Does FM15 address the old issues?

I've not bought FM15 and even managed to make it through the Steam sale which is were I usually falter! Upon looking at it and reading some reviews I decided that there really wasn't enough in there to justify that much of my money. I am curious about a few things though....

1 - Clear Cut Chances.

Is this still a misnomer and something that those with experience say you should just ignore? I've got very tired of creating 10-15 of them each game and not scoring.

2 - Weird Career Choices.

Young Swedish U21 player or similar gets released by his club. Good stats, not world class but good, and absolutely no clubs interested in him. My big club comes in for him and his agent demands £50,000 per week and 1st team status. No deal made and player then retires at the end of the season.

3 - Media and Player interactivity

Same old question and same old answers. Laughably underdeveloped Angry, Calm, etc etc model.

4 - Tactics Engine overly complicated and can't play straight forward "ugly" football.

The ball falls to my defender. I want to instruct him not to think about things - just smash it in the general direction of them two blokes up front. Either at the big one or in front of the fast one. Nothing complicated. Is there a way of doing this effectively or is it still just a mess. Tried doing it on FM14 and it was ridiculous how cumbersome and vague it was. Target Man, Route One, Rigid = Defenders passing to each other then tapping it to the opposition player 10 yards in front.

5 - Chief Scout assigning work

Let my chief scout handle assignments. He proceeds to send every single one of my scouts to Scotland. All at the same time. And they all watch the same games and file back the same reports on the same players. Everytime.

6 - Crosses veering at the woodwork

Seems to happen an awful lot - in fact it happens so often that the media will often ask me questions about it which leads me to believe that even the game itself finds it to be unusual.

Clear cut chances are still a joke in my opinion. Makes me wonder what attributes like finishing and composure really mean. Someone will probably jump on here and disagree but after all the hours I've played on FM15 with different teams, there is clearly something not right one CCC's and one-on-ones.

I haven't noticed too many weird career choices so can't really comment on that.

Media is as bad as it ever was. The inbox or filled with more spam than before and a lot of repetitive articles. I see the same article every month which asks the manager who you replaced, whether he thinks you're doing a good job and he gives the same answer every time. ''I'm not prepared to answer that question''. The tunnel interviews were a good idea but were poorly implemented. It's the same dull questions and answers and will just be another task for your assistant to do.

I love the tactics in this game. I feel like I can create the right formula whether it's possession football or counter-attacking football. One thing that frustrates me is the match engine and the tactics don't seem to be on the same level. There is a lot of ugly football and ugly goals in MY opinion. I've recently noticed some scrappy corner goals and keepers getting beaten at the near post often.

Another thing which I don't understand is how the match engine makes players look. There are a lot of passes and shots that just don't make sense. So it makes me wonder if the engine can actually produce the results it is supposed to, in terms of the player's attributes.

Scouting is fine for me. I've had no problems thus far.

Are this many people really unaware you can have your ass man handle the press conferences and never have to deal with them? I thought that was a well known feature.

Are this many people really unaware you can have your ass man handle the press conferences and never have to deal with them? I thought that was a well known feature.

How many people? I see none here that are unaware

1 - Clear Cut Chances.

I use it as an indicator as to how many good-ish chances we're able to create. But it's still ambiguous.

2 - Weird Career Choices.

I personally haven't seen too many, if any, in this version. Not saying it doesn't happen though.

3 - Media and Player interactivity

Still the same cumbersome, boring task. Still leaving it to my assistant.

4 - Tactics Engine overly complicated and can't play straight forward "ugly" football.

Can't really answer that. I just know i'm more likely to score more goals when i'm playing contained than when i'm attacking.

5 - Chief Scout assigning work

Chief scout's been quite good for me. At all the clubs i've managed.

6 - Crosses veering at the woodwork

Hardly seen any myself, so in my experience it has been toned down significantly.

GK still brings the ball over the line for corner kicks though.

A bunch of back passes that goes for a corner.

