Game speed - ideas to make it faster

One of the very main things which bug me with FM these days is that the game nowadays takes so incredibly much time to play. Even when playing the game on my own I hardly ever manage to play more than 2 games per hour which makes FM a very time consuming thing to do. Especially the matches themselves now take 20-25 minutes to watch on key highlights. To me that's simply too much. Due to added gf restrictions () that means I never get very far into the game anymore

I understand that the increased complexity of the game by nature commands some more time and that's perfectly okay, as long as the game design is streamlined in a way that one does not have to waste any time.

From reading many posts on this forum I have the impression that I'm not alone with my opinion that it should be possible to increase the speed of the game without sacrificing its depth.

I'd love to see other people joining in with suggestions about how that could be achieved.

I'll start off myself:

- Decrease the lag in conversations. In team meetings or conversations with journalists or players there is always a noticeable lag after choosing what to say. Simply arranging for a tutorship takes more than half a minute, while previously it was two clicks. In transfer negotiations there is no lag at all. Please check how that lag can be reduced.

- Too much unnecessary match 'events' are shown on key highlights. Or rather non-events. Examples: After a chance is over, the game often continues to be shown until the next pause in the match without any further events of interest. Injuries and yellow cards take lots of time and could be fast-forwarded. Showing the last 4 minutes of the game in full time when nothing happens doesn't add tension, only boredom. Just a few examples. When I watch those matches on key highlights, I often have the impression that easily 3-5 minutes real time could be saved without missing anything (i.e. without not showing any chance of card, just by leaving out the stuff when really nothing happens at all).

- Reduce number of press conferences. An annoyance to many as they are very repetivtive. While nice to have in general it may be a step into the right direction to reduce their number a bit. 10-15 a season before matches and only having them for major signings would be enough imho - and save us 20 minutes per season (not a lot but it all adds up...)

So, who wants to share more ideas about how we could make the game quicker to play?

Yes I think that SI should aim at 5 minutes being the maximum amount of time spent on a match in Key highlights. If the manager wants to have more control, get more information and see more gameplay he could use Extended instead. In other words; key highlights should only show -real- key highlights, not warnings, yellow cards, all the corners, several minutes of the AI team passing between each other on their own half and then ends with a bad pass and a clearance. In my game, if I am unlucky enough to make a change and then it decides to show a substitution, an injury or a red card I have to watch the whole sequence of the player walking/being carried off the field and then sit down on the bench... very slowly. It takes a couple of minutes. Why are these sequences in the game at all? They are even irrelevant in Full Match mode! The same with all the corners and throw-ins. There is only one ball on the pitch and no (invisible) ball boys - if that is what they are called in English, so I have to watch the corner taker walk all the way to pick up the ball, then slowly back again before he places the ball carefully on the spot and then incredibly quickly takes the corner (because I have set time-wasting to rarely). Why are those sequences in the game?

All in all, I think that of the 10-20 minutes a match can last in Key highlight mode, more than half is pointless time-drains that does not add to the drama or feeling of immersion and could easily be left out entirely. If the only thing that happens in a match is one single corner, then the match should take 30 seconds. If that is a problem for you, please choose Extended.

Yeah, even forgot about the time wasted after making changes, when the game shows whatever happens until the ball goes out of play. Which may take minutes

I also wonder what can be seen on extended highlights if the key highlights already cover that much. It's really weird that the only option below 20 minutes per match is going back to the 90ies and have text only

That being said, I'm happy with the amount of highlight I'm shown but just too often the highlights just don't end when the actual highlight ends or we see stuff where nothing at all is taking place.

How about "key" highlights being goals and sendings off only?

the thing thtat annoys me in key highlights is the fact that it will insist on showing the shot, which misses the target (thats OK). it will then proceed to show one of my player slowly walk 30 yards to the corner flag. once he gets there, he realises he hasn't got the ball, so walk 20 yards to get the ball, pick it up, turn round walk back to the corner flag... then the highlight stops without me seeing the corner being taken.

i understand that the key highlights should be more than just goals/sendings off etc because otherwise you dont get a true sense of the game. it also helps to build the tension when your watching an important game, but some of that needs to be trimmed off.

As to the press conferences : I just wish there was an option at the start of the press conference to "respond cautiously"/"Play mind games with opponent"/"play mind games with own team" etc just some option to auto-pick the responses and leave it at that, of course i know this is the same as "let your assistant attend" in some respects, but i dont trust my ass man as far as i can throw him.

since it's related I'll just quote my message from the wishlist thread:

I would like the ability to skip ahead in games, I play FM primarily to see players develop and take charge of big games such as champions league or title deciders, other games I'd rather mostly skip through. If I could click on a time in the timeline ahead and leap to that, play only stopping if there is an injury, or red card (perhaps customiseable what does stop the skipping ahead), if none occur it'd go directly to the minutes clicked.

For example: I click 45 minutes, however the game has already simmed an injury at 32 minutes that requires a substitution, play goes from 1 to 32 minutes and then prompts me to make a substitution, I find out we're 2-0 up and maybe decide to put on a defensive player instead and tweak our formation to hold that lead. Play resumes, I watch the game for a little to see how things are settling, then decide to skip ahead to half time, I give a team talk, then out go the players, I click on 70 minutes and it skips ahead, we're 2-1 down and after watching a few more minutes I decide being defensive isnt working, I sub on a striker on 75 minutes then play the game out, to see what happens with the rest.

I could also perhaps skip ahead to 45 and nothing happen, give a team talk, head out, skip to 70, see the score, sub, tweak tactics, skip to 90.

So, you see, it adds flexibility, I can put in as much, or as little time as I want into the game and I don't have to feel tied down to watch long, tedious games, even if they're sure-fire-wins, wheras I can take control when it's really needed. All without resorting to going on holiday - I'm still managing, so still eligible for awards, but I'm just managing just as much as I want to - it'd be optional of course, could be entirely ignored as a function, but I feel many players would appreciate such a system. I feel such a system would increase accessibility of the game and allow more people to play the game even when they have limited time with which to play, thusly improving the breadth of the market this future edition of the game could appeal to.

I feel it's needed too - I know It made sense when FM2012 let assistants get awards if you holidayed a lot - but look into why I did that - time, it took a lot less time, but I still want to progress on the game at a good speed, so give me a system where I can go through time quickly and play just as I want to - while still managing the team. It's surely a developers duty to appease as wide an audience as possible without ruining the game for others, and this would be an optional feature that would upset no one and please a significant number I would imagine.

i suggest SI must give DoF option for human players.

How about "key" highlights being goals and sendings off only?

I'd be open to a further option in between today's key highlight setting and text only.

My main point with respect to watching the matches is however that within the reasonably chosen scenes on the current key setting (absolutely fine with that) there is just too much time wasted that alone adds up to more than an hour each season.

This for example. It's probably okay to not see the corner' date=' but all the time lost until it is taken (be it shown or not) is just not necessary.

vvvv (these are not 'v's, these are 'darrows' )

the thing thtat annoys me in key highlights is the fact that it will insist on showing the shot, which misses the target (thats OK). it will then proceed to show one of my player slowly walk 30 yards to the corner flag. once he gets there, he realises he hasn't got the ball, so walk 20 yards to get the ball, pick it up, turn round walk back to the corner flag... then the highlight stops without me seeing the corner being taken.

i understand that the key highlights should be more than just goals/sendings off etc because otherwise you dont get a true sense of the game. it also helps to build the tension when your watching an important game, but some of that needs to be trimmed off.

Two more:

- make 'leave to assistant' options more valuable by giving the opportunity to issue guidelines. Like renew youth contracts only for players with a minimum future potential (stars rating of assman), maintain a minimum youth squad size. Or arrange x amount of friendlies with y days in between matches; there look to max revenue/ choose opponents of certain stature.

