Starting without real players

Quick question about starting the game with no real players. How does this really affect the club/players of a team you choose.

I assume the stature of the club is the same?

Are the players completely random? For example, if i choose a club who has one star player (say Lukaku at Anderlecht) will i have a 'fictional' star similar to him? Or is it completely random?

Anyone got any experience with this? Is it a fun way to play the game?

Cheers

i've heard its compeltely random but i remeber trying it a couple of times on fm 07 and it seemed very similar, i.e Chelsea had a dutch AML (Robben) as well as an english AMC (Lampard) and Liverpool had the best australian player at the time (Kewell).

From my experiences the players are usually randomised, but the Staff are not. For example, Manchester United still have an old Scottish Manager who everyone at the club loves, just with a different name (and possibly a different nationality).

Also, if you are using facepacks, they do not change for the staff, as I imagine the unique IDs do not change. Neither do favoured personnel change, so you can all but guess who certain players/staff are by who they are favoured by and who they are currently at (i.e. Manchester United have a favoured staff member who is currently managing Ipswich Town, but has a different name/nationality etc.)

Having said that, the randomised players feature is quite interesting, as you tend to get more "random" nations having on or two great players, and also teams overall quality can change, sometimes dramatically...

The players don't really change - all it does is change the player names, nationalities and maybe International caps/goals. So you might have an Egyptian attacking midfielder/winger who is the best player in the world, who suspiciously looks like Lionel Messi in attributes (and it probably is).

I don't like this much - I'd prefer a fully random world, with possibly the teams and leagues randomised too (so the Premier League doesn't have the same teams in it).

I would love an option that makes everything random - all club names, stadium names, staff etc to make an entirely fictional world. Hell even make the nations made up for all I care .

But as people said, it creates the 'same' players but changes their name, nationality and internation records.

Also I found it would sometimes put quality players in really weird leagues, I managed to sign a quality 16 year old from a Chilean division 3 side for a BSP side... same with a few other youths i got.

What about injury status, is that carried over too?

One team i'm managing always starts with 4-5 long term (9 months or so) injuries to first team players....

I'd also like the idea of complete fiction, just randomise every team and player. That'd make for an interesting game, but i'm sure it's be difficult to do!

I started a game once without real players, plus I used the editor to make everyone a free agent. It was absolute mayhem. Not recommended!!

It all depends on which level you like to start you management at anyway. I started really low down, so everyone was unknown anyway. Problem solved

From my experiences the players are usually randomised, but the Staff are not. For example, Manchester United still have an old Scottish Manager who everyone at the club loves, just with a different name (and possibly a different nationality).

How can Man United have a still have a Scottish manager with a different nationality?:confused:

Anyway, I tried this feature once with Dundee in scotland and I actually managed to win the league. I also noticed that the old firm were no where near as strong as they are when using real players names.