[FM24] Canadian Megapatch

[yellowsweatygorilla]

The Canadian Megapatch revamps the Canadian football pyramid in Football Manager 24, with a plethora of changes that improves the accuracy of the Canadian Premier League, the Voyageurs Cup, and relevant continental competitions. The goal is realism. Leagues belonging to League1 Canada (L1O Prem; L1O Champ; L1BC, L1AB Exhibition Series, L1Q) are also added as playable leagues, alongside journalists, coaches, USports/provincial league teams. Scroll down for an extended list of changes.

Download file here for 2.0 Winter Update-> LINK

Download 1.0 here -> LINK

For support, come chat about the megapatch in the canpl discord #gaming channel -> https://discordapp.com/channels/350036389905039362

Fixes to Base Game:
CanPL
-Developmental contracts emulated through youth contracts limiting players to six matches (all players that had signed developmental contracts added to clubs)
-As only Pacific, Cavalry, HFX, and York United have academies, other CanPL teams no longer have youth intakes and will have to rely on signing young players from L1O/L1BC/PLSQ/AMSL. The quality of newgens have also been improved for those leagues
-Windsor and Kelowna joins as expansion teams in 2025, with Saskatoon removed

League1 Canada
-Thanks to magicmastermind124, SaintsCanada, and themodelcitizen, L1O league split in 2024 now reflects in game performances from the 2023 season

CONCACAF League/Champions League/Leagues Cup
-Correct CONCACAF League qualifications from CanPL/V-Cup
-Canadian MLSNP teams now sign Canadians

Canadian Championship
-Canadian Championship now correctly includes PLSQ champion, which was previously left out
-L1BC champion and expansion teams also added for 2023
-L1C champion qualifies from 2024 onward

 

Edited March 21 by yellowsweatygorilla

[yellowsweatygorilla]

@SaintsCanada @themodelcitizen @EnigMattic1 @kandersson @magicmastermind124

Here's what I have so far, incorporating the excellent L1O split from Saints' file, but still debating whether to include the reserve leagues too. Unfortunately I don't have time to do much testing, but if you folks wanted to give it a spin before I release this properly!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/e55zub1dh47ojfp/CanadianMegapatch24.zip/file

[LFCStevieG]

8 hours ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

@SaintsCanada @themodelcitizen @EnigMattic1 @kandersson @magicmastermind124

Here's what I have so far, incorporating the excellent L1O split from Saints' file, but still debating whether to include the reserve leagues too. Unfortunately I don't have time to do much testing, but if you folks wanted to give it a spin before I release this properly!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/e55zub1dh47ojfp/CanadianMegapatch24.zip/file

I was going to take a look at it in the Editor and try to merge the files, but it doesn't even want to show up in my FM 24 or FM 23 Editors lol, they 100% borked something in the recent update they released haha. FM can be so frustrating sometimes -_- 

Ignore the YouthProgramChanged file lol, all I did was add a u17 and u22 team to Canada.

[themodelcitizen]

Without looking in-game, and just checking the continental file, looks like CanChamp still has no L1BC team and the non-geographical draw. Is there anything wrong with the NACL/Leagues Cup etc that needs a rebuild? You can access CanChamp etc without touching any of the other rules

EDIT: more random notes as I come across them, feel free to tell me to pipe it.

• League1BC is missing a team
• For L1O we used a stage name for Premiership in 2024 onward, so it wasn't (inaccurately) called the Premiership in 2023. Could do the same thing with the L1A "exhibition series" or whatever they called it this year. Likely just personal preference there
• This is just picky now but the offset dates Saints added are a nice touch (they came over with L1O in the copy and paste but not the others). Adds variation so every game isn't at Saturday 3 PM or Wednesday 8 PM - title/playoff race is more immersive as teams follows each other's results and media ask you about it

Re: U21s/U19s for youth development, it would be awesome to utilize the default reserve structure in a way so that L1OP teams would get invited to field teams in those divisions when they get promoted (like in England). At least for U21s. I might toy around with that one weekend

Edited December 2, 2023 by themodelcitizen

[yellowsweatygorilla]

49 minutes ago, themodelcitizen said:

Without looking in-game, and just checking the continental file, looks like CanChamp still has no L1BC team and the non-geographical draw. Is there anything wrong with the NACL/Leagues Cup etc that needs a rebuild? You can access CanChamp etc without touching any of the other rules

EDIT: more random notes as I come across them, feel free to tell me to pipe it.

