Transfer AI

I've heard people complaining about how AI managers weren't able to build squads proper, but what recently puzzled me is how inconsistent the AI acts on the transfer market on a basic level. On the one hand, it can be pretty aggressive when it tries to snub one of your key players. On the other hand, even if the AI notices the Under 21 Turkey player to be had on a Bosman soon, often times you're the only one to actually make an offer. And how can it be that as a mediocre 3. Bundesliga side, you can sign Aston Villa's Darious Darkin with such ease and bind him to your club for almost half a decade? Sure, he's not a wonderkid in the database by any stretch of the imagination. But he doesn't earn a fortune either and is currently a starter in England's U19 setup in my save - and is likely destined to play at least a tier higher than this in the future. There had got to be better bids than mine. Why weren't there?

Are the inconsitencies really the AI's fault? Lately I've been wondering whether there might be just too many decent players in the database for too little clubs that are meant to compete for them. Probably exaggerated by the many clubs that tread their reserve squads rather lightly, to put it that way. And that even in countries in which those reserve teams are competing in the actual league system and in which the corresponding clubs show real interest in getting their reserves promoted as high in the pyramid as possible. I doubt that this is news for long-time FM players. But on FM2008, I sometimes had real problems signing players, which probably had more to do with a Bundesliga reputation bug though.

I have said this before, but that is a long time ago in forum-terms so I repeat myself here.

Right now, the AI managers and clubs are tuned to be very laid-back when it comes to signing players. In an earlier version, I remember that I constantly had to turn down dozens of offers for your players every week. So SI balances the whole transfer system by one factor only: the sensitivity of whatever programming code which deals with how aggressive a manager is at the transfer market.

When factoring in that the AI managers have a limited budget to use just like us, and therefore is programmed to scout and sign players with a high PPA (weighted Potential ability) which have a good transfer value-to-PPA factor (mostly due to a low squad status), it is clear that a large majority of players that the big, rich clubs go for will be youngsters with a high PA.

Another factor is that the managers are programmed to sign new contracts with their players whenever there's a need for it, and that need arises every time that manager rejects a bid for any of his players, or whenever the agent demands it. In other words, players who in RL would want to leave after his contract expires to further his career (unless he is sold), are remaining at their current clubs the rest of their careers as a rule.

When taking all of this together, it is quite normal to observe that the AI doesn't build squads at all. It was like this in FM10 and it is like this in FM11.

For the sake of the game, I have a few suggestions as for how SI can fix this problem.

* Assign many more and much stricter player roles to every player in the game, for every position, so that also AI managers may have that information available.

* Let the scouts and other staff know what type of player any scouted player is, as part of their personality/player report

* Design the current tactic/preffered tactic of the club and manager so that players who are "ball-winning midfielders" are preferred to play in that role in the tactic, and make sure that the AI managers go ahead and find players who fits that role if they don't have one of sufficient quality there already.

* Make sure that good managers buys CA 3.5 star players or above (as those are strengthening the team), so that the PPA is weighted more towards CA in the big clubs and with good managers

* Make sure that AI managers are getting rid of deadwood

* Massively increase the sensitivity of the Squad Rotation attribute of AI managers

* Increase the economy in the game as a whole, even though that would decrease realism - currently very very few clubs are making money in the game, while there are many healthy clubs around in real life. Since no-one pays real transfer fees for anyone, no-one gets to sell players either, and most squads are almost replaced within 5-6 years in RL