*Official* Football Manager 2013 Constructive non-ME Feedback Thread

[Butters76]

One thing I noticed straight away, crosses, crosses and more crosses. Yet you didn't come close with any of them.

Also first girl was an attacks near post corner.

Yeah, when the wingers are on support they just cross, but I have to do it.

Coz if I put them on attack they just keep shooting from dead angles all the time.

The tac is NOT how I would use it IRL, its just what have given me the 3 points.

[hursty2]

Yeah, when the wingers are on support they just cross, but I have to do it.

Coz if I put them on attack they just keep shooting from dead angles all the time.

The tac is NOT how I would use it IRL, its just what have given me the 3 points.

Why not try them as advanced playmakers, then play Podolski to feet?

[Butters76]

Why not try them as advanced playmakers, then play Podolski to feet?

I might give it a go, allthough Walcott isn't the most creative fella in the world. It's just that this ******** tactics has worked for results. It just looks so stupid to watch

http://speedy.sh/MrABK/Arsenal-v-Dortmund.pkm

[payne007]

i keep getting outpassed no matter what i do,i tell my ball winners(vidal and co.) to push high and hassle like crazy but they keep doing the opposite and please don't tell me its my tactics...........i'm so frustrated that i just watched and smiled as atalanta made more than 30 consecutive passes in front of my defence and my players kept dropping off......thank you SI for this,at least now i can sleep knowing i've thrown my $40 out the window:applause:

[wwfan]

Main observations.

Match: Southampton are obviously playing a high tempo, high aggression, high closing down game. You are also playing an aggressive closing down game. Consequently, there are loads of passages of play when teams are giving away fouls and play is disjointed. That is to be expected given the defensive systems each team is using.

As the superior team, you could have dropped deeper in possession and drawn them out on the press, giving you opportunities to pick them apart on the counter. However, your control based game is designed to be broken up by an aggressive pressing system.

There is actually loads of aggressive pressing and tackling in this game until Southampton lose a man. The issue is that both teams suddenly stop pressing when the opposition gets controlled possession in the final third. Something for the ME team to look at in more detail I think.

Tactics: My first observation is that using a poacher in a lone forward situation is very risky. The poacher doesn't contribute enough to all round play to be an effective lone forward. You are compounding this risk by channelling all the balls through to him. It looks to me that the only way you are trying to score is to feed the poacher with TBs from deep. For me, that is 100% an FM12 way of playing, because it is looking to take advantage of the lack of collision detection, allowing a quick poacher to run riot. I'd be looking to work out a secondary route of attack, so the AI is forced to defend play from multiple avenues. This can be having the lone forward drop deeper (CF/S, DLF/S, TQ) and have the wingers move into the space he creates, or have him as an AF roaming wider, allowing an MC to break into the central space.

Another risky element is not having a single midfielder on a defend duty. This can result in your DCs being isolated against the counter, as nobody is covering them. You will be getting away with it to an extent because both your FBs are only on Support duties, which will restrict them going forward too much. However, it also restricts your passing angles in the final third. It also compresses play in the final third as there is no MC sitting behind play to provide a safe outpass when the team is running out of options.

The poacher, role/duty combos and non-overlapping FBs all contribute to the channelling of passes to the single target point issue that was so prevalent in FM12 super-tactics. The FM13 engine should allow AI sides to comfortably defend against this type of tactic, as would real life football teams. It will be much too easy for the AI to prevent your team playing controlled football, as it can compress space around the single target point and prevent him from being a danger. You are basically restricting your own options and relying on superior players to pull you through. You might be scoring a number of late goals as AI teams are forced to come at you if you have snuck a lead. In these instances, the single point of target can be useful, as he'll stay high and be a danger on the counter. However, with a controlled approach, not recommended.

I'd also be wary about choosing manual slider overrides. The changes you made prevent some of the shouts you are using from working as intended. That might be what you want. If it is, be wary as to how much you want to press with a line that deep.

[Leon_fogo]

the game that will be less nerd? new patch comes around?

[Butters76]

WWfan

Well it works. And as for the lone poacher. I tend to change the role depending on who I have on top and who I'm up against.

