FM 2014 Pre-Release Beta - Official feedback thread.

[Mendeth]

Just like in FM13, you can make a quick sub which pauses the game. Unless I've picked you up wrong here.

Ah, damn, I've got that completely wrong somehow. What I meant and should have said was that the instructions menu doesn't pause the game. Who knows where I got substitutes from. Anyway, my minor gripe is the fact that the instructions menu doesn't pause the game and blocks the game being paused when it's open. My apologies for the confusion and thanks to Dagenham_Dave for highlighting my mistake.

[nicko]

United sack Moyes after finishing 3rd when he has 5 years left on his contract. I think there is alot more sackings in this game

Well he finished third! pshhhh!! Lol should of been top ! haha wonder how much compo he got then?

[lmarsha_926]

and Bayern Munich just won the Europa League

[oguzcan11]

Can somebody tell me that is it a good time to start a long-run career or we all should wait the release-day patch?

[Bradley21]

How on earth have you finished a season and bit in about 36 hours or so?

Finished two seasons now!

It helps when you have a brutal stomach bug, so haven't left the house in three days

[nicko]

Finished two seasons now!

It helps when you have a brutal stomach bug, so haven't left the house in three days

That would help!!

[mortiis7]

what did just happened???

i was browsing and searching for players and then this?!

in every squad u cant see players :O

i tried to turn off game and back on,start a new game and every time same ****..there is no squads!

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/57/e56l.png

but when i turn it to full screen its ok..but on windowed mode there is no squads :S

[Neil Brock]

what did just happened???

i was browsing and searching for players and then this?!

in every squad u cant see players :O

i tried to turn off game and back on,start a new game and every time same ****..there is no squads!

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/57/e56l.png

but when i turn it to full screen its ok..but on windowed mode there is no squads :S

Can you raise this issue here please? - http://community.sigames.com/forumdisplay.php/350-User-Interface

[CityAndColour]

Understand it's a beta, but the standard of defending and 'keeping is very concerning given we're two weeks from full release. It's frightful.

[themadsheep2001]

Understand it's a beta, but the standard of defending and 'keeping is very concerning given we're two weeks from full release. It's frightful.

You'll be amazed what can happen in two weeks, especially when its an already known issue as pointed out before.

[BuffaloPhil]

One annoying thing (which is the same as previous games) that I've noticed is that transfer budgets etc don't get re-evaluated until the date set for it, which can be really annoying.

For example, I'm Spurs, and have based my first season budget on achieving Europa League qualification, but come the end of the season (thanks to a marvellous 1-0 win at the Emirates on the last day! )I've reached the Champions League. My budget for the season has been spent but I have Fierro on loan from Juve with a £7.5m future transfer clause. I also have my eyes on Kurt Zouma and someone else has just put a bid in for him. Problem is I can't get any more budget until the board re-evaluate it somewhere in June - by which time Zouma will probably have moved, and Fierro will have returned to Juve who will probably put a much larger figure on his head.

In real life the board would have appreciated that I'd overachieved, and the money that would bring in, and allow me to complete the Fierro signing and probably put in a bid for Zouma as well, as soon as CL qualification was confirmed.

[Neil Brock]

One annoying thing (which is the same as previous games) that I've noticed is that transfer budgets etc don't get re-evaluated until the date set for it, which can be really annoying.

For example, I'm Spurs, and have based my first season budget on achieving Europa League qualification, but come the end of the season (thanks to a marvellous 1-0 win at the Emirates on the last day! )I've reached the Champions League. My budget for the season has been spent but I have Fierro on loan from Juve with a £7.5m future transfer clause. I also have my eyes on Kurt Zouma and someone else has just put a bid in for him. Problem is I can't get any more budget until the board re-evaluate it somewhere in June - by which time Zouma will probably have moved, and Fierro will have returned to Juve who will probably put a much larger figure on his head.

In real life the board would have appreciated that I'd overachieved, and the money that would bring in, and allow me to complete the Fierro signing and probably put in a bid for Zouma as well, as soon as CL qualification was confirmed.

You can request a larger wage budget or transfer budget via the board requests.

[WOW77]

game is a joke

When I use shoot on sight players start shooting from such long ranges it's just a joke

Fm 12 was good fm 13 much improvement fm 14 so many mistakes the gameplay is just not enjoyable to watch and what are we managing in this game nothing because the tactical side of things gives manager less freedom to instruct players towards a certain style of play

Players look fat overweight gameplay far too slow

I played a game in the champions league and the stadium was totally empty and you could hear the crowd cheering lol it just seems like they'd rushed making this game

[Schneider79]

Can we turn off player's pictures for all? In previous FMs, I remembered we could turn them off so I don't see any greyed out heads or cheeky smug grins looking back at me. Haha Cant seem to do it now?

