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Old 04-12-2020, 06:08 PM   #1
Wudu2
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Join Date: Jan 2015
FOF7/8 Historical Draft Files, 1983-2019

Release - Google Drive

Here you'll find files for FOF7, FOF8 and the CSV files I used to make them. Also here are the tools I created to make them. Included are players from the NFL, CFL, AAF, XFL, USFL, UFL, WLAF and it’s successor, NFL Europe from the years 1983-2019. As there is an 800 player minimum for the files, there is some filler. These filler players are made up of college players from those years who never played pro football.

I've tested them enough to verify that each file works and testing is ongoing with ratings and balance, but they should be usable. If you disagree with the ratings, feel free to edit the drafts as you see fit. Enjoy!

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Old 04-12-2020, 10:08 PM   #2
Young Drachma
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Very cool
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Old 04-13-2020, 11:03 AM   #3
QuikSand
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Join Date: Oct 2000
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Interesting. I had an old one-player-universe file sitting around that happens to have been set in 1986, it seems. So, that could be an interesting way to play, using these files.

Here's a link - TinyUpload.com - best file hosting solution, with no limits, totaly free

FYI, it's not my creation, just something somebody posted a while back, and just happens to be set in 1986. With an OPU file, each team starts out with zero players, and then the background AI generates a ton of stiffs to make sure there are enough bodies to fill the rosters.
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Old 04-16-2020, 10:16 AM   #4
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I am a big fan of these, as a curator of the early game files, I say thank you.
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Old 04-16-2020, 11:09 AM   #5
MIJB#19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Senator View Post
I am a big fan of these, as a curator of the early game files, I say thank you.
And I'm just happy to see you around here.
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Old 06-14-2020, 06:02 AM   #6
Ronmun29
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I am a new purchaser and interested in these files but not sure how to use them. I cannot see any way to play seasons from prior to 2011...would love to start in the 1980s and use these files each season.
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Old 06-14-2020, 07:21 AM   #7
QuikSand
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R, I hope someone can help you. I will volunteer that playing the game with files like these is **really** different from the vanilla FOF experience.

By most people's accounts, FOF is not great at the whole "simulate the real world" experience. It can generate realistic stats, and so forth, but it is not great at creating, say, a Tyreke Hill who looks and feels like the real thing, or for that matter a Dan Marino who does the same.

I hope you get to take a stab at it, and that it's fun. But if it's not exactly what you're looking for, I encourage you to at least take a stab at playing the game in its strongest channel - just let it go, play with game-generated drafts (which will be far more balanced than the historical files here), and write your own story.

Cheers
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Old 06-14-2020, 09:15 PM   #8
Ronmun29
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Thank you.
Yes the game feels good. I actually was going to choose between it, and DDS, but liked them both and chose them both... they both seem very good inside their wheelhouse so to speak.. and I have FAR to much time on my hands lol.
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Old 06-19-2020, 11:36 AM   #9
Wudu2
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Hi Ronmun,

To use the files, do this:

1. Start a new game and make sure the top option "Begin game using alternate player file" is set to "Yes". Set the other options on this page to your liking and click "submit".

2. The game will prompt you to chose a player file, so choose the FOF8 .fdt file of whatever season you want. This will put you in your chosen year, after the amateur draft. Currently the only 1980s file we have is 1983 but if you were looking for a specific year, I can probably convert from an older file for you.

3. Next year, just before you start free agency there will be a button that says "Import Draft" at the top. This is the only time you can import a custom draft, so make sure you put it on your checklist of things to do before free agency.

4. Press the "Import Draft" button and it will prompt you to select the season you wish to import.

That should be it. I'm assuming you're playing FOF8, so make sure that you only use the files from the release folder that are from that game. There are differences in the FOF7 and FOF8 file structure that make them not work with eachother. The biggest gotcha I've seen for people is that the draft files and the roster files are different file types and that has tripped people up. Start with the .FDT roster file and continue with the .FAF draft files.

Last edited by Wudu2 : 06-19-2020 at 11:39 AM.
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Old 06-24-2020, 09:08 AM   #10
Ronmun29
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Thank you for the reply.
I can find no "fdt" files howeer… they all seem to be csv files as in 2000.csv, 2001.csv etc.

As far as the game folder itself if you are referring to it, I cannot even locate it, I am no fan of STEAM and this is the first game I have gotten through it, so no idea where STEAM puts the installation, but there is no FOF folder in steam, nor in program files, nor in documents.

