Football Manager 2021 Early Access Beta Official Feedback Thread

[pizzachips]

Man City- 1st season- 31 games gone and their 7th - in the same statement..

" they will be delighted to have kept their heads above water" & "disastrous season"  Wording needs work for such statements

[Nikopol]

me and my friends cant join our online games since this evening

[pizzachips]

.

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2020 by pizzachips
Changed my mind :)

[pizzachips]

11 minutes ago, pizzachips said:

.

 

Edited November 20, 2020 by pizzachips

[SazoJohnno]

9 minutes ago, pizzachips said:

 

You can request this in the future suggestion. 

[alian62]

7 hours ago, prc2cv said:

Problems with the "Benfica B" stadium. "Benfica football campus". 

In some views the illumination hides clearly the pitch.

A bug since FM18 and they refuse to fix it . Good luck in logging it as a bug again . Before any moderator asks i logged this so many times i just gave up . Seems to happen on low attendance stadiums only on the directer view i believe

[2feet]

Does anyone else think penalties interfere too much on the XG graph?

If the game is very close XG wise, but I get a penalty in the first half, then at half time the feedback is that we dominated the game.

But if you take out the huge XG jump from the penalty, then actually the game was very close.

[alian62]

10 hours ago, damjanovski said:

Hello,

Here is my view on the game. I primarily mean on the match engine:

1.  As many of you wrote the match engine itself is improvement form the previous one. However here are my remarks: 

- Inside forwards do not cut inside with the ball or do this very rarely.

- Very few goals from headers even playing with players with high header and jump attributes

- Too many first time passes and shots. This is very anoying for me as the game looks like pinball at times.

- Quick corners - why this is in the game? Never saw quick corners in the reals world except for short corners which in the game I do not find.

- Defenders and generaly players pass the ball withous many mistakes. Another thing that is not the case the the reals world

Please give me your toughts on this.

 

 

My inside forward cuts inside and is my top goal scorer for my team and 3rd in the league . Tactics and depending if your player does what you ask of him . My guy is tops in his work ethic so it might have to do with his attributes .

My headers are fine in my game but corner goals dont exist

Ive seen short corners ?

And my defenders do make mistakes in passing

 

Are you looking at overall stats or the 3D highlights ? Because highlights are just that . Try a full game or comprehensive game

 

[jim owen]

1 hour ago, pizzachips said:

Man City- 1st season- 31 games gone and their 7th - in the same statement..

" they will be delighted to have kept their heads above water" & "disastrous season"  Wording needs work for such statements

Post it in the bugs forum not here. else it wont get fixed

[Timmitou]

I want the circles back so much. Now I just never know if I'm putting players in their best positions and I hate it.

[Timmitou]

Also hate the fact that no circles means there is now no way to find out wether a player prefers to play on the left or on the right in a pairing directly from the tactics screen. 

[samdiatmh]

12 minutes ago, Timmitou said:

Also hate the fact that no circles means there is now no way to find out wether a player prefers to play on the left or on the right in a pairing directly from the tactics screen. 

you know that basically it has literally zero impact for human managers? it's solely to do with AI selections (left footer on left side)
It essentially tells you which is the stronger foot, in case the "footedness" attribute didn't already give it away
 

Edited November 20, 2020 by samdiatmh

[Timmitou]

Just now, samdiatmh said:

you know that basically it has literally zero impact for human managers? it's solely to do with AI selections (left footer on left side)
 

It has no effect on human managers? I am a human manager and I have used it all the time. 

 

1) There is no way to quickly see which player is a left footer and which player is a right footer, the circles kind of did that, which is useful

2) But not all left footers want to play on the left and not all right footers want to play on the right, so saying that information is "only" about that is wrong

[zyfon5]

2 hours ago, Timmitou said:

Also hate the fact that no circles means there is now no way to find out wether a player prefers to play on the left or on the right in a pairing directly from the tactics screen. 

Time to learn new things my friend. Whether a player prefers to play on the left,centre or middle does not matter as long as it is a suitable position in a suitable tactic.

 

3 hours ago, Timmitou said:

I want the circles back so much. Now I just never know if I'm putting players in their best positions and I hate it.

Start learning how to look at attributes. I have played plenty of players in positions where they have less than half circle and yet they perform great. As your saves goes longer, you will also need to retrain players as certain roles becomes quite rare.

[d d]

Green man appear on the squad screen?

