FOF Extractor (Updated to Version 4.3.0, 6/18/2006: Draft History Screen)

[gstelmack]

Beta v2.3 of DraftAnalyzer released. Get it here. This is a link to a zip file that contains a new Draft Analyzer executable. Extract to your installation directory and go. There is no installer, and only Analyzer has changed.

This is beta for a couple of reasons:

1) I'm using the VS.NET 2005 Beta. Use beta tools and anything you produce is beta

2) I've had issues where when run on machines without VS.NET 2005 (but mostly the MFC8.0 DLLs), if run through the shortcut it asks for the MFC 8 DLLs, even though it's statically linked. I think this requires the installer which is one reason I'm not providing an installer and instead just the one .exe, but if you have an issue try running straight from the folder instead of through the installed shortcut.

3) Algorithm to determine position switches incomplete. If Analyzer says a guy can be switched to a position that FOF won't let you, let me know. Same if you see a guy that can be switched to a position in FOF that Analyzer says he can't.

4) Several new features and some fixes, so let me know how they work.

What's New

• Highlights good and bad combine scores. Guys with a high combine score get green backgrounds, low combine scores are blue. Dark = 1-2 std devs, light = 2+. Also a button to replace combine scores with std devs.
• This exposed a bug where the agility std dev calculation was completely wrong, leading to incorrect combine scores in earlier versions. Recheck your weights
• Player details box. Shows college, height/weight, attribute ratings (center of the bar shown), and a certainty score (scores close to 100 are narrow bars, lower scores are wider bars). Also shows possible positions players can be switched to.
• Much more robust player name comparison. If you mark a guy drafted and Analyzer doesn't find him and mark him red, let me know. I was being stupid before and converting Extractor's "First Last" format to FOFs "Last, First" format, but because some first names AND some last names have spaces this was not a perfect algorithm. Now I convert FOFs "Last, First" to "First Last" and it all works (still use poor "Last, First" algorithm for display).

[sabotai]

Cool, just in time for eNFL's draft this weekend.

[gstelmack]

Beta 2 of of DraftAnalyzer v2.3 released. Get it here. This is a link to a zip file that contains a new Draft Analyzer executable. Extract to your installation directory and go. There is no installer, and only Analyzer has changed.

It's still a beta for all the reasons listed 2 posts up. Plus, one potentially really cool new feature.

If anyone is using the TCY HTML Export Utility, this version of Draft Analyzer can import the statistics that the Export utility writes, if it's run on a TCY draft class that is being used for the FOF draft class.

At the end of your TCY season, before ending the season and exporting the draft file, run the TCY HTML Export utility on each pane of the "Individual Statistics" screen. Make sure you use the Replaces functionality to remove any "**" entries from the front of your player names. In addition, save out the "Power Ratings and Polls" screen (again, make sure there is no decoration on the team names). Then end the season and export the TCY draft class.

Then, when importing a draft class into Analyzer, you'll get a dialog that allows you to specify what files have the TCY stats in them. There will also be a box for specifying the file that your city names are in. The defaults are in teams.fdt in the main TCY directory, or they are in frfoot.fni in the universe directory.

If you click "Cancel" on this dialog, Analyzer will run like it always has. But if you click "OK", Analyzer will grab all of this TCY data and apply it to the players. You'll see any exported TCY stats, and their college name will show the final ranking and record for the school.

One big caveat: the statistics output by the HTML utility only show qualifiers. This means that players may show no stats in Analyzer, while FOF will show them with a handful of tackles, etc. If you see a player with games started/played shown but no other stats, this usually means they showed up in the "Misc" table with no actual stats other than total offense. I've had one weird case of a receiver with 27 catches and 512 yards not show up in the receiving stats (despite more catches and yards than a fair number of players that qualified for the list) but he did show up in "Misc" thanks to his total offense numbers (which seems to show more data). I may consider adding "Total Offense" as a stat category to help catch these guys.

Or maybe I'll spend the time to figure out the TCY data file format so I can pull in more complete stats. Or maybe I'll wait to see what Jim's next project is. But either way, this should help add more data to Analyzer and reduce trips back over to FOF to decide between two guys.

