Football Manager 2018

#1

Features: http://www.footballmanager.com/news/fm18-features?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=roundup

DYNAMICS
A brand new module in Football Manager that connects your management of the dressing room with the team’s performances on the pitch more closely than ever before. Each player has a varying level of influence on the rest of the team and social groups now form within the squad. As a result, keeping the most influential players happy can reduce the number of unhappy players coming to your door.

A positive atmosphere in the dressing room with players working well together as a unit will lead to the players’ collective mental attributes receiving a boost. Your midfielders, for example, might benefit from an improvement in their Vision attribute, allowing them to pick out more defence-splitting passes.

SCOUTING
FM 2018 features a remodelled scouting system that’s based on how contemporary clubs recruit players. The new Scouting Centre is where you’ll receive player recommendations and can set what type of player you want to scout, using the new Scouting Focus options. For the first time, you can also adjust your scouting budget.

You’ll also get a more complete insight into a potential signing as your Data Analysts now produce their own reports on players; these include key statistics from their recent performances, allowing you to judge whether the player in question would be a good fit for your current tactic.

And many more…

#2

Downloading now…,… :wink:

#3

I expect a review!..

#4

VERY early doors. Defo watch the Scouting videos, as it’s somewhat changed.Player interaction is also far more detailed and has greater effect. Can give individual chats, before, half time and after matches which also has effect. Same as in-match “shouts”, all with the “attitude” as well as what you actually say.

I only played a few matches, so not able to give huge in-depth yet. And I gone a bit mad and gone with PSG!

#5

@Adrock - anything you wish to share with class? do you have a review… good, bad features, any bugs?

#6

No bugs I found yet apart from occasional “long” pauses whilst processing. Can’t say if it’s game or my pc, though.

DEFO more time consuming to sort out players and getting to know players and how to deal with them is an issue.I still not entirely certain of what scouts are saying etc, and no idea how many “hidden” attributes there are (not plugged in FM Scout yet).

Am I liking it? HELL yes.

#7

yeah, the squad management stuff (man management, fitness, team bonding) stuff is way more in depth. It’s proving interesting as getting a decent assistant to do my man management and run my fitness training has been a big part of my tactics for the last few years; the game placed way too much weight on form/fitness that there wasn’t enough underlying mechanics to get involved with.

Dario Benedetto; journeyman argentinian striker, £6m, 30(2) apps, 25 goals, 14 assists as a lone striker by the start of March in a pretty average side. I was really struggling to find a goalscoring forward but this guy’s carried my team most of the first season. Only got a work permit on appeal, i guess because argentina are a good nation as he’s only one cap (actually earned irl September 5th) and i was rejected for far better players with caps from shitter countries.

I’m playing an unnecesarily aggressive asymetric 2-3-1-3-1, joint top scorers in the league, second joint bottom for goals conceded :smiley:

#8

I have had crashes, always during background processing, either skipped through on holiday or didn’t happen after a reload, not sure on that, but it’s happened in previous betas so i’m not going to worry about it too much.

edit: this appears to have been due to an U23 scheduling issue; Peter Beardsley was arranging friendlies for them on their existing matchdays… sometimes after reloading he’d realise and cancel the friendly and the game continued just fine until the next occurrence. He’s been removed from ‘arrange friendly match’ duties now.

#9

well it’s out, the in-game editor is released, and SI have published a Gibraltar league on the steam workshop :smiley:

#10

I still persevering with PSG save, I’m in October of first season. TBF, I’m just getting shortlist going. VERY few crashes for me (couple of “pregnant pauses”). For my “instant gratification” it’s not great, but I’m liking the in-depthness even though I daresay I’ve not delved enough.

#11

A helpful review from EuroGamer

You only need an excuse. The fundamental appeal of Football Manager is the same as it was in the Collyer brothers’ debut in 1992, and if at any time in your life that appeal has spoken to you, it will do so forevermore. Really, it’s just a matter of how seductively each iteration whispers its new features list at you.

There’s a brand new match engine, you know," says Football Manager 2018, playing absent-mindedly with its hair. “Sports science and data analysis plays much more of a role now too,” it continues, making a circle with one hand and moving an index finger in and out with the other. You know in your heart of hearts that it’ll be a lot like the last time you spent 215 hours arranging spreadsheets and obsessing over promising teenage trequartistas. But still you cave.

