Feedback: Developer's New Year's address

Hey! Love the post of what is to come, here are my thoughts

I'm a fellow developer and understand some of the problems you have, however I think you have hit the nail on the head in terms of the main priorities for this year! Mobile Design I think is the main one and the one most people would be happy with, everyone must have a mobile and in 2022 and to have a site that is not mobile friendly isn't good at all and it sure can be a pain to navigate around on smaller screens

The sponsorship system i agree needs work doing to it and in the ways you've mentioned I think will work well, it would make it a lot better and easier for the player base, Maybe introducing some more sponsors and different challenges, like get into the top 5 with a goal difference of plus +7. Something to keep us more engaged and challenged to earn that extra money.

Employees are a big section of the game and does need a rewrite of how it works, it seems very useful part of the game but probably the area that needs the most amount of work

I think to keep some of the player base happy there does need to be one or two new features or enhancements, split out finances for youth and senior teams, the same for contracts too, maybe some kind of new stadium upgrades like stands and stalls to earn more money (This would help clubs that have already reached the top to expand into the game more) , introduce loans maybe, this would help lower league clubs get up the ladder quicker (Cap these to a certain amount 500,000 - 2,000,000 credits maybe, although you'd have to look at possible cheating and misuse of this), I would simplify the plans you currently have, at the moment the premium plan you get loads of things and then pro you get hardly anything but have to pay a bit more, it seems to me these should be the other way round but I know that would upset a large portion of the player base.

Another feature could be in-form and out of form players, add in the assistant and scouts the form of players, this could be based on morale, fitness, stats, age, etc. This would in turn make some teams not hold onto players for a super long time and it turn give the market a boost.

But on a positive note I love that the fact you keep us informed of everything and what you plan to do and that I think you once you have the mobile friendly design you'll have a solid base to push new features all the time, I think you have inherited a site with lots of problems and with such a small team it's hard to push lots of things out without doing the normal day to day

Just to keep you right my friend,

Not:

Toro FC wrote:

everyone must have a mobile and in 2022

- I for one don't - and probably never will.

(If you knew how much information these companies hold on you - largely unregulated, - and you then thought the (much more regulated) police etc had even half that amount of intelligence held against you - everyone would be up in arms and complaining - and rightly so.)

However, I do agree that the number one next thing for dev. time and effort this year must be a more friendly mobile version to help the very large %'age of managers who do wish to use phones etc to play the game

I have a smartphone biennially; it takes me a year until I throw it at a wall and another year until I want one again.

The ruin of mankind!

Toro FC wrote:

Hey! Love the post of what is to come, here are my thoughts

I'm a fellow developer and understand some of the problems you have, however I think you have hit the nail on the head in terms of the main priorities for this year! Mobile Design I think is the main one and the one most people would be happy with, everyone must have a mobile and in 2022 and to have a site that is not mobile friendly isn't good at all and it sure can be a pain to navigate around on smaller screens

The sponsorship system i agree needs work doing to it and in the ways you've mentioned I think will work well, it would make it a lot better and easier for the player base, Maybe introducing some more sponsors and different challenges, like get into the top 5 with a goal difference of plus +7. Something to keep us more engaged and challenged to earn that extra money.

Employees are a big section of the game and does need a rewrite of how it works, it seems very useful part of the game but probably the area that needs the most amount of work

I think to keep some of the player base happy there does need to be one or two new features or enhancements, split out finances for youth and senior teams, the same for contracts too, maybe some kind of new stadium upgrades like stands and stalls to earn more money (This would help clubs that have already reached the top to expand into the game more) , introduce loans maybe, this would help lower league clubs get up the ladder quicker (Cap these to a certain amount 500,000 - 2,000,000 credits maybe, although you'd have to look at possible cheating and misuse of this), I would simplify the plans you currently have, at the moment the premium plan you get loads of things and then pro you get hardly anything but have to pay a bit more, it seems to me these should be the other way round but I know that would upset a large portion of the player base.

Another feature could be in-form and out of form players, add in the assistant and scouts the form of players, this could be based on morale, fitness, stats, age, etc. This would in turn make some teams not hold onto players for a super long time and it turn give the market a boost.

But on a positive note I love that the fact you keep us informed of everything and what you plan to do and that I think you once you have the mobile friendly design you'll have a solid base to push new features all the time, I think you have inherited a site with lots of problems and with such a small team it's hard to push lots of things out without doing the normal day to day

I have forwarded your feedback to the developers.
Thanks for the description.

To reply to Pro vs Premium - The new pro version is not locked to just these features. It can and might be updated throughout and have more features included as we go. This is not set and done pro features.

I like the ideas for staff search/development and sponsorship.

I'm not sure what the issues are with mobile design, I play the game on an Android tablet and never have any problems.

Have had a little time to read through this and give it some thought on relevance to my club. Will be interesting to see how these new things are implemented. Hopefully some time and thought is put into how they will work, so that it is fair and suitable for clubs at every level and league. This, I personally believe, is key.

