FM10: English small club to big club challenge: extended edition

[roberto922]

First off, a big thanks to Super Bladesman, who created the xml file that we will be using to play FM10 the extended edition, you can download the file and say thanks to SB here

Also, thank you to Dafuge who first of all came up with the whole 'small club to big club' theme on here but also for allowing me to use the OP in dafuges challenge as a template for this challenge.

Anyway, onto the thread. With the introduction of a competitions editor to Football Manager 2010 it has become possible to add lower leagues onto the current structure of playable leagues, adding a whole new dimension to the small club to big club challenges, as now it is possible to go as far down as level 10 of the English League structure, meaning the classic 'dafuges challenge' is now even tougher.

The Aim

To take a small club who were previously unplayable in the game from any level below the Blue Square North/South to Premier League and Champions League glory.


The Rules

Remember to download Super Bladesmans xml file with the link above, Here's where it needs to go:

C:\Program Files\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2010\editor data


Load a game with the English leagues only, with your chosen selected, a large database (or smaller if preferred), the attribute masking, real players and transfer boxes ticked and the add key staff box ticked as well

In addition this year, for those of you who want to add to the database to make things more competitive at the top level in the long term, you can set the database level to custom to add the players for the top clubs in each continent. It should look like this. This is purely optional, but no extra players can be loaded on top of this, this is the limit.

The extra levels of detail that you can change while in the game are up to you, as they shouldn't make a difference.

Add yourself as a new manager, the options are up to you but 'past experience' must be set to the lowest possible which is 'Sunday league footballer'. I understand that choosing different nationalities may have an effect later on, but I trust people will be sensible with this. I would expect people to use their own true nationalities.

Take over your chosen club from your chosen league (remember: Below BSS/N) and begin your journey to Premier League glory!

You may not move clubs unless you are sacked. If you get sacked, you can either take over another club that satisfies the original criteria, or just start again.

Any form of international management is not allowed, until you have completed the challenge.

Assigning parent clubs and loaning players is completely up to the player, although it should be noted that on occasions a parent club can lend players which will make the first season or two slightly less of a challenge. It is completely up to you how you play this one, but everyone knows real men don't use parent club loans. Personally, I like to assign a parent club for financial benefits but never take any players on loan from them.

To sign a player, you must be able to scout them, this doesn't mean you have to, just he must be accessible to your scouts. If you have a foreign player on a free transfer who is willing to come on trial, you do not need to be able to scout them, as long as you have them at the club on trial so you can get a coach report on him.

No external utilities such as scouting programs should be used and the database should be unedited with the obvious exception of Super Bladesmans Level 10 update and displaced_seagulls Sussex leagues pack when it is released, if an update is released that is of a good quality and allows you to go to below level 10 I will allow it to be used once I've checked it. Should SI release a data update, this would be allowed but any other data updates are not. It is advised that people should update using the latest patches as they are released, we have waited for 10.1 before starting so I would expect to see everyone using it from day one.

could you please use this title format when you are doing season updates:

[username] [club name] - Season * (2***/2***) - Starting Division: [division in first season] (Starting level, level 10, 9 etc.) Current Division: [division at the start of new season]

So mine for example is:
Wigan Robin Park FC Update - Season 1 (2009/2010) - Starting Division: NW Counties Div. One (Level 10)


Rules for this Thread

Player naming is allowed.

General discussion on tactics is allowed, although people should not refer to downloaded tactics. They are not banned, but I would expect the majority of people to avoid them.

Screenshots for anything are encouraged but please post links to your pictures, don't post them as images as it makes the pages slower to load. Posts included embedded images may be deleted without warning.

When you join the challenge, could you post a screenshot of your manager's profile on the 25th June like this. (I'll change it to a relevant club when I start my game)

Progress of your club should be documented using this thread, we want to hear the story of your club all the way through. Please keep us updated, even if you are doing really badly.

At the end of every season, could everyone post some kind of season review, including at least a screenshot of a league table and the clubs transfer page. If you give this a title in bold it makes it a bit easier to pick out.

I will try and keep a table of PL and CL wins and completions going, so if you win either competition for the first time please make it clear in your end of season review.

