TheEarl Posted October 10, 2017 Share Posted October 10, 2017 FM18 is fast approaching. I sense that the challenge forum is at a stand still these days. Its really sad, even though I am bit slow to both play and update my self at the moment. I found a "new" motiavtion for FM after not playing for a few years, just because of this forum. So my questions/debates: - What kind of challenge will you be looking for at FM18 - Do this forum lack a moderator? (Who is the moderator?) - Should there be a sticky thread with an overview of avaiable challenges, with some description and short hints/tips as to what this challenge includes/expects of you? - Is there a way we can advertise this section of the forum to attract more members to write and participate? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlipscombe Posted October 10, 2017 Share Posted October 10, 2017 I agree it is sad. The Challenges thread has been my home for a number of years and only personal circumstances have limited my participation in the last couple of years. My participation started in Gundo's thread and then progressed to the Big Euro Nation thread and both of these have stalled in the last couple of years. Looking at Gundo's profile he hasn't been on the forums since early 2016 hence the lack of a thread for FM2017. As for the Big Euro Nation thread, that too has stalled along with the other threads in the forum (Dafuge, The South American challenge etc) have also slowed compared to recent versions. I have wondered whether for example it would be worth merging the European Challenges into one? Would that be of interest to anyone? I would be happy to set it up if necessary... I think it is worth a discussion?? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEarl Posted October 10, 2017 Author Share Posted October 10, 2017 The challenges you mention, I am not the best to answer as I havent looked into them too much. So others should reply to that. But good to hear that there are others who would like a more active Challenge forum also Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheekybananafm Posted October 10, 2017 Share Posted October 10, 2017 I love this section of the SI Forum and it gave me a new love for the game when I started (and completed) The Ultimate Manager challenge. I would say it's quiet at the moment as in around 2 weeks the Beta of FM18 will be out and currently people are winding down in prep for that. As for me I 100% plan to do the UMC again and maybe if I get time another challenge as well. As for answers to your questions: 1) I'm not sure a mod is needed (I'm relatively new to this so maybe I'm wrong). Maybe each challenge thread needs someone "in charge" just to keep each thread in tact. 2) A sticky thread with an overview of all the popular challenges may be a good idea for newbies. 3) We could always advertise this section on some of the many social platforms that are around. FM Slack? Twitter? Facebook? FM Fan Sites? Discord? We could set up an account in each and have 1 person to run each one, just to promote threads, challenges, etc to try and bring more people in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 Just going to comment on the challenges, as the sign ups have different issues. These things are cyclical. The Dafuge thread will be red hot in a few weeks just before the beta comes out. The Ultimate challenge is usually fairly steady, but we've had lots of people complete it recently, which has meant that it's slowed down. Even this thread subject is cyclical I do agree that some of the other challenges (the small clubs to big clubs) could be merged, but I think that some of them are moderated. It would be good for the other continent ones to be merged, but actually they've been merged in the past, and the Africa / Americas / Asia merged thread didn't do so great, possibly because threads need to have some commonality. The Ultimate challenge can be a bit frustrating to do after a while, because it makes you have to manage the same clubs and in the same nations to a very great extent, but that 'been there, done that' aspect is actually what makes the thread itself work, because we can share the frustration of failing to win ACON after ACON, or Bayern or PSG winning the league season after season, but the manager won't leave; why won't he retire??? I think the new features could have a big effect on how easy it is to complete the youth challenge(s); either positive or negative, and should make those challenges interesting to read. There are some really good challenges that have died, which is a pity, such as the steel challenge The thing with challenges is that people complete them, and once they do, they sort of disappear. I think the Ultimate thread is great, and people like @Earl and @NormandyWept played a big part in the development of the challenge, including helping to shape the rules, but then they completed, though I appreciate Earl's ongoing contribution across all the threads. It's just the nature of challenge threads that they change and ebb and flow. Basically, it's always like this in early October. I presume this is what Trump was referring to with his calm before the storm comments, though I know he likes to keep his presence on this forum on the down low. I do think that it would be good at this time of year to try to invigorate the CSUE by having end of year awards. I can't kick that off though, because I have skin in the game by being the, let's say Supreme Deity, of one of the challenges. I also think it would be good for the new version if we restarted the records thread. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 @Cheekybananafm Actually @Earl and I have discussed integrating social media such as Facebook and YouTube with the challenges. The Giant Challenge is on Facebook. The Ultimate Challenge on Facebook is not THE ultimate challenge, nor even vaguely ultimaty. The thing is that all this social media is banned in China, and I've only recently starting circumventing it, (because this forum is also now unavailable in China), so I have no clue about western social media. I have 2 followers on twitter. I don't know them. I think they're aspiring Indian pop stars, so having problems shaping my message for my followers. There's definitely room for social media integration, and by room, I mean the opportunity to make money. I just need to think about how to do it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEarl Posted October 11, 2017 Author Share Posted October 11, 2017 I agree a lot to what you say @vikeologist this period is the most quite until the new game comes out. What I would like to see though, is someone keeping this section of the forum together. Maybe get another annual awards up again, lifting old but fun challenges back in the forum etc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlipscombe Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 i also agree with most of what has been said. Hopefully it will pick up once the game comes out like in previous versions. Hopefully this will be the case... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEarl Posted October 12, 2017 Author Share Posted October 12, 2017 One thing I would love to see back here is the annual aware for the best challenges Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watson156 Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 Maybe a set of monthly challenges would keep the Challenges section active. For example, you have to win the League and Champions League with Everton. You have a maximum of 3 seasons to do so. Points are awarded for certain objectives. Whoever gets the most points wins for that month. Add all of the people onto a leader board and see who wins by FM19. Each challenge could be in a different nation, therefore keeping the challenges fresh. The challenges could range from 1-3 seasons which should be do able in a month? The other positive with this is that it might appeal to players that don't want to be at the same team for 15+ seasons. If the challenges are promoted on other sections, then you would possibly get more traffic into the Challenges section, and from there maybe the big/main challenges would see more people enter them, and therefore the Challenge Section is more active. Just an idea Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyedOutMan Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 I love the challenges section. I haven't posted so often this year but looking to again in FM18, although work means that I don't really have time to go into the depth I would like! Planning to do a long term save in a fairly low ranked European nation next year - Belgium is appealing to me currently - with a Create-Your-Own club. I like the idea of building a history for a club from scratch. It suits my playing style (long term saves, with a focus on developing players who can go on to play lots and lots of games - the 1,000 app challenge is one of my favourites although I've just missed out on that this year (lots of 800+ though!). I hope this section of the forums doesn't die! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 @Watson156There used to be challenges like that. I remember an African Warriors one from South Africa about 8 years ago. That was for a full season, I think, but there've been even shorter term ones. It's a good idea, but these challenges have never really stuck in the past. Maybe that's because the people running them lost interest, as you need to come up with new challenges regularly, but I think that when the beta comes out, that might be an ideal time for short challenges as people are wary of bugs and trying to learn how to use the new features (and maybe find killer tactics). I might try one of the old challenges I like for the beta. If not the Steel challenge, then maybe the Keep it at close to home challenge I won;t be starting a new thread though, (just posting to the old thread), because I'm already running one challenge, so if anyone wants to be a challenge god they could start a new thread. If anybody does restart an old challenge, I think it's customary to acknowledge the initial creator. @GreyedOutMan I've been looking through old threads, and it's hilarious just how many threads just like this one there are, from almost 10 years afo wailing that the CSUE section is dying, but here we still are. On the other hand, have you seen how big some of the threads were 79 pages for a sort of sign up challenge Gundo's (original?) thread 157 pages. To put that in context the most popular threads now are Dafuge's at 30 pages and the Ultimate (which has been going for 2 years) at 57 pages, so there is some truth to the notion that this section has declined. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEarl Posted October 13, 2017 Author Share Posted October 13, 2017 @Watson156 I like this idea, tried to discuss it a year ago and got some response but not too much. But I guess someone would just have to initiate and let people join a long the way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
iacovone Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Hey guys, here's my annual check-in! Sad to see this forum in a bit of a slump but I'm sure it'll bounce back. I rarely have the time to post anymore but if I do start a file that ticks the boxes, I can see myself flitting in and out. Hope everyone's very well Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabreth Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 I think this section will return popular, new FM is almost here. Dafuge challenge is already started, and the usual others will follow. I like the idea of the return of the awards. Some time ago, personally, I liked @TheEarl 's supreme challenge. But it never seem to bring in a lot of people(maybe because it starded in summer). Basically a free for all challenge, as you can complete it in many ways. Thread is still here https://community.sigames.com/topic/374747-the-earls-supreme-football-manager-challenge/ We could still use the same thread, since the rules state " Any version of FM from Football Manager 2015 onwards is allowed, " The leaderboard could be divided per FM version. An interesting challenge would be the rising of a nation: take an european country outside the top 5/6, and rise them up to the top, outclassing la Liga, the Premier League, and so. It's not something new, but since I participate in this forum, I never saw something like this. How to achieve this would be your choice, you could swap teams or always play with the same, but of course you can manage only one team at a time. On top of that, you must win the European Cup and the World Cup with that same nation. I think this is near impossible.. you could win the Champions League every year, but if the other teams in the league can't follow you.