Is FMM too easy?

[Marc Vaughan]

2 hours ago, Lillywhite Dean said:

Hi Marc. I use attribute masking in all my games and I find this has little bearing on the games difficulty. I'm curious how this would make the game more difficult? You only need to scout players to learn what attributes they have. 

It means you can't do an 'instant search' on the entire database for specific style players and catch youngsters who are hot in obscure countries so easily.

What I'm trying to ascertain as much as anything is what advantages people have between who is successful and who isn't - I know you're REALLY good at the game so you're not an average player but whether most good players find it easy not because they're amazingly tactically astute but because they're good at transfers or whether they're 'ok' at transfers but have a great tactical setup etc.

(and the reverse - try and ascertain why people struggling are struggling)

If I can understand this then it'll help me take steps to tune things so that I can help those struggling a little while also tightening things for those of you finding it too easy (this game design stuff is tricky ).

[Marc Vaughan]

16 minutes ago, Footix said:

For reference, I still play CM 01/02 and still think it is the best thing ever. 👍

That was my 'baby' so really glad to hear that

[Footix]

48 minutes ago, Marc Vaughan said:

That was my 'baby' so really glad to hear that

I know. 😀 I must have spent actual YEARS with that game, it's scary. 

[Lillywhite Dean]

1 hour ago, Marc Vaughan said:

That was my 'baby' so really glad to hear that

I spent £400 on my first ever laptop just so I could play CM 01/02.

[Lillywhite Dean]

16 hours ago, Marc Vaughan said:

It means you can't do an 'instant search' on the entire database for specific style players and catch youngsters who are hot in obscure countries so easily.

What I'm trying to ascertain as much as anything is what advantages people have between who is successful and who isn't - I know you're REALLY good at the game so you're not an average player but whether most good players find it easy not because they're amazingly tactically astute but because they're good at transfers or whether they're 'ok' at transfers but have a great tactical setup etc.

(and the reverse - try and ascertain why people struggling are struggling)

If I can understand this then it'll help me take steps to tune things so that I can help those struggling a little while also tightening things for those of you finding it too easy (this game design stuff is tricky ).

Ah yes, the 'instant search' facility would make it far easier. 

I would also be really interested to know the reasons why 'good players' find the game easy. I have read a few comments myself on this matter and one that comes to mind was that a couple of people (either on this forum or on FM Vibe) said they find 'squad building' pretty easy. Obviously that relates to transfers and the retention of good players.

Out of interest Marc, how challenging do you find the game?

[Marc Vaughan]

 

Quote

Out of interest Marc, how challenging do you find the game?

That is a hard thing for me to answer accurately as I often 'speed play' the game while I'm working on a feature and as such I'm often not playing full attention to matches (and it sucks when I'm 2-0 up so I concentrate on code, then go back and see we lost 2-3 ... no I'm not managing Man City ).

If I play properly I find it challenging but can take a team from top to bottom ... but it frequently takes me quite a while to do so, I'm not as good as Lillywhite Dean is put it that way

[Lillywhite Dean]

21 hours ago, Marc Vaughan said:

 

That is a hard thing for me to answer accurately as I often 'speed play' the game while I'm working on a feature and as such I'm often not playing full attention to matches (and it sucks when I'm 2-0 up so I concentrate on code, then go back and see we lost 2-3 ... no I'm not managing Man City ).

If I play properly I find it challenging but can take a team from top to bottom ... but it frequently takes me quite a while to do so, I'm not as good as Lillywhite Dean is put it that way

I am the 'Special One' 

[SephDarkheart]

 if you know the type of players you need and what stats are important to your setup. just plug and play them, there are times where you need to branch out a bit but for the most part base FM knowledge helps a ton

[veerus]

I've said this many times here and on Vibe - the biggest thing that makes the game easy is intensive training. 

FM at its core is a giant number simulator albeit a well made one. After just a few months of IT, your players easily surpass other players in their division. So league 1 players have the stats of championship level players, championship players have the stats of PL players while PL players are basically all Messi's out there. So when you play players with six 19-20s vs players with one or two, the results are often predictable and inevitable. I've been asking for a revamped training system for a while so consider this my bi-annual request.

And for the record, I don't play with attribute masking because I don't like the idea of making the game harder by arbitrarily hiding player stats. Only thing that does is introduce more bookkeeping to keep up with the more frequent scouting requirements. That's annoying to me, not fun or challenging. 

[Lillywhite Dean]

@veerus makes a good point about training. I personally believe that the rate of players attributes improving under your management is far greater than players improving under AI management. There are many things about the AI I call into question and one of them is how effective are they at improving their own squad (through coaching/training and upgrading their facilities).

When I take over a club, my two priorities are to get the training facilities up to the highest grade and employ the best coaches and youth scouts for my level. Once I have this in place, my players attributes improve dramatically in comparison to players under AI management. It definitely gives me an advantage.

[DarJ]

Another reason in my opinion is because of the transfer and finance system..

In the full FM it's much difficult for lower league teams to make profit during the season so you get less transfer and wage budget compared to what players ask for wages so most of the time you get player on non contract and these players can leave tonany club at any time.

In FMM it's easy to make money plus if a player doesn't want to join you just give him as much money as you can and he'd probably change his mind.. same thing with when he wants to leave the club.. you just give him more money and he stays while in the full FM you don't even get the chance to discuss with the player if he doesn't want to join your club 

[ss03]

Interesting reading @Lillywhite Dean, your experiences sound all too familiar to me!

I too would relish the challenge of fighting relegation or pressure from the board but for me the general outcome of starting a save with any club tends to be that you overachieve from the very first season. Winning a league title or a cup should feel like a challenge even when managing one of the bigger teams (albeit more achievable with a strong squad) but the reality is it's possible to challenge for titles with an average side without having to do too much in my experience. I understand it's an impossible job for SI to please everyone and at the end of the day it's a pick up and play mobile game.. but has an overall difficulty settings ever been seriously considered? I'm no expert in game coding so I suspect it's not as simple to implement as it sounds!