Regarding VmPro: I'm yet to upgrade, there aren't enough additional features that I would use to make it worth the extra cost. I do like the idea of kit design though, but my limited artistic skills mean I'm not likely to have the ability to get the design I picture in my mind to the paper/screen. I'd like to see more pre-made options on the kits screen personally, perhaps the additional ones could be a perk of having pro, having more designs to choose from. The colour choices are limited too, which is a shame. I looked at the current options for changing my kits this morning, and am reminded that the options on designs and colours are limited. Especially with the shorts. I'm not sure how the designer option works, it'd be nice to see more details on that, I would probably try to use it if I had an idea on how it works.

New users: I introduced a friend to VM. They started playing. After initially spending a little time working out how the game worked regarding player transfers and the like, they enjoyed their time playing it. However, I think there's a distinct couple of 'walls' that players hit that leads players who might become long term subscribers to VM actually instead abandoning the game in frustration. My friend is one of those. His experience was one of enjoyment, until the realisation that to compete on an even level with me (I'm not one of the top/big/elite clubs in the game) could take months/years or would require a level of attention and player trading that would suck the enjoyment away. He has since given up on VM, at least for now, which is a shame. To be fair, I'm at a bit of a 'wall' myself, I'm not in the top level of elite clubs, nor in the press of clubs trying to get to that level. I'm probably in the tier just below that, trying to catch and compete on a sustainable basis with those trying to reach the top.

New features:

Sponsorship: I can't remember the last time I bothered to apply for a sponsor for my club. Improvements to this would be most welcome. I like the idea that sponsors would make you offers for the next season based on your current progress in this one. Would be nice to see bonuses for things other than just league position (Extra payment for 'x+' goals in a season or for reaching 3rd round of the cup etc) but accept these may be complex to implement. Also will be interested to see if the credits offered will match up to the level and direction of the club.

Employees: This is a big one. This must be done right and in such a way that it is fair to all clubs. At the moment, if one of my trainers retire, I spend a long time, notable in hours, trawling through page after page of Finnish trainers to find one that will match the previous one and is at a standard I require. I have often scrolled past 200 pages to find one with the required stats.
I like the idea of improving the stats of staff but not if it comes at the cost of there being a gap between me having to train my team with less than desirable trainers for a spell whilst I improve staff to meet my standards. Employing staff should not cost the potential of the clubs players.

Looking forward to the new system

Dynamo Groby wrote:

Employees: This is a big one. This must be done right and in such a way that it is fair to all clubs. At the moment, if one of my trainers retire, I spend a long time, notable in hours, trawling through page after page of Finnish trainers to find one that will match the previous one and is at a standard I require. I have often scrolled past 200 pages to find one with the required stats.
I like the idea of improving the stats of staff but not if it comes at the cost of there being a gap between me having to train my team with less than desirable trainers for a spell whilst I improve staff to meet my standards. Employing staff should not cost the potential of the clubs players.

I completely agree with this. There has to be some element of hard work involved with a football manager game otherwise there would be no difference between teams and it would ultimately become boring.

I recall that I used to spend a whole day trawling through free transfers on PROPER Champ Manager without even hitting the "continue'. Whilst that is a bit mental, I think at least some level of effort should be required so as to differentiate between those who want to spend 5 minutes each day playing the game and those who want to invest some time into it.

Enchiladas Mexicanas wrote:

Dynamo Groby wrote:

Employees: This is a big one. This must be done right and in such a way that it is fair to all clubs. At the moment, if one of my trainers retire, I spend a long time, notable in hours, trawling through page after page of Finnish trainers to find one that will match the previous one and is at a standard I require. I have often scrolled past 200 pages to find one with the required stats.
I like the idea of improving the stats of staff but not if it comes at the cost of there being a gap between me having to train my team with less than desirable trainers for a spell whilst I improve staff to meet my standards. Employing staff should not cost the potential of the clubs players.

I completely agree with this. There has to be some element of hard work involved with a football manager game otherwise there would be no difference between teams and it would ultimately become boring.

I recall that I used to spend a whole day trawling through free transfers on PROPER Champ Manager without even hitting the "continue'. Whilst that is a bit mental, I think at least some level of effort should be required so as to differentiate between those who want to spend 5 minutes each day playing the game and those who want to invest some time into it.

I spent a lot of time the other day going through over 2000 pages of trainers, and could not find a 20 youth 20 outfield trainer. Can you please explain to me how this is a fair and effective system? I can pretty much guarantee 99% of other managers will disagree with your opinion. I actually spent an amount of time earlier in the week trying to help another manager who asked for help finding trainers, in which I went through over 350 pages of trainers to not find one over 19 and 19 never mind 20. So please tell my why there shouldn’t be an option to improve trainers because this current system is hindering hundreds if not thousands of youth players hitting the best of their potential.

Because the real life equivalent of 20/20/20 trainers are not two a penny. If this game wants to be something approaching reality then every team should not have 20/20/20 trainers. What would be the point if they did? Everyone would be the same.

Yes, it's a hassle to find them but once you've found them then you're on easy street. You just have to put in the effort.

If everyone were just provided with the best possible things in this game then it would turn into a game of chance. Everyone would have great youth players, all the coaches would be great, everyone would play that stupid 3-3-1-3 system and we'd all fall asleep.

If thousands of youth players are being hindered then it is due to lack of effort on the part of the manager. That is the most realistic way to go about things.