Football Manager 2024

[King Ellis]

Shall we post all the FM tubers talking about it for @METALMANs enjoyment?

[therockbox]

Only if they're pulling The Face in the thumbnail.

[King Ellis]

Having now looked over it, there seems to be a lot of negativity around the article which I suppose in many ways is to be expected. Change in general can always lead to a lot of negative feedback and this is possibly one of those cases where the angry minority are going to be the loudest because it's obviously a work in progress. I think it's okay to be sceptical about these sort of previews, especially when we're jumping into this whole new engine which has the potential for things to go wrong, so the proof of the pudding will be in the final release. I can also see where the idea of taking several things out of the game is a bit alarming, especially in light of several lean years where the stuff going in was thin and far between, manager timeline anyone?

But it seems like the developers are actually using a concept that a lot of people called for when the womens side of the game was announced. "Why waste time developing something only a small number of people are going to use? Why not just the resources you were using on that on more core features." "Okay, here are several features only a minute percentile of our players actually use so we're skipping over them for now." "NO, NOT LIKE THAT!"

I have no idea what the chalkboard even is, I suppose shouts is a big one but they never seemed very intuitive to me. It always felt like a confirmation bias button where because 'demand more' worked once, you'd just do it again and again in the hopes it worked. It never felt obvious when you were meant to use which shout in what situation so it came down to trial and error which you might not be willing to do in games that mattered. Plus it often felt like the player reactions didn't make sense, like when we're approaching the last 10 mins of the game with a narrow lead so I tell them to concentrate, then they get mad or upset at me for it?

And people are acting like the game looks like a mobile game made for babies based on the 'screenshots' which are actively described as being more for illustrative purposes so people can get a better idea of the features that might not come across well in text.

[Mad Jack]

Due to the engine change, expectations are sky high and the fanbase, like all online fanbases, has become incredibly reactionary. It's annoying.

[FLiam]

One thing I would say is they lost a lot of trust with FM24's release as the build up spoke about all these new improvements to AI and AI squad-building which simply did not exist.

Scouting for example is still pretty much broken. 

[Mad Jack]

4 hours ago, King Ellis said:

Shall we post all the FM tubers talking about it for @METALMANs enjoyment?

How's he gotten a 26 minute video out of four screenshots and a medium length blog? True talent.

[9 to 5]

On 27/06/2024 at 19:19, The Lusophone said:

How's he gotten a 26 minute video out of four screenshots and a medium length blog? True talent.

I hate you for posting this shite and Ellis for suggesting it. Also, for existing.

[METALMAN]

On 27/06/2024 at 14:22, King Ellis said:

Shall we post all the FM tubers talking about it for @METALMANs enjoyment?

Take this as an implied angry react

On 27/06/2024 at 19:19, The Lusophone said:

How's he gotten a 26 minute video out of four screenshots and a medium length blog? True talent.

this guy is my least favourite one.

[King Ellis]

3 hours ago, 9 to 5 said:

I hate you for posting this shite and Ellis for suggesting it. Also, for existing.

Love you too hun.

[JasonM]

Got bored and bought FM24 on sale, decided to do a save in japan because that seems to be new this year, and added an expansion thing that adds all the way down to Tier 7.

So in Japan there are four 'main' leagues, kinda like the Football League in the UK. Then below that are semi-pro and amateur leagues that all fracture into regional and then local divisions.

The tier 5/tier 4 promotion/relegation system is one of the harshest ones out there, with about 135 clubs fighting to get into a multi-tiered playoff system to get one of the two promotion spots.

The top 2 of the ten Tier 4 sub-leagues get an invite, as well as the finalists of the Shakaijin Cup which is competed by all the tier 5 and lower non-pro clubs. On top of all that, the winner of the end-of-season 'final series' gets a direct spot, and the losing finalist has to play against the third placed team, the winner of that gets to face the second-to-last from the JFL, a match they MUST win because in the event of a draw the JFL club gets to stay up.

If all that isn't mental enough, all the group games are played on consecutive days, and the entire max. 6-7 game series is wrapped up within two weeks. The earlier mentioned Shakaijin Cup (5 games, not counting the regional qualifiers earlier in the season) is all consecutive days.

It's an insane gauntlet.

So anyways, the prefacing is done.

I start in Tier 7, Nagoya Soccer Club (Nagoya is the fourth city of Japan with like 2 million citizens). After a harsh season with no real depth, I finish third and I lose out on the playoffs for tier 6, not that I was aiming for that [cope]. But earlier in the year I did win the regionals of the Shakaijin Cup, but that one is filled with semi-pro Tier 5 sides that have full squads.

Five games later, I lose the Shakaijin Cup Final... Surely they wouldn't invite a Tier 7 club to the end-of-season tournament, that'd be a bit silly.

... Anyways, I get invited to the end-of-season tournament...