As for my own experiences in FMM 18, I started a save way back on release day and it is still going now (started with Reggiana in Serie C, stayed there for 7 seasons before heading off to Brighton, then Tottenham, Bayern, Real Madrid and now with Liverpool) - I would have lost interest and stopped playing months ago though if I didn't hold back on certain things in order to keep the career somewhat challenging. Rather than go through career specifics, I will just summarise below some frustrations I've encountered, some of which have already been mentioned above:

• AI Training/Player Conditioning - This is perhaps the biggest source of frustration for me and goes deeper than you think. It is far too easy to get your players to 95-100% match fitness just days after playing a game, yet AI players seem to recuperate at a snail's pace and struggle to anywhere between 65-85% by the time their next game comes around. If you're playing a team that has played Champions League midweek for example, you immediately have a MASSIVE advantage as the majority of their first team just aren't fit enough to play more than 45 minutes. This often leads to the AI fielding weaker players out of position to plug the gaps, while the players starting with low condition are visibly slower and less responsive in the match engine than your players even when there is a massive gulf in attributes. I've also noticed that the AI are hit with a lot of injuries and red cards in games that don't involve a human player which again leads to the AI being at a significant disadvantage when you play them or them trying to remain competitive in the league. Also if you carry this over to the goal scoring charts, it means that top strikers are often little threat for the golden boot due to games missed, whilst your average centre forward bangs in 30+ in 38 league games. Intensive training has also been mentioned above - I choose not to use this as I feel it gives me an unfair advantage and it is something I can control. I've also dabbled with using only silver badged coaches and even sacking all physios to see if it creates more of a balance in terms of player conditioning but still my players all manage to get to 100% for every game more often than not. I feel if this was corrected you would straight away see a more challenging game.
• Transfers/Finances - This has been mentioned a lot so won't go into too much detail; it's too easy to make money and build a team of world beaters over the course of a couple of seasons whilst the AI will struggle to keep up. On top of that it is also far too easy to hold on to your better players no matter what club you are at; the AI should be more active in the market and as a result there should be more interest in your players when you are performing well.
• Manager Reputation - Although it's not difficult to overachieve, it can be VERY difficult to gain notoriety in the game world without winning the big trophies. As mentioned above, I started with Reggiana in Serie C and got them into Europe and won Coppa Italia within 6 seasons which surely you'd think wouldn't go unnoticed nationally in real life. Despite applying for jobs at similarly or worse positioned clubs on the way up, I received no job offer during my entire stay at Reggiana. Only when I resigned I managed to get a job offer, but Brighton in the Championship was the best I could get. Only by winning the FA Cup whilst in that league did my reputation finally jump up to continental and then Tottenham followed and so on... The most frustrating thing is AI managers seem to have an unbreakable reputation and will get jobs whether they've been successful or not, so you will often see the same manager go into a job, do poorly, get sacked but then still manage to get a job at the same level and the cycle begins again. Surely clubs would prefer to appoint someone who has had more recent success?

That is just a few thoughts from me, to be honest I could have gone on a lot more! I really do enjoy the game and have taken the time to write this up because I want it to be better. To be honest I have had periods in the save mentioned above where I have struggled, and these were probably the times when I had most interest in the game! At the same time however, there have been points in the save where I've felt I've "cracked" it, but then I've handicapped myself one way or another (sell my best player, no transfers, tone down training etc) to keep it interesting..

[fish18ish]

I get that those of us who can get back to back promotions without really trying are in the minority, but it's still really frustrating. Even the best managers would struggle to put together 3 successive promotions on a shoe string budget, which is actually fairly simple in FMM. The AI managers are just so much more stupid than us, playing players in the wrong roles, having no goalkeepers etc. If you know a sensible formula it's laughably easy because the AI managers don't seem to learn, or even make an effort to counter it. There's also very little variation in game to make it less predictable. I have only signed 1 player this year who's been an outright flop, and keepers are just consistently solid. There's not enough unpredictable bullsh*t moments that you see in real life to throw you off. 

Currently managing hibs, my current save has epitomised the walk in the park that the game has become for me:

2017/18: Boston Utd. Vanarama North, 2nd.

2018/19:Boston Utd. Vanarama National, 3rd or 4th ish (left in April) 

2018/19:Crewe. League 2, 4th (joined with a handful of games to go, lost playoff final) 

2019/20:Crewe. League 2, 2nd (also won Mickey mouse Trophy)  

2020/21:Crewe. League 1, 1st.

2021/22:Crewe. Championship, 15th.

2022/23:Crewe. Championship, 1st.

2023/24:Crewe. Premier League, 7th (left in January) 

2023/24:Hibernian. Ladbrokes Premier, 4th (joined in January, at which point they were in relegation battle). (Qualified for a free tour of Eastern Europe). 

2024/25(current season): Hibernian. Ladbrokes Premier, 1st (currently in late January, sitting 13 points clear in the league, Rangers and Celtic haven't even managed to average 2 ppg. Enjoyed tour of Eastern Europe so much that we qualified for the group stage, coming second in the group behind Man City) 

Admittedly my progression with Crewe was massively aided by the steady supply of good youth players, but even so, I think my rise with them was too quick. Also, the youth players coming through at Crewe were some of the best I've ever seen, and many are playing in the Premier league now with Crewe or elsewhere. IRL Crewe have a good track record with youth players going on to better things, but I can't think of any in recent years that have gone on to the Premier league, bar Ashley Westwood.

At Hibs my team is okay, I've made some good signings tbf, but it shouldn't be winning the league. However, in the time I was managing in England, Celtic went massively backwards, selling countless key players and not getting anyone new in. They were without a proper striker for about 2 years until this transfer window. Again, the AI manager was thick and his squad got progressively worse. A human manager wouldn't allow that to happen. 

I might be switching to PC this year, as from what I've seen the AI poses more of a realistic challenge. Once you've played FMM for a year you know what to do and the game offers nothing to keep you on your toes. Irl, there's no magic formula, but in FMM, there is. It's very much built for casuals IMO. 

[Lillywhite Dean]

On 31/08/2018 at 16:01, ss03 said:

Interesting reading @Lillywhite Dean, your experiences sound all too familiar to me!

I too would relish the challenge of fighting relegation or pressure from the board but for me the general outcome of starting a save with any club tends to be that you overachieve from the very first season. Winning a league title or a cup should feel like a challenge even when managing one of the bigger teams (albeit more achievable with a strong squad) but the reality is it's possible to challenge for titles with an average side without having to do too much in my experience. I understand it's an impossible job for SI to please everyone and at the end of the day it's a pick up and play mobile game.. but has an overall difficulty settings ever been seriously considered? I'm no expert in game coding so I suspect it's not as simple to implement as it sounds!

As for my own experiences in FMM 18, I started a save way back on release day and it is still going now (started with Reggiana in Serie C, stayed there for 7 seasons before heading off to Brighton, then Tottenham, Bayern, Real Madrid and now with Liverpool) - I would have lost interest and stopped playing months ago though if I didn't hold back on certain things in order to keep the career somewhat challenging.....

