New USA country definitions for 2018

[will_the_canuck]

Hello everyone.

Well, as some may notice, I've been posting a few bugs and issues about things on here recently and it was all related to things I've experienced while trying to write my own definition files. So I've gotten to a point where I can upload what I have for everyone else to try, if they so wish.

For a comparison of the the country definitions I updated, the original USA country files have the following stats:

There are 4 tiers (each with their own championship cup), one national cup (US Open Cup), and two international competitions (Concacaf and USA/Mexico SuperLiga). As well, the country definitions have no promotion or relegation system and a season lasts 35 weeks. Has anyone tried playing the USA definitions from North America at all?

Now onto those tiers:

Tier 1 (avg. talent = 7600): MLS Eastern Conference (7 teams) and MLS Western Conference (6 teams)
Tier 2 (avg. talent = 6800): USL First Division (13 teams)
Tier 3 (avg. talent = 6500): USL Second Division (10 teams)
Tier 4 (avg. talent = 6100): PDL league with 8 divisions (63 teams) [2 other divisions are seen in the definition files but not
listed in the country file

Therefore, there are 99 teams to choose from.

As for the international competitions, Concacaf and USA/Mexico SuperLiga, Concacaf loads up 8 teams of which two are from tier 1 and USA/Mexico SuperLiga loads up 8 teams also, of which 4 are from tier 1. Concacaf is the furthest any team can go in an international cup as it directly leads to a qualification into the FIFA Club World Cup, but at the moment, anything beyond the Concacaf tournament isn't done yet.

As for my update to the USA country definitions, the tiers look as follows:

Tier 1 (avg. talent = 7600): MLS Eastern Conference (11 teams) and MLS Western Conference (12 teams)
Tier 2 (avg. talent = 6800): USL Eastern Conference (16 teams) and USL Western Conference (17 teams)
Tier 3 (avg. talent = 6000): PDL league with 11 divisions (74 teams) and NPSL league with 13 divisions (98 teams)

Therefore, there are 228 teams to choose from.

As tiers 1 and 2 each have two parallel conferences, they each produce their own winner to face off in a championship for the tier. As tier 3 has two separate leagues, each with multiple divisions, each league has their own championship and then there is another championship for the winners of each league to challenge for.

Like the original USA definitions, I have a national cup (US Open Cup) and have included the international competitions of Concacaf and the USA/Mexico SuperLiga, though I have formatted them differently and expanded the Concacaf competition to have 16 teams, instead of 8.

Of note, right now I am just posting the definition files which I would call phase 1. Basically phase 1 will have the league files and cup files for the country playing how I want them to be played. They work. I've also included the Concacaf and USA/Mexico SuperLiga competitions since they help with more selection of players via the transfer list and give the teams something more to strive for than just local cups. Though I'm not finished with the Concacaf competition, I've just expanded what the original USA definitions had used. There are 3 short league files for countries that are under Short leagues for North and Central America. Phase 2, whenever I get to it, will hopefully expand the country listings to include the other countries that can qualify for Concacaf. Now whether I make them playable or just league listings, I don't know. It all depends on how many teams are part of a particular country and it depends on how I feel. Phase 3 will likely include adding FIFA Club World Cup to the file, although CAF (Africa) has no current listing of anything, so that might take a long time or I may just use the FIFA info for a team.

And speaking of the definitions and tiers of the definitions I'm posting, these are called usa_ver1 and usa_ver2. I had a progression in making them what they are, so they are a little different from the description above, at least for tier 3. As the USA system does NOT have promotion or relegation, I started making my definitions with promotion and relegation in mind. Tiers 1 and 2 are the same as before but tier 3, at least for usa_ver1 and usa_ver2 are divided into regions, so that there are 4 PDL regions and 4 NPSL regions. This allowed me to resolve an issue I had with promotion and relegation. I have the original files from when I tried to do promotion and relegation with 24 divisions of PDL and NPSL combined, but that didn't work out well. I think I have a way to make it work and will try that out eventually. In addition to producing that third definition file, I'll make a fourth one that can be considered a true update to the original USA definitions as it won't include any promotion or relegation. So check back periodically to see if I have any updates to my updates and you can go from there. There is also a readme file within the zip file for the definitions that you can read which explains the difference between usa_ver1 and usa_ver2.

