Quote:
Originally Posted by Kafkaesque85
Yes, I'm very interested in attempting this through modifying the csv and text files. And I appreciate the help and being point in the right direction.
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First, I would start small, with some small testing. DO NOT - I repeat DO NOT - attempt to configure these csv and text files exactly as you want them for your target league, with many years, leagues, teams. Instead, start small.
Second, and this is VERY important to understand: These csv and txt files are NOT used by OOTP
at game creation. You can configure these files all you want, but if you start a game in, for example, 1910 there is no way to get the 1910 PCL into your game without manually entering it. Rather, these files are used in
subsequent years, so in this example they would be used when your game progresses from the the 1910 postseason into the 1910-11 offseason (typically in late-October after your World Series). So, if you configured your files to start the PCL, Texas Lg, AA and Int'l League in 1910, you would need to create your game with the 1909 season, or an earlier season.
Ok, so here's what I would do:
1. Open up the milbteams and milbleagues csv files, save copies as Excel, and format them with a filter.
2. Familiarize yourself with the data in them. I cannot say
definitively, but there are a lot of league and team statistics that OOTP either does not use, or only uses it to load history. IOW, I'm pretty sure it's safe to leave these fields blank. And note that I'm referring to the two csv files and not the txt file.
The PCL starts in OOTP with the 1921 season. So...
3. Add the 1919 and 1920 PCL to the milbteams.csv file. To do this I would copy & paste the 1921 PCL data twice - one for 1919 and one for 1920 - and then edit the years fields to 1919 and 1920, and make any other changes needed (there were no changes in PCL structure, teams, ballparks, etc. from 1919-1921, which is why I recommend this... except that you might want to remove the LA Angels' affiliation ("Franchise/AffiliationID" field) to the Cubs for 1919 & 1920). Don't worry about the W/L record and statistical data for each team at this point...
4. Add the 1919 and 1920 PCL to the milbleagues.csv file. Just copy the 1921 PCL line twice - one for 1919 and one for 1920 - and then edit the years fields to 1919 and 1920. Don't worry about the W/L record and statistical data for each team at this point...
5. After making sure you've made a copy of the era_stats_minors.txt file, open it up with Notepad (or whatever you might want to use), and copy the 1921 PCL line - it should be about the 8th line down - twice, and then change the years to 1919 & 1920. For your testing, just leave all of the data as is.
Of course, save these files, name them appropriately so you can keep your copies straight, etc...
At this point, you are ready to replace the game's files with these three, and then you should be ready to test, starting in any year prior to 1919, and then seeing how the game handles the PCL beginning with the 1918-19 offseason...
Here's the thing about the era_stats_minors.txt file: To the best of my knowledge, it's what used to tell OOTP what kind of statistics each league-season should produce. IOW, the 1919 PCL isn't going to be a steal-happy or a homer-heavy league simply because the players who are in it stole a lot of bases or hit a lot of homers. Rather, it uses this file to determine that (although it of course uses player ratings, too). So in this test, you'd be telling OOTP that the 1919 & 1920 PCL were statistically identical to the 1921 PCL. This is fine for testing, may or may not be fine for a real sim, but certainly would not be accurate... Using 1921 league stats for a 1919 or 1920 league might be close enough (it would be for me). It might not be "close enough" however, to use 1921 league stats for a 1905 league...
So this ^^^ could be your challenge, because I don't know where OOTP gets the stats in the era_stats_minors file... And while many of the first stats listed (see the header fields) are common baseball stats (AB,Hits,Doubles,Triples,Homeruns,BB,HBP,K,SB,CS, etc.), you'll see that many of the subsequent stats are not exactly common, let alone out there to be found... So this is where - after you've tested to your satisfaction - you might have some challenges and/or decisions to make... I mean, for MLB these stats are available since the beginning (1871). So, in theory, you might be able to say that MLB's DPperRFB or Pickoffs per RFB numbers for 1903 are good enough for your 1903 PCL, AA, and IL. Or not...
Finally (for now), to be clear on testing, I see this as being three phases:
ONE: Test as I have described above.
TWO: Add a few more leagues, and a few more years, and then test again.
THREE: Develop your full test - all of the leagues & teams you want. And test that.
There's so much to dig into that I highly recommend against immersing yourself in your game - facegens, logos, ballparks, and getting involved in day-to-day simming - until you are reasonably sure that your modifications are working as intended, after Phase Three
Ok, that's alot... And I'm sure I typed something that's not quite clear. Feel free to ask away...