Whats the point of these generic team talks and press conferences

[ThomasHK1979]

I have just surprised everyone and won UEFA Champions League. The week after I am having the end of season team talk.
Look at my options to answer my squad. Beyond ridicilous.
Please SI, this talks are just generic BS. It doesnt make any sense at all.

[Mojby]

I noticed the same thing just this morning - after winning the CL the options were as if I had not won it.

[Daniel Evensen]

Yeah, SI really needs to improve the NPC interactions in Football Manager.

I've found that the easiest way to make it through the press conferences is to always choose the second option from the left.  Works every time, win or lose.

[Eoin Maguire]

This problem is so common in FM. Every time I have a team meeting I get a mini panic attack because of the possibility of things like this. Pathetic how its still in the game. Its not a bug either, it's coded in this way, happens in every save for everybody. 

[Mobius]

Every single interaction / conversation in this game is complete trash and hasn't changed for years. Just the EXACT SAME dialogue, year after year. Pointless, boring and the opposite of immersion. It's pathetic.

Edited March 26, 2023 by Mobius

[ThomasHK1979]

8 hours ago, Mobius said:

Every single interaction / conversation in this game is complete trash and hasn't changed for years. Just the EXACT SAME dialogue, year after year. Pointless, boring and the opposite of immersion. It's pathetic.

100% agree. They should remove it. This part is like playing in FIFA 12 career mode. 

[Neil Brock]

20 hours ago, Mojby said:

I noticed the same thing just this morning - after winning the CL the options were as if I had not won it.

Sorry to hear that - if you have a save game from beforehand please flag via our Bug Tracker so the team can walk through and investigate what's going on. 

If you have a save to upload, please let us know the file name within the upload thread and details on how to upload here - https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/instructions-and-notes/how-to-upload-files-to-us-r98/

Thanks. 

[2feet]

Neil... any chance the press conferences will be revised over the next few years?

Changing the text?  Making the questions and answers better.

Making the conferences more interactive and dynamic, e.g. having a ticking clock after each question is asked that requires you to answer quicker otherwise the journalists lose patience and turn red... or allowing you to follow up answers by volunteering further information.... Seeing the faces of the journalists and seeing how their faces change in reaction to your answers..... things like that?

Or are we stuck with the current 16-bit gaming era press conferences we currently have for the foreseeable future?

It's the kind of thing that would have been seen on an Atari ST / Commodore Amiga circa 1989!

Edited March 27, 2023 by 2feet

[Maviarab]

Neil...be serious man...it's not a bug.  Been like this for bloody years with most interactions.  It's obviously by design at this point, IE...no one there cares enough to actually sort it out.

Edited March 27, 2023 by Maviarab

[USASoundersFan]

FM felt much more immersive before these were implemented.

[Neil Brock]

4 hours ago, 2feet said:

Neil... any chance the press conferences will be revised over the next few years?

Changing the text?  Making the questions and answers better.

Making the conferences more interactive and dynamic, e.g. having a ticking clock after each question is asked that requires you to answer quicker otherwise the journalists lose patience and turn red... or allowing you to follow up answers by volunteering further information.... Seeing the faces of the journalists and seeing how their faces change in reaction to your answers..... things like that?

Or are we stuck with the current 16-bit gaming era press conferences we currently have for the foreseeable future?

It's the kind of thing that would have been seen on an Atari ST / Commodore Amiga circa 1989!

Happy for people to raise ideas on how they can be potentially improved via our Feature Requests section. 

[Neil Brock]

1 hour ago, Maviarab said:

Neil...be serious man...it's not a bug.  Been like this for bloody years with most interactions.  It's obviously by design at this point, IE...no one there cares enough to actually sort it out.

With all due respect, receiving questions after winning a competition with them referring to you not having won said competition would be a bug. 

In relation to updating all the text, it's not something that can be done all that easily given the game is translated into sixteen different languages and there are hundreds of thousands of different text strings in game. But appreciate that if things get repetitive then it can be frustrating. 

If you have any examples where you don't feel the text works correctly and is wrong feel free to flag. Likewise if there are any press conference questions and answers, with how that would effect the gameworld that you have in mind please feel free to suggest in the Feature Request section above.

Thanks. 

[Maviarab]

1 hour ago, Neil Brock said:

With all due respect, receiving questions after winning a competition with them referring to you not having won said competition would be a bug. 

