FIFA 11/12/13 Manager Mode Suggestions Thread

romagnoli

romagnoli

Misses Retri
7 August 2004
Following on from the gameplay thread I made, which has had some excellent suggestions come through for EA to take note (thanks again everyone and keep topping it up!), I thought I'd make one specifically for Manager Mode so I can send stuff on to Gary Paterson.

As we all know MM was one of the things that the FIFA community went apeshit about this year. There were many ideas being implemented but there were a number of key flaws that, literally in some cases, led to the game becoming unplayable.

The size of the outcry for this was arguably bigger than that of those of us who want the gameplay itself to be ping-pong free. Consequently I'd be amazed if EA didn't put a big focus on improving what it already has rather than adding more unfinished game modes. Marcel Kuhn admitted that this was going to be their new stance on things. Plus, we got the impression in pre-FIFA 10 talk as well that EA were looking more to FIFA 11 and 12 for the real MM improvements to kick in as well.

So what I'm hoping to get out of this thread is a number of off-the-pitch improvements, specifically for Manager Mode, possibly Clubs (but only if off-the-pitch - anything that involves actual football should go in the other thread!).

I'll also happily take suggestions for other modes if they are changes that can also be applied to MM or Clubs...

We all know about a lot of the main problems with FIFA 10 - bugs, snow+white ball, rain, etc. So please don't give us those as they're obvious.

I'm after the following sorts of things:-

- Stuff that would improve the transfer system.

- Touches, little or large, that improve the atmosphere, and stop the matches just being a series of friendlies.

- Things FM does that is simple enough to go into FIFA and add a lot to the experience.

- Things that PES ML currently does well that FIFA doesn't.

- Things that no football game has yet done, but would add to the depth and immersion without being too complex for EA to put in!

- Anything that can realistically be applied to something that is a football game and not a management game.




Before we start, I've already posted a few things from here that relate to off-the-pitch stuff.

Tactics & Menus
Personality
 
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A couple of things I thought should be added:-

Training mode should be linked in to MM, so we could practice set-pieces with our MM teams.

Linking in to this, the set-piece editor should let us change which player makes runs. At the moment I find it hard to discern between players with the camera as zoomed out as it is. Consequently I now have a brilliant set piece move that ends up with Vidic trying to hit the ball on the volley at the edge of the D.

We also need to be able to say which of our players should go up for corners, or who they should pick up in defence.
 
I'd say it's a little late for getting anything major and new in 11, depending on how well the WC and 11 go will determine how much effort EA will spend on 12. Once a company has a winning (selling well) formula you tend to see tweaks rather than evolutionary steps...

Unless we see Konami making major progress or a new game miraculously appear I expect little change in WC-11-12...
 
One thing that's a must is that AI teams must change their formation depending on personnel, opponents and such, example teams like Birmingham play a 442 at home but away to someone like Chelsea they would quite possibly switch to 451 to keep things tight. The primary formation should also change depending on players, if a team start off with a tall strong target man up front playing a 451 if that player is then sold or retires they shouldn't continue playing the same formation for the next 5 years with some 5 foot nothing soft bag of shite in there, I remember with Fifa08 Newcastle had Shearer in a target man role, when he retired they stuck Aaron Lennon in there who'd they'd bought off me, so for the next 10 years he was their target man!
 
I don't see FIFA 11 as something that will just be a tweaked FIFA 10 at all, certainly not from what's been coming out of EA's devs of late. They've shown significant interest in a lot of threads that are based on simulation. Time will tell obviously, but I think you might be being a bit too cynical Nick :)

I'm not expecting FIFA 11 to incorporate any changes we suggest that would require a lot of work, but I would expect them to be interested in more easily implementable changes that could significantly raise the experience.

Placebo said:
One thing that's a must is that AI teams must change their formation depending on personnel, opponents and such, example teams like Birmingham play a 442 at home but away to someone like Chelsea they would quite possibly switch to 451 to keep things tight. The primary formation should also change depending on players, if a team start off with a tall strong target man up front playing a 451 if that player is then sold or retires they shouldn't continue playing the same formation for the next 5 years with some 5 foot nothing soft bag of shite in there, I remember with Fifa08 Newcastle had Shearer in a target man role, when he retired they stuck Aaron Lennon in there who'd they'd bought off me, so for the next 10 years he was their target man!
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Good man. Some sort of formation intelligence then, based on the quality of opposition, the players at the team's disposal, possibly related to how they play as well..

I think that in this respect, having player definitions (target man, poacher, complete forward etc) and knowing what sort of stats sit well with which role would be useful for the AI's benefit as much as for ours. It could be applied to transfer choices made by the AI - replace like for like, or sign someone that allows them to play a different formation with a better overall team..
 
Also along with dynamic AI formations, they should dynamically adjust their defensive line, if for example they're playing Liverpool they would defend deep because of the pace of Torres, if they're playing say Stoke who have Beattie up front they would defend higher up as they don't have to worry about pace so much (couldn't think of a better example Prem team with a slower strong forward but you get my point) :)
 
Below ive quoted the MM suggestions from my thread on the EA forums. Ive had to split it into 2 posts because of the length.

