Anyone else struggling to get into a save this year?

[Academar]

I’ve never had this problem before. I remember starting out on Championship Manager 93/94 and have every version since. I clocked up so many hours on FM22 and loved it.  This game has cost me relationships, months or even years of my life and a whole heap of money.

 

So why is it, that this year I cannot get past a season with any team? I’ve tried non-league, I’ve tried giants, I’ve tried fallen giants…I just can’t find a save. 
 

is it me? Have I come to the end of an obsession or is it something to do with this version? 
 

I’m very interested to know if anyone is struggling to settle this year too. 

[jlboybeamer]

Same here , for me it’s mainly to do with the longetivity of the saves , the youth system/development is messed up to the point by 2030 most teams are dominated by aging stars in their mid 30’s which I find unrealistic and most national teams are old asf and has put me off the game for good this year. I just don’t see the point of short term saves tbh and won’t be playing until this gets fixed properly which I personally believe they won’t or can’t its been the same issues since FM 2022 

[phnompenhandy]

No, I have the diametric opposite problem!  I have an ever growing list of ideas for saves i badly want to do.  People are coming up with ever more challenging ideas for hard saves on YouTube and in the Careers forum here.

[TheAwesomeGem]

3 hours ago, jlboybeamer said:

Same here , for me it’s mainly to do with the longetivity of the saves , the youth system/development is messed up to the point by 2030 most teams are dominated by aging stars in their mid 30’s which I find unrealistic and most national teams are old asf and has put me off the game for good this year. I just don’t see the point of short term saves tbh and won’t be playing until this gets fixed properly which I personally believe they won’t or can’t its been the same issues since FM 2022 

Yeah I have never seen long-term saves so broken in any previous FM iteration. Saves are easy and unusable after 2026/2027. I tend to stick with 1 team for 10 years but I cannot do that anymore. I just play 3 season max and create a new save. It's demotivating. 

[Cobblers]

Also having this problem. This year the furthest I've got it 2025.

This isn't the first time it's happened to me. Normally i will cheese the game or do something obscure with it to get value.

I normally average 2k hours, I feel this one will be much lower. Potentially this could be burn out and I need to step away from the game for a season or so. 

The lack of new usable features had been part responsible. 

The ME changes has also meant any previous work done to get a solid formation/tactic going is now useless and I'm not motivated to invest that time again. 

I could just be getting old lol.

[SC00P0NE]

9 hours ago, jlboybeamer said:

Same here , for me it’s mainly to do with the longetivity of the saves , the youth system/development is messed up to the point by 2030 most teams are dominated by aging stars in their mid 30’s which I find unrealistic and most national teams are old asf and has put me off the game for good this year. I just don’t see the point of short term saves tbh and won’t be playing until this gets fixed properly which I personally believe they won’t or can’t its been the same issues since FM 2022 

try this mod :

The creator says it helps with the age issue..

[TheAwesomeGem]

48 minutes ago, SC00P0NE said:

try this mod :

The creator says it helps with the age issue..

It sadly doesn't. Went in holiday with 8 nations and 12 leagues in playable. Seems to be a core issue in FM 2023. 

Edited December 12, 2022 by TheAwesomeGem

[Daveincid]

vor 13 Minuten schrieb TheAwesomeGem:

It sadly doesn't. Went in holiday with 8 nations and 12 leagues in playable. Seems to be a core issue in FM 2023. 

If you would take the time reading the post, you would know that this setup is simply too small to solve the issue in the top 5 Nations:
2. To reduce the age-issue in clubs and national teams in England, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, recommend to load at least 2 leagues as playable in each of those Nations.

[Ferocious289]

You're not the only one. I think the fun has been sucked out of the game this year, barely much new features to make the game feel fresh from fm22, but instead more data and more meetings make the game more draining, plus the M.E not being much of an upgrade in terms of graphics and after a while things become quite predicatable as your can easily anticipate what's going to happen in a highlight. I use to sink hours into the game, but this year feels unrewarding and barely play more than a hour before turning it off through boredom.

Personally think this is one of the least inspiring releases in the franchise

[du Garbandier]

For me, I just won promotion in my first season with a squad that is nowhere near capable of competing for survival in the coming season. After June 30, as the season turns, my wage budget is in the minus, and transfer budget of course is zero. Really hard to muster the enthusiasm to go through the inevitable pain.

[Academar]

So many great replies in this thread. I’m relieved that it isn’t just me feeling this way and this latest release.  My feeling is - coming up to 30 years of playing this game - that this latest version has significant issues preventing a long-term save from becoming a viable option. I’d say, with a very heavy heart, that I’m going to go back to FM22. This has been a very disappointing release.

