Football Manager 2018 *Official* Feedback Thread

[Dagenham_Dave]

Although improved graphically, the more I watch this match engine, the more it looks like the first build of FM16's engine. The high amount of cross-shots the player 'didn't mean', centre halves jumping under no pressure and missing the header allowing the striker to run in and score, and the high amount of back post crosses volleyed in. All looking very familiar. 

[RobertPage]

4 hours ago, wicksyFM said:

Even with a package owned you are charged for every single bit of scouting you do. Even if that package fits the criteria of the scouting your doing. Individual players, leagues, nations, etc. I don’t think this should be happening. If you own a package the costs of scouting should be covered by that package. But they are not. The only money that comes out of your scouting budget is the cost of your package and assignments outside your package. Scouting is messed up and it needs fixing ASAP

I had no idea this was happening. Once I set the budget I assumed nothing else would be removed fincancially l. I’m on 16th October and have spent £884,130 on scouting already.... insane amount!

[Dagenham_Dave]

2 minutes ago, RobertPage said:

I had no idea this was happening. Once I set the budget I assumed nothing else would be removed fincancially l. I’m on 16th October and have spent £884,130 on scouting already.... insane amount!

I'm at a low level and my scouting costs are already higher than what I've paid out in player wages, it's crippling the club. 

[RobertPage]

Watching matches currently ( comprehensive highlights) the game feels like offside simulator. 6-8, 5-9, 6-5 have been the offside count in the last three games. How accurate this is i have no idea but I do know that I don’t need to see them all

[CapAtom]

This pre-match screen always raises a laugh with me, I have rarely seen anything so amateurish in a game released by a large studio; the players faces combined with the silhouettes remind me of one of those whack a mole things you see at the seaside.

Much worse, if not quite as amateurish to look at, is the none highlights in match screen. You can't view your player attributes with the 'i' icon as for some reason there is no 'i' icon on this screen. You can't see what formation your opposition may have changed to because that information isn't available on this screen. Customization? Not a chance. That pitch with the 'events' and a link to the highlights? Most of the time it just has a couple of players names with no clue given as to what the highlight is.

Those tiny icons to quickly change tactics, formation, mentality etc? I don't know what half of them do until I hover over them: just tell me WITH WORDS.

So many oddly constructed things, the weak UI in scouting ( those hundreds of payers you have to click though discarding and the like don't even show the player attributes!), the charges on scouting which make my preferred LLM pointless, the worsened player/staff search screens, and plenty more. There is a good game in there I'm sure but it is currently enormously frustrating and I can't think of a worse thing for a game to be.

[DalyBhoy]

I don't want to start a thread it's unnecessary. Can someone with knowledge of Brazilian football tell me why Volta Redonda are not in the Rio De Janeiro State Championship. Well it says I am 9th but there are only 6 teams competing, and I have no fixtures in that competition.

[MBarbaric]

30 minutes ago, RobertPage said:

Watching matches currently ( comprehensive highlights) the game feels like offside simulator. 6-8, 5-9, 6-5 have been the offside count in the last three games. How accurate this is i have no idea but I do know that I don’t need to see them all

depends on the league, but 6 on average per match for both teams is on high end of average already. so, not accurate at all. it might be your sample though

Edited November 11, 2017 by MBarbaric

[MBarbaric]

15 minutes ago, DalyBhoy said:

I don't want to start a thread it's unnecessary. Can someone with knowledge of Brazilian football tell me why Volta Redonda are not in the Rio De Janeiro State Championship. Well it says I am 9th but there are only 6 teams competing, and I have no fixtures in that competition.

the championship starts/ends in February/May so it might be you are still too early?

[kozmik]

52 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

the high amount of back post crosses volleyed in

I'm seeing a worrying amount of these, although most of the crosses aren't the deep, brilliant, pinpoint ones you used to see all the time in FM16.

30 minutes ago, CapAtom said:

Much worse, if not quite as amateurish to look at, is the none highlights in match screen. You can't view your player attributes with the 'i' icon as for some reason there is no 'i' icon on this screen. You can't see what formation your opposition may have changed to because that information isn't available on this screen.