The Board

Dynamic Board Expectations - The Boards expectations should change from season to season. As Middlesbrough manager in Fifa 10, i finished 4th in the Premiership three seasons in a row but in the following season the Board only expected me to avoid relegation. They should be expecting me to finish in the Top 6 at least.

Board Decisions - The Board should be more lenient when making a decision whether to sack you. In Fifa 10 when managing a big club such as Real Madrid, you can be sacked mid-season for being 2nd in the League, only 1 point behind the top team and still in both the ECC and Spanish Cup.

These rash bad decisions from the Board make it pointless managing a big club as your put under huge pressure to remain top of the league throughout the season and can't be involved in a tight title race.

Board Comments - The Board should be more aware of your progress/achievements. In Fifa 10 when i won the Premiership, there were no comments from the Board after the match. Id expect them to be congratulating me on my great success.

Job offers

Mid-season Job offers - If your performing well as a Manager, other clubs should approach you mid-season with Job offers so you don't have to wait until the end of the season to manage another club.

Sackings - If you get sacked mid-season, you should be offered other jobs instead of the rest of the Season's matches being simulated.

Jobs available - At the end of the season there should be more jobs available especially if your reputation is good or you've had a highly successful season.

Injuries

Increase the frequency of Long term and Medium term injuries so players are sometimes out for months instead of only 1 week.

Examples

Foot injuries
The Metatarsal
Out= 2 months

Knee injuries
Cruciate Ligament tear
Out= 7-10 months

Cartilage tear
Out= 4-8 months

Thigh injuries
Torn Hamstring
Out= First degree tear 1-2 weeks, Second degree tear 3-5 weeks, Third degree tear 6-20 weeks

Leg injuries
Broken leg
Out= 6-12 months

Commentary

Commentary awareness - The Commentators should be aware if you've won the League or got promoted/relegated. In Fifa 10 when you win the League, the end of match comments are just the same as a regular match which makes the occasion feel rather anti-climactic.
European tie's - They should be fully aware of the situation in 2 leg European tie's. If your involved in a thrilling European tie it would be even more immersive if the Commentators discussed how the tie is currently poised, mention crucial away goals, if you look down and out in a tie and manage to turn things around in the 2nd leg they could talk about your team making amazing comeback and if your playing a European giant they could call it a astounding and somewhat unlikely victory.
Previous Results - The Commentators should remember the last result you had against a particular team. For example, I'm playing MM with Spurs, and I lost at Liverpool. The next match vs Liverpool the pre-game commentary would mention that result and that Spurs are anxious for revenge.
Cup specific commentary - Mention the names of specific Cup's either pre-match or post match depending on the importance of the match. For example Martin Tylor talking about the FA Cup Final and what it means to the fans and players to get there prior to kick-off then acknowledging the achievement of the winners would give the final a greater sense of occasion.
Managers name - Your Managers name pronounced, just like the players if it is in the list. This would especially be useful in such circumstances like if your job is under threat, if the fans are on the managers back because the team isn't performing well or if you manage to turn things around after a slow start to the season by bringing in some quality new players to the club.
Player form - When player form is discussed, mention the actual players name if it's in the database.

Match Venue's

FA Cup semi finals - Should be hosted at Wembley instead of the Home teams stadium.
European Finals (ECC/EFA) - Should be hosted at a real stadium with the venue rotating each season to different stadium. The ECC final must be randomed in the big stadias like Camp Nou, Allianz Arena, San siro, Santiago Bernabéu, Emirates stadium, Olympiastadion Berlin, Veltins Arena, Signal Iduna Park, Stadio Olimpico, Old trafford or Wembley. The EFA final must be in stadias like Anfield, Stamford Bridge, BayArena, Amsterdam ArenA, Estadio de la luz and the other middle stadiums. There's many great European stadiums in the game so it seems a waste playing the final at a generic stadium.

Match Attendences

Higher Attendences - The match attendences in Fifa 10 are generally far to low even for fixtures such as Man Utd v Liverpool.
Attendence Figures - After each match show the attendence figure. Including a page which shows the average attendence figures for the whole season.

HUD

Aggregate score - In 2 leg European tie's, show the aggregate score in brackets on screen.
Official scoreboard overlays - Official scoreboard overlays for the top League's such as the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A.
Cup matches - At the start of a Cup match, display the name and Round of the Cup on screen i.e FA Cup, 3rd Round.
Goal Updates - Show Goal updates on screen during the match from other important matches taking place. This would make title and relegation deciders more intense and exciting knowing what else is currently happening which could potentially decide your fate.

Manager Creation

Visual Manager - Using Game Face, players can have their face mapped on to a facial model of the Manager so you would then be able to see yourself on the sidelines calling instructions or reacting to on-pitch incidents.

When creating your manager, you'd also be able to select your personality type i.e. calm, placid such as Sven Goran Eriksson or Neil Warnock who is a more animated, excited manager. This would effect how your manager reacts.

Trophy Celebrations

Trophy presentations after winning a League or Cup with confetti and fireworks. Including unique presentations depending on the Trophy won. i.e. the Premier League or the FA Cup.

