FOF Historic Files - rev0 released
 

I've updated my python code to work with FOF9. However, there are a few things that need some work.

I'm getting a lot of really good free agents, like star quality free agents. I had followed the previous distribution for player ratings given in FOF6, 7 & 8. I'm wondering if I should just generate like 500 scrubs and see if it alleviates this issue?

It seems that the colleges have changes their numbering, I'll need to rework that, otherwise it seems that things are loading properly, so that's good news!

I'll update this as I make progress, as I don't have much freetime these days, but I'm hoping by Christmas I'll have some early files for the masses.

update. files are here: Index of /fof9downloads

there’s a default teams file that you need to copy into the default folder.

i have not tested these extensively so there could be some weird stuff in there.

You are the best!

I took a look at available csv and xls files on one site and thought about trying to crunch the info but I am a very old fledgling at excel and realized just how much effort it would be.

Sorry to bud in on this thread.
I haven't yet bought this new version but dying to know if these historical files you talk about is something to replace all those faf/csv-file of drafted players we had in FOF7-8.
I used them to play from the 2002 start file (a bit edited by me to hold max 2500 players when 2002 started)

My concern is that if one can play this new FOF9 historical by selecting a start year then get a good amount of draftees (real ones) every year like it was for FOF7-8.

I understood by reading that now it looks to be files for each year xxxx-player.csv but how do new draftees import into the game ?

So the future players would be built into the "roster" file. The new players and quarterbacks file have all the future drafts built in. So the 2003 file would have the drafts from 2003 up to 2021 (although I don't have great data from 2021, so probably 2019 is the last good season). You'll notice these players because they have a different base year. The draft is built from the players whose base year in the file match the current league year for the draft.

The one I'm interested in is how will expansion be handled in the league. I'm not sure if the league will automatically expand if you code it in the info tab. What you can do is start with a smaller league, the same as was in the NFL at the time. I suppose we can even have AFL/NFL as well. Something to figure out.

I haven't taken a look thoroughly at the csv's yet - but does this mean we have the capability to make a historic coaches file as well?

Right now I don't see where it does. With the league structures in place one hopes Jim with add it later.

Yes sir.

I think you can move teams using the team_info file, but I don't think you can expand the league.

That's almost equally exciting.

Fantastic! I really appreciate your willingness to do this as I really enjoy the historical aspect of FOF game.

Thanks for that. So I assume correct then that this new FOF9 can be played as the old FOF7-8 versions.
I always started with 2002 since that's the last league alignment we use today and someone else had made a very good starting file. It needed a bit of error-editing and players added.
I think we did get a new 2021 draft file somewhere. But not sure.
Those old draftfiles had a different layout/structure than the basic game file, so that's what I feared would mess up things if needed to be converted or editing into this new FOF9 files. But there covered every thinkable player drafted or just "perhaps" drafted, some 7-800 each year.
Adding coaches to this is just great, if possible.

All faith in Jim and his engine, and great modders on this forum. The earlier versions was the best on this sport if one consider "under the hood". UI needed to be upgraded to more user friendly and modern but that's not the biggest issue.

well a brief update. i updated my python code and it’s mostly working. i just need to map the hometowns because they have different numbers than before. the bigger issue is that lots of top talent is getting created in the draft and in free agency. i don’t know if that’s because the talent distribution is different than fof7/8 or if i just need to include a bunch of scrubs. but it’s something to sort out.

I just came here looking for an answer to that same problem. I recreated the 1983-2020 historical files using a combination of files found here. I basically set the top two draft picks each year as a 9 and each year its producing QB's with 9+ ratings.

I'm thinking there's a minimum number of players the file needs before it won't add extra players. I'm wondering if Jim changed the talent distribution to have more talented players than before as well?

The numbers could be crucial. As I said the "starting file" back then could have a max of 2500 players, but even then it created a ton of fictionals when you started the game.
Later on those draft files all have around 800 players and that looked over the years as no fictional sneaked in unless a certain position was thin for that year. Often LS/K/P was an issue.

Question about how talented these 800 was might play in. But those draftfiles then looked a bit different and can those "numbers/ratings" be transfered to FOF0 csv files ?

When I made the draft files I rated players from a 0-9 following the typical talent ratings. I hope to do a big post on my methodology, it will actually bring some interesting historical debate, but I don't have time now. Anyways, for the old draft files they needed a number between 375 and 625 for each skill. I took a players base overall rating, or the rating I have for the skill if I rated it separately as the lowest it could be, so a 2 overall would start with a minimum of 425, the rest was determined by a (625 - base) * random number ^ n + base. So to answer your question, you could scale the results from the files over to the new rating range and they should scale properly.

