Custom Start Date Patch / ArtMoney Development Thread

[SFink]

I have the exact same issue with the records thing.. not a big deal... but I'm more concerned about the waivers thing.. and the ability to sign under-aged players that have not even yet gone through the NHL Entry Draft... like Cody Payne (and I also saw Shane Prince get signed by the panthers.. even though he his only 18 years old.. and should actually belong to the Ottawa Senators...)

[archibalduk]

I have the exact same issue with the records thing.. not a big deal...

Which issue is that? Are you sure the issue isn't present when playing with the previous rosters (e.g. Manimal/Lidas v3.x) without the CSD Patch? A lot of users have reported that records aren't present in game but they don't seem to be in game even without the CSD Patch - at least as far as I can tell.

but I'm more concerned about the waivers thing.. and the ability to sign under-aged players that have not even yet gone through the NHL Entry Draft... like Cody Payne (and I also saw Shane Prince get signed by the panthers.. even though he his only 18 years old.. and should actually belong to the Ottawa Senators...)

This is because the "Date Joined" data for the NHL players needs to be updated. Manimal has just finished updating this and it will feature in the v4.1 rosters to be released in the near future.

[SFink]

Well I dont know if it's the CSD Patch or just the Rosters for it... But I am 100% sure than when playing with v3.x of the rosters I never had this issue of getting so many news reports about NHL records beeing set / beaten...

Thanks for the update of the 'Date Joined' thing...

[archibalduk]

Well I dont know if it's the CSD Patch or just the Rosters for it... But I am 100% sure than when playing with v3.x of the rosters I never had this issue of getting so many news reports about NHL records beeing set / beaten...

I know what you mean - I don't remember all of those news items either. However, it does appear that even in the v3.x rosters all of those records are blank. I will triple-check this at some point though.

[SFink]

sorry what I meant is that almost every day I receive a 'news' that a new NHL record was just broken... Like most pts in a season.. most goals in a season... etc...

And I am sure that when I was playing with version 3 I was not getting those 'news'... (Maybe the records were empty and getting broken all the time.. but for some reason I was not getting this 'news' in my 'mailbox'...) but it's really not that big a deal...

[archibalduk]

I've taken a quick look at modifying the starting day of the month for the individual leagues. The starting day for North America can be found at 00C2 A5E8. I'm able to change the starting day in the drop-down menu to any date between 30 August and 30 September. The default value is 242 (= 30 Aug or 1 Sep depending on the start year) and this can be changed to up to 211 (30 September). However the game comes up with date.cpp errors and the actual date in game doesn't change. Either the date cannot be changed or there are several offsets that have to be updated.

P.s. As always, ArtMoney is what I used to change the values.

[archibalduk]

In testing the next version of the TBL Rosters with the 2013/14 start date, we've come across a crash with the CSD Patch. It relates to the fact that this is the first year since the release of the Patch where the Olympics have taken place in the first season.

I've found how to fix it and will release a new version of the Patch probably next week.

[archibalduk]

As mentioned in my previous post, we've come across a 'v3.0.4 comp_stats.cpp 1752' crash on 14 Feb 2014 when using a 2013 start date. This relates to the draw for the Olympics which takes place on 14 Feb 2014. This is the first season since releasing the Patch that the Winter Olympics has occurred in the first season. I've found the offset which fixes this crash (it's 00913AB8 which must be set to Start Date + 1) and I've today written a new version of the CSD Patch incorporating the Olympics fix. It seems to run fine if I create a game and sim through the season without quitting the game and re-loading. However, it looks as though applying the Patch when re-loading a saved game can cause a crash on 1 May 2014.

It's going to take some more testing, but it looks as though we may need two types of the Patch - one for creating new games and one for re-loading saved games. This will involve two sets of buttons on the Patch (one set of buttons for new games and one set for re-loading games). However, it might not be that simple. I need to find out at exactly what point using the Olympics fix causes the 1 May 2014 crash and at what point it fixes the original 14 February 2014 crash. If it is at some later point in the game, after creating the saved game, then things could get messy (because it'll be a case of clicking on one Patch button up until X date in the game and then using a second button once past that date).

