Ideas & Suggested Improvements: Improved Match Day

August 20th, 2008 by SM Dev (ste)

On the SM Improvements & Features list you will notice a future project titled ‘Improved Match Day’. This encomposes a whole range of improvements and new features to the current match day experience, and this also includes the introduction of a 2D match engine.

At this moment in time members of our community rely on the text commentary for the game to work out what happened during their match, and as well all know commentry does not show the full pitcure of what happened. However, with the planned introduction of a 2D representation of each game, you will be able to clearly see what has happened during your match.

A 2D match engine could show (as not confirmed at this stage) small numbered circles in a top-down, tactical representation of the match-day action to illustrate the game’s events. Therefore you could watch (for example) one of your players intercept the ball in midfield, then break away down the middle for a one-on-one with the opposing goalkeeper before sliding the ball under him into the back of the net. The text commentary would still exist, and it would be combined with the action on the 2D pitch (thus providing you with a fantastic match day experience).

It would provide a fantastic match day experience as you would be able to watch the highlights of your match, and at the same time notice which players are struggling or excelling. For example you could watch your star midfielder pick out a key through ball which leads to the winning goal or watch your defence make a mess of the offside trap which you asked them to use as your opponents score for the fith time!

This idea is only at the drawing board stage at the moment, and we will not start work on a 2D match engine for some time (as other areas of the match day would have to be improved first). However, whilst it is at this stage you are welcome to offer your own ideas and suggestions on how it could be implemented, and also leave feedback on how it would improve your match day experience.

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28 Comments Add your own

1. pedropt10 | August 20th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

It is a very good idea, but as you said, and I agree, other matchday features should be developed first
2. Ryan.H | August 20th, 2008 at 4:04 pm

maybe you could do a feature like that but so people can watch it as it is happening maybe? but this is a good one
3. thredder | August 20th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

sounds like a big job, but fun for the future.
Perhaps start it slowly, have a 2D replay of goals to start with and build up from there. Not sure that a realtime, as it’s happening is worth it though. It would probably just slow things down.
4. Jake Cowen | August 20th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

Would be a definite improvement to SM taking it to the same level as the ‘Football manager’ match engine. I believe it would also be a huge selling point for this already expanding program.
Whether it is acheiveable to have it running smoothly and quickly without problems is another matter which only you have a reasonable idea of the answer.

Obviously i would love to see this feature as soon as possible, but i would rather wait for a quality match engine then a rushed, satisfactory one.
5. Ben Read (forum) | August 20th, 2008 at 4:35 pm

A 2D match engine would be great

… but being able to view or go onto the score center at all on my Mac would be better

Atm, Apple Macs can only view Match Reports
6. mt-77 | August 20th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

I think there should be a live vidiprinter for your setup, like bbc have sort of thing, so where that yellow message appears saying all matches submitted thing, there should be a button which takes you to your setups live score centre which lasts until 21:30 or something etc.
7. Deon | August 20th, 2008 at 5:08 pm

if the idea really get going,maybe SM can consider changing the subsitution thing to a on the moment thing
such as if my striker is not on form or gets injured halfway into the match,i can sub him off even if its not a preset subsitution
i think it would be more realistic
8. lewis | August 20th, 2008 at 5:25 pm

put the most darby maches 1st and and say it was fighting they should show the fighting
9. Ben | August 20th, 2008 at 7:15 pm

Not bothered by a 2D match engine!!!

If I wanted this I could just play FM08 all the time, I like the basic layout of Soccermanager and dont really want to see moving blobs emulate a 90 minute match!!

A more detailed text description of what happened in the game, some more stats about player performance and better subs and strategy, plus team talks would be more worthwhile first……
10. shane | August 20th, 2008 at 7:27 pm

then watch the site crash and be hard to get on around 8.30 till 10.30 hope the servers are going to be upgraded 1st . but could be a good thing . but if just going to be numbers and a spot moving about dont see how thats going to get people excited .
11. Will Jackson | August 20th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

a 2d engine during the game would be better so that we could make substitutions during the game, this way poorly performing players could be substituted.
12. dean | August 20th, 2008 at 8:30 pm

i`d say that would be an idea but for the goals u could do close up replays like fifa games goals

mt-77 thats a good idea too just it shouldn`t take that long it should take around 10 minutes or something
13. joe | August 20th, 2008 at 9:40 pm

