Football Manager 2015 Features Video Official Feedback Thread

[Spart]

Neill, i have no doubt it is in the game but, personally speaking, i find it quite difficult to rely simple ideas on the pitch due to a lack of documentation with how tactical instructions work. I mean, if it wasn't for Cleon, RT etc on the tactics board then i really don't think i could play this game.

So, are there any plans with this iteration of the game to improve in-game documentation?

This is definitely something that needs to be looked at. Even if it's just an in-game wiki type thing with a rough outline of key concepts and how to go about implementing them? Could even just be an editing "best of" of the forum advice threads, with proper credit to the original authors after their permission has been sought.

I think they could even tie this into the coaching badges potentially in the future... maybe you could tick a box to turn each coaching badge level into a tutorial of sorts?

[Clifton]

Another helpful option would be in-game Assistant Manager feedback that was useful and correct.

[Neil Brock]

Neill, i have no doubt it is in the game but, personally speaking, i find it quite difficult to rely simple ideas on the pitch due to a lack of documentation with how tactical instructions work. I mean, if it wasn't for Cleon, RT etc on the tactics board then i really don't think i could play this game.

So, are there any plans with this iteration of the game to improve in-game documentation?

In-game unfortunately not. But I have spoken to a couple of people about producing some kind of external tactical guide. There seems to be a feeling of 'smoke and mirrors' when it comes to tactics and how they work and whilst there needs to be some aspects which have some ambiguity to them it should never be to the extent that people simply don't know what they're doing. Obviously we're quite busy, but I'm hopeful we can work on something at some point. Hopeful is different from being positive mind!

[Neil Brock]

There will be a video about Editor new features and improvements? And a guide for Advanced Rules?

Video I don't think so, but I believe there are plans for a blog. As for a guide I don't think so, but like I've just said about the tactics it's something which could be a good addition, even if it ends up being one driven by the community who are of course a great knowledge-base for the editor.

[TheBigBoss]

Will there be another video or is this the only one ?

[Neil Brock]

Honestly, I'm a little dissapointed not to see any revolutionary changes or any big new features. Dont want to belittle your work but from what I've seen in that video it feels like a reskinned game with the menu put on the left. I'm not gonna comment on new press conference questions or tunnel interview and such things because this is the same old feature put in different clothing with added new questions. Same every year with scouting, theres always talk about new revamped system and everything more realistic but I haven't seen anything radical done to this part of the game. Training is the same, transfers...nothing much.

Having said that, I have to add that I wouldnt find lack of great changes dissapointing if the ME was sorted right and generally player vs AI, and AI vs AI results, which is the most important thing to enjoy FM. The reason you have people on here every year who write angry letters and posts is because the ME isn't getting sorted year after year, and people have to wait for months and famous "end of February beggining of March" to get the proper version with reduced number of bugs.

New motion capture engine is nice but it worries me because its brand new that it wont be as good. I remember in 2004 I think when you first introduced 3d engine how imperfect it was. 10 years later, and I have bought and played every FM game since, not once have I saw the realistic match engine where we dont have to discuss here for months the defensive bugs, goalkeeping bugs, and many many other...

I swear I would be happy with a 2015 data update if the ME was bug free but I would be naive to believe that will happen this year, since it didnt anytime before when I also hoped that. Last year, I was criticizing the game for lack of new features and for posting new "features" on Twitter as "Featurette" every day, while they were really just new make-up details like new journalist questions, or added buttons, colors... Also regarding gameplay experience FM 2014 was one of the worts FMs I have ever played. I have just finished a season with Fiorentina where I won the tittle with 10 draws and 5 losses while in real life eg Juve last year had 3 draws and 2 losses. Results like 7-2, 5-3, 6-4 and etc were so often that I wanted to throw up. Even though I won the tittle it wasnt much satisfaction when you see how unrealistic the game is. No consistency whatsover.

