Start Dynasty Mode In Correct Season With Updated Rosters

I had a theory that I could start a franchise in Dynasty Mode (Live '06), advance the years to the current season, save my franchise then somehow import the current rosters into it (PC Project patch ver 1.1 currently) so I can play teams in the correct year.

This unfortunately required multiple file copying, dbf editing and countless headaches resulting in only unpredictable crashes. Frustrated, I took a step back and finally tackled a different approach.

Instead of advancing Dynasty Mode to the current year, then trying to merge in massive amounts of player info and franchise data into it resulting in endless code errors and crashes, this simpler method brings the future schedule to the players instead of the players to the schedule, by "tricking" the computer to start a new dynasty from the current year.

PROs

Fewer files to deal with and very little .dbf editing (less margin for human error);
No messing w/player.dbf files which tends to crash game;
"Age" completely accurate (no more 17 year old rookies);
"Years Pro" also accurate;
High stability when done correctly;
Compatible with future Roster releases

CONs

Requires some knowledge/use of Hex and dbf editing
Some in-game date inconsistencies (see "Gliches" below) but nothing that crashes the game

DISCLAIMER:

This tutorial requires 1) solid grasp of computer basics (file and directory structures, copy/pasting etc); 2) Hex editor; 3) dbf editor

While I've been able to do this with 100% stability and function, this is still a tutorial submission only and awaiting verification from Andrew and mods. Before attempting, back EVERYTHING up that you hold sacred, as the worst case scenario is that you'll have to uninstall/reinstall your copy of Live or loose your current saved games. Before beginning, read through and clearly understand the steps before attempting this procedure - Good luck! Clutch

STEP I: ADVANCE THE CALENDAR

Create 'new' dynasty in 'Dynasty Mode' using your favorite team

Sim through seasons til the first day of the current roster season (using the PC Proj patch ver 1.1 season '08-09 for purposes of this demo)

Save on the first day of the regular season ('08-09) naming it, "Output" (make a backup just in case called "Output-bak")

Exit the game

STEP II: BACK UP YOUR ORIGNAL DB

Go to the folder C:\Program Files\EA SPORTS\NBA LIVE 06\database

Back-up your "Origdb" folder by copy/pasting it in the same location (should see two folders now, "Origdb" and "Copy Origdb")


Step III: CLEAR CACHE

Go to the folder: \My Documents\NBA LIVE 06\database

Select and delete all files in both the "Current" and "Working" folders (Note: do NOT delete the folders themselves; just clear them out)

STEP IV: UPDATING THE DEFAULT SCHEDULE INFO

Go to the folder: \My Documents\NBA LIVE 06\saves\Output

Select the 3 "schedule" .dbf files and Rt-click "Copy"

Then

"Paste" them into the folder:

C:\Program Files\EA SPORTS\NBA LIVE 06\database\Origdb

And

\My Documents\NBA LIVE 06\database\originaldb

Confirm "Yes to All" when asked


STEP V: CREATING A NEW DYNASTY

Run the game and create a 'new' dynasty again using the SAME team as the simmed save game above (Coaching, Training matters now so pick good ones)

Get to the first day of the season. It will read, "2005" but notice there are no games in the months on "Schedule"

Save the game as, "Season0809"
Make an additional back up just to be safe (Ex: "Season0809-B")

Exit the game

STEP VI: MAKING THE SCHEDULE READABLE

The new schedule is there (you copied it and made it your default), your dynasty team just can't see it yet. To make it readable requires a Hex editor and some accurate but not too complicated copy/pasting


First, go to the folder: \My Documents\NBA LIVE 06\saves\Output

Select and make a backup copy of the file, "franchise.dat"

Now, go to the folder: \My Documents\NBA LIVE 06\saves\Season0809

Select and make a backup copy of the file, "franchise.dat" in this directory

In the hex editor, open both files:

\My Documents\NBA LIVE 06\saves\Output\franchise.dat

And

\My Documents\NBA LIVE 06\saves\Season0809\franchise.dat


STEP VII: COPY BYTES FROM "OUTPUT" TO "SEASON0809"

To recognize the change to the default game schedule, we need to copy some info from Output's "franchise.dat" file to Season0809's "franchise.dat" file

Now that both files are open in the hex editor, scroll down in "Output" franchise.dat to the line: 000042b0h

Highlight/select a block from the last two bytes from 000042b0h to 00004330h like this:


