Unemployed vol 4.

Further Explanation of the LLM Guidelines

Many newbies complain that the LLM rules are too strict, when they’re actually referring to the guidelines. The guidelines are exactly that; a broad outline of what types of things are considered acceptable in an LLM game and used as a reference point for one’s own game, if needed.

The most important thing about LLM is the ethos; the way one plays the game. If a player desires to play the game as realistically as possible, using his/her own mettle alone, within the framework of the game, then the guidelines can be used to guide them in areas where the game allows more scope than real-life managers have.

It’s important to remember though, most of these guidelines shouldn’t be regarded as ‘rules’ – they are there to help you in areas where the game allows more scope than reality – YOU are the final judge of what is realistic in your game. Let your conscience be your guide.

No Cheating

Although technically a guideline, this is so integral to LLM that it can be considered an absolute hard-and-fast ‘rule’. Think of these as guidelines to this rule.

There follows a list of some of the things considered ‘cheating’ in LLM, but the maxim “If you have to ask if you’re cheating then you very probably are” is a pertinent one and should be borne in mind whenever there is confusion over what is and isn’t considered cheating

Using other people’s tactics or training schedules.
The tactics and training schedules you use should be entirely your own work. Real-life managers do not give tactical advice to each other. Further, the point of LLM is in doing things yourself and getting tactical or training advice from tactical forums (or downloading same) is considered against the spirit of LLM.
Getting advice on which players to buy from anywhere outside the gameworld.
Real-life managers use their scouts, who in turn use their network to discover players. No real-life manager has access to a higher dimensional all-knowing ‘player forum’ where every detail of every player can be revealed and passed down to them. It simply isn’t realistic, so it’s cheating, plain and simple.
Use of editors or any utility designed to display more information than that which the game provides
If a real-life manager could create themselves a wonderkid with god-like tools or give themselves a mega-rich sugar daddy and millions of pounds, I’m sure they would. But they can’t, so doing the same is also forbidden to LLM players.
Quitting the game without saving.
A real life manager cannot quit the game, without saving, after losing a match and therefore neither should we.
Using quirks of the AI, loopholes, bugs and/or strange things the game throws up to gain an unfair advantage.
You play this way because you want to play the game realistically, without cheating – presumably nobody’s forcing you at gunpoint… – so you should be able to recognise when something doesn’t look/feel right (e.g. being offered an international job when your reputation doesn’t warrant it, offering players full-time contracts on part-time wages, or making use of some kind of ‘bug’ as an infallible way of winning games or getting goals&hellip. As always, let your conscience be your guide.
Further detail on cheating (or how not to) is available here.


Scouting and the Player Search function.

Despite the oft-used justification that managers use internet searches and the like in order to find out-of-contract or transfer listed players, none of these methods provide anywhere near as much information, flexibility or are as exhaustive as the Player Search function. It is so easily open to abuse that, after enormous amounts of debate, it has been concluded that this method is too easily used to ‘cheat’ and gain unfair advantage and therefore should not be used.

Basically, scouts are your prime realistic means of highlighting players to sign for your club, so use them.

There are, however, more ways to discover players than solely from your scout’s searches:

In-game media news items (including player of the month, top scorer charts, etc.) – if a player is mentioned in the in-game media you can send a scout to have a look at them. Players are advised to use their discretion when utilising in-game charts to highlight players to scout as not all may be entirely realistic.
When playing a team, if an opposition player plays well against you, then it would be acceptable to send a scout to find out more about them.
Recommendations from your own players and staff.
Some less zealous LLaMas may use the player search screen sparingly in emergencies to find transfer listed or ‘available for loan’ players, but generally, beyond the first season especially, the search screen should not be used – let your scouts do the job they are paid for. If, in a dire emergency, you feel you must use this screen, ensure that it is filtered realistically (e.g. no attribute searches).
In all cases the player should be given the once over at least by your scouts before making an offer, unless…

If a player has been released from his contract and you are unable to scout them, it is acceptable to invite them for a trial and have your Assistant Manager or coaches look them over.

In the real footballing world, scouts are extremely important to any club and the guidelines on scouting are there in order to replicate this, including the difficulties with ‘crap’ scouts or not having any at all. A personal LLM take on scouting is discussed in more detail under the “Detail: Scouting” page.

3rd party updates

While the makers of these updates may intend to make them as accurate as possible, there is no way to ensure that this is the case. Therefore, in order to ensure that the integrity of our games is maintained only official SI updates and patches are considered acceptable (with or without transfers).

Staff Search limitations

The job centre should provide a reasonably realistic list of candidates, so staff should be recruited using this method. However, this being only a game, should you not find any suitable candidates within a reasonable time-frame, then it is considered acceptable to resort to the staff search screen when all else fails.

Feeder Clubs in the UK and Germany

SI are using the terms Feeder/Parent club to apply to a range of ‘affiliations’ which could cause some confusion. Applied literally, it is expressly against German and English FA regulations for clubs to have official feeder/parent relationships with other German or UK teams respectively. Apparently, SI have taken this into consideration to an extent (i.e. first options won’t be available), but to some LLaMas it’s a very contentious issue, to the extent that many cancel these links as soon as possible. In any case, care should be taken that the use of any affiliation is kept within realistic limits (e.g. no overuse of loanees). If you need clarification on any issues related to this feature, please don’t hesitate to ask in the forum.

Good pre season

Massive overhaul of players but a strong pre season on the pitch

Not bad start to the season.

Is it only me or are the screenshots far too small?

No they are quite small, try and edit then crop them in paint before uploading them Bukinapreto !

Godo to see you're doing well!

Superb stint pal, great month there!

Well, those kits are....different?

haha love the beer sponsors! Congratulations on the first season, looking forward to the second!

Doing very well mate, not too far off the top spot if you could string five or six wins together!