PATCH!!!!!!!

Noble_Platypus · 07-02-2003, 05:27 PM

ITS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TLK · 07-02-2003, 05:29 PM

Anrhydeddu · 07-02-2003, 05:32 PM

Post the Readme?

Marmel · 07-02-2003, 05:32 PM

Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition. Patch to version 4.0c.

To install the patch, use WinZip or another standard unzipping program to move the patch files to a temporary directory. Do not unzip the patch files directly into the installation directory.

Use the "Run" command from your Start menu to find the CPatch program. Run that program.

If you see a message indicating successful installation, you're all set.

Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition must be installed properly on your computer before you run this patch. After running the patch, you can still open old careers, though bugs that affected the start of those careers will not necessarily be fixed (such as the bug with players imported from TCY not healing properly).

This patch includes everything from the 4.0a and 4.0b patches. You do not need to remove an earlier patch, nor do you have to have it installed in order to keep your game up to date.

The following changes are included in the 4.0c patch for Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition:

- For leagues beginning before 2002, game should not check for expansion draft, causing empty draft pool when not found.
- For overall career records, player's last season should not be shown as current simulation year.
- For player filed editor, Add Player to Draft button should not reverse OLB and ILB.
- Ensure QB win-loss records are tracked based on true starter.
- Ensure playoff and bowl appearances statistics are properly tracked for coaches.
- Correct labels on the access window for the last three defensive game plan screens.
- Extra point opportunity given at end of fourth quarter, even when it does not affect the score.
- Teams should not trade for injured players during the draft.
- Teams should not sign injured players to long-term contracts.
- Pre-game email about concerns with starting players reverses SS and FS.
- Teams should not make trade offers for players you just signed.
- QBs should not spike the ball when the clock is stopped.
- Correct drive chart for successful onside kicks.
- Allocate extra WR properly when using the play-calling interface - this corrects a crash when accessing "Any WR" on the play display.
- When moving a team, parking lot construction and turf installation should be assumed and have nothing to do with old conditions.
- Ball should go over when there's intentional grounding on fourth down.
- On defensive game plan screen, the double-team selection buttons are reversed.
- More descriptive text for preview, illustrating difference between defensive front and defensive line.
- Expand size of email so that injury report can't get cut off due to influenza outbreak.
- Ensure that individual awards do not disappear after about 40 seasons (note that fix does not apply to seasons played pre-patch - that information is unfortunately lost).
- Increase the size of the popup for confirming the franchise tag.
- Ensure that players reinjured during a game don't have the length of the injury incorrectly reduced to zero.
- Add text to show that players reinjured during a game will remain active.
- Increase effect of training room time when calculating injuries.
- Eliminate discrepancy between TCY imported drafts and internally generated drafts.
- Improve the draft logic, making more checks to determine weaknesses and reflect current development projects (this slows down the draft quite a bit).
- Highlight values in contract screen when a dollar amount receives the input focus.
- Increase the range of past experience for incoming freshmen.
- Greatly reduce the chance of firing a GM for weak performance after switching teams.
- Eliminate the green portion of the talent bar for attributes that do not develop with age (this had been a telltale sign of the direction of the scouting error).
- Tie the graduated scouting error to the difficulty level.
- Increase rate of retirement for mediocre players (this adjusts a previous tweak that probably went too far).
- Add years spent on the current team to the scout overview on the roster window.
- Remove the confirmation for activating/inactivating a player, as this is easily reversed.
- Highlight player's team in the power ratings.
- Add a hot key for accessing the contract screen off of the player screen.
- Add a hot key for exiting the contract screen.
- After simple renovations on parking lot or turf, support for a new stadium should not drop entirely.
- Automatically move players to new positions for training camp when defensive alignment means those positions don't exist (a WILB becomes a MLB in a 43, for example).
- Adjust the AI for determining starting players, trying to avoid more talented players sitting on the bench (this increases the importance of pre-training-camp position moves, which also have been adjusted).
- Add use of AI for determining controlled team's position moves and game-plan adjustments prior to training camp, but only when global options are enabled.
- Revise weight algorithm for created players to look more at the height, decrease weight extremes.
- Inactive injured players should be colored green, like other inactive players.
- Ensure hot keys N and P work properly when actively using hot keys on the player report.
- Adjust game AI for overtime in an attempt to reduce the number of ties.
- Increase the effects of team chemistry during game play.
- Add a yes/no confirmation for setting a stadium plan, as it's too easy to exit that screen inadvertently.
- Add score of championship game to list of bowl winners.
- Add the ability to click on the season awards screen and see active player records.

