match detail/ playable leagues question

hi,

i like the idea of havin all matches on full detail but this seriously limits the amounts of leagues i can play due to the time it takes to process matches.

what do u guys find the best balance between havin lots of leagues/players in the game and havin more games on full detail?

Mmm - personally, I like having more leagues set to Playable, but I limit the matches on Full Detail to matches which I'll have a vested stake in the outcome, either because it directly impacts the team I am managing, or because I take up a rooting interest.

For example, I may not be managing an international team, but I'll want the World Cup European Qualifiers on Full Detail because I have a rooting interest in some of the teams, and I might have players called up to take part in the matches.

I don't care about the initial rounds of the Champions League because its usually going to pit some mostly-gray team from Lithuania against some mostly-gray team from Northern Ireland .. I don't have a rooting interest, I don't have a player involved, and honestly its mostly gray players, so that's not a match I need on Full Detail .. but I might set up the group stages and later stages on Full Detail because I'll get into following the top teams in the top club competition as it heats up.

. . .

The setup I recommend for a great international / european experience is:

Set to "Playable" the top leagues from Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Pick also the top league from: two nations you might enjoy managing the national team of, plus two leagues you'd be "interested" in either for scouting, loaning players to, maybe managing in, or whatever.

Then pick one nation to set active down to one level below whatever you'd want to start at. So, for example, if you planned on starting as Sheffield United in the English Championship, you'd pick England down to League One.

That should give you something like 11-20 leagues in 10-12 countries, which ought to be manageable for your computer without going overboard. Go through all of the competitions and set "Full Detail" only for the matches you honestly are likely to care about .. the less-than-full-detail match engine is perfectly fine for matches you don't care about.

. . .

Here's my reasoning:

Argentina/Brazil: I find that South American regens in general are much "healthier" with two major leagues down there; it adds a lot of fun scouting the region, which can be a little disappointing if there are no active South American leagues. These would be two leagues you absolutely don't care about having on Full Detail, as you have them active for the regens, not the matches.

England/France/Germany/Italy/Spain: If you play a long-term career save with only one top nation, you can hit a point where its more challenging to win your league than it is to win the Champions League. I think this is related to the strength of the AI in an active (Playable) league as opposed to the AI for an inactive (or View Only) league. When I keep all five active, I never reach a pinnacle where I feel like I've become unbeatable, and big out-of-nation matches such as Barcelona, Inter, and Bayern Munich never become "routine". Its not necessary to set "Full Detail" on the leagues, because I'm not going to go watch highlights of some random French league match .. what I really want is the strength of AI team.

Two national teams I might manage: Managing a national team with an inactive league just sucks. You don't have league matches to scout, you have limited numbers of regens, its just not the same experience at all. So, I like to pick two of my favorite international sides and set their league as active. For me, its Holland and the U.S.A. Again, I don't need to set the matches in Full Detail because the league isn't impacting my save-game at the start of the game world .. but if I do start managing that national team, I can turn on "Full Detail" for every match in every competition in the nation, and do so immediately.

Two "interesting" leagues: This is just a personal preference. Sometimes I pick classic "feeder" leagues, such as Belgium and Poland. Sometimes I pick fun scouting/player source locales, such as Sweden and Scotland. Sometimes I pick a place that I think might be fun to try managing in, especially if I'm starting unemployed, so it might be Australia or Croatia. Sometimes I pick it to give a "foil" to something else I'm looking at in the save, so for example if I'm fully intending to manage the U.S.A., I'll set Mexico as active so that our top rivals have the full set of resources at their disposal, too. Yet again, there's little need to make these leagues "Full Detail" as its matches aren't going to directly impact me.

One nation in depth: For me this is almost always England. My long-term career games usually start down at the Blue Square level; I just love the long climb up the ladder. I'll set "Full Detail" for all matches of any competition I'm involved in .. but if I'm managing York down in the BSP, I'm honestly not going to check in on the EPL and watch goals and highlights .. so I might have the BSP and FA Cup on Full Detail, but the EPL on whatever the default is. It'll set itself to Full Detail when I get promoted that high!

. . . .

Hope that's helped your thought process - both picking your starting Playable leagues and your Full Detail matches is definitely a tradeoff between "detail" and "time", so its worth putting some thought into!

excellent post m8, very informative! i like havin lots of leagues on but i hate the the idea of turnin of full match detail for the following reason.

lets say in managin in the EPL and have the russian league as active but not on full detail. if im scouting for players over there, will the fact i have match detail off not influence the player rating/performances etc in that i wont be gettin a true representation of how the players are playin due to the way that the games are played out?

ps,

has the ever been any official word on what exactly match detail does or doesnt do?

