Bored with Regens

Does anybody else get to a stage on their FM game when the regens have taken over and crave for the real players back again?

I for one really dont like it when all the 'real' players have disappeared and end up re-starting a new game from scratch

I'm really not sure how SI could make this aspect of the game any better but I feel I'm missing out on the longevity of a career game that lasts for untold seasons.

I feel exactly the other way around, to me the game only starts being real fun when you have a team filled up with regens.

I like it, I am only in 2019 and my Malaga squad has hardly any real players left. I love the newgens as they are totally unique to my game.

Not being a real life football fan I cannot tell the difference

Maybe it is because the vast majority of my games are started with the side I support and so losing (either to retirement or through selling) one of the players I like in real life and trying to replace him with Dave Smith just doesn't sit properly with me

I love fielding my side with gun newgens. Once i've filled it with the superstars I want in the first 2-3 seasons, I then flood my starting 11 with newgens that have amazing attributes & continue to flood my first team starting 11 with newgens of similar quality, just under 20 years of age that take over from the previous set of newgens a few years earlier.

Once my players hit 27 I replace with then with newgens. Unless of course the 27 yr old is 1 I love as my player.

I like. I'm in the 2020/2021 season on my game now and a significant portion of my squad is full of regens. It makes things more fun and interesting because you're really having to utilize your scouts more. When it comes to real players you can generally know roughly what to expect without even looking at their stats.

I am usually someone terrible too and so by the time the first decent set of regens have appears my scounts are busy down the sunday league 10 division sniffing out the next pub standard left back.

Season 4 or 5, when I start a talented team of <23s I have raised myself against established teams and actually start to win? That's my favourite season.

Not being a real life football fan I cannot tell the difference

Same here.

regen blood for the win

Just hit seasons 2021 and finally getting rid of the old players and on with the Newgens. I love it. So much more variety in the world. This is the moment when teams can start climbing and plummeting rather than being tied to eternal brilliance thanks to their team rep (which still has way too much importance but I'm sick of whining about it).

half my 2014 squad is newgens.

I'm newgens all the way, find real players super boring after you've played the game for a few years.

I personally have seen both sides of this issue so I can speak from experience. I used to HATE regens and getting news items telling me that John Smith narrowly beat Joe Bloggs to the Ballon d'Or that year used to send me to sleep faster than Wigan vs Wolves on a wet Sunday afternoon. This year has been different as I have for the first time attempted to seriously and properly develop a team of regens capable of winning silverware. I held off buying established stars and I spent significant money on players 14, 15, and 16 - which I was never prepared to do before - I employed top coaches, found decent Championship feeder clubs to loan them out to, and I waited. And let me tell you I love my baby boy assassins, with an average squad age of 23.4, laying waste to all before them as they race rampant to the Premier League title. I used to hate regens too, but I love these regens because these are MY regens.

maybe SI could have real player regens, like eastside hockey manager (if anyone played that).

Although it may take some time to find out who is who without the use of an editor since football is in a much larger scale...

I feel exactly the other way around, to me the game only starts being real fun when you have a team filled up with regens.

This .

maybe SI could have real player regens, like eastside hockey manager (if anyone played that).

Although it may take some time to find out who is who without the use of an editor since football is in a much larger scale...

It used to have that system and its removal was one of the most important changes in the game.

EHM would have followed the same system eventually.

Personally I like the regens because they add unpredictability to the game. Everyone's save is different so we all have different experiences.

My favorite thing about FM is youth development. When you sign hazard, neymar, or gotze, you know what they will become. How every when a kid named chris wyatt comes through your youth academy, you have less of an idea of where he will end up. He could be distinctively average until he is 21 and then turn into a superstar (he did in my case )

You could sign a highly touted youngster from where ever only for him to go nowhere.

Thats the best part of regens.

Not being a real life football fan I cannot tell the difference

this made me laugh

OT: Its the opposite for me.. Always look forward to the 10+ seasons as thats when the game gets really fun

If just the regens had their skills distributed in a more clever way it would be nice.

If just the regens had their skills distributed in a more clever way it would be nice.

You can train the right attributes and leaves the the non needed ones alone, the player will turn out as expected..

You can train the right attributes and leaves the the non needed ones alone, the player will turn out as expected..

In general yes, but you cant take away all the over-distributed SP skills, that could/should be used elsewhere.

And also I do not feel newgens will get as good as the current star players. And ultimately you loose some interest (i do).

this made me laugh

OT: Its the opposite for me.. Always look forward to the 10+ seasons as thats when the game gets really fun

I'm a closet FM player, if my rugby & golf mates knew....

If just the regens had their skills distributed in a more clever way it would be nice.

