retired_sneakyb

He mentioned that they are all placed in clubs within their nearest geographical active league. I.e. the Oceanian players are playing for Perth Glory in the A-League.

retired_macca1875

Good to see the boys are getting a few games, shouldn't be long now until they are all starting.

retired_charytine

whs.

retired_rajaijah

Maybe they need more time to get bonded together...

retired_candycorncats

Great experiment :thup:

retired_Mango Smoothie

Hey WW,

Nice idea and an interesting experiment.

Now, for the questions:
1. Does giving a useless international team 4 star players improve their fortunes?
Of course they will, though 4 players maketh not a great team yet. 4 great players will make more impact on the weaker confederacies, so the results will be more noted there than, for example, Europe.

2. Do these teams rise up the world rankings and if so is it gradual or is it a sudden explosion up the rankings?
The amount the teams rise will be dependent on their position at the start of the game. San Marino and Faroer are in a difficult position and will have to win against difficult European sides to rise a lot. Can't see them rise too much, even with 4 great players. In Oceania, the rise should be much more explosive.

3. Can any of the teams qualify for a World Cup?
In Asia / Oceania, it should be feasible. The traditional top tier of Europe and South America are too strong. Africa may be too strong too.

4. Are the effects more pronounced in some confederations than in others?
As answered above.

5. Do the nations provided with a 'backbone' produce better results and rise up the rankings quicker than the nations given 'wings'?
Backbone is probably more important than wings. I think the GK and to a lesser extent, SC are vital. The vital thing is, I think, the backbone players are able to make a game between the 4 of 'm, defending, creating opportunities and scoring from them. The wings are great for creating opportunities but are a bit more dependent on their team mates to knock the ball into the goal.

6. Looking at the players - will the players at clubs in remote backwaters take longer to end up in the world's best leagues or will they all move after 1 season at their starter club.?
The players in best regions will be snapped up quickly. The ones in a backwater region will be take a slightly more gradual growth path. I think the last player from a backwater region will take 3 seasons to get into a top league.

7. Thinking more longer term, will these nations produce some better quality regens as they move up the FIFA rankings or will these nations slump again after these star players retire?
Assuming the regen mechanism works with something like world reputation, I think there will be a marked increase on the regens. No miracles though, and there will be a slump after the players retire, except perhaps for the most succesful of the lot. Especially in the more backwater regions, the new position should be more permanent. In Europe, I expect them to fall back into their current places more or less.

retired_Cliffc

Good stuff so far.

Maybee in December/June we could get an abdate on how they are performing at club level, as this will influence when they get called up for their nation...

kan999

1. Does giving a useless international team 4 star players improve their fortunes?

Yes, and markedly so. There are plenty of rubbish sides out there, and even four good players will make a huge difference compared to sides who have none.

2. Do these teams rise up the world rankings and if so is it gradual or is it a sudden explosion up the rankings?

They will probably explode up the rankings, reaching the top 100 pretty fast. From there they will struggle, but I figure top 50 isn't out of reach.

3. Can any of the teams qualify for a World Cup?

Yes. The Asian ones and the Oceania ones have the best chance.

4. Are the effects more pronounced in some confederations than in others?

See above.

5. Do the nations provided with a 'backbone' produce better results and rise up the rankings quicker than the nations given 'wings'?

Yes. The "wings" sides will struggle more to get an end product. Although improved, they still have key weaknesses. When you're rubbish, you need to have excellence at both extreme ends of the pitch. Thus, the "backbones" will be superior.

6. Looking at the players - will the players at clubs in remote backwaters take longer to end up in the world's best leagues or will they all move after 1 season at their starter club.?

The European ones will move first, possibly already in January 2008. The backwater ones will take a lot longer to be discovered, and this could also hamper their progress. I'm worried that some of them will retire because they're to big for their domestic clubs, but not famous enough to be picked up by top clubs. This happened a lot in FM2007.

7. Thinking more longer term, will these nations produce some better quality regens as they move up the FIFA rankings or will these nations slump again after these star players retire?

As the nations' reputation rise, so will the quality of the players they produce. It will take a long time for this to be recognizable however. My guess is that no decent/good players will come up through the ranks until 7-8 seasons have passed, at the very earliest.

One question, have you made sure to set the detail level to full for all international games? This is a key factor to getting the experiment to work properly, as I found in a similar experiment for FM2007.

retired_taustin

Good experiment here. Much easier to conduct than mine

I'd assume that the backbone nations will catch up and surpass the wings nations, as a quality striker with at least one player to pass the ball to him should be enough to improve the team's fortunes.

I'll be most interested to know how the nations' future players are affected by the vastly improved team. I'd guess that the game engine will give these nations better regens as the rankings and reputation increase, but they will still be greatly limited by economics and population size.

retired_echater

Unlike everyone else here, I'm pretty confident that the nations won't produce better regens even if they rise massively up the rankings and appear in major international tournaments. I believe that the number and quality of regens from a particular nation are largely determined by a fixed reputation attribute and "importance" variable, with the reputation and youth facilities of domestic clubs also having some effect.

If it works anything like FM07 you'll barely get any regens at all, let alone high quality ones.