So, after more hours work, here's where I got to. Installed WE8 anew, plus the Wolf 2005 FM patch, the update1 patch and his latest version X option file.
I took THAT new option file into EDITPES4OPT tool and edited one player in the master league start squads and Henry's att. attribute to 99.
I saved it and made a new para file from it.
In AFS, I imported the new para file where it did NOT require resizing (for some odd reason, always had before). Seemed to import ok, so I closed and ran the game.
It loaded without any issue, no crashing. I went to edit more and sure enough, Henry has his 99 att. rating. I then went to ML mode expecting to see his default rating but no! Lo and behold, the 99 att. rating was correctly imported. On checking the default ML squad, I find that the one player I edited there was also imported correctly! Hallelujah ... except ... and this is the frustrating bit to me since I deal with web design and programming, I don't know WHY or HOW. I did the same thing I've done a few times that always failed. So, it causes the following issues:
1. I'd hoped to use my extensively edited opt. file to create a the para file and import, so I'd have all my edits in the ML, etc. It seems that won't work as any attempt with it causes the crashing. So, I'm back to starting all over again to re-doing the edits, which includes the creation of 175 or so players!! Took me three-four days to get it done. A pain. I'm backing the files up with each successful step.
2. I wonder if, now, is it possible to do too many edits to the OPT file and therefore the para file either corrupts or comes out too big? Is there a limit? Since, when I first started editing and had done a couple of players I did the import process for the first time, last week, and it worked. That's about the same stage I'm at now, and I'm worried that the more editing I do, the more likely I am to end up with the same problem. Can you go too far?
3. Of those 175 players, I didn't 'create' any, I just edited existing players such as unknown youth players or otherwise very poor players that I wouldn't miss from the game. While most were on squads, it's possible I could have edited some free agents. Could this cause a problem?
4. With my long list of desired edits now, is there a better (i.e. safer?) way of making edits than the EDITPES4OPTIONFILE tool? I have version 1.1 of that. What are the alternatives?
5. I guess, finally, anyone have any other thoughts or ideas as to why this messes up like this?