An Introductory Guide to Football Manager Live
An Introductory Guide to Football Manager Live Football Manager Live is a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game where you compete against hundreds and thousands of people to be the best! Assemble a squad of footballers, manage finances, set your tactics and then kick off in live matches against other Managers, either in friendlies or competitions. This Beta version features three worlds, each holding between 500 and 1,000 players. Like the Football Manager series of games, Football Manager Live uses the same highly regarded match engine and the famous database of tens of thousand of real life footballers. Each real life footballer is only featured once in each gameworld, so as the fans sing at Old Trafford and Wembley...there's only one Wayne Rooney! Being a massively multiplayer game, Football Manager Live obviously differs from the Football Manager series. This guide is intended to help you get started on the Beta version of FML. Please also refer to and understand the EULA which is attached with this document Please feel free to ask anyone inside the in-game chat room for help at any time. Users with their names highlighted in blue in the panel on the right of the screen are designated helpers who will be more than glad to help you out.
Navigation............................................................................................................................ 2 Starting Out ......................................................................................................................... 4 Game World – Time..............................................................................................................4 Preferences .......................................................................................................................... 4 Creating your Squad.............................................................................................................5 Player Contracts...................................................................................................................5 The Game World................................................................................................................... 6 Federations .......................................................................................................................... 6 Competitions ........................................................................................................................ 6 Establishing Yourself............................................................................................................ 6 Finances .............................................................................................................................6 Improving your Squad.......................................................................................................... 7 Buying Players .....................................................................................................................7 Transfer Auctions ................................................................................................................. 7 Private Bids .......................................................................................................................... 8 Wage Auctions ..................................................................................................................... 8 Trial Contracts...................................................................................................................... 8 Loans ................................................................................................................................... 8 Selling Players .....................................................................................................................9 Playing a Match .................................................................................................................... 9 Match Options .....................................................................................................................9 Auto-Resolve ..................................................................................................................... 10 Tactics................................................................................................................................ 10 Communications................................................................................................................. 10 Chat ................................................................................................................................. 10 News and Mail ................................................................................................................... 11 User feedback.................................................................................................................... 11 Starting Again .................................................................................................................... 11 Going On Holiday ............................................................................................................... 11
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Navigation Navigating around Football Manager Live is fairly simple with a little practice. This section will explain the general layout of the game and how to find your way around. Title Bar
The Title Bar is present on every screen. The text and content of the main header area will change depending on which screen you may be accessing but the thinner, pale blue area never changes, and this is the area to pay attention to. This is the Menu Bar. Menu Bar
The Menu Bar is your primary means of navigating around Football Manager Live. Starting from the left, below are the items available to you. Challenges/Opponents – this is where you will receive notification of any challenges you have made or received. If you have any scheduled competition fixtures (and your opponent is online) this will indicate their online status to you. Back/Forward Arrows – these work just like the back and forward buttons on an Internet browser. Clicking the left arrow will scroll back through previous screens, clicking the right arrow will scroll forward through screens you have accessed previously. If an arrow is disabled, this means you cannot navigate in that direction because there are no screens to be visited. Manager Menu
The Manager Menu is where you will find everything you need to manage your team. These menu options are described in more detail throughout this guide.
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World Menu
The World Menu is where you will find options relating directly to your game world, and in some instances your team. Game The Game Menu holds the Game Preferences, which are described in detail in this guide. You can also use this menu to Sign Out or Exit the game. History The History Menu displays the ten most recent screens you have visited. It also shows the screens you have visited most in the last 48 hours. You can use these options to jump to the screen of your choice.
Menus are used to navigate through Football Manager Live. Each screen also shows Tabs and the Actions bar. Tabs
Tabs are present on most screens. The image above is taken from the Squad screen. Clicking a tab opens further options in the form of buttons all relating to the Tab. The image below shows the History tab and its associated buttons.
Actions Menu Located at the bottom of most screens is the Actions menu. The image below is taken from the Player Profile and shows the various options available when interacting with the player.
At the bottom of the screen you will find the Shortcut bar and the footer containing time and date information, a rolling news ticker bar, and shortcut icons to chat rooms, contacts, news, and mail.
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Starting Out Game World – Time Football Manager Live is played in real time. This in essence means that there is no Continue button as you would find in Football Manager. Each day progresses in real time – for example, if an auction expires in 25 minutes, it will expire in 25 real minutes. However, the game advances in a different manner. Each year in FML lasts one real life month; therefore three months of FML pass in one real life week. Preferences Available from the Game menu, Preferences is where you can customize your game world. This can be done via the following 5 tabs: Profile Your profile details. This information is entirely biographical, whether you choose to use real or fictional information is up to you. Communications Football Manager Live allows you to stay in contact with your game world even when you’re not signed into the game. You can configure how to receive email and SMS from this tab. Statement Enter your personal statement here. Team The Team menu has five sub options: Name Nickname Home Colours Away Colours Stadium Squads
The name you wish your team to be known as in-game Your team nickname Home kit design and colour selection Away kit design and colour selection Name, pitch dimensions and pitch style Add extra squads to enable you to organise your players as you wish. Different squads can be assigned to competitions.
Other The Other menu items are outlined below. Display Mode – By default, the game runs in windowed mode. Should you wish to run in Full Screen mode, you can change it here. You can also choose whether FML runs in a Single Window or Multiple Windows. Single Window keeps everything inside the same window; Multiple Window lets you view items such as the chat room to open separate windows. You can also choose various resolutions in which to run the game. This allows you to get the game looking its best on your screen. These can be found under the ‘Monitor’ dropdown. Current Skin – Decide which skin to display FML in. The FML Beta version has just one skin. Measurement/Height/Weight Units – Choose your preferred units: Imperial or Metric. Menus – Click to Open or Auto-Open. Either choose to click to open all menus, or allow them to automatically open when the mouse is over the menu button. Setting this option to Use Style Set will use current skin’s default. Starting Page – Choose which screen FML opens when signing in. By default, this is set to your home page. Automatically Sign-In To The Game – Tick this box if you want Football Manager Live to automatically sign you in. Display Action Confirmation – Tick this box if you want a dialog box pop-up as confirmation when you complete an action. Chat Colour – Choose a colour to display your name in chat windows.
