Creating an NHL team

[Xela]

Hey all,

I am trying to create a league by removing the Coyotes and replace them with the Seattle Metropolitans. When I try the method of making the Coyotes extinct and moving all their players, staff and affiliations to the database Seattle team, my game crashes before the league is created. Any ideas where my problem is? Or, alternatively is it possible to remove the retired numbers and record information from Coyotes franchise? Any help is greatly appreciated

[batdad]

There is a ton of information in here about what you need to do in order to keep a league stable when you are changing a team. But...first and foremost the best thing probably would have been to just rename the Phoenix Coyotes. There are some teams (Anaheim and Ottawa) that HAVE to remain in the game (can switch leagues) because of a copyright in their team name or logo...but I do not think Phoenix is one of those. Deleting them is much harder than actually just renaming I believe.

But really...a ton of editing info in the other threads and you should read through it. This question specifically has definitely been answered.

Hopefully you will introduce yourself and become a productive awesome member of the board and are not just a guy going to start 10000 threads for things that have already been answered 100000 times. I am sure you are.

[archibalduk]

Welcome to The Blue Line!

The easiest way to do it is to create a new defunct team and name them the Phoenix Coyotes (you must include the TM symbol after the name). Then rename the original Coyotes to your Seattle team.

If the Coyotes aren't present in the database with the exact same name (i.e. with the TM in the correct place), the game will crash. Also ensure that you don't change the structure of the league as this also causes a crash (i.e. don't change the number of teams in each division).

Retired numbers and record information are harder to edit - unless you're comfortable using the EHM Updater. As an alternative, you can simply make the Coyotes defunct and move a newly created team in their place in the NHL - just be sure to setup the team's league/division settings in exactly the same way as the Coyotes.

[Xela]

I have done a fair amount of research into creation/replacing teams. I was just wondering if anybody had any specific ideas as to why I am getting a crash when I am following the generally approved guidelines (keeping all NHL team names with trademarks, not expanding leagues, ensuring proper affiliates). Also, I wasn't able to find much information on changing team records, I was able to access the league record info, but not the Phoenix Coyotes info specifically. That is my major stumbling block in just renaming the team. I'm sorry to have been a bother, but that was the part of my post that I was having the most trouble finding information on.

Edit-
I have just downloaded the EHM updater and will try to see what I can do, Thanks for the help.

[archibalduk]

Record information isn't editable via the Pre-Game Editor unfortunately. I have a tool somewhere that allows you to extract the record data to Excel (which you can then edit) and then import it back into the database. It isn't all that user friendly, but let me know if you'd like me to upload it for you. I had thought the EHM Updater edits record info, but I don't think it does (hence I can upload the other tool for you).

The crash will be one of two things:

1) The replacement Phoenix Coyotes team isn't spelled exactly correctly.
2) The league/division settings for the new team and/or the Coyotes are incorrect.

[Xela]

That would be great, Archi. I have double checked the division info several times, and am just copying and pasting name info...I have changed many teams in the past, with no problem, I am not sure where my issue is. I would greatly appreciate the use of your excel editor, and if I can't get it to work from there, so be it. Thank you for your help.

[batdad]

AH...the Yotes are one of those teams.

[CeeBee]

AH...the Yotes are one of those teams.

Bettman won't let em move IRL so neither can we.

[Manimal]

If you need to keep a team active thenplace them in the league called A Minor League

[nino33]

I lost my original work on the 1974 database back in the fall of 2011 (computer issues).
At that point I had moved ALL the modern teams I needed out of the NHL, including the Ottawa Senators.
When I redid the work, no matter what I tried, I could not move the Ottawa Senators (if I did I got crashes); in the end I had to accept this.

My point is sometimes EHM simply won't let you move a team without it causing a crash (even though you and others may have done so before without an issue)

[Midas]

I have done a fair amount of research into creation/replacing teams. I was just wondering if anybody had any specific ideas as to why I am getting a crash when I am following the generally approved guidelines (keeping all NHL team names with trademarks, not expanding leagues, ensuring proper affiliates). Also, I wasn't able to find much information on changing team records, I was able to access the league record info, but not the Phoenix Coyotes info specifically. That is my major stumbling block in just renaming the team. I'm sorry to have been a bother, but that was the part of my post that I was having the most trouble finding information on.

Edit-
I have just downloaded the EHM updater and will try to see what I can do, Thanks for the help.

It's really easy Xela, I'll step you through it.

I'm running on the assumption that you changed the name of the Phoenix Coyotes™ to Seattle Metropolitans, started the game and it says something like "Can't find PHOENIX_COYOTES™" and crashed, yes?

Okay, well thankfully that fix is very, very easy!

All you need to do is click "Add New Team" (or club or w/e it is) in the clubs tab of the editor, and rename it to "Phoenix Coyotes™". Very important that it has the ™! You don't need to make it valid or playable; just stick it in there and exit. The game simply needs to have a team in the database that is "PHOENIX_COYOTES™" or it will crash. I know where these values are actually, and could edit them to prevent these crashes; but it's so much easier to do this quick editor fix that it's not really worth it (and there's like three dozen of them so )

Your game should work fine after that.

As a rule of thumb though, and someone who's pushed the game past it's normal editing limits on several occasions, I highly recommend that if you team-swap; you simply rename teams (ensuring a copy exists in the db) and not to literally swap a team out of its league, move it to another, and move that one over. The game's hardcode is incredibly fragile, and there are all sorts of ridiculous roadblocks you'll run into if you do this. For instance, in the EIHL, swapping 8 out of the 10 franchises out caused constant crashes in one of my dbs. Swapping Swedish/Finnish teams with each other, and moving a Belarussian team into the RSL blew up the game as well. I have many more of these horror stories; but the bottom-line is, never swap a team out but always replace. With the new history editor this is all the more palatable, since team records and histories can be rewritten with relative ease. I think you did just swap but just in-case, and as general advice to anyone else