FM2012 difficulty.

[stf1979]

We'll all be too busy playing FM to notice!

That is true

[KUBI]

For us here that is great news, but oh boy, just wait for the torrent of complaints that the update has ruined peoples' games by making it too hard!

Adjusting the extremes of Morales "life" has an effect on both ends. Some will probably think the game becomes easier, as a losing streak could end earlier.

[Govnar1]

Adjusting the extremes of Morales "life" has an effect on both ends. Some will probably think the game becomes easier, as a losing streak could end earlier.

I believe that everyone is going to benefit from such adjustment too.

[ReggaeBwoy]

Any idea when these adjustments will be done by?

[bleventozturk]

This is right now by far the most necessary adjustment the game needs, to make it more 'realistic', not harder, or easier, but realistic. I guarantee you those minority who voted 'game is too hard' are actually suffering because of the same reasons. Those people started their games with a few losses, and after that whatever they tried (changing tactics, signing a potentially crucial player, etc.) didn't work, they kept losing, hence they voted 'game is too hard'.

Just like Erismus summarized brilliantly, all the managerial aspects in the game are rendered useless when the morale is significantly higher or lower than your opponent. The only thing that matters is the morale.

[ReggaeBwoy]

Is it actually offical that the game is being made easy or are SI claiming that there is no difference in difficulty because tbh I have seen people on the Newcastle threads saying they finished either 1st or 2nd in their first season then winning Champions League second season and I also see many people posting of different screenshots where they have battered a 'supposedly better team' than their team 5-0 or 6-0. Does seem quite bizarre tbh

[themadsheep2001]

This is right now by far the most necessary adjustment the game needs, to make it more 'realistic', not harder, or easier, but realistic. I guarantee you those minority who voted 'game is too hard' are actually suffering because of the same reasons. Those people started their games with a few losses, and after that whatever they tried (changing tactics, signing a potentially crucial player, etc.) didn't work, they kept losing, hence they voted 'game is too hard'.

Just like Erismus summarized brilliantly, all the managerial aspects in the game are rendered useless when the morale is significantly higher or lower than your opponent. The only thing that matters is the morale.

If that were true, then you wouldnt be able to turn around form when playing with low morale, or win a game when playing with low morale. But you can, so its not that simple at all.

I dont think you guarantee thats the reason people are losing either, especially when there are people who are struggling with good morale

[bleventozturk]

Themadsheep2001,

You can win games and turn things around, it is not impossible, but it is unlikely. What matters is, at that point what you need FIRST OF ALL is to face another team with low morale. If your team is having a bad streak, your chance to get out of it is to face another team that is going through a bad streak, with low morale. Also, human managers are better at managing the morale than the AI. When you are going through a bad streak, wait for a match against a team with low morale, right before that game boost the morale with team talk or team meeting, that will give you enough advantage to win that game, and once you win it, the morale will recover somewhat, and if you are lucky and have another team with bad morale facing you next, that will be 2 wins in a row, and that's how you recover. You just need to know how to boost the morale a little bit with TT, and get lucky with the schedule.

Of course, every once in a while you are able to beat a team with higher morale (or vice versa), but if you look at the stats in those games, you will see that the team with high morale had actually more chances, more possession, etc, but the team with lower morale got lucky. Player quality means very little at the time being, that's a fact, looking at my results and the results of many who posted here.

[themadsheep2001]

Themadsheep2001,

You can win games and turn things around, it is not impossible, but it is unlikely. What matters is, at that point what you need FIRST OF ALL is to face another team with low morale. If your team is having a bad streak, your chance to get out of it is to face another team that is going through a bad streak, with low morale. Also, human managers are better at managing the morale than the AI. When you are going through a bad streak, wait for a match against a team with low morale, right before that game boost the morale with team talk or team meeting, that will give you enough advantage to win that game, and once you win it, the morale will recover somewhat, and if you are lucky and have another team with bad morale facing you next, that will be 2 wins in a row, and that's how you recover. You just need to know how to boost the morale a little bit with TT, and get lucky with the schedule.

Of course, every once in a while you are able to beat a team with higher morale (or vice versa), but if you look at the stats in those games, you will see that the team with high morale had actually more chances, more possession, etc, but the team with lower morale got lucky. Player quality means very little at the time being, that's a fact, looking at my results and the results of many who posted here.

