FMS Community Thread

[HD]

If you take Amaroq's advice be prepared to pay for the copyright infringements.

[Panpardus]

If Amaroq is giving this information its obviously something he has done himself, I hereby put it up to the elders of the forum to strip him of the awards he has 'won' just like those drug cheating American Athletes.

The Shame!

Yes I am joking

[sherm]

Just checking again, making sure I've got it right

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

| Pkd | Inf | Name | Position | Morale | Form | Con | Apps | Gls | Av Rat |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | Inj | Andreas Isaksson | GK | Okay | - | 59% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Kasper Schmeichel | GK | Superb | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Vedran Corluka | D RC | Very Good | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Nedum Onuoha | D RC | Okay | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Sun Jihai | D RC, WB R, DM, M RC | Okay | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Micah Richards | D RC, DM | Very Good | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Richard Dunne | D C | Superb | - | 88% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Michael Ball | D/WB L | Poor | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Javier Garrido | D/WB L | Superb | - | 88% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Shaleum Logan | D/AM RL | Good | - | 88% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Gelson Fernandes | DM | Good | - | 87% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Dietmar Hamann | DM | Very Good | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Michael Johnson | M C | Poor | - | 88% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Elano | AM RC, F C | Good | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Geovanni | AM RC, F C | Superb | - | 88% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Martin Petrov | AM L, ST | Very Good | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Darius Vassell | AM L, ST | Very Good | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Stephen Ireland | AM C | Okay | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Rolando Bianchi | ST | Okay | - | 88% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Emile Mpenza | ST | Okay | - | 88% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Giorgos Samaras | ST | Good | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| - | | Daniel Sturridge | ST | Okay | - | 89% | - | - | - |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

[sherm]

Looks good to me

Definately give that a try me thinks

[Amaroq]

Originally posted by HD:

If you take Amaroq's advice be prepared to pay for the copyright infringements.

Bah, I'm not advocating plagiarism there. Or I didn't intend to, at least.

I'm advocating paying attention to the mechanics - bold tags, post format, etc - that work for you in your favourite stories, and trying to incorporate good mechanics around a story entirely of your own (well, you + FM's) making.

If I were going to add anything to that post, I'd change the last sentence to

"Cherry-pick one thing that you like about each of the award-winners .. and decide how you're going to do that better."

[aaberdeenn]

If adopting a play now, then write later approach, would you play windowed mode and take notes in notepad or something?

[Wegason]

Notepad, wordpad, word, whatever works for you and you are comfortable with.

[Amaroq]

That's exactly what I do, yes.

My habit tends to work something like this:

Open up "Write.exe" (wordpad) to the latest installment of my story-file; fire up FM and load to the latest save-game.

During the week, take notes on events and emotions - it might look something like:

Hayden Foxe satisfied with role

Nicky Thomson strained calf, out for 6 months

Mathieu Berson loan ends.

Very nervous about rematch with WBA

Or something like that. If I feel up to writing, I might write the installment for it .. but if not, I'll get to the match.

Match-day, I'd note the opposition's danger-man and recent results... then as the match goes, I'll note my tactical adjustments and any key items that caused it:

14 Weatherson shoots wide

19 Foxe tackle in box - penalty? No!

20-25 intense pressure by opposition

26 Morgan yc - the goal sure to come any moment

28 switch to 5-4-1 for more defense.

When I feel inspired to "write", I'll come back to that, and change it into prose that the rest of you might want to read - and I'll use the "Match Report" feature and the ability to watch replays to bulk out the detail .. and a knowledge of how the match is going to wind up to know what things to cut out. For example, if the yellow card doesn't turn out to matter, it might not "make the cut".

What I've found, with that, is that if I play too far ahead, I lose the motivation to write about it .. but if I don't let myself play without writing, I lose the motivation to play.

So its a balancing act, definitely.

..