(NOTE: your data will likely differ from that shown in the pics; this is nomal. The pics are only guidelines showing you where the needed data block starts and where it ends)

Select this same range of numbers for the open Season0809 "franchise.dat" file. You MUST be completely accurate or your game will likely crash

Once both ranges are selected, "copy" from Output, "franchise.dat" and "paste" into the same selected range block in Season, "franchise.dat"

If/when done correctly, the only noticeable change of numbers are within your selected area; if you see numbers outside your range shift, close the Season0809, "franchise.dat" WITHOUT SAVING IT then reopen and try again

If you're sure you've done it correctly, go ahead and "Save" the Season0809, "franchise.dat" file


That was the first of three blocks you need to copy/paste, again, from Output's "franchise.dat" file into Season0809's "franchise.dat" file

The other two blocks of data are below. Just follow the same procedure as above. Again, you MUST be accurate; any deviation or error will likely crash your game. Save Season0809, "franchise.dat" after each successful block copy/pasting

If it does crash, delete your Season0809, "franchise.dat" file, rename your backed up/clean copy as, "franchise.dat" then start again from Step VI

Block 2
Line range: 00004690 - 00004710



Block 3
Line range: 00004f10 -00004fc0


The last (third) block is a little tricky as the block of data may not be aligned with the photo above. Look for the signals of where the block of data starts and ends (for example watch where the "05" and "01" are at in 4f10h or the pair of "04"s in lines 4fc0 -4fd0)

When done correctly, it will not crash when you try to sim in the "schedule" area

STEP VIII: FIXING ASW BUG

If you got it to work and try to sim some games, you'll notice an All-Star game instantly started simming. This is because Live creates All-Star Weekend info at the beginning of a new season and since we imported data from '08-09 we've got an overlap on the schedule.

Fix this by go to the "Season0809" saved game folder and opening up the "scheduleseason.dbf"

Do a "descending" search in "Special" by clicking on the name




Locate the two "2006" dates. In each of those lines change TEAMHOME and TEAMAWAY to "-1" and SPECIAL to value "0"




If you made it this far, you're ready to rock n' roll. But before you start playing your new updated true-date dynasty, save it (a few times just to be sure). Then sim through the entire season to test for any season hangs or crashes.


GLICHES

This isn't entirely flaw-proof… yet. There are a few minor discrepancies I found that need to be worked out; good thing is they are not code errors since we didn't mess with any team or player.dbfs, stuff which can quickly get out of hand and corrupted.

HALL OF FAME. In the "Hall of Fame" all the awards still read 05-06; this is probably a dbf thing but I haven't looked into it yet; it's minor as it doesn't crash the game or anything but it would be nice to be synced with everything else; it should be fixable

Player Evolution screen - shows old date; not significant;

TEAM RECORD - inaccurate date. Still showing 2005-06. Again, does not crash game

Anyway, all you guys who've wanted to run the current rosters in Dynasty Mode from the correct date, it is possible. Just need some daring folks to give this a go and help confirm (remember, back stuff up before starting)

If you guys give this a go, let us know; I'm thinking this is finally the "Holy Grail" I've searched for forever but I'll wait to see any community results - Clutch

Last edited by Clutch on Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:46 am, edited 11 times in total.

Sounds good. I'll have to try this out when I get a chance and I'd encourage others to do the same. If we can get it to work properly then we'll definitely include the Tutorial.

thx andrew but all this may be for naught; been trying to replicate it again and as consistently as it was working before, it's now hangin' like a mofo. i can't figure it out

The basic idea should work though, perhaps a couple of the steps just need to be refined.

It just wasn't working andrew; totally unpredictable crashes, sometimes looked okay then it'd go nuts out of nowhere

got too frustrating so I aborted that and went for the jugular - the franchise.dat file. Check out the first post again; it's almost there. just need some uber programmer types to figure out the rest... hopefully....

Alright I isolated exactly where the year can be edited - in hex add: 000042b0 and 000042d0



Changing the darker blue byte affects the dynasty calendar year ("70" for 2005; "74" for 2008)

Only prob is that all game day cells come up empty with the jump to the future

If someone can figure a way to sync the schedules with the year shift, we're golden!

*cough* scheduleseason.dbf *cough*

change the year in that

for defaults, go into the database/origdb folders

sorry jao, i don't follow; i tried messing w/that but changing the years in scheduleseason.dbf didn't advance the start year when a new dynasty was started (ie., still "Oct 2005") i'm missing a step somewhere

i misunderstood, i thought you got it to start in 08/09 and just didnt have games to play

I didnt know it still starting in 05 was the issue? if you try to sim to 09 without any games will it crash?

sorry jao, i didn't explain it well

normally, when you install Live '06 out-of-the box and create a "New Dynasty" the start season is "2005-06"

I've isolated the hex addr in franchise.dat that controls the Calendar year (above posts) and can "trick" it to believe it is "2008-09"; but by doing so it no longer matches the schedule; you simply get empty game day cells when you look in "Schedule"

I've tried copying the schedule***.dbfs from a saved/simmed season up through '08-09 into a newly created "2005-06" saved game folder, then tweaking the 05-06 franchise.dat as above but that doesn't work

by copying the full block of ranges (000042b0 - 00004310) and (00004f80 - 00004fc0) you will see games back in the game day cells, but it's an inaccurate schedule and simming will just launch it into a strange/random simming loop

i'm at a loss trying to sync everything together; hope this helps

at least no more "code error" crashes lol

Keep us posted

I'm not sure if this suggestion helps (just my 2 cents worth):

1. After creating a new dynasty, sim each season and save them. So you'll have 05-06, 06-07, 08-09, 09-10... etc. (It may be a massive work when the modders first start out, given 25 years, but the work will become easier after we save all 25 years and modify them with each passing year).

2. Given that Andrew has updated rosters for each year, put those created players into the respective saved season/dynasty and you'll have all the new rookies and players for each season.

3. We can then pick the season which we wish to start a new dynasty and viola!

Some of the inaccuracies which we may encounter could be the ASW (wrong date), Trade dateline, and when the season ends and when the playoffs begin. But I remember reading somewhere in this forum that we can edit the season schedule via dbf editing.

As for the stats for each respective years that have been simmed, the inaccuracy can be tweaked (edited) to reflect the actual stats? Correct me if I'm wrong.

That way, we make minimal editing thru' dbf which may cause the game to crash.

Note: I've been playing Live 06 Dynasty mode and I'm in the 5th year now. When a new season commences, I'll save the file and take some time to do some dbf editing to include rookie players that reflect their real life counterparts. Although it is not the actual year in which they are drafted, it adds realism to the Dynasty rather than seeing generated rookies with faces which look like cousins/relatives. And I hate that line that's always at the back of their heads... And this is what keeps me playing all 82 games (no sim) and staying interested.

Of course without the modders help (thanks guys, and bless you all), it won't be possible for me to include those CFs and patches that I can save my money and not having to buy another Live game.

Okay guys, I think I've got it; lemme know if you're able to test this out and confirm (see 1st post)

I will try and start a franchise. Let's see what happens

just wanted to bump this since i've been PM'd/asked a few times how i started Live06 in the 2009/2010 season

my current Warriors dynasty was started using this method (as well as a short-lived Spurs and Suns dynasty before that) so i know it works, is crash-free when done correctly, and you're able to advance your dynasty into future seasons without problems

it isn't flawless though as there are some date inaccuracies like "Hall of Fame" recorded date and CPU-generated rookie ages and start year; luckily i've figured an easy way to fix the latter in DBF edit

important thing for me was 1) to start a Live06 dynasty in whatever year i chose; 2) be completely STABLE and not crash; everything else was cosmetic

anyway, for anyone daring (or foolish ) enough to try it, give it a go; when you think you've got it, the proof is to run a test sim of the entire season, through the playoffs and off-season and into the following season. If you're able to get to day one of the next season crash-free, you're good to go! - Clutch

Sounds good. I'll move it into the main tutorials section.

I have a other numbers.

yeah man, you will have other numbers/data since your dynasty team and all necessary code will be different than my examples

hard to explain but, what's important is looking for the physical BLOCK or 'set' of data (think a physical item, like a jar or container) that's highlighted, and not looking for the actual numbers in the example because they won't match the picture.

try looking at what comes before and after the block as markers (in this example the, "18 00 1E 00" or "the 04" after the block... you'll start to see the necessary data that needs to be copied over once you compare between your two files and see the pattern

anyway, good luck man; i know it's confusing as hell and you're a brave soul for even trying; rest assured, it will give you the results you seek if you can break it down...

this is also applicable in nba live 08...
but theres some difference... in hex editing of franchise... instead of year... its the roster and staff that u need to copy paste....
with that u can play your 25 years of dynasty in ur desire roster every year with no crashing