1974/75: Nino's Rosters - Mario Lemieux as an 8 year old

[nino33]

Greetings!

The 1974 database test version 0.4 will be ready tonight...if you're interested and have the time this week to test please contact me via PM! The plan is if the testing goes well I'll release it publicly next week! I know it’s not a lot of time for testing…what I’m really wanting to ensure is that it works for everyone, and if possible get some feedback on the recent Attribute editing

I've done significant editing to the Attributes of THOUSANDS of players...as a result this is a different database than previous versions, and I'd love to get feedback from as many testers as possible.

IMO this is by far the best version of the 1974 database ever! Not only have NHL Staff been reviewed/edited (I didn't really realize how bad/useless many created/historical NHL Staff were until the summer testing), and not only do teenagers and preteens have age appropriate Attributes (dramatically improving the relevance of scouting and training-development), but NHL players have also been the subject of recent significant review/editing too - I honestly didn't realize how "off" many of the Attribute ratings (IMO) were previously! I believe they are now much more representative of the era in general, as well as the specific individual historical players.

Almost all of this player Attribute editing has been done in the last week, and so I'm sure there's still errors/issues...but it is definitely much improved!


Regards

P.S. New avatar pic is Bruins great Gerry Cheevers during his few years in the WHA (with the Cleveland Crusaders)

[nino33]

I've been working on “all D contracted to an NHL team” since yesterday, and recently decided to check Height/Weight and the resulting Strength Attribute...and pretty much none of them are correct! I had no idea! I used the Strength Calculator when working on Major Junior and teenage/preteen minor hockey players, but the 1974 NHL rosters were one of the first things completed (late 2010 IIRC) and I didn’t even know about the strength calculator at that time…clearly they Height-Weight-Strength has not been reviewed/edited since!

I'm not sure if I'll get through all the D before sending it out for testing tonight, but this weekend I will for sure review and edit as necessary the Height-Weight-Strength of all players contracted to an NHL team…

[nino33]

Wow...this project I've been working on for two years is finally going to see a release! Just doing "final tweaks" this long weekend...


Thought I'd post a general overview of "big things" that I didn't get to and will have to wait for the first update (maybe Christmas?)...and a general overview of the "big things" that are part of the initial release...

All players still require further review to make them a better representative of the real life player…but they’re not bad right now! I estimate each group of “historical players” (minor hockey, Major Junior, AHL/CHL and NHL) will take many weeks to further edit. And so “they’re as good as they’re going to get!” For now…

1. The Bantam and PreJunior minor hockey players still require further review and editing (and team placement); all of the "minor hockey" players need additional editing in light of recent "increased Attribute awareness/knowledge"
2. The AHL and CHL players still require further review and editing as players (and the vast majority have not been reviewed and contracted to an NHL team as applicable...they're just contracted to their AHL/CHL team)
3. There are additional WHL and OHL players to be added (using 1974-75 WHL/OHL Guides)
4. Additional Staff – AHL/CHL plus Major Junior
5. There are additional minor hockey players to be added (using Major Junior Guides/Yearbooks from years well after 1974)
What I’ve learned and really solidified a grasp on about Attributes in the last ten days will help me immensely when I do get to looking further at the Attributes for the player groups I’ve listed above – but each group is about 1000 players and there’s dozens of Attributes for each player! Maybe some/all of this editing will be done by year end???
6. Creating “minor hockey leagues” for Europe/Russia
7. Populate European/Russian Elite Leagues with historical players
Each of these two tasks (6 and 7) will likely take months to complete! Realistically it’s just not likely I’ll be completing these tasks anytime soon (if we get an EHM Updater for EHM 2005 it’s more likely) – likely between now and year end I’ll add “some’ younger historical Europeans/Russians (can’t say how many really)



That’s what’s not ready yet…here’s what is ready, and soon to be released!
- Created a historical NHL from 1974 by combining the two NA pro leagues (NHL and WHA…for those that might not know there were 2 major pro hockey leagues from 1972-1979 in North America)
- Created historical AHL by combining 27 historical minor pro teams from IRL 1974
- Created a historical CHL (14 of 16 teams) by using the remaining historical pro teams from IRL 1974
- Historical NHL rosters as of 1974!
- Historical NHL Staff! Many created from retired players to increase the number of Assistant Coaches and Scouts
- AHL/CHL players 100% populated with historical (minor pro) players
- Major Junior teams (WHL-OHL-QMJHL) 100% populated with historical players
- Created hundreds of historical "minor hockey" players who are age 1-16 at game start-up (used these players to populate the Mite, Tyke, Atom, Novice, PeeWee, Bantam and PreJunior "minor hockey" Leagues I created)
- Correct Stanley Cup, League/Team Records and Individual Awards (Art Ross, Vezina, etc) history
- Correct IRL NHL and WHA history/stats for all NHL players
- Some historical Europeans/Russians players (about 100 total)
- Free Agent modern Players and Staff have been deleted! As have modern Players/Staff from European/Russian Elite First Division/Junior!
- Significant review and editing of Players and Staff Attributes

AND…due to the fabulous work of user XenHL the complete overhaul of all NHL, AHL, CHL, ECHL, WHL, OHL and QMJHL teams will come complete with historical/vintage team logos!!!
AND…again to the fabulous work of XenHL the contracted to NHL team players all have player pics!!!
AND…thanks to B. Stinson with have “center ice logos” for all 30 NHL 1974 teams!!! And if desired the trapezoid can even be removed from the ice for that retro look!!!