If the ME & results diseases that FM was suffering from previous years are gonna be cured than Ill be happy with anything new you give me. No graphical change or any of the other ones you presented in the video can make FM enjoyable if the actuall football playing part of the game is done wrong

Really appreciate you taking the time to voice your concerns in a constructive way, obviously totally understand why you can have these concerns. Some people are excited about some aspects of the game, others aren't. We unfortunately can't please everyone. I, for example, love the way Scouting has changed for this version. I really think it makes a massive difference to how the game plays now. We're hopeful the match engine will be much improved from last year in more than just the cosmetic side. Obviously the proof will be how you all react to it. It's all well and good us saying "it's the best ever", it's up to the community and everyone who plays the game to be the judge of that.

[alvaan]

Neil, can you shed any light regarding online play for the New Version? Has there been any developement there you can tell us about?

[Neil Brock]

Neil, can you shed any light regarding online play for the New Version? Has there been any developement there you can tell us about?

I'm afraid I can't really talk about any extra features at this time, but I can assure you online play has not been ignored for this year. Thanks.

[allyc31]

In-game unfortunately not. But I have spoken to a couple of people about producing some kind of external tactical guide. There seems to be a feeling of 'smoke and mirrors' when it comes to tactics and how they work and whilst there needs to be some aspects which have some ambiguity to them it should never be to the extent that people simply don't know what they're doing. Obviously we're quite busy, but I'm hopeful we can work on something at some point. Hopeful is different from being positive mind!

Alright, thanks for replying man.

Good luck over the next month(s)

[Rikulec]

One thing I found interesting is at 22:22 in the video. The career profile of Don Biggins - i.e. that he has a full career profile as reserve coach, assistant manager and manager of Colchester. I had to google this, but Don Biggins doesn't seem to be a "real" person from the world of football. This implies to me that we finally get a past career in the game? Or am I missing something?

Any official word on this?

[ChelseaFan]

When you choose if you're going to be a tracksuit or tactical manager, what influence do the stats give?

[endtime]

Any official word on this?

I'm not official, but Don Biggins' history matches the history of Joe Dunne - the former Colchester manager who resigned on September 1. This is what happens when the "fake players" option is selected, real players & staff are given fictional names, but staff retain their real history.

[Neil Brock]

Any official word on this?

It's an real manager who has had their name changed. So no, no past career (at least not in that detail).

[Neil Brock]

When you choose if you're going to be a tracksuit or tactical manager, what influence do the stats give?

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/398183-Football-Manager-2015-Features-Video-Official-Feedback-Thread?p=9880024&viewfull=1#post9880024

[Dedinho]

Having said that, I have to add that I wouldnt find lack of great changes dissapointing if the ME was sorted right and generally player vs AI, and AI vs AI results, which is the most important thing to enjoy FM. The reason you have people on here every year who write angry letters and posts is because the ME isn't getting sorted year after year, and people have to wait for months and famous "end of February beggining of March" to get the proper version with reduced number of bugs.

Exactly this. If the much needed improvements to the match engine have been made, then I couldn't care less about the lack of new, big, interesting features. Don't really care what's happening outside the pitch, if the things on it are not working properly.

[fernandovalente]

Along with pre-match interaction with players, are we finally able to lecture them during matches (and not just at half-time and at the end) ?

[DMaster2]

Can someone from SI clarify if the transfer system bug that plagued the italian leagues (where clubs didn't sign free players) is resolved this year? Because i have NO intention of replying the fm14 experience on that regard.

[HUNT3R]

Along with pre-match interaction with players, are we finally able to lecture them during matches (and not just at half-time and at the end) ?

The video (if you watched) showed that we can talk/shout to players during the game in a way that looks similar to the team talks we have before, half-time and full-time.

[dan99]

Not sure if I'm keen of the RPG elements of the new tracksuit manager v tactical manager.

Everything else gets the thumbs up despite not being ground breaking.

[Casual]

Really appreciate you taking the time to voice your concerns in a constructive way, obviously totally understand why you can have these concerns. Some people are excited about some aspects of the game, others aren't. We unfortunately can't please everyone. I, for example, love the way Scouting has changed for this version. I really think it makes a massive difference to how the game plays now. We're hopeful the match engine will be much improved from last year in more than just the cosmetic side. Obviously the proof will be how you all react to it. It's all well and good us saying "it's the best ever", it's up to the community and everyone who plays the game to be the judge of that.

