Will s.i go back to basics with fm13 and strip it down to being fun again?

I know alot of people have been saying how from fm11 it is just getting too in-depth and fiddly compared to the older games. I was wondering if si are taking this on board and go back to basics or at least release a stripped back version free of all the tacked on gimmicks. Even the games magazine I read says fm12 has lost its sparkle due to being too in-depth. Anyone else agree or are you happy with the way fm is going?

I very much doubt it they will take any backwards steps. I'm more than happy with the latest version.

What "gimmicks" are you unhappy with?

There is FM handheld available for anyone who thinks FM12 is too in depth. I highly doubt they will ever go back to anything less than what they have now. The more in depth the better the game IMO.

There is FM handheld available for anyone who thinks FM12 is too in depth. I highly doubt they will ever go back to anything less than what they have now. The more in depth the better the game IMO.

I dont understand why people say this. Yes it is an option but can I play the handheld/stripped down version on my PC? NO. Do I need to buy an iPad or whatever just to play that game. YES. Its not even an option for a lot of people.

Well thats the option, the stripped back version is released on Ipads and Iphones, the full version is on the PC. I dont really know what else to say.

I'd be very disappointed if they removed features. The more depth the better.

To please everyone they could just increased the duties that your Ass Man can perform.

I'm not sure FM contains anything that could be described as a "gimmick". Something like being able to be a chairman would be gimmicky, but you can't do that. The closest thing to a gimmick in the game are some of the media interaction items, but I tend to think these are poorly implemented features rather than gimmicks, really.

If SI started stripping the game down, I'd be gutted. I suspect the majority would be.

The media interaction desperately needs a revamp. I never send my Ass Man because I worry about him saying the wrong thing, but press conferences are ridiculously dull and repetitive. The only ones I enjoy are the ones after I've won a competition, but even they aren't anything special.

If SI started stripping the game down, I'd be gutted. I suspect the majority would be.

yup exactly that, unfortunately for the OP he is going to be in the minority of people with this one.

The Civilization guys did something similiar with Civ 5, it was a disaster as far as i'm concerned. Civ 4 was one the best games ever and instead of improving on it for Civ 5 they brought out some ludicrous effort that was effectively civ for dummies, to be honest if you dont find the game fun then dont play it or just cheat if thats what your looking for. I play 2 player with my mate and its the best crack, try that.

I'd be very disappointed if they removed features. The more depth the better.

To please everyone they could just increased the duties that your Ass Man can perform.

This would be a reasonable compromise

I have a hard time trusting my assistant manager, in all honesty. Not that I'd want him doing all that much when I could be doing it.

I trust my assistants implicitly.

I have a hard time finding one who isn't a clown.

The more depth the better imo.

frankly its not an issue...

you can be as in depth as you like... anything you dont like to do yourself, just give to your assman or coaches like has been said...

people will ALWAYS find something to moan about.. its nature

I agree that the simplification of Civ 5 as compared to Civ 4 was an absolute disaster. The same argument can be made for the SimCity franchise, which has effectively died due to EA trying to make it more simple. I really hope that SI doesn't make the same mistake with the FM franchise.

Sim City died, imo, because first they made it pointlessly complex then​ tried to make it too simple.

my flat mate is playing the original sim city on her laptop right now!!

Your right it got far far too complex, then they tried to dumb it down, killed the game.

I'm not sure FM is becoming overly complex anyway. It has certainly evolved into a more complex game, but I guess a large percentage of the fanbase have followed the series for a number of years, and have adapted and evolved with it. Personally, I think that FM12 is fantastic, and the pinnacle of the series to date. Perhaps to somebody entirely new to the series it may feel over the top, but to those familiar with the product, I think it feels like a logical progression.

As long as SI continue to improve the delegation aspects of FM, it won't get too complex.

If i want to play a basic game, i will play Elifoot.

I think FM Series is in a right way... and i expect some improvements in FM 13.

If you feel the game has become overly complex, you can always play one of the previous versions. I think there are even fan updates for every game starting with CM 2, so you can play with current squads.

I'm not sure FM is becoming overly complex anyway. It has certainly evolved into a more complex game, but I guess a large percentage of the fanbase have followed the series for a number of years, and have adapted and evolved with it. Personally, I think that FM12 is fantastic, and the pinnacle of the series to date. Perhaps to somebody entirely new to the series it may feel over the top, but to those familiar with the product, I think it feels like a logical progression.

Yeah, if I'm honest if I approached FM2012 without having played any previous versions I would be completely and utterly lost. I can't remember when but I stopped playing FM for a couple of years around 2007, I think I came back to it in 2010 and even then I found it took a long time to get used to everything again and obviously also get accustomed to the new features.

