[RELEASE]

This thread is for the announcement and resulting feedback for the first public release of my US Newgen Names Expansion Files pack for FM2010.

The idea for this pack was born out of my frustration with the lack of originality in the names of newgens over the years. Due to the low number of names in the US database, the names of players are recycled too frequently and names like Dombrowski become commonplace. I’ve even seen an Onyewu on half the teams in MLS.

To counteract this effect I submit these 8 files for download: American Newgen Name Expansion Files 1.0 by Crash2772.zip

Please report your experiences and I hope you enjoy this add-on to your FM 2010 experience!

[Content and Methodology]

In total there are 8 files for this first go around:

You’ll find 5 files related to the most common surnames in the White American community according to the most recent US census. These files, while adding a number of new names to the database, also aide in counteracting the use of recycled real player names by increasing the frequency of common names like Smith, Jones, Williams, etc in the database. If you look into the files further, you’ll see that I’ve attempted to keep the relative percentage accurate, i.e. the name Smith (#1 in the US White American Census data) appears in the files far more often than does the name Hodge (#491 in the US White American Census data).

You’ll also find a file devoted to African American names. This file takes the most common African American names from the US Census data and, like the White American files, adds in a lot of surnames specific to this community. In addition, this file adds first names as well. These first names were taken from two sources: the US Census and the “Most Common Baby Names” of 199X. I used the baby names from the early 1990’s since the trends in first names change over the years and the babies born in the 1990’s would be the youth players in 2010+.

You will also find a database devoted to rare White Americans. This file add’s very uncommon surnames from the White American community as well as additional first names, similar to the African American file above.

Lastly there is an uncommon American names file. This file adds surnames from many ethnic groups in the US – more African American and White, but also American Indian, Asian American and Hispanic American names that made the top 5,000 names in the census.

[INSTALL]

Please note that these are not .edt files that generate newgens over the years. These are .xml files that permanently add new names to the US name pool.

As a result you must place them in the editor data file like you do created leagues or player databases:
C: \ documents & settings \ YOUR NAME \ Documents \ Sports Interactive \ Football Manager 2010 \ editor data


This file does NOT create any new players for the game, it simply adds the names to the game for Newgen creation purposes. If you have selected ‘add key staff’ when you start up the game, it will pull these names and immediately implement them in random combinations.

[Known Issues]

As you will notice I’ve primarily focused on White and African American names. I did this for two reasons. According to census data, many in these communities share common last names. Also, when the game creates American newgens, most often the game creates a newgen face that is either very light or dark skinned.

As a result of these files, when the game randomly pairs the first and last names, they are generally done in a realistic way. The game can have a few issues however, especially related to some first names that are overwhelmingly used by one ethnicitiy and the actual newgen face in game. On occasion the game may select a name that is used a majority of times by one ethnicity (i.e. Shaquille) and pair it onto a newgen with a different skin tone. As far as I have been able to determine, there is nothing we can do about this effect in FM 2010 (although there’s hope for 2011).

When generating Hispanic-American names, I was informed the game already draws from the Mexican name database.

These are the three largest ethnicities of American Newgens created by the game. As a result, most of the newgens of these ethnicities should have realistic and unique name combinations.

Feedback using this file with 1.6:

With the vast number of players to be created if you load the NCAA, the game still had 15 Dombrowski's -- most are obviously newgens.

My advice to keep them from multiplying in later years- use a tool like FMRTE to simply change the last names of the fake Dombrowski's to something else.

Yeah, 15 with it...it would be 100 without!

I think the solution to this problem is something I picked up in the SIgames forum:

In the American file I use each name at least two times- if its a common name like Smith its in there 15 times. I told Bertossi my method, and I think he followed suit with the Canadian file.

However, based on my experiments with newgens, I'm not convinced the 'minimum of 2' rule is real. As far as I know, there is only one Onyweu in the American database, but I've seen more come through as newgens. Certainly they dont come through nearly as often as the Dombrowski clan, but it can happen...

Okay...I've thrown in the American and Canadian newgen name files, but now when I start a season I notice that many of the unattached English players (I have the EPL as playable) have no names listed. :blink: Just rows and rows of blank columns listing their nationality and their age.

Removed the Canadian name file- no difference.
Removed the American name files- no more missing English players.
Anyone else have similar issues?

Thanks for this... I tested out what you said and it happened for me too. Not sure why English players come up with no names, since it didnt happen in previous versions (10.0 and 10.2).

I guess this serves as a warning for people looking to load England as well-- a number of relatively worthless England newgens for some reason dont have names at start up.

I'll see if I can find a work around.

Ok so I've played with this a bit more. It seems to only be an issue if you have England loaded as well as these files.

In my experiment I loaded the US and Canada + France... no issues with names.

Must be due to the fact that these names are being added as names for English speaking countries, although I cant figure out why they'd show up as blanks in England.

These appear to be working fine in my game. I'm running 10.3 and I'll let you know if they cause any problems.

A quick, though hearty, thanks to you, sir!