Football Manager 2020 Feedback Thread

[stevemc]

These pin-point long balls over the top of my centre backs heads leading to a one-on-one opportunity are killing my save, I literally can’t keep a clean sheet. And I’ve got quality defenders too.

Has anyone found a way to soften this blow (maybe play a sweeper, both CBs on cover, lower DL etc)? Or are we stuck with this ME trait until it’s patched out? 

Cheers & Merry Christmas!

[quijote]

I've a problem with the resolution of the screen, since it is not adjusted every time I start the game and the position of the buttons does not match the image of them something very annoying.
I use a resolution lower than that of my monitor to increase the font size due to my visual problems.

[Lucas]

28 minutes ago, stevemc said:

Has anyone found a way to soften this blow (maybe play a sweeper, both CBs on cover, lower DL etc)? Or are we stuck with this ME trait until it’s patched out? 

 

Higher Line saw this happen for me at times in the season I just played, but I also finished the season with the least conceded in the league through playing possession based football (59% average possession over 38 games). 19 goals from set plays, and 13 of those from corners. 

Its always a risk if your defence are playing higher, never mind their attributes. My guess is you're getting this through playing a really specific way, but it's hard to advise without knowing your team really. Possession based might not be for you.

[Glen_Runciter]

11 hours ago, Karl Krammer (KK) said:

 

nothing more to add

Really? You chose to post this, as the example of the ME's problem with long balls?

Your team was in transition, your defenders expected to be in possession for a bit more, being out of position when the team suddenly loses the ball is something that happens.

I'm absolutely not saying there are no problems with the AI (although I've been toying around with the demo, and thinking about buying, 'cause right now it feels better than ever in the last few years), I'm just saying that some people are being unreasonable, and almost hysterical here.

Also, please, there are so many ways now to record your screen in a not prehistoric way...

Edited December 25, 2019 by Glen_Runciter
words

[IrrelevantLion]

My experience with FM 2020: Conceding 25-30 yard goals from opposition midfielders whilst my strikers miss EVERY 1v1 opportunity. Not fun.

[Karl Krammer (KK)]

4 hours ago, Glen_Runciter said:

De Verdad? ¿Elegiste publicar esto, como el ejemplo del problema del ME con bolas largas?

Su equipo estaba en transición, sus defensores esperaban estar en posesión un poco más, estar fuera de posición cuando el equipo pierde repentinamente el balón es algo que sucede.

No estoy diciendo que no haya problemas con la IA (aunque he estado jugando con la demostración y pensando en comprar, porque en este momento se siente mejor que nunca en los últimos años), solo estoy diciendo que algunas personas no son razonables y casi histéricas aquí.

Además, por favor, ahora hay muchas maneras de grabar su pantalla de una manera no prehistórica ...

it is because of the non-existent reaction of the GK

[WizbaII]

I can live with one-on-ones perhaps not being where they should be. What I don't understand is why my fullbacks ignore their instructions to cross. I went back to FM 18 to make sure I can actually control this and, indeed, in FM 18 my fullbacks can cross often if told to do so. But in FM 20 they rarely do it even when they are asked to cross more often. I can forgive ME mistakes, but I can't forgive my players simply not doing what I tell them to. It's FM 18 for the time being, even though FM 20 is for the most part the better engine.

[Svenc]

4 hours ago, IrrelevantLion said:

My experience with FM 2020: Conceding 25-30 yard goals from opposition midfielders whilst my strikers miss EVERY 1v1 opportunity. Not fun.

Add to that a couple Header goals from the Corner, and a couple less 1vs1s with patched defending; and you'd have a fairly accurate getting Pep'd Simulator 2019, of course.

 

Tongue in cheekish, mind. But personally considering the nature of most his point drops, if this Season would start all over, I'd bet on that the table would look closer than it does now.



 

Edited December 25, 2019 by Svenc

[Dagenham_Dave]

I'm really struggling to play this game at the moment. The lag on the 3D engine is absolutely horrific right now. I managed to fiddle around for ages with settings to get it looking slightly smooth, but as soon as I load the game back up for a new session, it's back to being a laggy mess. And it now doesn't matter if I'm playing online or offline. 

