Historic Draft & Roster Files (File Reupload 15-Mar-11 + Draft tweak)

[General Mike]

You get my highest 5* rating.

[MizzouRah]

I think the 2006 draft file is the only one missing. Hopefully somebody makes one which will take us into 2008 season on historical draft files.

[nilodor]

I'll make a 2006 update to the historical project after the season is over and I get some perspective on players performances. In the mean time I think ybanci (sp?) made one, so you may want to make a search on the board if it isn't listed in the download folder or thread.

[yabanci]

Originally Posted by nilodor

I'll make a 2006 update to the historical project after the season is over and I get some perspective on players performances. In the mean time I think ybanci (sp?) made one, so you may want to make a search on the board if it isn't listed in the download folder or thread.

The one I made is for 2007. It sounds like he's looking for this file discussed in this thread.

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by yabanci

The one I made is for 2007. It sounds like he's looking for this file discussed in this thread.

Good find, aparently I've made more files than I've realized!

[BradS]

Just curious. Is this similar to playing a replay game Ala Strat or Action PC. Basically you're playing with known players and potentials. What is the allure or fun in this? No slight intended, maybe I'm missing out on something here.

[3ric]

There's a random factor involved, which makes every run through history different - one time maybe Joe Kapp wins four Super Bowl rings and Joe Delaney is the career rushing leader. That, and the recognition factor which makes you familiar with the league from the start, does it to me.

[Izulde]

I may have to finally break down and buy FOF2K7, roster problems aside.

The chance to play the Dolphins from expansion team on up is just too damn tempting.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by yabanci

The one I made is for 2007. It sounds like he's looking for this file discussed in this thread.

Great find!

[jzicc]

Originally Posted by jzicc

Any chance of getting the csv 's posted to these roster sets? -- thanks

Thanks again for the set --- A few of us have asked -- any chance on getting the csv's to these sets ?

[WebEwbank]

I've been having a blast with these. The '60 Packers (Saint Vince arrived in '59) are on an awesome run.

One minor comment: Jim Brown was not used as a pass-catcher or blocker, but seems to be Superman at both...

[Aceshigh24]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Done.

Does this mean you have to re download the draft file again since its been fixed?

[JeeberD]

As always, nilodor is THE MAN. Thanks so much!

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by Aceshigh24

Does this mean you have to re download the draft file again since its been fixed?

Yes if you want to use the roster files from 87-95, the draft files are unaffected, so you don't need to redownload them.

[fofgamer]

Am I doing something wrong or are everyone's player numbers incorrect? I noticed OJ Simpson is #28 and Jack Lambert from the Steelers was like #97 or something...almost all the numbers I knew were wrong.

I don't mean to complain because I really appreciate these files but I wish I could get the numbers right if there is a way

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by fofgamer

Am I doing something wrong or are everyone's player numbers incorrect? I noticed OJ Simpson is #28 and Jack Lambert from the Steelers was like #97 or something...almost all the numbers I knew were wrong.

Originally Posted by nilodor

What is not included?

Draft position did not make it in, this might effect contracts a bit and maybe I'll add it in the future.
Jersey numbers, players weight and correct salaries are also not included.

.

[Narcizo]

I'm afraid the early draft classes seem to suffer from the same effect as the draft classes used in HFL. Their way to shallow and the talent level seems to be lacking. I understand that there were fewer teams and consquently fewer people to stock the draft classes with but for me it cuts down on the entertainment aspect of the draft and, consequently, of the game as a whole.

[DougWyatt]

Originally Posted by Narcizo

I'm afraid the early draft classes seem to suffer from the same effect as the draft classes used in HFL. Their way to shallow and the talent level seems to be lacking. I understand that there were fewer teams and consquently fewer people to stock the draft classes with but for me it cuts down on the entertainment aspect of the draft and, consequently, of the game as a whole.

