xxxx_schedule

[Passacaglia]

Has anyone ever created and used an xxxx_schedule file? There's one that comes with the game for 2023, and I'm trying to see if it's useful. I've only created schedules using the x_y_z_schedule files, but the xxxx_schedules files seem interesting because they seem to indicate that you can set the exact date of each game (although the help file says games can only be on Sunday - this would be a great change if this restriction were removed, and we could have games on Thursday, Monday, some Saturdays...then even get crazy and have games in different time slots -- sorry, where was I?)



The bottom of the schedules help file says for xxxx_schedule says "This file is only used to create a new schedule for a league at the start of a new universe when a player file is also loaded." Does anyone know what that means? Because I don't see how it's different than the way the x_y_z_schedule files are used.

The way I have been doing this is this:

1. Create an xxxx_info file for the year that I want. That file has a field called SCHEDULEID, and in there, I enter the x_y_z that I want the league structure to have.
2a. I make sure there's an x_y_z_schedule file that makes sense for my league setup.
2b. Then I edit the league_info file, so that the row with the x_y_z that I specified has the division setup that I want.
2c. Edit the default_teams file so that there's a row for each team that has x_y_z in Column A, so I can tell the game what teams I want, and other info on the teams.

But...I feel like there's a whole other way of doing things that I'm missing. There's the league_years file, which according to its help file, "Information about league structures used when choosing the default configurations related to a specific season. This replaces the League Info table for these leagues. Changes to this file do not control how leagues operate. For instance, changing the number of games in the season, without a set of schedule files that completely support this change, will result in an unstable universe."

So I feel like there's a way I can set up a universe where I could be using xxxx_schedule, league_years, and team_info instead of x_y_z_schedule, league_info, and default_teams. And my guess is that if you set your files up properly, the pull-down menu when you start a new universe gives you other options besides 2023. Has anyone used these files to create a universe? If so, my questions:

1. How?
2. What happens to the schedule in the 2nd year of the universe? The 2023_schedule file only has a schedule of games for one season. Does it just repeat itself next season?
3. Can you create an xxxx_schedule file that covers multiple seasons? I don't see a field that would indicate what season you're in, but maybe the game figures it out based on the calendar year you're inputting?

Thanks!

[KingZal]

To be honest, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the universe creation files, but I did some digging into the 2023_schedule file because I also hope to figure out how these extra files work. (Thank you for laying out your universe creation process, by the way).

If you open up 2023_schedule specifically, you'll see that certain games have a LOCATION number assigned to them. The topmost game, the only game assigned to Week 1, is played between teams 31 and 20 in location 14065. In other words: Jets vs Browns in Canton, Ohio, the Hall of Fame game. Scroll down, and you'll find a few games being played in London and Frankfurt as well, just like the real 2023 season.

I just ran a test universe to see what happens using the default 2023 player file and it looks like the specific schedule defined in 2023 does not repeat: no Canton or international games in 2024 or beyond, with regular rotations afterwards. I have a hunch that this might allow you to create those "expansion style" schedules you talked about in another thread.

I did notice a problem though. Under the current 17 game schedule, you play one full interconference division every four years, and in the two years in between, you get to play one team from that same division (ex: the Steelers played the Packers in 2023, after playing the NFC North in 2021). This rotation works properly in FOF9, but in my save file things did not pick up where they left off. Instead, the rotation looked like this:

2023: NFCW; N (starting schedule defined in 2023_schedule)
2024: NFCN; W
2025: NFCS; E
2026: NFCW; N
2027: NFCE; S
2028: NFCN; W
2029: NFCS; E...

I don't know if one can change how the initial rotation is defined. I looked back at a previous universe I made (prepatch) using the default files and it seems like the rotation is incorrect in the same way, with the AFC and NFC North facing off in 2024.

