[FM24.3] USA to D4 (USL2) + Canadian Championship fix

[themodelcitizen]

Soccer in America is here! This activates the US lower leagues down to USL2 with the D3 leagues USL1, MLS Next Pro, and NISA with the 2023 season as a base.

If anyone wants to help pad out the missing graphics, or knows of obscure resources for late 90s and 2000s USL/PDL info (or can assist a wider NCAA project), your help is welcomed.

Canadian Championship fix with dates and format cleaned up now compatible with @SaintsCanada's League1 Canada expansion.

Many thanks to @Gum for his extensive US stadium changes which are included and which will make for a realistic-looking 2026 World Cup!

If anyone has insight into unpublished stuff like USL/NISA rules, sponsorships, stadium rental, etc PLEASE let us know and we can make it even more realistic.

DOWNLOAD & RATE | CANCHAMP FIX
Mirrors: 1 | 2 | 3 | CanChamp

Please upvote here and on Reddit
GRAPHICS | kits from FM Slovakia (external site)

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Compatible with:
CONCACAF teams in Libertadores
Club World Cup sched. change | Intercontinental Cup (2024-)

To do:

Spoiler

• NISA (expanded D3) - Done
• Expand to D4 (USL2) - Done
• More awards, derbies, rivalry cups, affiliations - Mostly done, feedback and help is welcome
• Consider upgrading Youth Importance and reducing MLS salary cap and roster rules after a few years

TMC MEGAPACK | 2023 Megapack

I recommend loading all players from the US (and maybe Canada) and NOT selecting "add players to playable teams" at game start due to the hard-coded US newgen system.

For the full Soccer Coach™ 2024 experience, change game currency to USD, salary to "yearly", and language to English (US).

• Guide to managing in MLS
• FM23 USA database by @Gum
• Classic NASL database for FM19

More:

• Brief History of the USL
• American Soccer History Archives
• Non League America

Edited March 7 by themodelcitizen

[anitamui]

Is there San Diego FC

[themodelcitizen]

Whatever's in there by default for 2023, so yeah they're in there (for now).

Will consider what to do with them (and other clubs that go bust) in future versions but it makes sense to keep them. SI tend to do North America by the season so everything for FM24 is licensed based off 2023, including rosters (for now at least)

[McBride]

Thank you Thank you Thank you!

[anitamui]

5 小时前, themodelcitizen说:

Whatever's in there by default for 2023, so yeah they're in there (for now).

Will consider what to do with them (and other clubs that go bust) in future versions but it makes sense to keep them. SI tend to do North America by the season so everything for FM24 is licensed based off 2023, including rosters (for now at least)

i am talking about the 2025 mls team san diego fc

[themodelcitizen]

Haven't touched MLS to that extent, gonna keep all the hard-coded stuff like drafts, international spots, etc. At least until the final patch.

[themodelcitizen]

Adding NISA and "unlocked" the rivalry cups like the Cascadia Cup that are already set up in the rules. Always looking for research on stuff like ticket prices, season-ticket holders, etc, we can build a really detailed DB here with some collaboration.

[dino88]

please do ze ncaa

[themodelcitizen]

Do people like NISA as playable? The only problem is they tend to siphon up some of the youth players (who we'd rather stay in the Academy Leagues or USL2 for another year), plus the league is dropping clubs like flies IRL.

We could shift Chattanooga into MLS Next Pro like was just announced for 2024, but with their 2023 roster - that would settle the question of whether to have it as a reserve league or not (definitely want it playable with indie clubs in there like Chattanooga)

[Gum]

1 hour ago, themodelcitizen said:

Do people like NISA as playable? The only problem is they tend to siphon up some of the youth players (who we'd rather stay in the Academy Leagues or USL2 for another year)

You can probably fix this by setting the youth importance of every team in that league to "1", which would also be realistic as NISA squads tend to be quite older than the rest of the professional US pyramid.

NISA is also not that difficult of a league to do advanced rules for, so I'd say go for it.

[themodelcitizen]

PMed you, help is always appreciated!

