*Official* Football Manager 2022 Early Access Beta Feedback Thread

[craiigman]

Anyone having success with tactics that arent all about pressing/very high intensity. I know pressing is massive in real football these days, just wondered if anyone plays less aggressively but still getting results?

[Fettucine_Alfredo]

Just now, craiigman said:

Anyone having success with tactics that arent all about pressing/very high intensity. I know pressing is massive in real football these days, just wondered if anyone plays less aggressively but still getting results?

I did for a few months. Then it phased out. I mean, good results for me making my own tactic. Like 2nd with Dortmund, a couple of nice CL wins over Chelsea and AC Milan, and one over Napoli. Nothing amazing.

[diLLa88]

I'm having great success with possession based tactic, which has pressing, but not the turbogas pressing of the KNAP tactics ppl usually download.

[Johnny Ace]

Yeah, you can still overachieve without going crazy 

[Mars_Blackmon]

especially if you take advantage of corners and use of a target forward. Which I hope all gets fixed soon.

[Johnny Ace]

1 minute ago, Mars_Blackmon said:

especially if you take advantage of corners and use of a target forward. Which I hope all gets fixed soon.

Target Forward & Wide Target Forward are fun as right now, far post crosses are particularly OP right now, anyone seems to be able to win headers there  

[azymin]

Player personalities - there seem to be a LOT more 'balanced' personality players in this version, and this personality is now also counted as a positive in scouting reports. Was 'balanced' tweaked from last version? In the past you'd usually try to stack players with as much determination and professionalism as you could find. 

Data - Is there any way to separate player's data by competition? From what I've seen they're only compared to players in their domestic championships. I'd like to be able to see how my players stack up against others in Champions League for example.

[azymin]

31 minutes ago, craiigman said:

Anyone having success with tactics that arent all about pressing/very high intensity. I know pressing is massive in real football these days, just wondered if anyone plays less aggressively but still getting results?

I'm playing with high engagement line and pressing one step below max. It's working well so far. I do feel like the AI is better at hitting you on counters if you're overly aggressive.

[kiwityke1983]

37 minutes ago, craiigman said:

Anyone having success with tactics that arent all about pressing/very high intensity. I know pressing is massive in real football these days, just wondered if anyone plays less aggressively but still getting results?

Yep, me. I like to counter attack so don't have counter pressing or a high line of engagement.

[Fettucine_Alfredo]

25 minutes ago, Mars_Blackmon said:

especially if you take advantage of corners and use of a target forward. Which I hope all gets fixed soon.

I couldn't get anything out of Target. I mean, sort of for a bit. But I tried a lot and it never really worked too much

[Freakiie]

11 minutes ago, azymin said:

Player personalities - there seem to be a LOT more 'balanced' personality players in this version, and this personality is now also counted as a positive in scouting reports. Was 'balanced' tweaked from last version? In the past you'd usually try to stack players with as much determination and professionalism as you could find. 

Data - Is there any way to separate player's data by competition? From what I've seen they're only compared to players in their domestic championships. I'd like to be able to see how my players stack up against others in Champions League for example.

Balanced was definitely a positive in the scout reports in FM21 and probably before that as well. Also, real players cannot have negative personalities, so those are all set to balanced, that's why you see way more balanced personalities than you'd think at the start of a game.

[bigmattb28]

Random non feedback related question. Will the full game be released at midnight on the 9th or is going to be some random time during the day? I've booked it off work. 

[Domoboy23]

5 hours ago, duesouth said:

I was going to wait on FM22, but after watching a few Daljit streams and seeing his enthusiasm, I caved.  Give the man some commission!!  I'd certainly love to see him given the green light by SI to give us a couple of alpha videos next year.

I've tried 3 saves - one was very brief with FC Andorra as I encountered the same bug I raised in FM21 (bug report again raised) which popped the immersion bubble - hopefully this gets cleared for the start of the San Marino Challenge with Victor San Marino, which will be pretty popular this year I would imagine!  Then did a bit in the National League South with Farnborough in a Dafuge type challenge and played 10 games with Schalke to look at a higher level of play.

