FM 22 Animations - do players look more/less technical?

[stopazricky]

Hey guys! I'm considering getting FM22 and I wanted feedback about the new animations system (yes, I am playing the demo and taking a look myself, I just want to hear other people's opinions).

What bothered me the most about the match engine in FM21 (that, all things considered, I loved) was that highly skilled players didn't really visually stand out in their movements/technical gestures, and conversely, players with low technical attributes didn't really seem to struggle that much more with passing/first touch et cetera.

For example, in FM21 I had a young Centre-Forward with 18 Technique. Given that he wasn't tasked to dribble, on a visual level I could not see how his world-class Technique was making him a better player. I can imagine he was shooting better because of that but the match engine didn't visually convey that at all. 

I am not necessarily talking about fancy tricks or dribbles (although they play a big role - how common are they in top-tier world football in FM22?), but more of some nuances in ball control and things like that.

[FrazT]

There have definitely been some noticeable improvements, but I can't see what other users can tell you that you could not see for yourself by viewing the matches in the demo.

[MasterKano]

One on ones are a mess and the set pieces can be over powered, there are quite a few exploits in the match engine.

Not a great deal has changed, for me at least, in the overall feel and view of the match engine... the animations are still rather raw and rigid and the movement is awkward.

[Baodan]

16 hours ago, stopazricky said:

What bothered me the most about the match engine in FM21 (that, all things considered, I loved) was that highly skilled players didn't really visually stand out in their movements/technical gestures, and conversely, players with low technical attributes didn't really seem to struggle that much more with passing/first touch et cetera.

16 hours ago, stopazricky said:

I am not necessarily talking about fancy tricks or dribbles (although they play a big role - how common are they in top-tier world football in FM22?), but more of some nuances in ball control and things like that.

I hope that some day this will actually be a thing in FM.

[stopazricky]

13 ore fa, FrazT ha scritto:

There have definitely been some noticeable improvements, but I can't see what other users can tell you that you could not see for yourself by viewing the matches in the demo.

I have limited time in a day, so I can't play very many matches, and my sample size risks being too narrow.
Also, this is definitely a very player-related aspect (that is, it should be), and I can only play 11 players at a time. While I understand that if Messi and Neymar don't stand out in their movements, then no one else does, I still wanted to make sure this is the case by talking with other people.

From what I've been observing so far, the new anymation system shows zero improvement. While the animations might be better, the same set of animations is used for every player and they are triggered and drawn upon in a very awkward manner.

I'm not saying the game looks bad - it does, but I don't care - all I'm saying is that all the great, nuanced, complex calculations of the match engine are not only invisible, but unreadable. You can't really see stuff like "Oh, look at how Brahim Diaz acts with the ball, the dude's got potential". Because when he receives a pass, or shoots, he looks exacly like a goalkeeper from League 2.

[Sharkn20]

1 hour ago, stopazricky said:

I have limited time in a day, so I can't play very many matches, and my sample size risks being too narrow.
Also, this is definitely a very player-related aspect (that is, it should be), and I can only play 11 players at a time. While I understand that if Messi and Neymar don't stand out in their movements, then no one else does, I still wanted to make sure this is the case by talking with other people.

From what I've been observing so far, the new anymation system shows zero improvement. While the animations might be better, the same set of animations is used for every player and they are triggered and drawn upon in a very awkward manner.

I'm not saying the game looks bad - it does, but I don't care - all I'm saying is that all the great, nuanced, complex calculations of the match engine are not only invisible, but unreadable. You can't really see stuff like "Oh, look at how Brahim Diaz acts with the ball, the dude's got potential". Because when he receives a pass, or shoots, he looks exacly like a goalkeeper from League 2.

It's a good thing that scouts are available in the game, to tell You how much potential a player has then!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Edited January 17, 2022 by Sharkn20

[Marko1989]

Well, I think even if you watch Fifa or Pes games from a couple of years before you can't tell which player has potential, maybe you could just see which player is faster.

