A 4-6-0 Template

As I promised in the Altobelli Tactics Room, I’d show you all a template of the 4-6-0 I am using. The formation and team instructions are basically enough, since all the rest is down to your players and what you want them to achieve. I’ll do this the easy way by just giving you two screenshots.

The Exodus Is Upon Us As The First Sign Of The Apocalypse

For the illiterates amongst you (you have to appreciate the irony of me addressing illiterates on a blog, really...), an exodus means a departure or emigration, usually of a large number of people. It's named after the biblical exodus.

The book tells how Moses leads the Hebrews out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Mountain of God Sinai. Thus, an exodus is the emigration of a large amount of people.In the glorious Altobelli Game World, I have noticed the first exodus of players. With the pre-sale taxes on most players being reduced to about 35% to 30%, people have started to put some of their better players in auctions lasting for 7 days. Odd you say? No, strategic planning...

You see, in 7 days time the pre-sale taxes will have vanished completely, which means these guys get the full profits over the players they sell. It has to be said, most of the guys on auction are actually quite good, so it's a strategy that could have well paid off.

Did you note I used "could have paid off" instead of "will pay off"? Good... I'm pretty sure it won't really pay off and cause a massive inflation of wages and player values, as too many managers are using this strategy right about now.

The managers who were late into the Game World now see a chance to get good players or at least better ones than they currently have. The pre-sale taxes have pretty much stopped insane bids upto now, so most managers have a nice wad of cash saved up. This money is now used to make insane bids in the auctions.

For instance... Let's have a look at Jozsef Kanta. In real life, the lad plays for MTK Budapest and has won two caps. This means he's a decent but not spectacular player in FM Live. With an acquisition fee of 70,000 quid, he's not exactly cheap, but he's not a world class star either.

His manager managed to get the most out of him by fielding him as the main forward midfielder in a 4-6-0 formation. Jozsef bagged 171 goals in 169 appearances and has drawn some attention with this. As soon as he was placed in an auction, bids started pouring him, driving the value upto 450k. That's more than 6 times his market value...

This form of hyperinflation is happening all over the Game World in dozens of auctions. With most managers being smart enough to wait until pre-sale taxes vanished, this will mean a few guys will have a lot of cash to spend come the first series of wage auctions.

Now what do you think will happen? These guys have a lot of money, so they can pretty much afford high wages for the players they really want. The other managers will try to compete ofcourse. Nobody is going to back down to see their best players taken away. This means they will up their own bids for players to match what they think the rich managers are bidding.

This is where things start to become really critical. The concept of a normal auction is that you pay +1 on the second highest bid of a player. Wage auctions don't quite work that way... In a end-of-contract wage auction, what you bid is what you pay, even if the second highest bid was 10k lower than yours (Note: this doesn't apply when you actually OWN said player...).

I can pretty safely predict that the wages will explode even further, leading to even more inflation. Your money becomes worthless. The few remaining players on normal wages will be highly sought after because now everyone will try to slash their wages, thus leading not helping the situation... It may very well be the beginning of the end for the transfer market as we have known it upto now.

Errare Humanum Est

To err is human. Everybody makes mistakes, even moderators. So yeah, I'd like to use this blog to show you a mistake I made. Honesty goes a long way in my humble opinion, so might as well show you this as it gives you an insight in the job of being a moderator in an FML Game World.

The situation was the following. At around 8.00 in the morning, I received a transfer mailing list message from a manager saying he was bored with the game and he was selling his players. I figured he wanted to build a new squad and I signed his keeper Benoît Costil and his midfielder Egidio Arevalo Rios.

A few minutes after confirming the deal, the guy announced he was leaving the Game World... Yup, you can pretty much predict what is going to happen next. I mention this in the Mod Chat and we all discuss what might happen. I end up embargoed, the same as all other users involved in this deal, as this case was forwarded to Richard (the main support mod, the mod leader in a way).

In the end, the decision was made that everyone but me could keep their players. That makes sense, in a bent way. You see, as a moderator, you need to have a whiter than white image (sounds like the advertisement for a cleaning detergent...), which means no-one should have grounds to complain about mods exploiting rules, bending rules or taking advantage.

Thus, my players were released (with a refund) and I was asked to send out a Game World wide apology to all users, to apologise for any inconvenience my actions may have caused. I've also added the apology to my blog.

Hi good people of GW Altobelli,

You may or may not be aware that we have been investigating the fire sale from [TEAM NAME] yesterday.

A number of users, including myself, purchased players from this team before it became apparent that this was a firesale.

Since all deals were at MV, all teams were allowed to keep their players, except for me. The reason for this is simple. Any transfer which could possibly be seen as even slightly dodgy must not be done by a mod.

As a mod, I should have known better and despite the transfers being around MV, my players were released so no-one can accuse me of cheating, taking advantage or bending the rules.

