Football Manager 2018 *Official* Feedback Thread

[Danchinaski]

Can anyone confirm whether or not the horrid stadium expansion bug is still in the game? This usually only becomes apparent after a few seasons in, and can't be gauged by the demo. I won't be buying this edition until l know that isn't there for a third consecutive year.

[MindstateNL]

I'm enjoying the game a lot (as usual), but I have to agree with one main thing: The Match Engine.

Since its introduction in 2009, it simply hasn't changed all that much. Sure, its finetuned and has some new animations, but in 9 (!) years it looks almost the same:

Check this compilation of the ME from 2009 to 2017

I'm aware the engine isn't FM's selling point, and I'm not expecting video-realistic movement, but it's currently not looking much better than FIFA98; a game that came out 20 years ago. Especially now that the 2D view is very much phased out, SI really needs to step up its game in that regard. 

[Herbie2100]

11 hours ago, MindstateNL said:

I'm enjoying the game a lot (as usual), but I have to agree with one main thing: The Match Engine.

Since its introduction in 2009, it simply hasn't changed all that much. Sure, its finetuned and has some new animations, but in 9 (!) years it looks almost the same:

Check this compilation of the ME from 2009 to 2017

I'm aware the engine isn't FM's selling point, and I'm not expecting video-realistic movement, but it's currently not looking much better than FIFA98; a game that came out 20 years ago. Especially now that the 2D view is very much phased out, SI really needs to step up its game in that regard. 

I'm gonne quote myself from another thread:

 

18 hours ago, Lexis said:

Hello Sega,

3D Engine. SEGA team, you clearly have access to much more powerful engines. It's 2017 and we're given 1998 graphics. You called the engine a big improvement over the previous version. The improvement is marginal, at best, when it comes to the graphical aspect. Why aren't we getting a proper graphical engine? I would really like to understand the reasoning behind. It's 2017 and I can't see a player perform an actual skill move. I can't see a lobbed penalty kick. I can't see an over the wall and down placed free kick. They are all the same, every time, every year.

"Cleon said in the Tactics sub forum, that they are working on a completly new engine and that it will probably first be available at the earliest FM2020."

 

"There is not much more they can do with the current engine, it does not support the things of todays football."

Edited November 19, 2017 by Herbie2100

[masno]

I played this year and I got to the conclusion that I will wait until the game became a total football simulation, not just a club management.

In the point of transfers,team meetings,press and stuff like that, the game is satisfatory, have a lot of depth in those points.

But when we got on the tactic/match part... man,that hurts. The role system isn't good at all, I see plenty of people grab just the basics roles (like central midfielder) and customize it. Teams in rl don't go to players and say " you gonna play as winger today,no no, go inside foward", they gave instructions. One example is Neymar on Barcelona, he wasn't a winger, because he cut to midfield, and he wasn't a inside foward too, because he wasn't everytime cuting inside, so, what he is in the role system?

Nothing, because he had instructions to play on a certain way that is not general to became a role, and thats a big failure on the actual tactics.

The ME looks better than last year, but players still like robots, what differs ronaldo and messi from others in the actual game? Their status, and just that,they are not unique, they are just a player with great status,nothing more than that, and this is a major failure on the football side. Football is marqued for great players, players taht could do things that other couldn't do. Look at Ronaldinho Gaúcho, he could do a lot of dribbling without lose the ball, do incredible passes and scores goals, thats unique, but tht can't happen on FM in its actual form.

When this game became a real FOOTBALL simulator, and not a management simulator, than I would be pleased to play fm again.

[pablito15]

The lag makes it unenjoyable. Can't get a refund because I've played more than two hours.

[Trainspotting90]

for me 3d is good, no problem... the problem is the game speed, too slow, compared whit fm16 and fm17 is too slow...

