Setting up FOF9 to Look/Feel like 2023 NFL

[QuikSand]

This, to me, feels like it's a pretty common first question for a new user, and (judging by my own frustrations with this) our forum hasn't done a perfect job isolating these things in a really easy-to-find location.

I'm going to write up a skeleton as post 2 in this thread, and will await help from you all in filling it in. Hopefully, this will help me, and more importantly a wave of new FOF players, to get more rapidly into the FOF experience that is closest to what they really want, giving them the best chance to see the upside of this marvelous machine.

Please help with your contributions below, goal is to have post 2 be the super-quick "do these things in this order and then you're good" mini-manual.

[QuikSand]

How to Setup FOF 9 to model a 32-team NFL with real city/team names and real player names.

FOF doesn't have some of the licensing options of some higher budget games, btu with these few tweaks you can be off and running with a league set up to look and feel a good deal like the real life NFL.

**Note here on order of operations - explain how adding custom files only affects league created after you do so (I think that's true)

To change the team names to real NFL franchise names:

**get this file (or one of these files):
-link
-link?
-link?

** save it to your computer in a file location that looks more or less like this, with "username" replaced by your PC user name:

-dummy file location

** explain what to do if there's a prompt to overwrite/confirm ... and maybe suggest a backup first?

**if you don't see it there, do a PC search on a file named XXXXXX.zzz and that should be in the location where this new city name file should go

To change the player names to real NFL franchise rosters:

**get this file (or one of these files):
-link
-link?
-link?

** save it to your computer in a file location that looks more or less like this, with "username" replaced by your PC user name:

-dummy file location

** explain what to do if there's a prompt to overwrite/confirm ... and maybe suggest a backup first?

**if you don't see it there, do a PC search on a file named XXXXXX.zzz and that should be in the location where this new city name file should go

Settings for your initial league to make the best experience:

**offer some tips/suggestions or epxlanations of stuff that's not super intuitive, like how broad the toggle for "fill roster" or whatever it's called is

[cupofjoe]

This would be great if you can somehow put it in the "guide" section on steam as well

[Mo.Raider]

Hope this takes off. I have yet to play because I can't even get the team names in the game correctly. I keep hopping back on 2008 because it is so simple to do.

[Mbbmets1]

WHAT INJ ARE PEOPLE PLAYING ON

[cupofjoe]

Originally Posted by Mo.Raider

Hope this takes off. I have yet to play because I can't even get the team names in the game correctly. I keep hopping back on 2008 because it is so simple to do.

Are you wanting to rename them to NFL names? There's a file here somewhere that you can just replace it with the old file in your folder and the names are there. But the issue is, I can't find it again. This forum is difficult to navigate, which is why the OP's idea is great!

[canuxrok]

Originally Posted by Mbbmets1

WHAT INJ ARE PEOPLE PLAYING ON

I had cranked it up to 130 because the real NFL has a lot of injuries usually but then I had a team with like fifteen players on the injury list (not all teams were like that, mine only has like five) halfway through the year and there were also a lot of starting QBs missing games so I've just turned it back down to the default 120.

[Gordonzolar]

real player and coach faces



Download: All 32 NFL Facepack 1.0 by Gordonzolar.zip - Google Drive
Download: All 32 NFL Update 1.zip - Google Drive
Download: Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - FOF Facepacks

content:
2140 (Vers.1) + 124 (Update) Player Faces + Coaching Staff

HOW TO INSTALL
Download the .zip.
unpack the content of all downloads into the following folder:

C:\Users\[YOUR NAME]\AppData\Local\Solecismic Software\Front Office Football Nine\saved_games\[YOUR UNIVERSE]\portraits

no restart required.