I would also like to apologize to anyone who may have found wrong or not mod-like. My intentions were pure and I just thought I had struck a bargain deal. I had no intention of breaking any rules or gaining an unfair advantage.

As a reminder to myself and others, a last word of advice. Please be very careful in future and remember that purchases from teams leaving the game MUST be for a realistic transfer value. In future please ask a Moderator (not me, hehe) if a deal looks too good to be true (as they usually are).

I do hope this incident will not affect the way you see as a moderator, so things can continue as before.

With regards,

Guido

Altobelli Mod Team

So yeah, that was the end of that. Sort of. Not really though. As I feared, someone used this situation to throw a tantrum as soon as the opportunity arose. Which happened to be not too long ago, as I embargoed his team for a potential dodgy deal. In a private chat, I was told "I was a cheating c*nt" and "handing out embargoes because I had one for being a cheat."

Lovely that was... We had to call in Support to explain this to the fellow. To prevent any such things from happening again, I reckon this is the best way. Just come out into the open with it. My deals were not illegal, but I have to maintain a whiter than white image, hence this decision and hence this blog post and hence the above apology mail.

Old Players; The Concept Needs To Be Re-Vamped

In the Netherlands, you usually retire from work at around 65 years of age to enjoy your pension and do whatever these people do. Play shuffle-board, visit their grand-children and what-not... I am also aware that a footballers active career is generally over as he passes the big 35... There are exceptions to that rule ofcourse, but most players end their active career at 35 or so.

In FM Live, a players date of retirement seems to be even sooner. At around 30, even the best of players are being discarded since they represent no real transfer value after this date. Their wages are generally high, as is their acquisition fee, due to their high reputation.

I do believe these players can be of value though. For starters, they possess brilliant mental and hidden stats, meaning they bring experience to a team, a much needed factor that is often underrated. These guys can captain a side through a rough period in a match without panicking.

The main problem however lies with their high wages and high acquisition fee. Well, and their declining physique... But the monetary issue is the main gripe most people have with older players. Now in my eyes, a combination of two ideas can solve this problem.

The first idea wasn't mine, it was Andy Potter's, who posted it on the SI fora.

Can we please have the option to sign a player on a contract only until the end of the current season, effectively a 0 season contract? I've a few veterans I'm interested in, but I'd only want them for a couple of weeks to get me through the rest of my league season - I definitely wouldn't want them beyond that. A "0 season contract" option would allow for emergency signings for a couple of weeks, without requiring a massive commitment beyond that in terms of wage or release fee.

The second idea was mentioned in the very same thread but has been an idea I discussed with Andy before. As soon as a player (of any age!) is without a club, his wage demand and acquisition fee should start to drop with say, 2% a day, dropping to a minimum of 50% of the original value.

These two ideas would make older players rather attractive as short term solutions too many teams, instead of meaning older players rot away on a free transfer for several seasons.

Wikipedia and Google Scouting

One of the more intriguing aspects of FM Live is the starting squad and the high probability it will be full of unknown players. I'm always fascinated by these unknown names, they give the first few seasons an LLM feeling for me. Plunging myself into the unknown, discovering new names and abilities...

The first thing I do when I sign a new player who isn't very well known, as in not active in the highest division from a top nation, is look up his name in Wikipedia or Google to find more background information and possible footballing relatives and such. I actually do the same for all potential signings (not including newgens...).

An unorthodox method of scouting, I must admit, but not entirely weird. It usually tells you something about a players personality, as those hidden stats are not visible in FM Live and I don't have the need to boot up the FM Scout everytime I want to know such details.

Oh and before I forget, this method is actually used by real-life clubs as well. The tale of Dutch winger Istvan Bakx is one of the more obvious cases where a club used the internet and its capabilities to find and scout a potential signing.

Bakx gained some notability in Belgium with his transfer from the Dutch amateurs of Hoek to Belgian second division side Kortrijk. Manager Hein Vanhaezebrouck was searching for a left winger and he typed the Dutch word for that (linkeraanvaller) into Google. The search results showed a positive report on Bakx. Vanhaezebrouck sent out Kortrijk's head scout who confirmed these reports and Istvan Bakx' transfer to Kortrijk became reality.

As a result of this unorthodox scouting method, Belgian and Dutch media dubbed Bakx "the Google striker." For those wondering if he actually performed well, Bakx impressed during his first two seasons at Kortrijk, earning him a transfer to top-side Racing Genk.

So is there any point in this blog? No, not particularly, besides the fact that I enjoy typing the names of my squad members into Google and Wikipedia to find out more about their careers and personal lives.

Overpaid Youths

Yup, one of my favorite topics to rant about. This generally only seems to happen as soon as people unlock the Judging Potential Ability skill, but in Altobelli, it has struck in week 1. Oddly enough I might add, since technically we are a beginner Game World. Then again, we already established the Game World isn't exactly full of beginners anyway...