Its not once in a while, and the bold simply isnt true, since i dont need to wait for a team to be in bad morale before i beat them, nor do i have to "get lucky", thats what im getting at.

Simply put, morale is not the be and end all, nor is is the overwhelming factor. You can still beat them using a tactical approach, you can get out of a rut using a tactical approach. Player quality not meaning little isnt a fact either. Its your opinion, which you are entitled to, but it isnt fact. Thats why i raise it. If what you were saying was fact, i (and probably a decent number of others) wouldnt be half as successful at the game (while i have a good grip of the game, i wouldnt call myself an "elite player").

[x42bn6]

Simply put, morale is not the be and end all.

I don't think anyone's claiming it is the only thing that matters.

[themadsheep2001]

I don't think anyone's claiming it is the only thing that matters.

Im responding to his claim thats is overwhelmingly about morale, when its not that simple

[Robert the Spud]

Of course it's not the only thing that matters, but it is too simple and easy to increase or decrease morale, and that increased or decreased morale has massive influence on the game. Having said that, we would have a hard time proving that this is not how real life football works too.

[phnompenhandy]

Is it actually offical that the game is being made easy or are SI claiming that there is no difference in difficulty because tbh I have seen people on the Newcastle threads saying they finished either 1st or 2nd in their first season then winning Champions League second season and I also see many people posting of different screenshots where they have battered a 'supposedly better team' than their team 5-0 or 6-0. Does seem quite bizarre tbh

SI are never going to admit that, but they have admitted the is a problem with morale 'at the extremes'. You can draw your own conclusions from that spin.

[SeanNUFC]

SI are never going to admit that, but they have admitted the is a problem with morale 'at the extremes'. You can draw your own conclusions from that spin.

Aye..........

[Erimus1876]

Themadsheep2001,

You can win games and turn things around, it is not impossible, but it is unlikely. What matters is, at that point what you need FIRST OF ALL is to face another team with low morale. If your team is having a bad streak, your chance to get out of it is to face another team that is going through a bad streak, with low morale....

This is the unfortunate truth. The fixture list order can also be crucial to wether you have a good season or a bad one in my experience, start with really tough games and get off to a bad start, and you'll see how it all goes pear-shaped from there. Start with a string of easier fixtures and you could be in for a good season. This is like real life in some respects, but in FM its overly so. Yes the tactical approach can break you out of a run of bad results at times, but morale really is the root of all evil in this game

[Erimus1876]

Is it actually offical that the game is being made easy or are SI claiming that there is no difference in difficulty because tbh I have seen people on the Newcastle threads saying they finished either 1st or 2nd in their first season then winning Champions League second season and I also see many people posting of different screenshots where they have battered a 'supposedly better team' than their team 5-0 or 6-0. Does seem quite bizarre tbh

I don't think its being made easy by SI. I think the difficulty is linked to morale which, wether they admit it or not, seems too powerful this year. It was a problem in FM11, but not like this.

[themadsheep2001]

I don't think its being made easy by SI. I think the difficulty is linked to morale which, wether they admit it or not, seems too powerful this year. It was a problem in FM11, but not like this.

Maybe its just the way i play, but morale never comes across as too powerful. While i pay attention to it ( as with all parts of the game) it's never had a particularly over bearing factor for me, certainly not the way the people make.

They can tweak morale as much as or as little as needed, but it still doesnt overcome the longterm shortcomings of the AI, which for me is by far the biggest factor in the game being "too easy"

[phnompenhandy]

I don't think its being made easy by SI. I think the difficulty is linked to morale which, wether they admit it or not, seems too powerful this year. It was a problem in FM11, but not like this.

Heh, you're just repeating the SI spin. How is that not the same as making the game too easy?

Let me clarify; madsheep - I play close attention to the morale of my players and the oppo in match. My players are always motivated or okay, very occasionally nervous for a few moments. The opposition have the spread of morale with a fair few on poor or even 'abysmal' morale. It makes a heck of a difference in the ME. I can see my superb morale players winning 40/60 challenges against poor morale opponents all the time. It has a significant bearing on who controls the match.

[BiggusD]

If that were true, then you wouldnt be able to turn around form when playing with low morale, or win a game when playing with low morale. But you can, so its not that simple at all.

I dont think you guarantee thats the reason people are losing either, especially when there are people who are struggling with good morale

In real life, good morale is a result of good performances and wins, as well as a good team spirit and a happy fanbase. In FM it is the other way around; good morale results in good performances and wins.

