Harrumph...

Daily updates become pretty difficult when the FML server is down for maintenance work all day, and there's a UEFA Cup Final on tonight... Aye, before I moved to Sheffield in '99 and caught the Blades bug, I was indeed a dirty Hun. I still have the blue shirt somewhere and I may have to dig it out tonight...

So what to talk about today? Well, it was going to be my Blades news or general GW4 news today, so the GW4 news is that there is no GW4 news today. Wow, this blogging is easy!

Seriously, I'll try to do some general chat, give an impression of what life is like in GW4, tomorrow. Luckily I have earth-shattering news of great importance regarding the Frecheville Blades, and I can even remember what it is (mostly).

After yet another torrid season, where relegation seemed a real possibility until I miraculously started winning (see every season played so far, bar the qualifiers - at least that's how it feels!) i decided I'd had enough of Briand underperforming and Fredy Montero and Jose Barrera being crap (£3M I spent on that Barrera!), I decided to have a clearout. Briand and Barrera have left unceremoniously for £3M each (rofl at Andy Coburn buying Barrera for £3M, hehe), while Wesolowski (going for £650k), Shikabala (going for a stunning £750, a £600k profit in 3 weeks), Greg Halford (£650k) all heading out when their auctions end too. The wage bill has been slashed by tens of thousands of pounds, with able reserves able to step in whilst I get replacements.

The principle I'm working to is that it's not worth wasting big money on certain positions - full backs and defensive midfielders, for one. There are plenty of quality players going cheap in these positions. So Wesolowski and Halford have been replaced by players who will do almost as well (if not better, neither had excelled at the club) for nearly a tenth of the cost. And that lets me invest money in more key areas - the big news yesterday was the signing of BILLY SHARP from Christopher Priestley's 780 FC for £2.05M + Fredy Montero (market value £950k). He got a beautiful assist in his first game, a lovely one-two for Foster Amadi to smack home from 15 yards. More will surely follow...

That means I now have Gary Cahill (who was on loan at Bramall Lane earlier this season) and Sharp in the side - bizarre after Sheffield United's down-and-up season in real life that two of the players featured this season would be so in demand in FML... Anyway, do I now push on and sign more Blades? Do I go for the promised land - I promised myself an all-Blades side before the end of the beta, is now the time...?

Manager Interview: Phil Sinkins speaks...

Over lunchtime today I caught up with Phil Sinkins, GW4 mod and manager extraordinaire for a chat about all things FML...

NIK: So Phil... How did you get into the beta?

PHIL: I read about football manager live in PC Gamer preview for 2008, read up on the SI website regarding how I could sign up, stuck my name down and started on the beta in GW4 in December 2007

NIK: Were you a long time FM player, or had you lapsed in recent years. (and if so, why?)

PHIL: I’ve played CM/FM back since Championship Manager Italia (woot Bari) on and off, I tend to play quite hardcore for a month when the game first comes out then I come back every so often. This year with FM08 I spent a lot of time researching for playing FML (tactics, players etc). On a side note, I’m yet to play any CM since the split

NIK: So what was your first impression of SIs new game then?

PHIL: Dazed and confused! I was one of the first people into the gameworld. My immediate plan was to sign players I had been using in FM08 ignoring any sort of visual help I went straight for the search

PHIL: I signed over 20 players who were in my FM08 team into my initial squad. I then proceeded to use my FM08 tactics and play as many games as possible - maybe 200 games in 2 days.

NIK: Which side are you in FM?

PHIL: I always play as Chelsea in FM, but I gut the team as soon as I start and buy youngsters. only people I normally ever keep is Essien, Terry and Cech, everyone else is free game.

NIK: So any tips for a new manager into FML? You were pretty lucky in signing so many players you recognised I guess!

PHIL: I’ve been very lucky, I’ve made some lucky signings who have turned out to be superb players, 17 year olds in my first team is a sight you wouldn’t see in the real world Premier League.

PHIL: when new people start my top tip would be don’t spend above what you can afford, money is a big thing in FML. I released a lot of people at first as I couldn’t be bothered to sell, which meant that I ended up with massive debts that could have been put to better use.

PHIL: once we go retail, scouting is my big tip for people. Get in, focus on a region and milk it for what its worth, get some people in for a week sell them on, whilst at the same time keeping the great ones in your team and playing them. Combine Scouting with a high level of coaching and you'll be knocking out fantastic youngsters for seasons and seasons.

NIK: Supporting buying-to-sell? Controversial!

PHIL: Absolutely, for me, Buy To Sell is my way of getting money regardless of status, it took me 5 seasons to get to my team quality, I have made very small amounts of financial dealings, when I did it was to fund someone else straight off (Reyes and Falcao my two top players, to fund Essien). I can’t compete with the tacticians so I won’t be winning these big money high risk competitions, the only way for me to get money is to sell people

NIK: Where did the team name come from? It’s surely going to be the first big decision for most new managers!

PHIL: I used to be an Online FPS player and due to my innovative style of play I was often referred to as a "Fruitloop" I then chose to steal the spelling from the American Cereal and FrootLoops was born. I’ve been using the handle since early 2001 and felt natural to continue that over into FML, thus I am FrootLoops FC (temporarily I was renamed whilst on Holiday to Gone T'Egypt in honour of the holiday)

NIK: So what's been your favourite (and least favourite features in FML)?

PHIL: Starting with the negatives, I don’t like a ranking system being in the game it takes away the fun of the game, I end up being upset when I go down rankings when I should be proud that my team went unbeaten for 40+ games. I love the skills system, I want this to be built on as much as possible - really make it so that your manager in-game is like your Avatar in World of Warcraft (or any other MMO available from Publishers).

NIK: What can those who've missed out on the beta (so far) look forward to most?

PHIL: People not in the beta can look forward to a game where they don’t have to constantly remind people were on Beta when things go wrong! And everything will be a lot more stable.

NIK: I've been amazed things have been as good as they have been to be honest!

NIK: How's this season been for the Loops? (Phil's side currently lie in a very respectable 12th position in the senior world rankings)

PHIL: As the current PFA Premiership title holders its gonna be hard to keep my title - I have Uppsala Gunners (spelling) above me and FC Coconuts below me… not a good place to be, but I’m 2nd in league. I’m yet to play Henrik (Uppsala’s mod manager) and a win there could win me the Premiership for the second year running. I’m not the most positive when it comes to predicting my form (last year I thought I would be relegated!) so at the moment I don’t see myself in the top 2 come the last game…

NIK: You've been a mod for a few months now, I guess - have you got any tips or advice for anyone wanting to be a mod?

PHIL: Don’t let the bastards get you down!

NIK: Perhaps a general comment to SI and mods alike there...! How have you enjoyed it?

PHIL: Moderating has been good fun, its nice to be a key part of the community and the opportunity to talk directly to Miles, Marc Duffy and Ov Collyer isn’t something you get everyday. If you get the chance and you’re a fan of FM itself then I’d recommend moderating to anyone.

NIK: Cool! Well, thanks for your time, and good luck for the rest of the season!

PHIL: Cheers Nik gl with your Blades team!

FML vs FM

So I promised I'd write something tonight banging on about the similarities and differences between the two products in the Sports Interactive stable.

I got FM08 on release day, from the retailer I thought most likely to deliver early. I was as desperate as ever to see the latest edition. However, I'd got into the FML beta last June, and alas my copy of FM08 has been sadly neglected. I play now and then, but FML has added a social aspect to the game that is almost irreplaceable for me, though I'm starting to make time again now for my first love!

So... FM09 will surely be out some time between October and Christmas 2008. FML is out in the summer. Which is for you?

First things first - FML is not FM Online. They are two different games, entirely - FM already does online, and does it perfectly well, I imagine. FML is a whole different experience, for some it will be better, for others worse.

FM09 - and you heard this here first - will be terrific value for money. There's no other product that can deliver so many hours of game per pound (dollar, whatever). That's a lot of hours - and if you have them, great, it'll be a match made in heaven. But a lot of people don't have time for FM any more, many of its fans have grown up with the product. It's these guys who are going to need to be a bit more casual for which FML is intended.

There are plenty of hardcore guys in the FML beta, who spend massive percentages of their life online and believe that FML is for them and they should have every advantage going as a reward -but they are wrong. FML is designed from the ground up to reward active players - irrespective of how active they are. It's perfectly possible to go on 2 or 3 times a week, or to only play 2 or 3 games a day and still be massively successful.

The other aspect of course is what FML can bring to FM. Naturally there will be feedback between the two. The match engine is in continual development, and having 6 GWs playing tens of thousands of games every day has proven a great test-bed for it. The match engine has come on in leaps and bounds - especially in terms of realism. Gone are the arrows and the contradictory instructions - a defensively-minded midfielder being forward-arrowed, a guy on the left wing playing in the middle because he's been side-arrowed to the right wing - and I believe they're gone for good. Alternatives will be needed in the longer term (hopefully for FM09, at least), but the balance is now much better.

There are also some other features that must make the leap to FM09:

• Customisable view filters. Want to rank by Heading and still see Value and Injury Status at the same time? Fine!. I have set filters made for every eventuality, and it puts me in charge of what's on screen, and how it is displayed. This is massively empowering, and would bring a big breath of fresh air to FM09. Of course there are still good default filters, but you don't know what is missing from FMs UI until you've tinkered with this in FML. And that's customisable filtering for every screen by the way...
  
