FM16 - Where are the improvements of AI?

[kingking]

There is only 1 improved feature which S.I has talked about (maybe 2) on FM 16 that has been about A.I up to now. (only around 2/3 weeks left)

One of the main problems of FM15, was the A.I, I saw no need to loan out players, or have long term games due to A.I Team Management, Maintenance and the ability to improve to their squads.

I hope A.I has been top priority in FM16, and has been improved.

Has there been lots of improvements of AI? there hasn't really been much talk about it.

[Dagenham_Dave]

The AI squad building issue is another one that has been blown out of all proportion. It's nowhere near as bad as people make out, particularly if you're sensible about how you set the game up initially and also how you go about actually playing the game. Could it be improved? Of course, and improvements are made to it every year.

[kingking]

The AI squad building issue is another one that has been blown out of all proportion. It's nowhere near as bad as people make out, particularly if you're sensible about how you set the game up initially and also how you go about actually playing the game. Could it be improved? Of course, and improvements are made to it every year.

1. Judging the degree of how bad it is, is subjective, so saying it is blown out of all proportion doesn't mean it isn't a problem. At the end of the day, It is still a problem that people has talked about. A.I teams cannot maintain the quality of their teams after a few seasons, which is evident from many saved games.

2. No matter how you set up the game, how you play the game, even if you use player masking, playing from the lowest division, only using scouts & no other external methods (cheats etc) to search for players, the AI isn't able to maintain, and improve their squads for future seasons, so that point you made is invalid.

3. I just want to know what improvements are done to it, on what area have they been improved on, whether it is big improvements or not. I made this thread because all the features announced, only 1 or 2 has been about A.I, which has worried me.

[Dagenham_Dave]

A.I teams cannot maintain the quality of their teams after a few seasons

Yes they can. And in many instances, they better the quality of their teams over time.

2. No matter how you set up the game, how you play the game, even if you use player masking, playing from the lowest division, only using scouts & no other external methods (cheats etc) to search for players, the AI isn't able to maintain, and improve their squads for future seasons,

Utter nonsense I'm afraid. In my own long term save this year, by 2030, Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea all had better squads than they did at the start of the game. I managed to take a Conference North side to the Champions League final by that point, but Man City in particular were always several steps ahead of me in who they were able to recruit and maintain to make a fantastic squad of a large chunk of all the best newgens in the game by that point.

That's not to say AI squad building is at the same level as human squad building, but it's nowhere even close to being as bad as people make out. It's one of those 'bandwagon' issues that people see on forums then start believing it in their own saves because they start looking over it with a fine tooth comb instead of just playing the game as normal.

What people tend to do is set up majorly imbalanced game worlds, and use various cheats to hoover up all the best young talents for their own team. Combine that, and of course the AI's attempts at squad building are going to be massively affected.

[Guest]

If real life squad building was as good as people wanted from the AI there would be no need to sign new players in the first & possibly second season.

[brendanf]

wot AI about

[RiverReveal666]

1. Judging the degree of how bad it is, is subjective, so saying it is blown out of all proportion doesnt mean it isn't a problem.

Very good point. Something these forums seem to struggle with sometimes.

In answer to your question then you should check out the sticky at the top of the page about new features, apparently there's a link to Twitter with announcements, it may have things on it but I can't access from here to view it. (Twitter that is)

@Dagenham_Dave, when you mention unbalanced game worlds are you talking about the leagues, nations and database set up? There's a thread here somewhere about that, do you know the link, or anyone else know? Thanks

[Cougar2010]

Personally I don't think that squad building is an issue, the bigger problem is what the AI do with young players when they get them.

Essentially human users do a smoother job of bringing through talented younger players than the AI teams.

Generally an average human user will see the potential in a player and once he gets to 1* say will give him a few games and over the course of a few seasons that player will smoothly transition from backup to first teamer. This doesn't happen as well at AI clubs, their approach is much more robotic where they stick with the high rep, high skilled players constantly until the player declines or retires only then looking to replace him with often under levelled youngsters for a couple of seasons until they develop. They aren't proactive enough at giving the up & coming players gametime to allow a steady rotation from one generation of players to the next leaving a series of peaks & troughs over the years.