FM12 has seen a massive step forward with how this works. It's still, of course, not perfect but there's a huge difference between this and the last version imo.

Does anybody else get to a stage on their FM game when the regens have taken over and crave for the real players back again?

I for one really dont like it when all the 'real' players have disappeared and end up re-starting a new game from scratch

I'm really not sure how SI could make this aspect of the game any better but I feel I'm missing out on the longevity of a career game that lasts for untold seasons.

Well, they can't. Player age, retire, new ones arrive. Nothing to be done :/

That said, i've seen tons of screenshots of regens who are disproportionately amazing. 17/18 and have 20's.

Seems to be caused by giving them too many games too young - there's no obvious burn out factor caused by playing kids too much when they can't handle it.

I both like and dislike it when the newgens take over. My FM12 game reached into the 2040s so obviously there was no real player left. I quite liked it for a lot of reasons (mentioned already) but equally felt I missed out on a chunk of immersion as I had no idea of the career of any player I looked at without looking at their history, and that barely felt like I knew them. With the real players you get things like thinking thats a good move for them, or their career didn't go to plan etc that you just don't notice when its only newgens.

Life begins when the regens start taking over. However, I would like there to be more variety to them. Good players are all fantastic in everything they need according to their role and positions, and they all have the same personalities since high ambition and professionality is necessary to develop. There are hardly any creative strikers, for instance. I propose a much higher degree of player types being created, and a higher individualization through the inclusion of dozens more PPM's connected to these player types.

Cahill is a strong, all-rounder attacking midfielder with good aerial ability and finishing attributes - have anyone found a regen like that? What about box-to-box midfielders? What about hard-working wingers with football intelligence rather than pace? A high-caliber goalkeeper who doesn't have 16+ in all the related attributes - they all look the same to me. A full back with good technique, dribbling and crossing is certainly hard to find. What about a good set piece taker who is also good at long shots?

Yes, less randomization will lead to more variation in long-term games, I am sure of this.

I only really enjoy FM when its full of regens, i get bored with the real database quite quickly, i follow football to a huge extent so i find the first few seasons too easy, as i already know who is worth signing and who can do a job if i need it.

I prefer playing with regens so now whenever I start a new game I never use real players, and I always go on holidays for a few years to build up a history for them. I got that idea off someone on this forum about 5 years ago actually.

15 seasons in and my game has just begun

I find playing with Regens is more realistic (bare with me) as you actually have to scout the opposition to see who the danger man is rather than knowing that, that player isn't good on FM as he is in real life. Also when buying players you have to scout and watch a few games rather than buying them outright because theyre known to be wonderkids etc.

One of my favourite parts of FM is finding regens and developing them into ttop players. After a while real players get boring because you know all the best young talents. With regens it's random so it's always a new challenge in every game.

My one problem with regens is the fact they're usually fatally flawed in their attribute distribution. Eg centre halves with very low jumping or strikers with poor finishing, etc. I don't know if its still like this on FM12 but in the past few versions since FM09 regens have always had big problems with these things

Like a lot of others, I enjoy the game more once the real players have all gone. I prefer the complete unkown when signing a player, and the fact that no one else will be managing him (and doing better ).

I love the youth development aspect of the game, but I do have a couple things that I think could be done better:

Make it harder to recognize top prospects by lowering the CA. That's not to say that there couldn't be a few stand-outs that are ready to go, but the CA should be more sensitive to the age. A 14 year old YA newgen should be at least a few years away from making any impact at the top levels. Seeing them come in with near-perfect mentals is just not right. This would necessitate a tweak to the development speed in the youth squad as well, I think, to increase it a tad.

Scouting PA is way too accurate it seems. No matter how good your scout is, it should take significant time for anyone to get an accurate read on the PA of a youth player. Right now, a decent scout and some patience to go through the youth intake in each country will give you a pretty clear picture of who is worth another look as soon as the players are promoted. Slowing down the discovery process for human and CPU teams alike would reduce the number of "wonder gens" that roll into the game as nearly sure-fire purchases. Even the top teams in the world don't have a good read on the 14-year old "next big thing" coming out of the Sudanese 3rd divisional tier. We do.

This is all opinion of course.

I feel exactly the other way around, to me the game only starts being real fun when you have a team filled up with regens.

This man knows.

I was like that with fm 11, just couldn't get much into it with real players disappearing and my saves have never gone beyond 2019.

especially the mix between real and newgen players just didn't sit well. But have changed my view. Really like it.

What I do is create about 8 hot prospects newgens or regens heh, myself with high potential, so that later in the game when newgens start to dominate, makes it more interesting for me.

I 'd sign one or two of my created players at most. Since there's lot quality newgens in fm 12, it's even more fun. I got into the whole player development, so yeah it's fun.

