What's that? A new Wishlist Thread? What you would like to see in future FM versions.

[Barkermush]

A Retro skin!

(It obviously doesn't have to be mandatory or the default skin, just the option.. like we can choose between the light and dark skins.

Something like the Retro skin SI created for Football Manager 2011.

(You can't beat the light green/yellow/orange etc colours, on a grass background. Just like the FM05/FM06 & FM07 days. Proper football skin. )

[scott MUFC]

I would like to see less results like this.

a NONE LEAGUE side.

5 shots

4 on target

4 goals

unrealistic, 1 goal fine, but 4 goals from 5 chances in a whole 90, on a team of 1 star players. this is frustrating, because Tactially, they WILL have shots everyone can create something, Restricting a team to 5 shots in any league and scoring 4 yourself is a win.

[Belkemi1]

A "sport director/president" mode of some sort. You do everything in the game today apart from manager task. Instead you handle the rest more in details, plus additional features. Like hiring and

firing managers, run the clubs economic (more in depth) and so on. Would have loved that.

[Walrus]

I just had a brainfart. Maybe this has been said already but how a about a mobile app that allows you to tinker tactics, set pieces etc. So instead of just thinking about it all day you could fool around creating different tactis while on the can, in the train or at work....

I suggested this to Miles and/or Marc on Twitter regards the iPad being used to tinker with tactics during games, but they said it would take away from the FM Handheld apps they have.

[OxfordUnitedFC]

I would like to see less results like this.

a NONE LEAGUE side.

5 shots

4 on target

4 goals

unrealistic, 1 goal fine, but 4 goals from 5 chances in a whole 90, on a team of 1 star players. this is frustrating, because Tactially, they WILL have shots everyone can create something, Restricting a team to 5 shots in any league and scoring 4 yourself is a win.

Although 3 of their 4 goals seem to be from clear cut chances which isn't an unrealistic stat.

[scott MUFC]

It is when you consider.

1. the players are not 100% match fit due to the fact it is preseason

2. those players have average stats of around 10, in key areas.

they are NONE League players not RVP, that accuracy is too high. and it happens often on my united save, random lower league club puts away whatever chances they get which is luckly usualy 1 or 2.

[OxfordUnitedFC]

It is when you consider.

1. the players are not 100% match fit due to the fact it is preseason

2. those players have average stats of around 10, in key areas.

they are NONE League players not RVP, that accuracy is too high. and it happens often on my united save, random lower league club puts away whatever chances they get which is luckly usualy 1 or 2.

All i'm saying is if any team creates 3 clear cut chances it is not completely unrealistic that they take them all in a one off game.

[Arnoldzhu]

What I wish for is the game being taken to another higher level with even greater realism if possible. It's so far definately a great game with an improved match engine already. So the problem is when we had set up training and scouting and other misellaneous things, the game seems to be just repeating and a little boring. Because the only thing to do next and to worry about then is the match and tactics. We got outplayed by AI, who always seems to be foxy and cunning to exploit the weakness of human players tactics. We got really p**sed off and angry and also upset when we had a decent team but our tactics just didn't work or we are first leading or dominating but AI can quickly and efficiently change tactics and suddenly everything is different. I personally never know how AI can be able to do that but I couldn't do that. Maybe it's because AI is the match engine itself. But realistically speaking, although I'm just an ordinary person, I can see and spot things and situations on the pitch when watching a realife game. Although we are not a real manager, we mostly likely would never got the chance to manage a real football team, but I believe we can all read the game and find problems and give out instructions to the team if given the chance. But that's not what we can efficiently do in the game. You know what I mean. I'm just saying that of course we can use tactical instructions and shoutings during a match, and we could lose or we could win or draw, the match could turn out to be exciting and breathtaking or heartbreaking. But the tactics per se seems to be playing an too important role in the game. You can download a best tactic from the forum and then it would not be too hard for us to win everything in the game. And that's what makes it a little boring after so many years of FM. If we're winning everything it could become boring, if we cannot get our tactic to work in matches, we won't win anything, every other things we done are just in vain. It's frustrating. And we quite possibly have no idea what is going wrong or going right. In realife there are so many factors that can affect a team/club in if it's doing well or poor on the pitch. Simply put, I hope the game will be developed more in-depth, because currently it seems a good tactic or being good at tweaking tactics can let you win everything. A realife manager, I believe, have a lot more work to do to get his team and club evolve and finally to win something. So please add more in-depth interactions, more player developing methods, more intelligence, more detailed training sessions, more management modules, more personalization, more problems to solve and more situations and incidents to manage, to make the game much better more sophisticated, and so that it can differentiate us (the human players) in truly "management".

