NBA Live PC Rosters

[Andrew]

As I've mentioned in the original thread, I would like to be involved in the NBA Live PC project with the intention of updating and maintaining the rosters. My original plan was to continue working from the converted roster that JaoSming posted but due to some issues with the converted files decided to pull the final version of my NLSC update for NBA Live 06 out of mothballs and resume updates from the end of the 2005/2006 season. However, I soon found that solution unsatisfying as well.

To that end, I have decided to start over with a fresh roster update which I can work on meticulously, re-doing ratings for the original players before adding new players and the missing legends in addition to updating playbooks, coaches, nicknames and as much else as I can for the best roster update possible.

The drawback of course is that I've set myself up for a lot of work, a lot more than if I'd continued on with a converted roster or even the final version of the 2005/2006 season update. However, I feel the timing is right for this as the work will be done during the offseason in preparation for the 2008/2009 NBA season and it will allow me to go into a lot of detail without having to worry about regular updates until we hit version 1.0, plus I can avoid some of the issues present in the other updates I was originally going to use as a base.

I expect I will release some beta versions of the rosters at some point for testing purposes and to give everyone an idea of how they're shaping up, especially with any gameplay fixes that are developed for NBA Live PC. I don't have a set timetable for any beta releases just yet but I will wait until I've got some more work done on the rosters before considering any preliminary releases.

Now, to the part I'm sure you're all interested in: the current progress on the rosters.

So far, everyone who appears in the default rosters for NBA Live 06 is on their correct teams. Fortunately, every team but the Bulls and Warriors have at least eight players who were included in the default rosters. As soon as missing players are created for the Bulls and Warriors, the placeholder players who no longer belong on the rosters will be gone.

I have also started working on some of the smaller details such as adding more nicknames to the database, updating jersey numbers and positions and removing retired players (as well as those unlikely to return) from the active rosters to trim down the Free Agent pool and prevent those players from turning up in Dynasty Mode.

The next step will probably be to update the individual player ratings, including those for the existing Legends players. I will then start adding players (both active players and missing legends) and updating the various All-Star teams, once again taking care with the ratings. I'll also continue to update the smaller details and things like playbooks as I go. As with the regular NLSC roster updates, feedback will be most welcome here.

That's about all for the moment. I'll try to post some progress reports from time to time as the rosters continue to take shape.

[MadbaLL]

again, i must say that decision to choose nba live 06 over live 07 is a mistake.

[JaoSming]

which is a valid opinion but after carefully looking through features and looking a the potential for which game could rise above the rest 06 wins.

[ReMix]

If you want any help with the rosters (which can be anything, like nicknames or anything out), just let me know, I'd be glad to help!

[Andrew]

again, i must say that decision to choose nba live 06 over live 07 is a mistake.

I do see the merit in selecting NBA Live 07 instead but it does have its issues, not all of which have a satisfactory workaround. All things considered, I truly feel NBA Live 06 is the best candidate out of the last four releases in the series for all the things we want to try and do.

If you want any help with the rosters (which can be anything, like nicknames or anything out), just let me know, I'd be glad to help!

Sure, any help would be greatly appreciated. Some feedback (like ratings) will likely have to wait until I've got a beta version out so everyone can see how they're shaping up but in terms of playbooks, accessories and other things you can think of, by all means let me know. I'll no doubt create threads to solicit help in certain areas as work progresses.

[ReMix]

What I could probably do for example is update the salarys, as it much be quite long to do, just let me know if you need some help.

[benji]

Updating salaries for all the teams shouldn't take more than half an hour.

What I said to other things applies to this.

[z_dize]

yup,please update salaries and contract duration.. to make things more realistic.. as well as speech id's..

in my opinion, Live 06 was the best choice.. actually the reason why i bought Live 07 & 08 is the hope of getting something close to Live 06 or even 05 but i think the last 2 years live came up short(with the exception of 08 having sig shots)

[dshay7]

This is fantastic news! Thanks to all you great patchers who give so freely of your talents.
Some pre-release feedback/questions:

Will there be classic teams for the new Live 06/09? Or would I just be able to use existing classsic team patches?

Will there be any animation changes? Such as new or different dunks or post moves? (I ask this only because I really don't know. If it's not possible, than please forgive my ignorance).

[Kris]

Ill send my complete plrface.viv (I think almost all of the players are there) and also my plylodb.viv and plygrb.viv

[Andrew]

What I could probably do for example is update the salarys, as it much be quite long to do, just let me know if you need some help.

Thanks for the offer but as Ben said it's not really a lengthy process. I've got a batch file to do the work for me.

yup,please update salaries and contract duration.. to make things more realistic.. as well as speech id's..

