[player_info.dat] Player Info Generator

[archibalduk]

it doesn't seem to include the Memorial Cup. The omission of the Memorial Cup doesn't make sense to me. Do you think I also include it in the Canadian Jnr games?

IIRC correctly you've noted the Player Info Tab seems to be for regular season games, and not playoffs.....so maybe the Memorial Cup is omitted because they're really "playoff games"?

EDIT - Now I reread and see you've noted that playoffs ARE included.....I wonder if what we're seeing is inputter error?

Heh, my post crossed with your updated post!

I wonder that too. However, equally, maybe SI don't count Memorial Cup games in game (i.e. when the game updates the Player Info as you progress through seasons in game). I guess we may never know for sure. But maybe if the OHL/QMJHL/WHL playoffs are counted, the Memorial Cup really ought to also be counted...

[archibalduk]

Having taken a look through the Pre Game Editor, I've found that all of the Canadian Junior A Leagues other than the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League fall under the Canadian Junior category. Junior B teams do not. I'm not sure why the Saskatchewan league isn't included...

Played in College covers all of the NCAA leagues but not the Canadian Interuniversity Sport leagues.

The Editor is incorrect with regards to the NA Major Jnr Games category. It is actually NA Major Jnr Seasons Played. Under NA Major Jnr, I have included the following teams (this is just my best guess - let me know if you disagree with this):

United States Hockey League
Eastern Junior Hockey League
North American Hockey League
Minnesota Junior Hockey League
Western States Hockey League
Northern Pacific Hockey League

[archibalduk]

I've more or less completed all of the calculations for each field of data. All that remains is to finalise the list of leagues for the different categories.

[archibalduk]

Well I've been going through the various categories and I think I've picked up most of the relevant leagues. I just need to figure out the NA Major Junior and NA Junior leagues.

Canadian Juniors:

Western Hockey League (WHL)
Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)
Memorial Cup
Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL)
British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL)
Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League (OPJHL)
Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL)
Maritime Junior A Hockey League (MJAHL)
Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL)
Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League (QJAHL)
Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL)
Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL)
Ontario Junior A Hockey League (OJAHL)

College leagues:

Hockey East (HE)
Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA)
Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC)
Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA)
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC)
College Hockey America (CHA)
Atlantic Hockey Association
ECAC East
ECAC West
N.E. Small College Athletic Conference
ECAC Northeast
Northern Collegiate Hockey Association
SUNY Athletic Conference
Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Big 10 Conference
Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference
Northeast-10 Conference

Professional leagues:

AUT: Austrian Nationalliga
AUT: Erste Bank Eishockey Liga
BLR: Belarus Hockey League
CAN: North East Professional Hockey League
CAN: Quebec Senior Professional League
CZE: Czech First Division
CZE: Czech Second League
CZE: Elite League
DEN: Danish Cup
DEN: Danish Oddset Ligaen
FIN: SM-League
GBR: British Challenge Cup
GBR: British National League
GBR: British Sekonda Ice Hockey Superleague
GBR: Elite Ice Hockey League
GBR: English Premier Ice Hockey League
GER: Deutsche 2. Bundesliga
GER: Deutsche Eishockey Liga
GER: Deutsche Nachwuchs Liga
GER: Deutsche Oberliga
ITA: Italian Serie A
JAP: Japanese Ice Hockey League
NA_: American Hockey League
NA_: Atlantic Coast Hockey League
NA_: Central Hockey League
NA_: East Coast Hockey League
NA_: ECHL American Conference
NA_: ECHL East Division
NA_: ECHL National Conference
NA_: ECHL North Division
NA_: ECHL South Division
NA_: ECHL West Division
NA_: Federal Hockey League
NA_: International Hockey League
NA_: Ligue Nord-Américaine du Hockey
NA_: National Hockey League
NA_: Southern Professional Hockey League
NA_: United Hockey League
NA_: West Coast Hockey League
NA_: Western Professional Hockey League
NA_: World Hockey Association
NED: Dutch Superleague
NOR: Norwegian First Division
NOR: Norwegian Second Division
NOR: Norwegian UPC-Ligaen
RUS: Russian Vtoraya Liga
RUS: Russian Vysshaya Liga
RUS: Superleague / KHL
SLO: Slovenian Elite League
SVK: Slovakian First Division
SVK: Slovenska T-Com Extraliga
SWE: Elitserien
SWE: Swedish Allsvenskan
SWI: National League A
SWI: Swiss National League B

[Manimal]

Professional leagues:

