Unofficial let's talk FM features thread

[rdbayly]

1 hour ago, CFuller said:

I think I've seen tooltips along those lines before, but not advice on that screen itself.

What about these features then? I'm sure there've been people on here calling for these before:

 

It's about time you can make a senior player available for a single U23 / U18 match. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, CFuller said:

I think I've seen tooltips along those lines before, but not advice on that screen itself.

What about these features then? I'm sure there've been people on here calling for these before:

 

That’s a great addition but one reservation, how many AI managers are simply going to ignore the loan request & stick two fingers up at you when you complain? 

As for making a player available for a junior side for the next match, that’s good to see but is only bringing back a function that was removed or lost due to a bug, thought SI were above that type of false new feature marketing.

I also hope SI have added functionality to report on the role used with some margin for error from the scout/coach watching based on their tactical knowledge attribute, my fear is that role reporting could backdoor more accurate scouting & I will be casting an eye over this should I pre-order the game.

[ClemB]

Pretty weak features imo, there are mostly new buttons..

[Per Annum]

4 hours ago, CFuller said:

More new features announced on the FM Twitter account, starting with...

That newgen PA's face looks promising.

Not in my book. Might look better than last year but still looks awful. 

[tiago_wakabayashi]

15 hours ago, QWERTYOP said:

Thanks. If only the first reply to my question had just said "no", but anyway. Kinda makes the inclusion of the German league pointless from a playing point of view IMO. I suppose this will mean them making some coin from German fans, but personally, I would have much rather seen say the return of the Brazilian league. I was excited about the prospect of managing in Germany but probably won't now. A shame. Oh well. At least the game is purple this year.... 

Me too. But our clubs/players sucks. Konami just do that all work why they need and have a lot of public from here. We don't have who takes that marketing part for everybody, neither CBF neither any league/club organ. The closest we did was ceased and it was at the moment the clubs started to negotiate individually the TV money, increasing absurdly the profits.

7 hours ago, DP said:

Biggest hope for the ME is that it’s possible for a goalkeeper to be sent off. It’s a bit silly that this part of the game cannot be replicated in the best manager game around. 

I fear the immaturity of the collision detection means it isn’t possible. 

Me too. I would like to see GKs be sent off by aggressive one on ones, bad tackling or handball outside are. Even a yellow card for the same reasons and complaining.

[Overmars]

I didn't buy the game last year. I planned on buying this year's version, but that purple skin is hilariously bad. I'll still buy it, but I question why more than one person said "Yes!" to that colour choice. Really strange.

As for this thread's topic, the features I would want from this game each year are pretty simple:

1. Comprehensive player and team data updates (this is the biggest reason I buy a new version of FM).
2. Match engine realism improvements, with a focus on proper goal variety.
3. AI squad building improvements, which generally means I hope for AI teams to actually make player transactions rather than sit around and wait for one of my own transfer offers before submitting their own. They are generally way too passive in the market.

Just as important for me is the feature I don't want from a new game:

1. More clicks and tedious maintenance just to get through a typical season.

[Raffen]

I just wished that rather than making two versions of FM that each time you start a save you have tick boxes for which parts you want to include/exclude, so that you could get close to FMT without losing training/tutoring-depth. 

[Dagenham_Dave]

1 hour ago, Raffen said:

I just wished that rather than making two versions of FM that each time you start a save you have tick boxes for which parts you want to include/exclude, so that you could get close to FMT without losing training/tutoring-depth. 

You can do this already on the main game. Just get your assistant to do the team talks/press conferences/briefings etc. 

[upthetoon]

i'm waiting for reviews on how the new in-depth training & tactics ties into the Match Engine. The Match Engine must have obviously been drastically improved as well to cope with the new training and tactics depth.

but by how much is the question.

[Spurs08]

3 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

You can do this already on the main game. Just get your assistant to do the team talks/press conferences/briefings etc. 

Really not the same, as he then starts telling your star striker that his mum smells resulting in half the squad putting in a transfer request, or informing the media that the player you're trying to tap up can't even trap a football and has the tactical awareness of a potato.

