Kcinnay

Hi @XaW, I'd replied specifically to you because couple of weeks ago (after the development update which created chaos), I had written that in a football club (where coaches/managers usually are sacked way too soon), the manager (in this case Miles) would've been sacked years ago - more than implying that knowing nothing now would result in another failed game (compared to the promises from SI itself). And you deleted that post for the reasons you've made clear multiple times. That's why. The promise of being more clear with the audience starkly contrasting with the sound of silence about something that's shiny new, like your firstborn who you'd like to show to everyone, filled with proud, doesn't bode well. Cancellation after cancellation, mock-ups looking amateuristic as USP atm - if this is a trick, it's either very clever, probably very stupid, but certainly alienating one of the most loyal fanbases in the gaming world ever. Again: all my appreciation for people like you, researchers, who do this for free, just out of love for the game. I'm worried. I hope it's just a PR disaster and that the game will be magnificent. I applaud the integration of women's football, because FM has a social impact. Letting newgens being able to come out as gay is very, very important and yes, I think the integration of women's football is more important than (finally) making international management an interesting feature. But: it feels like criticism should be very 'cloack and dagger'-y, while I think that the customers are allowed to say that the descicion maker(s) aren't doing a good job. We don't want to lose FM. I want to be wrong, I want to help with my expertise, but I just utter that in the end, we decide (by buying the game or not) whether FM has a future. The chaos now doesn't reflect good management. So I think it may be legite to utter that maybe a fresh breeze at the helm could be for the better, because of multiple reasons being said the past couple of days by other people. I hope everything will be fine, the concept of adding new features while the game is already out is smart, but... Yeah, I'm worried and I'd love to be proven wrong. I don't think it'll be a failure. I fear. But I hope.

My two cents: just like in a football team, we, the fans, provide SI money for a streamlined product. Year by year, the finished product is unfinished. Not unplayable, but... And then there was the clarification: the move to unity. And in 25 years, I've never seen such a meltdown by the fanbase. Either it's a weird promotactic or it's a lackluster product for full price which will be the beginning of the end of the FM games. IMPO, this fanbase is quite polite for, let's say, the board. We should be allowed to vent criticism about human descisions, people in charge. Otherwise we're just free sponsors. Customers need to be kept happy, not with revamp this or that, but with the essence: tactics, training, immersion, graphics. And what do we get? If we get a lackluster product, there won't be need for calling SI top dogs to be sacked - the game will cease to exist. We're slowing in the dark in a state of despair. I'm not a big gamer, but I can't imagine such a shambolic streak of promo, product and customer friendly approach. And SI, swinning in the pool, has mods, for free, who need to keep the roaring crowd in order. If a company can afford it, it could buy out the FM data and create a new game. Or FIFA Manager 06 revival, why not? Still looks better than FM24, 18 years later. Criticism should be allowed and I guess not even a tiny minority thinks SI headquarters are doing a good job. FOR YEARS! The biggest new feauture was announced, what, four years ago? This is shambolic and I sincerely hope this is not the end of the decent/exquisite FM series. But if the customers lose the right to criticism, the game loses its profits. THE END. They need to know, hear, read that things are going wrong in an unseen way. Don't go chasing waterfalls, SI. Hire a crisis manager who's actually well spoken, polite, knows the PR stuff. Invest everything you can to make this abysmally announced game (this goes, that disappears etc.; no holiday, cry me a river) as good as it can be. FM25 reminds me of schoolwork. Starting at the last possible moment. I would not appreciate the removal of this text. In any other profession, customer care would be the priority, not the protection of people who're seriously on the wrong track, with possible catastrophical consequences. But hey, just a customer. Just a warng: I fear this time there won't be a 'we're used to it'-sale. People are scared, angry or disappointed. Every day without positive communication to us, the source of income, is a disaster. I hope I'm wrong, I hope I'm blown away, but...based on WHAT?

