A message to the game developers and/or volunteers

[cbbl]

Markus and company:

Thank you for producing such an addictive and deep baseball simulation. Ever since I discovered OOTP some 5 or 6 versions ago, I've been fairly hooked. I await each new version with much anticipation and excitement, and when it finally arives, I spent countless hours setting it up and playing. It's so addictive in fact, that I often play OOTP every day--and in the beginning often for hours at a time. Why, I've probably invested 20 hours a week in OOTP X since its release. That's a lot of dedication!

But every year some issue stands in my way of truly enjoying this game. I hum along fine for awhile, but then out of the darkness, something bites me and causes enough of a headache that I can't continue my solo fictional league. Sometimes I can get around it after much consternation, but sometimes I have to just quit.

Part of it is probably my fault--it seems I play this game in a way most do not. Perhaps I'm taxing the application too much. But one of OOTP's signature tag lines is "Play it your way" and I have always intended to do just that. But I started wondering a long time ago if that tag line is deceptive. I know, I know, I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I get frustrated easily and sometimes that manifests itself it emotional posts on these boards. But, in my defense, there is an expectation that has been set about what OOTP can do,and when it doesn't do those things, well, its frustrating--especially when you've built your fantasy universe around some premise that OOTP is struggling with. It isn't as if what I'm trying to do is really that unique or bizarre.

Some of you reading this already know what I'm referring to--the continuing challenges with updates to the names database. It caused me so much pain last year that I nearly gave up OOTP. I eventually got around it, and thought the issue solved, but then lost my ability to continue when another show stopping issue appeared.

But I'm off on a tangent. The second show stopping issue was identified as a known bug and is listed as fixed for OOTP X. But the names database issue remains, and now is plaguing me for the fourth year in a row.

So, I'm on my last straw. I'm writing this lengthly letter as a last plea for specific help. Specific help--not board positing, maybe its this, maybe its that, try this, try that, resolution attempts. I want--frankly, I need--something more dedicated. I know it's selfish--there are only so many of you and way more of us, so to have someone handhold a single user isn't the most effective use of time. But that's what I'm asking for.

Last year I posted a "Should I just quit" message and got kind responses from a lot of people. Nutlaw in particular has been doing as much as he can to help out, but so far it hasn't been enough. I'm still dogged by this single most frustrating issue I've had with OOTP.

In a moment of sheer frustration last night, after once again thinking the issue resolved and discovering it wasn't, then in response to the request to upload my league file getting and "Upload Failed" error, I wiped out OOTP and my entire league history from my computer. OOTP 9 went in the trash. OOTP X went in the trash. All the league files went in the trash. All of my work--my Excel files, my logo files, my offline league history and plan files--all of them went in the trash and the trash then emptied. Its all gone. Except for some hidden folder that I'm not certain how to get rid of, OOTP has been vaporized from my computer.

I can now easily walk away.

Yet, I can't do it. I guess the simple fact is I love OOTP. I really do. I enjoy it greatly. I want to play it. But I want to play it my way. The way I should be able to. And so, rather than walking away, I'm willing to start clean--start all over--repeat every little bit of work I've ever done to try, one last time, to enjoy this game.

But as I said above, I'm not going to do it alone. I need a guide. Someone who is willing, via e-mail, to proactively address the issues--and specifically the one issue that boils my blood--along with me. I am 99.9% confident the issue will reappear. This time, I want to figure it out before I invest dozens of hours setting up and playing my league.

Is there someone out there who will volunteer?

I'll share everything with you--every file I change, every league file, every move. I'll set up test leagues and follow your instruction to test solutions. I'll try lots of options and do my best to keep good spirits knowing that a solution will come. And, if it doesn't, well then I'll know everything possible was done and that it is clearly an OOTP issue to be worked on and not something specific to me or what I'm doing. In short, I'm seeking solutions and will do what's necessary to find it--provided someone is along for the ride.

OK, Scott, you say ... you've spent a dozen paragraphs yammering on and on about your frustration, but you've told us nothing about your league or issue. How can we help if you don't shut up and give us the facts?

Fair enough.

* I am a solo fictional league player.
* My league is an "alternate U.S." league -- starting in 1946, I'm looking for era-accurate statistics and era-accurate names and ethnicities.
* The league starts small -- 4 teams, plus 4 affiliated teams in a "development league".
* I have the next ten years of the league mapped out--league expansion, additional minor leagues, team moves, folding teams, etc. 99% of what I want to do I know OOTP can handle. Some of it I know I need to do through workarounds or file modificiation. The historically accurate name set is one of them.

My starting point is collecting the most common first and surnames from census records. I have a file of the top 1000 first names for each decade from the 1880s through the 2000s. I also have a file of the top 88,799 surnames per the 1990 census. As I could find no historical lists, I'll live with it.

Each of these data sets are in Excel for Windows. For the first names database, I've scanned through it and remove odd names or other names that I don't want in my league (stray female names, Hispanic/Asian names, etc.). The intention is to extract a particular decade's list of names into a revised first_names.txt file and use it to create the league. After about 10 years of league history, I'd create a new first_names.txt file with an updated set of names from my listing and re-import the names database.

For the last names database, the list is too long to comb through it in advance. In the past, I've truncated the list to the top 5,000 - 10,000 names rather than try and use an file with nearly 89,000 names in it.

So, what happens is when players are created, I review them. If a name doesn't fit (for example, if Victor Cruz is in the 1946 draft), I manually change the name and then open the names.txt file and remove the offending name so it doesn't reappear. I then reimport the names database.

You know what happens next. OOTP doesn't update the database cleanly. When it creates names, odd things happen -- all players have the same last name, for example (everyone is a "Koopman"), or all the names created are from the lowest frequency names rather than properly dispersed (1 "John" and 45 "Murl"s). Or all the names are truncated ("Geor McSou").

In the beginning I can handle it ... such a small league, so not many players being created. But its a pain in the ***, and it means work rather than play. And it will be unmanagable when the league eventually grows to something much larger.

Last year it appeared the issue was that I was editing using Mac's Text Editor which was doing something funky to the file. This year I've done all editing with Microsoft Word Pad (which I access on my Mac by running both operating systems).

There are other issues. With OOTP 9, I was stonewalled when OOTP couldn't handle league expansion correctly. As I said, that has been listed as fixed for OOTP X. But this year I'm noticing some player picture issues. Nothing major, but the cause of headaches as I'm constantly having to manually delete bad photos from the images folder.

Hence my need for someone to work specifically with me.

I am not tech savvy. Without some specific instruction I'm not sure how to do some things that are easy for many of you--they'd be easy for me too if I only had someone who could tell me how. I only need to be shown once and then I'll be fine. I'm not idiot, I'm just not an IT expert.

So, here's what I'd like to do.

As I said, all aspects of OOTP are now gone. I can't share problem files with you.

But I can share what I'm doing to restart my final attempt.

I'll give whomever works with me the Excel name files. I'll tell you how I'm modifying the nations file and send it to you. I'll set up my league and share the league file ... and then I'll simulate to test these issues out. When the issue occurs, you'll get the league file again. You'll have all the facts and we can go back and forth with tests to get it right.

Yes, it is perhaps an unprecedented level of service. But without it, I'll make that one last attempt alone--and should some major issue arise, I'll walk away from OOTP for good. I really, really don't want to do that. But life is too short to be so frustrated by something that is supposed to be fun.

Thanks for hanging through this verbose epistle. I eagerly await a response.

Respectfully,
cbbl

[Nutlaw]

This is a duplicate thread. Closing.