How to Post a Screenshot

• While in FM, press the 'Prt Sc' button (usually next to F12 on your keyboard).
• Open an image editing program such as Paint and paste the image
• Save the file as a JPEG
• Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Photobucket
• Post the direct Url to the image here.

How to Add Links

At the top of the forum, go to 'quick links' then 'edit options'. At the bottom, select 'enhanced interface' and save the changes. This will give you access to the extra posting tools that make it easier to post links. Once you've done this, highlight the word you wish to turn into a link, then use the link button (looks like a little globe) to paste in the direct Url to your screenshot.

Good luck

[roberto922]

Season progress:

 
Username     club      Seasons     Starting        Level   Current
                       Completed   Division                Division
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
roberto922   Wigan RP     1        NW Counties D1    10    NW Counties Premier

[mag man]

When you holiday for a year what teams come up?

This is going to be some challenge, I dont think I have time to do this unless of course one of the options is a very local team to me

[roberto922]

Not sure, I'm still holidaying, in late September

[mag man]

Snodland in level 11

Maidstone or Hendon in dafuge's challenge still mean more to me though, so will be going there

[joetheref]

I think I read somewhere Super Bladesmen didn't add relegation to level 11, I could be wrong though. Looking forward to giving this a go

[DanGLiverpool]

Yeah, no promotion to Level 10 from Level 11, and no relegation from 11 to 10.

[roberto922]

Aw bollocks, I'll have to update the OP and restart my savegame

Question:

Would you all deem it appropriate to give users the choice between starting at level 10 in 2009/10 or starting at level 9 in 2010/11 or should it be one rule for all, ie all start at level 9 in 10/11?

[PaulHartman71]

failure to prepare = preparing to fail

[mag man]

I reckon you should add level 11 in

[roberto922]

Well I didn't know he hadn't added bleeding relegation to level 10 and 11

[sheeshy]

If you like, later tonight, I could post all the reps of the teams that come up from Level 10 to Level 9?

[DanGLiverpool]

Reckon you should star in the 09/10 seasn with Level 10 clubs.

[spotg]

If you make it so we start in level 10 in 09/10 season, then I'll join the challenge. I'll be picking up AFC Emley.

[Scoham]

In this challenge it's better you tick 'Add key staff' when starting the game, that way the generated players at level 9 and 10 are a mixture of ages. Otherwise nearly every level 10 player is a 16 year old. Would be worth changing the rules for that.

Super Bladesman had to create most of the clubs at that level (and some at level 9), so most won't have any players.

[joetheref]

Why not start at any Level 10 club in 09/10, not gonna be a huge advantage no matter what team you pick I should think

[Super Bladesman]

Aye, I could have enabled Level 11 as an inactive division - the vast majority of the Level 11 leagues and clubs are included in my file. It would've involved researching and adding HUNDREDS of stadia though - I had to draw the line somewhere!

It would be easy to add Level 11, and set up promotions and relegations - but without properly set stadia in properly set cities, the regionality of promotions and relegations would be lost. It wasn't worth the time tbh. Now that I've got so many helpers, though...

Really pleased to see this thread though - I'll be following this with great interest!

[Twellman24]

Why dont you tell them to pick the team that finishes in the last 3-4 spots in division 10 after one season?

[MachinegunHead]

Why dont you tell them to pick the team that finishes in the last 3-4 spots in division 10 after one season?

This guy is a genius!

Really either Twellman's suggestion, or just using ANY tier 10 team would be fine. I mean, no matter which team you pick, you'll be one of the worse ones when you get to tier 9 anyway.

Also, a typo in the original post. You mention to load England down to level 9 instead of level 10.

[joetheref]

Any objections if I just pick a random level 10 team to be from the first season

[Polar Bear]

I'd vote for taking any level 10 team. That way I can incorporate the save I'll be doing with my hometown club into this challenge

[sallers]

i agree any level 10 club

[joetheref]

Think I will get this underway, I've gone for the nearest club to me which is FC Clacton in the Eastern Counties Div 1. The board want promotion so I think I've chosen a good club . Here is my profile. Hoping to get off to a good start

[Bristol CityFC1981]

Will start this tonight with Chard town in the Western league Division 1

[ShanghaiNugget]

I'll start this tonight with Whitchurch in Hampshire, I think they're level 10.

