woolymuffler
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Posts posted by woolymuffler
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On a few defensive play call options, I see something like this:
34-pass-MZ-B4,6,11-R
My question is, what exactly does the "R" mean? The play diagram makes it look like the strong safety is blitzing, but the "R" implies that he's doing something else.
Thanks!
The line is slanting when you see that (R for Right, L for Left). This is a way to confuse blocking assignments and "cheat" to the side that you expect the play to go to (at least in real life, I don't know what impact it has in game).
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Assuming you were looking at my thread, you don't actually have to change the dat extension. That odb file it creates is just a temp database; when you save, the changes are written to the original dat file (the attachment shows the odbc connection I created for working on my 2019 db)
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<p>Well I'm really glad I decided to do one more trial with the default databases. It is not a problem with my DB, the base game does it. I must have been sloppy with my first test on the default databases and missed checking Season 5.</p><p> </p><p>
I made literally no changes at all (even had the South Bend Leprechauns win the title one year) and sure enough, the 5th recruiting pool (4 seasons completed) had the issue with the West Region recruits.</p><p> </p><p>
So use my DB all you want (I know I will) and just know it's a problem with the game. Maybe Arlie will see this; I'd be happy to send him a save game at Training Camp just before Season 5 starts.</p><p><a class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2019_10/Season5WestRecruitIssueWithDefaultDB.JPG.3a744c4489c5307c5c0a50e963e764f7.JPG" data-fileid="3528" data-fileext="jpg" rel=""><img data-fileid="3528" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt="Season5WestRecruitIssueWithDefaultDB.thumb.JPG.282fea76899895fa531e25ed8c9358ed.JPG" data-src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2022_08/Season5WestRecruitIssueWithDefaultDB.thumb.JPG.282fea76899895fa531e25ed8c9358ed.JPG" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></a></p>
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<p>So, I re-downloaded the databases and changed nothing at all other than the team names and mascots (didn't fix scheduling issues, didn't fix conference assignments, Idaho is still in the game) and the issue happened. I'll do one last test where the db has the "South Bend Leprechauns" (no changes at all) just to confirm that works (I thought I did confirm that but want to do it again just to be sure).</p><p> </p><p>
I'm almost starting to think it's Open Office Base; I use that instead of actual Microsoft Access to edit the database as I don't own MS Access and it's possible it has a bug. I may be able to get a hold of MS Access at work and see if that makes any difference.</p>
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I removed the new cities, set CCU to Columbia SC and Liberty to Roanoke VA and still got the issue. Thinking that maybe it happened every 5 years, I decided to continue in that save as long as I could last night just to see if the issue happened again. So far I've completed 11 seasons and just started the 12th, (so 12 classes of recruits created) and the issue hasn't repeated.
Just baffled; I think I'm going to confirm one more time that the game provided databases do not do this and then start editing a known good database with my changes until I either get them all into a working db or find the change that is breaking recruiting.
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it would be kinda neat to have Arlie chime in on this..
I still find it hard to believe this game is pushing 15 years old and I still get as much enjoyment out of it as most other games I own
Agreed, if we could get an updated version of this to reflect the changes in the game since 2006 (spread option, hurry up/no huddle, RPOs, etc.), I wouldn't need another game for years. Oh, and 85 scholarships, 120 total roster, signing days (early and normal), recruiting during the season, all the things. With modern computers, there is no reason not to have the full 85 total/25 per year plus walk-ons as in real life.
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...that kind of programming stuff is above my head...
look forward to seeing what others may find
Yeah, that's the weird thing to me. Making a few changes to a db is in no way actual programming; I just don't understand how changing maybe 20 or 30 data rows could cause this sort of issue. But without knowing how the recruit list is generated, all I can do is try to roll back changes until it stops happening.
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I'll do some tweaking on my copy and see if I can roll back whatever is causing the problem; either my db just corrupted in general or one of my changes doesn't agree with the recruit generation engine. It may not be until tomorrow that I can really do any more testing but I'll get to it as soon as I can.
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Yeah, I had the same thought and went into "Monitor Recruits", filtered down to West region and then flipped through by position. No recruits at all for West -> SS. FS, P or K in Season 5 (and normal amounts in seasons 1-4). I tried to go into the save game and see if I could find them (thinking they had been created and maybe there was a bad delimiter or something that kept them from showing up in game), but I don't have the save format and couldn't tell from a hex editor.