[ChelseaSince86]

Playing along fine (with small lag), comes to January 1st 2019 and the lag is now absolutely horrendous.  Every option on the left hand column takes a good 4-5 seconds to load.  Seriously bad

[Npil]

9 hours ago, JLawson89 said:

"One massive in-game frustration this year is the in-match 3d stadium design for Mansfield Town. Previous FM versions have been as close as it can be to the real look so there really was no need to change it in FM18. I understand improvements to graphics year on year etc but why has the stadium look been changed so much to a degree that it is unrecognisable in FM18. The main stand in FM18 looks embarrassing. It makes no sense when previous years there has been nothing wrong with the look of the stadium.

Our stadium now this year has a main stand that is half the size of the bottom tier and also roof posts all around the stadium in the seating areas like it is an old 1950's built stadium lol Images attached show the huge difference ingame 3d vs real.

Why also are the borders to the stands coloured yellow??? 

Surely this can be fixed easily at SI to something more realistic and fair representation to the club? Currently it just ruins the experience if you are wanting to play with your home town club...."

 

 

Also the pitch of stadiums are not so realistic as fm17-16 with darker color of grass and when it rains the differences in pitch. The colour of pitch in fm18 is the same to all stadiums and to all weather conditions , only shadows changes . (sorry about my english ,I can't speak so fluently) . 

Edited November 19, 2017 by Npil
ok

[nangaparbat]

The simulation is still slow as hell and frankly not up to scratch for 2018.

Are there any plans to look at this?

[Dagenham_Dave]

Well, despite the (many) annoyances in this year's game, I'm generally enjoying it now. Helped by having a good save on the go undoubtedly, but underneath all the little niggles, there's a really good game bursting to get out. It's such a shame such obvious small bugs and poor UI design got through testing this year. I felt the last three editions were far more stable at this stage. I reckon the 2019 game will be the best in the series if they further develop the (mostly) excellent features and iron out the problems. 

[CapAtom]

I would agree with Dagenham Dave that there is a really good game hiding beneath the surface but unfortunately it's hidden beneath a lot of stuff that just makes it a real chore to play.  The matches really, really drag with the duffness of the UI, the weird format of going through a game, and odd lags where nothing appears to be happening. The whole thing makes actually playing through a match an oddly disconnecting experience with me in turns waiting in boredom, cursing at the screen in frustration, and generally feeling like I'm not really that involved.

Edited November 19, 2017 by CapAtom

[rdbayly]

I agree there is a great game in here somewhere. I just can't get into a solid save that feels worthy of time and emotion. Never found it so hard play decent football and score goals. I'm applying the core principles I've learned over the years, but glaring passing errors and zero off the ball movement punctuate every match.

[sifrow]

Has something changed for penalties on 18.1.2?

Last three have all been hit straight down the middle at chest height, two hit the goalie, third one was caught.

On 18.1.1 had 5 of 7 shot to the takers right, of those 3 hit the post and came straight back at the taker (who stood still and did not react at all).

This is both player and AI teams.

[Danchinaski]

2 hours ago, sifrow said:

 

On 18.1.1 had 5 of 7 shot to the takers right, of those 3 hit the post and came straight back at the taker (who stood still and did not react at all).

 

These are the rules of a penalty; after taking a penalty, the taker can't touch the ball until another player has touched it. If the keeper saves he can score the rebound, but if it comes back off the frame of the goal the taker cannot touch the ball, or an indirect free kick is awarded to defending team. This probably explains why the taker didn't react to a penalty which rebounded back to him off the post.

[sifrow]

6 minutes ago, Danchinaski said:

These are the rules of a penalty; after taking a penalty, the taker can't touch the ball until another player has touched it. If the keeper saves he can score the rebound, but if it comes back off the frame of the goal the taker cannot touch the ball, or an indirect free kick is awarded to defending team. This probably explains why the taker didn't react to a penalty which rebounded back to him off the post.

You would think they would move out of the way of the ball though, it was coming straight back at the taker.