[Timma]

If we're going for any Level 10 club, i'll go with Westfields in the West Midlands Premier Division as they're the closest to me.

[joetheref]

Not doing great with Clacton, no money to buy any players with and am over the wage budget so the board refuse to let anyone join. Beat my reserves 1-0 and the Glenn Hoddle Academy 2-0 and am the 6th favourite to win the league. The top 5 are all joint favourites

[SAFC Adam]

Will deffinately be starting this with Coalville Town.

When I actually get the game that is!

[slappy_bag]

I'm going in with St. Blazey (South West Peninsula Premier Division, as if you didn't know). Wish me luck!

[slappy_bag]

World Soccer Magazine came to my press conference

[Heath Matthias]

Hmmm, maybe the press needs tweaked a bit in these levels?

[Wakers]

This looks like a brilliant idea, I'll be starting this whenever i get the game!

[joetheref]

Gonna put my game on hold, computer cant quite take so many leagues

[Swany]

here comes seaham! in the northern league division 2

[Walcott\'s Wonderkids]

Don't think anyone has asked the question yet, so I might as well ask away....

Currently dafuge's challenge goes down to Level 6, so the teams we choose are from level 7. Now this thread specifically goes down to Level 9, with teams being chose from level 10.

What happens if due to pc constraints or just wanting to be awkward / different, people want to start at league level 7 or 8? Can we discuss our progress in this thread or is this thread specifically for people starting right down at the bottom?




ps: Might be worth putting something like this in the OP incase several people start asking the same question... or it might just be me!

[berty1978]

Not doing great with Clacton, no money to buy any players with and am over the wage budget so the board refuse to let anyone join. Beat my reserves 1-0 and the Glenn Hoddle Academy 2-0 and am the 6th favourite to win the league. The top 5 are all joint favourites

I'm not sure whether to do this or dafuge's challenge when I get FM10, Zavvi .
Out of interest who are the favourites? Great Yarmouth are my local team (seen them play a few times, that's why I support Lowestoft ), but I'll go Great Yarmouth if I play this challenge.

[roberto922]

Apologies for being late answering but I've made a decision.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

From now on you can start at Level 10 in the first season, however the club you choose must be predicted to finish in the bottom three of their league.

I'll edit the OP in a minute, now that the rules are more or less sorted I'd like to offer my luck to you all and hope as many of you as possible manage to complete this challenge, I will also be starting soon.

[PaulHartman71]

Don't think anyone has asked the question yet, so I might as well ask away....

Currently dafuge's challenge goes down to Level 6, so the teams we choose are from level 7. Now this thread specifically goes down to Level 9, with teams being chose from level 10.

What happens if due to pc constraints or just wanting to be awkward / different, people want to start at league level 7 or 8? Can we discuss our progress in this thread or is this thread specifically for people starting right down at the bottom?




ps: Might be worth putting something like this in the OP incase several people start asking the same question... or it might just be me!

I say stick it all in this thread, no point having multiple threads for people starting at different lower levels imo.

[roberto922]

Don't think anyone has asked the question yet, so I might as well ask away....

Currently dafuge's challenge goes down to Level 6, so the teams we choose are from level 7. Now this thread specifically goes down to Level 9, with teams being chose from level 10.

What happens if due to pc constraints or just wanting to be awkward / different, people want to start at league level 7 or 8? Can we discuss our progress in this thread or is this thread specifically for people starting right down at the bottom?




ps: Might be worth putting something like this in the OP incase several people start asking the same question... or it might just be me!

Yes, I've been thinking about this. I think the best solution would be for everyone to clearly state in season updates which level they're starting at, I know I've said level 10 is the starting point but if anyone wants to start at Level 7, 8 or 9 they can post in here, this is the extended edition rather than the 'level 10 edition', meaning that anyone below tier 6 is welcome to play.

I've got a lot of editing in the OP to sort out

[Timma]

If we're going for any Level 10 club, i'll go with Westfields in the West Midlands Premier Division as they're the closest to me.