[hoddle1404]

51 minutes ago, zyfon5 said:

Time to learn new things my friend. Whether a player prefers to play on the left,centre or middle does not matter as long as it is a suitable position in a suitable tactic.

 

Start learning how to look at attributes. I have played plenty of players in positions where they have less than half circle and yet they perform great. As your saves goes longer, you will also need to retrain players as certain roles becomes quite rare.

Totally agreed.. In Fm19 I had a player who was last in the pecking order whose suitability as a poacher is orange circle and his finishing was 12 or 13 but I used him as a poacher and he was my top scorer for 2 seasons with 30 plus goals until I sold him for good money.  He had other good attributes of a poacher and roles were decided based on suitability in previous FMs but I decided to give it a go..  

[Christmas]

I guess it will depend on leagues loaded, but is anyone finding Sudan and French Guiana just dont appoint a manager for years?

I even added and retired a human but no

[rp1966]

Took the plunge and got the full-fat version this year.  I've watched quite a lot of games on YouTube, but playing my own matches in comprehensive mode has very quickly shown what a huge improvement the ME is over the mess that was FM20. It really is a joy to watch the games this year and probably most important of all the anticipation during an attack is back.  In FM20 your expectation was that nothing would come of any attack in open play - in FM21 you have an expectation that a good move will result in a goal, so, whether it goes in or not, your anticipation levels rise as the attack plays out.  The fact that goal variety is much better than FM20 also helps greatly.

As someone who's been playing FMT for the last few years, the level of assistance in the full version took me by surprise.  The format changes on the press conferences and dressing room definitely work better for the press conferences.

New match day UI is taking some getting used to, but it's early days. A season in and I'll have adjusted fully.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2020 by rp1966

[Chappie.dm]

6 hours ago, jim owen said:

Post it in the bugs forum not here. else it wont get fixed

This is actually SI irony at it's best - City fans, even now, are relieved when we reach 40 points in a season 

[vivu]

Is it just me, or is anyone else find the visibility of the ball in ME an issue? Finding it difficult to track the ball compared to FM20.

[vivu]

Also finding the name of goalscorer popping up in replays irritating. I like to view the goals in behind the goal cam. The huge pop up of the goal scorer name has made the view redundant. It would be helpful if they move the banner to top.

[CM]

58 minutes ago, vivu said:

Is it just me, or is anyone else find the visibility of the ball in ME an issue? Finding it difficult to track the ball compared to FM20.

Yes, it is the case for me as well but do not really know whether it is because of my low graphics or for some other reason. 

[Teme55]

First: I  absolutely love this game, this must be the best version ever by a mile (played fm since early 2000). So many positives about this game.

My thoughts on "difficulty" level discussed earlier in this topic:

I think that the morale might be too important on results (at least it was in FM20). I had multiple saves in FM20 where I think the first results at the start of season pretty much defines the whole season. Start badly -> very hard to rise, because with bad morale it's hard to win games. Start great -> you can't be beaten and results just keep on coming no matter who I select to start. I won the league (LaLiga) in different saves (mid/topmid-table teams and once started in segunda) multiple times by playing my secondary squad almost 50% of the league games. My secondary squad was good, but I don't think it was that good (mostly developing youngsters). And I don't think I use as someone say "exploit" tactics at least I think so. Two main tactics were (I think FM calls it) 433 DM Wide, not three strikers and other formation was 5212 with wingbacks. Short passing game, pressing higher/counterpress and more urgent. 

In FM21 I've played two seasons with Real Sociedad, they should be in the mix of competing for UCL spots. In first season I didn't make any signings and finished 3rd, no complaints here, could happen I guess. However going to second season, I was able pick Donnarumma free, Rugani free, Pedri 30mil. I did get to UCL, but I still think these type of signings for the club like Real Scoiedad are somewhat unrealistic, I mean why didn't anybody else pursue Donnarumma and why did Pedri chose my team, there were multiple top teams in the mix too. Second season I finished 2nd just one point shy from Real Madrid (they have an amazing squad: Mbappe, Salah, Gabriel Jesus, Asensio, Hazard, Kroos, Odegaard and the other RM regular players). I find it hard to believe that I am one point shy of them with just three "okay" signings. 

In the next summer I'm getting Carvajal free and he also took a huge wage cut to salary. Why would 29yrs old one of the best RB:s select Real Sociedad with huge paycut. Again there was nobody competing against me in the signing.

