Official Football Manager 2015 Pre Release Beta Feedback Thread - Update 15.0.3

[W_Beattie]

All I can think of us trying is changing the save name, changing destination or trying to save it as "name.fm". If not, try saving to the cloud - might work.

Saving to the cloud worked. I've since solved the initial issue. My laptop had duplicate "Sports Interactive" folders within My Documents, one of which I deleted earlier today. Just needed to switch where I was trying to save the game to the one that I kept.

Thanks for the help!

[Lawlore]

A question- is constructive Demo feedback also welcome here? I appreciate that at the moment there are differences in the builds as others have noted.

[Lucas]

A question- is constructive Demo feedback also welcome here? I appreciate that at the moment there are differences in the builds as others have noted.

Yes, any constructive feedback would be good to hear.

[drbrock]

Is anyone else having problems obtaining the next coaching license?

[kandersson]

demo feedback here.

the 3D is a beauty, very crisp and fluid. Well done. ME also seems quite advanced at this early stage, especially compared to last years

I'm experiencing sporadic issues with the cursor freezing for a couple of seconds on some areas (ie squad, players information etc), it doesn't happen that often but it is a bit annoying. I've encountered issues with the player search as the general info screen sometimes does not show player positions (while sometimes it does). Trying to customize the screen doesn't help much either.

I have to say the tactics screen is a bit disappointing. Selecting players from there is quite painful tbh. Also removing players roles and duties from the formation on the right doesn't really help. Feels like a step back from previous games honestly.

On the other hand I like new user interface a lot, scouting and staff screens are much more intuitive and the new reports are great.

[biffykins]

I really like the new way of switching between teams you manage. I just became manager of France and on the day itself I was like "umm where are the options to see my French team" but as soon as I advanced up popped the icon in the top menu bar. Makes it so easy to change to the French squad rather than going through drop down menus

[Lawlore]

Ok, so I've had a couple of hours with the demo now, enough to give some initial thoughts.

The Tactics Screen

First and foremost, as has been the theme of the thread, the tactics screen needs serious work. Compared with the FM14 one, it shows the same information, but in a much more unintuitive and more convoluted way- the usability of it has dropped massively. My display is 1280x1024- this means the default columns I can see are (in order):

Position/Role/Duty

Player Status Information

(i) column

Player Name

Morale

Last 5 Games

Condition

Average Rating

I cannot see the positions my players can play without hovering over the (i) buttons for each one individually- this makes deciding between players much more difficult, as the game is asking me to memorise every player's individiual possible positions, as opposed to FM14 where this information was on-screen.

There is also no need for condition to represented twice in the same columns, as both a figure and a graphic- this simply wastes space.

Trying to resize or customise these columns (by adding/removing them) results in odd behaviour- things disappearing, headings changing or resizing- it is not at all a reliable option.

The space taken up by the Position/Role/Duty column adds nothing that wasn't previously on the pitch- it is a waste of space that could be used for other things. I have previously been someone who has repeatedly made the case that FM needs clearer explanation of what these things do- I do think the tooltip accompanying each one is clearer than previously, and the star/circle design is a very neat way of showing someone's appropriateness for each- but it doesn't seem necessary for this to have actually moved away from the pitch display.

Ultimately, picking a team and subs from the tactics page is not as easy a task as has been previously- I ended up doing so from the squad page, where I can see which positions people can play, but not their suitability for the specific roles/duties.

Scouting

I like the removal of Player Search, and think the scouting has been beefed up to be an adequate replacement. It is somewhat frustrating to have to keep telling a scout to keep looking at the same player over and over to try and get a better idea of them, but there may be an easier way of doing that which I haven't discovered yet- "Scout until 100%" or something. Very much in favour of the uncertain attribute ranges, which are also presented in a clearer way than I'd thought. Really well-implemented, including in searching.

