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Motivation and Morale Guide (including Team Talk Optimizer)


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Motivation and Morale Guide by DocSander (including Team Talk Optimizer)

After spending the past six weeks on researching, testing, writing and editing this version of my Motivation and Morale Guide, I think now's the time to release it...

This work aims to provide a detailed insight into the role of motivation and morale in FM2010. After explaining the difference and interaction between these concept, a detailed advice on the use of team and individual talks is provided. Finally, this advice has been structured in an excel-based little program that I've named 'Team Talk Optimizer' in order to optimize the result of your team and individual talks, given all circumstances involved.

As the first few words of this document state, it's contents are mainly derived from the knowledge on our little forum out here. This would be the place to thank all of you who have contributed, and continue to do so... Specific advice and input for writing this guide has been provided by SFraser, who I'd like to thank in particular.

As a final remark, all contents of this Motivation and Morale Guide are permanently open for debate, as this would only help our knowledge progress...

The Motivation and Morale Guide is available for download in .pdf format in order to provide the most convenient reading and printing format.

The Team Talk Optimizer is available both in Excel 2007 and in Excel 2003 formats.

EDIT: a Walkthrough Guide has been added for convenient use of the TTO.

Looking forward to your reactions on this one!

Regards,

DocSander

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This looks like a fantastic contribution and I look forward to having the time to give it a thorough read.

I'm a fan of Excel tools to complement FM gameplay also so you get a big :thup: for that too!

Would it be possible for you to post up some instructions for using the Excel tool as it's not immediately obvious to a new user. For example, the 'Match Quote', is this obtained from the pre-match odds, and if so, how?

Also, what is the 'Pressure Advice' column telling me?

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This looks like a fantastic contribution and I look forward to having the time to give it a thorough read.

I'm a fan of Excel tools to complement FM gameplay also so you get a big :thup: for that too!

Would it be possible for you to post up some instructions for using the Excel tool as it's not immediately obvious to a new user. For example, the 'Match Quote', is this obtained from the pre-match odds, and if so, how?

Also, what is the 'Pressure Advice' column telling me?

Sorry but im also struggling

what do you put in selected column and pressure column.

Thanks

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This is a definite useful tool for people of all FM abilities. Good Work

However to echo ProZone. I think a little help guide on using the Team Talk Optimizer might help as I just about managed to feel my way through using this but it is still not fully obvious.

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Looks good, but there seem to be one thing missing on the Excel sheet. The dropdown menu for Determination is missing, so we cannot see what the different options are. If I just type something random, you get a message that it aint a valid value

Is there supposed to be a menu, or is this just a 'write your own' box? If so, please specify what values are valid :)

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Looks good, but there seem to be one thing missing on the Excel sheet. The dropdown menu for Determination is missing, so we cannot see what the different options are. If I just type something random, you get a message that it aint a valid value

Is there supposed to be a menu, or is this just a 'write your own' box? If so, please specify what values are valid :)

If my understanding of this is right the Determination value is the one in the players attributes ie. 1-20

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Sorry but im also struggling

what do you put in selected column and pressure column.

Thanks

For convenient use of the TTO a Walkthrough has been added, explaining the correct way to use this tool.

If my understanding of this is right the Determination value is the one in the players attributes ie. 1-20

Correct. I've included this in the Walkthrough. Just enter the correct value from 1 to 20.

I've had a little look 'under the hood' of this tool and man do you have some Excel skills! :eek:

Am I correct in my understanding that the tool is just for the pre-match talks?

Thanks for the compliment. Excel is a always nice domain for the autodidact brain.

And yes, you are completely correct, the TTO in it's current state provides an advice on the pre-match talk only. For half-time and full-time talks many more variables come into play, which would still mean it's possible to create some sort of TTO for it, just more complicated, both to create and to use.

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Thanks for the compliment. Excel is a always nice domain for the autodidact brain.

