FM - Empty cupboard start?

[QuikSand]

I have WSM Box 8.0.2, and want to start a new career with a completely empty team. I used the editor that came with the game to empty my target side of all its players, and saved that database under a new name. However, when I start a career, I don't have any option to choose from what database the career is being created. I can't find anything in the preferences menu, or anything along the path toward creating a new league that gives me an option to go to my custom db. (Hope I have terminology correct here)

Anyone have any idea what's up?

[sovereignstar]

So if I'm understanding you right, you don't see this when you start a new game?

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/6002/clipboard02sj5.jpg

I think someone else had problems finding their custom DB awhile ago. Do you have Vista? What is your user data folder in 'General' preferences?

[QuikSand]

Correct - I never see a screen anything like that.

I am not running Vista, just good old XP w/SP2.

My user data folder has not been reset (by me, at least), so it's wherever it started. I'll check on that when I have the game open.

Thanks for checking.

[Critch]

Does the file show up in the "load database" screen on the editor?

If you eventually get the empty cupboard working, you might have to use the FM Modifier thing to change your team's salary budget. I tried an empty cupboard and the salary budget was so low it didn't even cover the generated youth players, never mind allow me to actually sign some first team players.

[QuikSand]

Does the file show up in the "load database" screen on the editor?

Yes, it does.



I guess this is a lost cause. I had some momentum to play a bit this weekend, but couldn't get interested in my fresh start with Margate, and the game's slow pace managed to kill off my interest once again. Maybe another time. *shurg*

[gi]

I believe I had to place the local database under the Football Manager directory, under SI, under My Documents to get it to work. I kept the database in both locations.

[Toddzilla]

Quik,

Try this - open the latest valid database, make no changes, and then save it under a new name. Check to see if you can select that database when you start a new game. If not, either your database is being written to the wrong place or the game isn't looking in the correct place. It's an easy thing to fix - PM me if you'd like to troubleshoot.

[QuikSand]

I believe I had to place the local database under the Football Manager directory, under SI, under My Documents to get it to work. I kept the database in both locations.

That's apparently where my custom DB was placed... are you saying I need to copy my original database to that location as well?

[Critch]

I believe there's an option in the preferences screen within the game to change the folder that you get your custom DBs from.

[gi]

That's apparently where my custom DB was placed... are you saying I need to copy my original database to that location as well?


I believe you need your custom database in both locations. So if it is in one and not the other, copy it. Should be selectable when you start a new game.

[sovereignstar]

I believe you need your custom database in both locations. So if it is in one and not the other, copy it. Should be selectable when you start a new game.

So you think SI has it set up so you need to manually copy DB's to certain locations? I've never had to do that.

[gi]

So you think SI has it set up so you need to manually copy DB's to certain locations? I've never had to do that.

I believe that when you edit the default database and save it under a different name, SI forgot to convert some things from FM to WWSM boxed edition.

[QuikSand]

I believe that when you edit the default database and save it under a different name, SI forgot to convert some things from FM to WWSM boxed edition.

Okay, it took me a bit to follow what you were saying here -- but I finally got it, and it did indeed fix my problem.

Seems that in the My Documents path, it has created two sets of files... one called FM 2008, and another WWSM 2008. The game saved my database in the former, but was searching for it in the latter. I just copied it into the second location, but I reckon I could have told WWSM to look for it in the FM 2008 folder and that should have worked as well.

Serves me right for being an American.


Thanks to everyone for your efforts to help.

[sovereignstar]

I believe that when you edit the default database and save it under a different name, SI forgot to convert some things from FM to WWSM boxed edition.

Yeah, guess it must be strictly a WWSM box-related thing. I edit the default databases (under new names) all the time.

[gi]

Okay, it took me a bit to follow what you were saying here -- but I finally got it, and it did indeed fix my problem.

Seems that in the My Documents path, it has created two sets of files... one called FM 2008, and another WWSM 2008. The game saved my database in the former, but was searching for it in the latter. I just copied it into the second location, but I reckon I could have told WWSM to look for it in the FM 2008 folder and that should have worked as well.

Serves me right for being an American.


Thanks to everyone for your efforts to help.

