CrowManager

The short answer is no, they don't scout like we do. A high level player will pretty much never make a hugely damaging mistake like the AI can because once a player is fully scouted with exact attributes and you know what attributes to look for, it's pretty easy to never make a transfer that just explodes in your face. Obviously the signing can be meh but it's really difficult for things to just capsize. the AI doesn't have said luxury

Ah yeah you're right, switched to the wrong thread, was meant for the scouting one.

Speak for yourself when my defender has a 7.7 rating after allowing 4 goals I think it's working fine! :P

It isn't just lower division teams, lot of the examples of people complaining about injuries being too common are top level teams lmao, as if Premier League teams don't get large numbers of injuries.

Never said it needs an artificial random date, can it not be set to trigger on some random date within a 10 year time or something? Can't say I've played many saves as I typically do one, but I assumed the additions to the EU were randomized to an extent. Also really don't understand where your logic is on the first part? Games have had this stuff before, Brexit choosing between hard and soft, the aforementioned EU additions. The "real life ban" is almost certainly just going to continue until the war is over, then they'll return, or god forbid FIFA lets them qualify in Asia before the war is over. But yeah lol to act like "the return of a nation back to being allowed to qualify" is some unprecedented event is silly.

Silly argument against what he said though imo, by that logic EU should never expand in game. I know it's not your call of course, and don't get me wrong, Russia deserves the book thrown at them in real life for their behavior, still personally waiting for them to >actually< be banned from the Winter Olympics, but it is silly that it never comes back in game and that you need a database to have a more realistic, more competitive, and more fun Europe.

Playing 7 players under 20

Pretty good to watch the AI do stuff like this

Don't agree with the first bit. Irl you have a general idea of a players' skill besides mentals yeah. But with Mustermann a range of 5 numbers per attribute combined over all the attributes, or even just the "important ones", is still adding a significant level of variance to the game. Yeah you know your player has pace, but is he world class or is he just at 15? You don't know That youth prospect winger who has good mentals but physicals between 6-10, is he at 10 and could in theory be molded into a great player, or are you wasting time? Etc. On the bit about more dynamic attributes needing to be a thing I agree.

Yeah but that's just down to people refusing to make the game harder. Get Mustermann and you suddenly don't know exact attributes and aren't just forcing every wonderkid with slightly higher pace/acceleration into the lineup. That's people complaining about things they have control over.

The way Mustermann and Starattributes do it: Just not showing an exact number and showing one of the 4 color ranges. Superior way to play imo.

"TRANSFER PREFERENCES I have researched all nations on transfermarkt.com that have a preference for players with a certain nationality and adjusted them accordingly. Over 200 nations have been edited! Not only the nationalities have been adjusted, but also the age preferences. There are certain nations that clearly stand out as "development leagues" based on various data. (Very high proportion of players under the age of 24). For example Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Croatia or even obscure nations such as Kyrgyzstan." That's what it states, but presumably a bit with him editing youth, plus also more injuries, it allows for higher rotation, it allows more opportunities for players to break into the team due to injuries, requires more depth of teams, etc. Don't know for sure, as I'm also of the opinion that a lot of the hatred towards the game this year is not what I have experienced so far in my save or stuff I've seen in other games that's only starting to annoy people. I would personally not recommend full detail for every league in the game, because gee golly that'll cook a lot. If your PC can handle it and go at decent speed sure. Think for myself I have like the top 20 in my Europe, the ones in England (where I play), top 2 in SA, Tunisia and a few in Africa, Mexico and USA, and not much else. It's all personal preference of course.

I'm not a soccer expert and I don't watch much high level soccer so my question may be out of left but isn't it widely considered that players are expected to do multiple roles/positions these days, is that not part of what total football is about? To me it's a bit immersion breaking that a 17 year old backup goalkeeper can come in and do that, they should not be physically ready in most cases, though that is a limited sample size. Isn't it to be semi expected that any random player at the Premier League level can semi reasonably get into positions a bit? As a defender you know what attackers do, lot of it is down to the physicals and mentals, no?

