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The Action! PC Football Guide
Written By: Justin
Contact: [email protected] / 405.650.1317
Game Website: www.dksports.com/football
This guide is here to help you navigate the game and doing everything from
editing your team and lineup, to playing your weekly games and sending that game’s
data to the commissioner (Justin). While some of us are Action! PC Football veterans (I
use that term loosely), some of our league members are brand new to this game and
so I’m making this guide to answer even some of the more “basic” questions. If you
still have a question that isn’t addressed in this guide, send me an email and I will do
my best to help answer your question and then update the guide to include the
answers to the question.
Action! PC Background:
From the DK Sports website, Action! PC Football ”is the most researched and
detailed football game on the market. Play the game with the default settings or easily
modify coaching profiles, leagues, teams, players, rules, and much more”. This game
allows us to draft a fantasy football team and play head to head against each other,
testing not only our knowledge of the current state of the NFL and players but also our
knowledge of the game itself. This is a dynasty format, meaning that the team you
draft this year is going to make up the bulk of your roster going forward. Each player’s
statistics are compiled and then the player is assigned a ranking of 3-10, with 10 being
among the best at that position. Seeing as this game is based upon real statistics and
tendencies, our game is based upon the previous season’s results. This isn’t only
reflected in statistics, but in injuries as well. A player that is plagued with injuries
during the year will also be injury-prone in our season.
This game operates in a “hub-and-spoke” fashion, meaning that any and all
changes made to the game must go through the Commissioner’s computer in order to
be disseminated to the rest of the league. From changes to your team and results from
your week’s game, everything must be sent to the Commissioner who will update the
league and send out the zipped file (more on this later) for you to download and update
your game with.
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Table of Contents
1. League Rules – Page 3
2. Installing the most current version of the game – Page 4
3. Modifying your team – Page 7
4. Exporting your team’s information – Page 8
5. Playing against opponents / Hamachi Network Instructions – Page 10
6. Instructions for the Home Team (Host Team) – Page 11
7. Instruction for the Visiting Team – Page 12
8. Playing the game – Page 13
9. Instructions for the Host Team (Home Team) – Page
10. Exporting game data - Page 14
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Rules of The League:
1. The word of the Commissioner is final. The Commissioner is a fair individual, so
all complaints submitted via email or phone (I will ignore all texts and/or phone
calls after 9 PM) will be heard and reviewed. However, it is sometimes
impossible to please all parties so please understand that once the Commissioner
has made a decision that it wasn’t done without reviewing all information that
was available.
2. Free Agents will work in an INVERSE STANDINGS format.
a. All Free Agent Adds must be EMAILED to the Commissioner for it to be an
official request. This leaves a paper trail with which can be used in the
case of complaint.
b. Free Agent Add Requests that contain more than one request must be
numbered in order of highest to lowest priority. Requests that contain
more than one player but does not number the players in order of priority
will be prioritized according to the way they were listed in the email (first
player mentioned will be assigned number 1).
c. All Free Agent Add/Drops for the waiver wire MUST be submitted to the
Commissioner by 8 PM Sunday evening in order for it to be in effect for
the following week. The commissioner will keep track of what day Free
Agent Add Requests come in and will make all changes after the deadline
on Sunday.
d. Teams get only one priority pick per “round”. See example below:
Team 1 requested both Player A and Player E, with Player A being priority.
Therefore, their request is broken up into two rounds. Because Team 1
had priority and Player A was their top priority, they receive Player A
regardless of who else requested Player A in the same round. However,
Team 1 will NOT receive Player E because of Team 5 requesting Player E
with their top priority request.
3. All games MUST be played and submitted to the Commissioner before MIDNIGHT
SUNDAY. If a game is not played and submitted before the deadline, the
Commissioner will let the computer simulate the game and the results of the
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computer simulation will be final. However, seeing as the playing of the games
is arguably the keystone aspect to this game, please make every effort to play
your scheduled games.
4. The 8 teams will be broken up into two 4 team divisions and each team will play
every team in The League twice. For the playoffs, we will use the NFL rules and
tiebreaker system. The team with the best record from each division will make
the playoffs with two wildcards (division will not be considered when picking the
wildcard, only record). There will be a semi-final and then a Championship game.
Making the Championship is the highest honor you are ever likely to receive, and
winning it all is the stuff dreams are made of.
How to install the most current version of the league:
This is the most important part of ensuring that you have the most up-to-date
version of our league. The most recent version will be sent out after game results and
free agent changes are compiled by the Commissioner. Every effort will be made to get
the league files sent out by Monday. The league files will be zipped and emailed to all
members. In order to install the league files, save the file on your desktop and be
ready to cut and paste it into the dksports data file already on your computer.
To get to the dksports data folder, you will need to:
1) Go to your C drive
2) Open "dksports-data"
3) Open "football"
4) Open "seasons"
5) Create a folder and name it "The League" or whatever you want to distinguish-- this
is important later
6) Save zipped file in folder (do not unzip the file- the game will do that for you)
Path to creating “The League” folder:
What the zipped file will look like:
Please note the naming format used. This format will always be used so that
you can easily find the most current file.
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To install the file in game:
7) Start the program and click "Active Season", which can be found at the top right of
the window.
