FM 25: What do we HOPE for?

[Lord Rowell]

As per the title, what do we HOPE for in FM25 that would keep us happy?

Obviously, I don't mean things that have already been excluded because they're not going to happen.

This is meant to be a slightly more positive thread.

For me, personally, here's what I want:

- The ME to be decent - especially for women's football in the game as this is SI's big challenge

- A reasonable choice of women's leagues.... I'm not expecting the full breadth yet given the research requirements, if we do get a big choice i see it as a bonus

- The new interface to be reasonably intuitive without too steep a learning curve, especially for an old man like me!
- Not too buggy - I appreciate there will be bugs but just so long as they don't detract too much from the gameplay

- PC/Laptop etc. requirements that aren't too much ahead from the current ones. Appreciate we all have to upgrade sometimes, but if a likely major upgrade, its something SI should have communicated sooner - hopefully that won't be the case.

That's it. For me, women's football, EPL license and new interface are all huge steps in themselves. Give me the above and I'll be a happy bunny!

Edited Thursday at 17:40 by Lord Rowell
typos only

[sanx]

ME its the biggest concern for me, i think nothing else come close tbh. I dunno how far they can push the ME but if theres been no extraordinary improvement or a full rewrite this year, i think we never will see a somewhat better ME. 

[Nikki]

I'm waiting for word on whether the Dutch women's league will be included before I decide on whether to buy the game at all, so that could be considered my biggest want/hope. Beyond that my needs are small. I got 11748 hours on FM2018 on Steam because I decided to stop buying FM until they'd include women's football, so I'm sure that even with changes between games being relatively minor for a franchise with an annual release, there will be plenty of stuff in there that's new/different for me, because I skipped FM19-24.

I'd be happy if generated faces look better than they do in FM2018. I can imagine the amount of women's leagues being too low to feel satisfactory, but I can't really pin a number on what amount would work for me, so all I can say is that I hope there are 'enough' without really being able to tell what enough is to me. But if the Dutch league is included, then I'm sure the game will be good for at least a thousand hours on Steam for me.

[pedrosantos]

- Improved ME (a must every new edition) and new features such as GK making a penalty, referees making mistakes (is it or is it not a real life simulator?)

_ Different tactical mindset: eliminate close down less / more and set different closing down options; tactical structure based on the moments of the match (organisation, transition, both defensive and offensive) also allowing different player roles whenever the team has the ball or not

- Fix league calendar draw

Edited Thursday at 18:20 by pedrosantos

[Ti Ago]

To still be a game 

[jmlima]

1) They have not turned it into a dumbed-down console type game, with in-game achievements, and crap like that.

2) Female football works well.

[Minuy600]

Most of the main wishes for me have already been mentioned here, that being a comprehensible menu, a decent enough ME and a fair selection of women's leagues including the Dutch one.

Here's my two cents about the step forward in required specs. I have one of those desktops that is meant to be used in offices, so in terms of SPEED, we are okay, but the integrated graphics chip will absolutely not work this time around, I mean it was already chugging a fair bit in 3D mode in recent games. I do not have the money to buy a new PC for the next few years either.

So really, what I hope most of all is that FM Touch will continue on Switch and has no major downgrades besides what Touch usually does. Maybe a cheeky Switch 2 release too when that becomes a reality. I COULD play the Console version on Xbox Series S no problem, but it's definitely less convenient to have to hook it up every time.

[jimbo22]

Not to have a horrible UI, make managing different teams feel different not the same with a simple badge being the only difference (I doubt this will happen), Space better utilized on higher resolutions (far too many open areas on higher resolutions)

Better face gen (the current one is horrible) 

A match engine that wants me to sit and watch 3D (when i actually manage games) rather than use 2D that ive used for years

Better scouting that works (dont need my scouts recommending players that I simply cannot afford)

Teams not offering 2 cans of tuna and a half empty bottle of coke for my star man, then when I refuse it they offer me 4 half empty cans of tuna and 2 quarter full bottles of coke.

More meaningful press interaction that you want to do rather than set it to assistant manager.