And yes, you are completely correct, the TTO in it's current state provides an advice on the pre-match talk only. For half-time and full-time talks many more variables come into play, which would still mean it's possible to create some sort of TTO for it, just more complicated, both to create and to use.

Well, I have to say I'm very impressed overall. I've actually learnt a lot and have realised that the programming for my own Squad Analysis Tool could be made much more simple.

Anyway, one comment for you to think about if you're planning on developing this further in the future is that it would be nice for the tool to take account of any PR (Player Reaction) events prior to a game and, in particular, the occurence in the Assistant Manager's pre-match feedback of 'Player X is looking complacent' as this for me is an automatic 'Expect a performance' talk selection for that player.

Something that I couldn't quite see is whether the Team team-talk is generated by the first player in the list that is marked with an X or whether it is the one which is suitable for the majority of selected players? If it is the latter then that's great.

Finally, if you are able to continue to access the support of SFraser then I will gladly offer some of my time to assist you in developing this for HT, ET and FT talks. Feel free to PM me in this case.

Once again a fantastic contribution with massive potential to become even better :thup:

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Anyway, one comment for you to think about if you're planning on developing this further in the future is that it would be nice for the tool to take account of any PR (Player Reaction) events prior to a game and, in particular, the occurence in the Assistant Manager's pre-match feedback of 'Player X is looking complacent' as this for me is an automatic 'Expect a performance' talk selection for that player.

I'll note this one on my list of things to incorporate into a v2.0, thanx...

Something that I couldn't quite see is whether the Team team-talk is generated by the first player in the list that is marked with an X or whether it is the one which is suitable for the majority of selected players? If it is the latter then that's great.

The team talk is the talk that suits the desired pressure level for the majority of the players. The only exception is on 'Tell the players to do this for the supporters'. This is due to the fact that this team talk does not have an individual equivalent. The only option to add pressure using an individual talk would be to 'Tell X that you expect a performance from him'. As this seems to be more than adding a little pressure, this comment is reserved for the occasions where you'd want to add more pressure, comparable to the team talk 'Tell the players you expect them to win the match'.

So, if three of more of your players would ideally be addressed by adding a little pressure (i.e. telling them to do this for the supporters) then this would be the preferred team talk. Meaning that all other players will be addressed by individual talks.

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Very interesting indeed.

I am looking at this now and just waiting for my next game to roll around.

Can I ask a question.

For those that are familar with Scoutgenie, much of the information that this chart requires can be extracted within 60 seconds into another XL chart and then copied across.

You can get the player name, Detmination stat and pressure stat. Assuming that your interpretation of the pressure stat is the same as the ACTUAL pressure stat from the game, is this perhaps an easier way to do things?

Also, if have this information and overwrite your preselect fields will it all still work?

LAM

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For those that are familar with Scoutgenie, much of the information that this chart requires can be extracted within 60 seconds into another XL chart and then copied across.

You can get the player name, Detmination stat and pressure stat. Assuming that your interpretation of the pressure stat is the same as the ACTUAL pressure stat from the game, is this perhaps an easier way to do things?

Also, if have this information and overwrite your preselect fields will it all still work?LAM

Haven't looked into linking it to scouting software in order to update in input fields (personality, morale, determination, line-up), but I'd assume that it's possible to link this tool with f.e. Geniescout.

If you'd use some form of auto-input, the tool will still work, as long as the required format for that specific field is respected: X for selected players, text input for personality, 1-20 for determination and one of the four categories of pressure as codes in text).

However, directly using input like pressure from Geniescout crosses my personal border of using scouting software to optimize your choices in-game (in other words: comes to close to cheating for my liking). What this tool does is making use of the visible information out there (personality, determination) and guessing what pressure should be like...

And, if your table shown in the previous post contains any real players (whichI believe it does), please do not show any hidden stats here. Not everyone likes these spoilers...

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However, directly using input like pressure from Geniescout crosses my personal border of using scouting software to optimize your choices in-game (in other words: comes to close to cheating for my liking). What this tool does is making use of the visible information out there (personality, determination) and guessing what pressure should be like...

