Team-Talks: UI improvements?

[Amaroq]

Is it just me, or are team talks yet another system which are subtler, deeper, and better executed than they appear to be, but are held back by the UI?

In other words, the UI doesn't quite present the subtlety, depth, and quality of the execution, so the average user starts to think of them as either "repetitive", "boring", or "over-powerful", depending on their personal bias?

I have six ideas:

- Improve Team Talk Feedback

- Add "Motivation" to the Select Team Talk screen

- Add a "Special Team Talk Available" icon to the Select Team Talk screen

- Rename the "None" team talk

- Add a pop-up indicating in more detail what the team-talk means in context

- Don't provide any team-talk which is nonsensical in context

. . . .

Improve Team Talk Feedback:

In my most recent match, I had a striker who the A.M. Report in-match indicated was "Pre-Match: having trouble handling the pressure". After my team-talk, I waited five minutes, then checked the "York Motivation" item in the 3-D match view. He was "Playing okay". Two of my players were listed as "Looking fired up", two of my players were listed as "Looking motivated", and the rest were "Playing okay". Late in the first half, with a 1-0 lead provided by my "under pressure" player, my young right back began listing as "Looking Complacent".

After the match, I checked my Assistant Manager Team Talk Feedback. The youngster had "Looked Delighted", while the other ten players were listed as "Nothing Specific Noted".

Now, my A.M. isn't fantastic, we're only Blue Square Premier after all, but surely the Team Talk Feedback feature should provide as much detail as the other features do?

Nothing had happened early in the match which would have calmed down my striker or fired up my other players, so clearly they were reacting to my team talk .. but if I were to rely only on the Team Talk Feedback feature, I wouldn't be able to tell that.

So, let's put that quality of feedback into the Team Talk Feedback module.

. . . .

Add "Motivation" to the "Select Team-Talk UI":

I find myself swapping between the "Select Team-Talk" UI and the 3-D view to check on players' Motivation - or more likely, just selecting a couple players to remember to "have a word with" based on their status.

Why don't we just add that item to the Select Team-Talk UI?

In other words, pre-match, maybe my "having trouble handling the pressure" striker would have show in the Select Team-Talk UI as "Morale: Good", "Motivation: Looks nervous"

At half-time, he would have been "Morale: Very Good", "Comments: Playing with Confidence", "7.4", "1 G".

At the half, my young right back would have been "Morale: Superb", "Comments: Looking complacent", "7.0", "0 G".

That would provide a second insight into the player's mentality for choosing the right team-talk, especially for choosing the right Individual team-talks.

. . . .

Add a "Special Team Talk Available" icon to the Select Team Talk screen

One of the most time-consuming aspects of a match, for me, is scrolling through each of my players' "Individual Team Talks" drop-down to see if any of them have the "Expect a better performance" enabled, or "Pick up where you left off" enabled.

I almost always want to select those, if they are available, but there's no easy way to tell.

I'd greatly appreciate a little asterisk next to the drop-down indicating if there is any "special" team-talk enabled. Perhaps the "special"s would show with the same asterisk in them once you went to the drop-down.

. . . .

Rename the "None" team talk:

We've seen numerous discussions of the "None" team-talk, and the general forum consensus has become "Well, we're not quite sure what it means, but it certainly doesn't mean 'Don't talk to them at all'."

I think the "None" label has become misleading.

Let's rename it - perhaps to "Keep it professional" pre-match, "Keep it up, lads" at half-time, and "You did what I expected" post-match.

I'm not even sure if those are the right items - but let's put "None" back into the managers' quiver - as has been pointed out in other threads, numerous players assume that they shouldn't ever give "None", and their team-talk performance goes up once they add it back into their rotation.

Add text indicating in more detail what the team-talk means in context

I think that a lot of unintentional ambiguity arises from using a single word or three to describe a team-talk. "Pleased" could mean a number of things, and its especially odd to the user as its meaning seems to change with context.

I think a lot of the ambiguity would go away if we were presented with a full sentence or two indicating what this team-talk means, in the current context of the match odds and scoreline. It could show either as mouse-over text, or using some of the space which is unused when I have an 11+7 squad to choose from. (An 11+12 squad would wind up having a squad scroll-bar, but I don't think that's a big deal.)

E.g., place up at the top a bit which says "Current talk: ". Then, as I toggle through options on the drop-down, it indicates what I'm 'actually' saying, so .. when I select "We can win this", it shows me something like - "Current talk: This will be a tight match, but if we play to the best of our ability we can win this."