[jcw163]

17 hours ago, DP said:

Biggest hope for the ME is that it’s possible for a goalkeeper to be sent off. It’s a bit silly that this part of the game cannot be replicated in the best manager game around. 

I fear the immaturity of the collision detection means it isn’t possible. 

This has been an issue for about 5 years now I think?

[HUNT3R]

1 hour ago, Spurs08 said:

Really not the same, as he then starts telling your star striker that his mum smells resulting in half the squad putting in a transfer request, or informing the media that the player you're trying to tap up can't even trap a football and has the tactical awareness of a potato.

My assistant has dealt with all PCs and most team talks in FM18. He's yet to mess up at all and this was with teams from the lowest of leagues, right to the top. They're not as incompetent (with those 2 things) as people think.

[Crispypaul]

4 minutes ago, HUNT3R said:

My assistant has dealt with all PCs and most team talks in FM18. He's yet to mess up at all and this was with teams from the lowest of leagues, right to the top. They're not as incompetent (with those 2 things) as people think.

Same here - I find it dramatically speeds up the game (I also have them doing tactical briefings, as long as tactical knowledge is passable its fine) whilst keeping the depth that is missing from the Touch versions.

[HUNT3R]

Just now, Crispypaul said:

Same here - I find it dramatically speeds up the game (I also have them doing tactical briefings, as long as tactical knowledge is passable its fine) whilst keeping the depth that is missing from the Touch versions.

I get tactical knowledge if I want him to do OIs for me too. Otherwise, I just look at JPA, JPP, Man management and Motivation. He's the judge of players on the squad view screen in terms of showing the "star" ability and I rely on him to handle the press and team talks. Assistants did mess up the odd occasion on earlier versions, but haven't had problems on 17 or 18 at all. Before those 2 versions, I did everything myself, so don't know too much about their competence on those.

[Raffen]

6 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

You can do this already on the main game. Just get your assistant to do the team talks/press conferences/briefings etc. 

I do this as well, but it resets every time you replace your assistant manager or change clubs, and you have to retick everything again. I would still prefer to be able to permanently untick the feature than looking through the menues and ticking/unticking stuff repeatedly through a game. I'm pretty sure that it still takes computer resources when the AsM does it, resources that could theoretically be saved and allocated to stuff I would deem more important. Hence why I would want the tick/untick options at the start, so that it's sort of a tailored experience based on the players preferences in genreal or for a particular save. 

Frankly I would love to be able to not see any of the social media malarky at all and save my computer the processing power, since it has zero influence on the game other than cosmetic. The 2-3 times I've bothered reading any of it after signing someone it seems there is 1/3 positive tweets, 1/3 neutral and 1/3 negative, and it felt predictable and pointless. I know some people like it, and therefore it's ok, but for me it would be nice if it was an option and not mandatory. I'm sure others feel similar about other stuff as well. 

Btw, I'm not thinking detailed ticks/unticks, but more in lines of "Social media YES/NO". But something like "Tutoring AUTOMATIC/MANUAL", "Training BASIC/DETAILED", "Tactical familiarity ON/OFF" or something to that effect, or gradients of similar would have been nice. 

Edit: Maybe even the option to not generate regen faces, if that really does take a modest amount of computer power/memory.

[forameuss]

1 minute ago, Raffen said:

Btw, I'm not thinking detailed ticks/unticks, but more in lines of "Social media YES/NO". But something like "Tutoring AUTOMATIC/MANUAL", "Training BASIC/DETAILED", "Tactical familiarity ON/OFF" or something to that effect, or gradients of similar would have been nice. 

It isn't quite as simple as that though.  None of those are purely aesthetic features, meaning they will have at least some knock-on effects on other parts of the game.  Social media is the only one I would think you could reliably switch off without having to go into the code of other modules to cover, and even then you'd likely have to change the focus of information given they're leaning on it fairly heavily.  If you change an ON/OFF to gradients, it becomes even more difficult, as you have to cater for just how much each feature is controlling.

I'm not saying it isn't possible, but you're unlikely to ever see something like that.  Just seems fraught with issues, even just on the surface.

