*Official* Football Manager 2022 Versus Mode Feedback Thread

[Neil Brock]

As you've hopefully already seen, Versus Mode is now in FM22.

For all of you have had time to play we'd love to hear any feedback. In doing so you'll help shape the future of Versus Mode in forthcoming versions of FM, enabling us to make it a fantastic option for both online and offline play.

If you have any questions related to Versus mode, please do check out our FAQ.

And if you find any bugs, please do raise them via our Bugs Tracker. And if you're looking  specifically for people to play against, use our Game Requests thread. 

As always please try and keep anything constructive. 

[Timetxu (Inactive)]

I'm a big fan of Versus Mode as I have been using it as a way of simulating my own tournaments and watching matches being played out. One of them I used to write a thread about. Therefore I was very much looking forward to it being launched today.

Unfortunately, these simulations relied wholly on the possibility of being able to resign after adding managers, teams and the matchup. I used to select two teams, resign and then add a new manager so I could watch the match. In the new Versus mode, this is unfortunately no longer possible. After selecting teams, it's possible to resign - or better, relinquish control, through the Game Status screen (I used to do this through the manager screen), but unfortunately, the game will not accept this anymore. You need to take back control of one of the teams (and thus managing in the match, which I do not want) or the game will not advance. It's also impossible to add an extra manager to act as the neutral one to view the match.

For me this basically means the end of playing Versus mode as I've played it since it was introduced first. The only way this could be restored is if it would be made possible to add a neutral manager AFTER the cup schedule has been set, after which you could relinquish control over the two teams playing the match and then being able to attend that match. 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Timetxu

[Zek (Inactive)]

20 hours ago, Timetxu said:

I'm a big fan of Versus Mode as I have been using it as a way of simulating my own tournaments and watching matches being played out. One of them I used to write a thread about. Therefore I was very much looking forward to it being launched today.

Unfortunately, these simulations relied wholly on the possibility of being able to resign after adding managers, teams and the matchup. I used to select two teams, resign and then add a new manager so I could watch the match. In the new Versus mode, this is unfortunately no longer possible. After selecting teams, it's possible to resign - or better, relinquish control, through the Game Status screen (I used to do this through the manager screen), but unfortunately, the game will not accept this anymore. You need to take back control of one of the teams (and thus managing in the match, which I do not want) or the game will not advance. It's also impossible to add an extra manager to act as the neutral one to view the match.

For me this basically means the end of playing Versus mode as I've played it since it was introduced first. The only way this could be restored is if it would be made possible to add a neutral manager AFTER the cup schedule has been set, after which you could relinquish control over the two teams playing the match and then being able to attend that match. 

Well, that's disappointing.
Overall not happy with the way SI brought Versus Mode back. Locking it for FMFC members only (which, admittedly, isn't that big of a deal), not adding any substantial QoL improvements and/or changes to the mode itself (like being able to select national teams from the fly or having more customization so you could for example recreate the CL with the exact same groups) and now also being unable to continue while not managing any of the teams. I don't see any changes to the mode coming in the real Winter Update, so let's hope FM23 will at least make it possible to resign again and being able to continue.

Edited February 25, 2022 by Zek

[Rashidi (Inactive)]

Having played fantasy draft for the last 3 iterations of Football Manager and having organised a public versus mode competition there are several observations I would like to share.

Overall I found the experience of versus mode thoroughly enjoyable. Compared to Fantasy Draft, the UI is definitely better. There is a very good welcome page when you begin a tournament, it does a nice draw, there are even odds for each group. I organised a 16 team group and knock out competition last nite and there are loads of small QOL changes that have been made:

1. On FD mode we need to count to find out how many people have joined, on VS you have an indicator at the top that tells you the total number which is good for the organiser.

2. During gameplay, if a manager is making a change, commentary flashes telling you its "waiting for x manager". This might be a small thing but one of the biggest grips of FD is that you never know whether the game has been paused because of a network issue or because someone is making a change. This necessitates some kind of audio/visual confirmation from the players. Now its obvious.

3. Connecting to it was a bit confusing for some players who assumed they needed to go in and enter via "Vrs Mode", instead of "Join online game"  This is confusing, being a host I am not sure what the issue is until I take part in someone else's versus mode competition. If you want to join someone's vrs mode competition and you have been given the server and password, then all you need to do is join an online game, but people are clicking "vrs mode" by mistake. 