Wellington predicted 19th of 21 so fine for me

So far so good 3 wins from 3

[roberto922]

Right then, I've decided to take over Wigan RP of the North West Division One, with an estimated value of £12k, basic training facilities and minimal youth facilities this should be a tough challenge. Here's my profile page, wish me luck, I'll need it

[roberto922]

Bugger double post

don't forget to post your profile pic before you get too far in

[Scoham]

Yes, I've been thinking about this. I think the best solution would be for everyone to clearly state in season updates which level they're starting at, I know I've said level 10 is the starting point but if anyone wants to start at Level 7, 8 or 9 they can post in here, this is the extended edition rather than the 'level 10 edition', meaning that anyone below tier 6 is welcome to play.

I've got a lot of editing in the OP to sort out

Yeah I think it's best to allow anyone to start with any team from level 7 down to level 10.

Have you looked at my suggestion? Tick 'add key staff' when starting a game is better since the players will be a mixture of ages. Unticking it means most level 10 clubs have squads of 16 year olds only.

[berty1978]

Just a quick question, have you added in the FA Vase?
Also I think you can't edit existing cup competitions, so you can't add extra rounds to FA Cup and Trophy.

[Scoham]

Just a quick question, have you added in the FA Vase?
Also I think you can't edit existing cup competitions, so you can't add extra rounds to FA Cup and Trophy.

The FA Vase is in there and the FA Cup was removed and readded so it could be edited. It has the correct number of rounds, just the names aren't accurate (3rd round is now 5th round, as there are only 4 qualifying rounds instead of 6).

[slappy_bag]

Darn, I read the instructions wrong, gonna have to start again. Holidaying now.

[m1234566778]

Does anyone know if AFC Emley are okay for this? Would give it a go with Emley for sure!

[Wakers]

Does anyone know what tier Selby Town or Wakefield FC or even Goole Town are in? Would be nice to do it with a local team

[roberto922]

hmm, they're predicted 15th out of 18, so not in the bottom three.

[m1234566778]

Well, Emley will be local to you then Wakefield FC are also one of my local teams And the others, can anyone clear this up.

[roberto922]

none of the three you mentioned are in the bottom 3 of their league

That rule seems too restrictive to me, would it be better if we made it free choice as to who you take over from any tier below BSN/S?

[Wakers]

Emley is very vaguely local to be honest

Shame they're not in the bottom three..not sure how that helps, surely it's hard enough whatever team you pick at that level?

I would suggest that the only restriction be on teams that have just been relegated from the Blue Square leagues.

[roberto922]

Yeah, I've found that the sides are fairly evenly matched in the really low leagues. Right you can go for any side below BSS/N from now on

[Wakers]

Yay.

Now can someone lend me their copy of FM10 until Monday or Tuesday please

[roberto922]

Heh

I'm currently in a transfer embargo due to a takeover attempt by a supporters trust, I'm 15th in the NW Counties Division One after 6 games, but I have a game in hand over most of the sides

[Wakers]

Is it tough down there? I can imagine the players being durge

It always takes me a while to pick out players in LLM - at first when everyone has stats below 10 for every stat it's hard to pick out your best players!

[roberto922]

My best striker has a finishing stat of 1, nuff said?

[MachinegunHead]

I'm at Askern Villa in the Northern Counties East Football League Division 1 (Tier 10).

Played 3 games and am on 4pts, sitting in mid-table. Not bad, but not good.


Only thing worth mentioning is that I picked up a 2-2 draw against the GH Academy

[Heath Matthias]

Wow, the quality is bad. I watched one pass bounce off the feet of another player, as he was looking the other way, constant one-on-one misses, and really bad 2 footed challanges resulting in red cards. Verdict is tho...I LOVE IT! I am kind of crazy that way.

Started with the Stone Dominos in Northwest Counties Div 1, only problem I see is a lack of transfers happening. Anyone else see this? Transfers are happening in the top leagues, just not in the drudges of level 10...

[slappy_bag]

Now playing as Horsham YMCA (purely because that's a great name) after restarting. First friendly - star defender out for 11 months with ligament damage

[roberto922]

Promotion to Level 9 \o/ finished 3rd with Wigan RP, a season report will follow

[roberto922]

And I got a whole £375 as a reward for that feat.

ffs

[m1234566778]

Well done on the great season roberto and don't spend all your money at once

I shall be starting soon, but at the minute I'm too busy messing about and looking at all the squads etc.