[mortiis7]

Can you raise this issue here please? - http://community.sigames.com/forumdisplay.php/350-User-Interface

problem solved

[BuffaloPhil]

You can request a larger wage budget or transfer budget via the board requests.

Board won't speak to me on either of those options because I asked them in January when we were 7th.

[kudzilla]

Does anyone know if the release day patch will apply to saved games?

Thanks.

[kabajingai]

I'm finding that if you put backup players in the reserve team they immediately start knocking on your door demanding first team football. In my case this was happening 2 days into the season.

Okay fair enough the players might be super ambitious, but one of them was a 39 year old keeper. When I told him to keep schtum, he said he needed to leave for his career.... Are you kidding me? You don't see Mark Schwarzer complaining to Mourinho at Chelsea about playing time.

But yeah it was just annoying.

[FMFAN123]

opposition manager says he wants revenge for previous match, on my first game of the career against him (about 3rd game overall)

I randomly get asked about player picked in naitonal team (player doesn't even play in the country I manage in), I say he deserve to be picked, player gets angry at me in press

[BuffaloPhil]

One other thing I'm a little frustrated by... player comes to me and says he wants to leave because he wants first team football, I tell him I'll let him leave at the end of the season. Then, partly due to injuries to other players, he gets in my first team and does really well, so stays in the team for the remainder of the season. I then want to talk to him to persuade him to stay but he won't talk to me as he's waiting to see if I'll keep my promise.

So in effect, I can't ask him to stay until I've sold him.

[Chocapik]

Can we turn off player's pictures for all? In previous FMs, I remembered we could turn them off so I don't see any greyed out heads or cheeky smug grins looking back at me. Haha Cant seem to do it now?

Unfortunately this was removed.

[tamgac]

Overall, I'm satisfied with the game. The game is smoother now and there are certain new features. However, I just wanted to say that the player data for Turkish League is absolutely ridiculous and disproportional. Whoever prepared this data clearly have no idea about what's going on in real life. It's been 12 weeks so far in my game and Galatasaray is leading the league with 36 points. This has never happened in Turkish Football History, on top of that, Galatasaray is in 13th position in the league. I STRONGLY suggest you guys to do something about this ridiculousness. There are many other OBVIOUS problems with Turkish League, for instance, Emanuel Emenike who is one of the most balanced players in the division have Balance rate 13, while Sabri Sarioglu, who is one of the least balanced player has the same rate of 13.

[Phumfeinz]

Anyone else having a really hard time sorting their defence out? This is the kind of ridiculousness that I have to put up with nearly every game:

and 3 minutes later

Everton 5 shots on target, 5 goals.

I have never had such a problem with my defence since I started playing FM in 07.

[nicobile]

I started a game managing Barcelona because i knew i would not follow the save when the game officially gets released.

The ME seems to have quite a number of quirks:

-Shooting seems abysmal. All types of shoots, from long range, to shoots after dribbling, shoots when completely unmarked, after touching the ball once. This seems a lot more obvious to me having Messi up front. He ends up shooting apalling all the time, normally getting 4 or 5 shoots per match in a really good position/unmarked, and the ball end up in the stands always. He seems to score a lot more in difficult situation, for example he just scored from 35 meters after receiveing the ball with his back against the goal, just one touch to control it, and shot, excellent goal.

-Crossing looks weird. From corners, free kicks, and in play. The ball doesnt seem to go in a normal way, its hard to explain. Also about crossing, players cutting inside and going to the byline close to the goal are still not passing the ball backwards to players, they end up shooting from a ridiculous angle or just lose the ball or dribble until they are outside of the pitch.

-Heading after a cross. Players attacking head the ball in very strange ways, the ball dont really go fast enough after they connect, so they are all very easy for the gk to catch. Also, you can see a player jump like a rabbit a couple of times when the ball is in the air for a while.

-Defense. really passive. The players dont stick to their mark. The tackling isnt right, they "surf" a lot, takes forever for them to get up, and when they do there is a big chance they wont move for same time. Once i saw Pique pass the ball to Mascherano who was really close, both of them in the middle of the park, no one pressuring them. The pass was perfect, just to where Masche was, but he used the animation for a tackle (it wasnt needed), the ball bounce from him a little, and he stayed on the floor for at least 30 game seconds, enough time for an attacker to get the ball and run unopposed, luckily for me, because of the first thing i pointed out in this thread, he shot to the corner flag having millon better options.

