[FM12][Adv] MLB/NFL Style League (30 teams - 2 wild cards each league)

.dbc files:

- Download file NSL - Fictional teams: USA_NSL_v7.dbc

- Download file NFL - 30 NFL teams: NFL_30teams_6div_v7.dbc

- Download file NFL - 32 NFL teams: NFL_32teams_8div_v7.dbc

- Download file MLS - 30 NFL teams: MLS_30teams_6div_v7.dbc

- Download file NFL - 32 NFL teams - no Promotion/Relegation: NFL_32teams_8div_noProm_v7.dbc

.xml files:

- Download file NSL - Fictional teams: USA_NSL_v7.rar

- Download file NFL - 30 NFL teams: NFL_30teams_6div_v7.rar

- Download file NFL - 32 NFL teams: NFL_32teams_8div_v7.rar

- Download file MLS - 30 NFL teams: MLS_30teams_6div_v7.rar

- Download file NFL - 32 NFL teams - no Promotion/Relegation: NFL_32teams_8div_noProm_v7.rar

* Please Note: I switched USA and St Martin (see post #34 for explanation). As a result, the nation of (!) St Martin will be an un-playable (!). This is intentional - when I filled in the missing teams for St Martin the game crashed so I left St Martin in an unplayable state. You just need to select USA when starting up a new game and everything should be fine.

** If anyone would like the files before switching USA and St Martin, please let me know and I will post them (version 6). I found there are indeed more youth players on teams after switching USA and St Martin and simming for a few years.

Planned:

- NBA - 30 NBA teams, 6 divisions, 5 wild cards each conference

- MLB - 30 MLB teams, 6 divisions, 2 wild cards each league (Astros in AL West)

- NHL - 30 NHL teams, 6 divisions, 5 wild cards each conference

OK, I'm just going to throw this out there for anyone who might be interested. Don't know if I will support any problems that might come up. May not spend too much time with FM until FM13. I've tested for more than 30 years and it's working fine for me. I created this with the Advanced Panel over the last couple of years.

- 2937 NSL clubs, all with jerseys, stadiums and cities (Lat and Long) - mostly fictional.

Level 1 - ASC / NSC (American/National Soccer Conference)

- 3 divisions of 5 teams each conference (total 6 divisions - 30 teams)

- division winners plus 2 wild cards from each conference make the playoffs. Wild cards teams play in Round 1 with division winners given a bye. If playoff game is a tie, win is given to team with the better seasonal records (based on PTS).

- ASC playoff winner and NSC playoff winner meet in the NSC championship - similiar to the World Series and Superbowl.

- Season consists of 14 games. Teams play each team in their own division twice (Home and Away), plus 3 games against teams in each ot the other 2 divisions within their conference. Yes, this creates an unbalanced scheduled as in the NFL.

Level 2 - ASC / NSC

- 1 division of 20 teams each conference (total 40 teams)

- 19 games each team

- At the end of the season, there is a playoff ladder. Round 1 is 19th place at 18 place (if tie, win given to team that finished higher), Round 2 is winner of Round 1 at 17th place, Round 3 is winner of Round 2 at 16th place, etc... all the way up to Round 18 - winner of Round 17 at 1st place team. This gives every team a shot to win it all, except for the 20th place team with is relegated to inactive status, and a new random inactive team (from the over 2900 teams) take it's place at Level 2. All 2900+ teams have a starting rep of at last 5000 to give them a chance to compete.

Level 1 / 2 Promotion/Relegation playoff:

- 1 slot for each conference (ASC and NSC). Level 1 15th place team plays the winner of the Level 2 playoff ladder. If the winner is the 15th place (level 1) - no prom/releg, if the winner is the level 2 team, that team is promoted to Level 1 and the 15th place team (loser of the prom/releg playoff) is relegated to level 2. If prom/releg game ends in tie - level 1 teams wins and no prom/releg for that conference.

- This makes it harder for teams to get promoted into Level 1.

Level 2 - relegation

- The 20th place team in Level 2 - each conference is automatically relegated to inactive status.