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I put a warning on my db update thread about this issue; if it was first reported in 2015 (two years before I created my db), it must be related to certain types of db changes rather than specific to my db. I'll confirm if my 2018 db does the same thing and probably create a new 2019 that doesn't include as many changes (not have the Sun Belt conference in divisions and not add Conway SC and Lynchburg VA to the cities list for Coastal Carolina and Liberty). I just recently noticed that Arlie didn't bother adding cities to his updated DB (for instance he has Appalachian State in Winston Salem as that is pretty near by) so maybe my updates to the city list somehow break recruiting over time. No idea really
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Okay, it's my DB apparently
After getting the original game dbs back from Steam (only two files were changed, pstats.dat and psetup.dat), I just made it to season 6 without the issue occurring.
So I have no idea how my db causes the issue, but apparently it does (maybe from having 130 teams?). I have confirmed at least that my 2019 updated db causes the issue; I may try out my 2018 one and see if it does it. If the fix is as simple as dropping Liberty and Coastal Carolina (and their cities I added), I'm okay with that.
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Known issue apparently
It seems this issue was reported 4 years ago and nothing was done about it (as WBE94 has already discovered):
http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2378754
That's disappointing; I guess I just had never noticed.
I do wonder how online leagues are able to function with this bug? I'm still testing with the original db to see if the custom db is causing it but this seems like a game bug.
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Well, it's reproducible, at least with my current custom db (hopefully attachment works). When the 5th recruiting class was being generated, no K, FS, SS or P recruits for the West. Unlike what OP reported, I have consistently seen ILB recruits in the West for Season 5.
Now going to save off my customized db, verify my files to get original game db back and run another 5 season test. If it happens with the original game db, this is pretty much a show stopper bug. I have to believe it's something about my custom db causing it or it would have been reported before now...
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I'm also running another test from a fresh save. One thing that did occur to me is that I had re-used an old save name that still existed and some of the files in the new save had old dates (created in 2017 so clearly leftover from by db testing). I don't think this caused the issue but want to rule it out.
The only other thing that occurred to me was that the fourth year was the first time I had recruited special teams and I signed both a punter and kicker. Again, it seems really unlikely this caused it but just putting out theories.
(P.S. Not sure if you saw, but I updated my db for 2019. Main change is that the Sun Belt is in divisions and has a Championship game).
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Just hit this for first time ever (that I know of)
I happened to see your thread and sure enough, I hit season 5 and there are no Kicker, Punter, Free Safety or Strong Safety recruits in the West region. I actually chart out the recruits each season so I know it wasn't happening before this season. I've played this game for over a decade and I have never had this happen, at least not that I've noticed. I do rarely play in the West region so it's possible it's been happening on my saves for years and I never noticed.
Are you using a custom db by any chance? Just trying to figure out what might be triggering it; if this happens consistently it is a game breaking bug but I feel like it can't have been or it would have been reported before now. Very strange
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<p>Updated for 2019</p><p> </p><p>
Updated: Added Big 12 Championship game</p><p> </p><p>
On the off chance anyone used the 2018 files, I've made some tweaks for 2019.</p><p> </p><p>
The Sun Belt now has two divisions and a championship game. The Big 12 now has a championship game (despite having no divisions)</p><p> </p><p>
Prestige is tweaked to reflect the results from 2018 and updates to Bill Connelly's S&P+ formula.</p><p> </p><p>
Link is below; same instructions as the 2018 db:</p><p>
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kSK0VG_omfnthoH3hHqYBfD5BND1nNxe/view?usp=sharing" rel="external nofollow">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kSK0VG_omfnthoH3hHqYBfD5BND1nNxe/view?usp=sharing</a></p>
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Just an FYI, this db is fairly old and doesn't reflect the team alignments for 2018.
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NOTE: After further testing, my database does NOT cause the issue. The same Season 5 West Region Recruit issue occurs with the default database.
1st post has my original database for 2018; the second post has a 2019 database with main changes being:
Sun Belt is in divisions and has championship game.
Big 12 has a championship game
Use at your own risk, etc. I have tested it pretty thoroughly on my system but make no guarantees for you. Make sure you backup your current pstats.dat and psetup.dat before putting these in place. And of course, you should look at the script (in notepad or Powershell ISE) before actually running it rather than taking my word for what it does. Even if you don't understand the commands in it, you can at least see what files it's trying to open and make sure it's not touching anything outside of bbcf.
Recommended Settings:
I would recommend playing this with no more than average prestige change (as Alabama is already at 95 for prestige). Also I wouldn't recommend any conference movement if you are keeping the hard-coded games in SchedMatch; several teams have a set 12 game schedule (with 8 conference and 4 hardcoded OOC). If they happen to move to a 9 game conference schedule (Big 12 or Pac-12), they will have 13 games scheduled with unpredicable results. If you remove these hard-coded games, then have at it with conference movement.
