Questdog's 1850 Names for OOTP 17

[Questdog]

I have sent a new file to ootpmods.com which consists of a new set of names and a brand new world.xml file appropriate for 19th century baseball.

From the read-me:

This is the first in a planned series to include every decade since 1850. The 1850 set is intended to create players for fictional historical leagues set in the 1870s, but can also work fine for years prior. The convention I have chosen for the series is to name the set for the decade that the data is current for. For instance, the populations set in this 1850 world.xml are estimates of the population for 1850 and the names in the set are estimates of what boys born in 1850 were named. For a standard set up then, with the average newly created player being around 20 years old, these files will be suitable for players created in 1870.

If you don't like the idea of having your cities' populations being 20 years behind the times, then you can use the 1870 world.xml, but you'll have to wait until I create it.

One other convention of this series, for realism's sake and to save computer memory, is that no countries or ethnic groups will be included in the files that did not actually send players to America to play baseball. The lone exception to this is Nippon (Japan), who, though they did not send any players to America until the 1990's (except for one exception in the 1960s), they were playing baseball on their home turf beginning in the 1870's by some accounts. The fact that I was born there may or may not have anything to do with it. Once a country is included in the files because they sent a player to the USA beginning in a certain decade, they will not be removed in subsequent decades, even if they never sent another player. They may have their cities reduced to a bare minimum to conserve space, however.

For 1850, then, the countries included in this project are Austria, Canada, Cuba, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Nippon, Scotland, the Netherlands and the USA. The USA has two entries, the United States and America. The United States is for creating Caucasian players and America is for creating African Americans. The two representations of the USA are not identical. The population estimates for towns and cities is based on race, so that players will be born in states historically accurate for their race. In 1850, this means most white players will be born in the North and most black players will be born in the South.

Austria is actually a representation of the Czech Republic. There was one player born during this time that the encyclopedias say was born in the Czech Republic, but there was no such thing as the Czech Republic in 1850. There was not even a Czechoslovakia. The lands now belonging to the Czech Republic were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So what I did was just deleted Austria from the file and renamed the Czech Republic to Austria. So any players born from this land will be born in Czech cities in Austria. If you do not like that solution, feel free to edit the files yourself.

None of the other European countries or Cuba or Japan were edited in any way from their entries in the default world.xml that comes with OOTP17. Canada was only edited to change population. I began to create a whole new historical file for them, but after seeing how big a job it was going to be, I just edited the population data of the existing entry in the default world.xml. The population data was just made to be in line with the USA data by a straight multiplication factor and no effort was made to enter historical populations.

The USA, however, was built entirely from scratch. The town and city and neighborhood names were pulled from an 1895 gazetteer and the populations were derived from comparisons between 1890 and 1850 county populations. These place names will be used for every decade up until the 1910 entry. For 1920, I will make a completely new set of place names. So, if a town existed in 1895, it will exist in this series from 1850 until 1910, regardless of what its actual historical existence was, unless the population estimate of it is 0. To make hyper-accurate town lists for each decade is too big of a job for me to tackle on my own and I have no desire to do it anyways.

There are a LOT more towns and places for American players to be from in this file than in the default OOTP17 world.xml. And as the series progresses through the decades and the western part of America becomes more settled, there will be even more places for players to be from.

Another convention of this series is that the "City of Birth" data field does not necessarily mean the place a player was born, but is the place where he will answer the question, "Where are you from?" This will especially be more relevant in later decades. For instance, the small town where I currently live rarely has anyone born here, but we have a lot of people who are from here. They are not born here, though, because mamma goes to the big city hospital to have her babies. She brings them back here and raises them, though, so this is where they are from and this town will populate their "City of Birth" field in OOTP.