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Creating your Squad The first thing you’ll need to do when starting up is create an account. Once done you’ll have the opportunity to select your starting squad. You have a budget of £500,000 to create your initial squad. Each player has an Acquisition Fee – you must pay this in order to acquire the player, and this fee will be withdrawn from your overall balance. You also must stay within a £100,000 wage limit when picking your initial squad. When signing a player, this information will be given to you before you confirm the decision. Acquisition Fees exist for every single player in the game and are determined by a number of factors, including their ability, age and reputation. When signing a player in any wage auction - excluding retention of your own player - you must also pay the player’s Acquisition Fee. From the Manager menu, select All Players. Players available to you will be displayed along with a wage figure, and any other filter options you choose. This is the amount you must pay them per day. Ignore this for now, as it’ll be addressed in more detail further on. To sign the player, click to his profile, then from the Approach menu on the bottom menu bar, select Sign on Provisional Contract. The player will then be part of your squad, but you are free to change players until you confirm your squad. Once you’re happy with the squad you’ve put together, select Confirm Squad from the Actions menu along the bottom of the Squad screen. Alternatively, you can use the Auto-Select Squad feature. Choosing this will automatically fill your squad with random players. From there, you can add and remove players as you like until you decide to confirm your squad. Please do note that this selection is NOT final and can be altered as often as you like before confirming. On the menu bar at the top of the screen, you will find a Setup Team button in blue. Clicking it will present you with options designed to help you through setting up some of the key aspects of your team in a clear and quick way.
Player Contracts Once you have confirmed your initial squad each player is contractually bound to you for a period of 28-31 days. During the last seven days of a player’s contract you are able to choose to extend their deal for a further 28 days. The player may demand an increase in wages and he will ensure that his demands are in line with similar players of his ability within the game world. This means that if several top players are being paid too much the salary demands of similar top players will go up. You also have the option of protecting up to five players from leaving your team. By setting the Auto Extend Contract option in their Contract options, you can lock them to your team and prevent them leaving – their contract is automatically renewed on a new four week deal when it expires. When doing this, a dialog box will inform you of any other protected players. You can only protect a maximum of five. Any players in your squad aged 21 or under are exempt from the contract renewal rules and can automatically be retained without being made available to other users or taking up one of your five protected spots. To get to a player’s Contract options, select the desired player, and then select Contract -> Set Auto Contract Renewal from the Actions menu along the bottom of the page. To unprotect a previously protected player, simply select Off from the Contracts options dialog. If you no longer wish to retain a player’s services you can place them in a transfer auction or release them from their contract. Note that if you release them you will have to make compensation payments of approximately 50% of their remaining contract.
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The Game World FML supports multiple game worlds, each containing up to 1000 users. Each game world will be unique to itself, but certain features will be the same wherever you play. Detailed information on your game world, and all other game worlds active in Football Manager Live, can be found by accessing the World menu from the menu bar and selecting Profile Federations Think of federations as Football Associations. Being a member of one will offer benefits that nonmembers won’t enjoy. For example, injury compensation or increased prize money. Joining a Federation is optional, but it is recommended. For example, the Sports Interactive Football Association is a governing Federation. Members receive compensation when their players are injured, media rights income and are able to join official SI FA competitions. Injury compensation is determined in part by the user. Each player in your squad can be insured against injury by paying a fee of 10% of the player’s wage on a daily basis. If that player becomes injured, you would receive 100% of his wage as compensation. If you decide that you’d rather not pay to insure your player against injury, you will only receive 50% of his wage should he be injured. All injury compensation requires the manager to be a part of a Federation. Non-members will not receive injury compensation. In the FML Beta, there will be a mix of official and user-created Federations, each with their own specific incentives to join. Competitions Competitions are generally user-created, although Federations will also have their own competitions for members. User-created competitions have a great deal of scope and freedom which allow for some very creative concepts. To create a competition, go to the Competitions option from the World menu. Select Create Competition from the bottom right corner of the screen. You will now be required to configure your settings. You can set pretty much anything; from a minimum user ranking to multiple stages and times competition matches must be played. Some competitions are public and others private. To enter a private competition you need to be invited by the competition host. Hosts may also allow another user to have administrative control over a competition. This can be done from the Actions panel along the bottom of the screen.
Establishing Yourself Once you’ve confirmed your squad, you’re ready to start. You might now wish to complete your team’s information – from the Game menu select Preferences and then Team. You can name your team, create your home and away kit styles and colours, and decide upon your stadium name and pitch dimensions. This will all be found on your Home Page and can be seen by the rest of the game world. You also have the chance to issue a personal statement. This can be in any form you like – say what you want (but keep it clean)! Finances Once you’re in, you will be allocated a sum of money determined by the average bank balance of the entire game world. This is your base sum of money from which you’ll begin working in the FML game world. At midnight every day your team’s total wages are subtracted from this figure. At the same time you will receive your daily minimum fee of £100,000. This is your basic ranking income to ensure you can pay your starting wage and allow you to start building your team.
