Some experiment ideas

[UKFA]

If anyone is struggling for ideas beyond the usual 'give a non league club a billion pounds' I have loads of experiment ideas. Some of them I've done myself, so I won't give too much away (things may have changed in the recent FM editions anyway) and some I wasn't able to do due to lack of ability with the editor. Anyway here is a list, in no particular order. I will no doubt edit this a million times as I think of more. If you use it in a video, no credit needed or anything, but message me or reply because I'd be interested to see it.

• Swap the population of a large city, and a small town. For example I swapped the population of Glasgow, and a small town called Nairn (which I have a familial link to). See if it affects attendance, support or club success. In real life the growth of Livingston and Inverness coincided or resulted in an increased success of their football clubs Livingston FC and Inverness CT.
• Create an entirely new city with a massive population in a small country. Will any club emerge there? In FM17 and FM 20 they didn't, there was no hard coded way for a new club to form even at the lowest not in game leagues. But it's still an interesting experiment. Will that population increase have any affect on support for other teams in that region or nation? Will any club move their stadium there? Remember to increase the population of that nation by the same amount, and see if it changes their national teams success or support. Will newgens at other clubs be born in that city, If so, what clubs will they tend to generate at?
• UK wide cup. This replaces league cups in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales. I have this on the steam workshop for FM20 if anyone is interested. keep an eye on the reputations of leagues and clubs in scotland, northern ireland and wales. In theory the exposure to bigger teams should help them a lot with revenue and experience.
• The Slovakia Slovenia experiment. This is one I'm currently doing myself in FM17. These nations are fairly similar in many factors, and where they differ can be easily changed in the editor. For one of them, give them the perfect national stats, eg the perfect facilities, national reputation, etc, all the usual changes. For the other, leave all that alone but swap the top league clubs with the highest rated clubs in the World. Eg Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus etc (this requires some tweaking to their nation). Over a decade or so, which nation will be more successful internationally? What do you think, will it be the perfect rated one or the one with the best domestic league in the World? To eradicate any other factors behind the scenes, you could also try this by creating entirely new nations if that's possible. That would keep the experiment more 'scientific'.
• PreMLS - again I have an editor file on steam because this requires a bit of setup. Copy one team (I chose galaxy) copy it about 200 times, and name them labrats 1-200. However many it was, I think 30 currently, go into the MLS (with 2 due to join) and the rest go into the English leagues from the prem down to the vanarama (even so you'll still get non league teams leapfrogging up to the prem). The teams all start with the same bank balance, reputation, and if you can be bothered give them all the exact same player copied too. I even left them all in the same stadium, no doubt a bit of a groundsharing nightmare but they seemed to make it work Anyway check in every ten years or so, the question is which league system will have more winners, which will gain a better reputation, which will be more financially successful etc. My gut feeling is that the MLS system will result in a better balance of teams, with more different winners, while the prem will eventually end up with a few very rich clubs who win. But I could of course be completely wrong. That's not to say either system is objectively better, but they will likely produce different results.
• "The Old Firm in the Premiership/Premier League" I wasn't sure about posting this, because this is a clickbaity video I'd like to make at some point. Anyway the twist is it's not Rangers and Celtic in the Premiership, that's been done a few times and it's always interesting, but no, this is different. The background is that Rangers and celtic have a game, and a horrific day of violence follows. There is such a public outcry that the SFA calls an emergency meeting. It is finally agreed and negotiated for Rangers to be moved to the Northern Irish Danske bank premiership, and Celtic to move to the Eirtricity premier League  of the Republic of Ireland. It's up to you what to do with stadiums, you could leave them in Glasgow, and see if they eventually move to cut down travel costs, or let them temporarily groundshare with Linfield and Shamrock Rovers respectively. Or you could build them some brand new stadiums in their new nations. The question is how will this affect the reputation of the Scottish league? How will it affect the reputations of the NI/RoI leagues? Will other teams emerge in Scotland and become as big as the old firm, or will the league fade into obscurity? Will any of the other teams be able to compete with the Old Firm giants? All interesting questions I think. You could also go a bit further with this experiment and put Cliftonville, Lurgan Celtic, and Donegal Celtic into the RoI league as well on the same theme. Maybe chuck Hibs into Ireland, and Hearts into NI as well. It's up to you, but whatever you do, let me know how it goes!
• China's Golden generation - what happens next? This is another one I tried but couldn't really get done properly. Basically the idea is China has some miracle, an entire team of absolutely perfect all round players. You need to find players playing outside China, because otherwise the clubs sell them for millions and get a huge reputation and lots of money, and that in itself affects the experiment. So you need to find for example Chinese players who are declared for PR China but playing at clubs in Hong Kong, Taipei etc. Find them between certain ages, I used 18 and 22, and set all their stats to 20. Make sure there's more than enough for a full squad of 20 rated players. Don't change anything else, leave the manager and other staff alone. Then holiday a decade or so. It's not about whether they win the world cup etc, but what happens after they retire. My question is does that influence the next generation? Will there be further wonderkids emerging just on that basis? Or will their success increase the national reputation and that lead to further success? You can also keep an eye on the other nations you took these kids from, eg Hong Kong. If the clubs there are selling them for a few million (as they should in theory) then that league will get a massive boost, and perhaps that has a knock on effect there too. Maybe even more so than in China. or conversely, maybe they just go right back to being consistent underachievers.

