FM 2009

Downloaded this two weeks ago, anyone tried it? I think it's a bit crap really.

Why doesn't my reserve team (I play with Spurs) have any league fixtures? (my under 18 team has)
Do I have to do something?

Is there anything I can do about unsettled players? (I turned down bids for modric, corluka and bentley(!), and they've all gone berbatov on me)

it's largely fucking rubbish and my current Argyle save game is the only way i can get any enjoyment out of it. the 2nd patch fixes a load of the stupid bugs, but makes the actual match engine so ridiculously bad that I can't stand to play it. The entire company is going spectacularly wrong, the guy who does the match engine is now OBSESSED with replicating 'proper english premier league stats' from some expensive databases they pay for.... and applying them to the entire game, so the Brazilian league will play that way too, for example. They also pay Ray Houghton an allegedly 5-figure salary for feedback on the match engine and treat his word as gospel, so you've got him to blame for all defensive lines moving so far up the park when your team gains possesion that half the goals on the game come from long punts upfield.

Apparently the latest beta version of the forthcoming patch contains wonderful features such as 'the game being so demanding on wingers that they take 10 days to recover from 90 mins regardless of stamina/fitness stats' and 'conference goalkeepers saving less than three percent of shots on target'. also, Miles Jacobson is the worst human being in the world.

ANYWAY you should have reserve fixtures automatically in season 1, and then in each offseason it prompts you to enter the reserve and u18 leagues. unless harry's done a keegan and pulled them out IRL, you should have about 20 reserve fixtures over the course of the season.

Unsettled players - there's not really a huge amount you can do if they get unhappy, especially as i'd imagine most of the clubs interested are 'bigger'. Just be glad it doesn't have 08s problem with chairmen accepting pretty modest bids over your head. Play the game, sell Bentley or someone for whatever insane fee you can get from Man City and fund either 2 or 3 holes in your first team or an entire youth squad.

INTERNET MALE wrote:

ANYWAY you should have reserve fixtures automatically in season 1, and then in each offseason it prompts you to enter the reserve and u18 leagues.

Hmmm maybe there's a patch out I don't have because I'm sure I was only asked if the u18 team wanted to join a league.

INTERNET MALE wrote:Unsettled players - there's not really a huge amount you can do if they get unhappy, especially as i'd imagine most of the clubs interested are 'bigger'. Just be glad it doesn't have 08s problem with chairmen accepting pretty modest bids over your head. Play the game, sell Bentley or someone for whatever insane fee you can get from Man City and fund either 2 or 3 holes in your first team or an entire youth squad.

Damn, it's the most annoying difference I've discovered so far (from 07, didn't play 08). The big clubs are much more aggressive and seem to want 3 good players in every position. The upside is, as you say, that I can buy very good unsettled squad players from them for reasonable fees. Still its hard for team morale to have 2-3 central players sulking from september to january, and then you have to build a new team before the same routine start again in february.

Rocky wrote:

INTERNET MALE wrote:

ANYWAY you should have reserve fixtures automatically in season 1, and then in each offseason it prompts you to enter the reserve and u18 leagues.

Hmmm maybe there's a patch out I don't have because I'm sure I was only asked if the u18 team wanted to join a league.

INTERNET MALE wrote:Unsettled players - there's not really a huge amount you can do if they get unhappy, especially as i'd imagine most of the clubs interested are 'bigger'. Just be glad it doesn't have 08s problem with chairmen accepting pretty modest bids over your head. Play the game, sell Bentley or someone for whatever insane fee you can get from Man City and fund either 2 or 3 holes in your first team or an entire youth squad.

Damn, it's the most annoying difference I've discovered so far (from 07, didn't play 08). The big clubs are much more aggressive and seem to want 3 good players in every position. The upside is, as you say, that I can buy very good unsettled squad players from them for reasonable fees. Still its hard for team morale to have 2-3 central players sulking from september to january, and then you have to build a new team before the same routine start again in february.

latest patch at present is 9.0.2, but that sounds like the sort of obscure bug that's rare enough they won't prioritise fixing it. all I can suggest is arranging a couple of reserve friendlies a month?

unsettled squads have always been one of the more annoying things for me as you can sort of see the strings being pulled, as soon as their reputation 'hits' a certain threshold all the teams in that reputation range start sniffing around, so promising youngsters go from off everyone's radar to '6 massive clubs bidding weekly' overnight. same with 'wants to move to a bigger club' popping up when their reputation exceeds your club rep by enough, even if you successfully placate them with 'yeah, i want to strengthen the squad around you so we can win stuff here' it just goes through the same routine again next time their rep increases, normally after a month or less.


tbh I think fully patched FM2007 is still the best game they've put out. the later 2 have dozens of nifty features and touches in them but SI don't seem remotely bothered about balancing the game or the database so they're still just nice in theory.

I'm rotating a currently rather good bunch of talented youngsters at Roma, hell Inter are miles better than anyone but I'm on the up and challenging.

ROCKY mate son - are you playing the game in Swedish? apparently English reserve leagues are bugged to fuck if you play in any language other than English, loads of people on the boards are having the same issues. wp SI/Sega testers

INTERNET MALE wrote:ROCKY mate son - are you playing the game in Swedish? apparently English reserve leagues are bugged to fuck if you play in any language other than English, loads of people on the boards are having the same issues. wp SI/Sega testers

No, I play in english. I discovered that I hadn't installed the 9.2 patch after all , after I did that the reserve league problem sorted itself out.