Air Miles challenge

[kevhamster]

This is a challenge that was created by @TerminalPortugal.   His thread for this challenge is here: 

I loved the concept, so thought I'd give it a go myself.  This could either be an interesting journey, or could end in disaster!  This will be running alongside my other career thread currently, so I will be updating both.  Just it will give me a choice on which career to play at any given time.  But I thought this would give me a chance to manage in places I'd never played in before.

I'm using Riddler's League megapack, as per here: 

 

The following description is listed wholesale from TerminalPortugal's thread, aside from some alterations I've made to the rules for my save (number of air miles, rules re: international management and sackings.

I will have to earn the right to move clubs, through wins at that the current club and each win will give me air miles that will accumulate over time to allow me to potentially move to a club elsewhere.

The formula for accumulating air miles is the following:-

5 x Country World Ranking on the date of my first domestic fixture of the season x Win a Trophy Modifier x Short Season Modifier (5 x WRM X WTM X SSM)

So minimum for every win I get 5 miles per win.

The table for modifiers for World Rankings is as follows:-

World Ranking	Modifier
1	700%
2	693%
3	686%
4	679%
5	672%
6	666%
7	659%
8	652%
9	646%
10	639%
11	633%
12	627%
13	620%
14	614%
15	608%
16	602%
17	596%
18	590%
19	584%
20	578%
21	573%
22	567%
23	561%
24	556%
25	550%
26	544%
27	539%
28	534%
29	528%
30	523%
31	518%
32	513%
33	507%
34	502%
35	497%
36	492%
37	487%
38	483%
39	478%
40	473%
41	468%
42	464%
43	459%
44	454%
45	450%
46	445%
47	441%
48	436%
49	432%
50	428%
51	424%
52	419%
53	415%
54	411%
55	407%
56	403%
57	399%
58	395%
59	391%
60	387%
61	383%
62	379%
63	375%
64	372%
65	368%
66	364%
67	361%
68	357%
69	353%
70	350%
71	346%
72	343%
73	339%
74	336%
75	333%
76	329%
77	326%
78	323%
79	320%
80	316%
81	313%
82	310%
83	307%
84	304%
85	301%
86	298%
87	295%
88	292%
89	289%
90	286%
91	283%
92	280%
93	278%
94	275%
95	272%
96	269%
97	267%
98	264%
99	261%
100	259%
101	256%
102	254%
103	251%
104	249%
105	246%
106	244%
107	241%
108	239%
109	236%
110	234%
111	232%
112	229%
113	227%
114	225%
115	223%
116	220%
117	218%
118	216%
119	214%
120	212%
121	210%
122	207%
123	205%
124	203%
125	201%
126	199%
127	197%
128	195%
129	193%
130	191%
131	190%
132	188%
133	186%
134	184%
135	182%
136	180%
137	178%
138	177%
139	175%
140	173%
141	171%
142	170%
143	168%
144	166%
145	165%
146	163%
147	161%
148	160%
149	158%
150	157%
151	155%
152	153%
153	152%
154	150%
155	149%
156	147%
157	146%
158	144%
159	143%
160	142%
161	140%
162	139%
163	137%
164	136%
165	135%
166	133%
167	132%
168	131%
169	129%
170	128%
171	127%
172	126%
173	124%
174	123%
175	122%
176	121%
177	119%
178	118%
179	117%
180	116%
181	115%
182	114%
183	112%
184	111%
185	110%
186	109%
187	108%
188	107%
189	106%
190	105%
191	104%
192	103%
193	102%
194	101%
195	100%
196	100%
197	100%
198	100%
199	100%
200	100%
201	100%
202	100%
203	100%
204	100%
205	100%
206	100%
207	100%
208	100%
209	100%
210	100%
211	100%

The win a trophy modifier is a straight doubling effect if I win a trophy in that season

So a working example might be, say I am managing Anderlecht in Belgium and win the league. The formula would be (5 x 7 x 2) as they are ranked 1st in the world and I would have won a trophy but the season is over 30 games long. Each win would net me 70 air miles.

And the short season modifier is there in case I play less than 30 fixtures in a season, everything is multiplied up to a 30 fixture season. So if my season is 10 games long and I win 8 games, then the air miles for those games would be multiplied by 3 in this case.

