Custom Start Date Patch / ArtMoney Development Thread

[archibalduk]

I've fixed the Finland error and also a Russia error. All leagues now start without any errors or crashes (I've tested each one starting up individually).

I'm now testing all leagues together across two saved games (one saved game has half of the hockey world set to enhanced and the other game has the other half). I want to get at least two seasons completed with each. If it works then I'll release it as version 1.

[archibalduk]

Hmm I'm getting a crash on 25th May of the first season and cannot get past it using ArtMoney when reloading the game. I'll try the old version 0.03 beta file to see if this was an issue with that too. It might well be that I removed too many addresses for my latest version (v0.05 - which I haven't uploaded yet). Fingers crossed v0.03 doesn't encounter the error...

These are the leagues I was running (all on 'enhanced') when I encountered the crash. I reckon it's either the ECHL or Russian league that is encountering the crash (these two as well as Finland seem to always be the most difficult to get working):

Code: Select all

NHL
ECHL
UHL
Austria
Denmark
Germany
Russia
Slovakia
Sweden

[archibalduk]

Version 0.03 doesn't crash when I tried the same setup mentioned in the post above. I'll need to narrow down which league (probably Russia) is crashing and will then be able to work on finding the rogue offset.*

* I've noticed the correct term is offset rather than address and so I'll start using the correct wording (I'm still learning )

[archibalduk]

Hmm this is interesting: http://www.thedugout.net/community/show ... post692594

The link above shows that during the development of the start date patch for Championship Manager 01/02, Tapani and co discovered that the game would crash in October. They eventually discovered that the solution was to run the game in Windows 98 compatibility mode. This leads me to wonder whether a similar solution could be used for EHM. I know that 007D11C0 controls the start date (you'll find it in version 0.04) and so I wonder if we can use just this offset and then run the game in compatibility mode. Previously, using just that offset would result in a crash on 1st October.

I've tried Windows 98 mode but eLicense doesn't like this (you get a license error). Windows 2000 and Windows XP mode are interesting because on 1st October a new "v3.0.4 comp_stats.cpp 1752" error appears before the usual crash. I wonder what is going on around comp_stats.cpp???

Edit: I couldn't avoid the crash using compatibility mode.

[archibalduk]

Hmm I'm getting a crash on 25th May of the first season and cannot get past it using ArtMoney when reloading the game. I'll try the old version 0.03 beta file to see if this was an issue with that too.

As suspected, the crash on 25th May of season one was caused by selecting the Russian league. I've found the rogue offset and have fixed the crash. However, on 30th June of the first season I get a Russia cpp error. It's not fatal - you just click on OK and it continues without any further problem. I'm not working on fixing this error...

[Alessandro]

Well, not to sound like an arse, but what's the point in passing from a version which works smoothly to a one which works way less smoothly and with an error just for the sake of reducing some addresses?

[archibalduk]

Well, not to sound like an arse, but what's the point in passing from a version which works smoothly to a one which works way less smoothly and with an error just for the sake of reducing some addresses?

I narrowed down the v0.03 addresses/offsets as far as I could in order to get the NHL and ECHL running without any issue (as the ECHL has proven to be the most difficult league to get running). I thought I was very clear in my post when I uploaded v0.04:

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.

This is the whole point of the beta versions - to upload for any interested users to test and help identify errors which I can resolve. As I promised in my post, I've been able to do some in depth testing since Friday and I've been running tests all day today (Saturday) too - hence why these errors have been identified and resolved today.

Version 0.03 contained something like 40 offsets. I want to reduce that to the very bare minimum so that I'm not affecting any irrelevant offsets. I don't want to introduce any crashes or unexpected in-game behaviour by including in the AMT file offsets that aren't necessary. Hence I need to reduce the offsets as far as I can in order to identify exactly which offsets from version 0.03 are needed and which ones aren't.

[archibalduk]

The year that you put in, is the year the season ended. So if you want to add a history for the 05/06 season, then the year you put in is 2006..

