A-League Expansion

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

Well, that was painless...up and working and only took about an hour to do (as opposed to about ten hours for the other method)

Hmmm, so easy...i might go for something a bit more ambitious.

Anyone know anything about changing the confederations. I always thought that Oceania should be scrapped. Create a new Pacific confederation from Oceania + Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Philipinnes, China, both Korea, Russia (they are just not European in any way), Canada, and US. Merge the remaining more latin american CONCACAF into CONMEBOL. But i assume i would need to keep all the team numbers the same for these confeds to maintain cups and qualifiers. Might just be easier to create a super pacific league of some kind, but am still weighing up the options.

Reminds me of a comment someone made once about spending all your time editing databases and graphics and never actually playing the game.

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

If there is demand i will put the db along with graphics files up for dowload...still a couple of days away though, gotta iron those kinks.

[DS]

However you now have a problem...since you swapped Aussie league with malaysian league now the aussie teams will get crap prize money. They will be getting the prize money from the Malaysian league.

I was thinking of swapping aussie league with irish league but then I thought of this same problem.

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

Yeh, but the aussie teams already got crap prizemoney. i think it was $AU175K for winning the grand final. You can easily make more than that with a good run through the ACL groups stage at 100K a win. I think that the Australian Cup was only $50K for winning it aswell. I found that the best way to make money was to invite United States/Mexican and Sth American clubs to come and play in friendly tournaments from March through May (eg one a month but if not qualified for Asia then more). I could pull in 1 million in pure profit...which i could use to expand the stadium...which increased my gate receipts.

I haven't checked the prize money for Malaysia yet though. Still trying to sort some things out with reputations and the like.

[sydfc4ever]

making money in the a-league is a piece of p**s! It is quite the norm for my teams to have balances around the $20m+ mark within a few seasons.

Simply tour the US every pre-season, you will gain a US Development feeder club within a couple of season (normally round mid season 2 in my games) and then the cash just rolls in. A few tours of Japan and Korea help too, they bring in some cash.

Also, winning the ACL a few years in a row helps.

With regards to the DB, having some serious issues with the dutch layout, but hope to have them solved shortly, I was concerned about loosing clubs like Ajax as well, so, I moved the Dutch teams over to the Polish league as I never loaded that db normally anyway, have a super NZ league based on the A-League which runs fine (won it twice with my new South Island team). Still, I can't get my aussie comp to load, more work tonight.

downloaded the new fm, have decided to stick with 07 for quite a while yet so I should have this available for download for anyone who, like me, won't be rushing out this month to buy 08.

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

Don't worry i will be keeping the fm07 flame alive until xmas at the least...unless there is a really compelling reason to get fm08.

I want bidding for international tournaments. I want to be able to bid for Euro cup and champions league finals at my stadium as a revenue raiser. I want the FA to boost my stadium when a World Cup is hosted (in spite of my financial situation) if warranted. I want clubs to be able to play against national select XI's. (i remember Manchester United i think playing the socceroos...or was i on acid that day)

Sorry, i know this ain't the wish list thread.

[DS]

I swapped Aussie league with Israel...well I am nearly done. 2 divisions of 12 teams so that means i needed 24 but i could only think of 13 new teams + the 8 already so I added 3 state league clubs. Anyway there is a Israel lower division so I think those teams can get promoted into the second division so i will add state teams there also. Really boring swapping teams and putting there last position and last division.

[DS]

Wow! This is awesome. Just gave it a test of about 1 and a half seasons on holiday. I put Australia EU to avoid foreigner rules but it hasn't helped and the managers seem to buy EU players even though they are still foreigners. Once I changed Australia back to non-EU with FMM they stopped doing that. Problem with first season is the new clubs didn't buy enough players. I started the teams with no players and I thought they would buy enough but they didn't. The lower reputation teams did so the problem must be that there weren't any good payers for the top teams to buy. However by the 2nd season they had overly big squads so not a major problem. The Asian CL works into the 2nd season with the league and Cup winners getting in. Everythign seems to work including Singapore players not counting as foreigners. So the EU thing didnt work but I guess when NZ players were coded to not count as foreigners it must affect other teams that come into Australia from other countries. Or maybe this was some weird occurrence as there were only 2 Singapore players signed by the Singapore team. I am just going to fix a few things now and add rivalrys as its a bit weird without any for the new clubs.

