House Rules rule
The story so far: after becoming extremely disenchanted with this year’s PES offering (on the PlayStation3, c’est naturellement), and trying and failing to rekindle the spark with PES5, I have spent the past several days searching for some way to play one or more other football games for the rest of the year.
Next-gen FIFA08 has been the leading candidate. I’ll be posting some time next week about the culmination of my FIFA08 Quadruple attempt with Coventry City in the English Premier League. There’s PES2008 business to deal with first. It’s very early days, but the signs are looking good for both games. At the moment it’s my plan to alternate between the two for the rest of the football game year. I’m looking at a two-state solution, people.
When I abandoned my second PES2008 Master League career and stormed off in a huff, I had just finished the first season with my team, Singers FC. The negotiation period was ahead of me.
I resumed that career today exactly where I had left off.
First on the list of priorities: get rid of Elcherino. He was sensational for me in the latter half of the first season. A bit too sensational. He scored at least a hat trick – at least a hat trick! – in almost every game he played. He represented everything that is wrong about the gameplay of next-gen PES2008 (an utterly different game from the PS2 version).
Most of Elcherino’s goals were akin to the sort you could score on previous PES games on the lowest difficulty level. It just wasn’t PES. I’m sure the kids love this aspect of PES2008. 7-2 scorelines are delightful if you just want to fill up some time between sessions of Halo3. Sorry, kids.
Elcherino is a classic player in PES2008. In years past I packed my ML teams with the likes of Michel Platini, George Best, Eric Cantona, Van Basten, Pele, Maradona, Zico, Gordon Banks… the list goes on. PES is its own world, and I’ve always been happy to use the old players alongside the current ones. It was never the case before (for me, an average player) that the Classics were absurdly overpowered, as they are in this year’s game.
Oh well. No more classic players in PES2008. I just have to get on with it. Curse you Seabass!
I’ll get rid of Elcherino as soon as I start negotiations proper – I should be able to trade him in for someone pretty good. An AMF with Middle Shooting is on the shopping list.
Before getting to negotiations, I have to finalise my House Rules. These are the special rules that I need to put in place to stop myself running away with the Master League after a certain tipping point is passed. In theory.
Here are the House Rules:
1. Squad size of no more than 25 players.
2. I’m not allowed to have any of the players I had in my last ML career. With just three exceptions: Maldini, Beerens, and Andy Cole. For various reasons I don’t think I saw the best of them. Maldini in particular was only with me for half a season as a Youth player. If any of the three become overpowered, my other House Rules would make me have to get rid of them.
3. At least 5 of the original Default squad must remain in the squad at all times.
4. When original Default squad members retire, they must be replaced from the pool of old-style Default players on the transfer market (Barota and Vornander et al) .
5. At least one original Default squad member must start every match and play at least a full half.
6. No Elcherino-style players are allowed in the squad. Primarily this means: no classic players. But it also means that I am not allowed to buy any players from the non-classic pool who already are, or might turn into, Elcherino-style wonder dribblers. Additionally, should any of my existing players show signs of developing into such a player, I am not allowed to play with that player, and I have to sell, trade, or release him at the first opportunity.
Only 6 House Rules for now – but in combination, they add up to something quite challenging, I think.
I considered including a ’skill cap’, i.e. preventing myself from using any player whose Overall rating was above 90, or even 85. But that may be premature.
It’s perfectly possible for a player to have high stats in many areas without being overpowered on the dribbling front.
A skill cap would also remove lots of the immersion of Master League for me: taking a young player from nothing and turning him into a legend. I’ll play this one by ear. If it becomes a problem, I’ll introduce a skill cap and have done with it.
Do larger teams come in for your star players? In PES 5 and 6, whenever I built a youth into a monster, some larger team would make an offer.
When I was looking for house rules, “always accepting an offer from a higher WEFA-ranked team” and “always accept an offer that meets the estimated value” kept the superstars off my team.
In the future, it’d be nice to see the 2008 model of four player strata increased even to six (A-F), and make the buying and selling of players between strata (i.e. getting a D when you’re an F club) even more difficult.
I’d also like to see an option that would change the amount of PES gained for each win or draw. This way, you could simulate the trouble that a small cub has competing financially with the Big Boys.
Lastly, and this is critical for me, I want to see all the factors currently covered by the Master League difficultly settings culled out and made separate settings:
Transfer difficulty
Stamina difficulty
Injury frequency
. . . etc.
Before I get Seabass on the phone to make these demands, what other demands does everyone here have?
There’s a lot that was rushed and unfinished (and plain *unstarted*) about next-gen PES2008. Seabass himself is on record as saying “PES2008 is very far from what we wanted” and that they considered delaying it.
