*Football Manager 2014 - ANNOUNCEMENT*

[milnerpoint]

Indeed.

I got the Northern Irish league up to 3rd (reputation) and 2nd (coefficients) on FM12, sadly the other clubs were not good enough to keep it there. The reputation system was fine, it was the AI management that let me down.

Yeah exactly, admittedly i did cheat, but it showed the system works, but you rely on the AI being very good, or very lucky, usualy its neither.

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

I hear your pain, but to be fair we've not seen the game yet so it's a bit squiffy to go off on one just yet. There will be p for plenty with the knives out post-release I think you could wait for them.

And at least we get a demo/beta to try the game before handing over hard earned short of cash. It's your choice to buy it or not and you get to sample it for free beforehand to make an informed personal choice. You can't really complain at those terms and conditions. Nobody is being hoodwinked in to buying it, kudos to SI for that.

I also get frustrated at some of the 'new features' being just tweeks but at the end of the day it's your choice to buy it. SI, or anyone else, is not forcing you to buy a new version every year. If you want to see big changes stick to buying it every 2/3/4 years maybe? FM11/12/13 are still good games to keep you going in between.

Actually you do not get the Beta unless you have pre-ordered the game, surely?. Also I did feel hoodwinked last year, after previous ME rewrites and the ensuing gameplay disasters I vowed to miss the next game with an ME rewrite but FM13 was just this, the ME rewrite was not clearly communicated until most pre-orders including mine were foolishly placed.

[Althaz]

Will FM2014 be compatible with touch screen devices? I own a surface pro and will have to skip this year like I did last year if touch is not supported.

This, 1000 times this! The game is a bit dicky to use on touch screens at the moment, I'm hoping for improvement here (I also have a Surface Pro).

[Jibby123]

Actually you do not get the Beta unless you have pre-ordered the game, surely?. Also I did feel hoodwinked last year, after previous ME rewrites and the ensuing gameplay disasters I vowed to miss the next game with an ME rewrite but FM13 was just this, the ME rewrite was not clearly communicated until most pre-orders including mine were foolishly placed.

True, but you can cancel the pre-order if you don't like what you see from the Beta for the fortnight before full release and it won't cost you a penny:

What if I change my mind and cancel my pre order?

If you cancel your pre-order and choose not to install a final version of FM14, then you will no longer have access to the game from the Monday following release.

http://www.sigames.com/news/14236/Football+Manager+14+Pre-Order+Offer+Early+access+Beta

If I felt like you do I'd wait a few weeks or months after release. Get everyone else to test it for you and flush out the usual annual glitches. It's not like it's so different every year. I too try to promise myself to follow my own advice but I am weak. I can't help myself. It will be on my Hard Drive as soon as physically possible. Like 'Casual' I'm a hopeless addict.

What can you do.

[forameuss]

The thing is I mostly manage clubs that start out as very small, and I only speak for my self, but IMO these originally tiny clubs from little towns and cities getting implausibly large attendance surges is taking the fun away. The Scottish club Queen's Park is of course a special (and as such perhaps a "one-off") case, but SI have deemed it prudent to make them to never become professional even though it makes it practically impossible to make them a powerhouse of Scottish let alone European football. At least in FM13 its easier to make sufficient amounts of money than to overcome permanent amateur status.

SI deemed it prudent? It's in the club's constitution to never become professional.

[forameuss]

This, 1000 times this! The game is a bit dicky to use on touch screens at the moment, I'm hoping for improvement here (I also have a Surface Pro).

I imagine it might be quite a job to get it properly working on touch screens, possibly needing a completely new interface and input scheme to make it as playable as the desktop version. FM is built too solidly around left click, right click to just add on touch screen support. I imagine it'll be something looked at for FM15, unless tablets have fallen by the weyside, which could happen I suppose.

[duccio]

You're right, but again this has to be a balance against what is realistic, and what is "fun". If you had a totally realistic world model, where sides like Castel Rigone would never be able to bring in the tens of thousands of fans, where would the drive to take them over be? It would certainly be a challenge, but I'm not sure it'd be one you could win without a lot of grinding, boring seasons. To never have that possible boost in finances to drive you to the next level would make things a lot less bright long-term.

SI deemed it prudent? It's in the club's constitution to never become professional.