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Ranking income is typically between £100k and £150k per night but everyone receives a default £100k until such time as competitive action (i.e. Federations) begins. To begin with you are unranked. To gain a ranking, you need to play another manager in a match. The simplest way is to challenge someone to a friendly match. Check the World -> Teams Menu to see which managers are online (their names will have a green football indicator next to them), identify a potential opponent, and then select Match -> Challenge to Friendly from the bottom menu bar on their team homepage. Playing a match is covered more a little further below. The Match Maker button on the menu bar allows you to configure a number of settings to find an opponent. Once these settings are in place, the Match Maker scans the game world for suitable online opponents. Once the Match Maker has found an opponent, you will enter Go To Match mode and the 5 minute countdown will begin. The Ranking system awards or deducts points for winning or losing matches. The higher you are in the Rankings, the more daily income you will receive. Ideally you will be bringing in enough money per day from your rankings to cover your wage expenses, so you are able to make a profit. Beating a higher ranked opponent will give you more points than a weaker one, and winning away from home will give you more points than a home win. Note that you will not necessarily be ranked immediately after you complete your first match. It can take up to ten matches before you receive a ranking, but you can check your Provisional Points total on your Profile page for an indication of where you are likely to end up. The key is to start playing matches, win those matches, and get as high in the Rankings as you can. Once you start bringing money in you can begin to consider buying players. You can also attempt to win money by betting on the result of a match you are involved in. This, of course, must be matched by the opponent for it to be a valid bet. It is also worth noting that should your wage bill exceed £250,000, a tax of 100% on all wages over that limit will be applied. Financial Projection You will receive a financial projection news item to your inbox at the start of every month indicating your current status and your four-week projected situation. From the Finances tab on your Squad screen you are able to view this information at any time.
Improving your Squad Buying Players Chances are your initial squad won’t be as strong as you might like because you are fairly limited as to what you can spend. However, once you have some money, you have a little more freedom to invest in more talented players. Transfer Auctions One way to add players to your squad is to bid on a Player Auction. From the Manager Menu or the World Menu, select Auctions. This will display all players up for auction. Players will have a current bid price and a deadline for the auction expiry, plus an Instant Buy price. If you see a player you like, select his profile, then Approach -> Make Transfer Auction Bid. You will be prompted to enter a bid amount. If yours is the winning bid at the time that the auction ends the player will join your squad and the bid amount will be subtracted from your funds. When bidding, declare a maximum price which you would be prepared to pay. Should another manager then make a bid which isn’t greater than your maximum, your bid will be increased automatically to be £1 higher than the new bid. For example: Team A have put a player up for auction at £10,000. Team B have bid a maximum of £15,000 for the player, but since the bid of £10,000 has been met, the bid currently stays at that level. Team C then makes a bid of £12,500, which is obviously lower than the maximum bid from Team B. Team C are informed that Team B’s bid is higher, and the auction value for the player then becomes £12,501.
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Private Bids You can offer a private transfer bid for a player, much like a regular transfer. Select the player and offer the manager a fee you find acceptable for the player. Should the offer be accepted, the player will move to your club and will sign a new 28 day contract with your team. Wage Auctions You can also sign unattached players. From the Player Search menu you can select various filters. Some players will be unavailable to the game world; these players are only free to newcomers to FML (ensuring there are players to pick). Unattached Players To make an offer for an unattached player you must offer him a wage based on his demands. This will then place him in a 24 hour wage auction during which time any other manager can bid. At the end of that 24 hour window, the highest bidder takes the player on a four week contract at those terms. It is important to understand that wage auctions use a sealed bid system whereby your bid is the wage you will pay regardless of other bids. For example: Player A is available on a wage auction. Manager X bids a wage of £10,000 for his services. Manager Y makes a bid of £13,000. Manager Y wins this auction and pays the full £13,000 for his services despite the next highest bid being £3000 a day lower. All bids are hidden from view of other managers – you may see who has bid, but not the amount they have bid. Unprotected players out of contract The same concept applies for unprotected players who are out of contract. If his owner wishes to keep him, he will have to offer him a contract at the base terms demanded. However, the player is also open to other users in the last 24 hours of his contract during which time anyone is free to bid. As usual, the highest bidder at the time of expiry will claim his services on a four week contract. Players you already own This situation slightly differs if you own a player subject to a wage auction. If you bid £5000 higher than the next highest bid in order to retain your player, you will only pay £1 higher than the next highest bid, since he has been retained by his owner – this is done to benefit managers who wish to retain their players. Note that you cannot sell a player you have purchased until seven days have passed. Trial Contracts You can also take a player on a 24 hour trial by paying him his minimum expected wage for that day. This can be a good way of evaluating a player’s talents and how he may fit into your team. If you intend to keep the player, you should offer him a full contract inside this 24 hour window, as if he is allowed to leave after the trial period he will not be allowed to join your team again for 24 hours. Be aware that: • •
You cannot trial a player who is already under contract with a team. You cannot trial a player if he is already subject to a wage auction.
There are also restrictions on which players can be signed up for a trial. For example, over 24s earning more than £10,000 wages. Some competitions may also limit the use of trial players, so ensure you are within these limits before taking action. Loans Players can be loaned between teams in the FML world. To begin with, check the Loan List from the World menu to see which players have been made available for loan by their managers. If you find a player you’d like to take on loan, select Approach, then Make Private Loan Offer. Here you’ll need to compose your loan offer. Loans can be from a minimum of 24 hours to a maximum of two weeks. You’ll also need to offer a wage contribution that you’re prepared to pay for the duration of the loan. Some competitions may also restrict the use of loan players, so ensure you are within these limits before taking action.
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Selling Players When listing your own players for sale you have the choice of a starting fee and an instant buy fee. When setting these take into account what you want for the player, and his market value. • •
A player with a high wage won’t be attractive to many teams, so consider a lower asking price when attempting to sell him. A player with a lower wage may be more desirable and affordable to others, so a higher asking price may be acceptable here.
Also note the auction duration options. •
•
A shorter listing can be used to test the market for an initial valuation, and it can also be useful when you are in desperate need of money. A shorter auction on a noteworthy player can also see a flurry of quick activity perhaps resulting in overpayment. A longer auction can also see a higher price through allowing more time for bids to come in, but also consider that during your auction window, players may become available from other teams or on a wage auction.
