Hello all,
This is a very exciting moment in our project when we reveal what we’ve been working on for some time and that we think will elevate long-term saves in a way it wasn’t possible in FM24 before. Today we present our brand new file – a total overhaul of the training system. This will be a long post so please bear with us because this needs a deep dive alongside pictures that will help you understand what we’ve done and what you can expect.
THE BEFORE
Let me ask you, how many times did you actually tinkered the training schedule for your team? Honestly, how many times? Of course there are players like me that will always change, modify and adapt the training schedules during a month just… well, just because we think it makes sense although it is more of a placebo effect than having an actual effect in-game. SI has promised, has said, that training is fundamental in FM but truth be told it is not. Anyone can go to the SI forums or do a quick Reddit search to find the posts that show how big is the disappointment that training is, basically, useless. Let’s add to this the following image:
This is the image of the game breaking training schedule that came from China that shattered any kind of positive image of the training system in FM or even any hope that training could be useful in some way. This kind of game breaking exploits look to produce physical monsters in game to break the game even more by exploiting the high dependance on physical attributes. Which in turn would make FM a very weird game that it is very far from what it is supposed to be – a realistic simulation of football but with elements of fun that means it is not too hard or not too easy (but never perfect because that doesn’t exist).
That led to videos (who doesn’t remember Zealand’s video about Training being broken) that showcased how the original system is useless, does not do what is advertised to do and it needs a complete overhaul. Here we have limitations because there’s parts of the training that are hardcoded and because of that we didn’t change the following topics because only SI can do it:
- Individual training.
- Additional focus.
- The system that determines how and how much regens are spawned with each youth intake, player regeneration.
With this in mind we decided to go full bonkers and since the public available code regarding training is extensive we decided to give it a go and change it with the following goals in mind:
- Nerf, as best as possible, game exploits of the training system just like the screenshot above;
- Training being able to offer a different path to develop tactical systems, players and young players;
- Making sure long-term saves and very long-term saves can be fun, engaging and successful;
- Allowing for a better distribution of attributes that meant more available PA for other attributes to grow and not only the usual physical ones.
OUR WORK
With the above goals as our focus we started by doing a deep dive into the code and studying it. We found some stuff that surprised us such as spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, syntax errors and so on that baffled us. What was worst was that even some parameters that needed to communicate with other parameters located in different training files weren’t doing that because the code was not following the instruction on top of the file. I mean… How come a company like SI could let this happen and release a game with this kind of issues that show a very problematic lack of quality assurance methods. But we moved on and we decided to not stop until we managed to achieve what we wanted.
We looked to some of the training sessions and we decided they needed an overhaul as well so we could achieve the results we wanted. Sessions such as the general training sessions, “Defence”, “Possession”, “Attacking”, among others; technical sessions such as “Ball Retention”, “Transition – Restrict”, among others; all, all of them were overhauled in such a way that would allows us to make training useful once and for all.
We added attributes to some training sessions; we overhauled the organisation of the training templates and we added or removed training sessions from every training template; we redistributed attributes all over the training sessions; we redistributed the weighting of the physical sessions diluting their effects and increasing the penalties for using them too much; we worked really hard to make sure that any template, any training session would have actual in-game effects. Those effects can be seen after 2/3 seasons but they will be more noticeable the longer you play. Here are some examples of the new training template:
As you can see, our work was basically overhauling all the training systems that we had access, ergo, what is public available. But this is not all… We wanted to make sure that the long term effects of our changes would have real in-game effects in terms of how regens develop decades after the beginning of a season. This meant running the heaviest and most comprehensive tests that we could and the results were… astonishing to say the least. Here’s four examples of attributes and their evolution:
What do you see in the above pictures? Let’s take acceleration as the example. At the start of the save, players with CA130+, out of 2159 players there are 514 players with acceleration at least 15 (out of 20) and using the vanilla files (vanilla ME file, vanilla player ratings file, vanilla AI file, vanilla training file), on 2040 where there’s a total of 2192 players with a CA130+ and 920 out of those 2192 players have acceleration at least 15 (out of 20) which is an increase of 78,99%. But using our files (most updated ME file, player ratings file, AI file and training file), what we see is just an increase of 2,33%, 526 players out of 2073 players. What we see here… a drop in physical monsters keeping it similar to what you find in the beginning of a save. And we have here examples for pace, crossing and finishing that shows the deep effects of our changes. And this some examples of players in 2048:
As you can see from this screenshots this is what the AI can do using our revamped and overhauled training templates. These are the type of player and player development you can expect. A more balanced distribution of attributes which means a better use of the available space between CA (when the player is created by the game) and it’s PA (hardcoded by the game when it is created), and incidentally a lesser prevalence of physical monsters. And if this is what the AI can create, what can you as a human manager create?
Of course, we will be surprised by what the human mind will create. Naturally someone out there will try and find a game breaking exploit of this new training regime and we are comfortable with that. Even with our changes and even with our best efforts to try and nerf game breaking training regimes, those will continue to exist but now with added penalties. We are agnostic about the way players play this game we all love, we are just offering a different option and it is our hope that this would encourage people to give it a go and try to do training themselves instead of delegating to the ass man. This leads me to add the following important point:
- The new training templates apply equally to the AI manager and human manager. This means both will see the full effects across several seasons;
- Our best results, and the way we do testing, is by using the most updated files, which means the most updated ME file (the one currently in our website that includes the updated AI changes, and player ratings changes) and Daveincid’s full list of files of his realism mod;
- We are offering a full package of mods (ME file that includes the AI changes and player ratings changes + new training file) that work together seamlessly in order to offer to players a more realistic FM experience and if you combine that with Daveincid’s full list of files your game will be even better; harder yes, but we believe it is a challenge that will make you a better player overall.