Here against better opponmnents. almost messed up at the end when I changed from control to std.

http://speedy.sh/wZmyf/Arsenal-v-Man-Utd.pkm

[hursty2]

I might give it a go, allthough Walcott isn't the most creative fella in the world. It's just that this ******** tactics has worked for results. It just looks so stupid to watch

http://speedy.sh/MrABK/Arsenal-v-Dortmund.pkm

Even just quickly watching that game, Podolski scored 2 goals from through balls from your wingers. This also freed up your FBs who seemed to get forward more, on the outside of Gervinho and Walcott.

[scott MUFC]

any chance of cutting the cards down a bit.

serious ammount of yellow cardage

players seem to carry on regardless of bookings, and these bad fouls are not really

Kagawa was booked for a "bad foul" it was pulling a player back

[Butters76]

Even just quickly watching that game, Podolski scored 2 goals from through balls from your wingers. This also freed up your FBs who seemed to get forward more, on the outside of Gervinho and Walcott.

Tac was the same. except wingers had crossing sometimes instead of often. I changed that early on. But after the tac was saved. So the tac I linked had wingers on cross often, but I changed that long time ago. Just hadn't saved the tac after that.

They still do a fair amount of crossing, and Giroud is good in the air, he likes the crosses when he plays.

[hursty2]

Tac was the same. except wingers had crossing sometimes instead of often. I changed that early on. But after the tac was saved. So the tac I linked had wingers on cross often, but I changed that long time ago. Just hadn't saved the tac after that.

They still do a fair amount of crossing, and Giroud is good in the air, he likes the crosses when he plays.

Well, your wingers seemed narrower and didn't cross as often!

[dgilleran]

Fix goalkeeper mechanics!

[video=youtube_share;uSWvoYl9lwQ]http://youtu.be/uSWvoYl9lwQ

[Booooooom]

New match engine is horrible imo and very user unfriendly. Should have just worked on FM2012's engine rather than creating a new interface.

Match report generation for every single game you wanna see stats etc of is killing the game for me.

edit: also, interface seems messed up. Where are the arrows where all teams from a division would be selectable? I've always used this way to storm through neighbouring countries' clubs in order to locate a gem, now I need to search for each team manually!!!

[toon army 06]

New match engine is horrible imo and very user unfriendly. Should have just worked on FM2012's engine rather than creating a new interface.

Match report generation for every single game you wanna see stats etc of is killing the game for me.

edit: also, interface seems messed up. Where are the arrows where all teams from a division would be selectable? I've always used this way to storm through neighbouring countries' clubs in order to locate a gem, now I need to search for each team manually!!!

You can see the stats with out the game loading, click on the tick not the score.

[Macphisto]

After playing this game for many years i am very disappointed at what has been released this year.

The whole game just feels wrong. boxes whizzing here and there every time i press continue, a skin so bright i have to change the brightness and contrast on my monitor each time i load it up, and a new training system which feels void of any thought in design.

After FM12 which i played the most over 2000 hours i felt that things could only get better with FM13 but you have ripped the soul out of the game. As for this years match engine its utter crap. It feels slow and sluggish like a badly dubbed movie. Goalkeepers are the worst ive seen in any version ive played, long shots galore spoil the experience of each match.

[Rashidi]

In the last couple of weeks, I've had loads of PMs from people asking me to have a look at their tactics and this is the conclusion I have drawn:

a. The majority of people who use Classic Custom Tactics, inevitably get them wrong, some people have tactics that are too one dimensional. By this I mean they create goals from very basic plays. They dont have multiple pivots in their formation which allow for play to move from one flank to another, their tactics all show a lack of understanding at the effect of staggered mentalities can have on team. I have yet to come across a decent custom tactic that actually works.

b. People have complained that their players do not close down, that defenders allow through balls to make their way through, but even in the demo version. I showed that this proper pressing could be achieved. It was possible even then to get players to cut off through balls and track annoying midfielders. Its gotten easier now, but even then I find people posting tactics that don make any sense.

c. People who use the tactical creator make some awful choices. The tactical creator essentially acts as broad parameters that define how your team plays. What happens on the pitch is up to you, but a lot of managers actually use it wrongly. There was one poster who ticked every possible instruction on the team instructions page thus nullifying his shouts. And some people dont even understand the effect of shouts. There are some shouts if used concurrently could lead to your side pressing at max and have a defensive line at max. Even God wont keep your goal safe.

