- Did you notice any difference in atmosphere between home/away/cup matches?
I did notice the home team cheering on good tackles and passages of play as well as boos and whistles on fouls and losing possession…
- Does the home crowd have a more active stance to star players from the away team? (Ronaldo getting extra boo's)
Can’t say I noticed if they did to be honest…
- How does custom audio sound? Assuming EA set up atleast one tune to hear it.
Not in and could not add I’m afraid…
- How is the scheduling? Do matches have the right balance relative to time of day and weather? Is a saturday match during the day and weekday matches at night?
This was spot on from what I saw, midweek games were evening kickoff times and weekend games were day time…
Edit: did mean to add we did spot a league game on a day straight after another one in the schedule, we pointed this out and sent a link to Marcel...
- Can you change weather/timeofday in the match screen? I've read you can.
Yes you can change the weather but not the time of day…
- Does the crowd react appropriatly to a goal?
In the grounds I played it was hard to see the crowd most of the time but from the ones I saw they did, and on pens too…
- Does the crowd have a subtle build-up in noise when a team is close to creating a chance? Irl you can hear the anticipation when Torres get's near the penalty area or lines himslef up for a shot. It's something they should really have in the game to make the sound flow more from action to action.
There was the odd occasion when they didn’t but this tended to be wider areas down the wings, most of the time there was a nice build up…
- Have the fan graphics improved? Team flags, camera flashes, WC-like ribbons during a cup final, stuff like that.
Didn’t notice if they had, the pitch-side and crowd graphics have changed very little…
- Do stadiums actually fill up in the top league when playing a derby match?
Playing as Leeds there were some empty rows and playing as Man United there were some empty seats scattered around, didn’t see half empty stadia that I remember…
Editing:
- Can you assign different net/pitch styles to stadiums (for example when setting the name and team for a certain stadium) Probably won't get to actually see it, maybe ask them if possible.
Managed with messing to set a tight triangular net to all the stadia we played in so I guess that’s a yes!...
- Are there any options for editing players within CM?
Asked Marcel this and he said No…
--> If not, I assume that all edits must be made prior to starting a CM career for them to take effect?
Yes, this goes for updates too…
Match AI:
- How did you find the AI? Could you tell the difference between teams (Arsenal vs Bolton for example).
Going to use the dreaded CODE word here but we were unsure as to the build we had but the Arsenal players were skillful and sharp and Chelsea were strong…
- Do teams edit their tactics according to score? A 2-0 lead should mean a more defensive, counter attacking set-up by the winning team, or a team losing should activily play more attacking and take risks.
Didn’t notice them actually alter their stats but did notice more attacking play in a couple of the games, when the side were down…
- Did you notice any difference playing teams fighting relegation or possible champions? For example a team lower in the league (playing a top team) should be set-up to try a get a point (defensive) whereas a team trying to win the league playing relegation fodder should have extra attackign urgency.
Did not get anywhere near the end of a season even simming…
- Has P+ made an impact to how teams play? AI giving the ball more often to a star player or using the speed of a winger?
Not that you could tell, though they did tend to work the ball better and create chances rather than hump the ball into the corner for the run and cross…
- Does P+ have a big enough effect in general
Still undecided on this, it probably will be for the guys on the forum but you have to be realistic and realize we are a tiny portion of the game sales. This along with errors in general needs to be under sliders for 12…
- Does P+ have a big enough effect in the lower leagues, or do teams become more and more generic the lower you go?
Could not test this in the time we had…
- Did you find you had to combat star players more?
Yes, there were some tricky buggers and some tanks too…
- How is pressure generally? For 10 I had to edit all the teams with custom tactics to back-the-f@#k up!
I think most people will find this far, far better…
- Do lower league teams get a ridiculous cup boost?
Had a little debate on this as we got a tough game against Nott’s C, with Leeds. Again though with the time frame it would be almost impossible to tell…
- How does fatigue effect teams in the league.
It was better as players were generally fit enough to play week in week out but still getting tired, we were no sprint *****s though so again only long game time will really tell on this…
- How does fatigue effect teams in cups, lower league teams can be up-for-it for 60min but after that they should be knackered.
Only played one lower side and they did seem to tire towards the end,
- Does the AI make realistic substitutions? Or do they go through the motion every game?
Did notice in the games where they made them (and I noticed 
) they were a striker for a striker and a defender for a defender etc.
- Does the AI choose appropriate lineups (no more Giggs at LB/ Hangeland at RB) and can we still fix AI lineups if worst case it's still bad?
The big clubs that we saw all had correct line ups, whether this will stay the same after injuries or transfers is another matter…
CM Off-the-Pitch
- What are the club development options?
None in a word…
- Can you change stadium when growing?
No…
- Did you find the menu's to be a good improvement? Found the WC ones to give a decent amount of info / atmosphere.
Yes, I liked the menu’s, I think most guys have seen the ones of the forums so know the general style, well laid out with good info, there were some glitches on some but given it’s a beta that’s to be expected…
- Are the news items good? Do they add to the atmosphere, give a realistic impression of what's going on?
Yes, again these were well laid out and added loads to the feeling the world was going on as you played, injuries and suspensions for other teams came up, sky sports ticker scrolled results and fixtures and the items regarding your club had your team clips on, I guess this will be for licensed clubs but it still looked good…
- Has board feedback been improved?
Massively from 10, you have coach and scout info too all via email…
- Has the weekly info been improved? I mean, WTF is the point of lastweek/thisweek wages?!
Again a big improvement, none of that rubbish this time round…
- Is club budget now obvious and clearly presented?
Very, and quite good in terms of scale, Man City were obviously up there with a big Transfer kitty and salary but not ridiculous, they were pretty good and well presented, we got a cash injection and a salary increase for getting through a cup round…
- Are emails usefull?
Yes, and a good touch, as you can go day to day on the calendar you find them popping up for all sort of things from training knocks to coach suggestions…
- Do players try to leave when not being played?
Did not see this but things like this will need playing time…
- Good overview of Statistics? Player/leagues/cups/euroleagues/managerhistory/etc
Yes they were, all the info was there, did not get to every screen especially the damn manager history, I can’t believe I forgot that!! But the ones I saw were good and well presented, a couple of glitched ones and we made a couple of suggestions to Marcel too…
- Is the "Assistant manager" still in the game? If so is it actually remotely useful or does it still choose the completely wrong players for positions?
Assistant coach and a coach too, though most if not all the feedback I saw was from the assistant coach, he does not alter the team or mess with anything he just advises…
Transfers
- Does the AI perform realistic transfers?
The ones I saw were, though Pedro did turn up in the Madrid Squad…
- Have they sorted out having the same player transfer every window? I'm sure Ive seen the same guy move club every time!
Didn’t see this happen…
- How active are the AI when trying to buy your player?
As this is done on a day to day basis unless you sim a week at a time, if feels so different to 10, sold a couple of older squad players though good ones and had decent bids offering more than there face value after a few days…
- When trying to buy a player is it clear what's going on? CLub want's more / player wants more money / Appropriate transfers = Accrington won't be buying Ronaldo, etc.
Yes it’s clear and the transfers are one of the biggest improvements’ in the game, you have to agree with the club first. Then the player and these can take a few negotiating rounds and ther is no guarantees.. You also get a report from your negotiator giving you info on the player and club, telling you things like “he’s a first team player so you will need to pay a premium” or he’s just moved so is very unlikely to move again…
- Is scouting a good improvement?
There is now a Scout Picks option, the scout assesses your team and where he feels you are weak and suggests a player, this may be more than one player but we only tried twice and had one player each time, this is also based on affordability and the likely hood he’ll come, though again this is not guaranteed…
- Free/loan transfers?
Loans are in 3 month or a season, you can cancel the loan either end but have to pay the full wage penalty… You can’t buy a player at the end of a loan though, we did ask Marcel to look at this…
Edit: no part exchange deals either...
- How active are clubs when trying to sign you as manager? Are the offers appropriate? If I'm succesfully managing Liverpool but have a 2* rating (which is odd anyway) I should be getting good euro teams offering jobs, not lower league teams.
Got no offers on this so I don’t know!...
Injuries
- I think you know!
Some good news and bad news, I’ll expand later… IRATE::SHOCK:
Scout & Youth Players- Is there more to the new scouting feature than the scout making recommendations during the transfer period?
As posted above the scout is gone and you have a scout picks option in the TF menu…
- With the old scout system removed, how do we have access to undiscovered youth players to refresh and maintain our squads as the mode advances in years?
You can search for youth players in the TF menu as before some will be with clubs others will be unsigned…
- Are CPU teams still automatically generating fake young players?
Yes…
- Are fake players still faceless?
Yes, there were faceless players still…
--> Are they more realistic?
What realistically faceless?... The new youth players I saw were no higher than 74 I think, these were all with the bigger clubs…
--> Have they been given names that commentators will say?
Don’t know didn’t check the commentator name list though…
--> Do they have traits?
Marcel said they would have and we found a couple…
--> How are their player models? More varied?
Can’t say I noticed this, though I did like the size a shape difference in the game compared to 10 and in the cut scenes, it was a shock to see tall, short and big builds in there…
Player Development- How has the player growth system changed/improved from last year?
- Has the option returned to manage player growth directly or is growth automatic again like last year?
You have the growth screen that gives you general information, it’s automatic and seemed fairly realistic…
--> if player growth is automatic, do we have any input/involvement in the process?
As above automatic…
- How is the speed of player growth (i.e. how many OVR pts might a player gain per year)?
From what I saw I’d say maybe slightly more than ten but not silly, as it’s nearly all tweakable after launch things like this can be altered…
- Has the player scouting reports and potential growth charts evolved/improved?
--> Are they more detailed?
--> Do we know what specific attributes are changing?
As above you have a growth screen and info on how the players are doing, with info from the coach…
--> Are these reports available when deciding on transfers?
No I don’t think so, you do get to see who else plays or can play in the position of the player you are selling at your club which is a nice touch…
- As players grow, is it possible for them to gain new traits?
Yes, Marcel told us this as we had no time to check…
- As players grow, is it possible for them to gain skill stars for more tricks?
Again Marcel said this should happen…
Had to call time for now as I know you are chomping at the bit for these, I should have been out tonight but I stayed in to get these done, I’m hoping to get the rest up tonight and then the write up though Phil may want to double check it before I can post it…
