EHM The Blue Line

I've always been really surprised that more extensive savegame editing tools were not developed by the community. Of course there is the very good Eastside UK tools (pre and save) but obviously the save-game editor is limited.

Over the years I keep coming back to the same thought: significant portions of the savegame data structure is known because both the savegame editor and the EHM scout programs reflect this data and enable some editing of it. Combine this with suggestions that the early SI FM editors could also read the EHM savegames and I can't help but think its possible to bring together enough information to get a pretty good map of the overall savegame structure.

I've already asked "who wrote the Scout program?" in another thread in hopes of reaching out to that person(s) and see what they know. Same for mne2; I've asked in a PM for him to share what he knows as well. No responses yet, but my fingers are still crossed.

Lastly, the savegame file may hold the answer to the long accpeted problem of the hardcoded start date. While we know each game must start in the 06-07 season, I believe this could immediately be altered in a savegame because I've deleted all of the database directories from my EHM install and the game still runs and keeps track of the date via the savegame only; hence the date is either directly or indirectly managed from within the savegame file.

I am asking anyone who can contribute even pieces of this savegame puzzle to come forward. I am not a coding expert but I do have time to dedicate to working on this issue. I plan to basically extend on the appoach of the current editing tools to allow editing of more values and impliment a batch editing capability (similar to the extra_config.cfg) so that those who continue to dedicate their time to this comminity keeping rosters up-to-date can do this even easier than today.

Thanks!

maxrsp wrote:I've always been really surprised that more extensive savegame editing tools were not developed by the community.

I must admit that being able to edit a saved game would be nice instead of starting a new game to update as an example a team change like the Winnipeg Jets.
There's a lot of little thing that would be nice to change without losing like twenty season of stats.

Any "wiz" around here?

The start date should be editable. EHM 07 is based on the same engine as Championship Manager 3 (up to the 01-02 editon of the series). For CM 01-02 there are hacks that change the start dates and tons of other things including league rules.
Maybe modders who work on CM 01-02 are a good point to start.

maxrsp wrote:Lastly, the savegame file may hold the answer to the long accpeted problem of the hardcoded start date. While we know each game must start in the 06-07 season, I believe this could immediately be altered in a savegame because I've deleted all of the database directories from my EHM install and the game still runs and keeps track of the date via the savegame only; hence the date is either directly or indirectly managed from within the savegame file.

Riz programmed the freeware to run in such a way that the start date was hardcoded into the .EXE and then editable in the .EHM files in the savegame folder. I would imagine a similar structure was used for the SI Games releases, though probably better-protected for the sake of the then-future releases. It's entirely possible the gamedate is buried in there somewhere deep in the savegame, if not directly then something else that speaks back to the .EXE to figure out the gamedate. The bigger problem is how would you change the savegame date without compromising the rest of the game (players birthdates, stats, etc, because if you say jump the startdate from 2007 to 2011, you're going to still have a gap of missing stat years anyways).

Shoot, we've still never figured out all of the things from the freeware -- there are lines in the PLAYERS.EHM and some of the other freeware .EHM files that we still have NO clue what they do or why they're there. And there are still rumors of some flags that turn certain hidden things on and off for certain players, though I think the freeware's lost enough steam that nobody is looking for them any more.

I'd be happy if player attribs could ever get figured out and be editable. Nothing tweaks me off like realizing you've forgotten to edit a notable guy after starting a new gamefile... do you start allll over again, or just live with it?