Who would've thought that Tommy Wiseau would launch a football manager simulation? At this point, being able to ask your players how their intimate life is, would be less lackluster than for exemple the revamp (a.k.a. let's make it as Mark & Spencer without Spencer as possible) of the player profile. And there I was, hoping they'd have changed it to less defined attribute scores - IMMERSION, like Miles always says. I'm not into software, but is this Tame Impala-cover ('Feels Like We Only Go Backwards') really that hard to pull. What we see is the Notre Dame rebuild in two weeks after the fire by the local children on firebrigadecamp. I hope those in charge have strong sleeping tablets, because if years of work don't induce insomnia and panic attacks, what does? On a serious note: don't want FM to go downhill. I'm real life tactically astute in men's and women's football. I know how teams and staff measure the qualities of their players. (Absolutely not with precize numbers.) Is there a way in which I can contribute officialy, not as someone giving feedback in his free time? Sincere question. Tactics from a random women team playing a friendly against a youth team of men should end fairly equal, but playing style should differ within the blink of an eye. Women are more technical and brutal, have mostly bad luck because big football names coach them (and they're not capable), while men are more physical and expressive (hybris, sloppy passes).

The vulcano is exploding, but luckily there's no criticism about the people in charge, 'cause that's the lava on the floor. But please, after this hyperbolic disaster, you need to be Roberto Martínez (I'm Belgian, I'm used to eternal optimism after a deception) to keep on supporting everything and everyone. I'll take the floor: maybe a new era could've used a new board as well. Which doesn't mean that... But...Come on, this is abysmal, face it,they've a quite realistic football simulation game (with good looks and exquisite data) in an enigmatic app-like game that's as progressive as Times New Roman in 2087, coloured like generic clothing stores for elder tourists. On the small chance it all turns out to be a better game than FM24 (the Perfect Passing Game, Whatever You Want, Whatever You Do), which in fact couldn't be so hard, the PR is... no, floor, lava.... If it takes years to come up with something way worse than before, then it's game over for FM. They needed competitors, because the love letter was for a FWB and the new era is the one in a small appartment in a noisy neighbourhood. Unbelievable.

Would be awesome to finally be able to play a narrow 4-4-2, with wide centre midfielders on the outside. Or specific half space runners which makes the holy grail of a couple of years ago (defending in a symmetric 3-6-1) even more possible than it already is. This is the good stuff. Hope it's true! Now, zonal marking should be more than a label. Hunting in packs shouldn't depend on some boxes or role combinations.

Poor Miles, thinking: I'm gonna write a blogpost to update the fans. If the Roman Empire existed in the universe of this forum, a postmodern Nero would play a winch while the city is burning. Joking aside: wait & see. Clumsy communication? Lackluster salesmanship? Underestimating the necessary timeframe to deliver a top notch product while keeping the paying (!) customers? Abso-flippin'-lutely! But in a couple of years, these hard times (from a game perspective of course) will be worth it. International management like it should've been for a long time! The complete football universe! (Because yes, women's football is football as well, in some parts better than what the male counterparts provide, and if you read some tactical blogs, sometimes the tactical experiments there are way more interesting.) Who knows what will be added following years? AI press conferences, so you should give real answers? A TD or DoF who appoints and commands YOU and not the other way around? Having to earn the honour of being the T1 and the DoF? There are always bumps in the road, and the latest update was horrible from a 'come on, Barbie, let's go party'-perspective, but I for one am looking forward to my first save as a manager from a women's team. First time I can do in FM what I've done in real life. Graphics wise I hope it's not too shiny. More realistic stadiums, grass and haircuts, but them be very distinctive puppets, no counterimages - would be way too time consuming for a result that doesn't matter, given screen resolutions and long run gaming with newgens coming into play. Oh, and pressing, ball oriented pressing, hunting in packs, something that differentiaties man marking from a shadow version of 'a' zonal marking. Defensively, it's all about overloads as well, which are very difficult to create. Give me that, women's football (or let's say: not just men's football) and a bit more tactical control, clarity, challenges and I'm totally fine.

I thought I was polite. In short: I guess (or hope at least) there'll be plenty of good to say and show about FM25. Do it. Especially when in charge. The comparison with how absurdly quick managers can be sacked in real life football was to make the comparison. Not to say he should be dismissed. So for those at the back: I'm still optimistic, I applaud the implementation of women's football (something for which the gaffer deserves much respect and I'm lookin' forward to it, coming from a background as a football coach at top tier level in women's football in Belgium) because it will give it a huge boost in real life - and I expect that huge graphical and tactical changes are to be expected - for the better. BUT some sort of salesmanship wouldn't hurt. Otherwise this wouldn't be a trending topic late in the evening, at the start of the night.