Couple of things I have to do as well, give nicknames or just give em a little * star next to the superb newgen's name in other clubs, so that I recognize star players (not to neccesarily sign'em, but also to know who're the top players allround the world)

So yeah, I started to enjoy it. That said, I haven't played FM 12 in weeks and getting back into my long term (currently in 2024), I forgot about a lot of them, so had to refresh my memory a bit, whereas starting a new save, i'd immediately know about quality players.

But all in all, I like it.

Nah. My regens tend to have enough in-game personality to keep me interested. Plus, my games always start out in a low league, so I rarely know the players in my teams anyway.

Nah, no. i am bored with real players anyway. Respect regens rights

I am usually someone terrible too and so by the time the first decent set of regens have appears my scounts are busy down the sunday league 10 division sniffing out the next pub standard left back.

That is why I never can start with Stoke, always start in the lower league

The selling on Fuller or him retiring just wouldn't feel right

I feel exactly the other way around, to me the game only starts being real fun when you have a team filled up with regens.

Amen to that brother, i usually holiday for the first few seasons to get the regens rolling in!

I feel exactly the other way around, to me the game only starts being real fun when you have a team filled up with regens.

100% this.

It used to have that system and its removal was one of the most important changes in the game.

EHM would have followed the same system eventually.

Can you expand on what was this system of real player regens, Ackter? I dont remember this

What used to happen is that a player's name, dob (ie the superficial date) etc was randomised when they retired and they entered the game as a "new" player.

It meant you'd get Alan Shearer again and again and again, for example, but under different names.

If you shortlisted a player before he retired, his regen would appear on your shortlist as soon as he retired.

What used to happen is that a player's name, dob (ie the superficial date) etc was randomised when they retired and they entered the game as a "new" player.

It meant you'd get Alan Shearer again and again and again, for example, but under different names.

If you shortlisted a player before he retired, his regen would appear on your shortlist as soon as he retired.

Yes I remember that, but that isn't as much fun is it?

You can just keep Shearer, Messi, Ronaldo on your shortlist (or there regen) and keep buying them. I find alot of fun trying to find the next best star, not just loading my shortlist up every year to simply put a bid in for him

I like newgens so much that I de-select the "use real players" option when I start a new game. This doesn't populate the game world entirely with newgens - the existing "real" players get different names and nationalities and so on to disguise them. This obviously doesn't work as well if you play as your favourite team because you can start to recognise the players, but if you start with a lower league club who you are not familiar with in any way (I chose Oxford, when I am a Swans fan in real life), then it works nicely. And after a season or two, there is enough player movement among the other teams that it becomes much more difficult to match the players with their "real life" counterparts anyway. The effect is like you have played beyond the point where all real payers have retired, and you just have a newgen world.

The only downside is that you won't have any familiarity with the players, there's no context as to which players are the worlds best, who are the "heroes" and "villians" and so on, but you can start to build up a picture if you pay attention. Also, if you like to put yourself or your friends in the game using the editor beforehand, then you'll find your created players also have new names. I made myself and wound up being called "Ivan McKracken", so I think I did alright

I would highly recommend the newgen hair pack add-on someone made, though (here). Otherwise there are only about a dozen different looking players which is pretty dull. The add-on is great.

A thread from the past. Feel compelled to reply.

I love the newgens. The game kick-starts when I'm fielding a team of players I've brought through the youth ranks. However, this year I feel a little tired of the faces. I downloaded a hair pack, but think the faces are too similar. Not sure if it's possible to change to something more realistic as they're a little too cartoon like for me.

I must admit, I used to hate regens like someone said above, but it's up to you how much research you are willing to do to bring your familiarity levels up. For example on NBA 2k11 I made a couple of draft classes all with unique players based on what I thought makes great players. For example the highest rated prospect was prodigious but injury prone, another was a 'bad-boy' type with a rebellious attitude and low consistency.

At the moment, most of us have a wide-ranging knowledge of the football world because of years spent watching matches on TV and playing FIFA, PES and CM/FM. It's the years part that is the key to our knowledge of football. There are players like Brad Friedel who were playing 20 years ago, and some recent emerging stars like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for instance. The emerging players only add bit-by-bit to our existing mental portfolio. All this is inherent for the majority of us, which is why learning a whole footballing world of regens is difficult, however rewarding when you develop new favourites over time.

A thread from the past. Feel compelled to reply.

I love the newgens. The game kick-starts when I'm fielding a team of players I've brought through the youth ranks. However, this year I feel a little tired of the faces. I downloaded a hair pack, but think the faces are too similar. Not sure if it's possible to change to something more realistic as they're a little too cartoon like for me.

Would be nice, but you sure do miss those faces if you turn them off.