Toms

Currently there are 8 running GW's.

Cantona
Clough
Fernandez
Fowler
Keane
Lineker
Saunders
Shearer

Toms is due to start January 12th and is advertised as the first 'pro' GW in which you can start from day one with the previous skills you acquired in your current GW.

So far GW's can hold up to 1000 managers and I have been wondering how full Toms will be when it launches and how many 'new' managers will join it. By new I mean never played in beta or have not moved from a current GW.

If Toms is full prior to the launch then your current GW is in trouble. There are 8 current GW's so if the numbers that join Toms is spread equally between them all (which they won't be) that is
125 managers removed from each of those GW's.

Looking at the numbers in Saunders currently in my opinion there is no way it can take a 125 hit of managers leaving in January and still be enjoyable for me to be in. With February being the 3 month subscribers decision time aswell it means from those 125 leaving the numbers can only dwindle more.

The reason I say this is because for those 125 that will jump into Toms they are most likely some of the more active managers in your GW. They aren't the people in your GW who don't play at all anymore who you never see anyway. Everytime I log into Saunders at my peak times it has mainly the same faces playing and is getting less every week.

So you and indeed me have a decision to make before January 12th. Looking at the numbers in your GW now can you afford not to join Toms if you want to be in an active GW? It will take a hit in numbers come the Toms launch and then again in February.

So in a way the Toms launch is taking away managers from your current GW. The only people (i sincerely hope) that will join it are those who have skills already, and who are those people? You and your fellow managers in your current GW. If there are a lot of new managers in Toms then it won't be long until they become frustrated that others have a massive advantage in skills. It is their fault really as Toms is advertised as a pro world but some will find their way into it and when they do (just like the non beta testers in my GW) they will soon be leaving aswell.

Tom Tom GO?

I've been having naughty thoughts recently whether or not it is worth staying in my current Saunders game world or jumping into Toms, the first game world to be classed as 'PRO'. I always had my doubts about these first few game worlds in terms of their longevity, but I didn't think I would be thinking of changing even before my first 3 month subscription has ended.



In one of my earlier blog entries I stated that Saunders would be my only game world and that the thought of moving and starting again from scratch would not appeal to me and that is still true in a way. But my thinking behind that at the time was that Saunders would last at least 6 months, so jumping into a new game world after 3 months would seem silly if Saunders was doing ok at that point. Unfortunately my view of Saunders in 3 months time has changed quite a bit recently, mainly due to the decrease in numbers at the time I log in the most.



I am a firm believer in sticking it out with the game world you chose from the start, it isn't going to be any different by jumping from game world to game world. But how loyal should I be? Should I stick with it till I am the last man in the game world when everyone else is leaving for pastures new even though I too saw the danger signs in the previous months? Do I kid myself that the numbers may suddenly increase and that it will become as enjoyable as it was when it was very active? I really believe that waiting until things get a bit desolate to think about doing something about inactivity is far too late. And that's why, ultimately, these first game worlds just won't last very long. And then there is the appeal of joining a game world were you can keep all your skills. A rather silly move I believe, but a very attractive option for a current manager to venture into. Will Toms have a large number of first time users in it from the start? I hope not, because the noise being made in most current game worlds from non beta testers regarding the advantage of beta testers will be tenfold. Not only have they been beta testers but they also could have any number of 5 star skills which could seriously increase the likelihood of them making a dominant start to a new game world. An advantage is still an advantage no matter how small people think it is. Maybe Toms is a way of pooling the hardcore users from Saunders and Clough etc when they are nearing depletion? Pooling the most active users into an almost advertised long term game world. Here's hoping that Ov Collyer and the boys are already 5 steps ahead of everyone else's concerns, which I'm sure they are.



I have however had a change of heart regarding sticking with the game long term. I don't really play any other kind of games any more, nothing really holds my interest like this game has done throughout beta and indeed in Saunders, but SI/SEGA are clearly onto a winner with this game. The 1.1 changes mean that the game is a lot less linear, and from that point can only gain in depth and structure which in turn will lead to a long lasting game. My early, rather selfish views about paying to play in these inaugural 'doomed' game worlds have changed into the view that I have in some way supported them to hopefully help build a better and more diverse game which I can play long term.

Beginning of Season 2 Numbers

These are the numbers, checked on December 20th.