How to create defensive overloads where your team press in packs, zonal and ball oriented? Would tight marking work - although it's contradictory - help? Would an attacking (aggression) or more defensive (compactness) mentality help? Higher tempo? Expressive, disciplined? OI? (I mostly use a 4-2-2-2 or a 5-2-2-1 (which is more of a 3-6-1) formation with very direct passing and high press.

And we differ in the eyetest. I want to see different things from my teams (real life and FM) when I give some instructions. When I set up a very direct tactic, with the appropriate over the top settings, I expect to see an awful lot of direct balls and - of course - a lot of turnovers, loss of ball possession. Just compare to the gameplay in FM 23.

Look at the pass completion ratio, look at the OPPDA. Almost no difference between a tiki taka-team and Tony Pulis-like teams.

What balance? I have the feeling the ME was destroyed from the beginning by letting all teams play the same. Try to play a tactic that doesn't involve positional play roles, doesn't rely on keeping possession and wants to really hard press or be a low block. You won't really succeed. Not that FM23 was perfect, but there were clear playing style distinctions, distinctions in the statistics. In FM24, tactically you can make a lot of different things happen, with any team - as long as you're focused on possession and dynamism and don't bother that much about direct football or defending altogether.

I honestly think there's a problem at the helm. No bad intentions there, of course, but after years in charge, tunnel vision kicks in. For a couple of years, there's a focus on bright, shiny new features, but they don't necessarily function properly, create knock on effects or are pure waste of time for the coders of the game. I really like the data hub, but what if the stats don't make sense or what if every team has more or less the same amount of pressing? The one thing that has to function properly, is the ME, and after the last version in FM 23, FM 24 is a huge step back. Positional play has done more bad than good. Because now, every AI team uses fancy roles, creates overloads, passes the ball around like they're prime Barcelona. It's quite impossible to create a tactic that in possession isn't focused on keeping the ball. You can max out your settings all you want, use the most basic of roles, but hoofball you won't get, not even clear. I guess the match engine is great fun for people who like to play a short passing game, fluid positional play, the visuals are clearly much better (in game motion and the graphics of the pitch itself) than ever. But then again, never ever has the game pushed you so hard in one direction to win games. There's no diversity in playing styles, manager stats don't seem to make a difference - for 'immersion' (the magic word) that's a big letdown. What should've happened the last couple of years was a focus on the ME. More attention to the different ways teams defend (because at the moment, the way AC Milan defend under Sacchi 35 years ago was more advanced than what we can set up now), teams attack, central play. As has been pointed out, defending in a narrow, compact block is very common, but impossible to achieve in FM. In fact, I guess defending with overloads was easier on FIFA Manager 06 with its settings per zone where players should be in zonal marking. At the moment, there isn't 'a' marking system in FM. You could manually opt for pure man marking like in the catenaccio times (why is that even still a template?), if you put in the time, but ball oriented pressing, man oriented pressing, extreme compactness and shifting from side to side, defending two or three versus one... It all doesn't exist in Football Manager. I applaud the move to include women's football, because it's important, the sport is getting bigger and bigger and deserves to be included in the biggest football management franchise. The cultural impact is huge. But that doesn't interfere with the many years to late that set pieces have been handled (and even then a bit lackluster, because again, not so many zonal defending options), with totally ignoring the requests to make international management more attractive by just... allowing existing features into that aspect of the game? Let's say: training in the international week, more communication options (not only when someone's injured), talking with players or agents about necessary career moves. (Things that are alluded to in some flash interviews, but there it ends.) And then the lack of communication after the public announcement that there should be more communication... It's the biggest fault of all, I guess. There should be a game in the market that challenges FM - which in itself is a great game, but is so able to rest on its laurels that they move away from a real life football simulation to a world with its own rules, quirks, where - dare I say it? - knowledge of real life football will frustrate you more than it will help you, because yeah, the game is pushing you in the direction they push all AI teams. Short passing to perfection, medium pressing (but FM style), lack of chaos. I'm afraid fresh eyes with thorough football knowledge and some experts in communication with the public will be necessary to get the game where it should be: an immersive football simulation of football in 2024, 2025, 2026... But now it's always one step forward, two ways back. The mods do an awesome job of communicating with the users in their free time, but SI can't rely on them. Somehow I think Nic Madden is one of the only ME developpers who truly knows its football and tries to make changes. TL;DR: Afraid there's irreversible tunnel vision at the helm, lack of focus on real life football diversity, pushing the game in one direction, lack of communication, except by the mods, too little immersion, too little knowledge of the differences in how teams attack, defend, central play, different styles of pressing in a zonal way, essential aspects in the game that have or are being ignored for too long, lookin' forward to the implementation of women's football.

