Football Manager 2013

ComradeDavo

Formerly God
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Football Manager 2013 was released yesterday. Any of you people got it yet?

Seems harder this year, much improved though!

My first Premiership game (as Southampton) my left back was sent off for a 2 footed challenge after 3 minues. Bit of a rude awakening to the game!
 
Whats different between 2012 and 2013?
The whole game just feels a lot better, everything seems improved, from the match engine to the training to player reactions to the tone you use etc. Nothing i'd call a fundamental change, just general improvement all over.

From their website:
Match Engine
The 3D match engine has seen huge improvements this year. Everything on the pitch looks more realistic; from the stadiums, the players’ movement, intelligence, and the way the ball moves through the air.

We’ve also introduced hundreds of new animations to make the game feel more realistic and we’ve made the whole experience more televisual by introducing new camera angles and showing the kick-off and final whistle.

Manager Roles
Another notable difference is the significant restructure of the manager’s staff and a revamp of their roles. The most obvious is that we’ve introduced the position of Director of Football into the game for the first time, which will allow managers to pass on some of their workload, such as contract negotiations, if they choose to.

In addition to this, we’ve also increased the number of specialist coaching roles within the game and given the manager greater flexibility to choose which coaches offer advice and when. The manager can also choose to complain about boardroom interference – although that particular option should probably be used sparingly.

Training
This year sees a total revamp of team training, with a new simplified overview panel combining general training and match preparation. Choose your weekly team weekly, give the lads a rest after a big win or drag them into training the day after bad performance. You can now even send your coach to acquire more training badges to improve their skills and send the whole squad away on a training camp.
 
I get the feeling it's been a bit buggy.
For one, i played a season where i won 6-0 my first league game, then i lost 3-0 away. These see-saw results carried on for a while. I've also gotten stuff like...i had 4 players get injured in one match...i think it's a bit buggy.

Haven't managed one season yet, going for it slowly. I'm disappointed they removed the "make your own training session" thing - i made wonderkids out of that like:




Who wasn't rated by coaching staff, stars wise, but scored a lot of goals :(tho his stats that season weren't that good as you can see) :p

Found any Wonder jugend yet?
 
Yeah thats the random picture generator.
If you get a african player they can get an afro :p
 
Very Aryan looking :p

I'm not really into Football, or any sport at all for that matter, but I did try the demo for FM... either 11 or 12 I don't remember and it was neat but didn't really hook me. I still am kind of tempted to try actually palying one of them again though, but I'm not really sure.

That and I can't justify buying anymore videogames for a while :/
 
There are two types of ways to get into the game.
If you really like football, you will overcome the initial...shall we say...barriers to entry. There is a lot of stuff to pay attention too which is overwhelming at first. Thats why in the latest FM there is an option to play a classic mode where features are removed and you only have to consider basic things.
The second way is where i think your coming from. Not interested in football but open minded to try. You may not enjoy it for the first few hours but you will overcome that and really enjoy it. If you get to that stage then the price of the game doesn't matter, as you will probably play it every day :p
 
Really I wish the Americans would get off their fat arses and make a game like this for American football or baseball. They have it-ish, but it's a minigame, and the focus always remains on the team, rather than the head coach/manager/gm. It would be great in a football game, say to have an advanced scouting game, to work up the ranks, starting as a qb coach or OC in a University, and work your way up to being the HC of a major NFL team. Likewise rookie scouting, drafting, and FA have always been my favorite part of the Madden games, far more than playing the games themselves, so I'd love to see a version of that with a game entirely dedicated to it.
 
I'm surprised they haven't it would be a big money spinner. FM for instance is a huge cash cow for Sports Interactive.

In the UK there is even a cricketing manager sim :lol:
 
I want something like FM combined with Rock Band.

There was a game in the late 80s called Rockstar, that did this, was an awesome game. An updated version of something like this would be great.

As for Baseball and FM, what about Out of the Park Baseball, is very similar to FM (in some ways has even more detail).
 
I get the feeling it's been a bit buggy.
For one, i played a season where i won 6-0 my first league game, then i lost 3-0 away. These see-saw results carried on for a while. I've also gotten stuff like...i had 4 players get injured in one match...i think it's a bit buggy.
Who were you playing as?

Football manager's are always a bit buggy when released, they ar epretty good at patching though. As for injury thing...well must admit I occasionally reload if it's a particularly bad injury to one of my best players (i.e. a leg break).