[themodelcitizen]

Was working on Canada and I think I even got League1 Ontario's bizarre format change *almost* down pat, with some hiccups. Hopefully can get it working. Might start working on USL2 in the meantime

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by themodelcitizen

[Thatgingerdude15]

I noticed in the database there is USL L2. Is it possible to enable it? I really want to play as San Francisco City!

[themodelcitizen]

Working on it

[Dakosaurus]

I believe I have found some rules regarding player registration for the USL. They are found at the end of the media guides for each league and they seem to be the same for both the Championship and League One. Links:
https://www.uslchampionship.com/media-guide

https://www.uslleagueone.com/media-guide
I also found the rules for the USL Academy, if you plan on adding it to the megapack. (pages 46-48)

[themodelcitizen]

Thank you!! There are some USL2/PDL media guides from over the years as well which will be good for filling out award histories.

USL Academy I was wavering on, aren't they like 80 minute games? Might include some of the showcase/cup-style tournaments, same as I've done with MLS Next. That's not active right now partly because we can't replicate the fall-spring schedule, so it would be a bit odd having a lower level active instead, but worth thinking about.

[themodelcitizen]

We have lift-off in USL2...

Spoiler

I'll post a new version shortly and will keep working on more details like awards, stadia assignments (@Gum is helping with this stuff in impressive detail), club rivalries, derbies, favoured personnel, etc.

Does ANYONE know how to get rid of that annoying "[B team] cannot be promoted" red text that comes up at the bottom of the league table for any (closed) lower league that includes a 'B' team? Obviously no one can get promoted, but it keeps showing up. I've changed all the promotion/relegation settings in USL2 and the upper tiers to allow for B teams to be promoted (if anyone could at least), and set the "promotion" spots in league settings to 0, but it still thinks it's important to let the user know that none of the reserve teams can be promoted

Spoiler

Anyone who comes up with a workable fix will get credit. In USLC I had to change Loudoun's affiliation with DCU from "B" to "feeder" (which works better anyway) to lose it, but for the USL2 divisions with reserve/U23 teams it's not feasible. It's just visually annoying and slightly immersion-breaking.

[Wolf_pd]

22 minutes ago, themodelcitizen said:

We have lift-off in USL2...

  Reveal hidden contents

I'll post a new version shortly and will keep working on more details like awards, stadia assignments (@Gum is helping with this stuff in impressive detail), club rivalries, derbies, favoured personnel, etc.

Does ANYONE know how to get rid of that annoying "[B team] cannot be promoted" red text that comes up at the bottom of the league table for any (closed) lower league that includes a 'B' team? Obviously no one can get promoted, but it keeps showing up. I've changed all the promotion/relegation settings in USL2 and the upper tiers to allow for B teams to be promoted (if anyone could at least), and set the "promotion" spots in league settings to 0, but it still thinks it's important to let the user know that none of the reserve teams can be promoted

  Reveal hidden contents

Anyone who comes up with a workable fix will get credit. In USLC I had to change Loudoun's affiliation with DCU from "B" to "feeder" (which works better anyway) to lose it, but for the USL2 divisions with reserve/U23 teams it's not feasible. It's just visually annoying and slightly immersion-breaking.

First guess it is hardcoded, but I wouldn't be surprised if the option for teams to get promoted are spread a bit. Better redundant than have it in a single item, is what the editor seems to say.

[themodelcitizen]

I swear I've hit it everywhere, lol, including the upper divisions that have settings like "B teams can be promoted into lower division". I wonder if it's an issue with the fact that no teams are actually promoted so it doesn't have a rule to check (and goes to the default output which is no reserve teams). Really intuitive stuff as usual

EDIT: I'm using the club logos from the TCM logopack (no connection to me despite a similar abbreviation!) - so many US lower league logos!

Spoiler

I'll add some of the missing ones to my graphics pack so it can run alongside it, although when there's so many official ones you barely notice the odd game-generated badge.

