Preview: Implementing Tactics FM09

[Loversleaper]

I have been using a lot of time lately on FML so I haven't had too much time to explore FM09. So with the little time I've had I have been playing around with some things that look incredibly interresting.

Now, reflecting back on FM08 the sliders were relatively easy to work with because sliders interacted with one another. You could gradually move the sliders all in the same directions and pace, you just had to figure out which way on the slider meant the attacking mind-sets and the defensive mindsets. Defensive Line and Closing Down worked well when it was in the middle of the Mentality-Framework that one was using for any given match.

So this was pretty much the ideology (AM=attacking mindset & DM=defensive mindset):

Mentality: AM High (right side on sliders) DM Low (left side on slider)

Creative Freedom: AM High and DM low

Passing: AM Low (short) and DM High (direct)

Width: AM High (wide) and DM low (narrow)

Closing Down: AM High and DM Low

Defensive-Line: AM High (push up) and DM Low (rarely)

Time-Waste: AM Low (rarely) and DM High (often)

Tempo: Following Passing style and worked well with Time-Wasting to create the different game-plan either chasing a goal (low time-waste + high tempo)or in front by a goal (high time-waste + slow tempo).

My pivotal-points on the sliders were:

Attacking Frameworks: 17, 14, and 11

Defensive Frameworks: 10, 7, and 4

The attacking frameworks were designed more for home matches and (of course) the defensive frameworks were designed for the away games. 7 and 14 were my usual 'standard' starting points and learn or observe the match machine then switch to either a higher pivotal point or a lower pivotal point in the current mindset. You had to find out which framework worked best for the given match, but it didn't take long to work the whole thing out (also learning how the AI reacted mentality-wise during matches depending on match score), but there was always a couple of surprises along the way (either bad team talk or the opponent was either stronger or weaker than on paper). The pivotal-points was also the starting place for the Defensive Midfielder's mentality and the rest of the team were either a little higher or lower depending on where they were situated compared to the Defensive Midfielder (read wwfans explaination on mentality frameworks). Everything else was pretty much global (passing, creative freedom<except GK was always 1>, closing down<except Center Backs 5-6 on slider always>).

This was the general set-up, but of course you also needed to know about the Individual Instructions because they could (relatively easily) close the opposition out of the game, for example if the opposition had Long F-Arrows or pushed up wingers (in the AMR/L or FR/L postions) then you could remove Forward Runs on the Full Backs and eliminate the wingers threat going to the byline. But as any game things evolve and this game (09) is no different. Some of the things from FM08 can still be used, but there have been some big changes on (as far as I can see untill now) the Passing, Closing Down and to some extent Creative Freedom. Creative Freedom looks relatively easy as it works very well with the Mentality you are giving the Player, but it looks like one has to build maybe 3 different Passing and Closing Down Frameworks to fit into the Mentality Fameworks (Attacking, Standard, or Counter-Attacking). It will take me some time to make them right but I am stumbling in the right direction... only once did I have under 79% passes complete (after changes), so things are definately looking good so far.

I know that some are struggling and looking back on my own experience on the first glance at the Match-Machine indicated that I was far away from anything solid but now it has lightened up. I will say this though, one must start to learn how the frameworks work because have no doubt that the AI is using some form of Mentality Fameworks to execute their given game-plan and you have to figure out how much you can either Attack or Defend against it. You at least need a Attacking Tactic (to go forward of course and score to win), a Defensive Tactic (away matches, defending vital leads ect...) and a Standard Tactic (can be used if you are either large favorite away or large underdog at home). Hope all this makes sense and I will post, to the best of my literary skills, to explain all this more in detail once I have time. Thanks...

[pele10]

Great post mate

[Loversleaper]

Just some observations that I have found messing around lately: First of all, I have to get rid of some of the ideologies from FM08. In FM08 the most attacking mentality frame-works I would use away from home would be around the center of the sliders, but so far you can attack much more away from home (especially when you have a good/world-class team and/or you are stronger than your opponent). Even when defending, sometimes you still want to attack and I can see that some gamers have difficulties with this because getting that balance in the formations is difficult or should I say 'not quite like the past'. I know that some are experiencing a form of contradiction, because how can one defend and attack at the same time and not create that 'gap' between the chains (defense, midfield and attack) in the formation? There are two types of defending for me and one is: defending but still going for the steal/win, and two: defending for your life, so to say.

Closing down in Defensive Formations/Tactics is the tricky part and one of the vital aspects to get right when defending, you can't close down too low (giving players too much room) and you can't close down too high (your players most likely will get 'skinned' all the time). Defensive line should be deep(er) to set up the defensive mechanism and tempo has a huge impact on the attacking mechanism, if it is higher you shoot more and when you have it lower the players will attempt more to pass it around/or hold on to it. So combining these ideologies with time-wasting you can actually achieve what it is one is trying to do when defending.

So, higher tempo + lower time-wast, deep(er) defensive line + lower mentalities + lower creative freedom, middle (10-14) closing down for out-field players (except Center Backs 4-6), direct passing + forward runs on some of the Midfielders will give you a Counter-Attacking ideology, whilst a slow tempo + high time-waste with more mixed forward runs on midfielders and short passing + narrower width will give more of the 'Defend and Hold' ideology...