The 25 Awesome Features SI Should Have Listened To

by Chappers  11/10/2013 | 9:42 0 Posted in Extreme FM, Possible Features 

The last 10 or 11 months has flown by, although pressing the space bar has seemed somewhat of a let down over that period I am massively looking forward to the new release of Football Manager 2014.

But it seems to me that many FM fans across the community felt the same as me about the last release, a recent poll we did also backs that up,  and although I can’t speak for them, the newly announced features list hasn’t exactly set my world on fire.

We can all hope that the one feature that we really think would improve the game and our game-experience will be listened to this year so we have scoured through the forums, listened to our readers and put together this little list of features that we, as FM veterans, think SI have neglected to include in FM 2014.

That said, we can’t be 100% sure what the new game will hold until we get our pale mitts on it in the next few weeks. But, if I were SI and these were the type of things my customers wanted, I would make sure they knew I had listened to them.

So here goes, here are the 25 things that the FM community want changing for the new game, but looks like SI have neglected to listen to (we think):

1. During the off-season, we should be allowed to schedule team-building activities, or take the team out (like the Manchester United squad recently went to the horse races). Such activities could make the players happier as well as increase team cohesion.

2. Would like to be able to be able to offer a certain club a player of mine in exchange of a player of theirs plus money. For example if I have a goalkeeper ‘A’, I could be able to offer it to a club for a player ‘B’ and a sum of 3m. The other club could haggle around with the fee if they are interested in ‘A’ or reject the deal completely.

3. Be able to have a conversation with a transfer target who has no intention of signing for your club to try and sell the club to the player.

4. When your team wins a trophy, there should be a celebration or a cut-scene showing your team lifting the trophy.

5. More atmosphere in stadiums, I just want to here the fans singing, that’ll make the match experience more realistic.

6. It would be great if we can assign fix tactic’s player instruction individually on the player itself that would replace team or position’s player instruction. For example, I wouldn’t want this specific (A) player to play long shot for his whole life so I set the Long shot bar to Rarely for this guy and whenever I sub him into the game I don’t have to worry about changing it again in team tactic.

7. I would like to apply for a job and have the club offer me an interview if they consider me for the job.

8. I would add a value graph just like the attributes graph but it will show the player’s value progress through the years just like the one that is in transfer market.

9. Want to be able to host friendly in different countries at neutral venues. For example: Celtic vs Real Madrid in the USA. Both clubs could split the profits and have a boost in their fan base and merchandise sales.

10. Foreground text linked to shirt number colour. That means reduced chances of unreadable colour combinations.

11. Online Hall of Fame leader board

12. Team building days when morale is low.

13. I would like us to get weekly training reports to see who has been putting in the effort and is looking sharp before a match. A lot more detailed than ‘Wellington Nem has improved significantly over the last month as a footballer’ would be nice.

14. Fan reaction. I’m an Arsenal fan and of course twitter went mental with the ozil signing for example. Thats one thing missing from the game, the fans. Give interviews on the teams website and get fan responses or gauge fan reaction to new signings – get to keep an eye on the shirt sales of specific players on the site to see how well your signings are being received

15. For free-kicks, I would like to be able to designate one player for crossing situations, according to his free-kick taking and crossing attributes, and another player to take them in shooting situations, based on his free-kicks rating and long range shooting ability. For example, James Ward-Prowse is now Southampton’s designated crosser for free-kicks and corners – Rickie Lambert’s aerial ability obviously makes him a target for Ward-Prowse’s deliveries. But Lambert takes the free-kicks when there is a shot-on-goal to be had.

16. Just to add some flavor to the game especially for those of us that play long saves, Dynamic rivalries. If you brought a small club up through the ranks and now are beating the big boys, some spice to some of the games would be nice. How about Derby’s being created and possibly even Cups. The manager would not have any actual control of these things. Maybe coming up with a name if you wanted. For example, I have been playing Dag & Red in my save. What if a fierce rival developed with West Ham? Make these matchups a bigger game then they are now.

17. Be able to announce your retirement/resignation months before you actually do so, and if your a club ledgend be able to choose who your replacement should be.

18. I’d love to see benefits for playing overseas tours. Arsenal just announced a sponsorship with Bodog based on their Asia tour success. Would love to schedule a tour or two in game and have the possibility of gaining an extra sponsor.

19. More control over financial aspects – choosing kit sponsors, stadium advertising, ticket prices including special offers etc

20. Basic character creator – decide how your little manager sprite dresses (suit, tracksuit, club kit etc.)

21. Would love to see a scenario like Gareth Bales/Luis Suarez appear within the game. Hurting team morale, eventually another figurehead or leader in the team coming to you asking him to be sold for the good of the club…

22. the chance to instill a philosophy at a club from the academy up to the first team, such as at la masia. Identify core values such as formation, possession, pressing, certain physical attributes etc and translate this over to the team in meetings with players coaches etc.

23. I would love some sort of stadium designer or being able to specifically request a certain size stadium or expansion.

24. Improve referees predictability. You can literally know when a player is about to be red or yellow carded. Maybe throw a surprise in, here and there. Also, a lot of fouls in the match engine look like perfectly good tackles or like nothing has happened at all and it ends up a foul?

25. Be able to buy 2 players from the same club for a combined fee.

If your idea made the list, thanks a bunch for your suggestion, we think its an awesome idea.

These 25 are, in our opinion, easy to include feature changes that would greatly enhance the realism and our playing experience within the game.

For me, theres 2 or 3 that really stand out and to be honest I wish I had thought for them myself, in particular the want for more information-rich and weekly training reports that gives us more information about the players form, training performances, morale and other stats that could effect our line-up for the next match.

The other 2 ideas that i really like revolve around transfers, which for me is the most exciting part of the game, number ’3′ and ’25′ are completely missing from the game at the moment and there is no real hint that they would be included in the next version but they are both real-world scenarios that happen all the time.

Combining a transfer fee for more than one player is a cracking idea and may lead to some awesome deals, you might want to purchase the best midfield two in the world, with all the chemistry and friendliness in one hit.

Also ‘tapping up’ a player before you make a contract bid would be a great way to convince a player to come and join you based on your long term aspirations for your club. For example, I found it totally frustrating that I wasn’t able to sign Cesc Fabregas for Arsenal on a recent save, he was on the transfer list but wouldn’t even speak to me. If I could tell him that I was about to win the CL, Premier League double and I wanted to build a team around him, he might have accepted my whole wage budget.

Anyway, at the moment this of course only speculation, but like I eluded to earlier, if I were in charge of SI’s marketing announcements and charged with driving additional awareness I would certainly start by addressing the concerns of those people that have been buying the game for over a decade, sadly this seems to be non-existent within their initiatives.

Sources:http://www.fmscout.com/a-football-manager-2014-new-features-suggested.html & http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2014-discussion/114200-football-manager-2014-new-features-changes-you-would-like-see-32.html