[FM20] Africa Extended. Bringing FM20 to Africa. v4 RELEASED

[lo.simon]

Il y a 2 heures, sporadicsmiles a dit :

I will look into it. I have not had the time to sit and edit at all for the last few weeks, but I had added this to my future feature list and I will have a look the next time I get the chance. 

A lot of Thanks.

[UnitedJoshdom]

6 hours ago, sporadicsmiles said:

@UnitedJoshdom. I will take care of incorporating the player and league changes you have provided to the files I already have. If it means I have to manually go through to make sure everything is added that is fine, I had figured I would have to do that a little bit anyway. This is a perennial problem when combining different editor files. They never work quite the way you expect. My plan is to take your file and to completely add it into the two that already exist. I just have not had the time to get started on it yet. 

I edited a few things from your leagues changes file that I downloaded from here. I have a file which undoes the team creations and  changes some general rules for the Linafoot.

What I would recommend doing is: Create a backup of your editor data and then add my changes to the backup. If the files are merged safely then continue with editing on the backup. I also have more changes to my personal file i can set a link for you to download.

[sporadicsmiles]

23 hours ago, UnitedJoshdom said:

What I would recommend doing is: Create a backup of your editor data and then add my changes to the backup. If the files are merged safely then continue with editing on the backup. I also have more changes to my personal file i can set a link for you to download.

That was my plan. I will also load your file and check what changes you have made. Then I can sure any that are not carried over can also be added. May be a little time consuming but it is worth while. 

[cel1234]

Any news on Cameroon ?? World Cup 90 vibe would love to play in Cameroon and find the new Roger Milla.

[UnitedJoshdom]

@sporadicsmiles

Some updated files. Sort out a few things.

The leagues file is just an edit of your file with some congolese changes reset.

@cel1234

There are some individual changes in the DB, but the league hasn't been set as playable yet. It's one of the next on the agenda.

Josh's editor data - DR Congo.fmf Josh's editor data - Leagues.fmf

[omnivore]

Amazing work @UnitedJoshdom. Looks to me like FM ought to bring you on as a researcher, you've done amazing work here! 

[UnitedJoshdom]

On 18/06/2020 at 01:35, omnivore said:

Amazing work @UnitedJoshdom. Looks to me like FM ought to bring you on as a researcher, you've done amazing work here! 

I've actually just recently been taken on as a researcher. Assistant researcher for a few countries in Africa.

I've been doing some balancing and some finishing touches for teams in DR Congo. I've also started doing a couple teams from Zambia. Seems like the next natural step: Borders DR Congo, have transfers between them, about the same in quality and coefficient. I've been busy with stuff outside FM so I haven't had the time to do much but I have managed to put together a squad for one of the smaller teams.

[Jorgen]

When editing more Arabian countries, would you consider adding the Arab Club Champions League and (the probably defunct) GCC Champions League too?

What about other regional continental cups? Africa and Asia seem to have a lot of cups for nations and clubs. Some of them defunct nowadays, and some of them still active.

I have found that nabildx has made a lot of them, but by making them all play like the UEFA Champions League, or removing Australia from Asia, they're not exactly what I am looking for.

Edited July 7, 2020 by Jorgen

[UnitedJoshdom]

Just dropping in something else. I think it's kinda funny.

https://gyazo.com/87046e28002e6112f0d6ff79eb33fd12

[sporadicsmiles]

Hey everyone. Just a little update from my side. 

As you may have noted I have been absent for a while from these forums. I have been taking a break from all things FM for a while. I found that it was not helping with my mental health during lockdown. Having just moved countries (literally I managed to do this the day before the lockdown in France) I found myself isolated in a new country. Which I found very tough. I found that I was getting into bouts of just playing FM and feeling awful, and the two were somehow connected in my mind. So I needed to get away from it for a while. And apparently it is quite slow going to rediscover the love for the game and break this association. 

