Would you swap ancillary features for speed?

So I've been playing FM lately and can't help but notice that the old fella isn't as agile as times gone by. Simply put, there's lag in the game, and I'm increasingly finding that much like most of the universe is composed of nothingness, most of my time playing FM is composed of waiting.

At the same time, I'm finding every new iteration of the game comes with more and more 'features'. While the 'richest clubs in the world' is a fun list to follow, I would happily sacrifice most such non-essential elements of the game to make screen transitions instantaneous (which presently they are not). Also, in-match, the game's a bit of a laggy pain and the new 'radar' screen when altering your tactics isn't exactly necessary. Furthermore, accessing the Report on a match takes a lengthy load time. I know this didn't use to be the case, and after all the report is only text.

Now I have been playing the game on a laptop, but I expect you'll all have had similar yearnings for a more sprightly FM that doesn't make you go and do the dishes while getting through the international fixtures. So, would you prefer a more streamlined FM with fewer gimmicks or do you find the increased interactivity worth the increased sense of grinding through the game?

Features for me. I don't think FM has any 'gimmick' features really.

I choose features though, because I'm a gamer and my PC reflects that with a Quad Core and 4GB of RAM. So for me speed isn't an issue. The thing I would prefer more than a major focus on either is less new features properly implemented and making sure some of the older ones work better.

My laptop groans when I play FM, but I'd still plump for the features.

I find this version to the fastest i have played tbh - and still on the same PC as the last 2 versions

I get terrible lag. It's a real struggle. I might need an upgrade before FM09 is out.

I find this version to the fastest i have played tbh - and still on the same PC as the last 2 versions

Same here. FM08 flies.

Same here. FM08 flies.

And for me, FM08 is definitely faster than any previous one. Especially when saving and loading.

Can't disagree on saving and loading, those are good. But general use screen transitions?

Really my thing is I'd rather not have any more sideshow features developed and would prefer if the guys work on optimising the calculations so things are quicker. Having played the admittedly lo-fi psp version (which has no lag), I can say that instant responsiveness makes the game a lot more pleasurable.

I'm always up for having the game respond quicker but I think it has a lot to do with your own PC, particularly your processor, as well as how many leagues you run. With a top end processor you'll find that transition between screens and fixture processing is very quick with one league loaded. It will remain quick with a fair few leagues loaded but at some point will slow down when you have too many leagues running on full detail.

With a poorer processor you may find that you have lag when flicking between screens and while processing with just one league loaded, so add a few more leagues into the mix and you'll have noticeable slowdown.

So just out of interest, what processor do you have and how many leagues do you run?

There are plenty of "features" I'd happily see the back of, but I doubt any of them affect the game speed much, compared to the number of leagues loaded and the number of players loaded.

Team talks, injury tables, graphical player attributes, most media interaction I would happily get rid of, but none of them would speed up the game much. Also the new naff Match day experience thing, but that only affects speed on an actual matchday and not by much.

Don't mind the speed, frees up time for me to do other things(schoolwork that has been neglected etc)

One other thing as well - if it goes to the jobs screen regularly this sems to slow it down a lot - i didnt realise this for ages and had it as my home screen - i thought it was just running slow but as soon as i changed that it speeded up quite a bit (also if home screen is set to overview and the overview includes the jobs bit)

I'm pretty sure that any features people would like to sacrifice would be so minor that it'd barely have an effect on the game speed, safe to say i think the main issue with gaming speed is how fast your PC is, my FM runs 5 or 6 countries at a good speed with no lag etc and i'm playing with just 1GB of RAM after recently upgrading from 256MB which was painfully slow to the point where i just didn't play FM.

I've never played it but isn't the handheld version supposed to be a faster, cut down version of the game? This might appeal to those people who would prefer it to be fast rather than extensive.

It doesnt lag at all

I've not once experienced la of screens. Could it perhaps be that your computer is running close to its max capacity, and thats whats causing it?

i should say speed because i will not have any money to buy a quad core pc for hmm lets say a nother 2-3 years alltogether but the stuff and the little things inside fm makes me come back for more and the little things make the great game

Later on in the game things do slow down a bit but for me, I always want more features and detail in the game so I don't really care how fast things go, so long as it doesn't take hours of course

my computer is 3 years old, isnt anything special at all and still processes in fairly adequate time, i dont see an issue

No problems with the speed of the game. Would rather have a more in-depth game that ran slower than have no features and and a fast game tbh.

First of all, I think FM08 is perhaps the fastest version of FM I've played so far. And the most stable one to boot. Props to that.

Having said that, I tend to go for too many leagues and too much load, so my game is - and will always be - utterly slow. Not to the point where I can't do anything anymore, but when there is a day where half the world decides to play a match, I also get to see half of the world actually playing, when it is processing. Yay!

It's completely my fault, I know, but while I would usually go for speed (old CM, now that was fast, until you got 10 years ahead, then you could go bake a pizza or something), I happen to get used to the slow processing. In fact, ever since I got used to it, I have provided myself with several other options:

So now I have a different PC solely for Internet next to it (where I'm writing this, while waiting for my game to process), I have a stack of books next to my PC (in case I need to wait, I can finally spend some time reading the books I never seem to have time for) as well as some magazines which are getting delivered on a monthly base. Not to mention I have my study books around as well. So yeah, I've adapted to FM rather than my PC adapting to my needs.

But to get back on topic, while there are numerous useless, or rather unnecessary, options available in the game, I would like to see more, new, useful features. You know, like having more media-options. And such.

The report screen has ALWAYS been slow.

The game itself seems faster for me every year. As long as you're not trying to run FM08 on CM97's origional PC you should be flying faster than ever.

My opinion is that it needs to be a mix of both. Features that make the whole game a fully rounded and enjoyable experience. But not so feature heavy that unless you have a quad it is too slow.

I have a similar style of play to the gentleman, sans the xtra PC. Books are read and plans are made. I enjoy having plenty of features as long as they work well ;-)

the game speed is okay no lagging etc. faster speed as in completing seasons,it takes ages to complete a season unless it is a holiday game,it was much faster in the the late CM's and early FM...new features would be nice as well