New Video blog: Director of Football

[BobBev]

Like many of the other little teasers that we have heard about this has the potential to be an excellent feature depending on how well it is implememented. My personal experience of the general judgement of the AI is not entirely positive but I'll wait to see how this works out in the demo defore reaching any firm conclusions.

[Kanukki]

Must also say that I like the Transfer Targets, Development, and No Longer Wanted lists. I hope I can use these in addition to the shortlist, even without the DoF function, just to keep things organized for myself.

[daylight]

I am actually coming around to this,I will not use it for most things but 1 or 2 like getting my young guys loan deals I will use it for.

On a side not is there any chance maybe SI can hire someone to maybe crouch behind Miles and tickle him every so often or stand in front of him making faces to cheer him up!

He always has the "they made me do this again"look while he is talking...come on mate it is ok to smile and be excited

-Edit

Maybe that is something they can add for FM14

[daylight]

I had to check a couple of times but I do believe 1 of the options is he can hire and fire the 1st team manager?

Am I reading that right?

So you are hiring someone that could fire you?who is going to use that option?

[themadsheep2001]

I had to check a couple of times but I do believe 1 of the options is he can hire and fire the 1st team manager?

Am I reading that right?

So you are hiring someone that could fire you?who is going to use that option?

Those who want the full experience of a controlling DoF. I might use it in one of my continental saves.

[hursty2]

I just wish it was like others have mentioned, where the DOF is either there or not there. Not something that you can cater to yourself, although a tick box at the start of the game would sort this out.

The way I imagined it to be was that I would come into a club and then there would be a DOF and I'd think '****' here we go. You're jostling for power with the DOF and he is overspending on everyone you suggest to him or not getting any of the targets that you want, even selling players that you have not listed because a decent offer has come in for them. The way I saw it would add another dimension to the game.

[hursty2]

It's as if the DOF is an extension of the assistant manager in team policy and they have no real influence on how the game will pan out as they have no personality, pretty much doing what they're told.

[soldierblue123]

Looks a good addition

[Davey Boy]

I like a idea of having a DoF however i can't help thinking they will pay over the odds for players and wages, would be good if you could consult with them before they do contract negotiations ie no more than X amount in wages and future wages after X amount of games for youth players and no more than X amount for a first team player.

I bring this up because i restarted a game recently and couldn't afford a player "Clint Dempsey" and my said board they would take that into their own hand and handle that for me, they paid 10m for him which i would not have done and his wages were too much hence while i like sound of the DoF it might be flawed.

Hope i made sense.

[edwingray]

If you were to manage IRL in Germany then you would automatically have to work with a DOF and in some cases this makes life very difficult depending on the personality of the DOF.

Hertha BSC is a good example where for many years Dieter Hoeness undermined the managers by criticisng them in public, interfering in team selection etc. Others go about their job in a much more diplomatic way. Most managers ask for immediate clarification on their role when a DOF comes in. When Matthias Sammer recently went to Bayern, this was the case. Bayern then clearly stated that Heynckes was in charge of all footballing matters, especially which players will be signed. Sammer then does the deals.

[psycho1970]

I'd love it if your performance and Chairman interference influences how much control the DoF has (or how much control you have over the DoF).

Do bad and the chairman takes more duties from you and gives the DoF more power.

Do good and you can decide what the DoF does.

Thats exactly what I was thinking with maybe an option at the setting up of game that lets you decide on how much power the DOF has, so it would allow a bit of a challenge if you wanted.

Going to have to take another look at the video as I think I saw that you could set wage/transfer fee boundaries for the DOF to follow, this will stop the DOF paying to much or even in some cases not offering enough and the deal collapsing.

Another thing I,m hoping will work with having this DOF is players you transfer list actually being sort after, the amount of times I've had players that I don't want at the club staying until the end of their contract is absurd.

More Personal Assistant than DOF but a good addition to the game me thinks.

[dribbler]

I think I'm going to try a game where my chairman has control over hiring the DOF and the DOF controls everything possible...just to make things really tough

[TSH]

The AI is very hard to 'show off', though. It's something that is constantly being worked on and refined, but the only stage where we'll really understand the nature of any changes is when the demo comes out.