I just wanted to let everyone on this thread know that their efforts are greatly appreciated, and that I will get around to adding in the suggestions and improvements suggested. This project will continue to be a passion and I do intend to pick up work on it again. I hope you guys can understand that I cannot say when that will be yet. 

[Jorgen]

@sporadicsmiles Your health is the most important thing you have (alongside your family). So stay save, stay strong, get well soon and surely don't worry about FM.

Take care!

[Wolf_pd]

On 02/08/2020 at 00:34, sporadicsmiles said:

Hey everyone. Just a little update from my side. 

As you may have noted I have been absent for a while from these forums. I have been taking a break from all things FM for a while. I found that it was not helping with my mental health during lockdown. Having just moved countries (literally I managed to do this the day before the lockdown in France) I found myself isolated in a new country. Which I found very tough. I found that I was getting into bouts of just playing FM and feeling awful, and the two were somehow connected in my mind. So I needed to get away from it for a while. And apparently it is quite slow going to rediscover the love for the game and break this association. 

I just wanted to let everyone on this thread know that their efforts are greatly appreciated, and that I will get around to adding in the suggestions and improvements suggested. This project will continue to be a passion and I do intend to pick up work on it again. I hope you guys can understand that I cannot say when that will be yet. 

I see where you are. Had this a while back, because editing FM was the thing I did most while sick and the first few weeks recovering from Corona. The fun will come back.

Make sure to keep healthy, both physically and mentally.

[sporadicsmiles]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I will get there I am sure. One step at a time.

[Jogo Bonito]

I've previously downloaded your database even though I haven't (yet) managed any side on it.

I'd like to echo other comments and say take care to stay happy and healthy in every sense. FM will still be there when you feel better about things, take your time and soon enough I hope everything will feel easier, and that your smiles will be less than sporadic. These have been/still are difficult times, best of luck 

[designman]

Hi @sporadicsmiles,

First, good luck with your mental health. I've been in a similar situation and know how hard it is.

Regardiing the file, playing in Morocco is  a bit hard.

- Player abilities seem random. Example: Nahiri, wydad casablanca's left back, best  goalscorer for the club has a 7 finishing. Overall, player abilities are too low. top players barely have any stat over 10. I think  the level should be closer to an average ligue 2 team, with each topteam having at least 3 ligue 1 level players.

-Financial capabilities are underestimated. Wydad's highest paid player earns in the DB is on 120K€ a year which should be closer to 300/400k€. Raja has a youth team player at 500k€ a year while their star is on 35k€ a year.  which is not realistic at all. 

-Overall, Wydad's players should be at the same level as other top clubs in Egypt and Tunisia as the club arrived at the semis of the champions league every year in the last 4 years.

 

[sporadicsmiles]

21 hours ago, designman said:

Player abilities seem random.

They are random, or at best they are whatever is currently in the database. I do not actually set the attributes. I do not really know enough about how to balance them to do this in a sensible way. And although I have become somewhat familiar with the players and the teams over the years, I would not know how to accurately grade them. This is where the realism I want will always fall short, As one guy I can not really give every single player a sensible rating. Maybe for the future I can try to at least ensure CA/PA are more in line with performances when I can find them. 

21 hours ago, designman said:

-Financial capabilities are underestimated.

Again, it is damned hard to find good info on the contract values of all the players, so it is not something I touch. If you have a good resource even for a few of the teams here I would happy to have it. It is something that could be improved. For new players I have added I let the game set their wage, which could lead to some weird numbers I guess. 

21 hours ago, designman said:

-Overall, Wydad's players should be at the same level as other top clubs in Egypt and Tunisia as the club arrived at the semis of the champions league every year in the last 4 years.

 

This I can have a look at when I get back to this. The way I am setting CA/PA is to use the minimum and maximum of the players already in the squad, and giving numbers that fit in between there. Which is not ideal, but again it is at least better than leaving it blank. For Wydad a lot of the players are going to be already in the database, which means they already have their CA/PA set by SI. I do not touch these values at all (the researchers should know more than I about this). 

