FM12: Transfer Idea

[martvez]

The transfer system is fine.

This doesn't mean that it works like it should in the game, though. I have played 10 seasons in Spain and Real Madrid signed virtually NO big names in those years. They signed promising youngsters instead, but just left them to rot in the reserves. Barcelona signed many good players the first five seasons, but since then none. They are now becoming old, and there is noone to replace them. The same could be said for all the other big teams in the world. Once Pastore, Henrique, Neymar and the other well-known big names have shifted to one of the big clubs, they stay there until they retire and that's that.

Of course there are exceptions among the thousands of saves around the world, but that doesn't mean that everything's fine.

What SI needs to understand is that the general quality of footballers go UP over time, and therefore they shouldn't be so afraid of "overpowering" the newgens. They should also realize that after three-to-five seasons most FM fans have managed to grab all the best players in the world and are dominating completely (if they start in the top division), and that the only thing that changes when you start in the lowest possible league is the time it takes to get there. Not "if": "when".

Those two facts put together should dictate an improved challenge to the player for any game developer. However, there are wrong ways to go about that, and there are right ways.

One wrong way is to increase the AI's ability to find out how to beat your tactics. SI has refrained from this, and for good reason: the AI needs to make mistakes too, for the sake of suspense of disbelief. Decreasing the player's options in regards to finances is another bad option. So is making the tactical interface more obscure, player interations more volatile, availability of information scarce.

The right way of increasing the challenge of winning everything in FM2012 is to improve the AI's ability to build teams correctly, and there are several things that needs to be in place for that to happen:

A. They need to be able to deliberately develop youngsters into players that would strengthen their squads.

A1: To do this, they need to tutor ALL their youngsters with first team players that are better than them in key aspects like Determination, Professionality and Ambition. The best managers in the game should know all about this and rarely fail.

A2: The youngsters also need first team action, match fitness and to perform well. The best managers in the game should be able to correctly determine whether or not a young player would benefit from first team experience at the club or on loan, and rarely fail to do so.

A3: A coach in a professional, top club knows what he is doing. There are no fitness coaches in the Premier League who doesn't know how to do his job. In FM, the first thing any veteran FM'er does when taking charge of a club is to throw out the entire staff presiding there, replacing them with someone who knows how to do their job. This needs to be fixed. Manchester United should have a complete 5-star staff setup, scouts that knows the difference between rubbish and gold, and physios that know physiotherapy. So should all the other major clubs in the world.

B: They need to be able to deliberately and intelligently build squads that improves the way the manager wants the team to play. In order for them to be able to do that, there are a few things that needs to change:

B1: The player descriptions must be expanded. When a tactic (TC) is set up, certain player types are necessary in certain positions and as a manager you need to either select the right role for the right player, or the right player for the right role. As of now, we cannot search our shortlist or list of known players for such player types and neither can the AI. This is not such a problem for us as it is for the AI, since we can figure it out anyways. If we and the AI could search for "hard-working, athletic midfield anchor" or "hard-working, creative deep-lying playmaker", it would benefit both in terms of coherent team-building.

B2: The AI managers should seek to put their mark on the team as soon as possible, and to do so by shifting players at a much higher pace than now. Some managers should employ a "revolving door" policy, while others (like SAF) like stability.

B3: Football players in FM should to a much higher degree have their agents look for greener grass elsewhere. They should avoid signing new contracts until all avenues have been explored.

B4: The AI managers must have much better programming when it comes to bargaining. If you have a continental class player worth £10m on a five year contract, they must know that they need to bid at least three maybe four or five times his face value. If they want him and can afford this, and they can't get a better or equally good player for less, they need to make sure they get him. So the AI managers need to monitor many players of the same type (B1) over time, and knowing the rarity of top class players they need to make sure that other big clubs don't get him. There are no bidding wars in FM11. There must be bidding wars in FM12.

Post of the year!

[Dave80]

I, personally, feel that the whole "Player Market Value" on the player info screen is unnecessary - in "real life" a manager uses his scouts/inquiries to determine a players value (both the true value, and that which the club he plays for is willing to accept). Then again, some players wouldn't want this removed - so making it an optional setting in preferences wouldn't be the worst thing in the world..

[Some Guy!]

I, personally, feel that the whole "Player Market Value" on the player info screen is unnecessary - in "real life" a manager uses his scouts/inquiries to determine a players value (both the true value, and that which the club he plays for is willing to accept). Then again, some players wouldn't want this removed - so making it an optional setting in preferences wouldn't be the worst thing in the world..

I agree that it is a bit pointless, but... How is this relevant?

[Dave80]

I agree that it is a bit pointless, but... How is this relevant?

I'm replying in regards to the original point:

Tantamount to real life, the game should allow big-name players to be subject of drawn-out transfers. Instead of "Barcelona offer £40 million" there should be cheeky offers to try and get the player on the cheap, giving the user the chance to reject the offer - in anticipation of a bigger offer - or accept it first time. Lukaku has been subject to heavy media speculation, along with Sneijder, et al. This could be better than the current system which feels so impersonal and robotic.

Similar to real life, the players could be understanding of the situation - perhaps even offering to buyout their contracts.

One of the reasons transfers aren't drawn out as much is because the market value gives a rough indication of the amount a club is willing to accept - removing this would make the user have to use scouts/inquiries making the amount of time needed to have an offer accepted (unless its a ridiculously high offer obviously) a lot longer.

[milnerpoint]

I dont agree wtih removing the player value, yes its not very true to life, but it offers a vital starting point when thinking about buying players, it would also RUIN the player search function if it was removed, for me personally anyway.

The way you are describing your idea, you would basically be removing the value from one screen to put it onto another, what would be the point?

[Dave80]

I dont agree wtih removing the player value, yes its not very true to life, but it offers a vital starting point when thinking about buying players, it would also RUIN the player search function if it was removed, for me personally anyway.

The way you are describing your idea, you would basically be removing the value from one screen to put it onto another, what would be the point?

It would make you have to use your scouts, for one, but how would it ruin searches? I don't buy players based on their price - I do it based on ability..

[milnerpoint]

It would make you have to use your scouts, for one, but how would it ruin searches? I don't buy players based on their price - I do it based on ability..

I use my scouts constantly, this would not make me use them any more than i already do, infact it would be impossible to use them more than i already do.

When i search for players i start by sorting into value with the most expensive at the top and work my way from there, i know a lot of people also use the player search in the same way, its a quick way of getting round the fact there is tens of thousands of players likely to come up in the player search.

[Jonno Wilson]

I, personally, feel that the whole "Player Market Value" on the player info screen is unnecessary - in "real life" a manager uses his scouts/inquiries to determine a players value (both the true value, and that which the club he plays for is willing to accept). Then again, some players wouldn't want this removed - so making it an optional setting in preferences wouldn't be the worst thing in the world..

I disagree, in real life, the media report how much a player is likely to be worth/cost, along with manager quotes etc. We don't have that in a virtual game, so the value is there as an indication for us when playing the game

[Superfly-mk]

they need to change the way players are tapped up. in real life you cant go i want to sign X player and i will do everything in my power to sign him.

existing playeres at a team should be able to comment and say i would like it if X player joined my team or if we dont need him