FM 2014 Pre-Release Beta - Official feedback thread.

[janesy20]

They're too basic for my liking. that's all I'm saying, after all...this is a feedback thread.

secondly, the skin the game comes with isn't very easy on the eye, too much white....

but to end on a positive...absolutely love the enhanced Match experience, the highlights are brilliant and much more realistic.

[dooro23]

I would very much recommend to get the role descriptions in some obvious place, additonal to the tool-tip. The role settings screen has plenty of empty space, for example. I think this would help "embracing" the new tactical UI, even if it's just a better visualisation of something already accessible.

[lmarsha_926]

28 goals in 6 games, does suggest a higher number of goals than usual

[craigcwwe]

Is there likely to be an update to the beta before full release to tone down the amount of goals scored??

[milnerpoint]

Maybe yes, maybe no.

[lmarsha_926]

41 goals in the 10 games of the opening weekend in the Premier League

[bar333]

The defending, at the moment, is game breaking.

The ME can't be considered anything other than broken until that is fixed, I have seen my defenders do things so ridiculous I was lost for words. I've lost 4-0 to Newcastle playing as Liverpool, conceding some of the most nonsensical goals I've ever seen on FM.

The most idiotic mistake, and this for me is very common, is that they are making no effort to win second balls.

This results in insane situations where one of my players might win the ball upfield and send it rolling towards my goal in a way that my defender should easily and comfortably get it, however instead the defenders would watch the ball and allow an opposition player to run, sometimes even from 30-40 metres away and grab the ball for a 1v1 with the keeper.

I'm playing with the Push Higher Up instruction, so I'm going to try and drop my defence deeper to see if I can minimize the potential of my players to make these mistakes, but really I'm not holding my breath - defending AI is broken.

Whether mistakes like this are exclusive to us the players, or the AI suffers from this as well, I haven't seen enough to say, although I am noticing a lot of goals being scored all around, as Imarsha_926 points out.

[milnerpoint]

As always, the ME does not differentiate between the human controlled teams and the AI controlled teams, anything that can happen to you, can happen to the AI and vice versa.

[Bardi Golriz]

So, when giving player instructions for player A, who is on AM position in TACTIC 1(4-4-1-1) and you asign him his instructions, is it possible when switching to TACTIC 2(4-2-3-1) that he keeps instructions you gave him for TACTIC 2 and not the ones from TACTIC 1? Because otherwise it's not much use of making every player his own instructions and in same positions in different formations they don't alternate.

The instructions you set for a specific player in a specific position will be shared across all your tactics. That is, if you've given specific instructions for Rooney when he is playing as a ST CL in tactic X, then those instructions will be used if Rooney plays as a ST CL in tactic Y and Z too. Thus, you cannot give specific instructions for a player in a specific position on a per tactic basis. But we're monitoring feedback concerning this for the future.

[Liniert]

Is it possible to add back the colour highlighted club name for the club you are managing in cup draws?

[kazm]

As always, the ME does not differentiate between the human controlled teams and the AI controlled teams, anything that can happen to you, can happen to the AI and vice versa.

That doesn't mean the defense in this game is not gamebreaking.

[RTHerringbone]

The defending, at the moment, is game breaking.

The ME can't be considered anything other than broken until that is fixed, I have seen my defenders do things so ridiculous I was lost for words. I've lost 4-0 to Newcastle playing as Liverpool, conceding some of the most nonsensical goals I've ever seen on FM.

Some defensive ME issues have been logged constructively in the bugs section.

Perhaps logging your examples with appropriate back up in the Bugs section (http://community.sigames.com/forumdisplay.php/347-Match-Engine-3D-and-Team-Talks) will help SI's ongoing investigations into these areas - it is a Beta, after all.

[Bardi Golriz]

Let's say I instruct Rooney in the AMC position to Roam from Position. When I go back to issuing instructions for the AMC slot that applies to all players, say "shoot more often", will this apply to Rooney as well or does he only do what is instructed under his own tab? Hope my question is clear enough?

I've noticed the same thing as well...

If you've set specific instructions for a player X in position Y, then they will follow these personalised instructions exclusively. Only if a player has no personalised instructions for a position will they follow the instructions set under "Any player in this position".

[Bardi Golriz]

Another, more minor but nevertheless frustrating issue is the fact that when you are searching for players in the transfer centre, or in your shortlist, the page always goes back to the top of the list of viewing an individual profile. This makes searching for players very laborious, I hope they can change this for the final release.

We're aware of this and are reviewing it closely. Unfortunately, this doesn't reproduce a 100% of the time, which makes identifying what causes this issue less straightforward.