And, if your table shown in the previous post contains any real players (whichI believe it does), please do not show any hidden stats here. Not everyone likes these spoilers...

Completely fair points and I shall remove the diagram.

LAM

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Quick question for DocSander....

I am setting up my team's details in the TTO, and I am onto the 'Dynamic' column, where I am instructed to enter each player's morale. Unless I am doing something wrong, only one player can have 'superb' morale, only one can have 'very good' and so on. As soon as the status is selected for one player, it disappears for the next. As there are only fix/six different morale permutations, I can't set morale for my whole team.

Any ideas?

EDT: Same happening for the 'Pressure' column....

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As a quick pointer for those that need to know how to work out decimal odds from Fractional.

Take 13/5 as an example.

Add 13 to 5 = 18

Divide 18 by 5 = 3.60

Second example of 7/2

Add 7 to 2 = 9

Divide by 2 = 4.50

Straight odds like 14/1 or 20/1 just add the 2 numbers together ie: 15.00 or 21.00

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Hey DocSander,

Great tool, feel like the pressure angle gives me something to base my pre match talks on. Just wondered if you had any idea how to include the rival/important match scenario? I've found that "For the Fans" for rival matches can be the most effective motivator pre match but there's nowhere to include this in your spreadsheet. Do you think it could be implemented?

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Quick question for DocSander....

I am setting up my team's details in the TTO, and I am onto the 'Dynamic' column, where I am instructed to enter each player's morale. Unless I am doing something wrong, only one player can have 'superb' morale, only one can have 'very good' and so on. As soon as the status is selected for one player, it disappears for the next. As there are only fix/six different morale permutations, I can't set morale for my whole team.

Any ideas?

EDT: Same happening for the 'Pressure' column....

Sounds strange to me...

Is it in Excel 2007 or 2003?

Have you tried copy-pasting the morale from another player...

The drop-down box merely functions to fill out this column quicker, so another option might be to try and type in manually the content 'superb' or 'very good' etc.

Hey DocSander,

Great tool, feel like the pressure angle gives me something to base my pre match talks on. Just wondered if you had any idea how to include the rival/important match scenario? I've found that "For the Fans" for rival matches can be the most effective motivator pre match but there's nowhere to include this in your spreadsheet. Do you think it could be implemented?

One more for the v2.0 improvements list, thanx.

Could be added quite simply by adding a box you could tick or untick for rival or cup matches...

Will be included in the next version!

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Hi DocSander,

magic stuff which you produce here...great work! :)

yesterday was playing around with the excel2003 file and i have one guy with "professional" personality, but when I choose this personality, the pressure fields dont calculate anything and just keeps empty. Maybe you can have a look on it?

thanks

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Hi DocSander,

magic stuff which you produce here...great work! :)

yesterday was playing around with the excel2003 file and i have one guy with "professional" personality, but when I choose this personality, the pressure fields dont calculate anything and just keeps empty. Maybe you can have a look on it?

thanks

I also had this with one player.....was very strange as I had another player with professional personality that worked fine. I am not as up on excel as you are DocSander but I could see there was nothing different in the strings used.

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@ Pudel and Pompeyboyz

I'm pretty certain that DocSander has used this thread http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=16356 when considering personality types.

If you look at certain personality types, for example Model Citizen or Resilient, you will see that the Pressure attribute is either finite or within a small range which actually determines the personality type displayed in the game.

For these personality types there is no need to use an editor/utility to find out the Pressure attribute as you can be confident in which of the four Pressure options to use in the tool (Highest, High, Low or Lowest). I believe that it is these personalities for which there is no information produced in the Pressure Advice columns as it is always 100% certain and therefore not needed.

In cases where there is no indication of the Pressure attribute from the player personality DocSander appears to have researched a wide range of players' hidden attributes to try and find a pattern and fill in the gaps. Obviously, the weaker personality types do not interest many of us and the research has not been completed for these. This may also be a cause for data and advice not appearing in the Pressure Advice columns.