Positive side of the transfer policy compared to FM20 is that it is very much harder to get rid of players. Couldn't sell Januzaj, Illarramendi with reasonable fees because of their big salaries. From Januzaj I got 10mil and Illarramendi still on the team because nobody wants to take his salary (good player and valued 10mil)

As a summary: 

Great, great game, but little bit too easy to get results with  "okay" team, but more than that I am concerned that it is so easy to get really good players. Okay, I understand that my team do play in UCL, but still I have to wonder that I'm signing these kind of players with no competition and very cheap salaries.

I hope this post isn't too negative, because I do love the game very much, ME is amazing and this game is so realistic in many ways.

[Valleyg]

34 minutes ago, CM said:

Yes, it is the case for me as well but do not really know whether it is because of my low graphics or for some other reason. 

Yes for me too. I sometime lose sight of the white ball for a second. I tried changing the colour of the ball in the preferences but it didn't make a difference for me. When I go into the match the ball still looks white even if i change it to orange or black in the settings. If anyone has any suggestions it would help. I have raised it as a bug already just in case it is one, but it may be just my eyes/laptop issues.

[zyfon5]

3 hours ago, Christmas said:

I guess it will depend on leagues loaded, but is anyone finding Sudan and French Guiana just dont appoint a manager for years?

I even added and retired a human but no

National manager appointment has been bugged for years and I guess it will not be a big priority for SI. Move on and ignore it or make a bug report and hope that SI does something with it.

[RandomGuy.]

I'm not at my laptop but it happened at about 2am last night and I was too tired to remember the log it, but is a side signing a player, then selling him a few days later a bug or by design?

I know some clubs in real life have done this on occasion, like Aaron Mooy joining Man City then straight to Huddersfield.

Transfer was a GK who had interest from Real Madrid and Zenit, who joined Real Madrid, then within a week he moved to Zenit and it came up as the exact same fee on my timeline.

Feels like a bug so I'll log it tonight if nobody tells me otherwise on here.

[JordanMilly]

1 hour ago, Valleyg said:

Yes for me too. I sometime lose sight of the white ball for a second. I tried changing the colour of the ball in the preferences but it didn't make a difference for me. When I go into the match the ball still looks white even if i change it to orange or black in the settings. If anyone has any suggestions it would help. I have raised it as a bug already just in case it is one, but it may be just my eyes/laptop issues.

Which league are you playing in? I'm pretty sure that in the leagues that are licensed, and where they have the licensed ball, changing the colour of the ball in the skin settings won't make a difference for league matches, but will change it for things like continental competitions.

[Super Bladesman]

11 hours ago, 2feet said:

Does anyone else think penalties interfere too much on the XG graph?

If the game is very close XG wise, but I get a penalty in the first half, then at half time the feedback is that we dominated the game.

But if you take out the huge XG jump from the penalty, then actually the game was very close.

No - you're hugely likely to score if you win a penalty, so it's entirely appropriate that there'd be a big jump in xG.

[JordanMilly]

4 minutes ago, Super Bladesman said:

No - you're hugely likely to score if you win a penalty, so it's entirely appropriate that there'd be a big jump in xG.

Indeed. In the Prem, I believe penalties are given a 0.76 xG rating, though in some stats after the game they'll sometimes use the xG without the penalty included, and put (+1 Pen) after it, to show the xG from purely open play.

But yea, if you have a penalty, you should be dominating goal scoring chances, as there aren't really any bigger chances than a pen.

[esca]

50 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

I'm not at my laptop but it happened at about 2am last night and I was too tired to remember the log it, but is a side signing a player, then selling him a few days later a bug or by design?

I know some clubs in real life have done this on occasion, like Aaron Mooy joining Man City then straight to Huddersfield.

Transfer was a GK who had interest from Real Madrid and Zenit, who joined Real Madrid, then within a week he moved to Zenit and it came up as the exact same fee on my timeline.

Feels like a bug so I'll log it tonight if nobody tells me otherwise on here.

I think this is okay because its happened in real life.

IIRC, Demichelis moved to Man City from Atletico in September, after joining Atletico back in July, making 0 apprences.

[Iwabik]

When was the last time there was no updates to beta before full release?

[Valleyg]

23 minutes ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

Which league are you playing in? I'm pretty sure that in the leagues that are licensed, and where they have the licensed ball, changing the colour of the ball in the skin settings won't make a difference for league matches, but will change it for things like continental competitions.

