Welcome to this FAQ (guide) for one of the best soccer managing
games ever made for PC. Ultimate Soccer Manager 2 begins in the
season 1996/1997 and so it's rather old (5 seasons), but you can
play the game endlessly as it creates new players and you can go
on in the seasons (my record is 2009/2010, I think).
Maybe you have played the newer version of USM: '98/'99. I don't
know if Sierra ever made even a newer USM version, but I never
heard of it or seen it, tell me if you have, or if it has got a
new name (like some game publishers do, to start it all over).
In USM '98/'99 there's is an option that comes with the game:
HELP. This is a very functional option, because it explains every
part that can be used in the game. Since this option doesn't
exist in USM2 (I'll be calling it like that from now on), I
decided to make a FAQ based on these help functions to explain
every single part in the game.
This FAQ is seperated in various sections, called PARTS. PART A
will describe every single option that can be used in USM2.
PART B will notify you of other things, like how to create a
winning team, cheats and some general FAQ things like
Frequently Asked Questions, Copyright Info and Credits.
If you have any suggestions, comments, questions, additions
do not hesitate to e-mail me. As long as you put the version
somewhere in the mail I'll be able to help you (to know what
you've read already).
The newest version can always be found at:
http://www.gamefaqs.com
Enjoy!
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Chapter List
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---PART A: Game Options---
1. Main Screen (Stadium Screen)
2. Ground Improvements (Build Screen)
3. The Manager's Office
4. Teletext
5. Filing Cabinet
6. Fax Machine
7. Notice Board
8. Newspaper
9. Transfer List
10. Fixture List
11. The Chairman's Office
12. Ticket Prices
13. Advertising
14. Changing Room
15. Tactics
16. Individual Training
17. Team Selection
a) Player Information
18. Injuries
19. Scout
20. The Bank
21. Look at Accounts
22. Start Match
a) Match Options
23. Exit Current Screen
24. Save and Quit Game
--. Config/Status
---PART B: General FAQ Features---
1. Frequently Asked Questions
2. Cheats
3. Links
4. Credits
5. Version History
6. Copyright Information
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---Part A: Game Options---
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In this first part of the FAQ the Game Options will be explained,
every section is based on one icon on the top of your screen. The
very left icon is section 1. the very right icon is section 21.
The Config/Status icon, isn't really an icon but the dark blue
bar at the very top of your screen.
The first thing I do in every section is a very short explanation
about the screen, than there will be the sub-sections about all
the clickable things there are in that particulary section.
Legend: (NW) Northwest, Top Left Corner
(W) West , Left
(SW) Southwest, Bottom Left Corner
(C) Centre , Middle (what would it be?)
(NE) Northeast, Top Right Corner
(E) East , Right
(SE) Southeast, Bottom Right Corner
(A) Anywhere , Explanation needed?
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1. Main Screen (Stadium Screen)
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The main screen is exactly what it suggests to be, the main, major
screen, from where you'll be able to go anywhere. Actually; there
can't be done anything in the Main Screen. Every clickable thing
is a 'link' as I will be calling these clickable things.
Clickable things are things that you can click on and then a new
window pops up (of course), when your cursor is over it, some
white letters on the bottom of the screen will tell you what it is.
You can see people walking down 'your' streets and cars parked on
your parking lots, but they are there just for fun!
_________________________
THE MANAGER'S OFFICE (NW)
Because this is the first 'link' I'll explain things around now.
When you click this one, you'll go to The Manager's Office.
Because The Manager's Office is also an icon; the options that can
be found there (in TMO) will not be explained here. This is how it
goes. When you can click something that takes you somewhere what
also has an icon, I won't explain it. There will be this sign:
-->
And nothing more, telling you that in-depth information on this
subject can be found in the section of that subject. Like this:
--> 3.
(Get it...? It means: For information, look in section 3.)
(Okay another one, to help you on your way, than it's up to you
to do it).
__________________________
THE CHAIRMAN'S OFFICE (NW)
Ahha, finally the first one not be be a 'link' (I'll leave those ''
away from now, you should be used to it). Do you get it? Because
when you click on this one, you'll get a screen that can't be
opened by clicking on an icon. Okay, now the explanation for this:
When you click a shop, bar etc. you can alter it's prices to make
more profit from a product. It seems that the more people come to
your matches, the more products are sold (obviously :) So, when
you see that more tickets are sold, buy some more shops, when you
see that almost nothing is sold (check this in your accounts),
demolish one or two buildings or lower the prices.
When you click 'All Outlets' on the bottom of this screen, you
can see all the products that are be sold on the ground around the
stadium. When you have never touched the prices before, the game
will automatically raise the prices every season. This is since of
the costs of products (as well as players and wages) will grow
at the start of every season. I haven't figured out with what
percentage, but that can be sorted out. So the product prices where
you buy them for will raise, meaning you have to raise the prices
where you SELL them for. This is done automatically when you have
never manually raised/lowered the prices. When you have done this,
check the sell prices every start of the season to raise the prices
again (you DO want to make some profit of this so you can contract
more TOP players).
