Tournament Master 2005 - Beta test phase

[Rinaldo]

Dear friends,
the first beta version of Tournament Master 2005 is now available. All the guys interested to be a beta-tester can download it at:

http://file.webalice.it/

Username: rzocca
Password: tester

Important! Save your fifa.db and eng.db (or equivalent) so you will work safely.

Posts your comment here or contact me via e-mail. If you will send to me a useful comment I will be pleased to insert you in the credits list of the program.

 

[Billy1969]

Nice Rinaldo,

I'm downloading it now. I'm using the dutch version of fifa, do I have to rename my dut.db to eng.db or will everything work as is?

EDIT : Never mind, I just read the manual now hehe, it works with all versions of Fifa, it sure looks nice Rinaldo, and many thanks to Donovan also!


I am begining to edit now, if this program works like a charm, I am sure we will see some exiting patches in the future!

 

[Franky]

i cant download it how to download? i logged in, but i cant download anywhere

 

[Billy1969]

Working with Tournament Master part one

Ok,

Now first of all, please keep in mind that this is a BETA version, hence it is not ready for release yet. I have the privilege to beta test this software and I congratulate Rinaldo for making such a great program.

Is it perfect? In it's current state certainly not, but as someone who tried to edit the fifa.db "by hand" I know that the slightiest error makes your game crash again and again till you bang your head against the wall, so it takes courage and perseverance to make something like Tournament Master.

I started the program and was eager to import my custom Russian League (one I imported through creation centre as .c05 teams) into Tournament and Career Mode. Most of the fields you have to edit in Tournament Master are quite self explanatory but I recommend reading the help file at least a couple of times and leave it open as you edit your tournaments, then nothing can go wrong really.

So I imported my Russian League carefuly into Tournament Master. Note that I have the dutch version of Fifa but the screens are clear enough I think: (click the links to see the next screenshots after this one)

Since the Russian League is basicaly a new league from scratch with no links to other existing leagues I started with this one to not complicate things too much in the begining. Note that I added the Russische Competitie (Russian League in dutch) to Region 4 of the career mode (see lower left corner of the screenshot) and that my asset id "100" is a custom asset I put into my fifa2005/data/gui/assets/trophies folder.

Also note that I didn't respect the actual results of the 2004/2005 season, since this is a test run, I just entered the teams as I remembered them by mind.

When all this was entered, I saved, and fired up Fifa 2005, first I went to the tournament menu mode and this is what I saw :

http://users.skynet.be/venom/TM0502.GIF

Great, the Russian League just appeared in the rest of the world menu!
Fair enough I select the new league and press enter :

http://users.skynet.be/venom/TM0503.GIF

Yep, all my custom teams are there yay, let's select Dynamo and try to start the tournament then, ok all goes well my first match is against Samara so let's hit the pitch :

http://users.skynet.be/venom/TM0504.GIF

and

http://users.skynet.be/venom/TM0505.GIF

Green grass, the right names :P the right teams ect, Great but I must remember to use the snow patch when it becomes winter in Russia!

I play some matches, no crashes, no glitches, so tournament mode for new custom leagues so far so good, grats Rinaldo this works perfectly.

After this succesful test run I fired up career mode, and here I saw the first error :

http://users.skynet.be/venom/TM0506.GIF

Although I added the Russian League to Region 4 in Tournament Master it doesn't appear ingame, there must be a problem with the language.db at this point

However, I don't let this setback discourage me and I fire up a new career in region 4 and oh miracle :

http://users.skynet.be/venom/TM0507.GIF

Yep, that's right, right under the dutch league (see PSV on top of screenshot) there are my Russian teams! Ok, now since I was fired from Juventus for sabotaging their nets I think FC Rostov will be safe enough to hide in the first year of my new career so I select them :

http://users.skynet.be/venom/TM0508.GIF

Uh oh, something weird happened, when I selected Rostov there was a bar filling up as when a normal career starts, but instead of finding myself at the start of my competition (3d week of august) I wake up as you can see in the screenshot on June 1st 2004 with only two choices in my menu : either "start new season" or "options", options is a no go so I try start new season hoping it will take me to august at the start of the league but instead seeing the menu again after the blue bar fills up for the second time I :

http://users.skynet.be/venom/TM0509.GIF

crash to desktop

After this I tried fixing the problem for several hours by changing the region I imported the russian league in, moving the teams around, opening the fifa and language.db in good old unidb to see if I could find the error but alas I found nothing conclusive that provokes this error. As now I am tired after writing this little report I'm going to catch a good night of sleep and try again, stay tuned.

P.S. : Rinaldo and Donovan, if you want I can mail you my fifa.db containing the modifications, maybe you'll have more luck than I had locating the cause of the crash...

 

[Rinaldo]

...Although I added the Russian League to Region 4 in Tournament Master it doesn't appear ingame, there must be a problem with the language.db at this point ...

To my knowledge this is not a bug but a limitation of FIFA 2005, the GUI of the region is not affected by the fifa.db but the teams inside are.

...if you want I can mail you my fifa.db containing the modifications, maybe you'll have more luck than I had locating the cause of the crash...

Please mail them to me. Before pls check the integrity of the database e.g. trying to convert them with UniDB and/or opening the Creatione Center.