Three groups of four teams each, again, all of them major tier 4 clubs that all won their respective regional division or were runner ups, many in highly competitive regions like Tokyo, Osaka, and my own Nagoya. Teams that have a reason to fight for getting into the JFL.

Unsurprisingly, I finish 2nd in my group, still very impressive for a club that has no reason to be there. It was a good season, next season I can focus on getting into Tier 6...

... Except, well, I was the best 2nd finisher and I get the Lucky Loser spot in the next round, another group stage, including one club that has beaten my ass earlier and one that wants to get revenge for the Shakaijin Cup. I honestly don't stand a chance against these dudes.

... So anyways, I won the Final Series with 7 points out of 3 games. But you know, surely there are checks and balances in the system to prevent a Tier 7 club from instantly leaping into Tier 4, you know, it would just not make sense for clubs to be able to skip two divisions like that.

(There's no checks and balances, Nagoya Soccer Club, the club with only amateurs and not even a full squad is moving to the JFL for the 2025 season)

This country's mental.

EDIT: Apparently there WERE checks and balances, and instead a random finalist was drawn out of a high hat to take my place in the JFL, and I am still in Tier 7... Well, I guess that'll save me from utter embarrassment getting whipped in 30 games?

[Baddar]

Currently house sitting for my parents, so I've had a bit of an FM day today.

Started by updating my player faces pack, all 17GB of it. But everyone has their faces in game now, even down to the u18 squads. Using a different skin as well which is far better than the default.

Continued my Utd save that I started when I got the game on release. Still only in season 2 (haven't played it much at all in months), so decided to try the key highlights instead of extended and it's been a game changer for me. I got about 10 games done tonight in the same amount of time I'd do about 4 on extended. So I'll be sticking to that for the foreseeable. 

[King Ellis]

The big eSports event for FM is kicking off today. Various countries have sent representatives, with England having 2 and there's various YouTube/Twitch people involved. Like, England has WorkTheSpace/TomFM on one side and RDF/SecondYellowCard on the other. Plus lollujo, Zealand and DoctorBenjy are doing analysis with some proper footballers meant to be turning up as well at some point. 

It's 4 groups of 4 to start with where each group is a different team and you play 3 seasons, whoever does the best goes through to the final which is more traditional PVP in a fantasy draft.

It sounds a little convoluted and the first phase scoring has the potential to be a bit ambiguous but it's cool to see this big event for the game and the community in the same vein that stuff like FIFA and Rocket League has.

[Summers]

Yeah, I saw WTS post about this. Seems interesting. Is Zealand doing analyst shit like Lollujo and Benjy? I'd have liked to see Zealand and Lollujo competing tbh but is what it is. I feel DrBenjy being involved when he's pretty much done no FM content for a year or so is taking a spot away from someone active in the community but I get it. 

Never thought we'd see FM be a proper esport, but I guess the Showdown DrBenjy ran helped prove there's a way and an audience, so that's probably why he's there as an analyst. 

[Mad Jack]

3 minutes ago, Summers said:

Yeah, I saw WTS post about this. Seems interesting. Is Zealand doing analyst shit like Lollujo and Benjy? I'd have liked to see Zealand and Lollujo competing tbh but is what it is. I feel DrBenjy being involved when he's pretty much done no FM content for a year or so is taking a spot away from someone active in the community but I get it. 

Never thought we'd see FM be a proper esport, but I guess the Showdown DrBenjy ran helped prove there's a way and an audience, so that's probably why he's there as an analyst. 

Zealand is part of the press for the event - they're having people like him do questions at press conferences for the managers. 

[Summers]

Ah that's cool. I saw Benjy say he was involved, but he didn't confirm how.

I would prefer seeing him compete if I'm being honest though - but I like that.

 

Three seasons in three 9 hour days sounds like an absolute grind, but the finals will be fun I'm sure. Hopefully Jack and Tom make it. 

[Lineker]

I'll try to watch some of it. metalman must be spinning in his grave though.

[Summers]

Well the next three days they’re streaming the qualifying format. Jack and Tom are on now. Think RFD and SYC start later. 
 

[King Ellis]

The 9hrs limit does add sine interesting strategy because you obviously want to get through quickly but if you're Zagreb you obviously expect to walk the league but you might wanna play the league games to make sure you're managing minutes for the CL games.

[Summers]

1 hour ago, King Ellis said:

The 9hrs limit does add sine interesting strategy because you obviously want to get through quickly but if you're Zagreb you obviously expect to walk the league but you might wanna play the league games to make sure you're managing minutes for the CL games.

Yeah I think it adds a very interesting dynamic. I’d assumed everyone would have the same team, but four different teams is quite interesting. 
 

First few league games are being played today, which Jack and Tom didn’t find out until an hour before the stream. 

[King Ellis]

Is there summaries being pushed anywhere for the FM event? I imagine Zealand will talk about it on his vlog but 9+ hrs a day is a lot to try and keep up on across so many participants. The FIFAe channel seems sparse aside from a few shorts.