Links:
zip file with pstats.dat, psetup.dat (need this for new cities for Coastal Carolina and Liberty) and powershell script to flip SchedMatch table entries (to allow alternating hard-coded games each year; directions on using script are below)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a-k8F2Io0T1RmIZhwYYKMaLicds8_FyL/view?usp=sharing
Download page for MS Access 2010 engine (needed for powershell script to function; this is a free legit download from Microsoft, just pick the correct version for your computer and install. Most people will need x64)
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13255
Using the script:
Note: this script is based on having the Steam version of the game installed to the default location on C: (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Bowl Bound College Football). If you have a non-steam version or have the steam version in a non-default directory, you will have to edit the script to use it.
Additional note: It's possible you will have to set your Powershell execution policy to use this. The command for that (from a powershell prompt) is:
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
If you don't have MS Access 2010 (usually bought as part of the MS Office 2010 Professional Suite), download the engine from the provided link. You should already have powershell unless you are still running Windows XP or older.
After creating a game, play normally until reaching the training stage (week 18 of the off-season). At that point, save the game and exit.
From a command prompt, change directory to where you saved the script. Use the following command line to run the script:
powershell.exe -file SchedMatch.ps1 <the name of your save>.
Example; I created a save named Test; this was my command line to use the script:
powershell.exe -file SchedMatch.ps1 Test
Close the command prompt and resume your game; when the next season starts you should see that the hard-coded games have alternated venues, giving you true alternating home-and-home hard-coded games.
Repeat at the training phase of each season.
DB Changes:
Added Liberty (Independents), Coastal Carolina (Sun Belt), UAB (CUSA)
Removed Idaho from game (going down to FCS for 2018)
Moved New Mexico State to Independents; UMass is there as well (I had already moved it before starting the 2018 db so wasn't sure if that is in the default db or not).
Fixed various team color issues (the ones listed in Team Info; such as Navy being listed with colors of Red and White). I didn't do anything about the actual display colors (other than the new teams) as most of those are correct (even the Navy ones). I did my best on color scheme for the new teams, but they are pretty ugly since I was entering RGB codes and had to do best guess for a lot of them.
Updated conference table with correct number of teams (and modified conf prestige numbers; no idea if this actually affects anything).
Fixed scheduling issues with conferences, at least the ones that I could fix (I literally went team-by-team and confirmed correct scheduling). I couldn't actually correct Big Ten scheduling (in the game they only play 8 conf games vs 9 in real life), but all teams are at least scheduling for their correct divisions. The default database has multiple teams scheduling in the wrong divisions for the ACC, SEC, Big 10 and CUSA. I did not add in the Big-12 or Sun Belt Conference Championship games (not entirely sure how to do so) and the American Athletic Conference Championship game is division champs rather than number one vs. number two for entire conference. Again, not sure if there is even a way to do that and I don't really like that format.
Added a ton of traditional rivalries to the SchedMatch table (in this DB, Missouri plays Kansas again, Nebraska plays Oklahoma, Texas A&M plays Texas, service academies all play each other, etc). I did all of them that I could, but some traditional rivalries just couldn't be fit in due to re-alignment and not enough empty slots in the schedule. Also, there is no way to force cross-division rivals to schedule annually as they should (like Purdue-Indiana, Toledo-Bowling Green, etc). Note that this db doesn't reflect the actual schedules that teams are playing in 2018; these are the games that I think teams should be playing in a perfect world. You may not agree with the choices I made or not want these hard-coded games at all; if so, empty and/or edit the schedmatch table to your taste. Also, several teams now have hard-coded schedules (all 12 are set) due to rivalries. Most teams I tried to leave at least 1 free game but for certain teams (like Navy, Missouri, TAMU) I just couldn't find a rivalry I was willing to drop to leave a free slot. If this makes you unhappy, just edit and/or empty the schedmatch table. Lastly, if you don't want to mess with the powershell script, I would recommend emptying the schedmatch table as the games won't alternate venue without using the script (or doing it by hand).
