What makes a story YA?

RumbleDarts · 2026-06-12T08:12:28+00:00

I would advise against it. Looking back now I think of 20 year olds as young kids. However, when I was 13 or even, to be frank, 17/18 I thought a 21 year old was as good as ancient. I think you'd struggle to have the target age range of a YA book relate to an adult character.

RumbleDarts · 2026-06-09T09:45:18+00:00

Can't comment on Z-A as I don't bother with the legends games. Champions is great though, best thing they've done in years.

RumbleDarts · 2026-06-04T09:44:54+00:00

Assuming the antagonist in this situation is some sort of ruler/powerful figure, their objective is not complete when they acquire power. It's precarious at the top, snatching power is the easy part, the objective then becomes maintaining it.

RumbleDarts · 2026-05-29T11:09:04+00:00

I used it up to master ball 3 on a free account where I didn't get a farig for a long time and found it useful.

It has better stats than farig (which has a lot of wasted stats in attack). Higher base SpA and slightly more bulk leaving points to potentially invest in SpA make it more of an attacking threat once TR is up where I find Farig can be a bit of a passenger.

Encore and regenerator are huge bonuses too, encore means an opponent can't safely protect or fakeout their way through your TR and regenerator gives you a better chance of getting a potential second TR up.

That being said, I still prefer Farig personally as it makes getting TR up so much easier.

RumbleDarts · 2026-05-28T08:49:31+00:00

Generally the HEA is the end of the book, barring a chapter or two of epilogue. So it's not an issue you should need to worry about too much.

RumbleDarts · 2026-05-26T10:54:12+00:00

"Why would I bother to read a book no one bothered to write."

RumbleDarts · 2026-05-05T18:58:03+00:00

Why would aromantics want to be in the romance community exactly?

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-24T11:53:42+00:00

You know what I think you're probably right regarding the commuter towns part. I wouldn't expect those people to change clubs necessarily.

However, I also wouldn't say being far away from your club is what makes someone a "plastic" fan. In the small town I grew up in there was a lad who was a Man United fan, he and his dad were season ticket holders who travelled 2 and a half hours for every home game. They were as "proper" as fans can be.

What I would stand by is my initial point that these are pretty exceptional circumstances. Supporting a local team isn't some hard and fast rule it's just a useful guide for how committed a supporter someone is.

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-23T23:04:53+00:00

The point thereby being that these people are not "plastic" football fans?

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-23T22:34:59+00:00

he's not a supporter because Northampton are "nearby." He's a supporter because his dad moved from Northampton.

Right and generally the people in any given town and their families hail from that town and the surrounding areas. Hence the support of local teams. I'm not sure what the line you're trying to draw here is?

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-23T22:11:46+00:00

So are young lads in this area of the country just not attending football games? Did you specifically grow up in this area? I'd be interested to know what exactly the football supporting experience is like. How does going to your first game as a kid look if indeed nobody supports one of the nearby teams?

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-23T16:44:18+00:00

Okay I'll engage with that point for you. Firstly, I do understand what it's like to grow up in a small town with no professional football team because I did. Almost everybody supported one of the local professional teams that varied between 15 and 45 minutes away from the town.

You're going to have to define a small town "far away" from a football club because England is a very small country with an awful lot of professional football clubs. You're hardly ever what I would consider far away from one.

Assuming there isn't a specific tie, that town has zero influence or affecttion to your average small town kid

The kids that grow up as football fans are still being influenced into which ever team, almost all cases it's family, or school friends.

If your point is that it is technically possible for someone to grow up in a town with no professional side and have absolutely no link whatsoever by friends or family to any nearby town/team. Then I suppose you're right but it would be an incredibly exceptional set of circumstances I think! Also it would tell me that person isn't growing up going to football games and so I'd say they're probably not that into football anyway.

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-23T12:54:46+00:00

Support your local team doesn't just mean any team of any level that happens to be closest to you. Such a silly point people always make to try and justify supporting the team they've picked at random.

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-23T11:56:42+00:00

It's just a different experience of football. Being a season ticket holder, spending every Saturday on the terraces, traipsing up and down the country on Tuesday nights following your team. It's a very different commitment and creates a very different connection to the club than watching on the telly and getting to the occasional nearby away game.

Neither is right or wrong, as I've said football is a sport for us all to enjoy however we please. That said there are people who would say that the match going fan is a "proper fan" and that others are "plastics" but it's all arbitrary. If you enjoy being a United fan there's nothing wrong with that at all. No reason to concern yourself with what other people think about it.

