Custom Start Date Patch & Retro Launcher: Questions & Errors

[archibalduk]

Hi there, i followed all the instruction to the Artmoney trick, it worked.

The problem is, when i start a new game, the start date goes back to 2006.

Also the CSD patch doesnt seem to work aswell, I didnt get any error loading it but the date doesnt change.

I got the same problem as dursac. It's quite anyoing to have a golie that is 13 years old

You have to use the ArtMoney trick each time you start a new game. You must also use it each time you re-load a saved game (but you MUST stop using it once you have reached 1 July of season 1 in game).

You don't need the CSD Patch because you are using the ArtMoney trick.

[dursac]

Hi there, i followed all the instruction to the Artmoney trick, it worked.

The problem is, when i start a new game, the start date goes back to 2006.

Also the CSD patch doesnt seem to work aswell, I didnt get any error loading it but the date doesnt change.

I got the same problem as dursac. It's quite anyoing to have a golie that is 13 years old

You have to use the ArtMoney trick each time you start a new game. You must also use it each time you re-load a saved game (but you MUST stop using it once you have reached 1 July of season 1 in game).

You don't need the CSD Patch because you are using the ArtMoney trick.

Ohh .. Theres no other way? cause i tend to create a new game everytime i screw up a trade

Does re-installing the game from scratch fix the CSD patch problem?? or does it not work for everyone else?

[archibalduk]

No, there's no other way I'm afraid. The Patch works by modifying some of the EHM data in the RAM (every time you run a program, it is loaded into the RAM). There are certain critical dates in game which must be modified by the Patch and so you must modify these each time you re-load your saved game until you have passed these dates. Hence the rule that you must keep using it to re-load until you reach 1 July of season 1.

I have no idea how to fix the CSD Patch problem. I have tried a variety of things, but with no success. The problem is that I cannot replicate the issue on my computer and so this prevents me from taking a proper look. The CSD Patch seems to work for about 95% or users. The other 5% either have to use the ArtMoney method or they have the CD-ROM edition and have to use the 2006 adjusted rosters (the CD-ROM version of the game isn't compatible with the patch because the data in the RAM is encrypted).

[dursac]

No, there's no other way I'm afraid. The Patch works by modifying some of the EHM data in the RAM (every time you run a program, it is loaded into the RAM). There are certain critical dates in game which must be modified by the Patch and so you must modify these each time you re-load your saved game until you have passed these dates. Hence the rule that you must keep using it to re-load until you reach 1 July of season 1.

I have no idea how to fix the CSD Patch problem. I have tried a variety of things, but with no success. The problem is that I cannot replicate the issue on my computer and so this prevents me from taking a proper look. The CSD Patch seems to work for about 95% or users. The other 5% either have to use the ArtMoney method or they have the CD-ROM edition and have to use the 2006 adjusted rosters (the CD-ROM version of the game isn't compatible with the patch because the data in the RAM is encrypted).

Could it be that my game isnt compatible with the patch? But it doesnt make sense because it worked before.. hmm

Maybe I must have done something wrong. This is what i did after a clean install.

1. Installed the game
2. Patched it to 3.0.4
3. Updated the rosters
4. Put the CSD Patch in the EHM folder run as administrator etc.

I have all the recquirements thats needed for the CSD patch. Was there something that i miss or done wrong that caused the CSD patch to not work?

[archibalduk]

No, it isn't related to the steps you have taken. It relates to how the game is loaded into the RAM.

I only have a basic understanding, but from what I do understand, when you load the game it essentially decompresses its data into the RAM (when you compile a programme into an exe, the compiler compresses the data so that the exe is a small as possible). The CSD Patch works in the same was as ArtMoney - i.e. it modifies some of the data in the RAM. Through trial and error, I have found where the start year is controlled in the RAM. I have put these locations (also known as offsets) into the CSD Patch and also into the ArtMoney .amt file. The Patch/ArtMoney modifies the values in the RAM with the desired year - basically we are tricking EHM to start in a different season.

A very small minority of users find that the CSD Patch does not work. From what I can tell, for a small number of users, when you click on the New Game button, EHM overwrites the modified start year values with the original 2006 value (hence why the CSD Patch does not work). I don't know why this happens (and I cannot explore it any further because I cannot replicate the issue). It might be that there is an additional value somewhere for some users which must also be modified by the Patch (but I cannot even begin to find this as I cannot replicate the problem). Hence you have to use the ArtMoney method which overwrites the start year after clicking on the New Game button.

Basically, you'll need to use the ArtMoney method unless you want to have a go at trying to fix the issue. I posted a lot of information and guides here which would help somebody try and fix the issue (but it will take hours of trial and error just like development of the CSD Patch did).

