FM 2014 Pre-Release Beta - Official feedback thread.

[Korleone]

Several people talk of a Roma that has a very bad season in Italy.

Yeah, started for 6 times at Roma , once finished 2st but next season I was sacked. Now I am curently on 4 th table

[luigiluigi]

When you choose where your scout is to go, you can now choose Next Opposition, Competition, Nation, Region, World and then players (Preferred Region). What is the last option, and how is it different to just Region?

[wazza]

Not sure if this is a bug or not our just how the game plays.

Im now over 4 weeks into the game and just about to start the league campaign following pre season.

When I go to private chat on all my players the only option available for training development is to criticsie a player for his training level - there is no option to praise if you think he has done well like FM13 - not even a greyed out panel. Ive noticed on the training section of the players there is this option on the player development tab to discuss training level where there are 2 Praises, 2 Criticise and 2 for youth development - surely this should only be one tab of each.

However - when you click praise nothing happens here either. Most of my players do need a kick up the backside to improve this level however I have one player who is in green on his report screen under development - even though only half way and I cannot praise him,

[valehannes]

I've been able to praise players. It might be that you need to play competitive games but that would probably mean the options would be grayed out in preseason. So no help really.

On another note I think the default screen for player training should be the training routine page not the coach advice.

[wez007]

After spending the weekend having a good season or two Im actually putting it away and awaiting the full game. The defending in the ME is starting to grate at me to the point im close to rage quit and i dont want to finish before ive even started. Ive seen enough good things in beta for me to to carry on with the full game but some elements of the ME really need sorting before I can really start to enjoy again.

To clarify:

AI going through the defence like a knife through butter

Defenders getting too high a rating even though on the pitch they look like they are playing in jelly

Keeper distribution is so very broke

Morale issues are still a problem, one loss and out come a plethora of red arrows

Too many players getting nervous for no reason (was 4-0 up and 4 players went to nervous!)

[Goose]

Have to agree, the defending makes me rage quit constantly, everything besides the match engine is great though

[GreyedOutMan]

Yeah - I'd agree with that, the game seems great other than the ME. How it's possible to go a season at any level without any clean sheets for either side is beyond me, and the fact that results like this are so commonplace is a real issue.

[Shake Appeal]

I really, really hoped the average ratings for defenders would be fixed after FM13, but nope, still absurdly high and distorting every stats screen in the game.

[upthetoon]

Have to agree, the defending makes me rage quit constantly, everything besides the match engine is great though

thank god i've decided not to buy fm 14 and continue with fm13. ME improvement is very critical to me. if it's just a slight improvement from fm13 then i'd rather just stick to that and save me 50 dollars.

[Rayban_DK]

After spending the weekend having a good season or two Im actually putting it away and awaiting the full game. The defending in the ME is starting to grate at me to the point im close to rage quit and i dont want to finish before ive even started. Ive seen enough good things in beta for me to to carry on with the full game but some elements of the ME really need sorting before I can really start to enjoy again.

To clarify:

AI going through the defence like a knife through butter

Defenders getting too high a rating even though on the pitch they look like they are playing in jelly

Keeper distribution is so very broke

Morale issues are still a problem, one loss and out come a plethora of red arrows

Too many players getting nervous for no reason (was 4-0 up and 4 players went to nervous!)

I agree on all counts and it baffles me, that SI isn't capable of releasing a beta without huge gamebreaking bugs. They have made almost the same game for years now and still they can't figure out how to balance the game without our help.

It really looks like SI have hit the Peters Principle pretty hard these last three to four years. :-(

I'm close to cancelling my preorder out of spite for their lack of quality control. /rant

[valehannes]

AI going through the defence like a knife through butter

Defenders getting too high a rating even though on the pitch they look like they are playing in jelly

Keeper distribution is so very broke

Morale issues are still a problem, one loss and out come a plethora of red arrows

Too many players getting nervous for no reason (was 4-0 up and 4 players went to nervous!)

There is no difference between your team and oppositions AI so it works both ways. I've managed to cut down on most of the obvious defensive failures with instructions to stand off more and sometimes to play narrower. Some of the movements are still a bit infuriating but it seems more like a poor representation in 3d than positioning and tackling failures.

