Championship Manager 5 (UK release 18/3/05;1/4/05 other nations), confirmed features:

[Tom]

dont know what the hells going on with your sig Ruud, but im guessing its something to do with Holland.

Anyhoo, as i said on msn, i find this VERY sceptical, i think they have got so so much abuse for not saying anything, they decided to fill the masses with irrelavent bull****.

The only thing i can really find thats new in this 'news' is that they have included some new words or phrases such as 'playercam' and 'create schedule wizard'

Ive been playing CM for years, i know when i smell bull****, this is bull****. Eidos has problems.

TROD.

 

[rpvankasteren]

How this all sounds to me:

It?s been some time since there was any official news or announcements from either BGS or Eidos on Championship Manager 5. This has partly been intentional in that we didn?t want to promise anything that we wouldn?t deliver; and partly as we?ve been totally focused on delivering a quality simulation.
{We know our alpha sucked, we tried hard to fix as much as we could}


The launch of CM5 was moved from pre-Christmas to give it the necessary amount of time to ensure that it is of the highest quality. We believe that CM5 will be a better game because of this, and that the improvements underway will take the series forward to a new level.
{Really, we know it sucked, and we've been working our asses off}


We?ve taken our time to ensure that we meet the very high standards and expectations that Championship Manager fans demands. This has involved talking extensively face-to-face with fans of the game as they?ve played the new code and fed-back on how we can improve it. We?ve taken all these comments on-board ? good and bad ? and believe that we?re about to launch a simulation that is worthy of the title Championship Manager 5?the most engaging and realistic football management offering yet.
{We listened to the fans, because we had no idea what-so-ever what to do with the crap we had on hands ourselves}


Over the course of the next few weeks we?ll be providing weekly updates where we?ll outline in detail the key developments and improvements that will be brought to you with CM5. As a taster:
{We will write some articles like in november, talking crap about stuff you already knew}

(...we'll see about those in the upcoming weeks then, right?)

So stay tuned for more details on these and other aspects of the simulation, plus a few other surprises along the way!
{Check back, you might get a free sticker, like SI gave you}

Bland? exactly...

 

[Tom]

Speed
The code architecture we?re adopting means that CM5 is lightening quick without compromising the depth or realism of the simulation.
Basically we've cut out lots of important match data from games across the globe, but dont worry, yours will be fine


Match Resolver
We?re currently optimising the spread of results and match statistics versus the real-world, cross-referencing with data supplied by Opta. At the moment we?re at 90% accuracy but looking to push that even higher.
We've basically copied what SI have done and used it ourselves, we feel by including lots of usless irrelevant data it will attract fans


Scouting
We?re making scouting much more reliable with improved briefing and filter features. We also have a completely new ?PlayerCam? tool which will revolutionise the way you scout players.
We have a 'technology' that allows you to see more stats about the player.. maybe.. some hidden stats or something.. .. ..


Training
We?ve made the training aspect of CM5 for accessible and usable with the introduction of our new Create Schedule wizard. The schedules and drills have been constructed by top Premiership coach Mervyn Day to ensure absolute realism.
We've changed the training so that it has more effect on the game.. of course it will probably have an amazingly unrealistic effect, but it should please our chav-friends who will buy the game


Tactics
The all-new tactics section has again been designed in collaboration with Mervyn. It now offers more default formations, greater customisation and more player / team instruction options.
im pleased with the fact ive written this down and im going to get away with posting NO new information about the tactics


TROD.

 

[rpvankasteren]

The first of those new articles has appeared on www.championshipmanager.co.uk, explaining quite a bit about the match engine.

Some quotes definitely worth reading:

Our engine fully calculates all the matches for all fixtures being played. There’s no ‘pre-calculation’. All matches are played in ‘real time’, but because of “Clever Coding ^TM” the matches can be played out at an unbelievable speed. At present a ‘behind the scenes’ match is being calculated in about a second. This means that we can make full stats available for every single fixture.

At the moment any league you manage in has all the games that you’re “in contact” with being played in “Extra Detail”. You can click on the scoreline for these matches, even for other teams, and watch the game play out if you want. Extra Detail is expensive though – so don’t get carried away with this with many leagues.

Interesting, really, but I don't see myself checking all of the other games after my own match, do you? It is good in combination with the player cam for players you want to scout, as you can read below, but wouldn't that limit scouting to the own league? In other leagues you'd only get to see highlights still, and those don't say much about weaknesses of the attacking players.
The speed thing does sound good. They don't simply calculate a match before it's played, but during the game proceedings. With the advantage that it slows down calculations for closer to 'real time' matches, and will thus be less strenuous for the CPU, leaving more calculation time for the graphical part of the engine. We'll have to see how this will affect the effect of stats on the game.

This next bit explains the "player cam" feature, especially for Tom:

Our proudest addition to the match engine is ‘PlayerCam’. Highlighting a player and then selecting this option will allow you to watch highlights of all the action that the player selected was involved in. Want to scout your potential new striker but don’t want to watch a full 90 minutes? Highlight him and switch the Player Cam on.

Tbh, if that's the thing they're most proud of, they should've spend more time on the rest of the engine. It's a cool feature, but I think the realism of the engine's workings should be the thing to be proud of

 

[Tom]

you can do that on FM... how is that new? just get the player who you want, and simply look at match reports and click on his name takes about... ooh.. 10 seconds longer.

Personally i dont think they've said much there than they havent said before, we all know that one of the big things is that it doesnt caluclate matches beforehand, and its a nice idea, just hope it works well.

TROD.

 

[rpvankasteren]

Oh, latest bit of news I managed to filter out of the CM.co.uk board (posted 16/2/05):

Eidos have failed to reach an agreement with the MLS, so we'll see no Chris Armas in this game.