When I was running riot with my first ML team, I never had any offers from any teams for any of my players. The sole exception was Beerens in the very last season. I had a single bid in the mid-season period. Other than that, no one wanted Shaw, Schwarz, Shimizu, Guimaraes, Mattsson, Bradley, any of them.
My demands for PES2009 (more likely PES2010; I reckon PES2009 is already all but completed):
More and better gradations of difficulty. If I’m on the Top difficulty, I don’t ever want to see goalkeepers punching into the path of a striker. Maybe once every now and then would be acceptable. But a couple of times per game? No.
I think the option to change the amount of PES points received as income would be excellent.
Oh, and another thing about PES2008 (next-gen) – players don’t get injured. In over 6 full seasons of Master League in total, I’ve not had one player out injured.
I think the injury thing is down to luck.
In my championship side one of my players over a season was injuried 3 times! (B). The rest of the squad was fine though.
But you know how it goes. in moderation would be nice too! No west ham style injury problems either. As it is with the stamina issue with the defaults.
I’ll post again once sober.
It’s been quite the Quioxtic quest, but I finally got the device to mod my PS 2, broke my PS 2, nearly gave up on fixing my PS2 , fixed my PS 2, and now I’m listening to the absolute worst set of videogame music I’ve ever heard.
It must be PES 2008! AT LAST IT IS MINE!!!!1one MUHUWAHAHAHaaa
paww2k8 – I’ve had one-game injuries but nothing longer. I really think they messed it up this time around for next-gen versions.
ck – well done! Bet you’re glad you didn’t import a Euro PS2 now, eh? Oh, and remember that you’re probably playing a superior PES2008. It’s guaranteed as well that the “Football! (Soccer!) Football! (Soccer!)” song will worm its way into your brain and repeat on a loop for days on end. Don’t worry – it will stop eventually. Probably…
So far so fun. The NTSC/PAL aspect ratio difference means that I lose about the bottom part of the screen — from the bottom third of the radar down is off-screen.
I’ve played a few games, and think: PES 6, but with less balloon-shots (thank the Black Baby Jesus) and a much, much faster frame-rate. Too fast, in fact. I dislike the pace, but I’m sure I’ll adjust.
Also, the opposition is more dangerous, and not just from corners or set pieces. They’re scoring from open play, and while it seems like 90% PES6, in fact the defending is different. I couldn’t defend a lick in the matches I’ve played.
For some reason, the exhibition matches are much slower than the Master League. I don’t get it. The exhibition matches are just *marginally* faster than PES6, but the ML matches are so fast it’s disorienting!
At any rate, I think for my first big run at PES 2008 I’m going to revive my ML story:
http://forums.pesfan.com/showthread.php?t=177626&highlight=Aylesbury+Vale
I would suspect we’ll be in a relegation fight, and possibly get relegated, which would be a first for me, and pretty cool.
ck – you’ve really whetted my appetite for the PSP version, which is just 2 weeks away from release here. I’m worried to hear about the game’s speed, though.
Just had a look at your ML story – you haven’t updated that in a long time! And when you say you’ll continue it in PES2008 and be at risk of relegation, how? Will you set up a custom League and put Aylesbury in Division1 straightaway? I know that can be done.
I want to go, go for the goal. Just thought I’d leave you with that thought.
*We’re gonna play football… (soccer!)… football… (soccer!)….*
*All around the world!*
. . . DAMN YOU (Not) Greg Downs! (shakes fist) Now I have that song in my head!
I turned the songs off 5 minutes into cracking open PES2008, and even still heard more than enough. It is really the worst video game music *evar*, and makes me laugh that Konami decided to upgrade the music and ended up with that.
Open suggestion to Konami: For your European and American releases, get a European or American consulting group to select and license music for your games. You can thank me later.
“Will you set up a custom League and put Aylesbury in Division1 straightaway? I know that can be done.”
I will. In order to get the personnell right, I will use the PES Editor (http://www.purplehaze.eclipse.co.uk/) to re-create the PES6 Aylesbury team, and start at the beginning of their first season in the top flight.
They will be better than the defaults, for sure, and in PES6 would have been challenging for a European spot by the end of the season, but I imagine that the learning curve of PES2008 will keep us toward the bottom of the league! I’m really kind of looking forward to a tough season, but ask me again once I’ve lost four on the bounce going in to mid-season negotiations, am seven points behind safety, and no players want to come to Aylesbury to play (my word, why ever not?).
Did you see the comment in the thread by some guy *from* Aylesbury, who laughed that I’d turned Friar’s Road into a football ground, as he says it’s a crappy shopping center now.
Apparently, although I made up Aylesbury Vale, there is an actual Aylesbury Vale FC, and their colors are claret and sky-blue, very much like the badge I’d designed!
The lesson is that you can’t throw a stone in England without hitting a football side!