[Discussion] Player Interactions and Other Items

[azymin]

Some improvements i'd like to see:

1. Multiple rounds of negotiations and player interactions - I should be able to keep going back and forth with player/agent over their transfer request to figure out what can keep them at the club. 1 or 2 interactions shouldn't be the end of the conversation and start of "you're treating me unfairly" status. I should also be able to go back to negotiating table if talks have previously broken down. There should certainly be exceptions, such as bad agent relationship. 

1A. Would be great to have a way of judging player's interest if they have more than one offer, and which team is the front-runner. This way you could choose to improve your offer or make additional promises. I know that prior to negotiations you can see if a player is more interested in offers from other teams, but what if I offered significantly higher wages than they asked? I'd need a way to gauge how effective this was and whether my offer is now the preferred one. At the same time the AI could also increase their offer if they wanted to. I hope I'm explaining this well.

2. The AI should not be showing interest in every single player in my side, just because we're overperforming. I don't know if what weights the AI uses in its logic for transfers, but it needs tweaking. I shouldn't have 5 EPL teams interested in my 130CA CB, no matter how well he's playing.  This would be ok as an isolated case, but when half my squad has a 'wnt' icon something is wrong there. 

3. It should be much more difficult to keep hold of players who want to leave. It's the same story of "i want out" to being fine 2 months later after not being sold. In general, players should have more power and should be able to force their way out. 

4. I feel like more players should be leaving on free transfers. Even really good ones. It feels like this is a more recent trend with the likes of Mbape, Dybala, Pogba, Alaba (?) all leaving for free. There seems to be more occurrences of players leaving on a free after last update. 

5. International management overhaul - for the love of GOD make it make sense!!! This is in line with all of the other threads requesting long overdue overhaul. Training, player interactions, data analysis, etc. 

6. More data analysis - progressive passing, defensive actions, etc. 

7. Youth academies - be able to set one up. I can understand how this may break the game if every club with enough money can boost their youth intake through the academy. Perhaps a different option could be to indicate a specific tailored approach to how youth players below 16 are developed? For example how Ajax places emphasis on technical ability. 

8. Youth camps in other countries to increase nation knowledge and have a chance of recruiting country's youngsters. Youth camps could also be made permanent. 

9. An alternative to 7 & 8 could be a mechanic of targeted youth network expansion, where perhaps teams would compete in nations/areas/regions for influence. The higher the influence the better a team's youth network in area would be. This would work via financial investments and be affected by your corporate facilities and quality of staff. Part of this is already in place, where a team with highest national reputation has 1st "pick" of newgens. For example Shakhtar Donetsk would target high influence in Brazil, since they've recruited many young Brazilian players. 

10. Scouting - it seems like assigning a scout to a nation leaves a lot of holes in their scouting. Even having one assigned to each level of competition leaves a lot of players unnoticed. I'm not really sure what the solution is. I don't know if perhaps the scouts only see players participating in matches and can't scout those not playing (makes sense). Attend practices and get an idea there? Even with multiple scouts assigned the scouts generally notice the same players. I feel like it should be coded that once a player is scouted by one scout, a different scout in the same country shouldn't scout them, unless specifically asked to do so.

11. Also scouting - being able to look through statistical data for a specific league. For example i want to see top xA and xG players in the league at a specific position. In line with this, assigning data analysts to specific leagues and competitions. 

12. Also also scouting - nation knowledge only seems to increase if there's an active league. Any way to fix this so scouts can gain nation knowledge and spot newgens without an added league in the database?

13. Staff budget instead of number of staff members - i've had 13 scouts for 2 years with $200 mil in the bank and the board will not budge on more scouts. Would be good to get away with the staff # limits and go to budgetary number. This way if you're a side who relies on youth you just invest in coaching and forget about scouting (for ex.) or vice versa. 

13A. In general, I'd like the board interaction to be overhauled in favor of budget numbers vs discrete quantities. I don't see any reason (other than coded) why a board should decline extra affiliates, more staff, or anything else, given sufficient budget available. Currently imo, the way club boards function doesn't add anything to the game. It's mostly click and wait for response. 

14. The whole mentoring thing needs an upgrade. I really don't want to have 16-year olds in my senior squad just because of mentoring. I kind of liked the old system where you could ask a senior player to tutor a specific youngster. Maybe that's not the answer, but I'd really like to be able to influence a player's personality without adding them to 1st team squad.

15. It would be awesome to be able to edit league and competition formats with in-game editor. I don't know if there's a programming reason that could prevent this, but i'd love to have the ability to change a league format from 16 teams 30 matches, to say 12 teams 32 matches with league split, while playing the game.

16. I'd also want to be able to edit other components with in-game editor currently reserved for pre-game editor. Specifically - ticket prices, attendances, season ticket ownership, league prize money and some others.

17. The pressing system is still largely non-functional. It needs more upgrades. I know there are posts that attempt to explain how the pressing works in the game now, but this really needs to be much clearer. There are still constant clips of single players running in and out of position towards the ball carrier, while everyone else watches. In general defensive side needs improvements. There's just no easy way of making a team play in different defensive and offensive shapes. I'm not really a supporter of separate defensive and offensive formations, but maybe that's what needs to happen. Maybe a default shape altered by defensive and offensive movement arrows? 

Edited April 21, 2022 by azymin

[sdx15]

On 30/03/2022 at 20:09, azymin said:

12. Staff budget instead of number of staff members - i've had 13 scouts for 2 years with $200 mil in the bank and the board will not budge on more scouts. Would be good to get away with the staff # limits and go to budgetary number. This way if you're a side who relies on youth you just invest in coaching and forget about scouting (for ex.) or vice versa. 

This is an excellent idea! Would love to choose how many and which staff I have on my own.

[azymin]

On 05/04/2022 at 16:18, sdx15 said:

This is an excellent idea! Would love to choose how many and which staff I have on my own.

Limit on number of staff is something I've found to be really frustrating recently, given how much money my team had in the bank. I played as Dynamo Kyiv, so i really wanted to be able to sign lots of promising foreign youngsters, but there's only so much I could do with a dozen scouts.

[Zachary Whyte]

Thank you for the detailed feedback. This is going to be reviewed and your ideas may yet be rejected or end up in a future FM.