Mmm - personally, I like having more leagues set to Playable, but I limit the matches on Full Detail to matches which I'll have a vested stake in the outcome, either because it directly impacts the team I am managing, or because I take up a rooting interest.

For example, I may not be managing an international team, but I'll want the World Cup European Qualifiers on Full Detail because I have a rooting interest in some of the teams, and I might have players called up to take part in the matches.

I don't care about the initial rounds of the Champions League because its usually going to pit some mostly-gray team from Lithuania against some mostly-gray team from Northern Ireland .. I don't have a rooting interest, I don't have a player involved, and honestly its mostly gray players, so that's not a match I need on Full Detail .. but I might set up the group stages and later stages on Full Detail because I'll get into following the top teams in the top club competition as it heats up.

. . .

The setup I recommend for a great international / european experience is:

Set to "Playable" the top leagues from Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Pick also the top league from: two nations you might enjoy managing the national team of, plus two leagues you'd be "interested" in either for scouting, loaning players to, maybe managing in, or whatever.

Then pick one nation to set active down to one level below whatever you'd want to start at. So, for example, if you planned on starting as Sheffield United in the English Championship, you'd pick England down to League One.

That should give you something like 11-20 leagues in 10-12 countries, which ought to be manageable for your computer without going overboard. Go through all of the competitions and set "Full Detail" only for the matches you honestly are likely to care about .. the less-than-full-detail match engine is perfectly fine for matches you don't care about.

. . .

Here's my reasoning:

Argentina/Brazil: I find that South American regens in general are much "healthier" with two major leagues down there; it adds a lot of fun scouting the region, which can be a little disappointing if there are no active South American leagues. These would be two leagues you absolutely don't care about having on Full Detail, as you have them active for the regens, not the matches.

England/France/Germany/Italy/Spain: If you play a long-term career save with only one top nation, you can hit a point where its more challenging to win your league than it is to win the Champions League. I think this is related to the strength of the AI in an active (Playable) league as opposed to the AI for an inactive (or View Only) league. When I keep all five active, I never reach a pinnacle where I feel like I've become unbeatable, and big out-of-nation matches such as Barcelona, Inter, and Bayern Munich never become "routine". Its not necessary to set "Full Detail" on the leagues, because I'm not going to go watch highlights of some random French league match .. what I really want is the strength of AI team.

Two national teams I might manage: Managing a national team with an inactive league just sucks. You don't have league matches to scout, you have limited numbers of regens, its just not the same experience at all. So, I like to pick two of my favorite international sides and set their league as active. For me, its Holland and the U.S.A. Again, I don't need to set the matches in Full Detail because the league isn't impacting my save-game at the start of the game world .. but if I do start managing that national team, I can turn on "Full Detail" for every match in every competition in the nation, and do so immediately.

Two "interesting" leagues: This is just a personal preference. Sometimes I pick classic "feeder" leagues, such as Belgium and Poland. Sometimes I pick fun scouting/player source locales, such as Sweden and Scotland. Sometimes I pick a place that I think might be fun to try managing in, especially if I'm starting unemployed, so it might be Australia or Croatia. Sometimes I pick it to give a "foil" to something else I'm looking at in the save, so for example if I'm fully intending to manage the U.S.A., I'll set Mexico as active so that our top rivals have the full set of resources at their disposal, too. Yet again, there's little need to make these leagues "Full Detail" as its matches aren't going to directly impact me.

One nation in depth: For me this is almost always England. My long-term career games usually start down at the Blue Square level; I just love the long climb up the ladder. I'll set "Full Detail" for all matches of any competition I'm involved in .. but if I'm managing York down in the BSP, I'm honestly not going to check in on the EPL and watch goals and highlights .. so I might have the BSP and FA Cup on Full Detail, but the EPL on whatever the default is. It'll set itself to Full Detail when I get promoted that high!

. . . .

Hope that's helped your thought process - both picking your starting Playable leagues and your Full Detail matches is definitely a tradeoff between "detail" and "time", so its worth putting some thought into!

Mate great post very informative can i ask a question though what specs are you pc to run the game like that? also what size databse would you use for this and finally how long roughly does it take to complete a season ?

Thanks

Amaroq - good post, I used your suggestions for my setup on FM09 and have carried the same over to FM10

Large DB

England (all leagues)

Scotland (all leagues)

Ireland (all leagues)

N.Ireland (all leagues)

Wales (all leagues)

Italy (top league only)

Spain (top league only)

Germany (top league only)

France (top league only)

Argentina (top league only)

Brazil (top league only)

All leagues are playable and I have left the detail on the default settings.

The seven core nations make up pretty much the perfect setup in terms of a footballing world and longterm balance.

Could i ask here what is the difference between Playable and View Only?

Could i ask here what is the difference between Playable and View Only?

Post #3 =

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/164850-how-do-view-only-leagues-work