• League1BC is missing a team
• For L1O we used a stage name for Premiership in 2024 onward, so it wasn't (inaccurately) called the Premiership in 2023. Could do the same thing with the L1A "exhibition series" or whatever they called it this year. Likely just personal preference there
• This is just picky now but the offset dates Saints added are a nice touch (they came over with L1O in the copy and paste but not the others). Adds variation so every game isn't at Saturday 3 PM or Wednesday 8 PM - title/playoff race is more immersive as teams follows each other's results and media ask you about it

Re: U21s/U19s for youth development, it would be awesome to utilize the default reserve structure in a way so that L1OP teams would get invited to field teams in those divisions when they get promoted (like in England). At least for U21s. I might toy around with that one weekend

That's so weird. I checked in game that L1BC participates. I'll double check

 

Keep in mind that after 2025, only the two l1canada (ie. Interprovincial tournament) finalists and 3rd place team qualify for Canadian championship as we have two CPL expansion teams

 

 

[themodelcitizen]

NM, I see Highlanders in there. You can get TSS, it's just the editor doesn't like them so there has to be a backup option

Also, it's Nautsa'mawt who have L1BC as their division but aren't included in the table and aren't getting any games

Edited December 2, 2023 by themodelcitizen

[EnigMattic1]

1 hour ago, themodelcitizen said:

NM, I see Highlanders in there. You can get TSS, it's just the editor doesn't like them so there has to be a backup option

Also, it's Nautsa'mawt who have L1BC as their division but aren't included in the table and aren't getting any games

Nautsa'mawt dropped out for the 2024 season I believe. It was something like the owners underestimated how much it would cost to run the club. 

As far as youth teams go, I believe there is going to be youth teams from the CPL sides entering at League1 level at some point. I know that is the plan with Valour and their "High Performance" side anyway. Regarding reserves, is it only L1O and L1Q that have a reserve league at the moment? 

[magicmastermind124]

11 hours ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

@SaintsCanada @themodelcitizen @EnigMattic1 @kandersson @magicmastermind124

Here's what I have so far, incorporating the excellent L1O split from Saints' file, but still debating whether to include the reserve leagues too. Unfortunately I don't have time to do much testing, but if you folks wanted to give it a spin before I release this properly!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/e55zub1dh47ojfp/CanadianMegapatch24.zip/file

One small suggestion of mine is to add a stage name, call it "2022 Regular Season" and add that to stage 1 (the hidden stage) of L1O.

This will make the text for the transfer of points much clearer in game.

[themodelcitizen]

1 hour ago, EnigMattic1 said:

Nautsa'mawt dropped out for the 2024 season I believe. It was something like the owners underestimated how much it would cost to run the club. 

As far as youth teams go, I believe there is going to be youth teams from the CPL sides entering at League1 level at some point. I know that is the plan with Valour and their "High Performance" side anyway. Regarding reserves, is it only L1O and L1Q that have a reserve league at the moment? 

Right but they were there in 2023 right? My understanding is 2023 is meant to be accurate formats and rosters and then expansion/contraction (some speculative) takes over here

[yellowsweatygorilla]

1 hour ago, magicmastermind124 said:

One small suggestion of mine is to add a stage name, call it "2022 Regular Season" and add that to stage 1 (the hidden stage) of L1O.

This will make the text for the transfer of points much clearer in game.

