Official Blog Feedback - career mode (aka add/remove leagues)

Could do with being stickied, methinks.

Although there's way too many stickies atm tbh.

You mention being able to add leagues to your demo save. Will we have a choice of database sizes with the demo? Personally, if we only get the small database then I wouldnt even consider continuing. Would be a nice option to have I think and would make the demo even more appealing.

Cool that you can continue the demo save and add leagues.

Way to go. Nice to see that you mention things being worked on for years. A lot of people get the impression that you sprinkle SI fairy dust over the programmers and a new feature is added that day lol.

Anyway, the career mode looks cool. I'll no longer be pigeon holed into my favourite leagues. For example, I might only load the top League in France and Portugal. But I get offered jobs in those countries. So it would be nice to include the extra divisions when I take them over.

Cool stuff.

it will be good to keep the demo save going, it always annoys me having to go back and start again after the real version is released

This is exactly what i am wondering. If you add more leagues then surely the DB size will grow anyway.

As an alternative, maybe the guys at SI can provide us with a choice of quickstarts that have various database sizes for the demo (as the demo is just a saved game that SI created)

it will be good to keep the demo save going, it always annoys me having to go back and start again after the real version is released

Funny doesn't bother me at all. I use it as a testing ground and have about 4 or 5 different saves using various teams.

Once the full game comes out I pick an incredibly easy team to manage (like Barca or something) and experiment with the formations.

I then do another save about a month or two later, where I take over a very poor team and work that for a few months.

I only get into serious career saves after final patch.

Anyway, the career mode looks cool. I'll no longer be pigeon holed into my favourite leagues. For example, I might only load the top League in France and Portugal. But I get offered jobs in those countries. So it would be nice to include the extra divisions when I take them over.

Cool stuff.

This is exactly what i am wondering. If you add more leagues then surely the DB size will grow anyway.

As an alternative, maybe the guys at SI can provide us with a choice of quickstarts that have various database sizes for the demo (as the demo is just a saved game that SI created)

Considering Demo's are an open door to possible hacks I very much doubt that SI would release one with anything other than a limited database.

Funny doesn't bother me at all. I use it as a testing ground and have about 4 or 5 different saves using various teams.

Once the full game comes out I pick an incredibly easy team to manage (like Barca or something) and experiment with the formations.

I then do another save about a month or two later, where I take over a very poor team and work that for a few months.

I only get into serious career saves after final patch.

see i start my long term save from day one, or at least i will from now on, my FM11 game i still play now is from release day, i do start others that i use for messing around with the new features but my dons game is always my long term one.

looks good.

I like this option.

FM12 is looking good, I love FM11 and there are some excellent new features on FM12...keep it coming SI.

Only thing I'm yet to be sold on is the activation, but we'll see how that goes before I comment further.

I don't see how you can get offered a job in a country that is not yet active, if you start with France & Portugal but decide that you'd fancy a spin in Italy I imagine that you will have to active the Italian leagues & wait for jobs to come up as we normally have to.

Considering Demo's are an open door to possible hacks I very much doubt that SI would release one with anything other than a limited database.

But the database is just that, a database. Its the demo code that makes the game limited (as far as i am aware)

yeah,but it would be really cool if you can get job offers from non active league..example,i usually start as unemployed and i load ALL the playable leagues,then go to holiday and wait for offers to come.but,in the end,the game is (obviously) extra slow..if i could pick only,let's say italy,and then get an offer from,let's say,poland..it would be great..otherwise i think that (also) this new feature will be pretty useless..

One of my favourite features of all time.

What will happen with competition histories? Say you add a league 5 years into a game, will that league show the past 5 winners?

If you have a league active for the first 5 years, switch it off for 3 years then turn it back on again, will it remember the original competition history/players?

This all sounds absolutely brillaint & well implemented!

The one thing I would suggest that could take career games that little bit nearer to perfection would be to allow teams in the inactive countries to offer you a job as manager should they wish, and that the contract will start on such & such a date (ie. When the country/league can become active)

Also the ability to apply for jobs in inactive leagues, and be offered them with a future date...

I hope that makes sense. I'd just like to know if that would be possible, because then the world is our oyster and we know that, however many leagues you have running and however slow or fast your game is, you can still take charge ANYWHERE in the world!

Would it be possible to implement though?? Is there any spare SI fairy dust going around??

I really like the sound of this feature, as I like to load a few leagues for depth, and to give me a variety of challenges should I choose to move around.

I do have a question though.

When you remove a league, will some of the teams and players from that league disappear from the game?

What about transfers, especially international transfers?