The following changes were made for the 4.0b patch for Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition and are included in this patch:

- Email indicating a team move has correct origin and destination.
- Season ticket sales no longer drop dramatically without reason for certain
teams in second season or later.
- Starters play a little bit less in the pre-season. Starting quarterbacks no longer take every snap possible.
- Players seriously injured late in the season heal during the off-season. They are much less likely to retire.
- Scouting adjusted to make busts less obvious, change after initial training camp less dramatic.
- Free agent pool at start of new career no longer has players with unusual heights and weights for their positions.
- Depth chart recommendations no longer put the same NT or ILB both at a starting position and its backup.
- Jason Hasting of Houston no longer acts as a ghost when placed in the depth chart.
- Defensive team should call time outs when trailing in last three minutes and human team is calling plays.
- When play-calling, both teams can no longer call time out at the same time.
- Outside linebackers should be able to play defensive end in depth chart, inside linebackers should not.
- Retired coaches should not still be active coaches, and should not be listed as having 50-plus-year contracts.
- Logic for selecting Coach of Year should be less dependent on stadium status and more dependent on team peformance.
- Play-by-play should not mention defender beating a block if the run results in a key run block.
- When a punt return is fumbled and there's a penalty, the correct options should be given for accepting the penalty.
- When printing statistics for pass defenders, the correct headers for the statistics is printed.
- Lower illegal contact penalty percentage on run plays.
- Lower fair catch interference percentage on punt returns. The NFL all but stopped calling this in 1999.
- Add protection for depth chart errors to depth chart changes accessed through play-calling.
- All-time General Manager records for careers now display properly.
- Increase the penalty for depth-chart use of tired players.

The following changes were made for the 4.0a patch for Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition and are included in this patch:

- Remove "The College Years" from the help section of the new game screen.
- Properly enforce limit of inactive players (7 during season, 14 during pre-season).
- Franchise designation should be removed between seasons.
- Players on injured reserve should not count toward roster limit.
- On player screen, stats for fumbles forced and returned for touchdown are reversed.
- Pass defense percentage displayed improperly on player screen.
- Ensure free agents can be signed at all times during the season.
- Icons for restricted free agents and red-colored injured players are not easy differentiated from regular positional icons on roster screen.
- When printing team statistics from the summary, the defensive turnover total is not included.
- Short penalties when other team is running for first down should not be declined.
- Holding penalty in end zone resulting in safety should not be declined by opponent.
- An unnecessary roughness penalty may result in first down inside the 10-yard line without yards to go being updated correctly.
- Adjust Key Run Blocks so that FB and TE receive a higher percentage.
- Don't record a tackle when the QB takes a knee.
- Out of bounds plays should not result in fumbles.
- Adjust field goal choice AI so that punts are not executed inside 30 - even with bad kickers.
- Teams should not call time out before punting.
- When human team is calling plays, AI should not call time outs.
- After computer calls time out, it should not spike the ball.
- Fumbles returned for touchdowns on punts should be recorded on screen and in game log.
- Teams should not settle for ties rather than going for field goals at end of overtime or half. In general, there seem to be too many ties, and several cases of teams running a play rather than kicking obvious field goals.
- AI should not use formations quarterback doesn't understand.
- Starters should play less during pre-season.
- Player of the Week screen should sort properly, and clicking on player record should bring up correct player.
- Greatly reduce random player retirement percentage for players who have no reason to retire. Currently 1 in 30, should be more like 1 in 2000.
- Reduce initial player popularity with fans for mediocre players.
- Players imported from TCY should heal from injuries.
- Positional requirements should be enforced when human team not allowing scout to make signings. This results in depth chart errors as well as most reported in-game crashes.
- Change how scout estimates are made. This should result in higher correlation between green bars and overall estimates as well as more understandable draft-time decisions.
- On execute trade screen, player salaries should be listed without including bonuses.
- The scout recommendation button in the game plan should not recommend negative value for rush direction, rush directions and pass directions should add to 100%.
- Training camp time setting should not change lunch time to a negative value on first click in an editable field.
- The player salary screen should update all totals when changing field focus.
- Replace the print function for roster strengths screen.
- Fix large attendance drops when ticket prices aren't increased and no other reason is obvious and increase neutral field attendance calculation, since it's always the championship game.
- Stadium condition should not drop to poor when a renovation plan is rejected. This is the major cause of mysterious attendance drops.
- In the Player editor, endurance for receivers and punt return skill for running backs should be displayed and set properly.
- When creating a one-player player file, without draftees, game should not create an unstable universe or add garbage characters to names.
- When editing a player file by creating a free agent player, team number should be imported properly. This could lead to crashes after week 17, as well as other problems.
- Cornerbacks imported from TCY should have bump and run ratings.
- Reduce number of times human player can change a player's position.
- Printing on statistics screen sometimes lists incorrect player position.
- Reduce use of injured reserve when players not very seriously injured during pre-season.
- Leadership choice should include bonus for veteran status.
- Created rookies should have home towns in states after F in the alphabet.
- In the GM career record screen, if team has had tie, record should be displayed properly.
- When printing standings, conference record and division record should be labeled correctly.
- When printing statistics, hurries should not be called TFL.
- When human team renegotiates with player who had voidable year in contract, the old voidable option should be removed.
- Stadium renovations should not be locked into a starting year earlier than the initial year specified in an edited player file.
- The team single-season points per game record is calculated incorrectly.
- If the human team's coach is fired, he should not continue to accumulate stats with your team.
- Computer AI draft adjustment, resulting in low chance of repeatedly drafting the same position and lower weight to kickers, even if team is strong in all other areas.
- Protect from possible crash when AI recommending players for trade with other teams.
- Blank player editor file should have miscellaneous data default to useable form, including year set to 2002 and salary cap set to $71.1 million.
- When construction is in place in initial data file setting, it should be indicated on stadium information screen.
- Text of injury email should not be cut off when over a certain length.
- Disable resume button when taking part in initial player draft and human team selecting.
- Lower the experience gained when a player takes part in a game, especially if he doesn't play a lot.
- When opening an alternate player file, wait cursor should be displayed.
- AI for changing a player's position and defensive front should be accessed during training camp.