This can be observed by the match engine animations showing mediocre players running around being spliced clones of Messi and Superman. Commentary "Messi uses his super x-ray vision to see what will happen in the future and slides in for a perfectly timed powertackle dispossessing Jonny Smith easily. Then he hits a superb pass to Messi, who dribbles past one two three players before back-heeling it to Messi who shoooooooots from 50 yards into the left corner!! The ball ignited! Fantastic goal by Runtshollow Town, who looks to gain their first win of the season! Can they survive Plumber's League this year too!?"

[themadsheep2001]

In real life, good morale is a result of good performances and wins, as well as a good team spirit and a happy fanbase. In FM it is the other way around; good morale results in good performances and wins.

This can be observed by the match engine animations showing mediocre players running around being spliced clones of Messi and Superman. Commentary "Messi uses his super x-ray vision to see what will happen in the future and slides in for a perfectly timed powertackle dispossessing Jonny Smith easily. Then he hits a superb pass to Messi, who dribbles past one two three players before back-heeling it to Messi who shoooooooots from 50 yards into the left corner!! The ball ignited! Fantastic goal by Runtshollow Town, who looks to gain their first win of the season! Can they survive Plumber's League this year too!?"

As i've said, i can win games with poor morale, against sides with good morale, and generally am able to stage a mini comeback. It's not as simple as saying in FM its the other way round, certainly not in my saves

[BiggusD]

As i've said, i can win games with poor morale, against sides with good morale, and generally am able to stage a mini comeback. It's not as simple as saying in FM its the other way round, certainly not in my saves

To make myself clearer:

What I am saying is that a player who is fairly slow and has poor passing and technique skills, is still fairly slow and has poor passing and technique skills even if he is highly motivated and willing to die for his club, fans, manager and teammates. This is not the case in FM.

I would say that all good morale does is increase some of the mental stats. In FM it evidently increases -everything-! And when it is bad it decreases everything.

[PaulC]

To make myself clearer:

What I am saying is that a player who is fairly slow and has poor passing and technique skills, is still fairly slow and has poor passing and technique skills even if he is highly motivated and willing to die for his club, fans, manager and teammates. This is not the case in FM.

I would say that all good morale does is increase some of the mental stats. In FM it evidently increases -everything-! And when it is bad it decreases everything.

Good or bad morale has negligible effects on in match attributes/skills.

But it is used more in terms of player decision making on and off ball.

[bleventozturk]

As i've said, i can win games with poor morale, against sides with good morale, and generally am able to stage a mini comeback. It's not as simple as saying in FM its the other way round, certainly not in my saves

To be honest, I'm not convinced at all with your comments. I have observed hundreds of matches, and although sometimes the team with lower morale wins a match against a team with significantly higher morale, that team still has to grind the W in a match where it is dominated by the opponent with high morale. I have been testing this issue for a long time now, and I can bet my money on it right now that the morale is the most important factor in the ME. Like people said above, with high morale the mediocre players can play like gods in this game.

I agree with you that the human managers are more capable than the AI in turning things around, with the help of their great ability (compared to AI) to use the tools in the game. But if you keep things simple in an experimental game, e.g. just select one tactic and play with the same tactic every game, leave the use of tools to your assman, you will see that the teams that start the season well, continue well, in most cases all the way till the end of the season. That's why so many people are overachieving, and that my friend IS a fact.

[bleventozturk]

Good or bad morale has negligible effects on in match attributes/skills.

But it is used more in terms of player decision making on and off ball.

I'm glad to hear this now. All this time after observing hundreds of matches I'm sure myself that morale is the determining factor in the matches in FM 2012 (it still was in the older versions too), yet you commented every once in a while that morale is actually not that important. So, now I see that actually it is not that important in terms of giving a boost to the attributes, yet it still becomes a very important factor by effecting the players' decisions on the field. Now I can conclude that the 'decision making' is a very determining factor in the ME.

On a side note, I want to remind that what we see on the screen is just a representative of 'what might have happened' in a match that is pre-calculated in the ME. So, I guess it is not very good at representing because we see a lot of players with low pace but high morale running like crazy on the field. What I'm trying to say is, if a player has 10 pace, and the high morale actually doesn't give a boost to his 'pace' attribute, then we should not see him flying on the field. But it is what it is. Hopefully in the future the representation will improve too.