I would suggest something besides an early-historic draft if you are not looking for an early-historic player pool.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Narcizo

I'm afraid the early draft classes seem to suffer from the same effect as the draft classes used in HFL. Their way to shallow and the talent level seems to be lacking. I understand that there were fewer teams and consquently fewer people to stock the draft classes with but for me it cuts down on the entertainment aspect of the draft and, consequently, of the game as a whole.

I'm getting ready to being my 1971 NFL historical career and I think this might be quite interesting and make drafting that much harder.??

[DougWyatt]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I'm getting ready to being my 1971 NFL historical career and I think this might be quite interesting and make drafting that much harder.??

I started in '66, and I can see his point a little. Nothing at all against the sets - just the numbers of players vs. the number of teams don't add up. You can pretty much count on having 6 expansion teams having trouble catching the league. In my league, only Seattle had a winning record (1 season - when they had just acquired Staubach) in the first 8 years. The rest of the 8 (and including Sea. until that year) finished with 1-5 wins regularly.

The draft is also a little light of talent as the rounds pass.

Also, for whatever reason - Dallas (in 73) had 0 players to start the year, and was already over the cap (with penalties).

As for the draft being "harder". Kind of, due to the talent - but it seems to me that nilodor did an awesome job and makes the draft easier in some ways. Name recognition can help out alot when your deciding. IE... in '67 Bubba Smith was lowly rated in the draft, and a 35ish potential coming out. By 73 he was an awesome DE (high 60s overall rating - with 18 sacks).

Have fun

[beargrowlz]

I don't mean to complain because I really appreciate these files but I wish I could get the numbers right if there is a way

Just change them yourself on the player cards.

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by Narcizo

I'm afraid the early draft classes seem to suffer from the same effect as the draft classes used in HFL. Their way to shallow and the talent level seems to be lacking. I understand that there were fewer teams and consquently fewer people to stock the draft classes with but for me it cuts down on the entertainment aspect of the draft and, consequently, of the game as a whole.

This was the biggest problem I had when making these files. I wanted to represent the talent disparety of the era's, where superstars were really superstars and could dramatically change the game. However drafting can be frusterating because there isn't a whole lot of talent and you just kinda wind up with a whole bunch of players who would typically be your 46th player on your roster, however now you're counting on them to be starters. I think in the future I may change the early files to have slightly more talent.

[Narcizo]

Originally Posted by DougWyatt

I would suggest something besides an early-historic draft if you are not looking for an early-historic player pool.

Thank you, I intend to. I was offering feedback as to why I won't be using them, despite appreciating the work that has been put into the project.

With added poor grammar. "their"? For goodness sake.

[MizzouRah]

Would be nice in a future version to have teams come aboard just like RL, but I'll make due for now.

[jzicc]

Originally Posted by jzicc

Thanks again for the set --- A few of us have asked -- any chance on getting the csv's to these sets ?

Not trying to be Whiney... but -----
third request for csv's --- it's okay if you can't or don't want to ---- just wondering why you haven't responded...

[Alan T]

Hah, just got to 1974 draft and came across Jim Cagle (Defensive tackle). I am going to look at trying to position myself to try to draft him. Long story short, he was my highschool football coach at the end of my time at Lassiter Highschool. I knew he had told us he played for the umm Eagles I think it was, but guess I never really knew much about him as a player.

Now its time to draft him and put him through the same daily training that we used to have to do!

[beatle]

Interesting story.

[dj_morton]

great roster set, thanks for all the hard work!

[Donan]

Just wanted to come back and say thanks again for all the work you put into this. I have gone through and simmed from 1960 through to the 2008 season several times just to see who I end up with. Had Roman Gabriel at the top of the passing stats every year for a decade and couldn't get to a bowl....had Jim kelly and Eric Dickerson play together and win 3 out of 4...had an average team and Tom Brady led us to 2 straight bowl wins...had an average offense and had Ray Lewis lead us to 2 bowl wins....great stuff! Fantastic to be able to draft legends of the game and change your team around to fit their talents!

Only one complaint...when do I get to draft Sammy Baugh, Marion Motley, Bronko Nagurski, Joe "The Jet" Perry and Gino Marchetti in the 30's, 40s and 50s?

[Scruff]

Just curious, has anyone tried this with a draft from scratch league - I think it would be cool to start in 1960 and draft from scratch, just want to make sure there aren't any bugs for something like that.

Also, I've moved some teams to their original cities (original meaning cities around 1980 when I started watching football), just want to make sure that won't cause an issues either - again, I'll be starting from scratch, so I don't think it would be an issue.

Finally, do I have to manually adjust the initial salary cap, or will that happen when I import the files automatically?Thanks for any help, and I'm really excited about this, thanks for all the hard work Nildor!

[Scruff]

Just to make sure I understand - I use the .fdt file for the first year, then the .faf files for all subsequent years when importing the draft class, right?

[Scruff]

OK here's an issue - starting in 1960 . . . not using the option to level the financial playing field - all but four teams, NY, NJ, Ind and Dal have 0 for stadium under the franchise value page. Is this an issue with the roster set, the start date, or because I haven't run my draft yet? Also, all of the ticket prices are set to $0.

Thanks for any help, seems a little strange . . .

[Scruff]

OK - ran the draft, now all of those other teams have poor or fair stadiums (rated from 2 to 16).

Also noticed that it seems like all of the players actually played in the NFL have current and potential ratings that are exactly the same, but the game generated players have the typical spreads. Is this by design?

[Logan]

Just wanted to post a quick "thanks" to Nilodor for these files. I just started my first historical league ever, mostly because I was getting bored with my current dynasty and I find that once that happens, I'll tend to not play the game for a solid month (and with football ending, probably even longer).

Anyway, I started in 1993 with the 49ers. Yeah, it's a little easier than a typical dynasty due to the talent on the roster...but it was around that time where I went from being a casual fan to really being into football (at 10 years old). So it will be fun following all the guys that I remember being drafted early on, while also hopefully winning a couple with Young and Rice. Plus in a few years, it's going to be time for some major rebuilding anyway.

Thanks again.

[Green Caesar]

Nilodor,

Thanks for all your hard work on this!

[dubb93]

For those that want real historic players but don't want the "expansion" teams struggling for so many years I suggest a draft to start the league. I'm not old enough to remember anything other than the absolute greats from the 60's and 70's, so starting in 1960 with a draft to even the players out was great for me.

Also, I kinda like the fact that the greats standout back then, because that is exactly what the did. For instance, my team drafted a QB rated 52, and WR's rated 55 and 51. Many games we will be up against teams starting a secondary rated no greater than low 20's/high teens. On the same token, I have little to no O-Line. When we face a top D-Lineman, it isn't out of the question for him to rack up 3-4 sacks and disrupt play all day against our line.

Fun for me, and the draft definately evened the talent out a little more. Can't wait to get to the point where I start to recognize more players coming through.

[nilodor]

Thanks for all of the good words. Just a quick update, sometime close to the draft I'll update the files with the 06 season and 06 draft, I'll also make the roster files for FOF2K4. Also if anyone finds any age discrepancies, please report them here, Dave Casper is one and I'm sure there are a few others. (Typically show up 10 years older or younger) Also just so you know the day and month of birth are randomly generated in the draft files by the game, but are true in the roster files.

[Scruff]

Nilodor, I sent you a PM, not sure if you check those regularly or not, so I figured I'd post here too . . .

[Hurst2112]

I think I screwed up. Probably too much wine while playing...

Are the 2001-2003 draft files cool? I thought I imported the right one but when I went to 2003, I got Carson Palmer and the rest of his draft class. I may have imported them for 2001 by mistake but I was making sure I paid attention each season start. Long story short, I had drafted 2003 twice I believe.

What sucks is that (from what I see) there isn't a 'save after season' option. Therefore, I couldn't go back. I started in 80 and made it to 2003 before I said 'oops. guess i will start over'.

I am saving after each season manually now.

[nilodor]

I checked the files, everything seems right, LT, vick and jesse palmer in 01, Carson in 03.

[Hurst2112]

thanks much.

[Compaq486]

Originally Posted by nilodor

Thanks for all of the good words. Just a quick update, sometime close to the draft I'll update the files with the 06 season and 06 draft, I'll also make the roster files for FOF2K4. Also if anyone finds any age discrepancies, please report them here, Dave Casper is one and I'm sure there are a few others. (Typically show up 10 years older or younger) Also just so you know the day and month of birth are randomly generated in the draft files by the game, but are true in the roster files.

Cool. I'm looking forward to the '07 draft file.

[Dunleavy]

thanks Nilodor these files are great!

[Ragone]

Originally Posted by dubb93

For those that want real historic players but don't want the "expansion" teams struggling for so many years I suggest a draft to start the league. I'm not old enough to remember anything other than the absolute greats from the 60's and 70's, so starting in 1960 with a draft to even the players out was great for me.

Also, I kinda like the fact that the greats standout back then, because that is exactly what the did. For instance, my team drafted a QB rated 52, and WR's rated 55 and 51. Many games we will be up against teams starting a secondary rated no greater than low 20's/high teens. On the same token, I have little to no O-Line. When we face a top D-Lineman, it isn't out of the question for him to rack up 3-4 sacks and disrupt play all day against our line.

Fun for me, and the draft definately evened the talent out a little more. Can't wait to get to the point where I start to recognize more players coming through.

I'm in the same boat really.. I just hit 72 and johnny unitas just retired for me.. 3 super bowl wins and 10 playoff apperances later.. I'm actually looking forward to some down years to rebuild

[Sgran]

I'm wondering what everyone is using for the salary cap increase? Are CPU rosters behaving themselves? I'm about to start from 1970.

[nilodor]

Theoretically when I bulit the files I wanted to have 5% increases every year, the numbers I got felt pretty good, then I remembered that in this game the increases are by $ not by % but I stuck with the caps I had already come up with. Long story short, I use increases of 15 to 35.

[Sgran]

Thanks. And thanks again for going to the trouble of putting these rosters and draft classes together. I really hope the next version of FOF allows smaller leagues and expansion to make this truly realistic.

[nilodor]

A big your welcome for all the thanks I've got for these files, I really appreciate it. Hopefully this is one of the last updates for the project as I'm sure Skydog is sick of me filling his inbox.

What is new, big ones first

- Added roster files for FOF 2K4 for those who haven't joined the revolution

- Added draft information for the player files (So now the first pick when you start a new game will be correct). There are some limitations (guys picked after round 12 need to be shown as round 12) and some guys were missed, but I'm pretty happy with it and it adds to the salary calculations and the feel of the game.

- Tweaked the ratings a bit for players at the bottom of the draft - This means there should be more backup level talent available at the bottom of the draft amongst the randomly (non-real) players, they should be somewhere between corpse (like they were before) and the scum on the bottom of the real player pool. There might be the occasional starter found down there, but if they are starting for you for too long, you're in 76 Bucs territory.

- Tweaked some of the players - Some players started in the wrong year or had some simple mis spellings, so I fixed the ones I knew of

- Tweaked some of the ratings

- And maybe the most interestnig for some, as promised when I was happy with the files I have also included the .csv files to help you with you customizing of the files. All I ask is if you repost them, just give me a little dap

If you have any problems let me know, I didn't change too much so I didn't test them a whole bunch.

Enjoy!

[Ben E Lou]

It may be a few days before I get the spreadsheet updated, but I went ahead and uploaded the files.

http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/fof2k7downloads/

Just sort on the date. They're the three dated 6/28.

[MIJB#19]

Great job, Nilodor!