- have an auto-scout-option for shortlisted players. When they are added, they are auto-added for 1 year. After that year you get the message that these players have been taken off the shortlist. For pretty much every player I then create a new scout report (preferably by the same scout) to see how the guys have developed and whether they would still be good potential signings for my team. With 500 players on the shortlist that's 500 times: right-klick - scouting - scout report - left-click. Check who scouted him. Left-click scouting drop-down in top right corner - compile scout report - choose scout - 1 match report - left-click. back button.

That's 500 times 30 seconds, i.e. a full 4 hours per season!

Why not have a function that does that automatically unless the player is removed from the shortlist? Either per default or via a selectable option when adding the player for the first time? I'm sure many players do what I do there.

i suggest SI must give DoF option for human players.

That may be interesting and serve the people well who don't need that much depth in the game.

For my part, I was rather looking for ways to speed up the game without just getting rid of depth.

I have:

Removed all Subscriptions

I don't hire scouts

I have turned off Filter Agent Offers in the Team Policy

Once a month I do a whip around the around the top nations and view the awards. Or I might do a more thorough check in a transfer window.

Yeah I don't want to be a director of football - I want to be a manager that just does as much as is needed, and no more really .

Older FMs had an option in the match to watch goals only, but it kind of spoiled the match. I agree the key highlights should be more restricted, though.

Maybe also in general speed up the conversations.

They have obviously been all incorporated into one common engine now, but that indeed takes lots of time. For instance I never bother to comment on the comments of other managers, not because I just don't bother, but because it takes close to a minute for something almost entirely cosmetic.

Could I choose some kind of quick answer from a drop-down right in the news item I would certainly reply a lot more often.

Renewing staff contracts... ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Changing players' specialist training... ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... maybe you can choose this for x amount of time on one skill, before this stops and they auto-change to your next desired specialist training etc...

Changing players' training schedules... ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz... actually this could be made much easier. For example, most players' training through the season is positional, but numerous times you want to move the whole squad on to say fitness or skills and is done in just a couple of clicks using select-all..

However, to reverse this can take 2 or 3 clicks a player, or fiddling with the ctrl or shift key.

But if you have positional training as a default-option all you would need to do is select-all and hit the 'default training' tag, and back they all go.

Simple. Mouse clicking now reduced from 2 or 3 per player to a simple 1 click for entire squad.

I thank you. You may touch me.

Older FMs had an option in the match to watch goals only, but it kind of spoiled the match. I agree the key highlights should be more restricted, though.

so if it was a 0-0 draw it would just flash and then say 'match finished' ? i wouldn't use that option

I change to commentary only and select replays of goals to get through some matches quicker.

I've recently cut down on my news subscription quite heavily too, and I holiday through international breaks in mid-season.

I think it's an interesting idea to have another viewing option of the match at some point in between today's version of key highlights and text only.

However, my actual and initial point is that within the two medium settings there is just too much spillage in terms of what is shown. Scenes are shown well past the point when they are effectively over. Making changes leads to having too watch minutes of random play. Injuries and corners often lead to long scenes where nothing happens but physios entering, working and leaving or players walking slowly towards the corner flag, then returning for the ball and walking back there.

If that was left out or fast-forwarded then even within the current setting for the viewing options we would save lots of valuable time.

Personally I view matches as Text only like the good old days and only watch goal replays. Prefer it this way and saves alot of time.

I never use leave to assistants or holiday etc...as even having the best assistant he will still do silly things and isnt ME at the end of the day.

Football manager is a wonderful franchise we all love but sometimes I do miss the simpleness of Champ Manager in its hay day. Sometimes feel the franchise, similar to how others see the Call of Duty franchise, has got to complicated and tried to add to many things taking away from the overall experience.

For the stat geeks it must be a heaven which is all fine and dandy as its each to there own, but somethings I cant help but think they've over done and could be represented far more easily.

Taking over a club and simply setting up training schedules can take a fair bit of time for example. Especially if your new to the players at the club and need to learn what areas you want to focus there training in etc....