The rating thing is a bit curious. If you've ever played fantasy football (the points thing) you'll know that defenders and midfielders generally bring more points home than forwards unless the forwards score. So its much easier for their ratings to be higher in an average game. My goalscorers still get motm when they score. Personally I'm not really bothered.

Keeper distribution is stuck at hoofball. I thought about trying to set it to kick as hard as he can to confuse the match engine but haven't been able to test.

I have not seen any morale issues except for the people wanting to join bigger teams.

No nervousness issues noticed either.

[heliu5]

I got Andrea Stramaccioni as a scout in my Villa game. I also saw a screenshot on reddit how a guy in his 2nd season got Mourinho as U18s manager.

[HUNT3R]

I agree on all counts and it baffles me, that SI isn't capable of releasing a beta without huge gamebreaking bugs. They have made almost the same game for years now and still they can't figure out how to balance the game without our help.

It really looks like SI have hit the Peters Principle pretty hard these last three to four years. :-(

I'm close to cancelling my preorder out of spite for their lack of quality control. /rant

What nonsense. This is the point of a big open Beta! We as a group are what, 100x the size of their own testers?

I am not experiencing very bad defending from my own team, due to the formation I play, but I can see it is bad for AI teams. There are a few issues, yes, and it will be sorted out. These are issues they KNEW about even at the point of the Beta release, so it isn't like they only just started fixing bugs. SI were already busy. What we're doing now is submitting more examples of certain bugs than they could in the same timespan. It will just help them iron out the bugs and anomalies even more.

[PaulC]

Thanks for all the feedback so far folks!

In terms of the ME I can tell you plenty of fixes have gone in since this beta build. A few updates covering some points made in here:

- Tackle count. Yes the count does look quite high, but we are not 100% sure how eg Opta count a tackle vs the way we do. We are nonetheless working on this area as an ongoing task.

- Defending. Main other issue is the "turning backs" one, which has been fixed in the main since this beta build. Kind of relates to tackle count of course as better positioning means better decisions in theory.

- Goal count. We are aware its too high in some leagues and believe it should be a bit better by release. My benchmark is around 2.6 per game rising towards 3 as we go down the levels.

- Finishing. Some tweaks have been made since your build.

- Match player ratings. We plan to fine tune this for release and beyond if required.

- Tactics. We are delighted at the general response to the changes in this area! :-)

The whole ME is always a work in progress. We find this beta process very helpful in terms of ironing out the biggest issues for release but even at release we dont stop we will continue to try to fix and improve over the coming months as required. Please don't hesitate to log key examples in the bugs forum as it really does help us to give you a better FM experience.

Cheers,

Paul

[milnerpoint]

Whilst the defending can be frustrating at times, i wouldnt say its completely broken or anything as dramatic. I keep quite a few clean sheets if im set up correctly, the games i conceed a few goals tend to be the ones where im pushing for a goal and i leave gaps, which i fully expect to happen.

One thing i have noticed is you do really need to think about the defensive side of things, in previous ME's if you had a really good front 5/6 players, defending really didnt matter that much as you would always be on the attack, now it really matters to have your defensive shape set up correctly.

One thing i do love, is really being able to see the difference between roles now. I'm playing with a front 4 set up, a striker with three behind, one advance playmaker, one inside forward and one winger, and they all play very differently to each other, you can really see who is set up as a winger and who is not, which i love, it makes things so much better.

[HUNT3R]

Thanks for the hard work Paul. It is sounding good for release day!

[HUNT3R]

One thing i do love, is really being able to see the difference between roles now. I'm playing with a front 4 set up, a striker with three behind, one advance playmaker, one inside forward and one winger, and they all play very differently to each other, you can really see who is set up as a winger and who is not, which i love, it makes things so much better.

I have noticed this too. I am in the lower leagues, so I have fairly basic tactics with generic roles. I set one midfielder as a DLP and it was really noticeable how he worked to get into space and how everyone looked to get him onto the ball to make something happen. Was a joy to watch.

[Altair]

I agree defense must be improved BUT i don't want to pass from a lot of goals to zero goals as happend others years...all the time 0-0 1-0 0-1...please. A medium term.

Thanks for the update PaulC. Keep Working. This year ME have potential i think can be great after the last patch.