_________________________
FIELD (CHANGING ROOM) (C)
In this screen you can build new shops, roads, car parking lots,
stands, boxes, covers, bars, restaurants, programme stands and
cafes (from now on just called: Shops. To check your total amount
of all this, click on Stats on the bottom of this window.
To build a new shop, click on the picture of the kind of shop you
want to build and place it somewhere on the grassy area. Of course,
the customers need to get to this new shop, so placing new roads
would be smart to do. Building Parking Lots is also smart, since
the crowd won't be able to get to your stadium when there isn't
any place left. Just build a couple, and a couple more when you
promote to a higher division. (I still got to find out how
many parking lots you need for how many people, if you know this
please e-mail me).
When you're planning to build a new stand, remember that you'll need
more crowd to fill up the space. So only build the new stand(s) when
your stadium is (almost) always full with people. Try to build as
many places as there would come people. So don't build a super
stadium (40,000 seats + boxes) when you're playing in the Conference.
I'll provide a list with how many places you would need for every
place whereever in the English/France/German pro soccer soon.
You can either build Terraces or Seats, and both of them can be build
in three stages (2,000; 4,000 or 10,000 places). Then, you've got the
option to cover them. So the crowd can sit without rain falling onto
their heads, this will cause more people to visit your matches.
When you've got the 10,000 seated places on two sides that reach
eachother (eg North and East or South and East), you can go building
your stadium underneath the floodlights. This won't be able with
terraces or low capacity seating places (2 and 4 thousand).
The next feature for your stadium is boxes, for the luxury wannabe
people, or just rich people. You can earn a lot of money from these
so try to build at least one (not in lower divisions, only in The
Premiership, 1. Bundesliga or French First Division).
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3. The Manager's Office
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This is your own 'control room', from here you can arrange your
'personal' business. Err, just check out the features.
______________
TEAM LIST (NW)
Well, what can I say? This is just your team with the three
substitutes you have selected. This really is the most meaningless
option in the game. I never used it, I never going to use it, and I
guess nobody uses it. Ever.
_________________
FIXTURE LIST (NW)
--> 10.
_________________
NOTICE BOARD (NW)
When there are more than 2 papers on the board there is something
special (not Fixture or Team List). Check it out.
--> 7.
_______________
FAX MACHINE (W)
--> 6.
_________
PHONE (W)
This is the 'Black' side of the game. No, that doesn't mean: BAD.
Black means: without the knowing of the government, or things that
you rather keep to yourself, like betting or rigging. Very illegal
stuff a normal person would say. So here are the sub-subsections.
RIG MATCH
This is for losers (but when used you're a winner), nice riddle :)
So what's it? Whe you rig a match, you offer the opponents to lose,
so you win, easy. But you have to pay them for it, this is nice
when playing some of the last matches in the season and you need
those points deperately and the other team can't get off their 10th
position in the league (they haven't managed and won't manage
anything anymore this season, nothing is in it for them). So they
don't matter if they lose, while there's promotion or the title
in it for you. Offer them just some money and cross your fingers...
because they won't always lose (most of the times they do, but
there are exceptions.
Also notice that you can get fired when doing this a couple of
times per season (whoops!). You CAN get a new club, but when this
doesn't happen the game is over (very rare in soccer managing
games).
OFFER 'BUNG'
This one is for desperate coaches (well actually not). When you
really want that particulary player, but the club won't release
him you can offer the club some money (illegal) so the DO want to
let the player go (if HE wants to). So you can't do this when
playing in the Conference and the player plays in the Premiership.
The club can also refuse this offer, but you won't get fired as
easily as with the Rigging (this isn't as illegal as Rigging, so).
PLACE BET
Not really illegal and a good way to make profit. You can bet (..)
on the matches that you play. And get money for it. If you don't
know how this works, the numbers behind the WIN/DRAW/LOSE are the
ratings Bookmakers give to the matches. The higher the difference
between them, the more likely it won't happen. So if there's this
1/1000, you'll probably won't do this. Like playing with a
Premiership team against a Conference team (FA Cup) and lose, but
when you've bet this, you'll gain for every pound you bet 1000
pounds in return (with a maximum of 250,000 that's... 250
million pound, wow!). But as I said, that won't happen, but when
you bet on winning, there will be something like 99/100 (around)
so for every 99 pound you'll get 100 pound, not really profitable.
NOTE: You CAN lose on purpose (just buy 11 youth players and put
them in your main sqaud, you'll certainly lose).
ANSWERPHONE
Like it says, this tapes your messages. It seems that when you're
at the office, never someone will call you :) But the only messages
received are when you have bet on a game, right after the game check
your answerphone to see how many you've lost or won.
You have to check this for yourself, as there isn't an icon for
this, that lightens when there's a message waiting.
Messages won't go away unread however.
__________________
FILING CABINET (E)
--> 5.
__________
PLANT (NE)
Haha! Click on it to make it rot and get brown!
Go again in your office to make it live again!
Just some stupid thingie Sierra has put in the game to make it fun!
Yeah right...
____________
TELETEXT (E)
--> 4.
_____________
NEWSPAPER (C)
Doesn't have to be there, often it is there after a match.
Here you can check out the latest results, fixtures, tables and so.
