prakimus88

well there are some things added to fm08 which i thought were splendid (coach reports, more responsive media, confidence) and there were somethings i was indifferent to (match flow), there's only one new 'feature' that i despise: the new News tab.

The problem is that i just feel completely left out of the fm world when i don't get any feedback on what's happening around my squad.

Amongst the problems i feel exist with it:
1. news items in the news box give no indication of whether u've viewed them or not (not like the unread messages in the inbox).

2. news items do not get categorised properly by date, eg. after the transfer window closed, the next rounds fixtures still appeared below the last minute signings, meaning that you have to scroll through the entire news box to look for things your interested in.

3. related to the above, sometimes news events just don't appear in the box because the ordering is messed up, eg. a couple of seasonal awards were cut off from a news entry last season.

4. events that IMO really should just appear in your inbox don't anymore. For instance, you only get goal of the month, player of the month or even player of the year results when your player is involved, and so (if you neglect to scroll through the news box regularly), you could miss things like that.

5. there's no date in the main box.

6. the lower-corner 'sub-news-box' is baffling. Why does it exist, couldn't that space be used for filters (like the inbox) or just to spread out the news entry a bit more. What possible reason could there be to need that box there?

7. the key one; the news box is local to your current division. This means you never get informed of overseas transfers of note, super cup winner, league winners or even who won the champions league (with the usual brief match report)! And considering the continental competitions don't have a news section, this means the entire comp happens without any news on injuries or anything of the like.



I understand the rationale for the splitting of the inbox from the news section; a lot of players felt there was too much fluff going into their inbox, but there are plenty of people (like me) who would love to see it back.

My suggestion would be to make it entirely adaptable. Split all the media results into 3 different categories:
->Inbox
Similar to what exists now, your personal squad info, match info, scouting reports etc. as well as media on any shortlisted players goes here.

->League News
Like exists in FM08, every league should have a news section which goes through all the details of what's happening in the league; match results, transfers, player+manager comments to the media, awards and a couple of things i'd like to see added - injuries (as was in FM07) and records. In addition, i feel there should be an international news table (or a international news table for each federation) and one for each continental competition which outlines the similar news results. Each of these would exist as they currently do as one of the sections available from the competitions home page (where you see the league table etc.)

->A Personalised World News Page
This is the key idea that i would like to see implemented, a way for everybody to decide what world news they should get filtered through to them. You could access it through the button next to your inbox (which currently goes to the current division news), but it would be identical to the inbox, just giving world news that you have opted to have newsfeeds of. For instance, for every league news page (which exists for every nations football league, along with continental comps and international management), you should have a preferences/options page where you can decide what types of news messages for you to receive. The types of news could be separated into categories like transfers/match results/awards/records/injuries/media comments etc. And each of these could be available on varying levels - none, low or high (similar to how detail level works now).

For example if you opted to receive low level transfer info from serie A, you'd only receive a news item for the transfer round-up, when a player of high reputation is bought or sold (ie. continental rep or higher), or when a big money move is made (eg. 10m euro or more). On high level, you'd receive transfer info on every loan and signing made in the serie a.

Another example, would be to get match results from the premier league. On none, you'd know nothing about what happened in the epl, on low, you'd only get results of derby matches, matches between big teams (based on reputation or based on position on the table), upsets and key matches like fa cup finals or when a team gets relegated/becomes champions. On high detail, you'd get every league result from the epl in your personalised world news page.


I remember reading somewhere that SI were keen on hearing people's suggestions on what they want to see done about the news/inbox issue, and i hope i've given a viable solution. It's a long post, but i hope everyone can see that it's a fairly comprehensive, but easy to implement (i think) solution to the problem. it allows people to use the game as they wish; with as little or as much detail about the world in a way that makes you feel like your really part of it.

Love to hear what everyone thinks (especially from SI). Please if you respond however, keep it civil and constructive, as i don't want this thread to degrade into another 'FM08 is disgraceful' type thread.

olivne

good post.
they could also make a default that will be set based on the leagues running & your current club/nation/division