Using the Player File Creator (Tips Requested)

[Comey]

Hi,

I've tried using the player file creator, as I want to create a FA concept league set in 1950. To put it nicely, I have had terrible results. The players in the league are generally awful, with top players having a 30 rating. There are very few players with potential ratings above a 50.

How do I get more varied results? What am I doing wrong?

Right now, the process I'm using is to go into Excel, create a csv, and put a 1 in the first box. Then I save it. I'm sure this is wrong, and that the process is much more involved than that. But I can't figure out what I need to do.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[nilodor]

Comey,

It just depends what you are trying to do. You have created a 1 player universe, where basically you have 1 player that is rated and the rest that have been generated are scrubs. If you want a more realistic player distribution you need to create a full player file with ~1600 players. The file should follow the talent distribution given in the player file creator.

 9 - Rare Superstar - 0.3%
   8 - Superstar - 0.4%
   7 - Near Superstar - 0.6%
   6 - Elite Starter - 1.1%
   5 - Excellent Starter - 1.5%
   4 - Very Good-Plus Starter - 2.6%
   3 - Very Good Starter - 3.9%
   2 - Good Starter - 12.2%
   1 - Replacement-Level Starter (decent backup) - 23.9%
   0 - Roster Filler - 53.4%

If you're interested I may be able to create a macro that could generate the file for you. Let me know.

[Comey]

I would be interested. I'm really confused by the whole process...I read through the literature, but probably have to a few more times.

A macro would be *fantastic*...something to help automate it.

[Ben E Lou]

I actually already have one for FOF2K7. I can modify it for FOF7 pretty quickly. Lemme go check the code...

[Ben E Lou]

The talent levels may need a bit of tweaking, and I have to add long snappers. Should be easily doable by the end of the day.

[Comey]

Thank you, Ben. I look forward to trying it out.

[Ben E Lou]

If you want to go ahead and test it out, you can. That will actually help me with tweaking it later on.

FOF Random League File Generator--NO NERF

That'll create a full csv that you can load into the Player File Creator. Two main issues right now that I know of:

1. No long snappers. Need to add those.
2. Probably a little too much talent.

Let me know if you see any other issues.

[Ben E Lou]

Ok. Same link. It's ready to roll. Long snappers added and talent changed to FOF7 standard values. If you want to start in a different year, change the value for year in the URL. You can use this to generate a random file and then either edit it, or use it as-is.

[NawlinsFan]

Ben, last time you did this we were able to alter the year. Is that still possible?

[Comey]

Originally Posted by NawlinsFan

Ben, last time you did this we were able to alter the year. Is that still possible?

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Ok. Same link. It's ready to roll. Long snappers added and talent changed to FOF7 standard values. If you want to start in a different year, change the value for year in the URL. You can use this to generate a random file and then either edit it, or use it as-is.

VERY interesting way to do it, I must say.

[Comey]

Just to follow up on this, as some MP issues caused me to delay my solo project...

I used Ben's utility, and there are some minor blips that are preventing it from doing the job. Line errors, mostly. It's close, but there are just little errors, value range errors (like Line 500, value 0 is not in range of 384934 and 2, for example).

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Comey

Just to follow up on this, as some MP issues caused me to delay my solo project...

I used Ben's utility, and there are some minor blips that are preventing it from doing the job. Line errors, mostly. It's close, but there are just little errors, value range errors (like Line 500, value 0 is not in range of 384934 and 2, for example).

Can you give me a copy of the bad csv and a screenie of the error? I've only imported a couple of the csvs it generated, but I got no errors when I did. (Also, just try reloading and it'll generate a new csv.)

[Comey]

I generated a new one before I posted. I will email you (if you're still at the bell email I had...otherwise, I'll await an updated one.)

[Comey]

dola--

sent.

[Ben E Lou]

Actually, the files are on my server. What's the file name of the bad one?

[Comey]

13880923331.

[Ben E Lou]

That's interesting. Have other files done that? I see what happened there. For some reason it didn't end line 430. It just kept on churning out columns, making line 430 twice as long as it should have been.

I have no idea how that happened, though. The last bit of every line in the csv is just 16 zeroes followed by a line break, since the players don't have contracts:

Originally Posted by csv.txt

Column BY: Years remaining on Salary. Use 0 for unsigned players. The maximum contract is five years.
Column BZ: Salary, Current Season.
Column CA: Roster Bonus, Current Season.
Column CB: Bonus, Current Season.
Column CC: Salary, Year Two.
Column CD: Roster Bonus, Year Two.
Column CE: Bonus, Year Two.
Column CG: Salary, Year Three.
Column CA: Roster Bonus, Year Three.
Column CH: Bonus, Year Three.
Column CI: Salary, Year Four.
Column CJ: Roster Bonus, Year Four.
Column CK: Bonus, Year Four.
Column CL: Salary, Year Five.
Column CM: Roster Bonus, Year Five.
Column CN: Bonus, Year Five.

$filedata.="0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0\n";

It only wrote 12 zeroes on the problematic line. Each data file is around 2300-2400 lines. I tried a couple more that you or someone else has generated recently, and they worked, so we're talking about at least 12000 lines that worked right, and 1 that didn't. If you haven't had any other errors, my guess is that there was some minor server glitch during the time that file was generating, causing it to miss writing the last four zeroes and the line break.

[Comey]

Other files have had small glitches, yes. I'll try again.

I truly appreciate you doing this, Ben. Thank you.

[Ben E Lou]

Did they take very long to generate? Let me know if you run across any others. Just need the numbers like you provided.

[Comey]

Ran it through again...seems to have worked. Thank you again.

[Comey]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Did they take very long to generate? Let me know if you run across any others. Just need the numbers like you provided.

The last one did not take long. The ones with errors took at least twice as long.

We're talking about 10-15 seconds on the errored ones.

[Ben E Lou]

Yeah..ok...I'm guessing something server-related then. It could be that there were a ton of csvs clogging things up. I just deleted several dozen of them. Maybe that will keep it from happening again. I just double-checked the code and there's no reason code-wise that what happened to the file I looked at should ever happen. There are no IF statements or other loops that can prevent the line I pasted above from running. (Well, and clearly int he case I looked at, it stopped working right in the middle of a line of code and then started working again.)