Any previous version of the game (inc the laggy 19 version) is running very smoothly, but this is ridiculous. 

I've had to switch back to 2D for the games to be even watchable, but even that's lagging now. 

This should never be a thing in a game whose graphics engine is primitive to say the least. My laptop can run FIFA smoothly, so there's really no excuse for this. 

[janrzm]

8 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

I'm really struggling to play this game at the moment. The lag on the 3D engine is absolutely horrific right now. I managed to fiddle around for ages with settings to get it looking slightly smooth, but as soon as I load the game back up for a new session, it's back to being a laggy mess. And it now doesn't matter if I'm playing online or offline. 

Any previous version of the game (inc the laggy 19 version) is running very smoothly, but this is ridiculous. 

I've had to switch back to 2D for the games to be even watchable, but even that's lagging now. 

This should never be a thing in a game whose graphics engine is primitive to say the least. My laptop can run FIFA smoothly, so there's really no excuse for this. 

Out of interest, did this regress with the last patch? My 3d has been great for all previous versions including the beta of FM20 but since release it's pretty poor, not as bad as yours sounds though.

I'd like to reiterate this, my overriding mood on release of a new patch is one of fear, fear of something thats currently working, ceasing to do so. That shouldn't be happening, especially when using a modern high spec machine. 

[stevemc]

9 hours ago, Lucas said:

Higher Line saw this happen for me at times in the season I just played, but I also finished the season with the least conceded in the league through playing possession based football (59% average possession over 38 games). 19 goals from set plays, and 13 of those from corners. 

Its always a risk if your defence are playing higher, never mind their attributes. My guess is you're getting this through playing a really specific way, but it's hard to advise without knowing your team really. Possession based might not be for you.

I'm seeing it far too often, with different variants of tactics and different teams for it not to be an ME trait. Actually back-tracking through this thread, and looking through the forum, the pin-point long balls has cropped up by many different users.

It's getting so frustrating, literally 2-0 in my last game with 4 minutes injury time to go (moved to my defensive set up to see the game out), minutes 80-90 passed without a whimper and then two long balls over the top (91 and 94mins) ended the game at 2-2. It's not just the fact it's long balls, it's not like it's Beckham dropped them over the top, it's Diego Godin (a centre-back) twice with his 11 passing stat (and 76% passing accuracy for the game) floating two pin-point balls over the top like a reincarnated Pirlo, one of them was on the half-turn, you'd need eyes in the back of your head to see that kind of pass. It's like the defenders freeze and don't react until it's too late.

Think I'll give this up until there is a patch, it's just not enjoyable.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Just now, janrzm said:

Out of interest, did this regress with the last patch?

 

 

Yes, it was generally alright before the last update. I don't know if the amount of active users playing the game has anything to do with it, because FM19 was pretty laggy too, but now it's super smooth, and obviously there's thousands less people playing it now. 

[Glen_Runciter]

5 hours ago, Karl Krammer (KK) said:

it is because of the non-existent reaction of the GK

I see a reaction, an unconfident, awkward attempt to constrict the space available for the attacker.

Yeah, he doesn't close down properly, and there is no diving at the shot, but I can honestly easily imagine an unsure keepr doing something like this IRL.

[diddydaddydoddy]

@Dagenham_Dave

You could try these...

1. Nividia Control Panel

*-Power management mode - Prefer maximum performance
*-Threaded optimization - ON
*-Triple buffering - Off
*- Vertical Sync - Fast

2.  In the match settings 

* Shadows - Off

* (only if still lag) - Crowd quality - Low

[Dagenham_Dave]

I think I've tried those already but I'll give it another go, thanks. 

What really kills it is when it rains. I remember in past FMs, there was an option to turn weather off, but it's not in this game. Can that be done via the editor for a future save does anyone know?

