Player Promises

[hamilton81]

Fairly disappointed with some aspects of this game. While I've loved this game for over a decade sometimes I feel that features are added that aren't executed very well.

I like the idea of promising big new signings that you'll make other big signings and strengthen the coaching team or other things but I feel as though I don't have much control on fulfilling these promises.

I signed a high profile player at the end of Jan, by May he is unhappy that I haven't strengthened the team. I had arranged several big summer bosman signings for the summer but when the transfer window is still shut how can I improve the team? I wasn't even given a full transfer window to sign any players! He also isn't happy at the levels of coaching despite all my coaching points being ranked 1st in my league and all coaching spots filled. My whole squad is now unhappy at how the player has been treated (i haven't said anything negative to press) despite the fact we just won the league, the cup and the Europa League in the previous season and made 5/6 big signings in the summer. 

This feature needs improving imo. I won't be using any more promises in the future as I don't think they work correctly.

[vg1999]

3 minutes ago, hamilton81 said:

 

This feature needs improving imo. I won't be using any more promises in the future as I don't think they work correctly.

Thats exectly what Im doing from the start, except those like favorable position etc.

 

[Cougar2010]

You promised him you would strengthen the squad in the transfer window you got him and you didn't so why are you surprised that he is unhappy?

Maybe SI could tweak the promise to cover the next transfer window if you sign a player with less than say 7 days to go in the current window but generally the promise does what it says on the tin.

In terms of coaching its either down to the star rating on the team coaches screen (Quality) or their reputation.

[gunner86]

I've had a couple of specific gripes with the player promises this time around:

First was when I renewed Santi Cazorla's contract he wanted to be sent on a coaching course, only for the board to flat out refuse to send him so he got unhappy and ultimately left

The second is I had basically the whole squad demanding that I improve my attacking options (led by Alexis Sanchez - who had played up front nearly all of the season and led the EPL scoring charts), over the summer, I signed Jay Rodriguez, Mario Gotze, 2 young strikers, and on deadline day, Antoine Griezmann. Only for the squad not to be happy with this. Granted, they're not necessarily known as out and out centre forwards, but they are all (at least) accomplished in the position - especially as I play a false 9 - so couldn't understand how what I did wasn't enough. Considering the scouting and transfer reports suggest wingers as "Attackers" it just didn't sit right

[hamilton81]

1 hour ago, Cougar2010 said:

You promised him you would strengthen the squad in the transfer window you got him and you didn't so why are you surprised that he is unhappy?

 

But I signed him at the end of the Jan transfer window and he wasn't unhappy until May. So if the promise was transfer window specific he should have been unhappy on Feb 1st. At no point does the promise say it has to be there and then. You assume you would have a chance to build the squad. It seems you are given 5 months to fulfil the promise but that is useless for signings at the end of the Jan transfer window.

My whole is squad is now unhappy and its virtually unplayable. I'll have to resign or be sacked because a promise is badly programmed and very vague.

[hamilton81]

1 hour ago, gunner86 said:

I've had a couple of specific gripes with the player promises this time around:

First was when I renewed Santi Cazorla's contract he wanted to be sent on a coaching course, only for the board to flat out refuse to send him so he got unhappy and ultimately left

The second is I had basically the whole squad demanding that I improve my attacking options (led by Alexis Sanchez - who had played up front nearly all of the season and led the EPL scoring charts), over the summer, I signed Jay Rodriguez, Mario Gotze, 2 young strikers, and on deadline day, Antoine Griezmann. Only for the squad not to be happy with this. Granted, they're not necessarily known as out and out centre forwards, but they are all (at least) accomplished in the position - especially as I play a false 9 - so couldn't understand how what I did wasn't enough. Considering the scouting and transfer reports suggest wingers as "Attackers" it just didn't sit right

 

Yeah, I can sign a player who I know is good or experienced or at least 4 stars but unhappy players don't consider it enough. Honestly think this is down to the promises function not being designed properly. It's very vague and causing unnecessary issues!

[Cougar2010]

3 minutes ago, hamilton81 said:

But I signed him at the end of the Jan transfer window and he wasn't unhappy until May. So if the promise was transfer window specific he should have been unhappy on Feb 1st. At no point does the promise say it has to be there and then. You assume you would have a chance to build the squad. It seems you are given 5 months to fulfil the promise but that is useless for signings at the end of the Jan transfer window.

My whole is squad is now unhappy and its virtually unplayable. I'll have to resign or be sacked because a promise is badly programmed and very vague.

