Fun challenges for an experienced player?

[ryanlion28]

I am considering buying FM19 but i really just would need a save idea to purchase it, and i currently don't have one.

 

I'm probably like a lot of people who have done a lot of the big challenges, I've done the San Marino challenge, i've managed a club in a minnow european nation and got them to Europe, i've managed the club i support, i've managed in the lower leagues of England and risen to the Prem. I've managed in every continent in the game, done the hexagon challenge. Done lots of international management. Managed an easy team in Man United too.

 

Where can I go next? Youth Only doesn't appeal to me as i like signing players , I just feel like i've done all the fun things i can do in the game, obviously there's so much more fun to be had but I just cannot find any motivation to start a save as I can't think of anything that interests me.

[oulzac]

Journeyman without European countries to start?

[Piperita]

I grew to like midseason careers. Holiday to December and take over the first underperforming club at the bottom who releases their manager. 

Normally half their players are unhappy or demand playing time, stars are being stalked, and generally it is just a mess. Usually you have two or three games (but four to five are ideal) for immediate impact where you have to use the squad as given. Then you have a transfer period with limited budget except for spares or what you sell. 

This mode really forces you to face the dynamics section as it already starts a mess. It starts at a disadvantage and is a good mix between using the club and transforming it. And the first full season also has new things to offer as the clubs usually missed their targets by miles, resulting in reduced budgets but with board/players still demanding the old success. All while the young or good players get offer after offer. 

Anpther mode I  experimenting with is essentially roleplaying a manager. Currently going all Magath. Extreme physical training, changing the entire squad every two seasons and buying a lot (and I mean a lot!) players on the chance they fit. Going all understatement to the press while pushing the players to the max and refusing any concession in private talks. There are no Team Leaders or Influencers but me! Who can complain can run! 

Things I have planned for the midseason update: A Bilbao save but starting with low facilities and their B or C team in the lower leagues. Another MLS save because they are always interesting. 

 

[phnompenhandy]

There are so many fun challenges to choose from. I linked to a thread yesterday and quite a few posters have hared over to it. It's where the dude brings in only players in their 30s and above - the diametric opposite of a youth challenge. Why not try that?

[Nathidz]

Have you tried having a team that are all the same nationality and getting them all into the national team? 

I managed to get bout 12 players from my Vélez squad into Argentinian team it took bout 3-4 seasons but it’s a very good challenge but this was on football manager 2016 but I am going to do this challenge on football manager 2019 I’m just deciding on which team I wanna be 

[alanschu14]

After winning the UCL as Kaiserslautern I snagged Claasen's league mods and am now attempting to take Encamp of the Andorran Football League and see if I can't help make Andorra a top 10 league in the world!

[Danny648]

I’m currently doing a save where my Chairman is in control on hire and firing all my staff, my Director of Football in is control of all by in and out transfers and my Head of Youth Development finds me future stars. The only thing I do is pick the team and do team talks. Some people may think it’s boring but the game fly’s by and its really interesting when you see the DOF has accepted a bid for your best player. It’s intriguing as to who will be bought in to replace them etc. 

[SpikeHughes]

On 10/01/2019 at 20:01, ryanlion28 said:

I am considering buying FM19 but i really just would need a save idea to purchase it, and i currently don't have one.

 

I'm probably like a lot of people who have done a lot of the big challenges, I've done the San Marino challenge, i've managed a club in a minnow european nation and got them to Europe, i've managed the club i support, i've managed in the lower leagues of England and risen to the Prem. I've managed in every continent in the game, done the hexagon challenge. Done lots of international management. Managed an easy team in Man United too.

 

Where can I go next? Youth Only doesn't appeal to me as i like signing players , I just feel like i've done all the fun things i can do in the game, obviously there's so much more fun to be had but I just cannot find any motivation to start a save as I can't think of anything that interests me.

Hi iv played this game before it was FM back to when it started so I know we’re your coming from sometimes it does get repetitive. You say you’ve been to the minnow leagues of Eastern Europe but how low is that. What about Slovenia or Slovakia second division, that’s quite hard no matter we’re you finish there’s never any money. Trying to get into Europe is tough the qualifiers are hard. What about closer to home wales is a good save there are some teams that aren’t even professional, try and get them into Europe iv done it once and have tried it on several occasions it was hard enough getting made professional. Also you could try a similar go in Ireland.

