Anyone else think the game is too easy?

I love the game and i'm not really looking to moan (always a reliable precursor to a long rant), but it seems like almost everyone who plays the game wins, even with clubs who are unbelievably unlikely to do so in real life.

It's not unusual it seems to take some random lowly club, get promoted through the divisions, win the league, champions league, intergalatic supercup or whatever. In real life this would probably be the greatest achievement in the history of the game, the nearest person I can think of who achieved something similar to that is Brian Clough, and I reckon it would be exponentially harder nowadays at any rate. Wimbledon got promoted through the leagues, but there is an almost unnavigable chasm between entering the top flight and then becoming dominant on a continental level. Yet in the game, reading about others achievements it's fairly common. Or am I over-estimating peoples' successes?

I don't want to see difficulty levels brought in as I just want it to be as realistic as possible in all aspects, but I do think the AI needs to become way way way...... better

Now of course, maybe there are indeed a large number of unprecedented managerial prodigies playing the game or is it that the game is just a little bit too easy. I would think that most managers never win anything at all, or maybe one or two things in their whole careers- does anyone playing FM finish with no trophies?

And one more thing, when you bring a lowly club to previously unheard of levels of success, the board seem to believe that the club is now Real Madrid and demand the League, Champions league etc every year; they don't seem to recognise that they are a historically small club who have massively overachieved on the back of a stunningly great manager and that FC smallvillageoutpost aren't going to rout Milan every year etc. They also seem completely unprepared to pay you a wage that would match your reserve left backs salary (ok slight exaggeration but the point is valid I think). Also, if you had guided some small club to win back to back Champions' leagues, wouldn't every Oligarch east of Tokyo be knocking at your door, willing to pay you the GDP of a medium size country every week, rather than offering you something like a half of your already modest salary (and that's on the surprisingly few occasions imo) when they do approach you.

I know salary doesn't actually matter in the game, but the whole thing is make-believe (apparently ) so I'd like to feel valued and be well renumerated and see how I measure up to real life managers, if you really are considered the greatest of all time when the game tells you you are, shouldn't some ambitious president somewhere in the whole world be prepared to pay you as such from the get go to join their club?

no, the game seems to hate my team when playing away.

i dont care anymore,for manuals or what others do, i just want to play it my way

But don't you think it would be more fun if the AI became much much tougher in the long term to beat? It seems quite easy imo to get the best youth talent, build the best team and win wherever you go, and this isn't me trying to brag or boast, because I imagine that the majority win regularly too. I would like the other teams to be much more ruthless in acquiring players, coming up with spoiling tactics and make it a really hard challenge to become the best. I'd quite like to have a save where my shortcomings as a manager were ruthlessly exposed and I won nothing.

i meant bugs-free thats priority

no prob cheers

I've found this to be the hardest version I've played. Since CM3. Might consider starting a few leagues down since every save I've made with a top club has gone terribly. Not won a league title on FM12 yet

I totally agree. I play the game passively nowadays, watching the game rather than playing it. Like you say it is incredibly easy to build a good side (unless you enforce your own handicaps ie LLM rules). I haven't changed my tactic since early FM11, hopefully the next patch will ruin my current tactic so I have to redevelop another one

I know follow the careers of players and watch how they develope.

There's been more "Its too easy posts" since FM12 was released than any other previous version, or so it seems on here. I know plenty of people who post on other sites too all bemoaning the easiness. I think that says it all. But in fairness to SI they at least had a real go at fixing a few crucial issues in this years game, although realistically the whole AI squad building and ME logic needs a good overhaul, and has done for some time.

The problem is, anyone whose played FM from version to version learns the game as they go and gets better at it as time goes by, whereas the AI just stagnates from one release to another and is soon left behind by the majority of players. You can get a challenge by using self-imposed handicaps like LLM rules or using an attribute-hiding skin, but they're juist bandaid fixes that don't really make the game harder, they just make it take longer for you to dominate the gameworld, which is inevitable if you've got an ounce of grey matter and the patience to see it through. AI squad building, AI player development, and AI match engine logic need to be priorities for FM 13 imho, even at the cost of any new features SI have in the works.