-Passing. Seems to be too imprecise or too perfect. I get that players make mistakes, but isnt really normal to see the likes of iniesta, Messi, Xabi passing under no pressure a short simple pass and giving it to the opposition. Or players passing the ball to feet when the receiver was running expecting the ball forward. Also, many times the player have an unmark player upfront but takes to long, he gets marked and lose the ball without even fighting for it.

-Free kicks. Still a really small amount go in.

- Corners. Too many going directly out of bounds.

-Keepers. Seems to slide too much, and not use the correct animation a lot of times.

A couple of things i also saw:

- Im getting news about the "B" team which should be going to their manager.

- The button in responsabilities in the B team to let their manager handle transfers is not working. If you tick it, the offers you get are not accepted nor rejected. When time passes, eventually you wont be able to continue because you need to aswer them but the accept and reject buttons are grey out, you need to untick the button in responsabilities. Also, i think you should add a tick box for when you do select that the manager is responsable for accepting the offers for players in the b squad, that you are the one that confirms it. We do have that option for the first team and youths.

- I holiday 2 seasons in full detail in all competitions, and got a couple of strange results. A couple of them are that Monaco was close to getting relegated for half the first season and they ended 13th. That Belgium lost in the world cup final (yes, they have a good squad, im not saying its not ok or could not happen, but i wanted to share) and Man City ended 8th and 6th. A lot of really good teams seems to be having bad seasons, apart from monaco and Man City, Napoles almost got relegated, Milan always in the middle table, and a couple more.

-Cant find how to make my players do what i want in the new tactics. For example, i dont know how to make my wingers not cross the ball, how to tell someone not to shoot from distance. Im not saying its not possible, just saying i couldnt find it. I think you could give us more information about what the players are going to do with the instructions we gave them. For example, you say many things are obvious because of the role we give them, but that not right. I, for example, dont know what a regista is, so i have to read the little description that pops up. That description gives nowhere near the amount of info it could. For example for the regista i cant give the instruction roam from position, so i guess its "linked" to it, but i cant know that from the description (which you could put in a more visible place btw, i have a big blank space in the instructions which i could not even fill if i use all of them, take a small chunk of it to write the descriptions there)

-Does anyone else think that the averange rating of players is just off? In the seasons i holiday in one, Messi scored 40 goals in 40 matches and got a rating of 7.5, ronaldo in the same season scored 60 in 55 and "only" got 7.7 . It seems that strikers arent getting a high scores as before (maybe do to them missing horribly a lot) and defenders and midfielders are getting almost all (the good ones at least) between 7.40 and 8.1

Im just stating the things i find that i dont like or i think are wrong. Many things are great, like the UI

[nicobile]

Another thing, im using a Complete wing back, with run wide with ball and he is getting all the time into the box, sometimes even on the other side of his position. Im talking about him being there while NOT having the ball. I know the instruction says with ball, but i was not able to find anything to stop him from doing this (tho i selected that instruction before the first match).

Also, im seeing a lot of questions about the weakest link in a team, and they seem out of place. First of, they say weakest link ahead of the upcoming match, but you are able to select an injured player. Also, you can select a player that wont be playing (probably). It should only be possible to select players that have a % of first team apps in that season.

[jase19]

This is my first time using the beta. How much do you guys enjoy using the save you come up with after the real game launches? I'm afraid to get too deep into a game.

[cerud]

Overall impressions are very positive! The game looks very streamlined. There's a few things that I'm having difficulty finding in this year's edition of the game.

1. How do I send my assistant manager to go look for loan players of a specific position? It doesn't seem to be attached to the "Get Advice from Staff" anymore.

2. In the Twitter messages that talked about new features for FM14, it mentioned a separate wage budget for staff members. How do I find out what my staff wage budget is? The only wage budget I can find is for my players.

3. There are no sponsor details listed in the finance screen. My income tab says I received sponsorship money, but the summary screen doesn't list any sponsors. Has this moved from last year?

4. How do I sign players? I have a wage budget, but every player I go to sign will only allow me to offer $0 wages.

These are the only things I've noticed so far. Small admittedly, except for the signing players issue which is stopping me from playing right now. Would appreciate any help!

[brotherhid]

Our local game retailer (in Indonesia) said we would not get any beta key. They not said about the reason yet.

Is the dvd retail version does not included the beta key? Or maybe there is any particular reason perhaps?

