The overall premise of Football Manager

[Lionel5116]

I have been a long time video game player of all types. I have been playing FIFA for years. Lately I have been getting bored with the whole ULTIMATE team etc.. I have installed Football manager over the last few years, but everytime I started to play, I always got overwhelmed and just uninstalled the game. Now with FM24, I a have spent almost 15+ hours trying to get into it (I have not given up yet 😂).

My questions is:
What is the overall objective of Football Manager
Do you have to take your team to the championship to say “beat the game” (or is there a concept of say beating the game in FM24)
Is the object to just have fun as a Football manager through simulation ?

[Andros]

What is the overall objective of Football Manager

There is no objectiv here.  Think of it more like a sandbox game, where you play the game how you like and try to achieve what you want. 

For example:

1) Do I want to take over Real Madrid and try to win 10 Champions league titles in a row?

2) Do I want to take over a league 2 side in England and try to make it to the premiership?

3) Do I want to take over a city's lowest rank side and make it the dominant force in that city?

4) Do I wan to take over a lowly ranked side and never buy players?  Try and get to the premiership with only players comming in from my youth

Do you have to take your team to the championship to say “beat the game” (or is there a concept of say beating the game in FM24)

There is no official beating the game.  The objectives are made by you, and you win the game when you have achieved your goal (see my reply to your 1st question).

Is the object to just have fun as a Football manager through simulation ?

Yep! Sandbox!!  

Fun can be had in many ways (as discussed earlier).  Some people like to get a tactical idea and see how far they can go with it.  I have seen some people choose a player and see if they can make them the highest scorer ever.  

 

As you are pretty new here, I suggest you start with the objectives given to you when you choose a team.  As you get more familiar, take the game to where you want to take it!  

[XaW]

6 hours ago, Lionel5116 said:

I have been a long time video game player of all types. I have been playing FIFA for years. Lately I have been getting bored with the whole ULTIMATE team etc.. I have installed Football manager over the last few years, but everytime I started to play, I always got overwhelmed and just uninstalled the game. Now with FM24, I a have spent almost 15+ hours trying to get into it (I have not given up yet 😂).

My questions is:
What is the overall objective of Football Manager
Do you have to take your team to the championship to say “beat the game” (or is there a concept of say beating the game in FM24)
Is the object to just have fun as a Football manager through simulation ?

It's essentially an open world game in text!  And around the world of football, of course.

The game will play out, if you join or not, as long as you press continue. How you fit into it and what your goals are, are totally up to you. Do you want to start off without a club and see who wants to hire you and aim to be the best? Go ahead! Do you want to take over Manchester City or PSG and spend millions on the best players and steamroll? Go ahead. Do you want to recreate the glory days of <insert club>? Go ahead.

There are essentially no finish to the game, and the whole game can rather be seen as what other games would have as an end game, where you can do challenges, grind up, or just explore. All of this is possible from day one.

So it's, as @Andros mentions, essentially a sandbox game, as most simulations really are. Set up the game to make it the most fun, and go from there.

I think most people who start playing, usually takes over their favourite team and try to win stuff and become the best team in the world. When you've done that a few times, you might want to do something else, and you start in a different country, or league and try to win everything there. Others don't really care about winning, but just enjoy playing with tactics, to see if they can replicate a real managers tactic, and if they do, how well it does at that point. Many others try various challenges, either that they have thought of themselves, or have seen around the internet. Personally, I always do the "youth only" challenge, and have done for years. This essentially means we holiday for a season and then takes over a club that is promoted into the lowest possible tier and try to win the domestic league as well as the Champions League without buying or loaning any players at all, only using the players we get from our youth intakes every year. It's probably one of the hardest challenges that is viable in the game, but that's what I and others do for fun.

The goals or limitations you set for yourself is up to you, if you indeed want goals, and just don't want to think about anything else than winning the next game!  

[Lionel5116]

9 hours ago, XaW said:

It's essentially an open world game in text!  And around the world of football, of course.

The game will play out, if you join or not, as long as you press continue. How you fit into it and what your goals are, are totally up to you. Do you want to start off without a club and see who wants to hire you and aim to be the best? Go ahead! Do you want to take over Manchester City or PSG and spend millions on the best players and steamroll? Go ahead. Do you want to recreate the glory days of <insert club>? Go ahead.