This quote from Hobbit's League History Tutorial makes me wonder whether perhaps the ability to add additional seasons of player history could also be controlled using the end year within ArtMoney. I think once I've finalised the start date patch, I'll see if there are any references to 2007 or 7D7 in ArtMoney that might perhaps allow additional seasons of player history to appear in the game.

[archibalduk]

I've figured out that the start dates are linked to a specific day in a specific week of the year. This explains the varying start date according to the year you set. I haven't checked any other leagues yet, but for the NHL the exact start date is Wednesday in the 35th week of the year. Thus in 2006 the NHL start date is 30th Aug and in 2010 it is 1st September.

I wonder if it is possible to change the actual start date. If the start date could brought forward for the end of June (just before the point where it does the game data update), would this enable the scheduling to be updated/corrected for Marek's attempts to change the number of teams in a league??

[archibalduk]

Having done quite a bit of experimentation and testing with changing the start year in EHM 2007, I thought I'd post a list of the addresses/offsets I found and an explanation of what they seem to do. Maybe this might one day be of use to anybody looking to further tweak EHM with regards to the start date.

I've categorised below the offsets I've found by what their functions appear to be. This is just my understanding - I think the purposes of the "crash / CPP error prevention" offsets may not be quite what I think they are. Note that all of the offsets quoted are the offsets used in ArtMoney.

Generally speaking, in the tables below I've listed three details:

• Offset - This is the offset as found in ArtMoney.
• Value - This shows what value should be entered. For example, <year> indicates that you should enter the start year as the value (e.g. you can set the value to 2011 to change the start season to 2011/12). Some values are shown as a simple mathematical calculation/formula - e.g. 16777216 + <year> means that you should add 1677216 to the year you want to use when entering the value (e.g. 16777216 + 2011 = 16779227 - this is the value you should enter for the 2011/12 season).
• Description - Describes the function of the offset.

Start Date

The start date is controlled by one value. If you change this value before clicking on the New Game button (located in the opening Main Menu screen in EHM) then this will change all of the other relevant values for you. In other words, set this value and it will let EHM do the rest of the work. However, this offset must be used in conjuction with the crash/error prevention offsets.

Not only does this offset change the start season, it also adjusts the start date itself. For example, the NHL start date is programmed to start on the Wednesday of the 35th week of the year. This offset will correctly adjust the date so that it still falls on the correct date.

[table][tr][th]Offset[/th][th]Value[/th][th]Description[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]007D 11C0[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Master control value for the start date. Appears only to be used when creating a new game.[/td][/tr][/table]


Season Monitoring / Tracking

There are a number of offsets which appear to monitor or track the current season. Changing these values when at the League Select screen (i.e. just after you have clicked on the New Game button) allow you to change the start date in EHM. This works in a different way to 007D 11C0 (mentioned above) because it changes just the starting year but does not make any changes to the date (i.e. the NHL season will always start on 30th August - unlike 007D 11CO it doesn't adjust the date to the Wednesday of the 35th week of the year).

The values appear to change each year when the new season begins (I don't know the exact date but it would appear to be approximately 1st July). The offsets monitor the current season rather than the current calendar year. In other words, the value will remain as '2011' for the entirety of the 2011/12 season and does not change to '2012' until the beginning of the 2012/13 season.

The following appear to act as an overall monitor of the current season:

[table][tr][th]Offset[/th][th]Value[/th][th]Description[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6 9BFE[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Seems to set the current season. I think the value here cascades down to the two offsets 00C6 A848 and A854 (below).[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6 A848[/td][td]16777216 + <year>[/td][td]Monitors the current season[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6 A854[/td][td]16777216 + <year>[/td][td]Monitors the current season[/td][/tr][/table]

The following monitor individual leagues. There appear to be two offsets for each nation. If the league has been selected as an enhanced/standard active league then the values below apply. If a league has not been selected as active then it simply appears as <year> instead.

[table][tr][th]Offset[/th][th]Enhanced/Selected[/th][th]Not Selected[/th][th]Description[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A886[/td][td]100663296 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Finland (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A892[/td][td]234881025 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Finland (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A8C4[/td][td]50331648 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]North America (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A8D0[/td][td]251658241 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]North America (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A902[/td][td]251658240 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Denmark (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A90E[/td][td]234881025 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Denmark (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A940[/td][td]251658240 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Czech Republic (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A94C[/td][td]234881025 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Czech Republic (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A97E[/td][td]16777216 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Russia (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A98A[/td][td]503316481 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Russia (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A9BC[/td][td]251658240 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Sweden (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A9C8[/td][td]301989889 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Sweden (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6A9FA[/td][td]335544320 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Slovenia (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AA06[/td][td]234881025 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Slovenia (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AA38[/td][td]251658240 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Canada (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AA44[/td][td]503316481 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Canada (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AA76[/td][td]436207616 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Austria (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AA82[/td][td]503316481 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Austria (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AAB4[/td][td]201326592 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Slovakia (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AAC0[/td][td]503316481 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Slovakia (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AAF2[/td][td]167772160 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Great Britain (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AAFE[/td][td]251658241 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Great Britain (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AB30[/td][td]251658240 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Norway (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AB3C[/td][td]234881025 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Norway (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AB6E[/td][td]134217728 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Germany (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6AB7A[/td][td]301989889 + <year>[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Germany (2)[/td][/tr][/table]


Prior to new game in EHM being created, the values above appear to be set initially as 67436. It may well be worth looking to see what offsets are set as 67436 in the rest of the game. Another way to look at this value is 65430 + <year> which means that it'll be 67436 before you change the start date of if you load a game in the 2006/07 season. However, I wonder whether during a saved game how many offsets there are that are set to 65430 + <year>.

It also seems that offsets near those listed above are initially set as 1900 (by initially I mean that they're 1900 when at the opening Main Menu screen). This may be something else worth considering - i.e. how do those offsets change once you start a game and/or progress through the seasons.

It seems as though there may be a relationship between the different league offsets listed above. For example, Great Britain (1)'s base value (i.e. 16772160) is ten times that of Russia (1). Russia (1) has the same base value as 00C6 A848 and A854 (see the earlier table showing the offsets that act as an overall monitor of the current season). In order to make this clearer, I've grouped each of the league offsets by what their base value is (see the table below). What I mean by base value is the value you must add to the <year> value. For example, in the table above Finland (1) is 100663296 + <year> and therefore 100663296 is the base value.

[table][tr][th]Base Value[/th][th]Leagues[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]1677216[/td][td]Russia (1), 00C6 A848 and 00C6 A854[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]50331648[/td][td]North America (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]100663296[/td][td]Finland (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]134217728[/td][td]Germany (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]167772160[/td][td]Great Britain (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]201326592[/td][td]Slovakia (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]234881025[/td][td]Czech Republic (2), Denmark (2), Finland (2), Norway (2), Slovenia (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]251658240[/td][td]Canada (1), Czech Republic (1), Denmark (1), Norway (1), Sweden (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]251658241[/td][td]Great Britain (2), North America (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]301989889[/td][td]Germany (2), Sweden (2)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]335544320[/td][td]Slovenia (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]436207616[/td][td]Austria (1)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]503316481[/td][td]Canada (2), Russia (2), Slovakia (2)[/td][/tr][/table]

There's clearly some sort of pattern here. Although nations seem to share the same base values, there aren't any values that share (1)'s and (2)'s - they're always in separate base values.

One final note - there seem to be a lot more offsets beginning with 00C6 xxx that might have some sort of relation to the start date.


Crash / CPP Error Prevention

In order to prevent a number of non-fatal CPP errors and some crashes, it is necessary to set a number offsets to the current season. I'm not sure why it works like this because these values do not seem to monitor the current season or year - neither in a modified game nor in a vanilla/unmodified game. I suspect that although changing these offsets prevents errors/crashes, these should not really be modified. I wonder whether by modifying one of these offsets this is causing the World Championships issue (i.e. the teams in the World Championships are wrong).