For example, if you started with only the Scottish leagues, and you activate the English leagues, will the English clubs have been as active in the transfer market - both internally and buying players from France, Spain etc?

I think this is a great feature, and should prompt a few more career games!

2 quick question though, it's mentioned that teams will have newgens, retired players etc, will all of these show up in the transfer history at the times they happened, or will they just have happened?

Also, do teams buy and sell players as well, otherwise if in 10 years time it's just filled with newgens, then it could seriously degrade a teams ability?

I don't see how you can get offered a job in a country that is not yet active, if you start with France & Portugal but decide that you'd fancy a spin in Italy I imagine that you will have to active the Italian leagues & wait for jobs to come up as we normally have to.

You didn't see the part where I said I'd have the top league in France and Portugal active. I have been offered jobs in these countries and declined because I didn't have all the divisions loaded. And now I can.

Of course If wanted to play in a league that wasn't active at all, I'd have to activate that league first and the divisions of that country to get offered a job there.

I'll often load just the top tier of what I consider fringe leagues, like France, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, etc. but often decline the role at a club because I know I don't have the other divisions loaded.

what about the league awards ?? and player achievements of the inactive leagues?

It's a good feature but i'm not sure i like everything that was written in the blog today. First of all: Do i understand it correctly that Miles writes that when adding a new league the players that are already in teams in that league will get a huge training boost to catch up? Wouldn't it be better to work out a way to give them realistic training from the beginning?

I rarely switch team/leagues in my saves but i usually have a bunch of view-only leagues. Has anything been changed with them?

It would be great if view-only leagues would buy talents more often. If they would hire staff and if they would simulate training more realistic.

You didn't see the part where I said I'd have the top league in France and Portugal active. I have been offered jobs in these countries and declined because I didn't have all the divisions loaded. And now I can.

I see what you were getting at now, thought it was an odd comment.

It's a good feature but i'm not sure i like everything that was written in the blog today. First of all: Do i understand it correctly that Miles writes that when adding a new league the players that are already in teams in that league will get a huge training boost to catch up? Wouldn't it be better to work out a way to give them realistic training from the beginning?

I rarely switch team/leagues in my saves but i usually have a bunch of view-only leagues. Has anything been changed with them?

It would be great if view-only leagues would buy talents more often. If they would hire staff and if they would simulate training more realistic.

I think it's more aimed at players that would not have originally been loaded into the game. So a 21yr old would now be older and should improve to a standard that would have happened if the league was running.

This means then - I can sell my 16 year old prodigy to a team in say, perhaps Barca, perhaps Real. Put in a buy back clause of say 500k.

Turn off that league. Then come back in 5 seasons. Turn that league back on. Rebuy my player that will be fully formed...

You can also use this feature with custom leagues, ones that you can make with the Football Manager data editor, or download others edited leagues online, although they need to be in place when you first start the game.

I'm particularly concerned at this. One of the things I was very much looking for was the availability to play with mods along with the game. I mean, I love to play user mods specially the ones who extend league tiers of certain nations, and was expecting to be able to start playing the vanilla game from day 1 and then be able to add the work on other leagues at the pace the mods are released, on the same save. I understand on the quotation above that this won't be possible. A great-great feature anyway!

In response to my question “can you apply / be approached for a job b4 u add the league or after u add the league”, Miles's response was after.

This means that you will not get offered or have the opportunity to apply for any jobs in any not yet activated leagues.

So, I have to consider, how would you know a job is available unless the Jobs page has been expanded to show all available jobs around the world....and, given that you are adding a league to apply for just one job, you don't know that your application will be successful - so you could end up adding a league, applying for a particular job, getting rejected, deleting the league, adding new league, applying for particular job, getting rejected etc etc etc...

Time will tell if this is a good new feature - it sounds great and I take the point that you could have just one league from each country loaded, then expand if you are offered a job - but that assumes you will be assessed at the leagues you have loaded level - by that I mean, what is the equivalent league in Germany, France, Holland, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Finland (etc) of League 2 in England if I start as Southend United ?????? If I get promoted, do I change the leagues loaded each season to be equivalent on the off chance I may be offered a job ?

Not sure to those of us without super powerful computers that this feature does bring the real opportunity of a true world wide career game.

I know I sound really negative here, but was really excited that this feature may bring something that I'm now not sure will...

This means that you will not get offered or have the opportunity to apply for any jobs in any not yet activated leagues.

If you fancy managing in another country you can add whatever one you like. The job list of available position should be available then and you can apply then.