I don't disagree that there should be more contact from the devs. But if you think a couple of answers are going to fix the anger and negativity that's wrong. And that's fine, people are entitled to complain about various things and I do think that there is some legitimate gripes to be had at the seemingly limited pace the game makes progress. But them simply responding to things won't fix it, and on multiple occasions I'd imagine their answer would be something like "In our testing we don't find that to be the case", and the only thing they could try to do to show that is data, which even then, most people wouldn't see. They said why Squad Building isn't going to be patched: "Because we think it's in a good spot" Which in my games, at least youth wise, it is. Offside trap wasn't scrapped this game as a tactical instruction. It got removed in FM23. I imagine it just got naturally put into defensive tactics because literally every tactic I ever saw in the game prior used it. But I obviously don't know. Regardless highlights being offside is significantly lessened this year. Which I also prefer, I don't have to look at the referee on every single goal like I did in 22 and 23 to make sure it wasn't offside. I agree that player loans could be higher, but again I am reasonably confident that some of that is on the Devs and some of that is people not loading enough leagues. I can look at Norwich and see 9 players in my save on loan from the main team and 6 from their u21s on loan. That is an outlier, but most teams in the English u21 Premier Division have at least 4 on loan. Again, I think it's low, I can look up Arsenal and Norwich irl and their youth loans are at higher levels. In Arsenal's case, much higher. So it needs to be worked on, I agree. But it is better. And I completely understand some of the annoyances. I agree with some of them. And frankly I'd much rather have had the loan system overhauled rather than stuff like "Squad planning overhaul" and "Intermediaries" and "Set target goals for your players". But I simply disagree that the state of the game is absolutely absymal. EDIT: Albeit it's also worth noting that if you add more loans from top teams that can both make the game harder but also easier, as it's now even easier for players to get the best talents on loan. Now there are more pacey strikers available, more physical Center Backs, etc. If the AI does well with this and fights you well, that can go well. But I have to imagine what would actually happen would be the AI snagging most players on loan that players would want and players would complain the AI is targetting and then winning on some battles because it is facing the player. Ergo the thing I noted in my last post where suddenly players you offer get a ton of offers. I'd be curious to see it fwiw, but yeah. Frankly I prefer the player interactions, not because they're better, but because more realistic to have random players just want to yeet their way out for no reason (cries in Matthew Tkachuk) It's frustrating I think because it's stupid but that's just moving closer to real life. And even then you don't have to follow it. I've had multiple players on my teams whinge at me and change their minds, and multiple who haven't. Sucks. But it's life. But that's personal preference. I do think it's a little silly how much players gang up on others but at the same time I look to my Calgary Flames irl and watch as personal issues have been a large part of them consistently crushing my hopes on them every year. Yeah that's hockey not soccer. But still. I also haven't seen such blowback, but part of why I've started commenting on here this year is because I've just seen so much stuff that I am not experiencing and I think that people are turning people away from something, and that's fine, it's an expensive game, but at least make it for the right reasons not flat out say "well there's no youth development/rotation" and I can just go to team after team after team and show that that isn't the case. I hope they grow their communication as well but yeah.

