Animate the statues standing on side of pitch

[b28937]

One thing I never understand is, the game is called Football Manager.  A lot of work seems to have gone into creating your manager's looks, going so far as to set eye color iirc.

But then when you watch a match, you have these two statues standing on the side of the pitch staring straight ahead with their arms crossed, not even watching the game, rarely even moving.  I call them sphinxes, as if they are guarding the tunnel entrance rather than the pyramids.  The action moves from one end of the pitch to the other, and they don't even watch it.  They just stand staring straight ahead.  I know they have some animations like when they give team shouts, sometimes they go sit down on the bench, but for the most part they do little more than security guards or the burger truck.  I know this sounds a little harsh, but I mean it tongue in cheek.

It is just the most baffling part of the 3-d match engine.  I've been watching these shows called "All or Nothing," one with Man City and another focused on seven Spanish league clubs.  During the games, most of the camera time is on the managers who wear their emotions on their sleeves.  Especially Pep Guardiola in the Man City show.  A striker misses a sitter and he throws his hands up in the air in exasperation and goes and sits down having animated discussions with the assistant manager.  Then I play FM and he's just a statute who doesn't even pay attention to the game.  He just stands there frozen (for the most part) not even watching the game.  

I know this is a meaningless part of the game, but the game is called Football Manager after all.  When I'm watching the match sitting alone in a room in front of the computer, I'm about 100x more animated than the statues on the FM sidelines.  I don't understand it at all.

Again, i don't mean to be so critical and I hope the developers don't take it personally, but this just seems like the biggest oversight in the game.  And I'm sure I'm not the first one to raise this issue, it's probably been raised dozens of times before, but I think it needs to be raised over and over again.  Maybe there should be a template of five or so different manager animations (i.e., how they act on the sidelines and how they react to events on the pitch).  For example, something tied to their personalities, one animation for the temperamental type and another for the professional.  Maybe take their motivation or man management ratings into account, maybe even something dynamic like the standings or job security (manager in a bit match in a relegation battle or title race who acts differently than a comfortably sitting mid-table manager, etc.).  I don't mean some complicated modelling of the managers, but there really needs to be some realism and variety here, maybe five different types of manager animations using some of these simple factors to chose which one to use).

Again, please don't take this personally even though maybe it sounds like a harsh criticism, it's just a simple feature request of what to me is by far the most unrealistic and disappointing part of the match day experience, especially when they game is called Football Manager.  There should be some attempt to make the football managers at least act like human beings in the 3d match engine.  Thanks.

 

 

[Kyle Brown]

Reviewed so locked.