Thanks for answering despite me being pretty critical. I have only good wishes for FM15 or any other FM version (or previously CM) cause I've been playing for almost 15 years. The game cannot be enjoyable if ME is not enjoyable and if AI results are wrong. Everything before and after the match is there because you prepare for the match, so if the match/results part is faulty evertyhing else drops to water as we say in my country

[Neil Brock]

Can someone from SI clarify if the transfer system bug that plagued the italian leagues (where clubs didn't sign free players) is resolved this year? Because i have NO intention of replying the fm14 experience on that regard.

I don't recall it being an issue in FM14 - what exactly was the issue? No Italian clubs signed free agents? Please be as detailed as possible and I'll make sure we re-look at it before the release of FM15. Thanks.

[ChelseaSince86]

Any idea if we'll be looking at the same specs roughly as 14, or an increase?

[ggwood]

I, for example, love the way Scouting has changed for this version. I really think it makes a massive difference to how the game plays now.

In the video, I think Miles says we can assign a scout to roam "within a nation" instead of "within a region", or something like that. Could anyone clarify how this differs from currently assigning a scout to scout a nation?

The comparison to a region put me in the mind of assigning a scout to a list of nations, and allowing him to roam within that list of nations. (Note: I re-watched the video, scouting starts around 10:30 and this is not what Miles says). Right now, we can assign a scout to a list of nations, but unlike scouting a region, the scout will simply go through the list and then stop.

Also, related question: it appeared that we can say: I want to scout Italy, and allow the chief scout to pick a scout to assign. This looks awesome. When I have a lot of scouts, covering a lot of nations I start to forget if I have a particular nation scouted already. Is there a clear indicator when assigning a scout to Italy, if someone else is currently doing so?

Currently, I have 16 scouts with around 80 nations, all scouted by nation and I manually re-start their whole list which is laborious...leads to about 70% world knowledge and leaving scouts to simply roam within regions seems to give far, far lower world coverage. A related question is: will something like this be less laborious in the new version? Or perhaps it will be unnecessary to specify nation-by-nation?

I fully appreciate that you may be unable to reply to any specific points.

[DMaster2]

I don't recall it being an issue in FM14 - what exactly was the issue? No Italian clubs signed free agents? Please be as detailed as possible and I'll make sure we re-look at it before the release of FM15. Thanks.

Here's the info, i had reported it on the bug forum a few months ago. Was not solved on FM2014.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/389158-The-issue-of-the-released-free-agent-players

[THOG]

I love the RPG elements. It creates a whole new set of incentives for long-term saves and opens up a lot of really interesting possibilities for further development.

[Spart]

Neil, not sure if you're allowed to shed more light on things such as this, but if you start as a tracksuit or tactical manager, can that change over the course of a save?

E.g. If I wish to start off as a tactical manager with no badges, will I be able to eventually work towards being able to coach once I've got the relevant qualifications? Alternatively, could a tracksuit manager eventually lose their status as a coach by shifting more attributes over to be being tactical?

[Neil Brock]

Any idea if we'll be looking at the same specs roughly as 14, or an increase?

I'm not sure if it has been announced yet I'm afraid. When it is I'll make sure a thread is stickied for it.

[mchbitil]

Neil, did you have a chance to improve national team management in FM15?

Also, were there any improvements in wage requirements of players? In FM14 I often had ridiculous situations like when Carrick at 33 would have no club at all but play in national team, and my understanding that it was because he required too much wage for his level (this is why I didn't extend his contract). IRL e.g. Rio Ferdinand signed with QPR for really cheap (£60k)

[Neil Brock]

Neil, not sure if you're allowed to shed more light on things such as this, but if you start as a tracksuit or tactical manager, can that change over the course of a save?

E.g. If I wish to start off as a tactical manager with no badges, will I be able to eventually work towards being able to coach once I've got the relevant qualifications? Alternatively, could a tracksuit manager eventually lose their status as a coach by shifting more attributes over to be being tactical?

Yeah, you can improve your tactical side over time and tracksuit via courses.