[Arnoldzhu]

As for the ME itself, several aspects could be further improved. Players' defensive awareness including defensive actions, players' attacking skills including tricks or fake moves, etc.

[chluke33]

Game Analysis screen for Team/Player (Passes) - can assists and key passes be included in the passing data

Animations - goal animations expanded (slow shots that dribble in, slower placed shots that arc over goalie)

Team Report - able to display all the team ratings for gk/def/mid/attack for the whole league (not just highest/lowest, and your team position)

Stats - Team points from losing positions / 1st vs. 2nd half stats / home vs. away stats

Stats - Historical stats - can other stats be added to season-to-season display for a player other than what is shown currently

Stats - Awards - quick interface to create/edit awards based on any recordable stat, and possibly awards with weighted parameters. The editor somewhat allows for this but it is very clunky and difficult once the game is actually started. In game, the new/edited award could start the next season from creation date.

Referee Penalty awards / Red cards - have only seen 1 time ever in which a manager criticized a call and the "FA remained silent... as the replay showed the referee may have gotten it wrong." There should be increased frequency in which this is the case and where the call is blatantly wrong (IMHO). This should also affect the fan reaction after the game if the team loses due to the call (i.e. not devastated at team, but angry at officials ,etc. would fans necessarily take it out on the team if they lose 1-0 on a horrible official call for a penalty kick or early red card putting team down a man)

Director handling loans - setting to ensure players aren't loaned as "cover" only 1st team status - workaround now is to reject the agreed deal immediately in transfer area manually (may be a setting somewhere not sure)

Player form page - can it show whole season, not just 20 games

Player relationship w/Coach - have never seen this change from none, is this supposed to become favorable or negative (separate from favored personnel?)

Player happiness when loaned (i.e. enjoying his spell on loan at XXXX, or if not, feels he should be playing at a club higher than XXXX's level). (May consider recalling him)

[Jamo456]

To be able to train a player's weak foot ability. Surely this should be considered an attribute that can be trained and improved, just like anything else?

[SeanNUFC]

My wishlist?

Fix the stupid amount of sackings.

Fix the unhappy players bug.

And anything else that has been mentioned that needs fixing that has ruined the game.

[easternhawk2]

Just had two players break their legs in my last game, with both players that made the tackle getting away with just yellow cards.

I'd like to be able to complain in press(adverse statement part of press interview) about the tackle.

Along the lines of...

"player A should be banned because of tackle"

"player B may have ruined Player C's career with horror tackle"

Currently there is nothing that you can do if one of your players gets a serious injury.

Also, this could be incorporated into training injuries aswell. If a player gets an injury after colliding with someone in training, you could have a private chat and ask the player that caused the injury to perhaps calm down in training.

[interesti88]

How about a feature where you can play your save from your computer on your mobile device? I thought about this because while I'm at work or school I think about my save I got back home and all these ideas about transfers, tactics, formations etc. but by the time I get home I forget about it.

This would be a very cool feature because you can play the same save from your computer on a mobile device say at work, school, on the ride home or wherever.

[Welshace]

Mobile devices can't run anywhere near the processing power to handle a full pc save..

You can already run a pc based save remotely using 3rd party software on a tablet and such... although as always, not supported fully etc.

[scott MUFC]

getting rather fed up of players with the ball conceding fouls.

oh and players I let play for the reserves to get match fit, a fair few times they end up being selected over and over again, and i get no say. gets rather frustrating as these players get unhappy about no first team football.

only "reserve availabilty options are for a 45 minutes + no make unavailable.

[Vector]

For the 3rd time or so...When we want to organize an international friendly, why are we stuck with only Home/Away? Where's the neutral stadium? Several teams (Club and National Teams) make international friendlies in neutral countries...

[Jrooney2]

Not neccesary but could be quite good if you could see new kits and proposals for sponsors and designs. Also if a stadium is expanded it should show on the game to be bigger. Be able to see the fanbase grow and decline would be very important for long games.

[faisalaldoseri]

maybe having the option to be the president and can hire or fire managers, it would be interesting

[MShing]

Not my idea but this comes from siambluebird, when you get a son in your youth team you should be able to give him his first name, via a news item or something. I think this would be a nice touch and as it happens so rarely it wouldnt really be of detriment to game play.

[YoshiNezar]

Disallowed goals for challenge on goalkeeper needs changing as its just plain ridiculous. i have so many goals disallowed in matches for this as it is now becoming a ****-take never had this issue on fm12 wish i never switched over now

[Veg1ta]

The level of butthurt in this post is incredible.

They may only have had five chances, but three of them were clear cut, and none of them were from long range.

By the looks of it you got screwed on the counter attack, they sat back, defended deep, then hit you with pace and generated good chances.