Better player interaction that doesnt cause players to throw the toys out the pram.

Proper integration of a Instant Result button (to allow for quicker play to get through more game time)

 

There's probably plenty more. Most of these I dont see happening or even being a priority for SI.

 

Edited Thursday at 19:09 by jimbo22

[fc.cadoni]

1. Let's start with the basics. To run properly without crashes.

[DavutOzkan]

Less wasted time between matches.

[wazzaflow10]

The big one for me is a fix to scouting. Something was not right with 24.

Nothing was more frustrating that assigning scouts who would return from large footballing nations with "Well we didn't find anyone!". When you manually scouted players/teams/matches they'd show up as A/B recommendations and eager to join.

Another one is schedules that don't follow a pattern across the league. You'd get a set order of teams to play and every team in the league would follow that order with different start points.

Minor fixes:

Set pieces being the start of a lot of highlights/goal. Throw-ins in particular or corners played to the top of the penalty area.

Defensive marking/tracking

Playing obvious direct/through balls especially on the counter attack

 

Edited Thursday at 20:23 by wazzaflow10

[Dagenham_Dave]

24 minutes ago, wazzaflow10 said:

Another one is schedules that don't follow a pattern across the league. You'd get a set order of teams to play and every team in the league would follow that order with different start points.

I used to hate this in older management games, I hope it never goes back to that. What a bizarre wish for the new game. 

[SPE3D]

Now we've got the premier League licence and better graphics I'm hoping we'll have real stadiums.

[Dagenham_Dave]

19 minutes ago, SPE3D said:

I'm hoping we'll have real stadiums.

No chance I'm afraid. Many other leagues have been licenced and there's never been even one official looking stadium. No idea why this is. I mean, if you have the licence for the league, I don't see why you can't put a stadium that even resembles the real thing. It's the biggest immersion killer in the 3d engine. I can't see this changing any time soon. I mean, my naive hope is that with a new graphics engine, we get much more variety in stadiums, but I'm not holding my breath. 

[autohoratio]

Just a few of my FM25 hopes and dreams:

Much improved player interaction and press conferences

Ability to talk to staff and tell them that you want to hire them in X role, so that they don't lock in Y role in contract negotiations instead

The new ME meaning we can more faithfully replicate Pep/Arteta/Maresca/Kompany systems (and hopefully will mean AI Pep being sacked midseason because the ME hinders his style of play is a thing of the past), as well as Gasperini's 3-4-2-1 (e.g. complete wing-backs who will attack more like wingers when the ball is on the opposite flank, improvements to man-marking behaviour allowing wing-backs to actually go man-for-man)

Better looking stadiums with a wider variety (Give me running tracks! Give me Italian-style stadia! Give me stadiums that have 1000 capacity accurately represented instead of a single huge, empty grandstand! Give me sunday league pitches that don't have massive car parks and endless seas of concrete! Give me world class stadiums that get built in 2050 and have filled-in corners! Give me different architectural styles!), and ability to mod in custom stadiums

Higher poly count 3d models/higher resolution textures (ideally 2048px 3D textures for example) and better looking player 3D models if they're going to continue the 3D newgen faces, and allow for custom goalkeeper 3D kit textures

B Teams in nations like Germany not being stuck as part time teams who the game treats as an affiliate club while the U19/U21/etc teams are full time

Being able to submit a contract offer even if the agent and player are unhappy with it, just so that it can sit on their desk for a few weeks in case they change their mind and the player doesn't get any better offers in the meantime.

Overhaul of the "offer player to club" system (Miles mentioned that the "offer with TransferRoom" of FM24 was only a preview of what would be a change to this system so I'm hoping the overhaul will be for FM25), so that you don't have to enter each club individually that you want to send the offer to

Ability to set injured players' recovery additional focus in advance

More camera angles in match, and more control over the camera to make custom camera views

[XV20]

I just want a kit designer in-game 

[john1982]

I am certainly hope for much better graphics and animation on match day. And I ll be happy with just that. I also hope for community to embrace and support women football with editor data and icons, badges,facepacks, etc

[jimbo22]

1 hour ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

I mean, my naive hope is that with a new graphics engine, we get much more variety in stadiums, but I'm not holding my breath. 

