Updated World XML file

[FleetWalker]

UPDATE: I've written a Python script that automates the creation of the World XML file, so that it is easier to keep it up to date. It uses data from geonames.org, the U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics Canada, and INEGI (Mexico) so that the game is using the "latest" information on countries, states, and cities. The script can also turn states and/or regions into nations, lump all the nation subdivisions into a single state (I personally mostly get rid of the states outside a few countries), or use a different administrative level for what are considered states (the game actually uses the second level administrative divisions for Taiwan and Belgium so I needed to accommodate that).

In addition to having more accurate and up-to-date data, the script makes it easy for me to mess around with the world. For example, I created a world where the USA, CAN, MEX, JPN, and RUS are broken into their constituent parts. Then I created a promotion-relegation system consisting of all the towns in CT (minus poor little Union, because 169 is an annoying number).

Anyway, I thought I would upload the base version—the one that basically mirrors the file that comes with game—for anyone who is interested in a more accurate and up-to-date world file. https://www.mediafire.com/file/spscd...01-03.xml/file

Some notes:
1. This uses Dogzilla's excellent name file. So you will need that as well. Otherwise you get some truly wacky results in terms of names.

2. It is definitely NOT compatible with an existing save. Every continent, nation, state, and city Id is different from the original file. I can't imagine anything pleasant will happen if you try to import it into an existing game. You have been warned.

3. For the US, the file uses 2021 data. The cities are whatever the Census designates as a state's primary municipal subdivisions EXCEPT for the six New England states (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT). Those states use the towns because those are the actual local governments. Hawaii uses Census Designated Places (which are strange, but otherwise there is only Honolulu). There are some nuances, because it's complicated, and you'll probably be unhappy with your state (unless you are in New England, which I'm pretty sure is "right").

4. I did something similar for CA, which turns out to be just as confusing as the US and adds a second language into the mix as well.

5. Mexico has a super easy census file to work with, so no complaints there. I limited the file to only places with at least 1000 residents. That still is big increase over the world_default file.

6. The District of Mexico City, includes Mexico City as well as a bunch of other places that are part of Mexico City (and counted in its population). That's they way the default_world,xml file is set-up and it keeps the state of Mexico City from only having a single city. The effect is that if someone is from the Mexican state of Mexico City, there is 50/50 chance they will either be listed as from Mexcio City or from one of the districts.

7. Likewise, I added the 5 boroughs of NYC in addition to NYC itself. I did that so that Brooklyn, Staten Island, etc.. could have teams (as they do in real life). This does have the unfortunate effect of double-weighting the city when players from New York are generated—players from NY are twice as likely to be from NYC (or one of its boroughs) than they should be based simply of city populations.

8. There are some new regions that I created for my own uses. It's easy enough to delete them if you don't like them being there.

9. There is a mythical nation, Themyscira, that is entirely populated by women. By this I mean, it uses only the women's name list for generated players. It has a tiny population, but does have quality of 5. The upshot is that depending on how you generate rookies and free agents, you may see a handful of women show up. Really just female names, since facegen doesn't generate female faces, and the game only uses male pronouns (for players at least). If you want a flag: https://www.mediafire.com/file/2q87m...e/tym.png/file In the interest of full disclosure, this is a US Suffragette movement flag rather than the actual make-believe flag of Themyscira, which no doubt is copyrighted. If you don't like the country being there, it's easy enough to delete it (should be lines 117815 to 117829 of the XML file).

[spartacus007]

This is terrific, thank you!

[FleetWalker]

Originally Posted by spartacus007

This is terrific, thank you!

Sadly it turned out to be only "sort of terrific". I discovered while using the file myself that it causes problems because the numbers I'm creating to make sure IDs are unique results in numbers that are too large.** Nothing crashes, but it also deals poorly with cities that are outside the number range. Anyway, I will shortly upload a fixed version that incorporates the most recent Mexican census data as well. It is what I've been using, although there are still issues with some cities like Saint Petersburg using non-Latin characters.

**ASIDE* For you true nerds out there, id integers are capped at 4 bytes (certainly less than 4,294,967,295 but very likely less than 2,147,483,647 because I kind of doubt they bothered to make them unsigned).

[spartacus007]

Thanks for the heads up --- I'll wait for the new version before starting my new save.

[FleetWalker]

Try this one: https://www.mediafire.com/file/spscd...01-03.xml/file

It includes data from the Mexican 2020 census as well.

There are a couple of oddball places. The District of Mexico City, includes Mexico City as well as a bunch of other places that are part of Mexico City (and counted in its population). That's they way the default_world,xml file is set-up and it keeps the state of Mexico City from only having a single city. The effect is that if someone is from Mexico City, there is 50/50 chance they will either be listed as from Mexcio City or from one of the districts.

Likewise, I added the 5 boroughs of NYC in addition to NYC itself. I did that so that Brooklyn, Staten Island, etc.. could have teams (as they do in real life). This does have the unfortunate effect of double-weighting the city when players from New York are generated—players from NY are twice as likely to be from NYC (or one of its boroughs) than they should be based simply of city populations.

Note that the state populations are correct as those populations are from state-level data and not the sum of the individual cities. Outside of New England, there are unincorporated places that make up part of the population figures, so you can't just sum the population of the cities.

I believe the non-Latin character issue has been resolved . . . hopefully.

[pauwoo]

Just fired up a league using this and will be poking around. Interested in a description of some of these regions should you have the time to share.

Really great work.

[FleetWalker]

The most potentially useful are the Japanese regions, which are groups of their prefectures.

There are some regions based on quality & area of the world (Europe & Africa 3s for example). And I created Quality- groups to match the Quality+ groups that are auto-generated. So if you want a league that is all countries that are quality 3 or LOWER you can do that.

I created groups of the Russian "states" to match the internal administration divisions (although does anyone actually have Russian leagues?). And I figured out which Russia "states" are in Europe, Caucasia, Asia, etc.. so that it's no longer Russia as a whole that is part of those regions, but only the individual pieces that are considered part of Europe. I doubt anyone would notice, and I'm not sure I fixed every region either.

I also added regions corresponding to US Census districts: New England, East North Central, etc., but I'm not sure these add much to what was in the game already.

There is probably other stuff hiding in there, but those are the ones I remember.

[darkcloud4579]

Just found this, rad job!