Hello all,
It has been a while but we are finally ready to publish this massive training patch to our training mod.
First of all, let me clarify that this patch keeps intact all the core long-term effects of the training mod for your long-term saves. Second of all, the goal of this patch was to correct something we thought was a major blunder from SI: the fact that the training system only recognises one game per week on Saturday and two matches per week, on Tuesday and Saturday. This means that, in practice, everyone that delegates, and the AI, will be at a disadvantage versus the human player since any of us can change the template to suit the needs of the team.
We saw this blunder, this lack of recognition of today’s packed schedules and we decided it was time to correct this. And this is the genesis of this patch to our training mod:
a) To create a system that can incorporate the different realities of modern football and the different days when matches can be played;
b) To create a system that the AI can use effectively and, via a training system the AI recognises and uses, helping the AI to develop the young players it has (this ties with our work with the AI file and the player ratings file)
c) To create a system that allows more layers of customisation and depth, giving the players different types of templates to fit their own unique game schedules.
Therefore let’s go into what this means for your FM24 saves.
THE HOW
We approached this patch with the same mindset that presides our modding project: realism. We started by identify the core problem we wanted to solve – allowing the templates to recognise today’s packed schedule – and we started to analyse the possible solutions. Here we found some issues:
a) The training system assumes that all matches are at home. This means that all templates – and their long term effects – will be broken every time there’s an away match. This can be seen in the way that, in the day before an away match and in the day after the away match, the template will be incomplete due to the mandatory and hardcoded “Travel” session;
b) Due to the “Travel” mandatory session, that blocks the second session in the day before the away match, and the first session on the day after the away match, we needed to create a system that recognises this hardcoded feature while still keeping the desired long-term effects;
c) The weekly schedule is coded as a seven-day week where the last day, Sunday, marks the end of the template. This means that for Sunday matches, especially away matches, if the template of the following week does not recognise that reality, it means that any template after the Sunday match will have its effects curtailed due to this coded shortcoming.
d) The system does not recognise the different realities of the weekly calendar when the player has continental competitions. This means the different permutations (Tuesday matches, Wednesday, Thursday) are not included in the code. This means that any weekly schedule would be curtailed, and its effects damaged, if we didn’t solve this issue.
e) The current training code, and files, are tightly packed which means the scope to introduce new templates, to try and introduce different realities is severally limited.
Considering all the above we spent the last countless of weeks rewriting the necessary files, rewriting the code even taking into consideration all the above mentioned limitations and we also had to test all the changes to make sure what you expect from us and our work is still there: realism and excellence.
Therefore, what can you find in this patch?
THE CHANGES
This patch is summarised by one word “Variant”. “Variant” represents a different schedule adapted to a reality of a week where the game happens on a specific day.
In each section of the training templates you will see different “Variant(s)”. Each “Variant” represents a week where the game will be played on a specific date and each “Variant” is a different template which is fully adapted to the day when the game is played. The AI will apply the new templates if you fully delegate the training to your Ass Man.
When you install our mod (the installation instructions are the same), load your save and go to the training tab this is what you will see:
1 – All pre-season schedules, with one game per week, have 3″Variant(s)”:
- “Variant” 1, game on a Friday
- “Variant” 2, game on a Saturday
- “Variant” 3, game on a Sunday
2 – All pre-season schedules, with two games per week, have 4 “Variant(s)”:
- “Variant” 1, game on a Tuesday and Saturday
- “Variant” 2, game on a Wednesday and Saturday
- “Variant” 3, game on a Tuesday and Sunday
- “Variant” 4, game on a Wednesday and Sunday
3 – All Tactical Styles schedules, with one game per week, have 3 “Variant(s)”
- “Variant” 1, game on a Friday
- “Variant” 2, game on a Saturday
- “Variant” 3, game on a Sunday
4 – All Tactical Styles, Philosophy and Scenario schedules, with two games per week, have 12 “Variant(s)”
- “Variant” 1, game on a Monday and Thursday
- “Variant” 2, game on a Monday and Friday
- “Variant” 3, game on a Monday and Saturday
- “Variant” 4, game on a Monday and Sunday
- “Variant” 5, match on a Tuesday and Thursday
- “Variant” 6, match on a Tuesday and Friday
- “Variant” 7, match on a Tuesday and Saturday
- “Variant” 8, match on a Tuesday and Sunday
- “Variant” 9, match on a Wednesday and Saturday
- “Variant” 10, match on a Thursday and Saturday
- “Variant” 11, match on a Wednesday and Sunday
- “Variant” 12, match on a Thursday and Sunday
5 – All Semi-pro templates have different “Variant(s)” which are specifically adapted to their unique situation
6 – All youth templates have a more streamlined “Variant” system.
This is what you can see in game:
We recognise the UI is not the best. Having an endless list of “Variant(s)” to choose might seem daunting but unfortunately this is something we cannot change and it is one of those things we have to accept. And that’s not the only one:
1 – Due to the “Travel” session, which is mandatory and hardcoded, that blocks the second session of the day prior to an away match, and the first session of the day after an away match, we decided that, to keep the balance of the mod, the day after an away match will have the following configuration: “Travel”, “Team Rest” and “Physical Recovery”. We decided that this is the right approach since the effects of “Match Review” can be achieved via other training sessions and also via other methods. This way we keep intact the changes we made to the training system (this ties with the changes we did to make sure fatigue is realistically represented)
2 – Unfortunately and due to the way the files are so tightly constrained you might see, in some weeks, that the templates will not begin on Monday but on Tuesday. This is due to how the game reads Week 1 (correct variant) and Week 2. The reasons as to why this happens are not known, but we have a suspicion of the causes. Unfortunately we cannot solve it without access to the source code and we need to accept that reality. The long term effects are protected.
That’s it.
This is the first and final patch for the training mod.
Now we move to the new FM and we are eagerly waiting to see how many of our existing mods, and planned mods, will be ported to the new FM.
Thank you so much for your support, it matters a lot for us.
Cheers,
The FM Match Lab team
