My observations (and problems) after 1 season.

I've been playing FM11 for 1 season and i am noticing quite a few issues which are beginning to spoil the game for me. Having looked through the forums i can see that lots of people are having similar issues, but being as i rarely voice my opinion on here i thought i would add to the growing list of unhappy users.

I know it is the same every year and i know there are always lots of "whining" posts in the first few months of release. Many board members dismiss these and seem to be happy to accept that the game is always released with problems - it seems that this has become the norm and if you are unhappy with the inevitable faults the game has then YOU are the problem! I can never accept this. Sure, a game may have a few issues and is NEVER going to be perfect, but some of the problems that are present when the game is released are nothing short of comical and should NEVER have made it past testing.

Anyway, I started the game on the 11.1.1 patch and i am Man City (always start my first game with a big team to get used to the game, so dont moan ).

I have won the premier league, league cup and euro cup in my first season (as you would expect with Man City), so i am not whining about the game being too hard. The difficulty appears to be just right this year.

1. Press is still boring.

Same questions every time. Same answers every time. Same results every time. It's just boring and i still let my assistant do them 99% of the time. On the rare occasion the press ask me something relevant or interesting it seems to have no baring on anything regardless of how i answer.

In my opinion the press conferences add very little to the game and only serve as a hindrance. I cant see how SI could ever make them anything more than a hindrance - they would need a VAST database of questions, answers and outcomes and even then it would still become repetitive and boring after a few seasons. I know press interaction is a massive part of real life football but i just cant see this ever being implemented correctly in the game.

2. Interaction.

Ok, it has been "overhauled" and there now appears to be many more options we can choose from when talking to in game people. The problem i have is that most of the time most of these new interaction options are greyed out, so i cant use them. For example, i had a player who was jaded and needed a rest. I went to his chat options and could see the "rest player" category but i couldn't select it. What is the point of having all these new options if we can only choose them as and when the game sees fit? Why cant i ask my board for a feeder club more than once in 6 months? Why cant i tell a rival manager i think he is under-performing? Surely even if it would be silly for us to constantly ask out board from more money, we should still have the option to do so? We would in real life.

3. Random reactions to player interaction.

I like the fact that interacting with a player is now a two way thing and i get the players feedback on what i am saying, but it appears to be totally random and in a lot of cases quite strange. Example - i asked Fernando Torres if he would stop drifting into the channels. He said he didnt think it would benefit him. I said i would like him to give it try anyway. He again refused and ended the conversation saying it wasn't going well!!! WHAT???? When would this ever happen in real life? "No Sir Alex, i wont take your advice on how to stop being completely out of position when the ball is in the final third. And now i will stop talking to you because i don't like what you are saying". And now the entire category for this option in preferred moves is greyed out, so i cant even ask him anything else! Fair enough players aren't always going to be happy about what you are asking them, and the occasional player may even be so argumentative that he refuses to do as you ask (Craig Bellamy for instance), but surely the vast majority of players would take on board what you have asked and give it a go, at least for a little while if only to prove it isn't working?? Just seems very strange that a player who claims to have a good relationship with me point blankly refuses to do what i ask and gets a bit narky with me about it!

4. Player unhappy despite me doing more than i said i would.

Bought Iker Muniain, a 17 year old striker who looks like a good prospect. As i have done with this sort of player on all FMs previous to this, i dropped him straight in to the reserves to give him time to blend in and get a few games and so i can have a look at him. He isnt happy with being dropped to the reserves and wants a chat. Bit strange i thought, but i promised him that if he played well in the reserves he would get first team games (how many 17 year olds are promised this in real life at big clubs????). Sure enough he played well for 3 games in the reserves, so (dropping Fernando Torres to make room for him) i played him in 2 euro games, 3 cup games and 3 league games (starting 4 of the games and getting at least 30 mins in others) over the space of a month and half - more than enough i thought for a wet-behind-the-ears 17 year old. Apparently not. Without warning (his moral was superb and he was happy) he suddenly requests a transfer due to my "refusal to fulfil a first-team football promise". What the hell??? This could develop into a BIG problem if other players do the same, and has the potential to be a game breaker at big clubs if you are trying to develop players.

