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Terk

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Thinking of doing a game using Saints. Basically only allowing myself to sign anyone who has played for Southampton at some point in the past. So no new players only bringing back ex players or using the players at the club. Saints is a pretty good one as loads of our players from youth days are out and about somewhere.

Any thoughts on this idea for a game/story? Could do it with other clubs also.

Give it a go, but don't post anything until you make sure it works, because there are a few problems; a) the better players would be too expensive and won't be interested, b) the lesser players wil be interested, but probably aren't good enough.

On a different note, i've just done a word count on my "Buy Me A Drink" story and it's currently at 20k words :eek: I've never written anything that long in my life and am quite pleased with myself. :D

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Anyone else find that their story-writing enthusiasm tails off notably when their game moves along fast (i.e. on a powerful computer rather than a slow one that takes 10 minutes to process through a single week of no games!)? Mostly those people who, like me, don't really have much literary flair so the story writing doesn't come all that naturally. I've started a couple of stories with recent games, but I find it takes me so long writing up a part of my story that keeps up with the progress of my game that it just takes all the enjoyment out of playing the game. This is especially true when it is a game like my current one where I want to take my team to the Premiership, but have so far spent 4 seasons in the Blue Square North. I need good game speed, otherwise I'll never get out of the BSN before I lose interest completely :(

Edit: I meant to add - any tips from others who have experienced similar would be welcome. I had hoped I could use one laptop for story writing and the other for playing simultaneously when I replaced my old laptop, but in the end I had to replace it straight away because both battery and mains connector were screwed so whilst I can still switch it on it has to stay exactly where it is in order to not lose its mains connection by moving it even the slightest amount! And where it is is not at all convenient for story writing!

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I am currently playing my save as normal and then rewatching highlights when I feel like it i.e. playing ahead by 4-5 months, then watching 2 months of highlights, typing them up and that way it doesn't affect the actual game. If you try this you need to remember that game highlights get deleted after a while, depending on database size. With small DB I have to do it quite regularly as the highlights are deleted after 12 months or so, with a large DB the highlights are never deleted.

Depends on the detail level, in the GHC I save the match reports as notes and work from them, but in my Brazil story I watch highlights and try to do detailed info about each goal.

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I write as things happen. I have a list of ideas roughy written down, and then I just write up the story as I see fit. It has kept all of my game saves exciting for me too as I don't know whats going to happen just as much as the readers don't.

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I'd agree with that. My Rangers story, for example, has nothing to do with Rangers in the title -- unless you know both the history of the club as well as the reason the story was written (it's a challenge).

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Just a message about titles.

Titles have a HUGE impact on people reading a story.

I have had a few friends who have judged my story directly from the title, thinking its a story about Scottish Football. :o

They have huge impact particularly for newer writers. More established writers it doesn't matter quite so much because they will have developed a following. Of course if you entitled your story Big Breasted Woman takes Over X Club (With pics), you might get more initial readers ;) In the end though, if the actual story is rubbish people won't come back and thats the main thing.

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I know there have been a number of discussions regarding personal writing methods and when to publish the written product. For those who are interested in knowing my method, I've started a new story called "Inheritance". I have no idea where the story will go. In fact, I'll be writing it at the pace of my playing as much as is feasible. All I did was start with a title and a name of my main character. The rest is written off the top of my head. We'll see where it goes.

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Well attempted the international game I had spoken off, however its just far to slow for it to capture my imagination and write a story about. So..another idea has come my way and i just wanted to get feedback on what people think and whether it would make an interesting read. As i live in Winchester, Southampton is the closest big club too me, although not too big anymore (in fact there existence is even in question). However there plight like many (Notts Forest, Leeds, Bradford) has been spectacular to say the least. IAnyhow to my idea...

Id like to see if i can bring the saints back from the ashes, but want it to be a real challenge, therefore I have thought about using the editor to put them into league 1 with the -10 point deduction (if this is possible). As there finances are already a mess at the start of the game this will not be edited.

IRL the club is also in discussions for a takeover, so i will also either a) reduce the board and fan confidence in the chairman to ensure a takeover or b) remove the chairman so that they do not have one at the start of the game (whichever one will work best; if anyone knows dont hesitate to say).

Anyway I believe this would make not only for a very challenging game but also an intriguing read but would like others feedback and thoughts?

