Created Faroese league's players not selected for national team

[Younger Crayola]

Given I have a somewhat odd fascination with low level football played on windswept North Atlantic islands, I set about creating the Faroese structure. Three lovely divisions of sides going at it hammer and tongs to represent themselves and their country on the European stage, if only for one tie.

However, there are a couple of issues I can't seem to work around.

First, and most crucially, the players simply aren't getting selected for the national side. As the years go by and the original players retire, the side gets largely filled with grey players used to flesh out the squad to a level the game "thinks" it should be at, rather than picking the best Faroese players available. I've tried tweaking the quality of the players using the nation's Youth Level field, but even though it is rightly creating better players, the national side still uses greys - particularly in the U19 squad which is almost universal in its dismissal of newgen talent.

The other, smaller, issue is with relegation from the third tier. There are two relegation spots, and two First Teams in the inactive fourth level - MB and FF Giza, and so relegation and respective promotion is handled correctly with those two entering the fray in the following season. However, subsequent seasons don't always work - if there aren't two First Team clubs in the fourth tier, one or both of the relegated clubs (and the game informs me they've been relegated) doesn't go down, reappearing in the following season with a smile on their face and a kick in their step. It's not predictable which of these clubs will get the nod either in the case that one must be replaced - I've seen the bottom club repreived while the second from botton gets replaced. Somewhat relatedly, the six or seven B teams in the fourth tier don't come up - if there are no first teams available, no relegation takes place, although it is still reported as having happened.

Still, that's less of an issue and fairly easy to write off as a quirk. The issue of the national side not picking the available players owing to some supposed belief they're better than that is one that I'd prefer to nip in the bud. But how?

[Visitor13]

Stupid question - did you assign the players you created to any clubs? I bet you did, but I'm asking cause I also created a truckload (ok, several truckloads) of players for numerous obscure nations, and the national teams did not pick them up until I gave them contracts at local clubs. And in some cases not even then - some nations refused to pick them up even when I wrote a ddt file specifically for this purpose.

[sammyt93]

the only thing i can think of for the national team problem is maybe it would help to make them declared for nation: faroe islands

and for the relegation problem, have you checked you've not accidently set b teams canot be promoted on the fourth division?

[Younger Crayola]

I didn't create any players, relying instead on the game's own generation of players on game start up. The game doesn't have any problem calling up the existing players at the clubs (the clubs in the top two divisions all have sizeable squads already in the game, with the four remaining clubs being empty or near-empty), but in the long term, the newgens weren't being deemed good enough for the national side, which is instead selecting grey players. I've tested into the 2020s, and still the national squads persist in ignoring newgens.

I seem to have solved this issue, at least where the U19 and U21 squads are concerned, by raising the Youth Coaching levels of the top flight clubs from 1 to 3. Testing three years into the future, the U19 and U21 squads all feature newgens correctly. I'll test that further and see if they're making it into the national team, and if not, I'll tweak the Training values likewise and see where that gets me.

Regarding relegation, Sammy, the fourth level is an inactive division so the B-team promotion value shouldn't apply, but in any case, the option is unticked so shouldn't pose a problem. I could activate the fourth level, but I'm a stickler for realism and its real life scenario can't be replicated in-game.

[Younger Crayola]

Ok, I've also adapted the clubs' training levels (essentially doubling them all, although no club has more than 12 out of 20) using the Icelandic league as a guide, and this has somewhat settled the issue when using a Large database - there are still a few greys included in the first team in 2020, but it's largely populated by generated players playing in the Faroese top flight. With a small database, more greys seem to be used, which is odd given that the Faroese league is the only real place where eligible players arrive from, but chances do appear for non-greys.

I still haven't solved the relegation issue, which is a shame for the handful of clubs in the game whose B team plays in the fourth level, as those B sides will never be promoted into active gameplay, but I suppose it can be lived with. I'll run a small database soak test overnight and see how things hold up in the extreme long term - should rattle through the seasons while I snooze.