The Sidebar

I like it a lot- it'll take a bit of getting used to, as would any change of UI, but I think that doing so will be quicker than it took me to get used to the change from FM12 to FM13. It's intuitive, it looks good (at least with Gillingham's blue/white colour scheme), and it's much less obtrusive than I'd expected. It would be nice to be able to customise the links, as there are some I'll probably never use directly (Schedule), and other things I would like to put there as direct links (Board Confidence), but it is a definite step forward.

The Top Search Bar

Love it. Fast, responsive and extremely useful.

The Match Engine

I can't say too much- I've played one game, and that's hardly a large enough sample size to get a fair whack of it. What I saw looked good, especially the fluidity of movement, but it's too early to comment on anything substantial either way. I am disappointed I can no longer use my favourite camera view- Elevated but zoomed all the way in now cuts off the goals at either end, as the camera doesn't move far enough left or right.

The Faux Premier League Badges

To hell with everyone else, I really like them.

The Lack of Photos

It may be because it's a demo, but there sure are a lot of blank faces staring out at me. I'm sure I can find a facepack, but at the moment, it just feels a bit odd seeing so many missing.

Twitch Integration

I was going to do a literal "first steps with FM15" as I approached the game for the first time, but couldn't get it to work, and eventually gave up. That's probably more on Twitch's end than FM's. At first, the game's popup window got itself caught in a loop trying to connect the game to my Twitch account, and then when that finally authorised, having downloaded a free streaming client and persevering for a good few hours with various settings, I just couldn't get it to do what it was supposed to. So much for that feature, I guess.

Stability

Had a few glitches and graphical errors- apart from the struggle with Twitch integration I mentioned, there was also a freeze which caused the tooltips to remain on screen and required closing the game (posted in the Bugs Forum, but I'm not sure how easily it can be reproduced). On booting up the second time, it also had some issues with my graphics card, flickering black and white as it tried to get to the loading screen. Booting up the third time it had no issues, but it's something I'll keep an eye on.

[Ben Delat]

I know this doesn't belong here, although you could make an argument that it represents feedback in terms of real life accuracy. But I didn't want to start a new thread for it, and thought it was a bit of a giggle...

United won the league - Mario was top scorer and Juan Mata was the second highest rated player..

MUHAHA - Classic FM..

And Pep got sacked from Bayern Munich

Moments like this is why I love it, yet hate it, yet damn well love it

[dsch]

This must be a bug, right?

June 2nd: half my team are playing internationals (SAM qualifiers)

June 3rd: Champions League final

[kilik]

in coach report has it been removed that he tells you the player's best role? ie Inside Forward support

I cant see that anymore and it was very helpful in fm 14 to know a player's best role in a position

[dsch]

in coach report has it been removed that he tells you the player's best role? ie Inside Forward support

I cant see that anymore and it was very helpful in fm 14 to know a player's best role in a position

It should say right in the top middle when you hover over the "i".

[kilik]

It should say right in the top middle when you hover over the "i".

on the coach report screen? i cant see a i

[dsch]

on the coach report screen? i cant see a i

I mean, on most player lists, there should be an "i" in a circle next to the player name.

Edit: Wait, hold on. It tells you the best roles in the bottom right corner, just above the "Coach Summary".

[Sunderland AFC]

Definitely an issue here regarding the cursor. It just seems to keep freezing or taking a while to load. When you hover over things there is no options to click for around 8-10 seconds and seems to be loading.

It can't be a PC issue as it has 5 start estimated game speed, one nation loaded and only in the first season. This wasn't happening before the update.

[metalface13]

Well there be a Mac demo? And if so, when will it be available?

[Sunderland AFC]

An issue where you go on advance tactics during a match. Occasionally only 3/4 subs appear and you have to cancel and reopen it to get the subs up.

[jujigatame]

Is it possible all the injury complaints are because there's too much of an injury proneness penalty when fitness is low? That would explain why people are seeing inordinate amounts of injuries in the early season and pre-season.

