[The way players wanting new contracts is unrealistic]

Few things to bear in mind here - if you've got let's say a squad player (Joe Bloggs) on £50k a week which they signed a year ago, then go out and sign another player that Joe Bloggs doesn't think is much better than him, but pay them £100k a week, Joe Bloggs will look at that and think they're being treated unfairly. Likewise the inverse, if a player is being paid poorly compared to their teammates, then they will get wider support if they throw the toys out when you refuse to give them a new contract. So try and be consistent with your wage structure where you can. 

Consider the wider ramifications of what signing players does to the current squad. They will look around the club and the league and see how comparable players are valued. Even if you sign say a Key Player on £200k a week, that sends a wider message to the squad on the scale of the salaries you're willing to pay. So even the backups will look at that and think this new scale should reverberate down. 

Likewise with playing at differing levels - expectation with promotion that all players may want an increase to closer to the league average, so plan accordingly in advance. And as for players letting their contracts run down - different players have different ambition and career goals. With an ambitious agent, they'll be encouraged to see those deals down, so make sure your key players never get into the last couple of years if you can help it - albeit that of course comes at a premium. 

[FM24 Early Access Official Feedback Thread]

8 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Only if you move them somewhere. All document files are deleted when you delete the game. Well, thats what happens for me anyway. 

This has never been the case. Save game files are only deleted if you do so manually. 

[The totally *not* official Advanced Access Speculation of FM24 - This time it’s speculative]

[What is wrong with the hot dogs in this game?]

16 hours ago, stockwellpete said:

Every hot dog van, in every ground - there's never ever anyone queuing up to buy one. Why is that? Lack of onions, or mustard perhaps? Very weird.

May have been cooked by @Harryseaess where the photo of the sausages speaks for itself - https://community.sigames.com/forums/topic/535570-the-full-english-breakfast-club/?do=findComment&comment=14112781

[Want to work on Football Manager? We're looking for game designers]

We've opened this up further beyond what was originally posted above, as we're also looking for more junior designers too. I've updated the link above to the relevant role.

We've also created an exciting new position for a UX Researcher which relates to playtesting and the psychology behind FM as detailed here - https://www.sigames.com/vacancy/ux-researcher

As always, we're constantly adding new roles to our Careers page, so please do keep an eye out for an opportunity to join the team. 

Any questions, discussion or thoughts on anything related to this feel free to shout in here. 

[*Official* Football Manager 2023 Feedback Thread]

2 hours ago, gggfunk said:

Has anyone experienced match stuttering when attending match of other team? I manage Banbury and all my games go perfectly smooth, then I attended world cup semi final and final and during the games match engine was stuttering heavily... When I came back to my Banbury games all was smooth again.

Sounds like the size of the ground and all the fans is putting more demands on your system than it can handle in the graphical setup you've got. 

[Want to work on Football Manager? We're looking for game designers]

If you’re reading this post on these forums, it’s more than likely you’re a fan of Football Manager and enjoy spending time playing the game, creating your own story.

What we’re looking for is creators – people with experience within the games industry, designers who want to take the next step in their careers.

Design is a hugely important part of Football Manager and as we look to grow our team, we’re interested in hearing from people who have created games and have a keen interest in football and FM.

We're looking for people with a deep sense of empathy who can work in a multidisciplinary team of designers, producers, artists, programmers and QA. Those who have a good understanding of systems design, and experience with Excel, Machinations or other similar software.

It may be that you already engage with FM in deep and meaningful ways, like heavy theorycrafting around gameplay modules such as player development or training. What better way to do so than by having an opportunity to directly influence the future of Football Manager?

As part of design applications, we require a portfolio of released projects (games, blog posts, reviews), your CV and covering letter and you must have a right to work in the UK (but we do offer flexible working opportunities including the ability to work from home). You can see a full breakdown of the role and apply here - https://www.sigames.com/vacancy/game-designer-junior-senior

For those of you who would love to work for Sports Interactive but unfortunately don’t have the relevant experience for the above, we do always keep our careers page updated with available roles, so please do check that out to see if there’s anything more suitable for you - https://www.sigames.com/careers

[Redeem FM Site - Down?]

