Can the world_default file be edited?

[albatross11]

Many thanks for your replies, Andreas. I have only one question that I have I always wanted answered. Will it ever be possible to make changes to the world data, re-import it and have those changes show up in already created games (like the names files)? Or is that some sort of programming structure/function that is impossible to do. For me, if it was possible, that would alleviate any and all problems I have with the XML files.

Thanks again for your input. Thought you guys had gave up on the "fictional gang"

[cephasjames]

While you're paying attention to this thread, let me ask another question too. The game is set up to follow the real life evolution of the MLB. I'm assuming that that is all programmed into XML files. Would it be possible for me or anyone to make our own evolving world via the XML files as well? For instance I have a pre-planned history running from 1871-present. Could I write that whole thing up in XML and have the game automatically evolve the world just like it does for the MLB?

Thanks.

[Andreas Raht]

Originally Posted by albatross11

Many thanks for your replies, Andreas. I have only one question that I have I always wanted answered. Will it ever be possible to make changes to the world data, re-import it and have those changes show up in already created games (like the names files)?

That's definitely on my list. We'll need that functionality anyway because of.... read below:

Originally Posted by cephasjames

While you're paying attention to this thread, let me ask another question too. The game is set up to follow the real life evolution of the MLB. I'm assuming that that is all programmed into XML files. Would it be possible for me or anyone to make our own evolving world via the XML files as well? For instance I have a pre-planned history running from 1871-present. Could I write that whole thing up in XML and have the game automatically evolve the world just like it does for the MLB?

Thanks.

When we started the world database project, we wanted to provide a number of world files which OOTP could load when needed. For example one file for 1900-1910, one for 1911 to 1920 and so on. When you sim a year in OOTP and there's another world file available for the new year, OOTP would load it and merge the data into the league file. There's some work to be done until that will be possible. But it's part of the world database concept.
If we only had more time.... (or more sales so we could hire more manpower)

[albatross11]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

That's definitely on my list. We'll need that functionality anyway because of.... read below:

That would be GREAT!! Hope you can pull it off. Thanks again.

[Chicagofan76]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

If we only had more time.... (or more sales so we could hire more manpower)

I'll work for coffee & Lucky Charms (hopefully you have those in Germany) I always wanted to visit the homeland. How close are you guys to Bremen?
I am dying to create a natural evolution for my custom leagues. Or to atleast be able to edit players easier and edit history of the league. and start with 2038 vs 2003.

[joefromchicago]

Andreas:

I imagine you must have missed my questions because the page turned over. Here they are again:

1. How does the game now handle ethnicities? Are those hard-coded too, or can I change the percentages in the ethnicities.txt file and have those changes reflected in the game?

2. Similarly, are player creation values hard-coded in the game? In other words, will I still get a bunch of Latin American players in my player pool, even if I set every Latin American nation's bbqual value to "0"?

3. What happened to the French Canadian-33 names database? Can that be added to the array of available language id's in the .xml file so that the game will recognize that as a valid db, or has it become an orphan database?

[tylertoo]

There's a lot of info in this thread and two others devoted to world_default.xml, and my head is spinning. But, I'm determined to jump in and do some editing, but have some basic questions.

I want to create a completely fictional world. It consists of:
--a single continent and a neighboring island
--two nations (one of which controls the island and a portion of the continent)
--four regions (two in each nation)
--18 cities in each nation
--Six races of people spread out among both nations and all cities

When I open the .xml file in Notepad++, I see a single world, which includes languages, continents and regions.

1) Should I create my world AFTER the real world, or inside the real world.
2) Should I delete all the info about the real world in the existing .xml or append the real world with info about my fictional one?
3) Are the races of people essentially what's contained in the languages section?
4) Since 'states' comes under 'nation' do I leave that blank if I don't divide the nation into states.
5) Are regions unimplemented still? I believe I gleaned that from earlier in this thread.

In short, I'm not certain how to structure the .xml file to meet my setup.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

The USA has to have the ID #206 and the name must be "The United States" at the moment. OOTP needs to find the USA record and that's what OOTP uses to find it.

Is there a technical reason for this, and is it likely to change? And also, is this connected to the reason why you get the modern ethnicity distribution in American leagues whatever you change the XML file to?

