Mage Noir

From what I can gather, this is poorly phrased as it doesn't mean 'Number of extra lower division teams to be promoted (compared to those being relegated)' and it actually means 'Number of extra teams in this division next season'. So if, in the second tier, three teams are promoted with no teams being relegated from the first tier, while four teams are promoted from the third tier to the second tier with no teams being relegated from the second tier, you have to set 'Number of extra lower division teams to be promoted' to 1 rather than 4. However, how does this work when you're promoting teams from an inactive division? I have a third division which, as it promotes two teams to the second division (with no teams relegated from the second division), promotes two teams from the fourth division, keeping the number of teams in the third division the same. However, the editor doesn't like all three possible setups for the third tier (extra teams set to 2, extra teams set to 0 or extra teams unchecked) and it won't verify the file as it can't find enough teams for third division in the second season. Testing in game it MOSTLY works fine. However, on occasions, it will choose to add a side's under 19 team to the third division, will 'promote' a team from the fourth division while technically keeping them in the fourth division (they're still listed as a fourth division side if you view the list of clubs under the nation), or will promote a team from the fifth division instead, despite me having set the division for relegated teams (with 0 relegation spots) to the fourth division.

I've not used 'Next division' before, but how would I set this up to ensure the specific year the teams are promoted to that division? Would having a hidden stage with 0 teams for several seasons, then suddenly expanding it, make the game realise that it's time to promote the clubs who have their 'next division' set to the league? Technically, I could even do that by placing the teams in another league, then use 'Number of extra lower division teams to be be promoted' to promote them all the season before the competition starts. I guess that's worth a try. Having looked at how SI set up the MLS, it looks like 'Next Division' can only work for the next season? For instance, if I look at FM22. At the time that game was made, it was known that Charlotte FC was joining the league in 2022 and St. Louis City SC was joining in 2023. However, SI decided not to include St. Louis City SC in the game.

An additional point regarding the staffing issue: I've found that the size of the database, perhaps coupled with the number of leagues you have loaded, helps. When I run a large database and several leagues, I don't have issues with clubs not hiring staff. When I run a small database with only leagues from one nation, there are often staffing issues at the lower levels.

I've just experimented with this setup. Having a competition with no stages seems to work just as well as setting the competition to have a single stage in which nothing happens, with the downside that the editor won't verify a competition without stages (I'm using FM18). The problem with both of those methods is that clubs hire and fire managers, while signing and generating players during the several years they are supposed to be inactive. It does seem that the only solution to this is to start without the league running, then add it the season before it's supposed to start, while setting the competition up to have a single stage where nothing happens during its inactive years. While clubs still generate players and make transfers when it's set up as an unloaded league, there isn't as much activity. Ideally I'd like it setup so that for the first few seasons it doesn't seem to exist at all then, when the season it starts begins, the league appears without needing to add it. However, it looks like this cannot be done.

Tier 1 contains only A teams. Tier 2 contains a mix of A teams and B teams. Tier 3 contains only B teams. There are no automatic relegation/promotion spots between tier 2 and 3, but there is one maximum overall promotion/relegation place in both divisions. This is in place in case an A team, whose B team is in tier 2, is relegated from tier 1 to prevent an A team from being in the same league as their B team. This part works perfectly fine and the B team is relegated from the second tier when this occurs. HOWEVER, if the champion of tier 3 has their A team in tier 2, they are still promoted. Is there any way to skip teams for promotion so that only teams that don't have an A team in tier 2 can be promoted?

I'm still experimenting at the moment, but I can't see an obvious way to do this (if it's even possible). If it's impossible to do this properly, then I guess your suggestion (along with setting the format to have no fixtures or a champion for the seasons it isn't supposed to take place) might be the only option. The problem will be remembering to actually activate the league several seasons into the save. Especially since I would be running it as part of a journeyman save.

I have three tiers in a nation, which expands to four tiers in a future season. Does anybody know how to allow the fourth tier to be added and work, while it is inactive for the first few seasons? Simply setting 'Start Year' to the appropriate year for the fourth tier prevents all of the leagues above from starting anew on season update day. I then duplicated the league, checked the 'inactive' box and set up the end year for the inactive version and a start year for the active version. This didn't work either as the league remains inactive when the season it is supposed to start begins.

Is this even possible? I have 12 child competitions in a parent competition. In two of those leagues, as that region has no division at the level below, teams are supposed to be relegated from level 5 to level 7. So I have 22 teams being relegated from step 5, with 18 of those going to step 6 (which has 18 teams promoted) and 4 going to step 7. 'Competition Relegated to' is set to the regional step 7 league for those leagues. However, when I test the rules, I receive an error message telling me that 18 teams are being promoted from step 6 and NONE are being relegated from step 5. If I remove the regional leagues that relegate two tiers, the editor is able to verify everything correctly. But how can I include the two leagues that relegate teams by two tiers instead of one?

That didn't work as the game decides to pick teams from all of the sub divisions rather than the one I told it to. Is there any way of doing this in the editor for FM18?

Alas, I'm using Football Manager 2018 and that version of the editor does not have that feature. The closest is 'Preferred Lower Division Teams for Promotion', but this is for trying to ensure that teams from the correct regional division are promoted. I suppose that might work though. If I were to create sub divisions at the second tier, I could place all of the teams I wanted to be promoted in one sub division, then select that sub division for promotion that season. I'm pretty sure that that shouldn't restrict two of the relegated teams from being promoted back the next season.

I'm trying to set up a competition that is restructured in the future. When this restructure takes place, I want all of the teams that were in the league the season before relegated to the lower division (which is inactive) and replaced with specific promoted teams from the same lower division. Is this even possible? I think I can get all of the teams relegated (the championship playoff messed up relegation for the teams that reached that stage, but I'm assuming that I could bypass this by applying relegation in a dummy hidden stage where nothing else happens). However, I have no idea how to get specific teams promoted from the lower division. 'Get specific team' under 'Teams' for the league doesn't work as the game picks teams to be promoted from the lower division itself, which causes other teams to be promoted to the league but not appear in the table or have any fixtures.