First season as Southampton I finished 14th.
 
Thats quite a awesome finish tbh with a team doomed to relegation by the media and a poor squad. I guess you made some good signings?

I've got loads of games going on at the moment. Southampton, Arsenal, Monaco, Palermo and Manchester United. I got excited and splurged into a load of different games. Furthest i am is with Man United in december followed closely by Southampton.

I got a lot of sentimentality for FM12 so i've caught myself playing with that at the expense of 13!
 
Thats quite a awesome finish tbh with a team doomed to relegation by the media and a poor squad. I guess you made some good signings?
Not many in my 1st season. Just a couple back up players to start with. In January window I signed Liam Ridgewell at left back. I play normally quite a narrow formation which works pretty well, 4-2-1-2. Lallana doesn't play taht well in that formation though, so sometimes I go 4-2-3-1 instead.

My second season was better, finished 1th. For that season I signed Andy Carroll, he gets a fair few goals in the style I play, James Collins at CB, he's done well, Phil Neville and Rosiscky as back ups.

Just doing pre-season before my 4rd. Signed John Ruddy for keeper so far. Trying to sign a couple Brazilian wonderkids who I should get to be good back up subs.
 
There are two types of ways to get into the game.
If you really like football, you will overcome the initial...shall we say...barriers to entry. There is a lot of stuff to pay attention too which is overwhelming at first. Thats why in the latest FM there is an option to play a classic mode where features are removed and you only have to consider basic things.
The second way is where i think your coming from. Not interested in football but open minded to try. You may not enjoy it for the first few hours but you will overcome that and really enjoy it. If you get to that stage then the price of the game doesn't matter, as you will probably play it every day :p

The second way is closer to how I got into the series twelve years ago. I had no interest in football but loved strategy games, and had a friend who loved football but didn't enjoy video games. He was addicted to Championship Manager, and I was intrigued. I tried it, and I loved it despite having no idea what I was doing - I think most of my knowledge of football came from playing these games - and I bought every one since :D

That said, I'm finding the more recent FM's far too unwieldy. They keep adding features while making it awkward to utilise them. I'm not asking for the game to hold my hand, but I would like more indicators on what I might be doing wrong/right.
 
I am probably going to pick this up once it goes on sale.

I've got a 2020 save in FM2012 going right now, where I've been coaching the same team from the 8th tier of English football all the way to the Premier League. Right now it's my first season in the Premier League, so.. I'm just really into this save - and since I couldn't import my save into FM2013, I don't really need to get it right now. Maybe that will play in my favour - they'll fix whatever bugs there are, etc. Heck, maybe my current save will go on for a while longer and I'll just get FM2014 next. Who knows.

I'm def. a big fan of FM though
 
2021, second season in the prem, I'm somehow 4th and my team is made up of young players who either came up through my system or who I bought young. I'm on a roll. It's only december but things are looking good - I'm definitely NOT getting relegated

I finished my first season in the prem 10th, thought I did well not to get relegated.. My wage bill is the smallest one in the league by quite a bit
 
Struggling along in a AS Roma game. The expectations are enormous. Last season they finished 7th and this year the minimum requirement is to achieve champions league (which is top 4). Undoubtedly; their best player is De Rossi - he has incredible stats:

Spoiler :


As you can see my coaches place De Rossi just in front of the defense in an anchorman role. I disagree with that assessement. His all round stats are sound - I think I will play him in either MC/DMC as a DLP with Defend function. I think he has the ability to do that. We will see though. If that doesn't work - I've got a young Greek, 21, who can do a similiar thing and De Rossi can go back to a midfield general. Mental stats are always underappreciated in a game like this. People seem to focus on technical or physical capabilities when the mental strength to see a game out; or perform in the big games or the season run-in is actually more important - certainly, i value it highly specifically determination.


The titan in the dressing room is Francesco Totti; whose mental and technical ability is fantastic. Unfortuantely, he is a 35 year old man now and his physicality has completely deteriorated. What a crying shame he managed so few caps! I guess Del Piero played in his position who probably had an edge on Totti - just.

Spoiler :


In these two players I have the club. They are the club (along with the fans, of course). They are the talismans - the heart and soul of the club; both born in Rome, both joined Rome youth academy (over arch-rivals Lazio). These facts mean they are unsellable and are vital assets to the club. De Rossi will play every game; Totti will probably be a squad player but he will play 25+ games this coming season and his presence around the club will lend experience to the younger heads.


