I have seen a few threads asking 'How can I start the game with teams on minus points' recently so I thought I would make this thread to show you how.
The long-winded way is to recreate the entire league structure after adding new nation rules in the editor, but most people would rather not spend 3-4 hours making everything work as in real life
I will show you how to add a points deduction without having to recreate the league.
The following might seem daunting if you're not used to editing, but I can gurantee you will be fine and that nothing bad will happen to your game. Crashes etc... are usually because the user has made a mistake -- if you follow my instructions everything will be fine
In my example I will deduct 10 points from Tottenham at the start of my game and 35 points from Arsenal at the start of the following season.
Using this method will also get rid of the 25 man squad rule in season two (I won't put this back in as it's rubbish imo) and the prize money for the league concerned (I will put this back in).
This seems like a lot of work, but it takes less than 10 minutes (and it‘s easy to do)…
Step One.
Load up your game and write down the prize money allocated to each team.
I’m using the premiership so…
20,632,000
19,600,000
18,568,000
17,537,000
16,505,000
15,474,000
14,442,000
13,411,000
12,379,000
11,347,000
10,316,000
9,284,000
8,253,000
7,221,000
6,189,000
5,158,000
4,126,000
3,095,000
2,063,000
1,032,000
Close your game and exit FM.
Step Two.
Load up the Editor.
Click ‘File’ and ‘Load Database’ -- I am using the 10.3 patch.
Click the ‘Create New Nations’ tab.
In the dialogue box click ‘Add lower divisions and cups to existing structure’ and choose the nation your teams are from (in my case England).
Click ‘Finish’.
You will now see all of the countries leagues and cups on the left of your window. If you click Premier League you will see that all editable information is greyed out (protected).
Step Three.
In the Menu (top left of window) click ‘Database’.
Now click the ‘Clubs’ tab and search for the team(s) you are giving a points deduction to.
On the club(s) details page you will see their ‘Unique Id’. Write this down.
Step Four.
Click the File drop down menu and select ‘Save data editor as’.
Give your database a name and save it.
Exit the editor.
Step Five.
Navigate to Your Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2010/editor data
Right click on your new database and open it in NOTEPAD.
You will be confronted with a lot of jargon, but don’t worry. To jump to the section that interests us click on the EDIT drop down menu at the top and select FIND. Type in the following --
<list id="league_comps">
And then click FIND NEXT.
Directly below this is the information regarding the structure of the Premier Division.
Look for the following line of code --
<string id="competition" value="11"/>
<string id="use_game_rules" value="active_comp"/>
and change "active_comp" to "false"
then find --
<list id="sort_value">
<string value="goal_difference"/>
<string value="goals_for"/>
</list>
AFTER this write the following code to add prize money (or copy and paste mine and adjust it how you see fit) --
<list id="prize_money">
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="20632000"/>
<integer id="position" value="1"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="19600000"/>
<integer id="position" value="2"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="18568000"/>
<integer id="position" value="3"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="17537000"/>
<integer id="position" value="4"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="16505000"/>
<integer id="position" value="5"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="15474000"/>
<integer id="position" value="6"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="14442000"/>
<integer id="position" value="7"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="13411000"/>
<integer id="position" value="8"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="12379000"/>
<integer id="position" value="9"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="11347000"/>
<integer id="position" value="10"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="10316000"/>
<integer id="position" value="11"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="9284000"/>
<integer id="position" value="12"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="8253000"/>
<integer id="position" value="13"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="7221000"/>
<integer id="position" value="14"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="6189000"/>
<integer id="position" value="15"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="5158000"/>
<integer id="position" value="16"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="4126000"/>
<integer id="position" value="17"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="3095000"/>
<integer id="position" value="18"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="2063000"/>
<integer id="position" value="19"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="1032000"/>
<integer id="position" value="20"/>
</record>
</list>
Now, directly underneath this put in the points deductions code (again copy, paste and alter if that’s easier). The first lump of code is Tottenham (team 728) the second is Arsenal (team 602) --
<list id="points_deductions">
<record>
<record id="team">
<integer id="Ttea" value="728"/>
</record>
<integer id="year" value="2009"/>
<integer id="points" value="10"/>
</record>
<record>
<record id="team">
<integer id="Ttea" value="602"/>
</record>
<integer id="year" value="2010"/>
<integer id="points" value="35"/>
</record>
</list>
Click FILE and SAVE.
Added information after a test by TheOtherRedDevils...
If you are editing a lower division that uses a play-off system for promotion you must also add in the following code (again adjust to your needs) --
<record id="top_playoff">
<string id="type" value="cup"/>
<integer id="number_places" value="4"/>
<integer id="promotion_places" value="1"/>
<integer id="index" value="1"/>
</record>
You should place this code above the promotion and relegation string, which looks something like this --
<string id="promotion_places" value="2"/>
<string id="relegation_places" value="3"/>
If you want three teams to be promoted (one via play-off) then leave the 2 in the above example as is. The other promotion place in is the play-off code. Changing the above to 3 will in fact add four promotion places (including the play-off) and crash the game.