When you make a promise you can go to the promises screen and it tells you how long you have to keep the promise.

He becomes unhappy if at the time the promise ends you haven't met the terms of it.

Its also far from unplayable, give it time and players settle one by one although you might be forced to sell the player who was unhappy.

[oulzac]

I've ran into this same issue. Now I refuse to make a promise to anyone. The whole system seems bugged for the new promises.

Problems I've had with the new promises which have now caused me to tell players to fluff off if they ask for them:

• Guy who is 35 and going to retire soon and wants to be a coach. We have an open coaching spot. Board refuse to send him on a course because "they don't think he is interested". Um, yes he is. He asked for it when signed. And its on his plans.
• Squad want you to strengthen roster after promotion. You sign 8 players who are better than everyone else on the roster. They get angry you didn't strengthen the squad. Because why not. 
• Player asks to be played in his preferred position and role. He gets injured for 4 months and only gets in a handful of games. Gets angry you didn't keep the promise. Cause that makes sense.
• Promise to make player the main free kick/penalty taker. Again, player gets injured for 3-4 months right on queue. Gets unhappy he never took free kicks/penalties for the team. Sorry I shouldn't have pulled your hamstring. Its all my fault.

 

[..Valhalla..]

The promise system is, in its current form, unusable. I won the league in season 1 (first FM17 save) with Dortmund and was looking forward to a long career there but had my save ruined due to this broken feature. I had an identical issue to @oulzac's second point:

 

Sold Aubameyang in summer and was met by a host of 1st team players worried about the attack strength. I promised them I would strengthen the attack and set about signing Divock Origi, Lorenzo Insigne, Diafra Sakho plus a couple more not so well known strikers (but high potential nonetheless).

We had an absurd number of quality attackers by this point - I signed at least 6 - but not once did the players' promise section change from "feels time is running out for <manager> to strengthen the attack..." and when the window closed virtually every player was "unhappy with <manager> treatment of <players>"

Morale was basically abysmal all-round and the save was ruined.

 

I made the same mistake when I signed Michael Keane for Liverpool; promised I would strengthen the defence (which I had planned to do). I did but he didn't seem to notice and immediately fell out with me.

Likewise promising to strengthen the coaching team has no effect even after signing countless top quality coaches. Nowadays I remove all promises from negotiations, and what's remarkable is the players never try to add them back. What a useless and pointless feature.

[dkouv]

Fully agree that the promise system is unusable, I think it must be a programming bug, hopefully just a small one where for some reason the threshold for players being satisfied with your actions is set too high, or they assess the promise over the wrong time window etc. I've only done this a couple of times, but every time I've promised I'll strengthen the squad and then bought players, it wasn't enough and a large part of the squad became unhappy for a whole season. Now I just avoid making those promises at all costs, which is not an ideal solution obviously. And it is super-annoying when this happens

I think the problem is actually twofold. First, the promises are nigh on impossible to fulfill. Second, the reaction to not fulfilling the promise is too extreme - not just one person, but several players become unhappy, and not just for a few months, but in my case for a whole season (and a couple were still unhappy 1 year later so I just sold them)

Has anyone reported this in the bugs forum? I don't have a save before and after anymore unfortunately so can't report this; would appreciate if someone did.

[Harpoon76]

Promises do feel like they were rushed into the release.

I started this thread after promising a player I'd accept a bid of £x from a specific team.  Trouble is, that value doesn't seem to be shown anywhere for you to check later.  It's missing from the conversation history (which has it's own bug so you can't scroll down), it's not set as a minimum release in the contract or listed on Home > Promises.  These bits need to plumbed in properly IMHO.

[AndersSchm]

Problem with promises is they can be very negative in that the players morale will constantly drain and they'll play terribly if you don't fulfill the promise.  If you do the promise they'll just stay the same Very Good / Superb morale as the rest of the team and you get no real reward - best to avoid them at all costs.

[oulzac]

5 hours ago, Harpoon76 said:

Promises do feel like they were rushed into the release.

I started this thread after promising a player I'd accept a bid of £x from a specific team.  Trouble is, that value doesn't seem to be shown anywhere for you to check later.  It's missing from the conversation history (which has it's own bug so you can't scroll down), it's not set as a minimum release in the contract or listed on Home > Promises.  These bits need to plumbed in properly IMHO.

That one gets listed on the players transfer status page. It will show the asking price set to what you told the player. At least it has for me both times I've ran into this.

[carlowsaint19]

I like the feature and to be honest I've never had push back when I removed promises when the agents lay them out, as in they never push back. 