If you find that the ArtMoney method is too much of a pain then you could always use the 2006 Adjusted version of the rosters which are designed to be used with the 2006 start date.

[Smetana]

Hi Archi, I'm hoping you might be able to assist me. I've dragged out the ol' EHM lately, and have been starting some new games using the CSD patch and ArtMoney method. Using your instructions earlier in this thread, creating games works perfectly, but I'm having no luck at all with opening my save games. I crash every time on September 18.

I assume I am doing something wrong in loading the saves. Could you list the details of the procedure for using the ArtMoney method in loading saves? I've been proceeding in this order:

1. Load EHM
2. Apply CSD patch
3. Click "Load game" and selecting my save game
4. Once the game loads, starting up ArtMoney, loading the custom offset table and making standard adjustments

I'm doing something out of order, I'd say. Does any obvious mistake jump out at you?

On a brighter note, I've been messing about with the database, using the realism patch, and have gotten things to where penalty minutes and fights are realistic, and power play opps are also in line with reality.

[archibalduk]

Hey Jan! The cause of the problem is most likely that you're applying ArtMoney after you load the game. Swap steps 3 and 4 around and it should be okay.

Note that if you loaded your game without first loading ArtMoney and then saved the game, your game may now be permanently corrupt.

The 18th Sept is an unusual crash date. It makes me wonder if the cause is perhaps unrelated to the patch/ArtMoney. Are you using a 2012 start date? If so, do you have any Euro leagues selected (Sweden in particular)? We found that the game crashes if you use the NHL game start date with Sweden selected. When starting a game, the best thing to do is to select the earliest game start date available from the leagues you have selected.

You might have noticed that the actual start date in August/September varies according to the start year selected. It seems that the NHL start date for 2012 is just a little too late for the game to work with Sweden.

Let me know how you get along. And please do feel free to share your modified Realism Patch settings.

[Smetana]

Cheers, Archi! You solved it. I was loading the ArtMoney table after loading the save game. Switching my steps 3 and 4 took care of this. Also, I was indeed using the North America start date with Euro leagues enabled. Everything appears to be okay, now. My thanks to you!

As far as the databse goes, I was running some sims with the realism patch, and was fairly happy with the results, but the PIM and fights thing was annoying. So, I manually edited the database's major enforcers and fighters, raising their aggression up into the 11-18 range (depending on individual tendencies). This had the effect of raising total league PIM totals to be in line with reality, fighting totals as well, but team PP opps remained in the acceptable range (about .3 PP per game per team higher than last season, but right in line with NHL totals as recently as 09-10).

I also had a major overhaul of NHL player attributes, with the desired result of having more realistic scoring leaders. Still can't get defenseman scoring where i want it, though it is improved. And PP success rates still are a bit low (about 1%-1.5% per team), but that's nothing new. Overall, it's producing realistic numbers.

Big thumbs up to your CSD patch, the Realism patch, and the latest Manimal database!

[Oilfield316]

Cheers, Archi! You solved it. I was loading the ArtMoney table after loading the save game. Switching my steps 3 and 4 took care of this. Also, I was indeed using the North America start date with Euro leagues enabled. Everything appears to be okay, now. My thanks to you!

As far as the databse goes, I was running some sims with the realism patch, and was fairly happy with the results, but the PIM and fights thing was annoying. So, I manually edited the database's major enforcers and fighters, raising their aggression up into the 11-18 range (depending on individual tendencies). This had the effect of raising total league PIM totals to be in line with reality, fighting totals as well, but team PP opps remained in the acceptable range (about .3 PP per game per team higher than last season, but right in line with NHL totals as recently as 09-10).

I also had a major overhaul of NHL player attributes, with the desired result of having more realistic scoring leaders. Still can't get defenseman scoring where i want it, though it is improved. And PP success rates still are a bit low (about 1%-1.5% per team), but that's nothing new. Overall, it's producing realistic numbers.

Big thumbs up to your CSD patch, the Realism patch, and the latest Manimal database!

Jan Smetana.... now there's a familiar name! The former roster update legend is indeed still EHM'ing it up lol Anyways, just wanted to personally express my thanks to all of your past work and wish you the very best my friend. Season greetings and cya in FHM!

[Smetana]

Hey, thanks so much for your kind words. Happy Holidays to you, as well, friend!

[MKoivuFan]

ive installed the the visual c++, the net framwork 4 and the final patch and the patch works ok for loading 2012 but when i go into ehm through the patch and click on new game the date in the bottom right still shows 2006?