Game World Managers 973 (excluding Super Admin)


Last signed in

Never ..... 14

Nearly 2 months ago...... 60

Just over a month ago ...... 63

Nearly 5 weeks ago ....... 1

Just over 4 weeks ago ....... 12

Nearly 4 weeks ago .......... 32

Just over 3 weeks ago ..... 14

Nearly 3 weeks ago ....... 25

Just over 2 weeks ago ........ 11

Just 2 weeks ago ....... 51

Just over a week ago ........ 14

Less than 7 days ago ........ 684


So that's 283 managers that have not signed into Saunders for 2 weeks or more. I have no way of knowing what proportion of these numbers are GW hoppers or have just stopped playing the game.

If you take away the 283 from the total managers in the GW it leaves us with 690 managers, pretty much the total of managers that have signed in less than 7 days ago which is encouraging.


Activity Times Numbers (weekdays)

Morning (8am - 11am) ....... 55 - 70

Afternoon (12pm - 3pm) ........ 90 - 110

Peak time (7pm - 11pm) ........ 130 - 160



These are the numbers for the times I tend to log in. They have dropped considerably since the game world launch. People say that 160 managers is a good amount but it's the rate at which the numbers are decreasing which worries me. Yes, 690 have logged into the game world in the last 7 days but I am only seeing 160 of them when I log in. Any loss on the 'signed in less than 7 days ago' numbers means a loss in the numbers that I see when I log in the most. So if 690 turns into 550 I can expect the peak time to drop close to the 100 mark.


Sign ups since the 27th November



27th-6th Dec ......... 0

7th Dec ......... 4

9th Dec ....... 1

12th Dec .... 1

13 Dec .........1

15th Dec .......1

17 th Dec .........1

So 9 managers have signed up to Saunders from 27th November to December 20th. I would imagine that a good proportion of those had swapped from another game world.



The 1.1 update in 2009 looks good but it will not help new users join an established GW like Saunders. Joining a new GW with the 1.1 in place is clearly a better option. Everyone starts equal and there is more options to choose from and paths to go down. With Saunders just over a month old now it has become a very strange place indeed. I thought the majority of people who signed up in soft launch would be old or current FM players and would have some idea of how things work but that clearly isn't the case.


I really hope that FML does not slowly become FM09. In one of the press videos about FML it was said that 'you' are the coach and that 'you' are the scout, in fact you are all the staff. So why introduce things were you don't have to be any of those things? FM09 spoon feeds you information so that you can just sit back and click continue. FML (currently) is 10x the MANAGEMENT game that FM09 is. That said, a hardcore GW would be too hardcore for me, but the current crop of players in these early GW's means they will not last any longer than 4 months.

Random Offers + Judging Potential

Ever had a random private bid for one of your youth players? If you have, one of the things you need to check is the bidding managers skills. The first few people in my game world have started to get the Judging Potential skill and it is worth noting when a manager randomly bids for a youth player you have.

If the bidding manager has the judging potential skill then you now know why he has bid on one of your young players. Don't let them take them away from you without first checking their skills. They may offer you a big amount for your young player but stick to your guns. You now know that the player in your possession that he is after is obviously going to be good in the future (according to his JP skill). Use this to your advantage. If you are willing to sell make sure you get a very good amount for him.

Without ever seeing an official view on the judging potential skill I don't want to go into details about it here because I may be very wrong in the way I interpreted it. As a general rule though I wouldn't rely on the judging potential skill under 4 stars. The margin of error is too great for it to be reliable.

So as a rule of thumb you should always check the bidding managers skills. They are, in a way, giving you information as to the potential of your players depending on how high their JP skill is. That information is only worth taking note of with JP 4 star upwards however.

Help! the Aged (+Target Man)

I have made a silly error! My hunt for a newgen target man went well until I realized the mistake I had made. The start of season 2 in my game world is December 12th and I have been informed that on this date all my players will age by 1 year. The target man I have bought this morning is currently 16 which is where I have gone wrong. He will be 17 on the 12th and that is a big mistake on my behalf. I will only have had him for 2 days and he will have aged by 1 year already. In that year (28 days) from 16-17 he could have had quite a lot development but now if he does age that time will have been wasted. Luckily the other youth players I have already bought are 15.

Jan Fredrik (Progeria) Andersen is my main hope to become a decent target man.



His stats don't really scream great potential but he was the best I could find. He is 6' 2" which was my minimum and is quite strong already. He may not cut it but I will keep posting his progress here every now and again.

Money to be made

I keep stressing the importance of having and developing youth players in this game and here is why.