There are essentially no finish to the game, and the whole game can rather be seen as what other games would have as an end game, where you can do challenges, grind up, or just explore. All of this is possible from day one.

So it's, as @Andros mentions, essentially a sandbox game, as most simulations really are. Set up the game to make it the most fun, and go from there.

I think most people who start playing, usually takes over their favourite team and try to win stuff and become the best team in the world. When you've done that a few times, you might want to do something else, and you start in a different country, or league and try to win everything there. Others don't really care about winning, but just enjoy playing with tactics, to see if they can replicate a real managers tactic, and if they do, how well it does at that point. Many others try various challenges, either that they have thought of themselves, or have seen around the internet. Personally, I always do the "youth only" challenge, and have done for years. This essentially means we holiday for a season and then takes over a club that is promoted into the lowest possible tier and try to win the domestic league as well as the Champions League without buying or loaning any players at all, only using the players we get from our youth intakes every year. It's probably one of the hardest challenges that is viable in the game, but that's what I and others do for fun.

The goals or limitations you set for yourself is up to you, if you indeed want goals, and just don't want to think about anything else than winning the next game!  

I really appreciate all of the feedback guys, Like I stated earlier in my post , been playing so much FIFA, so it was hard to get my head around the overall objective of Football Manager. I must say, the more I play it, the more I love it… I have watched a ton of YouTube videos from various famous Football Manager YouTubers, so I have learned a lot. I am a seasoned “Software Developer” for over 20+ years, so I tend to get really deep when it comes down understanding something. 😂

 

Thanks again guys

[Lionel5116]

10 hours ago, Andros said:

What is the overall objective of Football Manager

There is no objectiv here.  Think of it more like a sandbox game, where you play the game how you like and try to achieve what you want. 

For example:

1) Do I want to take over Real Madrid and try to win 10 Champions league titles in a row?

2) Do I want to take over a league 2 side in England and try to make it to the premiership?

3) Do I want to take over a city's lowest rank side and make it the dominant force in that city?

4) Do I wan to take over a lowly ranked side and never buy players?  Try and get to the premiership with only players comming in from my youth

Do you have to take your team to the championship to say “beat the game” (or is there a concept of say beating the game in FM24)

There is no official beating the game.  The objectives are made by you, and you win the game when you have achieved your goal (see my reply to your 1st question).

Is the object to just have fun as a Football manager through simulation ?

Yep! Sandbox!!  

Fun can be had in many ways (as discussed earlier).  Some people like to get a tactical idea and see how far they can go with it.  I have seen some people choose a player and see if they can make them the highest scorer ever.  

 

As you are pretty new here, I suggest you start with the objectives given to you when you choose a team.  As you get more familiar, take the game to where you want to take it!  

Gotcha
See the comments below I wrote to XAW, have been really getting into it, very detailed game (but I love it)

Thanks again

[Marko1989]

To me, the primary objective is always the Champions League and then I add secondary objectives to make each save different.

For example, when I played with Wolfsburg, my goal was to win the Champions League but it only counts if my main strikers are Bosnian and Brazillian nationalities when I win that Champions League. I was emulating that 2008 Wolfsburg team where their strikers were Edin Džeko and Grafite. 

I always try to replicate some older squads.

Then, my goal for example was to play until one of my players was worth 100.000.000 euros. I had to play 10 seasons with Chievo, I won Serie A 7 times, Champions League 5 times and I had to wait for Portugal to win the World Cup and only then one of my  Portuguese strikers was priced at 100.000.000. 

But this was in FM 2021, when there was an old evaluation system, not this new stupid system there are countless players worth 100 mil or that range "from 200m - 400m". 

So, in short, Champions League is main goal and then you come up with a couple of side objectives.

