Do you 'cheat' at FM?

[Nomis07]

On the occasions I have cheated in the past i've always found that it was a complete waste of time. You go on FM Scout and make a list of players with crazy PA and you have absolutely no chance of playing them all or seeing the majority of them reach their potential. In the meantime players become available who are worth buying, which again means that those high PA youngsters aren't going to be playing.

[couragewolf101]

I cheat because how am I suppose to compete with the cheating AI?

[nine_iron]

I think everyone has their own way to play the game, there really is no wrong way.

I play exclusively in custom made, heavily edited databases. Some would never consider playing that way but as long as I am having fun playing the game all is OK in my mind.

[Jibby123]

I just like to keep things simple - I never play with wing backs so no need to have a player that can play there or a midfielder who can play DM/M RLC/AM RLC/ST - just feel it looks "cleaner"

You don't need to edit it, there's an option in the 'preferences' with a tick box to show only each player's best position in-game; i.e. instead of AML/R you get AML or instead of D/WB,DM(RC) you get DM etc.

[Ackter]

To me this is just absolutely ridiculous and crazy, I mean how can you erase any knowledge from past FM games, or real life knowledge? Our brains don't work like computers, there's no delete button. To spend days, weeks even months of game time playing past FM games, or watching players in real life and not use that to help you in a game, for me is just stupid.

This is exactly what I don't understand about LLM. But they obviously enjoy playing the game that way, so fair play to them. I really really don't get it though.

It's pretty simple - you just don't sign players because you know they've worked in the past, or because they're good in real life. You only sign players recommended by your scouts, players you see mentioned in the media, players offered to you by agents or players you play against in matches. Basically, you can only use the knowledge you accrue in-game to progress.

[mistahc]

reading a lot of these, no I don't cheat; use real time editors, 2nd managers, contract cheats, etc, etc. Surprised people do to be honest, but each to their own. Can't play LLM rules though.

I do have a habit of trawling through youth international squads for talent and as the game AI releases players far too good, I have taken advantage of this.

I have also been playing the game since CM93 so pretty good on tactics and moral. But as these are self taught I don't consider it cheating.

I have to admit though, there was a version that crashed lots and I lost a brilliant run and out of principal saved/reloaded to gets the points tally back.

Oh and once I have taken over Man U, sold their players (wouldn't buy those rejects though) and played the youth team just to get the satisfaction of seeing them relegated. That was purely for gratification rather than cheating purposes.

[SirBenedictSniffwhistle]

I don't cheat FM.

FM cheats me.

[swjthomas]

I cheated at first when I was younger as i didn't fully understand the game, eventually i got tired of this and stopped playing all together. Cheating now would completely ruin the experience of FM for me, came back to the series full-time (yes its a job more then a hobby) in FM12 and haven't cheated since my break from FM.

Us LLM are masochists and heroin addicts, gotta get that cup run cash, so we can fix our troubles. don't you know

[dscott1709]

I cheat mainly to have more fun in a limited amount of time. I haven't got the time to thrash out 10 seasons any more, otherwise I'd be single and have no life outside of FM.

I usually create myself as a young wonderkid so I have a personal interest, start as a midtable/bottom club, give them a bit more money for a transfer budget and go from there. Even with money, the top players won't sign for you straight away, so the first season is always testing. I've always found it a challenge and tend to get to about 3 or 4 seasons before another game comes along anyway to soak up my time. I put 100 hours into FM2012 this way and I enjoy the building a lower club element more than the results.

I don't see the problem if the cheating leaves you with an enjoyable challenge still at the end of it :-)

[Lord Rowell]

Mostly no, I play it as the tough challenge its meant to be.

That said, in a very smal number of saves I've played (probably 3-4 over the last 10 years) I've changed the database to give myself a different experience. For example, in my final FM13 save, I gave Blyth Spartans a couple of young wonderkids, sugar daddy and plenty of cash in the bank, and took them to the Premiership. So yes, that is cheating, but just a different way of playing that was obviously easier but was also what I needed at the time with other things going on in my life.

The other thing I do, probably once or twice a season, is replay a game if I feel that a quirk of the match engine representation has cost me a game e.g. when the opposition makes a change and, even when watching "Comprehensive" highlights, the clock ticks for 20 mins without showing me a thing. If that happens I then feel things have gone beyond my reasonable control and I will then replay the match.

One more thing, very occasionally, if I've lost a game I should have won, I might replay it, not for the objective of winning the game, but to try and learn where I've gone wrong and I find, as long as I approach this with the right mindset, it does help me to learn.

[kazm]

I thought about i when I lost promo matches 3d season with 20 shots, 6 ccc, 4 times the woodwork, 4th season it wasn't needed fortunately. Dunno if I would've done it if I had lost, maybe if it was another woodwork day.