[roberto922]

Added a season progress table in the 2nd post, I'm crap at getting code tidy so that'll have to do

[roberto922]

Wigan Robin Park FC Update - Season 1 (2009/2010) - Starting Division: NW Counties Div. One (Level 10)

Good first season, we were predicted to finish 17th and after losing the first 3 games I felt like we were gonna be rooted to the bottom of the table come May, thankfully performances picked up and we finished 3rd, meaning we were promoted to the NW Counties Premier League

NW Counties Division One - 3rd place, Promoted.

I was in and around the top spots for the entirety of the season after the initial bad start, mostly 7th/8th before a surge of form in the last 7/8 games pushed us into 3rd. The promotion fight was ridiculously close, with 3 games to go Barnsoldwick were 2nd, they finished 8th.

Manager Profile.

Star Signing - Michael Hilton - He was an absolute rock in defense, without him we'd probably not be promoted

Manager history

Season 1 - NW Counties Div 1 - 3rd place - PROMOTED

[roberto922]

Wigan Robin Park FC Update - Season 1 (2009/2010) - Starting Division: NW Counties Div. One (Level 10)

How you do your updates is up to you but may I just ask that you include the above information in your title please

[Wakers]

Congrats Roberto 6.8 is quite a high rating for a goalkeeper!

[roberto922]

They've only gone and taken my weekly wage budget down as a reward for promotion

thanks wakers and maz for the congrats.

[Wakers]

I'm at Askern Villa in the Northern Counties East Football League Division 1 (Tier 10).

Played 3 games and am on 4pts, sitting in mid-table. Not bad, but not good.


Only thing worth mentioning is that I picked up a 2-2 draw against the GH Academy

Wait, there's an Askern team?? As in the Askern between Doncaster and Selby?

I live not 3 miles from there and I didn't even know they had a team!

EDIT

In a surprise move, my bro has gone and picked up a copy of FM10 from town. I begin the challenge now Will update shortly with my manager profile

[matt 2403]

cmon you WARLINGHAM COLTS

[matt 2403]

just thought id mention i just won 6-1 against GH academy
looks like warlingham are up and away

[Wakers]

Here we go

Decided to go for askern as they are indeed 3 miles from me

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...gerprofile.png

[Walcott\'s Wonderkids]

Season progress:

Username - club - Seasons completed - starting division - current division

roberto922 - Wigan RP - 1 - NW Counties Div. One - NW Counties Premier

robert - To help you out with the 2nd post. If you are running Windows on your pc, use the "notepad" application to align the columns then do a straight copy and paste.

 
Username     club      Seasons     Starting        Level   Current
                       Completed   Division                Division
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
roberto922   Wigan RP     1        NW Counties D1    10    NW Counties Premier

Will start myself on Tuesday probably, from Level 7 as my hometown club plays in Level 8
(cue endless reloads )

[Wakers]

Right, just started getting into it now. Lost the first friendly 1-0 to a vastly superior Brodsworth team before gaining "a historic" 2-0 victory over the GH Academy.

Loving this The quality of football is so bad but it's so clear to see when the team do what you tell them!

[IrishUnsigned.com]

Wow, the quality is bad. I watched one pass bounce off the feet of another player, as he was looking the other way, constant one-on-one misses, and really bad 2 footed challanges resulting in red cards. Verdict is tho...I LOVE IT! I am kind of crazy that way.

You should try coaching the Under 17s I coach in dublin. Most games are against teams like that, and the referees (let alone the players) are best described as 'aggricultural'. Horrible to play football against!

[roberto922]

thanks for the tip Walcott

[Wakers]

3/3 for me so far at the might Askern Villa.

This was the latest triumph over a woeful Yorkshire Amateur side

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...s/Untitled.png

[Polar Bear]

I'm waiting on being able to have stadium background pictures before starting this, as I have the Non-League pack from last year.

Just to clarify, we can now take any team in levels 7-10? The 'predicted to finish in the bottom 3' no longer applies?

[roberto922]

Correct .