 

[Billy1969]

fifa.db has been checked and runs fine inside CC and uniDB. I send it to you by mail along with some more info.

Yes, I was aware the fifa.db doesn't affect the GUI of the regions but maybe the language.db does, and I think the error might be there, for example the fact of adding a league to a region inside TM doesn't reflect itself inside the language.db maybe?

Tomorrow I'll restart from scratch with a backup of fifa.db and language.db and do some tests with modifying existing tournaments, I'll keep you posted.

 

[Billy1969]

You know what? I did a lot of thinking about what I possibly did wrong and I figured it out. You must know that my mothertongue is dutch and I'm thinking in dutch when I use software even in other languages.

As a result, I confused the words "tournament" and "league" at some point, and thought they meant the same data. Of course they do not.

Tournament = the data containing the rules and fixtures of the championship/cup tourney/ other tournament.

League = the collection of teams forming the League.

What gave me the decisive hint was that when I first created my Russian League, I did so using Creation Centre a while ago and named it "Russian First Division" (in dutch).

The tournament I created yesterday in Tournament Master however, I named "Russian Competition" note the difference in naming.

The Russian Competition is working like a charm in tournament mode where basicaly you can create/edit whatever tournament you like but the career mode in Fifa 2005 is far more rigid.

It tries to run the Russian Tournament I linked to Region 4, even linking the correct teams inside the menu, but crashes because the Russian League itself isn't linked to the career mode!

Now if I can figure out how to link a custom league to the existing career mode, and I don't think this is possible since the many custom made league patches always overwrite an existing league, the problem would be solved!

Of course this is far beyond the purpose and scope of Tournament Master which on itself is working absolutely fine .

I'll test some more and write here again if I discover new things

 

[John 5]

Yeah how do you download it when you log in?

 

[Rinaldo]

Yeah how do you download it when you log in?

Check the box beside the file and click on the small icon "scarica"

 

[Rinaldo]

For Billy1969, please try this: uncheck the Qualify From Previous Year box.
Let me know if now your Russian League works in Career mode or not.

 

[Billy1969]

No Rinaldo, unchecking the Qualify from previous year box has no effect, it still crashes, check your mail I send you my fifa.db and dut.db

To make sure, I verified the dutch and belgian tournaments who also consist of one league with no relegation/promotion in the original fifa2005 in Tournament Master and both also have the qualify from previous year box checked...

Tomorrow I will try to edit the existing Coppa Nazionale Tournament including my custom Serie C1/A and Serie C1/B leagues, but I'm affraid it will work only in tournament mode and not in career mode as well. I didn't find a way yet in UniDB to include custom teams to existing regions in the career menu, that is imho the key to success...

P.S. : I tested playing another original Fifa 2005 team in Region 4 where I linked the Russian tournament to, I took Feyenoord to check if it would crash, and guess what? No crash and it is even possible to buy the Russian players and sometimes the Russian teams will bid on one of your players also, the career works this way and only crashes if you select to play one of the russian teams :/

 

[Arsenal_fc]

So how do i download this then i go to the site and there aint no way of downloading it!!!

 

[Billy1969]

click on "scarica" icon, that means download

 

[Arsenal_fc]

thanx

 

[donovanfan3456]

I don't see nothin to download, I clicked on all the buttons. even scarcia.

 

[donovanfan3456]

Does this think only make leagues, or knockout tournaments also?

I don't know how much input I can put the next few weeks. I'm going to be really busy, although I would like to.

 

[Billy1969]

strange I went checking the download link and the program isn't there anymore! Rinaldo must have removed it to put another version maybe?

@Donovan

I got your mail many thanks for the file, you did a great job!

Unfortunately I have the same problem as before, the serie C teams since they are now linked to the Serie B with relegation/promotion have replaced the Serie B as selectable teams in Career Region 3, but if you select one to play a career, same error you end up at june 1st 2004 with only options and new season buttons to press and bam crash to desktop after the fixtures bar tries to load... damn

 

[donovanfan3456]

strange I went checking the download link and the program isn't there anymore! Rinaldo must have removed it to put another version maybe?

@Donovan

I got your mail many thanks for the file, you did a great job!

Unfortunately I have the same problem as before, the serie C teams since they are now linked to the Serie B with relegation/promotion have replaced the Serie B as selectable teams in Career Region 3, but if you select one to play a career, same error you end up at june 1st 2004 with only options and new season buttons to press and bam crash to desktop after the fixtures bar tries to load... damn

Maybe the game doesn't know how to interpret that promotion relegation scheme, but I doubt it.

Don't know

 

[Rinaldo]

Maybe the game doesn't know how to interpret that promotion relegation scheme, but I doubt it.

Don't know

I have uploaded the program again. (I suppose my provider removes the old files automatically because I didn't remove it).
About the crashes in career mode: I have been able to reproduce the problem so now I'll work on it.

 

[Franky]

i have that to, i maked a Super League, with al great club's Europe, like AC Milan, Arsenal, Chelsea... i checked the box, it is a league and appears in career mode. Then i added the league in region 5. Then i started up Fifa, i looked, it was there, i thought. I chose Juventus, and i play in the Serie A but the rankings are with al that great clubs...