You can type the pages in manually or just click your way around
by clicking on the numbers. Notice that the Teletext is called
Sierratext.
FIXTURES (310)
You can just as well check the Fixture List, but now you can see
which teams in any competition will compete against eachother.
Some more features than the normal Fixture List, so.
RESULTS (330)
The screen ALWAYS shown after you've played a game, so you can see
what your concurrents have done. Also, when you haven't played,
but there HAS been played by other teams, it will show the results,
like when you are already kicked from the FA Cup, but it isn't
over yet.
TABLES (340)
View the national or Champions League tables here. When you just
left click on the table you can see the Home and Away tables
as well (pretty neat).
CURRENT FORM (350)
This option shows how good the teams are in the last 4 Home
matches, the last 4 Away matches and the last 6 matches overall.
When you're on top of this, it means you have played very well
the last time. Most of the times the Manager of the Month
Award is based on this (not always, because it goes over a
longer period).
TOP SCORERS (360)
Here you can view the 20 Top Scorers in every native league, not
only goals in competition are taken in this, but as well European
and Cup goals. When you click on some of these words on the top
of the table, you can sort Top Scorers on League, Cup or
European. When you play the highest national league and you win
this one at the end of the season, your player gets an award.
TOP PLAYERS (370)
This one is based on PF (performance) of the player. The average
of all the PF's obtained in the season will be shown. So, if a
player has only played one game in a season, and he's performed
very good that game, he could have an average of 99 and be the
season's Top Player (remember that computer teams won't do this,
and you could very easily get the award at the end of the season,
but what's in it for you? Right. Nothing.
EXTRA (400)
- Manager of the Month (410)
This one is most of times the same as the Current Form, because
that shows how good you've performed the last month. Who wins
the most Monthly awards, will most certainly win the Manager of
the Year Award (not that you get anything for this, but it
gives you an idea how good you REALLY are).
- Manager of the Year (420)
Like above, who gains the most Manager of the Month Awards, gets
this one at the start of the next season, pretty good when your
playing the highest competition (it's not so difficult in the
Conference).
- England, German, French Squad (430)
I never figured this one out, the game just takes the best players
from the competition that are native (so no players from abroad,
which is a TRUE devaluation in the French Division). See if there
are some players of your team in it, than you're quite good.
NOTE: When this is so, you won't have to lose your players for
international meetings, so what's it about?
- Under 21 Squad (440)
The future national team, and as a matter of fact, most of the
times, this really is so, because these players are the best
under 21, and stay the best till they are 30 or so (some
exceptions alright, but look at this team and at the National
Team in 5 years and there will be a lot of them in it.
- Transfers (450)
Useless option (to me). The transfers that are made in the last
week, so you can see who's sold and who's loan and who's bought.
After the week is over, there will be new tranfers. Notice that
there will be huge transfer in a couple of years.
Here are all the archives from you, your players and the club filed.
Comes in handy to overview your achievements, or to see the club's
achievements. Anyway to handle the player's business (contracts).
The Filing Cabinet is seperated in 4 drawers that you can open:
PLAYERS
Here you can see everything that has to do with the players in your
team. You can for example click on them to view the details.
On the right are 4 buttons you can click on to see the details of
all of your players together. When you open this file it's set
on WAGES. The screen is now divided in 4 columns: Valuation,
Wages, Contract and Status. Valuation is the cost of the player,
thus for how much you can sell him. Wages is the amount of money
the player earns per week. Contract is the total of week left in
the contract of the player (you should renew this when it reaches
the year frontier = 52 weeks, if you want to keep the player). The
last column is Status, with most players there won't be anything
over here, because this column is for players you have set on the
transfer list or the loan list. There will be the word Listed.
CLUB
Yes, what would this be about? Right. The Club you're managing. You
can see the name of the Club (in case you forgot), their nickname,
their stadium and such things. In the second part from above there
will be Club 'things', like the Top Scorer and Player. Down this
are the achievements of the club in the past years. When you click
somewhere on this lower part you will see a new screen with all the
Club's Records of this season and overall Records (lowest and
highest attendence, biggest win and biggest defeat) plus European
whereabouts of the Club.
There are two extra buttons on the bottom of this screen: Graph and
Transfer History. In the Graph section you can see your progress
in the league you play, in the Transfer History the Club's boughts
and sells from the past 5 years.
MANAGER
This file is about you.
Your name, wages and duration of your contract will be here.
As well as your achievements on the club(s) you had/have.
MISC
Here's everything they couldn't place somewhere else. No, that
isn't true, this just is 'misc'. Again your wages, the wages of the
other staff members, season ticket sales (which shows something of
how good you are) and Performance Rating (which is the most
important thing in Misc). The Performance Rating is the only thing
in the game that'll tell you how your chances and performances
really are.
*The Chairman's Opinion: he's the one to fire you.
*Player/Staff Morale: you're the one to fire them.
*Financial Stability: shows how good your at buying/selling.
*Fan Morale: most important feature of ALL, think of yourself.
*Job Security: the average of the above 4 performances, don't get
this too low, or you'll be sacked.