- A new inactive team from the 2900 or so pool is activated and promoted into level 2.

NOTES:

- Only 19 games at level 2. Each team plays each other team once. Then the ladder playoffs. Every team finishing 1-19 has a shot at promotion. The lower the finish, the harder it will be. If a team finished 19th, they will have to win 18 straight games (no ties) and then win the Lvl1/Lvl2 prom/releg final. If a team finished 1st, they will only have to win 1 ladder game then the Lvl1/Lvl2 final for promotion.

- Broke out ASC and NSC into seperate leagues (3 divisions each), instead of having 1 league with 6 divisions. Done this to keep teams from

Screenshots:

I'm having trouble uploading images to this post - so I added links:

Level 1 - NSL - ASC

Level 1 - NSL - NSC

Level 1 - NSL - ASC - Playoff tree

Level 1 - NSL - NSC - Playoff tree

Level 1 - NSL - ASC Conference standings

Level 1 - NSL - NSC Conference standings

Level 2 - NSL - ASC

Level 2 - NSL - NSC

Level 2 - NSL - ASC - playoff ladder

First off I can see what a lot of time and effort you've put into this so my hat goes off to you , I normally wouldn't be interested in a North American League system but for some reason this grabbed my attention and from what I've seen so far I can see me playing this at some point.

A couple of notes though worth considering/looking at -

1) Continental qualification, no teams that win or are runners up appear to enter the NACL

2) A cup or 2 wouldnt have gone missing maybe 1 for the NSL-ASC and 1 for NSL-NSC teams and 1 for a combined nations league cup using continental rules

but those aside still a very much playable system.

Well done and hope to see more from you in the future

First off I can see what a lot of time and effort you've put into this so my hat goes off to you , I normally wouldn't be interested in a North American League system but for some reason this grabbed my attention and from what I've seen so far I can see me playing this at some point.

A couple of notes though worth considering/looking at -

1) Continental qualification, no teams that win or are runners up appear to enter the NACL

2) A cup or 2 wouldnt have gone missing maybe 1 for the NSL-ASC and 1 for NSL-NSC teams and 1 for a combined nations league cup using continental rules

but those aside still a very much playable system.

Well done and hope to see more from you in the future

Thank you.

I originally created this for my own use. I do realize there are a lot of gaping holes here with no international cups or reserve or youth leagues. I wasn't planning to post due to the this, but decided to just go ahead and put it out there. It's something different - not the customary 20 team 1 division premier league with multiple levels. If someone would like to modify or add, please feel free. But please note, it's already a huge file and takes a bit of time to load up in the game. Since this was created with the Advanced Panel, there is no longer a way to compress into .dbc format.

The playoff system with the division winners and wild card teams is more or less a substitute for the international cups and competition. My desire was to create a league similar to American sports (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL). American sport teams are self contained within the US, the league champions don't go on to play in international competition. My main focus was create something similar with FM12. I do realize MLS does participate in the CONCACAF Cup, but I didn't want to take the additional time to figure out how to incorporate this. My knowledge on international cups is lacking and I'm not big on international competition.

I originally had 10 or so levels set up, but found that only having 2 levels was far more enjoyable for me. Reducing the # of levels allowed me to focus more on all the teams. Also having inactive teams promoted into Level 2 still keeps the game fresh.

BTW dim, you can save it as a dbc but it involves a lot of messing around.

I'm going to have to have a look at this, and so should everyone else reading this statement. Do it. Do it now.

BTW dim, you can save it as a dbc but it involves a lot of messing around.

I'd be very interested in learning how. My file is huge and takes a while to load.

I tried compressing it with the editor and then looking at the .dbc file with a hex editor, but I'm not too swift with hex code and couldn't figure out what to change in the hex code.

Great job dim13 ! I search this type of update for a long time.

I saw in the editor than you have also create NFL team. Have you a playing version of the file with NFL team ?

I'd be very interested in learning how. My file is huge and takes a while to load.

