puja21 06-07 Offseason Project

[Behindshadows]

Thanks for the heads up and response...I hope to see a exibition roster later, so far no freezing, I'm playing the Super Bowl now...and I've quit 3 times already....game cheats and makes sure I lose...lol...

Good thing I saved the game before..lol...

Thanks again..

[ringo]

Puja21,
I was wondering if your roster or franchise file will incorporate some of the roster attribute tweaks that daflyboys has been working on, or if you have your own formula. Just curious.

[puja21]

Quote: Originally Posted by ringo

Puja21, I was wondering if your roster or franchise file will incorporate some of the roster attribute tweaks that daflyboys has been working on, or if you have your own formula. Just curious.

^not sure-- daflyboys might take my file, do his tweaks & repost it, but im not sure if he's planning to do so since he is currently working on convince

[daflyboys]

Quote: Originally Posted by puja21

^not sure-- daflyboys might take my file, do his tweaks & repost it, but im not sure if he's planning to do so since he is currently working on convince

Well, I'd love to but since I already put a great deal of time in with convince's I'm going to go with it most likely, unless some extenuating circumstances come up. I'm not sure what he's planning on doing as far as any update, but even if he doesn't, at least they'll have mine that incorporates the tweaks but not necessarily the high level detail of yours, puja.

[dophin26]

"With regards to freeze-ups, all the advice that Finn has given me has had one thing in common: do not continually create & overwrite new names (there is even an issue w/ the number of characters used). since i am not using any CAPs"

Hi,
I am making my 1983 roster from someone else's edited roster (I have no idea why I used it instead of the game's, but I did). Are you saying there will be problems if I overwrite a "Johnson" with a "Cromwell"? There are like 20 "Johnsons" in the roster file.

Also, is there a limit to the number of guys that can point to a single name (could I have all the Johnsons using the same name?)

Finally, are you saying none of your names will have capitals at the beginning? I wasn't sure if I got that right.

The reason I ask is because I just finished another team (Rams) and when I was playtesting it, it froze.

[tboneking]

yeah, it would be pretty cool if you guys had the roster tweaks with the new rosters.

[puja21]

Quote: Originally Posted by dophin26

Are you saying there will be problems if I overwrite a "Johnson" with a "Cromwell"? There are like 20 "Johnsons" in the roster file.

^Based what Finn told me, the situation you described "could" cause freezing in theory. e.g. there can be problems overwriting a name like "Johnson" with "Cromwell" every time you make a change because Johnson has fewer characters (7) than Cromwell (8). But I can tell you with pretty much 100% certainty that this will not be the case from that one edit.

Basically, he said if you were to overwrite 1000 names, you want the total number of characters afterwards to be as close to the original amount. He didn't say (i dont think he knows) how many characters you can exceed the original talley by, but only that there was potential for file corruption. Fortunately, it is statistically very unlikely that these character counts will significantly differ after editing because most name lengths in our society fall within a small range.

For example, I renamed several hundred new unique names when I made my latest roster (I kept track of EVERYTHING in excel). When I was done, I used word to count the characters of the old names & compared it to the replacement names.. they were something like 30 characters off after hundreds of overwrites. So, if you just try & keep it close you should be okay. If you have a long foreign name, try & pick a longer retired name to replace.

I think Dan wrote that he ALWAYS overwrites and never re-points, and he has never suffered any freezing, so this would confirm that statistically you will be fine keeping the character counts close without even trying.

Quote: Originally Posted by dophin26

Also, is there a limit to the number of guys that can point to a single name (could I have all the Johnsons using the same name?)

^I have no idea how many you can point to a name... i have never seen a problem personally, but there is really no reason to pile all the "Johnsons" "Williams" or "Smiths" on to one or two slots. Think about it: there will never be more than 53 active players on 32 teams in real life, so there will never be much more than ~1700 players in the league at a time. Even if you were to put a max of 2 guys to a slot, you would already have way more than enough remaining slots available to overwrite. I can say from experience I have piled 7 or 8 guys on one slot w/ no problem though.

Quote: Originally Posted by dophin26

Finally, are you saying none of your names will have capitals at the beginning? I wasn't sure if I got that right.

^"CAP" in that context means create-a-player, not capital letters. I was pointing out that I am only adding new players to my roster by replacing the released or retired. It's just another way to protect your file because using in-game CAP players add more name slots to the database, something you want to avoid as a roster maker.

Quote: Originally Posted by dophin26

The reason I ask is because I just finished another team (Rams) and when I was playtesting it, it froze.

^One final point (you won't like it), but you really don't want to start with someone else's roster as a base because-- as Convince, Dan, myself, Flipmo, or Rickster would tell you-- you don't know what changes they have made. You definitely don't want to start w/ another person's file "for no reason" or you can find yourself stuck w/ a freezing file. Consider this, even if it wasn't freezing when you first DL'd it, it could be one change away from freezing. You have no way of knowing what changes it's already gone through.

Roster-making for this game should be governed by entropy. Just assume that the file will always get more disordered as time passes or changes happen. Your attitude from the start should be that "whatever changes I make can't be undone" or that freezing can't be undone. This will cause you to do things like keep many backups at different stages and think about what you do before acting. 2K5 editing is like making chocolate milk: you can't "unstir it" once it's all mixed together.
^for PS2 editors this is a million times more true

[dophin26]

Wow- that was the most informative post I've read in quite some time (considering what I am doing). That clears up a lot. BTW- I do save my rosters, in a number of places, after I make changes along the way. And I started with the GOAT roster, because it already contained names and stats for a few of the guys I was going to do. Unfortunately, I am finding there is still a lot to change on them as I am not using player photos, the years are different, and I am doing stats based on that season, not overall. Since you are clearing things up for me, let me ask you another question-

You mentioned Excel. I have copied and pasted a few of my teams to compare players' attributes in Excel, but is there a reason (other than character count) to use it? I don't see a way to import into Finn's from it, or am I wrong? I am guessing you are just using it to compare numbers for players and positions from different teams.

I replayed my Bucs-Rams game tonight and had no problems with freezing, so hopefully it will be okay. There isn't a way to quickly take those teams into a fresh roster is there? I have finished 5 so far.