Don't worry, the usual features of the roster updates such as updated ratings, salary and contract info etc will be a part of this roster update too. The aim is to make it as detailed as possible.

[JaoSming]

This is fantastic news! Thanks to all you great patchers who give so freely of your talents.
Some pre-release feedback/questions:

Will there be classic teams for the new Live 06/09? Or would I just be able to use existing classsic team patches?

Will there be any animation changes? Such as new or different dunks or post moves? (I ask this only because I really don't know. If it's not possible, than please forgive my ignorance).

At first we wont be making any new historic teams and just focus on the current NBA but there are patches that already add them.

It is possible but isnt as easy as it is on 05 or 04. I will certainly try to update these animations or at least make the gameplay completely different from the base out of the box game.

Ill send my complete plrface.viv (I think almost all of the players are there) and also my plylodb.viv and plygrb.viv

Awesome

[wade_03]

What I could probably do for example is update the salarys, as it much be quite long to do, just let me know if you need some help.

Thanks for the offer but as Ben said it's not really a lengthy process. I've got a batch file to do the work for me.

yup,please update salaries and contract duration.. to make things more realistic.. as well as speech id's..

Don't worry, the usual features of the roster updates such as updated ratings, salary and contract info etc will be a part of this roster update too. The aim is to make it as detailed as possible.

This project is great news. I wish you all good luck on your attempt. But im wondering if the age and years pro of all the players are going to be updated, too because in other people's rosters they're not and we have 17 year old Durants/Odens and 23 year old Boozers/Arenas.

[Andrew]

That's one of the limitations I was referring to in the FAQ. The only way around it would be to give players incorrect birth years (ie taking them back a couple of years) and that's not necessarily a desirable option. I'll consider it but my preference would be to live with that inaccuracy.

[Kris]

I have now posted my Team suggested Team plays bro andrew hope ya like it

[jenz]

Andrew, if it isn't too much to ask, is it possible for you to make a roster too with the FSS moves disabled?..cause i remember days ago JaoSming said that it is possible through dbf editing..

[benji]

I say, roll back the birthdates. It is better to have the real ages than real birthdates. Does anyone actually look at the birthdates?

[wade_03]

Yeah I think rolling back birthdates will be better so we can reflect the real current NBA players playing instead of having a 34 year old Shaq playing and putting up good numbres instead of a Shaq that's really going to be retired in a year or two.

[GoHornets]

What's up with FSS?
What is going to be the criteria to choose wich players will be FSS and which won't? I mean, will we see a non-superstar players with FSS skills, like Aldrige, or only superb players, that average, let's say 28 ppg, will be consideres as FSS players. I'm talking about scorers, just to give an example.

[Qballer]

I say, roll back the birthdates. It is better to have the real ages than real birthdates. Does anyone actually look at the birthdates?

I would have to agree 100%. the birthdates visually have no importance in the game other than for accuracy. It's more important to have the ages right for dynasty purposes.

[dieseldust]

at last there will be no more pink heads and shoes on the roster..I hope you can also make some new animations especially for the dunks and lay-ups!



To all the hardworking people involved in this project....I highly salute you!

[Golden8]

I have spent a long time developing an updated 'names' file for generated rookies. This file is for 05, but my memory of 06 is that it uses the same original name file.

The file rebalances the frequency of rookie names turning up, and also has 1000+ added names, mostly surnames. I have also tried to address the lack of names in some areas (especially Asia where the names became similar very fast).

In addition to this I have also updated birth town/country files.

Let me know if you would like me to make these available for you.

[Golden8]

Also - I agree with above comments about birthdate. I'd rather have accurate ages/retirements in dynasty mode than accurate birthdates.

[jonthefon]

Isn't it possible to convert an 08 roster to 06 and go from there? Apart from the FSS abilities though...

[Pdub]

I changed the schedule from 2005-06 to 2008-09. In dynasty mode with the type set to NBA, there are no games on the schedule and the year still starts at 2005-06. I can't advance past that season so changing the birthdates will have to do.

[papa jack]

I have spent a long time developing an updated 'names' file for generated rookies. This file is for 05, but my memory of 06 is that it uses the same original name file.

The file rebalances the frequency of rookie names turning up, and also has 1000+ added names, mostly surnames. I have also tried to address the lack of names in some areas (especially Asia where the names became similar very fast).

In addition to this I have also updated birth town/country files.

Let me know if you would like me to make these available for you.

i think this is very necessary to the dynasty mode.. we don't like to see the same surnames as the seasons progress.. please do the updates

[JaoSming]

I changed the schedule from 2005-06 to 2008-09. In dynasty mode with the type set to NBA, there are no games on the schedule and the year still starts at 2005-06. I can't advance past that season so changing the birthdates will have to do.