Oh yea, modelcit mentioned this edit to me. Very smart

[yellowsweatygorilla]

2 minutes ago, themodelcitizen said:

Right but they were there in 2023 right? My understanding is 2023 is meant to be accurate formats and rosters and then expansion/contraction (some speculative) takes over here

You caught me, I was being lazy and didn't want to 'un-extinct' the team. Will work through the other things need fixing before considering that.

[themodelcitizen]

Just now, yellowsweatygorilla said:

You caught me, I was being lazy and didn't want to 'un-extinct' the team. Will work through the other things need fixing before considering that.

Re-un-extinct?  Not sure how saints did it (maybe registered teams?) but his comps are literally all release-quality (and better than most default leagues) already if you wanna take some more of those. I think mastermind had real fixtures at one point (including the two-game weekends) but not sure if they worked as intended

[yellowsweatygorilla]

1 minute ago, themodelcitizen said:

Re-un-extinct?  Not sure how saints did it (maybe registered teams?) but his comps are literally all release-quality (and better than most default leagues) already if you wanna take some more of those. I think mastermind had real fixtures at one point (including the two-game weekends) but not sure if they worked as intended

I think I did real fixtures last year too, but the game for some reason always scrambled 5-6 of the matchups so it was never fully in the right order

[yellowsweatygorilla]

4 hours ago, themodelcitizen said:

 

• For L1O we used a stage name for Premiership in 2024 onward, so it wasn't (inaccurately) called the Premiership in 2023. Could do the same thing with the L1A "exhibition series" or whatever they called it this year. Likely just personal preference there

How does it handle playoffs though? Doesn't premiership just disappear for the playoffs?

[themodelcitizen]

Oh yeah. I mean "Premiership Playoffs" can be a stage too but I see how it's increasingly complicated at that point

[yellowsweatygorilla]

2 minutes ago, themodelcitizen said:

Oh yeah. I mean "Premiership Playoffs" can be a stage too but I see how it's increasingly complicated at that point

Oh right. Ok, let's do that and hope it doesn't break anything else

[yellowsweatygorilla]

https://www.mediafire.com/file/4q2u1pwbfcd8cq6/CanadianMegapatch24.0.1.zip/file (disregard, this one is broken)

With all of @themodelcitizen's suggested change, except I might've run out of time (until end of the month) to add the reserve divisions. (If someone else wanted to add it to the file though feel free!)

Still needs more testing, but I am excited I was about to figure out geographic draw for Can Champ with longitudinal sort. The tricky thing was because the L1C teams aren't geographically specific (i.e. you could get the BC and Alberta team and one of the East teams, or the other way around). The compromise was that I had 7 West-most MLS+CPL clubs drawn against each other, with the West-most L1C; and the two East-most L1C with the Eastern teams. Unfortunately, it does mean that a L1AB team could potentially get drawn on the East-side of the bracket, but my logic too was that since there's more MLS clubs in the East, it kind of evens out in terms of handicap for CPL clubs.

Edited December 3, 2023 by yellowsweatygorilla

[yellowsweatygorilla]

ahhh,,, hold on... CPL 2025 season not generating ... weird this didn't come up when I used the editor test feature... and only seemed to happen when I start the game from 2024 season

 

Update: Ok, yea when I tried a sim that started in 2023, the 2025 season popped up fine. I guess I could just get rid of the 2024 start option, but any clue why it's doing that?

My guess: starting in 2024 messes up L1O prem and champ since it doesn't allow for the team redistributions to fill out those leagues, because I noticed if that if I set start date to 2024 in the editor testing module it also breaks, with a lot of errors regarding L1O teams.

 

Update: Forgot to copy over Mastermind's inactive L1O C competition. Doing that fixed it

Edited December 3, 2023 by yellowsweatygorilla

[yellowsweatygorilla]

<deleted>

Edited December 3, 2023 by yellowsweatygorilla

[themodelcitizen]

22 minutes ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/4q2u1pwbfcd8cq6/CanadianMegapatch24.0.1.zip/file

With all of @themodelcitizen's suggested change, except I might've run out of time (until end of the month) to add the reserve divisions. (If someone else wanted to add it to the file though feel free!)

