Football Manager 2021 Early Access Beta Official Feedback Thread

[Mr Master]

Is there a way to get the light skin?

The dark background with white text is hurting my eyes . And yes, I don't use dark mode, anywhere!

[Rexel1892]

I've not played FM very much for a good few years now other than some short FM19 save games and a brief flirtation with the FM20 demo so can't comment on how much it has changed since last year but so far I am loving FM21. The match engine feels much more fluid and realistic and the interactions (although they will probably get repetitive) feel more immersive than previously as well as more nuanced in what response is the "correct" one to choose.. I also really like the new match UI - I get why others do not but for me it is more comparable to what an actual manager will see and do.

Is it just me or do shouts seem to have a more instant and clear effect on the team?

A few minor(ish) changes I would like to see:

• Expand the functionality of the manager's tablet in matches so that it is a more direct replacement for the widgets. 
• Automatically show the expected opposition formation prematch. The teamsheet looks great but it would be good if that section cycled between both graphics. 
• Ability to switch the position of two players currently on the pitch by clicking one of their names, similar to a substitution. 
• Reintroduction of the match timeline with an option to hide it. 

Oh and I am really impressed by the processing speed. I expected my laptop to struggle but it is a completely smooth experience. 

[g-meechan2]

Pros:

• Interaction with team, players, media is much improved
• Recruitment meetings are a nice addition
• The player roles animations are brilliant
• The role ability stars are an improvement
• Overall the game feels smoother and quicker
• I'm a big fan of the quick sub/player instruction pop up menu

Cons:

• During match {commentary only}  - Not being able to minimise the dugout and touchline tablet - the commentary is most important yet this is smallest thing on screen. Should have the option to drop the tablet and dugout and bring it up when needed.
• Could have a more varied colour scheme, depending on what team you are etc.
• Not a fan of the new condition hearts, % was much better in my opinion

 

The match screen aside I think the game is excellent. Loads of improvement on last year and have really been enjoying it and I really appreciate the work that goes in to it,

[zep81]

I have asked the board if i can sign more coaches, but i have not heard back from them in over three weeks. Is this a bug i should report?

[zakbrown96]

2 minutes ago, zep81 said:

I have asked the board if i can sign more coaches, but i have not heard back from them in over three weeks. Is this a bug i should report?

Yeah report that with a save before you asked if possible, So they can reproduce it

[zep81]

1 minute ago, zakbrown96 said:

Yeah report that with a save before you asked if possible, So they can reproduce it

Ah i don't think i have a save before i asked tbh.

[anagain]

7 minutes ago, zakbrown96 said:

Might be worth  setting up a thread in bug forum you never know they might change something as I’m the same with bright lights. 

Extra skins will be added to the game at final release. It's not a bug, just design choices, hence I think it's just a feedback thing.

To go from a dark purple to to a bright white window is never good.

I just think SI need to be more aware of what this does to eyes next FM. They should really have an obligation to design the look their game with player's vision in mind. Change the bright white to a blue, for example.

I did a quick little mock up with paint (yes, I know it looks awful, but it's just an idea).

 

Top is how the game normally is. The below image is where I changed the white to the purple that highlights current message. It's night and day.

Yes, they'll probably add that at release, but maybe they can give users the option to change this setting easily themselves in preferences. You can alrady change the text colours.

[zakbrown96]

Just now, zep81 said:

Ah i don't think i have a save before i asked tbh.

In that case a current save might be fine. They’ll ask for what they want don’t worry lol

[roykela]

Custom views. It's a bloody nightmare....STILL!!!

Trying to adjust columns result in a random column being adjusted instead. And according to which alignment? Right? Left? Who knows?!
Sometimes the right column is chosen. But same problem there. Sometimes it'll adjust to the left. Sometimes to the right.
Or...it might not do anything at all but trying to move the entire column to wherever i'm dragging.

Go back/forward one page and back to the page again to adjust, and it's the same problem. The column i tried to adjust before might be working alright now but this time it's another attempted column.
The fun part.....it's seemingly random. I can't recreate it on a consistent basis.