EDIT

I just want to add an example to this from my current save. Last season I took over an established club which is one of the best in the country with a good youth system. Its 2025 in the save and for the last 10 years the club has had a generation of real players who have had decent success and for the most part stayed together. When I took over the team there were two players in the team between the ages of 22yo & 29yo and one of those had been bought in the previous season. All the others were either 30yo+ from the previous generation or under 21yo.

So from a successful youth system the club had produced one first team player with many others sold off over the years at 18-21yos and now established players at other clubs. The players who are now 18-21yo just happen to be in the right place at the right time and are getting the chance to develop because the previous generation are declining/retiring.

[mack4ever]

There is only 1 improved feature which S.I has talked about (maybe 2) on FM 16 that has been about A.I up to now. (only around 2/3 weeks left)

One of the main problems of FM15, was the A.I, I saw no need to loan out players, or have long term games due to A.I Team Management, Maintenance and the ability to improve to their squads.

I hope A.I has been top priority in FM16, and has been improved.

Has there been lots of improvements of AI? there hasn't really been much talk about it.

The biggest problem with the AI squad building is the set up that the player has chosen to implement. If you do not have the right balance of players and leagues then it screws things up and the AI doesn't perform as well as it is capable of doing.

[bowieinspace]

The biggest problem with the AI squad building is the set up that the player has chosen to implement. If you do not have the right balance of players and leagues then it screws things up and the AI doesn't perform as well as it is capable of doing.

Hi Mack I just made a thread pretty much asking about this issue coincidentally. If you've got knowledge to share feel free!

[Kriss]

SI don't produce a change list of AI improvements because usually they aren't really quantifiable, where they are you'll find it mentioned.

[daylight]

I have always thought that the AI squad building was a bit poor and their decisions really make you scratch your head sometimes.

A good example is from the save I am playing now.

I had a fantastic 23 year old striker, the guy just scored for fun, an international who scored goals on the biggest stage and again he scored them for fun.

When I signed him I just could not get him to agree to sign without a buyout clause, after a season and a half teams were queueing up for him, at 1 point there were something like 20 clubs after him, all the top clubs.

He would not sign a new contract as he wanted to move on.

He went to PSG for over 25m.

I kept an eye on him and in a season at PSG he never played 1 game, he never made it to a match day squad, he sat in the reserves the entire season.

He got transfer listed after 6 months and was sold for 7m that summer.

This sort of thing is quite common, it is also pretty common to see the AI teams wheel out 36 year old once former great players instead of having the 'new' star players coming out.

[Guest]

Those are annoying issue with the way the squad selector works, it makes it incorrectly appear to be a transfer bug.

[daylight]

What do you mean Barside?

Are you saying he was in the first team and not in the reserves?

Every time I checked him he was in the reserves, he left PSG without playing a game and he was transfer listed after only 6 months at the club.

I'm not really sure what this 'squad selector bug' is.

[Guest]

I meant Team Selector, must have been distracted by another cancelled train announcement.

The issue I see is that the way match squads are selected doesn't link to the transfer decision, once the player is bought it's like he is passed to another system & that one doesn't realise the player was bought as a future prospect who should get first team action & he is immediately sidelined, after a while the transfer system then decides to offload the underused player.

SI need to figure out a way to integrate those two systems in a much better fashion.

Obviously there are still some very silly purchase decisions, I do raise a selection on each & every release.

[Matshit]

Creating a perfect AI that signs the correct player at all time, and use the correct tactics and players in every match should be pretty simple. The problem with most video game AI is adding realistic incompetence.

The AI needs to do mistakes, but not do mistakes that really sticks out as bugs (for example, Real Madrid signing a 20CA player from Conference League for 50 million would not be a realistic mistake).

It is a difficult balance to make, and I think the AI does it as good as possible. There are some weirdness that always needs to be ironed out, but all in all it is pretty impressive to see the gameworld after 50 years.

The problem is more the fact that the human makes too few mistakes. We are able to get a pretty accurate assertion of the player we sign before we sign them, so if we sign a 4* player and he flops it is pretty guaranteed to be because he didn’t fit into the tactics.

And we have way to much knowledge of how good the talents we sign will end up. I am not sure the scouts should even have the ability to look at PA. It is not possible in real life, only a qualified guess.

We can also find a tactic that work from the start and keep using it with minor tweaks for 20 years. The opponent will not really counter your tactics in any way (for example, play wide in attack if you play narrow in defense, or play with a low defensive line if you always use quick strikers).