Believe the redemption site was down for a short period earlier today but should be back up and running now.

[Game is v23.5 but database is still v23.4?]

Yep that's by design and as expected. 

[Why can I not sign Bosmans?]

In some nations the league specifically has a ruling that means you can only approach players playing within the same country as your club in the last month of their contract, rather than the last six months. 

[Microtransactions on FM Console now?]

16 hours ago, wearesporting said:

I presume like Xbox you can unlock them for free if you gain certain achievements in game.

That's correct. There is a problem with some of the unlockables being available to activate via your wallet on PS5 which the team are working on. Hope to have that addressed as soon as we can. 

[Microtransactions on FM Console now?]

FM Console Edition has always had In-App Purchases available on Xbox, just took us a little longer to be able to make these available on PS5. As you can see, they are now. 

Thanks. 

[Stuck in the match]

Yeah when we've seen examples of these in the past it's often been related to custom aspects, either related to the skin or in-match popups. If you have any of those in game, we'd suggest removing them for now and seeing if that stops the issue from occurring.

Unfortunately it's likely that once stuck you can't become 'unstuck' without leaving the game itself I'm afraid. 

[*Official* Football Manager 2023 Feedback Thread]

4 minutes ago, Robioto said:

This is by far my biggest issue, features that were shoved in uyears ago still don't work properly and fundemental features like youth development, manager AI, media/player interaction, scouting and the match engine are falling apart of the seams.

Marketing friendly fluff features take priority to shift the latest game while fundemetanl systems remain largely untouched or at best tweaked. This is what happens in an monopoly, it's no different to the state of FIFA.

And just to be clear, it's posts like these which in part, is why developer interaction on these forums have dropped off. Hyperbolic statements without anything constructive or considered. Appreciate people want to have their say and get frustrations off their chest, but just makes me want to channel Larry.

[*Official* Football Manager 2023 Feedback Thread]

Yeah to be clear on public beta - we have what we call a 'Dream Team' private group of testers. This is made up of people involved in research, our moderating team and those who has consistently raised quality feedback or logged issues via our Bug Trackers over the years. So essentially those who have contributed within the community.

We also have a staffed in-house group of full-time testers for multiple areas of the game who work as part of our wider development team. These are highly skilled individuals who have to cover a mountain of areas across the game. Some of these may be obvious (UI, Match, Transfers and Contracts), others a bit more under the hood (Database, Competitions and Rule Groups) and some of those primarily for the infrastructure of the game (Core Tech, QA Engineering). Then you have to take into account FM is now available across iOS, Android, PS5, Xbox, Steam, Epic, GamePass, Apple Arcade (yes including tvOS) and Switch. Each of those games and platforms come with their own quirks which require testing and signing off for every build we both release, and test internally.  

We have also utilised the Steam 'Public Beta' track in the past as well, but now so many of our players also enjoy FM across Epic and Microsoft Store/Game Pass, using this isn't as inclusive as it once was. It is something which we'll always consider, but not something we're currently looking to utilise.  

Even rolling an update to our Private Testing group requires a large amount of person-power. To create and check the builds, to write up the build notes, to monitor and log all the suggestions/issues etc. 

Every single aspect of game development takes resource. And we have to utilise that in the best possible way for our games and our studio. 

[*Official* Football Manager 2023 Feedback Thread]

3 minutes ago, greenz81 said:

Can we agree it needs to be bigger? If these bugs are still being missed, then public is the way forward. I dont see what the issue is with being given free information? Ive seen bugs even brought up during the beta release from the public (not the game engine issues) and still slipped through. I still have issues aligning my columns! Thats been going on for numerous versions of the game! Is it the case of less bug reporting is better because SI have only one programmer? (obviously SI don't)

It's not as simple as more people testing = more bugs logged and fixed.

Every bug that gets logged has to be prioritised and considered for development work. As we've said here a number of times, resources have to be considered and designated for the highest priority items.

Let's say transfer logic and AI. That requires resource to improve it every year. Compare that with a transfer bug that say only will be encountered by managers for players on semi-professional contracts in Swaziland. 