[BoomBoomBigalow]

I feel with you..The aging-issue completely destroy every motivation to play this version. But that is not the only thing. I think the game is getting bigger & bigger, just too full for me, I don`t have so much time...

So I went back to FM Touch 21, which fits better to my playstyle.

That's my opinion. But I fully understand people want to play 2,3 Seasons with full-fat FM23.

There are many different playstyles.

[Micks112]

Completely in the same boat.

I had a decent Malaga save going for 4 seasons, and started seeing similar issues to everyone else. The technical stats of players were not developing, and the development issues reported by others.

It's a game breaking bug, as SI proudly shares many tweets about long save games, it's a bit ironic that we are 1 month into the game cycle, and they still haven't fixed and or acknowledged the issue fully.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Micks112

[Neil Brock]

Best save I've had in years here. Being off with Covid for a couple of weeks meant I had real time to hammer a Genclerbirligi save and absolutely loving it so far six seasons in. 

Sneaked a promotion first year with a team that had absolutely no right to do so, then just stayed up second season. Have pushed on since then with a couple of heartbreaking finishes (losing in the UECL qualifiers one year then missing a European qualification slot on the last day of the season when 2-1 up with 10 left, lost 3-2 when a draw would have been enough to finish above the team that leapfrogged me - then dropped out entirely despite finishing 5th because of a shock in the Turkish Cup final). This season battling for the title all with a squad where no player is on more than £10k a week. 

Also developing some cracking youngsters who have become first teamers. A great deep lying playmaker DM and an AMC. 

In relation to technical stats not developing, not seeing that in my save as the AMC suggests:

As always if you do think there's an issue with an area of the game, feel free to flag via our Bug Tracker here - https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/ so the team can investigate further. 

[BoomBoomBigalow]

Okay, but the aging of the player in the teams is not an immersion killer for you?

Why is this so different in relation to the other FM versions?

[Speedyol]

14 hours ago, Academar said:

So why is it, that this year I cannot get past a season with any team? I’ve tried non-league, I’ve tried giants, I’ve tried fallen giants…I just can’t find a save. 

I would pick a new nation. Have you won the league in Poland or Ireland before?

[el_manayer]

Same for me. The biggest problem that I am suffering, that was already present before but this year I feel it much more (I come from FM21) is the squad players complaining for everything:

* The players that play more often: get attention, get some offers: immediately want to leave, no matter what, if the team is worse than mine, if they are gonna be pay less...

* The players who play less: want to leave, so can play more often

And no matter what, you have basically 2 options: or concede to whatever they are asking, or get the whole squad mad at you.  I have save scum thousand times and tried all the options in the conversation, but all of them lead to the same conclusion. Constantly dealing with the stupid interactions is the opposite of fun, and I have already gave up in 2 saves because of that. I wish I could play the whole game just without this part.

[Neil Brock]

34 minutes ago, el_manayer said:

Same for me. The biggest problem that I am suffering, that was already present before but this year I feel it much more (I come from FM21) is the squad players complaining for everything:

* The players that play more often: get attention, get some offers: immediately want to leave, no matter what, if the team is worse than mine, if they are gonna be pay less...

* The players who play less: want to leave, so can play more often

And no matter what, you have basically 2 options: or concede to whatever they are asking, or get the whole squad mad at you.  I have save scum thousand times and tried all the options in the conversation, but all of them lead to the same conclusion. Constantly dealing with the stupid interactions is the opposite of fun, and I have already gave up in 2 saves because of that. I wish I could play the whole game just without this part.

Only offer players realistic playing time. If you're going to sign Star Players, Important Players or Regular Starters, they expect to start 90% of the time. Those on squad rotation roughly about 40% of starts.

Saw a save the other week where a manager had 16 players who were regular starters or above. Just asking for trouble

And yeah, the reality of football is some clubs will feed into others. If you're not one of the elite, if your players do really well they'll eventually move - either by force or by you judging it to be the right time. The challenge to the manager is to have someone ready to step in, or a strategy to recruit.

[tropicsafc]

54 minutes ago, Neil Brock said:

Only offer players realistic playing time. If you're going to sign Star Players, Important Players or Regular Starters, they expect to start 90% of the time. Those on squad rotation roughly about 40% of starts.