That’s it, this is the deep dive in what we did and what you can expect. Because of the changes we made it was needed to write a longer blog post. In today’s world that attention spans are so diminished it is a risk doing this, but we believe that information can be very helpful to all of you so it is my hope is that you were able to read the post in its entirety.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment to this blog post or, if. you prefer visually, check our YouTube video (also a deep dive and longer video, about 30 minutes of constant information to help you), or join our Discord server where we have a dedicated channel to discuss the new training file.
Thank you so much for all your support and feedback. This project only exists because of you – the FM community.
Cheers,
The FM Match Lab team
Awesome work. Would it be possible to add these to my already existing save?
Yes all of our files are fully compatible with existing saves.
hi…how do I install these with the 1.4 version? thanks for the very good job
Hello,
Installation instructions of the training file can be found in the FM Match Lab Mods page of the website. The instructions are above the button to download the training file.
Cheers
I can find no button or instructions on installing the training mod. Can you post a link to it? Thanks for all your work.
Hello and thank you for your comment.
It is really easy to find the spot you are looking for. Just click the page that is named “FM Match Lab Mods” and you will need to scroll down and you will find the training file and just above the button to download you will find the instructions to download.
You just need to read the top bar menus of the website. Is that easy.
Thank you for using our modded files and supporting our work.
Cheers
我打了这个补丁以后，在训练-日程里面再也无法导入别的训练计划了， 是否不兼容
Hello and thank you for your comment.
If you could write your comment in English that would be very helpful.
Cheers
Hello, after using the training patch you developed, I encountered an issue where I was unable to save the custom training plan when importing it. Is there an incompatibility issue with this.
Hello, since you have installed our training file that means the templates are different. This means you will have to create your own new custom training plan and save it. Since our training file is different this can be a good opportunity for you to update your custom training schedule so that you can see the full effects of our changes. Cheers
Thank you, but custom training plans cannot be saved in the future. Only tactical style (variant) can be used
Received, please reply. Thank you
Hello, after using the training patch you developed, I encountered an issue where I was unable to save the custom training plan when importing it. Is there an incompatibility issue with this.
Hey, I have a question:
It has been said by many coaches for the last few years that fitness training for professional sports in general has been improving significantly. We don’t even have to take their word for it; we can see that the intensity achieved by world-class teams is far superior then what we would’ve expected 10,15 years ago. Is it possible to do something that would reflect this constant development of technology that is available to us, or is the best we can do simply is to pretend to ourselves that there is a change over time (e.g we have to pretend to ourselves that 10 stamina in 2050 is superior to 10 stamina in 2025, and because everyone has the same distribution of attributes it doesn’t actually matter)?
Hello and thank you for your comment,
We agree with you but unfortunately we have to pretend and imagine that’s the case, until SI decides to mimic that evolution. Which will not be easy at all to try and recreate because it is not a given that for the next 50 years the curve of progression will be the same. We can only speculate. But for now this is the best we can do. FM has a game it also has limitation in what can simulate so we have to just accept that for the time being and focus on what we can actually change for the better.
Cheers
Hello, I would like to know if the May 21st update of the game has any impact on the use of engine patches and training patches.
Hello, the latest SI official update rewrites our files. The procedure is very simple: you just have to download our files and reinstall them again. As simple as that.
Cheers
Hi and thanks for all your great work guys. I’m just starting a new game and would like to use your Training overhaul as it sounds a big improvement. However I’m managing Weymouth who are semi-professional so less training slots possible overall. Can I go ahead and use it anyway with my semi-pros? Thanks!
Hello and thank you for your comment.
Yes you can use it. Hopefully you will be professional in no time.
Cheers
Hi and thanks for your mod! I have the same question for semiprofessional teams. I play in German Lower League per league extension mod. I commented on YT with the same question but not sure if that was posted or not. Anyway for my team the weekly schedules can be loaded but display only one or max 2 sessions per day. That is more than the vanilla schedule with (I forgot 4 training sessions on 2 days + Focus before match?). So I need to change the the weekly schedule as they only display the first daily session usually (like the all individual slot). But when I replace such a slot with what I want It deletes most of the days (not available slots) despite maybe the slots which are allowed (I guess). But because of the focus day before the match it keeps this training session above the focus which is not ideal one day before the match. So that is the only culprit maybe for me + it is a bit cheating when I keep the weekly schedule with more sessions than allowed (and do not change anything there). Shall I better skip the training-file until I am professional? Cheers
We know about this semi-pro bug. We are planning to launch a patch that will solve this. That patch is being worked. You still can use the training mod while we work on fixing this because the effects in-game will still be there.
Cheers
After installing the mod, do i have to do something in perticular?
Do I have to somehow select or “activate” the revised training plans myself?
Hello and thank you for your comment.
You don’t need to do anything else after putting the file in the right place. You just open the game and you play the usual way. The difference will be in the training tab. The templates are different and then it is up to you what to do: to do training yourself or to let your staff taking care of that.
Cheers
“Is it beneficial to assign a positional training in the individual training menu, or is it better to leave it unassigned?”
Hello there,
You should always assign a positional training, it is more beneficial to your player.
Cheers