If you have received a Fax, the icon on top of your screen will
lighten up and it's clickable. If you don't have any Faxes, you'll
have to go to your Office and click on the Fax Machine all by
yourself. Some lesser used options here.
TRANSFER LIST
--> 9.
LOAN LIST
The Loan List works the same as the Transfer List, so for in-depth
information, check the writing over there.
The Loan List can be used when you have a lot of injuries in your
team and need a decent player for a couple of weeks. Or if you can't
afford a new player, but DO need a NEW player in your team.
ARRANGE FRIENDLIES
You can play only 4 friendlies per season (dumb!) and these must all
be played at the start of the season (they're scheduled!). Remember
that when you want to play at Home (thus, making profit), you can
only play against teams from lower divisions. When you want to play
Away, you can go from one division above you till everything lower
than you.
APPROACH PLAYER
When you want a player that isn't on the Transfer List, you can go
through all the teams here and approach a player (you must pay some
big money to get them this way, but you can 'bung' them as well to
get the player eventually). Or you can just view the entire
selections of all the teams.
VIEW FAXES
Sure. To view your Faxes, read them very well, there could be some
very useful information in it.
This is the same as with the Fax Machine, the difference that you
can't do anything more with this than read notes, and when they're
not here, than you can't do anything with the Note Board (which
CAN be done with the Fax Machine).
The same as with the Faxes, read them well, follow the instructions.
When somebody says the wages of a player should raise, offer him a
new contract, and that kinda logical stuff, but very important to
keep your club a healthy one.
Most of the times there's a newspaper after a match with a match
report. There will also be a Newspaper at the start of every month
and every year telling you who won the award for Manager of the
Month and Manager of the Year.
When you have just made a record deal (selling/buying) it'll be in
it too with some background information. The newspaper does also
show what the fans think about you and your players, as well it
gives some funny lines.
Actually; the newspaper isn't of any help as you can't do anything
with it eventually.
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9. Transfer List
---------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the most valuable options, because you should be spending
some time over here. At least at every start of a new game to check
if there are better players than there are in your squad. Well,
mainly the Transfer List is to buy new players, who aren't needed
by their club anyway, so you won't have to play tons to get them.
Remember that only players from teams that play one division higher
and everything below you or the same division WANT to come to you,
with the exception when players are over 35 years and want to settle
down.
On the bottom of the screen you can see which options you have on
the Transfer List (as well as on the Loan List). You can Approach a
player you want in your squad. Than you can offer the club and the
player money. The values that are deafult (the requests of the
player and the club) will ALWAYS do, but you want him for as few
money as you can, so drop down the prices a bit to get him cheaper.
You can also view the details of the player by Viewing him.
When you just have opened the Transfer List screen you will see the
age and the value of the player, but you can also see their stats,
by clicking on Stats of course. When you want to get rid of one of
your own players, click on Sell, to unlist or list players.
Then, an important feature on the Transfer List: Filtering (also
featured on the Loan List). With this you can filter out players
you don't want to see, like excluding all players that aren't
defenders, attackers, midfielders or keepers. You can also sort
them on a Stat, to do this click on a Stat at the left side of
the screen, now you'll be able to see which player on the List, is
the best in that particulary Stat. You can also exclude players
from Europe (when your playing in lower divisions). What is also
handy when you play in lower divisions is give a maximum value,
this will remove all players that cost more than the max you have
given. So, check the most valued player in your squad, put
something to that and fill that in the Maximum Value field, so
you won't see all those players who refuse to play in your low
division.
When you paly in a higher division, you can remove the players
from low divisions by filling in one (or a couple) of the Stat
field on the bottom right corner. For example, you could choose
Attacker, and then a Shooting from 80>99, now you've exclude all
those weak attackers (with a shooting less than 80).
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10. Fixture List
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hm, a very short explanation over here I guess. You can check
against which teams you have to play in this season.
On the left is the date, or the result, when you already played
the game. Then there is Home or Away stadium you played. Then
against which team you played and last, in which competition you
played the specific matches.
You can click on future matches to view what the position of the
team is in the League and what their players are and what tactics
they use. When you click on a played match, you can check the PF's
of all the players, which teams are used and the Game Stats (shots
on goal and stuff like that).
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11. The Chairman's Office
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A room again. The chairman is the highest guy in the club and he's
the one to fire you, so keep him pleased. Sometimes he's got
something to tell you (before or after important matches), listen
to it, he IS the most important guy after all.
_____________
SPONSORS (NW)
Here you can see what shirt sponsor (not sponsorS) you have. When
it's empty the Chairman will find one for you and leave you a note
when he has find a sponsor. The sponsor may pay you every week, but
can also pay upfront. I think this is more useful, as you get all
the money at once and don't see that 1,000 pounds come in every
week. Just try to get some money upfront, so you can spend it on right away.
_______________
ADVERTISING (W)
--> 13.
__________________
TICKET PRICES (SW)
--> 12.
___________
PICTURE (E)
Again, such a stupid thing that doesn't do anything at all, but is just
there for fun. Click it to see a 'picture'. Actually it's the Sierra
logo. Wow! Would there be any more fun things in the game? No.
Happily. Lucky us.
