My optimal personal database setup for a new save, whats yours?

[Dreambuilder]

After like five years with FM I think I have finally landed in a database setup that check my boxes:

• Load only favourite nations/leagues that I really like. About 10-15 leagues and only top divisions except the country I manage in.
• Load custom data national players + players with continental reputation for all continents. This gives about 10-20-ish newgens in the u18-23 national teams in the world for the chance of exotic newgens and exotic scouting finds. And not too many slowing down the game speed like if you load all players with national reputation which I dont.

 

This gives me all in all:

• About 60k players. Good diversity but not slowing down game speed too much.
• Newgen diversity in most countries around the world, but not too many slowing down the game speed too much.
• Alot of staff to hire.
• Good transfer activity from 10-15 leagues, but again not too many leagues slowing down game speed too much.

 

What's your "go to" setup?

 

[Justified]

I sit on around 20 nations. I always add International players for all continents and then the rest I tweak depending on how many players I want. I could simply just add National players from all continents, continental competitions or sometimes I add top leagues from the top 50 FIFA nations. I end up around 100-120k players per save.

Personally I think 90k+ players is needed for a good gaming world but that's just my opinion.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Justified

[JAwtunes]

Mine is similar.  I normally play in Europe and do

- top division for top 5 leagues (playable)

- my league playable down as far as I can go

- the top trading leagues/divisions for my chosen league (based on review of transfermarkt transfer flow data).  So for Slovakia, for example, this would include Czech Republic.

- lots of view only in Europe and view only Brazil and Argentina.  The European ones are ranked based on various metrics, such as UEFA coefficient, times teams have appears at various stages of European competitions, transfer fees etc.  I think I look at ~20 year period and weight the more recent years higher.  This just takes away much of the subjectivity in picking leagues.

- Custom db with national rep players and above in europe.  Continental and above outside of Europe.

[Cizzu]

@Dreambuilder Only 60k players ?!? Are you joking?
It's really tiny database.. I don't think it's not enough even to play in the top leagues.  Scouting is too limited.

My game setup:

Argentina (2 levels) Austria (2 levels) Belgium (3 levels) Bulgaria (2 levels) Brazil (2 levels) China (2 levels) Croatia (2 levels) Denmark (4 levels) Finland (2 levels) France (4 levels) Wales (2 levels) Germany (3 levels) Greece (2 levels) England (7 levels) Italy (4 levels) Ireland (2 levels) Northern Ireland (2 levels) Latvia (1 level) Mexico (2 levels) Norway (4 levels) Holland (2 levels) Poland (2 levels) Portugal (4 levels) Czech Republic (2 levels) Romania (3 levels) Russia (2 levels) Scotland (4 levels) Serbia (2 levels) Slovakia (2 levels) Slovenia (2 levels) Spain (4 levels) United States (1 level) Sweden (4 levels) Switzerland (2 levels) Turkey (3 levels) Ukraine (2 levels) Hungary (2 levels).


Then I add a few filters for extra coverage:
 

Spoiler

Usually I never load below 200k / 250k players.

This is an example of ideal game setup to start a career in Vanarama league North/south.

[Dreambuilder]

Hehe I see  For me 60k players is more than enough scouting cards and lists to go through   Also as I focus mainly on homegrown talent development at the club, although I really like to find the occasional african diamond that noone has discovered  But I really appreciate the input as I haven't played more than a few years forward in the game.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Dreambuilder

[V3ntricity]

I only tick off two or three playable leagues, and maybe a few more view only. I've actually never loaded as many players as you guys do, but maybe I will now. Doesn't it just make the game very slow (even on a fast computer)?

Edited March 2, 2023 by V3ntricity

[Justified]

Tbh I've always played on databases over 100k players on it so I've never really paid attention to the speed so much. It's subjective really, what one person finds fine someone else might find it sluggish. Also computer dependent of course. For me personally, the game world is important. The setup that Dreambuilder posted first would be a low database for me. Not unplayable at all but it would probably be as low as I would go. However your suggestion would be a no go for me, it just wouldn't feel big enough. 