This bugs me to no end.

[DalyBhoy]

5 minutes ago, MBarbaric said:

the championship starts/ends in February/May so it might be you are still too early?

I don't think so. The Rio state championship league table is available, and there are only 6 teams in it. However, it says that I am 9th in the bar at the top under my team name.

I also have all my third division fixtures which start in like 100 days, and the Brazilian cup first round has been drawn.

[wicksyFM]

43 minutes ago, RobertPage said:

I had no idea this was happening. Once I set the budget I assumed nothing else would be removed fincancially l. I’m on 16th October and have spent £884,130 on scouting already.... insane amount!

 

40 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

I'm at a low level and my scouting costs are already higher than what I've paid out in player wages, it's crippling the club. 

wow. its absolutely gamebreaking for me. im sitting here waiting for a fix. im going to start a youth only challenge so i dont have to scout. i dont want to do that but no point in starting a save with broken scouting. If SI could just give us some sort of idea when a fix will be out abd if it will be save game compatible would help. Maybe then i could play the game i want to play. What drives me mad is that the beta is released for us to find issues like this. We did, and it was reported. But not fixed for the full release. How the developers didnt see this when they spent a year making the game is beyond me

[sedge11]

1 hour ago, CapAtom said:

Much worse, if not quite as amateurish to look at, is the none highlights in match screen. You can't view your player attributes with the 'i' icon as for some reason there is no 'i' icon on this screen. You can't see what formation your opposition may have changed to because that information isn't available on this screen. Customization? Not a chance. That pitch with the 'events' and a link to the highlights? Most of the time it just has a couple of players names with no clue given as to what the highlight is.

What screen are you on about? As I can see the opposition formation quite easily during the match, both during the highlights and in between highlights.

[martplfc1]

First time I've ever requested a refund for football manager.  This version is so buggy their culmination make it unplayable.

Example 1 - Defenders unable to mark on free kicks allowing a player to just stand free 20 yards out

Example 2 - The match not showing you goals (I thought I'd won the game 2-1 but at full time it's 2-2.  When I try to watch the goal the highlight ends before actually seeing the ball go in)

Example 3 - Seeing replays of random moments when I only select to see the goals

Example 4 - Switching players around on the tactics screen resulting in the order being completely out (i.e. switch a sub for a player in the "DC" slot.  The DC slot goes down to the subs rather than the players just swapping)

Example 5 - Players wearing white appearing to glow

Example 6 - lower league stadiums blocking the action on some camera angles

Example 7 - Fringe players causing squad morale to plummet if not guaranteed more action

Example 8 - media/interactions still horrific, not improved for years

Example 9 - Despite alleged improvements in the match engine's animation, some of the stuff I'm seeing is laughable

Example 10 - Awful UI in general

 

[CapAtom]

28 minutes ago, sedge11 said:

What screen are you on about? As I can see the opposition formation quite easily during the match, both during the highlights and in between highlights.

The screen in-between highlights which has one team list on one side of the screen and one on the other with a central match info column with a pitch showing incidents, some stats, and a focus of attacks pitch. I've tried it windowed and full screen and maybe it is a matter of resolution but on that screen there is nothing other than the players lists to gauge what the formation is.

[Neil Brock]

1 hour ago, wicksyFM said:

 

wow. its absolutely gamebreaking for me. im sitting here waiting for a fix. im going to start a youth only challenge so i dont have to scout. i dont want to do that but no point in starting a save with broken scouting. If SI could just give us some sort of idea when a fix will be out abd if it will be save game compatible would help. Maybe then i could play the game i want to play. What drives me mad is that the beta is released for us to find issues like this. We did, and it was reported. But not fixed for the full release. How the developers didnt see this when they spent a year making the game is beyond me

How many players are you scouting at a time? How many have you tried to scout so far?