Specific Rules For The Challenge (changes from the original rules are in bold)

1. The epicentre for the miles to and from each club are from club stadium to club stadium when I move clubs.
2. I must only move to another club whether through application or headhunted if they are less than the accumulated miles I have acquired.
3. I can only load other leagues once the closest point of the country is within the accumulated miles distance. Not all countries are there databases for so, some countries do not count, I can't move there anyway.**
4. I can take the national job of the country I am working in, in an effort to improve their world ranking and speed things along.
5. If I move to a job in a new country and am currently manager of the national team of the country I was managing in, I must resign from that national job immediately.
6. If I am sacked I lose half of my points and must take another job in the same country.  It must be a team in the same division or lower from the team that I was sacked from.
7. World Ranking Modifiers are set on the date of the start of pre-season. They only change at the same point in the next season.
8. When and if I do move jobs I lose the air miles for that transit. So if the clubs are 500 miles apart and I have 520 air miles, I can move and I keep 20 air miles in the bank.
9. If a job comes to me mid season and I have not yet completed the season at my club, I will calculate the air miles gained that season on the basis of what has happened up to that point, if I have not yet won a trophy I cannot include the modifier and the world ranking is what was set at the start of the season, all short season modifiers are forfeit.
10. Director of Football challenge, my staff must bring in players, although I have final say on which players leave.#
11. Manager can be any nationality but must start with no badges or experience.

[kevhamster]

Season	Nation	Club	Division	League position	Achievements	Notes
2018/19	Vanuatu	Lakotau FC	Lower Division	6th (of 9)		Lower Division Group B
2019/20	Vanuatu	Lakotau FC	Lower Division	1st (of 9)	Promoted	Lower Division Group B
2020/21	Vanuatu	Lakotau FC	Port Vila Premier	3rd

[kevhamster]

So, for this save I am Jason Broomley.  A 24-year old Australian national.

I am starting my career on the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.  I decided I'd pick a team at random from the country's bottom division (although there are only two divisions, with the bottom division split into two groups).

** I forgot about rule 3 from the first post when setting my game up.  As well as loading Vanuatu, I'd loaded Australia and New Zealand at the same time when setting up the save.  I will leave those in, as in all likelihood these will be the leagues I'll be aiming to move to first.  However, no further leagues will be loaded until they are in range.

I chose Lakotau FC.  They are predicted to finish 6th, although looking around there doesn't appear to be too much difference between the various teams within this league.  And, according to the game, every team in the league actually plays at the same stadium, although this is not something I can verify separately as actual information regarding this league seems to be very limited!

Also, according to Wikipedia the league structure is not as it is in the game, but I'm taking the information within the database at face value and proceeding!

[kevhamster]

Vanuatu are currently ranked 159th in the world.

[TerminalPortugal]

Very glad, you are having a go at this, followed and will be keeping a keen eye on your progress. Let's hope you get out of Vanuatu before I got out of Fiji.

[kevhamster]

Just now, TerminalPortugal said:

Very glad, you are having a go at this, followed and will be keeping a keen eye on your progress. Let's hope you get out of Vanuatu before I got out of Fiji.

It turns out Vanuatu is not quite as remote as Fiji is, plus I've made the base air miles award higher to make it so hopefully progress will be quicker.  That said, judging by your success, I'm sure you're far better at FM than me so we'll see 

[TerminalPortugal]

3 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

It turns out Vanuatu is not quite as remote as Fiji is, plus I've made the base air miles award higher to make it so hopefully progress will be quicker.  That said, judging by your success, I'm sure you're far better at FM than me so we'll see 

Yeah the base will help, but you wait until you are stuck in some remote team that plays six games a year and you lose 5 of them and get like 3 miles that year, very annoying. Best of luck mate!

[kevhamster]

17 minutes ago, TerminalPortugal said:

Yeah the base will help, but you wait until you are stuck in some remote team that plays six games a year and you lose 5 of them and get like 3 miles that year, very annoying. Best of luck mate!

Thanks!   Little question for you.  I have the responsibilities set up like so:

Does this guarantee my chairman will actually bring players in?  I'm about to start the season, my squad is a little light and as yet he's brought in nobody.

