Headline News Bug (Still)

couriers · 06-22-2003, 11:17 AM

This was reported some time ago and was not addressed in the latest patch. Here is the original text describing the problem:

Robert Weber stars with cycle. He's now the 6187th player in league history to hit for the cycle! Bertram Tibbitts was the last player to hit for the cycle, doing it 7/15/2003.

First of all, this league is only 1 year old and there is no way that 6187 players have hit for cycles.

Secondly, the league started in 2001 and is now in the first month of the 2002 season, which means that 2003 hasn’t even occurred yet.

Lastly, Berthram Tibbitts plays on a Single-A team and hasn’t even had 1 single at bat yet, ever.
I would venture to guess that the above cycle was the first in the league and that the Number Of and Date Of Last cycle were randomly generated. The reason is that the following was part of the news headlines for the next month:

Timothy Delosreyes hits for the cycle. He becomes the 6188th player in league history collect at least a single, double, triple and a homerun in a single game. On 4/29/2002, Robert Weber was the last player to hit for the cycle.

This would mean that Robert Weber was in fact the first player in the leagues history to have ever hit for a cycle. If this is the case then the program should not randomly generate fake history information since it will most likely be wrong.

hefalumps · 06-22-2003, 11:41 AM

Glad I'm not the only one who gets headline news bugs...

This sounds like quite a puzzler. Don't expect much of a response though... I posted recently about gibberish coming up in my POW news headlines, and I posted awhile back about a guy who threw a no-hitter on opening day (according to the news) but actually got rocked and lost the game. Nobody had any ideas what was causing it. I think one person might have asked if I'd reset my season or something, but I haven't done anything odd to my season (reset it, stop and start a new one with the same name, have the game crash mid-sim... nothing). What kind of league are you running? Have you had anything odd happen to it that might cause such an odd news headline?

Treches · 06-22-2003, 11:52 AM

This stuff was reported in the early beta and is well known. The news have some rare bugs that haven't been found thus far, hence them remaining around.

couriers · 06-22-2003, 12:44 PM

Here is another good one that just popped up, again:

Pitcher of the Month award winners announced It's the 0th time that the Cartwright League Pitcher of the Month award goes to He started 7 games in May, going 6-1 and compiling an ERA of 2.61 in 62 innings. Christopher fanned 77 hitters. Christopher has a record of 10-4 this season, with an ERA of 2.83. In 124 Innings he was able to strike out 146 batters. He's 3rd in the Cartwright League in ERA and 1st in wins!

It’s the Oth time?
The award goes to whom exactly? It refers to him by name latter in the article but not at the first announcement.

These are common bugs that have been reported on several occasions with no progress as of yet. They should consider creating a Headline Bug thread that could be stickied at the top of the forum for these types of problems. They tend to get lost in the Typos thread and shouldn’t be classified as such. Furthermore, a status report should be provided on a regular basis so that we know that they are looking into the problems and not just ignoring them. I know that they wouldn’t just blow them off but with a new patch and no word on these issues that is how it feels.

This is a brand new league that was 1 month old at the time of the first bug and only 2 months old at the time of the second. These problems have occurred in every single league that I have started so far.

Treches · 06-22-2003, 01:36 PM

As said, those bugs along with other not mentioned in this thread are known since beta testing. I'm talking March. Some date back to OOTP2. However, despite their consequences being quite visible, Markus hasn't been able to find the bugs in the code thus far and therefore haven't been wiped out. When I say rare, I'm not saying they are happening scarcely, I'm saying that apparently they are pretty well hidden.

couriers · 06-22-2003, 01:44 PM

As said, I know that they have been well recorded and not just happening scarcely. However, it would be a wise idea to create the thread that I mentioned with timely updates on their status.

Besides that, it doesn’t hurt anyone to report them again as friendly reminders to the team and so that others may see what there is left to deal with.

Treches · 06-22-2003, 01:47 PM

Not only doesn't it hurt but it's even advisable to avoid them from being lost in oblivion. I'm just telling you the reason why this stuff is still around.

couriers · 06-22-2003, 01:52 PM

I know that you were just making sure I wasn't upset or anything. I'm not. These are very minor problems in the grand scheme of things. I was just making sure that you didn't think that I was disappointed about them not being fixed yet. I have total confidence that they will eventually all be squashed and in the meantime I will just continue to laugh when I see one.

84CubsFan · 06-23-2003, 12:06 PM

couriers,

For the cycle thing, you can delete the special.dat file from your league before you start. It resets everything.

couriers · 06-23-2003, 12:52 PM

Really? I'll have to try that. Thanks.

couriers · 06-25-2003, 03:49 AM

Well that didn’t really work the way that I was hoping it would. I deleted the Special.dat and the Story.dat in an attempt to correct the cycle news bug but was unable to get the proper results. The last person reported to have hit the cycle in a brand new league was in fact fixed but the number of players to have hit the cycle up to that point was still in correct. In most cases the number of players being reported to have hit the cycle prior to the first player in a new league was around the 6100 mark. So instead of the actual player getting credit for having been the first person in the league to have hit for the cycle they were reported as being the 6101st player to have done so. I ran several different tests under several different league creation scenarios without being able to resolve this issue. Hopefully the OOTP team can find the problem down the road so that they may include a fix in a future patch or in the least the next version of the game.