I don't rant too often here but this one pain in the butt problem is straight up pissing me off now.
So many years with this. Reported time and time again over the years. I have no desire to report it again.

Sorry. I'll move on now. I'll be back with more constructive feeback at some other point. I'll be a lot happier. I promise.

[bobbyb12345]

Really not sure about "gestures" so far. Tone felt a bit odd but it was at least coherent. There's eight possible gestures in the game I've just drawn and it's not clear how each of them is different.

What next year? Options for when to breath? Touch your hair?

[LucasBR]

I imagine someone might have said this already but the 2D pitch is very out of proportion on the screen, it's very small and when you stretch it the comments stay in front of the side line.

[zakbrown96]

1 minute ago, bobbyb12345 said:

Really not sure about "gestures" so far. Tone felt a bit odd but it was at least coherent. There's eight possible gestures in the game I've just drawn and it's not clear how each of them is different.

What next year? Options for when to breath? Touch your hair?

Has anyone else had to Google what some of the gestures mean, or just me?! 

[Zemahh]

14 minutes ago, 91427 said:

Strikers on attack still not dropping back at all is very annoying.

Is that not the whole point of an attacking striker? Otherwise, how would I instruct my striker to stay up and wait for counters, if he dropped deep even on Attack duty?

If you want a striker to drop back, I think a PF-Su/De with Lower Line Of Engagement does that just fine.

[HUNT3R]

3 minutes ago, bobbyb12345 said:

Really not sure about "gestures" so far. Tone felt a bit odd but it was at least coherent. There's eight possible gestures in the game I've just drawn and it's not clear how each of them is different.

What next year? Options for when to breath? Touch your hair?

So there are 32 gestures in total, not 8.

If you want to see more, hover your mouse over a gesture to get a tooltip and more info.

[Mandy42]

3 minutes ago, zakbrown96 said:

Has anyone else had to Google what some of the gestures mean, or just me?! 

I want to know why I can throw a water bottle at my players in the dressing room but not at journalists in a press conference

[anagain]

Just now, Mandy42 said:

I want to know why I can throw a water bottle at my players in the dressing room but not at journalists in a press conference

I think you might end up in the papers for the wrong reasons for that, lol.

Would be fun though.

Maybe an option to be sarcasticly demaning, or something.

[GOODNAME]

Please fix the orange/brown colors in the crowd

 

[Tiger666]

15 minutes ago, roykela said:

Custom views. It's a bloody nightmare....STILL!!!

Trying to adjust columns result in a random column being adjusted instead. And according to which alignment? Right? Left? Who knows?!
Sometimes the right column is chosen. But same problem there. Sometimes it'll adjust to the left. Sometimes to the right.
Or...it might not do anything at all but trying to move the entire column to wherever i'm dragging.

Go back/forward one page and back to the page again to adjust, and it's the same problem. The column i tried to adjust before might be working alright now but this time it's another attempted column.
The fun part.....it's seemingly random. I can't recreate it on a consistent basis.

I don't rant too often here but this one pain in the butt problem is straight up pissing me off now.
So many years with this. Reported time and time again over the years. I have no desire to report it again.

Sorry. I'll move on now. I'll be back with more constructive feeback at some other point. I'll be a lot happier. I promise.

Been like this for years, it's always raised and never gets fixed. It's infuriating.

[Seb Wassell]

25 minutes ago, Rexel1892 said:

Is it just me or do shouts seem to have a more instant and clear effect on the team?

Indeed! We haven't just refreshed the list, we've reworked the reactions under the hood.

26 minutes ago, Rexel1892 said:

• Automatically show the expected opposition formation prematch. The teamsheet looks great but it would be good if that section cycled between both graphics. 

Seen this one mentioned a couple of times, so would just like to address it:

The TV style lineup (in formation) is only available for important televised matches or highlights watched on Comprehensive and above. The teamsheet style lineup is always shown as part of the pre-match flow and is what a Manager would actually receive in reality, where they have no knowledge of the opposition formation until the match kicks off and they/their staff can observe it (see the Touchline Tablet). Note that the TV formation is a best guess from the pundits and may not actually be how the team are going to lineup.