[Novem9]

I'm happy to see that ai stopped to spam me the same transfer offers. I set high value and clubs no more set me offers just as I planned. For another player was club with real interest so I set clause price for him and finally ai use this clause. Despite this price higher of his market price in almost 10 times, but he has some potential. So cool, much better templates of prev editions

[KUBI]

vor 28 Minuten schrieb Dagenham_Dave:

I think I've tried those already but I'll give it another go, thanks. 

What really kills it is when it rains. I remember in past FMs, there was an option to turn weather off, but it's not in this game. Can that be done via the editor for a future save does anyone know?

Type into preferences "weather" and you can turn off weather effects.

[Dagenham_Dave]

29 minutes ago, KUBI said:

Type into preferences "weather" and you can turn off weather effects.

It doesn't work, I raised that as a bug ages ago.

[Karl Krammer (KK)]

Hace 1 hora, Glen_Runciter dijo:

Veo una reacción, un intento incómodo e incómodo de restringir el espacio disponible para el atacante.

Sí, él no se cierra correctamente, y no hay inmersión en el tiro, pero honestamente puedo imaginar fácilmente a un guardián inseguro haciendo algo como este IRL.

Of course, en un partido infantil

Edited December 25, 2019 by Karl Krammer (KK)

[optimusprimal82]

LOVE that you've added the feature to talk to the board when a transfer is agreed but you're a few million short - removes that years old frustration where you sum all the offers you make and a signing on fee throws your strategy out by a few mill! I'm sure there's a flip side (maybe depending on how flexible the owners are?), but if i can get Ed Woodward to part with extra cash then it must be pretty lenient right? 

[Dagenham_Dave]

Just now, optimusprimal82 said:

LOVE that you've added the feature to talk to the board when a transfer is agreed but you're a few million short - removes that years old frustration where you sum all the offers you make and a signing on fee throws your strategy out by a few mill! I'm sure there's a flip side (maybe depending on how flexible the owners are?), but if i can get Ed Woodward to part with extra cash then it must be pretty lenient right? 

My board have agreed three times this season to sign a player I've wanted, and each time they've made a mess of the contract talks, so it's broken down. I'd like to have an option of just saying to the board 'finance the deal please, but I'll deal with the contract, ok?'

 

[Miravlix]

Actual Playing Time: Star Player

Agreed Playing Time: Star Player

Feels Alienated due the lack of game time he has been getting.

 

That really sums up FM lately, the code is so messed up that you use 10 different calculations for the same thing, so the game can both say the player isn't getting star player playing time at the same time it's saying that he is.

[optimusprimal82]

10 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

My board have agreed three times this season to sign a player I've wanted, and each time they've made a mess of the contract talks, so it's broken down. I'd like to have an option of just saying to the board 'finance the deal please, but I'll deal with the contract, ok?'

 

Are you asking them to sign the player outright that way? I haven't done that, no way would I trust Ed with that, he'd have Djimi Traore out of retirement on 300kp/w whether I liked it or not!

 

It's more I do the negotiations, the contract and when I come to buy I don't have enough - in years past I'd have to delay until cancellation (or I manage to sell someone); this year I could say to the board "this is an important xfer/sorry for spending too much" and they agreed and gave me the extra I needed. Means my xfer budget is now nil, but I'm super stoked as I got one of those rare summer windows where you get everyone off 'plan A' (and it wasn't ruined by greedy ass agents!)

[Dagenham_Dave]

7 minutes ago, Miravlix said:

Actual Playing Time: Star Player

Agreed Playing Time: Star Player

Feels Alienated due the lack of game time he has been getting.

 

That really sums up FM lately, the code is so messed up that you use 10 different calculations for the same thing, so the game can both say the player isn't getting star player playing time at the same time it's saying that he is.

This happens if you've had an issue with the player beforehand. It takes longer for the player to stop feeling alienated than it does for the agreed playing time to update. This is because the player wants to continue at the agreed playing time for longer before he fully trusts you again. 