[zio_luca]

I'm really disappointed with this FM18. I don't like this M.E.,players shot always out and they moving like deficient.  

 

[Giangy]

16 hours ago, Trainspotting90 said:

for me 3d is good, no problem... the problem is the game speed, too slow, compared whit fm16 and fm17 is too slow...

Ciao Train

What do you mean by slower? Graphically or in a simulated day to another?

[Dagenham_Dave]

Anyone else noticing the insane amount of late goals/chances there are in the matches? Seems like nearly every game the amount of highlights ramp up in the last 5-10 mins. Both for and against, I might add. 

[Trainspotting90]

1 hour ago, Giangy said:

Ciao Train

What do you mean by slower? Graphically or in a simulated day to another?

Ciao Giany

Simulated day to another...

[Guest El Payaso]

Under the hood really good potential with this game but in terms of realistic simulation the game fails once again. Don't really enjoy saving and reloading before every Barcelona and Real game to get them wins and build momentum so that they will perform somehow realistically. And this isn't even possible at times as I would like other big teams in other leagues to perform somewhat realistically. Decided to buy the in-game editor for the first time ever and see if there is something that I am able to make big teams perform better.

I don't know if they are doing this on purpose to even further drop the difficulty level but this part of the game is awful and basically ruins the gaming experience for anyone who wants to have a serious save with realistically simulated gaming world. 

[rdbayly]

36 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Anyone else noticing the insane amount of late goals/chances there are in the matches? Seems like nearly every game the amount of highlights ramp up in the last 5-10 mins. Both for and against, I might add. 

The AI goes berserk in the final 10 mins and I haven’t found a way to stop them scoring yet. Tried changing mentality, duties and roles. All has zero effect. 

I’ve drawn 6 games out of last 7 due to conceding injury time goals.

 

[fm2020.smith]

they deffo need to sort out the missed chances. i dont want to score everytime or increase the goals but the misses are crazy. bellotti with finishing 18 misses by a country mile so often, as i said its not about him scoring but at least make him bring out a save or miss just slightly. 

also the super keepers are a pain, players will shoot at an open goal and the keeper somehow gets across to save out of no where. 

[Tony Wright 747]

I have been playing the demo for over a week now.  I am now going to quit and I won't be buying FM18 at the moment, might give it another look after the final patch Feb/mar time.  Too many crashes, bugs, issues and anoyances for me, things that worked removed and unfinished things added.  There is possibly some building blocks to enable the game to be improved in future years, and if that happens I may well buy again, if not I am not too bothered, I am throughly enjoying my FM16/Fm12 saves.  In my opinion these are the two best games of the series, in their own way very different games, there are things that are better in FM12 than FM16 and vice versa.  Given the way I play the game and given my age if I end up playing these for ever, fine by me.  This is certainly not a rant against SI, Football Manager was/is a fantastic game I am a big FM fan.  I love Football manager, but not this one.

[fm2020.smith]

deffo errors in the world player of the year awards. c ronaldo won the award for 2019 and he has made 3 appearences as he was injured at the beg of the season and out for the whole season. this has been an issue for years where either him or messi win it no matter how they play

[janesy20]

I'm quite enjoying this years game. I've got stuck into an early save with promise as Leeds United. There are many positives for me the tactics screen including team dynamics is a great addition. 

There are a few things like alot of us here that bug me - 

 If you go through the analysis tab in game you can see the roles that the AI use. . In modern football the full back is an attacking, quick and dynamic player used often in attacking play. More often than not they are very, very conservative with either Fb (d) or (s) This means when using attacking/control mentalities it can be very frustrating and often lead to trying to get through a completely locked door. The tactics forum has a very good article on the art of the counter attack. Perhaps start there. Mix it up and confuse the AI, always have them second guessing.

The amount of players in the peripheral who complain about lack of first team football. If they had their way you would have to rotate the entire 11 every game. Making sure they have the correct squad status set is vital and don't take no nonsense when it comes to private chats. I've sold 4 already before January in the first season because of this. Squad turnover will be high until this is addressed in an update I feel.

I didn't realise the lag was widespread. Tonight was the first time I noticed it in my save. It usually does this when my laptop is not on charging. It's mainly during the match watching the game, but I've been wondering in my left click on my mouse hasn't been working either. Hopefully this is temporary and sorted soon.

Overall I'm really pleased with the game. When I think back to FMs of old, some of the glaring bugs within the match engine used to drive me insane. I can't wait for a few updates to iron out the odd crease here and there. But kudos I feel this is the most playable early version of FM in a long time.

 

 

[dalesinwales]

I bought a gaming laptop in September, so I could enjoy FM at its fullest after having an adequate PC for years and watching the matches in medium quality. The difference in FM17 was noticeable. With FM18 though, the match action stutters and slows down every now and again, not just in high graphic setting but even in medium. To get around it I even tried watching a game in low setting, but that was so uncomfortable for my ageing eyes I cannot state whether the issue was present or not, as I turned it off.

As I said, the laptop is not yet two months old and, as far as I can tell, everything is up to date on it, including drivers, and it is only used to play FM. It would be good to know if SI will be addressing this, if it's a problem that others have, or, if it's just me, it would be much appreciated if anyone can suggest a solution.

The specs of the HP Omen 17 an014na are as follows: Intel i7-7700HQ 2.8GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD Plus 128GB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Graphics, 8GB Dedicated, Windows 10 Home.

For now I fear I will have to return to FM17, which plays beautifully in comparison.

[ajcardall]

On 16/11/2017 at 12:17, luka_ said:

2. Why is there no scout & shortlist option? Only scout OR shortlist. Doesn't make any sense. If I want to shortlist him, then I have to again find him and scout him or vice versa. Not practical and quite illogical.

There is, to an extent.

Staff > Responsibilities > Personal Assistant > "When you scout a player, add him to your shortlist for...." > Select time span from dropdown

It's a bit round-about, but it does the job. I've always set that to 6 months for as long as it has been available as a setting.

[ajcardall]

On 18/11/2017 at 22:17, DeadContent said:

I'm not sure if it got covered or not,

But why is the Dutch national team called Holland? 

Its supposed to be "Netherlands", Holland is 2 provinces, where as the netherlands is the whole country?

 

This bugs me, too.

 

It would be like calling England East Anglia

[Svenc]

11 hours ago, El Payaso said:

I don't know if they are doing this on purpose to even further drop the difficulty level but this part of the game is awful and basically ruins the gaming experience for anyone who wants to have a serious save with realistically simulated gaming world. 

Don't think so.

Well it could be that or it's that the lads understandably finally had enough of them being accused of giving AI managers an unfair edge -- and now nerfed AI to the levels of sophistication typically to be found in a nonsense post arguing for such an AI edge, so that the suspicious would never arise again. Looking around the "scene": Failure on that front, sadly.

On a more serious note: I don't think it's just purely AI tactical decision making. But it plays its part. The Bayern assistant semi-regularly not advancing any wide guys off his narrow formation -- repeatable. Seen him getting trashed at Pool 0-6 in the CL. Freak scoreline, but without any wide guy ever running the flanks, which happens in top football exactly how often, easy ball drops all over. Next on the list is generally eyeing AI off narrow formations. What's even more wonderfully bizarre is that Juventus/AI Allegri seems to regularly go all newbie naive when chasing a game, switching to a 4-3-3 narrow (3 central forwards), with all guys being pushed up, including the midfielders. Which doesn't merely risk conceding easy breaks, it also -- usually -- makes it harder to find attacking space, like schoolboys giggling forward to score.

None of this can be made on purpose from my end. Few of this was a thing in prior iterations from my experience, at least not as blatantly obvious, and maybe I was just "lucky". You pop up the first game and immediately find stuff like this. It would lead to some wild scorelines / inconsistency all itself though. In Allegri's case, all hugely depending on how the run of play transpires -- if he takes the lead, he may never switch. If the opposition would....



 

Edited November 20, 2017 by Svenc

[zio_luca]

I play with Inter, not with an African team. My players are good, but look shot out?!?!?!?!?!?

 

Score 0 - 0

 

 

Score 0 - 0

 

 

Score 0 - 1

 

 

Score 0 - 1

 

 

If they solve this problem with a patch ok, otherwise i want back my 55€

[pablito15]

6 minutes ago, zio_luca said:

I play with Inter, not with an African team. My players are good, but look shot out?!?!?!?!?!?

 

Score 0 - 0

 

 

Score 0 - 0

 

 

Score 0 - 1

 

 

Score 0 - 1

 

 

If they solve this problem with a patch ok, otherwise i want back my 55€

Squadre Africane nei mondiali: 

5

Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal.

Squade Italiani:

0

"non sono mica un africano e razzista"

[Cleon]

On 19/11/2017 at 01:01, Herbie2100 said:

I'm gonne quote myself from another thread:

 

"Cleon said in the Tactics sub forum, that they are working on a completly new engine and that it will probably first be available at the earliest FM2020."

 

"There is not much more they can do with the current engine, it does not support the things of todays football."

Please don't say what I said out of context and add bits to it. I said they were working on a new engine (as has been mentioned a few times especially from PaulC when he still used to post on here) and I said it was likely still a while away yet. I never gave a date at all as I simply don't know. If you're going to use what I said, at least do it properly. 

[penza]

Have the direct free kicks been fixed in new patch?

[HUNT3R]

2 minutes ago, penza said:

Have the direct free kicks been fixed in new patch?

The changelist is pinned here in GD.

[HUNT3R]

2 hours ago, zio_luca said:

I play with Inter, not with an African team. My players are good, but look shot out?!?!?!?!?!?

 

Score 0 - 0

 

 

Score 0 - 0

 

 

Score 0 - 1

 

 

Score 0 - 1

 

 

If they solve this problem with a patch ok, otherwise i want back my 55€

Assuming "tiri fuori" means shots off target, it seems tactical. I'd suggest having a look at the chances your players are getting and how to improve it. A trip to the Tactics forum may be worthwhile too. 

[JR866Gunner]

On 11/19/2017 at 00:34, MindstateNL said:

I'm enjoying the game a lot (as usual), but I have to agree with one main thing: The Match Engine.

Since its introduction in 2009, it simply hasn't changed all that much. Sure, its finetuned and has some new animations, but in 9 (!) years it looks almost the same:

Check this compilation of the ME from 2009 to 2017

I'm aware the engine isn't FM's selling point, and I'm not expecting video-realistic movement, but it's currently not looking much better than FIFA98; a game that came out 20 years ago. Especially now that the 2D view is very much phased out, SI really needs to step up its game in that regard. 

I don't really agree 100% but I see what you mean, look at 2009 and the players leg movements. It is as if they all move at the same time!! 

It really became apparent the match engine took a turn for the better in 2012 and improved. 

 

I must say that the ME was a little different in FM18 to how I was expecting. I like now that when I watch the game in 2D I can set the 3D highlight. And there is no initial loading after scoring the first goal which is a massive bonus and annoyed me before!

 

So prior to FM18 it went. Loading match, match plays out, first goal scored..... Loading highlight for 30 seconds... then highlight plays. Then from then on every goal showed in 3D instantly so the initial match loading didnt pre load the game ready for the goal highlight whereas the initial loading of the match at the begining in FM18 does it for goals so the minute you score the first goal it immediatly plays the highlight! 

[michaeltmurrayuk]

On 11/18/2017 at 22:17, DeadContent said:

I'm not sure if it got covered or not,

But why is the Dutch national team called Holland? 