I can see by the csv files how much work you put into these...great job

EDIT
I located the installation. Yes it had the player files, but only back through 2016.
Were you saying that to use the, for example 1983 draft file you did, you should load a player file from, say, 2016, play the season, then load the 1983 draft? It seems this would have some issues if age is a data reference...or is there any way to get the 1983 (for example) fdt file?
Thank you for dealing with a newbie lol.

Last edited by Ronmun29 : 06-24-2020 at 09:19 AM. Reason: updated
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Old 06-24-2020, 09:36 PM   #11
Ronmun29
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I think I figured it out, thank you.
I have started a new thread with a couple of related questions.
GREAT work on these!
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Old 01-10-2021, 08:45 AM   #12
Donnerna
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I love these files so much -- but after playing through the 80's, I've now encountered an issue.

I initially downloaded only the 1980s files, and everything worked fine.

Months later, I've now downloaded the 1990s files...but they're downloading as .csv instead of as the kind of file type FOF8 recognizes for draft classes.

Anyone have any advice?

Thanks!
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Old 01-10-2021, 12:23 PM   #13
Olsson
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@Donnerna - The faf-files should be in the FOF8 folder in the download. If not follow the link from the opening post, select the FOF8 folder and download from there.
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Old 01-13-2021, 06:22 AM   #14
Stanley92
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I need some help understanding this. Recently got FOF8 and was glad to see the roster/draft files from Wudu. My concern was on the FOF8 2002 files.
I tried to start 2002 as Texans, but found a 2nd QB missing. Tony Banks was in the csv-file (FOF8 2002.csv) but was not popping up in the roster, not even in the FA pool.

So now a try to edit and add Banks and maybe more players to the startoff file for 2002 became important.
Using the java pgm FOFDraftRosterUtil to try and do this.
I can easily open up all the csv files for the years of draft but when trying to open the roster file named FOF8 2002.csv I get this error.
Java lang execption
Error on line 1 column P : For Input string ""

Now checking up this first line
1,1,Abdullah,Rabih,3,73,224,4,27,1975,12874,3,168,28,1999,,,28,1999,,,0,
(a cutout)
That column P should perhaps be the issue after the first 1999 number.

I really wanted to fill up this 2002 roster to get enough players in the FA pool not deal with an army of fictional players for the first kick-off year. I assume the faf-file (draft-classes) include a good number of real players when one do get this save to run forward over the years.

Any suggestion on how to edit this 2002 roster setup ???

I found the PlayerFile.exe within the game at last and got a good view on all the columns. However after getting a Zero in that column P it just continued "down" the lines and when it called for "Participation percentage last year", it started to get a bit impossible. That column looked to be omitted on all players then also next one "Hall of Fame Points". It started to get overwhelming.
Basically the jar-pgm don't like empty but need a number which is now the problem at hand.
How have all you managed this ?

Last edited by Stanley92 : 01-13-2021 at 06:43 AM.
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Old 01-14-2021, 01:53 AM   #15
LaStarza61
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Needing Some Help

I don't know why I am having so much trouble with this. If someone could help me, I would really appreciate it!

I want to set up a career starting in 2002 and then use the historical draft files every season after that. Could someone please tell me exactly, step-by-step, what I need to do to accomplish this? Where do the custom historical files go after I download them? Which file do I use for the initial start? How to do a historical draft each year? etc..

Thank you in advance!
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Old 01-14-2021, 02:20 PM   #16
Stanley92
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I figured out my "problem" and are filling up that starting FOF8_2002 roster.

I have seen the AI for all teams, beside your own, going mental and signs whatever they think they miss in the pool of created fictional players.
So need to figure out what players was FA pre-season. This old 2002 roster filed looked to have none as FA.

That was the problem with the lack of LS on most of the teams. Tons of fictional LS popped up in those teams.
I think I remedy that adding almost evry LS that was in 2002 teams, and to help the AI I changed several LS already in teams but listed as something else, like center,TE or LBs. Those player never took a snap on those positions and is more correct to list them as LS.

I still need to test this out before I might put it up.
All the files for drafting in years to come could most surely work tip-top as they are.

So what have I done in the FOF8 2002.csv ?
Just added some players, mostly longsnappers and fringe players that might played in special teams.
Made some position changes that troubled the AI on the startup of the save.

Now for some testing !!!

Last edited by Stanley92 : 01-14-2021 at 02:31 PM.
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Old 01-15-2021, 07:03 PM   #17
Donnerna
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LaStarza61 View Post
I don't know why I am having so much trouble with this. If someone could help me, I would really appreciate it!

