dafuge's FM11 challenge

[dafuge]

The Aim

To take a small club who were previously unplayable in the game from the Blue Square N/S to Premier League and Champions League glory.

The Rules

Just like last year, to make sure that the eligible teams have the correct squads, we will be using a .ddt file to retain the players for those teams: Download Link, Download Link 2 Download Link 3. If for any reason this doesn't work, let me know, I'll fix it.

Here's where it needs to go:

W7: C:\Program Files (x86)\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2011\data\updates\update-1110\db\1110\edt
Steam: C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/football manager 202011/data/updates/update-1110/db/1110/edt/

To make sure it is working, when you set up your game, go to preferences - extra files. You should see it listed and ticked in there like this.

Load a game with the English leagues only, with the Blue Square N/S selected, a large database (or smaller if preferred), the attribute masking, real players and transfer boxes ticked and the add key staff box unticked. It should look like this.

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 an unemployed manager, the details are not important at all. I like to call mine 'Holiday Man'.

Go on holiday until 25th June, this shouldn't take too long, perhaps about an hour. Saving on 24th June may give you a better choice of teams by reloading the game then going on holiday for one day, I would strongly recommend trying this.

Retire your 'Holiday Man' manager, shed a tear, do what you need to do then move on.

Add 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.

When adding a new manager, choose one of the new clubs promoted to the Blue Square North or South to manage. They should appear in this list which also shows the reputation of the possible clubs. The reputation should act as a difficulty level, the lower the reputation, the harder your game should be.

Ryman League Premier Division
 
AFC Hornchurch    1050
Aveley            850
Billericay        1150
Bury Town         1100
Canvey Island     1000
Carshalton        1050
Concord Rangers   850
Cray              800
Croydon Athletic  700
Folkestone        750
Harrow            1000
Hastings Utd      1100
Hendon            1000
Horsham           900
Kingstonian       1250
Lowestoft         1200
Maidstone         750
Margate           850
Sutton Utd        1400
Tonbridge         1150
Tooting & Mitcham 1100
Wealdstone        1200

Zamaretto League Premier Division
 
Banbury           900
Bashley           650
Bedford           1050
Brackley          700
Cambridge City    1150
Chesham           900
Chippenham        950
Cirencester       700
Didcot            550
Evesham           600
Halesowen         650
Hednesford        1200
Hemel Hempstead   650
Leamington        700
Oxford City       1000
Salisbury         1800
Stourbridge       600
Swindon S         750
Tiverton          1100
Truro             1000
Weymouth          1100
Windsor & Eton    750

Evo-Stik League Premier Division
 
Ashton Utd        1000
Bradford PA       1150
Burscough         800
Buxton            850
Chasetown         800
Colwyn Bay        900
FC Halifax        1200
FC United         1050
Frickley          800
Hucknall          850
Kendal Town       950
Marine            1050
Matlock           1000
Mickleover        600
Nantwich          950
North Ferriby     1000
Northwitch        1400
Ossett Town       700
Retford           750
Stocksbridge      750
Whitby            900
Worksop           1050

It is now up to you to manage this club all the way to the Premier League title and UEFA Champions League crown.

You may not move clubs unless you are sacked.

If you get sacked, you can either take over a newly promoted club that satisfies the original criteria (check the club's league history), 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. If an agent offer you a player, you can sign him without scouting him.

No external utilities such as scouting programs should be used and the database should be unedited, this is particularly important with the new changes to the editor. 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 11.1 before starting so I would expect to see everyone using it from day one.

Use of save game editors is strictly banned, whatever the reason.


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.

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.

Sadly we no longer have the website to track our progress, so there will not be any tables posted as there have been in the past. Completions of the challenge will hopefully be recorded in the hall of fame thread.

How to Post a Screenshot

• While in FM, press Alt and F9
• A picture will be saved to a screenshots folder, in the FM11 folder in your documents
• 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 'Settings' then 'General Settings' (on the left). 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.

Enjoy

[Cerneo]

Heeeeeeeeeeere we gooooooooo

[SuperRedditch]

No issues with the link for me. Teams have a full contingent of players. Are you going to be taking part this year, Dafuge? I know you gave it a rather immense go in 2010. Just wondering if you have the motivation to do it all again.

[dafuge]

Are you going to be taking part this year, Dafuge? I know you gave it a rather immense go in 2010. Just wondering if you have the motivation to do it all again.

I think my FM2010 game has killed off a bit of my enthusiam since I did just about everything I could possibly hope for. I won't be starting the challenge on release day this year, although I may come back to it later on in the year.