Doesn't the permanent amateur status make things a lot less bright for Queen's Park in the long-term? Where is the drive to take them over? Think about the long, grinding, boring seasons. Queen's Park weren't always permanently amateur on Football Manager - I suppose "fun" and realism have been balanced? Like I said earlier, its much easier to overcome financial limitations (low attendances) and become successful, than it is to remain amateur and rise to the top.

[forameuss]

Doesn't the permanent amateur status make things a lot less bright for Queen's Park in the long-term? Where is the drive to take them over? Think about the long, grinding, boring seasons. Queen's Park weren't always permanently amateur on Football Manager - I suppose "fun" and realism have been balanced? Like I said earlier, its much easier to overcome financial limitations (low attendances) and become successful, than it is to remain amateur and rise to the top.

You'd have to ask them. I'm sure to them it doesn't matter. I wouldn't know if it's always been like that, but given in real life, the club will always be semi-professional, they will remain so in Football Manager. They're a special case, so not much point in discussing them in this format.

I'm not sure why it's being painted as some terrible thing. You don't like Queen's Park's situation, don't play as them.

[duccio]

You'd have to ask them. I'm sure to them it doesn't matter. I wouldn't know if it's always been like that, but given in real life, the club will always be semi-professional, they will remain so in Football Manager. They're a special case, so not much point in discussing them in this format.

I'm not sure why it's being painted as some terrible thing. You don't like Queen's Park's situation, don't play as them.

Surely it must have mattered. SI changed Queen's Park to permanent amateur status - and I think it is amateur and not semi-professional. Its realistic and the way it should be if realism is the objective (as it often is for SI). I don't know who is painting it as a terrible thing. Certainly not me. I have been discussing making the game a tad more true to real life by curbing what I think are unrealistic attendances rises for clubs especially from low population areas. I don't think it would be terrible or unfun, and of course on-one would be forcing anyone to play as low attendance clubs.

[Thengil]

Surely it must have mattered. SI changed Queen's Park to permanent amateur status - and I think it is amateur and not semi-professional. Its realistic and the way it should be if realism is the objective (as it often is for SI). I don't know who is painting it as a terrible thing. Certainly not me. I have been discussing making the game a tad more true to real life by curbing what I think are unrealistic attendances rises for clubs especially from low population areas. I don't think it would be terrible or unfun, and of course on-one would be forcing anyone to play as low attendance clubs.

There are fairly few real-life examples of small clubs becoming a lot more successful, but take a look at TSG Hoffenheim's attendances. They were a very small club from a small village languishing in the fifth tier of the German league system until a business mogul bankrolled the team and they rose to the 1.Bundesliga. Their home attendances went from roughly 1,500 to almost 30,000 in under 10 seasons. The village itself has only 3,000 inhabitants.

Granted, Hoffenheim is a suburb to a bigger city, but that city as only about 35,000 inhabitants.

[duccio]

There are fairly few real-life examples of small clubs becoming a lot more successful, but take a look at TSG Hoffenheim's attendances. They were a very small club from a small village languishing in the fifth tier of the German league system until a business mogul bankrolled the team and they rose to the 1.Bundesliga. Their home attendances went from roughly 1,500 to almost 30,000 in under 10 seasons. The village itself has only 3,000 inhabitants.

Granted, Hoffenheim is a suburb to a bigger city, but that city as only about 35,000 inhabitants.

You are correct. Looking at a map though, it seems the village of Hoffenheim is located fairly close to a number of bigger cities and towns (and an autobahn) that do not have successful football clubs of their own. I guess this would mean there are enough people within the catchment area to fill a stadium of decent size. Incidently Hoffenheim's stadium is called Rhein-Neckar-Arena (actually located in the larger Sinsheim), while the village lies within the Rhein-Neckar district with over 500000 inhabitants. I don't know what their attendances look like, but the French club Lens have a stadium with a capacity of 41299, even though Lens itself only has a population of about 36000. But again Lens is within a greater metropolitan area with more than 500000 inhabitants. The larger metropolitan population is mirrored in FM database where the city of Lens has an inhabitants range of 500001 - 1000000. What I would call an inconsistency, Hoffenheim seems to only have an inhabitants range of 2501 - 5000, ie the village only. It would require careful examination of catchment areas and local competition as well, to asses what are as realistic attendace changes as possible. I do still think many clubs have too many active followers too quickly in the game.