[Dreambuilder]

20 minutes ago, V3ntricity said:

I only tick off two or three playable leagues, and maybe a few more view only. I've actually never loaded as many players as you guys do, but maybe I will now. Doesn't it just make the game very slow (even on a fast computer)?

Yep. I have a good gaming computer and when I did a save with about 25k players the game progressed twice as fast compared to about 70k players.

[oi_oi_ginger_roy]

I normally do this...

 

All divisions in:
England
Spain
Germany
France
Italy
Scotland

Top 2 divisions in:
Brazil
Argentina
Netherlands
Portugal
Belgium

Top division in:
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Switzerland
Austria

Large DB - Load all current international players, Players from top division clubs, Players from top clubs, Players with continental rep, Players with national rep, Players from clubs in continental competitions.

[gggfunk]

My base is always the 12 following nations: England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Scotland, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Brazil. Then, depending on which team I start, I choose particular divisions, usually I end up with loading around 18 leagues from 12 nations and 60k players, plus medium database. Thanks to this my game runs smoothly.

I never use any custom files (except the real name fix), never add/remove leagues during my save, and always save my game manually with multiple slots. Thanks to this, I never really have any crashes.

When FM 23 will be fully patched I plan to start my first ever long-term journeyman save that I aim to play for about 30-40 seasons, and I would like to load a couple of more leagues there. Do you guys think that if I choose, for example, 25 leagues from 18 nations the game will be much slower?

Edited March 2, 2023 by gggfunk

[scotty-corkcityfc]

Posted this in another thread but this might help people

 

Quote

 loaded the top 5 leagues plus Ireland and majority of others on View Only
I added in advanced settings of the view only leagues division players and the usual all playes from top clubs (About 140k)

                          TOTAL      SEASON
                          GAME        GAME          
                     TIME(hours)   TIME

Season 1	1.35
Season 2	3.44	2.09
Season 3	6.00	2.16
Season 4	8.34	2.34
Season 5	11.31	2.57

So it looks like it adds on about 15/20 minutes per season.

Ive changed it to the top 8 leagues playable plus Ireland and no view only but increase the advanced settings players to all leagues top 2 divisionsin Europe/South America, a good few in Asia and Africa (About 170k)

Season 1	1.23
Season 2	3.27	2.04
Season 3	5.39	2.12
Season 4	8.01	2.20
Season 5	9.55	1.54

Season 6.         12.05         2.10

It seems view only takes up an extra bit of usage alright so far. So the question I have, is there any difference in regens between View Only and having a league disabled. Is the only difference the actual tables? It would seem so far its better to have less view only and more players? What I have noticed that with the leagues disabled and players from the top 2 divisions added there is far more squads full of players and most clubs have 5 or 6 under 19s in place. 

 

 

[Dreambuilder]

Yes I think leagues slows down the game speed more than added extra players. Thats why I dont add more than 10-15 leagues but instead top reputation players for all continents, which over time will be replaced by regens.

 

I dont use view only leagues but i have read that they give some more newgens, but not as many as if the league is playable.

[Conardo]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb Cizzu:

@Dreambuilder Only 60k players ?!? Are you joking?
It's really tiny database.. I don't think it's not enough even to play in the top leagues.  Scouting is too limited.

My game setup:

Argentina (2 levels) Austria (2 levels) Belgium (3 levels) Bulgaria (2 levels) Brazil (2 levels) China (2 levels) Croatia (2 levels) Denmark (4 levels) Finland (2 levels) France (4 levels) Wales (2 levels) Germany (3 levels) Greece (2 levels) England (7 levels) Italy (4 levels) Ireland (2 levels) Northern Ireland (2 levels) Latvia (1 level) Mexico (2 levels) Norway (4 levels) Holland (2 levels) Poland (2 levels) Portugal (4 levels) Czech Republic (2 levels) Romania (3 levels) Russia (2 levels) Scotland (4 levels) Serbia (2 levels) Slovakia (2 levels) Slovenia (2 levels) Spain (4 levels) United States (1 level) Sweden (4 levels) Switzerland (2 levels) Turkey (3 levels) Ukraine (2 levels) Hungary (2 levels).