[XaW]

48 minutes ago, Lionel5116 said:

I really appreciate all of the feedback guys, Like I stated earlier in my post , been playing so much FIFA, so it was hard to get my head around the overall objective of Football Manager. I must say, the more I play it, the more I love it… I have watched a ton of YouTube videos from various famous Football Manager YouTubers, so I have learned a lot. I am a seasoned “Software Developer” for over 20+ years, so I tend to get really deep when it comes down understanding something. 😂

 

Thanks again guys

I will add one more thing. The game actively tries to avoid letting you min-max things, so while there are many ways to find out some things that happen beneath the surface of the game, SI seems to be deliberately obtuse about giving away mechanics or even the best ways to stack them in you favour, unless implicit by the nature of football itself. So most of the "facts" you can read from youtubers or guides or whatnot that does not include a direct quote by SI staff, are the views of the person making them, or in the best cases, seemingly so. Since this is meant to be a simulation, there should be more than one way to do well in the game. So while certain tactical setups, or attributes can have big impacts, SI haven't directly said how much weight any given variable actually have in any given situation, other than the "higher is better" generalisation.

And there is also a bit of randomness mixed into it to mirror how chaotic real life football can be. After all, in football, you can do everything correct and lose, while you can do everything wrong and still win too. And this is true for the game too, some times you are just unlucky.

I just wanted to add this into the mix since you seem to be one that likes to dive deep, just remember that you will find some stuff that won't have 100% answers.

[SPE3D]

As the others have said there are no objectives in this game. Play it and enjoy it anyway you want to. You'll enjoy the successes and get frustrated at the losses but that is the life of a football manager. Enjoy, it's an awesome game.

[FrazT]

The overall objective is to have fun and enjoy your time while playing the game.  That manifests itself in many ways and will depend on what you want from it.  There is no right or wrong way and, if you play a single-player game, you don't have to answer to anyone but yourself.

[phnompenhandy]

On 24/04/2024 at 06:40, Lionel5116 said:

What is the overall objective of Football Manager

What is the objective of a real-life football manager?

Answer that and you've answered your question.

The objective of Pep Guardiola is not the same as a non-league manager, so too in the game.

 

Quote

I have watched a ton of YouTube videos from various famous Football Manager YouTubers, so I have learned a lot.

I used to watch a good few daily YouTube careers. I'm a lower league manager, but I got sick of all of them going from the lowest playable team to winning the Champions League. Maybe most follow that path, but not me. Constant winning and promotions bores me. I set my own objectives, such as seeing how far I can get playing kids my academy has produced, and never buying/acquiring a player from outside the club.

Edited April 25 by phnompenhandy

[Costav]

15 hours ago, Lionel5116 said:

I have watched a ton of YouTube videos from various famous Football Manager YouTubers

Good thing to start with but please stop here if you're really enjoying playing FM. As stated in another discussion, the learning curve is brutal for new players, but once you understand how to master it is very easy to start winning and get slightly bored by the fact that, with a bit of patience, you very rarely underperform. That's why some of us started "personal challenges", in order to keep the game interesting and difficult.

The more you watch youtubers the less you have space to test your own style, even passing through failures and bad results! At the end of the day you need to see it as a journey, there is not an objective to "beat the game" in FM.

I remember (I read an article about it but never saw the video) that during covid some youtubers tested how to "hack" fifa (or PES/eFootball, call it as you wish). To me this is kind of breaking the fun of videogames, and watching too many youtubers' videos on FM sounds (in a smaller scale) a bit the same to me.

[NineCloudNine]

3 hours ago, Costav said:

Good thing to start with but please stop here if you're really enjoying playing FM. As stated in another discussion, the learning curve is brutal for new players, but once you understand how to master it is very easy to start winning and get slightly bored by the fact that, with a bit of patience, you very rarely underperform. That's why some of us started "personal challenges", in order to keep the game interesting and difficult.

The more you watch youtubers the less you have space to test your own style, even passing through failures and bad results! At the end of the day you need to see it as a journey, there is not an objective to "beat the game" in FM.

I remember (I read an article about it but never saw the video) that during covid some youtubers tested how to "hack" fifa (or PES/eFootball, call it as you wish). To me this is kind of breaking the fun of videogames, and watching too many youtubers' videos on FM sounds (in a smaller scale) a bit the same to me.

