Update, October 12: Sports Interactive have revealed how Football Manager’s new scouting system will attempt to stay closer to the ways real clubs find the stars of the future.
Football Manager 2018 is changing up the series’ scouting system. The game’s new mechanic aims to replicate the way in which modern teams attempt to find new players.
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In a video posted yesterday, Sports Interactive claim that the new system is the most authentic ever, and say they’ve been working closely with real clubs to hone the system. Scouting will now draw from scouts themselves, data analysts, backroom staff, and sometimes even your players. It’s also possible for Free Agents to approach your team directly if they think they’re a good fit.
There’s now a new Scouting Assessment score, which you’ll see when your scout suggests a potential new player. Scored out of 100, a player’s rating will change as the scout learns more about them, and is intended to be a more accurate version of the series’ previous star rating system.
The new system also introduces Scouting Focus, which is divided up into general and short-term options. A general focus lets you decide exactly what you think your team needs, and sends scouts out indefinitely to search for your dream player. A short-term focus lets you do the same, but pauses other scouting activity over a shorter time-frame.
There’s also a revamped player search database, with different packages available based on how much you want to pay for them. These range from small competition-wide databases, to systems that span the entire globe, and mirror the kind of expenses that real clubs have to make in order to find new talent.
Data analysts were introduced to the Football Manager series last year, but had a very limited role. In Football Manager 2018, they’ll do a lot more, and you can ask for stats for specific players. Like with player search, you can put extra resources into your data analysis in order to get more out of it.
You can find out all you need to know about the new scouting system in the video above. Football Manager 2018 is out on November 10.
Update, October 9:Sports Interactive have revealed how Football Manger 2018’snew Dynamics system will affect team performance on and off the pitch.
Sports Interactive have announced the new Dynamics system coming to Football Manager 2018. Rumours about the system have been circling for a while, which is coming to the footie management series for the first time this year.
Dynamics is an attempt to give your players more personality, but will also determine their success on the pitch, both as individuals and as a team. The aim is to bring Football Manager further into the dressing room – a more cohesive team off the pitch means better performance during games. On the other hand, if your team aren’t getting along, your results will suffer.
Dynamics attempts to show you what your players are happy with, as well as allowing them a new way to flag up concerns. A significant aspect of the new system stems from its many social mechanics – players are sorted hierarchically based on who has the greatest influence both on and off the pitch. Club veterans and players that are captain material might be team leaders, capable of swaying the entire team’s opinion of you, but players that haven’t been at the club long have little influence. On a more micro level, players of a similar age or nationality will get on well with one another, so appealing to one of them might improve your standing with the rest of the group.
The new system’s integration into the game is multi-faceted, and there are a wide variety of ways to keep track of how well you and your players are getting along. Sports Interactive’s hope seems to be that Dynamics will be just as important as an individual player’s skill at informing and shaping your managerial decision. For a full breakdown of the new system, check out the video above.
Original story, September 29:Sports Interactive have released a new trailer teasing some of the changes coming to Football Manager 18. In the style of a spoof news report, the video confirms some new features, as well as teasing a brand-new system coming to the series.
The most immediately apparent change announced in the trailer was the introduction of a new graphics engine, which will include new motion capture and new stadium presentation. There are also a lot of big changes to gameplay, however, and they include improvements to tactical options and AI.
Scouting is also being reworked to better reflect how clubs actually find new players, and it sounds as though that’ll mean better integration of sports scientists, data analysts, and other backroom staff. Those were first introduced in last year’s Football Manager 17, but, according to Football Manager YouTuber Curtis Morton, aka TheGamerCan, they weren’t used to their full effect.
A new feature being introduced to the game is Dynamics. While Sports Interactive clearly aren’t prepared to tell us about that yet, it sounds like it’ll be a very big deal. Sports Interactive’s studio director Miles Jacobson says there’ll be more information about that, as well as the new scouting and AI, in the coming months.
Football Manager 18 releases on November 10, 2018.