[FAQs]- Editor How To Guide -Advanced Rule editing

[culturedleftfoot]

This thread will serve as a reference point for FAQs and explanations on how to do things in the Pre Game Editor using basic and advanced rules.

I will try to update it[time constraints allowing] and keep this opening post as a Menu to the covered points- some are easy things and some may be complicated depending on your knowledge of the Editor

 

LIST OF TOPICS COVERED

[1]How to access Advanced Rules here

[2]How do I change the number of Substitutes here

[3]change the squad registration allocation here

[4]How to remove Brexit here

[5] Removing errors-wrong number of teams in a competition here

[6]General editing Tip here

[7A]How to view continental/international rules Quick method here

[7B]How to view continental/international rules Quick method here

 

[8]How to view continental/international rule longer method[using notepad] removed

[9]Match Day Rules rather than Overall Squad Rules- Continental Comps here

[10]EDITING/REMOVING WAGE CAPS here

 

[11]Changing substitute numbers  here

 

[12]Homegrown transfers-more than foreign signings-some tips  here

 

[13]Change KO times   here

 

[14]How to change dual Nationality for newgens/regens  here

 

[15]How to Ban Clubs from Continental Competitions  here

 

[16]Creating a Super League  here 

 

[17]Template to use for European club rule editing FM21  removed

 

[18]How to bypass verification  here

 

[19]CHECK FOR EXTRA SETS OF RULES  here

 

[20]Issues with the editor not working correctly[options missing/displaying correctly etc] changes in files not showing in game etc.  here

 

[21]Changing away goals rules in UEFA comps here

 

 

[22]How to keep teams apart from the same group  in knockout round  here

 

[23]Issues with game not  loading XML files- stating they need verification.  here

 

[24]Why cant I use certain squad numbers for GK/outfield players  here
 

[25]Error/Bug - No Squad selected for a specific date when trying to verify a file in advanced rules here

 

[26]Points Deduction to a team/s  here

 

[27]Fixture rules/squad selection rules FM22 here

 

[28] Remember for continental/International files to make sure all competitions are entered correctly  here

 

[29] FFP and continental rules here
 

[30]When there is an update to the game DB  here

 

[31]How to change the age of players to play in senior matches here

 

[32]Italian Non EU Player rules here

 

[33] Change Squad size International Competitions here

 

[34] Change Nation/s in 2022 World Cup  here

 

 

 

[culturedleftfoot]

[1]How to access Advanced Rules

This is just a quick reminder how to access the ADVANCED RULES[ AR] for a Nation and then the competitions that are pre-loaded into the game relating to that nation

You need to Add Nation Rules- select a Nation eg Spain

make sure you select ADD LOWER DIVISIONS AND CUPS

 

Then you need to do this- convert to AR 

 

now you get to see the rules concerning that Nation and the various Leagues/comps in it

 

 

NB I work with XML files as this allows editing outside the editor with notepad etc
If you want a XML file you have to use EXPORT and then save

To open any XML file you need to select IMPORT - this will list all the XML files you have in your editor data folder

[culturedleftfoot]

[2]How to change the number of Substitutes

 

 How do I change the number of Substitutes is a common question asked on many forums. It is easy to do(this can be done in basic rules but  I will show how to do so  using advanced rules as if you want to edit further things do it whilst in advanced rules).

 

Find the Competition you want to change
Find Stages in the Drop Down Menu
Then whatever stage you want to edit - [Here it is a League]
Then find league settings
Find the Substitute rules and change them

Here we will see where to change the number of Subs - the default set rules is 3 from 7

usually this is enough

 

there may be an  extra hurdle as there could be  additional rules[additional helpers] in place for covid or World Cup etc check these

 

Many comps have these additional helpers  added and the substitute rule may be changed just for one season in this rule
so be aware of this you need to change the sub rule here too- if you want to keep these rules for that season

 

 

If you are wanting to change  a cup competition you need to this for each round unless the competition has been set up for default rules for every round

in which case each round will show this-blank

 

personally I check every round as per image above just to be sure and you may want different rules say in a final where there will extra time etc

 

 

also look out for those additional helpers

 

[culturedleftfoot]

[3]Change  squad registration/squad rules 


This will show how to change the squad registration allocation from say 25 to 30 and how to change the rules that govern what the make up of a squad has to be

You need to open AR go to the comp and find the FIXTURE TIME AND RULES as we need to find the fixture rules index that relates to this competition here we see it is Fixture Rule 0

So then close the drop down menu for the comp and open the Spain one this will show you the Fixture rule index/s for the nation
select the one you want and change the squad selection etc that you want

 

you can change these

 

 

NB you make these rules squad specific or match day rules there are many options

 

you can also make them club specific eg you could add rules just for one club

[culturedleftfoot]

Once you have made the changes save the file either export to create a.xml file or save as to create a fmf file

after this you need to verify your changes to use the file in game

 

 

1

[culturedleftfoot]

[4]How to remove Brexit

This year obviously Brexit has occurred in real life and so the option as with previous versions was just to remove the Agreement change or edit it. This year the agreement tab is empty i.e. Brexit has happened the UK has left the EU[first image is from FM21]

 

so open AR for England in FM22 Editor

 

England has to again return to the European Union if you want to reverse Brexit.

 

so go to nations in the Database - as soon as you click nations it will load a list of countries, so either search for England or scroll down the list and click on England. 

 

Now click on Information tab- Agreements tab appears in the drop down menu-click on that

You need to click Add to get the 2 agreements back 

Then use search to select the agreements you want to add you need 2 [as image above] 

when you press Add initially it will add European Union by default

1

You can add the start dates if you wish as the image below shows

 

so this has added England back into the EU however there are specific Brexit rules in place that need to be removed/changed in AR

 

 

[culturedleftfoot]

In AR select England and find additional helpers

 clear those Brexit rules

 

now there is another thing I would do and that is edit the work permit rules as they relate to Brexit criteria[Post Brexit-points system]

 

I would suggest changing them back to what they were in FM21 as below

[culturedleftfoot]

[5]Removing errors-wrong number of teams in a competition

 

Now removing Brexit is simple and the whole process should take a couple of mins tops....not so this year as the editor is buggy most nation throw out errors like this as SI havent set of the leagues correctly

[culturedleftfoot]

Time consuming but you can remedy this by adjusting the number of teams in the league to remove the error
so what I do take a screenshot of the error and then find this tab REQUIRED TEAMS - from there you can edit to remove the errors

 

[culturedleftfoot]

after going through that error list changed the Min/Max teams as required you get this, slighly different to the error list 2 posts above😉

 

[culturedleftfoot]

[6]General editing Tip

NB - A tip I have always given to anyone when editing - if you don't want to lose hours of work - make backups and use incremental saves

I dont go more than 5 mins of editing without saving a file

Use save as and name your file to be easily found eg- player changes file 01/02 etc


Also back up a file once finished store it on D drive etc just in case a file is corrupted or some changes do not work as intended you then have a plan B

I also highly recommend keeping changes file specific- that means keep club changes in one specific file- player changes in a separate file-

This way any errors failed changes are easier to find/resolve and if something corrupts you don't lose everything if you lump all the changes in one big file.

[culturedleftfoot]

[7]How to view continental/international rules and edit them.[Part A]

 

How to set up continental/international rules without rebuilding the whole competition/s.

 

If you want club continental rules then you need that in its own file. Similarly if you want International rules then that has to be in its own file-you cant have continental+international rules in the same file[however if you are wanting just to view the comps and or copy them for future use then you can set the World Cup and the UCL to the same country just to set everything up only]

 

So here we will look at European continental rules[ but the same principal applies to International comps eg World Cup/Olympics NB if say you want to increase the number of teams in the World Cup you need to edit the various qualifying comps too and you may need to edit/delete the Nations league pathway  ]

 

First open the editor and under competitions search for UEFA

 

Edit every club competition you want to change by setting the competition/s to  a nation, here it is England[but I usually use Belarus for some reason]

 

 

 

 

[culturedleftfoot]

NB Do this to all the  UEFA CLUB comps you want to edit

 

[THEN OPEN NATION RULES FOR ENGLAND EXPLAINED IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF POSTS IN THIS THREAD]

 

once done convert to advanced rules

 

 

Now along with the English league structure you will see those UEFA competitions being displayed

 

we want to make this file a TEMPLATE FILE so we can use again if we want to use/view the original UEFA set up that SI had in place

[culturedleftfoot]

So lets get rid of the non UEFA comps and just leave us the ones we want to edit

 

go to list

 

 select everything other than UEFA competitions and remove them

[culturedleftfoot]

It will now look like this- made in FM21 Editor [NB we can save this file now I name it UEFA Template it is not going to be used its just to copy/or view the various rules only]

This the end of Part A.

 

Reload the DB to start Part B

[culturedleftfoot]

[7][Part B] How to view continental/international rules and edit them.

 

We are now creating a file that we will use in game and the one where the edits will be made [There are 2 methods I use this is the quickest and easiest the second involves using notepad++ to edit the xml file and can get confusing if you are not experienced in doing this]

 

This will allow you to edit continental comps/international without rebuilding the whole structure/s.

So we are looking at Continental rules for UEFA comps-

 

Open a set of new continental rules

 

add 2 nations[we need to add the full amount later it should be 54]

Then convert to advanced rules

 

save the file name it whatever you want.[lets call in UEFA 1 just for now]

 

once saved reload the DB in the editor

[culturedleftfoot]

Now re open that original UEFA Template file

 

we want to get these into the UEFA 1 file

 

This method means not having to rebuild everything

 

you now copy the  WHOLE list of rules 

 

Now close this file reload DB and open the UEFA 1 file

 

 click on the edit tab you used earlier and you can just  paste the rules you copied for all those comps in one go, so it will look like this now

Also read point[27] regarding squad selection rules etc and [28]

Remember for continental/International files to make sure all competitions are entered correctly

There needs to be a set of rules stating file is a continent/or international

 

Then you have to enter every competition you have edited and want the game to load here.

NB If you fail to add a comp to this list it wont load in game [also some comps are linked to others eg fail to list a qualifying comp and the main finals wont show/start in game]

 

 

 

[culturedleftfoot]

[9]Match Day Rules rather than Overall Squad Rules- Continental Comps

 

I have found over the years that editing squad rules is always bugged in game via the Fixture rule index

 

 so for continental comps I set up match rules instead of overall squad rules, so instead of having season rules you now have match day rule/s to comply with and you can add as many as you want really

 

 it basically does the same thing and you can set up things to be specific like this as an example below eg certain rules for teams from specific leagues/or just specific clubs only this way you can impose tougher rules to say BIG clubs only, and therefore make things a bit fairer 😉

so if you want to let the DIRTY DOZEN still play in Europe but have massive sanctions here is your opportunity

In tests I have run this is the way to punish them better than taking money from them[game generates more to cover it quickly]

This way in a 10 year sim the ‘elites’   win the UCL once 

 

Ignore that first match rule above which says nation#1 that should say The Home Nation players eg Spain/England etc

 it works correctly in game but has displayed like this for approx the last 5 versions of the game

 

 

Editing International Comps

NB-

THE ABOVE METHOD CAN BE USED TO EDIT INTERNATIONAL COMPS TOO EG FIFA WORLD CUP/EUROS etc

but you have to edit the qualifiers too if you are changing the number of teams taking part in the FINALS-You will see below the WC finals is a 64 team comp also the EURO finals is a 32 team event 

1The only difference is you need to make the file International rules not Continental

 

 

[culturedleftfoot]

[10]EDITING/REMOVING WAGE CAPS

Recent question on the forums how to remove the wage caps in lower leagues in England and edit the prize money, again its an easy process

 

find the fixture rules/s you need to edit(explained above ) and remove the annual wage limit

 

 

also IMO remove this too

 

do this for every league you want to edit then save and verify the file

 