Try and end your auction at a time when people are likely to be online. That means listing a player at that same time on the day of listing, since auctions end ‘x days’ exactly after auction. For example, a player listed at 1200hrs on Tuesday for 3 days will end on Friday at 1200hrs. Please note that if you sell a player, you will not be allowed to attempt to re-sign that player in any form for 28 days from the date and time of sale. If his contract expires or is released, this limit is reduced to 7 days. When your player’s contracts are expiring you have a few options. Firstly, you will be informed of their impending free agency in advance, Then from either the news item informing you of this, or from their player profile, select ‘Respond/Contract’, and then one of the following options: • •
Set Auto Contract Renewal will automatically sign the player to a new four week contract without making him available to anyone else. Make Available for Wage Auction will place the player up for auction as described above. The advantage of this is that the player’s wages will be lowered to his starting value, and whilst you allow other managers the opportunity to bid on him, you can reduce your wage bill by getting the player signed to a cheaper contract. A real risk/reward strategy.
You can also choose to ignore the news and let your player’s contract run down until he is released on a free automatically when his contract expires. Be warned that you have a £100,000 overdraft limit. Going into debt further than this and not addressing the situation may see the plug pulled on your team and all players becoming available to the game world.
Playing a Match Once you’ve made a challenge or accepted a challenge (which will be indicated to you from the Challenge menu to the top left of the screen), you will be in the Go to Match holding area. You have five minutes to select your team, confirm your tactics, and Submit your orders to play. You will then enter the match. If the five minutes passes, the team who has failed to submit their details on time will forfeit the match with a 0-3 scoreline. Match Options There are three speed options – Normal, Medium, and Fast. Both managers must agree on the speed selection– if not the game will play the match in the slower of the two desired selections. Users are able to pre-set their desired commentary speed in the game options. You have a chat window to discuss events with your opponent, and tactical options to hand. You also have a one minute timeout window which you can stop the game with as many times as you wish, so long as they don’t take over one minute combined. Once that minute is up, you can no longer stop the game. You also have emergency time-outs for injuries. Should you wish to abandon the game at any time, click the Abandon button and confirm your decision. You will however be punished with a suitable result of at least a three goal margin, but this may be more depending on the situation the match is in when abandoned.
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Auto-Resolve If a competitive match is not played by the declared deadline, you will be informed. You then have a 24 hour window to have the match played before it is auto-resolved by the game. That means the game will automatically generate a result based on the strengths and rankings of the two teams involved. Auto-resolve windows are always 24 hours from the date the game becomes an auto-resolve. How long the competition allows before the auto-resolve kicks in is defined by the competition administrator. This can be from as short as 24 hours to as long as 7 days. When competition stages are applicable, users can set the expected length a stage should be completed in so the auto-resolve dates can be balanced accordingly. Playing the match in the auto-resolve window can be done in two ways: • •
You can arrange with your opponent to be online at the same. Or, if they are not online, you can challenge their AI-controlled team, where they will have no control over their tactics (if they are to sign in during the game, they will resume control).
Tactics Tactics can be the make or break for your team. You can sometimes get by on talent but the tactical decisions you make can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing. From the Manager menu select Tactics. The default view for the screen is the Formation screen, showing your squad on the left and a pitch display on the right. To select a player for a position, click in the ‘Shirt’ column and assign him a position. He will then appear in that position on the pitch display. To change formation, either select one from the ‘Tactics’ dropdown above the pitch, or click and hold on a position, drag it to another area, then release. You can also add movements to a position by right clicking and holding and dragging in a desired direction, then releasing when you’ve reached the point you wish the player to be running to. The tactical options dropdown is located towards the top right of the screen. From here you can choose to display various other options. The Team Instructions screen allows you to set up your basic tactics. Here you will find your team mentality, tempo, passing style, and set piece options, and your defensive setup. You can set the same for individual players from the Player Instructions screen. To select a player, click his position icon on the small pitch display. His instructions will appear on the right. - Captains, Penalty Takers, Free Kick Takers, Corner Takers, and Throw-In Takers are all declared in the designated menus. To add a player, click and hold on his name from the player list, and drag to the appropriate area on the right. Release the mouse and he should be placed in position. To re-rank a player, follow the same procedure. To remove a player, click the ‘-‘ icon next to his name. Tactics can also be imported from and exported to Football Manager.
Communications Chat When you sign into the game, you are automatically joined into the lobby chat room. It is here you can communicate with all other managers in your game world. To chat privately with any other manager simply right click on their name and select Start Private Chat.
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There are other chat rooms available to you – one to report Bugs, and another to discuss Transfer activity (Market Place), as well as a Federation chat room for members of a Federation. You are automatically signed into the Federation chat room as well as the Help Centre.
News and Mail Communications with the game world in general is done via the news and mail screens. Any important information relating to your team will be sent to you in the form of news items. Some items may require an action. You can filter your news using the Filters options. Managers can communicate with each other via mail messages. In the Preferences menu you can configure how you wish to receive news and mail, and in particular how you wish to receive these when offline and not signed in from the game.
User Feedback Each user has a feedback screen and the option to leave feedback on other users. This screen can be found on the Feedback tab of each manager’s profile screen. Here you can leave positive, negative or neutral feedback on another user. There is also a free text box allowing you to add a comment. Each user has a Feedback Profile and Detailed Ratings, which will allow the rest of the game world to see what everyone thinks of them, and allow you to make a clearer judgement when dealing with other managers.
Starting Again You can start your team from scratch, releasing all players and repeating the process outlined above. You will not be able to sign any of your previous players for seven days; you will lose all your money and start from the basic handouts, and will be unranked until you have played sufficient games. To discourage users from starting again too often and gaining any potential benefits from doing this, there is a limit on the number of times this can be done without penalty. Within 28 days of first signing up, you can restart twice without facing any penalty. One further restart is granted in any subsequent 28 day period. If you restart again outside of these allowances you will be allowed to do so, but your starting cash will be reduced to 80% of the starting cash from your previous restart. Going On Holiday If you are likely to be absent from playing FML for an extended period of time you have the option of setting yourself as ‘on holiday’. This freezes your ranking position and points, and your squad will not lose morale because of lack of activity. You will be ‘invisible’ to the game world. However, contracts will expire as normal, so you will need to address any outstanding issues before you depart, and any scheduled matches will be decided using auto-resolve, as described above. Every user starts with 7 days of holiday as default, and gains two further hours of holiday time for every one full day that they are online. To go on holiday, select Sign Out from the Game menu and click the Go On Holiday button.
