Uncompressed, stock playbook?

[Ben75]

4-Mar is the 4th of March: at one point the formation table must have been opened in excel, which by default will convert 4-3 into a date.

Thanks for the upload. Glad this worked.

The Madden in-game playbook editor is terrible. I avoid opening playbooks in it, unless it's to delete plays as you note.

[petroleum]

4-Mar is the 4th of March: at one point the formation table must have been opened in excel, which by default will convert 4-3 into a date.

You are correct, I did open it in excel. I did not even think about it changing the format. I hate it when computers think they are smarter than me--especially when they are correct

[mike9472]

Try this to get the playbook to open in the editor:

1) Open the playbook in the db editor and go into the formation audible table (PBFM). Anywhere you see a "511", change it to zero.

2) Go to the PBST table; delete any record (the entire line), where the SETL value=0 (they are labeled with positions, like HB, FB, etc...)

3) Go to the PSAL table and export it to a .csv file. Open in excel and sort the values by "code" delete all lines that contain code=255. (This is some kind of placeholder code that pacfan's editor doesn't recognize. It won't affect any of the plays.)

Reply if this doesn't work; I seem to remember for a couple of the playbooks I had to do some additional things to get them to open.

So far your method has worked perfectly on every playbook I've tried it with, thanks for the info. Also, JD's ripper works with the PS2 Madden playbooks as well. I ripped the Falcons offensive playbook because it contains info on the wildcat formation. It's already been edited to load into Packfan's editor.

[JDHalfrack]

Wait, what? It works with ripping playbooks from the PS2 disc?

Ha! Well there's an unexpected surprise!

JD

[petroleum]

Ok, I messed around with the 3-4 playbook from the last page. It appears that you can only delete some plays using the editor in madden, but doing so will corrupt the playbook somehow--a bunch of players will, apparently, be told to do absolutely nothing on every play. I thought for a minute I had found a way to use the editor in madden to delete formations, but after every time madden would crash if I tried to save.

Also, more unfortunately, if I use the Madden Playbook Merger to load the playbook as the "other playbook to import formation(s) from" that causes an error: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." It will open the playbook as the 1st playbook (the one to add formations into) and gives the same error if I try to compress it (merge identical PSAL/ARTL codes).

[mike9472]

Ok, I messed around with the 3-4 playbook from the last page. It appears that you can only delete some plays using the editor in madden, but doing so will corrupt the playbook somehow--a bunch of players will, apparently, be told to do absolutely nothing on every play. I thought for a minute I had found a way to use the editor in madden to delete formations, but after every time madden would crash if I tried to save.

Also, more unfortunately, if I use the Madden Playbook Merger to load the playbook as the "other playbook to import formation(s) from" that causes an error: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." It will open the playbook as the 1st playbook (the one to add formations into) and gives the same error if I try to compress it (merge identical PSAL/ARTL codes).

Your best bet is to create a custom playbook with the formations and plays that you want and then open the stock playbook that you got those plays from to set the proper AI tags. Custom playbooks are random in their AI tagging. I made 3 identical custom playbooks and each one had different tags. I compared identical plays from different stock offensive playbooks and found that they all have the same AI tags.

[mike9472]

Ben75, here's the only playbook I can't get to work with your editing method. Maybe you can figure it out, I'm stumped!

[Ben75]

Mike9472: I'm posting a small playbook that has a crude attempt to create a pass play where the QB hands off and goes out for a pass. It works, but the QB PSAL steps need to be honed for smoother transitions.

I'll take a look at the playbook you're posting.

[Ben75]

Mike9472: I'm posting a small playbook that has a crude attempt to create a pass play where the QB hands off and goes out for a pass. It works, but the QB PSAL steps need to be honed for smoother transitions.

I'll take a look at the playbook you're posting.

The play is HB Draw. I forgot to rename it.

[Ben75]

This Trick Plays book will work in the db editor now.

I think the problem is a limitation in Pacfan's editor which doesn't recognize the game's allowance for formation audibles to be used from different formations. What I mean by that is, in the game, you are allowed to audible from goal line into I-formation sets. But the Playbook Editor sees this as invalid. You'll notice in the editor that you can only set formation audibles from within the currently selected formation, allowing you to audible, for example, from I-form big to I-form normal, but you can't set shotgun trips as an audible for I-form.

After following the initial steps, I switched one of the formation audibles for the goal line to zero and it opened up.

EDIT: On second thought, check that explanation. I just opened up one of the other stock playbooks and those formations for goal line are showing in the editor. Guess I'm stumped as to why this worked, but at least it works!