Fantastic!

[sydfc4ever]

so israel works well then? hmm, what are the foreign player rulings in israel? i've never even looked at the nation tbh.

holland takes forever as there are so many small clubs!

[DS]

maximum 5 foreigners in match squad. A bit strict but its OK. Only need to use 36 teams to swap with for israel and I didnt even bother putting Israle teams in the aussie state leagues because it would take to much time so when I start the game I cant select to run Israel which I dont care about since I wouldn't anyway. Just swap 12 teams into both of the playable leagues and then 12 teams into Israel lower division which is where teams get promoted into the 2nd division from.

The thing which surprised me more is that the ACL worked in the 2nd season and the game automatically choose the league and cup winners as the 2 teams to go into it. Impressive!

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

for comparison...malaysia has a four foreigners rule but no salary cap means that you can buy Scotty McDonald (i had to buy him first awesome value), Harry Kewell, Mark Schwarzer, jason culina, lucas neill etc. Even some lesser names but really good players like Jonathan McKain, Kasey Wehrman and Ahmad Elrich (did i hear right, that he has gone to the Phoenix IRL)?

[sydfc4ever]

I think 5 foreigners is fine, it only takes a few years to get aussie dual nationaility anyway.

think i may give israel a shot tonight as i'm starting to get the s**ts with holland, it just doesn't want to work!

[DS]

Turns out its just 5 foreigners all together. When you register squad number u can only register 5 foreigners. Also the league has a fairly high reputation as do the clubs so the Aussie players are not good enough so 5 foreigners is not enough. Meanwhile my team is far to good for the league already. Assembling a whole new team and I have made some awesome signings.

Also some amazing regens already with PA of 180+

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

change the aussie stats...i edited all the major comps in the world so my aussie teams ended up at between 5000 and 6000 reputation. it might be a touch high but my database lost all resemblence to reality a while ago.

[sydfc4ever]

i've decided that i officially hate my laptop! I had just moved all the teams into the isreali league, filled in all australiain clubs, upped the rep of australia, and was just about to change the TLAs when it chose to shut down for no reason!! Aaaaargh! to p**sed off to start again, might look at it again this weekend.

although with 08 coming out in 20 days (not that I'm counting!) I'm not sure if I should bother and just build a db in 08.

What are you guys thinking of doing?

[joeyb]

I cant wait to play this, it sounds FB.

KUTGW

[agey]

Can someone please list every single thing they changed to swap the A-league with Israeli league? I tried it last night. I can select the leagues at the start of the game but it tries to load a new game there is an error

[DS]

If you are going to add rivalrys then you need to save often because it keeps crashign when editing that. i already got over my game so I done all that for nothing. The squad I put together was to good for the league and FM08 is coming so i cbf with FM07.

[agey]

I didn't touch the rivalries. Do I need to do anything to the Israeli toto cups?

[DS]

Yes..Change name and also to be safe change the history. Follow one of the league swapping guides and you should be fine. These tot cups are like pre season cups.

[agey]

Got it working. Thanks

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

Okay i screwed around with it...i created a MLS super league that worked one day and not the next...i have lost some hair.

But i now have a Australian NZ league ready for download if there is demand.

Run-down: (australia swapped with Singapore, New zealand swapped with Peru* concept proprieted from another enterprising soul)

A-League - 12 teams - (7 current aussie teams, plus Nth Qld United, Gold Coast Galaxy, Illawarra Flame, Capital FC and Tasmania United)

NZ-League - 12 teams - (8 current NZFC teams plus North Shore united, Gisborne City, Roslyn Wakiri and Central Utd)

All have logos and kits...just working on background shots (which will take another few months for Gold Coast til the stadium is finished IRL).

I still want to add more swaps in to it. I am not buying FM08, so i will be keeping this ticking over. If anyone wants a d/l i will post in a few days depending on demand.

PS Sydfc4ever - Do you think Kossie will get the job?

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

Also, staff and players are as realistic as possible.

Have used real names found in media reports about bids for chairman and directors (although it's hard to tell the bull from the **** at the moment).

Hence Winton Rufer, Miron Bleiberg are managing Nth Qld and Gold Coast. I have also updated the Aussie squads to as of today (including Aloisi at Central Coast). And I have increased the potential of this seasons good youngsters in Burns, Djite, Zullo and Kruse. Nth Qld even have a brazilian that they were linked with in a press report. I want to make it as realistic as possible (even though it is a fantasy expansion).