I tried compressing it with the editor and then looking at the .dbc file with a hex editor, but I'm not too swift with hex code and couldn't figure out what to change in the hex code.

The file is huge. I would only recommend compressing the file for release - keep an uncompressed version just in case and make sure you test the compressed version too.

To compress the file you need to deactivate the Advanced Rules - then reload the editor, load the file and save it compressed. The editor loads up the advanced rules by default, just won't display them.

Great job dim13 ! I search this type of update for a long time.

I saw in the editor than you have also create NFL team. Have you a playing version of the file with NFL team ?

Yes, but it's a but outdated with my current file. My original plan was to have the NFL, but with 6 divisions of 5 teams, other 2 teams (teams 31 and 32) starting at level 2. I really dislike the current 8 div of 4 teams NFL structure, but will create it later on if anyone is interested. My plans were also to replicate the NBA, MLB and NHL.

I did created all of the 32 NFL teams with home and away jerseys for each team. Had this all working, but decided to use fictional teams instead. I did save the NFL teams and placed them in an inactive division just in case I wanted to go back to it. I'll either bring the NFL file up to day or modify the existing and swap the NFL teams with the 30 fictional teams. But I'm curently working on a few things now that I want to do first. I'm cleaning up few things, playing around with having everything under just 1 nation (USA) instead of 2.

A note on the schedule: I desperately wanted to have a 16 game schedule for Level 1, but could not get this working correctly. I spend a very long time trying to figure this out. For now, stuck with only 14 games, but teams do play each team in their division twice (home and away). If I create the 32 team current NFL structure, teams would play 15 games.

I'm also planning on adding some cups. A huge cup for all of the 2730 inactive teams (level 3) - to give those teams a chance to increase their Rep. Preseason cups for level 1 and level 2. And/or maybe a huge cup involving every team (2730+30+20). And maybe international cup(s) - lower on my list.

The file is huge. I would only recommend compressing the file for release - keep an uncompressed version just in case and make sure you test the compressed version too.

I know - I've tried and test so many different things. When something is deleted it stays in the file and doesn't get any smaller. I thought about starting over from scratch to reduce the file size, but it would take me too long. I'll just wait until FM13. If there isn't going to be a way to get to the advanced panel in FM13, I don't know what I'll do - may not even purchase the game and just stay with FM12.

To compress the file you need to deactivate the Advanced Rules - then reload the editor, load the file and save it compressed. The editor loads up the advanced rules by default, just won't display them.

Thank you. I'll do this in my next upload - testing out now.

Yes, but it's a but outdated with my current file. My original plan was to have the NFL, but with 6 divisions of 5 teams, other 2 teams (teams 31 and 32) starting at level 2. I really dislike the current 8 div of 4 teams NFL structure, but will create it later on if anyone is interested. My plans were also to replicate the NBA, MLB and NHL.

I did created all of the 32 NFL teams with home and away jerseys for each team. Had this all working, but decided to use fictional teams instead. I did save the NFL teams and placed them in an inactive division just in case I wanted to go back to it. I'll either bring the NFL file up to day or modify the existing and swap the NFL teams with the 30 fictional teams. But I'm curently working on a few things now that I want to do first. I'm cleaning up few things, playing around with having everything under just 1 nation (USA) instead of 2.

I'm also planning on adding some cups. A huge cup for all of the 2730 inactive teams (level 3) - to give those teams a chance to increase their Rep. Preseason cups for level 1 and level 2. And/or maybe a huge cup involving every team (2730+30+20). And maybe international cup(s) - lower on my list.

Any chance to have a level 3 with Ncaa College team ?

Any chance to have a level 3 with Ncaa College team ?

Sorry, I don't see that happening. I might decide to expand levels, maybe through level 10 or 11. If I did, the lowest level might be the 50 states.

OK. Spend some time on this project yesterday and today. My interests have been renewed.

PLEASE SEE POST #1 - new version uploaded (v2), plus an NFL 30 team version

- Posted a newer version (version 2) - cleaned up structures/competitions. All competitions now under USA. Menu structure in game for leagues much cleaner.

