Custom Start Date Patch / ArtMoney Development Thread

[archibalduk]

Austria and Russia worked without any problem. Will try more leagues tomorrow

You're a star! Thank you!

One thing to try would be to start a new game and exit EHM after 1st October of the first season. Then reload EHM (make sure ArtMoney is not running) and reload the saved game. Then sim through to October of the second season. If it doesn't crash then that would be very good news. It's this potential issue that I'm most worried about. Also, I need to try simming to October of the third season - just to be extra sure. I'll be trying these things tomorrow too.

[nino33]

at this stage it's simply not worth changing the 1974 database to accommodate a custom start date of 1974.

100% agree

I need to do much more testing first. I need to sim a whole season to see what EHM does

Absolutely....but IF this works for historical databases too it would be so awesome (I'm already in the initial stages of a 2000 db and a 1990s db and so this could pay off long term! Keep up the good work)

I'm doing nothing but clicking "start new game" and "go to vacations".

You're taking the time and making the effort, and it's appreciatted!

Archi is the man

Agreed!

[Alessandro]

Using Sweden/Finland I got a crash on February 28th 2012. Now I'm gonna start a new game with Sweden only so that we can see which country is the responsible one.

[archibalduk]

I've split off Hobbit/Marek's post into a new thread so that we can keep discussion regarding league rules and structure separate from editing the start date: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... =13&t=8142

Alessandro - I'm testing Finland/Sweden right now. I'm not using a modified exe - so I can check to see whether the issue is related purely to the modified exe (I think you mentioned that you exe has modified rules for Finland IIRC).

[Alessandro]

Our exe had no modifications for Finland. And with Sweden only it didn't crash.

[Alessandro]

I had no time to test till the third season, will do it later today. Btw, the game is slower with the third patch.

[archibalduk]

Our exe had no modifications for Finland. And with Sweden only it didn't crash.

Ah I see; my mistake. I just tried with Finland and Sweden together in the same game and I've gone beyond 28 Feb 2012 without any problem (I've reached 18 May 2012 so far). I set the start year to 2011. Did you use 2011 as your start year?

I had no time to test till the third season, will do it later today. Btw, the game is slower with the third patch.

I'm going to start a three season test game with just the NHL in one moment. I'm also going to see what happens if I sim up until 1st October of the first season, quit the game and reload it without ArtMoney. Fingers crossed it can reach 1st October of the second season without the need for ArtMoney.

It's interesting you say the game is slower with this new patch. I've noticed ever since I've been using the patch that it runs slower but I hadn't noticed v0.03 being slower than any of the others. A possible cause is that I've included 009 addresses in the list that shouldn't really be altered. I'm pretty sure that the list can be reduced further but it's going to take much longer to test because each time I will have to sim through to 1st October of the second season. Although I've found the specific 009x address that prevents the 1st Oct crash in the first season, I haven't yet found the specific 009x address for the second season. Hopefully with some time I'll be able to narrow these 009x addresses down and improve the game speed.

Having said that, the game does seem to speed up from roughly January of the first season. By the time I reach the August/September after the first season, the game seems to fly by as quickly as normal.

Btw, I tried again to add player histories to the database beyond the 05/06 season but they still didn't show up in game.

[Alessandro]

I started a new test now. Adding future drafts works! The problem is that there is a problem with the pregame editor which doesnt allow to add rights.

[Alessandro]

Russia+Finland+Sweden worked up to 2014 Olympics

[nino33]

The problem is that there is a problem with the pregame editor which doesnt allow to add rights.

What version of the Editor are you using? I'm using the 2007.1.7.132 version and I can edit Rights (but I've read posts saying an earlier version did not allow for Rights editing).

[archibalduk]

I've successfully completed five seasons using the NHL. I started off at 2011/12 and have gotten as far as October 2016 (sixth season) without any problems. It seems that as soon as you get beyond 1st October of the first season then you don't have to worry about using ArtMoney again (this was certainly the case with the NHL at least).

However, the World Championships doesn't fully resolve itself. Although the usual big teams join the WC in the second season, there are still some of the wrong teams present even in the fifth season. It's a bit of a shame but it's certainly not a game-breaker (at least it's not for me).

So, based on the tests that Alessandro and I have completed, it sounds like this is ready to be released as version 1. What do you think?

[Alessandro]

Yeah perhaps you can. The WC like that sucks, but everything in life has its price.
Btw future drafts+rights work, I simply used an old version of the editor.