It's not unrealistic, non-league (or lower league sides) have often used that kind of tactic to get good results against bigger teams, although obviously it doesn't happen all the time.

its not like they even played well, there average match rating is 6.72 which is slightly above average, certainly not worthy of 4 goals and you talk like a clear cut chance is a goal which isnt the case, either way to suggest those match stats are realistic corresponding to the scoreline is ridiculous, id love to see you get that kind of scoreline on the receiving end of that wigan domination.

the fact is the ai plays by its own rules.

[defoesbigtoe]

My suggestion would be to have a game released that works properly online, and not released until the game does work..

[Jerv]

1.

I'd really enjoy being able to lead a realistic career of a manager, i.e. start as a coach or youth team manager before advancing to U21/reserves manager and eventually getting a full manager position. If the 3D match engine was improved, it'd help with scouting players through watching other teams play, which I'd love to be able to do if it was effective.

Ideally, it would include a playing career as well starting from youth football, but that would be way too long winded and wouldn't be right in a game called "Football Manager".

2.

The option to remove the star ratings. It makes it too easy to sign up players with high potential. Scouting reports could include a comparison to a current player in the team instead, i.e. Scouted Player A has the potential to far exceed the ability of/be as good as Club Player A. As it is now, you can sign up loads of 4/5 star PA youth players knowing you'll be sorted for years to come.

3.

Youth academies. I want to be able to nurture children coming up through the age groups and even push the best players up a year or two to help them progress as they should. It'd be great to send scouts to watch local football to find the best talent not at a professional team.

4.

Dynamic abilities (mentioned by many people previously). How often in the game does a player from the lower leagues, e.g. conference south, get picked up by a championship or premier league team? There are several cases where players have been plucked out of non-league and are able to perform at a much higher level right away, e.g. Cody McDonald moved from Dartford in Conference South to Norwich in the Championship and was able to hold his own. Also, players that stay with a club as they progress through the leagues and improve as the team does, such as Leon Brittain (promoted from League Two to PL with Swansea), Grant Holt and Ricky Lambert (both scored goals in League One, Championship and PL in successive promotions with Norwich and Southampton, respectively).

I'd love to be keep a player that started at my club in League Two all the way through to the Premier League, but they'd never stand a chance with the current system. Decent players play better and can improve immensely with a better quality of players around them.

5.

Selling players to be overhauled. Offering players worth well over £1m for nothing and still not getting any clubs interested? There'll always be a team willing to take a punt on a player wanting bigger wages on a short-term deal if they're getting them for free. Also, I'd like to have the option of offering a departing player a contribution to wages until current contract expires so they can accept a lower wage at a new club, rather than them asking you as a last resort. If it would help give them a little nudge out of the door when they're not wanted, it would be very handy.

6.

Conversation/Press conferences. Everyone has issues with these. I find a lot of the options I want to say aren't there. If you're trying to transfer list a player, you should be able to tell him he isn't good enough for your team anymore or that he is too old. Or if a player is moaning about not getting first team football, you should be able to tell him the first choice is performing well at the moment, to wait for an injury to get their chance in the first team, or, again, that they just aren't good enough to warrant a first team place. I don't want to mess about with statements of sub-text, I want to be blunt and make sure the players know where they stand. It seems like they don't get the hint with whatever you're trying to tell them.

7.

Custom pitch sizes. It gives us options, but I'd like to be able to choose the exact dimensions within the specified parameters. If I want to make my pitch as wide as possible, I shouldn't have to make it as long as possible to fit into the "Maximum allowed" category.

8.

A larger number of referees, even if they aren't real. I know SI don't want to use memory up keeping excessive numbers of referee stats, but I get fed up with top premiership referees officiating my lower league matches!

I know there are many other things I've thought of previously, so I'll post them when I remember!

[begdug]

I would love to see a match engine that made sense and doesn't need patching every 5mins.

[Herbert Fandel]

I would love to see a match engine that made sense and doesn't need patching every 5mins.

Try FM 13, hasn't been patched in ages!

[YoshiNezar]

Not my idea but this comes from siambluebird, when you get a son in your youth team you should be able to give him his first name, via a news item or something. I think this would be a nice touch and as it happens so rarely it wouldnt really be of detriment to game play.

This would be a cracking idea

[YoshiNezar]

Try FM 13, hasn't been patched in ages!

still needs tweaking though

this is just a beta for 14 now i thinks

[YoshiNezar]

The level of butthurt in this post is incredible.

They may only have had five chances, but three of them were clear cut, and none of them were from long range.

By the looks of it you got screwed on the counter attack, they sat back, defended deep, then hit you with pace and generated good chances.