sabotai · 07-02-2003, 05:33 PM

Marmel beat me to it.

QuikSand · 07-02-2003, 05:39 PM

Quote:

- Eliminate discrepancy between TCY imported drafts and internally generated drafts.
- Improve the draft logic, making more checks to determine weaknesses and reflect current development projects (this slows down the draft quite a bit).
- Increase the range of past experience for incoming freshmen.

These three things, working in concert, give me a renewed sense of hope for this game. Perhaps a new FOF4 career is in the offing?

Marmel · 07-02-2003, 05:46 PM

What do you think the 3rd one means there Quiksand?

- Increase the range of past experience for incoming freshmen.

Noble_Platypus · 07-02-2003, 05:46 PM

It says my patch was successfully installed, but if I click on about FOF it still says 4B-cd version. Any one else have this?

Noble_Platypus · 07-02-2003, 05:49 PM

never mind, I guess the fifth time is the charm when installing it.

Craptacular · 07-02-2003, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Marmel

- Eliminate the green portion of the talent bar for attributes that do not develop with age (this had been a telltale sign of the direction of the scouting error).

This seems like a huge improvement (unless you liked that sort of thing).

FBPro · 07-02-2003, 06:02 PM

Awesome, grabbing it now...thanks Jim.

damnMikeBrown · 07-02-2003, 06:16 PM

Hurrah! I was planning on picking up my game again tonight too! Looks like I get a bonus!

pjstp20 · 07-02-2003, 06:16 PM

This definitly increases my interest in the game

INDalltheway · 07-02-2003, 06:32 PM

Weird... I was getting ready to fire this game up earlier today.

cthomer5000 · 07-02-2003, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Marmel
What do you think the 3rd one means there Quiksand?

- Increase the range of past experience for incoming freshmen.

I'd also like some clarification on that. Seems like this could be a major update to the overall AI of the game. *fingers crossed*

damnMikeBrown · 07-02-2003, 06:43 PM

$#!$ the Cpatch Updater is seriously frustrating.

Update failed. Please make sure the update is completely unzipped, and all patch files are in the same directory before adding the update.

All are unzipped, all are present in fof4. George is gettin frustrated!

Maple Leafs · 07-02-2003, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by damnMikeBrown
$#!$ the Cpatch Updater is seriously frustrating.

Update failed. Please make sure the update is completely unzipped, and all patch files are in the same directory before adding the update.

All are unzipped, all are present in fof4. George is gettin frustrated!

Don't unzip them to the fof4 folder. Unzip to a new, temporary folder and it should work fine.

Noble_Platypus · 07-02-2003, 06:49 PM

DMB, do you have any other patch files residing anywhere? Thats what gave me problems earlier. Put all of the files in the C patch and any other patch files in FOF4b folder and try again.

bigdawg2003 · 07-02-2003, 06:55 PM

I had a feeling earlier today that something would happen involving a patch. Pretty crazy

QuikSand · 07-02-2003, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Marmel
What do you think the 3rd one means there Quiksand?

- Increase the range of past experience for incoming freshmen.

I think this is related to the young players in the draft and their predictable growth. This change, I understand, will help make the "breakouts" in the college draft less predictable.

Karim · 07-02-2003, 07:31 PM

A couple of questions:

- are stars in TCY overlooked in favour of no-names and guys who hardly played

- is FOF4 available for download

TIA

pjstp20 · 07-02-2003, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by damnMikeBrown
$#!$ the Cpatch Updater is seriously frustrating.

Update failed. Please make sure the update is completely unzipped, and all patch files are in the same directory before adding the update.

All are unzipped, all are present in fof4. George is gettin frustrated!

DMB, any luck yet? I'm getting the same message. I downloaded the patch into a temp folder, extracted the files and tried to run it from there but no luck. I deleted all of the other patches so thats not the problem. Any more ideas?

pjstp20 · 07-02-2003, 07:49 PM

Dola--I figured it out, you can't have the game open while you try to install it. I know I'm dumb so there's no need to restate it.

korme · 07-02-2003, 07:53 PM

Wow, you're dumb.

Oh, oops, my bad pj, didn't see that last part.

damnMikeBrown · 07-02-2003, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pjstp20
DMB, any luck yet? I'm getting the same message. I downloaded the patch into a temp folder, extracted the files and tried to run it from there but no luck. I deleted all of the other patches so thats not the problem. Any more ideas?

