FM 09 features: What do we know so far?

I did some research reading different Football Manager forums, podcasts and interviews. As a result I discovered some new features of football manager 2009.

I found about 25 features:

• Improved development of youngsters. Wonderkids will play flamboyantly since very young age.

• Attributes of players will depend more of trainings.

• Distance running statistics for each player within every game will be available.

• In FM 09 B Teams will be distinct football clubs. But it is still unknown whether there be possible to load the first team players to B team.

• Stadiums will expanded between seasons which is more comfortable because it doesn't cause you loosing money when seats are not available during matches.

• Retired Squad Numbers - You can retire squad numbers after a number of years a players been at the club but the number was not revealed. Also any squad number retired in real life will be retired in the game ie Man City 23 in memory or Marc Viven Foe and West Ham number 6 for Bobby Moore.

• Inactive Team Improved - If you do not select a league any player in that league will now play the full season and the number of games will be correct in thier history instead of playing 10-15 games.

• Player Nationality Improved - Real Life Nationality Laws for different countries cahnged so they are correct with real life. ie A player can qualify for national citzenship after 2 seasons but cannot play for the national team for another 2 years instead of just being 4 years to become a national of the country they play in.

• Referee Watch - Pundits comment during the post game analysis on how refs proformed during the game.

• Pre Game injury history - Players injury history from real life is in the game where possible ie major injuries

• Ability to reject all loan offers - You can now reject all loans offers from different clubs for one player instead of rejecting them individual.

• TV View – Watch your matches in new full screen TV view and customise your match day screen with widgets to view the information you need as a football manager, be it player performance, match action zones, pitch radar, latest scores and many more.

• Assistant Manager Feedback – Pre-match and in-match feedback from your Assistant Manager on how the team is performing and your player’s motivation levels, as well as hints on how your tactics are working and how you could outwit the opposition’s tactics.

• Improved Media – SI have worked hard to reflect the greater impact the media has been having in recent years on the world of football, in the in-game dealings with the press. The game now features more news stories, more detail and greater media interaction than ever before, creating an even more realistic simulation of the football world.

• Press Conferences – Attend pre-match and post-match press conferences with local and national journalists and build up relationships with them over time, but choose your answers carefully because they could come back to haunt you in the media at a later date.

• Transfer System – Completely new and re-written transfer system code, providing an even more realistic simulation of real-life football transfers.

• Transfer Rumours – View the latest news on what players are being speculated on, and who’s said to be interested in securing their services.

• Board Confidence – Following on from its addition in Football Manager™ 2008, board confidence has been expanded and improved. In addition, the board will now also feedback to you on your squad harmony and the club’s stature in the football world.

• Preferred Moves – Train your players to learn ‘preferred moves’ to add to their game. For example, train central defenders to not dive into tackles, or wingers to do stepovers before crossing the ball.

• Female Manager – For the very first time you can now play as a female manager. All of the text in the game now also has a female gender so the game represents female managers and staff in the game in the correct gender.

• Realistic Finances – SI have listened to feedback from all of their researchers to try and model every single financial area of the game correctly for each country, including transfers, staff wages, budgets, ticket prices, season tickets, competition bonuses and club sponsorships.

• Updated Competitions – Fully updated for the new 2008/09 football season with all the latest league, club and player data, featuring over 5,000 playable clubs from over 50 countries, and around 350,000 players and staff from around the world, drawn fresh from the famous Sports Interactive database.

• Widescreen Support – As a result of usability testing on Football Manager™ 2008, this year sees widescreen support for the game for the first time, as well as lots of tweaks to the user interface for easier navigation.

Details about 3D Match Engine

- Players will be differentiated by skin colour, hair colour, weight and height.

- 3D view is only method of match representation. It will not influence on speed of match calculation.

- When goal is scored there will be several variants of goal celebration by team. There will not be individual goal celebration.

- Goalkeepers and their saves will have quite good animation because it's very important part of football game.

- There will be zoom in 3D mode but not very close one. Because SI Games doesn't implemented face textures for players.

- Detailed visualization of stadiums is not in the plans for FM 2009. It can be developed in future versions of the series.

What else do we know so far?

That the demo will be released shortly before the real game and no one knows how to use the search button (or even ctrl+F on the keyboard will suffice in most cases).

Okay, other than that:

In additional to "wonderkids", all newgens (regens/freds) have been "looked at", and everyone hopes they have improved (perhaps seperating technical PA from physical, but no details so far).

Thanks for that summary (Y) .

Hopefully some more new features will be released in the coming days , with the blogs (hopefully) released today.

good post! I had forgotten about a couple of these features!