It's not unrealistic, non-league (or lower league sides) have often used that kind of tactic to get good results against bigger teams, although obviously it doesn't happen all the time.

i have seen a few of these in real life to be fair. guess they didnt make any tactical adjustments

[deserter]

its not like they even played well, there average match rating is 6.72 which is slightly above average, certainly not worthy of 4 goals and you talk like a clear cut chance is a goal which isnt the case, either way to suggest those match stats are realistic corresponding to the scoreline is ridiculous, id love to see you get that kind of scoreline on the receiving end of that wigan domination.

the fact is the ai plays by its own rules.

The fact is the match engine does not have the ability to differentiate between human and ai input.

It's also much more likely that a team puts away 4 out of 5 good chances than a team putting away 14 out of 18 decent chances.

You can play into the weak ai's hands by allowing them to create great chances by attacking too heavily. When they get to counter attack 2/3 vs. 2/3/4 you only need to make a tiny mistake to allow them a chance. If they put that away, they will gain confidence (which is a great help for scoring) and your defenders' and goalkeeper's confidence will take a dip.

This is fairly commonplace in real life. You will win 19/20 games like this whatever you do, but that 1 game is where you were overconfident and tactically naive and it backfired.

[mrdanbartlett]

Ok I know this is a bit mad but for me it would be an amazing new feature.....

Imagine if......your career earnings could be used to BUY a club, like you earn £6m or whatever over being a manager, then you can try and negotiate with existing chairman of clubs to buy a small club, invest your own money in it, maybe even sell it in the future and buy a bigger club etc. You could either buy the club and sign someone else as manager or manage it yourself and invest your own money.

My theory is how fun would it be for a save where you start off at the tiny club, bring them up and then buy them. OR....start at a small club, rise up through the ranks with different higher profile jobs/clubs, earning more and more, then buy a small club, make them amazing, sell them - buy a bigger club and continue - that would be one awesome and long save!

Ok not THAT realistic but would be a fun game mode to be able to enable.

[CurnRaisin]

Ok I know this is a bit mad but for me it would be an amazing new feature.....

Imagine if......your career earnings could be used to BUY a club, like you earn £6m or whatever over being a manager, then you can try and negotiate with existing chairman of clubs to buy a small club, invest your own money in it, maybe even sell it in the future and buy a bigger club etc. You could either buy the club and sign someone else as manager or manage it yourself and invest your own money.

My theory is how fun would it be for a save where you start off at the tiny club, bring them up and then buy them. OR....start at a small club, rise up through the ranks with different higher profile jobs/clubs, earning more and more, then buy a small club, make them amazing, sell them - buy a bigger club and continue - that would be one awesome and long save!

Ok not THAT realistic but would be a fun game mode to be able to enable.

Not that unrealistic, In July 2006 Nial Quinn became the chairman and manager of Sunderland, not that he worked wonders or any thing but it has been done.

[Arnoldzhu]

When we create managers, it would be nice to be able to select our birthplace too, and maybe second favourite club. And a problem currently with First name and second name for asian names should be fixed.

[fare dale]

maybe add the manager 3D with some movement...

[Sussex Hammer]

A perfect speed for watching the game in a realistic manner. Is it just me or in FM13 in the middle the speed of the passing etc is just a little too slow but one click to the right and it's just a little too quick. It's the first FM I just can't find a realistic speed for the match.

[Herbert Fandel]

Copy and Pasted from the other thread, but apparently here is where things get seen....

I would be in favour of the removal of scouts having access to the PA rating of a player in the database completely, and instead making them use things like statistics and CA to estimate a PA, which is in no way necessarily related to the DB figure.

It is all very well telling us to not focus to much on CA/PA, but then giving us all the tools that force us to do so. Given that you obviously note that not all players want to spend 24 hours per day looking at stastistics, given how much the amount the game feeds you has been increased, why not tell the scouts to not focus on CA/PA instead? Then we can still enjoy using the recommendations of our scouts without having to do ALL the work ourselves, whilst still not having the access to the PA which the game basically cheats by giving us just now?

[Umbersun]

Well, I guess this is the first time I write about improvements I would like to see on the next edition of FM. So, here it goes.

I already tried and played a little bit of a few past editions of the rival FIFA Manager and, after some hours followed by uninstalling the game for good, I went back to my usual addictness to Football Manager. But... everytime I did it I felt that something is missing on FootM. As the game goes on sometimes I remembered an option or possibility I saw on FIFAM but don't have on FootM. That fact occoured several times.

In my opinion the FootM is the top of the top manager game by light years but I do belive it's time to explore new options and add more depth for real. Of course the management of the squad always has Improvements to be done but it's time to expand the possibilities as a whole.

In my opinion the game should be divided into 4 distinct parts, giving the possibility to the player to fully customize what he wants to manage, delegate to the AI or simply disable from the game. And this are the 4 parts: Squad Management, Club Management, Personal Life and Media. I'll write about each one now.