[Dagenham_Dave]

15 minutes ago, CapAtom said:

The screen in-between highlights which has one team list on one side of the screen and one on the other with a central match info column with a pitch showing incidents, some stats, and a focus of attacks pitch. I've tried it windowed and full screen and maybe it is a matter of resolution but on that screen there is nothing other than the players lists to gauge what the formation is.

The sections in the middle are customisable, you can choose different things to appear there including opposition formation.

Edited November 11, 2017 by Dagenham_Dave

[CapAtom]

5 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

The section in the middle are customisable, you can choose different things to appear there including opposition formation.

Ha ha! Just checked and you are quite right. The fact I only just spotted it does suggest two things though: 1).  I'm an idiot, 2). Its too small a tab and easily missed (by idiots). No idea why it only shows one formation at a time though and not both teams, the formation box is tiny.

[wicksyFM]

6 minutes ago, Neil Brock said:

How many players are you scouting at a time? How many have you tried to scout so far?

I ran some tests and was getting prices of £800 plus for just one player. I found this out by assigning one scout to scout a player from 0-100% knowledge. No other assignments, just one. This cost is with or without a package. It doesnt matter. These tests were done with a vanarama south club scouting vanarama south players. 

[Dagenham_Dave]

1 minute ago, CapAtom said:

Ha ha! Just checked and you are quite right. The fact I only just spotted it does suggest two things though: 1).  I'm an idiot, 2). Its too small a tab and easily missed (by idiots). No idea why it only shows one formation at a time though and not both teams, the formation box is tiny.

Aye, like a lot of the UI this year, it's not ideal. 

[Sid1984]

The game doesn’t seem to run as smoothly. Sometimes hurts my eyes a little so gone to watching game in 2d classic

anyone else having this problem?

Edited November 11, 2017 by Sid1984

[InMediasRes]

I absolutely can not get over how bad regen faces are this year. Creating realistic, good looking faces was never FM's strong suit, but I swear that almost 50% of newgen faces this year seem to have a lazy eye or something.

I created a quick gallery just by clicking through some generated faces and it's atrocious. I didn't even have to look very hard for these.

Gallery

It seems the player's left eye is generally smaller than the right for a lot of players for some reason. I hope this is fixed in the future. As someone who likes to play saves so long that all players are newgens, this is absolutely immersion breaking.

Edited November 11, 2017 by InMediasRes

[WizbaII]

Obviously, there have been improvements since FM 17. However, there are some things about FM 18 that I don't like that is making me ponder whether to go back to 17.

1. Some replays randomly cause the match engine to pause infinitely requiring a reboot of the game. This means I had to turn replays off. This one doesn't concern me that much because it will be fixed eventually.

Here's what really concerns me because they are not meant to be bugs:

2. In order to access the rewind button, you have to open a menu at the top. In FM 17, the rewind button was directly on the screen at all times. Obviously there is no reason to hide such vital buttons behind a menu when you can just display it on the screen. If I try to rewind by clicking on the timeline, I rewind by like a minute. Well, I want to see what happened 10 seconds ago...not a minute ago. Very inconvenient. I'm surprised that anyone who plays this game could overlook how important it is for the rewind buttons to be easily accessible.

3. I was excited when I heard about more camera flexibility, but it turns out that although you can customize the camera more, there is actually less flexibility. The lowest camera height for the Sideline view is still higher than the camera height for Sideline view from FM 17!

4. Why are the U23s and U18s buttons moved to the very bottom when they both do the same thing as the Squads button...I'm certainly going to be needing those buttons more than say...the Finance button.

5. The new Tranfer screen is nice, but you shouldn't have to click another button to see all the clubs that have made a bid for a particular player. That information should be shown as a default. Just indent all the bid tabs and don't indent to player tabs so we know that all indented bids are for the same player. You should only have to click a button if you want to HIDE the extra tabs. Also, when you leave the Transfer screen, it doesn't remember whether you collapsed or extended a tab. That should be changed. UI team has work to do. The User Interface is a surprisingly important reason for why people will or will not use software!

6. The theme song for FM 18 is nice, but it needs a fade-in and fade-out. When you get into a save it just cuts off suddenly. When you enter the Preferences screen it just comes on at full volume all of a sudden. I get what you're trying to do, but you could at least ease the music on and off rather than startling people.

