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AI Experiment - what would happen if?


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2063-64 report

Season report

The Bandits got off to an awful start, a for the first couple of months of the season relegation was a real possibility. But an excellent run of form saw them in midtable by Christmas, and in the late winter months a play off push was looking likely. But eventually the lack of depth in the squad cost them at a crucial time, and a poor end to the season saw them collapse to a disappointing 17th in a very close league.

To give you an idea - with a few games left they were 12th, and at the end of the season the top ten was only six points away. So 17th is a bit harsh, but in reality they were never close enough to the playoffs, and after their awful start was mitigated with a good run, relegation was also out of the question. A transitional season, for sure.

A couple of rounds of the League Cup were successfully negotiated against lower league opposition, before Chelsea ended the run 1-0 in the third round, while Leeds quickly put paid to any FA Cup hopes with a 3-1 win, the seal being added by former Bandit David Gould.

Best performers

Gary Young (27, 154/154) played superbly up front, averaging a whopping 7.51 and scoring nineteen goals. The striker was the standout performer of the season.

Sandor Baranyi (25, 144/144) belied his low CA to partner Young effectively, averaging 7.29 and scoring 15 goals.

Aidan Wright (30, 155/159) played the attacking midfielder role well, averaging 7.23 and managing 14 goals from midfield.

Tony McParland (34, 173/173) kept goal for the last time, after 12 years with the Bandits. He averaged 7.21 and will join Fiorentina in the summer.

Jamie Hunter (26, 145/155) averaged 7.12 on the right wing.

Andy Thompson (25, 158/169) averaged 7.11 in defensive midfield.

Joe Dobson (22, 164/179) managed 7.07 in his debut season in the centre of defence.

Seven players averaged over 7.00 this season, with striker Young really standing out well. Note that Dobson in the only member of the defensive quartet, which explains why they conceded a massive 81 goals, the worst defensive record in the division. Going forward the Bandits are fine (65 goals is decent), but they cannot keep clean sheets, and with their star keeper leaving, this is the area of the squad that desperately needs attention.

Squad summary

By the end of the season, the number of 160CA players had risen from one to four, thanks to improvements within the squad. The best player is still 34 year old keeper Tony McParland, but after twelve years of service to the Bandits he is leaving at the end of his contract to join Fiorentina. He remains at his 173 peak and is still performing wonderfully - his is quite a gap to fill.

Elsewhere, the exciting centre back Joe Dobson has risen from 159 CA to 164, and is still 22. His potential of 179 is very attainable, and he had a solid first season. Left winger Jason McGuire (23, 160/165) and defensive midfielder John Martin (25, 160/176) are the other top members of the squad by CA, but neither played well.

The summer's youth products are progressing nicely - centre back Lee Bignall has turned 17 and progressed his CA from 65 to 99, heading towards his potential of 155, while striker Paul Speight is still 16, but has risen from 56 to 83. His 167 PA is superb though, and he must be retained.

The squad size remains at seventeen 130+ players, and encouragingly, only two of them are in their 30s. After a season of ensuring the Bandits have a solid base, it is time to increase the size of the squad and push on. And as seen earlier, it is time to buy some defenders. Dobson is great, but he needs help.

Elsewhere

There was a major shock in the Premiership, as former dominant force Chelsea were relegated in 18th place, a dramatic fall from grace for the club who still have more money than any other in the world - £1.7bn dwarfing the Bandits, who are second with a mere £847m. Rated as the fifth best team in the Premiership, it is a huge surprise to see them fall, and the amount they underachieved is best demonstrated by their cup form - they lifted both the League Cup and FA Cup, beating Spurs 2-1 in both finals.

Crystal Palace and Derby went down with Chelsea, while Sheff Wed won the league by a distance. Boston United rose to 15th as they established themselves in the top flight, and their league history (as requested) is here:

Part 1 (most recent)

Part 2

Part 3

Onward!

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2064 - Summer

Czech Republic won the European Championships, beating Germany on penalties in the final - the Czechs had earlier knocked England out in the semis.

The Bandits sold three of their four 160+ CA players - McParland left on a free after twelve years great service, and McGuire and Martin moved on for a combined fee of over £10m. In addition, youth prospect Lee Bignall was sold, although the better of last summer's youth products, Paul Speight, remained. The exodus is always inevitable but it could've been worse.

Coming in were a few decent prospects. McParland was replaced by a 24 year old Spanish keeper, Ivan Marquez, who has a CA of 163 and a PA of 174, and looks like a real prospect. Great signing. Elsewhere, former Bandit central midfielder Richie Battams returned to the squad to not a lot of fanfare, along with a few other short term players.