AUT: Austrian Nationalliga
AUT: Erste Bank Eishockey Liga
BLR: Belarus Hockey League
CAN: North East Professional Hockey League
CAN: Quebec Senior Professional League
CZE: Czech First Division
CZE: Czech Second League
CZE: Elite League
DEN: Danish Cup
DEN: Danish Oddset Ligaen
FIN: SM-League
GBR: British Challenge Cup
GBR: British National League
GBR: British Sekonda Ice Hockey Superleague
GBR: Elite Ice Hockey League
GBR: English Premier Ice Hockey League
GER: Deutsche 2. Bundesliga
GER: Deutsche Eishockey Liga
GER: Deutsche Nachwuchs Liga
GER: Deutsche Oberliga
ITA: Italian Serie A
JAP: Japanese Ice Hockey League
NA_: American Hockey League
NA_: Atlantic Coast Hockey League
NA_: Central Hockey League
NA_: East Coast Hockey League
NA_: ECHL American Conference
NA_: ECHL East Division
NA_: ECHL National Conference
NA_: ECHL North Division
NA_: ECHL South Division
NA_: ECHL West Division
NA_: Federal Hockey League
NA_: International Hockey League
NA_: Ligue Nord-Américaine du Hockey
NA_: National Hockey League
NA_: Southern Professional Hockey League
NA_: United Hockey League
NA_: West Coast Hockey League
NA_: Western Professional Hockey League
NA_: World Hockey Association
NED: Dutch Superleague
NOR: Norwegian First Division
NOR: Norwegian Second Division
NOR: Norwegian UPC-Ligaen
RUS: Russian Vtoraya Liga
RUS: Russian Vysshaya Liga
RUS: Superleague / KHL
SLO: Slovenian Elite League
SVK: Slovakian First Division
SVK: Slovenska T-Com Extraliga
SWE: Elitserien
SWE: Swedish Allsvenskan
SWI: National League A
SWI: Swiss National League B

Are you sure about all these professional leagues? I do not know why the game would count them as Professional leagues. For example, the Deutsche Nachwuchs Liga is a junior league.
IRL, there are not so many leagues that count towards a player being rated a veteran in the NA minor pro-system(which is what the player info most likely is about)

[archibalduk]

Are you sure about all these professional leagues? I do not know why the game would count them as Professional leagues. For example, the Deutsche Nachwuchs Liga is a junior league.
IRL, there are not so many leagues that count towards a player being rated a veteran in the NA minor pro-system(which is what the player info most likely is about)

I agree - a couple of those leagues are junior rather than pro. However, I added them to the list because the original EHM database has counted them as pro leagues in the Player Info. All of the leagues I've listed I have found examples that are counted towards the pro categories in Player Info.

However, if you say which ones you don't want counted (such as the Nachwuchs Liga) then I'll take them out.

[AdamOates]

What's the status with this Player Info calculator?

[archibalduk]

I expect to have it finished by the end of the weekend. All of the calculations, etc are done and I've nearly finished the code to generate the player_info.dat file itself.

Before I release it, I want to make a way of customising which leagues count as professional, college, NA Major Junior, etc. In other words, so that users can edit the lists using Excel or Notepad. Once I've finished this, I'll be uploading it to the site.

[archibalduk]

I've got the basic tool completed now and it works in game (well there's no crashes - is there any other way to check this? Maybe the news items about retired HoF inductees?) and works fine with the Pre Game Editor. I'm now going to work on the additional features to make the league selection customisable and so it can be used across different databases.

I really want to try and get it released this weekend so that users can try it out on the Manimal v4.1 Rosters (they will be able to download my tool, load it and then play the game). However, I really need somebody with better knowledge of the North American leagues than I to check I've got the correct ones listed. If anyone could take a look at the lists below then I'd be really very grateful.

I've just copied and pasted these straight from my programming code, and so just ignore the numbers listed (just pay attention to the league names):

6, // Western Hockey League (WHL)
7, // Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
8, // Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)
33, // Memorial Cup
120, // Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL)
121, // British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL)
124, // Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League (OPJHL)
126, // Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL)
283, // Maritime Junior A Hockey League (MJAHL)
284, // Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL)
285, // Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League (QJAHL)
302, // Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL)
311, // Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL)
581 // Ontario Junior A Hockey League (OJAHL)

119, // United States Hockey League (USHL)
123, // North American Hockey League (NAHL)
331, // North American Hockey League North
332, // North American Hockey League South
333, // North American Hockey League West
515, // North American Hockey League Midwest
544, // North American Hockey League Central
545, // United States Hockey League Eastern Conference
546 // United States Hockey League Western Conference

//? // Atlantic Junior Hockey League (AJHL)
//? // Eastern States Hockey League (ESHL)
//? // Great Lakes Junior Hockey League
122, // Eastern Junior Hockey League (EJHL)
325, // Southeast Hockey League
330, // America West Hockey League (AWHL)
341, // Central States Hockey League (CSHL)
342, // Empire Junior B Hockey League
343, // Empire Jr. B Hockey League West
344, // Empire Jr. B Hockey League East
345, // Minnesota Junior Hockey League (MJHL)
346, // Metropolitan Junior Hockey League
407, // Western States Hockey League (WSHL)
410 // Northern Pacific Hockey League (NPHL)