I have only played 1 season and its in league 1 (English league 1) I need to boot up fm20 again, I'm sure I changed the ball colour and winter ball colour in fm20 and I could notice the difference in the match. I know where to change it in preferences in the same menu where you can alter player attribute number colours, but it doesn't look any different to my eyes it still seems predominantly a white ball. I could be mistaken though!

[latrell]

i wish teams had the the colour bar at the top of the squad screen every team now as a black colour bar instead of the teams colours 

[andu1]

12 minutes ago, Iwabik said:

When was the last time there was no updates to beta before full release?

I think... Never. Then again this beta compared to previous games is great!

[JordanMilly]

23 minutes ago, Valleyg said:

I have only played 1 season and its in league 1 (English league 1) I need to boot up fm20 again, I'm sure I changed the ball colour and winter ball colour in fm20 and I could notice the difference in the match. I know where to change it in preferences in the same menu where you can alter player attribute number colours, but it doesn't look any different to my eyes it still seems predominantly a white ball. I could be mistaken though!

League 1 is licensed I believe, so it's likely that the ball in game is the official EFL Mitre ball, and so changing the preferences for the ball won't change it.

Also, @kertiek :

1) You don't need to post that every day in here; and

2) You realising bumping that post every 12 hours or so, causing it to move in the post listings, is probably what is causing SI to miss the post, depending on how they process the bug posts, right?

I've shot a message over to the QA guys though to take a look (so you can stop bumping it and posting the same thing in this thread now, thanks). Do realise though that it will be put into the list of issues to be patched based on its actual priority on how much it breaks the game, it won't be put as bug #1 to deal with compared to crashes, etc.

[hoddle1404]

I know a lot has been commented on the UI but please please please bring back the old 2D UI. The FM21 2D just looks  flimsy and its supposed to be enhanced, not going 10-15 years back.. 

FM19

 

FM20

 

FM21

[BamBamBam]

12 hours ago, 2feet said:

Does anyone else think penalties interfere too much on the XG graph?

If the game is very close XG wise, but I get a penalty in the first half, then at half time the feedback is that we dominated the game.

But if you take out the huge XG jump from the penalty, then actually the game was very close.

Got a feeling i will completely ignore the new Xg feature. 

[Tullekunstner]

Ok, after yesterdays criticism, I wanted to touch on a few parts that I think has been improved this year.

First of all, the game performs significantly better this year. I've only played on my laptop so far and loading times, save times, even watching matches (which used to be laggy) is a lot better than both FM19 and FM20. Both my laptop and me are deeply grateful for the effort that must've gone into the optimization of the game this year!

Splitting the influence on group and effect from group when creating mentoring groups is a great addition. Seeing body language when setting up my penalty takers is great as well. Similarly to my earlier criticisms, these are small changes but they have great effect! 

I also wanted to add that unlike Timmitou I think abolishing the circles in the tactics screen is the way to go. Moving away from percentages for fitness is also great imo opinion. Although I suspect it still works like on previous FMs underneath, this gives a more natural and realistic feeling.

[kertiek]

19 minutes ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

League 1 is licensed I believe, so it's likely that the ball in game is the official EFL Mitre ball, and so changing the preferences for the ball won't change it.

Also, @kertiek :

1) You don't need to post that every day in here; and

2) You realising bumping that post every 12 hours or so, causing it to move in the post listings, is probably what is causing SI to miss the post, depending on how they process the bug posts, right?

I've shot a message over to the QA guys though to take a look (so you can stop bumping it and posting the same thing in this thread now, thanks). Do realise though that it will be put into the list of issues to be patched based on its actual priority on how much it breaks the game, it won't be put as bug #1 to deal with compared to crashes, etc.

my frustration comes from the fact that i reported this problem in fm20 and got a similar answer from si games "it will be put into the list of issues to be patched", well it never got fixed, i understand that is not a "big" feature that everyone uses, but is been broken, for years, i been trying to use it since fm19, am not trying to be an ass, just explaining my side.

[f.zaarour]

16 minutes ago, hoddle1404 said:

I know a lot has been commented on the UI but please please please bring back the old 2D UI. The FM21 2D just looks  flimsy and its supposed to be enhanced, not going 10-15 years back.. 

FM20

 

FM21

Totally agree, that needs to change in the full version. 2D all the way for me and this 2D in this Beta looks like its clothes are ripped of or something, not cool. Also the match stats on the left, which u can pop up, should be possible to show it permanent and pinned. 

