1995/1996 Season Roster Patch Preview

[Andrew]

1995/1996 Season Roster Patch Preview

Last year I worked backwards from the current season, but this year I'm starting from 1995/1996. This time I'm adding real salaries and contract lengths, as well as correct player ages. I'm hoping that this patch will provide a realistic emulation of the 1996 NBA season.

Remember this NBA?


Jordan vs Penny


Pippen in his prime


Shaq in Orlando


Rockets vs Lakers, 1996 Playoffs


Features

• 1995/1996 Opening Night Rosters
• 1996 All-Star Teams
• Real Salaries & Salary Cap from the 95/96 season
• Accurate contract lengths - take control of Orlando and try to keep Shaq, or play as the Lakers and try to lure the Diesel to LA.
• Correct player ages (note that year of birth information is inaccurate as a result)
• All teams have correct coaches
• Ratings adjusted to reflect player skill and performance during the 1996 season
• Default playoff bracket replaced with 1996 playoff bracket

I can't make graphics patches, but if some people would like to contribute to the project, I'd be happy to have you on board. I'd prefer to think about graphics add-ons later in development (after the roster patch is closer to completion), but if you're interested in helping out by all means contact me.

A couple of things that won't be perfect

• The season. The game will still recognise the first season in Dynasty Mode as being 2003/2004.
• The career stats. Even if I deleted career stats back to 94/95, the game would still add stats listed as being from the 2003/2004 season onwards.

Progress Report

I've currently completed the rosters for the following teams:

Chicago
Houston
Indiana
LA Lakers
New York
Orlando
Seattle

Probable Release Date: Sometime in March. It depends how busy I get with work, and whether any art updates will be developed for the patch.

[Guest]

I feel this, it will be a great roster, i cant wait!

[Repole]

Awesome andrew, will you be making draft updates for the following years to be uses in franchise?

[ShadowKn1ght]

Can't wait,I'm a Pacers fan and this time they will win a ring aagainst LA

[Andrew]

Glad to see the enthusiasm guys. I'll try my best to get it finished as soon as possible, though I don't want to rush things and do a poor job.

Awesome andrew, will you be making draft updates for the following years to be uses in franchise?

Possibly, I was thinking about it. I'll look into it after the roster is complete.

[Mazzocchi]

Can't wait to keep Shaq in Orlando, and if you can get the draft ting right, Trade to Charlotte to get Kobe on Orlando too
Kobe, Shaq, And Penny, its gonna be great

and as i said in the other topic u made for this i will help you with rosters if you want

[The Game]

wow!! great project andrew!!(Y)(Y)(Y) cant wait for it to be released!

[Andrew]

In case you haven't seen it elsewhere:

I haven't been able to get as much work done on the 95/96 roster patch as I would like, as I've been working most of the last two weeks. I have completed a couple more teams, and I've also started to add the art patches that have been submitted for use with the mod.

Teams Completed

Chicago
Detroit
Houston
Indiana
Los Angeles Lakers
New York
Orlando
Phoenix
Seattle
Utah

This leaves 19 NBA teams and both All-Star teams left to complete, as well as the creation of free agents that were available during the 1996 season.

More Progress

I've started swapping coaches and adding new names to coaches.dbf. For now I'm using generic faces for missing coaches, but perhaps there will be cyberface updates for those coaches in the completed version.

I've started adding the art updates that have already been contributed. I've also been swapping around jerseys in teamgear.dbf for the teams that already have appropriate retro jerseys in the game.

And since it was suggested by a couple of people, I've added Magic Johnson to the Lakers' roster, placing him on the IR. If you're playing as the Lakers, you may choose if and when to activate him. If you're not playing as the Lakers, chances are he'll make an appearance on the active roster sometime during the season. His ratings have been lowered and he's listed as a F/G to reflect his play during his comeback in 95/96.

Here are a couple of screenshots:



Shawn Kemp in his prime. Jersey by Superman, Key Arena by Gerald



Charles Barkley dunks while Otis Thorpe and Allan Houston look on

I'll post another progress report soon, most likely next weekend.

