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How to make a save stick?


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I'll start this by saying that I love football, tactics, squad building, managing finances, developing youth and a whole more. Perfect for football manager then? Well, no... not exactly...

I really struggle to turn an exciting save into a career and I'm fed up of it. The game is brilliant but by picking a team only to rarely make it a full season before getting bored and starting a new adventure is getting quite tedious. I feel like I'm wasting my time on the game and I don't like that. I've recently had quite a bit of time off the game but I've come back and it's still the same. For now I've got maybe a Sunday morning and an hour or two a couple of nights a week to sit down and enjoy the game and that's what I want to do, enjoy it!!

This isn't just a moan, I genuinely want help and advice on how to prolong a save and make it into a career. Even around 5 seasons would be amazing. So how do I do it? What team do I pick? How do I continue to find the motivation to keep reloading the save and not be tempted to hit new game?

Has anyone else been in this situation and how did you get out of it? What would anyone suggest that I do in this situation?

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I quite often get this feeling this time of year. I'm usually in the 2040's or 2050's but yeah I know how u feel.

I try one of two things in this situation, I either try a custom database and have some fun (was great doing an Italian excellenza save with sancataldese), or I get as many short term network games as I can. Met what is now a good friend this way too, and it really is fun.

In this years, after my journeyman has finished, I might even dip into a fantasy draft, just for something a bit different.

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1 hour ago, chestermike said:

I quite often get this feeling this time of year. I'm usually in the 2040's or 2050's but yeah I know how u feel.

I try one of two things in this situation, I either try a custom database and have some fun (was great doing an Italian excellenza save with sancataldese), or I get as many short term network games as I can. Met what is now a good friend this way too, and it really is fun.

In this years, after my journeyman has finished, I might even dip into a fantasy draft, just for something a bit different.

No way! I'm happy to get to 2019!

It's a good suggestion to try a group game. If anything it's a bit of incentive to not let anyone down. Would prefer a succession game though so you do your stint then pass it to someone else - less time consuming.

More suggestions anyone? Throw something at me!

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It depends on why you get bored. Do you get bored because you end up dominating? If so, then try something like a youth challenge.

If you just get bored in general, think about when you have fun in FM. Is it by playing lower league? By playing a relegation-battling team in a top division? By managing an already established team and taking them to the next level? Then when you know what your preference is, you'll find it easier to pick a team that will “stick”.

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I get those temptations pretty much every time I watch a live game... Doing a Barcelona save and Crewe are playing on TV... "im going to start a Crewe save and try 442" ... doing a championship save then watch Serie A on BT sport... "ooo I'll start an Inter save and see if Icardi can score 300 league goals for me" ...I just bought my Southampton membership for the upcoming season... no doubt come August the 12th i'll be on the train back from the game raring to set up a Southampton save :D 

Like any habitual trait you succumb to it for so long until you realise you are sick of it. Seems like you've hit that point, so choose your next team wisely and I think you will be fine when the temptation to change comes.

Try picking a team which has some good youngsters so that you can focus on their career, that always helps me continue a long career when I hit that 3rd /4th season temptation.  

 

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Just now, westy8chimp said:

I get those temptations pretty much every time I watch a live game... Doing a Barcelona save and Crewe are playing on TV... "im going to start a Crewe save and try 442" ... doing a championship save then watch Serie A on BT sport... "ooo I'll start an Inter save and see if Icardi can score 300 league goals for me" ...I just bought my Southampton membership for the upcoming season... no doubt come August the 12th i'll be on the train back from the game raring to set up a Southampton save :D 

Like any habitual trait you succumb to it for so long until you realise you are sick of it. Seems like you've hit that point, so choose your next team wisely and I think you will be fine when the temptation to change comes.

Try picking a team which has some good youngsters so that you can focus on their career, that always helps me continue a long career when I hit that 3rd /4th season temptation.  

 

Same, everytime I see  team playing, I wanna take them.

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The worst is when you join a club for a particular player i.e. 5 seasons in and Juve are rejecting £200m for Dybala ... you start a Juve save because you want to have Dybala for a long career ... and he breaks his leg early in the season :seagull: 

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I generally try and totally dominate the country I'm in. So on FM 14(I buy even years) I got to around 2030 i think, started at Real madrid, and went on to dominate spanish football. I known it's not difficult but that was the first FM game i bought a played properly. 


On Fm 16 I started at FC United of Manchester, promoted, moved on to Sheff Wednesday, promoted and then moved up to Inter Milan. Stayed there for around 10 years, again, dominating Italian football and won a champions league. In that same save I've now just moved to Arsenal (2034/35 now) and was planning on the same. However yesterday evening I've started a new save with Ebbsfleet which i'm planning on using for the last 5 months or so of FM16 before FM 18 is released. I'm going to try and see how high i can get in the football league :) 

 

I think the idea is know what you want to do before you start a save, and then choose a team based on that, I've had a few times where I've thought about taking a relatively large team but by no means the largest in their country, with a very good youth system. I would then using youth players try and take that team to be a better team in their country and hopefully onto Euro success. I started with Southampton and finished 4th in the EPL in my first season (somehow) Wasn't doing anywhere near as well in my second season (8th or so) and then my save was corrupted unfortuantely :( 

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I think it's definitely an attention span problem, especially when new more exciting teams and managers pop up on my twitter feed.