Now to say some nice things...

1. I like the new Dynamics feature because it's now easier to figure out who you can sell without upsetting the dressing room. This is obviously something that real-life managers would be aware of.

2. I like the Tactics intensity bar which helps clarify things.

3. Some of the descriptions for certain roles or settings were improved it seems like, which is nice.

4. Props to the graphics and the match engine teams, they do marvelous work. (However, that weird animation where the keeper catches the ball and then seems to purposefully step out of bounds is still there.)

5. The avatar building has improved.

6. You have a scouting inbox now so the regular inbox is not like 80% scouting reports. Thank goodness. That was really needed as it made me not look at the inbox anymore in FM 17.

Generally, a lot of the improvements like the Tactics screen are not necessary because they were already good enough in FM 17. What's necessary is being able to do basic things without wanting to gouge my eyes.

[OlivierL]

Not sure if this is a bug but my Data analist keeps producing non-basque(+16) players in my scouting centre inbox .. and i'm playing with bilbao.

[ParanoidBuddha]

Stupid question:

Do packages make a difference on the numbers of players the scouts examine? If I buy an ''Italy package'' and I send my scout in Italy, he can find players that wouldn't have found with a ''no package''. Right?

[Dagenham_Dave]

13 minutes ago, ParanoidBuddha said:

Stupid question:

Do packages make a difference on the numbers of players the scouts examine? If I buy an ''Italy package'' and I send my scout in Italy, he can find players that wouldn't have found with a ''no package''. Right?

I'm actually coming to the conclusion that even the developers don't really understand how this new scouting thing truly works this year. 

[rdbayly]

3 hours ago, RobertPage said:

Even with a package owned you are charged for every single bit of scouting you do. Even if that package fits the criteria of the scouting your doing.

Sweet Jesus I've just checked my finances and I've spent 200k on scouting and it's only August of the first season!

[pizzachips]

cant seem to give individual team talks during match at say half time

[martplfc1]

Another couple of reasons for the refund....Go on Mane, slot Firmino in there, nice big gap for you to do so....

Orrrrr....play it backwards 50 yards straight to the opposition striker

And just as I try to upload the abomination of the goal that came 30 seconds later, my game freezes on this screen:

Congratulations SI, you've really outdone yourself.  disgrace this game's been released in this state.

[FrazT]

@martplfc1

I note your frustration but please watch the language- it is not necessary to get your point across.

[Tinkerman84]

On 10.11.2017 at 19:55, Dagenham_Dave said:

On a similar note, I'm also in pre-season and never saw a single pre-match tactical briefing thing yet. 

It was there on the beta version of the game, suddenly disapperead on the full game.. any solution to this?

[Tinkerman84]

1 hour ago, Tinkerman84 said:

It was there on the beta version of the game, suddenly disapperead on the full game.. any solution to this?

 

I meant lines representing the partnerships.. completly gone after the full game..

[Benji27]

The UI changes, particularly in-match, are the biggest retrograde changes I've come across in any game. It's absolutely woeful.

Want to check the league table? Sorry, you can't access the drop down when there's no highlights playing, you have to change the awful boxes where you can only see 3/4 positions in the table. Why?!

Want to check how many clear cut chances your team have wasted? Oh no, most certainly not! You can only do that, again, when you're watching a highlight rather than when the game is rolling on with no action. It makes no sense whatsoever

 

.

 

 

[Jibby123]

1 hour ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

I'm actually coming to the conclusion that even the developers don't really understand how this new scouting thing truly works this year. 

I have to agree here. It's really disappointing on SI's part that nothing has been explained on this. Scouting is a huge part of the game for me, but zilch understanding on my part and yet to see an even semi-decent guide of what is going on with scouting.

I fear this is a new feature similar to where they introduced data analysts and sports scientists where nobody could/would tell you what attributes mattered and what difference they made.

SI record of explaining 'new features' has always been terrible. They must see posts of people arguing back and forth of how things could/should/do/don't work in-game but silence is deafening on their part. If they don't know why or can explain then.....