[Vins15]

nice work...but i think Barkley's skin colour is a little bit darker?and u made the reignman's size look perfect...way to go Andrew

[Andrew]

I'm hoping to have a more realistic Barkley (ie with a cyberface) in the finished version. For now, he's using Face #17 (which bears the closest resemblence to him).

[alexboom]

Barkley skin color seems quite good for me ... please post us some screenshots regulary to show the work in progress !

[Andrew]

I'll post some more this weekend.

[Filip]

Barkley skin color seems quite good for me ...

Yeah, but he should be a lot more wider

[Andrew]

I'll change his body type. Thanks for the heads up.

[too2buff]

do you think anyone will ever be dedicated enough to make a roster patch starting at 1993 or 1994 and have draft classes through 2004 now thats my idea of a great dynasty mode

i know its insane and would take crazy work but think how fun it would be use the older players and know what rookies are coming in for the next ten years , i don't think i'd put the game down but that is a hell of a lot of work

sometimes i dream......


btw ur roster looks awesome can't wait to use it

[too2buff]

do you think anyone will ever be dedicated enough to make a roster patch starting at 1993 or 1994 and have draft classes through 2004 now thats my idea of a great dynasty mode

i know its insane and would take crazy work but think how fun it would be use the older players and know what rookies are coming in for the next ten years , i don't think i'd put the game down but that is a hell of a lot of work

sometimes i dream......


btw ur roster looks awesome can't wait to use it

[Andrew]

Adding draft classes is difficult these days, as the game clears everyone from the database who isn't on an NBA team roster or in the free agent pool. Thus, any rookies added to the database to be drafted at the end of the year will be deleted upon starting a new Dynasty. Needless to say, this makes it difficult to implement the feature in a roster patch.

I wouldn't mind doing seasons older than 95/96, though the schedule would have to be edited so that the Grizzlies and Raptors do not play any games.

[Andrew]

It's about time for another progress report on the 95/96 roster patch. I've completed the rosters for four more teams, bringing the current total to 14. I've been adding more of the art patches that have been submitted, and am very pleased with the way the patch is shaping up. I still can't give a definite release date, but since I've got a little more spare time at the moment I'll do my best to release it as soon as possible.

Teams Completed:

Atlanta
Chicago
Cleveland
Detroit
Houston
Indiana
LA Lakers
New York
Orlando
Phoenix
Portland
San Antonio
Seattle
Utah

I've also started work on Miami, and will be moving on to Sacramento shortly. I will then complete the 13 non-playoff teams from 1996 and the two All-Star teams, then go over each team to ensure that everyone has accurate ratings and that the team ratings are also accurate. While I'm doing that, I will also be adding the art updates that have been submitted and fixing up other small details. More details plus eight screenshots below!

Here are some more screens:



Terrell Brandon. Cavaliers 1996 away jerseys by Superman



Tyrone Hill. Cavaliers 1996 home jerseys by Superman



Rod Strickland vs Nick Van Exel



Cliff Robinson



The Admiral in his prime



The Alamodome by Gerald



Another shot of The Alamodome



Steve Smith. Atlanta Hawks jerseys by Superman

[Bang]

Will the ages/birthdate of players be adjusted so that everyone doesn't retire after one year? Or does that not happen in live 2004?
Just wondering...I had that problem with the historic rosters in live 2003.

[Andrew]

Yes, all players' year of birth has been adjusted so that the ages are correct. I figured compatibility with Dynasty Mode was more important than 100% accurate date of birth information.

[Jay-Peso]

Just a quick question, what did you give MJ's rating as?

[Andrew]

MJ is rated 99 overall, though some of his ratings are a little lower than his Legend ratings.

[Jay-Peso]

MJ is rated 99 overall, though some of his ratings are a little lower than his Legend ratings.

I would say that's a good rating. I just downloaded the NBALIVE.ORG patch and I was very disappointed on how they rated the teams.

I also downloaded the Historic Teams patch and I want to delete it but it still keeps coming up with the old logos and everything.

Any suggestions?

[Andrew]

It depends how the art patches were installed. If they were installed to the .vivs, you'll need to reinstall or if you prefer copy the original .viv files from the CD to the render file. If the patch uses CustomArt, simply delete the files from the various folders in render.

[Blitz]

Wow. That's all I can say. This will be awesome when released, and I will definently download it.