[FM14] Well I've Always Hated Editors Anyway: A Wistful European Journey

Guess who's back!?

Yes, it's me again, in what will now be the...fourth? Yeah, fourth sounds right. Fourth incarnation of an FM14 career thread. Basically, 14 has become the version that hates me the most, with crash dumps ending all four attempts. I've since gone through a bit of a funk, starting a whole lot of saves in different places, and not really finding any I was interested in. I even created a very large scale edited file that merged most of Britain's football teams into a Brazilian style structure with regional Championships running alongside the regular league titles (26 tiers...jesus...) but I couldn't bring myself to start seriously in that file, as I feared massive crash dumps.

But I have missed this forum, and I always feel attempts at FM saves just aren't the same when I'm not updating in tandem. So I'm making my return, off the bench, in the 88th minute, hoping to net the winner. Or something like that, I'm **** at metaphors.

The Rundown

So what am I planning for this save? Well, at a very high level, I want this to be long-term. I intend to do what I did in FM13 and run this save for several managers, each with different objectives, so I'm a bit free-er with what I want to do for this first one. I toyed with just restarting the Tetradecagon, but the thought of managing in Asia and Africa again filled me with dread. Seriously, I now have an irrational hatred of those two continents on FM, no idea why. I usually start with very few leagues loaded, as with such a good laptop, I can usually rocket through the years. But then I realised that I'm not using the laptop to its full potential, and did some tests on exactly how bad things could get. I started by loading every single league in. It grumbled about too many players, but eventually relented and loaded up.

It was...well it was truly terrible. Days were taking a long time to tick over, and there was just no chance of it being viable as a save. I'm impatient at the best of times, so think it would kill me. But then, with all things Europe in my mind, I threw in all of the leagues from the continent to see what would happen. Then I tweaked to move the largest rep nations (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France) to view only, to get it down to a manageable ~80,000 players. Then I was truly ready to go on my European Adventure.

Of course, there's the not so small matter of the issues around getting a job with Sunday League rep in 14.2.1. I was initially pretty annoyed at this, as it stopped me getting into another journeyman. However, on actually running with it, it actually seems a lot more realistic, with Sunday League managers only allowed to have the absolute lowest jobs going. I'm talking lower division in Northern Ireland or other low rep nations. It will mean I'll need to really fight to get to the top, which is what it's all about, right?

The Aims

I'll just put this here...

What does it meeeean, I hear you scream. Well, this represents a few things.

First, every circle on the map represents the capital city of a country that is loaded, with a few exceptions. There's 29 of them. I intend to visit each and every one of these, managing at least one club. It doesn't have to be from where I've circled, just has to be in the country. Secondly, there are some places starred on the map. These are my "would-love-to" list.

AC Milan/Internazionale

AS Roma/SS Lazio

Calcio Como

Unione Venezia

FC Bayern Munich

Hertha Berlin

These are clubs from places that I've visited and loved before, including on my Honeymoon last year. I did toy with the idea of an Italian only save, but I'm a journeyman at heart, so these will be left as clubs I'd like to visit at some point. I may not make it there, but hopefully I do. They're out of commission for at least the first few years while I knock off some clubs and nations. Once a few get kicked off, I'll load up Italy and Germany.

Other than that, I have no aims. I'd like to win the Champions League at every club I visit, but that's not really workable, as I won't spend long enough at most. For every top tier side though, I'd like to make an attempt. Five European Cups is my target, all at different clubs, and ten would be an absolute dream.

Oh yes, I forgot to tell you what that final icon on the map means. That's pointing to Rechytsa in Belarus, a town of just over 60,000 people. That's where our journey begins...

Can I borrow a snow shovel from someone?

reserved

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