Transfers

Bigger Transfer fee's - In Fifa 10 there are many transfers made by the CPU teams below £10 million. Include more transfers in the region of £10-50 million.
Two Interest bars – When bidding for a player there should be two Interest bars. One for the clubs interest in selling the player to you, and the other in the players interest in playing for you.
Transfer requests - Players request transfers when unsettled i.e. for lack of playing time.
Player swap transfers/Money + Player transfers - Ability to offer a player for a player or a player plus cash proposal.
Player wages - Show how much wages players are currently on in the transfer list.
Custom search string - To refine your search and make it easier to search for players. For example: Position= CAM or CM, Mentality > 75, Skill >75, Foot=left, Height >5'10 etc.
Scouting - Make scouting more specific. For example, if I am searching for speed, let me tell my scout to look for players that have good movement.
CPU Squad Player Number Assignment - When CPU teams buy a new player, he should be given a realistic squad number, like defenders get numbers 2-6, midfielders 6-11, attackers 8-11 something like that.
Bids for star players - Once your players have developed into great players, you should recieve offers for them from prestigious clubs such as Man utd and Chelsea. It should be hard to hold onto these players because their tempted by the higher wages and the prospect of playing for a big club.
Loans (Player Development) - When you loan out a player to a club, they should develop and improve so their stats have increased when they return. There should also be a progress report so you can see how they are currently performing during their loan spell.
Loans (Contracts/terms) - Loans should also be available for one month periods. Loans should have clauses in the contract i.e. 24 Hour return clause, Must be guaranteed matches by the team loaning the player.

Manager Contracts

Option to sign a contract when you join a club i.e. for 3 years. This would commit yourself to the club instead of how it's done in Fifa 10, where you just join the club then it giving you the option to choose to manage the club again at the end of the season.

When you join a new club, the initial contract length would depend on your Manager reputation. If you have a low reputation you would be offered a short contract initially such as 1 year but if you have a high reputation the board will be more inclined to offer you a longer contract.

If you impress the board, they will offer you a contract in which you can negotiate the terms with. Or you can request a new contract yourself if the Board is happy with your current progress.

AI Awareness

The CPU teams should be aware of the importance of each match, this is important as otherwise each match feels very much like an exhibition.

There could be a hidden variable within the games code which determines the importance rating. This would effect numerous things such as the starting XI the team puts out, their tactics/formation, players work rate and making risky subtitutions to go all out attack.

Examples

- Title or relegation deciders
- 2 leg European ties
- Local derbies
- Cup Finals

Goal of the Month/Season

Each month there could be a selection of about 8 Goals in a Match Of The Day type presentation from both CPUvCPU matches and your matches. The CPU's goals can be generated during the match Simulation process.

This would allow you to relive spectacular goals and add excitement to your MM career. The winning Goals from each month would then contest for Goal of the season.

Time of day (Tod)/Weather

Day matches
- The majority of English League matches
- FA Cup matches apart from Replays
- Community Shield
- English League Cup final

Night matches
- English League Cup matches apart from the Final
- Mid-week League matches
- FA Cup Replays
- ECC/EFA matches

Weather
- Decrease the likelyhood of rain and make the Weather seasonal.
- An orange ball used in snow.

Team Management

"B" Team - An option to have a "B" team so you can have a different line-up for Cup matches or lower priority League matches without having to make a lot of changes to your main team line-up rotating players each time.
CPU Managers - Improve tactical awareness and substitution logic of CPU Managers so players aren't played out of position and star players aren't on the bench when the team is losing.

Match Sim Engine

The realism of the match sim engine can be built upon further by taking into account more factors such as:

Home advantage - This often can prove crucial in football and can give the home team the edge.
Local Derbies - i.e. the north London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham is usually a tight encounter with both teams determind not to lose.
Current League standings - i.e. if Liverpool are 4 points behind the top team in the Premiership with the season nearing the end, they could field an attacking line-up in their next match to go all out for three points so the match has a higher probability of ending as a win or loss for Liverpool than usual.

Editing

- Option to edit the names of unlicenced Tournaments. This would be useful as there are quite a few Cup licences which Fifa doesn't have such as the Carling Cup, Champions League and Europa League.

Highlights Montage

At the end of your Manager Mode career, a highlights montage could be shown showing the most dramatic and memorable moments of your career such as a last minute goal which made your club avoid relegation or a brilliantly-worked goal to win the title.

Players

Fan favourite players - Certain players should become "fan favorites". For example: if a player is a team leading goal scorer or league clean sheet leader, etc., then fans should hang banners with his name/number on them. More importantly, if you sell/loan these players then fan appreciation should drop.

League Arm Badges - Change the players League arm badges upon promotion/relegation.

International Duty - Players should have to be called up to International duty such as friendlies and World Cup qualifiers to add a bit more of a challenge and realism to the mode.

For example: you'll have to deal with added fatigue, risk of injuries, player morale increase/decrease, and club vs country conflicts.

Contexual Celebrations - The end of match celebrations should be in context to the situation. i.e. if you win a mid-season League match which has nothing at stake, your players will solemly pat each other on the back and clap towards the fans but if you win a match of greater importance such as a Cup final or relegation/title decider, the post-match celebration will be much more joyous.