If you wind up with an epic tale, file organization becomes very important. I've wound up with one file per month, and a naming convention YY-MM-Team, so for example 06-05-York.txt; that way "sort by alphabetical" gives me "in date order".

One neat thing about having gotten way ahead is that I can come back and layer-in foreshadowing - for example, if you re-read the story knowing where it goes, you'll spot references to Book II characters making cameo appearances back in the Book I portions of the tale.

[Wegason]

Derek Dooley being one of the more prominent examples in Armaroq's ripping good tale.

[BobBev]

Personally I use Word as my writing tool of choice. I apply my formatting there and have a neat macro that converts that to markup tags. It can deal with bold and italics and anything in Courier New font is put inside CODE tags. If anyone else would like to use it then here it is.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

Sub FMS_Markup()

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Font.Bold = True

Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Replacement.Font.Bold = False

With Selection.Find

.Text = ""

.Replacement.Text = "^&"

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Format = True

.MatchCase = False

.MatchWholeWord = False

.MatchWildcards = False

.MatchSoundsLike = False

.MatchAllWordForms = False

End With

Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Font.Italic = True

Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Replacement.Font.Italic = False

With Selection.Find

.Text = ""

.Replacement.Text = "^&"

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Format = True

.MatchCase = False

.MatchWholeWord = False

.MatchWildcards = False

.MatchSoundsLike = False

.MatchAllWordForms = False

End With

Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Font.Name = "Courier New"

With Selection.Find

.Text = ""

.Replacement.Text = "

^&</pre>"
       .Forward = True
       .Wrap = wdFindContinue
       .Format = True
       .MatchCase = False
       .MatchWholeWord = False
       .MatchWildcards = False
       .MatchSoundsLike = False
       .MatchAllWordForms = False
   End With
   Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

End Sub

[BobBev]

Oops - let's try that again

Sub FMS_Markup()

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Font.Bold = True

Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Replacement.Font.Bold = False

With Selection.Find

.Text = ""

.Replacement.Text = "^&"

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Format = True

.MatchCase = False

.MatchWholeWord = False

.MatchWildcards = False

.MatchSoundsLike = False

.MatchAllWordForms = False

End With

Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Font.Italic = True

Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Replacement.Font.Italic = False

With Selection.Find

.Text = ""

.Replacement.Text = "^&"

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Format = True

.MatchCase = False

.MatchWholeWord = False

.MatchWildcards = False

.MatchSoundsLike = False

.MatchAllWordForms = False

End With

Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Font.Name = "Courier New"

With Selection.Find

.Text = ""

.Replacement.Text = "<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">^&</pre>"

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Format = True

.MatchCase = False

.MatchWholeWord = False

.MatchWildcards = False

.MatchSoundsLike = False

.MatchAllWordForms = False

End With

Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

End Sub

[BobBev]

Feck - forgot that I have bold and italic tags inside the macro. One final attempt - if you want to use it then replace the curly brackets with square ones.

Sub FMS_Markup()

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Font.Bold = True

Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Replacement.Font.Bold = False

With Selection.Find

.Text = ""

.Replacement.Text = "{b}^&{/b}"

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Format = True

.MatchCase = False

.MatchWholeWord = False

.MatchWildcards = False

.MatchSoundsLike = False

.MatchAllWordForms = False

End With

Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Font.Italic = True

Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Replacement.Font.Italic = False

With Selection.Find

.Text = ""

.Replacement.Text = "{i}^&{/i}"

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Format = True

.MatchCase = False

.MatchWholeWord = False

.MatchWildcards = False

.MatchSoundsLike = False

.MatchAllWordForms = False

End With

Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Font.Name = "Courier New"

With Selection.Find

.Text = ""

.Replacement.Text = "{code}^&{/code}"

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Format = True

.MatchCase = False

.MatchWholeWord = False

.MatchWildcards = False

.MatchSoundsLike = False

.MatchAllWordForms = False

End With

Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

End Sub

[Amaroq]

That's very cool, BobBev. I'd been doing it by-hand, and does make posting a write-up time consuming.