Still needs more testing, but I am excited I was about to figure out geographic draw for Can Champ with longitudinal sort. The tricky thing was because the L1C teams aren't geographically specific (i.e. you could get the BC and Alberta team and one of the East teams, or the other way around). The compromise was that I had 7 West-most MLS+CPL clubs drawn against each other, with the West-most L1C; and the two East-most L1C with the Eastern teams. Unfortunately, it does mean that a L1AB team could potentially get drawn on the East-side of the bracket, but my logic too was that since there's more MLS clubs in the East, it kind of evens out in terms of handicap for CPL clubs.

You can also get it by just doing "geographical draw" under "draw rules" and pick 2 as the amount of regions. It sorts by east-west by itself and can accommodate different teams. There will also be some variation as a result of the different L1O teams being east or west of Forge depending who gets in.

The only thing you can't replicate is that the real draw had sort of 1 missing slot in the west, so I think Forge got in as a sort of random pick from them and the other Ontario teams. Plus IRL some teams weren't willing to host in May (which was odd, maybe CFL or other event dates) so they were automatically put in an "away" pool (there's something about the higher seed getting to choose home or away in "draw rules" that I haven't played with)

[yellowsweatygorilla]

1 hour ago, themodelcitizen said:

You can also get it by just doing "geographical draw" under "draw rules" and pick 2 as the amount of regions. It sorts by east-west by itself and can accommodate different teams. There will also be some variation as a result of the different L1O teams being east or west of Forge depending who gets in.

The only thing you can't replicate is that the real draw had sort of 1 missing slot in the west, so I think Forge got in as a sort of random pick from them and the other Ontario teams. Plus IRL some teams weren't willing to host in May (which was odd, maybe CFL or other event dates) so they were automatically put in an "away" pool (there's something about the higher seed getting to choose home or away in "draw rules" that I haven't played with)

So for 2024, I was able to replicate the 2023 draw based on these pots, and 2025 it goes to regional (your method sounds more elegant though instead of using seeds to do it, so I'll try that out)

Quote

Prior to the commencement of the draw, one club from Pot B1 was moved into Pot A1, then one club from Pot B2 was moved to B1, and then both clubs from Pot C were moved to Pot B2, resulting in an even distribution of three teams in each of the first round pots.^[8] Atlético Ottawa and the HFX Wanderers were placed in Pot B2 prior to the draw as the eastern teams that did not commit to hosting a match in the first round. The Wanderers were eventually drawn from Pot A1 as the designated home team for their first round match against Ottawa, and Canada Soccer determined a neutral venue for the match.^[7]

 

Pot A1	Pot A2	Pot B1	Pot B2	Pot C	Pot D
Pacific FC TSS FC Rovers	Cavalry FC Valour FC Vancouver FC	Forge FC York United FC CF Montréal	Atlético Ottawa HFX Wanderers FC	FC Laval Vaughan Azzurri	Toronto FC Vancouver Whitecaps FC

[themodelcitizen]

Oh right, and Forge got bumped to A1. So A1 and B1 get a home game.

I guess Ottawa and Halifax couldn't commit to the home date, so whichever of them got bumped to B1 (and a home game) hosted at a neutral ground? You could give them an "alternative stadium" for the CanChamp for a specific date period only.

It's still effectively 2 regions (A and B) but you can keep it in-region with valid cup draw rules. I think if you used the geographical draw for the QFs and semis it should keep the regions intact too (or just draw every round fresh but I think the bracket was known ahead of time IRL)

Edited December 3, 2023 by themodelcitizen

[themodelcitizen]

Come to think of it you could use team pools to make it so the B1 team that goes to A1 is randomly chosen from the 3 candidates and not always Forge. Same with the B2 team that comes in to replace them. I'll try it in a separate file at some point and see if it works as intended

[yellowsweatygorilla]

https://www.mediafire.com/file/1l2qxot8z7j33ws/CanadianMegapatch24.0.2.zip/file

Ok, hopefully this one is close to final release. Got rid of CCL and other CONCACAF tournaments in the continental file since it looks like vanilla finally got it right. Did the geographic draw @themodelcitizen suggested. Fixed the 2024 issue.