Completely updated prestige ratings for all teams; I actually came up with a formula to auto compute the prestige. The final prestige number is a combination of a weighted team performance metric over the last 6 years (S&P+ ratings from Bill Connolly at SBNation, weighted so more recent years count more heavily, and then scaled to a range from 1 to 100) and 5 year recruiting numbers (also by Bill Connolly). As both numbers were scaled 1 to 100, with some trial and error, I came up with a formula to weight the recruiting and performance numbers and come up with prestige numbers from 1 to 100. It's by no means perfect but I quite like the numbers it came up with. As long as prestige is the only number determining recruiting power as well as initial quality of teams on league creation, there is no perfect way to come up with prestige ratings that can account for teams like Florida (top 10 recruiting almost every year but under perform) vs Western Kentucky (dramatically over-perform their recruiting numbers). Compared to the default prestige numbers, there is a much greater diversity of ratings (I had to cap the formula at between 5 and 95; Alabama actually came out as a 97 in the raw formula). Power 5 schools are truly powerful (even bad power 5 teams were significantly boosted by their recruiting numbers) and bad teams are BAD.
Code of the script (so you can see what it's actually modifying; don't take my word for it though, check the one you download as well):
SchedMatch.ps1
param(
[string]$save = 'NCL'
)
$path = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Bowl Bound College Football\saves\$save\stats.dat"
$Table = "SchedMatch'"
$adCursor = 0
$adLock = 3
$connection = New-Object -ComObject ADODB.Connection
$recordset = New-Object -ComObject ADODB.RecordSet
$connection.Open("Provider = Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=$path")
$query = "Select * from $Table"
$recordset.Open($query, $connection, $adCursor, $adLock)
while (-not $recordset.EOF)
{
$futurehome = $recordset.fields.Item("Team1").Value
$futureaway = $recordset.fields.Item("Team2").Value
$recordset.fields.Item("Team1") = $futureaway
$recordset.fields.Item("Team2") = $futurehome
$recordset.Update()
$recordset.MoveNext()
}
$recordset.close
$ado.close
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Probably my most common conversion is Mobile QB to RB. Many of my best RBs actually started as 1 or 2 star QBs that I never had any intention of playing at QB. You need to be careful on playing weight (going over and busting), hands (fumbles) and strength but I've had some really good success with this.
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<p>I decided to just upload my db on google drive (hopefully this is okay with Arlie).</p><p> </p><p>
This is just the default db with real names/mascots and the scheduling fixes I detailed above, so if you have a database with customization you will lose it.</p><p> </p><p>
Be sure to make a back-up copy of your current pstats.dat, download this and put in correct directory in BBCF and rename it to pstats.dat. You will need to start a new league to get the changes; keep in mind that if you have the Steam version and validate your files, it will overwrite this:</p><p>
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwBJc16E-gRGUzJ2NGhscWNjRE0/view?usp=sharing" rel="external nofollow">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwBJc16E-gRGUzJ2NGhscWNjRE0/view?usp=sharing</a></p><p> </p><p>
Use at your own risk, etc. Arlie, if this isn't cool with you, let me know and I will stop sharing the link.</p>
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<p>Ah, sorry about that.</p><p> </p><p>
I just used the default database (I did put in the real names and mascots but I didn't change the ID numbers other than the scheduling fixes). The same logic would apply for any fixes, but there is no guarantee that the same teams are messed up. It's possible that in your database the scheduling is fine. You would have to create a league and check some conference schedules to see.</p>
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I went ahead and checked every conference; the Big 10, ACC and SEC were the only conferences that were scheduling incorrectly.
Big Ten Fix:
Open Teams table
In the ID column:
Change Ohio State from 24 to 129
Change Penn State from 27 to 130
Change Illinois from 19 to 131
Change Iowa from 21 to 132
Change Ohio State to 19
Change Penn State to 21
Change Illinois to 24
Change Iowa to 27
In the rivals column
Change Michigan rival from 24 to 19
Change Mich State rival from 27 to 21
Change Northwestern rival from 19 to 24
Change Iowa State rival from 21 to 27
ACC Fix:
Open Teams table in pstats.dat
In the ID column, change the following:
Change Clemson from 3 to 129
Change Florida State from 6 to 130
Change Miami from 11 to 131
Change Pittsburgh from 14 to 132
Change Clemson from 129 to 11
Change Florida State from 130 to 14
Change Miami from 131 to 3
Change Pittsburgh from 132 to 6
In the Rival column:
Change South Carolina's rival to 11
Change Florida's rival to 14
Change Miami's rival to 14
Change West Virginia's rival to 6
There isn't a team that considers Miami a rival so no rival to fix for Miami's changed id
SEC Fix:
Open Teams table
In the ID column:
Change TAMU from 39 to 129
Change Kentucky from 94 to 130
Change TAMU from 129 to 94
Change Kentucky from 130 to 39
In the Rival column:
Change Texas's Rival to 94
Change Louisville's Rival to 39
Is this a defensive playbook error?
in Bowl Bound College Football General Discussions
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