[milnerpoint]

I have noticed this too. I am in the lower leagues, so I have fairly basic tactics with generic roles. I set one midfielder as a DLP and it was really noticeable how he worked to get into space and how everyone looked to get him onto the ball to make something happen. Was a joy to watch.

Yeah it really is a joy to see my right winger hug the touchline, as i have instructed, compared to the guy on the left who cuts inside and appears everywhere looking for the ball. It really makes the roles worthwhile, where as in 13 you could just set them to anything and you would get next to similar results from the players.

I truly believe this is going to to be the first ME that has made me think about things for a long time, in the last 5/6 versions i've been able to set up one tactic that has carried me through 5/6 years of FM, but that has not worked this time around.

Obviously the long term game plan of the AI hasnt really been shown yet, but its really encouraging so far. One game i scored 3 in the first 20 minutes, and the AI made a sub, changed the shape of the team and the game ended 4-2. I've never seen the AI be responsive like that before.

[wez007]

Thanks for all the feedback so far folks!

- Defending. Main other issue is the "turning backs" one, which has been fixed in the main since this beta build. Kind of relates to tackle count of course as better positioning means better decisions in theory.

- Finishing. Some tweaks have been made since your build.

- Match player ratings. We plan to fine tune this for release and beyond if required.

Good news, covers most of what I feel is letting down an otherwise good ME.

Any news on the GK dist Paul?

Also.. will these get implemented into an updated beta or are they planned for full release? Cheers

[Shake Appeal]

The turnaround and effort and testing involved in an update the game is so significant that I can't imagine you'll see any major changes to the beta before release. It's hard enough for them to apply all the feedback and bug fixes in the time they have.

[GreyedOutMan]

Not a bug but a question - the time spent on each training area....

What time period is that over? Is that "since the start of pre-season"? "In the last 12 months"? "Ever"?

EDT: Can't be "ever" - I change it constantly and yet keep seeing half of the pie taken up by one area.

[valehannes]

The turnaround and effort and testing involved in an update the game is so significant that I can't imagine you'll see any major changes to the beta before release. It's hard enough for them to apply all the feedback and bug fixes in the time they have.

It seems possible to me. Last year they ironed and patched quite a few things during the beta (and maybe slightly caused a few more ).

[Defensive]

- Goal count. We are aware its too high in some leagues and believe it should be a bit better by release.

You BELIEVE it should be A BIT better doesnt sound to confident to me.:-) Is this a problem which just needs more time to REALLY be fixed? Or am i overinterpreting this?:-)

[Xavi Valverde]

Iv'e got some questions about gents taking parts of their own contracted players.

It seems to be one of the big new addition of FM14, but until now there are not so many explanation about it in the game.

I'd like to know what does it mean if an agent owns 50% of the parts of one player ? It is mentionned when you sell a player, and you can buy the parts while buying a player, but it doesn't seem to change anything in the transfer. What is the downside of selling parts to the agents ? (it might represent a ton of money, see the already famous 'Porto 1 billiard income in two weeks' thread). There has to be something, like losing the chance to prevent a transfer or contract renewal or having to pay extra fees to teh agent, but it is not very clear at all. It might become more clear when I pass my first season.

If someone knows where to find information or knows how it works, i'd appreciate some help. Thanks

[RTHerringbone]

The turnaround and effort and testing involved in an update the game is so significant that I can't imagine you'll see any major changes to the beta before release. It's hard enough for them to apply all the feedback and bug fixes in the time they have.

When the pre-release Beta went live, SI will have already been working on a later version of the Match Engine.

They won't just have thought "Right, everything looks fine. Let's issue the pre-Release Beta and wait to see if anyone spots any bugs".

Plenty of bugs will have been outstanding internally from before the Beta went out, and I'm sure they have been working hard to iron those out from before the Beta was even pushed live.

[DalyBhoy]

If I am in a match managing Barcelona at home for example and I check the Barcelona team ratings window to appear at the side, the next match if I am playing away, the window will show the home teams ratings. Hopefully this can be fixed so that when I select my team ratings window it remains regardless of whether we are home or away.

[ommerson]

Not sure if these are known issues (no time to scroll through all posts in this topic) but two things seem wrong:

1. Inbetween highlights the stats of the home team are shown either when playing at home or away. Not very useful when you're playing away from home. Maybe it's some preferencebox that needs to be ticked, but I don't know where to alter this.