This is very good advice 

[El Payaso]

I have had a really good time with this version of FM. This, even though I have once again failed to find an interesting long-term save. I can quite easily get bored with the save even if I start to feel that I have signed too many players or if I think that I am doing better than I should. This is of course not fault of the game but more my own mind-set. 

I'm general, I don't see anything game breaking and even some parts of the match engine are probably better than ever. 

A challenge is still quite difficult to find but using attributeless skin, increased realism mod and certain house rules can help. 

[numbas2]

Generally speaking, my objective is to start unemployed and find a job. Then buy and develop players based on my preferred tactic/philosophy etc. Then realistically progress with the club each season, or via another job vacancy/opportunity, to reach the top of the game. 

You create a world of your own with stories all over. Favourite players, records and rivalries. 

[citizenkidd]

It's different for everyone. Here's mine:

I am a sucker for roleplaying, been doing it on FIFA for years and finally decided to try FM, I have been playing FIFA Manager 2013 with mods before,
Explaining it in a list is easier.

1. Before starting any saves, do your research, for example:
   • I once watched/read about AFC Wimbledon famous Crazy Gang in the 80s where they beat Liverpool in the FA Cup.
   • Read the history from wikipedia and some key historic players from transfermarkt.
   • Determine style of play or club culture, usually related to player's attribute I am going to focus on.
   • In this case, Aggressiveness is key to build a culture of dirty players.
   • Pick several other key attributes/traits to focus on building the team, this will infect our scouting, transfer, and training preferences.
2. Choose an ex player/manager from that famous era.
3. If there's no one good enough for a story: (like in this case Vinny Jones is an actor so it's quite unrealistic for him to be a manager)
   • Browse the club legendary players and find one you'd like.
4. You now have your chosen club, culture, and manager to start.
   • For more immersion, download a cutout image of the manager you're roleplaying as.
   • Use the image to generate 3d face, and as your manager profile picture in game.

This method allows me to not focus on wonderkids and min-maxing stuffs but instead have a storyline to built upon, thus making it more interesting.

Currently I am on save of Ryan Shawcross taking over Stoke City as the manager.
He's been taking coaching licenses since he's on Inter Miami and currently is the Youth Coach of Stoke's IRL.
He's famous for the dirty tackles on several Arsenal players, been on the squad at their prime Premier League era.
So based on all that, I know what tactics, training, player's attributes I am going to focus on.

There are tons of new save story I'd like to do, here are some of them:

• Andres Iniesta taking over Barca and focuses on using all La Masia (Youth) players, using Tiki Taka of course.
• Gareth Bale managing Cardiff City since he is one of their Youth products and was born there. He'll focus on improving youth products to help improve Wales player quality. His culture is using any tactics focusing attacking from the wing, primary player attribute to search for are Pace and Acceleration since Bale is one of the fastest footballers of all time.
• Thierry Henry managing AS Monaco, already happened actually IRL but he failed to impress anyone. My plan is for him to focus on Monaco's youth and improve France's youth players aswell. In the long term, he'll take the job at Arsenal to finally try on the Zidane's path of glory as player and manager.

 

Edited April 25 by citizenkidd

[Andros]

@Lionel5116 How is the save going? 

[Brother Ben]

Reminds me of the 3 step rule on the old SI LLM forum. 

1. Choose a team. Play the same team until you've won everything you can, regardless of how long it takes, or until you're sacked. Then start a new game.

2. Choose a team. Play until your reputation attracts the interest of ever increasingly bigger teams; change clubs as and when you're offered jobs until you're in charge at Real Madrid, Juventus, Man Utd or a World Cup winning manager with San Marino.

3. Choose a team. Do crap. Get sacked. Wait for another team. Do crap. Get sacked. Wait for….ad infinitum.',

[NineCloudNine]

15 hours ago, citizenkidd said:

It's different for everyone. Here's mine:

I am a sucker for roleplaying, been doing it on FIFA for years and finally decided to try FM, I have been playing FIFA Manager 2013 with mods before,
Explaining it in a list is easier.