Thanks alot fellow FM'ers

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Well attempted the international game I had spoken off, however its just far to slow for it to capture my imagination and write a story about. So..another idea has come my way and i just wanted to get feedback on what people think and whether it would make an interesting read. As i live in Winchester, Southampton is the closest big club too me, although not too big anymore (in fact there existence is even in question). However there plight like many (Notts Forest, Leeds, Bradford) has been spectacular to say the least. IAnyhow to my idea...

Id like to see if i can bring the saints back from the ashes, but want it to be a real challenge, therefore I have thought about using the editor to put them into league 1 with the -10 point deduction (if this is possible). As there finances are already a mess at the start of the game this will not be edited.

IRL the club is also in discussions for a takeover, so i will also either a) reduce the board and fan confidence in the chairman to ensure a takeover or b) remove the chairman so that they do not have one at the start of the game (whichever one will work best; if anyone knows dont hesitate to say).

Anyway I believe this would make not only for a very challenging game but also an intriguing read but would like others feedback and thoughts?

Thanks alot fellow FM'ers

Sounds good to me, owen. But I think I'm right in saying you can't edit points deductions into the game. With regard to the board, your first option is better. If you go second, I think the game will just give you a random chairman. A takeover would definitely improve the story and would give you something extra to write about!

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Well attempted the international game I had spoken off, however its just far to slow for it to capture my imagination and write a story about. So..another idea has come my way and i just wanted to get feedback on what people think and whether it would make an interesting read. As i live in Winchester, Southampton is the closest big club too me, although not too big anymore (in fact there existence is even in question). However there plight like many (Notts Forest, Leeds, Bradford) has been spectacular to say the least. IAnyhow to my idea...

Id like to see if i can bring the saints back from the ashes, but want it to be a real challenge, therefore I have thought about using the editor to put them into league 1 with the -10 point deduction (if this is possible). As there finances are already a mess at the start of the game this will not be edited.

IRL the club is also in discussions for a takeover, so i will also either a) reduce the board and fan confidence in the chairman to ensure a takeover or b) remove the chairman so that they do not have one at the start of the game (whichever one will work best; if anyone knows dont hesitate to say).

Anyway I believe this would make not only for a very challenging game but also an intriguing read but would like others feedback and thoughts?

Thanks alot fellow FM'ers

I'm pretty sure you can't edit points deductions as they're hard-coded into the game and can't be changed. Resurrecting a former big club is always a good way into a story though. Good luck with it :thup:

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Yep your right you cant edit the points. Bit of a problem as the 10 point deduction would intrigue the game a little. I have taken option a regarding the chairman, i just hope it doesnt perk the interests of any saudi businessmen!

Thanks for your input terk,peace & gav

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Make your manager at the twilight of his career and call it "My Last Bernabéu" or "One Last Bernabéu" or "One Final Bernabéu".

What I like to do is create a theme for my protagonist and base a story off that. So if my manager was an ex-ice cream man and was at Real Madrid, I would name it "Los Galacticones". Notice I like witty titles :p.

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Just been looking at Mark Wilson's Scousers everywhere story, as you see at the start he briefly becomes the manager of Liverpool, that's how I'd like to enter, but I'd like somehow to add that he's at the twilight of his career there. I hope you get what I mean as I've made it a bit complicated.

Thank you very much.

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Easiest way would be either a brief discussion with another character (Raul? Calderon/Balouda/Perez? Ass Man?) in which the other guy mentions your long list of clubs and trophies (Chimney Corner, Chesterfield, Gimnasia, Vasco, Villarreal, AC Milan, Senegal...) or a newspaper article announcing 95-year-old Blue Bird's appointment as manager of Real Madrid after a 50 year career in 23 different countries...

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Easiest way would be either a brief discussion with another character (Raul? Calderon/Balouda/Perez? Ass Man?) in which the other guy mentions your long list of clubs and trophies (Chimney Corner, Chesterfield, Gimnasia, Vasco, Villarreal, AC Milan, Senegal...) or a newspaper article announcing 95-year-old Blue Bird's appointment as manager of Real Madrid after a 50 year career in 23 different countries...

Thanks very much, will find my way round this.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

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Just a quick Q, as I'm enjoying writing my story (The Premier League - what it says on the tin....) and everything but I feel the in-depth match reports might take away from the story? I mean it's easy for me to know what's going on but I feel that with all the reading people have to do per match report can they keep track of how that team has been doing, how their results have been previously.etc?