_________________
VIEW TROPHIES (E)
In this cabinet you can view all the trophies you have won since the start
of the game (not in the total club career). The ultimate goal in this game
is of course to get it entirely full. When you have got it full (which has
happened to me once), you should get to another club, because there isn't
any challenge at all for you. (which doesn't mean that a club has already
won a couple of them when you got to them)
When you click on it you can see all the winners plus runner-ups of the
national leagues and the three European cups.
____________
CHAIRMAN (C)
This is just a picture of a man in his fifties, he's bald at the top.
You can see his name (and the bank accounts' when you watch the credits at
the start of the game, rather dumb...)
To get some money, you'll need fans. And those fans need to pay for the
matches you play, so here you can set prices for it. Try to not make them
too high, because nobody will come to your stadium (and the chairmain will
complain about it), don't make them too low either, because you won't make
enough profit to contract any new players (or pay wages of your players).
Try to do it so, that your stadium is near full in the BIG games.
I'll come up with some table of how much to set prices. I think...
You also can see the income for every match played at your stadium that
season and how many people visited it. The higher the red bar, the more.
You can also set prices for the season tickets, which of course is your
die-hard fan-clan. These people will watch _every_ game of your team. So
this
can be seen as the minimum crowd (around 1/20 of total capacity, this
depends
on fan morale, the higher this is, the more there will be sold at the start
of the season).
Free school tickets: Do you want some school childeren visit your matches,
so your fan morale stays, let's say, 1% higher. Don't think so, because you
won't get any money from those seats (stands, boxes).
Sponsorship is one of the most important things in football/soccer. Let
alone, sport at all. So, you'll need some advertising boards along the lines
of the field. The easiest way to do this, is just to enable 'Assistant On'.
This way, you'll never have to watch this feature again, bit amateuristic,
but if you don't want to. One disadvantage: the assistant won't always pick
the best amounts of money.
In the left table you'll see the boards that already have been placed around
your field, with the total value of every sponsor, plus weeks left and the
amount per board, amount that's called, and the thing you should look at.
The higher the amount, the better, total value doesn't matter, as it matters
how many boards they want. So pick the highest, and wait sometimes two or
three weeks to get better priced boards.
Of course, the higher you stand on the league tables, the more money you'll
earn with this. (as always...)
This room is supposed to be the changing room for your players, but they'll
never get here. Nevertheless, here's where you'll manage and control player
stuff, like injuries, selection and tactics.
____________
INJURIES (W)
--> 18.
_______________________
INDIVIDUAL TRAINING (W)
--> 16.
__________
STAFF (SW)
To make you squad complete, you'll need trainers, scouts and a physio
(you don't need trainers actually, see the cheats section for more info),
here's where you can hire them. Try to have a superb physio, because
you players will get off their injuries sooner, have one or two scouts, or
as many as you want. Use these to scout for good players in your nation to
buy them. You don't need to watch their wages, as they're not as high as
players' wages and you'll need them after all. Except when you have a
marvellous team, you can drop those scouts.
Don't forget to give them a new contract, when it's bound to expire soon.
Don't hire any trainers at all, they're worthless and way worse then the
cheating version in training (unless you want to do it the 'right' way).
__________________
TEAM SELECTION (C)
--> 17.
_____________
TEAM TALK (C)
Exactly as it says: Talk to your Team. This means, name the free kick
taker, the penalty taker, the captain and the corner taker. You can also
change formation here, like 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. On the bottom of this screen
you can see: bonus. With this, you give the players 10, 30 or 50 % of
their wages when win the match. You'll motivate them with this feature,
so use it when you really HAVE to win.
You can also give individual tactics by clicking on the name of the
player, to make him walk to the left, right, up or down. Man 2 Man
covering or just normal playing. This can be important if you play with
wingers, you should click the backs and let them come 'up' along the
line, to ahve a different style of attacking.
Here you can also set your 'tactics', choose how to play: Attacking,
Normal or Defending. Do you want to tackle: Hard, Normal, Easy. And
do you want to use the offside trap, to make the opposition get caught
offside (only use when having a good defence).
___________
TACTICS (C)
--> 15.
_________
SCOUT (C)
--> 19.
___________________
VIEW OPPOSTION (NE)
Click on the television to see which players your next opponent will have
in the starting line. You can also see their current form (see TVText)
and what league they play plus the position. A neat thing on the left is
also to see what tactics they use and what formation they have, so
you can see if your team is capable of defeating them.
_________________
TEAM TRAINING (E)
Training of a team is a crucial point in real football, but in USM2, it
doesn't need a lot of attention. Since you can turn on 'Assistant' here,
who will choose the best training programme for you. Based on the lowest
percentages. These percentages of the different features show how well
your team can handle these features (penalties, free kick, 5 vs. 5,
offense, defense, corner kicks and so on).
When you choose not to have your assistant do this, be sure to train on
the lowest percentages and not only train on penalties. 1) you don't
use penalties very often in a season and 2) when your team is a 100%
penalty-taker-team (or freekick, or corner whatever), you will be very
bad in the other disciplines. What you need is a good balance between
most things. Of course could it be very dangerous to have a very good
free kick or corner, nevertheless.
