USAGE.md

Using the editors

This project has two editor windows:

• The mod editor (editor.py) changes the game's own data, such as players, clubs, kits and text, and builds a modded disc or a patch from your edits. Its changes apply to careers started on that disc.
• The save editor (saveedit.py) changes one career that has already started, in a save on a PCSX2 memory card: money, players, staff and the rest.

Neither needs any coding. This guide shows how to open each one and what to do in it. To play a patch someone else made, see INSTALL.md instead.

Before you start

Both editors need the project set up as the README says: Python 3, and your disc extracted into ISO/ and DAT/ with extract_disc.py. They read the game's data from there (the save editor reads its names and runs the game's own save code from it). Nothing else needs installing: the windows use tkinter, which comes with Python.

Run every command from the project folder (the one holding SRC/, DAT/ and this file).

The mod editor

Opening it

python SRC/editor.py open

opens the mod folder mod/. To keep several mods apart, give each its own folder:

python SRC/editor.py open mods/terry

The folder is made the first time you save into it. Opening the same folder again carries on where you left off: the editor reads your edited copy of a file when there is one, so edits build up over sessions.

The window

Each kind of data has a tab along the top:

Tab	What you edit there
People	players, managers and scouts: search by name, id, nationality or club, then change any named field
Clubs	each club's rank, manager, stadium, city and transfer policy, and the computer teams' squads (player, age, shirt, contract)
New club	what a new career starts with, for each league and team style: squad, staff, scouts, youth team, candidate lists and the rival club
Season	the starting divisions with last season's table: swap two clubs' places, or change a first division's size (the schedules and the club ranking's rows follow). Tick "Play on national-team dates" to let the leagues play on those dates too, which allows smaller and bigger divisions (England 18–26 instead of 20–24; not tested in the game yet)
National calendar	when the national squads are called up and released, and which call-ups are for a finals tournament, in each year of the four-year cycle
Free agents	the players with no club at the start of a career
Player links	the clubs each player is affiliated with, each scout's exclusive players, and the hidden good and bad combinations of players and managers
Nations & stadiums	each nation's UEFA rank and points and world rating, and each stadium's roof, level and capacity
Stadiums	each of the 119 grounds' look and advert boards. Pick a stadium on the left: the right shows its model, its roof, level and capacity (the Edit in Nations & stadiums button goes there to change them), the clubs that play there and whether it is the rival's ground (114). Built like copies another stadium's model, stands and crowd (as the file was when loaded); the 12 boards stay the stadium's own. Each board is a sponsor logo, 1–205; the adidas board is added by the match on every ground. To move a club to another ground, change its stadium in the Clubs tab. The LMASTER stadiums group keeps your edited rows. Not yet checked in the game
Overseas bases	what a club base costs to set up in each of the 13 overseas regions, with the investment and upkeep that follow
Regulations	each competition's match rules, win bonus, prize money, promotion and relegation places, and how it reports a final place
Club ranking	how clubs earn their ranking at the end of each season: the points each competition gives for each final place, and which club rank each position in a league gets
Training	what each practice, camp type and youth practice trains, and how tiring it is; match growth, facility bonuses, coaching and decline with age
Camps	each training camp's type, with a preview of what it trains
Tours	the clubs a tour can play in each region
Facilities	build costs, upkeep, build times and stadium capacities
PR events	the Publicity Department's events: when each is offered, what it costs, its chance of success and what success brings
Tactics	the tactics screen's eight Set Formation presets
Kits	every club's home, away and keeper kits, shown as colour swatches, and the licensed clubs' numbers, name, collar and captain mark
Crests	the crests a new club can pick, the rival's crest and the crest editor's samples and presets, part by part with colour swatches, and the flag patterns and where the crest sits on a flag. Pick what to show from the drop-down at the top. A colour can be one of the club's own three ("club colour 1" to "3"), which follow whatever colours the player gives the club. A new club's starting crest is checked in the game (it follows the club's main colour, so an edit to row n shows on a club of colour n); the other crest tables aren't yet
Player editor	the tables the game's player editor makes a new player from: base abilities by position and nation, the personality, ability, tendency and growth ranges, and the overrides for the editor's choices. Pick a table at the top and a row on the left; each byte of the row has its own box. Abilities take 0–99, tendencies 0–4, the rest 0–255, and an edit that would put a minimum above its maximum, or make a cumulative row fall, is refused. Nothing here is checked in the game yet
Text	any message in the game, in all its language slots
Comments	the comment lines on the player, manager, coach and scout detail screens
Log	the commands your saves stood for (below)

Most tabs work the same way: search or pick from the list on the left, and the record opens on the right. Fields the project hasn't worked out yet are shown greyed out and can't be changed.

Changing a value

• A drop-down takes effect as soon as you pick an entry.
• A number box takes effect when you press Enter or click away from it. The arrows step through the values it allows.

A value the game can't use is refused with a message, and the box goes back to the old value. For example, the Clubs tab refuses a player who is already in another club's squad.

An edited tab shows a * after its name, and the title bar lists the tabs with unsaved edits.

Saving

File > Save (Ctrl+S) writes every tab's edits into the mod folder. Each file goes under its own path, so mod/PARAM/PBDATA_EU.PAC is your edited copy of DAT/PARAM/PBDATA_EU.PAC. Your disc and DAT/ are never changed. Closing the window with unsaved edits asks whether to save them.

Each save also writes the matching commands to editor.log in the mod folder, and the Log tab shows them. You don't need them, but they record exactly what you changed, and running them again gives the same files.

To start a mod again from scratch, delete its folder, or open a new one.