This player I bought 2 days after I signed up for Saunders. He cost me £6800 to buy and was on £1701 daily wages. I loaned him out straight away to my friend who has good coaching skills where he played in mainly under21 competitions but also some under19 and under17 as well. He is a DL naturally but his stats would suggest he is more suited to playing DC. His stats were quite high in the key areas for his position already and I had great hopes for him developing further.

After his initial 21 day loan period was up his stats had improved in all the key areas, he still hadn't reached 17 and he already had the stats of a great DC who could only get better,

Tackling 17 (started at 16)
Jumping 16
Heading 15 (started at 14)
Strength 14 (started at 8)
Influence 16
Bravery 17
Pace 9 (started at 6)
Acceleration 9 (started at 6)
Marking 10 (started at 8)

He went out on loan again to keep him improving but I knew that with the end of season 1 arriving I could get a good deal for him to help boost my first team. I got £800,000 for him and the all important 10% sell on fee as well. He was still 16 when I sold him.

Why sell him? I definitely had a class act on my hands here and with my friends coaching skills going up rapidly his stats would have hit silly levels before he turned 21 and could have easily sold him for millions at that point. Money is hard to come by these days in Saunders especially if you have a competitive senior team with players who have high wages. My plan is, at the end of every season (when everybody needs cash or are looking for players) I will sell the most promising and attractive (stats) youth players I have. We are now in season 2 and I have already started buying my next batch of 15/16 year olds ready for developing. When season 2 starts my first batch will be 17 (the ones I have kept) so I need to start the whole process again.

THE SELL ON!

It is very important that you add a sell on clause when selling youth players. Because they are so young not many people are going to pay big bucks for them (over a million). If someone has paid a decent amount for your player at 16 they have a good chance of being worth a fortune when they get older and that is where you get more money.

I sold him for £800,000 + 10% sell on

If the buyer then sells him for £2,000,000 in the future I stand to make £120,000. That is nothing to be sniffed at with the upcoming financial restraints.

By doing this every season I do not have to sell any of my senior team to make some cash for myself. Obviously not all the youth players you buy will be of the same quality and you have to know when to release players who just don't cut it. I buy 2-3 players in each position roughly. After watching them and looking at their stats and performances for 1 week, I will lose 1 of them in each position. That leaves me with 2 players in each position to develop.

So in short I can sit back every season and concentrate on my senior team, come the end of the season I have options available to me other than having to sell my senior players in order to get some new faces in.

Someone has to develop the youth players and it may as well be you. I want to be the guy selling/keeping quality youth rather than the guy buying them.

'Target Man'

Over the last few days I have been keeping my eye out for an under 17 regen player who has all the credentials of a decent target man, Strength, Jumping and Heading etc.



I also only looked for players who are 6' 2" as a minimum and that meant I had to wait a few days before spotting anyone who could fit the bill. Yesterday I bid on 2 or 3 so come tomorrow I should have at least 1 at my club, hopefully 2.

I will post the player/s I end up with here and talk about their progress in the future.

To Be Continued.........

End of season 1 Numbers.

Saunders Game World started on the 7th November

Current total managers (excluding Super Admin) ......... 961

Date signed up

7th (start date) - 861
8th - 74
9th - 28
10th - 11
11th - 9
12th - 10
13th - 5
14th - 2
15th - 5
18th - 2
19th - 1
25th - 1
26th - 1

Last logged in

Never - 17
Nearly 4 weeks ago - 48
Nearly 3 weeks ago - 66
Just over 2 weeks ago - 12
Nearly 2 weeks ago - 45
Less than 6 days ago - 751

I also did a vote in the game world as to which subscription length people chose. Not everyone voted in the game world obviously but here are the results.


144 managers voted in total

3 months - 70 managers

6 months - 9 managers

12 months - 65 managers

The number of sign-ins to the game world under 6 days ago is encouraging (751). The peak time numbers have dropped quite a bit since launch night but that was to be expected. The peak time (7pm - 11pm) rarely gets to much above 200 these days. A significant loss of 3 month subscribers plus game world hoppers could see the peak numbers drop even further. Looking at the number of users who signed up to Saunders after the 10th November it is fair to say that it will be hard to get new sign ups to cover for those losses. Only really existing managers in other game worlds that could jump into Saunders could balance it out somewhat.

Going off these numbers though I am more than certain I will be renewing my 3 month subscription when it comes time to. The main reason for that is because I have seen a screenshot of the stadium features that are to be introduced into the game and they are more than a deal breaker.

Youth Template 2

Determination?