Saw a save the other week where a manager had 16 players who were regular starters or above. Just asking for trouble

And yeah, the reality of football is some clubs will feed into others. If you're not one of the elite, if your players do really well they'll eventually move - either by force or by you judging it to be the right time. The challenge to the manager is to have someone ready to step in, or a strategy to recruit.

A strategy I attempt to take too. Always difficult when the contract negotiations 'turn orange'. Do I give in and hope that I can give him the desired playing time or do I risk losing the player? Tough one.

[el_manayer]

1 hour ago, Neil Brock said:

Only offer players realistic playing time. If you're going to sign Star Players, Important Players or Regular Starters, they expect to start 90% of the time. Those on squad rotation roughly about 40% of starts.

Saw a save the other week where a manager had 16 players who were regular starters or above. Just asking for trouble

And yeah, the reality of football is some clubs will feed into others. If you're not one of the elite, if your players do really well they'll eventually move - either by force or by you judging it to be the right time. The challenge to the manager is to have someone ready to step in, or a strategy to recruit.

I don't. It indeed happened for example playing the first season with my favourite club IRL, Real Betis, and I did not sign anyone in the first summer transfer window. IRL, last summer the team tried to sell a few players and nobody seems to want to leave the team because of the great atmosphere that is right now there, even if they got almost no play time this year. In game, these same players are crazy in my save, everybody wants to leave. I understand that the game can not replicate the real status of each club, but it kills all the immersion for me, and even more when I am leading the league in a extremely successful campaign. But still, I would be able to accept it if I the interactions would make some sense, or if it would happen less often.

[StevehFC]

6 hours ago, Neil Brock said:

Best save I've had in years here. Being off with Covid for a couple of weeks meant I had real time to hammer a Genclerbirligi save and absolutely loving it so far six seasons in. 

Sneaked a promotion first year with a team that had absolutely no right to do so, then just stayed up second season. Have pushed on since then with a couple of heartbreaking finishes (losing in the UECL qualifiers one year then missing a European qualification slot on the last day of the season when 2-1 up with 10 left, lost 3-2 when a draw would have been enough to finish above the team that leapfrogged me - then dropped out entirely despite finishing 5th because of a shock in the Turkish Cup final). This season battling for the title all with a squad where no player is on more than £10k a week. 

Also developing some cracking youngsters who have become first teamers. A great deep lying playmaker DM and an AMC. 

In relation to technical stats not developing, not seeing that in my save as the AMC suggests:

As always if you do think there's an issue with an area of the game, feel free to flag via our Bug Tracker here - https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/ so the team can investigate further. 

Got a few youngstes developing nicely myself in my 2nd season. 

[SC00P0NE]

29 minutes ago, el_manayer said:

I don't. It indeed happened for example playing the first season with my favourite club IRL, Real Betis, and I did not sign anyone in the first summer transfer window. IRL, last summer the team tried to sell a few players and nobody seems to want to leave the team because of the great atmosphere that is right now there, even if they got almost no play time this year. In game, these same players are crazy in my save, everybody wants to leave. I understand that the game can not replicate the real status of each club, but it kills all the immersion for me, and even more when I am leading the league in a extremely successful campaign. But still, I would be able to accept it if I the interactions would make some sense, or if it would happen less often.

At Barca, one club players like Jordi Alba or Pique tell me after a few months in they wanna leave for a new club since they've achieved everything alrdy at Barca. I found that quite amusing considering RL, so I checked the pre-game editor for their personality numbers. The vanilla ones have very high Ambition numbers which I suspect is the reason why they wanna leave in-game. I hope the issue is fixed now in my new save..

[xkvicd]

20 hours ago, jlboybeamer said:

Same here , for me it’s mainly to do with the longetivity of the saves , the youth system/development is messed up to the point by 2030 most teams are dominated by aging stars in their mid 30’s which I find unrealistic and most national teams are old asf and has put me off the game for good this year. I just don’t see the point of short term saves tbh and won’t be playing until this gets fixed properly which I personally believe they won’t or can’t its been the same issues since FM 2022 

I don't know if it is the number of leagues loaded but in my save even the top teams has amazing regens on their first XI. Including englishman "Danilo De'ath" who plays for Tottenham and has S+ tier name.

Edited December 12, 2022 by xkvicd

[TheAwesomeGem]

21 hours ago, BoomBoomBigalow said:

Okay, but the aging of the player in the teams is not an immersion killer for you?

Why is this so different in relation to the other FM versions?

Sadly mate, we the long term save enjoyers are the minority in FM playerbase. That's why long term saves are getting worse over time without mods/datapacks. It's a shame really.

