AI time wasting in-game

I've had enough.

I can put up with hammering a team and losing 1-0 to their only shot on goal from a penalty, caused by a non-sensical decision from my full back to hack down a player going nowhere. I can accept that of 29 attempts on goal, only 4 hit the target. I can accept stupid decisions time and time again from wingers ignoring a direct route/run to goal and heading for the corner flag instead.

However, what it is I CANNOT ACCEPT, OR PAY FOR AGAIN are opposition players wasting time (beginning in the 30th, yes 30th minute of the match)

The record i've timed it as is a whopping 41 seconds. 41 seconds of a player standing there doing nothing at a goal kick. no booking, no reprimand. In total, in this match - Newcastle were able to waste 7 minutes and 23 seconds without so much of a glance from the referee.

This is cheating. You have programmed your game to cheat.

Thing is, when I was 1-0 up away at old trafford with 8 mins remaining, I thought "haha! I'll play you at your own game!" So, I entered the tactics screen, set timewasting to full, sat back and gleefully awaited a goal kick in my favour. Around th 87th minute, I got one, Reina goes to fetch the ball, a little too quickly in comparison to the AI, but no problem, placed it down on the 6 yard line, walked back a few steps, glanced down at his kicking foot, and ran forward, smashed the ball up the pitch and straight back to Utd.

Eh!? a whole 4 or maybe 5 seconds?

So basically, the computer can cheat, and remain un-booked. but I can't?

UNACCEPTABLE SIGAMES.

UNACCEPTABLE.

I await an explanation & a patch to fix the problem. Failing both, you will never receive a penny or recommendation from this customer again.

Rants belong in GD

Have a read of this thread.

As for time wasting I've seen teams try to break up the flow of a game right from the kick off, Chelsea spring to mind as do Greece.

In respect to your team have you trained them to use time wasting tactically & did you also drop tempo to a minimum?

Have a read of this thread.

As for time wasting I've seen teams try to break up the flow of a game right from the kick off, Chelsea spring to mind as do Greece.

In respect to your team have you trained them to use time wasting tactically & did you also drop tempo to a minimum?

Admittedly, no, I had not trained them to time waste (I assume you mean through match preparation) but I did drop the tempo. Either way, I'm not too arsed! I don't want to sit and stare while my goalie does a quick sudoku during goal kicks.

I do want the referee to punish players who time waste, I do want Sigames to remove the, frankly riduculous, ability to waste time for upwards of 10 seconds at set pieces (honestly, if this happened as regularly in real life there'd be some sort of formal enquiry) It's fine for a team to play 20 passes between two players to timewaste, or do nothing IN PLAY, it would then be down to me to devise a way to retrieve the ball.

As for time wasting during free kicks, goal kicks, throw-ons etc - It MUST be a bug. I can't accept that time wasting of 15 seconds plus is part of the game design. If it is, then the culprits MUST be yellow carded, and sent off for repeat offences. If it has indeed been designed like this deliberately, then the designers are stupid.

As such, I respectfully disagree with Kriss - yes the OP is in the form of a rant, but the problem, IMO, must be a bug.

There is a particular way to post in the bugs forum & ranting isn't that way, I do agree that there should be bookings for time wasting but then again how often do you see bookings irl compared to the amount of dawdling & blatant delaying tactics used by players?

What I cannot call it is a bug though, the game is not designed to penalise time wasting with cautions & doesn't even include many methods used to eat up the clock so it is more of an omission than a bug & as such is a subject for this section.

Ok fair enough, I hadn't read the rules & regs for this particular forum - so, my apologies for breaking them and writing the OP in such a way.

but then again how often do you see bookings irl compared to the amount of dawdling & blatant delaying tactics used by players?

Come on - 20 seconds plus of doing nothing at a goal kick/throw on/free kick? really? you see this in real life without punishment?

Come on - 20 seconds plus of doing nothing at a goal kick/throw on/free kick? really? you see this in real life without punishment?

Yep, all the time.

How long does it take Stoke to take a throw in?

A couple of other classic time wasting tactics you'll regularly see are;

Keeper's waiting for a ball to be retrieved & then walk to the other side of the 6 yard box (not something that FM does) & then take his time with the restart.

Players deliberately moving the ball from the point of restart for a free-kick because the officials will make him replace it.

The player closest to the ball at a throw in deciding at the last minute to let another player take the throw, this player will then take his time deciding where the delivery should go.

Time wasting at its best is very subtle & can keep the ball out of play for a good minute without punishment if done very well.

Admittedly, no, I had not trained them to time waste (I assume you mean through match preparation) but I did drop the tempo. Either way, I'm not too arsed! I don't want to sit and stare while my goalie does a quick sudoku during goal kicks.

I do want the referee to punish players who time waste, I do want Sigames to remove the, frankly riduculous, ability to waste time for upwards of 10 seconds at set pieces (honestly, if this happened as regularly in real life there'd be some sort of formal enquiry) It's fine for a team to play 20 passes between two players to timewaste, or do nothing IN PLAY, it would then be down to me to devise a way to retrieve the ball.

As for time wasting during free kicks, goal kicks, throw-ons etc - It MUST be a bug. I can't accept that time wasting of 15 seconds plus is part of the game design. If it is, then the culprits MUST be yellow carded, and sent off for repeat offences. If it has indeed been designed like this deliberately, then the designers are stupid.

As such, I respectfully disagree with Kriss - yes the OP is in the form of a rant, but the problem, IMO, must be a bug.

You're claiming it's programmed, if that's the case it isn't a bug.

Incidentally I watched the Greek keeper tonight hold the ball for 15 seconds, referees irl are about as hot on it as FM ones are, they only really take it seriously towards the end of a match if it's close.

At worst it needs a tweek in the game, but realistically some FM refs should be quicker to penalise it than others as is really the case irl.

All are great examples of time wasting - I'm not trying to deny it happens.

I don't wanna come across as a complete arse, so this a disclaimer just in case the 'tone' reads differently from your end.

I'd just be amazed if examples given above total anywhere near 20 seconds. let alone the 30/35 + that regullarly occur in the match engine.

Anyway - thanks for your tip on which thread to read - I'm off for some reading to solve the 29+ shots to one goal problem

It is fair to say that certain elements of time wasting in FM are over the top, but I make as much (or more) use of it than the AI and it's definitely not a pre-programmed cheat!

I think it is a bigger problem that with time-wasting set to minimum, the players spend exactly as much time walking leisurely to pick up the -only- ball on the entire stadium and walking leisurely back again as when you have maximized time-wasting. The only difference between the two is the amount of time they use once the throw-in sequence starts, and that difference is really not that big. I think it is weird that these walk-to-get-the-ball sequences are in the game at all, to be honest.

When there is a red card, an injury or a substitution, my game actually shows the player leaving.... walking slowly all the way to the sideline, then he walks along the sideline towards the bench, stops in front of the farthest possible seat before he backs up slowly and sits down on the seat. Which is often occupied. Only at that moment does the match continue. This is a bug because this never happens in my friend's copy of the game.

The situation you refer to is also happening sometimes with me. The guy just stands there for almost a minute without anything happening, holding the ball without moving. Then he raises his hands and throws the ball. This is a similar bug and is NOT time-wasting. The only time-wasting in the game is a slight delay from the moment the play sequence starts until he throws or kicks the ball on a set piece (the slider affects player choice as well, the passing becomes more "defensive"). There are numerous bugs in the transition phase between these sequences.

I think it is a bigger problem that with time-wasting set to minimum, the players spend exactly as much time walking leisurely to pick up the -only- ball on the entire stadium and walking leisurely back again as when you have maximized time-wasting. The only difference between the two is the amount of time they use once the throw-in sequence starts, and that difference is really not that big. I think it is weird that these walk-to-get-the-ball sequences are in the game at all, to be honest.

When there is a red card, an injury or a substitution, my game actually shows the player leaving.... walking slowly all the way to the sideline, then he walks along the sideline towards the bench, stops in front of the farthest possible seat before he backs up slowly and sits down on the seat. Which is often occupied. Only at that moment does the match continue. This is a bug because this never happens in my friend's copy of the game.

The situation you refer to is also happening sometimes with me. The guy just stands there for almost a minute without anything happening, holding the ball without moving. Then he raises his hands and throws the ball. This is a similar bug and is NOT time-wasting. The only time-wasting in the game is a slight delay from the moment the play sequence starts until he throws or kicks the ball on a set piece (the slider affects player choice as well, the passing becomes more "defensive"). There are numerous bugs in the transition phase between these sequences.

Don't think it's a bug, it's always happened for me since the 3d highlights came in.

Best one I've seen on Fm2012 is the 'gets injured from his own tackle' one. They tackle, foul, injured. Stretcher comes on (10-20 seconds), player walks off very very very very slowly (add more time), sit on bench, gets up, goes back onto field, gets booked by referee, leaves field again.

Then they restart.

In fact Key highlights annoy me sometimes because there's so many 'catches' where everything goes super slow. If there's a key highlight from kick off you can actually wait a good 20 seconds for the players to line up for kick off before they show the replay of the previous goal then cut to the kick-off highlight. Needs toning down/speeding up to be honest.

Don't think it's a bug, it's always happened for me since the 3d highlights came in.

Best one I've seen on Fm2012 is the 'gets injured from his own tackle' one. They tackle, foul, injured. Stretcher comes on (10-20 seconds), player walks off very very very very slowly (add more time), sit on bench, gets up, goes back onto field, gets booked by referee, leaves field again.

Then they restart.

In fact Key highlights annoy me sometimes because there's so many 'catches' where everything goes super slow. If there's a key highlight from kick off you can actually wait a good 20 seconds for the players to line up for kick off before they show the replay of the previous goal then cut to the kick-off highlight. Needs toning down/speeding up to be honest.

Yes since I doubt what both you and I describe here is intentionally included in the code, it is a bug. That's what the word means

Exactly what does having the players punt the (single) ball to whoever's taking the set piece add to the game?

It's annoying to watch a penna be awarded and have some random right back kick the ball halfway to the spot, only for the taker to dribble it the rest of the way.

You're claiming it's programmed, if that's the case it isn't a bug.

Incidentally I watched the Greek keeper tonight hold the ball for 15 seconds, referees irl are about as hot on it as FM ones are, they only really take it seriously towards the end of a match if it's close.

At worst it needs a tweek in the game, but realistically some FM refs should be quicker to penalise it than others as is really the case irl.

I'm claiming that if someone programmed it like this - they're an idiot. If they didn't, it's a bug.

And someone actually sit there and count to 20 seconds. its a bloody long time to take a throw in, or dawdle over a goal kick. maybe you see this irl once or twice a game, but if anyone can show me an example in the Euro's of a player taking upwards of 35 seconds over a throw-in, then, oh I dunno - I'll do something I dont want to!

Honestly can't believe people are defending this as adequate game design or simulation.

edit - reason for 20/35 second jump being that *maybe* in a one-off situation of players exchanging ball over throw-in/goalie changing side of goal to kick from it could stretch to this. I'd still be surprised though. Whereas in FM 35 secs plus time wasting is regular.