1. Before starting any saves, do your research, for example:
   • I once watched/read about AFC Wimbledon famous Crazy Gang in the 80s where they beat Liverpool in the FA Cup.
   • Read the history from wikipedia and some key historic players from transfermarkt.
   • Determine style of play or club culture, usually related to player's attribute I am going to focus on.
   • In this case, Aggressiveness is key to build a culture of dirty players.
   • Pick several other key attributes/traits to focus on building the team, this will infect our scouting, transfer, and training preferences.
2. Choose an ex player/manager from that famous era.
3. If there's no one good enough for a story: (like in this case Vinny Jones is an actor so it's quite unrealistic for him to be a manager)
   • Browse the club legendary players and find one you'd like.
4. You now have your chosen club, culture, and manager to start.
   • For more immersion, download a cutout image of the manager you're roleplaying as.
   • Use the image to generate 3d face, and as your manager profile picture in game.

This method allows me to not focus on wonderkids and min-maxing stuffs but instead have a storyline to built upon, thus making it more interesting.

Currently I am on save of Ryan Shawcross taking over Stoke City as the manager.
He's been taking coaching licenses since he's on Inter Miami and currently is the Youth Coach of Stoke's IRL.
He's famous for the dirty tackles on several Arsenal players, been on the squad at their prime Premier League era.
So based on all that, I know what tactics, training, player's attributes I am going to focus on.

There are tons of new save story I'd like to do, here are some of them:

• Andres Iniesta taking over Barca and focuses on using all La Masia (Youth) players, using Tiki Taka of course.
• Gareth Bale managing Cardiff City since he is one of their Youth products and was born there. He'll focus on improving youth products to help improve Wales player quality. His culture is using any tactics focusing attacking from the wing, primary player attribute to search for are Pace and Acceleration since Bale is one of the fastest footballers of all time.
• Thierry Henry managing AS Monaco, already happened actually IRL but he failed to impress anyone. My plan is for him to focus on Monaco's youth and improve France's youth players aswell. In the long term, he'll take the job at Arsenal to finally try on the Zidane's path of glory as player and manager.

 

I do similar things, though not to the extent of actually being a famous ex-player. I am currently managing Barcelona with Xavi as my DoF, Carles Puyol as Technical Director, Sergio Busquets as my Assistant, Sergi Barjuan as HOYD and Albert Ferrer & Victor Valdes on the coaching staff.

I’ve undone every paid transfer in since 2020, replacing them with free transfers who Barcelona were strongly linked with IRL. I’m bringing through youth and am only allowed free transfers, with one exception…

…Marcos Leonardo, who I have turned into a recreation of the original Ronaldo and who tore up records in Brazil before I bought him in Jan 24 with a ‘bank loan’.

FM is one of the best role-playing games I have played, and I have a history of role playing gaming going back to tabletop Dungeons & Dragons at school in the 1980s!

 .

 

Edited April 26 by NineCloudNine

[afailed10]

There's not one best way to play FM. But the beauty of this game is its infinite possibilities. One guy will play the team he supports and try to win it all. Other will start unemployed and write his own story.

I personally always start with an idea for that story. Say, my "dream" is to win the Bundesliga, the top league where football is still more important than money and TV rights. But starting the save there is a bit too easy and boring for me. So I pick one of the sorrounding leagues, where I can have success and then hopefully jump ship to Germany. It could be Austria, Poland, Hungary, and so on.

Another idea is to manage Real Madrid, the greatest club in the world. So I idealize a possible path, say starting young in the lower spanish leagues, maybe try to reach Getafe or some of the satelites and so on.

[Lionel5116]

On 25/04/2024 at 11:49, citizenkidd said:

It's different for everyone. Here's mine:

I am a sucker for roleplaying, been doing it on FIFA for years and finally decided to try FM, I have been playing FIFA Manager 2013 with mods before,
Explaining it in a list is easier.

