Manage Southampton on Football Manager 2026

[S-Clarke]

Another thing I've noticed is the skins - on the old versions, you could download a load of skins, dump them into a folder and then use a drop down in FM to pick the one you fancy at any time.

Now you can only ever have one skin in the folder at any one time, no way to change it in game.

The whole UI has been a massive regression and it's not even funny.

[AlexLaw76]

5 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Another thing I've noticed is the skins - on the old versions, you could download a load of skins, dump them into a folder and then use a drop down in FM to pick the one you fancy at any time.

Now you can only ever have one skin in the folder at any one time, no way to change it in game.

The whole UI has been a massive regression and it's not even funny.

It is little barriers like that are a massive F**K YOU to a very loyal and geeky community.

Part of the appeal with the ease to share tactics, share skins, face packs, database mods, editing etc.

Even MLG deep down knows this version is terrible, given his relative silence on it.

 

Edited Thursday at 20:44 by AlexLaw76

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, AlexLaw76 said:

It is little barriers like that are a massive F**K YOU to a very loyal and geeky community.

Part of the appeal with the ease to share tactics, share skins, face packs, database mods, editing etc.

Even MLG deep down knows this version is terrible, given his relative silence on it.

 

Yeah that was the appeal for a lot, you could customise the feel and make it really immersive with skins, the legitimate club backgrounds when you switched between clubs, or player backgrounds etc. It just made everything feel a little more real.

But they've traded all of that out for a more 'real' match engine, which if we're truly honest isn't the great leap I thought it would be. 

They've made it look like a 'kids game' that's device agnostic, rather than a pure immersive experience for PC as it was before.

[Matthew Le God]

8 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Even MLG deep down knows this version is terrible, given his relative silence on it.

I'm not going to deny it is anywhere near as polished as FM24 for example. Lots of teething issues to be fixed, which is happening. Version 26.0.4 out today makes a big difference. The change of engine to Unity sets the series up for the future. 

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, Matthew Le God said:

I'm not going to deny it is anywhere near as polished as FM24 for example. Lots of teething issues to be fixed, which is happening. Version 26.0.4 out today makes a big difference. The change of engine to Unity sets the series up for the future. 

No good if people start to fall away. There has been a huge, loyal fan base....this version is a bit of a 'fuck you' to them/us.

I will probably give it a little more time, but sense I will re-install FM24 and add the various updates that people are keen to do.

[skintsaint]

28 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Part of the appeal with the ease to share tactics, share skins, face packs, database mods, editing etc.

There is still most of that. The main UI skin not being able to be changed is fecking annoying though.

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, skintsaint said:

There is still most of that. The main UI skin not being able to be changed is fecking annoying though.

Whilst much of that is still possible, putting up completely (and unwanted) barriers/hurdles to the ease of doing this, is daft

[skintsaint]

7 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Whilst much of that is still possible, putting up completely (and unwanted) barriers/hurdles to the ease of doing this, is daft

What hurdles are they? I just downloaded the badges, put them in the folder and loaded the game up and voila, just like FM24.

[Matthew Le God]

5 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

There is still most of that. The main UI skin not being able to be changed is fecking annoying though.

That'll probably come in time. Perhaps not for FM26, but in the future. This being the first on Unity as a new engine means the priority is getting that right before setting it up for modding.

[AlexLaw76]

4 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

What hurdles are they? I just downloaded the badges, put them in the folder and loaded the game up and voila, just like FM24.

I downloaded a tactic, and I had to shift said tactic into the folder I had to create within the Sports Interactive directory.

I used to be able to search my device files, from the game itself, to import a tactic. If I downloaded a few, it was very easy (for me) to chop and change. Little hurdles like that everywhere just add small percentages why it is a little easier to not bother playing it.

[Matthew Le God]

17 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

No good if people start to fall away. There has been a huge, loyal fan base....this version is a bit of a 'fuck you' to them/us.

I will probably give it a little more time, but sense I will re-install FM24 and add the various updates that people are keen to do.

It isn't that at all. They were overly ambitious and they totally underestimated how much work would be needed to transfer such a hugely complex game to a new game engine. As that became clear they needed to prioritise what would be in the first game of the new era.