2. In classic 2D-mode the hight of a shot is very hard to judge, much harder than in FM13. All balls which sail over the crossbar visually seem to go in., which is kind of nerve-wrecking.

And stadiums still seem way too big and still all seem to have roofs, no matter what the level of the club. Bummer..

[MeesterCat]

Would anyone be able to advise what version of the Beta we should be running? I thought I saw somewhere that its 14.0.2, but I'm pretty sure I'm on 14.0.1...

[wez007]

2. In classic 2D-mode the hight of a shot is very hard to judge, much harder than in FM13. All balls which sail over the crossbar visually seem to go in., which is kind of nerve-wrecking.

I knew there was something i forgot to bring up! Yes to this definatly, even row z shots look like they are going in.

A tinker with the 2d geometry ball physics would help

[styluz_05]

Im not finding too many issues with the defending keeping clean sheets and being stopped by the AI from scoring.

[nicko]

OK my first feedback just coming into the transfer deadline day

Firstly - I did have some major problems relating to watching the 3D, 5 games in and it seems to be sorted (thanx to Neil B for his advice )

I've read most the comments on this thread , have to say the game is fantastic in every aspect.

I am really impressed on the transfer front and how realistic it has become in relation for bids received for players with high average rating,(turned down bids for my top 3 average rating players) been waiting for this to happen and I'm impressed

*Liking the training improvements especially the end of month reports from your assistant and where to concentrate on players in a specific area on the same screen - nice touch

*Tactics - even though it took a while to get to grips with I'm loving it. It takes time and patience but you feel rewarded plus, it makes for a longer save

*Match day - Nice touch how you can apply your assistants instructions as oppose to stopping the game and doing it manually

[Soccer]

Not sure if anyone noticed this, I recalled that there is a higher probability of extreme scorelines happening on FM since FM12? By extreme scorelines, I am referring to scenarios like Real Madrid beating a team like Tottenham 12-3 on aggregate over 2 legs of a Champions League, or Liverpool beating Man City 6-3 in a league match? That's one of the reasons I had been hesitant to buy FM over the last 2 years. Still playing FM11 as I found that to be the most balanced and realistic FM produced in recent years.

[mandella]

Aarrrggghhhhhhhhhhhh.... Playing the game without it remembering my squad selection options (always going back to deafult view by Pkd and General info) is SO ANNOYING....

Other thing. I just got promoted to Premiership and suddenly my money skyrocketed from 2mil do 55 millions - strange thing is it ALL came from sponors but the amount of money from actual sponsors listed in the Financial view and presented to me in the news amounted to about 30 millions. So where did other 20 millions come from? Weird.

[tefal]

After spending the weekend having a good season or two Im actually putting it away and awaiting the full game. The defending in the ME is starting to grate at me to the point im close to rage quit and i dont want to finish before ive even started. Ive seen enough good things in beta for me to to carry on with the full game but some elements of the ME really need sorting before I can really start to enjoy again.

To clarify:

AI going through the defence like a knife through butter

Defenders getting too high a rating even though on the pitch they look like they are playing in jelly

Keeper distribution is so very broke

Morale issues are still a problem, one loss and out come a plethora of red arrows

Too many players getting nervous for no reason (was 4-0 up and 4 players went to nervous!)

Agree with this, the morale problem is the killer for me

[FFCMatt]

So I cannot have a player with different individual instructions for separate tactics?

I want a particular left winger in my more attacking tactic to roam (position instructions are winger, attack) but not to when he's played in my other tactic where he would be an inside forward, support. If I pick him in tactic #2 with individual instructions he will default to winger, attack with roaming. This isn't what I want from the tactic. He's not the quickest, so I want him to find space instead of always hugging the line. Another winger I might want to get chalk on his boots in the same tactic.

This is a shame as I wanted to slightly alter each tactic depending on who played there, but now I'll have to change it manually each time they come on or at the start of games.

[HUNT3R]

Agree with this, the morale problem is the killer for me

There is no "morale problem".

So I cannot have a player with different individual instructions for separate tactics?

I want a particular left winger in my more attacking tactic to roam (position instructions are winger, attack) but not to when he's played in my other tactic where he would be an inside forward, support. If I pick him in tactic #2 with individual instructions he will default to winger, attack with roaming. This isn't what I want from the tactic. He's not the quickest, so I want him to find space instead of always hugging the line. Another winger I might want to get chalk on his boots in the same tactic.

