Breaking News: Football Manager 2018 Headline Features

[JordanMilly]

6 hours ago, ChrisNUFC said:

Delightfully cringe worthy! 

 

Also I had no idea WorkTheSpace was affiliated with SEGA and loosely affiliated with FM. Interesting. 

Aye, he works for Creative Assembly, which is owned by SEGA. No doubt he was probably involved with the animation/mo-cap side of things, since CA did that stuff for SI for the new match engine.

[Kazza]

Well a lot more intriguing than I expected.

I just started playing Mass Effect Andromeda & Total Warhammer, got them cheap from Steam & CD keys. Though now, it looks like they will be put on the back burner.  Dam SI and Miles.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Kazza

[Javier]

Will we be able to use editor files on FM Touch? At this point that's all I care about.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, michelb86 said:

Absolutely. And it would make totally sense. There are lots of examples where players don't fit with each other and sometimes it's even better to play one alongside a (sometimes even less talented) player because there is better chemistry between them. 

But this will be just guessing until we see the demo or new videos.

If SI nail the dynamic & have the right type of AI manager be able to understand & correctly use the dynamic then I will tip my cap.

It does seem like a daunting coding challenge to pull off.

[yonko]

Tactics and training is all I care about. I can do without the rest of the non-sense. I hope there is something new and improved in this aspects.

[samuelawachie]

If that player relationship thingy turns out to be what we think it is with the lines; that, and all the other small incremental changes the game has had over the years could make me leave my beloved FM 2014 save at long last. 

I'm scared though, coz it's gonna be a steep learning curve going from FM14 to 18

Edited September 29, 2017 by samuelawachie

[MBarbaric]

5 hours ago, decapitated said:

This might be a silly question but is that screenshot from a real life scouting service? I'd love that sort of interface in FM2018 especially the similar player part.

it is indeed

[rdbayly]

Dynamics - Cautiously optimistic. My major concern is that player interaction has been grossly over-egged to make the screen worth looking at. I have visions of repetitive bust ups that have to be settled with the same tired dialogue.

Medical centre - If executed in the way that I hope, it should reward those who monitor advice from staff to reduce injuries, and punish those who ignore it. The risk again here is generic and repetitive advice you can't do much with.

Tactics screen - Visually appealing but can't draw many conclusions from the screenshot. I notice that pitch is divided in to squares, some green and some red. Perhaps the red areas are the weaknesses of the formation in terms of exploitable gaps / space?

3D footage - I sincerely hope this is footage taken on the lowest possible graphics settings. Literally all 5 of the previous versions looked significantly better.

Looking forward to seeing more about tactical settings and player roles / instructions.

P.S - Looking forward to the announcement of the new feature that will allow you to stop players shooting from the corner flag

[Dagenham_Dave]

14 minutes ago, rdbayly said:

P.S - Looking forward to the announcement of the new feature that will allow you to stop players shooting from the corner flag

I'd be interested to see that added as I've never encountered this in the 13 years or so there's been graphics in the game. 

[PhilT]

I've heard off- field antics of players may feature in the news........nice

 

   

[Spedding]

15 minutes ago, rdbayly said:

Dynamics - Cautiously optimistic. My major concern is that player interaction has been grossly over-egged to make the screen worth looking at. I have visions of repetitive bust ups that have to be settled with the same tired dialogue.

Medical centre - If executed in the way that I hope, it should reward those who monitor advice from staff to reduce injuries, and punish those who ignore it. The risk again here is generic and repetitive advice you can't do much with.

Tactics screen - Visually appealing but can't draw many conclusions from the screenshot. I notice that pitch is divided in to squares, some green and some red. Perhaps the red areas are the weaknesses of the formation in terms of exploitable gaps / space?

3D footage - I sincerely hope this is footage taken on the lowest possible graphics settings. Literally all 5 of the previous versions looked significantly better.

Looking forward to seeing more about tactical settings and player roles / instructions.