[phnompenhandy]

Good or bad morale has negligible effects on in match attributes/skills.

But it is used more in terms of player decision making on and off ball.

That pretty much fits my observation about winning 40/60 balls against opponents with poor morale. Can have a massive effect in a game.

[PaulC]

On a side note, I want to remind that what we see on the screen is just a representative of 'what might have happened' in a match that is pre-calculated in the ME. So, I guess it is not very good at representing because we see a lot of players with low pace but high morale running like crazy on the field. What I'm trying to say is, if a player has 10 pace, and the high morale actually doesn't give a boost to his 'pace' attribute, then we should not see him flying on the field. But it is what it is. Hopefully in the future the representation will improve too.

You really have lost me there.

[themadsheep2001]

To be honest, I'm not convinced at all with your comments. I have observed hundreds of matches, and although sometimes the team with lower morale wins a match against a team with significantly higher morale, that team still has to grind the W in a match where it is dominated by the opponent with high morale. I have been testing this issue for a long time now, and I can bet my money on it right now that the morale is the most important factor in the ME. Like people said above, with high morale the mediocre players can play like gods in this game.

I agree with you that the human managers are more capable than the AI in turning things around, with the help of their great ability (compared to AI) to use the tools in the game. But if you keep things simple in an experimental game, e.g. just select one tactic and play with the same tactic every game, leave the use of tools to your assman, you will see that the teams that start the season well, continue well, in most cases all the way till the end of the season. That's why so many people are overachieving, and that my friend IS a fact.

To be honest , whether you are convinced by my comments is up to you. Still doesnt not change how and what I achieve. I can only go by the experience of the many many games i have played in FM. And so i stand by what i have said, based on my experiences.

[BiggusD]

You really have lost me there.

Didn't lose me. Basically the same that I said: it looks like players with good morale becomes much better players than they really are in all aspects, not just decision making. When I play the game there is a lot of facepalming and "oh reaaaaallly?" going on, because a player that has 10 in every attribute and is considered a reasonably good player in his league never actually does mediocre stuff. The huge difference in perceived success rate between that same player having mediocre or poor morale compared to when he has very good or superb morale and is "playing with confidence", "fired up" or "looking motivated" may not fool you as you and your colleagues have designed it that way, but it definitely fools many of us.

[themadsheep2001]

That pretty much fits my observation about winning 40/60 balls against opponents with poor morale. Can have a massive effect in a game.

I do see where you are coming from. When suffering a poor run of form/morale, i dont expect my team to go out and utterly dominate (nor would you expect a team to so IRL), nor win every 50/50 ball. I tend to adapt to play a tighter game, simpler game. Paul has confirmed what i always thought about morale and decisions, and how i approach it. But then i have always paid attention to leaders and intelligent players as well, so perhaps this is a factor

[bleventozturk]

Didn't lose me. Basically the same that I said: it looks like players with good morale becomes much better players than they really are in all aspects, not just decision making.

Exactly this.

Maybe the morale affects only the decision making (and this should be true because nobody but only Paul really knows what is effective and what is not), then I have to say the decision making has a great effect on the calculation of the match results, it seems, and that's where the problem is, and that may be fixed somewhat by making morale more fluid, harder to achieve great morale, etc. Fine.

But this is not what I observe while I watch the representation of the match by ME. What I see instead is, that when my team has a very good morale, they all run faster, pass the ball around faster and with better accuracy, they dribble the ball like Messi, their long shots become so fast and accurate,etc., so it seems like all of their attributes got a boost, even if they don't when the ME calculates the result.

But that's not a priority issue for me right now. I just want this everlasting morale and winning streaks to end, and have a realistic challange in the game.

[bleventozturk]

To be honest , whether you are convinced by my comments is up to you. Still doesnt not change how and what I achieve. I can only go by the experience of the many many games i have played in FM. And so i stand by what i have said, based on my experiences.

Well, so do I. Everything I say here is based on my 'vast' experience. And I say vast, because I am observing the statistics of each match like a crazy scientist at this point. Before each game I look at the morale of every player in the teams, then I look at statistics after the match, and reach my conclusion. What you are saying is completely contradicting with what I've been observing in every single match so far, and at this point I can't help but assume that you are only not observing the morale stats and the match statistics as carefully as I do. I assume that you pay more attention to your team, you don't go back and see what you opponents have been doing in their last few games, how many players in their team have good, very good, superb morale, etc. Like I said before, it is not completely impossible to beat a team with significantly higher morale, but very unlikely.

