Reading ME/sliders

[charlstonbigspuds]

Hi,Im looking for bit of advice if possible, im not struggling in my game just wanting to understand how or be able to read the ME better. I'll explain where im at with my game and my FM experience,i ve played CM/FM for years and generally always played global apart from CB/DM mentality,ive always done well(although struggled more than usual on 09).

On FM10 ive decide to have a worldwide career game starting at the bottom and moving up through job offers etc,i started with Blyth to Bristol Rovers where i gained promotions and cup wins. I am now at Crystal Palace who i am in my 2nd season in Prem after Championship title.I am now 9th after 11 games.

This may sound like im doing well which i am but the problem i have are to an extent the tactics dont feel like my own(although still enjoying this years FM),i have read threads where ppl have managed to win the Prem with teams such as wolves and massively over achieve with other teams.I have also read a thread i think by Sfraser saying how over a weekend you can study and begin to undertand the ME. I feel like i have a good understanding of football/tactics and have tried to implement these and i can see the changes they make,one major problem i tend to occur is lack of creativity. Thus i have had to change back mid season.

I have 3 months off work(football injury) to get my head round how/why my tweaks to my tactics do/don't work any advice would be greatly appreciated.Thanks

[melogroovy]

There are some people who have a really good grasp on the ME and how to interpret it. There are quite a few enlightening threads. This is my personal favorite and it comes with a good set of tactics as well as explanations of how/why to use what/when:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=168984

I suggest printing out Loverleaper's guide and reading the thread and then using his tactics for about a week or so. You'll find that to begin to understand the ME, you have to understand how your team's reputation plays a role in how the ME will play against you. Once you get past that, you'll see how you can tweak any tactic for your team, for each game, if necessary.

As I said, there are some really good threads here by some very bright and articulate people, the thread I linked to is my personal favorite because I'm more comfortable with global settings.

[SFraser]

Yeah that's a nice thread. Should help alot when it comes to reading the ME.

I would advise reading as much of that kind of info as possible, but avoid downloading tactics or avoid tweaking tactics you download. Download them to see how they perform, for example the Loversleaper sets but don't change them. Build your own very basic tactic with minimal fuss, minimal complexity, minimal extremes of settings and then tweak individual instructions, individual players to build up your knowledge of what the effects of the sliders are, but also to see what the effects of the sliders are not.

It's very important to be able see what is Tactic caused Behaviour and what is Attribute caused Behaviour. It's practically impossible to seperate the two and only study one aspect in the game, but by setting up different players with similar instructions like Wingers/CF's/CB's and then by tweaking the instructions of a single player, you can build up an understanding of what does what and how everything works.

Then you can start putting this practical knowledge of the mechanics of FM into action getting your own tactical ideas down into the game. Global settings are a very good place to start from.

[charlstonbigspuds]

Cheers guys,ill give this a go i've tried a couple of things such as givin my winger no runs forward as he was quick and good at dribbling to enable him to get a run at the fullback,i could see the change made a similar change with Deep Lying CF. Like a say the problem is building the full tactic.

Ive always avoided downloading other ppls tactics might give it a go,but would you say pre-season is long enough to experiment or would i have to start another save as i dont want to jeopardise my job mid season! thanks a lot again

[melogroovy]

Cheers guys,ill give this a go i've tried a couple of things such as givin my winger no runs forward as he was quick and good at dribbling to enable him to get a run at the fullback,i could see the change made a similar change with Deep Lying CF. Like a say the problem is building the full tactic.

Ive always avoided downloading other ppls tactics might give it a go,but would you say pre-season is long enough to experiment or would i have to start another save as i dont want to jeopardise my job mid season! thanks a lot again

Depending on the tactic and how well gelled your squad is, I'd allow a minimum of 8 games and upwards of 15+ games depending on the complexity of the tactic. Obviously clubs will pick up a simpler, more direct tactic quicker than one that is shorter and slower tempo. you may not want to jeopardize your standing in a long term save hashing some of this stuff out so starting a new save may be your best bet. I really think 1/3 the battle is understanding the concept of reputation and how the ME uses your relative reputation in determining how the AI is going to play against you. If you have that down, have a good set of tactics at your disposal and can make good player acquisitions, you can tackle the game with confidence.

You can have good tactics and good players but you also have adjust to changing reputation as you move a club up through the ranks as you have. As your team improves, your opposition is more likely to get increasingly more defensive against you so you have increase your pressure on the opponent in return.

[charlstonbigspuds]

ive just read the link you posted and a lot of it is seems similar to how i used to play the game which is good but ive definitely been messing around with individual mentalities too much. Feel more confident in being able to build my own tactic now so gonna try and do it in existing save(watch that backfire!),still cant get my head around CB and DM having same mentality as the rest but ill give it a go!

Thanks

[charlstonbigspuds]

i downloaded the 442 tactic from loversleapers thread and looked at the 442 ferguson/aguirre,what i cat get my head round is both CM play identical how many teams IRL play like this plus both forward a practically same surely this makes it hard to link up play from midfield?

[Loversleaper]

i downloaded the 442 tactic from loversleapers thread and looked at the 442 ferguson/aguirre,what i cat get my head round is both CM play identical how many teams IRL play like this plus both forward a practically same surely this makes it hard to link up play from midfield?

I would like to point out that they are 'base' tactics, you can of course tweak how you please - but the main aim of the tactics is to play more as a unit and open up more ME options/sequences. I play the tactics as they are, I think due to the player attributes (and PPM's) the players have more or less natural playing 'styles' or 'traits'. This aspect should offer diversity, and at the same time I wanted to have the team moving more together in a 'unified' fashion. I think that Global ideology can work just as well, as long as you use the starting strategies more or less correct (and know what to change and when). The reason behind the many strategies is to ensure that you always have the capability of overpowering the AI. Tactics (settings & attributes) create overall values, learning them is the difference between success and failure. It might seem like there is a lot to learn (re: Tactic Creator Strategies), but would argue it won't take that long to learn. When you understand the starting point (Mentality) for certain games against certain types of opponents (bottem, middle or top teams), then it becomes much easier to know what to change and when. Good luck...

[charlstonbigspuds]

oh yeah im not criticising them i just found it weird,that is the route ive gone using the global mentality as a base and trying to tweak along the way,trial and error really. only minor tweaks at the min as its mid season and i have a low concentration span(esp with WCup on TV too)

[Loversleaper]

oh yeah im not criticising them i just found it weird,that is the route ive gone using the global mentality as a base and trying to tweak along the way,trial and error really. only minor tweaks at the min as its mid season and i have a low concentration span(esp with WCup on TV too)

I didn't think you were at all & think it is always a good idea to question aspects - this always aides in the process of understanding something better. It might appear unrational at first, but actually there is a method in the ME madness, and that is why I have designed the tactics the way I did. The most important aspect in understanding/reading ME & how to use the sliders is to start to see the effects of starting Mentality frameworks. The tactics are numbered by what Mentality setting it uses, this is how you 'learn' which one works best for the next match on your fixture list. When you feel comfortable choosing the right Mentality for the different scenarios (home or away / favorite or underdog) then take a look at some of the tactics and see what type of settings follow along with it. This should help in making/designing your own tactics, I would advise you to take a glance at the slider section in the thread just to see how one can interpret the sliders and how they generally work. I am not going out saying that it is all 100% correct, but should help pointing you/others in the general right direction on how they work in conjunction with the other sliders (creating scenarios). There are some small tactical 'rules' that strategies/settings require to be fully effective, but there is still a lot of room to play around as long as you understand how they work.

You have to take into consideration that things take time to have full effect (can depend on squad & your own reputation). Usually it takes me a couple of seasons before the players are fully intergrated into the playing styles, but if you have the patience I am sure that the whole thing does make sense. At the start things may appear scruffy and you might feel as if you luck out at times but this is due to you maybe using more or less the correct starting strategy. This aspect changes as soon as you have your squad in place (fully gelled), this should trigger your team to create some very good visual football (press will praise the style of football) and the players will also at one point enjoy the style of play. I always start out with a save with minimum leagues (for faster gameplay) just to test out strategies (key being mentality) and how they react (against the different 'level' of the opponents). The last couple of FM versions haven't changed much in terms of the strategy reality, and the only settings I have witnessed that has had some readjusting to is Closing Down & Defensive Line settings. Pleasent Gaming ...

[charlstonbigspuds]

I didn't think you were at all & think it is always a good idea to question aspects - this always aides in the process of understanding something better. It might appear unrational at first, but actually there is a method in the ME madness, and that is why I have designed the tactics the way I did. The most important aspect in understanding/reading ME & how to use the sliders is to start to see the effects of starting Mentality frameworks. The tactics are numbered by what Mentality setting it uses, this is how you 'learn' which one works best for the next match on your fixture list. When you feel comfortable choosing the right Mentality for the different scenarios (home or away / favorite or underdog) then take a look at some of the tactics and see what type of settings follow along with it. This should help in making/designing your own tactics, I would advise you to take a glance at the slider section in the thread just to see how one can interpret the sliders and how they generally work. I am not going out saying that it is all 100% correct, but should help pointing you/others in the general right direction on how they work in conjunction with the other sliders (creating scenarios). There are some small tactical 'rules' that strategies/settings require to be fully effective, but there is still a lot of room to play around as long as you understand how they work.

You have to take into consideration that things take time to have full effect (can depend on squad & your own reputation). Usually it takes me a couple of seasons before the players are fully intergrated into the playing styles, but if you have the patience I am sure that the whole thing does make sense. At the start things may appear scruffy and you might feel as if you luck out at times but this is due to you maybe using more or less the correct starting strategy. This aspect changes as soon as you have your squad in place (fully gelled), this should trigger your team to create some very good visual football (press will praise the style of football) and the players will also at one point enjoy the style of play. I always start out with a save with minimum leagues (for faster gameplay) just to test out strategies (key being mentality) and how they react (against the different 'level' of the opponents). The last couple of FM versions haven't changed much in terms of the strategy reality, and the only settings I have witnessed that has had some readjusting to is Closing Down & Defensive Line settings. Pleasent Gaming ...

thanks:thup: i definitely havent had any praise for style of play! im grinding results out at the min but hopefully this will help me get the best out of my 16m striker very poor and pretty big signing for Crystal Palace!