I want to set up a career starting in 2002 and then use the historical draft files every season after that. Could someone please tell me exactly, step-by-step, what I need to do to accomplish this? Where do the custom historical files go after I download them? Which file do I use for the initial start? How to do a historical draft each year? etc..

Thank you in advance!

Unfortunately, that is not possible to my knowledge. Your only options that I'm aware of are to use the modern day start date that the game defaults with, or to use the 1983 start date that is included in the link above.
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Old 01-16-2021, 02:32 AM   #18
LaStarza61
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Donnerna View Post
Unfortunately, that is not possible to my knowledge. Your only options that I'm aware of are to use the modern day start date that the game defaults with, or to use the 1983 start date that is included in the link above.

It looks like there is a 2002 starting roster file right next to the 1983 starting roster file on the link above. Not sure why 1983 can be used, but not 2002?

Thanks
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Old 01-16-2021, 08:08 AM   #19
Stanley92
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LaStarza61 View Post
It looks like there is a 2002 starting roster file right next to the 1983 starting roster file on the link above. Not sure why 1983 can be used, but not 2002?

Thanks

The files Wudu put up includes a start file for 2002 (FDT-file), then you got all those FAF-file in the same download. You should be using them each pre-draft time so you get every player, not only those who did have a NFL career, inside the draft.
Just hold on a week or two and have a brand new 2002 file, based on Wudus file in the first post. Lots of players that was left out and also bunch of real plaers in the Free Agents pool.

It takes some more testing and I like to have more adjusted things in play before I upload it.

Hang in and hopefully something good comes up.
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Old 01-16-2021, 05:51 PM   #20
LaStarza61
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stanley92 View Post
The files Wudu put up includes a start file for 2002 (FDT-file), then you got all those FAF-file in the same download. You should be using them each pre-draft time so you get every player, not only those who did have a NFL career, inside the draft.
Just hold on a week or two and have a brand new 2002 file, based on Wudus file in the first post. Lots of players that was left out and also bunch of real plaers in the Free Agents pool.

It takes some more testing and I like to have more adjusted things in play before I upload it.

Hang in and hopefully something good comes up.

Thank you... I appreciate it! I will patiently wait.
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Old 01-17-2021, 03:03 PM   #21
Wudu2
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The roster files I've included in those folders are actually Nildor's, designed for use in FOF7. I had only converted a few for use in FOF8 by request. They're pretty easy to convert if you are comfortable editing the CSV files. The hardest part is finding the Long Snappers. FOF7 didn't have that position.

My current pandemic project is working on my own rosters, so each year from 1983 on will have accurate rosters for NFL, CFL, XFL, USFL, UFL and AAF, with some Arena players thrown in for FAs. It's slow going, though. 15,000 or so players to go...
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Old 01-25-2021, 05:28 PM   #22
Stanley92
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Join Date: Jan 2021
I have already setup most of the Longsnappers for 2002, but got much to test with all the new players. I'm looking to get the 2002 setup then to hopefully just use the Draft files for coming season.

So are the FAF-file for each season 2003 and onwards only for FOF7 ?
If needed to be edited I will have a go, but I hope those files are already set for FOF8.

I've added a lot of those players from Europe league, CFL and Arena that did in 2002 some time in training camp or pre-season. Those were mostly put as Free Agents since the game even before you get a look have some transactions made if teams the AI control lacks players. I like those players to be "real" players.
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Old 01-26-2021, 04:21 PM   #23
Wudu2
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The FAF files in each folder (FOF7 and FOF8 folders) are the drafts. The FDTs are the roster files, with nildors being made for FOF7 and a couple that I converted for FOF8.
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Old 02-16-2021, 09:58 AM   #24
Stanley92
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wudu2 View Post
My current pandemic project is working on my own rosters, so each year from 1983 on will have accurate rosters for NFL, CFL, XFL, USFL, UFL and AAF, with some Arena players thrown in for FAs. It's slow going, though. 15,000 or so players to go...

Indeed it must be a slow job. I'm still working on that start 2002, filling up and making some edits on players. Checking up players that made their debut in 2003 and 2004 but actually was undrafted from 2000 and 2001. Then if they didn't play in the regular season in 2002 they just got lost even if they in later years had good careers.
Since they not in start 2002 FDT file at start they are then not in the draftfiles after either.
So need you pin the m down too, which is going over each and every transfer teams did during all of 2002 and 2003 to controll.

Example a player like LB Jay Foreman, that was in the draftfile of 1999 but not in base 2002 startup file. Then he would never play those 5-6 years he actually did for several teams from 2003 onwards.
He for sure was not a shoe-in coming contracts.
Check this out.