[Wolf_pd]

With regards to that last, I can answer that one for you

What I did was look through all Dutch players and moved them around based on heritage. So Virgil van Dijk was made Suriname-Dutch instead of Dutch.

Suriname suddenly shot up the ranks and after a 30 year holiday was able to constantly qualify for the World Cup.

So a general rule to spice up your country would be to have a set of good players that can improve your international results. That will increase reputation and probably some behind the door stats that we can't edit.

[UKFA]

19 minutes ago, Wolf_pd said:

With regards to that last, I can answer that one for you

What I did was look through all Dutch players and moved them around based on heritage. So Virgil van Dijk was made Suriname-Dutch instead of Dutch.

Suriname suddenly shot up the ranks and after a 30 year holiday was able to constantly qualify for the World Cup.

So a general rule to spice up your country would be to have a set of good players that can improve your international results. That will increase reputation and probably some behind the door stats that we can't edit.

Oh that's really interesting, thank you! Holland has some amazing players of Surinamese descent, that would be really interesting to see. Did you happen to save that on the Steam Workshop or anything?

When I tried this with China my results weren't great, they pretty much went back to the same level they'd been previously. In their golden generation they got to the World Cup semi final, then once those players retired they were back to struggling to qualify. Maybe it was something I did wrong though. I'll try this again but with some different nations.

Edited January 24, 2021 by UKFA
Additional info

[Wolf_pd]

No, it was a try out file I made to see what the effects were of 'moving back' players of certain heritage. I want to improve the African teams by making sure not every player is poached by a former colonizer. The DR Congo becomes quite the powerhouse btw.

[UKFA]

27 minutes ago, Wolf_pd said:

No, it was a try out file I made to see what the effects were of 'moving back' players of certain heritage. I want to improve the African teams by making sure not every player is poached by a former colonizer. The DR Congo becomes quite the powerhouse btw.

Algeria is another one that comes to mind, they could have some amazing players who ended up choosing to play for France. I recall a while ago there was some media speculation about the Netherlands, it could have just been nonsense dreamed up by tabloids but they suggested there was a racial division in the Netherlands team. There was talk of some players switching to play for Suriname, and at the time they could have had some very good players.

https://www.footballparadise.com/introducing-the-best-team-the-world-never-had-suriname/

[Wolf_pd]

1996 is the only time I can think of. Back then there was a difference how Ajax paid the Surinamese and Dutch players which then erupted in the Dutch team. The reason why that didn't fester in 1998 anymore was because most of those players moved to other teams by then.

Obviously there will be things that we don't know of, but right now I am pretty sure that Virgil van Dijk and Gini Wijnaldum are such strong presences in the dressing room that any issue will be handled by the team. Also, based on the respons from the team after a racist incident in a Dutch First Division game, I would say the current team is in a good shape.

But it is true, Suriname could have had great teams and alternative history is such a fun thing

[UKFA]

On 24/01/2021 at 13:40, Wolf_pd said:

 and alternative history is such a fun thing

FM is great for alternate history, especially with a retro database or older versions of FM. Another experiment I'd like to try is a United Kingdom team. What would be the best way to achieve this? My strategy would be to change say Scotland to Britain (nationality Scottish > British), and change all the English, Welsh and Northern Irish players to Scottish/ British.

[Wolf_pd]

Why not England?

Also, if you saw the maps I make and some of the files, Iron Curtain is small compared to that.

[UKFA]

1 hour ago, Wolf_pd said:

Why not England?

It would probably make more sense, but I think England is always overrated in FM, I'd like to see a more organic growth in reputation etc.

Quote

Also, if you saw the maps I make and some of the files, Iron Curtain is small compared to that.

Plz share! I was actually thinking of creating a dedicated alternate history sports site or forum of some kind if there was sufficient interest. The alternate history wikia is also really good though.

[L55DS]

 

Quote

 

• UK wide cup. This replaces league cups in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales. I have this on the steam workshop for FM20 if anyone is interested. keep an eye on the reputations of leagues and clubs in scotland, northern ireland and wales. In theory the exposure to bigger teams should help them a lot with revenue and experience.

...