1) SQUAD MANAGEMENT

This part of the game is so complete already that I believe minor things have to be done. Since I'm the kind of player who don't spend too much time on micro management of the squad, I prefer to leave this part to comments from other players. The only thing I find in real need for Improvement is the interaction with the players. I would like to have more options to choose from everytime I want to express what I think about him on every situation. What I find very important (and realistic) is to add the opportunity to express yourself to a single player anytime during the match, not only before the kick off, half-time and after the game end (like a sideline shout but for a specific player on the pitch).

2) CLUB MANAGEMENT

That's why I'm here, this is the part that will add something new for real on FootM. The whole club management needs work in order to give you a box full of new possibilities. When starting a new game you should be able to choose between "Simple" and "Full Control". The simple option would leave things just like it's nowadays, the board is responsible for the club management without too many things to take care of and when you want something you have to ask for it and get their answer. By choosing the "Full Control" option a new world of options are offered to you during the game. Here is the list:

2.1) Kit supplier contract - You should be able to contact or receive offers from kit suppliers and discuss contracts. Without kits no team can play football. For this new option the SI team should add to the game database a big list of kit brands with individual hidden characteristics each (reputation, financial power, willingness to deal with smaller teams and desire level to be wanted by clubs). Due to legal rights I believe it would be hard to see the name of real kit makers on that list but the good thing is that, using the or an editor you should be able to edit, add or delete those names by your own. Problem solved!

2.2) Kit Sponsors - Just like the supplier deals, modern football cannot live without kit sponsors. Although there are many teams with more than just one sponsor on their kits, I'ld be more than happy to have the chance to make contracts with brands to be the main sponsor of the club's shirt. Just like the kit suppliers, a list of brand names should be added to the game database and each brand would have its own characteristics. This one has to be a huge list and each brand should be related to a specific country or list of countries (ex.: Pepsi should be available for every country but Ikea just for the countries where their shops exist). Once again I believe we won't see real names here but... the or an editor get the problem solved by each player if they want to.

2.3) Stadium Sponsors - Pretty similar to the kit sponsor but to manage contracts with all possible advertisement spots on the club's stadium.

2.4) Stadium Name - Just like in real life, you should be able to sell stadium name rights' for a sponsor so the stadium changes his name during the extend of the contract with that sponsor. Those names shoulb be pre-defined on each sponsor characteristics and chosen by the AI when the deal is made.

2.5) Stadium improvements - I don't think you need to be able to design in 3D the stadium and the modifications you make (just like happens on FIFAM) but I do think it would be nice to specify some basic but important improvements your ground can get. Regarding this matter here is a list of things I'ld like to see:

2.5.1) Expand the capacity as you whish by setting the number of seats you want to add.

2.5.2) Convert standing places to seats. This action influences the total capacity of the stadium but increases the rating of the stadium. The better the rating the more appealing it's to the fans which can increase the general attendance on the matches.

2.5.3) Add undersoil heating to reduce the influence that bad weather has on the conditions of the pitch.

2.5.4) Later on I'll talk about merchandise but for now I add this other option to build a stand, kiosk, small shop, shop or megastore on the stadium's dependencies to boost merchandise sales.

2.5.5) Set the accessability to the stadium by levels and allow us to increase them by investing on it. Don't need to specify exactly what is built and what you are building, the levels will represent the quality of the access to the stadium as a whole (parking, bus stops, better roads, better sidewalks, more security to the fans, and so on...).

2.5.6) You currently have the option to ask for a new stadium, which is great when the capacity expansion limit is reached or when the current decay of the stadium is high (every stadium "die" after a certain amount of years). When it comes to the time to demolish your current stadium and buy a new one, you should have the option to choose between making a big "facelift", which is cheaper but still have limitations on the maximum capacity allowed (this option extends the life of the current stadium by many years but not so many as building a new one), or build a new one. When building a new one you should set both capacity and expansion limit (both influence the final cost of the construction).

2.5.7) Be able to build a trainning academy which is much more efective than the trainning ground but also more expensive.

2.5.8) Be able to build football schools in the country to get more and better youth players and let them develop quicker and better. You should be also able to build them abroad to have the same effect on youth players on that country. This last option would only be available to really big teams with money to spare.

2.5.9) All this improvements related with the stadium should have influence on the rating of the stadium itself and on the club. A nice stadium attracts more fans and players, better conditions to the players (training and pitch related improvements) attracts players with higher reputation.