P.S - Looking forward to the announcement of the new feature that will allow you to stop players shooting from the corner flag

personally thought the 3d looked better in that clip not much better but better nonetheless

[rdbayly]

1 minute ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

I'd be interested to see that added as I've never encountered this in the 13 years or so there's been graphics in the game.

I was being sarcastic David. I was referring to players shooting from impossible angles instead of crossing for a striker to tap in.

[HUNT3R]

2 hours ago, Javier said:

Will we be able to use editor files on FM Touch? At this point that's all I care about.

You know what everyone else knows. If it wasn't announced in the video, wait for the upcoming videos for info.

[pdstanbridge]

I'm intrigued by a lot of the new features, but particularly by the scouting. The way it looks on that screenshot above suggests they have perhaps stream lined the initial database setup. To be honest I'm not sure if that's a good thing at the moment, Instead of selecting a small/medium/large or custom database and all its complexities you now 'buy' a single package which gives you access to the same amount of players, just spoon fed to you in a less complex way. This could also lead to a much-hated DLC of player databases - you can physically purchase the size of package for your game. I hope this isn't the case... 

 

[gunner86]

15 minutes ago, pdstanbridge said:

I'm intrigued by a lot of the new features, but particularly by the scouting. The way it looks on that screenshot above suggests they have perhaps stream lined the initial database setup. To be honest I'm not sure if that's a good thing at the moment, Instead of selecting a small/medium/large or custom database and all its complexities you now 'buy' a single package which gives you access to the same amount of players, just spoon fed to you in a less complex way. This could also lead to a much-hated DLC of player databases - you can physically purchase the size of package for your game. I hope this isn't the case... 

 

Everything said about updating the scouting during the video would indicate this is definitely not the case.

They are revamping scouting to make the module more realistic and in line with the real world

Edited September 29, 2017 by gunner86

[Rikulec]

I'm really excited about the scouting revamp. Just hope the scouting budget will also take into account the scouts' trips and other expenditure and not only the packages.

[Armistice]

Any ideas if the requests regarding certain roles for example Halfback role will be tweaked in this FM? @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! asked for this for quite some long time.

 

[Svenc]

10 hours ago, MBarbaric said:

It seems Carlo Ancelotti was the first victim of player dynamics in FM

got fired after Franck Ribery, Kingsley Coman, Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels and Arjen Robben went against him

Dream come true, but I've already seen Miles posting that picking PSG would be easy mode, when it's plain to see that managing big egos and stars comes with its own kind of challenge in real football (not only at Bayern -- Cavani<->Neymar).

I know I'm on a broken record on this. And I'm really not promoting Opta data stuff or anybody else's. I'm just hoping they have added a few statistics that would make judging matches a less subjective affair. This is the plain truth, if this match had ever happened in-game, the in-game feedback wouldn't only have made Pool out to be "incredibly wasteful" rather than pointing out: Mostly crap, man, at best two goals be expected. That same match in-game could have also consisted of no attempt from open play whatsoever (Liverpool 30 from 35+) -- and nothing wouol point anybody out on it. Which was the thing that Bayern "suffered" from against PSG with 18 corners and a completely "fake domination" to an extent as all their shots were headers from their CBs. Which in-game too, are mostly simply not converted into goals. They completely failed to stretch the PSG defense from play.

I don't care about ExG, or anything. I know that Miles is dismissing that too, and he has good reasons for it, namely that's not an accepted wide-spread standard. What I do care about is that even if this were real football, guys judge shots wrong there all the time, including pundits on television. Surely the game treats every shot individiually too? That's my last word on it though. Though the inevitably user reviews plus threads filled with random final match stats supposedly showing how the game were bugged/rigged/broken because of 40 shots no goals will cause puppies to weep all over again.

[qwerty22]

Had a look at the video

Couple of the new features shown are ripped from the extinct fifa manager series, like team dynamics, scouting packages aren't revolutionary in management games but are a good addition, Might as well look at their team talk module which was interesting as well.

Medical center, New tactics screen look promising as well.

