retired_Cat1123

As i was about to put this game to bed for good, a friend of mine invited me to use his set of tactics which are designed to beat the AI at its own game, by switching tactic/formation everytime the AI does the same.

How it works is, he has come across tactics while playing that counteract certain AI tactics and put these together in a massive set that stands at about "25" tactics so far.

Now i was dubious as to how this would work, but as i had nothing to lose, i decided to start up one more game before i quit the game for good.

Amazingly, right from the start it was obvious it was working a treat and i could'nt believe my luck. I was basically running away with the Prem in my FIRST season with West Ham.

Here of course is where the trouble starts, i could simply have run away with the league winning match after match and as unrealistic as it is, its certainly more realistic than the farcical football you have to watch thanks to the laughable match engine!.

It was noticeable that i was only dropping points against the top four and bottom three, which for a start reeks of predictable inevitability, add that to the fact that i dominated these matches emphatically too and you have what you have, a quite awful collection of bad scenario's and unrealistic transparent dross.

Sadly to use these tactics in their complete fullness, you have to watch the games and be ready for any AI switch, simply make the switch and you counter the AI, simple, although mind numbingly boring thanks to the awful rendition of the game.

Anyway, with just a few games to go the table looked like this and we were flying...



Of course this is when whatever the game does that sets the ball rolling, the results just dried up?. Players with superb morale and scoring for fun went on a catastrophic run of missing the simplest of shots and in an absolute annihilation of Spurs, Tevez, Ashton and Higuain were made to look nothing more than Sunday League quality at best!. Spurs did'nt have a shot all game, as i'm sure if they did we would have simply lost.(final score 0-0)

Next came Newcastle who we had comfortably beaten 3 times already(UEFA Cup twice) and missing their FOUR first choice strikers, without a win in 13 games and a whole team on "very poor" morale. Again i had to sit and watch whilst my strikers wasted a multitude of opportunities only to see Newcastles only effort on target all game take the points.(final score, lost 1-0)

Of course now there is a backlog of fixtures and we paid the price playing Pompey just two days after the Newcastle game, yet the difference in the game turned out to be Benjani?, who run my defence ragged on his way to scoring two amazing goals and take all the points.
(final score, lost 2-1).

This meant that we had to beat Manure in our last game and hope Chelsea lost at home to Pompey. Not that it mattered but Chelsea drew the game 0-0, whilst in my game, the sh*t well and truly hit the fan!. I was 3-0 down after just eight minutes in an end to end game, thanks to three amazing strikes that must have each won "goal of the season".(final score, lost 4-1)

Thanks to some late good form from Liverpool who at the start of this run were 7 points behind and had played a game more, we suffered the humiliation of finishing 3rd after looking all season to take the big prize.

If only that was it, next came the UEFA Cup Final(like i said, these tactics are good) and we are up against Bremen who were odd's on favourites. Off course as you may have guessed, we tonked them, 5-0 to be precise, as suddenly Tevez and co came back to life and finally started putting their chances away again.

Still not finished. We also made it to the FA Cup Final, we were playing Pompey who had just beaten us in the league and in all honesty like Manure in our last game of the season, we could have been 3 up in the opening minutes, off course though, that previous game of superb form again turned to sh*t as my strikers seemed destined to finish their careers of in non league football. Thanks to a free kick and a corner we lost the final to a relatively poor Pompey side, who could'nt believe their luck.

It's crystal clear for those of you willing to look that this game and especially the match engine is in meltdown!. The game simply chooses a path for you and neither the best tactician or the best players will make a halfpenny's worth of difference.

Surely its time to turn this game into what its supposed to be?, at the moment its just a frustrating, unrealistic chore to play.

I would say to anyone that suggests that my side simply "bottled it", that that would have been fine and i could take it on the chin, but to have to sit and watch whilst your team continue to annihilate the opposition, knowing full well what the outcome will be failure, shows that it is the game itself and not your teams performance that always has the final say!.

retired_hoodia

I dunno why si went and balls this game up, at least 80% of the people i speak to say its no fun anymore and have sold it and have gone back to fm06. Just look at the forums and you notice how many people just aren't coming on here.

retired_skyler900

you couldnt post these tactics so i can try them could you

retired_e_fores

That's plain wrong. People do succeed, often when it is unlikely (Cleon's Sheff Utd thread being most obvious). The game doesn't choose a path for you and give you no control.

The problem here is that you do not know why you havegone into freefall. This is a fault of the game in that you have no idea because the information simply isn't made availiable enough and this is a BIG BIG flaw and the source of (IMO) almost all fustration. However don't accuse the game of being preset or cheating (I only infering from your post the latter).

retired_BrownVanilla

That's plain wrong. People do succeed, often when it is unlikely (Cleon's Sheff Utd thread being most obvious). The game doesn't choose a path for you and give you no control.

The problem here is that you do not know why you havegone into freefall. This is a fault of the game in that you have no idea because the information simply isn't made availiable enough and this is a BIG BIG flaw and the source of (IMO) almost all fustration. However don't accuse the game of being preset or cheating (I only infering from your post the latter). </BLOCKQUOTE>

Spot on. the fault is in the lack of Ass.man and coach feedback, not the match engine (although it isn't perfect)

retired_pennyyoung

this has happened to me once as well. amongst a run of 5 league titles with lancaster, that season i lost or drew 5 games straight. and i'm pretty good at tactics so i conceded that the opposition were just too good and my team coped poorly with the pressure (despite their cohesion and experience from past titles).

of course i have stiolen titles from the likes of arsenal as well so i think it is balanced enough.

Sky King

Finishing 3rd is a humiliation? What are you talking about here. You have an overachieving squad coming down to earth.

retired_Cat1123

Finishing 3rd is a humiliation? What are you talking about here. You have an overachieving squad coming down to earth. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Like i have tried to explain to you on numerous occasions mate, it was simply a decision the game made to trip me up. The game stats showed that we suffered no loss of form, apart from a World Class striker being made to look an idiot as he missed dozens of the simplest of chances in front of goal.

Then of course he found his form in Europe, before it mysteriously dissapeared again for the FA Cup Final?.

Like i was saying, said and will continue to say, it does'nt matter if you have "50" shots a game and the opposition have "0", the game will simply trip you up when it see's fit!.

I know your keen on the whole "tweak as the AI tweaks" according to the other thread?, well i do that implicitely and the stats show i must be doing a pretty damn good job of it too!.

Yes, finishing 3rd with West Ham IS a major achievement in the first season, but i would rather have survived a relegation scrap, if only the game would portray a more realistic tendency on the pitch.

retired_bpx667

him loosing form could be with the hidden stats of the player

retired_B-Scott

I use this same system - but I find I can make do with 3 tactics to take care of most situations. 25 seems like an awful lot of work if they are tested! But credit to your friend who made them