Hello fellow FM managers,
In this blog post we aim to provide an in-depth look into what we are working on and what is the roadmap for the next releases.
As you area all aware, or we hope you are, our work with the match engine mod is completed. We feel we reached the limits of what we can do, of what we can change and we reached the conclusion that further changes would put into question the holistic equilibrium that we found. That was our aim and we’ve accomplished it. Therefore we will not release any further patches to our match engine mod – version 1.4 is our final version. We deeply appreciate all the support and comments and we are very thankful for the tens of thousands of people that have downloaded our mods.
It is time to move on and branch out to other areas we can mod. Our goal is always to make FM as realistic as possible while also understanding the limits of our modding work. With this in mind, let’s proceed with an update on the following topics:
Training mod, stadium mod, audio mod and media mod.
TRAINING MOD
We are very thankful for the very positive reaction to our training mod that was released on the 10th of May. You can find more info in the dev blog post we published alongside the release, link here. And of course you can download the file in the usual place here in our website, here.
But our work with the training mod doesn’t stop and we are actively working on releasing a big patch to solve an issue that we found by accident and that we still find astonishing that SI never corrected this. We are working hard on making sure that the game recognises that, in the world of football, a weekly schedule should include football games that will happen on a weekday other than Saturday. For reasons we do not know, the training system was built with the premise that a football game only happens on a Saturday or on a Tuesday. Nothing in the code tells the game that there are games on a Sunday, Friday, Wednesday and Thursday. Or even Mondays. This has a direct impact in how the training system works which in turn will impact directly how players develop throughout their career. Because the lack of code acknowledgement of this reality makes it so the system of training templates, and their effects, will not happen unless the game can effectively recognise that football matches are played in more days of a seven-day week.
Therefore we are working hard in writing and adding additional code to the training files that will allow the game to have, embedded, automatically recognised by the game, without the need for human input, which means it will also apply automatically to the AI giving the AI the same boost and effects of the changes to keep a level playing field, training templates that will recognise the reality of today’s game. And those training templates will be automatically applied and adapted depending on the sequence of games in a week. This means that the number of templates will grow but we will make sure that they are easy to understand.
More news will be released soon. This training patch needs to be heavily tested to make sure the gains and realistic approach we’ve coded in the first version of the training mod continues to be a core feature of this patch. We hope to have a public release soon. With an exclusive release, before the public one, in our discord server which you can gain access via this link.
STADIUM MOD
As we all know the stadiums in FM are, well, bland. Just a collection of blocks that don’t resemble any real stadium. Clearly this wasn’t a priority for SI and we understand why since it is a very time consuming mission.
Our goal with this mod is to provide realistic renderings to stadiums you know and love. Perfection is impossible since we are very limited by what the public accessible code allows us to do but we are confident we can offer something unique. This means that our aim is to recreate as much as we can and this also includes semi-pro/amateur stadiums.
Our approach is being organised and advised by a team of architects and graphic designers that so graciously offered us their time, knowledge and skills. We are working as fast as we can, although this is a slow process. We need to build stands after stands while having pictures of real life stadiums to guide us. One issue that we are still trying to manage is related with the need for individual files for individual stadiums. Although the process to install is very simple, our goal is to make it as seamless as possible for the average user. Our aim is to release individual stadiums periodically and each player will be able to add those individual stadiums if they wish so.
We know that this mod will not be as popular as the match engine mod. It is a QoL (quality of life mod) which will not pull as much attention as the ME mod, but we think that the players deserve to have the most realistic experience possible when playing a match. This includes feeling that you are inside the stadium and, at least, visually, you can feel you are inside a stadium you can easily recognise.
AUDIO MOD
This one is a very personal one. One thing that always attracted me to live matches were the sounds of the fans and supporters. The chants, the roars, the positive feelings, the “sacked in the morning”. And this is what we wish to present to all of you that wish a more realistic and immersive experience when playing a match (at the same time you feel you are inside a real life stadium…). We know that nowadays players listen to music, or podcasts, or whatever they wish to listen to when playing the game. We are also aware of the wonderful work that MetzFM has done with his audio & commentary mod. But our approach is different and holistic. We aim to offer a full package of realism to players. It starts with the match engine, continues with the training and then it branches out to the immersive experience inside the stadium.
We have collected thousands of match sounds and crowds that we will be choosing to code into the game. Our approach will follow the same method as any previous mod we published: realism, making sure it works, no bugs, well coordinated and only to be released after heavy testing.
We also aim to have chants that can encompass the multitude of experiences outside of Europe. This means sounds and chants from other continents. And if you are from South America, North America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, we are more than open to accept what you can bring in terms of sounds and chants. We want to make this a global audio mod, not only an English focused one. Join is in our discord and message me (Count Vronsky) and be part of this project.
MEDIA MOD
This one is a behemoth of a project… Countless and countless of internet posts speak about how dreadful, horrible media interactions are in the game. Players that react like babies, interactions that don’t make any sense; humans that will never speak like that, the examples are too numerous to name each one of them. Fortunately, or not due to the massive amount of work needed, hidden in the public accessible game code, we found the whole list of media interactions in the game. This is not an exaggeration: the whole list. Including the code that defines how players will react to interactions in the game.
This means we can make a total overhaul of media interactions in the game. This include all manners of press conferences, all manners of interactions with the board, players, agents, during transfer windows, and all steps of a life of a manager.
As you can imagine this demands the biggest amount of work that we ever did with modding any part of the game. Because of that we put to a vote, in our discord server, if the community wanted us to do this. The vote was very clear: yes, the community wants a modded media mod.
Our goals with this mod are as follows:
1 – A full rewrite of the media interactions. This means rewriting all media questions in all manners of press conferences.
2 – A full rewrite of the interactions with people in the game. Players, staff, agents, other managers.
3 – A full overhaul of the effects of interactions in terms of dynamics and player morale.
4 – When possible, the introduction of banter, funny comments, and a more quirky side to interactions.
The guiding principle is the same as with any mod that we publish under our name and brand: realism. In this case, people in the game speaking like humans.
And this mod will need a bigger team, fully dedicated to this mod. This is the current stage of this mod: forming the team that will tackle this behemoth of a mod.
If you want to join us then join our discord and message me (Count Vronsky). New players joining our discord need to complete the captcha human verification system in order to have full access to the server. Link to join here.
And this is the full list of upcoming projects and their current state of work.
It seems a new FM is coming and this work will always be there for all of those that will stay with FM24. But at the same time this work is building the foundations for what we can do with the next FM.
We are not going anywhere. Our work continues including next releases of FM.
Thank you so much for supporting us and considering using our mods. We are doing this because we love FM and because we want to offer something unique and different that will help every one of you to have your own unique experience of the game we all love.
Cheers,
The FM Match Lab team
Written by the Chairman, Count Vronsky
