[FM Australia] Why no support/feedback when Major Issues Occur...

SI Board,

This is more for the Moderators/Creators of Football Manager series, ever since you started to promote the series with the official Hyundai A-League as an official league in FM I have been purchasing the series and have joined the community board to provide feedback and get tips on how I can improve my playing style.

However when I found out about the Feedback/Data Issues/Bugs forum of specific countries/leagues/players I have been happy to provide any issues that occur hoping they will either be fixed/looked at with a patch update, or if the errors/issues are major maybe get them corrected with the next release of the series.

My issue has always been the setup of the "Australia" back when the A-League was just 8 teams, if you were someone that started their career as an unemployed manager it might be 2 years before you get a job offer, with this occurring I asked Why don't you make the lower leagues playable to expand the gameplay?

No answer, year after year after year, the A-League now has 11 teams however when you consider the 100s of teams in England you can see why I would like to get the lower leagues playable, with the lower leagues playable it would mean that you have to earn the right to manage an A-League side.

The next issue that was raised was Why have you split the A-League into multiple competitions (IE Regular Season/Final Series) it should be one competition with 2 stages?

Once again no answer year after year after year, now with the reputation feature in FM2011 the Match Engine thinks these are separate competitions and it is promoted to the finals series, instead of 1 competition and that you qualify for the finals series. With this I dug around the editor and notice a few things that should of been corrected.

Australian National Youth League (Oceania/Defunct) however this is the current National Youth League (Asia/Active) of the Hyundai A-League and I have asked that this league be inserted as the official youth league instead of the made up youth league currently used when you play in the A-League.

The evolution of these 3 items would also mean that youth leagues for each lower league will need to be created and if the competition has 2 stages have them implemented as well (Wikipedia Basic Research/Advance Research by going to each state league website would provide proper answers).

As previously mentioned I have attempted to inform SI Games of these issue and get them rectified however I never get an answer and before anyone asked I have posted in the Australia section on the advice of Neil Brock and yet the Australian Mods/researchers don't provide any answers, and here is the original post I placed in the Australian forum: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/229997-Australia-(Official)-League-Specific-Issues?p=6250947&viewfull=1#post6250947 I have made additional posts further explaining if other fans of the series have posted and queries.

Regards & please someone important from SI answer my issues.

BP

have a look in the editors hideaway I believe someone has created a fairly accurate DB of the Australian leagues. SI probably havent included your requests as The A league is a relatively obscure competition, I am also an Australian but it does not concern me that the lower leagues arn't incuded... I would much rather manage in europe or South America

The lower leagues in Australia have no connection to the A-league - in that you can't win promotion. I don't think the game has any other detached lower leagues, so why should they include obscure Australian ones?

have a look in the editors hideaway I believe someone has created a fairly accurate DB of the Australian leagues. SI probably havent included your requests as The A league is a relatively obscure competition, I am also an Australian but it does not concern me that the lower leagues arn't incuded... I would much rather manage in europe or South America

The lower leagues in Australia have no connection to the A-league - in that you can't win promotion. I don't think the game has any other detached lower leagues, so why should they include obscure Australian ones?

I don't believe just because we are a obscure country doesn't mean we should have these non-licensed leagues opened to us for playing (what would the backlash be if England didn't include the Premier League as a playable league just because they don't have the license). Also just because there is no promotion/relegation doesn't mean they can't be included and in relation to the person who created the expanded Australian.xml file there is a reason he does that he wants the leagues playable as well.

If SI don't want to include them then all I ask is that it is explained to me/the community as this is the best management game available and if they don't want to include it then please make all the tools available to them available to us so we can create the Advanced Rules and correct all the issues I raise year after year after year.

For James wouldn't you like to take your favorite Football West Premier League Side and potentially make them a powerhouse and earn the right to manage Perth Glory and for Lenny wouldn't you like to do the same as your favorite South Australian Super League side and one day manager ****ant United (sorry Adelaide United).

Regards

I imagine the issue is resources and profitability. I'm assuming Australia is not a huge market for FM, which would make the time and effort gathering the data and coding the leagues not worthwhile for SI. To include state teams, you'd need to recruit a small army of researchers as well, all on a volunteer basis. I just don't see the logic in doing so unless there is evidence that the vast majority of Australians want these leagues and the size of the market is worth doing it for.

It would be nice if they sorted the basic issue of the A-league not even being setup correctly. Its a single competition, the regular season (minor championship for winners) and then a Play-offs for the Major Title (Ie A-League Chamipon).

On FM as the Wellington Pheonix my board informed me they didn't care about the finals series as it wasn't an important competition, where as IRL the play-offs are everything and the biggest games of the season. This has been a problem which has been pointed out to SI for every season since they started doing the A-League. I believe someone even wrote to the AFA (or what ever they are called this season) to ask them to put pressure on SI to sort the league out as in its current state it was almost unplayable.

So I would settle for the A-league just being realistic to be honest.

I imagine the issue is resources and profitability. I'm assuming Australia is not a huge market for FM, which would make the time and effort gathering the data and coding the leagues not worthwhile for SI. To include state teams, you'd need to recruit a small army of researchers as well, all on a volunteer basis. I just don't see the logic in doing so unless there is evidence that the vast majority of Australians want these leagues and the size of the market is worth doing it for.

It would be nice if they sorted the basic issue of the A-league not even being setup correctly. Its a single competition, the regular season (minor championship for winners) and then a Play-offs for the Major Title (Ie A-League Chamipon).

On FM as the Wellington Pheonix my board informed me they didn't care about the finals series as it wasn't an important competition, where as IRL the play-offs are everything and the biggest games of the season. This has been a problem which has been pointed out to SI for every season since they started doing the A-League. I believe someone even wrote to the AFA (or what ever they are called this season) to ask them to put pressure on SI to sort the league out as in its current state it was almost unplayable.