Because last year at the same retailer, dvd version also, and I got the beta key

Thank you

[TheGull8559]

Overall impressions are very positive! The game looks very streamlined. There's a few things that I'm having difficulty finding in this year's edition of the game.

1. How do I send my assistant manager to go look for loan players of a specific position? It doesn't seem to be attached to the "Get Advice from Staff" anymore.

2. In the Twitter messages that talked about new features for FM14, it mentioned a separate wage budget for staff members. How do I find out what my staff wage budget is? The only wage budget I can find is for my players.

3. There are no sponsor details listed in the finance screen. My income tab says I received sponsorship money, but the summary screen doesn't list any sponsors. Has this moved from last year?

4. How do I sign players? I have a wage budget, but every player I go to sign will only allow me to offer $0 wages.

These are the only things I've noticed so far. Small admittedly, except for the signing players issue which is stopping me from playing right now. Would appreciate any help!

I'm experiencing the same issue as number 4, i have 2k wages available to spend yet when i approach any player i can only offer £0.

[Sebacid]

Player wage budjet seems flawed as it takes into account the staff wages also?!

If the board gives me a certain wage budjet that I can allocate on players then the wages for the staff should be separate? I am currently 2000£ a week over my "player wage budget" because of staff wages even though I am within budjet on salaries I'm paying my "players".

[soccer.joel]

Home advantage feels too important. I haven't won an away game in 8 away games so far yet I'm unbeaten at home

[Korleone]

Anyone else having a really hard time sorting their defence out? This is the kind of ridiculousness that I have to put up with nearly every game:

and 3 minutes later

Everton 5 shots on target, 5 goals.

I have never had such a problem with my defence since I started playing FM in 07.

Same with me quite often

[Thomasmc135]

'[Player X] has picked up a knock but should be able to run it off'

News article:

'[Player X] is out for 9 months with a broken spine'

So annoying. I can't wait until I can create my own database with 1 day injuries.

Edit: All of my new signings are receiving injuries. Why?

[Thomasmc135]

Anyone else having a really hard time sorting their defence out? This is the kind of ridiculousness that I have to put up with nearly every game:

and 3 minutes later

Everton 5 shots on target, 5 goals.

I have never had such a problem with my defence since I started playing FM in 07.

It's even more annoying when you instruct your players to close them down and tackle.

[Babak G]

Defenders backing off and inviting people to run at them unobstructed for 30-40 meters is annoying but its an issue brought up and should be fixed by the full release I believe.

[phnompenhandy]

Don't think this is a bug - I don't understand the system is all: I'm managing Inverness Caley Thistle and we're affiliated with Arsenal. There's supposed to be a loan system whereby I can loan Arsenal players for free. So I enquire about the likes of Raage, Zelalem, Frimpong and Park Chu-Young. Arsenal counter with an offer to loan for no fee, no wages to pay, yet it says the deal (for Park in this case) will cost me 110K per month (which of course I can't afford). So why is a free deal so expensive?

[Plastic_Road]

I was just looking at older results namely England's qualifying campaign, these results must be generated randomly as England had already qualified before the Poland game, this did take a bit of a edge of the game for me.

I'm guessing this is by design but you would think that actual results could be used here.

[HUNT3R]

Overall impressions are very positive! The game looks very streamlined. There's a few things that I'm having difficulty finding in this year's edition of the game.

1. How do I send my assistant manager to go look for loan players of a specific position? It doesn't seem to be attached to the "Get Advice from Staff" anymore.

Been asked a few times already...

Transfer Centre --> Transfer Targets

[KUBI]

I was just looking at older results namely England's qualifying campaign, these results must be generated randomly as England had already qualified before the Poland game, this did take a bit of a edge of the game for me.

I'm guessing this is by design but you would think that actual results could be used here.

They can't due to legal/license reasons.

[saware]

They can't due to legal/license reasons.

Is it the results or the scoreline that can't be reproduced? Surely if it's just the scores they could be changed to reflect the same amount of points & goal difference?

[PineappleBlender]

'[Player X] has picked up a knock but should be able to run it off'

News article:

'[Player X] is out for 9 months with a broken spine'

That's quite some determination to run that off!

[llama3]

Haven't read any of the feedback here, don't want to incase it is all "moan moan moan", as I've just picked up the game last hour or 2 and want to make my own mind up - on the whole though - really really enjoying it. Think the tactical system is fantastic - it made me realise how much I still thought in "sliders", just won my first pre-season friendly 2-1 at Karlsruhe, loved the play my team came up with, and particularly loved the last minute winner from Podolski stealing in at the far post (a direct response to my instructions 5 minutes beforehand) - really impressed on first viewing.