My wish from a personal point of view would be the news module which has stopped us from getting updates in our inbox , And the social media feature which has made it difficult to get immersed in the game world. Also I would be glad if the game gets a visual overhaul like stadiums, match of the day goals reports and maybe watch some training activities.

Too early to make a judgment so good luck to SI and can't wait for Release date!

[Per Annum]

Hope someone makes a skin that has the hierarchy and clique screens just in text like favored personnel currently is. 

Like the idea but cannot be doing with those shield icons. It's bad enough I'm a grown man spending all day a computer game without making it look like it's for children. At least lovely plain words make it look like a database. 

[MBarbaric]

35 minutes ago, Svenc said:

I'm just hoping they have added a few statistics that would make judging matches a less subjective affair.

indeed, having xG in the game would explain so much about dominance and there would be a clear stat that shows it. 

35 minutes ago, Svenc said:

he has good reasons for it, namely that's not an accepted wide-spread standard.

if that is true, than it is very narrow minded. football manager games aren't wide spread standard but they still sell  poor jokes aside, xG is very much a standard within match analysis. even Wenger was talking about it in one press conference so I have no idea what is Miles talking about.

[enigmatic]

- I like the position widgets

- The "cards" interface would actually be really handy for assessing opposition lineups (especially with the ability to user-select attributes by position and sensible defaults) although I assume it's for a module I probably won't use

- Better scouting would be a good thing. The "scouting packages" looks like more of a shortcut to revealing attributes without bothering with hiring and assigning than anything else (though that's not necessarily a bad thing) But the bit about scouting which could really use a fix is revealing the attributes of scouted players in a logical as well as gradual manner. Remember some very good suggestions on these forums a good 10 years or so ago, would be interested to see if it's caught up to that.

- Haven't seen enough of the match engine to see if it's an improvement. The players look slightly chunkier to me, which in an ideal world means better modelling of physical challenges

- Dynamics - If (as some people are speculating) one of the benefits is that you get some tactical benefit from having (e.g) centre backs play together pretty consistently for a season or two then that's a significant realism enhancement, because right now there's really none of the real life benefit to consistency in team selection (though if you asked me to guess what the lines between players on tactics screens actually meant I'd say "main passing direction" - also a good thing but for different reasons)

On the other hand, player personalities and interactions have always been by far the most irritating, least convincing, least necessary and most utterly unrelated to how the players actually are in real life part of FM, so I'm less than optimistic about making them much more important. I guess a bit more emphasis on players with shared languages resolving adaptation difficulties and becoming each others' favoured personnel might be neat, and I've got no issue with making the apparently mostly irrelevant "influence" attribute have more effect in certain situations but I can do without squad rebellions because the useless reserve player I've transfer listed is part of the "core" group, more complex side effects from bugs involving players not being selected for squads they weren't even eligible for and even more stupid forced choice conversations with stupid reactions and stupid side effects.

[Roy Race 9]

Hope we get some news on things that are being added as per the feature request thread for both game /editor as there are some super ideas/requests in those 

would love to see in those threads a poll with top 10 requests so we/you can see what the users want to be added addressed in ascending order.

if it hasnt been mentioned earlier hope the add the pic option is back for your own manager 

[Dagenham_Dave]

3 minutes ago, enigmatic said:

On the other hand, player personalities and interactions have always been by far the most irritating, least convincing, least necessary and most utterly unrelated to how the players actually are in real life part of FM, 

I'm amazed at how people who aren't employed at a real life football club would know this. 

[Cougar2010]

11 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

I'm amazed at how people who aren't employed at a real life football club would know this. 

I'm amazed at how people employed at all can't relate to it.

[themadsheep2001]

2 hours ago, Armistice said:

Any ideas if the requests regarding certain roles for example Halfback role will be tweaked in this FM? @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! asked for this for quite some long time.

 

You know as much as anyone else knows. If it's not in the videos, you'll have to wait till the demo/release to find out.

[enigmatic]

35 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

I'm amazed at how people who aren't employed at a real life football club would know this. 

25 minutes ago, Cougar2010 said:

I'm amazed at how people employed at all can't relate to it.

I'm amazed that anyone who has ever had any kind of interaction with another human being thinks FM conversations, the choices of response forced on you and the inability to resolve them by having future conversations represent realistic approximations of human interaction with somebody you see on a day to day basis.

But my comment was aimed more at the fact that while the research team can do a pretty good job of ensuring FM players perform similarly to their real life counterparts by watching how strong, quick and technical they are, they can't thoroughly assess whether players have a relatively more professional personality than their teammates (unless their teammate is Balotelli), so a lot of the attributes which determine player personalities are guesswork or randomly determined at game start. Which, funnily enough, is a result of researchers not being employed at the club in real life.  

 

 

[Svenc]

3 hours ago, MBarbaric said:

indeed, having xG in the game would explain so much about dominance and there would be a clear stat that shows it. 

if that is true, than it is very narrow minded. football manager games aren't wide spread standard but they still sell  poor jokes aside, xG is very much a standard within match analysis. even Wenger was talking about it in one press conference so I have no idea what is Miles talking about.

Agree, it's slowly starting to enter mainstream media. It's by no means a perfect measure, but compared to the average football pundit "preaching" to millions how football matches would apparently always end in cricket scorelines every single weekend (WALCOTT SHOULD HAVE SCORED THREE!!!), it's not even a contest. Ideally, long-term, in real analysis it's a mix. There's stuff purely statistic models can't display, which is where an educated pundit would come in mixed with the stats. However, at the moment, even the models that exist are so far ahead of the "subjective gut feeling" even of experienced former players oftenly, it's not even up for debate. Of course, in-game, there's another thing. The game would (hopefully) need to calculate a roughly scoring probability based on various factors anyhow. Why not use this to display something more refined as to the "probabilites" in the analysis tool showing the shot map?

As you argue, real managers do use tools that are closing in on the probabilities of a shot. I think what Miles is underestimating, is that quite a few players who "whinge" and bomb his twitter about them scoring little of lots of shots, whilst the AI does score of few -- they are actually experiencing this pretty regularly, not on the odd occasion. Which is in parts fueled by tactics shared on (affiliate) fan sites or the Workshops, oft having shaky defensive set-ups (oft no "defending" players basically outside of the centre backs), plus attacking-wise struggling for space against a specific type of opponent. I couldn't relate until I tried them out. At the moment, the match report and feedback is really like this: If a side has 40 shots and didn't score, it is unlucky! I've watched a lot of FM matches, and that is far from always the case in the slightest.  So players never question their input, and think the game would screw them over. The subjective CCC stats makes it worse, as nobody seems to understand it anyhow, but that's a different topic.

Edited September 30, 2017 by Svenc

[MoxeysTheName]

It was a nice enough video but was basically a bunch of buzz words cobbled together with nothing real being said. I  shall look forward to future videos exploring some of themes in more depth.

Also, is it just me needing glasses or did anybody else, after watching that video, come away with the opinion that Miles could be a possible contender for the next James Bond?

[phnompenhandy]

^    ^

 

 

 

 

[Jason the Yank]

40 minutes ago, Svenc said:

Agree, it's slowly starting to enter mainstream media. It's by no means a perfect measure, but compared to the average football pundit "preaching" to millions how football matches would apparently always end in cricket scorelines every single weekend (WALCOTT SHOULD HAVE SCORED THREE!!!), it's not even a contest. Ideally, long-term, in real analysis it's a mix. There's stuff purely statistic models can't display, which is where an educated pundit would come in mixed with the stats. However, at the moment, even the models that exist are so far ahead of the "subjective gut feeling" even of experienced former players oftenly, it's not even up for debate.

Advanced analytics still gets resistance in baseball and "Moneyball" was 15 years ago.

 

[nie jem frytek]

This Dynamics sounds like more micromanagement for human players and more opportunities for A.I. to fail.

[Svenc]

1 hour ago, Jason the Yank said:

Advanced analytics still gets resistance in baseball and "Moneyball" was 15 years ago.