[Terk]

Bob's macro is absolutely wonderful. I've been using it for quite a while now, and it makes things so much easier.

[Boskovic]

i love a good story. love reading your stories and have even tryed having a go at a few myself, truth be told i usually get side tracked when writing my own stories.

Anyway keep up the good work and im sure ill have another go at writing one very soon. i have an intresting story gathering from a game attempting the round the world challenge

[WLKRAS]

Bob's macro is fantastic

[glamdring]

Originally posted by aaberdeenn:

If adopting a play now, then write later approach, would you play windowed mode and take notes in notepad or something?

Amaroq's disciplined approach is the most sensible probably, but it depends how much detail you want to include, especially about things actually reported in the game.

I generally ignore individual news items about players, of the like that Amaroq mentioned, but it depends on my type of story. My recent ones have been more "broad brush" so someone being unhappy at some point of the season is of no interest to me.

I use the FM game as a skeleton for my story, but since it is fiction I will sometimes make things up about players or anything else that doesn't occur in-game and miss out many things that do appear in game. The only aspect I stick to, obviously, in my stories are the hard facts of results, where we finish in the league, players we signed (although again often I don't bother mentioning all the players we sign). It goes without saying that if I were to start inventing results and players people would have no interest in reading those stories at all.

So basically, I generally just right off the top of my head when writing a long time after the event (e.g. my current main story covering the past 10 seasons of play), adding in some made up things for interest, but keeping key facts correct from the game.

[Peacemaker7]

Amaroq's disciplined approach is the most sensible probably

Yeah for him.

Its pointless asking what style should I use, everyone is different you have to find that our for yourself there is NO right answer here.

[Amaroq]

Yeah, I'd echo PM7's thought there - I'm not saying "everybody should be doing this", just describing my methodology. The "right" methodology has to be "whatever works for you."

[aaberdeenn]

Thanks, for all that help guys.

Made a lot of difference in my thoughts, now to the story...

[Peacemaker7]

People who spend ages and ages analyzing everything tend to make crap writers.

[Amaroq]

[Amaroq]

Well, PM, I had a brush of my own with the grim reaper today. No axe-wielding maniac, no: this was the deranged or inebriated guy who decided to get on the freeway going the wrong way.

Literally - as we're coming down the off-ramp nearest to our house, decelerating from 65mph on a downhill, he's accelerating up it, headlights in our eyes.. and ignored my wife flicking her high beams at him and laying on the horn.

She swerved around him, going about 20mph to his 20mph the other way .. and he continued up onto the freeway accelerating all the while.

!!!!

Darwinism at its finest .. but I feel for everybody who was coming the other way.

Oh, and Emergency Response? Took 10 minutes to answer their phone, ffs.

[glamdring]

I'm in no hurry to learn to drive I have to say. The idea of hurling myself along at 70 mph in a tin and trusting to the common sense of thousands of people I've never met also hurling their tin cans along at 70 mph has never really appealed to me! I''m sure people concentrate more when driving than they do wheeling a trolly around the supermarket, but that doesn't inspire me with confidence. The number of people who just wander out into the middle of an aisle with their shopping trolley without looking is staggering...I have visions of all these lunatices out on the road in charge of a car and decide I'll stay well clear!

I should probably have more trust and faith in my fellow humans, but I like to keep control of my own fate as much as is possible so a healthy distrust of the skills of everyone I don't know works well for me. I assume everyone in the street is ignorant, impolite and liable to walk straight into me if I don't dodge out of their way and assume drivers are just as likely to jump red lights as not

[Wegason]

Being able to drive and having a car changes your life, for the better, my life is so much improved because I am able to drive.

[BenArsenal]

I second that. If you're very good at driving you don't have to care about other people. Something I suppose you should pick up is 'collision avoidance'. It's a skill that not everybody has, but can be easily learnt.

If someone insists of smashing into you however, there's always litigation...

