XBox: NCAA 09 Roster issues

cmoneyr · 07-15-2008, 09:51 AM

No additional money, I don't have the game so I don't know how it works exactly. But people can put the rosters in their locker for you to download.

jdewaard · 07-15-2008, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by jcs33

This might be a dumb question but I'm new to the 360. I do have xbox live purchased. If I want to download Iowa State's or the NCAA roster does it cost additional money? Or what is the easiest way to get player names?

What you'll need to do is go to the EA Locker Feature in the game and you should be able to enter in someone's gamertag to download rosters from them. The one I would go with is "Fairdale Kings" as he is the most reputable. Additionally, I know there is another complete roster created by a guy called "Pasta Padre" but his roster may or may not have been the source of the bug. I'd probably stay away from him.

Even if you do get a bad roster, the game will be fixed by a patch so there's no reason to not buy the game. If your machine is not hooked up to the internet, I would suggest temporarily connecting it, as both the Xbox and PS3 will let you download patches without paying anything.

If you have no internet at all, then I guess I don't know what to tell you. I don't know that you would hear me either, all the way back there in 1996. If you have a 360, you could take your hard drive over to someone who does have Xbox live, plug it in to their machine, have it download the patch, and then bring it back to your cave. Maybe, stop for some Jumbo ribs at the Drive-In on the way home.

Just a suggestion.

jcs33 · 07-15-2008, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by jdewaard

What you'll need to do is go to the EA Locker Feature in the game and you should be able to enter in someone's gamertag to download rosters from them. The one I would go with is "Fairdale Kings" as he is the most reputable. Additionally, I know there is another complete roster created by a guy called "Pasta Padre" but his roster may or may not have been the source of the bug. I'd probably stay away from him.

Even if you do get a bad roster, the game will be fixed by a patch so there's no reason to not buy the game. If your machine is not hooked up to the internet, I would suggest temporarily connecting it, as both the Xbox and PS3 will let you download patches without paying anything.

If you have no internet at all, then I guess I don't know what to tell you. I don't know that you would hear me either, all the way back there in 1996. If you have a 360, you could take your hard drive over to someone who does have Xbox live, plug it in to their machine, have it download the patch, and then bring it back to your cave. Maybe, stop for some Jumbo ribs at the Drive-In on the way home.

Just a suggestion.

Thank you. This will really help me out. I will look up Fairdale Kings. Do you have the game purchased and the rosters downloaded?

Will I be prompted to download the patch provided by EA?

The issues with the rosters... Am I correct in assuming it bad file can effect my 360, the game, both?

cyismydog · 07-15-2008, 11:28 AM

I heard that A-Rob was listed as from Montana...any truth in that?

Bader · 07-15-2008, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by jcs33

Thank you. This will really help me out. I will look up Fairdale Kings. Do you have the game purchased and the rosters downloaded?

Will I be prompted to download the patch provided by EA?

The issues with the rosters... Am I correct in assuming it bad file can effect my 360, the game, both?

The file isn't a virus or anything it's just EA apparently did a terrible job with their database querying and certain trailing characters or too long of names (which you know they allow instead of give you a hard limit....) will mess up your database and teams will either disappear or there's a possibility the game could crash.

There's no permanent damage that is done with these bad rosters so it's nothing to worry about, just a pain

jdewaard · 07-15-2008, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by jcs33

Thank you. This will really help me out. I will look up Fairdale Kings. Do you have the game purchased and the rosters downloaded?

Will I be prompted to download the patch provided by EA?

The issues with the rosters... Am I correct in assuming it bad file can effect my 360, the game, both?

As I understand it, the Pasta Padre guy got the game early and created the roster file. I guess he ran into a bug while creating the file, but didn't think anything of it because it never happened again. Then he put the file out there for download. People have been downloading it and noticing that Florida International University has a rating of zero. Their depth chart has lots of open slots, and it's basically empty. When you attempt to start a dynasty, the game begins to delete teams starting with the bottom of the alphabet and working up.

The good news is that clean roster files are starting to appear. Apparently there is a clean one from someone called
"DT Linder" and the file is called "EARosters com" (no periods.)

The way to check to see if you are being affected by the problem is to periodically look and see how many teams there are. The number should be 120. Any less than that, and you have the bug. It's not a huge deal if you do, though. You'll just need to delete the roster file and either download another or create your own.

There have also been rumors about game freezes and such. I don't have a ton of info on that, though.

If/when a patch is released it will prompt you when you first boot up the game. Very simple and hands off. I wouldn't expect a patch for a little while though. I understand that Microsoft gives game companies one free patch per game, but then subsequent patches cost them money, so I'm sure that EA will try to get as many bug fixes in it as possible.

