New Historical Master for all versions

[Bristolduke]

VERSION 2 Available.

While waiting for OOTP 11 to be fixed, I started down a path of creating a real historical master file. To be clear here this file makes no changes or impacts no part of the OOTP data. It's purpose was to fix the player bio data which has grown considerably out of date from Lahman, which OOTP uses at it's base.

I started out trying to create a master with unique names. This would greatly simplify the use of photos and the new facegen features. I have been working with tnfoto on the photo names and these files will match his newest release, coming out shortly.


I have based everything upon the data at Baseball-reference.com. It is intersting that they do not provide the ability to pull a single file with all the bio data. Instead they recommend using Lahman. This is a great dis-service to baseball-reference as I found out. There are over 20,000 errors and omissions in Lahman from what is on Baseball-reference. Over 9,000 players data changes (and this is before I tried to do anything with common names). Since Lahman is the base of OOTP, then our historical sims may be statisically sound, but not the players we are playing with. For example there are 1300+ ommisions and errors in how a player bats and just under 1000 on how they throw. We know the last game played data was suspect. Birthday and birth place as well as a players given name was missing in many cases. I updated the death information and college information as well, mostly because I felt I may as well since I was doing this even though the game won't care.

After fixing the ommissions and errors (and I don't know if I got all them, since I didn't do a manual player by player compare of all 17,000+), I then addressed unique names. The basic rule was to use the baseball-reference name and add a middle initial if needed. Worked with tnfoto to ensure compatibility with the photo project. The use of Sr/Jr/III was also used.



What I have is the following files.

1) Historical Master - This contains the data from rows E thru AB in Lahman. It is reflective of the data in Baseball-reference, including all data still unknown

2) Master.csv for OOTP11
3) Master.csv for OOTPX
4) Master.csv for OOTP9
5) Master.csv for Lahman version 5.7 (This would be used for all versions before OOTP9.

To make this work in OOTP9, OOTPX and OOTP11 you must delete the .odb file.

The for OOTP files I made the following data assumptions.

1) default weight is 170
2) default height is 5'9" ( there is an error in OOTP that will not properly show height so these defaults will show as 5'8". This is true for OOPT9, OOTPX and OOTP11 - I haven't looked at 8)
3) Player bats - if he has a value for how he throws then that is the value I used to bat (e.g. If he thows left but had no bats value then I use left), If there is no throws value then it would default to bats right.
4) Player Throws - If he has a value for how he bats then that is the value I used to throw. If he had no value or was a switch hitter I defaulted to throw right.
5) Brithday - If there is no birthdate then I created a birth year that would make him 21 at debut. For month and Day I used the same logic regardless of whether year was present (or month was present in case of Day). If Month or Day were not presnet they defaulted to 1. So a player with no known birthdate would default to 1 Jan of the year he would be 21.
6) Birthplace - If there is no country known, then USA is the default.
7) Debut date and last game date. The Historical master has the exact dates (no times) of these events. However, since OOTP only needs year I only populated the year value in the master.csv files.

I am also asking the OOTP guru's to utilize this file going forward so that we are not forced to delete odb files and/or make lots of changes to support photos/facegens. As I have indicated before, I am more than happy to do the work, support the work, and/or test the work. But starting with OOTP12 it would be nice if you could have a standard master file all the modders can leverage.

Again this mod will work for all versions of OOTP so, people shouldn't feel like they have to by a new game to have accurate player data.

Cheers
Bristolduke

[actionjackson]

Great job Bristolduke. I second the motion for a standardized Master file for use in the .odb file in order to eliminate the issue of having to delete the .odb file which for now cannot be done without rendering the fielders statues. Although for my purposes, I'd probably still need to delete the .odb file anyway and thus I remain hopeful that the statues can be re-animated in some way before 12 comes along and after the "final patch"...Skeptical, but hopeful.

[actionjackson]

Having perused it, I have one comment/request. Could you possibly make any commas you used to separate nicknames or schools etc semi-colons? That way if somebody goes to modify your file further they don't get all of say Hank Aaron's columns after the nickname column pushed two columns over to the right due to his having had three nicknames when he played. Once you save a file with commas in it any player that had a comma(s) in all the lines in his entry in the Master will be quite messed up and this will affect game play. Other than that, looks great.

EDIT: Also, I seem to recall (and I may be mis-remembering) that you told me it was not a good idea to use periods in the Master file as it would show up on the interwebs with a %20% or whatever mess up you told me about.

[Bristolduke]

[QUOTE=actionjackson;3034684]Having perused it, I have one comment/request. Could you possibly make any commas you used to separate nicknames or schools etc semi-colons? That way if somebody goes to modify your file further they don't get all of say Hank Aaron's columns after the nickname column pushed two columns over to the right due to his having had three nicknames when he played. Once you save a file with commas in it any player that had a comma(s) in all the lines in his entry in the Master will be quite messed up and this will affect game play. Other than that, looks great.
QUOTE]

That's odd because I don't see that problem using the Excel .csv files. I'll run some test with and see if OOTP objects. Changing to semi-colan is easily doe if there is no side affect.

Originally Posted by actionjackson

EDIT: Also, I seem to recall (and I may be mis-remembering) that you told me it was not a good idea to use periods in the Master file as it would show up on the interwebs with a %20% or whatever mess up you told me about.

It's not periods by embedded spaces in the file name. John T._Smith.jpg will turn into John%20T._Smith.jpg on the web and thus the browsers can't find the file and you get the little red x. There is no issue within OOTP and your own computer, but if you were posting these on the web, then they need to be aligned. So the file name is John_T._Smith. It has no impact on the master file data.

[Bristolduke]

I have complete Version 2 and sent it to PadresFan. (Udated the first post with details of the files)

This included some cleaup up based upon feedback from folks like actionjackson. It aslo coindides with tnfotos efforts. His new release will be based upon these standardized names.

I have included files for OOTP 11, OOTPx, OOTP9 and a Lahman master.csv for Lahman 5.7 which can be used for versions prior to OOTP9.

For version OOTP9, OOTPX and OOTP11, you will have to delete the .odb file for the changes to take affect.

There is also a Lahman like master called Historical masterv2. This file still has all the blank data for data still missing. This file also has a key I generated to access the Baseball-Reference.com data.

[Bristolduke]

I have been unable to get this posted to Padresfans. I have submitted it 3 times and gotten no response.

So if anyone is interested in these files PM me and I'll send them to you.

On a plus side, Sean Lahman was interested and I have sent him a version 5.7 update. So maybe this will show up in future releases. I'll post updates here if I hear anything from Sean.

[Bristolduke]

I have updated masters for the Gambo/Spritze v3 and the Spritze HS v33 databases. I did not change any of the Debut year or last game data, but the rest of the bio data has been updated.

PM if intersted. Just include your e-mail address.

[nyyrock2]

Sorry, im kinda newbish to this thread, so I wasn't sure how to PM you but Id love a copy of this master file. If anyone could please shoot me a copy, I'd greatly appreciate it.

nyyrock2@yahoo.com