[skintsaint]

2 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

I used to be able to search my device files, from the game itself, to import a tactic. If I downloaded a few, it was very easy (for me) to chop and change. Little hurdles like that everywhere just add small percentages why it is a little easier to not bother playing it.

Fair enough, I get ya now. 

[Streaky]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

Yeah that was the appeal for a lot, you could customise the feel and make it really immersive with skins, the legitimate club backgrounds when you switched between clubs, or player backgrounds etc. It just made everything feel a little more real.

But they've traded all of that out for a more 'real' match engine, which if we're truly honest isn't the great leap I thought it would be. 

They've made it look like a 'kids game' that's device agnostic, rather than a pure immersive experience for PC as it was before.

Horrible game this year, the ui is made for a console gamer and by the look of it a ps1

[Colinjb]

Reading the feedback. It just seems bizarre how badly they have screwed this up.

FM for me is not some pick up and play blast as you would expect on a console, it runs in the background on my home computer. I can dip in and out and enjoy it when relaxing knowing that it's as familiar, yet comforting as as a pair of slippers, or warm hoodie. Letting me switch off and enjoy some mild escapism.

As such, the same mechanics/navigation as FM24 with a silky new match engine would have been enough.

Instead, SI have tried to be Sports Republic. They over thought it. They fucked it. If it ain't broken...... Fucking break it.

[Matthew Le God]

2 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

Reading the feedback. It just seems bizarre how badly they have screwed this up.

FM for me is not some pick up and play blast as you would expect on a console, it runs in the background on my home computer. I can dip in and out and enjoy it when relaxing knowing that it's as familiar, yet comforting as as a pair of slippers, or warm hoodie. Letting me switch off and enjoy some mild escapism.

As such, the same mechanics/navigation as FM24 with a silky new match engine would have been enough.

Instead, SI have tried to be Sports Republic. They over thought it. They fucked it. If it ain't broken...... Fucking break it.

The change is because they had reached the limits of the in house game engine FM was using for the last 30 years. The switch to Unity allows for lots of exciting things to be added going forward. To future proof the game  change of engine was needed.

Have you played in on version 26.0.4? It is now significantly better than when the pubic beta launched. 

[Colinjb]

1 hour ago, Matthew Le God said:

The change is because they had reached the limits of the in house game engine FM was using for the last 30 years. The switch to Unity allows for lots of exciting things to be added going forward. To future proof the game  change of engine was needed.

Have you played in on version 26.0.4? It is now significantly better than when the pubic beta launched. 

You are missing the point. 

40 pounds is a lot of money. I'm not spending that on something that is not going to make me feel better then the existing game. 

I don't care if it's technically more capable in the future. I don't want to labour over something that would frustrate me. I frankly don't have time for that shit. Reading that it's inferior and seeing the problems people are having means.... No. 

Edited 6 hours ago by Colinjb

[Matthew Le God]

Just now, Colinjb said:

You are missing the point. 

40 pounds is a lot of money. I'm not spending that on something that is not going to make me feel better then the existing game. 

I don't care if it's technically more capable in the future. I don't want to labour over something that would frustrate me. Reading that it's inferior and seeing the problems people are having means.... No. 

There is a free demo available on Steam and Epic store for you to make your own mind up on rather than the thoughts of others.

[Colinjb]

1 minute ago, Matthew Le God said:

There is a free demo available on Steam and Epic store for you to make your own mind up on rather than the thoughts of others.

Thankyou. I didn't realise that. Will happily give it a go.

[Tommy]

Another night of game play and another bug, this time one that breaks LLM playability. I have 208k players loaded in a DB setup with every league in the game either playable or on view with every top league int he game playable. Then in addition i customised the the player load by including every player of english or welsh nationality. 

 

Get into the save, go to the player database search and even with World Scouting package (another issue as why the hell can i select that as a village team in Wales) the database returns 0 players who are unattached. 

Running the patch on a new save. 

The release just goes from shit to shitter. 

[Streaky]

2 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

The change is because they had reached the limits of the in house game engine FM was using for the last 30 years. The switch to Unity allows for lots of exciting things to be added going forward. To future proof the game  change of engine was needed.

Have you played in on version 26.0.4? It is now significantly better than when the pubic beta launched. 

The game sucks. The ui is hideous, so many bugs, 100s of features missing. I've gone back to 24. Unbelievable they've released a game in such a state its almost criminal.