I really got into FM11, which I played on a laptop PC, and kept my save going for more than two years. I support Southampton and this was when we were in League One, so it was a ready-made FM challenge to get them back to the Premier League and have them compete for major honours. I remember winning the title and the Europa League, as well as a few FA and League Cups. I don't remember a lot about the details of the coded game itself, but I do remember having several players that I had nurtured through the youth ranks and developed into an excellent team.
I had my iMac by the time FM13 came out, but I really struggled to get to grips with it. I had a save going as AFC Bournemouth in League One and I remember being annoyed by the match engine which looked more like people skating than playing football to me. It was then that I stopped playing the game and spent more time getting into learning how the graphics worked and seeking out kits and club badges that I now carry forward to each new edition of the game. I doubt if anyone has a better looking FM on their computer than I do!
I initially struggled with FM14, particularly in relation to tactics and managing player morale, etc. They made a lot of changes to those aspects of the game and I complained on one of the forums about finding it hard to see what effect - good or bad - the changes I was making were having on match day. But I got some good advice about watching the matches in the Comprehensive view and I began to work out how to create tactics that suited my players and how to manage their moods both during and between matches. I took Southampton all the way to a European Champions League title and again, played on long enough that I didn't need to buy a new FM until this latest version.
Again, they've made a lot of changes to the tactics section and it took me a little while to get on top of it. But more so than in the past, I have been able to bring what I learned from previous editions of the game forward to apply to this one. I now also watch FM themed YouTube videos that offer some useful advice and occasionally visit the tactics based websites that will go into great detail. I've only just discovered that you can create set piece routines, so I will be getting onto that in my current save - in which I have just taken over the newly relegated Everton in the Championship.
I think offsides and injuries are over represented in this edition but the match engine is the best yet, with the most realistic player animations we've ever had. They jumble up the user interface every time - I think this one is the best flowing version we have had but I do sometimes struggle to find information that I know is in the game somewhere but can't navigate to because it's not located where it was on the previous edition.
One option I would like to see would be the ability to instruct the ME to use your team's 1st, 2nd or 3rd kit for a particular match based on your own opinion of which would clash with the opposition's kit the least. As Sheffield Wednesday, the game decided that we should face Millwall in our changed strip of dark blue when our third kit was yellow. And if, like me, you update graphics in your game mid-save, you can sometimes end up with two teams playing each other in virtually the same kit because the ME doesn't know, for example, that the config ID for Cardiff City home no longer points to a red kit but a blue one. The game obviously makes a decision when to change so it would be good if we had the option to override that change.
I'd also like the option to add or delete third kits from a team's profile mid-save, without having to use the Editor. When teams who originally had a 3rd kit introduce their new home and away but don't have a third this time, you end up with a default kit showing in the third slot, instead. You can use the old one but this sometimes means having a Nike home and away and an Adidas third, which takes you out of the realism of the game. I'm being a bit **** here, I know, but that realism aspect is one of this game's enduring strengths and I would think these changes are implementable.