Yes, it worked with some of the suggestions above. Can't have it in your FOF4 directory. I just made a FOF4patch directory that I put it in, and unzipped it into the same. Ran the patch and it was a-ok.

pjstp20 · 07-02-2003, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shorty3281
Wow, you're dumb.

Oh, oops, my bad pj, didn't see that last part.

Yeah I knew I had it coming.

Anyone have any immediate thoughts on the post c patch game? After a few games it seems like injuries have been drastically reduced and players other than the QB are winning player of the game.

sachmo71 · 07-02-2003, 10:20 PM

Great! Another game to boot up.

Ben E Lou · 07-02-2003, 11:18 PM

Curse you, Jim Gindin! I've been holed up at my in-laws lake house in the rain with limited dial-up internet access this week. I'm leaving at 7am tomorrow morning, which means I won't get to REALLY dive into the patch for 36 hours after it is released, on Friday morning.

I'm kidding of course. I'm excited about several things:

Quote:

Originally posted by Marmel
- Increase effect of training room time when calculating injuries.
- Eliminate discrepancy between TCY imported drafts and internally generated drafts.
- Improve the draft logic, making more checks to determine weaknesses and reflect current development projects (this slows down the draft quite a bit).
- Increase the range of past experience for incoming freshmen.
- Eliminate the green portion of the talent bar for attributes that do not develop with age (this had been a telltale sign of the direction of the scouting error).
- Tie the graduated scouting error to the difficulty level.
- Automatically move players to new positions for training camp when defensive alignment means those positions don't exist (a WILB becomes a MLB in a 43, for example).
- Adjust the AI for determining starting players, trying to avoid more talented players sitting on the bench (this increases the importance of pre-training-camp position moves, which also have been adjusted).
- Increase the effects of team chemistry during game play.
- Add the ability to click on the season awards screen and see active player records.

These in particular have me stoked to fire up FOF4 first thing Friday morning. I've started a new TCY career up here at the lake, so I'll be excited to import those players using the new algorithms.

Jim, can you give us a little more detail on exactly what "increase the range of past experience for incoming freshmen" means?

sabotai · 07-03-2003, 12:49 AM

"- are stars in TCY overlooked in favour of no-names and guys who hardly played

- is FOF4 available for download"

I don't know #1, I don't (haven't) imported from TCY.

No, FOF4 is not available as a download yet.

Franklinnoble · 07-03-2003, 01:36 AM

- Eliminate the green portion of the talent bar for attributes that do not develop with age (this had been a telltale sign of the direction of the scouting error).

This means that Kickstand's strategy post regarding "masking" is no longer applicable, no?

JeeberD · 07-03-2003, 01:37 AM

WooHoo! Successfully patched!!!

3ric · 07-03-2003, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by QuikSand
"- Increase the range of past experience for incoming freshmen."

I think this is related to the young players in the draft and their predictable growth. This change, I understand, will help make the "breakouts" in the college draft less predictable.

To throw in my knowledge of the TCY draft files - one previously unknown number in those files turned out to be a "pro rating" kind of value, where a "0" was very likely to succeed in the pros, and an "11" or more was reserved for the Ryan Leafs and Tony Mandariches in the pool.

But the range for that value was a little off, mostly being between 0-8, with the occasional value of 10-12, and never more than 15-16 (which is very rare).

Now, Jim's statement leads me to believe that a player valued at 10-11 won't bust quite as much, and it'll take a rare 15-16 value for the player to be completely worthless after the draft.

Darkiller · 07-03-2003, 03:27 AM

great news !!!!
I just began a new TCY career this week but maybe this new patch will put me into FOF4 as well !

Bee · 07-03-2003, 06:23 AM

Quote:

Increase the range of past experience for incoming freshmen.

Doesn't this sound more like an update to TCY than FOF (freshmen???)? I'm just curious if maybe...just maybe...Jim is also working on an update to TCY and this got put on the wrong list.

condors · 07-03-2003, 06:38 AM

awsome news can't wait to get a chance to actually play the game again

Darkiller · 07-03-2003, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bee
Doesn't this sound more like an update to TCY than FOF (freshmen???)? I'm just curious if maybe...just maybe...Jim is also working on an update to TCY and this got put on the wrong list.

I have to admit that this thought came through my mind as well... ;-)

cincyreds · 07-03-2003, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Add score of championship game to list of bowl winners.

SWEEEET!!

Fritz · 07-03-2003, 10:36 AM

Still can not export/import a game plan. For me, this was the single most important feature that could have been added. Without it, I will hardly touch the game plans.

Bonegavel · 07-03-2003, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bee
Doesn't this sound more like an update to TCY than FOF (freshmen???)? I'm just curious if maybe...just maybe...Jim is also working on an update to TCY and this got put on the wrong list.

Using my conspiracy mind...

maybe Jim is hard at work on a game that involves college. This was just some sort of freudian slip. I can just imagine he is constantly used to dealing with newbies as "freshman" and not "rookies." Might be a long stretch, but it was an interesting use of words on Jim's part.

Tony · 07-03-2003, 01:53 PM

damn, huge list of updates. got paid today ... will finally have to pick this up. =]

Fritz · 07-03-2003, 02:56 PM

whoa.... hiya tony

Tony · 07-03-2003, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Fritz
whoa.... hiya tony

sup man, saw some of your quotes above... nice to see you're still contributing the fritzisms. =P

Solecismic · 07-03-2003, 09:20 PM

I will be updating TCY this month, but only to get the 2003 schedule in there. I believe there's one conference affiliation change as well. I'm also thinking of making one or two small changes.

No idea why I said freshmen instead of seniors/rookies.

The idea behind the FOF4 change to experience is to vary the readiness of the incoming rookies - it had been a fairly strict age/position formula, which made the percentage of green in a bar a bit of a giveaway for bust/boom status.

I don't know what that number in the import file is that hasn't been deciphered, but there isn't a boom/bust coding in there.

Ben E Lou · 07-03-2003, 09:28 PM

Jim:

Thanks for the info. In a game with SO many variables, it is pretty much impossible to isolate stuff. We shouldn't know formulas, but thanks for letting us know in general how things are supposed to work!

LloydLungs · 07-03-2003, 11:55 PM

I'll be interested to see how that conference affiliation change will be worked in. Utah State is joining the Sun Belt Conference for this season, but since this addition was rather sudden and the other conference members had schedule problems because of it, the Sun Belt is operating on a bizarre schedule just for this season -- i.e. "designated conference games" against non-conference teams that will count in the Sun Belt standings. Among others, UL-Lafayette actually has a game against Div I-AA Fla. International that will count as a SBC conference game.

Of course this can't be worked in to the game, but it will result in very uneven SBC results for 2003 in TCY. The other thing is that will drop the "Independent" conference to five teams if I'm not mistaken. Will be an interesting coding experience I'd guess.

Senator · 07-04-2003, 04:32 PM

Trying to get the patch but his site is slowwwwwwww.

07-02-2003, 05:29 PM	#2
TLK Pro Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Allen Park, MI	Here is the patch Last edited by TLK : 07-02-2003 at 05:30 PM.