Some people may think the closing down isnt effective, and this is where i will disagree. Closing down and tackling arent the same thing. Based on my involvement in FMLs tactic creator, and things may have changed since I have been away, Closing down was the act of players in team to shut down passing lane options. They would begin tracking a player the moment they entered their zonal defense area, If you look at any football game at the moment, there is a lot of closing down, but you dont see a lot of tackling. You see players tracking the player who has entered their zone. The moment the player enters a "dangerous" area he needs to be stopped. And thats where tackles come in, and ppms. If a player has "lunges into tackles" as a ppm, aggression as an attribute and good tackling then he will lunge into a player. A midfielder who doesnt have those attributes will opt to track.

I have numerous screenshots showing this happening in the game. I have screenshots that show my players tightly mark the players who have entered their zones. There is a "hole" at the moment on the pitch where the "dangerous" area hasnt been defined clearly enough or maybe its due to my setup; this hole is an area of the pitch where for some reason not enough aggression happens. I am not entirely 100% sure if its the case, but I am running a season long test to find out.

Now Closing down happens in the game and I am actually HAPPY with how it works. I am using Opposition Instructions to "Close down" keepers cos I want them to give the ball back to me. And that works. I use tight marking and wrong foot on central playmakers and am using a really ****** side to that with and that works. Yeah it doesnt when the opposing number suddenly has attributes that are way better than mine, so I narrow the pitch.

When I feel I need to do more to make my zonal defending more effective, I opt to set my wingers on tight marking duties. I hardly EVER use man marking, since i am usually in CONTROL mode. Its better otherwise I am dead meat cos i will be pulled outta position. With my highish position on the pitch I do expect to pay the price if the opposition elects to use direct passing to go down the flanks .Its happened before resulting in unmarked players getting into the box from the other flank of a cross. But hell I just saw Liverpool concede a goal over the weekend from exactly the same situation. So yeah I can accept that too, so i return the favour to the AI when i get my chance.

If you want to defend better there are a lot of tools in the game that one can use. Assuming that you dont need to do anything is usually gonna get ya beat. Using every shout possible will get ya beat. If you isolate the issue on the pitch and surgically handle it with a good mix of Opposition Instructions and selectively use the right shout you will win more often than lose.

The ME works fine, for those who have an issue, I recommend you get off your high horses and stop being couch potato football critics, the kind that yell at teams on the telly shouting at them to tackle someone down. I apologize if I seem to come down hard, but I have come across too many bad tactics to believe that it is the me and not the player. I am top of the table with Stafford Rangers in the BSS and they are a newly promoted side, and I full expect them to get promoted with this me. With the me that came out with the demo, no way, it would have taken me 2 seasons

[Booooooom]

You can see the stats with out the game loading, click on the tick not the score.

what tick? the only thing clickable is the score

[zeke]

Few days of checking thins out in the full release version.

* The game does seem run much slower pace than in the beta. Processing takes longer... I have top class laptop but you can "see" diffrence.

* Training seems better than previous versions. You just hire the coaches and even default settings improve your players.

* FMC! It is an nice addition but will not participate on that one since it is too slim. You should be able to add more leagues and hire staff etc. Basically all you would need to take out are teamtalks/press confrences,

* The team talks / press confrences are repeative. Just another burden. I have left those the assistant manager but rather would love see the option to remove them.

* I like DOF but it still needs fine tuning but the idea is great.

* Transfers ..it seems realistic and like it more than previous version. Improvement.

* ME engine has potential but a lot of work is needed. Those details are already covered in various

Also feel that the tactics are far too random in this version. Very hard to to get balanced stuff ongoing and I think "Tactical creator" is partly to blame in this one.