I have recently tried what Piperita said and enjoyed it also took over the Indian national team while I was waiting for jobs to become available, I spent a year and a half that was good qualified for the WC. Taking over as Piperita says everything’s a mess and if you get into a job after January you only got a short time and no transfer window to sort it out. At one point I was Southport manger/Indian manager. 

[Tom8983]

I've recently realised that I've never, in all my 19 years of playing the game, done a proper journeyman save from the very bottom trying to rise up. I've gone from bottom to top many times, but always keeping whatever team I started the save with. SO that's what i'm about to start, with my only stipulation being that aside from my first job, I can't apply for any. I have to wait to be approached. Well, unless I've been sacked and am unemployed 

[RBKalle]

Bilbao?

Or try to take a club from the lowest division of the lowest-placed nation to continental glory, if applicable.

But it looks like you've done it all already... In the end, most challenges are about building up a strong team, which gets "easy" after a while. So... why don't you play in "head-coach mode", with DoF signing and selling players without you having the final say?

[santy001]

I'd suggest a network game. Adding additional people to the mix brings the greatest level of challenge to FM in my mind.

[Warrenwwr]

Dominate Europe with a Self Imposed salary cap. Say 45% the budget (default budget). And be strict about it.

[chestermike]

Queens park as champions of europe. No one has done it yet....you could be the first...

[kccircle]

Try to get all London clubs into the Premier League

[qazwsx]

I may have a peculiar way of playing FM. This is what I do.

1) Hide attributes (Preferences/Interface/Skin Colours: RGBA=211,211,211,1).

2) I have a custom view with some of the attributes. It is physical attributes that I think a manager should have knowledge about by performing tests. Acc, Pace, Strength etc. Also some technical attributes that I assume could be tested, Passing and so on.

3) Then I print the custom view to a web page, import the file to Excel and perform some calculations (with a random element) that results in test results. So instead of knowing that player A have an Endurance of 17 I get at result expressed as a VO2 Max test. Sounds stupid, I know, but it helps immersion for me anyway. The random element in the calculations is a way to simulate real life, Bolt did not run the 100 m at the same time every race, right?

4) Not knowing most of the attributes at all and some by the "tests" only there is a need to compensate for that lack of knowledge. The answer is to watch the matches in full. I increase the speed a bit and then I watch everything, This may be a good time to inform you that I am single and I am retired. I have the time to watch FM matches. 

5) I calculate Manager points so I am able to compare different saves and also to add some extra drama to the game. I always start out as an unemployed manager with a low reputation. The goal is to earn money. When you construct a system for measuring the temperature you need two fixed points (well not if your name is Kelvin). Celsius used the freezing and boiling points of water. To calculate my Manager points i need two points too and I use the median wage for the managers in my division the first year (freezing point) and the median wage for the managers in the top league of my save (boiling point), I have a career of six years (playing every match on full means it may be months in real time) and then a few simple calculations give me the Manager points. To make it more interesting I will be able to prolong my career by winning divisions and cups. Longer career equals more money. More money equals more Manager points.

So when I negotiate  my own contract it will sometimes take months until we reach an agreement. Every Pound/Euro/Dollar extra will get me more points. And when I win my division I will be very happy because it will prolong my career and probably also increase my wage.

That's my way of playing FM.

English is not my first language but I hope you understand most of it anyway.

 

[Brother Ben]

On 14/06/2019 at 22:01, chestermike said:

Queens park as champions of europe. No one has done it yet....you could be the first...

This.

Nothing harder than this, I doubt if anyone has even got close

 

[Brother Ben]

7 hours ago, qazwsx said:

I may have a peculiar way of playing FM. This is what I do.

1) Hide attributes (Preferences/Interface/Skin Colours: RGBA=211,211,211,1).

2) I have a custom view with some of the attributes. It is physical attributes that I think a manager should have knowledge about by performing tests. Acc, Pace, Strength etc. Also some technical attributes that I assume could be tested, Passing and so on.

3) Then I print the custom view to a web page, import the file to Excel and perform some calculations (with a random element) that results in test results. So instead of knowing that player A have an Endurance of 17 I get at result expressed as a VO2 Max test. Sounds stupid, I know, but it helps immersion for me anyway. The random element in the calculations is a way to simulate real life, Bolt did not run the 100 m at the same time every race, right?

4) Not knowing most of the attributes at all and some by the "tests" only there is a need to compensate for that lack of knowledge. The answer is to watch the matches in full. I increase the speed a bit and then I watch everything, This may be a good time to inform you that I am single and I am retired. I have the time to watch FM matches. 

