 points...
...
Derby - 190 points
Wigan - 200 points

You get the idea? (Add a 0 on the end of their expected positions)

But if Wigan finished 5th they'd get 150 points. (The rest of them will also be scaled down accordingly).

I don't know how I'd do the points for the cups, maybe just a fixed score of 100 for the Champions League, 75 for the UEFA, 50 for the FA Cup (or nations equivalent), then 25 for the Carling (or equivelent). (Any ideas welcome)

You could maybe get bonus points for getting on a players 'favoured personnel list', then more for getting on the club's. Maybe if you also won [insert no. of games here] consecutavly* then you get points too.

At the start of every season you'd need to post an S.S of;

Your Club Info Screen
Transfers (After the window obviously!)
Squad

At the end of every season you'd need to post an S.S of;

The league table
The Cup final (If you get there)
And just basically post a little review.

So, do you think there would be any intrest?

*I've given up trying to learn how to spell that

[minisav]

I think its a smashing idea

Although the favoured personnel list points I don't like.

Some people can go on for ages before they get that as its a little random so maybe scrap that part.

[PoopyPants]

Yeah, I just wanted a few 'bonus points' I could add in - just for the fun

[PoopyPants]

So, what does everyone else think about it?

Thinking of creating it later

[PoopyPants]

I'm just going to take everyone's silence as their way of saying that it's the perfect challenge and I should make it ASAP

[PoopyPants]

Created it here if anyone cares

[iacovone]

I have an AI experiment that I thought of last night that I plan on getting started asap. Just thought I'd get some thoughts on it from my fellow forumites. Some of this is inspired by kipfihz and I've emailed him to check on a number of things

The plan is to create a number of unemployed managers with vastly different stats. 1 will be controversial, well known but poor ability-wise. His alter ego will be controversial, little known but amazingly talented. I have 16 planned managers at this stage.

The aim of the experiment is to observe their progress. They will all be 30 years old and I plan on following their entire careers.

Another hope is that we will see the offspring of some of these managers play and then go into management.

I plan on doing seasonal reports on all the managers individually.

So, a couple of issues I'm not sure of yet:

1)I am not yet sure whether to have one nation or 3?
2)Should the managers be the same nationality?
3)Should I remove some original managers from the game or wait it out until my managers get jobs the proper way?
4)Should I run this in full detail?
5)Should the managers know each other (through relationships in the editor)?

There's obviously still a lot of work to be done on the idea so any advice is welcome

[aaberdeenn]

1. One nation.
2. Same nationality.
3. Get jobs the proper way.
4. Entirely upto you.
5. No.


And good luck.

[Walcott\'s Wonderkids]

1) Just the one nation I reckon, fairer that way. (Unless you plan on doing the British leagues in which case doing all of them would be reasonable)

2) Just one nationality.

3) Get jobs the proper way, but what level of reputation will you put them at?! As barring any special managers featuring high / low man rep that you might use in your experiment, they should all be at a set level (but not zero as that's random of course).

4) Yeah I would run in full detail if just doing one set of leagues or the British leagues.

5) No, keep them strangers.

[iacovone]

Ok thanks for the replies so far.

Questions 1) 2) 3) 4) and 5) are pretty much decided on now.

For 3) I've decided to let them get jobs the proper way. As WW alluded to my plan at the moment is to have 4 different manager 'types' - the perfect, the moody, the controversial, the disloyal for example and then to have seperate versions of them.

ie. Mr Perfect 1 will be v.low rep = 1 for all of them BUT he'll have CA and PA = 200. Mr Perfect 2 will be the other way around. High rep = 200 for all 3 and v.low ability.

My question is this: Do people think managers with very high reps but pitiful ability (ie. 1) will still get jobs? I suppose this is part of what my experiment is so in some ways this is rhetorical - although I don't want to create these low ability managers if they won't get a job

Should I have the low ability managers starting at CA = 1 PA = 50 OR CA = 1, PA = 1?

[Walcott\'s Wonderkids]

I think you'll find its the other way around - its the guys with low rep that will struggle rather than the high rep guys.

[iacovone]

Ok that's good to know. Cheers WW.

