FIFA 08 Manager Mode Adventure Thread

What cheats are you seeing? For me I don't really see any cheats, obviously an insanely pro-AI referee but that's the only thing, the other stuff is just annoyances, too accurate at freekicks, too much constant run to wing, deep cross over my static keeper for tap in at the far post.....
 
wow i bought A.alves for my second season with villarreal...hes a monster...
i made my offense double with him and r.palacio(from boca) they really complete each other...
im about to win the UEFA cup, and this time finnally get a UCL spot in la liga...
still cant beat barça though. :(
 
Hi Placebo, by cheats I mean when the CPU players are clearly stronger, faster and more accurate than their real stats. It's obvious when they always win the headings in the area and score, don't matter what you do. Almost 90% of the goals that the CPU scores to me are headers. Also, they head to the corner and you can't do much to prevent them from crossing perfectly the ball.

Also, there's a lot of "scripting" in long passes and clearances.

The fact is away matches are harder than home matches, and this is done only by doing your opponent better. I don't like how CPU players dribble you simply by reading your own movements. That is not AI, that is cheating.

The game si brilliant and when you don't feel cheated it's great, really. After 4 seasons and having build an impressive team with Peterborough Utd. I feel cheated when almost all the matches end up with 14 shots by me and 2 shots by cpu and the result is a draw most of the times.

And finally, there's an infamous cheat that was also implemented in PES. Your defenders don't defend close the opposition. I mean, CPU defenders mark you tightly, while your defenders are always 2 or 3 meters away of the opposition, thus letting them play easy passes. It's really like that. There's always an unmarked striker that can receive the ball no matter what you do. The contrast is high when you try to counterattack and every CPU defenders is sticked to your striker. That happens in Professional difficulty a lot.

Also, depending on you position on the table, the game gets harder. That was also in PES and I really feel it and don't like it. Too obvious to me.

All in all, I think they copied a lot of things from PES, but they also copied the things that make the game fustrating.

All that said, there's times when the CPU plays beautiful football. The AI is so superior to the PES one... The only thing is that the difficulty is overdone with cheats and easy and cheap developments, such as crossing->heading, dribbling (any CPU player can dribble like maradona at one point).

What's your opinion on all this?
 
drekkard said:
Hi Placebo, by cheats I mean when the CPU players are clearly stronger, faster and more accurate than their real stats. It's obvious when they always win the headings in the area and score, don't matter what you do. Almost 90% of the goals that the CPU scores to me are headers. Also, they head to the corner and you can't do much to prevent them from crossing perfectly the ball.

Also, there's a lot of "scripting" in long passes and clearances.

The fact is away matches are harder than home matches, and this is done only by doing your opponent better. I don't like how CPU players dribble you simply by reading your own movements. That is not AI, that is cheating.

The game si brilliant and when you don't feel cheated it's great, really. After 4 seasons and having build an impressive team with Peterborough Utd. I feel cheated when almost all the matches end up with 14 shots by me and 2 shots by cpu and the result is a draw most of the times.

And finally, there's an infamous cheat that was also implemented in PES. Your defenders don't defend close the opposition. I mean, CPU defenders mark you tightly, while your defenders are always 2 or 3 meters away of the opposition, thus letting them play easy passes. It's really like that. There's always an unmarked striker that can receive the ball no matter what you do. The contrast is high when you try to counterattack and every CPU defenders is sticked to your striker. That happens in Professional difficulty a lot.

Also, depending on you position on the table, the game gets harder. That was also in PES and I really feel it and don't like it. Too obvious to me.

All in all, I think they copied a lot of things from PES, but they also copied the things that make the game fustrating.

All that said, there's times when the CPU plays beautiful football. The AI is so superior to the PES one... The only thing is that the difficulty is overdone with cheats and easy and cheap developments, such as crossing->heading, dribbling (any CPU player can dribble like maradona at one point).

What's your opinion on all this?
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Yeah, I posted a rant a few weeks ago about how so many of the cpu cheats have been lifted directly from PES. It's really disappointing but on the plus side, the manual passing/shooting (whilst I feel sometimes it scritps it too, to cheat you) at least gives you some more freedom than PES.

Also, although the refs are biased (the cpu virtually never concede a foul yet I often do for rubbing shoulders or for walking head on and stealing the ball), at least you can slide tackle successfully in this game. You can get in some meaty challenges and come away with the ball (never happens in PES any more), sometimes you get yellow (somtimes deserved, sometimes not, but seems realistic).

In PES, slide tackling may as not exist because 1) the guy doesn't really slide, just stops on the spot and does some weird animation with no forward momentum, 2) any contact with anything, ball or cpu player's finger, seems to be auto-red card (but only for your team, cpu can do what it likes and it's not even a foul, unless awarding the free-kick stops a good advantage you had).

I totally agree about cpu perfect passing, especially longballs and crosses - they never go astray, always straight to the team-mates head. YOu never see a cpu player having to run on to ball to get his header in, he jsut stands and waits for it to come straight to him whilst your defenders are stuck in quick sand and barely move. Too unfair, I'm afraid.

And those long dribbles that they go on which last minutes at a time, especially near end of half (just like PES!!) or just after you score and they need quick equaliser ((just like PES!!) and if you finally hustle them off the ball, it scripts straight to another cpu teammate - (gaaah!!! just like PES!!).

Lack of supercancel is a real problem. That along with cpu super-response time and super passing accuracy means it frankly impossible to get anywhere near the ball at times. Poor player switching (sometimes it just refuses to allow you to switch to player nearest ball, even using RAS) is very annoying and your AI team mates just stand around watching the ball roll past them (1000 decisions per second - I think not).

The game is full of cpu cheats, but given the past few years with PES, I almost accept that as the norm from a football game against cpu. At least FIFA has real atmosphere, great gfx and sound, so many great teams, competitions and modes. I'm glad FIFA08 exists and will play this until autumn next year when we shall see what both companies come up with.
 
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To be honest I'm really not seeing a lot of the stuff you mention, maybe I'm just not an observant gamer, I win most corners that the AI takes by quickly selecting a defender and putting him in a good position, I wouldn't say that their run to the corner then cross is a cheat, I think it's just limited AI design resulting in them being too successful at something which makes it frustrating, I've built up a new formation to specifically focus on cutting down crosses into the box and it seems to be working so far, yes I've already conceded some cheap far post goals this season but I'm still in 3rd place so far and have won more than I've lost (I think my record so far is something like 4 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats) that's on professional with a Sheffield Wednesday squad only improved by growth and a few free transfers who cover during fatigue, considering the first season on pro in the premiership I got relegated and wasn't even out of the bottom three until about halfway in I'm not doing bad ;)

I often have slightly more shots than my opponent but not always, same as posession, some matches I have more, some matches they have more, certain teams are hard to breakdown, today I played Newcastle away and won 2-0 and I completely dominated them, they didn't close me down much so I just passed the ball around and completely humiliated them (I didn't realise at the time they were in 1st place and unbeaten), despite the scoreline I gave them such a footballing lesson that Martin Tyler said "there's some chants of you're not fit to wear the shirt, is that the worst insult a player can hear?" to which Andy Gray replied something like "yes it is, blah blah, but they're playing very badly".

Next match I played Bolton at home and they closed me down continually, harried me all the time just like Bolton of old, Diouff especially on the wing was causing me immense problems, not just having to defend against him but he was dropping back to help out his defender and my wingers didn't have the legs on him, I ended up only drawing 1-1 and they had more shots than me and more possession than me.

Because I'm playing as Sheffield Wednesday using their original team (I refuse to buy in anything other than cheap young prospects to keep it real) who have players that are all inferior to the rest of the premiership I'm not really seeing the stat thing "they play stronger, faster than their real stats" because at the end of the day they're all better than my players anyway ;)

The biggest annoyances are definitely:


1. Insanely biased refereeing towards the AI (consolation is he's very card wary so you can get away with a lot of things) and in fact use it to your advantage, giving away a freekick outside of shooting range is much, much, much easier to defend than their run to wing, far post cross, so if you're worried about them crossing you can hack them down......


2. Their constant tactic of run to the wing, far post cross, that's mostly annoying because my keeper refuses to punch and often refuses to move and lets the ball over his head for them to get an easy tap in, haven't found a real fix to that other than trying everything to not let them cross, my new formation is built up specifically to stop their players getting wide and putting crosses in, basically it's 1 forward, then LAM, RAM who are my first line of defense to stop the crosser, they close in on him whilst to cut off the angle whilst I bring in a second defender to further narrow his dribble options, then if they fail I have a LDM and RCM who can cover either side, if they fail I have LWB and RWB who also help to cover, with them being wingbacks and much further forward than normal full backs I have a chance to put pressure on the dribbler earlier, and if I do need to foul them then they're usually outside of freekick shooting range.


3. Final annoyances is even worse when combined with a referee that gives them fouls for simply walking into them and that's their overly accurate free kicks, completely unrealistic, even the best freekick takers only get one goal in around 5 freekicks I think? In Fifa08 it's gotta be something like 80%+ scoring ratio from freekicks, no matter who the kick taker is, only thing to do is as soon as you've conceded the free kick and everyone is lined up, quickly select a defender and put him on the same post the goalkeeper is covering, I've probably saved at least 15 goals with my defender in 3 seasons so far, still conceded more than that but not by much.
 
Posted in the other next gen thread, so I'm sticking it here too, because it's happening every other game to me in my manager mode. I keep getting chances near goal or six yard box and instead of heading or tapping the ball home, my player tries to either control it, chest it or takes a touch that results in a miss or losing the ball to the keeper or defender.
It's beginning to jar, I'm playing on semi, shooting wise and just pressing shoot and direction! Any ideas guys it is every other game literally, and in one game it happened three times and I lost 1-0?
 
In such instances I always look for the nearest defender and make my first touch a movement away from him, wrong foot stat implementation is really poor in the game so it doesn't really matter which foot your movement takes it onto, if you move away from the defender and control the ball in one movement the chances are you'll get a shot on goal.....
 
These chances are right in front of goal most of the times Placebo, just simple tap ins, I've started not pressing anything and trying to just run into the net with the ball if I can, but most times the ball is coming across me, so this is not an option. There is no defender to beat or even a keeper sometimes, but still the double movement or control....JUST kick the balllllllll Aaaarrrgggghhhh....
 
I very rarely get in front of goal tap in chances, guess we play our football in different ways, I do generally score such chances though, had a nice goal earlier, cross by Brunt from the left, right footed first time volley into the bottom left corner past Given by Jeffers, really nice finish as he jumped up and volleyed the ball whilst in the air, animation was really sweet.....

If you have through balls on manual why not through ball it into the net? Might be worth a try ;)
 
Placebo, the CPU is obviously cheating. This is my nr 1 annoyance with the game. It makes the game a lot worse, but I still love it.

The CPU knows what you are going to do about 0,01 second after you have pressed the button. So if you go right in the defense, the CPU goes left 0,01 second after. Same for sliding tackles. They are always spot on, because the CPU knows what you're going to do. I think the game will be so much better if they change the 0,01 second "CPU reaction time" to 0,5 second.
 
Nick Cave said:
These chances are right in front of goal most of the times Placebo, just simple tap ins, I've started not pressing anything and trying to just run into the net with the ball if I can, but most times the ball is coming across me, so this is not an option. There is no defender to beat or even a keeper sometimes, but still the double movement or control....JUST kick the balllllllll Aaaarrrgggghhhh....
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I also have this issue now and then. I think there is not any kind of solution, simply a very bad responsiveness in the game. Just as the times when you can't change your player and you're stuck with the currently selected one. Most people criticises reaction times in the game. I won't, I think the problem is the responsiveness of the keypad.

Sometimes my player tap-in the ball while if I pressed the shoot button about less thant 1.5 seconds before contacting the ball then the player might try to control, ignoring my orders.

