FOF 2002 Player File Editor

[-Panther]

OK, the end of last year I mentioned I was working on a player file editor for FOF 2002. Well when the new year rolled around, the time I had to work on it went to 0. Lately my time has freed up and I resumed the project. Well, needless to say I didn't like what was there so I canned the previous project and started from scratch again.

Fofed 1.0b is done (in BETA) with a few minor exceptions (see readme.txt) it's pretty much fully functional (no launcher or help) and from the test I've been doing it seems very stable. This is where I'd LOVE your input. I can only do so much testing and to be honest, running test after test after test is VERY time consuming and rather boring to me. From what I've gathered it's ready to go final once the launcher and help file are done.

So, download it, and give it a try. If you notice something that's acting up or not working properly (check Readme.txt first) let me know and I'll tune her up.

Now, since I don't have 2001 I don't know if it's compatible with FOF 2001. Using players2.fdt (2001 file) doesn't work, neither in FOF 2002 nor Fofed.

BUT before you can download it, I've got to find somewhere/one to host it. So, if you're interested and willing to host it PM me and let me know where to send it.

I haven't written the installation for it yet (not using InstallShield, too much bloat) it's in a SFX archive for the moment. The archive is only 253k so it shouldn't take up much web storage. Uncompressed size of almost 1mb. I could make it a .zip archive (allows me to attach here) but it makes the archive around 450k. I wanted minimum size for this right now.

head on over to FOF Historical Society and grab you a copy!!!

[Taur]

I hope you can answer my question about FOF2002.

Is there anyway to get Denver/Pittsburgh to build their stadiums? I keep getting a message that the stadium will be built in 2002. I assume that when EA did the update from FOF2001 they just changed the names and the year and forgot about the new stadiums.

Please somebody shed some light on this as playing in ThreeRivers is getting old.

[Hobbit]

Panther

i'd be interested in looking at your editor. however, i don't have a place to host. please post when you're ready to have this downloaded.

~ Hobbit

[3ric]

Panther - email Senator with the contents of your post. Your utility would be a welcome addition to the "Historial Project" and could be hosted on his web site (see my sig).

[-Panther]

email sent, thanks 3ric. If all goes well, should be up sometime tomorrow. But now I must get some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzs

I've included my work on the player file with this "pre-release" so if anyone wants, they can see if they can improve, or maybe find the missing links (see docs once dl'd) I ran out of time so the playerfile.txt is pretty much a rough draft but should suffice for it's purposes

[Senator]

FOF HISTORICAL SOCIETY

[3ric]

Nice, I have FOF2001 and the editor immediately opened what I assume is the player1.fdt file. Names are displayed and I can open a player to edit him.

Panther, if you can find a way to edit the year the league uses, and the salary cap data then I assume everything is in place to create a starting point for a historical campaign for FOF2k1/2k2.

I'll just get around to do a conversion function for FOF4 draft files to the FOF3 format.

[Bishop]

Whenever I use any roster created with the editor, even if I don't change anything, it tells me that the player file is corrupt when I try to start a new game... what would be causing that?

It's fine once i restore the original with the backup though.


Also It seems to crash everytime I try to edit a free agent.

saying - fofed has caused an error in fofed.exe

[-Panther]

ok as for all custom rosters being invalid, I found the culprit, it's not saving the header correctly. instead of:

PlayerDataFile03 - it's saving it like this:
PlayerDataFile 03

no problem to fix just won't be able to work on it till I get home.

free agent editing I found the problem aswell, little slack on my part and forgot to check for free agent (team id 99 in roster file)
the program's assuming teams are 0-31 not accounting for 99
again will be very simple to fix once I get home.

Thanks for hosting Senator and if you find anything else not working just post it and I'll try to get it fixed that day :-)

3ric, I've been thinking about locating and changing salary cap and starting year. haven't got into yet, want to finally get this thing going first, but I will see what I can do :-)

[Bishop]

Originally posted by -Panther
ok as for all custom rosters being invalid, I found the culprit, it's not saving the header correctly. instead of:

PlayerDataFile03 - it's saving it like this:
PlayerDataFile 03

no problem to fix just won't be able to work on it till I get home.

free agent editing I found the problem aswell, little slack on my part and forgot to check for free agent (team id 99 in roster file)
the program's assuming teams are 0-31 not accounting for 99
again will be very simple to fix once I get home.