12, // Hockey East (HE)
21, // Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA)
22, // Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC)
23, // Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA)
29, // National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
132, // Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC)
133, // College Hockey America (CHA)
334, // Atlantic Hockey Association
335, // ECAC East
336, // ECAC West
337, // N.E. Small College Athletic Conference
338, // ECAC Northeast
339, // Northern Collegiate Hockey Association
340, // SUNY Athletic Conference
347, // Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association
348, // Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
547, // Big 10 Conference
548, // Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference
549 // Northeast-10 Conference

0, // NA_: National Hockey League
1, // FIN: SM-League
3, // SWE: Elitserien
4, // NA_: American Hockey League
5, // NA_: East Coast Hockey League
9, // RUS: Superleague / KHL
10, // GER: Deutsche Eishockey Liga
11, // CZE: Elite League
13, // GBR: British Sekonda Ice Hockey Superleague
14, // SWI: National League A
15, // AUT: Erste Bank Eishockey Liga
17, // NA_: United Hockey League
19, // SVK: Slovenska T-Com Extraliga
20, // SWE: Swedish Allsvenskan
24, // NA_: Central Hockey League
25, // NA_: West Coast Hockey League
26, // SLO: Slovenian Elite League
28, // GBR: British National League
30, // DEN: Danish Oddset Ligaen
31, // NOR: Norwegian UPC-Ligaen
48, // NA_: International Hockey League
49, // NA_: World Hockey Association
65, // GBR: Elite Ice Hockey League
73, // NA_: ECHL West Division
74, // NA_: ECHL East Division
75, // NA_: ECHL South Division
76, // NA_: ECHL North Division
84, // NA_: ECHL American Conference
85, // NA_: ECHL National Conference
91, // RUS: Russian Vysshaya Liga
95, // ITA: Italian Serie A
97, // GER: Deutsche 2. Bundesliga
98, // GER: Deutsche Oberliga
101, // SWI: Swiss National League B
102, // CZE: Czech First Division
103, // AUT: Austrian Nationalliga
109, // NOR: Norwegian First Division
110, // NOR: Norwegian Second Division
111, // RUS: Russian Vtoraya Liga
113, // SVK: Slovakian First Division
118, // BLR: Belarus Hockey League
129, // NA_: Ligue Nord-Américaine du Hockey
130, // NA_: Atlantic Coast Hockey League
134, // DEN: Danish Cup
141, // GBR: British Challenge Cup
145, // JAP: Japanese Ice Hockey League
167, // GBR: English Premier Ice Hockey League
209, // CZE: Czech Second League
282, // NA_: Western Professional Hockey League
287, // NED: Dutch Superleague
327, // NA_: Southern Professional Hockey League
455, // CAN: Quebec Senior Professional League
513, // CAN: North East Professional Hockey League
527 // NA_: Federal Hockey League

The way I have written the code, it is not possible for a league to fall within more than one of the following four categories listed below. Will this cause a problem (I can easily change the code so leagues can fall under more than one category)?

1) North American Major Juniors
2) North American Juniors
3) North American College
4) Canadian Juniors

[Manimal]

I am not sure how the game works on this but if things are as you said before then you have all the teams in correct places.

The thing that worries me is the differencies from real life. Only the three CHL leagues are considered major junior and not all those leagues are considered professional. We'll see when testing

[archibalduk]

Yep, it's definitely less than clear at the moment and will need some proper testing before being applied to any official release of rosters. We'll be able to see exactly how this affects players in the Canadian Juniors once I get it released (btw the actual name of that field is "CanadianJuniorGamesPlayed" rather than "CanadianMajorJuniorGamesPlayed"). I need to find out some details of the eligibility rules so I can properly test this - my knowledge of the Canadian / North American Juniors is not that great.

In any event, you will be able to edit the settings file exactly how you want for your roster update. So you can switch things around as much as you want.

[Manimal]

Yep, it's definitely less than clear at the moment and will need some proper testing before being applied to any official release of rosters. We'll be able to see exactly how this affects players in the Canadian Juniors once I get it released (btw the actual name of that field is "CanadianJuniorGamesPlayed" rather than "CanadianMajorJuniorGamesPlayed"). I need to find out some details of the eligibility rules so I can properly test this - my knowledge of the Canadian / North American Juniors is not that great.

The only eligibility I know of that concerns junior players is that if you have played in the CHL leagues then you can not play NCAA

In any event, you will be able to edit the settings file exactly how you want for your roster update. So you can switch things around as much as you want.

Great!

[archibalduk]

Okay, here's a beta version of the Player Info Generator: https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?ci ... 29C5C5!280

If you would like to give it a try, just place the .exe and .cfg file in your Manimal v4.1 database folder and then run the .exe file (use 'run as admin' if using Windows Vista / 7). Select option 1 ('Generate player_info.dat'). And that's it!

If you want to tweak the config file or use it with a different database then read the readme.pdf file included in the download.

Note that this is still a beta. I think work needs to be done on what should be classed as, for example, the CHL Juniors, professional leagues, etc. I also want to add a few more improvements to it:

• Improve the index.dat updater (only the entry for player_info.dat needs to be updated)
• Add the 'out of range' check for the config compatibility check
• Add details of the league categories to the discrepancy text file
• Replace any quotation marks in league names

[nino33]

Once again, way to go Arch!

[Viking]

Works fine. Good job!

[Manimal]

I have only looked at it in the editor so far, but it seems to work fine.
I will test sim sometime soon and get back to you on specifics

[archibalduk]

• Improve the index.dat updater (only the entry for player_info.dat needs to be updated)
• Add the 'out of range' check for the config compatibility check
• Add details of the league categories to the discrepancy text file
• Replace any quotation marks in league names

I've made all of the above changes to the Generator. I'll leave the current version for testing - the updated version will be released as the final version once I'm satisfied that all is well.

In particular, I want to double-check that the Current Team / League stats relate to the team the player is contracted to and not the one they're currently on the rosters for (i.e. AHL affiliates, on loan, etc).

EDIT: It is definitely team contracted and not the affiliate team.

[Manimal]

In particular, I want to double-check that the Current Team / League stats relate to the team the player is contracted to and not the one they're currently on the rosters for (i.e. AHL affiliates, on loan, etc).

They do count as with the contracted teams when I look in the editor.

[archibalduk]

In particular, I want to double-check that the Current Team / League stats relate to the team the player is contracted to and not the one they're currently on the rosters for (i.e. AHL affiliates, on loan, etc).

They do count as with the contracted teams when I look in the editor.

Yep I've just seen the same in the Editor too.

[archibalduk]

I've been taking a look at the NCAA eligibility rules to double check which Canadian leagues are regarded as professional (thereby making players ineligible for the NCAA). As we already knew, it is just the OHL/QMJHL/WHL that are regarded as professional. The next league down (Canadian Junior A) is regarded as amateur. The current Junior A teams are:

British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL)
Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL)
Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL)
Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL)
Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL)
Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL)
Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL)
Central Canada Hockey League (CCHL)
Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League (LHJAAAQ)
Maritime Junior Hockey League (MHL)

There's a useful article about NCAA eligibility here (but it doesn't say anything more that what I've said): http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yMGM ... ty&f=false

I think I'm going to try using the FUTURE TRANSFER setting in the extra_config to see what effect the Canadian Junior field has in the Player Info. If it seems to control the NCAA eligibility then I guess EHM will cancel the FUTURE TRANSFER (and it will confirm we should just mark the CHL as Canadian Juniors).

USHL and NAHL players remain eligible for the NCAA. So I presume the NA Major Junior field is for something else. It might be with regards to Veteran Status players. Both leagues have limits on the number of veterans the teams have on their rosters and how this affects the number of players they entitled to draft. I can't find the definition of a Veteran in the NAHL, but in the USHL it is: A veteran is classified as any player who played in 10 or more games for that team in the previous season. Regular season and playoff games both count toward this number (link). EHM tracks the number of seasons played rather than games played in the NA Major Juniors, but perhaps this is the purpose of this field.

P.s. I've dropped Riz a message about these four junior/college fields. Seeing as these leagues are non-playable, it's going to be difficult to figure out what effect these fields (other than perhaps the Canadian Jnr field) have on the game (if any effect).

[AdamOates]

This is great! I'll let you know if I find anything weird.

[AdamOates]

Did you find that NHL Games was a combination of regular season and playoffs?

[AdamOates]

It appears that goalie's shutouts in their history are showing up in the pre-game editor, but not in the game. I think they are listed under FS instead. With the new Player Info calculator, it doesn't seem to matter for career records though.

Also, as far as rookies in the first season it appears to be correct after a while, but after a few games I saw Ovechkin listed under rookie scorers. He eventually was removed from the list, but still appears on the list for Most Points By A Rookie (Single Season). I think I briefly saw Brooks Laich on there too.

[AdamOates]

By the end of the season, Ovechkin was no longer on the Most Points By A Rookie (Single Season) list anymore. Not sure why it changed like that.

[archibalduk]

Did you find that NHL Games was a combination of regular season and playoffs?

Yes that's what I found from looking through the original EHM database. So that's how I've programmed the Generator.

I'll try and take a look at the rookies, etc today. I'm guessing this could possibly be more an issue with EHM rather than anything with the tool (since I have checked a small sample of players to ensure that the numbers have been calculated correctly).