Have fun J
The long-winded way is to recreate the entire league structure after adding new nation rules in the editor, but most people would rather not spend 3-4 hours making everything work as in real life
I will show you how to add a points deduction without having to recreate the league.
The following might seem daunting if you're not used to editing, but I can gurantee you will be fine and that nothing bad will happen to your game. Crashes etc... are usually because the user has made a mistake -- if you follow my instructions everything will be fine
In my example I will deduct 10 points from Tottenham at the start of my game and 35 points from Arsenal at the start of the following season.
Using this method will also get rid of the 25 man squad rule in season two (I won't put this back in as it's rubbish imo) and the prize money for the league concerned (I will put this back in).
This seems like a lot of work, but it takes less than 10 minutes (and it‘s easy to do)…
Step One.
Load up your game and write down the prize money allocated to each team.
I’m using the premiership so…
20,632,000
19,600,000
18,568,000
17,537,000
16,505,000
15,474,000
14,442,000
13,411,000
12,379,000
11,347,000
10,316,000
9,284,000
8,253,000
7,221,000
6,189,000
5,158,000
4,126,000
3,095,000
2,063,000
1,032,000
Close your game and exit FM.
Step Two.
Load up the Editor.
Click ‘File’ and ‘Load Database’ -- I am using the 10.3 patch.
Click the ‘Create New Nations’ tab.
In the dialogue box click ‘Add lower divisions and cups to existing structure’ and choose the nation your teams are from (in my case England).
Click ‘Finish’.
You will now see all of the countries leagues and cups on the left of your window. If you click Premier League you will see that all editable information is greyed out (protected).
Step Three.
In the Menu (top left of window) click ‘Database’.
Now click the ‘Clubs’ tab and search for the team(s) you are giving a points deduction to.
On the club(s) details page you will see their ‘Unique Id’. Write this down.
Step Four.
Click the File drop down menu and select ‘Save data editor as’.
Give your database a name and save it.
Exit the editor.
Step Five.
Navigate to Your Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2010/editor data
Right click on your new database and open it in NOTEPAD.
You will be confronted with a lot of jargon, but don’t worry. To jump to the section that interests us click on the EDIT drop down menu at the top and select FIND. Type in the following --
<list id="league_comps">
And then click FIND NEXT.
Directly below this is the information regarding the structure of the Premier Division.
Look for the following line of code --
<string id="competition" value="11"/>
<string id="use_game_rules" value="active_comp"/>
and change "active_comp" to "false"
then find --
<list id="sort_value">
<string value="goal_difference"/>
<string value="goals_for"/>
</list>
AFTER this write the following code to add prize money (or copy and paste mine and adjust it how you see fit) --
<list id="prize_money">
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="20632000"/>
<integer id="position" value="1"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="19600000"/>
<integer id="position" value="2"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="18568000"/>
<integer id="position" value="3"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="17537000"/>
<integer id="position" value="4"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="16505000"/>
<integer id="position" value="5"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="15474000"/>
<integer id="position" value="6"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="14442000"/>
<integer id="position" value="7"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="13411000"/>
<integer id="position" value="8"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="12379000"/>
<integer id="position" value="9"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="11347000"/>
<integer id="position" value="10"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="10316000"/>
<integer id="position" value="11"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="9284000"/>
<integer id="position" value="12"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="8253000"/>
<integer id="position" value="13"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="7221000"/>
<integer id="position" value="14"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="6189000"/>
<integer id="position" value="15"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="5158000"/>
<integer id="position" value="16"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="4126000"/>
<integer id="position" value="17"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="3095000"/>
<integer id="position" value="18"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="2063000"/>
<integer id="position" value="19"/>
</record>
<record>
<integer id="cash" value="1032000"/>
<integer id="position" value="20"/>
</record>
</list>
Now, directly underneath this put in the points deductions code (again copy, paste and alter if that’s easier). The first lump of code is Tottenham (team 728) the second is Arsenal (team 602) --
<list id="points_deductions">
<record>
<record id="team">
<integer id="Ttea" value="728"/>
</record>
<integer id="year" value="2009"/>
<integer id="points" value="10"/>
</record>
<record>
<record id="team">
<integer id="Ttea" value="602"/>
</record>
<integer id="year" value="2010"/>
<integer id="points" value="35"/>
</record>
</list>
Click FILE and SAVE.
Added information after a test by TheOtherRedDevils...
If you are editing a lower division that uses a play-off system for promotion you must also add in the following code (again adjust to your needs) --
<record id="top_playoff">
<string id="type" value="cup"/>
<integer id="number_places" value="4"/>
<integer id="promotion_places" value="1"/>
<integer id="index" value="1"/>
</record>
You should place this code above the promotion and relegation string, which looks something like this --
<string id="promotion_places" value="2"/>
<string id="relegation_places" value="3"/>
If you want three teams to be promoted (one via play-off) then leave the 2 in the above example as is. The other promotion place in is the play-off code. Changing the above to 3 will in fact add four promotion places (including the play-off) and crash the game.
Have fun J
Last edited: