Football Manager 2018 Wiki – Everything You Need To Know About The Game

Football Manager 2018 is the latest in a long line of management simulators developed by Sports Interactive and published by SEGA. The game was on November 10 for Microsoft Windows, MacOS and Linux, with mobile versions for iOS and Android releasing the same day. Football Manager 2018 is an iterative improvement over the previous titles in the series, bringing in a new dynamics system, and a new 3D engine.

• 1. Development
• 2. Gameplay
• 3. Player Stats

Development

The first Football Manager 2018 details came out through social media channels and their website on August 15th, 2017 and announced for November 10th release at the same time. To grab fans of the previous game, a promotion was offered where Steam owners of Football Manager 2017 would receive a 25% off discount as a “contract extension bonus”. As the months between announcement and release wore on, the official Football Manager Twitter would occasionally tweet out updates on the new features of the game, such as being able to reject or accept offers from the player’s in game inbox.

On September 29th, a Youtube video was released in a fake news style, announcing many of the new features in one place. Some of the announcements included a better 3D engine, better player AI and enhanced tactics for on the pitch action, and teased the Dynamics system, more realistic scouting for players, as well as a more focused role for the in game sports scientists.

Later in October, the depth of the Dynamics system was finally unveiled as the big new addition to the game for this iteration. The Dynamics system brings your relationships with your team members and back room staff into prominence, which can effect the direction the game takes if you say one thing and do another, and helping to create the emergent stories that sim games excel at and bring them even more true to life.

Gameplay

While there is a career mode in Football Manager 2018, there is not what would be considered a traditional story mode. Players take control of a club and team of their choice from anything in the league, which is a lot of choices, and begins their career with managing as a newcomer with zero experience who needs to work within the expectations of the board, gain the trust and respect of his team, and handle trades, scouting, youth club and of course, using your tactical abilities to win games.

While a complete rundown of the gameplay systems in Football Manager 2018 could fill entire encyclopedias, the day to day management of the club can be broken down into a handful of areas. Pursuing the board’s requirements, Working with your back room team and handling media, and managing each aspect of the team’s playing such as training and strategy. There are offshoots like Medical and managing the injured players, Scouting, press conferences, budgeting, setting up interpersonal coaching between players, keeping the board happy with the youth club, but generally all of your concerns boil down to those three areas.

As you progress in the season, Dynamics are going to become more important as you need to keep the trust between yourself and your team members. Saying one thing like you’ll give the player who’s been underperforming more time on the pitch and then not keeping your word can turn into a major internal revolt, despite how your board feels about you. Balancing the three inter-related elements of Match Cohesion, which says how well practiced the team is on the field, Dressing Room Atmosphere which tells you how they mesh off the field, and Managerial Support which shows their faith in you as a collective becomes super important.

Player Stats

As you work into the deep stats of the game and construct your teams and strategies, the attributes of each individual player will become very important to who you invest time into and who you will trade away. A player’s attiributes are probably the single most important factor influencing performance in the game. There are three categories on a player’s profile screen, with sub-attributes within that range between 1 and 20. Just the sheer number of factors to a category speaks to the seriousness of the game.

For Goalkeepers, they have a Goalkeeping category instead of Technical. This is split into Command of Area which determines how likely the goalkeeper is to attempt to claim aerial balls. Handling determines the player’s catching skills, Kicking for how far he can sent the ball flying, One-on Ones how well he can deal with a penalty kick, Reflexes deal with reaction time, Rushing decides how well the player will  grab the ball in a bad situation, Tendency to Punch is how he makes a decision to catch when a ball is flying at him and Throwing is his accuracy when tossing the ball.

Other players have Technical, which includes Corners, Crossing, Dribbling, Finishing and Free Kick Taking which all effect player’s control of the ball in different situations, Heading determines the accuracy of a heading move, Long shots for distance kick control, Long throws for distance throw-ins, Marking for defensive game, Penalty Taking for Penalty Kicks and Tackling for how well the player can take the ball without a foul.

Mental encompasses psychology and what kind of a player they are. Aggression is about how likely they are to get physical, Anticipation is about how they can predict the movements of the players around them, Bravery is how willing the player will be to risk injury, Composure is how they take Mental Pressure, Concentration is about how they deal with loss of focus, Decisions is how they evaluate the options, Determination is how much they try to succeed,and Off the Ball or Positioning is the attacking and defending versions of how well they make choices in placing themselves.

Acceleration, Agility, Balance, and Pace all determine different aspects about running, Natural Fitness is how well the player will resist injury and Strength is ability to exert force on an opposition player.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.