[Trevor L.]

I am really enjoying this version. Trying to get my head around scouting, but I will get there. I think part of the issue is scouting before was people searching for a guy then just scouting him and signing him. This version I think Is better as it reflects real life a little better.

 

Great game, keep it up SI.

 

Trevor L.

Edited November 11, 2017 by Trevor L.

[ParanoidBuddha]

2 hours ago, Trevor L. said:

I am really enjoying this version. Trying to get my head around scouting, but I will get there. I think part of the issue is scouting before was people searching for a guy then just scouting him and signing him. This version I think Is better as it reflects real life a little better.

 

Great game, keep it up SI.

 

Trevor L.

If the reply of my question 11 messages above is ''yes'' then I agree. If not then the packages have absolutely no sense imo

In contrary of many others users btw I like we have to spend more to individually scout players

Edited November 12, 2017 by ParanoidBuddha

[Trevor L.]

I agree the packages are a little confusing. I am running a few tests on a throwaway save to see if I can get my head around them. I cannot believe it is as difficult as it is being made out, I think we just need to study it a bit.

 

Trevor L.

[Jonsko]

Any reason why when you compare two players on this version of FM, you now have to scroll through the Technical and Mental stats? I don't remember this happening on previous versions and there's plenty of room at the bottom of the window... Sorry if this has already been mentioned! There's a screenshot attached if you'd like to see one. I find this happens in Windowed mode and maximized. 

 

Thanks in advanced for your help.

[Matej]

I still didnt bought the game, but can anyone put advanced options screen when starting new game , career mode ? I was searching for this on youtube but couldnt find that screen. 

Also , did they put some options to make game harder ? Like harder scouting, removing stars from scouting,  or option for hard Brexit always on , etc.. Thank you !

Edited November 12, 2017 by Matej

[Hansaplast]

2 hours ago, Benji27 said:

The UI changes, particularly in-match, are the biggest retrograde changes I've come across in any game. It's absolutely woeful.

Want to check the league table? Sorry, you can't access the drop down when there's no highlights playing, you have to change the awful boxes where you can only see 3/4 positions in the table. Why?!

Want to check how many clear cut chances your team have wasted? Oh no, most certainly not! You can only do that, again, when you're watching a highlight rather than when the game is rolling on with no action. It makes no sense whatsoever

 

You can switch off the match info screen.

I know this is probably not the solution you want but for me it was worth.

[KUBI]

I made two modifications for the game:

 

 

[Matej]

Kubi - is it possible to make mod for removing stars from scouting and your team ? For bigger challenge ? Ty. 

Edited November 12, 2017 by Matej

[Rober82]

3 hours ago, Benji27 said:

The UI changes, particularly in-match, are the biggest retrograde changes I've come across in any game. It's absolutely woeful.

 

 

.

 

 

I just would like to mention that the word User Interface, (plus short UI), is coming up on a 1000 mentions now across this forum... Thats 64 times a day since the beta came out 15 days ago. Or about 3 times every hour. Thank you.

[wateronglass]

Unfortunate that I can't get it refunded as this is terrible, so many pointless changes. Why are filters for staff search forced into their own window? Why am I forced to see a bloated screen between highlights with an overload of information? Why is there a burning desire to hide everything possible behind more clicks even though screen resolutions are only getting higher? Why has "He certainly didn't mean that!" returned with a vengeance in my very first game? Why is there another GK training category? Wonder what else I'm going to find after only playing for 45 minutes...sort it out SI.

[anagain]

I just tried the demo over the last couple of evenings and I have to say I'm not feeling it this year. I found it hard to get in to FM last year after taking a break the year before. It could just be me, and the simple fact that I may have just lost that spark for FM, but my overriding feeling whilst playing has been that the changes (and I mean changes that should have been good for the game) are just poorly implemented and leaving me feeling like this is the poorest quality FM in memory.