I get annoyed as no matter what i set my full backs to do they insist on lamping the ball diagonally across field towards the diagonally opposite corner ,

IE the RB hammers it towards the oppostions right corner flag and the LB towards the oppositions left corner flag .

Are this many people really unaware you can have your ass man handle the press conferences and never have to deal with them? I thought that was a well known feature.

I'm well aware that the Ass Man can handle it. I'm asking if the feature has been improved. I'd quite like to do the media interaction if it had been redesigned, varied or improved. What I'm asking is if this boring and poorly executed aspect of the game has been changed in any significant way that would perhaps encourage me to shell out for a full price game or are the overall improvements as insignificant as those between FM13 & FM14 or FM12 & FM13.?

How about view only leagues STILL don't appoint managers?

Find a better solution.

That's largely intentional, if clubs in view-only leagues operated a full active shortlist then the game would take the same time to process as it would the league was active.

What's a shortlist got to do with manager appointments?

Club shortlists operate to cover both player & non-player personnel.

A club without a manager operates in the same way as when there are no players at the club, on the playing side they get a group of virtual (grey) players & for non-playing staff they have an under the hood virtual backroom team that governs match tactics should the club compete in an active continental competition.

Why not give that ghost backroom staff a (random) name and a face then, like the grey players? Not ideal but would still beat seeing teams without any staff at all.

Regens now have slightly better mental attribute distribution but the game puts an unrealistically low priority on aggression/bravery. I've played to 2028 and very rarely do any of the top outfield players have >9 for aggression/bravery.

Football's evolved into a pacifist sport in the future.

Club shortlists operate to cover both player & non-player personnel.

A club without a manager operates in the same way as when there are no players at the club, on the playing side they get a group of virtual (grey) players & for non-playing staff they have an under the hood virtual backroom team that governs match tactics should the club compete in an active continental competition.

And you get endless stories about clubs unhappy with managers continually claiming interest in a job that will never be filled.

I've not bought FM15 and even managed to make it through the Steam sale which is were I usually falter! Upon looking at it and reading some reviews I decided that there really wasn't enough in there to justify that much of my money. I am curious about a few things though....

1 - Clear Cut Chances.

Is this still a misnomer and something that those with experience say you should just ignore? I've got very tired of creating 10-15 of them each game and not scoring.

2 - Weird Career Choices.

Young Swedish U21 player or similar gets released by his club. Good stats, not world class but good, and absolutely no clubs interested in him. My big club comes in for him and his agent demands £50,000 per week and 1st team status. No deal made and player then retires at the end of the season.

3 - Media and Player interactivity

Same old question and same old answers. Laughably underdeveloped Angry, Calm, etc etc model.

4 - Tactics Engine overly complicated and can't play straight forward "ugly" football.

The ball falls to my defender. I want to instruct him not to think about things - just smash it in the general direction of them two blokes up front. Either at the big one or in front of the fast one. Nothing complicated. Is there a way of doing this effectively or is it still just a mess. Tried doing it on FM14 and it was ridiculous how cumbersome and vague it was. Target Man, Route One, Rigid = Defenders passing to each other then tapping it to the opposition player 10 yards in front.

5 - Chief Scout assigning work

Let my chief scout handle assignments. He proceeds to send every single one of my scouts to Scotland. All at the same time. And they all watch the same games and file back the same reports on the same players. Everytime.

6 - Crosses veering at the woodwork

Seems to happen an awful lot - in fact it happens so often that the media will often ask me questions about it which leads me to believe that even the game itself finds it to be unusual.

1. If you are creating 10-15 CCC a game, then you need to upgrade your strikers to ones with better finishing and composure. If you are somewhat exagerating, then remember that every team has off days in front of goal and there a lot of reasons for it. Sometimes I have games where I cannot score no matter how many chances are created. Sometimes I score 7 because every chance I have goes in the net. CCC conversion is not currently a problem in any of my saves.

