[FM 22] US 10 Tier, Canada 2 Tier, and CONCACAF Mod (Updated to 22.4)

[nielsoncp]

Eight years ago a designer on the Sportslogos.net forum created a three tier, 72 team North American Soccer Pyramid.  When I picked up FM 21 I decided to recreate the mod (with the blessing of the original creator) and learned a lot about the editor, so I rebuilt it from scratch for FM 22. 

These databases include a US 10 tier pyramid, a Canadian 2 tier pyramid, a CONCACAF Champions league, and a smattering of Central American and Caribbean FAs. You can find the database files here, as well as the logos going down to level seven of the US Pyramid - Google Drive Folder. I have run simulations on this the last few nights (simming out ten years) and it appears to be stable. I built all of the databases off of one master one, so they should all integrate with each other to create an expanded CONCACAF universe. 

A few more notes:

- In the US system the season runs February-November, with a midseason break for the national cup and 12 regional cups that all teams (Tiers 1-10) participate in. It contains all of the US teams from the above SportsLogos thread, as well as all MLS and most USL and NPSL teams. There are also Amateur/Semi-Pro/Professional cups, and the newly announced League Cup for Canada, Mexico, and the US's top tier in July. The lower level amateur tiers are also smaller in size (8-16 teams) while the semi-pro and pro levels are 16-24.  The TV contracts for the professional leagues are based off of current contracts for Professional and Collegiate sports, and there is some TV money going down to the semi-pro regional conferences (tier 6) in the database. 

- In the Canadian system the season runs April-September with a playoff at the end of the season. There are two tiers (Premier and Soccer League), a national cup, and four regional pre-season cups in March. I also returned most of the clubs to their original countries - so Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal all play in the Canadian Premier League in this world. In most of the simulations I've run so far they end up with a stranglehold on the CPL and Canadian Championship, so if you're looking for a challenge this may be it. 

- The CONCACAF club portion of the mod expands North American club competitions pretty substantially, creating a 30 team champions league and two other competitions (Gold and Silver) whose group stage takes place between November and January. There are also regional competitions in Central America and the Carribean that clubs take part in. 

- There are also various and sundry Central American and Caribbean Leagues that I created. They don't necessarily mimic all real life league rules (I couldn't figure out how to do split-stage leagues in the basic editor. and I didn't want to do 20 some leagues in advance), but were created so I could track the leagues that produced teams in the CONCACAF Champions League. They do mimic the windows and roster rules of the original leagues. 

- I included the dynamic deadline day feature on the US and Canadian Transfer windows, as well as raised the importance of the game and the reputation in both. 

There are a few more things (including dynamic pro/rel, tweaks to the CONCACAF competitions, and some more logos and kits) that I may do in the future. If I do I'll make a note on this post. If you do play this and have any feedback, please let me know. I would love to know how I can improve it in the future.

Also, thanks to FM Slovakia, TCM Logos, hammer9, and raysox for all of their great graphics work and the way it brings the game alive!

Edited March 26, 2022 by nielsoncp

[FootballHedgehog]

The folder doesn't seem to allow anyone access at this point - says I need to request it.

[kieko1986]

can't download need permission to access files please fix as this db looks awesome

[nielsoncp]

Thanks Hedgehog and Kieko - I updated the sharing permission. Google drive and its changes still throws me. 

[pappy709]

Looks amazing and thank you.  Curious why you changed the Sacramento Republic to California Athletic FC?  I'm from this area and just interested in the thinking behind this.  Thank you. 

 

Update:  Looked through this and now see you made edits of numerous teams.  I understand where you're going.  I'm looking forward to playing through a save.  

 

Edited November 24, 2021 by pappy709

[pappy709]

Quick question, do you recommend using all the files in the folder?   

[nielsoncp]

3 minutes ago, pappy709 said:

Quick question, do you recommend using all the files in the folder?   

I'm glad you're going to dig into a save (... with California Athletic? )  As I think you figured out, I made sure the 72 teams in the original logo set made their way into the game - in case anyone else is curious. 

As far as which files to use, I would say you need to use Canada and the US together - they're linked at a few points in the database, so you probably want to make sure they are both active. I think the CONCACAF one will make things more fun, and everything else is a bonus for however deep you want to make CONCACAF. 

Edited November 24, 2021 by nielsoncp

[nielsoncp]

As a quick note - I made a few substantial tweaks to the database (adding all of the missing USL Championship teams to Level 5 and changing the July tournament). I also added logos and kits to level 7 of the US Database and the Canadian logos and kits in the google drive folder. 

[nielsoncp]

It looks like there may be some issues with US databases built in advanced mode (including issues with youth intake and crashes to desktop when you play lower league teams.) I submitted a bug report to SI to document it and will re-release the advanced databases if/when it's fixed. In the meantime, I redid the US database in basic mode and added an option for a July start date - you can find both files in the Google Drive folder, along with a corresponding CONCACAF Championship File.

[nielsoncp]

The database issues were resolved with the 22.4 update. The files in the google drive folder are updated and the us databases have their full functionality restored. I will also have it updated on steam by the end of the week. Thanks all! 

[nielsoncp]

In anticipation of FM 23, I rebuilt the database from scratch (I learned a lot along the way that I wanted to incorporate into a new version.) You can find it here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OmS-37BFEvuIbX6QumFwtjRFkfczfS6t?usp=sharing. The top four levels of the US database still reflect the original clubs from Raysox game, but I kept the USL clubs and used the current leagues (USL, NISA, UPSL, and NPSL) for the lower levels. I took out the midseason break in January, so all the teams play straight through from August-May now. I also created regional reserves and U19 divisions, along with cups for the respective tournaments, and added FFP rules for USL and above (because US sports have to turn a massive profit for their owners.)

For the Canadian database I added two more levels and a U21 competition for the upper two levels based, again, on geography. There are also some FFP rules in place now. 

For the CONCACAF mod, the top two teams from the CONCACAF Champions League do qualify for the Club World Championship. I couldn't figure out how to make automatic qualifiers work for future years for winners of the other competitions, so I decided to ignore that. I also boosted the Mexican League's TV and positions money (to hopefully balance out the US a bit) and added a few lower leagues for the other CONCACAF nations that I don't think exist, but it added some more teams and competitions. 

I'm mostly putting this out now because I am planning to roll it forward for FM 23, and want to see if there are any noticeable, game breaking bugs I'm missing. If you're at the end of FM 22 and are looking for a new(er) challenge, I would love to have you take a look at this for me. Thanks all!

[trebird]

Team in the iroquois division has the wrong nation set so usa wont load