[themodelcitizen]

Anyone have thoughts on accounting for the USL2 divisions that don't get newgens? IIRC South Central, Metro, Valley, Deep North, Lone Star, and Chesapeake don't get players every year as part of the academy -> USL2 -> MLS draft pipeline that's hard-coded into the game (and they don't get players at game start):

Spoiler

Potential solutions include drastically renaming the divisions and conferences, so that the old USL2 Northeast ID (for example) would become the Eastern Conference ID. Everyone in the East (including Chesapeake) would get this as their main division but still play in their regional division. This seems like a bad idea, though, partly as it would affect small things like player histories and loads of different rules entries that would need to be reset.

Another option is to redo the competition structure to cut these divisions out, and combine them back into the active ones. So the Deep North teams would move back into a mega-Heartland division, Chesapeake into South Atlantic, etc. The huge divisions would be unrealistic but we can still keep it at 10-14 games and even have regional play

EDIT: Average points table added to USL2. Some divisions play 12 games, some the classic 14, just like IRL, and the overall table/conference standings are sorted by average points first.

USL2 playoff hosting is ALMOST working - I've just got the conference quarterfinals played at one site instead of two. Still brainstorming a way to have the second seed host their 4-team bracket.

For anyone who does well here and wants to transfer their skills to the real world... fourth division champs Ballard FC are hiring a head coach

Edited November 30, 2023 by themodelcitizen

[mannyhams]

Any hunch on whether this will port nicely to fm25?

Are worthwhile newgens appearing outside MLS academies? Id like to load this DB then manage in german lower leagues and establish a pipeline for US newgens to buy and sell on in Europe. 

Thanks!

Edited December 4, 2023 by mannyhams

[themodelcitizen]

Looking at the national U20 team in 2028 and it's mostly guys who started at an MLS academy. I haven't messed with youth ratings or anything (yet), I take it you want them to be just as likely to come from the smaller academies from MLS Next, USL Academy, etc? What helps with that?

[mannyhams]

1 hour ago, themodelcitizen said:

Looking at the national U20 team in 2028 and it's mostly guys who started at an MLS academy. I haven't messed with youth ratings or anything (yet), I take it you want them to be just as likely to come from the smaller academies from MLS Next, USL Academy, etc? What helps with that?

Well this is a realism db so the academies should account for most of the good newgens, but our current best player started at Pennsylvania Classics IIRC, so there should also be a chance for them to appear outside the academies, too! No clue how to go about affecting this, though.

 

thanks for the reply!

[themodelcitizen]

Keeping things updated... loads of rivalry cups active, admittedly some of these season series don't award a big trophy every year anymore but this recognizes the ones that crown a winner and have/had a trophy at one point (like the Brimstone Cup).

Everything down to USL2 is done, other than their playoff hosting thing - the conference quarterfinals are split into two 4-team pods IRL for hosting purposes, that's tricky to reproduce so here it's 8-team pods (win your conference and you host). Then it's realistic from conference finals onward.

Also, the game doesn't allow two-day breaks between playoff games anymore (I reported the bug), so the 4-team playoff weekends are extended by one day.

Might do something with the USL2 divisions that don't get newgens and expand the academy divisions to include the USL Academy teams so more come through.

[dino88]

Will you go down to NCAA?

[themodelcitizen]

As an editor you gotta pick, NCAA and USL2 don't make sense together and the first one doesn't interest me. Someone else might do something with NCAA on an earlier version of my file

[themodelcitizen]

Tempted to add pro/rel between USLC and USL1. Reasons being, you already get stuff in the mod like players asking for promotion clauses anyway (no way to avoid this AFAIK). North Carolina also won USL1 this year and got "promoted" i.e. had already planned a move up - this would add that kind of variation which is a constant in the lower leagues.

Anyone have any thoughts? Save it for an alternate version when most of the other work is done? Implement it after a couple of years? It would look pretty cool with 1 up, 1 down and the USLC conferences being split by longitude every year. Could look at extending it to USL2, would just need to make it so teams automatically go professional when promoted to USL1 and downgrade when dropping to USL2. Is that possible? Would they upgrade their contracts?

