Research and what formats you decide to use Discussions

[alian62]

As we all like doing our own custom leagues , as i do , i was curious on what Research you ose and where you get it from and also what formats you settle on , be it your own styles or duplicating a Nation , City , league , club and players .

Thought this would help others when building leagues etc . 

So as a start i always go to Wikipedia first to research the country . Populations , Town names etc . This is usually a great start but if you are doing lower leagues or countries that are not as well known it does become difficult to find the infomation especially if the sport isnt the first and foremost sport of that country . Generally football clubs have there own websites but the lower reputation of the club makes it harder again . This is also very hard to find the club logos and even harder to find Kit infomation . Ticket pricing , Attendance info , Player info etc etc . It can become very fustrating . Maybe others have more infomation on how to do this . 

I have just completed my Canada file and have changed from it to a East West format like the USA . But finding infoamtion was quite easy which makes the whole experience great . Its also a great way to learn about other countrues .

Because my computer is 6 years old so i cant do big leagues because running it in the game when testing takes forever . Testing it in the editor also is very time consuming so i i generally go for the smaller formats . Something like Canada appealed to me for that reason . I have also done Guernsey , Jersey , Isle of Man , Australia , Cayman Islands , Monserrat . I created my own country with Western Australia which was a challenge due to the lack of infomation and the techical difficulties of the editor . 

When starting a league in the editor i think we all start with the basic and then convert to advance rules . Does anyone actually start with Advance Rules ? . Once you have mastered the basic concept the advance rules is a bigger stepping stone and takes years to master . I think it came in at FM14 so thats how long i have been at it and im still learning new things so its not ever going to be mastered lol . 

What i do generally though is load a nation or league in my FM23 editor to see how they are created and use it asa template for the league i am trying to create . If you have a previous version its a great tool . 

Also downloading other created files is another way of finding infomation  

 

So in finishing i was wondering if people would like to offer there experiences in building a nation or leagues structures they have created and the research areas they use . Something that can help others and make it less daunting edpecially when using advance rules because the advance rules is great once you have mastered it . Maybe share the countries and nations that you have done .

Think it would be a great benefit to others 

 

[alian62]

What ticket prices are a good intermediate cost ? Also what would you start a new teams bank balance at ? 

[nine_iron]

I partly get information from my notes and spreadsheets that I have accumulated since around 2006...

 

[alian62]

5 hours ago, nine_iron said:

I partly get information from my notes and spreadsheets that I have accumulated since around 2006...

 

Thats a big back log 

[rusty217]

Mostly wikipedia for me. Google search if the information isn't on wikipedia yet. I don't usually go that deep into research though. Depends how much I care about something. Put more effort into top division stuff. If a team in the Nepali 3rd division doesn't have a city set in the database though I'm probably just going to ignore it rather than search up the city and try to add it to the game with the co-ordinates etc. I've done that for some cities... but yeah, not going to bother in too low a division.

TBH I don't really aim for things to be accurate, so I don't research things that much. I want them to be the way I like, not the way they are in reality. eg. for a nation like Costa Rica, I despise the opening/closing stage league format so I'd only look up the league to check their sorting rules and if easily findable foreign player registration limits.

I'm basically exclusively advanced rules these days. If I'm doing a simpler league format I'd probably copy/paste from a previous file I've done and tweak that rather than start from scratch in basic. If I'm doing a more complicated format, basic is useless anyway so straight to advanced.

I get a lot of stuff from other places, either I'm doing a file and think something would be a good idea elsewhere too, or I see something done somewhere else and use that myself. Just recently I finally figured out how to get multiple competition histories to show in one competition. Finally figured it out while working on an England league file, there was an error in one of the default youth leagues. 2 of them worked, 2 of them didn't. Looked up why, and it was a parent competition difference. Changed that in my own file and it worked. Such a simple fix, but one that's hard to work out without seeing it done elsewhere.

[nine_iron]

16 hours ago, alian62 said:

Thats a big back log 

I used to use Football Pyramid but that site is long gone, I have a folder on my browser too of links that probably don't work anymore... Mostly old sites for leagues.

I do like the FA sites for local leagues, they are great! https://fulltime.thefa.com/index.html?league=6657134

[Wolf_pd]

4 hours ago, nine_iron said:

I used to use Football Pyramid but that site is long gone, I have a folder on my browser too of links that probably don't work anymore... Mostly old sites for leagues.

I do like the FA sites for local leagues, they are great! https://fulltime.thefa.com/index.html?league=6657134

Would that be on the webarchive?

For the Iron Curtain it is mostly dumpster diving to see what comes up on Google and if not I will try to distill the most 'logical' competition setup from it.

For the Historical Divergence, I combine historical data from wikipedia and rsssf with geographical variables in a nation which usually decide a lot of the competition setup.

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

To research the football world in the mid 80s, other than just relying on my memory and wikipedia, I bought a second hand copy of the Rothman's Football Yearbook 1984-85 online. Not only was this a throwback to my early teenage years but is a detailed account of World Football at the time. Comprehensive league tables and a million facts and figures. I have been converting many teams back to their original stadiums of the time and this was super useful in finding out stadium capacities. Also a great source for looking at detailed league tables of the previous season from all leagues in Europe and beyond, and also right down to grassroots level and the reserve leagues. I frequently refer back to it!

Edited January 28 by \'Appy \'Ammer