The whole TC is too distant from the actual game when you look at the games and how your players do perform on the pitch.

I have been tweaking tactics since the early CM/EHM's. Allthough used diffrent forum name those days. You need to use personal instructions and sliders to get players moving better around the pitch.

Thus not suprised to see a lot of people giving feedback on this area of the game. It sure as hell can be frustrating. Last night replayed a lot of games and tweaked the sliders and got few things sorted.

Also they should rename some sliders. Ie. Time waisting... and give people better descriptions what these things do.

A bit disappointed that you still cannot see visually on the tactics screens what "press more".. high defensive line mean actually.. these things should be made visible to the players creating tactics.

Also don't like the shouts since that requires you to watch the games and personally don't bother. Mostly run games in commentary only mode once have checked the initial tactics in the friendlies.

* I do like the system that you can assign staff roles better in this version. (ie. scouting, youth recruitment)

That pretty much sums things up for me. I would give the game currently maybe 8-/10...

[wwfan]

WWfan

Well it works.

And herein lies the problem. You try to design a logical tactic, but struggle. You then design a tactic which you recognise isn't logically sound, but is somehow winning. You don't think it should win, but as it does, you'll stick with it. You then complain that the football it produces isn't realistic. But you know it won't be realistic in the first place, as you are merely trying to win through any means possible, which includes creating an unrealistic tactic that might well be beating the ME, not the AI.

For what it is worth, I didn't se much wrong with the general play in the Southampton match, bar the weird settling back when the opposition gets the ball under control in the final third. I was suggesting that your system has serious flaws, mostly in the lack of an MC in a Defend role and no FBs getting forward. You might be overcoming these by designing an attacking system that ensures goals. However, this prevents you from designing a holistically logical system, in which players move into logical and realistic spaces when they open up.

Of course, it is totally up to you if you want to listen to me. I am only suggesting that by employing your current method, you'll never fully appreciate the beauty of the ME at its best.

[Hit the upright]

I'm not trying to. As I keep saying, I can see issues in the ME. I'm also only really trying to damn those that cry 'worst ME ever!!!!!' as people who are using illogical tactics. from what I'm seeing, the general structure of play has improved, although there are some key issues preventing the overall experience from being what it could be.

In my own game, I'm not seeing much randomness, nor upside down tables. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that AI teams that employed Attacking strategies from the off might be struggling, which might explain things. I think there are a few issues in the ME and AI logic that might hurt such sides.

Me either, I played as Luton in my first season, I won the league, fortunately as I was expected too and didn’t lose a game all season, except in the cup and friendly’s against bigger teams. I scored more goals than any other team, yet not one of my scorers made the top five for the season, lots of players chipped in. The ME is defiantly not broken but it does have some major issues to resolve, it’s a petty that some forum members can’t see the wood from the trees and feel the need to resort to hyperbole.

[big_bob]

I really like the regen quality in 13.1.1. Later in the game you'll find some fantastic regens. I already posted some of them in the Regen thread. The long-term games will be very good regarding this aspect, no doubt about it. Just hoping that the regen production quality won't be changed in the next patches. Here's some fantastic quality and balanced regens from my 13.1.1 save:

[Hit the upright]

On the tactic front I will say this, the instances of illogical passages of play cannot be down to tactics alone, because the issues effect both sides in any match. While I might muck up my tactics the ME has set up the oppositions tactics with no input from me, yet the same problems occur, poor marking and pressing, poor keepers, players running away from the ball and all the rest. Last season both my FBs scored between 5 and 10 goals each mainly from being left completely unmarked on the edge of the box, now I might like to kid myself that it’s because I had fantastic tactics but in reality it’s because the ME is making schoolboy errors.

[Herbert Fandel]

any chance of cutting the cards down a bit.

serious ammount of yellow cardage

players seem to carry on regardless of bookings, and these bad fouls are not really

Kagawa was booked for a "bad foul" it was pulling a player back

Pulling a player back is a yellow card! Glad to see you are using capital letters in your name this year....

[rrfc2711]

Absolutely loving the full version!

Had some issues with the Beta (didn't we all!) - the game was very slow and felt a bit unrealistic, but glad to see that these have been ironed out for the final release .