In the long term, central defender Bruce Delaney was signed for just 200k from Crystal Palace, and the nineteen year old has real quality - a CA of 115 is unspectacular, but in the future that could rise to 176.

The defensive problems have hopefully been sorted - the new manager signed a couple of decent centre backs and full backs, all with CAs around the 150 mark. Not stars, but they are solid enough for this level.

Overall, the number of 160+ players remains the same as at the start of last season - 2 - and in Dobson (DC) and Marquez (GK) they will form the main barrier to the opposing strike forces. The number of usable (130+) players has risen from 17 to 18, but handily there are four more above 100, which wasn't the case last season.

Overall, the squad is similar in standard to last season's, so a promotion push would be ambitious, but they should be able to maintain a bit of stability and help their younger stars progress. It is a young squad, with Dobson, Marquez, Speight and Delaney all young players with huge potential (167 PA being the lowest).

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Kip - you gotta make sure your FM09 experiment is well publicized. I really liked this thread but can never find time to catch up on it from the start. Will be following your FM09 one with real interest and will be a frequent contributor to this fantastic experiment. Any updates on what the new experiment will feature? Also any chance of a DB upload?

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Kip - you gotta make sure your FM09 experiment is well publicized. I really liked this thread but can never find time to catch up on it from the start. Will be following your FM09 one with real interest and will be a frequent contributor to this fantastic experiment. Any updates on what the new experiment will feature? Also any chance of a DB upload?

I'm keeping some of the details close to my chest, but what I think I've already said is that it will feature two teams, the Bandits and the Sheriffs, will be played on full detail with plenty of leagues, and will involve tinkering with non-playing staff as well as the original players.

As for timescales, whenever the game is final patched, and Genie Scout is available, it can start.

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I prefer the old in-depth updates, but in mediocre seasons (of which we've had way too many recently) a quick review may be a better choice.

But I would like to see more about world-beaters even in quickfire format. Of course, if there are any changes there.

Noted - although we're in fast forward mode I'll pad out updates every 2/3 seasons. World beaters are always interesting, as would a full squad report. Any others?

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I prefer these quicker updates, not as keen on how mediocre the Bandits have become! But remember Man Utd, they were in the Championship for many seasons not too long ago and have now pushed back into the Champions League, so perhaps all is not lost. A few seasons of rebuilding and the Bandits may well be promoted and be pushing up towards the right end of the Prem. But the key factor, as has already been stated, is stability. Hopefully the 4 'starlets' currently at the club will be able to achieve great things and will stay for many years to come.

Great work as always Kip, I'm hoping the switch to FM09 takes as long as possible! ;P

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Noted - although we're in fast forward mode I'll pad out updates every 2/3 seasons. World beaters are always interesting, as would a full squad report. Any others?

Team reputation in comparison to the rest of the league gives us an idea of the level of players the Bandits should be able to attract.

The rest is fine and I quite like the fact that you accelerated the rate of the updates, so much that I just read two of them in a row, great work.

As for fast forward mode, I'd say keep the updates as short as the last one and make a long one every world cup year or until the Bandits get back to the EPL but every other season seems a bit too much if you want to keep the fast forward mode going.

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Long time follower - first time poster here! I know, your all thinking 'where have you been the last almost 2 yrs'...well I only found this thread after it got moved coz I never go on GD thread. Got to say Kip, u r a legend mate...kutvgw, was gutted to read of the bandits recent fall from the big time, but here's hoping they can bring in a talented new manager to guide them back to the giddy heights of the EPL and Eoropean footy.

Meanwhile Kip, FM09 itself is pretty bug-free. The only real problems (in terms of this experiment anyway) lie with the editor. 90% of the bugs you'll only notice if you're a manager, which you wont be.

I just wanted to say in addition that in the 9.01 patched version of FM there is a bug where some clubs that top their league get put into the wrong level of European competition the next season, or in some cases even the wrong competition entirely, as happened in my current save when as manager of celtic ended up in the Euefa cup qualifying rounds despite having won the SPL the previous season. I guess as it's nearly January now you were going to wait for second patch before starting 09 experiment Kip, but just wanted to make sure you got a heads up about this in case you decided to start early...we wouldn't want to see the Bandits short changed if they did make it back in to Europe eh! :thup:

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See. The moment it went out of GQ I just never notice the updates. Although the paucity of them in recent weeks has led to me checking far less often.

