Best FM yet?

[aspink3]

FM is a game I buy religiously every year, and rightly so. That said, I do have my frustrations with each edition that eventually burns out my interest. This year has been quite a different story. If you have a couple of minutes, here's why! :

Each year when I load up the game for the first time, I take on the non league to Premier league challenge. The teams I choose typically have a strong starting squad and are well back by the owners; Barnet, Barrow and Boreham Wood in recent editions. My Barnet save ended in a premier league title, while the latter two consolidated in the championship. Realistically so, it was very hard to progress any further.

This year I fancied a harder challenge. With a 24 hour flight to Australia looming, I took charge of National League South newcomers Chippenham Town. Poor squad, poor facilities, abysmal finances.

Roll the game forward nine seasons and I am still managing Chippenham. Four promotions in this time has landed me in the championship, despite having the lowest budget in every division since day one.

Overall I've really enjoyed this challenge, and despite not playing it for long periods I'd always return determined to keep pushing. Will I make it to the Premier league before FM19? Unlikely, but I'll give it a go! I just wanted to share some of my thoughts about my experience so far:

The Good:

The match engine has been much more realistic. By this I mean there is much more control over how a game plays, particularly when defending. I've found it much easier responding to threats, which seem different in each division. Similarly, adjusting tactics according to the game scenario seems to have more of an impact.

I've really enjoyed the challenges of recruitment and scouting on this edition. I've actually been involved in player recruitment in a lower league club and its incredibly difficult to identify suitable targets. The scouting system in FM18 reflects the challenges well by restricting potential targets until scouting packages are purchased. As a championship club I can now afford these and it's making a huge difference!

The annoying:

Sadly, the game hasn't been perfect. I've always found it frustrating how much club reputation affects transfer negotiations. Following promotion to the championship I tried recruiting from top talent in league one. I knew I wouldn't be attractive to current championship players so I didn't bother trying. More often than not I couldn't even make a contract offer to league one players, despite playing in a higher division! Even more frustrating when those players joined another league on club on much lower wages than I would have offered. Arghhh!

Premier league strikers on loan in the lower leagues have had a huge influence, particularly in league one. Almost every club has one in on loan and they all score an obscene amount of goals, and there's very little to stop them with lower league defenders!

Finally, as far as I'm concerned, getting Chippenham Town to the football league deserves legend status. To take them within one promotion of the Premier league is something else altogether. Yet, I'm a lowly 'favoured personnel' on the club screen, along side a successful loanee. WHAT!? Seriously, what more do I need to achieve!

I'm excited to see how I get on in the championship with a really low budget squad. The signs are promising though as I beat two championship sides 4-0 and 2-0 on the way to the FA Cup quarter final last season. The run was eventually halted by Arsenal in a thrilling 5-4 loss in front of 5000 fans at the Chippenham Stadium. That match wasn't even awarded game of tournament! Ah well, it's just a game...

[isignedupfornorealreason]

Hm... I don't think 18 is the best so far.

 

The match display is finicky. There's odd long shots that need tweaking - the kind that seem to go to the corner flag for whatever reason. There's also the problem of long shots being a 'solution' to a lack of options - I feel this needs toning down, not just for users but for the AI as well. I enjoy games where the AI peppers the goal with long shots, as I tend not to have to do anything defensively to negate it. There's always a better option when this scenario happens too. For example, I always see my left-winger shoot from miles out like a tit, and he is completely oblivious to the right back overlapping him, unmarked. Also two other central options available for him to pass to. He has great mental attributes, excellent decision making, superb vision, but no, he'll punt it and waste so many amazing opportunities.

 

In fact, I feel in this version that the game is wide-shy at times, not wanting to go wide when it is the simple and obvious pass into space. I'm not saying wide play is ineffective or anything like that. Just, even where there's a wide option, it seems predisposed to going central instead. Which is another thing I dislike, the tendency for wide players to tuck in a bit too early or a bit too often. That means when you do finally get someone to ping the ball out wide, there's a lot of space (or recovery for defenders to do) to exploit. (These are just musings on Extended highlights, watching the patterns of play. It's probably a different matter on full highlights.)

 

I also feel it is one of the worst for choreography, in that it is predictable if you play games, to identify points as to when things have to happen. For example, what triggers a team to move forward further, what triggers them to move back. There's a lot of things I'd like to see ironed out - the failure of a team to react from set pieces that get held up by someone in the middle for example, where everyone stays up strung up in a line until the ball goes beyond a certain point or possession is lost. That decision making seems odd. I'd also like to see better graphical representation of what is happening, sometimes players dwell on the ball for an age when there seems to be completely easy out-passes to be made. I'd prefer it if there was better acknowledgement of this on the commentary, or if the game would show it quicker, so it looks less stupid.

 

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the game, somewhat, but I don't think the representation of the football on show is where it should be in FM18 at all. 

 

On the other side of things, I enjoy the new contract negotiations, the medical centre, the staff attribute highlighter and dynamics is okay-ish etc. Hopefully 19 improves on those, but I'd rather the match visuals get sorted a bit further as a priority over anything else right now.

