Do players "learn"? How human are they?

Do players "learn" as the game goes on? Do they build up experience which is actually effective in the game?

I'll give you some examples:

1. In a game, my defender tries to pass the ball out of defence in the 92nd minute and it gets intercepted and they score to make it 1-1. In real life, I'd have a word with his defender, and in future, he'd be more likely to launch the ball miles up field to avoid this happening again. His behaviour would change as his experience goes up. Does this happen in FM, or are we more likely to see the same player make the same mistakes with no learning happening?

2. In the last 5 minutes of a big Cup final, I have 2 young wingers. One of them tries a risky through ball and it gets cut out, and then they go down the other end and score. Would this situation add some "experience" knowledge to this winger, so in future, he might kick and chase the ball towards the corner flag and waste time?

3. Do players learn how to play against different types of strikers? For example, watching the Tottenham - Milan game last week, the Milan defender Alessandro Nesta is hugely experienced and knew how to play against the Tottenham striker Peter Crouch. He knows this through experience. Will my 18 year old FM defender eventually build up this mental knowledge or will he always be limited by his actual physical stats?

4. My 21 year old striker always makes great runs and approaches the goalkeeper 1 on 1 from the left hand side, and he always shoots, and always hits the side netting. Is there any way at all I can get him to play the simple pass sideways to my other striker who can score the open goal? I'm hoping that eventually, this young striker will learn this - in the "dressing room", his strike partner will moan at him, and give him some advice. Maybe this unselfishness comes with experience, but is this reflected in FM?

I've heard people, mainly in Career Updates or FM Stories forums, say things like "I've decided to play my 36 year old midfielder against this creative guy because his experience should keep us tight", but is this actually reflected in FM, or is that just some "surrounding information" that we all like to invent to give our games more personality?

I'd be more accepting of stupid defensive mistakes or stupid shots instead of easy passes if I thought that my players would learn from it and not do them again! Just like the Arsenal goalkeeper and defender - I reckon they won't leave the ball to each other again for a long time!

Is FM this clever?

The mental stats increase as they get older so I suppose they do to a certain degree.

Mental stats increasing is fine - so maybe the composure will rise, but I was thinking more of very specific game moments which they act differently in, because of them messing it up last time.

In a way, I'm thinking about mental stats rising not just with age, but also with their rate of mistakes, because hopefully mistakes give them experience and knowledge about how not to play!

not sure about them learning from a specific situation to not do it again but the experience seems properly reflected in game. An older but less technical player can still put in a really good shift in a league or two above their CA in the right circumstances.

Players naturally make better decisions as they get older/more experience; they also become more technically able to play that "long ball out of defence" as they get older so although they might try the same thing again, they might also have developed the ability to pull it off so you don't notice it...

wouldn't the stat deciscions reflect this??

Is FM this clever?

No. Imagine the massive DB required to run a game with all thousands of the players having specific memories. It would be cool if we were at that level of programming though.

No. Imagine the massive DB required to run a game with all thousands of the players having specific memories. It would be cool if we were at that level of programming though.

Yeah, it's completely unrealistic to even imagine the AI being half that complex.

That being said... I still wish I could get on my teams case for putting up 20+ fouls in a game and they'd learn to be more disciplined with their tackling.

In response to the OP, no they don't learn as you suggest in reaction to specific incidents.

I just wish I could give them very very specific instructions, such as :

"When you're 1 on 1 with the keeper, don't shoot, because for some reason, you're rubbish at that. Instead, look to pass it sideways to the other striker, so that we actually score. Do this all the time."

"Don't ever take long shots. Ever. I've set you to rarely, but I don't want you ever taking them. If there's not a pass on, pass backwards to the defenders or keeper, so we keep the ball."

"Never play offside. Whenever Opponent X goes, follow him. You're faster so should be able to beat him to the ball, but you've played offside 20 times this game and we're 5-0 down as a result. From now on, never play offside - track him everywhere."

etc.

No. Imagine the massive DB required to run a game with all thousands of the players having specific memories. It would be cool if we were at that level of programming though.

It wouldnt HAVE to be that way.

Certain events could work as triggers, which automatically increase or decrease certain attributes.

I just wish I could give them very very specific instructions, such as :

"When you're 1 on 1 with the keeper, don't shoot, because for some reason, you're rubbish at that. Instead, look to pass it sideways to the other striker, so that we actually score. Do this all the time."