[Neil Brock]

Here's the info, i had reported it on the bug forum a few months ago. Was not solved on FM2014.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/389158-The-issue-of-the-released-free-agent-players

Thanks for this, appreciated.

[Neil Brock]

Neil, did you have a chance to improve national team management in FM15?

Also, were there any improvements in wage requirements of players? In FM14 I often had ridiculous situations like when Carrick at 33 would have no club at all but play in national team, and my understanding that it was because he required too much wage for his level (this is why I didn't extend his contract). IRL e.g. Rio Ferdinand signed with QPR for really cheap (£60k)

National team management is a tough one in regards to having ideas that people want to come into the game. What do you think would improve international management for example? Would be intrigued to hear your opinion.

In regards to wage requirements, this, along with a large amount of AI/transfer logic has been looked at as it is every year. Some players will be stupidly stubborn (as has happened in real life) but yeah, I wouldn't expect a free agent to still be picked in a top national team (if you still consider England one!) if he remains without a club for a fair period of time.

[Spart]

Yeah, you can improve your tactical side over time and tracksuit via courses.

Cool. Thanks Neil!

[Neil Brock]

In the video, I think Miles says we can assign a scout to roam "within a nation" instead of "within a region", or something like that. Could anyone clarify how this differs from currently assigning a scout to scout a nation?

The comparison to a region put me in the mind of assigning a scout to a list of nations, and allowing him to roam within that list of nations. (Note: I re-watched the video, scouting starts around 10:30 and this is not what Miles says). Right now, we can assign a scout to a list of nations, but unlike scouting a region, the scout will simply go through the list and then stop.

Also, related question: it appeared that we can say: I want to scout Italy, and allow the chief scout to pick a scout to assign. This looks awesome. When I have a lot of scouts, covering a lot of nations I start to forget if I have a particular nation scouted already. Is there a clear indicator when assigning a scout to Italy, if someone else is currently doing so?

Currently, I have 16 scouts with around 80 nations, all scouted by nation and I manually re-start their whole list which is laborious...leads to about 70% world knowledge and leaving scouts to simply roam within regions seems to give far, far lower world coverage. A related question is: will something like this be less laborious in the new version? Or perhaps it will be unnecessary to specify nation-by-nation?

I fully appreciate that you may be unable to reply to any specific points.

Can't really go into much detail I'm afraid, sorry about that.

[DMaster2]

Thanks for this, appreciated.

Np, was really gamebreaking for me so i won't get fm2015 until i know for sure it's finally resolved. Also i would like to know if there were improvements on the fake players option. I love it but it's boring to have 90% of the fake players identical to the original counterparts. It should be randomized, keeping in account the average ca of the team.

[fernandovalente]

The video (if you watched) showed that we can talk/shout to players during the game in a way that looks similar to the team talks we have before, half-time and full-time.

Thanks :-) I watched and I thought so, just wanted some confirmation. Awesome I guess this time we can deal better with complacent players.

[jordas]

Can someone from SI clarify if the transfer system bug that plagued the italian leagues (where clubs didn't sign free players) is resolved this year? Because i have NO intention of replying the fm14 experience on that regard.

I believe this problem was reported first time in 2006 or 2007. It's not only Italy, by the way, but a universal phenomenon: myriads of free transfer players that are never signed. I can remember starting a topic on it twice and writing in countless other threads on the issue. Oh yes, I remember the good old days when we established evidence and reported our concerns for the sake of the game! To no avail, however. The majority of us have given up the hope to see it fixed, I think. Still good to see that someone is fighting for the cause in 2014.

[mchbitil]

National team management is a tough one in regards to having ideas that people want to come into the game. What do you think would improve international management for example? Would be intrigued to hear your opinion.

First of all, all UI issues. In FM14 it's very difficult to keep it clear who is "core national team", who are "only called in as replacements", and who are "promising youngsters". The scouting information just disappears often. Or if it doesn't disappear, it gets completely mixed, when on some players I see club's opinion (e.g. 0.5 star) and on some - national team opinion (e.g. 3 star for the same level). Better tactics training, when the national team after a few games together (or a few years) has really good tactic familiarity.

