Pedant's corner . . .

[stockwellpete]

I started this thread on the Steam FM23 forum a few days ago before I knew about this forum. Perhaps it might do a bit better here.

 

Basically, I am playing the game quite a lot at the moment as I am retired now and I have noticed a few examples where the text in the game might be improved. I'll give some examples in this post.

First example . . .
During a match when an offside decision is given the text says, "That looked very close to being onside." Well, quite. Offside decisions are often very close. Maybe the text would be better if it just said, "That was a tight call!"

Second example . . .
During a press conference I was asked, "So and so player was the stand-out performer. How did you gauge their award-winning display?" Better to use "his" than "their" in this sentence, I think.

Third example . . .

Players on loan are sometimes rated "Slightly Happy". What does that mean? I don't think I have ever been slightly happy myself. Wouldn't "OK" just do?

Fourth example . . .

In a match report opponents were described as "goal-friendly". This is a bit clumsy. How about "high-scoring" or "free-scoring"?

Fifth example . . .

My side had a corner kick late in a match with the score at 0-0. We were dominating and pressing for a goal. The in-match message said my player was wasting a bit of time with the corner even though I had not increased the time-wasting frequency at all. Odd.

 

Sixth example . . .

A journalist asks a manager about the match and he/she replies, "I would rather focus on the game itself than endlessly discuss it." I mean to say! It's a press conference called to discuss the match. Manager is obviously a raving imbecile.

 

Seventh example . . .

Another thing from the press conferences where proceedings seem to be taking a very mystical turn. The reporter asks, "Your team looks well on course to realise long-term objectives set out some time ago?" How does he/she know what my long-term objectives are? Beyond avoiding relegation in our first season playing at a higher level. And the mystical reply you can give is, "It is close enough that we can taste it. We've worked hard for it and we just have to see it through now." What is this mysterious "it" - and what might it taste like? Seeing as we are 10 games into the season and we are top of the table. What is he even going on about? lol

 

Is reporting these sort of things helpful, or should I desist?

 

[XaW]

I'd post them in here if I were you:

https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/football-manager-2023-bugs-tracker/translations/english-uk-issues-in-english-uk-translation/

Then SI can look and see if they agree with your assessment. 

[GuitarMan]

These are things that are worth considering in some respects - and may be worth shaping into further feedback in the bug/feature request forums depending on what is needed - however they may well need fleshing out with some further information to do so. 

As a quick bit of feedback - you may be aware that a future aim is to have Women's football in Football Manager - this would be why a number of strings of text now say "their" instead of "his". 

Also - with example 5, it may be worth looking in more detail at your tactics. What element of your tactics were suggesting to that player that time wasting was an option when pushing for a goal - this may be worth a question in the tactics forum, however more detail would be needed. 

so TLDR; yes they can be helpful, but in the right place, with full context and the right amount of information. 

[stockwellpete]

1 hour ago, GuitarMan said:

These are things that are worth considering in some respects - and may be worth shaping into further feedback in the bug/feature request forums depending on what is needed - however they may well need fleshing out with some further information to do so. 

As a quick bit of feedback - you may be aware that a future aim is to have Women's football in Football Manager - this would be why a number of strings of text now say "their" instead of "his". 

Also - with example 5, it may be worth looking in more detail at your tactics. What element of your tactics were suggesting to that player that time wasting was an option when pushing for a goal - this may be worth a question in the tactics forum, however more detail would be needed. 

so TLDR; yes they can be helpful, but in the right place, with full context and the right amount of information. 

OK thanks. I will put the first post in the forum suggested by XaW above - with added context where appropriate.

 

On your two points - wouldn't the text be gender-specific for the men's and women's sections of the future game? Or is it not going to be structured like that? "Their" in the particular context of the reporter's question implies a plurality of players, or can do, at any rate.

 

Regarding my example 5, I don't have the game open at the moment but I think I am right in saying that the "Timewasting" tab when set on default allows for occasional time-wasting. The middle setting is "frequent". I have never used the other setting. So the assumption seems to be that all teams will waste time to a certain extent. Maybe that needs to be re-considered? Have 4 time-wasting settings - zero (default), occasional, frequently and whatever the other setting says (rolling about pretending to be dying, I expect).

 

While we are on time-wasting, I feel it is a bit clumsily implemented at present. Set on "Frequently", my players will just stand there for 30 seconds instead of taking the free kick or whatever near the end of a match. Then the final whistle will go. Maybe there needs to be some jeopardy here? I haven't seen a yellow card given for this. Are they? If you already have 5 cautions in a match then time-wasting at the end of it could be very hazardous.

 

[GuitarMan]

Timewasting - if you use frequent - then yes a player standing there while you are trying to close the game, would be according to your tactical instructions in some way (in my opinion) and potentially a change to never in that situation when you are chasing a goal towards the end of the match would be beneficial. 

That said - there are MANY who have a greater tactical knowledge than me - and it may be worth a post on the tactical forums. 

With the gender - I am not entirely sure on SI's long term plans, but have noticed the switch from His to "theirs". Without getting into a discussion of gender - I personally feel that their is a perfectly correct word in the string quoted... after all it was the performance of the player. 

If you feel otherwise, again feel free to raise it to SI through the bugs forum as suggested by @XaW and myself. 

[enigmatic]

I thought they'd actually fixed the "very close to being offside" (I've complained about it twice before!) in the latest patch

 

I'd noticed the timewasting thing more recently (level in a game I fancied my chances of winning, timewasting off and tactics based on balanced, high tempo football, so no reason at all to waste time). If they're actually timewasting, that's a pretty serious flaw. But it might just be misleading commentary (just like there isn't a serious flaw with players preferring to stay on the bench, it's just a bad decision to relabel "complacent" for substitutes). I think it's probably just a commentary error, but I still think game management is one of the weakest areas of the match engine (ever wonder why nobody "timewasting" ever takes a corner short to someone who just keeps it?)