A "Disable First Transfer Window" disaster - A cautionary tale

[AlexJames]

Just wanted to share a recent experience during my first ever FM2022 save, mostly as a PSA. I acknowledge this is likely mostly my own fault, but also feel the function could use a little clarity.

I thought I'd take advantage of the recent free availability of FM2022 on Steam to try out my first FM since FM2019 (which I'm still playing). When I play FM I like to go all in, attempting to make the experience as "realistic" as possible (or as realistic as a random nobody like me taking over as manager of a football club could be).

So I started a new career, loading about 10 playable leagues in full. My intention was to get the game to a point as recent as possible, with all current squads and managers in place. From there I would look to take over any jobs that were immediately/ would soon become available.  I selected the start game date based on the latest available date (the 2022 Canadian League, 4th April 2022), selected "Disable First Window Transfer Activity" (in order for all squads to be as current as possible) and loaded it up. My plan seemed to work perfectly; all leagues had been simulated up to April 2022, squads and managers were up-to-date and no additional summer or winter transfers had taken place.

I applied for a vacancy at an already relegated team in the Welsh Premier league, and as there were only 3 games left in the season, requested to start the following season. The board agreed and I signed on the dotted line. So far, so good. Bring on the 2022 season!

After a month of post-season, it was time for me to take the reigns. The club was in a bit of a mess - barely any staff and lots of unhappy players wanting to leave. Perfect for a re-build, I thought.

Over the next game month or so I went to work - advertising for and appointing staff (assistant, coaches, scouts, physios), reviewing the current playing squad, offering new contracts where possible and setting up potential tactics.

Most of the better players in the squad weren't interesting in renewing their contracts, so I had no choice but to let them go. Unfortunate, but I was looking forward to identifying replacements and rebuilding the squad to meet my desired tactic.

Needless to say I spent a lot of time in the Scouting screen, searching and filtering for suitable players , reviewing stats and getting as many scout reports as my Scouts could handle.

Finally, after 3 game months and 20+ hours of game time, the transfer window opened. 

I decided that the first player I would offer a contract would be an experienced CB with an A- from the scouting team, who I was planning on appointing my captain.

I excitedly went to the player profile screen and selected "Approach to Sign".

Only to receive...

"You are unable to make transfers during this window"

Confused, I progressed the game a little. Maybe the window doesn't open till after 9am!?

Again, I went to the player profile screen and selected "Approach to Sign"...

"You are unable to make transfers during this window"

So I guess I learned the hard way that the "Disable First Transfer Window" checkbox disables the first transfer window, regardless of game start date. I mistakenly believed that the summer/ winter 2021 windows of the leagues that had already been simulated would count.

So now I am stuck with a bunch of reserves and youngsters until the winter 2022 window!

Anyone know if it's possible to re-enable the Transfer Window, if disabled from the start? Or can this only be done from the start?

[TokyoWanderer]

I also learned the hard way that you should NEVER disable the first transfer window a few years ago. You will have to start again unfortunately.

Adding to this, NEVER add coaching staff to playable teams. You will bankrupt all lower league teams because they will run gigantic staffs with huge wages.

Edited April 11, 2022 by TokyoWanderer

[FrazT]

Most FM players will have at some time, checked or unchecked an important box in their save that had consequences later on, so you are nor alone.

[TheVerySpecialOne]

9 hours ago, TokyoWanderer said:

I also learned the hard way that you should NEVER disable the first transfer window a few years ago. You will have to start again unfortunately.

Adding to this, NEVER add coaching staff to playable teams. You will bankrupt all lower league teams because they will run gigantic staffs with huge wages.

Why not? I mean, why never?

[rusty217]

11 hours ago, TokyoWanderer said:

I also learned the hard way that you should NEVER disable the first transfer window a few years ago. You will have to start again unfortunately.

I disagree. I've had it disabled in literally every FM save I've ever played. I always start in July/August, but I've never had any problems with it.

[H_a_a_k_o_n]

Learned the hard way myself. Welcome to the club 

[TokyoWanderer]

hace 10 horas, TheVerySpecialOne dijo:

Why not? I mean, why never?

It is not well implemented and usually has unintended consequences that you do not expect. What most people expect is that there will be no transfers in July/August. What ends up happening is that you need an emergency transfer in February and still can't bring in anyone, even on a free.

I guess it is okay to disable the first window if you only play in one of the top ten leagues, but a lot of leagues don't have well-defined windows and carry small squads, and that leads to massive problems. For example, the low tiers in England don't have a transfer window at all because these are small teams that have small squads and are constantly churning through players. If you disable the first transfer window, teams in these leagues will end up filled with grey players to cover for injuries or sales and everything becomes an unbalanced mess.

Another reason is that every year, when the game launches, there is at least one league that keeps the transfer window permantly closed due to bugs if you disable the first window. 