2.6) Merchandising - You should have more detail on the income you get from merchandise. No need to specify which products are sold but the sales should be devided: local/regional/national/continental/world sales on shops (over which you have no power, you just get a part of the income due to the club's rights on those products sold) and your own merchandise sales that can be boosted by the club's reputation increase, contracting players considered big names to the club and by building better salling spots on the stadium (as written on 2.5.4)

2.7) Kits - Because I'm a football shirt collector in real life, one of my dreams is to see significant improvements on the kit department. The reason why I use an external editor is just because I change my kits during the seasons to add realism to the play. That's exactly what I would love to see implemented in the game. Here goes the new additions I would like to see regarding the kits:

2.7.1) You should be able to redesign the default kits during the game. You should be able to access an design area (similar to the one that exists on the game editor) where you can add and delete shirts, shorts and socks for both goalkeepers and field players. Just like in the editor you should be able to add how many home, away and third items and specify on which competition they will be used. I also think you should extend the number of kits to 4 instead of the current 3. The number of available designs should be increased and the possibility to use more then 1 design on the same shirt would be possible too allowing you the set the colour of each separately (they would act like layers just like it used to happen in the Pro Evolution Soccer game).

2.7.2) Before each match starts (somewhere on those pages where the line-ups and pre-match options are shown) you should see both full kits for the incoming match (yours and the opponent's) and let you customize each item of your kit. You should be able to circle through the available shirts, shorts and socks and make the combination you desire. By default the default combination wil be selected for both teams according to what is specified on the database but changes on the AI selection can be made in real time as you circle through your options. Who plays home always influence the shirt options available to the away team (the current game mechanism that blocks the use of the home shirt and make the away team play with the away or even third will be kept and refined). For example: I'm Milan and play home against Juventus. The default kit for Milan is red/black large vertical striped shirt, white shorts and white socks. The default home shirt of Juve is black/white thin vertical striped shirt, white shorts and white socks. Both home shirts can be used because won't be confusing enough but the fact both team have white shorts and socks can be not so good. So, considering that on the Juventus kit database a black short and black socks are added as alternatives to the home kit, the AI automatically change them to the black items instead of using the default white ones. Let's imagine that change is done by the AI and I decide to change my shorts and socks to black, the AI would automatically get back to the white options in real time. In resume, everytime the player plays home I have all options available and the AI away team eventually changes its default selection accondingly to what I do on my kit. When I play away, the AI use the default kit items accondingly to the info on the kit database and I get limitations on what I can change on the default set. If I'm Sampdoria and play away against the AI controlling Brescia (both home shirts are blue), I will never be the home shirt available to choose.

3) PERSONAL LIFE

Another idea I get from FIFAM and believe would be great to see on FootM. The opinion is divided about this part of the game on FIFAM, there are people who like it and people who hate it. I'm on the "I like" side. I find it interesting since the manager has life outside his job. On this department I think things must be kept simple with your family and not much more than that. What I find very interesting (option launched on the FootM 2013 for the very first time on the series) is the chance to see your male kids start a career as young football players and grow until adult and become a professional player. That's nice and should be available on every type of game on FootM. Another thing I find interesting and very useful is the opportunity to take courses to learn a new language. This can be useful when you move or pretend to move to a country where people speak a language you don't know. In every FootM version you progressively learn the language of the country you are managing, but with this new option to take courses that learning process could be faster. Since this is a "special" part of the game and not everyone like it, you really should be able to choose if will use it or not when starting a new game.

4) MEDIA

Every year people ask for improvements on the media side of the game, SI say that they did it but I see almost nothing new. I would like to see the media being completly revamped, with the introduction of more visual and interactivity. There should appear a box with a background picture or drawing where the whole text, questions and answers would appear. The background picture should match the situation (before/after match interview, new signining, preview on big matches, problems in the squad or with players, etc...). The most relevant news should also appear on a photo box showing a newspaper/sport website with the news written on it.

Finally, something I belive is an open door to become excellent is the 3D match. I love to watch the 3D games on the size it is. The day the 3D match appears like a FIFA or PES game it is doomed (like happens IN FIFAM). I love the way it is on FootM and I hope you keep that size ever. But... the 3D game still lacks a lot of things. Although I see graphic and movement improvements from year to year, it's still too basic and incomplete. I would like to see a far more fluid game flow, more emotion on the plays, a lot more of movement variaties like faints, tackles, fouls, falling actions, one-on-one runs and disputes for the ball, several types of passes and shots and, specially, a much more realistic goalkeeper and defensive movements. Besides the match itself, improvements could be made outside the pitch like having the manager on the bench and sideline with some movement and reacting accondingly everytime you shout. His activity and behavior should also be influenced by the score. To finish, goal celebrations could be even better and more varied. I loved to see that on the current version you can see the substitutes harm up on the side line, that's the kind of off the pitch improvements I would love to see grow.

