US Teams Hardcoded to MLS in FM 22?

[nielsoncp]

I'm working on a ten tier US database. I had verified the rules in basic, switched to advanced mode, and tried to re-verify the rules in advanced mode just to make sure everything worked before I made changes. I ran into an issue that my top tier (which has most of the MLS teams) went from 20 to 19 between season 1 and season 2 when the game was verifying. 

I then reverted back to basic in the editor and loaded it in game to sim forward and see if I could figure out what team(s) disappeared. I ran the database 15 years into the future, and all of the teams are still present in game. 

I know last year three expansion teams (Miami, Nashville, and Austin) were all hard-coded as MLS, so they disappeared after a year in both the game and the editor, and I wanted to know if the same issue is present this year. I did not include the next expansion team (Charlotte) for that reason.

I am attaching the database so people can independently verify. I was curious if a) anyone else had run into that issue and figured out what the teams were, or b) if there is an easy work around (I already tried adjusting the maximum and minimum teams to no avail.) Thanks all!

USA - 10 Tier Advanced 1119.fmf

[nielsoncp]

After I posted this I realized I could run a test myself, so I did. I'm posting this as a second comment so it doesn't look like a dead thread if someone is trying to figure this out in the future.

It looks like there are four clubs that are hardcoded as MLS in the editor - Nashville SC, Inter Miami FC, Austin FC, and Charlotte FC. At least 3 of the 4 (Miami, Austin, and Nashville) work fine in game if you're in basic mode - it appears the problem happens when you edit in advanced mode. These are all recent expansion clubs in the league, so I think that is the problem.

If you are creating a US database and want to use those clubs, you will need create a copy of them. You can do the following steps to make that happen: 

Search for the club in the database. When you find them, click on the duplicate button on the bottom. This should copy over all of the key information (home stadium, supporter levels, sponsorships, formation preferences) so you won't have to go back and manually add those pieces. You will probably want to add something to the club name so you can easily find them for the next step - I usually name the new club test until I'm done and name the hardcoded club dead (because they will be shortly, muahahahaha.) 

Once you created a copy of the club you will need to move over all of the personnel (owner, DOF, coaches, scouts, and players.) You'll need to go back to the original club, open the staff and players menu, select the personnel you want to move, and click the edit button. Once the People menu is open, click to the contract menu, then the club contract sub menu. Enter your copy club name in the club section, and it should move your people over to the new club while keeping the rest of their information intact.

Once you are done moving personnel over there are a few tweaks you will still need to make. In your new club will need to update the relationships menu, the records menu (if that's important to you) and the reserves club menu. 

Once you have transferred over all of the staff and players into the new club and made all of your changes, mark the hardcoded clubs as extinct and they will be removed from your game.

One additional step -  your created clubs will not have the crests and kits the club uses in real life because they have a different unique ID than the hardcoded clubs - when you load them in game you'll get the generic FM logos and jerseys. You will need to follow the modding instructions if you want to have those with your new club - put .pngs into the graphics folder (different folders for logos, home kits, and away kits) and create an .xml file that has the unique id for your created clubs.

Happy US modding!

[looknohands]

I haven't messed around with the editor too much since the editor won't let you add divisions to the existing nation rules, but I know that in previous versions of the game, MLS actually had a "new" version of the league replace the existing one each time an expansion team was added.  Put another way:
MLS has 10 teams in season one.
MLS has 12 teams in season two.

In order to achieve this expansion, the game has two separate MLS competitions in the database, wherein the season one MLS competition only runs for that first season before going extinct.  Season two than swaps in the second MLS competition that has the twelve teams.

My guess is that when running the test under advanced rules, the MLS that is being tested is grabbing the "wrong" MLS competition.

But like I said...I haven't even touched this year's version because of the current bug.  

[Wolf_pd]

On 20/11/2021 at 05:12, looknohands said:

I haven't messed around with the editor too much since the editor won't let you add divisions to the existing nation rules, but I know that in previous versions of the game, MLS actually had a "new" version of the league replace the existing one each time an expansion team was added.  Put another way:
MLS has 10 teams in season one.
MLS has 12 teams in season two.

In order to achieve this expansion, the game has two separate MLS competitions in the database, wherein the season one MLS competition only runs for that first season before going extinct.  Season two than swaps in the second MLS competition that has the twelve teams.

My guess is that when running the test under advanced rules, the MLS that is being tested is grabbing the "wrong" MLS competition.

But like I said...I haven't even touched this year's version because of the current bug.  

Not an expert in the US databases, but what you say here, sounds valid. So checking validity of years is the starting point.

[themodelcitizen]

That's correct, there are different versions (you can do this for competitions with changing rules over the years).

However, what's unique is that the teams coming in season two have their "next division" set to MLS.

MLS can then just get those teams with "get registered teams for comp and year" or whatever it is.

You can't replicate this - i.e., having a team come in for season 2 of any other league using the same method. MLS somehow makes use of "next division" in a way that's not reproduceable. So it may be that those expansion teams are hard-coded to join MLS in season 2 and if it's not there, they just disappear.

Edited December 21, 2021 by themodelcitizen