andydick

There are 2 things here - the scouting budget and the scouting package. If a club chooses to go with the scouting package of 0 then it essentially means any scouting budget that has been provided can be used for other purposes e.g. re-allocated to transfer budget. The scouting package determines how much of the scouting budget is used up each month. Selecting a scouting package of 'none' isn't suddenly going to remove any scouting budget. If, as Messi suggests, we set the scouting budgets of T9 and T10 to 0 then (presumably) the only package selectable is the 'none' package. If we set T8 to say 5K then they'll be able to select the lowest package (17.5K) but the budget will run out after 3-4 months. That's how I understand it anyway.

You're right - teams like Wrexham and even Dover (from the National South) will have very big scouting budgets. But we're talking about tier 7-10 and I doubt very much that these sides have anything other than a very small budget.

Tier 7/8 should definitely not have the scouting budget to scout the whole of England (which is the 87.5K package). Within the game, Vanarama National sides Bromley, Solihull only have 25K budgets which means they can only scout their division (package is 17.5K). Next package up is 52.5K. In reality tier 7/8 will have very low scouting budgets but for the purposes of the game (and to ensure these clubs can do some form of scouting) their budgets should probably be set to the lowest none zero package, i.e. something like 20K. This will ensure they can scout players from their own division (on the 17.5K package). So, I'd set it to 20K so at least you can cover the teams in your division but I think it would be really interesting to see what would happen if you set it to 20K (tier 7), 10K (tier 8), 5K (tier 9) and 0 (tier 10) so basically you'd have to manage your budget because you wouldn't be able to scout all year round and therefore more dependent on staff recommendations etc. At the moment tiers 10, 9 and 8 are just too easy (and you often get promoted first time around) because you can just get in the best players. Having a small (or no) scouting budget should make the game more of a challenge.

Nearly all of the teams down to level 10 will be semi-pro clubs. Even teams at levels below 10. Where the difference will be is in the types of contracts different teams offer - amateur, non-contract, part-time, full-time etc. There will be sides at all levels that that pay players appearance money (non-contract) and there will be a lot of clubs (mainly 7-8) that pay part-time wages.

Simulated through the first season and all the play-offs worked exactly as they should for steps 3 and 4. FA Trophy was correct too . I thought SI might have fixed it but following a couple of game re-starts etc it's only correct when your database is selected. Well done. One minor issue is the Final which should go to extra-time before penalty kicks. The Isthmian League Cup (or Velocity Trophy to give it its sponsored name) is actually optional entry but forget about that - it's great to have it in there in any form. For the league stuff I haven't checked any of the geography so will have a look at that too.

Yeah, Jack's given your level 8 database the big thumbs up. Well done. I did notice a couple of cosmetic things in the video - the league logo for the Isthmian league was BetVictor for instance, they bowed out a few years ago and Pitching In are now on board. I suspect this is more to do with the logo pack WTS is using rather than anything in game. I'll download and have a look. We know the FA Trophy is broken but things like play-offs and promotions at steps 5 and 6 (getting the right teams to play at home) can be difficult to configure.

This is how I understand how the substitutes work ... Steps 1-4 of non league: 3 from 5 named Steps 5-6 of non-league: 5 from 5 named FA Cup Qualifying Rounds (Extra Prelim to 4th Q/R): 3 from 7 named (plus 1 more in extra time) Competition Proper (Round 1 to Final): 5 from 9 named. Only 3 stoppages allowed (excludes H/T). 1 more stoppage allowed in E/T (no more additional subs though) FA Trophy 3 from 7 named --- Note that the FA Trophy is currently wrong re format. Prior to rounds the game asks about extra time/replays but in reality the only round where extra time applies is the final. For rounds up to and including the semi final, games are settled at the first time of asking and if level at 90 minutes the game goes straight to penalties.

Yep, this is as per the original issue I updated in the FM23 beta bug tracker ... Hugely frustrating and disappointing that the biggest competition in English non-league football is so flawed !

The FA Trophy has no replays and no extra time - it shouldn't be an option. All games (barring the FInal) go straight to penalties if level after 90 minutes. FA Rules .... it's been like this since Covid.

Hmmm, just ran it again and the wrong teams selected - this time only 1 from the NLP and 3 from the Southern South. I never noticed this last season but if you're right then it would surely cause a bigger issue down the line. In your example, at least 5 teams (possibly 6 with Merthyr) would go into the Vanarama South and 2 into the North which would mean teams transferring from the South to North to balance the numbers. Since this season we are running with a straightforward set of teams (8 down from Vanarama North/South and 8 up from step 7) it would seem much easier to promote 2 from the Isthmian and Southern South to the VNS and 2 from the NLP and Southern Central to the North.

Had a quick look at this for FM23. Holidaying to 28th May and then to 25th June (on 24th June there's no "Season Summary" for England). Definite issue on one of the saves in that the 8 promoted teams were made up of 3 from the Southern Premier Central (Hednesford, Mickleover and Tamworth) and there was only 1 from the Isthmian. Obviously there should be 2 teams from each of the step 7 leagues. There may have been issues on previous saves but I was looking for Hornchurch and noticed only 1 Isthmian side on this particular save. I've submitted a bug report.