Are some matches fixed?

[themadsheep2001]

Meanwhile I played my 9th and 10th game, conceded 4 more goals and scored ...zero.

I think I have to accept it, I don't want to stay here til tomorrow

EDIT: Went on holiday for 1day with same tactics and players .. won 3-0. How can we say everything is ok?

Looks like the assistant manager made better in game decisions and changes than you?

[rinso]

remember a few years back, someone on the Beta testing team/public testing team leaked the playable version of the game?

So, now, imagine, someone on the software testing team leaks the fact that the game actually fixes certain games.

Would YOU buy FM when you know it is gonna cheat you out of results at any given point during the season??

Of course you wouldnt.

[buddiemirren]

If results weren't somehow computed beforehand, in at least to some extent, could someone please explain how the ME knows when to show key highlights etc. in what is reputed to be real-time according to some on this thread?

[braceletwinner]

I'll never understand why people do this. Play the game, accept the result, move on.

I'll never understand why some people don't understand that people think differently than they do. Read the post, accept that they're not like you, move on.

[rinso]

If results weren't somehow computed beforehand, in at least to some extent, could someone please explain how the ME knows when to show key highlights etc. in what is reputed to be real-time according to some on this thread?

Who said it was done in real-time??

It does calculate things in advance, it has to. That's why there's a delay from submitting your team to the match actually starting...

[Dagenham_Dave]

If results weren't somehow computed beforehand, in at least to some extent, could someone please explain how the ME knows when to show key highlights etc. in what is reputed to be real-time according to some on this thread?

It isn't 'computed beforehand' as such. When you press 'play', the game then calculates the score and shows any highlights of the outcome. As soon as you make the slightest change in-game, it then re-calculates based on the new set of variables. And it continues to do this every time you make any sort of change. The calculation that goes into it at the start is based on a number of factors, which can produce different outcomes, as is each subsequent calculation that happens in-game.

So, no result is pre-determined, but it is calculated immediately after you press play.

[themadsheep2001]

Who said it was done in real-time??

It does calculate things in advance, it has to. That's why there's a delay from submitting your team to the match actually starting...

And then recalculated for changes. I've had it explained before, annoyingly the chances of me ever finding the post again is tiny. Hopefully Ackter will pop and explain in much greater detail.

[Lawlore]

It isn't 'computed beforehand' as such. When you press 'play', the game then calculates the score and shows any highlights of the outcome. As soon as you make the slightest change in-game, it then re-calculates based on the new set of variables. And it continues to do this every time you make any sort of change. The calculation that goes into it at the start is based on a number of factors, which can produce different outcomes, as is each subsequent calculation that happens in-game.

So, no result is pre-determined, but it is calculated immediately after you press play.

Which is why Instant Match and Holiday modes can yield quite different results to managing a game yourself- your assistant could make wildly different changes to those that you would, responding to the situation in an entirely different way.

[buddiemirren]

Who said it was done in real-time??

It does calculate things in advance, it has to. That's why there's a delay from submitting your team to the match actually starting...

Dagenham Dave stated, 'How on earth can the results be pre-determined before the day of the match when the game has absolutely NO idea what changes you are going to make in-game, who is going to be injured, what subs will be made (and when), etc etc?'

I was just pointing out that certain calculations are carried out pre-match, otherwise the ME wouldn't be able to show highlights as in the ME is just a graphical representation of a previous calculation.

[Svenc]

If results weren't somehow computed beforehand, in at least to some extent, could someone please explain how the ME knows when to show key highlights etc. in what is reputed to be real-time according to some on this thread?

Results aren't calculated beforehand. The ME goes through the match until you or the Ai changes something (sub, change in tactics), from which point it recalculates. Whatever is the outcome at the end of the match is the result. However: The game's match viewer has the ability to re-play that match, event for event, sequence for sequence which kicks in once you watch something. Hence the viewer "knows" where the highlights are. Thus you can store and view entire matches once they're finished via a pkm (either to have a reminder for your past glory's, opportunity for further analysis or bug reports). The game also stores a huge number of matches in your save for a while - go to the fixture screen, jump back a season and by clicking on a result you can watch entire matches of your season past. And also many of your opponent's. The same goes for goals of a season/World Cup, those are stored and are watchable for quite some time. Naturally at some point those will be erased, as the filesize of each save gets bigger every season anyway.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/165817-My-Critique-of-FM10-(long-post)?p=4224354&viewfull=1#post4224354