I know that you want Genie to keep track of all this stuff, but actually FMRTE is pretty close. The only difference is the ability to tell the quality or reputation of a squad at a glance. Otherwise it's the same. And I'm sure you can work around that issue.

Meanwhile back at the ranch ;

Shame to see us not bouncing back up. Perhaps we just have to accept that the Bandits aren't the force they were, and aren't likely to be so again. Ho hum.

Can't wait for 09. The managers are much better at filling their needs and recognising quality. Certainly better than they were in 07. Should be a blast.

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See. The moment it went out of GQ I just never notice the updates. Although the paucity of them in recent weeks has led to me checking far less often.

I know that you want Genie to keep track of all this stuff, but actually FMRTE is pretty close. The only difference is the ability to tell the quality or reputation of a squad at a glance. Otherwise it's the same. And I'm sure you can work around that issue.

Meanwhile back at the ranch ;

Shame to see us not bouncing back up. Perhaps we just have to accept that the Bandits aren't the force they were, and aren't likely to be so again. Ho hum.

Can't wait for 09. The managers are much better at filling their needs and recognising quality. Certainly better than they were in 07. Should be a blast.

VonBlade why don't you subscribe to the thread and have an instant email everytime someone posts? No need to miss any update then.

As for Genie, well the full version is free now and works with the 9.2.0 update as well.

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First off, Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to everyone from the Bandits :)

Right, over the next week or so I'll be running a quickfire decade which will in all likelihood end this experiment. I'll probably do some summing up posts on the state of the world and the results of the experiment after that.

The reason for this is that Game quite helpfully sold me FM09 for £17.99 yesterday, and it is installed, patched and ready to go. Had some fun with the graphics drivers as I'm running it on a Windows VM inside Ubuntu, which caused some technical issues I won't bore you with, but the upshot is that I can finally start a new game.

Thanks for the pointers towards Genie Scout - I've got that ready to go as well, so all that remains is to wrap up this experiment, and create the FM09 database.

The new experiment will likely start in a week or so, which means this is the last chance for anyone to request any more features. I can't promise they'll go in if they don't match the theme of the new game world I'm creating, but there's no harm in putting some ideas forward!

Fire away :)

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Yay, your back! Look forward to a quickfire decade to see if the Bandits manage to achieve anything (which I now doubt - they'll be lucky to make it back into the Premiership) - In fact, I wouldn't mind holidaying the Bandits over a few (real world) days to see if they can ever manage to achieve anything.

As for the 09 experiment, I forgot what features you previously mentioned, but obviously more leagues and full detail are the key things.

Can't wait for this experiment to wrap up and the 09 experiment to begin!

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Can't wait for the big clash vs Sheriffs. Kinda sad though. I, with my all heart, hope that we can win something in that 10 year or I'll look for that crappy board and tear them down to pieces for killing the potential of a super club :)

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To start you off, here are the features I can confirm:

The Bandits

1. Fisher Athletic of the Conference South will again we replaced by the Bandits, who will be relocated to the south coast. [as FM07]

2. The Bandits will be given a huge stadium, a massive and loyal fanbase, a top notch youth academy and a healthy bank balance (with a sugar daddy). In essence, they will be financially secure. [as FM07]

3. 22 perfect players will be created, two for every standard position of 4-4-2, all aged 17 and contracted to the Bandits. They will have a PA of 200, maximum possible CA for that age, and perfect physical and mental attributes. They will love the Bandits and have no PPMs. [as FM07]

The Sheriffs

New for this version, the Bandits have fierce rivals in the Sheriffs.

1. Bognor Regis of the Conference South will be replaced by the Sheriffs, and relocated to the South Coast.

2. The Sheriffs will be given an identical stadium, fanbase, youth academy and bank balance to the Bandits, although their entire support will be hardcore.

3. The two clubs will hate each other. Every Bandit will also dislike the Sheriffs.

4. Four idiots will be created this time, rather than the two from FM07. One goalkeeper, one defender, one midfielder and one striker will all be contracted to the Sheriffs. Each player can play centrally or wide, and will have the same abilities as the superstar rivals. But their teamwork and workrate attributes will be 1, and their mentality will be the worst possible. In addition, they will have every negative PPM and hate the twenty clubs with the highest world reputation. They will also hate the Bandits.