ISU_Alum_2000 · 07-15-2008, 01:46 PM

Update/summary of the entire situation has been posted on Operation Sports:

LINK: 360 Roster problems and game freezes explained - HERE - Operation Sports Forums

The "OMT" poster is an EA/Tiburon developer.

d4nim4l · 07-15-2008, 01:54 PM

Excellent update. I stole this from a guy at MaddenMania, also sums things up well:

To help everyone out and summarize where things are for the most part:

1) Is there a confirmed roster "bug"? Does it have to do with the 11 character limit in the name? or something else?

Yes; and yes and even yes to a degree. The is a bug, there have been cases where if you put in characters that are too long, ie 11+, the game will lose data (not for good, and once you reset the rosters it comes back obviously). There are other reasons as well the bug shows up, some confirmed some theory. The game can also freeze when editing rosters, cause may or may not be known at this time.

2) Has EA confirmed they know of this issue?

Yes, they have been able to replicate the issue and are in discussion with roster makers and users on these very boards as ways to try and fix the issue.

3) Is there a workaround? (i.e autonaming all playes then editing them)

Apparently some speculate that taking your system offline and naming rosters from scratch should help. There are several reports of people being able to edit with no problems, and others say they have freezing. It is not known if they are a result of a bad file (rosters that were made and corrupt) and people just working off of those.

4) Are there working rosters posted for the X360 and PS3 in the EA locker? Are those rosters editable or does editing them cause a lockup?

Yes, there are several for 360. One and the most famous is the PastaPadres file and it is hosted by several people here, including myself MM BigWill33 and I got it from NJpapi, look his name up on here his gamertag is under his avatar on these forums.

This roster was the one made by EA in private and created with a program rather than the usual punching in all the names on the system. It has several spelling errors and if you edit it yourself on top of the original file it may cause the loss of data or freeze bug.

Also FIU rating is affected by this roster, but if you take the ' out of one guys name it goes back to normal. The actual team playing has no effect, but rather just the front end menu's where it says the teams ratings.

This roster is currently safe to use however, and is a great holdover until others are done, just don't edit the names in it. You can edit the equipment and ratings still without hazard. It is also not tested fully in a long term dynasty or as an import of course into Madden '09, so proceed to those steps with caution. Although there are several reports that state dynasties run ok with this roster file, it is just not a big enough sample to proclaim it safe 100% at this time

5) Anything else I overlooked? Pls feel free to comment.

The roster glitch is something that is a shame to say the least, but has been overblown by the community to say the least.

It is a rare occasion to have rosters ready at release anyway, and people are working around the clock to find fixes and ways around things. There will be rosters that work fully without incident most likely within the first week of release, if not sooner.

PS3 users are a little more screwed right now though as no base roster set was ever released for that system (that the public is aware of) and the ones out were corrupted.

Again be patient, they will be out soon. And avoid paying for rosters as they are free for download on many sites and also with the new locker room feature, that is not broken!

tim_redd · 07-15-2008, 01:59 PM

So FIU's rating is not supposed to be zero?

nj829 · 07-15-2008, 02:06 PM

Surely a school like FIU can get a top notch punter, which should get them a rating of 1 or so I would think!

The last I had read was that FIU's rating was a zero because when the players were named, the depth chart was somehow cleaned out, so there are no players set-up in the 2 deep for them, so they can't field a team which screws up the simulation process.

jcs33 · 07-15-2008, 02:08 PM

From all this I gather no roster file is yet 100% safe. I have read numerous reports on PastaPadres, Fairdale Kings, and DT Linder (EARosters com).

Pick your poision?

Bader · 07-15-2008, 02:11 PM

Originally Posted by jcs33

From all this I gather no roster file is yet 100% safe. I have read numerous reports on PastaPadres, Fairdale Kings, and DT Linder (EARosters com).

Pick your poision?

Meh if you really NEED to have the player's named I'd say at this point do it yourself. Otherwise, give it a few weeks and people will have the bugs worked out and roster files will be fine.

The game has only been out now for 13 hours folks, give it a little time

d4nim4l · 07-15-2008, 02:13 PM

Originally Posted by Bader

Meh if you really NEED to have the player's named I'd say at this point do it yourself. Otherwise, give it a few weeks and people will have the bugs worked out and roster files will be fine.

The game has only been out now for 13 hours folks, give it a little time

Exactly.

I don't know about everyone else but since I'm leaving for RAGBRAI on Saturday I'll only have a few days with the game and won't be starting a Dynasty soon. I figure with the week I'll have away from the game something will pop up in that time and will be waiting for me when I get back. So no big deal. These things always work out.

Bader · 07-15-2008, 02:16 PM

FWIW it took about 3 weeks when 08 came out for people to have posted full working rosters for the PS3.

And then the flaming started all over because someone happened to screw up some random third stringer on their team and the whole internets needed to know about it

jdewaard · 07-15-2008, 02:23 PM

yeah, this is really the first year that EA has gone with the free downloadable rosters feature. I've been playing this series without the real names since 1996. I can wait a few more weeks. I'll probably just go through and name the ISU players manually, then wait for the rest. I will also manually name Jake Christensen. It sounds so much better than "Interception by QB #6"