Sorry if I was confusing, I was multi-tasking when I wrote it and apparently do as well as Microsoft does. ;)

[Toddzilla]

So, Quik, you gonna keep us apprised on your FM dynasty?

:D

[QuikSand]

So, Quik, you gonna keep us apprised on your FM dynasty?

:D

Heh, unlikely. I'm pretty inept at the game overall... I know basically nothing about tactics, and just common-sense my way into team building by pursuing guys with big ratings and so forth. Not much worth writing about, I fear.

[vex]

Heh, unlikely. I'm pretty inept at the game overall... I know basically nothing about tactics, and just common-sense my way into team building by pursuing guys with big ratings and so forth. Not much worth writing about, I fear.


In other words, I would follow it very well;)

[Toddzilla]

In other words, I would follow it very well;)+1

Basically, Quik's common sense >> 90% Experienced FM managers.

[QuikSand]

I appreciate the vote of confidence. I won't rule it out. I really had fun the first time I played out a FM career and documented it here... but honestly, the FOFC community doesn't give me a lot of good feelings much any longer, on any front. *shurg*

[lighthousekeeper]

but honestly, the FOFC community doesn't give me a lot of good feelings much any longer, on any front. *shurg*

hmmm was it coffee warlord listing bull durham as #1 or the fact that cool ranch is losing the primaries?

[sovereignstar]

lincoln city not look good this season

[Toddzilla]

How would to go about an empty cupboard start? If you take over a team and then try to release everyone, you'll blow through a ton of cash and get stuck with "grays" as players.

You could load up the editor and remove everyone from your team, but I wonder if that has any long-term implications.

I think I'll try it with an English Championship team - I don't want too much money nor too high of a reputation as to make it trivial to field a competitive team.

[Critch]

How would to go about an empty cupboard start? If you take over a team and then try to release everyone, you'll blow through a ton of cash and get stuck with "grays" as players.

You could load up the editor and remove everyone from your team, but I wonder if that has any long-term implications.

Using the pre-game editor is the way to go, if you try to release everybody in game the board will step in to stop you and may fire you. Using the editor you can release all the players, when the game starts your youths will be full of regens, but other squads will be empty. You can't get rid of the coaches/physio/scouts as the game will generate staff for you if you remove them with the editor.

If you try the English league, have the Scottish league running too and select it as the start date. English game starts in July, Scottish in June, so the extra month gives you time to actually find some players. And you may need to use an editor to change your salary budget in this version.

[Toddzilla]

Whenever you take over a new club, all staff will accept "Mutual Termination," so you can get rid off the staff quickly and easily

[vex]

Yeah, but you still have to pay them, just a lower amount.

[QuikSand]

Using the pre-game editor is the way to go, if you try to release everybody in game the board will step in to stop you and may fire you. Using the editor you can release all the players, when the game starts your youths will be full of regens, but other squads will be empty. You can't get rid of the coaches/physio/scouts as the game will generate staff for you if you remove them with the editor.

If you try the English league, have the Scottish league running too and select it as the start date. English game starts in July, Scottish in June, so the extra month gives you time to actually find some players. And you may need to use an editor to change your salary budget in this version.

Thanks for the advice... I wonder if the popular editor has yet been upgrdaed to work with WWSM Box 8.0.2. *sigh*

[sovereignstar]

Thanks for the advice... I wonder if the popular editor has yet been upgrdaed to work with WWSM Box 8.0.2. *sigh*

Not sure why you wouldn't use the editor included with the game to do something like this.

[Toddzilla]

Not sure why you wouldn't use the editor included with the game to do something like this.
+1 - the editor includedwith the game is the *only* editor I trust to work...

[Critch]

You'd use the editor that comes with the game to release everybody and set the game up, but so far whenever I've started a game with an empty cupboard database the team has a seriously small salary budget. I tried with an EPL team and the weekly salary budget was 500 pounds.

To change the salary budget then you need to use a third party editor like FMM.

[dacman]

Don't release everybody -- set a July 1, 2007 contract expiration date for all players and staff, and use a Scotland start date (June). July 2nd -- boom -- empty cupboard.

[QuikSand]

Don't release everybody -- set a July 1, 2007 contract expiration date for all players and staff, and use a Scotland start date (June). July 2nd -- boom -- empty cupboard.

I don't see how to do that with the in-game editor... and since I have WSM Box, it appears that I'm basically just fuct with regards to other editors. So far, I can't figure out how to do what I want.

[dacman]

By "in-game editor" do you mean the SI editor that comes with? That's usually referred to as the "pre-game" editor (the in-game being the 3rd party ones that edit saved games).

It's quite possible to do -- the editor isn't exactly the most user friendly -- if you want I can give you a nudge in the right direction.

[QuikSand]

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I didn't see anywhere in the SI/pregame editor that dealt with player contract dates, but I'm sure I could have missed it.

[Toddzilla]

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I didn't see anywhere in the SI/pregame editor that dealt with player contract dates, but I'm sure I could have missed it.
If you load up each player, there is a tab for Contract where you can edit everything.

Or, if you're itching to get going, you can describe what you're trying to do and I'll be happy to edit a DB and send it to you.

However, the best way to go about an empty cupboard IMO is to use the SI editor to remove all of the players from your team:

Load up your team
Go to the Players section
Select a player
At the bottom, choose Remove Player.

when the game starts, you'll have a team of regens, basically forcing you to sign a roster full of dudes in order to be competitive.

If you want to be daring, do the same with your staff and remove all of them as well.

[dacman]

Except that I've heard -- both here and at SI -- that if you remove all the players from a team you will have no wage budget to speak of. That's why changing contract expiration dates is the way to go.

[dacman]

Fire up the editor, find the team you're looking for (easiest to type their name in the search box) and select them.

The top left box should have the team name at the top of a list -- the 7th item down should be "Players & Staff." Select it.

You should see the board of the team by default -- above the main viewing area their should be several tabs -- one of which is "players." Select it.

You should now have the list of that club's players in the main viewing area. You can then select the players one by one by double clicking.

Once you select a player, his particulars should be in the main screen, but the top left area should now have an option called "contract." Select it and the contract expiration date should appear in the main area about halfway down. You can type in a new date or push the down arrow on the select box and a handy calendar will appear and let you select the date that way. If the contract expires box is not checked (and consequently no date), then IIRC that player is already out of contract.

The box on the bottom left will help you navigate back to the player list (choose the team name).

Once your finished, you'll probably want to save the DB with a new name. You will need to copy any .edt, .ddt, and .lnc files you wish to use to the appropriate folders of the new database.

[Critch]

Except that I've heard -- both here and at SI -- that if you remove all the players from a team you will have no wage budget to speak of. That's why changing contract expiration dates is the way to go.

Smart move, that sounds like the way to go. Thanks, I'll be trying that out.

[QuikSand]

Many thanks dacman -- I did the steps that Todd described above several days ago, but I couldn't get out of the "1,000 wage budget" problem, even when I tried to edit that figure. I'll try your method, and give it a go. Many thanks indeed.

[dacman]

I've been informed that a Scotland start date (June 1 I think) will cause an English team to re-calculate the wage budget (on 6/19 or 6/20) which may cause problems, so the best way is to set contract expiration dates to 7/2/07 or some later date and start with an England start date.

[QuikSand]

Well, I'm just not getting this approach to "take" no matter what I do. For some reason, now that I am led to believe it's conceivable to start out with an empty cupboard, I really don't want to start with a stock of players...but damn, this has been frustrating.

I followed the directions above to set up a database with all the Lincoln players with contracts ending on 6/2/2007, went with a 6/1/2007 start date when starting my new career using that database, and all my Lincoln players have normal contracts that end in years 2008 and 2009. *sigh*

[Toddzilla]

Ugh - sorry you're having so many issues, Quik.

My next step would be this....

Start up a normal game with Lincoln - no edits - and see what the wage budget is. Then go into the SI editor, release all the players, and hardcode that budget number into your finances. Hopefully, the budget number will stick.

Worst case scenario, let me know the league parameters you want, I'll start the game, make the edits in FMM, then zip it up and hopefully it will work on your system.