Thanks

I haven't even heard of half of those, thanks

So there are some kind souls on these sometimes bitchy forums cheers mate.

Nice to see them all down in one place, easily at hand.

Nicely laid out.

Does anyone know if there are to be any changes to best eleven calculations? What annoys me is that a players accumulative appearances in overall best eleven only include those seasons he made it into seasonal eleven.

Example

Paul Scholes- Man Utd

07/08 App 47 Goals 8 AvRat 7.42 MADE BEST 11

08/09 App 25 Goals 2 AvRat 7.00 DID NOT MAKE BEST 11

09/10 App 33 Goals 4 AvRat 7.33 MADE BEST 11

Overall best eleven reads:

Scholes App 80 Goals 12 AvRat 7.38

I believe it should read:

Scholes App 105 Goals 14 AvRat 7.29

Just find that a bit annoying myself.

Important changes in the tactical system by the removal of arrows?

(I can't see that it's been confirmed by SI, but it seems everyone's assuming it)

Important changes in the tactical system by the removal of arrows?

(I can't see that it's been confirmed by SI, but it seems everyone's assuming it)

It has been confirmed by SI. No more arrows.

Nicely laid out.

Does anyone know if there are to be any changes to best eleven calculations? What annoys me is that a players accumulative appearances in overall best eleven only include those seasons he made it into seasonal eleven.

Example

Paul Scholes- Man Utd

07/08 App 47 Goals 8 AvRat 7.42 MADE BEST 11

08/09 App 25 Goals 2 AvRat 7.00 DID NOT MAKE BEST 11

09/10 App 33 Goals 4 AvRat 7.33 MADE BEST 11

Overall best eleven reads:

Scholes App 80 Goals 12 AvRat 7.38

I believe it should read:

Scholes App 105 Goals 14 AvRat 7.29

Just find that a bit annoying myself.

Agreed. That and the lack of an overall career totals option for games played, goals scored etc. Total pain for FM stat freaks that only League games are on the player history totals.

It has been confirmed by SI. No more arrows.

Source please?

Agreed. That and the lack of an overall career totals option for games played, goals scored etc. Total pain for FM stat freaks that only League games are on the player history totals.

Just click on the certain years and it shows you all the goals they scored on top of the league goals. Its already there

Source please?

Miles mentioned it in one of the features he's done on the game. Try searching and you'll come accross it.

I would be interested in the B teams news:

1) Will it be possible to move players freely between teams?

2) Will we still be able to create them in the editor?

nice thread thanks, good to see all info on one post, some great additions this year!!

Just click on the certain years and it shows you all the goals they scored on top of the league goals. Its already there

I know

But there really should be an option to view just league games (the current option), all club games, all games including Internationals etc.

Having to go season by season and do the sums to work out how many goals a player has in their career is ridiculous considering the ease with which it could be added to the game.

Something that someone has not mentioned yet is the changes to feeder clubs. In the current game after a period of time once the board have decided that they trust you you are given the oportunity to ask for a specific type of feeder club i.e merchandising, wp, loan or whatever. In the new game you will also be able to ask for a specific club.

That the demo will be released shortly before the real game and no one knows how to use the search button (or even ctrl+F on the keyboard will suffice in most cases).

Okay, other than that:

In additional to "wonderkids", all newgens (regens/freds) have been "looked at", and everyone hopes they have improved (perhaps seperating technical PA from physical, but no details so far).

Get a grip you little girl.

Nice to see them all in one place, some slip by.

When are these blogs likely to surface. After release date?

When are these blogs likely to surface. After release date?

They are supposed to start some time today. Been looking on the HMV website but nothing there yet.

Something that someone has not mentioned yet is the changes to feeder clubs. In the current game after a period of time once the board have decided that they trust you you are given the oportunity to ask for a specific type of feeder club i.e merchandising, wp, loan or whatever. In the new game you will also be able to ask for a specific club.

I really like the idea of this new feature. I hope its well implemented and not a matter of constantly getting your choices rejected. Only time will tell!

Has there been any indication of the training engine having a major overhaul ?

I dread to think it will still be based on the previous versions ?

nice list thanks

Thanks for posting, haven't heard some of the changes.

"- 3D view is only method of match representation. It will not influence on speed of match calculation."

what does that really means?

"- 3D view is only method of match representation. It will not influence on speed of match calculation."

what does that really means?

Think of the Match Engine as the engine of a car. It's what gives the car its performance. Think of the 3D View as the body of the car. The body is only what you see on the outside. The body only moves as well as the engine inside. The Match Engine calculates what happens in the game, then the 3D View just shows you that calculation.