Statistics

Top Goal Scorers List - Seperate Top Goal scorers lists for each competition such as the League, ECC, FA Cup, English League Cup, etc..
View other League tables - Other Leagues simulating results, have those League Tables and stats viewable and career stat tracking for each player and club.
Visible League table markings - On the domestic League table have "markings" in a different shaded colour showing which places qualify for Europe, promotion/relegation spots and play-off spots.
Manager History - In 'Manager History' have the results and League tables from previous seasons in your career viewable. So highlighting a season on the list then pressing X will show both these options.
Pre-match Report - In the Pre-match Report show your previous result vs the opposition.
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Stadiums

Stadium upgrades - Option to upgrade to a bigger generic stadium when you upgrade your Stadium Manager staff.
Stadium name editing - Store data for stadium name editing to a different file so downloading the latest squads doesn't revert the names back to default.
Stadium Creator - Create your own stadium from a range of stand templetes. Including options to specify number of tiers, the number of rows of seats on each tier, seat colours, type of ad boards (electronic/standard), entrance style, pitch size/style, specify where the location designated for away fans should be, where the tunnel is located.

Media Interaction

Press Conferences - There should be a Press Conference which you are invited to at certain times i.e. after signing a new player, when you join a new club, before and after a match. If you don’t want to attend, you can send your assistant manager instead.

For example: if a penalty was the deciding factor of a match in which you lost, a question should be asked about it after the match like, "Did you feel the penalty awarded to ______ was just?" Answer: 1) "The decision by the official was a gross injustice." 2) "It was a fair decision; we just need to be more organized." 3) "Our team played hard. Sometimes these things happen." 4) "What kind of a question is that?!" 5) No comment.

Newspapers

Injury Reports - Relevant injury reports should appear in the Newspaper to help keep gamers aware of opponent’s injuries in a more user-friendly manner.

For example: let's say my club is Manchester United. I just finished a match, completed my Press Conference and get to look at the Newspaper headline which reads, "Chelsea Star Drogba Unlikely for Man Utd Clash".

Youth Academy

Nurture and develop youth players through your club's Youth Academy. The cost of building the academy will depend on the size of academy you want to invest in. The level can range from level 0 to level 10. The higher the level, the greater number of youth players you’ll get coming through the ranks.

As well as showing their current overall, it should show their player growth which can indicate how good they will be in the future and as they are very young this is generally quite a dramatic growth.

By having an academy, clubs can provide a pool of talent for everyone to use. Once these players reach 22, 23 some will be sold to make way for the next bunch of 16 year olds. These could be of all standards, from your squad cover in new teams to the game world to the megastars in the top 10 sides

This also means that when players get old and retire you don't have to rely on buying new players off other teams (which may cost a lot of money) but allows you to bring some home grown talent to the club for virtually free (except the large wages) who can replace the veterans. It offers a cheap alternative if there is little money at the club and buying a player would be too much of a burden on the bank balance.

Options:
- You can appoint your assistant manager to manage your youth team so you can concentrate solely on your senior squad.
- For each player, either you can promote them to your senior squad, or if you think that the player is not good enough, it is possible to release him.

Prize Money

More accurate prize money which reflects the prestige of the League's and Cup Tournaments. Including television revenue and prize-money relative to your final league position.

- The ECC winners should recieve around £30 million and the EFA winners around £6 million.
- Premiership winners around £15 million.
- FA Cup final winners - £1,800,000, runners up - £900,000.
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This is the sort of direction i want MM to go down. Quite a lot of the things listed are just sensible stuff like having the correct tod for certain matches, accurate prize money, not getting sacked for being 1st, etc... other things such as more Newspaper headlines would be a nice touch and more stats/trophy celebrations/specific commentary relevent to your season would make it feel more like a career mode than a set of exhibition matches.

I like the idea of dynamic AI formations as the CPU are far to predictable in Fifa 10 and doesn't require you to think tactically to outplay the CPU consistantly so this needs to be addressed.
 
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some very good things there cooler

the only thing i would add is that we need FA cup replays, at the moment it goes to extra time and penalties.
 
- I would add that the "dynamic" board expectations (after every result) be removed and that they only have an opinion once a month, or every 1/4 of the season. Seeing the board being delighted with me one week for reaching 2nd, the next week Ive dropped down to 5th after winning the carling cup and playing a game less I then get the response of I must do better and watch out that I don't get sacked. It's crap and takes a lot away from the game.

- Also the board should stay the f#$k out of team issue's. If I want to loan a 19y.o. out I should be able to, or if I want to sell another waster I should be able to! As long as I meet the minimum amount of squad players it shouldn't be a problem.

- Get rid of the assistant manager unless it actually works!

- This is more graphics, but actually make a stadium have the correct proportions to the pitch. Get sick of seeing a trainingpitch between the goal and stand at Anfield.

- Actually have proper macth simulation after you played your match. I'm pretty sure it's just a fake menu (seeing as the results are already in the league standings before I even play my match).
 
Highlights montage would be a great thing at the end of the season. But they can't even get normal highlights right. The highlights are something that they really need to work on.

