Football Manager 2019 officially announced.

[SirFozzie]

403 Forbidden

A bit less than 90 days away, will be the first FM game that won't require an unfake to unlock the German national team has they have the Bundesliga license.

[Izulde]

Hopefully they fix the UI screwups, especially the awful scouting system. Getting a headache just thinking about it.

[djsatu]

The game needs a complete overhaul. It's just not fun anymore.

[MrBug708]

Scouting was definitely a step in the wrong direction. I'm still waiting for a true DoF position.

[Critch]

And the press interactions are terrible too. Repeat over and over, and rarely make sense.

I'll still end up buying it though, even though FM2017 was better than FM2018 in my opinion.

[SlyBelle1]

Every year I say I won't buy it...but every year I do buy it, then it just sits on my shelf as I try and hold off to see if bugs worked out but by then, I have no desire to play. Same thing for quite a few of the last versions.

Hopefully this year I show self-control....minimally I should wait until a good sale way down the road.

[RainMaker]

I agree with what you all are saying. It's like they've gone through the past few years and said "let's find the boring parts of the game and make them a bigger part of it".

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Scouting was definitely a step in the wrong direction. I'm still waiting for a true DoF position.

Also the supporters. I just won promotion to the EPL despite being one of the three tipped to go down, and the fans have voiced their displeasure over a loss. I also wish there were more coaching progression. Like I go on Holiday for chunks of the year, and my Ass man will win manager of the month and year, but never be up for jobs most of the time. Pretty sure if Pep Guardiola were go disappear for the year, and Brian Kidd won the EPL, he'd be getting looks for management jobs.

[bhlloy]

Yeah, the on field product seems to get better and better (if harder every year) but most of the other stuff they introduce is a train wreck for the first few versions. The social media stuff might be the most useless “feature” ever introduced to a game. I just love seeing all those canned tweets where people are outraged about the 19 year old sixth stringer I just loaned out to a non league club. Really adds to the immersion.

The ridiculous scouting grind has been covered in detail elsewhere but hopefully that’s something they are refining this year. I actually did like the squad dynamics feature and thought it added a level of realism in that you wouldn’t realistically be able to just turn over a squad every year or sell all your leaders without some sort of repercussions.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by djsatu

The game needs a complete overhaul. It's just not fun anymore.

Originally Posted by Critch

And the press interactions are terrible too. Repeat over and over, and rarely make sense.

I'll still end up buying it though, even though FM2017 was better than FM2018 in my opinion.

Originally Posted by SlyBelle1

Every year I say I won't buy it...but every year I do buy it, then it just sits on my shelf as I try and hold off to see if bugs worked out but by then, I have no desire to play. Same thing for quite a few of the last versions.

Hopefully this year I show self-control....minimally I should wait until a good sale way down the road.

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I agree with what you all are saying. It's like they've gone through the past few years and said "let's find the boring parts of the game and make them a bigger part of it".

All of the above! I did manage to resist last year, and have zero plans to fold this year (although checking this thread is probably a sign of weakness )

[Icy]

More or less like the others, I have been buying it since 1995 and will keep doing it but... I usually play it just after release, find and read about bugs, stop playing waiting for a patch, then for another, etc and end not playing it anymore until the summer, when I get excited again with the football news, signings etc.

I'm really looking forward for a more competitive AI, specially squad building, with managers tendencies, teams buying players for the present or future that do make sense and do not root in the bench, not just based on CA/PA and reputation.

Same about the match engine, that I think has reached it's peak and needs a full revamp as seems it's hard to keep tweaking it without creating unbalances. One year is all about attacking the mid, next is about strikerless formations, then crossing, then is forwards shooting to the corners when in front of goal, etc.

I was really disappointed at SI this year at how early they gave up releasing more match engine patches and just told us to wait for next year, not usual from them.

As for the good things, squad dynamics is a nice idea, love it as it makes the rooster management more realistic.

[Arles]

Let me begin by saying I think this is easily the gold standard in regards to sports sims and play each version a ton. I enjoyed 18, but that may be because I play the more streamlined touch version. Here are some things that I would like to see improved (but, again, there is a lot I like with the game):

1. Press interaction. At this point, anytime the press gushes about one of my guys plays well - all I have to do is choose the second option (something like "I think the attention will help him do better") and he always likes it/morale goes up. I'd like a little more variability there. Maybe certain guys would rather you downplay it because they don't like the added pressure. If it's a guy with a rotation/backup role guy, maybe that spurns his agent to send an email asking for more money/better role. Another option might be to have this increase interest from other clubs if he's a starter. Just break up the monotony a bit with this aspect.

2. Scouting. I think FM has just really tried to out-think itself with this aspect. The goal of this feature (esp on touch) should be to help you find targeted players in a streamlined manner. I use a tactic that puts a lot of pressure on my AMR and AML to be productive. If they aren't, I end up often have 25-30 shots and only 1-2 goals. So, it would be great if I could tell my scout to look for an AMR that is 4 stars or better at the "Inside Forward" role and costs less than $60 million (for example). Then, I could check out each player and see if any are worth pursuing. As it stands now, I have to do these extensive player searches that rarely pan out. I'll ask the scout to find me 3+ star AMR players, but their ability at inside forward will be 2 stars (while they will be a 4-star winger). I can individually scout players, see their ability at the AMR inside role from my scout and then decide whether or not to pursue them by manually doing searches, scouting and so forth. Make this process easier for me. I know scouts aren't always 100%, but I'm fine with some error there. I just want to use them for the busywork of finding guys and let me make the final decisions on who will fit the team best. Setting up a scout assignment for targeted roles at a certain ability, cost and even transfer status (ie, listed or avail for loan) would really help here.