Im sorry but it's just not the case that the game is too easy. There are exactly the same amount of "too easy threads" as there are every version thats been released since 2007. There are equally as many threads from people saying the game is too hard. And when there was a poll before the last patch there was a minority of people that think its to easy. When you also put in the fact that this is a tiny percentage of users on an internet forum (where the majority of posts are always going to be negative) then the difficulty is hardly an issue at all.

I think the magic with FM is that it gives you a chance to turn the football world upside down. And that you can play a bit "God", and make small clubs achieve great things. I for sure wouldn't play if I knew that is was impossible to bring my low league club to world domination. Because that won't happen irl, but knowing you get the chance in FM make it more fun, in my opinion.

If it was to be more realistic, then it would be to start out in a small club, and work your way up the leagues, and nations, accepting job offers from bigger and better clubs.

In FM11 I played as a club in San Marino, challenging for european glory every year after a while, and having a staduium with a capacity of 12.000. Thats one third of the inhabitants in San Marino.

Those things would never had happen irl, but for me it gives me a great time playing, and living the small club's dream.

In FM12 I play Gundos challenge with a team from Norway. The team is from a city with 50,000 inhabitants, and our stadium has a capacity of 5500.

Our first year in CL saw us beating Sporting Lisbon, AC Milan, Benfica and Real Madrid away. With a basic balanced 442. It's highly unrealistic, but still very fun:).

Also I get offered 5 million pounds for my players and choose to decline. That would never had happened in Norway. Firstly the players would have demanded a move, even if it was to clubs in Belgium, Austria or Denmark, and secondly the board would have accepted at once and personally carry the player to the other clubs front door.

I can understand that many would like a bit more realism, but I still prefer that you can, eventually, achieve the unachievable in this game. That is part of every football fan's dream, taking your club to glory.

If there should be more realism, I would prefer that it was more difficult for small teams to hold on to good players, just as it is irl.

I think the game is too easy. For instance, when you're a lower league club, it's very easy to break wage structures and get a league winning side. I've found myself refusing to sign certain players because I know that they'll help me breeze through a division. IRL lower division clubs are under tighter budgets and it'd be more of a challenge if the game reflected this.

In my experience most people use tools, lie or cheat

I played FM Live for many years right thru from beta testing until it was defunct and was a regular top 10 side winning major honours and i have never had half the success on FM05-12 as most people on here brag about

eg winning the league first season with Wigan

back to back to back promotions from BSS to EPL in minimum years possible

winning the Champions league with Yeovil in 2017

the raw facts are that most people on here use FMRTE, Genie Scout, reload each match they lose etc etc

it cant be the case that in FML (where u cant really cheat in these ways) from 1000 managers im in the top 1% then when we play FM12 im not, its purely an ego thing, people love to brag on here and lie about achievements

also a hell of a lot of people who play the game probably never ever use the forums, so on here is basically, nerds, braggers and experts or some form of all 3

do i think the AI is poor at a lot aspects? well yes, they dont buy the correct players, dont judge attributes very well, dont consider most aspects and are one dimensional

does that translate to being to easy? well it could be more realistic in its approach but many times i take on jobs and fail, either getting sacked, resigning or just treading water, for example i took charge of Aston Villa in 2031 and managed them for 10 seasons going from mid table team to champions league/europa league entrants each season but i could never win the league and gave up, this is just one example

i also think the real question should be are the big leagues (serie a, epl, la liga) to easy? is very hard managing in obscure nations for example

In my experience most people use tools, lie or cheat

Some people definitely do cheat, but "most people"...I don't think so. The reason people are so successful is they've gained enough gaming experience through all these years and they know exactly what to look for, what to avoid, what seemingly important stuff you can easily ignore, what seemingly irrelevant things can make a huge difference etc. It applies to all aspects of the game, most notably tactics and transfers. For example, if you know that pace is an over-powered attribute in the game, you've already saved yourself hours.

i also think the real question should be are the big leagues (serie a, epl, la liga) to easy? is very hard managing in obscure nations for example

Actually, it's very easy to manage in obscure nations. Really quickly you become absolutely dominant due to poor AI management and domestic league becomes a chore. That means you're stuck between European and domestic competitions. Too good at home, but not good enough for Europe. Season after season you crash out of Europe early and then have to click through rest of the fixtures to get to the next season and another go at the CL.

