I never understand the difference between New Game setups. So like, I'm starting a New Game as Newcastle manager, and I don't plan on moving clubs (unless maybe, the Big Four ). I'm running the game on a laptop (Intel Pentium 1.6 GHz with 1 GB RAM and Intel 855GM mobo, on Windows XP). I have other things installed on this laptop, so it's imperative that I set-up the new game as light as possible to ensure a smooth playing experience.

My game plan is to take Newcastle to European glory , achieving it by being clever in the transfer market, and at the same time nurturing youth players for the future. I'll retain the current players/staff for the first half of the season (no transfer on first window for all clubs). I'll be playing casually and mostly breeze through the matches with built-in tactics and training schedules (I'll change things as I go).


Now, here's my questions:

1. With my laptop spec in mind, which active leagues should I selected? Obviously England, but should I set the lowest active leage as EPL or CCL2 (or even Conference)? The argument for EPL only is that I'll only manage EPL clubs, while the argument for CCL2 is that I'd like to loan my youths to the lower clubs.

2. Is it necessary to activate (though viewable-only) other European leagues, in order to simulate better experience in playing UCL or UEFA Cup? Also, for better simulation of the clubs player development? For example, if I don't active the Serie A, would Inter be top of the pack forever and their player don't develop (ie, become unhappy or injured)?

3. What is the difference (to my game) between database sizes? Obviously more players/clubs/staff, but does the amount of quality (regen or real) players and staff differ between small and large? I figure all top players/staff should already be included in small. Also, small database counts a lot to the processing performance, right?

Thank you in advance for your recommendations.

This won't help, but just wanted to say that I've always wanted to know the answers to these questions too. Hoping someone can shed light!

good questions, and exactly what i wanted to know today as well.

Answers:

1/ Have as many leagues running as the game recommends - even if the league is not running, you can loan players out to lower teams - HOWEVER, the games they play are simmed and as such do not have any detail, hence you won't be able to watch them to see how your youth player is getting on, but your youth will still get the experience from first team football.

2/ It is better to activate the leagues, but it is not the end of the world if you can't.
The main problem with not having the league active is that the same clubs will crop up in the champions league etc, and they will generally be in much better condition than your team (e.g. i just played sevilla, my teams aveerage condition was 95%, theirs was 99% - for some reason simmed games don't tire players out as much).
In the example you give, inters players would develop, just not as much as if they were active, e.g. they can't want to leave due to club underachieving as the club can't under achieve.

If that makes sense :S

3/ If you have a large database set, then their will be quality players from all over the world. If the database is set to small, then there will be FEWER players overall, and to stop the game becoming unbalanced, there will therefore be FEWER quality players.

Run as large a database as you can.

Hope this helps

Hi there, hope this helps a little:

1) I'd go for Championship or League 1 for your spec laptop. Going down to conference will slow you down too much.

2) No. View-Only isn't going to do much here. If you really want the best Euro experience, you need as many Euro leagues as possible. There is an issue in that running England only makes the teams a little stronger in Europe than they should be, so to counter this, run top league Spain and Italy. Obviously this will slow the game down a little, it's up to you to find the balance that suits you.

3) Small database is about right for your laptop, unless of course, you want a whole bunch of players you are never going to sign (being an EPL manager) - at a push for you Medium, but it doesn't seem necessary for EPL management for you.

regarding answer no 2, if i press recommend settings it gives me 4 leagues to run. what difference will it make if i choose league want to play as playable and rest view-only compare to choose all playable. does it effect things such as regens.

On my work laptop (shortly to be replaced) I've and Intel Pentium 1.73ghz with 1 gb of Ram XP and I'm running all the English leagues. I started in BS South and selected a small database.

This works at a very respectable speed, and this is considering my home pc has 2gb with an AMD twin core CPU

Alright. Based on Ched and Wazzerphuk's answer, my New Game setup should be like this:

Selected Country (Lowest Active League):
1. England (Coca Cola League 1)
2. Italy (Serie A)
3. Spain (Primera Liga)
4. Germany (Top Div.)
5. France (Top Div.)

Of the above, only (1) will be Playable (since I'll only be an EPL manager). The rest is View-Only. Or, should I make all of them Playable? I'm going to echo Oggie here: what's the difference?

Database:
Undecided. A bit contradictory here between Ched and Wazzerphuk's answers. Ched said go Large since there'll be more players overall hence more quality players available. Wazzerphuk confirmed my guess that bigger dbs will only add players of less quality/reputation (excluding regens, of course). Small is fine. Which is true?

New question: How about Game Detail Level? I don't really like watching Internationals and other games that doesn't concern my club. If I set it at Minimum, what difference will I get? Say, does Int'l games have some effect on my players (aside from injuries and morale)?