Marc Vaugh, FM players: Opponent instruction screen suggestion for wasted space

[Sweed]

Marc, I posted this at SI but with the way some things disappear quickly there I thought I'd throw it out here to see what you and the other players here think.

On the opponent instruction screen there is a huge amount of wasted space below the Tight Marking, Closing Down, Show onto foot, and Tackling options. Would it be possible to add the players attributes to this screen, ie pace, bravery, foot abilities etc., that one uses to make these decisions? Here's a screen shot to give an idea of what I would like to see.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/6440/oppinstructionswithtextpf9.jpg (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oppinstructionswithtextpf9.jpg)

Would be a lot simpler than having to open each players screen to see his attributes and then close it and make your selections.

[Toddzilla]

I'll wager that someone adept in XML can figure out how to modify that screen to give you exactly what you want. I know many of the skins currently available present different information than is available with the default skin...

[Sweed]

I'll wager that someone adept in XML can figure out how to modify that screen to give you exactly what you want. I know many of the skins currently available present different information than is available with the default skin...

Over the last couple of days I visited the skinning forum at SI and there are a couple of guys, in this thread Sports Interactive Community (http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=76389), working on something along these lines. El Cid managed to add prefered foot and all of the opponent instruction options to the left panel so you can do all of your instructions for the whole team in one swoop. Here's a screen shot of his work..

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/7765/chelseavderby2cr4.jpg (http://img160.imageshack.us/my.php?image=chelseavderby2cr4.jpg)

This screen makes issuing instructions very easy and you can see at a glance your whole set up. I like it a lot as it makes it easier to see how I may want to deny the ball to some players and funnel it to others that may fold under pressure. If we had attributes here too it would be one stop shopping for setting up a major part of your defense.

One poster said my suggestion could probably be done but it would be very complex. One thought would be the right box would not hold the info but would be cut in two with a new lower box that would show the player attributes of the player selected in the left box.

My hope is Ter finds these ideas good enough and easy enough to implement
either via the final patch or at least in FM10.

[Sweed]

Ok, I played around with this stuff a little more and was able to make two new menu items that help in making closing down, tackling, and marking decisions.

First image shows the new menu with el cids great selection screen.http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6595/opinstruct1gv8.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=opinstruct1gv8.jpg)

Second screen is for marking decisions..http://http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8127/opinstruct2ab8.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=opinstruct2ab8.jpg)

Third screen is for tackling\closing down..http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/2854/opinstruct3tl0.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=opinstruct3tl0.jpg)

Downside with this is you have to do player instructions one at a time instead of having all the selections on the screen at one time.

What I do now though is make my changes one player at a time, like the old default way, and then bring up el cids screen so I can see the "big picture" of my oppositions instructions and then tweak if I think necessary. IE if I want to try to make a lower skill player handle the ball I'll use setting to deny the ball to better players and invite the opponent to make the easy pass. Then close in and try to dispossess the weak link of the opposition.

The only code I added to the xml was to make the two new menu items. The rest was done by others, mostly el cid, and found on the SI forums. A big thanks to those there in the skinning forum.

I don't have a place to post this but the xml code is posted at the SI forums in this thread, post #84.

Sports Interactive Community (http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?p=2399127#post2399127)

I'd post it here but apparently the board doesn't allow it.