Newbie Q: can you normally import (migrate) career between older to newer FMs?

I've only just got into playing FM2011 and am really enjoying it.

I may well end up getting FM2012. However, even though I've only played about 13 matches in my "career" I'm still not particularly mad on the idea of going back to match one and would like to carry on in FM2012 with the set up I've got (same manager, same club, same players, same stats...)

I don't care if everything else changes such as things in other divisions, players of other teams (even in my division).

So, when you long time players migrated from FM2010 to 2011 did the game allow you to carry on where you left off? Or do you always start fresh when a new game comes out?

new game new save as its got to many changes unfortunately

Sadly you can't do this (although implementing this would be brilliant), so I wouldn't get too carried away with your current save if you're planning on buying FM12 on release day.

Edit: upon reflection, implementing this would be impossible. Let's say you buy FM 11 and play all the way up to 2019. How can you 'carry on' a game if you have to go back in time 7 years?

I don't see why it would be impossible. Let's take it a step further, say you've played all the way up to 2119.

All the players, managers, boards, stadia, referees, leagues could've changed, and would be stored in the save file. That is all loaded into FM11 when you start the game, so it could all be loaded into FM12 when you started that. It would then use the newly available media features, match engine etc from that point onwards.

I suspect it would, in reality, be fairly difficult to code - i.e. when looking at previous media conferences you would have to have a panel to show the old style, and a panel to show the new style. Any features that were added or removed would have to be simulated or eliminated from the old savegame. Not impossible, but probably so much work that it would never actually pay off.

I would love to have it as a feature though.

Importing older saves is implemented in the OOTP series but that game isn't as complicated as FM..

OK. Thanks for answering so quickly guys.

The way I've decided to play the game is starting with a very low league team: Bromley (in the Blue Square South division). For anyone not familiar with English leagues that's a team that's in only a semi-professional division with part-time players and we have about £50 a week (not enough money to buy two copies of FM2012) going spare for me to spend ;O)

I think it was a good idea to start with such a team as a newbie as contracts are relatively simple (a lot of players just get a weekly wage and the odd bonus, I don't have to deal with all those clauses!)

My dream is to become a great manager and work my way up to the very top. But I see this as a project that would take tens of seasons and more than a year of gameplay, maybe many years.

Also, I notice that some of the Steam achievements are things like doing something over 30 seasons! I wonder how many will achieve things like that even with FM2012 if they're going to buy FM2013?

If FM tends to stick to releasing a game every year or two my envisioned project is either never going to work out or CAN work provided I don't mind not having the latest FM to play. It's a tricky one. On the one hand I'm keen to try such a massive project, on the other it sits uneasily with me not to have the latest toy and see everyone else going off and having fun with the newer game.

Ah well... I don't need to make the choice just yet.

Thanks again.

30 seasons is not that hard to achive if you want to.

Dafuge is a great example link

he is in 2063

Blimey. Do long-time players of FM tend to watch the entire match? I think I always will watch the entire game. Does that make me weird?

I go for extended highlights & average about 50 seasons per FM career, long term games do tend to be the norm amongst LLM & Dafuge challenge players.

Blimey. Do long-time players of FM tend to watch the entire match? I think I always will watch the entire game. Does that make me weird?

makes you special.. if that makes you feel any better :,)

I only watch extended highlights.

OK, thanks guys. I'll stick with full games for now, as I'm sure it will help me learn. Will switch to extended highlights when I'm more confident.

I have a couple more newbie Q's if you'll permit me? I thought it would be better than spamming the forum with new threads:

1. What is the best strategy for backing up my save? Just remember to do "save as" every now and again? I guess that won't back up the database? What do you seasoned professionals do?

2. How can I find out how big my database is? I have found some folders called "db" in the FM folder but when I look inside I'm told the folder is empty. Are the files set to hidden?

Sorry if these are frequently asked. I have had a look around the forum a bit but can't find answers to these.

1. Just use a multi file rolling auto save, you'll find the option on the preference page.

2. The game tells you at the start when selecting your leagues & database size, I do not think there is a way of knowing the exact size of the player pool once the game has started.

1. What is the best strategy for backing up my save? Just remember to do "save as" every now and again? I guess that won't back up the database? What do you seasoned professionals do?

On the "your preferences" page you can set it to "autosave" every month or so.

2. How can I find out how big my database is? I have found some folders called "db" in the FM folder but when I look inside I'm told the folder is empty. Are the files set to hidden?

I'm sure this can be found on the game status page in-game.

Hope this helps.

In the future I would like to be able to carry over my manager history and current hall of fame file. Surely that would be doable in the future

Thanks for the replies guys. I already have it set to a rolling save after each day (perhaps overkill but game performance is fine, so I may as well stick with it)... thing is, surely that doesn't protect against a catastrophic hard-drive failure? I was thinking more along the lines of saving something to my external hard drive as a back up. None of you worry about this?

I think the status page only shows you what you chose when you set the game up. In my case this is "large". But it doesn't tell me what that means in practice in terms of mega/gigabytes. I can see I still have plenty of space on my hard drive so I'm not too fussed but I was curious: I sort of wish I'd chosen "huge" now and included more nations and leagues but I'm probably just being greedy since I already have quite a lot of stuff there (my computer is pretty powerful).

Thanks for the replies guys. I already have it set to a rolling save after each day (perhaps overkill but game performance is fine, so I may as well stick with it)... thing is, surely that doesn't protect against a catastrophic hard-drive failure? I was thinking more along the lines of saving something to my external hard drive as a back up. None of you worry about this?

I think the status page only shows you what you chose when you set the game up. In my case this is "large". But it doesn't tell me what that means in practice in terms of mega/gigabytes. I can see I still have plenty of space on my hard drive so I'm not too fussed but I was curious: I sort of wish I'd chosen "huge" now and included more nations and leagues but I'm probably just being greedy since I already have quite a lot of stuff there (my computer is pretty powerful).

It depends on how fussy you are with the save game. had my saves since the game came out last year (mid-november time) and they've been fine... Had more External HDD's die on me then internal HDD's to be fair.

And with the game-time, im currently setting at around a season a week. Got a new save and am with AC Milan in 2015/2016 season. (2nd season with them and about 10 games in) started off at Eastwood..

Thanks for the replies guys. I already have it set to a rolling save after each day (perhaps overkill but game performance is fine, so I may as well stick with it)... thing is, surely that doesn't protect against a catastrophic hard-drive failure? I was thinking more along the lines of saving something to my external hard drive as a back up. None of you worry about this?

I think the status page only shows you what you chose when you set the game up. In my case this is "large". But it doesn't tell me what that means in practice in terms of mega/gigabytes. I can see I still have plenty of space on my hard drive so I'm not too fussed but I was curious: I sort of wish I'd chosen "huge" now and included more nations and leagues but I'm probably just being greedy since I already have quite a lot of stuff there (my computer is pretty powerful).

The database generated for each new game is effectively unique and will be stored in the savegame - that shows how large or small it is. A larger database makes for a larger savegame.

If you're concerned about hard drive failure, you need to look into backup tools outside of FM. Online backup works for some, external hard drives for others, separate NAS/servers for others. Obviously an external hard drive will protect against catastrophic failure, but not fire/theft/vandalism.

Ah thanks, Snooty. About 30mb mine. Much smaller than I would have assumed. But then I guess it is only numbers and words. Ta.

A season a week, Reccy!? I'm assuming you're not watching extended highlights of every game?