Newbie here! Questions: fake players, historical stats

[OrrsApples]

Hi there!

I finally took the (Steam) plunge to get the game, and am more than ready to lose many hours finally bringing my Eagles the glory they deserve. I've got a few questions to get started though!

1. I just started a game, and notice some fake players on the roster. Is there any way to go without these guys? A guy called Deron Marklund, for instance, is my recommended starter at qb. Now, I know our situation there isn't quite rock solid, but I wouldn't want to cheat by not suffering through a year of Foles in 2014 ;-).
Edit: starting a game with 'alternate player file' checked and manually pointing to the file in the game data seems to have solved this, possibly?

2. Is there any way to add in the historical stats for players, instead of everyone seemingly starting the game with a blank slate?

Thanks so much!

[Ben E Lou]

I'm not sure what would hvae caused #1. I just set up a league with the Eagles and things looked fine. Sanchez, Foles, and Barkley were the QBs on the roster. My guess is that you had something wrong in your setup.

As for #2, no. If you play Single Player, Steam Achievements will let you know when you break many real-life single-season or career records, but there's no way to add historical stats to players.

[Dutch]

Having the historical NFL almanac a part of FOF was always a HUGE request of many folks, particularly new to the game, and personally was one of mine for a long time. It's probably worth noting that that it's not hugely important once you recognize FOF as a great NFL simulator where you can make your own history from the beginning...but for early immersion for a new to FOF player, I think it's a pretty solid hook. I'm guessing if it were easy to do, it would have been done by now though. Too bad.

[WSoxfan86]

Also a newbie, got Front Office Football yesterday, and decided to piggyback. I've been trying to figure out how to create a custom draft class, but I haven't had much luck. I've been able to view custom draft classes, but I have two questions

1) How do I convert a .csv file into a .faf file? I've seen a converter referenced, but haven't found one.

2) When viewing draft files in csv form, what does each category mean? I can figure out some of the more obvious ones(position, age, height) but don't know what the rest mean. Is there a table of some kind to say what each rating does?

Thanks in advance

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by WSoxfan86

Also a newbie, got Front Office Football yesterday, and decided to piggyback. I've been trying to figure out how to create a custom draft class, but I haven't had much luck. I've been able to view custom draft classes, but I have two questions

1) How do I convert a .csv file into a .faf file? I've seen a converter referenced, but haven't found one.

2) When viewing draft files in csv form, what does each category mean? I can figure out some of the more obvious ones(position, age, height) but don't know what the rest mean. Is there a table of some kind to say what each rating does?

Thanks in advance

Open the Draft File Generator in your Solecismic program files folder. It does the conversion and lists the csv file format.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Having the historical NFL almanac a part of FOF was always a HUGE request of many folks...

I'm guessing if it were easy to do, it would have been done by now though. Too bad.

Judging from email over the years and from discussions I've seen, I'd say it doesn't rank in the top ten.

So, how many sacks did Joe Thomas allow in week three in 2009?

Personally, I don't want to spend the rest of my natural life finding out.

[Dutch]

There are different levels of granularity and I know you have bigger fish to fry. I would hazard a guess that with just career and season numbers of key stats and then only the top 20 would have sufficed for me...but that was then. After playing a few years I realized how unimportant it is. I'm talking FOF 1 FOF 2 era...

[ferynn]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

Judging from email over the years and from discussions I've seen, I'd say it doesn't rank in the top ten.

Just out of curiosity, what is in that top10 ?

[Solecismic]

I hear 2D engine a lot, though that would take a huge amount of time. Revisiting the game-planning, making that more realistic. A couple of different ways to go there. Being able to create a history for a league (quick-sim). Flexible league size is probably in the top ten, but would take an entire development cycle. Some sort of face generation. Getting licenses to use player pictures and/or team logos. UI changes. Expansion of information about college players. That's off the top of my head. Some are more possible than others. I wouldn't assume that, for instance, I wouldn't like to have flexible league sizes or a 2D engine. It's more a matter of weighing development time versus expected new sales.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

I hear 2D engine a lot, though that would take a huge amount of time. Revisiting the game-planning, making that more realistic. A couple of different ways to go there. Being able to create a history for a league (quick-sim). Flexible league size is probably in the top ten, but would take an entire development cycle. Some sort of face generation. Getting licenses to use player pictures and/or team logos. UI changes. Expansion of information about college players. That's off the top of my head. Some are more possible than others. I wouldn't assume that, for instance, I wouldn't like to have flexible league sizes or a 2D engine. It's more a matter of weighing development time versus expected new sales.

Heh. This discussion just *begs* for a multi-option poll. I'm curious.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Heh. This discussion just *begs* for a multi-option poll. I'm curious.

I used to use polls on the old site. They were odd - weird voting patterns, campaigning, etc. If there was a way to give every customer one vote privately and ensure every vote was used, that would be very useful.

[WSoxfan86]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Open the Draft File Generator in your Solecismic program files folder. It does the conversion and lists the csv file format.

Thanks, that did the trick

[WSoxfan86]

Bumping this, because I have more questions-
1)In my current franchise, the Raiders have lost over a billion dollars and haven't made a profit for over 20 years. Will they move at any point?
2)I've noticed that sometimes teams will lose a draft pick (it will display XXX instead of CHI for example) why does this happen?

Thanks in advance

[garion333]

Originally Posted by WSoxfan86

2)I've noticed that sometimes teams will lose a draft pick (it will display XXX instead of CHI for example) why does this happen?

That happens when a team is over the cap at the end of early Free Agency (ie. pre-draft free agency). They get docked draft picks.

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by garion333

That happens when a team is over the cap at the end of early Free Agency (ie. pre-draft free agency). They get docked draft picks.

I think he means the team charged actually shows "XXX" instead of the actual team? Dunno.

[mtolson]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Having the historical NFL almanac a part of FOF was always a HUGE request of many folks, particularly new to the game, and personally was one of mine for a long time. It's probably worth noting that that it's not hugely important once you recognize FOF as a great NFL simulator where you can make your own history from the beginning...but for early immersion for a new to FOF player, I think it's a pretty solid hook. I'm guessing if it were easy to do, it would have been done by now though. Too bad.

I would love to see or be able to incorporate historical NFL data into FOF. There are many of us quite number geeks lingering around that get a big kick out of stuff like Pro-Football-Reference.com - Pro Football Statistics and History. The one thing I really dislike is starting a career with a top notch 7th year player or so only to see them completely disappear out the record books in favor of that rookie that started the same year I started a career. I also get a kick out of using the historical player files so that I can recreate my own NFL history from a statistic purpose. But going back to 67 or so just doesn't seem to work well with the player files and salary and stuff.

In all I am completely amazed how this game has stood so strong over the past 15-20 years. Great testament to Jim and his original concepts.

[garion333]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

I think he means the team charged actually shows "XXX" instead of the actual team? Dunno.

Derp. Reading fail on my part.

It says that because the team gets booted from the draft for that pick and they instead spend their time at a strip club.