Help with Advanced Rules

Hi there,

I'm trying to do the following in the advanced editor, I have looked but can't seem to figure out where to set this up

I'm trying to prevent a league from relegating a team for just one season, the first in the game in other words (2021-22)

Division 1 (has 11 teams), Division 2 (has 13 teams), ideally I would like Division 2 to promote 1 team to division 1 in the first year only (no relegation from Division 1), so that both divisions have 12 teams each from the second season onwards; and then set up so that Division 1 has 1 relegation to Division 2 and Division 2 has 1 promotion to Division 1. I hope I've made myself clear; any help to achieve would be really appreciated. Cheers.

You would need to set up two different setups for each competition since the formats for season 1 and season 2 onwards are different.

Have a look at my file in which the Premier League, Challenge League and National Amateur League have different formats in each of the first 3 seasons, for a guide on how to implement something like that 😉 Here's a link to the setup itself in question

To make it easier for yourself, I would suggest opening my file in the FM21 editor and your file in the FM22 editor so that you can toggle between them and see the methods used in my file at the same time you're editing your file. Since you can only have one instance of the FM22 editor open, you'd otherwise need to reload the files in an alternate manner, which takes more time and is much more confusing.

@mons  Thank you for your reply, files and explanations. As it's just a fantasy league and not a recreating a real format, I think I just might try to do a simple workaround (I might just set up a one year, one off qualifying tournament, if that's at all possible). I'm going to investigate…

Once again, thank you for your reply and help.

Cheers

PD: Slightly off topic, do you know if there is a ‘guide’ to the Advanced Rules editor? (I know kingrobbo did a post which was really helpful)

It's a trial and error process, really. That's why I suggested you use as a template another user-created file or one of the default competitions, because you can then see a bit more clearly how things work.

Setting your system up is not as hard as it might seem tbh.

Set up the first season as ending in 2021 (similar to the ones in my file) and with the first tier having 11 teams and no relegation, and the second tier as having 13 teams and 1 promotion, and all other necessary bits (start dates/end dates, number of rounds, substitution rules etc.). Once they validate fine and you have ironed out any kinks, just duplicate both competitions, setting up the duplicated ones as starting in 2022 (instead of ending in 2021) and the top tier having 12 teams and 1 relegation and the second tier as having 12 teams and 1 promotion, and that should be it.

Moreover, I don't know if you were aware of the test competitions panel, but it is an extremely powerful tool for pinpointing any issues, especially in a complex file. I also tend to verify as I go along when building files, and make a bunch of backups. 

Another tip with it then is to go to one of the leagues you have run a test for, and at the bottom is a new tab called "test" which is full of info about how things have been set up and what the results of a season were. It can be extremely useful for checking things quickly without running in game.

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If you have any issues and you're struggling to identify where exactly the hold-up is occurring, this page would help you pinpoint where each competition is stopping and at what stage. After running the test competitions bit, go to one of the leagues you have run a test for, and at the bottom is a new tab called "test" which is full of info about how things have been set up and what the results of a season were. It can be extremely useful for checking things quickly without running in game. You will be able to see how many games actually occurred and where the hold up might be.

@mons  Thanks, I'll give it a go following your file. I'm sure I'll learn something (else) along the way too. Once again thanks for your help and your invaluable explanations. Cheers.