Interestingly, it would seem that all crashes (except the 1st October of season 1 crash) only affect the EHCL, Russia and Finland. All CPP errors also relate to just the EHCL, Russia and Finland.

So when you edit the start date in order to create a new game, ensure that you also edit the offsets in the table below so as to avoid any CPP errors or crashes.

If you exit EHM before reaching the 1st October of the first season then these offsets must again be set to the start year using ArtMoney when at the Main Menu before you click on the Load Game button.

[table][tr][th]Offset[/th][th]Value[/th][th]Description[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]0091 6ED7[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Prevents a crash on 12th February of season 1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]0091 96D7[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Prevents a crash on 1st October of season 1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]0092 0612[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Prevents a crash on 28th February of season 1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]0092 0DD5[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Prevents a Finland CPP error[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]0092 13BF[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Prevents a crash when creating a new game with Finland selected[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]0092 5F83[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Prevents a crash on 29th June of season 1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]0094 4324[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Prevents a crash on 25th May of season 1[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]0094 50C7[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Prevents a Russia CPP error[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]0094 5364[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Prevents a Russia CPP error[/td][/tr][/table]


Other Possibly Related Offsets

The following offsets seem to relate to the start year and/or tracking the season. I haven't discovered the function of these offsets and they don't seem essential in changing the start year.

[table][tr][th]Offset[/th][th]Value[/th][th]Notes[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6 9BF6[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]This offset is located very close to the 'overall season monitoring offset' and league/nation offsets mentioned in the tables above.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]00C6 9C06[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]This offset is located very close to the 'overall season monitoring offset' and league/nation offsets mentioned in the tables above.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]0130 1406[/td][td]<year>[/td][td]Sometimes there are other offsets beginning with 0130 14xx which appear to be set as <year> but it varies by game.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]0130 141E[/td][td]<year> / <previous year>[/td][td]I'm not sure if this really does relate to the start year. However it does appear to frequently appear as the previous year and
sometimes briefly changes to the current year.[/td][/tr][/table]

[archibalduk]

Attached is version 0.05 beta of the CSD Patch. I am fairly hopeful that this version will eventually be released as version 1.00.

Installation instructions can be found here: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... 02#p127102

So far, I have completed a three and a half season test (i.e. up until 8th December of the fourth season) with the ECHL, Finland and Russia selected as 'Enhanced' and with the NHL set to 'Selected' (all in the same single game). I haven't encountered any crashes or CPP error - nor have I encountered any other issues additional to those that have been mentioned before. The World Championships issue is still present (as Manimal mentioned, two international teams get promoted to the WC each season - and this is what I've found happens in the game). I haven't yet tested whether the patch must be reapplied when the game is quit before 1st October of the first season - I expect this is still the case however (I will be testing this very soon).

I plan on doing some further testing using the other leagues in order to confirm that they can all reach 1st October of the second season without any problems.

Before releasing it as version 1.00, I want to first look into batch altering the contract expiry dates of all players and staff. IIRC the contract expiry dates in the Manimal rosters have been corrected in order to accommodate the 2006 start date. I haven't looked into this yet (I'm just thinking ahead at this stage) but I would expect we will need to extend each player's (and staff members) contracts by four or five years so that they expire on the correct date using the CSD Patch. This would also have the added benefit of hopefully enabling us to change the start date to 1974 (although we may first also have to clear the competition history as per Marek's useful tutorial).

One possible way of doing this is to somehow import the hex from the appropriate database file into Excel and then use the Hex2Dec function to convert the hex to decimal numbers. I can then increase/decrease the appropriate numbers using a simple Excel formula (e.g. =A1+4 etc), convert it back to hex using the Dec2Hex function and export it back into the database file. This sounds simple, but it relies up me being able to export the hex in a format so as to ensure that only one entry of data is displayed per row and that this can be easily exported back out of Excel. I was wondering whether the Column Mode in UltraEdit might be useful in addition to it allowing you to specify the number of columns of hex per row (i.e. allowing you to arrange the hex so that there is just one entry of data per row)...

[Hobbit13]

Wow, awesome work! How did you find the x + <year> values?

And by the way, the two offsets you mentioned that prevent a Russian CPP error are in the part that edits the league structure. The Offset 0094 50C7 is in the part that changes relegations, number of teams qualifying for playoffs, game rules and maybe more. While the other offset 0094 5364 is in the location that edits the league size. So it's possible that both are linked to the contraction of the RSL/KHL from 19 to 18 teams...

[Alessandro]

So yesterday I tried starting in 2012 (most likely we will work toward a 2012 release imho, correct errors, work on db, etc, but this is just my personal projects) and oddly enough the game starts in 5th of September in the NHL

[archibalduk]

Wow, awesome work! How did you find the x + <year> values?

IIRC those offsets are set to 2006 on the League Select screen (when I started this project, I simply looked at every offset with a value of 2006) - that's how I found them. I noticed in ArtMoney that the values of those offsets changed as soon as you started a new game and would increment by one each season. If you look at them using ArtMoney when at different stages in EHM (i.e. from the opening Main Menu screen, the League Select screen and also in game) you'll see how they change. I think those offsets are included in version 0.01 or 0.02 beta of the AMT file if you want to quickly load them up and see them for yourself.

I might be mistaken, but I did think at one point that I'd seen some values didn't follow the x + <year> formula - but I haven't been able to replicate this again. Maybe it was because I hadn't changing all of the correct offsets (it was during development of version 0.02 or 0.03).

And by the way, the two offsets you mentioned that prevent a Russian CPP error are in the part that edits the league structure. The Offset 0094 50C7 is in the part that changes relegations, number of teams qualifying for playoffs, game rules and maybe more. While the other offset 0094 5364 is in the location that edits the league size. So it's possible that both are linked to the contraction of the RSL/KHL from 19 to 18 teams...

Now that's very interesting indeed. I wonder what changing those offsets simply to the value of the year does... Does it simply allow EHM to use the 07/08 RSL structure/rules or does it go further and actually change things more dramatically. I haven't thought to check the league structure - but I will now! I wonder whether those values could simply be changed to '2007' in order to use the 07/08 structure...

I do wonder whether one of those other 009x offsets affects the World Championships - or perhaps there is an offset I haven't included that needs to be included in order to allow the WCs to include the correct teams. I really want to resolve this one.

So yesterday I tried starting in 2012 (most likely we will work toward a 2012 release imho, correct errors, work on db, etc, but this is just my personal projects) and oddly enough the game starts in 5th of September in the NHL

Hmm well spotted! The 5th September 2012 is the Wednesday of week 36 (see here for a very useful calendar with week numbers). I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that 2012 was a leap year. It might be worth checking what the start date is for 2008 (as that's the most recent leap year).

I noticed that the Finnish and Russian start dates seem to change drastically when the start date is set to 2011 (or maybe it was 2010 - I can't remember off-hand). I made a list of the start dates for different seasons and different leagues which I plan to check at some point.

I spent some time yesterday trying to find where the actual start date is controlled for each league but haven't found anything yet.

[Alessandro]

Archi, any progress?

[archibalduk]

Archi, any progress?

No I'm afraid not. I've been hunting to find where the list of teams currently in the WC are located in the hex but I've had no luck so far. I need to keep on digging... Progress is going to be fairly slow until after Wednesday next week as I need to prepare for some exams, presentation and an interview.

As a guess, I wonder whether the key offset is located somewhere within roughly 0091 B7FE - 0091 F5D9 as this is the bit in the memory that seems to relate to the WC.

[archibalduk]

Gah the WC is proving to be a headache. I'm really not sure what I'm looking for. I'll keep digging but I'm not that optimistic at this stage.