Overall impression is good.  I have a pretty poor PC, but loading/saving times are fast and it feels slick.  Certainly going back into FM19 shows just how much faster the game is now.  Having said that, I find when I'm watching a match when the screen has to scroll, that's a little bit jerky and it makes it a little harder to follow, particularly with the added known issue about the ball not being clear.  Outside of that performance is excellent.  Outside of my allbeit rather specific player registration bug with FC Andorra, I would say overall the game feels less bugged than FM21 - and this is still the beta - so well done to SI.

On the flip side, I was very disappointed to see the match UI is the same.  I know SI will have sunk development time and money into creating it, but I personally really don't like it - and would love the option to be able to choose between this UI and the "classic" one.  I know that would potentially be double the bugs, but I think the majority of people seem to prefer the old version.

Also on the negative is the grass colour.  It looks bleached and I think is part of the problem with the ball not showing up that clearly as it's almost white on white.

The new animations are really nice.  Couple that with how teams are more likely to pass back when nothing is on - and the improvements to crossing, I think this is a more accurate reflection on real life.  I personally wouldn't want to see SI rush out any nerfs to crossing.  I do think it might need to be tweaked down a little - but I'd rather wait to late November/early December to make sure SI get it right than rush something out for release date.

In the ME, I am seeing central play and I've scored some nice goals from quick passing interplay as well as through balls.  I think @Bakiano might have captured the issue with central play being IF/IW not always cutting in.  I find my IF(Su) in a 4-2-3-1 is in position to get on the end of crosses from my winger on attack on the other wing, although I've seen a similar animation of a tame far post header from 8-12 yards which the keeper saves easily too often.  However, when he has the ball, he is staying pretty wide.  I'm going to watch him exclusively when I play a game tonight and will raise a bug report with a pkm if he's not acting as I would expect.  If someone is playing right now and has time to do this and raise something if it's a thing, I can certainly add to that.

I would say my main concern with the ME is that counter attacking systems are ineffective.  I used the same basic 4-2-2-2 formation I used in FM21 with Farnborough (2 DM's - AF/TF combo up front - direct counter attack) and outside of counters from corners, I have not seen enough when I'm using a formation to invite people on to me and counter directly and quickly.  For me personally (and I know we all see the ME differently), this should be the focus of the ME team between now and full release.

Some people have said long shots are OP - interestingly, I found this more the case with a 2 DM system than in a 4-2-3-1 where I would expect there to be more space between back 4 and the midfield.  I think tactics are key for this issue, although I did feel too many National League South players with poor numbers for long shots were going top bin.

Injuries wise, I certainly saw more injuries with Schalke than with Farnborough - although I was really struggling with condition in the last 10 minutes with Farnborough, likely as I had 2 less subs.  However, I certainly don't have a problem with the change in direction related to condition - and indeed anything that prevents the gegenpress from being OP is very welcome.  Perhaps a little tweak might be needed as I would guess leagues with 3 subs it's going to be tough sledding.

I've had a little play with the Data Hub, but I think I'll need to read or watch some guides as I didn't really know what are the key things to look at.  I have to admit my brain doesn't see anything when I look at most charts, but I can pick things out from a bunch of numbers in a table - so atm I'm still using Daljit's "BTN Performance View" and finding that computes in my head!

I've gone through one transfer deadline with Schalke.  As the transfer budget is £0, there wasn't much excitement there - so I'll withhold judgement - but not sure it will give me much.

One thing I liked is when setting an asking price for a player, you get the agent feedback as to whether they would accept that.  Perhaps I'll try a save with a team that has some cash to spend to see how bids are looking - I would expect agents of AI players to act the same and therefore not have to bid crazy amounts of money to get a player.  If you have to bid miles higher than the upper end of the transfer value range, this would need to be looked at.

I tried press conferences - some different answers - but they seem longer this year and they very quickly got repetitive and I delegated them.  Perhaps the answer would be 3 or 4 questions max - and maybe even a couple.  I know it's not matching real life, but given the restrictions in game, I think this would keep it fresher.

The staff meeting was OK, but have set to once a month.

One really important thing that is a "wait for release" is the Editor.  I really hope SI have given it some love and people who add so, so much to FM by creating leagues have a much easier time of it this year.  I'm hoping Claassen feels good enough about the editor that he returns to make his outstanding league packs.