[glamdring]

I'm a big fan of public transport (well, the theory of it...less so the practice in this country often!) so I've never had need of a car, plus it saves me money.

As for avoiding collisions, obviously your own skills play a big part in that, but there's a limit to what you can do about other drivers careering into you or whatever however good you are. Litigation is all very well if you juet get a small prang and damage to your car, but not much consolation if you are in a serious accident. Being a passenger in a car is worse though - then you aren't even in control of the little death box you are travelling in, nevermind anyone else's

[BenArsenal]

Driving is very much about confidence. If you're skillful and aware enough you can 'sense' when a collision is going to happen and avoid it, even if you did nothing wrong.

But of course, accidents do happen. But that can apply to any other situation as well. You could trip while walking and break a bone (touch wood), so there's not much one can do sometimes.

[glamdring]

I'm sure I'll learn to drive one day and do so quite happily if I can afford it and feel it would be worthwhile. Obviously you have a much better appreciation of how much you can control yourself even when other drivers are involved so I'll take your word for that! My dad has never crashed though in over 40 years of driving so I'm sure he'd agree wholeheartedly with you. We did have a stray surfboard fly off the top of a car heading the other way though which did a bit of damage once

As for walking, I do lots of that, although less so recently in mountains, but I've managed to avoid any injuries so far and hopefully that will continue. If I do get an injury though it'll presumably be 100% my fault unless someone pushes me off a cliff!

[Peacemaker7]

Header looking good Simon - fricking lazy Raptor - mibbe a point bigger and bold the bit that says:

Before posting, we ask everyone, and new visitors in particular, to read FMS’ Information File first.

Still probably won't stop the real morons but at least then they have less excuse.

[Terk]

The next font size up is ****ing huge, and as it was, everything was in bold. Trying it with just the bit you suggested in bold.

[Panpardus]

Yeah the new header does look better, more clear and concise!

[Amaroq]

From another thread:

Originally posted by AnalogBoy:

fantastico! I have the itch to do a little story on my current game but I think the boys on the LLM fora would have a bit of an issue with me posting all the details of it and that... I might storify my other non-LLM network game though.

Hey AnalogBoy, I don't think there's anything that should prevent you from storifying an LLM game. "Blade" started as an LLM tale, but I decided I wanted to post player names and at least general formation & tactic descriptions, so I gave it a home here as opposed to there.

However, the hardcore LLM'ers won't visit this forum .. so you shouldn't be 'spoiling' anything for them by using a tale that you're also writing up for the LLM forum as the basis for a story here.

Up to you, of course - just my opinion, but if I had that itch, I'd write the story I wanted to write.

[Amaroq]

p.s., the joker who got up on the freeway going the wrong direction seems to have escaped both harm and arrest, having gotten himself turned around and back off the freeway without injuring anyone .. and before the Highway Patrol could respond, due in part to the length of time it took Emergency Response to answer their phone.

The whole incident had me thinking though .. should we have ]intentionally crashed into him? At the relative speeds - 20mph to stopped shouldn't have induced fatality for either car; we're equipped with airbags and were both wearing seatbelts. Hopefully he is, too - and isn't that better (for the whole, not for us individually) than letting him get onto the freeway doing 70mph into the face of folks travelling 70mph, which is a recipe for immediate fatalities?

As it turns out - since he saved the situation later, it wouldn't have been necessary..

.. but before we know the outcome?

...

Thoughts?

[Wegason]

There are arguments for and against it.

For

He gets arrested

He doesn't potentially kill people on the freeway.

Against

Your car is damaged and your without it for a bit

You might get blamed (it happens, unbelievably)

You never know what might happen in the crash, whether it causes your car to lose control.

[avstwentyone]

Originally posted by Amaroq:

From another thread:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by AnalogBoy:

fantastico! I have the itch to do a little story on my current game but I think the boys on the LLM fora would have a bit of an issue with me posting all the details of it and that... I might storify my other non-LLM network game though.

