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From an earlier discussion about Super Goalies in GQ.
Note: the extract is not from SI, but is, I think, a good point.
"There are two basic reasons for it and both have an element of truth and both are operating at the same time.
1.The human does things wrong, creating the imbalances.
Obviously if the AI-AI matches look fine, human managers are doing something wrong. Plenty of human managers get perfectly good statistics from their games, lending weight to the notion something is wrong with what the human is doing.
2.The match engine is unbalanced.
There are way too many examples of out-of-whack stats and unrealistic, badly weighted scores for there not to be match engine issues.
What's NOT the case is that the keeper plays superbly well to artificially keep the scores down.
I think the basic problem, and it's far more complex than it looks written down, is that there is a "right" way to play. If you play the right tactics, your games look fine. If you play the wrong tactics, they look wrong.
At the moment, that area in which it's "right" is far too narrow and therefore it's far too easy to land in the "wrong" zone.
It sounds simple, but I imagine it's anything but. The notion that many posters, including the likes of Pires777, try to advance (that the AI is basically cheating them) is wrong. The AI treats both the same, it's just the AI knows how to play the game better than you do. That's not to say that what you are seeing is right. If you dominate games then, 9 times out of 10, you should win them.
It's an issue, one SI can only ever keep trying to tweak. But the very nature of a computer game, at it's heart a string of mathematical equations, means this sort of problem, the problem of a right and wrong way of playing, will always be present."
Originally posted by iajafer:
Tactics mean jack when you're on an aquaplane, to be fair. I change my tactics continuously and it makes no difference when you're sliding :cool:
It's a normal thing for me to do, btw. I change tactics, or at least instructions, almost "gamely".
When I hit aquaplane mode, I save and exit. Then I go to the pub and continue the save on the next day.
I can recall maybe 2 games in 7 seasons where my goalkeeper has played well enough to be the main reason we've won points (be it a win or a draw).
But on the other hand, I can more or less guarantee that in 15-20% of games my team plays, the opposition goalkeeper will play well enough to be the main reason his team gets a point or more.
I, like Ian, change player instructions on a game-by-game basis, so it's not just my tactics.