[bermybhoy]

Interesting idea. Would you have some way of seeing how skilled the chairmen/boards of the clubs that hire them are? Think that would go some way to helping explain why some of the managers do/don't get jobs...

[iacovone]

Using FM Genie Scout I'll be able to look at the chairmen's hidden attributes so should be able to get some insight there. Although I've never used Genie Scout so its going to be a bit of a learning curve as I go along.

[matty_8]

How about a Regens of Regensburg

Its a team in Germany. Saw the name and thought very fitting for a title of a experiment or challenge. Dont know what yet, ideas welcome

[Frazza Pee]

Sounds good for a sign up I'd be one of the first to sign up

[bermybhoy]

Originally posted by matty_8:
How about a Regens of Regensburg

Its a team in Germany. Saw the name and thought very fitting for a title of a experiment or challenge. Dont know what yet, ideas welcome

Good find. what about a challenge whereby after the first season their entire team must be made up of regen players? Not necessarily through their own youh ranks as that just makes it impossible, I would say.

[Frazza Pee]

But at the second season regens aren't that good IMO because there quite young and haven't improved yet

[matty_8]

just makes it an even harder challenge! I think i might set this up then

[Frazza Pee]

aww it's a challenge still sounds quite good though

[matty_8]

sorry i just dont have the patience or time to make a sign up. Did that before and lost interest

[Frazza Pee]

I'm not complaining TBH I would start a sign up but I have ADHD so I have a short attention span so I would forget about it half way through LOL

[bermybhoy]

Actually, just finding enough of them might be a problem, never mind their quality? Not sure. It would be really really hard.

After reading a lot of people grumbling over the quality of regends and how their attributes are sometimes spread illogically for their positions, I think it would be interesting to see if anyone can do anything with them right from the start...

[CharlieGooner]

Hello,

i'm thinking of doing a sign up, based on the USA elections. I would have 16 spaces,8 for those on the democtratic side, 8 for those on the republic side. These spaces would be filled by created clubs with preferences of your choice,they would be representing the candidates on each side of the election. There would 50 playing leagues-IF my computer could take that!-representing the 50 states of America. This is not a final plan, i may change it, but i was just wondering what you guys thought of it and if you had any ideas of how it might work. Looking foward to your response- Charlie Gooner

[kingmike666]

CharlieGooner

I think it sounds like a great idea.

It sounds like it would be quite alot of hard work though, so I hope you're committed to doing it - but I'd definately sign up for it if you did.

I'd have to be a Democrat though

[Frazza Pee]

this for a new sign-up?

EAST STIRLING - NEW PLAYERS, NEW HOPE
Year after year East Stirling in the Scottish Third Division finish last but with a new squad of 18 year old -10 pa's things are looking up.

This 22 man sign-up will let people pick their position( 2 for each position ) names, day and month of birth and their nationality.

I will post updates of how their getting on, hows interested in them and East Stirling progress.

So what do you think?

[Frazza Pee]

Forgot to add i will post updates after each transfer window and at the end of a season

[Frazza Pee]

ok i'll take silence as a yes so i'm going to make it

[Walcott\'s Wonderkids]

I'm slowly working my way through a database based on this and was wondering whether anyone thought there could be potential for a challenge here?


Take a Useless Nation to Champions League and World Cup Glory

I'm currently working on a database where the worst nations from around the world have decided to enter the same league and enter their own national team players in it. I've started created the national 'club' teams, from nations such as Andorra, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Papua New Guinea, Maldives, US Virgin Islands etc.

This domestic league would be based in Europe, with all the players edited so that whilst they will definitely play for their own national team they can also play in Europe. All these clubs would start off with training / youth facilities = 10.

The idea of the challenge would be to over time take this nation 'club' to champions league glory over time, as well as its own national team to at least qualifying for the World Cup and then ultimate success. You would only be able to use players from your own nation.

I think this could be interesting in the short term just to see how well you would do against other nations and then in the longer term if you want to see if that nation could become a genuine world contender.

Obviously the AI would move players between nation 'clubs' over time, but I've learnt a couple of tricks to minimise this.