The match UI is by far the worst match UI I have experienced in nearly 20 years of FM (I first played this game in 1999). I find it hard to put words to how I feel about it, but I would say it is over complicated. I like the addition of praise to the pitch shouts, but I feel unsure as to whether I've implemented anything when I use shouts, only to see it flash up on the bar at the top. There's no confirmation of doing something. The whole match feels rushed, as if SI have listened to those wanting a faster game and cut down the highlights for everyone. Regardless of what goes on in a game, I feel like the information overlay between highlights is up a lot more than the highlights. Have the number of highlights been cut? 

I make substitutions and confirmation buttons are hidden away at the bottom of the screen, along with team talk options. The opposition instructions screen is now not part of the pre-match setup, but a separate window. The  in match tactics window does not seem as interactive as it used to be. There appear to have been many changes, but not changes implemented well.

I've had two obscure pieces of commentary in two matches (that I have noticed). I got a penalty in one game only to be told that the assist came from a player who had left the pitch injured near the start of the game. In my second match a player was injured after colliding with a team mate even though they were at different ends of the pitch, the injured player in acres of space.

Injuries is another sore subject for me. In the past I've been dismayed at the number of posts on these forums that say there are too many injuries, so believe me that I feel uneasy saying that there are too many injuries this year. I get a report every match to say half my team are at serious risk of injury because I am training at high intensity in pre-season. I'm getting at least two nasty injuries a game and more from training. These are Premier league players and they're struggling with a high intensity pre-season. It just feels harsher than any FM I have played.

I was very glad when I read that SI were implementing quite a few changes this year. The player dynamics feature pleased me immensely, along with the game delving more in to player-manager relationships. This is something I have felt FM needed for some time, and I am sure it will turn out to be a fantastic feature. Sadly, I just can't quite pull myself past a lot of features that I feel have been changed unnecessarily and even rushed...or appear to have been so. I have a lot of experience of FM, and the quality does not appear to be on show this year. The UI changes really are poor, and perhaps that is what is bugging me so badly this year. A poor UI can detract heavily from a game. If you feel like you are over clicking or are struggling to find information easily, then that very fact can bring the whole game down.

 

[ReMeDy]

I'm dismayed the regens not only weren't improved, but look worse! I was also taken aback that despite the popular outpouring of support for the reintroduction of coaching photo faces, instead, Miles refused, and in a rather brazen fashion, saying, "It's just a photo." You had coaching photos in FM16, and now you don't. When you bring them back, you have my money, or until the regens are vastly improved. The problem is the coach's photo system is replaced with a vastly inferior 3D regen system, so until the regen's are looking better, it's hard to justify why the coaching photo option should remain excluded.

Edited November 12, 2017 by ReMeDy

[3maldini3]

It must be the most unfinished product I have ever bought.

 

 

[ceta96]

Am I only one to think about there is big space between two tribune stairs of 3D match engine?

Edited November 12, 2017 by ceta96

[3maldini3]

Kolasinac cross to Lacazette who scores, assist goes to Bellerin. And the match report is a complete mess.

 

[Preveza]

23 hours ago, StormenDK said:

Just been playing the demo for a bit ... and for the love of all the holy gods. Can you please fix the crowd sounds in this game already?

Playing a pre-season friendly as Bath City vs. some local team. 200 people in the stands. Sounds like a crowd of 25.000.

For a game that aims to simulate the experience as close to reality as can be, it irks me that this issue has been around since forever.

I would love to hear what the reasoning for keeping this immersion-breaking "feature" in the game is.

Yeah, I agree totally. Ruins immersion for me completely. CM0102 had better sounds. Does not feel like a simulation at all for me. Seeing my winger lose the ball, and instead of chase the player and ball, he just decides to revert back to his natural position on the flank. Very disappointing. Not realistic at all

[samboro]

Ok, this is going to sound vague but does anyone else find there seems to be a lack of supply to full backs/wing backs. Using a similar tactic to FM17 where passes to these positions in attacking areas would be common but in this version wingers/striker will often overlook the fullback when they would be the better passing/crossing option.

Just wondering if anyone else has found this or maybe its just my team/tactic.