One thing that I've never really understood....

Hi all

So its time to start a new game again with all the excitement and possibilities but I get to the screen where I choose the nations and leagues I want to be active during my save and I'm bamboozled.

Say for instance I want to manage Chelsea F.C. in the EPL.

I am not sure if I should be selecting other nations' leagues e.g. La liga, Bundesliga etc. even though I have NO intention of ever managing in them. Will I still be able to buy players from these leagues if I don't select them at the start of the game?

Ta

Yes you don't have to have certain leagues loaded to buy players - you can buy who you like - but there are some players that you cannot buy such as under 18's of certain countries - but in answer to the question the leagues that you load do not effect who you can buy.

yea but players you can buy vary on the leagues you load, you can always buy the big players but lesser known players there's less chance they pop up if you don't load the league

Have a look in this thread - started today. Click here. People overrate the amount of leagues to run - check our post 11 - You can't go far wrong with this set-up!

Why dont you have them as watchable only? That way all the players are in the leagues but you can't manage them?

You should always select a few regens if only to benefit from the regens they produce.

Why dont you have them as watchable only? That way all the players are in the leagues but you can't manage them?

Yeah I saw the player counts were the same but I thought the leagues, cups would have to be processed and would slow my laptop down or the need to create the stats. Or would it make no difference.

Nev if i was to run the same as you on a medium to good computer wouldnt it mean the game is so slow?

or does it not affect speed that much?

Why dont you have them as watchable only? That way all the players are in the leagues but you can't manage them?

Not the case, if you have Brazil as 'View-only' - Certain players and a lot of staff wont appear in the game.

If you have it as 'Playable' then all of the players and staff are available and appear in-game

Why dont you have them as watchable only? That way all the players are in the leagues but you can't manage them?

I'm pretty sure the watchable doesn't load all the players. Or at least it didn't in FM2009 (I'm not sure if I tried it in this edition)

Nev if i was to run the same as you on a medium to good computer wouldnt it mean the game is so slow?

or does it not affect speed that much?

If you give me the specs I will be able to tell you. All I need to know is how much RAM you have and the type of processer. Most people load alot of leagues - but I dont do this because this slows down the game, so I make a custom database by loading all top diviion players from the countries in my previous link post - in order to produce the best newgens in the future.

Chinese writing! Please forgive an old man's frivolity but I couldn't resist. Kind regards.

Even though I don't have any intention to move between leagues sometimes I load up the leagues so I can monitor how they are doing. I tend not to focus solely on my team after all - looking at how other leagues develop over time is fairly fun too.

Cheers guys.

But if I don't select the French league then I wont be able to look at the French league table and look through the teams and possibly find a gem of a French player.

I would only be able to type the french team in particular into the search box individually and look at them that way, right?

Loading more leagues adds to the "realism" perhaps, at least that's what many feel. Even if you don't want to manage any team from another league, it allows you to better analyse continental opponents, players on loan, potential recruits, etc, as well as the aforementioned aspect of having the players loaded from those nations.

If players and staff are your major concern, you could also click Custom and select which nations to load all players from.

My regular set-up:

England - League 2

Italy - Serie C

Spain - Second Divison B

Singapore - S-League

Load all players from: Holland, Portugal, Germany, France, Argentina, Brazil

Works for me, and even if it might not be the fastest setup, I can just do something else since I play windowed.

Cheers guys.

But if I don't select the French league then I wont be able to look at the French league table and look through the teams and possibly find a gem of a French player.

I would only be able to type the french team in particular into the search box individually and look at them that way, right?

Your scouts will naturally look at players from that country irregardless of whether the league is playable or not.

It's just perhaps interesting to look at the French league tables every now and again. Maybe one day you'll find an 18-year-old leading the Ligue 1 goalscorers list and consider signing him. Maybe one day you'll find Lyon struggling in mid-table and all their players are unsettled. And so on. But the game works perfectly well without loading that league as long as you have the processing power to play it.

Your scouts will naturally look at players from that country irregardless of whether the league is playable or not.

It's just perhaps interesting to look at the French league tables every now and again. Maybe one day you'll find an 18-year-old leading the Ligue 1 goalscorers list and consider signing him. Maybe one day you'll find Lyon struggling in mid-table and all their players are unsettled. And so on. But the game works perfectly well without loading that league as long as you have the processing power to play it.

Yeh thats true. Because the only other way I could find out what teams were in the French Ligue1 would be to manually look them up (in google or wikipedia) and to type them into the search bar. Theres no other way of finding all of the french teams is there?

Yeh thats true. Because the only other way I could find out what teams were in the French Ligue1 would be to manually look them up (in google or wikipedia) and to type them into the search bar. Theres no other way of finding all of the french teams is there?

Find a team in the top league and use the quick flicks (is that what they're called?) at the bottom of the screen, where it says Europe, France, Lyon for example. Click next to the club name and voila, a list of the teams in the top league (even if it's not active in the game). Then you can look through every team manually.

Find a team in the top league and use the quick flicks (is that what they're called?) at the bottom of the screen, where it says Europe, France, Lyon for example. Click next to the club name and voila, a list of the teams in the top league (even if it's not active in the game). Then you can look through every team manually.

Fantastic, cheers. Seems though a lot of the french players are greyed out. Is this becasue I havent got the league loaded?

Fantastic, cheers. Seems though a lot of the french players are greyed out. Is this becasue I havent got the league loaded?

Yes (stupid 10 characters!)

I see. Thats a bit of a pain in the backside. Then how come (if you dont mind me asking) are come players greyed out and others are not. There doesnt seem to be any pattern to it....

I see. Thats a bit of a pain in the backside. Then how come (if you dont mind me asking) are come players greyed out and others are not. There doesnt seem to be any pattern to it....

I would think it's based on reputation.

I thought so but even some players with great stats are greyed out. Very annoying as I wouldn't mind signing alot of them.

I thought so but even some players with great stats are greyed out. Very annoying as I wouldn't mind signing alot of them.

The grey players have nothing to do with real players that are not included.

I dont understand what you've just said.........real players??

I dont understand what you've just said.........real players??

Grey players aren't based on the players in the db that are not loaded into the game. Grey players have random attributes.

ah i see. Ta.

Any league with high rep teams you may face in Europe really need loading, or a huge flaw in the game engine (one I pointed out years ago) can come out.

If you load England only and buy Barcelona's first choice keeper, while their second choice goes elsewhere, they will be left keeperless. Now a "grey" fake player is made to replace him.

Logically, you'd say he should be as good as the worst player who WAS loaded from spain, as anything better would have been loaded, anything worse would have been available for them to buy internally. But nope, he is based on THEIR reputation.

Therefore, Barcelona will have a random, grey keeper who is as good as the VERY best in the world. A keeper you can't buy. Who costs them nothing. And who sits there until they buy a WORSE player in replacement.

However active leagues only have very poor grey players, as it's instead assumed they will replace their keeper with a lower team's keeper, who apparently didn't happen to be loaded in the first scenario.

So I always load Italy, France, Spain, and Germany if playing in England.