So what do people think? and what league does everyone think this should be based in?... I'm thinking Iceland at the moment.

[minisav]

Well I know nothing about other leagues to be chosen but I know that I like this idea

Whether I'd take part or not I have no idea.

[iacovone]

Just seen the awards idea. I missed it last year but its a massive thumbs up from me

[dafuge]

Originally posted by iacovone:
Just seen the awards idea. I missed it last year but its a massive thumbs up from me

I'm quite looking forward to sorting it all out, there's been some great stuff going on in this forum in the last year or so that deserves some recognition.

[dafuge]

Thinking about the June challenge gave me an idea but I'm not really sure how feasible it is. Does anyone with knowledge of using editors know whether it would be possible to create a Euro 2008 save game including the correct 16 teams in the correct groups? I'm sure I've seen it done in the past but would have no idea about how to go about doing it.

[PaulHartman71]

Originally posted by dafuge:
Thinking about the June challenge gave me an idea but I'm not really sure how feasible it is. Does anyone with knowledge of using editors know whether it would be possible to create a Euro 2008 save game including the correct 16 teams in the correct groups? I'm sure I've seen it done in the past but would have no idea about how to go about doing it.

I'm sure you could 'fix' the teams that qualify it in-game, but getting the groups exactly the same, I'm not sure, i'm sure it's possible. Maybe one of those in-game editor things?

[Poyplemonkeys]

Right, I have a plan. This will turn the leagues topsy turvy. Literally. I am going to reverse every team's position in the season just finished. So Man Utd will be the bottom promoted team into the Conference N/S, Chelsea the next etc, all the way up to Sutton United being the top of the premiership.

The same in Italy and Spain too.

Then I will holiday it lots and do seasonal reports. To see who can stay at the top, and how long it takes the Man Utds and Chelseas of this world to rise again.

I couldn't see a general discussion of challenges thread so I'm putting this in here to gauge reaction, check if it's already being done, and ask if it would be a good idea to set up some users as future regens using an edt file to add some random interest into it.


Posted this off topic as I didn't see this thread, was expecting a sticky

[Frazza Pee]

Thats sounds good.

[aaberdeenn]

I believe that it may of been tried on a smaller scale a couple of times before but it's been abandoned by the person running it after a week or so.

It's a good idea and doing it on that scale would take a large amount of work but if you were willing to put in the work to run it then it would work fine. I'd certainly follow it and like to be included as a player or suchlike.

I'd presume someone with your experience on here would fulfill something like this and not just abandon it.


from me.

[PaulHartman71]

Agree with aaberdeenn, if you put the effort in, it would be a great AI experiment

[birdy123]

Sounds like a good idea. Will be interesting to see what happens to the teams in top/bottom divisions.

[Denial]

Originally posted by Poyplemonkeys:
Right, I have a plan. This will turn the leagues topsy turvy. Literally. I am going to reverse every team's position in the season just finished. So Man Utd will be the bottom promoted team into the Conference N/S, Chelsea the next etc, all the way up to Sutton United being the top of the premiership.

The same in Italy and Spain too.

Then I will holiday it lots and do seasonal reports. To see who can stay at the top, and how long it takes the Man Utds and Chelseas of this world to rise again.

I couldn't see a general discussion of challenges thread so I'm putting this in here to gauge reaction, check if it's already being done, and ask if it would be a good idea to set up some users as future regens using an edt file to add some random interest into it.


Posted this off topic as I didn't see this thread, was expecting a sticky

I did something similar myself, albeit just as a game I was playing myself in England.

Happy to send you over my edt file to save you some time if you decide to take this up. It'd definitely be interesting to read and follow.

[Poyplemonkeys]

To answer the question in the other thread I'll be leaving all the reputations exactly as they were. I also think I'll leave the league positions and prior league as they were. Gives the big teams in the bottom leagues an advantage that they deserve I guess.

[Poyplemonkeys]

So in true FM fashion I have already encountered a problem. The B teams in the spanish leagues are messing things up for me, the inconsiderate morons. I see no such problems in Italy though so full speed ahead there.

[Ridleys]

I tryed doing this in England, I mucked up with the database though and found at that you have to change the previous league positions for the seeding of the FA cup or something.

I couldn't be bothered after that though

Good luck with this I'll be following

[Poyplemonkeys]

I'm getting Access Array Out of Bounds errors Anyone clever with these or shall I go to the editing forum?

[Poyplemonkeys]

Well it's in the English leagues as the Italian league loaded fine, maybe it's the previous league positions like you say ridleys.

[DodgeeD]

Originally posted by dafuge:
Thinking about the June challenge gave me an idea but I'm not really sure how feasible it is. Does anyone with knowledge of using editors know whether it would be possible to create a Euro 2008 save game including the correct 16 teams in the correct groups? I'm sure I've seen it done in the past but would have no idea about how to go about doing it.

That would be a great idea for the challenge if anybody knows how to do it (unfortunately, I wouldn't have a clue ). I remember seeing something on the SI site for FM 06 where they ran the world cup as it was drawn without Rooney in the England squad as an experiment. To make it as challenging as possible, we should have to compete as Austria!

[Ridleys]

Originally posted by Poyplemonkeys:
Well it's in the English leagues as the Italian league loaded fine, maybe it's the previous league positions like you say ridleys.

Try deleting all league and tournametn history as well.

[Poyplemonkeys]

Tried deleting all the tournament history, still got the error. Trying a reversal of all positions now.

[el sid]

I was thinking of a new challenge :
The Ambidextrous Challenge

The Challenge : Take control of any team in any league (this maybe needs a little revising but this is only the raw idea) and win the champions league with only ambidextrous players in the team (subs included).

Ambidextrous players - The ones which have preferred foot set as "Either" meaning they are good with both feet.

Could be an interesting challenge.

What do you guys think about it ?

[canvey!!]

Like your idea el sid, although I wouldn't take part because TBH I'm pretty sh-- at FM.

May I suggest a 7-day-rule? They have one on the FMS forum, where you cannot start a second FMS within 7 days of starting your last one. It means that the forum stays uncluttered, and stops people going mad just posting any story which comes to mind. I think one here would be useful so people can understand the magnitude of running a challenge/sign-up/experiment before posting and commiting themselves to running loads (and I am here not mentioning any names).

The obvious exception would be where a sign-up has a sign-up thread and a results thread, and anything else in which the "action" is spread over two threads.

[Frazza Pee]

(and I am here not mentioning any names).

We all know who you mean

[PoopyPants]

Originally posted by canvey!!:
Like your idea el sid, although I wouldn't take part because TBH I'm pretty sh-- at FM.

May I suggest a 7-day-rule? They have one on the FMS forum, where you cannot start a second FMS within 7 days of starting your last one. It means that the forum stays uncluttered, and stops people going mad just posting any story which comes to mind. I think one here would be useful so people can understand the magnitude of running a challenge/sign-up/experiment before posting and commiting themselves to running loads (and I am here not mentioning any names).

The obvious exception would be where a sign-up has a sign-up thread and a results thread, and anything else in which the "action" is spread over two threads.

Was just about to mention this

[dafuge]

Originally posted by canvey!!:

May I suggest a 7-day-rule? They have one on the FMS forum, where you cannot start a second FMS within 7 days of starting your last one. It means that the forum stays uncluttered, and stops people going mad just posting any story which comes to mind. I think one here would be useful so people can understand the magnitude of running a challenge/sign-up/experiment before posting and commiting themselves to running loads (and I am here not mentioning any names).

The obvious exception would be where a sign-up has a sign-up thread and a results thread, and anything else in which the "action" is spread over two threads.

I was thinking about this a while ago, do we really want to go down the route of having a 'forum rules' thread or should we keep it as it is now where common sense should be used?

Despite not being official, at the moment people are only encouraged to start threads that they intend on carrying on with, whether that be a challenge which they play or a sign up which they run. Threads that are started for the sake of it usually end up getting closed or deleted.

[PaulHartman71]

I think there shouldn't be a 'BIG RULE' like in FMS, as it ruins our happy community. Although in some cases (not naming any names) when around 6 challenges are created in a week, I think something should be done.

[PluckaDuck]

G'day guys
I have been thinking of this for a while, and I'm now considering making this a sign-up, I'll try to explain it to you the best i can....

In Austrlia, we are absolutely football mad, (if anyone doesn't know what 'football is, here's a quick explanation i got off wikipedia)

Australian rules football, Australian football, Aussie rules, or simply "football" or "footy" is a team sport played between two teams of 18 players with a ball in the shape of a prolate spheroid. It is a football variant played outdoors on large oval shaped grass fields (often also used as a cricket ground), with four goal posts at each end.
The primary aim of the game is to score goals (worth six points) by kicking the ball between the middle two posts of the opposing goal. The winner is the team who has the higher total score at the end of the fourth quarter. Except for special circumstances, if the score is tied then a draw is declared.
Players may use any part of their body to advance the ball. The primary methods are kicking, handballing and running with the ball. There are restrictions on how the ball can be handled, for example players running with the ball must intermittently bounce or touch it on the ground, throwing the ball is not allowed and players must not get caught holding the ball. Unlike most similar sports, there is no offside rule and players can roam the field freely. Possession of the ball is in dispute at all times except when a free kick is paid. A distinctive feature of the game is the mark, where players anywhere on the field who catch a ball from a kick (with specific conditions), are awarded a free kick. Australian rules is a contact sport in which players can tackle using their hands or use their whole body to obstruct opponents. Dangerous physical contact (such as a pushing an opponent in the back), interference when marking and deliberately slowing the play are discouraged with free kicks, distance penalties or suspension, depending on the seriousness of the infringement. Frequent physical contests, aerial marking or "speckies", fast movement of both players and the ball and high scoring are the game's main attributes as a spectator sport.

Ok, on with things, our major competition for this sport is the AFL (Australian Football League). There are sixteen teams currently in this competition, they are as follows....
From Victoria- Collingwood Mapies, Carlton Blues, Melbourne Deamons, North Melbourne Kangaroos, Hawthorn Hawks, Richmond Tigers, Essendon Bombers, Western Bulldogs, St Kilda Saints and the Geelong Cats
From South Australia- Adelaide Crows, Port Adelaide Power
From Western Australia- Fremantle Dockers, West Coast Eagles
From Queensland- The Brisbane Lions
From New South Wales- Sydney Swans
And in 2011, there will be a team from the Gold Coast, then in 2012, a 2nd team from Sydney will be added

OK, my idea: I will open a sign up, with 18 places avalible, 16 for the current teams, as well as 2 of the new teams, and each of you will then take over one of the 18 clubs as a chairman, and I will monitor their progress, and post monthly updates on them.

So the new AFL will take over the Spanish 1st division, With each of the teams being set an equal reputation. I will either use random fictional players, or add each player from the AFL into to their respective teams, depending on how time consuming it is to do so. As for the managers, They will bethe current coaches for the teams in the AFL.

Ok, what about the rest of the divisions in the spanish League? Well I intend to add in there some of the famous clubs from the state level competitions, ie; Port Magpies, Box Hill, South Port Sharks, Bendigo Bombers, East Fremantle ect. However these clubs are not avalible in the sign up

Depending on the response this, aswell as the ammount of spare time I've got, I could make this into a sign up!!

Thanks for reading guys, i look forward to hearing your responses!!!

[PoopyPants]

I'm thinking of starting either wisla + tilla's old Shetland vs Orkney sign up or CoachFlu's old Rise of the small nations sign up.

Which one do you think and would anyone have any problems with it?

[coldkohmew]

I got this idea

You have to bring a club all the way up and win the league without losing 100 players though any ways.

Good luck.

[aaberdeenn]

http://community.sigames.com/eve/for...2/m/8502061753

Would anyone be interested in being involved in something similar to this on FM09?

Probably on a smaller scale, say 10 people maximum, with priority given to forum regulars and those who have been involved in the previous two incarnations and limited to just the EPL rather than across Europe.

[birdy123]

James.

Was brilliant fun when Bambi ( ) ran it.

[PoopyPants]

I would James

[coldkohmew]

What about trying to get the league have one player of a particular nationality each,it would be fun!!!

[canvey!!]