SI would have a spot more translations to do, sure, but I think that it would be a dramatic improvement in terms of the impact to the "average" user - the one who isn't out here on the forums and expects team-talks to be a common-sense, "does what it says on the tin" module.

It would, in particular, be useful if those "Current talk:" lines changed according to the match context, so that the case where a slight favorite says "We can win this" pre-match, gets to halftime tied 0-0, and says "Pleased" is made clearly distinct from the case where a massive underdog says "No pressure", gets to halftime 0-0, and says "Pleased".

Don't provide any team-talk which is nonsensical in context

Some team-talks or individual talks just don't make sense.

I'm hardly going to tell the team I'm "Delighted" when we're trailing 0-3 at halftime. I'm not going to tell the team I'm "Angry" when we're up 4-0. Why even have the UI present these to me? They amount to a UI "trap".

I'm not saying that every team-talk should be beneficial, just that every team-talk ought to be reasonable in context.

If we're doing point 5 already, we're putting in sentences for what each team-talk means in each context; when the person doing that work comes to a team-talk that simply has no viable meaning, he indicates to take it out.

If any particular situations wind up stripped, say, to less than 4 applicable team-talks, its an opportunity to add a new team-talk with a new meaning.

Same, potentially, with individual team-talks.

So, for example, my player is on a 4.4 at half-time after an own goal and a mistake which led to a second. We're trailing 0-2. Maybe my team-talks wind up being:

- Angry

- We have to get a result here

- Where's the passion, lads?

- We've just been unlucky (Sympathize)

- Keep working hard (None)

My defender's might be:

- Team

- Angry at him

- Disappointed with his performance

- Shake it off, lad (Encourage)

- Redeem yourself ("The second half is your chance to redeem yourself!")

Or something like that. I'm hardly going to tell either the player or the team that I am Pleased, Delighted, or Thrilled with their performance thus far.

. . . .

I think those six items would really help flesh out the team-talks. What do you guys think? Would they help? Or would this package wind up making them feel too easy?

[Miksu]

I think those six items would really help flesh out the team-talks. What do you guys think? Would they help? Or would this package wind up making them feel too easy?

These are all good ideas. Team talk feedback in its current form isn't really helpful. I wouldn't mind if my assistant manager would compile an automatic report after every match, highlighting the team talk effects and player performance. Something similar like the supporter confidence report after every match. The news item could contain a button which would take you automatically to the team talk feedback -page.

I also share your idea about showing the player motivation on team talk screen. The current functionality where you have to switch between team stats (or tv view) and team talk screen isn't ideal. I'm wondering though if it would be possible to edit the skin so that the motivation is shown.

[BodhiD]

I have six ideas:

- Improve Team Talk Feedback +

- Add "Motivation" to the Select Team Talk screen +++

- Add a "Special Team Talk Available" icon to the Select Team Talk screen +

- Rename the "None" team talk +

- Add a pop-up indicating in more detail what the team-talk means in context ++

- Don't provide any team-talk which is nonsensical in context +

I wouldn't mind if my assistant manager would compile an automatic report after every match, highlighting the team talk effects and player performance. ++

All good ideas.

[FrazT]

Terrific post as usual Amaroq- many great suggestions there. The one I have most empathy with is the option to have all the team talk options available to me as a Manager and not have the game choose a selection, depending on the score. The one I hate most is the team talk at half time when you are 2-0 up and really have no options apart frpm pleased, or none.

This is an area where, with some work, it could be a great management tool, but at the moment, I personally feel that its impact is overstated.

On a linked note, I also feel that the impact on the team of the manager's press conference is also overstated. Which of the Man Utd team, for example , will care two hoots about what Fergie says about other Managers or teams pre match?

[Forkoid]

Since the team talks have came in, I've always thought it would be great to use them to reinforce tactics.

i.e. "I want you to improve your passing"

This is even more apparent in this years game since your assistant feedback during the game says things like: "We're gift possession due to our bad passing." etc etc.

I think in this case the team talk should give you the opportunity to scald your players for their bad passing/shooting/tackling - whatever your team is doing badly at.

[Blackbag]

some good ideas,

SI should also change the AM teamtalk feedback information, i have the didn't seem to be listening / nothing noted.

FrazT is also correct, managers often speak about other managers saying what a good job he has done etc. (SAF supporting Big Sam etc)

Also i am sure most professional players realise that when a manager tells the press that have little or no chance in the next match that they are trying to play mind games.