Manager Mode Questions and Answers

[Wepeeler]

I took some time ask MM Producer Marcel Kuhn a few questions regarding my favorite FIFA mode, Manager Mode. Please post your constructive feedback and perhaps we can get more insight from the dev team on other modes as they are revealed shortly. Enjoy...

Wepeeler - "I'm big into transfers and building ultimate teams. Is that harder this year?"

Marcel Kuhn - "Definitely, two major reasons for that are the new layers of decision-making in the transfer process and the re-written financial system. Let's start with the financial system, instead of relying on the sponsors, this year the board will be the major source of "income" for your club. The board will grant you two different budgets you will have to manage, Club Budget and Wage Budget. Club budget will be used to pay for players transfer fees, purchase staff upgrades and so on, while the Wage Budget will pay for your players wages. You will start with a specific amount of money, which ensures that Chelsea and Manchester City are rich while Bolton or promoted side Burnley don’t have a lot of cash to spend. During the season you will make a bit of money via ticket sales and sponsors, but what matters the most is to fulfill your board objectives. At the end of the year the board will look at your performance and refresh your Club and Wage Budget accordingly. Obviously, they will only grant you more money to spend, if they are happy with your performance. As you’re dealing with a limited amount of money, the new player transfer and wage values come into play. Players like C. Ronaldo or Kaka were fairly affordable in FIFA 09, in FIFA 10 they will be much closer to the actual transfer and wage values that are being paid for them at the moment."

"As a little bonus, we’ve added a Board Difficulty level this year which will affect your starting Club and Wage budget. This will allow users that want to try out the mode for the first time to start with a fully loaded wallet, while seasoned Manager Mode veterans can challenge themselves on a higher difficulty level and work hard towards signing their dream players."

"In terms of the transfer system, there are a couple of key changes, i.e. which players are for sale, but the most time was spent splitting the logic into a two-tiered process. First you have to convince the club of the desired player and then you have to convince the player. The factors that play into this are not only the offered money, but also things like, how many players you already have in the same position, is your club going to play in Europe next season, how much mentorship can you offer the player as his manager and so on. The overall result will be that you will have a harder time building your ultimate team, but it will also be more realistic and transparent to you why you were able to sign or not sign players."

Wep - "How is the experience point system different? Last year it was easy to get a team of 99s after only 2 seasons. Has that been tweaked?"

MK - "Another portion of the game we completely re-did. We weren’t happy at all with the growth system in FIFA 09 and a lot of post-release user feedback showed us that we’re on the right track. As a first step we removed manual growth, Manager Mode is supposed to be a realistic and authentic experience, being able to make Sami Hyypia from a 84 rated centre back into a 99 rated left winger is neither realistic nor authentic. Therefore we decided to reset to clock on the growth system."


"What you will see in FIFA 10 is, that players will collect experience in 3 different categories – Physical XP, Mental XP and Skill XP. How fast they collect XP depends on the amount of time they play, who they play against and so on. Once they hit a growth point in either of these 3 categories, the related attributes will either increase or decline. In addition every player will have a potential he can reach, this way every player will have its own individual growth. Younger players with high potential will collect XP faster, especially their physical skills will improve quickly, while older players have a higher overall but might start to decline. As a result the user will have to make a lot of decisions regarding his line-up, do I play the young hotshot and allow him to reach his potential as fast as possible or do I go with the currently high skilled player that has started to decline?"

"To give the user a some help making these decisions, we’ve added a new ability for your scout. Your scout will be able to predict the future overall for a player, depending on the scout’s level he can look further and more accurate into the future."

Wep - "Are there "practice sessions" where you can prepare your team for a big game?"

MK - "In FIFA 10 we will introduce pre-season friendlies where you can fine-tune your line-up and maybe get some good results in order to improve your players form before the going gets tough. Player form is a new concept we adopted from Live Season. Note that within Manager Mode, we actually don’t use the real world player form, the form will be solely based on how the player performs within the Manager Mode World. The result of playing really well over a longer period of time will be that the players form increases and his attributes will be slightly improved for the time being. Of course the same applies if your players don’t perform well, which will make it harder to get your club out of a slump."

Wep - "Can you practice with your actual squad?"

MK - "Practice Mode is not included within Manager Mode for FIFA 10. That being said, if that is a feature that users would like to see specifically for Manager Mode, this can be an early addition for the next FIFA wish list. In the meantime, for FIFA 10, there will be a new Practice Mode. It will be accessible via the arena and in this mode you can practice set-plays, do “n vs. x” (i.e. 5-on-5) training matches or improve your finishing in 1-vs-1’s against the goalie."

Wep - "Has the messaging system with the front office been tweaked? If yes, how so?"

MK - "Overall there have been several improvements to get the information to the user in an easier and quicker way. In terms of the information you receive from the Board, you will have a summary right on the new Manager Mode HUB screen. This HUB screen acts as a desktop to provide you with the most important pieces of information at a glance. It will show, i.e. the latest table, activities on the transfer market and the before mentioned Board Summary. As the Board Confidence will play a crucial role and change very dynamic, you will get an update on Board Confidence after every game."

"The incoming message system has one major change that goes in-line with the overall attempt to make navigation more user friendly. For all emails you receive that require a decision, you will have a direct link to the place where you can make this decision, i.e. when you have a failed negotiation you can re-negotiate with that player on the spot rather than having to remember to go to the “Negotiation History” once you’re back in the HUB."

Wep - "Can you edit kit numbers?"

MK - "Big “YES”. We’ve added a screen where you can re-assign kit numbers manually at any point."

Wep - "Is updating your office (ie keepers, strikers, tickets etc ) different?"

MK - "We’ve made minor tweaks here and especially tuned the impact of coaches on player fatigue. We thought that on lower staff levels players got tired way too fast, so we’ve reduced the impact that coaches have on the recovery rate to avoid having to rotate your squad after every 2-3 matches."

Wep - "What exactly do you guys mean about a total football experience. Crowd into it more? Banners, flags, scarves etc?"

MK - "For Manager Mode it means that we wanted to remove everything that takes you out of the immersion of living as a manager in a authentic football world. Let me give you some examples, i.e. C. Ronaldo transferring to Aalborg = not total football, Wigan beating Manchester United 5-0 = not total football, playing in Sunny / Dry weather in the EPL, every week, no matter what time of the year = not total football…. To achieve this we reworked the fundamentals this mode is based on, we work towards avoiding these unrealistic events from happening and replaced them with more football authentic events. In the end we’re aiming to create a game mode that contributes to the overall “Total Football Experience” FIFA 10 will deliver via all its features."

****Edited into this post. These are questions that have been asked in this very thread and have since been answered by Marcel****

Here's Round #2 for you all to enjoy. Again, SUPER SPECIAL THANKS for Marcel for all his hard work!

...dissapointing that he (Marcel) didnt confirm, the addition of "banners, scarves, flags." The real problem with manager mode was it was plain boring

[Marcel Kuhn] - "Details regarding the presentation changes will be released at a later time. But I can tell you already that the different weather conditions in Manager Mode, including my favorite “Rainy night for mid-week cup games”, look amazing!"

"We’re aware that the emotional involvement within Manager Mode was lacking a bit in the past. We’ve started several initiatives to mitigate that problem and to create an immersive game mode, i.e. club branded screens, transfer rumors, CPU squad rotation and more depth in the sim engine that allows you to out-coach the opponent. Would love to hear from the users what they’d like to see in the future in order to make the Manager Mode even more exciting."


Will player morale play a larger role in this year's game? Like if a guy doesn't feel like he's getting the proper playing time he will actually demand a transfer and keeping him in the team might screw with team chemistry. The morale meter is always there but it never seems to affect anything.

[MK] "Morale is not a concept that has been expanded on in FIFA 10. We’ve introduced Form and revamped Player Growth, these two features will have a big impact on the players and the way the user selects his squad."

"Players that are not getting any playing time will slowly see their form decline and as a result their attributes will suffer. Therefore the user has to make sure to rotate his squad at the right time and for the right amount."

"Playing time will also play a role in determining how fast a player grows, therefore it is always important to give young players with a high potential a chance to develop by giving them plenty of playing time."


And how about more players in the 33+ range maybe randomly retiring sometimes before the end of their contract?

[MK] "As far as I know older players randomly chose the point when to retire, if there is a specific issue with this let us know and we’ll try to address it. The reasoning behind playing until the end of the season/contract before retiring is to allow the user to plan accordingly and look for a replacement."


Also, is there a difference playing a rival team, then there is playing a normal team.


[MK] - "There are several differences in the atmosphere of rival games, which is conveyed mainly via audio. There are rivalry specific commentary intros and the crowd is hyped up, in addition goals will be celebrated more frantic."


In MM, how many seasons are you able to play??


[MK] - "We’re aiming to have the Manager Mode last for 15 seasons. With the amount of new features, new logic and tweaks we’re adding this year, it is a big challenge to get everything balanced and tested properly. But at the moment we’re tracking well to reach 15 seasons again, if anything changes we will let you all know."


Can we manage International teams? or just clubs? and also do we get approached by bigger clubs if we are doing well in the season?

[MK] "Just clubs, we’ve looked hard and long at the this feature. But we had to cut it early on, as we had to admit that the amount of work that needed to be done to make the Manager Mode fundamentals work has to take priority over new features. Personally I still like this feature a lot and we might try to include it in future FIFA’s."


Any news on how long we have to wait until we find out if we have had our transfer bid accepted or do we still need to wait until after the next game?

[MK] - "The club and player you are negotiating with will still be taking a week to get back to you. That being said, we’ve removed the restriction of “Available bids”, so as long as your club and wage budget allows you to negotiate with additional players you will be free to do so. Also we’ve added a new feature where, after you successfully negotiated with a player, you don’t automatically sign him. You as the Manager still have to approve the transfer. This allows you to negotiate with multiple players on the same position and if they all accept your offer, you can individually accept or decline their transfer requests."


Did he say anything about loans? And what about getting sacked and having to search for work, or can we sadly pick any team we want after each season?

[MK] - "We didn’t have too much time to work on loans, it’s something that we will have a closer look for coming FIFA’s. The initial choice of club is free, with the trade-off being that higher rated clubs expect silverware and you won’t have the option to lose too many games. These clubs will fire you at the first sign of failure. Once you’re fired you are on your own, your reputation will take a bit hit and the few new clubs that will offer you a job will make their decision based on your reputation."


...did he give you any info about the time in-game spent in the menu? Or it always passes directly to the day of the game? I hated that for transfers.

[MK] - "The Manager Mode will still have a match-to-match rhythm, that being said we’ve added friendly matches to allow you for some more time to fine-tune your club at the beginning of the season and to negotiate with potential new signings."


A MAJOR thanks goes out to Marcel for his very thorough answers to some key MM questions. Please post feedback as I am interested in what you guys think, and I know the dev team will be also.

Here's a link to FIFA Soccer Blog's "Exclusive" MM Q & A Session. (Not to nit pick, but you guys got got the REAL exclusive from me )

[cashew1984]

Brilliant!!!

[robbieboy036]

Say your a manager of a midtable club (let's say Everton) and you doing great with the team, will better clubs offer you a job b4 the end of the season.....

or will it be the same as now..

[Murkvape]

This sounds awesome. Wepeeler, are you on FIFASoccerblog.com or Evo-web? I was wondering if it's alright to share some of this information with the guys over there. I'm assuming if it's alright for you to tell us here it's fair game to spread the word. Lemme know though.

[RawwrrFIFA10]

dissapointing that he didnt confirm, the addition of "banners, scarves, flags." The real problem with manager mode was it was plain boring, If EA fail to make realistic weather and crowd, then i think Manager mode will be dropp from great-fantastic to ok-good.

[SlasherHands]

i like this!!
thanks heaps for the thread, and thanks for covering some answers! manage mode sounds great

[Murkvape]

Originally Posted by RawwrrFIFA10

dissapointing that he didnt confirm, the addition of "banners, scarves, flags." The real problem with manager mode was it was plain boring, If EA fail to make realistic weather and crowd, then i think Manager mode will be dropp from great-fantastic to ok-good.

I really hope that they've tweaked the transfer logic as much as they're letting on. I would hate for there to be a situation where if you have like more than 2 players at a specific a player you want to sign just will not come to you for any amount of wages nor will the club sell for any amount money. In fact, with the new transfer and wage budgets and the apparent tightening of the purse strings it'd add a ton to the risk factor if you could potentially blow a ton of your transfer kitty on a player even if you've got guys at the position and then have the resulting chemistry issues perhaps negatively affect your team.

That's just an example though.

Dynamic weather sounds great though. And hopefully we have CL (or ECC) games played at night now. I mean, according to the Q&A we will and that's great to hear.

Another question for Wepeeler to ask:

Will player morale play a larger role in this year's game? Like if a guy doesn't feel like he's getting the proper playing time he will actually demand a transfer and keeping him in the team might screw with team chemistry. The morale meter is always there but it never seems to affect anything.

And how about more players in the 33+ range maybe randomly retiring sometimes before the end of their contract?

[RawwrrFIFA10]

Yesss! they added my feature "Allow people to start with a low team and build up or go straight into a big team." mad as.

[Murkvape]

Originally Posted by RawwrrFIFA10

Yesss! they added my feature "Allow people to start with a low team and build up or go straight into a big team." mad as.

\

If I remember right you always could go straight into a big squad with a huge budget. Only your manager's prestige level made it so only an exorbitant amount of money would bring players to your team until you actually won something. Maybe they can tweak it so that even if you're a new manager in the squad, simply being on a team like Manchester United will allow you to sign the big talents immediately.

[RawwrrFIFA10]

Also, is there a difference playing a rival team, then there is playing a normal team.

[scribe313]

Fantastic interview, just the info I've been looking for. I cannot wait for MM in Fifa 10.
Thumbs up Wepeeler

[green_gibbon]

Thanks for the info.

Any news of night matches in midweek?

[edyfabregas]

HEllo LUke .In FIFA 10 PC new manager mode????new transfer last season and realistic new transfer?

[ChinoNYC]

Quick Question: In MM, how many seasons are you able to play??

[Bayern]

Can we manage International teams? or just clubs? and also do we get approached by bigger clubs if we are doing well in the season?

[motters]

Any news on how long we have to wait until we find out if we have had our transfer bid accepted or do we still need to wait until after the next game? brilliant read blalalahanks alot mate!

[Ottoman_Rapture]

excellent thread

[R9onaldo]

Great interview, a shame he didn't answer about the crowd. I really want to see the crowd react like in a proper match but as he never answered then I guess it will be the same as 09.

[Sc0rp1o]

Great stuff Wepeeler!! For me the best post on this forum!

Did he say anything about loans? And what about getting sacked and having to search for work, or can we sadly pick any team we want after each season?

[cooler08]

Will FA Cup Replays be played instead of matches going to extra time/penalties?

It sounds good. Shame the big question about the MM freeze bug wasnt asked.

About the impact of coaches on player fatigue, if you fitness coach is high like on level 8 or 9 will your players get tired. In Fifa 09 if you have your fitness coach on these levels you never need to rotate your team so it's pointless signing players.

[Koorany]

Originally Posted by Wepeeler

MK - "We’ve made minor tweaks here and especially tuned the impact of coaches on player fatigue. We thought that on lower staff levels players got tired way too fast, so we’ve reduced the impact that coaches have on the recovery rate to avoid

THANK YOU GOD! This was BY FAR the most ridiculous thing in MM. If your coach was a low level, you would have every player with terminaly ill lung cancer, one game and pufff, no stamina, thought it was so ridiculous and unrealistic .

Thank you so much Wepeeler .

BTW, did he give you any info about the time in-game spent in the menu?

Or it always passes directly to the day of the game? I hated that for transfers.

[smeltzerinho]

heyyyyy, when you start a new manager mode, i'd like it to reflect real life fixtures, i.e. Sunderland v Bolton first game of the season, then Chelsea (AT NIGHT, albeit summer night ) on the Tuesday etc. etc.

Obviously in the 2nd season and afterwards they will be random again.

Hey, you (EA) said you were going to be more authentic in MM, THIS IS AUTHENTICITY

[Smoooooochy]

will scheduling be sorted ou this year? none of this 4 games in 3 days rubbish please!

[LookItsBigDave]

really good to hear

when you asked this

Wep - "What exactly do you guys mean about a total football experience. Crowd into it more? Banners, flags, scarves etc?"

he said what he meant but never answered your example

[Masterman481]

Great job!!