[Ollyh]

In the CM days as a 10 year old I was a shameful cheater, not only would I manage Barca, but I'd have to give them as much cash as possible as well to get all the best players. Yet still couldn't win the Champions League lol. I certainly did quite a bit of reloading as well, especially for things like playoff finals, I remember reloading a final about 10 times before I won it! But since FM05, I've grown up and just taken annoyances like having no money or losing playoffs (which i think I've failed to win my last 5 playoff campaigns) as a challenge and while the temptation to reload is always there, I just accept it and remember you certainly can't reload irl if you lose.

[kipowell27]

No, I wouldn't cheat at FM as it takes away the whole point tbf.. Never restart during a game, never add a second manager and never mess about with the editor - three simple rules for me!

[Matt ex SEGA]

It's pretty simple - you just don't sign players because you know they've worked in the past, or because they're good in real life. You only sign players recommended by your scouts, players you see mentioned in the media, players offered to you by agents or players you play against in matches. Basically, you can only use the knowledge you accrue in-game to progress.

Don't knock it til you've tried it. It's great fun.

[Warhawk]

I have to confess to cheating just now, I reloaded after losing a game to a 4-6-6 team by a score of 9-1, when we were I think 2nd or 3rd in the league. Made I believe 3 lineup changes and switched to rigid instead of balanced and won the game 7-3.

Come to think of it, that's a somewhat stupid number of goals either way.

Truth be told, on the reload I would have been fine with losing, I just didn't want a ridiculous 9-1 loss to an inferior team on my save. If we had lost like 3-1 or 2-0... hell, if we'd lost 4-0 I could have lived with it.

[Booooooom]

I mess with the editor a lot for various stuff. Either to 'fix' things I disagree with or after a few saves I decide to mix things up and create a virtual reality that fits my mood.

But I always create my own tactics and I rarely sign players that are reccomended in the good players guide (used to check that though). Don't think I have signed anyone from there on FM13.

Also, I rarely reload when it comes to my own team. I have a tendency of reloading for other things (e.g World Cup, Euro, teams I like that I want to avoid relegation or win the league when I'm not playing in that division or country) So yeah, I'm quite weird when it comes to this

[matthiele]

isnt playing as any team owned by a billionaire who invests heavily cheating? eg- Chesea, Man city, Psg, Monaco..

[scott MUFC]

shame my scouts are too busy scouting the same players over and over

I save before every match, but that is so I can just hit play match if a reload the game from a crash.

why bother reloading, unless it is something completly unrealistic

[Ackter]

Don't knock it til you've tried it. It's great fun.

I'm not knocking it.

I'd be in LLM all the time if they didn't insist on playing with rubbish clubs - with that one exception I play in the exact same way.

[Rykjvk]

I play along the strict rules of LLM. Only use of scouts before signing players, only assigning staff through the in-game Job System. No use of player search, and I only start in the lowest possible leagues with Sunday football experience only...

I'm not a great tactician by any means, but this is the only way the game is interesting for me. I manage to achieve the odd promotion, but I never win much silverware to be honest. As long as its fun!

[BiggusD]

I play along the strict rules of LLM. Only use of scouts before signing players, only assigning staff through the in-game Job System. No use of player search, and I only start in the lowest possible leagues with Sunday football experience only...

I'm not a great tactician by any means, but this is the only way the game is interesting for me. I manage to achieve the odd promotion, but I never win much silverware to be honest. As long as its fun!

In my opinion, now that I am in my 10th season with Portsmouth and have taken them to the top, 25 scouts mean that the player search function is pretty useless. I have not found a single worthwhile player at this stage of the game in FM13 by using the player search. In lower leagues it is overpowered but at the top level, not so much.

[rayr27]

Done my fair share of cheating over the years but eventually grew out of it. Been pretty strict myself with FM13 actually. Not touched a scouting tool or IGE or quit over a bad result. The only thing I allow myself now is a reload if I've done something incredibly stupid that would never have occurred IRL i.e. leaving a rookie keeper in for a big game by accident. Most of my FM time these days is quite late night after the mrs/kids are in bed so I am prone to the odd brain fade towards the end of a session. I work on a 3 file weekly save though so on the odd occasion I do have to reload I sometimes have to go back to a point before a good result which is an extra incentive to pay attention to what I'm doing.

[tyroon]

I have cheated in the past, when i felt i had lost a few too many games that i shouldn't have lost but as soon as i hit that load game button without saving i start losing interest. I know i have cheated :o and shouldn't have won the league and its not fun anymore .... i usually end up starting a new game and seeing how long i can go before i ruin that save

This time i won't cheat! I won't!