That cannot be true, can it? Every team playing the same, no pressing, all perfect short passes, whatever your instrunctions are? I hope there are secret changes, but I don't want to find out myself. If there are no ME changes after the abysmal state of the ME in FM 24, I'm done.

The pass completion ratio perhaps.

I'd rather they fix it. Afraid for a lackluster comment that things will be sorted out in FM 25. For once, my lack of money makes me invested in the comments. I haven't played FM24 as much as previous installments, and I was frustrated as hell with FM 17 for example (the wide midfielders problem), but even that version greatly surpassed my playing time. (And almost all of my playing time of FM 24 was trying to find a coping mechanism.) The ME is the core, they need to fix it.

For the first time in 25 years, I've returned to a previous version. It feels weird, I miss the visuals of the pitch, the set piece creator and the people who can help sell players, but it's such a relief to play the ME of FM 23, where there are actual differences in playing styles, where setting up a long ball tactic team can result in a pass completion of 60% while the possession oriented opponent hits the 90% mark. It of cours lacks positional play, but it has differences in PPDA, you can have a style, it's actually visible whether you're into possession or direct football, whether you like to press or prefer to stand off. I really, really hope the last patch of FM24 sort out the uniformity in playing styles in the ME (despite totally different settings and preferences, as others have pointed out), because that's the Debbie Downer for me.

What's the best way in the current ME state to play a vintage Red Bull Salzburg type of play? (Direct passing, hard & high pressing, defensive overloads, extreme compactness.) I really find it very difficult - attacking mentality or very defensive (for the most extreme passing range)? What pressing instructions to actually make a team high press? Disciplined or expressive? Can it be done at all?

Beware. Last edition, I made a likewise suggestion, because I have the feeling there's vision about real life football lacking - and even Miles suggested FM23 was underwhelming, and I don't know what can be said about the "ultimate edition: FM 24". In football analogy: a manager would've been sacked way earlier. But then there was a backlas, that it's unfair (and less kind words) to suggest that Miles MAYBE has to (let) go.

And even those styles don't work as they should like in real life. Defenders can pass the ball around all day, every team makes at the very least 80% succesfull passes and more often dan not 90% or more. How many blitzkrieg pressing actions have you seen in FM from a maxed out gegenpress team? This year, the game really is shambolic.

How?

Normally, I watch them extended, but this year I switched to comprehensive. But I love data and since those are quite important in FM, I just can't get over it.

I've never played so little FM as I've done now. In the beta I've completed a season, since release I've only made it to the winter break. Quite frankly can't handle the lack of pressing and the fact that every bloody team has a pass completion percentage of (way more) than 80%. Fancying some direct tactics and not really be able to play like that makes it harsh, kills the immersion. Wish I was a possession guy, I'd have a blast.

I'm wondering what more must be done to have this 'under review'. It's not a small part of the match engine that isn't representative.

Unbelievable that this bug has still an 'open' status, while there isn't a save game in the FM24 world where passing isn't closely to pitch perfect. So, I've uploaded the save game 'Pass completion ratio way too high.fm' to oc.sigames.com/owncloud. This need to be fixed for FM24, because more variations in playing styles is needed for - magic marketing word - "immersion".

Has pass success percentage been lowered? Even with extreme hoofball settings, it was very rare to get less than 80%.