[endtime]

It's hard to properly predict potential attendances for clubs from small towns/villages. People will say that success breeds popularity and that is certainly correct. I really wouldn't expect a researcher to be able to guess what would happen if that club from the small mining village of Bum****, Cornwall miraculously rose from the 7th tier to win the Champions League, and by looking at the editor I can tell you that a lot of the smaller clubs just don't have any figures entered for max attendance.

[Leon_fogo]

2d mode is also being improved in fm 14? I think he is very traditional and is manager game face, because it makes you wonder what is happening, it has everything to do with this style of game. I think it would be cool, put "legs" on the players so it would be easier to see when it is facing, and the game would be more beautiful.

[Leon_fogo]

And in relation to 3d mode, hopefully diminish the balls on the beam, which has more down the middle, with more dribbling, set pieces and kicking by far the rest will be perfect I'm sure!

[hugo_rune]

Are we getting a FM podcast series this year?

[Rikulec]

No, only video blogs on Fridays.

[goblinshark]

Quite excited about today video, its mostly about improving Ai

[Keyzer Soze]

Quite excited about today video, its mostly about improving Ai

Just thinking the same. Theres seems to be a really good revamp in transfers systems and the way AI teams work in that field.

So far the best news i've read about FM14! Well done SI!

[Defensive]

I dont get it with the new feature "encourage agent ownership". Why should i do that? How do i benefit from that?

[Leon_fogo]

this wonderful change in the game's AI, congratulations to Sigames! The game will be much more realistic, ever mentioned this here

[goblinshark]

This is the only or most important change that majority of us are concern about, hopefully its good as what it seems

[bigdunk]

I dont get it with the new feature "encourage agent ownership". Why should i do that? How do i benefit from that?

Presumably you get say 25% of his value in cash now. But you'd only get 75% of the money if you ever sold him. No idea if it just uses his current value, of if the bidding agency make you an offer they think suitable though.

[ltdamn]

Will FM2014 be compatible with touch screen devices? I own a surface pro and will have to skip this year like I did last year if touch is not supported.

This, 1000 times this! The game is a bit dicky to use on touch screens at the moment, I'm hoping for improvement here (I also have a Surface Pro).

I use a Pro as well and one thing I have found is the included stylus isn't as good as some others on the market because the sensor isn't located in the tip, though the game doesn't help by not supporting touch properly - I have to double tap everything that would normally only require a single mouse click.

You'd think a gam like FM would be perfect for touch and stylus especially, particularly on the tactics screen.

[Swindon69]

Is there a summary anywhere of the information thats been released about the game rather then having to trawl through Twitter or video blogs?

[Richard76]

Is there a summary anywhere of the information thats been released about the game rather then having to trawl through Twitter or video blogs?

Yes, FM Scout website. Great daily summaries there. Quite why SI have chosen not to bother doing this in their own forum is a mystery to me.

[Swindon69]

Ah thanks, no it's a pretty poor show really.

[dafuge]

http://www.sigames.com/news/14266/Social+Feature+Round+Up++Week+4

They do a round up, it just needs someone to C&P it here each week.

[Swindon69]

Yup dafuge - it'd be good as a lot of people come on here.

[Bobble2002]

Not seen any of the vidoes yet . Every time i go to the FM14 page and click the video link i just get the spinning circle constantly

[Nijuu L]

I suppose the game requires Steam yet again?. Any chance of a non steam version again in future?.

[Nijuu L]

Just thinking the same. Theres seems to be a really good revamp in transfers systems and the way AI teams work in that field.

So far the best news i've read about FM14! Well done SI!

Hooray!!. Probably the two biggest bugbears from the past. Maybe both are working better this time around...

[Leon_fogo]

Two things I have noticed, is that the first national championship does not stop when the world cup is happening this is totally unreal, had to be adjusted and many occur zero to zero in the Brazilian league, I find it very unreal, had to be corrected , that since fm 12 have realized that the Brazilian league has a habit of leaving many goals per game, here appears even in one round more than 3 times this score, please stay tuned to this!

[Lawlore]

I suppose the game requires Steam yet again?. Any chance of a non steam version again in future?.