1. Before starting any saves, do your research, for example:
   • I once watched/read about AFC Wimbledon famous Crazy Gang in the 80s where they beat Liverpool in the FA Cup.
   • Read the history from wikipedia and some key historic players from transfermarkt.
   • Determine style of play or club culture, usually related to player's attribute I am going to focus on.
   • In this case, Aggressiveness is key to build a culture of dirty players.
   • Pick several other key attributes/traits to focus on building the team, this will infect our scouting, transfer, and training preferences.
2. Choose an ex player/manager from that famous era.
3. If there's no one good enough for a story: (like in this case Vinny Jones is an actor so it's quite unrealistic for him to be a manager)
   • Browse the club legendary players and find one you'd like.
4. You now have your chosen club, culture, and manager to start.
   • For more immersion, download a cutout image of the manager you're roleplaying as.
   • Use the image to generate 3d face, and as your manager profile picture in game.

This method allows me to not focus on wonderkids and min-maxing stuffs but instead have a storyline to built upon, thus making it more interesting.

Currently I am on save of Ryan Shawcross taking over Stoke City as the manager.
He's been taking coaching licenses since he's on Inter Miami and currently is the Youth Coach of Stoke's IRL.
He's famous for the dirty tackles on several Arsenal players, been on the squad at their prime Premier League era.
So based on all that, I know what tactics, training, player's attributes I am going to focus on.

There are tons of new save story I'd like to do, here are some of them:

• Andres Iniesta taking over Barca and focuses on using all La Masia (Youth) players, using Tiki Taka of course.
• Gareth Bale managing Cardiff City since he is one of their Youth products and was born there. He'll focus on improving youth products to help improve Wales player quality. His culture is using any tactics focusing attacking from the wing, primary player attribute to search for are Pace and Acceleration since Bale is one of the fastest footballers of all time.
• Thierry Henry managing AS Monaco, already happened actually IRL but he failed to impress anyone. My plan is for him to focus on Monaco's youth and improve France's youth players aswell. In the long term, he'll take the job at Arsenal to finally try on the Zidane's path of glory as player and manager.

 

That’s good advice, I have finally started getting comfortable with the interface, menus, how to’s on transfer market, scouting, tactics etc.. (took me about a week or so of playing everyday😂). Now I am starting to shall we say “SPEAK FOOTBALL MANAGER”.. Thanks

[Lionel5116]

On 26/04/2024 at 03:36, afailed10 said:

There's not one best way to play FM. But the beauty of this game is its infinite possibilities. One guy will play the team he supports and try to win it all. Other will start unemployed and write his own story.

I personally always start with an idea for that story. Say, my "dream" is to win the Bundesliga, the top league where football is still more important than money and TV rights. But starting the save there is a bit too easy and boring for me. So I pick one of the sorrounding leagues, where I can have success and then hopefully jump ship to Germany. It could be Austria, Poland, Hungary, and so on.

Another idea is to manage Real Madrid, the greatest club in the world. So I idealize a possible path, say starting young in the lower spanish leagues, maybe try to reach Getafe or some of the satelites and so on.

👍🏿

[Lionel5116]

On 25/04/2024 at 19:49, Andros said:

@Lionel5116 How is the save going? 

I have actually played a couple of versions, from the iOS version to the PC demo on Steam. I am now going to re-up my subscription on Apple Arcade and play the touch version because of being able to rotate between devices. I travel out the country every month on business and an avid iPAD / tablet user (to travel light). The iOS (mobile free version is decent), but I find myself coming home after work gravitating more towards the PC version. I have a pretty good handle on the game now. It’s been challenging, but I finally have gotten there. It is definitely “immersive”.. 😂. I am going to play on Apple Arcade for travel. Then when steam has it’s sale, I am buying that version as well.

Edited April 27 by Lionel5116

[Dadecane]

Nothing better than when u finally ditch FIFA and get-to-know and understand FM (that was fm20 for me) and realize it is far and away and away the best football game in the market and ever made….

….then u spend a few days around these forums and start to question everything u thought. 
 

my advice; enjoy the hell out of it, for true true lovers of the beautiful game, there is nothing quite like it. Appreciate it. Stay away from the forum. Lol

[Lionel5116]

5 hours ago, Dadecane said:

Nothing better than when u finally ditch FIFA and get-to-know and understand FM (that was fm20 for me) and realize it is far and away and away the best football game in the market and ever made….