If you ain't happy with the deafault formations of USM2, you can alter
one of these. Or create one all on your own. Like making Cruijff's
christmas tree formation (3-2-1-2-1). Or you can alter the places where your
players are when a freekick is taken (doesn't matter where), or where they
be when the corner is going to be taken.
Like this, you can say precisely what your players have to do and when they
hae to do it. It takes some time to create a good formation (I should alter
one, because the standard formations are in the game anyway), but it will
pay out as well.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16. Individual Training
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The meaning of this part is to train your players individually, like it
says.
The game has just made a BIG bug in this part, so it is very easy to cheat
with player training. I'm not going to explain that in this section, for
the cheating way of training players, check the Cheats Section.
I'll discuss the legal way of training players now:
When you go to 'Training Staff' you can hire trainers, who will train your
players. You've got Keeper Trainers, All Trainers, Shooting Trainers and
Fitness Trainers. It would be most useful to get a Superb All Trainer(s),
since they can train every aspect of a player.
When a player trains one discipline long enough he'll get a stat point for
that particulary discipline. The time elapsed between starting and getting
the point differs between 3 and 10 weeks. Depends one the willing of the
player and his ability to learn (as well as the ability of the trainer:
Poor-Average-Good-Superb).
Maybe you see that young player (under 23), get a lot of stat points when
the summer holiday is over. This is because they're young and learn, the
older players, (till 34) will not learn anything. But players above 34
will even lose points when the summer is over, so sell them to get more
money out of it. And not having the risk of him to expire when the season
is over.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17. Team Selection
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is one of the most important features in the game, because you can set
up your formation, which players should play in your team, and which players
should be on the bench, being reserves.
You can see a list of all your players here, with their specific attributes
and their age. First, I tell you something about age, all of your players
will grow older between two seasons, as they have no birth date, only a
'starting age'. When a player is about 34, 35 you have to think about
selling
they player, because his attributes will only decrease instead of increase,
this is something you don't want and so, sell him. For younger players, like
17-21, don't expect them to be good at once, just let them grow.
Attributes List: (are the stats next to the players' names)
Between brackets is the position for which this attribute is important, if
there's an asterisk * next to it, it is REALLY important)
-KP = Keeping, this shows how well the player can keep (Goalkeeper*)
-TA = Tackling, shows how well the player can tackle (Defender*, Midfielder)
-PS = Passing, shows passing ability (Midfielder*, Attacker, Defender)
-PC = Pace, how fast the player is (Midfielder, Attacker)
-TH = Throwing, useless in my opinion, throw-ins aren't important (None)
-ST = Stamina, does a player get tired quickly (All, but Goalkeeper)
-IN = Influence, do other players follow his commands (All, captain)
-BC = Ball Controll, can the player trick someone (Midfielder, Attacker)
-FT = Fitness, default is 100, the lower the worse, the player is injured
-PF = Performance, this shows the average performance of the particular
player, the higher, the better he has performed, important thing
If you click on on of the abbrevations, you can see bars to show you how
well the player is in the particular ability. The longer the colored bar,
the better (of course, duh...)
To sort (and see which players are the best in, for example, tackling click
on Sort, top right corner of the window, and then click the Attribute.
The players are sorted in 6 different colors:
-White = Goalkeeper [1]
-Blue = Defender(s) [1-8]
-Red = Midfielder(s) [1-8]
-Yellow= Attacker(s) [1-8]
-Green = Reserves [3]
-Brown = Not even in selection [1-15]
You can swap players from one 'color' (position) to another by right
clicking and then move to another player and click left, to swap positions.
(Alternate: Click 'Swap Position', then the two players).
To view a players specific attributes and other info, double click on his
name (Alternate: Click 'View' on the right side of the window). Now, you
can see his Attributes (KP, TA etc.) on the topleft corner. On the topright
corner, you can see how many matches he has played, how many goals he's
scored, his performance etc. Under his Attributes (Stats) you can see his
Contract Info, which contain: Wages, Contract (how many weeks left, till
his contract expires, try to keep this above 52), Value (obvious), Joined
Club and Insure (if the player is insured against injuries and the like).
On the bottom right corner you can see specific thoughts of the player.
His morale (how he feels), his Future (what he wants), and a Description
(what 'others' think of him).
In this screen you can offer the player a new contract or place him on
the transfer list as well (a 'Fast Sell' results in a very low selling
price). Insurance is default set to All Players, and since this doesn't
cost a lot, just leave it on, so you don't have to pay for injuries of
your players.
If you're a beginning manager, you could let the Assistant Manager (right)
let you help. You can ask him which player(s) should be in the 'eleven' and
what formation works best against your opponent, surely, you don't have to
listen to him, and you may find it dumb choices he suggests.
For the injuries listings you could just as well click the icon on top.
So, if you don't want the Assistant Manager let you help, you could use the
Team Talk (in fact, you should use it, otherwise you won't win many matches)
Here you can select your captain (check the stat: influence). Select your
free kick taker, corner taker and penalty taker (just select the best
shooter for the last two, as you need shooting for these).
If you are in need of a win, you can set up a Win Bonus for your players.
10-30-50% are the choices you can make, this will motivate the players more
to win, the downside if that you have to pay the players 10-30-50% of their
wages extra. But, you want to win, don't you.