8) Click "install new season"
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9) Double-click on "The League" (or whatever you named the file from step 5) found in
the left panel
10) In the right panel, check the box "Display all zip files"
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11) Click the zipped file and click "Begin Installation"
How to modify your team:
Modifying your team is your chance to name your team, change your team colors
as well as things like your team stadium and logo. I will either name each respective
team with the name of the coach assigned to the blank team (pre-draft) or if the
information is sent to me, I will have the team names and colors updated in the first file
sent out. From there, find your team under the “Rosters” menu in the top left of the
screen and double-click.
In the “Rosters” menu, you will see your depth charts as well as your overall
team roster broken up by position. In this screen, you can change you lineups for the
different formations your team can line up in as well as print your rosters and run play
analysis. To change your team’s information, click “Modify Team” and that will take you
to where you can re-name and give colors to your team.
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Exporting your team information:
To export your team’s information after you have updated the colors, mascot
and team name, simply close the roster screen and go back to the home page. From
there, go to “Utilities” and click “Export Coaches”.
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This will open the Coaches Export screen from where you will double click your
team and choose the folder you want the file exported to. I recommend creating a
“Team Export” folder inside your league folder to help keep your files organized. You
can see in this screenshot how that will help:
Once you have selected the folder and double-clicked your team, click begin export.
This will send a .COA file into the folder. Email that .COA file to the commissioner who
will import the file and update the league. When all teams are accounted for, a new
league file will be zipped and sent to the league from the Commissioner.
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Playing against opponents:
In order to meet your opponent on the virtual gridiron, you must first connect
with each other via I.P. Address. In past seasons, we have tried to connect with our
home network’s I.P. Address and for whatever reason, we had lots of issues. To avoid
these issues, the Commissioner has created a League Network. To download the
network client, click on the following link:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_hamachi/
Once you have downloaded the Hamachi network, create an account and open
the client. In the client, click “Network” and click “Join an Existing Network” in the
drop-down menu.
Network ID: The League 2017
Password: theleague
This will allow you to join the league network and generate an I.P. Address for you,
located in the top left portion of the client. Both coaches will need to have the Hamachi
client open on their computer in order for this to work, but if the client is open I have
yet to have any connection issues using this network.
Once you have the Hamachi Network open and have located your I.P. Address, it
is time to connect within the game client. The HOME TEAM will be the host for that
matchup, so the VISITING TEAM will need to know the host’s I.P. Address.
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Host Team Instructions :
The Host team will need to click the “Internet” menu at the top of the game
client.
From there, simply click “Host Game Session” and wait for the visiting team to connect.
The game will give you a prompt to accept when they have connected. Once they have
connected, click “Play” in the client, find your game and click “Unplayed”. This will
make it say “Play Next” and then simply click “Play”.
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Visiting Team Instructions :
The Visiting team will need to click “Internet” and select “Join Game Session”.
Once you have selected “Join Game Session”, you will be prompted to type in the Host’s
I.P. Address and then select “Connect”.
Playing the Game:
Once in the game, you will coach your team from kickoff to final whistle. The
game will give you chances to decide if you will return a deep kickoff, call timeouts and
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sometime even to challenge calls on the field. Though you can’t see the plays happen,
it will give you a percentage to show you the likelihood of the call being overturned to
help you make your decision.
On offense, you can choose your formations, substitute players and change the
mechanics of the play. You can add a play action, run the play from the shotgun, have
the QB rollout, have the skill position players attempt to get out of bounds or try their
best to stay in bounds and a lot more. Here is the screenshot of the offensive play
calling menu:
An important function of this game is that it is based on real-life statistics and
tendencies. That means that if your starting running back is a power runner who runs
mostly between the tackles in real life, he will have a higher “Short” run ranking in the
game than “Breakaway” ranking in the game making him more reliable between the
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tackles and less than spectacular running outside the tackles. Also, their real life
performance will impact the game as well. If your running back had 150 carries in the
season, he will only perform up to expectations for the first 150 or so carries in the
game. After that, his performance will suffer and become far less effective.
On defense, you will have just as much control over your team, its formation and
the play call as the offense does. You can choose your defensive formations, choose
whether you want to run a basic defense, run-focused defense, pass-focused defense
and even double certain receivers. Of course, you will have the options of choosing
between man and zone coverages, including the depth of the coverage and even select
individual blitzers. Here is a screenshot of your defensive play calling menu:
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Exporting Game Data:
Once you have finished your scheduled game, the HOST team will export the
game data and send it to the Commissioner, unless he is unable to do so wherein the
VISITING team will do so. To do this, click “Utilities” in the main screen and select
“Export Games”.
Once in the “Export Games” menu, double-click your game and select the folder you
want it saved into. My recommendation is to create a folder in the League folder you
created earlier and name it “Games”. This will allow you to save your exported games
in a separate folder.
Once the game has been exported, go to the file to find the game. The game
will have the teams and the results and will be an .XBX file. This will need to be zipped,
which can be done by right-clicking the file, clicking “Send to >” and choosing
“Compressed”. This is what it will look like:
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Once it is zipped, copy and paste the zipped file in an email and send it to the
Commissioner. He will import the games into the League and then send out the
updated version.