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Navigation............................................................................................................................ 2 Starting Out ......................................................................................................................... 4 Game World – Time..............................................................................................................4 Preferences .......................................................................................................................... 4 Creating your Squad.............................................................................................................5 Player Contracts...................................................................................................................5 The Game World................................................................................................................... 6 Federations .......................................................................................................................... 6 Competitions ........................................................................................................................ 6 Establishing Yourself............................................................................................................ 6 Finances .............................................................................................................................6 Improving your Squad.......................................................................................................... 7 Buying Players .....................................................................................................................7 Transfer Auctions ................................................................................................................. 7 Private Bids .......................................................................................................................... 8 Wage Auctions ..................................................................................................................... 8 Trial Contracts...................................................................................................................... 8 Loans ................................................................................................................................... 8 Selling Players .....................................................................................................................9 Playing a Match .................................................................................................................... 9 Match Options .....................................................................................................................9 Auto-Resolve ..................................................................................................................... 10 Tactics................................................................................................................................ 10 Communications................................................................................................................. 10 Chat ................................................................................................................................. 10 News and Mail ................................................................................................................... 11 User feedback.................................................................................................................... 11 Starting Again .................................................................................................................... 11 Going On Holiday ............................................................................................................... 11
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Navigation Navigating around Football Manager Live is fairly simple with a little practice. This section will explain the general layout of the game and how to find your way around. Title Bar
The Title Bar is present on every screen. The text and content of the main header area will change depending on which screen you may be accessing but the thinner, pale blue area never changes, and this is the area to pay attention to. This is the Menu Bar. Menu Bar
The Menu Bar is your primary means of navigating around Football Manager Live. Starting from the left, below are the items available to you. Challenges/Opponents – this is where you will receive notification of any challenges you have made or received. If you have any scheduled competition fixtures (and your opponent is online) this will indicate their online status to you. Back/Forward Arrows – these work just like the back and forward buttons on an Internet browser. Clicking the left arrow will scroll back through previous screens, clicking the right arrow will scroll forward through screens you have accessed previously. If an arrow is disabled, this means you cannot navigate in that direction because there are no screens to be visited. Manager Menu
The Manager Menu is where you will find everything you need to manage your team. These menu options are described in more detail throughout this guide.
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World Menu
The World Menu is where you will find options relating directly to your game world, and in some instances your team. Game The Game Menu holds the Game Preferences, which are described in detail in this guide. You can also use this menu to Sign Out or Exit the game. History The History Menu displays the ten most recent screens you have visited. It also shows the screens you have visited most in the last 48 hours. You can use these options to jump to the screen of your choice.
Menus are used to navigate through Football Manager Live. Each screen also shows Tabs and the Actions bar. Tabs
Tabs are present on most screens. The image above is taken from the Squad screen. Clicking a tab opens further options in the form of buttons all relating to the Tab. The image below shows the History tab and its associated buttons.
Actions Menu Located at the bottom of most screens is the Actions menu. The image below is taken from the Player Profile and shows the various options available when interacting with the player.
At the bottom of the screen you will find the Shortcut bar and the footer containing time and date information, a rolling news ticker bar, and shortcut icons to chat rooms, contacts, news, and mail.
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Starting Out Game World – Time Football Manager Live is played in real time. This in essence means that there is no Continue button as you would find in Football Manager. Each day progresses in real time – for example, if an auction expires in 25 minutes, it will expire in 25 real minutes. However, the game advances in a different manner. Each year in FML lasts one real life month; therefore three months of FML pass in one real life week. Preferences Available from the Game menu, Preferences is where you can customize your game world. This can be done via the following 5 tabs: Profile Your profile details. This information is entirely biographical, whether you choose to use real or fictional information is up to you. Communications Football Manager Live allows you to stay in contact with your game world even when you’re not signed into the game. You can configure how to receive email and SMS from this tab. Statement Enter your personal statement here. Team The Team menu has five sub options: Name Nickname Home Colours Away Colours Stadium Squads
The name you wish your team to be known as in-game Your team nickname Home kit design and colour selection Away kit design and colour selection Name, pitch dimensions and pitch style Add extra squads to enable you to organise your players as you wish. Different squads can be assigned to competitions.
Other The Other menu items are outlined below. Display Mode – By default, the game runs in windowed mode. Should you wish to run in Full Screen mode, you can change it here. You can also choose whether FML runs in a Single Window or Multiple Windows. Single Window keeps everything inside the same window; Multiple Window lets you view items such as the chat room to open separate windows. You can also choose various resolutions in which to run the game. This allows you to get the game looking its best on your screen. These can be found under the ‘Monitor’ dropdown. Current Skin – Decide which skin to display FML in. The FML Beta version has just one skin. Measurement/Height/Weight Units – Choose your preferred units: Imperial or Metric. Menus – Click to Open or Auto-Open. Either choose to click to open all menus, or allow them to automatically open when the mouse is over the menu button. Setting this option to Use Style Set will use current skin’s default. Starting Page – Choose which screen FML opens when signing in. By default, this is set to your home page. Automatically Sign-In To The Game – Tick this box if you want Football Manager Live to automatically sign you in. Display Action Confirmation – Tick this box if you want a dialog box pop-up as confirmation when you complete an action. Chat Colour – Choose a colour to display your name in chat windows.