5) I calculate Manager points so I am able to compare different saves and also to add some extra drama to the game. I always start out as an unemployed manager with a low reputation. The goal is to earn money. When you construct a system for measuring the temperature you need two fixed points (well not if your name is Kelvin). Celsius used the freezing and boiling points of water. To calculate my Manager points i need two points too and I use the median wage for the managers in my division the first year (freezing point) and the median wage for the managers in the top league of my save (boiling point), I have a career of six years (playing every match on full means it may be months in real time) and then a few simple calculations give me the Manager points. To make it more interesting I will be able to prolong my career by winning divisions and cups. Longer career equals more money. More money equals more Manager points.

So when I negotiate  my own contract it will sometimes take months until we reach an agreement. Every Pound/Euro/Dollar extra will get me more points. And when I win my division I will be very happy because it will prolong my career and probably also increase my wage.

That's my way of playing FM.

English is not my first language but I hope you understand most of it anyway.

 

This deserves its own thread, awesome stuff, next level

You should do a career thread outlining all of this, i'd love to see this applied at a really low level like Conference North/South

Also your English is perfect

[99]

8 horas atrás, qazwsx disse:

I may have a peculiar way of playing FM. This is what I do.

1) Hide attributes (Preferences/Interface/Skin Colours: RGBA=211,211,211,1).

2) I have a custom view with some of the attributes. It is physical attributes that I think a manager should have knowledge about by performing tests. Acc, Pace, Strength etc. Also some technical attributes that I assume could be tested, Passing and so on.

3) Then I print the custom view to a web page, import the file to Excel and perform some calculations (with a random element) that results in test results. So instead of knowing that player A have an Endurance of 17 I get at result expressed as a VO2 Max test. Sounds stupid, I know, but it helps immersion for me anyway. The random element in the calculations is a way to simulate real life, Bolt did not run the 100 m at the same time every race, right?

4) Not knowing most of the attributes at all and some by the "tests" only there is a need to compensate for that lack of knowledge. The answer is to watch the matches in full. I increase the speed a bit and then I watch everything, This may be a good time to inform you that I am single and I am retired. I have the time to watch FM matches. 

5) I calculate Manager points so I am able to compare different saves and also to add some extra drama to the game. I always start out as an unemployed manager with a low reputation. The goal is to earn money. When you construct a system for measuring the temperature you need two fixed points (well not if your name is Kelvin). Celsius used the freezing and boiling points of water. To calculate my Manager points i need two points too and I use the median wage for the managers in my division the first year (freezing point) and the median wage for the managers in the top league of my save (boiling point), I have a career of six years (playing every match on full means it may be months in real time) and then a few simple calculations give me the Manager points. To make it more interesting I will be able to prolong my career by winning divisions and cups. Longer career equals more money. More money equals more Manager points.

So when I negotiate  my own contract it will sometimes take months until we reach an agreement. Every Pound/Euro/Dollar extra will get me more points. And when I win my division I will be very happy because it will prolong my career and probably also increase my wage.

That's my way of playing FM.

English is not my first language but I hope you understand most of it anyway.

 

I'll never do what you do, but it's absolutely awesome!

[qazwsx]

19 hours ago, Brother Ben said:

This deserves its own thread, awesome stuff, next level

You should do a career thread outlining all of this, i'd love to see this applied at a really low level like Conference North/South

Also your English is perfect

Thanks for the kind words. I will not write anything about my careers, to much work, all my time is spent watching my team play, haha!

Anyway, I could really recommend you to try the hide attribute thing. Before I did this my players was just a collection of numbers, I constructed a lot of formulas based on attributes and selected my squads by "magic numbers". Now the players are more like people, if you understand what I mean. I watch them play, and that tells me something about them. I interact with them and get a better picture. They react to my team talks and I understand a little more. My staff give me theirs opinions and so on.

I have this midfielder, I use him as a BWM. He is like a bulldog, winning duels, fouls a lot when it is needed, gets booked (but just once a game). In short a very valuable player in any team. Last match we was up 2-0 after the first half and I gave the usual speech about "don't get complacent". A few of the players reacted well, most did not react at all but my bulldog reacted badly. He was stressed and confused if I remember correctly. I thought I had "lost" him and prepared to have him replaced during the second half. So I watched him carefully when the play restarted. He was still the same bulldog as in the first half and he played 90 minutes. So I concluded this is a complex person (who is not?), even if he may be a bit odd he will work hard for the team. So I do my evaluation of him as I would do of a player in real life, he is not a collection of numbers.