 

On frustration I had was Joel Matip wanting to move to a bigger league, but no offers were forthcoming. Despite me having him offered out and discounting the price 8mil below his market value no club made an offer and he was annoyed at me because I didn't allow him to move away from the club as promised.

[TheSimeon]

Just thought i'd chime in to say that this system doesn't work, and has now borked my save.  Signed Icardi (man u save, i know, i know) who wanted "attack" strengthened.  Proceeded to spend another 120 million dollars on strikers and an amc (gabriel jesus, danny welbeck, dele alli).  Icardi is outraged that I did not strengthen the squad.  Board is angry that I am doing a poor job with squad harmony.

If your going to implement a feature that can rear its head and destroy a save once you've put 40+ hours into it, it REALLY needs to work, SI.  Yours doesn't.  I'm pissed.

[TOMetz]

I have an issue where I promised my best player that he would be the penalty kick taker. In all of my tactics, I put him on the number one spot to take penalty kicks. He's been fit all the time and has taken several penalty kicks. Now I see in his dynamics screen that he thinks "The time is running out for the manager to assign him as penalty taker". WTF?

[Hovis Dexter]

The only promise I make, apart from the players status of course, is that I'll send him on language course. I quite like this promise because the player / agent (may) think that I'm conceding something in the negotiations when I'm going to send him on a language course in any event

[bar333]

On 2/10/2018 at 14:12, TOMetz said:

I have an issue where I promised my best player that he would be the penalty kick taker. In all of my tactics, I put him on the number one spot to take penalty kicks. He's been fit all the time and has taken several penalty kicks. Now I see in his dynamics screen that he thinks "The time is running out for the manager to assign him as penalty taker". WTF?

Same thing for me with promising to assign him as a FK taker. He is my FK taker, and has scored a couple.

I hope when time runs out he won't actually be unhappy. But honestly it's laughable that we still have to deal with these basic features simply not functioning or working at all. SI need to stop this business of putting in half baked features with bugs and then never fixing them before moving on to the next half baked feature. Make sure what you already have is working first.

[Jabn]

I had a player who wants and has been promised a new contract but his agent hates me.  For a reason I cannot understand.  My player is the only one the agent has that has ever had contact with my club.  And so he spent a full year playing without contract and not being approached by anyone until I got promoted and then the agent was fine to talk to me again.  It was nerve wracking knowing he could go at anytime and not be sold and I was completely handcuffed.  Couldn't even tell him to sack his agent. 

[deefus]

I signed a player and promised him that we would get promoted to the Premier League in 2 years time.

When it was mathematically impossible to get an automatic promotion place, even though I was in the playoffs, he was angry that I had broken a promise to him and demanded to leave.

So I had to drop him from the team and transfer list him.

We then won the playoffs and got promoted to the Premier League. 

He was still angry.  Ended up selling him to a Championship club.

[jujigatame]

I would really appreciate it if the game would make it clear when you are making a promise.  I've made choices in player interaction that just sounded like a reasonable response to an unreasonable moan, and realized weeks later (in-game time) that I had made a promise of some sort.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, deefus said:

I signed a player and promised him that we would get promoted to the Premier League in 2 years time.

When it was mathematically impossible to get an automatic promotion place, even though I was in the playoffs, he was angry that I had broken a promise to him and demanded to leave.

So I had to drop him from the team and transfer list him.

We then won the playoffs and got promoted to the Premier League. 

He was still angry.  Ended up selling him to a Championship club.

Classic

[cris182]

1 hour ago, jujigatame said:

I would really appreciate it if the game would make it clear when you are making a promise.  I've made choices in player interaction that just sounded like a reasonable response to an unreasonable moan, and realized weeks later (in-game time) that I had made a promise of some sort.

If you say in interaction you will do something then that is you promising the player that request 

[The Enforcer]

If you browse the dynamics section of the bugs forum, you will see there are plenty of examples of over-zealous behaviour as a result of ambiguous promises not being kept, or worse, the game erroneously perceiving the promise hasn't been kept. This includes examples of where a promise gets duplicated, so even when the promise is met, the duplicate isn't met resulting in massive fallout. The most extreme examples I have read are ones where users have won their league competition, but fell foul of not meeting some minor promise of the following ilk and were sacked:

"play more youngsters in the first team" (it means youth intake, but doesn't specify this) even though the user did play more youth intake players

"give back up full-back more playing time" (amount of playing time not specified) even though the back up full-back started half of the matches

[bar333]

On 2/11/2018 at 16:37, bar333 said:

Same thing for me with promising to assign him as a FK taker. He is my FK taker, and has scored a couple.

