Football Manager 2021 Early Access Beta Official Feedback Thread

[anagain]

@pizzachipsIf you need help to solve an issue that is happening often then you'll want to include the crash dump file in any thread you open in support.

As for whether you should bug it:

 

If they don't answer your questions you could report it, including the crash dump file.

Are you using any add ons? You shouldn't be really, in the beta.

[anagain]

5 minutes ago, Johnny Ace said:

Nice one 

Turns out we were playing at Anfield  Not very neutral 

That's a bug. I think I saw neutral grounds not being actually neutral reported somewhere.

[fmaberdeenfan]

My Review of FM21 so far:

This year, FM seems to have taken 2 steps forward but also 1 back.

 

Match Engine

Love it, the new animations are class, strikers now finishing 1 on 1s is great. Can’t really fault the match engine at all.

New Features

For the new features relating to transfers, I am a massive fan of asking agents about availability and interest, makes it easy to know whether or not it’s worth going after a player, fantastic new addition. Sadly I am not a fan of recruitment meetings. They seem pretty pointless because the players suggested to me in the meeting are nowhere near the level my team is at. Also the find players by their stars feature seems to not work properly as I haven’t received a single player from it yet either, maybe I’m just using it wrong?

 

Now for the worst one, (throws water bottle) match UI. I’m just going to keep this short as there is already a thread on this out there but the match UI is so poorly done it makes me want to go back to FM20. Team talks are a nightmare to do, players scattered all over the screen, individual team talks you have to deselect all players to just use one, it’s frustrating. ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.’ Despite this I am a massive fan of the ‘this match only’ option when changing tactics pre-game. I also like the new way of seeing role suitability, fitness, sharpness and the players in match ‘feelings’. The touchline tablet isn’t for me but I can see how others would like this addition as it is very useful. 

 

On a more positive note, new press conferences and player interactions this year are wonderful I must say. Much more variety and it will certainly keep me interested in doing press conferences for my whole save. Only thing I’m not a fan of for press conferences is the layout for answering questions, I’d prefer if the options for answering is vertical like in previous FMs. 

 

The new stats are also fantastic and a massive step up from previous FMs. XG in particular is a quality addition. Top work.

Issues that annoy me

I’m managing Man Utd and the order of fixtures seems a bit off. For example play a team twice in quick succession then don’t play other teams til nearly the end of the season. 

Another thing that bugs me is that for most of the season (apart from when europa league is on) there are 8/9/10 games on a Saturday in the Prem which almost never happens due to the TV deal. The fixtures should be distributed across the weekend slightly better to add to the experience. 

 

Finally

I am a big fan of all the little extras on the game this year so a huge well done to the SI team on this, they have done magnificently to produce this game during a pandemic. Sorry for the essay, hope it helps in making the game the best it can be! Thanks for reading and stay safe everyone 👍🏼

[Leiskari]

Started an online game with my mate and neither of us can add a secondary tactic. Nothing happens when you click the plus icon. Is this a known bug? Had the "disable of importing tactics and shortlists" checked when creating the game.

[Karnack]

I have to say that this is the best ME I've ever played. It's amazing. All sorts of goals are being scored, including through balls and very quick tiki-taka-esque goals where my players make several short passes to get a man free on goal. Very very good.

[thiagoanjo]

2 horas atrás, s1111 disse:

An xG of 1.0 is a tap in from 1 yard or less with no defenders or goalkeeper nearby, 0.31 for that shot is right (about a 1 in 3 chance of scoring)

I completely disagree.

[anagain]

4 minutes ago, thiagoanjo said:

I completely disagree.

You'd be surprised. This is a good article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40699431

Do the quiz at the bottom.

[thiagoanjo]

3 horas atrás, zyfon5 disse:

typically clear cut chances are at 0.3-0.5. 0.31 is probably accurate from what I see from this play. the shooter do not have too much time and space on the ball with the GK in a good position and a defender chasing from the back. Also is the shooter shooting from his stronger foot? typically clear cut chances that are around the 0.5 mark are shots from rebound or close shots where the GK is out of position and the shooter has space and time to shoot.

Edit: ok I read the article the anagain sent.

