Regens variation (they're too similar!)

After getting my first game to year 2015, where regens are becoming a big part of the game, I noticed the "good" regens often share the same set of skills, as if there were several templates for them, which determine a big chunk of their characteristics. The most blatant pattern are the set pieces. With the starting player base it is often hard to find a good player to perform them, but with regens it's easier than ever! And they usually have all of them high at the same time - corners, free kicks, penalties. Hordes of "Nakamuras" are invading my league.

To check up on this, I went through a bunch of countries where only regens are "born" in my game (Croatia, Nigeria, Morocco, etc.). Scouring through the leagues there only confirmed my concerns. Offensive players are much too similar. Aside from set pieces, they usually have high technique, crossing, and off the ball. Here's an example. The one on the left is a midfielder, the other is a striker (thus higher finishing). There are loads of other players like of them.

While I understand that central defenders must have high marking, tackling and heading, I think the midfield and offensive players should be more random and varied.

Wasnt this a new feature in last years FM? that regens would generally fit into a positional template as opposed to having a completely random mix of stats, thus avoiding strikers that were great at marking but awful at finishing and composure, or defenders having 20 for technique and flair but less than ten for tackling and positioning. I dont think its that much of an issue to be fair, massive improvement over the past method!

Wasnt this a new feature in last years FM? that regens would generally fit into a positional template as opposed to having a completely random mix of stats, thus avoiding strikers that were great at marking but awful at finishing and composure, or defenders having 20 for technique and flair but less than ten for tackling and positioning. I dont think its that much of an issue to be fair, massive improvement over the past method!

Sure, it's better, but I think it went too far. Set pieces are the worst. I remember struggling for a good free kick taker in the past games (which was rather long ago, as I had a break from FM), now I have regens fighting for the place on the free kick list.

I do agree with what the OP is saying. There are a lot of midfielders on my game coming through who are really good at taking every type of set piece. In real life there isn't that many who can do the whole lot to a high standard but you can find a shed load when you get to around 2016.

I agree...

There seems to be waaaay too many great Set Pieces takers among newgens.

Not to mention the amount of CM/DM who would be much better as Wingers (ie. high pace/acceleration, average passing skills)

I know SI use several newgen patterns depending on positions and roles, but frankly some of those patterns are completely insane, or at least, incoherent with the player's position, almost as if the role was assigned ignoring the player's skills.

For me the only problem with regens is the disproportional amount of "Zlatans" (very tall wingers/forwards), there are way to many.

I found a fair bit of variation in my games, but... at the same time by a certain point in your game types of players disappear. Im in 2026 and Sweeper Keepers have disappeared, they never get produced, box to box midfielders are sometimes quite rare too as well as "perfect" target men. BUT, its so much better than previous years i generally am not that bothered.

All the good defensive midfielder newgens on my game are short, extremely rare there is a tall vieira style player. I get fast short forwards, good tall target men (even one was Brazilian?!) some a bit of both but not superb in either catergory. All in all though i think its a successful model.

I found that the further I went on the harder it was to find a decent winger. Lot's forwards converted to wingers a few midfielders who can do a job wide but not the actual wingers I was looking for.

I must say variation amongst regens frustrates me, trying to find regens for my current team (Barcelona) who can play in Xavi/Iniesta/Fabregas esque roles is nearly impossible, I'm not expecting him to be as good as these three, as they are immensely rare talents, but the fact that you almost never get a regen who has balanced passing, creativity and flair and a competent first touch, is annoying. Also agree with the "wrong position' issue, too many times I've found a dm/cm who is incredibly quick, good at dribbling and crossing, and dire at defending, yet has NO affiliation with a wide role at all, resulting in spending years of training focus to get him to play there.

One last thing, I don't know if this is to do with me being Barcelona, or the fact that my regens are Spanish (national traits?), but nearly all of mine begin with well below 10 strength, and I mean most of them have like, 6 or 7, even my 6"6 cd.

Yeah lousy physical skills are another ever-so-present issue with newgens...

I see how they try to reflect how teenager footballers aren't physically ready, but the absurd impact of physical attributes on CA and in the ME make it a huge problem, as more often than not you can't really do much even with the hardest training.

Also, a 17yo kid who's 1.85m and 80kg and has been brought into a Top Club's academy shouldn't really be weak like his neighbhour who's now paying to play 5-a-side with his friends on Tuesday...

P.S. About the "wrong roles" I tend to fix them with FMRTE as I can't stand the idea of professional coaches [those who trained the kids "behind the scenes"] being so blind and incompetent...

To follow up with the lack of new Xavi/Iniesta/Fabregas, almost all newgens have poor overall mental attributes. They tend to have only one very high mental attribute like determination, or aggression, or teamwork, and the rest of the mental attributes are mediocre. But when you do occasionally get a newgen with good mental attributes, then they suck in other areas and have low CA/PA.

For me the only problem with regens is the disproportional amount of "Zlatans" (very tall wingers/forwards), there are way to many.

This is I also find to be a problem.