5. Yes, i know [some manager] at [some club] may get the sack!

Why do i have to be told every few days that someone might get the sack if they lose the next game? So far no one has ever actually been sacked despite the constant warnings! What is the point of this? Tell me once that their job is insecure, then tell me when they are sacked. That is all!!! As a whole the news section is quite repetitive and boring. I know i can turn off areas i have no interest in but then i may miss the rare bits i did want to know about. I think the news section needs to be a little more intelligent in what is relevant to me.

6. What purpose does the match preparation serve?

I have changed the settings myself, left it to my assistant and even left it untouched for months - it just doesnt seem to make any difference. I see no change in how the team plays and i get no feedback from anyone on what difference it might be making. Am i missing something here? I left it on "defensive positioning" for months, yet i was still seeing VERY silly goals conceded with very good defenders (Toure, Vermaelen, Lescott and Cahill) in quite frankly bizarre positions, so what good was it doing? I tried it on "attacking movement" for a while, but didnt see any improvement on my world class strikers missing countless CCC's or open nets (which is another problem!)

There are lots more little niggles i have, but this post is already too long and will probably be ignored by most!

These are only my opinions and observations and i am not saying the game is unplayable or broken, but from what i have noticed and from the problems i have seen reported in the forums it is obvious that SI have yet again released the game with OBVIOUS flaws. SI/SEGA surely HAVE to know about these issues but chose to ignore them and release the game anyway as they know the game will still sell. This will probably never change and will more likely get worse - this disappoints me greatly as i have enjoyed this game ever since the first ever CM.

All i can say is that for the first time ever I wont buy the game on release day next year. I will wait until the final patch is released then read what others have to say about it in the forums. I can then decide whether or not it is worth my hard earned cash yet again. I am tired of being an unpaid member of SI's testing team. I urge everyone to do the same - maybe if release day sales take a dip then SI/SEGA may take notice and do something about it (maybe, just maybe).

agrees with all of that..

I also wondered about the greyed out option in interaction but assumed their must be a reason for it?

agree with everything you have said

I presume the game just thinks that the option isn't relevant to the situation, but i dont want the game to choose, i want to choose!

Something else i have just spotted now is although there are now many more options when speaking to a player, there still seems to be an infuriating lack of relevant options for the given situation.

I have another player who is unhappy because i didn't give him enough first team games (although this time he has good reason to be unhappy) but i have absolutely no options in the player interaction to try and put this unhappiness right. Obviously i could just play him, but he is crap and doesn't deserve a place in the first team yet, so i would like to be able to speak to him and say something like "you are only 16 years old and there are much better players in the team that i can't afford to drop. Get a grip and wait for a loan opportunity".

Although the new interaction engine is progress, it is still WAY off being useful in my opinion.

Good post and i agree.

The conversations with players has potential but from what ive seen so far theres eesm to be no middle ground. Its either good, bad or stupid responses from it.

I'd also add problems like far too many penalties being missed, crossing being the best way to score goals and the many MANY one-on-ones that end up being shot way wide, way over the bar or straight at the keeper being annoying too. At least the 10.3 match engine was enjoyable. Have players forgotten how to curl the ball past the keeper in a one-on-one situation.

agreed.

They should seriously stop with the futile efforts on improving press conference. It's exactly the same even though they said they changed it a lot. And it can't really be improved to be dynamic because you can't put a real human being into a program. So I think they should stop wasting their time with it by now.

They need real improvements for more consistent player interaction and also scouting needs MAJOR overhaul.

Good post. Add you haven't even run into the horrible transfer system with top players like Dzeko being offered out for 7m and Rooney/Torres unable to find a club on free.

I completely agree about the media thing. It was pointless when it was introduced a few years back and it's still pointless.

Why would you tell a 17 year old that he could become a first time regular if he played well for the reserves?

Why would you tell a 17 year old that he could become a first time regular if he played well for the reserves?

Because your options when this happens are limited. It's either say this or else have 4 ways of telling him he's getting transferred. Ridiculous.

Oh yeah good point, that is too limited :-/

Because your options when this happens are limited. It's either say this or else have 4 ways of telling him he's getting transferred. Ridiculous.

Exactly this.

I cannot sell anyone. If you were offered Denilson or Abou Diaby for free wouldn't you accept???