[Dagenham_Dave]

Just now, optimusprimal82 said:

Are you asking them to sign the player outright that way? I haven't done that, no way would I trust Ed with that, he'd have Djimi Traore out of retirement on 300kp/w whether I liked it or not!

 

It's more I do the negotiations, the contract and when I come to buy I don't have enough - in years past I'd have to delay until cancellation (or I manage to sell someone); this year I could say to the board "this is an important xfer/sorry for spending too much" and they agreed and gave me the extra I needed. Means my xfer budget is now nil, but I'm super stoked as I got one of those rare summer windows where you get everyone off 'plan A' (and it wasn't ruined by greedy ass agents!)

Ah yes, that's a different scenario. That's good if that's now in the game. 

[janrzm]

19 minutes ago, optimusprimal82 said:

Are you asking them to sign the player outright that way? I haven't done that, no way would I trust Ed with that, he'd have Djimi Traore out of retirement on 300kp/w whether I liked it or not!

 

It's more I do the negotiations, the contract and when I come to buy I don't have enough - in years past I'd have to delay until cancellation (or I manage to sell someone); this year I could say to the board "this is an important xfer/sorry for spending too much" and they agreed and gave me the extra I needed. Means my xfer budget is now nil, but I'm super stoked as I got one of those rare summer windows where you get everyone off 'plan A' (and it wasn't ruined by greedy ass agents!)

This is a long overdue feature thats been desperately missing. I've long said you shouldn't be missing out on a signing if you're ten bob short. 

18 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Ah yes, that's a different scenario. That's good if that's now in the game. 

It is a different scenario but as you say, the option to ask the board to make a signing (which I have done successfully) should come with an option to handle the contract/playing time element yourself.

Edited December 25, 2019 by janrzm

[Miravlix]

25 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

This happens if you've had an issue with the player beforehand. It takes longer for the player to stop feeling alienated than it does for the agreed playing time to update. This is because the player wants to continue at the agreed playing time for longer before he fully trusts you again. 

He played 37(2) matches, highest in the squad actually, so he played at least one match pr. week and at times two matches pr. week. He played in 12 out of 13 Champions Cup matches including the final.

 

The GK is sitting at 50 matches, but he plays in domestic cups, that doesn't count as real playing time.

[Dagenham_Dave]

3 minutes ago, Miravlix said:

He played 37(2) matches, highest in the squad actually, so he played at least one match pr. week and at times two matches pr. week. He played in 12 out of 13 Champions Cup matches including the final.

 

So why was he ever 'alienated'? Players only get that if they've missed a bunch of games. 

[f.zaarour]

Does anyone noticed the next thing...?

The 1 on 1 and penalty missing stuff is known and under review so thats good. But i have the feeling the problem lies at the Gk's who are just very overpowered. Missing the 1 on 1's is crazy, the Gk's are like beasts all the time. You could think about
the attackers may be the noobs, but if you look at the missing penalties you see the Gk's beasting there too. So i really think there was an error where the long balls were too easy and attackers scored too much in the prototype testing and so they 
just overpowered the goalkeepers to balance it and at the end it went like crazy to other way lol. 

But hopefully they will fix this soon and get a balance in the game. 

[Pasonen]

14 minutes ago, f.zaarour said:

Does anyone noticed the next thing...?

The 1 on 1 and penalty missing stuff is known and under review so thats good. But i have the feeling the problem lies at the Gk's who are just very overpowered. Missing the 1 on 1's is crazy, the Gk's are like beasts all the time. You could think about
the attackers may be the noobs, but if you look at the missing penalties you see the Gk's beasting there too. So i really think there was an error where the long balls were too easy and attackers scored too much in the prototype testing and so they 
just overpowered the goalkeepers to balance it and at the end it went like crazy to other way lol. 

But hopefully they will fix this soon and get a balance in the game. 

Yes and in real life shots what are fired to goalies legs are often very dangerous and hardest to save. In this game those shots never go in.

[kombinat13]

merry christmas everybody.

after 200 hours in this game i like to give a feedback.