Then I add a few filters for extra coverage:
 

  Unsichtbaren Inhalt anzeigen

Usually I never load below 200k / 250k players.

This is an example of ideal game setup to start a career in Vanarama league North/south.

How many seasons are you playing with this Setup (whats your longest game with this?)

[theeyeofthetiger]

I’ve got around 20 leagues just top leagues for most but major European nations (Italy, Spain, Germany, France) top 2 leagues. That gives me around 100k players and 1 star speed rating but runs fine for my liking not too slow and gives me lots of players around 50k that will come to me so it’s a nice balance 

[Maviarab]

Players don't really slow down the game,.  Could have a database with 250k plus players, with only a few leagues running you'll lose a few seconds a month tops.  It's active leagues that slow it down.  As for the speed rating, SI may as well ditch it, it's an utterly meaningless thing.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Maviarab

[Cizzu]

12 ore fa, Conardo ha scritto:

How many seasons are you playing with this Setup (whats your longest game with this?)

I don't play very long careers because when the game gets totally filled with newgens I lose interest in continuing.
Usually about 10 years, I think. Not more.

[Dreambuilder]

13 hours ago, Maviarab said:

Players don't really slow down the game,.  Could have a database with 250k plus players, with only a few leagues running you'll lose a few seconds a month tops.  It's active leagues that slow it down.  As for the speed rating, SI may as well ditch it, it's an utterly meaningless thing.

Thats interesting. Some say also players will slow the game down after some season? I’m also worried that alot more players than active leagues will kill the transfer market. That clubs will go for the other 200k players and not mine. Also not as many bidding wars?

 

With 200k players my scouting filter would probably had to be raised to A recommendations only. Too many scouting cards to go through.
 

Would like to hear more input on the effects of loading 100k+ players

Edited March 3, 2023 by Dreambuilder

[oi_oi_ginger_roy]

4 hours ago, Dreambuilder said:

Thats interesting. Some say also players will slow the game down after some season? I’m also worried that alot more players than active leagues will kill the transfer market. That clubs will go for the other 200k players and not mine. Also not as many bidding wars?

 

With 200k players my scouting filter would probably had to be raised to A recommendations only. Too many scouting cards to go through.
 

Would like to hear more input on the effects of loading 100k+ players

Have you watched this video before? - its for 22 but still applies to 23

 

[Dreambuilder]

Some nice input here and on Youtube like the vid below. I'm now gonna try same 13 leagues, but about 90k custom added players from top clubs etc from all continents. But checking more custom boxes in Europe and South america for example. No point for me to load all players from all top division club in North America where only Mexico and USA produces high quality regens, so I load all players from top division clubs in those nations separately. With all international players loaded in North America you can still get the rare occasional wonderkid from like Canada. My big question now is if 13 leagues and 100k players will be fast enough for me after a few seasons. Guess I just have to try it out to know.

 

I noticed that checking "all players from top clubs" gives you more than enough players and newgens from each country, even Andorra and Albania etc. No need to check "all players from all top division clubs". This made a difference of like 15k players in Europe and countries like Israel still had like 5-10 teams full of u18 players more than enough to produce newgens.

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by Dreambuilder

[Dreambuilder]

12 leagues and custom added players from top clubs on most continents for 90k players. A few hours into the save and the game runs smooth! Also finding more exciting u18 players from all the world than normal database. Happy times!!

[Conardo]

Which leagues finally?

 

Asking  because i want to start a new LLM game in England.... 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Conardo

[Dreambuilder]

3 hours ago, Conardo said:

Which leagues finally?

 

Asking  because i want to start a new LLM game in England.... 