[MKoivuFan]

ignore my post...

[batdad]

Always do.

[OilersFan37]

Hey guys, Im a newbie to this site.

Anyways, I downloaded what I could see was the latest roster updates, I installed them correctly, and I downloaded CSD, started a new game with the date 2012 selected, NHL, AHL, ECHL, and Canadian Jr. all enhanced, every other league selected but standard. Everything worked fine, and I was amazed at how cool this was.

I simmed a few days, invited my prospects and and some others to my training camp, and simmed a few more days till Sept. 11, 2012. Thats where I saved and exited the game and went to bed.

So Today after work, I decided to resume my game. I did my research and I know that I have to relaunch the CSD patch every time I want to reload my game. I have tried the following in order.
1. Launch ESHM 2007
2. Launched CSD patch
3. Loaded my game.

It loaded just fine, but when I advanced, I got the error message saying that ESHM stopped working.

So I tried it again, but I switched up my order. I loaded my game, then launched the patch. I wen to advance a day, and I same the same error message immediately. So Clearly im doing something wrong. Can anybody help me out?

Thanks in advance.

[archibalduk]

Welcome to TBL!

There are three buttons at the bottom of the Patch windows - which one do you use? I'm guessing seeing as you're loading EHM first, you must be using the "Apply Patch Only" option. In which case, did you follow the advice below recommended by the readme?

If you have already loaded EHM then this will simply apply the patch for you. Note that you must have EHM at the Opening Main Menu screen when clicking on this button. The Opening Main Menu screen is the first screen you see when you load EHM (the screen with the large buttons entitled New Game / Load Last Game / Load Game / Delete Game / etc).

Did you use the "Run as Admin" option to load the Patch?

[OilersFan37]

Hey. Thanks for the quick reply. I have tried both the "Launch and Patch EHM (Standard), and "Apply Patch Only" and both came with the same results.

Also I found this on an very early page in this thread, so I checked just to be sure. I did pay for the game using an eLisence updating the demo version of the game.

If your exe is 16mb then you're using the cracked version. The legitimate version of EHM is only 9mb. I have not tested the patch with the cracked version and nor do I intend to. Although it sucks that EHM is no longer for sale, The Blue Line will never support piracy.

My file size of my .exe is 9.08 MB (9,531,392 bytes), so I should be safe.

But when I just tried again just now I unticked the box that says "Automaticaly close this patch window, and I looked at what the patch had to say. This may be a cause for concern.

"Loading EHM...
Please wait whilst EHM loads...
WARNING: Unrecognised version of EHM.
The patch might not work.
Debug info:
1) eLicense: 0
2) Crack: 1667845221
3) CD-ROM: 1702063717
Applying 2012 start year...
Patch type 3 (default)
Patch successful.
Please note the 1 warning(s) listed above."

So where do I go from here?

Edit... I just tried again to relaunch the patch to start a new game, and everything now appears to in tip top shape.
"Loading EHM...
Please wait whilst EHM loads...
Applying 2012 start year...
Patch type 1 (eLicense)
Patch successful."
I will start a new game, try it out, and report back.

Edit 2 ....
After simming a few days, and after a couple of saves (I like to save often, didn't exit the game at all, and I made it to Sept. 10,2012. Thats when EHM stopped working. What the Dickens? This is kinda frustrating.

I would also like to point out that before I did these game updates, and new downloads, my game would crash after the season... like in late april of the first year. The game used to work perfectly up until a few weeks ago. In those few weeks, and before, I did nothing to my computer, or data base, or anything else that would make me think I knew what may have caused the problems. May this new info come into play while determining why the patch isn't working? My game is now basically unplayable.

[ollybecks]

Thanks its working Archibald.

[archibalduk]

"Loading EHM...
Please wait whilst EHM loads...
WARNING: Unrecognised version of EHM.
The patch might not work.
Debug info:
1) eLicense: 0
2) Crack: 1667845221
3) CD-ROM: 1702063717
Applying 2012 start year...
Patch type 3 (default)
Patch successful.
Please note the 1 warning(s) listed above."

So where do I go from here?

Edit... I just tried again to relaunch the patch to start a new game, and everything now appears to in tip top shape.
"Loading EHM...
Please wait whilst EHM loads...
Applying 2012 start year...
Patch type 1 (eLicense)
Patch successful."
I will start a new game, try it out, and report back.