Very good list though :DD
 
romagnoli said:
I don't see FIFA 11 as something that will just be a tweaked FIFA 10 at all, certainly not from what's been coming out of EA's devs of late. They've shown significant interest in a lot of threads that are based on simulation. Time will tell obviously, but I think you might be being a bit too cynical Nick :)
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Maybe but we have been banging on and giving input for years with no results, they make all the right noises then when the games out they spring the old "wanted to add that but had no time" or "could not incorporate it without re-writing most of the code"...

Maybe the last ten years of half ass-ed football games has jaded me somewhat!...

Some great suggestions coming in, one thing you must reiterate and keep banging on about is the vital importance of implementing injuries, this is such a massive part of the modern game and can decide titles...

They have been promising that for the last two years...;)
 
I think the focus of the past two years has been the gameplay, Clubs, Virtual Pro, Live Season etc etc. This year, MM has been the topic that has infuriated fans the most. Posting the Manager Mode buglist on Peter Moore's blog, while quite an extreme course of action which almost got Marcel Kuhn the sack despite it being his first year and him taking over some very outdated code, clearly got EA's attention.

I'd be amazed if, now that there are more features in the game than most people will ever use, Manager Mode doesn't get something like the long overdue overhaul we've craved. Not least considering some of the things PES pulled off with their ML this year (not played it much but it does seem incredibly deep)..
 
That's the thing with the manager mode. Alot of the things wrong with it are the most basic or stuff that they had sort of right, but seem to have messed them up somehow?!

They just need to concentrate on getting the basics solid and then do all the fancy stuff.

they do need some fancy stuff to make playing manager mode unique, but these can also be basic.

In Pes for example after every game there is a still picture of a moment in the last game while you are in the menu screen. It doesn't sound like much, but its just a little detail that is nice and makes you feel more connected to it.

It is the same sort of thing with the highlights. just getting that right would add alot to the game and make you feel more connected to it. At the moment it feels like they are trying too much stuff and not concentrating on the fundamentals that make it an experience.

In Pes the inclusion the master league is exceptional and really gets you into the master league. It feels like you are actually involved in the manager mode and feels even more real.

In Fifa if they just put all the cups in there with the proper format (right amount of legs etc) even if they are called stupid names, would be a big improvement. proper league rules like playoffs etc, just being implemented properly for each league would be a huge step.

These are all small things, but would make a huge difference to playing it.
 
I think something that could be done easily would be letting us play in Europe right away if we pick a team that has qualified in the previous season In real life.
I also think giving the European nights some sort of atmosphere, special adboards the name of the competition. The game being played at night, some sort of intro song when the players come out. You don't need the licenses to make it feel special, because the european nights are special.

World player of the year announcements, player morale, players not liking that they are not played. News from other places. Playing a South American team in the club world cup.
 
They should have fixed the existing manager mode stuff that was broken before adding a single new feature, that would have left us happy, instead they bring in a few new things, every single one of which is broken in some way or another:

New Assistant Manager = Broken, even if you turn him off your squad is constantly reset whenever you buy/sell someone.

Dynamic Board Feedback = Broken, if you play a cup match instead of a league match you lose reputation for dropping down in the league, which due to the boards being overly harsh can mean you get sacked when high in the table or even meeting their expectations.

Variable Weather = Broken, constant night matches when inappropriate, constant rain, snow at wrong times with a white ball.

Player Shortlist = Broken, you cannot ever sign a player you have shortlisted.

I know there's more as I've listed this crap numerous times since the game was released on the EA forums.
 
jcvf90 said:
I think something that could be done easily would be letting us play in Europe right away if we pick a team that has qualified in the previous season In real life.
I also think giving the European nights some sort of atmosphere, special adboards the name of the competition. The game being played at night, some sort of intro song when the players come out. You don't need the licenses to make it feel special, because the european nights are special.

World player of the year announcements, player morale, players not liking that they are not played. News from other places. Playing a South American team in the club world cup.
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I just started a new MM with Man Utd to check if the ECC is played 1st season. I already knew that user controlled teams couldn't be in it 1st season but even the CPU teams don't compete in the ECC 1st season.

I think it's due to licencing. EA could get sued by UEFA if they put the real life Champions League qualifiers in themselves.

As a workaround, why don't EA make it so the CPU randomly selects teams to be in the ECC/EFA 1st season so big teams like Man Utd and Real Madrid will most likely be in it due to their high team rating. I don't thik this would cause licencing issue's because EA wouldn't be placing the teams in themselves manually, the sim engine would be doing it.

I agree about the European competitions needing a much needed boost as playing ECC/EFA matches is literally just like playing exhibition matches in it's current state. I think customization is the right way to go about it. PES has a custom chants feature so there's no reason why EA couldn't add a feature like custom anthems which would increase the authenticity and atmosphere to European matches somewhat. I posted a suggestions thread on this last year which ive quoted below;

1. Editing. Option to edit the names of unlicenced Tournaments so the ECC and EFA can be renamed to their real name.

2. Night Matches. All Champions League matches and the majority of Europa League matches played at Night. This would obviously require the Night feature to be added to all stadiums but hopefully that is something EA are working towards doing anyway.