07-02-2003, 05:32 PM	#4
Marmel Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Manchester, CT	Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition. Patch to version 4.0c. To install the patch, use WinZip or another standard unzipping program to move the patch files to a temporary directory. Do not unzip the patch files directly into the installation directory. Use the "Run" command from your Start menu to find the CPatch program. Run that program. If you see a message indicating successful installation, you're all set. Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition must be installed properly on your computer before you run this patch. After running the patch, you can still open old careers, though bugs that affected the start of those careers will not necessarily be fixed (such as the bug with players imported from TCY not healing properly). This patch includes everything from the 4.0a and 4.0b patches. You do not need to remove an earlier patch, nor do you have to have it installed in order to keep your game up to date. The following changes are included in the 4.0c patch for Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition: - For leagues beginning before 2002, game should not check for expansion draft, causing empty draft pool when not found. - For overall career records, player's last season should not be shown as current simulation year. - For player filed editor, Add Player to Draft button should not reverse OLB and ILB. - Ensure QB win-loss records are tracked based on true starter. - Ensure playoff and bowl appearances statistics are properly tracked for coaches. - Correct labels on the access window for the last three defensive game plan screens. - Extra point opportunity given at end of fourth quarter, even when it does not affect the score. - Teams should not trade for injured players during the draft. - Teams should not sign injured players to long-term contracts. - Pre-game email about concerns with starting players reverses SS and FS. - Teams should not make trade offers for players you just signed. - QBs should not spike the ball when the clock is stopped. - Correct drive chart for successful onside kicks. - Allocate extra WR properly when using the play-calling interface - this corrects a crash when accessing "Any WR" on the play display. - When moving a team, parking lot construction and turf installation should be assumed and have nothing to do with old conditions. - Ball should go over when there's intentional grounding on fourth down. - On defensive game plan screen, the double-team selection buttons are reversed. - More descriptive text for preview, illustrating difference between defensive front and defensive line. - Expand size of email so that injury report can't get cut off due to influenza outbreak. - Ensure that individual awards do not disappear after about 40 seasons (note that fix does not apply to seasons played pre-patch - that information is unfortunately lost). - Increase the size of the popup for confirming the franchise tag. - Ensure that players reinjured during a game don't have the length of the injury incorrectly reduced to zero. - Add text to show that players reinjured during a game will remain active. - Increase effect of training room time when calculating injuries. - Eliminate discrepancy between TCY imported drafts and internally generated drafts. - Improve the draft logic, making more checks to determine weaknesses and reflect current development projects (this slows down the draft quite a bit). - Highlight values in contract screen when a dollar amount receives the input focus. - Increase the range of past experience for incoming freshmen. - Greatly reduce the chance of firing a GM for weak performance after switching teams. - Eliminate the green portion of the talent bar for attributes that do not develop with age (this had been a telltale sign of the direction of the scouting error). - Tie the graduated scouting error to the difficulty level. - Increase rate of retirement for mediocre players (this adjusts a previous tweak that probably went too far). - Add years spent on the current team to the scout overview on the roster window. - Remove the confirmation for activating/inactivating a player, as this is easily reversed. - Highlight player's team in the power ratings. - Add a hot key for accessing the contract screen off of the player screen. - Add a hot key for exiting the contract screen. - After simple renovations on parking lot or turf, support for a new stadium should not drop entirely. - Automatically move players to new positions for training camp when defensive alignment means those positions don't exist (a WILB becomes a MLB in a 43, for example). - Adjust the AI for determining starting players, trying to avoid more talented players sitting on the bench (this increases the importance of pre-training-camp position moves, which also have been adjusted). - Add use of AI for determining controlled team's position moves and game-plan adjustments prior to training camp, but only when global options are enabled. - Revise weight algorithm for created players to look more at the height, decrease weight extremes. - Inactive injured players should be colored green, like other inactive players. - Ensure hot keys N and P work properly when actively using hot keys on the player report. - Adjust game AI for overtime in an attempt to reduce the number of ties. - Increase the effects of team chemistry during game play. - Add a yes/no confirmation for setting a stadium plan, as it's too easy to exit that screen inadvertently. - Add score of championship game to list of bowl winners. - Add the ability to click on the season awards screen and see active player records. The following changes were made for the 4.0b patch for Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition and are included in this patch: - Email indicating a team move has correct origin and destination. - Season ticket sales no longer drop dramatically without reason for certain teams in second season or later. - Starters play a little bit less in the pre-season. Starting quarterbacks no longer take every snap possible. - Players seriously injured late in the season heal during the off-season. They are much less likely to retire. - Scouting adjusted to make busts less obvious, change after initial training camp less dramatic. - Free agent pool at start of new career no longer has players with unusual heights and weights for their positions. - Depth chart recommendations no longer put the same NT or ILB both at a starting position and its backup. - Jason Hasting of Houston no longer acts as a ghost when placed in the depth chart. - Defensive team should call time outs when trailing in last three minutes and human team is calling plays. - When play-calling, both teams can no longer call time out at the same time. - Outside linebackers should be able to play defensive end in depth chart, inside linebackers should not. - Retired coaches should not still be active coaches, and should not be listed as having 50-plus-year contracts. - Logic for selecting Coach of Year should be less dependent on stadium status and more dependent on team peformance. - Play-by-play should not mention defender beating a block if the run results in a key run block. - When a punt return is fumbled and there's a penalty, the correct options should be given for accepting the penalty. - When printing statistics for pass defenders, the correct headers for the statistics is printed. - Lower illegal contact penalty percentage on run plays. - Lower fair catch interference percentage on punt returns. The NFL all but stopped calling this in 1999. - Add protection for depth chart errors to depth chart changes accessed through play-calling. - All-time General Manager records for careers now display properly. - Increase the penalty for depth-chart use of tired players. The following changes were made for the 4.0a patch for Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition and are included in this patch: - Remove "The College Years" from the help section of the new game screen. - Properly enforce limit of inactive players (7 during season, 14 during pre-season). - Franchise designation should be removed between seasons. - Players on injured reserve should not count toward roster limit. - On player screen, stats for fumbles forced and returned for touchdown are reversed. - Pass defense percentage displayed improperly on player screen. - Ensure free agents can be signed at all times during the season. - Icons for restricted free agents and red-colored injured players are not easy differentiated from regular positional icons on roster screen. - When printing team statistics from the summary, the defensive turnover total is not included. - Short penalties when other team is running for first down should not be declined. - Holding penalty in end zone resulting in safety should not be declined by opponent. - An unnecessary roughness penalty may result in first down inside the 10-yard line without yards to go being updated correctly. - Adjust Key Run Blocks so that FB and TE receive a higher percentage. - Don't record a tackle when the QB takes a knee. - Out of bounds plays should not result in fumbles. - Adjust field goal choice AI so that punts are not executed inside 30 - even with bad kickers. - Teams should not call time out before punting. - When human team is calling plays, AI should not call time outs. - After computer calls time out, it should not spike the ball. - Fumbles returned for touchdowns on punts should be recorded on screen and in game log. - Teams should not settle for ties rather than going for field goals at end of overtime or half. In general, there seem to be too many ties, and several cases of teams running a play rather than kicking obvious field goals. - AI should not use formations quarterback doesn't understand. - Starters should play less during pre-season. - Player of the Week screen should sort properly, and clicking on player record should bring up correct player. - Greatly reduce random player retirement percentage for players who have no reason to retire. Currently 1 in 30, should be more like 1 in 2000. - Reduce initial player popularity with fans for mediocre players. - Players imported from TCY should heal from injuries. - Positional requirements should be enforced when human team not allowing scout to make signings. This results in depth chart errors as well as most reported in-game crashes. - Change how scout estimates are made. This should result in higher correlation between green bars and overall estimates as well as more understandable draft-time decisions. - On execute trade screen, player salaries should be listed without including bonuses. - The scout recommendation button in the game plan should not recommend negative value for rush direction, rush directions and pass directions should add to 100%. - Training camp time setting should not change lunch time to a negative value on first click in an editable field. - The player salary screen should update all totals when changing field focus. - Replace the print function for roster strengths screen. - Fix large attendance drops when ticket prices aren't increased and no other reason is obvious and increase neutral field attendance calculation, since it's always the championship game. - Stadium condition should not drop to poor when a renovation plan is rejected. This is the major cause of mysterious attendance drops. - In the Player editor, endurance for receivers and punt return skill for running backs should be displayed and set properly. - When creating a one-player player file, without draftees, game should not create an unstable universe or add garbage characters to names. - When editing a player file by creating a free agent player, team number should be imported properly. This could lead to crashes after week 17, as well as other problems. - Cornerbacks imported from TCY should have bump and run ratings. - Reduce number of times human player can change a player's position. - Printing on statistics screen sometimes lists incorrect player position. - Reduce use of injured reserve when players not very seriously injured during pre-season. - Leadership choice should include bonus for veteran status. - Created rookies should have home towns in states after F in the alphabet. - In the GM career record screen, if team has had tie, record should be displayed properly. - When printing standings, conference record and division record should be labeled correctly. - When printing statistics, hurries should not be called TFL. - When human team renegotiates with player who had voidable year in contract, the old voidable option should be removed. - Stadium renovations should not be locked into a starting year earlier than the initial year specified in an edited player file. - The team single-season points per game record is calculated incorrectly. - If the human team's coach is fired, he should not continue to accumulate stats with your team. - Computer AI draft adjustment, resulting in low chance of repeatedly drafting the same position and lower weight to kickers, even if team is strong in all other areas. - Protect from possible crash when AI recommending players for trade with other teams. - Blank player editor file should have miscellaneous data default to useable form, including year set to 2002 and salary cap set to $71.1 million. - When construction is in place in initial data file setting, it should be indicated on stadium information screen. - Text of injury email should not be cut off when over a certain length. - Disable resume button when taking part in initial player draft and human team selecting. - Lower the experience gained when a player takes part in a game, especially if he doesn't play a lot. - When opening an alternate player file, wait cursor should be displayed. - AI for changing a player's position and defensive front should be accessed during training camp. __________________ 81-78 Cincinnati basketball writer P. Daugherty, "Connor Barwin playing several minutes against Syracuse is like kids with slingshots taking down Caesar's legions."

07-02-2003, 05:33 PM	#5
sabotai General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Satellite of Love	Marmel beat me to it. Last edited by sabotai : 07-02-2003 at 05:33 PM.

07-02-2003, 05:46 PM	#7
Marmel Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Manchester, CT	What do you think the 3rd one means there Quiksand? - Increase the range of past experience for incoming freshmen. __________________ 81-78 Cincinnati basketball writer P. Daugherty, "Connor Barwin playing several minutes against Syracuse is like kids with slingshots taking down Caesar's legions."

07-02-2003, 05:46 PM	#8
Noble_Platypus College Prospect Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: York, Pa	It says my patch was successfully installed, but if I click on about FOF it still says 4B-cd version. Any one else have this? __________________ We had the $240, we had to have the puddin'

07-02-2003, 05:32 PM	#3
Anrhydeddu Resident Curmudgeon Join Date: Oct 2002	Post the Readme?

07-02-2003, 05:49 PM	#9
Noble_Platypus College Prospect Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: York, Pa	never mind, I guess the fifth time is the charm when installing it. __________________ We had the $240, we had to have the puddin'

07-02-2003, 06:02 PM	#11
FBPro College Starter Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: SE	Awesome, grabbing it now...thanks Jim.

07-02-2003, 06:16 PM	#12
damnMikeBrown College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Cincinnati, OH	Hurrah! I was planning on picking up my game again tonight too! Looks like I get a bonus!

07-02-2003, 06:16 PM	#13
pjstp20 High School Varsity Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Tallahassee, FL	This definitly increases my interest in the game

07-02-2003, 06:32 PM	#14
INDalltheway College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Chicago	Weird... I was getting ready to fire this game up earlier today.

07-02-2003, 06:43 PM	#16
damnMikeBrown College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Cincinnati, OH	$#!$ the Cpatch Updater is seriously frustrating. Update failed. Please make sure the update is completely unzipped, and all patch files are in the same directory before adding the update. All are unzipped, all are present in fof4. George is gettin frustrated!

07-02-2003, 06:49 PM	#18
Noble_Platypus College Prospect Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: York, Pa	DMB, do you have any other patch files residing anywhere? Thats what gave me problems earlier. Put all of the files in the C patch and any other patch files in FOF4b folder and try again. __________________ We had the $240, we had to have the puddin'

07-02-2003, 06:55 PM	#19
bigdawg2003 High School Varsity Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Austin, Texas, USA	I had a feeling earlier today that something would happen involving a patch. Pretty crazy __________________ I didn't even know Elvis was from Memphis. I thought he was from Tennessee.

07-02-2003, 07:31 PM	#21
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	A couple of questions: - are stars in TCY overlooked in favour of no-names and guys who hardly played - is FOF4 available for download TIA

07-02-2003, 07:49 PM	#23
pjstp20 High School Varsity Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Tallahassee, FL	Dola--I figured it out, you can't have the game open while you try to install it. I know I'm dumb so there's no need to restate it.

07-02-2003, 07:53 PM	#24
korme Go Reds Join Date: May 2001 Location: Bloodbuzz Ohio	Wow, you're dumb. Oh, oops, my bad pj, didn't see that last part.

07-02-2003, 10:20 PM	#27
sachmo71 The boy who cried Trout Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: TX	Great! Another game to boot up.

07-03-2003, 12:49 AM	#29
sabotai General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Satellite of Love	"- are stars in TCY overlooked in favour of no-names and guys who hardly played - is FOF4 available for download" I don't know #1, I don't (haven't) imported from TCY. No, FOF4 is not available as a download yet.

07-03-2003, 01:36 AM	#30
Franklinnoble Banned Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Placerville, CA	- Eliminate the green portion of the talent bar for attributes that do not develop with age (this had been a telltale sign of the direction of the scouting error). This means that Kickstand's strategy post regarding "masking" is no longer applicable, no?

07-03-2003, 01:37 AM	#31
JeeberD General Manager Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: The Town of Flower Mound	WooHoo! Successfully patched!!! __________________ UTEP Miners!!! I solemnly swear to never cheer for TO

07-03-2003, 03:27 AM	#33
Darkiller FOF2 Guy Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Paris, France	great news !!!! I just began a new TCY career this week but maybe this new patch will put me into FOF4 as well ! __________________ FOF2 lives on / Continue to support the best game ever ! - Owner of the San Francisco 49ers in FOF2 - Charter member of the IHOF and owner of the Paris Musketeers franchise (FOF2004) - Chairman of the IHOF Hall of Fame - Athletic Director of the Brigham Young Cougars in TCY FOF Legend: Hall of Fame QB Brock Sheriff #5, one of the most popular player in Front Office Football history.

07-03-2003, 06:38 AM	#35
condors College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000	awsome news can't wait to get a chance to actually play the game again

07-03-2003, 10:36 AM	#38
Fritz Lethargic Hooligan Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: hello kitty found my wallet at a big tent revival and returned it with all the cash missing	Still can not export/import a game plan. For me, this was the single most important feature that could have been added. Without it, I will hardly touch the game plans. __________________ donkey, donkey, walk a little faster

07-03-2003, 01:53 PM	#40
Tony High School Varsity Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: atlanta	damn, huge list of updates. got paid today ... will finally have to pick this up. =]

07-03-2003, 02:56 PM	#41
Fritz Lethargic Hooligan Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: hello kitty found my wallet at a big tent revival and returned it with all the cash missing	whoa.... hiya tony __________________ donkey, donkey, walk a little faster

07-03-2003, 09:20 PM	#43
Solecismic Solecismic Software Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Canton, OH	I will be updating TCY this month, but only to get the 2003 schedule in there. I believe there's one conference affiliation change as well. I'm also thinking of making one or two small changes. No idea why I said freshmen instead of seniors/rookies. The idea behind the FOF4 change to experience is to vary the readiness of the incoming rookies - it had been a fairly strict age/position formula, which made the percentage of green in a bar a bit of a giveaway for bust/boom status. I don't know what that number in the import file is that hasn't been deciphered, but there isn't a boom/bust coding in there.

07-03-2003, 09:28 PM	#44
Ben E Lou Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Greensboro, NC	Jim: Thanks for the info. In a game with SO many variables, it is pretty much impossible to isolate stuff. We shouldn't know formulas, but thanks for letting us know in general how things are supposed to work! __________________ The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'!

07-03-2003, 11:55 PM	#45
LloydLungs College Prospect Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Ponchatoula, LA	I'll be interested to see how that conference affiliation change will be worked in. Utah State is joining the Sun Belt Conference for this season, but since this addition was rather sudden and the other conference members had schedule problems because of it, the Sun Belt is operating on a bizarre schedule just for this season -- i.e. "designated conference games" against non-conference teams that will count in the Sun Belt standings. Among others, UL-Lafayette actually has a game against Div I-AA Fla. International that will count as a SBC conference game. Of course this can't be worked in to the game, but it will result in very uneven SBC results for 2003 in TCY. The other thing is that will drop the "Independent" conference to five teams if I'm not mistaken. Will be an interesting coding experience I'd guess.

07-04-2003, 04:32 PM	#46
Senator FOFC's Elected Representative Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The stars at night; are big and bright	Trying to get the patch but his site is slowwwwwwww. __________________ "i have seen chris simms play 4-5 times in the pros and he's very clearly got it. he won't make a pro bowl this year, but it'll come. if you don't like me saying that, so be it, but its true. we'll just have to wait until then" imettrentgreen "looking at only ten games, and oddly using a median only, leaves me unmoved generally" - Quiksand

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