(Suggestion) Overhaul of Player AI in respect to Retirement

[Brian_Clough_2.0]

Hi guys, I actually posted this over on r/footballmanagergames on Reddit, but I feel it will get better scope here, so decided to make an account and throw it up.

This is the post I made on that subreddit:

 

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This is something that has bothered me for the last few carnations of FM, especially as I enjoy starting with a non-league team and working my way up. I'm currently Chester and have played one season, I've completely overhauled my team, mostly with young players (Spencer Brown, Will Hoare, Reece Webb-Foster on-loan from Bradford City, Ryan Lloyd on-loan from Port Vale,, Mich'el Parker after release from Liverpool) and Irish players (Rob Lehane, a goal scoring machine from Cobh Ramblers who cost me 60k, Shane O'Connor, a former youth prospect with Liverpool, Conor Masterson after release from Liverpool, Shayne Lavery of Everton after being released, Stephen Maher of Cork City, James Shea of Wimbledon as a phenomenal GK for a non-league team and so on).

One of the critics my assistant - Brede Hangeland for anyone interested, who by the way, if you can get definitely sign as a coach or assistant, he's a top defending coach - is that I don't have enough leaders. Stephen Maher is my captain but he's also extremely aggressive so he gets sent-off a lot, I view him as like a knock off Roy Keane in ways, but he doesn't always start because of his poor discipline. So I had to sign some older players, Stephane Zubar was one, who has just turned 30. When I was stuck for a striker due to injuries in the second half of my first season, my chief scout, the legendary Paul Butler, recommended Clinton Morrison to me so I signed him. Morrison was 37 when I signed him but he was effective up front, netting 10 goals in 14 appearances. I re-signed him for another year, planning to use him as a back-up and then... he retired. No warning, just, "I'm retired". It made no sense, but I said ok, and continued onward.

Second season transfer window and I decide that after not having enough funds to sign him the previous year, I was going to bring in Jordan McMillan, who was serving a six month ban due to his drug offenses. I look for him and... nothing... he has retired and vanished. He's 28 for reference, yet there are others like Cliff Byrne who has not had a club all season is in his late 30's and is still available to sign, albeit he has coaching experience as well.

So I go looking for another defender and look-up John O'Shea, to find out... hes retired. So I look up Jamie McCombe, formerly of Bristol City... and hes retired, at 34! This essentially went on until I realized that almost every defender I wanted over 34 had decide to retire.

I play with a large database and am aware that as new players spur that older ones have to retire, but for next year could there be an improvement in the ratio of retirements by older players. I doubt John O'Shea will retire this coming summer, I also don't see why I have a player signing a new one-year contract and then deciding to just quit. Or why someone like Jordan McMillan, whose AI should understand that he is suspended for the first six months of the game anyway, is retiring so young.

I'm not asking for it to be like FM06 when I could sign Roy Keane and he'd play until he was 38 and be the best player on my team, but just a more realistic ratio of retirements. If someone is constantly getting injured, sure, their is rational to retire, but if it's simply that they're 36 and have been a free agent for a month I don't see why they just give up for the hell of it

Essentially, I think that players are retiring too easily, especially when they have more left in the tank and that their retirement is actually coinciding with the simple fact that their of a certain age and not that they have ability left and can still play at a high level.

Morrison retiring was irritating as he had just signed a new one-year deal, like literally the week before. It didn't make any sense but I decided that at 37, that was fair enough. In my first season I only finished in 14th so maybe that wasn't enough for him to believe we could get back into the football league, but Jordan McMillan vanishing at 27/28? Ridiculous. The only reason I didn't sign him during the first window - when he finally let me offer him a contract - was he wanted too much and I didn't see the point in him sitting out six months wasting my small wage budget. So when I finally have the funds and I need a full-back to find out hes retired or has vanished is very irritating and takes a bit away from the game for me. I enjoy starting as a lower league team and building a team of kids and "misfit toys", I don't understand why he or say Jamie McCombe at 34 are retiring, especially in McCombe's case where he was a regular for most of the season at Lincoln City.

There needs to be a better in-game ratio of players retiring, so for example, if a player is determined then why would he quit? Determination should be taken into account when the game is trying to process who retires and who doesn't. Some players will play into their late 30's, early 40's, look at Wayne Shaw for Sutton Utd for example. If a player is 35 and is still contributing then they shouldn't be hanging it up for the hell of it, the game needs to have better rational for why players are quitting.

[gibbo11]

Agree with this. It's extremely rare, also, to see a player willing to drop down divisions to prolong their career. Too often do you see players retire at 31/32 because they haven't played many games for a Prem club in that current season. I'd like to see them start dropping down divisions and see the AI teams in the lower divisions take a punt on some of these players.

[Neil Brock]

Reviewed so locked.