[Anthony]

i still don't know what the hell this utility does in basic terms.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

i still don't know what the hell this utility does in basic terms.

FOF Extractor will export scout-adjusted data (so no cheating by grabbing raw numbers straight from the game data) from the Player Report window and dump it to a comma-delimited file for your analyzing pleasure. The most common use is to run it against a draft preview to get a nice spreadsheet of all the players available in a draft pool and then comb through it for guys with high combine numbers, etc. Some people use it to comb for free agents, and I'm sure there are other uses. It works by taking screenshots and checking pixels to get the data, so it's a bit touchy and takes a few minutes to process a draft.

Draft Analyzer reads comma-delimited text files exported by Extractor, displays the draftees in a table, and runs a couple of formulas on the players to generate some possible draft rankings. These include the standard adjusted bureau ranking seen in the game, a volatility rating (high future guys with high volatility are dinged, while low future guys with high volatility get a bump), a combine rating (how far off the average combine number at the player's position is he), and a scout rating (future potential modified by combine rating). The last is the most interesting, and the weights used for it are adjustable. This makes it easier to comb through the draft class and find diamonds in the rough, or highly-rated guys whose combine numbers don't back them up.

In other words, Draft Analyzer is for those people who aren't any good at Excel (like me). The base feature set could as easily be done in a spreadsheet using the Extractor data if you know what you're doing (and some people have put out spreadsheets that do similar things).

Some of the recent features added to Analyzer (mentioned above) include color-highlighting of players based on how high or low their combine numbers are off the average, and a player details window that shows height, weight, detailed scout scores, and the like to help make decisions between two guys that look very similar with just the basic numbers. As I've been using the Analyzer utility in my office league drafts, these are bits of data I've found myself going back to FOF for, so I'd rather have them right in front of me. The recent TCY bits are a mix of giving you more data to make a decision, and adding some color to the draft process.

Oh, and Analyzer has a pretty cheesy mock draft utility (it's just as wrong as every mock draft for the NFL, so I think the feature is right on the mark) for those that miss this feature in the real game.

[Runtheball]

All I get is a list with 38 fields, the top two being the name of my QB, his position, and then a bunch of fields each with a zero in it.

I'm running the utility on the View Rosters screen, with Scout Overview selected. I open the top item on the list (my starting QB), then click the Extract button on the utility. Seems to work, but the output is as I described above. I've run it 3 times with the same results.

Help!

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Runtheball

All I get is a list with 38 fields, the top two being the name of my QB, his position, and then a bunch of fields each with a zero in it.

I'm running the utility on the View Rosters screen, with Scout Overview selected. I open the top item on the list (my starting QB), then click the Extract button on the utility. Seems to work, but the output is as I described above. I've run it 3 times with the same results.

Help!

There have been two reported causes of this:

1) You are covering up the FOF Player report window, so the screenshots I take show something else. Make sure you aren't switching to other programs and putting something on top of the window that shows player details.

2) You've got a weird color depth setting. Some people have reported issues with their desktop set to 16-bit, and switching to 32-bit fixes the problem. I've tested 16-bit on my local box and it works fine, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

[gstelmack]

Beta 3 of Draft Analyzer Released Get it here. This is just a bug fix release to beta 2. Given the number of crashes I fixed and that the "Mark Drafted" button did not work if you loaded a list of draftees, and the fact that no one reported any of these, I'm not sure who all is checking out the betas But regardless, here's an update that fixes a bunch of crashes related to the progress dialog, and the "Mark Drafted" button now works when loading a saved list (rather than loading an FOF Extractor export).

[gstelmack]

Dola (double-dola?)

Yes, this is also an attempt to generate a news post from Jim by releasing a fix to my utility in the hopes that he'll announce a new product that will make it obsolete (like washing your car to make it rain).

[SegRat]

Was wondering if everyone can still get this thing to work? I have used it before with no problems. Now I try to use it for the IFL draft and I keep getting a microsoft error when trying to use the draft analyzer which forces me to shut the program down.

HELP!!!!

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by SegRat

Was wondering if everyone can still get this thing to work? I have used it before with no problems. Now I try to use it for the IFL draft and I keep getting a microsoft error when trying to use the draft analyzer which forces me to shut the program down.