Thanks for sharing this @ss03. Your post perfectly sums up some of the issues I have with FMM2018. I'm also glad that someone else is willing to share their frustrations with the game. Like you I think FMM2018 is a great little game but I do find these issues spoil the overall enjoyment of the game. I visited the forum tonight to vent my frustrations on the AI's lack of transfer activity which as you know (and perfectly summarised in your post), really widens the gap between the strength of your squad and the squads of your rivals. I also think you have perfectly described the issue with training. Whilst I knew this was an area of the game that needed addressing, I hadn't really appreciated just how much of a problem it was until my latest career save. We really do have an advantage over the AI when it comes to player training and player conditioning. It makes a massive difference to your chances of winning when your players are always fit and ready for the next match but the AI's players are not. I am currently the manager of Sevilla and I had a run of fixtures that saw me play away to Real Madrid and then three days later, a difficult Champions League match. In both games I was able to field the same (strongest) line-up despite playing a really energising tactic (high pressing / control). Yet my opponents struggle to field fit players and I often see players selected in their first team with an injury sign for being short of match fitness, or players being played out of position. I don't think I have ever had to worry about picking a first team player that has less than 86% match fitness.

I really hope the likes of @Alari Naylor, @Marc Vaughan, and @Marc Duffy are taking note! The issues we're highlighting here have been a problem in the game for quite some time. I really hope these issues are ironed out for the 2019 version.

[ss03]

12 hours ago, Lillywhite Dean said:

Thanks for sharing this @ss03. Your post perfectly sums up some of the issues I have with FMM2018. I'm also glad that someone else is willing to share their frustrations with the game. Like you I think FMM2018 is a great little game but I do find these issues spoil the overall enjoyment of the game. I visited the forum tonight to vent my frustrations on the AI's lack of transfer activity which as you know (and perfectly summarised in your post), really widens the gap between the strength of your squad and the squads of your rivals. I also think you have perfectly described the issue with training. Whilst I knew this was an area of the game that needed addressing, I hadn't really appreciated just how much of a problem it was until my latest career save. We really do have an advantage over the AI when it comes to player training and player conditioning. It makes a massive difference to your chances of winning when your players are always fit and ready for the next match but the AI's players are not. I am currently the manager of Sevilla and I had a run of fixtures that saw me play away to Real Madrid and then three days later, a difficult Champions League match. In both games I was able to field the same (strongest) line-up yet despite playing a high pressing, control tactic yet my opponents often have players selected in the first team with an injury sign for being short of match fitness, or with players being played out of position. I also don't think I see my players having less than 89% match fitness.

I really hope the likes of @Alari Naylor, @Marc Vaughan, and @Marc Duffy are taking note! The issues we're highlighting here have been a problem in the game for quite some time. I really hope these issues are ironed out for the 2019 version.

The frustrating thing to me is they don't seem like particularly difficult issues to spot and they do spoil the experience somewhat once you notice them. I don't want to come across as overly critical as the truth I'm still playing the game 10 months after release is because it excels in many other departments.. which again is a bit frustrating! I appreciate it's a mobile game and that SI are restricted in terms of device specs and team size etc, and to be honest I think my expectations are maybe higher than they should be given the detail and depth they've managed to cram in to a mobile app. 

I'm a massive FM fan and have been since CM3 (those were the days...), since around FM13 however I've simply just not had the time to sit at a laptop/PC for hours at a time playing through the full game, then last year I discovered FMM17 and was surprised at how immersive it was! Now the mobile version is the only feasible way I can play FM and I know I'm not alone with this scenario. I realise there are casual players who want to jump straight in with their favourite team and win the lot but arguably those that invest the most time into the game over the course of a year are veterans of the series who take in the detail, work on their tactics, plan for the opposition etc... From a business point of view obviously you don't want to alienate any group of fans by making it too easy/too difficult, but would it be at all possible to introduce say a 'casual' and an 'expert' mode..?

[Lillywhite Dean]

On 03/09/2018 at 10:18, ss03 said:

I realise there are casual players who want to jump straight in with their favourite team and win the lot but arguably those that invest the most time into the game over the course of a year are veterans of the series who take in the detail, work on their tactics, plan for the opposition etc... From a business point of view obviously you don't want to alienate any group of fans by making it too easy/too difficult, but would it be at all possible to introduce say a 'casual' and an 'expert' mode..?

I have been calling for SI to introduce a difficulty mode for about the last two releases. I recall receiving a reply from Marc V on the subject. He believed the different managerial reputations would help frame the game's difficulty i.e. if you start a new game with a reputation as 'unknown', you are more likely to struggle than when starting a new career with a reputation of National and above. Unfortunately, I haven't found this to be the case as my experience as an unknown coach is more or less the same as my experience as a world class coach. I do sometimes wonder whether the game's overall difficulty would improve automatically if many of the issues we speak about were simply fixed. 

I think SI are contradicting themselves a bit when they say FMM has been designed for the casual gamer or for those people who don't have the time to commit themselves to the desktop version. Every year we see a more enhanced and sophisticated version of the game which is continuously distancing itself from this idea of a mobile version being a quick 'pick up and play' game. Of course FMM continues to be a much simpler version of its desktop brother but that doesn't mean to say it remains a simple game. And I have read the comments from those people who complain about the game being too difficult for them. I honestly believe that a lot of that is down to the individual not taking time to learn the game and develop their understanding of it. Some people want that instant FIFA football style fix where they achieve quick wins or at least experience a fast rate of progression in their game-play but that isn't what Football Manager is about.

[ss03]

22 hours ago, Lillywhite Dean said:

I have been calling for SI to introduce a difficulty mode for about the last two releases. I recall receiving a reply from Marc V on the subject. He believed the different managerial reputations would help frame the game's difficulty i.e. if you start a new game with a reputation as 'unknown', you are more likely to struggle than when starting a new career with a reputation of National and above. Unfortunately, I haven't found this to be the case as my experience as an unknown coach is more or less the same as my experience as a world class coach. I do sometimes wonder whether the game's overall difficulty would improve automatically if many of the issues we speak about were simply fixed.

Starting unknown may well make the game trickier in the first season or so but obviously this is just a temporary thing, 5 years in and chances are you will be in the same position as if you'd started with a higher reputation. I would actually prefer if it was the other way i.e. the game adapts to your ability and the AI becomes tougher the more successful you are. It would just keep the interest going in a long term save (you can play up to 30 seasons after all) because once you win a league or cup in the current game it is far too easy to retain it again and again without too much competition. As you mention above, the main reasons why it seems to get easier over time is because of the issues we have mentioned (player development, conditioning, squad building, finances) which massively favour the human player. Like yourself I suspect the game would be immediately more challenging if these problems were addressed.