Its supposed to be "Netherlands", Holland is 2 provinces, where as the netherlands is the whole country?

 

They are called Holland in game because they are licensed and that is what the Dutch FA wants them to be called.

[bigmattb28]

On 11/19/2017 at 01:34, pablito15 said:

The lag makes it unenjoyable. Can't get a refund because I've played more than two hours.

Can anyone confirm if the lag has been looked at in the new update? The lag between screens for me makes it unplayable! It's not my brand new gaming laptop bought in September as it runs 17 fine, I'm sticking with 17 until the lag issue gets sorted.

[Guest El Payaso]

10 hours ago, Svenc said:

Don't think so.

Well it could be that or it's that the lads understandably finally had enough of them being accused of giving AI managers an unfair edge -- and now nerfed AI to the levels of sophistication typically to be found in a nonsense post arguing for such an AI edge, so that the suspicious would never arise again. Looking around the "scene": Failure on that front, sadly.

What ever they have done, was it on purpose or not this is absolutely the wrong way to go. Making the game even more "user friendly" will never force anyone to learn to play the game "in a right way", well we all know there isn't just one right way to do things sensibly, so let's call it doing things sensibly.

Currently as a human user you are able to do basically everything wrong and still overachieve and this never forces people to study things and improve themselves with the game. And by that the game doesn't simulate the real world as the big teams don't perform like they should as it "would be too hard for some people". 

Maybe it would be time to bring also something to those who have been loyal to the game for ten years and seek some realism and challenge. Here's one who wants that and u think that I've given enough of my money to be able to expect something in return. 

Currently it seems to be only designed for people who want to play it like an arcade game. 

[scottp316]

I can't for the life of me understand why SI abandon a core inherent positive point to FM by having it be able to run on pretty much any computer. The switch to entirely 3d GPU processed rendering makes absolutely no sense. What harm would it be to have the old 'software' rendering without the animations/'match day experience'?

 

Change for the sake of change sake just to make it look like you've done something. I'll be found on FM13.

[oulzac]

Has the points system for Hall of Fame been reworked, or is this a bug? I won a cup in Ireland (Republic of Ireland), and it gave me 1 point in the hall of fame. Shouldn't that be 10 points?

[Firehouse]

So on FM18, when you select that your ass man does the friendly games, your tactic familiarity does not change?

[dking]

Any issues with injuries been brought up? I've never had such a horrendous injury list in any other FM. I now have Nine key players out.

 

[KUBI]

2 minutes ago, dking said:

Any issues with injuries been brought up? I've never had such a horrendous injury list in any other FM. I now have Nine key players out.

 

Bad luck, too high training intensity and to many matches played? There is no injury bug in the game, but some suffer more like in real football.

[dking]

Training intensity isn't high, not a huge amount of matches played (no more than normal). The tactic is fairly intense but nine injuries to key players is pretty extreme. I'd be interested to know if/when something like this has happened in reality. I'm left with two first team players.

[KUBI]

3 minutes ago, dking said:

Training intensity isn't high, not a huge amount of matches played (no more than normal). The tactic is fairly intense but nine injuries to key players is pretty extreme. I'd be interested to know if/when something like this has happened in reality. I'm left with two first team players.

Looks like a very small squad. Are those injuries all long term?

[dking]

I'm left with two good first team players. Injuries are between 2 and 7 weeks.

Trouble is now that I can no longer properly rotate with a lot of games coming up.

Edited November 20, 2017 by dking

[KUBI]

Seems to be very bad luck. For injuries in general are the season figures important and those are usually about 80% of real football. It's easy to avoid a lot of injuries by resting the players and rotate, but it could be that you have a bunch of injury prone players. 

[dking]

Very bad luck indeed. Looks like Woodburns getting a run out!

[KUBI]

I had in the first season just a few injuries, but the only striker who scored regularly got injured for 8 months.