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/80201-player-error-mistakes-idiocy?p=2295706&viewfull=1#post2295706

Beforehand the ME doesn't know which changes you or the AI are going to make, so in that sense Dave was correct. This can be something entirelly different even if you don't do anything, as the AI might adjust to the scoreline, subs a player that in one run might get injured early on and in the other doesn't, etc. etc. To put it in another way: It doesn't really make a difference if this isn't real-time (which it isn't). Except that if it were, it likely was a lot more ressource heavy, as it isn't just your own matches that go through this, but at the minimum detail settings every other matches of all the competitions your own team enters. Remember that this is a sequential simulation of 90 minutes of play, rather than what you see in PES or FIFA. If you load a pkm from the main menu and load up a match, no dead ball situation will be cut short and you can kiss 90 minutes of your life goodbye if you want to. Some calculations may be much simpler than others, but naturally there are are quite many to be made.

[rinso]

And then recalculated for changes. I've had it explained before, annoyingly the chances of me ever finding the post again is tiny. Hopefully Ackter will pop and explain in much greater detail.

I wasn't trying to add to the conspiracy theory here by the way...

It goes something along the lines of the ME makes some calculations based on what your team selection and instructions are, then that is why you cannot instantly pause the game and make changes, because it has already worked out the initial part of the match.

It follows on from the post saying things are calculated from the moment you press "play"

[themadsheep2001]

I wasn't trying to add to the conspiracy theory here by the way...

It goes something along the lines of the ME makes some calculations based on what your team selection and instructions are, then that is why you cannot instantly pause the game and make changes, because it has already worked out the initial part of the match.

It follows on from the post saying things are calculated from the moment you press "play"

Oh I know you weren't, but not sure everyone is aware that it does so.

[rinso]

Oh I know you weren't, but not sure everyone is aware that it does so.

Ahh fairy snuff then!

[andqui]

I used to be stuck in this, back when I wasn't very good at all with tactics. Replaying games I lost and trying different things was what I did to try to figure out what I was doing wrong. As great as this game is, this is it's greatest problem: it gives you very little feedback. If you are loosing, it really doesn't tell you what is wrong with the tactics. If your players have awful ratings, you have no idea (as a beginner) if that's them not performing up to scratch or if it's your tactics- there's simply no feedback, and you have no idea what to change.

Anyways, often, when I lost, I would try to replay try different tactics or change some things, or to get some idea of what was happening (because again, the game doesn't really tell you unless you know all about heat maps and the like, which not everyone does). Often, I would be in the same situation- how the hell was the team in bottom place magically beating me again and again, no matter what I tried? Those strikers were both on goal droughts over 10 games long, and all of a sudden against me, every time I replayed it, they would go crazy and play like Messi. It was maddening beyond belief- it didn't seem fair that a good side like mine would have absolutely no chance against this feeble opposition, no matter what I tried.

Like people have said before, there is definitely some sort of "seed" that gets applied just before the match- be it random or due to press conferences, team talks, whatever, if you get a bad seed, your players will do poorly in some aspect, again and again no matter what you try. It's just how the game works. Now that I'm a bit more tactically astute, I can just accept this as how the game introduces variably, and take each match as it is, because I can usually figure out how to fix things if something went terribly wrong. But I absolutely understand the frustration of someone who is trying to figure this game out, and is using replays as a learning tool, only to have nothing at all work.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Like people have said before, there is definitely some sort of "seed" that gets applied just before the match- be it random or due to press conferences, team talks, whatever, if you get a bad seed, your players will do poorly in some aspect, again and again no matter what you try. It's just how the game works.

Seriously, what on earth would be the point in the developers introducing that into the coding of a game? The very first calculation that goes into making the match result happens when you press play to start the match, not a moment before.

I've never been involved with the development of this game, so I'll never know for sure, but I'd be willing to bet a substantial amount of money that there is no such thing as a 'bad seed' that is planted before you go to play a match.

[match8886]

I ran into these all the time, and if you really want to win...start creating your 4th temp tactic. This tactic will be 100% tailored against the opponent...either to remove all the space they got, or to reduce possession lose, or w/e.