2. There is definitely some improvement to be made in what players ask for when they have no club. I can understand top player (Valdes IRL) waiting for a good contract with a good team. Unless they are Zlatan reborn, young players should be happier to take a contract and prove they deserve more.

3. I doubt anyone will argue against that one =D.

4. The tactics engine is, for me, not at all difficult to understand. You need to have a bit of patience to tease out the exact set of instructions, roles, mentality etc. that you need to achieve a certain brand of football but if it was easy to instantly set up a perfect tactic then the game would be much more boring. I have developed a variety of tactics in FM15, from a rigid counter attacking 4141 with Sunderland, to a great attacking 433 with PSV, to a super fluid 451 with Man Utd. Each took a some perfecting, but I have built three different styles. The threads in the tactics forums are an excellent place to start for understanding the tactical engine.

5. I do not have this problem because I tell my chief scout where I want him to send players. Takes maybe 5 minutes to set up.

6. This is a lot better in FM15 than it was in FM14. It happens still, but not 5 or 6 times per match (in my experience).

4. The tactics engine is, for me, not at all difficult to understand. You need to have a bit of patience to tease out the exact set of instructions, roles, mentality etc. that you need to achieve a certain brand of football but if it was easy to instantly set up a perfect tactic then the game would be much more boring. I have developed a variety of tactics in FM15, from a rigid counter attacking 4141 with Sunderland, to a great attacking 433 with PSV, to a super fluid 451 with Man Utd. Each took a some perfecting, but I have built three different styles. The threads in the tactics forums are an excellent place to start for understanding the tactical engine.

Hmm - perhaps I did exaggerate the 10-15 CCC's a game but there's certainly quite a lot in FM14 and I'm wondering if FM15 still counts as many Clear Cut / Surely he must score/ There's only one outcome here chances with a very low actual conversion rate.

My question about tactics wasn't a matter of being able to nail a perfect or successful tactic straight off. Personally I've found it easier in recent versions to tell the players to play a smooth, possession based passing tactic than a tactic instructing players to play long ball to the lump up front - that doesn't seem correct to me. There shouldn't really be a need to tease out instructions as simple as "If you get the ball punt it at the big lad up front.". I'm not saying as a tactic it should work and win games, but I am saying it should be simpler to relay a simple tactic than an intricate passing game.

I much preferred the old tactic system of defining where on the pitch you wanted players in relation to the ball and which team had possession. I realise this was open to "Diablo" but I think it was a system that should have been persevered with and improved upon. That way I could select a target man and tell him in which areas of the pitch to stay. I could tell a player to do something unusual or make very specific runs.

I could also be reasonably sure that he won't wander off somewhere else on the pitch in order to fulfill the hard-coded instructions of his "role". Under the FM14 engine I can only give players a certain set of predefined instructions within the parameters of his "role".

If that was the case in real life football then we'd never have seen the Raumdeuter, False 9 or Regista - these were innovations created by using players in previously unused ways outside of the positions traditional role. Diablo-esque!

And as for the Chief Scout then if I tell him where to send scouts then I'm no longer allowing him to handle scout assignments. I agree it's easy enough to assign them myself but it completely negates having the option to let the Chief Scout do it.

Still, at least the crosses into woodwork thing seems to have calmed down

On balance though I think I'll be skipping FM15 and as long as a similar policy to the FIFA, Tiger Woods or Madden games is being pursued then it's going to be every 2-3 years for me - there's just not enough there to justify paying out the same full price as a brand new game.

The way that players out of contract are dealt with is still a problem but not just with younger players. For example, at the start of my current season I tried to sign a 37 year old Cristiano Ronaldo on a 1 year deal. He wouldn't accept anything below £100k a week which is fair enough until he then joined a Portugese team on £9.75k a week just days later.

There is a coded bias towards older players finishing their career in their home nation, making the decision more logical on a player by player basis is something we are looking into but then again who can say that Ronaldo would not do this when he reaches 37?