[aspink3]

13 minutes ago, isignedupfornorealreason said:

I'm fact, I feel in this version that the game is wide-shy at times, not wanting to go wide when it is the simple and obvious pass into space. I'm not saying wide play is ineffective or anything like that. Just, even where there's a wide option, it seems predisposed to going central instead. Which is another thing I dislike, the tendency for wide players to tuck in a bit too early or a bit too often. That means when you do finally get someone to ping the ball out wide, there's a lot of space (or recovery for defenders to do) to exploit. (These are just musings on Extended highlights, watching the patterns of play. It's probably a different matter on full highlights.

I'll always play with wingers rather than inside forwards and they both contribute heavily with assists and goals. I've not really noticed an issue with decision making out wide; my teams tend to exclusively use the wide channels when available. I must have my tactical setup well built over several seasons. 

I'd say that it's much easier to influence a game on this edition. Coming back from an awful start with a few tweaks do have a significant effect on performance. I seem to have much more joy piling forward in the closing minutes to win/draw from losing positions. Not saying this is the best game but I'm enjoying it a lot more than recent ones 

[XaW]

23 minutes ago, isignedupfornorealreason said:

In fact, I feel in this version that the game is wide-shy at times, not wanting to go wide when it is the simple and obvious pass into space. I'm not saying wide play is ineffective or anything like that. Just, even where there's a wide option, it seems predisposed to going central instead. Which is another thing I dislike, the tendency for wide players to tuck in a bit too early or a bit too often.

This part I actually disagree with. This is my right winger from last season:

He played in a W-A role, but provided lots and lots of both assists and goals. I have the left winger drifting in centrally, so my left back is the one providing the width there:

13 assists from a left back is pretty good. And most of them are to the winger above who, as is natural drifts in when the ball is on the other side of the pitch and is then left unmarked by defenders. Loads of back post tap-ins. Here is my Wide Advanced Playmaker, but his assists are rarely from crosses.

So for me wide play works wonders. My most used attack is the AP drifting in pulling the full back with him opening space for my left back to exploit from crosses. It works wonders for me. Of course we are not a one trick pony, but it's one of my favorite moments since I got the team to do as I wanted. It's not that easy to translate real life football to FM sometimes!

[isignedupfornorealreason]

6 hours ago, XaW said:

This part I actually disagree with. This is my right winger from last season:

 I'm not saying wide play is ineffective or anything like that.

I'm saying what I see on the highlights is a tendency to move central as opposed to going out wide when there's an available pass there, even preferring to 'switch' the play or to take a long shot rather than slide the ball sideways and exploit the massive amount of space that opens up from everyone tucking in. For what it is worth, most of my goals and assists are coming from out wide - 4-4-2 after all, from crosses and cut backs and through balls in particular. But, I feel if that wide space was exploited all the time, the numbers would be a bit insane. But then, I don't know what my players are thinking half the time when they make some dodgy decisions, and to be fair, I don't know what they're thinking when they make exceptional ones either! 

[MrPompey]

FM18 must be one of the worst match engines for defending. Defenders get drawn like moths to a flame going after the ball carrying attacking. I regularly see 3 defenders chase the attacker all in a line Benny Hill style who then off loads to an unmarked fellow attacker. I stopped after 2 seasons which is not like me at all

I also think it rewards defensive counter attacking teams and not attacking  pressing teams

There are still modules that need an overhaul including press questions and even those new such as scouting has issues with buttons moving all over the place so if viewing reports from multiple players you can't perform the same action without moving the mouse

I liked dynamics and hope for some improvements for FM19

[..Valhalla..]

A few things about the ME that annoy me:

• Players never seem to play that simple pass across the goal to an unmarked attacker for a tap-in. You know; once they've got into the box and are almost on the by-line, just slide it across the goal please?
• The whistle blows for corners before the ball has even gone out. This drives me nuts.
• If a pass is played to a player, he will run half the pitch to collect it while any other teammates who could have got it pretty easily just stand there and let it go past them (since I guess it wasn't intended for them).
• Defenders heading the ball back into play (and back into the bloody box) under no pressure at all when in reality they would always let it go out for a goal kick.
• Player loses the ball to opponent, then just stands there motionless rather than making an effort to win it back.
• I've seen GKs run out to claim a loose ball, then suddenly turn without the ball and run back into the net, to concede an utterly absurd goal that would never happen IRL.  

[aspink3]

I think player interactions need freshening up too. My BWM had a great game in central midfield, particularly when it came to breaking up play and passing the ball to the DLP to make something happen. He finished with a rating of 8.8 and played his role superbly.

When I tried to praise him after the game, the only two options were 'your passing was a joy to behold' or 'I'm pleased with the number of quality chances you created'. Actually, neither of those were reasons why he had a good performance.

At the very least there should be a generic option to say you're pleased with their overall performance? 

[wayne'o]

I think the best version will be the version people find it hard to dominate..  anyone Clude up finding FM easy must get board quick?

think I had most fun on the version with and without ball screens,  took longer for me to build a winning squad..