[sovereignstar]

Doing what dacman last said (English start date with 7/2/2007 expiring contracts) left my entire team with month to month contracts.

[sovereignstar]

Start up a normal game with Lincoln - no edits - and see what the wage budget is. Then go into the SI editor, release all the players, and hardcode that budget number into your finances. Hopefully, the budget number will stick.

This doesn't work either (as I think was mentioned above).

[Toddzilla]

This doesn't work either (as I think was mentioned above).Ugh....

Quik - can you zip up your league and u/l it somewhere? I'll see if I can load it, hit it with FMM and give you a transfer/wage budget, then put it back for you.

[QuikSand]

I appreciate your willingness to help out, Todd. I'll try out the latest twist above, and see if I can get somewhere. Alas, I had some extended time to play today, but probably won't have much again for a bit, so no real hurry.

[sovereignstar]

Ugh....

Quik - can you zip up your league and u/l it somewhere? I'll see if I can load it, hit it with FMM and give you a transfer/wage budget, then put it back for you.

This looks somewhat promising. Staff can be given expiring contracts via FMM. They just need to be terminated once their contract expires, so they don't stick around with a month to month. Budget looks fine - just make sure to edit it after you've confirmed your expectations or it'll go back to under 1k.

Looks like you should be able to give youth players expiring contracts too in FMM if that is desirable.

[sovereignstar]

I'm going to consider seeing this through for a career of my own. I think I would want to add a certain amount of money to my transfer budget on top of what the team already has. This would be viewed as money received in an "auction" for all of my players (maybe the sum of 20% of each individual player's worth). I'd also consider editing my chairman or starting with a team that has very low expectations. Just seems like a risky career to move forward with. :)

[QuikSand]

Ugh....

Quik - can you zip up your league and u/l it somewhere? I'll see if I can load it, hit it with FMM and give you a transfer/wage budget, then put it back for you.

Not sure if that will work... I have the WSM Box version, which last I checked was not on the compatibility list for FMM.

And honestly, I'm not trying to make trouble here... whether this all traces back to my use of WSM Box or something else, I am honestly doing everything I can think of and just not getting anywhere. I have gone through and edited all the Lincoln players twice, once to June 2 07 expirations for a Scottish start, and now for a July 2 07 expiration for an English start, and under each setup I start out with a roster full of players whose contracts run through 2008, 2009 and 2010. I have renamed the alternatie database two different times, and have loaded it from both the FM08 and WSM08 sections of My Docs... to no avail.

Fuck it.

[sovereignstar]

Todd is hoping that he might be able to edit the game for you, then send it back your way. If you want to test it out I'll upload a DD saved game for you to see if this would even work.

[sovereignstar]

http://www.suicane.com/quiktest.zip

Was made using the default 8.0.2 database. Hopefully you have that as I'm pretty sure you have to transfer DB's when you transfer saved games.

[Toddzilla]

It's a pretty fast and easy process if the tools work - alas if WWSM is the read-headed step-child of FM, then it seems the Boxed version is the twin brother of the DD version, albeit with a few missing chromosomes.

So Quik - create a new game the way you want it, don't worry about the rosters or staff or anything, just include all the teams and leagues the way you want it with the 8.0.2 db. Upload the save game to rapidshare or some other variant and I'll pull it down and see if I can load it. If so, we're golden - I can use FMM to remove the players, give the team an average bank balance, transfer and wage budgets, and re-upload the file. Should take me 5 minutes, tops.

[Toddzilla]

Not sure if that will work... I have the WWSM Box version, which last I checked was not on the compatibility list for FMM.That incompatibility comes about from FMM not knowing where in RAM to look for the data fields for WWSM-Boxed. FMM knows where WWSM-DD stores the data in memory, so I should be able to load up any saved game and FMM can see it.

[dacman]

Doing what dacman last said (English start date with 7/2/2007 expiring contracts) left my entire team with month to month contracts.


That's the idea...you should now be able to release them for free.

[sovereignstar]

That's the idea...you should now be able to release them for free.

Ah. I figured there was still some negative vibes with that, ie pissing off your chairman by releasing a bunch of guys on frees.