I think the game is too easy. For instance, when you're a lower league club, it's very easy to break wage structures and get a league winning side. I've found myself refusing to sign certain players because I know that they'll help me breeze through a division. IRL lower division clubs are under tighter budgets and it'd be more of a challenge if the game reflected this.

+1 But its not just in the lower leagues this applies to, although the impact of doing so down there is bigger. A bit of your self-discipline in the transfer market helps . Although these self-imposed handicaps wouldn't even be an issue if the AI was more aggressive in the transfer market and more logical in who it sees as a good addition to its squad. The popularity of LLM rules and the increase in people downloading full fog of war skins tells me people are ready for the next level of challenge imo.

i was thinking my 3rd season in my United save was getting too easy then i hit a snag. got beat off West Ham(who had just been promoted) 2-0 at Upton Park, then i got beat at home off Blackburn 1-0 even thought i dominated the game. then i went and played away to Fulham and lost 4-3 and got beat 2-0 at the Bernabeu off Real but 2nd leg i won 4-1 as Ramos was sent off in the 9th minute it allowed for an easier game with possession football, after those 3 defeats on the bounce i found myself 11 points behind leaders Spurs and 10 behind City in second and my teams morale was low as after a couple of the games i angered most of the players.. now im barely grinding out results and seem set for a finish in 3rd which i can see my board not being too pleased about.

i was thinking my 3rd season in my United save was getting too easy then i hit a snag. got beat off West Ham(who had just been promoted) 2-0 at Upton Park, then i got beat at home off Blackburn 1-0 even thought i dominated the game. then i went and played away to Fulham and lost 4-3 and got beat 2-0 at the Bernabeu off Real but 2nd leg i won 4-1 as Ramos was sent off in the 9th minute it allowed for an easier game with possession football, after those 3 defeats on the bounce i found myself 11 points behind leaders Spurs and 10 behind City in second and my teams morale was low as after a couple of the games i angered most of the players.. now im barely grinding out results and seem set for a finish in 3rd which i can see my board not being too pleased about.

But thats not really the issue of how easy or hard the game is. Thats just a perfect example of how on a knife edge the whole morale system is and how it can effect 1 season, or part of 1 season.

People confuse a bad run or a winning streak as the "games too hard, or the games too easy". What they should be saying, and those who recognise it do, is morale has too big an impact on this that and the other.

The easy game situation is far more reaching than just a few games, or half a season of good or bad results. Its about how the AI clubs on the whole fail to develop their squads over a period of a few seasons, leaving you to become dominant because no matter where you are or who you manage, you'll constantly seek to improve your team. The AI doesn't, or at least doesn't do it right. It relies far too heavily on a players CA when bidding in the market, whereas we humans factor in a 100 different things the AI can't possibly consider.

So if you're just looking at a few select results over a particular season, then yes the game may seem hard if you're in a rut and morale is low. But thats a short-term view and is missing the bigger issue. Thats why these poll results people come out with should be taken with a pinch of salt since the majority of players voting have no idea what the real issue being discussed is. Someone loses 6 in a row and they'll vote the games too hard.. win 6 in a row and they'll vote its too easy. The issue is about the strength in depth of AI clubs who should be competing against you for the signatures of the very best players for the league you're in, and pushing you all the way for that title. The first few seasons its not a big problem because the starting database is awash with plenty of excellent players to go around. But 5 - 10 seasons in, and its a different matter. Hence the inevitable human dominace. The issue isn't about a morale induced string of good or bad results. Thats a different problem altoghter that SI have worked so hard on in the last couple of patches.