22 hours ago, Lillywhite Dean said:

I think SI are contradicting themselves a bit when they say FMM has been designed for the casual gamer or for those people who don't have the time to commit themselves to the desktop version. Every year we see a more enhanced and sophisticated version of the game which is continuously distancing itself from this idea of a mobile version being a quick 'pick up and play' game. Of course FMM continues to be a much simpler version of its desktop brother but that doesn't mean to say it remains a simple game. And I have read the comments from those people who complain about the game being too difficult for them. I honestly believe that a lot of that is down to the individual not taking time to learn the game and develop their understanding of it. Some people want that instant FIFA football style fix where they achieve quick wins or at least experience a fast rate of progression in their game-play but that isn't what Football Manager is about.

And again you've hit the nail on the head here. So much detail goes into the game and a lot of this is lost on the casual gamer. Maybe more options can be introduced in the game settings to add/remove features that will either help or hinder the player? Attribute masking for example is neither here or there at the moment so could be taken a step further - rather than it taking just days to get a full report on a player, maybe it should take weeks/months? Or, depending on your scouts ability, you never get to see all the exact attributes of a player meaning you have to take a gamble sometimes? For those who don't want this then the masking option can always be turned off. I'm thinking out loud here but I think the default stance of the game should be to punish the player for mistakes. Ultimately FM is an intricate puzzle game built on huge amounts of detail - if casual gamers are given tools to negate some of the detail and point them towards a solution that works, whilst experienced players can choose to play with no help whatsoever then everyone should be happy... for that to work though the AI needs to be more competitive and the advantages currently given to the human player need to be levelled out in my opinion. Not sure I've explained this very well but I assume it's what SI are trying to achieve!

[Lillywhite Dean]

On 05/09/2018 at 10:55, ss03 said:

I would actually prefer if it was the other way i.e. the game adapts to your ability and the AI becomes tougher the more successful you are. It would just keep the interest going in a long term save (you can play up to 30 seasons after all) because once you win a league or cup in the current game it is far too easy to retain it again and again without too much competition. 

This would be fantastic if it could be done. It really would. The developers really need to look at the game's AI intelligence as the AI doesn't know how to identify its own weaknesses and then improve on it. For example, I had a look at some of the top teams from my playable leagues after 11 seasons of play and most of the top rated clubs have just deteriorated. Their squads are ageing and adequate replacements are not being sought. In fact their transfer activity is non-existent in some cases. In the 2028/29 season:

• Real Madrid made one summer signing - £14M on a 32 year old defender
• Barcelona made one summer signing - £35 on a 30 year old winger
• Bayern made one summer signing - £15.75M on a 30 year old defender
• Juventus made one summer signing - £8M on 31 year old full back
• Man City made zero summer signings
• Inter Milan made zero summer signings

There are plenty more examples of this. And then you have the backroom teams which are incomplete and/ or of low quality. For example: 

• Barcelona have two bronze rated physios
• Real Madrid have three bronze rated physios
• Bayern only have one scout position filled (rated silver)
• Man City have two silver rated scouts, two silver rated physios and one bronze rated physio
• Man Utd have three silver rated coaches and two bronze rated physios
• AC Milan have two out of three scout positions filled and a number of silver and bronze rated staff across all roles.

Teams of this calibre should have the best coaches and staff available to them. There are also plenty of examples where AI clubs employ three members of staff with the same specialisms i.e. 3 x tactical analyst scouts. 

Every season I make a point at looking at my my team (squad and staff) and identify areas that need strengthening but my rivals just allow themselves to become weaker and weaker. I usually get to this stage of my career and give up because there is hardly any real competition. If there's no competition, what incentive do I have to carry on?

On 05/09/2018 at 10:55, ss03 said:

Maybe more options can be introduced in the game settings to add/remove features that will either help or hinder the player? Attribute masking for example is neither here or there at the moment so could be taken a step further - rather than it taking just days to get a full report on a player, maybe it should take weeks/months? Or, depending on your scouts ability, you never get to see all the exact attributes of a player meaning you have to take a gamble sometimes? For those who don't want this then the masking option can always be turned off. 

I endorse this message.

[ss03]

20 hours ago, Lillywhite Dean said:

This would be fantastic if it could be done. It really would. The developers really need to look at the game's AI intelligence as the AI doesn't know how to identify its own weaknesses and then improve on it. For example, I had a look at some of the top teams from my playable leagues after 11 seasons of play and most of the top rated clubs have just deteriorated. Their squads are ageing and adequate replacements are not being sought. In fact their transfer activity is non-existent in some cases. In the 2028/29 season:

• Real Madrid made one summer signing - £14M on a 32 year old defender
• Barcelona made one summer signing - £35 on a 30 year old winger
• Bayern made one summer signing - £15.75M on a 30 year old defender
• Juventus made one summer signing - £8M on 31 year old full back
• Man City made zero summer signings
• Inter Milan made zero summer signings

There are plenty more examples of this. And then you have the backroom teams which are incomplete and/ or of low quality. For example: 

• Barcelona have two bronze rated physios
• Real Madrid have three bronze rated physios
• Bayern only have one scout position filled (rated silver)
• Man City have two silver rated scouts, two silver rated physios and one bronze rated physio
• Man Utd have three silver rated coaches and two bronze rated physios
• AC Milan have two out of three scout positions filled and a number of silver and bronze rated staff across all roles.

Teams of this calibre should have the best coaches and staff available to them. There are also plenty of examples where AI clubs employ three members of staff with the same specialisms i.e. 3 x tactical analyst scouts. 

Every season I make a point at looking at my my team (squad and staff) and identify areas that need strengthening but my rivals just allow themselves to become weaker and weaker. I usually get to this stage of my career and give up because there is hardly any real competition. If there's no competition, what incentive do I have to carry on?

I've noticed this too. From around season 7-13 especially the average age of AI squads is generally high because they tend to favour ok 'real' players over good regens, which in turn reduces the overall quality of the opposition. As a result, the majority of regens integrated into the game in the first few years never really reach close to their full potential because the AI just doesn't develop them enough. I find this bizarre because surely the game knows how good every regen can be?  Also as you described, I don't think the AI are anywhere near aggressive or smart enough in the transfer market which creates a massive gap over time. AI clubs just don't seem to be all that interested in planning for the future or adding depth to positions that clearly need strengthening and quite often will only make 2/3 signings a season.

When I took over at Real Madrid in my save (pre-season 2032/33), they had won La Liga 2 years prior but then finished 7th in the most recent season. Below are screenshots of the squad depth screen and coach reports when I arrived:

 

As you can see, the game itself has highlighted glaring weaknesses in that team and even with £150m in the bank to spend, the AI inexplicably did not address this in the years prior. I then proceeded to overhaul the squad in one window and go on to win the league by 29 points with 33 wins and 0 defeats, whilst also winning the Cup and Europa League. It wasn't all that difficult to strengthen the team given the money available and the stature of the club but given that the likes of Barcelona and Atletico had also dropped off the pace over the years, there was virtually no challenge to winning the league. I was also a little disheartened at how easy it was to get all the new signings to gel, I had a completely new back 4 and keeper yet I conceded very few chances/shots let alone actual goals.

[Lillywhite Dean]

@ss03 Your Real Madrid example is a carbon copy of my experience with the game. 

When I started my my current career, the aim was to build up a reputation so that one of the best clubs in football i.e. Barcelona or Real Madrid would come calling my way. However, this hasn't happened as I have manage to turn Sevilla into the best team in Europe (last season I achieved the treble – Champions League, La Liga, Spanish Cup). The Real Madrid vacancy did come up, and despite having a World Class reputation, I wasn’t offered the job. I contemplated applying for it, which would have been irritating given they should be begging me to leave Sevilla for them, but I decided to stay at Sevilla. The main reason for this was because Real Madrid were in such bad shape (very much like your screenshots in your post above). At Sevilla I had developed a world class squad where even my B team could go out and (most likely) win the league. I looked at the Madrid squad and realised that I would have to start over. Sack all the backroom staff, bring in new staff, and then commence a massive player recruitment campaign. On other days I may have been tempted to do this but the unrealistic nature of the situation (a club as rich and powerful as Real Madrid allowing themselves to deteriorate to such an extent) just put me off completely. 

Unfortunately this isn’t just a FMM2018 problem. It has been an issue in previous versions of the game which makes me wonder whether this problem will ever be resolved. Maybe it isn't possible due to the games limitations or maybe it’s just not a priority for the developers because they need to spend time developing new features rather than fixing things.

[fish18ish]

On 07/09/2018 at 14:51, Lillywhite Dean said:

@ss03 Your Real Madrid example is a carbon copy of my experience with the game. 

When I started my my current career, the aim was to build up a reputation so that one of the best clubs in football i.e. Barcelona or Real Madrid would come calling my way. However, this hasn't happened as I have manage to turn Sevilla into the best team in Europe (last season I achieved the treble – Champions League, La Liga, Spanish Cup). The Real Madrid vacancy did come up, and despite having a World Class reputation, I wasn’t offered the job. I contemplated applying for it, which would have been irritating given they should be begging me to leave Sevilla for them, but I decided to stay at Sevilla. The main reason for this was because Real Madrid were in such bad shape (very much like your screenshots in your post above). At Sevilla I had developed a world class squad where even my B team could go out and (most likely) win the league. I looked at the Madrid squad and realised that I would have to start over. Sack all the backroom staff, bring in new staff, and then commence a massive player recruitment campaign. On other days I may have been tempted to do this but the unrealistic nature of the situation (a club as rich and powerful as Real Madrid allowing themselves to deteriorate to such an extent) just put me off completely. 

Unfortunately this isn’t just a FMM2018 problem. It has been an issue in previous versions of the game which makes me wonder whether this problem will ever be resolved. Maybe it isn't possible due to the games limitations or maybe it’s just not a priority for the developers because they need to spend time developing new features rather than fixing things.

The worst thing is clubs not having any goalkeepers. Arsenal haven't had one for about 3 years in my current save and they've turned into a mid table team because of it. Its just bizarre and I really don't think it can be that hard to program AI clubs to ensure they have at least 1 goalkeeper going into a season. 

[Lillywhite Dean]

On 09/09/2018 at 01:41, fish18ish said:

The worst thing is clubs not having any goalkeepers. Arsenal haven't had one for about 3 years in my current save and they've turned into a mid table team because of it. Its just bizarre and I really don't think it can be that hard to program AI clubs to ensure they have at least 1 goalkeeper going into a season. 

That is a very good point. I've lost count the number of times I have taken over a club only to find one goalkeeper in the first match squad.

That should not be happening.

[Declan Barry]

Shall we come up with some coherent feedback for SI to make things simple that we all (hopefully) agree on?

1.  The game depth isn't too easy, in fact, tactics can be complicated for a newbie
2.  The AI managers are dumb - they don't make relevant signings, approach your players with too much force and actively improve their squads enough - especially with wonderkids
3.  It's too hard to get jobs and you're never approached for jobs
4.  Player's being unsettled doesn't seem to have enough of a negative influence on the team as it should do
5.  Lower League Management is too easy, probably aided by too good of loan signings and free agents being acquired.. Also, their stamina doesn't play a big influence in the lower league side of the game.

How does this sound to everyone? Is there anything missing?

[ss03]

19 hours ago, Declan Barry said:

Shall we come up with some coherent feedback for SI to make things simple that we all (hopefully) agree on?

1.  The game depth isn't too easy, in fact, tactics can be complicated for a newbie
2.  The AI managers are dumb - they don't make relevant signings, approach your players with too much force and actively improve their squads enough - especially with wonderkids
3.  It's too hard to get jobs and you're never approached for jobs
4.  Player's being unsettled doesn't seem to have enough of a negative influence on the team as it should do
5.  Lower League Management is too easy, probably aided by too good of loan signings and free agents being acquired.. Also, their stamina doesn't play a big influence in the lower league side of the game.

How does this sound to everyone? Is there anything missing?

I'd agree with all of that.

I've got no problems with the depth and gameplay mechanics available to the player but a lot of that is made redundant if the AI isn't smart enough to use it properly for other clubs.

Personally I'd like to emphasise the conditioning of AI players as this is something that fundamentally disadvantages non-human teams and makes certain matches easier for the player than they should be.

[Lillywhite Dean]

Thanks @Declan Barryfor summarising. I have the following comments.

• Point 1: I disagree. I think the game’s depth is too easy and tactics are relatively straightforward. I appreciate I’m saying this as an experienced player so I need to consider the point as a newbie. But anyone who is willing to take the time to learn the game, play a couple of seasons, experiment with formations and tactics will realise that actually, it is easy to find a winning formula that doesn’t require much tweaking.
• Point 2: I agree. The AI intelligence is weak. It doesn’t adequately perform the essential tasks of being a manager which is a major contributing factor to why FMM is easy.
• Point 3: I agree. The job market for whatever reason in FMM2018 is static. This didn’t seem to be a problem in FMM2017. The developers also need to rethink the way FMM recognises achievement and how that equates to your standing as a manager.
• Point 4: I agree. I wonder whether my gold coaching badge in ‘Motivation’ is a contributing reason for why many of my unhappy players continue to play so well. Regardless of this, unhappy and unsettled players should have a much more negative influence on the game.
• Point 5: I agree. Lower league management should be the most difficult part of the game. I remember playing a career in FMM2017 where I took over a Vanarama South league side and got them back to back promotions all the way to the Premier League whilst beating Premier League teams in cup tournaments along the way. I had no budget for the first couple of seasons but still had success thanks to a combination of decent loan deals, quality free agents and playing sub-standard youth team players who would always achieve high match ratings.

I think there are other important issues that need to be added to this list. I’d like to include the folllowing:

• 6. The match rating system is broke. Players who perform badly for the vast majority of the match can still finish the game with a rating of 7 or above. How can a player who was rated as a 4 or 5 up until 80th minute suddenly end the game with a 7 or 8. Similarly, players can get sent off and have a match rating of 7+. I very rarely see match ratings below 6 and 7s for either my team or the opponents. The most ridiculous example is when a team is thrashed by 4+ goals yet everyone still has matching rating of 6 and above.
• 7. Training and player conditioning. It is unrealistic and biased towards the human player. There is disparity between how well your players improve under training conditions and that of AI clubs and their players. There is a similar issue between your players and AI players being match fit. I could have three games in a week. I could play away to Madrid, away to a team in the Champions League and then home to Malaga. I can pick the same 11 players for all three games and not have to worry about fitness levels. The same can’t be said for the AI. When I look at their teams, they often have unfit players or players playing out of position due to fitness issues. 

And good point by @ss03. The depth and gameplay experience of FMM would likely provide a richer game if the AI was smart enough to play the game properly.

[ss03]

1 hour ago, Lillywhite Dean said:

Thanks @Declan Barryfor summarising. I have the following comments.

• Point 1: I disagree. I think the game’s depth is too easy and tactics are relatively straightforward. I appreciate I’m saying this as an experienced player so I need to consider the point as a newbie. But anyone who is willing to take the time to learn the game, play a couple of seasons, experiment with formations and tactics will realise that actually, it is easy to find a winning formula that doesn’t require much tweaking.
• Point 2: I agree. The AI intelligence is weak. It doesn’t adequately perform the essential tasks of being a manager which is a major contributing factor to why FMM is easy.
• Point 3: I agree. The job market for whatever reason in FMM2018 is static. This didn’t seem to be a problem in FMM2017. The developers also need to rethink the way FMM recognises achievement and how that equates to your standing as a manager.
• Point 4: I agree. I wonder whether my gold coaching badge in ‘Motivation’ is a contributing reason for why many of my unhappy players continue to play so well. Regardless of this, unhappy and unsettled players should have a much more negative influence on the game.
• Point 5: I agree. Lower league management should be the most difficult part of the game. I remember playing a career in FMM2017 where I took over a Vanarama South league side and got them back to back promotions all the way to the Premier League whilst beating Premier League teams in cup tournaments along the way. I had no budget for the first couple of seasons but still had success thanks to a combination of decent loan deals, quality free agents and playing sub-standard youth team players who would always achieve high match ratings.

I think there are other important issues that need to be added to this list. I’d like to include the folllowing:

• 6. The match rating system is broke. Players who perform badly for the vast majority of the match can still finish the game with a rating of 7 or above. How can a player who was rated as a 4 or 5 up until 80th minute suddenly end the game with a 7 or 8. Similarly, players can get sent off and have a match rating of 7+. I very rarely see match ratings below 6 and 7s for either my team or the opponents. The most ridiculous example is when a team is thrashed by 4+ goals yet everyone still has matching rating of 6 and above.
• 7. Training and player conditioning. It is unrealistic and biased towards the human player. There is disparity between how well your players improve under training conditions and that of AI clubs and their players. There is a similar issue between your players and AI players being match fit. I could have three games in a week. I could play away to Madrid, away to a team in the Champions League and then home to Malaga. I can pick the same 11 players for all three games and not have to worry about fitness levels. The same can’t be said for the AI. When I look at their teams, they often have unfit players or players playing out of position due to fitness issues. 

And good point by @ss03. The depth and gameplay experience of FMM would likely provide a richer game if the AI was smart enough to play the game properly.

I echo everything you've said there, including points 6 and 7. I'd like to think however that the issue you've raised with point 1 may be a side effect of the poor AI and would therefore correct itself if the other problems were ironed out... I appreciate the tactical options currently available can seem limited to an experienced player but at the same time it may be overwhelming to a newbie. Going back to a suggestion I made in an earlier post in regards to scouting, you could maybe do something similar here and give the player the option of using 'basic' or 'advanced' tactics at the start of a game. Ultimately it would be the same match engine and tactics system but for the 'advanced' setting you would see all the intricate tactical options (build up, shape, defence, final third etc) while in 'basic' you would only see one page of options (mentality, tick boxes for tiki taka, gegenpress, long ball etc) which would apply the relevant settings to the advanced options under the hood so to speak. If the AI was smarter then it would be able to pick holes in experienced players tactics whilst the game would 'protect' the casual user to an extent by applying the more intricate tactical settings for them. Again it's just a suggestion of how to adjust the difficulty without changing the core of how the game works.

In terms of FMM 19 however, I would much prefer if the main issues we've highlighted were looked at before introducing new features! Can only hope SI are at least taking note of our concerns

[Lillywhite Dean]

24 minutes ago, ss03 said:

I echo everything you've said there, including points 6 and 7. I'd like to think however that the issue you've raised with point 1 may be a side effect of the poor AI and would therefore correct itself if the other problems were ironed out... I appreciate the tactical options currently available can seem limited to an experienced player but at the same time it may be overwhelming to a newbie. Going back to a suggestion I made in an earlier post in regards to scouting, you could maybe do something similar here and give the player the option of using 'basic' or 'advanced' tactics at the start of a game. Ultimately it would be the same match engine and tactics system but for the 'advanced' setting you would see all the intricate tactical options (build up, shape, defence, final third etc) while in 'basic' you would only see one page of options (mentality, tick boxes for tiki taka, gegenpress, long ball etc) which would apply the relevant settings to the advanced options under the hood so to speak. If the AI was smarter then it would be able to pick holes in experienced players tactics whilst the game would 'protect' the casual user to an extent by applying the more intricate tactical settings for them. Again it's just a suggestion of how to adjust the difficulty without changing the core of how the game works.

In terms of FMM 19 however, I would much prefer if the main issues we've highlighted were looked at before introducing new features! Can only hope SI are at least taking note of our concerns

You could be right about the consequences of a poor AI in relation to the game's tactical depth. Ultimately we won't know for sure until those issues have been fixed but I agree that this should be the priority for SI for FMM2019. My worry is that a November release date will make the likelihood of those issues being fixed unlikely.

I always hope SI are taking note of our concerns but what amazes me is that the developers must play this game as much as we do and so must surely have a good grasp of the issues already?