Thanks for the feedback though. I cannot see myself getting back into this before FM21 now, but I am taking on board the advice and criticism of everyone who posts here. I will do a solid review of all the data I have in the database currently before expanding further. This was always part of the plan anyway. It is a super long term project. The first step was to get rosters as correct as possible. Which is now more or less done (but still needs some work). Once I have that in place, and I do not have to keep adding hundreds of players for each league, I will be in a better position to actually look at some of the finer details. 

21 hours ago, designman said:

First, good luck with your mental health. I've been in a similar situation and know how hard it is.

Thanks very much. I am slowly getting there. Just taking things nice and slow and rediscovering the things I enjoy about both the game and making it feel like a positive aspect of my life again. Starting with being active on these forums again. 

[designman]

Quote

Again, it is damned hard to find good info on the contract values of all the players, so it is not something I touch. If you have a good resource even for a few of the teams here I would happy to have it. It is something that could be improved. For new players I have added I let the game set their wage, which could lead to some weird numbers I guess. 

True, it won't help that clubs themselves try very hard to keep this as opaque as possible. 

The only 100% source you can find is TAS/Cas rulings on african clubs

http://jurisprudence.tas-cas.org/Shared Documents/4673.pdf#search=wydad

Here it ays, wydad's former coach was earning 35k€ a month after taxes. This is the sort of salaries a top player can get

Top clubs run on a budget of 7/10m€ depending on years: https://m.le360.ma/sport/football/dou-viennent-les-millions-du-raja-de-casablanca-70387

https://web.archive.org/web/20191126193209/http://rajaclubathletic.ma/raja/ar/storage/2019/10/Rapport-financier-Raja-Club-Athletic-Doc-3.pdf

You can see that wages budget is at 3m€, for Wydad, it is probably at 4 or 4.5m€. Clubs other than wydad and Raja will have a much lower budget 

Regarding the value of players, this seems rather accurate :

https://www.transfermarkt.fr/wydad-athletic-club-casablanca/kader/verein/6603

 

Quote

The way I am setting CA/PA is to use the minimum and maximum of the players already in the squad, and giving numbers that fit in between there. Which is not ideal, but again it is at least better than leaving it blank. For Wydad a lot of the players are going to be already in the database, which means they already have their CA/PA set by SI. I do not touch these values at all (the researchers should know more than I about this). 

I don't think that SI has african researchers at all. In the previous version, the ratings were much more accurate, now they just seem to be set randomly. Only the positions are accurate 

[Number seven]

They do have African researchers.

[sporadicsmiles]

15 hours ago, designman said:

True, it won't help that clubs themselves try very hard to keep this as opaque as possible. 

The only 100% source you can find is TAS/Cas rulings on african clubs

http://jurisprudence.tas-cas.org/Shared Documents/4673.pdf#search=wydad

Here it ays, wydad's former coach was earning 35k€ a month after taxes. This is the sort of salaries a top player can get

Top clubs run on a budget of 7/10m€ depending on years: https://m.le360.ma/sport/football/dou-viennent-les-millions-du-raja-de-casablanca-70387

https://web.archive.org/web/20191126193209/http://rajaclubathletic.ma/raja/ar/storage/2019/10/Rapport-financier-Raja-Club-Athletic-Doc-3.pdf

You can see that wages budget is at 3m€, for Wydad, it is probably at 4 or 4.5m€. Clubs other than wydad and Raja will have a much lower budget 

Regarding the value of players, this seems rather accurate :

https://www.transfermarkt.fr/wydad-athletic-club-casablanca/kader/verein/6603

 

I don't think that SI has african researchers at all. In the previous version, the ratings were much more accurate, now they just seem to be set randomly. Only the positions are accurate 

Thanks for the information. All things like this are very useful for me. Especially coming from people who actually know or follow these leagues.

