Editing league structures & rules using a hex editor / ArtMoney

[Alessandro]

You can just remove the vets in the AHL/ECHL limits by using the generic "no-limit-for-imports" option

[Alessandro]

So are you enjoying your league? Please notice that Canadian teams won't have US players as foreigners and vice versa. Share with us some screenshots

No, because I got it done at 1:30am my time and then just went to bed after testing it. I should have done it earlier but I was playing the Diablo III demo on XBox instead. That was part of my problem too I think: I was messing around in a hex editor after midnight and that's never a great idea with me because my brain isn't at full functionality..

I need to get a DB ready in the pre-game editor (move SM Liiga, SEL, KHL teams, etc to replace some NHL teams) and then I can start a game. If I get ambitious I'll go in and change the AHL to a similar setup and thengive new affiliations between the two.

The problems that I still see potentially will be with the AI. The AI doesn't seem to handle vet limits very well, for instance in the AHL when you blank out team rosters (they'll signs 15 vets even though they can only dress 5, and play with half-full rosters) so I don't now how the AI will handle signing and drafting guys with limits in place.

And yeah I remember from trying this in the RSL/KHL before that the game doesn't distinguish between Americans and Canadians. That's annoying in a way, but also not a big deal to me personally at least because my main goal was to get the European teams mixed in there and see what happens. With 30 teams I may toss in some teams from weird nations just for fun.


My next thing to fiddle with then will be vet limits in the AHL and ECHL. I often play games in the AHL with unaffiliated, blanked-out teams and it might be fun to not have any vet limits and see what the level of play is like then.

Ok you might be intersted. I created a sort of world league using 5 teams from Canada, 5 from the US, 5 from Russia and the rest from Sweden (5 teams), Finland (4 teams), Czech Republic (2 teams), Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria (1 team each).
I also created the AHL using real AHL teams from the "real" NHL ones, the rest with junior teams for the teams in the NHL (I combined a couple of affiliated as the AHL has 27 teams).
It looks very fun, but right now I'm unsure in what to do with the ECHL.
Maybe you have some suggestions?

[Primis]

Ok you might be intersted. I created a sort of world league using 5 teams from Canada, 5 from the US, 5 from Russia and the rest from Sweden (5 teams), Finland (4 teams), Czech Republic (2 teams), Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria (1 team each).
I also created the AHL using real AHL teams from the "real" NHL ones, the rest with junior teams for the teams in the NHL (I combined a couple of affiliated as the AHL has 27 teams).
It looks very fun, but right now I'm unsure in what to do with the ECHL.
Maybe you have some suggestions?

Leave the ECHL teams as-is and just switch their affiliations. That'd be my lazy answer.

I got a lot more wild with my 30 NHL teams. I put in 4 American teams, 3 Canadian (sorry, knocked out the 4th because I wanted Croatia included!) and Russian teams, 2 Swedish and Finnish, and 1 of everyone else on down to including teams from Denmark, Norway, Italy, Britain, France, Slovenia, and even Croatia. Actually considering knocking out the 4th US team to add yet another odball but I have no idea who it'd be (Japan? Hungary?) as I've already started hitting the level where there may not be enough players in the DB for respective nationalities. I really wanted some fun diversity though. I also have gone through the DB and "forced" some of the notables from the lesser countries onto their representative (ie, Anze Kopitar and Jan Mursak onto Olimpija... etc) which seems only fair considering the built-in advantage to North American teams are gonna' have. And I cheated and flagged a small handful of players to different nationalities to help as well.

I'll probably do like you did with my AHL (use real affiliate/junior teams) and also remove the Vet rule from either the AHL or the ECHL so I expect it will be flooded with better talent but not as good at developing. Also going to bump the KHL's rep down just a little.

I did this kind of thing before in the KHL/RSL and it took days to prep my DB. I also flat-out released all the NHLers from clubs no longer in the NHL, as well as notables worldwide. Totally worth it though, especially now that literally every player in the DB is now game with it being the NHL level (Vanek wouldn't sign to the RSL no matter what before, etc).