As for the rest of the squad i'm relatively pleased in some areas and unhappy in others. I have 4 kids 18 - 22 who have been assessed to be stars of the future; 1 AMR, 2 AMCs and a LB. It may be a struggle to bring them all through and it may be worth to send one of those AMCs on loan. Established senior players include Stekelenberg, Balzeratti, Osvaldo, Burddiso - they are in a variety of positions and I sense they along with De Rossi will be the spine of the first time.
Weaknesses appear to be my right back and central defender.

Here comes the issue:

I have a shocking transfer budget - I arrived at the club and was given a war purse of £1m to buy players. I've sold a few players now and I've gotten to 3.5m and about 40ishk/week to play around with I need a right back and central defender. I'm finding it difficult to find a player of significant quality to fill in that gap, after all if i don't get 4th i'm open to get the sack. Any suggestions? Anybody like my little tale here? I quite enjoy reading other people's stories as they play a game, i may make an effort to make an FM one. It might be tricky to find the time though ;)
 
Totti's pretty old, you should be grooming a replacement and/or looking for one. What formation do you use? Do you play 2 strikers up, is he alone up there, or do you use a 4-3-3?

I would play De Rossi as a playmaker right in the centre, but I'm used to a very classic 4-2-2 formation... In my formation he would be playing in the centre beside somebody who is a bit faster.. His other stats are just amazing though - he could probably fill any role in central midfield or in a CDM position.

I am on my 11th season with Kensington Park FC. Started in the 8th tier of English football and I just finished my 2nd season in the Premier League. Edited a team into the game at the lowest level with crappy everything except a decent training ground and a good youth academy (but not great) and made Snoop Dogg my chairman. Our first stadium was built in Kensington Gardens, at the former site of Princess Diana's memorial playground. (In the editor you have to pick a geographical location, so I started looking around London. There's no room left except for in parks. I forget why I went with the playground... I think it's just in a good spot :lol:.. I have nothing against Diana really) In my hypothetical universe, somebody somehow managed to buy that piece of land, demolish the playground, build a football stadium there, create a football club, install Snoog Dogg as chairman, and.. me as manager. The only scenario under which all that makes sense is if I won a reality TV show to manage a new football club in England at the lowest enough level.. and Snoop Dogg was involved in it too.. I don't know, I went with it, it's been pretty fun. We have a new stadium now that we're in the Premier League (14,000 seater only though, need to upgrade soon) - so I guess maybe the playground is back. The club was bought out like 5-7 times so far, so maybe the people who own it now like Princess Diana a bit more.

Anyway, here's our logo:



All I did was combine logos of 2 teams. My team nickname is "The Tigers", so.. it was easy, it works, they're obscure teams so it looks "genuine".. and I like it.

That rather extreme shade of yellow is actually not even as obscene as our away jerseys are. Our home jerseys and colours are white and blue (mostly white on the jerseys).. But our away colours are near-Dorito flash yellow/orange and black, using a croatia-style checkerboard design. That's also what my goalie's home jersey is.

In my first season at the club the team was made up of random players I bought when I started playing - there was nobody at the club.. no staff nor players.. First I had to hire scouts but my reputation sucked so I hired incredibly crappy scouts.. They recommended incredibly crappy players (sometimes) and a couple good ones. I really had to rely on my youth academy for my team and by my 3rd year my team was mostly made up of youngins. After all the stragglers' contracts were up they were let go and my average team age was 17-19 for a couple seasons.

It was smooth sailing after I got things under control after that crazy first season (and then some), but only until I got to the championship. I had a generation of young players in their early 20s playing for me, most of them joining my team through the youth ranks 5-7 seasons ago in the lower leagues. A lot of them were playing for British U21 squads, so initially a goal in the game was for me to develop British football superstars and for a couple of my players to be on the England team that wins the world cup.