What do I like doing on FM? I like 'copying' in vogue teams and tactics to match real life success. I like a good youth save to an extent but that's offset by my short saves.

For my next save I'll probably have a think about which contemporary teams excite me and plump for them. Once I've matched their current achievements or have them playing how they play I'd look to carry on that success with youths and/or a good scouting policy.

For a start I could really focus on the pitch and let my assistant handle a lot of the background stuff which tends to slow me down. Any thoughts on what I should delegate?

 

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23 minutes ago, 1967 said:

For a start I could really focus on the pitch and let my assistant handle a lot of the background stuff which tends to slow me down. Any thoughts on what I should delegate?

You could delegate all of the training, and get a director of football to hire staff for you. Have your assistant do press conferences if he's decent. It all depends on what is slowing you down as just about everything is able to be delegated (delegatable?).

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Try creating storylines for each player and youngster to get you more immersed. Sounds like an immersion problem when nothing initially hooks you. For ex. try making a hardworking average striker in the league below you to be one of the top scorers in your leagues, basing basically your whole play around his success. That would be a nice immersive story while you play. Or try to make the son of your favourite coach successful, etc. Once you're bored you gotta tell your own stories :D

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Having said all that i said earlier regarding the ebbsfleet save, i've literally just changed my mind. I'm going to do a PL team and use youth players/buy under 20 year old players. See what i can do in the last 6 months of FM16.

 

Currently thinking my team (manchester United) or Southampton...

 

On that note, a question for anyone who reads this. When setting up a new game, when i choose countries available, does that affect the players that regen over there? E.g. I currently normally use Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, France, Italy and England, with a large database. In my ebbsfleet save for example, all the other leagues are set to view only. Would this make a difference to the players that will appear in the club systems?

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I was bored too in my saves, so I went for something different. I went to TNS in the Welsh league, with my aim to get them to the champions league group stage. I also started with no badges, I am now studying for a Continental B badge and got knocked out of the group stages (Group did have Inter, Real Madrid and Dortmund in it)

My aim for the save now is to get the Continental Pro badge with TNS, and then move abroad to a lower league side. (decided that I want to stay away from the English leagues in this save as I always manage in them) Trying to make it as a bit of a journeyman save, building myself up to a world class reputation.

I love dealing with the finance side of it as well, to be there is nothing better than getting a team in loads of debt to being financially secure.

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Sounds a fun save after you move on saundersauras, however starting at TNS is one of the easiest games you can have, they are so dominant. I do believe clubs like West End and Rhyl, possibly Bangor also turn full time in Wales, but they are still so far behind you should win every competition every year.

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Having another go this weekend at finding a keeper of a save. Going to be doing a lot more delegating to speed up the game and putting in place restrictions on signings, again to speed up the game.

Going to look at Hibernian in the Scottish Championship. A team with Irish roots that I have a little affinity with, and a good knowledge of Scottish football. I think this is important to give me that little bit extra from the save, I never tend to do well with random clubs that I don't care about.

First season should be all about getting promoted then take it from there. Thanks for all of your suggestions guys and making me think about what I want from the game.

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On 28/06/2017 at 22:04, Analog said:

For me the joy in FM is tied more to the actual management side of things, which for me means setting a philosophy for all areas of the club: staff, finances, play style, discipline, etc.  Success isn't really the biggest thing for me in the game.  It's more about making it "my" club for every little detail, and then the process that sees that come about over time.  

Another save binned.

 

This post by Analog I really connect with. This is the crux for me. I'm not too bothered about shiny trophies. My trouble is that I have the attention span of a goldfish!

 

 

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1 minute ago, Analog said:

You ever done a youth development save in a lower rep. league?  Those are the ones I always stick with, and pretty much every year I have a Dutch save that goes for several seasons.  You can start young players and get away with it in Holland or Belarus, and really manage finances and all kinds of areas of the club somewhat easier because the expectations are a bit lower for quite awhile.

Not successfully for a while.

This is the kind of save that I'm looking at but just can't seem to find the club/ nation that grabs me to do it with. I'd love to be able to develop my own Cantera club with a tiki-taka DNA - bringing through youths with passion, vision, balance etc. Building facilities as I go. 

Wouldn't want to start far down and the problem is my seeming reluctance to stick with a club that means nothing to me.