Stadium editor. Sorts the variety issue right away. Im 100% sure the community would be all over a feature like that. 

[wazzaflow10]

2 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

I used to hate this in older management games, I hope it never goes back to that. What a bizarre wish for the new game. 

I'm not wishing for it. I'm hoping they fix it.

[Lord Rowell]

5 hours ago, Nikki said:

I'd be happy if generated faces look better than they do in FM2018.

3 hours ago, wazzaflow10 said:

Another one is schedules that don't follow a pattern across the league. You'd get a set order of teams to play and every team in the league would follow that order with different start points.

Just a couple of bits I feel same way on.

@Nikki very much so and I think this is especially important for women's football.
@wazzaflow10 Yes I find fixture scheduling very annoying, on another line, way too often have I had really intimidating opening fixture sets and I suspect its on the lines you describe.

I am specifically replying to these points because of an ethical necessity for one, and I think a relative simplicity for another (not saying its simple... but it can't be that far off the radar).

 

[wazzaflow10]

23 minutes ago, Lord Rowell said:

Yes I find fixture scheduling very annoying, on another line, way too often have I had really intimidating opening fixture sets and I suspect its on the lines you describe.

 I even opened a bug about it after posting on the GD page. It can be particularly brutal in England if you're in Europe and there's a string of games against the top 4 smashed around Domestic Cup and Continental fixtures. Just brutal even playing Man City and Liverpool back to back.

Edited yesterday at 00:10 by wazzaflow10

[Lord Rowell]

I'M GOING TO REPOST MY OWN OP - I THINK SOMETIMES PEOPLE SEE THE LAST POST AND THINGS DRIFT.

As per the title, what do we HOPE for in FM25 that would keep us happy?

Obviously, I don't mean things that have already been excluded because they're not going to happen.

This is meant to be a slightly more positive thread.

For me, personally, here's what I want:

- The ME to be decent - especially for women's football in the game as this is SI's big challenge

- A reasonable choice of women's leagues.... I'm not expecting the full breadth yet given the research requirements, if we do get a big choice i see it as a bonus

- The new interface to be reasonably intuitive without too steep a learning curve, especially for an old man like me!
- Not too buggy - I appreciate there will be bugs but just so long as they don't detract too much from the gameplay

- PC/Laptop etc. requirements that aren't too much ahead from the current ones. Appreciate we all have to upgrade sometimes, but if a likely major upgrade, its something SI should have communicated sooner - hopefully that won't be the case.

That's it. For me, women's football, EPL license and new interface are all huge steps in themselves. Give me the above and I'll be a happy bunny!

[Overmars]

1. More balance to the match engine, so that a variety of formations and tactics prove effective and a variety of highlights and goals occur.
2. Fast processing speed between matches (FM24 was good for this).
3. Prettier graphics overall.
4. Scouting that feels more realistic.
5. Dynamic player potential (I can dream).
6. Players who honour their contracts for longer than 6 months.

[kiwityke1983]

7 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

No chance I'm afraid. Many other leagues have been licenced and there's never been even one official looking stadium. No idea why this is. I mean, if you have the licence for the league, I don't see why you can't put a stadium that even resembles the real thing. It's the biggest immersion killer in the 3d engine. I can't see this changing any time soon. I mean, my naive hope is that with a new graphics engine, we get much more variety in stadiums, but I'm not holding my breath. 

The stadiums themselves would be another licence is my guess.

[XaW]

1 hour ago, kiwityke1983 said:

The stadiums themselves would be another licence is my guess.

I think someone from SI said that once (but I can't find it, so it might be me remembering wrong), that stadiums is not part of the league licence.... These types of things are mostly lawyer hell for little actual return of the investment I'd wager.

[jmlima]

1 hour ago, kiwityke1983 said:

The stadiums themselves would be another licence is my guess.