[ss03]

@Lillywhite Dean Yeah I'm thinking the same with November release date but one can dream! I will buy FMM 19 on the day because ultimately I know I will get my money's worth out of it over the course of a year, but it will still be very disappointing if in amongst the shiny new features there are still those fundamental flaws that spoil the game

I remember back when I loaded up FMM 18 for the first time I only had to play up to the first set of friendly results and look at the AI game summaries to find a load of injuries (and red cards) - I knew 10 minutes into the game that the conditioning issue hadn't been fixed! How do things like this get overlooked time after time?

[Lillywhite Dean]

I would really welcome some input from SI on this. How about it guys?

[Declan Barry]

The only problem with FMM is the small team, probably the AI needs a massive revamp but that doesn't sell games to the casual players so either SI need to hire more bodies, figure a way to make it work on the same system as FM's, prioritise certain AI deficiencies or dedicate time to it with less consuming features that will get the sales.

[Lillywhite Dean]

Apologies for my ignorance but surely it would be better for the game (and its reputation) if the developers spent most of their time perfecting it rather than focusing on new features. 

I get that the priority for any business is to make money and to do this you need to give people reason to keep coming back for more.

But surely it's possible for SI to spend their time perfecting the game (or at least focusing on some of the above issues) and then add some smallish but popular additions such as extra leagues (as well as the standard player and league updates).

No matter how many new features you add to the game, if the underlying issues aren't fixed, the game will always suffer from the same problems that affect that overall user experience.

[Declan Barry]

2 hours ago, Lillywhite Dean said:

Apologies for my ignorance but surely it would be better for the game (and its reputation) if the developers spent most of their time perfecting it rather than focusing on new features. 

I get that the priority for any business is to make money and to do this you need to give people reason to keep coming back for more.

But surely it's possible for SI to spend their time perfecting the game (or at least focusing on some of the above issues) and then add some smallish but popular additions such as extra leagues (as well as the standard player and league updates).

No matter how many new features you add to the game, if the underlying issues aren't fixed, the game will always suffer from the same problems that affect that overall user experience.

Very true but unfortunately for casual players a few new leagues (which they may not be interested in) isn't a good pull. They did a whole tactic update in 2018 and people complained the game wasn't too different from 2017. They need them big USPs that they can shout about and make people put their hands in their pockets. We're in the position that we will buy the game no matter what, however most of the game's revenue doesn't come from us.

[Lillywhite Dean]

21 hours ago, Declan Barry said:

Very true but unfortunately for casual players a few new leagues (which they may not be interested in) isn't a good pull. They did a whole tactic update in 2018 and people complained the game wasn't too different from 2017. They need them big USPs that they can shout about and make people put their hands in their pockets. We're in the position that we will buy the game no matter what, however most of the game's revenue doesn't come from us.

Admittedly the tactical overhaul was a much needed enhancement and is something that would probably trump the need to fix the underlying issues within the game. But then you have this new, but related problem, whereby do the new enhanced tactical features work as well as they should when the underlying issues remain unfixed?

[blueheaven97]

I downloaded the game on mobile a few months ago, having not played FM in about 15 years, so I'm certainly not an expert/experienced player (though I used to be on old versions). The game is a lot of fun but I have to say I'm finding it miles too easy and that's a big disappointment. I started out as Leyton Orient in the National League - I'm now onto my sixth season and I've been promoted every season except one, so I'm already in the Premier League and even that is turning out to be fairly easy (after 6 games I'm 5th in the league and I just beat Spurs 3-0).

I'm actually still using some of the same players who I had playing for me in the National League, yet they're comfortably doing well in the Premier League. I haven't spent more than £2.8 million on a single player and I think the highest salary I'm paying is £10k a week, so I'm managing by far the smallest club in the Premier and by any reasonable logic my team should be struggling. I've put together nearly my whole squad by picking up bargains on free transfers and gambling on teenage players released by other clubs, quite a few of whom are now in my first team after a few seasons out on loan. On top of this I hardly ever seem to get any injuries or suspensions, so in the majority of weeks I'm able to field my strongest XI and there's no real challenge to selecting my team for each game.

There's a lot about the game I love and it's as addictive as ever, but it should be much, much harder than this. At this rate, within a couple of seasons Leyton Orient will be winning the Champions League, and that should just never happen (or, at least, it should take much longer to happen). It is really starting to put me off the game as it's so unrealistic, to the point that I'll probably lose interest in a while.

Just thought I'd share this as I'd love for something to be done about this for future releases.

[Lillywhite Dean]

4 hours ago, blueheaven97 said:

I downloaded the game on mobile a few months ago, having not played FM in about 15 years, so I'm certainly not an expert/experienced player (though I used to be on old versions). The game is a lot of fun but I have to say I'm finding it miles too easy and that's a big disappointment. I started out as Leyton Orient in the National League - I'm now onto my sixth season and I've been promoted every season except one, so I'm already in the Premier League and even that is turning out to be fairly easy (after 6 games I'm 5th in the league and I just beat Spurs 3-0).

 

Great feedback. As you say, it shouldn't be this easy. There are so many things to like about the game but soon the novelty wears off once you've found that winning formula.

[ss03]

On 06/10/2018 at 16:09, blueheaven97 said:

I downloaded the game on mobile a few months ago, having not played FM in about 15 years, so I'm certainly not an expert/experienced player (though I used to be on old versions). The game is a lot of fun but I have to say I'm finding it miles too easy and that's a big disappointment. I started out as Leyton Orient in the National League - I'm now onto my sixth season and I've been promoted every season except one, so I'm already in the Premier League and even that is turning out to be fairly easy (after 6 games I'm 5th in the league and I just beat Spurs 3-0).

I'm actually still using some of the same players who I had playing for me in the National League, yet they're comfortably doing well in the Premier League. I haven't spent more than £2.8 million on a single player and I think the highest salary I'm paying is £10k a week, so I'm managing by far the smallest club in the Premier and by any reasonable logic my team should be struggling. I've put together nearly my whole squad by picking up bargains on free transfers and gambling on teenage players released by other clubs, quite a few of whom are now in my first team after a few seasons out on loan. On top of this I hardly ever seem to get any injuries or suspensions, so in the majority of weeks I'm able to field my strongest XI and there's no real challenge to selecting my team for each game.

There's a lot about the game I love and it's as addictive as ever, but it should be much, much harder than this. At this rate, within a couple of seasons Leyton Orient will be winning the Champions League, and that should just never happen (or, at least, it should take much longer to happen). It is really starting to put me off the game as it's so unrealistic, to the point that I'll probably lose interest in a while.

Just thought I'd share this as I'd love for something to be done about this for future releases.

I can relate to pretty much everything you've said there, and again it's evidence that fundamentally the game is easier than it should be.

Glad you've mentioned the injuries as personally this is something that I find really irritating as it takes away from one of the basic challenges of being a football manager/coach. Like you, I've noticed I very rarely get forced into fielding a weaker side due to injuries and knocks, yet the AI seems to get constantly hampered with them. Either the human manager isn't getting enough or the AI is getting too many, or most likely it's a bit of both. What gets me is I'm currently playing with 3 silver badge coaches and no physios in an effort to balance this but still I very rarely get injuries or players below 95% condition. Admittedly I don't use any intensive training again in an effort to balance things from a player growth perspective but still you would expect a few knocks here and there

 

[Footix]

Hm, starting to get a hang of it now! Won successive promotions with Salford, starting in the lowest league and is now in the Championship. Finished 7th in Championship last season, horrible start but ended on a 20-ish unbeaten streak. 

A word on transfers. Should a minnow club in FL1 be able to attract players from Dortmund? Without sugar daddy and insane wages? I don't think so, but one of my midfielders didn't mind moving from Dortmund when I was in FL1.. I now have players from European top sides on my list of interested players, if I only could afford their wages I would compete with the top sides in EPL. Granted, my badge is gold, but my overall facilities, stadium and finances are all well below standard. I don't think players should be willing to move from Ajax and Dortmund to... us. 

Currently 2nd with half a season to go. EPL next year? Fingers crossed! 

[fish18ish]

Anyone played FMM 2019 and have any view on whether it is any different difficulty wise? As I've already mentioned in this thread I found 2018 much too easy but having switched to PC this year and played that for a while I'm looking for something a little lighter to play on the side and may buy FMM 2019 in the sale. Am I going to be doing ridiculous back-to-back-to-back promotions or have they toned up the realism? 

[Gerrardno8]

As much as I love this series, unfortunately, I have to tell you it's still very much the same back-to-back-to-back promotions. 

This year's new features are revamps of training and contract negotiations, and although greatly improve the game, they don't have much influence on the difficulty.

I still have hope each year that new difficulty options are added to cater for returning players but alas, no changes this year.

[Chris7777]

The reason why it is to easy in my mind, is that that the AI managed teams player condition bug which leaves them exhausted and getting loads of injury’s.  if this was resolved then the game would probably have the correct level of difficult.

 

unfortantly this has been a bug for four or five years and I am not sure why it is not fixed? Makes the game unplayable for me.  Which is a shame because from the human manager stand point everything is in place to make a great game.

[Lillywhite Dean]

5 hours ago, Gerrardno8 said:

I still have hope each year that new difficulty options are added to cater for returning players but alas, no changes this year.

Unfortunately SI has confirmed they have no intention of introducing difficulty levels in future editions of FMM. This is disappointing especially as more and more people are calling for it. I also note the poll at the beginning of this thread has increased to 60/40 in favour of the game being too easy.

I have come to the conclusion that FMM19 is easier to win than FMM18 and FMM17. All three games are easy but I found winning the Champions League in FMM17 and FMM18 to be more of a challenge. In FMM19, I have won the Champions League in my first attempt of trying with each of the clubs I’ve managed. This includes teams like Nottm Forest and Spartak Moscow whose squads are hugely inferior to the majority of top European clubs. Beating Barcelona in the semi-final of the Champions League on an aggregate score of 8-4 with a team made up of mainly 2.5 to 3 star CA players was a real "oh come on" moment.

I’m hoping SI will take the issue of Player Conditioning seriously and implement fixes that will help make the game more challenging. It is ridiculous that you are able to select the same XI for every match but the AI squads are full of massively unfit players. This obviously gives us an unfair advantage over the AI. It is so unrealistic for your players to be match fit for every single game. 
 

[Chris7777]

110% agree.

[JR866Gunner]

On 09/04/2018 at 19:12, Marc Vaughan said:

That was my 'baby' so really glad to hear that

Would love a mobile release! I am sure its capable of running on most phones and tablets!

[Lillywhite Dean]

Another FMM "quirk" that seems to give us an advantage of the AI is the fact that I can put anyone up front and they will end up scoring over 30 goals a season.

Never have I had a career where my best striker has struggled for goals. Not once has any of my forward players gone through a rough patch of not being able to score.

Yet the AI often suffers from this. 

[Chris7777]

Again I would put this down to AI player conditioning bug.  You will always get top scorer as your striker is always fit and players more games. Where by AI strikers miss lots of games through injury or are tired all the time.

This also then has the knock on effect for lowering AI player average ratings to I guess.

[fish18ish]

Yep, the ease with which all the strikers on a human controlled team would bag goal after goal was another thing that put me off. I don't really understand half of these silly problems because they just don't exist on PC. Tomer Hemed scored a fairly reasonable 13 goals in the championship for me in my last season, if it was on FMM you can bet it would've been 35+.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I guess I won't bother picking up the game if I'm only going to come running back to PC again. 

[Lillywhite Dean]

14 hours ago, fish18ish said:

Tomer Hemed scored a fairly reasonable 13 goals in the championship for me in my last season, if it was on FMM you can bet it would've been 35+.

I would love to sign a striker who gets me a reasonable 13 goals in the Championship!!

Instead I sign strikers who score over 30 goals and if I play with Inside Forwards, they will get me another 15+ goals each. 

[JimJobs2]

On 29/01/2019 at 15:39, Chris7777 said:

Again I would put this down to AI player conditioning bug.  You will always get top scorer as your striker is always fit and players more games. Where by AI strikers miss lots of games through injury or are tired all the time.

This also then has the knock on effect for lowering AI player average ratings to I guess.

Yes.

The conditioning bug is clearly the deal breaker since it has such a  knock on effect in so many areas, including the advantage the player has over the AI in training since players can play every game.

Clearly SI won't rebalance the whole game for this version, but if they could at least address the conditioning bug it would make it much more playable.

[Marc Vaughan]

I'm continually tuning and retweaking things to try and get the best balance possible, with some things the knock-ons can be fairly aggressive so I'm afraid you'll have to bear with me if I don't always manage to get instant fixes out ... the worst case is we rush to fix something and make things worse imho.

[Chris7777]

Marc, it’s great to know you are aware and involved in this now.  However SI has been aware of this problem for years, so will anything be done and quickly?  

This AI player conditioning problem and the DM Rating bug have so many knock on effects, incorrect formations for mangers I mean pep and Sarri 4-2-3-1, they are big 4-1-2-2-1 men.  injurys galore, lower average ratings, and a very very easy game.

i just want to play the game and haven’t been able to for years because of these two problems.  

As I have mentioned before from a human manager perspective the games looks and feels amazing but we need the AI teams to be competitive and have a level playing field otherwise the game is shallow.

hope you can resolve this as it’s a game breaker for me.