Hey AnalogBoy, I don't think there's anything that should prevent you from storifying an LLM game. "Blade" started as an LLM tale, but I decided I wanted to post player names and at least general formation & tactic descriptions, so I gave it a home here as opposed to there.

However, the hardcore LLM'ers won't visit this forum .. so you shouldn't be 'spoiling' anything for them by using a tale that you're also writing up for the LLM forum as the basis for a story here.

Up to you, of course - just my opinion, but if I had that itch, I'd write the story I wanted to write. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Us hardcore LLaMa's do visit here (some of us at least - though I've only been a LLaMa for a couple of years but always play FM to LLM rules) and, Analogboy, your concern was brought up in LLM a couple of weeks ago (I voiced a similar question) and the general concensus was that it is fine. One of the mods even said he saw no problem with it.

[BobBev]

That's scary Roqy - glad you avoided a bump. Not a good idea to try to stop him by crashing into him in my opinion. If he is crazy/drunk/deranged enough to pull a stunt like that then it's not a big leap to assume that a current motor insurance policy might not be top of his list!

[Terk]

So what's with PM7 going round being nice in so many stories? It's kinda scary.

[Peacemaker7]

I'm always nice

[Amaroq]

Originally posted by BobBev:

That's scary Roqy - glad you avoided a bump. Not a good idea to try to stop him by crashing into him in my opinion. If he is crazy/drunk/deranged enough to pull a stunt like that then it's not a big leap to assume that a current motor insurance policy might not be top of his list!

That's the most practical argument against that I've heard.

Plus there's the possibility that he's drunk, crazy, and armed .. probably best to leave it to the professionals.

[Panpardus]

PM7 must be going for some awards this year, starting early on the FMS award.

But we know he will just put a few half written stories up until the awards come along and then you will see a finished one appear around that time personally Terk I think you got a bum wrap with the tag of not finishing stories!

[Panpardus]

On another note I'm no longer in the boating industry and coming into summer god it feels great

Looks like i've got another job though working nightfill, which is going to be interesting, bit of a culture shock and the money isn't as good but its less hours and a fair bit easier, and I dont have to fibreglass in the summer and I get to spend more time with the kids (not necessarily a good thing!)

[Spav]

Originally posted by Terk:

So what's with PM7 going round being nice in so many stories? It's kinda scary.

Someone must have hijacked his userid.

[Amaroq]

Whatever was going on, it got really scary at the end there. Whatever PM was drinking, I've got to get me some.

[Peacemaker7]

Originally posted by Panpardus:

PM7 must be going for some awards this year, starting early on the FMS award.

But we know he will just put a few half written stories up until the awards come along and then you will see a finished one appear around that time personally Terk I think you got a bum wrap with the tag of not finishing stories!

My main story will be finished, I just haven't been in the mood recently.

[Peacemaker7]

Originally posted by Amaroq:

Whatever was going on, it got really scary at the end there. Whatever PM was drinking, I've got to get me some.

Who says its ended

[Panpardus]

The Scots were unlucky to lose, great second half though from them and Hutton played real well for you guys, pity McFadden missed that sitter with 10 to go.

[irishregan]

Too bad for the Scots, can't see Northern Ireland pulling off a miracle in Spain on Wednesday either, plus they have to beat the Danes first.

I know our resident Scots lads are going to be touchy at the minute but let's hope England make it, it's so dull when there's none of the Home Nations are there. I don't care who it is, having something to cheer (or boo!) for makes it more interesting.

[Raptor]

Sickening defeat for Scotland...

Still closer to qualifying than anyone expected though. Respect.

[aaberdeenn]

I'd rather see a tournament with no home nations than another with just the English and the English media.

Out of all the Home Nations they deserve it least for the resources they have. Scotland probably deserve to be there more than any other nation in Europe, Northern Ireland right up there too.

Israel 1-1 Russia... 'mon Russia. Get that winner.

My opinions.