League Templates & Roster Maker

With the release of the most recent PC edition of Canadian Football 2017 we've included a couple of items to help you create leagues and adjust rosters.

League Templates

After you have downloaded the most recent version from Steam, you will find an additional folder in the game's installation directory - TeamTemplates.

This folder contains templates for league sizes of 10, 16, and 32 teams. Each contains default team uniforms for each team as well as a matching roster file.

To use these templates, simply go into the StreamingAssets folder and rename the existing 9 team league folder to Teams_9. Then copy the folder for the league size you want and rename it to Teams. At this point the game should start with the new teams and league size.

NOTE: You can only play with one league size at a time. This version of the game will completely reset the season play data file anytime you change the number of teams in the league. Each time the game loads, it checks to ensure the teams on disk match the teams in the season data file. If they're not the same, the season gets reset from scratch. Do not change your team sizes unless you want to reset your season.

Roster Maker Utility

The current edition of the game does not include in-game editing of roster data. However Canuck has provided a small utility that will allow you to edit the rosters outside the game. This utility also includes all the appropriate source code. You will need a knowledge of C# development and have access to Visual Studio 2017, but anyone with this knowledge could use the basics of the source to create a number of specialized tools.

The rosters created by this utility are purposefully designed to be very flat with little difference between teams. The purpose of this tool is to generate a working roster.xml file.

We hope that you will find these two addition helpful.

thanks  

October Content Update

Hi everyone.

I wanted to give you a quick update with the status of the October update.

We'll be releasing the Steam update on Monday the 30th.

The XBox One update may not make it out until shortly in to November. 

Each time we create a content update for the console version, the game must go through a complete certification pass. For previous updates, where we only made some adjustments to pass catch percentages and the like, our certification pass was pretty quick.

However with this update, we're adding multiple new play modes and features. There are so many new features that, for all practical purposes, it's a new game. An additional challenge is that we're going through certification at the height of Microsoft's busiest certification period.

So things are taking a bit longer and so our originally scheduled date is getting pushed out a little bit.

But please be assured we are working as hard as possible to get these new features to you as quickly as we can.

thanks

Canadian Football and the PS4

Hi everyone

One of the most common questions asked of us is 'What about the PS4?' While I've addressed that question before, it's probably time for an update.

From the start, this project has been supported via the generosity of Microsoft as they supply development and publishing tools to small development studios at no cost to those studios. Unfortunately Sony does not have such program in place (that we're aware of). And so with that, our focus has been to accommodate the XBox One first. 

But we are also fully aware there are a great number of PS4 players out there that are looking to get their hands on our game.

We are working to make the 2018 edition the first available on the PS4 with a release date  tentatively scheduled for late June 2018.

In October of 2016 we signed a publishing agreement with Sony. Which means all the legal paperwork is completed and Canuck Play is an official Development Partner. But there have been two additional obstacles to overcome;

1. Time - A small team developing a title for multiple platforms is extremely challenging - especially when one of those platforms is a major game console. Canadian Football 2017 is available on two (XBox One and PC). Trying to include the PS4 at the same time just became unfeasible. There just wasn't enough physical time in the day to do it.
   
2. Budget - PS4 development and test kits are very expensive. Combined with that, there are additional costs related to PS4 development that we're working to get some clarity on. To try and offset some of those costs we're consulting with different funding partners, but at the moment it's the most significant hurdle to overcome. An unlicensed title focused on a small market is a challenge for potential partners.

With that said though, after we launched the game on the XBox One, we did go back and look at what we could accommodate for the PS4. As part of our 2018 feature set we're completely revamping the player model visuals. This work is already well underway but it really didn't make a lot of sense to push out a 2017 edition without those new visuals - plus we still hadn't solved the expense of development side of the equation yet - so trying to squeeze something in before the end of the year made less and less sense.

We know that there is a very large PS4 fan base and we're asked all the time about that platform. It's something we're working to get done. We're working to resolve the challenge of it being an expensive platform to develop for combined with the small market size for the title. Once we have that sorted the work of porting the game can begin.

I hope that helps explain where we currently stand in terms of the PS4 platform.

thanks
 

PC Edition Team Creation

Recently we announced that Canadian Football 2017 would include an option for a subset of American rules and from there one of the most often asked questions was; "How many teams does the game support?" Well there are two answers to that;

1. The XBox One edition will support the nine current teams in the game. For a large number of reasons, we're not adding team editing or creation to the 2017 edition.
2. On the PC edition, you can create as many teams as you like. Well, almost, there is actually a technical limit of 2,147,483,647 teams. Although I suspect that covers 99% of game players (because you know there's always going to be one guy that tries it.)

Creating new teams on the PC edition is actually pretty easy but there are multiple steps to do it.

Adding a 10th Team.