This 1850 name set is completely new and made from scratch and is, in my opinion, much better than the 1870 set I released a few years ago. The American names were completely overhauled and though I balked at building a historical town database for Canada, I did step up to the plate and made them a completely new last name set. It is based off of the 1901 Canadian census and has French-Canadians and Anglo-Canadians and all other Canadians in one list. I did try to cull the First Nation names from the list, since they were not ball players, but I saw no reason to separate the names, especially since I did not have separate first name lists and even more so because it would be a royal pain in the patooty. And anyways, any of the really French first names would not be used in America when they came to play ball. They would be Anglicized, by and large, either by the player himself or by sports writers.

In 1850, there were fewer Americans than in 2000 and the number of different last names in use was much smaller as well. Here is the raw data for the names in this file with the number in the default OOTP17 file in (). Remember the default data in OOTP17 for baseball playing countries was created by me, so if the number in this file is less, it is for historical accuracy and not because I am lazy. Also, not all last names were edited from the work I did before.

Last Names:
Set 0: Caucasian American (NEW) - 7,222 (129,020)
Set 1: Hispanic - 16,668 (16,662)
Set 2: Japanese - 3,123 (3,123)
Set 6: Dutch - 9,419 (9,420)
Set 7: German - 3,781 (3,421)
Set 8: French (NEW) - 2,518 (1,492)
Set 14: Czech - 8,466 (8,470)
Set 16: Scottish (NEW) - 306 (428)
Set 18: Irish - 3,917 (3,917)
Set 20: English and Welsh (NEW) - 7,474 (3,714)
Set 32: Canadian (NEW) - 10,752 (2,960 combined in sets 32 & 33)
Set 39: African American - 17,988 (17,988)

If you plan on having African Americans in you league in 1850, be advised that this is the same name list as for the 2000 set. There are Muslim names and others that are not appropriate for 1850. If you keep an eye out for these at player creation and re-roll the ones that look out of place, it should not be a problem. Remember, I make these files for my own use and only share them because I think others might find them useful, but I do not build them with the others in mind. Since, my baseball universe will not have a Negro League until 1920, I have no reason to make a good list for 1850. When (if) I ever reach 1920, I will update the older files with the name set I create then.

There are two first name sets included. One for 1850 and one for 1851. The 1850 one should be used for initial creation of a league and then the 1851 should be imported to create players for the rest of the decade. The 1851 has more nicknames as first names than the 1850 one. I create my leagues 25 years before I actually begin playing them and if I use the 1851 set for that period, too many of the more rare nicknames will show up. This is also true when you first create a league, since many more players are created at one time than once you start playing. The stats below are for the 1851 set.

First names:
Set 0: Caucasian American (NEW) - 761 (1128)
Set 1: Hispanic - 103 (829)
Set 2: Japanese - 2,614 (2,613)
Set 6: Dutch (NEW) - 100 (659)
Set 7: German - 533 (531) The names are mostly the same, but frequencies are historically set.
Set 8: French (NEW) - 100 (599)
Set 14: Czech (NEW) - 16 (214)
Set 16: Scottish (NEW) - 100 (100) Not the same 100.
Set 18: Irish - 393 (628)
Set 20: English and Welsh - 705 (228) This and set 32 and set 39 are copies of the 1850 set 0 names, which are new.
Set 32: Canadian - 705 (1,079 combined in sets 32 & 33)
Set 39: African American - 705 (1,630)

The ones that are different from the default OOTP17 set, but not labeled as NEW (Irish, German and Hispanic) are from my older 1870 set. African American first names are not a whole lot different than Caucasian American first names historically (though they used Biblical names more often) and do not really require their own set until the 1960s.

Please report any errors so I can fix them. Also, there should not be any diacritical marks in any names. If you find one, one please report it.

The proper player creation percentages to recreate major league baseball in the 1870s:
America - 0
Austria - 0.05
Canada - 0.74
Cuba - 0.05
England - 1.96
France - 0.05
Germany - 0.74
Ireland - 2.70
The Netherlands - 0.05
Nippon - 0
Scotland - 0.05
The United States - 93.61

The following files are included in this archive:

1850_first_names.txt
1851_first_names.txt
1850_names.txt
1850_world_default.xml
QD_19th_century_beard_frequency.txt
Questdogs_1850_Readme.txt

Instructions for use on a PC (if you have a Mac, you are on your own, but it should be nearly the same):

To use these files first unzip them all into the 'database' folder where the original name files reside. Usually this is at "...\Documents\Out of the Park Developments\OOTP Baseball 17\database".