[ManicStreetFootballFan]

enjoying the beta thus far, love the new interface! thank you guys for making an awesome game again

only problem I've noticed so far is that Diego Lopez (now A.C. Milan, formerly of Real Madrid) has no transfer fee on his history, if I see any other things like that will post em though

defending issues I find work themselves out once your team adjusts to a formation better, even so it's not easy to keep clean sheets, though this is perhaps more realistic, especially in top divisions.

also this may sound like a dumb request but I would love it you could bring in a "110% zoom" for the skin, I have a 1920x1080 monitor that's 24' but 125% zoom is too big and 100% is a little small for my liking!

[HUNT3R]

Injuries:

Chelsea - 11

Man C - 10

Everton - 11

AV - 7

Man U - 7

Arsenal - 4

West Ham - 7

Burnley - 9

QPR - 7

Swansea - 10

Liverpool - 9

Tot - 6

West Brom - 12 lol

New Castle - 8

Stoke - 3

Hull - 10

Sunderland - 6

CP - 8

Leicester - 11

That's far more than i expected

Average minutes - 45 for starters/Maximum. This is for nearly all games.

Match fit, yes - everyone was good to go

How often were the matches in pre season? not 100% sure from memory but i only do a maximum of 2 games per week.

Training: No individual training setup yet, all team training. This is set to standard and/or low (as i hardly ever touch this). Ditto with the slider, left as standard/medium and lowered once "fluid". Rest after matches for players.

Your training might not help, but that injury rate is high accross the board. It would be great if you could report it, but upload a save as well and post this injury table along with it.

[FrazT]

Well there be a Mac demo? And if so, when will it be available?

The demo will be the same for Mac and PC

[Raikkonen]

I already won the title on 12 March 2016.

[Twellman24]

Well, I guess I could post the crash that keeps happening to me but there is none--the game just closes.

So after playing for two weeks now I have to just wait until the next update to be able to play.

Macbook Pro, 10.6.8

See you when the next update comes.

[ManicStreetFootballFan]

another quick bug to report, "keep player history" doesn't seem to tick or if it is ticked it doesn't show up? strange bug!

[dsch]

Don't expect this to be answered, but sometimes the board says it "will not deal with any budget related requests at this time", which apparently means you can't shift money between wage and transfer budgets. Is this working as designed?

[HUNT3R]

Guys, if you've found bugs, please report it in the bugs forum.

[HUNT3R]

Well, I guess I could post the crash that keeps happening to me but there is none--the game just closes.

So after playing for two weeks now I have to just wait until the next update to be able to play.

Macbook Pro, 10.6.8

See you when the next update comes.

You should report your issue here: http://community.sigames.com/forumdisplay.php/419-Mac-Specific-Issues

[tyler16]

I've been messing around on some test saves with the ME, interface, etc. In general, I think this year's game has the potential to be amazing. Wanted to throw some positives in a negative (by nature!) thread. While I'm here, a couple thoughts on things to look at.

- Too many rebound goals, especially in unrealistic situations where the goalie treats the first shot like a stun grenade, lol. Pretty sure this is a known bug, and it doesn't seem as bad as 15.0.2, but it still needs some work.

- In addition to this, it seems that most free kicks since the update will end up being parried for a rebound goal. A huge upgrade over the insane success rate pre-upgrade, but again, too many goals coming from DFKs.

- In general, still a bit too many goals league-wide. I saw the post above which showed about 20-40% over the real life goal numbers, especially in lower leagues.

- Not sure if it's because I'm using good teams or key highlights, a combo of both, or what... but crosses and general wide play seem a bit overpowered. I'm aware most goals IRL come from crosses, but it seems a bit too easy and accurate in the current ME.

All of this said, I think the ME is in a very good state. Seeing lots of positives and moments that wouldn't never happened in FM14. I mean in a pure football sense, as I play on 2D. Good work guys.

[daveh83]

Has anyone noticed Wheh making a tactical change in the match. It starts flickering making tactical change for a while then carries on?

[Arutha]

My feedback from the 5 hours I've played the Demo so far. In general I love the look and the feel of the game. So I will be concentrating mainly on things that have irked/disappointed me. Everything else is ok/good/great/awesome. Save started with Chelsea.