For me this way of playing is more interesting. I do understand it will take more time, but I am not in a hurry. I will not do 50 seasons in a week but for me that is not a bad thing.

[Exius]

1 hour ago, qazwsx said:

Anyway, I could really recommend you to try the hide attribute thing. Before I did this my players was just a collection of numbers, I constructed a lot of formulas based on attributes and selected my squads by "magic numbers". Now the players are more like people, if you understand what I mean. I watch them play, and that tells me something about them. I interact with them and get a better picture. They react to my team talks and I understand a little more. My staff give me theirs opinions and so on.

What you do is amazing! I bet you watch the full match with normal speed or sligthly faster? With higher speed you'll just won't notice all these details. So, it takes you about 40-60 mins of teal time for a single match?

I like your idea of hiding attributes even though I think this is too much. I believe IRL coaches use some marks for evaluating various aspects of play for each player, maybe not such precise as 1-20, rather on "bad - excellent" scale. Graphic engine in FM is quite poor and lacks a lot of details compairing to real life, so you can't evaluate your players just by watching them the way it can be performed IRL. And of course IRL coaches watch the players not only during the match but during the training as well - this is something that you can't do in FM, so I think you get the things a bit over-complicated even compairing to real life, but still it should be more interesting than playing with all attributes.

What I like the most in your approach is random factor in your calculations. I believe it should depend on the level of your coaching staff - the higher it is, the less random calculations should be. Boy, I wish they introduce such approach in FM - now only current/potential rating depends on how good is your staff in judging the ability/potential, but attributes should be as well! 

I change attributes display in my saves as well - I use custom font to display them not as digits but rather as a 1-5 stars or rectangles rating. And I make visible only good and bad attributes - to see the strengths and weaknesses of the player. Average attributes are hidden and shown only if I highlight key attributes for the role. So my player profile looks like this:

 

As an additional challenges for myself I can mention hiring staff only through the adverts, not using player/staff search, buy only scouted players, not making massive tactic changes at once through the match (I can't see how this can be possible IRL - manager just can't communicate it to his players).

[qazwsx]

32 minutes ago, Exius said:

What you do is amazing! I bet you watch the full match with normal speed or sligthly faster? With higher speed you'll just won't notice all these details. So, it takes you about 40-60 mins of teal time for a single match?

I like your idea of hiding attributes even though I think this is too much. I believe IRL coaches use some marks for evaluating various aspects of play for each player, maybe not such precise as 1-20, rather on "bad - excellent" scale. Graphic engine in FM is quite poor and lacks a lot of details compairing to real life, so you can't evaluate your players just by watching them the way it can be performed IRL. And of course IRL coaches watch the players not only during the match but during the training as well - this is something that you can't do in FM, so I think you get the things a bit over-complicated even compairing to real life, but still it should be more interesting than playing with all attributes.

Yes, I watch the match (2D) at a speed two ticks above medium, it takes about an hour. But I must confess that sometimes, being down 4-0 or something, I speed things up even more. Once I was so frustrated with my team and being down 1-0 during the second half I left the room and went to the kitchen, eating a sandwich or something. When I was calm enough I went back and we were 3-1 up with five minutes to go.  Maybe I have a bad influence...

But of course, you are right. Watching the match in FM is not as good as watching a match in real life. But the match engine gets better each year (I hope) and you get a lot of information by watching the matches. One thing I don't care about is the player ratings, a player may get a high rating just by accidently scoring a goal with his butt after a corner.  Suddenly he is the Player of the Match. I treat player ratings as something you read in newspapers.

Your way with the custom font is a nice way to achieve something similar to what I am trying to do. It is good there is several ways to play the game.

 

[Exius]

For those who want a trully hardcore challenge I can propose the following:

Mask players attributes completely as @qazwsx proposed here:

Spoiler

 

or partially as I porposed here:

Spoiler

 

Watch only full matches with this camera:

Spoiler

 

It's extremely difficult to "understand" the game while using this camera but I believe it ideally gives the feeling of lacking the experience when you start a LLM game with no coaching qualification. While you watch the matches like this you're beginning to get used to it and "read" the game better and better.

You may rewatch the match afterwards with TV camera and try to analize what mistakes your team made and you made as a manager. If the match was picked for TV broadcast - you can watch it afterwards with Director camera (to reflect a real TV picture). If it was not - watch it only with TV camera with as low height as possible (I believe it reflects as IRL somebody from coaching staff stands there and films the game with a single camera to watch and analyze the game afterwards.)