Isn't it normal to always get consecutive promotions and win the champions league really soon anyway?

I mean it's not to me but most of the threads i read on the career/challenge forum most people just dominate everything, can't remember reading about a career thread where someone actually struggled.

Exactly as Erimus says, it's the long term where it's really noticeable imo. It's a big issue for me and would really improve the whole game if it could be addressed somehow.

Glad to hear that these issues are very much on SI's radar, especially the ease with which you can eviscerate the lower leagues just with free transfers and sensible wage control. I'm happy to attribute most of my success to having dorkily played these games for literally thousands of hours, and obviously it's silly to demand SI cater solely to devoted players, but it's also a little dispiriting to take teams to unrealistic back-to-back-to-back promotions without using any exploits (that said, I don't play full LLM, and will happily, e.g., hire staff who haven't applied for a job, or ask my scouts to look at players other than those they've brought to me themselves).

I know SI consider the reputation system to be somewhat like a difficulty setting, but in practise it's a fairly clumsy restriction, and one that lifts as soon as you start winning things. It would be nice to have some sort of option for a "hardcore mode" that disabled some features or applied a negative modifier to stats or something. That would be kind of ad hoc, though, and better AI would obviously be a better (but more difficult) solution.

More challenging gameplay, especially for long-term saves that start in the lower leagues, would be my principal bullet point on a list of things I need to keep buying the game into the future.

Thanks for the reply Neil, its great that this is being looked at

I think the ease of play may be caused by a plethora of factors that one is (or is not) aware of. Excluding cheaters or cheesers, we'll go over some of these issues briefly:

Picking a good team (Man U), having a run of results; "in the zone" , going out and grabbing "choice players" or tactics to "beat the CPU" , having excellent morale, having no problems with injuries or other issues, having excellent staff, scouts, physios, etc.

I think the right word is comfortable. The human player gets comfortable at playing the game and therefore sees the great results. When this happens, its time to route around the problem by adding more challenge (ex: Win Champions League 10 yrs in a row, go LLM, etc.). However being as this is the best soccer management sim in the world, there's much to be done before one can say "its too easy". I love LLM as a short term solution. And its just a game.

But thats not really the issue of how easy or hard the game is. Thats just a perfect example of how on a knife edge the whole morale system is and how it can effect 1 season, or part of 1 season.

People confuse a bad run or a winning streak as the "games too hard, or the games too easy". What they should be saying, and those who recognise it do, is morale has too big an impact on this that and the other.

The easy game situation is far more reaching than just a few games, or half a season of good or bad results. Its about how the AI clubs on the whole fail to develop their squads over a period of a few seasons, leaving you to become dominant because no matter where you are or who you manage, you'll constantly seek to improve your team. The AI doesn't, or at least doesn't do it right. It relies far too heavily on a players CA when bidding in the market, whereas we humans factor in a 100 different things the AI can't possibly consider.

So if you're just looking at a few select results over a particular season, then yes the game may seem hard if you're in a rut and morale is low. But thats a short-term view and is missing the bigger issue. Thats why these poll results people come out with should be taken with a pinch of salt since the majority of players voting have no idea what the real issue being discussed is. Someone loses 6 in a row and they'll vote the games too hard.. win 6 in a row and they'll vote its too easy. The issue is about the strength in depth of AI clubs who should be competing against you for the signatures of the very best players for the league you're in, and pushing you all the way for that title. The first few seasons its not a big problem because the starting database is awash with plenty of excellent players to go around. But 5 - 10 seasons in, and its a different matter. Hence the inevitable human dominace. The issue isn't about a morale induced string of good or bad results. Thats a different problem altoghter that SI have worked so hard on in the last couple of patches.

I know where your coming from but i was just posting about my personal experience where i was sat thinking this is getting far too easy, then i ended up going on a bad run of games after thinking i was just going to continue winning most games. The AI can be terrible at times especially with signings where they will pay a ridiculous amount and the player will hardly play a game at all which i find annoying. But none the less i still really enjoy the game, but i find it more rewarding being a totally unknown club to me, as do alot of people i think. Just fancied being a big club for once and bringing youth through instead of massive signings as a challenge. Hopefully the AI can be improved soon and we see extra realism when it comes to transfers.

I think the game gets harder everyday (imo anyway), I remember back on CM3 when I could take a div 3 club to premiership in 5 years (losing on promotion playoff game both times) and then a few more year to win the premiership and win almost everything every year after... and this happen to most people that played CM3 (and its variations) I believe... Now the match engine is definitely harder, if you play with your own tactics, trying to make it work then you'll find that tougher clubs are hard to play against, while the smaller club still give you challenges... BUT if you get a "super tactic" from somewhere then don't blame the game if you win all the time... this is a computer game, 1+1 is always 2, and if one try hard enough to find exploit within the game then it WILL happen... The only problem with this game, and always has been is that you can attract players that's just a bit better than your current squad and in so doing making your club stronger bit by bit every year, and in the end, unlike in real life where teams go up and down in league positions, it's very possible to get your team to stay at the very top year after year because you're able to keep upgrading, or at the very least maintain, the class of players that it take to do that. (which Neil Brock acknowledged and maybe one day SI will find a way around this... at which point of course people going to complain in the forum and threaten to stop buying the game altogether ). In the meanwhile, the easiest way to not have this game too easy is... by not poaching the 15/16 years old prodigy till your team loaded with them xD, buy those proven veteran that costs you heaps of money instead, so now you're stuck with high budget, good for now but maybe not the future just like every other team out there

Weird double post happened

I agree that the players who claim to be able to back to back promotions and dominate Europe are using "cheat" methods to get CA/PA and are scrolling through squads looking for youngsters to poach, like Neil said, when the youth players come through. It's gonna be easy if you do that. A lot of people will also use threads in the good player forums to discover players, rather than discover them in game using scouts. Again, that'll make things easier.

It's certainly more difficult than CM and early FM editions, though I agree it's time to re-think AI squad building. If you chose to play as an already established "big club", it only takes 3 or 4 seasons to become the undisputed # 1 club in Europe, as other clubs hold onto aging players and rarely spend big on established stars (or when they do, they overload certain positions). FM2013 doesn't need extra features imo, but rather a reworking of the transfer system in terms of clubs making more transfers and players more willing to move to lesser reputation clubs or leagues.

I don't really think it's necessary to cheat to easily find the good young players. It's quite easy to have staff members with scouting knowledge of the major nations where talent is likely to come from, go into the player search screen, filter by age < 18 and value greater than X, sort them by scouted potential, then right click and send off a scout to every single player on that list you don't already have a report on. You very quickly find all the good regens at the cost of having to click through a few hundred annoying news items.

I think one of the problems is that to play the game optimally you have to do things like click through 100s of news items ... it's clear that you're not "meant" to be able to easily find all the good regens, but rather than coming up with a way of stopping you from doing so, the game makes it mildly painful in the hopes you wont bother. I think scouting needs to be massively less effective: reports should be a lot more inaccurate, slower to obtain, etc. Signing players is not a gamble when within 1 day of first learning of the player you know their exact attributes now and know pretty much exactly how good they're going to be in the future.

The points about how it's hard to make good AI that runs in a reasonable amount of time are fair. I think the way to get around it is like how most strategy games do: offer the user difficulty levels, and have the AI cheat on harder difficulty levels. Let it magically have knowledge of more players, be able to sign them easier/for less, have a higher budget than the user, etc. It's an opt in feature you get by picking the harder difficulty so if the AI cheating bothers you then you can just pick normal difficulty.

No matter what kind of save you pursue, even if you impose a series of artificial handicaps on yourself, success almost always feels inevitable. Nevertheless, the majority of players seem to enjoy that, and that's why those of us who are disillusioned will simply have to wait until a significantly larger group of people want the game to be more challenging. There's only so many times you can take an obscure team up the divisions and make them the best club in the world, or to win endless doubles/trebles/quadruples until you reach a point of yearning for something which FM currently doesn't provide. All I know is that I particularly hate seeing that very familiar scenario where you're so dominant in a league that you barely concede goals, and when you do, it's a freak occurrence of some kind. As more and more people tire of repeating the same success and overachieving on a grand scale with x amount of teams each year, the greater the demand will eventually be for the game to be challenging. All we can do is wait.

Football manager is just a game, you play it to win! I play it to complete challenges like taking teams up 4-5 divisions or making my own databases.

I do not play FM to struggle and get sad! I did not buy GTA IV to get shot over and over and never complete more than a handful of missions.

SI have made a game that the very best at it can take ANY team and make them world beaters. The good players can get a challenge and the beginners can taste sucess with the correct past experience.

Set the past experience right, choose the right team and you can enjoy a good challenge. Those finding the game too easy usually play the top divisions with national past experience. Try taking on Grimsby Town with no experience and see how you do! Getting into league football is quite a challenge without running up debt! I tried it and failed, the only way to do it was to build up masses of debt, now I am in league 1 and I cannot afford any players but I am struggling by in the top 10 after 10 games

I have not used LLM rules but I have also not cheated by looking up CA?PA, I don't even have a scout ATM due to budget restrictions. Coaches are a luxury, there are players in the division on higher wages than my squad combined :'(

In my experience most people use tools, lie or cheat

I played FM Live for many years right thru from beta testing until it was defunct and was a regular top 10 side winning major honours and i have never had half the success on FM05-12 as most people on here brag about

eg winning the league first season with Wigan

back to back to back promotions from BSS to EPL in minimum years possible

winning the Champions league with Yeovil in 2017

the raw facts are that most people on here use FMRTE, Genie Scout, reload each match they lose etc etc

it cant be the case that in FML (where u cant really cheat in these ways) from 1000 managers im in the top 1% then when we play FM12 im not, its purely an ego thing, people love to brag on here and lie about achievements

also a hell of a lot of people who play the game probably never ever use the forums, so on here is basically, nerds, braggers and experts or some form of all 3

do i think the AI is poor at a lot aspects? well yes, they dont buy the correct players, dont judge attributes very well, dont consider most aspects and are one dimensional

does that translate to being to easy? well it could be more realistic in its approach but many times i take on jobs and fail, either getting sacked, resigning or just treading water, for example i took charge of Aston Villa in 2031 and managed them for 10 seasons going from mid table team to champions league/europa league entrants each season but i could never win the league and gave up, this is just one example

i also think the real question should be are the big leagues (serie a, epl, la liga) to easy? is very hard managing in obscure nations for example

Well I don't use tools and I don't cheat. The closest thing I come to cheating is a couple of rage-quits over the years, but when I do that I usually lose a good result that wasn't saved as well, so it is not something I do because of a need to achieve - rather, it's all about suspension of disbelief. Yet, I -know- that if I take over a lower-league club (or any club really) I will eventually make them into the best team in the world; it is only a question of time. This is why I choose teams like Las Palmas and Bradford; they have relatively big stadiums so that the time it takes to build them up is shorter. Choosing a smaller club/stadium isn't really a bigger challenge; just a longer one.

The AI will eventually be left behind because it isn't good enough at tactics: it seems to me like when they are favourites they play a patient, slow, short-passing attacking game moving a lot of players into my half because they are expecting me to defend deep and counter. So when I don't I crush them. As long as the AI don't recognize that their tactical approach is cutting their own foot off, FM will be continue to be easy.

The AI will eventually be left behind because it isn't good enough at squad building: The number one issue is that they will rather keep an unhappy player who hasn't played first team football in years than getting rid of him to free up space and money to sign a player that either strengthen the first XI right away or in a few years. They are incapable of making good squad rotation decisions (when and who). Consequently they sign players they have no need for and who weakens the team, and they don't develop the talents they actually have in the squad. They are also incapable of spotting a player who is in bad form (stikers not having scored in 20 matches are common), and then try someone else instead.