What is the better spend of resource? Investigating and improving an area of the game which every single player is going to use, or one that has a genuine bug, that next to nobody will ever encounter? 

In an ideal world we'd fix every single issue raised AND improve the already working areas of the game, but as any producer or software developer will tell you, that just isn't realistic. 

[*Official* Football Manager 2023 Feedback Thread]

6 minutes ago, Tyburn said:

Sorry Neil, but who asked for earrings??

Diego Armando Maradona. 

[*Official* Football Manager 2023 Feedback Thread]

12 hours ago, Tyburn said:

I think the main issue people have is the game is stagnant. It hasn’t really changed in years. Of course, it’s a football manager simulation, it doesn’t need to change that much. In fact, the problem I see is, it’s already near perfect.

Its because of this that the numerous bugs that have been around for years, coupled with new “features” nobody asked for, is making lots of players disillusioned with the series.

The game is crying out for refinement. The base is superb, the execution is not. My guess is that huge amounts of resources are going on next years (or the year after?) version as this will be the version that massively changes the way the game can be played with the introduction of the women’s game. FM23 feels more like a patch than any version I can remember.

It’s the only reason I can think of as to why this years version is so lacking in any new meaningful features, and why the overall experience is almost exactly like fm22, fm21, and perhaps even earlier versions. With all the same issues and bugs. Nowhere near enough effort has been made on FM23 in my opinion to address some of the long running issues and “features” users have continually pointed out do not work. The fact so many long running bugs are present surely highlights this.

The cycle of beta (fun), then patch, patch, just feels like a massive lottery to me. Not only can, and does, the ME get worse, but after the last patch unresolved issues and bugs are here to stay until the next version of FM. Then they’re not even fixed then! It’s deeply frustrating.

Please SI, rather than waste resources on adding new “features”, just fix what you’ve got.

A huge amount of the features that come into the game come from within the community, so would say it's inaccurate to say "nobody asked for" them. You also tend to find when we release a game that concentrates more on us fine-tuning what's already in the game rather than concentrating on new features, some players can be quick to claim the version is no more than a 'glorified data update' or we've been 'lazy', so of course with each new version we have to consider the expectations of all players. 

As we always say in relation to bugs, if you're aware any, do feel free to raise them via our Bug Tracker here - https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/ to make sure they team are aware. Everything is read, reviewed and then prioritised. 

Some elements, especially those that have a huge impact on the game, such as within the match engine, transfer market, interaction and AI squad building are constantly evolving and are long-term projects which require balancing and improvements over time. They're not systems you can rip up and start again from scratch. You're right in the sense resources need to be balanced across the entire game, focusing on areas which effect the largest proportion of our players. That's not to say we don't also pay attention to the vocal core players as well, considering longer term gameplay, those less-played leagues and different playing styles. 

As said in a previous post, we know we can't please everyone. We always feel we make sure to release updates that improve the game, especially regarding the match engine. And our team feels our FM23 updates have done that. Which is backed up by our sentiment data from across the entire community, which this forum is a part of. 

We will of course take all feedback on board that we receive from whatever avenue it comes from and appreciate those that raise considered and constructive points. 

[*Official* Football Manager 2023 Feedback Thread]

11 hours ago, themodelcitizen said:

Gamebreaking Gold Cup qualifying bug is still present, isn't it? That one was raised multiple times by multiple people in the bugs forum after each previous update, and the developers indicated it was being looked at. Isn't that just changing the setup date for the Gold Cup?

Wasn't something we were able to easily address without knock-ons elsewhere. The main competition still runs to completion, it's just as noted there are problems with the qualifiers not reflecting what happens in the play-offs, so the lowest ranked teams in the competition will be more randomised. Saying that, I believe it's likely to pick the stronger ranked teams from those play-offs, meaning it reflects the most likeliest outcome of said qualifiers. 

[*Official* Football Manager 2023 Feedback Thread]

7 minutes ago, gggfunk said:

Good question,

Taking advantage that @Neil Brock is here, is there any chance you could tell us an approximate time to expect the very final update?