[Raffen]

Most of all though I just wished they could reduce the amount of clicking necessary to play the game. Drop down menus, submenus, pop up windows, submenus of submenus you get to by hovering you cursor in a specific point for a set amount of time. It's really just a mess. I still play it, but it seriously makes Microsoft Office look like a clean and simple UI.

[Raffen]

1 minute ago, forameuss said:

It isn't quite as simple as that though.  None of those are purely aesthetic features, meaning they will have at least some knock-on effects on other parts of the game.  Social media is the only one I would think you could reliably switch off without having to go into the code of other modules to cover, and even then you'd likely have to change the focus of information given they're leaning on it fairly heavily.  If you change an ON/OFF to gradients, it becomes even more difficult, as you have to cater for just how much each feature is controlling.

I'm not saying it isn't possible, but you're unlikely to ever see something like that.  Just seems fraught with issues, even just on the surface.

Obviously it's not simple, but making the game isn't either i guess. But when "PURPLE" is one of the main attractions for the new game I guess the bar is set in the Mariana Trench, and it's hard to reach my Mount Everest wishes from there

[Dagenham_Dave]

46 minutes ago, Raffen said:

Obviously it's not simple, but making the game isn't either i guess. But when "PURPLE" is one of the main attractions for the new game I guess the bar is set in the Mariana Trench, and it's hard to reach my Mount Everest wishes from there

I think you'd do better to understand that a computer game is never going to be just specifically designed to cater for all of YOUR needs.  Get over that particular 'Mount Everest' and you might start to enjoy it more. 

[Asherware]

Very underwhelming stuff, IMO. The improvements are all welcome but to call them "headline features" and still be charging full price each year when there are studios putting out major updates for their games that dwarf the yearly releases of FM FOR FREE then it should be called out. SI makes a lot of money from Football Manager and so I think it's more than fair that fans keep their expectactions high. This isn't some indy dev doing his best. They bank hard on FM and I'm going to call it out if I see that they're phoning it in and this release looks just like that to me.

 

 

[russell9]

2 hours ago, Asherware said:

Very underwhelming stuff, IMO. The improvements are all welcome but to call them "headline features" and still be charging full price each year when there are studios putting out major updates for their games that dwarf the yearly releases of FM FOR FREE then it should be called out. SI makes a lot of money from Football Manager and so I think it's more than fair that fans keep their expectactions high. This isn't some indy dev doing his best. They bank hard on FM and I'm going to call it out if I see that they're phoning it in and this release looks just like that to me.

 

 

Reminded me of Larian Studios who constantly update their game for years and even release a definitive edition for free.
Worthily earned them huge game sales volume and perfect game review score.
That's the company we feel glad to support.

[bigmattb28]

19 hours ago, Raffen said:

 

Edit: Maybe even the option to not generate regen faces, if that really does take a modest amount of computer power/memory.

You can definitely turn off regen faces mate, 100%

[Dagenham_Dave]

10 hours ago, Asherware said:

Very underwhelming stuff, IMO. The improvements are all welcome but to call them "headline features" and still be charging full price each year when there are studios putting out major updates for their games that dwarf the yearly releases of FM FOR FREE then it should be called out. 

Most of which will be originally designed games with no limits on imagination, and not based on reality. Very easy to have big updates in those types of games. 

FM is a football management simulation that already has most of what goes into being a football manager in the game already. The update to the tactics module alone is worth the price of the new game. That's the single biggest improvement to one of the core parts of the game since the sliders went on FM14. 

I'm not really sure what you're expecting to be added that wouldn't 'underwhelm' you. But then some people are never happy with what SI do. 

[DP]

42 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Most of which will be originally designed games with no limits on imagination, and not based on reality. Very easy to have big updates in those types of games. 

FM is a football management simulation that already has most of what goes into being a football manager in the game already. The update to the tactics module alone is worth the price of the new game. That's the single biggest improvement to one of the core parts of the game since the sliders went on FM14. 

I'm not really sure what you're expecting to be added that wouldn't 'underwhelm' you. But then some people are never happy with what SI do. 

In terms of key new ‘features’ I agree. It’s not about adding more things it’s about refining what is already there. 

Hopefully based on the new tactics module this will, in turn, make the ME better and easier to read what’s happening - so I’m optimistic there. 

