A Game of Thrones meets Football Manager – Part 3 – Major Improvement

A Game of Thrones meets Football Manager – Part 3 – Major Improvement

This is Chris Evans’ story about trying to make a custom database for Football Manager 2013 with a very strong hint of A Game of Thrones. This is the third part of his blog charting his progress.

Would I have started this project if I knew quite how much effort it would take to get it to the stage it is at right now? I most certainly would, it is going to be so rewarding to play a long-term game in the Game of Thrones-themed world that I have created within Football Manager 2013. It isn’t all the way there, I haven’t played in-game with this version of the custom file enough yet to make sure everything is working as intended, and I haven’t touched any team logos yet which is going to be something which I might struggle to sort out. Anyway, the latest update on where things are is as follows.

The Westerosian Cup System.
The Westerosian Cup System.

There are some all round major changes with this latest version of the Game of Thrones update with a total re-working of various finances and reputations, new Cups and changes to media sources. There is a total of 1003 database changes at the moment, my previous update had less than 300 changes.

The first and most obvious change that had to take place was the re-naming of all the teams that are in my new league structure. To accomplish this, I had to finish changing the details of various cities within my land of Westeros. I had previously altered the names of the regions to match up with The Seven Kingdoms, and using the extremely helpful Wiki of Ice and Fire I went about creating cities based on various important locations within the fictional world created by George R. R. Martin. Of course, to ensure the ability of the teams to survive I had to greatly increase the populations of the regions and cities from what they have in the fiction, but that is negligible compared to the need for a smooth running league.

Westerosian Premiership Play Off system.
Westerosian Premiership Play Off system.

With the cities renamed, I simply delved into the teams within each division within my Westerosian league pyramid and changed their names to meet something similar to the city they were based in. This has however led to several teams with Summerhall in their name, Summerhall being the re-named Cardiff. The majority of the teams in the higher divisions in Westeros are professional, with teams lower down the pyramid being semi-pro or amateur. I have also changed team reputations to vaguely follow a similar order as seen in the English Championship and the leagues below that.

Team finances haven’t changed, but I have altered television revenue for each of the leagues and financial rewards for various finishing positions. The money isn’t anywhere near on a par with what we see in the English Premiership, but it should be enough for teams in the Westerosian Premier League squads from what they will be starting with. I haven’t altered anything with squads or back-room staff just yet. Stadiums haven’t changed either, will be interesting to see how attendances shape up with the changes I’ve made.

The Seven Kingdoms are populated!
The Seven Kingdoms are populated!

I have made new cup tournaments for Westeros, one encompasses all the teams in the league system, another is just for teams in the top division and there is a new Super Cup which will pit the winner of the Westerosian Premier League with the winner of the Westerosian Cup. Financial rewards are again very healthy for these cups, though their reputations are more on the level of the English League Cup and the Football League Trophy.

The Premier League retains the same split that is present in the original Welsh Premier with the top six and bottom six splitting into championship and relegation playoff groups. Whether it works as intended I’m not sure just yet. Some of the lower divisions have playoff systems for promotion while there isn’t any relegation from the Conference. I didn’t figure out with the editor how to have random teams automatically get promoted. Maybe it would be impossible having removed any trace of other divisions outside the playable ones in Westeros. I have also changed the names of some of the media sources to accurately portray their location in Westeros, not Wales.

If you want to try out the current version of the update, you can grab it from here.

Just some of the clubs I have been changing.
Just some of the clubs I have been changing.

To use the file place it in your Editor Data folder which can be found at Documents -> Sports Interactive -> Football Manager 2013 -> editor data

Then when starting a new game, there should be an option to use Editor Data, click there and select the appropriate file.

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