[archibalduk]

P.s. if anybody wants to help test the latest version of the Patch, here's the download link: http://sdrv.ms/11YwBF5

I need to find out exactly at what date re-loading the game with the Patch causes the 1 May 2014 crash. It'll be somewhere between 1 October 2013 and 3 January 2014.

There is of course an alternative explanation for the crash: Perhaps I accidentally selected '2012' (rather than '2013') when I used the Patch to reload the saved game... I guess I'll find out soon enough.

[archibalduk]

There is of course an alternative explanation for the crash: Perhaps I accidentally selected '2012' (rather than '2013') when I used the Patch to reload the saved game... I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Seems it may well have been this after all!

I'll do some further tests tomorrow, but hopefully this was just a mistake on my part and not something else that needs fixing.

[archibalduk]

Great news! I've figured out how to get retro start dates in EHM!

Seeing as I've been working on the Olympics fix, I thought I'd try revisiting the retro start date issue. By testing different start dates, I found that it is possible to go all the way back to around 1979 or 1980 without the second half of the schedule disappearing. I knew it must be possible to have an earlier start date than this because even with a 1974 start date, the schedule data for the full season is visible when you first start the game (but then the schedules for January 1975 onwards mysteriously disappear even though the schedule data is still present in the saved game).

So I started looking for a 1979 or 1980 value in the game/RAM to see if there is an offset which imposes this minimum year for the schedule. Sure enough I found it at offset 0089 A1E5. I've added this to the CSD Patch and can now sim through the 1974/75 season using Nino's 1974 DB without any problem. Tomorrow I'll do some more testing and, all being well, will release a new version of the Patch with both the Olympics fix and the retro schedule fix. It's kind of a fluke I went about finding this - my girlfriend's snoring (she has a cold) has stopped me from getting to sleep so I thought I'd take another look at the retro start date before trying to sleep on the sofa!

[nino33]

I've figured out how to get retro start dates in EHM!

Oh my
Wow Wow Wow
This is simply fantastic news!

[archibalduk]

I thought you might be interested in this! I've written a tool which converts all of the years in the DB (this is how I make the non-CSD version of Manimal's rosters each release and how I got your 1974 DB to run with all of the correct years) - and I'm going to add this feature to the Updater. So it'll be easy to switch over the dates.

I'll do some more tests tomorrow, but it's all looking very good. I just want to double-double-check that the crash I mentioned earlier today in relation to the Olympics was definitely me mistakenly setting the wrong start date rather than something else.

I guess theoretically we'll be able to have start dates going back all the way to 1901.

[nino33]

I'll do some more tests tomorrow, but it's all looking very good.

So cool!


I've been getting a lot done on the 74 db lately, and will soon (weeks away) have a version 3...hopefully with a correct start date!

Wow Wow Wow

[archibalduk]

It looks like the schedule fix must be applied every time you reload your game. Otherwise the 1980 minimum is applied and the schedule disappears (similar to how Alessandro's/Marek's League Rules Patch must be applied each time you reload otherwise the rules revert back to their defaults).

This is a bit of a shame but it's no real problem. I'll write a launcher programme which will load EHM and apply the schedule fix each time you want to reload the saved game. I think the fix will only need to be applied until you reach 1981. So it'll go like this for pre-1981 start dates:

1) Use the CSD Patch until 1 Feb / 1 July as normal.
2) Once you reach 1 Feb / 1 July, use the Launcher to load EHM until you reach 1 Jan 1981.
3) Once you've reached 1981, you can load EHM like normal or you can continue to use the Launcher.

[archibalduk]

I just want to double-double-check that the crash I mentioned earlier today in relation to the Olympics was definitely me mistakenly setting the wrong start date rather than something else.

Looks like I wasn't mistaken afterall.

The game runs fine with just the NHL selected. I can sim through to 1 May 2014 no problem. It works both if I sim through immediately after starting the game or if I reload at some mid-point (I've been trying both 30 Oct 2013 and 2 Jan 2014).

However, I get a crash with Great Britain selected. I can sim through to 1 May 2014 if I either sim straight after starting the game or if I reload on 30 October 2013. However, if I quit on 2 January 2014 and then reload the game, I get the crash on 1 May 2014. I'd made some team changes to the DB and so I'm now trying to sim using a version of the DB prior to making those changes. But given the fact that it sims okay when I don't quit and reload on 2 January 2014, it looks like this is a CSD issue rather than a DB issue.