Positiv

• it is the best manager out of the managers out there
• i think SI is trying there best to make this game each year a bit better
• trying to make the grafik and the animation better
• some new feature - for example development center or the 5 year plan

 

Negativ

• graphics and animation are not good at all and are not up to date - yes SI did some work on it but still it looks very old fashioned. this is not what costumers expect in 2019.
• M.E. is in my opinion not balanced at all
• interface is in some areas - like signing/transferoffer player screen - confusing to look at
• press conference and teamspeech (beginning of a match) are getting boring very fast

 

What i want to see changed

• graphic and animation would be my first choice to work on it. 
  right now there is no atmosphere in the stadiums. stadiums lookin the same. i think SI made one pack of stance and generated the stadiums for all teams. (parma is missing a stance and is not looking at all like a parma stdium) maybe SI could put more detail in this part of the graphic into it - for example make more variation.
  
  using the light as a atmosphere source would be a way to push a bit out of the old graphic engine
  
  animation should be worked over - there is to much sliding players - for example injured player lying on the ground very often slide out of the pitch - goalkeepers get a boost in midair and doing the clark kent move - and many more animations which are funny to look at
   
• i want to see that the M.E. is in some state balanced - right now it is in my opinion hard to play a defensive tactic. for example is my defender in a 1vs1 visually faster and visually at first on the ball but one third of the saison i see that they stop or run a different path so that the striker is getting the ball first. well there are many issues i see and they are also stated out already in this forum. i just want it balanced. i do not want it realistic. i want it balanced and working because i think you can not have a realistic M.E. 

 

the biggest issue i have right now ist the amount of bugs for a finished game. i do not mind that there are bugs in a game. but when i see over 18k commentaries in the bug forum i get sad. well i know that these are not all bug reports but still if there is one third out of this bug reports than this is really really sad. 

i do not mind to post bugs but what i read in this forum is that there is a high demand on posting bugs and upload the data. and i can understand this because SI needs material to see where the bug is coming from.
BUT - i paid for a finished game and right now i feel like i test your game. it feels not even close to be finished. i could help and post and upload (many did this already) but i wonder why i should do the work where actually people are getting paid for testing - i guess there is a term for it and is called in every country the same - quality management. this is only my opinion but i am not happy that SI or other game development companys are thinking that this should be a thing. no it should not. let people buy a buged game and fix it with patches the whole year is not good. it is bad.

for all the people in this forum. please think about the product you bought carefully and than give a proper review. if you buy shoes and they have holes in it you do not give a good review and say "well at least the leather is nice" or "they made two holes less in this shoes this year. thumps up"
 

 

happy holiday to you all

please do not judge my english. it is not my main language.

[FMLegend1983]

15 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

I'm really struggling to play this game at the moment. The lag on the 3D engine is absolutely horrific right now. I managed to fiddle around for ages with settings to get it looking slightly smooth, but as soon as I load the game back up for a new session, it's back to being a laggy mess. And it now doesn't matter if I'm playing online or offline. 

Any previous version of the game (inc the laggy 19 version) is running very smoothly, but this is ridiculous. 

I've had to switch back to 2D for the games to be even watchable, but even that's lagging now. 

This should never be a thing in a game whose graphics engine is primitive to say the least. My laptop can run FIFA smoothly, so there's really no excuse for this. 

There's nothing wrong with my 3d engine, in fact it is working better than ever,  I can't see no lag, are you sure it's not your graphics card settings?

Edited December 26, 2019 by FMLegend1983

[Iwabik]

Are oppositon instructions reseting every game for anyone else? I set them up for every postion and yet, every game it changes to player specific. Is this a bug?

[lloyd1990]

1 minute ago, Iwabik said:

Are oppositon instructions reseting every game for anyone else? I set them up for every postion and yet, every game it changes to player specific. Is this a bug?

Yes. 

It's an annoying bug. Hopefully it will get fixed in the next patch.

[Iwabik]

18 minutes ago, lloyd1990 said:

Yes. 

