vintage NBA rules in season mode

[abdelkader]

Hi there.
I have just decided to play NBA 1977-78 season in NBA Live 2005. However, I don't know how to make it as real as possible because everytime I load a match, there appears a default team's court with a three-point line, which didn't exist in NBA back in the 70s. When I play exhibition games, there's no problem as I can always choose the All-star 1970s court but in season mode courts cannot be chosen. What should I do?

[Andrew]

I guess you could try replacing every team's court with the 70s All-Star court in the stadia folder.

[JaoSming]

even if you replace the 70s court over a "normal" court the 3 point line will still be active....even if the line isnt there

[Andrew]

I was talking about replacing the entire .viv file, ie duplicating the 70s court for all the teams and renaming the .vivs (and files inside) accordingly. Wouldn't that also duplicate the appropriate values to disable recognition of the three point line?

[JaoSming]

I think it is something in the game that recognizes when you select the 70's/60's/50's courts

i mean you can try it, remember to rename the files inside the viv as well, but I remember having 0 success with this

[Andrew]

Fair enough, wasn't sure. Perhaps still worth trying with one team just to see, repeat as necessary with the other 29 if it does.

[abdelkader]

Thanks for the answers. I'll give it a try in free time.


<<<EDIT>>>


@JaoSming
Unfortunately, you were right. There's something else which disables the three-point line rule.
I have just renamed all the files from Delta Center viv file. Even though the court looks exactly like the 1970s court and the three-point line isn't there now, I made a successful long distance shot...and was awarded with three points. :/

Well, at least we know that THIS doesn't work...but maybe there's something else to do?

[Andrew]

Highly unlikely, it would appear that the necessary value isn't in any file that we can (easily) edit.

[abdelkader]

I got an idea.

Maybe it is possible to associate the 1970s court with the teams? It'd be easier to change a couple of strings in dbf files instead of patching things and messing with them.

[Andrew]

That would also change all their other art. I don't think that's going to work though as it's basically an alternate method of the first suggestion. The issue would seem to be that the data that removes the three point recognition when playing on the 50s, 60s and 70s courts is not stored in the court .viv files or the databases, but within another file (such as the .exe) and hence very difficult/impossible to edit.

If you change the team abbreviation art pointers in the dbf files, you're just going to switch every team's art - courts, logos and jerseys - to those of the 70s All-Stars, while three point shots will still be recognised as such. I think you're out of luck here.

[abdelkader]

I know it would change the art of other teams as well but I actually don't care about it at this point. I only want the three-point rule to be erased.

Anyway, I see your point now and I know that I can do nothing about it.


I thought that by associating the court with all the teams I'd erase the three-point rule.

I see it in this way:
- a "normal" court consists of a viv file(graphics) and three point rule (script or that thing in exe file which you mentioned) and those two elements are a unity.
When I replaced the graphics of the normal court with the graphics of the 70s court, I received a vintage-like-looking court but the 3-point script was still there.

-a "vintage" court consists of a viv file (graphics) and no-three-point rule (script) and, as above, it's treated as unity.

If I associated the teams with the 70s court (as a unity), I'd change the grapics AND the script.
In this way, the computer wouldn't show me only the graphics of the court but would also apply the vintage rules.
I have just loaded a match between Rockets and Spurs from the newest NLSC 09-10 package and used the vintage court. I made a long dist. shot and got only two points. So I assume that the script is strictly associated with that particular court.

I hope you know what I mean. I know it looks like babbling.

[JaoSming]

made sense to me

[Andrew]

Same here, if it works then that's good to know.

[abdelkader]

I tried to do this but I didn't succeed. I've checked the dbf files and found a couple of strings with the word 'location' involved but editing them didn't change anything. Maybe you know where I should look for the string which attaches a team to a court?

[Andrew]

The four letter abbreviation in teams.dbf, TEAMABR4.

[abdelkader]

Should I change all the abbreviations under this label to "as70", or do something else ?

[Andrew]

Might as well just try it with one team first to see whether it works or not. If it does, repeat with the rest of the teams.

[abdelkader]

It doesn't work. I did it with all the teams but the game crashes everytime I load a match. I think the only way to crack it is to ask EA to release the game code...yeah, keep dreaming.

[Andrew]

Did you try changing TEAMABR2 as well so all the art strings pointed to the 70s All-Stars? It's probably not going to work but it might prevent the crashes and at least let you test the theory all the way through.

[abdelkader]

To my and probably your surprise, IT WORKS!!!


I have just discovered that if you leave Teamabr4 string unchanged while you change only Teamabr2 putting "70" in each line..,you keep all the default jerseys of all NBA teams. What is more - their courts look like their default courts, with a three-point line, team logos etc....but the three-point rule isn't in force. You always get two points for long distance shots!!!
The only thing which is not convenient is that the jersey thumbnails are not visible in the jersey selection screen but all the rest is ok.

I suppose that this will now enable us to create the vintage courts for use in season mode.

[Andrew]

Good to know, a shame about the jersey previews but a handy modification for vintage rosters.