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Football Manager 2026

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  • Scoham
    Scoham Posts: 37,376
    Great to finally see some news, glad they're leading with the match engine update as that's what so many will want to see. I think the switch to 3D was in 2008 for FM 2009, it's well overdue a more modern look.

    Hopefully the extra year has got the game to a really good place, I remember the horrendous state CM4 was in when that came out.

    Looking forward to this version more than usual with all the changes and taking over our research again for the last year or so - and on that point, Fullah is a really difficult player to rate! Being versatile and pretty much perfectly two footed are weighted highly leaving less room to reflect other areas of his game.
  • Garrymanilow
    Garrymanilow Posts: 13,167
    Who's this for though? I don't want any of this. I don't care if there's a shiny match engine, I don't even use the 3D match engine anymore because the actually interesting thing is putting together a new squad, developing young players, taking a club up through the divisions and reloading if you don't beat Crystal Palace. I'm concerned that my potato laptop isn't going to have the specs to run FM26 without catching fire and even if it does they'll have spent two years painstakingly getting the advertising hoardings right instead of improving the things that make FM24 maddening. Is the AI still unable to handle squad building after the first few years? Do players still demand £300k a week from you and then go to another club for £40k a week instead? Are all player interactions still insane dice rolls written by a man who's never not ended a conversation with an argument? That's the stuff I'm interested in, I want the actual management part to run better, not the stick figures running around to be more convincing. I guess we'll see what they've been up to soon.
  • Who's this for though? I don't want any of this. I don't care if there's a shiny match engine, I don't even use the 3D match engine anymore because the actually interesting thing is putting together a new squad, developing young players, taking a club up through the divisions and reloading if you don't beat Crystal Palace. I'm concerned that my potato laptop isn't going to have the specs to run FM26 without catching fire and even if it does they'll have spent two years painstakingly getting the advertising hoardings right instead of improving the things that make FM24 maddening. Is the AI still unable to handle squad building after the first few years? Do players still demand £300k a week from you and then go to another club for £40k a week instead? Are all player interactions still insane dice rolls written by a man who's never not ended a conversation with an argument? That's the stuff I'm interested in, I want the actual management part to run better, not the stick figures running around to be more convincing. I guess we'll see what they've been up to soon.
    My understanding is much of the underlying code on the backend was from fm05. 20 years later most of the people who worked on it are long gone, there are likely bits of code that work but nobody quite understands why and how but if you remove it the game breaks and it’s extremely limiting for building more things on it. This gives them the ability to build for the next 20 years and hopefully make things in a way that’s modular and adaptable for future teams, in a way that’s much better than the engine they use now. 
  • Don’t need any of the new stuff, by the time get a team from the National League South up to the prem it’s all computer generated anyway 
  • MrOneLung
    MrOneLung Posts: 26,846
    never played FM or CM, do you actually 'play' the match, or just watch it once the team is selected
  • fenaddick
    fenaddick Posts: 11,025
    MrOneLung said:
    never played FM or CM, do you actually 'play' the match, or just watch it once the team is selected
    Depends on what you mean. You don’t control the players like in FIFA/EAFC but you can edit tactics, make subs etc during the game 
  • MrOneLung said:
    never played FM or CM, do you actually 'play' the match, or just watch it once the team is selected
    You watch the highlights. Much like an actual manager, ultimately it’s on your players, how they respond to your tactics, team talks etc. 
  • MrOneLung
    MrOneLung Posts: 26,846
    MrOneLung said:
    never played FM or CM, do you actually 'play' the match, or just watch it once the team is selected
    You watch the highlights. Much like an actual manager, ultimately it’s on your players, how they respond to your tactics, team talks etc. 
    cheers
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  • fenaddick
    fenaddick Posts: 11,025
    Is anyone actually bothered by the match engine looking like this? It's never goinf to be EA FC levels of realistic and there was some charm to the slightly clunky graphics I thought
  • Garrymanilow
    Garrymanilow Posts: 13,167
    I for one am delighted about the richer atmosphere that I will never hear because what kind of psychopath plays Football Manager with the sound on?! The day I get this I will do what I always do, which is download the skin that allow for Instant Result and spend more than half the season pressing that button rather than watching the drawings of footballers not do what I tell them to for 15 minutes. Get me to transfer windows, youth intakes and new job offers as quickly as possible and minimise the amount of space bar I have to hit so international breaks don't feel like actual real life international breaks and I will be happy.