Edited April 12, 2022 by TokyoWanderer

[AlexJames]

I guess ultimately the functionality is behaving as it should, I was just viewing it in a vacuum - I assume it's been included as an option so users can start a game with squad data that aligns with real life as much as possible, so no additional transfers can take place at the start of the game - which is most instances would be summer 21. However I chose to start the game in 2022, and didn't consider this would technically be the "first transfer window" of the game. If I had started the game in July 2021 and holidayed up to April 2022, it wouldn't have been an issue (although player/ manager data wouldn't be real-world accurate, as the winter transfer window would've added additional moves).

Anyway, lesson learned for sure.

Unfortunately I was using this free Steam trial to see if I wanted to commit another year of my life to playing FM. Prior to this I was all set to purchase and continue this career. Now I know can't sign anyone till January - and not sure I want to start from scratch again - I'm not so sure!

[Nacaw]

When you simulate through a window (or two), the AI will automatically not make any transfers. That could be more clear I guess, but I don't think many people use the feature of using different start dates than the league you plan to manage in. 

[AlexJames]

My intention was to start a Journeyman save, I didn't know which league I'd end up managing in - I just wanted the game start date to be as close to the real world date as possible. 

What I would love is when the game is released (Nov) and on subsequent data updates (Feb, Mar?), for SI to provide players the option to start a new game on that date - with all league positions reflecting what they are at that time in real life. 

Starting a brand-new career in July 2021 with all the winter 2021 transfers and managerial updates included seems strange to me.

We all have out little FM idiosyncrasies, this is one of mine!

Edited April 13, 2022 by AlexJames

[Nacaw]

Mhm, but then you'd also need attributes to change based on the months between data lock for the original game and the data update. What you want is more or less for SI to release what amounts to a new game every 6 months. Updating all relevant data from the start of the season to Feb/March would be a huge undertaking, and wouldn't be done before it's outdated in any case. These type of games can never be 100% up to date, as much as we would all like that. November is kind of a weird release time, and I would prefer it to be closer to the end of the summer window, but my assumption is that they get it done as fast as they can. Equally, starting in Feb/Mar with updated tables would feel weird to most people, like starting half way through someone else's game. 

[AlexJames]

Well, ya, I mean I'm not saying SI should do that, I just think it'd be cool to have the option. 

And sure, it'd take more work, but I don't think it would be that massive an undertaking. Especially once the infrastructure is set up. Stats for everything are tracked nowadays - including I'm sure all the leagues and player data supported in FM.  Partner with a data tracking company (or create a team to collate the data internally), set up an integration, map the relevant fields, take a snapshot of the data as at time of release and boom - there you go. 

Edited April 14, 2022 by AlexJames

[marioNOW]

On 11/04/2022 at 21:29, TokyoWanderer said:

Adding to this, NEVER add coaching staff to playable teams. You will bankrupt all lower league teams because they will run gigantic staffs with huge wages.

Aww, here goes my long-term save setup I did yesterday as I clicked that option....though that there will be logical fill-ups considering the finances of the teams.

Thank you for higlighting this issue, I will now check if my semi-pro teams staff payroll, but I would not be surprised if that is the case.

[TokyoWanderer]

hace 3 horas, marioNOW dijo:

Aww, here goes my long-term save setup I did yesterday as I clicked that option....though that there will be logical fill-ups considering the finances of the teams.

Thank you for higlighting this issue, I will now check if my semi-pro teams staff payroll, but I would not be surprised if that is the case.

Check it out just in case they improved how this works in one of the updates. The problem I mentioned happened to me in FM22, but it was in the 22.1 or 22.2 version.

[Jonthedon26]

14 hours ago, Nacaw said:

Mhm, but then you'd also need attributes to change based on the months between data lock for the original game and the data update. What you want is more or less for SI to release what amounts to a new game every 6 months. Updating all relevant data from the start of the season to Feb/March would be a huge undertaking, and wouldn't be done before it's outdated in any case. These type of games can never be 100% up to date, as much as we would all like that. November is kind of a weird release time, and I would prefer it to be closer to the end of the summer window, but my assumption is that they get it done as fast as they can. Equally, starting in Feb/Mar with updated tables would feel weird to most people, like starting half way through someone else's game. 

I agree about the November release and I have always wondered why it is November as it feels like SI will always be playing catch up as 6 weeks post release the winter window opens. Does anyone know if there is a reason it is November? Is it because that's how long it takes to build in and include all the new features, do testing etc or is it just to update the transfers but besides that the game is good to go earlier? If the transfers part is a relatively quick fix and it releases in November as that's how long it takes to actually make the game and add all the new features etc, for me personally I would rather a year where they added very few features so they could get the release cycle as close to the start of the season as possible. I know FM is a different beast, but most sports games are out as soon as possible after the season starts, for example, the MLB has just started back up and I noticed that MLB The Show was released on console about a day after the season begun, and Out of The Park Baseball (the FM equivalent for baseball) is out next week so again only about 3 weeks after the season starts.