[daylight]

Yeah Barside that would make sense, I have seen it many times in the game over the years.

Teams buying players for a lot of money and then never using them, then they get sold for a very big loss.

I think the thing that bugged me so much about this guy, the fans loved him, he was also 1 of those players were we as managers get a bond with and is 1 of those players that keep us coming back to the save.

I tried to resign him from PSG but of course having signed for them he was on big money, money I could not get anywhere near, seems such a waste.

[forameuss]

Creating a perfect AI that signs the correct player at all time, and use the correct tactics and players in every match should be pretty simple.

I find it hard to take the rest of your post seriously when you start out like that.

[Fond Foat]

The AI squad building issue is another one that has been blown out of all proportion. It's nowhere near as bad as people make out, particularly if you're sensible about how you set the game up initially and also how you go about actually playing the game. Could it be improved? Of course, and improvements are made to it every year.

Sorry. AI squad building is the biggest issue with the game for a long term save. I am not saying it is easy to fix it, but to suggest it is blown out of proportion because of the way people are playing the game is a bit off. I agree if you mean using wonderkid lists and such, but just playing the game fairly sees the majority of AI squads end up fairly unbalanced or poorly optimized. FM15 for whatever reason has been the easiest version I can remember. It is obviously not just about squad building, but it is just too easy to boss the league in this version.

[Fond Foat]

The biggest problem with the AI squad building is the set up that the player has chosen to implement. If you do not have the right balance of players and leagues then it screws things up and the AI doesn't perform as well as it is capable of doing.

Please add to this.

[Cougar2010]

Sorry. AI squad building is the biggest issue with the game for a long term save. I am not saying it is easy to fix it, but to suggest it is blown out of proportion because of the way people are playing the game is a bit off. I agree if you mean using wonderkid lists and such, but just playing the game fairly sees the majority of AI squads end up fairly unbalanced or poorly optimized. FM15 for whatever reason has been the easiest version I can remember. It is obviously not just about squad building, but it is just too easy to boss the league in this version.

and the reason so many people are saying its easy is because the unrealistic attacking tactics that many use just happen to be the weakness of the ME this version.

[Matshit]

I find it hard to take the rest of your post seriously when you start out like that.

Then you are not understanding what I am saying. Creating an AI that makes perfect decisions all the time is WAY easier than making one that has realistic flaws. That is a fact, and everyone who has ever worked with AI will tell you so. Now, simple is a word without meaning with no context, In this context “simple enough that SI should have a pretty flawless AI now if they wanted it. Creating an AI that finds the best player available for the club by crawling through the database is not that difficult. Neither is finding the correct sum the other club is willing to pay. Everything is available to us through FMScout type tools, so there isn’t much tweaking that would be needed. There is a lot of parameters to handle, but as long as you give the AI enough knowledge, it should be capable of calculating everything itself. The only thing I can see as being difficult is squad building, understanding what sort of players mix well together. Making it flawless would be difficult, but making it good enough that it would destroy real life would not be that difficult.

To give an example. The way the easier games on your computers chess game is built is by having the perfect AI, and tweaking it to become more stupid by limiting the amount of available moves it can see. It is not so simple that the stupidest AI is the simplest one.

[forameuss]

Then you are not understanding what I am saying. Creating an AI that makes perfect decisions all the time is WAY easier than making one that has realistic flaws. That is a fact, and everyone who has ever worked with AI will tell you so. Now, simple is a word without meaning with no context, In this context “simple enough that SI should have a pretty flawless AI now if they wanted it. Creating an AI that finds the best player available for the club by crawling through the database is not that difficult. Neither is finding the correct sum the other club is willing to pay. Everything is available to us through FMScout type tools, so there isn’t much tweaking that would be needed. There is a lot of parameters to handle, but as long as you give the AI enough knowledge, it should be capable of calculating everything itself. The only thing I can see as being difficult is squad building, understanding what sort of players mix well together. Making it flawless would be difficult, but making it good enough that it would destroy real life would not be that difficult.

To give an example. The way the easier games on your computers chess game is built is by having the perfect AI, and tweaking it to become more stupid by limiting the amount of available moves it can see. It is not so simple that the stupidest AI is the simplest one.

