ScotchWhisky

Because it doesn't exist. I used to buy on the odd years, then in '17, I asked what new features there were. People flamed me on this board to go watch the release video because there was nothing of substance. This year is even worse. They took away shouts, the one thing that gave the perception of doing something active on the pitch. They brought in women's football, something only like 4% of FIFA players even tried. And there have been no announcements of anything unique whatsoever.

Which version of FM was it I bought that's literally bricked due to DRM? FM11? Think it was.

I think it was FM '21 where I started out unemployed, somehow didn't get a club job right away, then wound up managing Ireland to start. Most boring save ever. Don't think I even restarted. Just took a club job and quit playing shortly after. Didn't like the covid era version just like I didn't like versions right after Brexit, but before the result was determined.

I hope you are right and I am wrong as I've loved the series since '09, but I won't hold my breath. I'd put money on FM25 being a skeleton of a game with a broken women's football ME.

Europa Universalis IV, a "live service," is finally being retired after a decade. EUV is probably one to two years out, has already been worked on for a couple years, and isn't even officially announced. It is Project Caesar. Every week, we get a development diary highlighting every feature in the game a few at a time. Some changes are substantial, some are not. Being so early in development, they are still open to making changes. My whole point? Modern games are complex and take time. FM25 has to be in the final stages to be released in a couple months. There's nothing top secret left in the hopper or they'd give us a taste. This is unsat, and that is the bottom line.

I wish people would stop buying all that "lootbox" junk. But I admit it can be addicting. Played a few phone games with those. Never again! But it sells. :/

Then why does it still exist under the hood? And you know why I loathe women's football coming in? I led Flekkeroy to the Norwegian Premier division and am a top 5 club. Flekkeroy is listed as being in Kristiansand. I actually visited it this past spring in real life and it's a short bus ride and they play in Kristiansand anyways. Kristiansand's main team is Start. Despite Start being a First Division Team and my whipping boy when we do play (they sometimes get promoted for a year, or meet in cup games), I can only almost sellout when hosting them. They still draw large crowds. I can't even draw 1000. In real life, my team would be the rage for the area. Nope. Can't grow. Can't use many of the board requests. All that work for nothing. This has been an issue forever (just one example), so I was excited for this overhaul. Must mean new features, right? Fixes to broken systems, right? Nope. Just stripped features and women's football. *Edit* How about player interactions overhaul? "We're shooting for a mid-table finish" (despite finishing top half prior year) and morale collapses because it's asking too much of them. Or you tell a minorly injured player you're going to rest him a game and he gets all pissy... Found it's just better not to tell him and he won't care. 🙄

Last FIFA I played was 2016 as UT killed the game even then. There are mixed league UTs?

It's obvious. "their weights fluctuate a lot more, often weekly ... will still be included under the hood, but it won't be visible on the front end anymore." Obviously, they are afraid women will be offended because if it is under the hood, then it exists, and in some way matters. You know what the issue is with women's football? The entire game is slower, so I'm sure the whole ME must he rewritten. You'd think they could probably just reskin the Swedish 2nd division, but then, any Swedish 2nd division team could probably beat the top women's international teams. Just like when Serena was beat by the 200 something ranked man in her prime. They'll have to redo long kicks because women cannot kick the ball as far as men. What a waste of resources to appease 4% (the number who played a women's match in FIFA '22).

The point is, I think women want to be seen as strong and would proudly proclaim they are a woman in support of the feature. As for women's football, only 4% of FIFA '22 players played a women's football match. It was easy to track as playing one match unlocks an achievement. Half them were probably achievement chasers. https://www.thegamer.com/fifa-22-women-achievement/ It's all pandering. And you know, if it was as easy as adding more leagues with women players, sure. I'm all for it. If other sacrifices are made, then it's not worth it. And no, weight is not important. But such a dumb reason for not including it. "Real life women will he offended at their weight, so let's just turn it off for all!" Despite how unimportant it is, it takes away from the immersion of playing an in depth sim.

I lived online when I was in high school 20 years ago. I have been called every name in the book at some point or another. Like most people online, I roll my eyes and move on. I think modern women would he more likely to say "hey, I'm a woman and I think it should be included!" But the fact is, women watch sports far less than men. And even when they do, they tend to prefer men's sports. Look at the WNBA. Caitlin Clark has finally given it a fan base, but it's not women flocking to watch WNBA games. It's hardcore basketball fans (mostly men) and those who think they are witnessing a once in a lifetime talent (also mostly men).

a) No, it's statistical fact. This is from 2017. Look what genre rates dead last. As someone who played Warzone religiously for two years, I can verify the FPS percentage isn't far off as you'd usually hear your opponent speaking upon death. https://quanticfoundry.com/2017/01/19/female-gamers-by-genre/ b) I think women are strong enough to where being "swarmed" on a forum isn't enough to prevent them from identifying as a woman. You sound pretty misogynist to be honest.