Just gonna post my mostly positive views on the game, I disagree with a lot of things said in this thread and figured I'd add my schtick. It is worth noting I use the Daveincid Realism mod, have a ton of leagues loaded all around the world, and use the Mustermann skin. So your mileage may vary. Transfers: I'm not too smart at these, I can't truly tell how well the AI is doing without busting my save. Only thing I can really note is that it is annoying how Free Agents who have no interest suddenly get interest when you offer them a contract though. Is the youth development better: Yes, it does need more loans, but there are more people going on loans. Think part of the people who get annoyed with this don't have enough leagues active and so players don't get sent to the leagues on loan. Rotation: Yes. Difficulty: Really don't know how to describe it. Personally I find it more difficult, not breezing through lower levels on a whim. But I think a lot of people have just learned what they need to do, who to sign, it being easy to know exactly who you want etc. There's no risk in signings the way most people play, as such it feels stale and easy. You focus on specific attributes for whom you know exactly what they are. That can be changed. Plus people getting better at the game tactically as they put more time into it. Don't really think it's a problem, difficulty can be reasonably fiddled with to make the game harder, though yeah it'd be nice if the AI countered you more. But then people would complain about their tactics suddenly melting. dunno. Think it can always be improved by the devs, especially with the AI reacting to you. But also you have multiple different tactics so, how do you not just counter it by changing tactics every match or two? Midseason slump: Yeah that's still there unfortunately, though it seems to be lessened, so I imagine that's part of why for some people the game feels easier? But simultaneously the games feel less, rigged? Obviously it's partially placebo, but in my first few seasons I'm not noticing the feeling of just blatantly getting screwed out of games I should be winning to the same levels. Simultaneously, I have struggled in tiers I have not in the past. But again, it doesn't feel like your team just melts and loses all ability to be competent on the field for multiple games like it has in previous editions. It also seems harder to start a season, like your team performs worse at the start, so it's possible that you can no longer just abuse terrible friendly matches to boost morale to help right out of the gate and need to schedule friendlies at your level. But this could just be a small sample size. At lower levels you can see some differences from top tier beyond simple mistakes, dribbling is slightly more clunky, it'd be interesting to see what would happen if first touch could be changed to make it more obvious the difference. Would also be really curious to see what would happen if they made grass at lower level pitches been coded "Worse" and therefore make mistakes and ball momentum act differently? But a lot of the difference seems to be speed of shooting, maybe it is placebo, but the main difference shooting wise in lower league versus top leagues seems to be that higher level players shoot the ball faster, I mean obviously, but figured it was worth noting that there seem to be less of the absolute rockets at low tier, even if the placement of the shots is still, probably too accurate for lower tier players. The accuracy bit is mostly for close in shots. There is also some "scripting" still. Like when you know a ball should slow down but it doesn't and goes out of bounds instead. That's rare but it still is a thing. Scrambles feel more real, deflections are better, I do personally wish that more deflections were slower, there seem to be a lot of very fast deflections still, but you do notice that it has been improved. Hockey scores: No lmao. That's just people gaslighting. Central Defenders apparently being stupid? Can't say I've seen much that looked unrealistic. Long shots: This is hard to quantify, I don't think they're excessively going in. But I think that's because of limitations. I'd prefer to see more types of long shots, both slowed down but also those aimed more for corners. Imo they aren't converted too high, but that's because that part feels scripted more so to be shot at the keeper, who makes a save, but it looks more impressive than it is because it's fast and aimed high at the keeper. Which is a bit of a downer, would be more realistic if there were more shots going wide from range etc. But overall it works, even if it's eh. It is also worth noting that long shots that are placed still occur, and they can be saved as well. It just is more immersion breaking at lower tiers :P Throw ins: Yeah a little bit overpowered Direct Free kicks: Think they're in a good spot. Indirect Free Kicks: they're okay, but the meta is the same in my view. Corners: Little less fine, the meta is the same which is disappointing, but it feels a little high. Maybe that's just placebo as I haven't checked. Press conferences still are boring as hell but that's always been the case Other: People complaining about wanting more realism then complaining about more injuries when injuries are still arguably at too low of levels even when modded are, just. lol. Overall while it's lacking in some areas, really don't understand what a ton of vitriol is. Yeah it would be nice if these small, in some cases personal things were fixed, but none of these things are gamebreaking or often major. A lot of my personal complaints are for lower levels of the game which were simply not coded for by the devs. The game really isn't in a terrible state, it is better than FM23. I really don't understand the outrage.