This is a shame as I wanted to slightly alter each tactic depending on who played there, but now I'll have to change it manually each time they come on or at the start of games.

No, you can't at the moment. SI did mention (in this very thread I think) that they are monitoring the response of users about this, so have faith, maybe it will be added at some stage.

[Neil Brock]

Agree with this, the morale problem is the killer for me

We haven't seen or heard anything to suggest this so if you have any examples, please do let us know in the bugs forum - http://community.sigames.com/forumdisplay.php/341-Football-Manager-2014-Pre-Release-Beta-Bugs-Forum

[wez007]

There is no "morale problem".

Says who? Just because you might not be seeing it doesnt mean others aint.

I had a game where i went on a 12 game unbeaten run, i lost very narrowly and morale went from superb to poor (widespread through the team). For me personally... it looks like an issue.

Will post to the bugs forum, maybe its just the team I have but would like it checked over.

[SirRudi5-1]

Firstly, finding this a really nice, smooth game. Big step up in presentation from FM13.

I am Man Utd, and within 4 matches, almost all teams I'm facing are now using MY formation. It appears that teams end up fielding weaker teams to match my formation.

I have on average 30 shots per game. This seems like utter madness. I have missed more sitters than I dare think about. Then the most obscure chance will always go in. Lots of goals from very tight angles to the left and right of the post.

I cannot sell anyone for any sort of money, are you honestly saying, no-one wants Nani or Valencia? At the moment only Chelsea offered me 750k for Nani.......

Conversly, when I attempt to purchase anyone, the cost is HUGE. Although Real Madrid wqill give me Ronaldo for 42m but his wages are 2.5m pm!!!!!

Players in the AM/9 role (Rooney/Messi) they almsot never shoot or run at the defense, if they do, they hit it straight at the keeper.

There have been a number of instances (Evra in particular) whereby I sold him for 4m, and the fans complained that I didn't recoup what I paid for him.......he was signed almost 6 years ago, and is almost over the hill. Seems like a bizzare complaint.

[HUNT3R]

Says who? Just because you might not be seeing it doesnt mean others aint.

I had a game where i went on a 12 game unbeaten run, i lost very narrowly and morale went from superb to poor (widespread through the team). For me personally... it looks like an issue.

Will post to the bugs forum, maybe its just the team I have but would like it checked over.

It's safer to post it in the bugs forum if you think it is a bug, but I fully disagree with you. It is VERY possible that the morale could drop that badly. The fact that you were on a 12 game unbeaten run would be one factor. The other would be what expectations you put on the players in the press conference and the team talks.

[FFCMatt]

No, you can't at the moment. SI did mention (in this very thread I think) that they are monitoring the response of users about this, so have faith, maybe it will be added at some stage.

Thanks for this - I did try to find something about it in this thread, but having come in late control + F on every page wasn't cutting it! Hopefully it will be added, because at the moment it makes using individual instructions redundant for me even though in my head I can see a lot of use for them.

[Jamman]

Awful game. Just more of the same poorly implemented garbage from last year and the year before. In particular, the effects of player motivation programming ruin an otherwise just about ok game - just the same as it has for the last few version. Tough decision whether to cancel pre-order this year.

If its that awful wont be a tough decision surely.

I personally like the beta of FM14 far more than I liked FM13. Never warmed to FM13 because of the match engine and by the time it was improved Id lost interest.

Its not perfect now but much better already than FM13 was even after the first patch.

[Neil Brock]

Says who? Just because you might not be seeing it doesnt mean others aint.

I had a game where i went on a 12 game unbeaten run, i lost very narrowly and morale went from superb to poor (widespread through the team). For me personally... it looks like an issue.

Will post to the bugs forum, maybe its just the team I have but would like it checked over.

That may not be a bug - sometimes momentum builds up and players are on a massive high, so one default can be cataclysmic. We'd have to see the example to know for certain, so yeah, please provide examples on the bugs forum so we can look into it. Many thanks.

[wez007]

It's safer to post it in the bugs forum if you think it is a bug, but I fully disagree with you. It is VERY possible that the morale could drop that badly. The fact that you were on a 12 game unbeaten run would be one factor. The other would be what expectations you put on the players in the press conference and the team talks.