This changed in the championship though, because my youth academy was good but I was at the level now where other clubs' youth academies were comparable, if not better.. So I pursuaded the board to upgrade my youth facilities and went out looking for good players to complement my squad to help me get to the Premier League.. I didnt' want to sign anyone too old and settled for a 20 year old Italian striker and 2 21 year old Italian CBs, as well as another foreign (an African country, I forget which one) defensive midfielder, and.. I think that's it. That worked out incredibly well and the striker is now one of the leading scorers in the Premier League, finishing in a close #2 behind Chachurito.. Yeah, he still plays, in 2022! He's in his 30s and near retirement and for some reason a lot of the bigger clubs in England have kept players who are 33 or older. Nasri and Szczesny play for Tottenham I believe (they are a force), Dzeko still plays, but for Arsenal or something.. and.. There's random names here and there, a bunch of old farts still playing in the premier league, while my team's average age is 21 now and my 2nd best striker is a 17 year old wonderkid who came up through the new upgraded academy. He isn't quite ready yet, but he's excelled in many games, getting hattricks and such. Either way, I have already hired Steven Gerrard as a coach and I am closely watching other big names of leftover non-regens that I could hire as coaches or scouts or as an assistant when they retire. Cause that makes the premise of this whole thing even more ridiculous, entertaining, and enjoyable.

My squad is now fully multinational, even on the u18 side. I spend all my money buying 15 and 16 year old kids now, except from the occasional 22 year old for depth, due to injuries, or whatever (had to get a right midfielder/winger for example, ended up getting a really good 19 year old English player, he's going places too).. My wage bill is $10 million or so, while the top two clubs are spending $110-$120. The club right above me in terms of stats spends $27m. I have a strict wage policy and so far my top players love the club so much that they are willing to not make more than about $24,000 a week. Only about 4 guys make that much, everybody else is on smaller and longer contracts.. with the average wage being about $8k. I am sure that my leading scorer Bresci, who is in no doubt going to tear it up for the Italian national team at some point, will want an even larger wage at some point, or to move to another club. I just had negotiations with him a couple months ago and he initially asked for a crazy sum.. $45k a week I think. That would totally destroy my wage structure and I was not willing to do that, so I stalled a while.. then came back to him and was firm in my negotiations - nobody on my team is allowed a "match highest earner" clause (anymore) for example, and managed to talk him down to the $24k, which at the time was about 3k higher than the highest earner.. So all in all, good business. We'll see how negotiations go in 4 years time when he's at his prime.

I just finished the 2nd season in the premier league like I said - my first season I finished 10th with 51 points, and now I finished 6th with 70 I think.. So I qualified for the Europa League and I'm really excited about that.. but a whole bunch of my staff need their contracts renewed, so I need to go through that process - figuring out if there's better replacements first, etc. So I'm looking forward to it but not that part, and it needs to get done first. So for now I'll stall a bit and play total war

I have an amazing Brazilian central defender who I picked up when he was 18 from Santos when I was in the championship - I have no idea how I was able to get the work permit issue cleared - I just appealed and it went through... now he's 20 and dominating in my back line already, totally displaced one of my trusted Italian CBs, who is now a backup. I have 3 more Brazilians arriving in the summer, a winger, another central defender, and uhh.. who knows and who cares, it's a very promising 18 year old from Santos :lol:.. These guys are probably going out on loans right away, as they're all 18 and probably not ready for my first team.. Even though I already have a 17 year old on my first team and a bunch of 19 year olds.

I play a very classic 4-4-2 formation, because it's what my team is used to and how they've been playing for over 10 years... I've had to make minor tweaks as I went along, but I think I have a winning formula, just need my players to develop a bit more in terms of maturity and experience, and I should be able to take the premier league crown next season or the one after that. I've been beating the bigger clubs.. maybe 50% of the time overall. I focus on defense, have a 33 year old goalie with tons of experience (the only anomaly in my "youth or nothing" approach), and my strikers are either lightning fast or super tall. I usually have at least 1 super speedy striker out when I play the big guns - they'll have their aging millionaires out there, with far more experience.. but far less speed. And this Welsh guy I have - Rickey Bartley Jones. I think he's bigger than Peter Crouch and he's built like a tank. He's been with me since the beginning or year 2 and he is just a beast.. Doesn't score as many goals anymore but he is just giant.. Amazing target man, will get in there and mess people up - he's 24 now so not a kid anymore. Anyway, I feel like if I can get in a good groove next season I can make a legit bid for the title. I am not sure about Europa League - I think I will have to send out far less players on loan just so I have more depth.. But at the same time I don't want to stunt the growth of all those players... I wish I could see the schedule for the season early so I can start planning

Snoop Dogg, if you're wondering, quit during the first season, right before a takeover of the club. I have no idea what he's up to, I should look him up
 
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