The problem is more so what female base is there with even a remote interest in an absurdly in depth sim that is essentially sifting through spreadsheets?

Ok, how many women play video games compared to men? How many play an in-depth sim that's essentially just looking through spreadsheets? Look at the usernames here. While they don't tell all, how many appear feminine? Most forums with a large female base have numerous posters that are clearly feminine (even if a few are dudes). I'd be all for the women's game being included if it didn't detract from other things. SI should have just taken a two year hiatus and got it right. Just release roster updates for '23 and call it good. Even if they are unpopular DLC. Instead there was "here's your '24" and now a stripped down '25. Sorry, I like touchline shouts. Maybe I didn't know what they did, but they were something for me to feel I am influencing a match beyond altering tactics.

I'm sure this will be merged in the thread so no one sees it, but what a disappointing update. I tried international managing simultaneously with my team once and didn't like it. But it amazes me features are being stripped, but at least we have women's football! The best part is though... (Paraphrased) "Since women's weights fluctuate more than men, we just hid them all!" (Wouldn't want to offend someone, I guess) So what percent of saves play women's football anyways? Other than the initial surge of "lemme give this a try... Ok, boooring!"

I am on around my 20th season in FM '22. 14th or so with Flekkerøy football. I am have worked them into the premier league and been steady there the past 5-6 seasons. I've always in theory had a 2nd team that just plays a few friendlies, but never more than a few players on the team. Well, now that I am a 3* reputation, I am having no issue signing cheap young prospects. Combined with my youth intake, I now have enough players to actually fully stock a 2nd team. Here is the issue. If I go to squad registration, it always gives deadlines for the Norwegian 4th division. Of course, there is no Norwegian 4th division in the game. Only a 3rd division. Therefore, even when meeting the deadlines with a fully registered squad, there are no matches listed. Is it possible this second team will ever make the 3rd division and I will have a legitimate 2nd team? I always felt that would be better than using junior affiliates for development. I've never quite understood how the game chooses which teams to promote from divisions that don't exist... such as when my first team, Göttne got demoted (after I left) to the Swedish 3rd division, then magically came back to the second a couple years later. Is it random? I guess if I can never have a true, competitive 2nd team, then I need to be loaning out all these players... to my affiliates or otherwise. Or selling them for a profit.

Haha, that's awesome! I think I did that once when I knew I was going to be fired, although I think I just loaded the earlier save and saved my job. Either way, there is some satisfaction in believing the board, which really only exists in our minds, is furious and has complete egg on their face. My biggest issue is that both of the players my board sold from underneath me were homegrown stars. The Norwegian Premier division only allows 9 non-homegrown players and it's not easy to find these diamonds in the rough. So yeah, I can usually find an adequate replacement if I don't worry about homegrown status, but my roster is full of non-homegrown players now.

Ok, I know everyone runs into an occasion where the board sells your player against your wishes, but it's suddenly become ridiculous. I've worked a bottom feeder team into the Premier division and have had them stably there for about five seasons now. I finally... finally get a young dream striker. Very fast with decent finishing. Only 19. What does the board do? They sell him for under $2 million. He'd have been worth 4-5 in a couple years. Generally speaking, my team wobbled between $1 million in the black and $1 million in debt. Hell, my transfer budgets was $1.5 million, my wage $80k per week (and I'm spending less than $45k per week), so finances are fine. I'd have paid all that for this player! First time I successfully protested, but the second time, with a slightly better offer, there was no option. I was able to get them to add a loan-back clause at least to finish out the season. Wound up 5th, which qualifies for ECCII or whatever it is (sorry, I don't know European cup names exactly). But that too should be a financial windfall based on the collective bonuses option. My young (24) Central defender won player of the year. I kept refusing offer after offer and finally, the board accepted a $2.3 million offer for him. This time, because two offers came at once, I couldn't find an option to protest their accepting the offer. $2.3 million sounds like a lot, except apparently there was a 40% sale clause. Which is odd, because I swore I stopped making any offers or accepting any negotiations with a sell-on clause. Anyways, I had just signed another start central defender. However, I was retraining him to DR and making my DR a solid backup. Well, that plans gone to hell and now I still have a good defense, except there is no longer any real depth. To make matters worse, the Norwegian premier transfer window closed the day prior and it was a Swedish team that got him, so I couldn't even look for another star player. I hope FM '25 adds more logical arguments in cases like this. It's like, the entire point of a football team is to win matches, titles, and cups. How am I supposed to do that when my best players keep getting taken by a moronic board? I'm sure this happens at times in real life, but I can only imagine managers can say "hey... wait a minute... do you really want to sell a future star that will pack butts in the seats?" Part of me wonders if ChatGPT or something similar will eventually expand interactions in ways we cannot imagine...

I want to comment about real life, because I recall the World Cup match where, I believe it was South Korea, had a ball nearly out, that was originally called out, but wound up being a goal because a fraction of the ball remained on the line. And everyone was like "well, that's the rule..." Yes, it was a rule designed in an era without video rule to where it's likely intent was that any time the ball was touching the line was never called out. It gave referees an extra couple inches not to make the mistake of calling an actual in ball out. It's like offside by half a toe... These rules were not made for video review. Sorry, don't have VRA in my league in the game, so can't comment to your request.

Unless it's changed, this isn't true. In FM '22, I left a Swedish team after about six years for a Norwegian 2nd division team that was mathematically already slated for relegation. The board, therefore, was not judging me on that season. I beat the best team in the league and drew in the two matches I had. The team got relegated and I got automatically fired once the new season began and had to load a save I made before I took the job. Interestingly, I then took a job for a team on the cusp and saved them from relegation. I was surprised that about half the teams were non-promotable B/2nd teams. I figured that's just how the Norwegian Second Division is. After nearly a decade managing Flekkerøy, I looked them up in real life. Only two B/2 teams in the entire league. Apparently, SIs top teams dominate so much that their B teams become superhuman too after a few years. Again, at least in FM '22.

During a mid-season slump, I sought better strikers and I found a perfect 18 year old. Ok, maybe he wouldn't be perfect for this season, but the deal was too good to pass up. After I gave a hefty contract and decent fee, I noticed before accepting he was ineligible this season due to the only two teams in a season rule. Now, I completed this deal after saving and going to bed one night, so I didn't remember all the details. Regardless, turns out I promised him to start as a pressing forward. He is ineligible though, so I couldn't play him a single game and he got upset. Hey, that's on me. This type of thing would not happen in real life. But wouldn't a player also know he is ineligible? Anyways, I got him to agree to give me another chance so it should be fine. Just another one of those annoying player interaction things in the FM world.

I am continuing my game as the manager of Flekkeroy. The Czech Republic offered me the job as manager of their international team. I wasn't sure I really wanted to add this, but the salary was too much... about a million a year compared to my $200k I am making with Flekkeroy. I'm not going to put a lot of time into it and plan to delegate out everything except actual matches. However, I run into the issue where I want to hire a B team manager, an U20s manager, and an U21s manager. I go to place an advertisement and nothing happens. How do I go about this without randomly offering the job to dozens of people hoping one will take it? *edit* This is for FM22 *second edit* I don't have the Czech Republic in the game. Would it be wise to add at least a view only version?

I've been managing a Norwegian team for around 10 seasons now. Initially in D2, but mostly in D1. In D2, there were almost no TV games. In D1, there were always televised matches that paid $57k per match. The total varied from about 1/3 to 1/2 of my matches in a season. I got promoted to the Premier league this season and thus was turned professional. I signed new full time staff and upgraded a few players to full time contracts. I'm still not sure how the finances will shake out, but I have good enough players I can sell if needed. As I was going through this preseason, I kept waiting for the televised matches notification thinking I'd need a similar number of matches at around 3x the pay ~$150k per match to remain liquid. The season came and no matches have been selected as being televised. HOWEVER, before every match is the tunnel broadcast interview, which suggests in it being televised. Yet no $$$ have arrived yet. Is this a bug, or is it some difference in the division where maybe I get all TV revenue at the end? Without any broadcast revenue, I am going broke.

I think the fact that women's ratings pale in every single sport, including tennis: https://awfulannouncing.com/tennis/wimbledon-finale-multi-year-viewership-high.html Tennis is definitely one of the closer sports, yet the men's event still gets double the audience. That's not misogyny. That's just accepting the fact that men and women are wired differently and athletics is something men tend to care about far more than women. And even though women enjoy watching sports too, they tend to prefer watching men's sports over women's sports. That translates to games too. If you want evidence on games, here ya go: https://www.thegamer.com/fifa-22-women-achievement/ These statistics are especially putrid considering many people are achievement seekers who would do something thing simple just to unlock the achievement. Hell, if I still bought FIFA games on my XBox, I would have played a match just to unlock it. Do you believe Football Manager is going to be any different? I am sure SI will include an achievement for managing a women's team. I bet the stats won't be much different. Maybe 10% to get a whiff of the "new football smell" before it wears off.

Thanks! Ya know, I've never dug into the personality traits and now that you mention it and I finally looked them up, you are right. That looks like the second best personality trait a player can have. Since he is slow, I will only play him as a keeper and not a sweeper keeper. It would make sense in that case to sell Dønnum then. Cash out on that massive (for my team) player value before his contract runs out. Then use the 16 year old should an emergency injury occur. So, would you renegotiate Drage's contract to full time? I don't know how much full time matters for development compared to part time. Honesty, if I get relegated, my team is going broke as I've been spending like a fish on new staff and what not since becoming professional. I don't even know how finances are going to shake out yet as I have no idea what TV contracts will be, and won't for another couple months.