Don't use Match analysis if you don't have Data Analyst in the team. Even if you have - during the match you can use Match Analysis only between halves and never during a half.

Don't watch replays during a match (you may watch replays of goals and highlights between the halves and after the game if your match was picked for TV broadcast - with Director camera).

Don't watch team stats and ratings during the match. If you have Data Analyst - you may check the stats only between halves. You may use body language and team performace widgets though, since they provide only the info which any IRL coach can get himself.

In other words don't do anything that a real life manager (with a team of your level and resources) can't do in real life.

I believe, all these can make the game as hardcore and close to real life as it can be.

[Lord Rowell]

Might not be a "challenge" as such, but often towards the end of my general playing of FM (in my normal gameplay, I'm always long-term one-club), before I'm due to buy the next one, I like to have creative fun with the editor, so some examples below:

• In years gone by, I've created from scratch a team of Sunderland Legends, all properly researched, was a hell of an effort but worth it
• Played as Ajax but recreated Cruyff in detail, honestly, warts and all, no tutoring / mentoring, and tried to progress him and the team together
• Using the "create a club" I made a GB team, then added a couple of extra player legends from the past to give the smaller nations of the UK more representation

One I haven't done yet is play as a team but move them to a different league e.g. Barcelona in the Premiership, or maybe in Brazil ha!

 

[qazwsx]

2 hours ago, Exius said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Watch only full matches with this camera:

Your idea about the realistic camera angle is great. Also your other suggestions to make the game more realistic is well thought out.  It would be nice if SI could add a realistic mode of play for those wanting a more demanding challenge. I admit to not having any knowledge about creating complex software, but I guess implementing , as an option, your "rules" what you may or may not be able to do in certain situations could not be that difficult. 

Then, from SI's perspective, the question is how many of their customers is interested in playing FM this way. Maybe most customers is actually happy winning Champions League with York City in seven seasons. We customers are all different and SI is in the business of making money. They will not create a challenging simulation of managing a football club, unless the extra work needed also will result in a profit. 

[Exius]

15 hours ago, qazwsx said:

Your idea about the realistic camera angle is great. Also your other suggestions to make the game more realistic is well thought out.  It would be nice if SI could add a realistic mode of play for those wanting a more demanding challenge. I admit to not having any knowledge about creating complex software, but I guess implementing , as an option, your "rules" what you may or may not be able to do in certain situations could not be that difficult. 

Then, from SI's perspective, the question is how many of their customers is interested in playing FM this way. Maybe most customers is actually happy winning Champions League with York City in seven seasons. We customers are all different and SI is in the business of making money. They will not create a challenging simulation of managing a football club, unless the extra work needed also will result in a profit. 

Of course most of the players like more casual approach and experience. What I like in FM is that it allows us to decide ourselves how hardcore and realistic our experience is. And I believe nothing should be done from SI to implement any of such restrictions 'cause we can restrict ourselves and make our own rules. You can i.e. not watch match stats at all and sit with a paper and pen and calculate basic stats (shots, fouls, offsides) yourself during the match, as they do it in lower leagues, if you want to play in ultra-realistic and hadcore manner. And in this case you don't need to be restricted by the game - this is a rule you made yourself only.

The only thing which I'd like SI to add is a camera (or at least I hope they leave the bossibility to play with a debug camera). I'm surprised how good FM is looking at this angle, taking into consideration how old the graphic engine is. They done really great job to tune it! When I first tried, it was very uncomfortable to play with this camera, but now I can't stop playing with it. And when I'm attending some matches as a spectator (I mean not with my team, but watching some other teams) I use it too, but take a place somwhere at the stands, among the supporters. That's a great immersion!

[Svenc]

On ‎10‎/‎01‎/‎2019 at 21:01, ryanlion28 said:

I'm probably like a lot of people who have done a lot of the big challenges, I've done the San Marino challenge, i've managed a club in a minnow european nation and got them to Europe, i've managed the club i support, i've managed in the lower leagues of England and risen to the Prem. I've managed in every continent in the game, done the hexagon challenge.

You may still find several ways that make the journey worth over the apparently inevitable destination. Still logically, unless you artificially restrict yourself there is no "challenge" anymore at that point. Just different exercises in patience (and unlike a gold farmer /power leveler rewarded for grinding/sticking around endlessly in an MMORPG you can't be getting paid for it).  

"Challenge" as such though can only really come from going online and playing with people who are as good as you. It's apparent you have already far outperformed any of the game's AI.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Only manage amusingly named teams such as FC Santa Claus or Deportivo Wanka.