[Plastic_Road]

Is it the results or the scoreline that can't be reproduced? Surely if it's just the scores they could be changed to reflect the same amount of points & goal difference?

Fair enough for legal reasons, I didn't realise scores were under copyright But surely the result could be reproduced though

[daylight]

Between your 6-5 and 3-5´s i see 2 matches with suddenly 1-0 and even 0-0. Do you have any idea why there were suddenly no goals and right after that the goal amount exploded again? Because i have the same problem and i have honestly no idea why. It just feels so random.:-(

The 0-0 was quite a dire affair with I think only 7 shots from my team and 5 for the other team, I honestly have no idea why but there were very few highlights and the highlights I did get was with the players shooting wide.

The 1-0 was one of those games were you batter the other team, I had some 18 shots at goal with 10 on target, their keeper just did a great job, quite unusual in the game.

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

look at it in this way:

Preiously you had 20 notches on a slider for depth, right?

now you have:

Play even deeper

Play deeper

Push higher up

Push even higher up

So instead of 20 notches on a slider, now you basicaly have 4 notches + your normal depth (depending on tactic you use) so all that has been changed is the way the notches are represented and number of notches which have been divided by 4.

not a huge difference in my opinion but vastly better implemented and more accessible. give it a try is all i can suggest as there is no going back.

Especially as has been confirmed elsewhere not all slider settings had 20 degrees, they may have had only 5degrees for a certain variable (eg long shots) so 1-4 notches = 1 degree, 5-8 notches = 2 degrees etc, so we could all have been finetuning for hours switching between for example 9,10,11 & 12 notches without realising it made absolutely no difference!. When you realise that you not only applaud SI for removing sliders but wonder how they got away with having them for so long. I feel now they were a necessary evil at the time that SI were a little embarrassed about.

[Wiitastic]

Unsure where to post this, more than happy for Moderators to move this post.

August 2014. EURO Cup Playoff draw. Originally was meant to be on August 8th, nothing. Then August 9th, nothing.

Then August 10th, nothing. Now I have to register my squad for the playoff round with Liverpool and I don't even know who I am playing. I will save my game now.

What should I do with my saved game? Unfortunately I did not have it also saved on August 7th 2014

[HUNT3R]

Unsure where to post this, more than happy for Moderators to move this post.

August 2014. EURO Cup Playoff draw. Originally was meant to be on August 8th, nothing. Then August 9th, nothing.

Then August 10th, nothing. Now I have to register my squad for the playoff round with Liverpool and I don't even know who I am playing. I will save my game now.

What should I do with my saved game? Unfortunately I did not have it also saved on August 7th 2014

Maybe an obvious question, but were you subscribed to that competition? If I understood you correctly, you missed the draw, but everything else is still going ahead... so I'm thinking you were not subscribed and missed the news items?

[Wiitastic]

Maybe an obvious question, but were you subscribed to that competition? If I understood you correctly, you missed the draw, but everything else is still going ahead... so I'm thinking you were not subscribed and missed the news items?

Just checked and I am subscribed to the Euro Cup. I've found the place to post this, unfortunately I didn't even think about saving it on August 7th as I didn't think anything would go wrong like this. Just saved it now whilst on August 11th.

[Justified]

I'm afraid to say SI but I think my FM "career" will end in this version. I think he removal of sliders is a major mistake. Yes it wasn't realistic, I admit, but it was what made every FM manager "different". It's what separated the meticulous Mourinho's to the motivational Redknapp's. For me the enjoyment was first creating a tactic, a philosophy if you will, and then focus on breeding youth through. Now I feel half of the enjoyment has gone.

I would like to thank you guys though for the years of enjoyment I've had with the game. We're talking since CM2 So it's been a good run, it has indeed.

Good luck in future, I'm sure the new version will attract new players and I hope they enjoy it as much as I have throughout the years.

[valehannes]

I'm afraid to say SI but I think my FM "career" will end in this version. I think he removal of sliders is a major mistake. Yes it wasn't realistic, I admit, but it was what made every FM manager "different". It's what separated the meticulous Mourinho's to the motivational Redknapp's. For me the enjoyment was first creating a tactic, a philosophy if you will, and then focus on breeding youth through. Now I feel half of the enjoyment has gone.

I would like to thank you guys though for the years of enjoyment I've had with the game. We're talking since CM2 So it's been a good run, it has indeed.

Good luck in future, I'm sure the new version will attract new players and I hope they enjoy it as much as I have throughout the years.

I do hope you tried it first.