 

Also pretty epic. https://twitter.com/dsantana310/status/910234624277741570/video/1 In football (the real one ) it'd the type who would rant about a lack of passion and grit and determination as the root cause of all failings for the English National Football Team since Sir Alf's Wingless Wonders '66.  In the current climate those blokes still find an audience as there is an inherently mistrust (nothing bad about that, a blind belief in purely stats is never a good thing), a desire to keep things as they've always been. And because useful metrics in particular as to football have only entered the arena in more recent times. In a few years from now they will be everbody's laughing stock though and be forced to play Football Manager to stay into a (fictional) spotlight -- where they can still hold onto the good old times and log onto Miles Twitter to flame him with their opinions how the game were broken as their forward should have clearly scored at least 8 out of the 10 one on ones he just had, because that's just his football he's known for fifty years, ya know!

Btw, the game is entirely maths and quants anyhow, so the designer's better go by some analytics, or else they create a complete fantasy. [Ok, that's basically been 3 more posts on that topic of lacking in-game stats/feedback, but this will be my last, promise].

Edited September 30, 2017 by Svenc

[vonreichsm]

Wow. Nice SI. Can´t wait for the fm18. It looks realy nice for me. You did a good job i think for now.

[serif]

12 hours ago, samuelawachie said:

If that player relationship thingy turns out to be what we think it is with the lines; that, and all the other small incremental changes the game has had over the years could make me leave my beloved FM 2014 save at long last. 

I'm scared though, coz it's gonna be a steep learning curve going from FM14 to 18

Trust me, it won't be. Going from 14 to 17 was a breeze for me. This franchise develops very slowly. I was even under the impression certain parts of tactics were simpler, and hardly for the better.

The meat of 18 should lie in the AI and tactical changes, although the latter didn't sound extensive. I paused the video at each screenshot of new features at the end and am not expecting much out of those things.

I also find it strange how little this game progresses visually in matches. Trying to be toaster proof or what is happening here?

[Rashidi]

1 hour ago, serif said:

Trust me, it won't be. Going from 14 to 17 was a breeze for me. This franchise develops very slowly. I was even under the impression certain parts of tactics were simpler, and hardly for the better.

The meat of 18 should lie in the AI and tactical changes, although the latter didn't sound extensive. I paused the video at each screenshot of new features at the end and am not expecting much out of those things.

I also find it strange how little this game progresses visually in matches. Trying to be toaster proof or what is happening here?

TBH the UI overhaul for the tactics screen makes me excited. It should make it easier for people to see how well their tactics have done in the past visually with the analysis feedback. Plus it looks tantalising. Been a subject of these teasers for so long that I know, when SI says "Work in Progress" some of those screens can change between now and November.

The medical centre and the new scouting options have me excited. Dynamics looks awesome and it's success will depend on how integrated it is with tactics and training. FD mode definitely looks promising, though making a judgement based on the two screenshots would be premature.

One change I definitely don't like is the matchday screen, separating the time bar from the commentary is a big change. I liked it the way it was. Overall though it's got me excited.

[cmontheloknow]

20 hours ago, endtime said:

Right, but do lower league clubs even use scouts? Where would an amateur or semi-pro club scout, if they wouldn't even be able to attract players from outside their immediate area?

From my experience of being involved at a semi-pro club (in a non-coaching capacity), one of the coaching staff might scout games if an upcoming opposition are an unknown quantity. The coaching staff will also have contacts that will provide them with updates and info - it's more of a network than a scouting set-up. But ultimately it's the old-fashioned way - watching matches where they can - going to U20 matches, going to anything when their own club are not playing, taking tips, getting lads in on trial and so on. Some managers will have someone outwith the club that they use to scout on a regular basis.

[Spurs08]

15 hours ago, Javier said:

Will we be able to use editor files on FM Touch? At this point that's all I care about.

It's highly unlikely and you probably never will. If they let you use editor files, the paid DLC for that version of the game becomes pointless and they lose revenue.

[Spurs08]

2 hours ago, serif said:

Trust me, it won't be. Going from 14 to 17 was a breeze for me. This franchise develops very slowly. I was even under the impression certain parts of tactics were simpler, and hardly for the better.

The meat of 18 should lie in the AI and tactical changes, although the latter didn't sound extensive. I paused the video at each screenshot of new features at the end and am not expecting much out of those things.

I also find it strange how little this game progresses visually in matches. Trying to be toaster proof or what is happening here?

Toaster-proofing as well as generally not being a priority. Through Steam SI can see the specs of all their players, and a very large portion of FM players are playing on literal potatoes, so a fancy new graphical set-up will probably lose rather than gain sales for them.

[Per Annum]

1 hour ago, Rashidi said:

 

One change I definitely don't like is the matchday screen, separating the time bar from the commentary is a big change. I liked it the way it was. Overall though it's got me excited.

I feel a lot of that kind of stuff is changing for the sake of it, ironically enough to combat those saying it's just a reskin. 

Edited September 30, 2017 by Per Annum

[RiverReveal666]

Which has been a major problem for the series since FM14 in my opinion.

Is the dynamics actually new? Or a UI representation of the current system in place? As far as I can see FM17 has player groups, fallout with one and a certain group side with the player.

[Jogo Bonito]

I like the idea behind the video and think there is quite a lot of developments indicated. If they're balanced well, then this could make the game much more challenging.

I would have thought that those 'link' indicators on the pitch indicate more 'working partnerships'. That would explain the two centre-backs working in tandem, the two central midfielders similarly, and would explain why the right-back and 'supporting' winger on the right are linking - but not the left-back and the attacking left winger. If that was the case, it does leave a question mark about the striking partnership though - maybe those positions are meant to be more rigid? Alternatively it may be due to the off-field relationships - e.g. the two centre-backs train, socialize and then play together, therefore on the pitch they're more likely to 'look out for their mate'. Or perhaps the two players on the right have been in the squad for a similar length of time, played together for years, so it's just an on-pitch understanding and relationship. That is one of a number of things that are intriguing, and I'm sure all will become clear soon enough.

All looks promising to me so far if executed well.

[gavo01]

I didn't see any reference to international management in that video but I suppose that would be expecting too much at this early stage.

[calcal]

16 minutes ago, gavo01 said:

I didn't see any reference to international management in that video but I suppose that would be expecting too much at this early stage.

Hope there is some improvements in this area, I love taking on the England job!

[Superman_uk123]

10 minutes ago, calcal said:

Hope there is some improvements in this area, I love taking on the England job!

Said no one in real life! 😁😉

This video has got me excited for the new version, looking forward to seeing just what all the changes actually are, and how they affect things in this version.

[Woodmansee]

Taking preorders without any details and now this corny video leads me to believe there are no real improvements this year, the same as the last two years.

Stop wasting money on corny videos and make something useful, IE whats in the product.

[Javier]

3 hours ago, Spurs08 said:

It's highly unlikely and you probably never will. If they let you use editor files, the paid DLC for that version of the game becomes pointless and they lose revenue.

What DLC are you talking about?

[HUNT3R]

2 minutes ago, Woodmansee said:

Taking preorders without any details and now this corny video leads me to believe there are no real improvements this year, the same as the last two years.

Stop wasting money on corny videos and make something useful, IE whats in the product.

No offence, but did you even watch the corny video? There are quite a few new things and improvements. A couple of big changes mentioned too.

There will also be videos in the coming weeks that go into detail about new features. As the video and thread title indicates, these were just headlines, ie feature announcements.

[HUNT3R]

Just now, Javier said:

What DLC are you talking about?

He's talking about the unlockables. This isn't the big reason there's no editor and SI have said that they are listening to ideas around an editor and what users would want to use it for, so nothing has been ruled out either.

 

[Chesters86]

Some interesting new features there, but nothing yet to make me jump on and pre-order FM 2018. I usually play FMT so not sure how dynamics will work (if at all) in that version of the game. Looking forward to some more over the next few weeks.