3. Commentary. The Commentators should be fully aware of the situation in 2 leg tie's. So if your playing in the 2nd leg and it's 2-1 on aggregate they will talk about how the tie is on a knife-edge and mention crucial away goals, etc..

4. AI. The CPU plays a slow, methodical and more technical style of football so matches feel different from League games.

The CPU team should be fully aware of the situation in 2 leg tie's. For example, if Juventus (CPU team) drew the 1st leg 1-1 at home and they were losing the 2nd leg 2-1 away. The players would be aware that an equalizer would win them the tie on away goals. Juventus would change their tactics to a more attacking set-up that allows the players to push forward and they would show much more greater urgency than when the score was level.

5. Match balls. The match balls are subject to the manufacturers rather than the competition organisers. EA could ask the Adidas graphic designers to make them without the Champions League and Europa League branding.

Back when EA had the video game rights for the UEFA Champions League, the Adidas Finale was in the PES series without any logos of said competition present.

6. Custom anthems. so the UCL anthem can be played before each match while the players are shown lining up. This should be easy to add as it would just be a matter of playing an audio file.

7. Custom ad boards. Which can be assigned to Tournaments of your choice. So if you create the UCL boards they will only be shown in stadiums in UCL matches.

8. Custom arm badges. So the UCL badge can be put on players arms.

9. Final venue. The venue for the final changes each season to a different European stadium so the final isn't played at the same Generic stadium every season.

The Champions League final must be randomed in the big stadias like Camp Nou, Allianz Arena, San siro, Santiago Bernabéu, Emirates stadium, Olympiastadion Berlin, Veltins Arena, Signal Iduna Park, Stadio Olimpico, Old trafford or Wembley. The Europa League final must be in stadias like Anfield, Stamford Bridge, BayArena, Amsterdam ArenA, Estadio de la luz and the other middle stadiums.

10. Trophy Celebrations. The winning team shown lifting the Trophy and being presented with winners medals.

11. Match Atmosphere. Electric big match atmosphere to capture the drama and magic of European nights. Clubs known for creating an intense, white hot atmosphere such as Galatasaray and Liverpool should especially have a fired up crowd. Fans can often play a key role in the outcome of a match, this should be reflected.

12. HUD. In 2nd leg of a tie, the aggregate score should be displayed in brackets on screen.
If your in a Group which is tight, in crucial matches the Group table could be shown on screen as it currently stands and Martin Tylor could talk briefly about who will qualify if the results remain the same and if it's a must-win situation for your team.

13. Qualification. Teams who have qualified for the Champions League in real life i.e. Man utd, should be in the competition in the 1st Season.

More realistic teams in the Group stages.

On the domestic League table have "markings" showing which places qualify for the ECC and EFA. Perhaps shown by a different shaded colour.

14. Prize Money. More accurate prize money which reflects the prestige of the Tournaments. In total, the Champions League winners should recieve around £30 - £40 million and the Europa League winners around £6 million.

15. Watch Matches. Option to watch CPU v CPU matches. So for example, if your Arsenal and you get knocked out in the semi final by Barcalona. You would then be able to watch Barcalona play in the final which could help you analyse where it all went wrong. With 360 degree dribbling and AI advancements, watching CPU matches should be more entertaining and exciting to watch than they were previously.

16. Penalty Shootouts. Create longer and more nailbiting shootouts with cutscenes of each player walking up to take their kick and maybe replays of saves or bad misses and more emotional celebrations upon winning, especially if its the Cup final.

17. EFA Format. As the Europa League has now got a new format, the EFA should be changed to reflect this. The group stage should be 12 groups of four teams (in a double round robin) instead of eight groups of five (in a single round robin).
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Placebo said:
They should have fixed the existing manager mode stuff that was broken before adding a single new feature, that would have left us happy, instead they bring in a few new things, every single one of which is broken in some way or another:
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:APPLAUD: Yep, and just do what they promised and crowed about for months before release and then hid after the shit hit the fan...

It will be at least 2 releases of a product that resembles what they say is coming before I ever take anything EA say about a FIFA title as even remotely true again, as for Rutter the guy is tarnished for life as far as I'm concerned I can't see how the guy even played the thing...
 
@ Cooler,

Instead of randomising ECC in the 1st season you could just let the player select the teams (with a random button if you can't be bothered).

Admittedly some people will abuse it to get burnley in the CL but even then it's still their own game they are ruining so it does no harm.

I think forfilling their promises will go a long way to improving MM, it's the least they should do!
 
TikTikTikTikTik said:
@ Cooler,

Instead of randomising ECC in the 1st season you could just let the player select the teams (with a random button if you can't be bothered).

Admittedly some people will abuse it to get burnley in the CL but even then it's still their own game they are ruining so it does no harm.

I think forfilling their promises will go a long way to improving MM, it's the least they should do!
Click to expand...

That's one way but in Fifa 10 they don't even randomize the ECC 1st season so i doubt EA would let us manually choose which teams in going to be in it.

It makes you wonder why EA didn't let the sim engine randomize ECC/EFA qualifiers 1st season in Fifa 10 because when you play through a season all the results apart from your own are randomized by the sim engine anyway.