Most of the work will be done in the following folder on your Window's PC;
 
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Canadian Football 2017\CFB2017_Data\StreamingAssets\Teams

Inside that folder you will see additional folders titled Team1 through to Team9 each team in the game is made up of 3 parts;

1. The team Folder.
2. The team data file - teamdata.xml.
3. The team roster. All players for all teams are included in the single file called roster.xml.

The best way to start the process of adding a team is to simply copy and paste one of the existing team folders;

1. Select the folder titled Team1 and copy it.
2. Paste that folder into the same location then rename it to Team10 (no spaces!)
3. Run the game and go to 'Play Now'. You should see 10 teams available to you on the team selection carousel. Team10 will have the same logo and name as Team1, but we'll change that now.

Exit the game and go back to the folder you just copied (Team10) and using XMLNotepad (available from here: https://xmlnotepad.codeplex.com/ ) open the file named teamdata.xml. You can also use the standard Windows notepad if you wish but it's a bit more difficult to maintain the formatting.

You will need to change the following items;

1. Change the TeamID from 1 to 10 - The TeamID MUST match the folder number and you can not have any duplication of TeamID amongst the teams.
2. Change the team city and name to whatever you wish.
3. The Primary and Secondary colours are in HEX format (web friendly) and must be proceeded by a pound sign.
4. There are only two divisions in this edition of the game: DivisionID 0 or DivisionID 1. If you use DivisionID's other than 0 or 1, the team will not be shown on the season standings screen.
5. The StadiumID must be a value between 1 and 9 as there are 9 stadiums in the game.

Also inside the Team folder, you will find the artwork files for team logo and uniforms. These can be edited how you see fit but they must be in png format and support transparency. 

Roster

Once you have the team data you will need to add a team roster. All players in the game are found in a single roster file (roster.xml).

The fastest way to add a roster to your team is copy and paste the players from one team to another. Select all the players in the roster with TeamID of 1, copy and paste them into the same file, then change the TeamID value of those players to 10. This will now assign those copied players to team 10. From here you can change names and various other values as you see fit.

A Few Other Notes

The XML data files have a very specific formatting. Field names are case sensitive, which means that FIELD_NAME is not the same as field_name. Incorrect formatting of xml or png files can cause problems for the game - it expects things to be in a specific format.

Ensure that you have all the team data and roster information correct before trying to play Play Now or Season games. You will need to reset your current season to make new teams appear in the game's season mode.

Keep Backups. Always keep a copy of the shipping Teams folder in a separate place so you can roll back if something doesn't work. It's also a good idea to keep copies of any teams or rosters that you make set aside as well. Game Updates do not check for custom teams or roster files so your work may get overwritten. Keeping a backup allows you to keep your data available to put back.

Canuck Play can not be involved with any projects that are adding teams to the game.

thanks and enjoy the game.

American Football in Canadian Football 2017

While it was teased at over the past few weeks (a screen shot and a quick mention in the Update notes published on the 21^st of September) today we formally announced the addition of another new feature coming in the October Update of Canadian Football 2017.

We’ve added the option to play under a subset of American football rules. So along with the traditional Canadian football rules, you’ll now also have the option to play with a 100 yard field, 4 downs, 11 men per side, 3 time outs per half, goal posts on the dead ball line, and a couple of other minor rule differences are included as well.

But to be clear, this is a subset of rules, it’s not a full reproduction of professional US football rules. While playing under this rule set, you will not be able to score a Rouge or be penalized for No Yards, but you will not be able to fair catch either. A kickoff going out of bounds uses the same rules as Canadian football. Some of the penalties are Canadian football as well.

If the addition of US football rules proves popular we can look at expanding the ruleset in future editions of the game.

One of the first questions we were asked when this was announced was ‘Why? You should keep it Canadian’. Well first, it is still Canadian. The game still supports the full suite of professional Canadian football rules as default. - Canadian Football 2017 continues to be the only video game on the market, for any platform, that uses the complete Canadian football ruleset.

US football rules have been included in an attempt to expand the audience for the title. It’s no secret, and doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize, that a Canadian football game that is not licensed has a very limited market.

The purpose of including these US rule options is to open the game to a larger market and hopefully put the game into a position where we can continue to grow, improve, and add new features that appeal to fans on both sides of the 49^th. 

The first thing game players will notice with this ruleset in place is the game scores are generally much higher. The extra down, the removal of one of the pass coverage defenders, and the shorter field, results being able to move the ball down field faster.
 
The game’s difficulty level impacts blocking duration and pass coverage buffer (how close the defender gets to the receiver). This combined with adjusting the pass percentage slider should allow you to adjust the game to your liking. 

Canuck will be posting more updates and information on this and all the new features as we get closer towards release at the end of the month.

Thanks.