FM2013 - It's Early But What's Next?

FM2012 is the first SI-made CM/FM I have never bought. It looks like it got a really nice, fresh coat of paint. Under the bonnet, at least from the demo I played, there simply wasn't enough change for me to invest the hours in it that I know I would.

I craved 3 things from FM2012:

1. The longevity aspects had to be fixed - ensure that AI teams remained competitive throughout a long-term game instead of them becoming full of ageing and declining stars and needless signings. I won't go into the details but there were a lot of issues around A.I. squad management which we are all aware of. Newgens was also a part of this - I think the newgen aspect has been drastically improved - from what I have read, the rest has not really been touched.

2. The Game World - For quite a few iterations of the game now, I have not felt a part of the game world I am playing in. SI keep trying to fix this with the whole subscriptions model to the game but it doesn't work. Why? I think it's because it isn't organic - instead of us managing all of this, it should be automated. A very basic example of this would be - if I move from England to France in the game, I start seeing a lot of French news and rumours etc. etc. If I am getting spammed, there should be a button in the news article to say something like "Don't receive news items of this nature" or "Receive less news of this nature." Something along those lines. This is a basic example - being a part of the gaming world is more than just receiving news items - it's making the game feel like more than a glorified spreadsheet. Make the news items look like they are in a paper a la Ultimate Soccer Manager back in the day - add lots of simple things like this and cumulatively, I'm sure that would help.

3. Personality - Quite simply there is less than there was in the CM 01/02 days. For example, problem players that want to leave for a bigger club can be made to stay (unless a huge offer comes in that the owner accepts on your behalf). In CM 01/02 I was a LLM and struggled a lot more than I do in the later iterations of the game simply because the real gems on my team would be getting tempted by bigger clubs all the time and I would not be able to keep them. I even had Joe Cole go AWOL on me because I wouldn't let him go. Like I said, with the newer FMs, unless the chairman gets involved, I can keep all my best players forever. But personality doesn't just mean this. It also means, managers having personality - typically wanting to play the game a certain way, favouring certain types of players, certain nationalities - and to link back into point number 2, the media needs to pick up on this. You'd get comments in the media about Wenger going out and buying another frenchman or having a quiet transfer window but letting players go to bring up some youngsters as he has done previously...you get the idea.

It might seem like a lot to implement all of the above. But for me, the wheels for all this should have been put in motion a while ago instead of putting a plaster on the problem with things such as subscriptions, player talks and agents.

I won't mention the 3d engine because if the the above 3 worked well, I wouldn't care less. But it does need an overhaul - give players ankle tape, different colour boots etc...again, would add to the personality of the game just with little things such as this. I've mentioned it in another thread, but PES really started to creep up on Fifa as the best footy game by having superstar players in each team and they each having character. (I'm talking even before the gameplay really outshone Fifa - the International Superstar Soccer days).

Hope that wasn't too long and that I was pretty clear. Just wondering what others think is needed for FM13 - they can't just release another update next year or I think sales will be affected this time around. Looking at SI's cycle, FM is due a big upgrade.

good post. I agree with all your comments. In regards to the personality thing, I think SI games would argue that it goes against license rules. For example if it said a player had gone out and got drunk before a match then that would be breaking the license. I think your first point is the most important, improved AI, I think this will come in a future version but probably not for a few years.

I would like to get more happen when you win a league. Like watching the players lift the trophy on the pitch and afterwards getting more news items or something that makes it feel a bit better than whats there now.

Totally agree on your points there Vig.

1. I think Si did look at this on how to improve, and I think they did an ok job. The needless signings on previous years, where a club would spend 25 mil on a player and in 4 years hes played 2 games: are now less I believe. I tend to have long saves so longevity is important to me, so far im only in 2016 so cant comment to much.

What I will say though, on a particular save where my club is wealthy and very succesful I find myself "clicking continue" to get through walls of text iv'e seen a hundred times just to get through to game day. That needs improved in my eyes.

2. I really like the idea of seeing important news items on the back of a paper, or big headlines. Again I think it would be a break from the tteeeexxxt which seems to go on forever. Cosmetic but an improvement.

3. I like this because it would add to the longevity of the game as when you start a save, as a new manager the media would not anticipate your tansfer moves for young/french/tall players. Its somthing the game could calculate and implement into interviews/questions making every save a little bit different (unless you always signed the same players).