This is not the only problem I have seen with the transfer system. After the first season I signed Philippe Mexes on a free and I got Nemanja Vidic for £9 million. Mario Balotelli also got offered to me for £8.5 million. Now, I'm not complaining about those signings because they're very helpful but they're hardly realistic. Berbatov was transfer listed for £4.3 mil, Bojan was up for £5 mil and Yaya Toure was up for £9.5 mil. Oh, and Bale went to Man United for £5.75 mil.

Also, my players missing 7 penalties in one season (out of 9) seems a tad unrealistic. AND I don't rate Marouane Chamakh in real life at all but I'd expect him to get more than 4 goals in 22 games in the league. Relying on Giuseppe Rossi to score headers against 6 foot plus centre backs (he scores more headers than one-on-ones) is not cool.

I think you can stop complaining about the transfer issue now. By now we have all established that it is a bug and SI said that they are working to fix it for the next patch. So stop clogging up a productive thread with the same repetitive complaints again.

1. Boring if you have no imagination maybe. Different player personalities will react differently to certain answers. Building up relationships with journalists can also be rewarding.

2. If an interaction option is “greyed out” it’s because the player has just joined the club, or you have already selected that option recently. You can rest a player by right-clicking him and selecting Squad-Training-Rest, and unlike placing someone in the reserves, this requires no prior conversation.

Feeder clubs; how many new feeders do you think Liverpool have set themselves up with throughout the last decade? Not many. The game needs to mirror this, which is why you’re only being allowed to ask once every 6 months, when in truth that is too generous. Once a year would be sufficient.

You can tell a manager he is underperforming. Start of the game, go to Man United team screen, click on “comment on manager”, and select Club-Opponent’s Team Underperforming. Of course, if the manager is not underperforming at the time, that option will be greyed out.

You are not able to ask the board “constantly” for more money because then the board will start to resent you and you’ll create more problems that you never saw coming. And in real life managers don’t come and go at board meetings whenever they please.

3. So what you’re saying is that a manager should always be able to get his way? Sounds like a spoiled mentality if you ask me.

Players like Torres who are over the age of 25 are less likely to accept learning/unlearning PPMs. Had you known that, you’d have left him alone when he politely told you “no” the first time. Only young players with low reputations are likely to be swayed by their manager’s argument, and even then there’s a risk of alienating the player. In the end the manager has to decide if the risk is worth the reward, and not just bulldoze his way through the conversation and expect to get his way.

4. The whole point of conversations is to be proactive and “dampen the blow” to a player’s reaction. Which means that on this version most times you have to have a conversation and inform the player before dropping him to the reserves. If you want to drop them to the U18s, then the best way is to first drop them to the reserves, and from there to the U18s. Mind you, if the player has been given a squad status where he expects to be getting games, or if his ability/reputation compared to the other first team players competing for his place in the team are not way off, then he might not accept being moved down. I signed Iker Muniain as a hot prospect for Liverpool, informed him I was going to put him in

the reserves, and he was perfectly fine with it.

5. It’s not “every few days” that you get told a manager may get the sack. Personally I would rather get this message too often than too rarely. Especially if I’m playing a journeyman save and need to know when would be a good time to declare interest in a job.

6. The match preparation has tremendous purpose. I’ve played one save with “attacking movement” ticked in the match preparation the whole time. Restarted the save, played with same tactic, but this time “defensive positioning” ticked”. The score lines were glaringly different.

If you don’t tick a special focus area, the familiarity levels will fill up faster.

Leaving match preparation to the assistant is basically useless. He will only focus on the match preparation that fits the ‘playing mentality’ listed in his profile. For Sammy Lee that would be ‘attacking movement’.

These are only my opinions and observations and i am not saying the game is unplayable or broken, but from what i have noticed and from the problems i have seen reported in the forums it is obvious that SI have yet again released the game with OBVIOUS flaws.

At least none of the things you mentioned are obvious flaws.

JimmyWangYang; We get it, you're apparently happy with the game as is. As are a host of others, hence the actual discussion of these issues all over the forums. But, please, face facts, lots of people are experiencing issues, and are fully entitled to voice these concerns. I agree with most of the OP's points, and you make good points too, but The whole Firebrand crusading either against SI or against the "haters" has to stop.

Also, OT: Still want to see an official SI response to all of these concerns, bulleted.