In fact I dont disagree with you guys, I disagree with this metrics from xG. Now I will completely ignore it, lol

Edited November 14, 2020 by thiagoanjo

[XaW]

1 minute ago, thiagoanjo said:

Where that you get those link numbers x kind of play ? 

2 clear cut chances would result you a xG of 0.6 goals? Thats make absolutely no sense to me.

 

A xG of 2 doest means that should scored 2 goals? 2 clear cut chances means doesnt mean the same?

I think you misunderstand the concept of xG. An xG on 1 is nigh on impossible for a single chance. Even a penalty is 0.75-0.8 (different for different providers). It's based on previous statistics, and does NOT include player ability. It's based on how many percent of chances from the same position actually scores. Not the player, but any player.

What you can use xG for is to see how "big" a chance was. If your striker miss many high xG chances, then it's mostly down to the player. However, if you only create chances around 0.05, then you are not creating good chances, even if you create 100 of them and the xG (accumulated) is 5. So xG is simply a measure of how your attacking play is, but it can't be viewed in isolation, you need to look at the chances as a whole. Over a long period, you can see trends and if you are overachieving, underachieving, or as expected.

[thiagoanjo]

5 minutos atrás, XaW disse:

I think you misunderstand the concept of xG. An xG on 1 is nigh on impossible for a single chance. Even a penalty is 0.75-0.8 (different for different providers). It's based on previous statistics, and does NOT include player ability. It's based on how many percent of chances from the same position actually scores. Not the player, but any player.

What you can use xG for is to see how "big" a chance was. If your striker miss many high xG chances, then it's mostly down to the player. However, if you only create chances around 0.05, then you are not creating good chances, even if you create 100 of them and the xG (accumulated) is 5. So xG is simply a measure of how your attacking play is, but it can't be viewed in isolation, you need to look at the chances as a whole. Over a long period, you can see trends and if you are overachieving, underachieving, or as expected.

Yeah, I had missunterstood that. I conclude it is pretty much irrelevant for the way I analyze my matches.

[fm2020.smith]

some more feedback after 6 months in game

playing younger  players has too much effect on tbe match, i tend to trust actual football managers over programmers and klopp is able to play some younger kids but if you do this in ga,e it destroys the match. 

already noted the crossing. a bug that dates back a few years is still here

asking to change existing affiliate doesnt work 

team talks already been said all over the place 

when teams want a player on loan even for the best players they dont offer anything for the loan just want your player for free

media done by fans is just wierd saying salah shouldnt be playing at this level and stuff. at least put some intelligent things in there 

feedback from board is too harsh, draw with city away and they are dissapointed, second oin the league and 3 points off top and they are dissapointed 

city is liverpools biggest  game and its top against 2nd and voirtually no build up and press conf is rubbish barely 2 things said. at least make a big deal of the massive games make it feel like this is a game of the giants 

older players playing too much. cavani for man u is playing every game. in real life hes too old and is barely used 

 

but thats not much on the negative side, not got time to go into all the positives, the best beta ive played for a long time and im hooked already and played over 40 hours so little bit of tuning and this is going to be fantastic 

 

[XaW]

2 minutes ago, thiagoanjo said:

Yeah, I had missunterstood that. I conclude it is pretty much irrelevant for the way I analyze my matches.

Yeah, it's in itself not as useful for everyone, but it can give you an indicator to how good your players are to find space. If you see very many chances, but low xG each time, your players are taking poor chances instead of recycling possession for example. So it can be a tool for improving tactics. You can also use it to see if your tactic "should" work, but you just have poor finishers. If you get many big chances, but score little from them, your striker might not be good enough. Though, it could also be other things. Still, I'm very happy to have another tool in the game, seeing as how much xG have impacted football broadcasts in real life (even if it's hard to gauge xG!).

[Tomwood91]

Hi,

 

Alot of people want to play 2 player football manager without the restraints of having to be online at the same time. Would it be possible that outside of transfer windows one player could continue and the games would synchronise as the others catch up? Obviously you'd have to stop and wait when you got to a head to head match.

[XaW]

The dangers of having a too high defensive line against good strikers. This was against my team, but man what a lovely finish.

 

[skillhaves]

Dear Sports Interactive, you said that you worked on the facegen, this is true, it is definitely much better than in FM 20, but I think this is from the fact that you lowered the bar too much, after FM 16 - quiet horror. it seems that in 2020 you can make a good generator, but no you are looking for an easy way. I play quite long saves and when regens appear, they want to see individuality and not twin brothers. For example, all my career I trained a player who became a legend and I remember in all the fond memories of that coaching experience and after a couple of seasons a player with the same face is generated, this is complete nonsense .. I bought the game and hoped for real changes, but what about me I was disappointed when I saw the same players. Please do not ignore and give an answer.

 

Sorry for bad english

[Ellis_D]

Well, for me, I am now getting used to these emojis for fitness/condition and think they could actually be better. It means I can actually keep the same team for a Sat, Tue, Sat trio of matches in a row, impossible on other FM's due to them being too low on fitness. It means I can rest/rotate when I want to, other than injuries and suspensions.

Also, not sure if there's been a small patch yesterday or not,  but I can now pick my team on the normal squad screen. So, I'm happy that this will be the best FM ever!

[rp1966]

5 minutes ago, skillhaves said:

Dear Sports Interactive, you said that you worked on the facegen, this is true, it is definitely much better than in FM 20, but I think this is from the fact that you lowered the bar too much, after FM 16 - quiet horror. it seems that in 2020 you can make a good generator, but no you are looking for an easy way. I play quite long saves and when regens appear, they want to see individuality and not twin brothers. For example, all my career I trained a player who became a legend and I remember in all the fond memories of that coaching experience and after a couple of seasons a player with the same face is generated, this is complete nonsense .. I bought the game and hoped for real changes, but what about me I was disappointed when I saw the same players. Please do not ignore and give an answer.

 

Sorry for bad english

Needs something closer to the level seen in Crusader Kings III.

[thiagoanjo]

8 minutos atrás, XaW disse:

The dangers of having a too high defensive line against good strikers. This was against my team, but man what a lovely finish.

 

Yeah, I had the problem too, I really liked it!

[bobbyb12345]

I think the strip at the bottom of the screen during matches with the player shirt icons for quick subs etc... could be better if those were the player photos rather than kits?

[tcoleman1]

Haven't played much of the game yet but I'm interested in starting my main Chelsea save on the beta. Is there anything glaring (bug wise) etc. that should mean I should wait a couple of weeks until full release?

[XaW]

1 minute ago, thiagoanjo said:

Yeah, I had the problem too, I really liked it!

I love it. High lines were way to effective in FM20, but now, in FM21, I'm really seeing it being exploited by other teams if I push it too much, as it should.

[ElmoMcTickleMe]

Will there be a colourblind option in settings for things like fitness / match sharpness? Really disappointed this has been changed to colour based only without the choice for a numerical option. Almost game breaking for me

[Domoboy23]

13 minutes ago, XaW said:

The dangers of having a too high defensive line against good strikers. This was against my team, but man what a lovely finish.

 

I love your goal gifs. Please keep them coming

[Double0Seven]

About regens, is there any way you can generate regen faces for staff/players with no face? Have there been any mods for this? 

 

[XaW]

1 minute ago, Domoboy23 said:

I love your goal gifs. Please keep them coming

Will do whenever a goal really strikes me as watch worthy! 

[thiagoanjo]

3 minutos atrás, XaW disse:

I love it. High lines were way to effective in FM20, but now, in FM21, I'm really seeing it being exploited by other teams if I push it too much, as it should.

I also liked the effectiveness of 541 in make hard time for "tiki taka", it is really difficulty create space against a 5 back line

[Mars_Blackmon]

i think the 2 major problems currently is the AI being timid in their attacking and the exploit of buying players with the future installments feature. Those things must be tighten up IMO. 

It's starting to become a glaring problem now since mostly everything else in the game is top notch.

[XaW]

2 minutes ago, thiagoanjo said:

I also liked the effectiveness of 541 in make hard time for "tiki taka", it is really difficulty create space against a 5 back line

Yeah, the tactics in general really seems to make a real difference for me. I didn't much mind the ME of FM20, but it had it's limitations and flaws even if they were possible to work around. Here, I'm really enjoying the match being played out before me, and I feel my chances are possible to spot. Now, that goes for both better and worse, and I've made a lot of errors so far! Still, I can see how my chances affect the match, and that's the key for me.

[Rakiye]

I know it has been brought up many times, but I have to say the emojis for physical condition and match sharpness are a backwards step for me. They maybe handy when playing via a mobile phone, but they are obscure and childlike when trying to seriously manage your teams fitness and condition. 

I absolutely get that you cant totally breakdown a players fitness by numbers, but why have number ratings at all for attributes if that's the case? How can you say that Virgil Van Dijk has a 17 out of 20 for 'Tackling' yet has a sort of a smiley face for fitness and a thumbs up for match sharpness? it completely contradicts the whole process. You often hear players and coaches say they are 80 or 90% fit so its not unrealistic.

There are 3 specialist job roles now in football manager for players surrounding their fitness and condition. Sports scientists, fitness coaches and physios. You often have numerous of them at a club. so to see a smiley face and a thumbs up when it comes down to a precise science of fitness, sharpness and condition, is just a massive step backwards and hugely unhelpful when managing a team.

Manager- "So, fitness coach. How do you assess/gauge my strikers match sharpness for next weeks crucial cup game?"

Fitness coach- "red box with a black upside down thumb"

Manager- "remind me why I pay your wage again?"

So lets get things in perspective here. We get xG, performance & recruitment analysts to further help us manage our clubs. Fitness, sharpness & condition wise we get emojis...

Edited November 17, 2020 by Rakiye

[a5864003]

Am I the only one who thinks the defender's ai should be elevated? I think it's too easy for a through pass. Is it because I only saw the highlights?

[Martini]

Readability is super low, fonts are hard to read with blurry edges and are very thin, creating a sense of shadowing and ghosting, also some fonts keep their small size when scaling, this didn't happen with older versions, please focus on accesibility next year

[holidaysong]

I love that the mentoring monthly report actually mentions the hidden attributes that are going up or down.

[Corner2020]

Hi guys! Have a problem, cant seem to get the second half started? Still no solution, help me out guys;)! Tried the following:

- zoom 95/85/50%
- cache refresh
- updated drivers
-windowed modus

Nothing helps. And not getting respons from SI games...

[anagain]

4 minutes ago, Corner2020 said:

Hi guys! Have a problem, cant seem to get the second half started? Still no solution, help me out guys;)! Tried the following:

- zoom 95/85/50%
- cache refresh
- updated drivers
-windowed modus

Nothing helps. And not getting respons from SI games...

I believe it is a bug that SI are looking in to.

[Corner2020]

Thanks! Thought so, hope they fix it soon!

[autohoratio]

13 hours ago, Seb Wassell said:

That may be indicative of the personalities you have on your team. The way players react to shouts is governed by a number of factors, including but not limited to their personalities and the current match situation.

To add to this comment, I've gotten positive responses from some players to Encourage, Demand More and Fire Up while another player or two was Overhelmed By Feedback or Frustrated By Feedback, so there's definitely some dynamism in play 👍 Makes a positive change from every player being Fired Up by the Demand More shout.

[thiagoanjo]

31 minutos atrás, XaW disse:

Yeah, the tactics in general really seems to make a real difference for me. I didn't much mind the ME of FM20, but it had it's limitations and flaws even if they were possible to work around. Here, I'm really enjoying the match being played out before me, and I feel my chances are possible to spot. Now, that goes for both better and worse, and I've made a lot of errors so far! Still, I can see how my chances affect the match, and that's the key for me.

Also, how you measure your effectiveness through xG? You simple analyze the difference between you and your opponent, you divide the xG total per shots on goal or anything else? 
I scored 2 goals with a xG of 2.06, I think I should do more goals, right?


 

Edited November 14, 2020 by thiagoanjo

[MatthewS17]

One thing seriously bugging me at the moment is GK kicking. I'm seeing way too many long kicks despite the fact that I'm asking to play it into the defence. I want them to obsessively play out from the back. 

Just seems like a random squander of possession most of the time.

Also seen it a few times from defenders. 

[serg__23]

Please add age collum to add player tab in mentoring group

[tobybilton1]

 

Don't think I have ever been more disappointed in FM in all the years of playing it and it hurts me to say that. I appreciate that this is a BETA but the past two have not been this bad or had as many issues. 

 

Lagging match engine

Drag/drop players picking the wrong ones (the main issue for me)

Role suitability / stars on tactics screen should be looked at as suggested by somebody in other thread

Save game crashes (being looked at)

Literally not doing the tactics you have set up 

Messed up zoom at game start, put it to 85% it's better will deal with it. 

Setting opposition instructions pre game, sometimes I can select more than one player at a time, sometimes I can't 

Individual team talks take longer because you have to deselect every player first

They don't respond to shouts as much or as well as in previous years 

Hojbjerg marking of 10 and probably out of your Spurs team in a year or so (have posted about this on data-issues using the template they ask for and with evidence to support my argument and been blatantly ignored) 

 

I'm so gutted to have to come across as moaning or to write these complaints because I am mad about this game and have been for years, as many of us are. I just hope and prey everything gets sorted by full release otherwise i'll stick to FM20, which would be a great shame because all the new features have the potential to be ace, but they're just not working as they should. 

 

 

[XaW]

2 minutes ago, thiagoanjo said:

Also, how you measure your effectiveness through xG? You simple analyze the difference between you and your opponent, you divide the xG total per shots on goal or anything else? 
I scored 2 goals with a xG of 2.06, I think I should do more goals, right?

It really depends, but scoring 2 goals from an xG of 2.06 means you have scored as expected (provided you have at least two good chances. I don't look at the xG in isolation, I try to use the map.

In this match, I lost 2-0, and my team is the black line and the opponent were the blue. I've marked the some of the chances I consider noteworthy here. And it's 3 for each team.

Quite early on my team had a big chance, but missed. Then after about 15 they scored from a similar chance. Here is a screenshot of the shot:

This is an xG of about 0.33. Then no chances of worth happened before the 2nd half, then both teams had some good chances, but failed. Then they scored a 2nd goal.

This is also a chance with an xG of around 0.33. It's after a free kick when their player ran in ahead of my defenders. Later we had a couple of decent chances.

So even if the xG total is similar (1.24 vs 1.09), they had slightly better chances, but we could have deserved a goal, while they were a bit more clinical than us. We were far from outplayed and we could have gotten something, but didn't. This is how I analyse it, anyway. I don't know if it's possible, but I'd like to be able to "exclude" chances of below 0.1 to see how many decent chances (or better). Since creating 100s of 0.05 is not something I want, even if they accumulate a high xG.

[thiagoanjo]

13 minutos atrás, MatthewS17 disse:

One thing seriously bugging me at the moment is GK kicking. I'm seeing way too many long kicks despite the fact that I'm asking to play it into the defence. I want them to obsessively play out from the back. 

Just seems like a random squander of possession most of the time.

Also seen it a few times from defenders. 

Despite you ask for short passes from gk, he has someone in good chance to receive that pass? You could drop here some video or a pkm with the moments that it is happening

[zyfon5]

50 minutes ago, Mars_Blackmon said:

i think the 2 major problems currently is the AI being timid in their attacking and the exploit of buying players with the future installments feature. Those things must be tighten up IMO. 

It's starting to become a glaring problem now since mostly everything else in the game is top notch.

Anyone else finding defenders marking a big issue? I just watched some youtubers video for like 10 mins and already noticing issues with defender marking. Basically defenders often leave their assignment and switch targets for no reason leaving players with plenty of space.

[Rashidi]

4 minutes ago, XaW said:

It really depends, but scoring 2 goals from an xG of 2.06 means you have scored as expected (provided you have at least two good chances. I don't look at the xG in isolation, I try to use the map.

 

To take your example, I generally look at this... I look for the chances with the best variance. Those two chances I indicated  are very very good chances that are converted, and I would focus on finding out why and how I created those chances so i can repeat them. Good way of approaching it.