Thanks for hosting Senator and if you find anything else not working just post it and I'll try to get it fixed that day :-)

3ric, I've been thinking about locating and changing salary cap and starting year. haven't got into yet, want to finally get this thing going first, but I will see what I can do :-)

Ahh okay, I wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong or what.

thanks for doing this, and looking forward to working on some rosters.

[-Panther]

ok I've updated the editor and now (i've confirmed atleast on my computer) it works

Updates:

Free Agents are now editable
Saving and using custom rosters now works

I've also repacked it to post here until it can be updated on Senator's site. I won't be updating this attachment with new updates so all future releases will need to be downloaded from

FOF Historical Society

If you notice anything else not working as expected, post it here and I'll get it fixed

Attachment has been delete as an updated version has been sent
to the above site

[Bishop]

Great, seems to be working perfect now. Thanks alot.


I'll let you know if I run into any other issues.

[-Panther]

ok a desperate attempt to boost post cout lol

When you open the editor, it loads FOF 2002's default player file.
from 'Rosters\Default' if you have 2001, you can try replacing the current players.fdt file there with the one from 2001 (make sure it's renamed to players.fdt) and see if it will load. When you restore from 'File\Restore' is uses an internally stored copy of FOF 2002's default player file (to ensure it's legit) so you don't have to worry about overwriting the 'Default' players.fdt.

HOWEVER, 'File\Restore' retrieves FOF 2002's path from the registry so if you don't have 2002 installed, it's probably going to complain a little and not work So it's a good idea to backup the 'Default' players.fdt file before trying 2001's, etc...

Now, on a different note, I've just received my Hattrick team and I know about as much about Soccer as I do women. My wife says that leaves me utterly clueless lol. So any/all who would like to have a protege, feel free. I've set my order for first match (on the 3rd) but I don't know if the right people are playing where they should. Hattrick name is
-Panther (in USA, team Tomahawks )

[Bishop]

Another issue seems to be when you edit more than one player the positions on the depth chart seem to get screwed up.


Like for instance, if I edit a QB and also edit a WR, if they end up on the same team, the WR will be listed as playing QB and the QB won't be listed at all.

[Bishop]

It seems they are being listed as the same player, as the QB won player of the year in 2004, and also elected to the all-pro team QB, so it was listed in the WR achievements also...

Perhaps there is a number that identifies each player that is being reproduced for every player edited?

[-Panther]

Sorry for replying so late (longggggggg day/night) I believe that is the first block in the player struct (also Unknown1) I played with it using AJ Clemons in the default player file and if I set it to anything other than 1, it floods the achievements box with 'All-Pro 1st Team QB' like 100 times. I don't really know what the correlation is to other players/positions or what, if any, needs to be set there once the player changes positions.

That's one of the things that gave me the most trouble. I don't know if changing a players position (say AJ Clemons - RB to WR) requires that to be changed to indicate the new player awards category or what. I will play with it some more and see what I can find.

[StanGunner]

I started using the editor last night and saw some of the player awards problems mentioned. A player I modified showed as winning multiple categories. I did modify multiple players so I will try to reduce variables and get a better handle on the problem. But, this is a very great tool. It brings my interest back to the game to be able to add new real player names and also friends, family or myself. This will also be a major add on for creating new Dynasties using FOFC names. Super job Panther!

[-Panther]

Originally posted by StanGunner
I started using the editor last night and saw some of the player awards problems mentioned. A player I modified showed as winning multiple categories. I did modify multiple players so I will try to reduce variables and get a better handle on the problem. But, this is a very great tool. It brings my interest back to the game to be able to add new real player names and also friends, family or myself. This will also be a major add on for creating new Dynasties using FOFC names. Super job Panther!

That last line makes all the hard work well worth it. You're very welcome. I haven't had much time to do any serious testing this week, but I'm going to write a little helper to parse the player file and determine:

How many of each position are in the default file
What the ranges of the 1st block (Unknown1) are for each position

Hopefully this'll help give me an idea of where to start in trying to find the missing link causing this problem.

