Championship Manager 03/04

[Ch3tan]

Hehe Gumbo, I know the feeling. No time for gaming over the xmas/holiday period. Then I bought champ man at the end of January I think. Had two weeks off in Feb which were spent playing solid CM

 

[Mobius]

Dawson rocks, worth tryin to sign Lucio (Brazil) in the first season if you can. Altnough he usually wants a club playing in Europe and costs about 10million.

Yeah, I usually try and get him. He's a great defender.

Here was my squad (before my save became corrupt)

http://www.dol-amroth.net/mobius/Arsenal.JPG

I didn't use any editors. Although I used the Diablo tactic.

http://www.dol-amroth.net/mobius/Wins.JPG

I didn't pay much money for those players, by the year 2009 almost everyone in the games contracts expire. I'm just paying them huge wages.

One thing that annoys me about CM is how the actually calculate games. On cm 97/98 I used the editor and made an entire team with 20 of every stat etc, basically the best players ever. In my first game I got beat 2-0 by Wimbledon. How could that happen?

 

[Ch3tan]

Thats an incredibly small squad. Fixture congestion and injuries must really screw you up.

I hear what you are saying about contracts, I have 13 key players on wages of 60,000+. At least I tied them to 5 year contracts.

Oh yeah, sign Reyes, absolute gem.

 

[Mobius]

Yes I have this problem where if a player isn't in my first 11 or on the bench it annoys me that there in my first squad so I usually stick them in reserves.
My reserve team has won the league 4 times in a row so there is 1 benefit.

 

[Skyler]

My current game with Arsenal is in the 00/01 season atm... I've won the Premiership every season and the Champions league for the past 6 seasons.. I have a huge amount of money and I'm finding that all the damn players left in the game have -'s all over their stats... it's becoming really hard to find new young player... Henry is still playing for me at 33 and he still scores a lot.. he's a class act really... I have Rooney and Reyes upfront mostly now as Henry is quite old... I have McFadden, Bothroyd, Vieira and Cambiasso in midfield... Lauren/Senderos fill my right back slot, Senderos is a right gem.... Garry, Toure and Campbell are making up my central defence.. although Campbell is retiring soon, which is good cause he always wants sky high wages... I've got Cole/Glichy doing my left back duties and Casillas in goal who I poached from Real Madrid.. but he seems to be a bit shitter than his stats lead me to believe, probably cause he's still learning English... before him I was using Paul Robinson. A couple of seasons I've won the FA Cup, League Cup, Champ League and Premiership all in one, I'm disapointed the game doesnt say omg you done the quadruple... it mentions the double or treble :/

In my current season my team is suffering from what I can only describe as burnout and are playing absolutely shite, I hope I can recover it to get back in contention for another title

My other game is with Everton, the first season with them I finished 5th and just missed out on the Champions League but in the next season I lead the division for the first 15 or so games before Arsenal and Chelsea powered past me only for me to overtake Chelsea at the end for instant Champions League guff... but Everton are so damn poor... can't bring any new players in as their wage budget is non existant... really hard to bring in a star who's gonna help you win something :/

I find CM03/04 a million times better than CM3, it's brought the whole season in a day good fun gameplay back that 97/98 used to have... when I went into CM3 from 97/98 it felt ultra shit... you seemed to have to do a million things inbetween each game or you get thrashed... and it was just too much... CM03/04 is deffo superior

 

[mank!]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/option30/squad.jpg
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/option30/history.jpg

That's my first team and reserve team. I've got a wage budget of £375,000 and I'm only using around £250,000. Highest wage is £20K p/w.

My defence has improved tenfold now I've got an entirely new back four from last season, so I'm aiming for 4th or higher this season. I need to sign a really good striker in the summer.

 

[Mobius]

I know what you mean about Sol Campbell. He wants over 100k p/w sometimes. He's not even a striker..and he's pretty old.
Its great how your crappy u21 or reserve players become good as you play further. I had a forward in my u21's called Quinsy Abayle or something..He was worth about 100k when I began and I recently sold him to Tottenham for 12million. He'd never even played a game for my first team squad.
I always have a problem finding a decent goalkeeper. Lehmann is pretty shite, and all the best keepers are dead old.

The next game sounds great. I think the 2 brothers who originally made CM left Eidos, so now Eidos are making the next Championship Manager and the brothers are making a new sim called Football Manager 2005. They look so similiar but each company has different bits of the game trademarked, so there will be some differences. It can't be the same as the CM's they worked on thought as they would get in shit I think.

 

[dysfunction]

I think there should be a CM forum under Sims or something...

 

[Mobius]

I agree.

 

[Gumbo]

Until that happens I shall ask here, any patches or anything I should start downloading before I head out to buy this then?

 

[mank!]

Until that happens I shall ask here, any patches or anything I should start downloading before I head out to buy this then?

You need the latest patch, 4.15, which I believe requires the previous 4.14 patch.

Look on SIGames.com and download CMScout, which is quite a handy little utility to look at players hidden abilitiy in the game. Although it could be considered cheating, so I very rarely use it.