4. Competitive vs mode with exported teams will be an issue in the future. At the moment there is nothing to indicate which player is using an edited team. Users can export fully edited teams into VS mode and the only indication the host gets is a little indication that an IGE is being used. It would be better if the host has the option to disallow teams with edited teams from online preferences or allow everyone to see from the Game Status screen which user is using the IGE.

5. Currently the options from groups are all in 8 , 16, 32 formats. Allow for more options  and formats that allow groups of sizes between 16 - 32 to take part.

6. Only one issue arose last nite which was a pity, the whole tournament ran smoothly until we got to the final. The AI actually took over the teams in the final and decided no human involvement was necessary in the second leg of the final, when the game was moved to commentary mode.

7. If Fantasy draft could export the teams into Versus Mode now that would be quite a feature to have. It would be the ultimate QOL experience for a lot of pvp players.

[Ruh Roh (Inactive)]

Does it not have a chat anywhere? No text, no voice? I don't think that makes a lot of sense. FM players are nice and this mode is (imo) casual-friendly. To be honest I don't want to have some British person talking at me about his wingbacks for five minutes either, but that would be better than nothing

[Zenji Banba (Inactive)]

Versus mode has been very enjoyable for me - the UI looks much better than draft. My only issue is the below:

- Sometimes get disconnected from the session - it would be helpful if a cause for the disconnection was provided so I could solve it myself.

- Unable to assign teams to the AI - this might be due to my lack of knowledge about the features of the mode itself. If so, I would be happy for someone to indicate how I could resolve this. Currently the AI just has their own team assigned, which makes it impossible to test tactics offline against specific teams.

- Would be interesting to have national teams based on the last team selection in real life. However, I acknowledge this might be difficult to do.

- Are there any plans to add more customization options when creating a new session? Such as restrictions on the amount of stars? Some of these options are already available when you search for a game but not when you create one.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Zenji Banba

[zep81 (Inactive)]

I've been disconnected twice now after the first leg of a 1v1. I thought the other guys just quit, but maybe it's an error in the servers.

[Neil Brock]

22 hours ago, zep81 said:

I've been disconnected twice now after the first leg of a 1v1. I thought the other guys just quit, but maybe it's an error in the servers.

Has this happened again since this first disconnection? Or was it a one-off?

[zep81 (Inactive)]

On 01/03/2022 at 12:19, Neil Brock said:

Has this happened again since this first disconnection? Or was it a one-off?

Did it on two separate occasions mate. I thought the opponents were just quitting lol. Maybe they did if that's possible.

But I've played a 1v1 against someone else multiple times without issue.

Edited March 5, 2022 by zep81

[Neil Brock]

On 05/03/2022 at 14:48, zep81 said:

Did it on two separate occasions mate. I thought the opponents were just quitting lol. Maybe they did if that's possible.

But I've played a 1v1 against someone else multiple times without issue.

Again thanks for the update. 

[zep81 (Inactive)]

Edit: Seems ok now.

Edited March 13, 2022 by zep81

[cestoris (Inactive)]

The mode is very interesting but I kindly ask you if you think in the future to be able to allow users to choose different game parameters, such as:

• number of possible replacements
• number of substitutes on the bench (now only 7)
• 1vs1 mode with single match or round trip with choice of who plays at home first

In short, the rules of a basic friendly game.

I also join point 4 made by Rashidi, it would be great to be able to manipulate that type of data as well.

Thank you in advance for the reply.

[Zek (Inactive)]

I finally had the chance to play it myself and I stand by my (and others') earlier point this mode definitely needs more customization options. If we want to play a tournament with 12 subs allowed, let us be able to. If we want to play a group stage + KO tournament with 64 teams, let us be able to. If we want to play a league where H2H has priority over GD, let us be able to. If we want to play the World Cup 2022 ourselves by recreating the World Cup 2022 groups, give us the option to do the draw and set the fixtures ourselves.

The return of spectator mode would be nice too, it's possible now to let the AI play the whole tournament but actually being able to watch the games again as a neutral like when the mode was part of FMT would be nice.

And being able to play this mode with pre-game editor files would be sweet too.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Zek