I do have an idea though. If memory serves (going from memory),
I think there's 5-6 stat (Passing, Rushing, Receiving, Defense, etc...) categories, it might be the primary category ID that the players position uses, don't know whether they're 0-5 or 1-6. ie: QB = 0 or 1 RB/FB = 1 or 2

I'm not hopeful on this because it just doesn't seem logical, could just use position ID.

[-Panther]

Ok, I've parsed the default player file and the results are even
more confusing now. I didn't break it down to names, teams, etc..
The zip includes the following:

output.txt - player count per position

qb.txt - player locations within the file & value of 1st block
ie: 3rd player in the file was a QB and so on

sample:

Location of player: 23 : 38

23rd player in the file was a QB
38 is the value of usUnknown1 for that player

there's a .txt for every position.

there seems to be no method to the first value. just keeps
incrementing and I can't seem to pinpoint a pattern through the
different positions.

I've attached it in the hopes that someone will give it a good look
and see if they can find something that resembles a pattern.
If you need I can break it down more to include player names,
what team they're on, experience, etc...

Any/All help breaking this is greatly appreciated as this seems to
be the cause of the achievements bug

[3ric]

Can't help with the files that you posted, but I have something else that might be helpful. You see, some months ago I got a PM from another FOFC member who had "cracked" the FOF4 players.fdt file - take a look at it and see if you can find any similarities. One thing we've learned about Jim's programming habits is that he tends to stick with the data format, so there's a possibility they should be very similar. See the attached zip file.

[-Panther]

That is very interesting. I do see some similarities in the two.
However, with the added stats in FOF4 it's hard to tell first glance
whether 2002's stats would be 'moved up' in replacement of
FOF4's new stats.

Most of it does look like that's how it 'would' work. Do you have
an address I could contact him at? (PM if ya do)

He has value #1 for player struct listed as 'Id' but doesn't mention
what the Id is referring to? Got me curious now.

I did strengthen my resolve that 'Loyalty' & 'Play For Winner' ARE
in fact random seeing as they're both missing from FOF4's struct
aswell. That's a good thing

I'll have to sit down and look at it later. I'd love to have an
address where I could contact him and discuss the format
if possible.

But for now, off to work

[3ric]

He has value #1 for player struct listed as 'Id' but doesn't mention what the Id is referring to? Got me curious now.

But the Id isn't referring to anything else but the player - it's must be an index number. Index 1 for the first player and so on. The order isn't important really, the first player could have index 3, but it has to be an unique index, two players shouldn't have the same index number. At least, this is how the draft files use the first value. Sorry if I stated the obvious here, maybe I misunderstood you.

[StanGunner]

Bump so I keep you interested in fixing the Awards problem.

[-Panther]

Originally posted by StanGunner
Bump so I keep you interested in fixing the Awards problem.

No worries there. I WILL fix it. :-)

Unknown1 is the player's id within the file
first player in the file is 1
last player is (player count)

I haven't modified the code yet to see if this changes the
award bug but it's possible.

As it is now. The players are sorted by position per team.

ie:

Atlanta's Roster:

QB
QB
QB
QB
RB
RB
RB
etc...

the players are put in the file with a simple loop like:

for (i = 0; i < team_count; i++)
{
// add team's players
for (x = 0; x < team[i].players.size(); x++)
insert players[x]
}

etc...

so when the players are put in the file, the ids don't match up.
The first player in the file is likely to have id 1432.
Changing a players position and/or team really fouls up the ids.

It's easy to remedy. Just set the id when the player is added to
the file.

I've also got a better look at what the other unknowns are.

one of them is 852 for every player. No clue what this is.

one is 300 for ALL non-QBs, valid for all QBs.
however, all QB stats are accounted for. Some hidden stat I'm
not sure what is.

one is 320 for ALL non-RB/FBs valid for RB/FBs
again all stats accounted for. hidden attribute?

one has values from 0-100 while another has values 0-300
one has values from 0-2500+

etc...

I'm gonna give the format a few more days and see if I can
atleast find endurance (hopeful)

If not, then no later than early next week, I'll update the code
and see if setting the id fixes the awards problem.