….then u spend a few days around these forums and start to question everything u thought. 
 

my advice; enjoy the hell out of it, for true true lovers of the beautiful game, there is nothing quite like it. Appreciate it. Stay away from the forum. Lol

, I am with 100%, BURN ALL FIFA (FC24 lovers) .. lol, FM 2024 is the G.O.A.T 

[GoldenGoal]

I like playing in somewhat of a new world. I select fake players only, but since that only masks real players with fake names I holiday for around 25 years so that everyone retires, and true generated players are around. This makes the game a lot more unknown since you can't rely on the same players as you do every save.

This also makes some teams rise and others fall, so I create a manager that has the favorite team as a former big team that is now on mid table position or worse. Then I start with that manager on a lower league like a journeyman save and try to make my way to the top or to this team I favorited. Even if I go to the top I try to take the opportunity to join this favorited team to try to make them world class again unless it would be too unrealistic to switch to them (say you are on first division and this team is like on second or third division).

For example, on FM16 that was Dortmund on one of my saves, they were on mid to low table on Bundesliga after a few decades. I set Dortmund as a favorite and started on some lower league teams and changed to mid table teams over the years until I got to Man UTD and won a few leagues and trophies at the top level.

Finally, there was a vacant spot at Dortmund, and I roleplayed as my manager wanted to go there because it was their childhood club and were they played as a player in the past and they wanted to restore and improve Dortmund. After I got there it took a few seasons to make them into a world class team. That was one of my favorite saves I've had on FM.

Looking forward to FM25 so I can do this again.

Edited April 28 by GoldenGoal

[NineCloudNine]

1 hour ago, GoldenGoal said:

I like playing in somewhat of a new world. I select fake players only, but since that only masks real players with fake names I holiday for around 25 years so that everyone retires, and true generated players are around. This makes the game a lot more unknown since you can't rely on the same players as you do every save.

This also makes some teams rise and others fall, so I create a manager that has the favorite team as a former big team that is now on mid table position or worse. Then I start with that manager on a lower league like a journeyman save and try to make my way to the top or to this team I favorited. Even if I go to the top I try to take the opportunity to join this favorited team to try to make them world class again unless it would be too unrealistic to switch to them (say you are on first division and this team is like on second or third division).

For example, on FM16 that was Dortmund on one of my saves, they were on mid to low table on Bundesliga after a few decades. I started on some lower league teams and changed to mid table teams over the years until I got to Man UTD and won a few leagues and trophies. Finally, there was a vacant spot at Dortmund, and I roleplayed as my manager wanted to go there because it was their childhood club and were they played as a player in the past and they wanted to restore and improve Dortmund. After I got there it took a few seasons to make them into a world class team. That was one of my favorite saves I've had on FM.

Looking forward to FM25 so I can do this again.

This is brilliant 

[Brother Ben]

20 hours ago, GoldenGoal said:

I like playing in somewhat of a new world. I select fake players only, but since that only masks real players with fake names I holiday for around 25 years so that everyone retires, and true generated players are around. This makes the game a lot more unknown since you can't rely on the same players as you do every save.

The best part of this is that you get 25 years of data to look at to make more informed decisions when it comes to players.

It also makes the game more difficult as the personalities will be a lot harder to deal with as you will have a lot of negative personalities that you can't get with real players for legal reasons

Edited April 29 by Brother Ben

[bosque]

On 28/04/2024 at 12:18, GoldenGoal said:

I like playing in somewhat of a new world. I select fake players only, but since that only masks real players with fake names I holiday for around 25 years so that everyone retires, and true generated players are around. This makes the game a lot more unknown since you can't rely on the same players as you do every save.

This also makes some teams rise and others fall, so I create a manager that has the favorite team as a former big team that is now on mid table position or worse. Then I start with that manager on a lower league like a journeyman save and try to make my way to the top or to this team I favorited. Even if I go to the top I try to take the opportunity to join this favorited team to try to make them world class again unless it would be too unrealistic to switch to them (say you are on first division and this team is like on second or third division).

For example, on FM16 that was Dortmund on one of my saves, they were on mid to low table on Bundesliga after a few decades. I set Dortmund as a favorite and started on some lower league teams and changed to mid table teams over the years until I got to Man UTD and won a few leagues and trophies at the top level.

