4K23 Mod Out Now! What to Expect
It's a new era and with new comes change, excitement, confusion, elation, imperfections, challenges and rebirth. Lots of emotions. We hope to help you set expectations for what the SFL Community will be getting in release 1.0.0, what is coming in future weekly releases and what projects we are planning to tackle in 2024. The mod is free to download and features 1,000+ hours of community and team involvement and support.
This weekend, our 4K23 page will feature:
- An updated zall folder to the mod previously released by LostSoul, RateSports, Gillboldberg and the rest of the NFL2K5 Mod Community. To download the standalone NFL2K4 mod to your system if you haven't already, you can watch this video. For a tutorial of how to get the game running on your Retroid Pocket 3+, watch this video.
- The complete standalone SFL Textures package, that includes all team-submitted textures and a tutorial video on how to place the zall folder on the league's official console, the Retroid Pocket 3+. To order your Retroid Pocket 3+, click here.
- Most importantly, every SFL customer will have their up-to-date ratings and equipment preferences in version 1.0.0, which is the version that will be used for SFL-produced pre-season matchups July 18-20. This will come in the form of a roster file, that can be imported into your memory card. To import and export computer files to and from your virtual memory cards, you'll need a program called mymc, which can be downloaded here. This program will also be used to import and export playbooks to team staff and the league office.
The Zall texture replacement folder contains all of the SFL teams, stadiums and uniforms and league branding with some exceptions:
- The Baltimore Vultures and the Atlanta Swarm share a stadium. The Baltimore Vultures textures will be on the mod by default.
- The Arizona Scorpions and the Denver Nightwings share a stadium. The Arizona Scorpions textures will be on the mod by default.
- The Vancouver Legion and the Houston HeadHunters share a stadium. The Vancouver Legion textures will be on the mod by default.
- Multiple teams share field numbers, jersey numbers, shoulder and sock textures and various other components within the game.
Due to this, some teams may not look 100% accurate with just a zall folder replacement. This is why the league will be also providing all of the team-submitted textures to the community. To ensure your team looks 100% like it should, just simply drop your team-related textures into the zall folder, to overwrite files that you share with other teams. The league is currently in the process of verifying that all these provided textures correctly port into the game through this process.
The league will update the 4K23 section of our website with every updated release, which during the season will include roster adjustments. This is a long-form release, that will continue to develop and enhance itself over time. Release 1.0.0 is the starting point of the new SFL form of competition.
What's to come in 2024
Some of the opportunities to further mod SFL4K23 take an extreme level of detail and skill that our community and league staff are building over time. Some teams who are ahead of the curve may feature these components to the mod, but have not been standardized yet by the league.
- Players that fill out the roster (i.e. generic players) may not be included in this release and most user players are identified with their first initial followed by their full last name. This is due to a process called hexing, in which each player's name is entered one character at a time, with a set character limit imposed by the game. The process of importing names without restriction like we were able to in 2K8 has not yet been developed, but is a focal point of our 2024 development calendar. Our top priority and where we spend the majority of our time always and will be our user players.
- Nameplates on the backs of jerseys must be individually edited and attached to specific players on file - they match the player's name, but not in a customized style or font to match the rest of the team branding. Due to the sheer size of this project, most teams will have nameplates that may be off brand until the league-wide project is complete.
- Players and coaches can have their faces scanned into the game, through texture replacement, but like nameplates, each player and coach's face must be pulled and edited individually. Due to the sheer size of this project, most teams will have generic, in-game faces until the process is available league-wide.
We hope you enjoy the mod and having all of the SFL players together on one file for the first time after 10 years of competitive rosters unable to be released to the general public. Please be patient as the project continues its development. Season 21 kicks off Friday July 28 at the 2023 Convention on the Ohio River in Covington, KY/Cincinnati, OH.