- Posted an NFL version with 30 NFL teams - 6 divisions of 5 teams (swapped out NSL teams for NFL teams). Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers start at Level 2 with a slightly higher Reputation than the other Level 2 teams

- Compressed download files from .XML to .DBC for much, much faster loading in game - thank you magicmastermind124 for showing me how to do this with Advanced Panel files.

Currently working on:

- current NFL structure with all 32 teams - 8 divisions of 4 teams. Hope to have available this coming week - need to create a new schedule and create East/West Lat/Long boundaries for the divisions (now 4 instead of 3) and modify the playoffs.

Planned (to-do):

- Add cups - Level 1 and 2 preseason cups, a huge cup for all inactive teams (3700+) - to give the inactive teams a chance to increase their Rep.

- NBA version

- MLB version

- NHL version

OK. Spend some time on this project yesterday and today. My interests have been renewed.

- Posted an NFL version with 30 NFL teams - 6 divisions of 5 teams (swapped out NSL teams for NFL teams). Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers start at Level 2 with a slightly higher Reputation than the other Level 2 teams

Currently working on:

- current NFL structure with all 32 teams - 8 divisions of 4 teams. Hope to have available this coming week - need to create a new schedule and create East/West Lat/Long boundaries for the divisions (now 4 instead of 3) and modify the playoffs.

A big thanks to you dim13 for this enormous work !

Added a Beta version for the currently NFL structure - 32 teams with 8 division. See top of post #1 for download link.

A couple of bugs I need to fix that I caught while testing:

- a few teams in the wrong division.

- playoff seeding for round 2 of the playoffs.

Currently working on fixing these.

Any chance to have a level 3 with Ncaa College team ?

I've been thinking about this some. If I have the time, what I might do is have NCAA as Level 1 (Division 1 = Level 1) with an NCAA Tournament after the season (same as the NCAA basketball tournament). 68 teams (64 plus the 4 play-ins). Still gathering thoughts on this. Level 2 and Level 3 would be NCAA Divisions 2 and 3, with promotion/relegation. Maybe Level 4 = community colleges.

I've been thinking about this some. If I have the time, what I might do is have NCAA as Level 1 (Division 1 = Level 1) with an NCAA Tournament after the season (same as the NCAA basketball tournament). 68 teams (64 plus the 4 play-ins). Still gathering thoughts on this. Level 2 and Level 3 would be NCAA Divisions 2 and 3, with promotion/relegation. Maybe Level 4 = community colleges.

Thank a lot for this huge work .

32 team structue and Ncaa college team !! you create league more faster than I test it !

I've been thinking about this some. If I have the time, what I might do is have NCAA as Level 1 (Division 1 = Level 1) with an NCAA Tournament after the season (same as the NCAA basketball tournament). 68 teams (64 plus the 4 play-ins). Still gathering thoughts on this. Level 2 and Level 3 would be NCAA Divisions 2 and 3, with promotion/relegation. Maybe Level 4 = community colleges.

If you are going to use all of the schools in the country for this I wish you good luck. Then are a ton of schools. If you go down to the community college level you might not even finish That would be a lot of work if you are going to include every school.

If you are going to use all of the schools in the country for this I wish you good luck. Then are a ton of schools. If you go down to the community college level you might not even finish That would be a lot of work if you are going to include every school.

Would definitely be a lot of work. This would be a long term project.

Updated NFL - 32 teams (v2) - see post #1 for download link:

- All teams now in correct divisions

Still working on playoff seeding and home field.

hmmm im intrigued by this, so for this to work do i have to download all 3 files?

hmmm im intrigued by this, so for this to work do i have to download all 3 files?

no just one file :

file NSL - Fictional team : for Fictional teams - 30 teams, 6 divisions

file NFL - 30 NFL teams : for real NFL team - 30 teams, 6 divisions (like nfl before 2001)

file NFL - 32 NFL teams: for real NFL team - 32 teams, 8 divisions (like nfl after 2001)

Updated NFL - 32 teams (v4) - see post #1 for download link:

- Playoff seeding better - maybe not 100%, but close

** Had a problem with higher seed getting home field, so I made all playoff rounds a 2 games series.

Uploaded Modified MLS - 30 teams - 6 divisions. Please see Post #1 for download link

MLS - ASC:

New England Revolution

DC United

Montreal Impact

New York Cosmos

Indianapolis Arrows

Chicago Fire

Houston Dynamo

Sporting Kansas City

New Orleans Jesters

Milwaukee Manglers

Los Angeles Galaxy

Real Salt Lake

San Jose Earthquakes

Las Vegas Lights

Oakland Oyster

MLS - NSC:

New York Red Bulls

Philadelphia Union

Columbus Crew

Toronto FC

Atlanta Vipers

Colorado Rapids

FC Dallas

Vancouver Whitecaps

Cleveland Spiders

Detroit Motors

Seattle Sounders

Portland Timbers

Chivas USA

San Diego Breakers

San Francisco Seals

- Division winners, plus 2 wild cards each conference qualify for the playoffs.

I have been waiting for the MLS version! Now I can start a game!

I only need to find the time to play all of the other saves that I am enjoying right now.

Updated NFL - 32 teams (v4) - see post #1 for download link:

- Playoff seeding better - maybe not 100%, but close

** Had a problem with higher seed getting home field, so I made all playoff rounds a 2 games series.

Great update dim13, thank you for that. May be I'll remove relegation cause I prefer closed league. But is close to be perfect

Uploaded new versions for each of the 4 files:

* Changed scheduled for:

- USA_NSL_v3.rar

- NFL_30teams_6div_v2.rar

- MLS_30teams_6div_v2.rar

Sorry, I noticed I had the incorrect schedule coded. Modified Level 1 schedule so teams will now play each teams in their division twice (home and away) and 3 against teams in each of the other 2 divisions. (14 total). NFL_32team was OK.

* Changed some teams starting in Level 2 (swapped with Inactive teams):

- NFL_30teams_6div_v2.rar

- NFL_32teams_6div_v2.rar

- MLS_30teams_6div_v2.rar

Switched teams at Level 2 where the same city already plays in Level 1. Example swapped out NY Turbos at Level 2, since there are already NY teams playing in Level 1 with a team from a city not already found at Level 1 (example Lincoln Loggers).

Next, I will be adding in some cups. There will be a huge cup with all of the inactive teams playing and probably preseason cups for Level 1 and 2. After that, I may create new files to replicate the NBA, NHL and MLB.

dim13 could you post please your xml file for NFL_32teams ?

I would like to make some little adjustment but I'm not sure I can do it with .dbc file

dim13 could you post please your xml file for NFL_32teams ?

I would like to make some little adjustment but I'm not sure I can do it with .dbc file

I posted the .XML files in Post #1.

You will need to use the Advanced Panel for any changes to the League Structures, schedules, etc.

Great update dim13, thank you for that. May be I'll remove relegation cause I prefer closed league. But is close to be perfect

I posted a version for this - please see Post #1 for download. There shouldn't be any promotion/relegation for Level 1 with this file, just a closed league with the 32 NFL teams.

again dim13 thank for that !!

Have you tested any of these files over many seasons. I was working on something similar, based on the premise that the old NASL never folded and grew from strength to strength to become one of the best leagues in the world. I had 30 teams in 6 divisions of 5. Problem is that when changing the USA with the advanced editor, it seems to be impossible to get teams to have an intake of youth players (only teams in the ADL divisions do) and when you try to buy a player from these divisions they are still draft protected. This eventually leads to a problem that teams don't have any young players after a few seasons.

Did you notice this problem? Has anyone thought of a decent work around?

Have you tested any of these files over many seasons. I was working on something similar, based on the premise that the old NASL never folded and grew from strength to strength to become one of the best leagues in the world. I had 30 teams in 6 divisions of 5. Problem is that when changing the USA with the advanced editor, it seems to be impossible to get teams to have an intake of youth players (only teams in the ADL divisions do) and when you try to buy a player from these divisions they are still draft protected. This eventually leads to a problem that teams don't have any young players after a few seasons.