Another review, from a different point of view:

It’s been 18 months since I signed for Celtic. During my first season, I impressed with a clean sweep of domestic trophies and qualification to the knockout stages of the European Champions League. At this point, this year’s campaign promises much of the same, and the board, press and fans love me. But things are boiling over in the dressing room, and I’m fast losing the confidence of my players.

How did this happen? Six months earlier, star man Tom Rogic turned in a few dodgy performances and was dropped to the bench. Several weeks later he came knocking, unimpressed with his situation. I promised him more first team football, but failed to keep my word. And as one of my most influential players, my untrustworthiness sparked an internal revolt. To make matters worse, the media has now caught wind of our troubles.

#12

The team-cohesion thing is a BIG part. Keeping players happy is tricky - I’ve not yet found a way to “look into” how to manage teh more difficult personalities (e.g. Neymar). I suggest taking notes, whether an arse kicking or a cuddle work.

I am struggling quite hard with team-talks - they are whole team and also individual. DEFO not got a great dressing room and just about at Christmas first season with PSG. Cavani can’t / won’t score… And the team is very lacking in depth. Transfer kitty is nice, mind! Not really noticed the effects of the Premier League budgets, except to forget trying to buy anyone - CRAZY prices, so I expect their budgets will be huge come end of season. I will see how the PL goes at the end of the season and then pick a team to manage in a new game to see about their budgets.

Scouting is also “different”, but I’ve a good shortlist going - just need to get my signings back onto it to save it! Once I figured taht out, if anyone wants it, let me know and I’ll try to sort a share out.

EDIT:- changed to a downloaded tactic - fekion Cavani scores 5 and STILL misses a pen!

#13

which downloaded tactic out of curiosity? I grabbed a couple and stuck them as my 2nd and 3rd choice tactics; the team is allegedly ‘competent’ at using them but i’ve not actually used them yet. I picked one with the same sort of shape as my own tactic, and another with a flat 442 that looks ridiculously offensive.

There are various test leagues you can download to test tactics in a benchmark fashion (you have an elite team and an underdog team of average players, in a league with 20 of europes biggest clubs, they play like every day for 8 months or so with a util used to keep everyone fit and happy throughout (for benchmark purposes) but the end results i always feel are ridiculously attack weighted, and unsustainable across a full season.

#14

If anyone spots this game going for around the 20-25 quid mark and the site is reputable, please shout.
Thanks in advance

#15

@adrock - is the editor part of the full game or do you have to buy this as an extra?

#16

the in-game editor is a £4 in-game DLC (steam funds). The game DB editor is free with the game and shows up under steam Tools like usual. There’s also the resource archiver which i believe is used for importing facepacks/badges/kits maybe?

There’s also FMRTE which is a slightly more expensive 3rd party real time editor (edit the game in progress) which has slightly different features to the in-game editor but is both more prone to error (can fuck your game) and more expensive (it’s 5 euros i think), but it includes the ability to freeze fitness and morale, so people use it for benchmarking tactics.

There’s a guy who makes a tool which does just the fitness and morale stuff which is free but he hasn’t released one for fm18 yet.

#17

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UHOH! IT’S ALL GONE AWRY.

loaned back for the rest of the argentinian season after i signed him, he’d played far more games but i think something went wrong with the end of season processing for argentina. That or there’s a striker out there scoring the bulk of 254 goals in 4 games.

edit: he got SAFotY and it all looks fine there.

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#18

something to report then…

#19

DOH! moment last night… sitting there fast forwarding through the final ZiiP game and then realised I could be downloading the FM2018 DEMO and then play it for myself.

This is now ready for an evening of trial and error.

#20

I have played a short amount of this and I am blown away at how difficult the game has become… it is so complex. I think I am going to wait for the game to come down in price but I understand now why the price is so high.

The game has new depths and wealth of stuff to do, even for a hands-off manager like me. I don’t do training (probably missing out on some of the rewards of the game) but still there is so much more.

I played like five friendlies in the same time frame I would have completed the FM2017 6th month demo.
Buying players is so difficult now, still trying to get my head around the scouting/data analysts etc. The tree of happiness is already starting to wilt.

We are winning games but not well, team talks before, during and after matches are provoking little to no reaction - quite disheartening… always an awkward silence when I enter the dressing room.

I screwed up setting up the character as I could not find where to enter DOB so started the game as 23 yrs old and without a club as the demo did not allow me to select a team - had to retire and re-add a manager.

I think I will restart the game and pick a different team - Chelsea are just too hard to manage.