I know the colleges were messed up, I'm guessing the hometowns are as well, since Jim has likely renumbered them.

I've got rev 0 of the files ready to go.

Is there an export button anywhere? I could post a few shots from the run.

I've got to tone down the QB rushing a bit. The top 2 all time rushers are QB's and after a 50 year run there are 6 over 10K yards

Ok, I toned the QB rushing down a bit, it looks a lot better. Top guys are in the 8K range, but I've simmed without injuries so it's more like 500 yards a year for 16 seasons.

this first batch of files has draftees upto 2019 i think

DL'd! Timimg is perfect as I am starting a new uni from 70. Will see how this plays out.

DId you run rosters in 70 with 40 or 53 players? I would assume 40. I just ran a new uni with the Saints and have 2 QB's, 8 RB's, 5 FB's, etc. I am assuming the game is plugging in players. It's close to legit, just curious.


**Update** Oh this is going to be fun. So far it's looking good. For my team, Nawlins of course, I will ahve to do some FA tweaking to get the roster set with the minimums but that should be easy enough. I also created a basic set of logos and damn it's 1970 all over again.

> The game generated a butt load of amazing kickers and punters in the FA pool.

yeah i can’t get the kickers and punters to go away but i figure it’s not a huge deal. i have however many players played that season. so some teams have low 40’s but some are in the 50’s. the downside with starting pre76 is a 14 game season. anyways i hope you have fun with it. i’ll post how i did the ratings one day.

For kickers, punters, and maybe long snappers, but definitely the first two, I'm fairly certain that "10" is not being handled properly. 10s are coming in as studs. I've reported this to Customer Support.
Dropbox - Screenshot 2023-12-12 11.25.26.png - Simplify your life


Note that these guys are free agents at the start of preseason. The same screen for those on rosters has even more 10 guys at the top. (While testing my fictional file/draft class generator, I simply preface the last name with the overall rating. It allows me better visibility into some of the things happening with the code, and also makes it easy to see if I have any game-generator players, like Ricardo Koonce in the screenie below.)

Dola...I haven't tried it yet, but I'm guessing that for now if you make all 10s at those positions into 0s, you'll get a much better talent distribution at those positions. (Gonna try that real quick now.) That said, as mentioned, I did report it, so I'd imagine it'll get addressed.

Hadn't thought of that, thanks for the information. The nice thing is it's now an easy fix for anyone who wants to do it. I didn't use 10 for any historic players, they only apply to fakes used to stop generated studs from appearing. So if you wanted to turn all the 10's to 0's it may help with the issue for now.

Generated draft classes for 2024-2040 to clear out the initial pool, and it seems to have worked for punters and kickers, but not necessarily for long snappers. Now, the LS talent pool might just be working as intended, given that in FOF8 there was basically never the necessity to have a bad or even average LS. Just checked IHOF, and there are five long snappers rated 75 or better in long snapping just sitting there in the FA pool during the season. Maybe the difference here is simply that in FOF8, a guy with 80 long snapping showed as roughly 17/17 overall, so it wasn't as noticeable. But in FOF9, that guy shows a roughly 80 overall. But anyway, yeah, to get a reasonable distribution of punters and kickers, just change the 10s to 0s and it should be good to go.

Nilodor, thanks for doing these files! I have really enjoyed your files for years for each version of FOF. I was wondering if someone could explain how to load these files correctly as I have not done any custom files. Once again thank you, as a historical player I really appreciate your efforts!

1. unzip the files to a folder of your choosing
2. In the files there is one file called default_teams.csv
2a. Copy this to your C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Front Office Football Nine\default_data or similar directory
2b. This will overwrite the default file, all it has changed are the team nicknames.
3. When you want to start with a historic season
3a. Untick the box that says Use Front Office Football Player File
3b. Click continue
3c. Tick the box that says Use Your Own Player File Set
3d. Click the box that says CHOOSE CUSTOM FILE SET
3e. Navigate to wherever you unzipped the files
3f. Select the file xxxx_info.csv, where xxxx is the year you want to start with
3g. You should be able to click continue to go through the rest of the settings.
Drafted players are automatically loaded, so there's nothing else to do but hopefully enjoy.
If you want to start in the early years, 1976 is a decent place to start, since there are 28 teams and a 16 game schedule. Pre that is 26 teams and a 14 game slate.

Thanks, Nilodor, yes 1976 is one of my favorite years it was the first time the Patriots had a good season after years of losing. All those draft picks paid off!

Massive work you done yet again for FOF and playing historical. Thanks mate.
Now I'm good to go buying this new version and abandon years of playing FOF7-8. Hopefully the salary problem gets solved in time by Jim.