I hope when time runs out he won't actually be unhappy. But honestly it's laughable that we still have to deal with these basic features simply not functioning or working at all. SI need to stop this business of putting in half baked features with bugs and then never fixing them before moving on to the next half baked feature. Make sure what you already have is working first.

Yep, you guessed it - the season has ended, the player is unhappy that the promise was not kept and wanted a transfer. Luckily I had a great relationship with him and managed to talk him out of it.

Bravo, SI. How can a feature still not be tested in the most basic ways years after it was introduced? This is the first time I made that promise (and obviously the last) but I wouldn't be surprised if I go back to FM17 for instance and that bug was there too and has been untouched for years.

[Dagenham_Dave]

9 minutes ago, bar333 said:

Yep, you guessed it - the season has ended, the player is unhappy that the promise was not kept and wanted a transfer..

What were the options for a response when the player approached you again after him thinking the promise wasn't fulfilled? 

12 minutes ago, bar333 said:

This is the first time I made that promise (and obviously the last) but I wouldn't be surprised if I go back to FM17 for instance and that bug was there too and has been untouched for years.

Have you reported this as a bug? If no-one reports them, they aren't going to know the feature isn't working as it should. I've never had any issues with promises myself, but then it's a screen I do check regularly to try and keep on top of it. 

[Sunstrikuuu]

I and others reported this in both 16.3 (the first version of FM16 I played) and 16.3.1.  In my case, I was approached by players asking to leave because the team hadn't been promoted during the promotion playoffs.  Another user had a player demand to leave because the team couldn't get promoted while the team was 15 points clear at the top. 

In the case of my issue it was (probably) linked to more general issues with the calendar.  I had multiple news items congratulating me for avoiding relegation after winning my last game of the season; the team below me in the table hadn't played yet and proceeded to win their final game and leapfrog me.  That one was reviewed but I don't know what if anything happened with it.

[bar333]

2 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

What were the options for a response when the player approached you again after him thinking the promise wasn't fulfilled? 

Have you reported this as a bug? If no-one reports them, they aren't going to know the feature isn't working as it should. I've never had any issues with promises myself, but then it's a screen I do check regularly to try and keep on top of it. 

The options were what you'd expect in a conversation about a broken promise. There was no "I think you might be insane, you were the first choice FK taker all season and are selected as such in all my tactics" option, if that's what you're asking. It's 100% a bug.

Haven't reported it as a bug, might be too late to do so now anyway. I also check the Promises screen often and I always keep them. The issue was the game includes a promise to take FK's seemingly without actually tracking whether the player is taking FK's.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Have you reported this as a bug? If no-one reports them, they aren't going to know the feature isn't working as it should. I've never had any issues with promises myself, but then it's a screen I do check regularly to try and keep on top of it. 

TBH this promise should work on a simple mechanic of is the player the primiary free kick taker & is he taking 80%+ of direct free kicks in the oppositions defensive third when in the pictch.

This is the simplest kind of test for SI to have run through after the new promise was added & even if they don’t comment the team assigned to this feature should be monitoring threads about interactions & promises to pick up on any  issues that are commented on for internal recreation.

What I suspect ahs happened for the free kick promise is that the formula calculating the metric is including all free kicks & maybe also failing to adjust the numbers for when the player is not on the pitch which results in him incorrectly making a negative assessment because the code is not taking indirect free kicks & those in the defensive & midfield thirds of the pitch which is not within his inferred scope of the promise.

[lemeuresnew]

On 11/24/2016 at 17:12, Cougar2010 said:

When you make a promise you can go to the promises screen and it tells you how long you have to keep the promise.

He becomes unhappy if at the time the promise ends you haven't met the terms of it.

Its also far from unplayable, give it time and players settle one by one although you might be forced to sell the player who was unhappy.

does it tell you that before you select the conversation reply? otherwise how the hell are you supposed to know what you are saying lol

edit - sorry, didn't realise how old that was when i quoted! nice to know that the issue has been solved 

[bar333]

3 hours ago, Barside said:

TBH this promise should work on a simple mechanic of is the player the primiary free kick taker & is he taking 80%+ of direct free kicks in the oppositions defensive third when in the pictch.

This is the simplest kind of test for SI to have run through after the new promise was added & even if they don’t comment the team assigned to this feature should be monitoring threads about interactions & promises to pick up on any  issues that are commented on for internal recreation.