[dmakovica]

2 hours ago, themodelcitizen said:

Tempted to add pro/rel between USLC and USL1. Reasons being, you already get stuff in the mod like players asking for promotion clauses anyway (no way to avoid this AFAIK). North Carolina also won USL1 this year and got "promoted" i.e. had already planned a move up - this would add that kind of variation which is a constant in the lower leagues.

Anyone have any thoughts? Save it for an alternate version when most of the other work is done? Implement it after a couple of years? It would look pretty cool with 1 up, 1 down and the USLC conferences being split by longitude every year. Could look at extending it to USL2, would just need to make it so teams automatically go professional when promoted to USL1 and downgrade when dropping to USL2. Is that possible? Would they upgrade their contracts?

I like it when in such cases there is a fully realistic version and and alternate version so people can choose.

[themodelcitizen]

Thanks, will likely go that route.

The latest is that youth production is way off this year, newgens are not appearing the way the devs intended (in the traditional academy --> USL2 --> draft pipeline), instead youth intakes are coming through all over the place and creating some issues with high-PA youth players actually getting pro opportunities as intended. Considering dropping NISA to at least take 9 middling youth intakes away every year, and maybe contracting any lower division teams that drop out for 2024 (particularly in the 117-team USL2)

[Fmfan00]

9 hours ago, themodelcitizen said:

Thanks, will likely go that route.

The latest is that youth production is way off this year, newgens are not appearing the way the devs intended (in the traditional academy --> USL2 --> draft pipeline), instead youth intakes are coming through all over the place and creating some issues with high-PA youth players actually getting pro opportunities as intended. Considering dropping NISA to at least take 9 middling youth intakes away every year, and maybe contracting any lower division teams that drop out for 2024 (particularly in the 117-team USL2)

your file works with yellows canada file eh?

[themodelcitizen]

Yes but don't use my CanChamp with his file, it's not set up to accommodate the expansion teams. His should work fine

[anitamui]

what is the changes in todays update?

[themodelcitizen]

General quality of life updates based on anything I notice or that people report, nothing gamebreaking 

On 21/11/2023 at 16:07, Dakosaurus said:

I believe I have found some rules regarding player registration for the USL. They are found at the end of the media guides for each league and they seem to be the same for both the Championship and League One. Links:
https://www.uslchampionship.com/media-guide

https://www.uslleagueone.com/media-guide
I also found the rules for the USL Academy, if you plan on adding it to the megapack. (pages 46-48)

Just to revisit this, USL Academy and ECNL ("Boys Academy League") aren't producing newgens, so no point giving them their showcase games, national championships etc like I have for MLS Next. They're fun to scout/attend but not if it's all greyed-out players. If they change that in a patch I'll come back to it.

Edited December 9, 2023 by themodelcitizen

[themodelcitizen]

Added the new in-season cup for USL1 teams which has been announced from 2024 (including the extra semifinal spot for the team with the most Goals For). The USL1 league season shortens for next season accordingly.

Also fixed a glitch where Galaxy II were in the wrong MLSNP conference despite getting the correct schedule. If you were subscribing on Steam I'd clear it and re-download the new link from a few days ago.

Might eventually add teams from USLC to the League Cup in future years, which seems to be the plan, and even competing leagues like NISA. Chattanooga derby every season FTW...

[Liffa]

On 08/12/2023 at 06:03, themodelcitizen said:

Yes but don't use my CanChamp with his file, it's not set up to accommodate the expansion teams. His should work fine

Still not recommended to use your CanChampFix together with Saint's Canada database? 

[themodelcitizen]

That was in reference to fmfan's question about the Canadian Megapatch, not Saints' file

[themodelcitizen]

Also check out the 3D match engine in MLS play if you haven't already, @Gum's work with the stadium editor is pretty impressive. Playing in the 2026 World Cup will be a lot more immersive even with international management still being bunk as hell

[themodelcitizen]

One more big update, the MLS teams are dropping out of the Open Cup starting next year. This means you won't get to take MLS scalps as a lower division team, but the chance to add a trophy and play in CONCACAF is definitely interesting (at least until they announce that there's no automatic place for the winner)

[dino88]

On 05/12/2023 at 15:55, themodelcitizen said:

As an editor you gotta pick, NCAA and USL2 don't make sense together and the first one doesn't interest me. Someone else might do something with NCAA on an earlier version of my file

fair play, no problem. the best thing about NCAA was the draft where players would come right through colleges into the draft. 