Then, right-click on the file in that folder called "first_names.txt" and choose "Rename" from the menu that pops up. Rename the file to "ORG_first_names.txt". This will back the file up so we don't write over it and you can go back to modern names later on. Now, right click on the file named "1850_first_names.txt" and drag it a short distance, release the right mouse button and choose "Copy here" from the menu that pops up. That will create a file called "1850_first_names - Copy.txt" Right click on this copied file and choose "Rename" and rename it to "first_names.txt". Copying my files before renaming them allows you to keep a backup of all the Questdog files in case they get overwritten (which will happen on patch installations). Note: If you do not see the ".txt" extension on the original files, then you have not set up your windows installation to view file extensions. That is okay, but when you rename the files, do NOT type the ".txt" extension (or the ".xml" extension for later files.

Now rename both "names.txt" and "world_default.xml" as above, putting "ORG_" as a prefix on them. Then copy and rename the "1850_names.txt" and "1850_world_default.xml" files just like I described earlier.

And you are done!

"QD_19th_century_beard_frequency.txt" is set up to allow beards that I thought looked appropriate for the 19th century. The settings are entirely subjective and not based on any data. To use it import it from within the game. You do not need to rename it before importing.

If you want to change the names for a league already running, make sure to "Re-import name & ethnicity database" and "Re-import world database from XML file" from the "Available Actions" drop down menu on the "Database" tab of League Setup. This will NOT change the names of any players already in the league, but all new players in the future will have the names from these files. If you want to change the names of players already in the league, randomize the names from the league set-up function page after importing.

Thank you and enjoy!

Note: these names will work fine for older versions of OOTP as well.

Also, if you cannot wait for ootpmods.com to post the file, feel free to PM me an email address and I will send you a copy.

P.S. Now that I have completed this project, you can look for the new Liberty League thread coming soon to a Dynasty forum near you!

[Questdog]

Here is the link to the download page:

OOTP Community Hub | OOTPB Databases and Utilities

[Questdog]

Also, lost in that readme, is the fact that the names are not what is the coolest thing about this mod. The coolest thing is a re-made USA with thousands upon thousands of new towns and neighborhoods (well, new to OOTP, but they themselves are very old and some are not even around anymore).

The world will feel like the 19th century now with no more players born at Air Force Bases or other places that you know did not exist then.

[NCBeachBum]

Very nice. This is a much better version of what I've been doing to my own copy of your old version.

[RANGER11JP]

Hi Questdog,

I am finding that if I use this, I can no longer form a league from a particular region. Is that the case, or is it just an issue on my end?

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by RANGER11JP

Hi Questdog,

I am finding that if I use this, I can no longer form a league from a particular region. Is that the case, or is it just an issue on my end?

I did not set up any regions, because I never use them personally and it makes the file a lot smaller without them (my additions make the file much bigger). You can do it yourself very easily, but it is time consuming.

[RANGER11JP]

Originally Posted by Questdog

I did not set up any regions, because I never use them personally and it makes the file a lot smaller without them (my additions make the file much bigger). You can do it yourself very easily, but it is time consuming.

How would I do that? I was thinking of creating a league template in another world game and then importing.

Do you have a suggestion that I might try, instead?

Thank you.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by RANGER11JP

How would I do that? I was thinking of creating a league template in another world game and then importing.

Do you have a suggestion that I might try, instead?

Thank you.

Look at the default world_xml from OOTP to see how they are set up and then just edit this one to build the ones you want.

[afancy]

Incredible work. This is such a cool modification. Thank you for sharing.

[chey]

Is it possible to put this straight into OOTP 18, or would it need to be modified in some way by you before it's useable in the new version of the game?

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by chey

Is it possible to put this straight into OOTP 18, or would it need to be modified in some way by you before it's useable in the new version of the game?