IMG

[mrdanbartlett]

Also I'd love a way to export my team to share with a friend easily, outside of FM. In my head this would be something like a 'squad snapshot mode' which is a single click button inside the game. It then quickly takes a JPG screenshot of all your team members and puts them into a squad view main file where you can then click each player and see his stats - it could be done with flash I guess. Result would be a small (a few MB) file which you can email a mate and he can view it as an independent file outside of the game, be a good way to say 'hey check my team out, looks at Joe bloggs my new CM etc'. Saves having to manually keep taking and sending screenies between mates.

[Umbersun]

Also I'd love a way to export my team to share with a friend easily, outside of FM. In my head this would be something like a 'squad snapshot mode' which is a single click button inside the game. It then quickly takes a JPG screenshot of all your team members and puts them into a squad view main file where you can then click each player and see his stats - it could be done with flash I guess. Result would be a small (a few MB) file which you can email a mate and he can view it as an independent file outside of the game, be a good way to say 'hey check my team out, looks at Joe bloggs my new CM etc'. Saves having to manually keep taking and sending screenies between mates.

Loved the idea! How small details can improve so much the game.

[Herbert Fandel]

Im sorry Umberson but for me your points 2 and 3 are too much in the realm of Football Chairman/Director meets the Sims (i.e. Fifa Manager).

They aren't realistic for a football manager, and in my opinion in other management games things like picking shirt sponsors are implemented in a horribly contrived and unrealistic manner.

[Gary_Parker]

Im sore Umberson but for me your points 2 and 3 are too much in the realm of Football Chairman/Director meets the Sims (i.e. Fifa Manager).

They aren't realistic for a football manager, and in my opinion in other management games things like picking shirt sponsors are implemented in a horribly contrived and unrealistic manner.

I have to agree with this, not many, if any of those are the job of the manager. Though in point 3 you do raise a question for me, I don't know if this can be answered but....if you have a language of English and 2nd language of French, when you go to manage in Spain do you eventually learn Spanish at all? I've never really noticed.

[Herbert Fandel]

I have to agree with this, not many, if any of those are the job of the manager. Though in point 3 you do raise a question for me, I don't know if this can be answered but....if you have a language of English and 2nd language of French, when you go to manage in Spain do you eventually learn Spanish at all? I've never really noticed.

Yes you do pick up languages. Is he saying that having a son is new for fm13?

[Lawlore]

Umberson:

Since it's such a thought-out post, I figure it deserves some kind of feedback.

1. SQUAD MANAGEMENT

I am very much in favour of being able to shout at one specific player during matches. If (for example) someone is clearly committing a lot of fouls, a manager would make the effort to get the message to them to calm down, either directly, or through the captain. It's a simple, realistic addition.

2. CLUB MANAGEMENT

2.1-5 A lot of this falls under the category of "stuff the manager doesn't do", and brings us back to the age old "game vs. sim" debate. Managers don't get involved with kit suppliers, sponsors, seating etc. Even going to the board and asking for them to build a new stadium, as you can at the moment, seems a bit out of the manager's remit.

Having said that, Football Manager Live did adopt this chairman/manager approach a lot more, with varying degrees of success, which shows that SI have given the matter some consideration in the past.

In FML, there was a lot of potential in an academy system which was implemented, in which you set up an academy in a specific country, and received regens of varying quality and/or quantity, dependant on the funding and rating of academy, the footballing stature of the nation, and competition within it. I could see that, with development, crossing over to the main FM series quite nicely.

You were also responsible for the development of your own stadium, with seating etc. Although this remained at quite a simplified level, it did tie in with an interesting point about the style of football your team was playing attracting different types of fans. Again, it was something which was a germ of an idea that never really got the attention it needed. That one, however, isn't such an easy transition to the main FM series- a manager just doesn't deal with that kind of thing.

2.6 Merchandise falls under a similar umbrella. It's not the manager's job to worry about that- in the game, you are Alan Pardew, not Mike Ashley. It's not your club- you just work there.

2.7.1 I agree with your basic point about kits changing one season after another, and this is something that the game is lacking. However, it should be a passive thing- the kit should change, but the manager does not get to make the call on the new club kit.

If Manchester Utd have a home colour pallette of red/white/black, then every two years, a new kit in that scheme is developed. Red is obviously still the central shirt colour, but the design changes- in recent years, look at the variation with the chevron, the side panels, white collars, black collars, red collars, white piping, black piping etc. The kits are identifiably Manchester United kits, but there's variation. Away and third choice kits could be open to more variation in terms of colour.

2.7.2 Right now, I'd just be happy if the game picked up on clashes more often, but picking which kit a team wears before the match is one of the simplest improvements SI can make. I don't think it needs to go as in-depth as you have described, but simply choosing which of their choices each side wears is a must for FM14.