How so? Any proof?

[grep]

I think that a Direrctor of Football is intended for rookies/extremely lazy ones only.

Everyone knows that a human mind can achieve light years far better results than an AI director of Football.

For example if I have to buy/sell a player a human mind can obtain much more money than a dumb AI entity.

I am glad that SI left this as an option otherwise FM would have been killed and buried.

[spankie]

Way to go insulting fellow FM players grep.

Most people who will use this function don't have the time to spend going into full minute detail of the game any more due to either having a family or other things outside of gaming that takes up a lot of their time. They are not lazy, they just have other interests and their time is limitied to several hours a week playing FM, instead of the several hours you probably can play a day.

This could be a happy medium for those who don't want to play FMC but don't have the time to play more then a couple of sasons of FM before the next release of the game. It can take over some of the more time consuming things, but at a cost of having an AI do it and perhaps not getting the same bang for you buck as a human player could. Some people would be happy with that compromise in order to get more time actually playing the game.

[grep]

Saying that someone is rookie and/or lazy is not insulting. I am a lazy one f.i. and I have been also a rookie within FM.

Told that, there are several ways to cut corners within FM rather than delegating delicate matters to a dumb AI.

For instance I never train single player and f.i. I change training schedule every 6 months only. I am plenty of examples to short the game up without getting rid of fundamental aspects. That's just, again, the human mind overtaking the automated stuff who makes the difference in FM, not the vice versa.

[BiggusD]

The key issue is the intelligence of the AI, really. If it is capable of using the features in the game the way they are supposed to be used, hiring a DoF could be a real blessing.

Loaning out youngsters, for instance, is a feature that I personally have little success with. For the most part, the clubs that want him on loan are playing at such a level that he would just become squad filler that gets a couple of matches per year... in other words totally pointless (why on earth would a club loan a player just to sit there and do nothing?). At the same time, the clubs that would need him and which plays at the right level don't try to go for the loan since he won't go there anyway. Now that the squad role and position can be decided before sending him out on loan, this problem should be fixed, but there are so many other facets to this feature; for instance, the reputation system is so unsophisticated that I doubt that the DoF could make any difference at all. How could he? If the player has 3500 reputation points and the club which would be the perfect loan experience has 3449 and not 3450 (or whatever is the lower limit the game calculates), there would be no loan and how could the DoF do anything differently?

Two other AI-related features that greatly affects youngsters on loan are A) Squad rotation policies and B) AI tactics

A) I think that what the assistant does when you assign friendlies to him in preseason shows clearly that there is a lack of clear guidelines to squad management for the AI. If you have a friendly vs a low-reputation club, he will field a pure reserve/youth team in that match even though first team players are still lacking match fitness. This is related to the "cup problem" many others have noticed. Again, the Reputation system is used in the creation of AI behaviour logic, and again it fails. The primary guideline behind fielding non-first-11 players in games against small clubs is to keep their match fitness at competitive levels, and this goal of having 25 players at 90-100% match fitness at all times is simply not coded into the game at all. It cannot be, because what the "Squad Rotation" attribute does for AI managers is clearly to desensitize the manager from using Reputation as a guideline for who to field against a certain opponent, resulting in pointless squad rotation in key matches when set to 20. To the point; unless the Squad Rotation attribute actually enables the AI managers to manage their squad properly - that is, using players that are good enough to win the matches they get to play in, then loaning players out as squad rotation or backup players is pointless and the DoF will do nothing of value.

B) Even if you are lucky enough to loan out a player to a club that plays him at a level which suits him, he needs to play well in order to develop, and it is quite frankly infuriating how incredibly bad the AI tactics are at producing good performances from the players. In any given league, the amount of non-top scorers who have average ratings over 7.0 can be counted on one hand, and as we all know by now that is the magic number for player development because it is where "played okay" becomes "had a good match". Most players at AI clubs, regardless of skill, have average ratings around or lower than the starting point at 6.6, which means that they could as well not bother to show up for the match. They don't win challenges, hardly find each other with passes and are generally awful. The attacking tactics are especially bad and since the defensive tactics don't produce many goals in general the ratings are poor there as well. This is all strange because I could take a player with an AI average rating of less than 5 and he will easily exceed 7.50 for me. Again, the point here is that as long as the AI managers are incapable of creating good performances from good players, loaning out players is pretty pointless and again the DoF will do nothing of value.