[Domoboy23]

Is the aging squads issue a major thing? I've not noticed it in my save (2028) and upon further investigation squads in the top flights seem as I would expect...

[TheAwesomeGem]

22 minutes ago, Domoboy23 said:

Is the aging squads issue a major thing? I've not noticed it in my save (2028) and upon further investigation squads in the top flights seem as I would expect...

If you have less than 15 nations loaded and 20 leagues loaded, it's very very bad.

[Makoto Nakamura]

No, I start far too many saves that, even with the best intentions, I'm never able to finish. 

[Domoboy23]

6 minutes ago, TheAwesomeGem said:

If you have less than 15 nations loaded and 20 leagues loaded, it's very very bad.

Ah that will explain it then I suppose.  19 nations and 51 leagues for me 

[TheAwesomeGem]

27 minutes ago, Domoboy23 said:

Ah that will explain it then I suppose.  19 nations and 51 leagues for me 

Honestly if you think about doing a long-term save, there should be a disclaimer to load atleast 15 nations and 20 leagues or whatever the optimal setup is. 

[SergeiG]

I don't find it very different from last year. I am starting my 6th season with Manchester United and what keeps me from playing is the slow loading times. The last patch made it a bit better but it's still painful for me.

[Cobblers]

22 minutes ago, SergeiG said:

I don't find it very different from last year. I am starting my 6th season with Manchester United and what keeps me from playing is the slow loading times. The last patch made it a bit better but it's still painful for me.

100% this. 

[Neil Brock]

48 minutes ago, SergeiG said:

I don't find it very different from last year. I am starting my 6th season with Manchester United and what keeps me from playing is the slow loading times. The last patch made it a bit better but it's still painful for me.

 

25 minutes ago, Cobblers said:

100% this. 

Surprising as the game is optimised to be quicker than previously. How many leagues are you running with what sized db? Do you have a very large shortlist or a fair number of recruitment focuses? 

May be worth logging a support ticket with our team so we can investigate further - https://fmofficial.support/Ticket

Thanks. 

[SergeiG]

9 minutes ago, Neil Brock said:

 

Surprising as the game is optimised to be quicker than previously. How many leagues are you running with what sized db? Do you have a very large shortlist or a fair number of recruitment focuses? 

May be worth logging a support ticket with our team so we can investigate further - https://fmofficial.support/Ticket

Thanks. 

My database is kind of large, About 125K players loaded like in last year's game. In last year's version my game was starting to slow down after 10 seasons or so, this time at the end of the 3rd season my game is slow as a snail. The last patch helped a bit but its still slow.

And yes my shortlist is rather large and I am running an extensive recruiting operation, can't be missing on the young wonderkids

[Neil Brock]

Would say the recommendation is not to have more recruitment focuses running than the number of scouts you have within your team. So if you have just 5 scouts, don't have 20 focuses running. 

Also if you have 'Keep Scout Reports up to date' on your shortlist (you can see this near the top right) it means your scouts again will constantly be scouting those players and in turn does slow the game down given the amount of processing power required in order to do so.

Would be interested to hear if either of those aspects are in play and they're the cause for slowdown. If they're not relevant, feel free to upload your save and let us know the file name so we can check it out. Details on how to upload here - https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/instructions-and-notes/how-to-upload-files-to-us-r98/

[SergeiG]

54 minutes ago, Neil Brock said:

Would say the recommendation is not to have more recruitment focuses running than the number of scouts you have within your team. So if you have just 5 scouts, don't have 20 focuses running. 

Also if you have 'Keep Scout Reports up to date' on your shortlist (you can see this near the top right) it means your scouts again will constantly be scouting those players and in turn does slow the game down given the amount of processing power required in order to do so.

Would be interested to hear if either of those aspects are in play and they're the cause for slowdown. If they're not relevant, feel free to upload your save and let us know the file name so we can check it out. Details on how to upload here - https://community.sigames.com/bugtracker/instructions-and-notes/how-to-upload-files-to-us-r98/

Oh, I am playing as Manchester United and I have tons of scouts, more than recruitment focuses. But I didnt realize scouting is putting so much strain on game performance.

Anyway, I'll try to upload my save later, Thanks

[Cobblers]

Same as @SergeiG.

I'll also look at this in my game to see if this helps with performance. Appreciated @Neil Brock

 

[DarJ]

Maybe stop playing for a while. I’ve never played FM constantly throughout the entire year. There are months where I just don’t feel like playing and I don’t play until I get some kind of inspiration or I feel like playing again.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a break from the game however long it takes, it’s not necessarily a reflection of the game being bad.