Copied from one of mass sites of useless info.
"Texans | Contract Update: Foreman - 11:30 PT: Updating previous stories, the AP reports the contract that LB Jay Foreman signed with the Houston Texans was worth $12.1 million over five seasons. A signing bonus of $2.2 million was also included"

So yes Wudu it will take time, and I'm just concentrating on 2002 onwards.
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Old 05-31-2021, 10:50 AM   #25
superman
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Join Date: Dec 2014
Need Help

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wudu2 View Post
Release - Google Drive

Here you'll find files for FOF7, FOF8 and the CSV files I used to make them. Also here are the tools I created to make them. Included are players from the NFL, CFL, AAF, XFL, USFL, UFL, WLAF and it’s successor, NFL Europe from the years 1983-2019. As there is an 800 player minimum for the files, there is some filler. These filler players are made up of college players from those years who never played pro football.

I've tested them enough to verify that each file works and testing is ongoing with ratings and balance, but they should be usable. If you disagree with the ratings, feel free to edit the drafts as you see fit. Enjoy!

Need a little help if possible on how i can use years other then 1983 & 2002. I have tried starting 1984 but when it takes me to load the players files. The folder is blank unless i have installed it in the wrong place or have not converted it yet. Do have access to 1983 & 2002 as stated. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Robert
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Old 06-01-2021, 03:15 AM   #26
Stanley92
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Quote:
Originally Posted by superman View Post
Need a little help if possible on how i can use years other then 1983 & 2002. I have tried starting 1984 but when it takes me to load the players files. The folder is blank unless i have installed it in the wrong place or have not converted it yet. Do have access to 1983 & 2002 as stated. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Robert

If you check in the link to Google drive you find those csv-files for 2002 and 1983 under Nilder's Roster..
That's the ones you can edit, as I am doing. They are the bases to create the FDT-files that is needed to start a season, then you use the FAF-files for each and every year as the draft files.

Sad to say I'm still working tireless on editing 2002 with a lot more players, but Real Life has it's turns to intervene.

Setting up any other start than 1983, 2002 will be hard work You got to fill in every player that was in teams or as free agents in the formula you see in the editor.
Just adding up players in 2002 that is clearly missing is hard enough. As of now I got a 2002-file with some 2300 players. Think 2500 was needed to get rid of those pesky made up names.

Last edited by Stanley92 : 06-01-2021 at 03:40 AM.
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Old 06-05-2021, 07:07 PM   #27
superman
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So in a sense I am not doing anything wrong at the moment. Only can start Historical Season for 1983 and 2002. Then use the other files when I progress to the next year. if I am understanding you. Thanks alot for the help, very much appreciated.
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Old 06-06-2021, 06:41 AM   #28
superman
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Join Date: Dec 2014
Now I am having a brain fart. How exactly do and where do I installed the mod? I have the game installed on my D drive in a Steam Library. Every time I try to extract it try to send my to my C drive/downloads. I had it installed before but screwed something up so I had to reinstall. There lies the problem.
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Old 06-08-2021, 10:53 PM   #29
ronm613
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Join Date: May 2021
There is work I think going on other season starts also... Wudu did great work and others here have done also... I am working myself on a 99 but probably realistically looking at Autumn before finished.
As for the other...game files are usually in two places...one is in the Program files x86/steam/Steamapps/common and the other in the (drive)/users/(name)/appdata/local/solecismic software where(drive) for you would be D and (name) just depends upon the user name it installed under.
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Old 09-08-2021, 01:49 PM   #30
tanner_the_taco
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Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Oregon
Error When Generating Draft Files

Hi All,

Just started a career from 1983 using these draft files and the 1983 roster. I'm having a lot of fun with it so far! Big thank you to those who worked on all of this.

I've run into one issue so far that I was wondering if anybody had any insight on. I like to edit the draft classes and make it so certain players play a certain way (I.e. I wanna make Randall Cunningham more like a modern Lamar Jackson, etc.) but for some draft classes (like the 1985 class) when I save the csv file and go to "Generate Draft File" I get an error that says:

"This draft file contains less than 800 player records. Draft files must contain at least 800 draftable players, or the game will behave unpredictably"

The weird part is that I've had no problems with a couple draft classes. The later ones (2018-2020) worked perfectly fine, 1987-1988 worked as well, but all of them from 1989-1995 give me the same error. I've tried copying players from other classes so there would be well over 800 players without duplicates. I've run a program in R to find any duplicate names in case that's the issue. I'm really at a loss for what could be causing this. I've gone through and tried converting csv files that I haven't even edited in any way and it still gives me the same error. I've also tried working with Numbers, Excel, and Google Sheets so it's not a microsoft office issue.