If you want to give a player individual tactics, click on... right, those
two words. Now you can choose where he has to walk (Up/Down, Left/Right, or
if he has to play Man 2 Man).
Under this option, there are the 'Team Tactics', which determine your style
of playing, these are the options you can alter:
Offside Trap [On/Off] - Having this option ON, will make your defenders try
have the opponent's attacker(s) walk offside, if you have a weak defence,
do not try this, as they aren't capable of it, attackers will get to much
space and you can bet on counter goals.
Style [Attacking/Normal/Defending] - Does this need explanation, do you want
to play all out forward, all out defence or just somewhere between.
Passing [Pass/Long Ball] - The PASS option uses short passes, and your
players will try to 'overpass' the opponent, use this if you're passing is
stronger then your opponent's. If you have quick players and don't have
good passing skills, use LONG BALL, because the other team won't be
overpassed (well, with LONG BALL, the ball will go OVER their heads ...)
Tackling [Hard/Normal/Easy] - Which risks do you want to take to win. Do
you mind getting a yellow or eventually red card once in a while, but get
the ball way quicker, use hard. If you DO mind getting cards, play it
safe,
or even safer, by choosing normal or easy, this way the ball will be stuck
to the other team a while longer.
In the Team Talk screen you can also change your formation, which is really
helpful, as some of you might want to play on attack, others on defence.
You can set your own formations, in the Tactics screen, if you aren't
happy with the default formations. Here a list with the available
formations:
3 1 6 4 1 5 5 1 4 6 1 3
3 2 5 4 2 4 5 2 3 6 2 2
3 3 4 4 3 3 5 3 2 6 3 1
3 4 3 4 4 2 5 4 1
3 5 2 4 5 1
3 6 1
I suggest, even when you want one of these formations, that you alter the
Tactics that go with the formation, since these are sometimes really dumb.
Just go to the Tactics screen, choose the formation you are using, and
alter your attacking/defending positions and then choose 'Save As', name it
'424' without blanks and you'll know that you've altered the ones without
blanks between the numbers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.a Player Information
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really haven't any idea on what to place right here, I guess I already
wrote everything in the above paragraph. Still, there could be something,
I can feel it. If you know it, or want something to be put here, let me
know. Maybe I come up with a list of good players... or something.
..Whatever...
Alright, very briefly this one. Here you can see your injured players. Maybe
you have let them train to hard, or let them play with very little fitness.
Or maybe the other team has just tackled to hard. Anyway, to recover from an
injury, you need a physio, the better he is (hire a Superb one, and try to
keep his morale good), the sooner your players will be fit again.
You can see the name of the injured player, what type of injury he's
suffering and how long it is going to take. Remember, that when a player is
recoverd, his fitness will still be low, so train on that first (1-4 weeks).
Otherwise, he'll be injured in no time again.
Note: Do NOT ever hire Stuart Tuck, he is born to have injuries all over the
time. He won't be playing even half of all the games.
I find this rather useless, but many of you readers out there (in there?)
may
find it helpful though. If you're in need of a good player, you can let your
scouts (hire them first) search for good players and follow them and have
them give their (his) opinion on the player, whether he fits in the team or
not. This comes in handy, when you want to buy a player from the Transfer
List, but you're not sure if he's just that good. Have a scout follow his
moves, and you'll be able to know it within a month (although hat could be
to late).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20. The Bank
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bank is a nice feature which you should use frequently, because you can
get money FROM it and you won't give money TO it. How? you ask. Let me
explain.
First you can click on the red book to get an Overdraft, this is some kind
of extra money that you can spend, it's usually not much, and you only get
it when you have already some money (over 1 million) on the Bank. It's just
there, that when you put ALL your money in Deposit, you won't be in the red
numbers (being negative). Useless.
Loan. This is more like it. Since you can start a game with different
amounts
of cash, this option can become useful or not, depending on with how much
cash you started out. If you began with 10 million, this option won't be
clicked on the entire game I think. But, if you start with less money (say
100,000) you might need it to invest in players, which will bring you Wins
and thus more money so you can pay off the loan.
For Accounts see next section, there is even a icon dedicated to it!!
Deposit. Most important bank feature. If you have lots of money, over a
million. You can store something in deposit to get interest. Which is nice,
because the rich getting richer this way. Plus, why should you not do this.
(By the way, I managed to get 999,999,999 money in both deposit and current)
The percentages on the bottom mean this:
OD Limit: This percentage of your Season Profit/Loss is your max. Overdraft.
Loan: How much interest you have to pay over the amount of cash loaned.
Deposit: How much interest you get over your deposited money.
Next to this, you can see your Total Profit/Loss over this week and this
season. Under this, your total amount of cash, current + deposit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21. Look at Accounts
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accounts = What comes in, what goes out (financially spoken).
Let's do the nice things first: Income.
Gate Receipts: What supporters pay to view your matches.
Season Ticket Sales: Season Ticket, you know, see all matches of your team.
Transfer Fees: If you sell a players, you get money. Wow!
Player Bonus & Fines: This one is odd to me, it's always 0 on the income
side with me. Can you fine a player? Tell me if it is...