[yellowsweatygorilla]

16 minutes ago, themodelcitizen said:

Come to think of it you could use team pools to make it so the B1 team that goes to A1 is randomly chosen from the 3 candidates and not always Forge. Same with the B2 team that comes in to replace them. I'll try it in a separate file at some point and see if it works as intended

Yea, that's what I did.

[yellowsweatygorilla]

22 minutes ago, themodelcitizen said:

 

I guess Ottawa and Halifax couldn't commit to the home date, so whichever of them got bumped to B1 (and a home game) hosted at a neutral ground? You could give them an "alternative stadium" for the CanChamp for a specific date period only.

 

Wait, how do you set a neutral venue for only specific fixtures within a cup round but not others?

[themodelcitizen]

I was thinking just give them both an alternative stadium for this comp only with a hard end date (midweek after that round), but only because I couldn't think of a way to do it in the cup rules themselves

Although "stadiums for fixture" in the cup rules seems to have an option to set stadia for certain stages and home teams

Edited December 3, 2023 by themodelcitizen

[yellowsweatygorilla]

 I was certain that in the event that a CPL club occupies a CCC qualification slot from both the league and the Canadian Championship, it goes to the next runner-up in the Can Champ... but looking at the CONCACAF regulations it seems pretty ambiguous which rule takes precedence:

 

https://stconcacafwp001.blob.core.windows.net/media/atwi3fxa/2024-concacaf-champions-cup-regulations-eng.pdf

Edited December 3, 2023 by yellowsweatygorilla

[yellowsweatygorilla]

Seems like it is indeed the CanChamp runner-up that gets in if the winner already has a spot. So, I reverted back to the old format.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/n6tfrb20mrmk1u2/CanadianMegapatch24.0.3.zip/file

 

[Fmfan00]

https://northerntribune.ca/league1-alberta-expansion-promotion-relegation/
 

any chance to add these in the future to the file?

[EnigMattic1]

On 12/12/2023 at 18:56, Fmfan00 said:

https://northerntribune.ca/league1-alberta-expansion-promotion-relegation/
 

any chance to add these in the future to the file?

It would be achievable, but it would be made complicated by the fact that teams are still to be announced. 

Unless you are referring to future files? 

Edited December 15, 2023 by EnigMattic1

[EnigMattic1]

I know this isn't specific to this file, but I figured here would be a good place to ask.

Before the U Sports draft yesterday, Vancouver and Cavalry traded draft picks. I know that is possible in-game with the MLS, but is that hard coded or can it be added? 

[PaMi 7]

Il 2/12/2023 in 08:19 , yellowsweatygorilla ha scritto:

...

-Windsor and Kelowna joins as expansion teams in 2025, with Saskatoon removed

...

 

Why you add Windsor and Kelowna and remove Saskatoon?

Not for criticise, only curiosity

[EnigMattic1]

7 minutes ago, PaMi 7 said:

Why you add Windsor and Kelowna and remove Saskatoon?

Not for criticise, only curiosity

Windsor are confirmed as an expansion side, Kelowna are, pretty much, good to go and Saskatoon have lost their stadium and, as a result, are now in limbo. 

[themodelcitizen]

Windsor are about as confirmed as Saskatoon ever were (and Kelowna too for that matter). Clanachan has the territory rights but that's about it, I'd be surprised to see them join the league in the next decade much less before 2026. Still a great addition to the mod tbf, they'd instantly be my team if and when they join

[yellowsweatygorilla]

On 12/12/2023 at 13:56, Fmfan00 said:

https://northerntribune.ca/league1-alberta-expansion-promotion-relegation/
 

any chance to add these in the future to the file?