Longer term if other ‘features’ were left alone and the sole focus was on a better ME (and animations to see what’s going on, as well as realistic collision) and AI squad building I’d be very happy. 

[Chris21]

Guys will the BETA just automatically download? I just purchased through Steam but it didn't really mention the early access BETA. Presume it will just download though given I've brought through Steam. You'd think I know this given how many years I've done it, getting forgetful in my old age.

[Dagenham_Dave]

42 minutes ago, DP said:

In terms of key new ‘features’ I agree. It’s not about adding more things it’s about refining what is already there. 

 

This, however, would never appease the 'new features' addicts, those who scream the loudest when there's not 100 new things in an updated game. Catch 22 for developers. 

[legnerschorsch]

1 hour ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

This, however, would never appease the 'new features' addicts, those who scream the loudest when there's not 100 new things in an updated game. Catch 22 for developers. 

A more balanced view wouldn´t hurt you either...

There are very few "new feature addicts" here. And if the use of "Fanboys" is banned, this term should be as well.

Apart from that, it was SI who set the emphasis by naming the new skin their No.1 feature. What a marketing disaster.

Personally, I don´t need any new features. Just major improvements of the match engine would be sufficient. Again, this doesn´t necessarily include graphics.

[forameuss]

32 minutes ago, legnerschorsch said:

A more balanced view wouldn´t hurt you either...

There are very few "new feature addicts" here. And if the use of "Fanboys" is banned, this term should be as well.

Apart from that, it was SI who set the emphasis by naming the new skin their No.1 feature. What a marketing disaster.

Personally, I don´t need any new features. Just major improvements of the match engine would be sufficient. Again, this doesn´t necessarily include graphics.

Care to point out exactly where they've said anything they've released so far is a "No. 1 feature"?  Anything along those lines is just inference, completely on your part.

[CFuller]

3 minutes ago, legnerschorsch said:

Apart from that, it was SI who set the emphasis by naming the new skin their No.1 feature. What a marketing disaster.

Where do SI state that? As far as I can tell, the newer look was just one of the headline features, not the headline feature.

[legnerschorsch]

23 minutes ago, CFuller said:

Where do SI state that? As far as I can tell, the newer look was just one of the headline features, not the headline feature.

I didn´t write it´s THE new feature. But it was the first new feature of their presentation. Just mentioning a new skin as feature at all is preposterous. They change it every year and every year the community does a better job.

So far, I haven´t read anything about match engine improvements. It´s either there are none or something with SI´s emphasis is completely wrong. 

[themadsheep2001]

18 minutes ago, legnerschorsch said:

I didn´t write it´s THE new feature. But it was the first new feature of their presentation. Just mentioning a new skin as feature at all is preposterous. They change it every year and every year the community does a better job.

So far, I haven´t read anything about match engine improvements. It´s either there are none or something with SI´s emphasis is completely wrong. 

The match engine gets improvements every year. It has its own entirely dedicated team on it. 

Even now and right through to release they will still be looking to improve it. And then update as usual during FM19. It's a constant process. 

They don't mention it as much because it's something they do as standard. It's a given that they will spend a huge amount of time and resources on it. 

[CFuller]

25 minutes ago, legnerschorsch said:

I didn´t write it´s THE new feature. But it was the first new feature of their presentation. Just mentioning a new skin as feature at all is preposterous. They change it every year and every year the community does a better job.

1 hour ago, legnerschorsch said:

Apart from that, it was SI who set the emphasis by naming the new skin their No.1 feature. What a marketing disaster.

So SI didn't name the new skin their number 1 feature... but you claimed that they did. Anyway, just because SI announced the new skin first doesn't necessarily mean they saw it as FM19's biggest selling point. Several blog posts were published in a short space of time, so it wasn't as if they were focussing on promoting one particular aspect of the new game.

Personally, I don't like certain aspects of the new skin right now. I just won't get hung up about it, because there will be alternative skins out there, official or otherwise.

As for your comment regarding ME improvements, as @themadsheep2001 says, the ME is improved every year. I'd imagine that one of the reasons SI don't speak about the ME upgrades as loudly as other features is that it can be hard to quantify the specific changes that they've made.

