(Part 2) Top products from r/footballmanagergames

Well, I have barely any experience with football but Football Manager is helping me learn about the sport.

Baseball is pretty easy to pick up though. It has some pretty obscure rules that rarely come up, but the basics are easy enough to understand. I highly recommend this book, if you want a crash course. The author does a great job of mixing humor and the facts, it's certainly not an exhaustive read. After reading this you'll be pretty well acquainted. If you get into it I'd check out Men At Work by George Will after that for a an even deeper look and another great read.

The game (OOTP) itself is great because baseball lends itself to compiling heaps of stats. Almost everything a player does on the field can be recorded and analyzed and this is reflected in the game. While there is a randomness to it, the hard, statistic numbers give it some grounding. Don't let this intimidate you though, everyone has their own stats they pay attention to, you don't have to get into the really complicated stuff unless you want to.

The game can be kind of daunting if you look at all the options available. You can create your own leagues tweaking almost every aspect or just play the regular configuration.

OOTP usually has a sale during the off-season to help die-hards bide their time till the next season. You can usually pick up a copy for $20, I did it with last year's 2013 version.

Soccer's 4-4-2 System https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591640652/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_3XC6AbJ73N3VS

This on really help develop my 442 tactic. I don’t use that formation anymore but when I did it was pretty good.

This series of formation books are all nice.

Inverting the Pyramid is an amazing book and will change the way you look at the sport but it won’t help with tactics as it’s more the evolution of them.
If you find it interesting then you can go further and get Soccernomics, Why Everything You Know About Soccer is Wrong and Money and Soccer. Who knows, they might actually change the way you approach FM.

I've always been interested in economic theory... some of my thoughts in the game design document were around having two types of economy: a global economy and a local one. I wanted this to have an effect on the player in terms of the strength of the league (i.e. how much money was coming out of TV rights, attendances, demand for the product etc). A weaker league gives team less chance of buying top quality players resulting in lesser ability to compete globally without huge investment from the player etc.

I'm not sure how to tie this into the game without making it too complicated but I did buy a book on game mechanics (http://www.amazon.com/Game-Mechanics-Advanced-Design-Voices/dp/0321820274) so I've been studying the mechanics behind some popular MMO / tycoon type games.

There's a really cool tool by the authors of the book I just linked:
http://www.jorisdormans.nl/machinations/

I've used that in the GDD to simulate a few of the sources / drains / converters in the game... balancing the game and making it enjoyable is going to be a real challenge. I'm concentrating on getting the basics of match simulation and a stable server for hundreds of connections before I start with the actual game mechanics itself but something I'm really looking forward to!

Read the manual.

Inside of it, there is a ton of advice on playing the game beyond simply cataloging what options do what.

Then you can read the following for in depth advice and tips:

FM First Team Unofficial Football Manager 2011 Guide

A decent free guide. The website of the guys who made this is gone... Uploaded it for everybody.

Tactical Theorems '10

This was made for 2010, but is still very very very relevant. On other forums, people will usually just tell you to read it.



There are tons of guides out there for every possible aspect of the game. I found the following useful:

Lower League Guide

Financial Guide

Understanding Tactics and the 'Manchelona'

The above site has several other guides worth reading. Check it out.



Also, beyond the above FM specific stuff, there are a number of books out there that can help you in FM:

The 90 Minute Manager

Soccer Systems and Strategies

there are a lot of comments in the "new laptop" thread on the FM official forums. start from the last page. you can find deals for laptops with an i5 processor under or around 500$. i would suggest you to take such a deal. example of such a deal. in FM the most important things are cpu then memory then gpu. with an i5 you are good to go. the best choice would be finding a laptop with both an i5 + dedicated GPU within your budget.

I use the monitor listed below:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005BZNDOO/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687442&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00413PHDM&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=TT7V0M821W310GAEMP3H

but I think it's the UI that really makes the difference. The normal one drives me up the wall.

It's the Skin listed below:

http://www.fmscout.com/a-wannachupbrew-fm16-skin.html

I mainly love it for the 'just black' screen

Something like this to be able to lay back on your sofa?

Soccer Modern Tactics: Italy's Top Coaches Analyze Game Formations Through 180 Situations

Logitech C920 HD Pro Webcam - Full HD 1080p Video Calling and Recording with Dual Stereo Audio Mics - Black https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006A2Q81M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_KnBXBbWM1AC6E this is the go to webcam that most use Inc myself I would also say watch Loki dokis how to you tube series it's really helpfull

Probably struggle to find a website that sells these as they predominantly came in disc format.

FM07 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B000GHED7S/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all

FM08 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B000UX6QAU/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all

FM09 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B001FA0DLK/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all

FM10 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B002K8Q07M/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all

FM11 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B003Z6QJKQ/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all

FM12 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/PC-Video-Games/SEGA-PCOESSSGA01501-Football-Manager-2012-Mac-DVD/B005HGG006/ref=pd_sim_63_7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=W57N441A5Q1TS4W6A5ZR

Used albeit - but most than likely working.

Everton do every time they beat us. I shit you not.