In relation to updating all the text, it's not something that can be done all that easily given the game is translated into sixteen different languages and there are hundreds of thousands of different text strings in game. But appreciate that if things get repetitive then it can be frustrating. 

If you have any examples where you don't feel the text works correctly and is wrong feel free to flag. Likewise if there are any press conference questions and answers, with how that would effect the gameworld that you have in mind please feel free to suggest in the Feature Request section above.

Thanks. 

 

[Daniel Evensen]

9 hours ago, Neil Brock said:

In relation to updating all the text, it's not something that can be done all that easily given the game is translated into sixteen different languages and there are hundreds of thousands of different text strings in game. But appreciate that if things get repetitive then it can be frustrating. 

Thanks, Neil!

I do realize that there are tons of text strings in the game.  Honestly, even with the hundreds of thousands of different strings handling all sorts of different events, I still wish there were more.

Press conferences are still extremely predictable.  It's a pretty well known secret that you can succeed at all press conferences by simply choosing the second choice from the left for every question you've been asked, regardless of what the context is.  In many cases, the difference between answer choices is so subtle as to be extremely frustrating.

As strange as this might sound, it might be worth it to look into the NPC interaction systems that leading modern RPGs have for ideas on how to improve the process and shake it up a bit.  As it currently stands, the interactions we have with NPCs feel scripted and come at predictable times and in predictable cadences.  It feels like cardboard, and it becomes especially frustrating when we wind up with no good options to deal with players who are upset about some perceived slight or supposedly unfulfilled promise.  It's not the existence of upset players that gets me frustrated as much as the lack of satisfying options to deal with them.

Anyway, sorry for the extremely general thoughts on the subject.  I haven't seriously played RPGs (well, except for Football Manager, lol) in over 20 years now, and am behind the times on what the modern trends are.  I'm sure there are others on these forums who have some more concrete ideas for what could be done.

[iAlwaysWin]

17 hours ago, Neil Brock said:

With all due respect, receiving questions after winning a competition with them referring to you not having won said competition would be a bug. 

In relation to updating all the text, it's not something that can be done all that easily given the game is translated into sixteen different languages and there are hundreds of thousands of different text strings in game. But appreciate that if things get repetitive then it can be frustrating. 

If you have any examples where you don't feel the text works correctly and is wrong feel free to flag. Likewise if there are any press conference questions and answers, with how that would effect the gameworld that you have in mind please feel free to suggest in the Feature Request section above.

Thanks. 

Then just remove them, majority of people either dislike or dont even bother with them.

[Mst82]

1 hour ago, iAlwaysWin said:

Then just remove them, majority of people either dislike or dont even bother with them.

I could live without them.

I like the one that often pops up in my saves about being knocked out of a cup even though I’m still in it. Always happens when the new ECL format kicks in. 

Edited March 28, 2023 by Mst82

[potbellypigs]

Always assign to assistant manager or other coaches. The ones I'm forced to do like start and end of season one I click the same options because I know that will work regardless. One wrong click and you've got a mutiny on your hands!

[XaW]

Throwback to my suggestions to improve press conferences.

 

[Daniel Evensen]

47 minutes ago, XaW said:

Throwback to my suggestions to improve press conferences.

 

Great suggestions - all common sense in my opinion.  It's amazing that this suggestion is almost 3 years old now.

[XaW]

11 minutes ago, Daniel Evensen said:

Great suggestions - all common sense in my opinion.  It's amazing that this suggestion is almost 3 years old now.

I think so, that's why I made them!

That said, SI will do what they want, and I assume they have a pretty set road map on how they want things to be in the coming versions, and only small changes to their course will be likely for big overhauls. If they have a plan for press conferences in X years, then perhaps at that point. DISCLAIMER: I have no inside knowledge of this and I'm just guessing. Don't take this as gospel.

[Huey Lewis]

7 hours ago, iAlwaysWin said:

Then just remove them, majority of people either dislike or dont even bother with them.

I must have missed the elections when iAlwaysWin became the spokesperson for the 'majority of people'.

All hail our new overlord! 

[bielsadidnothingwrong]

Press conferences are boring in real life. Questions are dull, answers are worse. What I do wish, though, was that your answers mattered more. You can’t Conte yourself in the game despite having some text options to do so on occasion. The worst I’ve seen is being called out for bad mouthing the board to the press. More repercussions, then, if the text strings are too complicated to change. 

