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Old 06-15-2009, 01:06 PM   #42
SteveP
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 3,109
As a beta testing, I've been working with the ballpark export/import feature for several days now. I now have over 30 ballparks (with an emphasis on those which have both day/night photos) with individual ballpark files that I can import into any league that I might create. The feature seems to work perfectly.

Based on that, here's some food for thought for modders. Along with packaging a set of photos with a park.dat file, consider packaging them with individual ballpark files as well. The park.dat file really only works well when the league organization is precisely what the park.dat file is designed for. But that isn't always the case. With the individual ballpark files, the gamer can easily import ballparks, as he needs them, into a game he's already created, and can easily mix-and-match ballparks created by different modders.

Another food-for-thought issue: with the advent of widgets, gamers are viewing ballparks in different configurations. For example, the ballpark in the field widget is shaped differently than the one on the broadcast window. This is not a problem for ball locations, but can be a problem for player name box location. It's a good idea to anticipate the possibility that a downloader may be viewing your ballpark in a different sized widget than the one you designed for -- and may not understand why it doesn't look "right."
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