[SuperRedditch]

Cheers Dafuge. You're a star.

[CSF]

Excited to start.

[darren1983]

Daf - cant download the .ddt file, click on the the link and it takesme to filefront but when I click on download now comes up (in a new window) with a list just saying "retain player" then the number?

[dafuge]

Daf - cant download the .ddt file, click on the the link and it takesme to filefront but when I click on download now comes up (in a new window) with a list just saying "retain player" then the number?

I've put a second download link up.

If people could let me know if the other one isn't working I'd appreciate it. I've rushed getting this thread ready so there may well be the odd mistake.

[darren1983]

I've put a second download link up.

If people could let me know if the other one isn't working I'd appreciate it. I've rushed getting this thread ready so there may well be the odd mistake.

Thanks mate-link 2 worked for me

Thamks for your hard work as well

[hassebasse80]

Holidaying as we speak

[Cerneo]

Holidaying as we speak

Yep...seems a bit faster from 10.

[hassebasse80]

yes, got a 5 star rating at the predicted game speed, seems nice

To bad Merthyr Tydfil went bust...

Anyone know where the screen shots end up when you have installed the game with steam? Can't find them

[Cerneo]

Just want to say lets all try and hold off from uploading any 24th saves for at least a week or two so we don't have a bunch of clone games running.

Wonder if any of the legends will still be great this season?

[Quavis]

On holiday! (both ingame and IRL!) The first .EDT link worked fine for me. Glad to see Chippenham is still <1000 I'll be playing with them unless something lower comes up first!

I asked in the other thread, but just for clarification, it is ok to have deleted a certain file so as to fix a certain national team correct? This is not done through the editor and should only be a cosmetic change which will not affect any of our games.

It should be interesting to see who is willing to come first season with the new negotiations and agents. Looking forward to hopefully not dealing with agents for a few years after starting my Man United save yesterday lol.

[MikaelS]

in case people are wondering which team I will choose, look here

1
2
3

I'm pretty proud of that shirt

[SuperRedditch]

Did you install via Steam?

[crouchaldinho]

in case people are wondering which team I will choose, look here

1
2
3

I'm pretty proud of that shirt

Absolutely love it!

How did you get hold of that shirt? Did you get someone at the club to send it out to you or was this from a visit?

[MikaelS]

Absolutely love it!

How did you get hold of that shirt? Did you get someone at the club to send it out to you or was this from a visit?

After I tried emailing everyone at Chippenham without getting any response back and trying to get access to an unofficial Chippenham forum without any luck, I suddenly received an email stating they had just created a shop with replica t-shirts (I'm on a Chippenham FC mailing list), so I went online and bought one

The shop is here.

Note that I am living in Denmark

[dafuge]

in case people are wondering which team I will choose, look here

1
2
3

I'm pretty proud of that shirt

That is truly awesome

[MikaelS]

That is truly awesome

It's actually an ode to you (and this challenge). I've played Chippenham for the last 2-3 years, so I wouldn't have bought it otherwise

[MikaelS]

wooohoooooooooooooooooooooo. I think I'm secretly in love with this challenge..

[Terras-FM]

Really want Weymouth to come up, will the game take into account that they start on -10?

[Cerneo]

I hope something was changed so the lower rep sides have a bit more of a chance to pop up.

[SuperRedditch]

I managed Chippenham a couple of years back. Got the sack after a takeover in the second year, after getting promotion to the BSP. Chippenham is a dirty word in my household

[MikaelS]

I managed Chippenham a couple of years back. Got the sack after a takeover in the second year, after getting promotion to the BSP. Chippenham is a dirty word in my household

I've completed the challenge on both Fm09 and Fm10 so it's the only team I want. Last year I spent 4 days reloading before they popped up.

[Wavelberry]

Eeep here we go then...

[darren1983]

Well I'm clearly doing something wrong as the file is not there on my laptop! Have saved it to C:\Program Files\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2011\data\updates\update-1110\db\1110\edt but its not there?
When I try and download it again its there but with a little lock on it? Anyone able to point out what I've done wrong and tell me how to fix it?

[MikaelS]

Well I'm clearly doing something wrong as the file is not there on my laptop! Have saved it to C:\Program Files\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2011\data\updates\update-1110\db\1110\edt but its not there?
When I try and download it again its there but with a little lock on it? Anyone able to point out what I've done wrong and tell me how to fix it?

If you installed it via Steam, put it here:

C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/football manager 202011/data/updates/update-1110/db/1110/edt/

[SuperRedditch]

Quavis. Just had the same. I had a rolling autosave and managed to get back to 2nd May.