I am currently playing FMC, as I am one of those gamers who, as Miles put it, 'doesn't have much spare time'. At first, I was quite critical of FMC because I thought it was too simplistic compared to the fuller version - but, having given it time, I can see that FMC is custom-built for me .

I'll get round to having a crack at the full version eventually, but for now at least I'm sticking with FMC.

Thumbs up from this CM/FM fan since CM2 all those years ago! :thup:

[Man U Lance]

Overall the new game is great but:

1) I find that assigning scouts to specific tasks to be convuluted/ confusing in the full game. This could be made easier/ clearer I think. Couldn't it be done from the first screen instead of having to click to another scout assignments screen?

2) Also I would like to be able to register my players in the 'classic' mode. Thanks.

3) The difference between 'General Training' and 'Match Preparation' needs to be clarified. For example, I can assign 'Tactics' to be scheduled under BOTH general and match prep. What is the difference?

Thanks!

[TomaZorakFM]

This game is simply unplayable. Tactics without wingers don't work. Tactics with wingers work, but not good, at least for me. Wingers keep shooting from dead angle, instead of cross or back-pass. Through balls are very very rare, crosses are often, but often the commentary goes like : ''He certainly didn't mean it'' or ''xxx scores a total fluke''. Beta engine was much better, except the goalkeeper who were always kicking ball to sky. Now that is fixed, and everything other is ruined.

Playing with Milan, I do not expect to win the UCL or Serie A, but for Christ sake, I expect to win against Pescara and Siena. But it is impossible. Not to mention that NIKLAS BENDTNER is top goalscorer in the game. NIKLAS BENDTNER, hello!

[303jonas]

I have played one season with Arsenal so far and I have two things that annoys me.

1. Clubs seem to require way too much for young talents. For example Zouma. The club easily rejects a 20 million pound offer. Not very realistic.

2. What happens with french regens? At player search I filter on age (max 16) and value. The 10 best valued players (all regens) are all french and 8 of them are all from the same club, i.e. LOSC. It just happened that the 8 greatest talents from that generation comes from the same club. LOSC will dominate the game and become unbeatable in the years to come if this continues (as mentioned I have only played one season. I do not hope that the same occurs at the next regen intake. None of the 8 players can be bought for under 10 million pounds.

There are almost no talents from England, Spain or Italy or other big leagues in top 20 of regens. Top 20 is completely dominated by french talents. 16 out of 20 highest valued regens are french.

[TSH]

Some people may think the closing down isnt effective, and this is where i will disagree. Closing down and tackling arent the same thing. Based on my involvement in FMLs tactic creator, and things may have changed since I have been away, Closing down was the act of players in team to shut down passing lane options. They would begin tracking a player the moment they entered their zonal defense area, If you look at any football game at the moment, there is a lot of closing down, but you dont see a lot of tackling. You see players tracking the player who has entered their zone. The moment the player enters a "dangerous" area he needs to be stopped. And thats where tackles come in, and ppms. If a player has "lunges into tackles" as a ppm, aggression as an attribute and good tackling then he will lunge into a player. A midfielder who doesnt have those attributes will opt to track.

This is one of the many strange things that happen with the ME and the tactics module. You can't always have proper players to make the tacklings or be aggresive. That's why I'm the manager. I should be able to INSTRUCT them to tackle, even though they don't have the proper stats for it. I should be able to INSTRUCT them to pressure and be aggresive even though they don't have the proper stats.

Players should be doing, more or less, what I tell them and if they are not proper for the job, the team should pay the price. No manager in the world gives a player an instruction to do something and when that player refuses tells him "oh, jeez, you are not good enough to do that. Good call disobeying my instructions."

Also, you can see above another problem with an easy definiton: tempo. There are people who are actually STILL discussing what it means, and none poster says that as he raised the tempo his team played slower. This is simply unacceptable.

[PaulC]

I think its time I said my twopenneth on the Match Engine as I believe its getting a very unfair bashing in this thread. It certainly isnt perfect and has a few rough edges but all of us in the ME team believe it is way superior to FM2012's offering overall.