By the way, I did my career degree on Jacques Tati. Happy to see your signature. I have Mon oncle and Les vacances... as wallscreens near to my computer.
 
Playing a LLM game with Morecambe, top of League 2 (just). Sixth round and there's one Premiership team in the FA Cup and that's Sunderland.
 
Finished my second season with Accrington Stanley, played/simulated on WC. Won the league again (league1 this time) and lost in the facup final to spurs on penalties. What really annoyed me was that the facup final was played at my home div2 stadium. Come on EA, just add a script that finals get played in the biggest stadiums and when possible the real ones. Its not hard to add facup final = always wembley ffs. Anyway, was halfway through the league and got bored with playing stanley so i simulated the second half and now Im the new manager of Liverpool!

Rafa's rotation didnt give the required league win and after my super succesfull stint as new young manager the Yanks took a chance and made me the new Liverpool Gaffer. Looking forward to it, although i do find it a real shame that they have neglicted simple stuff like auto nightgames for europe and setting up the proper stadiums for cup finals. Guess i can look forward to a season of anfield and da luz (or whatever its called) matches.

Hopefully the new guy in charge, formally of CM or FM? will adress these oversights as they are really easy to implement and make the game even better for next season. ASwell as add the possibilty to assign stadiums to teams. They have 30 stadiums in game so you should never had to play at the same away stadium twice. I always did that with pes and it made it so much better in the ML. Certain teams would get "difficult" stadiums that had a more bumpy pitch to make it just that bit harder. I always enjoyed that aspect, fifa should be able to add it.

EDIT

Made an improvements thread that can hopefully be sent to EA via FSB in the near future. Have a look [http://forums.evo-web.co.uk/showthread.php?t=44592]

Sent JayD a pm so hopefully he will pass it on if it has a decent response.
 
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Had a cracking match last night, League Cup quarter final at home to Arsenal, 3-3 after 90mins, 3 times Arsenal took the lead, 3 times I equalised, last equaliser was on the 90th mintue (penalty scored by Jeffers), 1st half extra time and Arsenal take the lead for the 4th time, Sagna scores a cracking left foot volley from about 25 yards which hit the left post, bounced and hit the right post then went in, 2nd half of extra time, Jeffers completes his hat trick and we equalise for the 4th time, we ended up winning 4-3 on penalties (I saved two Arsenal penalties). Even my wife enjoyed the match ;) Through to the league cup semis for the first time where I face West Ham :)
 
With me posting this in the wrong thread earlier here we go again in what will be the first in many updates...

Well with Tim taking the day off work due to illness and me having an official day off we decided to start a joint manager mode on this and so far it seems to be going okay.

We decided to go Spanish and for a bit of a challenge went for Atletico Madrid.

So far we have played 11. Won 5, Drawn 2 and Lost 4.

Out first goal in the league was against Almeria, in a game that we won 2-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZfPTcV4BIM

We were well happy with a 1-1 draw Vs Real Madrid an all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQcrJHotj1A

Our biggest win so far came against a team of donkey herders, winning 5-0. Our 4th was this wonder FK by Simao that bent round the wall and past the keeper before he could do anything

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3exVk8xKJQ

Hopefully we will keep you updated as the season rolls on for us
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Apparently manager mode has improved, Jay has been playing it loads lately and he didnt like it before, so i may have to start a new one to see what the fuss is about

Come on you Rammmmmmmmmms
 
Manager mode itself is unchanged, single player against AI (at least on Professional level) is what's improved, obviously that then makes manager mode more enjoyable but the mode itself hasn't changed.
 
Sorry to disagree but there has been no improvement to manager mode on professional or any other level.
What people are perceiving as change is purely to interpretention after not playing the mode for a period of time.The update applied to the game had no effect on single player whatsoever despite what a minority of people claim.
 
Yep, have to agree I'm afraid. I've been looking long and hard for differences, I have a few saves with my dad (to try and boost his confidence after getting smashed in the league every week), and nothing has changed from what I can see.
 