[berty1978]

My journey starts here, the new manager of Gorleston.
I decided to go against my first choice Great Yarmouth and go with rivals Gorleston, purely because having been a couple of times they've got a lovely enclosed ground which wouldn't look too out of place in the BSP with a capacity of 5,000. I guess that gives me an advantage but hey, along with Yarmouth they are my most local club. Predicted to finish 14th out of 19 but I guess the sides are pretty equal at this level.

[GreyedOutMan]

I wanted to do this anyway and now that I've seen this, I dont mind doing updates. Have already started a game with Southwick (I'm using a false name because this isnt my "main" game for FM10 - I want to play a big ole' Arsenal game), and my profile is here.

Has anyone found a decent skin for FM10? Or backgrounds? Logo packs even? Im in the Sussex County Leagues (Div 2 for now), so thats what I'm looking for but hopefully we might find a mega multi pack to give backgrounds, logos, kits etc for all ten levels?? :P

I'm sure I wont manage this, incidentally. Will probably struggle to get out of the SCL2, but its fun to try.

[Wakers]

I've had a brilliant start so far. Simple tactics and instructions and my team seems to be playing well. 3 wins out of 3

Back room staff are useless though. No one can agree with each other and my scout reports are confusing at best!

Why does photobucket make my pictures small? Even when its resized them can hardly read the text, but for other people they seem to be a decent size? Might switch to using tinypic.

[GreyedOutMan]

Ive got a friendly against the GH Academy. But it seems they all have contracts there. I thought the idea was that we could freely approach any of those players? Am I wrong?

[GreyedOutMan]

Anyone noticed how you now get the full names in the team ratings box in TV View, rather than names like Fabregas, F or Henry, T? Small thing but its a nice touch, I really like it.

[GreyedOutMan]

(I won by the way, with Southwick - and the press were astounded. Should I be excited at beating them?)

[Unknown Hacker]

Hi, can I enter this challenge, I was already attempting it, but didn't see this topic.

I have taken St. Blazey up to Level 8. From the Peninsula premier, and I will be updating this topic from now on with my progress.

[NepentheZ]

I will DEFINITELY be starting this soon. Love it.

[roberto922]

Yeah, go for it

(at Unknown Hacker)

Nep - good to see you on board, gonna get another striking prodigy?

[GreyedOutMan]

Neppo - You doing a YP thread this year?

[NepentheZ]

Rob : Gonna try mate. I'm loading it up now

GOM : Yeah, I'll put it up later.

[GreyedOutMan]

No hurry, I wont be doing it just yet. But its good fun.

[Azeryk-]

Are there not concerns that in 10-15 seasons time that the game would be running slow due to the amount of leagues running?

[GreyedOutMan]

Perhaps - but gotta be worth a try right? The benchmarking on the game seems to think my pc can handle it alright - and that's just my laptop...

[Azeryk-]

A lot of people in the career game thread last season had speed issues after a number of seasons, it would be a shame to start this if it had performance issues before it could be completed. Although I'd be able to play as Truro

[GreyedOutMan]

Ive noticed what i think might be a small bug in the game. I just got asked to hold a back room staff meeting "as they have some information they wish to share with you" - but when I did, there was no advice available. Any idea why this might be?

[Wakers]

I just encountered the 19th of September. Took about 5 minutes for the game to process all of the FA Vase games and I have it on fastest processing!

[Unknown Hacker]

I just encountered the 19th of September. Took about 5 minutes for the game to process all of the FA Vase games and I have it on fastest processing!

I am in the 3rd season of this, and it doesn't get any better...

Anyhow, how about this for a start to a season when we were tipped for mid-table obscurity? Paul Gordon, my Danny Roberts challenge hopeful, is only a month away from his move to Celtic... Justin Roberts is more than filling his shoes at the moment...

[Wakers]

3 seasons already? Christ on a stick

Nice work though, looks like you're taking the league by storm!

[roberto922]

I can't see myself having too many issues in later years, I'm on 4.5* on medium DB, but yes, if you get less than 3* at game start up I'd recommend lowering the database size as you will likely encounter problems a few years in

[Wakers]

4* for my system on large db. Hopefully it doesn't get much worse than that - every other match day seems to go by quickly enough though.