Fairly confident, like 99% for prof reasons I know the answer to that one. Copyright of the design  of modern stadiums will be (in prob 90% of cases) with the stadium designers, not clubs, leagues, or others. It would require a separate contract with each designer (and them to agree to it....) for each stadium. Some designers are VERY zealous of these things.

[trevjim]

Better AI at squad building 

Match engine rebuilt from the ground up so various tactics work and not just gen gen meta.

Tedious interactions from media and players are toned down and streamlined.

Any remaining interactions are not broken. Eg. when telling a player who scored 2 goals that he had a good game. His reaction should not be "how dare you say that. My trust in you is now broken"

Data feedback is relevant. At the moment you can down load the best plug and play tactic from the forums. Be winning 4-0 and all over the other team. Yet the feedback from your assistant will be that you are getting over run in midfield and need to make changes etc. just shows that the AI is still useless.

 

Streamlined interface and inbox. Less clicks etc. more FM Touch and less bloat. The bloat can still be there, but in the background for those that want it.

[trevjim]

4 hours ago, Overmars said:

1. More balance to the match engine, so that a variety of formations and tactics prove effective and a variety of highlights and goals occur.
2. Fast processing speed between matches (FM24 was good for this).
3. Prettier graphics overall.
4. Scouting that feels more realistic.
5. Dynamic player potential (I can dream).
6. Players who honour their contracts for longer than 6 months.

Almost identical to my wishes. Although I only use commentary or 2D so not fussed on graphics lol

[trevjim]

13 hours ago, sanx said:

ME its the biggest concern for me, i think nothing else come close tbh. I dunno how far they can push the ME but if theres been no extraordinary improvement or a full rewrite this year, i think we never will see a somewhat better ME. 

Agreed. I've said it before but I think most the Devs who made the original ME have moved on. So the current one don't like to edit it too much for fear of "breaking" it. Which is why we haven't really seen any noticeable changes since FM 11. Any we do see tend to have a trade off else where.

 

They won't get a better chance to do it with the new engine. People are expecting bugs due to the nature of a new engine so it will give them a bit more leeway too. If it's not now. It won't be for another 10 years at least 

[Los_Culés]

23 minutes ago, trevjim said:

Agreed. I've said it before but I think most the Devs who made the original ME have moved on. So the current one don't like to edit it too much for fear of "breaking" it. Which is why we haven't really seen any noticeable changes since FM 11. Any we do see tend to have a trade off else where.

 

They won't get a better chance to do it with the new engine. People are expecting bugs due to the nature of a new engine so it will give them a bit more leeway too. If it's not now. It won't be for another 10 years at least 

I jumped from FM11 to FM24 and on the surface they are not that similar but after a bit of playing both versions simultaneously I can see that they are actually very similar in the core. Which is actually good as FM11 is my favourite but then I really do not regret skipping so many FMs inbetween.

I will not buy FM25 but hopefully it will be a good start for "new FM" so after 10 years of updates when I buy FM35 it will be an awesome game .

What I would really want is to remaster CM 01/02 (up do date squads, add 2D engine) and I would be playing it for ages .

[Zachary Whyte]

12 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Many other leagues have been licenced and there's never been even one official looking stadium. No idea why this is. I mean, if you have the licence for the league, I don't see why you can't put a stadium that even resembles the real thing.

The reason for this is, just because you have the licence for a league or club, does not mean you have the licence for a stadium, as they are two separate entities.

[jcw163]

Nice clean UI

Scouting to not be dreadful

AI team building to be better - not to end up filled with old players or spending 85m on someone they then never pick

Goalkeepers to be able to commit fouls for the first time in like 15 years

[Novem9]

16 часов назад, Lord Rowell сказал:

As per the title, what do we HOPE for in FM25 that would keep us happy?

Aggressive smart ai. My realistic tiki taka tactic without exploits destroyed any interest to play. Just want more fair rivals

Modern interface without bugs in columns.

Better ai management and improved ai relations. 

No unhappy footballers for any stupid reasons. 

Realistic and different newgens faces. 

Conferences with any sense. 