I don't suppose anyone ever found a way to change the 50/80 rule in the NHL (or remove it altogether)? That's my next project then, to try and fix the ECHL and NHL roster and contract limitations, because I want to see what happens to the "AA" level when NHL teams can supply most of the ECHLers (like in the AHL).

[Alessandro]

Well you included Italy, Britain, France and Croatia and left out Dinamo Riga, Dinamo Minsk and Barys Astana
With Barys, though, Russians won't be foreigners

[Primis]

Well you included Italy, Britain, France and Croatia and left out Dinamo Riga, Dinamo Minsk and Barys Astana
With Barys, though, Russians won't be foreigners

Nope, those exact 3 are already in too. They have more players though and I considered them less-surprising and didn't list them. Dinamo Riga is a random fave team of mine. I thought the others I listed would be more eye-catching. I'll probably play as one of those oddball teams too, to test. Stavanger IK or Herning Blue Fox might be fun.

And yeah, I'm aware of the Barys issue. No biggie. Minor thing in the grand scheme of things.

Has anyone looked to see if the American/Canadian and Kazakh/Russian issues can be resolved by modifying the .EXE though? I've always been completely baffled as to why there are exceptions for those nations.

Also, nino got USSR and Czechoslovokia active in the game, right?

[nino33]

Also, nino got USSR and Czechoslovokia active in the game, right?

Nope!

The only hex editing I've done is years ago to remove retired numbers, and the only way I accomplished the task was with step-by-step instructions/screenshots from Hobbit13; we talked about trying to remove some rules (like shootouts), but as it required overwriting all of the NHL rules with another league's rules I didn't pursue the issue

I like the idea of adjusting foreigner limits, but without complete step-by-step instructions and screenshots I doubt I could figure it out (and I'm not really working on the 1974DB or any other significant similar editing project at this time)

[Primis]

Also, nino got USSR and Czechoslovokia active in the game, right?

Nope!

The only hex editing I've done is years ago to remove retired numbers, and the only way I accomplished the task was with step-by-step instructions/screenshots from Hobbit13; we talked about trying to remove some rules (like shootouts), but as it required overwriting all of the NHL rules with another league's rules I didn't pursue the issue

USSR for instance is in the DB though. So that's weird, that there are countries in the DB you can't use. I mean, I'm guessing it just not as simple as activating them in the editor?

[Primis]

And *sigh*.

*facepalm*

The PreGame Editor freaked out on me during a save and not the DB is corrupt and own't load in either the editor or EHM. *sigh*

So there's a good 2 or 3 days of editing down the drain.... worst part? I was saving so I could load in EHM and take a screenie of my modified NHL league screen, with the new teams and rules.

[archibalduk]

And *sigh*.

*facepalm*

The PreGame Editor freaked out on me during a save and not the DB is corrupt and own't load in either the editor or EHM. *sigh*

So there's a good 2 or 3 days of editing down the drain.... worst part? I was saving so I could load in EHM and take a screenie of my modified NHL league screen, with the new teams and rules.

Stick your DB in an email to me and I'll see if any of the data is recoverable. If its only a minor file that was corrupted then it might be possible to recover it. No promises though. What DB did you base your DB on?

Archibalduk AT gmail DOT com

[Primis]

Stick your DB in an email to me and I'll see if any of the data is recoverable. If its only a minor file that was corrupted then it might be possible to recover it. No promises though. What DB did you base your DB on?

Archibalduk AT gmail DOT com

It's OK. I modify the TBL/Manimal/Lidas DB and save as a separate version, and then do my other modifications based off that modified base. Thanks for the offer though.

I deleted the DB, probably wasn't worth messing with anyways. I already redid the new alignment from scratch (and even took the opportunity to bump out the 4th American team to make way for a Polish one, because why not, doesn't Poland deserve hockey love too?). I maybe got half of it rebuilt already. I'll hopefully try to get a screenie of the NHL league rules and alignment tonight. I still have to go back through the players and manually reassign some of their contracted teams as well as setting Liked Teams the way I did before to try and encourage some of the notables from lesser countries to "stay at home".

I've edited sooooooooooooo many things in the pregame editor in the past and NEVER had that problem happen, I suppose I was overdue.