1. As many have said, Tactics screen needs to get better. Takes too long to get things done there.

2. Also as many have said, way way way too many injuries, pretty much more than one per week, until now. And it's happening across the board, not just with my team, so clearly looks like some tech fault.

3. My greatest complaints are with the Match Engine, just like every year. I understand you guys put in a lot of effort into it, yet the simulation never really appears to be as close to real life as possible. Please consider the following points. Oh and I am winning games, so this is not a rant coming from someone who is frustrated by losing.

3.1 - Too many goals are coming from crosses. Way too many, like some of the previous FM games. 60-70% of my goals have come in this fashion, which is honestly ridiculous and as far away from real life as can be. Match Engine needs more creativity and AI, at the moment, its just uninspiring.

3.2 - FM says Eden Hazard is selfish, which in reality is incorrect. But be that as it may, FM treats selfish players more like stupid players. Does being selfish mean your player has no semblance of sensibility, and will take shots from pretty much any angle, all the time? I've seen Hazard taking shots at the sidenetting 5-6 times in some games, while he is in a position from where it's impossible to score (on the touchline, a position from where, every player, selfish or otherwise, would square a pass into the 6-yard box nearly 8 times out of 10). It's like the player cannot grasp the basic laws of physics and/or football. It's stupid and immersion breaking. And the worst thing is, such things have been in the game forever and still not ironed out completely.

3.3 - Wingers are crossing into the box and wingers on the opposite flank are scoring headers and volleys, on a regular basis. I've had Hazard score more headers in 2 months on FM than he has done in his 2 and a half years at Chelsea (which is once).

3.4 - This could be just my save, but been witnessing more own goals than is believable.

I believe the ME has definitely improved in some sections, but at the same time, it appears to have degraded/not improved in others. Animations are a definite and welcome upgrade, though. In my opinion, ME and Media are the two areas, where SI still has a lot of work to do.

Having said that, game definitely has the makings of being the best ever edition in the series. I hope some of the things I have said get looked into and improved. Cheers, folks.

[Sterling]

Has anyone noticed Wheh making a tactical change in the match. It starts flickering making tactical change for a while then carries on?

Yep seen this as well, I think its a bug to do with leaving the mouse pointer over the top toolbar, move the mouse away and it stops flickering.

[Mikke]

In tactics screen, the drop-down list of players for a particular position needs to have something to indicate which players in that list are already selected in the squad

It already has. The drop-down list has the position of the player in brackets after his name. If the player isn't selected in the squad, there's only the name.

[ChelseaFan]

3.2 - FM says Eden Hazard is selfish, which in reality is incorrect. But be that as it may, FM treats selfish players more like stupid players. Does being selfish mean your player has no semblance of sensibility, and will take shots from pretty much any angle, all the time? I've seen Hazard taking shots at the sidenetting 5-6 times in some games, while he is in a position from where it's impossible to score (on the touchline, a position from where, every player, selfish or otherwise, would square a pass into the 6-yard box nearly 8 times out of 10). It's like the player cannot grasp the basic laws of physics and/or football. It's stupid and immersion breaking. And the worst thing is, such things have been in the game forever and still not ironed out completely.

Word. I can't use Hazard on the wing as an inside forward because of this. In reality he's not that selfish either.

[dfa120374]

I mean, on most player lists, there should be an "i" in a circle next to the player name.

Edit: Wait, hold on. It tells you the best roles in the bottom right corner, just above the "Coach Summary".

I think he's meaning whether the player is best suited to a Defend/Support/Attacking mode for the individual Role.

In FM14 in the Scout report it tells you what Role and Duty he is best at i.e. Full Back (Support); Winger (Attack).

For this version, though, the Duty part seems to have been taken out as the only place I can see where the player's best Role & Duty is mentioned is in the player's Overview screen by clicking the 'Highlight key attributes for role' in the Attributes section and seeing what it says on the 'Assistant Manager's recommended Role' line.

[luka_zg]

On 15.0.2 I couldn't score or concede from corners at all. Now I concede all the time, and every goal is the same. Corner kick, header,my GK parries it but I concede from a rebound. So frustrating.