Given how effective it was in preventing pre-release piracy and as a platform for delivering updates, I'd suggest you'll have a long wait for a non-Steam iteration.

[seanydude]

Anyone else not as excited this year? I mean ill still buy the game but the build up has been nowhere near as good as normal this year

[nicko]

Have to admit I'm nowhere near as excited this year with the introduction of the live window on FM13 as the big thing, was really hoping for a complete re-haul in the transfer window and without being negative it seems exactly the same just a different outlay on where the drop down bars are and a few minor tweaks, I do hope there's a lot more activity on the AI's part and it takes into account players form/goals etc etc because the windows just come and go without a great deal happening especially involving human clubs

[PedroEdelweiss]

I hope someday si will give us the opportunity to choose the languages we speak. As a portuguese man fm gives portuguese and spanish as spoken languages. Problem is, i speak portuguese, english and french and no spanish at all. It bores me having to answer at the first press conference if the language will be an issue if i coach a club in england or france for example. It would be nice to have the option to choose.

And it would be cool if with the money we get we could sign up for learning a languague like mourinho and guardiola did.

[whilewolf2]

Wow I have been banging on about how brain dead the squad building AI is for years so I'm overjoyed to see something being done about it.

[fabioke]

I hope someday si will give us the opportunity to choose the languages we speak. As a portuguese man fm gives portuguese and spanish as spoken languages. Problem is, i speak portuguese, english and french and no spanish at all. It bores me having to answer at the first press conference if the language will be an issue if i coach a club in england or france for example. It would be nice to have the option to choose.

And it would be cool if with the money we get we could sign up for learning a languague like mourinho and guardiola did.

Same thing for me. I own the Belgian/Italian nationality and I can't speak any German at all!

[soccer.joel]

From Miles' twitter

I've just been sacked as manager of Watford. Not sure who to blame. The media team? The match engine team? No. It was my tactics. #FM14

[candyman8287]

i think on the new football manager game there should be an option to send players on intense language courses so they can adapt easier and have no problems with communicating with other players, i.e nobody wants a sunderland happening do they?!

[StoneColdA]

I havent seen anything about it yet, may have missed it.

But have there been optimizations made to the network play? Meaning the slow speed for the client.

Maybe having steam host the games etc.

[Leon_fogo]

If the optimization process had the game already to very satisfied, because all the improvements I've read the game will ta in a wonderful level!

[soccer.joel]

I havent seen anything about it yet, may have missed it.

But have there been optimizations made to the network play? Meaning the slow speed for the client.

Maybe having steam host the games etc.

Steam hosted network games on 13 it worked a lot faster than previous versions

[cel1234]

Are there any changes to the editor for FM 14 ??

[soccer.joel]

Are there any changes to the editor for FM 14 ??

None that have been announced yet AFAIK

[StoneColdA]

Steam hosted network games on 13 it worked a lot faster than previous versions

By standard or by special setup?

Playing a network game with a friend on FM13, where he host the game, and we are both on 50/50 mbit lines, and have powerfull computers, some things are dreadfully slow for me. Searching for players because of the amount of players i presume, but in general there is a little delay on everything compared to solo play.

[phnompenhandy]

Are there any changes to the editor for FM 14 ??

Maybe I'm imagining it, but I thought there was something about it being improved to make it easier for people to create leagues to put up in Steam Workshop. And then of course there is definitely this:

Official Real Time Editor will be available as a paid download - 19 August

[psycho1970]

Are there any changes to the editor for FM 14 ??

In one of the video blogs it was announced that it will be possible to create challenges in the editor, and if you watch the top of the screen there was also a rules tab which I took as changing league rules without having to re-create nation league systems or using the AE will be possible at last.

[forameuss]

In one of the video blogs it was announced that it will be possible to create challenges in the editor, and if you watch the top of the screen there was also a rules tab which I took as changing league rules without having to re-create nation league systems or using the AE will be possible at last.

That would be great if true. It's an absolute ballache sometimes to change just the simplest rule. Would be good if there's an easier way. Hopefully if they've looked at that, there will be a few more changes to the editor to make it easier to use.

[Kazza]

Without giving any thing away, do not want to spoil it for you guys, the new blog/video on the enhanced and additional interaction in the game, makes for an interesting listen.