In my last two saves I experienced both ends of this problem. In my Leeds save I started with some bad results (due to bad tactic maybe, or maybe because my first 2-3 matches in my schedule were tough), then I struggled so bad the whole season. The player qulatity was there, my tactics were fine, but once you are down in the last 4-5 spots in the table, you continuously keep playing against teams with higher morale, and even if you win an occasional game and your morale recovers a little bit, at that point if you are not lucky to face a team with lower morale, and instead play against a team in 3rd spot for example, you stumble again, your morale goes back to poor again, and it becomes a season long struggle. In my next save (and these are all test saves by the way, so I try to keep some parameters constant) I picked a mid-table team from Turkish league. I started with a win against Galatasaray on the road, and in just one game the morale sky-rocketed, in my next game I beat a team 6-1, then 4-1, and it kept going like that. I just kept destroying whoever I play, with a very generic tactic created with tactical wizard. And then in one game I lost 1-0 against a team with much lower morale (so it does happen), but I had around 20 shots in that game versus their 2-3. They just were lucky. My morale went down a little bit, but in next game I play against another team with low morale, I destroyed them and kept my morale high again. My players are mediocre on papar, but they look like Barcelona in stats and in what I see in the graphical representation.

So yes, I'm pretty sure this happens due to the morale.

[themadsheep2001]

Well, so do I. Everything I say here is based on my 'vast' experience. And I say vast, because I am observing the statistics of each match like a crazy scientist at this point. Before each game I look at the morale of every player in the teams, then I look at statistics after the match, and reach my conclusion. What you are saying is completely contradicting with what I've been observing in every single match so far, and at this point I can't help but assume that you are only not observing the morale stats and the match statistics as carefully as I do. I assume that you pay more attention to your team, you don't go back and see what you opponents have been doing in their last few games, how many players in their team have good, very good, superb morale, etc. Like I said before, it is not completely impossible to beat a team with significantly higher morale, but very unlikely.

In my last two saves I experienced both ends of this problem. In my Leeds save I started with some bad results (due to bad tactic maybe, or maybe because my first 2-3 matches in my schedule were tough), then I struggled so bad the whole season. The player qulatity was there, my tactics were fine, but once you are down in the last 4-5 spots in the table, you continuously keep playing against teams with higher morale, and even if you win an occasional game and your morale recovers a little bit, at that point if you are not lucky to face a team with lower morale, and instead play against a team in 3rd spot for example, you stumble again, your morale goes back to poor again, and it becomes a season long struggle. In my next save (and these are all test saves by the way, so I try to keep some parameters constant) I picked a mid-table team from Turkish league. I started with a win against Galatasaray on the road, and in just one game the morale sky-rocketed, in my next game I beat a team 6-1, then 4-1, and it kept going like that. I just kept destroying whoever I play, with a very generic tactic created with tactical wizard. And then in one game I lost 1-0 against a team with much lower morale (so it does happen), but I had around 20 shots in that game versus their 2-3. They just were lucky. My morale went down a little bit, but in next game I play against another team with low morale, I destroyed them and kept my morale high again. My players are mediocre on papar, but they look like Barcelona in stats and in what I see in the graphical representation.

So yes, I'm pretty sure this happens due to the morale.

You can assume whatever you want about what i pay attention to, but you'd be wrong to say i dont pay attention to the oppostion morale, stats, match analyisis and the like, I pay them them as much attention before and in each match as i do mine, particularly rival/euro/crunch games. Thats why i said it isnt that simple just to boil everything down in game to morale, nor is it a given that it is highly unlikely you will beat them.

It probably contradicts because as i said its not that simple to boil it down to just morale. I havent dismissed what you said, and i think its pretty damn arrogant of you to put down what i say just because it doesnt match up to what you have. I can only go by how I have played the game over the years, based on a simple mantra that loosely covers my gameplay: Confident, aggressive, expansive; nervous, narrow, and tight.

I dont want to get into something drawn out over this. We have our own perspectives on it.

[knap]

Nasri a good CB!

Out of position game

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[knap]

Out of formation game

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[SeanNUFC]

haha nice one. highly unrealistic and not surpising whatsoever that it worked.

