Observations on Player Roles and Traits

[locomofo]

Hey guys, it's the seasonal Vibe visitor. Since a new FMH game (FMM16) has just been released, I'm back again.

This time, I've read through many new experiences on FMM16, and made a few of many own discoveries, here, I want to talk about Player Traits, a new addition for FMM16. I'll be using Ji Dong-Won as my example here, if you want to see his stats they are here:

Spoiler

 

 

If you've picked up FMM16, or just looked at the screenshots, you'll have noticed that there are now player traits, in addition to information on player roles. These player traits give you information on the behaviour of certain players in certain positions. For example, Ji Dong-Won, an AM/F RLC from Augsburg (my current save) is a natural Forward,and his recommended role is as an Advanced Forward:

 

Note his player traits, as an Advanced Forward, JDW moves into channels and dives into tackles. Also, note the green colour of the trait 'moves into channels'. This, in my experience, means that this is an advantageous trait to have for this position. Here are his traits for another role in the same position (Target Man):

Again, here, you can see his player traits for this particular role. As you can see, the traits are similar, and more importantly, none of them are green. This means that neither of these traits are particularly desirable for the role he is playing. A Target Man doesn't move into channels, he stays in the box as a static player who finds crosses, and finishes them, therefore, the trait of 'moves into channels' is not wanted for a Target Man, and you would not play JDW as a Target Man (unless for some reason you wanted to).

 

Alternatively, tapping on the other dots on the right hand side of the screen will also allow you to see the traits and ability of a player in a different position. Again, using Ji Dong-Won as an example, here you can see his traits and attributes for the Attacking Midfield (Right) position, a position he is accomplished in, and his corresponding player traits as a winger:

Here, you can see that again, none of the traits for this position are green. As you already know, this means that neither of the traits are particularly favourable for a winger, so again, you wouldn't play JDW as a winger. 

 

However, let us look at his player traits as an Inside Forward, which is also as an AMR:

Here, you can see 5 traits. Four of these traits, moves into channels, plays one-two's, arrives late in opponents' area & cuts inside are all green. This means that it would be much, much better to play JDW as an Inside Forward, instead of a Winger.

Note: The fact that JDW has more green traits as an Inside Forward compared to an Attacking Forward does not that mean you should play Ji Dong-Won as an attacking midfielder instead of a forward. This is because his natural position and stats would normally reflect that of a forward, not a attacking midfielder (E.g. high shooting stats, low crossing stats) and playing him on the AMR position would only be an alternative if you've got a better striker, or if you're on a bad streak and looking to change things up tactically. An example of this is:

While JDW has green stats as an Deep Lying Playmaker, you would definitely not want to play him in that position, despite the fact that he has desirable traits for that role. To summarise, advantageous green traits do not always mean that that is a good position for your player to play in, it just means that your player has certain desirable traits for that particular position/role.

 

Using the traits as a gauge to measure the effectiveness of your player in a particular role in a particular position is a great way to build your squad tactically. That said, I've not been having much tactical success with Augsburg myself :

Spoiler

The player traits can help you greatly in deciding which players you want to use, and how they will link up. Also, lastly, as a little footnote, it is possible to have a player with a red player trait in certain circumstances. As you no doubt already know, this means you should probably not play that player in that particular role of that particular position. I have an example here with a different player from my current squad, Tim Matavz, a forward:

You can see that plays no through balls is a red trait. As the information from FMM16 on the role of the Attacking Forward states, an attacking forward both creates and scores chances (to paraphrase), and because Tim doesn't play through balls, he doesn't create chances, something you don't want in an Advanced Forward. It is at times like these that you should most probably not play a player in that trait.

 

And that's it for my write up on Player Traits! Feel free to make criticisms or comments on my observations, on what you found wrong or what you agree with. Also, questions are invited, if you have any.

Hope you're having fun with FMM16 at the moment!

 

P.S. Also, I'd like to give whoever made editing on my iPad so much easier a huge hug. It's much, much easier now to italicise and bold words. Before the change, this would've taken me over an hour to type out and format on my iPad.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2015 by locomofo
grammarz, formatting

[DutchTony]

Nice guide mate.

I've been looking at Agueros role traits if played as a poacher. Some in black, green and one in red.

 

So basically the green traits are ones that he is particularly good at?

Also he has a trait in red which says 'Dictates tempo'. Does this mean he shouldn't dictate tempo if played as a poacher, or just that he tries to dictate tempo but is not very good?