[nino33]

The WC like that sucks, but everything in life has its price

I agree

Although the usual big teams join the WC in the second season

But if "the usual big teams" are actually there it's not really to bad

[archibalduk]

I do wonder whether the 009x addresses are really the proper solution for the October crashes. Ok, it does work, but surely if they were the real solution then there wouldn't be any issues with the WC. When I load my six season saved game and look at the 009x addresses in ArtMoney, they have all returned to 2006. This suggests that these aren't the addresses that need altering. The problem is that the correct address that should be altered could be anywhere and may not necessarily be a 2006 value - it could be any value. I guess it's probably the best we're going to get though. Maybe once I've further reduced the 009x addresses, this may solve it - but I'm not that that hopeful. Still, like you say, everything in life has it's price (and this really isn't a very big price).

I've taken a look at the team list for the WC that will take place in season six (2016/17 season):

• Andorra
• Angola
• Anguilla
• Aruba
• Bahrain
• Austria
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• Finland
• Germany
• Italy
• Russia
• Slovakia
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• USA

The first five on the list are the erroneous teams (and there are 11 "normal" teams - Canada, USA, etc). I wonder what teams would ordinarily be there...

I also wonder what the WC looks like in the second season (I bet it's the same as the above). I'll check it out next time I'm doing a sim test.

[Manimal]

I've taken a look at the team list for the WC that will take place in season six (2016/17 season):

• Andorra
• Angola
• Anguilla
• Aruba
• Bahrain
• Austria
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• Finland
• Germany
• Italy
• Russia
• Slovakia
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• USA

The first five on the list are the erroneous teams (and there's nine "normal" teams - Canada, USA, etc). I wonder what teams would ordinarily be there...

I also wonder what the WC looks like in the second season (I bet it's the same as the above). I'll check it out next time I'm doing a sim test.

Two teams get promoted every year. Since you have simmed five WCs 10 teams have moved on up. Sim three more years and there will not be any erroneous teams there

[archibalduk]

Excellent! Thank you!

[Alessandro]

Perhaps you can have a look with Olly and/or Artmoney to see in, let's say 2015, which values say 2015 or 2016...

[archibalduk]

Yeah that's what I've been doing with ArtMoney - seeing what values change between seasons during an unmodified/vanilla saved game. The difficulty is that the correct value to change may not be related to the year per se - it could theoretically be any value. The difficulty is that I'm a real novice with all this and I'm sure somebody with some knowledge would have a better chance at solving it. However, I have learnt a lot and will be posting a list of addresses I've found and what they do probably next weekend.

In the meantime, I'll continue trying to reduce the number of 009x addresses we need to change.

[Hobbit13]

I imagine it would. I'll try it with one player to see whether I get an error when viewing his contract details (this is the second type of error I encounter when trying a 1974 start date). However, at this stage it's simply not worth changing the 1974 database to accommodate a custom start date of 1974. I need to do much more testing first. I need to sim a whole season to see what EHM does with the league records, etc. Will it simply overwrite the previous details of the winners of the 1974/75 season or will it simply crash...

Just noticed this since I know how to edit league history there should be no problem with that (just writing for future reference)

I guess it might be best if some time in the future I start compiling tutorials on how to edit the things that I found out.

[Alessandro]

Yeah you should. Also you should test if you can edit future leagues history

[archibalduk]

Marek - I've replied to you in the other thread as I've merged it in to my other reply: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... 49#p127249


I think I'm going to aim for a release of version 1.0 for either the end of this weekend or during next week. I want to narrow down those 009x addresses as far as possible - maybe that will improve the speed. It's going to be slow testing but I'll just leave it running in the background whilst I do other things.

[archibalduk]

Attached is version 0.04 beta of the CSD Patch. I've managed to narrow down the addresses to just three (one controls the start year and two prevent the crashes). I haven't had a chance to test in depth yet (and I won't until Friday or Saturday) and so I thought I'd upload it now in case anybody is interested in testing. I have however tested as far as November of the second season with the ECHL and didn't encounter any crashes.

The install instructions are the same as v0.03: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... 02#p127102

[Hobbit13]

I just tried it but when you start a new game, it crashes due to a Fin suomi error...

[Hobbit13]

OK so with the 2011 start date, I have been able to add league history for post 2006! I'm writing the tutorial for it right now.

[archibalduk]

I just tried it but when you start a new game, it crashes due to a Fin suomi error...

Thanks. I'll check it out (I've probably narrowed the 009x addresses too much). I'll be doing some extensive testing tomorrow and Saturday.

OK so with the 2011 start date, I have been able to add league history for post 2006! I'm writing the tutorial for it right now.

That's excellent news!