What I suspect ahs happened for the free kick promise is that the formula calculating the metric is including all free kicks & maybe also failing to adjust the numbers for when the player is not on the pitch which results in him incorrectly making a negative assessment because the code is not taking indirect free kicks & those in the defensive & midfield thirds of the pitch which is not within his inferred scope of the promise.

I made the player the FK taker from the right for all FK's, whether direct or indirect. At no point did the promise ever get "fulfilled" - I kept track of it and it was the yellow half circle all along, like the game just had no idea he was taking FK's.

The only thing I can think of is that the game requires you to assign him as FK taker from both sides but if that's the case it's incredibly stupid. You'd select that based on whether you want inswingers or outswingers from indirect FK's, and why would a left footed player want to take direct FK's from impossible angles on the left?

[cris182]

1 hour ago, bar333 said:

I made the player the FK taker from the right for all FK's, whether direct or indirect. At no point did the promise ever get "fulfilled" - I kept track of it and it was the yellow half circle all along, like the game just had no idea he was taking FK's.

The only thing I can think of is that the game requires you to assign him as FK taker from both sides but if that's the case it's incredibly stupid. You'd select that based on whether you want inswingers or outswingers from indirect FK's, and why would a left footed player want to take direct FK's from impossible angles on the left?

Arrogance and the fact you said he could 

[Spurs08]

2 hours ago, bar333 said:

I made the player the FK taker from the right for all FK's, whether direct or indirect. At no point did the promise ever get "fulfilled" - I kept track of it and it was the yellow half circle all along, like the game just had no idea he was taking FK's.

The only thing I can think of is that the game requires you to assign him as FK taker from both sides but if that's the case it's incredibly stupid. You'd select that based on whether you want inswingers or outswingers from indirect FK's, and why would a left footed player want to take direct FK's from impossible angles on the left?

Well that would be exactly it. You told him he'd be the primary free-kick taker, not just taking half of them. If you wanted the tactical flexibility of being able to exclusively use inswinging or outswinging free kicks or get what you feel are the best angles for direct free-kicks (he may well think he can score them!), you shouldn't have made the promise.

[Guest]

Have to agree with the others, if you only set the player to take free kicks from one side of the attacking third then you’ve increased the risk of him being unhappy.

[bar333]

5 hours ago, Spurs08 said:

Well that would be exactly it. You told him he'd be the primary free-kick taker, not just taking half of them. If you wanted the tactical flexibility of being able to exclusively use inswinging or outswinging free kicks or get what you feel are the best angles for direct free-kicks (he may well think he can score them!), you shouldn't have made the promise.

Oh, right, I shouldn't have made the promise. Silly me for applying logic to FM, I should have known better.

Let me rephrase what I said then - it's not a bug, just laughable and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, especially considering the fact that the game, as is the case in almost every area of it, gives you no feedback and doesn't tell you what the promise actually entails and what would be expected of you. It just loves to be full of surprises. Just like the "offer new contract" promise which is actually "offer new contract and the player must agree to it", with the second part not mentioned anywhere.

This is all assuming that's even the issue and it isn't really a bug. We're all just assuming, because we have no way to know for sure, because the game doesn't deign to tell us.

I'd also like to point out I don't believe the wording of the promise is what you seem to think it is. As far as I recall, it's "will assign player as FK taker". Nowhere did it say he'd need to be the one and only, exclusive free taker of every type and from every angle. 

[The Enforcer]

4 hours ago, bar333 said:

I'd also like to point out I don't believe the wording of the promise is what you seem to think it is. As far as I recall, it's "will assign player as FK taker". Nowhere did it say he'd need to be the one and only, exclusive free taker of every type and from every angle. 

I strongly recommend reporting it as a bug in the dynamics section of the bugs forum, so that SI can take a look. Ideally, they would like saves uploadedbefore the 'promise' was made, but if you have got one before the transfer request that might be sufficient, plus one afterwards.

[lemeuresnew]

On 2/13/2018 at 17:37, bar333 said:

I'd also like to point out I don't believe the wording of the promise is what you seem to think it is. As far as I recall, it's "will assign player as FK taker". Nowhere did it say he'd need to be the one and only, exclusive free taker of every type and from every angle. 

completely agree. irl if you assign a fk taker, it is with the assumption that it is for DIRECT FK positions only. can you imagine a Ronaldo wanting to be on the half way line and kicking off when he is told to go forward? or a left backing crying that he isnt  taking every kick on the right?