Finally, I saw the "too easy" thread is busy again this year.  With Schalke, I've won all 10 games.  That wasn't the case with Farnborough.  I guess if all you want to do is manage your favourite team - and in reality most players probably do and that will be a big club as they have more fans - then I think it might be considered too easy.  However, go no coaching badges, Sunday League footballer and start unemployed or do the Dafuge Challenge and it's much tougher.  So, the difficulty is there in game, but you have to seek it out.  This one is a tough balance for SI as you know full well that if it was harder to win with top sides, this thread would explode with negative posts.  Do I think it should be tougher if you start with no badges?  No.  Do I think it should be tougher if you start with all the badges/international footballer experience?  Yes.  How to do that - no clue!

Overall, I've only had to raise one bug report and the game doesn't feel like a beta.  I liked FM21 far more than FM20, although even after the final patch, it still felt like there were too many bugs.  I would say FM22 is looking like it's going to be much cleaner than FM21.  The ME is very good - I make tactical changes and see that reflected on screen.  With a couple of tweaks, I think this will be much better than FM21.  I've certainly really clicked with Schalke and trying to repair the finances and am sat here at work really looking foward to getting home and being able to play, which says it all really.

Agree so much with all of this.

Especially in regard to counter attacking football. I'm finding that poachers are sitting far too deep rather than on the shoulder.

Maybe not quite enough 0-0's either!

[treble_yell_:-)]

Using exact same tactics (with largely the same team in one of my saves) as I did in FM21 really shows how different the ME is this year. 

 

In FM 21 my rangers side scored a lot of goals in and around the box mostly from shots, in FM22 the overwhelming majority of goals are headers or scrambles after crosses (and my players are mostly average in the air), now a massive fan of this change tbh.

 

Data Hub - On teh screen where you can see goal types, why does the amount of goals scored to match the actual amount of goals scored ? The screen in question makes  no mention of it only being for a certain amount of matches (and the goals scored doesn't seem to match any group of matches I can work out anyway) My New Castle save is showing 22 goals for domestic competitions when it should be 47...

 

Also, is there any way to see an individual players goal type spread ?

 

 

[L7M]

The ME is pretty broken unless you like crosses. All the fullbacks and inverted wingers/inside forwards want to do is head down, run wide and cross to the back post everytime they get the ball. Seems impossible to create a short passing tactic.

[Neil Brock]

47 minutes ago, bigmattb28 said:

Random non feedback related question. Will the full game be released at midnight on the 9th or is going to be some random time during the day? I've booked it off work. 

We've done different things in the past - afraid we won't be pre-announcing the exact timings as with things like this, something always has the chance of coming up that can change all of that. 

Sorry we can't be more clear. 

[Metal]

Haven't seen any penalties saved by a goalkeeper yet. I seen one miss wide of the goal but never an actual save unless it's a penalty shootout.

[Freakiie]

32 minutes ago, Domoboy23 said:

Agree so much with all of this.

Especially in regard to counter attacking football. I'm finding that poachers are sitting far too deep rather than on the shoulder.

Maybe not quite enough 0-0's either!

Seeing the same thing with my Shadow Strikers in a strikerless system, they don't push up anywhere near as aggressively as they did in FM21. Makes counters a very rare occurrence as high mentality players just don't push up anywhere near as aggressively and quickly as you'd expect them to, so most counters just fizzle out due to a complete lack of support.

[Freakiie]

5 minutes ago, Metal said:

Haven't seen any penalties saved by a goalkeeper yet. I seen one miss wide of the goal but never an actual save unless it's a penalty shootout.

My goalie saved like 2 this season I think? Also had a couple blasted straight through him though, which looks rather awkward.

[autohoratio]

43 minutes ago, Domoboy23 said:

Agree so much with all of this.

Especially in regard to counter attacking football. I'm finding that poachers are sitting far too deep rather than on the shoulder.

Maybe not quite enough 0-0's either!

 

4 minutes ago, Freakiie said:

Seeing the same thing with my Shadow Strikers in a strikerless system, they don't push up anywhere near as aggressively as they did in FM21. Makes counters a very rare occurrence as high mentality players just don't push up anywhere near as aggressively and quickly as you'd expect them to, so most counters just fizzle out due to a complete lack of support.