Did you notice this problem? Has anyone thought of a decent work around?

Haven't tested for that yet, just for crashes.

Haven't tested for that yet, just for crashes.

Ok just wanted to give you a heads up that this may be a problem as far as longterm playability is concerned

Have you tested any of these files over many seasons. I was working on something similar, based on the premise that the old NASL never folded and grew from strength to strength to become one of the best leagues in the world. I had 30 teams in 6 divisions of 5. Problem is that when changing the USA with the advanced editor, it seems to be impossible to get teams to have an intake of youth players (only teams in the ADL divisions do) and when you try to buy a player from these divisions they are still draft protected. This eventually leads to a problem that teams don't have any young players after a few seasons.

Did you notice this problem? Has anyone thought of a decent work around?

The only way around that is to move all the American competitions into another country. In my database, I set all the American divisions to St. Martin (renamed USA), but left the nation for all teams as they were (with the "real" USA set as the nation) and all the cities as they were.

This works, except that the flag next to the club is now St. Martin's (looks like the French flag), but all regens are still American. The other thing, though, is that even if I set the regen age as 15 in the editor, American players are still generated as 17 year olds.

paulgerty and Toronto Blizzard,

Thank you for the heads up and for the help - I really appreciate it !! I will be looking at this. I'll rename another country to USA, move all the competitions, as suggested, and see if that helps.

I haven't looked at the finer points in the game yet. I've still working on the overall league structures and cups.

I still have a lot to do overall and don't know if it will ever be completely finished. I'd still like to set up reserve and youth league, haven't gotten to that yet.

Working on a huge cup for all of the inactive teams (2700+) - just started testing.

Don't want to set up leagues for all of those teams - slows down the game way, way too much. This cup seems to be working out fine, game speed about the same. This will give the inactive teams a chance to win some prize money and increase their reputation.

Decided to scrap the idea of preseason cups for Levels 1 and 2 for now. Also scrapped the idea of adding Level 1 and 2 teams to this huge cup - ran into scheduling problems with Level 2 - cut into the season schedule too much. I have the schedules setup so Level 1 starts after Level 2 is over, very little overlapping - a preference of mine so I can focus on both level.

Dim13, very nice stuff. Will enjoy playing it.

Dim13, very nice stuff. Will enjoy playing it.

Thank you.

Added 3 Cups for the level 3 inactive teams this week (Summer, Fall, Spring shootouts) - still testing and tweaking (Rep), will probably post files this weekend.

...The other thing, though, is that even if I set the regen age as 15 in the editor, American players are still generated as 17 year olds.

Could you please tell me where you set the regen age in the editor ? I'm looking around for it and can't seem to find it anywhere (advanced panel). Thank you.

It's in Transfer Rules - Nation, Transfers then the Transfer Rules tab - Youth Player Min Age.

Isn't that the transfer age?

Btw, If I remove teams from the inactive Level 3, can it corrupt the file or can it be doen without Harm?

2700 inactive is so much and it slows play it seems

Btw, great job

Isn't that the transfer age?

Btw, If I remove teams from the inactive Level 3, can it corrupt the file or can it be doen without Harm?

2700 inactive is so much and it slows play it seems

Btw, great job

Thank you.

I haven't tried removing the inactive teams, don't know what would happen - would need to experiment. They are used as a pool of teams to be promoted to Level 2.

magicmastermind124: Thank you. I found the Transfer Rules - Nation, Transfers then the Transfer Rules tab - Youth Player Min Age option. This will be in the next version I'm working on.

Also in next version, swapped USA and St Martin as suggested by Toronto Blizzard - swapped competitions, teams, coaches, people, regions, etc - as much as possible. Found that swapping cities caused a crash on 2/25/12 - so will leave that alone. Also added in Level 3 Shootout cups and prize money, tweaking Level 3 Rep. Still working on and testing, taking longer than I expected.

...