Yet it's still massively disingenuous to call it simple in any sense. Just because something is easier than something else, doesn't automatically make it easy itself.

[CWR15]

Hi Mack I just made a thread pretty much asking about this issue coincidentally. If you've got knowledge to share feel free!

I am pretty patient. I don't mind a bit of processing when I click continue. My usual setup is top 15 nations in Europe with all leagues active. I then add in about another 10 leagues depending on their fifa ranking reputation and at least one from each continents so usually South Africa, China, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Australia + a few others that I use to mix things up. I usually end up with 45ish divisions in 25 countries or similar (in the non European Leagues I only load the top two flights to keep them competitive internationally) then I load a medium database.

I find this gives me about 110,000 players and AI building is decent.

[Matshit]

Well, that would be just discussing semantics. In any case, nothing is easy or difficult. It is just easy or difficult compared to something else.

When someone say a dish is difficult to make, it is not wrong to say, even though making a rocket that can land on the moon is much more difficult. For a big team of programmers, making a AI for FM that is pretty much perfect is simple enough for them to have it ok in no time. For my grandmother who has never touched a computer it is as close to impossible as you can get.

Programming is not that difficult if you know what you are doing, learn to copy/paste and Google and you are pretty much there. Believe me, I do this for a living.

[Neil Brock]

The transfer logic and AI does get looked at every version, it's just not something that really sells copies of the game (generally). As Barside and others have said, there are going to be anomalies (I remember logging an issue about Andy Carroll moving for silly money the summer prior to him moving to Liverpool for £35m!) but sometimes there are in real life. Who would have thought Fulham would pay £11m+ for Ross McCormack for example?

But as said, it is worked on and we hope people notice the improvements this year. There's a balance to be had as the more we make the AI 'think', the slower the game becomes, especially the more complex we make it. Hopefully as the 'standard' systems improve we can improve the demands the game makes on them.

[Fond Foat]

There's a balance to be had as the more we make the AI 'think', the slower the game becomes, especially the more complex we make it. Hopefully as the 'standard' systems improve we can improve the demands the game makes on them.

Good point.

[andu1]

So we can expect a 64-bit FM in the next 1-2 years?

[themadsheep2001]

So we can expect a 64-bit FM in the next 1-2 years?

In the future, but I wouldn't put a timescale on it yet. The FM userbase is noticeably behind compared to your average steam gamer

[Fond Foat]

In the future, but I wouldn't put a timescale on it yet. The FM userbase is noticeably behind compared to your average steam gamer

Because they can be? Perhaps pushing systems more and allowing users with more powerful systems to experience the full power of the game will advance game development more. People will still be able to play with smaller databases and such without having a beefier system. I understand you need to create to your market but I imagine there are a lot of FM players with powerful systems.

I remember reading that when Skyrim came thousands of people upgraded theri systems to play the game fully optimized.

[themadsheep2001]

Because they can be? Perhaps pushing systems more and allowing users with more powerful systems to experience the full power of the game will advance game development more. People will still be able to play with smaller databases and such without having a beefier system. I understand you need to create to your market but I imagine there are a lot of FM players with powerful systems.

I remember reading that when Skyrim came thousands of people upgraded theri systems to play the game fully optimized.

FM gamers do not traditionally fit the same profile as those who play Skyrim etc. They are slower to upgrade, and even now play on cheaper lower spec machines, (a good example is the which laptop should I buy thread). This has been consistently the case for a number of years. There is a reason that SI haven't yet pushed to 64bit. A lot doesn't translate to a majority or even a major minority tbh. and I say that as high spec user.

[daylight]

I would say the 'Skyrim' player base is not the same as the 'Football Manager' player base.

There are a lot of FM players that don't play any other game, they only have FM and I don't think they would be to happy to upgrade their laptop/PC just for the sake of playing FM.

Skyrim's player base will for the most part play other games, upgrading their system would make more sense as they would get the best out of other games they have and future games.

Edit-

Ninja post by TMS!

[forameuss]

People go onto this very board and ask if they can spend £300 on a laptop that will run FM. That alone should tell you that a lot of users play on lower-specced machines.

[YOUNGSTEVE]

Computer specifications are not changing as quickly as they did in the past, as people no longer are upgrading their machine generally as they were doing.