It's an annoying bug. Hopefully it will get fixed in the next patch.

Do you know if it was reported already? I don't know if I should make a bug thread.

[roykela]

31 minutes ago, Iwabik said:

Are oppositon instructions reseting every game for anyone else? I set them up for every postion and yet, every game it changes to player specific. Is this a bug?

 

28 minutes ago, lloyd1990 said:

Yes. 

It's an annoying bug. Hopefully it will get fixed in the next patch.

 

9 minutes ago, Iwabik said:

Do you know if it was reported already? I don't know if I should make a bug thread.

Have a read here.

[autohoratio]

I don't understand why the "Interest in role" descriptor was removed from the staff contract negotiation screen this year. In prev FM versions you could gauge their interest in being e.g. Assistant Manager ("Delighted with this"), DoF ("Incredibly interested"), Scout ("Unsure"), Fitness Coach ("No interest") etc. But now with no feedback to go off of you just have to guess based on their Staff Role Suitability.

[Dagenham_Dave]

2 hours ago, fm2020.smith said:

a new one as well but i was playing spurs and half there players vanished but they were still there and as they were invisible my players didnt have a clue and they won easily.

 

If that genuinely happened, then you should raise a report about it. That's a pretty serious issue. 

[stevemc]

So Donnarumma is currently earning £180k p/w, so I go to renew his deal, he rejects as I can only offer £155k p/w, even when adjusting my budget.

So I ask my DoF to have a go at renewing his deal, which he does successfully for £175k p/w (with similar extras too to his existing deal).

Why couldn’t I renew but my DoF could?

[Novem9]

After fm17 I wrote in wishlist about static life in long saves. For now it's much much better with hierarchy and board vision  and transfers / contracts better too. Its so wonderful to play in this interaction. I hope for good changes in Me patch 20.3 and I finally will play long journeyman save. This FM edition absolutely best for this

[KUBI]

@Pasonen

Could you please stop spamming this thread. Hid the latest post as it does add nothing to the thread.

[BigV]

3 hours ago, stevemc said:

So Donnarumma is currently earning £180k p/w, so I go to renew his deal, he rejects as I can only offer £155k p/w, even when adjusting my budget.

So I ask my DoF to have a go at renewing his deal, which he does successfully for £175k p/w (with similar extras too to his existing deal).

Why couldn’t I renew but my DoF could?

Don't know officially but they have an attribute for negotiating deals now, might have a better relationship with him than you (long term perspective that is), managers dont usually negotiate much anymore at top levels so that might be a factor? 

If the AI can negotiate better using the attribute given then thats a very useful tool and it means it's working "Properly".

Do managers get a negotiating attribute or a hidden one of it? 

[stevemc]

10 minutes ago, BigV said:

Don't know officially but they have an attribute for negotiating deals now, might have a better relationship with him than you (long term perspective that is), managers dont usually negotiate much anymore at top levels so that might be a factor? 

If the AI can negotiate better using the attribute given then thats a very useful tool and it means it's working "Properly".

Do managers get a negotiating attribute or a hidden one of it? 

That could explain it, I'm not complaining, just glad he signed up as I wasn't able to do it. I was more curious as to why I could only offer £155k p/w but the DoF went to £175k p/w.

I'm not sure about managers having a hidden stat, but it would make sense to have one.

[BigV]

20 minutes ago, stevemc said:

That could explain it, I'm not complaining, just glad he signed up as I wasn't able to do it. I was more curious as to why I could only offer £155k p/w but the DoF went to £175k p/w.

I'm not sure about managers having a hidden stat, but it would make sense to have one.

I mean if you're restrcited but the DOF isn't then that would be a problem. Just watched a stream with a similar thing and he just changed it to all the negotiating to the staff. There is a bug that reverts responsibilities back to default *allegedly* 

[Novem9]

If I have touch version in Steam, can I use this in tablet/phone or need to buy separate in market?

[KUBI]

vor 4 Minuten schrieb Novem9:

If I have touch version in Steam, can I use this in tablet/phone or need to buy separate in market?

