Bringing the best of FMLive to FM - create your own club

Now that FMLive has seen its end (something that having played for a few years and then bowed out I unfortunately agree with as the free market economy of the transfer market meant that most teams would end up losing, and it was always going to lose the support of the players who didn't succeed), I was wondering if the traditional FM series might incorporate a little of the fun 'create your own team' aspect of FMLive that for me was the most satisfying part. A lot of mods and edits I've seen around involve modes where all the players start on free transfers, or people introducing their own fictitious club and working its way up the leagues. There's a certain fun appeal to creating a whole new football team all of your own that makes a nice change from the traditional game - I love taking the reins at Spurs or Swansea or AFC Wimbledon, but sometimes it's really fun to make a new team up and start from scratch.

So I was wondering whether in future FMs this might be made more of a feature of the main game rather than a clunky thing you have to do yourself using the editor. It would be really neat to have at the beginning of the game a wizard that as well as letting you create your manager profile, allowed you to create a new team - choose the badge, the ground, the location, etc and then pick a league to start in and a team to remove from the league (probably to demote a club down the league structure would make the most sense). I think if it was designed as an RPG-like feature where you started as a non-league side and worked your way up might be the best option, giving a compelling new angle on the Football Manager experience. You could possibly have some kind of skill tree/unlockable system to really make it RPG-like, but I think just having the option to add your own new side and pick from a pool of free players would be a very easy option to implement that could add a fun new game mode to the FM system, essentially giving the best features of FMLive, the progression and attachement to a club you've created - without the issues of a world where every club is player-run and so most manager aren't having fun.

Seeing as most of the code for this has already been written for FMLive and is now no longer in use, it would seem a shame to waste it as you could add this fun aspect of FMLive to the main game as a nice fresh new option without breaking any of the existing game.

Didn't realise FM Live was closing but can't say it is a surprise.

Not sure on messing about too much with the main FM game, certain additional options (tick boxes) maybe could work though to give people choice.

Great idea this was in the lma series and was a great feature i think there should be two options 1. All players start on a free for ultimate fantasy dream team 2. All clubs are the originals and your created club replaces the lowest predictied in the league you pick with a reasonable budget e.g prem team- 30mill champ team 8mill what you think OP ?

You can pretty much do this already, by starting in a club at the lowest level. Find a club with no history, no favoured clubs, no rivalry and you sort of have what you want. Kits and badges and such can be changed. Even club and stadium names can be changed with a .lnc file (or some variant like that).

Not exactly what was in FMLive (I never played it), but this way you don't have to fiddle about with the editor. At least some of what you want is already there by default. Building up a club from scratch is what I like the best in FM, and that seemed to be the starting point of FML.

Good idea, ever since i started playing football managers i have always wanted them to do this, because LMA has it and i loved it on LMA

Be a nice option, agree would be a nice option.

You can pretty much do this already, by starting in a club at the lowest level. Find a club with no history, no favoured clubs, no rivalry and you sort of have what you want. Kits and badges and such can be changed. Even club and stadium names can be changed with a .lnc file (or some variant like that).

Not exactly what was in FMLive (I never played it), but this way you don't have to fiddle about with the editor. At least some of what you want is already there by default. Building up a club from scratch is what I like the best in FM, and that seemed to be the starting point of FML.

That's kind of what I had in mind, but I was thinking it would be a really nice touch to add a simple wizard at the start that allowed you to choose the name, location, shirts, badges, etc in-game, rather than through the editor, similar to the current option to use fictitious players. If it then gave you a pool of randomly generated players to choose from a la FMLive, I think it would be a really neat extra mode to give the 'fantasy football' option to FM without being difficult to implement. If later version came to include more of the unique features from FMLive (skills, stadium, youth academy design, and the like), so much the better, but just having this little create your own team widget at the start of the game would be so easy to do and yet I think it would be really popular.

I'm unsure whether I'd want it for creating big clubs, as this would mess up more of the existing structure. But so many people do this already that I can't see why it couldn't be implemented with a nicer interface.

This would be a great addition. I loved the concept of FML but for other reasons it didnt work. Now putting it into the FM series would be awsome. Would add another dimension to the game. Cos lets face it nothing has really changed much over the years. Ok it didn't really need to but adding this feature would surely attract others to the game. Plus it gives the like of me an extra dimension to play.