I did some research reading different Football Manager forums, podcasts and interviews. As a result I discovered some new features of football manager 2009.

I found about 25 features:

• Improved development of youngsters. Wonderkids will play flamboyantly since very young age.

• Attributes of players will depend more of trainings.

• Distance running statistics for each player within every game will be available.

• In FM 09 B Teams will be distinct football clubs. But it is still unknown whether there be possible to load the first team players to B team.

• Stadiums will expanded between seasons which is more comfortable because it doesn't cause you loosing money when seats are not available during matches.

• Retired Squad Numbers - You can retire squad numbers after a number of years a players been at the club but the number was not revealed. Also any squad number retired in real life will be retired in the game ie Man City 23 in memory or Marc Viven Foe and West Ham number 6 for Bobby Moore.

• Inactive Team Improved - If you do not select a league any player in that league will now play the full season and the number of games will be correct in thier history instead of playing 10-15 games.

• Player Nationality Improved - Real Life Nationality Laws for different countries cahnged so they are correct with real life. ie A player can qualify for national citzenship after 2 seasons but cannot play for the national team for another 2 years instead of just being 4 years to become a national of the country they play in.

• Referee Watch - Pundits comment during the post game analysis on how refs proformed during the game.

• Pre Game injury history - Players injury history from real life is in the game where possible ie major injuries

• Ability to reject all loan offers - You can now reject all loans offers from different clubs for one player instead of rejecting them individual.

• TV View – Watch your matches in new full screen TV view and customise your match day screen with widgets to view the information you need as a football manager, be it player performance, match action zones, pitch radar, latest scores and many more.

• Assistant Manager Feedback – Pre-match and in-match feedback from your Assistant Manager on how the team is performing and your player’s motivation levels, as well as hints on how your tactics are working and how you could outwit the opposition’s tactics.

• Improved Media – SI have worked hard to reflect the greater impact the media has been having in recent years on the world of football, in the in-game dealings with the press. The game now features more news stories, more detail and greater media interaction than ever before, creating an even more realistic simulation of the football world.

• Press Conferences – Attend pre-match and post-match press conferences with local and national journalists and build up relationships with them over time, but choose your answers carefully because they could come back to haunt you in the media at a later date.

• Transfer System – Completely new and re-written transfer system code, providing an even more realistic simulation of real-life football transfers.

• Transfer Rumours – View the latest news on what players are being speculated on, and who’s said to be interested in securing their services.

• Board Confidence – Following on from its addition in Football Manager™ 2008, board confidence has been expanded and improved. In addition, the board will now also feedback to you on your squad harmony and the club’s stature in the football world.

• Preferred Moves – Train your players to learn ‘preferred moves’ to add to their game. For example, train central defenders to not dive into tackles, or wingers to do stepovers before crossing the ball.

• Female Manager – For the very first time you can now play as a female manager. All of the text in the game now also has a female gender so the game represents female managers and staff in the game in the correct gender.

• Realistic Finances – SI have listened to feedback from all of their researchers to try and model every single financial area of the game correctly for each country, including transfers, staff wages, budgets, ticket prices, season tickets, competition bonuses and club sponsorships.

• Updated Competitions – Fully updated for the new 2008/09 football season with all the latest league, club and player data, featuring over 5,000 playable clubs from over 50 countries, and around 350,000 players and staff from around the world, drawn fresh from the famous Sports Interactive database.

• Widescreen Support – As a result of usability testing on Football Manager™ 2008, this year sees widescreen support for the game for the first time, as well as lots of tweaks to the user interface for easier navigation.

Details about 3D Match Engine

- Players will be differentiated by skin colour, hair colour, weight and height.

- 3D view is only method of match representation. It will not influence on speed of match calculation.

- When goal is scored there will be several variants of goal celebration by team. There will not be individual goal celebration.

- Goalkeepers and their saves will have quite good animation because it's very important part of football game.

- There will be zoom in 3D mode but not very close one. Because SI Games doesn't implemented face textures for players.

- Detailed visualization of stadiums is not in the plans for FM 2009. It can be developed in future versions of the series.

What else do we know so far?

Check out this interview where Miles mentions the amount of FM09 new features

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/getting-interactive-part-two

Miles quote from the above interview regarding the number of new features in FM09:

"So this year we looked at the 70 or 80 new features that are in the game, and worked out just over a dozen that we could do in one big splash. Press releases are boring - who cares about press releases any more? So we made a TV show."

Miles quote from the above interview regarding the number of new features in FM09:

"So this year we looked at the 70 or 80 new features that are in the game, and worked out just over a dozen that we could do in one big splash. Press releases are boring - who cares about press releases any more? So we made a TV show."