More on the players

1. Every created player (superstar and idiot) will have a second nationality. These will be 26 different nationalities, and will range from tiny nation to the biggest, to see if anyone chooses an alternative nation. (Thanks to Meitheisman for the idea)

2. All idiots will hate Fabio Capello. Because they're idiots, y'know?

3. One difference from FM09 will be to raise the ambition of the superstars from 1 to 15. Ambition is a good thing really. (thanks to VonBlade for this one)

Boards

1. The Bandits will have a fantastic board, with a chairman not getting involved in the day to day business of the manager, but having all the positive mental stats a manager needs, with a couple of exceptions - he will have mid range patience as we don't want him accepting a hopeless manager for a decade (here's looking at you Yates), and high ambition.

2. The Sheriffs will have a talented but impatient board, with their senior members desperate to control every aspect of what goes on. The manager of the club can expect to have little say in transfers.

3. Every board member in both clubs will be exceptionally young, but equally exceptionally talented, and loyal to their club.

Other staff

1. There will be one perfect coach at the Bandits and one perfect but idiotic coach at the Sheriffs. Both will be tracked to see where they end up, and both will want to become managers in their own right.

Game World

1. Every useful league in the world will be run in its entirety, even though this will probably cripple my machine. The countries include England, Scotland, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Holland, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, USA, Sweden, Czech and more. Essentially, any major league, or any country with three or more levels, or country that a player has as their second nationality, will be run.

2. Every country will be run down to the bottom level of its league ladder.

3. Every single match in every league in the game will be played on full detail. This includes leagues, cups, continental competitions, and internationals, including qualifiers. I expect this to have an enormous impact on the game results.

That's all I'm confirming :)

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Guest roberto922

I think for the longevity of the experiment you should take the number of leagues down unless you have a fantastic computer, otherwise I can't wait

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Can you really expect this experiment to run smoothly with that level of demand on your machine? Surely there are some leagues there that are superfluous (Sweden, Czech, Belgium...etc)? Just worried that if you do it this way, 1) each update will take ages to run on the machine and 2) the computer wont be able to cope with the db after a few seasons.

Just a thought. Agree that full detail would be interesting, but if I were you I'd just do England, Scotland, Italy, Spain and possibly France/Holland...

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Just a thought - on the games I have played, Capello always loses the England job after 2010. None of the idiots will be playing for England before then, so it won't make that much difference whether they hate him or not.

Best of luck for the experiment, and from what you have posted so far it looks great...

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I am eagerly awaiting the start of the new experiment (and of course the closure of the old), but the number of leagues listed there makes me think this will probably be going on in real-time... :)

Also: my little test with San Marino showed that FM08 had no problem with 17-year-olds having CA of 200, and that probably wouldn't be a good thing with the Bandits... I suggest toning it down a bit after all, if FM09 does that too.

And finally, my patriotic side requires me to ask that Croatia is chosen as one of the full-detail nations. :)

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I think if you try to run that many leagues the experiment will be over before it begins. Trust me from experience, I have a top-end machine and you're talking 24 hours to run a season even on holiday with no checking in. To achieve the level of detail your 07 experiment had, it could take you weeks to play a season. I think you could run top divisions of the major European leagues (say Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Holland and Portugal) all divisions in England (obviously a requirement) and maybe one or two "other" leagues (say USA and Brazil, top levels again only) and achieve the same results you're looking for without grinding your computer to a halt.

Also, make sure you get the editor patch. Otherwise Japanese players end up with Chinese names amongst other issues.

Can't wait to see the end of this experiment and the start of the new one. Truly the most entertaining thread ever on these forums.

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A great week for the SI boards. An 09 version of the Sheff Utd tactical project by Cleon and now news that Bandits 09 are on the horizon!

Very much looking forward to the Bandits reboot and I am sure it will consume just as much, if not more, of my time following along with the many others on this board

KUTGW Kip!

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Okay, it looks like the number of leagues I was planning to run is too many. I'll post a list when I create the game, but perhaps it'll be the top ten nations.

And by 'top' nation, I mean countries with top ranking clubs or excellent depth to their league structure (e.g. Sweden).

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I am eagerly awaiting the start of the new experiment (and of course the closure of the old), but the number of leagues listed there makes me think this will probably be going on in real-time... :)

Also: my little test with San Marino showed that FM08 had no problem with 17-year-olds having CA of 200, and that probably wouldn't be a good thing with the Bandits... I suggest toning it down a bit after all, if FM09 does that too.

And finally, my patriotic side requires me to ask that Croatia is chosen as one of the full-detail nations. :)

Good thinking - perhaps I'll set their CA to 150 to begin with, which will give them plenty of time to peak while allowing us to see which positions rise the quickest.