[bleventozturk]

You can assume whatever you want about what i pay attention to, but you'd be wrong to say i dont pay attention to the oppostion morale, stats, match analyisis and the like, I pay them them as much attention before and in each match as i do mine, particularly rival/euro/crunch games. Thats why i said it isnt that simple just to boil everything down in game to morale, nor is it a given that it is highly unlikely you will beat them.

It probably contradicts because as i said its not that simple to boil it down to just morale. I havent dismissed what you said, and i think its pretty damn arrogant of you to put down what i say just because it doesnt match up to what you have. I can only go by how I have played the game over the years, based on a simple mantra that loosely covers my gameplay: Confident, aggressive, expansive; nervous, narrow, and tight.

I dont want to get into something drawn out over this. We have our own perspectives on it.

Until I see otherwise with my own eyes, I will believe in what I conclude from what I have observed. How is that arrogant? As far as I've seen (and I've seen enough), morale is by far the most important factor in the games, whether it directly or indirectly effects players' performance. You are free to believe whatever you want to believe in. I have nothing against that, and I couldn't care less. You can disagree with me, but you have no right to start calling names. So, please stop debating with me if you cannot debate like a gentlemen. I never called you names, now did I? You are the one who started attacking my conclusion to begin with. Say whatever you want to say in this thread, but please stop commenting on what I write.

[themadsheep2001]

Until I see otherwise with my own eyes, I will believe in what I conclude from what I have observed. How is that arrogant? As far as I've seen (and I've seen enough), morale is by far the most important factor in the games, whether it directly or indirectly effects players' performance. You are free to believe whatever you want to believe in. I have nothing against that, and I couldn't care less. You can disagree with me, but you have no right to start calling names. So, please stop debating with me if you cannot debate like a gentlemen. I never called you names, now did I? You are the one who started attacking my conclusion to begin with. Say whatever you want to say in this thread, but please stop commenting on what I write.

where did i call you names? you made (incorrect) assumptions about what i do, and put down what i said. to which i replied that it was arrogant of you (note: i didnt say you were arrogant) to do so. So dont accuse me of calling you names. Nor did i attack your conclusion,i didnt dismiss what you said, just that i didnt think it was that simple

[FestyF]

Joe Hart 6.5 at 'LEFT BACK'. Hahahahahahahahahaha

[egesagin]

The problem with the game is that usually, your players do exactly what you want. And to be honest, you should be totally dominating the league with Porto in Portugal, looking at their squad and compare it to the rest of the league. In real life, players are lazy spoiled jerks and get complacent in every game, in FM however you bypass that and pure quality is more than enough to dominate a league.

SI I have an idea about a realistic way to make the game harder. Put a soft cap to tactical familiarities. It shouldn't be high for 4-4-2 classic, but as the formation and the tactics get more complex (number of "default" tactics decreases) the soft cap should decrease. And the cap should be tied to our players' intelligence. Even if you assign Mourinho to a league 2 team, the players will not ever, EVER in their pitiful careers, be able to play a complex tactic the right way. Add a hidden intelligence or tactical understanding attribute to the players and the higher they are, the higher your teams familiarity with your tactics can be, therefore you can't use complex, imbalanced tactics in the lower leagues to go for the top division title in no time. This is a totally realistic approach and I think it will make the game difficulty much more realistic.

[KUBI]

Out of formation game

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When you watch the match highlights you will probably see that they are playing a common 4-4-2 and did lough about the joke the manager made before the game...

[PaulC]

While its not recommended to play stupid formations the players are unlikely to take it literally and all play in the attacking third of the pitch.

Of course if the pkm is uploaded I'll make sure it's assessed.

[stf1979]

the game it's unplayable because gives no challenge at all.

so it's not playing but only click to win

[Äktsjon Männ]

I'd be more concerned with the fact that a Man City team playing Zabaleta in goal and Joe Hart at left back can get a draw against swansea whilst every player gets a reasonable match rating. Indicates to me that player ability seriously doesn't have an important enough role in the ME.