[Bardi Golriz]

The cursor changed to a football, and I can't change it back. I'd like to have the arrow back, but I'm not aware if that's possible.

The cursor changing to a football is something we're aware of. Rebooting FM should sort this out.

[Olly Kenney]

Barça and Atl. Madrid on same group of Champions League

Could you report this issue in the Bugs Forum please - http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/363219-Europe-(Official)-Specific-Issues

Thanks.

[irvsax]

Finding an issue with loan signings. I am meeting the terms requested and even going above them but the club keeps rejecting them. Even when i get the club to 'suggest terms' and make that offer it does not get accepted. Players are listed for loan, so i cant see why offers would not be accepted.

[Bardi Golriz]

The game looks great.

But really I'd love a fix where each tactic you create keeps its own player instructions. Because now if you play one striker in all 3 tactics and you want him to have 3 different sets of instructions is not possible. You change one thing in 4411, it changes in 4231 and in 451.

Can you please try and fix it SI?

There's been an additional layer of control added to the Player Instructions this year now that you have the ability to set specific instructions for a specific player in a specific position. Giving you the ability to do so on a per tactic basis would be another layer of control. In other words the fact that it isn't available right now isn't something that we have to fix but rather something we may look at adding in the future.

[Bardi Golriz]

I'm not sure if this problem has been listed but I have a real problem with sorting and viewing lists in FM14.

When on the player search screen looking to buy a player if I scroll down a page, look at a player, then go back to the search screen, the screen has jumped back to the top. It won't remember that I have scrolled down and want to be in that position. It's obviously even more frustrating if I've scrolled down a few pages.

The same thing happens when looking at squads. Sometimes I go into a team and it lists the players in alphabetical order. I sort the list so that it is now in position order. I click on a player and go back to the squad list and again, it's in alphabetical order. It doesn't seem to remember the way that I want to view lists.

It's something that doesn't in itself make the game unplayable but is just irritating. There were so many similar things in FM13 that it frustrated me more than I enjoyed the game so gave up playing it - the first time I've ever stopped playing FM/CM and I've played it since 1993.

I just hope it's fixed for the full game because it's only been out a day and I'm frustrated at the beta version.

We're aware of these issues with the scrollbar state not being remembered and are reviewing them closely because we appreciate that although they may not seem like a big issue at first, they can quickly become frustrating.

[Chesters86]

Not sure if someone has mentioned this before, but I played the Community Shield (as Man Utd) and Nick Powell is on loan at Wigan and he was able to play in the game. I thought loaned players couldn't play against their parent club?

Apologies if this has already been raised.

[Guest]

Hey guys is this normal ,

All the players I have negotiated to sign seem to ask for high appearance fees , so far all the players terms have wanted 20-24k appearance money.

Just seems to be hiked a lot since fm13 where it was generally around 8-12k for top players.

cheers

[Bardi Golriz]

Ok I done the pre-season and what I notice was:

1) Once again the defence don't tacle or even attempt to do so, the opposition just walk and shoot as he pleased.

2) Every time there is a staff meeting the game freeze and take around 30 seconds to un-freeze again,

3) The color code for the news ( the one in the colum left side) is hardly visible maybe make a little big so you know what kind of news you read.

4) No pressing at all even if I got my players to press the opposition.

5) The widget you choose during the 3D match don't save for the next one ( give me the opposition stats instead of mine)

6) I found a lots of player that had a good PA/CA now they are really crap even tho they still perform like last year ( I manage Napoli and most of my players now have around 3 star while was 4+ in 2013)

7) I don't know how but I leave the game half time or sometimes full time and the score change??? I leave it on 2-1 and I found that the score is 3-1 and I didn't even saw the goal, weird glich.

8) Slide tacles most of the time they are very poor on timing ( most of the time too soon ) BUT when they finally win one they stop and don't move, so that the opposition very calmly go back and take back the ball.

I like the game so far but is getting again fraustrated to see your players play nice football and the opposition just walk in to the area and score while my player miss a lots of gols, hopefully you will give some love to the ME.

As far as the UI issues are concerned, 2 and 5) are issues we're aware of and are reviewing them at the moment.

[Cavenagh]

Not sure if someone has mentioned this before, but I played the Community Shield (as Man Utd) and Nick Powell is on loan at Wigan and he was able to play in the game. I thought loaned players couldn't play against their parent club?

Apologies if this has already been raised.

Isn't the Community Shield officially a friendly match? If so, the rules about loanees might not apply.

[Bardi Golriz]

Enjoyed the Beta so far (played until September 1st). Enjoying the new tactics and have managed to create a tactic that suits Arsenal and it's lovely to watch .

ME looks OK so far, tackles still look a little off and sometimes when a player challenges for the ball, you don't see a visual representation of him winning the ball, however the ball kinda ends up at his feet. Game feels cleaner, however it would be great if the calendar that appears when pressing continue could come down smoothly, at the moment it's a little laggy.

A few very minor issues I've spotted :-

- If your widgets are your teams ratings/formation, when playing away, it'll show the other teams ratings/formation (I'm sure this has been mentioned)

- When in transfer negotiations I can't see my current available budget? I can see how much the full transfer will cost me, but not how much I'm actually allowed to spend - this was quite handy in FM13

- When looking at the league overview, the Clean Sheets stat seems to be wrong, it has Lloris as number 1, with 1 clean sheet, yet I've played two games and have 2 clean sheets with the same keeper - I'm wondering if this is because the stats update after a full weekend (i.e Sat/Sun/Mon) rather than on a game by game basis?

I'm sure that I'll spot more, but overall the game is a huge improvement on FM13 (which I loved!).

Looking forward to see how the game runs after a release day patch.

The widgets issue is known and being reviewed. Can you please raise the two other minor issues you've mentioned in the UI bugs forum (http://community.sigames.com/forumdisplay.php/350-User-Interface)?

[Chesters86]

Isn't the Community Shield officially a friendly match? If so, the rules about loanees might not apply.

Quite possibly, just thought I'd query it anyways.

[Pete S]

This is exactly the problem. The game has never been about smooth, beautiful graphics - more about the depth. Substance is being substituted for style.

Spot on observation! The other problem is that some of the additional depth added in recent years doesn't really add to the enjoyment of the game and has been very crudely implemented e.g. media interaction, player motivation/body language, and player interaction. Ihave done a detailed, long-term study into these areas, attempting to analyse how they work, the relationship between player stats and player motivation/reaction (e.g. ability to handle pressure rating and getting nervous in matches) and the effect these have on results. The effect of these aspects on results (but oddly not the actual performance) is massive and I have yet to find any logic behind it whatsoever. So you just end feel like you are being cheated when you lose, whether this is actually the case or not. A real shame but I will persevere, as there are still many aspects of the game I find very enjoyable.

[benallen002]

I'm sorry but it's not. If in tactic 4411, you say to ST, hold position and in 4231 you say, roam from position..he will have "roam from position" instruction in 4411 also.

I'm the one that should be sorry as I had it dead wrong. After playing around with it though, I have a feeling I know what SI are going to say: something along the lines of "individual instructions are just that and are 'tactic agnostic'.

I do hope they look at it though. I will bring it up in the bugs forum and see if it was designed that way or they didn't realize the IIs aren't attached to the tactics.

EDIT: See post #1153

[Alekos]

Don't know if this has been mentioned before but I will post it anyway..

When I watch the game and I change the camera lets say from sideline to touchline when I click again the "tick" has been remained at the previous camera which is the sideline..Always the tick stays at the previous camera used..This happens only with the camera of the game and not with the replays..

Hope I explained it well...Thanks

[benallen002]

For the player positions, the dot has been replaced by a coloured bar under the players name, its quite easy to miss to begin with, not really sure why they made that change, its no where near as obvious as it was in previous years.

Do you know what the little graphic next to the Role abbreviation is? Most of the time it is an empty shirt, but sometimes it changes to a player's face and I can't figure out what that is supposed to communicate.

EDIT: LOL, didn't read far enough. Answered on post #1106

[HUNT3R]

If you've set specific instructions for a player X in position Y, then they will follow these personalised instructions exclusively. Only if a player has no personalised instructions for a position will they follow the instructions set under "Any player in this position".

Thank you. That's the answer I was after.

The instructions you set for a specific player in a specific position will be shared across all your tactics. That is, if you've given specific instructions for Rooney when he is playing as a ST CL in tactic X, then those instructions will be used if Rooney plays as a ST CL in tactic Y and Z too. Thus, you cannot give specific instructions for a player in a specific position on a per tactic basis. But we're monitoring feedback concerning this for the future.

This needs changing, imo. If you have 2 tactics, one a 4-2-3-1 and the other a 4-1-2-2-1, more than likely the striker in the former will have an attacking duty while in the latter he'll have a support duty. The two positions will play very different to the other, of course. They will need different instructions too. Take Rooney as an example. Say I decide I like him playing as an Advanced Forward, coupled with an instruction or two, in a 4-2-3-1. Now I decide to switch to my backup 4-1-2-2-1 tactic and I put Rooney on as striker. Automatically, he'll play as an Advanced Forward where I had a DLF initially. All because everything was set-up for one tactic and now it is ruining the others.