[Dagenham_Dave]

22 minutes ago, legnerschorsch said:

I didn´t write it´s THE new feature. But it was the first new feature of their presentation. Just mentioning a new skin as feature at all is preposterous. They change it every year and every year the community does a better job.

So far, I haven´t read anything about match engine improvements. It´s either there are none or something with SI´s emphasis is completely wrong. 

It says you've been a member here since 2009, so I have to assume you've at the very least played the game since then. To that end, you must be aware by now that the match engine improvements are never a headline feature, just as they aren't on other football games (eg FIFA), they will more or less just mention that area of the game is improved from the year before as it's always a work in progress as TMS indicates above. 

[michaeltmurrayuk]

3 hours ago, Chris21 said:

Guys will the BETA just automatically download? I just purchased through Steam but it didn't really mention the early access BETA. Presume it will just download though given I've brought through Steam. You'd think I know this given how many years I've done it, getting forgetful in my old age.

Yes if it works the same as the last couple of versions if the game is showing in your Steam Library then once the Beta is released you'll be able to download it as you would with the normal game on release, there is no longer a separate Beta entry and on release of the full game your beta version should automatically update with the files from the full release.

1 hour ago, legnerschorsch said:

I didn´t write it´s THE new feature. But it was the first new feature of their presentation. Just mentioning a new skin as feature at all is preposterous. They change it every year and every year the community does a better job.

So far, I haven´t read anything about match engine improvements. It´s either there are none or something with SI´s emphasis is completely wrong. 

Though to be fair if you are touting the new look then you cannot really announce it last after the other features as they will give it away, so it makes sense to announce the new look 'first' and then lead into the other features.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Miles has tweeted some new ones tonight. 

Particularly like the way you can now tell your disgruntled players after you've sold one of their pals that the player actually requested to leave. That's a great addition and should relieve some unnecessary dynamics headaches. 

He's also said there will be more resolution choices which is also great, that was sadly lacking last year (among many other things)

[CFuller]

This one looks really interesting to me. So we're presumably going to see more Chinese/American/Middle Eastern tycoons in future, and not quite so many from Argentina, Malta, etc?

[Lucas]

39 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Particularly like the way you can now tell your disgruntled players after you've sold one of their pals that the player actually requested to leave.

Not much of a pal if he didn’t tell his mate why he was off, tbf  

[legnerschorsch]

2 hours ago, themadsheep2001 said:

The match engine gets improvements every year. It has its own entirely dedicated team on it. 

Even now and right through to release they will still be looking to improve it. And then update as usual during FM19. It's a constant process. 

They don't mention it as much because it's something they do as standard. It's a given that they will spend a huge amount of time and resources on it. 

Following this logic, why do they mention the new skin then? Was there ever a version the last years when they didn´t change it? Sorry, obviously you are just protecting SI, no matter what.

So why they don´t mention the changes? Should I just trust them, especially since last years version was a big step backwards?

Iirc, before they improved the match engine in every update. Recently, no changes in the winter update. From my perspective, this looks like they keep them until autumn and call it a new version. 

[themadsheep2001]

16 minutes ago, legnerschorsch said:

Following this logic, why do they mention the new skin then? Was there ever a version the last years when they didn´t change it? Sorry, obviously you are just protecting SI, no matter what.

So why they don´t mention the changes? Should I just trust them, especially since last years version was a big step backwards?

Iirc, before they improved the match engine in every update. Recently, no changes in the winter update. From my perspective, this looks like they keep them until autumn and call it a new version. 

It's not about protecting anything, its about stating whats accurate. My point is that its a fact, the match engine has its own dedicated team and its working on solely by them constantly, and its upgraded every year. Anyone claiming otherwise is simply wrong

They have to mention the new skin, because its literally the first thing you will see, and its not just a skin change, some of the UI interfaces. It's mentioned because their whole branding style has changed.

Match Engine log changes are incredibly long, and constantly changing.

And its only the last two iterations they haven't released an 3rd update, but they don't actually stop working on it. The version now, will have been updated dozens of times since March, and will probably go through a dozen more updates before release. So claiming it's the same version held back is again simply wrong. Because they version released wont even be the same version they have now.

