using names files

[thehef]

Does anyone know if Questdog's era-appropriate names files can be used in v9, and if so, how? I asked the question in this thread - http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...e-names-3.html - but I'm thinking not too many are monitoring that particular sub-forum.

Thanks in advance.

[thehef]

Bump

[thehef]

bumping again

[thehef]

bumping yet again...

[Pronkytonk]

They can't be used the way they are configured right now. The problem is questdog's nations.txt which is not recognized by the program, IMHO because the format of the nations file has been changed for ootp 9. If you try to start a game, no nation for a new league can be chosen.

You may however cut & paste the names or first names from questdog's files to the game's .txt files, but you should watch and maybe adjust the nation/nameset values carefully because they may not be the same than questdog originally intended.

[thehef]

Thanks for the reply, Pronkytonk.

So is there any way to use historically accurate names in v9? And be able to update/refresh the nameset as time goes by? Or are we basically stuck with whatever names are loaded at creation?

[SteveP]

I believe that I found a reasonably good work around, but can't be certain it would work for every type of league, so I'll just report what I did. In my case, I only needed Questdog names for fictional players on minor leagues (to supplement historical ML players) and for coaches.

What I found is that starting a new league would crash during the loading of the historical player DB, if I had Questdog's files in place beforehand (as his readme says you have to do). So I created a league first by loading the historical players. Then before actually starting the game, I switched in the Questdog txt files. Then I started the game. Then I went to league options and reloaded the name and ethnicity DBs. Then I created the fictional players. The only problem I found was that there were some fictional players with historically correct names with the wrong ethnicity, so I edited those. FWIW

[thehef]

SteveP: I think what you're doing is similar to what I want to do (historical majors, fictional minors). A question: Did you try / are you able to update the nameset as time goes on? IOW, if you use 1920's names when you create your fictional players, are you stuck with those names for your future fictional players for the duration of your sim, or are you able to re-import names down the road, say, in the 1930's with the 1930's names?

Hopefully that makes sense. Thanks.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by thehef

SteveP: I think what you're doing is similar to what I want to do (historical majors, fictional minors). A question: Did you try / are you able to update the nameset as time goes on? IOW, if you use 1920's names when you create your fictional players, are you stuck with those names for your future fictional players for the duration of your sim, or are you able to re-import names down the road, say, in the 1930's with the 1930's names?

Hopefully that makes sense. Thanks.

Don't know, as I haven't tried it. I assume that since everything worked OK once I was able to start a league (i.e., got around the crashing problem), that what you want to do should work OK. But that's just an assumption. However, based on the other comments in this thread, it may be a good idea to use the default nations file rather than Questdog's.

[thehef]

From the manual:

When are Name Files Used?

The name files come into play only once: at the creation of a game. At that time, all the names in the name files are converted into a .dat file that is stored in the saved game directory. The names.dat file is then used by the game to dole out names during two scenarios in the game: when new players are created, and when new coaches are created.
New players are created at the start of a game, and during any subsequent first-year player drafts. In leagues that do not have first-year player drafts, some free agents are created annually. New coaches are created at the start of the game, and occasionally thereafter to replace those who have retired.
Note: This means that you cannot change the names files used by your saved game after the initial game creation .Once a game is created, it will always use the same names.

In a post in the thread mentioned in the OP, DesertFox07 wrote:

"The import names and ethnicities function preserved my custom player names while adding the extra names missing from Questdog's files. I'd read on the forums that function was not the most reliable, but it has worked like a charm for my league."

DesertFox07, or anyone else... Could you please clarify if/how names files such as Questdog's can be used & updated, especially once the game has been created?

Thanks in advance.

[ootpFox07]

In my experience, I have found that there are some DAT binaries you can change and some you can't.

I started the UABL as a 100% fictional league in 1910 using OOTP 2007 and QD's 1910 first names txt and his names.txt (which was smaller and more era appropriate up till about 1970-80). I did some tests using his nations and ethnicities files as well, but I ended up customizing the default OOTP nations and ethnities files based on feedback I'd read on the forums (such as people using Middle Eastern faces for latino players) and my own experiements. I also added Negro leagues into the UABL so it I set them up to support African-American's as a seperate group until I took them out in the 1950's.

To update the first names for each successive decade after 1910, I did the following:

• Backed up all database txt files
• Repleaced the first_names.txt and ethnicity.txt files with QD's first_names and my custom ethnicities files.
• I created a new league which compiled the first_names and names.txt files into names.dat and ethnicities.txt into ehtnicities.dat
• I backed up the names.dat and ethnicities.dat files in my league and replaced them with the newly compiled versions.

When I booted the league up again, new players were created using the updated first names and existing names.txt files. Existing players names were mostly unaffected save for a few custom names I assigned to players within the game which came up as Unknown.

Things got dicey however when I reached 1980 and the limitations of QD's names.txt file were becoming evident (the removal of asian and minor used foreign groups). I decided to bite the bullet and recompile names.dat with the default OOTP names file. As I expected, doing so reset the name of every player in the league.

I was able to fix the active players names by simply exporting the team rosters BEFORE I made the swap, the again afterward and just copying and pasting the names in Excel and reimporting. That fixed about 20% of the league. I then went through and systematically fixed the names of the hall of famers and top record holders before embarking on fixing individual historical players. I actually fixed about 50% of the remaining players before I realized that since I had used QD's 1980's first_names file, if I recompiled the league for 1990 and 2000 I would be screwed as I'd have to redo all the names all over again.

So, looooong story short. I skipped swapping the first_names file in 1990 but did so for the 1995 season as I decided to bite the bullet (based on asian players being created as Joe Smith) and go back to the default first_names.txt matched with the default names.txt and tried using the "Reimport names and ethnicites database" button on the game setup screen. Shockingly, it worked. It brought in the updated names files and preserved my custom player names I worked hard to fix. And I did that in OOTP 9.

So again, the easy files to change that won't screw up your game are first_names.txt and ethnicities.txt. I have not tried changing names.txt AND doing a reimport of the names database, but I would assume the same result that occured when I recompiled the names.dat file outside the game. As of now, my league is heading into 2006 and I'm done messing with that sutff, so how these changes impact games in OOTP 9, I'm not entirely sure.

Hope that helps. Let me know if this all makes sense and if you have any further questions.

[thehef]

DesertFox07 - Thanks for the reply. I think I understand most if it, but it's a little confusing to apply since it seems to cross over from OOTP2007 to v9. I'm at a point in setting up my sim where I've loaded historical players (as of 1901) and set up my minors - which will be fictional. But I have not yet created the fictional players for the minors. I know you listed some of the key steps you did in OOTP2007; would you mind posting what you think would be my step-by-step for using era-appropriate names in v9? (Not sure if it matters, but at this point I don't think I'm going to create faces for the fictional playes). Thanks in advance.

[ootpFox07]

Without actually doing it myself, I'd guess the steps are the same. Start your league with QD's first_names and names files and then create the new league with OOTP 9 to assure full compatibility. Then, in theory, you should be able to use "Re-import names and ethnicity database" at each successive decade. If that doesn't work, you can recompile the updated first names file in a new throw away league and update your DATs. If you don;t add custom names like I did, you likely won't have a problem doing so. When you get to moden times (1980+), I'd use "Re-import names and ethnicity database" to start using the default names.txt file.