This isn't explained very well in the guide provided but I've looked at the code and this seems to be how the tool works.

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@ DocSander

The idea for the 'Scheme' sheet in your tool is very methodical and well thought out and I would imagine that something similar is required for HT and FT talks taking into account additional factors such as scoreline and player performance. Are you working on something like this?

Also, regarding the team and individual talk options (in the 'Lists' sheet) which you've assigned to the various pressure levels you wish to apply, how confident are you that these are correct (relative to each other I mean, ie. are they in the right order)? Have you any results you can share from having used this approach/tool?

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The spread sheet sadly does not work with Open Office, none of the drop down boxes have anything in them apart from a solitary "0" as the top choice. Manually typing in a personality type or determination value generates a "Personality type does not exist in FM10" or "invalid value" respectively.

Does any one know of a free program that will run this or am I doomed to always manually work out my team talks?

EDIT: 2003 version seems to work better, but the morale drop down does not work and seems to have the team talk advice in there as the only option instead.

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thanks for the advice DocSander, I am using a beta version of MS Excel 2010. Will try what you suggested and report back.

It seems that this program is not yet forwards compatible on Excel 2010, I am unable to complete the morale section manually, as it does not recognise my input as a valid value :(

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Just a quick reply on the posts above as I'm a bit short on time at the moment.

@Pudel

Please send your filled out data sheet to my email address mentioned in the guide: DocSandersFMGuides@gmail.com and I will look at it... Will take some days as I'm not home at the moment...

@ProZone

Correct, the tool works more or less the way you've described. Regarding personality types as Model Citizen and Resilient any advice is obsolete, as pressure is defined within this personality. The link you mentioned contains Lyssien's personality guide, which served a basis for this work indeed.

Second question...

How sure am I that the assumptions on the hierarchy of team and individual talks are correct...?

Well, not 100% to be honest. In my testing this showed to work best, given player's pressure stat. However, with many factors involved (match quote, personality, relationship with manager, random effects, etc.) it's difficult, as the only feedback provided is the response in the motivation widget and the team talk report provided by your assistant.

My excel skill may be up to date, skinning the FM software to analyse this process 'under the hood' is too much for me...

@others

Compatibility with Office 2010 beta is not available at the moment, might be something for a future release...

Regards,

DocSander

Appreciate your feedback, thanks!

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@fonejacker

I have the same problem. Workaround is to select morale from top cell (where all options are available) and copy/paste. Yes, can be tedious for both Morale and Pressure, but once you have your team entered and saved, you just have to update/enter Morale for starting 11.

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one question:if I erase a team talk of a player, how is it possible for the system to calculate the team talk again?

whoops!!!! :rolleyes:

I haven't got the TTO in front of me now but if it is created in a simple way then you just need to drag the calculation from the field above the one you accidently deleted and it should auto popualte withe the right formula.

If not you may need to get the TTO fresh again.

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I have also spotted a problem in the Static/personality field..when I try to select the personality, the drop-down menu won't show up :-( Despite my 2 observations I have to admit that this "tool" is very-very useful and if you develop it and develop similar sheets for the half-time(basically) and full-time talks you will be my hero and savior and I will be you're fan(which I am already though I haven't admitted yet ;-))Thumbs up,Well done and continue the great job..can I ask you to offer me some quick-fire excel lessons too?

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@ Tubey

Yes they are there at least for the case of Excel 2003.

The only thing is:

1)My post (2 posts above) hasn't been commented yet ;-)

2)I wonder if this sheet takes into account(which it should) apart from morale,pressure,determination, home-away(it's dif/rent if you're at home or away I believe) and things like age,form, and some other mental too(except if these are included in the morale)

Trying a sseason with Breidablik from Iceland. Part-timers, not making any transfers, playing the same standard 4-4-2 formation with the 11 pick by the ass.man. So basically just using the team talks from the excel sheet, and at half-time using similar ones(for those with no pressure-pre match, no pressure at half time and so on). Hopefully will post my results when season is over.

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