[sydfc4ever]

sounds fantastic ruttiger, i'm up for a copy, are you able to e-mail it to me? otherwise can you put it up somewhere and i'll grab it.

i had so many issues i got the s**ts and gave up! It would run fine for a bit, then for no reason die and leave me crying into my JB, oh well.

I'm going to give this a go on the w/e with 08, see if I can make an Oceania league along with Australia and NZ. Should be fun.

[C.Jennings]

Hey, im up for anything you have Oceania league whatever, ive edited hours upon hours even made a Australian league in England but after hours and hours i gave up. apprently Wembly ****ed it up!

Its a great concept moving Australia and other Oceania leagues around.

Corbin

[soupaman]

ruttiger I would love a copy. Where did you move the league to?

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

Australia 12 Team swapped with Singapore League (DO NOT RUN THE SINGAPORE LEAGUE). And playable NZ league. Updated and available to download for this weekend. Kosmina is in charge of Sydney. Squads are as they are. The database was built upon a mid august update so some of Europe may be a little behind (but not by much).

Download it!!!!

Includes a graphics pack for both leagues including kits and logos.

Feedback welcome.

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

Just some notes on the database (because i forgot how much i have changed over time to suit my whims):

-Australian city population slightly exagerated to increase revenue

-Stadium expansion made easier for a lot of teams

-Large numbers of lower quality European teams raised to a slightly higher level for better regens and slightly harder Euro ties. The G14 are still formidable though.

-Large numbers of non league teams aroudn the world moved to "a premier division" and raised rep for better regens

-Free trade has been created with all countries developed and rich, with ECC status and consistent yrs for nationality (i think it was five) so that France, Holland etc don't pinch Africa's footballing gems.

-Reputations for competitions improved slightly but the world order still pretty much exists.

This does not adversely effect world transfer markets because these are more based on club reputations. Don't be put off though...give it a try.

[sydfc4ever]

well, i actually did it, I built a new Australian league.

I used the Isreali league, so there are 2 divisions of 12 teams with relegation and promotion. There is also a New Zealand based Oceanic league. It has 5 NZ teams, a Tongan team, Fijian team, and a Tasmanian team (if they're in our league, we're in theirs!).

Both work brilliantly, played it over the weekend and won the Australian Premier League with South Hobart (had to wait till they were promoted to the National League) within 4 seasons. It's actually quite a difficult league with a restriction of 5 foreigners.

The Oceanic league is also quite hard if you use Tonga or Fiji, as you must have no more than 4 foreigners and you're entire team gets called up for the national squad!! Worked around this by making it only 2 years to qualify for citizenship, however, now my Tongan team is full of Brazilians!

Hey, Ruttiger, you up for more graphic building?

[sydfc4ever]

i forgot to mention, for the above, it's in 08

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

Sure i am always looking for an excuse to mess around with Photoshop. What are you interested in logos? kits? backgrounds? If you are using the original state league teams i have a very basic jersey pack for those leagues. But just tell me what you require and i'll be glad to help.

On a side note i have noticed some problems with my NZ league. I like the idea of your Oceanic league but when i tried it i couldn't get it to work. Would love a download so I could mix and match my expansion league with your Oceanic league.

[DS]

sydfc4ever thanks for swapping aussie league with Israel...I was going to do it myself for FM08 after the 7.01 patch with the new data was released since I had so much fun with it in FM07. If you could upload yours it would save me a lot of time. Thanks.

[Erol]

How did you manage to implement the Oceanic League, I think I want to try it as well, would be nice to finally play the Oceanic countries.

[agey]

Hey sydfc4ever, did you also swap the 3rd division? Because teams will get promoted from there won't they. And did you also swap the group of Australian Lower League Teams or whatever they're called?

[sydfc4ever]

I'll put it up for download this week guys, I just want to make a couple more alterations. It seems that no one of any quality wants to play in my Oceanic league so it plays a bit worse the the Conference North/South league so I'm fixing that at the moment.

Ruttiger, I generally used the state league teams, ranging from Hobart Olympic to Blacktown City and Sunshine Georgies etc. Kits and logos would be great, I'll send you the file coz I changed some of the clubs colours and re-did their basic kits just for sh*ts and giggles really.