Anyway, right now the youth wages are okay in most cases, but the highly rated ones are already a disaster-area. Every newgen that has appeared over the last month with an expected four star or more Potential Ability, is now earning at least 10k a day, if not more. I've seen 15 and 16 year olds with 19k wages. All of this within the first weeks of the Game World launching...

People fail to realise how much money this is costing them in the long run. 10k a day means 70k a week, 280k a season... For a 15 or 16 year old player, whose future is highly uncertain, as you need to nurture and develop this youngster. He won't be ready for regular first team football before he hits the age 20, so you're paying 1,12 to 1,4 million for this youth.

And let's not forget we're still not sure if the youngster can actually live up the high expectations. You're taking a huge, huge gamble when you pay wages like that to such young players. If he fails to develop into a class act, there's no way you'll be able to sell him for the amount of cash you have invested in him.

Last but not least, there's the time of this hyperinflation... The FA's started on Monday, two days ago. That means that most teams barely have any money to spend, yet some are investing heavily into players... Let's not forget you have to pay a signing-on-fee of ten times a players wage as well... That's 50k for a 5k wage, on top of the acquisition fee. For starting teams, 50k is a lot of money...

I'm not sure how this situation will develop, but I can say it's not looking good. If people are investing this heavily in youths without having Judging Potential as a skill, imagine the carnage as soon as JP actually becomes available... I'm not sure I like the prospect of that... Hyperinflation galore and the youth wages might go completely insane...

The Real World Cup

I'm not going to take credit for the idea, as it wasn't mine but Nathan Pollard's, but I would like to advocate the introduction of a Pollard-style World Cup in every Game World as a community building tool.

The setup of the tournament is fairly basic, so there's not really a lot of hassle organising the tournament. Whoever is online on every fourth Sunday morning gets to pick a nation and select a squad of trialists, all from the same nation. The maximum acq. value of an individual player is 30k, but you are allowed two dispensation players with a max total acq. value of upto 750k.

This means you are allowed to sign these players on more permanent deals if you want or even use one of your already contracted players as dispensation players in the tournament. Either way, the total cost of participating in a World Cup tournament in Miller are around 40k in trialist wages, which isn't that much considering the fun that can be had.

Now on the forums, I participated in a discussion about this subject and people were advocating the use of full international squads, no restrictions at all. There are a number of reasons why I disagree with such a concept.

For starters, FM Live is not a realistic football management simulation, it's a form of fantasy management game. The game is designed to be accessible to a broad public, so why limit the opportunities in such a tournament? The restrictions mean it's not just a matter of who gets Brazil or Argentina and can then dominate the World Cup.

It even means it's not necessarily one of the big nations who wins. Muqqy surprised us all with his El Salvador team and we've had other minnow nations causing upsets before. I feel the restrictions and the equality they offer are fairer to FML and the community, as it means that more teams are able to compete for the tournament win and not just those managing the big nations.

Secondly, there's the matter of deciding who gets which team. In Miller, we just let people call their team as they come online, first come first served. Since the restrictions limit the managers, it means it's okay to come online as the 16th or 30th manager, as there are still plenty of nations available with a decent array of available trialists to compete in the tournament.

Remove these restrictions and it becomes a race to get online faster and call the use of Argentina, Italy, Brazil or Spain, which sort of removes the desire of others to play, since they would primarily act as cannon fodder for the big(ger) nations. Why would anyone play if they stand no realistic or even remote chance of winning?

Someone even said that teams should be assigned based on the Game World Rankings. That's quite possibly the worst idea I have ever heard with regards to a World Cup. As the name implies, the World Cup is there for the entire Game World. By basing it on the Rankings, you are creating an elitist competition for the select few dominating the Game World, not to mention the fact that you may end up with people from various time-zones, making it rather hard to actually get them all online at the same time.

The tournament should be accessible for all and then the quality of the manager should make the difference, not the quality of the players at his disposal, because he or she managed to get online faster or because he or she has been #1 for several weeks.

My third and final reason for advocating a Miller style World Cup is easy. Fun and gameplay, adding a sense of community to the Game World. Everytime we ran the World Cup, it was ran by teams online at the time, thus ensuring LIVE matches were played. Other managers joined matches to watch who would win, or they joined the World Cup banter in the Lobby. Either way, it was a busy and active competition, showing to all how good FM Live can be in all it's magnificent glory.

This is the kind of image you want to put in people's heads. This is the positive association people should have when they think of FM Live. They shouldn't be thinking about massive AI lists, players exploiting the system or dodgy same IP-transfers, they should be thinking of fast, competitive matches between evenly matches teams, with some banter on the sides.