You won't be made aware of a job in a country you have not loaded. But if you have France, Belgium, Poland, Portugal all loaded and fancy a stint somewhere more mainstream you could load Spain, England OR Italy - for example.

OR if you are managing in a lower league and can't seem to get any good offers from the Premiership - for example. Then you could load the French League, German League (whatever you think) and then try apply for jobs there or wait to be offered a job there.

If you fancy managing in another country you can add whatever one you like. The job list of available position should be available then and you can apply then.

You won't be made aware of a job in a country you have not loaded. But if you have France, Belgium, Poland, Portugal all loaded and fancy a stint somewhere more mainstream you could load Spain, England OR Italy - for example.

OR if you are managing in a lower league and can't seem to get any good offers from the Premiership - for example. Then you could load the French League, German League (whatever you think) and then try apply for jobs there or wait to be offered a job there.

That's all well and good, but as mightyshrimper said above, you could end up adding a league, applying for a particular job, getting rejected, deleting the league, adding new league, applying for particular job, getting rejected etc etc etc...

It would be better if we could still apply for/be offered jobs from all over the world, and if we accept an offer from a team that is playing in an inactive league, have our contract start date set to as soon as the league can be made active.

All the same, this is a nice feature.

It's an epic feature that's been a long time coming. Nothing but praise

As I say. If you want to manage in a leauge that you haven't loaded yet, you can now. Wait for a job to come up and apply for it. Doesn't mean you have to delete that league and try again. Say if you have 3 leauges you'd like to manage in. Load the 3 leagues top division and then apply for jobs. If you get one delete the other 2 leagues.

The way I will probably use this is to go round like a kid in a candy shop at the beginning of a game adding too many leagues, seeing how my computer holds up and - if the performance makes the game too annoying to play - start jettisoning some divisions. I know you get the star rating for computer performance at the beginning but previously I'd err on the side of caution and last time wished I'd added more.

Finally Start a game with all leagues running lol. I like it. If only for a season

I think that this could be particularly useful for those who like to develop youngsters. Adding the leagues of feeder-clubs, for example, so your youngsters get real game-time as opposed to simulated, much much better for future development.

Start with English Leagues, after 5 years turn on a load of other leagues trawl the squads for newgens, snap up the best ones and turn the leagues off again.

Could you in theory add a lower tier to the leagues youre playing in? Reason for question is that I ofter take charge of a team at the bottom end of Lg2 an dont have the conference set up. If I dont beat my challenge I get sacked as I cant play in a league that wasnt part of the initial set up. With this I guess I now get another challenge of regaining a league place?

Could you in theory add a lower tier to the leagues youre playing in? Reason for question is that I ofter take charge of a team at the bottom end of Lg2 an dont have the conference set up. If I dont beat my challenge I get sacked as I cant play in a league that wasnt part of the initial set up. With this I guess I now get another challenge of regaining a league place?

I think that's pretty explicitly stated.

great addition, gives you more freedom,on how you play the game

The highlight of FM2012 for me

The highlight of FM2012 for me

And for me

Love It!!

Miles tell me just one thing: Will the skin be the white of the FM 2010/2011, or it will be similar to the FM 08 skin?

Love It!!

Miles tell me just one thing: Will the skin be the white of the FM 2010/2011, or it will be similar to the FM 08 skin?

The screen shots released the other day showed both a dark and white skin.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/segaeurope/6191719540/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/segaeurope/6191201899/in/photostream/

The highlight of FM2012 for me

Me also I think.

For me this is great for those who start in the Lower Leagues. You can start with a nimble game of only that national league, then once you get promoted several times turn on other nations to improve the player pool of realistic transfers, or in if in England, turn on the feeder leagues like Belgium once you get to a level where they are useful.

When you remove a league, will it then be removed right away? Or do I have to wait till the end of the season?

When you remove a league it will let you know what date. It's right there in the blog.

this feature could be INCREDIBLE if successfully pulled off. I've always wanted to work my way up through leagues, but multiple leagues caused my game to move terribly slow. well done SI. lets just hope you managed to pull if of without any bugs

The screen shots released the other day showed both a dark and white skin.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/segaeurope/6191719540/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/segaeurope/6191201899/in/photostream/

Thanks, buddy!

I'm a big fan of having my feeder clubs in active leagues, so I would always load England to League 1, Spain (top), France (top), Italy(top), Germany(top), Netherlands(top), and MLS as my base leagues. And then add Belgium for my work permit team, and then random leagues from countries across the globe for potential feeder clubs.

Now I can just load my base leagues. And then add or subtract leagues as I add and subtract feeder clubs. No more shying away from clubs because they aren't in an active league!