Mike_G25

Want to add my overall thoughts on FM24. Long time FM player and whilst I've played nearly 300 hours in this years game which pretty much on the whole I've enjoyed, there's been some instances where I think the game has just felt broken which ruined/nearly ruined my saves. Positives - overall, I've still enjoyed the game this year, my main save was playing the Glory Hunter challenge which I managed to complete. The game had it's usual hook whilst I played through the challenge and I liked the new positional play elements, it made me re-think my possession based tactic I created on FM23 and helped me evolve it to the next step. In terms of usual FM gameplay, this version has been the same, enjoyable FM from previous years. That being said, some issues have frustrated me and led to me turning away from the game for the first time. Negatives - The 'lack of goalkeeper depth' bug really hit me hard and I was so close to having to abandon my Glory Hunter challenge early on because of it. It led to squad unhappiness and I had to sell key players just to try and keep squad dynamics as close to positive as possible but it still proved to be a struggle. I did in the end turn off until the patch was released but to have to do that so early into the release of the new game was bitterly disappointing and took the shine off the start of the game for me. The other big drawback for me is player power and wages, particularly for smaller clubs working their way up. Now I get realism where players may kick off and ask for new contracts after getting promoted, it's been in FM for years and has always been something I've managed to resolve pretty much most times. On FM24 however, it feels completely unrealistic and OP. For example, I had a save as Wigan focusing on youth players and developing a financially stable side (sign young, develop, sell, repeat) after I completed Glory Hunter, just something fun to take me up to FM25. I managed to get promoted to the Championship through the play offs in the 24/25 season. After promotion, my wage budget increased from £120k p/w to £150k p/w. I released some of the deadwood which gave me around £50k p/w free in wage but left me with only around 14 players in the squad so I needed a bit of a rebuild. Then, I had several players come to me in the space of about 2-3 weeks all asking for new deals and pay rises. For example, Sam Tickle was on £3k p/w but was then asking for £20k p/w, Steven Sessegnon (who was given a new deal 6 months earlier) was on £7.5k p/w and wanted £35k p/w, Thelo Aasgaard was on £3.8k p/w and wanted £16k p/w, Sinclair Armstrong was on £5k p/w and wanted £17k p/w. Now if I'd given in to these pay rises for some of my key players, I'd have no money left to get anyone else in. As I ultimately didn't want to go overboard on the wage budget, I had to then look to sell these key players (again, just after promotion, it left a sour taste in my mouth, why should I be forced to sell a big part of my team straight after being promoted, how often does that happen?). Then, guess what, it was difficult to sell the players and get interest early on which led to the rest of the team getting upset at me not offering new contracts to the other players which, of course, caused a squad revolt . I've had to bin the save. I've been looking at other threads where this has happened to other players and seen the feedback to say it's normal, you need to sell etc. but on this scale? I think it's too much and ruined the save for me. I've seen other comments about how the players compare their wages/ability vs the rest of the division which is why they ask for such huge increases but with the smallest wage budget in the division against huge, multi-million budgets, it's not realistic and needs to be addressed. I'll always love FM and I'm looking forward to hearing about FM25 but I sincerely hope for a better overall experience. I know a lot of people have had frustrations this year, I've been lucky to not be affected too bad but when the issues hit, they hit me hard.

A bit concerned the patch notes only states that the squad depth complaints are fixed for when first transfer window is disabled. Hope it’s a general fix for the issue as I had the window turned on and still had the bug 3-4 times

I honestly don't think I've felt this way about an FM game before. I've been playing for 20 years and the bug around squad depth is so deflating and infuriating it's ruined my save. Outside of the bug, I've been really enjoying FM24 but this issue is so big, I've had to sell some key first team players just to get around the problem which I shouldn't have to do. I don't want to touch the game until there's a fix which is a whole new experience for me. To say I'm disappointed is a huge understatement.

I know it's been raised on the bug fix list and I know bugs aren't to be posted here, my post is more frustration and me just needing to vent. This issue is so annoying, it's game breaking. I've had it 3 times so far where squad depth issue causes a mutiny in my team and it's getting to the point where I don't want to play until a fix is out. SI make a great game year after year so it's really disappointing how much of an issue this is causing me. I've been trying to buy the in-game editor to resolve the problem as a last resort but Steam somehow keeps on rejecting my card now too. Seems like I'll be reducing my FM time until the patch is out in a few weeks.....

Love having the DOF in the game and I think it would be great to have more interactions with them. When asking the DOF for recommendations for new signings in each position, it’d be nice to have more options like; - age limit, so don’t recommend players over 25 - a specific personality request - set piece specialist - matches club vision requirement - maximum current wage - maximum current value One of my pet peeves about speaking with the DOF is that, I find anyway, they more often than not recommend players on huge wages who can be too old for what I’m looking for. Another suggestion is that, if you ask your DOF to take charge of your transfers and contract negotiations, I’d like to give them more options and tweak the current approach of proposing they make bids to sign players one at a time. IRL, I often hear how managers have a list of targets that they give to the DOF who then goes away and tries to bring players in based on order of preference and priority. So you could have a week or so in game before the transfer window opens (or in recruitment meetings) where you have the chance to say ‘I want two new strikers and here are 10 names who I think would be great fit. This is my order of who I prefer, go and see who would be willing to join, fit in line with budget requirements and make bids.’ As the manager, you can then have the final say before the transfer goes through. Just my two cents.