[DP]

9 minutes ago, legnerschorsch said:

Following this logic, why do they mention the new skin then? Was there ever a version the last years when they didn´t change it? Sorry, obviously you are just protecting SI, no matter what.

So why they don´t mention the changes? Should I just trust them, especially since last years version was a big step backwards?

Iirc, before they improved the match engine in every update. Recently, no changes in the winter update. From my perspective, this looks like they keep them until autumn and call it a new version. 

I’m far from happy with the current ME but it’s a tricky one to go into detail on via a ‘features’ list. Especially when the changes are so subtle. 

When they introduce something significant like collision or a brand new engine it’ll be announced as a major feature. Whilst the current one is being tuned still, even though they’ll be significant changes (hopefully) it’s not the sort of thing that easily translates as a new ‘thing’ or feature. They can be quite technical in nature. 

[themadsheep2001]

1 minute ago, DP said:

I’m far from happy with the current ME but it’s a tricky one to go into detail on via a ‘features’ list. Especially when the changes are so subtle. 

When they introduce something significant like collision or a brand new engine it’ll be announced as a major feature. Whilst the current one is being tuned still, even though they’ll be significant changes (hopefully) it’s not the sort of thing that easily translates as a new ‘thing’ or feature. They can be quite technical in nature. 

This really, They can have hundreds of entries, and they aren't designed to be understood easily by users, they are the technical entries for each ME iteration update. One entry can be something really minor, or something massive.

[legnerschorsch]

Then why is it that we haven´t seen any longer match engine footage, yet? Again, iirc, in the past this was always released along with the new features list.

Just in my opinion, they can´t be thrilled about it. Otherwise, not much sense holding it back.

[theonets]

The new training thing looks awesome.

 

[CFuller]

10 minutes ago, legnerschorsch said:

Then why is it that we haven´t seen any longer match engine footage, yet? Again, iirc, in the past this was always released along with the new features list.

Just in my opinion, they can´t be thrilled about it. Otherwise, not much sense holding it back.

Going off recent FMs, I'm pretty sure SI only release substantial ME footage when the game is much closer to release.

[themadsheep2001]

27 minutes ago, legnerschorsch said:

Then why is it that we haven´t seen any longer match engine footage, yet? Again, iirc, in the past this was always released along with the new features list.

Just in my opinion, they can´t be thrilled about it. Otherwise, not much sense holding it back.

Because it's never released until closer to release, when it's closer to the launch version. 

And no it wasn't always released in the past with the new features list. 

And they tend to push things out bit by bit until release. 

[themadsheep2001]

25 minutes ago, CFuller said:

Going off recent FMs, I'm pretty sure SI only release substantial ME footage when the game is much closer to release.

I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see match engine footage until the public beta release. 

[jeff.fit82]

What about exhibition resolutions?

How many resolutions will it have?
just two like FM18?

[Dagenham_Dave]

Noticed earlier the footballer Mangala showing off he's got early access to the game (might be fake)

Got me thinking though, for future pre-release promos, why not give a pre-release copy to a YouTube/Twitch content creator? That way, people would be able to watch another person actually play the game so all could see how the new features work and how the match engine is shaping up. And yes, I can see the downside to this too, but it would be a novel new way of announcing the features. 

[masno]

1 hour ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Noticed earlier the footballer Mangala showing off he's got early access to the game (might be fake)

Got me thinking though, for future pre-release promos, why not give a pre-release copy to a YouTube/Twitch content creator? That way, people would be able to watch another person actually play the game so all could see how the new features work and how the match engine is shaping up. And yes, I can see the downside to this too, but it would be a novel new way of announcing the features. 

Not fake I guess,the official FM twitter account respond it right after he posted. 

[Per Annum]

I often wonder about how they give football players pre-release.

The beta we get is often something of a ****-show, with lots of issues that footballers, who by and large will be insta-click players without either the patience of the decades of geekery-experience required to persevere.

Do they get the same beta version everyone else will get in a few weeks? Does it have BETA stamped all over it like ours does? You'd think even that alone would deter a lot of footballers from bothering.