Hopefully those that try it out will enjoy it, and find it “immersive”

[bruins72]

Great work! This is going to be a whole lot of fun!

[nino33]

Editing EHM can be a real struggle...and even here at the end of a two year journey, I'm running into EHM weirdness and EHM editing difficulties!

Long story short all the NHL players have "0" (variable) for their contract $ amount, and yesterday/today it seems whenever I try to edit anything EHM is acting like it never has before, and player wages and team salary totals suddenly all fall severely (noticed when looking at Rosters/Finances/etc on starting screens)...so I then spend hours determining myself what NHL player salaries should be, but can't figure out how exactly to import the data back into EHM using the Updater! So I'm doing it manually using the PreGame Editor...

I didn't even intend on doing this (but manually editing seems to work/fix the issue)...



EDIT - Wow...with three teams done I suddenly notice something's wrong...Boston Bruin players all have CA/PA of "0"??? What??? How did that happen??? Aaaargh!!! Something must have gone wrong at some point! Grrr.... So I've had to go back to yesterday afternoon's save - right to the bitter end, so many hurdles...so frustrating

10:13 pm Alberta time - Getting there...manually editing/inputting NHL player salary, about 2/3 done

11:08 pm Alberta time - All done! Thankfully tomorrow's a holiday...as has often been the case , IMO the "editing challenge" once overcome results in a better database - now the NHL players have actual reasonable/relative salary amounts! Better than all having "0" I'd say!

12:51 am Alberta time - Still editing!...applied the couple attribute_update csvs "again" (found/fixed an error in one that I think musta connected to my earlier CA/PA of "0" problem)

[Manimal]

Salary can be edited by the contract_update-file

[nino33]

Salary can be edited by the contract_update-file

can't figure out how exactly to import the data back into EHM using the Updater! So I'm doing it manually using the PreGame Editor...

I couldn't figure out exactly what columns need to be in the file when uploading, kept getting error messages, so I did it manually (to keep working during the time I had) and then moved on to other things...

[archibalduk]

That's my fault; I forgot to include sample csv templates with the latest version of the Updater.

I think I need to include within the readme some information about what columns are in each csv as it is easy to mix them up and it has been the source of confusion for a few users.

Btw, when you have finished your DB, apply the Patch Fix mentioned in my recent blog post. This will repair a tiny inconsistency with any players you may have created since you last applied the fix.

[nino33]

Btw, when you have finished your DB, apply the Patch Fix

I'ver been applying the "Staff Fix" patch after each csv update...correct?

[archibalduk]

You can if you like, but it's not essential. The issue it repairs isn't even a bug; it's just a consistency issue which arises whenever you use the Updater to create new players.

[nino33]

issue which arises whenever you use the Updater to create new players

So as long as I'm not actually creating new players/staff, I don't need to use the Staff Fix Patch when using the Updater...OK, sounds good!

[nino33]

Last day of editing! And I know what I'm doing!.....recent testing noted that NHL player Strength seemed "off" - looking closer not only is Strength frequently incorrect, but so is Height and/or Weight...IIRC last week I "fixed" all Defensemen and today I'm working on Forwards...

Last day of editing!

[nino33]

FYI Last week in testing a never before encountered error message appeared...here's the message I got

Have you ever encountered an error that says "Error v3.0.4 utils.cpp 729"? I got it once, saved to a new file instead of my existing save, exited, and loaded up again with my original save. I get past that point no problem but then (game) days later, it popped up again.
I get the error but I don't actually crash. It's just a box where I have to click Okay. Then the game continues on. It's odd. It's an annoyance. But it's not something that will stop the game.

I'm not sure if this'll happen every time or only sometimes...apparently "somewhere there's a -1 or 0 when there needs to be at least a 1" or something like that



I'm still reviewing/editing NHL player strength...tedious work, LW/C are done - once the RWs are done "I'm done" (to be honest at this point I can't wait!)

[bruins72]

Ah! So you've narrowed down my error somewhat?

Keep up the good work! You're in the home stretch.

[nino33]

Ah! So you've narrowed down my error somewhat?

I followed up on your feedback, and corrected Hank Nowak's PIM entry (that showed "-14" instead of "11" on the Player Info tab!)...hopefully that solves it!

You're in the home stretch.

All done!

[archibalduk]

I'll have this online and ready to download when I get home from work!

[nickflyers]

Awww man can't wait!!! Nino, this was a fantastic effort thank you for all the time you put in to this db.

[Manimal]

Awesome!

Great to see you have a release after all the work!

[bruins72]

Congrats on the release and thanks for the hard work!

[Metalbrian2]

Amazing work!!!!

[CeeBee]

Congratulations and thanks immensely for all the hard work and perserverence you have put into it. I'm going on holidays but it will top of my to-do list when I get home next week.

[batdad]

Wow on the release. Awesome stuff. I wish I was going to get a chance to delve straight in....but real life stuff is in the way of me being even around much here right now. darn real life...I want to be a 1974 Wang GM. No that is not a typo.

[XenHL]

Perserverance pays dividends! Us lesser mortals would long ago have given up where you kept going!

Looking forward to playing this for real now!

[Richie Daggers Crime]

Looks great so far. I've run across a couple things: 1) when I check ECHL when starting a new game, it crashes. 2) Jaroslav Balastik is still in the DB.

Thanks for the hard work.

[speedy_gonzales]

Cheers Nino!

This will be really awesome. I look forward to draft The Great One