Agreed with this. Also noticed this with wing-backs - I've been playing various 3ATB systems (mostly wingerless) and the wing-backs (or wide midfielders which I've also been using) don't seem to want to go forward soon enough when countering unless they're put on Attack duty.

[Metal]

I know headers are OP but please don't nerf them completely just make it OP for players with exceptional heading ability can consistently score headers like Ronaldo or big target men, instead of wingers who are 5'7 heading like prime alan shearer

[FM1000]

On 31/10/2021 at 16:52, Jaydenoren said:

Is it me or do wide players who doesn’t play on the side of their stronger foot (inside forwards) never try to switch on their stronger foot when through on goal? Seeing way too much shots with the weaker foot even when having time to switch it onto the stronger foot

This has been an issue for me since forever, I hope they fix it for FM 2022

[Mars_Blackmon]

8 minutes ago, Metal said:

I know headers are OP but please don't nerf them completely just make it OP for players with exceptional heading ability can consistently score headers like Ronaldo or big target men, instead of wingers who are 5'7 heading like prime alan shearer

I don’t think a CB should be scoring 25 goals from set pieces regardless of his heading and jump reach attributes. Most of the headers aren’t being challenged and they are going in with pin point accuracy.

[ChelseaSince86]

57 minutes ago, Neil Brock said:

We've done different things in the past - afraid we won't be pre-announcing the exact timings as with things like this, something always has the chance of coming up that can change all of that. 

Sorry we can't be more clear. 

Neil,

 

Any idea if any more updates to the beta are planned before the 9th?

 

Thanks

[Metal]

38 minutes ago, Mars_Blackmon said:

I don’t think a CB should be scoring 25 goals from set pieces regardless of his heading and jump reach attributes. Most of the headers aren’t being challenged and they are going in with pin point accuracy.

Obviously that's ridiculous but I'd be wary of too many complaints because now the wingers are actually crossing the ball when they should be, I think op corners are the problem where the defenders are getting ridiculous goals amounts but generally the strikers and wingers are getting the headers in my save

We don't want SI to revert back to the wingers and wingbacks shooting from impossible angles instead of crossing at the byline which is what we had in the last few editions and then we rarely got headers from players with good heading ability

[duesouth]

6 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

I think that's a bit bugged at the moment. Either that or it's by design, but I've had numerous times where I've set the asking price and it comes up saying the player would be happy with it, only to get an almost instant email saying the player wants a chat as he's annoyed you're asking for too much money for him. It may be the agent thinking one thing and the player another, but I'm more inclined to believe it's not quite working properly given it's a brand new feature. 

Just tested this going as high as the agent would allow - and yup right away had the player wanting to discuss personal matters because his asking price was too high.  So, not quite working correctly.

[azymin]

1 hour ago, Metal said:

Haven't seen any penalties saved by a goalkeeper yet. I seen one miss wide of the goal but never an actual save unless it's a penalty shootout.

I saw one so far. I'm about 20-ish games into my 1st season, so probably not enough saved.

[zgiorgos10]

Players from the top level, 4-5 times per game, they dribbling out of the field uncontested. Also, some crosses from the left to right back.

Thanks

[kiwityke1983]

One person has posted one defender getting 26 goals. I don't think this is as major a problem as people seem to think.

[MrPompey]

3 hours ago, bigmattb28 said:

Random non feedback related question. Will the full game be released at midnight on the 9th or is going to be some random time during the day? I've booked it off work. 

no-one knows, probably gets released the moment you cooked your grub and sit down to eat it!

 

[Bakiano]

I don't know I am the only one, but there are more and more coaches who are raising voices about bad refereeing.

[Freakiie]

So finally done with my first season and my best eleven has some curious performances.

Not sure how I feel about ratings honestly. My CD (especially the BPD one on the left) is performing amazing rating wise. Partially boosted by corner goals, no doubt, but even without them he'd probably be my highest rating player. Which just feels... weird.

My goalie has a surprisingly high rating considering his general performance. Meanwhile, one goalie in the league who has prevented almost 10 expected goals (in comparison, mine has only 3.6 prevented goals) somehow only has a 6.9 average rating. Surely his should be much higher with that level of performance.

My LB is my main corner taker. Yeah, bet the ratings didn't give that one away!

