Hey guys,
I started looking into editing the franchise save files for M19. I couldn't find much on here or FootballIdiot so if anyone else has made progress on this, please feel free to share what you've found! I'm going to use this thread as a how to/notes page.
Update - Editor Download
I've released a beta version of the editor. Please make a copy of your franchise save before using it.
Editor: https://github.com/bep713/madden-fra...ditor/releases
Source: https://github.com/bep713/madden-franchise-editor
Release notes and info on post #24!
To download editor:
- Click link above for Editor
- Scroll down all the way and click 'Assets'
- Click the first item
- Unzip contents and run madden-schedule.exe
- Read instructions on the download page for how to use
It may take some time to unzip all the files.
How to start hex editing the franchise file
The game saves each file to [My Documents]/Madden NFL 19/settings. Each franchise file will be named like: CAREER-[filename].
If you open one of those up in a hex editor you'll get a lot of jumbled data - because it's compressed (well most of it). You can use Offzip to extract the data into a readable format. The good news is that we can reimport the modified data back into the franchise save...well, sometimes.
- Make a new folder in your Madden 19 save folder named 'output'
- Extract offzip.zip anywhere you want
- Open a new command prompt in the folder you extracted offzip (Open the folder in Windows Explorer and type 'cmd' in the address bar without the quotes.)
- Type offzip -a [path to your franchise file here] output
You might get some warnings but that's okay. If you open up the output folder you made in step 1, you should see a file named 00000052.frt. This file contains the uncompressed franchise data for your save.
Download Offzip here Scroll down or search for Offzip! It's not the first one.
Download HxD Hex Editor here Make sure to select the English version :P
Reimporting the data to the franchise file
Once you made your changes, you can re-import the data back into the franchise file and load it up in game.
- Re-open a command prompt window in offzip's directory if you closed it before.
- Type offzip -r -a [path to your franchise file here] output
- Offzip will try re-importing the data back. This usually takes awhile
- You might see some warnings like before, but it should say 1 files reimported when done.
I've noticed that Offzip will tell me that the compressed data is bigger than the original in some cases. If you get this error, the changes will not be made to the franchise file and you'll have to either figure out why or edit something else for now. I don't know much about compression algorithms but I do know that Madden edits other values in the save when you make a small change which would probably keep the compressed data the same size.
Generic Strategy
My plan is to find as much as I can and hope other people join in too because I probably don't have the time to do this myself. Once we figure enough info out I could make a program that would make this much easier.
- Determine what to find
- Make a copy of the uncompressed data and set it aside as a control
- Make a small change in the game - maybe change the first letter of Baker Mayfield's name...or re-order just him and one other player on the depth chart, or sim one game. You want to change as little as possible so that you have a better idea of what changed in the file when comparing.
- Save the franchise file in game
- Use Offzip to extract the compressed data
- Use a comparison tool like Beyond Compare to analyze what changed from the control and the new file
- Repeat until we figure it out!
Goals- Editable schedules - my primary focus here
- Editable teams/divisions
- Figuring out where stats are located and how they are stored in the hex file
- Custom rosters/salaries
- Anything else! You name it, we want it.