[thiagoanjo]

6 minutos atrás, XaW disse:

It really depends, but scoring 2 goals from an xG of 2.06 means you have scored as expected (provided you have at least two good chances. I don't look at the xG in isolation, I try to use the map.

In this match, I lost 2-0, and my team is the black line and the opponent were the blue. I've marked the some of the chances I consider noteworthy here. And it's 3 for each team.

Quite early on my team had a big chance, but missed. Then after about 15 they scored from a similar chance. Here is a screenshot of the shot:

This is an xG of about 0.33. Then no chances of worth happened before the 2nd half, then both teams had some good chances, but failed. Then they scored a 2nd goal.

This is also a chance with an xG of around 0.33. It's after a free kick when their player ran in ahead of my defenders. Later we had a couple of decent chances.

So even if the xG total is similar (1.24 vs 1.09), they had slightly better chances, but we could have deserved a goal, while they were a bit more clinical than us. We were far from outplayed and we could have gotten something, but didn't. This is how I analyse it, anyway. I don't know if it's possible, but I'd like to be able to "exclude" chances of below 0.1 to see how many decent chances (or better). Since creating 100s of 0.05 is not something I want, even if they accumulate a high xG.

But after that conclusion, what you think it was the problem and it has a solution ?

[thiagoanjo]

2 minutos atrás, Rashidi disse:

To take your example, I generally look at this... I look for the chances with the best variance. Those two chances I indicated  are very very good chances that are converted, and I would focus on finding out why and how I created those chances so i can repeat them. Good way of approaching it.

That was my point, analyze and see: "how I create it?", "why I didnt score?", "how I let them create it?", so I can identify and fix the problems or improve/increase my created chances

[XaW]

2 minutes ago, Rashidi said:

To take your example, I generally look at this... I look for the chances with the best variance. Those two chances I indicated  are very very good chances that are converted, and I would focus on finding out why and how I created those chances so i can repeat them. Good way of approaching it.

Yeah, that was my, potentially poorly explained, method. So in this case, they scored on two big chances (one from a freekick and the other after their winger got past my full back and found their striker in space. However, we also had some big chances, especially the one after few minutes, so we had a chance to get something from it, but weren't clinical enough.

Just now, thiagoanjo said:

But after that conclusion, what you think it was the problem and it has a solution ?

Well, my team was big underdogs (preseason odds, are 251.00 for me, and 8.00 for the opponent) for that match, so I think that means we did quite well! And with a bit more luck we could have nabbed it. So I don't think I need to change anything. Not all matches are winnable for lesser teams.

[Chime_Chime]

Everytime I want to change the color of my kit in ''Make A Club'' I get a crash dump. Also can you change the height and weight of Noni Madueke like in real life, Height: 176cm and Weight: 65kg. Thank you.

[FloridaCanary87]

I really like the new game. I don't buy the game every year as there usually isn't enough of a change for me, but this year is way ahead. I really like the analysis of teams efficiency - it gives me a much greater insight to how I should focus my play based on how many chances they can create, if I should play them on the counter, etc.

One thing I would love to see included, but might be difficult as it's likely a licensing thing, is journalist names. Throughout the game there are real people in there, board members, staff and so on, but then the realism is shattered when I walk in to a press conference for BBC Radio Norfolk with made up reporters.

Edited November 14, 2020 by FloridaCanary87

[thiagoanjo]

9 minutos atrás, XaW disse:

Yeah, that was my, potentially poorly explained, method. So in this case, they scored on two big chances (one from a freekick and the other after their winger got past my full back and found their striker in space. However, we also had some big chances, especially the one after few minutes, so we had a chance to get something from it, but weren't clinical enough.

Well, my team was big underdogs (preseason odds, are 251.00 for me, and 8.00 for the opponent) for that match, so I think that means we did quite well! And with a bit more luck we could have nabbed it. So I don't think I need to change anything. Not all matches are winnable for lesser teams.

But I meant, if you had a ball behind your left back, you can see if he was poor positioned or simply the winger is faster. If the left back isnt fast maybe you can drop down a lil bit the defensive line or change the role of that left back, etc. Because that situation can repeat, so I like to see what I can do to decrease that kind of situation