My Dad has retired and absolutely loves football, I've always toyed getting him an FM game for his birthday but at the moment I think it would be too complex for him to pick up.

So for me personally I hope they don't go back to basics, but I wouldn't be against some sort of FM lite game, either included with the full game that is basically a mode where everything is stripped back or as a stand alone title. Not sure whether they'd bother though as most people who buy it are already fans.

The Civilization guys did something similiar with Civ 5, it was a disaster as far as i'm concerned. Civ 4 was one the best games ever and instead of improving on it for Civ 5 they brought out some ludicrous effort that was effectively civ for dummies, to be honest if you dont find the game fun then dont play it or just cheat if thats what your looking for. I play 2 player with my mate and its the best crack, try that.

God, Civ 5 is probably the most depressing game I've ever bought. Had played every previous version and devoted so many days to the franchise, I remember thinking before it was released that they couldn't possibly top Civ IV but I didn't realise how badly they'd screw it up. Still play Civ IV though, would love them to use the exact rules that they did for that game just with updated graphics, though obviously that won't ever happen.

I probably won't even bother with Civ VI unless I read that it's a miraculous return to form.

Erm, if SI go back to the basics I won't buy FM again. I want FM to improve in the future, not be stagnant and be the exact same as the previous FM but with a updated database. And if improved means a bit more complex then so be it...

I dont understand why people say this. Yes it is an option but can I play the handheld/stripped down version on my PC? NO. Do I need to buy an iPad or whatever just to play that game. YES. Its not even an option for a lot of people.

FMH for the PC might be a good compromise.

I have a feeling there's a reason why it can't be done though.

I don't care for shouts nor OI's, and never use them.

But it's not a problem not using them so..

I only use OI's until I get a decent Ass Man, then I trust it to them.

Shouts I find useful though.

I've been playing FM since the CM era (CM3, 4 i guess... can't remember name) and been playing every other years of the FM series. Even then, I'm in the same position as the OP where I think FM has become too complex and way to many micro-management to go through a season. I tried the demo version of FM 12 this year, but never bought it not because it is a bad game or anything, but because I find that my schedule doesn't fit the way FM gameplay has evolve anymore. I can only commit a couple of hours at most a day, and it will take about 2 weeks to a month to finish a season.

Having said that, I tried FMH this year since it just came out yesterday. I heard it's a stripped down version of FM series, and my initial thought is that the reduced features will be a perfect fit for me. But having played it for a half a day, I found the FMH version doesn't even have half of what the regular FM series offer. The tactics is basically a joke and you can't have much control on it. And I'm used to the motivational aspect of the half-time team talk, touchline shout from FM11 that I find myself at a lost when I need to hold possession or chasing a goal down at half time. The only plus that I get out of the FMH version is the training where i don't have to give much thought about it and don't need to worry about it much. Even then, I would love to have some custom schedule for young players, etc in the training.

Overall, I don't think I would even buy FMH version on a PC if SI manage to make one. But like someone suggested earlier in the thread, there should be much more delegation tasks given to assman. Some that I can think of are:

- Press handling (already there :) and thanks god it's already there... I'd go crazy if I have to answer the same set of questions every day)

- Training (Maybe not given to the assman entirely but should be able to automatically switch between pre-season, normal-season, just come out of injury, squad status change like youth player promoted to 1st team, etc)

- Scouting : maybe assman can handle scouting more if we can give him a task like continuously search youth players, search a certain position, search free players, etc and he will manage the scout assignment for me. The staff meeting sometime suggests me with some players, but as of it is right now, those are useless IMO.

- Better contract handling by assman

- Assman handling staff contract?? Prevent it from other clubs poaching, renew contract, etc.

- Bi-weekly or monthly staff meeting?? Sometime, I find it annoying on some items. Maybe we can select which category to discuss and which to be handled by assman as an option.

This would pretty much leave me to the tactical and player signing aspect of the game and I can enjoy the game much more after the initial setup via assman. I play FM because I like the tactical tweaking of the game but if I have to micro-manage every single things on the game, I'll eventually lost interest in it as I have already been, so I think we need an option to leave those tasks to assman for casual player like OP and I but for those hard-core fans, they can also enjoy every single things that are already implemented in the FM without the help of the assman.

You don't use OIs? How do you tell your team to press the players with low composure, forcing them into mistakes then? A lovely touch.

I dont care what SI add to the game because how they would market a game with 'lots of things taken out' I dont know. Usually companies want to give people value for money!

