Realistic away followings

[joshtownend]

The away following in brackets has been a nice little addition to the game over the years, but it would be nice to see some realism to it. For instance, you tend to see teams who normally take large away followings (Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield Wednesday etc) only half fill away ends on FM, presumably because of their in-game reputation rather than being based on what their away following is like irl. I've also seen teams bring 9000 to Elland Road for big cup games, even though there's categorically no way anyone would ever be given more than the given 3000. I feel like maybe an additional hidden attribute (from using the editor, I know there are a few hidden attributes that profile a club's fans) that may give a more accurate representation of the way away followings behave in real life and further info on a stadium as to the maximum away capacity. Not a massive change by any stretch, but something I'd imagine a club's researcher wouldn't have to go particularly far out of their way to get information on. If we're making it a change that impacts on the way the game is changed as opposed to being just an extra immersive detail, it could have an impact on the lift players get when playing away from home which could be dictated by things such as the pressure hidden attribute.

[Jamaicaman90]

To add to this - I'm sure that the game sort of accounts for these things, for example by looking at the club reputation, league/competition and starting maximum and minimum attendances. TNS are not going to match Liverpool in terms of weekly attendances even if they catch them on reputation as far as I can tell. This makes sense (although sometimes doesn't!).

I definitely think an 'away following' stat could be added to clubs much like how there are already supporter attributes in the data (under the 'Supporter Profile' tab when editing a club in the editor):

 

How these stats actually impact either crowds or the game itself is unclear to me as I haven't been able to work it out. However, It strikes me that away followings can be very different beasts to home ones. Compare teams like Wigan to Celtic - Wigan have been known to take infamously small crowds to Premier League games away, while Celtic regularly take thousands to friendlies outside of Scotland/Ireland (I am reminded of when they came to Swansea one pre-season a decade ago and filled the away end). Even accounting for their differing home attendances, the away followings of the two clubs are entirely different beasts and I don't think the game reflects that, but I think an additional attribute here (or maybe just a reconsideration of how the current ones impact the game) could be used to reflect this reality without significant overhaul of the game.

[Kyle Brown]

Thank you both, we've got a few changes in regards to away followings and we hope to implement them in future versions.