Agree with comments about media & interactions in the game. It's a nice idea, and I understand the challenges, but it's frustrating and tedious.

Feels like there's only often one 'right' answer to any media question or interaction with players.

agreed with all the above

Part of the enjoyment of the game is to bring a youth into your 1st team and see him score and become world class

I feel this new games taken away some of that

i hope the new patch will sort out a few problems i noticed

I remmber when 2010 came out we had bugs and couldnt find a good tactic

so i am willing to wait as 2010 rocked thanks to the tactic makers

But i am rapidly running outa patiants as the defence is stupid and uncontrolable ATM

Good constructive criticism and a well thought out post. SI would do well to take note of this thread.

To be quite honest I am really enjoying this FM but that's probably because I'm winning at the moment. Incidentally, Jimmy Wang Yang (the wrestler) was awesome!!

It would seem that JimmyWangYang basically just went through every single point i made and disagreed with it, even if it didnt really fit in with what i was saying. Fair enough, you may not be able to find ANY faults with this game, but IN MY OPINION the faults i have pointed out are spoiling it a little for me and i suspect lots of other people.

1. Boring if you have no imagination maybe. Different player personalities will react differently to certain answers. Building up relationships with journalists can also be rewarding.

What has my imagination got to do with the press being repetitive? It doesn't matter what i imagine if they are asking me the same things each time that don't really have much to do with what is currently happening at the club!

2. If an interaction option is “greyed out” it’s because the player has just joined the club, or you have already selected that option recently. You can rest a player by right-clicking him and selecting Squad-Training-Rest, and unlike placing someone in the reserves, this requires no prior conversation.

There is an option in the player interaction section that allows you to tell the player he is going to get a rest. For some reason, even though the player was knackered i was unable to select this option. I have also had this happen with other options when there has been no real reason for it to be greyed out. I did make this quite clear in the original post i thought.

Feeder clubs; how many new feeders do you think Liverpool have set themselves up with throughout the last decade? Not many. The game needs to mirror this, which is why you’re only being allowed to ask once every 6 months, when in truth that is too generous. Once a year would be sufficient.

I dont care how many feeder clubs Liverpool have. My point was that even if it would be silly to constantly ask the board for things we should still have the option to do so, then live with the consequences. Also, if i have taken a very small team and changed them into a massive team in a short space of time, i want all areas of growth to mirror this, therefore i would like to establish links with other clubs more frequently than every 6 months.

You can tell a manager he is underperforming. Start of the game, go to Man United team screen, click on “comment on manager”, and select Club-Opponent’s Team Underperforming. Of course, if the manager is not underperforming at the time, that option will be greyed out.

You seem to have missed my point with this. I know the option is there, but i couldn't choose it as it was greyed out. And who decides if he is under performing? If Arsenal are second in the league most people would say the manager is doing well, but if i am managing the team at the top of the league, i may wish to play mind games by telling him i think he is under performing and should be top with the team he has.

You are not able to ask the board “constantly” for more money because then the board will start to resent you and you’ll create more problems that you never saw coming. And in real life managers don’t come and go at board meetings whenever they please.

Again, you miss my point. I know it would be a bad idea in real life and on FM to constantly ask the same thing of the board, but my point was that we should be able to and then live with the consequences. This isn't a fault with the game as such, just a suggestion.

So what you’re saying is that a manager should always be able to get his way? Sounds like a spoiled mentality if you ask me.

No, i didnt say that at all.

Players like Torres who are over the age of 25 are less likely to accept learning/unlearning PPMs. Had you known that, you’d have left him alone when he politely told you “no” the first time. Only young players with low reputations are likely to be swayed by their manager’s argument, and even then there’s a risk of alienating the player. In the end the manager has to decide if the risk is worth the reward, and not just bulldoze his way through the conversation and expect to get his way

This just isnt correct at all. I asked Carlos Teves to change one of his preferred moves and he disagreed, then i told him i thought it would benefit him (something like that anyway, cant remember exactly) and he happily went along with it. I know not all players will change the way they play for a manager, but surely the vast majority of them would at least give something a try, regardless of age or ability. I am certain that if Arsen Wenger asked Van Persie to run at defenders more or something he would at the very least give it a try. Also, my main gripe was with the manner of which Torres ended the conversation - this just wouldnt happen the way it does in FM with the player just point blankly refusing to discuss it any further and then me not being able to speak to him about it again.