[Fond Foat]

There has been a decline in 2015 Youngsteve, but the suggestion here is that FM can be made better by using more processing power. The argument against that is that FM users have weaker PCs than the average gamer.

Also I did not say the playerbases for Skyrim and FM were the same. It was an example of how players who love a game will in general attempt to get the game to work the best they can. I find it interesting to think that most FM players use underpowered PCs? If you use your PC to play just one game you must love that game. Why not get your system up to scratch? These days to run most modern software effectively you need to be uprgrading your PC (or parts of it) every 2 or 3 years. Again, if you don't have to you won't.

What you are saying here is that FM players generally only play FM and are happy for the game to be underdeveloped or use a weaker AI and then complain about the game being underdeveloped or using a weaker AI. If this is true (which is sad if it is), then not much can be done about it I guess.

[Sunstrikuuu]

Utter nonsense I'm afraid. In my own long term save this year, by 2030, Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea all had better squads than they did at the start of the game. I managed to take a Conference North side to the Champions League final by that point, but Man City in particular were always several steps ahead of me in who they were able to recruit and maintain to make a fantastic squad of a large chunk of all the best newgens in the game by that point.

I don't generally think AI squadbuilding is particularly good, but I do concur that it's not as bad as it's made out. I just finished the 2019/20 season in my Roma save; I did win the league and went deep in the Champions League and scored like 125 goals and conceded 20 and lost once and blah blah. I won the league by one point. Juventus actually won more games than I did, and conceded 24 goals across the season. Despite going unbeaten until March, I was behind them for most of the year. By far the most difficult AI adversary I've encountered since I started playing in 2009.

That said, one of the things that can be massively improved is increasing the transparency of game setup. It's really, really easy to set up an imbalanced game world if you don't know what you're doing. It's also tough to fix; you can always add and subtract leagues but you can't change the database after starting the save.

[Fond Foat]

That said, one of the things that can be massively improved is increasing the transparency of game setup. It's really, really easy to set up an imbalanced game world if you don't know what you're doing. It's also tough to fix; you can always add and subtract leagues but you can't change the database after starting the save.

I would like more information about this. Can you give an explanation of an imbalanced game world. How could SI make it better at the start? Should there be some preset options available to get better starting setups?

[themadsheep2001]

There has been a decline in 2015 Youngsteve, but the suggestion here is that FM can be made better by using more processing power. The argument against that is that FM users have weaker PCs than the average gamer.

Also I did not say the playerbases for Skyrim and FM were the same. It was an example of how players who love a game will in general attempt to get the game to work the best they can. I find it interesting to think that most FM players use underpowered PCs? If you use your PC to play just one game you must love that game. Why not get your system up to scratch? These days to run most modern software effectively you need to be uprgrading your PC (or parts of it) every 2 or 3 years. Again, if you don't have to you won't.

What you are saying here is that FM players generally only play FM and are happy for the game to be underdeveloped or use a weaker AI and then complain about the game being underdeveloped or using a weaker AI. If this is true (which is sad if it is), then not much can be done about it I guess.

That's just it. A very significant section of the user base only play FM as a their primary game, and certainly play on underpowered systems (relative to say someone who might be playing Skyrim or another AAA title). That doesnt mean nothing can be done, but that the move will be a bit more gradual. In fact I would expect SI would try and give as much lead time possible between an annoucement of 64bit/significantly higher specs, and a new edition which contained them. Would be surprised if they didn't quite frankly.

[Cougar2010]

If you use your PC to play just one game you must love that game. Why not get your system up to scratch? These days to run most modern software effectively you need to be uprgrading your PC (or parts of it) every 2 or 3 years. Again, if you don't have to you won't.

I built my current one about 5 years ago with parts that had been on the market about a year when I got them. I've done nothing to it since.

It still runs every league on FM15 with the highest graphics, there is no need to upgrade every 2-3 years at all.

[Fond Foat]

I built my current one about 5 years ago with parts that had been on the market about a year when I got them. I've done nothing to it since.

It still runs every league on FM15 with the highest graphics, there is no need to upgrade every 2-3 years at all.

Well, you just showed how FM is currently being designed to not push processing power but rather to run on older systems. Anybody who uses their PC to run modern games, editimg tools, design programs, publishing software, would find 6 year old specs a bit slow.

[Guest]

I can play GTA V & MGS V with near max settings on my 6 year old rig, only upgrade was GTX760 a couple of years ago.

I digress though, as a general rule a lot of the FM player base are not gamers & FM will be the only game in their Steam library. I personally know 2 FM players who fit that description & their laptops are better paperweights.

[Cougar2010]

Well, you just showed how FM is currently being designed to not push processing power but rather to run on older systems. Anybody who uses their PC to run modern games, editimg tools, design programs, publishing software, would find 6 year old specs a bit slow.

Depends what you use it for though.

I don't use design, editing or publishing software.

Mine is exclusively for financial software, spreadsheets, internet & games. Despite being 5/6 years old it still runs all the latest games on high specs.

[Fond Foat]

I can play GTA V & MGS V on my 6 year old rig, only upgrade was GTX760 a couple of years ago.

A rather important upgrade. Anyway, I don't want this thread to turn into a my PC is so old and I can play ........ If you are happy with FM running all leagues at the highest graphic quality on 6 year old systems which have never had an upgrade, I have no problem with that. If you are trying to say a standard 2009 PC has the same power as a standard 2015 PC, I don't know what to say. If you think FM should not make use of the 2015 specs then so be it. My only point was that FM development is deliberately handcuffed so a a large proportion of the user base having 8 year old PCs and the suggestion is that would not upgrade to a newer one. I personally feel users would upgrade if they saw a real benefit in it.

[Fond Foat]

Depends what you use it for though.

I don't use design, editing or publishing software.

Mine is exclusively for financial software, spreadsheets, internet & games. Despite being 5/6 years old it still runs all the latest games on high specs.

Then I am suprised, because I recently upgraded my GPU, added a SSD, and added Ram because the latest games were graphically not doing so good.

[Cougar2010]

Then I am suprised, because I recently upgraded my GPU, added a SSD, and added Ram because the latest games were graphically not doing so good.

Graphics card might be slightly younger, I've had a look and its a GTX560TI. A quick look on google and it was reviewed in Jan 2011.

[kingking]

We both agree that AI can be improved (Of Course, nothing can be perfect), and I think we both agree that the AI is struggling to squad build, maintain and improve their squads to a standard that makes the user feel unpressurised in future years.

What people tend to do is set up majorly imbalanced game worlds, and use various cheats to hoover up all the best young talents for their own team. Combine that, and of course the AI's attempts at squad building are going to be massively affected.

There are too many wonder-kids, talented players for 1 team to obtain most or all of them. the user cannot prevent all the other skilful clubs in FM.

That's not to say AI squad building is at the same level as human squad building, but it's nowhere even close to being as bad as people make out. It's one of those 'bandwagon' issues that people see on forums then start believing it in their own saves because they start looking over it with a fine tooth comb instead of just playing the game as normal.

It is an issue that is in all saved games because basically the I is not very good at squad building, maintaining and improving their squad, no matter how you play, normal or not

Utter nonsense I'm afraid. In my own long term save this year, by 2030, Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea all had better squads than they did at the start of the game. I managed to take a Conference North side to the Champions League final by that point, but Man City in particular were always several steps ahead of me in who they were able to recruit and maintain to make a fantastic squad of a large chunk of all the best newgens in the game by that point.

Okay but, this 1 example, it just cannot change my mind out of all the other examples I see from managers stories in this forum, and other FM forums, where players are in 2019+ and competitive clubs are just struggling to build their squad to a good enough standard to pressure the user.

[kingking]

The transfer logic and AI does get looked at every version, it's just not something that really sells copies of the game (generally). As Barside and others have said, there are going to be anomalies (I remember logging an issue about Andy Carroll moving for silly money the summer prior to him moving to Liverpool for £35m!) but sometimes there are in real life. Who would have thought Fulham would pay £11m+ for Ross McCormack for example?

But as said, it is worked on and we hope people notice the improvements this year. There's a balance to be had as the more we make the AI 'think', the slower the game becomes, especially the more complex we make it. Hopefully as the 'standard' systems improve we can improve the demands the game makes on them.

I don't think some people who opt to play the full version of FM instead of classic mode will mind as much if A.I "thinks" a little bit more, despite of the sacrifice of game length, there could be an option for this, like a difficulty setting (because some users, don't like a difficult game, I respect that preference).