I am undecided on this currently. If you look at some of the most successful players in the game worlds they all seem to have a high determination statistic. I have yet to see any player I have ever had in my team get a green arrow on the determination stat and although a low score would not deter me from buying a youth with the previous template it is something I have been keeping my eye on. It is not something that will increase over time with coaching so a really low number will stay low. A player in my game world called Ivan Rakitic has a determination of 9. He is 20 years old and his stats are already of a very high standard and according to the FM09 database his potential ability means he can only get better. His performances however for a player of his ability have been very sub par. He has the Dwells on The Ball PPM which can be troublesome but is it his determination that lets him down?



The youth players you buy will need 2 things, games and good youth coaching. I loan out all my youth to the same manager who has great youth coaching. They are also guaranteed at least 5 games per day because I have created a couple of youth competitions which he enters them in. The reason I created them was because we needed a competition which allowed for any number loans and at the time there was hardly any.

If your judgement on the youth you acquire was good and they develop really well you can do 2 things with them. Keep the cream of them to be your future senior players (on really low wages) and sell the others. The amount of money to be earned through selling youth players makes it silly not to get involved as early as possible. Everyone loves a young player with decent stats on a low wage.

You should check for new youth regens every day by going to,

All Players - Filter - Free Agent + Age (start with 14 and search, then 15 then 16)

If you are searching for them early in the morning then these filters may not throw up anybody for 14 and 15 year olds. Why? Because what people do is they trial them as soon as they spot them which means you have to alter the above filter slightly to.

All Players - Filter - Contract - Contract Expires (less than 24 hours) - Age (14/15/16)

It's always worth doing once a day as new players are fed into the game worlds every day. Bid on the ones that fit the bill and you never know you just might get yourself a future superstar. Good luck.

Youth Template 1

I cannot stress enough how important having some decent youth players is in this game but you have to ask yourself a few questions before you start.

Am I bothered about having a successful senior team?

My answer to that question was yes. My senior squad takes precedent over my youth squad at all times. One of the hardest things to do on this game early on is have both a successful senior and youth setup.

What does this mean?

It means that when I buy a youth player he will be for developing rather than for competing. Just because you buy some youth players it does not mean you have to have a full youth team. You have to remember that some people in the game will have only what is considered a youth team, they will have sacrificed a senior team in order to have a very competitive youth team. You do not want to be entering any competitions with your youth team that will cost you money because you will be playing against far superior youth.

What to look for?

Don't be overawed by a 16 year old who has a couple of stats above 15, this does not make him a good player. Look at the position he plays naturally and decide whether his stats make him good at his job in that position. It sounds obvious but it's true, all 15/16 year old players will develop physically like in real life, what you want is a player who already has decent stats for his position because the rest of his stats have time to catch up with the right coaching. And while everything else is slowly getting better, the key stats that were already decent may also get better if you are lucky. Remember you are not competing with these players you are just developing them.

A Rough Guide for youth 16 or under.

Goalkeepers: Handling 12+ Reflexes 12+ Eccentricity -7

DC's: Tackling 10+ Marking 10+ Jumping 10+ Heading 10+ (worth noting that taller players have a better chance of having a higher jumping stat)

Midfielders : Passing 10+ Creativity 10 +

Strikers: Finishing 10+ Composure 10+ ( again look out for taller players if you are wanting a target man)

All of those provide the base for decent youth but if you find these next few key stats along with the rough guide then you have got a better player.

First Touch: Anything above a 7 for those players. All players need a decent first touch.

Technique : 10+ for strikers and midfielders, 7+ for DC's

Pace & Acceleration: If I was competing with these youth players then these stats would be more important to me. Do not be put off by players who have these stats as low as 6. If all their other stats are great then I ignore most of their physical stats because they have time to develop. The first stats to get green arrows in all my youth are the physical stats.

If you find a player with all of the above and then some other stats which are high then you are onto a winner.

Lionel Messi!!

Sweet Jesus!! Lionel Messi is now a Fat Wallet FC player. My favourite smiley in the game is the shocked one, the one that looks like one of those blow up dolls I would 'never' buy, and if I could use the shock smiley in here it would be used out by now. Lionel Messi!!!

My plan at the start was never to head for a superstar player like him but circumstances and events kind of left me with no option. This is how it occurred. After 7 days of you confirming your team you are free to sell any of your players (this will be changed in the near future). To my surprise I got a good offer for a fringe player straight away which gave me a nice cash boost of 300k. My wage bill at that time was around 49k and I was making a decent profit per day. Over the next few days I bid on a few well known (un-signed) midfield players with that cash. Here are a couple:

Mikel Arteta
Riccardo Montolivo
Mohammed Sissoko

I was unsuccessful in my attempts to sign these players in wage auctions as I was not prepared to spend what I considered to be silly money on wages. Again I bid for some more the next few days and again I was unsuccessful with some of them going for 70k+ wages. My money was piling up and the number of un-signed players had started to become alarmingly few. The sale of my best player (who was barely holding my team together) for a cool million and then my only goalscorer meant I had just enough to bid for him.