[Bardi Golriz]

Not sure if this has been mentioned before (I haven't seen it), so maybe unique to me

In the match preperation the league table is squashed up and you can't see the team names

This would vary depending on the size of your window. Unfortunately yours in a size where there's not enough room for more of the team name to appear.

[benallen002]

This needs changing, imo. If you have 2 tactics, one a 4-2-3-1 and the other a 4-1-2-2-1, more than likely the striker in the former will have an attacking duty while in the latter he'll have a support duty. The two positions will play very different to the other, of course. They will need different instructions too. Take Rooney as an example. Say I decide I like him playing as an Advanced Forward, coupled with an instruction or two, in a 4-2-3-1. Now I decide to switch to my backup 4-1-2-2-1 tactic and I put Rooney on as striker. Automatically, he'll play as an Advanced Forward where I had a DLF initially. All because everything was set-up for one tactic and now it is ruining the others.

Bardi, since you guys are monitoring feedback (thank you), put me down as a big +1 for asking that IIs be isolated to each tactical plan and not "tactic agnostic".

The new IIs are absolutely fantastic, but we should have the capability to instruct the player to play in one style under one tactic and change how he plays in a separate tactic; as HUNT3R described.

EDIT: I guess you could save each tactic's IIs and then take a few seconds to load them pre-match into whatever formation you have chosen. Bit of a workaround until we see if it will be changed?

[jreid666]

Just a few issues i have found.

1. In a game defenders of both teams seem to sand about at times and make no effort to win the ball, allowing the attacker to run through on goal. I really noticed this as playing with aberdeen in a friendly against buchanhaven hearts, game ended up 4-3 with 4 goals being the denfender standing around watching.

2. Goalkeeper will not pass to the nearest defender, no matter what i do. I have tried being defensive with a sweeper and he still launches it upfield, despite having the distribute to nearest defender/specific player option on.

3. The individual tactics seem to cancel out the team tactics.

4. Some buttons take an eternity to use, i.e the ask advice icon on the team screen.

5. On the team screen, the player order reverts to players picked instead of the order i want them in.

6. Players on the unwanted list always have bids rejected.

7. It may just be my screen but the text looks kind of squashed together.

Thats all i have noticed so far. Other than that, great effort. I skipped 2013 as i couldn't get into it. For me 2012 was the best one but if all the bugs that people have found can be worked out, this could be just as good.

[Bardi Golriz]

Played last night for 3 hours, but didn't make it to the first friendly.

- also still missing some other options, which may be a new-UI issue only. Where are for instance the options to have the U21s play the same tactic and so on?

- I see that scouting players doesn't auto-shortlist them anymore. Not sure if I like that. Now I have to shortlist them separately, or is there another option which I don't find in the new UI?

- The game does not tell me what the unwanted list or the transfer target lists do. Can one tell me?

1) Go to your Club screen -> Staff -> Responsibilities and select your U21 team's tab from there.

2) Go to your Club screen -> Staff -> Responsibilities and select the Personal Assistant tab from there. The second menu there is what you're after. This defaults to "Don't Shortlist" to ensure we no longer make the assumption that a player you've scouted is a player you wish to shortlist because usually you want to receive a scout report before making a decision on whether you're interested in the player either now or in the future.

3) On the Transfer Targets, Unwanted List and Development List panels in the Transfer Centre, there's a subpanel at the top that gives you an idea of what each list does.

[Bardi Golriz]

Why isn't there Ability Comparison panel on player profile screen? So many little annoyances where you have to switch between screens to get information that could have been served much easier.

The purpose of the Profile is to show you a snapshot of the player specifically and not how the player rates in comparison to another player. You can always right-click on the player's name when viewing a list of players and select the "Compare With" menu option for quick access.

[WOW77]

bring the old player instructions thing back!

[Bardi Golriz]

Really enjoying the beta so far, but there is one minor thing that's kinda bugging me. Whenever the press conference news item comes up, the option to let the assistant do the press conference is all the way down in the right hand corner. I'm playing FM on a second, 1280*1024 screen, so that's somewhat more of a 'distance' than on a, for example, 1600x1900 screen. I know this is a really small thing but if you ever get bored, might be cool to add a higher button.

We appreciate that having the buttons and hyperlinks associated with a news item consistently located in the bottom right isn't ideal when on a window size like yours. This is something we will look at addressing in the future.