So on that note, I'll say good bye and let you try my definition files if you so wish, since I've been talking about them lately. I kind of like them. Please feel free to comment or ask questions if you have any.

Bye for now,

will_the_canuck

[will_the_canuck]

Hello again.

Here is another set of definitions for the country of USA in North America. As usa_ver1 and usa_ver2 had a promotion and relegation system, the definitions titled united_states do not include that. This new set of definitions would be considered a direct update to the existing USA definitions because of that. So this set of definitions has all 24 divisions in tier 3 compared to the 8 regions in the usa_ver1 and usa_ver2 definitions. As well, the league file of league_canada1_short.xml is also included for concacaf competition.

Like the previous two versions I created, this version is also meant to be separate from the original definitions for USA and can be played side by side if wanted. If you want to replace the USA definitions with this one, you'll have to modify some filenames and such as the USA definitions are also called by other country files when played.

Anyways, if you play them, enjoy. And feel free to comment if desired.

will_the_canuck

[will_the_canuck]

Hello all.

Well, this is likely the last update I'll be posting for these files since everything is done and working. I've also included the FIFA Club World Cup competition in these versions too. There is also a readme.txt file that you can look at to give more information on what's included in this update. But for simplicity, here's a snippet from the readme.txt file that gives an idea of what's been updated:

"1) I've included all four (4) versions of my updates for the USA definitions.
2) In addition to updating and playing on variations of the domestic tables and gameplay, I've added and/or expanded the International competitions too: CONCACAF; USA / Mexico SuperLiga; and FIFA Club World Cup.
3) I've modified some of the team names to allow for proper spacing of initials used. I've also modified and shortened some of the names and titles of the promotional cups, to make it fit on a small screen better. I use a 1024x600 screen resolution myself.
4) Added flags for the International competitions and added <talent_diff> values other than zero (0) to provide better competition.
5) Updated and expanded the three (3) country files used for CONCACAF, using Wikipedia as a knowledge base. This allows for different teams to show up for the competition, instead of the regular ones for country files with limited entries. The countries involved are: Honduras; Costa Rica; and Jamaica."

Also, if you haven't downloaded any of the previous "updates", you can ignore them and just download this one as this has all the relevant updates and files needed to run them in bygfoot.

I will say that going forward though, any updates to the USA definitions by myself will likely just be applied to the united_states and usa_ver3 versions, unless there may be a request for either of the other two to be updated also. And on that note, I'll say good bye for now and if you ever try my updated definitions, feel free to leave any comments or such if desired.

will_the_canuck

[will_the_canuck]

Hello again.

Well, you might be sick of me by now with all of my USA updates but oh well. Here's one more. This one is called usa_ver4 and it is different from the previous ones in that it is four tiers instead of three, and like usa_ver3, it includes promotion and relegation for the PDL (11 divisions) and NPSL (13 divisions), but over two tiers instead of just one tier. So as tiers one and two are the same, tier three consists of the PDL with its 11 divisions and its average talent factor is 6000. Tier four consists of the NPSL with its 13 divisions and its average talent factor is 5200. I came across a bug when working on how the promotion and relegation works between tiers 2, 3 and 4, but I got it working, although it doesn't work completely as planned and I will be filing a bug report on it soon enough. I tested it twice for one complete season each and it appeared to work, so I'm crossing my fingers. You can try it if you like. The relevant files and directories are included, in case you don't have the previous versions downloaded.