[TerminalPortugal]

Just now, kevhamster said:

Thanks!   Little question for you.  I have the responsibilities set up like so:

Does this guarantee my chairman will actually bring players in?  I'm about to start the season, my squad is a little light and as yet he's brought in nobody.

Defo does not guarantee it, but he might, he may also first bring in a DoF first, if he does I would normally change the instructions to the DoF instead when he is in post, as the DoF tends to be a little bit more pro-active in my experience. Generally I would also set up my formation beforehand as they often seem pretty good at bringing in players that fit the system I am going to play.

Hey with DoF challenge expect frustration.

[kevhamster]

1 minute ago, TerminalPortugal said:

Defo does not guarantee it, but he might, he may also first bring in a DoF first, if he does I would normally change the instructions to the DoF instead when he is in post, as the DoF tends to be a little bit more pro-active in my experience. Generally I would also set up my formation beforehand as they often seem pretty good at bringing in players that fit the system I am going to play.

Hey with DoF challenge expect frustration.

Thanks,

In that case, I may decide to look for players myself then, but also allow for the chairman/DoF to sign players as well.

[TerminalPortugal]

Just now, kevhamster said:

Thanks,

In that case, I may decide to look for players myself then, but also allow for the chairman/DoF to sign players as well.

Defo not a bad shout, I was about to blind myself when I was at Central Coast Mariners in Australia with what the DoF was doing.

[kevhamster]

I've found the stadium on Google Maps.  Sadly no street view available in Vanuatu!

[kevhamster]

Although I seem to have come across a prolem...... 

I'm at my first match.  My entire squad is unregistered and the option to register them is all blanked out.

I may have to stop this before I even get going.  Not sure if this is an issue with the modified DB, or whether I've just missed something?
EDIT:  The game has very kindly given me a load of greys to play, but not exactly ideal!

[kevhamster]

Looking at the calendar, the transfer window opens in January, and the season starts in October so I assume I'll be able to register my squad in January.  May be a quirk with the rules in the database so I may need to look at that in the editor and maybe restart my save.

[psychonaut]

Good luck with this career, it's an interesting challenge. Looking forward to reading it. I'd tried installing Riddler's pack so I could do a round the world challenge, but for some reason my game just isn't picking up the league files. 

[kevhamster]

7 hours ago, psychonaut said:

Good luck with this career, it's an interesting challenge. Looking forward to reading it. I'd tried installing Riddler's pack so I could do a round the world challenge, but for some reason my game just isn't picking up the league files. 

Vanuatu certainly is functional, however I can see the transfers windows are a bit skewed meaning the only way you'd be able to play your actual first team in the first few games of the season would be to skip a season and pick it up in the second season.  So I'm going to edit the database file and restart.  I've only played one competitive league game and although I won, it doesn't seem right having to complete it all with greys.

For clarity, the season dates are 28th October to 26th May, but the transfer windows are the 1st July to 31st August, and 1st to 31st January.

I don't think the game actually started until September, although I may be wrong about that.  I'm going to start over and see as I need a registered squad!  If I need to edit those dates, I will.

EDIT: I've just checked, and indeed by starting the game in Vanuatu, the season picks up on 10/09/2018.  So I'm going to need to edit something to make it work.

[kevhamster]

Pre-season was OK.  The 2 losses were against teams in the Premier Division, as was the 5-1 win interestingly.

Plenty of goals all round.

[TerminalPortugal]

4 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

Pre-season was OK.  The 2 losses were against teams in the Premier Division, as was the 5-1 win interestingly.

Plenty of goals all round.

Looks like your ready for the season. Good luck!

[kevhamster]

Just now, TerminalPortugal said:

Looks like your ready for the season. Good luck!

Thanks!  I'd been planning to use instant result mostly, but the football is so chaotic that it's too much fun to watch to skip!

[kevhamster]

Decent start.  Through to the 2nd round of the Shield and an unbeaten start in the league.

There are no fixtures set for December at all, so I'm going to setup a couple of friendles to keep the match practice up.7

Also, the chairman has agreed to allow me to go on a coaching course, so hopefully I will soon have a Contintental C licence.

Somewhat staggered in terms of fixtures played, most likely due to all teams using the same stadium.

[TerminalPortugal]

13 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

Decent start.  Through to the 2nd round of the Shield and an unbeaten start in the league.