It's a bit out of our hands currently as there's been a bit of uncertainty IRL with a few things related to the competition (including the transfer window dates), but as said when releasing the Final Update, that update for that will only be for Chinese league and player data.  

[Bug or are we playing on a clay court?]

Yeah it's by design and a clay pitch. 

[*Official* Football Manager 2023 Feedback Thread]

17 hours ago, greenz81 said:

I have felt a constant frustration with the lack of communication and the constant bugs in the Football Manager game for the past five years. From a customer's perspective, these issues can make the game experience less enjoyable and may negatively impact their willingness to continue purchasing future versions.

While it's important for us users to report bugs in the game, it's also the responsibility of the game developers to ensure that the bug tracker is up-to-date and that they actively seek out and address issues. If the bug tracker is not updated, it makes it difficult for users to provide the necessary feedback, and it can create a frustrating experience for those who are trying to report issues.

Furthermore, it's not acceptable to blame the end user for not inputting bugs when the developers themselves are responsible for the quality of the product they release. Constant excuses and bugs returning from previous versions are not acceptable, and it's essential for game developers to take responsibility for their mistakes and work to improve the game's quality.

In conclusion, it's crucial for game developers like SIGames to prioritize communication with their customers and to actively seek out and address bugs in their games. This can help create a more enjoyable and satisfying experience for users, leading to increased customer loyalty and positive reviews.

Our biggest gripe is the lack of commuication! Beta testing is basically pre-release (which is something that was done in the 90's/00's because shops would sell out of the PHYSICAL product) and there is no relevant feedback. This year alone was the biggest 'con' of it all. Promised multiple 'features' when in reality are not and still havent fixed previous 'features'!

This is my feedback about the game. This is my feedback about the producers of the game. This is feedback from your community. 

We have a limited number of resources available to us, but where possible we try to read and reply to every single issue raised within the Bug Tracker. 

Nobody blames players for 'not raising bugs' - but what it can do is be extremely helpful to allow us to quickly investigate an issue, giving us more chance of being able to provide a fix on it. In a number of cases if an issue is raised, it's already known internally already, but of course if there are say millions of people playing the game, they're likely to see and encounter more than an internal test team of say 20 or 30 people. Sometimes situations arise in very specific circumstances and it would require a test team to perhaps take hours or even days to reproduce, when an uploaded save can get us to that point almost immediately.  

We do try and be transparent where we can, and I'm hopeful that in the future we'll be able to do so on more fronts regarding more things related to the Football Manager series. We have seen instances where we've had pushback against being transparent, especially when having to deliver information people aren't happy with - say for instance why something works the way it does, or if we're unable to make specific changes requested, but that hasn't stopped us being proactive across both these forums and our other communication channels. 

However when feedback states things like we're 'conning' our players or that we're making 'excuses', it's at risk of becoming a toxic environment where we're spending time defending ourselves against unhelpful snipes and falsehoods rather than being able to engage in constructive discussion. 

We all want FM to be the best it possibly can be, and we know our players and community are a huge part of that. While more people are playing our games than ever before, we also know we're not going to be able to please everyone. Either with how we communicate or how the game changes over time.

[crash dumps FM23 "I can’t move on to the next day"]

Looking initially at the crash dump looks  like this could be a custom db related issue. Worth contacting SEGA support here - https://fmofficial.support/Ticket

Worth uploading your save so we can check it too. Details on how to do so here - https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/instructions-and-notes/how-to-upload-files-to-us-r98/

Thanks. 

[TV rights fee English Premier League]

Appreciate this is a frustrating issue, but with an existing save you can add the cash via the IGE. Can see from the OP they already have access to it. 

[*Official* Football Manager 2023 Feedback Thread]

45 minutes ago, hyrule_king said:

All my save games now crash since the latest update. I have uninstalled and reinstalled, cleared out my fm folder, still crashes. It was working fine before the update yesterday.

Worth troubleshooting here - https://support.sega.com/hc/en-gb/sections/9807315748881-Technical-Issues

If nothing listed there sorts, please contact our support team here - https://fmofficial.support/Ticket

Thanks.