It will still require you to reload a few times, as the favour is heavily against you...but you can yield a win...out of many tries

PS: I gave up on this style already, if I really lost it...i'll be back next year LOL

[andqui]

Seriously, what on earth would be the point in the developers introducing that into the coding of a game? The very first calculation that goes into making the match result happens when you press play to start the match, not a moment before.

I've never been involved with the development of this game, so I'll never know for sure, but I'd be willing to bet a substantial amount of money that there is no such thing as a 'bad seed' that is planted before you go to play a match.

Well, how else do you account for having tons of difficulty in trying to beat a certain match while replaying it? That does happen occasionally, when a team you are expected to stomp will turn in an inspired performance against you 9 times out of 10. If you have a save from right before "Team Selection" from such a game, where you loose badly, you will often find it very difficult to win, no matter what you try. It's certainly not set in stone or "fixed", and you can sometimes scrape a draw or a win, but some matches you simply seem to be at some sort of mysterious disadvantage, even when trying to replay it. This disadvantage might well be due to things the player has caused, like a bad press conference or unsettled players, but it is there at times. This happens the other way around as well- sometimes, I've tried replaying matches that I've very unexpectedly won as a test, and I've repeated the result and my players turn in brilliant performances when I replay it again and again.

NOTE: I am NOT saying that replaying and the like is a good way to play or enjoy the game. You won't enjoy it. I am purely talking about the mechanics behind it. Also, this "seed" need not be a number, it could be represented via morale or something else.

As for why its there, think about it. How would you, as a programmer, handle the effect of a bad press conference, for example? Bad press conference = poor morale = players will play worse. Opposition coach gave a really good press conference right before you saved, so his team gets a morale boost. The same thing could be done by some sort of scalar within the match engine, I don't know, it's not really important. You don't notice this at all if you just play through it and don't reload. I'm not even complaining if it's written like that- if it is, that sounds like a good, efficient way to handle it to me. End result is that if you load from a save just before the match, certain effects have been applied, and if those effects are negative, as some are, the odds are already against you for that match. That is how it is supposed to be in football- what a manager does before the match often impacts what occurs during it. The only "problem" is that this makes trying to learn what went wrong by reloading the save an exercise in futility, because you often screwed up before you even saved.

[GabrieleGallagher]

Looks like the assistant manager made better in game decisions and changes than you?

Seriously, man?

I'm not a newbie, if I concede goal in the first half for 10 replays, it simply can't be the assistant, unless he knows HOW to beat the ME in that kind of almost-impossible-to-win matches, rather than how to beat the opponent with logical instructions.

Otherwise how could have it been possible for me to finish in 4th position in my first Hertha seasion, if I hadn't known how to beat a 17th position team, 10 times without scoring a single goal?

I don't think there's a superior force that prevent us from enjoying the game, I just think that sometimes match calculations goes into some strange behaviors.

[bobbyd]

There are so many people who have experienced the "lost multiple times in a row" thing that there must be something going on. Similarly, every time it comes up, uploading a save produces a win for someone else, so the result is absolutely not "fixed".

So let me propose a theory that allows both of those things to exist together.

I believe there are a number of factors at play here, none of which i can prove, but hundreds of hours playing does start to show patterns.

Events in the week leading up to the match make a difference, and that difference will apply to every attempt to replay because they happen before you reload.

It also feels at times like there is a random number applied to a game, so for instance the opposition get a x% boost to all stats (in the background of course). Loading just before the game might leave that in place for every attempt.

You occasionally come up against an opposition player who is destined for a great game no matter what you do. I see it most visibly in crap wingers for weak opposition getting a hat trick from all different places (maybe once a season). It probably happens for other players, just not as visibly. That isn't unrealistic, but again could show up in all reloads.

I have no great complaints about those things - real life is variable and the best team does not always win. Teams get complacent, teams get lucky, players put in a great performance. There has to be a mechanism to simulate human variability in a game.

Of course, none of these things makes a game unwinnable, just harder. So when you upload your save, someone better at the game will tweak the tactics and win the game and prove there is no foregone conclusion. However, that does not prove there was not a hidden handicap on that particular game.

So is the game fixed? No. Are some games much harder to win for no visible reason? In my experience, absolutely! Is that realistic? Yep.

That is just one way that explains why both sides can argue that fixing does/does not exist. I have no idea of the actual mechanics, but i am sure the game has hidden adjustments and handicaps, and playing the same game over and over seems to use the same adjustments.