[aliatam]

Yes.

Unfortunately.

Re-loaded the game as I could not win one match. But after few weeks, the idea that i cheated makes me feel uncomfortable and i always delete that particular save and re-start again.

Sick!

[Soccerplayer14]

My biggest cheat is rage quit and restart. I wish for my own satisfaction sake, there was no possibility to do this. I have just started a season with Real Madrid and so far, I have not done this. however, 2 games I was down by one point and won at the end of the game, but I found myself trying to justify why I was going to reload the save if I lost. So the ultimate question is.............what is it about Football / Futball / soccer and FM 14 that builds the rage when you are losing? It is a strange feeling, because if I reloaded until I never lost, I would feel unconvinced because I really didnt acheive it. However, If I lose to that 20th placed team, then I kick the cat through the window, pour clorax in the fish tank, break my daughter's toys, eat the last piece of pie I promised to my wife, and curse like a Sailor.

[Kazza]

If I need to I will, have no compunction about reloads. There are times, very few admittedly, when I just cannot accept a certain result, hence a reload.

In fact I will probably buy the in game editor to slightly tweak certain aspects of the game I feel in my opinion are incorrect, re players information/stats and so on.

[NotMyCat]

While not exactly 'cheating' I occasionally take control of managerless teams with good old 'First Name Last Name' and give myself a couple of weeks to bring in the best staff, players, affiliates etc I can within budget before retiring the placeholder manager.

Quite fun to watch these pet projects develop, but I supposed it skews the game slightly.

[Slick Mongoose]

I always used to edit out Ledley King's injury problems.

[CMdan44]

I always used to edit out Ledley King's injury problems.

Me too

May sneakily bring him out of retirement this year.

[Lindhoffen]

I reload the game if I lose a match. Simple as. I can't stand losing matches, they're all important for my honor and progress.

[hannahrr]

I do tend to scupper a certain team that I dislike (diseased vermin that they are), otherwise I tend to use the RTE to give some smaller nations a decent player. The Cook Islands once had a wonderkid that missed the Champions League Final because of a Oceania Olympic qualifying game. Otherwise, I use the RTE to stop all the Scottish players from being called Jim and to stop them all being psychopaths.

[AV054]

I used to save before negotiating contracts for important players sometimes so I could always go back if they broke down. But these days I never cheat in any way, it just takes away the satisfaction when you're winning something.

[Blanchflower1]

I would like to add that a real hard core gamer of Football manager will never cheat at all. He will play the game in a "Realism mode" with attribute masking hidden for good measure. Sadly I do not belong to that category....

[Blanchflower1]

I reload the game if I lose a match. Simple as. I can't stand losing matches, they're all important for my honor and progress.

I share the same sentiments. But I would go one step further. I always take the opposition team and make them play a 0-5-5 formation. For good measure, I also use FMRTE to maximize the attributes of all my players.

I thus belong to the category of a "hard core" cheater....

[hm86]

I always use FMRTE for ability stats, also been known to change a couple of stats for my players which I believe are wrong. I hate doing it but find myself not trusting scout reports etc. until I've confirmed it on FMRTE. Been playing the beta with no outside input getting very frustrated and I know for a fact I'll buy the RTE as soon as its available. It annoys me I need help haha

[Pelz]

Right there with you, though come the full release wife will probably be out cheating on me anyway

[Dalimyr]

I wonder if people be interested in the concept of 'enforcement' measures in future games - something which tallies 'suspiciously-timed' re-loads for example, which could then be viewed by other steam users?

I would expect this to be quite a useful aid to willpower.

Something is possible if SI were to utilise cloud saving in such a way. Other game series have already done so. For instance, X3: Terran Conflict and X3: Albion Pride (and presumably the upcoming X Rebirth) have a game mode known as "Dead is Dead". When you load up a game the save is downloaded from the Steam cloud and is then deleted from the cloud to avoid people using Ctrl-Alt-Del to close the game and reload a save, it will only save when you quit the game, and that save is only made on the cloud - there's no local save at all. And as the name implies, if you die, you die - it's game over and you have to start all the way back from the beginning, so it can be an incredibly challenging game mode, but it's one that is actually really popular...even though it has obvious downsides such as "If you're not connected to Steam when you quit, or your game/computer crashes while you're playing, you lose your save". Obviously, a style of saving such as this wouldn't be able to notice FMRTE edits (I think even that could theoretically be done with a bit of tweaking) but it would prevent people from being able to savescum.

[rorygood]

Don't cheat......only thing I do is Save the game before I wish to offer a player to clubs - just to make sure I actually get the most amount that clubs are willing to pay for him.....

Aside from that, no cheating at all!