Sponsorship: Can be paid at once, or seperately in weeks.
Advertising: The boards along your field.
TV Appearances: Don't count on this, when playing in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, Conf.
Merchandise & Catering: Nice extra income, keep it higher then expenditure
otherwise you should raise the selling prices of the goods.
Loan: When you Loan money, you GET the money. Woah!
Miscellaneous: Sometimes Pop Artists give you money, neat!
The not so nice things now: Expenditure.
Transfer Fees: If you buy a player, money goes out.
Player Wages: Players don't play for free, they'd be social workers if not.
Player Bonus & Fines: If you set on Win Bonus, there your money goes.
Other Wages: Physio's etcetera have to be paid.
Ground Improvements: All those bars and cafes aren't free.
Merchandise & Catering: The food and scarves you sell don't grow on trees.
Loan: It's payback time... sometimes.
Loan & OD Interest: You thought you could loan for free.
Miscellaneous: Firinf coaches, cost you money, firing players too, and lots
of other stuff does to.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22. Start Match
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yey! The fun begins!
You can even watch Replays or look at supermegahigh speeds.
Plus, substitute players (only 3 on the Bench).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23. Exit Current Screen
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doesn't do anything more then bring you back to the main screen of the room
that you are in, or when you are in a room, bring you back to the MAIN
screen. The picture of your stadium.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24. Save & Quit Game
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right as it says. Here you can save and quit your game. Don't forget to save
about once a month, because you never know if there will be a power cut.
Or maybe the game crashes. This will happen sometimes when changing seasons.
So, be ALWAYS sure to save when ending an season. Not only for this reason,
but as well when you're going to change clubs, but you find out that the
club you have gone to hasn't got any money, and you want to go to your old
club again.
This isn't an icon at the top, but the black/blue bar at the top of the
screen, here you can put on/out the music and/or the music.
You can also view the players in-game.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---PART B: GENERAL FAQ FEATURES
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah, right. General FAQ features. Stuff that is in every faq, and should be
in every faq. So check here for stuff that isn't in part A. Easilier said
than done, eh? Just look.
Okay, here comes THE cheat to win every cup in the game.
No it isn't, it is the cheat to have your players obtain a stat point in
just 1 week.
1) First of all, fire all of your trainers. You're gonna train without these
money suckers. (and blaming you that you fired them too)
2) Go to the Individual Trainig Screen
3) Click on any stat number you want to train.
4) Wait a full week
5) Check out that stat number, hasn't it increased?
Note: It could take two weeks. If the player is _really_ old, even 3 weeks.
This is the part where the big faqs are famous for, aren't they?
The bigger the list, the more people helped you out. So help me out, with
anything you can come up with. Is it really good, I'll write your name
LIKE THIS or "Like This" or *Like This*, or whatever.
Gamefaqs.com The "father" of all faq sites, just cause it's good
Sierra ... they made it (credit? right...)
Dan Simpson The "father" of faq writing, made me doing this *hell*
+ lay-out features
All English Teachers Teached my how to write English
Microsoft Made WordPad, very useful tool
CZewe Showed me 'Wall of Shame', to use it too
Morten Repshus Placing my faq at 6 different sites
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Version History
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.0 (Friday, March 15, 2002)
Been busy writing this some time, here it is, right in front of you,
it still misses some features, they'll be in here within a month
Size: 44.0 kb
Version 1.1 (Monday, December 30, 2002)
Added 7 sites that may contain my USM2 faq
Added uno credito
Changed e-mail
Added all the missing parts
^Real^ Copyright
Minor Changes
Size: 57.2 kb
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Copyright Info
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(c) This document is copyrighted by Mike Groels.
All rights reserved. Nothing from this document may be pluralised, saved in
an automatic database or being published, in what way or form so-ever,
either
electronical, mechanical, by photocopies, recordings or in any other way,
without the permission of the author (that would be me).
Where the making of copies from this document is permitted based on article
16b Copyright 1912j' the Decision of June 20, 1974, pc 351, like changed in
the Decision of August 23, 1985, pc 471, and article 17 Copyright 1912, one
has to pay the therefor legal indebted compensation to the Foundation
Reprorecht (Box nr. 882, 1180 AW, Amstelveen, the Netherlands). For copying
(a) part(s) of this document in anthologies, readers or other works of
compilation (article 16 Copyright 1912) one has to contact the author.
In very English:
This means that you may not publish this document anywhere without
permission of the author. I WILL take serious action against you, look down
here, BAD PUBLICITY (also being recognized by GameFaqs.com).
If you want it on your site, mail to maiic_groels@hotmail.com
it's almost sure you'll get the permission (...it's just one mail).
Sites that may contain this faq:
http://www.gamefaqs.com
http://www.25000cheats.com
http://www.911cheats.com
http://www.911codes.com
http://www.cheatportal.com
http://www.fastcheater.com
http://www.neoseeker.com
http://www.skali.com
(If you're looking at it on another site, mail me please)
Sites that may not contain this faq:
none
*From where the tulips are red*
*and where the windmills will fled*
*From where land is made*
*and where I yesterday ate*
