Player (Me!) Creation Questions

[Joe Shlabotnick]

Let's say you are an ego-maniac who wants to put a version of yourself into the game. With Hall of Fame potential. Or whatever.

Question 1: What's the easiest way to do this? I switched to Commish mode, found a lousy player, and edited him to my liking. That the best way?

2: How can I erase the career statistics for this player so I can start clean?

3: I want a photo added of .... me. I created it with the proper parameters (jpg, 90 by 135) and put it in the photos file. Do I have to go to Game Setup and go through a whole "re-load" of the player photos to get this one picture into my game?

4: Let's say I create me and I'm age 16. What will happen? Will I come into the league when I reach age 18?

[jmknpk2]

You can go to the free agents screen when you are in commissioner mode and press the "create fictional player" button which allows you to create a young and raw or established player.

When or if he breaks into the majors depends on his ratings.

I created a young and raw pitcher at 17, with excellent talent ratings who broke into the majors at 18.

[Joe Shlabotnick]

Hmm, sounds like a good way to go. Thanks.

Do you know if I can erase the historical stats of this crumb-bum that I edited? I don't see any way to do so.

I want a clean statistical slate, and I may have to take your advice and re-create my guy.

[jmknpk2]

I'm not aware of any way to edit stats. I think either starting with a guy who has no stats or creating one from scratch is the way to go.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by jmknpk2

I'm not aware of any way to edit stats. I think either starting with a guy who has no stats or creating one from scratch is the way to go.

Yes, you can edit a player's stats.

1. Go to League Setup and click the Import/Export button at the bottom.
2. Click Export Stats. Take note of where the game says it put the dumped text files.
3. Go to that location and open each of the text files that you will find there, in Notepad; for example, player_batting_stats.txt
4. Carefully locate the player that you want to erase history from. Note the position of each number and comma set. Leave the first five positions alone (Player ID, LastName,FirstName,Year, Team ID) and put zeroes in for all of the others (g through vorp).
5. Save these files in place. Do not move them.
6. Go back to League Setup, click Import/Export and then Import Stats.
7. The player should have no stats now. See the examples below.

Before:

 
//FILE FORMAT:
//Player ID, LastName,FirstName,Year, Team ID, g, gs, pa, ab, h, 2b, 3b, hr, rbi, r, sb, cs, bb, hp, k, sh, sf, gdp, ibb, ci, pitches seen, vorp,
//NOTE: Player names are purely cosmetical and will not be used when importing stats from this file!
8897,Abasi,Wolde,2011,214,26,10,46,42,15,4,0,0,2,8,4,1,2,1,1,0,1,0,0,0,163,5.0,
8897,Abasi,Wolde,2012,187,4,0,3,3,2,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,7,1.4,

After:

 
//FILE FORMAT:
//Player ID, LastName,FirstName,Year, Team ID, g, gs, pa, ab, h, 2b, 3b, hr, rbi, r, sb, cs, bb, hp, k, sh, sf, gdp, ibb, ci, pitches seen, vorp,
//NOTE: Player names are purely cosmetical and will not be used when importing stats from this file!
8897,Abasi,Wolde,2012,187,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,

See below for before and after screen shots.

[1998 Yankees]

I'll do a dola here to add that you can do the same thing to his history.

See the player ID in the example? There is a text file called player_8897_history.txt (the player ID is part of the name) in this folder:

...\data\saved_games\[your game name].lg\news\txt\players

I left the first part out; it's where your saved games are stored which could be different depending on how you installed your game. Don't go by the screen print below; I have my game installed in a custom location.

When I opened the player's history file, it contained the following:

 
20110601 Drafted in the 2011 first-year player draft (Round 7,  Pick 28, 208th overall Pick) by the <a href="teams/team_11.html">Los Angeles (A) Kangaroos</a>.
20110905 Injured (torn anterior cruciate ligament), out for 7 months.
20120101 OSA scouting updated ratings (potential): Contact: 3 (6); Power: 1 (1); Eye: 2 (4).
20120627 Injured (strained Achilles tendon), out for 5 weeks.
20120701 Released by the <a href="teams/team_11.html">Los Angeles (A)</a> organization.
20130101 OSA scouting updated ratings (potential): Contact: 5 (6); Power: 1 (1); Eye: 3 (6).

I wiped all of that out (you can also edit the information the way you like, but each line of history has to start with a date in YYYYMMDD format followed by a space) and saved it. When I returned to his profile and clicked the History tab, it was blank (actually, it says "No history data found").

[Joe Shlabotnick]

Thanks so much. Very helpful. I will give it a go.

I was born in 1961, and I created a league starting in 1977. I am almost 16 as the game starts! I see the Game Options screen where I can set the minimum age for players. Looks like I could have infants playing baseball if I want!

I'm thinking I'll keep myself down on the farm for several years, and make my ratings a bit lower with plenty of potential.

I'm trying 3-year Recalc with Talent Change Randomness at 133 (because I like the idea of historical league with a chance for variations from history). I'm not sure if the TCR at 133 affects my guy, or only guys with actual histories.

Any other thoughts on this little project are welcome.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Joe Shlabotnick

I'm trying 3-year Recalc with Talent Change Randomness at 133 (because I like the idea of historical league with a chance for variations from history). I'm not sure if the TCR at 133 affects my guy, or only guys with actual histories.

Any other thoughts on this little project are welcome.

I was going to object to 133 as being too high to start with until I remembered this from the newsletter:

Improved player development that eliminates those aggravating sudden talent "jumps" or "bumps," resulting in a vast array of realistic career arcs.

So maybe your adjustment is in order for what you are trying to do.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by Joe Shlabotnick

I'm not sure if the TCR at 133 affects my guy, or only guys with actual histories.

The TCR effects every player in your world. So there's a possibility you could be great, avg, or even a bust and never make it to the bigs.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by BruceM

The TCR effects every player in your world. So there's a possibility you could be great, avg, or even a bust and never make it to the bigs.

I'm thinking that Joe's next question will be "Hey, I'm terrible! How do I edit my own talent ratings?" (Answer: in the Editor tab of the Player Profile, while in Commissioner Mode.)

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

I'm thinking that Joe's next question will be "Hey, I'm terrible! How do I edit my own talent ratings?" (Answer: in the Editor tab of the Player Profile, while in Commissioner Mode.)

Foresight is a wonderful thing.

[Joe Shlabotnick]

I kinda like the idea of creating myself, saving it, then dumping me into various leagues and seeing what happens.

Maybe one time, I'm a HOF-er. Maybe the next, I'm mediocre. Sounds fun.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Joe Shlabotnick

I kinda like the idea of creating myself, saving it, then dumping me into various leagues and seeing what happens.

There's something just a little bit weird about this.

[Leatherfut]

Hi all,
I have a related question. It looks like you can create a new player and enter him in the next draft, which sounds really cool. I think I'll create my son, instead of myself, and enter him in an upcoming draft; I'm getting a little more humble in my old age.
Anyway, my question is, is it possible to import a historical player and enter him in the draft as a raw recruit with lower ratings and higher potential.

thanks,
Frank