It will work in OOTP18 the same as 17.

[chey]

Fantastic news, thanks Questdog. Your work has made the game a lot better for me and many others.

[chey]

Back with another question! I've only ever used these namesets for leagues that never progress out of the era they're meant for, but am planning to sim pretty quickly through the olden days and into the modern era in my latest game.

When I'm ready for "modern names", can I just put back the old namesets, and the game will start generating new players with those names? Or does messing around in the middle of a game wreak some kind of havoc?

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by chey

Back with another question! I've only ever used these namesets for leagues that never progress out of the era they're meant for, but am planning to sim pretty quickly through the olden days and into the modern era in my latest game.

When I'm ready for "modern names", can I just put back the old namesets, and the game will start generating new players with those names? Or does messing around in the middle of a game wreak some kind of havoc?

As far as I know, all bugs with re-importing names have been eliminated, so you can switch names whenever you want.

If you have any problems, please let us know, so we can fix things!

P.S. You have to re-import the names, not just switch out the files in the data folder.

[spleen1015]

Hi Questdog, a couple of quick questions.

The first post mentions creating a set of files for each decade. Any plans to release any more decades in the future?

For this 1850 set, when would I want to stop using it and go back to the OOTP database if I were starting a league in 1871 and simming into the future?

Thanks for this. Can't imagine the amount of work that goes into something like this.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Hi Questdog, a couple of quick questions.

The first post mentions creating a set of files for each decade. Any plans to release any more decades in the future?

For this 1850 set, when would I want to stop using it and go back to the OOTP database if I were starting a league in 1871 and simming into the future?

Thanks for this. Can't imagine the amount of work that goes into something like this.

I will be making a set for each decade, but not until I need them in my own league. So it, will be years before I finish them all. I have a 1970's set that can be used in a pinch in the earlier 20th century and would carry you through to the 1990's, when you could switch to the modern names in the default set. If you copy the set 0 over the set 39, it would not look out of place around WWII. The set 39 is African-American names and before the 60's white and black names did not differ much. This 1850 set would work in a pinch for all of the 19th century. To go from 1900 to 1940, neither set would be ideal. Depending on whether you think more old-fashioned names or more modern-looking names would be the lesser evil would be the deciding factor between the 1850 and 1970 sets. The 1970 last names would defintiely be better for the 20th century, as there are a lot more of them in there than in the 1850 set.

[chey]

I'm having a weird issue with my historical Canadian League (players from Canada, Europe, Japan and the US) -- by my eye, something like half of my Canadian-born players have Japanese first names.

If you could let me know where the issue might be found, I could try fixing it myself. Do you have any idea what might be causing this?

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by chey

I'm having a weird issue with my historical Canadian League (players from Canada, Europe, Japan and the US) -- by my eye, something like half of my Canadian-born players have Japanese first names.

If you could let me know where the issue might be found, I could try fixing it myself. Do you have any idea what might be causing this?

No. Never had such an issue. It should be impossible for the game to pick a first name from one country and a last name from another country.

Are you using my file as is, or have you edited it at all?

[chey]

Originally Posted by Questdog

No. Never had such an issue. It should be impossible for the game to pick a first name from one country and a last name from another country.

Are you using my file as is, or have you edited it at all?

I haven't messed with it at all -- I'm sure I wouldn't know what I was doing if I tried. I did change my own in-game player origin percentages, but I would assume that wouldn't affect it at all.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by chey

I haven't messed with it at all -- I'm sure I wouldn't know what I was doing if I tried. I did change my own in-game player origin percentages, but I would assume that wouldn't affect it at all.

No, it should not. The only thing I can guess is that your league has become corrupted somehow. Try re-importing the name database and see if that clears things up.

After re-importing, you can re-name any players with messed up names by going into the editor tab on the player profile and click on the randomize names button or you could rename the whole league at once by going to the league setup page.

If the league is not a long-standing one, I would consider starting over, as who knows what else may be corrupted.