I also changed the <talent_diff> variables for the CONCACAF and SuperLiga competitions to hopefully make them a little harder to win, as the game I was playing in ver3, a USA team seemed to be winning maybe 50 percent of the time or such after 6 complete seasons and I thought that was a little higher than expected. As I doubled the variables from 250 and 100 respectively to 500 and 200, you can change the variables in any version you have by editing the related concacaf and superliga xml files in any text editor and change the <talent_diff> values from what they are to what you might like. An example would be in the concacaf files, they are currently 250, to represent 2.5 percent greater than the average of the first league listed in the definitions, which happen to be the MLS East conference. I've changed it to 500 (for 5 percent) in usa_ver4 to hopefully provide a harder challenge. Subsequently, having a higher value produces better teams in the competition and that in turn can offer better trade bait from those teams, when the transfer window is open.

Anyway, that is all for now and I'll let you decide if you want to try this version or not. If you do, hope you enjoy it and have fun and win eventually.

will_the_canuck

[Samuel]

Hello there! Sorry for reviving such an old thread, but I had to create an account to post on it. I downloaded your USA database all the way to the newest version, and it's so cool! Nothing quite like managing my local team

Unfortunately, at the end of the season, the game crashed. I reloaded it many times, but it always crashes when I try to get into a new season. I don't know much about XML coding, but is there any fix for this? I'd be more than happy to help in any way I can as well.

Look forward to hearing from you.

-Samuel

[will_the_canuck]

Hello there! Sorry for reviving such an old thread, but I had to create an account to post on it. I downloaded your USA database all the way to the newest version, and it's so cool! Nothing quite like managing my local team

Unfortunately, at the end of the season, the game crashed. I reloaded it many times, but it always crashes when I try to get into a new season. I don't know much about XML coding, but is there any fix for this? I'd be more than happy to help in any way I can as well.

Look forward to hearing from you.

-Samuel

Hello Samuel. Hmm. Seems you posted this about 30 minutes ago and I didn't receive the e-mail notification yet. I just happen to be checking out the website for any new posts and found yours, so there's that.

So now, as for you liking the definition and being able to manage your local team, that's cool. And as for reviving this old thread, that's fine since if there is an error with these definitions, best to revive the thread they are in so that the concern can be addressed accordingly. Also, as I mentioned, as I do have my e-mail address entered in the system, I could potentially / eventually get an e-mail notification most likely that someone posted or replied to a posting of mine. Though I'll ask...since you mention that you're getting to manage a local team, in which tier is your local team? MLS? USL Championship? USL One? USL Two? NPSL?

Now as for this game crashing, let me ask some questions.

First off, in which operating system are you using bygfoot? Linux (which flavour)? Windows? Something else?
Part two of the first one...what version of bygfoot are you using? I ask since tstellar is working on a new version and I'm using the one that I got through the Ubuntu repository...version 2.3.2.
Secondly, are you seeing any error messages associated with your crashed game? In Windows, there is a stderr.log file which would give some error messages. In Linux, if you load bygfoot up via the terminal window, it will display any error messages that may apply. So if you see any, what are they saying?
Thirdly, which version are you playing with? And are you using the 2018 updates or the 2019 updates? Although you posted this under the 2018 thread, I might assume you are using the 2018 definitions.

Although I'm trying to wonder what it can be, I'm thinking that if you downloaded some earlier versions, it might be the problem with allocating the teams after a promotion and relegation cycle. I know that the 4th version in the 2018 version had that problem but I thought I resolved that issue by having the xml coded a particular way. I guess I'm just curious what your error message might be and what's causing the crashes. Also, which version you're actually playing with as I've got likely 8 different versions or so of the USA definitions between the 2018 and 2019 definitions.

I'll await your reply.

Will aka will_the_canuck

[Samuel]

Thank you for your quick reply! As for the team, I'm managing FC Tucson in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona.

To answer your questions:
(1) I'm currently running bygfoot on a Windows XP emulator through VirtualBox. I believe I'm running bygfoot 2.2.1.
(2) I'm not quite sure. I'm going to quickly run through a season with a random team and I'll let you know what error report I get.
(3) I have the latest stable release (bygfoot 2.2.1 from March 2, 2007). Maybe it might work on bygfoot 2.3.2?

I think I answered your questions, of course let me know if you need more information. Thank you in advance for your help!