HELP!!!!

What Microsoft error do you get? Are you using the latest Beta 3 version listed above or the last shipping version?

[SegRat]

Yeah I am using the latest version, if you want pm me you email address and I will send you the file and see what you get.

[SegRat]

Basically it says that it has encountered a problem and needs to shut down. I tried a old file and that works fine.

[SegRat]

I have now tried it on 2 computers and it wont work on either. I have also tried both my multiplayer league and single player league, still getting that it has encountered a problem and needs to shut down.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by SegRat

Basically it says that it has encountered a problem and needs to shut down. I tried a old file and that works fine.

So it's related to the actual draft file you're using? That might not be hard to figure out.

My e-mail address is on the web page: gstelmack AT nc.rr.com

[gstelmack]

Two quick things:

1) I've got actual web space with bandwidth and everthin' now, so all the files have moved to www.gstelmack.com. I've caught most of the big links, but if anything fails try the same file name but under that domain (replaces home.rr.com/gstelmack).

2) SegRat's problem above turned out to be use of a Windows Theme that had Tahoma as its default font. Tahoma has some fun properties that make it impossible to determine certain text. "ff" in particular caused a lot of fun. I think fonts besides the default Arial will work IF they don't try to mash characters up close with funky kerning, but I have not tested others and Tahoma is known to fail.

[wade moore]

gstelmack:

I keep getting this error:

"The application has failed to start because the applicatin configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the applicatin may fix the problem."

This is on Windows XP.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by wade moore

gstelmack:

I keep getting this error:

"The application has failed to start because the applicatin configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the applicatin may fix the problem."

This is on Windows XP.

Using one of the betas, or the last full installer? If using one of the betas, try running from the folder you installed to instead of via a shortcut.

[wade moore]

Using the one linked straight in your sig...

Same thing if I run straight from the folder.

[gstelmack]

Then I am at a loss. It's been a long time since anyone had problems with the installer version. Just to be clear:

- You downloaded the zip file from the link in my .sig.
- You extracted it.
- You double-clicked the msi file it extracts, and it installed the extractor.
- You select the link in the Start Menu, and you get the error.

Correct?

[wade moore]

Correct.

And also on the last step - went to c:\Program Files\gstelmack\extractor in Windows Explorer, ran from there - got that error.

I'll actually show a little more detail.

- Opened the zip file from the link in your sig
- Ran the msi straight from within winzip
- Selected the link in the Start menu, got the error
- Uninstalled the FOF Extractor
- Opened the zip file, extracted the msi to my desktop
- Double clicked the msi and installed the extractor
- Ran from the start menu, got error
- Ran from Explorer, got error

[gstelmack]

Then I am very confused. I will have to think on this and so some research.

[gstelmack]

I can offer another suggestion: try getting it from my old page and see if it works from there (maybe I moved the wrong file over). Should be at http://home.nc.rr.com/gstelmack/fofextractor.htm

[wade moore]

WOOHOO!!!!

It opens.. don't know yet if it works, but it opens at least

[wade moore]

Dola:

Extracted just fine! Thanks for your help, might want to take a look at what's up there ...

[gstelmack]

Bah. It probably means I had one of my attempts at an updated installer in my home page directory, but since it was messing up (see posts above) I never actually put it on my other home page, but I had it in the folder ready to go.

I'll have to fix the file tonight.

[gottimd]

Anyone got a mod that parses the box scores? Trying to compile stats for players versus certain teams and in different situations, but I can't seem to get the text in the box scores in a format to do so. I have seen the Quarterback Situational Mod that was being developed and also Fido's mod that was halted in production. Anybody have any macros/codes/mods to do this for the box scores?

[gstelmack]

V2.3.0 is no longer beta!

Well, that's not 100% accurate. I'm using Visual Studio .NET 2005, so it's built on beta software, so it's technically still a beta, and with the Go-Live license I have to warn you to use it at your own risk.

But I've updated the installer version, and 2.3.0 is now my current release. If you're willing to deal with the VS.NET 2005 warnings, it's ready for download.

New since the last beta are two item:

* Instead of calculating average / stddev within a draft class, it's now using the data collected by Tium last year for averages / stddevs across classes. So it's a bit more accurate. I may adjust these numbers again if I can get even more data.
* Threshold for highlighted players dropped to 1.5X stddev.

Also remember that everything is now at my new web site, http://www.gstelmack.com

[sovereignstar]

Greg, am I missing something? What exactly is the purpose of importing the TCY stats into it? I've created the correct HTML reports and am selecting them to be used, but I'm not seeing anything different.

Love the util nonetheless!

Edit: And where are you getting this 'confidence' rating from?

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar

Greg, am I missing something? What exactly is the purpose of importing the TCY stats into it? I've created the correct HTML reports and am selecting them to be used, but I'm not seeing anything different.

Love the util nonetheless!

Edit: And where are you getting this 'confidence' rating from?

The TCY stats should show up in the Player Details window when you select a player. You should see a final poll ranking for the player's college, and you should see stat lines for any players that show up in the TCY HTML exports (the exports only show qualifiers, so not everyone in the draft appears).

If you aren't seeing that, but are using TCY HTML Exporter to dump the end-of-year stats for each category, I might need to have you zip up for Extractor export of the draft class and your TCY HTML and I can try debugging it here.

The confidence rating is a measure of how wide the blue bars are for a draft pick. Confidence = 100 - (2 X Blue Bar Width). So the higher the number, the narrower the blue bars. Since the blue bar width is based on scout expertise at that position, it's redundant to show a range for each attribute and takes up more space.

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

The TCY stats should show up in the Player Details window when you select a player. You should see a final poll ranking for the player's college, and you should see stat lines for any players that show up in the TCY HTML exports (the exports only show qualifiers, so not everyone in the draft appears).

If you aren't seeing that, but are using TCY HTML Exporter to dump the end-of-year stats for each category, I might need to have you zip up for Extractor export of the draft class and your TCY HTML and I can try debugging it here.

The confidence rating is a measure of how wide the blue bars are for a draft pick. Confidence = 100 - (2 X Blue Bar Width). So the higher the number, the narrower the blue bars. Since the blue bar width is based on scout expertise at that position, it's redundant to show a range for each attribute and takes up more space.

I'm cool with sending what I've got. Where should I send it?

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar

I'm cool with sending what I've got. Where should I send it?

gstelmack AT nc.rr.com

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

gstelmack AT nc.rr.com

Sending..

[JPhillips]

I've recently gotten back to FOF and started using this utility. It makes the draft much more interesting. I'm not sure I draft any better players, but I sure feel like I'm getting steals in the late rounds.

Thanks for the work.

[gstelmack]

2.3.1 is now up. Fixes a little itsy-bitsy bug in the call I was using to open the teams.fdt file if bringing in TCY stats. Haven't confirmed yet if it was a change between .NET 2005 Beta 1 -> Beta 2, or if Beta 1 was letting it slip by and working by accident while Beta 2 nicely catches it.

With this version I was able to open sov's TCY files and have them import just fine and see the stats, so if it doesn't work now it's all his fault ;-)

[sovereignstar]

Works like a charm.. thanks again!

[Flasch186]

greg:

how do you get the draft order out of the game and into your extractor? I dont see a print anywhere for the draft order.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

greg:

how do you get the draft order out of the game and into your extractor? I dont see a print anywhere for the draft order.

By hand It doesn't take all that long: the first round takes a few minutes, then you copy the first round to the other rounds, and then fix the handful of draft positions that are off thanks to trades or lost picks.

[fantastic flying froggies]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

By hand It doesn't take all that long: the first round takes a few minutes, then you copy the first round to the other rounds, and then fix the handful of draft positions that are off thanks to trades or lost picks.

Handful??? You've obviously never followed an IHOF draft, have you??? I don't think even one single team ever has all its originial draft picks!!!

[Flasch186]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

By hand It doesn't take all that long: the first round takes a few minutes, then you copy the first round to the other rounds, and then fix the handful of draft positions that are off thanks to trades or lost picks.

can you edit it from within your extractor draft order screen. Or do I make a .txt file? and if so in what sort of format? vertically listed, full city name, abbrev.?

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

can you edit it from within your extractor draft order screen. Or do I make a .txt file? and if so in what sort of format? vertically listed, full city name, abbrev.?

