Is the game becoming way too easy or way too random?!!

[Deepblue]

I am not new to Football manager I already have good experience because in the past I played FM2006, FM2004 and FM2000 (it was called championship manger at that time). The game didnt change very much from that time to this date, only few adjustment and reworked match engine. The new match engine is good and more immune to super tactics or craker tactics, But the game now for some reason is much easier !!! and I don't know if this just my current situational game or the whole game became easier.

I currently play with Genoa in Italian Serie A, and with no reload at all (after any match) in the whole season I was able to achieve:
Season 1: 4th position in Serie A
Season2: 1st position in Serie A , Reached Champions Cup Quarter Final, Reached Italy cup Semi-Final.

I play no special or super tactic just normal tactics (simple attaching tactic at home and defensive tactic away). I simply adjust my tactic according to my current players abilities and I deploy my men in the best areas that fit their abilities.

What bothers me is that all big teams in the league were underachieving in season 2, Iter Milan, Ac Milan and Juventus were not even in top 4 !!! while smaller Teams like Catana and Fiorentina were very dangerous (Catana finished 3rd !!!!).

Is the game becoming way too easy or way too random?
(please note that I play the original game with no patches)

 

[Gza-Ob1]

Same with me done a save game with derby county , 1st season came 2nd in championship , 2nd season in prem came 11th , 3rd season only my 2nd season in prem , i won it with derby county , no reloads no cheating , and i have print screens to prove it all , in my opinion after about 2 or 3 years u can make any team into a force in any country , and yes teams like arsenal and man utd were coming like 8th or 7th in my league , with teams like everton who are good coming 2nd or having 28 match unbeaten runs . Like mine at celtic i went 112 league games without losing a single game no reload no cheat , which in all honesty isnt very realistic regardless of what player i have and i didnt even have world best players i had boriello up front senderos defence things like that.

Just to add i use my own tactics

 

[Deepblue]

Your scenario is very similar to mine. I can conclude that the game can be beaten easily by a small team regardless of other competitors having world class players and best managers in the world !!

That is definitely not realistic and boring and I may switch back to older Football manager releases.

 

[Max]

Yeah, it is.

I finished 10th with Blackburn 1st season, and in the 2nd season at January I'm currently in 1st position with a simple 4-4-2 tactic, crazy.

 

[DeanMcDonnell]

Agree with the aboves the game is becoming cruise control now.

 

[Danny]

When a new Football Manager game comes out, and people have only just got the game I don't think it's that easy, but once you've played the game for month's you start to know what players are the best for each leagues. Which tactic's to use in each league. Which staff you should buy. Who all the wonder-kid's are. And it's stuff like that which make the game easier.

 

[Deepblue]

I still feel the game is easier and my skill in the game is not very different from last time I played the game. Also playing skill doesn't explain underachieving world class teams.

 

[Insomnia]

I still feel the game is easier and my skill in the game is not very different from last time I played the game. Also playing skill doesn't explain underachieving world class teams.

I don't know, one thing I've noticed is that managers aren't very adept at buying new decent players, so that leaves us as non AI's to simply rock out a couple of million and buy all the wonderkids with no competition.
It then means because they haven't bought any future worthy players their teams become old and decrepid, meaning your brand spanking new sexy 18 year old spanish new gens run around them like their unmoving obstacles placing shots past blind goal keepers.

 

[Khanvicted]

won the league with sunderland second season and sitting top in the 3rd. Yes signing players makes it easier but surely this is too easy. I have "decent" and "useful" players in the first team according my 20-20 coach so I don't have a team full of world beaters. Teams like United languishing mid table, Valencia getting relegated I think it is a bit too easy and in turn un-realistic.

Still a great game but they have made managing at the higher levels too easy.

 

[dazdazdaz]

maybe to encourage the younger end to play and not get bored due to lack of success

 

[winfield]

Try lower league management - watch your rage level skyrocket with the horrific finishing and passing at level 10 of the superbladesman mod. It's fun but rage inducing at the same time

 

[CorvetteC3]

When this years game came out I remember everyone complaining that the game is too hard...

But yeah, the main thing that seems to make it a lot easier in longer games is that the big clubs don't buy the players they need(or in some cases buy too many young players and none of them reach their peak). On my current game when I took over Roma and United both their teams average age was 30 or more. United only had two 25 year old regens in their first team, the rest were over 30. In 2019 Chelsea have brought in a new generation but they are crappy players and were sitting in the relegation zone with Alan Shearer as manager. And they sold all their young, potential world class players(in the game at least) like Kakuta, Delac, Stoch before their current team started retiring after a couple of seasons.