11 hours ago, Number seven said:

They do have African researchers.

Indeed, they have a small but excellent team of researchers. Which is why I tend not to change things about the players that are in the database except to update the teams. 

[UnitedJoshdom]

On 16/08/2020 at 18:52, designman said:

I don't think that SI has african researchers at all. In the previous version, the ratings were much more accurate, now they just seem to be set randomly. Only the positions are accurate 

Hello Designman, as an assitant researcher I can clarify for you who holds the position of researcher for Morocco atm.

The head researcher for Africa is a guy called Blue Lou. He's on these forums if you want to contact him about anything. He's a busy guy however, as he alone is responsible for over 35 countries.

There is a person who is set to the Moroccan league specifically but he has been inactive since February. There is also someone else who is registered to just Raja Casablanca who hasn't been active since January. If you have enough interest, and valid sources, I would recommend contacting Blue Lou and asking to become an assistant researcher yourself. It's not as difficult as you'd think.

p.s. doubt any of this breaches NDA but I'll leave names out of this.

[designman]

18 hours ago, UnitedJoshdom said:

Hello Designman, as an assitant researcher I can clarify for you who holds the position of researcher for Morocco atm.

The head researcher for Africa is a guy called Blue Lou. He's on these forums if you want to contact him about anything. He's a busy guy however, as he alone is responsible for over 35 countries.

There is a person who is set to the Moroccan league specifically but he has been inactive since February. There is also someone else who is registered to just Raja Casablanca who hasn't been active since January. If you have enough interest, and valid sources, I would recommend contacting Blue Lou and asking to become an assistant researcher yourself. It's not as difficult as you'd think.

p.s. doubt any of this breaches NDA but I'll leave names out of this.

Thanks, 

No wonder why Raja have more accurate data, I will contact him. 

Thanks,

[orphio22]

@sporadicsmiles

Just wanted to say a very big thanks to you. I'm currently making the Nigerian football league in PES using your work to get realistic and balanced stats. Been a humongous help!

[GreenTriangle]

Maybe this file can be useful for those interested in activating African leagues :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AXU9O4W1K86BpNmOi4GAjznjFjPVZbKi/view?usp=sharing

[GreenTriangle]

And some additional info :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18xI9FReR-hOUE3IscfZ9JPHoj3l4UBI2/view?usp=sharing

[sporadicsmiles]

@GreenTriangle That is incredible information, thank you. Honestly I wish I had made something similar as I was going for the players. I need to work on a python script to deal with players in an easier way I think.

Just an update for everyone. I have not done any work on the editor clearly, but I will begin to do so again once I have FM21. In fact one of the main motivations for me to pick up the game is to get the editor. I do not know exactly when I will be buying the game, however. I want to wait and see what the ME is like before I commit. Obviously I will end up buying the game, I always do, but it might not be at release. However I do want to pick this back up again towards the end of the year, with the aim to release something at least up to date based on the current state of the file for early 2021. 

Then I can start to work on all the wonderful information that has been provided me by people in this thread. Focus on depth before getting any further on width. 

[sporadicsmiles]

Another update here from me. 

This weekend I have started to transpose the FM20 database into csv files so I can use excel to store data and sort out data for clubs without having to use the editor. This will help me out as this project starts to get pretty large as I will be able to keep track of what players I have put where, who I have added, what I have changed etc. It also opens things up to significantly easier collaboration for those who are interested in passing along details. Since I will have a formalized template to add details to, not only will anyone who wants to help out know exactly what info I want, it will make my life 100% easier to incorporate these additional infos and keep myself on top of things a lot easier.

I will not ask for any input yet, since I have no idea what my current time line working on this will be. The end of the year is always a busy time for me at work. There is also a lot of maintenance and general improvements to make, so it could take a while to get it out. But this project is very much alive and I am very much planning what will be done. 

[UnitedJoshdom]

Any updates?