Frustrated

[gordonayr]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

So i finally abandoned my highly enjoyable 18 season FM2010 game with Castel di Sangdro, then Liverpool, and bought FM2012.

And i have to say its already doing my nut in. Plumped for Monaco as they were in Ligue 2 and i like to build up, and i've never played in the French Leagues.
So im mertriculous in my preparation, looking for the best coaches i could, looking for bargain buys, tweaking my training. I'm not a FM virgin by any means and played since the champ man days so i know what im doing and i love the pre season build up and preparation.
So after a decent bunch of pre season friendlies myteam seems ready for the first game of the season at home against USBCO who are predicted to finish 10th.
Bam, i lose 4-0.

Now i dont mind losing and appreciate freak results but my team was just awful and i cant work out the new interface system for tactics at all. So a couple questions;
1) Touchline instructions seem really limited. I cant work out how to change to defensive, overload etc. There is a greyed out 'Instructions' button but it doesnt seem to do anything. What am i doing wrong?
2) In my tactics screen i cant change my philosophy or strategy options. They seem glued to blanced and standard. Even tho the mouseoer tip says its a drop down menu and i can adjust them. (I am using a couple of downloaded tactics but even then surely i can tweak them).
3) I dont get the match preperation section at all. I randomly pick something like attacking movement but them my assistant tells me i should be focusing in more than one area. Can i choose more than one area? I cant see how.
4) Is the pre match report gone where you could see a list of advantages/disadvantes etc over the next opposition?

Basically it boils down to i seem to have very very limited options in my tactics which i know cannot be the case.

Any help would be appricaited along with some encouragement to stick with 12 before i resort to my lovely fm2010 save. I didnt play Fm2011 so maybe i missed a big step in the eveolution of the game.

Thanks again.

 

[mnk26]

I started with 11, and 12 is fairly similar to it in my opinion.
1) I personally rarely, if ever, use touchline instructions, so I can't help you there.
2) I have never used a downloaded tactic, so I can't really help you there either. But if you make your own tactics just go to Team Instructions in the tactics screen to change all the balanced/standard stuff.
3) Match preparation is pretty simple. Whatever you focus on will help your team in that area, you may not see immediate results but it will. Focusing on Teamwork is vital if you have signed a lot of new players and need them to adjust. I personally don't move it around from match to match (I ignore when my assistants say that). If I have a very attacking formation, I like to use Defensive Positioning to get some balance, and vice versa. I personally only use Defensive Positioning, Attacking Movement, and Teamwork, not to say the others aren't any good but that's just my preference with my teams.
4) No, you have to have a scout scouting the next opposition. He will then give you a far more detailed report than in previous versions, where you can compare basically every attribute and much, much, more.

I definitely encourage you to stick with 12. I still have the most emotional attachment to my CSKA Moscow team from '11, but I haven't played them once since 12 came out because it is a more realistic game with a better interface.

 

[gordonayr]

Thanks for the reply. I'll definately keep trying.

After some (a lot) of playing around i noticed that i can edit my own created tactics and some downloaded tactics. But most tactics i've downloaded have a 'C' beside them in the archived tactics drop down list and these are un-editable.
One of my other moans is the amount of useless long shots my teams seems to insist on trying despite the rarely setting.

 

[torglenn]

This became a long post, but after starting my reply, I couldn't stop Please have patience with me...


Regarding players trying long shots while told not to: I've often had this problem. I found that it helps to reduce the creative freedom (both in team instructions and individually for the most triggerhappy players).
Having little creative freedom basicly means they take instructions better, and do as they're told. So this helps with all tactics settings and touchline instructions. Creative attackers and playmakers are usually good with more freedom, as long as their 'desicion making' stats are good. In short: Bad desicions and lots of creative freedom will give you lots of unnecessary long shots.

When it comes to tactics, I recommend creating three complete sets of tactics, and stick with them. The tactics interface lets you have three preloaded sets of tactics, and the players will practise these formations and settings every day. On the left of the tactics screen you can check the progress and how familiar the players are with the three current tactics.

After a while, they will be fluent in these tactics, and changing between preloaded tactics will often be better than tweaking your current tactic during a match. (Of course, it wouldn't be easy changing from a 3-4-3 to a 5-5-0, but than again it would probably take years for players to become comfortable in such different formations anyway...)
Basically, I have one 'regular' tactic (the way I prefer to play, suited to my players and their abilities), one 'defending/counter' tactic (away vs. Man City) and one 'attacking' tactic (at home vs. Aldershot).
Of course I also do a little tweaking during games, especially with passes, tackling and various touchline instructions. And everybody knows the situation when in a cup tie, you need that last minute goal, and just send everyone and everything forward...

Note on formation training: the players will take more time gelling into formations, if your preset formations/tactics differ too much from eachother. Example: if your three preset tactics have tempo: very slow, medium and very fast, it is hard to get familiar with all three styles of play.

Personally, I start with my 'standard' tactics, and when I'm happy with them, i make two more versions. By tweaking, not changing everything entirely.
I might exchange one striker for a DM to create a more defensive formation, or use wingers/inside strikers instead of wide midfielders to create an attacking formation. Then I tweak the other parametres, but not too much in either directions. Even though roles are different, the players don't seem to find it too hard, as long as they're training with fairly similar tempo, width, pressure height etc.

Ok, a pretty long reply, but I hope it can be of some help to someone...

 

[torglenn]

... But most tactics i've downloaded have a 'C' beside them in the archived tactics drop down list and these are un-editable.

I don't use downloaded tactics myself, but I guess the 'C' means the tactics are created in classic mode, and as I understand, these will not be editable. I will recommend getting more into creating your own tactics though. Might seem like a hassle in the beginning, but is sooo rewarding when it works!

 

[Seano]

Like Torglenn said "C" tactics standard for Classic Tactics and can't be editted as for the rest i think Torglenn covered everything.

 

[gordonayr]

Thanks guys for the explanations and tips.
I think i'll take the time and create some tactics myself and see how i get on.