Please bring back R2 MFB-UTIL

[marcntx]

In R2, I could create rosters fairly quickly. I could pull up a roster page on the web and flip between the MFB Util and the roster page nand enter biographical information. Now that I have to enter the game to do that, I will be forced to print out rosters instead of just reading them off the webpage and putting them into the game. IMHO, this will slow down roster creation significantly.

[David Winter]

I'm not sure I understand. The utilties are still there and you can still edit rosters with them.

[marcntx]

By the way, I'm a roster nerd so maybe no one else cares, but in R2, I was very impressed at how fast rosters could be created in MF.  That's one of the reasons I bought it.  After years of massive restrictions in the Madden series, I couldn't wait for a game like MF that allowed total roster editing freedom.

[marcntx]

But since you can't set the random depth chart there, I have to enter the game to set the depth chart, then exit, then go from there.  It's just one more step. 

[David Winter]

Although, having just tried this to confirm that function is still there, I'm getting intermident crashes of the utilities. This will be fixed.

[marcntx]

Also, when generating random rosters, there are many duplicate numbers that make finding the actual starting player a pain.  

[marcntx]

Thanks Dave, I really appreciate your hard work.  

[David Winter]

Ahh the depth chart.. yes, that had to be removed from the utilities because the depth chart system has been completely rebuilt and trying to maintain the new code in two different places with two completely different interfaces became too much to deal with.

[David Winter]

ORIGINAL: marcntx

Also, when generating random rosters, there are many duplicate numbers that make finding the actual starting player a pain.  

This happens until the AI goes in and vetts the rosters (or a human does). Duplicate numbers are cleaned up by the core game before game play. The utilities have no AI to do that sort of thing.

[marcntx]

Uh oh, don't tell me that it will have to be only dealt with "in the game".  I thought the external utility was genius because of the ease of use and flexibility. 

[David Winter]

Unfortunately it also doubles my work trying to keep both in sync. So I had to drop one.

[marcntx]

Since most of my rosters were obviously made in R2, would it be possible that the MFB Util from r2 be made available somewhere at least for getting names into the game.  My thinking is that I could then use R3 to "shore up" the depth charts.  Although my R2 rosters don't have 2nd and 3rd string in the game (I plan on updating them), I could then set them in R3 once the rosters were done.  Just a thought.  

[marcntx]

Another idea is to allow me (us) to minimize the game while editing the rosters to be able to flip back and forth between the web and the game.  I know you said there would be Windowed mode, maybe I need to try that.

[David Winter]

Unfortunately no. None of the executable files for R2 will work with R3. They're all completely incompatible with each other.

[David Winter]

ORIGINAL: marcntx

Another idea is to allow me (us) to minimize the game while editing the rosters to be able to flip back and forth between the web and the game. I know you said there would be Windowed mode, maybe I need to try that.

That's not something I've done or attempted. I'm not sure how the database will react to that.

[Shaggyra]

ORIGINAL: marcntx

Another idea is to allow me (us) to minimize the game while editing the rosters to be able to flip back and forth between the web and the game.  I know you said there would be Windowed mode, maybe I need to try that.

I have been playing the game in "Windowed Mode" for some time while testing. What you are saying should work just fine. (In my experience.)

[Dolemite73]

How do you set it for Windowed mode?  I love playing games like this.

[David Winter]

ORIGINAL: Dolemite73

How do you set it for Windowed mode?  I love playing games like this.

This is mentioned in my release notes. Basically all you do is created a text file called WindowMode.txt and put it in the game folder. The next time you start the game, it's in a 800*600 window.

[marcntx]

The windowed mode should work.  It will make historical rosters a little slower, but I like that you can edit the player from the depth chart.  Thanks for the Windowed Mode tip.  I really apprecate it.

[marcntx]

Just when I thought the windowed mode would be alright, I found that there is no where to add the age and if the player is an import from the in-game editor.  It's really going to slow things down to have to use both programs to edit rosters.