EHM The Blue Line

Okay! I've now finished populating both the NHL and the AHL with players, and each team in these leagues has the correct head coach. I didn't keep count but I've added quite a lot of players already!

My next step will be to do the Major Junior teams, and then when that's done, if a couple of you would like to give the DB a test run to give some feedback on abilities and whatnot, then I'll send the DB to you.

Things on the to-do list for after that, for North America:

* populate CHL, ECHL, UHL
* deal with the teams in the 'major' US College leagues
* After those players are all assigned, go through remaining uncontracted North American players and clean up - invalidate players who retired before the 79/80 season, assign any players still active in 79/80 to their respective teams. (As far as retirements go, I'm going to only retire those players who were born in-game 1975 or before; younger than that, I'll leave them in as free agents even if IRL they retired young)
* Enter correct NHL draft data

When that's all done, I *think* the vast bulk of the North American work will be done, and I'll be able to move on to dealing with European teams/players. HOWEVER!

Something I'd like to do probably fairly soon is to get the correct teams (with correct names!) into their respective leagues for the 1979/80 season, which I'll likely do before I even start on populating the Major Junior teams as I don't think this step should take very long at all.

Do you plan on having future NHLers in the DB as youngster, like how Nino did it in the 1974 DB?

I most certainly do!

Although I will first deal with the players already in the DB (Nino's) before adding any new ones.

Well, I've come up against my first failure!

I decided to take a break from roster work to fix the teams in the major European leagues (Austria, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Russia). I did Austria as my first test, no problems. Czech, Slovak and Germany also went smoothly. Russia was a bit trickier due to a failure in my own note-taking, but no problems in the end, test-run went fine (only went as far as starting a game up and poking around at the different teams once in a new game, didn't actually sim anything).

With that all working and saved, I guess I got too confident, and tackled the Finnish and Swedish leagues next. Got the team names changed where needed, teams swapped in the leagues, making sure the Swedish teams all had a junior affiliate too... go to test, it loses. Lightbulb moment - check the Finnish teams for junior affiliations, okay, fix that... but still crashes. So now I don't know what else I might try here.

I do have a separate save-file made after I finished the AHL rosters ("save 2"). I copied this into a new folder and called it "save 3", and I started the team name/league work on this "save 3". But stupidly, after each success, I kept pressing on with work on "save 3".

Soooooo... now I will have to restart from "save 2" again. I'm going to redo the work I did with AT, CZ, SK, DE and RU leagues, after each one doing a test as before and then starting work on the next in a new copy! Once I've got those five working again... I'll try again with the Finns and Swedes, one at a time... augh, but not now. Now, off to work!

How are you able to those leagues so fast? Do you use the regular editor or EHM updater with Excel?

When doing databases, you should always do backups, like every hour or something if you're paranoid like me. (because I learned it the hard way )

jhcjobpb wrote:How are you able to those leagues so fast? Do you use the regular editor or EHM updater with Excel?

Just the regular editor where I can... don't really foresee Updater+Excel until I get to things where I can't do it in the Editor. As for how can I do it so fast? I have this magic ability I taught myself to make myself "high", that gets me hyper-attentive and really "in the zone" as it were... better than any drug could do, it's all breathing exercises.

When doing databases, you should always do backups, like every hour or something if you're paranoid like me. (because I learned it the hard way )

Well... I *did* save... and then when I got back to work, it was on the same file ;_;

Ah well, not a big loss. This time I won't save the minor details until later, and will immediately do related work with appropriate team colours and junior affiliates and whatnot.

This is getting so frustrating.

After that last failure, I started again from the last working version.

So I started work with a league I know worked before the Sweden/Finland failure, namely Germany.

Make all the team name changes and moves, start the game, CTD.

Sigh. Try again.

Make the moves for the teams that should be in the DEL. Start the game. Works fine.

Go back to make the name changes, making sure to include a "Hannover Scorpions" team which is hardcoded. Start game. CTD.

Whyyyy does something that worked the first time, not work now?

XenHL wrote:Whyyyy does something that worked the first time, not work now?

I know the feeling! That's why the Ottawa Senators are in the 1974 database...I had originally successfully moved all modern teams out of the NHL, but after my first data loss I was never again able to successfully move Ottawa!

So did some further experimenting... I was able to rename all the DEL teams except the Hannover Scorpions. I also can't move that team, so I'll probably end up leaving them to replace EV Füssen. Thought for a bit to use the Hannover team to fill in one of the two extra spots in the DEL (which has 14 teams instead of the 12 of the Bundesliga of 79/80), but I think I'd rather have the entirety of the East German Eishockey-Oberliga (that is, two teams - Dynamo Berlin and Dynamo Weisswasser) as part of the DEL. My next step is going to be to try moving the remaining teams around to get the DEL otherwise accurate to 1979/80.

