Creating an FM Editor Guide.

Some people may have read my recent comment in the heartfelt plea thread on here, regarding the creation of some kind of documentation for the editor. This thread is an expansion on this idea, giving my view on what we should do and providing a vision whereby we can achieve it. I will try to expand on this in this and subsequent posts. (please do not try to sign up to the wiki yet, we will first discuss the ideas).

The Guide

As I said, I intend to start working on a guide. You can find the initial efforts here. This is a wikidot site (a free wiki hosting service) where we could try to host and create a full guide to the pre-game editor. As we all know, this is no simple task. I think that we have all wanted this but the idea of starting one and finishing it puts us off, we have lives outside of FM after all, and this will require an investment of time we would usually spend doing something else. But I think if enough people are willing to contribute, we can create something meaningful and useful for a whole lot of people.

Let me set out the vision I have for this website. I see the following categories for different things we would need to include to fully document the editor.

1. A description of what each editable parameter within the database is, and what values it can take.
   
2. A description of the different parameters you can set in standard national/continental/international rules.
   
3. Short guides on how to do certain simple things in the editor.
   
4. Longer guides on how to do slighly more complex things in the editor
   
5. Advanced rules
   
6. Possibly, a section mirroring the bug thread we plan for this site.
   
7. 
   

Let me discuss each in turn.

1. Editable parameters in the database

This one is reasonably self-explanatory. We would go through each section of the database (agreements, awards, clubs etc.) and then through each subsection of those, defining what each parameter you can set means, and what values it can take (where applicable). This is a pretty mammoth task in itself, although much of this is already in the editor and can be copied verbatim, from the help panels. Why is this important? It will give people a reference to go look at when they are not sure what a value means or what they should set it to. This could but down small issues you sometimes have where a value somewhere is not correct but you are unsure where. Although this may be dull to do, it is one of the most vital.

2. Editable parameters in Standard Rules.

This is again self explanatory. We explain what everything you can change when you are setting up a set of standard rules means (be it national, continental or international). This is almost exactly in line with above, and for the same reasons. If you are unsure what exactly something means you can simply look it up, and select the correct value. Another mammoth task, but as above it is vital.

3. Short guides

What do I mean by short guides? Things such as how to create a new club, how to create a new player, how to make a competition inactive, how to add a new league or a new cup to current national rules. The very basic things most of us know how to do, but at some point in the past had to learn. This is a pretty much open book in terms of what we put in, because there are so many things you can do in the editor. It is probably not feasible to document everything, but the most common things people look to do should certainly be covered.

4. Longer guides

Like above, but for the more complicated things, and thus in more detail and longer. This would be things such as creating an entirely new nation, but perhaps also simple things you can do using advanced rules that people are interested in (change squad rules, remove financial fair play, change reserve leagues etc.). In line with above, it is very open ended. Both the above things though will give us a standard location for all 'How to..' guides, which I think a vast number of editor users would find useful (I know I would sometimes).

5. Advanced Rules

This is another kettle of fish entirely. Unlike the standard rules, I doubt any of us understand everything in the advanced rules. So we would have to really experiment to know what everything means. The one thing we would be able to do about this is list all the important things that people are going to use frequently, like adding different stages, selecting the correct teams to enter correct stages, setting fates, etc. I would initially propose that this is a secondary objective, and the first 2 points at least should be tackled before we think about stepping into here.

6. Bugs

This is one I am unsure of, and so will defer to what MetalGuitarist and SI think. We already plan a thread detailing the current bugs and any work-arounds we have for them. It could also be nice to mirror the information on the wiki, so that everything is in one place. But it is also possible that SI are not comfortable with this, as they would not have control over it being kept up-to-date. So as I said, if mods and SI think this is a good and acceptable idea, we will do it.

This is my vision. Of course I do not think I can achieve this on my own, and this is where the rest of you guys come in. We can use this thread as an initial idea station and discussion place for ideas and decide how we proceed. Ideas and contributions are welcome from all. The wikidot website I am using is going to require a little bit of computer literacy and/or learning of their mark-up language which seems to be reasonably straightforward and well documented in the template I have used. Nor is using this site a pre-requisite, I will admit I have created it in the first instance not just for this project but to get everyone's juices flowing at the possibilities when they click on the link at the top of the post.

Sorry for the uber-post. Easily my longest anywhere on any forum in my 28 years of life!

As an example of the kind of thing I was thinking of (and I will admit it is not the most impressive because it is only detailing the 'Agreements' tab, which is the simplest thing you have in the database) check out this link. Let me know if it does not work, I will make sure that permissions are set correctly (I am a noob at this site).