I don't dispute that it COULD happen but I do dispute that my offer (which is 10 times what he accepted) was good enough to be considered and that I didn't deserve the red box of total rejection.

I do understand however that coding this to be more realistic is probably difficult and I hope down the line somewhere that it is solved.

Must agree with statement about regens low aggresion and bravery, hope it will be improved on fm 16.....but what worrries me the most is that after 4-5 years you don't have real competition in league or champions league if you take over club from top leagues...... players that top clubs are buying for big prices is ridiculous, and once you become a champion there is no way you won't win it again next season (at least that's case with me, and I am sure I'm just average tactician and in general average FM player). I really can't see any progress in that part of game in last couple of games...also, I understand it is probably one of the most complicated things to improve, but still...

I would just add that in my opinion FM 15 is too easy. I don't think it should be possible to play in CL Quarter-final with club like Hajduk Split after just 3 seasons (no cheats and no editor)

Must agree with statement about regens low aggresion and bravery, hope it will be improved on fm 16.....but what worrries me the most is that after 4-5 years you don't have real competition in league or champions league if you take over club from top leagues...... players that top clubs are buying for big prices is ridiculous, and once you become a champion there is no way you won't win it again next season (at least that's case with me, and I am sure I'm just average tactician and in general average FM player). I really can't see any progress in that part of game in last couple of games...also, I understand it is probably one of the most complicated things to improve, but still...

I would just add that in my opinion FM 15 is too easy. I don't think it should be possible to play in CL Quarter-final with club like Hajduk Split after just 3 seasons (no cheats and no editor)

completely agree.

Long term career games are basically useless, as the competetion becomes worse and worse.

i wish they would hardcode something into the ai, something that would give them balanced squads.

The AI is stupid, so coding some common sense into it, would be my preferred choice.

There is a coded bias towards older players finishing their career in their home nation, making the decision more logical on a player by player basis is something we are looking into but then again who can say that Ronaldo would not do this when he reaches 37?

Interesting to see that. A lot of Brazilian players seem to head back to their homeland when in the latter stages of their career but I'd say that the majority of players go where the money is be it higher wages or longer deal offered to keep playing. Several do finish their playing days in their homeland but it's generally when the better financial offers are no longer available elsewhere. Tim Cahill is an example of a player who has arguably gone where the money is with his recent move to China when I'm 100% sure he could have walked into pretty much any Aussie squad.

completely agree.

Long term career games are basically useless, as the competetion becomes worse and worse.

i wish they would hardcode something into the ai, something that would give them balanced squads.

The AI is stupid, so coding some common sense into it, would be my preferred choice.

The only way round this is to have better online versus capability. We need to be up against other human players to make long term saves worthwhile.

fx in my native country of denmark, at the beginning of the game, every team in the superleague has a full u-19 roster. A very nive b-team squad size and of course the main squad. Slowlyas the game goes by, the u.19 squads slims down. At the beginning theres roughly 20, after 10 years ther are 1 or 2!!

Awful programming really.

The reserves, well tyhey look an awful lot like the u-19, oh theres a reason for that. The reserves are trimmed down, so the1 or 2 u-19 also features in the reservbes. The reserves have also slimmed down, i´d guess that the teams i saw had 30-70 drop in reserve team players. First teames also featured here. so the regular reserve player seems almolstgone aswell.

The first team, well on the surface it looks okay, but the you start to look at age and wonder..

These are just rough numbers, but if the first team squad concisted of aprox 20, these squads had 3-5 players from 16-18. Fine you´d think, they use their regens and talneted players. NO they dont. I checked all the teams in the danish superleague and all of themhad more talented players in their u-19 or reserves.

Basically i´ve never seen such amess in regards to squadbuilding in fm.

So many new things have been added, that they dont have time to fix what is already wrong. Its like a stupid cat, chasing its own tail.

Please use the actual feedback thread guys.