Building a disc or a patch

File > Build disc (Ctrl+B) turns the mod folder into something you can play or share.

1. Original disc image: your unmodified Redump .iso (see INSTALL.md for the hashes it must match). It is only read. If it sits in the project folder under its Redump name, the editor finds it for you.

2. Tick what to write:

   • Write a modded disc image: an .iso to play in PCSX2.
   • Write an xdelta patch: the .xdelta file to share. Other players apply it to their own disc, as INSTALL.md explains.

   Either or both. A patch on its own still needs room for a full temporary image while it is made.

3. Optionally, add the project's ready-made changes. The LMASTER lite, LMASTER full and LMASTER max buttons tick the groups of that edition (LMASTER_MOD.md), and None clears them. Each group has a box that ticks all its switches; press its + to see them and tick them one by one. LMASTER_MOD.md says what each group does. Tick Separate saves (the saves group) if the modded disc should keep its careers apart from the original game's; LMASTER full and max always have it, and the window shows the letters the saves get (careers in -F, or -M with any difficulty switch; VS data in -V). The test tools (the tutorial skip, the debug menu) are in no edition.

4. Check the list of edited files, then press Build.

The output of each step shows in the window. If you have unsaved edits, it asks to save them first, since the disc is built from the saved files. A build takes a few minutes. When it ends with "Built ...", the files are ready; if it says the build failed, don't use them.

The dialog remembers its paths and boxes for this mod folder (build.json).

Sharing a mod: share only the .xdelta, never the disc image or files from it. Build the patch from the unmodified Redump image, or it only applies to your own file; the dialog warns you if the original looks wrong.

The save editor

Close the game first

Close the game in PCSX2 before you save an edit. PCSX2 can write the memory card while the game runs, which would put the old save back over your edit. The editor also refuses to save if the save changed on the card after you opened it.

Opening a save

PCSX2 keeps memory cards in its memcards folder (Settings > Memory Cards shows where). A card is either:

• a folder card: a folder named like Mcd001.ps2, with one folder per save inside it, or
• a card file: a single file named like Mcd001.ps2.

Career saves are named BESLES-54151-G000, -G001 and so on. A modded disc with its own saves uses -F000 and up (LMASTER full) or -M000 and up (LMASTER max, or any build with a difficulty switch).

python SRC/saveedit.py open

opens an empty window. Then:

• File > Open save (Ctrl+O) for a folder card: choose the save's folder, such as Mcd001.ps2/BESLES-54151-G003.
• File > Open save on a card file for a card file: choose the .ps2 file, then the career from the list.

Or give the save straight away:

python SRC/saveedit.py open <card>/BESLES-54151-G003

python SRC/saveedit.py open Mcd001.ps2

The first save you open takes about 10 seconds while the editor prepares; later ones open in about a second.

The pages

Page	What you can change
Club	money, club status and its rank
Finances	the season plan: advertising budget, ticket price, season-ticket rate and season tickets. The accounts are shown only
Squad	for each player in the squad or youth team: the 64 abilities (one at a time, or all at once), fatigue, condition, motivation and the other condition fields, salary, contract years, age, the injury value, and captain and keyman experience
Combinations	how well each pair of players works together, shown as the tactics screen's icons: one pair, or all of a player's pairs
Staff	the manager's, youth manager's, coaches' and scouts' abilities, dissatisfaction and popularity
Other clubs	the other 440 clubs' friendship with your club, and their rank
Candidates	the scouted players and staff candidates, shown only
Edit player	the Virtua Pro Football player the career imported, if it has one: the name, the database fields and the abilities

Money shows in pounds next to the value the save stores (the stored value is six times the pounds). Edits work as in the mod editor: a number box takes effect on Enter or when you click away, and a value the save can't hold is refused with a message and put back. Some edits raise a hidden value as they go: setting an ability also raises its growth limit and cap, so setting it back down doesn't undo that part.

The title bar counts your unsaved changes.

Saving

There are two ways to save:

• File > Save (Ctrl+S) writes the edit over the save. First it copies the save as it was to a backup folder beside the card, <card>.bak (for a card file, the whole card too), so you can always go back. Each save makes a new backup, named with the date and time.
• File > Save to new slot leaves the original career as it is: it copies the save to the card's first free slot (-G004, say), writes the edit into the copy and opens it. In the game it shows as another career in the load list.

Save to new slot is the safest choice when you try something out. The backup folder is outside the card on purpose: anything inside a folder card shows up in the game's save list.

To undo a File > Save, with PCSX2 closed, copy a backup back by hand and drop its .<date>-<time>.bak ending:

• On a folder card, the file in <card>.bak/<save folder>/ from the time you want goes back into the save folder, over the file of the same name.
• On a card file, the whole card's backup is in <card>.bak itself, for example Mcd001.ps2.bak/Mcd001.ps2.20261025-143000.bak; it goes back over Mcd001.ps2.

<card>.bak/saveedit.log records the command each save stood for, as the mod editor's log does.

Carrying a career to a modded disc

A disc built with Separate saves doesn't see the original game's careers. To carry one over, copy it to the modded name: see INSTALL.md.

What isn't covered yet

• The save editor works on PAL saves only, not the Japanese release's.
• The candidate lists can't be edited yet.
• Edits from the Squad, Combinations, Staff, Other clubs and Edit player pages have been checked in the editor but not all yet loaded in the game; the Club page has been. The list is in SAVE_EDITOR_PLAN.md.

What each field means, and how it was found, is in the format docs the README lists, such as SAVE_FORMAT.md for saves and PBDATA_FORMAT.md for the player database.