FM 2008 @ A-League

FM 2008 @ A-League

From the official FM08 site:
http://fm08.footballmanager.net/en/article/101/1688.html

"We're also pretty excited with what we are up to in Australia. We're working with the A-league to give out copies of an exclusive Australian demo at A-league matches so that fans can try before they buy, and get a discount on buying the full game when they hand in a copy of the demo".

Very interesting, I wonder if they will bother handing em out at Westpac. Anybody heard more about this? I'm very much looking forward to dominating FM08 as the Phoenix. The AU demo hasn't been released yet via the net so there's no way of knowing what sort of stats the Phoenix players will have. The official release for the full FM08 in Australia (and presumably NZ) is the 25th of October.

Just out of curiosity I did some scouting on FM07 to try get an idea of what our squad would look like. The Brazilians all look handy, here are some screenshots:

http://kyuss.orcon.net.nz/Phoenix/George.jpg
http://kyuss.orcon.net.nz/Phoenix/Daniel.jpg
http://kyuss.orcon.net.nz/Phoenix/Felipe.jpg
http://kyuss.orcon.net.nz/Phoenix/Cleberson.jpg

by A-League standards Elrich has fantastic stats, probably better than anyone in the 07 version of the game:

http://kyuss.orcon.net.nz/Phoenix/Elrich.jpg

The whole team (except Draper who wasn't on the 07 database) can be found on here. The NZ players have pretty average stats by comparison, although I'd imagine the likes of Smeltz, Moss and Lochhead will get a bit of a boost in FM08.

http://kyuss.orcon.net.nz/Phoenix/


KTBW2007-10-05 14:16:08

I've got an update installed on my fm07, George is by far the best player, ends up best ratings in the a-league and on my game got bought for about 500k from some random. Daniel's pretty decent too.

Have'nt you guys got fifa08 yet?

I think we dropped George a little and boosted Felipe.

Elrich won't be in the Phoenix squad unless there is a data patch released pretty quickly after the match.  The deadline was before he transferred in.

i downloaded fm08 demo.. first fault! Walcott scored last season and they haven't put that in! jeez ha nah i dunno about it.. its okay, alot better than 07, More interaction most notably, still prefuring to play fifa 08 online at the moment

Better interface.. was time they changed that

Pelter is in the Sunderland squad as well as NZ in the 08 demo and has pretty good stats

Yeah, exported him as he signed.  They will have tweaked him from last years NZFC stats.

Does the player history have NZFC stats  ?  I have not got around to playing the demo yet.

Just installed the full FM 08 game (secured early via the net...)
Starting my first game as the Phoenix (A-League wasn't in the 08 demo) right now. I'll let you know whether the likes of Elrich are in the squad.

Elrich starts in the squad!

Aloisi has 20 for influence (not much else stats wise tho).

Oh dear. Lochhead has a 2 for crossing...

Daniel a natural left back, doesn't even seem able to play attacking left mid...

first glance, the stats are an improvement over 07 for our players, but not by much (ala lochhead and Daniel's stats). George has some of the best stats in the team :|
KTBW2007-10-18 15:38:06

Elrich won't be.

If there is a data patch in the next few days he will have moved but the file moving him only went to SI on Monday night.

Many will have the data as they were rated before returning to the Phoenix.
Hard News2007-10-18 15:39:35

hmmm that's a shame. I had high hopes for this year's edition. Hopefully some of the community made updates will remedy things (otherwise I might have to make one myself!). At the moment Christie doesn't have any ability at right back for example. But at least it does look like Elrich will be in the squad :)

A data patch from SI should fix a lot of it, just unsure when there will be one out.

One of the problems with the late building of the squad and a whole new squad from scratch meant that a lot of players didn't arrive until the final upload so we couldn't 'massage' them.  Even those we did not a lot had been seen of them playing by the Aus researchers.

As an example, it wasn't until after Central Coast that Plodder even played Right back, and from memory the original data deadline was the first week of September.
Hard News2007-10-18 16:07:45

OK you've convinced me, I'm downloading the 500+ meg demo for a go.Lonegunmen2007-10-18 19:07:15

Me also.

If there's an editor (usually is nowadays) surely if anyone wants to "massage" the players as HN puts it (like make Daniel a AML) they can. Even better, anyone with a good knowledge of the game willing to make a database for us with the Phoenix players sorted out a bit? *tentatively looks in Hard News's direction*

Where did you get it?

Don't answer that.

Seriously lads, apart from my position meaning I can't in anyway condone illegal download, SI could close this place down if there is anything promoting illegal download.

Please avoid it or I'll have to yank any thread where it is discussed.

:] thanks HN.

There is some pretty bad news however. The way they've done the salary cap is completely crazy. It equates to a 14.85 K/pw (in Pound Sterling) per team and supposedly excludes the top earner. That's all good and well, except there is no way to indicate who your marquee player is and when you go to submit your squad number the salary counter includes your whole squad.

Secondly, it appears the Phoenix players have their wages adjusted too high. Without going into the data editor and changing things around there is no way you can even get close to registering the 23 players that the Phoenix begin the game with, as the average salary of each player is far too high and ends up adding to around 18 or 19 K/pw.

The one slight improvement is that it seems some better players (chris james, john aloisi for example) are interested in signing for the Nix at the start of the game on free transfers. Unfortunately, because of the salary cap situation there's no way of bringing them in without cheating, but hopefully they'll sort it out with the next patch.

I have 'fixed' all of the above with the editor (but didn't leave myself space under the cap to sign the likes of james or aloisi) + made Daniel AML and tweaked a couple basic stats (lochheads in particular were horribly done, with most assigned at random). I decided it was fair to make George a little less fantastic in order to compensate! I'm not sure how to make my new A-League database into an executable I can share on the net though, but if somebody told me how I could certainly upload it somewhere.

 I had a good run in the preseason cup making it to the final, including a 3 - 0 tonking of Sydney FC with Daniel scoring what is honestly the best free kick I've ever seen in the game. He was right on the far side of the box on the left and curled it perfectly over the wall into the top right hand corner.Things evened out though and the Mariners destroyed me 4 - 1 in the final.

 I'll upload my tactic if people are interested. Am playing a 451 that looks like this:

-----------------------------------------------------Moss------------------------------------------------------------

---------------Christie---------------Dodd------------------O'dor-------------------------Locchead-------------

--------------------------------------------------Aloisi---------------------------------------------------------------

---------------Elrich-----------------------------Brown--------------------------------------Daniel-----------------

--------------------------------------------------Felipe---------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------Smeltz--------------------------------------------------------------

PS. To people DL'ing the demo with the intention of playing the Nix, don't bother as they haven't included the A-League amongst the quick starts and you can't access the data editor either.
KTBW2007-10-19 12:30:57

Brought my copy today. You have to fiddle around with the squad numbers all the time to get under the salary cap. YES, the game does seem to ignore the top-income earner in it's total wage calculation. . .

I normally play a 3 4 3 that looks like this:

just played my 4th game in charge of the Phoenix, and am unbeaten, however with 3 draws and a win ... I also signed Jakub Sinkora from Waikato FC lol for 7k   , but he did save my team from going down to Sydney FC, scoring in the 88th minute  (was his first goal for the club as well) ... FM08 is awesome, it looks great

Is the game out in stores yet?

I think the Aus release was today so possibly.

and yea the salary thing is annoying, I have a squad of 23 but could only register 16 for the season, and when players get injured its hard on the team, in the first game against the Victory I had one sub plus Paston ... using the Editor is a good idea to edit the salaries but what happens when you want to sign new players or even re-negotiate contracts, where the player would want more money?

I've got no idea what has happened there.  When it left me (and the Aus researchers) it was carefully done to leave enough room for another player and a marquee.

I'll chat with the Aus lads tonight and see what has happened.

Unless, the exchange rate or something has screwed it.
Hard News2007-10-25 21:25:12

Went to the store today (DIck Smiths) its out but none of the stores get it til next week.

Got Football Manager 2008 yesterday, kissed my social life goodbye...

hahaha ... ive had many late nights / early mornings playing that game and i've only had it a week!

It's worst than heroin.

phil style . how is your season going? I'm fifth atm after 15 games ... playing a 4 3 2 1, is going good altho my players seem not to be taking the guy with the ball, they back off most the time which gets annoying (and makes me nervous every time i see the opposition coming towards my goal!) ...

Thats the closing down bug that everyone on the SI forums is bitching about.

ahhh i just read something about that on a review ... is there any fix for it?

Not yet. AFAIK. There should be a patch soonish though.

link to beta release of the patch that fixes that and loads of other bugs here

http://community.sigames.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/521102691/m/2622077453

If you are hunting for a copy, try CD-Wow.com.  They have it listed for AU$54.95 and I have found them to be brilliant in the past.  The best bit is that delivery is free (!) and super-fast.

Nah im off to dick smiths tommorrow.