It is not so difficult to set something like this. So long as we are not looking to overcomplicate the page then I do not see why we could not make pages like this for everything.

good on you mate, hope it takes off you will see that I have asked/tried for this for last 3 years, there just isn't enough interest and SI are just laughing at us mate

I am giving it until the end of week before I go back to FM14 as cant do anything with this editor

I will help out but only when the bugs are sorted out

As a more reasonable example, here is what the awards page would look like (unfinished though since I have to get some shut-eye.

good on you mate, hope it takes off you will see that I have asked/tried for this for last 3 years, there just isn't enough interest and SI are just laughing at us mate

I am giving it until the end of week before I go back to FM14 as cant do anything with this editor

I will help out but only when the bugs are sorted out

I have seen that many people have asked, and since we do not seem to be getting one, we can make one. Much of the initial plan for this will involve detailing the various different parameters you can edit in the database itself, which should remain pretty consistent through versions. It is a dirty job but someone has to do it. I have a made a start anyway. Hoping to inspire some people =D.

more than any bugs i would really love to know what is hard coded and can't be changed. i have feeling i am editing something that can't possibly be done. it is utter waste of time and in the end i can't even be sure if it is editor bug, me not doing something right or am i trying to do impossible and edit some hardcoded stuff. one word though - FRUSTRATION

This would be one of the really nice things about having things written down somewhere. If you are unsure that something is possible to do you can check the guide and you can then know if the parameter you want exists and what values it can take, or you will know it is not editable.

An excellent idea! I would really like to have some sort of guide regarding the advanced editor.

i can master 60% of Advance rules

This would be one of the really nice things about having things written down somewhere. If you are unsure that something is possible to do you can check the guide and you can then know if the parameter you want exists and what values it can take, or you will know it is not editable.

Yeah I am with this one about the hardcoded issue. It will save lots of time.

For short guides, maybe I suggest using screenshots for explanation? For example

1. We can explain how to create a club and then we can provide some screenshots on what you will see when you finished creating a club.

or

2. We can explain a bit about how to create a club and than provide a screenshot where items that we have explained are being highlighted or whatever so that people can understand or visually what we have written.

Well since it is a short guide, having screenshots will be ideal in my opinion since people can understand better and we can make it short, simple and straight to the point.

Sorry for posting again but just thought of something very important which I think should be included as well.

This should be include at the beginning of the guide under the headline of something like Important things to note. Things to note are as follows:

1. When using the editor, you may experience slow or poor performance if you are using low end system. It would be best to use the editor on an high end machine with 2GB or more.

2. Your files can be found via - after people subscribe to your file at steam workshop - Users/(Your user name)/AppData/local/Sports Interactive/FM2015/caches/ugc/(your file) .... and your files will be in folders with numbers like 347091582. You will need to click the folder in order to find out what file is in that particular folder.

Point 2 is especially important, well to me as I am searching for the files I subscribed to as they don't appear in my game. And I only got to know it when someone in this forum pointed it out though I can't remember who the guy is but I took note of it and finally find the files that I subscribed to. The purpose of this headline is to include very essential information that people really need to know before using the editor. Not sure what to include but I think these 2 are the most important NEED TO KNOW before using the editor.

I really wish there was an editor's guide. I have FM14, and I don't even know how you access the editor. Is there an editor that comes with the game?

I really wish there was an editor's guide. I have FM14, and I don't even know how you access the editor. Is there an editor that comes with the game?

read the FAQ here

read the FAQ here

Thank you for your reply. The FAQ says: "If installed using steam the editor can be found: C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\Common\Football Manager 20xx\Tools\"

I bought the game via Steam, but I don't have a folder called "Tools." Maybe the FAQ does not apply to FM 2014. At the bottom it says: "Last edited by Michael F; 09-08-2012 at 17:41." So maybe something changed from 2012 until FM 2014 came out.

editor is here for fm14: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Football manager 2014 editor

to download it go open steam then to LIBRARY tools in drop down menu and install

to download it go open steam then to LIBRARY tools in drop down menu and install

This worked. Now I need to do some serious lurking here to learn how to use the editor.

Thanks very much to you and everyone else who replied. I really appreciate the help. I've been playing this game since it was Championship Manager 01/02, and I will never understand why so many things about it are so complicated.

This worked. Now I need to do some serious lurking here to learn how to use the editor.

Thanks very much to you and everyone else who replied. I really appreciate the help. I've been playing this game since it was Championship Manager 01/02, and I will never understand why so many things about it are so complicated.

no probs you and me both:D

best thing if you want to see how to do things is download some files and spend some time having a go

if stuck just ask:thup: