Luchs

It's basically a spreadsheet game - I am not much of a programmer, so I've constructed a rule set with simplified player ability values (alongside a more complex algorithm for development/aging/injury) and then a very simplified season resolution methodology. I've played Championship Manager of course - it has me do a lot of stuff that I'm not all that interested in. What I like are the building of leagues and movement of the teams up and down in them, and random player generation, so I have always intended to simulate the seasons pretty quickly. However, the sheer number of players I need to generate is going to probably prevent me from getting to any actual simming for a long time. I could do that task more quickly, but I kind of enjoy the process. Just using Excel and Access for now to keep track of records. Completing the creation of teams is a more realistic task in the short run, up to 15% done now and about to work on the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex which will have about 43 teams. The more I keep reading this forum, the more I want to try to post some team designs. We'll see.

My project is a bit of a biggie - I'm building a 1,760 team US soccer pyramid, made up of 80 22-team leagues building to a single top division. Teams are created across the 50 states and DC by agglomerating zip codes so that each team has a connected population base of about 175,000 people. Obviously more rural areas cover much bigger geographical areas, but any location could theoretically ascend to the top division where they would presumably expand their fan base and move into a larger stadium. Its a work in progress - I have about 250 of the teams defined and named so far and I think I can get that part finished in a reasonable time frame before I die of old age or something else. My structure is (number of leagues per tier) 1-2-2-3//end of pro leagues//12-18-18-24, with 10% of the teams being pro and 90% semi-pro. This is somewhat similar to what England is heading towards up until the last tier before you enter the County Leagues 1-1-1-1//end of league system//1-2-4-8-16-16 but is regionalized sooner (like Germany, France, Italy, Spain) and has a larger pyramid base to reduce travel given the sheer size of the US. As an example, the San Antonio Metro Area, which I have completed, has 14 teams. Eventually these teams will find their place in the greater pyramid - if one of them becomes the strongest they can keep their colors and nickname but perhaps take on the San Antonio name, sort of like how Newton Heath eventually grew to become Manchester United. Most of the teams will scramble in the lower leagues fighting over mediocre players and hoping to develop homegrown young stars that can get them through the bottleneck to become pro clubs. As for how this fits this forum - it is a goal to make a badge/kit for each team. In the days when that other forum still existed, I thought I might try to drop in a rough sketch for one team every week (which would only take a little over 30 years to get through the lot). However, there is no way I can produce anything in the current forum which meets the spectacular quality of work y'all do here. This concept does overlap a bit with some other think tank ideas I've seen where people wanted to make small city- or state-based leagues - if anyone is at all interested in using this team-creation concept for any pet projects of any type, I'm definitely happy to share my work. Lurked for a while - its been a great read and I'm constantly in awe at all the creativity.