 

[JP Woody]

So why do i see so many threads titled Please help me with Real Madrid? oO)

 

[Chaz Sexington]

it would be better if the computer had a better buy/sell ai.

 

[*James*]

it would be better if the computer had a better buy/sell ai.

I couldn't agree more - every single new game I start (if on the same patch) City always buy someon elike Pablo Aimar or something - and United always sign Kolarov.....

 

[Mike.]

So why do i see so many threads titled Please help me with Real Madrid? oO)

in fairness JP, the people who ask about tactic for real madrid tend to be those who havent yet grasped a good understanding of the game or have real life football thing, once you been playingn the game for a while you pick these things up and it becomes easier and easier to outwit the AI. you yourself have built great tactics that repeatedly destroy the ai, and if you have the man management and buying skills to match (which no doubt you have ) it becomes esier to play

it doesnt help that the AI is poor when it comes to transfers, and infact the match engine isnt amazing, i once built a 4-2-3-1 based on a real life football tactic that was so good at explioting space, i was convinced it must be a an exploit somewhere.

but make no mistake guys this game is still the best there is. remember, what you are asking the game to do is replicate real life football, which is something of unimaginable complexity. each year they will get closer, but there will eventually be a time when you can beat it.

 

[cruxify]

Evidently it's my own incompetence but I still find the game hard. I know all the wonderkids to sign, all the staff, the tactics etc (as mentioned in a previous post) but I'm still getting screwed over and find the game a bit too ridiculous at times.

For example, won Serie A and Coppa Italia with Fiorentina in my first season now in my second season I've had a terrible start even though I've got a stronger starting 11. Players want to leave, staff are being poached by big clubs, tactics don't work anymore - I know teams suss out your tactics so I've changed mine for this season but by the time the team gels in this new tactic the league might be gone, I can't afford to drop anymore points. Things like this make the game hard for me but to be honest I've never really gone further than the 4th season in any FM games, just get bored/annoyed at the game by that stage.

 

[belz]

Honestly, its websites like this that make it 'easier' (not saying its bad, else I wouldn't be here myself) but if you played FM 'blindly' without, for instance, JP Woody's tactics, Dan's/Tugs Training Schedule, Raikan's Shortlists it would be much harder. imo

 

[kashmoney99]

like someone else says on here try lower leagues
It is easy in the sense that after the first season there are loads of regens that can be bought at reasonable
prices or released players in lower leagues that play like prem stars which you can sell for huge profits and buy even more regens in the following seasons until you become good enough to poach them of others.

In one of my Man Utd (yes i know pretty easy) I managed ro get a
18 man (u18) squad all potential 3 stars and above
16 man reserve squad all potential 3 stars and above
11 man squad all potential 4 stars and above loaned out to my feeder clubs
23 man squad of current 3 stars and above players
with only Evans, Gourcuff, Lacine Troare, Anderson, Moussa Sissoko, Areola and Anthony Annan as
the real football players with the rest all regens

so in that sense it becomes easier to find players.
Tactically its the same, as i used to use (before the great tactics i found on here)
451 attacking away (not 433) and either 442 or 412----3 at home or easy games with good success

However when you get to the lower leagues and have to deal with players that are injury prone , unreliable and choke in big games or simply not fit enough to suit most super tactics thats when there is a challenge

if you want hard try accrington stanley

However lower leagues are a lot easier when you can sign great youngsters on loan !!!!!!
without paying loan fees or wages you can easily get
4 domestic players
unlimited foriegn based players
unlimited short term loans

 

[kala1928]

I've played mostly saves with smaller lower-league teams and it isn't really that hard because the computer AI's still dont do enough and by loaning players and signing free agents you can build superior teams to each league really easily.

To me it feels like the hardest part is to really become a dominant continental team, allthough I've never started a game with any high division team and really given it a shot from the get-go and I've never played a save until 2016 or so.

And yeah there is a lot of fluctuation in the league tables as the big teams are often under-achievers, especially in the beginning of a season. Except City which is always a big pain in the *** no matter what year. Maybe its because their main player core is still working well even after 5 years.

Anyway, it must be a real pain to try to code and a lot of the player base appreciates "franchise" players so the developers probably made big transfers a bit rarer because of that but still I'd hope for the AI managers to be more active on trying to improve their teams. Also, indispensable players should really be, you know, indispensable and *not for sale*. Especially on the top-tier level where there are no replacements for Agueros, Messis and Maicons really no matter how much the offer is. If for no other reason than to make the human player feel like he isnt in control of everything.

edit: also the point about lower leagues and free agents. On my current Finnish prem division save the competion always lets their top scorers go on a free which is just ridicilously bad AI. Feels like the AI rates players sometimes based on their attributes and sometimes based on their performance, but always at the wrong time/occasion.