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Simple suggestion ... put the teams' record and table position in your header. I for one think you write a quality match report. There are others who do too (JamboJen, for example) but for perspective you might want to either post a table once in awhile or let people know how the clubs are performing at the top. For example, results in last five matches or some such ....

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Simple suggestion ... put the teams' record and table position in your header. I for one think you write a quality match report. There are others who do too (JamboJen, for example) but for perspective you might want to either post a table once in awhile or let people know how the clubs are performing at the top. For example, results in last five matches or some such ....

Thanks for the suggestion mate. I did originally want to do a monthly table but I reckon doing one before or after each weekend's set of games would be better and also the individual team's record before each match report like you suggest.

Cheers.

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Excuse my French, but i'm extremely ****ed off. I had got to roughly 23k worth of writing for my Vasco story and have just lost the save :( I didn't save it properly, saved as auto save, then started a new game this morning, holidayed and it automatically saved the new save as auto save, overwriting my Vasco save (I assumed it would save it auto save 2 or something). No backups, no rolling save enabled :(

Absolutely gutted! Luckily I had typed up to the end of season one, so anyone who is interested will be able to find out what happened, but it was my favourite story and I was really enjoying writing it, not to mention that i'd played half of the second season and there were loads of interesting things to write about. Can't believe it, really awful mood now.

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El, that's awful. I'm sorry to hear that. I back up both the Lions save and the Rat Pack save on my flash drive at least weekly along with all my writing. Believe me, $10 or $15 on a flash drive is a great investment compared to the heartache of losing a save. If I lost Rat Pack now (as I thought I had a couple of months ago), suicide would be the easy option.

Rat Pack is of course closing out 08-09 at present and I have story and character lines drawn out through the 2011-12 season for the continuation of that story. All RR has to do is figure out how to stay somewhere in England and it's all good :D ... so losing that save would be tragic for me.

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A few days ago, I discovered the, presumed lost, save file for "There's No Time Like The Present", complete with .pkm(s) :D It was from when I last backed up my saves, and also contains the "Never Cross and Austo-Hungarian" file (I'd worked largely from memory previously).

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Excuse my French, but i'm extremely ****ed off. I had got to roughly 23k worth of writing for my Vasco story and have just lost the save :( I didn't save it properly, saved as auto save, then started a new game this morning, holidayed and it automatically saved the new save as auto save, overwriting my Vasco save (I assumed it would save it auto save 2 or something). No backups, no rolling save enabled :(

Absolutely gutted! Luckily I had typed up to the end of season one, so anyone who is interested will be able to find out what happened, but it was my favourite story and I was really enjoying writing it, not to mention that i'd played half of the second season and there were loads of interesting things to write about. Can't believe it, really awful mood now.

I've done something similar myself once or twice. Its a harsh lesson to learn.

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Well lesson has been learned, rolling saves enabled and naming saves properly from now on :rolleyes: Considering continuing with the story, but starting a new game, playing the first season, which should hopefully end the same way, just have to try and make sure the same transfers in and out are made (obviously not to the same clubs or for same fees, but same players sold and purchased). See how it goes anyway.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Okay, looking for some help here from those expert in the SPL ...

Hibernian's Wikipedia page says the club is known informally as the Hibees, a term I have heard and read before. It also says that supporters are referred to as Hibbies (with the different spelling).

Question: how would one refer to a former Hibernian player using the above term, in this case, Kevin Thomson? Former Hibee, Former Hibbee, or something else? (JamboJen, take it easy, please .... oh, and I suppose Terk too!)

:D Please and thank you.

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Always 'former Hibee' as far as I know.

Not sure if you're aware, there is a difference in the pronunciation. Hibee is 'Hi-Bee' whereas Hibbie is 'Hib-ee'. No idea why, but then they're from Leith and they're a strange lot down that way.

By the way, the definition of a Hibee from the urban dictionary :D

Disillusioned follower of a gay edinburgh football club; a club who seem single-minded in their quest to convince the world that they provide (and have ALWAYS provided since day one) their brain-washed followers with a slick, silky-smooth brand of football that is a joy to behold.

Invariably when this doesn't happen, they erase this memory from their brain by injecting copious amounts of smack.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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