On second level, more realism with "in-form" players. In FM14 it makes sense to always call players with high attributes / stars even if they never play for their clubs or have really bad match ratings; in real life the players who are playing well currently are almost always called to national team ahead of benchwarmers. Scouting should be much less precise for national team, but the UI should help with statistical / form data to help choose the players.

Third, national team friendlies should take distance into account. I ended up playing Belarus exclusively against African teams in friendlies which is unrealistic. On the other hand I know that the US plays Czech and Argentina plays Portugal IRL.

Fourth, hiring national team staff / assistant coach is super difficult, nobody wants the job, even unemployed guys. And scouting assignments for staff are weird and don't give much.

[mchbitil]

I believe this bug was reported first time in 2006 or 2007. It's not only Italy, by the way, but a universal phenomena: myriads of free transfer players that are never signed. I can remember starting a topic on it twice and writing in countless other threads on the issue. Oh yes, I remember the good old days when we established evidence and reported our concerns for the sake of the game! To no avail, however. The majority of us have given up the hope to see it fixed, I think. Still good to see that someone is fighting for the cause in 2014.

Big part of it might be unrealistic wage demands; players should adjust their demands to avoid being without a club at all. Hopefully FM15 addresses this

[Neil Brock]

I believe this bug was reported first time in 2006 or 2007. It's not only Italy, by the way, but a universal phenomena: myriads of free transfer players that are never signed. I can remember starting a topic on it twice and writing in countless other threads on the issue. Oh yes, I remember the good old days when we established evidence and reported our concerns for the sake of the game! To no avail, however. The majority of us have given up the hope to see it fixed, I think. Still good to see that someone is fighting for the cause in 2014.

There's a variety of different reasons as to why a free transfer isn't picked up. It's easy to say the "same" issue has been in since 06 or 07 but it will have been for a number of different reasons why the player hasn't been picked up. The fact the entire AI transfer code has been completely rewritten in that time suggests the reasoning will have changed. You can't force a player to join a club that they're not interested in or who simply can't afford them, and each team can only have so many players.

[DMaster2]

I believe this problem was reported first time in 2006 or 2007. It's not only Italy, by the way, but a universal phenomenon: myriads of free transfer players that are never signed. I can remember starting a topic on it twice and writing in countless other threads on the issue. Oh yes, I remember the good old days when we established evidence and reported our concerns for the sake of the game! To no avail, however. The majority of us have given up the hope to see it fixed, I think. Still good to see that someone is fighting for the cause in 2014.

Ty. It was fine until fm2014 came, last version was a nightmare, all of the free transfer (often very good players, at least for weak teams in the top league and the majority of the serie b/second division) either were picked by foreign countries or retire. I have no intention of buying the game just to repeat the experience. Italy was plagued worse than other countries, which had this issue but very toned down. In Italy literally no low level club sign a free agent.

[Malicious Penguin]

This is definitely something that needs to be looked at. Even if it's just an in-game wiki type thing with a rough outline of key concepts and how to go about implementing them? Could even just be an editing "best of" of the forum advice threads, with proper credit to the original authors after their permission has been sought.

I think they could even tie this into the coaching badges potentially in the future... maybe you could tick a box to turn each coaching badge level into a tutorial of sorts?

This sounds like an incredible feature, one I think would work wonders. It'd be similar to the Madden NFL games on consoles; you go through tutorials and depending on how you do, the game adjusts its AI to match yours - this could be adapted to replace the previous playing experience 'difficulty' level?

Within FM, if you completed various tutorials/proved your understanding, you'd gain more points for use as your manager. Sorry for hijacking your idea Spart, I just love the sound of it!

[higgins]

There are plans for a blog and video for FMC, not sure if there's another match engine video in the pipeline, but will see what I can do. No promises!

This sounds interesting!

[Spart]

This sounds like an incredible feature, one I think would work wonders. It'd be similar to the Madden NFL games on consoles; you go through tutorials and depending on how you do, the game adjusts its AI to match yours - this could be adapted to replace the previous playing experience 'difficulty' level?

