Lord Duffucus

I'm attempting to win the top division in 100 different countries. Been going for seven years and have 54 won so far. The challenge has a few rules/guidelines but it's kept the game constantly fresh and interesting. Then I also play domestically in England, randomly picking teams down to step six of the non-league pyramid and using my own quite elaborate points system as a gauge of success. Bottom line is the possibilities in FM are more or less infinite so it will NEVER be boring. Make your own rules. I have a wife and four kids yet still manage all this - it's my therapy!

Durham City. Promoted in season one and top after eight games in season two!

I'm playing a game with a step eight club (Wearside League Division One - I know how to live it up...) and likewise it's an amateur club and the players I've signed have defaulted to amateur contracts. It might come down to the quality of player you're signing but I'm not sure. I actually got promoted to step seven and am now finding it harder to recruit amateur players as most want non-contract at the very least. Probably a hard one for SI given they don't officially support those levels that far down the pyramid and you're almost relying on the database creator a bit. If you've got the in-game editor, maybe switch the club to 'semi-professional' on there. Technically cheating I guess but would open up financial options (however limited they may be) and you'd still only be able to sign those who want to come.

I'd beg to differ on this - my 5ft 2in midfielder is definitely different in stature to my 6ft 5in defender and you can tell that on the 3d models. Skin colours are also different, so it's not just hair. It may be harder to distinguish the more athletic from one another but certainly in terms of height it's noticeable, although it may be less so than the last version. I keep meaning to use the IGE to make a player 7ft tall and 18 stone to see if it's noticeable! I'd request that for the in-game editor we can change skin colours rather than just hair lengths etc. I've had a few regens with very, let's say, african/west indian names, but who have been very white and ginger...

I've mentioned this elsewhere in the past but am curious to know whether there is any difference to ball physics etc when playing on a 3G pitch, just as there would be in real life. Indeed, do pitch types/conditions ever make a difference? I'd also request again that grass patterns are removed from synthetic pitches, as used to be the case in FM versions in the past. They don't tend to have patterns on them in real life due to their nature and it helps immediately identify you're playing on one. Although maybe it makes no difference to anything whether you are or not! The latter is a small thing but just adds to the realism etc. As for the physics side of things, I guess it may be hard to implement but worth considering if not already? Just editing to say that I've now noted that the patterns are even on things like clay pitches, which shows they're just being applied to all surfaces no matter what they are, which is a bit weird and not how it used to be done. Hey ho...

Well, the bug is the stuff I mentioned about the camera not keeping up. The bit about dumping the view altogether given it offers nothing wasn't a feature request, more the preferable way of solving the problem. Maybe just my opinion though.

First of all, the match engine this year is bloody brilliant. I like Director Cam, it's probably the match engine camera I use most alongside TV view with a low angle and full zoom. I'm glad they've ditched the 'behind the taker' view on corners, because when do you ever see that on TV? However, they've still included it on a free-kick, which isn't really a great view, especially if the ball bounces back into play and you potentially miss something before the camera switches back. It also gives away that a shot is coming before it happens. I'm guessing this isn't possible, but is there any way of removing that 'behind the taker' camera angle manually via the resource archiver or something like that? I can cope with it for penalties but there's really no need for it otherwise. Being able to manually zoom in and out of Director cam would be good too, as well as alter its height like on TV mode, as it's otherwise rigid. Just checking...

The game and ME looks great but it's disappointing there's still no visual difference between a synthetic pitch and a real grass one (like there used to be in previous versions), which is usually pretty obvious IRL. Hard to know if the surface makes any difference to ball physics either. Might seem a fairly trivial thing but in terms of immersion and accuracy, getting 3G pitches right can play a big part given their prominence in the game now, especially at lower levels and in some countries. It's a variable that can make a big difference in a practical sense, and visually it helps remind you when you're actually playing on one!

Will there be a more realistic pitch texture for 3G surfaces? At the moment they look the same as normal grass whereas in reality, aesthetically they're usually quite different. Also curious as to whether ball physics on a 3G surface will be affected as in real life? This used to be the case in old versions, particularly the visual side of it. Hoping someone from SI can answer this given their continued prominence in the game, especially at lower levels and in some top divisions worldwide.

A couple of game reloads has now sorted this it seems, although it didn't straight away. Still can't work out why it happened but delete the thread, mods, if needs be.

It's only doing this on that particular save by the way, not on a different one I also have going. Really annoying and something I've never seen before.

Glad I found this thread as it alludes to valid points in a few others I've seen and on issues that, frankly, are really winding me up now when I see how things were in versions long passed. The 3D engine this year is excellent, a country mile better than previous versions, but the stadiums and pitches are ridiculous in terms of their lack of variety and I'm struggling to understand why SI don't respond on this. If other studios continually ignored key areas of gameplay/realism/immersion like this in top games they'd have no future. Why waste so many resources on vanity things like what the manager looks like and the rubbish outside the ground, rather than on actual gameplay issues that make a difference. The pitches are pretty much ALL the same, no matter what level you're at, with little variation aside from a few mud patches in goalmouths here and there, no effect on the game itself no matter what the conditions, and no visual difference whether it's 3G, non-league, Wembley or whatever, This never used to be the case so why is it now?