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My personal preference would be for a comprehensive analysis of how likely a player of 'x' CA in each position is to have 'n' of any attribute (Dribbling, Stamina etc..) based on the original database.

you get tiny japanese newgens that cant jump. a load of MF players all good at set pieces (which is useless when you still dont score from them ) DL or DR with long throws

I also find that there is less variation after a while. Most strikers are fast poacher types and I have stopped bothering to look for creative strikers - I rather retrain AMC's to both strikers and wingers in order to get players with football intelligence up front. I have also noticed that most good DMC's are small. While young defenders are often lacking in strength, that's an attribute that increases very quickly and often 10+ points in less than 10 years, so I am not so concerned about it. In DC's I look at the mental attributes after the crucial Determination, Jumping and Pace. What distinguishes the best from the second best is often Aggression, Anticipation, Bravery, Concentration, Composure and Decisions. Less than 10 in some of these in a 16-year-old may leave him too dumb to play at the highest level. This could be said for all players by the way...

i havn't found that many decent poachers, maybe 2 that have better pace/acc/finishing then welbeck.

seen plenty of mixes with strikers

They're fine.

Everyone being amazing at set pieces is pretty weird, yeah, but on the whole regens are improved from previous versions. Still plenty of improvement to go, but it feels churlish to complain too much this year

I can't agree with such reasoning. Sure, the game is excellent and I acknowledge that, but it doesn't mean pointing out flaws is something wrong.

I know what you mean.

On my journey save before my laptop died, in 2028 I was forever looking for a small warrior like Leon Britton.

High Balance/Agility/Work Rate and good Dribbling.

A great little midfielder for a passing team, but I could never find a player like this.

http://i.imgur.com/wyRzp.jpg

Obviously I could find the odd 'World class' regens with some high stats in these areas, but non for Championship/ Lower Premier League sides.

It seems that you don't get certain types of players with the Regen system, and they are only there from the start of the game, because researchers have manually put those attributes in, whilst lowering other attributes etc.

common things in regens

1- top goalies with rushing out less than 6

2- fullbacks with jumping of 2-5

3- lack of double footed players

4-lack of good attacking players that can play many positions.

5- bravery less than 8 in most midfielders

1- my goalie has 14 and was a newgen

2- all my FB newgens fall into this bar my brazilian with a mind boggling 9

3- never took much notice but ALL mine are right footed

4- never many players like that in the game anyway usualy mine play wing/ST or CM/ST or DC/CM/DMC which is fair enough

5- yes i have a couple of DM with low bravery and a few general Midfielders but a couple of newgens are at 14 for that

more fun when you find these fantastic 5'5" japanese players that are great in everything but jumping and heading -_-

I'm looking at a 2022 test save right now and there are definitely a couple of Xavi-esque newgens around. Keep in mind, there should realistically only be a five or six such players at one time, but just browsing through some top team rosters I see the following CMs:

ARSENAL

Jeremiah Slade, England, 22 years-old, Professional

(Creativity: 16, Decisions: 17, Flair: 19, Anticipation: 14, First Touch:16, Passing: 17, Technique:19)

BARCELONA

Gil, Brazil, 23 years-old, Driven

(Creativity: 16, Decisions: 15, Flair: 13, Anticipation: 15, First Touch: 17, Passing: 19, Technique: 15)

Gurol Cevik, Germany, 23 years-old, Professional

(Creativity: 15, Decisions: 16, Flair: 16, Anticipation: 16, First Touch: 16, Passing: 19, Technique: 18)

LIVERPOOL

Artur Rivero, France, 24 years-old, Professional

(Creativity: 15, Decisions: 18, Flair: 13, Anticipation: 14, First Touch: 19, Passing: 16, Technique: 16)

MANCHESTER CITY

Cheik Diop, France, 25 years-old, Professional

(Creativity: 16, Decisions: 16, Flair: 14, Anticipation: 17, First Touch: 17, Passing: 17, Technique: 17)

Antero Guedes, Portugal, 25 years-old, Professional

(Creativity: 17, Decisions: 12, Flair: 17, Anticipation: 14, First Touch: 19, Passing: 19, Technique: 19)

MANCHESTER UNITED

Bedrich Kaderabek, Czech Republic, 24 years-old, Model Professional

(Creativity: 13, Decisions: 16, Flair: 20, Anticipation: 17, First Touch: 16, Passing: 20, Technique: 18)

Victor Simon, France, 24 years-old, Fairly Determined

(Creativity: 16, Decisions: 18, Flair: 9, Anticipation: 16, First Touch: 14, Passing: 17, Technique: 14)

Not all of them fit the Xavi mold but I do consistently see a strong mix of technical and mental attributes with no glaring weaknesses aside from the occasional lack of flair.

I also see plenty of DMs exceeding 5'11" in height while the shorter ones would work well as box-to-box players, the top English keeper is a sweeper-keeper named Jay Pepper who plays for Athletico Madrid...

This is something that has bothered me a couple of times as well,but also the whole CA/PA thing that is going on.

Sure,everyone has their physical limits. No denying in that, but then why are the mental stats part of someone's physical limits? If anything,they should almost completely remove mental stats from affecting CA. Instead,they should make them have a cap through training/mentoring and have them rely mostly on first-hand experience.

And then we got the terrible regens. Who play like they were born with one leg missing. Once again, not everyone is born to be a superstar alright,but when you are given top training for a series of years,instructed by the best coaches, shouldn't (almost) everyone be able to become at least a mediocre footballer? At least someone who can be respectable enough for medium leagues?

In my opinion there should be a lot of changes on the development of players part of the game. Cherry-picking the wonderkids is fun,no doubt,but equally fun is seeing your players grow.