Well the alternative is that we simulate to the 08-09 season in a dynasty, then from that create a roster / schedule and everything. Redistribute that and create a batch file or something so people could still choose their team.

[Andrew]

There's more support than I thought for rolling back the birthdates. Putting it to a vote seems like the most democratic thing to do, so I'll create a poll.

I'd prefer not to eliminate Freestyle Superstars as I feel it's something we can work with. I'd rather leave it up to the user to disable FSS if they don't want it, but I suppose we could do a version where that's already done. I'll keep that in mind since it's easy enough to do but I don't think FSS should be eliminated completely by the project.

I have spent a long time developing an updated 'names' file for generated rookies. This file is for 05, but my memory of 06 is that it uses the same original name file.

The file rebalances the frequency of rookie names turning up, and also has 1000+ added names, mostly surnames. I have also tried to address the lack of names in some areas (especially Asia where the names became similar very fast).

In addition to this I have also updated birth town/country files.

Let me know if you would like me to make these available for you.

That definitely sounds interesting. Whatever can be done to enhance the game.

Well the alternative is that we simulate to the 08-09 season in a dynasty, then from that create a roster / schedule and everything. Redistribute that and create a batch file or something so people could still choose their team.

That would be a bit fiddly, but seems doable. It would be great if we could get it to work properly since we could also do a career stats update in addition to getting the right ages without editing birthdates.

[Pdub]

Problem with that is we would have to do it for all teams, and do the batch file on 29 rosters, releasing 29 dynasty saves, and people wouldn't get a chance to change their staff or their training camp on the first year. Although you could force a "real" staff if you wanted to patch that in. Not sure how that would turn out in the middle of a dynasty because the DAT save files may reference them. Remember the crashing caused by applying a staff update to a current dynasty?

Lots of little issues with it as you can see.

[Andrew]

It should work alright if the simulation is started with a real staff patch, it would just be a matter of setting the contract lengths to run through the 2008/2009 season. But you're right, it's a lot of fiddling around and it would be an inconvenience to include 30 different saves in addition to the regular rosters. Probably still doable but not ideal.

[JaoSming]

why 30 different saves? isnt changing a team in dynasty just a simple change of 1 value in the teams.dbf?

and this way we could even include the draft by not simulating past the preseason.

[Andrew]

Unfortunately not, it can be done but it's extremely glitchy and usually results in a crash at some point.

[gotoguy]

What will be the basis for the ratings of players, I thinks there's a Rating Machine 2.3 and it was very realistic because it was base on real stats in NBA.com

In rosters of Sir Andrew, I think the THREEPTATT needs to UPDATE, Raja Bell had only 20, I think he shot 40-50% in 3 points.

Thank You.

[Andrew]

The ratings will be based on their performance during the 2007/2008 season.

[FakeAdmin]

When (approx) will this be done?

[Andrew]

As I mentioned in the first place, there is no set date at this time.

[wade_03]

Hos is progress coming along with the rosters Andrew?

[Andrew]

I'm currently working on ratings for players in the original rosters. I've also removed players who have retired or are unlikely to return from the active rosters and updated various elements such as the stadium names, coaches etc.

[Awesom3]

Make Carl Landry 6'9!

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/carl_landry/

[Andrew]

He'll have to be created first.

[FakeAdmin]

Hey Andrew! I just want to say that if you need any old patches for this project please tell me because I have a lot of old patches that I kept since 2006.

[Andrew]

I can't think of any old patches I'd need at this time but thanks for the offer.

[JaoSming]

Hey Andrew! I just want to say that if you need any old patches for this project please tell me because I have a lot of old patches that I kept since 2006.

But if you wanted to reupload them so we can try some of them out it surely wouldnt hurt.

[FakeAdmin]

JaoSming- If you are interested in any old patches please name some and I'll search through my database!

[JaoSming]

I dunno, what do you have?

[FakeAdmin]

i got 203 Live 06 patches (collected from september 06 -present)

[Clutch]

HOLY CRAP!

can't believe i'm just now finding out about this Andrew, but i am frekkin' STOKED! '06 is my Live of choice so i'm very much looking forward to watching this develop and helping out with feedback when early versions release

[cj_miranda23]

hello andrew, any progress??

if you need some help in editing stuff or adding I think i can help

[Andrew]

Nothing to report. If I do have a progress report I'll be sure to post it; in the absence of one, you can assume I don't have anything new to say at this time.

[hawks24]

im still confused with the fact that you could have saved yourself from all this work by using nba live 08 instead