Within FM, if you completed various tutorials/proved your understanding, you'd gain more points for use as your manager. Sorry for hijacking your idea Spart, I just love the sound of it!

No need to apologise! I'm sure I'm not the first person to suggest such a thing, especially since as you say its in Madden etc.

Might go pop it in the wishlist though...

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

Seems I may be the only one but my view is: Pluses - age range scouting (a huge plus actually). Minuses - everything else.

I was 99% sure I would pass on FM15 and now I have added a crucial 1% to this. Too much fluff & faff to be fun for me. ME hugely unimpressive and bearing in mind the motion capture sequence in the studio if any FM gamer ever sees another keeper amble about as the ball trickles over the line I suggest they tweet to Miles that someone at SI is having a laugh at the customers expense.

Really feels SI have totally lost touch with the FM'er - or as seems more likely from initial consensus that I have grown apart from the game.

Whatever happened to 11 players with twenty or so attributes rated 1-20 and using simple "tactics" to make the most of any advantage detected?. This seems like a lot more hard work, and a lot less fun.

:-(

[James M]

I will echo what I've said on OTF:

Pros:

*GUI - finally it looks excellent out of the box

*Scouting - could not be more excited about this, if it works.

*Manager options - especially useful for LLM to be more "tracksuit"; also like the options to have multiple favourite teams and languages - although of course these aren't game changing features

*Movember - okay, so this is just a silly gimmick. BUT it provides the potential for newgens to potentially change their looks over time, which I think would be a neat feature.

*More player interaction (eg. ask them to search for their own transfer) - I like this.

*Job interviews - much better to feel like you can influence the interview

Cons:

*More media....seriously? The worst part of the game gets more repetitive and more in your face. Sometimes just because something is prevalent in real life, doesn't mean it should then be incorporated into a simulation

*It's hard not to think that FM is due a really revolutionary feature at some point. The last few years seem to be minor upgrade after minor upgrade. That said, I can't think of where I expect there to be a great innovation.

*The sidebar - maybe. I love the sidebar concept, but as I don't have a widescreen computer, I'm concerned that the rest of the display will be squashed.

[James M]

Oh and in all of that, some big questions remain outstanding:

1. Will finances finally be more realistic - it is still far too easy to end up with skyrocketing transfer budgets after just a few years.

2. How will the transfer module be changed - we've seen this year in particular a lot more high profile loans. I wonder how easy it will be to pull these off in the game.

[Pinchita]

Why the 3d is so so poor? In 2015, it can not be even with 3D graphics makes for a decade ago.

http://i59.tinypic.com/mm5t14.jpg

http://i59.tinypic.com/2gwcf91.jpg

I think the FM year after year only receives minor improvements and the time has come for a major change. It seems more a mod last year that a new game.

[James M]

Can't really go into much detail I'm afraid, sorry about that.

On a similar note to ggwood's post - at present Chief Scouts, when left to make assignments, don't ever appear to show any variation. It means i end up with 10 scouts all scouting UK & Ireland or wherever, which is bloody annoying.

It would be nice to set some parameters - for example tell the Chief Scout to assign the scouts to "Top 20 Nations" or "Top 20 Leagues" or something like that, so there isn't quite so much micromanagement involved.

[James M]

National team management is a tough one in regards to having ideas that people want to come into the game. What do you think would improve international management for example? Would be intrigued to hear your opinion.

In regards to wage requirements, this, along with a large amount of AI/transfer logic has been looked at as it is every year. Some players will be stupidly stubborn (as has happened in real life) but yeah, I wouldn't expect a free agent to still be picked in a top national team (if you still consider England one!) if he remains without a club for a fair period of time.

One thing I'd like from national management is greater interaction from the U-21s/U-19s.

At the moment it almost seems like an afterthought - I think you should be provided with much greater feedback from their games and their tournaments. One thing I've noticed is that tournaments such as the Euro u-21 Championship doesn't simulate in the foreground. When you manage a national team, it should. That would make most people more inclined to take a bit of notice of the youngsters on display.

[yorkie87]

where can i pre order this to recieve a hard copy, but still recieve a better code to play early?