Hopes for FMM24

[Baronvon]

I posted this on the General forum initially and was advised to repost it here - so here it is:

 

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Been a long time player of FMM and have to say that FMM23 has been both the most enjoyable and challenging iteration yet. It was definitely a lifesaver when I was stuck in hospital for a week with a broken ankle earlier this year so will forever be grateful for the game's existence. 

Still, there's always a few little tweaks we'd all like, right? So, speaking as someone with absolutely no programming experience who would struggle to create a board game, here's a few things I'd perhaps like to see tweaked. Whether any of this is remotely possible or indeed desirable, I guess is up to you.

Player ratings - I've noticed this has long been an area of discussion on here and, while it's definitely much improved from earlier versions, it still seems a tad peculiar on how it's all worked out. I suppose my main point of contention/intrigue is wondering whether anything changes/resets after half time.

I ask this because there have been so, so many occasions where a team will be a few goals up and a number of players are playing at 8s (or 4s and 5s for the losing team) at the half time break - only for these ratings to immediately snap back for 6 or 7 almost immediately after the 2nd half begins. Interestingly, this 'reset' only seems to apply to players who gained their high/low rating without scoring/assisting/making a mistake leading to a goal.

It's especially noticeable with goalkeepers. One match I was under siege in the first half and my goalkeeper was playing at a 9 come half time on account of making 4 or 5 amazing saves. The second half then kicks off, he's suddenly back down to a 7 without anything at all happening.

Granted I have no idea how any of this is calculated or works so forgive my ignorance if I'm missing something - it just strikes me as both strange and unrealistic. I wonder if having a rating to one decimal place may be something which could be implemented in the future? Because let's face it, it's hard for a sub or (notoriously) a DM to get above a 6 - which in the context of the game is considered a poor performance and will ultimately affect morale/rating. 

Able to edit set pieces during matches - Pretty simple this one. The option to amend your set piece setup is always greyed out during a match - despite many, many occasions where it'd come in useful to push a few extra guys forever/keep men back. No idea how easy it would be to implement but it'd be very useful.

German national team - I realise due to licensing changes that there's no chance of the German national team picking real players anytime soon - without unofficial tinkering at least. But after playing for 15 odd seasons and the game is now flooded with top quality German regens, they're still picking greyed out players. Is there any way it can be set so regen players can be picked by Germany? I'm sure this eventually happens on the console version but I could be mistaken. Just a minor bugbear knowing that your German wonderkids will never go onto achieve international recognition.

Reserves/Match fitness - This is perhaps just a case of me missing something but, when it comes to assigning a player to play in the reserves "until match fit", the option is pretty much always locked out unless the player is injured/low condition. This seems fair enough but I've got players in my first team who haven't played a minute all season, are noted as unfit in Medical Centre - yet the option to select them for the reserves 'until match fit' is locked out because their condition is 100% and, at least by that metric, they're considered 'match fit'.

Basically, I just don't get it. If it is a legitimate discrepancy then it could definitely do with tweaking - if not, feel free to correct my ignorance.

Anyway, that's all I had. Most are fairly minor, perhaps personal quibbles I've had with the game over the many hours I've enjoyed. Looking forward to FMM24 for sure and I appreciate if anyone actually took the time to read this.