MLS vs International

[John_Elway]

Curious how many prefer managing career mode for an international team versus MLS team?

Is it harder to get transfers to come to US-based teams?

[danj13]

Re: MLS vs International

You could do a financial takeover, but none of the other teams in the MLS would operate like that so it’s kind of pointless. My favorite thing to do is take a team in England in like league one or two and move them up. I do it every year I just choose a different team to keep it fresh. For player career I like starting in the MLS then move to Europe after a year.

[doorknobb]

Re: MLS vs International

You could do a financial takeover, but none of the other teams in the MLS would operate like that so it’s kind of pointless. My favorite thing to do is take a team in England in like league one or two and move them up. I do it every year I just choose a different team to keep it fresh. For player career I like starting in the MLS then move to Europe after a year.

Yeah this is pretty much where I arrived at as well (Bolton and Crewe are my teams this year). I’d like to do it with even lower level teams as I do on FM but the English league is the only one that has anything close to “depth” in terms of the pyramid. FM doesn’t ship necessarily with very deep playable leagues but mods to add playable tiers are plentiful and creates opportunities for a lot of interesting informal challenges. For quite some time the San Marino challenge was very much in vogue (taking the club team to win the Serie A while taking the national team to at least Euro qualification) and I actually spent 3-4 years mainly trying to make that happen and never was able to. With a little extra work some acknowledgment in bringing a team like Oldham or Swindon back to the Prem would be a nice touch for EA but I’ll settle now if they would manage to acknowledge injuries screwing up a season shouldn’t directly result in a paycut for what are unrealistic expectations in player career to begin with.

Although I definitely never tried starting my player character in MLS and have them move to Europe, might give that a shot next. I’ve gone the French/German 2nd division to La Liga/Prem route a few times but the top teams demand ridiculous things that are impossible to achieve if you get injured and my agent would inevitably try to convince me that Punjab FC is the right move for me. I wish they’d add a “fire agent” option. There’s so much potential there but right now it’s mostly empty platitudes and almost sarcastic and cynical recommendations.

[southernmetalhead]

Re: MLS vs International

Is it harder to get transfers to come to US-based teams?

For the big European players I would try to keep it realistic by not signing them until they are older.

But for players from Argentina and smaller European leagues, it is not difficult at all.

[danj13]

Re: MLS vs International

Yeah this is pretty much where I arrived at as well (Bolton and Crewe are my teams this year). I’d like to do it with even lower level teams as I do on FM but the English league is the only one that has anything close to “depth” in terms of the pyramid. FM doesn’t ship necessarily with very deep playable leagues but mods to add playable tiers are plentiful and creates opportunities for a lot of interesting informal challenges. For quite some time the San Marino challenge was very much in vogue (taking the club team to win the Serie A while taking the national team to at least Euro qualification) and I actually spent 3-4 years mainly trying to make that happen and never was able to. With a little extra work some acknowledgment in bringing a team like Oldham or Swindon back to the Prem would be a nice touch for EA but I’ll settle now if they would manage to acknowledge injuries screwing up a season shouldn’t directly result in a paycut for what are unrealistic expectations in player career to begin with.

Although I definitely never tried starting my player character in MLS and have them move to Europe, might give that a shot next. I’ve gone the French/German 2nd division to La Liga/Prem route a few times but the top teams demand ridiculous things that are impossible to achieve if you get injured and my agent would inevitably try to convince me that Punjab FC is the right move for me. I wish they’d add a “fire agent” option. There’s so much potential there but right now it’s mostly empty platitudes and almost sarcastic and cynical recommendations.

I started on LA Galaxy we ended up winning the cup. The goals can be crazy, but I ended up getting Nottingham Forest after I put them as a target team. I only missed out on one of the money objectives.

[John_Elway]

Re: MLS vs International

You could do a financial takeover, but none of the other teams in the MLS would operate like that so it’s kind of pointless. My favorite thing to do is take a team in England in like league one or two and move them up. I do it every year I just choose a different team to keep it fresh. For player career I like starting in the MLS then move to Europe after a year.

This is a great idea! I was also looking at either a team from Spain or Germany since both those countries have multiple leagues for trying to progress your team to a higher level.

Most the countries only have 1 league so there is no challenge, except to keep winning the same league.

[John_Elway]

Re: MLS vs International

I started on LA Galaxy we ended up winning the cup. The goals can be crazy, but I ended up getting Nottingham Forest after I put them as a target team. I only missed out on one of the money objectives.

What do you mean by "setting them up as a target team"?

[JayD]

Re: MLS vs International

They don't even have the MLS playoff format correct. There's just not enough for MLS to play a devoted career mode. Teams rarely transfer in/out so squads remain the same and only 1 cup alternative with only MLS teams.

[danj13]

Re: MLS vs International

What do you mean by "setting them up as a target team"?

In FC24 player career you can chose a target team, and your agent gives you recommended teams. So I set a team I want to go to and then I had like 9 others from my agent. End of the season you just chose which one you want to go to, if you met the goals.

[doorknobb]

Re: MLS vs International

I made a new build and put him on CF Montreal and it has been pretty fun actually, after I spent some time tuning the sliders so that the larger range of player quality doesn’t end up with results that are too crazy. Having players in the low 80s OVR and low 60s OVR starting regularly in the same lineup is kind of a trip. I’m guessing Messi basically never playing is by design because just for kicks I played as him and it really took almost no time before I was able to score hat tricks regularly and add a couple more assists. But playing as Messi my agent also encouraged me to move to Birmingham City while almost no Prem team would even consider me as an option because the MLS is too low of a league for them. As hilarious as putting Messi on Bournemouth would be (they would actually consider signing me!) I went back to my custom build and ended up missing 3 months from an injury and barely able to sign for Valencia. I definitely have mixed feelings about the farcical part being what makes the game playable conceptually, but what’s the alternative?

Unfortunately getting totally screwed by some random injury and having the game not recognize it at all is basically an EA Sports feature across all their franchises now, exacerbated by the choice to not allow you to ask for a trade in any of their games this year. Getting out of a crappier league just got that much harder since injuries count against you and you come back as a benchwarmer every time it’s something serious enough. At least you know how long you’re out for in EAFC I guess. In the NHL series you literally advance day by day until you’re suddenly good to go, except missing half the season and having to find out on a day-by-day level is its own hell (although you don’t lose your spot so you don’t get booted down to the 4th line for an injury, for example, while EAFC managed to improve by not forcing you out of the team even though you might not make the sub’s bench upon return. Odd game design choices, I must say)