And I can imagine Croatia being a selected league :)

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Good thinking - perhaps I'll set their CA to 150 to begin with, which will give them plenty of time to peak while allowing us to see which positions rise the quickest.

And I can imagine Croatia being a selected league :)

Hey Kip,

Looking forward to a glorious end for the 07 Bandits.

With regards 09 Bandits, I ran experiment on 08 (inspired by yours) where players had a PA of 200, but started with a CA of 60. This meant the players developed as the club did and hung around a bit longer.

After 5 years, 6 of the players were still at the club and the club were in League 1.

After ten years they had all left, but 18 of the 20 players had reached 190 plus CA.

So maybe a 60-70 starting CA may see the players stay for longer and the club rise up the leagues a bit quicker, as that is what happened with my effort.

But, however you decide to do it. I'll be a big fan, KUTGW.

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2064-65 report

Season report

Not the most interesting season in the Bandits history, they once again managed a mid table finish, ending the season 14th, ten points above the relegation zone and nine points behind the playoffs. Nonetheless, it was a stabilising year for the club, with the new manager keeping most the team together.

They managed some short cup runs, getting to the third round of the League Cup and the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Squad

The club's best player is still centre bak Joe Dobson (23, 167/179), but they do have some real prospects on the books. We already knew about striker Paul Speight (17, 113/167) and centre back Bruce Delaney (19, 127/176) but a new starlet was signed this season, and he is the real business.

Ryan Hayes is the most exciting talent the Bandits have had for years - the striker is 19, with a CA already at 155 (which makes him the third best player at the club) and a PA of, wait for it, 187.

Of course the chances of a Championship club keeping him are slim, but he was only signed in January so you never know. He scored seven times in fifteen games, and is going to be a superstar.

Elsewhere

Sheff Wed are now truly dominant, after winning the Premiership, League Cup and Champions League this season. Chelsea bounced straight back from the Championship, getting promoted in mid March, winning the league by the end of March and finishing the season on 102 points.

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Fantastic to see the new one is about to begin. I agree with those who say you're running too many leagues.

England (to BNN/S), Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Germany, France, Belgium (for WPs), Brazil (for the regens), Scotland (to give players who move into management somewhere to go).

I think those ten should cover the major places players are likely to want to go, the major clubs that are likely to be involved in the CL, the nations that are likely to win competitions whilst including a variety of nations for regens and a live league for those work permits.

Don't forget, in case you had, to make the cities that the two clubs are in attractive too. Nobody would want to go to <insert rundown backwater town of your choice>, even if they were the biggest club in the world.

Finally, I'd be inclined (although it's nowt to do with me) to make the chairman quite impatient, brutally ambitious, and maybe a little transfer dabbler. I'm fearful we'll end up with the 07 problem of rubbish managers staying forever whilst buying almost nobody of any use. A chairman who might buy the odd player wont be a problem with the funds the Bandits will have, although I accept that it might lead to all the players going in the first two weeks with accepted offers. Balance eh :)

Back to the 07 experiment.

Such a shame that we're still mired in mid-table, lower league obscurity. Ryan Hayes looked like he could be the new ... guy who's name escapes me. Gah. The uber-starlet we had once who burned bright then faded away. Also began with an R. Curse my memory.

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Guest roberto922
Nobody would want to go to <insert rundown backwater town of your choice>

Merseyside prior to City of Culture year? :D

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Fantastic to see the new one is about to begin. I agree with those who say you're running too many leagues.

Such a shame that we're still mired in mid-table, lower league obscurity. Ryan Hayes looked like he could be the new ... guy who's name escapes me. Gah. The uber-starlet we had once who burned bright then faded away. Also began with an R. Curse my memory.

Rubio? Ryan Morley? Rudolph the red nosed reindeer?

:)

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England (to BNN/S), Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Germany, France, Belgium (for WPs), Brazil (for the regens), Scotland (to give players who move into management somewhere to go).

Don't forget, in case you had, to make the cities that the two clubs are in attractive too. Nobody would want to go to <insert rundown backwater town of your choice>, even if they were the biggest club in the world.

I agree with VB on the nations, though you could swap out Belgium for Poland (same 3yr period).

If you leave the city/town rating "attractiveness" @ 0 for these these 2 places I'm fairly sure it can have a negative impact on youth regens created at the clubs, maybe use a minimum rating of 5 (Attractiveness 0 is for places like Grimsby or Macclesfield ......... would YOU want to move to either ??)

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