Here's an idea I've been thinking about - I was wondering whether I should do it now or wait for FM09. But I think I'll do it now, just wondering what peoples' feedback would be. The basic idea is a The Apprentice-themed sign-up. We get 20 forumers who each assume a role of a Premiership team (are the managers). Each week a task is set, using my inventive imagination . Basically I give the task a real-life setting, but the objective is in FM terms. The objective may be to make a profit, in which case I want a high goal-difference.

There would be two teams of 10, with alternating Project Managers. In this example, the team with the positive goal-difference (say, +4), would win, and the losing Project Manager could then call two teams in with him, so they pick Derby and Fulham, who conceded far too many goals. Through the form of some balloting or something, a user is voted out of the sign-up.

The teams would be seeded based on media predicted positions, so you wouldn't get the Big Four on one team. Thoughts?

[aaberdeenn]

An absolutely awesome idea. Brilliance, honestly. I'd absolutely LOVE to be involved if it went ahead.

[canvey!!]

Excellent. I'm unsure about the specifics, because I don't want it to be a complete walkover either way. I also need to figure out a structure. Ideally, I want to divide the 38 games amongst how many "rounds/weeks" of the sign-up there are. e.g. I could have 19 weeks each with two games. However, that seems a little short, so I'm thinking have some objectives related to the FA Cup and League Cup.

[dafuge]

That sounds pretty awesome, it's nice to see novel ideas being thought up.

[canvey!!]

I have another idea, which I won't be doing until after this Apprentice one, but am posting here to "bagsy" it. It'd be called "Relegation's not the end", and you'd start off after a year's holidaying managing one of the teams relegated into BSN/S. After promoting them (no time limit), you manage the team that was relegated in BSP, promote them into L2, promote the team relegated into L2 into L1, etc. Once you reach the Premiership, try and win it to complete the challenge. If you get sacked you must continue at a team that has just been relegated into the league you are in or below.

[barry the second]

canvey if you start this it would be great, hope i get a place at around what time will you have sorted everything out? its such an original idea and i love the apprentice hope the idea develops

[bermybhoy]

Love the idea Canvey, well done. Will take a bit of thought to iron out the details, but sounds really good.

[canvey!!]

I figure if all goes to plan I should be able to plan out the details today and start the sign-up thread tomorrow. But I'm historically lazy, so it may be a little bit longer .

[coldkohmew]

Idea
Win the champions league with the youngest squad you can build.

[DodgeeD]

I have a challenge idea that might be good for anyone looking for a short-term game for the summer hols or prior to the release of FM 09.

The basic concept would be to set up a game with the top two divisions from the 'big' leagues in Europe (England, Italy, Spain, Germany, maybe Portugal and France) and start at one of the teams predicted to finish bottom of the second division. You then have ten seasons to have as successful a career as you can. I would devise a points system based on your acheivements (i.e. getting promoted, winning a cup comp, winning the top flight championship, getting a national job and several other things but no need to go into full detail now ). Changing jobs etc would be allowed and the challenge would culminate with the 2018 World Cup.

I would keep a table of the points and a 'CSE Forum Champion' (or Thread Champ if that's too presumptuos ) could be declared once the new game is out.

Any takers?

[Mistryman]

DodgeeD: I would be up for that challenge as I like to play those sorts of games where it involves the big nations! Plus I am on my summer hols so I can play for as long as I want!

There should be some sort of incentive. obviously nothing involving money but something where the winner will be honoured! :thumbs:

[Robert_296]

4 ideas in the last 24 hours

[DodgeeD]

DodgeeD: I would be up for that challenge as I like to play those sorts of games where it involves the big nations! Plus I am on my summer hols so I can play for as long as I want!

There should be some sort of incentive. obviously nothing involving money but something where the winner will be honoured! :thumbs:

I agree - maybe we could talk to dafuge about it or get it included in the Forum Awards.

[weeeman27bob]

joining in with the ideas glut. Has anyone ever done a EPL flops challange?. I was thinking along the lines of a short game probably just the one season. The idea would be to finish as high as you can with a "Flops XI"" full of players like Cygan and Veron.