But I agree that the animations are still poor. But I care also about graphics, with all the respect to people who work on graphics/aesthetics in FM, they are probably talented, but somehow the game does not look nice to me. I don't know is that lightning or what, but I can't watch 3D, not just because of the poor animations but because of the overall look of the match. Even 2D is not looking good and it was nice before.

After two decades of playing I really have everything I need in the game regarding managment, now I wish that in coming years that we will get some big improvement in animations and graphics.

[kepz]

Idk I am not as impressed by the 3D animations this year. I still see players “skating” the pitch, the GK has occasionally made some bizarre movements (leaping to the side to grab onto a ball rolling across the ground after it bounced off the post where he could have easily just picked it up), and pressing/marking looks… awkward. 
 

But I don’t play the game for the 3D animations!

[stopazricky]

4 ore fa, Sharkn20 ha scritto:

It's a good thing that scouts are available in the game, to tell You how much potential a player has then!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

But the thing is, scouts are pretty much only coming back to you with numbers.

They might say "X has 18 Technique". But what does that mean? Should I blindly trust that all his normal-looking passes are actually benefiting from that attribute? What about Agility, which is literally described by the game as the ability to change direction fast and efficiently? What visual feedback can I get from Agility if all players -  all of them - awkwardly stop before turning while on the ball?

[Sharkn20]

4 hours ago, stopazricky said:

But the thing is, scouts are pretty much only coming back to you with numbers.

They might say "X has 18 Technique". But what does that mean? Should I blindly trust that all his normal-looking passes are actually benefiting from that attribute? What about Agility, which is literally described by the game as the ability to change direction fast and efficiently? What visual feedback can I get from Agility if all players -  all of them - awkwardly stop before turning while on the ball?

You expect A LOT from a text based game. And you are going to be very disappointed if you don't tamper your expectations.

This is not FIFA, the focus of the game is not on graphics and perfect representation on the field of player atributes, that's not what FM22 is about and I truly hope it never goes the FIFA way. I like the RNG concept of the game a lot more than best players always win.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Sharkn20

[Sloak]

27 minutes ago, Sharkn20 said:

You expect A LOT from a text based game. And you are going to be very disappointed if you don't tamper your expectations.

This is not FIFA, the focus of the game is not on graphics and perfect representation on the field of player atributes, that's not what FM22 is about and I truly hope it never goes the FIFA way. I like the RNG concept of the game a lot more than best players always win.

“Hey guys, have the animations improved at all?” 
 

“You don’t need visuals there’s numbers”

 

“But I would like to be able to actually see attributes impact on the field”

 

”You expect a lot. Anyways I hope this game never goes in a direction it’s never shown any indication of going. Also, I hope core game mechanics don’t change, once again, despite no indication of this happening.”

 

Glad we got his question answered.

 

It feels better this year than it did last year in my opinion, but it is not quite to the level I’d personally like it to be at yet.

[phd_angel]

Back in 2009, when 3D engine was first adopted in FM, people would overlook graphic bugs. Typical comment was, "FM is a strategy game, so 3D graphics don't matter". Yet, the visual aspect of FM is probably a big attraction for a much larger number of gamers, and most probably a reason for sales growth over the years.

3D improvements are so minor year over year that a regular fan won't notice much. 

A FM YouTuber posted a video discussing the lack of audio in FM (other than the highly dull in-match crowd sounds most people turn off). That's an insightful commentary, as FM is indeed a quite silent game, just like a 1920s black & white movie...

[kepz]

2 hours ago, phd_angel said:

FM is indeed a quite silent game

On the flip side, you play FIFA or something similar for a few hours and you’ve heard every comment possible by the play-by-play announcers and crowd tracks lol

[HUNT3R]

11 hours ago, stopazricky said:

What about Agility, which is literally described by the game as the ability to change direction fast and efficiently? What visual feedback can I get from Agility if all players -  all of them - awkwardly stop before turning while on the ball?

Agility is, imo, one of the easiest things to see in the ME. They can quickly change direction. A player who is good at dribbling and also has high agility, is a nightmare for defenders with the many quick changes of direction.

