Experiment - Using the Editor to Improve Teams / Competition

Experiments
🔥 Using Editor to Improve Teams / Competition
 

The Big Questions

• Is this game predetermined and the same AI clubs will always win? (spoiler: no)
• Or can you improve a club (using the editor) so they can win? (spoiler: yes)
• And what do you need to change to make a league more competitive / difficult? (answers below!)

Inspired by questions from @ManagerFm <here> who commented that the game was too easy, even if you improve the AI using the editor ...

So I thought - lets EXPERIMENT together - so we can all better understand how this beautiful game works 🙂 

⚠️ You can repeat this experiment yourselves - making whatever changes YOU want!
 

The Setup
Starting a new save unemployed with the top 5 leagues, we then changed one club in each top division:

 

1. max club reputation, facilities, with 100m GBP & 2m GBP / week budgets
2. max each player (first team & reserves) at the club to 5* CA (current ability)
3. max each outfield player (first team only) to be a natural in all outfield positions.
4. max their manager to 5* CA and max reputation.
5. heal morale & injuries on 1st July and 1st January.

These are the only 5 changes made. No transfers. No other clubs edited. Nothing.

Screenshots

Spoiler

Club Edits

Player Edits

Manager Edits

The Reasons
Because past experience suggests that ...

Spoiler

• AI transfers are made based on budgets & club reputation (the best rep. clubs try to sign the best rep. / CA players).  
   
• AI players are selected for each match based on CA for each position (plus condition / form) - so if every outfield player can play in every outfield position, an injury crisis shouldn't hurt too much.  
   
• AI match results are calculated based on something like: club reputation, the selected players' CA, with adjustments for morale, condition and randomness (luck). So if you max a clubs rep, that squad's CA, then they should win most of their matches (but not all)

The Teams
Here are the 5 selected teams: 🇮🇹 Verona, 🇫🇷 Troyes, 🇩🇪 Bochum, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Wolves, 🇪🇸 Vigo !

Spoiler

Italy’s Verona

France’s Troyes

Germany’s Vfl Bochum

England’s Wolves

Spain’s Vigo

YOUR Thoughts

Do you think the game is predetermined - and PSG / Bayern / Man City / Barca will win their leagues easily ...

... or do you think clubs can improve - and these previously-weaker edited clubs will be able to overtake them and win their leagues?

🙂 

Edited April 26, 2025 by DanEnglish

[oskarsson81]

In my personal experience, I used a save some months ago, copied and exported N times to have more slots where modifing and testing tactics. In all the tests, I use same squad and same players (only tactic change). What happened is that I done the same pattern: I had the same difficult in second match and in the seventh match If I won the previous 5  matches and so on. In the second season with near the same players bought I started scoring more than 3 goals per match and from november to february, no more than one or two goal per match and so on. 

I test for no more than 3 seasons and happened quite the same things.

What I mean? in every save, with quite the same choices except the tactic, the game was scripted for me. But not for AI, at least at lower categories (serie B, serie C): there I faced for first position against different teams in every save, in the first season and then.

Maybe for principal first leagues? Probably, but in any case maybe only in the first year

Edited April 26, 2025 by oskarsson81

[ManoKR]

I never really thought about this aspect of the game or tried playing around with it but from my basic understanding of the game, you will probably still get the same 1st season bland results because a surprise is rare.

For example of all the saves I played, bayern have always won the league in the first season and continue to atleast a 3 peat but in one save (esbjerg RTG) bayern never won a league after the 2022/23 league win and suddenly became like a man United of Germany so yeah

[DanEnglish]

Your Votes
I’m actually shocked that your votes are so equal …

Reality
So I simulated (holidayed 1 month at a time) the save of all 5x leagues …

… here’s the results

4x Leagues:
🔥 The Edited Club Won 🔥 

🇮🇹 Verona, 🇫🇷Troyes, 🇩🇪 Bochum, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Wolves, 🇪🇸 Vigo - all won their leagues with between 76 to 98 points.

 
1x League
The Existing Top Club Won 

An edited 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Wolves had a huge injury crisis in the first half of their season, before recovering to finish 2nd - behind a dominant (not-edited) Chelsea side

Summary
This experiment seems to have a clear result …

… the game is NOT predetermined. If you know what to change in the editor*, then YES an edited team can win + dominate … but it’s not guaranteed.

*(club reputation, player CA + positional familiarity, manager CA + reputation, transfer and wage budgets)
 

Thoughts? 🙂

PS. Yes I intend to repeat this experiment to a total of 3x experiments to improve its validity

Edited April 28, 2025 by DanEnglish

[ManagerFm]

Since my writings were used as an "inspiration" for this experiment I will say:
In my opinion FM is much more than holidaying, numbers and searching for internet tactics. It's about "feeling". And you can't experience impact of editor if you're not playing it "properly". There is no human user in this experiment, not only but biggest issue. Dan, I appreciate the effort but I think this experiment took stuff away from topic that inspired this experiment. It seems to me you took "defensive stance" towards my writings, Idk why. And quite frankly seeing this makes me think we misunderstood each other. Or maybe I didn't explain it properly in my original topic.
No further comments your honor 😄 

[delxsoa]

never in my experience playing fmm24 games that chelsea won the league in the first season 🤣

[CZC02]

Hello Dan, this is an interesting topic and I have never thought of using the editor to prove the game is not predetermined.😂

Though I do not think a lot of FMM players will use the editor in a save, I wanted to share my experience on improving a club (managing it or not) as well.

Please allow me to show you my experience on a 30-year save:

Premier League

Spoiler

I managed Chelsea for 3 seasons (22/23 - 24/25) and won 3 PL titles with them. After I left England, they managed to win 15 league titles out of the remaining 27 seasons. Man City won 11 titles and Tottenham won the remaining 1 season. Chelsea and City kept their 5-star reputation throughout the save, so they were able to buy and hold on players of the highest quality. Tottenham remained as a top 6 side for the most part of the save and managed to grind a league title from the two dominant clubs. Leeds and Sheffield United also maintained a 4-star reputation since mid-game, they, like Tottenham, are a regular top 6 side due to a certain factor which I will talk about later on.

Ligue 1

Spoiler

Ligue 1 is easier to overthrow a powerhouse without much intervention. I spent 6 seasons at Lens (39/40 - 44/45), after that they won 4 league titles out of the remaining 7 seasons. Before I managed Lens, PSG already got overthrown by Lyon and Bordeaux without any direct intervention. I will go as far as to say if I did not manage Lens, Bordeaux will win back-to-back league titles. Even Chateauroux, a club from the third division rose to be a French champion in 46/47 season, and I had nothing to do with its rise. At the end of the save Lens and PSG remained as 5-star reputation, while Bordeaux and Chateauroux has a 4-star reputation.

Bundesliga

Spoiler

I managed Dortmund for 6.5 seasons (mid 26/27 - 32/33), after that they won 8 league titles out of the remaining 19 seasons. Before I joined the club, Leverkusen surprisingly won over Bayern for 2 straight seasons. (A player intervention which I will explain later) Werder Bremen also won the league in 47/48 with no intervention at all. In the end, Dortmund and Bayern remained a 5-star reputation, while Leverkusen, a club bouncing within 2nd to 8th place has a 4-star reputation. Werder Bremen, who can battle for relegation and also win the league, has a 3.5-star reputation. I would argue if I did not join Dortmund, RB Leipzeig has a pretty big chance to COMPLETELY REPLACE Bayern as this actually happened in past saves.

Serie A

Spoiler

Serie A is a league of complete chaos. In this save, I managed Fiorentina two times. First stint from mid 25/26 - mid 26/27 ( I accepted a job offer from Dortmund in Jan 2027). The second stint lasted 6 seasons (33/34 - 38/39). But even after leaving Fiorentina, they did not dominate the league like in other leagues. Even though Fiorentina remained the 5-star reputation until the end of the save, other clubs caught up and Serie A ended up being competitive without any player contact.

La Liga

Spoiler

I have the least influence towards La Liga, I managed Madrid at the very end (51/52). It ended up pretty much like other saves: Barca and Madrid dominating the league.

I think there are several ways in improving a club:

1. Manage the club

This is pretty much straight forward. You manage the club, win trophies, get them on a high reputation, and it will retain top players.

E.g. Dortmund. If you did not manage them, they will likely become a mid-table team that fight for European spots. I built a world-class team with them and they haunted me in the Champions League 10 years after I left them.

 

2. Sell good players

This is what deeply affected my save. 3 years into the save, I had this stupid thought of buying every talented player from less dominating countries and develop them to their full potential. I did this by using Scratch's AM 23 to see PA of new gens, targeting midfielders, wingers, and mostly strikers with 150 PA or above, who is not from dominating nations (e.g. Mexico). I mentored them until they have little to none negative personality traits, loan them until they hit 145 CA or above, them sell them to other clubs. Eirik Anderson is an example. I mostly train the strikers to have insane shooting, aerial, decision, movement, and physical stats. Thus, you get to see a bunch of Victor Osimhens in every league. Tottenham, Leeds, Sheffield United, Leverkusen and Bordeaux are the result of this crazy idea, They all have these offensive players who wasn't meant to be that good.

 

I do not know if this provides a good way to improve a club without using an editor (as using the editor really kills the fun), but hope it helps