Meanwhile up front, sure, I've had much better performing front lines in the past, but Dvorak still has 13 goals and 8 assists, yet he doesn't even get a 7 on average. You'd think a guy that's directly involved in a goal every second game would be rated a tad higher.

[Mars_Blackmon]

1 hour ago, kiwityke1983 said:

One person has posted one defender getting 26 goals. I don't think this is as major a problem as people seem to think.

Doesn’t mean it’s not happening. I personally had 15 one year and 11 the next by the same guy

[Platinum]

6 hours ago, craiigman said:

Anyone having success with tactics that arent all about pressing/very high intensity. I know pressing is massive in real football these days, just wondered if anyone plays less aggressively but still getting results?

I press but play very low tempo football and have success

[Johnny Ace]

40 minutes ago, Mars_Blackmon said:

Doesn’t mean it’s not happening. I personally had 15 one year and 11 the next by the same guy

I got 26 with VVD, can't get anywhere near that with anyone else 

[Obaaa]

24 minutes ago, Johnny Ace said:

I got 26 with VVD, can't get anywhere near that with anyone else 

26 goals in one season?

[Johnny Ace]

10 minutes ago, Obaaa said:

26 goals in one season?

Yeah, I sent it in, never right 

[Obaaa]

21 minutes ago, Johnny Ace said:

Yeah, I sent it in, never right 

That's wild.

Does the beta get updated at any point or is it a case of just waiting for the full release now to see if stuff like this is fixed?

[Jaydenoren]

4 hours ago, FM1000 said:

This has been an issue for me since forever, I hope they fix it for FM 2022

Happy to see the improvement in through balls in the last year so hopefully they’ll fix this or we’ll never be able to get the most out of IFs

[Johnny Ace]

9 minutes ago, Obaaa said:

That's wild.

Does the beta get updated at any point or is it a case of just waiting for the full release now to see if stuff like this is fixed?

No idea pal, just wait for release now I guess 

[iamnobody]

In the last version I purchased (FM20) from a player view when you go to Report -> Coach Report you could get a comparison of the player to the rest of the team.  It is usually in the bottom right corner.  I don't see this in FM22.  Am I missing something?

 

[Freakiie]

7 minutes ago, iamnobody said:

In the last version I purchased (FM20) from a player view when you go to Report -> Coach Report you could get a comparison of the player to the rest of the team.  It is usually in the bottom right corner.  I don't see this in FM22.  Am I missing something?

 

 

Are you using a skin or something? The coach report mostly looks just like it did in FM20 for me.

[callamity]

1 hour ago, Johnny Ace said:

I got 26 with VVD, can't get anywhere near that with anyone else 

This was achievable on fm21 too

[iamnobody]

6 minutes ago, Freakiie said:

Are you using a skin or something? The coach report mostly looks just like it did in FM20 for me.

No Skin.  Here is what it looks like for me.

 

 

[cris182]

17 minutes ago, iamnobody said:

In the last version I purchased (FM20) from a player view when you go to Report -> Coach Report you could get a comparison of the player to the rest of the team.  It is usually in the bottom right corner.  I don't see this in FM22.  Am I missing something?

 

I didn't have that until i zoomed out in preferences 

[iamnobody]

2 minutes ago, cris182 said:

I didn't have that until i zoomed out in preferences 

I just tried to zoom out and in just to be safe.  Still not there.

[cris182]

2 minutes ago, iamnobody said:

I just tried to zoom out and in just to be safe.  Still not there.

I had to zoom way out, And it made everything too small so looks like i can't have that and be able to see things i want to see

[iamnobody]

5 minutes ago, cris182 said:

I had to zoom way out, And it made everything too small so looks like i can't have that and be able to see things i want to see

It looks like that was it.  I had to use my smallest resolution (1920 x 1080) and zoom out to 85%.  

[Domoboy23]

Crazy the constant high scorelines in both user and AI games. So rare to see 0-0's or consistent-ish 1-0's. 3-3s's 4-1's, 5-2's everywhere. Makes my defensive heart hurt!

And yet on the other hand it's so nice to see AI strikers on rare occasion manage 35 goals in 40 app seasons true to life which is brilliant and also happened on FM21. 

[isa-998]

Ta daaaa