"Don't ever take long shots. Ever. I've set you to rarely, but I don't want you ever taking them. If there's not a pass on, pass backwards to the defenders or keeper, so we keep the ball."

"Never play offside. Whenever Opponent X goes, follow him. You're faster so should be able to beat him to the ball, but you've played offside 20 times this game and we're 5-0 down as a result. From now on, never play offside - track him everywhere."

etc.

1 - Have him learn the "look for a pass instead of shooting" trait.

2 - This is frustrating, but can be tweaked, have the team set on "retain possession", "work the ball into the box" and "pass to feet" as instructions. Play with the Control setting, with high fluidity setting in your team instructions. Check the player doesn't have the "shoots from distace" trait, if he does have him work on stopping this in training.

3 - Man Marking = yes, play Offside's = no. Maybe you're player just isn't too hot on Anticipaion and Positioning or maybe his acceleration is poor so the attacker gets a yard or two on him. Have your defence drop deeper if it's a problem that re-occurs. Play a sweeper?

The tactics engine doesn't appear that great at times and it's often easy to miss reasons why problems are occuring in your tactics. Quite often it's just down to the player not being good enough or he's just having a bad day or a poor run of form. I now think the ME and the tactics are very responsive if you can spot what the cause of the problem is. Quite often you know there is a problem but finding out why it's happening is a best guess scenario.

Do you have screenshots of the offending players?

I can see that composure might rise with experience, but my guess is it's tempered by the 'Important Matches' stat which I doubt ever changes, so one of your young wingers in the cup final might learn next time to go and dance round the corner flag but the other might panic in the same way the next time and the time after that.

Do players "learn" as the game goes on? Do they build up experience which is actually effective in the game?

I'll give you some examples:

1. In a game, my defender tries to pass the ball out of defence in the 92nd minute and it gets intercepted and they score to make it 1-1. In real life, I'd have a word with his defender, and in future, he'd be more likely to launch the ball miles up field to avoid this happening again. His behaviour would change as his experience goes up. Does this happen in FM, or are we more likely to see the same player make the same mistakes with no learning happening?

2. In the last 5 minutes of a big Cup final, I have 2 young wingers. One of them tries a risky through ball and it gets cut out, and then they go down the other end and score. Would this situation add some "experience" knowledge to this winger, so in future, he might kick and chase the ball towards the corner flag and waste time?

3. Do players learn how to play against different types of strikers? For example, watching the Tottenham - Milan game last week, the Milan defender Alessandro Nesta is hugely experienced and knew how to play against the Tottenham striker Peter Crouch. He knows this through experience. Will my 18 year old FM defender eventually build up this mental knowledge or will he always be limited by his actual physical stats?

4. My 21 year old striker always makes great runs and approaches the goalkeeper 1 on 1 from the left hand side, and he always shoots, and always hits the side netting. Is there any way at all I can get him to play the simple pass sideways to my other striker who can score the open goal? I'm hoping that eventually, this young striker will learn this - in the "dressing room", his strike partner will moan at him, and give him some advice. Maybe this unselfishness comes with experience, but is this reflected in FM?

I've heard people, mainly in Career Updates or FM Stories forums, say things like "I've decided to play my 36 year old midfielder against this creative guy because his experience should keep us tight", but is this actually reflected in FM, or is that just some "surrounding information" that we all like to invent to give our games more personality?

I'd be more accepting of stupid defensive mistakes or stupid shots instead of easy passes if I thought that my players would learn from it and not do them again! Just like the Arsenal goalkeeper and defender - I reckon they won't leave the ball to each other again for a long time!

Is FM this clever?

I hope so! I've just signed Woodgate and Ledley King from Spurs in the hope that they will give me the experience I need at the back.

In a previous FM I remember signing Carvalho from Chelsea and my defensive improved markedly over the 3 seasons I had him for, so maybe it does indeed help to have some experienced players.

I hope so! I've just signed Woodgate and Ledley King from Spurs in the hope that they will give me the experience I need at the back.

In a previous FM I remember signing Carvalho from Chelsea and my defensive improved markedly over the 3 seasons I had him for, so maybe it does indeed help to have some experienced players.

In FM09 I had Gremio's Leo, by the time he was 31/32 he was 4th choice centreback yet whenever he played, or if I brought him on off the bench, the defence was much more organised, watching full match I could see the difference he made, he was an awesome defender too!