vivilion

The last few weeks, when I read every forums related to the FM08, I keeps reading a lot of people having problem scoring from having 30+shots per game.

From some stats that people showed, most complained about when they can't scored with 20 shots on goal, but more often than not, their opponents can score with only like 1-2 shots on goal in a match. That is, their opponent's goals/shots on target ratio is much more than themselves.

These 3 weeks, I have been trying to watch every full match I play and try to analyze how the AI works. Analyzing how people deisgn the AI is always my interest, so I put quite a lot of time to do this research (watching FM matches). And I have developed 2 theories that are related to this issue. Since a few days ago, when some people complained, I have read an SI staff posted about this is not a bug, and there is nothing wrong with it. So this is how the game is designed to work.



I hope I analyze it right, but if I am wrong, the SI staff who knows the code probably will laugh at me lol when he reads it. But here I goes. And excuse my English since it's not my first language


Theory 1:
When a team is at the "defense mode" (which is when opponent is having the ball) for a long period of time, the goalkeeper of that team will become more "concentrate" or would perform better than he normally would. Usually people with this kind of situation have donimation of the game, which makes their opponent's goal keeper to be in a "better" mode.

This theory I have 60% confidence that I am right, but it is quite hard to prove. I feel it from my subjective feeling from watching the games. Or maybe it is actually a result from my Theory 2.


Theory 2:
The factors that affect your striker's finishing. Everybody knows there are 2 important factors. Finishing and composure.

Like I have said before, most people who have this problem is when they are donimating a game, usually with opponent's defenders defending deep. In this case of situation, even if you have a good, and seems to be a quality chance, you probably will miss, or you shoot it to the goalie or to his fingertip. Sometimes you have a striker with 20/20 finishing/composure and wonder why you keep missing in this situation.

The quality of the shot is heavily affected in this kind of situation, in another words, your striker's composure is affected by the surrounding defenders. The match engine is designed so that, when a striker shoots, every opponent within his 6 yard perimeter will affect his composure. 6 yard is just an approximate. No matter where the defenders stand, even if they are all standing behind the strikers, the AI would take those defenders into calculation for the composure for the striker, hence the quality of the shot.

The people who have this issue, think everytime when your stiker shoots, how many defenders are actually 6 yards within your stikers. More often than not, you have 3, not including the goalie. And that is exactly why your goals/shot on target ratio becomes very low.


Solution:

Now, if you have any knowledge about tactics and understand my theories, you probably already know how to fix this.

My suggestion is, when you are facing a weak team, and when you are having this problem in first half, try change the tactics to be a little bit more conservative in second half, not crowding the box, so that, when your have a good chance, you will have more space, that is, fewer defenders near the striker.

Some of the people I know, also have changed to do a defensive counter attack strategy even if the opponents are weaker than them, and are scoring much better than before.

I hope this info will help those people who are frustruated about this problem.

ljdzsgffk

I kind of agree with you there. However, this raises the question - what is the point of playing an attacking style?

vivilion

Well, actually if you are really donimating the game, you win more than really scoring zero.

It's just that when this happens sometimes, it will make some people angry, and complain.

Just keep doing what you think is right. When you see this is coming, change strategy in second half.

schuey100

That's completely counter intuitive. I understand the theory behind it but the application is totally wrong and does not reflect real life football. You're right about space, crowding etc but the way one should counter this is by opening up more, playing wider, having the 2nd attacker drop deep, You don't do it by playing defensively and counter attacking.

Personally I've found a more realistic solution for it and have developed a tactic to counter the shots ratio but ultimately we are effectively trying to correct a weakness in the match engine. The bigger problem is actually strikers not running into the area with the ball when they have the opportunity to do so. If this was fixed I think the goal ratio would also be sorted out.

vivilion

Well, "opening up more, playing wider, having the 2nd attacker drop deep" is exactly what I am doing myself. If I knew how to say it in english in one line, i would have said that instead of just saying "playing more conversative".

The counter attacking way is how 2 of my friends play, but it also worked for them.

Omnislash

From my experience, a player needs both Finish and Composure, as well as Flair to score goals.

I have a striker with 17 Finishing and 20 Composure, but only 7 for Flair. He scores about 10 goals in 30+ appearances. Excellent stats all round but simply don't score on a consistent basis.

It's not that he doesn't get chances, too, he gets a bit of shots but he seems to only shoot from very tight angles and miss or drive the ball straight at the keeper.

To me now, a striker's Flair is on par with Composure in what I look for in a striker.