Finally, there was a vacant spot at Dortmund, and I roleplayed as my manager wanted to go there because it was their childhood club and were they played as a player in the past and they wanted to restore and improve Dortmund. After I got there it took a few seasons to make them into a world class team. That was one of my favorite saves I've had on FM.

Looking forward to FM25 so I can do this again.

If you don't want to holiday 25 years, there is a "blank/empty database" you can download so you can start with random players by selecting the option of generate players for playable leagues.

[afailed10]

Em 25/04/2024 em 09:37, Costav disse:

Good thing to start with but please stop here if you're really enjoying playing FM. As stated in another discussion, the learning curve is brutal for new players, but once you understand how to master it is very easy to start winning and get slightly bored by the fact that, with a bit of patience, you very rarely underperform. That's why some of us started "personal challenges", in order to keep the game interesting and difficult.

The more you watch youtubers the less you have space to test your own style, even passing through failures and bad results! At the end of the day you need to see it as a journey, there is not an objective to "beat the game" in FM.

I remember (I read an article about it but never saw the video) that during covid some youtubers tested how to "hack" fifa (or PES/eFootball, call it as you wish). To me this is kind of breaking the fun of videogames, and watching too many youtubers' videos on FM sounds (in a smaller scale) a bit the same to me.

I completely agree. There's not one FM Youtuber I ever followed and I've been playing since CM 98/99 or something. And I really dislike that SI made the game more suitable to the Youtubers format of 3-4 seasons rather than cater the loyal hardcore fanbase.

The best advice I can give however is to start small - small club, small league, small squad. Because if you, say, start with Real Madrid or any big club in a big league, you'll have several dozens players to manage, a multitude of staff roles, several "second" squads and satellite clubs, an endless league and so on. Which will make the game so tedious that you will give up.

With a small club you get less media attention and overall just much less things to worry about so you focus on the core mechanics of the game itself.

Edited May 2 by afailed10

[Lord Duffucus]

I'm attempting to win the top division in 100 different countries. Been going for seven years and have 54 won so far. The challenge has a few rules/guidelines but it's kept the game constantly fresh and interesting.

 

Then I also play domestically in England, randomly picking teams down to step six of the non-league pyramid and using my own quite elaborate points system as a gauge of success. 

 

Bottom line is the possibilities in FM are more or less infinite so it will NEVER be boring. Make your own rules.

 

I have a wife and four kids yet still manage all this - it's my therapy!

[SlayerX]

 

[anagain]

On 24/04/2024 at 00:40, Lionel5116 said:

I have been a long time video game player of all types. I have been playing FIFA for years. Lately I have been getting bored with the whole ULTIMATE team etc.. I have installed Football manager over the last few years, but everytime I started to play, I always got overwhelmed and just uninstalled the game. Now with FM24, I a have spent almost 15+ hours trying to get into it (I have not given up yet 😂).

My questions is:
What is the overall objective of Football Manager
Do you have to take your team to the championship to say “beat the game” (or is there a concept of say beating the game in FM24)
Is the object to just have fun as a Football manager through simulation ?

There's no objective. Or, at least, it's self assigned. Some possible goals for you:

Start at Eastleigh - Your goal is to make the Football League

Start at Bournemouth - Your goal to stay in PL and maybe make Europe

 

There is a lot to FM. It's vast. Don't expect to know the game inside out in 15 hours. I see YT videos with FM players that find new things even though they've been playing years.

A lot of us had it easier because we started playing when FM was a fraction of what it is now. We've seen the game grow. You're coming in at a time when FM is feature heavy, Take your time, pick a side, play some games, find new things as you play. You might lose, not meet objectives and get sacked. Start a new save.

I might recommend tuning into some YTers and watch them play a bit. Watching a video on the game is the best tutorial going. FMs like Zealand will also have videos that introduce features that are less known.

 

It may feel like wading through treacle but one year from now you may just sit there thinking that your so glad you did the wading.

 

EDIT: Bloody hell, this is a few weeks old. I just spent 10 minutes writing what I thought was helpful. OP has probably been playing 300 hours now and knows the game inside out. Who necroed?

Edited May 9 by anagain
Just realised thread is weeks old