I think there is one other factor here. Over the years, I always struggle to win the first game after i start up the program and load my last game. Not always lose, just always get punished if i try to be too adventurous. It has frustrated me to the extent that i leave the game running all the time rather than turn it off (good thing to tell the wife anyway!), and play very conservatively for one or two games after loading. I suspect there is a little handicap built in when you load a saved game to discourage replaying a game you have just lost. In normal play, you don't notice it too much, but in a game that is already going to be hard because of poor press conferences etc, it becomes that little bit harder. Good luck getting anyone to admit to that one

[GabrieleGallagher]

You occasionally come up against an opposition player who is destined for a great game no matter what you do. I see it most visibly in crap wingers for weak opposition getting a hat trick from all different places (maybe once a season). It probably happens for other players, just not as visibly. That isn't unrealistic, but again could show up in all reloads.

I agree.

[milnerpoint]

There are so many people who have experienced the "lost multiple times in a row" thing that there must be something going on. Similarly, every time it comes up, uploading a save produces a win for someone else, so the result is absolutely not "fixed".

Ill tell you whats going on. The person re-loading is not very good at the game. After the first couple of re-loads they stop trying, or they make wild sweeping tactical changes that messes up everything. The reason someone can win the game first time is they think about it for a minute, make a few small changes that are needed and react in game.

Im amazed these threads come back around every year, only now a days people dont upload their games, probably because they know someone will win the game first time and prove them completely wrong. Infact i think there should be a rule, if you make a thread like this, you should be forced to upload your save in the OP or it gets closed down. Its so pointless.

[themadsheep2001]

Seriously, man?

I'm not a newbie, if I concede goal in the first half for 10 replays, it simply can't be the assistant, unless he knows HOW to beat the ME in that kind of almost-impossible-to-win matches, rather than how to beat the opponent with logical instructions.

Otherwise how could have it been possible for me to finish in 4th position in my first Hertha seasion, if I hadn't known how to beat a 17th position team, 10 times without scoring a single goal?

I don't think there's a superior force that prevent us from enjoying the game, I just think that sometimes match calculations goes into some strange behaviors.

Whether you are a "newbie" or not isn't really here or there. The fact that the assistant manager won immediately, suggest he had better game management and made better in game management for that game. l'm willing to bet if you upload the save, people would win it first time. It's got nothing to do with strange calculations or knowing how to beat the ME in almost impossible games.

It's entirely possible to finish 4 without beating a 17th place team by the way, as there another 33 league games.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/383098-Are-some-matches-fixed?p=9391277&viewfull=1#post9391277

Svenc's post sums it up, and the two links in his post are from Paul and Ov Collyer on how it works.

[GabrieleGallagher]

If I give MY tactics, MY instructions and MY starting players to my assistant and he can score 2 goals in the first 30mins, while I haven't been able to score a single goal in 10 replayed game of course is because I can't be a valid manager.

If you say that I can't win due to pre-game situations, why my assistant can do it, scoring goals with my tactic in the first minutes while I can't?

Once more I don't want to say there are evil forces, I just want to understand why an unnatural situations happens.

[themadsheep2001]

If I give MY tactics, MY instructions and MY starting players to my assistant and he can score 2 goals in the first 30mins, while I haven't been able to score a single goal in 10 replayed game of course is because I can't be a valid manager.

If you say that I can't win due to pre-game situations, why my assistant can do it, scoring goals with my tactic in the first minutes while I can't?

Because in the 90 minutes of the game he will make his own changes, and his own subs and his own team talks that will impact on the game.

I never said you couldn't win due to pre game situations. I said one thing only: in the course of 90 minutes in this game, your assistant manager made better in game decisions/management and/or had luck go his way. It's really that simple.

[GabrieleGallagher]

That would be obvious if I weren't talking about scoring in the first minutes of the match, where no subs or brutal adjustmenets happened.

Is it so hard to say it's somehow strange?

[themadsheep2001]

That would be obvious if I weren't talking about scoring in the first minutes of the match, where no subs or brutal adjustmenets happened.

Is it so hard to say it's somehow strange?

No because Paul and Ov Collyer already explained how the game works. You'e missed the part about team talks and/or having luck going his way. And who said the adjustments had to be brutal? You wont know any pre game shouts he gives. You underestimate how much be can change.

Even if he starts with your tactics and players, he has the pre game team talk and shouts, in game shouts and subs, half time team talk and shouts (and subs) second half shouts and subs. That is more than enough to win a game.

[Fluisterwoud]

If I give MY tactics, MY instructions and MY starting players to my assistant and he can score 2 goals in the first 30mins, while I haven't been able to score a single goal in 10 replayed game of course is because I can't be a valid manager.

If you say that I can't win due to pre-game situations, why my assistant can do it, scoring goals with my tactic in the first minutes while I can't?

Once more I don't want to say there are evil forces, I just want to understand why an unnatural situations happens.

I recognise this too.

- Playing for promotion with Bradford, I saved the game at matchday 44. I played away against the number 3 and at home against the number 4. I needed just one point. I managed boh games myself and lost 0-2 en 3-1. Loaded the game, lost twice again. And again. So, I went on holiday, let the assistant play my tactic and voila: 0-6 en 4-1 wins. And after a re-load, 0-4 and 1-1, followed by 0-3 and 2-1 wins. So, I again loaded the game, managed the two matches myself: 0-1 and a 3-0 loss.

But there is no bias...? Nah...

[milnerpoint]

That would be obvious if I weren't talking about scoring in the first minutes of the match, where no subs or brutal adjustmenets happened.

Is it so hard to say it's somehow strange?

The links in the post a few up give you the explanation of how the game works, yet you seem to refuse to believe it as it wont fit into your theory. Read what has been said and come to peace with the fact that the assistant was able to win and you were not.

[themadsheep2001]

I recognise this too.

- Playing for promotion with Bradford, I saved the game at matchday 44. I played away against the number 3 and at home against the number 4. I needed just one point. I managed boh games myself and lost 0-2 en 3-1. Loaded the game, lost twice again. And again. So, I went on holiday, let the assistant play my tactic and voila: 0-6 en 4-1 wins. And after a re-load, 0-4 and 1-1, followed by 0-3 and 2-1 wins. So, I again loaded the game, managed the two matches myself: 0-1 and a 3-0 loss.

But there is no bias...? Nah...

Nope, no bias.

[GabrieleGallagher]

Do you think that during my 10 always-losing-reloading games I never tried to change something about tactics, using almost any of them that usually work, and team talks that leads to green reactions? Of course I did but nothing changed.

So I assume my zero goals in 10 games as extremely bad luck and my assistant's 3 goals as good luck, it's the only way I could accept it.

[themadsheep2001]

Do you think that during my 10 always-losing-reloading games I never tried to change something about tactics, using almost any of them that usually work, and team talks that leads to green reactions? Of course I did but nothing changed.

So I assume my zero goals in 10 games as extremely bad luck and my assistant's 3 goals as good luck, it's the only way I could accept it.

You assume that every one of your changes were good, since you didn't win, I'm not sure we can say they were.

I'll say it again. Upload your save and I bet someone else will win it.

[GabrieleGallagher]

It's not a competition against someone else, I'm not saying I'm the best manager of the world and there's always someone better than you and it's true.

If you say that is normal to have a winning team with a winning tactic that suddenly can't score a single goal in 10 replays vs a 17th position team so I think you're right and I'm not going to go on this thread, everyone will keep its own opinion, all in all it's not vital importance because simply I don't use to replay games.

[Dagenham_Dave]

If you say that is normal to have a winning team with a winning tactic that suddenly can't score a single goal in 10 replays vs a 17th position team

Once you get your head around the fact that it isn't 'ten replays', then the better your understanding of the situation will be.

[milnerpoint]

It's not a competition against someone else, I'm not saying I'm the best manager of the world and there's always someone better than you and it's true.

If you say that is normal to have a winning team with a winning tactic that suddenly can't score a single goal in 10 replays vs a 17th position team so I think you're right and I'm not going to go on this thread, everyone will keep its own opinion, all in all it's not vital importance because simply I don't use to replay games.

When you accept your failing to score in ONE game not 10 then you will get over this apparent issue.

Surely this can be closed now.

[GabrieleGallagher]

I agree it's one match but every reload shoud have their own odds about the match because one second later of reloading it will be a different career, starting upon changing formation from reload to reload.

By the way I think you should respect a little more someone else's opinions. We here to talk and to discuss, not to say the universal truth.

[milnerpoint]

But what is being said IS the truth. What your going on about is speculation that is unfounded except through your own perception.

There are two links a few posts up that explain how the ME works, you have to read and accept what your being told. Short of that the rest is purely unfounded speculation.

[Rob4590]

How is this thread still open? With the amount of posts that are spouting utter rubbish about matches being fixed, I would have thought the mods would have shut this down to stop such rubbish being spread further?

As an aside - it's amazing how certain users always justify the 'reload and cheat' tactic to 'prove' the matches are fixed - BUT ONLY WHEN IT IS A MATCH THEY HAVE MESSED UP IN AND LOST. Bet they don't ever do that after games where the AI batters them and they nick a fluke breakaway goal to win 1-0. But of course then the result is down to their skill in defending against overwhelming odds, rather than the AI being really unlucky not to score from their 8CCCs etc......

The fact that the next time they replayed it, they would lose 5-0 has nothing to do with it..... (which of course would prove it's not fixed - but that isn't convenient to the argument!)

[vlobben]

To be fair, threads like these serve to debunk some of the myths about the game. If they were instantly closed it seemd SI has "something to hide", and even if they are proven wrong it would make the thread fall off the first page quickly.

[isignedupfornorealreason]

How is this thread still open? With the amount of posts that are spouting utter rubbish about matches being fixed, I would have thought the mods would have shut this down to stop such rubbish being spread further?

As an aside - it's amazing how certain users always justify the 'reload and cheat' tactic to 'prove' the matches are fixed - BUT ONLY WHEN IT IS A MATCH THEY HAVE MESSED UP IN AND LOST. Bet they don't ever do that after games where the AI batters them and they nick a fluke breakaway goal to win 1-0. But of course then the result is down to their skill in defending against overwhelming odds, rather than the AI being really unlucky not to score from their 8CCCs etc......

The fact that the next time they replayed it, they would lose 5-0 has nothing to do with it..... (which of course would prove it's not fixed - but that isn't convenient to the argument!)

I have actually, it does make some interesting results. But anyway, if someone reloads let them, it's their game. Someone else created a new manager to take control of an opposition in every game he played... The thread absolutely hammered him...

TheMadSheep is at least trying to put the point across that it may be tactical, the assistant might be doing something 'right', finding the tactical sweet spot that gets a victory. That's the message that needs to be put across to be honest, not the drivel that DagDave and MilnerPoint seem to be pushing =/

And on that note, if and only IF you don't like losing to the point you must reload, then yes, saving two or three days prior to a match gives you the biggest scope for changing the result as opposed to saving prior to the game. Often, you can identify trends in reloading, for example, you can often spot a positional weakness or a player weakness, a specific defender might consistently make mistakes and underperform in the game. I've no idea when the calculation for 'form' is taken into effect, maybe, there's something that determined he's going to have a bad day, maybe he's gotten far too cocky. Occassionally you can swap a player and shift his role and that nullifies the problem. But it's NOT an exact science.

If anything the main 'problem' for people who reload is the lack of scouting information. Or a lack of knowledge of applying the limited information they have. It may go a long way if scouts put forward some useful information beside the "they play 4-4-2, lets attack cos they're crap at defending", and keep in mind, the average gamer isn't one of us who tends to hang around the tactics forums, they're not going to click through to multiple stats screens and reports to figure things out, - hell I don't half the times as I want the game to progress at a reasonable speed - I USED to take hours over a game, now I don't, the average player isn't going to spend more than half an hour on a match basis... So having a bit more information for them to apply a basic level of tactical nous might go a long way.

Just my 2 cents.

[Kenco]

It's not a competition against someone else, I'm not saying I'm the best manager of the world and there's always someone better than you and it's true.

If you say that is normal to have a winning team with a winning tactic that suddenly can't score a single goal in 10 replays vs a 17th position team so I think you're right and I'm not going to go on this thread, everyone will keep its own opinion, all in all it's not vital importance because simply I don't use to replay games.

What about the opposition? Is there a chance that this team in 17th plays a particular formation and tactic which nullifies your usually successful tactic?

You can't just have one tactic that always wins, no matter what. There will always be a team out there who might struggle against other teams but have just the right system to beat yours. Your assistant manager may have recognised this early in his game and changed things while you haven't spotted it.

Also, you playing the game 10 times and your assistant doing it once is hardly a good basis for an experiment, as his may have been a fluke. Let him manage for ten games as well.