I've used the CSD Patch a heck of a lot over the past year or so for testing databases, tools, etc. 99.999% of the time it works without a problem. However, on one or two occasions, I've had the same message pop-up about the warning. My guess is that there is some slight delay in EHM loading up and so EHM isn't ready for the Patch to be applied when the Patch applies. I haven't seen the issue since I've upgraded to an SSD hard drive, but I did get it on my old spindle/traditional hard drive. My guess is that the hard drive has gone to sleep (many of them have power-saving modes) and waking up results in a slight delay in the game loading. I might be wrong, but my guess is some delay in loading EHM is likely to be the cause.

After simming a few days, and after a couple of saves (I like to save often, didn't exit the game at all, and I made it to Sept. 10,2012. Thats when EHM stopped working. What the Dickens? This is kinda frustrating.

I would also like to point out that before I did these game updates, and new downloads, my game would crash after the season... like in late april of the first year. The game used to work perfectly up until a few weeks ago. In those few weeks, and before, I did nothing to my computer, or data base, or anything else that would make me think I knew what may have caused the problems. May this new info come into play while determining why the patch isn't working? My game is now basically unplayable.

This is sounding like an EHM issue rather than a CSD issue. I know others have suddenly encountered crashes whenever trying to start a new game in EHM even though they haven't had problems beforehand and they haven't modified anything in game. Wiping the database folder tends to help. Here's what I'd suggest as a first point of call:

1. Go to C:\Users\<YOUR USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Sports Interactive\EHM 2007 (note that I'm referring to a different location to your EHM installation folder). This set of folders might not exist, but just check. If it does, see if there is a folder named 'data' - if there is, delete it.

2. Now go to your EHM installation folder (usually C:\Program Files\...). Navigate to your data -> database folder. Delete all of the files in this folder.

3. Re-download the Manimal Rosters. Extract them into a sub-folder in your database folder.

4. Right-click on your ehm2007.exe file -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Tick the box entitled "Run this program as administrator". Click on Apply and Ok.

5. Load EHM. As you have enabled the Run as Admin option, you'll get a User Access Control message. Just click on Yes to say that you want to load the game.

6. Once you are at the main menu (i.e. the main screen with the New Game / Load Game / Delete Game / etc buttons), load the CSD Patch (again, you should load this as Run as Admin). Use the "Apply Patch Only" button.

7. Now create a new game in EHM selecting just the NHL. Put your GM on vacation and try simming past the date where you normally get the crash.

If you still get any crashes, I would suggest unlicensing and uninstalling the game. Then try reinstalling it afresh.

[Hunter]

Have you been able to fix the problem when someone doesn't load the patch evertime and the game crashes on May 25th?

[archibalduk]

Have you been able to fix the problem when someone doesn't load the patch evertime and the game crashes on May 25th?

No, it corrupts the game (because the game tries to use default 2006 dates in game whereas the Patch is telling it to use 2012 - so if you forget to run the patch the saved game becomes a mess of 2006 and 2012 dates). In those circumstances, you have to start a new game. Enabling rolling saves can be helpful because it leaves the opportunity to restore an earlier copy of the saved game.

[Fredlig]

Possibly the wrong thread but when i start a game the participating countries in the WC are some obscure countries like Bahrain Angola and so on, all the usual countries ends up in the second division WC. The only thing i did to the database was adding a few players. Anyone?

[archibalduk]

Possibly the wrong thread but when i start a game the participating countries in the WC are some obscure countries like Bahrain Angola and so on, all the usual countries ends up in the second division WC. The only thing i did to the database was adding a few players. Anyone?

What are you using to change the start date? Are you using the latest version of the patch?

The bug you describe was a problem back in 2011 with the very early development of the patch. I think it was fixed before we released version 1. It sounds like you're using a beta or perhaps a very old ArtMoney file.

[Fredlig]

Downloaded the latest patch -> fixed it. Thank you very much

[marko11]

I set up year 2012 with artmoney but how do now make players 6 years younger like in reallity?

I fixed it!

[MKoivuFan]

So i downloaded the updated version of artmoney se v7.04.5

when i open ehm and then open art money, when i open the 00c6 start date offset amt file it shows 2012 in the new game where u can pick the countries but when i pick russia august 1st 2012 start date i get 2 errors

1) error v304 fin_suomi.cpp 1333
2) error v304 fin_suomi.cpp 1559

then i tried the csd patch vo-07 amt file and change the value and then start a new game it still lists it as 2006... Keep in mind this was both done with the 2012-2013 TBL rosters

Then i opened ehm, tapped out Then i tried the csd patch and i clicked apply patch only and then it closed and then i opened ehm back up and then started a new game the date was 2006....

b) I have also downloaded the csb xp edition patch it says it works but when i go to start a new game it still lists it as 2006
was wondering what i was doing wrong?