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PURE AI Experiement (VM Ware) - How Big of an Impact Do Team Talks Have?
Introduction
I will be conducting a controlled experiment to see how much a team talk effects your team in Football Manager 2008.
I had suspected in previous versions of FM that the team talks had too large of an impact on performance. Almost like the game in reality is a multiple choice drop down list, and if you choose the right things to say, your tactics, training, and signings don't matter. Now i will actually put this hypothesis to the test.
VM Ware
Unlike most AI experiments i have seen, this one will be a controlled experiment, using VM Ware Workstation. For those who don't know what VM Ware is, i'll give you the basics.
VM Ware is basically a "virtual" computer that can be installed within your own computer. It acts just like a real PC, so it won't work unless you install Windows and give it software.
The good thing about VM Ware when conducting experiments is, the "state" of the computer can be saved at any time to be restored later. That means that, as long as you keep the same tactics and talks, the match will play out THE EXACT SAME WAY every time you reload. If you change one thing (half time sub), the match will be different, but if you reload, and make the same half time sub, the match will play out EXACTLY like it did the first time you made the sub. If you've never used VM Ware before, it's quite scary to see!
Procedure
I haven't fully decided how i will conduct the experiment. At the moment i am thinking that i will take control of a few different "types" of teams. The following 6 clubs are being considered:
Chelsea - Massive club with superstar players
Newcastle - Thinks they're a massive club, notorious in recent years for their players perhaps not listening to the manager.
Cheltenham - mid-sized club in terms of England. I just needed a team "in the middle", and Cheltenham is right next to Chelsea in the list of clubs
Braintree - Amongst the smallest clubs that can be controlled in England. Managers seemingly have the greatest impact at this level.
Seongnam - Big Korean club. No one in the team speaks English. Will my team talk even register?
Changwon City - Small Korean club (second division). Again, no English speakers on the team.
I wanted to choose a team with all youngsters, but the only clubs like that are in foreign countries, so i would be combining two variables and it would not be controlled. Perhaps i will do this in the future if i can conclusively determine the effect of team talks on foreign players.
I will create 12 Managers and give them control of the 6 teams in two different save games. One save will consist of managers with no pre-set experience. The other game will have 6 managers who are former International Footballers.
For each manager, i will use nothing but a default 4-4-2, choosing the best 11 that they can play in a league match. At the start of the match, i will try one of the available team talks, and play until half time. Then i will reload VM Ware, and play the first again with a different team talk. I will repeat until all talks are used.
Then i will choose the best and worst half time results, and run each of those games from half time onward, using each of the available team talks. At this time i will not be looking at the effect of individual player talks. This will result in approximately 48 iterations of the same match using the same random seed on every matchday.
I will post only my data without analysis, until there is sufficient data (or lack thereof) to draw a conclusion.
I will not begin this experiment until later this evening, so if anyone has suggestions, feel free to contribute.
-Chas
11-06-2007, 02:45 PM
PURE AI Experiement (VM Ware) - How Big of an Impact Do Team Talks Have? Post #2
Sounds intresting, I wholly agree with you about the team talks though. They do seem a bit too important, well thats my take on them anyway. I'll be keeping an intrest on here :cool:
11-06-2007, 02:47 PM
PURE AI Experiement (VM Ware) - How Big of an Impact Do Team Talks Have? Post #3
im unsure as to whether the game will play out the same way. isnt the match engine a load of formulas deciding what a playe will do and what the chances are he will manage it etc. (obviously a bit more complicated than that tho). If the chances a player will complete it ae 50/50 then in one game he may manage it but on reload he may not. im not entirely sure how all this works tho
11-06-2007, 07:44 PM
PURE AI Experiement (VM Ware) - How Big of an Impact Do Team Talks Have? Post #10
If you don't have VM Ware Workstation, i suggest you try a demo sometime.
You get the SAME EXACT result, down to the slightest kick of a ball, every time you reload from the same point.
I've tried it. Suppose you save right at the kick off. The game goes 5-0 at half time. You reload again, and it will always end 5-0 at half time, and the goals will be exactly the same.
Now suppose you make all three subs at half time, and the game ends up 5-3. Now if you reload from the very beginning of the match, and you make the same three subs at half time, the match will still end up 5-3, and the second half goals will be identical.
PURE AI Experiement (VM Ware) - How Big of an Impact Do Team Talks Have? 
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