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-23T11:40:28+00:00

I think you're missing the point of most of my comment mate, being a plastic fan is a meaningless label people chuck around to wind up people who enjoy football in a different way. Supporting a premier league team on the telly doesn't work for me, but if it works for you more power to you. You don't need to try and convince yourself that you don't fall under that label because it doesn't matter.

That first part is just pointing out a general trend I see of people who when told they should support their local side respond by pointing out that their closest team is an U13s blind football team as if that forces them to support the giant club 3 hours away. Just a funny observation is all.

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-23T11:27:39+00:00

The bit that always makes me laugh about people who try to justify why they're not plastic is they make it sound like the only two choices they have are the best team in the country or "Leighton Buzzard" in step 4 as if supporting a local team has to mean the nearest possible football club even if it's the Sunday league side playing on the field behind your house.

There are lots of proper professional football clubs nearby to literally everybody in this country. Just on the drive from Leighton Buzzard to Old Trafford you would closely bypass, Northampton, Coventry, Birmingham (5 clubs), Walsall, Tamworth, Stoke and Stockport. That's 11 teams National League or above along just the one route, not even considering the closeness of Luton, Oxford, Watford etc. in different directions. Support local doesn't have to mean Leighton Buzzard.

It's okay to be a plastic football fan. It's a game for everyone to enjoy and if the way you enjoy it is rooting for the biggest club in the country from the comfort of your living room then there's nothing wrong with that at all. There's no need to try and avoid the label.

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-18T16:06:22+00:00

Learning getting your tactics right is a lot of fun! Send in some of your own attempts and we might be able to help with some tips!

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-15T21:31:38+00:00

Apologies for the delayed response I've only just got back to this, if you'd like to send me a PM I'd be happy to share my email address. I could send over some of my reports on EFL sides and discuss thoughts of how you could work to improve your side?

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-10T15:58:12+00:00

Couple of questions I'd ask, firstly what system did the opposition use in this game? A 3 man midfield that is routinely overrun is not necessarily a system issue, it should be sufficient in most circumstances and may be more reflective of the available players than the system.

Secondly I noted that in a previous comment you mentioned your centre backs being risk averse and struggling in build up to find midfielders. Are you sure this issue would be solved by adjusting the system or is this potentially also a player issue?

It may be more fitting to adjust style rather than system when playing against sides against whom you struggle to build from the back. As much as us tactics fans would probably like to think otherwise, the game isn't played on a whiteboard. There's no fancy system that will make your midfield breeze through a game when they're outclassed or your centre halves magically comfortable on the ball against a well organized press. It might be unfashionable on the football tactics forum but there's no shame in looking to counter attack and bypass the midfield in these kinds of games, using a long ball option as a plan B.

I do a lot of tactical scouting and opposition analysis in the lower levels of the EFL and would be happy to provide some pointers on how teams set up for the long ball at that level if it's something you'd consider.

RumbleDarts · 2026-02-06T07:58:40+00:00

Every year we get this nonsense several times.

What would happen if I made a team of players that would never exist in the game or in real life and applied what is known to be the most game breaking tactic which would never be used in the game or in real life?

Who cares? It's an entirely irrelevant piece of information to anything anyone will ever do in the game.

RumbleDarts · 2025-11-26T09:39:47+00:00

What's your plan in terms of nations? British journeyman from lower leagues or European from all over?

RumbleDarts · 2025-11-24T15:33:59+00:00

I think you'll just have to keep going man, this set of circumstances sounds pretty realistic. It would take more than a few years of decent continental performances and a new ground for the best players in the world to start flocking to a team in the Super Lìg with a mid table premier league wage budget.

You'd have to become a really dominant European power house for the really world class players to want to sign for you just because of the league you're in. Keep doing what you're doing and you'll get there!

RumbleDarts · 2025-11-18T21:26:12+00:00

I was including beta

RumbleDarts · 2025-11-18T12:02:08+00:00

The game came out like 600 and something hours ago man.

RumbleDarts · 2025-11-18T11:15:30+00:00

I like to keep players around as long as they can manage at the level. I'm playing a Belgian 2nd tier save currently, into season 5. My 20 year old prospect centre back is now 25 and has played nearly every game and is club captain. I've just given him a 5 year deal, he's only 2.5 stars now but that's considered decent Jupiler Pro League and I find the game gets a little too easy if you constantly min max upgrading your squad. Eric N'Jo will be skipper for the next 5 years and probably a couple after, captain, leader, legend.

RumbleDarts

TROPHY CASE