 

[Andrejs]

I have a jolly good feeling that this game will suck even more then Football Masters 98

 

[Tom]

It may suck more than Premier Manager '98 and that was delayed about a year, practically Premer Manager '99 by the time it was released, awful game..

TROD.

 

[rpvankasteren]

CM5 Update: The Need for Speed

There's a new article on the CM.co.uk site, about how fast CM5 is compared to CM 03/04.

Time taken to create a game with differing numbers of leagues

by John Webb - 24/02/2005
I feel the need…the need for...well, a much quicker CM experience!


In our extensive research onto Championship Manager, one theme consistently came-up – speed! Everybody wanted the same accuracy, realism, and depth, but they wanted it without having to wait! BGS took this into account, and we are please to say that Championship Manager 5 is quick…it has va va voom as Thierry would say.

But what is speed?

Firstly, there’s the speed in loading and creating games. We’ve run a series of tests which show that CM5 loads and creates new games faster than previous versions of Championship Manager and our competition. This means that you get into the action quicker and can spend more time enjoying.

Secondly, there’s the speed of general gameplay. Everyone plays CM differently. Some of us take over 2 hours before even hitting 'continue game' for the first time!
However, there are a couple of indicators that you might be interested in!

For the AI to play one full season in CM5 takes 2 hours 22 minutes…that’s more than TWICE as fast as CM03/04 in holiday mode (4hrs 45 mins). Less waiting means more action… more decisions… more matches… more seasons. Effectively you’re getting more game!

Also, there’s Constant Gameplay. ‘Constant Gameplay’ means that Championship Manager 5 does not 'grey-out' the front end as it processes, therefore allowing you to access all screens as the simulation processes, so you can simultaneously access other features and make decisions or take actions –tweak your training regime or check out the scout reports of your next opponent.

Why so fast?

OK – so you’re saying: “This all sounds very good, but you must have made compromises, cut corners, dumbed down the simulation to achieve this!”

Oh ye of little faith! All the gains in speed have been achieved through cutting edge, efficient coding, optimising our software and using some clever architecture. Starting from scratch has allowed us to design and write the code to deliver the gains in speed outlined above, with potential for further gains in the overall realism, accuracy and detail loved of Championship Manager fans going forward.
There are no short cuts. There is no slight of hand. There is no smoke and mirrors!

So strap yourselves in for the ride! Championship Manager 5 is speeding your way soon.

Of course, there's no mention of the system they used to test this on, and if it was all done on one machine. But they wouldn't throw us off like that, would they?

 

[Tom]

no actually i dont think they would Ruud honestly, it would be too dangerous for them to do it.

Personally this news means absolutley **** ALL to me, seeing as i play through FM so slowly to make it realistic, so speed aparently is very important to most buyers, just not me

does it mention saving time?

TROD.

 

[rpvankasteren]

No, that's the whole article right there.

Btw, on my PIV 2.6GHz it takes ~1 min 30 secs to start a 1 league game in England on full detail and large db. So where they got 3 mins and 30 secs

 

[JTNY]

Has anyone actually played this? I'm gearing up for it... sounds like you guys hate its guts...

I've been following news on cm.co.uk and am prepared to see what the game is like. I was told at EB release date March 1... hmm I think that is hard seeing there has not even been a demo released.

 

[rpvankasteren]

Rumours are pointing to an April release, but those are in no way confirmed, not even slightly. It could still be the end of June.

 

[Tom]

i genuinly think this game will be released late april, something like April the 20th

TROD.

 

[rpvankasteren]

CM5 Release Date Announced!
by Keir Edmonds - 28/02/2005

Eidos and BGS are delighted to announce that the eagerly-awaited Championship Manager 5 for PC will hit retail on Friday 18th March in the UK, and Friday 1st April internationally. PS2 and Xbox versions will follow later this Spring.

Championship Manager 5 is the most realistic and engaging version ever, using a completely new code-base which offers major advances in the match engine, tactics and training. CM5 will deliver the same depth and detail as before, yet with much faster loading and gameplay. The simulation uses multiple data sources – fan scouts, internal researchers and professional agencies including OptaTM – to ensure greater objectiveness and accuracy of data than ever before.

New features:

• ‘Constant Gameplay’ means that the front end does not 'grey-out', therefore allowing you to access all screens as the simulation processes
• Player attribute scores out of 20 or 100 for more fine tuning
• View target players’ individual performances in matches with ‘Playercam’
• More realistic transfer negotiations take into account other factors than just fees or wages offered
• New training ‘Create Schedule’ wizard to automatically generate more complex training plans for you
• More default tactical formations
• Greater customisation of formations on the tactics board - place your players anywhere on the pitch by dragging and arranging to your preferred shape
• Moving players around changes their position in-line with their role
• Instruct players to play feeds as well as make runs
• More player / team instruction options including time-wasting and ruffing up
• Tilted pitch adds ball height perspective
• More match speed options in the match engine
• View performance stats for home and away sides in real-time whilst watching the match
• Highlight individual players
• Increased number of Action Zones (9) provide more information on where the game is being played and which side is winning in each area


Championship Manager 5 is speeding your way soon.


The Champ Man Team

Later this spring for the consoles will be April as well, btw.

 

[Rocky]

how many playable nations and leagues

 

[rpvankasteren]

Hasn't been announced as far as I know.

 

[Rocky]

darn still gonna give it a go i say

 

[Zlatan]

I'm going to do a working around to get it.

 

[Tom]

Eidos are still in talks with people as to what legal rights they have to the leagues me thinks, otherwise they would have announced it

either that or they really dont have many.

TROD.