Exciting stuff

Agreed. That and the lack of an overall career totals option for games played, goals scored etc. Total pain for FM stat freaks that only League games are on the player history totals.

tbh i prefer the "league only" mode, since the stats from the previous seasons (before the game) are also only from league matches.

Maybe there could be an option to choose between both.

Cos in FM2005 seeing Petr Cech with 30-35 appearances from 2000-2004 and 60-65 from 2004+ was weird

One small thing not yet mentioned there - match ratings will now be to 1dp, so instead of players who were rated 6.5 and 7.4 by the game both being displayed as 7 you'll now see the full rating (to 1dp )

One small thing not yet mentioned there - match ratings will now be to 1dp, so instead of players who were rated 6.5 and 7.4 by the game both being displayed as 7 you'll now see the full rating (to 1dp )

Ahh yes, now that is a good feature!

tbh i prefer the "league only" mode, since the stats from the previous seasons (before the game) are also only from league matches.

Maybe there could be an option to choose between both.

Cos in FM2005 seeing Petr Cech with 30-35 appearances from 2000-2004 and 60-65 from 2004+ was weird

It already does do both

Click the row of the year you're looking at, and the table at the bottom of the page will change to detail the league, cup, international and overall appearances. Obviously this only works on seasons you've played in the game.

I would like to see in player history a little drop down menu that lets you view more than just the games, goals and assists for the player in the LEAGUE campaign. It would be nice if you could use a drop down menu to see overall stats for the whole season and all the competitions the player has played in.

Im sure about 5 years ago on the history screen it would show all the games the player plaed that season and ll the goals etc not just the league.

BRING IT BACK!!!

Read my post, just before yours

Not a drop down, but it'll show you the percentage figures and other stats as well as the appearances - for each type of match, too.

Miles quote from the above interview regarding the number of new features in FM09:

"So this year we looked at the 70 or 80 new features that are in the game, and worked out just over a dozen that we could do in one big splash. Press releases are boring - who cares about press releases any more? So we made a TV show."

Those of us who aren't frightened by reading? Those of us who can read a whole press release by the time Miles has introduced FM in a TV show, much less actually mentioned any features?

Ho hum. Progress eh

Thanks to the OP for collating all this info into one handy place.

• Stadiums will expanded between seasons which is more comfortable because it doesn't cause you loosing money when seats are not available during matches.

It has been announced that the rebuilding work will start straight after your last home game of the season, but it didnt say that the work will be finished by the time the first home game of the next season comes around. So i think there will still be the chance that you will loose some revenue during renovation.

yeah, you still probably lose money, just less of it since I think expansions and the sort take around 4 months?

Nicely laid out.

Does anyone know if there are to be any changes to best eleven calculations? What annoys me is that a players accumulative appearances in overall best eleven only include those seasons he made it into seasonal eleven.

Example

Paul Scholes- Man Utd

07/08 App 47 Goals 8 AvRat 7.42 MADE BEST 11

08/09 App 25 Goals 2 AvRat 7.00 DID NOT MAKE BEST 11

09/10 App 33 Goals 4 AvRat 7.33 MADE BEST 11

Overall best eleven reads:

Scholes App 80 Goals 12 AvRat 7.38

I believe it should read:

Scholes App 105 Goals 14 AvRat 7.29

Just find that a bit annoying myself.

tbh i prefer the "league only" mode, since the stats from the previous seasons (before the game) are also only from league matches.

Maybe there could be an option to choose between both.

Cos in FM2005 seeing Petr Cech with 30-35 appearances from 2000-2004 and 60-65 from 2004+ was weird

Heres a crazy idea, make a button available so you can chose your preference! I dont know, thats just me.

isn't that what andehsolson said in the post you just quoted

thank you man for this valuable post

worth to mention,3D engine is the only interesting feature,i feel most of the rest are just cosmetic ones

improved regens and redone transfer system are cosmetic changes?

Strongly agree with all fellow stattos about desire for all game to be shown in history. Annoys me for example that Giggs isn't recognised in game for his overall Utd appearance record.

improved regens and redone transfer system are cosmetic changes?

and the media interaction which influences play. 3D is a cosmetic change more than any other, even though I can't wait to see it, It is cosmetic!

I didnt know about half of these.

Well done to the OP.

fm09 - you're missing quite a few there. I've just finished the "round up" blog that I'm writing for HMV's website for tomorrow, and I make it 40 announced so far....

Thanks.

If its not done this year, get testimonials in for players. Would be cool to go along with retiring shirt numbers.

Thanks.

If its not done this year, get testimonials in for players. Would be cool to go along with retiring shirt numbers.

Cracking idea!