Learning the Contract Negotiation skill to level 3 meant I got a discount of 15% from his acquisition fee which was 3 million. Luckily I was the only bidder in the wage auction and that kept his wages at 70k. I ended up paying 2.55 million for him.

Not bad considering I was a day late in entering the game world. Does one man make a team? I doubt it!

He'll be the Coach!

My friend who is in Saunders with me has gone all out for coaching skills. This is great for me. I had to choose scouting skills really for my skills boost because I was a day late. I wanted the maximum number of players possible to see when searching for my first squad because so many of the players I knew had been taken. If I hadn't been late I would have chosen the finance skills boost without question. Any youth players I buy go straight out on loan to his team and providing they play enough games to keep them fit the rewards are obvious.

The game allows your youth to benefit from someone else's superior coaching regardless if you have coaching or not which is a great way of working together. I would recommend everyone to team up with another manager who has great coaching skills. Not only do your players benefit from it but it also allows you to focus on other areas rather than coaching. I would still recommend you get to level 2 coaching as a minimum though for your own first team.

In order for it to be fair though you would have to work out a way of rewarding the manager who coaches. As of yet the game doesn't implement a good way of doing this but soon hopefully it will. Always talk things through with the moderators first, they will make sure everything is above board.

1 Star, 15 chimps.

Having signed up a day later than the start of Saunders my options for players (ones who I knew could do a job) were obviously limited. I am a big believer in the importance of being in the game world from the very start so I knew finding the cut price quality players would be a stretch. I had always planned to have at least 2 young talents who not only would be quality in my starting team but would also provide great interest from other managers and eventually would be big money earners for me. Had to scrap that idea. Next I thought I should buy a DC, MC and a striker for 100k each, giving me some semblance of quality in those areas and finding the best I could for the rest. Again scrapped that idea.

Both of those are definite strategies worth considering but you always seem to find a player who negates those ideas. Heiko Westermann was that player. Not only did he cost me 190k of my starting 500k, he also had wages of 12k, both of these things I had decided I would not be doing at the start. The remaining 15 players were of a simian nature which neither me or google had heard of.

3 month subscription.

As a former beta tester I had the option to pre-order FML before September 30th and receive a discount on the 6 month or 12 month subscription. My previous doubts about the future of these inaugural game worlds meant I did not take this offer. The 3 month subscription made sense for me as I see this game as very much a long term thing. I can assess the state of my game world maybe 1-2 weeks before my subscription runs out. Here is what I will look for:

Activity

The most important to me. This game is about human vs human interaction. I want as many people logged on at the same time as me as possible, not just for matches but for transfer deals, banter etc. If there are signs of drastic inactivity even before the crucial 3 month periods then this will factor in my decision.

Moderators

Another crucial factor. How have they handled certain situations that have arisen such as suspect transfer dealings. Are there any moderators who have left and who are the new moderators.

Upcoming features

New features would certainly improve the likelihood of me re-subscribing.


The 3 months is perfect to be able to judge whether or not another 3 months would be worth it or not. The 12 month subscription works out cheaper but if your game world starts to struggle after 4 months you have paid for the other 8 months for nothing. Join a new game world I hear you say! Not for me, this will be my only game world and my only team. I really don't like the sounds of having to change game worlds and start everything again, too much like groundhog day. From my beta experience I can see people who are signing all the same players with exactly the same strategy as before. You think you would do it differently but you end up not doing.

Yes, the initial setup of your club is fun but it's the future and what it develops into that is what this game is really about.

Day 1 'slash' 2

The 'Saunders' gameworld opened it's doors on November 7th to a near full capacity sign up. I was a Beta tester in GW 3 and then later in GW 15 but had decided originally to hold off signing up until three months had passed. I thought (and still do) that the three month period would push the game onto another level features wise and also be more of a sound decision in terms of gameworld longevity. However, after a running commentary from a friend on the opening night of Saunders my three month plan went out of the window.





I signed up for Saunders on November 8th 15:30pm and to my surprise was in the gameworld at 15:40pm. It was much quicker than I expected it to be, the site is easy to navigate and the process is simple.




Fat Wallet FC was born.