roadrunner

Having read a few of the posts on the forums, I now know the best way to win at Football Manager.

1. Buy the game.
2. Go on to the SI Editors forum and moan that FM Scout and MCFM06 have not been made available for use.(Optional step)
3. Download ArtMoney.
4. Download the Artmoney tables that allow you to edit the Current Ability and Potential Ability of players and staff.
5. Start the game and select any team.
6. Go into Preferences and set the Unique Id option.
7. Negotiate the maximum length contract with all your players and staff.
8. Write down the Unique id and date of birth for all players and staff.
9. Using ArtMoney edit the Current and Potential ability of all players and staff to 29000 and 30000 respectively.
10. Go on holiday and instruct the Assistant Manager not to buy or sell any players and leave the machine running.

The FM program will automatically update the attributes of the players and staff to match their current ability.

Oh what fun!

I can understand the thrill of getting the team that you support to do well. I admire the programming skill of the utility makers and the analysis skills of the people who make the ArtMoney tables. I am impressed by the willingness of people to share information on the forums, that enable people to play the game better in the spirit in which it was created.

SI have created a game (this is not real life) that is a lot of fun. There are a lot of different aspects to the game; training, tactics, man management, financial management and team building to name a few. The more effort you put in to these, the more rewarding it is when the teams results improve.

I defend the right of anyone to play the game in any way that they wish. However by using methods identified on the forums it is possible to eliminate all the aspects (and fun) of the game, if you define success purely by the number of trophies and titles won.

I can't claim never to have used an editor to find players that my scouts would not, or to boost some of the stats of my players, when I have had enough of five consecutive seasons of mid-table mediocrity in the third division. However, I find it difficult to comprehend why some forum contributors have bought the game and won't play it until one of the utilities available for the previous version has been made available.

And finally.

1. Computer software is never going to be perfect. It is not in the interests of SI to produce a game that does not work. It is impossible to test it so that it works under all circumstances. The more users there are, the more errors will show up. SI are pretty good at releasing updates to fix bugs. If you have a complaint complain politely.

2. People who make utilities for you to use do so in their free time, don't get paid for it and are willing to share their work. No one has a right to demand or even expect that these utilities are produced at all. If they are produced you should be very grateful.

3. It is possible to have an opinion without being personally abusive to other forum contributors. Moderators should consider banning abusive contributors. They add nothing to a forum and detract from the enjoyment of the civilised majority. Is a polite request for a CD crack really worse than personal abuse?

borat123

I agree with your points Alan except for the CD crack. Cracking is piracy. Piracy is theft. Theft is against the law.

Calling someone a <expletive> isn't really against the law. And personal abuse is not tolerated in here either (subject to the cards system).

roadrunner

Piracy is indeed theft and should not be condoned. To be pedantic a request for a CD crack is not illegal, only the act of producing and distributing it.

In terms of offense, it is more offensive to see abusive or threatening language than a reasonable request for something that is illegal. Interestingly my comment was inspired by a comment made about you by one of the site moderators.

If it was an in-house joke, it failed to translate when written down.

retired_woody321

I own FM2006 (and every sigames cm/fm since cm2 for that matter), if I'd request a cd crack, how would that be theft?

Now the use of cd cracks is generally not the smartest thing to do, or not the safest anyway, but I simply agree with statement #3

retired_lennypekerti

cd cracks encourage piracy, which in the long run can prevent SI from acheving maximum potential with there software sales. Si cannot prevent CD cracks being used or created, but they can do there upmost to prevent cd cracks being discussed on there forums. I think that is entirely fair and right.

I understand your point about abuse, but all forums are the same. You are always going to get your idiots who slag everything they don't agree with, but thats free speech. Its illegal to distribute/use pirated software, it is not illegal to speak your mind.

I do understand what your are saying, but there will always be the minority, whatever point your making.

borat123

One word: incitement. The act of wishing to perputrate a crime is enough.

retired_ellouise_luvs_matt

Oh, how i'd love to sink my teeth into this debate! But I'm just not going to slap a "please ban me" sticker on my forehead just to put a few do-gooders straight.

So tempting... but no.

roadrunner

If you read these two posts which is more offensive and likely to cause a criminal offense to be committed.

1. My stupid friend has left the fm 2006 cd in his car and has now returned to uni the absolute goose. I there anyway i can load up fm2006 without the cd cos i wont be seeing my 'mate' for weeks now godammit. Many thanks

2. Dan Atkinson is a lifetime enemy. I consider him my nemesis. Our paths have crossed only once, but next time I might just kill him.

borat123

Sounds like a quote from GK. I actually quite like the bloke to be honest. He's very down to Earth and quite knowledagble about things I don't know about (which in programming, is a lot!).

I can only hope he doesn't read this post. I don't want him thinking I fancy him or anything...

retired_andiie

Well I seem to remember asking a few years back if there was a way to load the game up without the CD in the drive, I wasn't berrated and attacked for being a thief, I was quite politly informed that I could load up my sons game on his PC take the disc out and then load up my own. You see, two PC's and one game, one home.

So I guess it is all in the manner with which the question is posed. Now we have two copys of FM06 cause we were both to impatient to see if this would still work. Ha Ha, great game.

Incidently I noticed that after the last patch on FM05 it did not test for the CD. Odd that.

Strat...