Yep. Will add we soon as announced

[yellowsweatygorilla]

On 15/12/2023 at 15:24, PaMi 7 said:

Why you add Windsor and Kelowna and remove Saskatoon?

Not for criticise, only curiosity

As others said, Saskatoon bid has completely collapsed with the investor pulling out. Windsor, while still pretty unrealistic in my view and more than likely a face saving move for the departing Ex commissioner, is still a public bid with named investors.

As for Kelowna, many reliable sources have indicated that they are ready to join in 2025 and the commissioner has confirmed we will have 10 teams that season 

[themodelcitizen]

Windsor is gonna be a lot harder logistically than it should be, any non-Ontario team (home or away) requires a 2-hour bus ride to/from London airport, or if they're going anywhere other than Calgary or Hamilton/Toronto, a 4-hour bus ride to/from Toronto airport. I think Detroit airport will be a non-starter due to the costs and the logistical issues of getting 25+ people over the border there and back consistently. It does seem like a stadium might be in the works though

Anyway back to the topic, great work as usual

[Fmfan00]

Question.. when it comes to stuff like cf Montreal B can u still sign players for that club is it only cf Montreal who can sign players and then reassign them to cf Montreal B in the Quebec league?

[piuk]

I've noticed the 3D kits don't work, because the config file is incorrect, so I've fixed it config.xml Keep in mind this is for 3D kits, 2d appears to be working just fine. Merry Christmas

[Fmfan00]

anyone ever see CF Montreal B sign players. I have always wanted to play as that team but could never sign players as that club in Fm23?

[torsportsfan]

Thank you for this!

Unfortunately, because of some other mods I'm running, I'm having real problems with getting this to validate. However, I'm really interested in the journalism/media aspect of the Megapatch for immersion purposes. Is there anyway that I can just use that?

[yellowsweatygorilla]

Too swamped to test, but I've fixed all the issues with the winter update and uploaded a new file compatible with that.

[yellowsweatygorilla]

On 13/01/2024 at 04:02, torsportsfan said:

Thank you for this!

Unfortunately, because of some other mods I'm running, I'm having real problems with getting this to validate. However, I'm really interested in the journalism/media aspect of the Megapatch for immersion purposes. Is there anyway that I can just use that?

You could just delete all the other changes through the editor, especially the rules, and use the file. Also don't activate the continental file.

[Shaneo94]

Anyone else having trouble getting the updated version it seems to ask for a download key?

[yellowsweatygorilla]

On 22/03/2024 at 12:49, Shaneo94 said:

Anyone else having trouble getting the updated version it seems to ask for a download key?

weird, should be. Clicking that blue download button should work -> 

[Shaneo94]

Anyone else having trouble getting the updated version it seems to ask for a download key?

7 hours ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

weird, should be. Clicking that blue download button should work -> 

Ok It Works now

 

7 hours ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

weird, should be. Clicking that blue download button should work -> 

 

[Fmfan00]

https://www.league1ontario.com/news_article/show/1305063
 

schedule for league1 champions and league2 if anyone wanted to create league 2 and add in the teams.. keep in mind looks like some league1/champions reserves play in league2

[Charles1970]

Awesome mod but i am a bit confused. Should i download the winter 24.2 update or the old format 24.03 one? And what is the difference?

Also.. is this compatible with an OFC Champions League mod i have?

Thank you

Edited April 16 by Charles1970

[yellowsweatygorilla]

On 16/04/2024 at 18:42, Charles1970 said:

Awesome mod but i am a bit confused. Should i download the winter 24.2 update or the old format 24.03 one? And what is the difference?

Also.. is this compatible with an OFC Champions League mod i have?

Thank you

If you're using the winter update then the new one, if you're using the vanilla db use the old one.

It will not conflict with anything outside of CONCACAF