SUGGESTION - Import Saved Games

New to the forums, and basically wanted to post this suggestion because i think it's a bit of a problem for a lot of casual FM players.

A lot of people I know, with me included, just don't have as much time as we used to, to play games like FM. It's all singing and all dancing takes up a lot of time to progress not very far in the game, which is fine if you have the time... If you don't, then you're left after a year with the dilemma of buying a new version of FM and starting yet again from scratch, or continuing to play an older version.

My suggestion is a simple one, and with the way the games are so similar in a lot of aspects, shouldn't be too bigger deal i'm sure.

Allowing an option on the main menu to import a saved game from the previous version of the game - basically converting it into an FM12 saved game. Things included in a saved game shouldn't be too bigger deal like histories, training schedules, player's positions / prefered moves etc. As far as i'm also aware, all the players in your career and their attributes are also saved in the saved game file, so even that shouldn't be a problem.

It doesn't have to transfer over the ability to look at previous match reports and what not. It would give so many of the playing community a boost, and you would probably make a lot more sales to boot.

Thoughts? Any issues i've overlooked?

Well, when they can make new games not old-save-game compatible it's a lot easier for them to mix up what stats are in, and add new features and the like, they could do as you say, and it might boost sales, but it's all a little iffy and could be time consuming to make importing work flawlessly, and also testing it wouldnt be incredibly easy, as you could have someone importing say a 300mb savegame from 2060 and it just.. well, it could be messy

but sure, they *could* make it work, and it has been asked for before I'm sure. It's just a question of is it worth it, and will it slow development too much?

Miles covered this one on the recent podcast, the problem with importing saves from different versions of FM is apparently down to changing league rules, be that the actual structure of the leagues or specific rules such as player registration, tie-breakers relegation & promotion.

Most of those could probably be coded for but changes to whole league structures would be very problematic, just imagine the frustration if you found out that due to a change in the number of divisions or teams the club you are managing were no longer in a playable league.

And also the fact that the massive amount of data, from attribute changes from each player would be carried over. It would be like adding a whole different database but within a save game.

It would be only possible by "hiding" some of the new features in the game and also by not using the updated database and league rules. It would also not be possible to add or remove leagues, as some of them would have different league rules. I think it's possible in theory, but it's probably like buying a High definition tv and still watching analog tv on it - the new FM version but playing it like the old one.

Yeah that seems like a good point. I guess I had the narrow minded view of looking at it from an english football perspective, not counting the other god-knows-how-many other playable leagues.

It's a real shame, but fair play for them acknowledging it. Very good game developers in my opinion, with speed and quality of updates, listening to community etc. EA and the like could learn a lot!

The suggestion may be simple, the practicalities of undertaking such a task is anything but!

Stop following me around.