The goal of scouting (esp at the higher levels) should be to have 2-3 scouts out looking for replacements for older/lesser starters, 1-2 for guys who may be too expensive/poached and then 1-2 for younger players to develop. Having a system where you could have 6 scouts each giving you a legit list of guys for each area would significantly increase the fun of scouting. There's no guarantee these guys would pan out - but having a more targeted pool to start with would really help the immersion.

3. Better agent/team interaction. It would be cool if you were pretty weak at right back and the agent of a disgruntled right back would email you encouraging you to check out his client. Same goes for guys nearing the end of their contract. Next, for loans, I'm always sending out offers for my younger/backup players to other teams at a certain loan rate (ie, 0% for younger/cheap guys, 50% for more expensive and even 100% plus a fee for the top guys). When you are a lower level team, you should get pretty frequent emails in the preseason/offseason from bigger clubs looking to aggressively loan out there guys. Instead, I have to do massive searches, find 4-5 guys and then have 3 tell me that my team isn't good enough for their player. A better process would be for a team in the Championship (or even Premier League) to send me a list of guys they want loaned out to my level (say League 2). Then, I could shortlist and scout the ones of interest and streamline the loan process. Plus, it benefits the higher teams as they get a better chance of finding a good fit for their talented players. Basically, I would like the AI to mimic how I run a higher level team and aggressively try to loan out their prospects to the lower league managers.

4. Better loan interaction once you have a player. I like to take a 3rd keeper on loan at lower levels as an injury hedge. But, if I don't play that guy very much, that should impact that team's willingness to do future loans. I would also like the ability to send out "loan ultimatums" to lower level teams. IE, if I loan a guy to a league 2 team to be a starter or key player - but he's only playing a couple games a month - I would like the ability to say "play him more or I am recalling him". I think the same should occur for me. I think there is something like this now - but it's more like "Player X has asked to play more or be sent back" and it's pretty rare without much consequence.

To me, the big opportunity with FM is in the touch version. If they can streamline scouting and make more targeted feedback/emails/press to spurn on tough decisions, the game would really offer a great experience for more casual players.

[Critch]

Beta is out for people who have pre-ordered.

Managed to resist pre-ordering for approximately 2 minutes.

[NoSkillz]

Any early impressions from FOFC?

After getting *much* more than my money's worth on FM10, I decided to buy FM18 and found it to be lacking in many areas, with some UI concerns and a ridiculously laborious new scouting system. It just wasn't much fun last year.

Positive word of mouth on this year's version was enough for me to spend money for a second consecutive year and I truly believe I will once again be back to playing this game as often as in the past. The UI seems more intuitive (I actually like the purple colour scheme, although I'm sure it's not for everyone), the new training system is complex but very interesting and things have been streamlined somewhat on the scouting...

I'm holding off on starting a new career until the game is officially released (I believe that's on Friday) but it's very stable and feature rich from what I can see thus far. I can definitely see starting another dynasty thread here with this version of the game.

[Icy]

I have it but I have not played it enough to judge myself due to lack of free time and other games released at same time (FIFA and RDR2).

I have been reading a ton their forums and most of the comments are positive, specially about the new tactics and training modules. The only potential issues with the beta that need to be balanced are that crosses seems overpowered, in game injuries too frequent, and that the game seems to a bit on the easy side for the humans, probably due to some the new tactics presets being a bit overpowered. SI guys have acknowledged some of those issues and are balancing them for the final release.

[Young Drachma]

I tend to hold off on FM until after the 2nd big patch, I don't know that it'll be any different this year.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I had '17 and played it a ton. Trying out '19 right now. Scouting is confusing as hell to me. Really shouldn't be this complicated.

[fortheglory]

what do people think of this year's version? Any reviews? Is it worth the purchase?

[Ajaxab]

Purchased this version a couple of months ago on sale and have enjoyed a whole lot more than the last 2 versions I picked up ('15 and '17). I am currently in my 4th season with Sunderland and got into the UEFA Cup. The schedule for fall '22 is really weird though. Due to the Qatar World Cup in November and December, I don't have any EPL games during those months. Instead, the season started on July 23rd, breaks for 2 months and then goes into a weekend/Wednesday rotation for all of January and February. The schedule has also caused some oddities early in the season as I have 4 games in hand on some teams. Of course, the board is irritated that we're so far down the table. Well, yeah, a possible 12 points in those games would make a difference...

But weirder than that is my UEFA Cup group is still playing 5 of its 6 group games in November and December. The other groups are not. Why we're playing during the World Cup is anyone's guess.

I don't know how the real scheduling is going to work, but this is a bit strange.

[EagleFan]

Recently picked it up. Oddity with Steam, nothing major, and was curious if this happened to anyone else.

Whenever I last play FM 19 and start Steam up later; when clicking library it has FM 18 highlighted. I almost reinstalled that a few times now.

[Young Drachma]

I migrated my fictional 12-tier country in Europe to FM19, in case you want a unique challenge:
Steam Workshop :: Neloxia (Fictional European Country, 12-tier pyramid)