[orlyzao]

The new UI reminds me of something we would see in a console game... Oh wait.

Edited November 20, 2020 by orlyzao

[Grifty]

I've just seen something cool that I'd not have automatically done in any FM before.

I'm managing in the 2nd division in Sweden and my board just created a Senior Affiliation with Chievo Verona. I've never seen the board go and do it off their own back before, I've always had to ask in previous iterations.

[craiigman]

Something I have noticed, which has been bothering me for the last however many versions now and actually what caused me to stop playing FM20. Players now over run the ball off the pitch rather than stopping the ball and letting the other team just take it! I have seen a couple of times where it's happened as it used to, but this is so much better. Good stuff!

[2feet]

3 minutes ago, craiigman said:

Something I have noticed, which has been bothering me for the last however many versions now and actually what caused me to stop playing FM20. Players now over run the ball off the pitch rather than stopping the ball and letting the other team just take it! I have seen a couple of times where it's happened as it used to, but this is so much better. Good stuff!

Yes its much more realistic now, the players momentum carries him past the line and prevents him from stopping the ball as he does so.

Actually ive had a few occasions where the player has managed to keep the ball in, in the old style way.

The calculations for this situation seem to be much better now.

[craigcwwe]

Absolutely loving the ME after 1.5 seasons. So, so good.  

[2feet]

One thing I really recommend the game makers do for when the full game comes out.......

CREATE A GALLERY FOR BEAUTIFUL GOALS or DRIBBLES!!

If the game allows us to save goals/passages of play then there should be somewhere to show them off.

Ive already had about 5 from one season that were amazing.

[dire_f]

This is not a new phenomena, I think its been an issue for most of the recent iterations of the game, but AI strikers arent scoring enough goals across europe. It might be an issue of the goals being spread across more players than IRL, but the fact still persists. I've run a simulation up until and including the 2045/2046 season and this is a summary of the top scorer statistics. I've also compared these numbers to IRL stats between 1996/1997 and 2019/2020 (I have excluded C.Ronaldos and Messis numbers from the IRL dataset since you could make the argument that they are extraordinary talents and that their numbers arent likely to be matched in the coming years). 

• Average number of goals to be top scorer
  • SIM - 25,8
  • IRL  - 30,9
• Average number of goals among the top 3 scorers each year
  • SIM - 24,1 
  • IRL  - 28,7 
• Number of 30+ goal seasons among the top 3 scorers
  • SIM - 2/78 = 2,6%
  • IRL  - 26/72 = 36,1%

Since the likes of Mbappe and Haaland are among the top players for the first 10 odd seasons, and some freakishly good regens appear during the course of the sim, I wouldnt say it's an issue players being of lesser quality than before but rathers, as I've already pointed out, the goals being spread across players too a larger and unrealistic extent (both among teams and players within those teams). 

If anyone else has done simulations, or played long enough, to notice any of these patterns I'd be interested to see if the stats differs from the above in any way. 

EDIT: I should also add that I didnt run this simulation with full detail level on any of the leagues (PL was "Playable" and the rest of the top 5 was "View Only"). I'm now running a new sim with all top 5 leagues on full detail level. 

Edited November 20, 2020 by dire_f

[Ronnieekelund]

42 minutes ago, craiigman said:

Something I have noticed, which has been bothering me for the last however many versions now and actually what caused me to stop playing FM20. Players now over run the ball off the pitch rather than stopping the ball and letting the other team just take it! I have seen a couple of times where it's happened as it used to, but this is so much better. Good stuff!

I know really infuriating when they are 3 or more yards from the edge of the pitch and just run it straight out

[craiigman]

1 minute ago, Ronnieekelund said:

I know really infuriating when they are 3 or more yards from the edge of the pitch and just run it straight out

You seem to have misunderstood, this is MUCH better than it was before. They used to stop dead with the ball and let the other team take it, usually in dangerous areas. If in doubt kick it out, taught that when I was 7 lol

[ImDaWeasel]

3 hours ago, hoddle1404 said:

I know a lot has been commented on the UI but please please please bring back the old 2D UI. The FM21 2D just looks  flimsy and its supposed to be enhanced, not going 10-15 years back.. 

FM19

 

FM20

 

FM21

100%. 2D is getting treated like a grandfather that SI have now put in home for the rest of its days. Totally abandoned and a total mess.