It is fully editable within the Draft Analyzer screen (click a cell and you'll get a drop-down). Or you can hand-edit the text file. The text file is just a team name per line in order of picking (so round 2 pick 1 is the 33rd line). Use "LOST PICK" for where no team gets to make a pick.

[gstelmack]

Version 2.4.0 Released!

List of changes from 2.3.1:

• HTML Export of the draft class now colors in the combine numbers in the same way the Draft Analyzer UI does. This should help out online leagues by making it easier for players away from their Analyzer installations review the remaining players to determine who to take.
• Extractor now puts a header line at the top of the output files to indicate what each column is. The only exceptions are for the position attributes at the end of a player report, which are position-dependent. Depending on how you use the CSV files, this may force a change on your end.
• Extractor will now grab salary data if available.
• Extractor will now note what position a player is a mentor to, if any.
• Analyzer now has a button and drop-down that allows you to sort the players by a specific skill (Run Defense, Avoid Fumbles, etc).

Analyzer can read 2.3.0 and 2.4.0 Extractor files; it will skip the header line if it finds it.

This should be it for big changes for a little while, as our second child is due within the next month. So get those bug reports on 2.4.0 in quick! But I am still interested in hearing about feature requests. I'm thinking of some additional ways to weight and sort players (for example, letting you set a weight for the Current value for a player to decide between Current and/or Percent Developed) and would love to hear if anyone else has ideas for rating the players.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

i install the latest FOF extractor.

and i ran it.

then i open FOF 5.1c up

and pick my team roster and press extract button

and i get an error saying the following

"could not find any windows. Make sure you have FOF Open, and open either a player report, a scout or staff member"

thanks

let me interpret: jbmagic reads about neat util, downloads & installs, opens it and gets a message; assumes theres something wrong and makes a post about it.

READ THE DOCUMENTATION. Start->Programs->FOF Extractor Suite->Documentation

[JPhillips]

Greg: I know I've already said this, but thanks again for the best utility out there. Not only does it make running my team more enjoyable, but the draft analyzer makes FOF come close to my dream of a football sim draft. Great work and thanks a bunch the time you've put into it.

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

and your an idiot. why the hell you giving me a hard time.

i read the documentation and i just posted because i need some help with it.

if you cant help me, then please dont reply.

Easy, dog. You're gonna give yourself a hernia.

[sovereignstar]

It sounds like you don't have a report window actually opened. You need to have the top player card/scout card (aka report window) open, then click the extract button.

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar

It sounds like you don't have a report window actually opened. You need to have the top player card/scout card (aka report window) open, then click the extract button.

ahh thanks. that work.


i just had the roster screen open like the document said.

i didnt know i had to click on the player too.


this is a very nice program. thanks again for your help.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

and your an idiot. why the hell you giving me a hard time.

i read the documentation and i just posted because i need some help with it.

if you cant help me, then please dont reply.

Originally Posted by Documentation

Once you run the program, make sure FOF2k4 is also running, then bring up whatever list you would like to dump. This can be a team roster, a draft preview, the scout list, or the coach list. Sort the list in whatever manner you prefer, then double-click the top entry in the list to open the appropriate Report window . Switch back to FOFExtractor, making sure that the Report window is visible, then click the "Extract" button. The program takes about .25 seconds per entry, with the time delay mostly to ensure that FOF2k4 has a chance to repaint the next report window before pulling the data from it. Once finished, you will have one of three files in the program's working directory

...

[gstelmack]

Any suggestions on how to make the error message clearer?

could not find any windows. Make sure you have FOF Open, and open either a player report, a scout or staff member

I figured that would indicate that you had to actually have the Player Report Window open. If anyone has suggestions on better wording, I'm more than willing to tweak it.

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Any suggestions on how to make the error message clearer?

could not find any windows. Make sure you have FOF Open, and open either a player report, a scout or staff member

I figured that would indicate that you had to actually have the Player Report Window open. If anyone has suggestions on better wording, I'm more than willing to tweak it.

great program.

dont need to tweak anything, it was my fault for not having the player card widnow open. that what i get for trying it late last night.
sorry for the confusion.