Settings, saves & replays

General options

Keeping option changes

An option can affect the current session before its new value has been written for the next start. After changing general or advanced options, use the screen’s Save or confirmation command. Merely applying a value for the open session, leaving the screen or closing the program is not a reliable way to retain it.

1. Change one or more options.
2. Use Save on the options screen and return normally to the main menu.
3. Open the options screen again and confirm that the values still appear.
4. If they return to their old values after restarting the program, check that the settings location under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Championship Soccer is writable rather than read-only.

Transfer-offer settings

Transfer offers for human players determines whether footballers attached to human career profiles are included in the clubs’ normal recruitment activity. When disabled, other clubs do not generate transfer proposals for those footballers.

Transfer offers for computer-controlled players governs the wider market activity among the rest of the player population. With it enabled, clubs scout, buy, sell and renew around their needs, allowing squads to evolve beyond youth promotion alone.

The advanced Offers for human players level changes how frequently clubs explore moves for human footballers. It does not guarantee a suitable offer: performance, club fit, affordability, nationality and expected role still determine whether interest becomes a proposal.

Real-world weather updates

Update METAR weather data before every match lets the game refresh current aviation weather observations when an internet connection is available. Those observations are interpreted as stadium weather, allowing wind, rain, cloud and more dramatic conditions to follow a real location.

When the option is off, matches still receive varied football conditions from the game world. The difference is whether the match draws inspiration from a live observation or from the career’s own weather. Wind and surface conditions affect both teams and can change the practical flight and control of the ball.

Live data connects the fixture conditions to an outside observation. With the option disabled, the career supplies the conditions itself.

Advanced match options

Realistic restores the reference balance. The other controls show whether an element has been increased or reduced from that reference.

Match duration

Sets the real time played in each half, from a compact match to a complete 45-minute half. Longer matches naturally create more possessions, chances, fatigue and statistical events.

Player speed in possession

Changes how quickly footballers can carry the ball. Increasing it makes it easier for attacks to cover space and tends to create more chances and goals.

Influence of speed and stamina

Changes how strongly differences in those attributes separate players and teams. A lower influence produces a more even physical contest.

Shot power

Changes the overall force available to strikes. Reducing it produces slower shots and lowers the general scoring pressure.

Goalie boost

Raises goalkeepers’ effective handling and aerial reach, producing more secure interventions and generally fewer goals.

Reflexes boost

Makes players react more quickly to developing events. Goalkeepers benefit too, but outfield anticipation and loose-ball contests also become sharper.

Offers for human players

Raises or lowers how often clubs investigate transfer approaches for human-controlled footballers.

Played matches and unseen results

The physical controls in this section describe the match that is played or watched through the two-dimensional engine: player movement, ball speed, reactions and goalkeeping are visible there. Result only and fixtures elsewhere in the football world are resolved without displaying that frame-by-frame match. Do not assume that a visible-match adjustment such as Shot power or Goalie boost will reproduce the same change across every unseen result.

When comparing an advanced option, use the same teams and a watched or played friendly, change only one value and save it before the next test. Football remains variable, so compare several matches rather than treating one scoreline as proof of the setting’s size.

Match duration, frames and speed controls

Three settings or commands can make a match appear faster, but they do not describe the same thing:

The displayed match advances through simulation frames. The selected match length determines the intended amount of ball-in-play progression; pauses, half-time presentation and substitution screens are not extra football simply because they remain visible longer. Changing the frame-rate cap changes how quickly those frames are presented in real time, not the competition result by adding minutes to the selected duration.

P pauses a live match. Space advances only a stage that the program permits to be skipped, such as a waiting or presentation sequence. Neither command is a replacement for the duration or speed controls.

Friendly-match rules

When setting up a friendly, choose whether a draw should continue into Extra time. Golden goal ends that additional period when the next goal is scored. Penalty if level sends the match to a shoot-out if the teams remain tied after the selected playing time.

Turn all three off for a conventional friendly that may finish as a draw. Enable extra time and penalties for a cup-like decision. Golden goal changes the character of the extra period, because one attack can end the entire match.

These choices apply to the friendly you are creating. Career cups use the rules defined by their own competition.

Program folder, window and display

1. Keep the supplied program assets together. Do not start the executable from inside a compressed archive or copy only the executable by itself. The supplied data, languages, graphics and sounds should remain together and unchanged in the installation folder.
2. Keep personal content outside the installation. Career saves and supported user content belong under Documents\My Games\Championship Soccer; preferences and diagnostic logs normally belong under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Championship Soccer. See the complete Documents layout.
3. Toggle the display mode with Alt + Enter. This switches between fullscreen and a window and is the quickest recovery when the current mode is inconvenient.
4. Use a display size supported by the active screen. If a newly selected mode produces a black view or a graphics-mode error, return to a previously working windowed mode and choose a resolution no larger than the active desktop.
5. Distinguish blur from a failed mode. A low-resolution game image enlarged by the operating system or display will look softer even though it is running correctly. A window closer to its native size usually appears sharper.

If the program starts but options or saves repeatedly disappear, check the relevant per-user location rather than editing the supplied program data. If it does not reach the main menu, first confirm that the whole installation was extracted and that none of its supplied files were separated from the executable.

Saving and loading a career

Choose Save game from the main menu while a career is active. Select the saves location, enter a clear filename and choose Create or Save. If the name already exists, the game asks before overwriting it.

Choose Load game, select the save and continue. The file preserves the career world: human profiles, clubs, squads, youth players, attributes, contracts, finances, tables, fixtures, cup states, messages, statistics, history and current date.

Saves can use different filenames, allowing several career states to be kept separately. Compression can be enabled or disabled without changing what the career remembers.

Save locations, formats and backups

The normal writable location on Windows is Documents\My Games\Championship Soccer. Use the actual Documents location known to Windows, which may be redirected or managed by OneDrive. Some older or portable installations instead present a saves folder beside the program; use the location shown by that installation rather than creating a second folder with a similar name.

Career files remain directly in the established Championship Soccer folder. Recognised content folders are hidden from the top level of the save and load lists without being moved or deleted. Replays use Replays, while F12 match images use Snapshots.

Safe backup and transfer

1. Close the game before copying an important save.
2. Keep the original file and make a separately named copy rather than overwriting the only known working state.
3. After moving to another program folder or a newer build, load the copy first and verify the date, human profiles, squads and next fixture before replacing anything.
4. A created career is self-contained. A custom folder, ZIP or StartYear.txt is not required to load it; keep the source package only if you want to reproduce, compare or create another career from that world.

See Existing careers do not depend on the package for the distinction between backing up a save and keeping reusable source data.

Compatible program builds can continue an existing save, but compatibility should not be assumed across every future change. A backup made before updating is the recoverable path if a later build changes the save format or the behaviour of an old career.

Instant and saved replays

During a live match, press R to replay the recent action. Press S to toggle slow motion. Press R again or Esc to return to the match.

While the replay is active, press Enter or numeric keypad Enter to save it. A message confirms the replay name. The live result is unaffected; the replay is a record of what has already happened.

From the main menu, choose View replays, select the saved item and load it. Replays belong to the match presentation rather than a career, so they can be enjoyed later without loading the original save first.

Capturing a match screenshot

Press F12 during the two-dimensional match view to capture the current scene. Use it for a goal celebration, a dramatic save, a favourite stadium condition or the final score display.

A screenshot preserves one image; a saved replay preserves the movement around the event. For a goal you want to study and share as a sequence, save the replay. For a single visual memory, use the screenshot.

Common player questions