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Creating your Squad The first thing you’ll need to do when starting up is create an account. Once done you’ll have the opportunity to select your starting squad. You have a budget of £500,000 to create your initial squad. Each player has an Acquisition Fee – you must pay this in order to acquire the player, and this fee will be withdrawn from your overall balance. You also must stay within a £100,000 wage limit when picking your initial squad. When signing a player, this information will be given to you before you confirm the decision. Acquisition Fees exist for every single player in the game and are determined by a number of factors, including their ability, age and reputation. When signing a player in any wage auction - excluding retention of your own player - you must also pay the player’s Acquisition Fee. From the Manager menu, select All Players. Players available to you will be displayed along with a wage figure, and any other filter options you choose. This is the amount you must pay them per day. Ignore this for now, as it’ll be addressed in more detail further on. To sign the player, click to his profile, then from the Approach menu on the bottom menu bar, select Sign on Provisional Contract. The player will then be part of your squad, but you are free to change players until you confirm your squad. Once you’re happy with the squad you’ve put together, select Confirm Squad from the Actions menu along the bottom of the Squad screen. Alternatively, you can use the Auto-Select Squad feature. Choosing this will automatically fill your squad with random players. From there, you can add and remove players as you like until you decide to confirm your squad. Please do note that this selection is NOT final and can be altered as often as you like before confirming. On the menu bar at the top of the screen, you will find a Setup Team button in blue. Clicking it will present you with options designed to help you through setting up some of the key aspects of your team in a clear and quick way.
Player Contracts Once you have confirmed your initial squad each player is contractually bound to you for a period of 28-31 days. During the last seven days of a player’s contract you are able to choose to extend their deal for a further 28 days. The player may demand an increase in wages and he will ensure that his demands are in line with similar players of his ability within the game world. This means that if several top players are being paid too much the salary demands of similar top players will go up. You also have the option of protecting up to five players from leaving your team. By setting the Auto Extend Contract option in their Contract options, you can lock them to your team and prevent them leaving – their contract is automatically renewed on a new four week deal when it expires. When doing this, a dialog box will inform you of any other protected players. You can only protect a maximum of five. Any players in your squad aged 21 or under are exempt from the contract renewal rules and can automatically be retained without being made available to other users or taking up one of your five protected spots. To get to a player’s Contract options, select the desired player, and then select Contract -> Set Auto Contract Renewal from the Actions menu along the bottom of the page. To unprotect a previously protected player, simply select Off from the Contracts options dialog. If you no longer wish to retain a player’s services you can place them in a transfer auction or release them from their contract. Note that if you release them you will have to make compensation payments of approximately 50% of their remaining contract.
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The Game World FML supports multiple game worlds, each containing up to 1000 users. Each game world will be unique to itself, but certain features will be the same wherever you play. Detailed information on your game world, and all other game worlds active in Football Manager Live, can be found by accessing the World menu from the menu bar and selecting Profile Federations Think of federations as Football Associations. Being a member of one will offer benefits that nonmembers won’t enjoy. For example, injury compensation or increased prize money. Joining a Federation is optional, but it is recommended. For example, the Sports Interactive Football Association is a governing Federation. Members receive compensation when their players are injured, media rights income and are able to join official SI FA competitions. Injury compensation is determined in part by the user. Each player in your squad can be insured against injury by paying a fee of 10% of the player’s wage on a daily basis. If that player becomes injured, you would receive 100% of his wage as compensation. If you decide that you’d rather not pay to insure your player against injury, you will only receive 50% of his wage should he be injured. All injury compensation requires the manager to be a part of a Federation. Non-members will not receive injury compensation. In the FML Beta, there will be a mix of official and user-created Federations, each with their own specific incentives to join. Competitions Competitions are generally user-created, although Federations will also have their own competitions for members. User-created competitions have a great deal of scope and freedom which allow for some very creative concepts. To create a competition, go to the Competitions option from the World menu. Select Create Competition from the bottom right corner of the screen. You will now be required to configure your settings. You can set pretty much anything; from a minimum user ranking to multiple stages and times competition matches must be played. Some competitions are public and others private. To enter a private competition you need to be invited by the competition host. Hosts may also allow another user to have administrative control over a competition. This can be done from the Actions panel along the bottom of the screen.
Establishing Yourself Once you’ve confirmed your squad, you’re ready to start. You might now wish to complete your team’s information – from the Game menu select Preferences and then Team. You can name your team, create your home and away kit styles and colours, and decide upon your stadium name and pitch dimensions. This will all be found on your Home Page and can be seen by the rest of the game world. You also have the chance to issue a personal statement. This can be in any form you like – say what you want (but keep it clean)! Finances Once you’re in, you will be allocated a sum of money determined by the average bank balance of the entire game world. This is your base sum of money from which you’ll begin working in the FML game world. At midnight every day your team’s total wages are subtracted from this figure. At the same time you will receive your daily minimum fee of £100,000. This is your basic ranking income to ensure you can pay your starting wage and allow you to start building your team.
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Ranking income is typically between £100k and £150k per night but everyone receives a default £100k until such time as competitive action (i.e. Federations) begins. To begin with you are unranked. To gain a ranking, you need to play another manager in a match. The simplest way is to challenge someone to a friendly match. Check the World -> Teams Menu to see which managers are online (their names will have a green football indicator next to them), identify a potential opponent, and then select Match -> Challenge to Friendly from the bottom menu bar on their team homepage. Playing a match is covered more a little further below. The Match Maker button on the menu bar allows you to configure a number of settings to find an opponent. Once these settings are in place, the Match Maker scans the game world for suitable online opponents. Once the Match Maker has found an opponent, you will enter Go To Match mode and the 5 minute countdown will begin. The Ranking system awards or deducts points for winning or losing matches. The higher you are in the Rankings, the more daily income you will receive. Ideally you will be bringing in enough money per day from your rankings to cover your wage expenses, so you are able to make a profit. Beating a higher ranked opponent will give you more points than a weaker one, and winning away from home will give you more points than a home win. Note that you will not necessarily be ranked immediately after you complete your first match. It can take up to ten matches before you receive a ranking, but you can check your Provisional Points total on your Profile page for an indication of where you are likely to end up. The key is to start playing matches, win those matches, and get as high in the Rankings as you can. Once you start bringing money in you can begin to consider buying players. You can also attempt to win money by betting on the result of a match you are involved in. This, of course, must be matched by the opponent for it to be a valid bet. It is also worth noting that should your wage bill exceed £250,000, a tax of 100% on all wages over that limit will be applied. Financial Projection You will receive a financial projection news item to your inbox at the start of every month indicating your current status and your four-week projected situation. From the Finances tab on your Squad screen you are able to view this information at any time.
Improving your Squad Buying Players Chances are your initial squad won’t be as strong as you might like because you are fairly limited as to what you can spend. However, once you have some money, you have a little more freedom to invest in more talented players. Transfer Auctions One way to add players to your squad is to bid on a Player Auction. From the Manager Menu or the World Menu, select Auctions. This will display all players up for auction. Players will have a current bid price and a deadline for the auction expiry, plus an Instant Buy price. If you see a player you like, select his profile, then Approach -> Make Transfer Auction Bid. You will be prompted to enter a bid amount. If yours is the winning bid at the time that the auction ends the player will join your squad and the bid amount will be subtracted from your funds. When bidding, declare a maximum price which you would be prepared to pay. Should another manager then make a bid which isn’t greater than your maximum, your bid will be increased automatically to be £1 higher than the new bid. For example: Team A have put a player up for auction at £10,000. Team B have bid a maximum of £15,000 for the player, but since the bid of £10,000 has been met, the bid currently stays at that level. Team C then makes a bid of £12,500, which is obviously lower than the maximum bid from Team B. Team C are informed that Team B’s bid is higher, and the auction value for the player then becomes £12,501.
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Private Bids You can offer a private transfer bid for a player, much like a regular transfer. Select the player and offer the manager a fee you find acceptable for the player. Should the offer be accepted, the player will move to your club and will sign a new 28 day contract with your team. Wage Auctions You can also sign unattached players. From the Player Search menu you can select various filters. Some players will be unavailable to the game world; these players are only free to newcomers to FML (ensuring there are players to pick). Unattached Players To make an offer for an unattached player you must offer him a wage based on his demands. This will then place him in a 24 hour wage auction during which time any other manager can bid. At the end of that 24 hour window, the highest bidder takes the player on a four week contract at those terms. It is important to understand that wage auctions use a sealed bid system whereby your bid is the wage you will pay regardless of other bids. For example: Player A is available on a wage auction. Manager X bids a wage of £10,000 for his services. Manager Y makes a bid of £13,000. Manager Y wins this auction and pays the full £13,000 for his services despite the next highest bid being £3000 a day lower. All bids are hidden from view of other managers – you may see who has bid, but not the amount they have bid. Unprotected players out of contract The same concept applies for unprotected players who are out of contract. If his owner wishes to keep him, he will have to offer him a contract at the base terms demanded. However, the player is also open to other users in the last 24 hours of his contract during which time anyone is free to bid. As usual, the highest bidder at the time of expiry will claim his services on a four week contract. Players you already own This situation slightly differs if you own a player subject to a wage auction. If you bid £5000 higher than the next highest bid in order to retain your player, you will only pay £1 higher than the next highest bid, since he has been retained by his owner – this is done to benefit managers who wish to retain their players. Note that you cannot sell a player you have purchased until seven days have passed. Trial Contracts You can also take a player on a 24 hour trial by paying him his minimum expected wage for that day. This can be a good way of evaluating a player’s talents and how he may fit into your team. If you intend to keep the player, you should offer him a full contract inside this 24 hour window, as if he is allowed to leave after the trial period he will not be allowed to join your team again for 24 hours. Be aware that: • •
You cannot trial a player who is already under contract with a team. You cannot trial a player if he is already subject to a wage auction.
There are also restrictions on which players can be signed up for a trial. For example, over 24s earning more than £10,000 wages. Some competitions may also limit the use of trial players, so ensure you are within these limits before taking action. Loans Players can be loaned between teams in the FML world. To begin with, check the Loan List from the World menu to see which players have been made available for loan by their managers. If you find a player you’d like to take on loan, select Approach, then Make Private Loan Offer. Here you’ll need to compose your loan offer. Loans can be from a minimum of 24 hours to a maximum of two weeks. You’ll also need to offer a wage contribution that you’re prepared to pay for the duration of the loan. Some competitions may also restrict the use of loan players, so ensure you are within these limits before taking action.
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Selling Players When listing your own players for sale you have the choice of a starting fee and an instant buy fee. When setting these take into account what you want for the player, and his market value. • •
A player with a high wage won’t be attractive to many teams, so consider a lower asking price when attempting to sell him. A player with a lower wage may be more desirable and affordable to others, so a higher asking price may be acceptable here.
Also note the auction duration options. •
•
A shorter listing can be used to test the market for an initial valuation, and it can also be useful when you are in desperate need of money. A shorter auction on a noteworthy player can also see a flurry of quick activity perhaps resulting in overpayment. A longer auction can also see a higher price through allowing more time for bids to come in, but also consider that during your auction window, players may become available from other teams or on a wage auction.
Try and end your auction at a time when people are likely to be online. That means listing a player at that same time on the day of listing, since auctions end ‘x days’ exactly after auction. For example, a player listed at 1200hrs on Tuesday for 3 days will end on Friday at 1200hrs. Please note that if you sell a player, you will not be allowed to attempt to re-sign that player in any form for 28 days from the date and time of sale. If his contract expires or is released, this limit is reduced to 7 days. When your player’s contracts are expiring you have a few options. Firstly, you will be informed of their impending free agency in advance, Then from either the news item informing you of this, or from their player profile, select ‘Respond/Contract’, and then one of the following options: • •
Set Auto Contract Renewal will automatically sign the player to a new four week contract without making him available to anyone else. Make Available for Wage Auction will place the player up for auction as described above. The advantage of this is that the player’s wages will be lowered to his starting value, and whilst you allow other managers the opportunity to bid on him, you can reduce your wage bill by getting the player signed to a cheaper contract. A real risk/reward strategy.
You can also choose to ignore the news and let your player’s contract run down until he is released on a free automatically when his contract expires. Be warned that you have a £100,000 overdraft limit. Going into debt further than this and not addressing the situation may see the plug pulled on your team and all players becoming available to the game world.
Playing a Match Once you’ve made a challenge or accepted a challenge (which will be indicated to you from the Challenge menu to the top left of the screen), you will be in the Go to Match holding area. You have five minutes to select your team, confirm your tactics, and Submit your orders to play. You will then enter the match. If the five minutes passes, the team who has failed to submit their details on time will forfeit the match with a 0-3 scoreline. Match Options There are three speed options – Normal, Medium, and Fast. Both managers must agree on the speed selection– if not the game will play the match in the slower of the two desired selections. Users are able to pre-set their desired commentary speed in the game options. You have a chat window to discuss events with your opponent, and tactical options to hand. You also have a one minute timeout window which you can stop the game with as many times as you wish, so long as they don’t take over one minute combined. Once that minute is up, you can no longer stop the game. You also have emergency time-outs for injuries. Should you wish to abandon the game at any time, click the Abandon button and confirm your decision. You will however be punished with a suitable result of at least a three goal margin, but this may be more depending on the situation the match is in when abandoned.
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Auto-Resolve If a competitive match is not played by the declared deadline, you will be informed. You then have a 24 hour window to have the match played before it is auto-resolved by the game. That means the game will automatically generate a result based on the strengths and rankings of the two teams involved. Auto-resolve windows are always 24 hours from the date the game becomes an auto-resolve. How long the competition allows before the auto-resolve kicks in is defined by the competition administrator. This can be from as short as 24 hours to as long as 7 days. When competition stages are applicable, users can set the expected length a stage should be completed in so the auto-resolve dates can be balanced accordingly. Playing the match in the auto-resolve window can be done in two ways: • •
You can arrange with your opponent to be online at the same. Or, if they are not online, you can challenge their AI-controlled team, where they will have no control over their tactics (if they are to sign in during the game, they will resume control).
Tactics Tactics can be the make or break for your team. You can sometimes get by on talent but the tactical decisions you make can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing. From the Manager menu select Tactics. The default view for the screen is the Formation screen, showing your squad on the left and a pitch display on the right. To select a player for a position, click in the ‘Shirt’ column and assign him a position. He will then appear in that position on the pitch display. To change formation, either select one from the ‘Tactics’ dropdown above the pitch, or click and hold on a position, drag it to another area, then release. You can also add movements to a position by right clicking and holding and dragging in a desired direction, then releasing when you’ve reached the point you wish the player to be running to. The tactical options dropdown is located towards the top right of the screen. From here you can choose to display various other options. The Team Instructions screen allows you to set up your basic tactics. Here you will find your team mentality, tempo, passing style, and set piece options, and your defensive setup. You can set the same for individual players from the Player Instructions screen. To select a player, click his position icon on the small pitch display. His instructions will appear on the right. - Captains, Penalty Takers, Free Kick Takers, Corner Takers, and Throw-In Takers are all declared in the designated menus. To add a player, click and hold on his name from the player list, and drag to the appropriate area on the right. Release the mouse and he should be placed in position. To re-rank a player, follow the same procedure. To remove a player, click the ‘-‘ icon next to his name. Tactics can also be imported from and exported to Football Manager.
Communications Chat When you sign into the game, you are automatically joined into the lobby chat room. It is here you can communicate with all other managers in your game world. To chat privately with any other manager simply right click on their name and select Start Private Chat.
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There are other chat rooms available to you – one to report Bugs, and another to discuss Transfer activity (Market Place), as well as a Federation chat room for members of a Federation. You are automatically signed into the Federation chat room as well as the Help Centre.
News and Mail Communications with the game world in general is done via the news and mail screens. Any important information relating to your team will be sent to you in the form of news items. Some items may require an action. You can filter your news using the Filters options. Managers can communicate with each other via mail messages. In the Preferences menu you can configure how you wish to receive news and mail, and in particular how you wish to receive these when offline and not signed in from the game.
User Feedback Each user has a feedback screen and the option to leave feedback on other users. This screen can be found on the Feedback tab of each manager’s profile screen. Here you can leave positive, negative or neutral feedback on another user. There is also a free text box allowing you to add a comment. Each user has a Feedback Profile and Detailed Ratings, which will allow the rest of the game world to see what everyone thinks of them, and allow you to make a clearer judgement when dealing with other managers.
Starting Again You can start your team from scratch, releasing all players and repeating the process outlined above. You will not be able to sign any of your previous players for seven days; you will lose all your money and start from the basic handouts, and will be unranked until you have played sufficient games. To discourage users from starting again too often and gaining any potential benefits from doing this, there is a limit on the number of times this can be done without penalty. Within 28 days of first signing up, you can restart twice without facing any penalty. One further restart is granted in any subsequent 28 day period. If you restart again outside of these allowances you will be allowed to do so, but your starting cash will be reduced to 80% of the starting cash from your previous restart. Going On Holiday If you are likely to be absent from playing FML for an extended period of time you have the option of setting yourself as ‘on holiday’. This freezes your ranking position and points, and your squad will not lose morale because of lack of activity. You will be ‘invisible’ to the game world. However, contracts will expire as normal, so you will need to address any outstanding issues before you depart, and any scheduled matches will be decided using auto-resolve, as described above. Every user starts with 7 days of holiday as default, and gains two further hours of holiday time for every one full day that they are online. To go on holiday, select Sign Out from the Game menu and click the Go On Holiday button.
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