FAQ:

I can't find my universe/savegame
A: enable "show hidden files" in windows (thanks Sweed)



______________________________

FANTASY FACEPACK

content: 176 faces for personal use

these are 176 player faces that belong to real players, who are not in the default roster provided by the game.
You can assign them to fictional players and draftees.

check the ID on the player screen, rename a file of your choice in this pack to playerID.bmp (i.e. 6201.bmp) and copy it into

C:\Users\[YOUR NAME]\AppData\Local\Solecismic Software\Front Office Football Nine\saved_games\[YOUR UNIVERSE]\portraits

Download: Fantasy Faces.rar - Google Drive

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Mbbmets1

WHAT INJ ARE PEOPLE PLAYING ON

I’m using 150. It still seems below NFL level of injuries, but gives enough that means you have to think and adapt a little

[QuikSand]

well, i will try to do the digging to come up with the right content for this thread (i.e. this hasn't gone as I had hoped it would)

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

(i.e. this hasn't gone as I had hoped it would)

I was afraid it might go this way. I wonder if the problem is that some of the folks who might be best at doing this don't remember (or even really know) how to do it. I know for me, in the first few days of November I fooled around with the csvs, probably opened every one of them along with its descriptor to see if there was something I wanted to change (OH KEWL I CAN MAKE IT GENERATE MOR SEC PLAYERZZZ AND MOR PLAYERZ FROM GEORGIA!!!!1) messed up a few times, finally got it to work, and haven't touched it since then. I changed a bunch of entries in a bunch of different files, some of which probably had no impact on 2023 NFL, some of which definitely do. And some of the changes were for "how BEN likes the NFL," not the 'correct' NFL. (For example, no matter what year, the Raiders are in Oakland, the Rams are in LA, and the Chargers are in San Diego. Period. End of discussion.) So I don't think I can even share my files to contribute to this project, and I definitely couldn't tell anyone in any sort of systematic fashion how to do it beyond "open every csv, see what's in it, and edit everything you don't like to make it the way you like," which I realize a lot of people don't want to do. (Thus the need for his thread to do what it's intended to do...)

[Gallifrey]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I was afraid it might go this way. I wonder if the problem is that some of the folks who might be best at doing this don't remember (or even really know) how to do it. I know for me, in the first few days of November I fooled around with the csvs, probably opened every one of them along with its descriptor to see if there was something I wanted to change (OH KEWL I CAN MAKE IT GENERATE MOR SEC PLAYERZZZ AND MOR PLAYERZ FROM GEORGIA!!!!1) messed up a few times, finally got it to work, and haven't touched it since then. I changed a bunch of entries in a bunch of different files, some of which probably had no impact on 2023 NFL, some of which definitely do. And some of the changes were for "how BEN likes the NFL," not the 'correct' NFL. (For example, no matter what year, the Raiders are in Oakland, the Rams are in LA, and the Chargers are in San Diego. Period. End of discussion.) So I don't think I can even share my files to contribute to this project, and I definitely couldn't tell anyone in any sort of systematic fashion how to do it beyond "open every csv, see what's in it, and edit everything you don't like to make it the way you like," which I realize a lot of people don't want to do. (Thus the need for his thread to do what it's intended to do...)

I agree with a lot here. I like the 1970s NFL, so that is what I created. The Colts in Baltimore and Cardinals in St. Louis etc. No Jaguars, no Texans... the Oilers in Houston.

I would imagine few would find this setup interesting, and how to emulate the modern I guess would be the same with less work. Less team movement and less uniform/colorway matching.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Gallifrey

I agree with a lot here. I like the 1970s NFL, so that is what I created. The Colts in Baltimore and Cardinals in St. Louis etc. No Jaguars, no Texans... the Oilers in Houston.

I would imagine few would find this setup interesting, and how to emulate the modern I guess would be the same with less work. Less team movement and less uniform/colorway matching.

The Oilers have to be in Houston with the old logo. It's the only way I'll play

[Mike Lowe]

Originally Posted by cupofjoe

This would be great if you can somehow put it in the "guide" section on steam as well

Was just about to post this. This is where I have seen this question asked the most often.

[Passacaglia]

I could help with the relevant files that I've changed to, although I still for the life of me can't figure out how to change "AC East" to "AFC East" even though I've changed it in the two files where I see it. I don't really have places to host files, but I can email them to someone who can.