 

[Skyler]

Watch out for their shitty hosting mind you I can never get patches from them and usually do a google for the filenames of the patches and leech from somewhere decent... oh and my post says 00/01 when it's mean to be 10/11 but I can't find the edit button.. ohh well :E

 

[Ch3tan]

The only thing I can provide you with Gumbo is a warning. CM will take over your life.

As for high player wages. Reyes asked for 100,000 a week, my maximum wage allowance was 80,000 a week. Managed to get him to accept a wage drop to 65,000 a week by giving him a 4million signing on fee.

 

[Gumbo]

Well, I'm through my first pre-season with Norwich (home town club) and have 2 wins three draws and a loss. One of the draws was a nice lucrative match vs Bayern though, so it's all good, believe me, Norwich need the cash.

Only problem is, I'm down to two fit strikers for the start of the season, and unlike in real life, Huckerby shows no signs of being interested in a loan deal

Ah well, into the season I go, wish me luck!

 

[mank!]

Good luck Gumbo! If you need any advice then the forums on www.sigames.com are useful, provided you ignore the elitist twats on there.

 

[Mobius]

Yeah you need 1.4.4 and 1.4.5 patch and you can't get .5 without .4 else it corrupts it or something. It fixes some bugs as well as updates transfers (I think, or that might've been a separate "unofficial" patch)

Good luck.

*Petitions for CM sub forum!*

 

[Ch3tan]

Didnt even realise there was a 4.1.5 till I re-read this thread.

 

[Skyler]

I use the revolution robson update too.. it has pretty much every transfer up to last month... unless theres a new version.. the only trouble is the guy didnt schedule the transfers to happen as the season progresses as I would have preferred... he made it so the players are in whatever team at the start of the season which is a bit gh3y

 

[Gumbo]

It's no good, I'm facing relegation unless I get some help, tooo many injuries, I'm basically playing an under 19 reserve team at the moment.

I shall use the interwebnet and find some good tactics I think.

 

[Mobius]

Its not the end of the world. I've played as a side and come in the bottom 1/2 of the table for lots of seasons. Of course if you're someone like Man UTD or Arsenal you'd probably get the sack but most boards aren't to unhappy with a mid table finish. Just keep an eye out for any youngsters. Also get your trainining sorted...I've never really understood it myself but apparently it can benifit your side immensely.
Theres lots of sites with formations, strategies and training schedules around.
How much money do Norwich have to spend on transfers?

 

[Gumbo]

How much money do Norwich have to spend on transfers?

Bugger all.

On a three match unbeaten run now, so it's going a bit better.

 

[Mobius]

Ah. Its tough without money. You can get a bit through cup runs though. Although you might be unlucky and get Man Utd in round 3 of the FA cup.
If you manage to win something..or gain qualification you can ask for a stadium expansion and it usually works.

 

[mank!]

Tactics and training wise, I use 442PB_R and PB's training pack.

http://www.ontvangstrapporten.nl/cm0304/ is a good place to get tactics etc.

 

[Mobius]

About training. You know where it tells you if they are going up (green arrow) or down (red arrow) are those permanent? Say if Henrys "teamwork" stat is going down, can it permanently lose stats? Or is it just whilst doing that training? I can never get my entire team happy with training someone is always on red arrows. :/

 

[Ch3tan]

The commitment and what players get out of training changes day by day. Its best to find a schedule that suits your gameplay style and stick to it. I have had the same basic training schedule for 5 seasons now. I change a few key parts of it every few months to make it balanced.

Its not worth worrying about to much, unless none of your players are getting anything out of training. And the hands on approach is good, dont let your assistant handle training, do it yourself.

 

[Mobius]

Hmm. I downloaded a patch which fixed the player ratings bugs or something, and now when I try and play the game it asks for a disc. My friends had my CM 03/04 disc for ages and I never needed it before. I really want to play. Is there a patch so you don't need a CD or something?

 

[mank!]

You need the CD to play CM, always have done. There's not a nocd patch as far as I know, I suggest you go stab your mate and nick it back.

 

[Shovel]

Quick CM question: For those who played the original CM4, and now this updated reissue jobby - are the bugs fixed?

After installing all 5 'enhancement packs' for CM4 my Dad is still getting BSODs in the middle of his games as well as what seems to be a crippling memory leak. It's a bloody piss take. If the new version has been genuinely fixed though, I might suggest he cut his losses and fork out for the new one...

On top of that: Anyone got any feelings on "Football Manager"? After the Eidos/Sports Interactive split this will be SI's new game, while CM5 will be developed from scratch by another company at Eidos. I'm rather looking forward to what SI have to offer

 

[Mobius]

Football Manager is going to rock. I am using the Football Manager skin in CM to get a feel for it.

I got my game back, and now all is fine in the world.

 

[Mobius]

There should be a rejection offer saying something like the offer is totally unacceptable, or you are insulted or something. I wish CM had more options of speaking to players, media and other clubs. Apparently Football Manager is going to have "mind games" where you can taunt other managers in the press.