    Well, happier. If when I ask the board for improved training facilities because they're still at National League level in the Championship they still end that meeting with 'in future, please don't waste our time with things like this', or if I praise a player for scoring a hattrick and he ends the conversation with 'I'll be going if that's all. I'm sure you'll need me for something else soon' then my laptop's going out the window.
  • cafctom
    cafctom Posts: 11,364
    fenaddick said:
    Is anyone actually bothered by the match engine looking like this? It's never goinf to be EA FC levels of realistic and there was some charm to the slightly clunky graphics I thought
    The core fanbase will continue to play regardless, but to attract new/younger fans it needed to step up. 
  • Yeah I'm with you @Garrymanilow, CM01/02 will always be my favourite and one I still play now, because of how simple it was. It feels too technical a game for me now... Its been made too complicated compared to the better versions.
  • Callumcafc
    Callumcafc Posts: 63,763
    The players still moonwalk like in the old match engine... given that an entire year/edition had to be skipped, I was hoping for a more significant advancement
  • Diebythesword
    Diebythesword Posts: 287
    edited September 4
    A bit surprised that in a new gaming engine and 2 years behind games the players have the same animation. I thought the whole point of moving to unity was that they could update them to be more realistic. Not very difficult to apply motion capture data in unity - that’s kind of why it’s so popular with independent studios. 

    Don’t really care too much about the match engine as long as there aren’t bizarre bugs in it. Care more about how the man management, scouting, transfers etc work. Extremely tiresome trying to praise a player and they throw a hissy fit about it. 
  • Garrymanilow
    Garrymanilow Posts: 13,167
    Yeah I'm with you @Garrymanilow, CM01/02 will always be my favourite and one I still play now, because of how simple it was. It feels too technical a game for me now... Its been made too complicated compared to the better versions.
    01/02 was my first game in the series and I love it. I do like the increased detail though, just in the areas that I can affect. I like there being more complex tactical setups, I like complex youth production systems, affiliate clubs and granular training regimens, all of which you can ignore and leave to your assistant if you don't fancy thinking about it. What frustrated me is the fact the focus has been on the match engine for years and no matter what they do it will still skew towards certain attributes - like how for years it's been all about physical stats, especially pace and jumping reach - while the rest of the game withers. The press conference questions have been the same for years, transfers are still incredibly simplistic and lack any sense of back and forth with teams or a saga developing that puts pressure on the clubs. Imagine a situation like Isak or Guehi or even Gibbs-White happening on FM, it's just not equipped for it. It's possible that they've used their time to completely refresh all that stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if they've used generative AI to make the press conferences and interactions flow a bit better rather than basing them on Miles being a social disaster. If they have used their time to fix all that stuff up as well then great. If not it'll just be a slower 24
  • The Red Robin
    The Red Robin Posts: 26,126
    Assume there’s an option to have a more limited match engine?
  • Assume there’s an option to have a more limited match engine?
    No, the match engine will be the match engine. You’ll be able use the 2 d graphics like the other games. 
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  • fenaddick said:
    Sparrows Lane shown in the clip as well
  • Scoham
    Scoham Posts: 37,376
    Liking the look of this, can’t wait to try it out.

    Sparrows Lane made an appearance when they showed off the search bar too.

    Don’t know how we beat Brighton in the cup a few years back after seeing Mitoma’s attributes.
  • Scoham
    Scoham Posts: 37,376
    https://store.steampowered.com/app/3551340/Football_Manager_26/

    4th November release date according to Steam
  • Senpai
    Senpai Posts: 901
    Scoham said:
    https://store.steampowered.com/app/3551340/Football_Manager_26/

    4th November release date according to Steam
    Do you know whether the iPad version will be available as a one off payment or will it only be on Apple Arcade again?
  • Scoham
    Scoham Posts: 37,376
    edited September 10
    Senpai said:
    Scoham said:
    https://store.steampowered.com/app/3551340/Football_Manager_26/

    4th November release date according to Steam
    Do you know whether the iPad version will be available as a one off payment or will it only be on Apple Arcade again?
    No idea but with the date on steam I assume there will be more info on the different versions soon.

    Edit: there’s a bit more on different versions and release dates here:

    https://www.footballmanager.com/fm26?_gl=1*x7hn25*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTY5OTQ3NTEwNC4xNzU3NTIzMjY4*_ga_7JNGX9XXS2*czE3NTc1MjMyNjgkbzEkZzAkdDE3NTc1MjMyNjgkajYwJGwwJGgw*_ga_S67P3VFZK2*czE3NTc1MjMyNjgkbzEkZzAkdDE3NTc1MjMyNjgkajYwJGwwJGg1NTg5OTc4MjM.
  • BigRedEvil
    BigRedEvil Posts: 11,070
    What's Charltons transfer budget looking like? 
  • Scoham
    Scoham Posts: 37,376
    What's Charltons transfer budget looking like? 
    We’ve spent about £11m, how much more do you think we’ll have?