[Bardi Golriz]

For the player positions, the dot has been replaced by a coloured bar under the players name, its quite easy to miss to begin with, not really sure why they made that change, its no where near as obvious as it was in previous years.

There's a limited amount of space on the pitch, and there's a new icon that's been added to the left of the role/duty menu to signify whether the player currently selected for the position is following general or personalised instructions. So it had to be moved.

[Rikulec]

Nice to see some last-ditch clearances, things are much more interesting when a loose ball falls to the box now.

[Bardi Golriz]

A few initial thoughts...

1) I can't work out how to get my assman to send me a list of recommended loanees. I used this in previous FMs so am definitely missing it.

2) I like to watch the match in the 3d engine, with some useful overlays displayed e.g. the player's ratings/condition window, match information window. However, it's not saving these windows correctly in between matches, e.g. I'll have the player ratings window for my team in one position, then the next match it will have shifted to somewhere else on the screen (sometimes on top of another window). Quite frustrating.

3. On the tactics window where your players are placed in the formation, when you have players out of position, you no longer see a colour to indicate this (e.g. red for a player in ML who's not used to playing there). Unless I'm missing something. I presume this does still apply in FM14?

Other than those things, liking the game, match engine looks much more real in terms of what the footballers are doing, at least in lower leagues where I'm managing atm.

1) It's been superseded by the feature for the DoF to suggest players to buy on loan or transfer. This can be found on Transfer Targets panel inside the Transfer Centre.

3) There's a line under the role/duty menu to communicate this information.

[milnerpoint]

There's a limited amount of space on the pitch, and there's a new icon that's been added to the left of the role/duty menu to signify whether the player currently selected for the position is following general or personalised instructions. So it had to be moved.

Fair enough, i can understand the reasoning, but the new line is no where near obvious enough, even when you know its there you have to squint to really see which colour it is.

[treble_yell_:-)]

Anyone seeing some radically wild shooting , and from good players as well.

Dunno if it's a quirk of the ME but i'm talking row Z at the corner flags from 10 yards out.

1) It's been superseded by the feature for the DoF to suggest players to buy on loan or transfer. This can be found on Transfer Targets panel inside the Transfer Centre.

3) There's a line under the role/duty menu to communicate this information.

Is this working correctly, it was mention earlier in the thread that even top DoF's are only recommending players under very limited conditions, ie - I cant get Franco Baldini to recommend anyone for loan and only 3 players total for ALL the positions under the transfer option.

[daylight]

With the release version will the game then have the team you are managing highlighted in cup draws, also the league table in the after match screen etc?

Just a small thing but it is very handy to see your team without having to scroll up and down the table/draw.

[HUNT3R]

With the release version will the game then have the team you are managing highlighted, in cup draws, also the league table in the after match screen etc?

Just a small thing but it is very handy to see your team without having to scroll up and down the table/draw.

Been reported in the bugs forum. I have also found more areas where the human controlled team is not highlighted.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/364189-Managed-club-not-highlighted-in-several-areas

[WormboY]

Could you report this issue in the Bugs Forum please - http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/363219-Europe-(Official)-Specific-Issues

Thanks.

Another one did it. Tks btw.

And about my post before, any idea why?

[trotter13]

Sorry I haven't read through this whole thread so this might have been posted, but I put this on another site and thought it would be better mentioned here just in case:

'Just ran into an issue that sort of wrecked my first save: I mutually terminated a lot of my staffs contracts, and offered deals to new staff. I got the news where I had to confirm all of the terminations, then saved after I had accepted them all.

Came back later, but as I continued none of the contracts actually got terminated. The news was still there that I had accepted it, but the next news saying that the staff had actually left never came through. And for some reason all of my offers to other staff had just disappeared. They were in my transfer centre, so the game knew that I had offered them deals, but without any reason they had all got cancelled and I had to go back and offer the contracts again.

Even worse though, the staff that I still had because their contracts hadn't been terminated, no longer had the option to mutually terminate their deals, so instead I would have had to spend most of my budget just terminating them outright, which obviously costs a lot more than doing it mutually.

I had the same problem, can't remember if i saved the game after accepting the terminations though.

[PAJ]

I'm sure I read somewhere that you can train a players weaker foot but I can't seem to find out how to do it. Does anybody have any ideas

[Guest]

so anyone else finding appearance fee terms very high?

[Jordanknox]

I'm sure I read somewhere that you can train a players weaker foot but I can't seem to find out how to do it. Does anybody have any ideas

Its under learn preffered moves > Technique

[Neil Brock]

so anyone else finding appearance fee terms very high?

Do you have any examples? Have you tried negotiating them?