3 PERSONAL LIFE

I'm on the "don't like" side of the whole personal life argument. The game is about this person doing their job as a football manager. It's not about running little Sarah to ballet, or my wife moaning because I've got the car.

Sons have been in the game for a while now, but they are incredibly rare- I think I saw someone (Ackter?) say it's roughly 1 in 10,000 seasons played. There is, of course, the option in FMC to buy a son with a microtransaction.

I do like the idea of giving language a bigger role, and of being able to pick up new languages- on my current save, I've been in an area with a lot of Spanish-speakers for a while now, but haven't picked anything up. I could be wrong, but haven't seen it happen myself- it seems that the player profile is somewhat static after being setup at the game's beginning in this respect.

4 MEDIA

The media- and, indeed, interaction- side of the game is an area which needs to either be drastically improved or ditched. Adding tones was the wrong way to go about it, since they do pretty much nothing, either for realism or in terms of impact.

The skeleton of what is there gives great possibility, great scope for a much, much wider range of questions, as well as a much, much great variation of responses, and the same goes for a lot of interaction in the game, including with players and managers. It ties in with the idea that these other people in the world we inhabit don't feel like they really exist when we're interacting with them. The stock of questions and responses, in every situation, is far too small.

The interactions need to actually have some kind of impact beyond "this is what this article says", they need to lead the media into doing their own reporting. Media speculation is a big thing in football, but it's minimal in FM. The media has a seriously reduced impact compared with the real world.

5 THE MATCH

The ME itself is always going to be a WIP, and I'm sure developing how it looks graphically is also high on the agenda. I do agree with you that some of the visuals outside of the match action, such as the fans, subs and bench, have space for growth and further development. Not a high priority in my eyes personally, but one which will nonetheless come sooner or later. Likewise, things like celebrations.

[Katarian]

Agents really need tweaking. Just joined Bayern and there was a brilliant 17 year old in the youth team who hadn't signed a pre-contract agreement. Now he has an agent and wants about £8k a week and 15% wage rise, which I thought was a bit high so I tried and failed to negotiate and talks broke down. Now two months later the agent hates me because I've tried 5-6 times to offer another contract and he had said it's too soon after the previous talks. It's ridiculous that he now hates me for trying to offer contracts to his client, not to mention the fact he has already cost his client £64k in lost wages (the player is still on a £55 p/w) and hasn't been sacked.

[scott MUFC]

I know, agents fees need toning down, that ruins the contract type for me.

I am rather fed up of seeing tackles ending up at oppositions feet, you tackle them, the ball goes to another play as if passed, get rather frustrating because this can happen 2 or 3 tackles in a row, leading to goals etc. completly unrealistic for that number of tackles to do that, and we are not talking a few yards either, a good 10+ sometimes

[arsenalthebest]

I would like to see less results like this.

a NONE LEAGUE side.

5 shots

4 on target

4 goals

unrealistic, 1 goal fine, but 4 goals from 5 chances in a whole 90, on a team of 1 star players. this is frustrating, because Tactially, they WILL have shots everyone can create something, Restricting a team to 5 shots in any league and scoring 4 yourself is a win.

I guess Wigan went into Hydeing after this

[haunted1234]

2.1-5 A lot of this falls under the category of "stuff the manager doesn't do", and brings us back to the age old "game vs. sim" debate. Managers don't get involved with kit suppliers, sponsors, seating etc. Even going to the board and asking for them to build a new stadium, as you can at the moment, seems a bit out of the manager's remit.

i dont think "real managers" do contract discussions with players either, and yet its in the game? or decide on contracts of staff members...

[scott MUFC]

some managers take thier prefered staff with them so I would asume they get some say in that regard.

so who does player contracts then? I'm sure that is the manager.

[haunted1234]

so you tell me that Klopp goes to Lewandowski and tells him here you gonna have 10 million a year if you stay?

not sure if serious.

[Herbert Fandel]

Haunted I very much get your point, but have some slight things to add.

At some smaller clubs the manager is very involved.

Even at bigger clubs, the manager will give a lot of direction to those who do conduct transfer dealings with players, even though he doesn't do it himself. He will perhaps indicate what percentage of his budget he wishes to use on a player, what kind of salary he considers too much for a player in light of the extent to which he needs him relative to the rest of the squad or alternative options, etc etc. So although the manager might not actually do the negotiations, he is involved in the process, and the in-game set-up, whilst not of itself totally realistic, is arguably the logical way to reflect this input.

This can be distinguished from things like the prices of hats and scarves in the kiosks, where the manager has zero say.

The disctintions are definitely not absolute or capable of being 100%, and so I see your point, but they exist nonetheless