There are no fixtures set for December at all, so I'm going to setup a couple of friendles to keep the match practice up.7

Also, the chairman has agreed to allow me to go on a coaching course, so hopefully I will soon have a Contintental C licence.

Somewhat staggered in terms of fixtures played, most likely due to all teams using the same stadium.

Nice start in the league.

[kevhamster]

The only friendlies I could seem to arrange were against the youth team.

Not that the match practice did much  good.  We were dumped out of the cup by a premier division side, and the only league game of the month saw a big loss.

Whilst the table isn't looking great, it's worth reminding myself that every other team has played more matches,  We have 3 league games in February, so we should have a better idea of where we really are after those.

 

[kevhamster]

Not exactly great.  We started with a win.  We were up against it against North Etafe when we had a player given a straight red after 16 minutes.  We opened the scoring on 88 minutes(!) and then conceded an equaliser at the death,

Teouma Academy showed us why they're top of the table at the moment, although we didn't actually play as badly as the scoreline suggested - they were just far more clinical.

Much improvement still needed!

[kevhamster]

Two matches against the  bottom team, and a 3-1 each way.  

The table looks poor, but two wins would see us up to 2nd, which shows how close the table is after 1st.

[TerminalPortugal]

49 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

Two matches against the  bottom team, and a 3-1 each way.  

The table looks poor, but two wins would see us up to 2nd, which shows how close the table is after 1st.

A couple of wins and you'll be challenging.

[kevhamster]

Another unbelievably inconsistent month.  We should have won the last match - the stat shows we had 5 clear cut chances and they didn't.

The table remains less than pretty reading.  One month left, with 5 games to play - pretty much anything can happen and pretty much everything will I imagine!

[TerminalPortugal]

4 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

Another unbelievably inconsistent month.  We should have won the last match - the stat shows we had 5 clear cut chances and they didn't.

The table remains less than pretty reading.  One month left, with 5 games to play - pretty much anything can happen and pretty much everything will I imagine!

Tough break although its unbeleivably competitive and you have games in hand win them and you would be right in the hunt for the top spot.

[kevhamster]

A better month.  Only one win, but also only one loss.  We also managed a draw against the top team in the division in the final game, and probably should have won.

I was thinking that maybe the tactics I'd been employing had been a little bit too complex for this level of football, so next season I'll be trying something a bit more straight forward and see how that goes.

We finish 6th, so not exactly brilliant but it could also be worse.  I'll be aiming for far better next season.

[kevhamster]

So then, the Air Miles!

As you may recall, there's a base points of 5 per win, and as Vanuatu were ranked 159th at the start of the season, the modifier is 1.43x.

We had 6 wins in total (including the first round of the cup), and a short season modifier of 1.875x.

Air miles for the season = 80.44.

So, this covers the entire Port Vila island of Vanuatu, and changes very little in terms of opportunities to move seeing as all but two of the clubs within the Vanuatu league structure play at the Port Vila Municipal Stadium.

A good couple of seasons would possibly see me able to move to New Caledonia, but they're currently only ranked 151st, so only a few places above Vanuatu so at this point that would not be much of an upgrade!

[kevhamster]

I've been offered a new contract with Lakotau, which I've accepted.

[kevhamster]

I've asked the club to take my National B coaching licence (I'd said I went for the Continental C licence earlier in the thread, which was an error on my part - it was the National C).

Sadly, the club has refused on the basis they're skint.  £2,000.00 or so in the red.  Doesn't sound like much, but it's a significant wad of cash at this level.  It shows us as insecure, and this is only going to get worse over the summer.  Most of the wage budget is actually taken up by youth players, as the vast majority of the first team here are signed on a non-contract basis, meaning they only get paid if they're actually in the matchday squad.

[kevhamster]

And as soon as I post that, we get new sponsorship deals, putting us back into the black to the tune of £10,000 or so.  Think I may ask about that coaching badge again as soon as the option becomes available (which it's not at the moment - I really cocked up asking for the course when I did as it was literally 2 days before the new sponsor money came in).

[kevhamster]

Vanuatu's world ranking has dropped 5 places to 164th.  This gives me a modifier of 1.36x for the miles earned this season.  Suddenly New Caledonia seems a bit more appealing!

