My two-cents on the match engine and general gameplay

[theinfamousmielie]

Okay, firstly I want to make it abundantly clear that I really love the game as a whole. It is, in my opinion, the best of the series as a "product". However, I have some SERIOUS gripes, and this is not unique to this version.

With that said, I welcome any feedback and criticism of my points of view from SI or any of the community members. It is a discussions and I would love to hear your thoughts on this. This largely covers the Match Engine and how the players go about their business on the pitch. I am completely aware that there's a boatload of variables - both hidden and as player attributes - to consider when it comes to how player decisions are made in the game and trust me, I have factored these in, but this is coming from roughly three years of collective game playing and noting certain trends and patterns, along with increasing frustration at how little control I actually have.

We'll start with some of the more obvious things. I'm getting pretty sick of conceding goals because defenders are incapable of actually defending. Standing around, not bothering to make tackles (safe or otherwise), etc. This includes delightful occurances such as own goal from a free kick off of a defender on the line, who didn't even move. The ball bounced down off the crossbar, hit the motionless defender and it bobbled into the net. D'oh.

I'm sick of having balls hoofed downfield by the opposition (usually the 'keepers) and a man who is fairly nearby sort-of meanders towards it and ends up not getting there in time as an opposition player sprints towards it and gets possession - all this just because the match engine seems to deem it sensible for only one player to chase the ball - often someone who is a lot further away from the ball, behind the opposition player so he'll never get there. This is surely stupidity. Also, stop letting balls run out for thrown-ins all the time when you have a player just there who can go after it and start another attack. Very few football teams actually play like that.

I'm getting frustrated with players with 16+ Pace and Acceleration constantly getting beaten to the ball by defenders with (often significantly) less than that, who have had to turn around and run backwards, to retrieve a ball. They almost always get there and even then can still keep going. Pish.

On the subject of wide-men, I'm UTTERLY TIRED of wingers and inside-forwards who get the ball in a more central location ALWAYS going wide in situations where if you would keep going straight you could get one-on-one with the keeper or at least be fouled by a defender. But no, he'll run wide, get swamped by two or more defenders and THEN attempt to cross or pass the ball. Where's the intelligence??? Which brings me to my next point...

When to pass, when to shoot, and when to hold on to the ball. I'm at my wits end with this one - it's my big issue. Players hardly ever pass when it's a good time to pass, or cross. No no, they will wait until they're crowded by defenders or at arbitrary angles, and THEN try to pass or cross ... or shoot for goal. What happens? Of course, it ricochet's off a defender. Opportunity usually wasted. These are quality players I'm talking about here. 15+ decisions, passing, etc. I understand pressure situations, away games, rivalries, being behind, various other factors may lead to occasional or infrequent bad decisions. BUT ALL THE TIME? I have lost or drawn so many games because of absolutely ridiculous decision making like this. Bearing down on the keeper (with defenders looming) and the player slows down and contemplates the meaning of life, with the end result that he gets crowded out, then shoots. WTF? WHY? NO PLAYER WOULD EVER DO THAT!!!! Pretty much every player will shoot. Fine, it hits the keeper, okay. Or he skies it, okay. But to not shoot until the chance of success is literally 1% ... really? And all players? Every game? There hasn't been one single game where I haven't asked FM - out loud - why the hell the player did that? :confused:

There seems to be far too stark a difference between "Work the ball into the box" (translation: pass the ball around until you're swamped by defenders, then lose possession in one of the many creative ways described above) versus not having "Work the ball into the box" (translation: shoot, no matter what. No seriously, just shoot. Angles? Pfft. Defenders? Pfft. Straight at the keeper? Why not?!) - again this can all be fixed with better decision-making. I don't understand what's so difficult with the logic flow of "Is Player X more likely to score than me? No. If I pass to him will he be able to take a better-percentage shot than me? Yes? Okay, I'll pass instead, because scoring more goals is ALWAYS a good thing." ... but this seems to be completely missing. Open players bearing down on the keeper as passing targets, but player shoots wide, or hits defender instead... All the time. Two on one situations. Shoots without thought... All the time. This happens ALL THE TIME, with players with both good and average decision-making skill and mental fortitude, in all club situations I have ever seen. Winning, losing, dominating, sucking ... it doesn't matter.

I also find that there's a severe lack of actual creative play. At all. Despite having creative players and formations and instructions that promote running into channels, making space, drawing away defenders ... players make runs occasionally and from time to time a nice move is put together, but nowhere near frequently enough for it to be considered vaguely realistic. Too often I've seen players TURN AROUND TO FACE THEIR DEFENSIVE LINE, hold the ball, and pass it back. Yes, I get that there may not have been a good attacking passing target at that time, but this happens through MOST of the game. Where are the surging runs from the back? Where are the numerous runs that pacy and creative and intelligent players make all the time??? Hardly to be found anywhere. I'll usually get three or four decent runs a game, but due to the above decision making, clear scoring opportunities simply don't happen because of stupidity.

Which brings me to the home/away thing... and this one is the most likely to be an issue with me and not the game itself, but I frequently find that lesser teams are way too strong at home, and AI-controlled away teams have this totally obscure and random tendency to play like Barcalona when neither their current form, punditry, player quality nor team morale warrants such play. It comes to the point where I fear any away fixture in the league or (especially) a cup. Doesn't matter who the opposition is, if I'm at home at least I have a bit of a chance, but even then who knows if Crystal Palace will thrash me for no good reason. Maybe this is just happening to me, but I really hate away fixtures because I just feel like there's forces at work that shouldn't be there. Upsets happen - I get that - but bottom-of-the-table teams often seem to play extremely well against me and less well against everybody else.

My rant is over. Comments most welcome

David

[RTHerringbone]

My comment is - please add your feedback to the main feedback thread like everybody else has.