[FM17] Memos From Oceania & Beyond

Memos From Oceania & Beyond

A journeyman save on Football Manager 2017 using claassen's world database. No plans, no ambitions, just pure vibes from a low skilled FM player.

(NB: my username is now TinakoFM, used to be a variety incl. ‘r96skinner’ + ‘Skinner_’) 

---

Info: FM17 was the last FM game that had a save that was actually a relative (!) success, as I went from Singapore to England, via a whole host of other countries, from 2016 to 2061. I shared that story via sortitoutsi here. Since then, I had a couple of decent-to-good saves but nothing that has quite reached that far into the future. I've also fallen out of love for Football Manager in general completely, given I never purchased FM18, FM21 or FM23… and I will not be buying FM24. Also, at the time of typing, I haven't even played anything FM for almost one year (nb: ~04.11.2022).

Based on all that and a small reoccurrance of feeling to play FM, I decided to crack open FM17 and download a world database - something I've always wanted to do but was concerned about save-killing bugs or crashes, but as I don't have great desire at the moment it wouldn't be such a disappointment if a save was to be killed. I can't guarantee if I'll do anything with this save and thus this career post, I wouldn't be shocked if I dropped it next week, but I have previously enjoyed sharing stories on sortitoutsi so by doing so again it'll give me the best possible chance of playing FM regularly. As of right now, progress will likely be limited as I'll only be playing the save when I get time to; likely only to be a few hours a week, but I'm able to increase that if I find it worthwhile of my time. We'll see!

I've no idea how reliable the database is (I assume good) or if my current PC can handle it, so I just going in and hoping for the best. I haven't downloaded anything else, so team names, logos etc. are all default to FM17. I did tick the ‘add players to playable teams’ just to fill out the squads. I usually avoid that as I like ‘true’ squads, but given this is an old game and the level I'll be managing at I don't think it'll make a difference.

Any posts here will be short and sweet in short recap form of any events. If I were to get super deep into the game again (doubtful), then knowing me I'd start doing deeper depth posts.

---

Memo #1: Getting Started.

From the aforementioned database, I've decided to start off in Oceania with American Samoa, Australia (technically part of AFC of course, but added them as it made sense geographically), Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Micronesia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Wallis & Futuna Islands loaded. My manager holds zero coaching badges or prior experience.

My Manager: Meet 29-year-old Argentine (born in Ushuaia) named Juan Martín Castellanos. A Peter Crouch-esque forward, he played in the youth ranks for Deportivo Camioneros, Club Parque, Argentinos Juniors and River Plate before serious injury forced him to retire aged 15. Since then he has been planning a coaching career and, after getting his foot in the door via contacts of a former River teammate who plies his trade as a player in New Zealand, has found his start over in Oceania… but where exactly?

The Job Search: Upon starting the save, I went about finding Castellanos his first job. Numerous clubs returned with an interview as chairmen from Australia, Kiribati, Micronesia and Wallis & Futuna Islands became interested. I decided to pick Kiribati (pronounced KIRR-ih-BASS fyi, not ‘Kirybatty’ as I used to call them many years ago before finding out 🤦 ) as their season had already reached the knockout stage with quarter-finals; and three of the four teams to offer interviews remained in the hunt for the title.

Juan Martín Castellanos' first club is… North Tarawa (aka ETC)! The bookies' 9th (of 20) favourites in the season preview at 14-1. They went unbeaten (W2 D2) in the group stage before winning in the first knockout round to secure a place in the quarter-finals. 🇰🇮

I remember Journeymans Journey, what a save that was! You've had a couple of good saves on here as well mate. I'm like you, always keep going back to FM17, I am planning on playing 24 though. Currently playing another save in FM17 in Brazil.

Love a good journeyman save with random countries, so def following this if you keep at it 

We've both had some interesting saves on here! I think this is my first revisit to FM17 since those other saves of mine, so I'm hoping it'll resurrect my feeling towards FM as I do miss the idea (if not the actual physical process) of playing the game regularly,

I've annoyingly been busy since I started up the save so haven't had the opportunity to play it again yet, which is quite ironic given I actually (albeit minimally) want to give it a go at the moment. I'm going to try and squeeze some game time in over today/tomorrow, which should be enough to finish the season with North Tarawa given it's at its quarter-final stage - especially as we'll probably get knocked out immediately! 😄 We'll see, though.

That’s the thing isn’t it, getting time to actually play it now and get it posted up on to here. I always end up going back to 17, even though I caved and got 24. 

It did cross my mind to buy FM24 as, as usual, SI & Co. do tend to market it well and there's always a buzz about it being ‘the best game yet’ and I have caved in the past (FM22!), but held firm after watching a few YouTube videos of the beta and seeing the match engine still having the same issues that annoy me; despite a few promising changes seemingly with positioning and set pieces.

I've kinda earmarked (maybe) buying FM25 given the change to the Unreal engine, which will hopefully make the match engine act more realistic and won't just be an improvement in graphics only.

I caved and got 24, whether it runs quick on my laptop will have to see, and I am hoping to get a new one for when 25 hits too. They have marketed 24 well and with Japan as a main feature got me hooked, imagine if you could've gone to Japan on journeyman's journey!