I don't expect the AI to be super smart, but just to a ability, that can pressure the USER, for future seasons (Seasons past year 2018+)

I hope AI can be improved in the future to a standard that is satisfying for both long term saves and short term saves, but as you said, systems will improve, and therefore hopefully AI will improve as well with it

[Dagenham_Dave]

Okay but, this 1 example, it just cannot change my mind out of all the other examples I see from managers stories in this forum, and other FM forums, where players are in 2019+ and competitive clubs are just struggling to build their squad to a good enough standard to pressure the user.

Yes, I've saw those examples too, the majority of which don't actually go into any detail about it at all. Like your own one for example.

Also you use of the words 'build their squad to a good enough standard to pressure the user' is interesting. To my mind, it's not that AI squad building is poor, it's more that human squad building is a bit too easy if you play the game a certain way. A lot of human users build their squads to an extent that you'd never ever see in real life.

I agree with someone above, I'd like to see scout reports tone down the information you get regarding a player's potential. This would then make it more likely to make 'mistake' purchases which happen all the time in the real world, but for someone who knows the game inside out would hardly ever happen. That's the biggest problem if there is one.

[Sunstrikuuu]

I would like more information about this. Can you give an explanation of an imbalanced game world. How could SI make it better at the start? Should there be some preset options available to get better starting setups?

Sure.

The biggest cause of imbalanced game worlds is mismatches between the number of leagues and the size of the database. If your database is too small and you've loaded a lot of leagues, there won't be enough players. Good players will be hoarded and transfer activity will be restricted; players will command high fees and the AI will have thin squads with homegrown young players and very little quality depth. If you have too many players, transfer activity will also be restricted as teams are able to sign upgrades on free transfers. The AI will have bloated squads as lots of generally equivalent players are available for free or for depressed fees. So that's a cause of a sort of latitudinal imbalance.

It's also possible for a longitudinal imbalance to exist. If you're playing in the Faroe Islands, and you've loaded all the top leagues in Europe to match the number of teams with the size of your database, you've actually still created an imbalance as none of the players in the Premier League or Bundesliga are at all relevant to the Faroes. AI teams will build squads best when there are a wide variety of players to choose from; that includes players from the same domestic system above and below, and from overseas. The Dutch league needs South American and African players; otherwise its teams won't have enough good players. It also needs the Premier League and Serie A and the Bundesliga to buy those players.

The biggest way SI could improve matters in my opinion is to simply hide all the options beyond nation and league selection behind an Advanced User toggle. You pick your five nations and fifteen leagues and away you go with a database size that's appropriate and the default starting options. Or you pick your nations and leagues, hit the toggle and then can monkey with the database size or turn off attribute masking or first-window budgets or whatever. The current system requires the user to select these options manually and creates additional opportunity for error.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Sure.

The biggest cause of imbalanced game worlds is mismatches between the number of leagues and the size of the database. If your database is too small and you've loaded a lot of leagues, there won't be enough players. Good players will be hoarded and transfer activity will be restricted; players will command high fees and the AI will have thin squads with homegrown young players and very little quality depth. If you have too many players, transfer activity will also be restricted as teams are able to sign upgrades on free transfers. The AI will have bloated squads as lots of generally equivalent players are available for free or for depressed fees. So that's a cause of a sort of latitudinal imbalance.

It's also possible for a longitudinal imbalance to exist. If you're playing in the Faroe Islands, and you've loaded all the top leagues in Europe to match the number of teams with the size of your database, you've actually still created an imbalance as none of the players in the Premier League or Bundesliga are at all relevant to the Faroes. AI teams will build squads best when there are a wide variety of players to choose from; that includes players from the same domestic system above and below, and from overseas. The Dutch league needs South American and African players; otherwise its teams won't have enough good players. It also needs the Premier League and Serie A and the Bundesliga to buy those players.

The biggest way SI could improve matters in my opinion is to simply hide all the options beyond nation and league selection behind an Advanced User toggle. You pick your five nations and fifteen leagues and away you go with a database size that's appropriate and the default starting options. Or you pick your nations and leagues, hit the toggle and then can monkey with the database size or turn off attribute masking or first-window budgets or whatever. The current system requires the user to select these options manually and creates additional opportunity for error.

Fantastic post. This should be pinned somewhere.