Ball Physics:

- We have introduced a new model, and it is most definitely more realistic than the last one. There are one or two collision issues we need to fix up but in general the ball behaves better. I know some of you arent keen but could that not be due to you being used to what we had before?

Defending of crosses:

- We believe this was improved significantly during the beta process. However I still want to improve the position of midfielders when defending wide play for the next update. I also wonder if a lot of people suffering from conceding at the far post have an attacking wide midfielder who doesnt tend to track back on that side?

Pressing:

- We made it a little more urgent for the 13.1 build. However I'd like to make players hunt in packs a bit more although that may not be for an immediate update.

Keepers:

- They were definitely problematic through beta, but we nailed a lot of issues for release. If you are seeing more then help us eliminate them for next update by posting examples on the bugs forums...

Reaction to ball:

- Again, if you have obvious examples get them uploaded and we'll look at them.

Duties in midfield:

- Interestingly, the first beta build revealed a problem that will also have been present in the last two titles. Many AI teams would not select a central midfielder with Defend duty. This exposes teams massively to counter attacks or loss of possession in certain areas. Two observations from fixing this - a) it may well make the game a bit harder and b) if you arent doing this you may be more exposed than before.

Number of goals:

- We are pretty ok with the number of goals in the release build. However certain setups will see less than average, others more, as it should be.

What next?

- I'm working on a ME update to be released this month at some point. No date set as yet. I'll post an update of what is likely to be changed in due course.

AOB:

- Listen to the likes of wwfan and rashidi1 if you are struggling as they know their stuff.........

[Dr Eskenen Un Un]

Just got my Steam copy today, we cannot cancel feeder club link now ?

[dsouthy]

It's funny, but a year ago people were saying that ME from FM2012 was the worst ever... and now is 9/10.

Give this one the chance and it will be also 9/10 in a couple of weeks!

[Matt123]

Finding it hard to play well so far I assume this is due to my new tactics and the team needing to gel, atm I'm still using my tactics from FM12 not sure if this is a good idea or not as reading this page people are saying FM12 tactics don't work very well on this version :s

Is it just me or do you find a lot players getting injured all at the same time? I've got a shortlist of players and I seem to find I get about 5 msgs saying that these players are all taking pretty long injuries all in pre-season, just think there's a bit too many injuries happening

[Erimus1876]

In Fm12 and earlier versions, Pace & Acceleration would destroy teams. In Fm13 it's effect has been lessened because of collision detection & avoidance. Players behave far differently now - they can no longer just sprint though a bunch of defenders at will. You'll see players blocked and slowed in their tracks just because of this one added aspect.

I wonder how many people are approaching this new ME with their old Fm12 mindset? You'll have big problems if that's the case. Whatever tactics worked well in Fm12 may as well be deleted from your computer because they're useless in Fm13. You literally have to start from scratch and see Fm13 as a brand new game and not just a new incarnation of something that came before. Previously the ME's evolution came in small incremental updates, patch after patch, year after year. But this match engine is miles ahead of last years game, SI took the bold step and gave us an engine far far more advanced than anything we've seen before, and did it in one step.

So you have to totally relearn how it behaves and redesign your tactical thinking accordingly. The effect of the Pace & Acceleration aspect I mentioned is just one tiny bit that has changed to a point that you'll need to fundamentally change your way of thinking just on that one aspect alone.

Yes this ME has issues that need to be addressed, and are being, but I think what we're seeing in these early days is people coming to grips with what is essentially a brand new game. Once they realise that being a tactical god in Fm12 has zero bearing on Fm13 I think the more discerning amongst them will grow to appreciate what SI have given us here.

[DanPetrescusLeftFoot]

Hello, Long Time Player first time poster. I'm having a performance nightmare on my Laptop. I've got a brand new Asus Zenbook Ultrabook and FM13 runs terribly on it, it gives me 1 star on performance rating for leagues that I've added (comparible to 4 star in FM12) and the 3D match engine rating is 0.5 stars. Any suggestions or feedback for hardware optimisation? At the moment the game is almost unplayable, the lag time between a click and confirming the action is a good few seconds.