I'm going to do some more fiddling around and see what I can find, because there's a lot of potential in these files. You can define real-world international matchups, create a 2005 file where the Saints play in San Antonio, or go crazy and have the Raiders play out of Sacramento for a year (like their suffering baseball counterparts). My question right now is, can one make similar changes to future seasons? Can you preserve the HoF game, or define unique matchups to be played years into a universe's future?

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by KingZal

If you open up 2023_schedule specifically, you'll see that certain games have a LOCATION number assigned to them. The topmost game, the only game assigned to Week 1, is played between teams 31 and 20 in location 14065. In other words: Jets vs Browns in Canton, Ohio, the Hall of Fame game. Scroll down, and you'll find a few games being played in London and Frankfurt as well, just like the real 2023 season.

I just ran a test universe to see what happens using the default 2023 player file and it looks like the specific schedule defined in 2023 does not repeat: no Canton or international games in 2024 or beyond, with regular rotations afterwards. I have a hunch that this might allow you to create those "expansion style" schedules you talked about in another thread.

These are both things I'm hoping to get out of trying to use these files. If I can get an xxxx_schedule to load for a different year, I can create, say, a 1966 schedule that is different for Atlanta's expansion year, then goes back to a normal schedule the year after. Plus, I can put in some neutral site locations (though apparently only for the first year I play). But, I can't figure out how to get the game to recognize that I have an xxxx_schedule for that year. I've created the xxxx_schedule, and put it in various places hoping the game will find it. But it keeps loading the x_y_z_schedule every time.

I did notice a problem though. Under the current 17 game schedule, you play one full interconference division every four years, and in the two years in between, you get to play one team from that same division (ex: the Steelers played the Packers in 2023, after playing the NFC North in 2021). This rotation works properly in FOF9, but in my save file things did not pick up where they left off. Instead, the rotation looked like this:

2023: NFCW; N (starting schedule defined in 2023_schedule)
2024: NFCN; W
2025: NFCS; E
2026: NFCW; N
2027: NFCE; S
2028: NFCN; W
2029: NFCS; E...

I don't know if one can change how the initial rotation is defined. I looked back at a previous universe I made (prepatch) using the default files and it seems like the rotation is incorrect in the same way, with the AFC and NFC North facing off in 2024.

I just tried what you did and noticed this, too. When I removed the 2023_schedule from the default_data folder, the game used the regular 32_8_17_schedule file, and the order started working properly. So that's an option. But, if you want to use the 2023_schedule file, you should change the league_years file -- change the very last cell in the very last row from 2002 to 2023. That will make it so that the game will use the 32_8_17 schedule, with year 2023 as year 1 in the 32_8_17_schedule file. But that will be overriden by the 2023_schedule file in 2023, and the game will move in to 2024 as year 2 in the 32_8_17_schedule file, which has AFC North playing the NFC East. While you're there, you can change the name of the Front Office Bowl, conference names, and anything else you want.

I'm going to do some more fiddling around and see what I can find, because there's a lot of potential in these files. You can define real-world international matchups, create a 2005 file where the Saints play in San Antonio, or go crazy and have the Raiders play out of Sacramento for a year (like their suffering baseball counterparts). My question right now is, can one make similar changes to future seasons? Can you preserve the HoF game, or define unique matchups to be played years into a universe's future?

Based on what you've seen, and I noticed the same, too, it seems like you can't make changes to future seasons. You're just creating the schedule for that season, then the game picks up with the x_y_z_schedule. Which is unfortunate. It also seems like you can't do it for past seasons. In the league_years help file, it says "At the time of the initial release of Front Office Football Nine, the only entry with a corresponding default player file is 2023." Whenever I read that, I keep thinking "cool, so I'll just add in files like that for other years" but I'm wondering if the intent of that statement is to say you can only do this whole thing for 2023. I dunno. All I know is I can't get that pull-down menu to show anything other than 2023, and I can't get the game to look at any other xxxx_schedule, and I'm not sure if I'm missing something, or I'm just not able to.