I can easily see the difference between my target man type forward, with 9 Acc, 9 Agility and 14 Balance and my wonderkid winger with 14 Acc, 14 Agility and 16 Balance. One is quicker, changes direction quicker and turns quicker.

Stopping awkwardly might be a sign of poor Balance?

[phd_angel]

On players being more or less technical, note that as FM adds more lower leagues and secondary nations, it is likely the case that the average player is becoming inferior, thus less technical...

[Britrock]

I can definitely notice the difference in quality when playing in the French 3rd division compared to my £500m Newcastle team. Their dribbling is worse, passes are more wayward, their decisions aren't as good, everything is a few steps down in quality. 

[HUNT3R]

20 minutes ago, Britrock said:

I can definitely notice the difference in quality when playing in the French 3rd division compared to my £500m Newcastle team. Their dribbling is worse, passes are more wayward, their decisions aren't as good, everything is a few steps down in quality. 

Definitely. I start at the bottom every season and work my way up the leagues and it's noticeable how there are differences in the lower leagues compared to top players. One thing I want to add to your post regarding wayward passes, is that it's not just about passes completed vs incomplete. It might even be similar. Even if the passes are completed, the pass is still often inaccurate, meaning the receiver has to run to another spot to receive the pass. Little things like that can affect the flow and build up quite a bit.

[JAwtunes]

Re. FM being silent... does anyone remember the old audio commentary on CM?  I don't think ENG and SCOT had it but the various EURO leagues had very patchy audio commentary.  I would love some audio commentary to accompany the text, even if its really basic and patchy like the good old days! 

[stopazricky]

Il 18/1/2022 in 08:35 , HUNT3R ha scritto:

Agility is, imo, one of the easiest things to see in the ME. They can quickly change direction. A player who is good at dribbling and also has high agility, is a nightmare for defenders with the many quick changes of direction.

I can easily see the difference between my target man type forward, with 9 Acc, 9 Agility and 14 Balance and my wonderkid winger with 14 Acc, 14 Agility and 16 Balance. One is quicker, changes direction quicker and turns quicker.

Stopping awkwardly might be a sign of poor Balance?

 

Il 18/1/2022 in 09:05 , Britrock ha scritto:

I can definitely notice the difference in quality when playing in the French 3rd division compared to my £500m Newcastle team. Their dribbling is worse, passes are more wayward, their decisions aren't as good, everything is a few steps down in quality. 

 

Il 18/1/2022 in 09:29 , HUNT3R ha scritto:

Definitely. I start at the bottom every season and work my way up the leagues and it's noticeable how there are differences in the lower leagues compared to top players. One thing I want to add to your post regarding wayward passes, is that it's not just about passes completed vs incomplete. It might even be similar. Even if the passes are completed, the pass is still often inaccurate, meaning the receiver has to run to another spot to receive the pass. Little things like that can affect the flow and build up quite a bit.

Thank you guys, this exactly the insight I was looking for. I was wondering whether players all actually looked identical or if it was me needing to take the time to learn the nuances of FM22's match engine.

Because that's the main thing. If players seem to look identical to any other, it might be because:
1 They do look the same and that's because the animations are bad/the same for every player
2 They actually don't look the same, but I can't grasp the visual difference
3 They actually don't, and I only happened to see bad Premier League players (been playing mostly with Man Utd though).

While it's definitely a mixture of all three, hearing that some people can correctly guess player's attributes based on what they see in the ME makes me confident I can learn to do that too. It's still definitely going to be nowhere near obvious enough but I guess I'll wait for FM28 for that level of realism.

[Dotsworthy]

The animations are a definite improvement for me this year. A lot of the passing play and movement of players feels a lot more realistic, I see a lot less of players taking the ball and doing a no look lofted ball all the way to the other flank/into the path of the advanced forward for a 1 on 1 in this version. Goalmouth scrambles look very nice too.

The thing that is missing for me is tricks. There are no rabonas or step overs. That alone would make the 3D match engine look better in the eyes of a lot of players here.