[Emmeth]

- I'm working on a ME update to be released this month at some point. No date set as yet. I'll post an update of what is likely to be changed in due course.

Hi Paul,

thanks for working on the patch.

I have a important question : within this month do you think we will see a patch also for these 2 tremendous and astonishing bugs :

1) coaching assignments reset

2) friendlies missed acceptance

Thanks in advance

[Äktsjon Männ]

Ball Physics:

- We have introduced a new model, and it is most definitely more realistic than the last one. There are one or two collision issues we need to fix up but in general the ball behaves better. I know some of you arent keen but could that not be due to you being used to what we had before?

The ball does not lose momentum when it's bouncing or rolling on the pitch. This is not realistic in the slightest. It should get caught up in the grass and slow down. Right now, as many people have said, it looks much more like a hockey puck sliding on ice.

[dsouthy]

Me too. I've gone back to FM12, and would pay happily for an official, thorough data update.

At this point, I think SI has made such a great FM series that they are hurting the product by forcing themselves to release one every year and fix things that aren't broken, redoing the UI, and changing things just to make the game seem new. All of that on a short timeframe.

I wonder if it is in their interest to release a new, real, polished FM game every 2 years and in the years between just release a "Update" version with new rosters, data tweaks, and small polishes but nothing revolutionary. --I would certainly buy this product and subscribe to this method for sure.

Most sports games release each year, (and sometimes get criticized for being same game in a new wrapper) but does this have to be the case? Lots of other leading video game series release every few years or so. And they are always bigger and better because of it.

Any thoughts on this? (And btw I did write a post earlier in here listing my specific complaints for them to work on...)

I have suggested this before. A new release every 2 years and I would be happy to pay £10-15 for a update every year for tweaks and data updates. We could then have a beta version released for new versions, 3 months of testing and then it can be released which would give time to polish the release.

[PaulC]

The ball does not lose momentum when it's bouncing or rolling on the pitch. This is not realistic in the slightest. It should get caught up in the grass and slow down. Right now, as many people have said, it looks much more like a hockey puck sliding on ice.

Yes it does slow down. If it didn't it would never stop. In the old ME the ball moved too fast across the ground compared to this one. There may be one or two anomalies arising from collisions but in terms of the basic ball physics, I cannot understand where you are coming from.

[Sharpy07]

Hi Paul,

thanks for working on the patch.

I have a important question : within this month do you think we will see a patch also for these 2 tremendous and astonishing bugs :

1) coaching assignments reset

2) friendlies missed acceptance

Thanks in advance

Whats the 'friendlies missed acceptance' bug?

[daylight]

Yes it does slow down. If it didn't it would never stop. In the old ME the ball moved too fast across the ground compared to this one. There may be one or two anomalies arising from collisions but in terms of the basic ball physics, I cannot understand where you are coming from.

Really Paul?

I think the physics of the ball are pretty poor and sometimes seem to speed up when they hit the ground and it does seem to look like it is on ice,though the players also look like they are on ice.

Hopefully you will look into it but if you are saying it is fine then it may never get sorted <shrug>

[Graham206]

Just one quick point I missed in my long opinion of the game earlier: it would make setting scouting assignments much simpler if there was a link on the individual scout's profile to a page with their current assignments and a 'set new assignment link'. The current layout is confusing and messy.

[tajj 7]

Tactics: My first observation is that using a poacher in a lone forward situation is very risky. The poacher doesn't contribute enough to all round play to be an effective lone forward. You are compounding this risk by channelling all the balls through to him. It looks to me that the only way you are trying to score is to feed the poacher with TBs from deep. For me, that is 100% an FM12 way of playing, because it is looking to take advantage of the lack of collision detection, allowing a quick poacher to run riot. I'd be looking to work out a secondary route of attack, so the AI is forced to defend play from multiple avenues. This can be having the lone forward drop deeper (CF/S, DLF/S, TQ) and have the wingers move into the space he creates, or have him as an AF roaming wider, allowing an MC to break into the central space.