Also, there is way too many goals scored all over..my first three games are 1-4,2-3,5-4..19 goals in 3 matches..Serie A level.

[GeorgeD]

Defenders in this game seem to be incapable of closing down and making tackles on the opposition even though they are specifically given "close down much more" + "tight marking" instructions, and i am taking about world class defenders like Hummels and Thiago Silva. All they do is to keep sitting back in their own halves and backtracking when opposition attackers run at them. I believe this is a key factor in contributing to unrealistic high scorelines in matches as reported by many users recently. Attackers can reach the penalty box real easily without much resistance, which is frustrating for me to see. I have no problems scoring, but concede a bucket load too. I really hope that this aspect of the match engine can be improved.

[andu1]

On 15.0.2 I couldn't score or concede from corners at all. Now I concede all the time, and every goal is the same. Corner kick, header,my GK parries it but I concede from a rebound. So frustrating.

Also, there is way too many goals scored all over..my first three games are 1-4,2-3,5-4..19 goals in 3 matches..Serie A level.

It's an improvement at least, in the previous patch you had 5-4,7-5,4-3,6-1 instead of your results

[pewa2303]

there are way too many woodwork hits (or shots per game resulting in more woodwork hits?)

in 106 games 96 woodwork hits, which means 0.9 per game.

its frustrating and unrealistic for attacking teams like chelsea. they hit the post more than 0.45 per game.

[HUNT3R]

there are way too many woodwork hits (or shots per game resulting in more woodwork hits?)

in 106 games 96 woodwork hits, which means 0.9 per game.

its frustrating and unrealistic for attacking teams like chelsea. they hit the post more than 0.45 per game.

Seems slightly high. Im sure it should be around 0.7 hits per game? Figures like these would be something that SI is well aware of though.

[pewa2303]

shots per game is a little high, maybe resulting in woodwork hits.

saw games with 35 + shots in demo.

[pjohnson87]

Here is an interesting bug:

1. set up a tactic with player instructions saved.

2. load a new save and import the tactic

3. check your player instructions

The player instructions are random players/non-players from all over the world!

From lower league Chinese defenders, to chairmen!

[Svenc]

More quick demo feedback -- and a question regarding the UI overhaul.

Excessive dribblings, at least for the top leagues, appear a leftover from FM 2014. Though the stat isn't wholly reliable upon actually watching those runs in the movement analysis of a match (see CCCs, cough), at least it wasn't in FM 2014, up until FM 2013 those figures were pretty spot on. Only the very top dribblers of a league averaged four, five successful runs a match, or even a tad more. But Hazard hits the 10+ mark with each simulation (and appears to top this chart each time, given his attributes), and there are a vast number of players that average successful runs in numbers only the likes of Ronaldo, Ribery et all hit in real footie. On Conference level, this disappears though (all simulated in full match details).

Also there is a bug in the player mistakes stats page that has it that there is almost always a player or two who gets awarded a huge amount of errors. It's always a keeper or two and naturally only with competitions you let simulate in full detail. Speaking of which, it would be kind of useful to know what the statistics actually defines as a "mistake".

Also the quick sim mode still hasn't been updated, despite there being much more action in a match ever since FM 2013. As a result, some statistics of competitions you don't simulate in full detail are miles off the actual match engine's stats, such as the distances covered over 90 minutes.

Statistics of the PL, fully simulated.

The Championship, not simulated in full detail.

Talking about distances covered, fully simmed, there appears to be zero difference between top of the tops and Conference level, and this at least used to be a tad (if not much) different on earlier iterations of the game also. I don't have real-life statistics on this, though, and you might file this under the "neat touch" that used to make the game that tad more believable. However, as usual, in the quick sim, there is a huge difference here too, as is/was intended to be.

Conference North, fully simulated, also notice the number of top athletes competing with Premier League players.

Conference South, NOT fully simulated, also notice the notable difference between this and the top levels posted above.