If anyone else has run into this issue or knows of a workaround, that would be great! Definitely at a loss with it at the moment.
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Old 09-08-2021, 04:22 PM   #31
Stanley92
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Join Date: Jan 2021
Quote:
Originally Posted by tanner_the_taco View Post
Hi All,

Just started a career from 1983 using these draft files and the 1983 roster. I'm having a lot of fun with it so far! Big thank you to those who worked on all of this.

I've run into one issue so far that I was wondering if anybody had any insight on. I like to edit the draft classes and make it so certain players play a certain way (I.e. I wanna make Randall Cunningham more like a modern Lamar Jackson, etc.) but for some draft classes (like the 1985 class) when I save the csv file and go to "Generate Draft File" I get an error that says:

"This draft file contains less than 800 player records. Draft files must contain at least 800 draftable players, or the game will behave unpredictably"

The weird part is that I've had no problems with a couple draft classes. The later ones (2018-2020) worked perfectly fine, 1987-1988 worked as well, but all of them from 1989-1995 give me the same error. I've tried copying players from other classes so there would be well over 800 players without duplicates. I've run a program in R to find any duplicate names in case that's the issue. I'm really at a loss for what could be causing this. I've gone through and tried converting csv files that I haven't even edited in any way and it still gives me the same error. I've also tried working with Numbers, Excel, and Google Sheets so it's not a microsoft office issue.

If anyone else has run into this issue or knows of a workaround, that would be great! Definitely at a loss with it at the moment.

Oops, well first I haven't made any of these files. I'm just picked up on the basic start-file from 2002 and added lots of players to it so getting rid of most of the fiction ones.
Sadly I haven't finished the task yet, so no complete file. This weird year with C19 have made several things strange. I get back soon enough, I hope.

However yoru problem with files earlier than 2002 is nothing I know off, so hopefully the creator Wudu2 still is around and can shed some light on your problem.

Maybe the csv-files just got the tiny comma wrong and it might crash. But if the original files also crashed then it's deeper. One can't be sure the gamefile for that year is 100% the same as the csv-file.
I wish I could help, but not at the moment.
If I stumbled into same problem I let you know.

Best of luck if you sort it out, and do tell what caused the problem .
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Old 09-08-2021, 07:48 PM   #32
ronm613
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Join Date: May 2021
I have a career from 83 as well...I actually added about 15-20 fictional players to each of the draft csv files until the league expanded to account for the fact that we had to use the 2016+ format which included teams not really in existence in 83...so I never had that issue... new players are fairly easy to add... I basically added talent-wise a couple of first round a couple of late round and about twice as many "average" mid round...because the teams like Carolina, Jax,etc were all initially staffed with bottom tier players
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Old 09-30-2021, 12:54 PM   #33
tanner_the_taco
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Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Oregon
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stanley92 View Post

Best of luck if you sort it out, and do tell what caused the problem .

So I was able to get it to work! Some of the drafts that have exactly 800 players need to have several players added. Not sure why exactly but I was able to get all of the csv files to work from 1996 on. I would just throw random long snappers in there, usually around 10-15 is enough to make it work.

Thanks for all your work on these. It's been so fun to create my own history. I'm super busy with work and grad school right now but when I have free time, I was thinking of starting a project to put together a roster starting in 1976 with draft classes for 1977-1982. Do you have any tips at all for obtaining the data? Did you just webscrape footballreference?
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Old 10-01-2021, 07:41 AM   #34
Stanley92
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tanner_the_taco View Post
So I was able to get it to work! Some of the drafts that have exactly 800 players need to have several players added. Not sure why exactly but I was able to get all of the csv files to work from 1996 on. I would just throw random long snappers in there, usually around 10-15 is enough to make it work.

Thanks for all your work on these. It's been so fun to create my own history. I'm super busy with work and grad school right now but when I have free time, I was thinking of starting a project to put together a roster starting in 1976 with draft classes for 1977-1982. Do you have any tips at all for obtaining the data? Did you just webscrape footballreference?

Well, that sounds good. Little time myself these days. Working on a Historical Game soon to be released. But I'm retired so some time can be put on this FOF.
First the year you start in must be filled up with lots of players that was never in any playing roster during the season, IR or similar. Many got cut during the summer and during training camps. Some ended up in CFL others in Arena Football or similar. They will keep the fictional out of the gaem. So my 2002 I needed to add some 7-900 players. Each team got to have some 65 players to start. AI cut the rosters to 60 when you start, but with 65-70 players it should not go digging for any fictional. If need players you have to have added hundreds of real players of those that was cut. A big Free Agent list of real players that is. Check so you get enough on each poistion.
It's harder back in 1976 I think, then for me in 2002. Check out also the draftlist the years prio to the year you aim to start with. Some players popped up after your starting year but then they are not in the draflist the coming year. I found many such players that had an off-year in 2002. They wasn't in this starting 2002 FOF list that I started to work on. Hard to find them but check out the links I give.
As you found out yourself the draftlist for each year need to be stocked too.

National Football League (NFL) sports on StatsCrew.com
gives you many players even from those lower leagues. And all info to add them.

NFL Training Camps - Pro Football Archives
gives some indication of cut playres

Pro Football Historical
You always can find some missing guys. This is a goldmine if looking at the Transactions of every player in and out of teams for each year since 1994.
If you don't find a player on those lists I don't think he ever was signed by a NFL at any time.
So for me it was just to start filling in these guys for 2002, where my try in starting a historical league begun.
Only making the decisions when to make them FA or member of the starting team when FOF8 starts just prio to training camp.

And the real best link might be NFLs own. You can easily put in the year you want and then select from years start. All players that was in and out of pro football training camps and even before, cuts and everything.
Here is the waivers on the list I got most my "hidden" players
NFL waivers by month | NFL.com

Would be cool if you got your project on the road. It's very very long time to get such done and dusted.
Also check out the contracts for those starting years. My 2002 had FOF7 contracts with TWO bonus numbers added each year in FOF7 but in FOF8 only 1 bonus sum for each year, so the result got weird. Thats' important.

Last edited by Stanley92 : 10-13-2021 at 05:00 AM.
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Old 10-22-2021, 12:30 PM   #35
Wudu2
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I'mma cookin' somethin up.

So far it's more of a meta-mod, with a collection of data that should be easily applied to the format of whatever football game can import it. FOF rosters were originally the goal with accurate rosters and college UDFAs and other league players being FAs, but after some significant scope creep here we are. The dream is now for someone to pick up the torch that the OOTP people dropped and make a game with multiple leagues and integrated history.

Leagues: NFL, CFL, UFL, WLAF/NFLE, AAF, XFL, USFL, some Arena
Years: 1981-2021

What's currently included:
Player vitals, basic player ratings, rosters, stats, awards, League/Team HOFs, league histories, XLS spreadsheet format

What's planned:
Historical contract info, detailed ratings, more Arena, Database format

The way the rosters have been set up is more or less a "snapshot" of NFL rosters in late August/early September. Basically best effort training camp rosters, so some will be 90+ players. Other leagues are basically assumed to have a similar schedule and setup, despite the fact they very much don't. Sorry CFL, the NFL is wagging this dog.

Current stats:
40 years of football
240+ franchises
28000+ players
150,000+ player seasons
90+ years of stats

Current status: Finishing linking up the stats to unique player IDs. After that I'll probably do some cleaning up of the data and find somewhere to post the data, for anyone who might be interested.
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Old 10-22-2021, 12:49 PM   #36
Stanley92
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wudu2 View Post
I'mma cookin' somethin up.

So far it's more of a meta-mod, with a collection of data that should be easily applied to the format of whatever football game can import it. FOF rosters were originally the goal with accurate rosters and college UDFAs and other league players being FAs, but after some significant scope creep here we are. The dream is now for someone to pick up the torch that the OOTP people dropped and make a game with multiple leagues and integrated history.

Leagues: NFL, CFL, UFL, WLAF/NFLE, AAF, XFL, USFL, some Arena
Years: 1981-2021

What's currently included:
Player vitals, basic player ratings, rosters, stats, awards, League/Team HOFs, league histories, XLS spreadsheet format

What's planned:
Historical contract info, detailed ratings, more Arena, Database format

The way the rosters have been set up is more or less a "snapshot" of NFL rosters in late August/early September. Basically best effort training camp rosters, so some will be 90+ players. Other leagues are basically assumed to have a similar schedule and setup, despite the fact they very much don't. Sorry CFL, the NFL is wagging this dog.

Current stats:
40 years of football
240+ franchises
28000+ players
150,000+ player seasons
90+ years of stats

Current status: Finishing linking up the stats to unique player IDs. After that I'll probably do some cleaning up of the data and find somewhere to post the data, for anyone who might be interested.

How nice to hear.
I am still working on that 2002 start rosters, but as you know it takes time. It will be ready soon enough but it's only 2002. Then I hope the draft files that has been floating around for the coming years up to today will be used by each and evryone.
I started to mess last year with DDS historical file, but sadly it's so limited. One could end up with Tom Brady as a mobile running Lamar Jackson and vice versa. They just got an overall rating in the historical version so I think FOF still got the lead run on any hitorical play.
Since I will be soon ready to post this 2002 startfile maybe it could help you a bit. It's hard work locating all those players that really never made any regular season rosters and putting them in teams or FA. As said earlier it got some 70 players for each team at the start, then the AI cuts it down to 60 directly. Filling up a bunch of FA so the fictional shouldn't pop up is my nightmare. Never like a fictional player turns in super stats for any team.
Lets hope when all is done we got some good option on not only starting in 2002 (The year NFL formed almost as it is today, with numbers of teams)
If your files cover any other starts I love to see that monsterwork.

I take it you looked at the contracts that was in the startfiles for this 2002. They are based on FOF7 formula. Makes a change important for every player in that file. That second bonus each year must be deleted.
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Old 10-26-2021, 05:01 PM   #37
andyhdz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wudu2 View Post
I'mma cookin' somethin up.

So far it's more of a meta-mod, with a collection of data that should be easily applied to the format of whatever football game can import it. FOF rosters were originally the goal with accurate rosters and college UDFAs and other league players being FAs, but after some significant scope creep here we are. The dream is now for someone to pick up the torch that the OOTP people dropped and make a game with multiple leagues and integrated history.

Leagues: NFL, CFL, UFL, WLAF/NFLE, AAF, XFL, USFL, some Arena
Years: 1981-2021

What's currently included:
Player vitals, basic player ratings, rosters, stats, awards, League/Team HOFs, league histories, XLS spreadsheet format

What's planned:
Historical contract info, detailed ratings, more Arena, Database format

The way the rosters have been set up is more or less a "snapshot" of NFL rosters in late August/early September. Basically best effort training camp rosters, so some will be 90+ players. Other leagues are basically assumed to have a similar schedule and setup, despite the fact they very much don't. Sorry CFL, the NFL is wagging this dog.

Current stats:
40 years of football
240+ franchises
28000+ players
150,000+ player seasons
90+ years of stats

Current status: Finishing linking up the stats to unique player IDs. After that I'll probably do some cleaning up of the data and find somewhere to post the data, for anyone who might be interested.

Not quite understanding this. What game would this file be loaded into? FOF? BTW, I'm having a blast playing the 1983-2020 draft file. It's really given FOF a new life for me. I know a ton about NFL history so it's great seeing all the greats, has beens, and never weres running around. Thanks for your hard work on this. Did you have any plan on doing the 2021 draft? I'm assuming we are not going to get any official release anymore since Jim can't fix any bugs anymore so any official roster release is dead too I'm guessing.

Last edited by andyhdz : 10-26-2021 at 05:07 PM.
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Old 10-28-2021, 12:40 AM   #38
Wudu2
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It started as an FOF mod, more specifically a mod for the FOF/OOTP game that did not see the light of day. After I released the draft files one of the OOTP guys asked me to do a smidge of roster work for them, and apparently that was the only nudge I needed. That was 2019. Now, it won't fit into FOF8 since FOF was never designed to handle more than one league of 32 teams and there is a hard cap of players that you can include in your imported roster files. The only game I can think of it fitting at all would be DDS:PF since it has an option for like 99+ team leagues or something outrageous like that. I might end up doing some FOF7/8 roster files with what I have, and just include the best players from other leagues as FAs or something, but that isn't the current priority.

Mostly it's just been my pandemic project and my hope is that it will inspire someone who has a current game or is making a new game that they can include multi-league historical mode because the hard work of finding and normalizing all that data has been done.
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Old 11-22-2021, 11:53 PM   #39
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Well if anyone is interested, here it is:
Flotsam Project

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Old 11-23-2021, 01:19 PM   #40
Stanley92
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Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wudu2 View Post
It started as an FOF mod, more specifically a mod for the FOF/OOTP game that did not see the light of day. After I released the draft files one of the OOTP guys asked me to do a smidge of roster work for them, and apparently that was the only nudge I needed. That was 2019. Now, it won't fit into FOF8 since FOF was never designed to handle more than one league of 32 teams and there is a hard cap of players that you can include in your imported roster files. The only game I can think of it fitting at all would be DDS:PF since it has an option for like 99+ team leagues or something outrageous like that. I might end up doing some FOF7/8 roster files with what I have, and just include the best players from other leagues as FAs or something, but that isn't the current priority.

Mostly it's just been my pandemic project and my hope is that it will inspire someone who has a current game or is making a new game that they can include multi-league historical mode because the hard work of finding and normalizing all that data has been done.

That will surely help me to finish my project. Massive job you done.
Well, your old files inspired me to tackle a project on starting at 2002 season with as full rosters as possible. That 2002-file include some 1800 players and now I filled it to short of 2500. Lots of course edited in that pack of 1800 since in massive files like this error do pop in. All teams should have from 65 to 70 players when starting up the season. FOF works as you know such as the AI teams cut and sign players before you ever get any shot on that first day. So my concern was to see what they did to cut their rosters down to 60 players. Get that signings to a minimum, and of course no fictional players popped up in the 60-man rosters already at first day.

A probable problem was the cutting of salaries from FOF7 second bonus each year that was made in that Noster FOF8 2002 file. The file I got was cut in the end causing some problems. All salaries realigned wrongly then since those salary columns needed to be edited from the get go. That's my last task now and hopefully I can get testing how this will affect the AI.

You can see the problem
A 5 year contract like this in the file at start
5,38.661,19.725,19.725,42.6237525,19.725,19.725,49.34232149,19.725,19.725,59.97590016

will be like this in-game
base salary, bonus
1y 5,38.661, 19.725
2y 19.725, 42.6237525
3y 19.725, 19.725
4y 49.34232149, 19.725
5y 19.725, 59.97590016

Now the real 5th year base salary was cut away and the rest you see.
That second bonus needs to be edited away and the final year added (from the FOF7 2002 file)
If this could play in for the AI when cutting players based on Cap and such I don't know but I think it should be corrected.

Thanks for your files. They will help me for sure.
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Old 12-15-2021, 01:38 PM   #41
Mike7273
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Well if anyone is interested, here it is:
Flotsam Project

Do you have the Team rosters in .csv form for loading into the game?
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Old 12-15-2021, 03:36 PM   #42
Solecismic
Solecismic Software
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Canton, OH
It's a shame they never had you contact me. I wasted an enormous amount of time early on arranging what I had in a usable format and providing detailed instructions for what FOF9 would need. But I have no idea where that all went. Every time I tried to follow up, I was told it was being handled. What I eventually was given was so far from usable that I figured the game would have to release with only the most recent players.

Last edited by Solecismic : 12-15-2021 at 03:37 PM.
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Old 12-15-2021, 04:30 PM   #43
QuikSand
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on behalf of the entire community...

ugh
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Old 12-15-2021, 04:34 PM   #44
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I think we all kind of read between the lines about stuff like that going down.
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Old 12-15-2021, 04:36 PM   #45
Solecismic
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Well, the rest may be moot, but at least I contributed something to this effort: the Flotsam Project is the name I gave it when we were first discussing what we'd need.
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Old 12-17-2021, 12:17 PM   #46
Wudu2
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Originally Posted by Mike7273 View Post
Do you have the Team rosters in .csv form for loading into the game?

No, not yet. We just have Nildor's old effort for the FOF7, which needs a bit of conversion to FOF8.


Nildor's rosters - Google Drive
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Old 12-17-2021, 12:18 PM   #47
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Yeah when they mentioned that, the project just kind of named itself. They had only asked me if they could incorporate my draft files and stat records then clear up some UDFAs they had little info on. I think that was like summer '19.
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Old 12-17-2021, 12:39 PM   #48
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Been so long since I have done this.

So, I see where there are files for 1983+.

I download these individually, and have yearly .cvs files.

How are these converted to .FTD roster files and then .FAF draft files as well.

I am missing a step, I need a refresher course.
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Old 12-17-2021, 03:48 PM   #49
Wudu2
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There is a PlayerFile.exe file in the FOF install directory. That will convert the .CSV file to a file you can import when starting a new game. Same with the DraftFile.exe for draft files.
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Old 12-17-2021, 07:32 PM   #50
Solecismic
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wudu2 View Post
Yeah when they mentioned that, the project just kind of named itself. They had only asked me if they could incorporate my draft files and stat records then clear up some UDFAs they had little info on. I think that was like summer '19.

Fascinating. You probably know more about all of this than I do. What I was told was that no one could do ratings. The first part of the project was to add a few hundred players for each season who never played a down or were drafted. They don't need to be rated.

The idea was that they would fill out draft classes and initial player files instead of the fictional players. I called that group the Flotsam. Unfortunately, the person who was originally supposed to lead the work had his baseball load increased and the person who this was then farmed out to apparently never saw my spec sheet and simply mined archives.

I think you have an idea of just how massive this project would be. Football is so different from baseball with its huge formal draft and several tiers of professional leagues.
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