Judging 'Judging Potential'

One of the key feature sets in FML are the Skills that managers can choose to learn. I've covered these in detail in the past, but what has caught my eye lately is the debate raging on the official forums over one particular skill - judging potential (JP).

For those not in the beta, this skill allows the manager to determine, on a 1-10 scale effectively (from 0.5 - 5 stars) how much potential a young player has; a player with 5-star potential is destined to become world class, with the right training and experience. There are 5 levels of JP skill to learn, with each increase bringing an increase in the reliablity of the shown potential.

In the early days of the beta, there were no skills - and therefore no JP skill. It was hard to tell how good any given youth was, and so teams would sign as many as they could in the hope of unearthing a star. This had two effects: the fierce competition drove up wages for youth players, and teams had massive squads - many of whom never got near a sniff of a game. I remember one FML legend who had over 400 youth players...

This was clearly madness, and then the skills arrived. By learning first some of the 'Scouting' skill (Levels 1 and 2, maybe 3 I forget), and then starting off JP, managers could see which youths had potential. Everyone caught on straight away - everyone started learning JP. What was intended as a boost for youth specialist teams became available to the masses. Teams no longer hoarded so many youths - they didn't need to sign the dross - but competition for players was (is) still fiercesome.

It was clear that JP needed nerfing to some degree, and so SI changed the setup so that you need, I think, Scouting Level 5, which takes I guess 2 (real world) months, before you can begin learning JP - much more of a specialisation. That only applies in the newer Universe 2 gameworlds, so I don't know how well it's worked out - but debate is raging as to whether further nerfing is necessary, or whether JP needs to be removed altogether.

For me, I remember what life was like without it, and I wouldn't want to return to those dark days. But I would like to see it maybe made a little less accurate. Perhaps instead of the current 5 levels, we could have a 3-Level system as follows:

Level 1 (quick to learn): +/- 2 stars
Level 2 (takes a while): +/- 1.5 stars
Level 3 (takes aaaages): +/- 1 star

Signing youth players should be a gamble, progress must not be guaranteed, and I think the current system is maybe just a little too accurate.

Also, the future planned feature of youth academies, which will be added some time after the retail launch, has to be built in here somewhere - how would these work, and fit in with the existing setup? It's going to be exciting seeing what SI have up their sleeves, but this is a key area for many people - they say you never win owt with kids, but in FML, that's not always the case...

Tactic Skills - my verdict so far...

So the update landed yesterday, and I've been messing about with the new tactics skills - I've detailed these in a previous blog, and here's a picture for 'Tactics 4' to show a bit more about what the story is:



Now I have to say, it's been controversial, but not nearly as bad as I expected - a lot of people see the positive side to it.

For me, I think they've got serious potential - I used the setup assistant to become a 'blackboard manager', which meant I got Tactics 1, 2 and 3, and 4 other tactics skills straight off... which gave me most of the basic functionality. This level of ability gives me 7 notches on the instruction sliders, which is all I ever wanted anyway - while people who feel the need for more can train their skills up for each slider quite quickly to get 11, 15 or 20 notches (I think). So I get what I want, they can get what they want - genius!

As I've said before, the skills are all about team specialisation - so if you want to be a tactical whizz, fine - but you'll have to spend a wee bit of time getting the skills first, just like I will for my youth academy...

As for the tactic skills, well I'm giving them some time to settle in, and I'll give full feedback in good time - maybe some more skills should come with Tactics 1 (that unlocks the team instructions sliders, maybe it should unlock set piece takers too?), maybe some could be combined... but all in all, great so far for me.

One other new feature that stuck out for me is the new activity stuff. This can be a bit of fun, but also can be helpful for identifying when an opponent is likely to be online:



One thing is for sure - I need to get out more!

Tactics Skills...

Well, the cluster 1 gameworlds (2,3 and 6) have been in mild uproar this after SI decided to trial a new system, whereby managers have to learn skills in order to unlock certain tactical options. So to be able to import a tactic from FM would require you to learn all five levels of the overall 'Tactic' skill - I've heard that takes around a month.

I can see where they are coming from - such an action levels the playing field early on in the life of a gameworld. While people are still finding their feet, being limited to use of new and improved default tactics takes away some of the complexity, and the likelihood of being thumped by some idiot playing some uber-exploit tactic.

It also adds to the team specialisation part - you want to be a tactical wizard? Fine, great... but you have to learn the ropes, just like the wannabe scouts and coaches.

However, adding the skills in to already-established gameworlds - taking the manager's toys away, temporarily - was always going to be controversial. A lot of noise was made at first, and as time has gone on, people are starting to see the light and the sense behind the idea. For me, safe in my cluster 2 world with all my nice options? I think it's potentially a great idea for a new world...

Mad Skillz

I guess I've teased people by saying the Skills are an 'awesome new feature', so I should discuss what they are for people that don't know.

I'm going to steer clear of the comparison with the system used in the MMO 'EVE Online', but erm, well OK it's similar. The skills in FML are trainable manager abilities that allow a user to really specialise their team and make them unique from any other team. In my opinion, having seen FML without and with the Skills, they really are the icing on the cake.

So... What skills are there? Well, I don't want to spoil the surprise for people who haven't had a chance to get into the beta, because they're gonna have a lot of fun with it when they do get in, whether still beta or retail... but a few teasers wouldn't hurt, eh?

The Skills currently fall into 5 categories - Coaching, Physio, Scouting, Management and Learning. Within these are many subcategories. Most skills require you to learn other skills first, and each skill appears to have 5 levels - each giving a small benefit, but taking longer each time, and it would take 6 years to learn all of the skills on offer... so you're unlikely to learn them all - hence team specialisation.

The beauty of the system is that it means everyone can have a role in FML. Maybe you want to be a scout, and sell your valuable information for hard cash. Maybe you want to want to charge people to heal their players at your state-of-the-art medical facilities (another possible future feature). You could specialise in youth development... or developing a specific type of player (like I am).

The options are almost endless. But they mean that even if you're struggling with form, there will always be a reason to play, a goal in site, or a way out of your problems. They've really got people interacting, and they're great fun too.