[FM21] Beta The Devil You Know

[TheMadMonk]

I was unsure what to do as my first save, during the Beta release.... Dynasty Save, Youth Only, Journeyman ... ?

I thought maybe better to test out the new FM with a team I have a fair knowledge of in real life, that way I'd at least have a chance of spotting any data issues that may appear and they could be reported, and get a good feel of the game at the same time.

So chose my local team, CHESTERFIELD ....

 

 

In reality we are a club who have been in decline for 5 or 6 seasons. Since the giddy heights of League 1 Play Offs in 2014-2015 we have endured a torturous (for the fans) 5 seasons of poor results on the pitch, embarrassing shenanigans off the pitch and awful decisions in the boardroom. The results of all that seeing 2 relegation's, ending up in the National League, and only being saved a further tier drop thanks to the COVID Points Per Game calculations last season.

The COVID summer break, has seen at last a sale of the club to Chesterfield Community Trust, which hopefully may lead to a time of stability and eventually in the the years to come a return to the Football League.

[TheMadMonk]

The main purpose of the save is to help with the Beta testing, and see if FM21 is an improvement on (what I thought was one of the best FM's in a while) FM20.

So in keeping with essence of the thread title, is FM21 a Kylie Minogue in the history of Football Manager releases ...........

                                                                                                                                                                                                  ......... or will it turn out to be a bit of a Sonia ?

[TheMadMonk]

First change is an improvement, the Manager creation screen has far more substance and a big step up from the previous version .... as are the newgen heads. Not Chilled Moose standard, but still a marked improvement.

On the downside the data for Chesterfield has a few flaws - both Owner and Chairman are incorrect, these are from the old regime - who sold the club and relinquished power back around May time. They where a massive reason for the downward spiral we've endured over the past 5 seasons. I've no idea when the data cut-off is for all the clubs in FM, but the change of ownership was the biggest story of the summer as far as Chesterfield was concerned.

 

Next thing that shows up as not quite right are the expectations for the season - we've finished 14th and 20th in our first 2 seasons at this level - we basically owned by a Charity, and the aim of the club is just stability and financial security over the next few seasons. The play-offs in real life aren't a realistic proposition, neither is Semi Final of the FA Trophy ..... and we've already failed to reach the 1st Round Proper of the FA Cup. (Well we did get there, but due to a cock up on player registration failed to get there when the match was forced to be replayed by the FA  )

 

[TheMadMonk]

The MATCHDAY EXPERIENCE

• PRE MATCH TACTICAL ADVICE
  Better than last year, I'd normally just glance down these and ignore them - as they used to appear outside of the actual matchday screens. Now I do read them, as they're presented a lot better being the first screen of matchday ..... although I still find I totally ignore most of them  
  
   
• The selection screen looks pretty much the same as usual, with possible exception of the Icons for Fitness,Injury etc - not sure about these they may grow on me  - but for now I think I preferred the circles of years gone
• I do like the touch of the teamsheet - although the social media comments I always found pointless, the same pattern for every tweet - 1 Positive Tweet, balanced off by 1 Negative tweet on the same subject. They add nothing to the game - yet now they appear as tweets on this screen. ? 
• 
  
   

 

 

[Maw74]

1 hour ago, TheMadMonk said:

The main purpose of the save is to help with the Beta testing, and see if FM21 is an improvement on (what I thought was one of the best FM's in a while) FM20.

So in keeping with essence of the thread title, is FM21 a Kylie Minogue in the history of Football Manager releases ...........

                                                                                                                                                                                                  ......... or will it turn out to be a bit of a Sonia ?

This gets a big  for the title and the Kylie pic 

So would Steps be middle or worse/lower than Sonia? 

[TheMadMonk]

20 hours ago, Maw74 said:

This gets a big  for the title and the Kylie pic 

So would Steps be middle or worse/lower than Sonia? 

Thank You ..... I'd forgotten about the Steps version 

[TheMadMonk]

MATCHDAY EXPERIENCE cont.

The Graphic on the right - great, the graphic on the left WTF ?