Regarding editing prize money for a league you need to

 

find the league go to stages 

and then League- League settings

 

scroll down the right side of the page approx half way is Prize money check the box if it blank and enter the amount of prize money you want added

 

NB Team finishing first is set to 0 in position column and so on make sure you have the correct number of entries matching the number of teams in the league

 

NB Some leagues also have promotion/relegation play offs too not just leagues so edit these if you wish

 

Also check the currency when editing different countries the currency changes to what is used there 

[culturedleftfoot]

[11]Changing substitute numbers

 

A slight issue has come to light when editing some minor rules eg substitute rules 

 

NB some nations/leagues have an additional set of ‘rules’ to cover the opening season, covid rules really

 

take a look at this thread on how to address that

 

https://sortitoutsi.net/content/57878/editing-subs#comment_621712

 

so as a pointer take a look at the section called additional helpers in both the nation and the various leagues to see if there is anything there that may clash with any changes you have made to a league structure

 

NB Also be aware of several sets of rules for a competition, most have only one default set of rules and so so editing those means your changes will stay in use even in future seasons. 

However some competitions have rules that start in future seasons so you need to edit ALL of those sets of rules too.

[culturedleftfoot]

[12]Homegrown transfers-more than foreign signings-some tips

 

Some questions have been asked about making clubs/nations only sign homegrown players, this is a workaround and isnt guaranteed to fully work but it will really limit transfer activity

 

there are things you can try such as making squad rules all homegrown/no foreigners etc and you can set this to a league/comp or individual clubs only

 

[also in the transfer window dates you can set it that for a set period/window/or always that clubs in a certain league can only sign domestic based players ]

 

you would have to add rules to domestic club comps too IMO to make clubs not sign overseas players for cups

 

set the number of players to suite your needs, even set match squad rules if you want this should help with stopping clubs signing non homegrown players…however clubs may well still sign 1 or 2 foreign players perhaps for continental comps so you may have to set up rules there too

 

 

However you can limit transfer activity for a NATION by setting the rating to -1 i.e. no transfer activity just add the continent/regions accordingly …but note this imposes restrictions on the whole nation note just a club/league as yo u can do in the earlier method above

 

[culturedleftfoot]

How non foreign players can work for continental rules… this restricts clubs from EPL in UCL

just have a play around to find what works for you best

[culturedleftfoot]

[13]Change KO times 

 

Recent question on forums how to change KO times 

 

Access the advanced rules as explained in thread

 

There are a few areas that need changing

 

In league schedule change time here-[as image below]

 league schedule- check all the tabs below general/match days tv dates etc to see if there are any times in there

 

 

To get to the League schedule and its drop down vine you need to click on STAGES within the desired competition

 

this will allow access to the structure of that league/competition

 

The first stage will be numbered 0 click that(they may be only one stage if it is a straight league with no play offs etc)

 

now you will see tabs called league settings and directly below it League schedule 

 

 

 

In that league schedule section-

change the TV dates times-

 

In that league schedule section-

Change times special TV dates

 

NB YOU NEED TO DO THIS FOR ALL STAGES IN THE COMPETITION - SO IF THERE IS A STAGE 1 DO THE SAME THING- THIS STAGE IS USUALLY A CUP FORMAT SUCH AS A PLAYOFF

 

 

 

 

Now find the  fixture time and rules tab

 

[culturedleftfoot]

Change time here too under fixture time and rules-

in the sub folder called  fixture times change any times here that are displayed

 

[culturedleftfoot]

it may be worth also looking at the Fixture time and rules tab too

 

check the tabs below Fixture time and rules - general/maximum match days etc etc

 

 

In the fixture time tab perhaps enter times there make sure these times are the same as previously entered or the game could default to the original rules

 

Also check there isnt more than one set of rules for a competition [sometimes there are several usually for future seasons ] if so you have to edit these but to save time you can copy your earlier changes and paste them in the extra rules

 

Another thing check the Additional Helpers tab as there may be even even more rules to change KO times there too especially for Covid rules/dates moved for World Cup 2022

Edited November 28, 2022 by culturedleftfoot