Sorry I can't see his tactics, but for me a 'lone poacher' is working well, he occupies both centre backs and works like a 'run onto ball' target man, it allows my wingers and my AMC to get into gaps.

[baros2011]

is it just me or has the issue with just wanting to check on scorers in a game and the game loading the entire match report been fixed?

[V50]

I think you're all looking at this in the wrong way - the real issue is that there isn't enough feedback for a lot of users in tactics because they only see the highlights. You've not mentioned perception once in your explanations wwfan and I think that's telling.

The problem is balancing the time the user wants a game to be completed in against getting adequate feedback on the tactics, with the added issue of getting this feedback in as few clicks as possible. I'm a long-time fan of the game, yet i rarely if ever look at the fancy graphics showing shots on target, areas in play and the like. I think doing two things might improve the perception of the match engine;

1) Putting the areas of possession (or some other information screen that gives an idea of movement) on the half-time screen.

2) Making the assistant manager feedback much much better (their feedback is rarely useful).

The Match Engine isn't as bad as people say - but they only see about 5 minutes of play out of the 90, and the feedback about tactics needs to reflect the desires of the players - we want quick and dirty feedback as a lot of us love other aspects of the game (i.e. winning matches rather than in-depth tactical play, or developing our youth, or building up our team to the premiership). Thus, the perception of the end-user will forever be tilted towards the key events.

For example when videos were shown of the match engine, a lot of people said about how bad the defence was. As I pointed out all they are seeing is goals - necessarily the defence must be playing at below their usual level or otherwise there wouldn't be a goal. Now consider what the user sees during a game - key events will nearly always show the defence making a mistake at lower leagues. This creates a bias against defence from the start - what other information do we have to work off?

Introducing some defensive stats that are easily accessible, or an assistant manager's feedback on the game, would go a long way in improving feedback on the match engine, especially when big changes are made.

[Fabio MVP]

Yes it does slow down. If it didn't it would never stop. In the old ME the ball moved too fast across the ground compared to this one. There may be one or two anomalies arising from collisions but in terms of the basic ball physics, I cannot understand where you are coming from.

In this one it moves too slow. Takes ages for ball to come from one to another player even the distance between them is 10-15-20 meters. It makes watching the matches so unpleasent. You just don't have the feelinh of a realistic football. Even the counter attacks seems slow.

[KingBuzzo15]

I am gonna defy convention and say I love this game. It may need a few tweaks in the ME but not many for me. I have won the Premier League, Capital one cup and Champions league all in my first season at Man Utd. I am now gunning for a second treble in my second season.

My only problem is finances. I started my second season with £150M in the bank balance. I am now -£24M without even spending much money on players and I am well under my wage budget. It is rather annoying because Rooneys contract is up in 18 months and I can`t offer him a new one. Although he does want £245,000 a week and I get the feeling this has more to do with Uniteds philosophy on not paying over the odds.

Other than that top game.

[Emmeth]

Whats the 'friendlies missed acceptance' bug?

There have been several posts within the bug forum. It seems the acceptance of the friendlies does not trigger any match therefore it is skipped with no warning at all. It happens to many many FM players and not only vs the reserve team of course.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/324801-First-Team-vs-Reserve-Team-Proposal-Accepted-But-Is-Not-Played

[theking1]

I'm sorry Paul but for you to say that there's no problem with ball physics is a bit baffling....at times it reminds me of a game of blow football played on ice.The way the ball bounces is unrealistic and a regular occurrence is my goalkeeper saving a ball with the ball going out for a throw in as if he's got springs attached to his gloves

[TSH]

What SI and the people associated with it have to understand is that many of those changes and improvements DO NOT SHOW IN THE END PRODUCT.

Customers don't care if the numbers are fine under the hood, they care for what they see.

[Herbert Fandel]

is it just me or has the issue with just wanting to check on scorers in a game and the game loading the entire match report been fixed?

I thought that briefly too, I clicked on an international game and it went straight to something of an overview screen, albeit with all the little panels. However, all my own teasm matches load up in full. I guess it is perhaps something to do with the detail level of different games? Although I never asked for international games to be less detailed