So all in all, these are my reasons for going with Nathan's idea, maybe with a raised acq. value of 50k. Implementing a World Cup like this in every Game World will work wonders for the communities.

Beginner Game World? Surely Not...

Okay, so officially Altobelli is classified as a "beginner game world," which basically means that users have to have a brand new account to enter. Ideally, this means we see a game world full of real beginners, who can get used to the game without the hassle of dubious transfers, double your money competitions and veteran managers hammering them mercilessly.

In reality, I see a Lobby chat full of managers reminiscing good times in other Game Worlds, openly discussing Double Your Money competitions and slating people using 4-5-1 tactics. Sure, we have a bunch of genuine new users, but they are being thrown off by the amount of dodgy deals going on.

Apparently, lots of people seem to think that in a beginner Game World, SI and SEGA have appointed beginner moderators, so we're seeing all the dirty tricks in the book. Same IP deals all over the place, deliberately ignoring requests to have transfers validated and genuinely thinking us mods are retarded. I mean, who in their right mind would swap Luca Toni for Kevin Kyle? Who would? Exactly, no-one...

So yeah, not exactly a Game World full of beginners... Within a week of starting, there are already offers for the likes of Ballotelli, who has an 850k acquisition fee, or Miralem Pjanic, on a similar fee. Doesn't really sound like anything a beginner would do, wouldn't you agree?

Regarding youths, things aren't much better... All the 300 quid wage youngsters were gone within hours, as obviously these are the guys who probably have the best chance of being high potential youngsters. Yesterday, I saw newgen players go for over 10k wages... Within the first week of a Game World...

To be fair, I am being a bit of a hypocrit here... I myself am not really a beginner, with over 12 seasons of experience in Miller under my belt... On the other hand, moderators are prohibited from signing any players within the first 24 hours of a Game World opening and I am actively going down the youth path, so I'm hardly doing anything with my knowledge in terms of exploiting others or dominating the rankings.

The point I want to make is this. Don't call these Game Worlds beginner worlds, because they clearly aren't. Half of the guys in the world are clearly not beginners, but experienced or even veteran managers taking a new subscription out to try and dominate the Game World with their already acquired skills.

Altobelli; A New Saga Begins

So yeah, a new saga looks like it's beginning. I haven't really had the time to update my blog, as Altobelli is sucking up most of my available time. Still, it's a whole new experience. In three days of modding Altobelli, I've had more work than in four to five seasons in Miller. Mutes, yellow cards, transfer frauds, match fixing, the works...

Still, I relish the challenge and look forward to the first season starting. Since I'm focussing on youths rather than seniors, my team isn't that good in comparison to the Miller version, which was usually in the top 30 of the GW. Still, my knowledge of the mechanics of 1.2 ensure that even my minnows aren't being disgraced in every game we play, which is good enough as it is.

Regarding the name of the new Altobelli world, some guys in Miller have been asking me about this. Especially for them:

Alessandro Altobelli (born 28 November 1955 in Sonnino, Latina) is an Italian former football player. Nicknamed Spillo ("Needle") for his slender build, Altobelli was one of the most effective Italian forwards of the late 1970s and 1980s. Following spells at Latina (Serie C) and Brescia (Serie B), he was signed by Internazionale, for whom he played 466 times, scoring 209 goals (128 in Serie A) and massively contributing to his team's scudetto of 1980. For Italy he was capped 61 times, scoring 25 goals: the most notable of which is the third goal in the 1982 FIFA World Cup final, won by Italy against West Germany. He became the first ever substitute to score in a FIFA World Cup final (with Rudi Völler being the only one to repeat this feat ever since in 1986). Altobelli also played at Euro 80, the 1986 FIFA World Cup, and Euro 88, where he played as team's captain. He made 4 sub appearances scoring just after coming on in a 2-0 win over Denmark in the group stages. He is currently a sports analyst for the Al Jazeera sports channel, with Cesare Maldini.

So yeah, for so far history.

I'm also looking at introducing my community-building football quizzes. They are received very well so far, but I am worried the questions I have might be too hard for most of the guys in there. Miller has an older crowd, whereas many of the guys in Altobelli are very young.

Saving the worst for last, I am now apparently a racist as well. When we confronted a guy on match fixing, losing a game by fourteen goals because he had no keeper, he claimed to not know teams required a keeper to operate. This was coming from a 16 year old European lad who has subscriptions in several other Game Worlds...

I jokingly remarked that you had to be an American (or someone else with no footballing background) to make a mistake like that, so it sounded like match fixing to me. Having strong American roots within my own family, that remark seemed perfectly valid, but all of a sudden I am a racist and should be taken too court. Ludicrous.

Fortunately, incidents like that one are scarce, but they are annoying anyway, especially when they get plastered on your feedback screen whilst your off-line. Still, despite incidents like this, I have full faith we can make Altobelli into a top GW.