Draft Fiiles @ FOF Historical site ?

[BigPitt]

I see all but 2 of the files that were there are now gone.
I assume these did not work for 2004 anyway but thought maybe
there was a way to convert them.
Anyone know about this?
If conversion is not possible is anyone working on a similar item
for FOF 2004?
Thanks for any input.

[nilodor]

Originally posted by BigPitt
I see all but 2 of the files that were there are now gone.

Which files are you refering to? All of the FOF 4 draft files and roster files are still there.

Also I am currently working on converting over the draft files to FOF 2004. I have done 72-83 so far and will finish the rest up soon. 3ric has done 71 and maybe the roster file although I am unsure. All that needs to happen now is for senator to make a new area at the site for the new files and for me to send them to him.

[3ric]

Nil's correct, I did the 1971 file and the 1970 roster file (although there's a slight problem with that one)

[uglytuco]

Ive been working on a rebuild of my old 1970 file. I started with the CSV that was posted here, but that file has some problems. Dont know if they would crash the game all the time or not, but they did the few times i tried to use them.

Theyve got things like OLmen with passing ratings, guys that were drafted in 1970 but their first yr in the league was 1968.

Anyhow, Im rebuilding that file to include great players from prior to 1970, guys that will probably retire 1 or 2 yrs into the game. But theyll start filling in that HOF with a bit of history quite nicely. After all, how can you have a historical league without Jim Brown and the many other HOFers that retired prior to 1970?

Btw, I dont know how you guys do this stuff so dam fast. It takes me quite a while to do each team. Ive gotten 7 of them done since the game came out.

[3ric]

I emailed an excel file to nilodor that has macros written to automatically convert all college names, positions and team names to the correct numbers, maybe that's the explanation to why it's so easy for us?

[BigPitt]

Thanks guys.

I must have clicked the "roster" page rather than the "draft" page on the site.I see the old files now.

This is a great project you did and really happy to hear it is being continued into the 2004 game which I feel is a 1000% improvement over previous versions.

[uglytuco]

Maybe that explains some of the strange numbers that appear for some players. Somewhere the formulas arent working quite right. Its not all the time mind you, just occasionally enough to warrent checking all of them out.

And here I just thought some of you were really hard workers!

[3ric]

The problem I have with the 1970 player file (roster file) is that a scouting error makes the veteran quarterbacks seem talentless in the eyes of the scouts. Unfortunately, that affects the roster decisions made by the computer - the other teams start generated players with 18-20 in current ability at quarterback. I emailed Jim about it but it didn't make it into the patch. There's a possibility that some values in the 1970 file causes the error, though. I might try converting the 1984 roster file to see if that file works better.

[tim86432]

Did you change the order of a couple of the columns? I redid the column order to match the help file and it seemed to fix the scouting on the quarterbacks.

[uglytuco]

I have tried out the file Im working on a few times and everything seemed to be working perfectly. Ive completed a few more teams since the last time, so maybe Ill try converting the csv up and checking to see how the game looks at the QB ratings.

[3ric]

Originally posted by tim86432
Did you change the order of a couple of the columns? I redid the column order to match the help file and it seemed to fix the scouting on the quarterbacks.

I found something else - a column is used to designate what type of passer the quarterbacks are, and I had "0" for all 63 in the file, which basically tells the game they aren't quarterbacks, and thus overriding the setting in the "position" column.

I entered most as a drop-back passer (a "3"), some as a roll-out QB (Tarkenton, Stabler) and others as the dink-and-dunk type. That did the trick, and the file got imported correctly as far as I could see.

[Buccaneer]

I really hope you (along with Jim's help) can get this to work well.

[3ric]

Passing leaders in FOF2k4 with the corrected 1970 roster file:

  Player              Pos Team  GP GS Att  Cmp  Pct   Yards Avg   Lg  TD   Int  
Unitas, Johnny        QB  IND   16 16 592  360  60.8  4758  8.03  70  37   12     
Stabler, Ken          QB  OAK   16 16 631  391  61.9  4492  7.11  56  30   16     
Harget, Edd           QB  NOS   16 16 605  349  57.6  4403  7.27  80  28   15     
Domres, Marty         QB  SDO   16 16 594  347  58.4  4303  7.24  51  32   28     
Cappleman, Bill       QB  CIN   16 16 558  342  61.2  4296  7.69  55  31   20     
Munson, Bill          QB  DET   16 16 657  350  53.2  4213  6.41  69  26   28     
Kilmer, Billy         QB  NYK   16 16 535  321  60.0  4142  7.74  56  35   10     
Johnson, Randy        QB  ATL   16 16 596  371  62.2  4120  6.91  60  32   10     
Brodie, John          QB  SFO   16 16 570  308  54.0  4089  7.17  80  32   17     
Taliaferro, Mike      QB  NED   16 16 522  322  61.6  4061  7.77  53  25   15     
Douglas, Bobby        QB  CHI   16 16 489  317  64.8  4006  8.19  92  32   8      
Shaw, Dennis          QB  TBY   16 16 531  324  61.0  3992  7.51  65  32   26     
**Hanratty, Terry     QB  PIT   16 16 489  298  60.9  3975  8.12  65  30   21     
Snead, Norm           QB  PHI   16 16 535  311  58.1  3975  7.42  80  21   13     
Hart, Jim             QB  LAS   16 16 573  327  57.0  3898  6.80  72  25   30     
Morton, Craig         QB  DAL   16 16 517  293  56.6  3797  7.34  64  27   12     
Nelsen, Bill          QB  CLE   16 16 615  320  52.0  3766  6.12  79  18   11     
Stofa, John           QB  MIA   16 16 531  311  58.5  3721  7.00  53  13   12     
Cuozzo, Gary          QB  MIN   16 16 655  341  52.0  3661  5.58  47  10   27     
Dawson, Len           QB  KCY   14 14 472  284  60.1  3590  7.60  67  26   20     
Jurgenson, Sonny      QB  WAS   15 14 516  278  53.8  3513  6.80  61  20   9      
Starr, Bart           QB  GBY   16 12 452  266  58.8  3461  7.65  72  22   16     

Looks pretty good (passing totals are too high, of course) as the leaders are all veterans.

Here's the file:
http://hem.fyristorg.com/kristian9/1970fof2k4.fdt

The 1971 draft file:
http://hem.fyristorg.com/kristian9/1971_fof2k4.faf

[Buccaneer]

Do they all come in with appropriate current/potential ratings?

[3ric]

Yes,
Stabler was the highest rated at 95/95, (wow)
Unitas second at 89/89 (a touch of fantasy there)
Jurgenson third with 82/82.

(To clarify: I didn't use the X-Factor)

[Buccaneer]

But no 0/0?

[Senator]

Has this been sent to me? I will put them up on a new spreadsheet on the site if you guys want.

[beatle]

When I went to open the File:1970 roster, I received the following message: Windows cannot open this file. Any suggestions?

[nilodor]

A new spreadsheet would be awesome. Also I have sent you the 72-90 draft files.

[thrym]

Looking forward to the Historical Project whippin out these files again...I am also ready to start an even earlier file if there is an interest in that sort of thing.

Any idea how early is too early? What does the game 'allow'? I was thinking about setting a date somewhere in 1955-62. That would give a really nice 'backdrop'.

What I REALLY wish(DREAM) Jim would do, is let us change the number of teams EVEN at the cost of having to build(imput) our own schedules...ahhh, THAT would be heaven AND then add expansion back in .

[uglytuco]

I think it would get pretty tough to go back before 1970 with anything resembling the structure of the NFL back then. You could ignore that they were 2 different leagues I suppose, prior to the merger, but if you go back far enough each league only had 2 divisions in it and youd get down to half the teams that there are now. Thats a helluva lotta 'ghost' teams playing in the FOF world.

With 1970, youre only missing 6 teams, and 2 of them join the league in 76. Plus much of the format of the playoffs and divisional structure is pretty similar to what it is now.

I guess the main reason I chose 1970 way back in the ol FBPro days, was that I could include the 60s dynasties at the end of their run with the beginning of the 70s dynasties, which would also be the time of my childhood and how I remember football in the 'good ol days'. It also helped that I had plenty of reference material here for looking up rosters, player numbers etc going back to 1960. Anything prior to that I just didnt have much reference material for.

[Raiders Army]

Just a note to those who played with FOF4: what's up with all the injuries? Replaying my Raiders career, we had 8 guys on the injured reserve, and 4-5 guys either doubtful or out at the halfway point in my 1989 season...and that was the norm. Could y'all do some magic and make injuries go down?

Oh, by the way, I salute you for your hard work...there's no way I have the time nor the persistence to do all of the draft files and roster files. Thanks!

[nilodor]

I'm not sure if there is anything we can do about FOF 4 but in 2004 you can turn down the injuries in the global options. Hopefully it works out.

[3ric]

Originally posted by Buccaneer
But no 0/0?

No, unless I missed something. I'm 99% sure I didn't though.

Originally posted by beatle
When I went to open the File:1970 roster, I received the following message: Windows cannot open this file. Any suggestions?

Did you right-click on the file and save it to your computer?

[beatle]

I never had the chance to open the file since "Windows cannot open this file" was the message, thus I could not open the winzip file.

[3ric]

Originally posted by beatle
I never had the chance to open the file since "Windows cannot open this file" was the message, thus I could not open the winzip file.

It's not a zip file - it's the uncompressed roster file itself. Save it and open it in FOF2k4.

[BigPitt]

So - are the converted draft files now available.Thanks guys.

[3ric]

Not yet, as far as I know, but Nilodor has done the files 1972-1990 and I just completed the last file of the set 1991-2003. The 1971 file is linked already. So, what's left is that I'll email my files to Senator and he'll update his site.

[3ric]

Dola. Files sent...

[Buccaneer]

Do I assume that there would be some preliminary work that has to be done to the city names and nicknames before you import the 1970 player's file? For example, does the Houston team must be the Oilers? I understand that for the expansion teams, they will be filled out with fictional players, is this correct?

[3ric]

Yes, that's correct.

[Senator]

Late tonight or early tomorrow I will put up the new info.

Happy T -Day.

[Senator]

Ok, updated. whew.

[3ric]

Great job! I'll email you the 1970 roster file for FOF2k4 as well... forgot to include that one.

[Toddiec]

Hey guys, I just want to say thanks for all your hard work. I am looking forward to using these files this evening.

Thanks again!

Toddiec

[Senator]

The 1970 roster is now up for FOF 2004

[Tasan]

This may sound like a silly request, but is there any way someone could zip up all the draft files to one single file and post it on the site? I'm lazy and thats a lot of clicks ;- )

[Hurst2112]

strange,

George Blanda retires as a Center after 22 years.

With injuries at 100, nothing strange to report after first year.

Unitas was a rookie in 70 though, born in 33. pretty old. Can't remember if that was the same in fof4 files or not.

[Buccaneer]

Please report more if you can, Hurst

[Hurst2112]

Passing yardage is still as high with this file (which shouldn't be that much of a suprise).

Average age is still normal, something I will be watching each year only because it flaked out on my once in FOF4.

The kicker for the Bears was the leagues highest scorer with 164 points. Highest i have seen since getting FOF5. Thought it was a bit too high considering no 2 position players. The bears had the highest scoring offence that year with 31.4 pts per game. That seemed pretty normal.


I will try to sim some more seasons and see if any thing else pops up.

[Buccaneer]

I am probably in a minority but I never had any problems with the perceived rate of high-ranked passers. I think you are right about not being a suprise. I remember when using the Lahman database for OOTP, you would expect a higher pct. of good ratings and results. It certainly made for a competitive game because the AI would have really good teams. I would expect this to be the same for FOF5.

[beatle]

I am still having problems opening this file. Now the file opens with excell which results in some names and a lot of symbols. I told win zip to open the 1970 file with that file and now it opens that file with that program despite deleting the history and the temp internet files. I need someone to explain this to me. Thanks.

[Hurst2112]

I didn't have to open a zipped file. I just downloaded the file into a separate folder (along with all the draft files).

When I started a new season, I chose "start with alternate player file". I pointed to where the file was and chose it. When you come to importing a draft file, just do the same.

Make sure that you are using the 2004 files for FOF5 (2004). The FOF4 files won't work.

Look at the list and you will see that they didn't post the FOF5 files as zipped files...just regular.

Let me know if it works for you.

[3ric]

Originally posted by Hurst2112
Unitas was a rookie in 70 though, born in 33. pretty old. Can't remember if that was the same in fof4 files or not.

Unitas a rookie? Funny, in my game he's a 16-yr vet. Blanda being a center is a "bug" though.

Originally posted by Hurst2112
Average age is still normal, something I will be watching each year only because it flaked out on my once in FOF4.

Nilodor and I have spent some extra time and attention to get the birth dates right.

[Hurst2112]

Well, upon review, he was listed as the first overall pick for that year. He joined the team in 1970. But when I looked at his player card, he did have about 16 years in.

So maybe it's not that unusual

[uglytuco]

I found a lot of inconsistencies in the 1970 file that was originally posted, although I think they have updated it now, so it may be better.

I am busy going completely through this file to fix all that stuff, as well as putting in some of the older guys I had originally put in this a few yrs back.

It takes me awhile to do all this though. Theres over 1000 guys to go through.

If only I worked this hard at my real job!!!

[Buccaneer]

I just spent some time setting the start of my career, using the real1970 players file. Here are the changes I made to the league to accomodate that file:

1. Changed affiliation of St Louis Rams to Los Angeles
2. Changed affiliation of Arizona Cardinals to St Louis
3. Changed affiliation of New Jersey Jets to New York Jets
4. Changed city name of New England to Boston (associating with Patriots)
5. Changed affiliation of Baltimore Ravens to Canton and changed nickname to Bulldogs
6. Changed affiliation of Indianapolis Colts to Baltimore
7. Changed nickname of Houston Texans to Oilers

with mckerney's throwback graphics (good job!)...

8. Renamed logo helmet28 (Oilers) to helmet31
9. Renamed logo helmet31-alt2 (Heisman) to helmet28 (Titans)
10. Renamed logo helmet30 (old Browns' bulldog) to helmet02 (Canton Bulldogs)

(I still pray every night that Jim can at least allow us to rename divisions and to change division structures - still keeping 32 teams which I can live with)

[Buccaneer]

dola

This is for kcchief19: Nothing thrills me more than making these changes, both to team names and logos. You have complained mightly about expansion in OOTP, I personally find that THE most fun part of the whole game. Just doing what I did tonight with FOF5, I got my money's worth out of the game (plus thanks to the authors of the 1970 and draft files). Imagine that!