Should I play FM23 or FM24 - or: What happens to lower (MOD added) leagues in FM24 (...FM25)?

[rristola]

I like to play lower leagues, and especially to start my career from the bottom. So, I have to use Mods.   THANKS TO ALL MODMAKERS!

Sadly, this game has never been great with lower leagues. I do understand, that those leagues won't be playable (without mods) in FM, but will there be any development?

 

Now I would like to hear all news and even rumours from players, moderators here and DEVs concerning lower leagues in FM24 (...FM25), and especially these three areas:

- AI                                              this has happened - drop-outs from Premier League, Champ., etc. wanted to start their new careers for free in 8. tier team             -            Could this happen for real? If not, any changes to AI?

- team economics                  in 8. tier team 1000 pounds would be a lot of money                     -                 Any means to get extra income (going into wage budget) via special community happenings like fairs, etc. So, anything that doesn't belong to the board...  BTW, that 1000 pounds could mean one top attacker.

- graphics                                when mods are loaded into a new game or save, their UIDs can change, and so making graphics for Mods is hard                 -                 Can those graphics mods for added leagues mods be made so, that they will work? For anybody using those mods? Mod linking system?

[forameuss]

There's absolutely zero chance that SI are going to put features into the game that only affect levels of the game they don't themselves support. That would be an incredible waste of resources.

[rristola]

I disagree. One example.

I think that there are many countries, even smaller countries in Europe, where after one-two-three main tiers teams have low budgets, and a few tiers lower more and more is done as volunteer work. There that 1000 Euros or Pounds would be a lot of money...

And I checked. One team in VNL South or North had players with wages between 4000-1000 Pounds per month. So, even there ONLY 50 000 Pounds from different community activities could mean possibility to get one top player more...

 

That AI thing. That new 'rule' (into transfers) could be quite easy to accomplish. Calculating the difference between reputation of those two leagues. The bigger the difference, the harder to make that player to sign. Would so easy solution work - I don't know...

 

With these ideas I only mean some kind of framework where new possibilities would be added to the game - like Community day (to get money). And, somehow I think that there will be also higher tier teams near bankruptcy, and wanting any way to get more money...

And, as I wrote before, I don't ecpect to see lower leagues in 'vanilla' game. But, with Mods...

 

What SI thinks? One 'proof', that they would like some day lower leagues and more countries to be included.

When a player starts new career, he or she can choose to have NO bagdes at all, and be only Sunday leagues player. In which (vanilla game) teams or leagues do you think that kind of a manager would be OK? In lower leagues that can be OK.

[elt]

Considering the FM 23 saves will not have J league but will still be transferable to FM 24 which does. I cant imagine modded leagues will be a problem.

[toolkit68]

Modded games are just using a different database and are not touching with actual game features - actually they rely on them as much as the base game. Changing a dataset might create unwanted results if things are setup unrealistic but it is still just a dataset without own functionality.So I would assume you should be fine in future versions as long as those creators keep creating these databases.

[rristola]

9 hours ago, toolkit68 said:

Modded games are ... not touching with actual game features

Exactly. And this is something that I would like SI to think again.

Like - you would like to have more money to buy one good extra player. Board says "use transfer money" like 'vanilla' game often does. But, in lower leagues players can ALL be non-contracts, so there's no-one to sell... In higher leagues that's no problem...

This could be "corrected", if there would be some kind of "Community day" like fairs and friendly game together feature, but there would have to be possibility (slot) for that in the training calendar - and there's not.

I have written about this possibility in Requests forum. There are also other features, that lower leagues could use, but higher ones don't need...

 

BTW, I think that there is and can be mods that "change the game" a bit. With mods like 'Increase Realism Megapack by Daveincid'. Of course, no new features that way.

 

I just asked about FM24 in this forum, because it's OK for me to continue playing FM23. But, if there's anything new for the lower leagues...

Thanks for your comment.

[phnompenhandy]

I'm currently using a Level 15 Scotland league mod. I'm wondering if I load up a new save and immediately transfer it to FM24, then release all my players in order to rebuild the squad from scratch in FM24, will the new players benefit from the enhanced squad building/player development features in FM24? They should do, shouldn't they?

[Dagenham_Dave]

10 minutes ago, phnompenhandy said:

I'm currently using a Level 15 Scotland league mod. I'm wondering if I load up a new save and immediately transfer it to FM24, then release all my players in order to rebuild the squad from scratch in FM24, will the new players benefit from the enhanced squad building/player development features in FM24? They should do, shouldn't they?

I would imagine so. You'll be playing FM24, so will benefit from all the improvements regardless of what save file you use. 

My only concern, and this has not been confirmed by SI yet, is whether a save file from a modded database on FM23 can be used in FM24. I suppose it will be fine though. I've never tried this, but if you downloaded an FM23 save file from somewhere which contains a modded DB onto a vanilla version of FM23, would it work? If so, should work on FM24 too. If that makes sense. 