Two separate versions and retailers.

[kingjericho]

Long balls over the defense are taking the fun out of this game. It really doesn't matter if it has to do with the DL/LoE, it just happens way too much and basically 70% of my matches' highlights come from this.  I'm not a tactics expert so when I had a killer tactic for FM19 I was thrilled to use it for years to come, lo and behold as the long balls made it impossible to have a decent run of games this year.

[TheInvisibleMan]

6 minutes ago, kingjericho said:

Long balls over the defense are taking the fun out of this game. It really doesn't matter if it has to do with the DL/LoE, it just happens way too much and basically 70% of my matches' highlights come from this.  I'm not a tactics expert so when I had a killer tactic for FM19 I was thrilled to use it for years to come, lo and behold as the long balls made it impossible to have a decent run of games this year.

Have you tried putting one of your centre backs on a 'cover' duty?

I definitely think there's a problem but this seems to be reducing it and helping me to defend against them a little bit.

I usually choose my fastest centre-back to do this.

[FrazT]

1 hour ago, TheInvisibleMan said:

Have you tried putting one of your centre backs on a 'cover' duty?

I definitely think there's a problem but this seems to be reducing it and helping me to defend against them a little bit.

I usually choose my fastest centre-back to do this.

This has been a definite help in my game-

[jbricandy]

On 23/12/2019 at 15:07, PeterC86 said:

Hi,

I opened an account here some time ago, because I was doubting wether to buy this new version or not, and I wanted to raise the issues I have with the series. First of, I must say that in general you guys have put a wonderful game together, looking back where the game started. The series has really developed over these 25+ years! However, since the last 4 or 5 versions, I see some stabilization and reoccurance of issues, which have become annoying enough for me to raise them.

I linked to the post where I raised the main issues I have with the series as of late. Now FM19 was an enjoyable game, despite the issues that I've mentioned. I however didn't buy the new version up until now, because of these issues, and the previous versions were quite buggy upon release. With buggy I mainly mean; a poor ME. Now I can imagine that some of these issues, and the ME, are not easy to fix as everything in the game is interdependent, I get that. But if you don't have the people to get them fixed properly, the issue seems to be deeper imbedded in the organisation. The thing is, that people, me including, are not willing to pay 50 euros every year for a product which is not finished. People put a lot of time and energy into playing this game, which is, when the game is good, quite rewarding, however, when the game is not good, this becomes quite annoying, especially when this happens multiple years in a row. Now I don't know how the financials are at your company, but you must understand that your salaries and your profit are paid by us. This game has a committed community, and a lot of players buy this game every year, or every two or three years. If the company keeps putting out a product which is not finished, or do not listen enough to the feedback given by the community, or do not communicate in a transparent way, this company digs its own grave. The time where customers are silent buyers , and a company can do whatever it wants without being transparent about it, lie behind us (luckily).  Either you realize this and work with the community to make this product great again, or the community falls apart and this product dies.  Looking through this topic, I will wait to buy this game, and if I do, I am definitely not spending 50 euros, not because I don't think the game is not worth it, it would just set a wrong incentive.

There is a difference between money grabbing every year before the holidays, or putting in all the effort to make a great game. If the company chooses the first, and deliver an unfinished product, this will only go well a few years. I hope the management at your company isn't that short-sighted, however from my experience in the business world, this is more common than uncommon.

I think a lot of these issues could be remedied if SI brought out a game one every two years instead of once every year. I say this because it feels I start enjoying the game 6 to 9 months after it has been released for one or two main reasons. 1, it seems to take at least 3 months for players to suffer with and report bugs before the game is more playable, and 2, it always takes me at least 3, usually 6 or more months to truly understand the ME and how to set up my team and tactics to achieve success and know that the instructions I implement will be either effective or ineffective based on a stable match engine and interface.

 

I think in two or three months, the game will be stable and I'll think it's the best FM ever. But I hope it doesn't take so long for me to think that about FM21. Either way, well done on making another great game.