Faster day processing. My database is 90-95k for i5 10400. I wish to play 200k database with the same speed or even faster 

Improves like no pause in managers signs in June, better international management, more dynamic rivals (status) between clubs, etc

[trevjim]

3 hours ago, Los_Culés said:

I jumped from FM11 to FM24 and on the surface they are not that similar but after a bit of playing both versions simultaneously I can see that they are actually very similar in the core. Which is actually good as FM11 is my favourite but then I really do not regret skipping so many FMs inbetween.

I will not buy FM25 but hopefully it will be a good start for "new FM" so after 10 years of updates when I buy FM35 it will be an awesome game .

What I would really want is to remaster CM 01/02 (up do date squads, add 2D engine) and I would be playing it for ages .

Yeh this is the thing.  The game is 95% tactics and transfers. The remaining 5% is mostly fluff or has little effect on the game.

Since FM 11 they have focused on the 5% and neglected the 95%

It's funny you mention CM 01/02.

I played it recently. It's a far superior game but missing some QOL improvements from newer versions 

[whatsupdoc]

ME

Scouting fixed

Better AI

[tomtuck01]

Improvements to international manag...oh, nevermind.

[alian62]

Better stadium sounds or crowd noise . It's been the same boring mono crowd murmers since 2006

Edited yesterday at 13:53 by alian62

[XV20]

3 hours ago, Zachary Whyte said:

The reason for this is, just because you have the licence for a league or club, does not mean you have the licence for a stadium, as they are two separate entities.

Thank you.

[DominicForza]

I'm just hoping it isn't the buggiest FM ever.  Which is what I expect it to be. 

Dont get me wrong, even if they advertised is as The Worst FM EVER! Now 500% MORE BUGS! Worst Interface in FM History! Less Features than EVER Before!   I'd still pre-order.  

Its a sickness.

[akkm]

30 minutes ago, DominicForza said:

I'm just hoping it isn't the buggiest FM ever.  Which is what I expect it to be. 

Dont get me wrong, even if they advertised is as The Worst FM EVER! Now 500% MORE BUGS! Worst Interface in FM History! Less Features than EVER Before!   I'd still pre-order.  

Its a sickness.

🤣🤣🤣 this is entirely accurate lol

[akkm]

For an improved match engine encompassing

• Better simulation of skilled/technical players and ones with creativity and vision as well

• Better representation of differences in the ability of players to be able to retain possession/hold onto the ball under pressure. Even at same levels but especially with a top team playing a smaller one

• Better pass decision making/selection and ability to move the ball into the top third better and move the ball around in there

• Modification of the effectiveness of gegenpressing...peps template seems to have won out. Yes pressing/work rate will always complement playing football but more of peps way of playing has become more prevalent and ultimately, more effective. I watch a lot of non league highlights (thanks to becoming a fan through playing in FM) and passing out from the back and taking risks and all that is becoming very prevalent down to that level as well

• Better decision making overall in possession especially

Better squad building and AI managers tapping into ways of playing better as well

[jim owen]

International football... oh wait... oh well nevermind guess i'm waiting till FM26 at the earliest

[Dagenham_Dave]

18 hours ago, jimbo22 said:

Stadium editor. Sorts the variety issue right away. Im 100% sure the community would be all over a feature like that. 

Been beating this drum for years. There is simply no reason for this not to be part of the pre-game editor. I mean if its licences they are concerned about, that would be weird as they open up the rest of the game for modding purposes. 

[jimbo22]

4 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Been beating this drum for years. There is simply no reason for this not to be part of the pre-game editor. I mean if its licences they are concerned about, that would be weird as they open up the rest of the game for modding purposes. 

They are looking for features to sell the game. A stadium editor is an open goal for SI. Allow people to completely edit the look of the stadiums people can use. Its insane that its not been done by now. Want to get a lot of people onside... as I said there's your open goal right there. 

[Psycho.]

Main hope is scouting to be improved. It's really not good in FM24. But considering how they have responded in threads about this I don't see it happening.

Newgen faces is another obvious one. They're hideous.

[Dagenham_Dave]

20 hours ago, Psycho. said:

Main hope is scouting to be improved. It's really not good in FM24

Not had a single issue with scouting in this year's game.