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

@Dagenham_Dave if I upload my save file to mediafire, you can download it and tell me if it works on your fm23? I am using tonnes of edited files. 

[forameuss]

The database is essentially part of the save (probably the vast majority of it to be honest).  You can test yourself by starting a save with an editor file and then completely removing said editor file, your save will still work.  So if you're talking FM23 to FM23, you'll be fine with edited databases.

As for FM24, all that's been said as far as I know is that it should work.  I assume that wording means that it'll be expected to be OK, but if it doesn't then you're unlikely to get a huge amount of support from SI.  Some things might not work perfectly, or at all.  Remains to be seen.

[phnompenhandy]

3 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

I would imagine so. You'll be playing FM24, so will benefit from all the improvements regardless of what save file you use. 

My only concern, and this has not been confirmed by SI yet, is whether a save file from a modded database on FM23 can be used in FM24. I suppose it will be fine though. I've never tried this, but if you downloaded an FM23 save file from somewhere which contains a modded DB onto a vanilla version of FM23, would it work? If so, should work on FM24 too. If that makes sense. 

You have to run it through the editor and reverify it, but yeh, you can.

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

1 hour ago, phnompenhandy said:

You have to run it through the editor and reverify it, but yeh, you can.

Not sure you'd have to reverify it through the editor. If you had to it would more than likely fail because the database is different. I think there would be alot of disappointed punters if the promise of continuing a save could not be fulfilled. I am hoping that ANY save from fm23 can be continued, edited or otherwise. 

[phnompenhandy]

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

Not sure you'd have to reverify it through the editor. If you had to it would more than likely fail because the database is different. I think there would be alot of disappointed punters if the promise of continuing a save could not be fulfilled. I am hoping that ANY save from fm23 can be continued, edited or otherwise. 

Yeah, I very much hope so too. I was just referring to FM23, when the game updates, you have to run a fan-created mod through the editor to reverify it in order to continue your save - with some files anyway, not all.

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

8 minutes ago, phnompenhandy said:

Yeah, I very much hope so too. I was just referring to FM23, when the game updates, you have to run a fan-created mod through the editor to reverify it in order to continue your save - with some files anyway, not all.

Ah I see, well on a positive note I've always been able to continue playing a save using an edited database after a new patch has been released. The only time I've had to re-verify a file is when starting a new save with the new patch. So as we would be continuing an old save on a new database (fm24) then I am very hopeful that we will get what we wish for. 

[forameuss]

12 minutes ago, phnompenhandy said:

Yeah, I very much hope so too. I was just referring to FM23, when the game updates, you have to run a fan-created mod through the editor to reverify it in order to continue your save - with some files anyway, not all.

I think the original point was whether a save would be good rather than a specific editor file.  You're right that the files themselves need updated, because they'll potentially be working over the top of an updated database.  A save wouldn't have this problem, as the database would be constant.

Of course, that's just for one edition, the above would obviously not be at all true going from 23 to 24.  I'm guessing the game will do something similar to the reverification process behind the scenes to align things, but really it's anyone's guess how it's going to go with edited files.

[Iggy Hassan]

I would presume that leagues created by mods wouldn't be supported by a save game transfering over.

I guess we will find out soon enough...

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

Be nice if someone at SI (@Jimmy Wong  ?) could confirm if save games with edited files from fm23 can be continued with fm24? I've pre-ordered the game on the back of this feature and would be mighty disappointed to see it doesn't do what I thought it would do.

[rristola]

5 hours ago, Iggy Hassan said:

I would presume that leagues created by mods wouldn't be supported

8 hours ago, forameuss said:

The database is essentially part of the save

Isn't everything "needed" saved into the save? Even so, that you can delete those files from the Editor folder after starting your save? And, with mods something like league rules can be changed. Using that logic also "mod" leagues should work OK.

Even J League? I think so. If there's something about Japan in the save, it will be used (and not the J League rules of FM24).

 

BTW, some time ago I suggested in the Editor forum that with mods league rules and player/staff moves etc. should be separated from each other. Why? Because league rules don't usually change during a season... Why do we have to re-verify, or - most likely - wait mod updates...

No "official" answers.

 

And, the most important part - has there been any news considering lower leagues in these blogs? Something to make lower leagues more realistic?

Edited September 27, 2023 by rristola
added some

[rristola]

I know that it isn't recommended to re-write your comments here, but... could someone from SI Staff answer something... anything...

 

Will anything be changed the way lower leagues' teams (with Mods or not) are managed in FM24? And/or FM25?

Economics - there are teams that have budgets over 100M, over 1M, over 10k, and even those that have zero budget. Same economical thinking doesn't work IRL - how about in FM?

Might drop-outs from Premier League still want to come to play for free into tier eight team?

Could there be a way (any way) agreed with the Board to raise money (into wage and/or transfer budget)?

 

Now there are several infos out. Any news considering lower leagues?

If not, that's OK. But to not know, that sucks...