I started this because I enjoy 2002 and didn't want to be stuck
with the same ole players (TIRED of Jeff Blake being a SuperStar)

Tired of Cinncinnati dominating for 10yrs, etc...

I assure you, one way or another, I WILL get this baby functional!

I'm also revamping the playerfile.txt
now known as FOF2002_players_fdt.txt

It'll be a 'complete' breakdown on the format as I know it.
I'm doing this, again, in hopes that someone else may be able
to pinpoint parts of the format I've been unable to.

I'll post that file when I get it all formatted.

[-Panther]

I've completed and attached the complete breakdown on
FOF 2002's players.fdt format (as I know it) as well as
.txt files containing information (Pos & Value)
for every player in the original player file.

The format of the .txt files are:

Player Pos: Value
RB 432

etc...

at the bottom it list the minimum & maximum value of said stat

I've been unable to locate Endurance (depressing for me)
I'll update the program to list the ids correctly and see if that fixes
the 'Awards' problem. If it does, It should be updated on

FOF Historical Society

by late monday. If for some reason that's not the cause of the
'Awards' bug, it's going to be a little longer while I try to find the
culprit.

[-Panther]

Ok, I've updated the ID saving and sent the file to Senator to be
updated on his site. I didn't get to do much testing on whether it
fixed the 'Awards' problems but I'm hopeful that it does.

Since you guys were able to find/replicate the problem I wanted
to try to get you guys to 'fully' test it and see if it solved it

once it's uploaded (give it a day atleast)on the site
you can get it at

FOF Historical Society

just make sure you get fofed1b3.zip as the old one is fofed1b2

[StanGunner]

Ready to test, waiting for file to be updated.

[Bishop]

Seems to have fixed the award/position bug but it's also created a few others... the ID's for running backs may be incorrect cause it seems if you edit them certain skills will be 0 and others will be 100 potential... even if you've set them all to be 100..

Also another problem is the players getting waaay unrealistic stats once you edit them... like 60 sacks in a season or 200+ tackling CB's... not sure waht the cause of that would be though.

[-Panther]

I believe the unrealistic stats is linked to one of the unknown blocks. I'm trying to isolate which one at the moment (while juggling hattrick of course :-) I'll check and see if when changing positions or editing, if any, especially RB, positions are not getting initialized correctly to indicate the new stats/position.

I noticed the unrealistic stats while while learning the format. I've altered a CB's interceptions and he had 215 picks that year. However, once training camp occurs the following year, it corrects the problem and he produces to the stats you set. That's why I say it's linked to an unknown block, when updating a stat, one of those needs to be updated aswell. I'm trying to determine which one and how.

That's the main reason I've put the 'fof2002_notes' up. In hopes that someone might figure it out before I do. It's the one thing (aside from endurance) that gives me the most headaches

[3ric]

Bump.
How is it going?

[-Panther]

Originally posted by 3ric
Bump.
How is it going?

so far basically at same spot. I've had 2 'possible' solutions but
both lead me right back to the start. It's almost as if atleast 2 of
the unknown blocks need to bet set but which ones and to what
I've been unable to determine. I haven't worked on it in the last
2 days because it's driving me nuts but I'm planning on diving in
again tomorrow and I'm praying I can finally figure something out.

I know 2002 was released by EA but I wish Jim could/would give
me some idea of where to be looking. I remember that someone
said Jim said "I'm not going to release the format(s)".

From everything I've been able to do/see, the remaining problems
lie somewhere within the 7 Unknown_Data blocks.

53,54, & 55 seem to me to almost have to pertain to something
such as salary, free agent demands, etc... since they're within
the salary/employment section. They vary in value extremely though.

14 seems to have something to do with play info. Above stat section.

24,29,34 are right in the middle of stat section and I'm thinking somehow,
these are the ones, that pertain to endurance, hidden value but
I'm not getting anything concrete out of either of them.

[wudu]

Any progress yet?
You know what, you should just give up on FOF2002, and devote your brilliance to editing FOF2, which in my opinion, was much better anyway. Who knows, maybe it'd be easier, anyhoo.