[Ngoc]

I think it is for the RP part of the game they are not meant to mean anything. Overall they should make them more useful like:

 

1) instead of giving us a set "rivalry" team, we could start with not rivalry and create them in PR rivalry should give a boost to your team morale before you face them and another if you win 

2) allow you to pick the player of the game you select creating (player of the game should be tight to some reward to the player and extra morale boost for that player for 1 or 2 weeks)

3) if you pick a player that didn't play that well or has favoritism, other players could get upset

4) Bring up board promises or assumed promises to push their had to do something you requested with the risk of them fining you or getting mad at you

5) bring up the sponsor in the chat for an extra cash price which may upset journalists and stuff 

 

These are just some little things that actually mean something for the mechanics of the game.

[Daniel Evensen]

2 hours ago, Ngoc said:

I think it is for the RP part of the game they are not meant to mean anything. Overall they should make them more useful like:

 

1) instead of giving us a set "rivalry" team, we could start with not rivalry and create them in PR rivalry should give a boost to your team morale before you face them and another if you win 

2) allow you to pick the player of the game you select creating (player of the game should be tight to some reward to the player and extra morale boost for that player for 1 or 2 weeks)

3) if you pick a player that didn't play that well or has favoritism, other players could get upset

4) Bring up board promises or assumed promises to push their had to do something you requested with the risk of them fining you or getting mad at you

5) bring up the sponsor in the chat for an extra cash price which may upset journalists and stuff 

 

These are just some little things that actually mean something for the mechanics of the game.

Some of these already exist in the game.  For example, rivalries with certain clubs will develop over time as you continually play against them.  Players do get upset if you don't start them, and some players will be upset if you buy another player who plays the same position.  And the press will always ask you for your opinion about the board right after the board failed to do something that you asked it to do; if you say the wrong thing, you might get the board upset.  The most extreme example of that is asking for a new stadium, being denied, and then leaking it to the press right away: this is how you can be fired in less than one day, lol.

Having said all that, I think you're on the right general track.  I think we'd have to be careful about giving a massive boost to a player you arbitrarily choose as the player of the game, but I would really like to see these press conferences actually mean something in game.  One reason why it's so easy to skip past them and just choose the second choice from the left every time is because there is absolutely no repercussion for doing so.

It might be better to treat the press conferences and other player interactions as a sort of choose-your-own-adventure book that slowly unfolds.  Your answers, actions, and responses from the start have a large influence on the issues that come up later in the game.  Consistency might reward you from time to time, or it might result in you trapping yourself in a tough spot if you're not careful.

On a similar note, it would be nice if interactions with players weren't completely tied to static events, such as a pat on the head after a good week of training, or a verbal spat after the player feels he hasn't played frequently enough.  I've got a ton of players on my squad who apparently have a "very close" relationship with me according to the game.  However, all of my interactions with them have been completely pro forma and mechanical, and they have been completely identical regardless of the player's personality.  It would be nice if the player interaction world unfolded slowly and was more at the discretion of the manager than random events that take place.  If I really have a close relationship with a player, it should be obvious to me: I should be talking with him constantly about upcoming opponents, tactics, training suggestions, the team atmosphere, and so on.

To put it simply, Football Manager is far too tied to the inbox.  These NPC interactions need to be rethought, and need to exist outside of static events that are easy to recreate on paper.  I want to be able to move around the training ground, to move around the office, and to be outgoing in my interaction with players.  Right now it feels like you only get to talk with somebody when there is a problem, or when you've completed a match, or when it's time for the weekly pat on the head.

[Ngoc]

Yep, I agree when a player is "closer" to me, I would expect him to come to me with problems or advice or question (maybe even a chance to change his role in some instances) rather than me having to go and look for him in the discussion tab. I am close to the captain; he will come to me and tell me something will happen before any other sign of it comes up, someone is upset or whatever... Maybe when you schedule a team-bonding session, you have a % of chance that on that day, a window will pop up with something similar to a team meeting (different background). You get to boost tight relationships between certain players. Maybe if the players are playing together, that will help to create the solid green lines of small things like that, but that means something.

Edited March 28, 2023 by Ngoc

[Mojby]

On 27/03/2023 at 10:31, Neil Brock said:

Sorry to hear that - if you have a save game from beforehand please flag via our Bug Tracker so the team can walk through and investigate what's going on. 

If you have a save to upload, please let us know the file name within the upload thread and details on how to upload here - https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/instructions-and-notes/how-to-upload-files-to-us-r98/

Thanks. 

Sorry but I do not have a save game.