Just a small update - Germany is finished. Got the team names as accurate as possible, and the DEL is as close to 79/80 as possible (as a 1. Bundesliga - DDR-Oberliga fusion). I've now saved a backup of this before moving on!

So got all the team moves done in Russia... everything worked fine.

Proceeded to change names in the Elite League, making sure to add defunct teams named Kazan and Saint-Petersburg that are hardcoded... and it almost works. Usually, if it crashes, it does so before you get to the screen where you have to click "Finish" to actually start the game. In this case, it gets to that screen and only crashes after you click "Finish" when trying to play in the Russian league. I didn't try yet to start an NHL-only game with things as they are now but even if it did work that way, it'd be suboptimal as I want all leagues to work. Any idea why things might crash at this late point?

I tried changing the names of those two teams back to their original names but that didn't make a difference...

Okay, well, success! I had to bury "Kazan" and "Saint-Petersburg" in the Russian third division as amateur teams with super low reputation and created new teams to replace those. All worked fine until I discovered that Kazakhmys Satpaev is also hard-coded (WHY????). So had to do the same with them, but Russia is now done and working (Elite League and First Division).

So, an update as to where things stand now:

* NHL, AHL, ECHL, UHL, OHL, WHL, QMJHL - all teams renamed/moved as needed
* NHL and AHL teams have been populated with players and have correct head coach for 79/80
* Germany - DEL teams renamed/moved as needed, and all other teams have been renamed as needed, Chemnitz renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt
* Russia - top two leagues have teams renamed/moved as needed, others renamed, also changed city names back to Soviet-era names as needed
* Sweden - Elitserien and Allsvenskan teams renamed/moved as needed (with thanks to Manimal)

Here's the teams in the European leagues I've dealt with:

Deutsche Eishockey Liga

Berliner SC
Duisburger SC
Düsseldorfer EG
ECD Iserlohn
EHC Dynamo Berlin
ERC Freiburg
EV Landshut
Hannover Scorpions (retained due to hardcoding/crash issues)
Kölner EC
Mannheimer ERC
SB Rosenheim
SC Riessersee
SG Dynamo Weisswasser
VfL Bad Neuheim

Deutsche 2. Bundesliga

EC Bad Tölz
EC Bremerhaven
EHC München
EHC Straubing
Eintracht Frankfurt
ERC Ingolstadt
ESC Essen
ESG Kassel
ESV Kaufbeuren
EV Regensburg
SC Bietigheim-Bissingen
SC Einheit Dresden
Schwenninger ERC
SEC Wolfsburg
TSV Erding

Deutsche Oberliga

1.EV Weiden
Augsburger EV
BSG Einheit Turbine Crimmitschau
BSG Motor Optima Erfurt
Dynamo Berlin Juniors
EC Hannover
EC Peiting
EC Ratingen
EHC Klostersee
EHC Krefeld
EHC Stuttgart
EV Dingolfing
EV Füssen
EV Landsberg
EV Ravensburg
Hamburger SV
Mannheim Jrs
REV Heilbronn
SC Karl-Marx-Stadt
SC Mittelrhein-Neuwied
SG Nürnberg
SV Bayreuth
TEV Miesbach

Russian Elite League

Avtomobilist Sverdlovsk
CSKA Moscow
Dizelist Penza
Dynamo Minsk
Dynamo Moscow
Dynamo Riga
HK im. Uritskogo Kazan
Izhstal Izhevsk
Khimik Voskresensk
Kristall Saratov
Krylya Sovetov Moscow
Lokomotiv Moscow
Salavat Yulaev Ufa
Sibir Novosibirsk
SKA Leningrad
Sokol Kiev
Spartak Moscow
Torpedo Gorky
Traktor Chelyabinsk

Russian First Division

Avangard Omsk
Binokor Tashkent
CSK VVS Kuybyshev
Dynamo Kharkov
Izhorets Leningrad
Krengolim Narva
Kristall Elektrostal
Latvijas Berzs Riga
Luch Sverdlovsk
Metallurg Chelyabinsk
Metallurg Magnitogorsk
Metallurg Novokuznetsk
Molot Perm
Motor Barnaul
Olimpiya Kirovo-Chepetsk
Rubin Tyumen
Shakhtar Prokopyevsk
SKA Khabarovsk
SKA MVO Kalinin
SKA Sverdlovsk
Spartak Arkhangelsk
Sputnik Almetyevsk
Sputnik Nizhny Tagil
Stankostroitel Ryazan
Torpedo Tolyatti
Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk
Torpedo Yaroslavl
Yenbek Alma-Ata
Yuzhny Ural Orsk