Now for some good news: I've written a simple C++ program that patches the start date in EHM!!! So rather than having to run ArtMoney, users will simply be able to download my little exe file which will load EHM and set the start date. It will also be able to make all of the changes to the league structure/rules/etc that we want. So this will mean that we can create an exe patch for each roster update, etc.

It's still in its very early stages (I've never written in C++ since before this evening), but it's going very well indeed.

[Alessandro]

Archi - great news. As usual I'm ready to test it.

[ElQuapo]

Wow, simply Wow!

Keep up the good work.

I have absolutely no idea how to help with this hex-stuff, but if you guys get it working (with the WC and all) then you will for ever be my heroes and I am of course willing to help update the database to 2012

[Alessandro]

Haha, look who's back. ElQ, you should help us with testing

[ElQuapo]

Haha, look who's back. ElQ, you should help us with testing

Unfortunately my computer just broke a while ago, and the one I am using can't run EHM - but if you guys get this to work I will have to buy a new one ASAP

I can help with danish players and staff for a potential data update though

BTW: With regards to the "Windows 98 compatibility" not working with E-License - maybe you should try it if someone has the CD-rom version of the game that does not require E-License. I have the game on CD-rom, but as mentioned can not run it at the moment - perhaps someone else also has the CD-rom version?

[archibalduk]

Archi - great news. As usual I'm ready to test it.

Thanks Alessandro. I really appreciate all the help you continue to provide.

Btw, after I have completed writing the Start Date Patch I'm going to work on a Memory Patch which will make all of the changes with regards to league structure/rules etc.

The plan is that anybody could create a basic file listing all of the offsets and the values you want to change them to (a bit like an extra_config.cfg file) - so a new cfg file could be created for each database update and loaded using my Memory Patch (rather than having to mess around with ArtMoney which isn't really going to be practical). It's a bit ambitious but I'll give it a go. If I can't pull it off then I can simply use what I have at the moment and would happily create a new exe patch for each release of the Manimal rosters and the UUDB rosters (should you/Marek and/or Manimal be interested).

In the meantime, I'm going to work on creating a user interface for the Start Date Patch so that users can easily set the start date.

Wow, simply Wow!

Keep up the good work.

I have absolutely no idea how to help with this hex-stuff, but if you guys get it working (with the WC and all) then you will for ever be my heroes and I am of course willing to help update the database to 2012

Nice to hear from a familiar face again. I'm not sure if the WC bug will be fixed in the first version but I'm continuing to try out solutions. Either way, it's a small price to pay for a customisable date.

I hope you manage to get your computer sorted out. It'd be nice to see you around again.

[Ogilthorpe]

Btw, after I have completed writing the Start Date Patch I'm going to work on a Memory Patch which will make all of the changes with regards to league structure/rules etc.

The plan is that anybody could create a basic file listing all of the offsets and the values you want to change them to (a bit like an extra_config.cfg file) - so a new cfg file could be created for each database update and loaded using my Memory Patch (rather than having to mess around with ArtMoney which isn't really going to be practical). It's a bit ambitious but I'll give it a go. If I can't pull it off then I can simply use what I have at the moment and would happily create a new exe patch for each release of the Manimal rosters and the UUDB rosters (should you/Marek and/or Manimal be interested).

In the meantime, I'm going to work on creating a user interface for the Start Date Patch so that users can easily set the start date.

Amazing!

[archibalduk]

I've gotten the basic UI of the CSD Patch up and running. I just need to figure out how to get the application to load EHM - I'm going round in circles trying to get it to work.

The UI will have three buttons/options:

- Launch and patch EHM in windowed mode
- Launch and patch EHM in fullscreen mode
- Patch EHM if it is already running

I'll then work on a "Quick Launch" version which will simply load everything without any UI or requiring the user to change any settings. You will just add a parameter to the shortcut to indicate what start year you want and whether you want windowed/fullscreen mode.

[AdamOates]

This is really great. I hope it all works out. The editor can change all the birth dates back to what they were right?