4. The whole point of conversations is to be proactive and “dampen the blow” to a player’s reaction. Which means that on this version most times you have to have a conversation and inform the player before dropping him to the reserves. If you want to drop them to the U18s, then the best way is to first drop them to the reserves, and from there to the U18s. Mind you, if the player has been given a squad status where he expects to be getting games, or if his ability/reputation compared to the other first team players competing for his place in the team are not way off, then he might not accept being moved down. I signed Iker Muniain as a hot prospect for Liverpool, informed him I was going to put him in the reserves, and he was perfectly fine with it.

I didnt drop him into the U18's, i dropped him into the reserves. I purchased him as a Hot Prospect and he was no where near good enough to play first team football when compared to the standard of players i already had in. When i put him into the reserves he became unhappy and we had a "conversation" - sadly the game lacked any option for me to tell him that he is a 17 year old hot prospect that should play in the reserves or go on loan until he is good enough to play in the first team. Instead the only options i had were either tell him he will get first team football if he plays well in the reserves or tell him he will be transfer listed. I am not sure you read my post correctly.

5. It’s not “every few days” that you get told a manager may get the sack. Personally I would rather get this message too often than too rarely. Especially if I’m playing a journeyman save and need to know when would be a good time to declare interest in a job.

I wasn't aware that you had been sat in my room watching me play! How on earth do you know that i didnt see that message every few days? As a matter of fact i was getting the messages (sometimes up to 8 or 9 at a time) AT LEAST once a week.

6. The match preparation has tremendous purpose. I’ve played one save with “attacking movement” ticked in the match preparation the whole time. Restarted the save, played with same tactic, but this time “defensive positioning” ticked”. The score lines were glaringly different.

And for me this is where you lost credibility in your reply. Do you think that the match preparation is the only reason why the scorelines where "glaringly different" when you chose to reload your save? There are hundreds of factors that could have caused this and the match prep may or may not have been part of it. Again, if you had read my original post correctly you would have seen that I have seen no benefit to using it in various different ways across a season WITHOUT reloading my save. I also said "am i missing something", meaning that if i was doing something wrong that rendered the match prep useless then i would have appreciated someone pointing it out to me. Sadly, all you have done is told me it works for you because you have reloaded your save and got different results.

At least none of the things you mentioned are obvious flaws.

What? I think at this point you were possibly just trying to wind me up and not really interested in adding to the post like everyone else has happily managed to do in a constructive way. These are all personal issues that i (and by the looks of the replies to this post, quite a few others) have come across in just 1 season of playing. If i found these issues so early in my career and with such ease, i would call that fairly obvious.

I feel that for some reason you have just argued with my points for arguments sake. I appreciate your reply, but feel you could have been much more constructive, rather than more or less just stating you think i am wrong.

Can't disagree with most of what the OP has said, apart from noting he's completely missed the point of Match Prep.

Everything else, absolutely agree.

Match prep is vital. If you don't understand it then it's not the game's problem, but yours.

Firstly just putting it on one focus area is counter-productive. Go to the tactics/training forum, read mantralux's training masterclass thread, and that will explain it's use.

@ Sniff My Face - you're as surprised that someone would disagree with you as you are with players reacting to your managemet "style", aren't you? Life is full of surprises, and it's the ones who embrace them that will succeed.

Regarding point 4 in the OP... have SI come out and said this is a bug? It could just be that this is how they intended the mechanism to work!

"Careful not to upset player, or problems will grow like William Blake's poison tree" - Wangism

@ Sniff My Face - you're as surprised that someone would disagree with you as you are with players reacting to your managemet "style", aren't you? Life is full of surprises, and it's the ones who embrace them that will succeed.

Regarding point 4 in the OP... have SI come out and said this is a bug? It could just be that this is how they intended the mechanism to work!

"Careful not to upset player, or problems will grow like William Blake's poison tree" - Wangism

There is no problem in discussing, but the problem is you are just disagreeing for the sake of it. It's all too clear that you are just trying to defend the game even when the bugs and faults are so obvious for all to see. Because apparently you are better than everyone else.