• "The Old Firm in the Premiership/Premier League" I wasn't sure about posting this, because this is a clickbaity video I'd like to make at some point. Anyway the twist is it's not Rangers and Celtic in the Premiership, that's been done a few times and it's always interesting, but no, this is different. The background is that Rangers and celtic have a game, and a horrific day of violence follows. There is such a public outcry that the SFA calls an emergency meeting. It is finally agreed and negotiated for Rangers to be moved to the Northern Irish Danske bank premiership, and Celtic to move to the Eirtricity premier League  of the Republic of Ireland. It's up to you what to do with stadiums, you could leave them in Glasgow, and see if they eventually move to cut down travel costs, or let them temporarily groundshare with Linfield and Shamrock Rovers respectively. Or you could build them some brand new stadiums in their new nations. The question is how will this affect the reputation of the Scottish league? How will it affect the reputations of the NI/RoI leagues? Will other teams emerge in Scotland and become as big as the old firm, or will the league fade into obscurity? Will any of the other teams be able to compete with the Old Firm giants? All interesting questions I think. You could also go a bit further with this experiment and put Cliftonville, Lurgan Celtic, and Donegal Celtic into the RoI league as well on the same theme. Maybe chuck Hibs into Ireland, and Hearts into NI as well. It's up to you, but whatever you do, let me know how it goes!

 

 

These ideas are similar to the ones I'm exploring at the moment. Ive added the top 10 clubs from Scotland and NI into the English league system (although they still play in the Scottish cup) and created a new nationwide league cup to replace the Carabao Cup. This cup throws up some really interesting match-ups, in theory increasing exposure and income for smaller teams in Wales, Scotland, NI and Ireland (who are included for the purposes of this).

Ive got a save of this simulated 30 years into the future.

Unfortunately, it isnt as exciting as you might think. With the largest 9 clubs removed, the Scottish Prem gets quite interesting with Livingston, Ross County, St Mirren and Raith usually competing for the title. However, they gradually lose more of their European coefficient and the league reputation decreases. The 'Union Cup' doesn't increase the reputation of the home nation leagues much, if at all. I tend to find that clubs aren't very good at spending their money in FM. 

This save also has a lot of other things going on, and some teams were messed around with- for example financial sanctions were placed on the Big 6 to try and reduce their dominance but it hasn't really worked. Except Chelsea. Chelsea got relegated, which was fun. 

I have attached the save below if youre interested. I did go further than 2040 but can't find the save game, maybe I deleted it. 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/2tqvxb7egvhby9c/UNION_V1.0_2040.fm/file

Looking to develop this idea further in future, with an expanded Irish domestic league system and a Dublin-based team in the PL. 

[UKFA]

19 hours ago, L55DS said:

 

 

These ideas are similar to the ones I'm exploring at the moment. Ive added the top 10 clubs from Scotland and NI into the English league system (although they still play in the Scottish cup) and created a new nationwide league cup to replace the Carabao Cup. This cup throws up some really interesting match-ups, in theory increasing exposure and income for smaller teams in Wales, Scotland, NI and Ireland (who are included for the purposes of this).

Ive got a save of this simulated 30 years into the future.

Unfortunately, it isnt as exciting as you might think. With the largest 9 clubs removed, the Scottish Prem gets quite interesting with Livingston, Ross County, St Mirren and Raith usually competing for the title. However, they gradually lose more of their European coefficient and the league reputation decreases. The 'Union Cup' doesn't increase the reputation of the home nation leagues much, if at all. I tend to find that clubs aren't very good at spending their money in FM. 

This save also has a lot of other things going on, and some teams were messed around with- for example financial sanctions were placed on the Big 6 to try and reduce their dominance but it hasn't really worked. Except Chelsea. Chelsea got relegated, which was fun. 

I have attached the save below if youre interested. I did go further than 2040 but can't find the save game, maybe I deleted it. 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/2tqvxb7egvhby9c/UNION_V1.0_2040.fm/file

Looking to develop this idea further in future, with an expanded Irish domestic league system and a Dublin-based team in the PL. 

Is this for FM20? Sounds really interesting, I'll take a look.

[L55DS]

8 minutes ago, UKFA said:

Is this for FM20? Sounds really interesting, I'll take a look.

Yeah, the OP about it is here:
 

Seems to be very similar to your ideas! I also hope to develop it further.

[Wolf_pd]

On 27/01/2021 at 00:55, UKFA said:

Plz share! I was actually thinking of creating a dedicated alternate history sports site or forum of some kind if there was sufficient interest. The alternate history wikia is also really good though.

I will clean up a few and post them.

[Wolf_pd]

A simple ( )  rebuild of Europe

[Golden Gordon]

The diplomacy and/or conflict to arrive at this would be, well, interesting.

A united Ireland, Scotland taking the north of England, the West Country seperating......and Europe looks like something prior to 1850. I do enjoy alternate histories/realities.

[Wolf_pd]

The least unlikely bit of this map is the Scandinavian union. The rest is made up of a lot of ideas Wikipedia gave me. The idea behind it is mainly to move the powerbases, although already a few new ones can be seen.