Defining Foreign Players

[as5680]

I would like to have the opportunity to define a particular set of countries as 'home' countries so that foreign players would be anyone from outside that set.

My fictional league is based in Britain and Ireland and has its home nation set as England, as three quarters of the teams are based in England. Additionally, currently just over half the players in the league are English. There are however also teams in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Currently I don't have a limit on foreign players but should I want to impose one, neither of the current options for defining 'foreign' seems to fit my league. I can't use league nationality, as I presume that would define Scottish/Welsh/Irish players as foreign, which I wouldn't want. Neither can I use team nationality, as that would leave the Scottish/Welsh/Irish teams limited in terms of being able to field English players (the majority of the league!).

Being able to use game region would be better, but even that doesn't quite fit as I can't use UK as a region if I want the Republic of Ireland included. I was envisaging an option similar to the player origin settings, whereby those countries to be included could be selected from a list - players from these countries would be 'home' players in the league and players from any other country would be 'foreign'.

[blasek0]

Thanks for providing a concrete example as to why player origin settings and nationalities need to be improved.

[Bluenoser]

You can create your own custom regions in OOTP. So for example, you could create a UK Region that does include Ireland. It's a bit tedious, but it's exactly why the ability to create regions was added to OOTP, so users could create their own custom regions/worlds.

Here's a link - http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ref-guide.html

I recommend using notepad++ - it's free and perfect for editing the World.XML

You could also do it in one easy step and just edit the current UK Region already built in to include Ireland.

[as5680]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

You could also do it in one easy step and just edit the current UK Region already built in to include Ireland.

Thanks, I didn't know you could do that - does that work with already created games or only new games?

I could use a UK & Ireland region for player origin etc, certainly. It wouldn't resolve the issue of limiting foreign players unless I merged all the UK/Ireland countries into one nation though, which I wouldn't want to do - but it does mean that giving a 'league region' option as a basis for that limit would work.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by as5680

Thanks, I didn't know you could do that - does that work with already created games or only new games?

I could use a UK & Ireland region for player origin etc, certainly. It wouldn't resolve the issue of limiting foreign players unless I merged all the UK/Ireland countries into one nation though, which I wouldn't want to do - but it does mean that giving a 'league region' option as a basis for that limit would work.

Unfortunately it will only apply to future created leagues. It would work for you though with limiting foreigners. Once you create that Region in the XML, and create a league with it, then set it to % foreigners allowed, and use team nationality, it will work.

For example, I have a league of 16 teams, 9 US, 3 Mexico, 4 Can. I use the Americas - USA/Canada/Mexico Region. I set the foreigner player limit to 20 based on team nationality. This assures each team will have at least 5 players from their home country on the team. The remaining 20 will come from any combination of the 3 countries in the region.

[as5680]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Unfortunately it will only apply to future created leagues. It would work for you though with limiting foreigners. Once you create that Region in the XML, and create a league with it, then set it to % foreigners allowed, and use team nationality, it will work.

For example, I have a league of 16 teams, 9 US, 3 Mexico, 4 Can. I use the Americas - USA/Canada/Mexico Region. I set the foreigner player limit to 20 based on team nationality. This assures each team will have at least 5 players from their home country on the team. The remaining 20 will come from any of the 3 countries in the region.

I'm still not sure that quite fits what I was thinking of with regard to limiting foreign players. I was thinking of a way to put a limit on the number of players a team could have from outside the UK and Ireland, ie outside the region. All English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish players would be designated as 'home', regardless of whether they played, for example, for London or Dublin.

I'm not sure I would want to force Dublin to have a given number of Irish players on the team and London to have a given number of English players (especially as there are about 10x as many English players in the league as Irish). My draft pool each year is drawn from across the UK and Ireland, so in terms of the limit I would want to treat all homegrown players the same.

If I could base the limit on league region, rather than league or team nationality, I could limit the number of imports from Cuba/Venezuela/Japan/USA etc that a team could have on its roster, while having each team in the league work with the same rules on the available pool of 'home' players.

[Bluenoser]

It is possible to edit countries/worlds in the XML as well.

You can also create your own from scratch. More work, but technically you could create any type of world you want with any type of nationality, ethnicity, etc.

[as5680]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

More work, but technically you could create any type of world you want with any type of nationality, ethnicity, etc.

Is there any way though to treat players from multiple countries as 'home' players who do not count towards a foreign player limit?

I think that for my league, leaving the 'world' as it is but being able to select those countries whose players were 'home' players, in the same way I select the countries for my first year player draft, would be perfect.

Maybe instead of just having 'League Nationality' or 'Team Nationality' as options, there would also be 'League Region' and 'Select Countries'.

[Bluenoser]

I don't see that as a necessary option in game, but if it's easy to add why not.

For what you want, I'd just build a world with the countries I want in it and call it whatever. You'd be able to copy and paste the existing data for said countries, so it wouldn't be a huge undertaking.