[themodelcitizen]

7 hours ago, dino88 said:

fair play, no problem. the best thing about NCAA was the draft where players would come right through colleges into the draft. 

That's what USL2 does (at least 5 of the 8 divisions or so). That's why people use the competition ID for their NCAA databases

[anitamui]

Will you make the FIFA Intercontinal Cup 2024?

[themodelcitizen]

Oh I see it, the Intercontinental Cup added today? Yeah will probably throw it in when I clean up the 2025 Club World Cup to deal with the preseason fitness issue. Those December tournaments are always a good way to end the season for MLS teams

Also have to imagine they'll implement this in a future patch, especially now that it can be a different competition ID and won't mess up qualifying for 2025 (presumably why they didn't add the December 2023 one to FM23 at any point)

Edited December 18, 2023 by themodelcitizen

[gooseta]

i assume still compatible with the concacaf to libertadores file?

[themodelcitizen]

Haven't touched CONCACAF CL or anything so it should work fine. Although I thought I saw in the bugs forum someone said that the NACL and the Libertadores don't add to a team's history (showing the trophies and competitions won). That might be a default issue. I wonder if there's a box or something we can check for that

Edited December 31, 2023 by themodelcitizen

[forameuss]

I feel like I don't hate myself enough, so thought about starting a save around the MLS, and looks like this'll be a good addition.  What happens around youth intakes across the levels?  I can't remember what happens in out-of-the-box MLS, do they get an intake AND an opportunity to participate in the draft?  And do the sides outside of the MLS just get your standard youth intake?

Edited December 20, 2023 by forameuss

[themodelcitizen]

Last I checked the MLS teams were NOT getting an intake (as intended). Most MLS Next teams get an intake (as intended), and after a couple of years those kids are assigned to a USL2 team from where they can play a year or two and be drafted (or poached by a D2-D3 team), which is the intended youth pipeline. Other Academy teams (USL And ECNL) are supposed to get an intake (I think) but that's not working. D2-D3 teams (USL, NISA) seemed to be getting an intake which I believe is a glitch, they might fix that in a patch, but it's not game-breaking, just some more mostly useless newgens running around. Running a test now with the MLS teams back in Open Cup to make sure scheduling works in 2026 and beyond, so will double-check this stuff

[sctchrs]

@themodelcitizen is D4 the main scope of your project or are you planning on doing more? I would be interested in helping your project in competition/league rules research if you'd like! I've tried doing this kind of USA database and burned too many brain cells lol! Maybe we can work together if I help with research for UPSL, NPSL, and regional leagues??

[themodelcitizen]

Sweet! Extra research and help is definitely appreciated. For now, I'm stopping here. Adding other D4 leagues and lower tiers sounds good but as long as active teams are producing newgens, another 50+ youth intakes is a bad idea. Those teams will also raid the USL2 teams to fill out their rosters, which we don't want (trying to think of ways to curb teams in USL and NISA from doing so).

Honestly at that level it's kind of meaningless playing through a season anyway, outside of getting the chance to play with your local team. The game isn't really set up for amateur teams and it's hard to replicate stuff like finances and player retention/movement

[Marco Borghesi]

hey @themodelcitizen amazing job, well done. I started to enjoy US football LOL ok ok soccer ... and I wanted to try your DB. I've just notice the North Carolina FC is USL1. Shouldn't be in USL Championship?

Edited December 21, 2023 by Marco Borghesi

[themodelcitizen]

NC just moved up ("promoted", just not on the pitch, although coincidentally they did win USL1). The team lineup in this DB is accurate for the 2023 season as that's when the game starts. I might consider moving teams around after the official patches, I have a feeling they might do it anyway

Edited December 21, 2023 by themodelcitizen