Managing in Sweden. Went with 12 favourite leagues:

• Sweden +2nd div + 3rd div
• Norway
• Denmark
• Finland
• Iceland
• Netherlands
• Belgium
• Germany
• Austria
• Switzerland
   

Only big four league is Germany for some big bids. The rest of the big four (england spain italy) just has players and staff too expensive for swedish clubs. And I dont like their superiority in money etc) 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Dreambuilder

[Conardo]

Thank you

[Overmars]

I have seen FM streamers championing the idea that you can load a handful of leagues and 100k+ players with full expectations of a realistic game world. I dsagree with this notion because:

1. I want my AI team opponents to participate in the transfer market without me pushing them to do so.
2. I want my AI team opponents to be as competitive as possible for my international club competitions (ex. Champions League).
3. I want statistics in other leagues to be comparable for scouting and curiosity purposes.
4. The game world feels more realistic when you can see fixtures, promotions, relegations, etc.

in my opinion, AI teams are virtually useless and their players exist in a hidden alternate universe if their league isn't playable.

For my European saves (usually with a club from one of the top 7 nations), I use the following setup, which ends up loading approximately 100k players:

1. Playable Leagues:
   1. England x 4
   2. France x 2
   3. Germany x 2
   4. Italy x 2
   5. Spain x 2
   6. Netherlands
   7. Portugal
   8. Belgium
   9. Switzerland
   10. Austria
   11. Greece
   12. Scotland
   13. Ukraine
   14. Turkey
   15. Croatia
   16. Serbia
   17. Czechia
   18. Denmark
   19. Norway
   20. Sweden
   21. Poland
2. View-Only Leagues:
   1. South America
   2. Rest of Europe
   3. Any other league I maintain a tiny bit of curiosity about (ex. Mexico, USA, South Korea, Russia)
3. Additional Players from all Continents:
   1. Current International players
   2. Continental reputation players
   3. National reputation players
   4. Players from top clubs (optional - adds another ~20k players depending on other settings)
4. Additional Players from my Chosen Nation:
   1. Players of that nationality
5. Additional Players from Other Nations (optional):
   1. if I was managing in Portugal, I would load players from the top 3 leagues in Brazil and all players from other Portuguese-speaking nations of Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste, Macau, and Sao Tome & Principe.
6. Full-Sim Detail:
   1. World Cup
   2. Euro
   3. World Cup & Euro Qualifiers (optional)
   4. Other big continental competitions (optional)
   5. All leagues and the biggest cup competition from my chosen nation
   6. Top league from each of England, Germany, Italy, Spain, and France
   7. Champions League
   8. Europa League

I have a new-ish computer that makes the full-sim detail option worth it. My processing times only really slow down on transfer deadline day. The first thing to go if I needed more speed would be some of the full-sim detail options of leagues outside of my nation. If I still needed more speed, I would remove some of the lower rep playable leagues (ex. Sweden and Poland).

 

[shakturi101]

Does anyone here click "add players to playable teams" when starting their save? What does that do exactly and what effect does it have on the database (speed, realism, etc.)?

[kingjericho]

58 minutes ago, shakturi101 said:

Does anyone here click "add players to playable teams" when starting their save? What does that do exactly and what effect does it have on the database (speed, realism, etc.)?

Some clubs in the lowest divisions have a few amount of players, if you click that option the game will add newgens to increase the squad size.

[kingjericho]

I'm a journeyman save in England only but my current database consists of the top 5 nations in Europe, top 2 in South America and then the remaining 15 of Europe on "view only".

[Conardo]

In general, I have found that a discussion about an optimal setting usually only results in starting over and over again.

While Dave's Files are a great thing, it makes you wonder if you're not missing out on something with every new update if you're not playing with the latest version.

This also applies to the optimal setups. You're practically persuaded to start over because these setups and these files are just fine. But, that means you never get a long-term save. Because the optimal setup also contains a plethora of players.

If you really want to enjoy the game, you should just start and not worry so much (although I do it again and again and it makes me sick ^^) about a better setting.

No criticism, just my opinion :)

[Overmars]

7 hours ago, Conardo said:

In general, I have found that a discussion about an optimal setting usually only results in starting over and over again.

While Dave's Files are a great thing, it makes you wonder if you're not missing out on something with every new update if you're not playing with the latest version.

This also applies to the optimal setups. You're practically persuaded to start over because these setups and these files are just fine. But, that means you never get a long-term save. Because the optimal setup also contains a plethora of players.

If you really want to enjoy the game, you should just start and not worry so much (although I do it again and again and it makes me sick ^^) about a better setting.

No criticism, just my opinion

It's true. We can be paralyzed by the overwhelming amount of variety of setups. I think the biggest issue, though, is that the game itself provides feedback in the form of stars and estimated game speed -- and it's inaccurate. My half-star setup this year is much faster than any 2 or 3-star setup I've had in the past. I'd like to see that feedback adjusted for FM24 so that it factors in amount of playable leagues instead of relying so heavily on player counts.

[Dreambuilder]

I noticed something with alot of custom data players added (90K) that I remember I have noticed years ago too.

I hope it's just bad luck but my first 3 youth intakes have been my worst ever. Normally with no custom data players the first intakes are not even close to this bad. I have a feeling that when you add custom players to the database the game spreads the talented newgens more over the world. I hope I'm wrong because I'm doing a 'build a nation' save focused mainly on home grown players. 

[Daniel Evensen]

Paging @Daveincid...

Dave has a list on his Patreon of recommended setups for different purposes.  Personally, I always play with all players activated and all leagues on.

If I ever have the money, I'm going to make my own computer with one of those really nice Ryzen 9 chips and will try to play with the entire world loaded.  The last time I tried that it took something like 30 minutes to advance past the first turn in the game, lol.

[Welshace]

On 10/03/2023 at 17:27, shakturi101 said:

Does anyone here click "add players to playable teams" when starting their save? What does that do exactly and what effect does it have on the database (speed, realism, etc.)?

It basically adds newgens to teams who have no players added in the database for playable leagues..

 

Mainly used for when you player very low leagues or custom leagues that have no players added.. it just makes sure the teams are populated.. and it obviously has an impact on speed as its adding even more players into your database

[Junkhead]

 

Obviously doesn't show all the leagues - 100 playable.

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Junkhead
Sorry - Correction - 100 COUNTRIES playable. About 220 leagues.

[Gee_Simpson]

I'm seriously tempted to upgrade. Man tech moves fast, even what was a top end CPU, my i9 9900k now gets beaten by something like a i5 12400F in both single and multi thread and even a 12th gen i3 in single thread! 😂😭

Edited March 18, 2023 by Gee_Simpson

[Gee_Simpson]

25 minutes ago, Junkhead said:

 

Obviously doesn't show all the leagues - 100 playable.

 

What CPU do you have? I'm guessing some of those are added custom leagues also?

Edited March 18, 2023 by Gee_Simpson

[Junkhead]

2 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

What CPU do you have? I'm guessing some of those are added custom leagues also?

https://consumer.huawei.com/uk/laptops/matebook-16/buy/

FM22 this is btw, didn't get 23 so not sure what the speed difference is but I imagine if anything it's optimized further.  Always played with loads of leagues so this might not be ok speed wise for some people, but I am fine with it. Would sacrifice a tiny bit of speed for an immersive, active game world any day 

[Gee_Simpson]

34 minutes ago, Junkhead said:

https://consumer.huawei.com/uk/laptops/matebook-16/buy/

FM22 this is btw, didn't get 23 so not sure what the speed difference is but I imagine if anything it's optimized further.  Always played with loads of leagues so this might not be ok speed wise for some people, but I am fine with it. Would sacrifice a tiny bit of speed for an immersive, active game world any day 

Yeah I definitely think people have different tolerances in terms of what is 'slow' and what's not 😂. I feel my i9 9900k is getting slow, and I was only testing it with 50 leagues in total. FM23 from what I tried last time, is significantly slower than FM22 for me. Apparently there was a minor performance update a month or so back, and I've heard that has improved things, I'll need to test it out.

How on earth do you make progress running 220 leagues with that processor? That's crazy 😂

Edited March 18, 2023 by Gee_Simpson

[Junkhead]

6 minutes ago, Gee_Simpson said:

How on earth do you make progress with 220 leagues using that processor? That's crazy 😂

It's genuinely fine - only takes a few minutes to get through a week. I'm playing in Brazil too so hundreds of games a year 😂

[Gee_Simpson]

11 minutes ago, Junkhead said:

It's genuinely fine - only takes a few minutes to get through a week. I'm playing in Brazil too so hundreds of games a year 😂

Really? Because I tested 50 leagues on FM22, and it took 1 min 30 secs for 1 week of game time. 220 leagues on a far weaker processor must be at least 5 minutes a week? That for me would be too long personally.

[Junkhead]

8 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Really? Because I tested 50 leagues on FM22, and it took 1 min 30 secs for 1 week of game time. 220 leagues on a far weaker processor must be at least 5 minutes a week? That for me would be too long personally.

5 mins a week is about right - which is fine for me.  As we've said, it can be a personal thing.  I'd rather a living, breathing world with loads of variance - the time is a sacrifice I'm willing to make.  This may be why I'm still on FM22 though.... 

[Gee_Simpson]

10 hours ago, Junkhead said:

5 mins a week is about right - which is fine for me.  As we've said, it can be a personal thing.  I'd rather a living, breathing world with loads of variance - the time is a sacrifice I'm willing to make.  This may be why I'm still on FM22 though.... 

Yeah we all have different level of tolerances, fair enough 

[Dreambuilder]

The database I use now has 55000 players, 15 favourite leagues, and custom data for all national players in all continents. This gives:

1) OK game speed three stars. (my computer is 4,5 star)

2) Chance of exciting regens from flavour countries all over the world, but still not too many players from each country.

3) Active transfermarket with 15 leagues.

4) Many enough scouts and personell to hire.

 

 

 

 

 

[rusty217]

As much as possible.

Europe: Every top division except for the microstates (sorry Gibraltar etc. fans) 2nd division for roughly 10 countries. 3rd division for Spain, France, Italy & Germany. 6th division for England.

Africa: Top division for about 30 countries. 2nd division for about 8 of those.

North America: Top division for USA, Mexico, Canada and about 12 other nations. 2nd division too for Mexico.

South America: Top division for all countries. 2nd for Argentina & Colombia. 4th for Brazil.

Asia: Top division for about 35 countries. 2nd division for about 10 of those.

Oceania: Top division for New Zealand and Papua New Guinea only.

With all current internationals loaded too.

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

56 minutes ago, rusty217 said:

As much as possible.

How much of that on full detail @rusty217

[rusty217]

6 minutes ago, \'Appy \'Ammer said:

How much of that on full detail @rusty217

The top 10 in Europe, top 3-4 in most other continents, 0 in Oceania.

Plus all continental competitions and internationals in full detail.

[gggfunk]

9 minutes ago, rusty217 said:

The top 10 in Europe, top 3-4 in most other continents, 0 in Oceania.

Plus all continental competitions and internationals in full detail.

And if I remember correctly you play with multiple managers at the same time? It must go so slow for you! But still, respect!

[Dreambuilder]

@rusty217 The problem with loading as much as possible as I see it, is that you get 10000 scouting cards to go through  How do you manage that? =)

[rusty217]

On 21/08/2023 at 22:04, gggfunk said:

And if I remember correctly you play with multiple managers at the same time? It must go so slow for you! But still, respect!

I do, yes. Often 20+. It's SLOW!

20 hours ago, Dreambuilder said:

@rusty217 The problem with loading as much as possible as I see it, is that you get 10000 scouting cards to go through  How do you manage that? =)

I don't look at scouting cards. I just use the list view instead and if they aren't near the top of the list (for either potential or recommendation), well I'm not looking at them :-D

[oche balboa]

@Rusty217 Respect to you for playing the game like that & with that amount of leagues and detail.

[reigota94]

Em 02/03/2023 em 12:06, Dreambuilder disse:

Yep. I have a good gaming computer and when I did a save with about 25k players the game progressed twice as fast compared to about 70k players.

This just shows ignorance.

 

ammount of players have 0 impact on game processing speed, playable leagues are the thing that matters for processing. Most player might take a few seconds when you make a player search and that's it. HAVE LITERALLY 0 impact on processing speed.