This works, except that the flag next to the club is now St. Martin's (looks like the French flag), but all regens are still American....

After you move all of the competitions and rename St Martin to USA, try changing the kits (jerseys, icons, text) for the renamed USA back to their original kits in the editor. I swapped USA and St Martin, changed as much as I could back to their original values, including their jerseys, icons, text.

I will try and remove some. I'll let you know about the results.

Posted updates to all files (version 7) - see post #1 for download links.

- Added a huge Cup for Level 3 - Summer Shootout. Includes all 2700+ level 3 teams. This is to give them a chance to earn prize money and increase their Rep. Not much difference in the time it takes to sim a season with this addition. Was going to add 3 cups, but decided to only have 1.

- Tweaked Rep on Level 3 - lowered since there is now a cup.

- Transfer Rules - Nation, Transfers then the Transfer Rules tab - SET Youth Player Min Age = 15.

- Internally switched USA and St Martin to increase the number of younger players on teams. (see post #34 for explanation) In my limited testing looks like there is a difference. As a result, the nation of (!) St Martin will be an un-playable (!). This is intentional - when I filled in the missing teams for St Martin the game crashed so I left St Martin in an unplayable state. You just need to select USA when starting up a new game and everything should be fine. If anyone would like the files before switching USA and St Martin, please let me know and I will post them (version 6). I found there are indeed more youth players on teams after switching USA and St Martin and simming for a few years.

I haven't had much free time recently and have done very limited testing. If there are any problems, please bring to my attention.

St Martin is one of the non-Fifa countries anyway, as a French territory, so that's doesn't matter.

On that point, how can I remove Germany in that way (I am dutch and a little bugged after last night )

This looks amazing - thank you Dim! I've been trying to work on an identical NFL league format for years and always struggled, even with the AP. I'll have a look at this to see where I can try to implement my plans, this looks like a lot of work - much appreciated!

Best

thankyou very much, i really appreciate this!!

Taking some time off from FM at the moment. Also having some PC problems.

BlueWhite:

I don't know for sure, but you can try "breaking" the Bundesliga (maybe deleting the teams) and that might prevent Germany from being playable in the game. However, Germany may still play in international competition - I don't know for sure and would have to experiment some - don't know if it's possible or not.

Ryderrr, jesusismyairbag

You're very welcome. I know it's not perfect and will to continue to be a work in progress as it has been for awhile now. If you have other similar projects you're working on, I hope my .XML files can be of some help.

To all:

Please feel free to use the .XML files in Post #1 anyway you wish. Making changes to the .XML files are re-posting would be absolutely fine with me. I hoping we'll still have a way to get to the Advanced Panel for FM13.

There are still 2-3 major changes I'd like to make but still struggling with both with no success:

1. Have the winner of the Level 3 tournament promoted to Level 2. I think the problem is Level 3 is inactive teams with no League stage. I want to keep all 2700+ Level 3 teams and have them inactive, making them active in a league stage would drastically slow down the game way too much to play. Can't figure out how to set up an active League stage with 0 scheduled games. I thought I had this working at one time, but now the game crashes when I try this.

2. Changing Level 1 teams to play 16 regular season games, as in the NFL. For the league structures with 30 teams and 14 games (NFL30, MLS30, NSL30) I made it as far as to have the Level 1 teams play 16 games, but the final 2 games aren't being "recognized" for playoff implications - seems only the first 14 games are recognized and there are teams getting in the playoffs that shouldn't be, other experiments have led to the first season never finishing.

3. For the league structures with 30 teams: have Inter-league games during the regular season, so every team would play each week with no bye weeks. I might be able to get this to work if there were only 1 Level - maybe hard code a league schedule with the team names, but I want more than 1 Level with promotion/relegation. Don't think this is possible.

3. For the league structures with 30 teams: have Inter-league games during the regular season, so every team would play each week with no bye weeks. I might be able to get this to work if there were only 1 Level - maybe hard code a league schedule with the team names, but I want more than 1 Level with promotion/relegation. Don't think this is possible.

Couldn't you do this using secondary divisions ?