[Seb Wassell]

12 minutes ago, Mandy42 said:

I want to know why I can throw a water bottle at my players in the dressing room but not at journalists in a press conference

You didn't bring a water bottle with you.

[Seb Wassell]

17 minutes ago, zakbrown96 said:

Has anyone else had to Google what some of the gestures mean, or just me?! 

Try hovering over them 

[Zemahh]

18 minutes ago, HUNT3R said:

If you want to see more, hover your mouse over a gesture to get a tooltip and more info.

Could be just me, but the tooltip doesn't add much clarity at all. I feel they could include more keywords such as "calmly", "aggressively", "passionately" etc., rather than tell me that an Outstretched Arms gesture will make me outstretch my arms. I end up not bothering with gestures at all, because having to slow down my workflow significantly to actually have a think about which gesture to use, just isn't my cup of tea. I know it's not that difficult, but text descriptions were much more intuitive and easier to understand (especially for non-English speakers). There's a thin line between making something more immersive and making it a chore.

And press conferences are along the same lines for me. While the first two or three were interesting, there's simply no way I'm going to be reading all that text week in and week out during my 10+ season saves (I mean, even the SI guys delegated them immediately on the First Look livestream ). That said, I do understand some people enjoy playing at a slower pace and immersing themselves completely, so on that front they're definitely an improvement.

Edited November 11, 2020 by Zemahh

[SmurfDude]

The auto sizing of columns is a bit off. I loaded the game up on a super widescreen monitor, and on the tactics screen when I resized the columns the Name column was incredibly cramped so the text was unreadable, while the condition column had a lot of empty space despite needing the least space 

[anagain]

I have just done my first team meeting.

1. I love the look of it. Everything from the line up of players to myself sat next to my asst man.

2. The way you can easily see how players are feeling is great.

3. The line up of available options for things to say at the bottom is nicely done.

4. The backing artwork is very nice. The mugs are a little squashed though. 

5. One thing I would like to see is a better end to the meeting. I spoike about the code of conduct, then got a response and the meeting just ended. I'd like to be able to maybe say good bye to the lads and push them to perform in training, or soemthing.

[Ruh Roh]

Yeah, I'm having trouble with the columns too. I thought they mostly got that right (finally) in FM20 so maybe it won't be a hard fix.

[enigma6969]

I must say that I am really enjoying this game. It is really the best so far, much improvements since last year specially in match play. Great job SI, thanks.

[Wavelberry]

Wavelberry does not have the ability to hang at this level. How is he starting?

 

MATE! TWEET SUMMAT NEW LIKE!

[eusebio1]

does anyone else have problems with using their custom logos? I moved them from my FM20 folder to my FM21 folder but they dont show up ingame.

[Rexel1892]

5 minutes ago, Seb Wassell said:

Seen this one mentioned a couple of times, so would just like to address it:

The TV style lineup (in formation) is only available for important televised matches or highlights watched on Comprehensive and above. The teamsheet style lineup is always shown as part of the pre-match flow and is what a Manager would actually receive in reality, where they have no knowledge of the opposition formation until the match kicks off and they/their staff can observe it (see the Touchline Tablet). Note that the TV formation is a best guess from the pundits and may not actually be how the team are going to lineup.

That's a fair point and fits with why I like the new interface, i.e. a manager wouldn't have a large amount of information constantly in front of them but would be able to pull out their iPad. That said, I would expect my coaches to have some insight into the expected formation based on the teamsheet. Personally I like to automatically see a last minute indication of the likely formation so that I have an initial feel for what might be good or bad about my own tactic. 

[johnhughthom]

1 minute ago, eusebio1 said:

does anyone else have problems with using their custom logos? I moved them from my FM20 folder to my FM21 folder but they dont show up ingame.

Don't forget to change your settings.

[eusebio1]

vor 1 Minute schrieb johnhughthom:

Don't forget to change your settings.

as in reloading the skin? Thats what I did - no change though. Or is there anything else I need to do?