[JordanBlackpoolFC]

The Mods/Developers/Fan boys always vigorously deny the fact that some matches are fixed. Most sane people know that there is something not quite right, it is pretty obvious unless you trying not to believe it. It's not like they are going to come out and admit that some matches are fixed though is it, it would make the game kind of pointless and sales would drop, but we all know it is, and if you try denying it then you are just deluding yourself.

[milnerpoint]

The Mods/Developers/Fan boys always vigorously deny the fact that some matches are fixed. Most sane people know that there is something not quite right, it is pretty obvious unless you trying not to believe it. It's not like they are going to come out and admit that some matches are fixed though is it, it would make the game kind of pointless and sales would drop, but we all know it is, and if you try denying it then you are just deluding yourself.

The only people deluding themselves, are people like yourself.

This is now heading exactly where most would have predicted it, now facts have been shown, by official SI dev's, the insults have started coming.

[forameuss]

The Mods/Developers/Fan boys always vigorously deny the fact that some matches are fixed. Most sane people know that there is something not quite right, it is pretty obvious unless you trying not to believe it. It's not like they are going to come out and admit that some matches are fixed though is it, it would make the game kind of pointless and sales would drop, but we all know it is, and if you try denying it then you are just deluding yourself.

Ok, I'll bite, but I do have a couple of questions.

You say that coding fixed matches would be kind of pointless. Alright, so why have SI coded it in then? What do they get out of it? Are there benefits?

Also, in what situations are these matches fixed?

[GabrieleGallagher]

The Mods/Developers/Fan boys always vigorously deny the fact that some matches are fixed. Most sane people know that there is something not quite right, it is pretty obvious unless you trying not to believe it. It's not like they are going to come out and admit that some matches are fixed though is it, it would make the game kind of pointless and sales would drop, but we all know it is, and if you try denying it then you are just deluding yourself.

I would not be that harsh, but somehow in bold you just did it fine

[Dagenham_Dave]

it is really remarkable this conspiracy theory... But could someone explain me why on earth would SI do something like that? deliberately making their customers furious? Are they just evil?

Along with myself and forameuss, that's now the third time someone has asked this very question, and yet, none of the conspiracy theorists seem keen to offer their thoughts. Can't for the life of me think why...

[GabrieleGallagher]

No conspiracy, I'm just saying sometimes it's harder than others (if not impossible, as my instance) to win a match, while sometimes it's pretty impossible to lose it.

That's it.

[Dagenham_Dave]

No conspiracy, I'm just saying sometimes it's harder than others (if not impossible, as my instance) to win a match, while sometimes it's pretty impossible to lose it.

That's it.

Your instance hasn't shown it to be impossible though, all that it's shown is that YOU weren't able to win that one match that you reloaded over and over. Upload the save, let others try it, and if not one single person can win the game, then you might be onto something.

[Lawlore]

The Mods/Developers/Fan boys always vigorously deny the fact that some matches are fixed. Most sane people know that there is something not quite right, it is pretty obvious unless you trying not to believe it. It's not like they are going to come out and admit that some matches are fixed though is it, it would make the game kind of pointless and sales would drop, but we all know it is, and if you try denying it then you are just deluding yourself.

The problem with making these claims is that you have to back them up with reproduceable, demonstrable evidence that is open to testing for them to hold any weight. And so far, nobody has. Until there's actually something beyond the tin hat theories, especially in the face of the people who code the game telling you it is not true, that's all they are- incoherent ranting. If you say this is the case, offer some proof beyond stories. I could tell you I've got a Lamborghini and a smoking hot 18-year-old nympho girlfriend, but because I'm choosing to spend my time on this forum writing in depth about a game that looks like a spreadsheet, are you going to believe me? Are you heck.

[Jimmious7]

Well I guess it's simple to find out.

Play the match normaly, see the result.

Load before the match, use a completely weird tactic(2-3-5 or something) and see the result.

Are they the same? If yes, then it's fixed, if not, it's not.

However I doubt people even try that when they WIN a game, not lose.

Because of course it's hard to change things in order to win a game in which you were already playing the "best way" you could and lost...

And of course (I imagine) nobody thinks that there are games that you WIN that are "fixed". Because nobody ever really bothered to replay one of them.

Ah.. human perception...

[Kenco]

It's easier for some people to believe that SI would put in some coding to fix matches which would benefit nobody whatsoever and only in their version of the game, rather than admit the truth - that they are not as good at FM as they thought they were.