As a further ado, the new interface is made specifically with wide screen resolutions and screens only in mind, innit? My current desktop machine still runs on a 4:3 screen, which to this day I have only minor qualms with, as games typically support that resolution still and are playable. FM is too, however, the all-new menu bar on the left side of the screen takes up a large chunk of screen space during match days, and unlike the action bar that automatically pops in and out, seems permanent, even though it is of zero use for the actual match day. According to Steam's HW survey, about 10% of their users still are on 4:3 screens, which makes this an odd decision for FM, as it typically caters to any hardware still in use. http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

[milnerpoint]

Seems to be a huge amount of crosses and corners since the update. Wingers seem to play for the corner constantly rather than get the ball into the box, corners also seem very difficult to defend, unless you set a player to zonal mark the six yard box you conceed far too often.

I'm also finding the ball really hard to see sometimes. Is there anyway of brightening it up, or just making it white rather than the greyish colour it is at the moment?

[Neil Brock]

Please DO NOT raise bugs in this thread - if you find a bug, or even think it might be a bug, please raise it here - http://community.sigames.com/forumdisplay.php/417

If you don't there's a chance it'll be missed which means it can't be fixed. Please raise any issue in the bugs forum. Thanks.

[skam]

Isn't something like all injuries last 1 day?

I think I can confirm - in most of my matches I get like one injured player, who as soon as the match is over has already recovered with no sign of said injury (only with lower condition though). So I'm thinking are these one-day injuries a 'feature', in terms of increased realism, or is it just my luck?

[W_Beattie]

I realise I'm treating this as a petition of sorts but allow me to add my name to the list of people who have already stated that the Tactics screen is horrific.

Far too cluttered. I've also had to take to choosing my side pre-game from the Squad screen.

[Kriss]

I think I can confirm - in most of my matches I get like one injured player, who as soon as the match is over has already recovered with no sign of said injury (only with lower condition though). So I'm thinking are these one-day injuries a 'feature', in terms of increased realism, or is it just my luck?

It's always been a feature, just as irl a match injury can be very short term.

[Emmeth]

Are the demo and the latest 15.0.3 beta the same in terms of updates/patches ?

Thx

[Raniel3]

I think I can confirm - in most of my matches I get like one injured player, who as soon as the match is over has already recovered with no sign of said injury (only with lower condition though). So I'm thinking are these one-day injuries a 'feature', in terms of increased realism, or is it just my luck?

There are three types of match events regarding injuries.

1) The "painful knock" that just lowers condition

2) The "possible injury knock" that lowers condition and carries the risk of the player being injured after the match unless substituted (or more seriously injured unless substituted). In about 50% of the cases (according to my experience) it results in a real injury after the match, though mostly not serious ones. In the other 50% of the cases nothing happens.

3) The "injury" that takes the player out of the match immediately. Usually that's a rather serious injury, even though sometimes the player results not injured at all after the match

[skam]

There are three types of match events regarding injuries.

1) The "painful knock" that just lowers condition

2) The "possible injury knock" that lowers condition and carries the risk of the player being injured after the match unless substituted (or more seriously injured unless substituted). In about 50% of the cases (according to my experience) it results in a real injury after the match, though mostly not serious ones. In the other 50% of the cases nothing happens.

3) The "injury" that takes the player out of the match immediately. Usually that's a rather serious injury, even though sometimes the player results not injured at all after the match

Seems I didn't make myself clear - what I meant was the serious injuries, i.e. the ones that cause player to be in need of substitution immediately. Through all of the previous FM's they turned out to be literally serious, putting the player out of the training for some time. That's clear. But in FM 2015, those serious injuries really seem to heal as soon as the match is over. I've never experienced so many serious-but-short-term injuries.

even though sometimes the player results not injured at all after the match

That's the key: "sometimes". I seem to experience it like every second match. Actually in my game (after 19 matches in Spanish Secunda B) I've got only 1 seriously injured player, out of the training for 5 weeks IIRC.

But maybe I just got the wrong impression though. I'll keep an eye out for this in the future.

[Dennis_Ajax]

To much corner goals and to few DFK goals this new beta 15.0.3 update. Was better in 15.0.2. But al the other bugs are fixed nog, thats great