working on ABA mod, need help/advice

[mr_merriweather]

so i'm working on a roster/graphics/etc. mod set for the ABA (the old one), which has been a lot of fun so far. however, i am approaching the point in which i need to dive into the player ratings, which is quite intimidating. is there a guide out there on things to consider when coming up with ratings? i know it'd be silly just to convert stats into ratings. has there been a mod for the aba, for TPB or any other basketball sim? i wouldn't mind looking at one for reference, accurately rating bench players seems like its going to be tough. if there isn't anything like that out there, anyone have general and/or specific tips?

while i'm at it, few more specific questions:

1. how many non roster players is it acceptable to have? i've got a spreadsheet of the vitals for about 400 aba players who somehow participated in the league before the 72-73 season (my start point)...with a 12 team league obviously a little less than half are going to be on rosters.

2. is there a better key out there to some of the database fields for the roster .mdb file? such as one that explains what the AwardIDs are for each trophy? i wasn't a TPB guy, so maybe there's a more through guide out there from that era that i'm missing.

3. any good resources out there for aba graphics? maybe even vector logos? or some fonts? www.remembertheaba.com has got me off to a great start (if you've never visited this site you really need to, for a bunch of reasons), but some of the graphics are a little too lo-res.


alright, cool, thanks guys.

[Tim Plum]

I would take the default player file (make a separate copy) and use that as your basefile as the mod makers can attest this is a tough file to copy. Make sure you have the proper number of players as the default file and use ALL the columns from the file.

[mr_merriweather]

good idea...that roster file linked up on the sticky is intimidatingly bare bones.

still, do you know what the inputs are for the AwardName field on the Awards table? i'm assuming there is a specific name/abbreviation to it to the ingame awards. i don't see the roster mods out now editing historical awards at all, can we even do this? it doesn't look like we can edit the actual awards--if so i'd take out the league 3rd team, sixth man, and defensive awards as the aba had none--but if i'm wrong on the let me know how i can change it.

also, my mod is going to be only playable as 12 teams. does the file still need all the other league tables (30 team, 32 team, etc.) or can those go in order to streamline things a bit?

[Tim Plum]

You cannot edit the awards. Your file will need the correct number of players as the default player file.

[mr_merriweather]

okay, sorry to harp on this, but let me get this straight. so i can NOT edit the awards files or the award's history? or can i just not edit the awards, but am free to put connie hawkins in as the aba's first mvp in the database, and then see it show up in the player almanac section?

and i have to have the exact number of players in my mod as there are in the default database? that sounds a little stringent--why is that exactly? not that i can't make that work.

[Bryan Swartz]

You cannot edit what awards there are, but you can edit the history of said awards.

The player limit is there because the game expects a certain amount of players -- if you don't have the right amount the mod will not work and the game with crash.

[mr_merriweather]

great! could you tell me what i put in the AwardName field then for the MVP, 1st and 2nd Teams, ROY, and COY awards? does it matter? will the trophies show up in the player's team's trophy case like they would normally?

i know i'm being a nerd about it but this is basically a history project for me so i geek out over these kinds of features.

[Bryan Swartz]

The trophies should show up as usual.

For the sake of continuity I would recommend putting the same name for the awards as they are called in the game, but it's totally up to you.

[elmwood44]

so i'm working on a roster/graphics/etc. mod set for the ABA (the old one), which has been a lot of fun so far.

3. any good resources out there for aba graphics? maybe even vector logos? or some fonts? www.remembertheaba.com has got me off to a great start (if you've never visited this site you really need to, for a bunch of reasons), but some of the graphics are a little too lo-res.


alright, cool, thanks guys.

Hello mr_m,

I am very excited to hear about your project. I am a huge ABA buff and had a ABA solo-league in TPB05. I used the historic rosters done by latulip and seperated the ABAers out and used the draft files to play thru the years like the ABA didn't fold. My premise, as simple as it was, was that the revenue dollars from copyrighting the red, white and blue ball held the league together until basketball became widely popular.

Anyway, enough about that. I have logos and courts, banners and courts made up for that league which I can can redo for DDS:PB. Let me know if you want me to work on those for you nad if you need anything else to aid you please just ask.

Looking forward to your stuff!!
Thanks!

[mr_merriweather]

elmwood, sent you a PM.