Russian Second Division
Second teams of clubs in top two leagues omitted

Avangard Tambov
Buran Voronezh
Irtysh Pavlodar
Kedr Novouralsk
Kristall Abakan
Kristall Beloyarsk
Lokomotiv Astana
Lokomotiv Orenburg
Metallurg Lipetsk
Naberezhnye Chelny
Neftekamsk
Neftyanik Leninogorsk
Progress Glazov
Sarov
Sokol Krasnoyarsk
Sokol Novocheboksarsk
Stroitel Karaganda
Sudostroitel Leningrad
Svetotekhnika Saransk
Vympel Mezhdurechensk
Vympel Rudny
Yermak Angarsk

Swedish Elitserien

AIK
Brynäs IF
Djurgårdens IF
Färjestads BK
Hammarby IF
HV71
IF Björklöven
Leksands IF
MoDo AIK
Skellefteå AIK
Södertälje SK
Västra Frölunda IF

Swedish Allsvenskan

Almtuna IS
Bofors IK
Huddinge IK
IF Troja-Ljungby
IFK Bäcken
IFK Kiruna
IK Rommehed
Karlskrona IK
Kiruna AIF
Luleå HF
Mora IK
Nybro IF
Strömsbro IF
Timrå IK
Västerås IK
Örebro IK

Lots and lots and so much more left to do, but encouraging progress is being made!

XenHL wrote:encouraging progress is being made!

Way to go Xen!

So, more progress!

I decided that since it's in-game a brand-new expansion team, I'll replace the San Francisco Seals in the NHL with the San Jose Sharks. A decade early, but at least it will be realistic once you get past 2017 or so in the game. (And, of course, one can change that as they see fit!)

Got the Finnish Elite League and Finnish National League teams moved/renamed as needed, so they are as follows now:

Finnish Elite League

HIFK Helsinki
HPK Hämeenlinna
Ilves Tampere
Jokerit Helsinki
Kiekkoreipas Lahti
KooVee Tampere
Kärpät Oulu
Lukko Rauma
SaiPa Lappeenranta
SaPKo Savonlinna
Sport Vaasa
Tappara Tampere
TPS Turku
Ässät Pori

Finnish National League

FoPS Forssa
JoKP Joensuu
Jukurit Mikkeli
JyP HT Jyväskylä
Jäähonka Espoo
KalPa Kuopio
Ketterä Imatra
Kiekko-67 Turku
KooKoo Kouvola
Peliitat Heinola
TuTo Turku
VarTP Varkaus

I know the Finnish First Division is also playable, but I haven't yet been able to sort out what teams should be in there, so I left it as-is.

I also did some work with players already in the database - Russian and Finnish players already in the DB have been assigned to their appropriate 79/80 teams. For those that have retired by then, I made them into unemployed staff - scouts or coaches - with 0 attributes.

I'm presently working on dealing with the Swedish players already in the DB, then I'll move on to the next of the European leagues (I'll decide at the time which one I'll do next!)

Swedish players already in the DB have been assigned to their appropriate teams.

I also got all the teams moved/renamed for the Slovenian Elite League. That was of course Yugoslavia back then. I kept 6 of the 8 teams that actually played in the Yugoslav top league in 79/80, but added two others, so the league is comprised of:

HK Bosna Sarajevo
HK Crvena Zvezda Beograd
HK Jesenice
HK Olimpija Ljubljana
HK Partizan Beograd
HK Spartak Subotica
HK Vardar Skopje
KHL Medveščak Zagreb

The two 'replacement' teams are Bosna and Vardar. Bosna was only founded in the first half of the 80s, around the time of the Sarajevo Olympics, Vardar was around before then.

Of the other leagues - Czech and Slovak leagues will take some sorting out but they'll get done... for now my idea is that the Swedish, Finnish, Czech, Slovak, Russian and German leagues will end up populated with players, while the other playable leagues I'll likely just deal with any needed team-name changes and whatnot but not make any players for them, for now anyways.

Once I've dealt with the rest of the Euro leagues as I just mentioned, I'll go through Canadian and US players who aren't assigned to a team, the way I've done for Russians and Finns and Swedes so far, then I'll get the junior leagues populated, and start work on the "real" heavy part of adding new youth players to the DB!

More progress:

Austria - got the "EBEL" correct to 79/80, as far as team names go; Austria will be one of those playable leagues (along with the likes of the UK and Norway) where I likely won't bother to make era-correct players and will just leave the game to gen some players at startup.

