[WIP] Africa Extended.

[sporadicsmiles]

It is that time of the year again where I try to bring you an extended African experience. Now, in years gone past that would include a meticulous file with up to date (as much as I could) player updates, and then a selection of leagues. This is all change this year, both for good and for bad. The bad is that I simply do not have the time or honestly the motivation for this work at the moment. The last couple of years have dramatically changed how I approach my free time, and the days of spending 5 hours editing players seems to be a thing of the past for me. Who knows what the future holds.

But do not despair, there is good news. After a long time of relative neglect, there has been significant effort put into getting Africa into order in FM22. The researchers working on this have dedicated a whole lot of their time to sorting issues in the database. The upshot of that is that I do not really need to spend as much time on player files. Much to my relief, I would have hated to abandon this entirely. 

So what does this means for Africa Extended? Rather than focus on players, I can focus on leagues. I can try to give you the most accurate rendition of African leagues as FM can muster. My aim here is not just to make league rules and be done with it. I am talking about making sure any team you may end up playing as has a stadium and a kit. That all the competition formats are accurately portrayed and stay up to date - so systems which will undergo a change next season will also change in my files. I want to try to add real life managers (where possible), real life referees, media sources for the nations, proper awards. This may sound like a lofty goal for a single modder (who is only moderately talented with these things), but I would like these files to almost be of real life DLCs (free ones, of course). 

That was a rather long preamble, but I know many have followed my work for a couple of years and will be interested in knowing what is going on.

What nations will I do?

I want to add the nations which are most accurate in the FM database already. Less work for me that way. The current list of nations is as follows. Note that nations which are in bold have a download link at the end of the thread. If anyone has suggestions for the best file hosting site, I can also make each name here a link to the file.

Algeria
Angola
Cameroon
Cote d'Ivoire
DR Congo
Egypt
Ghana
Kenya
Libya
Morocco  *(see this post for a wonderful Morocco file by @Wolviam, which I recommend you try out)
Nigeria
Senegal
Sudan
Tanzania
Tunisia
Zambia
Zimbabwe

An impressive and ambitious list, no? Well, it gets better. Working with @UnitedJoshdom, we also plan to create an Arabia extended, which will take in many of the Arabian and middle eastern leagues. More to follow on this. 

Where am I up to?

Work is quite slow for me, because there is a lot to and as noted above, I am not really spending many hours on these things. Plus working with creating leagues means a lot of checking has to go into things to get them right. 

- All league systems are in place. Most need to be fine tuned to ensure they work. Every nation, where possible, will have at least 2 levels, even if one of them is only view only. 
- There is a fair bit of work to do with clubs to make sure stadium and kit details are correct for any potentially playable side.
- Things like media, referees, etc. are going to have to be ongoing updates. 
- I have no timescale for a release. I think for these ones they may come in dribs and drabs a little, I can update as I am happy with nations. 

Finished Nations

Egypt

Egypt is the nation that is the most complete, and is in a state where I think it is ready for a release. The file contains:

Egyptian Premier League
Egyptian Second Division
Egyptian Third Division (view only at the moment as the teams are unfinished (kits, stadiums) and it is honestly not going to be enjoyable to play. If you really want a version with it activated, PM me).
Egyptian Cup
Egyptian Super Cup

All leagues are as real life. Prize money is accurate. If you notice anything incorrect, please let me know.

Most importantly, enjoy the file.

Note about view only divisions.

A couple of the files (Algeria, Egypt,...)have third divisions where I have added the league system as accurately as I can, but I have not activated it by default. This is usually because I do not like to see the game populated with hundreds of teams which have no manager as info is hard to find. Plus they have no players, and I think it is not the most interesting way to play. I included them so you could see what was happening at lower levels if you wanted, and it adds a bit of depth. 

However, since they are in the files, they are extremely easy to activate if you want to. Load the file in the editor. Under "advanced rules" go to the league you want to activate (for example "Ligue National du football amateur" in Algeria). Go to "general" in the advanced rules panel on the left. Now on the main panel there is an option called "view only" which is ticked. Untick it. Then go to rules => test rules => all. The rules will verify without any problem. Then save, can you can access this league.

If not confident with the editor, you can also just drop me a message. 

 

 

 

 

Africa Extended - Egypt release version.fmf Africa Extended - Algeria Release.fmf Africa Extended - Cameroon Release.fmf Africa Extended - Cote d'Ivoire Release.fmf Africa Extended - Angola Release.fmf Africa Extended - Nigeria Release.fmf Africa Extended - Kenya Release.fmf Africa Extended - Ghana Release.fmf Africa Extended - DRC Release.fmf Africa Extended - Libya Release.fmf

Edited March 5, 2022 by sporadicsmiles

[anitamui]

The return of the king

[sporadicsmiles]

New Nation release: Algeria

I have gotten Algeria to a release state. The file contains

Ligue Professionnelle 1
Ligue Professionnelle 2.
Ligue national du football amateur (view only)
Coupe d'Algérie
Coupe de la Ligue
Supercoupe d'Algérie.
Media sources added (but do not seem to work properly, so anyone who has any advice on how to make them actually do reporting, let me know).
Referees added. 
Clubs should always stay roughly aligned geographically (as much as is allowed by number of teams from each region.