You may well know this already of course but I think this is probably where the render settings come in, although if you want 'very high' render quality it'll require a decent spec machine/graphics really. Lighting is more noticeably different between day and night although the night games are always that bit brighter given the floodlit nature etc.

I'd genuinely appreciate some feedback on this stuff from SI as I'm curious about it all, not in too much of a critical way, just in terms of other less important things being prioritised over something that helps not only with realism but also so often has a big impact on a game, whether it's the quality of a pitch or what it's made of/looks like etc!

Which begs the question as to why it's not anymore I suppose. I love the game and always will but it does baffle me where the priorities sometimes appear to lie in terms of realism.

Yeah it's hard to tell, particularly when the pitches aren't obviously bad or muddy. I honestly think some time spent by SI on developing a variable like this more would be worthwhile - and as I say, certainly of more value to the game than buildings outside and burger vans with benches etc. Having a clear difference between, say, Wembley and your average National League pitch etc would be helpful. Pitch condition is in the database/editor etc but isn't obviously translated in game as far as I can see. I could have sworn wind played a part before in previous versions too - not sure if it does in this one. I mean in terms of ball physics, being held up in wind etc. As for the pitch patterns on 3G, again it's a visual thing as much as anything but added something to the immersion before. They currently look exactly the same as normal pitches.

Are pitches, and the nature of them, an active variable in the game? What I mean is, does playing on a synthetic pitch affect ball physics etc as it would IRL? Can playing on a cut up or bobbly pitch have an affect too? I also don't notice any difference in any weather conditions. I ask that last one tentatively because all the pitches seem to look pretty pristine in the current game and even when I'm playing in a country with poor surfaces or in non-league etc, all the pitches seem perfect. Also, why to synthetic pitches now have patterns on them unlike before when they more realistically were just one shade of green like they are IRL? Can't work that out and it's hard to know when you're playing on 3G unless you manually check what the surface is (or if you have prior knowledge). Then again, if the surface makes no difference to anything (whether visually or actual gameplay) then I guess it doesn't matter. I'd rather SI spend more time on things like this than faffing around with what we can see outside the ground that is all a complete waste of time and resources IMO.

Is there not even the option to stick an athletics track or 'dead areas', for example, round pitches that have them IRL to at least add a bit of likeness to those relevant clubs? Rather than every ground having close up stands? Plus the option of the non-league-types with more railings than stands etc. My thought in the past has been to have certain types of stadium numbered, for example 'Wembley-type' - 1, Athletics track - 2, Open-ended ground - 10, Basic non-league - 14 etc etc. That list could be readily available in the communities or whatever for reference. Those can then be applied on the stadium page in the editor/database to identify what kind of ground it is, with the 20/30 different types or whatever designed by SI and applied accordingly as I guess they are now in some ways. Probably only needs two or three new ones doing. This may not be possible but it would also be open to allow people to change what type of stadium they start with if they wanted to, just like you could now by changing capacity or whatever.

If nothing else, it would be good if stadiums with, say, athletics tracks around the pitches, are actually represented as such, even if the rest of it isn't that similar. Some countries have this in the majority of grounds but on FM it's all 'stands close to the pitch' etc. Likewise, such is the rise of people playing low down the pyramids thanks to the community editors, some very basic non-league grounds are needed too, namely with just one stand and railings or whatever, rather than a step seven club playing in a ground with big empty stands in them. As said though, somehow making the stadiums editable so the talented community folks can do the rest would be a big step and add so much to the immersion and realism. And for the love of god can we please get rid of pub benches and ice cream vans and such like.

I think I've had a few goals come from players more or less going round the keeper, not too many though. Agreed on the goalkeepers never conceding a penalty and the subsequent red/yellow card being produced. Almost a reason on its own never to have a keeper on the bench because they also rarely get injured mid-game. Don't think I've ever seen a keeper handle outside the box either and therefore get sent off etc. Penalty misses - you're right, can't think of many going over the bar or hitting the woodwork. Usually put wide or saved. One other thing that really bugs me is to do with the camera angles for the 'Director' setting. Why, why, why do we get these daft angles for corners and free-kicks? The main camera is fine for that but instead we get behind the goal or behind the taker views, or even worse corners viewed from near the flag. I think penalties from behind the taker are about the only thing we ACTUALLY see in real life TV broadcasts. I don't even like that to be honest. If it wasn't for these weird angles I'd use Director all the time as I prefer the main camera angle but I just use TV instead. Really something that needs addressing I think because that aspect is certainly not true to life.

Double post.

Yeah I've seen that before, just haven't got round to trying to sort it. Might have a go at some point.

FM23 for me, by a considerable distance. As well as the general AI being better as you'd expect with natural progression (especially since the last patch) the ball physics and animations seem that much more realistic and the variation in action/types of goals is better too. Not forgetting the great improvements made to goalkeeping. Of course there are random instances when weird things happen but then it's the same in real life! I'm really enjoying this year's engine, more so than ever before I think. Don't get me wrong, I still don't like the fact that when I'm playing with a level nine side, for example, the stadiums are very unrealistic and that there's still no way they can be skinned/altered etc now that playing that low down is becoming so common (even if SI don't build the game for that), and the pitches are in too good a condition at some levels even with the pitch textures pack added, but in terms of the actual football bit, 23 is by far the best yet in my opinion.