[Seb Wassell]

8 minutes ago, Zemahh said:

Could be just me, but the tooltip doesn't add much clarity at all. I feel they could include more keywords such as "calmly", "aggressively", "passionately" etc., rather than tell me that an Outstretched Arms gesture will make me outstretch my arms. I end up not bothering with gestures at all, because having to slow down my workflow significantly to actually have a think about which gesture to use, just isn't my cup of tea. I know it's not that difficult, but text descriptions were much more intuitive and easier to understand (especially for non-English speakers). There's a thin line between making something more immersive and making it a chore.

We deliberately avoided using such adjectives so as to not confuse them with the old Tone system, which operated quite differently.

There are some keywords included in the description to help guide you when deciding how to act, such as "spread open arms wide in a disarming manner".

[Johnny Ace]

So we can't praise player training now? You could abuse the hell out of it so I'm not surprised

Another reason I'm missing the timeline, I'm watching some Rashidi while I'm playing & flicking between the two, we score whilst I'm on YouTube & normally you just look to the timeline, click the goal & replay, now I can't do that or have any clue when we scored, I've gotta click about to find it  

Can't you slow down the speed of replays either? I always have them on slo-mo

Edited November 11, 2020 by Johnny Ace

[M16h_11]

Still a problem with Nvida? My match engine is really laggy/jumpy

[johnhughthom]

1 minute ago, eusebio1 said:

as in reloading the skin? Thats what I did - no change though. Or is there anything else I need to do?

Make sure 'Use caching to decrease page loading times' in unticked, and 'Reload skin when confirming changes in Preferences' is ticked.

[destmez]

6 hours ago, KiLLu12258 said:

neuer invented a new playstyle for goalkeeprs with his outstanding abilitys with the ball.

 

thats nothing new, hes passing should be at 18.

🤣 

[FloridaCanary87]

29 minutes ago, GOODNAME said:

Please fix the orange/brown colors in the crowd

 

I never noticed this before... it doesn't bother me too much. Not everyone at a game is going to be wearing the team's colours. But I guess it could use some variety.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Not sure if this is by design, but the new role suitability stars are causing a bit of a headache. On my squad depth screen, my two best right wingers are both central midfielders naturally, whereas my one natural right winger is listed 4th in the depth chart despite being good in the role. 

Is this a deliberate change to indicate more fluidity in a player's suitability for the role, or are there gremlins afoot?

Edited November 11, 2020 by Dagenham_Dave

[Freakiie]

Did I win FM21?

Kinda surprised this already pops up after not even half a season. Especially when managing a club like Bayern, you'd think you'd have to show something a bit more spectacular than "do well in the league with the team expected to dominate the league".

[3maldini3]

13 hours ago, Babis71988 said:

The only thing i can mention is skin color. Tired eyes after 1 hour....especially at night. 

I am glad to hear it's not only me.

This whole purple themed UI is so hard from me and personally I just don't understand why SI went that way. Not only I hate the way it looks, it makes me feel like it's the same version as last year (and the year before?).

[HUNT3R]

6 minutes ago, turgi said:

I am glad to hear it's not only me.

This whole purple themed UI is so hard from me and personally I just don't understand why SI went that way. Not only I hate the way it looks, it makes me feel like it's the same version as last year (and the year before?).

The purple theme is recent. It's a darker purple which is much easier on the eye and personally speaking, less arcade-like. What's 'hard on the eye' is the inbox item white window and the calendar screen. For whatever reason they are what they are. We may get alternatives or we could get other skins. Overall it looks very slick and professional, but I have issues with those 2 screens/instances.

[Seb Wassell]

7 minutes ago, Freakiie said:

Did I win FM21?

Kinda surprised this already pops up after not even half a season. Especially when managing a club like Bayern, you'd think you'd have to show something a bit more spectacular than "do well in the league with the team expected to dominate the league".

Worth raising in our bugs section if you have the save please 

[janrzm]

First impressions are very good. I think there are one or two UI bits I'd want to see tweaked but I think its important with new layouts etc that you at least give them a bit of time. It's human nature to resist those kinds of changes, it is mine anyway!!!

