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Having played FM08 extensively it's clear to me where SI have gone wrong.
They have tried to make the game more difficult by messing about with player morale and using it as a dominant factor in deciding games. Unfortunately, this brings about uncontrollable and unrealistic results.
If SI wanted to make the game harder they should have left that aspect of the game alone, as it was perfect as it was. A better way to make the game more difficult would have been by placing higher expectations on managers to perform almost on a game by game basis.
However, if you're going to implement this it has to be done intelligently. To a small extent this aspect has already been added to FM08, however, it hasn't been done properly. At the moment, not only has the player morale issue destroyed the game but twinned with "unrealistic" and "ill-thought out" interaction with board expectations and you are left with outright disaster.
Really, SI have to work much harder on the board and fan relationship with the manager. Expectations should be given pre-season, and if the manager comes close to delivering he should keep his job, falls way below then contemplate his future, if you manage the team horribly then you get sacked.
However, this really has to be based on more factors than it is currently. The game should take into consideration injuries, and how the volume of them might affect the teams performance. Who the team plays in cup games should ascertain whether the manager has done a good/bad job in a cup - for example if you are a lower division team and drawn away to a Premiership team how can the board be annoyed that you didn't get passed the 3rd round of the FA Cup or 2nd round of League Cup?? How manager purchases have performed over a season should be taken into consideration. How the team has performed considering the transfer budget given to the manager. So really the game needs to be a lot more subtle in this respect and much more responsive. This would give game players real incentive to win individual matches, whilst knowing they will not get sacked for illogical reasons.
Some aspects of the match engine have been improved, such as how poor players can't pass properly etc., pitches etc. But there are still plenty of bugs that need to be ironed out.
What really has killed the game is the player morale issue, which is so bad that games seem almost pre-determined - especially if you lose 1 or 2 games away from home. Coupled with the ill-thought out manager expectations and you have a recipe for disaster. On top of that, we have read many stories of teams managing to get promotion and achieving what would be considered marvellous things for their club only to be sacked for stupid reasons. This is VERY annoying for people who have put a lot of time and effort into the game and hugely unrealistic.
It's a lot to ask for SI to mend these values quickly as for me the game is fundamentally flawed. Therefore I don't think this game will be much value even after the patch. Personally, I wish I had never bought it, but there you go.
Hopefully SI can get their heads straightened out and learn from this experience. They need to concentrate more on game intelligence and not superficial additions such as computer faces, key man performance and pre and post-match reports which add no realistic value whatsoever.
I hope you can take this post in the way it has been intended.
Originally posted by White Raven:They have tried to make the game more difficult by messing about with player morale and using it as a dominant factor in deciding games
We havent done any such thing. Morale is a big part of football and has always been treated us such in our games. This year's game uses the exact same premise as the ones before it.
Originally posted by PaulC:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by White Raven:They have tried to make the game more difficult by messing about with player morale and using it as a dominant factor in deciding games
We havent done any such thing. Morale is a big part of football and has always been treated us such in our games. This year's game uses the exact same premise as the ones before it.
Originally posted by PaulC:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by White Raven:They have tried to make the game more difficult by messing about with player morale and using it as a dominant factor in deciding games
We havent done any such thing. Morale is a big part of football and has always been treated us such in our games. This year's game uses the exact same premise as the ones before it.
Just want to clarify that! </BLOCKQUOTE>
Then I'm afraid you don't appear to have tested the game properly as one way or another this has become the deciding factor as to how games are won and lost on FM08.
More importantly it is also highly unrealistic that players should have such low morale issues. Even before a ball is kicked player morale is usually low across the board with no explanation given for this. It also changes horribly from one game to the next, usually in a negative way which affects future performances. The whole game appears to be caught in this stanglehold.
You may say it has been left alone, but something is affecting it. There is a massive difference on this front between FM07 and FM08.
Originally posted by MrPompey:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by PaulC:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by White Raven:They have tried to make the game more difficult by messing about with player morale and using it as a dominant factor in deciding games
We havent done any such thing. Morale is a big part of football and has always been treated us such in our games. This year's game uses the exact same premise as the ones before it.
Moral seems to be the same as in the earlier versions. Haven't noticed a difference at all. Sometimes my players suffer low morale when losing a couple of away games, but mostly that's due to me not really paying attention to the team-talks.
Originally posted by Patje.lol:
Moral seems to be the same as in the earlier versions. Haven't noticed a difference at all. Sometimes my players suffer low morale when losing a couple of away games, but mostly that's due to me not really paying attention to the team-talks.
This is clearly not true in my experience. For example I had a striker who scored 23 goals in a season, yet his morale was never above poor for the entire season - no matter what I said to him or how the team performed. Maybe it depends on which teams you are managing, if you are controlling teams that have the best players and it's easy to win the majority of matches then morale stays higher, but at certain levels of the game it's obviously completely flawed.
Sounds like you're on your own here White Raven...
I certainly don't have that problem and I'm a relegation battler. My players are generally happy with away draws and close fought games which have been lost.
And you're striker has scored 23 in a season, why do you even care if he feels abit down!!!!
Where SI went wrong 
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