Another idea i had was to have real life Managers in MM. At the moment in MM, no clubs apart from your own have a Manager so the clubs controlled by the CPU lack identity. If each club had a Manager, clubs decisions such as match subtitutions or transfers could be based on specific qualities of the manager rather than just random AI logic.

For example if you started a MM career in Fifa 11 as Liverpool, you'd see that Alex Ferguson is the Man utd Manager in your 1st season (2010-2011) but then when you get to the 2014-2015 season, you might see that he's retired and another Manager has replaced him. This would change the development of the club and maybe even the style of football they play. Once players have retired, certain players could even becomes Managers.

Each Manager would have a star rating. So for example, only likely a 5 star Manager would replace Alex Ferguson when he retires from Man utd. Each Manager would also have a set of stats specifying their abilities i.e.

Motivation
Leadership
Experience
Temperament
Tactical Knowledge
Decisiveness
Eye for talent
Style of play


The Managers don't neccesarily have to be visual so you see them on the sidelines in matches, although that would be even better. There's over 15,000 players in Fifa so in comparison, adding around 500 managers shouldn't to much of a task for EA's data inputers.
 
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Also they should sort out the menu's;

Does anyone know what the point is of the This Week wages / Last Week Wages information?! I mean it doesn't even show you how near to your maximum you are.
 
Nick Cave said:
:APPLAUD: Yep, and just do what they promised and crowed about for months before release and then hid after the shit hit the fan...

It will be at least 2 releases of a product that resembles what they say is coming before I ever take anything EA say about a FIFA title as even remotely true again, as for Rutter the guy is tarnished for life as far as I'm concerned I can't see how the guy even played the thing...
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure he never did play the game - he was paid to promote it. I don't trust EA now when it comes to the FIFA franchise either. I traded my FIFA in for the first time this year before buying the next version. It's a pile of shit and EA should be ashamed of themselves for putting it out after the hype.

That Kuhn fucker should have been fired during his honeymoon and docked his entire years paycheck.
 
alka246 said:
I'm pretty sure he never did play the game - he was paid to promote it. I don't trust EA now when it comes to the FIFA franchise either. I traded my FIFA in for the first time this year before buying the next version. It's a pile of shit and EA should be ashamed of themselves for putting it out after the hype.

That Kuhn fucker should have been fired during his honeymoon and docked his entire years paycheck.
Click to expand...

To be honest i don't think it's Marcel Kuhn's fault the state MM is currently in.

Put it this way, if he was the producer of Master League in PES instead of producer of Manager Mode would Master League be the bug filled mess that Manager Mode is? I very much doubt it because for whatever reason Konami have higher standards of programming than EA even though they've got much less resources than EA do.
 
The board. :NONO:

Inspired by the MM (Masochistic Mode) I'm attempting with Turkish minnow Ankaraspor, in which after a very narrow 0-1 defeat at home to title-challenging giant Fenerbahce, I was told that the board 'expected a better result against this opponent' :CONFUSE:

1. Board Comments.
What use is judging my result based on expectations if I was not informed of those expectations beforehand? If I should be doing X, please lay it out clearly prior to the attempt.

Not only would this flesh out the feature to something more well-rounded, it would also give some character to that fixture. Am I the underdog against a dangerous opponent? Am I expected to go and win this? Are we expecting a tight game against an evenly-match opponent? It creates tension and gives the gamer an outline of what sort of atmosphere surrounds this particular fixture, helping to make it different from the last.

It also gives the subsequent feedback comment more meaning. If I get a very positive/negative comment after a win/loss, I know it's because beforehand I was expected to lose/win, etc etc.

Needless to say, the other important thing is to make these expectations/comments logical and authentic... but I'll try to keep away from moaning about endless bugs for this post.

2. CONF. LEVEL
Presumably 'board satisfaction', represented by a half-assed coloured bar. This un-engaging bar has no authenticity, no relevance to real football... however, I imagine this bar is a cheap and easy graphical way of representing feedback without requiring tons of localised text, which is understandable.

At least expand on the bar to make it more readable, easier to judge. Something as simple as using coloured lines to split the bar into sections that represent different grades of satisfaction. If I know I'm hovering just above the red line (unhappy), it adds tension and also lets me know where I stand. If I see the level move closer to the green sector (happy), I know where I stand better than just a white bar filling up/down a bit.

I'm sat looking at my Conf. Level now, it's about, I don't know, maybe just over two-thirds full and white. Is that good? Am I doing well? If it drops a bit further, will the board still be happy enough or will they start considering my position? I don't know what to expect. What is this value that the white bar is supposed to be telling me? It provides no reference. It's like being given a thermometer with no degrees of temperature marked on it.

3. Seasonal Expectation
In the Board Assesment screen, it says my expectation for this season is "Avoid the releg. zone". Next to that, the 'CURR. RESULT' (this front-end design is so bad!) says: "17" in a white font.

Okay... so how am I doing?