Would really hope they could add this but they only seem to add nonsense features like press conf etc. these days

I often do this with the editor but it's a bit of a faff and on occasion has caused the game to fall over 6 months down the line due to a mistake I made or something.

Would be a nice option to have a wizard.

The editor is easier to use than ever before, making this sort of thing very simple to do already.

This would be a great idea, could almost be a game within a game, another game mode completely.

I'd love to see this happen.

I agree that this would be a great addition. My nice logo for FML still sits unused on my HD

I was actually thinking about creating a new club and start a new game on FM11. Can anyone point me in the right direction to a thread where the best way to set this up is described? I haven't touched the editor in a few years.

I just want to see match plans.

I don't care about the rest of it making its way over as it doesn't really fit.

I just want to see match plans.

I don't care about the rest of it making its way over as it doesn't really fit.

I thought it will definitely be in FM12?

I would love this, one other aspect of FML I would love to see brought across is the online chat rooms. It could really bring the FM community to life.

why not add it in some how,for those who never got to play fml it twas fun.....only problem,dont think i could still have kaka banging them in at 37 in the prem though.

You can pretty much do this already, by starting in a club at the lowest level. Find a club with no history, no favoured clubs, no rivalry and you sort of have what you want.

I think this is what really appealled to me about the games I've had in the past. In taking a club from the very bottom to the very top, pretty much everything about the club is down to me. Withe the jounreyman career I'm trying this year that just doesn't exist (unless I stay at one club for ages). Despite the success I've had, it is nothing compared to the legacy I could be building by sticking with one small club.

As said, the editor is easier to use than ever, and there is an Editors' Hideaway forum with very helpful gurus.

What I do is create a club with a 'backstory' and start in the lowest league I can (such as level 10). I create a squad of kids aged 13-16 with extremely low CA but high PA, loyal to me and the club and with great training facilities/youth programmes etc. The idea is that we 'grow' together, rising through the leagues as the lads mature into world-conquering heroes. Except I never get past 3 seasons!

As said, the editor is easier to use than ever, and there is an Editors' Hideaway forum with very helpful gurus.

Not everyone frequents these forums and for many the editor scares them, an in game option would be excellent IMO

Not everyone frequents these forums and for many the editor scares them, an in game option would be excellent IMO

It's not hard to visit the forum, it's just clicking on a different link!

People should visit and get some advice, and then they might not be so scared of the editor. I bet the people who are scared have been burnt on a previous version and not even opened this one.

I agree that the editor is nice, but seeing as almost all the code for creating a new team in wizard format is already finished for FMLive, it would be pretty simple to add it in at the start of the FM game. Don't get me wrong, I use the editor and have done this in the past using it, but it's a lot of hassle compared to the excellent FMLive wizard, which let you choose your kits and badge, name your stadium, write background and information in game, and then gave you a pool of players to pick from to start your team. It would be a relatively simple thing to code and although yes, the editor can do it, I think this would be far more immersive and fun, and a lot of people would use it.

It's also about balance, for me - if I'm using the editor to do this I'm sure I'm not going to give my team an appropriate level of players and money for the league I'm adding them to, I'm going to err on one side or the other without a lot of research. If I use an in-game wizard designed to add a new team at the bottom tier, it'll be more satisfying as I'll know the level of creation is appropriate.

That may be so but it would be a lot easier and open it up to a lot more people if you were able to do this from inside the game as a one off kind of thing.

Not a ringing endorsement but nice to see someone from SI seems to think it's a viable enough idea to warrant a personal reply.

I too would love to see it, would really add a lot of extra spice and variety.

PS - Ter, Coleraine? Unlucky, have an Ex that lived up past Patsys on the Bushmills road opposite that dodgy little estate...bet you're glad you escaped

i think this is a good idea were you have to put your team in the bottom tier, i would also like to see maybe a challenge mode were some of the challenges are like arsenal 2-0 down at half time against barcelona in the champions league turn it around to win the match ect.

and if you beat challenges you could unlock diffrent things for your created clubs such as the ability to put them in higher leagues like the championship or premier league or new badges and strips something along those lines

I think if there was a create a club wizard that generated the right xml it would appeal to a lot more people. It could also be marketed as a new feature if it was ever included in a future edition of FM.

Great idea. As others have mentioned, this is currently possible with the editor though having trying to do it in the past myself, it is far from simple.

The documentation on the editor itself is completely nonexistant and I will often find myself guessing at what exactly the scale on the different settings are and what each setting exactly is...