Also, while I think about it:

Is the functionality for "regions" going to be added in a patch, or will it have to wait for OOTP13?

[Markmeister]

Originally Posted by tylertoo

There's a lot of info in this thread and two others devoted to world_default.xml, and my head is spinning. But, I'm determined to jump in and do some editing, but have some basic questions.

I want to create a completely fictional world. It consists of:
--a single continent and a neighboring island
--two nations (one of which controls the island and a portion of the continent)
--four regions (two in each nation)
--18 cities in each nation
--Six races of people spread out among both nations and all cities

When I open the .xml file in Notepad++, I see a single world, which includes languages, continents and regions.

1) Should I create my world AFTER the real world, or inside the real world.
2) Should I delete all the info about the real world in the existing .xml or append the real world with info about my fictional one?
3) Are the races of people essentially what's contained in the languages section?
4) Since 'states' comes under 'nation' do I leave that blank if I don't divide the nation into states.
5) Are regions unimplemented still? I believe I gleaned that from earlier in this thread.

In short, I'm not certain how to structure the .xml file to meet my setup.

Tyler,

I believe I can answer most of these from my observations:

1) Andreas would have to answer this one. The world does have an id# of 1, so it is possible that OOTP may look for more than one world in the xml file. But my guess is that you would have to create your world inside the existing world.

2) You should be able to delete the real world counties with one caveat. Andreas mentioned that the game expects to see nation# 206 as "The United States". I am running a test league without The United States, but I haven't run it enough to see if there are problems being created.

3) Yes

4) Andreas will have to verify this, but I think you may need states. There are several of the island countries that have just one state. I didn't see any nations without states.

Also, regions in the xml file are currently being referenced as either REGION_STATES or REGION_NATIONS. Creating regions by cities may not be possible. So you may have to create the states in order to create your regions.

5) Regions have not been activated yet.

[Slade58]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Andreas:

I imagine you must have missed my questions because the page turned over. Here they are again:

1. How does the game now handle ethnicities? Are those hard-coded too, or can I change the percentages in the ethnicities.txt file and have those changes reflected in the game?

2. Similarly, are player creation values hard-coded in the game? In other words, will I still get a bunch of Latin American players in my player pool, even if I set every Latin American nation's bbqual value to "0"?

3. What happened to the French Canadian-33 names database? Can that be added to the array of available language id's in the .xml file so that the game will recognize that as a valid db, or has it become an orphan database?

I want the answer to these questions too. Why do we get hispanic and europeans in US leagues when we put 100% caucasian.

[Andreas Raht]

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

Is there a technical reason for this, and is it likely to change? And also, is this connected to the reason why you get the modern ethnicity distribution in American leagues whatever you change the XML file to?

Also, while I think about it:

Is the functionality for "regions" going to be added in a patch, or will it have to wait for OOTP13?

Yes, this is likely to be changed, but I don't think that we can do it in a patch. Ideally we would need to define how many players in a league come from other countries and from which one.

Originally Posted by tylertoo

There's a lot of info in this thread and two others devoted to world_default.xml, and my head is spinning. But, I'm determined to jump in and do some editing, but have some basic questions.

I want to create a completely fictional world. It consists of:
--a single continent and a neighboring island
--two nations (one of which controls the island and a portion of the continent)
--four regions (two in each nation)
--18 cities in each nation
--Six races of people spread out among both nations and all cities

When I open the .xml file in Notepad++, I see a single world, which includes languages, continents and regions.

1) Should I create my world AFTER the real world, or inside the real world.
2) Should I delete all the info about the real world in the existing .xml or append the real world with info about my fictional one?
3) Are the races of people essentially what's contained in the languages section?
4) Since 'states' comes under 'nation' do I leave that blank if I don't divide the nation into states.
5) Are regions unimplemented still? I believe I gleaned that from earlier in this thread.

In short, I'm not certain how to structure the .xml file to meet my setup.

1) You should replace the real world
2) Delete
3) Yes, kind of. You get most Asians when you let the people speak chinese, for example. But the languages/ethnicities issue is difficult since it's partially hard-coded.
4) Each nation has to have at least one state. Because only states can have cities. Just call the state the same as the nation.
5) Yes. They are in the game, but OOTP does not use them for anything ATM. We'll add that in a patch.