Repeat analyses like this for everything the DoF can be involved in, and it is easy to understand the scepticism surrounding this FM2013 feature.

[spankie]

Saying that someone is rookie and/or lazy is not insulting. I am a lazy one f.i. and I have been also a rookie within FM.

Told that, there are several ways to cut corners within FM rather than delegating delicate matters to a dumb AI.

For instance I never train single player and f.i. I change training schedule every 6 months only. I am plenty of examples to short the game up without getting rid of fundamental aspects. That's just, again, the human mind overtaking the automated stuff who makes the difference in FM, not the vice versa.

SI aren't getting rid of fundamental aspects of the game. They are giving us the option to use the AI to do automate some of the tedious things but we pay the cost in not having a human doing those things. We know that it's unlikely that the AI will even come close to being as effective in transfer dealings and getting more money for an outgoing player or paying less for an incoming player. That's the price we pay for this. In your example as you don't train players individually you may pay the cost in their development not being quite as good or as suited to your tactics as it would be if you managed his training individually.

At least SI have given us the ability to set the limits on the transfers on the list of players we give the DoF. Hopefully the AI will stay within these limits and nto sign players for a lot more then we would want.

Personally I'll only be using some of these options. I certainly won't let the DoF loose on incoming players, but it can at least handle loanees out and perhaps even sell players we no longer want in the squad. It can be very tedious offering those players out, but having it automated might help shift them quicker then a human could.

[thegr8anand]

One problem is face is how AI can so easily develop their high PA players at an early age (before 24) and I struggle even when I have the best facilities, staff and play them regularly. Yes I use genie to track this but this has always bugged me.

[grep]

SI aren't getting rid of fundamental aspects of the game. They are giving us the option to use the AI to do automate some of the tedious things but we pay the cost in not having a human doing those things. We know that it's unlikely that the AI will even come close to being as effective in transfer dealings and getting more money for an outgoing player or paying less for an incoming player. That's the price we pay for this. In your example as you don't train players individually you may pay the cost in their development not being quite as good or as suited to your tactics as it would be if you managed his training individually.

At least SI have given us the ability to set the limits on the transfers on the list of players we give the DoF. Hopefully the AI will stay within these limits and nto sign players for a lot more then we would want.

Personally I'll only be using some of these options. I certainly won't let the DoF loose on incoming players, but it can at least handle loanees out and perhaps even sell players we no longer want in the squad. It can be very tedious offering those players out, but having it automated might help shift them quicker then a human could.

Now I agree with you. I do not know anyway if you can customize which actions to delegate within the Career mode.

If yes that's fine, if not it seems to me that this is not an option, that's rather a way to force a customer to play one mode only, instead of leaving the freedom to apply such delegations whenever we want and within whatever mode we choose Classic, Career etc.

[Kenco]

I think that a Direrctor of Football is intended for rookies/extremely lazy ones only.

Everyone knows that a human mind can achieve light years far better results than an AI director of Football.

For example if I have to buy/sell a player a human mind can obtain much more money than a dumb AI entity.

I am glad that SI left this as an option otherwise FM would have been killed and buried.

Since using one would make the game a bit harder, I would add that it's also for people who want a bit more of a challenge.

[THOG]

One problem is face is how AI can so easily develop their high PA players at an early age (before 24) and I struggle even when I have the best facilities, staff and play them regularly. Yes I use genie to track this but this has always bugged me.

They don't, at least they don't develop them. AI in active nations tend to be far worse than players at developing high-PA youths since they rarely give them any game time. For example, with real players, you hardly ever see Alex Chamberlain or even Jack Wilshere get a first team game at Arsenal within the first few seasons.

In inactive nations, however, newgen progression is automated (unrelated to match experience since no matches are processes) and, more importantly, newgens are generated with a much higher CA. This is why inactive nations tend to produce much better youngsters in the early stages of the game.