The download link is in the first post.

Other news
I will continue to work on things. I am currently going alphabetically, but there is no good reason for that. I just have no real preference for nations. So if you do have a preference and want to see one of the things on the list be done sooner, just pop a reply on here and I will work on it. First come, first served. Got to keep the customers happy! 

I will try to keep up a decent pace for release, but I have a busy time in next month and a half. Moving house mostly, so my evening and weekends are quite tied up. I will try to be as quick as I can. 

[gpassosbh]

Nice work. Thanks

[zeus77]

thanks!

[sporadicsmiles]

Update for you guys.

Sorry for the long delay in getting things out. I'm currently moving house so my spare time is currently occupied mostly with this. I have a couple of leagues that are pretty much ready to go, will try to find the time to post them this weekend.

Also do not hesitate to contact me if you find any errors, or you know the leagues well and find an error. I'm always happy to make things better.

[oche balboa]

Take has much time as needed. You are doing a good job and I'm sure people can be patient 

[sporadicsmiles]

New Nations Released

Angola

Girabola
Taça de Angola
SuperTaça de Angola
Updated the weather for every city to try to reflect reality better. Feedback on this welcome, if you notice anything, first time I tried it.
Managers, kits, stadiums etc added for teams likely to become playable.

Cameroon.

Elite One, including format change for next season
Elite Two (View only) including format changes for next season.
Cameroon Cup
Super Cup
Managers, kits, stadiums etc added for teams likely to become playable

 Côte d'Ivoire

Ligue 1, including format changed for next year.
Ligue 2 (view only). If anyone knows how the groups are determined, let me know. Does not seem to be regional.
Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire de football
Super Cup
Managers, kits, stadiums etc. added for teams likely to be playable. 

Links added to the first post. Enjoy.

[kingjericho]

Amazing work <3

It's a shame SI haven't put much effort into adding more African leagues into the official release. Licenses should be fairly cheap compared to other leagues and it's definitely something that would interest many people that do journeyman careers and share their stories on the forum.

[Bigpole]

58 minutes ago, kingjericho said:

Amazing work <3

It's a shame SI haven't put much effort into adding more African leagues into the official release. Licenses should be fairly cheap compared to other leagues and it's definitely something that would interest many people that do journeyman careers and share their stories on the forum.

It's all comes down to reasearchers probably, the licenses might be cheap but I can tell you right now that africa is done by not many people, few guys are doing whole countries by themselves so it's hard to find people to help. 

My dream is to have morocco and tunisia as playable leagues but yeah, as least there are people who can activate the leagues at least.

[sporadicsmiles]

8 hours ago, kingjericho said:

Amazing work <3

It's a shame SI haven't put much effort into adding more African leagues into the official release. Licenses should be fairly cheap compared to other leagues and it's definitely something that would interest many people that do journeyman careers and share their stories on the forum.

I entirely agree with you, and I am hoping that can change. This whole project started out when I wanted to make some leagues in Africa for a save, and I saw the entire DB was in disarray. The DB itself has been improved incredibly, the guys doing the research there do a great job. Africa, however, does not seem to be a priority for SI. I'm not going to go on about it here, because I'd rather not derail my thread with this discussion (so let's not start a discussion). 

For now I will do what I can to bring Africa to life for the FM community. 

[AlexAlonsoo]

Can you update this please? amazing work.

[gpassosbh]

I know it's too early, but anyone tested in the new patch already?

[AlexAlonsoo]

3 minutos atrás, gpassosbh disse:

I know it's too early, but anyone tested in the new patch already?

I tested it and it doesn't work, the update has to be updated by the creator.

[sporadicsmiles]

Updates are incoming, sorry for the delay.

[sporadicsmiles]

All files are now updated for the new patch. 

Plus I have released a few more nations. I am in a little rush this morning so I do not have the time to write the details, but I will edit this post at some point to give the details of what is in each league.

Enjoy!

[dino88]

hi these are 100% accurate? i've never played in africa so just curious so i dont need to cross check.

 

[sporadicsmiles]

11 hours ago, dino88 said:

hi these are 100% accurate? i've never played in africa so just curious so i dont need to cross check.

 

I do not claim 100% accuracy, because some info can be quite hard to find. And rosters in particular can be tricky. The league systems are as accurate as I can find info for, including changes in format when it is clear they have or will happen. Some cups may not be entirely accurate in terms of when teams enter, as often I had to build from the most reasonable stage I could fill (quite a few have regional rounds which I cannot replicate without adding a lot of teams). As are all the team details I have changed (stadiums, kits etc).

The Egypt file in particular is very accurate as I collaborated with someone who knows the league system in great detail, although I would advise against the third division as there is a lot of tidying up of teams to be done there. 

So in conclusion, they are as accurate as I can make them. But if you do find anything that is inaccurate I would be more than happy to hear about it. 

[jesper.stam]

Amazing work!

I have only 1 question. Could you update the file for the new patch?