stadiums / patches

I have 2 unrelated queries, sorry if already answered elsewhere, I find the search function on here's not too great:

1) stadium designs - am I correct that there is still only the 'square end' stadium style? Maybe was just a demo limitation? If there is just one design, it's a bit disappointing, would have hoped for at least the alternatives of 'deep-end' (e.g most large modern arenas, Celtic Park, Bordeaux, Parc Des Princes), oval (Artemio Franchi, Hampden, Glentoran, Torino) and running track (Rome, Sarajevo, Berlin, Brussels, etc). Hopefully I'm wrong?

2) patches - is there going to be any point buying the game now and making changes to the DB? Will those changes still work with the patches (which would definitely be require,d and which I understnd would download theselves by stealth anyway via Steam? And will there be an option to have the patches WITHOUT post-game date transfers (i.e Janaury moves in February patch).

Thansk in advance for any replies!

1. There are more and better stadium designs in FM12 than in FM11; hopefully they will be better still in FM13. I get the feeling a lot of work is being done on the match screen for future releases, but SI want to make sure they are perfect before putting them in the game.

2. If you put FM on Steam off-line, you can play without Steam updating anything. If you do install a patch, you can continue your save, but data updates won't happen unless you start a new game.

You shouldn't need to make changes to the database; I have made an xml data file to add to the database; a patch won't touch that and my changes will still be good if I re-start with a new patch.

Personally, I stay off-line and when a patch comes out I hold back 2 or 3 days to see what the reaction is on the forum.

Thanks. Was hoping to play in La Liga and see noticable changes in stadia when playing at Almeria, Real Sociedad, Celta, Xerez etc but sadly it looks like that won't be happening, this year at least. A shme, think it would be fairly easy to adapt for each team and also fairly easy probably to make stadium editing a feature in the editor. As far as the patches go, sounds like previous versons of the game so all good, although I don't want to get too far into a new game which becomes flawed (if not unplayable) due to being pre-patch. So I will be getting FM12 soon! Just hope the full game match engine works on my sheety GFX card as it did in the demo!

Regarding the stadia... I'm not a programmer so I don't know how much man hours it would use, but one option might be if certain criteria are set for each club's stadium. For example.

Running track - yes or no

End stand - seats or terrace : close, normal, far from pitch : roof or not : capacity to determine size

Etc

FM will never get to the stage where every team has their own stadium, there are simply too many teams. Having a list of criteria and options will give some individuality and allow each team's stadium to look somewhat like their real life ground.

Regarding the stadia... I'm not a programmer so I don't know how much man hours it would use, but one option might be if certain criteria are set for each club's stadium. For example.

Running track - yes or no

End stand - seats or terrace : close, normal, far from pitch : roof or not : capacity to determine size

Etc

FM will never get to the stage where every team has their own stadium, there are simply too many teams. Having a list of criteria and options will give some individuality and allow each team's stadium to look somewhat like their real life ground.

Yeah mate a template that's all. There are plenty of templates in use in the game already, you can see that, but none showing the distance of the pitch from the fans which is the big difference when viweing games and would make it more interesting. Only a small change, I would have thought, for a big benefit, albeit purely cosmetic. Sort it out SI!