Sluggish UI and Other Annoyances (Feature Bloating)

Having played FM2011 for a bit, I notice that the problem with sluggish UI is still there. It's VERY annoying. The UI simply does not react instantly in many places. The best example is probably when switching to tactics view (the one that shows the pitch). It takes several seconds. That is unacceptable. What is it that is processed on that screen that takes so long?

There are lots of other places also where the UI is simply too slow. It makes the game frustrating and takes away a lot of the fun IMO.

I have a bit of other niggles also. My ususal complaint is still relevant, of course. There is too many redundant and annoying features. The most prominent are the press conferences and team talks. But also a lot of small things here and there just makes the game seem more like a real job than a game. Not everyone agrees here, of course, but I really think SI need to start to cut away stuff instead of keep adding in. Sometimes less is more. Start looking at what makes a fun GAME instead of trying to cram in a million things that ultimately make it feel like a chore (all my friends who previously were big fans of the series agree with this, so I know I am not the only one).

Finally, I think that the graphics in the match engine are becoming a bit embarrassing. This is 2010! Try to compare the quality of graphics with practicall ALL other games and it looks...well, insanely poor. I understand that we can't have FIFA-like graphics, but really the players should at least be able to run around in somewhat fluid motions and not skip all the time.

Well, just to end the post with something positive, I would like to say that the way the games play out is very impressive. The realism is truly great and it is highlt impressive how SI have actually made something that simulates real football so well.

Also, I like SI very much as a studio. They care a lot for their fans and do a lot to fix bugs and improve the game.

Completely agree with the sluggish UI at times even though there doesn't seem to be any real reason for it. I concur on the point in regards to press conferences none one I know has anything complimentary to say about them. They just seem to be something that holds up the game for a good minute or too.

Give us the option of not having them please.

The lag you get on the tactics screen is because of the perspective view used on the pitch.

It's possible to make that a simple "top view", which also gets rid of the lag when going to the tactics view.

It's all about changing a value from "true" to "false" (or the other way around), in an .xml file.

You might've figured it out already, but i can't remember which .xml file it is.

Might be "tactics panel.xml", but i'm really not sure.

Which line it is in the correct .xml file you're supposed to change, i've definitely forgotten.

-EDIT-

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/172892-Changing-Tactics-Screen-to-Non-Perspective?highlight=tactics+view

Try this link. I think it's the right one.

I have 2 annoyances so far

1) Declare Interest in Job feature appears to have vanished into thin air (maybe a skin thing? im using the dark skin)

2) During matches I prefer having the motivation and ratings windows open for my team only, as I feel they add a quite a bit of clutter to the match screen. In FM2010 this was painless, however in this years edition I find that the team displayed in the boxes is based on home/away, as such in 50% of my games they display information for the opposing side, meaning that I have to waste the effort of manually change the windows when I never had to before.

Yeah, the UI is laggy all over. I have a high-end computer but the game is lagging everywhere. It might only be a split second too long, but a split second too long for every click is making the game feel very slow and frustrating.

Have SI ever commented on the UI thing?

It's a fairly big issue, I think.

Surely something that should get a high priority.

A huge +1 on the feature overload from me.

Having too many of these unneeded features (such as the press conferences) makes it so that less of me can focus on the things that matter, and as a result I don't feel like I'm part of that world as much as I would like.

Honestly, and this came as a huge surprise to me, but it has been years, maybe close to a decade even, since I've enjoyed Manager as much as I've enjoyed playing the iPhone version. Sure, one might say that the 2010 version is a bit too simple (2011 isn't out yet), but it's a lot of fun, and I'll say that it did a better job of making me feel like I was in that world, than any Manager game before it.

I really think SI should hire some world class designer and have him look at this game. Seriously, all common knowledge on how to make a fun game speaks against MANY of the things included in FM.

However, you can't really argue against the fact that many people on here do find it fun. I think that the problem is that they have somewhat lost the "semi-casual" market segment. With "Semi-casual" I mean those who are not casual players, they want some complexity, but not ultra-harccore, either. E.g. they want to be able to tweak tactics quite a bit; set individual instructions and so on. However, they may think that the current level of detail is just too much. It becomes an actual job to understand how everything works and how to utilise it.

As I said, I have the highest respect for SI as a development studio, but I think that the feature bloating of FM is a result of listening too much to the fans. They include SO MUCH of what's suggested that the game just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

For now, though, please just remove the press conferences and team talks (or make them optional - NOT as in have the ass man handle them but as in TURN THEM OFF so that they are not shown) and make the UI MUCH snappier. The sluggish UI is a big problem as it makes clicking through the tons and tons of information somewhat of a chore.