I really like the recruitment/planning meeting pre-season, not perfect but definitely a big move in the right direction.

One big missed opportunity and something I think I've banged on about plenty before is the correlation between your club vision and the players suggested by your DOF. It simply must align. If the club vision is to sign young players for the future or players of Portuguese nationality, I don't want my DOF putting forward old players of every other nationality except that. Please link these elements. 

Thanks for the hard work.

Edited November 11, 2020 by janrzm

[zakbrown96]

31 minutes ago, Seb Wassell said:

Try hovering over them 

Learn something new everyday 😂😂

[eusebio1]

vor 18 Minuten schrieb johnhughthom:

Make sure 'Use caching to decrease page loading times' in unticked, and 'Reload skin when confirming changes in Preferences' is ticked.

that fixed it! Thanks mate, you made my evening!

[BeadyRoller]

Anyone else getting slightly annoyed with the amount of blocked shocks they are seeing?

[fraz86]

During the match the widget panel that has formation, players stats etc, on my laptop i only have two on screen but noticed when watching others on twitch some have three different panels. How do you change this or is it because of my laptop?

[HUNT3R]

Just now, fraz86 said:

During the match the widget panel that has formation, players stats etc, on my laptop i only have two on screen but noticed when watching others on twitch some have three different panels. How do you change this or is it because of my laptop?

It's a resolution/zoom thing.

[anagain]

Press Conferences

1. I like the new way of presenting things. It is tenfold better than the old press conferences.

2. I like that information about players concerned is shown.

3. One thing I might change is that there is a lot of open space between the questions and the journalists. I can imagine this is especially so at small clubs. The background is as nice as the team meeting one, but I'd like the option to drag the journalist participants down the screen.

4. I found myself forgetting to look up at the question because my eye was drawn to the answers. With the questions so far up the screen they felt a little disconnected. I feel like I am now forcing myself to look up and read the questions/check the journalist.

I guess this partly because I am so used to doing press conferences that I can often tell a question from the answer. With time I will come to use the screen, but I feel that unless the number of journalists fills the screen, as it may at a bigger club, being able to drag them down to be closer to the questions, and in eye view, would be a lovely touch.

5. Now on to some of the gestures. Firstly, I think the use of gestures is a great idea, and a massive improvement on previous years from what little I have seen.

However, there is one thing I don't like. I got asked if Joshua King might leave. I'd already told the press I wouldn't be talking about transfers so wanted to be vague on my answer. I wanted to use the neutral option with a wagging finger. To me wagging my finger means I'm not talking about that or that I told them we wouldn't be discussing that. I disappointed me then that I could only use the negative options with wag finger.

I guess the use of "wag finger" is a little ambiguous, but you do have to choose a phrase. It's also possible to use it in different ways and so I don't see why neutral options are greyed out. Neutral should cover all gestures in my opinion.

I also don't understand why saying I want to move Joshua on is negative. In real life it was widely speculated that Joshua Kingw anted to move on, so why is there not a way to say that. I feel that is an option that has been absent from FM for a time. I had moments in FM20 where players moved on and I was then confronted by players who were annoyed at that. I feel that FM needs to better represent that players often can not be kept at a club. I believe teammates would know that too.

It is something that could be bought in for future FMs. FM has done so much for player/manager interraction, and it is a continuing process.

6. Can we maybe have the option to rename journalists in game? To be honest, I don't know if the names are random or in the editor. Sometimes we will know the names of journalists and it would be nice to put their name in there. There is also a case for being able to give them a nickname to remind yourself of past interractions, maybe.

[mdshep]

We need to be able to customise which information is given to us in "The Dugout". Some of information is just not relevant, and not realistic. There is no way that Pep's AM would interrupt him in the Man City vs Man Utd game to say Aston Villa are 1-0 up against Burnley, or to say, as things stand we are down to 2nd, etc. I only want information that is relevant to the match I am playing with the ability to view those other outside my match info if I wish (in my example Pep would ask his AM if he wanted to know other scores).