So the teams in the Austrian league:

ATSE Graz
EC Klagenfurter AC
EC Villacher SV
HC Salzburg
Innsbrucker EV
Kapfenberger SV
VEU Feldkirch
Wiener EV

Got the Czech and Slovak leagues name-corrected; as far as teams go, I didn't have to do any moving at all, since there were only three Slovak teams in the CSSR Extraliga at the time... anyways, the leagues look like this:

Czech:

CHZ Litvínov
Dukla Jihlava
Motor České Budějovice
Poldi SONP Kladno
Slavia Karlovy Vary
Slavia Praha
Sparta ČKD Praha
Tesla Pardubice
TJ Gottwaldov
TJ PS Stadion Liberec
TJ Vitkovice
TJ Škoda Plzeň
TŽ VŘSR Třinec
Zetor Brno

Slovakia:

Dukla Trenčín
Lokomotiva Bučina Zvolen
Partizán Liptovský Mikuláš
Plastika Nitra
PS Poprad
Slovan CHZJD Bratislava
TJ Hutnik ZTS Martin
VSŽ Košice
ZVL Skalica
ZVL Žilina

Got the Slovak players already in the DB assigned to teams, working on Czechs now.

Way to go Xen!

I am so looking forward to this!

Got the Czech players in the DB already assigned to teams as needed, and added enough Bosnian and Macedonian staff to make randomly-generated names all be properly Bosnian and Macedonian names. I'll make these staff invalid later - the first and last names will remain in the DB, right?

Have started going through uncontracted US players now. Once they and the Canadian players already in the DB are dealt with, I can start on the big task of adding new players to fill out the Major Junior and European rosters.

What I would like to do is, once I've finished with the current task of dealing with all the uncontracted players already in the DB, I'd like to give the DB out to a few people willing to give it a test go - I'd especially be interested in getting feedback on player abilities and such. I've given it a fair bit of consideration, and I think since it's inevitable that players will gravitate to the NHL regardless of what we try to do to prevent it, I'd like to have the players be as accurate as possible.

While that's out for evaluation, I'll work on adding new players to the DB.

So, that's how my plans stand for now!

XenHL wrote:I'll make these staff invalid later - the first and last names will remain in the DB, right?

I believe so

So further progress!

I've dealt with all the American players in the DB now, and got the Danish league sorted out for teams/team names as best as I could. Meaning it looks like this right now:

DANISH ODDSET-LIGAEN

AaB Ishockey
Esbjerg IK
Frederikshavn Whitehawks
Herning IK
Hvidovre IK
KSF
Rungsted IK
Rødovre Mighty Bulls
Vojens IK

DANISH FIRST DIVISION

IK Aarhus
Ama'r Jets
IC Gentofte
Gladsaxe Bears
Herlev IK
Odense IK

I'm now working on the last and probably biggest steps before I start adding new players to the DB - going through the Canadian players in the DB and assigning them to teams or retiring them or making them staff as required. Once I'm done with that, I'll fill out the rest of the QMJHL, WHL and OHL rosters, at which point I think I'll be ready give out a few copies of the DB for testing/evaluation... hopefully I'll have that ready before the new year!

7 of 21 WHL teams are populated...

Finished adding new players to 12 of 21 WHL teams.

For the Kelowna Wings, who didn't enter the WHL until 82/83 season in reality, I've used the 79/80 Kelowna Buckaroos BCJHL roster;
For the Moose Jaw Warriors (87/88), I've used the 79/80 Moose Jaw Canucks SJHL roster;
For the Nanaimo Islanders (82/83), I've used the 79/80 Nanaimo Clippers BCJHL roster.

Which is to say, I won't leave any Major Junior teams with empty rosters.

So I've added a bunch more players, one team left to do in the WHL. This part is more tedious than I'd expected!

But after that one team is done, there's only the OHL and QMJHL left to populate (plus assigning any non-contracted players already in the DB to wherever they need to go), and then I think the DB will be ready to play from a strictly North American point of view: the NHL, AHL, ECHL, CHL and the Major Junior teams will have been populated with players, and all the youth/kids that Nino had added to the DB will still be there too.

After that's done, I'll turn to populating the important European leagues (Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech, Slovak, Germany), and after that I'll start looking at adding the various youth and kids leagues for Europe.

As it stands right now, here are the player counts by league:

NHL 626
AHL 562
WHL 487
Russian Elite 190
Czech Elite 128
ECHL 123
Swedish Elitserien 104
CHL 101

And all the others are under 100 so far, but this gives a total of 3059 players in the DB so far, of which the large majority is North American.