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shankly84 Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 I would love the Gundo challenge to come back. I've spent many hours on them in the past. In terms of people not participating, Dafuge's challenge still gets a lot of people playing it. I thought about setting up the Gundo challenge myself last year, but I didn't want to step on anyone's toes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jintro Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 13 minutes ago, Shankly84 said: I would love the Gundo challenge to come back. I've spent many hours on them in the past. In terms of people not participating, Dafuge's challenge still gets a lot of people playing it. I thought about setting up the Gundo challenge myself last year, but I didn't want to step on anyone's toes. Gundo hasn't been on the forums since 2016, so I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind. There was some talk about combining Gundo and Big Europe in one challenge to get more eyeballs on the thread. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shankly84 Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 I may have a look at setting one up then and see if there is any interest in it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
yezzko Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 6 hours ago, Shankly84 said: I may have a look at setting one up then and see if there is any interest in it. I will certainly participate in this challenge so please set it up man Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas_e Posted November 6, 2017 Share Posted November 6, 2017 Such a shame that Challenges forum isnt seeing as much activity as it should, but are we also a bit spoiled for choice? I have played several of the challenges and I love it. Participating in @TheEarl's new challenge now and I'm sure that will be a blast as long as we get enough people playing. But the majority of the challenges are very time consuming. Nothing wrong about that, but how many players actually play proper long term challenges compared to how many different challenges there are? Is there too much choise? Would it be an idea to try and combine a couple of the challenges? Not likely I know, just seems to be to many challenges on too few dedicated players at the moment. And when we have few dedicated players on each challenge it all becomes very fragile. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted November 6, 2017 Share Posted November 6, 2017 7 hours ago, thomas_e said: Such a shame that Challenges forum isnt seeing as much activity as it should, but are we also a bit spoiled for choice? I have played several of the challenges and I love it. Participating in @TheEarl's new challenge now and I'm sure that will be a blast as long as we get enough people playing. But the majority of the challenges are very time consuming. Nothing wrong about that, but how many players actually play proper long term challenges compared to how many different challenges there are? Is there too much choise? Would it be an idea to try and combine a couple of the challenges? Not likely I know, just seems to be to many challenges on too few dedicated players at the moment. And when we have few dedicated players on each challenge it all becomes very fragile. Some of the challenges have been combined this year. Challenges are long-term commitments. They just are. I'd hope that folk would read threads other than the one they're engaged in, and start upvoting and replying a bit. In Earl's awards thread there's an award for best single post. If people upvoted posts that they find particularly funny, interesting, helpful etc, those posts would be highlighted and draw the eye of people who are skimming the threads, and make it easier for me to think who to vote for. The nature of challenges is that the posts can be very long, and reading every word in every thread would be time-consuming. Also, if we up-voted the best posts they might appear in the leaderboard. I think there's lots of people on the forum as a whole who are completely oblivious to us. Also, lets vote in the awards. I'll go first, and maybe not vote in every category. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEarl Posted November 8, 2017 Author Share Posted November 8, 2017 Must say I love the activity here the last week(s) hope it will continue Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 How are people feeling about the increased difficulty that dynamics are having on the challenges? I pretty much survived my first half season (in the Ultimate Challenge), but if it puts too many people off, we may need to consider whether people can start with some qualifications and experience. I've noticed that some people are getting hammered on the Dafuge challenge. I think some of us are pretty damn good at this game, and can surmount the new dynamics, but I don't think that challenges should just be something for the 'best' players. they have to be accessible to everybody; if not to achieve the challenge, at least to survive one season. (You'll notice that I'm suggesting I'm damn good at the game, but my results in Earl's Tour tell a different story). I'm certainly not thinking of suggesting a change to the Ultimate challenge rules at this point, but I'd be interested in other people's thoughts. Of course with the Ultimate Challenge, the answer might be to start with a really, really small club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas_e Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 On 12.11.2017 at 11:39, vikeologist said: I've noticed that some people are getting hammered on the Dafuge challenge. I think some of us are pretty damn good at this game, and can surmount the new dynamics, but I don't think that challenges should just be something for the 'best' players. they have to be accessible to everybody; if not to achieve the challenge, at least to survive one season. Seen the same thing. But also think that some people are putting a little bit too much focus on the state of their team dynamics. If you start out in the Dafuqe challenge with a bad string of results, the overall dynamics view looks pretty grim, but I'm also under the impression that it doesn't take too much to turn it around in the lower leagues. Maybe thats just me though! For me in the Dafuqe challenge, a few good games in a row I had turned all three parameters from red to green. But I had good characters in the team and similar personalities. And after a year, one of my advantages was that I had stayed in the club for quite a long time. Which was strange almost! But overall I think you're right, and maybe the qualifications/reputation needs to be altered in the future. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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