[tylertoo]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

1) You should replace the real world
2) Delete
3) Yes, kind of. You get most Asians when you let the people speak chinese, for example. But the languages/ethnicities issue is difficult since it's partially hard-coded.
4) Each nation has to have at least one state. Because only states can have cities. Just call the state the same as the nation.
5) Yes. They are in the game, but OOTP does not use them for anything ATM. We'll add that in a patch.

Thanks to Andreas and Markmeister for your detailed replies.

I'm going to solve issues 4 and 5 in one fell swoop. I had regions but no states. Since regions are not implemented, and since you need states....

I'm changing my regions into states! Because I rule this world .

[Andreas Raht]

Originally Posted by tylertoo

Thanks to Andreas and Markmeister for your detailed replies.

I'm going to solve issues 4 and 5 in one fell swoop. I had regions but no states. Since regions are not implemented, and since you need states....

I'm changing my regions into states! Because I rule this world .

Sorry buddy, you rule that world, but I rule the world file importer

You cannot change regions into states in the XML file, because they are saved at different "branches" in the structure. You have to watch the file structure, otherwise it will not work.

world
    languages
    continents
        nations
            ethnicities
            states
                cities
    regions
        region nations
        region states

[cephasjames]

Andreas, I must say that I like what you're doing. There is still more work to do, but I get it and I think it's good.

[albatross11]

Originally Posted by cephasjames

Andreas, I must say that I like what you're doing. There is still more work to do, but I get it and I think it's good.

Agreed. There seems to be some "method to the madness". Just waiting to see how it all pans out.

[Andreas Raht]

Thanks guys. That's motivating! I just added the "Export world data to XML" feature, you'll find it in Game Setup/League Setup/Import-Export menu at the bottom of the screen.

[Markmeister]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

Sorry buddy, you rule that world, but I rule the world file importer

You cannot change regions into states in the XML file, because they are saved at different "branches" in the structure. You have to watch the file structure, otherwise it will not work.

world
    languages
    continents
        nations
            ethnicities
            states
                cities
    regions
        region nations
        region states

Andreas,

I think I know what tylertoo wants to do. Based on his prior description of his world. He was planning to have 2 nations with 18 cities divided into 2 regions.

What he is missing is the states, but it appears he already has the cities divided into 2 regions. All he needs to do is use the structure you have above, and instead of having 2 regions of 9 cities he would have 2 states with 9 cities each. The 2 regions of 9 cities would go away

p.s. I believe if he still wants to have regions, that should work too. He would have to simply add 2 regions made up of a single state.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

Yes, this is likely to be changed, but I don't think that we can do it in a patch. Ideally we would need to define how many players in a league come from other countries and from which one.

That's a cool idea, but it shouldn't be hard coded, because obviously it hasn't always been the same ratios, which is why there are complaints about the hispanic players in fictional historical leagues.

I mentioned in a few other threads, but some kind of "ethnicity by year" file would be cool.

[Muzamba]

Sorry for disappearing over the last few days.

(Note: It looks like Andreas has answered all the questions originally posed to me. If there were any that he missed, please ask again.)

A big thanks to Andreas for clearing a lot of things up. It sounds like we are indeed on the way to resolving virtually all of the issues people are having with the new db. These posts also confirm that we will continue to move forward with the development of the world db, so I'm very happy about that.

There is obviously still a lot of functionality that needs to be added and tons of data to assemble, but I promise to continue to work on this project feverishly as the remaining OOTP 12 patches are being released and throughout the "offseason".

Hopefully, the attention you guys are giving this feature will ensure that it remains a top priority going into OOTP 13.

Let's keep this wheel squeaking!

[ukhotstove]

No need to say sorry Muzamba, your input the last week or so kept me from throwing the towel in and with Andreas input I'm starting to feel good about the world file and it's future in OOTP. The little old lady however isn't as I told her that creating a world instead of just one country would be more fun with xml, she as this crazy idea that myself and others spend far too much time on "silly fictional worlds" than they should do