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19 hours ago, Analog said:

You might give AZ a look.  Facilities are already good at the start of the game, and you can max them out and ping the youth recruitment fairly soon.  Finances are secure, and if you win the league then the CL money goes a long way.  I have 4-5 regens already getting regular starts by 2nd and 3rd seasons, and there are a couple of great prospects at the club when you arrive.  Owen Wijndal was already classified as a wonderkid for me by age 18 after just a bit of tutoring and regular starts.  Just make sure to get a great HoYD in place early.  Less established players will also eventually settle for lower pay, even if they moan for awhile, so you can focus your attention on the longterm and then sell for huge profits once you have the next crop coming through.  Already received a €35M bid for Wijndal, etc., and I think my highest earner is on €12K/wk.  :D

edit: I mean, Wenger is considering my advisement currently.  I run a tight ship.  :D

 

wages.jpg

Impressive!

I've started as AZ  today and I'm finding it very interesting. There's certainly potential in this squad but there needs to be a massive clear out. Both are bonuses. Also, results have been up and down so far which again is a positive for longevity.

I notice that you have Luckassen as a key player. He's one that I didn't think had a future. How does he fit into your side?

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Quite similar to how I'm setting up! Same 4-5-1 shape.

DLF(s)

IF(s) IF (s)

CM(s) CM (a)

DM(d)

WB(s) DC (d) DC (d) WB (s)

GK (d)

Standard/ Flexible, work ball into box, play out of defence, retain possession. CM (s) has more risky passes and GK short kicks. I'm clearly going for a slightly more conservative approach than you but only just - although I intend to play a little more defensively after our start to the season. I'm picking up points but we seem flimsy and weak bellied. 

 

As for a squad clear out, I'm still going through the youngsters and seeing who has got the base attributes to play how I want us to. Bags of potential in a lot of players but some weird attributes. Like you I see most leaving in 1/2 seasons and the rest being promoted to the first team.

 

Hijack the thread all you want, you've got me into a save that has lasted more than one day so go ahead haha.

 

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On 6/28/2017 at 00:09, 1967 said:

No way! I'm happy to get to 2019!

It's a good suggestion to try a group game. If anything it's a bit of incentive to not let anyone down. Would prefer a succession game though so you do your stint then pass it to someone else - less time consuming.

Over at another forum we're doing a Rangers succession save and it's really great so far :) So succession saves really a good place to start with.

 

As for getting into a FM save, try to put yourself out of your comfort zone as much as possible. For me, I usually don't stray away too much from English football and I always end up signing all the kids I know like Bradley Dack, Nathan Smith, Rico Henry, Josh Tymon and even James Bree - basically I end up with a team that's more of the same and that's gotten me bored from playing further. Right now with my Fulham save (picked up from the tycoon's thread here, even though they don't have a tycoon), I tried to escape from making the same signings by scouting extensively France, Spain, Italy, even going through clubs like Maribor (from where I got Valon Ahmedi). I ended up with barely enough HG players to begin a match with, but all the new faces like Guilio Sanseverino, Mory Kone, Julien Laporte, Aitor Bunel, Tasos Lagos - it's definitely refreshing to go in a different direction.

 

Another way to make a game stick is play with heavy rules (YDWAWK, HG Heroes, Bottom at Christmas). I personally enjoy the Homegrown Heroes, as you can employ it with in a smaller nation (Romania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Serbia or Turkey, for example) and try to build not only a competitive team in the league, but be successful in Europe too by playing players only from your own nation (playing as Galatasaray gave me a lot of options, as there are good Turkish players in Germany to sign from). Team like BATE Borisov in Belarus is ideal for YDWAWK game, as they have the youth facilities and they're already good in the league. Athletic Bilbao are also a fresh challenge with their Basque-only team.

 

Playing in nations outside your comfort zone could also help. I've had stints as Santos on FM2016 and it was pretty enjoyable, though with the small release fee clauses there, 3-4 seasons in, I had a team of 100 kids with 5* potential and I was also re-signing Zeca from Man Utd for 9M Euro, after selling him to them for 30M + 50% of next fee.

 

Another thing that I tried to employ recently was putting my inconsistency into one save - I started as Inter but things were going downhill fast, so I resigned and got another job in a different club. Had a good season, but midway through the 2nd i figured I can't take them more forward, so resigned again and applied at a 3rd club. So, basically, whenever you feel like you're "out" on a save, resign and look for a new job in the same save.

 

it's all different ideas, you just have to find the one that suits you :D

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Creating THAT youth team with 100 5* prospects sounds like a dream! Not quite so much is the 1000 game season that is Brazil.

A game with heavy rules sounds like the way to go. Either completely home-grown teams or signing prospects under a certain age (maybe 18). Also setting a club DNA playing style.

Just need to find a team to do this with!!

I'm going to take a break with the intention of starting this sometime next weekend and also post in the find a club thread. Would you suggest any teams for me? Mid-table, short league system, bit of building to do, not too many youths on the books as it stands - I think AZ had too many raw prospects.

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There was this 3rd tier Portuguese side, which I forgot to mention! They have great facilities, but forgot their name...was it Reus?

 

I think my favorite Levski has an okay team and a lot of potential. Also you could be looking at Zurich (great for both HG and YDWAWK games), Southampton, Espanol...or you could also work with teams with crazy fanbase such as St.Pauli or Millwall. Some of these teams aren't really "mid-table", but I'm bouncing off randomly :D

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