[archibalduk]

This is a difficult one to figure out. It looks like it is a start date issue and not a DB issue. It seems the crash only happens if I use the GB start date. It's fine when using the North America start date even with GB loaded on enhanced.

[archibalduk]

This is a difficult one to figure out. It looks like it is a start date issue and not a DB issue. It seems the crash only happens if I use the GB start date. It's fine when using the North America start date even with GB loaded on enhanced.

I've found that the cause of the error is that I renamed the Romford Raiders of the EPIHL to the London Raiders. My previous experience with team name-related errors is that there is normally some sort of league-related .cpp error. This particular error doesn't show any error message and it there is no crash at all unless you exit the game and reload the game between 1 January 2014 and 1 May 2014. So this has been a very unusual crash. I think this must be related to the CSD Patch somehow. I'll do some further testing in the near future, but in the mean time the most important thing is that we've fixed the issue in the DB.

Unfortunately this error took up most of my free time today and so it won't be until tomorrow when I'll be able to finalise the CSD Patch.

[Manimal]

It could be that the game is looking for the Romford Raiders name. It might work if you add a new team with that name. You don't have to have them in any league

[archibalduk]

I spoke with Manimal and I think we're going to leave Romford as they are for now. I'm going to do some further testing at a later date. I want to get on with the Updater in the mean time.

Back to the retro start date: I've finalised the CSD Patch and the Retro Launcher. You will need to use the Retro Launcher to load EHM once you have finished using the Patch (i.e. once you have reached 1 Feb / 1 July in game). Once you have reached 1 January 1980, I don't think you have to use the Launcher anymore (but you can continue to do so if you want; I don't think it will break anything).

I think the retro start date is going to be very much an experimental feature at first. I'm running a test of the Patch and Launcher at the moment to make sure it runs okay and that we definitely don't need to use the Launcher after 1 January 1980 (I'm running a 7 year sim of the NHL and Sweden using the 1974 DB, starting in 1974). I don't think I've caught all of the offsets that need changing. It looks like Russia's schedule cuts-off in January/February. It also looks like the Danish schedule becomes very sparse around February/March (I don't know if this is normal or not; I need to check). Also, the Backward/Forward arrows which allow you to scroll through the months in the schedule calendar view don't work correctly. The Backwards arrow button doesn't allow you to scroll back before December 1974 (but you can do it another way by using the drop-down menu next to the arrows which lists all of the months).

Subject to finishing my 7 year sim satisfactorily, I'm going to release the Patch and Launcher today. The readme will explain how and when to use the Launcher. It's very simple, but I can see how it might be confusing at first. The readme contains a flowchart (see below) which hopefully makes it easy to understand.

I'll also upload a copy of the 1974 DB with a 1974 start date in case anybody wants to try it out.

[archibalduk]

I thought perhaps there was an issue with the Russian league when using a retro start date because no games appear in the schedule after January. However, when I check an un-patched game with the standard 2006 start date, the Russian Superleague schedule is the same (i.e. no games after January). So perhaps there's no problem with Russia after all.

Does anybody know what happens with Russia in game? Is there some re-seeding or re-scheduling that takes place during the final two months of the regular season?

[archibalduk]

It looks like I've fixed the schedule navigation bug (the forward/backward arrow buttons weren't working correctly). There are two offsets that must be set to the start date to fix it (0x89A953 and 0x89AD5A).

I need to do some further testing with both retro start dates and the modern start date before I'll be able to upload a new version of the Patch and Launcher.

[Alessandro]

I thought perhaps there was an issue with the Russian league when using a retro start date because no games appear in the schedule after January. However, when I check an un-patched game with the standard 2006 start date, the Russian Superleague schedule is the same (i.e. no games after January). So perhaps there's no problem with Russia after all.

Does anybody know what happens with Russia in game? Is there some re-seeding or re-scheduling that takes place during the final two months of the regular season?

Yes in January there is the "phase 2" of the schedule. Open up a new save, then go to schedule. You'll see games only up to January. It will be filled later

[archibalduk]

Excellent; thanks! That's how it is appearing using the historic start date too. So it looking like all leagues work fine with the retro start date after all.

[bruins72]

Great work! This really opens things up for more realistic retro play.