Balanced Game-World Suggestions

I have been reading some threads and the idea of assisting the AI squad building by using a balanced game-world seems logical to me.

So I thought perhaps we could discuss that here.

I am thinking of playing in Belarus. I would imagine having Russia, Ukraine, and Poland selected are a must. What I am interested in is what other nations should I add to allow the AI to develop it's squads naturally? Also from what I have read, a smaller database will also assist the AI over time, though I have read that medium produces a more dynamic transfer market. Very interested to see what people have to say about this topic. Also, I would love some "official" word on the best way to set up a balanced game-world.

Cheers

I have been reading some threads and the idea of assisting the AI squad building by using a balanced game-world seems logical to me.

So I thought perhaps we could discuss that here.

I am thinking of playing in Belarus. I would imagine having Russia, Ukraine, and Poland selected are a must. What I am interested in is what other nations should I add to allow the AI to develop it's squads naturally? Also from what I have read, a smaller database will also assist the AI over time, though I have read that medium produces a more dynamic transfer market. Very interested to see what people have to say about this topic. Also, I would love some "official" word on the best way to set up a balanced game-world.

Cheers

A few other eastern European ones such as Romania, Hungary, and Serbia would be a start. I'd probably throw in Germany too.

I depends on your intentions for any other. Are you looking to stay in Belarus long term, or will this be a journeyman save? If it's the former, those leagues should do with a medium database (I usually avoid a small database if I'm managing in a smaller country with a poor quality of team, otherwise it's a nightmare at the start of the game to find any players/staff who are willing to join). If it's going to be a big journeyman save and your PC can handle it, throw in all the big leagues, the big two from S. America, and any others you want and choose a large database. Cougar will disagree with this of course, as he's hung up on always choosing a small database, but it really does depend on not only how many leagues, but what your starting league is too.

In honesty, most of the settings will have the gameworld pretty balanced. Where users have fell foul in the past is when they begin adding in all players from a certain region without adding any more playable leagues. That creates a huge imbalance.

Oh, and there's another thing. Always make the leagues fully playable if you can, and again if your PC can handle it, make them as full detail as possible. That also creates a more dynamic transfer market.

I've always thought SI should introduce a feature that when you've picked your number of leagues and options, it should then tailor the database size more intelligently than it does now, whilst also giving the option to set it up manually.

With those leagues adding in players at top division clubs in Brazil & Argentina or all South America would be worthwhile.

As Dave correctly mentions the ideal scenario is to add leagues as playable & to run them in full detail but for those who do not have the hardware to do to that then sparingly using the add players function is a good compromise solution.

On the subject of database size it only matters in a sense of moving on unwanted players as a larger database gives the AI clubs more options.

Personally I always use a large db & then add in players as required, this year my career game will have all players added in as the SI data team have finally culled a lot of deadwood form the player database.

I tend to stay in the same country or region for my saves. I feel having one large country and then smaller ones around it makes sense. I do not do journeyman careers.

What I am looking for is a game-world that supports the countries in it by letting them get players that naturally shift toward those regions. For Belarus that seems to be Belarus and Ukraine. There are a few Serbians and Russians and then not much else. Therefore, if my focus is solely Belarus, those 4 nations would be enough really. Serbia has a lot of Croatians, so I may add them as well. Ukraine has a lot of Romanians, so in they go. Russia is the interesting one because they have a lot of Brazilian and Argentinians. I really don't know if I should add them as nations or not.

So at the moment, I think Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Russia and Romania gives a good balance for a Belarus/Serbian focused save.

I am not convinced at all by the huge database suggestion as too often I have seen the AI have bloated squads. I may split the difference and pick Medium over Small though.

With those leagues adding in players at top division clubs in Brazil & Argentina or all South America would be worthwhile.

Does the game generate regens from unselected nations that historically play in the selected nations? If it doesn't than I guess I should add Brazil and Argentina. Interesting what you said about the large database. I honestly thought large databases meant too many players and therefore less dynamic transfer activity or poorer transfer decisions. I also thought it was adding those extra players that could cause the imbalances. Isn't it when regens are generated that the large database becomes saturated with large numbers of similarly skilled players? A smaller database means there are less high quality players or wonderkids?

if the league is loaded, then it generates 10+ regens per club per year (the usual youth intake)

if not, it's 2 per club (unless it's the USA, but there's a draft thing on there which I say skews it)

given what the OP is loading, Brazilians and Argentines tend to move to those leagues quite a lot IRL (A lot of them ply their trade in Ukraine, and a few head to Russia [or did]) which is probably the reason for Barside's recommendation

and those leagues will be set to transfer players from Brazil/Argentina in the editor (or were on FM15, obviously haven't looked at FM16's data)

Just to add Dave - I set up a small database save with the 8 leagues discussed. I had plenty of applications for my job ads within two weeks.