[Dave80]

They don't, at least they don't develop them. AI in active nations tend to be far worse than players at developing high-PA youths since they rarely give them any game time. For example, with real players, you hardly ever see Alex Chamberlain or even Jack Wilshere get a first team game at Arsenal within the first few seasons.

In inactive nations, however, newgen progression is automated (unrelated to match experience since no matches are processes) and, more importantly, newgens are generated with a much higher CA. This is why inactive nations tend to produce much better youngsters in the early stages of the game.

This, I would imagine, is why my game tends to have more of a balance in later seasons as I play with all leagues active, I tend to see some smaller clubs rising in stature although the larger ones tend to scoop up most "Wonderkids" within a season or two of them being generated (a feature I would like to see removed, not all youngsters want to join big clubs purely based on reputation as the current transfer system is.)

I think this is a fantastic idea for those who wish to play the game with the options that they set, and to comment on an earlier post regarding the Assistant Manager, I've only ever seen this role as an extra coach to be honest - if I find a really good coach who has decent tactical knowledge and good man management who is "unsure" about signing for my team i'll offer him the AM job to sweeten the deal. Other than that he is there to go to press conferences. That being said as an "Assistant" I can't see how dealing with some transfers and hiring and firing off staff wouldn't be part of their job.

Still, great idea and looking forward to seeing what changes this brings to the game once it comes out!

[DANNY1000000]

There should be a few options before starting a new game.

1. You allow Chairmen to decide on DOF (e.g. could happen with a takeover)

2. You would like to control the input of the DOF

3. No DOF

[spankie]

You actually have all 3 of those options during a game and can change anytime you want to, e.g. becoming rich or have a sugar daddy buy the club for extra realism.

[grep]

There should be a few options before starting a new game.

1. You allow Chairmen to decide on DOF (e.g. could happen with a takeover)

2. You would like to control the input of the DOF

3. No DOF

I apologize but what is a DOF ?

1) Denial of Fervice

2) Dental Odontoiatric Festival

3) Diamonds of Fury

thx

[wally13]

Director of football ^^^^^

[grep]

Ah ok thank you.

[hursty2]

You actually have all 3 of those options during a game and can change anytime you want to, e.g. becoming rich or have a sugar daddy buy the club for extra realism.

You shouldn't have the choice on using a DoF, or deciding what they do.

Unless of course, you don't select that option at the start of the game.

[spankie]

The game is meant to be fun, if you want the realism of a DoF then let the board hire/fire him and let him control everything.

I, however, would prefer to decide who and when to appoint as DoF and what they have control over.

SI have catered for everyone by letting the DoF be configurable or even completely ignored during the game.

Imagine that you play a few seasons and you decide that sending players out on loan or selling unwanted players was getting tedious. You can hire a DoF and let him do that for you. Or you have a DoF and you start getting fed up with what he is doing to your team and you either have to suck it up playing a career you're not enjoying or start a new career.

With your suggestion you are stuck with your decision at the start of the game.

With SI's implementation you can change that as and when you need to, it's not realistic but its another configuration people can change so that their FM experience suits them.

It is far more flexible then having the option only at the start of the game.

[hursty2]

The game is meant to be fun, if you want the realism of a DoF then let the board hire/fire him and let him control everything.

I, however, would prefer to decide who and when to appoint as DoF and what they have control over.

SI have catered for everyone by letting the DoF be configurable or even completely ignored during the game.

Imagine that you play a few seasons and you decide that sending players out on loan or selling unwanted players was getting tedious. You can hire a DoF and let him do that for you. Or you have a DoF and you start getting fed up with what he is doing to your team and you either have to suck it up playing a career you're not enjoying or start a new career.

With your suggestion you are stuck with your decision at the start of the game.

With SI's implementation you can change that as and when you need to, it's not realistic but its another configuration people can change so that their FM experience suits them.

It is far more flexible then having the option only at the start of the game.

Did you read the second part of my post?

If not I'll repeat it, I would still allow the option that is currently in the game but allow the user to decide at the start of the game whether they want the DoF to be customisable. If, like some have mentioned, they would prefer the DoF to be implemented in a more realistic way this could happen too.

[Smurf]

You can just decide in the team policy how or if at all you want the DoF to do anything or even be there.

Up to you.

[hursty2]

You can just decide in the team policy how or if at all you want the DoF to do anything or even be there.

Up to you.

I know that but that's not my point. I want the game to decide for me.

As was mentioned in an earlier post, if I went to Germany I'd have to get used to having a DoF, whereas in the UK I'm less likely to be influenced by one.

[Smurf]

You can decide that in the Team Policy too, I think?

[hursty2]

You can decide that in the Team Policy too, I think?

Yeah but I'd have to change that myself upon arrival to a club afaik, I would never be forced into having a DoF which is what I want.

[spankie]

But you can have the DoF implemented in a realistic way as SI have set it up now in FM13.

In your way if someone who wanted a realistic DoF at the start of the game changes his mind after a couple of seasons and wants to limit the DoF role then he's stuck. He'll have to either keep playing a career that he's not enjoying or start a new career.

That is my point, you can change your mind on the fly without having to start a new game. This is a bit like adding new leagues to your save during a game (assuming SI have kept that and got it working properly)

SI have given us the option to change this as and when we want or have to and not be stuck with something we decided when creating the save.

OK for example say someone starts a game and didn't want a DoF. A few months later his circumstances change; new job, marriage new kid or something like that and his FM time is now limited. He can now hire and configure the DoF role to take over some tasks to give him time to atually spend playing the game rather then some of the tedious repeated tasks that he can now let the AI take over.

Pooples lives are never constant and things change. SI's implementation of the DoF lets people use the AI to automate some things to let them spend less hours going through a season.

[Smurf]

I think your team policy stay with you from club to club.

But it could be a preference. Play the Demo when it's out and find out. I reckon if you make that suggestion they might implement it, if there's not already one there.

[hursty2]

But you can have the DoF implemented in a realistic way as SI have set it up now in FM13.

In your way if someone who wanted a realistic DoF at the start of the game changes his mind after a couple of seasons and wants to limit the DoF role then he's stuck. He'll have to either keep playing a career that he's not enjoying or start a new career.

That is my point, you can change your mind on the fly without having to start a new game. This is a bit like adding new leagues to your save during a game (assuming SI have kept that and got it working properly)

SI have given us the option to change this as and when we want or have to and not be stuck with something we decided when creating the save.

OK for example say someone starts a game and didn't want a DoF. A few months later his circumstances change; new job, marriage new kid or something like that and his FM time is now limited. He can now hire and configure the DoF role to take over some tasks to give him time to atually spend playing the game rather then some of the tedious repeated tasks that he can now let the AI take over.

Pooples lives are never constant and things change. SI's implementation of the DoF lets people use the AI to automate some things to let them spend less hours going through a season.

I realise this and can see why it's a good addition but I'd find the game a lot more challenging if I was at a club, then it was taken over by a new chairman who has brought in a DoF and assigned him all the business roles and removes me as the 'head' of the club.

[the blue ferret]

Would it be fair to assume that not all clubs will have DoF's?

[Kenco]

I realise this and can see why it's a good addition but I'd find the game a lot more challenging if I was at a club, then it was taken over by a new chairman who has brought in a DoF and assigned him all the business roles and removes me as the 'head' of the club.

By the sounds of it you can just pretend this has happened by changing the settings to give the DoF the control.

I'm just amazed that SI cover all the bases but people still aren't happy!

[hursty2]

By the sounds of it you can just pretend this has happened by changing the settings to give the DoF the control.

I'm just amazed that SI cover all the bases but people still aren't happy!

Hardly covered all the bases have they.

[bearsy2]

This feature is the only one i am excited about and possibly the only one that I would consider buying the game for.

[whilewolf]

It sounds like a really nicely implemented feature that lets users choose how they want to play the game. Sadly its a feature that uses the squad building AI so its like putting nice rims on a Skoda.

[Mr Ford]

Could the director of football end up stealing your job or doing so well that he leaves for a manager post because im sure i heard this mentioned somewhere but it wasnt in video blog?!?

Thanks