• Player stats page - no offence to Ter, or whoever designed the Stats page for players in FM08, but it's shockingly useless. I've got David McNamee at right back for my Sheffield United squad - he's made 304 out of 435 passes so far this season - is that good? I've no idea. There's an orange bar by it if that helps. Well it's kind of yellower than orange... Hmm. In FML, we see percentages - my right back in FML (Greg Halford, who will be leaving in just under 3 days as he's up for sale) is on 73% for passing. His backup, Ivica Boatic, is on 63%. Any clearer? I think so...
• The UI - it's clean, crisp, and I know where everything is - in FM08, I'm often left floundering - getting to my reserve fixture list takes 4 clicks. It takes 2 in FML.
• Custom slider settings. What's the difference between width = 14 and width = 15? I don't know, and what's more I don't want to care. The skills in FML have meant that I can customise how many notches my sliders have - and for me, that number is 7. Not 21. We've got to be able to customise this in FM09.
• Fractional match ratings - yes, seeing a player get a 7.1 is better than seeing him get a 7.
• Shot feedback - clear cut chances, number of long shots, blocked shots - all good, all helpful. Too many long shots, even though the players are all set to rarely? Maybe you're too narrow...
  

The overall theme I guess is 'customisable ease'. Hopefully this ease and improved playability will make it into both of SIs games.

Things in FM that shouldn't make it into FML? Why not...

• Team talks - these are pretty tedious in FM, to be honest. Imagine multiplying that tedium by several orders of magnitude as you get through thousands of games...
• Media - again, likewise. Unless it can be done well, it should all be user-driven in FML.
• Realism - FML isn't FM, it's not about real football and real league structures - there has to be a balance between believable and fun. Who wants to pay £x a month to languish forever 10 divisions off top-flight football? No-one, pyramids for the win!
  

Daily updates...?

Well, it's a foolish blogger that promises daily updates on his blog, but that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I'm going to be attempting. Never before in the history of FML has a blog gone daily, so I'm going to make a big push here...

Well, I say daily, I might not do weekend ones. I need some time for FM08...

So my first blog of the daily era will be a discussion comparing FML and FM08 - how they stack up, what features are 'missing' in FML, what FML features should (nay, need to) be implemented in FM09. Since I don't have FM08 at work (and I'm at work of course too that's a big factor!), and I'd like to do comparison screenies, this blog will be up tonight...

I'm also trying to provoke one of the GW4 managers in to doing an interview for tomorrow...

Ideas

As the launch of FML is (surely) getting nearer (by definition, it's a day closer than it was yesterday!), I've gotten to wondering where to go with the blog. Naturally I want to step it up a notch, but what do people want to read about?

I'm planning more GW4 specific stuff, in a form that could be interesting to all - interviews with managers, and maybe more GW news, to give a flavour of what life in the beta is like. But I'm open to ideas, so leave a comment if there is anything you'd like covered.

Also, in exciting news, FML gets updated to v0.86 today, and the servers are currently down for maintenance - something to do with updating the mySQL database or something. Anyway, the key thing to note is that the changelist (or should that be fixlist now, there's little in the way of 'new stuff') is getting shorter and shorter. Which is surely A Good Sign...

The big news in this update is that the feedback from the introduction of the Tactics Skills (boo, hiss or yay, woot, depending on viewpoint!) has been taken into account and they've been re-thought - we're going to be testing a new model, and that has involved losing all the skills learnt so far (though we will be refunded the time spent on them), and losing any saved tactics... Should bring joy to the 'testers' that don't read the forums...

Anyway, there will be more news here when I've got more to tell you - judging from Marc's comments in that podcast interview linked recently, we're maybe 2-3 weeks away from A Big Announcement...

Marc Duffy (not) in Jordan's Bedroom

Marc Duffy's done an interview with Get Sacked for their latest podcast - check it out! Apparently the real 'action' kicks off about 7 minutes in...

Been Busy...

Sorry for the lack of updates on here - I've been busy in the real world. I had some big experiments at work, which I'd been awarded beamtime for. Which was nice, but they forgot to tell me, so I had a week's warning of a shedload of work.

Twice. And the wife's been busy and I've been helping out a lot.

Anyway, I'll try and get some proper updates up soon. I've been in and out of FML for the past couple of weeks, not getting much time online. This has been worsened by my normal poor start to the season - 2 wins from the first 8 games in the league, though luck seems to be turning my way. My last game was a 4-3 thriller against Beitar Katamonim, who had 2 disallowed and missed a penalty (I think)... And my winner was an own goal! Hehehe... That had been preceded by a tight 1-0 win over Mark Percox's excellent Liverpool side - Mark was busily commenting on my tactics (I'm playing an unconventional 4-3-3 as I'm determined to score some goals for once!), and failed to spot I'd switched to a 3-5-2, which decimated his 4-1-2-1-2... He missed a penalty as well!