Boy, those Ballplayers!

[RMc]

This is an ongoing problem I've had with OOTP for years, and this is probably not exactly the best day to bring it up. But...

It's always bugged me that many old-time players (especially in the NeL and minors) have "Ballplayer" as their first name. I've tried going into "stats/MiLBMaster" and changing them all to "Bob" or something. I save the altered XLS file, close OOTP, open it again, start a brand new game, BAM! The Ballplayers are back.

What gives?

EDIT: "Ballplayers" aren't rare: there are 11,729 of them, or more than 7% of the entire database. They run from 1883 through 1961, but there are a few after that, including a handful in the 21st century.

[plannine]

Many ballplayers names and records came from box scores and newspaper articles that only listed the last name. Many times a team added a ballplayer who was just someone off the street, who wanted to make a buck. The game wasn't the business that it has become of the last hundred years.

A player with the last name of Smith, according to the newspaper box score, pitched six innings in a game that the Baltimore Monumentals lost 15-12 in 1884. Nothing else is known about him. He never appeared in another game for the team. Was his name really Smith? Was he somebody the team grabbed off the street being short on players for the day? We will never know - and this happened a lot in the early years of baseball, both in the minors, and the major leagues.

It is possible that a person would offer his baseball services to different teams that came to town under different names. He could be a Jones, Smith, Roberts and McDonald, all in the same season.

[RMc]

Yes, I know that there are many unknown players in baseball history. What I want to know is, "Why can't I alter the MiLBMaster file so that the 'Ballplayers' have a different first name?"

Anybody?

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by RMc

Yes, I know that there are many unknown players in baseball history. What I want to know is, "Why can't I alter the MiLBMaster file so that the 'Ballplayers' have a different first name?"

Anybody?

You can. But since the game doesn't directly read from the master, you'd also need to rebuild the historical.odb with the edited master included to get this to take.

[plannine]

Originally Posted by RMc

Yes, I know that there are many unknown players in baseball history. What I want to know is, "Why can't I alter the MiLBMaster file so that the 'Ballplayers' have a different first name?"

Anybody?

I believe that the txt file is just a reference file, and does not effect what is in the database.

[RMc]

And how to you edit the historical_minor_database.odb? I tried opening it and all I got was chickenscratch.

[RMc]

Anybody?

[Syd Thrift]

ODB is the OpenDocument Database file format. Some info on how to open them is here:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...USSzCzrXWr8_m3

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by RMc

And how to you edit the historical_minor_database.odb? I tried opening it and all I got was chickenscratch.

Someone made an editor and posted it in the mods forums last year. I guess it should still work for OOTP23.

[RMc]

Someone made an editor and posted it in the mods forums last year.

"Someone"? Ya wanna maybe be a bit more specific there, boss...?

ODB is the OpenDocument Database file format.

Yep, and I when I open it, I get this:

# ƒ###K# BBrefMinorsID managerID hofID birthYear birthMonth birthDay birthCountry birthState birthCity deathYear deathMonth deathDay deathCountry deathState deathCity firstname lastname nameNote nameGiven nameNick weight height bats throws debutYear finalGame college lahmanID MlbID SeamheadsRetroID holtzID BBrefMLBid Ethnicity Arm Slot #p#1 aaberg001alf 1911 5 5 USA MN Pope County Al Aaberg Al Aaberg 186 69 R R 1936 1936 Caucasian 0 #i#2 aadlan001kir 1958 7 14 USA IA Sioux City Kirk Aadland 158 69 R R 1978 1978 Caucasian #k#3 aalber001bra 1976 10 5 USA IA Orange City Brady Aalbers 165 71 R R 1998 1998 Caucasian #`#4 aanons001ger 1950 4 25 USA Gerald Aanonsen 167 73 S R 1968 1969 Caucasian #z#5 aardsm001dav 1981 12 27 USA CO Denver David Aardsma 220 75 R R 2003 2016 aardsda01 aardsda01 Caucasian 0 #Y#6 aaron-001edw 1892 4 25 USA Ed Aaron 189 70 R R 1917 1920 Caucasian #r#7 aaron-001hen 1934 2 5 USA AL Mobile Hank Aaron 180 72 R R 1952 1953 aaronha01 aaronha01 African #g#8 aaron-001law 1958 12 15 USA WI Milwaukee Lary Aaron 170 71 L R 1981 1982 Caucasian #k#9 aaron-001mel 1949 10 25 USA CA Los Angeles Melvin Aaron 175 71 R R 1971 1971 Caucasian #f#10 aaron-001ogi 1979 9 21 USA MD Columbia Ging Aaron 165 72 R R 1999 2001 Caucasian #u#11 aaron-001tom 1939 8 5 USA AL Mobile Tommie Aaron 190 75 R R 1958 1973 aaronto01 aaronto01 African #j#12 aaron-001wil 1952 5 7 USA CA Los Angeles Wilmer Aaron 155

Etc.

C'mon, guys. It can't be this hard to edit something, can it...?

[poiuy]

Originally Posted by RMc

"Someone"? Ya wanna maybe be a bit more specific there, boss...?



Yep, and I when I open it, I get this:



Etc.

C'mon, guys. It can't be this hard to edit something, can it...?

You should be able to just do a find and replace for "Ballplayer," if you just want to change them all to the same name, as you indicated earlier. That is not hard.

[ldambrosa]

Here is a link to the DB converter thread: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=331147. I did do the conversion from ODB to CSV, and it worked, but I can't say with how much accuracy. I have nrver tried editing the resulting CSVs and then re-assembling them into ODBs

[plannine]

Originally Posted by RMc

"Someone"? Ya wanna maybe be a bit more specific there, boss...?

Compressed databases are impossible to edit without a tool to decompress and separate all of the parts.

Looks in the mods section (for Dr Dooms editor/decompressing tool).

[RMc]

I tried the OOTP 22 Database Converter (find it here: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=331147), and it works for OOTP23, too!

If your interested, here are some changes I made:
*Changed all Ballplayers to Bob (more out of a fit of pique than anything else), but gave them all the nickname "Ballplayer" (e.g. Bob "Ballplayer" Smith). It just looks better to me.

*Tweaked minor league team names, including changing teams that moved mid-season to their original identity only (such as the Newburgh/Walden Hummingbirds of the 1946 North Atlantic League, which are now just Newburgh Hummingbirds. I wrote the Wiki article for that team, too!).

*Tweaked a few major league team names, such as eliminating the underscore (_) in a few of them. (And changed all the "Guardians" back to "Indians". Don't argue, you know I'm right.)

Anyway, thanks.

[plannine]

Originally Posted by RMc

I tried the OOTP 22 Database Converter (find it here: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=331147), and it works for OOTP23, too!

If your interested, here are some changes I made:
*Changed all Ballplayers to Bob (more out of a fit of pique than anything else), but gave them all the nickname "Ballplayer" (e.g. Bob "Ballplayer" Smith). It just looks better to me.

*Tweaked minor league team names, including changing teams that moved mid-season to their original identity only (such as the Newburgh/Walden Hummingbirds of the 1946 North Atlantic League, which are now just Newburgh Hummingbirds. I wrote the Wiki article for that team, too!).

*Tweaked a few major league team names, such as eliminating the underscore (_) in a few of them. (And changed all the "Guardians" back to "Indians". Don't argue, you know I'm right.)

Anyway, thanks.

Don't toss copies of your edited files.
When the game gets patched, all of your hard work disappears for the next new game you start.