Footnote: Just tried to upload an image of Agueros traits from Imgur but I haven't used it in so long it's all changed. Can't find where to get the 'BB Code from.

[locomofo]

@DutchTony

The trait in red basically means that Agüero does dictate tempo, but that's not something you want him doing, typically because Poachers don't usually do that.

 

To put it simply, I'll summarise it in two dot points:

• A Green Trait: A player has this trait when playing in this role. This is a helpful trait that may increase the performance of the player in this particular role.

 

• A Red Trait: A player also has this trait when playing in this role. However, this is not a trait you'd normally associate with the role he is in, and may debilitate your player's performance in this role.

 

The traits indicate what a player will do in that particular role. In your case, Agüero will dictate tempo when he is played as a poacher, but you don't want him to do that, so you should probably choose a different role for him. If you want him to dictate tempo, you should choose a role that will be beneficial for him to do that (I think Deep Lying Forward should help).

 

As of yet, you can't retrain player traits on FMM. On the PC version of FM, you can have a player undergo training to either establish new player roles or to remove one. Because that's not available on FMM 16, all you can do is play him in a different position.

 

Also, like I said in my post, while Agüero may have a red trait, it does not always mean he will play badly as a poacher. It just means he will do more badly because he will attempt to dictate tempo when playing as a poacher, and tactically, this is not really wise.

Edited November 19, 2015 by locomofo
added info

[DutchTony]

@locomofo Excellent stuff mate. Now I get it. Many thanks :-)

Edited November 19, 2015 by DutchTony

[locomofo]

10 minutes ago, DutchTony said:

@locomofo Excellent stuff mate. Now I get it. Many thanks :-)

No problem! Hope it helps with your Man City tactics in-game  

[Brenty92]

I'm colour blind so this feature is a kick in the balls for me, I've tried turning on colour blind mode and it makes no difference to the traits they stay the same, I can see me having many failed careers cause of this, pretty annoyed to be honest

[Alari]

Just now, Brenty92 said:

I'm colour blind so this feature is a kick in the balls for me, I've tried turning on colour blind mode and it makes no difference to the traits they stay the same, I can see me having many failed careers cause of this, pretty annoyed to be honest

Hi - that's a very good point and an oversight on our part - apologies for this. We'll make sure it's changed in an update.

[locomofo]

5 minutes ago, Brenty92 said:

I'm colour blind so this feature is a kick in the balls for me, I've tried turning on colour blind mode and it makes no difference to the traits they stay the same, I can see me having many failed careers cause of this, pretty annoyed to be honest

Oh that sucks. To be honest it's not really too important, if you have in your mind what a Poacher does (he poaches goals by staying in the box) or any other role you're kinda familiar with, then it should be fine. You just have to use logic and think about it.

Also, you might wanna bring that up with Alari. Oops, never mind.

Edited November 19, 2015 by locomofo

[nick2528]

6 minutes ago, Alari said:

Hi - that's a very good point and an oversight on our part - apologies for this. We'll make sure it's changed in an update.

good on you, hopefully a simple change, or even an incon after the words with an up arrow, down arrow etc? 

[Brenty92]

8 minutes ago, Alari said:

Hi - that's a very good point and an oversight on our part - apologies for this. We'll make sure it's changed in an update.

That's brilliant, thanks for listening and understanding, will it be an update I have to download or just a normal App Store update? 

8 minutes ago, locomofo said:

Oh that sucks. To be honest it's not really too important, if you have in your mind what a Poacher does (he poaches goals by staying in the box) or any other role you're kinda familiar with, then it should be fine. You just have to use logic and think about it.

Also, you might wanna bring that up with Alari. Oops, never mind.

Yeah I know but it still helps to see it don't ya think lol and thanks for the help :)

[locomofo]

This is off topic, but @Alari since you're here, I've got a bug to report.

 

I swiped my iPad screen to change apps from safari to the FMM game I was in, and it came up with this ugly screen.

I was on portrait mode in Safari, and I guess the app tried to launch in portrait mode as well, because it ended up crashing

[Alari]

Can you post on our bugs forum with the issue please as keeping track of lots of unrelated issues in the same threads is getting a bit complicated.

[locomofo]

@AlariNo problem, there wasn't a bug thread on Vibe, and I couldn't pm you so I just posted here. I'll get to it.

[FastFurious]

Very detailed and well written guide  

Really liking this feature as it further distinguishes between players of similar stats and adds a bit more personality

[locomofo]

6 hours ago, FastFurious said:

Very detailed and well written guide  

Really liking this feature as it further distinguishes between players of similar stats and adds a bit more personality

Thanks!

The distinguishing was needed to really show how traits work, some traits are more important for certain positions then others, and to show that I had to find a player who played in a few similar positions.

Also, by personality do you mean my little feature on Augsburg's league position? I'm wasn't too proud of that, but I posted it anyway, hopefully it makes someone else feel better about their own squad  

[rseven]

Very good reading!

I also use IGE to test the traits.

the traits are linked with player attributes. for example, high aggressive will give"dive into tackle" and low aggressive will give "does not dive into tackle".

[locomofo]

On 20 November 2015 at 21:56:39, rseven said:

Very good reading!

I also use IGE to test the traits.

the traits are linked with player attributes. for example, high aggressive will give"dive into tackle" and low aggressive will give "does not dive into tackle".

I haven't spent money on the IGE yet, but I'd imagine that is also true.

 

Can you change traits by changing stats?

[DutchTony]

2 hours ago, locomofo said:

I haven't spent money on the IGE yet, but I'd imagine that is also true.

 

Can you change traits by changing stats?

I haven't checked using the IGE yet, but after 2 months intensive training some players did add new traits and their position changed as well. Danilo went from a full back with no traits, to a wing back with 3 traits - 2 of them were green as well.

[locomofo]

1 minute ago, DutchTony said:

I haven't checked using the IGE yet, but after 2 months intensive training some players did add new traits and their position changed as well. Danilo went from a full back with no traits, to a wing back with 3 traits - 2 of them were green as well.

I haven't played enough to see this, because I gave up on Augsburg, but I think that might happen with one of my newgens from my reserve squad at Stirling Albion.

Ive been playing him as an Inside Forward, although his recommended role is a winger. It would be interesting to see if a player could be moulded effectively from one type of player into another, like Danilo for example. Was that through you playing him constantly as a wing back? I'm thinking tactics might play some role in this too.

[DutchTony]

Yes I was playing danilo as wing back mate

[locomofo]

Quote

Yes I was playing danilo as wing back mate

Ah, that's good to know. Well, I'll look into this on my own save, and see if I can develop any new traits for players. This could mean that through sheer stubbornness, and by playing a player constantly in a role he is not familiar with, he could develop new traits, though I'm not sure if he can lose traits doing this. Also, the age of the player is another factor that could affect the development of new traits, after all, Danilo is relatively young.

Edited November 21, 2015 by locomofo

[spartak70]

Great post! Could you just explain me why Roles of my players change all the time. For example Modeste was Poacher few months, then he became Target Man, then Advance Forward and now he is Poacher again. Why that's happening? 

Edited November 29, 2015 by spartak70

[locomofo]

5 hours ago, spartak70 said:

Great post! Could you just explain me why Roles of my players change all the time. For example Modeste was Poacher few months, then he became Target Man, then Advance Forward and now he is Poacher again. Why that's happening? 

I'm assuming you're talking about their recommended roles? Their actual roles are always set by the manager, you, but recommended roles can change. I've seen this happen often in my saves too. To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure why this happens, however, I can make an educated guess from what I do know.

Recommended player roles can change according to how you play them. There's the obvious method of playing them in a role other than the players recommended role,. This may allow him to change the way he plays to better suit the role he is constantly playing, e.g. You play Modeste as a Target Man, despite his stats and his recommended role being a Poacher. After a while, he gets used to playing as a TM, and that then becomes his new recommended role.

Another method of changing a players role is the tactics you use. If you play a short, attacking game with men behind the ball, Modeste's role as a TM wouldn't really fit the style of your team. If you explore your tactics, you should be able to find some key tactical decisions that may have influenced the role of a player. If in the short, attacking tactic I mentioned was used, Modeste would have to adapt to this new game you're trying to play. In this case, an Advanced Fwd would suit your short passing tactic well. 

 

However, i have to say this is is all conjecture, really, I have no idea how the ME actually works, but this is how I interpret it. And it's been proving relatively successful so far, I just take my previous experiences and apply them to my current issues with the game. What I find is that if you can make smart transfers, play a formation that suits your type of players, and try to keep everyone happy in general, you'll be successful enough to relax and continue dominating whatever championship you're playing in.

[Brenty92]

The roles change based on stats e.g. If you put modeste on defensive IT his heading will grow causing him to adapt to what best suits him i.e target man

[Duc Duy]

awsome guide. Thanks