However what SI have plenty of scope to do is to set ratio's and allow you to add/remove certain features within the game.

Features:

Add or Remote certain features you dont want or set the ratio of what you do want. Like the idea of press conferences but think they'r samey at the moment? Have them set to 1 a month. The game will then determine the most appropiate time to do one and it'l be so much more special.

Agents? Dont like these and just want to sign a player like the good old days? Easy! Just remove this feature!

Basically, every single feature (within reason) needs to be customisable and it needs to be down 'outside' of the game. Sure, you can set your assistant to speak to the media but then you have the inglory of being someone who 'doesent talk to the press', or you could ignore the staff feedback and no doubt you'l be critisized for this too.

For people who dont want to scroll down a potentially complex list, create a Wizard. Maybe have options named so if people choose 'complete' then it'l be the complete game, other options would remove certain features based on their name.

Also, a nice HD skin that intelligently scales itself based on the persons resolution would be nice. I want to see the game based on how SI want me to see it.

i got into FM though iphone, stayed for pc version.

Sim City died, imo, because first they made it pointlessly complex then​ tried to make it too simple.

SimCity died because Electronic Arts bought out Maxis and gave the SimCity franchise to Tilted Mill. EA has a history of killing everything is buys out, which is why many are scared about Dragon Age and Mass Effect as Bioware becomes increasingly integrated into EA.

if I was at SI, I would defenetly consider a handheld version for PC.

Sure there are some repetitive things like press conferences and things but you can always just skip them and spend time where you enjoy it more.

In fact I would say the reason I don't enjoy FM more is because of the lack of depth in AI behaviour and transfer system.

As long as SI keep Classic tactics it's fine with me!!! Seriously I see where the OP is coming from to an extent. I leave most of the mundane stuff to my Assistant because it is just that mundane and repetitive. Press conferances,,,, I mean seriously what function do they really have?!! Let's face it Neil Warnock is one of the best wind up - mind games merchants in the game IRL but how many times do his teams beat a top side?! Same with Team talks, far too much emphasis....

What is needed are better staff and I include the Assistant in that. Even if SI allowed you to build your own Assistant but you can only give him so many attributes. Eg your Assistant has total attribute points of 100 and say 20 categories. Tactics, Scouting, Motivation, Team Talks etc and you can allocate up to 10 points to each attribute so you have to shuffle them about and make them changeable. So you may give him 10 for motivation but that means you will only be able to give him 7 for Team Talks, that sort of thing. Only thinking out loud!!!

I would prefer however less time spent on the mundane stuff and "gimmicks" and more time spent on getting AI behaviour and the Match Engine up to scratch because at the end of the day a Football match is what it is all about.

The thing about the FM series is the way that SI and before that the Collyer Bros listened to the fans and what they wanted. As far as I can remember we wanted an in-depth football manager game. A game that mimicked to a certain extent, what actually happens out there in football. That includes constant press talks ( Harry Rednapp springs to mind), touchline shouts (watch Arsen get frustrated!). The ability to look at individual and team training and be able to tweak or change it totally. Even occasionally let the assman loose to do some of the chores. So on and so forth.

The whole development of FM has been in the direction of putting in more of what happens in the football world. I like that direction and the fact that it allows you to get more detailed information and more involved. I never understand the guys who holiday through season(s) or want to play a season in an hour (they prerogative) but not for me.

I am not sure if it would be possible/feasible to have a set of options that would allow playing the game from a simple version to a more in depth by turning on/off certain aspects (ala FIFA Manager series). If not, then I personally would stick to the path that the gaming is going down.

The thing about the FM series is the way that SI and before that the Collyer Bros listened to the fans and what they wanted. As far as I can remember we wanted an in-depth football manager game. A game that mimicked to a certain extent, what actually happens out there in football. That includes constant press talks ( Harry Rednapp springs to mind), touchline shouts (watch Arsen get frustrated!). The ability to look at individual and team training and be able to tweak or change it totally. Even occasionally let the assman loose to do some of the chores. So on and so forth.

The whole development of FM has been in the direction of putting in more of what happens in the football world. I like that direction and the fact that it allows you to get more detailed information and more involved. I never understand the guys who holiday through season(s) or want to play a season in an hour (they prerogative) but not for me.

I am not sure if it would be possible/feasible to have a set of options that would allow playing the game from a simple version to a more in depth by turning on/off certain aspects (ala FIFA Manager series). If not, then I personally would stick to the path that the gaming is going down.

You only need to look in the Difficulty thread to know that the Collyer brothers (well, one of them at least), still listen.