I dont do press and team talks so I can just blame my assistant if it aint a bug.

[HUNT3R]

I dont do press and team talks so I can just blame my assistant if it aint a bug.

Blame him anyway... that's what they're there for!

[ommerson]

Not sure if anyone noticed this, I recalled that there is a higher probability of extreme scorelines happening on FM since FM12?

It seems the beta does feature a lot of high score games. I'm playing in german 5th tier (on a FM13 editor file), so it may be caused by the lack of quality players, but after 5 games it seems there's a unusual lot of 3-3, 5-4, 4-3 and 3-2 scores.

Just thought of another thing:

I'm a little disapointed about the job-interviews I expected a lot of. It seems I decide everything, while I expected the board to suggest some demands and I was to accept them or not, or state my view on them. and thus allowing the board to contemplate if I am the man for the job or not. The way these job interviews are set up now I'm setting my own board expectations, which seems the world upside down. There's no insight in other candidates for the job aswell. Are there any?

And come to think of it, salary negotiations could be a key factor in a clubs decision when choosing between candidates I think, especially at lower levels. The way it works now it has no influence what so ever and I can drive them to the highest salary they are willing to give me in the contract negotiations (by which time I have beaten the other candidated). That seems kind of odd.

I expected questions in the job interview like:

"We'd like you to play attacking football, is that your philosophy aswell?" or rather (open question) "How do you feel about defensive football?"

"we're strapped for cash so only allow you 1 key transfer and get the rest of your players out of the youth system, can you live with that?" or rather "How do you plan to deal with the poor financial state of the club in regard to signing new players?"

"We expect you to get the club promoted within two seasons, do you think you can manage that?"

"What do you intent to ask as a salary?"

The current interviews seem very odd and slightly dissapointing as I expected a lot of this new feature.

And to end on a positive note: The ability to add clauses in job-contract negotiation is a big improvement.

[HUNT3R]

It seems the beta does feature a lot of high score games. I'm playing in german 5th tier (on a FM13 editor file), so it may be caused by the lack of quality players, but after 5 games it seems there's a unusual lot of 3-3, 5-4, 4-3 and 3-2 scores.

Just thought of another thing:

I'm a little disapointed about the job-interviews I expected a lot of. It seems I decide everything, while I expected the board to suggest some demands and I was to accept them or not, or state my view on them. and thus allowing the board to contemplate if I am the man for the job or not. The way these job interviews are set up now I'm setting my own board expectations, which seems the world upside down. There's no insight in other candidates for the job aswell. Are there any?

And come to think of it, salary negotiations could be a key factor in a clubs decision when choosing between candidates I think, especially at lower levels. The way it works now it has no influence what so ever and I can drive them to the highest salary they are willing to give me in the contract negotiations (by which time I have beaten the other candidated). That seems kind of odd.

I expected questions in the job interview like:

"We'd like you to play attacking football, is that your philosophy aswell?" or rather (open question) "How do you feel about defensive football?"

"we're strapped for cash so only allow you 1 key transfer and get the rest of your players out of the youth system, can you live with that?" or rather "How do you plan to deal with the poor financial state of the club in regard to signing new players?"

"We expect you to get the club promoted within two seasons, do you think you can manage that?"

"What do you intent to ask as a salary?"

The current interviews seem very odd and slightly dissapointing as I expected a lot of this new feature.

And to end on a positive note: The ability to add clauses in job-contract negotiation is a big improvement.

About the job interviews... here's what I think.

Yes, you do choose the philosophies yourself. The panel on the right hand side is the board telling you what they want. If you choose what the board agrees with, they're more likely to hire you. There's more pressure on you obviously, because of your selected philosophies, so don't just select anything just because the boards wants it.

[Usul]

It could be usefull to have possibility to set full backs in narrow mode when you set team settings in wide mode and you play using a 3-defense. (for terzini there is this possibility in a 4-defense)

[duccio]

Has the "Primary Nationality" Condition been removed from Player Search? Also, should clubs that have been promoted from Serie D to Serie C1 (Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico) remain Semi-Professional?

So should there be Semi-Professional clubs competing in Lega Pro? I don't know what the rules are in real life, but the name of the competition seems to hint that there should not be non-professionals participating in it.