06-22-2003, 11:17 AM	#1
couriers All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Fort Lauderdale Fla Posts: 932	Headline News Bug (Still) This was reported some time ago and was not addressed in the latest patch. Here is the original text describing the problem: Robert Weber stars with cycle. He's now the 6187th player in league history to hit for the cycle! Bertram Tibbitts was the last player to hit for the cycle, doing it 7/15/2003. First of all, this league is only 1 year old and there is no way that 6187 players have hit for cycles. Secondly, the league started in 2001 and is now in the first month of the 2002 season, which means that 2003 hasn’t even occurred yet. Lastly, Berthram Tibbitts plays on a Single-A team and hasn’t even had 1 single at bat yet, ever. I would venture to guess that the above cycle was the first in the league and that the Number Of and Date Of Last cycle were randomly generated. The reason is that the following was part of the news headlines for the next month: Timothy Delosreyes hits for the cycle. He becomes the 6188th player in league history collect at least a single, double, triple and a homerun in a single game. On 4/29/2002, Robert Weber was the last player to hit for the cycle. This would mean that Robert Weber was in fact the first player in the leagues history to have ever hit for a cycle. If this is the case then the program should not randomly generate fake history information since it will most likely be wrong.

06-22-2003, 11:52 AM	#3
Treches Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Damned Hell Posts: 2,150	This stuff was reported in the early beta and is well known. The news have some rare bugs that haven't been found thus far, hence them remaining around. __________________ The Computer Baseball League

06-22-2003, 01:36 PM	#5
Treches Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Damned Hell Posts: 2,150	As said, those bugs along with other not mentioned in this thread are known since beta testing. I'm talking March. Some date back to OOTP2. However, despite their consequences being quite visible, Markus hasn't been able to find the bugs in the code thus far and therefore haven't been wiped out. When I say rare, I'm not saying they are happening scarcely, I'm saying that apparently they are pretty well hidden. __________________ The Computer Baseball League

06-22-2003, 01:47 PM	#7
Treches Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Damned Hell Posts: 2,150	Not only doesn't it hurt but it's even advisable to avoid them from being lost in oblivion. I'm just telling you the reason why this stuff is still around. __________________ The Computer Baseball League

06-22-2003, 11:41 AM	#2
hefalumps All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,392	Glad I'm not the only one who gets headline news bugs... This sounds like quite a puzzler. Don't expect much of a response though... I posted recently about gibberish coming up in my POW news headlines, and I posted awhile back about a guy who threw a no-hitter on opening day (according to the news) but actually got rocked and lost the game. Nobody had any ideas what was causing it. I think one person might have asked if I'd reset my season or something, but I haven't done anything odd to my season (reset it, stop and start a new one with the same name, have the game crash mid-sim... nothing). What kind of league are you running? Have you had anything odd happen to it that might cause such an odd news headline?

06-22-2003, 12:44 PM	#4
couriers All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Fort Lauderdale Fla Posts: 932	Here is another good one that just popped up, again: Pitcher of the Month award winners announced It's the 0th time that the Cartwright League Pitcher of the Month award goes to He started 7 games in May, going 6-1 and compiling an ERA of 2.61 in 62 innings. Christopher fanned 77 hitters. Christopher has a record of 10-4 this season, with an ERA of 2.83. In 124 Innings he was able to strike out 146 batters. He's 3rd in the Cartwright League in ERA and 1st in wins! It’s the Oth time? The award goes to whom exactly? It refers to him by name latter in the article but not at the first announcement. These are common bugs that have been reported on several occasions with no progress as of yet. They should consider creating a Headline Bug thread that could be stickied at the top of the forum for these types of problems. They tend to get lost in the Typos thread and shouldn’t be classified as such. Furthermore, a status report should be provided on a regular basis so that we know that they are looking into the problems and not just ignoring them. I know that they wouldn’t just blow them off but with a new patch and no word on these issues that is how it feels. This is a brand new league that was 1 month old at the time of the first bug and only 2 months old at the time of the second. These problems have occurred in every single league that I have started so far.

06-22-2003, 01:44 PM	#6
couriers All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Fort Lauderdale Fla Posts: 932	As said, I know that they have been well recorded and not just happening scarcely. However, it would be a wise idea to create the thread that I mentioned with timely updates on their status. Besides that, it doesn’t hurt anyone to report them again as friendly reminders to the team and so that others may see what there is left to deal with.

06-22-2003, 01:52 PM	#8
couriers All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Fort Lauderdale Fla Posts: 932	I know that you were just making sure I wasn't upset or anything. I'm not. These are very minor problems in the grand scheme of things. I was just making sure that you didn't think that I was disappointed about them not being fixed yet. I have total confidence that they will eventually all be squashed and in the meantime I will just continue to laugh when I see one.

06-23-2003, 12:06 PM	#9
84CubsFan Major Leagues Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 376	couriers, For the cycle thing, you can delete the special.dat file from your league before you start. It resets everything.

06-23-2003, 12:52 PM	#10
couriers All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Fort Lauderdale Fla Posts: 932	Really? I'll have to try that. Thanks.

06-25-2003, 03:49 AM	#11
couriers All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Fort Lauderdale Fla Posts: 932	Well that didn’t really work the way that I was hoping it would. I deleted the Special.dat and the Story.dat in an attempt to correct the cycle news bug but was unable to get the proper results. The last person reported to have hit the cycle in a brand new league was in fact fixed but the number of players to have hit the cycle up to that point was still in correct. In most cases the number of players being reported to have hit the cycle prior to the first player in a new league was around the 6100 mark. So instead of the actual player getting credit for having been the first person in the league to have hit for the cycle they were reported as being the 6101st player to have done so. I ran several different tests under several different league creation scenarios without being able to resolve this issue. Hopefully the OOTP team can find the problem down the road so that they may include a fix in a future patch or in the least the next version of the game.