I'm assuming that '17' represents my position in the league table; it doesn't say.
Nor does it say that I'm 17th out of... how many?
Nor does it say how big the relegation zone is (and this is in a league with only one division represented in the game). How am I supposed to know what minimum position I'm aiming for? It doesn't even tell me on the League Table screen either.
Nor does it give any indication whether or not my CURR. RESULT is matching/surpassing/failing the expection, which is the important thing.


Given that the very purpose for the existence of all the above features is to provide feedback to the gamer on their progress, which is hugely crucial in any game, such impenetrable ambiguity is crippling. I don't mind things being simplistic, in fact in some cases that's often the better approach, but some semblance of application of logic and care could very easily make this part of the MM so much more sastisfying and engaging.
 
Manager Mode / TEAM MANAGEMENT
> Custom Tactics

>>> 1. Creating a style

The arbitrary number system...

These slider numbers out of 100 obviously have no relevance to real football. When discussing a real life team, you wouldn't say 'they defend about 45 deep'.

I'd suggest replacing these numbers with five distinct settings. I've spent some time faffing about with custom tactics and I don't believe that simplifying it in this way would be at all restrictive.

Examples:
Build Up Play Speed = Very Slow > Slow > Balanced > Fast > Very Fast.
Build Up Play Passing = Very Short > Short > Mixed > Direct > Long.
etc

This does four things:
1) Uses real-world terms to provide a clearer understanding of what you're dealing with.
2) Simplifies the system to something easier to assess. The difference between 56 and 62 is ambiguous and probably irrelevant. Separating things into clear options makes tactic creation much more straight forward and less 'fluffy'.
3) Surely makes things easier to tune the balance on the pitch from a code/design point of view, with only five settings instead of 99? Hopefully then the devs can produce more tangible and more distinct results during gameplay.
4) By moving from the three overlayed bands to five distinct settings, it also adds a bit more definition when my opponent's tactics are listed in the Pre-Match Report...

>>> 2. Describing a style

I'm about to play against Antalyaspor. The Tactics Report tells me:
Build Up Speed = Balanced
Chance Passing = Normal
Def. Pressure = Medium.

It bears no relation to how you would describe a real team's style, it's just a data list. I don't get a clear sense of my opponent's style of play or character, particularly if I'm not someone who fiddles around with custom tactics very much.

As the manager, I want to know (along with who their danger men are and what the expected result is, but that's another subject) how the opponent is going to attack me, and what style of defence I'm going to encounter. The Tactics Report is already trying to tell me this, but not in an easily recognisable way.

If it was something more along the lines of:

Attacking style: Slow, short passing.
Defensive style: High press.
or
Attacking style: Very Fast, direct passing.
Defensive style: Deep line.
or
Attacking style: Balanced tempo, mixed passing.
Defensive style: Moderate pressure.

This still uses the data (though BUP Passing instead of CC Passing), just presented in a more readable fashion. Also, as I mentioned earlier, if the settings are changed to five options instead of three slider bands, the data presented here is now naturally more descriptive.

As I'm whizzing through these menu screens to get back out on the pitch, I now have an easy, at-a-glance understanding of my next opponent. Already I'm approaching this fixture with different expectations, aware that this opponent plays a different style to the last. If similarly simple work was applied to the rest of the Pre-Match Report screen (and ensuring that the information is tangible out on the pitch, otherwise this is worthless) then I'm sure it can go some way towards relieving the monotony that fixture after fixture can bring.
 
If FIFA11 has an 'attacking work-rate' and 'defensive work-rate' attribute for each individual, I wonder if that will affect the Edit Formation screen at all. In there, for each position you can set how often they attempt forward runs and how diligent they are defensively, which, correctly or incorrectly, I've always sort of loosely interpreted as attacking and defensive work-rate. It would seem pointless to give Ronaldo a low defensive work-rate attribute if you can just counter it by sticking him in a position with high defensive diligence. Maybe they'll remove it.

Perhaps it could be replaced with some kind of 'freedom' setting? High freedom would be akin to a free role, in which the player would be allowed to float wherever he wanted when his team has the ball, while Low freedom would tell them to hold their position at all times. Obviously Neutral freedom would be as normal.

A lone striker given high freedom would naturally play as a 'false nine', dropping deep and wide in search of the ball; with low freedom he'd remain in the centre, either as a target man or as a poacher in the box (depending on his other attributes). A winger with high freedom could choose to drift infield as much as he likes; with low freedom he would stay out wide, for if you wanted to stretch the play as much as possible. A centre-back with high freedom would play as a libero.

Setting these things by individual position would also make far more sense than the generic 'Positioning: Organised/Free-Form' option that currently exists in the Custom Tactics settings, which affects the entire team. In the Brazilian national team, Kaka and Gilberto Silva don't operate under the same kind of positional freedom.
 
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I think the tactical arrows will be secondary to the players' own stats, so take Berba for example, you might be foolish enough to set him with an arrow to drop back in midfield to help out but as he's a lazy fucker in 90 minutes he'll do it perhaps twice (if that), whereas if you put Rooney in that slot he'll constantly drop back to help out, possibly even every single time the opponents are attacking (obviously as long as he's not wearing an England shirt of course).
 
The arrows are different. The (white) arrows purely tell them where to position themselves, not how much effort they put into runs off-the-ball or tracking back to defend.
 
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