DS, your welcome, I had a spare couple of hours on Saturday waiting for my mates to head down to the pub so I did this!

Erol, since I had moved the Aussie clubs over to the Isreali league I just shifted the Isreali clubs out of the A-League and moved in 5 Kiwi teams, a Tasmanian team, then created Suva City for Fiji and the Tongan Tigers for Tonga. Was going to build an American Samoa and Samoa side, maybe as 1 amalgamation, just not sure how regens would work. If you play as Tonga or Suva City it's really quite challenging as you have to a team almost compeltly of fijians or Togans!

Agey, yeah I did mate, it works perfectly too, South Hobart came up after 1 year and I took them to the top by Sunday night. All the teams in the lower division have the same rep so it will be completly random, although, Parramatta Eagles seem to come up every 3rd year or so (and go straight back down!)

Let me know if you have more questions or tips, as I'm thinking of making another league, a super Oceanic league with all the Aussie, Kiwi, Fijian, Tongan, Samoan, Vanuatu etc teams! What league do you guys recomend I use? I'm really getting into this editing thing coz I'm not that keen on the gameplay of 08 yet, waiting on the patch.

[soupaman]

Ruttiger your database is fantastic. Thanks.

Just curious about what our problem with the NZ league was?

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

Soupaman - the problem i have found is that there is no OFCchampionship first year...and then after the season a team gets relegated (although i think will get repromoted next season as they are the only NZ team in the lower div). Also the Australian league has no tv coverage for some reason...maybe the second season will correct this.

Just an interesting note - the last two games of the Australian league for all teams were played at Stadium Australia and MCG...the two biggest grounds in the country. I thought it was a nice touch that was completely unexpected. Must be because Singapore has only one decent stadium IRL so the teams must play there at the end of the year for the larger crowd pulling games.

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

SydFc - try this original pack i did. Followed most of the "traditional" styles of the teams with sponsors made up of their state league (worked well in the old A-league but maybe not so good for your new league). It was too difficult to get photos for a lot of teams so i did my best.

State League Pack

I do not know how to do colour.lnc files so suggestion would be to go through each team in the editor and change colours to suit. Will post logos soonish.

[DS]

Originally posted by DS:

sydfc4ever thanks for swapping aussie league with Israel...I was going to do it myself for FM08 after the 7.01 patch with the new data was released since I had so much fun with it in FM07. If you could upload yours it would save me a lot of time. Thanks.

I meant 8.01

[DS]

Actually I will do my own league swap once the 8.01 data is out. I dont really have any use for a NZ league and plus I want to make a new region and put like Australia & NZ and other countrys I want more players loaded from into that region because I dont like it when you load the Australian league and American Samoa have full NTs because Australia is in the Oceania region.

[soupaman]

Just an interesting note - the last two games of the Australian league for all teams were played at Stadium Australia and MCG...the two biggest grounds in the country. I thought it was a nice touch that was completely unexpected. Must be because Singapore has only one decent stadium IRL so the teams must play there at the end of the year for the larger crowd pulling games.

Yeah, I thought it as strange that my two teams (Gold Coast Tweed and Nth Queendlsnad United) who were also the bottom two team,s pulle in corwds of 97,000 each, which is more than most Finals in AFL draw.

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

I can explain the numbers because i increased the populations, support etc. to a unrealistic high. This is purely because i wanted to see the teams expanded their stadiums over time (and the cool names it generates after famous players). My aim is to get a stadium named after me for being the best manager ever...I read about someone in the english conference getting a stadium named after them, so it shouldn't be improssible. I was just surprised that they moved those final games at all...very clever...but i think they would still be moved even if the attendance figures were dropped slightly.

On a side note...does anyone have a database for 07 that has NZ league running with a working Oceania Club Championship?

Sydfc- i know yours is 08 but does your o-league run the oceania championship as well or not? Just curious because this is driving me a little batty.

[cpomponio]

Ruttiger?

Sorry to sound useless but with your Expansion A League db download, which sounds great!!

What do i do with it?

Just replace the Default db? also the graphics do i just overide existing??

Do you have a readme file that goes with this?

I noticed soupaman did it successfully is it that easy??

Cheers

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

Readm me's are like the warnings on cigarette packets...i wont read them until it is too late.