i dont think havin a 2d pitch is worth the time… most people come on this site do their bizniz buy players manage team for next match n log off.. having a pitch will slow the site down people wanting to stay on just to watch dots move around for 90mins.. no point… time would be better served doing other uprages to the site like more sub options ie diffrent times auto sub which overides other subs if some one gets injured… its all happened to us u check match report and u lost cause a player got hurt n stayed on pitch whole game dont happen in real life so auto sub would be a better idea…
14. Chris Fleming | August 21st, 2008 at 12:58 am

i hate idea of 2d blobs couldnt be bothered with it,

the site wil be slow however

it would be good if there was a vidiprinter for just your teams whos playin (in all set ups)
15. guest | August 21st, 2008 at 1:16 am

just improve the advance tactic instead

change tactic/formation during match
16. eddie sarmento | August 21st, 2008 at 3:10 am

2d match engine not needed
17. Stevie D | August 21st, 2008 at 5:10 pm

wud change soccer manager for the better
18. Himble | August 22nd, 2008 at 3:04 am

I like the idea of a 2d match viewer… but has been stated the ability to view the score centre on a Mac would be a plus. At the moment I get a version error… which suggests that the score centre was made on a newer version than I have.. but I have the newest version.
19. rob | August 22nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm

The one thing i don’t like about soccer manager is when I logon to find out how my team got on in the last fixture. We only have the option to go straight to the match result page and WHAM there’s the result right in front of you. It would be great if I went to the match page and could view the oppositions line up and formation (to see if my predictions were right/ wrong) before pressing a button to start the match and gradually watch my team miss 3 penalties, have 4 sent off and get mullerd 7:1 at home. I do like the text description of the games events, they are original, realistic, entertaining and you rarely see the same thing over and over again. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if this text could be extended slightly but played real-time as the match wore on instead of one page of lines? “id love it!!” says Keegan.
I defiantly agree that 2d matches would make the game more informative and entertaining and id love that even more. But it needs to be done properly which could be a lot of work. The thing that worries me is that the game engine wont use enough in-depth information on both teams and give a false idea of how good/bad my players, formation and tactics are when playing a certain opposition. Good luck SM creators
20. Emperor Jay (forum) | August 22nd, 2008 at 5:22 pm

I agree totally with Rob. I reckon the 2D video would be a great addition to the site and a huge seller, with a live Match Report to match. You could make the live player reviewable, or choose only to see the highlights, and have it real-time with the option of a fast-forward button. Of course these ideas will take a long time to get produced with quality but i think most SM players won’t mind waiting.
21. João | August 23rd, 2008 at 3:17 pm

GReat idea
22. Ben | August 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 pm

Is there a thread in the forum about this, I cant find it???
23. Ben | August 23rd, 2008 at 10:17 pm

What next …..3D?

Dont think it will improve the gaming experience having 2d or 3d.
24. BadBlueBoys | August 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 pm

This is wonderful idea, which Is very hard to add to the game, and im really looking forward viewing my games… I think it would be one of the biggest improvements to the SM
25. James | August 24th, 2008 at 9:46 pm

I think this is a brilliant idea…it would make such a huge impact on the game as a whole, let alone the match-day experience!
26. Max Wright | August 29th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

TBH, things like in-game penalties and freekicks would be a huge step forward. 2D gaming would be cool but the in-game basics need sorted out first!
27. Plankton Pete | September 17th, 2008 at 8:18 am

I don’t think a 2-D match engine is a good idea. It’s unnecessary there are other games that already do this and to play ‘catch-up’ would be difficult. Better ideas include revising the in game tac-tics and substitution options:
(1) Auto subbing an injured player (overriding pre-defined subs)
(2) Being able to substitute player x with player y at a chosen time if his rating is less than a given value.
(3) Being able to switch tac-tics mid game (e.g. go into a fixture playing 4-5-1 and switch to 4-3-3 if you’re losing after an hour)
(4) Having greater flexibility with the timing of subs (e.g. after scoring / conceding).
I’ll get off my soap-box
28. Work In Progress: Improve&hellip | October 29th, 2008 at 3:04 pm

[…] notice a future project titled ‘Improved Match Day’ and I wrote an article about this back in August. I stated that ‘Improved Match Day’ encompasses a whole range of improvements and new […]