The curious thing is that everything above is connected to one mechanic: reputation.

The points about how it's hard to make good AI that runs in a reasonable amount of time are fair. I think the way to get around it is like how most strategy games do: offer the user difficulty levels, and have the AI cheat on harder difficulty levels. Let it magically have knowledge of more players, be able to sign them easier/for less, have a higher budget than the user, etc. It's an opt in feature you get by picking the harder difficulty so if the AI cheating bothers you then you can just pick normal difficulty.

:)Totally agree with this,CIV V does this,if i want to kick a'ss i play the easey level,then have a go at the hardest,you find yourself with Longbowmen fighting against the A1's tanks lol

i also think the real question should be are the big leagues (serie a, epl, la liga) to easy? is very hard managing in obscure nations for example

The Primera División is definitely very easy as teams play 4-2-3-1 and in current ME that translates in to being four players down in defensive phase. Obscure nations are even easier as superior squad building by human player results in victories which result in superb moral which as a result perpetuates further successes finally resulting in a never ending winning streak.

I'm a casual user of the game and i think the difficulty is ok, I won the BSN with Halifax which would be "normal" and I finished the next season mid table in the BSP which I considered "normal". I have not gone on any great cup runs or anything and strictly use my own tactics, training and scouting.

I think its a hard thing to do to get the difficulty and real life the same as in reality you know which teams are going to be challenging for the league title, it is virtually impossible for any mid table team in real life to challenge the big guns, to replicate that it would mean no one who is managing any team outside the elite sides would win the league. How many people would be on these forums complaining that the game is rigged or its too hard as Man U or City keep winning the premiership and that they cannot with Aston Villa etc?

All in all I'm satisfied with the difficulty of the game and maybe difficulty sliders should be introduced as to adjust the skill level globally is bound to alienate some users.

would you rather you just sit in the same division. year after year? The player needs to feel progression, or they wont play the game. another piont is that people who you read career updates of are dedicated to the game, or they wouldnt be doing updates. as a result they will put a lot of effort into winning.

Yeah I agree the AI in terms of transfers and squad building needs work, we're aware of that fact and would never shy away from it - however it's an incredibly difficult thing to get right in terms of balance. You have to realise that sometimes even teams in 'real life' do make bizarre decisions (I remember last year we logged a bug where teams were spending almost £20m on Andy Carroll saying it was a crazy amount) and that there's a vast difference between teams building for the future and building for now. It's certainly become harder than previous versions where you could quite easily find and stockpile a number of ridiculous Brazilian youths and dominate for years, but I find it odd that some users will trawl through every single squad on 'update days' attempting to poach every decent youngster and then complain that the AI isn't good enough - if you 'cheat' with certain aspects (such as looking at CA/PA) then of course you'll have a stronger squad than most.

Saying that users who play the game as realistically as possible can still achieve success IMHO too easily in the lower leagues by just picking up freebies - again this is a very difficult area to get right - you don't want it so that players are nigh on impossible to sign for users, but then you can't have every single AI club analysing every single AI player every day else the game will grind to a halt - as said it's all about balance and we're most certainly working at getting that to a level where the game is more realistic, the AI more intelligent and the game to an extent more challenging.

the game is easy because the AI are incredibly stupid. you can get it to a 100% balanced level, but it will still be easy if the AI remains as it is.

FM is usually a secondary task for me now while doing something else, it just doesn't require much attention.

It is too predictable in my opinion, I think every youth player needs to have a chance of randomly being good because it is generally the case. (I realise minus potential but not really enough)

FM11 was still much easier though.

:)I feel sorry for you guys who can put in so many hours into the game(i'm not taking the hiss),you know every way to expliot the A1 in no time at all(its natural),your too good,in the end its just like other vid games,normally a window pops up like"congratulations youve beaten the game",you love the game!,,,,,,i find the best saves/battles(or wotever)come when your learning any vid game,once youve found all the in's and out's its too easey!

:)I'm wot you guys call a casual,i've played since the CM days,the most i've gone in any FM is 5 seasons(lack of time),i love the game:rolleyes:,i'm crap at the game also,ever since Nygreen released the editor i've cheated,making a squad of 25+ super players,dont matter wot tactic once in the Prem and thier CA went up they would beat anyone,it sort of gave me relief(of sorts)from the crap team i support IRL lol,i've changed since 2010 though,istill dont have time to look for staff/players,but doing my own thing at Level 7?

If SI make the game to hard in 2013,the sales might be good but once first time users find they cant win,what happens to sales in 2014?,the more sales the better resources the makers will have,probably thousands maybe millions dont come to this forum,wot standard are they?

I think to keep both sides happy,crap&good players is the suggestion someone has in a post above,proper levels of difficulty with the A1 cheating on the top level!,,,,i was exspecting someone to say they have beaten CIV V on Diety level? by now lol(sorry for spelling)!

:)I feel sorry for you guys who can put in so many hours into the game(i'm not taking the hiss),you know every way to expliot the A1 in no time at all(its natural),your too good,in the end its just like other vid games,normally a window pops up like"congratulations youve beaten the game",you love the game!,,,,,,i find the best saves/battles(or wotever)come when your learning any vid game,once youve found all the in's and out's its too easey!

:)I'm wot you guys call a casual,i've played since the CM days,the most i've gone in any FM is 5 seasons(lack of time),i love the game:rolleyes:,i'm crap at the game also,ever since Nygreen released the editor i've cheated,making a squad of 25+ super players,dont matter wot tactic once in the Prem and thier CA went up they would beat anyone,it sort of gave me relief(of sorts)from the crap team i support IRL lol,i've changed since 2010 though,istill dont have time to look for staff/players,but doing my own thing at Level 7?

If SI make the game to hard in 2013,the sales might be good but once first time users find they cant win,what happens to sales in 2014?,the more sales the better resources the makers will have,probably thousands maybe millions dont come to this forum,wot standard are they?

I think to keep both sides happy,crap&good players is the suggestion someone has in a post above,proper levels of difficulty with the A1 cheating on the top level!,,,,i was exspecting someone to say they have beaten CIV V on Diety level? by now lol(sorry for spelling)!

No I don't think the AI should cheat to provide a challenge, they just need better in-game tools to find suitable players for their formations and some sort of tactical-problem-scanning-system that tells them that the opposing team actually didn't defend deep with 10 men even though they were 1.3 to 10 underdogs and then have a toolbox of answers to that fact. Some user in here said that he noted that doing the opposite of logic worked wonders and that is the truth - pushing up and being aggressive against a team that aims to overload your half and play a patient, short passing system while trying to drag a tight defense out of formation is very very effective obviously, since their tactic cannot do anything but fail. This is why I win easily when I am the underdog and usually struggle when I am the favourite.

The tool to find suitable players should be extensive player descriptions in the info screen. Instead of the description simply reading "midfielder" (it often does!) it should read "technically gifted, hard-working defensive midfielder" for instance and should be searchable in the player search. This way, the AI can search for attribute combinations too!

The tool to recognize tactical problems is more difficult to come up with, but I suppose it will have to use statistics already in the game. Many intercepted passes in the midfield, many break-aways should become recognized as a problem and dealt with tactically. The same is many shots from distance but few CCC's or half-chances, or many CCC's in the AI's disfavour. Those are signs of the tactical approach not working, and I expect the AI to both respond (which it doesn't as it is now) and to respond at least semi-intelligently. What should -never- happen is that the AI scans your tactic and analyses what would work against it.

:)You could make a few tweeks to the A1 but it wont take long for the"Special Ones"to find a way around it i recken lol,,let them play against something that cheats,could be fun,it would test all thier knoledge and tactics,but even that might get predictable in its moves!