Just copy the A-League Expanded folder of the archive in to MyDocuments/SportsInteractive/db (where edited databases are put when saved with the editor) and just copy the graphics folder of the archive in to programfiles/sportsinteractive/graphics/pictures (there are config files that will do the rest). You may need to delete a few conflicting graphics configs if you have previously downloaded jerseys but if it is from default graphics with the install it should go swimmingly.

Note this graphics file matches up to the unique ids in the expansion database and may result in some wacky effects if used again with the original database.

Hope i haven't come off as patronising (i've spent the past few hours at the pub so i might be a little too self-assured right now...and i think that emoticon in the bar above is winking at me).

[soupaman]

Ruttiger, I hav a problem with your database.

On January 27th (might by 28th) the screen goes black and it shuts down the program.

A message comes up saying error....file created about error etc.

I'm running the NZ league, Aust. League, English leagues from conferance north/south up, and all playable leagues of Romania.

Do you know why this is doing this. I'm presuming it happens because it doesn't know how to reset NZ season, as the NZ league hasn't ticked over into a new season just yet.

I didn't install the Graphics pack as I keep forgetting, but do you have any suggestions of how to fix my game?

[sydfc4ever]

Sydfc- i know yours is 08 but does your o-league run the oceania championship as well or not? Just curious because this is driving me a little batty.

yeah mate, runs it fine. NZ kicks arse every year though!!

Had to make further modifications, relocated all isreali teams out of NZ, Figi, etc, and placed them in an inactive league as they kept qualifing and winning, plus buying up all the australian players which gave me the s**ts no end!!

left it on holiday mode this morning, it should be at around the year 2030 by the time i get home if it all works well i'll have it up for download on the w/e

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

I haven't had any crashes with mine...so i don't know. It was built upon a mid august update and i never run anything other than Australia, England, United States. So it could be the Romanian league. Beyond that no idea.

I got the ***** with nz not qualifying for the oceania club cup and so moved that league again thanks to some assistance on another thread (i am now trying India which at least works better but still no occ).

I just ran this new one on holiday mode and noticed that after a few seasons the australan league begins to relegate and promote. Very odd as i thought if there was promotion/relegation it would be in the first season and i was assured on several forums that there was no relegation promotion in the s-league. So once again i am back at my old problem of having to either use the real aussie teams (which i don't like because of the one city-one team a-league rules) or having to create another bunch of fantasy teams (which there really aren't enough cities or players for especially now i have ditched the oceanic league idea so all teams would need to be aussie).

Maybe i should upgrade to fm08 and just use syd's database when it is loaded. Is the editor better in fm08 for swapping???

[sydfc4ever]

the editor is exactly the same as 7.0.2, I think I may have just rushed through it. By the look of your you have put a fair bit more effort into than I have.

I did steal a couple of your ideas though, I enhanced the population of a fair number of Australian cities, also increased the importance of the game to the highest possible.

it's great seeing the APL having averages of 30,000 people at games!

I found the Indian league quite hard to work with, the Isreali league is fantastic, however, I'm looking at the Columbian, Peruvia, and Chilian leagues now, with the possiblity of having a big Aussie league, fair sized Kiwi league, and a decent Oceanic league for Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, PNG, etc.

[ruttiger_ruttiger]

I think raising the city populations is a no brainer...take Queensland Roar for example...Brisbane has a population of about 1.3 million. However add to that the sunshine coast of about 600,000, ipswich and western suburbs about 500,000 and gold coast about 750,000. And in the original a-league as the only queensland team you would include the whole state at 3.5-4 million people. Other wise it just isn't representative of the potential merchandising and assorted other revenue streams.

Still don't know what to do about the singapore swap and promo/rele...think i will add some fantasy teams...be good if you could add a 'wanderers' or 'barbarians' type team (as they have in rugby and cricket). But if i add ten fantasy expansions i can alter reputations so they will be nigh on guaranteed of being the only promoted teams.

[sydfc4ever]

i know what you mean re the populations, i don't think si took into consideration that there is massive western populations in places like sydney, melbourne and brisbane.

i think you're idea of making 10 or so high rep teams would work fine, that seems to be the guiding factor for promotion to the playable leagues.

let us know how you go, also, i wouldn't worry too much about moving over to 08 just yet, quite a few issues there. when the patch comes out in a few weeks grab it then. thats my recomendation anyway. i seeem to spend more time in the editor rather than playing this one!!

damn, i just realised that it's 11pm and i'm still at work, i think it's time to go home!