[Guide how to set up an optimal database for a balanced savegame and ways to increase realism (updated 03. May 21) *links updated*]

8 minutes ago, Daveincid said:

@Diplomatt83

Thank you!

If you want to load without custom Nations this is pretty decent!

1. It won't be fast in general so it's down to your patience. In general the game slows down later, but not as much as in older FM's (IMO)

2. I wouldn't set more leagues on full detail but adding International competitions and continental club conpetitions on full detail.

3. See my first sentence^^
 

Cheers

Daveincid

Great stuff - yep, I'll add international comps and continental club comps on full detail as you suggested.

Many thanks!

[Guide how to set up an optimal database for a balanced savegame and ways to increase realism (updated 03. May 21) *links updated*]

Hi - this is a great post and thread, I've been reading it closely before starting my new save, I was hoping you could give me an idea on how the below setup looks:

I have a new laptop:  MSI 15m Stealth,  i7-11375H @ 3.30GHz, 3302 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s), 16GB, 1tb SSD

I'll be starting as Derby and perhaps later in my save move around. The ones in green were in your screenshot as playable on page 1 and the other 5 in black I added after reading more of the thread:

 

COUNTRY	LEAGUES	TYPE	DETAIL LEVEL	RATIONALE
NORTHERN EUROPE
England	4	Playable	Full detail	TOP 5
Scotland	2	Playable / view only below		NEIGHBOUR
Denmark	1	Playable / view only below
Norway	1	Playable / view only below
Sweden	1	Playable / view only below
SOUTHERN EUROPE
Spain	2	Playable / view only below	Full detail	TOP 5
Italy	2	Playable / view only below	Full detail	TOP 5
Portugal	1	Playable / view only below
Greece	1	Playable / view only below
WESTERN EUROPE
France	2	Playable / view only below	Full detail	TOP 5
Germany	2	Playable / view only below	Full detail	TOP 5
Netherlands	1	Playable / view only below
Belgium	1	Playable / view only below
Austria	1	Playable / view only below
Switzerland	1	Playable / view only below
EASTERN EUROPE
Russia	1	Playable / view only below
Ukraine	1	Playable / view only below
ASIA
Turkey	1	Playable / view only below
S Korea	1	Playable / view only below
China	1	Playable / view only below
Qatar	1	Playable / view only below
UAE	1	Playable / view only below
Saudi	1	Playable / view only below
AFRICA
S Africa	1	Playable / view only below
NORTH AMERICA
Mexico	1	Playable / view only below
USA	1	Playable / view only below
SOUTH AMERICA
Argentina	1	Playable / view only below
Brazil	1	Playable / view only below
TOTAL
28	36

 

In addition, I'm planning on adding players from all continents (minus "based in nation" and "of nationality" - so all checkboxes apart from 2 on each continent.

My questions are:

1 - Am I loading too much for my laptop? It only has 4 cores but I think it's a pretty decent one. (I'm okay with it taking a bit of time, but would rather it didn't slow to a crawl later in my save).

2 - I initially had more on full detail but again got worried about taking on too much, should I add more on full detail?

3 - Do you think the above setup looks decent?

 

Any opinions would be great - thank you!

 

[FM19 - Derby County: how are you doing?]

EDIT - sorry I'm new and no idea why this has a white background !

 

I realise I’m a bit late to this but I decided to finally get back into Football Manager after 4 years. Until 2015, I’d played every single game in the series dating back to Championship Manager 2 in the early 90s, so it’s safe to say I’m a HUGE fan of this game.

I also realise FM20 is out now, but last month I had an incredible urge to play again and despite the risks it posed to my new marriage, I purchased FM19 and began as Derby (the team I support).

I always disable transfers in the first window in order to increase the realism, so I had a budget of £0 at the start which was a little frustrating. I also try to avoid any discussions about wonderkids or good players. I’m a bit OCD with this game and it took me 20 hours to press continue for the first time (I try to sort out and analyse absolutely everything within my control).

I completely gutted the backroom staff for my first team, U23s and U18s and brought in over 20 new staff members on a free. I also delegate nothing and prefer to manage everything myself (though I do let my U23 and U18 managers manage their games and sort their training).

In terms of the team, I played 4231 Wide, Bogle was instantly my first choice at right back and has been fantastic, Tomori and Keogh were also excellent all season, as were Mount, Wilson and Lawrence. I loaned in Alexander Sorloth from Palace to play up front and then signed Vincent Janssen from Spurs in January – he was okay. To be honest, the CF position was my weakest area and all my goals came from the 3 attacking players behind the main striker. I didn’t really play Marriott as I wanted to have a strong centre-forward who can head and hold the ball up, so it’s interesting he seems to have been playing great for most others in this thread.

In January, I picked up a few experienced players in Robert Huth and Patrice Evra – they were good but weren’t my star players.

In my first season I managed to win the league with Stoke coming 2^nd.

 

At the start of my 2^nd season in the Premier League, I again gutted the entire backroom staff and now my Team Report states we have one of the best coaching and scouting teams in the league. I also planned on making major sweeping changes and brought in the following players:

 

David Raya – GK (about £10m)

Christian Fuchs – DL (free)

Ivan Marcano – DC (about £7m)

John Souttar – DC (about £3.4m)

Aissa Mandi – DR (about £2m)

Scott McTominay – CM (loan)

Grzegorz Krychowiak – DCM (loan)

Harry Wilson – RW (loan)

Andreas Pereira – AMC (free)

Jese – LW (free)

Arda Turan – AMC (free)

Aleksandr Mitrovic – FW (about £20m)

 

Obviously I felt the team that got me promoted wouldn’t cut it in the Premier League and so made massive changes, I utilized installments in a way to be able to afford them but not crippling my future budgets.

After 15 games I was sitting pretty in 3^rd place, a pretty unbelievable start but I knew it wouldn’t last. We started to hit a rocky patch in December and in January I made the most of my measly £7m budget to bring in a few promising Portuguese youngsters. I’m now at the end of January and sat in 6^th place, I expect the ‘big 6’ to take the top 6 places as they’re spending insane amounts, I’m hopeful of holding on and getting 7^th place ahead of Brighton, but we'll see.

We dominate possession in most games and sit 2^nd in the possession table. Mitrovic is a beast up front and McTominay is absolutely bossing the middle of the park (I particularly wanted at least one tall player in CM and at 6’4, he’s very good at winning balls in the air).

In my first season, I picked up a 17 year old Spanish kid called Pelayo Morilla, due to injuries he ended up playing a bit in the Premier League and ended up getting young player of the month for October. I’ve not played him much since though because my attacking line is way too good to bench.

John Souttar has been a bit of a revelation at the back and was an absolute bargain at around £3.4m (minimum fee release clause).

All in all, I’m pretty delighted at how this has gone so far, I just hope next season the board give me a nice fat transfer budget to try and compete with the big boys.