[Erimus1876]

In my last two saves I experienced both ends of this problem. In my Leeds save I started with some bad results (due to bad tactic maybe, or maybe because my first 2-3 matches in my schedule were tough), then I struggled so bad the whole season. The player qulatity was there, my tactics were fine, but once you are down in the last 4-5 spots in the table, you continuously keep playing against teams with higher morale, and even if you win an occasional game and your morale recovers a little bit, at that point if you are not lucky to face a team with lower morale, and instead play against a team in 3rd spot for example, you stumble again, your morale goes back to poor again, and it becomes a season long struggle. In my next save (and these are all test saves by the way, so I try to keep some parameters constant) I picked a mid-table team from Turkish league. I started with a win against Galatasaray on the road, and in just one game the morale sky-rocketed, in my next game I beat a team 6-1, then 4-1, and it kept going like that. I just kept destroying whoever I play, with a very generic tactic created with tactical wizard. And then in one game I lost 1-0 against a team with much lower morale (so it does happen), but I had around 20 shots in that game versus their 2-3. They just were lucky. My morale went down a little bit, but in next game I play against another team with low morale, I destroyed them and kept my morale high again. My players are mediocre on papar, but they look like Barcelona in stats and in what I see in the graphical representation.

So yes, I'm pretty sure this happens due to the morale.

This is pretty much my experience in FM12 too with the normal game (i.e. the one without the modded TA's I mentioned). But in reverse to your experience with Leeds in so far as I was massively over-achieving with a team predicted to finnish bottom... over-achieving because I got off to a good start and it continued from there. Once you're on a run (good or bad) it often snowballs one way or the other. Most teams in realife are inconsistant, I don't think this is reflected well enough in FM12.

One possible solution I've thought of (yes I know I know! TA's shouldn't work according to PaulC so I'm trying a different approach now ), is to create a Morale Preset in FMRTE, set it to 12 (which = Fairly Good Morale), and use it every few games or so to keep the morale balanced.. hovering around fairly good, which is the approximate "neutral" setting afaik.

Theoretically this should break the run you're on, good or bad, and bring in a bit of inconsistancy back into your results, unless you are a fantastic team (in which case its effect shouldn't matter), or a very poor team - likewise. Its not realistic by any means, and a mess on, but if SI's fix isn't good enough or doesn't solve the problem of the games ease, it may be something to try. So its a bandaid fix to the spiralling morale problem, something hopefully SI will fix either for this game, or the next.

Actually I might give this a go. Maybe impose my own rules like only using it if I go 4 games unbeaten, or 4 games without a win etc. I can live with it being an unrealistic cheat / handicap (depending on your point of view) as some would call it as long as I no longer go on 15 game unbeaten runs, often winning 3 and 4 nil with a team that should be in the bottom two!

[SeanNUFC]

I'd be more concerned with the fact that a Man City team playing Zabaleta in goal and Joe Hart at left back can get a draw against swansea whilst every player gets a reasonable match rating. Indicates to me that player ability seriously doesn't have an important enough role in the ME.

Shows how broken the game is, don't really care how SI try to defend this....(in previous fm's you would get punished for such formations/bad positioning)

Just going to wait for the update i think.

[lee_uk]

now that is worrying and just stupid!!!

for the 1st time ever im having huge doubts about the FM games

not good

[FestyF]

Another poster mentioned that playing 41 years old David Weir as striker, he got decent no. of goals and match winning performances from him. He also covered most distance in some matches. Wow !! Really?

[egesagin]

Even my strikers don't get many goals if their fin-comp abilities aren't good. And I've never experienced many of these things some people are complaining about here. I guess I was lucky since I didn't experience any of the famous bugs of the previous games too. Wish you all could play it like me and see how fun this game is, without those stupid issues. SI should find a way to prevent the game from breaking in some computers and running fine on the others

[milnerpoint]

Its not once in a while, and the bold simply isnt true, since i dont need to wait for a team to be in bad morale before i beat them, nor do i have to "get lucky", thats what im getting at.

Simply put, morale is not the be and end all, nor is is the overwhelming factor. You can still beat them using a tactical approach, you can get out of a rut using a tactical approach. Player quality not meaning little isnt a fact either. Its your opinion, which you are entitled to, but it isnt fact. Thats why i raise it. If what you were saying was fact, i (and probably a decent number of others) wouldnt be half as successful at the game (while i have a good grip of the game, i wouldnt call myself an "elite player").

Exactly this. Very good post.

[x42bn6]

themadsheep2001, maybe you are the 1%.

bleventozturk is going through lots of data and is at the stage where it's beyond anecdote.