[TerminalPortugal]

18 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

Vanuatu's world ranking has dropped 5 places to 164th.  This gives me a modifier of 1.36x for the miles earned this season.  Suddenly New Caledonia seems a bit more appealing!

Hopefully you can get the Vanuatu job and get their ranking up. I never managed it all through my thirty odds years in management in my game.

[kevhamster]

I did apply at the beginning, but didn't even get an interview.

I'll apply again if it becomes free!

[kevhamster]

And yet I still can't apply for the National B myself..... 

[kevhamster]

Oh FFS......  My chairman is a dirtbag,

[kevhamster]

Mostly decent set of friendly results.  Let's see if we can translate that to competitive games.

[TerminalPortugal]

29 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

Oh FFS......  My chairman is a dirtbag,

Happens all the time, sometimes they say that when the players are on pre-season break.

[kevhamster]

True, but they've just let one of the coaches go for the Contintental C.... it's so annoying lol

[TerminalPortugal]

6 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

True, but they've just let one of the coaches go for the Contintental C.... it's so annoying lol

Yeah, see that happen all the time too. I honestly think you should have the option of self financing a coaching qualification in the game.

[kevhamster]

We're dumped out of the cup at the first hurdle against Premier Division opposition, and our cause isn't helped at all by a red card.

An excellent start to the league campaign however (and the drawn match against Luvil also saw us receive a red card).  I've decided to remove the "get stuck in" instruction after this, as I could see discipline was going to be a major problem.

However, two very good wins followed.  Early signs are that the move to a much simpler tactical system may be paying dividends, as the team is looking far more convincing than they were last season.

[scousevasey]

13 hours ago, kevhamster said:

True, but they've just let one of the coaches go for the Contintental C.... it's so annoying lol

Their logic will be that there is already one coach spending time away from training for a course, they can’t have two or everyone will stand around looking lost.

 

If your request was accepted first they wouldn’t have let the 2nd go, so it is just an issue of timing

[kevhamster]

Just the one match in December.  We got a draw, but were lucky to get the point.  Another sending off.

Discipline remains an issue, even though I've instructed the team to ease off tackles.

Another annoyance is the inability to arrange friendlies.  Because most teams in the league system use the same stadium, it's constantly in use, making arranging friendlies impossible, even inter-squad ones.  Means you can go for weeks without a game and end up with a team severely lacking in match fitness.

Whilst it's something all teams have to deal with, it's really not ideal.  I won't deny, I'm looking forward to being able to move to a different league for that reason alone!

[kevhamster]

The board have finally allowed me to go on a coaching course.

I should have the National B licence wrapped up by the end of the season.

However, on another note I've lost my best striker in the transfer window thanks to the fact virtually all players are signed on non-contract terms, meaning they're free to move as they please.

[TerminalPortugal]

12 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

The board have finally allowed me to go on a coaching course.

I should have the National B licence wrapped up by the end of the season.

However, on another note I've lost my best striker in the transfer window thanks to the fact virtually all players are signed on non-contract terms, meaning they're free to move as they please.

Oh yeah I remember that in Fiji, not very fun!

[kevhamster]

Two matches, two wins.  Including one against table-toppers Westtan Broncos, in their first loss of the season.

League table is looking good at the moment.

[TerminalPortugal]

11 minutes ago, kevhamster said:

Two matches, two wins.  Including one against table-toppers Westtan Broncos, in their first loss of the season.

League table is looking good at the moment.

Good win there, you can do it!!!

[kevhamster]

February saw an unconvincing draw against the struggling Switi Islanders and a very convincing win over Lopatu.

Just before the Lopatu game, I was being linked with the vacant job at Spirit 08, who are just about in the relegation zone in the premier division.  If I get offered it and take it, it'll use up precisely zero air miles, as they're one of the many teams we share a stadium with.  I'm currently 1-5 favourite according to the bookies, but as of this writing I've not even been offered an interview!

We reach the halfway point at the top of the table.

[kevhamster]

Well, going undefeated for a season was always going to be a big ask.  However, an excellent month all told despite the defeat.

Things are looking good at this point.  The next match is against Shepherds United, and the result of that will be very important, as a win could see us with a near unassailable lead.  Here's hoping!