Despite that I think this years Fm is the mutts nuts and Im really enjoying it. Always up for improvements though

P.s I think your're the longest registered user i've seen.

Improved match intelligence from the players! It's terrible if you ask me! Drives me crazy.

Hopefully match engine changes, improved AI squad building (deciding which players they need, and deciding which players are better not simply based on PA), but mostly just update the match engine. It feels so restrictive i can barely give my own instructions, and it feels like it's on some sort of autoplay mode

P.s I think your're the longest registered user i've seen.

haha - been around here for a while although I'm not a huge poster...although in reality I have easily over 1k posts but when the system crashed a few months back it cut my number of posts in half.

I would like clubs to be able to accumulate more than 1 billion in bank balance rather then a portion of it going to a 'Reserve Investment Account'.

Reduce the 5 years term to be eligible for another national football team, it would be nice to allow us to edit the required time.

Match Engine is all I care about for 2013.

Football is "the beautiful game". Anything that allows us to see the beauty visually will be a big boost.

Also, I really like the idea of being able to see hidden attributes of players gradually if you keep them for years. Even if it means more vague comments in the report it would be nice. I don't want to use an editor or anything, I want it to be part of the game.

Improved network play is my main dream, it really needs some attention and fingers crossed FM13 will provide this.

Also, I really like the idea of being able to see hidden attributes of players gradually if you keep them for years. Even if it means more vague comments in the report it would be nice. I don't want to use an editor or anything, I want it to be part of the game.

I agree with that, IRL after say having a player for 2/3 season you'd realise more about him so you should get shown more ingame

I agree with that, IRL after say having a player for 2/3 season you'd realise more about him so you should get shown more ingame

+1

Match Engine is all I care about for 2013.

Football is "the beautiful game". Anything that allows us to see the beauty visually will be a big boost.

+1

It's funny because a lot of things that are being talked about are already in the game and they are areas of the game I like the most. Surely they can be improved, and judging from my first FM four years back they continously were improved. Above the detailed match sim and engine, one the key attractions FM holds for me over other management games, heck, any sports game, precisely is how it is making me feel a part of the game's world that twists and turns and doesn't end just right out of the border of my own squad screen. AI managers, players and journalists are given character traits that not only influence transfers (Wenger prefers to buy young players), but also human to human interaction. I witness Capello crumble under pressure in a press conference and storming out, Felix Magath building huge squads, managers in general having prefered styles of play, troublemakers like Arnautovic demanding a move to a bigger club - in this case quite literally, as there appears to be a bug on the history screen that lets you occasionally see conversations that took place in private. Just recently I saw Tevez fall out with Mancini, rising my chances of aquiring him. This isn't magic, naturally, but is being implemented by the options available to even players in the game's database editor.

It doesn't end there as yours as well as other team's players and managers form relationships during each of your saves, which also have an effect on numerous elements of the game like transfer fees, transfer bid outcomes, job offers, ... On top of you can also influence the results of matches around you by leaking transfer rumours that can give a boost to the key player of the team you wish to boost, etc. All of which AI managers will do as well. Compare that to FIFA Manager, in which a rather superficial newspaper item popping up whenever you as a player place a bid on a player is almost everything there is to it. No detailed transfer rumors on your rivals which you can interfere with, very little feedback in general. I know Championship Manager of old, despite never having played much of it. But really, FM has come a long way compared to back then - despite there still being lots and lots of text and a lot of the depth in "world interaction" being quite subtle.

I agree that AI development should be made a key focus of development, but reportedly, the features of FM 2013 have already been decided upon. :-)

edit: Talking about FM's visual presentation - is this new!? Never seen it on FM 2011 and almost missed it as I watched the last couple of minutes in highlights mode and this was skipped altogether. Only by accident I discovered it - nice touch.

good post. I agree with all your comments. In regards to the personality thing, I think SI games would argue that it goes against license rules. For example if it said a player had gone out and got drunk before a match then that would be breaking the license. I think your first point is the most important, improved AI, I think this will come in a future version but probably not for a few years.

I would like to get more happen when you win a league. Like watching the players lift the trophy on the pitch and afterwards getting more news items or something that makes it feel a bit better than whats there now.

No thanks!