[bermybhoy]

Right, any feedback on this welcome:

A predictions game, based on betting on the outcome of the league and cups. I would forsee doing it by running a game on holiday. I would probabaly use the Scottish leagues, but edit Celtic and Rangers out, so as to make it less predictable and give it a slightly experimental side, in terms of what would happen after a few years. Each person taking part would have an 'account' with say, £1,000 in it. I would provide odds on each competition (the game won't do it for me ) and each person would place bets on who they think will win or get relegated.

I guess screenshots would be posted to show transfer activity, and anything else, within reason, that people think is pertinent, along with information on important developments, like manager sackings. We could potentially have two rounds of betting, one at the end of each transfer window. The second would allow you to increase your bets or try to cover them elsewhere if they're going down the pan...

Any thoughts/ideas welcome (oh and would it be in any way unethical given there are u-18s on the board?! )

[coldkohmew]

Build a squad with the old USSR and win as much as possible!!!

[NepentheZ]

My short sign-up idea. (For when I've competed Dafuge's AND Gundo's Challenge )

A short 5 year sign up, where 20 players are created, and are coming to the end of their long and illustrious career. Basically, I will create a 12 year history for them on the editor, then follow the final years of their career, in whichever league and team they wish to be at.

Sign ups usually start, but rarely end at the end of the players careers, so I thought I'd start at the end, and give some people closure

[PaulHartman71]

not a bad idea Nep, it's certainly different, and would start when the players are in their prime, which would be interesting

[bermybhoy]

I've though about that exact thing before Nep. It kinda morphed into the 'disharmony' experiment that I may or may not ever finish.

Anyway, what you could do is edit in some staff details, so that they have non playing careers? Once they've retired you can whizz through seasons at a time to see ho they're non playing careers go

[SJ234]

A predictions game, based on betting on the outcome of the league and cups. I would forsee doing it by running a game on holiday. I would probabaly use the Scottish leagues, but edit Celtic and Rangers out, so as to make it less predictable and give it a slightly experimental side, in terms of what would happen after a few years. Each person taking part would have an 'account' with say, £1,000 in it. I would provide odds on each competition (the game won't do it for me ) and each person would place bets on who they think will win or get relegated.

I guess screenshots would be posted to show transfer activity, and anything else, within reason, that people think is pertinent, along with information on important developments, like manager sackings. We could potentially have two rounds of betting, one at the end of each transfer window. The second would allow you to increase your bets or try to cover them elsewhere if they're going down the pan...

Any thoughts/ideas welcome (oh and would it be in any way unethical given there are u-18s on the board?! )

i like the idea but on the ethics i don't know tbh

[NepentheZ]

I've though about that exact thing before Nep. It kinda morphed into the 'disharmony' experiment that I may or may not ever finish.

Anyway, what you could do is edit in some staff details, so that they have non playing careers? Once they've retired you can whizz through seasons at a time to see ho they're non playing careers go

Yea that would be possible. But as mentioned, I want a sign up that has closure. So once the player retires, the game is over. It just stops Challenges becoming mundane and boring, and offers a short term, yet very interesting sign up, that can be done a few times.

[Frazza Pee]

How is this for a challenge? You have to start off as a Brazilian Second Division team. Win the South American equivalent of the CL. Get the Brazil job and win the World Cup. Then you have move to an European team. win the CL. Then get the job of the country you're managing in and win the Euros and World Cup. Then for added hardness. Move to an Australian team win all the cups available there and get the Australian job and win the world cup with Australia. So what does everyone think?

[King Jeff]

Hello,

I'm wondering whether conducting an FM-based simulation of the 08-09 season would be considered an acceptable "AI experiment."

My goal isn't to break the AI -- instead, I was considering simulating the major leagues in Europe a bunch of times -- my initial thought was that 22 should be sufficient -- and removing each team's 'best' and 'worst' year, so that each team would have 20 sets of results. From there, the 20 sets of results could be averaged out to create a series of predictions for the upcoming season.

I don't know if there would be much interest in this idea, but I'm looking for a forum to write out the findings.