-Samuel

[will_the_canuck]

Thank you for your quick reply! As for the team, I'm managing FC Tucson in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona.

FC Tucson eh? Ok. I did check the definitions last night and saw that FC Tucson was in both definitions but in different areas, sort of. In the 2018 edition, Tucson was in the PDL Mountain Division (3a09), which was in tier 3. In the 2019 edition, Tucson was in the USL One, which is also in tier 3. After checking the current standings of the USL One, I saw that Tucson is still in that league.

To answer your questions:
(1) I'm currently running bygfoot on a Windows XP emulator through VirtualBox. I believe I'm running bygfoot 2.2.1.
(2) I'm not quite sure. I'm going to quickly run through a season with a random team and I'll let you know what error report I get.
(3) I have the latest stable release (bygfoot 2.2.1 from March 2, 2007). Maybe it might work on bygfoot 2.3.2?

I think I answered your questions, of course let me know if you need more information. Thank you in advance for your help!

-Samuel

Running bygfoot version 2.2.1? Damn. I'll honestly say Samuel that I never tried that version as even in the Ubuntu Software Repository, when I installed the game on my computer in late 2017, they had version 2.3.2 available to install. And even when I played bygfoot on my Windows XP machine, I downloaded the win32 version of 2.3.2 on there. Although it was / is considered "unstable", it likely is still better than the 2.2.1 version as advancements might have been made since the earlier version came out.

Now as you said you are running bygfoot via Windows XP, but through the use of VirtualBox, you never mentioned what operating system you are running as your prime operating system on your computer. But then, I never quite asked that specific question as that was unknown / unexpected when I originally asked it. But before I go further in that one, I am curious about what error message you are getting when using version 2.2.1. Also, which version of my USA definitions are you playing with, as each version is slightly different.

In comparison, the 2018 definitions were my first definitions I made. The 2019 definitions were an update as well as an expansion of the 2018 definitions, in more ways than one. As the 2018 definitions were made to complement the original USA definitions, the 2019 definitions were made to replace the original USA definitions. I do not recall if I tested the 2018 definitions in windows but I do recall testing the 2019 definitions in windows and the 2019 definitions were too big to work properly with the win32 version of bygfoot. The problem was that when you went to save your game, it would give an error or such that it wouldn't properly save your game, with the full version of the 2019 definitions. Besides the problem in saving your game, the game played fine otherwise with the win32 version of 2.3.2. That's why I made the version 4 of the 2019 definitions, so that they could work with the win32 version of bygfoot, but barely I guess. The saved game had to have very little characters in it. Basically, the zip and unzip files that came with the win32 version of version 2.3.2 of bygfoot were outdated and not really able to handle the large amount of files I had in the 2019 definitions. Though as I was using the 2.3.2 linux version of bygfoot, it was using updated versions of zip and unzip and they were able to handle the large amount of files with the 2019 definitions easily, which is the version I used to develop the definitions in the first place.

So getting back to the version(s) you're playing with...are you using a definition version that has promotion and relegation or are you using a version that does not have promotion and relegation? I guess if I were to recommend a version, I'd say use the "usa" definition for the non-promotion and relegation and use version 3 for promotion and relegation in the 2018 definitions. As for the 2019 versions, use either version 1 or 2, depending on your preference. Version 1 has promotion and relegation and version 2 does not. Though with the 2019 version, I expanded the CONCACAF teams further and will expand it more in a future update, just not right now. And there are more files to install, like more image files and more short league files. Though there are more fun things to do in the 2019 version also. But, if you do play the 2019 version, I would strongly recommend maybe installing a linux version, even through VirtualBox if wanted, as having the updated zip and unzip files will greatly help. Again, not knowing what your primary operating system is, you should easily be able to install a linux os in a virtualbox and run it through there, as you're already running Windows XP through that method already.

So, although not knowing the particular version you're using, I'm still curious what the error message might be. I think that's all I can add for now but again I will recommend using a newer version than 2.2.1 to play the game as I know my definitions might test the constraints of the game otherwise.

Bye for now,

Will aka will_the_canuck