I think I start again on 2002, and read up on your 2002 version file. I had my 2500 players you once done in your 2002 file edited with correct salaries. That file also had FOF7 structure in salaries so needed to be adjusted to FOF8. Tons of work. (Some smaller changes was added to team belongings and some dublicates deleted. I'm a sucker for Special Team stars, like gunners, so I spotted some that needed to have increased ratings on that number)

But some stupid questions.
You got over 4000 players with IDs in 2002 file, is the max 2500 gone ?
Several looks to be fictional, or am I wrong ?

How about those newly added coach files in this FOF9.
In old version you had to play with fictionals if starting way back, but will coaches work as the player files now. (Maybe too much to ask for)
Probably too hard to implement since some coaches popping up further down in history need to retire as players and that might not work with new coaches coming in. Never mind that, one always wish for more.

Once more BIG thanks mate. You enriched this game once more.

Yes, any player with a 10 overall ratin is fictional. You need roughly 100 players per team to keep the game from generating players, I just added a bit more than that. I could have optimized it, but I don't have the time right now for something that seems to work.


It's on the list, the only issue is that I don't have any control over the ratings. The other thing on the list is to generate a 22_4_14 schedule so that opens up 1961-1969. I'd want to check and see if you can have such an imbalanced league as the AFL/NFL were.

It was a bit of work, but not too bad since I've learned python since the last go around. It was a nice thing to do during my lunch hours when I wanted to take a trip down memory lane and I'm happy that other people can use it.

Also on salaries, for the file I used a cap of 100M, then I used the real NFL positional averages to set the mid ground, and then adjust them up or down based on rating and experience. So if you check a teams total salary, it lines up pretty well with it's total raw talent.

I'm also hopeful that they will allow us to program in expansion, stadiums etc. It's already mostly there in some of the files, but the custom files don't seem to link to it.

Well, when I check that 2002 file it got 2804 real players, so guess the limit of 2500 is no more.
I added and changed some on your old 2002 file. Adding players that was only in pre-season and some played 1-2 games. Some was only added since they had some value for a position.
Maybe you can have a look and perhaps see if I got players you missed out on.
You find some comments and players above 2500 that I had but elected to take out before transform it into FOF8 file.

FOF8 2002 my workfile

^^^^^ This! Having the built in ability in-game would allow for the community to assist in developing the necessary files to support this. Then, maybe, further out to develp an MP add would make FOF even more noteworthy.

is this the only place where historical roster files exist? Im new to game and Im looking for as many historical seasons I can get. Any links to locations would be appreciated.

Can I start a modern, 32 team, 17 game season schedule with historical rosters? Since it seems like what I'm reading is that expansion won't work, so I'd like all the teams as I progress.

yes. but it would take a bit of work. you would need to edit the xxxx-info file to the right schedule. also you would probably want to start with a draft. if you didn’t you would need to move some players around because the team numbers are different, especially pre 1976

Nilodor and korme - 2 of my favs

Isn't it nice when a new release brings the whole family back together?

These files look awesome, nilodor! Was it ever found out whether the league expands automatically?

Nope, it doesn't.

so there is really no way to do expansion right now? Correct?

Not that I'm aware of.

Nope. Keeping my fingers crossed. Will tell you though that using nilidors files I find it immersive when I start a 1970 league and see the player names as they play, receve awards and end up in the HOF.

I used to play the old versions like this. I am going to have to jump in and read up on how to set his up again.

If I have free time this weekend, I'm going to try a modern day NFL setup with these historic files. The first years might be a little wonky but I'm okay with that if its our only option without expansion. I can share if I feel its significant.

I have found that using the files the best thing to do is to complete either a prefernce or full draft. If you are doing the full 32 team setup you likely would anyway. I have started one using 32 teams but with the start year in 1970 usinf the 1970 historical file. Each season those old names pop up and it adds to the overall gameplay IMO.

I've been using these files and starting in 1976. A couple things I've noticed:

1. A lot of players seem like they are only on 1-year contracts. Maybe that's true to the time, but most players were out of contract by 1977. There were four teams that had 0 players under contract when the 1977 year began. Not necessarily a huge deal, since they have a chance to sign their out-of-contract players again before anyone else can. But I'm not sure the AI is aggressive enough to do that.

2. Most teams were way below the cap as 1977 started. Somewhat a function of the fact that so few players were under contract, but also, the amounts that players were asking for didn't seem to sync up with the salary cap. The number in the 1976_info file is 1000, and that gets the $100M cap the game has, but $100M seems like too much given what salary everyone asks for.