Firstly, it's a majority not a minority of people saying there has been an improvement.

Now secondly back to the point in hand and the object of the thread, I'm very dissapointed in the fact that I just won the FA cup final against West Ham, the game was played at a small generic stadium and and the celebration was a 5 second huddle. Come on EA, after playing through a whole season, I expect more than that for flip sake.
 
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kgulls said:
What people are perceiving as change is purely to interpretention after not playing the mode for a period of time.The update applied to the game had no effect on single player whatsoever despite what a minority of people claim.
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That's just nonsense, I played manager mode daily before the update and I play it daily since the update, so far I'm into my 5th season which means I've played something like 200+ matches easy, I think I'm perfectly capable of knowing how the game played before the update and how it plays subsequently.


I think the AI freekick goal issue is the simplest example of improvements since the update, before the update I conceded about 10 freekicks per season to the AI, and when they missed they usually hit the woodwork, following the update the AI has scored 1 freekick in about 40 matches, even with the best players the closest they came was the woodwork on a couple of occasions. So you're going to tell me it's merely coincidence that before the update the AI scored regularly from direct freekicks and since the update the majority of their freekicks go wide or over?

Anyways.......


Won 1-0 away to Birmingham with the scrappiest goal I've ever scored, Jeffers got the final touch and was credited with the goal, he also got injured scoring it.......

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZR1Sb6O4pIs

Better quality on dailymotion
 
Just played the community shield at guess............. Stamford Bridge. Sort it out EA.
 
JayD said:
Just played the community shield at guess............. Stamford Bridge. Sort it out EA.
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Would have thought if they were going to alter anything in ML then it would be simple enough to alter things like this at the same time... it's not as though they wont be aware of this! I'm of the opinion too of not seeing any changes, though I've only conceded two free kicks from the comp, so I never saw the Free kick always a shot on target thing either... 5th season in and my biggest gripe above all others is Money... god if only real football clubs in the lower reaches had it that good, we could have got a good manager... :)
 
Nick Cave said:
Would have thought if they were going to alter anything in ML then it would be simple enough to alter things like this at the same time
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How would it be simple? Implementing a correctly functioning neutral cup final stadium system, via an update, when there's clearly no such system at all in place is much more complicated than making a few tweaks to the match engine when those tweaks are probably just subtle numerical changes to various algorithms.

Look at previous PC versions of Fifa, there's a small file you can open in notepad, make changes to that and it affects almost all aspects of the match engine, AI attacking, defending as well as ball physics, passing speed, shot accuracy etc. etc. etc. so presumably there's something relatively similar in place which can be tweaked for an update in next gen systems.......
 
Placebo said:
How would it be simple? Implementing a correctly functioning neutral cup final stadium system, via an update, when there's clearly no such system at all in place is much more complicated than making a few tweaks to the match engine when those tweaks are probably just subtle numerical changes to various algorithms.

Look at previous PC versions of Fifa, there's a small file you can open in notepad, make changes to that and it affects almost all aspects of the match engine, AI attacking, defending as well as ball physics, passing speed, shot accuracy etc. etc. etc. so presumably there's something relatively similar in place which can be tweaked for an update in next gen systems.......
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I take it the particular cup final is not always played at the same ground? I started in the lowly Div 2, though I'll be in the championship next season, I have done no better than a Johnstones paint run, so I've no idea which grounds are used..I thought it was always the same one, just not the right one! ;)
 
Well with the footy being pretty crap this afternoon Tim and myself carried on with our Atletico Manager Mode, here is how this afternoons results have gone so far...

Atletico 0 Valencia 0
Barca 2 Atletico 0
Copa Del Ray 2nd Round - Atletico 1 Espanyol 0
Atletico 2 Levante 0
Athletic Club 1 Atletico 0
Atletico 1 Mallorca 0
Villareal 0 Atletico 1
Copa Del Ray 3rd Round 1st Leg - Athletic Club 0 Atletico 3

Seems like we are getting the hang of this lark now with the only loss today coming against the cunts at Barca, there really is no stopping them
 
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