I edit the World.XML pretty regularly, so I'm kind of used to it now and don't mind the work. I play only fictional and spend a fair amount of time planning a league before I start constructing it. I make custom schedules, the whole 9 yards. For me, I enjoy planning and constructing different scenario's as much as I do playing them.

[as5680]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

For what you want, I'd just build a world with the countries I want in it and call it whatever. You'd be able to copy and paste the existing data for said countries, so it wouldn't be a huge undertaking.

I'm afraid I don't understand how that would resolve this issue, but then I have never attempted to edit the XML file. Maybe I need to play around with that in a few test leagues.

I wouldn't be looking to change any countries, or have the world set up any differently to how it is by default. Just to have players from 5 different countries count as 'home' players in an international league which has teams based in all 5.

[MUFC1878]

Originally Posted by as5680

I wouldn't be looking to change any countries, or have the world set up any differently to how it is by default. Just to have players from 5 different countries count as 'home' players in an international league which has teams based in all 5.

I don't think you can't do that.

Using a region with the countries you'd like the players populating your league originate from could create something close to what you want. Not ideal, though. All the players created for that league will be from those countries in the region. You could try different numbers of players allowed per team, maybe a high number, and see if you could find a number to not limit the non-English teams so much.

I agree an option to choose what nationalities should be considered eligible would be brilliant. Maybe an option to consider the nationalities you chose in the generated players option to be "non-foreign" if you use foreign limits? I don't know. Maybe even include staff to stop so many foreign coaches in a modern Cuban league.

[as5680]

Originally Posted by MUFC1878

Maybe an option to consider the nationalities you chose in the generated players option to be "non-foreign" if you use foreign limits?

That would fit with what I had in mind. Currently there are not too many players in my league from outside the UK and Ireland, but there are increasing numbers from countries like Cuba, Japan, Venezuela etc (mostly in the international complexes at the moment). I wouldn't want to reach a position where most players on major league rosters were from outside the UK/Ireland, and if that looked like happening I would want to impose a limit.

My player origin settings (for first year draft) are currently set to include all parts of the UK and Ireland, so to have all those counted as "non-foreign" is exactly what I would love to have.

[MUFC1878]

Originally Posted by as5680

That would fit with what I had in mind. Currently there are not too many players in my league from outside the UK and Ireland, but there are increasing numbers from countries like Cuba, Japan, Venezuela etc (mostly in the international complexes at the moment). I wouldn't want to reach a position where most players on major league rosters were from outside the UK/Ireland, and if that looked like happening I would want to impose a limit.

If you don't want any players from outside the UK & Ireland, you could choose to not allow free agents from other leagues. Sounds like you don't mind having some players, though. Maybe you could not allow free agents from other leagues, but switch it on for a month or two during the off-season. Something like a transfer window. It might limit the numbers of foreign players.

Btw, aren't players in the international complex all scout finds? I thought there was an option to choose the nationalities of players brought into the int complex.

[as5680]

Originally Posted by MUFC1878

If you don't want any players from outside the UK & Ireland, you could choose to not allow free agents from other leagues. Sounds like you don't mind having some players, though. Maybe you could not allow free agents from other leagues, but switch it on for a month or two during the off-season. Something like a transfer window. It might limit the numbers of foreign players.

Btw, aren't players in the international complex all scout finds? I thought there was an option to choose the nationalities of players brought into the int complex.

No I certainly don't mind having players from outside the UK and Ireland, and I don't mind where the overseas players come from either - currently international origin is set to 100% random, default numbers. That is giving me mostly players from strong baseball countries with the occasional find from elsewhere, which is fine.

My thought process was that if I wated to put a limit on the numbers teams had on their roster, there didn't seem currently to be a good way of doing it for an international league with this sort of set-up.

[Questdog]

The way to do what you want is not to set limits per team, but to limit the foreign players in the whole league via the player origin percentages. If you set it up so that 10% of all players come from somewhere outside your home region, then you'll have about 10% foreign players average per team.....unless there is a reason to make the limit hard and fast, this should work fine so that you still have players from elsewhere, but most are coming from the British Isles.....

[as5680]

Originally Posted by Questdog

The way to do what you want is not to set limits per team, but to limit the foreign players in the whole league via the player origin percentages. If you set it up so that 10% of all players come from somewhere outside your home region, then you'll have about 10% foreign players average per team.....unless there is a reason to make the limit hard and fast, this should work fine so that you still have players from elsewhere, but most are coming from the British Isles.....

I think the player origin settings are OK at the moment, if I was going to adjust anything like that I would probably lower the numbers of international free agents and scouting discoveries (currently all on default). I was really thinking ahead to what I might do should I have a reason to set a strict limit in the future.

[Questdog]

Well, if you set a strict limit that is lower than the overall percentage of players created then you'll be creating a logjam of talent that has no where to play......strict foreigner limits only seem to work well in universes where these foreigners have somewhere else to play besides just the one league that's shunning them.....in a single league setup, you are much better off limiting the total percentage of foreigners available, rather than limiting the roster slots available....