[Razer82]

How is this for a challenge? You have to start off as a Brazilian Second Division team. Win the South American equivalent of the CL. Get the Brazil job and win the World Cup. Then you have move to an European team. win the CL. Then get the job of the country you're managing in and win the Euros and World Cup. Then for added hardness. Move to an Australian team win all the cups available there and get the Australian job and win the world cup with Australia. So what does everyone think?

Sounds like an interesting idea. Would certainly be a varied and long term game.

How about adding in South Africa and the USA aswell? That way the aim would be the CL on all the continents in the game. Althought the World Cup challenge would take rather a long time if you need a few rebuilding year before the team are competative.

[Frazza Pee]

Sounds like an interesting idea. Would certainly be a varied and long term game.

How about adding in South Africa and the USA aswell? That way the aim would be the CL on all the continents in the game. Althought the World Cup challenge would take rather a long time if you need a few rebuilding year before the team are competative.

Right enough.

[PluckaDuck]

A predictions game, based on betting on the outcome of the league and cups. I would forsee doing it by running a game on holiday. I would probabaly use the Scottish leagues, but edit Celtic and Rangers out, so as to make it less predictable and give it a slightly experimental side, in terms of what would happen after a few years. Each person taking part would have an 'account' with say, £1,000 in it. I would provide odds on each competition (the game won't do it for me ) and each person would place bets on who they think will win or get relegated.

I guess screenshots would be posted to show transfer activity, and anything else, within reason, that people think is pertinent, along with information on important developments, like manager sackings. We could potentially have two rounds of betting, one at the end of each transfer window. The second would allow you to increase your bets or try to cover them elsewhere if they're going down the pan...

Any thoughts/ideas welcome (oh and would it be in any way unethical given there are u-18s on the board?! )

I am really all for this idea. Just one question, Would we start with a 'fictional account' of say $5000 and whoever has the most money at the end wins?

[starburst91]

I have an idea for a team challenge a bit like the Wallace v Roberts one. 10 people are assigned to each team and both teams are assigned the team who is predicted 20th of blue square north and south, then it could be which team can win the premiership first or who can acheive the most in 20 seasons. If anyone wants to use this idea or expand it feel free to do so coz im gonna be looking for a job soon and wont have alot of time

[Robert_296]

I think that's a good idea and I would definitely sign up. Maybe if you got two people to do it you could have each person managing a team each and see which team does better. I think that happened in Shetland v Orkney sign up.

[Tilla]

Right i'm thinking of starting a challenge which everyone can get involved and get some great banter which is what we want
what ive been thinking of is restoring fallen giants or something similar, im also tempted to go along the lines of Dafuge monthly challenges or Canvey's apprentice one(which tbh i dont really understand) but it brings people together.

So People Lets Brainstorm

[dafuge]

I think short challenges is certainly something that is under done in this forum, the monthly challenges didn't quite work out but something similar with a bit more planning might be what people are after.

[Robert_296]

I don't know how feasible it would be but does anyone think an Ebbsfleet type thing would work where a certain amount of people have to vote on who to pick for the team and things like that. (I may have suggested this ni the past, I can't remember whether I did or not)

[DodgeeD]

So what about my 10-year challenge from further up this page?

It's short-term, there's an element of competiton between the participants due to the points system and it involves the big European leagues, whcih I feel are often neglected in challenges too.

[canvey!!]

I'd be delighted to restart a montly challenge for FM09.
Tilla, what don't you understand about my sign-up (just curious)? PM me.

[DodgeeD]

This is the one I mean

I have a challenge idea that might be good for anyone looking for a short-term game for the summer hols or prior to the release of FM 09.

The basic concept would be to set up a game with the top two divisions from the 'big' leagues in Europe (England, Italy, Spain, Germany, maybe Portugal and France) and start at one of the teams predicted to finish bottom of the second division. You then have ten seasons to have as successful a career as you can. I would devise a points system based on your acheivements (i.e. getting promoted, winning a cup comp, winning the top flight championship, getting a national job and several other things but no need to go into full detail now ). Changing jobs etc would be allowed and the challenge would culminate with the 2018 World Cup.

I would keep a table of the points and a 'CSE Forum Champion' (or Thread Champ if that's too presumptuos ) could be declared once the new game is out.

Any takers?