retired_tamifc

If you're anything like me, when a new patch arrives you download it as quick as you can from a creaking server and once done, apply it to your game as if it were a tournicate to a life-threatening wound.

But what exactly does it do? Which files does it update to change in-game factors such as red card frequency, shots on goal etc.? The Football Manager directory in 'program files' is teeming with xml files. How influential are these on the course of game events?

What I am getting at here is the possibility, with the appropriate knowledge, of users 'patching' the game themselves. I don't want to wait until the FM 09 build-up begins to finally get the patch that fixes FM 08. If it were possible to tweak a few lines in an xml file to eradicate cricket scores in my game then I'd jump at the chance.

Having said all that...I suspect the real nuts and bolts of this game are safely hidden away inside the exe and as we all know, the exe is sacred and can't be modified in any way.

retired_mwalston

The xml stuff is pretty much all related to the skins, as far as I am aware. You certainly can't modify the match engine (for example) yourself. At least not without trying to modify the .exe, which is illegal.

retired_tamifc

Maybe one of the patches could be altered before applying so that the changes it does make can be made more/less severe? You'd have to become a programmer overnight but honestly, having just contributed to a 6-6 draw...I'll clutch at any straw I can find.

Let me guess though, it's illegal to modify a patch too right?

retired_RedRobin

The code is not accessible to us.

The other thing is, if you adjust one thing then it can impact on tens or hundreds of other things, causing an even greater imbalance in the game. If the pros struggle to get the balance right, what makes you think you can do it by edited a few lines in a text file without the appropriate knowledge?

retired_tamifc

That's why I said 'with the appropriate knowledge'

As for pros struggling...

I play several other games on a regular basis, and one of the biggest selling points of those other games is the ability to 'mod', modify the existing game and add an infinite amount of user-created content. This scenario is still a ways off actually editing an original application but the thing that never fails to amaze me is how the amatuer's work can often put the 'pro's' well and truly in the shade.

This entire thread is hypothetical of course, just the muse of someone who's losing faith in 'the pros'.