Exclusive - Immuner and his own FMScout

I've been chatting with Kostas during the last few weeks, so I thought it would be nice to do an interview and publish it here. He is the creator of Ingame FMScout, which I personally think it's one of the best scout utilities ever released. What is so great about the new version? Let's find out!

Hey Kostas, how are you? I'd like to congratulate you for your work on the Ingame FMScout. I consider it to be the only one that can actually be compared with Genie Scout's quality even though it's not a save game scout utility but a real-time one.
Hello there! Thank you. I am really happy to have contributed to the FM community.

I suppose that was the reason you decided to start working on it. To contribute something to the FM community. Or was it something more? For example, did you feel you could actually make a utility that would stand out from the rest?
It's a number of factors really. It feels very nice to have contibuted to a community which enjoys a game I am a fan since its very first version. I was always thinking of creating a tool that could help me out and if possible, other people too but I never had enough time available. Creating a tool requires way too much work and when I saw the excellent work done by DrBenrhard with the framework, I decided to sacrifice some of my time to make a tool, that I can modify as I want. Later on, when I saw that something good can come out of it I decided to release it. I saw that people were happy with it, one thing led to another and I think now there is another decent tool out there for everyone.

You have recently released version 1.3 which is compatible with the latest patch from SI. What are the most important changes since version 1.2? I can see you have taken a big turn with the profiles, the search interface is improved and I can also guess that something's different with staff ratings.
There's been several changes and thats why it took me a bit longer. Adding new features to the scout mainly requires researching and making new additions to the framework. Up until v1.2 of the scout, the main focus was going on giving the ability to search and view as many information as possible. Since this was at a good stage, the main focus went on more advances features (such as the staff ratings) and the visual improvement of the tool. I tried to improve the user friendliness and readability, make it as closer to FM as possible, limited only by the components provided by the .NET framework. I consider the staff ratings an exceptional addition and I think it is almost identical to the actual staff ratings in the game.

That is great! Should we expect more versions? What would you plan to implement in a possible next one?
There are some thoughts, but since this is a real-time tool, it depends on how good you can read the structures in memory. Eventualy, you could add all the game information to the scout. Even edit everything. There is however, a thin line though between adding everything and keeping the tool at a stage where it is not too complex and allows everyone to search for what they actually need. What you can definetely expect is a new version for every new patch that comes out from SI. All the rest depend on what the people ask for and on the new additions we do on the Ingame Framework.

What is your opinion on other tools that have been released for FM 2009 so far? Genie and FMRTE are the most important ones for Windows.
When an application does what it's supposed to do, it accomplishes it at a very good level and has a good feedback from the people then it is a good application. It's as simple as that. Genie is the most advanced save game scout, while FMRTE is the best editor out there. 3rd party tools except from helping the community can also provide the developers of the game with hints and ideas on how to improve it. For example, after so many FM versions over the years, I would expect a better search engine.

I agree. Internal FM search engine should have been much better. It was actually better a few years ago, you could at least filter players by team and nationality. Now you just get a neverending and not-readable results page, which becomes a nightmare if you try searching for a common name. Maybe there wouldn't even be a need for 3rd party scout utilities if internal FM search was better. Well, maybe not but just thinking out loud...
I completely agree with that. Search engine in FM needs improvements in my opinion. You have limited options compared to the game database on what to search and limited display output. It would go one step further if you could simply customize your result columns, which is something that most of the scouting tools offer and that is the reason i started using them. Furthermore, visible CA/PA and hidden attributes with the option of turing them invinsible from the preferences would be another step forward. Then again, that is my opinion. The guys at SI surely know what they are doing, they have created an epic game over the years and their designers know better than most the info the game should and shouldn't show. I have been a game developer for another SEGA branch for some time, I've had talks with designers about issues that worried people and one thing i know is that they definetely take them into consideration and have the quality to determine what's best and whats not.

Back to Ingame FMScout. By the way, what is the correct name for it? Immuner's FMScout or Ingame FMScout? I know immuner is the nick you are using. How did that come up?
I have no idea really. I started coding the tool and when I decided to post it in the forums I had to put a name on it. It's mainly a scout, its based on the Ingame framework...so there you go. My nickname in the SI forums is Immuner so it's the Ingame FMScout created by Immuner. Now you call it Immuner's Ingame FMScout or even Mary, i'm fine with it :).

Are you satisfied from people's feedback so far? What about the donations?
Yes, I can say I am. In the beginning I was mostly getting feedback when something was not working right, but that's expected. When you download something and it works, you dont usually go to find the author and say "Hey, nice!". You mainly go when something doesn't work right, or if you like it and want something more. When the tool became more popular I started receiving some really nice feedback. I felt quite nice to be honest. I am working in two jobs and have put loads of effort in creating something from scratch to the way it is now in about 3 months time. The lack of sleep has started getting into me. Think that I managed to play the game after releasing v1.0. As for donations?
None so far :). It's a new tool, most people haven't even heard of it. Anyways, people usually ask for donations to feel that users encourage them to continue their work. Of course donations are welcome, but I'm not in this for the money, a nice comment has higher value for me than 5 euros.

So far we had almost 25k downloads for Ingame FMScout. Did you expect this kind of traffic? How about your site's bandwidth? How is it holding up?
Thats fantastic! Not really to be honest. My site's bandwidth has gotten 1000% up over the last few months. Thankfully, I have a good host and i dont need to pay more yet :).

And a final more personal question for those who have read the whole conversation until now and want to read more haha. So, who is Kostas behind his scout utility?
Well... what to say here. My life is like has gotten quite predictable after I finished my studies. I guess it's like everyone's who lives and works in a big city. Professionaly, Kostas is a computer graphics developer. Thats what I have been doing for years. Even though I live in Athens for about a year now, I am still trying to adjust to the greek way of living. Good thing it can be hot and sunny

OK mate, that would be all. Thanks for your time and I wish to you success in whatever you wish to pursue.
Thanks for having me here. Good luck with everything.