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
Gonna load this into FM26 and see what happens!
Hello and thank you for your comment.
Thank you for supporting us and please report back your feedback after some seasons.
Cheers
I just downloaded the Training mod, and at the first glance there are some balancing issues in my opinion:
– Goalkeepers should be LOVING having any goalkeeper or goalkeeper-related schedule and neutral about any non-goalkeeper focus training.
– Physical training only influencing the four attributes is not a good idea. Physical is just an all-rounder, if you want to work on physical attributes of the players, but not sure what to focus on. For any specific focus, you can use the Quickness, Resistance or Strength.
– Football players dislike training without the ball. Any tactical training or physical training should have a negative or neutral effect on training happiness.
– Any schedule that is not a physical training or a training match should have only a minimal effect on the development of physical stats if any.
– There is nothing that can improve Natural Fitness.
– You completely misunderstood the Attacking overlap. It is the training form, where your wingbacks are trying to overlap, dribble and cross. It is the ONLY training form in the game, where you can train your offensive stats of your defenders. The focus of this schedule should be 60% defenders with heavy emphasis on off the ball, crossing and dribbling. Goalkeepers should be training their Aerial Ability, Command of Area etc.
– Set piece routines can also train crossing and technique. Also, it shouldn’t cause any happiness among those, who are not the set piece takers, because of the static, tactical nature of the training.
– Shot stopping’s secondary effect can be finishing and long shots for the outfield players.
– One-on-Ones secondary effect can be finishing, composure dribbling etc. for the outfield players.
– Some things are really enigmatic, like why does community outreach increase bravery or why does shadow play increases the long shots or why does one-on-ones improve Communication etc.
I’ll test the mod and give a more comprehensive feedback. Thank you for your good work.
Hello and thank you for your comment.
Our options were taken taking into consideration the long term effects we wanted to achieve.
That means taking decisions that, from the outside, might not make sense. All of the changes were heavily tested and the training system is as easy as you comment might suggest. It is made of very intricate parts that need to make sense and be able to communicate together in order to produce results with actual impact in the game and in the long term.
As always, our modding work is always open to be reviewed and changed in future patches if we feel that the change is warranted and justified by heavy testing.
Thank you for using our mod.
Cheers
J’ai téléchargé le fichier training.fmf. Je l’ai placé dans le dossier game simulation.
mais quand j’ouvre FM24 , rien d’apparait dans mes entrainements ?
Hello and thank you for your comment.
It seems you followed the correct instructions to install the file. Please double check that the file you have inside the game simulation folder is our training mod. It is easy to identify because it is a bigger file than the default.
Then when you are in the game and you load your save, you go to the training screen and you need to double check if you are having no games, one game per week, or two games per week. If you do not have any game in that week, then there’s no variant(s). If you see one game per week then you should see some variant(s), and if you have two games per week you will see 12 variant(s).
If you still have issues, please join our Discord and one of our helpful community members will help you.
Thank you for using our mod.
Cheers
OUi le fichier training est plus volumineux mais aucune variante n’apparait…. Tant pis.
Hello and thank you for your reply.
Please join our Discord so that we can help you more directly.
You can find the link to join our server in our website.
Thank you