So I would settle for the A-league just being realistic to be honest.

wwfan,

Thank you for getting back to me in relation of expanding Australia as you can see there are people that want it expanded or just settle with getting the A-League right and then, I'm prepared to with the editor make them playable however I would like the Advanced Rules to be available for the everyday user if they so wish create advanced leagues, I know magicmastermind has made them playable however I have had issues and wish an official SI release occur with a brief how to use guide as some terms I just don't understand.

However can you please explain to be why the other issues have been ignored Hyundai A-League is one competition with two stages (1 - Regular Season and 2 - Final Series) get rid of the cup competition as there might be an FA Cup style competition in the future in which the Australian A-League Teams (not Wellington from NZL) and some of the higher rated lower league teams will play in a Cup Competition.

Any why the custom Youth League is used instead of the incorrect programed National Youth League.

Regards

You'd have to talk to the Australian researcher about the youth competition. I'm not sure who that is though. Neil Brock might know. Could be worth PMing him to see.

I can understand why the Australian style Grand Final set up is a problem for FM to get right, as it is such an alien concept in Europe. It may never have been explained correctly to the coders. I believe the English Rugby League system has recently adopted the Grand Final method, but I'm not sure.

You'd have to talk to the Australian researcher about the youth competition. I'm not sure who that is though. Neil Brock might know. Could be worth PMing him to see.

I can understand why the Australian style Grand Final set up is a problem for FM to get right, as it is such an alien concept in Europe. It may never have been explained correctly to the coders. I believe the English Rugby League system has recently adopted the Grand Final method, but I'm not sure.

Couldn't it just be done like a promotion play-off?

You'd have to talk to the Australian researcher about the youth competition. I'm not sure who that is though. Neil Brock might know. Could be worth PMing him to see.

I can understand why the Australian style Grand Final set up is a problem for FM to get right, as it is such an alien concept in Europe. It may never have been explained correctly to the coders. I believe the English Rugby League system has recently adopted the Grand Final method, but I'm not sure.

Yeah the Super League operates the same sort of system as the A-league and the NRL. I am English (live in NZ) and understood the system before I moved here, are you suggesting the coders are like the character in Rainman who was a genius at one thing but mentally ******** in all others, because its a pretty simple concept to grasp?

My only thought as to why they coded the league in two parts was due to technical issues in implenting Asian champions league qualification, I hope its something along these lines rather than the fact SI failled to grasp the league system used, for a league they have a full license for.

You'd have to talk to the Australian researcher about the youth competition. I'm not sure who that is though. Neil Brock might know. Could be worth PMing him to see.

I can understand why the Australian style Grand Final set up is a problem for FM to get right, as it is such an alien concept in Europe. It may never have been explained correctly to the coders. I believe the English Rugby League system has recently adopted the Grand Final method, but I'm not sure.

That was my overall point is that the Head Australia researcher ignores all my feedback without any replies or explanations. In relation to Neil general user's can't PM him as a Moderator your might be the exception to this as you have special rights no normal user has.

In terms of the concept you might be right however if you look at the world cup it has 2 stages (1 - Group Stage & 2 - Knockout/Finals Stage) it works the same way you play the regular season to qualify for the next stage in terms of the A-League you play your 30 games and the top 6 qualify for the 2nd Stage (Finals Series) the structure of the finals series is correct however it is just a matter of programing the 2 together and not separate.

You are correct that most sports use first past the post, however Americans also use a regular season & playoffs/finals for their seasons also.

That was my overall point is that the Head Australia researcher ignores all my feedback without any replies or explanations. In relation to Neil general user's can't PM him as a Moderator your might be the exception to this as you have special rights no normal user has.

In terms of the concept you might be right however if you look at the world cup it has 2 stages (1 - Group Stage & 2 - Knockout/Finals Stage) it works the same way you play the regular season to qualify for the next stage in terms of the A-League you play your 30 games and the top 6 qualify for the 2nd Stage (Finals Series) the structure of the finals series is correct however it is just a matter of programing the 2 together and not separate.

You are correct that most sports use first past the post, however Americans also use a regular season & playoffs/finals for their seasons also.

I promise you that schwoods is not ignoring you. He is very prompt with replies but more often then not when i PM him his inbox is full as he gets alot of traffic, not to mention constantly being on the research forum that is only available to researchers trying to improve things for the A-League. Try posting in the Australian Data Thread as he is in there almost daily. I think it is very harsh to accuse someone who does alot of great work of ignoring you.

I promise you that schwoods is not ignoring you. He is very prompt with replies but more often then not when i PM him his inbox is full as he gets alot of traffic, not to mention constantly being on the research forum that is only available to researchers trying to improve things for the A-League. Try posting in the Australian Data Thread as he is in there almost daily. I think it is very harsh to accuse someone who does alot of great work of ignoring you.

I must admit I was advise by Neil Brock to post in the League Specific Forum and this is where I get ignored a lot, I'm happy to put together a polite message for schwoods raising my concerns regarding the A-League structure (2 leagues instead of 1 with 2 stages) Using the National Youth League instead of the created youth league currently being used.

However what is the difference between the Data Forum and the League specific Forum?

Regards

I must admit I was advise by Neil Brock to post in the League Specific Forum and this is where I get ignored a lot, I'm happy to put together a polite message for schwoods raising my concerns regarding the A-League structure (2 leagues instead of 1 with 2 stages) Using the National Youth League instead of the created youth league currently being used.

However what is the difference between the Data Forum and the League specific Forum?

Regards

Neil is probably more correct, i said the data forum as i know that it is alot more active, as alot more users post in there